The Gnat: Fly on the Wall Reviews

Heavy Metal FAKK2

This one was also entertaining like the first one was. It was different in that it had a more classical storyline, but it didn't seem to have the depth of the original. Heavy Metal FAKK2 is more about just having fun with a story then anything else.

The story in this one, like I said, was more classical, but had less depth to it. It had a standard linear narrative, and had standard plot points and pacing to it. Even the twist at the end wasn't extremely surprising in the film, it was simply average. It was an entertaining storyline, but it was something that had been done before. But it didn't have as much depth to it. I felt like Heavy Metal could actually try to be saying something, but Heavy Metal FAKK2 was more about having fun with the storyline that they had.

The music in this film was again good, but it wasn't as good as the original films. Just the bands that they could get, while likely big when the film was released, didn't carry over time as well, with the exception of a few of them, therefore the music isn't as catchy and seems a little out od date, even for the film. They were still enjoyable to listen to, but not as good as Heavy Metal.

Visually I think I like the original better. The production standards and techniques may have been older and poorer for the original, but the animation styel was more interesting then in this film. The animation for Heavy Metal FAKK2 was pretty standard for that time, and with the exception of CGI/3D animation is pretty standard, even for now. So while it was entertaining to look at, it wasn't as interesting.

Overall this was a fun film, that was entertaining to watch and easier to watch, in many ways, then Heavy Metal, but I feel like it was lacking some of what Heavy Metal had to it with the depth of the story. A good popcorn film with a bunch of fun action and odd characters, but nothing extremely special.

Overall Grade: C+
Story: C+
Acting: N/A
Audio/Visual: C+

__________________
"As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away."
-From Identity

Agree with you about The Day After Tomorrow and the preachiness, but yeah it is still entertaining. I've watched it a few times now and still enjoy it.

Liking all your reviews too - keep up the good work!

Return of the Living Dead: Part III

This installment of the show starts to return back to what it was in the first one. There is an odd story and odd characters to it, but it doesn't match the level or cult-classic feel of the original. This one seems to take itself a little too seriously and it starts rewriting the rules of the zombies in the films.

How it rewrites the rules is:

The zombies in these films were smarter then the normal zombies, but not to the extent that they decided to have to be the case in this film. So that bugged me some in the story.

Also with the story were the characters. They started to return to the cult like status of the characters in the first episode, especially the main zombie, but a lot of the side characters were extremely stereotyped, and that bugged me a lot. They could have been much better if there weren't so cast into playing the cliche role for their character.

But, like I said, the story was better, and the characters were less annoying. What really lead the film is the main zombie. She does a solid job in her role and it is a very interesting/disturbing role that she is in. Very masochistic tendancies from her character throughout the film, which is sort of disturbing and sort of interesting.

Overall a below average film, but it is heading in the right direction as compared to the second one. The story and characters notably improve, but they can't live up to the standard of the first one.

Overall Grade: C-
Story: C-
Acting: C-
Audio/Visual: C

Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis

This continues on the trend of returning to what the original one was. This one had a more compelling story, and some odd characters. Because of that, it was a much more interesting film to watch then the second and the third ones. There are still a few annoying characters, but much less so in this film.

What works well is the story. It isn't purely a zombie horror fest type of film, but it revolves around the people doing more then simply fighting off the zombies. There is plenty of fighting off zombies, but there is some depth surrounding how the zombies occur, as compared to in all of the others where it is stupidity of the characters (or an accident in the case of the first one) that causes all of the issues.

However, in this one they again change the rules for the zombies. Granted this rule change is pretty classical for zombie films, so that helps make it a lot better. The rule change is So this one doesn't bother me nearly as much, as it is basically something that is expected.

The characters in this film are notably better then in the previous ones. There are a lot of cliche characters, but they aren't nearly as dumb as the previous characters in the films (with the exception of the first one). This helped out the story a lot. The best character is the little brother who is a pyro, but that is just a side note.

Overall this is another step in the right direction back to the level of the first one, which is a great thing. One funny thing in this film is that they seemingly set up this major point for the main character setting up something he is going to have to do in the future, but it ends up not coming into play at all. I appreciated that, and I'm sure most average viewers would miss that fact.

Overall Grade: C
Story: C+
Acting: C
Audio/Visual: C

Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave

You know with a title like that, that the film is going to have to be terrible and completely absurd. It lives up to those standards and surpasses them. It is so completely absurd that for its average production, it is hilarious. The storyline itself is pretty typical, but the characters in the film are great.

