Rodent's Reviews

I love Batman Returns. For me, easily the best and most entertaining of the Batman films. Glad you liked it, Rodent.

I can think of a few reasons for watching the other two films, though.

__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.

Great reviews I The Goonies

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

Review #97: I Am Legend



After a cure for cancer is revealed, a strange side effect takes over the entire population of the world, and a virus that turns humans and most other animals into vampiric creatures takes hold.
In the middle of all this is Dr Robert Neville, who is immune to the virus, and his dog Sam who also appears to be completely immune to airborn strain of the virus but not to being bitten.
It's up to Dr Neville, the last man on Earth to discover a 'cure' or 'reversal' to this virus and save the planet from this awful fate.

Based on Richard Matheson's novel of the same name, I Am Legend is a closer take on the book than any of the other previous outings on the big screen (The Last Man On Earth in 1964, and The Omega Man in 1971).

What director Francis Lawrence has given the audience is a wonderfully put together screenplay and a brilliantly executed story told, in part, in flashbacks.
Though, like the big screen predecessors, there are one or two plot changes when converted to screen, this film makes well with the modern tech and virus paranoia of modern times to make the movie work in terms of storyline.
In the book it's a war that caused the virus, in this film it's a cancer cure.
Even so, the whole thing works.

One thing missing from the film is the sense of vampire lore that was used in the book ie; 'True Vampires' being the reanimated dead, and 'The Infected' are living people who simply succumbed to the virus.
It makes the film feel a little empty in terms of actual Legend.

The whole lonliness of Dr Neville and his relationship with his only surviving friend and cohort, Sam, is also wonderfully captured. Mainly in part by great canine training and Will Smith's on screen chemistry with the dog.

Which brings me to the acting.
Will Smith is basically the only thing on screen to start with. He's fantastically lonely and is extremely believable when he starts going nuts from the isolation.
Abby and Kona who, respectively, play Sam the dog are also fantastically trained and really loveable.
Alice Braga and Charlie Tahan as Anna and Ethan are also good in their roles, but being that these roles were rewritten by the filmmakers, they feel a little out of place, but not by much.

Sadly, the big fault with the film is the creatures that stalk the night.
Ok, they're based exactly on the novel which is something that the other movies didn't do, but it's the way they've been completely CG'd.
The animation is sketchy and cartoony at best and they're not at all as threatening as they should be.
If anything, they're scarier at the beginning of the film, when the audience is only able to hear them.
It's a real shame, especially after the CG work on the city landscape is so good and the acting and screenplay are so wonderful.

All in all, the best of all of the big screen outings for I Am Legend. Sadly it could have had a bit more to it, especially with the budget that was thrown at it.
It's still a film worth watching though as the screenplay, overall story and the acting are tip top.
My rating 83%

__________________

Have you reviewed Avatar yet, Rodent? Cuz I wanna hear your opinion on it. I personally love it, but I know a lot of people hate it. I wanna hear your stand on the highest-grossing movie of all-time.

I'll get one written up mate. Might make it my 100th.

Review #98: Titanic

Based on the ship of the same name, the movie revolves around two people, Rose and Jack, and a difficult relationship that sparks between them while on board the ship.
Jack is a down to earth guy and an incredible artist, he also won his ticket on Titanic in a game of poker. Rose however is a spoilt rich girl with everything money can buy. She's also stuck in a soon to be arranged marriage with a rich man she hardly knows but can't stand to be around.

During their meeting on the ship, Jack and Rose find a mutual ground and a lateral thinking between them and they plan to run away together when the ship lands in New York.

But all is not as it seems.

Cameron's movie is by far one of the most thrilling visual movies of all time. The love story/triangle is a pretty well used plot device, but with the backdrop of the Titanic as the grounds of the story was a mark of genius filmmaking from all involved.

It's a touch cheesie at times and very girlie when the love connection gets itself going, and the backdrop of Titanic will give the audience a clear sense of where the film is going, both in plot, and in storyline, but it still doesn't fail to thrill whoever is watching.

The screenmplay is another fantastic piece of filmmaking and writing. Cameron's direction adds so much more to the depth of the screenplay too, it's very well pieced together. Especially when little secrets about Rose's family are revealed in the second act.

The acting is bang on throughout though.
Just today, I slammed Leanoardo Di Caprio for being a talentless pretty boy, but his role in Titanic as Jack is by far his most likable character out of all.
He's charming, hard working, pretty yes, almost to the point of not being believeable as a homeless man but still, his natural on screen chemistry with anyone who's on screen, is brilliant.
Kate Winslet is also at her best as Rose. She's wonderfully stiff as the prim and proper rich girl but she brilliantly comes out of her shell as the film progresses.
Billy Zane is another plus as Rose's smarmy and pompous hubby-to-be. Zane does a marvelous job at portraying the snobbish squillionaire.

