dave_472 Reviews

The Foreigner (2003)

Good action/suspense flick...

[7/10 · 21 July 2005]

I think that overall, "The Foreigner" was a decent action/suspense/Seagal flick. Yes, "Fire Down Below" is much better... but I still liked this. Seagal places a "special agent" (little bit cheesy of a role here) and as an American agent operating in France, he is designated on a dangerous trip to transport a special package to some associates in Berlin. On the way, of course, there are many dangerous men with guns who are trying to kill him. He has a special "partner" that he is working with, who seems to be killing just about everyone (male or female) that comes across his path and eventually this "partner" turns against Seagal as well, before coming to his side one more time for a near-ending house raid. Many people are killed and Seagal is constantly threatened in exchange for this "package"... he has to dodge many bombs and bullets on his journey to Germany.

The only thing is, this "package" is not the only focus of the film. Seagal has found out that there is a large chemical weapons conspiracy inside high-level political figures to transport these weapons as well and one politician who was involved in the shooting-down and cover-up of a civilian airliner.

This was overall a good Seagal film. It had some negative qualities, but overall, it was entertaining for the 96-minutes of running time. Check it out and please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Old School (2003)

Good comedy college/party/frat film!

[7/10 · 19 July 2005]

"Old School" was a really good film: another takeoff on "college life", similar to Natinonal Lampoon's "Animal House" and "Van Wilder" films... yet this is something different. Luke Wilson arrives home and finds his girlfriend getting ready to have a massive orgy with a bunch of blindfolded, closet-hidden strangers and he realizes= "Why should I have to deal with this?" So he moves back into a college neighborhood and without even joining the school, starts a fraternity in a house with some friends. Will Ferrell has just gotten married and realizes that he will indeed only have "one vagina for the rest of his life". He decides to have some fun and join the frat, where kidnapping new students to bring to the frat is the norm. Vince Vaughn is also among the frat-house dwellers, bringing many laughs to this picture.

This was an entertaining piece of movie= it had a good cast, lots of laughs (nude lubricant jelly wrestling, tie-a-brick-to-your-thing frat initiation, and tranquilizer gunshots to Ferrell's neck as he falls and sinks into a pool to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence") and also a motivation factor: I plan to join the Sigma Chi fraternity when I move into my college this fall. This was a good film overall and definitely worth the 90 minutes. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Broken Arrow (1996)

Pretty basic comicbook-type action extravaganza...

[6/10 · 6 July 2005]

I must say that "Broken Arrow" did have some entertaining qualities. Christian Slater and John Travolta both started as rival military pilots, one as the "good guy" and one as the "bad guy" with evil intentions. Originally working together, their intentions differ and their differences collide after Travolta turns to the "bad side" and helps other ex-military officers steal two nuclear weapons from Travolta and Slater's abandoned military jet. Travolta and his crew end up racing against Slater, who has teamed himself with a female park ranger who even attempted to arrest him after he was forced to parachute out of his jet during a sky-high confrontation with Travolta. Both teams have their eyes on the nuclear warheads, with their explosive atom-splitting power that we have seen the effects of before (200,000 dead in the U.S. nuclear attack on Japan)... only, both the teams have quite different intentions. Slater, of course, plans to disarm and return the weapons to the U.S. government. Travolta plans to detonate them...

This was a pretty basic comic book bubblegum-style action movie. There was lots of good special effects and vehicle/helicopter chases, machine gun battles, and explosions. It had a pretty basic plot (kind of similar to a mediocre combination of "Face/Off" and "The Rock") and good acting... It was entertaining... still, I wish it could have been better and think it deserved maybe 6.5 out of 10 stars. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

Comedy/horror film that is INTERESTING!!!

[7/10 · 5 July 2005]

"Bubba Ho-Tep" was quite a funny film. As one who enjoys the horror/comedy genre to a certain extent, this film certainly stood out in terms of a horror film that in fact DOES make you laugh... from Sebastian Haff the Elvis impersonator (Bruce Campbell) stuck in the nursing home with an explosive wart on the edge of his -----, the new black JFK (Ossie Davis.... another man who believes he is someone else), and the 3,000 year-old Egyptian mummy who has spread a curse on their Texas elderly facility, this movie stands out quite well in being original.

