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544,687 | 562,732 | 292,291 | 7 | Painfully funny ! | Bean's hilariously complex alarm clock ( which he still manages to shut off in his sleep ) and his changing clothes in the car on the way to the dentist are classic Bean moments ( they remind me of the scene in the Bean movie where he makes a cup of coffee in his mouth ) , especially when he brushes his teeth and rinses his mouth with the windshield wiper fluid . Hilarious ! The scene in the comic book store illustrates one of Bean's most enduring charms , that he is basically a child stuck in a man's body . He plays with a teddy bear , loves comic books , and is genuinely excited by the most childish things . Unlike a child , however , he proves himself remarkably adept with a dentist's drill in this episode ( after inadvertently rendering the dentist unconscious , since he just couldn't help fiddling with all those shiny tools ) . The drill sound was a little too realistic for me ! And there is also a clever scene where he tries to fix a kid's remote control boat and ends up setting the frequency so that he controls the boat and also a nearby wheelchair carrying a little old lady . The picnic scene with the pesky fly or wasp of whatever overdid the sound effects a little but still had its fun moments . This is not classic Bean , but still fun , as always . |
544,265 | 562,732 | 116,213 | 7 | Who's the tree trunk ? | By this point in Arnold's career he had long since surpassed the low-budget , bad action movie phase , although there are certainly some elements of that phase that he never quite left behind . Eraser is a polished , fast-paced action film that reminds me of some of the highlights of Michael Bay's or Jerry Bruckheimer's careers . Maybe Eraser isn't THAT big , but it's definitely that GOOD . It's a smart return to what Arnold does best , run around with a massive gun in each hand and blow stuff up . It's little more than a high-octane action film , but it's a smart one and it doesn't pretend to be anything else . Arnold plays John Kruger , a U . S . Marshal who works for the witness protection program in the capacity of erasing peoples ' pasts in order to give them a safe future . Here he is charged with the assignment of Lee Cullens , played remarkably well by Vanessa Williams , a government agent who has come forward with information about shockingly high-tech hand-held weapons being readied for sale to the Russian mafia . If you apply logic or reason to the film , as is to be expected , it falls apart completely . Arnold sustains pretty serious injuries throughout the film which later have no effect on his ability to wrestle alligators or hold Vanessa Williams with one hand , keeping her from falling , and there's really no reason to go into the logistics of a hand-held weapon that can launch any kind of projectiles at " just below the speed of light . " There are a lot of movies where these kind of logistical liberties cause a real problem for the movie , but I think Eraser stands well enough on it's own as pure popcorn fun . One of the things that was not left behind with the bad action movies , however , was the cheesy one-liners . They never worked for James Bond and they rarely worked for Arnold either ( I can think of a few that were good though , like " I let him go " ) , so I could have certainly done without " You're luggage , " or , even worse , " They caught a train . " But hey , a few x-ray super-weapon shooting scenes will help you forget about all that . . . . |
543,737 | 562,732 | 431,724 | 7 | At the beginning William H . Macy says that there's nowhere that you can't be reached anymore . Obviously he's never tried making a cell-phone call from my apartment . | Larry Cohen tells an interesting story at the beginning of this documentary about conversations that he had with Alfred Hitchcock about the screenplay for Phone Booth , which gives you an idea of how long he's been kicking that idea around . Also , the theme of extraordinary things happening in ordinary places probably explains why Hitchcock found it interesting . Unlike one of the other documentaries that accompanies Cellular , " Celling Out , " this one is actually about the making of the movie and is pretty impressive . There are interviews with all of the major cast members and plenty of good footage from the set , which I also found particularly interesting because I have been to so many of the locations on which the movie was filmed . It's interesting to watch a movie being made and to know exactly where they are and what that environment is like . At one point in the documentary someone claims that Chris Evans , who plays Ryan , is the next Tom Cruise . He turns in an impressive performance , but I wouldn't go THAT far . Just as I would disagree , despite the fact that director David Ellis says " dude " a lot , that he is " the " dude . David Ellis is NOT the Dude . Jeff Bridges is the Dude . Other than that , this gives a pretty good look at the making of the movie , especially a lot of the stunt scenes and car chases , for which they utilized some pretty impressive film-making techniques . Worth watching . |
543,762 | 562,732 | 1,027,862 | 7 | Every vote counts , as long as you're the last one ? | I'm going to go ahead and assume that it's not an easy task to make a crowd-pleasing movie centered on politics that goes to such strenuous efforts to be non-partisan and maybe chalk up my dissatisfaction with the movie to that . Then again , it might also have something to do with a critical decision that they made in how to end the movie , which is sure to make every single solitary person who watches it throw up their arms in disgust . But the movie is not about who wins the presidency , it's about the pure chaos of the American political system and its millions of weaknesses and faults . Sure , the premise of a presidential election coming down to a single vote is as preposterous as they come , but man if this movie doesn't get you thinking critically about the electoral process then it's safe to assume that probably nothing ever will . Kevin Costner plays Bud , an American nobody from New Mexico who has never done anything with his life except have a daughter with a delusional drug addict who thinks she has a big singing career in her near future . He works as an egg inspector at an egg packaging plant , and he and his co-workers mourn the loss of their friends ' ( and soon , their own ) jobs to " insourcing , " the process of bringing Mexicans in to take their jobs rather than ship the factory and all those egg-laying chickens to Mexico . Bud staggers through life in a drunken daze most of the time , routinely letting down his daughter Molly ( Madeline Carroll ) , who raises him like a child . She gets him out of bed in the morning , criticizes his laziness and irresponsibility , reminds him to vote because it's part of a school project that she has to do , and through sighs of exasperation attempts to keep him at least a little bit in line . And of course it's the only thing in life that she fails at . When Bud gets drunk rather than show up to vote , she manages to almost cast his vote herself due to the sleepy voting booth security of beautiful Texico , New Mexico , which Google Earth has just informed me is a real place . Population 1 , 065 . In a clever plot development , it turns out that Bud's vote didn't go completely through but it appeared that he was there , so he is given another opportunity to cast his vote . Not right away , mind you , even though he evidently already tried to vote and thus probably had his mind made up . No , he is given ten days before he has to vote , thus providing plenty of time for a movie to happen . Young Madeline Carroll steals most of the scenes that she's in as Bud's daughter , so it's interesting that her character is one of the biggest weak points in the movie , the other one being her dad . Bud is supposed to be a typical American , but I just saw a drifting drunk who never did anything with his life and never would have had he not been forced to . It's true that the vast majority of Americans live lives that are closer to Bud's than President Boone's ( Kelsey Grammar ) , but does he have to be a TOTAL loser ? How about just making him be a likable , regular guy ? Like the guy he played in Field of Dreams ? When I imagine the average American , I imagine something like Ray Kinsella . Although maybe with a slightly smaller house and less whispering from the sky . The other problem is that the screenwriters overshot the character of Molly by about 160 IQ points . So much for the average American , right ? This girl writes a school essay that doesn't merit a special award from the principal to show her dad , it grants her NATIONAL TELEVISED RECOGNITION . But to be honest , I had more of a problem with the fact that not only does she wake her deadbeat dad up in the morning so he could take her to school , she also treks to the bar and , finding him passed out in his truck when he should have been voting , she pushes him over and then drives him home herself . She's about 11 years old . But where the movie succeeds is as a scathing revelation about certain realities of the American electoral process , such as the electoral college , which simplifies the vote-counting process even while massively distorting the actual numbers of who voted for who . The whole movie is about how one man's vote really does matter , but it leaves you with the feeling that you are supposed to forget that once he votes , every single vote in his state for the other candidate WON'T matter anymore , because they'll be switched to the other candidate . Isn't it interesting how that works ? Can't we just count every single vote and award each candidate one huge number of individual votes ? Seems a little more accurate to me . Anyway , I do appreciate the way the movie highlights the fact that both sides , Republican and Democrat , are equally willing to stoop to any level and do absolutely whatever it takes to win , and that no one is above hitting below the belt and making hugely unethical decisions . There is a lot that needs to be changed in American politics , and even while clearly being based on the Election of 2000 , one of the most controversial in American history , it calls those things to attention without ever even hinting that either side is right or wrong . The movie insists that America is the greatest country in the world but that in some ways , we're doing it all wrong , but the fact that a movie like this has the freedom to get made proves that even though we haven't reached a level of pure cohesive harmony , underneath all of our imperfections is a clear desire to get there . |
543,984 | 562,732 | 37,515 | 7 | Never trust a woman . . . | I have been known to succumb to the temptation to get all uppity and self-righteous when I see a movie based on a book that I happen to have read . I can't promise I won't recommend the book , but I'll try to stay off the high horse . Agatha Christie's story is brilliant , although in the book as well as the film it suffers from a tendency to deliberately lead the audience in the wrong direction to throw us off the path , but what saves it from being pretentious in that way is the situation that all of the characters find themselves in . Many of them display oddities of behavior or mentality that is easily excused by what is happening . If I suddenly found myself stuck on an island and accused of a murder ( or murders , of which I just happened to be guilty ) and everyone around me started being killed off one by one , I would probably start thinking that seaweed might make a great dress pattern , too . The pacing is completely different from the book , because the film can't really show any of the interior monologues that each of the characters had in the book after each of the murders , but it's good because the film moves along at a pace that doesn't allow you to really think about who could be responsible for the murders , all of the characters are dropping like flies , and as you are poring over the possibilities of who might have done it , someone else is killed . There is some tragic overacting in the movie ( particularly by the first victim , killed by poison ) . This is a character who was described as very energetic and full of life in the novel ( hence the shock that he fell dead so unexpectedly ) , but the actor who portrays him fills him with life to the point of being cartoonish . On the whole , however , the film is a taut suspense thriller and is remarkably faithful to the novel , sometimes even line for line . I love the way the movie shows the growing tension in the movie , the characters becoming more and more suspicious of each other . They start spying on each other and reacting to each other's presence with undisguised fear and suspicion . They also begin to dispense with the formalities after the murders . After the first murder they were concerned about fingerprints on the glass that the first victim drank poison out of , and by the time Rogers was killed they were frantically waving the axe around , knowing that it didn't matter because no one was coming to help solve the mystery . The movie is able to show that they all realize they're on their own , without ever having to have any of them come out and say it . I wish they had put in something about the mysterious history of the island itself and the house on it , who built it and why it changed hands so many times and the rumors that began to surround it , but the film works even without it . Sadly , the ending of the movie has been butchered beyond recognition . I'm shocked that Agatha Christie allowed it to be released as it is , because the ending is changed so drastically that it completely changes and diminishes the meaning and the shocking effect of the story . The movie is far superior to the shoddy 1983 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes , but like that film , this one is desperate for a remake . |
543,847 | 562,732 | 113,243 | 7 | The computer geek's dream . . . | More than a decade has passed since Hackers was released and movies about computers do not stand the test of time very well ( at least as far as the technology in the films is concerned ) , but I think Hackers has stood the test of time relatively well , more than likely because it has such great characters and it's just so much fun . The movie was cast pretty much entirely with unknowns , and even with their tiny budget they were able to make this into a clever roller-coaster of a nerdy thriller , fulfilling the fantasy of every hacker of being chased by and outsmarting the government . The cheesy romance between Dade ( Johnny Lee Miller ) and Kate ( Angelina Jolie ) works surprisingly well , and the performances are impressive throughout . There is a sense of union and camaraderie that is generated between the characters , which is impressive because they don't just throw something into the dialogue about how long they've been friends . Consider the scene where Ramon taps the phone to get the operator and secretly dial his friend - " It's in that place where I put that thing that time ! " Everyone involved very easily passes as genuine computer geeks , although the movie also commits that early sin of having images from the computers projected onto the faces of the users , so you can watch text and pictures crawling up their faces and they stare at the screens , a goofy invention similar to the tendency - which persists to this day - of having any kind of computer or stopwatch usage being accompanied by lots of clicks and beeps , I suppose to remind the audience that something is happening or about to happen . But the computer stuff in the movie is really beside the point , which is good because it's so outlandish . Like WarGames , Hackers will have you believe that any kid with an internet connection can hack into government mainframes and cause a global crisis , financial or otherwise . The story is about the characters , which is good because they are well-developed , in most cases , while much of the rest of the movie is not . There is a clever villain who is not so much a villain as much as another hacker who happens to have different objectives . He has some smart lines ( " Never fear , I is here . " ) , and the rivalry between him and the main characters provides for some great scenes . Besides being a curiosity piece about some well known actors at early points in their careers , Hackers is a smart technological thriller that takes wild creative liberties with the capabilities of a still - emerging technology , but makes it into quite a fun ride . |
543,875 | 562,732 | 62,512 | 7 | Good action , as well as one of the better stories in the Bond series . | What you have in You Only Live Twice is Sean Connery back as James Bond , and he is basically trying to prevent the outbreak of World War III , which later becomes a very common theme in Bond films . It seems that there is some sort of mysterious space craft in the Earth's atmosphere that swallows up orbiting , manned spacecraft , instigating accusations on the planet below . At first , the USA got a ship swallowed , and accused the Russians , informing them that another ship would be put into orbit within a month and if anything happened , it would be considered an act of war . The situation is complicated when the Russians also send a ship into orbit that gets swallowed . Obviously , Britain disagrees from the beginning that the Russians were involved , given the object's landing point ( the Sea of Japan area ) , and they send one of their agents ( Bond , of course ) to the vicinity to investigate . In this installment , Bond actually gets an edge on the enemy because they think he's dead . In the beginning of the film , he is shot in bed in a scheme to fake his own death , hence the title of the movie . While You Only Live Twice has one of the more interesting stories of the Bond films , it also has some of the most outlandish situations . Some mad scientist seems to have built himself a secret lair in a volcano , from which he launches this mysterious object into space , with the objective of causing a war between the United States and Russia . It's the old ' take over the world ' theme , and it really doesn't work very well here . Obviously , Blofeld , the madman villain bent on world domination , was the subject of the majority of Dr . Evil's look from the Austin Powers films . The outfit , the scar down the side of the face , and of course , the ever-present cat , which Blofeld strokes constantly in true Dr . Claw form . Donald Pleasance , who is entirely unrecognizable as Michael Meyers ' psychologist in John Carpenter's horror classic Halloween , makes a very good villain in this installment , even if his motives are clichéd and questionably sought . Also notice the irony that Pleasance was a main character in that movie , in which he struggled to kill the murderous Michael Meyers , and then 30 years later , his look in You Only Live Twice is copied by a hilarious comedian named Mike Myers , in a film that begins in the same year this film was made ! While a great many of the situations of this film are highly unlikely ? particularly those that deal with Blofeld's lair as well as his seemingly infinite power ? You Only Live Twice is still one of the more interesting Bond films and , of course , it does star Sean Connery , who is by far the best Bond . On a trivial note , this is one of the few Bond films in which he never introduces himself in his infamous way ( ' Bond . James Bond . ' ) . We get virtually the exact same ending as we saw in the excellent Dr . No , which suggests a need for some innovative scriptwriting , but the film still entertains , despite it many excesses . Not nearly among the best , but this is still signature Bond material . |
544,027 | 562,732 | 190,934 | 7 | Not much for unexpectedness , but entertaining enough ? | I live in the middle of China so I don't get to see shows like this very often except when I'm back in the states visiting family , like now , but I've had a soft spot for these amazing videos shows ever since I first noticed how captivating live coverage of police chases in my native Los Angeles was , and then discovered COPS . I haven't seen more than maybe a dozen episodes of this show , but I've seen enough to know that the videos are often groan-inducing or genuinely frightening and are almost always ruined by the goofy narration . Like John Walsh's goofball , wildly over-dramatic narration of America's Most Wanted , the videos , even the really amazing ones , are almost always accompanied by laughable descriptions , which leave me with the feeling that if you took away phrases like bone crunching , or battered bodies , or narrowly escaped , or lucky to be alive , or watery grave , well , they just wouldn't have anything at all to say and wouldn't that just make for a completely different show . But either way , you can hardly do better for a lazy Sunday afternoon . If the show seems repetitive , you watch it too much . Otherwise , enjoy ! |
544,676 | 562,732 | 450,920 | 7 | Okay , but how does this all work ? | I just caught an episode about Brad , the crack cocaine addict who turned to a drug addicted life on the streets after his bicycle racing career went to shambles as fast as it started . I have to say that the story about his biking career was more heart-breaking than his drug addiction . Here's this young guy who is winning bike races left and right and is invited to train with an Olympic training team for two weeks , and immediately upon arriving he insults Lance Armstrong , one of the greatest athletes who ever lived , and is generally callous and unfriendly to everyone in general . Understandably , he is soon asked to leave . Most of the show is about his struggle with addiction and how he got his life back , but what I wanted to know was what was wrong with him in the first place to make his act like such an ass ? At any rate , I was confused about how the show was put together , since it shows Brad at the height of his addiction . We see footage of him pan-handling and sleeping in gutters and ditches and even smoking crack cocaine . I didn't even know that was legal to show , but why would a camera crew just follow him around and film that ? Do they do that in hopes that this guy will turn his life around and give them some material for a good TV episode ? At any rate , it is an enlightening show , because it shows the effects of various addictions and the total control that they can take over people's lives . Sometimes it's hard to watch because you really see how badly the families and friends suffer in the face of the addict's indifference , although I have to admit that at the end it all seems a little too clean-cut . There are times during the episodes when terrible things happen and everything seems lost , but still , and maybe I should warn about spoilers here , everything has a little too much of a happily-ever-after feel at the end , and I have a feeling that that is a very uncommon occurrence in real life . But still , it's a show about people trying to help other people , and you can never complain too much about something like that ? |
544,277 | 562,732 | 160,009 | 7 | It wasn't THAT bad ? | I've read some seriously negative reviews of The Art of War . There are IMDb users out there who hated this movie to no end , which leads me to wonder why I rented it in the first place , having read many of these reviews already , and why it was seen as so much worse than anything Wesley Snipes has done up to this point . Snipes has made some good movies , and some bad ones , just like almost every actor out there ( although there are certainly some that only make good ones and some that only make bad ones , but Snipes seems to have about an equal amount of each , maybe leaning slightly in favor of the bad ) , and I don't really think The Art of War is any different . It's a typical action film in which he plays virtually the exact same character that he played in Rising Sun , except here he's been framed as an assassin and , as is always the case with movies in which the good guy has been framed for some crime , he has to set out to prove his innocence with no help from the police and without knowing who he can trust . ( spoilers ) Michael Biehn stars as Robert Bly , Neil Shaw's ( Snipes ) ill-fated partner . Biehn has been largely missing in action ( pun intended ) for several years , his only notable appearances since the spectacular Terminator ( and since being deleted from Terminator 2 ) being an excellent role in The Rock and his thoroughly enjoyable performances in movies like The Abyss , Aliens , and Navy SEALS . Given this iconology , it's strange to consider the role that he was given in The Art of War . Naturally , actors are given roles that go against their iconography all the time ( a recent example would be Tom Hanks in The Road to Perdition ) , but there is generally a reason for that or at least something about that actor's personality or charisma that fits with the role that they are given . In The Art of War , there is little reason to have Biehn play the role that he plays other than to cover up the plot twist near the end of the film . That's just weak writing . Like I said above , I enjoyed The Art of War more than many other reviewers seemed to . The introduction of the conflict is particularly impressive . The chase through the building early in the film is not only exciting , but thoroughly convincing so that you really don't guess what's really happening . Regardless of how the mystery is created ( whether or not it be because of the strange role given to Michael Biehn ) , consider how well the frame was set up . Shaw is running through this building chasing the bad guy , he hears his partner shot twice on the radio , so just as he bursts into the street which is crowded with police , his adrenaline is pumping and his face is contorted with the grief of knowing that his partner has just been killed . It's easy to understand that the police could have mistaken his expression for grief at having been caught trying to escape the scene of the crime that they think he has just committed . I might like to take this opportunity to point out that while I certainly found The Art of War to be at least a mildly entertaining action film , I did not find it to be any more than that . It is most certainly a vehicle for some good Wesley Snipes action , but is there really anything wrong with that ? I personally enjoy watching Steven Seagal movies and Van Damme movies , just because they're entertaining and , quite often , more amusing than anything else . Given that , I would not be being fair if I condemned The Art of War for not having much intellectual content to speak of . I am normally not one to forgive stupidity in the movies , but the thing that allows me to forgive the cheesy action in The Art of War ( as an example of how seriously the movie takes itself , consider the extensive kung-fu fighting scene that takes place during the New Year celebration early in the film , to the grand enjoyment of everyone in attendance , who are all lucky enough to see it close up on the big screen ) is that it doesn't pretend to be anything else . Unlike a Bruckheimer film , it does not throw in all of the necessary ingredients to attract every kind of audience that can be attracted to an audience , which is an unfortunately prevalent tactic that results in a lot of movies that could have been great but instead come out as muddy messes . The Art of War is a straight up action film , and whether you loved it or hated it or anything in between , you have to respect it for allowing itself to be seen as such in a society that more and more seems to condemn purity in the movies . |
544,321 | 562,732 | 162,222 | 7 | Even the great Tom Hanks can't make Cast Away live up to its expectations . | Yes , Cast Away is a good movie , but it is not nearly as good as it was expected to be , especially with such big names as Tom Hanks , Helen Hunt , and Robert Zemeckis , director of excellent films like Romancing the Stone , Forrest Gump , and the great Back to the Future trilogy . However , the problem doesn't have anything to do with the director or any of the actors . As far as I'm concerned , they all delivered great performances . The general bad aftertaste that the movie leaves comes more as a result of the pathetically weak story that is thinly disguised by the big budget and the big names associated with the film . Think about it , a hard working and fairly successful man goes on a business trip , leaves his beloved soon-to-be wife behind , the plane crashes , he gets stranded on a desert island . But who cares ? The only way that we are able to develop any feeling for the character is that he's Tom Hanks . Cast Away is little more than an updated ( and much improved , I'll have to admit ) re-telling of the old desert island story . You have the obvious comparison to Gilligan's Island , but there are countless other places where this general premise can be found . In 1987 , Christopher Walken starred in a film called The Dead Zone in which he plays a man who falls into a coma for several years after a car accident , and when he regains consciousness , he finds himself in exactly ( emphasis on exactly ) the same situation that Tom Hanks was in at the end of Cast Away . There's even a short story by Stephen King ( who also wrote The Dead Zone ) called ' Survivor Type , ' and you can guess what that's about . Except that in ' Survivor Type , ' the guy trapped on the island gets so desperate that he amputates his own foot ( he had fractured his ankle trying to catch a seagull for food ) and eats it , but needless to say , a Hollywood film would never get as graphic as that . ( possible spoilers ahead ) The timeline of Cast Away was also a little too blocky . The film up to the point where Chuck Noland became stranded was very smooth , and then we get a good look at his realization of what has happened to him and what he does to adapt to life on the island , but then the film jumps four years into the future ! I don't expect every one of Chuck's exploits to be shown onscreen , because then the movie would be four years long , but I think it was too early in the film to jump ahead that far . The rescue was probably the worst part of the film - they might have done better to just start the end credits when Chuck raises his hand to the passing ship , because to skip the entire rescue sequence and jump straight to Chuck ' re-entry into civilized life is disorienting and disappointing . There's really not much left to be done in the desert island area , but despite Cast Away's effort to resurrect the theme , there is a lot to be said in defense of the film . For example , there was clearly a lot of thought put into the content of the film , almost making up for the lacking story . Noland's relationship with ' Wilson ' was a crude but interesting and often amusing statement about the human need to interact , although their eventual separation was not very believable . Why didn't Chuck go get Wilson and then swim back to the raft ? Did he really need to bring the raft with him ? Maybe the audience was left to assume that an unseen ocean current rendered that obvious solution impossible , but I failed to see the conflict in that particular scene . Another thing that was very successful in the film was the portrayal of Noland's predicament . Sure , it's funny at some points , but that's because it's Tom Hanks and he's just a funny guy , but that also fits perfectly with the film . Here's this guy from the big city who , judging from his substantial gut , has little experience in the outside world . Suddenly he's stuck on an island in the middle of the endless ocean , and he has no idea what to do . Nevertheless , the instinct of self-preservation kicks in and Noland finds tools for survival left and right , which was one of the things that made the film so interesting . Maybe this will teach that foolish Chuck Noland never to say , ' I'll be right back . ' Didn't he ever see Scream ? Hanks ' total physical transformation was absolutely astounding , and it magnified the effectiveness of the film at the same time as it demonstrated his dedication to the cinematic medium ( you don't think he agreed to go to all that trouble because he needed money or publicity , do you ? ) . While it is far from Hanks ' best film ( or Helen Hunt's , or Robert Zemeckis ' ) , Cast Away was just about as good as it could have been , given it's tired premise and it's occasionally jerky presentation . |
544,153 | 562,732 | 78,753 | 7 | A much needed update that still needs updating . . . | It is strange that a made-for-TV-remake ( and yes , this is definitely a remake ) of the Best Picture winner from 1930 should be so easily as good , and probably better , than the original . This is a special situation because most of what needed improvement in the original was not things that required special effects or much movie magic ( the battle scenes , for example , are outstanding in both films ) , but the realism of it all , specifically things like life on the battlefield , realistic dialogue , and clumsy thematic delivery . FIrst of all , the movie starts right out on the battlefield and is pretty impressive right away . Donald Pleasance is wonderful as the German propaganda teacher buttering the young men up for enlistment , and very soon you'll notice that a lot of the scenes are taken directly out of the original except , as I mentioned , now the realism is updated , which is extremely important . All Quiet on the Western Front , love it or hate it , is one of the most famous anti-war films / books of all time , and because of that , most of the more memorable scenes in the film are meant to deliver this message , but some work and some don't work so well . There is a scene , for example , where the new recruits line up in front of the train and see the wounded being brought back before their very eyes . It's a moving scene , to be sure , but I imagine removing the badly wounded soldiers right in front of the new soldiers heading to the front lines would have been considered bad taste even during World War I . Especially in propaganda-heavy Germany . Speaking of which , the fact that the movie is told from the German perspective is a bit of a difficult area for the film , since it stars almost entirely American and British actors , and we only know they're German , other than from a background knowledge of the story , because it's mentioned a few times through dialogue . The point of the story is to illustrate the difference between gloriously fighting for your country and the reality of trench-warfare . As soon as the new recruits arrive at the front , Ernest Borgnine , in an exceptional performance as Kat , the most experienced private on the front lines , quickly lets them know that even after all of their training , they don't know a single thing about war ( " In training camp they fill you full of fancy information on how to be a soldier . We're going to work hard to forget all that . " ) . While most of the more clunky scenes are smoothed out in this remake , some of them are still pretty obvious . I was happy to see that the scene where Paul Baumer , one of the main characters , kills a Frenchman in hand-to-hand combat and then bitterly remorses the act afterwards is changed , but it's not changed much . He mortally injures the man and is then stuck in a hole with him until morning , when he finally dies . He does give a bit of a ham-handed speech , but at least it's more realistic than the original . More importantly , this time it takes the focus away from the pointlessness of war deaths and turns it to the politicians , who come across as warmongers ( " We could be brothers . But they never want us to know that . They never want us to know . . . " ) . Makes you shudder to think of them generating hatred among young men like puppet-masters so they can send them over to further their agendas . The end of the film faithfully re-creates the end of the original , with Baumer taking a trip home due to an injury , only to be confronted with the reality that his country is completely removed from what is really happening on the western front . It's strange though , that when he embarks on his 16 days of convalescent leave , he does so in full battle gear - helmet , grenades , rifle and everything . Seems like that might be a little unnerving to the public . Nevertheless , the movie certainly gets its point across , but it still leaves me with the feeling that it can still be so much more . It is a very effective piece of anti-war cinema , but even with all of the improvements since the 1930 version , it is still not authentic . |
544,888 | 562,732 | 408,790 | 7 | Little Girl Julia . | Flightplan is a taut psychological thriller that very nearly earns its description as Hitchcockian , there are plenty of similarities and even specific shots that are very Hitchcockian ( the shot of the crows flying away at the beginning of the film , for example ) , but there are times when the movie almost falls apart in the third act . Thrillers have a tendency to fall on their faces as soon as it's revealed what's actually going on , but this movie at least has real reasons for things like why Kyle Pratt ( Jodie Foster ) just happens to be an airline engineer and knows her way around the plane when her daughter turns up missing , it was explained how things were pulled off by those responsible , etc , and not even in the Scooby-Doo ending kind of way . But when you find out what's happening , it almost turns into your standard , run of the mill kidnapping thriller , and even the ones that take place on airplanes have been overdone already . In the movie's defense , however , it is brilliantly cast . Jodie Foster established herself as a parent not to be messed with in Little Man Tate in 1991 and then reiterated in spectacular fashion in Panic Room a decade or so later . Even more importantly , there are also plenty of suspects to keep you guessing ? Sean Bean , no stranger to bad guy roles , Peter Sarsgaard , for the same reason , the terrorists ( whose suspicions were thankfully toned down from earlier versions of the script , but who still exchange mysterious glances with other Arabs when they are first approached ) , any members of the crew , etc . Where the movie really fails is in deliberately leading the audience in one direction simply to hide what's coming . The two guys looking into Julia's room at the beginning of the film ( and Kyle's realization later that the strange Arab guy on the plane was one of them and that's why she though she recognized him ) . More importantly , the movie fails logistically . On paper I'm sure the idea of this kind of story worked really well , but you have to consider the person that would plan out a scheme this meticulously that could hinge on something like the need to get a woman and her daughter onto a plane with more than 400 other passengers , and have not a single person notice her enough to be able to say later that she boarded with a little girl and not alone . Also , they may have been able to avoid deploying the entire Newfoundland police force and military had they checked the surveillance tapes at the airport to see whether or not Kyle actually had a little girl with her when she got on the plane . So while close scrutiny of the story reveals enough plot holes to drive a whole fleet of two - story , E-474's through , it is still a taut thriller that is wildly entertaining for the first half and still remains satisfactory after the mystery element is bluntly removed . Jodie Foster delivers a powerful performance , almost too powerful for the rest of the movie to handle , and six-year - old Marlene Lawston is stunningly convincing as her daughter . Her traumatized performance in the first part of the film is just astonishing . All of that being said , I suppose I look back with some degree of disappointment in the movie because it had so many simple but glaring flaws and plot holes , but while I was watching it I think I went through about five or six pounds of popcorn and I loved it . As for thrillers these days , there are definitely better ones than this , but there are far more worse ones than better . |