The effects are really what the film revels in though. Highly CG but extremely well done.
Seeing the Titanic, quite literally come alive on screen is an absolute jot to behold. The granduer of this monstrosity is captured fantastically by Cameron's direction and by his knowledge of special effects.
Being totally honest, nobody else could have done it I don't think.

Then there's the action scenes. Short and sweet after the inevitable happens, and the eventual on board panic and fight for survival are all, brilliantly choreographed and extremely edge of the seat stuff.

All in all, a very moving film and full of sentiment for the tragedy that hit 100 years ago this year... and a pretty well written love story thrown in for good measure.
Titanic isn't the sort of movie I could watch more than twice a year, but when I do watch, it gets me excited.
My rating 97%

This is one movie I just don't like watching that much. Why? Cuz of the love story element. I just can't get over the cliche nature of it. The rest of the film is a visual and historical masterpiece, but the love story always puts me off for some reason.

Review #99: Saving Private Ryan

Based during World War II, the movie follows Captain John H Miller and his squad of soldiers as they land on Omaha Beach to try to take out the German forces that have taken over the area.
After the beach landing, the Captain is given a new mission, directly from General George Marshall.
It appears that three of four Brothers, who were all fighting in different areas of Europe, have been killed in action. Captain Miller and his group are tasked with finding the soul surviving Brother, named as Private Ryan, and bring him home to his grieving Mother, before she loses all of her sons.

What a movie. Spielberg's direction is absolutely fantastic. Taking inspiration from a story written by Robert Rodat about eight siblings who died during the American Civil War, Spielberg and his team of geniuses have managed to capture almost everything about the war that people wanted to see.
There are a few quieter moments during the running time, but they're very well put together. The screenplay is the main thing that makes this film work. The terms of sequence is brilliantly placed.

The start sequence is what throws the audience on the backfoot. Ranked Number 1 in The 50 Greatest Movie Moments and Empire Magazine's Best Battle Scene Of All Time, too.
The Omaha Landings are extremely disturbing and realistic, and bearing in mind that Spielberg also had different cameras brought in for the sequence to give it a more realistic look.
A lot of the injured in the film are also real injuries. Spielberg used prosthetic arms and legs on people who genuinely have missing limbs to add an authenticity to the dying and injured soldiers.

Historical accuracy is another hard hitting message that the film hits the audience with.
Reading up in various articles, I found that Spielberg's team of researchers have missed out nothing when it comes to accuracy.
Ok there is some artistic license used in the film, but the backdrop of World War II has been picked through with a fine toothed comb.

The movie as a whole, is almost like Full Metal Jacket. It starts out with one style of movie, then drops that act and goes pretty quiet a few times throughout.
Though a lot of the movie's action and battle scenes are quite unexpected too.

When the action gets going though, Spielberg spares no expense when it comes to budget and also realism in the scenes.
The effects, the choreography, the acting throughout and the screenplay of the action is by far the most hard hitting of any film.

The battle hardened 'vets' of the squad vary in character too. Some are more human and wear their hearts on their sleeves, others are extremely hard on the outside and don’t ever bend or break in their quests.
The troops also talk about real things, rather than just the mission. Memories from home etc, and it gives the whole backdrop of the war a very human and sombre feel.
It gives the audience a connection, in a sentimental way yes, but a connection to the brave men that fought all those years ago, rather than just nameless faces and faceless names that our generation has come to know.
The conversations about their mission come into play too. When it does, it makes the audience realise how fruitless it is to have wars on such a massive scale when it comes down to loss of human life.
It's all extremely character driven. Thumbs up.
What makes the character writing work though, is the on screen chemistry between them. They're very real.

The overall acting however, not just the well written characters, but the acting... is by far the most inspiring work I've seen in a war movie.
Tom Hanks as Captain Millar is seriously impressive. I was shocked at how good he is in the film. He's tough yet human and has a fairness about his personal morals.

With support from an ensemble Hollywood cast of heavweights including Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Edward Burns, Adam Goldberg, Ted Danson, Paul Giamatti and...

Matt Damon as the titular Private Ryan. Damon is incredibly naturalistic in the role as the Brother-to-be-saved. His confusion over the circumstance of his rescue and the loss of life that he has just suffered are all portrayed with such realism from Damon. His confusion over why this is all happening is also handled wonderfully.
He's only on screen for maybe 25 minutes, but he really makes an impression.