A "horror" film that has plenty of crude humor to cough up the laughs deserves something... with plenty of toilet jokes and beatles/bugs sucking up the souls of elderly people through their mouths and bottoms, this movie will guarantee you at least one laugh... not to mention the Vaseline-based "procedure" that a pretty nurse has to complete on Elvis every morning (having to do with his, um, bump on his, um, ------). This is not quite "Evil Dead" or "Army of Darkness", it is still quite a film and Bruce Campbell does a great job as the Elvis impersonator... he even convinces himself that he is actually the REAL Elvis Presley playing Sebastian Haff who is playing Elvis... quite a combination!

Filled with humor and excitement at the film's climax, this is definitely worth the 90 minutes that you will spend watching it... Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Snake Eyes (1998)

A fair film... thrilling, if not anything else...

[6/10 · 30 June 2005]

I thought that "Snake Eyes" was a fair film.... definitely not worth more than the 98 minutes that it was given, but okay in that allotted time... I enjoy thrillers and this was well done to a given point...

An interesting plot: Nicholas Cage is a police officer who witnesses the assassination of the U.S. defense secretary in the crowd of 14,000 people who came to an Atlantic City boxing arena for a big fight... His best friend, Gary Sinise, is a military officer who becomes involved in the investigation. Sinise fires the deadly shots that kill the assassin (a Palestininan sniper who allegedly killed the secretary due to a suicide note pointing to "anger over arms sales to Israel"), and he is cleared as a suspect.... but could he be a suspect? Could he be involved in the assassination? Everyone and anyone in the 14,000+ crowd becomes a suspect as few witnesses know anything beyond the fatal shots that were fired during the boxing match...

This was a fair film, not on par with some of Nicholas Cage's much-better work (Sinise has a good presentation as usual, however) but still worth it on a rainy day. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Wow.... twisted, sexy, brilliant...

[9/10 · 30 June 2005]

"Requiem For A Dream" was quite a film. With only the knowledge of "people choosing their own path to happiness", I decided to see what this was all about. I was quite surprised by my own similarities with Harry but put them aside, I was able to look at this film from all points of view, whether from the view of characters or the audience.

Harry is quite a character... dealing with thoughts on the future, his relationship with his best friend (Tyrone) who also believes in "making it big", his girlfriend, and his frail, overprotective mother who has her own dreams of weight loss and a television appearance on her favorite contest show. He sells drugs to support his own habit but remains quite a positive character throughout the film, perhaps an "underdog" who wins sympathy as though he has faced discrimination... Does his "girlfriend" really love him? Is Tyrone committed to him? Does his mother care about him as well? Will she listen to him as he begs her to give up on her prescription weight-loss pills that eventually lead to her odd behavior, paranoia, and hospital placement? He is facing all odds and wins sympathy...

"Requiem for A Dream" is a fantastic art film that combines reality with visions and dreams... I plan to read the book soon as this film was both inspiring and entertaining. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Cinderella Man (2005)

Very good boxing drama

[7/10 · 26 June 2005]

When I first went to see this film, all that I knew about it was that it starred Russell Crowe and it was based around the life of a boxer. Of course, it ended up being much more complicated than that.

Russell Crowe is James Braddock, a boxer rising up from the bottom in 1930's New York City, during the peak of the Great Depression. After several fights (including one in which he breaks his hand and loses his boxing license), Braddock attempts to get financial assistance and he and his wife are in danger of having to send their children away due to the fact that they may not be able to support them in such a difficult time. However, Braddock is offered (even after his loss-of-license) yet a chance for one more fight for $250... he not only wins the fight and the money, but he is propelled back into the dramatic world of boxing (not to mention the betting/gambling based upon its fights) and media spotlight. He eventually rises to the top and finally becomes the prime opponent for the current world heavyweight boxing champion, Max Baer. Renee Zellweger does an excellent job as playing the reluctant wife-of-a-celebrity and caring mother of several starving children.

