Suspect's Reviews
Trying this to see what happens, here is where you can find all my reviews. Good or bad ;)
Review List: PAGE 1 Dead-Alive Dark city Lord of The Rings: Return of the King Land of the Dead War of the Worlds (2005) Million Dollar Baby Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Sideways Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Cherry Falls Dog Soldiers 2001: A space Odyssey Memento Ginger Snaps: Unleashed The Aviator Maria Full of Grace Identity Page 2 Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith Mr. In-Between Starship Troopers 2 Campfire Stories Primal Fear Primer Face/Off Pulp Fiction The Matrix Reloaded Broken Flowers Page 3 Gangster No.1 Battle Royale Transporter 2 Oldboy Page 4 Cannibal Holocaust 28 Days Later Evil Dead II Blade Trinity Layer Cake Bubba Ho-Tep Dead & Breakfast Freddy VS Jason Jeepers Creepers 2 Inside deep Throat Page 5 Corpse Bride Spider-Man 2 Batman Begins Mindhunters ENVY Page 6 The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy House of Wax Undead Chicken Little Man With The Screaming Brain Rollerball Bad Taste Darkness Falls Page 7 The Devil's Rejects Jarhead SAW II Crash (2004) Naked Lunch House of the Dead Alone in the Dark Page 8 Sky High Seven Samurai Bewitched Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events American Pie Presents: Band Camp The Family Stone The 40 Year Old Virgin Cry_Wolf Serenity Lord of War Page 9 Munich Izô: Kaosu mataha fujôri no kijin The Brother's Grimm Suspiria Capote Batman & Robin Ghost Ship Red Eye Page 10 DOOM Good Night & Good Luck Three...Extremes Waiting... Christmas With The Kranks Hoodwinked Eight Below Failure To Launch The Ice Harvest Inside Man Page 11 King Kong (2005) Sin City 2001 Maniacs Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Thank You For Smoking Silent Hill Twelve Monkeys Army Of Darkness Page 12 Mission Impossible III The Da Vinci Code Fun With Dick & Jane Shooting Gallery Rushmore Unleashed Basket Case Carnivore The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Kicking & Screaming Page 13 X-Men: The Last Stand Superman Returns Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Ultraviolet Clerks II Snakes On A Plane Page 14 The Cabinet of Dr, Caligari Scary Movie 4 City of Rott Over The Hedge Grandma's Boy Crank Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Departed The Grudge 2 Flags of our Fathers Page 15 SAW III Night of the Living Dead 3-D Aeon Flux Borat Belly Wolf Creek Click The Break-Up United 93 Casino Royale Rocky Balboa Smokin' Aces Letters From Iwo Jima Half Nelson Page 16 300 You Me & Dupree Grindhouse Hot Fuzz Spider-Men 3 1408 SiCko Live free or Die Hard Page 17 The Simpsons Movie Hostel Page 18 Cannibal Ferox Superbad Story of Ricky Halloween Shoot Em Up SAW IV We Own The Night Across The Universe No Country For Old Men Juno Page 19 I Am Legend The Bucket List Death Sentence Cloverfield Page 20 There Will Be Blood Good Luck Chuck Ryan Jumper Vantage Point The Nines Iron Man Speed Racer Southland Tales Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Page 21 The Mist The Happening The Incredible Hulk WALL-E The Dark Kight Doomsday Be Kind Rewind Page 22 Tropic Thunder Burn After Reading Ghost Town SAW V Changeling Quantum Of Solace Yes Man Page 23 Gran Torino The Wrestler Slumdog Millionaire Watchmen Wolverine Origins Star Trek Terminator Salvation Page 24 UP The Hangover Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen G-Force The Hurt Locker A Perfect Getaway District 9 Inglorious Basterds Halloween II Page 25 Life During Wartime The Invention of Lying Where The Wild Things Are Saw VI Paranormal Activity GI Joe Fantastic Mr. Fox Nine Avatar Up In The Air Page 26 Push The Book of Eli Premium Rush The Purge Bad Words Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Page 27 Expendables 3 Predestination |
DEAD-ALIVE (Peter Jackson)
"Tounge in Cheek Horror" Wow, what a film from Peter Jackson, the guy that went on to do LOTR. If you are a gore lover, this is "the" ultimate film to check out. Here is a movie that has comedy, zombies, blood, guts and lots of it...did I forget to mention a lawnmower. Which is one of the bloodiest scenes ever filmed, more or less on par with Kill Bill's House of Blue Leaves. I was hooked right from the beginning of this film when the two men climbed down in the rocks of the Island. BUT when looking for this film, make sure you get the UN-cut version, because the R rated version literally cuts everything up to pieces, this is a classic gore fest that should not be missed from any horror movie fan. It's one of those low-budget B horror movies, where you would expect there to be bad acting, which it has, bad special effects, which not exactly right, because for this film, the special effects were astounding. Three scenes in this film stand out in my mind, one is the opening, because you do not know what you're in for until you see the guy get hacked to bits!!!! Second would be the baby in the park scene, that goes down as one of the funniest scenes that I've ever seen. Of course the last one is a given, the lawnmower plowing through the zombies!!!!! Watch this movie and you will not be disappointed, with a house full of zombies and 3 people fighting to survive, limbs will falls, heads will fly and rib cages will be ripped out!!! 8.5/10 |
Dark City (Alex Proyas)
http://www.fantascienza.com/cinema/d...y/media/07.JPG "Underrated Brilliant Film" Dark City is all about a man who has incredible powers but doesn't realise it. Everyone is under the control of mysterious 'strangers' who are injecting them with false memories/altering their reality. This man (Rufus Sewell) finally confronts these men in a battle for the city. This is one of those films that inspires you to learn more about sci/fi. The whole movie is cold, dark and it never lights up for a minute. This movie is an underrated brilliant sci-fi film and it bares a resemblance to 'The Matrix', but was made before it, so there is no denying that Dark City must have been an inspiration for The Matrix. The story is complex but develops itself as a drawn tight yet frequently entertaining thriller. It is thought provoking, which is a lesser thing you'll find in films today. The performances are all very good, specially the three lead men. Rufus Sewell is plays the confused lead, William Hurt plays the film noir detective and Kiefer Sutherland is the quirky side switching doctor. Don't forget Jennifer Connellywho plays the role with great expertise. Alex Proyas much like The Crow has created this gothic world where the sun never rises and inhabitants live in darkness. The sets and costumes are beautiful. The acting is top-of-the-line, with Sewell in the lead part. Everyone does a great job. The villians in this film, THE STRANGERS, are creepy and will send chills down your spine everytime you see them in their long black coats and hat. The costumes for them are perfect and could not have been done better, they live in the world underground and you see the different lifestyles between them and the people they control, yet live above them. The thing that amazed me the most would be the cross between the 1950 to 1980's, it was brilliant, the set pieces were perfect for this film. Everytime I saw the buildings changing, I was in amazement. Everyone that took part in this film should be praised, this is a film that should get more attention from the general public, but is overshadowed by films that like to put more action then story in it's plot. 10/10 |
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
(Peter Jackson) http://returnoftheking.cowebz.com/re...%20gallery.jpg "Cinematic Brilliance" My friend asked me if I wanted to go, I said okay, but he didn't want to leave until 7:30. Of course I knew we would get bad seats, and we did. 3rd row from the very front, far, far left. My neck still hurts. I had nothing to eat or drink, people were talking throughout the opening scenes. Yet this did nothing to distract me or harm the movie in any way. Let me start off by saying and you can quote me on this "Move over Star Wars, there's a new trilogy in cinema" This movie (movies) are amazing. Lord of the Rings is the best trilogy out there and will be for some time. The matrix's last installment full flat, I have not seen Godfather, Evil Dead is a cult classic trilogy and Star Wars just lost the top spot. I seriously believe Jackson will get Best Director and this movie "deserves" to have Best Picture, even though the Academy will **** it's chances over and this will be one of the biggest snubs ever on the Oscars. I'll begin with the CGI. If you thought the first two had great CGI, you haven't seen anything yet. Gollum, of course looks amazing and it is so believable that he is a character on the screen. "He is there, you believe it, he is not cgi" The way he talked to himself was better than the way it was presented in The Two Towers, the water reflection was so beautiful and imaginative. When he is atop of Frodo and bites his finger off, it was amazing; I was actually in awe, CGI on top of CGI. The battle, what an amazing battle, if you thought the battle at Helm's Deep was amazing, cool, the best, then you are in store for something spectacular. You will get your socks knocked off. The battle scene is the absolute best battle scene ever created. The bodies, the emotion, the action, the excitement, the chills, the suspense, the cheers, the tears. This battle had it all. The men who were cursed, beautiful, how they tore that mother****er down. In Fellowship of the Ring, we see Legolas climb atop of a Cave Troll; yes it did look fake, cheesy. In Two Towers, we see him do some weird stunt to climb back onto his horse, it also looked weird and fake. In Return Of The King, he takes down the elephant and all the men on it. This wasn't fake, this wasn't weird or cheesy. It looked beautiful, it looked real, it was amazing. He did it with ease as well, and as he counted his victims, brings down the big boy, gimli (serving as comic relief only) still states that the one only counted as one. The acting, was utterly "uber" great. Aragorn IS the king, he is the man, the legend, Mortesen is the one and only person who can play him, who can bring him to life, he is Aragorn. Everyone did their part, and boy did I ever hate the "filler king" He p*ssed me off so much, I actually liked it. Merry and Pippen, were extraordinary, this movie is where they shine. Sam, I think everyone knows what a great actor Astin is, and what a GREAT job he did with Sam, I honestly believe that he should be up for supporting actor. He almost made me cry, the emotion was utterly amazing. Hate, Anger, Love, Fear, Sadness. He brought all of these emotions into this character and he did it extremely well. Frodo...what can I say, you are a troubled young...err..old hobbit. You are tired, you cannot go on...you trust the untrustworthy, you are fearful of a giant Shelob. You have courage and find the strength to go on and destroy the ring, only to be consumed by it's evil power, and want the ring for yourself. Agent Smith/Lord Elrond...one word, GREAT. I believed Liv Tyler should of had at least 5 more minutes of screen time, but with the time she did have, she made me believe that she truly was in love with Aragon and willing to become mortal. The direction, Peter Jackson is my new Favourite director. Yes, I have seen his previous films before he did Lord of the Rings, yes I loved them, but this "EPIC" trilogy, has made him the man. Only a true fan of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, could of brought this masterpiece to film, creating another masterpiece. You honestly deserve to win best director, for conveying epic battle sequences, strong emotions, bringing something fake to life (Gollum). I don't know anyone else who could of done this, and if he is not behind the camera for The Hobbit, then it should not be made. The characters, one of the things that I love about the books/movies are the characters. Their fears, their anger, their courage, their optismistic approach on life. Eowyn (sp) Not very convincing in Two Towers, but amazing in this installment, I could not believe it. She is a warrior. Everyone cheered when she took off her helmet and said "I am no man". Then stuck that sword right into the f***er. Merry and Pippen have love for each other and you can feel it, when they say goodbye to each other, you can feel their pain, there sadness. Gimli, was really funny as well as Gandalf, who is just as always, excellently portrayed by Ian Mckellen. Everyone cheered again when Gandalf took over command of Minus Tirith (sp). The movie itself, was just brilliant. It deserves everything it gets, and should get more. I felt sad when Frodo was back at the Shire, in his little home all alone, a huge adventure had just happened, how can you go back to your normal life? You made courages friendships, with man, drawf and elf. Now you're back with hobbits, I saw their expressions in the pub, just before Sam got married (yeah all the girls cheered) I know how they feel. The adventure was EPIC, the adventure was Amazing, it's sad to watch the movies all in a row, I know I will cry when I do (not only because my ass will hurt from 9-13 hours either. My uncle asked me a year ago, what movie has changed my life, what movie made me look at movies in a different way. I didn't know the answer yet, he told me for him it was Star Wars, his whole generation loves Star Wars. Well, there is a new generation. Lord of the Rings has and will change the way we look at movies today. It has a new following (yeah, someone dressed up as a hobbit). I will have these films on DVD, Extended Edition. a friend today asked me four questions. Was it good? YES. Good enough for Best Picture? Yes. Good enough for Best Director? Yes. Where did you sit? In a bad spot. 10/10 |
Land of the Dead (George A Romero)
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...a_argento1.jpg "Zombie Movie From the Legend" Here is a classic zombie movie, where gore is back in the high seat. I Really liked this movie, not as good as Dawn or Night, but a big improvement over Day. I dug J.L.'s character and basically....no one else. Everyone in this movie I felt was flat, even Dennis Hopper who should have been a delight.The movie felt really short, it could have been a little bit longer, but that is not a complaint. My two main problems with this film were the characters (with J.L. as an exception) and their learning ability. There is one zombie a big black man who doesn't just grrr...or moans like other zombie's, but he screams. They do learn, it's just like Day of the Dead, you'll see zombie's shooting people with guns and using gasoline to blow things up. One character says "They're trying to be like us, like they use to be. They are trying to live again". I found that to be a bit annoying. Another little thing I noticed it the "main" zombie was in the front line but was never shot, it was always the zombies around him that died, I found that to be far fetched. What did I like about it, the whole idea that they live in a new world that they built and they try to live in it, even with zombies everywhere. What's the very first thing you see? A Zombie...none of this how did it happen or character introduction, you get zombies from the beginning. There is a lot of blood, yes there is a lot of CGI blood, which was distracting in a Romero film, but there were at least two very neat deaths that I liked, mostly the throat ripping out through the mouth. I'd say it's a better zombie edition then the ones as of late. Thumbs up Romero, you still have it in ya. Yes, I saw Savini and the two from Shaun of the dead. Which was great because my friend and myself were the only ones in the theater who cheered for them. 7/10 |
Why don't you cut and paste all the reviews you already posted into here. You don't have to, because I already listed 'em as reviews, so they're there in your profile. But having them all together never hurts.