All in all, the finest action/drama/action drama/war movie that has ever graced the big, and small, screen.
Full of haunting memory and wonderfully non-cheesy-sentiment and a screenplay that will live with the viewer for a long time.
A must see. An absolute must see.
My rating 101%

Ok I am going to start off by saying the only movies That I have seen and actually thought were interesting this list Were Cloverfeild, 2012, Cowboys and aliens. All good and action filled movies with a little drama, those are the types of movies I like, along with movies that mess with your mind. Like Nightmare on elm street, it didn't really catch my interest. But the originals did. They were a lot better in my opinion. All the other movies, I have never seen, I am planning on watching DreamCatcher. BTW nice reviews! Edit: Sorry, this may clear it up a little, I only read the first page, and I now see that there are 100 reviews I only read the first 10

I was going to say. I thought you sat through my entire thread in one sitting. Lol!

There's a wide selection in here, enjoy!


Quick update so you can all see what I've done in the past few months:

Here's the current list of all my reviews before I get my 100th (Special Review) done over the next day or so.

1 Young Guns
2 A Nightmare On Elm Street Remake
3 2012
4 Cowboys And Aliens
5 Cloverfield
6 Leon
7 Dreamcatcher
8 Alien 3 Definitive Version Vs Theatrical Release
9 The 'Burbs
10 Starship Troopers

11 Predator
12 Robocop
13 John Carpenter's The Thing
14 Alien Vs Predator and Aliens Vs Predator Requiem
15 Terminator Franchise (1-4)
16 The Fourth Kind
17 Jurassic Park
18 Pirates Of The Caribbean Original Trilogy (1-3)
19 The Dark Crystal
20 Tremors

21 Paul
22 Full Metal Jacket
23 Demolition Man
24 Dumb And Dumber
25 Ridley Scott's Robin Hood
26 Christopher Reeve Superman Franchise (1-4) And Superman Returns
27 Batman Begins
28 The Dark Knight
29 Ghostbusters
30 Star Wars Franchise (1-6)

31 Critters
32 Matrix Franchise (1-3)
33 Arachnophobia
34 Super 8
35 The Shawshank Redemption
36 The Abyss
37 Troll Hunter
38 John Carpenter's The Fog
39 Dog Soldiers
40 The Shining

41 Indiana Jones Franchise (1-4)
42 Robert Rodriguez' Predators
43 Sam Raimi's Spider Man Franchise (1-3)
44 Rocky Franchise (1-5 And Rocky Balboa)
45 The Lost Boys
46 Evolution
47 Alien Franchise (1-4 Including A Rerun Of Review 8)
48 Jurassic Park Franchise (1-3 Including A Rerun Of Review 17)
49 Gremlins Franchise (1 & 2)
50 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Original Movie)

51 30 Days Of Night
52 From Dusk Till Dawn
53 I, Robot
54 Steven Spielberg's War Of The Worlds
55 Bladerunner
56 Armageddon
57 Signs
58 The Quick And The Dead
59 Ransom
60 The Big Lebowski

61 Ghostbusters Franchise (1 & 2 Including A Rerun Of Review 29)
62 Pitch Black
63 The Day After Tomorrow
64 Independence Day
65 Cat's Eye
66 Equilibrium
67 Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
68 The Karate Kid (Original Movie)
69 Die Hard Franchise (1-4)
70 Poltergeist

71 The Passion Of The Christ
72 Paranormal Activity
73 Paranormal Activity 2
74 Pulp Fiction
75 Critters Franchise (1-4 Including A Rerun Of Review 31)
76 Unforgiven
77 Black Hawk Down
78 The Fly (1986)
79 Lake Placid
80 Back To The Future Franchise (1-3)

81 Lethal Weapon Franchise (1-4)
82 Star Trek Franchise (1-11)
83 Of Mice And Men
84 An American Werewolf In London
85 Predator 2 (Including Reruns of Reviews 11 & 42)
86 Jaws
87 American Pie Original Trilogy
88 Godzilla
89 The Negotiator
90 The Green Mile

91 The Mist
92 Silent Hill
93 Highlander
94 The Goonies
95 Batman
96 Batman Returns
97 I Am Legend
98 Titanic
99 Saving Private Ryan (99th review, 149th movie)

100 ???... 100th Review... 150th Movie

Look no further.



You know it makes sense.

Maybe if I reach my 1000th and there's nothing left to review

I've got one planned but I need to get the DVD as it's been a while since I saw it last.

I just finished reading the book I am Legend last night, someone of these forums recommended it but I can't remember who. The only similarity between the book and Will Smith's I am Legend is the name Robert Neville, yes there was a dog in the book but that was like 3 pages of it, the movie never says anything about Vampires, just creatures that don't come out in the day because of some skin sensitivity and sunlight (can't remember exactly). I really like Will Smith's I am Legend but it has nothing to do with the book, watch The Last Man on Earth, that is a really great book to movie adaptation except for the fact that they took the name Robert Neville and replaced it with Robert Morgan for some reason.

__________________

You should review Avatar, Rodent

Avatar?!?!?!

