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RoaringFourties
Reviews
The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
Somewhat disappointing ...
... because it simply did not address any issue you would expect to be addressed by an X File movie. The only X File aspect relevant to the series in this movie is some guy having psychic visions. That's it, folks. Sorry if you expected more.
It is going to take a die hard fan of the X Files to actually like this (mediocre) episode. It is one of the boring ones, not much action and nothing that wasn't shown in the series. Scully manages to come up with a 'this is about your sister' line because it was written into the script. Stupid, but what the heck.
Not even a single one of the big archs of the series is even mentioned in this, not the aliens, not their son living with strangers in the mid west, not the conspiracy or anything else you would expect from an X Files movie. This is only an episode, and a weak one at that.
At least, AD Skinner had an appearance, that pretty much saved it for me. Mitch Pileggi rocks, don't know what makes me like him so much. Any way, I am a die hard X Files fan, so I loved the movie, glad to see Mulder and Scully again - true to character. Still only giving it 4 out of 10. Maybe the next one will show what I like to see ...
Mike
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Biggest plot holes ever
OK, let's see ...
One, they go to hunt this dino because it will sink in the tar and then a vulcano destroys all. No change to history, evolution. OK, I get that. But why would it matter if they also killed a butterfly?
Two, they go to hunt the same dino on every safari. Wouldn't it get crowded at that point in time and space after a while?
Just my two cents.
Believe it or not, I still enjoyed this movie. You have to forgive the CGI and stuff as it is really bad. Is Catherine McCormack hot or what ...
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Not accurate but entertaining
Let me start with three important points:
1. The Muslims are not monsters. That is good because there were not then. And are not today.
2. The templars are the Über-evil bad guys. That is bad because they were not.
3. There is such a thing as history, but not in this movie.
If you know the history of the crusades, this movie will disappoint you. Keep in mind that this is a Hollywood production and you cannot expect too much.
There were some issues that began to really irritate me as I was watching this flick.
It began with killing the priest and then going to Jerusalem to repent. In the process they kill off characters you would like to have seen in the rest of the film. Balian sleeps with his enemies wife, knows he will start a war but becomes religious or something and will not avert the whole tragedy by agreeing to have the bad guy killed. And the king won't avert the tragedy by killing the bad guy on his own. Great. In the desert, the templars drop from thirst and a day later others go the same distance and don't. What gives? And why did they not show the battle but only a bunch of bodies laying around after wards? Aside from some irritating details, this movie has some pretty good combat. The acting is great, although some dialogs are too long. The editing is OK, except for a couple of scenes where things were obviously cut that should not have been, such as the burial scene where Saladin prays where editing resulted in a Muslim burial that would not be acceptable to Muslims.
Aside from being a bit long winded in some scenes, this is an enjoyable movie. I give it 7 out of ten. Certainly worth renting.
Crocodile 2: Death Swamp (2002)
I have seen some crappy flicks in my lifetime ...
... but this one takes the cake!
First of all, if people tell you this is a B-flick, ignore them. This isn't even a D-flick. The special affects of the monster are pretty much the cheapest you will ever see, unless your nephew makes a horror movie with Dad's camcorder.
OK, so it was bad. Let's focus on what was good. Nothing.
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let's look at some details. I am not even going to mention that idiot who gets up after being soaked in water about a dozen times and lights a dry cigar. Probably Cuban. So, I mentioned him anyway. Sue me.
What else is there to say? I cannot believe Jeffrey Combs played in this movie - he played all sorts of frucks on Star Trek (just as badly I might add! Just imagine he was once considered as Commander Riker. Barf!). In this one he was the master thespian who portrayed 'Jack - gimme that Wiskey with the blond's pills in it', the really vicious bad guy who - big surprise - gets eaten. You'll probably sleep when he appears, so you won't remember.
Any other details that will go down in the annals of movie history? Oh, yes. I almost forgot. Wanna see a croc jump out of the water and eat a helicopter? Well, this movie is for you!
This super duper monster croc dies because the lead ditch (I think that should be spelled with a 'b') spills about 5 gallons of fuel on the water. What a devious plan. And high tech, too! Seriously, they spill a little fuel on the water and the darn thing goes splat. It was probably glad the movie was over. If it hadn't been, I would have doused myself in a little fuel.
Sometimes you see a movie and it makes you understand things. I now know what that silly monk in Vietnam was thinking those many years ago, when he lit himself on fire. He saw this movie coming. I guarantee it, no matter how that is spelled!
Well, I feel much better now. Mike
P.s.: OK, I take back that stuff about the lead ditch and needing to spell that with a 'b'. Heidi Lenhart deserves better work than this. And she is pretty!
Nurse Betty (2000)
Great entertainment, at least for adults and older teens.
The 'adults and older teens' is for some rather foul language in a few scenes but aside from that this is an enjoyable movie to watch, although the end could have been a little happier.