544,814 | 562,732 | 92,086 | 7 | Classic comedy , but not for all tastes . | The Three Amigos is one of those movies that can be hugely entertaining and amusing but only if you keep in mind that it is not a serious film . Chevy Chase , Martin Short , and Steve Martin , some of the funniest men ever to work in comedy , all team up here as The Three Amigos , a group of out of work actors in early Hollywood cinema . The unfortunate thing is that this is not a movie that is greater than the sum of its parts , since I would expect more from actors with the caliber of Martin , Chase , and Short , even working individually , but even the fact that they are all not used to their full potential is not enough to bring down the rest of the comedy here . The story involves the three out of work silent film actors , who suddenly find themselves unemployed and broke when they receive a telegram from a small village in Mexico desperately asking their assistance . I liked how clever the ploy was where the woman who sent the message was so poor that she could not afford enough words to make her desires clear , so the Amigos read the message and think that they are about to be paid a fortune just to make an appearance in this village . Naturally they jump at the chance since they have nothing better to do . Most of the rest of the film deals with their adventures in this village , which they are supposed to be protecting from an evil villain but do not realize that this is real life until one of them gets shot . You would think that they would have caught on sooner , but on the other hand , they DID happen to stumble into the only tiny village in Mexico where no one speaks Spanish , so it's not hard to understand why they thought the whole thing was a set up . If I went to Mexico and was walking around a dusty village with nothing but endless desert on every side and every single person was speaking only English , I would also wonder what movie set I had just wandered onto . There is some interesting biblical content , which is made interesting really only because of the great satire . As the Amigos are walking through the valley in the shadow of death , they come upon not the talking bush or the burning bush , but the SINGING bush , and can't seem to get it to stop singing long enough to answer their question . ' Will you please stop singing and tell us if you are the singing bush ! ' There's a hilarious sequence right after this about the invisible horseman , and just before was one of my favorite moments in the entire film , when Chase attempts to get off his horse but only succeeds in getting onto the horse next to him facing backwards and seems to be unsure about what just happened . A lot of this movie is made up of funny skits which are strung along a thin and less than convincing clothesline of a plot , but even though the plot itself is not very believable the movie is still very entertaining . There are a lot of scenes that seem to go too far or just don't really seem to fit with the rest of the film ( such as the campfire scene where all the animals join in to the campfire singing ) , but for the most part the comedy is very good and there are a lot of memorable scenes ( the canteen scene in the desert for example , is one to remember ! ) . Not a film that was meant to win any Oscars , but there is definitely some great comic entertainment to be had with The Three Amigos . |
544,824 | 562,732 | 330,181 | 7 | One of America's most notorious serial killers used to be just the guy next door . Who knew of the horrors that were hidden within his crawl space ? | Hey , how about all those neighbors that were always wondering what that awful smell was that was coming from under his house ? Gacy as the unenviable distinction of being one of the few serial killers to rival the depravity of fellow psychopath Ed Gein , whose antisocial antics led to the inspiration of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , The Silence of the Lambs , and Psycho . Gacy was less into wearing other people's skin as he was into strangling and sodomizing young men , providing plenty of material for a sick biography like this , which of course lots of sick people like me will go out and rent . Why we all get such a kick out watching things like this ( by " we all , " of course , I am referring to all of us sick people who get such a kick out of watching things like this ) I am not sure I rightly know , but I think Gacy is a well made film , given its subject matter and it's limited production capabilities . Sure , there are numerous holes , none of the acting is very impressive other than Mark Holton's ( who played Gacy himself ) , and the movie commits that cardinal sin of the movies , it throws logic out the window . The whole premise of the movie , as was the case in Gacy's life , is that John Wayne Gacy was a regular guy next door that no one would ever have suspected , but in the movie the quickness with which everyone dismisses the smell of rotting meat coming from under his house is a little trying . I don't know enough about the details of Gacy's life to know is people actually did smell decay from under his house and ignore , but I can't help but think that even if that did happen , it was dramatized for effect , as they say , in the movie . The thing that is most disturbing about a movie like this is that if someone had written a screenplay like this that was entirely fictional , they would probably have gotten a similar response that Wes Craven got when Last House on the Left was released . People didn't want him to be allowed to work in film again , and yet when it is based on true events people have this morbid fascination with it . Not that that's anything new , it just seems odd to me that people are more offended by fictional violence than true violence . I like that the movie has a lot of restraint when it comes to showing the things that Gacy actually did to his victims . We are not entirely spared a look at how he killed some of his victims ( this would have offended some of Gacy's fans , if you can believe that such a man has them ) , but the movie leaves most of the more heinous acts offscreen , concentrating more on things like thousands of crawling maggots and the inevitable smell emitted from the rotting corpses under his house . Most estimate that Gacy killed something like 30 young men , others say we may never know how many he killed . Holton does a great job with the script , which is not the best , and is especially good at making us believe that Gacy was able to be charming despite how frightening he could be when he was visiting the other half of his personality . It is indeed unsettling to think that a man who dressed up like a clown to entertain sick kids at a hospital could be killing large numbers of young men and doing things much more horrible than sodomy to them , but if you want to get a few insights into how and why he did it , this film is not a bad place to start . Note : I've read that , while this movie concentrates on the story from Gacy's point of view , there is also a television movie called To Catch A Killer that focuses more on the police investigation side of the story . |
544,788 | 562,732 | 10,747 | 7 | Chaplin experimenting . | Sunnyside reminds me of some of the early films in Alfred Hitchcock's career , like Rich & Strange or The Skin Game , which are curiosity pieces both because they come from such massive directors and are still so empty and disappointing . Like some of Hitch's early films , Sunnyside for Charlie Chaplin represents to me a point in his early career when he was testing the waters and still trying to find out what he is really best at doing . Some people were disappointed that Chaplin forced the Tramp into the unlikely role of a farmhand , forgetting that the very nature of the Tramp is that he is such an everyman that he can be placed in virtually every different kind of situation , from brick-layer to World War I soldier , and Chaplin can use his particular brand of comedy to deliver his clever political themes and brilliant slapstick . Some of the situations and sequences don't work so well or run as smoothly as many of Chaplin's more famous ones , and there is a bizarre sequence involving some dancing nymphs , but it is interesting to consider how this early , experimental film foreshadows the work that Chaplin did later in much more famous and highly superior films like City Lights and The Kid . Throughout the film are what may be taken as examples of the exasperation that Chaplin has admitted to having during the production of the film , but to call is a total loss is missing the mark completely . Certainly not the best of Chaplin's early short films , but I don't think Chaplin ever made a real failure . |
543,926 | 562,732 | 452,608 | 7 | Was this the video game or the movie ? | So Jason Statham is by now one of the biggest action stars in the world . He reminds me of a young Bruce Willis , although he's had his share of hits and misses . Death Race is what I would call a critical disaster , because it has nothing but action and carnage . This thing is thin on everything - plot , story , acting , characters , etc . But what else would you expect from a movie with a title like Death Race ? It's fast , loud , vulgar , and violent , and as far as I'm concerned that's all that it promises . Works for me . It seems that in the distant future , the American economy is in shambles , inflation is through the roof , and things have gotten so bad with prison over-crowding that , now that they're run for profit by private corporations , they have resorted to allowing inmates to kill each other off in webcasted death races . And by " distant future , " of course , I mean that the movie takes place in far-off 2012 . If nothing else , Death Race certainly has little faith in whoever will turn out to be our next president . My problem with the movie is that it leaves you with the feeling that a better movie is taking place outside the prison . The movie is essentially an advertisement for the inevitable video game , so I'm willing to accept the ludicrous premise about giving our most hardcore future - criminals heavily armed , high-powered vehicles , but I'm more interested in seeing what's going on in America where the United States military has decided that the best use for their mounted machine guns , laser-guided , armor-piercing RPGs , rocket launchers , and nothing less than napalm , would be to put them in the hands of prison inmates so they can kill each other off for the purpose of online entertainment . But therein you have your message to America about the American economy and our place in the world . Our economy has crashed , so clearly we're no longer the world's # 1 superpower . The races are sold to the public for a whopping $250 per race ( which , given our economic situation , must be a mostly foreign audience ) , and since they regularly pull in tens of millions of viewers , evidently America has been reduced in the world to a source of violent entertainment . Then again , I'm probably reading far too deeply into the material than was intended . They do , after all , bus in teams of stunningly hot female co-pilots for no decipherable reason . I'm not sure which is a more dangerous thing to bring in to a prison , rocket launchers and napalm or hot women . But of course what really matters is the cars and the carnage and there's plenty of both . Many of the modifications make no sense , like the 6-inch steel armor plate on the back of Statham's Mustang , which must weigh double what the car weighs , but for full-throttle violence and mayhem you can hardly do better than this . But if there is one thing that I'll have a hard time forgiving the movie for , it's the way the weapons are activated . Joan Allen made a surprising career decision in taking a major role in this movie , which leaves her little to do except be a cold , heartless wench and call for manhole-sized buttons on the track to be turned on and off . Sort of like the little prizes and things that you have to run over on the track in order to get enhanced weapons . The similarity to old Nintendo games is a little too much for comfort . Also , remember how if you hit one of those little oil patches your car would go spinning wildly into the wall ? That happens here , too . Ultimately the movie raises an interesting moral debate , whether or not it's worth it to give violent criminals a chance to win their freedom if they manage to bring some money into the ailing economy and kill off a few of their fellow hardened criminals in the process . The movie is basically The Fast and the Furious without all the shiny prettiness of it . The cars are not high-powered speed-racers , they are assault weapons with wheels and untold horsepower , and aesthetic appeal is unimportant compared to sheer power of destruction . I was a little disappointed to see that the movie didn't have the narrative drive of something like Crank or The Transporter , it's a watered down version of Statham's past movies . He's got a tremendous screen presence , showcased best in Snatch , I think , but all he's given to do here is look angry behind the wheel and periodically kick the crap out of some skinheads . You may rediscover that you enjoy seeing white supremacists get their asses kicked , and if you are interested in deadly car racing you may enjoy this one . But given that most half-baked action flicks of this variety tend to spawn endless sequels ( 4 Fast 4 Furious is on its way , for example ) , I just hope that Death Race 2 : Full Throttle takes place on the mainland . |
543,800 | 562,732 | 95,963 | 7 | Arnold and James's Lethal Weapon / Tango & Cash / Tough Guys / Rush Hour , etc . | Or one of those odd couple cop movies , anyway . I remember seeing Red Heat when I was a kid and I didn't really like it , but I think I was just too young to appreciate a movie where Arnold plays anything other than the Terminator or Douglas Quaid . In Red Heat , he stars alongside James Belushi , who is so small , iconographically , in a movie with Arnold that you almost forget he's in it at all . Arnold plays the part of Russian supercop Ivan Danko , a role that he fits perfectly because of his size , his looks , and his accent . Audiences in Russia may notice that his accent is not quite Russian , but it fits well enough for his purposes . Where Belushi is concerned , the movie is more comedy than action , since every single scene he appears in is tailored to allow for some pert one-liners . He's not quite the comedian his brother was , but I challenge anyone not to get a laugh out of the scene where he flirts with a woman passing by in the airport while he's waiting for Captain Danko to arrive from Russia ( ' Good thinkin ' ! ' ) . The plot is centered on Danko's assignment to travel to America and bring back Viktor Rosta , who is wanted in Russia for a whole string of offenses , and the catch is that he's supposed to do it without letting anyone know why the guy is wanted . He explains to Sgt . Ridzik ( Belushi ) later in the film , saying something about how Russia does not like to hang it's dirty laundry out in public . There are some interesting comparisons between Soviet and American governments , particularly communism there vs . capitalism here . My favorite was when Danko checks into a hotel and turns on the TV and when he sees that the first thing he gets is the porn channel , he shakes his head and says , ' Capitalism . ' Not all of the comparisons are this low-brow , however . I actually think that some of the best parts about the movie are where America and Russia and seriously compared . The odd cop couple was not a new concept when Red Heat was released , but it has a simple story that is fleshed out into a superior action film and features one of Arnold's better performances . I guess he can never get away from the stolidity with which he delivers his lines , but in this case it fits his character perfectly and provides a new blend of comic relief , although one that was almost re-created , and improved , a few years later in the Terminator movies . I hope that Danko and Ridzik are not meant to represent Russia and America , respectively , because if so , we look like a bunch of belligerent , foul-mouthed goofballs , hitting on every woman in sight . More likely , the two characters are probably made so different to set up so many situations in which their differences make people laugh . That's important in a movie like this , which is just as much a comedy as an action film , if not more . And given that there is a chicken-fight near the end of the film that is fought using tour buses , that's saying a lot . |
544,323 | 562,732 | 122,151 | 7 | The fourth installment in the now huge Lethal Weapon series has no shortage of action , but it just doesn't have the high quality of the last three . | By this point in the series , it seems that they just aren't trying as hard with these films , which is kind of a shame . The Lethal Weapon series is really a good group of action films , but part 4 doesn't really seem to take itself seriously . It clearly had the biggest budget and probably some of the most elaborate stunts and action scenes ( as well as some of the most exciting , such as that thrilling freeway chase scene ) , but many of the other elements of the film have deteriorated badly . I think that with the addition of Chris Rock , while he delivered a satisfactory performance as far as the role that he was playing , caused the film to detract into too much goofy comedy , which unnecessarily diverted attention away from the surprisingly interesting smuggling plot involving illegal Chinese immigrants and counterfeit money . Joe Pesci was just as funny as ever , which is probably the reason the Chris Rock actually took away from the film as a whole . Pesci is all the comic relief that a Lethal Weapon movie ever needed , and Rock is another substantial addition of comic relief that just isn't necessary . Danny Glover and Mel Gibson work great together for the fourth time ; I'm beginning to wonder if they couldn't go on with this great duo forever . And of course , Renee Russo is back , with her and Riggs picking up with their quirky relationship , right where they left off at the end of part 3 . But the person who really steals the whole show is Jet Li . Man , I thought Jackie Chan was fun to watch ! Even though it's not all exactly real , this guy pulls out some unbelievable martial arts moves that give Lethal Weapon 4 a much-needed boost of energy . I wonder how long it will be before Jet Li and Jackie Chan come out with a movie together . Probably never , because if they worked together , no one could touch them , and if they were enemies , neither of them would be able to end up as the loser or the bad guy . Oh well , we can still hope , right ? Even though the 4th installment in the Lethal Weapon series is not nearly as good as any of the previous three , it still remains a quality action film , despite its many weaknesses . |
544,273 | 562,732 | 4,693 | 7 | The Tramp rough-housing with style . | In The Rival Mashers , Chaplin is in full Tramp form and with plenty of kicking and punching and yanking people around with his cane , although I have to say that there are at least a few things that make this film stand out among the huge number that he was churning out for Keystone in 1914 . First of all , it contains what has to be Charlie's most stylish cigarette lighting ever , it's classic . He oozes hilarious confidence , he's almost like a mobster . Also , it is one of the few films where a woman passes by him and stops to check him out , rather than the other way around . I also found it interesting that Chester Conklin seems to be trying to copy Charlie's outfit . He appears in pants which are wildly too big for him and hang limply off his hips , an outrageously tiny shirt and tie and an ill-fitting jacket , a little too similar to Chaplin's classic outfit not to notice . It should be noted , however , that Conklin ultimately performed in nearly 300 films , almost four times as many as Chaplin , but there is clearly no question about who was the more talented filmmaker and / or actor . At any rate , The Rival Mashers , also known as Those Love Pangs ( this was still back when all of Chaplin's films had a whole list of different names , mostly due to callous re-editing and re-releasing ) , is one of his lesser man-woman-cop-in-the-park comedies , as very little happens other than a few mildly amusing gags and a few appearances of what would become Chaplin's unmistakable style . Expectations were much lower back then for these films ( as they should remain today when watching them ) , but Chaplin had done much better before . |
544,407 | 562,732 | 109,190 | 7 | Away from home alone . . . | This is not at all the kind of movie that I would normally watch . There are children's movies and then there are family movies , and the good family movies are the ones that can really be enjoyed by people of all ages . This movie does not at all strike me as a movie that could be enjoyed by people of all ages , mostly because of that picture on the movie box . Ever since King Kong Lives I have developed an almost frightening aversion to any movie that features grinning gorillas . Nevertheless I gave this one a chance and I'm glad I did . Amazingly enough , almost immediately I discovered that this movie is funnier than most " adult " comedies that I've seen lately , even the good ones . There are so many laugh-out - loud moments just in the first 30 minutes that I didn't know how they could keep that up . Sadly , they don't , but even the less impressive second half is a fun romp through the city at the expense of some witless crooks . The kids are gonna love this . The similarities to Home Alone are obvious and expected , being written by John Hughes , who has an astonishing list of writing , producing and directing credits stretching over the last 35 years , including genuine classics like Ferris Bueller's Day Off , The Breakfast Club , The Great Outdoors and Home Alone . And yes , Home Alone is a classic , I don't care what anyone says ! There is one scene of ridiculous bad taste , when Eddie ( Joe Mantegna ) is hiding the baby under his coat so the police don't find it , only to suddenly discover that he has to maintain his cool before the men in blue as the baby lights a Zippo lighter and lights his crotch on fire . For a movie that is so obviously meant for a very young audience , this one has a surprising amount of sex jokes . That is , however , the only major problem with the movie ( except at the end when they discover that " Baby " is only acting out his favorite storybook . RIGHT ) . Yes , the baby manages to walk around crowded city streets without anyone ever noticing except the bad guys , but he also manages to climb onto a steel beam being lifted hundreds of feet off of the ground AND cuddle with a monstrous gorilla , both without showing the least bit of fear . Man , that gorilla was scary , too . Obviously not real , but my question is how they got that kid to sit next to that thing without screaming and crying in fear . Nevertheless , there are so many funny moments and so many truly hilarious jokes ( " I seen him . He's in the big broad's purse ? . " ) that it's easy to overlook these things . Like so many other movies , if you apply real world logic to it , of course it falls apart immediately , but for an evening of good clean fun you could certainly do a lot worse ! |
544,156 | 562,732 | 120,201 | 7 | An excellent sci-fi war film with an absolutely awful ending . | For the first hour , Starship Troopers is just amazing . The film is set up extremely well , the story is very well-told , and the military training scenes in particular are especially effective in communicating the situation of the human race as it is portrayed in the film . However , the film had what I like to call a " hit by a truck " ending . There didn't seem to be enough of a conclusion reached , the film just kind of stopped . This could mean that the film studio simply ran out of money , or that they are just leaving room for a sequel , but either way , it is just too abrupt . Besides that , it seems that the film as a whole ( and especially the first three quarters of it ) draws more from Orson Scott Card's classic science fiction war novel " Ender's Game " than it does from Robert Heinlein's novel on which the film is supposedly based . True , the characters aren't children , as they are in Ender's Game , but their activities are virtually identical . Starship Troopers is definitely worth watching ; the special effects are spectacular , the war scenes are amazing but also incredibly graphic , and even the relatively modest futuristic atmosphere is more convincing than the usual flying cars and alien-looking clothes ( as in Back To The Future II ) . The film could stand a few improvements in acting and scripting , but as a whole it is a relatively satisfying science fiction film that , despite its disappointments , I definitely recommend . |
543,969 | 562,732 | 150,377 | 7 | Thanks God for Tommy Lee Jones . | Double Jeopardy is an interesting enough thriller , but it just isn't as satisfying as you would expect a movie with this premise to be . Ashley Judd is just annoying for the first hour or so of the film , and it isn't until the fugitive style chase begins that the movie gets really interesting . And this , of course , is where Tommy Lee's excellent acting is the most entertaining and fun . He has unfortunately been somewhat typecast since his spectacular performance in The Fugitive , but at least he has been typecast in a role that is always fun to watch and that he can always pull off excellently . I think it's pointless to try to argue whether or not the whole double jeopardy law can truly be handled in the way that it was described in the film , but as a crime film Double Jeopardy was pretty good . Judd's husband in the film is one of those characters that's easy to hate , and not only because of what he did in the movie . You just look at this guy and you immediately don't like him . That's good casting , but it also completely voided any effectiveness that his ' auction ' might ever have had . And how about that coffin scene ! Who cares that no one gets buried in a coffin that has plenty of room for two ! That was one of the creepiest things I've seen in a movie in years . Clearly , there is nothing spectacular about Double Jeopardy . It's not going to win any awards and it probably won't be remembered for very long . But it has a certain charm that can unfortunately only be appreciated if you're in the right state of mind when you watch it . Don't expect it to be as good as The Fugitive just because Tommy Lee Jones is in it ( really , are any movies as good as The Fugitive ? ) . I mean , let's face it , Double Jeopardy isn't even as good as Under Siege , but as far as a moderately entertaining crime thriller to kill a couple hours , you could definitely do a lot worse . |
544,109 | 562,732 | 320,691 | 7 | Your incompetence is becoming most taxing ? | Kate Beckinsale in Underworld is a clear inspiration taken from recent vampire / goth / sci fi movies , particularly the Blade and Matrix series , and the audience will surely be making comparisons , even subconsciously . She embodies the sleek , ass-kicking skills of Trinity from The Matrix but her vampire element reminds me more of the surprisingly effective performance that Parker Posey gave in Blade 3 . You see , Beckinsale is Selene , a vampire who has devoted her existence to destroying " lycans , " the werewolves who have sleeked up their image for the 21st century by removing the ' thrope ' from the end of their title . It seems that the vampires and the lycans have been involved in a raging war with each other for well over 1 , 000 years , which prompted me to wonder what the average kill rate is for a vampire or lycan soldier . Either they breed really really fast or they're just not very good warriors . At any rate , Selene stumbles across a conspiracy involving the leader of the lycans , Lucian , and the leader of the vampires , Kraven , to combine the blood of the two species and create a new breed of nightwalker that would be more powerful than both . Vampires and werewolves are incompatible even at the cellular level ( even their blood fights when combined ) , but Selene still fears that Kraven's and Lucian's plot would endanger the vampires , so she awakens their dark lord from a mummified hibernation a full century ahead of schedule . The intricacies of the plot , however , are noticeably more complex than the material can sustain . There are three rulers of the vampires , and at any given time there is one awake and ruling and two in hibernation . Selene's waking of Viktor 100 years early is a sacred violation that hasn't been broken in 1 , 400 years . She needs to find get conclusive proof of this dark conspiracy or even Viktor would be powerless to save her from a most vicious punishment . I missed the part , by the way , where they explained why Viktor couldn't be put back to sleep after having woken up , but no matter . He's awake now and his gradual transformation from a mummy into a cadaverous vampire leader is one of the more interesting make-up effects in the movie . The special effects , by the way , are the thing that will make or break the movie . It's dark and dreary from beginning to end , which is not unexpected in a film about a war between werewolves and vampires , but the darkness gets a little repetitive long before the end of the movie . Upon wakening , Viktor finds himself in the middle of a situation in which this vampire woman has broken a 1 , 000 year old tradition to report to him a virtually impossible conspiracy , even while she is falling in love with a lycan-infected human named Michael , which is strictly forbidden ( it's forbidden because he's a lycan , by the way , not because his name is Michael ) . Scott Speedman is given remarkably little to do in the entire film , although the transformation of his character provides for what is by far the film's best battle scene . The soundtrack is loud and violent , like much of the rest of the movie , and while it manages to avoid adding much to the vampire or werewolf genres despite having combined them together so well , there are some interesting ways that the movie brings the story into the 21st century . Not only do these ancient creatures now have cell-phones , but high-powered handguns that fire liquid-silver and phosphorescent bullets . They have , it seems , " harnessed sunlight as a weapon . " With these kinds of things going on , you might expect a better movie , but it's fast and brutal and stylish and ends with the promise of a sequel in which everything that we have come to learn from this movie will be completely changed . And for something that could so easily have been written off as a Blade or Matrix rip-off at the time of its release , that's a pretty successful outcome . |
543,868 | 562,732 | 39,694 | 7 | Slow and plodding . | I would say that at least the full first half of this film is almost intolerably boring , but the second and third acts more than make up for the slow outset . One of Hitchcock's few legal thrillers , The Paradine Case mixes the suspected wrong man theme so typical of his work to rear it's head , along with the film noir feel that is immediately conveyed through the stunningly beautiful Mrs . Prradine , accused of murdering her blind husband and clearly the forbidden object of her attorney's affections , the talented , handsome , and married Anthony Keane , played with outstanding intensity by Gregory Peck . As far as being a Hitchcock film , there is almost nothing technically brilliant about it , other than the fact that nearly every individual shot in the film , whether inherently interesting or not , is beautifully framed and photographed , but as is not very often the case , the story far overshadows the direction or photography . They heavy hand of David O . Selznick is felt throughout the film , not the least reason for which is the prominent bookends that the Selznick studio includes in the film , but where the movie is especially strong is the complexity of the story . We know that there is some chemistry between Keane and Mrs . Paradine , but Keane's wife hopes that Mrs . Paradine is found guilty and goes free - for Mrs . Keane's own emotional well being . Keane's feelings of romantic involvement and jealousy color his views and performance in defending the case throughout the film , and often his efforts to defend her are directly at odds with her own behavior and statements . This is not a simple film at all , regardless of how little technical trickery Hitchcock employed in the shooting , and it does start off a little too slow for my taste , but the construction of the story provides for another , slightly difference creative outlet for Hitchcock's creative genius . |
544,481 | 562,732 | 210,616 | 7 | A surprisingly good drama about the hardships of professional ballet dancing , but unfortunately brought down a bit by a routine romance between the main characters . | Center Stage is a very well thought out film that follows a group of dancers through their trials in a prestigious dancing academy . The acting and directing are both very good , but the film as a whole suffers from the un-creative insertion of a done-to-death love story . The exact same love triangle seen in Center Stage can be seen in countless other films of all kinds , and this is an unfortunate problem with this film , which is otherwise extremely good . Sure , there are plenty of dancing movies out there , but there really aren't that many that deal specifically with ballet . The way that the story is partially acted out while the characters are doing impressive dance scenes is excellent , but a bit of cheesy acting late in the film as well as a disappointingly predictable ending take a lot away from it . Despite its problems , however , Center Stage is a very enjoyable and watch-able film . Not the best , but definitely quality entertainment . |
544,250 | 562,732 | 69,792 | 7 | So accurate it's almost like a time capsule . | Now , when I speak of the accuracy of this movie I am , of course , speaking either prophetically , I guess , or hypocritically , because I am neither black nor old enough to have been alive when it was made . Nonetheless , having had bad experiences with blaxploitation films ( such as the astonishingly bad Sweet Sweetback's Badaassss Song ) , I recently saw an outstanding documentary called Badasss Cinema which really opened my eyes to this entire genre and taught me about the things that had previously caused me to sort of look down on some of the films . I have a tendency to pick movies apart when a lot of really little things bother me ( the James Bond movies are particularly susceptible to this ) , and that happened in a major way in watching movies like Sheba , Baby , Coffy , and Black Mama , White Mama . It was interesting to learn the history behind this genre , as well as the way it seemed to appear , become wildly popular , and then fizzle out with surprising speed . The genre's disappearance can largely , and not surprisingly , be blamed on Hollywood , for reasons which I'll leave to the above mentioned documentary to explain . Armed with a new outlook on blaxploitation , I rented Black Caesar and was pleasantly and not so pleasantly surprised at the same time , strangely enough . It is not surprising that a blaxploitation film almost named after one of the first gangster films ever made , Little Caesar would attempt to resemble the most famous gangster film of all time , which was released the year before . The infamous Fred Williamson plays the part of Tommy Gibbs , a hardened youth who grew up with an intense desire to firmly establish himself as a force to be reckoned with on the streets . He finds tremendous success , and the movie moves forward making intense sociological statements about the plight of black people in early 1970s America . Unfortunately , as the movie goes on it dissolves into more and more ham-handed lashes out at white people in general , especially that favorite blaxploitation scapegoat , the White Cop , or the White Guy in Suit . While the African American community certainly had , and still has , in many ways , a lot to lash out and to be resentful about , it was really sad to see such a smart and well made film resort to contriving situations between Gibbs and white people who were so outwardly racist and brutal toward him just for the sake of setting themselves up for his revenge . The shoe-polish scene near the end of the film , as well as the ear scene relatively early in the film are prime examples . ( possible spoiler ) On a more subtle note , it is also noteworthy that a great length of time is spent showing Gibbs staggering through the streets of New York at the end of the movie because of a gunshot wound . This takes place in broad daylight and not a single person tries to help him , offers to call the police , or even so much as puts a hand over their mouth in sorrow or sympathy . I really enjoyed Black Caesar and I think it's one of the better blaxploitation films that came out of the 1970s . But you can certainly scratch subtlety off of its list of successes . |
544,354 | 562,732 | 322,802 | 7 | I can't wait for The Version You Couldn't See In Theaters ! ! ! | I saw Jackass : The Movie on its opening night . I don't know why . Maybe because I'm a college student and have lots of friends who are still into goofy high school movies like this . I think I saw Half Baked on opening night for the same reason , although that time I had the excuse of really being in high school . I can already see the masses of responses to the sickening childishness of this movie , the pointlessness , the fact that there's no plot , it's little more than a longer version of the TV show and with stunts so dangerous or disgusting or immoral that they couldn't be shown on television . These things are all true , of course , but the movie deserves at least a blunt form of respect . Johnny Knoxville was able , for example , to get a contract signed to actually make his disgusting , immoral , childish , plotless TV show into a movie . Just the fact that the movie was made at all shows that there has to be some kind of filmmaking talent involved in its creation , even if that talent is entirely in the business area . Besides that , there can be no doubt that the movie is entertaining and amusing , even if it is on the level of fourth grade humor . Some of the stunts were just sickening and unpleasant , such as the snow cone scene and anything involving anal excretions ( or insertions ) , and this does , of course , include the abysmally moronic scene where the old fat man takes a beating while sitting on the toilet . It's so obvious that they were running out of ideas here that that's almost funny in itself . However , some of the scenes really were creative and funny . My personal favorite , of course , is the one with the naked fat man carrying the gong . Here's this great big fat guy wearing nothing but a diaper , and he's holding onto a gong with both hands . He walks up behind some unsuspecting citizens , and Johnny smacks the gong and then runs away , leaving the fat guy to stand there and bow and the people to look at him in shock . I just about fell out of my chair laughing at this , because if I was one of those people and I turned around and saw this naked fat guy holding a gong with two hands , the only thing that I would be able to think is , ' What the hell did he just hit that gong with ? ! ' |