EDIT: I just peeked after I added these, but they're not there. I'll ask Yoda why and get back to you. |
War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
http://ffmedia.ign.com/filmforce/ima...409689-000.jpg "Lacks everything, except special effects" This is a movie where plot holes run wild....yes there are tons of them. But the ones that can't go unmentioned are the scene where the plane has crashed outside the wife's house, amid all this rubble, cruise's car is fine, and there's a neat little path right down the street through the destruction so they can drive away. Of course all the electronic crap. The special effects are spectacular. This of course is expected with this type of film, being a Spielberg/blockbuster film. Every turn in the movie there is a tripod alien destroying a part of the city and people being vapourized. This is the highlight of this film because the plot lacks, the characterization lacks and the directing is below average for Spielberg. Anybody want to slap not only Tom's character in the face....but every other character??? Not one sympathetic human character in the entire film. Tom is an *******, Dakota is crying all the time which made her extremely annoying, the son is a whiny bitch, Tim Robbins is an insane annoying useless character. Tim Robbins does nothing but distracts, he serves no point but to chew up screen time and make us think Tom will do anything for the life of his kid, but this comes across of jokey when they close the door and "fight" Robbie should have died---it was a cheap move to have him show up in the end after saying he had to see the fight over the hill. Whenever this happens in the movie, it brings it down(Jurassic Park III.) Is it just me or does every Spielberg flick have to end in the happy we're okay ending in all of his movies. The pacing's horrible, it just suddenly ends, WAY TOO ABRUPT. The aliens catch colds and die. Film over. And most surprisingly in a Spielberg flick, there's no emotional clout here. There is no climax....that's because the whole movie is just destruction after destruction, if your into that kind of thing, then this movie is for you. But the best scene in this movie is not the destruction of the cities, but the basement scene involving the pointless character of Tim Robbins. Even though the scene is laughable at parts, it still holds up as suspenseful. The motivation of the aliens are difficult to follow, at first, when they want to rid the earth of mankind, They content themselves with firing death rays, at individual fleeing humans, the most inefficient method of extermination. Why didn't they just use gas, it would be more efficient and alot faster. Then, midway through, suggest that, for no particular reason, the aliens are harvesting the humans to make those red vines things out of their blood. I felt cheated at the end of the film. The world was left in sh*t, everything was destroyed, covered in the blood vine things and we go to Boston where everything is fine...no houses destroyed, family all nice and neat and of course the happy Spielberg ending. This film was a huge disappointment, Spielbergs worst movie since A.I. 6/10 |
Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)
http://www.filmfodder.com/movies/rev...ollar_baby.jpg "Good film, not as great as they say" In the wake of a painful estrangement from his daughter, boxing trainer Frankie Dunn has been unwilling to let himself get close to anyone for a very long time, then Maggie Fitzgerald walks into his gym. More than anything, she wants someone to believe in her. The last thing Frankie needs is that kind of responsibility, let alone that kind of risk, but won over by Maggie's sheer determination, he agrees to take her on. In turns exasperating and inspiring each other, the two come to discover that they share a common spirit that transcends the pain and loss of their pasts, and they find in each other a sense of family they lost long ago. Yet, they both face a battle that will demand more heart and courage than any they've ever known. So what is all this talk about Million Dollar Baby about? Well it is a good film, mostly directing. Clint I believe has himself another Oscar (Sorry Marty). The film does indeed look and feel real, which is a good relief from the recent Big Budget Fantasy films. Clint handles the characters extremely well and gives them each their moment in the sun.The gritty old feel of this film is perfect for it's style and the theme of boxing. Everyone gives great performances, unfortunately, Swank, doesn't deliver on the level of expectancy. Don't get me wrong, she does a very well job of giving the character emotion and depth and you feel for this girl, but it seems like we've seen it before and it becomes clichéd. The script was well written, the film actually becomes something of it's own in the third act, which is the best part of the film. Morgan Freeman and Clint both deliver great performances which saved the film from being another random "Oscar" movie, is this Clint's best? NO Is it this years best? No, Is it going to Win an Oscar? Yes, because it's the Oscars... 8/10 |
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
(Tim Burton) http://www.gawker.com/news/depp1.jpg "Weirdest Film of 2005" First of all, let me say that this film is nothing like the original, there were so many things that were not in this film that were in the original, which made the film seem very short. Through out the whole film you know what is going to happen and when you don't see it you kind of feel let down, but then the film goes on after the ending of the original and you get new material on the screen. This film has BURTONS style written all over it, the opening score, the Buckette's house, evening the references to his other films are in here. (Peewee, Edward). It's always a treat to see a Burton film because his sense of style is always "twisted" and unique. The music other then Elfman's score was sung by the Oompa Loompas and they were short and only happened after a child was disposed of. Of course it was funny to see that little guy sing and do the little dances, but I still say that the original Oompa Loompas were great and should never have changed. I never read the book, but in the movie it shows the back story to the Oompa Loompas, living in some kind of jungle, it was neat to see that. In saying that, this film, unlike the original which centered on Charlie, deals more with Wonka. Going to the jungle or Loompa Island and finding the Oompa Loompas, hell even going as far back as to show Willy as a child and his father the great Mr. Lee, or as someone said in the audience. "Holy Sh*t, it's Dooku". As stated before this film is full of references to other movies and one is 2001: AOS, in the TV room (the big white room) it has 2001 on the screen and I know that I was the only one in that theater that knew what it was. So Depp as Wonka eh, well this is the part that scares me, he was freaky. Not like the original Wonka at all. He sounds like a child, looks pale and acts like a child. Depp was quoted as saying that the inspiration was a game show host locked up for 20 years and then finally let out and I believe it. He was great, had the right funny/scary/weird sense and look to him. Of course Wonka and Depps performance is the most weird part of this film, that doesn't take apart from the fact that the film itself is weird, it goes up there with any Lynch or Cronenberg film as being F'd up. Not in an I don't understand way, in a this is F'd up way. Which film do I prefer, hard to say cause the original is a classic and I never read the book, but as good as the film is there were some parts that I could of done without. Mainly one being Burton showing the other children leaving the factory. Agustus is covered in Chocolate, Violette is still blue, and I won't tell you about the other two, but what I liked about the original is that you never knew what happened to them, if those Oompa Loompas really did take care of those kids or if there were something darker going on in that factory. All in all, the kids did the job of acting like kids and the parents did the job of acting like parents, so nothing special there. Depp's performance, the sets, comparing to the original and Burton behind the camera are the reasons to see this film, but if you loved a lot of things about the original....like Slugsworth, the floating/burping, Wonkas office, then you'll end up being disappointed because they are not present in Burtons film. 8/10 |
Sideways (Alexander Payne)
http://blogs.indiewire.com/awards/ar...ways-thumb.jpg "Oscar Bound?" For people to say you have to be around 30 or so to enjoy this brilliant film....you're wrong, I'm 16 and absolutely loved it. Paul Giamatti robbed again. This performance is one of the best all year (How the hell Clint got in over Paul, I will never know). Here is a performance so touching and yet hysterical at the same time that you can't help but love the guy. You feel his sadness, you feel his love, you feel his laughter and of course you feel his drunkenness. My favourite scene in this film was when Miles finds out that his ex-wife is pregnant. The hurt on Giamatti's face is perfectly executed, and yet he also feels a closure and tries to show that he is also happy for her, which he is, all these emotions were portrayed perfectly. Thomas Haden Church was great, the character was an *******, but hey, I still liked him, Church gives the character a human quality that you can't dismiss and for some you will attach to him, for others, you will hate him, but in the end, you know that the performance is worthy of a nomination. Virginia Madson and Sarah Oh, both give great supporting roles and are the glue to make the film stick together, without them the film would have been missing a lot of emotion on the other end of the spectrum (meaning we get a lot from giamatti, but here are some others). The script was very clever and human. You don't know what is going to happen next because we as humans are unpredictable, so their actions are unpredictable. I honestly did not think this film was going to be funny, I walked into the theatre thinking it was a drama and walked out laughing my ass off. There are too many funny scenes (involving dialouge) to name, but my favs include: "I am not drinking any f*cking Merlot" The direction here is perfect, who better to get to direct a movie then the writer, who can handle the characters perfectly and guide the actors into the right direction. Unlike other writers who can't direct if their life depended on it...I'm talking to you David S. Goyer. I love the ending, it is so ANTI-Hollywood, (just like Eternal Sunshine and hell even The Aviator for that matter). We need more films like these, instead of films with talking animals and crappy sequels (Do we need a mask 2). We need movies that we can connect with, we need characters that we can relate to, films that will touch our hearts and make us feel every emotion that one can have in 2 hours or so. The film is my 3rd favourite film of 2004. Eternal sunshine and Kill Bill Vol 2 taking the first two spots, but I'm excited to see what Payne can show us in the future and as always, I'm looking forward to one of Giamatti's next films, he is quickly becoming one of my favourite actors. 9/10 |
Eternal Sunshine of the spotless Mind
(Michel Gondry) http://www.mythfolklore.net/mywiki/images/sunshine.gif "Best film of 2004" Joel (Jim Carrey) is a rather milquetoast man who meets up with free spirit Clementine (Kate Winslet), and they become romantically involved. However, they endure a messy breakup and Clementine goes to a business called Lacuna, Inc., where she has all of her memories of Joel erased. Not wanting to be left out, Joel also goes to have his memory erased. However, soon after it begins, Joel realizes that he wants to keep the memory of Clementine, so he tries to reverse the process. Well, if you're familiar with Kaufman's work, then you know what your getting yourself into. This is just as weird if not weirder then his previous work (maybe even John Malkovich). Anyways, I knew what I was getting myself into, but 90% of the movie I was saying to myself "What the f*ck", but in a good way. It opens with Joel calling in sick for work and going on a different train and meeting Clementine, they hit it off, now this is about 15 minutes into the movie, then out of nowhere come the credits for the opening. I will admit, I thought it would be different, but I'm glad that it is the way it is, the movie is 80% of the time in Joel's head. If you think you know Carrey, think again. This movie is his best performance, better than Majestic, Truman show and all of his comedic roles (which is what I love him for). Just looking at his face from the second we see him, we feel his pain, then like that, we feel his joy, embarrassment, hate. Just amazing acting on his part, and Winslet was great as well with her warm heart, and sky high spirit throughout the film, she is the perfect counter-weight to Joel.. Everybody, Wood, Dunsts, and so on, just add to the emotion on the screen. I can see at least one Oscar nomination for acting(hope). But if I were to bet any money on any Oscar nominations it would obviously be the writing, what a mess, but beautifully constructed. You think to yourself, is that scene really necessary but everything is so out of it, that you think later on that it does, that's beautiful, crazy, give me whatever he's smoking kind of writing. Charlie Kaufman's writing is always clever, but this time he's one-upped himself by making something not only bizarre, but emotionally engaging. It seemed like his earlier movies were clever for the sake of cleverness, but 'Eternal Sunshine' manages to dazzle you with it's originality and it's poignancy. The fact that this movie was able to wrap such profound loss, emotional tenderness, and hope in such a self-consciously stylized package illustrates the incredible talent of the people behind it. Michel Gondry's use of colours and quick camera movement give the film a very involving first hand feeling. The constant use of the handy cam is very all involving for the viewer, and I suppose that this is exactly what is needed in such a personal movie. His work on the dream sequences is incredible as well. One fault with it, would have to be the last minute of the film, the fade to white and the same scene playing over and over did nothing for the film, except take away from it. 9.5/10 |
Cherry Falls (Geoffrey Wright)
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...herryfalls.jpg "MPAA screwed this film" A killer is killing off the virgins of a small town Cherry Falls. Sounds like your typical teen slasher movie, but with a lot of horror fans saying they liked it, I gave it a try. CHERRY FALLS is a major disappointment. Mainly due to extreme editing. Then again, the script didn't help this movie either. CHERRY FALLS lacks almost everything in terms of a teen slasher these days. The deaths are all editted to nothing, which hurts this film beyond everything, in horror movies the deaths scenes are what makes it good or bad, with Cherry Falls lacking in this department, you can bet your ass that it will not make up for, and unfortunately it doesn't. It takes notes from Psycho, by making the ending a similar twist, but unlike Psycho where it schocks and made people talk about how great it was, here it did not shock and most certainly did not make people start talking about it, other then negativity. The idea of a killer killing off virgins is a neat thing to do, and of course the people in the town have a secret they want to keep from their kids, but one of these kids investigate and finds out who this "girl" is and why she is doing these things. Have we seen this before? I can't stress how bad the terrible editing is, it seriously distracts the viewer from any enjoyment they may get out of this film. The director and editor should have taken more care of this film, even with the pressure from the MPAA. In horror movies it's cliche to have nudity in them, and when the last part of the movie involves a huge orgy so no one will die, you'd expect a tit popping out here and there, but again, nothing. It sad when you don't see the deaths, it's even sadder when you can't even see the dead body after the fact, and with no nudity to hold off those horror fans, what left is there? This movie had a good idea, but with a terrible script and a not knowing what to do with anything director. You need these two things to be good in order to have any direction for the actors in the film, other wise why should we even care? Then again some people just can't act. The only movie I ever liked with Jay Morh in it was Suicide Kings. No wonder he is the host of last comic standing. Yes, even the acting in this movie is laughable. Not laughable in a good way either, it takes itself serious at some points, then at others throws that whole concept out the window. In the end, this is a copy-cat movie of scream, much like every other horror teen slasher out there, but when every teen slasher movie is out there you need something in the film to make it different from the others, what does this film have to offer, other then a bad viewing expierence? 3/10 |
Originally Posted by TheUsualSuspect
War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
6/10 |
Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall)
http://www.celluloid-dreams.de/conte...soldiers-2.jpg "One of the best werewolf films to date" Dog soldiers opens in Scotland, where two campers are attacked by an unknown creature from the woods, but judging from the title, you'd guess it was a werewolf. So we move ahead and we see soldiers that are left in woods as part of some kind of training. Lead by Sergeant Wells (Sean Pertwee) and motivated by Private Cooper (Kevin McKidd), the squad is surprised when they see a mutilated cow that is thrust into their campsite. Following the bloody trail of the animal, they are soon led to the massacred remains of the elite Special Forces team that was stationed in the same woods. There were no bodies, but obvisouly a struggle, no one was there except one survivor, Captain Ryan (Liam Cunningham) who was injured during the night. Here is a movie that takes it cues from many classic movies, such as The Evil Dead, An American Werewolf in London and Aliens. Soldiers stuck in a cabin in the woods, with the werewolf predators lurking outside, it's blood and bullets for the rest of the night as they try to survive till morning. This is Neil Marshall's first flick and I'm surprised at the quality of what he has brought to the table, he has blended a mis of horror/comedy/action in one tight little neat werewolf flick, which in my opinion is one of the best to this date. While watching the flick, you know that they are not too serious once a soldier has a bare-knuckle fight with one of the werewolfs. Pertwee, one of the main characters, spends much of the film trying to hold in his own guts, which mark an uncanny resemblance to jello. Can't forget that they tape them back in. Here is a little flick that makes you bite down on your nails and keeps you to the very edge of your seat, not many horror films can do that, hell not many films in general can do that. Not only does this film do that perfectly but it makes you want more, and when it's over you can't help but feel a little saddened by this, but then again there is a sequel in the works. 8.5/10 |
