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bluf2000
Reviews
2012 (2009)
Great special effects and... thats all
Seeing this movie's trailer, I was eagerly waiting to see it.
I wanted so much to see a catastrophe movie, which is not pathetic, extra-patriotic, with self-sacrificing and heroic people.
But i have learned once more (TOO many times I am afraid), that if the following is true: (a) disaster movie (b) in USA, then the movie MUST be pathetic, with very strongly heroic self-sacrificing, patriot characters.
Of course the good characters prevail, and the bad ones die.
Of course the good character saves all, saves mankind, and anyone will listen to him. He makes virtually all that rulers of the world should do.
So... lets be objective. Special effects and CGI are great. These made me (from the trailer) go to the cinema to see this movie. And I was in no way disappointed by them, on the contrary. I could say that the first 20% of the movie was somehow OK. But... come on people. I am a Sci-Fi fan, I understand that the movie has fantastic premises.... but this must not influence character actions and development. They have to be Realistic. We are not watching cartoons here. So these are a few of the stuff that actually ruined the movie, and made me hate it.
* US president who refuses to save himself, remaining on the collapsing earth, and being killed by the disaster while he was nursing wounded people (ohhhhh my god, its so gross)
* new superman character John Cusack. He can escape from a van which, while he is inside, falls into a lava crevasse.
* bad reach Russian guy dies in the end very stupid, while the good poor guys escape. All of them. Oh, and BTW, Russian guy's children escape also (although they were also reach, but we cant kill kids in a patriotic, altruist movie, can we ?)
* after one hour of flight lessons, a common plastic surgeon flies planes much better than Schumacher drives formula 1 cars
* an altruist patriotic scientist can convince all state presidents to be good. And to cooperate.
* the dentist (sorry, plastic surgeon) must die, because John Cusack must return to his ex-wife (who in the while was married to the dentist. No, the surgeon. Silicon surgeon.). We cant let superman alone, can we ?
* by the way, John Cusack can also repair billion dollar hydraulic mechanisms (below the watter) which were broken very easily (suspect, isn't it ?) and easy to fix (for John Cusack. Superman.)
Well.... these are only a few things that actually killed me while seeing this movie. They literally ruined a film which could have been exceptional otherwise.
I give it 2 of 10 (I was mad writing this article:)).
Hardwired (2009)
Among the worst movies i have seen lately
This movie is awfully bad. I am a fan of sci-fi movies, and i am prepared to accept some (decent) compromises, to see a very nice idea put into a movie. Apparently this movie has all ingredients to make a decent sci-fi flick. It has the idea (which is not new, but still can be used for good plots), has the actors (Kilmer, Gooding and Ironside). The reality is completely different. The movie fails on every aspect. I will detail below: 1. Actors. The well-known actors (Kilmer, Gooding and Ironside) seem to make the worst performance in their life. They were awful. Even if the movie is on very low budget, the quality of acting has nothing to with it. I have seen lots of movies with these guys, they are very talented, i cant imagine how could they make such performance. As the other actors, their performance is like reading a newspaper. Completely bald. It even provoked lots of laughing. They were all unreal.
2. Idea/plot/Directing. The idea can be well exploited to make not only one, but many sci-fi movies. Well, in this case, the writer seemed very busy with something else. I cant explain myself otherwise, why he wasn't capable of making a fluid and coherent plot. It seems a plot written in a few days. Nothing complex, silly dialog, no character motivation. Not to speak of character development (completely missing. Completely!). Action scenes are non-realistic. I have seen Cuba Gooding in other action movies / scenes and was OK... well in this one, looked like he didn't want to play anymore, like he was bored and couldn't wait to go home. Same applies for all action scene protagonists.
3. General impression: very cheap movie, amateur bored actors, amateur writer, very busy (with something else i think) director. The impression was that the initial budget for this movie was drastically cut down, AFTER the movie making began, so all the people became upset, and they made all the job with *ruin the movie* idea (revenge) in mind. This explain actor performance, directing performance, image and scene quality.
Recommendation: don't even think to watch it. Even for free. I gave it 2/10 with indulgence.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Another Tarantino masterpiece
Since I've watched "Pulp Fiction" I have continuously waited for the next comparable movie. I've liked Pulp Fiction so much, that ever since, I was comparing any movie that I liked with it. Since then, i have waited every year for the next Tarantino hit. I was not very impressed by Kill Bills (especially the second), or Deathproof. I felt that this will come. And it came, in the form of Inglourious Basterds. It was the first movie which, for me, can compare with Pulp fiction. As usual, the director is able to get the best from the actors. Brad Pitt is doing maybe one of his best roles, Cristoph Waltz (as Hans Landa) is extraordinary, incredible performance, for me it was an unbelievable revelation. As well, the other actors deliver very good performance, and i noted Mélanie Laurent (as Shosanna Dreyfus), Sylvester Groth( as Goebbels).
I give it an {Excellent} mark, and I say that this is worth to be seen.
Buru Jenda (1999)
One of the best
I can say that this is one of the best anime I've ever seen. Too bad that it's a bit lax in the last episodes, but over all it's excellent. Character development is very good, and it inspires a lot to attach to them. Too bad, because most of them are dying quite fast. Marlene is maybe the most important character, and I am sure that for a lot of watchers she can be the ideal woman. Yuji is the main character, and he goes through some memorable adventures, along with Marlene. Though, the movie is not so good, it actually spoils all the story development, in fact in contains not more than ultra condensed series, without very important explanations and introspections. That's why i highly recommend the series, which take from me 5/5, and forget about the movie.
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
great movie in wrong times
Due to some similarities with Matrix regarding the general idea, this movie was compared to Matrix. Because the people who watched these 2 movies were pretty much the same, they underrated 13th floor simply because it had not Matrix's "special effects", "guns", "kung-fu scenes".
13'th floor makes an excellent Sci-Fi movie. The actors are GREAT in their roles, the "old America" feeling is great. The characters are very well shaped, they do not need ninja capabilities to entertain. I would put this movie as an equal to Dark City (which i liked very much) and somehow better than first Matrix (which, anyway, had 2 sequels that disappointed me).