544,510 | 562,732 | 104,714 | 7 | The third installment in the Lethal Weapon series is yet another surprisingly good action film . These are pure action films for the pure action fan , and this is one of the rare series ' that just never seem t | Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs are back again as the now inseparable team , out again to get bad guys . Yes , this is the same traditional Lethal Weapon foundation , but I think that what keeps these movies so good is the fact that they keep coming up with cool new bad guys and interesting stories to keep the audience's attention . Part III starts off straight away with an action packed bombing scene ( continuing the traditional action packed opening scene of all Lethal Weapon films so far ) . An important element that is found here is that almost all of the events in the Lethal Weapon films are not entirely unlikely ( with the exception of things like all this shoulder popping nonsense ) . The bomb scenes , the threats , the gunfights , the car chases , all are manipulated for the film , but they are not as ridiculously exaggerated as things often are in Jerry Bruckheimer films . Because of this , you are able to overlook the laughable suggestion that if Riggs is driving an armored car and there is a bad guy with a gun in the passenger seat , he can send the guy through the windshield by slamming on the brakes . That was a huge flaw in part III because it ended an edge of your seat car chase with a side splitting laugh . Anyway , what I really thought was good about this installment is the story . Roger's son is hanging out with gangsters , giving the audience a feeling of unease for his well-being , and then the police discover that there are armor piercing bullets ( ' cop killers ' ) out on the streets . Their objective is to find the bullets ( as well as a sizeable collection of stolen guns ) , get rid of them , and find out who has been distributing them ( and hence , find the stolen guns as well ) . There's tragedy , there's tons of action , there's comedy ( thanks to the endlessly amusing Leo Getz ) , and there's even eventually a unique romance . There is something to be said about the quality of an actor that Joe Pesci is . Only he could play a pathetic role ( as in Lethal Weapon 2 , 3 , and 4 , as well as the failure of a crook in Home Alone ) but also play other parts such as that of a ruthless gangster ( as he does numerous times in other films ) . Yes , Lethal Weapon III does have the obligatory romance , and while I am generally against this in action films ( take virtually every Jerry Bruckheimer film ever made ) , it is done very well here , because it fits the characters very cleanly . Gibson , as we know , is the registered lethal weapon on the force , and Russo is the Internal Affairs agent who is sent to investigate how 15 , 000 guns , which were scheduled to be destroyed , were stolen from the police and found their way into the hands of some gangsters . Gibson and Russo hate each other for much of the film , as they are almost competing against one another , but they amusingly get pretty close one night as they are having some sort of contest to see who has the biggest scars . Not real attractive , but this is what you would expect from the types of characters that they play . Despite the fact the Lethal Weapon III is a good action film and is a quality addition to the series , it is a bit of a step down from the spectacular original and the almost as good first sequel . For example , there was a small amount of things that were just thrown in . For example , there is one scene where Russo beats the hell out of several criminals at once single-handedly , but it should be kept in mind that she did that offensively . She threw the first punch and , while it was fun to watch , it's illegal to do that , and would have been much better had she been forced to defend herself . Another thing , the phrase ' son of a bitch ' is said in the film about 2 , 000 times , mostly by Roger , and it gets real tiring after a while . There's another good car chase at the end , but then we are expected to believe that these armor piercing bullets are capable of shooting through the shovel on a tractor ? That scene was nicely dramatic , but I feel no reason to believe that ANY handheld gun could shoot through a piece of construction equipment like that . This movie ends with Roger being congratulated in his bathtub by his family for his retirement ( much like his 50th birthday in the opening scene of the original ) , and it is here that he announces to them ( as well as to a largely thankful audience ) that he plans to postpone his retirement . Good way to end a quality action film , with the promise of a sequel . However , although Part III was a good action film , as I have mentioned before , it is a bit of a step down from the previous two , and one can only hope that this trend turns around and the inevitable third sequel comes closer to being as good as , or even better ( ! ) , than the original . |
544,219 | 562,732 | 416,449 | 7 | Wow , I gotta start working out . . . | I remember I almost fell out of my chair when I first saw the preview for 300 , although it's taken me over a year since I bought the DVD to get around to watching it . Maybe because the bad reviews started trickling in . It's an adaptation of a graphic novel that I haven't read , but I'm told that that novel portrays a sort of heightened reality like what Leonidas describes as he is faced with seemingly insurmountable danger . The movie retains that level of hyper - reality and achieves a truly unique look and experience , but it may put off viewers interested in seeing something about the real story that the film is based on . Of course , the true story of a hugely inferior band of Spartans holding out against the Persian army is so clouded in myth and legend that by now it's impossible to say for sure what really happened , but we can probably assume that a good majority of what happens in this movie didn't happen . My knowledge of ancient Greek history is pretty limited , to say the least , but I was sort of expecting that the movie would tell something about what happened at the Battle of Thermopylae , where the courageous Spartans took their stand . Instead , it's sort of a bloated comic-book movie the sometimes doesn't seem to know whether it wants to emulate Troy , Lord of the Rings , or Harry Potter . There's a hunchback , there's magic , there are fully grown mountain dwarfs , a healthy dose of Hollywood / comic book machismo , and lots of spraying blood that reminded me of Tarantino's spectacularly disappointing Sin City . At least here it's not green . In the movie's defense , it is definitely an astonishing visual achievement . It's true that the entire film is digital and you are never able to forget that , but it is definitely beautiful . The problem with digital backgrounds is that , apparently , they still haven't been able to make them look really realistic , especially battle scenes . I'm pretty sure they're making video games these days that look this good . Half of the reason I wanted to see the movie was because of the tough talk in defiance of so - called authority , I always love that . Have you seen those " Caution : This is Sparta " signs ? HILARIOUS . Anyway , there are a lot of classic moments and memorable lines in the movie ( " There's no reason we can't be civil , is there ? " ) , but after a while I found the over-the-top bravado a little cloying and just a little too , ah , over-the-top . There is no sense of realism , but then again the movie never tries for it . It is , basically , a romanticized and dramatized telling of a historical battle , just like what Braveheart is . But this movie is romanticized and dramatized in completely different ways . Ultimately , I think the result is better off intended for a slightly younger audience . The performances in the film are wonderful , sometimes even astonishing . Gerard Butler as Leonidas is one of the most intense performances I've seen in a movie in some years , reminding me for some reason of the unbelievable level of intensity that Tom Cruise brought to Mission Impossible III . I noticed some IMDb user make the bizarre claim that Xerxes , played by Rodrigo Santoro , looked gay . Yes , Xerxes is quite a spectacle to behold , but effeminate ? PLEASE . The only thing remotely effeminate about him were his eyebrows , but other than that he had the otherworldly presence that a living god should have . And besides , I have to say that I wonder about anyone who could hear his voice and think androgyny ! 300 was a slight disappointment to me , but it definitely succeeds in what it sets out to do . It's a wild ride from start to finish and it never lets up , but I can't deny that there are some definite cheese moments , even for a film like this . It promises basically 100 minutes of exactly what you see in that almost weirdly impressive theatrical trailer , and if you can handle that for a couple hours , you're in for a treat . Terrible date movie , though . . . |
543,883 | 562,732 | 266,915 | 7 | More of the same ? | Rush Hour 2 is pretty much a continuation of the first Rush Hour , which is not entirely a bad thing . Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan are back in Chan's latest east meets west action comedy , which is another goofball comedy interspersed with what is meant to be a relatively serious crime story . Structurally , Rush Hour 2 is almost identical to the first Rush Hour , which is bad in its redundancy , but good in that it is almost as entertaining and amusing as the first one was . As is almost always the case with comedy sequels like this ( take the Austin Powers films as another perfect example ) , there is a lot of comedy from the original that is turned around or repeated in the sequel , either complementing on or feeding on the success of the original . One of Chris Tucker's lines from Part 1 ( ' Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth ? ! ' ) , for example , is now spoken by Jackie Chan , in an amusing scene that clearly makes good fun of Chan's English speaking skills . The astonishingly beautiful Zhang Ziyi , of Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon fame , plays the role of one of the villains in the Chinese gang , and although she is a welcome addition to the film , Rush Hour 2 is clearly below her level of acting skill and presence . There are some excellent fighting scenes with her , which is good because even Jackie Chan's fast paced and often hilarious fight scenes seem to have met their match with the usually faster and often better moves seen in Jet Li's films . One can only wonder how long it will be before the two are in a film together . Now THAT I'd like to see . With action comedies like this , there is an almost universal lack of anything new . They are almost always formulaic , and it was a relief to see that there was some innovation here . I've seen a lot of movies like this , but I have to admit that I've never seen one that involves a Ying Tao grenade taped inside someone's mouth . That was a pretty good scene . There are some more smart-ass lines from Tucker about black people and Chinese people ( ' Don't ever get in front of a black man while he's standing at a buffet line ! ' ) that could have and probably should have been left out , but as a whole , it's a fun movie . And as s the case with most slapstick comedies and Jackie Chan films , the outtakes at the end were some of the funniest parts of the movie . |
544,001 | 562,732 | 383,574 | 7 | In the oily sea , the killing ground ? | When I left the theater after having seen the first Pirates sequel , I overheard two guys behind me talking about the movie , one of whom importantly summed up the movie with the words , " It was like , all action no story . " I didn't look , but I'm sure he puffed out his chest as he said it , too . While I'm sure that I am guilty of something like it from time to time , there is nothing that irritates me more than people who walk into a movie like this , sum it up with some cliché , and then fold their arms triumphantly , sure that they are superior to everyone involved in making the movie . What a tool . On the other hand , my reaction may have something to do with the fact that the story in this movie is so huge that I think I would have to watch it at least three or four times before I really caught everything that was going on . The plot is hardly Shakespearean in its intricacy , but for a summer popcorn blockbuster it's pretty intense . The movie has its strengths and weaknesses , but for sheer entertainment it resides comfortably near the top of the list of the current releases . Granted , it's too long by about 45 minutes , Keira Knightly has not done much to shake that pompous Britishness that made her role in the first movie ( and this one ) goofy almost to the point of being intolerable , the great Johnny Depp comes dangerously close to overacting once or twice , Orlando Bloom rarely stops overacting from beginning to end , and the action sequences are so long and so CGI and cut together so dizzyingly fast that there will be times when you will want to close your eyes , not to mention that some of the action setups are just ridiculous . Captain Jack's rotisserie situation , for example , shocked me because I didn't think I would see something this soon which would outdo the stampede sequence in King Kong for absurdity . However , the CGI effects are certainly impressive , Davy Jones is a phenomenal villain ( the effects that created him and that make up his facial expressions remind me of how impressed I was with Gollum in Lord of the Rings ) , and like I said , I was highly impressed with the depth of the story . I think the movie definitely suffered from an obviously exploded budget , there are times when it seems that they didn't know when to stop spending money on the movie , but for the most part I think they were able to keep it in check ( the swordfight on top of the rolling water-wheel , however , is not an example of keeping limitless spending in check ) . I didn't love the movie as much as I had heard I would , I liked Captain Jack Sparrow a lot better in the original film , and by the time this one was finally over I was numb from the waist down ( and around the eye-sockets , somewhat ) , but there is a hell of a lot of movie here , and the closing scene will have you jumping out of your seat for part 3 ? |
543,987 | 562,732 | 259,288 | 7 | A successful attempt at creating a love-struck dramatic thriller , but Dragonfly goes a little too far with the supernatural element at some points . | Dragonfly is the story of Joe Darrow ( Kevin Costner ) who suddenly loses his wife , and his reaction is to work even harder at the hospital , ' to prevent anyone else from joining her . ' While working virtually nonstop at the hospital , strange things begin to happen with some of the kids who have near death experiences , particularly the ones who were previously looked after by Emily ( Susanna Thompson ) , Joe's wife . This is where the first of the supernatural clichés comes in , as we see a kid flat-lining who is declared dead , only to jerk his head up and look straight at Joe with bulging eyes for a split second , and then drop his head back to the pillow . Nice little spooky moment , but we've seen it about a thousand times before . This kid and another kid begin to tell Joe about their encounters with Emily in their near death experiences , leading him to believe that she is stuck in limbo and desperately trying to reach him . ( spoilers ) There are plenty of cheesy moments in the movie , but as a whole it is an interesting and entertaining supernatural love story . The ending is a complete cop-out , despite being mildly satisfying . It's just too much that his wife survived the crash , made it to the village downriver , and won the hearts of the tribe there ( the one that ' hates outsiders ' ) to the point where they delivered her baby and kept her in a hut ( after Emily's death ) like it was delivered straight from the gods . Kept it there , that is , until Joe arrived to pick her up . I will admit that I loved seeing Joe united with his daughter , but there comes a point when things are happening in the movie just a little too conveniently . For the sake of brevity , I won't go into all such instances , but as another example , let's not overlook the fact that Joe's foot was so jammed on that bus that he drowned , and then when he was pulled from the bus it drifted right out like it had never been stuck at all . I have already complained about the supernatural element of the movie , but not because I don't think that it was creative or that I don't think it was a good addition to the story . On the contrary , thinking back on it after the movie was over , I thought that the supernatural element was one of the most interesting parts of the movie , although I stand by my opinion that it just became goofy at some points . I loved the whole mystery surrounding the crucifixes made out of jell-o , especially when they kept turning up in increasingly strange places and in strange ways , I liked the way that dragonflies kept turning up in unusual places , and I especially liked the scene where the paper-weight finds its way out of the box and back onto the counter , and all of Joe's clothes find their way out of his suitcase and right back into the closet . On the one hand , things like this indicate a more cheesy supernatural thriller ( a lot of this is stuff that you would expect to see in bad horror movies ) . For example , when Joe is selling his house , why does he feel the need to do all of his packing in the middle of the night and in total darkness except for one small bedside lamp ? But on the other hand , there are usually some counterarguments against things like this . Maybe he left all the lights off ( especially after he had run out of the house , at which point everyone in the audience is probably wishing that he would just go inside and turn on the lights ? at least ONE light ) because he was just as desperate to hear from Emily as she supposedly was to contact him . The whole idea of having these kids draw these wiggly crucifixes is one of the main things that keeps your attention captivated throughout the film , and I liked that it turned out to be a way for Emily to tell Joe where she lived the last days of her life , as well as where their daughter was . I was also glad that the movie didn't go the way of Joe making the attempt to have a near-death experience himself so he could see Emily in an experience of his own . I was starting to get afraid that I was about to see a sequel to Flatliners . There were some genuinely scary moments in Dragonfly , such as the scene when Joe hears Big Bird , the talking parrot that never talks to him , calling out ' Honey , I'm home , ' in the middle of the night . This scene involves Joe walking down a long , dark hallway toward a lightly swaying door with a bright light behind it ( probably one of the most tired clichés in the genre ) , but hearing the bird saying that was just like Emily was speaking through it . I was impressed . The light behind the door is followed by the standard scare of an animal shrieking and suddenly interrupting the stone silence ( this is usually done with a cat , so at least they changed SOMEthing ) , but there were definitely some good scares in this scene . I've heard some complaints about the casting in this film , but I can't say that I understand why someone would complain . Kevin Costner , in particular , is a veteran of this exact type of role , and I admit that I have an almost immutable liking for him even if he's in a bad film . Susanna Thompson portrays Emily wonderfully , for the little amount of time that she's in the film , and the rest of the cast adds very nicely to the film , creating a realistic atmosphere , particularly in the hospital setting . Dragonfly has the unfortunate quality of being a film that delivers several new ideas and situations , but these are grouped along with a line of clichés and routine situations . This is not the most memorable film , but it definitely has its shining moments . |
544,160 | 562,732 | 111,742 | 7 | Wasn't the werewolf theme used up by the early 80's at the latest ? Apparently not . | I didn't expect much from this film . Actually , the only reason that I watched it was because I am a huge Jack Nicholson fan , and I was surprised at how well-done the movie was . Jack Nicholson plays an editor named William Randall who kind of lets people walk all over him , and when he gets bitten by a wolf on a lonely road one night , he becomes an entirely different person . You might even say that the " Jack Nicholson " in Will Randall was brought out by the wolf . Michelle Pfeiffer was also very impressive as Laura , Will's reluctant lover and , eventually , fiancee . The werewolf makeup was particularly impressive , and even the stunts and special effects were worked out very well . However , I think that this was probably one of the last films in which colored contact lenses could have been used to draw anything other than a bored response . Ironically enough , however , they are also the reason that this film seems to be very dated when watching it only 6 years after it was made . Colored contacts are so old and cliched by now , mainly because any fool can get them , that they are just not effective in the movies anymore . Despite that , I have to say that I recommend Wolf , it was a very well-made and entertaining movie , and the story is excellent . It is one of those rare films that really has no slow points . It is not necessarily non-stop action , but your attention is held firmly throughout the movie . |
543,845 | 562,732 | 34,050 | 7 | Gee that's tough , all I got is one scent . . . get it ? | Porky's Preview , like another short oddity called Lions For Sale , is inexplicably included as an extra feature on the Sergeant York DVD , and while neither short film has any discernible reason for being found here , they are both clever little bits of short film-making worth checking out . In this one , a series of sight gags as various characters make their way into a theater ( ushered in through the dark aisles by a helpful firefly ) , at which Porky Pig introduces a shows a curious stick figure animation show of his own making . It had been probably 10 or 15 years since I've seen a Looney Tunes cartoon , which I watched constantly when I was a kid , so it was fun to hear the familiar intro and outtro again after not having seen it for so long , and completists will be thrilled to see a hard-to-find Looney Tunes short . Well worth the time , although strangely hidden . |
543,947 | 562,732 | 46,672 | 7 | We're getting there . . . | After watching the 1916 adaptation and then the 1954 adaptation of Verne's brilliant novel , I am coming to feel that this is a movie that is ripe for a real , high-budget , modern remake . I should note that I would hate to see it cheapened and turned into some goofy nautical clunker like Poseidon , but with the right people this could really be made into a spectacular film . Unfortunately , it could also be a spectacular screw-up , and probably would be . Sadly , with the way movies are these days , I think that the one thing that the movie really needs , special effects , is probably the one thing that would sink it . 21st century Hollywood would wildly overdo the CGI , and we would have a cheesy cartoonish adaptation featuring a cast of teen heartthrobs and veteran movie stars . At any rate , a vast improvement has been made since the 1916 version , obviously , most notably in the portrayal of the Nautilus , which the original film-making team did not have the means to represent . It glows this time , for example , looking like a sea monster when partially submerged ( it never looked even remotely organic in the original film ) , and the interiors are amazing . The simply brilliant description of the power supply of the Nautilus is unfortunately reduced here to the phrase " Captain Nemo had discovered the power of the universe , " but this is again one of the things that just can't be brought to the screen the way it's described in the novel . One thing that was funny right at the beginning of the movie was when Professor Arrnonax is invited ( by the U . S . government , incidentally ) to board the Abraham Lincoln for a free ride to America is he'll help search for the sea monster that's causing so much public uproar . The suggestion is made to " cut the Pacific into squares and then search each square for the monster . " This reminds me of a story from when I was a kid . I went to Disneyland with my brother and my mom , and my mom said , " What do we do it we get separated ? " And I said , " That's easy , mom . If we get separated , just divide Disneyland into squares and search each square until you find us ! " Needless to say , my mom scolded me for being so stupid . ( Note : none of that ever really happened , but it makes sense ) . Isn't the Pacific Ocean a little big to search through piece by piece ? I happen to know that it won't sit still and submit to a thorough search , not even for the United States government ! At any rate , I worried at a couple of points that this was going to be a Disney musical , and the kid-pleasing Disney influence is definitely pretty heavy handed here , such as in the happy-go-lucky sailors singing and dancing together on deck ( that old phrase " curse like a sailor " must be total nonsense ! ) , and Kirk Douglas's famous song ( " I got a whale of a tale and it's all true , I sweat by my tattoo ! " ) . I was also happy to see that the tremendously important character of Conseil ( wasn't it spelled Consul in the novel ? ) , who was left completely out of the 1916 version , was included here , played cleverly by Peter Lorre , although I found myself thinking more of Dr . Frankenstein's sidekick Igor than Professor Arronax's astonishingly loyal servant . Incidentally , another thing that was left almost entirely out of the original film is the giant squid , which has come to be the image that the story is most famous for . Odd that it swims backwards , but at least it's there ! And Captain Nemo , thankfully , is portrayed skillfully by James Mason , who's filmography doesn't seem to have any end , and who years later would go on to play Professor Humbert in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita . The Nemo in 1916 was so unbelievably bad that it seemed like it was deliberate ( you really have to try to get him THAT wrong ) , so I'm glad some effort was made to be more faithful to the original character . Granted , this is a Disney film , so Verne's broody , vengeful character can't be exactly re-created , but this is a faithful adaptation that doesn't take too many disappointing liberties with Verne's novel . Let's hope there's another one and they don't screw it up ! |
544,334 | 562,732 | 406,375 | 7 | Jumanji 2000 ? | The similarities between Zathura and its 1995 counterpart , Jumanji , are so extensive that you will probably end up having exactly the same opinion of the new one as you did of the original . But Zathura is not really a sequel to Jumanji , it's more of a remake . Strange that a remake would come along so soon after the first movie , but there area some definite leaps forward in terms of special effects , although not in terms of the plot , which is pretty much identical to Jumanji . An important difference is that the characters in Zathura are three-dimensional and realistic . The performances of the two boys in the movie , as well as the dialogue written for them , approach a level of flawlessness that I would never have expected to see from such young actors . Clearly , it's not exactly much of a stretch for them to get in character , since they are essentially playing themselves , but these are a couple of the best young performances I've ever seen in a movie . Kristen Stewart , who has appeared more more than 20 movies in her less than 20 years , also nails her lines as their disgusted older sister Lisa . There is a scene mid-way through the movie where , for reasons that should give you an idea of what kind of adventure this is , the family sofa slowly rolls end over end and on fire into the depths of outer space . My immediate reaction was to think ' Hey , fire doesn't burn in space ? ' and then I remembered that the burning sofa was emerging from a charming two - story home which was orbiting Saturn with two young boys standing on the porch . The application of logic will do nothing but aggravate you and totally ruin the experience . Tim Robbins has a limited role of a divorced father of two young boys , Walter and Danny , who are just at that age where they fight over everything imaginable . Frustrations are growing as dad needs time to himself for work , Danny wants to play with his older brother , and Walter wants nothing to do with him . Dad has to leave them alone for a while to go to the office , and Danny finds a game buried in the basement called Zathura . He tries to get Walter to play , but Walter wants to watch ESPN . As is the case in the first movie , the game is started accidentally and then All Hell Breaks Loose . What begins with a harmless indoor meteor shower that completely destroys nothing but the living room soon evolves to the point where the house has been uprooted and put into orbit around Saturn and an armada of space ships piloted by vicious Zorgons are attacking with all manner of alien firepower . Similarities to the first movie get a little too close for comfort when it's revealed that the boys have to finish the game successfully in order to get back to the real world , but it doesn't stop the movie from being a lot of fun . My only real gripe with the movie is that I think they overshot a little bit with the message about the importance of siblings . It's clear that the movie is aimed for a bit of a younger audience due to the heavy reliance on action and special effects and the thinness of the plot , but when the truth is revealed about the astronaut that fulfills the role of Robin Williams ' character in Jumanji it's pretty hard not to roll the eyes at least a little bit . It is , however , an important message , although a little less ham-handedness in the delivery wouldn't have hurt . As a science fiction film the movie works great , especially as a more family-oriented story . The special effects are impressive ( particularly the killer robot , which is probably the most consistently outstanding effect in the entire movie ) and the dangers of space travel and alien encounters are mixed brilliantly with the storybook adventure of two young boys trapped in a dangerous situation and simply trying to , ah , get home . If nothing else , Zathura must surely be the biggest adventure that two young boys have ever had in trying to get home without ever leaving their house . Director Jon Favreau first came to my attention in Swingers in 1996 but has lately been making big waves in the directing department . His previous directing features had been Elf and the hilarious 2001 crime comedy Made , and lately he's been keeping himself busy with the first two Iron Man movies . Zathura seems like a perfect midway point between the amusing comedies of his early directing career and the big-time science fiction that he's working on now . Zathura is not his best work , but it's definitely some of the better family - oriented science fiction to come along recently . |
543,939 | 562,732 | 115,665 | 7 | Very stylish , but I still think the Japanese are better at horror than action . | The description of Beyond Hypothermia really sounded a lot more interesting on the back of the movie box than the movie turned out to be . It is a very stylish thriller about a deadly assassin who constantly dreams of having a normal life with a husband and children , but it really doesn't do anything new in the genre . My favorite thing about the movie was the way it is cut together , especially many of the death scenes . The first assassination in the movie , for example , shows what you normally see in such a scene , the close up of the scope with the killer's eye behind it , the victim going about his business oblivious that he's in someone's crosshairs , the slow motion , etc . But the actual death avoids showing the man getting shot . Instead , we see the two guys behind him pouring wine out of a wine bottle that suddenly explodes ( a curious occurrence that they mysteriously respond to with laughter ) . As I was watching the movie , I was reminded of the stylish originality of movies like The Way of the Gun , as well as a few other foreign films that I've seen recently in which massive numbers of people get shot , such as the disturbing but hugely impressive Battle Royale , and the equally disturbing and probably even more impressive Portuguese film City of God . One thing that I really liked about this movie , as well as the ones I just mentioned , is that even though an enormous number of people are shot dead , it is not done in such a relentless way that you completely stop caring . No , you're not going to jump out of your seat every time some extra gets shot , but watch a movie like John Woo's Killer and you'll see how large numbers of gunshot killings can be numbing to the point of boredom . Not exactly what you would expect from John Woo , who otherwise is a very skilled action director ( except for that Windtalkers mess ) . Here's one thing I didn't understand , though . At one point in the movie there's a lot of bad guys chasing the god girl through oncoming traffic , and the bad guys keep getting hit by cars . Now , it is to be expected that people are going to be hit by cars when they're sprinting into oncoming traffic , but these guys are chasing after the woman that is supposed to be Japan's deadliest assassin , and they don't even have the sense not to run right in the middle of lanes of traffic when they're chasing her down the street ! No wonder they can't catch her ! It's true that the movie doesn't cover much new ground , but it is short enough to remain worth watching , if only for its style . Sadly , I made the mistake of renting the dubbed version , and I am fairly confident that the original film with subtitles is even more enjoyable . I don't know what it is about dubbed movies , they just seem so fake with someone so obviously voicing over the lines . Look for the original language version , because it's worth checking out . |
544,396 | 562,732 | 339,135 | 7 | Note to self : Stay out of prison ? | In Hell starts off pretty well and then goes almost immediately wrong , but is somehow still a fun ride . Van Damme plays an all-American guy named Kyle with a loving wife at home growing increasingly impatient with all of the international traveling involved in his job as a steel worker ( don't ask ) . At the moment , he's working at a steel mill in the perfectly named Russian town of Magnitogorsk , and is promising his wife that after he finishes that job , they can go " back home to Luoisiana . " I always wonder why Van Damme always forces himself into the role of a typical American . He's obviously not American , and it just seems to me that when he does that , we get a character that doesn't seem to have a past . He just is . At any rate , on the way home from work , Kyle's wife is viciously attacked while on the phone with him , so he hears everything and after tearing home through traffic in blatant disregard for the law , he finds her raped and murdered , which must be every man's worst nightmare . After the laughable trial , the man who raped and murdered her is set free because he bribed the judge , and Kyle is so angry and distraught that he kills the guy himself , and he does it right in front of the courthouse . It seems that such a foolish act could be defended by a temporary insanity plea ( why else would he do something so crazy as killing the guy right in front of the courthouse ? ) , which would at least have gotten him into some mental institution instead of life without parole in the Russian gulag . Then again , being stuck in a Communist prison with no means of ever getting out becomes a good premise for a nice action b-movie . Immediately , however , the fearful idea of being trapped in a foreign prison is totally diluted by the fact that everyone speaks English . There are a few Russian sentences thrown in here and there just as brief reminders , but other than that , it's just another dirty American prison with different uniforms . Oh , and it's okay if the warden brings all his friends and some women and children to the prison every once in a while so they can make some money gambling on forcing the prisoners to fight each other . The interesting part of the story is that it's not your standard revenge story , where the tough guy is out to get revenge on whoever killed his wife or son or brother or whatever . This premise is a favorite of people like Van Damme and Steven Seagal . Here , he gets revenge right at the beginning of the movie , so once he is thrown in jail there is even a little guessing as to what exactly his new goal is , since release is apparently out of the question , and escaping from a Communist prison doesn't seem like a very likely prospect . Needless to say , Kyle immediately has trouble getting along with others , and soon finds himself making enemies with the guards and prisoners alike , and is soon thrown in " the hole , " which is an acceptably dismal dungeon of a cell with what looks like fresh sewage flowing across the middle of the floor . There is a clever incident with a moth that brings back a warm memory into the desolate desert of his mind and , after multiple half-baked suicide attempts , it gives him the strength to go on living , and he starts eating again . Soon he finds a release for his anger , by fighting the other prisoners . He trains himself into a hardened fighter in his cell ( another favorite theme in Van Damme movies ) , and then sets out to get his revenge on the world . There is one scene where he does something truly vicious and violent to one of the other inmates at the end of a fight ( the fight could hardly go on after that ) , and then lays on the ground screaming at the sky . He has become an animal . The fights are pretty goofy . They are hard hitting , but also have the undeniable feel of a fake WWF fight . Lots of over exaggeration and grandiose moves , throwing each other around and writhing on the ground after a nice body slam , etc . It gets a little old watching Van Damme get smacked around like this , because we know he's only doing it because he's playing a good guy and we can tell he's holding back . I think this is probably why his bad guy roles are often more satisfying . There is also the issue of his cellmate , a massive black man who doesn't speak much , but reads a lot and killed his last two cell mates . The tension at home is pretty palpable . But Kyle spends most of the time waiting for the guy to just flip out and kill him , and so do we . But first he's a scary killer , and then before you know , he opens up to Kyle and frets that he doesn't even know who he is anymore . What ? Where'd this worried mother come from ? First I suspected truly weak writing , but then it turns out that this man's back story is probably the best part of the whole movie . In a closing monologue , this man delivers the film's meaning , " Unity of people can bring down any system . " It's interesting that the " unity " here brought down the prison , which apparently was completely undone because none of the prisoners wanted to fight anymore . There is a fight with a massive mountain of a man that may bring back memories of Sloth from The Goonies , and a friendship between him and Kyle that is goofy but strangely heartwarming . The ending's a little abrupt , but not a copout , and I appreciate that . This is one of Van Damme's better recent movies ? |