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
http://www.ghsteched.com/dave5.gif "Fantastic ART film, medicore film" So, I finally saw this weird film and I still don't know what to think of it. I'm not sure if I liked it or not. One of the weirdest movies I've ever seen. It's visionarly brilliant, but......nothing happens. It's hard to explain, but something about this movie I didn't like. There is VERY little story, and whats there is not that interesting. Its an art flick, and a big leap in sci-fi films at the time. HAL 900 was of course great and probably the highlight of this film with it's cold horrorific voice, send chills down anybody's spine. The ending is obscure, but with repeat viewings, is comprehendable. I understand that it was not meant to be understood as a whole and for that fact it succeeds, but as a film it fails. Very difficult to rate this film, because as an art film it warrants a 10/10, but as a film for entertainment value I see myself giving it a 4/10. 6.5/10 |
Memento (Christopher Nolan)
"Landmark in Cinema" Here is one of those movies that need more then one viewing to comprehend, and in my case took 3 or 4. It's so unique and a giant leap from the Hollywood movies that are out there today, that you want to see it again and again not to just figure out the puzzles in the film, but to enjoy a great landmark film. Leonard (Guy Pearce) is an insurance investigator whose memory has been damaged following a head injury he sustained after intervening on his wife's murder. His quality of life has been severely hampered after this event, and he can now only live a comprehend-able life by tattooing notes on himself and taking pictures of things with a Polaroid camera. Now he tries to find his wife's killer and end the madness of his life. Through out the movie, as it is told backwards Leonard is lost as are we and this is where we get hooked, we are connected to the main character straight from the beginning. The people around him who claim to be his friends, do we trust them, should Leonard, he only has his notes and pictures to look at to know who to trust. From the beginning we meet Teddy and are told not to believe his lies, why is this? We want to know why we can't trust him, what has he done to make Leonard not trust him and trust Natalie. Joe Pantoliano always chooses great films to be apart of and here he is with his matrix co-star Carrie Anne Moss, both give good performances, but it's Guy Pearce who runs the movie. This is a movie that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime because it is so unique and visually stunning in it's chronological order. Once you know what's happening in the film, and see how each scene ends, you desperately want to know what happened before it. Christopher Nolan gives us great suspense in a way that no one has ever done. In every thriller we want to know what happens next, what happens at the end. Here, if you want to get technical, we want to know what happens at the beginning, how did he get his memory amnesia, did he really kill John .G already? There lies another greatness of the film, it never really tells you if Teddy was lying or not, just because Leonard thinks he's a liar, he's made out to be one throughout the rest of the movie, and then our whole experience with him changes. Was he really telling the truth? Does Sammy Jenkins really exist or was it really Leonard, this my friend is up to you to decide. 10/10 |
Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (Brett Sullivan)
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/images/Mic...unleashed8.jpg "Does it live up to the original?" Tell me why it's called Ginger Snaps again, she already did, isn't it Brigitte's turn? This movie continues the story from the first one, so it helps if you've seen the original. Where does this movie go? Who knows, it doesn't keep in track very well with the whole werewolf thing till the last 15-20 minutes of the film. Ghost seems to be more of the main character than Brigitte is in this one, which is sad because her character is boring and inane. Ginger is hardly there and it seems like she is only there to get more people in the seats...damn eye candy. She serves no other function than narrator. Sad, because Katharine Isabelle is a good actress, but you wouldn't know it here. Brigitte's character has become smarter and stronger, as has Emily Perkins's acting. It was never explained where the male werewolf came from that was trying to mate with Brigitte, though it was a neat idea, much like the link of a woman's cycle with werewolves in the first one. Was the male werewolf Jason? Was it Sam? We will never know...we are never given a back story of an idea if this virus is going to get out of hand, or if Brigitte and the male werewolf are the only ones in existence. The story is interesting, but don't expect the character development and plot of the first one. Here, most of the characters beyond Ghost and Brigitte are 2-D, the girls in the institute are annoying and sexual playthings for Tyler, never going beyond that, Tyler himself is the typical scumbag aide who shoots girls up in exchange for sex (very unlike the character of Sam in the first one, who is a drug dealer, but has a very honorable smart side to him that comes out), Alice is a typical instructor who really doesn't do anything but serve as a plot device, coming in here and there, so Ghost won't be left alone. Even the male werewolf is just there, he is there to be killed. That's all. You don't have the sympathy you have in the first one when, for instance, Sam is killed. You feel bad because you learn he is a good guy deep down and you feel like you know him by the end. I for one, loved the original Ginger Snaps because it was unconventional, the characters were deep, the violence only when needed, a whole neat idea about women's periods being linked to werewolves, two strong female leads and an ending that was scary and sad at the same time. Not too many films do that! This movie, lacks emotion and trys to copy the same ending in emotion, but onyl half heartly gets there. 5/10 |
The Aviator (Martin Scorsese)
http://www.parool.nl/film/2005/recen...viator-410.jpg "Up there with the driver and the fellas?" Fantastic. That's what The Aviator is. Yeah, it's a little long, but overall, fantastic. Leonardo DiCaprio gives the performance of his career in this, and Marty is excellent as always. He's paid his dues, I think it's time Academy voters. Yeah, it's not as good as many of his other films, but is still very excellent in its own right. The music, the cinematography, and oh, the colours of it all. All excellent and visually grand. One of the best aspects of the film. The acting was great also, of course DiCaprio. Cate Blanchett was alright, little on my nerves, Kate Beckinsale was very good with what little she had, and even the bit parts by Gwen Stefani, Jude Law and even random cameo by Willem Dafoe were all very well acted. I was disappointed with the lack of more for Ian Holm to do, but he still did very well. Overall, a solid effort, and a great job from Scorsesel. Not the best film of the year, but deserving of recognition. One of Marty's best films, ranking up with the likes of Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. (Although, not better) 9/10 |
Maria Full of Grace (Joshua Marston)
http://img.vip.lenta.ru/topic/oscar2005/grace.jpg "Clever Visuals" This is the harrowing story of a (not quite) typical mule: Maria Alvarez (Moreno), an intelligent and fiercely independent 17-year-old girl from Colombia who agrees to smuggle a half-kilo of heroin into the United States. My third favorite foreign language film (#1 City of God #2 Battle Royale) This film deals with a very disturbing circumstances, which in fact, are real in this world we live in. Maria looking for a job agrees to smuggle drugs into the United States and while watching this movie, it had my full attention, I was literally on my seat when they stopped her at the airport. Even though she is doing something awful, for money, you can't help but root for her to get out of that situation and are happy when another poor woman gets caught. The script was well written and felt completely real. You can't help but feel sorry for these girls who do indeed go back to Columbia, just to get stuffed again and fly back and fourth and not always end in the good way. The acting was surprisingly good. Moreno brings this poor, confused, heroic young woman to life with one of the best performances from a female actress in 2004. Not only is the leading lady giving us a powerful performance, but the supporting characters are just as great and intense. You feel sorrow for Lucy and her sister, and depending on how you look at it, hate or feel sorrow for Blanca, Maria's friend. This movie had such a powerful story, each scene is just as tense as the other. There were also some clever visuals in the movie particularly at the end. As Maria walks away...read what it says behind her...Then, you will realize what the movie was all about. 7.5/10 |
Identity (James Mangold)
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...anda_peet2.jpg "Predictable, yet...not" When a nasty storm hits a hotel, ten strangers are stranded within and as they begin to know each other, they discover they are being killed off one by one. This is a really dark film that succeeds in confusing you and gets you wondering whodunnit, I would have been disappointed if it had ended any other way. Identity is a stylish looking film, full of wet, dark imagery that increases the creep factor. The film is also suspenseful throughout, featuring plenty of genuine scares and surprises for the most part. However, as the film continues to run, it becomes obvious that we, the audience, are being set up for a switch in the film's basic premise. I figured out that they were all different personalities, but did not see Liotta being a convict, or the kid being the killer. Which is why I liked this film so much, because it constantly throws curveballs at you left, right and centre. The direction of the film is influenced in equal amounts by many different people, for instance Fincher, Hitchcock and Agatha Christie. Throughout the film, I was impressed with the atmosphere created. The acting, was convincing and this helped the director throw as many curveballs as he did. Liotta is as always the hot tempered guy about to blow in every scene, Cusack gives a great performance as always and I was surprised by Peets performance, she hold up with the more expierenced actors on the set. The chemistry was really good as well between the characters, even though most of the time they distrust each other. I essentially believe that this film is worth watching for all fans of a wide range of genres: thriller, horror, and pure whodunits (especially anyone who has read Christie's And Then There Were None). This is a film that tries to throw a twist or two in and actually succeeds with it, unlike films that try to hard and stuf it down your throat. 8/10 |
STAR WARS: Revenge of the Sith
(George Lucas) http://www.dpadz.com/imgs/revenge-of-the-sith-ship.jpg "Great film, with disappointments" We start off with your typical STAR WARS, but go down to a non-typical fight. TIE fighters everywhere, beautiful special effects, but from the ongoing camera movements and the bright colors on the screen, it got a little disorienting. The reason for this? Well the clone war is ending and a new villain has entered the series known as General Grevious, half alien half machine with four arms, who from what I've read all over the internet was suppose to be a Jedi killing mother, which brings me to disappointment number one. General Grevious. This thing does not kill one Jedi in this entire movie. In the scene were OBI-WAN enters and Grevious tells the others to back off, he takes out his four light sabers ready to own. I get excited expecting to see the 2nd best light-saber battle in the whole series. Yet, what we get is a short 2 minute if that fight. First of all, no way can Kenobi block all the light sabers from this guy with his one, yet he does and he manages to slice off two of Grevous's sabers, then the little guy runs away, his end comes by a gun, shot by obi-wan, what a waste of my time, that was pathetic.You expect to see this guy kick major ass and he's taken out of the picture so easily, which is one of my problems with the whole prequel series (Darth Maul/Jango Fett) This movie of course is darker then the first two and probably darker then Empire Strikes Back, it also carries the most light-saber battles/action scenes in the entire series.....but after seeing so many light sabers battles they kind of lose their excitement. YODA VS EMPEROR....while great, kinda let down by the shortness and how they did not use their "arena" to the full potential. ANAKIN VS OBI-WAN, people have been waiting for 20 years for this battle and it finally comes, it was good, you can even say epic in a way. But worth the wait of 20 years......I think not. Mace Windu and random Jedi VS EMPEROR....boy did those JEDI get it in 3 seconds or what, it looked like he was literally slow as a snail going uphill when he stuck the light-saber in them and yet the still take the hit. MACE Windu owned the emperor in the battle and the glass shatter was a great. The best light-saber battle is still DUEL OF FATES Excited to see old characters such as Chewie and VADER, even though you know for a fact that they will have little screen time you can't help but feel disappointed with what they do in that screen time. Vader has no more then 5 minutes on the screen and the Frankenstein tribute was totally stupid in my opinion and took away from the awesomeness of VADER. LACK of Chewie.....lack of Wookies in general. The battle between the Wookies is very short. What are the absolute worse things about this movie, well you probably would have guessed it, since it does not improve what so ever over the other two...dialogue and acting. A lot of the times I found myself rolling my eyes at the utter stupidness of some of the lines. "You're so beautiful.." "Only because I'm so in love." "No, it's because I'm so in love with you." HAYDEN is still bad as Anakin until the transformation takes place. Ewan is probably the worst one here. "hang on were smarter than this" That is said after being trapped in an energy shield and of course the unbelievable scene where he sees his PADWAN a person who he calls his brother and person he loves kill the young lings (another gripe....just call them children) and all he can say in a monotone voice is something along the lines of "I can't watch this" Please it looked/sounded like he was just reading it from the script. Not all the acting and dialogue is bad in this film, the highlight of the movie is PALPATINE....like Ebert said in his review, he has the hardest job of playing a character on both sides and he pulls this off marvelously. He owned this movie, even more then YODA....who owned the second. Yes this is the better of the first two prequels for the fact that we get more into seeing why things are the way they are....Luke/Leia, Emperor and his disfigurement, that's about it, yup they don't really tie the two films together very well in my opinion. I was just waiting for more things to pop up to tie them together. There are still plot holes. Which I do not want to read the books to find the answers to, this should have been addressed in the film. 1> Who is Cyphis Deus? 2> How does Leia remember her birth mother We all know what happens in this film and everyone is only going to watch it to see how these things come to be, but I was hoping/praying for one thing to be a surprise, one little thing. I remember reading somewhere that a line is spoken that shatters the STAR WARS universe, where is this line? We all know the Anakin becomes VADER and I was impressed with the story behind why he did this, but not with the amount of time it took for him to do this....it was so quick. I understand the time frame but come on, the movie went by so fast you could of put more time for the transition. The movie is 2:30, but with all the action it flies by so fast. When ANAKIN VS OBI-WAN came up I was thinking to myself, already? I didn't like how he chose the dark side to save Padme's life, but tries to kill her at the same time. 8/10 |
Mr. In-Between (Paul Sarossy)
http://www.nonstopentertainment.com/...ween_bild2.jpg "This hitman missed his mark" Jon is an ideal employee: neat, efficient and conscientious. The torture he inflicts is effective and the kills are swift. Mentored by his tattooed boss, the only thing asked of Jon is total quality. But something happens...and for the first time Jon let his emotions affect his work. Now the tables are turned as the boss and the hit-man face off in the most dangerous kind of business...The Killing Kind." The main problem with this film was that I just couldn't get into it, it had great characters, a good story and twists that would all account for a great film. But it just missed that thing that makes films interesting. Maybe it was the "low-budget" aspect of the quality of film that made me dis-like the film, or maybe the fact that I thought it was going to be something totally different. He isn't a hit-man that I would picture, he hardly ever uses a gun (which is showcased on the cover). He uses a pool cue and a fire poker among things. The dialouge does indeed suck, but that's British films for you (Save Shaun and Snatch). The fact of the matter is, this film tries to be something that it's not, which is SNATCH and LOCK STOCK, with a twist at the end that will shock some, but leave the others asking why. There are some great characters here that could use a touch up here or there, other then that, this film is a disappointment, 6/10 |
Starship Troopers 2 (Phil Tippett)