Well...



... here it is...



... enjoy!



Review #100:






The premise, is that Humans have depleted Earth's natural resources and have discovered that there is a moon known as Pandora which houses a rare mineral called Unobtanium within it's geography, and Humans want it due to its monetary value.
What stands in the way are a species of Humanoid creatures known as the Na'vi, a primitive species technologically, but a deeply spiritual Tribe of Warriors nontheless.

Brought into the equation is a disabled Marine called Jake Sully.
His job is to use an incredible technology to remotely/mentally control an organically grown Na'vi 'clone' and, under the watchful eyes of his superiors, who all have differing motives, he must infiltrate the Na'vi Tribe that stands in their way.

When Jake gets in over his head though, his alliances are torn between his duty as a Soldier, his understanding of the importance of scientific research, his allegiance to his own race, and his sympathy and respect for the Na'vi Tribe.

---

Avatar isn't just a normal sci-fi adventure action movie, it contains many, many subtle levels of incredible creativity.

The overall storylines, plot devices and 'little ideas' seen in Avatar have been done many a time before:
Instances are Dances With Wolves and The Last Samurai, and the tearing of alliances for an almost lone warrior and the acceptance into a world he doesn't belong in.
The Matrix and Matrix Revolutions with the technology seen throughout the movie.
The Abyss, and the ideas of Alien technology and organic technology being far grander than computerised and Nuclear 'power'.
Plus there's the alien invasion aspect of the whole thing too.

But what Cameron has intertwined with this outtake on those various plot devices and ideas, is basically a world of pure creation.
Some of the above plot devices and little ideas have also been switched around as a mirror version of what movie-goers are used to. Thumbs up I say!

Ok, some of the plotlines are a little cliche and some of the future references in the first act are extremely transparent and obvious, but the overall finish really couldn't have been an easy job, especially when the finished product is such an absolute gem.

Cameron has done a lot of research into this creation too, he certainly hasn't slacked off.
The term 'Avatar' has many different meanings throughout the various old and new cultures in real life, and even the real life religions spread throughout human history, and Cameron has utilised this.

Cameron has very cleverly incorporated each of these levels and sub-levels mentioned above into the pure meaning of the world he has built, and the sheer story he has created and has wrapped it all up inside, to coin a phrase... a Pandora's Box.

---

The world the audience is thrown into doesn't disappoint either.
It's highly realised, even more so than anything created by Lucas and his Star Wars Saga.
It's 'alien' yes, but highly developed and has an extremely natural feel to it. Along the lines of actually being a believeably real, natural, living world that has evolved over time and actually has an organic history, it's that well put together.

---

The CGI is another strong subject too.
Now I'm a real stickler when CGI is badly used, and I have yet to see the film in the 3D format as, personally, my dodgy eyes don't work with the 3D scam anyway, but Avatar still absolutely blew me away.

I had it in my head before I saw the film, that it was just going to be a Star Wars Episode II lookalike. Basically an expensive flashy cartoon that looks like an expensive flashy cartoon.

Now, you can tell when and where there's CGI used, but... it actually looks real.
Especially when within the human camps and bases and with the human machines.
Anything not human, looks slightly cartoony, but with a realistic edge that I have yet to see in any movie.
Even though there are a few scenes that are obviously designed for 3D glasses, it's still absolutely flawless and has such an originality.

Cameron's love of technology over the years has certainly paid dividends.

Mixing all that with the action scenes really brings the film out too. The action is a touch cliche like some of the first act plot points but it's still extremely well choreographed.
At a few points during the excitement my pulse actually started racing, which is something that CGI action has never done to me before.

---

The acting is also flawless. Most of it is through motion capture and is seen by the audience through CGI Na'vi characters, but even so, the movements and dialogue delivery, the actual real people on screen (when they're actually on screen) are all top notch.
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore, Michelle Rodriguez (looking hot I might add), Stephen Lang (brilliantly driven), Giovanni Ribisi and Wes Studi are all at their absolute best in their respective roles.
Giovanni Ribisi in particular is only on screen for a relatively short time but he lives with the viewer throughout. Top job!

---

All in all, the odd scene that is blantantly designed solely for the 3D market made me feel a touch alienated, and some of the plot in the first act is incredibly transparent. The one other thing that lets the film down is the recycled creature sound effects, nicked from Jurassic Park.

Even so, Avatar is still one of the best CGI laden movies I have ever seen and is very cleverly written in a way that the audience has to keep an open eye and make discoveries of their own.
It's not perfect, but it's damned close at 96%

OMG! It's like you had the chance to sleep with whoever you wanted, but decided to take a dump instead.

Awww.

You obviously didn't see in it what I saw.

It's all about what you take from the experience, HK

Oh, I've not seen it. Please. Remember who you're talking to.