543,971 | 562,732 | 185,431 | 7 | Yeah , Ozzy ! ! | Why do I say Yeah , Ozzy ? Because Ozzy Osbourne made this film . I don't care who wrote it , I don't care who starred in it , and I don't care who directed it , if Ozzy hadn't been in Little Nicky , there would be absolutely no reason to watch it . Even the great Harvey Keitel , who obviously makes an excellent Satan , was ill-used if for no other reason than that idiotic deterioration that left him as nothing but a pair of arms and a mouth . Come on , people ! Whose dumbass idea was that ? ! Anyway , Ozzy's was only one ( by far the best one , mind you ) of a whole series of cool cameos . We see a whole succession of great cameos in Little Nicky . Ozzy causes every rock and roll fan in the audience to jump up and cheer by biting the head off of the devil when he turns into a bat . Chubbs , Happy Gilmore's late , one-handed golf instructor shows up in a scene in heaven , along with Reese Witherspoon , who effectively plays the part of Little Nicky's angel mother who happens to also be an absolute bimbo . Rodney Dangerfield is his traditional self as the father of Satan ( ' Even in Hell I get no respect . ' ) . John Lovitz has a scene early in the film where he sits in a tree spying on some woman while she changes , and he's listening to ' Lady's Night , ' the song that he performed in The Wedding Singer , which was obviously a much better film than this one . Even Dan Marino who , in my opinion , was made famous more by Ace Ventura than anything else , had a great part where he tries to sell his soul to the devil just to win a football game . And , of course , someone was amazingly able to get The Great Quentin Tarantino to play the part of a hideously creepy religious nut , in the second best cameo in the film ( even Quentin can't compete with Ozzy ) . I could go on and on about the cool cameos in this movie . How about Little Nicky's room in Hell ? What a great room for the son of the devil ! Can I say something , by the way ? The religious right attacks Marilyn Manson for every little thing he does , but I hereby officially bet any amount of money that no religious group on the planet will ever defend him by pointing out that there was not a single picture or poster of him in Nicky's room in Hell . You have to notice this when you see posters of Metallica , Ozzy ( of course ) , Ministry , Motorhead , Korn , AC / DC , Slipknot , Black Sabbath , etc . No one ever accused Korn of driving kids to worship the devil , yet the devil's son seems to be one of their biggest fans . There was a little too much cheesy comedy in this movie . And yes , I realize that it is a ' Happy Madison ' picture , and that these movies are characterized by their cheesy comedy . But the gigantic pineapple up Hitler was a step in the wrong direction . And how about that damn dog ? Remember the scene where he shoots an arrow at Adrian , Nicky's evil brother ? Of my GOD , that was ridiculous . And then there were John and Pete , a couple of idiot rock and roll fanatics that appear throughout the film in a series of dumbass scenes that make all rock and roll fans look bad . Although it was cool when one of them asks Nicky what was recorded backwards on Ozzy's record , and Nicky says that ' the Blizzard ' always delivered his message straight . Too bad they didn't use a Marilyn Manson song to do that , but as much as I respect him and love his music , he doesn't even come close to Ozzy . Little Nicky has a lot of cool stuff in it , such as an excellent soundtrack ( notice the surprisingly good re-mix of Stupefy , by Disturbed , during the end credits ) , but most everything else is just pretty bad . And besides that , the soundtrack during the film was used as little more than to pack songs into the movie so that they could sell the soundtrack later , although some of the songs worked really well where they were put into the movie ( Particularly Powerman 5000's ' When Worlds Collide ' ) . Little Nicky is sent to earth to capture his rebelling older brothers , because they escaped from hell , freezing the entrance and causing their father's deterioration . And then the Son of Satan meets some girl and falls in love with her ! Everything about that little subplot was just awful , except for the way that he barely rescued her from the subway train late in the film , but it was actually a good decision to cast Patricia Arquette in this role . Except , remember when Nicky was explaining possession to her ? ' What do you mean , ? possessed ? ' Come on , Patricia , POSSESSION . Didn't you learn anything from starring in Stigmata ? The plot of Little Nicky is of no value or interest whatsoever , it's the cameos that make it worth watching . Clearly , there can be no satisfaction derived from watching Adam Sandler's breathy performance as the son of Satan as he ' releases the evil ' and then ' releases the good . ' The plot and story are inconsequential , but the movie is still pretty funny at some points , so it's not a complete waste of time . It pays great homage to rock and roll stars as well as previous successful comedies , but if you're not a rock and roll fan or if you haven't seen a lot of these goofy comedies , you are almost sure to be disappointed by Little Nicky . |
544,059 | 562,732 | 458,471 | 7 | Surprisingly good , even with that classic b-movie title ! | The title of this movie at once reminds me of those instantly forgettable direct-to-video movies that seem to come out by the hundreds , but soon you realize that it is the perfect title for this story . The story takes place in a country called Moldavia , where there is much internal strife over an alleged order that the president gave , which led to a huge amount of innocent deaths . An insurgency rises , demanding that the president be tried in their custody , which presumably would consist of not much more than a brief mention of his crimes followed by torture and execution . That's just an assumption , of course . Van Damme plays Commander Sam Keenan , a Navy Seal sent in to handle the situation , which grows increasingly desperate and dire . One of the best things about the film is how realistically it presents the mass protests , which are so good that I imagine they must have used stock footage of real protests . Either way , they are seamlessly integrated into the film . Unfortunately , the one street on which the majority of the exterior scenes are filmed looks strikingly like a soundstage , but no matter . The gunfights , another easily botched element , are quite well done here . There is an authority battle as the clearly competent Keenan struggles to convince the commanders around him of a course of action that might save everyone but may also be more dangerous , while others in the top echelon immediately decide upon the tactic that will certainly save some lives but also certainly doom others . Keenan plays a pretty generic hero in this way , going the more dangerous route to save more lives , but it is undeniable that this is Van Damme at his highest class . He's not given a lot of meaningful stuff to do ( he gets to say cool lines like " Get the people to the TLU and the president to the ACR . Go ! " ) , but this is one of his best performances . His primary assignment is to hold off the impending insurgent force while both the American military and the Croatian army close in , conveniently with exactly the same ETA . You know something big is going to happen soon . Sadly , the CGI air support is pretty dismal , but it serves its purpose . The leader of the insurgency is also a little too much of a movie villain , although I like the final confrontation between him and Keenan ( which would be a spoiler , but did you really think that wouldn't happen ? ) , in which Keenan does something that reveals a deep flaw in his character . It's something that some people in the military might like to do to the bad guys in real life , but not the kind of thing you expect from a benevolent movie hero . And by the way , I love how , even with the sheer magnitude of firepower in the movie , it all comes down to a hand-to-hand knife fight . The movie ends with a sufficiently cheesy scene , although it stands out as a pretty glaring omission that the true guilt or innocence of the president , who allegedly caused so many deaths , was never proved one way or the other . I have been learning a lot about Mao Tse - tung lately , which has led to a gigantic mistrust of certain governments and powerful individuals . I guess we have to assume that he didn't commit the crime of which he was accused . Maybe they were banking on the " Insurgents " vs . the " President , " so people would automatically assume who were the bad guys and who was the good guy . Too bad it's not that clear cut in real life ? |
544,363 | 562,732 | 205,000 | 7 | Not as cheesy as it looks . | Sure , Deuce Bigalow is not exactly a landmark cinematic accomplishment . It's full of dirty jokes and childish humor , but underneath all of the goofball comedy , it actually comes through with a very healthy message , which is virtually non-existent in these dumb comedies . Deuce Bigalow is a lowly fish tank cleaner , and when one of his important clients has to leave town on business , he hires Deuce to look after his place and especially one of his precious fish , which would not survive on it's own the entire time that Anton ( the client ) is out of town . Needless to say , Deuce starts screwing around in the lavish apartment and breaks Anton's ridiculously expensive fish tank and then has to come up with $6 , 000 to replace it and do other repairs around the house . This is when Deuce has the brilliant idea to assume Anton's job as a gigolo , because he knows he'll never make the money on time cleaning fish tanks . Unfortunately , he gets all of the freaky clients , like the gigantic black woman ( ' Did you say steak ? ' ) and the eight foot tall girl ( ' That's a huge bitch ! ' ) , the girl with narcolepsy that falls asleep at the weirdest times , and of course , they could never leave out a date with Tourette's syndrome , definitely the least amusing of all of them . So Deuce goes through all of these awful dates , and then he meets a girl on another date that is perfect except she has a prosthetic leg . This is where the healthy message comes in , because Deuce learns that he really loves this girl , and it really doesn't matter to him that she only has one leg . He falls in love with her pretty quick , but the romance of it all , as cheesy as it was , is actually pretty well done . Deuce is trying to get enough money to replace the stuff in Anton's apartment , so he goes on one last date with one of Anton's stunningly beautiful clients , and he even rejects her aggressive sexual advances because he's in love . Sure , he does a pretty graphic strip-tease for her , but you get the point of his intentions . However , despite the fact that the movie is full of goofy jokes , some of the comedy was pretty good . Deuce's toilet-cleaning father was pretty amusing at some points , and most of all , the detective that was after Deuce and especially Anton ( his wife was one of Anton's clients ) was hilarious in every scene he was in . ' I got a thin dick ! ' Why is that so funny ? It's totally dumb , but it just cracked me up . Maybe it's because he compared it to spaghetti . It was just great how he was at first really threatening to Deuce , and then he would suddenly ask his advice about whether Deuce thought he could make some money in the gigolo business or what he thought that red spot on his penis was ( ' It wasn't there this morning , I checked ! ' ) . As a whole , this is another one of those brainless comedies aimed at immature or uneducated ( or both ) audiences , but it doesn't fail on just about all levels like most of these types of movies always seem to do . It's a strong and healthy message delivered in questionable packaging . |
544,074 | 562,732 | 218,967 | 7 | Nicholas Cage is back in one of his goofy romantic roles , but luckily there was plenty of room for him to operate at his smart-ass best . | Yeah , Nicolas Cage is back in another romantic comedy , and the result is about the same , actually . He plays a guy who left his girlfriend from college and went off to school in Europe , a choice which led him to a high-level job , a Ferrari , and an apartment in a high-rise building in New York . Along comes , I don't know , The Ghost of Relationships Past , who gives him a glimpse of what his life would have been like had he not ended his relationship with his girlfriend ( the stunningly beautiful Tea Leoni , in an excellent performance ) at the airport that day . Sound familiar ? Well , I don't think there was much effort put into hiding the similarities to the old Christmas Story , which is one of the things that really brought the movie down , despite the fact that it took place during Christmas-time . Who was this guy ? He turned out to be some sort of angel or something who went around testing the quality of people's characters and ? rewarding ' them if they turned out to be of good character , or some such nonsense . Jack Campbell ( Cage ) bribes a would-be robber ( Cheadle , the angel , who is curiously named ' Cash ' ) out of forcing a cashier to cash a suspicious lottery ticket , and bingo , he gets a prize that turns out to be a ' glimpse ' at What Would Have Been . A liquor store cashier ( Cheadle again ) mistakenly rings up $10 when a young girl really only paid with $1 , she doesn't say anything and walks out of the store wide-eyed , and bingo , he disgustedly pays back the difference out of his pocket , and no prize for her . This part of the story is never explained very well , and this guy pops up in some strange places without any explanation . The rest of the movie was actually pretty good . When Campbell gets a look at what he could have had , his initial fear and dislike is eventually eroded away as he begins to like what life is like when he has someone who he loves and who loves him . The most entertaining part of the movie comes from watching him , first of all , doing what he does as the arrogant rich business executive , and most of all , watching him try to get used to the fact that his entire life has been changed , albeit temporarily , literally overnight . Nicholas Cage's charm really comes through in some great scenes as he adapts to the middle class life , as opposed to the upper upper class life , such as when he's going through his poor self's closet to find a jacket ( ' Oh , this is just sub-par . ' ) . That's some funny stuff . As far as the romance goes , yeah it's pretty prevalent , especially in the second half of the film , but for the most part it's not too exaggerated , and when you see what goes on between Campbell and his wife , Kate ( Leoni ) it's not too hard to see why he began to have conflictions about going back to his old life , full of money and empty sex . Don't be put off just because Nicholas Cage is in The Family Man and he always gets a little awkward in romantic roles , because this is definitely one of his better ones . |
544,290 | 562,732 | 445,934 | 7 | Not too bad . | I expected little from Blades of Glory , as I usually do when I see a comedy on DVD that I've never heard of . On the other hand , I live in central eastern China now and everything here is pirated , so it's no surprise that I know little about what is going on in American theaters . At first glance it seemed like an expected pairing of a hugely famous comedian , Will Farrell , with a new and inexplicably famous comedian ( I'm sorry , Napoleon Dynamite just didn't do anything for me ) , riding on the wave of attention generated by his debut film . The movie is better than I expected , but is still nothing more than your standard Saturday Night Live comedy , and even those are generally much better than this . Farrell and Heder play Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy , two bitter figure skating rivals who can't stop acting like children , even when standing on the podium . The result is that they get into a fistfight after obtaining an unlikely tie in an important competition . They set the mascot on fire and everything . As is to be expected , they are booted out of professional competition forever . MacElroy gets a lowly job fitting skates on bratty kids at a skating rink , never letting go of his tireless skating perfectionism , even when it gets him kicked off of the cushy skate-fitting job and back to the store-room or something . Michaels , on the other hand , continues to skate , although in the capacity of some goofy character in an ice-skating performance for children . His incredible amount of boozing and womanizing does two things , it makes me wish he didn't have my name twice in his name , and it ultimately gets him fired for puking in his costume during a performance . After a few years , some nutjob stalker of MacElroy's ( played by that guy who seems to like nutjob stalker roles ) discovers a loophole in the rules . Michaels and MacElroy are banned from competition , but only SINGLES competition . They can still compete as a pair , which leads to all sorts of low-brow hilarity . Both main characters are goofy caricatures , even goofier than you might expect , which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't . But in general it's entertaining enough , the production values are impressive . I've seen better but this is not a bad way to spend an hour and a half . . . |
544,180 | 562,732 | 100,258 | 7 | A worthy installment . | The script is pretty weak and at least as many bad things as good things were brought over from the original for this remake , but the 1990 version of George Romero's classic horror film has its heart in the right place , I guess you could say . The movie wastes no time , starting out in a cemetery where a bickering brother and sister have driven no small amount of distance to visit the grave of their mother . So the Don't Go Into A Cemetery rule of horror movies is immediately broken and swiftly punished . I really liked the way the zombies were introduced , it reminded me of the zombies in Shaun of the Dead , where Shaun walked among them , not paying attention to his surroundings , before noticing that he was surrounded by the walking dead . Patricia Tallman turns in a satisfactory performance as Barbara , the sister involved in the opening scene and the heroine of the movie . I thought it was strange that she turns out to be such a strong character when at the beginning of the movie she was immediately reduced to a blubbering basket-case when she arrived at the farmhouse in which most of the movie takes place . Granted , she had just witnessed her brother being killed by a zombie , but no matter how much I sympathize with their plight , I can't stand hysterical people in horror movies , male or female . When someone starts whining and moaning and screaming and crying and sobbing and blubbering and won't even respond to someone shaking them and hollering into their face , I just want them to hurry up and get killed so they'll shut the hell up . Harry Cooper is still the same ridiculous jerkoff he was in the first movie , displaying an entirely unacceptable and unjustifiable state of constant rage , even when finally finding himself in the company of other living , breathing people rather than mindless zombies . Just like the security guard in Dawn of the Dead , this guy wants his own way , even if it means separating himself from other living people , who are fast becoming an endangered species . One thing I'm not sure I understand is the way his insults have been updated to fit the modern times of 1990 . At one point , after locking himself , his wife and his zombie-bitten daughter alone together in the basement , he flings a few more vicious insults at the people in the rest of the house , curiously calling them ' lame-brains , ' and ' yo-yo's . ' If this movie was meant to be shown on the Disney channel , I could understand including such words in the script . But it wasn't . I don't even think the Disney channel was around in 1990 . The zombies are updated , needless to say , but they're not over-the-top and they maintain the general appearance of the original zombies . There's nothing worse than using special effects just because they're there , and this remake doesn't do it . Then there are newer horror movies made that try to improve upon the make-up in the original films , such as the first color installment in the Night of the Living Dead series , the original Dawn of the Dead , tried to do it in color and wound up with a lot of bad extras wearing blue make-up all over their faces . Awful . ( spoilers ) There are lots of radio broadcasts throughout about an epidemic of mass murder being committed by a virtual army of unidentified assassins and do not attempt to reach loved ones and blah blah blah . A brother and sister finally get Ben's truck running enough to get it to the gas pump ( the fact that it was out of gas should have been mentioned earlier than it was , because it looked a little ridiculous to see him drive up to the house and then frantically shake Barbara , asking her repeatedly if she has a car ) , only to be killed by fatal stupidity . I have to admit that I thought the ending was fairly clever . The horribly ironic ending of the original has been changed , but it's still horribly ironic . The whole gang of characters gets saved by a bunch of drunken rednecks , who gleefully and repeatedly shoot zombies between pounding cans of beer , stringing them up in the trees and whatnot , while one character has a bit of insight about the zombies , ' They're us and we're them . ' Nice , but I could have done without the philosophy lesson . I think this remake really tried hard to justify itself , to be more than just a static colorization of a classic , and I think that to a large extent it succeeds . Where it falls short is that it doesn't know what is good and what can be changed about the original . Lots of good is brought through , but there are a few things that I could simply have done without . I'm not a big fan of people remaking classic movies and changing them , but Harry Cooper needs a total character overhaul . Nevertheless , this one's worth a look . |
543,751 | 562,732 | 131,325 | 7 | A comedy about an aging , out of work screenwriter , written by an aging , out of work screenwriter . | Okay , ACTOR . At any rate , Steve Martin hasn't exactly been cranking out the movies Jackie-Chan-style lately . In Bowfinger , Martin plays the part of Bowfinger , a film producer / director with ridiculous taste in movies and who is hard up for material . And it's no wonder why he can't get his films financed , anyone who sees brilliance in a crapfest like ' Chubby Rain ' is not likely to be known for his keen eye for quality film . At any rate , some guy writes this crappy science fiction script and Bowfinger wants to film it , and he wants to have Kit Ramsey , the biggest action star of the time , star in it . When Bowfinger presents the script to Ramsey , he tries to lie to him to become friends , and when he is found out , Ramsey kicks him out of the limo and throws the script out as well . And thus , being the brilliant filmmaker that Bowfinger is ( hey , he found this genius script , right ? ) , he decides that he wants to make the movie anyway without Ramsey even knowing that he's in it , and even without his own actors knowing that Ramsey doesn't know he's in it . Kit Ramsey - , whose first name is creatively taken from a repeating phrase in his holistic therapy session , ' Keep it together ' - is played , in a hilarious over the top performance , by Eddie Murphy , who fits the role very well except for the fact that he's not quite the action star that he used to be . His later films have been mostly comedies , and good comedies , at that . Heather Graham plays the part of the country girl from Ohio who wants to become a movie star , and she sleeps with everyone that she has to in order to get good scenes in the movie , and also to eventually get close to Ramsey . One of the funnier parts of this movie is the way that Bowfinger goes about the production of the movie , while trying to keep everyone from finding out that Ramsey really doesn't know that he's in it , as well as trying not to go over his shoestring budget . It seems that the only money that he has is a stash of dollar bills , because he has been putting away one dollar a week since he was seven years old , which is pretty impressive that he stuck with that , but it's also pretty sad that it's the only money that he has to his name in order to make this movie . At any rate , his star doesn't know that he's starring so he doesn't have to pay him , he hired a bunch of fugitive Mexican migrants for his crew , he sneaks onto his locations without a permit and works his way around the police , he even borrows nice cars ( one of his crew is a valet ) to use in the film so he won't have to pay for rentals . If nothing else , this movie gives some good ideas about how someone could make a movie with little to no money ( Bowfinger has a little over $2 , 000 , while the average Hollywood film has a budget of tens of millions ) , even though many of his ideas are not likely to work in real life . The irony of this film is that even though Chubby Rain is clearly a B-movie ( you can tell by the purposely ridiculous acting and the idiotic story ) , it gets a standing ovation at the first screening at the end of the film . Ramsey's psychological and pathological problems and urges play a surprisingly significant role in the film , besides just making it funnier when he is approached by the actors , who deliver their lines about invading aliens to him , which terrifies him . Bowfinger is not the high caliber comedy that you might expect , especially given its cast , but it is an entertaining look at independent filmmaking with some occasional bits of great comedy , and of course , Eddie Murphy again showing his diversity as an actor by also playing the part of Kit Ramsey's geeky brother , who doubles for him in many scenes in the movie . This is below the standard of the people involved with the movie , but it is definitely worth a look . |
544,825 | 562,732 | 181,536 | 7 | Nothing great ? | I remember when Finding Forrester was released there was all this buzz about how great it was , just like there was about Almost Famous , another movie , like Finding Forrester , generally about getting the respect that you deserve , although neither movie deserves the respect that they get . The plot is an exercise in exploring massive clichés from movies about finding talent in unexpected places , and not about doing anything new within any genre . The basic theme is of the rugged genius who is held down by a jealous and / or suspicious and accusatory ? one might say racist , in this case ? superior , but who breaks through all of the barriers erected in front of him . Luckily , here we have the addition of the character of a great but lost writer , who wrote a single classic but subsequently disappeared from the public eye , only to have his heart captured by this inner city kid with the gift of a great writing ability . Sean Connery has a difficult time fitting this role , or maybe I just have a hard time seeing him as a great writer , the real talent in this movie is Rob Brown in his film debut playing the part of Jamal Wallace . There is a great scene where his jerk teacher starts reciting quotes from great writers in an effort to show Jamal and the rest of the class how much smarter he is than any of them , and Jamal repeatedly identifies each author after only a few words . It's a great lesson about teaching methods , although I like to think that there are few teachers who deliberately try to make their students feel inferior to themselves , but I know they're out there . I've had a few myself , although I don't think I've had any as bad as this guy . His problem might be that he's teaching at an inner city school , since he is so obviously racist . Sean Connery and Rob Brown work well together , despite their relationship being so contrived . William Forrester is the author of a single classic who apparently has spent the last 40 years or so rarely leaving his apartment and writing masterpieces that he refuses to publish because of a paralyzing fear of being critically misinterpreted , a risk that every artist of any kind in the history of mankind has run by publicizing their work . The ones that never publicized their work are quickly forgotten . Jamal plays basketball with friends near Forrester's apartment , from which he watches them with binoculars , which is creepy indeed . On a dare , Jamal sneaks into his apartment and is scared away by him in such a rush that he leaves his backpack behind with a notebook with some of his writing in it . It's not long before his backpack comes sailing out of Forrester's window with lots of corrections and suggestions in it . This setup for the relationship between Jamal and Forrester is clever , until you realize that this guy has been holed up in that apartment for decades because he doesn't want anyone to read his work . All those years and all he needed was someone to leave some experimental writing in his apartment to get him going again . There are lots of movies that get a lot done along the way . Finding Forrester , on the other hand , exists entirely as a setup for its conclusion , which is indeed satisfying . It's like every schoolboy's dream . One of them , anyway . I suppose schoolboys have a lot of dreams . One of my stranger ones was the wish that I could freeze time and go up and erase everything on the board anytime the teacher wrote something up there . The ensuing mayhem would have been too gleeful for me to contain . The movie is essentially about Jamal's transition from getting through school on athletic scholarships and getting through school because of his intellectual prowess , and in that way it succeeds very well . It is a satisfying movie that will make you feel good , but it is undeniably a formula film . |
543,752 | 562,732 | 164,334 | 7 | Ten million dollars in diamonds are forever . | Okay , that didn't really have much to do with this movie , but hey , neither did the first 15 minutes of it . Along Came A Spider is a very entertaining thriller , but as soon as it ends , you realize that it is little more than a rehash of things that have been seen in countless thrillers of the same kind before . There are several effective twists during the movie , but when you think about it , they are exactly the same twists that you see in just about every thriller . The largely recycled plot is somewhat saved by the always excellent performance from Morgan Freeman ( I think he's more than redeemed himself by now for Hard Rain ) , as well as the wonderfully hate-able kidnapper ( Gary Soneji ) provided by Michael Wincott , who may not have been given a role as fitting as this since Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves ( keeping in mind his excellent performance in The Crow ) . Monica Potter plays the role of the Secret Service agent in charge of supervising little Megan , the daughter of a Senator and the subject of the story's kidnapping . It doesn't become abundantly clear until near the end of the film , but Potter sounds EXACTLY like Julia Roberts in this role , despite bearing no physical resemblance whatsoever . Her vocal similarity to Roberts is downright spooky . One of the things that really brought this movie down was the way that Megan was portrayed as some sort of super girl . I don't expect for her to be just a poor helpless little girl , but just because she is a senator's daughter doesn't mean that she should automatically be able to concoct a brilliant scheme involving exploding batteries in order to escape from her captor , or perform some of the feats that she did while she was held captive in the wooden room during the end of the film . That sort of thing should be reserved for action B-movies like Commando ( yes , I know that Commando rocked , but so did Bloodsport and Kickboxer , but that doesn't mean they're not B-movies ) . You remember that Alyssa Milano , in Commando , was confined to a wooden room in that film , and she escaped by prying a board loose near the floor ? EXACTLY the same way that Megan was attempting to escape in Along Came A Spider . Given all of the things that are wrong with this film , it becomes clear that it's value does not lie with the story , but instead with the superior performances throughout . Of particular note , obviously , are Morgan Freeman and Michael Wincott . Freeman is always good in his movies , however bad the plot , and it's just so good to occasionally see an actor like Wincott get a role that fits his iconography so well . Along Came A Spider is not a great movie by any standards , but there can be no denying that it does have its moments . The delivery of the diamond ransom , for example , may not have been too original , but at least it was well done . While it's true that this movie seems to have been assembled from parts taken directly from dozens of other movies , it still manages to barely save itself , although it is still almost sure to be very quickly forgotten . |
543,846 | 562,732 | 345,066 | 7 | A puzzling addition to the Sergeant York DVD . . . | I'm completely at a loss to explain why this short video is included as an extra feature on the Sergeant York DVD , but it is at least an interesting look at some of the techniques used in training lions . I imagine maybe it has something to do with the training of soldiers , although the two types of training don't have much in common beyond the fact that they are each some sort of training . The lion cubs are impossibly cute , and obviously this is about as diluted a look at animal training as you can imagine , but it's entertaining enough for it's diminutive ten minute running time . Definitely worth checking out if you're into animal training or just watching cute lion kittens pawing desperately for a bottle of milk . . . |
544,594 | 562,732 | 350,811 | 7 | A necessary prequel to a not so great miniseries . | I saw Rose Red not too long ago , and not too long after having read the book . I went to Spain in the Summer of 2003 for a few weeks . I was traveling on my own , making a documentary for the University of California , and literally on my last day in Spain , I noticed a book called My Life at Rose Red , by Stephen King , at a liquor store in a town called Benidorm on the southeastern coast . I picked it up , since I had about 30 hours of travel ahead of me back to California and because I hadn't seen a book in English in quite some time . Having been a Stephen King fan for most of my life ( I opened the floodgates of horror novels when I read ' It ' in 6th grade ) , I was amazed at how much of a character study the book was , but the movie dealt with the mystery of the haunted Rose Red , not with it's construction , which is what the book is all about . The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer , I think , makes an honest attempt to go back and tell that part of the Rose Red story . What is truly odd , however , is that the movie that actually tells the story of Ellen and John Rimbauer , the story of the construction of Rose Red , about which Stephen Kings ' book is written , is actually based on a journal of Ellen's that was written by a different author . I hope I have my facts straight here . King's book is actually in the form of Ellen's diary , although he delves suspiciously close to novel writing at many times . Who writes a diary like that ? Anyway , this film telling the story that led up to the subject of the lengthy miniseries aired on ABC a couple years ago comes much closer to telling the story in the book from which that miniseries took its name . Its interesting that the miniseries needs a prequel to tell the story of the book upon which it is based . Okay , I'm getting a little repetitive . Much more digestible at less than half the length of Rose Red , the movie unfortunately never really comes out of the shadow of the movie that its content precedes , always coming across as a prequel that leads up to something else . Maybe it's because it didn't have enough life of its own or because I always got the feeling that it was purposely covering the holes left by Rose Red , providing an excuse for that movie having so little to do with the book upon which it was supposedly based . Either way , taken together the two movies provide a pretty interesting ghost story , one about a haunted mansion that actually has such a turbulent past leading to why it is haunted ( hence the need for this prequel ) . It's just too bad that it takes a total of more than six hours for them to tell that story ? |
544,285 | 562,732 | 99,892 | 7 | Early Tom Hanks charmer . | Joe Versus the Volcano is a bizarre little romantic comedy that is about as unexpected as you can imagine . By now , early 2008 , we have come to expect great things from him , and even here , in this outlandish little black sheep of a film , he shows us that early Hanks charm for which he is so known and loved . The scene when he is dancing by himself on top of the makeshift raft is a classic , for sure ! Meg Ryan , on the other hand , another hugely talented actor , mostly shows here why she doesn't do accents . She also , of course , has charm and presence , but she is very much overshadowed by Tom's . The important thing here is that they both exist in a terrible world ruled by the 40 Hour Work Week , presided over by the Terrible Boss and the cripplingly depressing atmosphere . Joe ( Hanks ) , for example , believes that the fluorescent lights in his depressing office are slowly driving him crazy . He goes to see a doctor , who tells him that he has something called a " brain cloud , " which will kill him in six months but won't affect him physically until then . Of course , this diagnosis is the perfect reason to quit his job and tell off his boss , so Hanks gets a " telling-off " scene that is so good that you may wonder why Julia Roberts was ever allowed to do it in just about ever movie she ever made after Pretty Woman . Why didn't it become a staple in Hanks ' films ? At any rate , Joe decides to leave his stifling job and live his life to the fullest , which of course leads in the most bizarre direction possible , to him being " hired " to become sacrifice himself to the volcano gods . The movie is , of course , at its most zanily creative with this idea , and yet the natives inhabiting the island are one of the only gags that just don't work . Lloyd Bridges is classic as the natives ' chief , but a group of religious native islanders that worship orange soda ? Come on Mr . Shanley , you can't use even the horrendous January Man as an excuse for THAT one . . . Nevertheless , the movie is a curious romp into the imagination , and still has the presence of mind to make suggestions about life , reminding us once again of that all important rule of never giving in to the intolerable seriousness of it all . . . |
544,395 | 562,732 | 67,341 | 7 | What a title ! | When I started watching Let's Scare Jessica to Death , with a title like that , I was expecting it to be one of those old , gritty horror movies from the 70s that looks like it was made on a nearly non-existent budget but still has plenty of genuinely disturbing moments . There's one that I can't remember the name of that concerns a family where all the children are sort of trapped in the house , and they are all elderly people that dress and act like children . It costs no money to shoot something like that but there is a definite element of the bizarre that makes it memorable . Either that or one of those cheesy old horror movies with a lot of teenagers getting killed off one by one . Lord knows I've seen plenty of those , and the title of this movie sounds like something a bunch of teenagers would cook up to do to their friend , only to have their plan work out a little too well . About midway through the movie , however , I came to the startling realization that the title has absolutely nothing to do with the story . In fact , the title suggests a completely different story than the one we get , in which Jessica struggles with her own mental instability . If anyone is trying to scare her to death , it's her own mind . Jessica is released from a mental institution early in the film , and almost immediately begins having visual hallucinations , but vows to keep it a secret from he friends , who are all glad to see her on the outside again ( " Don't tell them , act normal ? " ) . Right away the movie comes off like it's going to be another murder-in-the-woods film like the Friday the 13th movies and the endless sequels and imitations . When the group of friends are on a drive up to the mountains , they tell a local where they're going and get a chilly , even suspicious look . For the first 30 minutes or so I was completely engaged . The film hasn't dated very well , but these 70s horror movies are great for a fun Friday night with your friends . They don't make movies like this anymore , and it's a shame . After a while though , the pace gets to be a little too slow , but that at least allows for a unique character development , something uncommon in films like this . The story concerns Jessica's struggle to overcome her mental illness , which is putting a strain on her marriage . Her husband is growing tired or her lapses and begins yearning for a more normal life , and one day he finally cheats on her with a redhead with stunningly beautiful eyes , but who bears a creepy resemblance to one of the Bishop girls , the family that resided in the house where they're staying . Jessica is convinced it's the same girl , but she is in no position to try to convince anyone that the dead girl from the picture is now sleeping with her husband . It's hard to classify Let's Scare Jessica to Death , because it defies so many routine 70s horror clichés and becomes unpredictable just when you think you know exactly what's happening , but it does get a little too campy for its own good by the end of the movie . The music is truly , fittingly bizarre throughout , although the whispering voices in Jessica's head are massively over-used and even become boring by the end , and any disconnected realism that they might have had fades away , leaving me picturing someone whispering the words into a microphone rather than Jessica hearing voices in her head . There was also a brief lesbian moment that came out of nowhere and went nowhere . The end of the movie has a strange but effective scene where everyone has some kind of scar on their body , although I must have missed what the meaning of the scars is supposed to be . They may , however , only be in her mind , but the movie does effectively give a suggestion as to what it might like to be mentally unstable , and I always enjoy movies that do that ( remember In Dreams ? ) . All in all , the movie is nothing like what you might imagine from hearing the title , but still better than the average 70s horror fare ? |