http://www.so-net.ne.jp/SF-Online/no...troopers_2.gif "Takes all the fun out of the original" What made the first movie fun was the fact that it was humans against bugs, and seeing that was great, what happens here is a one night, human VS human thing which is pathetic and been done too many times before. No one wants to see the same thing on screen they've seen years before, you want to do something fresh, especially in a sequel. That is the conflicting thing here, it is indeed very different from the first movie, but you must realise that different isn't always a good thing, you will not get good reviews for trying something different,m it has to work and here it does not. I rented this movie to see more action between bugs and humans, see some news bugs, not small bugs taking over humans, anyone see DECOYS, this movie is good for two reasons, boobs and some nice deaths. I did like the main actor though, he showed a nice rough toughness, but the movie was too predictable, with bad acting, and no fun.....yup, I was bored in a movie that is solely made to entertain, it's a shame it fails on many levels. This movie would be at the very least decent as a stand alone film, having nothing to do with Starship Troopers, but the fact of the matter is, is that it is a sequel, one that should have never seen the light of day. 4.5/10 |
Here is a good test...just asking....WHat do you think of Flash Gordon? Lets see an in depth review now.:)
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Campfire Stories (Bob Cea)
http://www.dvdloc8.com/images/dvdcover/9302.jpg "Not THE Worst film of all time" Not as bad as "Carnivore", this low budget film is still sh*t, but I have more respect for it then I have for "The Worst Movie Ever, Carnivore". Anyways...Two teens on their way to a backwoods party come across a beautiful young woman (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) having car trouble, so they go into the woods to find campers she said she saw, they run into Ranger Bill, and he starts telling them these campfire stories. There are 3 stories, one involves a lunatic killer, the other a haunted Indian/weed pipe and the last one is yet another killer story. Personally I liked the last story the best, but that is not saying much. I mistakenly bought Carnivore in a 5 dollar bin at Wal mart, I got this at Christmas. There was a deal if you buy one movie, you get another one, my mom picked it while she was getting the "Awesome" Dog Soldiers. The acting is mostly high school level and the music is really lame. The worst performance is "Ranger Bill" played by David Johansen, he really sinks this movie. I will admit, at the beginning I had hopes for it, it was going alright, then they meet up with Bill and it goes downhill from there. Now the acting is as bad as Carnivore (I'll be making lots of references to it) but it is worse than Evil Dead. So you get the idea, the best performance is from a guy who has 2 lines it, the escaped lunatic mental killer in the first story. The first story, about a group of jocks picking on a school handyman, doesn't fair much better in it's acting or production values. Once it gets going there is a level of creepiness to it but the whole set up before the climax is so poorly done that you find yourself caring very little about what happens. Aside from some poor special effects (well good in a high school class project sort of way) the second story involving three troublemakers looking to profit from the murder of a native man, fails to really grab the viewer. There isn't much wrong with the story it just doesn't do much until the twist ending. At that point everything registers and the story makes sense, unfortunately it's not much fun getting to that point. The final, and best, story is a nice little "who-done-it". While the story, of four friends getting together for a night of "passion" which ends in murder, doesn't really set itself up as well as it could, it does contain the most suspense of the 4 stories. This entry contains the best of everything in the movie, best story, acting and suspense. The topper is that is also contains the best ending as you continue to guess who the culprit is. If you are the kind of fan who likes low budget campy kind of stuff, then be my guest. If you thought carnivore was at the very least okay, then give this one a try, it has a lot of of screen gore, like chainsaw scene in Scarface. For instance, the lead jock's neck and a saw come to meet, but all you see is the blood drip onto his chest. There's no nudity, hardly any language this movie doesn't feel like a real horror movie to me, just some kind of thriller, with one or two horror elements thrown in. 2.5/10 |
Primal Fear (Gregory Hoblit)
http://www.americancatholic.org/Mess...gfx/mtvTop.gif "Norton Shines" Here is a movie that gives away the ending in the TAGLINE, and yet no one sees it coming. I guessed he was a schizo when he first said he black out, but to find out that it was all a act, is brilliant, and it was brilliantly delivered by a new face, EDWARD NORTON. Norton in my opinion was the shinning moment in this film and GERE gives his average performance yet again. What GERE lacks is what NORTON makes up for in this film. The supporting cast does a good job, Laura gets credit for out doing GERE in my opinion. The script is a little weak and of course has plot holes, but the twist ending makes up for an other wise average story. The direction is good and uses the NORTON character very well, AARON is such a pathetic, innocent character that when we see ROY, we believe that this is real, again kudos to NORTON. The ending leaves little to the imagination, it could have ended a little better in my opinion, tie up some lose knots here and there. Abrupt endings kill a lot of movies.....REVENGE OF THE SITH. I was surprised to see the GORE at the beginning of this film, with the murder of the BISHOP and the language seemed out of place from some characters, but then on the other hand totally in place (ROY). This is a film that has a good premise and great twist, but is left in the shadows of other "TWIST" films, that in my opinion are not as good as this one. This film deserves a little more recognition that it receives and it's a shame it did not. The only person who benefited from it is of course NORTON. 8/10 |
Primer (Shane Carruth)
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...uth/primer.jpg http://www.adelaidefilmfestival.org/...tos/primer.jpg "Not your average sci/fi" This is a low budget movie from first time director Shane Carruth and based on that it is a really good film. It is a sci/fi movie, but not like you other sci/fi movies, this one is more based on story then special effects and mumbo jumbo time travel dialouge. Yes, it's a time travel movie and it's one for the thinkers too. The movie is about two friends who, develop new technologies in their garage. The two accidentally discover that their latest invention can actually send objects back in time. With this new found discovery, they make one bigger with the intention of sending actual people through time and take very important steps along the way to make sure that it does not affect their actual life, in the past. Since it was only made for a short amount of money, the audio and visual portions of the film are a little on the down side but I really dug the unique visual camera shots of the film. Certain shots were very clever and made the film seem on a more of an artistic level. Yes, I'm not afraid to say that I didn't understand most of it, but hey, if you're into low-budget/time travel type movies, give it a shot. I'm sure you won't be disappointed, but the time travel isn't what you think it is. This is not Back to the Future, this is a Donnie Darko, of shorter caliber 7/10 |
Face/Off (John Woo)
http://www.shop4photos.net/graphics/228/228515.jpg "Switching Roles" John Woo is the so called master of action films, where he puts heavy on the action and light on the characters, he does this again with FACE/Off, but what makes this film different is the fact that the characters actually switch roles in it, which makes it more interesting then his previous "american films". We see the actors brilliantly display hate/love and imitate each other. Without this element, this film would probably fall flat on it's face in the action genre and become a fading memory, instead of making it's mark in film Other then the fact that they switch roles, what makes this film different from it's other rivals? Not that much, it's your typical gun fights here, explosions there, chase scene here, but does that mean that it makes it unenjoyable? Certainly not. There are tons of scenes where the bullets fly for those action hounds and of course the movie has the signature double gun from hard boiled and Woo's birds flying away. Woo has a talented eye for action, but not very much for characters, does that harm this film, a little, but again with the fact that the actors in it, portray different personalities, you don't really get a sense of that, you feel for the character of Archer and his dead son. CAGE, who is a personal fav, gives a great performance, but it's TRAVOLTA, the "bad guy' who gets the glory in this film for having a fun time. The story is laughable, but fun and that's what this movie is, pure fun. It does have emotional parts of it, but it does little for people who go to see this movie, unless your a sappy person who cries at the death of everybody. The ending is a little inane, but forgivable in this film. It could have had a better ending, which would have made the film go down in history as a great action film, instead of a fun action film, which is what so many action films are like today. 8/10 |
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/20..._fiction,0.jpg "One of the greatest films of all time" Pulp Fiction is a movie that grabs you by the throat and won't let go till the end. With it's great cast, incredible direction and unique ( at the time) dialouge, Tarantino has created a movie that will go down in film history as one of the best and will be remember for years to come. Pulp Fiction is 3 stories interconnecting. Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield are two hit men on the hunt for a briefcase whose contents were stolen from their boss, Marsellus Wallace. Marsellus is out of town, and he's gotten Vincent to take care of his wife, Mia. That is, take her out for a night on the town. Butch Coolidge is a boxer who's been approached by Marsellus and been told to throw his latest fight. Pumpkin and Honey Bunny are two lovebirds/thieves who have decided to rob the restaurant they're currently eating at. But the restaurant doesn't turn out to be as easy as the other places they've robbed. This is a film that has intense moments that will have you on the edge of your seat, case in point, the overdose scene where they need to inject a shot of adrenaline into Mia's heart. The close up tension from Tarantino and dialouge will have you on the edge of your seat no matter how many times you have seen it. What Pulp Fiction does so well is blend this with comedic scenes and basically "nothing" scenes which make it more real then other films that we see. Tarantino manages to get great performances out of mediocre film stars like Travolta and Willis, who steal the show. But not without the supporting cast of so many great and talent actors, who fit their characters to perfection. Samuel L. Jackson is Jules, and no one else. What makes it more interesting is that the three stories connect and are told not in order, so multiple viewings are needed to understand the film as a whole, and with it's length, you would expect it to drag on in certain scenes, but with it's witty dialouge and the superb cast in those scenes you are nothing feeling like it's going on too long. Tarantino has pulled off a great film and I believe will never top it, this film is the best film of the 90's and one of the best films of all time. 10/10 |
Cut and paste like a mad man................I assume that you are posting your own reviews from another forum/site. If so I gues thats cool. Must have had some bad experience at your "late" home. If so welcome. I have read what you have posted thus far with enthusiasm.
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Done, for now. Yes, can you tell from the oscar things for sideways/million dollar baby, lol.:D
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Originally Posted by TheUsualSuspect
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
6.5/10 |
I've only seen a select few Kubrick films...need to broaden my horizon.
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Which ones have you seen?
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Eyes Wide Shut
The Shinning 2001 Clockwork Orange half of spartacus |
The Matrix Revolutions
(Wachowski Brothers) http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...ng/matrix6.jpg Most Disappointing film of 2003 Revolutions was disappointing. Its too bad too, I liked Reloaded and I liked the Matrix In the first Matrix there were many ideas crucial to the plot that were just taken for granted by everyone, such as the existence of an "Oracle" inside the matrix, as well as the existence of a "One", wow after Reloaded I had hundreds of theories, and when this film came out, to see none of them revealed, or anything remotely good at all, it takes a dive into crap. This is the weak spot in the trilogy, it does have the best special effects, even the phoney SUPER PUNCH to Smith's face was alright. It is the darkest, with death to some main characters, but I guess it's a main problem is that the Wachowski brothers couldn't come up with an ending to please themselves, so they just threw one together. It is probably the worst way to end a trilogy that could of easily become one of the greatest. The acting in both of the Matrix films are flat, with this one showing the most emotion from Reeves wiithout the aid of SIGHT, which impressed me very much. Morpheus is nothing but a supporting character here and Trinity just follows Neo everywhere, then dies...again. OH GOD the death scene, it went all Shakespear on us here and dragged on a bit too long. The Kid, it's safe to say that this is the Jar Jar of The Matrix. His dialouge was horrible and terribly delievered, "Neo, I believe" Had me laughing to tear out of embarassment The fight scenes...wow, and not in a good way. First of all we get a rehased version of the lobby scene in the first one, but how do we make it different, oh we'll get the upside down. Very interesting...please, show us something tangable. How about the Smith/Neo fight, have you've ever seen an episode of Dragon Ball Z, well, yea, that's basically what the fight is, fly around kick here and there and then just give in. Can you say way too many rain bubbles, 3 is enough, not more. The Zion VS Machines was the highligt of this film, it was beautiful and suspenseful, everything I imagined it to be. The machine city was interesting, and beautiful, the orange/yellow lights, neo's power that is stretches beyond the matrix, all the way to the source, please, that's a cop out. Neo and Trinity soaring beyond the skies, seeing the beautiful sun, just before dipping back into hell, beautiful. Every character that was the least bit interesting was useless here. The Merovingian, Perphosone, Seraph, Twins (not present, come on they didn't die). I expected a kick ass fight between the smiths and seraph, but got nothing. Every fight scene was a let down. The story relies on it's viewers to know everything about the the matrix universe, you need to play the games, you need to watch the animatrix, read the comics, just like Episode III. "Holy ****, it's wingless" What does this mean, Serpah has an outer shell like the Oracle, and this is his new one? I don't want to go to the games to get the answers. Overall, I was disappointed with the outcome of this movie, it was a let down, maybe because it was over-hyped, maybe because it was simply crap...I'll never know. 6/10 |
Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch)
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...ll_murray1.jpg "Jim Jarmusch's Best Film, Not Murray's" Will Bill Murray get a nomination for Best Actor this year? Well probably, because there's not much out there, sure he's good in the film, but throughout the whole movie he looks like a deer caught in headlights. Jim Jarmush has his best film here, it's heart warming, funny, and sad, he blends them all so well. He fades almost in every scene, some may think this is overdone, but I believe it worked very well for the tone of the film. This movie is this years Sideways.
WARNING: "Broken Flowers" spoilers below
The ending is a bit of a downer, some might like it some might not, it leads us to believe that he may or may not have a son, throughout the whole film he goes looking for this woman and finds out that it was a lie planned by his latest girlfriend. He sleeps around without alot of women and his latest girlfriend wanted him to "find" himself by looking up these women in his life. Oringally he was a man who couldn't care, he's a bachelor and wants no kids, yet he changes over the course of his road trip, he even visits the one girlfriend who died.
The ending also leads you to also believe that he may keep searching for his "hypothetical" son, with everyone one that looks like him, it could very well be his son or not. Bill Murray has the same expression on his face throughout the film, so his performance is not as good as Lost in Translation, but it's note-worthy. The women he makes contact with, are very different, one tries to be young, one tries to be conservative, and may still have feelings for Don (Murray), one has taken a career change from Lawyer to animal communicator, that's right she talks to animals and one is basically trailer park trash. Don see's this women and it sheds light on his lonely pathetic life. The music in the movie is a blend of all the same, a CD given to Don from Winston, his neighbour, of a foreign decent, I can't remember the name. The comedy in the film is very undertonned. It may pop up out of nowhere and just ease in dramatically. One scene that was totally random was when the first women his goes to daughter flirts with him and she pops out of her room naked. Overall, this is an artiscally done film, with minor problems, mainly Murray one look face, but depsite that, it's a good flick and you won't be disappointed with the results. 8/10 |
Just a suggestion TUS, but if you want people to read a review of a new film, you should put spoiler text formatting on the specific spoilers, so that those of us who haven't seen it yet can read the part that isn't spoil-ing.
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Thanks for the spoiler info, if you read it, and have not seen the movie, I apologize.