Morgan Freeman and Renée Zellweger are at their best, Chris Rock runs his famous mouth as you would expect and the rest of the cast are great, too. Some neat puns about soap operas and their fans.
I enjoyed seeing Crispin Glover again, although he didn't get much screen time in this one. I haven't seen him in a long time.
This is a movie you can sit down and just watch. Keep the kids out, plenty of f-words in a couple of scenes.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
No good reason ...
... could possibly explain Anakin's turn to the dark side and Lucas consequently is unable to give us one. Unfortunately, he still tries.
Bad dreams about his wife? Mistaking them for visions of an impending future? 15 years of Jedi training and he does not realize this even when Yoda tells him so? And the Chancellor explicitly tells him he does not have a plan to rescue Padme but 'together we can unravel the mystery' based on some old legend he could have invented? That is all it takes to turn Anakin? Give me a break!
Lucas should not have tried to explain Anakin's flip. He should have shown a few more scenes like when Anakin wiped out the Tuscan raiders after they killed his Mom - Anakin simply getting more and more psychotic. All the way up to the scene where he kills Mace Windu.
After that there would have been no turning back for him and they could have actually shown a conflict in him to go all the way to finally destroying any loyalty he may have had to the Jedi. He just could not go from being a good Jedi to killing 8 year old Jedi young-lings in the 30 seconds time he had in the movie.
Aside from this annoying plot hole, this will certainly become one of my favorite Scifi flicks this year. It fulfilled my expectations and made a great turn over to the original first part, episode IV.
An absolute must for any Star Wars fan, and highly recommended for any SciFi fan.
Impostor (2001)
Good short stories don't always make for good films.
Sorry, despite all the good things you can say about Dick and his writing (including this story), this should never have made it to the big screen.
First of all, when Spencer Olham goes looking for the crashed ship, he does so to absolve himself, i. e., if he finds the crashed ship and the replicants inside it will prove he is not a replicant. He finds the ship, his wife's body inside - and his own, too - but suddenly this means their both replicants. So the replicants kill them, put their dead bodies in the ship and the dead bodies fly the ship and crash. Just plain stupid.
OK, we just accept that. But now we have a problem, because the replicants explode when they are close enough to their target to take it out. Why did Spencer Olham explode at that point? Was he close to anything he had not been close to numerous times before? If his target was the GeStaPo type, he would have exploded exactly when he was saying he had acquired his target during his silly interrogation scene (no, we don't know how to do catheder examinations anymore in 207x, or whatever it was).
I can tell you why Olham did not explode the first time he met his apparent target but you are not going to like it: we would not have had a movie because it would have ended after the first 30 minutes.
I think it would have been better that way ...
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Too many unnecessary issues
First of all, this movie satisfied my expectations as to the conflict predator/alien. Great special effects, the monsters are just as you would want them, really neat hand to hand combat between the two, but ...
A number of things bothered me greatly.
The first was in the 'sacrificial hall' where one of the sci guys immediately jumps to the conclusion of 'heart sacrificed' and is told that that is not where the heart is and bones turned outward blah blah. Full stop. You'd expect some kind of discussion at that point but sorry, they just leave it at that. I guess THEY didn't see the original alien movies ...
Then the archaeological type reads all the symbols like they're a book in plain English.He warns to not take the predator shoulder rocket launcher type thingy; But not the first, no, not the second either. He doesn't utter his warning until the last one is taken. Oh, well.
This is an odd bit, about the predator shoulder rocket launcher type thingy. It seems that is their primary weapon. Without it, a single alien whacks two out of the three predators in short order. Leaving those thingies down there for us mortals to completely screw up the whole plan of taking them once the predator apprentices get there is just plain stupid.
Then nothing was more obvious than the last predator getting 'seeded'. Now, this last predator sees the gestating larvae in the human victims but in the end they take his seeded carcass without inspection? They have to, like, not look at him to miss the damn thing wiggling around his bronchial tube! And what happened to aliens not attacking seeded hosts?
I am not going to mention that one of these predators would never ever ally himself (herself? Their are certainly bitchy enough!) with a human 'breeding tube' for their favorite prey. OK, so I did mention it.
After all we saw about alien(s), do we really think going down in water is going to kill one of them? Especially the queen bitch? Schit, a whale will dive 5000 feet to hunt pussy (the octagonal kind) ...
regards, Mac
Sin (2003)
The worst I've ever seen
This must be the worst movie I have ever seen. Never ever have I seen so many unmotivated and unlogical scenes. I thought Ving Rhames and Gary Oldman would make for a good novie based on their previous work - but no, this is by far the worst 'thriller' there is - although it is only the directing that sucks in this one. Rhames is an ex-cop who goes up against a bad guy played very well by Oldman (but with a lousy script). The first 75 minutes seem like a bunch of unconnected commercials shown in sequence to create an undefined affect. The characters are pathetic, the bad ones doubly so. The story could have been ok, with better directing, but even Rhames and Oldman couldn't pull this one off.