544,124 | 562,732 | 10,057 | 7 | Chaplin on his way out of the short comedy . | I have heard that Chaplin rushed to produce A Day's Pleasure because the studio was demanding product while he was working on The Kid , but I have to disagree that it is a below-average comedy . It is a little different from the fare that we have come to expect from him in his short comedies , but I think this is as much a reflection of his desire to do something different as it is of the fact that he rushed through the production to satisfy the studio while he made another film , which he was more than likely more interested in . It should be kept in mind that Chaplin had been involved in the production of nearly 100 short silent comedies by the time A Day's Pleasure came around , so I can forgive him a little distraction in it's production . If nothing else , I find the film to be particularly interesting , especially at the beginning , because the building that Chaplin and the family leave from at the opening of the film is Chaplin's office in Los Angeles , where I live . It's hard to mistake those mountains in the background ! One thing that I found to be interesting is that at one point in the opening sequence , a man walks into the frame in the background , and the trivia on the IMDb claims that he was most likely a studio employee , which seems like a preposterous notion , since the man not only walks right into the frame during shooting , but also pauses to see what's going on after he turns back . If he was a studio employee , it must have been his first day ! Also of some note is a rather disturbing portrayal of the black characters . Granted , 1919 was a very different time than now , but like Hitchcock's The Ring , which featured a sadly slave-like black man grinning gleefully as dirty , backwards-looking white people dunked him in a tub of water , A Day's Pleasure features a band of black musicians which doesn't say anything good about Chaplin's idea of black people ( what is the meaning of " Three minds with but a single thought ? " ) . While I agree that some of the material is a little different from many of Chaplin's other short films , the sequences here are certainly not without merit , particularly a hilarious bit with an uncooperative deck chair midway through the film . Some of the behavior of Chaplin and his other actors in the film is a little odd ( at one point the family is on a crowded passenger ship on which everyone seems to be falling asleep on their feet in the middle of the day ) , but I should think that Chaplin made a graceful exit from the short silent comedy , if not an eventful one . |
544,201 | 562,732 | 758,746 | 7 | Jason Voorhees Still Mad About His Mom - ' Friday the 13th ' Review . . . | There comes a time in every overly long horror movie franchise when it's no longer necessary to add numbers at the end of the titles of the horizonless stream of sequels . This happened in the Friday the 13th series for the first time in part 4 , The Final Chapter , which incidentally is also the first time they put a bald-faced lie right into the title . Then the numbering system disappeared until part VI ( one of the only sequels worth watching ) , VII , and VIII , after which the whole titling process changed completely . In fact , no Friday the 13th movie has had " Friday the 13th " anywhere in the title since the stupendously bad Jason Takes Manhattan , which was released a full two decades ago . Now , the newest entry in the series is released with exactly the same title as the original ! I don't really want to contemplate what this means as far as the end of the series , if it will ever come . I tend to doubt it . Thankfully , the movie was a lot better than I expected . It would be something of an understatement to say that I had low expectations to begin with , but in the cinematic world of horror sequels , the new Friday the 13th is one of the better ones . The movie opens with a scene that shows little promise for a good horror movie . Anyone who has ever seen pretty much any Friday the 13th sequel will be immediately dismayed to see that they have elected to start this one off with the same thing - a bunch of idiot college kids wandering into the forest to get high and get laid , laughing and joking over a campfire about the legend of Jason Voorhees . " It all happened right here in these woods ! Right here where we are ! Jason could be right behind those trees ! Huh huh huh huh ! ! ! " Morons . This is , however , all part of a set-up that sets the stage for the rest of the movie , which thankfully takes a slightly different tact from the myriad of sequels that came before it . There's an opening sequence that's more than 20 minutes long that takes place before the opening title card , and then during the rest of the movie there's a college-age kid surveying all the people in the surrounding area of Camp Crystal Lake to find out if anyone has seen his missing sister , who was one of the kids in the beginning of the movie . Okay , maybe I lied . That's the only thing that's different . There is an unmistakable feeling that the only thing that ever changes in Friday the 13th movies is the kind of cars the kids drive and their accommodations . This time they're cruising along in an Escalade and staying in the vacation home of one of their parents . Evidently someone thought to buy a beautiful lakeside cabin at Crystal Lake , which until now never really struck me as a big vacation destination . The performances are uniformly bad throughout . They are exactly the same sophomoric idiots that star in every horror movie ever made that has high school or college kids in it . They show up making the same stupid jokes , wearing the same stupid halter tops and each representing the same stupid caricatures . The geek , the black kid , the jock ( s ) , the nervous good girl , the hot chick ( s ) , etc . But at least the paper thin characters make the admittedly clever and gruesome kills that much more satisfying . Kind of makes me wonder what a slasher film would be like if there was a single character in it that we cared about , you know ? Friday the 13th follows exactly the same formula that the series has followed who knows how many times before - a group of kids go into the woods together and manage to get separated from each other within usually less than ten minutes - but as Jason gets on in age ( by my calculations he should be somewhere in his early 60s by now ) he has gotten bigger and faster and stronger . This doesn't speak well for the logistical consistency of the series , but when has logic ever applied ? The Friday the 13th movies have always been the kind of movies that you watch at home on a late rainy night , usually best enjoyed with a bunch of friends and a 12-pack . I can't remember a time when a Friday the 13th movie has ever been scary , but I would be lying if I said I don't occasionally get a huge kick out of having a couple beers with my buddies and watching an old , bad horror movie , so what's so wrong with having a couple beers with my buddies and watching a new , bad horror movie ? Note : At one point in the movie , one of the characters says this line of dialogue - " Let's all be one big , happy cliché ! " I don't think I even need to comment on that . |
544,445 | 562,732 | 96,273 | 7 | One of the earlier , but definitely not one of the best , Pixar animation shorts . | It's wonderful to watch a short animated film like Tin Toy and then watch one like Geri's Game or For The Birds , because you can really see how far Pixar has come over the years . In Toy Story , one of the things that they never got quite right was the look of human faces , but it is clear after watching Tin Toy that they have really improved in that area as well . What you have in Tin Toy is an extremely simple story of a new toy that is at first fascinated but soon understandably horrified by the hideously misshapen baby that he sees terrorizing toys all around him . Besides foreshadowing a huge amount of the plot of the later Toy Story , this short film also contains a lot of symbolism and adheres to a story structure that dates back to medieval literature . This baby is the representation of the horrible monster that can be found in stories around the world , holding people in horrible fear under its control , waiting for some hero to come along and rescue them . The heroic tin toy spends a few minutes fleeing from the horrifying baby ( whose approach is far more fearful than ANY Tyranosaurus Rex ) , but then when the massive baby falls and begins to cry , the toy realizes his purpose and goes out to amuse the baby ( " You're a cool toy ! " ) . Okay , this part never really happened in any of the classic romances where people are held captive by a huge monster , but this is where the film turns from the classic story structure and begins to concentrate on the reality of modern children . One of the more appealing things about this short film is the closeness with which it portrays real children ( although they were horribly far off on the physical appearance ) . Even the child's momentary pause before sneezing is surprisingly realistic , but there are also behavioral things that are captured here , such as the notorious habit of children becoming more interested in the box that their toy came in than they are in the toy itself . Pixar clearly started off early depicting the interests and behaviors of children on screen , and their films have progressed enormously from short films like this one . Tin Toy is not terribly remarkable compared to the later films from Pixar , but from shorts like Tin Toy it can be seen that they have always worked very closely within this particular genre , which is likely a good reason why they are now making children's films that easily rival even the classic Disney masterpieces . |
544,304 | 562,732 | 183,505 | 7 | This is definitely the slapstick comedy that it was made out to be , but Jim Carrey , the master of modern slapstick comedy , makes it work . | I had high hopes for Me , Myself , and Irene , but mostly because I am a huge Jim Carrey fan . Clearly , the story of the film did not strike me as something truly ingenious , but it provided huge possibilities for Carrey to work his hilarious magic . While not nearly as good as some of his comedy classics , such as Dumb & Dumber , Me , Myself and Irene was very successful on many levels . ( spoilers ) One of the things that is seen here ( as is seen in many of Carrey's films ) is the criminal subplot that actually drives much of the comedy . In some cases , this provides for some irony that is actually pretty funny , but also makes you wonder about the message that is being delivered to this film's target audience ( ' ? somewhere along the line they get the idea that the cops are the bad guys - ' BAM ! ) . Well , in this case , the cops really ARE the bad guys . While the majority of the film was very successful as a comedy , I think that some things may have been a little bit blown out of proportion , or a little too childish . The cow , for example , which was ' lucky to be alive ' after Carrey shot it in the head six times and then tried to wrestle to death , was just too much . On the other hand , this kind of excess is not too unexpected , given the film's directors . Also , Carrey's three vulgar but hugely intelligent sons may have gone a little too far , but in this case , it was still really funny . They also ended the film in a charming way ? ' Thanks for watching our motherfkin ' movie ! ' I can't say that I loved Me , Myself , and Irene , but it was still a good comedy . Renee Zellweger gave a good performance as the object of the affection of both of Carrey's personalities in the film . And she also delivered a good kick to his jaw in one particularly amusing scene . The reason to watch this film is for the hilarious performance by Carrey as the two strikingly different colliding personalities , Hank and Charlie . The breathy sound of Hank's voice gets a little tiring pretty quick , but this doesn't take away from the laughs that are skillfully delivered . |
543,763 | 562,732 | 92,644 | 7 | Axel Foley gets the Tony Scott / Jerry Bruckheimer / Don Simpson treatment ? | At the time of its release Beverly Hills Cop was the highest grossing comedy of all time , so it works out perfectly that its first sequel would be directed and produced by the juggernaut Hollywood crowd-pleasers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer ( and directed by none less than Tony Scott ) . The formula is exactly the same ( and man I really mean exactly ) , although it follows all of the usual rules of an action sequel , which state that it must have a much bigger budget ( Axel still does his police work by his own rules , only this time he uses precinct money to drive around in a Ferrari ) , more deaths , faster and funnier jokes ( it clearly shoots for this one , anyway ? ) , and at least one more 6-foot platinum blonde . Let's take a little trip , shall we ? Beverly Hills Cop 2 was released in May of 1987 , and so came just after things like Top Gun , Police Academy 3 , The Color of Money , To Live and Die in L . A . ( which was sort of an anti-buddy cop movie with a mean streak that is clearly reflected in Cop 2 ) , Eddie Murphy's own The Golden Child , and the original Lethal Weapon , which was released just a few months earlier and may have been sharing theaters with it . Needless to say , there was no shortage of police movies and whatnot , and no time is wasted in attempting to stand out from the crowd . The movie starts with a violent robbery pulled off in broad daylight by a highly organized group of criminals headed by the statuesque Bridgette Nielsen , who plays the curiously named Karla Fry . She's involved with a ruthless organized crime syndicate that is running firearms to Central America , and when police chief Bogomil is gunned down , Foley decides he's going to head on back to southern California to solve the case himself again . Everyone is friends now after the events of the first movie . Taggart and Rosewood are no longer spying on Axel but have all become good friends , as they have with Bogomil , who sided with them against the Commissioner or Chief or Mayor or whatever at the end of the last movie . Unfortunately , the new police chief is a total jerkoff and has been firing everyone in sight and replacing them with all of his own people , so once again Taggart and Rosewood and Foley are forced to go against direct orders in order to do what needs to be done . The movie has been almost unanimously slammed by critics , and I would certainly hesitate to say that it's as bad as all that . In more recent years I have not always been the biggest fans of people like Jerry Bruckeimer ( the mega-producer who we have to thank for such highly polished cheesefests as Armageddon and Gone in 60 Seconds and Pearl Harbor , not that he hasn't had his better movies ) , but if you are just looking for a fun popcorn action flick , you could certainly do worse than this one . If nothing else , it was great fun picking out the hilarious 80s pop culture references , some of which were light-hearted jabs at the competition , such as the posters for First Blood Part II and Rambo in Rosewood's " stress-free " apartment , and maybe my favorite , Bridgette Nielsen's ( Stallone's wife at the time ) earrings , which were these bizarre little metallic arrows that made her look like a Klingon . It's true that some of the jokes and situations are a little too unoriginal , even only in the first sequel , such as Foley's remarkable ability to come up with crazy stories on the spot ( although the best one is where he pretends to be a gay prostitute to get into a ritzy club and harass the bad guy ) and his loud-mouthed streams profanity . But again , not necessarily something that I would criticize the movie for just for being there . It gets a little cheesy at times though , like when he gets into the bad guys ' office by pretending to be a delivery boy delivering highly unstable plutonium capsules in - get this - a brown paper bag , but overall it stays in the same vein as the original and may even be better in a lot of ways . |
544,743 | 562,732 | 105,698 | 7 | Super Soldiers of the future ? set in far off 1993 ! ! | Universal Soldier starts out in 1968 with Van Damme playing the good guy , standing up for some innocent Vietnamese people in a village during the war . Dolph Lundgren plays an embittered American soldier , consumed with anger about his fellow soldiers who have been killed in the war , and intent on taking it out on any Vietnamese people he can find . Luc ( Van Damme ) insists that the village has been cleared and those people have done nothing wrong , and the ensuing conflict leads to both of them killing each other before the opening credits are even over . The dead soldiers are declared M . I . A . , not because their having killed each other would be a little difficult to explain , but because they are needed for a new kind of military technology . Now here's where I get a little lost . We cut to the " Present Day Nevada Desert , " 25 years later . You'll notice that 25 years after 1968 you'll find 1993 , the year after this movie was released . I supposed the original audiences were left in complete terror about what was going to take place around the following Spring . The rest of us may wonder why the movie markets itself as being a story about futuristic military technology , when it takes place about 5-6 months after the release date . At any rate , we are immediately taken to a tense hostage situation that is taking place , if I'm not mistaken , on the Hoover Dam , so that the new cyborg-soldiers could be put to the test ( a full quarter of a century after they were made ) . Truly they are impressive pieces of machinery ( or whatever they are ) , and the situation is soon under control . The local news outlets gleefully report that the situation has been taken care of , and with " no casualties or injuries . " Maybe they forgot about the dozen or so innocent people that had been machine gunned right there in the middle of the road in broad daylight . Or maybe they just don't count . The movie plays around a lot with what Luc and Andrew Scott ( Lundgren ) have become . There's a scene where , after Luc begins having flashbacks of Vietnam and escapes with an attractive reporter ( who was fired for being late to the scene ) , he walks outside naked as the day he was born , explaining that he's hot . You see , one of the symptoms of the new soldiers is that their body temperature runs hot , so they have to sleep in refrigerated compartments to avoid overheating . Soon after that , they are discovered , so Luc ( now named GR-44 ) asks Veronica , the reporter , to examine his naked , chiseled body and look for where they have hidden the tracking device . " Look for something unusual , " he tells her . " Something hard . " Clearly , the ideas lifted by the boatload from the Terminator movies need not be named . I have only room for 1 , 000 words here , and to list the borrowed ideas would take more than that . But even though there are literally scenes lifted directly from the Terminators ( like the café scene where GR-44 casually beats the crap out of everyone in sight ) , the movie never feels like a rip-off . Maybe that's because , for all the bad rap he gets , Van Damme has a definite , undeniable on screen charm . At one point , not long after they've met , Veronica asks him where he's from . " I figured you gotta be French or something , " she says , " because of your accent . " " What accent ? " he asks . He seems genuinely confused . The movie sort of descends into routine action clichés by the time GR's 13 ( Lundgren ) and 44 start having flashbacks , and start to remember that they killed each other and hence have unfinished business . It seems that they revert to the emotion that they had at the time they died , so GR-13 wants vengeance of anyone within shooting distance , while GR-44 just wants to go home . Thus we get the government-made super-soldiers trying to kill each other . This leads to a half amusing and half disturbing scene where GR-13 terrorizes some astonished civilians in a supermarket ( while another GR mindlessly gnaws on a raw steak ) , and then ultimately to the obligatory final showdown . I found the " explanation " for the transformation particularly interesting . I feel like , in science fiction movies , how the ' fiction ' is explained is where most of the creativity lies . Sadly , there's not much here . A scientist explains to Veronica how it all worked . " By hyper-accelerating the bodies , we discovered that we could turn dead flesh into living tissue . " Hyper-accelerating ? Is that how they got the soldiers to age super-slow ? Or not at all , and for 25 years ? Sadly , we may never know . When Veronica replies , " What are you saying , doctor ? " there is a knock at the door , so he doesn't really have time to explain . Too bad . There's not much to be said about the ending . It's the worst part of the movie , by far . An enormous copout the likes of which is rarely seen even in bad b-movies . But I should also mention that the movie is not as bad as the ending , or even as bad as many people say . It's not a science fiction classic , but it's a fun action popcorn movie , like many of Van Damme's films . If nothing else , the movie teaches us a valuable lesson - don't throw a beer can at a man wearing a necklace made out of human ears . Note : At the Cannes Film Festival when Universal Soldier was released , Van Damme and Lundgren got into an argument and then a shoving match right there on the red carpet in front of the world's cameras ( you can check it out on YouTube ) . Many lament that we may never know if it was real or just a publicity stunt . It definitely looked real to me , but if it wasn't , then all the mystery around it must mean that they really CAN act ! |
544,150 | 562,732 | 374,339 | 7 | Men are changed by events , not events by men . | The last installment in the Infernal Affairs trilogy is surprisingly slow moving , but still has the high production values and intricate story of the first two , although as a whole it is slightly less engaging than the preceding films . There have been a lot of comparisons between this trilogy and The Godfather films , and the similarities in story-telling structure and the overall arc of the sequels are definitely there , although I have to admit that I think the Godfathers exist on an entirely different level as these films . The Infernal Affairs films are good , but they're not THAT good . There is a lot of work in bringing together the stories of the first two films and it definitely adds to them , but I found this one to be too slow moving , although the pace picked up by the third act and the final scene is definitely impressive . On the other hand , the trilogy ends on a serious downer - " Ksitigarbha Sutra - ' People of the like shall be cast into the Avinci Hell and will continue to suffer from Kalpas to Kalpas with no means of escape . ' I may as well just admit that I don't know the meaning or source of this quote , but it sure seems like a depressing note to end the trilogy on . Nevertheless , despite being just a little bit of a let-down ( like countless trilogy finales ) , Internal Affairs 3 is a necessary closure , and Asian cinema fans are sure to eat it up . |
544,636 | 562,732 | 251,075 | 7 | A worthwhile comedy thanks to Orlando Jones . | We all know Orlando Jones as the endlessly amusing 7-Up guy , but in Evolution he is given a full-length role and the opportunity to show the world how funny he can be . Here is an enormously underrated actor who steals the show even when he's not onscreen , so we can only hope to see a lot more of him in the future . David Duchovny is perfectly cast as the geology professor at the local city college who is on the scene to investigate a mysterious asteroid that has landed on earth and seems to have brought with it some astonishingly quickly growing and evolving organisms from an unknown origin . His history from the X-Files gives him the perfect mixture of seriousness since he just has that voice that makes anything he's talking about sound mysterious and other-worldly , and at the same time it gives him a great opportunity to make some nice inside jokes about his iconography ( ' I don't trust the government , I know those people . ' ) . Julianne Moore is the place where the movie really trips up . She is a tremendously talented actor , and is given a role that is immensely below her . She is there literally for no other reason than to have a love interest for Dr . Kane ( Duchovny ) and so that she can , for some reason , trip and fall flat on her face for some completely unknown reason every once in a while in the movie . Seann William Scott , the single reason to watch crapfests like the American Pies and Road Trip , is given a role that reduces him to goofball comic relief spouting bad jokes ( ' That's like a big loogie ! ' ) that are funny almost not a single time in the film . This guy was side-splittingly hilarious in some of his previous films , even the bad ones ( which was most of them ) , and he is a hugely talented comedy actor , but he just had nothing to work with here . Maybe they should have let him write his own part . The aliens themselves are remarkably interesting , given the way they grow and evolve at such an alarming rate and the things that they grow into . There is a lot of creativity there , even though a lot of it goes way over the top and there are occasional special effects that are just not convincing enough . The idea of having the aliens being unable to tolerate oxygen was a good one , because when aliens are introduced from another world , you can't just have them running around killing people , there have to be some rules that the humans can work with in fighting them so that they're not just freaky looking bad guys . An intolerance of our atmosphere gives them character and gives the humans an edge . The way that they conducted experiments ( purposely or otherwise ) to see what killed the aliens was some of the more interesting parts of the movie , although their weapon against the biggest baddest aliens at the end of the film was a little too goofy , even for a movie like this . Evolution is a very rare kind of film , placing itself among very few colleagues in a genre almost entirely its own , the science fiction comedy . It has the cast to create this kind of film successfully , but some of them , mainly Julianne Moore and Seann William Scott , are simply misused and do not fulfill their entire potential . If a little more work had been put into their roles , the movie could have been immeasurably better . |
544,794 | 562,732 | 17,075 | 7 | Hitch's first film ? | ( possible spoilers ) In what Alfred Hitchcock considers to be his first true film , he presents the story of a man who is suspected of being Jack the Ripper . It is almost a polar opposite of what was to become one of his favorite themes , the wrong man theme , in the sense that it is the populace ( and the audience ) rather than the police that are on the wrong track . The film is very expressionistic and highly stylish , and often lingers on motionless shots to let individual performances illustrate the dramatic tension . A young Hitchcock ( he was my age when he made the film , about 27 or 28 ) allowed himself to be swayed by popular and studio pressure much more than he would later in his career , since he allowed the entire ending of this film to be altered based on the popularity of it's handsome star , stage actor Ivor Novello . Hitch's humor comes through in scenes like a showgirl dramatically giving up peroxide , since the Avenger seems to prefer blondes . The Lodger is also credited with being the first film where Hitchcock started making his trademark cameos , one of him at a news desk early in the film and once again in the crowd near the end . I am going to remain neutral on this , because neither appearance is surely Hitchcock . The man at the desk is shown from behind and could be anyone , and try as I might , I couldn't find him anywhere in the crowd at the end . Hitchcock also has nothing nice to say in the film about media sensationalism , which is the cause of much of the widespread panic caused by the murders . Very good early Hitchcock , it's easy to see why he was gaining so much attention at this point in his career . |
544,904 | 562,732 | 120,832 | 7 | Mission : Implausible . . . | A quick glance back at my Oscars archives will reveal that Snake Eyes wasn't even nominated for a Best Editing Academy Award in 1998 , which is a sad , ridiculous omission . This might be because the ending is famously bad , but for all of the film's many faults , the mystery portion of the movie is crafted together with such directing and editing skill that it's a travesty that it should have been so overlooked . Of particular note is the movie's uninterrupted first shot . I don't know how long it is exactly , but it goes on for several minutes , which is an enormously difficult thing to pull off . It requires massive amounts of planning and preparation , and they pulled it off brilliantly here , reminding me of similar shots in GoodFellas , Boogie Nights , and The Player . But the real problem with the movie is that it gives us 90 minutes of an exciting thriller and then caves in to a cheap , contrived ending that only calls more attention to itself by coming on the heels of such an otherwise good movie . Brian de Palma's previous film was the brilliant remake of Mission : Impossible , and while the action and pace of that movie were both well-suited to the director's biggest talents , in Snake Eyes he has pulled out all the stops and given us a movie where every frame is packed to the edges with excesses in color , motion , gestures , and noise . Not that this is a bad thing , of course . In fact , for the most part all of the visual chaos only makes the movie fascinating to look at even as we struggle to figure out what's going on . But man , it's just too bad about that ending . Nicholas Cage plays Rick Santoro , a detective and boxing fan who happens to be in the front row of a heavyweight champion fight where prize-fighter Lincoln Tyler ( Stan Shaw ) is defending his title . Hurricane Jezebel is pounding on the outside of the arena as Tyler is getting pounded in the ring by an over-confident , wise-cracking challenger . A heavy hit sends Tyler down to the canvas and then gunshots ring out . The Secretary of Defense , sitting a few seats away from Santoro , is shot in the throat and the whole stadium erupts into a panic . What follows is a multiple point of view presentation of the event , which shows us 20 minutes or so leading up to the gunshots and some time after , and then cuts back and shows the same time period but at different locations within the stadium . Santoro's best friend is Kevin Dunne ( Gary Sinise ) , who is in charge of the Secretary's security for the event . Not a good job to have when the guy gets assassinated . Sinise gives a subdued and collected performance , especially when compared to the exaggerated excess of much of Cage's performance , but the problem is that he and Cage have not a scrap of chemistry on stage . We're told that they have been best friends since childhood , but none of that comes through in their limited shared screen time , which pulls the rug out from a scene late in the movie that is supposed to be powerful and moving . Sadly , it's not . De Palma succeeds best in the way he presents the events leading up to the assassination from several different points of view , not the least reason for which is because we don't know which of them , if any , we can trust entirely , which makes the mystery element of the movie even more interesting . Stan Shaw deserves some credit for his performance as while he never for a second looks like a boxing champion , there is a scene in the ring where his eyes show a depth of sadness and remorse for what he has to do that might be the single best piece of acting in the entire movie . An extra layer of realism is also added as the movie takes us behind the scenes of a major prize-fight , showing us what the boxers do just before and after a major fight and a little bit about how casino security is handled . There is another plot below the assassination involving doctored missile test results and a subsequent conspiracy , but it really serves no other purpose than to give a reason for the assassination , which itself drives the rest of the movie . But unfortunately Snake Eyes is one of those movies that is really good and then hugely disappointing , leaving you with a feeling somewhere between regret that the movie wasn't better and just feeling cheated . |
544,494 | 562,732 | 1,007,028 | 7 | Sex still more offensive than violence ? | If Kevin Smith can't do anything new with the romantic comedy genre I think it's pretty safe to assume that it's never going to happen . The first 45 minutes or so of Zack and Miri Make A Porno have some of the funniest stuff I've seen in a movie since Pineapple Express ( which was written by fellow funnyman Judd Apatow ) . The scene where Zack is talking to the two gay guys at the high school reunion cost me a perfectly good cup of delicious iced coffee , most of which ended up in my lap and sprayed all over my coffee table . I think I rewound that scene and watched it over again about 15 times before I finally heard everything over my laughing . But there definitely comes a point in the movie where the predictability factor shoots through the roof and , despite Kevin Smith's undeniably outstanding writing skills , the movie takes a serious downturn . I am not as huge of a fan of Kevin Smith as some of my friends . One of my best friends grew up in New Jersey right next to where Clerks was filmed and has thus developed kind of a special relationship with Smith's films , but while I enjoyed Clerks and loved Mallrats and was mildly impressed with Chasing Amy ( except for all the screaming ) , I haven't been very interested in anything Smith has done since then . I was outwardly bored with Dogma , Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back seemed like such a cash-in to me , I still haven't gotten around to seeing Clerks II and I'll probably never watch Jersey Girl . Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are in that thing , for God's sake . But for a good portion of Zack and Miri I thought that I had been missing something all along , or at least that I had forgotten the undeniable charm of Smith's work . It's true that he is a brilliant writer . He can create conversations that have a hugely profane but still realistic flow , and with actors like Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks ( and a whole list of others ) nailing all of their lines , it makes for something special in the comedy department . Sadly , the movie is so predictable that I almost feel like I should give you a spoiler warning just to tell you that . Zack and Miri are life-long friends who have a relationship of convenience . They enjoy each other's company and have a real friendship , but they are roommates primarily for financial reasons . They both have dead-end jobs and rely on each other to share the rent and bills , but a variety of factors ( mostly Zack's inability to put their utility bills above a " Fleshlight " on his list of priorities ) they eventually find themselves months behind on their bills and unable to pay their rent . One day Miri accidentally allows herself to be filmed by a couple of teenagers while she's changing clothes in plain sight at the coffee shop where Zack works and the video shows up on the internet with hundreds of thousands of people watching it daily . Not a bad turnout for what is really a pretty thoroughly uninteresting video , but no matter . This gives Zack the idea that they should make a porno . Even if only the 800 or so people from their high school graduating class bought a copy for $20 a pop or so , it would instantly solve all of their financial problems . It's interesting to notice that Zack and Miri suffer through more moral and emotional torment trying to accept the idea of having sex with each other than they do about selling their naked images to strangers . I would have thought that crossing the line into making porn movies would be a pretty big step , but not these two . You see , it seems that Miri's parents are dead and Zack grandparents are dead ( ? ) , so they have no one to be disappointed in them . It is , however , one of the film's clever accusations of the public at large that the only reason that everyone doesn't get involved in making porn is because they're worried about what their parents would think . They amass a makeshift crew made up of Lester the Molester ( Jason Mewes ) , a stripper named Stacey ( real life porn star Katie Morgan ) , an aging stripper named Bubbles ( Traci Lords ) who earns her name with a rather disturbing trick that she does at bachelor parties , and Barry , a black man with a brutal marriage to a black caricature of a wife and more than his share of financial problems himself . The first half of the movie is some of the best work that Smith has done in years . The dialogue is hilarious , none of the film's admittedly extensive profanity seems overdone , and even the characters are believable as they make this completely unbelievable plan . I spent most of the first half of the movie trying to figure out what was going to go wrong and prevent the porno from ever being filmed , but I spent the second half watching the movie slog through a sadly lengthy list of romantic comedy clichés as it labored toward the obligatory Hollywood ending . I understand that the word " porno " has generated some controversy , prompting some newspapers to refuse to print ads for the movie and some theaters to refuse to show it . I'm wondering if Kevin Smith predicted this and if it was part of his decision to use this title , since getting his film banned from select theaters and newspapers is probably the quickest and most efficient way to ensure it's success . At any rate , it is another sad , sad sign of the times when the word " porno " will generate frantic animosity , but no one has a problem with blood-soaked , degenerate films like Hostel and the never-ending Saw films from being shipped to theaters . Go figure . |
544,537 | 562,732 | 3,758 | 7 | Entertaining short comedy by Charlie Chaplin that foreshadows a major theme of his later films . | Unfortunately , Caught In A Cabaret , being one of Chaplin's earliest films , has deteriorated pretty badly over the last nine decades or so , and this deterioration seems to have affected the film's continuity , making it look like the editing is botched . As is the case with most of Chaplin's films , the action in Caught In A Cabaret runs slightly faster than real life , which enhances much of the slapstick comedy but also makes several short clips in the film go by so fast that they are virtually incomprehensible . ( spoilers ) The main theme of Caught In A Cabaret deals with rich vs . poor , a theme that Chaplin later became famous for and which he made use of so often because of his own poverty stricken childhood . This film concerns a working man who pretends to be someone else in order to get accepted into a group of wealthy people . It is not expected that at the end he does not get the girl and winds up walking down a dirt road alone , but his activities throughout the film make his point clear . As he is at a party with the rich people , he gets drunk and makes something of a fool of himself , but when he is working as a waiter , he is fairly heroic , ridding the place of unwanted ruffians and whatnot . Caught In A Cabaret has not survived too well physically , but it is an excellent example of the type of early work Chaplin did as he became famous as one of the most loveable characters in cinematic history . |