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No worries here. I got as far as you saying *spoilers* and stopped reading. :p
Now that I have read it, thanks for the review! |
:) Thanks Delilah
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Gangster No.1 (Paul McGuigan)
http://www.theworldjournal.com/speci.../gangster1.gif "Paul Bettany shows his acting chops" Gangster No.1 shows the rise and fall of a prominent English gangster. Malcolm McDowell is Gangster 55, telling the story in voice overs, and Paul Bettany shines as the Young Gangster giving a great performance, which carries the film from cookie cutter gangster film, to one of the best. This film is filled with inspirations from many others, such as Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, Get Shorty, etc. While some do work, such as "Look into my eyes", others don't, McGuigan, near the end of the film, fast forwards through decades in just a couple of minutes, we don't feel like we are with these people throughout their reign of terror in England. The film does have bits of originality, such as the "torture" while we see the FPV of the victim, fades in and out in his dying minutes, as the killer stands over his body, continuing the slaughter. Paul Bettany shows how good he is in this film as he carries it to another level. His eyes in his "Look into my eyes" scenes are so hollow and terrifying that you know if he was interrogating you, that he could and probably would kill you at anytime. He has the look in his sharp suits and the style. It's a shame no awards went his way. McDowell, to me in this film is a little bit of, I don't know how to say it, but he didn't do all that much for me. The rest of the cast holds up well, blending well with the story line and environments they are put in. The script is sharp and has a Goodfellas/Reservoir Dogs feel to it, the Goodfellas aspect shows the rise and fall, where as Reservoir Dogs, comes from it's dialouge. I've never heard the word c*nt used so many times. The film took it's time to showcase the rise of this young gangster from a common thug, to a crime lord. The one thing that did out me off though was the fact the he was just picked up out of a bar and given a spot. When Freddie goes to prison, that's when the young gangster takes his spot in being no. 1. Years go by and Freddie finally is released, while McDowell eagerly awaits his return, he expect some conflict, but what he get is a let down, I won't ruin what happens, but you'd expect something explosive. So Gangster No. 1 showcases great performances from the actors involved and shows a great story that takes it time, instead of bang bang, you're dead. The film just lacks that one special thing to take it to greatness, above and beyond those other movies, but for now, it can just be the one to stand out. 7.5/10 |
Gangster No. 1 is OK, not bad, but there are a pile of truly great Brit gangster pics that should be seen before you bother with it, especially The Long Good Friday, Sexy Beast, Layer Cake and the original Get Carter.
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Originally Posted by Holden Pike
Gangster No. 1 is OK, not bad, but there are a pile of truly great Brit gangster pics that should be seen before you bother with it, especially The Long Good Friday, Sexy Beast, Layer Cake and the original Get Carter.
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I love Paul Bettany.
Love him. I'd really like to see him in a great movie. He's usually the bright spot in a fairly dim picture. |
Originally Posted by TheUsualSuspect
I've been meaning to get Layer Cake, looks interesting. Sexy Beast is alright, and have yet to see the others one's you've mentioned.
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Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku)
http://www.2300plan9.com/2002/2002/h..._royale_09.jpg "It's kill or be killed in this extreme shocker" "At the dawn of the Millenium, the nation collapsed. At 15% unemployment, 10 million were out of work, 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence, and fearing the youth, eventually passed the 'Millenium Educational Reform Act'...AKA: The BR Act." 42 ninth grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food and various arms. They have to fight each other until only one is left, and they only have 3 days to do this. Each student is locked with an explosive collar that will go off if messed with, when the three days are up, or if they are in a danger zone. Where do I begin, this is one of very few movies that makes you feel like you are actually there. I've never had so much fun watching a movie like this. It grabs you by the throat in it's first ten minutes and doesn't let go till the very end. Early on in the movie, you get the jist of things and pick your favourites to win, regardless of the main characters. This movie is so extreme that it makes you think from the very beginning that even the two main characters, Boy #15 and Girl #15, may die at any point in this film. This film instantly caught my attention. Each character in this movie is given a bag, that contains food, water, a map, some female supplies (for the ladies of course) and a random weapon, and when I say random, I mean RANDOM. The weapons range from an uzi, to a pot lid, and everything in between (paper fan, tracking device, coat hanger, these are their weapons). One poor kid was stuck with boxing gloves. The tagline for this film is "Can you kill your best friend?" Honestly, I don't know if I could. But here teams are formed early, your computer hackers, you're female cooks and your "gang" and you can bet your ass that they are all friends. After each death, there is a countdown on the screen. "Boys # 7 #8 are dead, 35 to go". Even the teacher, who is mostly the comic relief in this intense film, reads off the death list and the order they died in, just before telling each student what part of the island is a danger zone. The danger zones in the film, add to the suspense, the thrills, the excitment and overall carnage that takes place on screen. Because of these danger zones, you know that the students must always be moving somewhere, or else the collar will explode, ripping their throat open and gushing blood. Which happens early on in the film, just to show you what you're in for. There are so many over-the-top scenes, that fit perfectly in this movie, even when kids are shot dozens of times and yet the just keep on tickin. It does have corney dialouge, but you get passed that and actually may find it enjoyable. The music is beautiful, the opera sound and opening are perfect for this film, it blends so well with it's tone and the atmosphere surrounding the students. It's always great to be sitting there cheering for characters, wanting others to die and crying for ones who do. Having this kind of fun in a mvie is once in a lifetime. One part I do not get, but had me laughing saying WTF
WARNING: "Battle Royale" spoilers below
When the Teacher was shot, then his phone rings and he all of a sudden gets up to answer it
It's easy to see where Kill Bill got lots of it's scenes from. This movie will stay in the history of film as one that will shock viewers upon first viewings. If you go into this movie to have fun, you will not be disappointed, if you look deep enough, you will see the politics within it, but for now I will leave that chapter closed, and just leave you with the fact that this film is a must see for any violence craving maniac. 9.5/10 |
I enjoyed the manic quality to the film, and Takeshi Mike( the teacher ) is always watchable.I suppose anyone watching this movie for the first time without a general knowledge of Asian cinema might get a little lost or caught up in it, but it's dumb fun if you can handle the violence.
Haven't seen Battle Royale 2 yet, I'm waiting for it to come down in price at my local DVD shop. |
skip it, it is trash.
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Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
I enjoyed the manic quality to the film, and Takeshi Mike( the teacher ) is always watchable.
http://reve.sans.fin.free.fr/BattleR...eshiKitano.JPG |
Thanks for the reviews you suspect you :D
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Originally Posted by Tacitus
Ok I'm confused. He has various names he goes by, Beat Kitano was his comedy name to start with when he did stand-up, but I thought when he directed or was acting he preffered to be called Takeshi Mike. Put me out of my misery Tacitus, talk about clolur me confused! Just been on imdb, realise I'm confusing him with someone else, he is also known as Beat Takeshi, not Takeshi Mike the director! D'OH! I'm away to lie down in a dark room, my brain hurts! |
Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
Ok I'm confused. He has various names he goes by, Beat Kitano was his comedy name to start with when he did stand-up, but I thought when he directed or was acting he preffered to be called Takeshi Mike.
Put me out of my misery Tacitus, talk about clolur me confused! Just been on imdb, realise I'm confusing him with someone else, he is also known as Beat Takeshi, not Takeshi Mike the director! D'OH! I'm away to lie down in a dark room, my brain hurts! Takeshi Kitano is the name he goes by as a director, writer, editor etc. 'Beat' Takeshi is a nickname which goes back to his days on the stand-up comedy circuit as part of The Two Beats (himself and his partner were Jazz fans). He uses 'Beat' Takeshi when he acts. Takashi Miike is this man: http://www.ihmagazine.it/imgarticoli...izo/tmiike.jpg Director of Audition, Ichi The Killer etc... ;) |
Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano
Takashi Miike Quite seperate ends of Japanese cinema, both worth looking into, Darth. From what i've seen Kitano makes great thought provoking films and Miike makes mad and messy films. Btw, don't wait for Battle Royale 2, it's one of the few films i got really angry about the fact i wasted 2 hours watching it. |
Transporter 2 (Louis Leterrier)
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/transporter2.jpg "Turn off your brain...all the way off" Frank is a transporter, he transports goods, but on this outting, he's a driver for a child to and from school. When the child is kidnapped, it's up to Frank to get him back. The original movie was an above average action flick, it made a star out of Statham, who I seem to enjoy in all his movies. He breaks one of his rules and open the package, which sends him on an action adventure behind the wheel, here he has moved to the States and is a hired driver to take a kid to and from school. He's only been the driver for about a month, when a plan to kidnap the kid is underway. This is a film for people who enjoy car chases, martial arts and the "it would never happen in real life". Right from the beginning we get a fight scene where our hero takes on 5 carjackers. He kicks ass then drives off. The first attempted kidnapping of the takes place at a doctor's office, where the bad guys kill the people in the office and take their uniforms. Frank sees something is wrong and kicks more ass. Kid gets kidnapped, frank has to get him back, and then more ass kicking and car driving, that is basically your movie here. The one thing that in my opinion that totally took me out of this movie is the unbelievable things that happen. First of all, apparently bullets cannot go through a wooden door, but are able to blow up helicopters and go through everything else, but of course our hero is behind that wooden door, so no bullets. Second of all is the car driving from the top of one parking lot, and landing into another one, unharmed, boy he has great aim. BUT, just when you think he's aim couldn't get any better, he drives his car off a ramp and flips his car in the air doing barrel rolls, hitting a crane to knock off the bomb on the bottom of his car, just as it explodes. This guy is really good. Of course he also takes on 20 guys who all have swords and axes...and he has his fists and feet. Am I done, of course not, he saves the "cure" serum from a truck tire, literally before it get's crushed. He jumps in mid air as two cars crash right underneath him. Remembers that oil scene in the first one, well he uses it for his arm in here. If you enjoy that, or can get passes those things, then this movie is a great action film. There were some gripes with the direction and editting, but in this type of film, you can forgive some of that, but it could be a distraction in the fights scenes. Is this going to win an oscar for the screenplay, well, when stuff like this happens. Hero gets on plane. Hero: You're flight has been cancelled. Bad guy pulls out gun Bad guy: No, you have been cancelled shoots and misses. With all these negatives in the movie, you may be wondering if anyone could enjoy it, well you can, and I did. It's not as smart as the first one, or as fresh, but it does keep your attention to the action on the screen. Among other things....like a women who only wears lingerie, even out in public. The music was your typical modern rock, with a surprising "Cells" The Servant (Sin City Theme Music) which comes out of no where. There were a scene or two that made me laugh, the French detective plays as the comic relief, who has a crappy vacation. The ending, well depending on Box Office, could mean a possible third installment. Can I recommend the film? Well, I've told you what happens in it, and if you are okay with all that "YEAH-RIGHT" scenes, then of course, it's a good movie to end the summer blockbusters with. 6.5/10 |
Thanks for the review Sus, I think I will give this a miss, I wasn't that keen on the first one :nope:
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OLDBOY (Chan-wook Park)
"Brilliant Performance and Direction" Old Boy Dae-Su Oh gets imprisoned for 15 years not knowing why, every so often music will play and gas will enter the room, knocking him out. Everytime he awakens hair cut, shaved and the room have been cleaned. Upon his release he has 5 days to find out why in the first place and by whom his captors were. This is the second film by Park in series of revenge films. After seeing this film, I am very eager to view Sympathy for Mr. Vengence and the upcoming third installment. Park shows his talent in this film as he shows us a beautifully choreographed corridor fight scene, with no cuts. The camera simply pans back and forth through the action and the fights scenes aren't those one guy takes on ten with high flying action, it's real, it's grounded and he still takes on ten guys. Min-sik Choi gives one of the best performances I've seen in awhile and the bad guy, although not as dynamic as Choi, holds up well as well. The other supporting cast are able to portray real emotions and make the whole movie work and come all together in the performances. Ijn the climax of the film, Choi gives not only a brilliant performance, but a weird one, that will have you either in tears of sorrow, or laughter. It's great seeing him try to adapt to the world, after being imprisoned for 15 years, like what he would do if he were to see a woman. The film is violent, not in a killing way, because most of the deaths are taken place off-screen. The violence comes from torture scenes, you know, where a guy takes a hammer and takes out the guys teeth...ouch. There is a plot twist, and it is a big one. I was shocked and it stuck with me for ten or so minutes, the twist is controversial, which may put off a lot of American audiences, but I believe it makes the film what it is. You feel sorrow for the main character, and even the bad guy, but can't really grasp this emotion until the climax of the film, a little late if you ask me, but the emotion that that scene brings out is in top form. It's a scene that goes down in history as disturbing, heart-wrenching, violent, suspenseful, funny, shocking...all in one. So what can I say about this film, well, it's one to watch, maybe more then once, because it could be difficult for some to grasp at first, or even if you do, may be hard to actually "believe". Aside from that, this film is a treat for the eyes as one of the best revenge films to grace the screen. 9/10 |
Thanks for the great review, I really liked this movie :yup:
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Oldboy 'effin epic, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is good, though a very different film, need to watch it again really. I too am looking forward to Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, now if only i could find a UK release date :(
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Expected release date for the Sympathy for Lady Vengeance dvd is 30th November
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Oooh, region?
