terence-jones2 Reviews

Banzai Runner (1987)

It's not that bad

[6/10 · 26 December 2010]

OK this movie has it's flaws and numerous they are.

The cars - are we supposed to believe that even a factory modified Porsche 928 can top 200mph? The budget of the characters & locations - a guy that owns several exotic cars has an office in LA which consists of 1 desk with 1 phone and 1 chair with NOTHING else in the room at all, no pictures no filing cabinet. It looks as if a lot of the budget went to hiring exotic cars for filming.

However look past these flaws and the story is actually quite good.

A cop loses his cop brother to persons unknown and embarks on a crusade to clean up the roads. He targets drunk drivers, and especially the runners.

He runs into resistance from the new captain who sees the runners as a nuisance and would rather he targets the easy arrests - drunk drivers.

As a result through insubordination he gets fired but gets reemployed by the DEA to mount a sting operation on the head of the runners who they suspect uses the 150mph runs to ship drugs between LA & Vegas.

He sets out to infiltrate the runners and bring them down.

Sure the car races/chases are speeded up comically - cars driving between at legal speeds made to look driving at 130mph plus however the cars are incidental.

It's not going to set your world alight but it is a half decent movie at just under 90 mins long and it's well paced (neither too long or short).

The Backwoods (2006)

Decent deliverance type flick

[7/10 · 28 March 2008]

The Argentinian release of this movie has it running at 152 minutes which would have been way too long. As it is the UK release came in at around 90 mins. I'm not sure if IMDb made a mistake with the times but i felt 90 mins was just about right as i hate to think that the other hour would have been filler.

It's set in Spain in 1976 and stars (for the most part) 2 couples - Gary Oldman and his wife Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Paddy Considin (Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum) and his wife Virginie Ledoyen (The love interest of Di Caprio in The Beach). It concerns the 2 men (Considine & Oldman) who while out hunting near Oldman's grandmothers old house in the forest's of Spain come across a dilapidated house. In it they find a girl who is disfigured and locked in what is a sty. They rescue her and take her home with the intention of taking her to the police. it isn't long before her family (who they met earlier in the nearest village bar) come looking for her.

It is a decent film with good acting, however it's the head of the household that have the locked up girl - Lluis Homar who steals the show (all his dialog is in Spanish) with his acting done primarily with his expressions and his eyes ala Jack Nicholson.

It's not as gritty as Deliverance and doesn't set out to be comic like Severance, I don't think it's quite as good as either of those films, but it is decent.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)

Good story decent movie

[8/10 · 16 March 2007]

First off if you are reading this you will most definitely read the book of the same title.

The book doesn't translate well into film due to it's short length so there is a lot of padding out of Jonathon just flying around visiting different places but the visuals on show are very good. The animatronics (rememeber they didn't have CGI back in the 70's) are first class and it really does look like live seagulls.

The movie is probably about the right length though at 95 mins perhaps trimming by 10 mins would not have harmed it.

As you'll know it's a feelgood story about the quest to be a better gull and the importance of tolerance and forgiveness.

I was a bit disappointed that one of the KEY SPOKEN LINES in the book was omitted from the script. When the young Jonathon is asked by his mother why he doesn't eat and is all bone and feathers he replies "I don't mind being bone and feathers, Mum. I just want to know what i can do in the air and what i can't, that's all. I just want to know" Considering the key part of the book is that Jonathon forsakes the squabbles and feeding frenzy to learn how to fly properly i would say that line is a pretty important one.

Still it's a decent movie which is pleasant to watch.

Stormbreaker (2006)

second worst movie of the year

[3/10 · 9 August 2006]

This is the second worst movie i have seen this year (out of about 30 movies i've seen).

I won't waste a long review on this movie but let me say that it barely deserves it's lofty rating. The main problem is that the movie is aimed at kids between the ages of 8 and 12 but unlike other films more or less alienates every other age group.

Spoiler Having stereotypical bad guys is the main problem – while movies like Austin Powers are full of stereotypes but it is hammed up and played for laughs, this movie has the same things but it tries (and fails) to take itself seriously. It goes for half and half but fails to hit the mark being too hammy to be taken seriously and too serious to be taken as a joke. The bad guys include a Prussian accented Frau Farbissinan type, a dodgy accented Russian assassin, and a nod to Random Task. Sure there are big name actors Bill Nighy, Ewan MacGregor, Mickey Rourke (playing the standard Mickey Rourke part after his superb performance in Sin City) and Alicia Silverstone but by and large they struggle to bring much humour (Nighy the exception) or credibility to a limited script.

Unless you are between 8-12 I wouldn't bother

Bad Santa (2003)

Suprizingly good

[8/10 · 8 November 2004]

This is actually a very funny film if you enjoy humour that is Adult in it's orientation. It is certainly not a kids movie (unless teenagers). The story has already been told. Billy Bob's humour is superb, with the greatest of respect to Bill Murray who was supposed to do this role he would not have done it the same justice that Thornton did. Murray is a fine actor but he can't do down market sleazy the way Thornton can. THAT is the key to this movie. Not only is this Santa Bad, but he's also apathetic and has little regard for himself. Tony Cox is superb as the Elf trying to do a "professional job" and drag Willie out of the gutter in the meantime. In my opinion Brett Kelly who plays the kid has a fine future ahead of him, he simultaneously manages to evoke both pity and laughter from the viewer in equal measure.

The supporting cast is admirable Lauren Graham as Willie's new girlfriend is to be commended and also Bernie Mac(Bosley from Charlie's Angels full throttle) is superb as head of security for the dept store managed by the late, great and sorely missed John Ritter who plays a puritan store manager obsessed with sacking willie and not swearing in equal measure.

The laughs come thick and fast, and more importantly, constantly. Too many Christmas comedy films have too much of a gap between laughs (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Scrooged) while both fine films spread the laughs into bunches. This could soon top most people's list of a Christmas comedy because it has already done it for me (replacing Christmas Vacation)

I can't commend this highly enough.

Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Not as bad as you'd think

[1 November 2004]

This is actually quite a useful film in the trilogy of exorcist movies(note i said trilogy, excorcist 2 was in no way related to the others). It deals with Father Merrin's first encounter with the demon Pazuzu (whose statue is seen briefly when father Karras tries to strangle Regan in the first movie).

It involves unearthing a church built 1,000 years before Christianity reached Nairobi. As the story unfolds it is quite apparent that this movie is actually half decent. As for those that think it relies more on gore for shocks then they may have a point with Alan Ford (who played the head gangster Bricktop in the film Snatch) especially having an uneasy time of it (to put it mildly).

I won't spoil it but like Stigmata it unearthes some of the cruelty that the Christian faith sought to bring to the "heathens" of other lands regardless of their threat or innocence at the time of the crusades.

The special effects are good and the story has a few interesting plot twists and it is just about the right length though perhaps could have been cut by ten minutes.