544,442 | 562,732 | 455,824 | 7 | All's Fair In Love And War Movies - ' Australia ' Review . . . | Australia has the old-fashioned feel of a classic war film ( I've even heard it compared to Gone With The Wind ) combined with a strange , polished futuristic feel of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow . It takes place during World War II . Hitler has invaded Poland and the Australians fear that the Japanese forces may overflow into their northern territories at any time . The allied armies of the world will need to eat and it is the aim of a cattle-raising juggernaut in northern Australia named King Carney to be the sole provider of Australian beef to the war effort . Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley , the wife of a British rancher living in Australia receives disturbing reports that her husband has been philandering recklessly while he's supposed to be handling the business of their massive norther Australian cattle ranch , Faraway Downs . She travels to Australia to find out what's going on only to find that the rivalry in the Australian beef industry has taken a deadly turn . She finds her husband murdered and herself in the middle of a complex but confusing plot by the Carney people to trick her into selling her land , not knowing that that was her intention in the first place . When she discovers the truth about what they're doing , she changes her mind and decide to fight them for the war contracts . Lady Sarah attempts to enlist the help of Drover ( Hugh Jackman ) , who is hesitant because he refuses to accept any other job other than an independent contractor out of a deep dislike of the hiring / firing processes . Meanwhile , a young half-caste boy named Nullah has been living on the ranch with his mother and grandmother , hiding out in the water tower because , at that time , any aboriginal children who had been fathered or mothered by blacks were taken away and shipped to an island out on the ocean where the black will be " bred out of them . " The boy gives an astonishing performance , too . He provides the narrative centerpiece of the story , all other events ultimately revolve around him , including his grandfather , who is something of a witch doctor who the Carneys are trying to frame for the murder of Lady Sarah's husband . Australia is listed in part as a western , because it takes place in the dusty expanses of the Australian desert , across the most dangerous sections of which Lady Sarah and Drover must attempt to drive 1 , 500 head of cattle and load them onto the boats at the docks in northern Australia , all the while pursued by Carney's henchmen . The movie gives us a brilliantly presented picture of mid-WWII life in Australia , but it is also much too highly polished . The colors and textures are so bright that it almost looks like we're looking at the future , which left me with the feel that it would have been a much better movie had it had a much smaller budget . But worst of all is that , amidst all of the high-budget trickery and technological polish , the movie is literally peppered with obvious soundstages , cheap CGI and bad blue screens . How did that happen ? Maybe they spent all their post-production budget too soon by hiring Hugh Jackmand and Nicole Kidman ? The performances are almost universally outstanding , however , if a little over-exaggerated in some cases . Australian pubs , for example , are not exactly lady-friendly even 70 years after the movie takes place , but the comedic dramatization is pretty hard to miss . Nicole Kidman is outstanding as the highly proper British aristocrat suddenly thrown into company amidst hardened Australian cattle herders , although I imagine it would be nearly impossible to get a bad performance out of her in a role like that . Hugh Jackman , similarly , inhabits his role remarkably well . But unfortunately , despite being what might normally be called a sweeping historical epic , the movie is so over-processed that it has a permeating feeling of fakeness that never seems to go away , and not just because of the bad sound-stage scenes . For the most part it's beautiful photographed , is full of wonderful performances and as an engaging story , but there is always a sense that it's trying to be something even bigger but isn't exactly sure how to do it . |
543,831 | 562,732 | 120,901 | 7 | Another classic from Leslie Nielsen ! | I read another reviewer's comments about Wrongfully Accused , and I am continually amazed at how many people judge movies like this as though they are meant to be serious cinematic endeavors . Leslie Nielsen's films , literally , are jokes , and if you can't take them that way then maybe it would be better if you didn't watch them . I only say this here rather than just to that reviewer because I think it's worth pointing out that , in case you couldn't already tell , this movie is a parody and is meant to be laughed at . I am perfectly willing to admit that it is peppered with scenes that fall completely flat ( the sex scene with the sports commentary in the background is a prime example ) and much of Nielsen's acting is absolutely awful ( also note that much of this is also a parody of similar bad acting in the movies that are being spoofed in this movie , such as The Fugitive and obviously some of the James Bond films ) , but again , you really need to keep in mind what kind of movie this is . Besides , there are also plenty of truly hilarious scenes . I can't help cracking up at the train peeking around the rock at Nielsen as he tries to escape , or the scene where he bends down to get his foot out of the railroad tracks and is hit in the forehead by the crossing gate . This scene was also screwed up , because that crossing gate was down across the track rather than a road going over the tracks , and it stopped rising just above Nielsen's head . But who cares ? Comedy is a surprise , if you just saw what was expected it wouldn't be funny ! I can't say that Wrongfully Accused promises a cerebral workout or any moving social commentary , but if you look at the cover of this movie and expect something like that , maybe you should stick to the kid's section at the video store , because you are probably a little out of your league . The rest of you should be able to find some things to laugh at in this movie . Just enjoy it for what it is , because there are really only two things that frost my butt , a snow cone about that high , and IMDb reviewers that can't take a good joke ! |
544,082 | 562,732 | 120,903 | 7 | As far as action and special effects , X-Men was spectacular , but there were a few holes that were really difficult to overlook . | X-Men definitely delivered in the action and special effects departments . The acting , make-up , and cinematography were all excellent as well . In that sense , it was a great movie . However , the thing that I really had a problem with was the fact that there were a few holes left in the plot that could very easily have been prevented . For example , from what financial base did Dr . Xavier start this spectacular school for mutants ? Clearly it would require a huge amount of money just to build the " big round room " alone . And even more than that , is it just me or does it seem very unlikely that every mutant with these amazing powers somehow winds up in this school and not in some secret government institution somewhere ? Is it a coincidence that the only people who ever witness these peoples ' powers are the people who just want to turn them over to this school and not to the scientific community to see how they work ? Not likely . And what about those powers themselves ? The narration at the beginning of the film talks about how these ' mutants ' have skipped a step in evolution , so that their genetic structure is in various ways superior to that of the rest of the human race . That's great , but does the ability to shoot lasers out of your eyes or , even more , the ability to walk through walls have anything to do with your DNA ? I don't think so . It doesn't seem that there was a lot of thought put into these aspects of the film , and it really bothers me when the filmmakers do things like that . Overall , X-Men was a very good film , and it is definitely worth seeing , but only as a special effects and action extravaganza . It seems to be aimed mostly at younger male audiences , because of the absence of a solid amorous subplot , and also because of Mystique's outfit ( ! ) . Besides all that , at least a basic knowledge of the X-Men comics ( which I personally don't have , I'm into movies , not comic books ) would probably be beneficial in understanding the story a little bit better . If you haven't seen X-Men , go out and check it out . But if you aren't impressed by films that are pulled along almost entirely by their computer generated images and explosions , you might want to skip this one . |
544,782 | 562,732 | 195,685 | 7 | This is one of those films that makes up for its total lack of originality with some fairly respectable acting and a few good cleavage shots . | What was up with the low cut shirts , anyway ? Was there some specific reason why Erin Brockovich ( Julia Roberts ) had her push-up bra showing above the top of her low cut shirt in every single scene she was in ? In my opinion , if they are going to do something like that in a film , they better have a real good reason for it , and in this particular film , they didn't . Julia Roberts plays Erin Brockovich in the true story about a woman who took interest in a particular case she came across at the law office where she worked and ended up as the initiating force behind a tremendous lawsuit . She delivered a fairly good performance , but her personality was badly manipulated for the film . Do you really think that she was able to memorize some 650 different phone numbers , names , afflictions , relatives , etc ? I don't think so . Fred freakin ' Tate wouldn't even be able to do that . Besides that , her excessively loud streams of profanity grew tiring very quickly . This is an entertaining film to watch about the corruptions of a huge corporation being thrown back in its face , but the story doesn't have much strength . Despite its good intentions , it gives the illusion that financial gain is the answer if you and your entire family have become gravely ill . In the movie , the settlement to the lawsuit is seen as victory , and no more attention is paid to the sicknesses of the families . Besides that , I find it hard to believe that so many people in the same small town could have gotten that sick for so many years and no one would have even noticed . You'd think there would be some sort of pattern showing up at the local hospitals at least . Overall , Erin Brockovich is an entertaining enough movie . It doesn't break any new ground or tell anything original , but this is a type of film that is always entertaining to watch . If you're into legal thrillers , watch The Rainmaker . If you like The Rainmaker , watch The Firm . If you like The Firm , watch A Civil Action . And if you like A Civil Action and you just need more more more , watch Erin Brockovich , and watch for the real Erin Brockovich as a waitress early in the film . |
544,170 | 562,732 | 241,073 | 8 | Interesting Korean horror film with a nice touch of irony . | Having seen so many Asian horror films in recent months , I expected Whispering Corridors to be a lot scarier than it was , but I was still impressed with the consistently creepy mood that permeated the film . When it comes to movies , there are a few things that tend to be pretty effective in scaring me , like kids , clowns , and hallways . Hallways , especially . The Shining had a profound effect on me . Then there are things that are never scary , like screeching cats , and things that are never scary but generally still a lot of fun , like the walking dead . The movie borrows a lot from the horror films that have been pouring out of Japan and doesn't necessarily cover much new ground but is still a pretty entertaining thriller . Interestingly , I found that the best thing about the movie were the performances , some of which were outstanding . Acting prowess is generally not something you look for in horror films . ( spoilers ) There are some things that seem to be hinted at in the movie , although I'm not sure if they're all intentional . At the end when we learn that the ghost's job was to fill the empty seats , it seemed to me that the movie was making a crack about Asian people looking so similar . On the other hand , Asian people only tend to look the same to people who are not Asian . One of my roommates is Japanese and she says it's Americans that all look the same . There is also a hilarious bit of irony near the end when one character has a shard of glass pressed into her throat as she threatens to kill herself . She's pressing hard enough to draw blood and she says something like , " The bloodshed must stop ! " Overall there are not a lot of memorably scary moments , but it is an interesting film that gives some insight into some of the surprising teaching methods practiced in Korea as well as a fairly interesting story . There's nothing new about haunted schools , but the mixture of that foundational premise and the Korean schoolyard environment make for a pretty interesting combination . |
544,837 | 562,732 | 118,655 | 8 | This should have been done years ago ! ! | In a time when we are almost constantly barraged with goofy spoof films , it's amazing that no one had come out with a spoof of the James Bond films until 1997 . Those movies have been coming out and just BEGGING to be spoofed since the early 60s , and Mike Meyers is the one who finally steps forward to do what simply has to be done , and he does a wonderful job at it . Fans of the James Bond films will have a blast looking for all of the allusions to the old Bond films and trying to determine which Bond film is being spoofed at any given time , but it's important to keep in mind that the film pokes fun at the Bond series in good taste . Austin Powers : International Man of Mystery is never disrespectful to the films that it makes fun of , which is probably the single most important thing about a spoof film that makes it good . This is why the Scary Movies , as just a couple of examples , were such dismal , hideous failures . They try to be funny by viciously making fun of all kinds of movies , and end up looking stupid because they have such a nonexistent right to do that . You can't make a stupid , stupid movie and make fun of a lot of great movies ( and some not so great , admittedly ) and try to pretend to be respectable at the end of it all . That's the recipe for a crapfest . While it's true that a lot of the comedy in the first Austin Powers film is slapstick and obviously contrived , I think it should be a testament to the quality of the film that it is still so funny ! We see all of the traditional Bond clichés in this movie , such as the usual one-liners ( which are made fun of extensively and with spectacular effect here ) , the fancy cars , the goofy cockiness , the teeth-grinding theme song , and the occasionally inexplicable popularity with the women ( this allusion makes most sense when compared to those Bond films that starred Roger Moore ) . The plot involves a rivalry between Dr . Evil , an evil mastermind bent on world domination , and Austin Powers , a mockish caricature of James Bond , bent on stopping Dr . Evil's world domination schemes . Meyers portrays both characters with hilarious skill , making Austin an awkward womanizer with some serious dental problems , and Dr . Evil an evil schemer with a hilarious cutesy side . Neither character really seems like they belong in the role that they serve ( as a spy and a doctor of evil ) , which is where a lot of the comedy comes in . There is also , of course the fact that they both spend most of the movie 30 years in their future , completely out of touch with the new world that they live in . This is not a movie to be taken seriously , and quite frankly , I can't understand all of these reviews that I've read on the IMDb that are constantly complaining that Austin Powers is so cheesy or so childish . I've heard this same complaint about lots of other movies that are also not meant to be taken seriously , but this one is especially confusing . I trust that all you people complaining about how childish Austin Powers is realize that it is a spoof based on a whole series of movies that are also not meant to be taken seriously , right ? I mean , that would be a hell of an oversight to miss that little detail . Austin Powers is one of the most refreshing comedies to come along in years , and it's sad that there are so many people who completely missed the boat on this one just because they pretend that the movie is something that it's not and was never meant to be . It's true that the movie is immensely immature and that it has unfortunately little re-watch value ( one of the biggest problems with the film ) , but the quality of the comedy is unmistakable . |
544,766 | 562,732 | 734,622 | 8 | Radio is a world that has to be believed to be seen . . . | Static reminds me of a science fiction version of one of Charlie Chaplin's early short films , like Behind the Screen or Film Johnnie , where he pokes fun at his own craft of film-making . Similarly , in this episode , Rod Serling rails against the descent of civilized society , who used to be able to integrate radio entertainment into a social family environment , and into a race of mindless zombies staring thoughtlessly into the hypnotic box in the living room . The story concerns an aging couple ( who , for various reasons , never married but have lived together basically as husband and wife for decades ) whose lives are thrown into turmoil as a direct result of the garbage on television . Imagine if that happened today , the whole world would collapse ! Dean Jagger plays Ed Lindsay , who one day throws up his hands in disgust at how television has taken over everyone's lives , and so decides to dust off the old radio and see what's on . This episode approaches the exact reason that the subject of time travel is so endlessly entertaining , because everyone imagines visiting another time , particularly as we get older and reminisce about our lost youth . Ed seems to have a past full of regrets , and laments what his life has become , and he looks to the radio as a way to transport himself back to the happier days when he was a young man . This is the stuff our great grandparents must have reminisced about . . . The episode makes an interesting comment on the role of entertainment in American life , as Ed soon becomes just as engrossed and obsessed with the radio as the rest of the family is with the television , and he soon finds himself more concerned about catching his favorite programs than with spending time with his family . Before long they begin to wonder about him , especially after they attempt to phone the radio station due to some bad reception and discover that the station he has been listening to doesn't seem to exist . This is where the supernatural seems to come in , although it's debatable whether there is really something supernatural going on or just Ed's mind beginning to slip in his old age . Personally I think it's a little of both , although this is certainly one of the more realistic and immediately relevant episodes of the twilight zone , especially concerning the amount of time Americans spend being entertained by some form of media and the effect it has on our lives . In Ed's case , his sanity seemed to be cut loose by the very medium of entertainment that he used to bring himself back to the happiest times of his life . |
544,464 | 562,732 | 734,666 | 8 | The twilight zone at Christmas time . . . | Night of the Meek is certainly a unique twilight zone episode , coming off more like a family Christmas classic than the typical stuff we have come to expect from Rod Serling , things about other worlds and aliens and mysterious happenings . There is , of course , a lot of that in this episode , but it's couched in a story that resembles A Christmas Carol than anything else . A drunk stumbles late back to his seasonal job as Santa Claus at a local mall , and on the way a cat screeches and knocks over a bag of garbage , which suddenly turns into a bag overflowing with toys and gifts . The drunken Santa suddenly becomes a real Santa , eagerly snatching up the bag and distributing to anyone he can find their heart's desire . This is a great way to show what people's true heart's desire may be , and I love the way it makes us think about our own heart's desire . It seems to me that the purpose here is to call attention to how trivial a lot of our desires may be . When offered the opportunity to have anything they want , the people in the show ask for meaningless things like sweaters and pipes . There is a moving scene in the episode where Henry , the drunk Santa , says that if he could have anything he wanted , he would want to do this same thing every year . It's a wonderful illustration of what I think is our inherent desire to do good things for other people . Alcoholism is a terrible affliction , but it is immediately forgotten about when Henry suddenly finds himself in the position to bring so much happiness to so many people . It gets a little cheesy at the end , like so many of them , but is still a great example of the twilight zone presenting a story that captures the spirit of the season . |
544,883 | 562,732 | 847,779 | 8 | Great episode except for the theatrics . . . | Like more than one other episode this season , this was a great show except for the whole theatrical element . Evidently there has been a mysterious gang of thugs brutally beating people all over the city for no apparent reason . Things get immediately interesting when Greg stumbles across the gang in the middle of one of their beatings and tries to break it up . As I would have done , he backs up his Denali and drives toward them honking his horn with his police lights flashing . All of the thugs run except for one , who is made to look like a horror movie psycho who is completely fearless of the police , and instead of running away , he charges toward Greg's truck with a rock in his hand . The episode starts off really good with the sudden sense of danger falling over the city because the attacks are so brutal and so random . It very effectively takes away that real life sense of safety that we have in our everyday lives , but then it falters because we get these psychotic teenagers beating people to death . I know we live in a violent world and I know that Vegas is the Sin City , but kids just don't do that . One of them is caught and questioned , and after arrogantly snapping at every question the police ask her and generally acting like a high school girl lashing out at her parents , she admits that she and her " friends " regularly get together and beat random tourists within an inch of their lives just because they get tired of seeing them everywhere . It's not uncommon for CSI to give us murder cases that happen under wildly outlandish situations ( remember the guy who killed himself with the gun tied to a piece of elastic that pulled it up the chimney after he shot himself ? ) , but this is an example of one of the stories that was just a little too unrealistic as far as basic human behavior . Oh and yeah , Kevin Federline was in it . Who cares . |
544,429 | 562,732 | 734,667 | 8 | Obvious but meaningful . | The Obsolete Man makes quite an obvious comment on the role of government and certain ways in which powers can be abused or societies can go astray . The totalitarian state portrayed in the film gleefully broadcasts the executions of undesirables ( 1300 in 6 hours one time , if I remember correctly ) such as , in the case we get to see , a man who has committed the mortal sin of being a librarian . The theme of publicly executing undesirables , by the way , bears amazing resemblance to the brutal regime of Mao Tse-tung , which was at it's heyday when this episode first aired . At any rate , we already know that burning books is bad and I don't know that we need an entire twilight zone episode to show us that the next step of killing librarians is also bad , but it's an entertaining enough episode . A lot of other IMDb users have complained that this episode is preachy , and I agree to a certain extent , but I also think that any film or story or TV show that shows the dangers of government can't be all bad , particularly given the astonishing political banditry that we have witnessed in America for the last 8 years . It's sad but unsurprising to me that the American economy is in shambles right now . My favorite thing that the episode does is that it presents this quiet , unassuming man who lives a quiet life as a librarian , and even after his death sentence , he manages to completely undo the man who condemned him , and in front of a widespread audience as well . He uses the machine's rules against it and makes an incredibly powerful statement about political responsibility and the rights and wrongs of governmental power . Pretty deep and intense material , and not the most fun I've had watching the twilight zone , but it's relevance can most certainly be felt today . . . |
544,706 | 562,732 | 89,885 | 8 | Tons of campy fun . | Ah , finally a horror camp classic that deserves to be called a horror camp classic . Re-Animator is one of those fun horror movies that is so over the top that it is just a lot of fun to watch , kind of like the spectacular Evil Dead films , although not quite to that same level of skillful horror / comedy mix . Ironically enough , I think it should be a testament to the quality of the rest of the movie that it is able to work so well despite prominently featuring a soundtrack that is a naked rip-off of the Psycho soundtrack . It's amazing to me that Richard Bond , the music composer , didn't think anyone would notice him plagiarizing one of the most famous movie soundtracks in cinematic history , but luckily everyone else in the production was right on the mark . Jeffrey Combs delivers a wonderfully crazy performance as Herbert West , the scientist in the movie who is determined that he has discovered a scientific method to beat death , and is desperate to try it out on a human being rather than small animals , on whom he has had remarkable success . He is playing a completely one-dimensional character , a genius scientist whose mental capacity is also tinged with madness , but which is counterbalanced by the fact that he may very well be desperate to try something potentially immoral but which could also potentially revolutionize medicine . Maybe his intentions are good after all , but for the purposes of the film , he just wants to get his hands on some fresh corpses , which is a great premise for a horror film . The movie operates in its own world , like the Evil Dead films did . It takes place in the horror genre but wants to combine some elements of drama as well , as we have a real scientist who is truly brilliant . He is still in medical school , I believe , but is often smarter than his often-published professors , criticizing their work for being incorrect or even plagiarized . He's very quick to make enemies , I would think his line of work might be easier the less people he had watching him , so it's unfortunate that he was so good at making people not like him . Mere days after he rents out a room from a couple of other students , they find their cat dead in his refrigerator . I hate it when new roommates do that . There is plenty of gratuitous nudity in the film , and while I appreciate nudity as much as the next guy , I don't like it when it drives a weak film , and that is certainly not the case here . There is a graphic and highly disturbing nude scene three quarters or so through the film that made me literally cringe and turn my head , not because of gore but by the sheer disturbing idea of it , it was awful . But the thing that I loved is that that scene fits in with the rest of this movie so well . It is all about too much gore and too much blood and too much nudity , but also lots of laughs . This is a perfect example of how much fun scary movies can be . |
544,034 | 562,732 | 118,583 | 8 | Was it everything you hoped for ? | Alien Resurrection was released about six months after I graduated from high school , and at the time I wasn't very familiar with the series . I took my first film class about six months later , at which point I learned to really appreciate the great films and filmmakers , and one of the first things I learned was that the first three Alien films are spectacular achievements of science fiction cinema and the third sequel is a sad , ridiculous mess . This happens all too often with sequels and yes , part four is not yet another amazingly impressive Alien film , but come on , it's not THAT bad . I watched it last night for the first time in almost ten years , and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it . It's strange that I liked it so much , because it shows all the signs of a botched , modernized sequel of a series that should have been left alone long ago . The characters , most of all , are almost all goofy caricatures with preposterous dialogue and routine motivations , and some just don't belong at all . Personally I am a pretty big fan of Winona Ryder , but only in roles that suit her , and she has had a lengthy list of roles that suit her , but Annallee Call in Alien Resurrection is just not one of them . Too often she comes off as a tough talking teenager in this movie and it just gets hard to take her character seriously . She's like Ja Rule in Half Past Dead , but less ridiculous . Then again , this could just have been a result of her starring alongside Sigourney Weaver , and that woman is just awesome . Dan Hedaya is suitably over-the-top in his role as the gleefully neurotic General Perez , and I have to admit that I was curious to see the performance of Gary Dourdan as Christie . Lately I've been watching countless hours of CSI on DVD , and it's amazing to see how different his role is in this movie from the most serious role he would play later in that show . I prefer the later performance , myself . The resurrection implied in the title refers to Ripley being borough back to life 200 years after her death for the purpose of creating one of the alien queens , and then breeding the animals for twisted scientific purposes . They decide to keep Ripley alive for observation after surgically removing the alien from her chest , only to discover that she and the aliens are clearly more than they are prepared to handle . There is a negligible subplot involving a group of shady characters headed by the wonderfully sinister Michael Wincott as a Frank Elgyn , who promises his men won't start trouble or get into any fights if they are allowed to stay on board for a few days and nights . I also have to mention Ron Perlman , who just has a face for this kind of movie . Probably most recognizable lately as Hellboy , this has to be one of the least appreciated actors of the last few decades . In just over 20 years he has acted in more than 150 films and TV shows , and at the time of this writing he has 18 projects in the works . Unbelievable ! He also has one of the best lines in the movie ( " Why the waste of ammo ? ! Must be a chick thing ? " ) . The aliens are probably the thing that will make or break this movie , and in my opinion they were impressive enough . The occasional CGI effects are never convincing , but then again they never are , so luckily they didn't overdo them . Even the aliens swimming underwater was not too much for me to accept , perhaps given the automatic tension that is immediately generated in almost any movie where someone has to hold their breath for a long time . This went on far too long to be anything remotely realistic in this movie , but it was a good scene nonetheless . I would also argue that this is the goriest of all of the four alien movies , particularly at the end , but also contains some of the best comic relief . This combination makes the movie highly entertaining , even following in the long shadows of its spectacular predecessors . There is a high energy scene in the third act of the film where Perlman's character performs a daredevil stunt to shoot one of the pursuing aliens dead which is followed by what has to be the funniest spider killing in film history . I haven't laughed out loud like that at a movie in a long , long time . In browsing through the posts on the message board for Resurrection I have been inspired to raise my rating for the movie from a 7 to an 8 , if only because it is so obvious that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon about bashing this movie . I see nothing but whiny , pouting little brats whimpering and griping about little nitpicky details in the movie , condemning the third sequel in the Alien quadrilogy as a travesty and an embarrassment and a pathetic way to end the series . Stupid people in large numbers , man . It's sad to see such a clear mob mentality slamming a movie that is about 100 times better than most people say . No , it's not up to the same level as the first two films and it definitely has its drawbacks , but it is definitely a good installment in the series , and you could certainly do a lot worse for some fun popcorn sci-fi on a Friday night . I'll admit that my judgment might be a little skewed because I watched the staggeringly awful Eaten Alive just before seeing this , but it is clear to me that Alien : Resurrection has yet to receive the respect it deserves . |
544,337 | 562,732 | 365,079 | 8 | An interesting look at one of my least favorite producers . | I've been watching a lot of DVD extra features lately and one of the things that I have found that almost all of them have in common is that nearly all of them have distantly lower ratings on the IMDb than they deserve . Consider , for example , the three documentaries included on the Vista Series of The Sixth Sense , which are all outstanding documentaries but which all received collective ratings of something like , which is absolutely ridiculous . This documentary is all of 8 minutes long , I find it hard to believe that people were upset that they just wasted 8 minutes of their life watching it , especially when it does , in fact , give some pretty interesting insights into the motivations of one of the most successful producers of all time ( although certainly not the best ) . I recently watched an old Three Stooges short comedy called The Brideless Groom , the IMDb comments about which were unanimously glowing , despite the fact that the film was tepid and boring . Just like automatic praise for mediocre films damages the authenticity of the truly great films , this seemingly arbitrary lack of respect for interesting introspectives like Conversations with Jerry Bruckheimer simply dilute the stock in which movie-goers can put into the opinions of IMDb users . I have a healthy dislike of the vast majority of Bruckheimer's work . His films are crowd-pleasers but not the way that Spielberg's movies are . He goes for universal appeal but at the expense of the quality of the story that he is telling and the film that he is making , using such methods as heavily structured and contrived plots and , most damaging , by forcing cloying romantic subplots into films which have no room or need for them . Armageddon is an example of a film that had no room , and Pearl Harbor is a film that had no need . Coyote Ugly was one of the few that had no reason for being made in the first place , and while I'm at it , I should admit that to me , The Rock ( while also exploitative and contrived ) is simply pure entertainment . In this short documentary , Bruckheimer talks about some of his experiences in film-making and some of the people that he has worked with , talking about his motivations and goals , as well as the things that he finds rewarding about the entire process , like seeing an audience laugh and cry and simply be entertained . This is the kind of thing that makes me take pause about some of the harsh things that I have said and written about his films , although only long enough really to make me remember that I was right . Bruckheimer is a respectable man , but respectability does not equal great films , nor does having brought in a gross total of $11 billion over your career . As Sidney Lumet notes , commercial success does not denote great film . Clearly , even though I do not have the highest respect for many of Bruckheimer's films , I am certainly able to look past my low opinion of them and enjoy a look at the motivations of one of the most powerful men involved in their creation . It is indeed interesting to see what motivated someone who came up with something that I so wholeheartedly disagree with , which I think is something to keep in mind when rating something like this on the IMDb . I can certainly understand people being unimpressed with something like Gone in 60 Seconds or Coyote Ugly , but this conversational documentary is not a 1 out or 10 by any stretch of the imagination . It is , unfortunately , easier to watch and more enjoyable than many of Bruckheimer's films . |
544,038 | 562,732 | 89,869 | 8 | Hasn't dated well , but still a good example of what good science fiction used to look like . | A scientist named Zac Hobson wakes up to discover what is probably either most people's worst nightmare or biggest fantasy , that he is that last man alive on earth . The emptiness of the post-apocalyptic world is the result of a top-secret energy project gone horribly wrong ( don't stories where everyone in the world has died or disappeared usually result from some top-secret project or another gone wrong ? ) . For a while Zac basks in the denial that there's no one else in the world , and indulges in his materialistic fantasies until reality , as it were , sets in , and he begins to search in earnest for other survivors . Ultimately he discovers two others , a man and a woman , and the resulting love triangle is strangely interesting although awkwardly portrayed . The three characters , however awkward , propel the rest of the story in the direction of the bizarre but truly memorable ending . The performances in the film are much better than you might expect from mid 1980s science fiction , and the atmosphere of emptiness and desolation is startlingly convincing . The film hasn't dated well , but it's still good fun . For some reason I have grouped this movie in my mind with Soylent Green , another old science fiction film memorable for its uniqueness and unexpectedness . Both are good for an evening of unusual entertainment . Science fiction fans are sure to eat it up . |
544,669 | 562,732 | 734,692 | 8 | When was that set built , anyway ? | It's been a couple years since I first found the first season of the Twiilight Zone at my local library in Santa Monica . At the time I thought I would check it out because it's probably one of the most famous of the classic TV shows that I had never seen a single episode of , and as soon as I started watching " Where is Everybody " I almost fell out of my chair when I noticed that it was filmed on what , to me , will always be known as the " Back to the Future set " at Universal Studios . Of course , there are many sets used in the Back to the Future movies , but the courthouse set at Universal Studios is the most recognizable one to me . The story of Rod Serling's pilot episode sets the perfect tone of bizarre occurrences that would permeate the rest of the series and win its way to the heart of millions of fans , although it also has a perfect example of what I think has always been one of the show's biggest shortcomings . The acting style between the late 50s and 60s was so different today that it's easy to label it bad acting , but to me one of the biggest problems with the series has been that , anytime anyone finds themselves mysteriously alone , they continually call out into empty space , spending most of the episode making long winded explanations and calling question after question into nothingness . This also brought down the first episode in Season 2 , " King Nine Will Not Return . " " Where is Everybody , " however , is not only a fascinating look at the Universal Studios backlot of 50 years ago , but also an interesting and fun introduction to what became one of the most successful science fiction TV shows of all time . |