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Cannibal Holocaust (Rugerro Deodato)
http://antigo.turnodanoite.com/imagens/cholocaust1.jpg "The most disturbing, realistic, brutal movie...ever" A New York anthropologist travels to the jungles of South America with two local guides to find out what happened to a documentary film crew which disappeared nearly a year earlier. After a long search and encountering a few primitive tribes, they find the remains of the crew and several reels of their undeveloped film. While in the US, the anthropologist views the material on the films. So this is the film that they did not want you to see, after seeing it, I can see why. Here is a film that has hundreds of people who love it, and just as many who hate it. Mostly because of the violent content within the film, it's too raw and horrific for some, but for others, they love every minute of it. Myself, I'm in that one percent who's indifferent. This is a grindhouse picture, where it's basically two stories into one movie, the first half of the movie is the search party who goes into the jungle looking for the film crew. The second half of the movie is the actual film footage from the documentary crew, which portion of the film I liked more is hard to decide, because what we see in the first half is shocking to us, we have not seen this before, it's new and it's brutal, but happens in the second half of the movie is more brutal, but not as shocking, because you are expecting the uncomfortably of the film to grow, and it does. This movie influenced the likes of films like The Blair Witch Project. Here is a movie that goes down in history as one of the most shocking movies of all time, does it deserve that title? Well, let's see, during the 90 some odd minutes of the film, be ready for: 3 different rape scenes, full-frontal nudity (both male and female), decapitations, real-life animal killings, guts ripping, people burning, torture, the most disturbing abortion scenes ever, limbs being chopped off, people getting impaled, bodies being hacked to bits and guts being ripped out and what makes it worse is that it's not that kind of "Dead-Alive" tounge in cheek gore, it's so realistic and disturbing. The music is beautiful, the theme song that plays throughout it amazing and a high point in this film. Don't pick it up for acting, or dialouge...but then again I wouldn't imagine someone doing that. This is a horror movie for those disturbed horror fans, those who want to see this movie to see what all the talk is about, brace yourself, you're in for some pretty horrific stuff. I'm not going to go into the whole political aspect of animal killings, but those were some of the hardest scenes to watch in this film. People are put off by the violence, so they fail to see what it's about. How we today are more curious about what's bad in the world, then what is good, how the journalist focus more on violent issues. Was it overdone? But then again, maybe it was just the right amount. It also shows how we as a culture are insensitive and ignorant to others, even if it is a cannibal tribe. I did dig this film, for it's unique style, that did come out before BWP faze. I love all kinds of horror movies, and this is one not to miss, of course if you can handle this type of stuff. The dvd is limited to about 10,000 copies, so if you want a copy pick it up fast. Oh and did I forget to mention that during it's release it was banned in almost 60 countries. 6.5/10 |
28 Days Later (Danny Boyle)
http://images.google.ca/url?q=http:/...DaysAttack.jpg "Disappointing attempt at reviving a dying genre" A powerful virus escapes from a British research facility. Transmitted in a drop of blood, the virus infects those and turns them into a zombie like creature. Within 28 days the country is overwhelmed and a handful of survivors begin their attempts to salvage a future, little realizing that the deadly virus is not the only thing that threatens them. Here is a little film that could have been a jump start in the horror genre, but with it's 2nd act, it falls apart as it tries to be something more then it actually is. It sells itself as an end of the world, fight for our lives film, and does that successfully for the most part, but when it takes a turn into a more humane state, it fizzles out and loses any interest it once had. Don't get me wrong, I loved the field scene, that was tremendous, the cinematography was really great. The deserted London was probably one things in this movie, that make it watchable. I liked how they weren't you "typical" slow moving "grrr" zombies, but blood-coughing, running marathon zombies. IF you would call them zombies, or just people infected with "RAGE" The military characters are the worse, with the British soldiers being nothing more than your typical foul-mouthed grunts. The clever use of dialouge in "Dog Soldiers" was fast and hip, but still built characters, here it most definitely does not. What does set this apart from your other zombie type movies is of course is isolated in London feel to it. The main character wakes up naked, sort of reborn, and finds himself in a new world where people are infected with a virus called rage, that turns them into a zombie like creature. It;s nice to see what people would do in this situation, and we get various degrees of that. Our heros were in more trouble with other humans then they were with the creatures. By the time we got to the climax you were cheering on the Zombies. I thought the love story felt forced because "every" movie needs a love story and I found nothing at all to be thought provoking because it had all been done before. One thing I found odd was the lack of security when the "activists" liberate the chimps. Since I had such high hopes for this film and was totally astonished at how terrible the last 20 or so minutes of the film was, a horrible ending did the movie in for me, it became the most disappointing movie of the summer. 5/10 |
I didn't really like it either, thanks for the review. :yup:
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EVIL DEAD II (Sam Raimi)
http://leviathan-x.tripod.com/sitebu...oth-madash.jpg "It Ups The Ultimate Expierence In Grueling Terror" This movie is equal to the original Evil Dead, here we have ASH the lone survivor from the first encounter with the evil dead, fighting off the deadites yet again. ASH encounters some unexpected guests and now everyone must fight for the lives, or become the evil that hunts them. Sam Raimi does an excellent job of keeping us scared in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, with the dead surrounding us. When ASH is alone in the cabin, we are alone in the cabin and every creaking sound we hear feels like it's right beside us. The eery feeling is not as terrifying as the original, because the original was a punch in the face of terror. This one is more of a drench you in the face with blood, instead of a punch. The touch of dark comedy is great. ASH versus his hand is some comic gold and is a great way to give you some breathing room when you're not terrified of what might happen next. The script of course is just one guy in a cabin against the dead, but what makes it different is the great one-liners "Swallow This", "Groovy". The movie showcases other characters that hold no emotional value to the viewer what so ever. You don't even feel sorry for the hillbilly who gets stabbed, slammed by the door, kicked, yelled at, while still being stabbed mind you, dragged and then finally something unknown happens to him under the cellar, but it involves gallons upon gallons of blood. The ending to this film sets up the third installment ARMY OF DARKNESS, which is a total turn around from the first two. The cameo of FREDDY'S glove is a classic nod to Craven's work...or a diss, however you look at it. The whole idea of an evil unknown force underneath you in a cellar is scary enough, not to mention the fact that we have to go down there with our hero, who's armed with trademark boomstick and chainsaw. This film holds one of my all time favourite scenes. Can you guess it, it's when Ash "saws" off his own hand with a pyscho laugh, while blood splatters across his face and his laugh slowly grows into agony and screaming. If you love blood, dark comedy, great directing, classic B movie acting, one-liners and want to be scared ****less, then check this movie out, as well as the original. This is what horror is all about, the gore, the atmosphere, the EVIL DEAD 10/10 |
Damn it, I wanna see Evil Dead II. Nice review, man.
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Blade Trinity (David S. Goyer)
http://www.creativescreenwriting.com...n%20(350w).jpg "The once promising series is now nothing more then bad product placement" Wesley Snipes returns as vampire hunter Blade in the third and final film in the Blade franchise, Blade: Trinity. When the Vampire Nation hatches a plan to frame Blade in a series of killings, he must join forces with the Nightstalkers, human vampire hunters. Not all is what it seems, when the legendary vampire Dracula makes an appearance. First of all, I loved the first two films and was eagerly anticipating this third explosive installment. It had some promising elements to it, such as the writer also being the director, with that you'd figure that Goyer would know what direction to take Blade and how to get there, but what we get on the screen is a mix of jumbled characters and no direction what so ever. Writers who are unexperienced should let the directing go to trained professionals, it seems Goyer just left the camera on and let the actors do their thing. Ryan Renolds, I believe stole the show, even though some of his jokes missed. I can see another movie spinning off from his character alone, but the rest of the Nightstalkers lack any kind of attachment what-so-ever, even Abagail. Dracula (Purcell) is so out of place, his lines are delivered like a board and nail. Posey makes an appearance as the female vampire lead, do I really have to go there? Blade II had some wrestling moves incorporated into it, so how does Goyer up on that, well introduce a wrestler into this flick, who has no acting talent what so ever, he's basically just a stunt double with a role, HHH should stick to wrestling. This is one of the main mistakes while making this movie, some pretty piss poor casting choices. The film feels more like a Nightstalkers movie then a Blade movie, Snipes takes a backseat to Renolds and Biel, which is a mistake. You do not take out your lead character to introduce some weak characters with no development. This third installment takes a different stroll from the first two, when both of the first films open, it opens with a bang/shock, here we get a mediocre opener. With both of the first films, they end with a bang, here we get a soft wrap up, not the best way to end a great trilogy...well after this film, a mediocre trilogy. It's hard to watch a film where the product placement is so utterly terrible, it takes you out of the experience. Once is good enough, but when they repeatedly beat it into you, you think to yourself STOP IT ALREADY and you can't focus on the story, well, what little story there is. The fight scenes are terrible, thanks to bad choreography and editing. The final showdown between the legendary Dracula and Blade is a let down because you can't follow the action and if you can, it looks phony. Just one question, if Dracula turned around and stopped the first arrow from hitting him, why couldn't he do the same thing with the second....oh, she won't shoot again right? It's sad to see a promising series take a turn for the worse, and the blade series follows the matrix as the third installment cannot hold a candle to the first two films, which brings down the whole camp. I would rather see BLADE end on a high note then a low one, but you got to stop while there is some dignity left. You know you're watching a bad film when the bad ass lead hero says 'coochie-coo' 5.5/10 |
Thanks for the reviews Sussy, I think I will give Blade Trinity a miss :yup:
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LAYER CAKE (Matthew Vaughn)
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...m_meaney14.jpg\ "Cake is great to eat, but is it good to watch?" Based on JJ Connelly's novel, "LAYER CAKE" is about a successful cocaine dealer, who plans an early retirement from the business. However, big boss Jimmy Price hands down a tough assignment: find Charlotte Ryder, the missing rich princess daughter of Edward, a powerful construction business player and gossip papers socialite. Complicating matters are two million pounds' worth of ecstasy, a brutal neo-Nazi sect and a whole series of double crossings. Here is a british gangster movie that will automatically be compared to Guy Richie film's Snatch and Lack, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, even though this movie is something of it's own. Where Richie's films were more of a comedic tone, Layer Cake takes itself more seriously, which is why you must pay attention to what is shown to you on the screen. Matthew Vaughn take special care with the translation to screen from JJ Connelly's novel. Here we see that he has an eye for great crime/gangster movies. One particular scene will stay in my mind as one of the most memorable scene's in any gangster movie. When Morty is beating the crap out of Frankie in the diner, while the music Ordinary World by Duran Duran is playing in the background. Beautiful camera work, editting, music all blending perfectly together to give you a raw emotional and jaw dropping scene. The music throughout the entire film is perfectly suited for the style. Right from the begining we get "She Sells Sanctuary" with the guitar stringing cords played beautifully, the music prepares you for the intense film you are about to see. Every piece of music used in Layer Cake fits that scene perfectly, great ears were put to use here. Colm Meaney plays the same type of character in a lot of movies, a pissed off "I can kill you whenever I want" attitude...and he pulls it off differently everytime. Daniel Craig, while I was introduced to him in Tomb Raider, shows what he can actually do in with his talent, and those freaky blue eyes. His character, who's name is never mentioned can be the next 007. The only thing that I didn't like about the his character, was that he fell in love with this girl, who he just met. To me that seemed rather sudden and random. The movie's plot is cliched, a bad guy will do one last deal, before quitting, but gets pulled into a twisting plot of bad things. Yes, we've seen these bad thing happen before in numerous movies, but this movie pulls it off with style and shock value, I was "shocked" twice during this film.
