theraptor-2 Reviews

The Pacific (2010)

Meh

[5/10 · 29 March 2010]

The show is OK, nothing more. Definitely not as good as BoB. Main problems I got with it:

* Marine subculture not portrayed. The characters behave just like every generic military unit. Nice chaps and all, but could as well be Army or Coast Guard.

* Characters lack depth. Contrary to BoB it's hard to keep track who's who and care for them. Not a good sign for a movie or show. I also don't understand the NCO-focus they chose. Ain't worked out in the series what the distinct perspective of Marine NCOs was.

* Clichés: Japanese soldier pretending surrender and then killing himself and captors with a hidden hand grenade, incompetent subalterns, hardy privates and NCOs saving the day, ... Generally the portrayal of combat is shallow and sanitized. Hardly a feel for the special military culture of the Japanese enemy. In BoB the Germans felt, well, "germanlike".

* Acting skills not up to the task: In Pt. 2 the guys just don't look and behave like men who were through jungle hell and ate their belts. More like chaps who got dirty on a weekend National Guard maneuver. Maybe they should have resorted to method acting.

Generally this feels like a glossed over half covered for modesty version of WW2 in the Pacific, maybe because they wanted to make it a show for the whole family and not just for the guys. WW2 for Mom and the little sisters, so to speak. It would have done the show more service, had they gone realistic, gritty and gore. Or focused the whole show on a single battle or campaign and elaborated deeply on that. As is it's WW2 in the Pacific on fast forward.

Zeiten ändern Dich (2010)

A total ...

[1/10 · 25 March 2010]

... train wreck. Dunno where to start, really. Avoid at all costs.

I have to add ten lines of text, so I'll say that producer Bernd Eichinger and director Uli Edel probably wanted to print money quickly on the relative popularity of vulgar talk singer Anis Ferchichi, aka "Bushido". However, "Bushido's" star seems to be sinking, maybe because it's hard to keep streetcred with mostly immigrant youth when the cultural and political elite is kissing your behind. And the ruling party, the "Christian-Democratic-Union" invites you to join its ranks. Add to that 13 cases of proved (and costly) plagiarism and maybe the film came out a few moths late for making money. Despite its seeming to have been hastily produced. Meh, this time stealer will soon be forgotten like its subject.

Montana Sky (2007 TV Movie)

Mediocre

[5/10 · 14 August 2007]

**** Spoilers ****

Nice little movie, but I have several issues with it.

* Mixing a chick-flick and a thriller does not work. Obviously too little time to in depth develop both plots.

* Two psychopathic killers are a little too much and way too implausible for a movie that is primarily a female buddy movie.

* The family pet gets killed. I knew Charlie was toast when I saw that first cattle killed by a psycho and that over-long dog-human thing between him and Lily. I would finally love to see a thriller again where the family pet ain't killed. It is predictable and boring.

* Both whackos are disposed of in exactly the same way. They should have come up with something better. But why 2 independently acting psychopaths in the first place???

* Character development implausible and forced. Why exactly is Willa all a sudden falling in love with this Ben guy? And why is the strumpet-sister interested in the wooden Sheriff?

* Characters chlichéd.

* Behavior implausible: For three women who are beset by two psychopathic killers, have employees and pets killed and find their remains, are abducted etc. the characters are extremely unconcerned. Willa finds the corpse of the slain farmhand and in the next scene's just looking neutral or slightly smiling.????

* Another plot-hole as an example: Psychopathic killers roam the property and nobody arms himself (Willa occasionally carries a lever action gun, Ben doesn't until the plot needs it and drops it into his hands from heaven) or hires security guards or obtains direct protection by law enforcement. All they do is tell each other to be careful while they sit around on an outlying farm, waiting for the next victim to discover. Sheesh ...

The movie is not bad, but it ain't worth your time when you're short of it. I continued watching only because Ashley Williams looks cute with a cowboy hat. But they finally lost me when that second psycho half-brother popped up out of nowhere.

The Rundown (2003)

Low "Action" BS

[1/10 · 12 August 2007]

I love it when Hollywood wants to force-feed me their anti-gun ideology via a graphically violent and violence-centered movie. A single unarmed bodybuilder beats dozens of heavily armed mercenaries and mouthes off about how much he dislikes guns. Yaawn, yea, really violent and therefore cool ppl don't touch guns, sure. Violence is cool, as long as it's unarmed.

Hey, if they're so anti gun, why not do a quality non-violent or at least moderately violent movie instead of this brainless plot less row of fight scenes.

And "The Rock" is no actor. Just a big guy who has a full two goofy facial expressions in his "acting" arsenal. And he (or the guy who choreographed the fight scenes) doesn't have a clue about martial arts or combat sports. I simply loved his ready-position with the fists covering his hips. :-))

Avoid it, save your time.

The Hunted (2003)

Quite probably the worst movie ever

[1/10 · 13 January 2007]

*** Attention: Spoilers ****

Really I don't know where to start. From the painful clichés and predictability to the usual violent Hollywood movie that nonetheless packs a not-so-subtle ideological anti gun message.

Some choices:

* BDT-character forges his own knife in a camp fire. Yes, in a camp fire! That killed me, I literally rolled on the floor. * TLJ character trained supa-dupa spec ops assassin but never killed anybody himself. What about a movie about a driving school teacher who has no driving license? * The combat scenes in FRY are cheap, unrealistic and outright ridiculous. The three guys standing in a close circle and firing their AKs at victims lying on the floor is a classic. Maybe there's no Serbian term for 'ricochet', but I'm sure they got one for bullshit. * Ex supa-dupa assassin trainer doesn't like guns and rather faces killer UNARMED than touch a gun. Yea, right. Extremely credible.

And, and, and ... save your money and time. I'm shocked that TLJ and BDT smeat their names with appearing in a bullshit movie like this. And, yes, before I forget it: Sportsmen according to the movie are bad people who kinda deserve being killed by gunless supa dupa state employees. At least they got their agenda right, wehn they couldn't come up with any sort of coherent script.