544,430 | 562,732 | 734,693 | 8 | Will the real martian please stand up . . . ? We're gonna have a problem here . . . | I love the twilight zone episodes that deal with extraterrestrial life and things like time travel and monsters and whatnot , although despite being highly entertaining , this is one of the weaker ones . It's a fun story and it flows smoothly , but is nevertheless rife with problems . A bus breaks down on a wintry February night , and all of the passengers find themselves stranded in a nearby diner while they wait for the weather to clear up . It seems that the bus driver only picked up six passengers but there are seven people in the diner , which means that one of them was not on the bus . Yeah , it takes place at night and they all give flimsy reasons for why they weren't paying attention to who was on the bus with them , but are people really that non-observant ? A lot of the characters are caricatures , such as the crazy guy , the cute young couple , and the impatient businessman , but not ONE of them can look around and see someone that wasn't on the bus ? Not even the driver ? Come on . . . In his opening monologue , Serling says that finding a Martian in a diner is more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack , but after having seen this episode , I have to say that I doubt that that is actually true , since it gives that all too common feeling that the characters didn't consider the most obvious possibility , at least given the reports of a spaceship landing nearby and the subsequent efforts to figure out who the alien was . There's a clever twist at the end that reminds me of the exact same twist on a preceding episode , Mr . Dingle , The Strong . Like that episode , this one imagines alien visitors to be humanoids with negligible differences from human beings ( more in this episode than that one , I suppose ) , with no real difference except having three hands or three eyes . Clever episode but not exactly mind-blowing material . Serling has done a lot better , but this is still a high-entertainment episode . |
544,092 | 562,732 | 134,273 | 8 | Dark and disturbing , yes , but it should also be clearly noted that 8MM avoids , for the most part , the almost always destructive influence of Hollywood . | 8MM is a dark , disturbing movie . It's literally dark due to the low lighting , it has a mesmerizing but undeniably creepy score , the performances from everyone involved are subdued and sinister , and the subject matter , above all , is not exactly uplifting . It is not surprising , then , that many people are going to leave this movie with a disgusted feeling , thinking that they have been tricked into watching a movie that left them feeling badly . On the one hand , it should be noted that 8MM was never exactly advertised as light entertainment , but even more importantly , all of the dark elements above go together very smoothly , even if not very happily . 8MM , it cannot be denied , is simply a dark movie , and the way I see it , there is no reason that that alone should count against it . Nicholas Cage takes on the role of Tom Welles , who is a loving husband and father with a comfortable family life , and is very similar to several other roles that Cage has played ( see The Rock and half of The Family Man , for example ) , except that his ultimate fate in this movie is something that has yet to be encountered by any of the other characters in his iconography . Having taken the rather unexpected turn after law school of pursuing a career in surveillance ( he was sure that it was going to be the big thing in the future ) , he spends much of his time as a sort of private detective , mostly for people who suspect that their spouses are unfaithful . His latest job , the one with which the films concerns itself , is the one that will Change His Life Forever , as has become the saying about this movie . The widow of a wealthy man has hired Welles to investigate what appears to be a snuff film which was found in her late husband's private chamber , wanting only to learn that the film is a fake and let the matter rest . Whether or not snuff films are real or are simply urban legends is a subject which the film wisely chooses to avoid , for the most part . Welles explains to the woman that snuff films are made just like Hollywood movies , with special effects and make-up and the like , and that they don't really exist in real life , but the rest of the film leaves the matter up to individual interpretation . The mystery surrounding snuff films is not something that 8MM seeks to resolve , but is instead a starting point that the film uses to create an interesting story . From there , we are taken on a wild ride through the depths of the Los Angeles underground porn world , which is by itself probably the most destructive element of the entire film , if only because it's so obviously over-exaggerated . You have the mindlessly twisted director , Dino Velvet ( Peter Stormare ) , who makes some serious porn videos with the sick and twisted content of your choosing ( and many of which star the charmingly named " Machine " ) . Then you have the unfortunate Max California , who went to Los Angeles with lofty goals and wound up as a smut peddler in the underground , and ultimately talks Welles into allowing him to give Welles a tour of the underworld of the sex trades , a job that would also change HIS life forever , and not necessarily for the better . And by the way , does anyone know why Joaquin Phoenix keeps getting these less than enviable roles ? That poor guy gets the shaft in every movie he's in ! The tour that California gives Welles of the underworld of the sex trades is by itself the most hilariously unrealistic part of the entire film ( and , by the way , the fact that this character is named ' Max California ' - and I'm thinking ' Maximum California ' ? coupled with the fact that he is involved in this particular profession is clearly making a statement about The Golden State , and there's really not a whole lot of room for individual interpretation as to what that message is ) . I'm not exactly an expert on anything that goes on in the illegal underground of any major city , but I find it highly unlikely that there are basements under buildings down dark alleys that have stacks of porn which are labeled in large print as to what they contain ( one particular stack , loudly labeled ' KIDS , ' comes immediately to mind ) . And even if places like this did exist , it's even less likely that they would have one big guard standing at the door , indifferently surveying the entering clientele about whether or not they are police officers . What does this guy expect ? ' You a cop ? ' ' Oh , yes , as a matter of fact , I am . Thanks for asking , I'll leave you alone now . ' I would like to have seen THAT guy suffer Max's fate . There are obviously a lot of moral questions presented by the film , and they are presented in some pretty interesting ways , not the least of which is the scene near the end where Welles telephones the mother of the girl in the alleged snuff film and asks her to talk him into killing who the man who made the film ( James Gandolfini , who is wonderfully villainous in his role as the guy who is literally sick and twisted for no good reason ) . Welles knows that he is not a murderer himself , even if this murder would be beneficial to the greater good of mankind , and this is exactly the kind of help that he needs to commit such a murder . This is a very unique scene in that it's very rare for the protagonist to be so reluctant to kill the man who he has been searching for throughout the entire film , especially because the vast majority of the audience will be rooting for this guy's death ? I know I was . It is interesting to consider the motives of writer Andrew Kevin Walker - who is not a stranger to dark films that culminate in a hero forced to murder a despicable villain ? in adding this scene in the film , because it is the exact opposite of what we would expect from the typical Hollywood film . 8MM is a film that has a lot to say , and not all of these things deal directly with the subject matter that it deals with . The existence of snuff films and the violent exploitation of various groups , such as women and ( particularly ) children , is the disturbing topic on which the film bases a number of questions about the uprightness of modern American society . We start off concerned with whether or not the snuff film is real , then we're further astonished to learn that it IS real , and finally we're left questioning ourselves because we were so eager to witness another violent death . It seems , then , that the film's main concern deals with the hypocrisy of American society , in that we are shocked and disgusted by violence and death at the beginning of the film , but then only a couple hours later we want nothing more than to see more of it served . |
544,137 | 562,732 | 371,174 | 8 | Not necessarily better than the movie , but the movie sucks without it . | At the time of this writing , there are two other people who have reviewed The Saw is Family on the IMDb , and both claim that it's better than the movie itself . Initially I agreed with them because I was stupendously unimpressed with the movie . But since this documentary is focused mainly on allowing the cast and crew of Texas Chainsaw III to explain their reasons for why the movie turned out to be such a mess , I think that as a supplement it makes the film itself a lot better . I like that the documentary starts by going into rich detail about Ed Gein , the 1950s serial killer on whom the character of Leatherface was originally based . This guy cut the skins off of people and wore them on his body , providing the inspiration for Leatherface and Jame Gumb from Silence of the Lambs , and he was also obsessed with his dead mother , presumably inspiring the grandparents in the Texas Chainsaw films , as well as Norman Bates from Psycho . Very little attention is paid to the origin of these stories , not that someone as sick and twisted as Ed Gein deserves to be famous , but I liked that this documentary went into his story and told about where the story of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre originated . On a technical level , I was impressed with the editing , which is very fast paced but doesn't go too fast to follow . Also , it cuts together the interviews in a curious way , by splicing in a quick clip from the film when it switches from one interviewee to another , thereby avoiding the jarring feel that you get when editing multiple interview clips together , as was seen in the documentary Looking Back at The Hills Have Eyes , and which I've done myself . I always find it interesting to learn about the things that go on in the making of movies , and it seems that there are especially strange or interesting things that happen during the production of horror movies . In this case , we get an interesting behind the scenes look at the making of Texas Chainsaw III from the cast and crew themselves , and we also get an explanation for why a lot of the disappointing things that were in the movie ended up there , which I think allows you to look past a lot of that and see that it's really not as bad as you thought it was when you watched it . The Hills Have Eyes was an immensely well-made movie that did not get a very good reception because it is so unpleasant and the depth of the depravity displayed in it is often difficult to overlook . In the case of Texas Chainsaw III , however , you get a horror movie made with average directorial talent ( but , I have to say , above average acting , especially for a horror movie like this one ) , but that took on a feel of ineptitude because of things that went wrong during the post-production phase . But it seems that both movies benefit from a short documentary in which the cast and crew explain themselves . |
543,738 | 562,732 | 337,921 | 8 | Can you hear me now ? Gooood . | In what could easily be called either a spin-off , if not a sequel , of the outstanding Phone Booth , Cellular comes along from the same writer , again making satisfying thriller about evil people on the other end of the line . The movie wastes no time as Jessica ( Kim Basinger ) is kidnapped suddenly and without warning or explanation from her home in broad daylight . It is only a few minutes into the movie when Jessica is already locked in the attic with nothing but a smashed phone to try to save herself and her family . I think that a lot of why this movie works so well is because for the majority of it , Jessica has no idea why she is being imprisoned ( indeed , she is convinced that the kidnappers have the wrong family ) , and neither do we . It's like the briefcases is Pulp Fiction and Ronin , although it serves a very different purpose . Throughout the most intense action sequences , we are just as mystified as Jessica is , which makes her situation seem even more dire because she doesn't know how to save himself . I was interested in the locations , if only because the movie takes place and was filmed so close to where I live . The three guys that are found murdered , according to the news report , are found in Culver City , which is the part of LA that I live in , and the school that Jessica's son goes to as well as the Santa Monica pier both lie on routes that I regularly pass by on bicycle rides . There's also a great mountain biking trail a couple blocks away from their home address on Bonhill Street just off of Sunset Blvd . That's one of the interesting things about living in LA , that sometimes you see places in the movies that are very familiar . In Collateral , for example , the movie theater that I saw the movie in was actually IN the movie . THAT was a surreal experience . There are a few slip-ups early in the film , soon after Ryan gets the phone call from Jessica . Ryan , in an attempt to help , takes his phone to a police station so that Jessica can explain what happened to an officer ( William H . Macy ) who gets distracted by a gang war that breaks out in the police station lobby ( I guess not a single guy who was fighting cared whether he was thrown immediately in jail ) . As he goes to break up the fight , he tells Ryan to go up to Robbery / Homicide on the 4th floor . Right . But hey , Officer Mooney ( Macy ) had talked to Jessica and seemed to have concluded that her situation was genuine , so I'm willing to accept that he allowed some guy who walked in with a cell phone access to the upper floors of the station . The problem is that Ryan gets trapped in the stairwell because he's in danger of losing the signal , and he only has 15 minutes to get Jessica's son ( charmingly named Ricky Martin ) from school before the kidnappers do . He turns and runs out of the police station , proceeding to take matters into his own hands for the rest of the movie . Why he didn't try to get help from a police officer on his way out of the building I am guessing can only be explained by it's necessity to the plot . Then late in the movie , the bad guys are trying to spot Ryan on the Santa Monica Pier where he has demanded the release of Jessica and her family in exchange for the incriminating item around which the entire movie is based . They are unable to spot him because of all the people . Personally , I would have looked out for the one guy wearing a full raincoat and hood on a hot summer day , but that's just me . I should probably stop picking things like this out , because it makes it sound like I didn't like the movie , and I really did . It's a fast paced action thriller that is never manipulative even when it throws in standard Hollywood action movie clichés , like the car chases and shootouts , and despite some ham-handed product placement , this is a very well made thriller . |
544,709 | 562,732 | 54,387 | 8 | Reality has taken a page from my book and set itself to outdo me . - H . G . Wells | Widely hailed as one of the greatest time travel movies ever made , George Pal's 1960 classic takes astonishing liberties with its source material , not only shortening the story but all but deleting the extensive social commentary in H . G . Wells ' novel . The arc of the story is exactly the same as it is in the book , but the necessary simplification that takes place in converting a novel to a film doesn't necessarily remove the meaning , but it definitely dilutes its impact . I read one review in which someone wrote that the pessimism of Wells ' novel is lost in the film , which is not entirely true . What is lost is the specification that the Morlocks are the distant descendents of the working class , and the Eloi are the distant descendents of the rich upper class . You still get human descendents killing off other human descendents who have been killing them for food for who knows how long , you just miss the metaphor of the gap between the rich and the poor eventually grows so huge that they kill each other off because of their irreversible inability to coexist . As is also the case in the 2002 remake , the first half of the film is absolutely fascinating , from when the concept of time travel is introduced at the dinner party to the actual traveling through time , which features some surprising special effects showing time pass . What is not quite effective is when the time traveler stops during World War II and we are treated to a display of by far the weakest special effects in the movie , which I only criticize because they are so distantly worse than the other ones in the film . Consider , for example , the amazing effect created as one of the Morlocks decays in a matter of seconds . George has the bad luck only to stop during war , although has one great scene during World War I with the son of his friend Filby who , needless to say , he mistakes for Filby . Next stop is World War II , and then , sick of the times , an astonishing 800 , 000 years into the future . Good thing he didn't stop around the turn of the millennium to see if people were finally getting along , because he may have found the inspiration to travel far enough ahead in time to witness the sun burning out ( as he did in Wells ' novel ) . My biggest complaint about the film is that they got the Eloi so horribly wrong . The Morlocks , too , but at least they got the idea of the Morlocks right . They didn't look anything like they were described in Wells ' novel , but they did live underground and were completely intolerant of light , despite their dwelling constantly being brightly lit . The Eloi , on the other hand , not only were not the diminutive people from the novel , who spoke an entirely new language , but they spoke perfect English and even knew what such things as books and laws were , which have been extinct or useless for centuries . And where did those talking rings come from ? Technically , the movie is very impressive . Rod Taylor effectively captures the curiosity and the dedication of the Time Traveler , but does go a little overboard with his disgust at learning how much interest in knowledge has decayed in the future civilization that he finds . When he is presented with a whole library of books that have been ignored for so many centuries that they crumble to dust in his hands , he glares at the boy that brought him there and growls , " What have you done ! " like it's the poor kid's fault . Yvette Mimieux delivers a performance as Weena that couldn't possibly be less like the Weena in Wells ' novel , who saw the Time Traveler as an almost god-like savior , one that she constantly tried to pay tribute to by doing things like picking flowers and placing them in his pockets . She did not see him as her boyfriend and CERTAINLY never asked him if there was a " girl like her " back in his own time . However , there are a lot of deviations from the original novel that have to be allowed given the production limitations . Having the Eloi speak perfect English just seems a little too easy , I guess . In the novel , the Time Traveler gradually learned to communicate in their language . Here , communication is never an issue except when they're under the spell that the Morlocks put them under when they want to lure a lot of them underground for food . George's goal is to get the Eloi to realize what's happening and to fight for themselves . They've become complacent , and we all know that , in the process of evolution , complacency leads to becoming dinner . Having spent most of the film learning about the Eloi and trying to find where his blasted time machine disappeared to , when he finally recovers it he lectures the newly awakened Eloi and travels back to his own time , walking through the door to his own house and into the beginning of the movie . The film ends with another invention for the movie , the idea that George traveled back into the year 802 , 701 in order to further help the Eloi escape their dismal fate . Rather than showing George travel into the future until the earth grows dark as the sun dims and goes out , we are to assume that he went back to be with Weena . The novel ended with the possibility of sequels , the movie gives itself a clean , happy ending . But hey , it's not like it doesn't work . This is certainly a science fiction classic and wildly entertaining more than 4 decades after its release , the literary version is just a bigger science fiction classic . |
544,498 | 562,732 | 472,551 | 8 | Adds more to the story than you expect . | In the movie , when Dianne runs out of the Winchester she is calling her boyfriend's name . Because we just saw him torn to pieces by the zombies ( and because Dianne is beating zombies with his severed leg ) it's reasonable to assume that she can't save him and is instead making an insane rush against his killers , soon to meet her own similarly gruesome fate . Instead of simply illustrating Dianne's grisly fate , this one completely changes what we would otherwise expect , going in a totally different direction that amazingly makes perfect sense ( or as much sense as can be made in your typical zombie movie ) , while at the same time maintaining the same tongue-in-cheek tone of the rest of the movie . It's narrated by Dianne , of course , and has a characteristically classic joke at the end . |
544,745 | 562,732 | 126,388 | 8 | I don't think I want to hear any more whining about Van Damme . The man is the king . | It seems to be the popular thing to do to jump on the bandwagon and badmouth Van Damme for being a bad actor or for making one bad movie after another . I have always claimed to be a fan , but mostly just because when I was a kid I watched movies like Kickboxer and Bloodsport and Death Warrant over and over . To be honest , I hadn't really seen many more of his movies for years , except for Hard Target , which I found less impressive than his early martial arts films . But recently I bought 16 Van Damme movies on two DVDs ( for 20 yuan ? about $2 . 75 - thanks to mainland China's total indifference to copyright laws ) , and as I watch them I have noticed something important . It seems that most of the reason that Van Damme is criticized is because of things like goofy camaraderie or cheesy heroic lines , things like that . But it seems noteworthy that in just about every movie he is in , he is fighting for justice or to be a good father or good husband or to protect his fellow man from criminals or to avenge a loved one's violent death . Van Damme represents good human values in a way that most other action stars don't . I feel like he deserves a lot more credit for that than he ever gets . Besides that , the guy can speak five languages . Did you know ? WOW . In Legionnaire he plays a boxer who's paid to take a dive in the second round , but when he , ah , accidentally beats the tar out of his opponent , he suddenly finds himself being pursued by mobsters and police , which quickly dashes his and his girlfriend's plans of getting out of France and going to America . Soon he finds himself an unwilling member of the French Foreign Legion , which employs the psychotic idea of training soldiers to exist solely for the honor of dying in battle , and is run like a prison with racks of guns . They are sent to Africa to crush an insurgency , resulting in more of a war film than a martial arts film . But I have no problem with that . There is a notable appearance of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje , a clearly talented actor who recently wasted his undeniable on screen charm on such backwards TV shows as Lost and Oz , and here is again asked to do something terrible ? he takes on an American accent , complete with ridiculous lines like " The only thing that keeps a man livin ' , you gots ta have a dream ? " But there is a friendship that forms between Alain Lefevre ( Van Damme ) and Adawale's character , Luther , that is pretty good , and allows for the most tense and moving scene in the film . Given that so much of the movie plays like a prison film , since the Legionnaires are generally forced members , some of the scenes are a little strange , such as the one where they argue about the best way to hand wash laundry . Then again , it seems like some of the lines between soldiers were put in for comic relief ( " What's the matter , don't like girls ? " " Of course not , I'm British ! " ) . Speaking of which , for how moving the friendship between Alain and Luther is , Alain has an undeniably cheesy friendship with the British guy , although it is also a very unstable but powerful relationship in many ways , and also allows for some good dramatic tension near the end of the film . Alain is also the good guy that sticks up for the underdogs who can't defend themselves against the more brutish soldiers very well , which doesn't seem to make him many friends . Also , soon after their first battle , he walks around shirtless showing off his chiseled body and making enemies effortlessly . The battle scenes , by the way , are also pretty good , much better than I would have expected from Van Damme , if only because war scenes are not what he usually does . But here they're impressive , although the end of the movie is a pretty significant disappointment . It builds up this remarkably in-depth story and then just stops , like they ran out of money . The leader of the enemy insurgency lets Alain live so he can tell his leader that this is what they can expect if they keep invading their country , and then Van Damme heads back into the sunset . It seems like what happens next should have been considered important , and it leaves me with the feeling that the movie ends just as the real climax was set up . But nonetheless , I remember I was working in a video store in Fresno when the movie was released ten years ago , and for some reason I never watched it , but I'm glad that I have . It has plenty of shortcomings , but it is definitely worth watching . |
544,898 | 562,732 | 217,869 | 8 | Excellent follow up to The Sixth Sense . | I remember being unimpressed with Unbreakable when it was first released , I think mostly because they had the bizarre idea of casting Samuel L . Jackson , the Badass Motherf # % ker himself , as a man whose bones break so easily that he can hardly leave the house . The Sixth Sense is a hell of a debut film to follow up , but in retrospect I would argue that M . Night Shyamalan did a great job of it with Unbreakable . The movie has received mixed responses from critics and the public alike , but it is inarguably an interesting experience as an example of a young writer and director carving a spot for himself in the film-making world while running with the big dogs . Comic book aficionados are likely to find a lot of fascinating material to chew on in Unbreakable , although I also enjoyed the film immensely despite a total lack of interest in comic books . Shyamalan takes a certain aspect of the potential historical meaning and significance of comic book mythology and crafts it into a superhero thriller that is entirely his own , which is no small achievement . Samuel L . Jackson and Bruce Willis play Elijah Price and David Dunn , respectively . We meet David soon after a spectacular train crash that leaves every single passenger dead and himself without a scratch , and we meet Elijah minutes after his birth , the trauma of which broke both of his delicate arms and legs . Elijah grows up to be high-class salesman of rare and priceless comic book art , the results of a childhood limited to the safety of his room and his comic collection , while David grows up to be a security guard at a sports stadium . Elijah discovers David as a result of his surviving the train crash , and he becomes convinced that David's strength is the exact antithesis of his own weakness , and that this " power " connects them . The movie explores Elijah's efforts to convince David of his theory and David's gradual understanding of what exactly that theory means . Given the supernatural nature of it , he becomes less and less impressed with Elijah's persistence . The movie is a fascinating ride and tells a compelling story despite being peppered with the same kind of plot holes that plagued The Sixth Sense , although here I seemed less willing to accept them . David never noticed , for example , the fact that he has never been sick or even mildly injured in all of his life until Elijah pointed it out to him . For someone with a career in high school football that ended as a result of an injury that he was forced to fake , this seems like more than a little bit of a stretch . Shyamalan comes through on the public expectation of a good twist at the end of his movies , and while the twist in this one isn't as brilliant as that in The Sixth Sense , it's still unexpected and leaps and bounds beyond the laughable twist at the end of The Village . The moody tone and photography is characteristic of Shyamalan's work , as is Willis ' subdued performance . There are times when the film's score picks up with nothing really carrying it , but the movie has a solid story and sure-handed direction that ensures that even the most judicious of us can let go and enjoy the ride . It's not his best work ( that's probably still The Sixth Sense ) , but clearly Shyamalan's first three films were his best work so far , and after three increasingly disappointing films in a row , I hope he goes back to the kinds of stories that he tells best before he ends up going straight to DVD . After Lady in the Water and The Happening , he's not far off ? |
544,216 | 562,732 | 87,928 | 8 | I'm trapped here ? " Oh yes , we all are ! " | There is a pretty good documentary included with the DVD collection in which it is revealed that producer Paul Maslansky got the idea for the whole premise of Police Academy when he was working on Hot Stuff in the late 1970s . Evidently there was a police force in charge of crowd control during the making of that movie that was , ah , interestingly diverse to the point that it caught Maslansky's attention and inspired him to approach a sergeant and ask him why there were so many gym class drop-outs on the force . The sergeant replied that they had a fair employment policy in place that compelled them to accept any applicant who took an interest in becoming an officer , but then with a wink he explained that they could flunk out whoever they wanted after three weeks . Instantly , a light bulb popped on above Maslansky's head . Do you see what this means ? Police Academy is based on a true story ! ! In response to public discontent as a result of a crime wave that has been sweeping the city , the Mayor puts in place a new rule forcing the Police Department to accept any new applicant regardless of age , height , weight , sex , background , attitude , religion , nationality , IQ , criminal history , or SAT score , which causes the police academy to be bombarded with societal aberrations the likes of which would surely cause the public more concern than the criminals causing the crime wave in the first place . No nonsense Police Chief Henry Hurst is immediately and thoroughly appalled at the new ruling as he watches the dregs of society flood his beloved police academy , while Commandant Lassard sits in his chair and cheerfully allows the curious developments of life to happen around him as they will . Most of the recruits that become central to the story are honest people who really want to be police officers , except for Casey Mahoney ( Steve Guttenburg , in a career - making - and - then - breaking role ) , who is forced into the academy as an alternative to jail . How could anyone at any time ever be offered the choice of becoming a police officer or going to jail ? Watch the movie and you'll find out , but it doesn't really matter . It has to do with Mahoney having a powerful father , but the point is that Mahoney is a smart-ass who has not a scrap of respect for authority and who is determined to get himself booted out of the academy before lunch on the first day . The academy is equally happy to be rid of him , but for circumstances beyond either of their controls , this is not an option . It's a preposterous situation , but you have to admire it's simplicity and effectiveness in paving the way for a whole movie full of slapstick hilarity . The rest of the relevant cast provide the springboard from which six sequels sprouted in subsequent years . Indeed , the plots of the movies run a distant second to who is back for each subsequent movie . Moses Hightower is a towering black man who became tired of being a florist , of all things , and decided to become a cop . His counterpart is Cadet Hooks , a mousy black woman with the voice of a stretched balloon who , among other things , must learn to speak with authority . Larvell Jones comes from a background similar to Mahoney's in a lot of ways but is better known for his ability to imitate the sound of almost anything ( this was also a career-making-and-breaking role for Michael Winslow ) . Then there are Tackleberry , the trigger-happy but hilarious gun fanatic , Karen Thompson , the attractive cadet played by Kim Cattrall who provides a welcome distraction for Mahoney , the overweight and perfectly named Leslie Barbara ( a man ) , and Doug Fackler , a priceless geek who is prone to cause accidents that don't affect himself . And overseeing them all is the delightfully creepy Lieutenant Harris , who is determined that they shall all fail miserably . This should seem like an exceedingly easy task , but as they say , never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers ! The first movie in the Police Academy saga follows little more than the adventures of the recruits described above as they work their way through the police academy . There is a delightful competition between Lieutenant Harris , who treats his job with deadly seriousness as needed to ensure his own advancement , and the rest of the recruits , with Commandant Lassard popping up occasionally to fulfill the duties of a man clearly more interested in goldfish than law enforcement , but it's impossible not to love the guy . Speaking of which , Lassard is the , umm , " victim " of one of the movie's more childish and unamusing jokes . I am not sure how successful the joke was when the movie was first released ( I was 5 years old at the time and can't remember my initial reaction ) , but it is an unfortunate representative of much of the rest of the movie . Police Academy is a milestone in the evolution of the cheesy comedy , there are no two ways about that , but the comedy in the movie has , ah , not dated well . Modern audiences will find not a single genuinely funny moment in the entire movie , but it would be madness to say that this means the movie isn't any fun . I remember when I was a kid I used to drive my brother nuts because I always wanted to watch Police Academy movies over and over again , but at some point I lost interest , and didn't gain interest again until about a week ago when I stumbled across the Police Academy DVD collection . But for an amusing trip to the comedy of the past , you can hardly do better . Grab a couple beers , bring your buddies over , and relish the comedy of your childhood . There were never any Academy Awards in mind , but I'm willing to bet that you can't watch this movie without having a little fun ? |
544,899 | 562,732 | 337,978 | 8 | Another day in paradise ? | Before I say anything about Die Hard 4 , I just want to remind everyone that anything that has anything to do with computers in the movie serves no purpose other than to drive the plot and to provide for some surprisingly effective comic relief . There is tons and tons of nonsense about hacking into this and hacking into that and how only 9 guys in the world could do such and such with a laptop and blah blah blah blah . Don't take the time to try to figure out exactly what they're talking about , even if you're a computer expert ( actually , ESPECIALLY if you're a computer expert ) , because it's just going to distract you from the rest of the movie , which is a pretty powerful argument that there is still a place for an old-school NYPD officer in the 21st century . Let's review , shall we ? Die Hard is still among the dwindling list of movie franchises where the original movie is still the best one . Part 2 was a cartoonish mess , and part 3 , despite essentially plagiarizing the first Dirty Harry movie , was not the same thriller as the original but was still a great action movie . There have been many complains about casting Justin Long alongside Bruce Willis as his sidekick in this movie , because he's so well-known as the guy from the Apple Computer commercials . Maybe I watch too many movies and not enough TV , but to me he will always be known as the phenomenally idiotic Darry Jenner from Jeepers Creepers . Good God I hated that movie . McClane has moved up in the world from reckless , irresponsible New York Cop to reckless , irresponsible absentee father who has little to do with his teenage daughter's life until some jerk drives her home and gets a little too pushy with her . John saves her from getting groped by some meathead , but she's still pretty unappreciative . Their relationship hasn't been so great over the years . Soon John is called to duty to pick up some kid named Matt Ferrell , who is on a short list of computer super-nerds wanted by the U . S . government due to a recent glitch in the national security computer systems . John thinks nothing of the assignment until a high-tech assassination attempt is made on the kid , and he discovers that he's not the only person trying to track him down . It seems that everyone else on that short list has been executed by some shady organization , and John has to keep his cool trying to figure out who and why while they're trying to kill him and while , in the meantime , they manage to kidnap his daughter . There is tons of great action in the movie , although detractors can easily call attention to the fact that the plot-line is clearly designed to set the stage for the next action pieces . Personally , I thought the action pieces were awesome , so I could really care less if there isn't exactly an Oscar-worthy script underneath it all . There is also the issue of the epic over - the-topness of some of the action pieces , such as the pilot of the fighter jet who can't seem to hit a lumbering SEMI truck , but can pilot his machine around under freeway overpasses , dodging bridges and whatnot . But again , I feel like the over-the-topness , while not a huge part of the original movie , was introduced in part 2 , explored a bit in part 3 , and now has developed to a point where it is one of the most appealing parts of the movie . Put it this way ? there is a scene in the movie where McClane takes down a helicopter , and if you are unimpressed with how he does it ( and his reaction , which I would argue is one of the funniest parts of the whole movie ) , then you're either in the wrong frame of mind or this is just not your kind of movie . Justin Long didn't have much to do in the film except crack jokes and pop out his handy roll - up keyboard and hack into anything that needed hacking within a few seconds , although he didn't detract from the movie as much as you would expect , given his iconography . Kevin Smith is purely hilarious as Long's super-geek buddy , and later the two teamed up again with Zack and Miri Make A Porno , in which Long was the star of one of the movie's funniest scenes . Timothy Olyphant is perfect as the movie's main villain , Thomas Gabriel . He's a little too clean-cut and flawlessly dressed and groomed , but he looks like a cross between Christian Slater and a young Jack Nicholson , and that's not a bad place to be if you're a Die Hard villain . It's just too bad that he's saddled with ancient action clichés like " You have no idea who I am and what I'm capable of ? " But the biggest problem with the casting is Maggie Q as Mai , Gabriel's crazy hot assistant . She's not only a super-genius computer hacker who can bring down national communication mainframes with a few strokes of the keyboard , but she's also a martial arts expert who , if Jason Statham and Jet Li were in this movie alongside Bruce Willis , she could hold them all off for a while , too . Hell , she might even have the pure , unadulterated ass-kicking know-how to make Steven Seagal bleed his own blood . Can you imagine ? The villain's main plot also falls apart pretty thoroughly ( his plan to download the country's financial data from a " backup " location is feared to throw the nation into irreversible chaos ? what does " backup " mean again , exactly ? ) , but this is a nearly perfect summer action blockbuster . |