The storyline is pretty typical in that it is a bunch of college students having a party where something goes wrong and everyone starts dying off (and in this case turning into zombies). How they get to that point is pretty solid, and pretty funny, but that part is pretty cliche. But there are enough odd characters (to be address later) that make it much better then a typical film like that. Also, prior to the party, it is interesting in how they invent/have the distribution method for the drug/gas that re-animates the dead.

The characters are great in this film. There are two Interpol agents who are played pretty stereotypically in many ways, but very funnily in many ways as well. Some of the lines that they have are just hilarious, and how they sneak/get into the party is also great. Add in some fairly cliche, but pretty humorous main characters, and it is all pretty good. The "Meat is Death" nuts are quite funny in this film, especially after they have turned into zombies.

Finally, the final scene just gets me every time. There is nothing like seeing a predomiantly rotted corpse standing along the side of the road holding a sign that says "Rave or Bust" on it. Then they cap it off with some nice sad music playing in the background ("My Diary", by Jonny Lee Redmond).

Overall this is probably the best of them, even beating out the original. It is so absurd, and so funny. It is basically a cult classic type of film already in my mind, and it hasn't been out all that long (just a couple of years). Definitely very good, in a bad sort of way.

Overall Grade B-
Story: C
Acting: C+
Audio/Visual: B-

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzi Across the 8th Dimension

Long name, decent results. This is a film that should be a cult classic, but it didn't perform quite up to standards. It had a lot of good parts, that were oddly cheesy and funny, but there were also a lot of misses as well, where this film was trying to be absurd and funny and it just fell flat on its face.

One interesting thing about this film is that there are some fairly well know actors in this film. Peter Weller (Robocop), Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day, Jurasic Park), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) are all in this film, and all of them before they really did any of the roles that they are recognized for. As well as John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun), so this film has some talent before they became known. That does make the film a little more interesting, because you can recognize a fair number of the actors, even if you can't exactly place them because they weren't well known at that point in time.

But the story doesn't hold together in a completely interesting manner, so that hurts the film. It is a seemingly solid odd idea for a film, but it just goes all over the place and it isn't all that exciting when it does go to some of the places. It lulls a little from time to time and even when it does have some fun action or odd parts, it isn't as good as it could be. Just the randomness of it hurts how good it is.

Overall this is a second rate cult classic. It does some stuff quite well, but it misses as often as it hits, so it can't live up to a lot of other films from that time. It does have one amazing feature though, and that is at the end it sets up its sequel. It gives a name for the sequel and everything, and of course there wasn't a sequel. It is difficult to know if that was simply put in as a joke, or if the film company honestly expected a sequel from it, but I would be somewhat surprised if it was the later.

Overall Grade: C+
Story: C
Acting: B-
Audio/Visual: B-

Don't know why I never found my way in here before. I like your style and I like your review choices.

Thank you very much, I'm glad that you enjoy them.

Soylent Green

This is a well put together Sci-Fi/Thriller film, and doesn't do to much with the future that it is trying to create. Being that it is a film from the 70's that is guessing at what the future will be like, it does a good job because it doesn't try and make it look to spectacular and end up being full of cheesy effects.

That is probably the biggest thing that I appreciated about it. It was that there weren't any odd things. No flying cars, the buildings basically looked the same, and everything was very drab and under control still. While it is fun to see things like flying cars, when the effects aren't available to see a good flying car they should be avoided being used. There were a few parts, one guy getting squished mainly, that were off in how they looked, but because they didn't try and do too much visually, it became something that was very nice to look at while watching the film. Also, the simplicity of one of the death scenes was very beautifully done as well. It was a good/stark contrast to the rest of the film in what it showed. The color scheme was different and even the quality of the scene was notably different.

The story is also good in this film. It sets itself up nicely, hinting at the fact that there is going to be a twist/revelation at the end, but it does a good job of not giving it away. The unfortunate thing is that everyone already knows the twist at the end, therefore it loses a lot of punch with it, that it likely had when it originally came out. But the fact that it focused on the character aspect of the story and didn't really delve into the science aspect a ton also made it better, because it wasn't a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that they were spitting out, but it seemed like real people and real situations throughout the film, which is something that was needed to make a film like this interesting.

Overall this is a very classic example of how Sci-Fi should be done. It focuses on creating a good story while asking the tougher questions, and while the question doesn't really apply in anything, it is still interesting to debate in the aspect of societial norms and extrapulating the ideas outside of the original context. Heston does a very solid job as well in this film.