WARNING: "Layer Cake" spoilers below
When the sniper, out of no where gets sniped from Dragon. That was totally unexpected and worked so well. Of course the ending as well, which again comes out of nowhere. Ironic how throughout the whole movie XXXX believes that his job, dealing with drugs and what-not would be the reason behind him dying, and yet it's a woman. Not saying that he dies, this is left unanswered, he does get shot, be we never see him die, so his death is debated by the many fans of the film, who indeed hope for a sequel
What else is there to say besides the fact that this movie is not only stylish, but it's ultra cool. It's a different take on british crime from a Guy Richie movie, but a step up from the film Gangster No.1. Layer Cake take twists and turns left right and centre, and for once in a blue moon, they actually make sense. So pick it up, because this film has more then one layer to it itself. 8/10 |
Thanks for the review, I will keep my eye out for this one, I love English gangster movies. :yup:
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Bubba Ho-Tep (Don Coscarelli)
http://i.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs...8__bubba_l.jpg "Bizzare, Original, Cult B Movie Goodness" Bubba Ho-tep tells the story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis as an elderly resident in a rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death", then missed his chance to switch back. Elvis teams up with Jack, a fellow nursing home resident who thinks that he is actually President John F. Kennedy, and the two old codgers sally forth to battle an evil 3,000 year old Egyptian entity who has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds. If someone told me that I would be watching a movie about a pushing 60 year old Elvis in a rest home, battle a 3,000 year old mummy, with the help of a black JFK who believes that his part of his brain has been replaces with a bag of sand...I'd say your crazy. But as you can see, this film does indeed exist and as I'm about to tell you, you do indeed need to watch it. As crazy as the movie sounds, it works, and it works beautifully. Bubba Ho-Tep has B movie written all over it, Bruce Campbell, named a B movie god by some, a cult movie director, the most bizarre story line and a limited budget. So placing it in the cult movie/ B movie category warrants it's fans somewhere, no matter how bad the movie, or in this case, how good a movie. How would you classify this movie, is it a drama, a horror piece, comedy, or is it to be just classified as a B movie, well, it's hard to say because it manages to blend all these elements together so well. The limited budget only adds to the atmosphere and the intensity of the film. Throughout the first half of the movie, our hero, our main character, spends that time mostly in the comfort of his own bed. How can a movie pulls this off? Well, when you have an actor like Bruce Campbell, that may help. It's safe to say that this is Campbell's best movie performance of his career and in cinema. It's like Jamie Fox being Ray Charles, it's not Fox it's RAY, here it's not Campbell, it's Elvis, alive and well...well, alive anyways. To see the legend of Ossie Davis in one of his better roles was a treat and it's good to see that he had some gas left in the tank before he passed on. Don Coscarelli handles this film like it's his own baby, unlike many directors who want to just shoot the film and go on to their next project (I'm looking your way Spielberg). Even though it is based off a book, it feels more like Don's creation then anything. It is clearly his best attempt at film making. The film is surprisingly emotional, I for one wasn't ready for the ride that I was going for, who knew that two old timers could bring such excitement to the screen, such a rush, and such a good time. Many of you will be turned off by the movie because you don't want to sit through the speed of it, because it goes about as fast as Elvis does in a race. But you should at least give it a chance, right after Elvis gets up and moving, the story takes you to another place. The movie's theme song is powerful, and will fill you with a warm, cool, feeling that you can only get while listening to the theme music and seeing Elvis on the screen, it fits so well. Kudos to Brian Tyler. Check this movie out, if not for the acting, or directing, or the music, which is all top notch, check it out because it's so bizarre and original. It's a film that doesn't fit into the Hollywood cookie-cutter blend, and this is one kind of film that we need to see more of. 8/10 |
Thanks for the great review, I have it on my "Fetch Movies" list, I can't wait till it comes :yup:
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Dead & Breakfast (Matthew Leutwyler)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...en/b137411.jpg "Surprise Gore, Surprise Laughs, Surprise Fun" Six friends on a road trip to their friends wedding stop for the night at a Bed and Breakfast in the town of Lovelock. After a night that leaves both the Inn's owner and chef dead, the gang finds themselves under suspicion by the local Sheriff. But when one of the friends accidentally knock over and ancient artifact, it possess the living. Soon all of the town's quirky residents become possessed by an evil spirit and pin down the friends inside the B&B. This film surprised me a great deal, When I saw it at the video store, I thought to myself, another straight to video horror movie crap feast. Then I saw the cast and what it was about and I was interested, I mean...it's Bill himself David Carradine as the In's owner and the low-budget actor Jeremy Sisto, so I figure, oh, it should be decent or just a laugh. This film surprises the viewer as it showers you in gore and hits you with laughs. The film "steals" or homages, how ever you look at it, from so many classic and modern horror movies. For this film it turned out to be a good thing, that's if you like such films as Shaun of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead (remake), Night of the Living Dead, Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, dead-alive and so on. The film delievers on the laughs, it has a very Shaun of the Dead feel to it, although it by no means ever reaches that level of greatness. Whereas Shaun is funny throughout the entire film, this movie is pretty boring until we encounter the "possessed" townfolk in the bar brawl scene. From there the movie definitly picks up momentum, the blood splashes across the screen left right and centre, it's no Dead-Alive by any means, but for the gore fan out there, you'll be satisfied. It's clear that the budget went towards the gore scenes in the film. Some jokes hit while others miss, or just drag on too long...Slipping on the blood has been done, why do it again and go on and on for 3 minutes of it. The zombies...or possessed townsfolk decide to do a little dance number for us ala THRILLER. There are little bits and parts that carry us to the next scene, whether it turns into a graphic novel to lead us into the next scene, or a hick playing his guitar singing about what just happened, slows the movie down, takes away from it's funny value and leans towards a "we are trying too hard" face. Should I discuss the acting and directing...well,what is there to discuss? Carradine has about 5 minutes screen time, that is dissappointing and some characters die way too quickly. The direction..well, there is nothing here that shows me that this guy will break out into something that will blow us away, or that we will ever hear about him again. The film could have gone on for a little bit longer, it seemed to me that it was a bit too anti-climatic. Throughout the film we are having a great time with all the blood and guts and homemade boomsticks, but there is no real final showdown. There is a little bit of suspense with one of the female characters who's alone in the house with nothing but a chainsaw when all hell breaks lose...but the hell doesn't break lose as much as we want it too. 7/10 |
Thanks for the interesting review http://bestsmileys.com/violent/20.gif
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Freddy VS Jason (Ronny Yu)
http://www.lightviews.com/images/fre...ason_photo.JPG "Neither Freddy, or Jason, or the Audience Win In This Film" Two of the most notable slasher film icons finally clash together on film. Trapped in Hell and powerless because no kid fears him, Freddy Krueger comes across the equally infamous Camp Crystal Lake slasher, Jason Voorhees. Tricking him into killing the residents of Springwood, in hopes for the name of Kreuger spreading, so that he can become the feared dream killer again. When plans go wrong and Jason starts killing all Freddy's victims, it becomes a showdown of horror icons as they battle for the championship of horror. Fans of each slasher genre have been waiting for this showdown ever since the claws of Freddy burst out through the ground and dragged Jason's mask into hell with him. That was ten years ago, so can a film with hype lasting over ten years be able to please both fans of Nightmare and Friday? Much like any versus movie, you have to please both fans of the genre. So when you go into this movie you get the feeling that there will be no clear cut winner, you don't want to get thousands of hate mail from all the Nightmare fans, or vice versa. So the ending will be a cop-out and have the fans debate over the real winner until the sequel comes out. Much like Aliens Versus Predator, we the audience get cheated as the two main characters, Freddy and Jason have to put up with stupid pointless characters...everyone else in the film. In reality Freddy Versus Jason is only a ten minute film, those ten minutes come at the very end of the movie, where it is actually freddy fighting jason. We unfortunatly have to sit through the same old cliched horror crap that we've been fed years and years before. In hopes for something new in this film, having two different horror icons battle it out, we get 80 minutes of boring, cliched, crap and ten minutes of kick ass, edge of your seat cheering at the screen fun. My advice, see it with a friend and as them to wake you up when they are in the burning cabin. What is it with the new wave of horror films that must have a singer in it for no apparent reason, it started off with LL COOL J in H20 and Busta Rhymes in Halloween Ressurection, now the Myers virus has infect both Freddy and Jason as we get Kelly Rowland give her first and let's hope, only performance on the big screen. I also believe that Kevin Smith should sue, for stealing the character of Jay, it seems that they are stretching for comic relief now. A tip for the sequel, more screen time for the icons, and less of the victims, we all know how it's going to end, so just give us what we want. To me it felt like they tried to make Jason are hero in this movie, more sympathy went his way, even the victims of the movie joined his side, to me that shows weakness in his character, he needed help to "win" the fight...and I use that term very losely. Krueger on the other hand is more sadistic in his killings and this movie is more about him. When you walk into this movie, you obviously will pick a side in the battle, but at the end, both sides will feel the same, disappointment. Are the boring useless 80 minutes worth the money for the great ten minutes at the end? Well, I'll let you be the judge of that. 5.5/10 |
JEEPERS CREEPERS 2 (Victor Salva)
http://movies.radiofree.com/reviews/...eepers2_02.jpg "A New Horror Monster Chokes After One Sequel" Set a few days after the original, a championship basketball team's bus is attacked by The Creeper, the winged, flesh-eating terror, on the last day of his 23-day feeding frenzy. The story opens in a corn field as a boy is doing his chores tending to the scarecrows and what not, which aren't working very well. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eyes, he sees one of the Scarecrows move... Not too subtly by the creeper we find out later... Why is it in horror movies, they just stand their like a dummy waiting for the thing to take off for them? Isn't this suppose to be the new millenium for horror? I actually liked the first film better, in terms of horror, because Jeepers Creepers 2 is practically absent with the element of horror. Instead, it is replaced with a fair amount of action scenes. The film's story is more than the typical monster movie, and it avoids the typical cliché of a sequel that's that same as the first. The plot is almost completely redone, but still isn't that good. The greatest part of the film, is the villian, The Creeper, but when I saw those blue eyes (Didn't darry have brown?) I laughed. Mostly throughout the entire movie I was laughing, but not with it, more of the at it manner. Also what was with the flying, way too much flying, and in some scenes it looked like he flew off into space. Whether it was just poorly done CGI, or it was called for in the script, do we really need to be looking at it? The script is loaded with stupid clichés, unneeded moments, the clichéd and stereotypical characters, and cheesy moments. There really isn't a main character in the movie, liked the first film. The first film had two main characters, but this one does not. Like I said, the film has unneeded moments, such as the character of Minxie learning the origins of the creepers. The sub plot revolves around a farmer who is on a personal mission to hunt down and kill the Creeper because it took his son. The corn field scene was entertaining, especially when the Creeper was on the scarecrow stand. Also, this is a horror movie, and it has little or no blood whatsoever. What's the deal, you'd expect a movie about a creature who devours bodily organs to have some gore. The most graphic scene was when a teen had his head completely ripped off after the wing of the Creeper trapped him inside it. The scene wasn't bloody, or violent. The Creeper's make-up looks a little cartoonish, but still maintains that style. I have to give the film props for the head scene though, great stuff from the creepers, ripping off it's own head then growing back another one. Then again the movie also pissed me off with half the teens running away then never being heard from again. Did the writer just simply forget about them, how can you forget a dozen or so characters? The truck being trashed up beyond belief, then saving the day in the next scene. When the truck exploded, did the driver die or not?? I remember him climbing out and crawling away, but then nothing, so I'm just going to assume he bit the dust. The creeper chasing the black guy with only one leg, pathetic. Like I mentioned before too much flying, and too much of the creeper. He should of kept his mystic...or little that he had left from the original. This movie was more action/suspense/comedy then horror. I only remember jumping at one scene, the dream scene with DARRY. Now that were on that subject, the dream sequences were too unbelievable. Why is she having them??? How does she know everything about the creeper after she knows it eats people? All the characters I hated and wanted to die, no one in this movie can act.With the exception of the father, who gave an average performance, but when average is a highlight, you know your in a bad film. Also what was with that part with the knife flying out of the fathers hand like that. Still don't understand that one. 4/10 |
Umm may give this one a miss :yup: thanks for the review :D
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Just been catching up on Mofo, nice reviews, seems we have similar tastes in films, good reviews on Layer Cake, Oldboy and Bubba Ho Tep, all of which I really enjoyed, as for Jeepers Keepers 2, the less said the better!
Hopefully after this week, I'll have some time to review some movies, so keep up the good work for all us Mofo slackers! |
Inside Deep Throat (Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato)
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-imag...pThroat372.jpg "A sexual revolution phenomenon in 1972" The most successful independently-produced movie ever made, bringing in a worldwide gross of $600 million on a budget of just $25,000. The documentary will not focus on the specifics of 'Deep Throat' as a movie necessarily, but will examine the reasons it was such a cultural sensation. Breaking down new barriers and helping establish pornography as a big business. Ever since the film DEEP THROAT came out, porn has never been the same again, and I for one am thankful. What made this film so different from the other pornographic videos? Well, it was groundbreaking, as the title suggests the female takes the penis and takes it whole, not only were audiences shocked, but so was the men behind the law and they did what they believe they had to to shut this film down, as we see now with it's gross of 600 million worldwide, they were unsuccessful. Call it art, call it obscene, but you have to admit it is interesting. Inside Deep Throat showcases the lives that this movie destroyed, the star, the director and the actor. Unfortunatly for this film, the interests wears off half way through the movie, right after the actual act is seen on the screen. The comedy wears thin after the unbelievably funny hitler-cat scene. It's tragic to hear what happened to the Star of the film, but unclear about her decisions in why she chose to boycott porn, then do it again. The main sympathy goes to Harry Reems who was unjustly targeted by everyone because the others were not to be harmed. Dennis Hopper narrates us through the history of what happened during the success and controversy of the film. We see the views of some notorious figures in the business such as Larry Flynt, Hugh Hefner, John Waters, Bill Maher and Camille Paglia to name a select few. The final 10 to 15 minutes of the film seemed rushed through the editting in order to stay in that 90 minute time frame. Whether the movie was made for a thought-provoking manner, or just for the fact that the filmmakers wanted to see if they could make money off another successful film, and have fun while doing it if you know what I mean. 6/10 |
I saw Deep Throat many many many years ago :yup: Linda is the girl :yup: thanks for the review :)
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Corpse Bride (Tim Burton & Mike Johnson)
http://www.spawn.com/toys/movies/cb3...hoto_01_lg.jpg "Relies more on visually pleasing the audience" Victor messed up his vows during a wedding rehearsal, and is traveling through the woods, reciting his vows. He stops to rest in the woods,and while practicing, he gets them right and puts his wedding ring on a finger-shaped stick in the ground and says his wedding vows. The stick turns out to be a rotted finger belonging to a murdered girl, who returns as a zombie and insists that she is now Victor's lawfully wedded wife. When seeing this film, one will make the connection to The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is unfair in the sense that they are two totally different films, only similar in the animation. Leave it to Tim Burton to take us inside his "cooky-artist" head to bring us the beautiful Corpse Bride. Technically, Corpse Bride is ahead of the race in every sense of the word. Lightyears ahead of NBC in terms of style, with quirky characters bug eyes and legs as thin as toothpicks. Stop-motion animation is a form that should be more explored in film. Corpse Bride unfortunatly relies too heavily on it's animation and strays away from it's story. It seems the motivation of the main character, to fall in love with this corpse is a little hard to follow. At first, he's terrified of her, then wants to run and hide from her, then falls in love with her and will die for her...but loves someone else in the end. Corpse Bride takes all these emotions throws them into a blender and hits the ultra mix button. This leaves the viewer with an awkward feeling at the end towards our so called hero. Okay, so it is a kids movie, so harping on the emotional value could be unfair. But Depp as the lead offers nothing to the movie, which his character always looking shocked, we get Depp voicing it all whimpy. It's good to see the other cast members giving their voices more range, I mean when you hear Christopher Lee's voice as the towns Pastor it's so deep and recognizable that anyone can notice. Helena Bonham Carter does the best with her incredible singing talent and voiced with alot of depth and emotion. Danny Elfman's score, along with every other Burton movie, takes the film to another level. With surprise musical numbers, which aren't too aparent in films these days. It takes you back to those old Disney films. Seeing the underworld, so vibrant and alive, and seeing the living world, so dreadful and dead, it makes you wonder who's really who in this world. Seeing the two at opposite ends is a feast for the eyes, which is what many people will see this movie for. If you're looking for great animation and musical numbers, then Corpse Bride is the film for you, other-wise the story is kinda of dead. 7/10 |
Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi)
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/280/1...erman-2-05.jpg "Spider-Man 2, Better Than The First, On Numerous Levels" Peter Parker can't seem to catch a break. Being Spiderman has brought him nothing but problems as far as his personal life is concerned. Not only that, Mary Jane is engaged to astronaut John Jameson, and Peter may lose her forever. Things are so bad for him he decides that he doesn't want to be Spiderman anymore. Then a freak accident transforms Dr. Otto Octavius into Dr. Octopus. Peter realizes that only Spiderman can stop him, but of course, problems arise. Mary Jane gets caught in the middle, and Harry Osborn, who still blames Spiderman for the death of his father, wants him dead. Sam Raimi being the Spider-Man fan that he is, finally is able to treat the audience with a superhero movie to be remembered. Spider Man 2 goes down in history as one of those sequels that is able to out due it's predecessor. The sequel improves on so many things that were wrong in the original, here the actors are finally comfortable in their roles, like Kristen, I didn't believe her in the first one, but this one I did. She was able to showcase her emotions more and the chemistry was there. Franco's character and performance was over-the-top. But Franco uses this to his advantage and pulls it of. Alfred Molina stole the show in this film, he was Doc Ock, perfect villain and perfect for the role. McGuire is now Spider-Man, whereas in the original, we only saw him as the nerdy Peter Parker, it took him two tries, but he finally nailed it. I loved how it went all Evil Dead in the doctor scene, with the people screaming, then out of nowhere BOOM, chainsaw, classic Sam Raimi and a great homage to his best film to date. But who can forget the Bruce Campbel cameo, and Hal sparks of course. Was there too much comedy??? well, I'm 50/50 on that, the one scene that everyone seemed to hate, but I loved would be the "Rain drops keep falling on my head" The little freeze at the end had my laughing, because it's Sam Raimi, he knows how to handle comedy for perfect situations. Although there was too much comedy from Peter and not enough from Spidey...I only recall one comedic thing said from Spidey, to Doc Ock in the bank...something along the lines of "Here's your change", then throws money at him. Where is the friendly neighborhood Spidey we all grew up with and love. The train fight is one of the best action sequences I've ever seen. I was waiting for him arms to rip out of their sockets when he was trying to stop the train from crashing over the edge. The CGI is a big improvement here, it's not all goofy comic book looking, here we see a man swing from building to building, anybody notice the costume looks darker in the CGI moments, maybe it was just me but it does. One gripe with the villain...not enough screen time. I wanted to see more of him, but whenever he's on the screen, you know it's good. It's clear that Molina is the scene stealer here. The film though was a little lengthy, they could of taken out a "swinging moment" here and there, those were all over the place. Raimi ends the movie perfectly, setting up the third installment, with the look of "Am I doing the right thing?" on MJ's face. Nice homage to The Graduate. Raimi flushes this film full of classic homages, whether it's from his own, or just classic films like King Kong, they always add a nice touch of coolness to the film. This is one of the better superhero movies out there, the fans of Spider-Man will enjoy and the movie goer will be entertained, this is a winner in my books 8/10 |
^^^
Barf 2/10 IMO |
Thanks for the reviews Sussie :yup:
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BATMAN BEGINS (Christopher Nolan)
http://www.cinepop.com.br/fotos/batman1_10.jpg "Batman Makes His Dark and True Return" As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his parents were killed right in front of him, which leads him to become obsessed with revenge. Leaving Gotham, Bruce Wayne seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader Ra's Al-Ghul, Bruce returns to his now decaying Gotham City, which is overrun by organized crime. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, along with a prototype armored suit, leads him to assume a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong; he becomes Batman. What the makers of Batman Begins wanted to do was to make the audience forget about those Bat Nipples, those bright neon streets and horrible puns made by horribly casted villains. Nolan and co have not only brought the franchise back to life by obliterating Schumachers version, but to some have out-done Burtons classic Gothic original. Written by David. S. Goyer and under the direction of Nolan, who has done no wrong in the directing chair, Batman becomes what he originally was in the comic books. With this new fresh start we see how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, and in doing so, we get a more human and round character of Batman, unlike in the former series. More true to the comic books then Burtons and more entertaining then Schumachers, this Batman is able to regain the fans it once lost...and gain some new ones. Nolan doesn't throw action at us from the start like the latter films do, it takes it's time to build up emotion and the character of Bruce Wayne. For those who actually did enjoy Schumachers mess, will find this movie a tad slow and boring, because Bale doesn't become Batman till half way through the picture. It's safe to say that the best Bruce Wayne is Bale hands down, he is able to bring both characteristics from Keaton's and Kilmer's style, to make this Bruce Wayne perfect. While some may not be digging the whole Batman voice, it's actually more true to the comics then the others have done. Batman is suppose to have a dark harsh voice. Some of the fight sequences were hard to follow are not all that entertaining, the two that pop into my mind would be the first fight in the prison, the editing is so fast and the camera is too close up for people to actually see what's going on. The second fight sequence is when Batman goes into the city and fights the "henchmen" ninjas, it seemed to slow paced and not hard hitting enough. Other then that, the action sequences were very entertaining and for the most part, better then the other Batman films. The Batmobile chase scene is a sensation for the eyes to watch. This Batman film has the best performances of any other, Bale is the new Bruce Wayne/Batman and he knows what works and what doesn't. Murphy is delightfully evil and eccentric in his performance of The Scarecrow, this is the best performance in the film. Murphy is an underrated actor, who will eventually get more and more recognition. Oldman is one of the best bad guy actors, so seeing him in a new refreshing role really shows his diversity. Neeson is able to show his experience through this role, he acts as a teacher to the others in his performance. He knows what to do and gets to the point. Wilkinson, with his little screen time, is able to stand out as a high point. Good performances all around from Freeman, Cain and Hauer. Now, I was a huge fan of the old Alfred and the new one seems a little to energetic to me, Cain was good, but I just got the sense of miscasting here. I can see the role being played by an unknown actor and it would have worked better. Katie Holmes of course was a weak point, her character seemed to have no emotional attachment/chemistry with Bruce Wayne, and Holmes to Bale for that matter. She is so out of place in this style of film, and Wantanabe basically stands there and says a couple lines, nothing more. The film is a great restart for a new franchise, which is undoubtedly going to get better and better with such villains as The Joker and The Riddler, hopefully done right this time. With the great cast and director in the same positions, I see BATMAN on a scale higher then that of Spiderman and X-men. 8/10 |
nice reviews man...