544,017 | 562,732 | 186,566 | 8 | Very entertaining space movie with a quirky twist that is surprisingly well presented . | I think that probably the biggest problem that the writers had with Space Cowboys was trying to come up with a good reason to justify sending a bunch of retirement age men into space , and in my opinion , they did that very well . The lifelong rivalry between Frank Corvin ( Clint Eastwood ) and Bob Gerson ( James Cromwell ) provided an excellent opportunity for an old man to wheel and deal his and his old friends ' way into space after waiting for forty years . They both provided a perfect portrayal of a couple of elderly men jaded by nearly a lifetime of bitterness held for one another . Donald Sutherland , in my opinion , should be especially noted for his impressive acting ability . To point out only a couple of examples from his extensive list of films which he acted in , think about the insanity that he portrayed in Backdraft , and the almost evil military officer he played in Outbreak , and then look at his fun-loving character here in Space Cowboys . Sutherland plays Jerry O'Neill , a fun loving and extremely sexually confident old man with a sharp sense of humor . He was probably the most amusing part of this entire film . One particularly good scene that comes to mind is when they are all going through their physicals . As they stand naked , a female nurse walks in , and they all scramble to cover themselves . But not Jerry ! He stands there proudly with his hands behind his back , ear-to-ear grin on his face . Funniest thing I've seen in a long time . How about Clint Eastwood ? Is there anything he can't do ? Think about this guy's career . He's made thousands and thousands of movies , and he's been doing it for hundreds of years ! That's what it seems like , anyway . He started out making western films ( and he is also best known for his efforts in that genre ) , and has moved on to modern crime films ( two in particular that come to mind are Absolute Power and the spectacular True Crime ) and now even science fiction space films , and he's directed at least half of the films that he has starred in . This guy is well into his seventies , and he is still just as intimidating as he was when he was in his twenties . He has that rare quality where he is a badass whether he tries to be or not . In Space Cowboys , he and three other noted actors , Tommy Lee Jones , James Garner , and the aforementioned Donald Sutherland , portray old men who are finally given the chance to travel into space , something they have all dreamed about for all of their lives . Besides the excellent acting from all of those involved , the quality story , and great directing , the special effects were particularly well done . In The Perfect Storm , virtually every outdoor shot in the film was horribly fake-looking . You'd think they could at least have had a FEW shots that were taken in a man-made water tank of some sort , but there were none . In Space Cowboys , we are looking at SPACE , and it was made to look more realistic than any of the ocean shots in The Perfect Storm . Sure , there were some space scenes that were obviously computer generated ( come on , they were ALL computer generated ) , but at least half of them were startlingly convincing . However , despite how much I enjoyed this film , there was a little bit of weakness in the story towards the end of the film . ( spoiler ) Virtually every element of the film was very well thought out or at least complemented the story in some unique way , but I am growing tired of space movies that end with one character making a noble sacrifice of their own life to save the rest of the crew , leaving an emotionally overloaded female loved one back on earth ( Armageddon and Mission To Mars , to name a couple of recent examples ) . Even though the ending was less than spectacular , the rest of the film more than made up for it . The directing , the acting , the casting , and even some hilarious bits of dialogue in the script ( " My only hope is that whatever doesn't burn up in the atmosphere lands on Bob Gerson's house ! " ) , all came together to make up a satisfying and very entertaining space film . |
543,765 | 562,732 | 118,689 | 8 | Mr . Bean has a very distinctive and narrow brand of slapstick comedy so his target audience is not that huge , but people who are into his humor should LOVE this movie . | I had never seen any of Rowan Atkinson's performances as Mr . Bean when this movie came out in 1997 , so I knew nothing about it when I went to see it other than that it was about the zany adventures of this strange looking man on the movie poster . He strikes me as one of those comedians that you either completely love or completely hate , because his comedy is so extreme . It's not the kind of thing that you can watch and just sort of like or not really care for . It's one of those movies where it's not surprising to see people walk out in the middle while other people are just about falling out of their chairs laughing so hard . Personally , I was one of the latter . I admit that Bean certainly deals in a very childish sort of humor . This is , by definition , slapstick comedy , and it is certainly not for all tastes . But from the movie's opening scene , which shows Bean gleefully shaving his entire face with an electric razor ( including his forehead and even his tongue ) , you know that this is what the movie is like , so you can't really hold that against it . The story in the film is clearly one of those that is invented for the movie and then manipulated to fit the screenplay and to work nicely into the movie . It's not that hard to realize that such a huge art gallery could be fooled for so long by someone like Mr . Bean , thinking that he's a genius , and certainly no way that he would be left alone with a $50 million painting long enough to remove it from the vault and rub paint thinner into it , but on the other hand , the rest of the comedy fits so nicely into this plot . At the very least , there are relatively realistic situations thrown into an unrealistic plot , which makes the movie enjoyable even though you don't really take it seriously . There is a wonderful scene , for example , where Bean sneezes on the painting of Whistler's Mother , and then he tries to wipe off the spray with his handkerchief , which has been smeared with a leaky pen . So the painting gets smeared with ink , and he grabs the first can he sees off a nearby shelf , which happens to be paint thinner . It cleans the ink off nicely but then causes the paint to boil off , and then Bean frantically tries to save it by wiping it even harder , rubbing the paint off right down to the canvas . Sure , this is not the mark of an intelligent mind , but that's the point of the whole movie . Bean is a film that relies on the fact that humans are so amused by the misfortunes of others . There's something funny about seeing someone else get into a sticky situation , and in movies like this , they do just that and things only get worse and worse . Granted , there are a million ways out of every situation that Bean gets into that would be less painful than the routes that he chooses , but if he took them there would be no movie . Consider , for example , the bathroom scene where a man walks in on Bean as he appears to be getting a little too friendly with a hot air dryer . He quickly grabs a light bulb pretending that he had been examining it , and then the man leaves and Bean drops the hot bulb to break on the ground and when he goes to run cold water over his burnt fingers the water sprays his crotch again . Total slapstick , but that's funny ! Like I said , Bean is not a movie for all tastes . But there is a place for childish humor in movies , and that place is in movies like this . It certainly can be taken too far or simply done wrong , as in the case of movies like the American Pies or the Scary Movies , etc . , but Bean is a movie that knows what kind of comedy it delivers , and it knows how far to go before things just descend into vulgarity and bad taste . It's a comedy that does not pretend to be anything that it's not , and for that it should be respected . It is also , by the way , the kind of a comedy that allows for an almost innumerable amount of sequels . While I can certainly see it being vastly overdone , I would just like to say that if a couple more Bean movies were to be made , I would be among the last to complain ! |
544,461 | 562,732 | 734,556 | 8 | Serling's social commentary . . . | Like a great many twilight zone episodes , one of my favorite parts of this one was the overt social commentary that Serling is making with the story . As was the case with a recent episode " The Howling Man , " I was reminded of my long standing suspicion that , for example , if Jesus were to come to earth to bring his followers to Heaven , he would be immediately judged insane and probably thrown into an asylum . Our main character in this episode meets a similar problem when trying to convince the 1860s Americans that he is from the future and the President Lincoln is about to be assassinated . The episode wrongly asserts that this means that some parts of the past can be changed while others can't , but it's a fun time travelling romp nonetheless . Granted , we don't know for a fact whether history could be changed by time travel , because time travel has never been accomplished and , sadly , never will be . But it seems logical to me that , if you could physically place yourself in a time of the past , you could physically prevent something from happening , as long as you didn't flail around like a lunatic yelling about assassinations . One of the consistently interesting things about time travel films and TV shows , in my opinion , is the method by which the time travel takes place . There is really no method at all here , our main character is having a conversation about time travel at a posh gentlemen's club and then walks outside and into a dissolve from the early 1960s to the mid 1860s , but no matter . The twilight zone has thus far not struck me for its complex sets or high production values . Russell Johnson plays the part of Peter Corrigan , the time traveller , and upon discovering that he has been somehow transported back to the exact day of Lincoln's assassination , he manages to get himself thrown in prison , but luckily for him John Wilkes Booth , for some reason , just happened to be hanging out at the police station and overheard the frantic Corrigan desperately trying to describe the very assassination that Booth was planning for that night . Booth requests custody of Corrigan for some psychiatric experimentation , and the police officer sees nothing wrong with relinquishing custody to this guy . He had a business card , after all , how bad could he be ? The show seems to suggest that you can change people's lives by slightly altering events in the past through time travel , and while I'm not willing to accept that time travel would include such limitations , it's still a fun episode that really makes you think , which is one of my favorite qualities of the good twilight zone shows . . . |
544,573 | 562,732 | 116,483 | 8 | Adam Sandler has never been a real favorite of the critics , but Happy Gilmore is undeniably one of his most successfully hilarious comedies . | In Happy Gilmore , Sandler plays the part of a determined hockey player who doesn't make the team but soon inadvertently discovers that his hockey skills translate very nicely onto the golf green . Until the point in the film where Happy begins playing golf , most of the laughs come from his misfortune ( ' Happy Gilmore ? I called your name , didn't I ? ' [ eagerly ] ' No , you didn't . ' ' Oh , well , better luck next year ! ! ' ) , but it is the conflictive interaction between himself as a self-proclaimed hockey player and the much more formal and ( for lack of a better word ) high class game of golf that makes up the majority of the entertainment for the rest of the film . There is clearly a take on the classic odd-couple comedy structure here , as Sandler's vulgar hockey habits collide with the neatness and formality of the golf green , and for the most part , this comedy scheme works pretty well here . Sandler seems to adopt the character of Happy Gilmore with great relish as he displays violent acts of hilariously misplaced aggression , clearly foreshadowing his similar actions as Bobby Boucher in The Waterboy . Indeed , some of the funniest parts of the film come from his lengthy streams of profanity at the misbehaved ball when it doesn't go where he wants it to go ( ' PIECE ! ! OF ! ! MONKEY beep ! ! ' ) . So you have an undeniably entertaining and amusing character who does undeniably funny things , but it is at the logical level that this film falls on its face . Luckily for the movie and for its fans , this is not the most important element of a movie like this . It's not very likely that a slob like Happy , who doesn't make the hockey team , is going to suddenly find himself bringing in thousands and thousands of dollars left and right , and stick to his plan to buy his grandmother's house back . You would think that , having seen that he can make that much money , he would at least have kept going for a while instead of quitting as soon as he had accumulated enough to buy back the house . A noble cause , obviously , but no red blooded American male on the planet is going to just quit the game because he prefers hockey or he hates his lead opponent . But who cares ? Sandler delivers the steady stream of laughs as Gilmore with such skill that the comedy of the film far overshadows any such imperfections . Gilmore himself seems to be a bit overly violent in scenes where it doesn't seem entirely necessary , and there is clearly some overdone product placement , but it doesn't take away from the rest of the film . Mike Meyers made brilliant use of product placement in Wayne's World in such ways that added hugely to the comedy of the film ( although he tripped over this technique in Austin Powers 2 , when he made it massively over-emphasized and stonily unamusing ) , and the excessive violence of the Gilmore character is justified ( although just barely ) by the fact that his imperfect characteristics make his efforts ( or lack thereof ) to fit in with professional golfers even more amusing . As the pros stand around sipping expensive wine and discussing their respective accomplishments , Happy walks in asking where the pinball machine and the keg are . They want fame and recognition , he wants money and beer ( and Virginia , the sexy reporter who fills the role of the obligatory love interest in the typical Sandler film ) . There are a lot of scenes in Happy Gilmore that , as much as I personally enjoy the movie , simply fall flat ( many of which involve the homeless guy who Happy employs as his caddie , or the nutcase that Shooter McGavin employs to destroy Gilmore's chances of winning the tournament , or anything involving Chubbs ' prosthetic hand ) but the film succeeds where it is supposed to . Sandler presents Gilmore as a strangely likeable character , despite all of his destructive habits , and the film is peppered with other notable performances , not the least of which are by Carl Weathers as Chubbs , the former golf pro who takes upon himself the immense task of taming the wild Gilmore , and Christopher MacDonald , in yet another brilliantly hate-able role as the immutable Shooter McGavin . Happy Gilmore is a comedy from Adam Sandler , which means that you already know what kind of movie that you are going to get here , so don't complain if it turns out to be what you expected . Sandler does not make award-winning films , and chances are he never will , but the comedic value of Happy Gilmore is unquestionable . It is , to sum it up just as briefly as movies like this can be summed up , a perfect example of what I like to call Fast Food Cinema . It's a lot of fun , but there's no nutritional value . |
544,620 | 562,732 | 281,850 | 8 | Entertaining and successful film rendition of an old punch-line . | This is just a wonderful , charming little film , despite also being dark and at times pretty creepy . I loved the performance of the little girl , not the least reason for which was because I have two sisters around her same age and their cuteness just floors me . It's odd that such a cute little girl would play such an adorable role in a film that includes full frontal ( although very , very brief ) nudity , as well as the deaths of two people ( one of whom is the little girl's mother ) . Seems like it might have been a little disturbing , but I'm sure they made it a wonderful experience for her . A man is stuck in traffic on his way home from work , clearly very stressed out from work and , even more , from the horrendous traffic that he is struggling to get through ( which I can certainly relate to , living in LA ) , so he calls home on his car phone and his daughter picks up . He asks if he can talk to mommy , but the little girl says that she is " upstairs with Uncle Wim . " He tells her to go tell mommy that he is right outside and will be in in a minute , and of course all sorts of mayhem ensues . Anyway , you know the plot . What I found most interesting about the movie was the structure of victims vs . people who are to blame , whatever they're called . Anti-victims ? The guilty parties , that's what I'll call them . The only victims in this movie are the little girl and the man stuck in traffic ( I have sympathy for anyone stuck in traffic , unless I'm in the same traffic jam and they're in front of me . Then I hate them ) . Sure , the man in traffic really caused the whole fiasco that occurs in the movie , but he really made an honest mistake and , rendering him a victim , has to live with it for the rest of his life . A simple wrong number cost two people their lives and a little girl her mother and , apparently , her uncle , with whom her mother was having an affair . Still not sure what to make of that little situation . Unfortunately , the movie is really just a film version of that old joke who called home , talked to the little kid , asked for mommy , was told that she was upstairs with the plumber or the cable guy or Uncle Wim or whatever , and told the kid to go in and blah blah blah and they freak out and jump off the roof or fall down the stairs or whatever and die and oops it was a wrong number . It's one of those jokes that starts circulating around freshman or sophomore year in high school . Where I grew up , anyway . But even though the subject matter is not very original , it still works very well as a quick little thriller , and the performances are outstanding throughout , even from the mother and Uncle Wim , who appear only very briefly . In a perfect world , there would also be a way to recognize the actors in short films , because I think that the man in traffic and the little girl both deserved recognition for their outstanding work , although for a seven minute film , an Academy Award is certainly a high honor . Definitely worth seeing , but I have to agree that This Charming Man deserved the Oscar over this one . |
544,509 | 562,732 | 97,733 | 8 | Lethal Weapon II rekindles the excitement and action packed success generated by the original film two years earlier . Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs team up again for another great action film . | No time is wasted in the second installment in this now classic action series . Lethal Weapon II starts out immediately with a car chase , starting off what is to be a very entertaining film . Murtaugh and Riggs have the same personalities that they had before , and as is to be expected , they worked excellently on screen . Roger is the family man again , having major crises over the fact that his coming-of-age daughter has landed a spot in a condoms commercial ( which he is teased about for the remainder of the movie ) , and Riggs is still the hyperactive cop with a few screws loose . Riggs now reveals that he has a talent for popping his shoulder in and out of its socket , one of the elements of the film that worked well as far as helping the story along , but that is just ridiculous in reference to real life situations . If you were wondering if a person could pop a dislocated shoulder back into place , painfully or otherwise , by smacking it on a wall or on the side of a car , I can pretty much assure you that it just doesn't work that way . It was funny to watch though , wasn't it ? This is the installment where we are introduced to Leo Getz ( played hilariously by Joe Pesci ) , who is the anxious but mostly unwelcome addition to Riggs ' and Murtaugh's partnership . I think that they overloaded his mistreatment just a little too much for the film , Leo seemed to take entirely too much from Riggs and Murtaugh to keep cooperating with them . Nevertheless , this was still a great action film . In a memorable scene in Roger's bathroom involving a toilet bomb , he and Riggs are even able to successfully display an emotionally charged scene , even for this type of fast paced action film ( in which almost any type of emotional involvement is usually clumsily thrown in to attract a larger audience ( females ) in true Jerry Bruckheimer form ) . And they even manage to jerk a few tears near the end in regards to Riggs ' stunningly beautiful new girlfriend . As has become tradition in the Lethal Weapon series , there has to be at least one scene where just as the ? normal ' police arrive , Riggs is staggering away from the destruction of a flaming crime scene breathlessly saying that everything is under control . This is done and overdone in the entire series , and it never seems to get tiring . The gunfights are great , the chases are better , and the action overall is excellently done by Richard Donner for the second time , but there were some things that just should have been left out or changed completely . For example , the helicopter shootout scene at Riggs ' ' house ' was a little too excessive . It was too hard to believe that he and his girlfriend could have dodged THAT many bullets . It was cool to watch , but there's no way they could have avoided getting hit at least once . Also , I refuse to believe that ANY pick-up truck could have pulled the stilts out from under a house like it was done in the film . That was just too much . Even if some super-powerful pickup was ever able to do that , there's no way it could have gotten out of the way of the falling structure fast enough to avoid getting crushed by it . However , despite such disturbing weaknesses as these , Lethal Weapon II was a great movie . The things I mentioned above were badly unrealistic , and probably couldn't even be pulled off by a professional stunt team , but they worked really well with the story . The shootout scene with the helicopters created some good tension , regardless of how unrealistic it was . Also , with the kind of people who were in that house , you WANT to see the foundation pulled out from under them , and having Riggs do it not only fits perfectly with his personality , and it also almost makes you want to get up and cheer for him . This is a very good action film . It is virtually non-stop action from the opening scene , and it has a good ending , which is in my opinion one of the most important parts of any kind of movie . A bad ending can cancel out an otherwise good movie , and Lethal Weapon II is good from beginning to end . Excellent show . |
544,200 | 562,732 | 167,190 | 8 | Even black magic can't save the Nazis ! | Strangely enough , Hellboy makes me think of Ron Perlman's performance in the slightly less impressive but underrated Alien Resurrection ( oh shut up , it wasn't that bad ) . In both movies he plays a character that approaches his work with a casual confidence that comes from long years of general badassedness . In both movies he does hard work but has never really been challenged . He also does that cool thing where he lives unseen right here with us in modern American society , protecting oblivious humans from frightening dangers we don't even know are there . Oh , and he's massive and bright red but files down his enormous horns because he doesn't like to feel like an outcast . Can't be walking around looking like Satan , after all . The movie opens in Scotland in 1944 . The Nazis are falling from power and Hitler has employed a team to try to make use of supernatural forces to maintain his regime . I won't try to explain the intricacies of the process , but basically the efforts ultimately fail , but not before a portal is left open and a baby demon slips through . After the fall of the Nazis , the American military takes a liking to the little demon , taking him under their protection and , for some reason , nicknaming him Hellboy . He falls under the care of an American scientist named Professor Bruttenholm , who also cares for an aquatic mutant curiously named Abe Sapien , and the sporadic involvement of Liz Sherman , played by Selma Blair . Liz is a firestarter but is more human than Hellboy and Abe and has a tendency to be turned off by the work they have to do . And what do they do ? As Professor Bruttenholm explains , " there are things that go bump in the night . We Are the ones who bump back . " Basically they protect the United States from otherworldly dangers . The latest danger comes in the form of none other than Rasputin , a Russian spiritualist back from the dead with plans to arrange a partnership with some evil gods which will endow him with great powers if he will open their path to earth . If this all sounds confusing , don't worry , the story is not the most important thing about the movie . It's a comic book thrill ride and it works because the main characters are all performed well , particularly Ron Perlman as Hellboy and Doug Jones as Abe Sapien . The movie cleverly explains how Hellboy and his colleagues have remained secret for all of these years ( something to do with an inability to get clear pictures of him , like the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot ) , and even makes his existence into a legend , a bedtime story that entertains but is rarely believed to be true . The characterization is not exactly the best thing about the movie . Selma Blair's character is almost completely uninteresting , Hellboy's sidekick is almost completely unnecessary , and , Hellboy himself is riddled with stereotypes , both human and as a movie character . He's definitely fun to watch , but other than his outstanding make-up , there's really nothing original or unique about him . He is an outcast with a deep love that seems hopeless to him , which is not to stop him from spying in one of the movie's most charming scenes when he thinks his affections are being challenged . Hellboy was released around the same time as the disappointing Punisher , which represents a much lower quality film in the same genre . It is smart enough to laugh at itself , but not because we need comic relief . The movie is made with a much lighter tone than other similar films because they understand that you can't take a movie like this too seriously without making it unintentionally funny . When we watch comic book movies , we want a hero that we like but we still want to laugh and be entertained . The CGI and some of the special effects could definitely use some work , but this is a comic book movie that even my mom could enjoy . And trust me , that's a good thing . |
544,783 | 562,732 | 220,099 | 8 | Tigger is back , and the only difference is that he is now OFFICIALLY stealing the show . | Okay , it's been 23 years since there has been a full length Winnie the Pooh film released , and the original fans have all grown up by now . But if you have ever been a fan of the Pooh gang , check out this movie . Take me , for example , I'm a 21 year old horror movie fanatic , and I loved The Tigger Movie . The whole gang is back in the 100 Acre Woods , and this time Tigger is making an effort to find his family , to no longer be the " onliest one . " The songs are original and amusing , the characters are still their same old lovable selves , and Tigger's play on words is just as hilarious as always ( " Sorry Piglet , but you're on the smallish side of tiny and a little bit lacking in verticality ! " ) . In the end , the message that the film delivers is much more important and heartwarming than it seems it will be at the beginning . It stresses the importance of a different kind of " family " than the traditional kind , and it ends up providing a message that can be appreciated by a much larger group of people . The Tigger Movie is a movie for people of all ages , it is very enjoyable and lots of fun . |
544,551 | 562,732 | 97,742 | 8 | This is an excellent installment in the James Bond series , despite Timothy Dalton ? | Yeah , Dalton screwed up again , but luckily he didn't screw up the Bond character bad enough to take too much away from this excellent action film . The opening scene , in which the helicopter captures the airplane in mid-flight is very cool , except for the fact that there is at least one shot where Bond's hair is perfectly still , it seems that one of the editors forgot he's supposed to be hanging from a helicopter and pacing a plane in mid-air . When comparing the theme song of License To Kill to those of some of the previous Bond films , this one is actually relatively good ( although it is still an awful song ) . And then , as if another Bond song wasn't torture enough , the end credits roll to the tune of that song that everyone who has ever been in a K-Mart store knows ? ' If ? you ? ask me to , I just might change my mind , and hold you in my arms for-e-ever ? ' Etc . etc . etc . Dammit , now it's stuck in my head . Thanks a lot ! The story of License To Kill deals with a major drug lord named Sanchez , an d this film is a rare occasion where Bond actually goes behind enemy lines and works for the villain temporarily . It was a particularly interesting idea the way that the drugs were sold through the religious channel . While there can be no denying the quality of the action scenes in this film , there was so much money carelessly tossed to sharks or compression chambers or some other such nonsense that I thought I was going to be sick . But one of the things that really makes this one of the better stories of a Bond film is that there is actually a point in the film in which the plot thickens . James , at one point , discovers that his girl might be involved with Sanchez , and this is followed by a series of fairly effective plot twists , which are largely absent from most 007 movies . Despite Timothy Dalton , the casting is very good . It's pretty ironic that the same bonehead that cast Dalton as Bond again also had the smarts to cast Benecio Del Toro in this film . That may not seem like a real stroke of genius NOW , but when License To Kill was filmed , he had only had a tiny part in a Pee-Wee Herman movie . It's not like they were hunting down Best Actor winners . It makes you wonder if they would have given him such a badly written role and such a grisly death if they knew how huge he would be a decade or so later . By the way , there is something seriously wrong with people's eyes in this 007 installment . First of all , the guy who springs Sanchez out of jail has the most distracting and disturbing twitch in his right eye that I have ever seen . The sickening way that his right eye opens and closes lazily in coordination with his speech makes me wish they had just badly scarred his face , like they did with Donald Pleasance ( who is a much better looking man ) in You Only Live Twice . And as if that wasn't bad enough , the freakin ' Bond girl was wall-eyed ! ! Whose idea was that ? ! Sure , she was an attractive enough woman , but I just could not get over the way her right eye pointed off into the distance to the right anytime she was shown from the front . She was a pretty tough girl though . You remember the bar scene where people are fighting with knives and shotguns and chairs and cue sticks and a friggin ' swordfish ( yet the strippers on stage continue to dance around as though nothing is happening ) , and after she blows a ridiculously huge hole in the wall , she tells James to go out and get the boat started and that she'll stay and hold off the entire bar full of ped off drunk guys . This establishes the personality of a refreshingly new independent Bond girl but it also emphasizes the pansy-ass Bond that Dalton delivers . Sean Connery would never have left his girl in there to defend herself alone against the entire bar . This is the last Bond film that Dalton was in . And can there be any question about why that is ? Let's see , in License To Kill , Timothy Dalton leaves the Bond girl to save the day at the bar , he pathetically begs for his life on the conveyor belt near the end of the film ( in an admittedly horrific situation , but he was a little more desperate than is traditional for James Bond ) , and in at least one scene , he emphasizes James Bond's traditional love of tiny , tiny guns . But despite all this , License To Kill is not all bad . There is some genuine tension in several places , there are some very creative death scenes , and the action , while overly excessive at some points , is generally convincing enough . Except for the semi truck scenes at the end . The closing scene started off SO GOOD , and then Bond jumps up on two wheels ( or should I say nine wheels ? ) to avoid a missile , which was just way too much . However , I'm willing to overlook that just because it is a signature Bond scene , but then he does a wheelie in that same truck to get through a fireball . A WHEELIE ! Oh my GOD ! ! ! I thought I had seen something stupid in a Bond film before , but that beats them all ! That's even dumber than any of the crap that is so prevalent in Pierce Brosnan's and even Roger Moore's Bond films . The ending was unique in that Bond had to choose between two girls , and it tried to have the traditional ending at sea by ending with Bond and the girl in a swimming pool , at which point that god-awful song kicks in . It's such a shame that these great action movies are always filled with so much garbage . |
544,054 | 562,732 | 61,395 | 8 | Considered by many to be Bunuel's greatest work , Belle de Jour is a prime example of Bunuel's affection for the juxtaposition of realism and surrealism , this time to present a picture of the unusual sexualit | Catherine Deneuve plays Séverine Serizy , an obviously unsatisfied wife of a man who does not mistreat her as much as he simply doesn't seem to interest her enough sexually . She is in a financially comfortable but otherwise largely uninteresting relationship with him . There are a lot of strange aberrant fantasies that are placed periodically throughout the film , the meaning of which pertains to what is going on in the characters ' lives at the times that they are presented . The movie starts off by showing a lengthy and rather disturbing example of one of these fantasies , in which Séverine is pulled from her carriage by the two drivers after her lukewarm response to her fiancée's marriage proposal , and then tied to a tree and beaten and raped . A scene this strange and disturbing this early in the movie immediately presents her as an unsatisfied woman searching for fulfillment outside of her marriage . The fantasy at the beginning of the film quickly reveals itself to be Séverine's , who otherwise appears to be fairly normal and well-adjusted . Séverine is involved in a relationship with Pierre , for whom she has feelings but none of them have anything to do with pleasure , and she constantly seeks other fulfillment , at first in fantasies and then by working part time at a brothel . There is a colorful variety of characters that frequent the brothel and whom Séverine does not always enjoy working with ( or for ) , but the exact activities that go on while she is at work are beside the larger point , which is that she is escaping the dreariness of a typical marriage and displaying some sort of sexual independence , which was a bad thing to do in Spain under the dictatorship of Franco ( and , as was the case in El Bruto , also serves as the reason that this movie could not possibly have been made in Spain in 1967 , given Franco's enormously oppressive censorship system ) . There are themes of dissatisfaction that run throughout the movie , even in small things like the fact that the champagne in the movie never seems to be cold enough , characters complaining that champagne is never that great if it's not cold enough , and things like this tie in with the dissatisfaction that is obviously prevalent in the marriage between Séverine and Pierre . One of the things that ties in closest with some of Bunuel's earlier films is the theme of the dishonesty from the woman , which is complicated in Belle de Jour by the irony that is involved in her dishonesty . She leads of double life , maintaining her respectable composure in her relationship with Pierre but also working as a prostitute named Belle de Jour a few times a week , fulfilling an erotic need that is never explained or displayed any more than absolutely necessary . Pierre is completely oblivious to what is going on in her life until late in the film when one of her shabby clients , who has fallen in love with her , shoots him , confining him to a wheelchair and blinding him . It's strange that Pierre is struck blind only when the truth begins to come out . His vision has been destroyed by the very thing that was causing his blindness throughout his entire relationship with Séverine . Pierre develops the feeling that he is a burden to Séverine , his ' pure ' wife , and wants to have his life ended since he's paralyzed . He does not want to burden her anymore , until Mr . Husson , the man who discovered what Séverine had been doing , let him know what was going on ( giving in to an understandable humane decision that it is simply not right to allow a man to torture himself over a woman who has herself led such a dishonest life in her relationship with him ) . ( spoilers ) At the end of the film , there is a fantasy which has been said to be possibly Séverine's and possibly Pierre's , but we are never told for sure which one , in which Pierre stands up out of his wheelchair , his sight restored , and they display a happy and healthy marriage . It seems to me that this is clearly a fantasy of Séverine's , which significantly suggests that , although it IS a fantasy and Pierre is still confined to a wheelchair , she no longer fantasizes about being beaten and raped and abused , and that she is ready to have a happy marriage and that Pierre is enough for her , despite being bound to a wheelchair . It seems to me that she has accepted herself as who she is and Pierre for who he is and , most importantly , his injury as a result of her own sexual digressions . A lifetime of loyalty is the LEAST she could give him . |
544,217 | 562,732 | 6,313 | 8 | Chaplin is fully in character by now . | By this point in his career , Chaplin had almost fully developed the character of the little tramp , although he had not come close to perfecting the performances or truly refining his personality . But the character that the world soon came to know and love is clearly there by this point . This is one of the more complex stories for Chaplin's earliest work , with several story lines taking place simultaneously and coming together at the end . The thing about slapstick is that so often it's only funny once , and sometimes even only mildly amusing that one time . The problem is that when you know what's going to happen , you can see the actor setting up for whatever sight gag is coming , even if it's only a slight indication of movement or preparation , but Chaplin was so good at it that in a film like this there are numerous sight gags and stunts that you can rewind and watch two or three times and they're still good . Chaplin had a natural style about him that looks like what we're watching isn't even a performance . This film , simply titled Work , has plenty of amusing and memorable gags , particularly the wallpapering and the exploding stove . The end of the film is very high energy and even action packed , but it still strikes me as a bit of a descent into chaos . It's the kind of punching and kicking and throwing and falling and swinging and breaking stuff that we see a lot of in the Keystone films but that I feel tend to get boring after a while . Then again , it's not until about 22 minutes into this 24 minute film that Chaplin first kicks a man over backwards by shoving his foot into the man's chest , so clearly other elements of storytelling are becoming more important to him . . . . |
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