Overall Grade: B
Acting: B-
Story: A-
Audio/Visual: B+

Death Race 2000

This is a fun cult classic type of film. It has a bunch of absurd characters, and absurd story line, and a lot of absurd action throughout the whole thing. And that is really what I expect from a film like this.

The story in this film is an interesting one. A no holds barred race across what was once the United States where you get points for killing people as well as for how fast you do it in. This odd idea works well. They also try and create some depth as it is an attack against the government system that has created this bloodlust in the people. But it really doesn't flesh out that story all that well focusing more on the racing aspect and throwing in hints of the depth but without really ever delving into the why, more just stating it as fact, which is disappointing for the viewer.

The characters in this film are odd. Stallone plays a guy named Machine Gun Joe, which is actually a very good role for him, as it really doesn't ask him to do much then act like he normally acts, and for the characters in this film, it is just fine. The main character, Frankenstein is also an interesting character. The mystery that surrounds him and the greatness of his persona in the film are well done. The rest of the characters are interesting and solid side characters as well, but they get notably less facetime then Machine Gun Joe and Frankenstein who are the two main racers.

This was purely an entertaining film, so don't look for more depth in it then that. Even its attempts at adding depth come up rather short, but it is a fun cult classic type of ride on this film. And they are actually making a sequel/second one that is coming out in September of this year with Jason Statham playing the lead. It will be interesting to see how it goes along with the first one, if there is supposed to be any connection or not, but if it keeps true to the absurd style of the first one, it should be fun.

Overall Grade: B-
Story: C
Acting: C+
Audio/Visual: C+

Wrong Turn

I don't know why I thought it would be interesting to see this movie (and to likely see the sequel today), but for some reason I did. This, as a horror film, missed out on the most important part of a horror film, the fact that a horror film is supposed to be scary. It was simply way to predictable. When you know what events are going to happen and when those events are going to happen in the film, there is no fear factor to them anymore.

And that is what happened a lot in this film. The first two killings were set up very, very obviously, and it really didn't get any better after that. In fact, if anything the last two deaths were even more predictable then the first two. The one was set up just before one character was going to do something, and the other one was set up just after help arrives (the help of course dies). So even though they try and keep them sudden or in the dark when the deaths occur, there isn't even a good jump factor to them.

So besides the terrible horror sequences, the whole story was quite bad as well. The "monsters" were more laughable then scary. The costuming of them made them look silly more the frightening. The main characters were very shallow and while you weren't really pulling for them to die, you knew which ones were going to die, and you really didn't care if they did die because they don't try and create any sort of attachment to them.

The acting was simply average in this film. It was probably below par for any sort of drama (actually it was below par for that), but being that it is a horror movie, acting generally goes by the wayside. So for acting in a horror film, it wasn't terrible, but there weren't any really good performances though either. Dushku and Chriqui did a decent job in their roles, but the male lead was very stiff throughout the whole thing and had a subpar performance.

Overall this is a horror film that I wouldn't recommend simply because it isn't scary. The film doesn't do a good job of building up the tension as it becomes so clear early on who is slated to die and who will live. I would avoid this and its sequel, even though I most likely won't.

Overall Grade: D
Story: D-
Acting: C
Audio/Visual: D-

Nice reviews Gnut thanks

__________________
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Nice review on Sol' Green. I agree with pretty much all you said. Nice job.

__________________

“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

The Dead Zone

As a huge Stephen King fan I am always disappointed to see the adaptations of his books in films as rarely, if ever, have they done his books justice. This is probably the closest that I've come to seeing one of them do the book justice. It has very solid acting and stays very close to the storyline.

Christopher Walken plays the lead role, and he does a solid job of it. It is a little hard to watch him doing this serious role simply because he hasn't done a good, serious role in a long while, or so it seems, and he is certainly capable of doing so, it just isn't as expected since he hasn't recently. But I enjoyed his performance. Martin Sheen also did a solid job in his performance as the antogonist. It wasn't an amazing performance by either of them, but it was solid enough.

Storywise I am likely to be more harsh on it, as I liked the book when I read it. But it did a decent job of recreating the tale in the book. It cut out a few sections and shortened the storyline simply out of need to keep it a reasonably lengthed film, even though this is one of King's shorter books. But the adaptation is solid. They don't try and change anything too much from the book, so the storyline for the most part is still the same.