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thank you:D
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Originally Posted by TheUsualSuspect
This Batman film has the best performances of any other, Bale is the new Bruce Wayne/Batman and he knows what works and what doesn't. Murphy is delightfully evil and eccentric in his performance of The Scarecrow, this is the best performance in the film. Murphy is an underrated actor, who will eventually get more and more recognition. Oldman is one of the best bad guy actors, so seeing him in a new refreshing role really shows his diversity. Neeson is able to show his experience through this role, he acts as a teacher to the others in his performance. He knows what to do and gets to the point. Wilkinson, with his little screen time, is able to stand out as a high point. Good performances all around from Freeman, Cain and Hauer.
Cillian Murphy's character is flat and weak to scarecrow's original story line. Cillian Murphy's worst performance I've ever seen. Oldman played a character anyone could be, versatile yes, but not any better than anyone else could do. Neeson was pretty good, although his character was unconvincing in the script, Neeson's acting compensated. Morgan Freeman was the big name black man, Michael Cain was too little alfred and more Michael Cain. And, while you may disagree with me on any point, how DARE you surmount a compliment for Rutger Hauer who's face was in the movie thrice and didn't do jack for the story. He was a worthless individual to watch. So, no "good" performance by him if it could've been done in 5 minutes by a 3 year old who can type on an amiga. |
Originally Posted by ObiWanShinobi
how DARE you surmount a compliment for Rutger Hauer
I do agree with your Cain comment, and Freeman, but still not bad at all. |
Mindhunters (Renny Harlin)
http://thecia.com.au/reviews/m/images/mindhunters-3.jpg "Relies on twists and turns when the star power leave" On a remote island, the FBI has a training program for their psychological profiling division, called "Mindhunters", used to track down serial killers. The training goes horribly wrong, however, when a group of seven young agents discover that one of them is a serial killer, and is setting about slaying the others through elaborate traps. Each death is predicted at a certain time and the 7 profiling agents have to wait till their time comes. Here is a film that looks to have it all, a great cast, a director that can deliever thrills, a pretty good premise, and a mystery/who is the killer style type ending. Well, looks can be decieving as only half of this is true. Harlin is able to deliever the shocks and thrills that he wanted to, but in the end, it hurt the film more then it did good. Val Kilmer is an actor who would choose more interesting roles, then basic money grabbers, even Batman Forever would classify as an interesting role, as BATMAN, until schumacher...but here in mindhunters we get Kilmer for a mere 15 minutes. In that short time span he does manage to own the screen giving a good performance to something so little. Slater is another big name actor attached to this thriller that doesn't last long, one can only assume that these two actors needed some cash fast and did a quick gig here to fulfill the need. Once these two highlights of the film are gone, the only person known to the major audience would be LL Cool J, who you know will survive because it's LL cool J.
WARNING: "Mindhunters" spoilers below
Seeing Slater killed off so early is a shock to the audience and is basically a way of saying that anything can happen to these characters at anytime, know you're left with no name actors to watch...watch them all die.
Harlin keeps us interested in the story as the killer leaves a watch with a time set on it, which indicates at what time the next person is going to die. We have no clue who and no clue how, but what we do know is that it will be some kind of contraption. Much like the jigsaw killer, the victims are put in these inescapable predicaments. The ending to the film is the downfall, it could have been a tighter ending. It may take a second viewing to understand what happens, not because it's a confusing story, but they way they presented it to the viewer was confusing. If Harlin were able to better explain the situation and not just try to make the audience believe one thing for the sake of a shock/twist, then Mindhunter could have been a great thriller, but with it's flaws and misleads, it falls a couple feet short of goodness. It still stands as a popcorn flick to enjoy, and not think too hard about when it wants you to. 6/10 |
ENVY (Barry Levinson)
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.ya...y_poehler2.jpg "They should have used VA-POO-RIZE on this turd" Tim and Nick, best friends, neighbors and co-workers, whose equal footing is suddenly tripped up when one of Nick's get-rich-quick schemes actually succeeds: Vapoorize, a spray that literally makes dog crap, or any other kind for that matter, evaporate into thin air. Tim, who had scoffed at Nick's idea and passed on an opportunity to get in on the deal, can only watch as Nick's fortune and Tim's own envy grow to equally outrageous proportions. When you hear of a movie that stars two comedic power houses such as Jack Black and Ben Stiller, a gifted director, Barry Levinson, and the one and only Mr. Christpoher Walken, you'd think that it would make for a sure fire hit. Unfortunatly, we get a film that is so utterly horrible that it had to be publically apologized for. Alot of Ben Stiller movies are the same, he'll play a loser (Envy), a weirdo (Zoolander/dodgeball) or a bad things happen to him guy (Meet the Parents/There's something about mary). But when put into the right cast and with the right creative team, you can find a success with him (Royal Tenenbaums). Why couldn't the creative team behind ENVY pull off another hit for Stiller, well the main problem would be the fact that it is not funny. The only funny parts of the film, come from a guy that gets shot with an arrow, then probably walked off the set. Walken is the only redeeming factor in this trash. Weisz and Stiller have no connection and are not believable as a married couple. Jack Black tries the best he could with the material written, but there is only so far that one man can go....he goes nowhere. Levinson should have sensed from the beginning that this wasn't going to fly and bail, same with the cast, but they thought that they could pull it off because hey, we got two funny guys in one movie here. Straight from the beginning it throws useless stupid jokes at you "Don't taste my pants." It's delivery isn't the best either. When you have yourself a comedy with big names attached, you would think that someone somewhere would at least try to make it funny, in one little bit. The dialogue is terrible, at no point do any of these jokes hit the nail on the head. Walken is only funny because he is Walken. The way he speaks, the tone of his voice, his delivery makes the character what he is, not what the poor written dialogue is. This turd is so bad, that it didn't even take the worst movie of 2004 spot. That's was the crapfest CATWOMAN, at least for CATWOMAN is can say that it was the worst movie of 2004, ENVY has absolutely nothing to say for itself. If any movie is to make you want your money back, hit your head on a table and would make you rather watch a piece of crap float around in a toilet bowl, ENVY is it. 1/10 |
I can't believe somebody else has seen Mindhunters!
We seem to have similar views on the film, although I forgot to mention how bad Johnny Lee Miller's American accent was in my review. Again, I think this was potentially a good idea for a film, but it lets itself down by trying too hard to be clever and throw some early curveballs ( i.e. Slater's short stint ), and yes the ending was a mish-mash, again trying to throw one too many twists. As for Batman Begins, I really liked the film, Bale has brought more depth to Bruce Wayne/Batman than any of the other actors, but I realised whilst watching the film at the time that it would be one of these films that you either love or hate. A more intelligent superhero film firmly based in reality, indeed Nolan himself see's Batman as a James Bond type character as well as a superhero. I liked the fact that all his gadgets were feasibly explained, and even the fear inducing toxin was a more realistic foe for Batman to tackle. Good reviews as always, keep it up! ( ooooooooooh-er ) |
Thanks for the great reviews Suspect :yup:
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Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
As for Batman Begins, I really liked the film, Bale has brought more depth to Bruce Wayne/Batman than any of the other actors, but I realised whilst watching the film at the time that it would be one of these films that you either love or hate.
A more intelligent superhero film firmly based in reality, indeed Nolan himself see's Batman as a James Bond type character as well as a superhero. I liked the fact that all his gadgets were feasibly explained, and even the fear inducing toxin was a more realistic foe for Batman to tackle. Good reviews as always, keep it up! ( ooooooooooh-er ) A more intelligent superhero film based in reality? How does that make it more intelligent? Is fantasy and science fiction stupid? I find that comment quite insulting, especially with a story as simplistic as batman begins. Fantasy and Science Fiction can be deeper/complex than any realistic movie because of the barriers that can be broken. I found the realism to be gritty, not more intelligent, Solaris is a science fiction/fantasy type movie and it is possibly the most intelligent and deep psychological movies I've ever seen. Realistic does not equate to more intelligent. James Bond Type: Nolan can do what he wants, but his characters mish mashed. At one time I thought it was the dark knight, at another I thought it was the detective, and another I thought it was the caped crusader. This would be cool if they all fleshed out, but they didn't, in my mind, and it just ended up being something never seen, but something NOT interesting. I think it's cool you think every area of batman's technology had to be explained and then not used. But what I think is cool is when Batman uses his gadgets, and with style. End of batman anyone? He goes in his bat plane, makes a symbol on the moon, drops down through the city, nukes the hell out of the joker, joker then proceeds to fire one pistol shot at batman and send him crashing to the ground. All this happening to a danny elman mastery of music. So, while Batman Begins may be more realistic and more "dark", it doesn't have style, the story is flat, and everyone over acts to be more noir like when a movie like batman is noir from the get go. More intelligent? Please. |
Thanks once again for enlightening me, you really are the master of all things film!
This site allows people to express their opinions, we won't all like and agree with each other, but I find your tone insulting, the batplane against the moon, how cheesy, were you over the moon when Schumaker added bat nipples? As for Solaris, I prefer the original, as stated, we all have opinions. Perhaps I should run all my future post and threads by you, especially as you seem to hold yourself in such high regard. |
Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
As for Solaris, I prefer the original, as stated,
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Yeah, didn't think the Soderbergh/Clooney effort was as good as the original.
However, it's all about opinions, good or bad! |
Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
I can't believe somebody else has seen Mindhunters!
We seem to have similar views on the film, although I forgot to mention how bad Johnny Lee Miller's American accent was in my review. |
Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
Thanks once again for enlightening me, you really are the master of all things film!.
Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
This site allows people to express their opinions, we won't all like and agree with each other, but I find your tone insulting,
!.
Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
the batplane against the moon, how cheesy, were you over the moon when Schumaker added bat nipples?
!.
Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
As for Solaris, I prefer the original, as stated, we all have opinions.
!.
Originally Posted by Darth Stujitzu
Perhaps I should run all my future post and threads by you, especially as you seem to hold yourself in such high regard.
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Yes you're right, because I'm sure you have so much experience, wisdom and wit crammed into your 16 years!
Man, why am I arguing with someone who is blatantly copying someone elses views on Batman Begins? Come back when you have your own opinions, and you might want to look up plagirism in the dictionary! P.S. there is an argument relocation thread if you want to continue, I was going to take off the kid-gloves, but I guess I might have to keep them on!!! |
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