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michael-138
Reviews
The Unit (2006)
Gritty and Addictive
"The Unit" is gritty in the spirit of "24". It follows the lives of "Alpha Team", a clandestine Ranger unit, as they train, try to live relatively normal lives, and go on secret, and very dangerous, missions around the world. The men are racially diverse and are depicted universally as highly-skilled and honorable soldiers. Real people, and heroes, rather than "jarhead" killing machines. Their wives, often followed in parallel story lines, are depicted as universally supportive and dedicated, almost unbelievably so. The unit leader's wife, in particular, is really over-the-top gung ho, as though she herself were in the Army. The missions are exciting and gripping to watch, and death always seems near. An entertaining show where we get to "stick it" to the terrorists once a week.
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
Decent but disappointing
As a fan of the first movie, I had high hopes for this one. While it turned out to be OK, that was about it. Rodriguez, who wrote and produced and directed and edited this thing, should have had someone help him trim off the fat.
The biggest problem was that the Spy Kids are hardly kids any more. Carmen is now a "developing" teenager, complete with annoying boyfriend, and Juni is not a baby any more. The slapstick and brother-sister fighting that was so funny and genuine the first time around is practically non-existent here. And along with that, the kids have settled into their OSS-agent roles and now spew secret agent-speak. Adolescent kids actually speaking like this: "What is your assessment, Juni?" and "Your cloaking device is highly coveted." WHAT??? What is Carmen saying??? This stuff goes on through the WHOLE movie. My 7-year-old was largely clueless on the plot developments thanks to utterly confusing dialogue like that.
And the techno-gear that was kind of cool in the first movie, partly because they didn't know what the heck they were doing with it, is now standard issue for the two of them, and present in EVERY scene, ad nauseum. I couldn't tell if Rodriguez was saying, "kids, learn to use your wits and don't rely on technology" when he addicted them to all these gadgets and then took them away on this island where no machines can function and the kids freak out. In the end, their phrase, "an agent is only as good as his gadgets" seems to prevail. What was the point of the exercise, then?
Also in the "what was the point" category, putting talented and charismatic Ricardo Montalban in as Ingrid's father seemed like a cool idea, but went nowhere. He wound up with a bit part and did nothing interesting at all, apart from shaking hands with Antonio Banderas the way he should have in place of Anthony Hopkins in "Mask of Zorro." What a waste. Ditto the cameos by both Alan Cumming and Tony Shalhoub.
Spy Kids (1) was a really fun movie and perhaps it just can't be duplicated with the kids growing up. But a good script is at least a prerequisite, and it was missing, here.
Forbrydelsens element (1984)
zzzzzzz....
After reading all the reviews here on IMDB, I was anxious to watch this movie, so I taped it on IFC and eagerly sat down to view it the next day.
I suffered through about 25 minutes of this wreck before finally shutting off the VCR. Perhaps I missed out on all the highbrow cinematographic wonders everyone was writing about in their reviews. I just didn't get it at all. This thing was horrible. And dark. And depressing. Etc. Skip it.
Spider-Man (2002)
Excellent and true to the real story
I expected this movie to be good after seeing the incredibly real web-swinging in the trailer. It was actually BETTER than I'd thought it would be. The spidey effects are fantastic, of course. But the story was also engrossing. It follows VERY closely the original comic book story, with just a few minor changes.
The characters in this movie - as is generally the case with Marvel characters - are real and you can relate to them. Tobey Maguire (who I still believe is too short to play Spidey) was pretty good as Peter Parker. Dunst was excellent as Mary Jane. Willem Dafoe was fine but the costume they stuck him in as the Green Goblin was criminally bad; you couldn't see anything of him except his mouth - very lame. J Jonah Jameson was portrayed very well; VERY funny.
The special effects here were simply great. The web-spinning, cameras moving with Spidey, and especially the costume will leave the TRUE Spiderman fans happy. There are Spiderman moves that are IDENTICAL to the original cartoon moves, only better; and moving camera angles that give a really exciting view of his work as he swings through New York.
Great movie top to bottom. 9/10.
The Mexican (2001)
Fun farce of a romantic comedy
I'm shocked at all the poor ratings for this movie. I found it to be engaging and funny. I enjoyed all the characters and twists, though I could have done without the stunt of Gandolfini's "Sopranos" character being gay (what was the point of that, exactly?).
Julia Roberts did a fine job as a nut-case of a girlfriend, and Brad Pitt was fantastic as Jerry. You really feel for the poor guy and all the crap he has to go through, while laughing at the ridiculousness of it all and his reactions to everything.
I didn't find any unfairly poor treatment of Mexico in this flick. In fact, I thought it was pretty accurate. I've been to Mexico plenty of times, and I could picture any number of friends of mine in the same situations as Jerry.
Don't take this movie so seriously and you will enjoy it a lot.
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Very good, careful with little ones
Monsters, Inc. was a very good movie, though not as good as either of the previous 2 Pixar "Toy Story" movies. I also felt the target age of this movie was higher than of any of the previous movies. There are explanations in this film, central to the plot, about things like an energy crisis and how the company, Monsters, Inc., provides the energy, by causing screams and bottling them (?). There is adult dating, and funny references to things you'd hear around the office (ie. not around the elementary school). There is a complicated system by which the Monsters actually GET to the rooms to scare kids. Easy concepts for adults, tough for little ones.
One other thing that tripped me out a little was that there were also many references and demonstrations of how monsters pop out of closets or out from under beds and scare the bejeezus out of poor little kids. This can be a little traumatic for little ones. Along these same lines are a few scenes involving a walk down into a dark, very scary looking dungeon-like corridor, and a few of a type of torture machine that slowly wheels up to a captive victim, who is held immobile in a special chair. Relatively short scenes, but they scared both my 6- and 3-year-olds. I was not expecting this and it kind of irritated me.
On the whole, it was an enjoyable movie. To be honest, the most enjoyable part for me was the short animated film that preceded the main attraction, a VERY cute and funny short called "For the Birds."