Overall this film was a solid film, but not extremely impressive. In the proper hands with the proper talent it could be made into a very good film because it is a shorter King book and easiser to adapt then most of his for the screen. But it was entertaining enough and has a good enough story that it is worth watching.

Overall Grade: C+
Story: B-
Acting: C+
Audio/Visual: C

DOA: Dead or Alive

Hot girls and ripped guys fighting eachother, what could be better then that? Possibly a film with a plot would have been better. Or some good acting. The action was entertaining and hot enough, but that in and of itself doesn't make a good film.

The plot was terrible in this film. It started out with one thing and then part way through the film mysteriously made a jump to something that is completely separate. Maybe if I had played the game growing up it would make more sense, but I don't know that it would have. The plots that they had going weren't terrible, they were just lacking in development, and because of that made a bad movie plot.

The acting was also quite subpar. Most notably Jaime Pressley is a terrible actress who really shouldn't act ever again. She was just grating to watch on the screen. The rest of the acting wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't all that good. I guess that there were a few terrible other ones as well, but I don't remember the actor or character names for those, I just tried to block them out of my head.

Visually this film was interesting. It really did have the feeling of a video game. It wasn't great in how it was shot, but it also wasn't terrible in that it was unique when watching it. It is definitely a style that needs to be refined some more, but I believe that there would be situations in film where it could be used effectively. Unfortunately, like Alone in the Dark when it tries to use a similar style, it just doesn't pull it off all that well.

Overall this is a quite subpar film. It could have had some potential, but movies that are based off of video games generally end up lacking in some areas, if not story, then acting. And this one was lacking in both acting and story. The action was decently entertaining, but a few fight scenes don't make a film.

Overall Grade: D
Story: D-
Acting: D
Audio/Visual: D+

I miss these when they are up in the top bar Gnat, I'll try to pay more attention. I like your style and particularly the movies. You've already listed several that for whatever reason I've yet to see.

__________________
We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Hollow Man

Normally not a huge Kevin Bacon fan, but he was decent in this film. The story and the idea behind it were very interesting to look into, and could have made an entertaining film. Unfortunately like so many Hollywood films, they completely ruined it at the end with a ending that could be seen from the mile away.

This movie starts out with promise and has potential to be a good sci-fi film. It starts out with a character who is full of himself given more power then anyone else alive because of the fact he has been turnen invisible. It becomes quickly clear that when you have too much power, especially in someone who is already claiming to be on the same plain as God, that you are going to run into a complex problem where the character tries to become God, and how that power corrupts. They do a good job showing the corruption in a way that does seem to far fetched. However, the ending is completely predictable in that the two pseudo-main characters are going to win over the force of evil in the end. And the story does start working in that direction until the end, even though it feels like a typical Hollywood film so you hope that it won't, and are disappointed when it does.

Bacon does a decent job in the role. He shows off a good level of arrogance and cockiness that allow his character to transition quickly into the role of someone who is full of himself and lets the power/ability to do anything (for the most part) without consiquence get to his head. The rest of the cast is pretty pedestrian in this performances, not that Bacon's is great, but no one else really carries the film.

Visually this is a solid film as well. It offers somewhat of a challenge because you were working with invisible animals as well as an invisible person throughout the whole film. And they pull of the invisible quite well. There are a few times, such as when the gorilla turns visible again and the person becomes invisible that are a little cheesy with how they start on the outside and turn invisible inward or vice-a-versa when turning visible again, but overall it isn't bad.

Without the ending, this would have been a solid film, but because the ending was forced to fit to some standard that Hollywood expects, it hurt the movie a lot. Still an interesting idea, but with the shoddy physics that they use at the end of the film, and everything else that is wrong with it, I can't rate it all that highly.

Overall Grade: D+
Story: D
Acting: C+
Audio/Visual: C

Sydney White

This film is Snow White meeting Revenge of the Nerds. It has a fairytale like aspect to it, and it is much cleaner then revenge of the nerds. But there is a group of seven nerds/dorks who playoff the stereotype that was created back in Revenge of the Nerds. This combination of the two actually does work to make a quite entertaining and funny storyline.

This film is relying on the fact that it is poking fun, like the film Enchanted, at fairy tales, however this one simply focuses on the tale of Snow White. And it does a good job. There are a lot of cliche, or what could be cliche, lines used throughout the film. But they are done with great timing and fit into the flow of everything that is going on. There is one great scene where the dorks are marching as part of advertising for their campaign for student council at college and go past the wicked witch character. They have picket like signs over their shoulders similar to the dwarves marching with shovels and as they go past, the second person in line says: "Hi ho" to the witch character, and the last person says: "Bye ho" in obvious reference to Snow White but it isn't cheesy when they do it.

Amanda Bynes does a solid job in the lead role. She comes off as a very nice person who is a little bit clueless from time to time, and tries to hard for the results that she gets, but it works out quite well. The actress playing the wicked witch does a good job of pulling off the "queen bee" role, such as in Mean Girls. So the casting for the most part is spot on. All of the dorks seem sufficiently awkward, so it is enjoyable to watch them in their roles. Terrance is the ideal dork in the film who is extremely awkward.

Overall this is a very cute and well done parody of Snow White. It has a lot of heart, and it keeps the laughs coming at a reasonable speed, so it doesn't end up hurting the film with the potentially cliche lines that it uses. It does fall into the feel of a lot of other college/teen-esque films, but it is much better then most.

Overall Grade: B
Story: B+
Acting: B
Audio/Visual: B-

Timecop

Much like Bacon, I feel like Jean-Claude Van Damme never really does all that good a job, or is really expected to do all that good a job in his films, acting wise anyways. Action wise he is generally solid. In this role he doesn't disappoint, in that his acting is subpar, but the action is solid. However, the storyline in this film makes up for a lot of it. This film doesn't try and make time traveling to simple, but it works out nicely in the complexity level that they do give it.

What works well is the story, like I said. It isn't extremely complex, but they don't make it as simple as hoping from one place to another. They give consequences to actions and limit time travel only to the past, and because of that, it has more depth. The controlling of the time/space continuum aspect, instead of just allowing free time travely is also done well. The plot is one that isn't extremely surprising, but they pull it off well and keep it interesting.

The acting is simply so-so. Jean-Claude Van Damme is basically like Arnold only with a little less acting ability. His accent is as odd, and his acting is worse. They could have done better then casting him in the role, but he wasn't terrible, which is better then normal. Overall the actors besides him were simply so-so. No one raised the level of acting really much pass what Van Damme was doing. So that hurt the film.

Visually this was only an average film as well. There were a few cheesy special effects that were used, and that hurt the film a fair amount. But as a whole it wasn't extremely bad. The time travel style was good enough, and didn't seem too far out of anything. The existence of the same person (two different time versions) in the same space was quite cheesy with how they did it, and that drops it down some visually in my book.

Overall could have been better with a better lead actor and actually better acting all around, but it wasn't all that bad, which was nice to see. Good story and entertaining throughout, overall a solid film.

Overall Grade: C
Story: B
Acting: D+
Audio/Visual: C

Bridge to Terabithia

This is a very, very good and moving telling of the book. It is one of the films that I've seen in a long time that actually had me to the poitn of tears because of how moving it was. The story is very well done and the acting is very good, I don't know if I agree with the religious talk that was going on in the film, but the fact that it didn't really harp on Christianity was something new for Hollywood.

The story is simply brilliant. The themes that run through it are deep, and it is very well constructed in a wonderful storyline that drifts beautifully between the magic of Terabithia and the real world. The last twenty or so minutes of the film go from ripping at ones heart strings, to being a wonderful, uplifting ending. Even the few semi-cliche parts with the real world (kids at school and the father figure) were better then expected. It stays fairly real, and helps progress the story along very well.

The acting in this film is surprisingly good as well. Normally with films that star kids, you never know exactly what you are going to get. They can be fairly hit or miss because their talent is fairly hit or miss. But this film hits with all three kids that lead off the film. The adults are also solid in the film. Zooey Daschanel is good in her role as the music teacher, but the adults should be overlooked because of how good the kids are in the film. Even the youngest girl "lead" in the film is very good. You connect well with the characters and you feel a whole lot more because they do a good job.

Visually this film is a good as well. The fantasy world of Terabithia that is created is done extremely well with how it works along with the real world. It doesn't require that much change and it is pretty easy to see how the kids had created the world which they did, as I could imagine creating a world like that as when I was a kid.

Overall this is a brilliantly done film. A film that can tug at ones heart strings like this one does without feeling like it is forcing it, is something that comes along too rarely. I highly recommend this film to anyone of any age. Even though it looks like a kids film, adults can feel the impact just as much.

Overall Grade: A-
Story: A
Acting: A-
Audio/Visua: B+