Overall, this film was great. It was much better than my other favorite boxing film, "Undisputed", and it was, to put it simply, a masterpiece that made you feel as though you were on the frontline of the boxing matches and gambling scene of the 1930's. While it could get boring at times and was somewhat long, this was still a great film that I recommend with pleasure to all. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Minority Report (2002)

An edge-of-your seat Spielberg extravaganza- SEE IT!!!

[8/10 · 20 June 2005]

My only regret is that I did not get to see this film in theaters as I wanted to when it was released three years ago... I enjoy Tom Cruise and even more Spielberg films so this was, of course, a must-see for me. Taking place in 2054 Washington D.C., Tom Cruise is a police chief who heads a "Precrime unit", a brand-new police unit with futuristic technology that allows them to discover precisely when, where, and by who homicides are going to be committed.

This technology is much appreciated as it began to decrease D.C.'s massive homicide rate and eventually left the city without a single murder in six years. Using mind-readers called "pre-cogs" (referring to the pre-cognitive), this police unit catches future murderers before they commit their act.... imprisoning them but leaving their victims unharmed. Considered "flawless" by the U.S. government, there is an occasional disagreement about a specific crime that is supposed to take place by one of the three mind-reader "pre-cogs"... This disagreement by the mind-reader is referred to by the government as a "minority report" and is deleted, in order to keep up the idea that this new precrime system is flawless and works without doubt. However, this small flaw becomes a very big problem when Tom Cruise (himself the unit's chief) is accused of murder himself... when one of the pre-cogs has a flaw and it is not exactly 100% certain that Cruise does in fact become a murderer but the 2/3 suspicion of him by the pre-cogs is enough to have the entire D.C. police unit crawling through the city for him...

This film soon becomes an exciting action-packed chase that involves Cruise constantly running from his fellow police officers as he tries to find out who framed him in a system that is supposed to be perfect for preventing murders. This film was great and I loved it and I think you will too. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

28 Days Later (2002)

Wow! A horrifying, survivalist-type thriller that is GREAT

[8/10 · 20 June 2005]

This film was fantastic. I was expecting something along the lines of a combination of "Resident Evil" and "The Day After Tomorrow" but this is quite different from that description. Yes, it involves a terrible disease that leaves its infected victims as blood-sucking, mindless zombies who pray on the not-yet-infected and yes, it involves a group of survivors who are left together to fend for themselves. But it is quite different from Resident Evil (no comic-book or video-game type plot here and no explosives or automatic weapons) and is a much more thrilling "survivalist-type" film than "The Day After Tomorrow".

An awful virus is spreading through the streets and cities of Great Britain. Soon nearly everybody is affected by this deadly disease that turns its victims into zombies, who are quite noticeable and different from normal people due to their odd/rapid body movements, their blood red eyes, foaming at the mouth, and their inability to communicate with normal people unless they are trying to bite them. A small group of survivors manages to stay alive and uninfected, but not for long. Eventually, they one-by-one fall victim to the awful disease and the remaining survivors have sealed a pact that involves them instantly killing any member of their group that has become infected, not to endanger those who are still alive and not yet zombies. As the survivors count their time left, they attempt to make it to a British military base near Manchester where they believe they will be safe. They do eventually make it there, but what can stop zombies (who are mindless, blood-thirsty and have nothing to lose) from invading an army base? Are the survivors and British soldiers safe? Or will they soon become zombies themselves?

This film is quite scary and exciting and perhaps one of the best British films that I have seen from modern times... Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

The Rock (1996)

Great action film!!!

[8/10 · 20 June 2005]

This was a fantastic film that should be seen by all. I am an action-film fan, and this was by far one of the greatest action films I have ever seen. With great special effects and action, great acting, and a comic-book style story that is intriguing in all its aspects, "The Rock" should be seen by all. Ed Harris plays an angry, determined ex-General from the U.S. military who fought in many wars and was respected by many people from high positions in the government. However, he has radical views and believes that the U.S. government never supported American soldiers who fought overseas and returned home and received no rewards for their sacrifice. To prove his point, Harris directs a group of former Marines who steal several chemical missiles from a weapons depot and plant them in an isolated spot that would be hard to invade: Alcatraz Island! What better place for a base of operations than a deserted island with an unused prison? Harris and his thugs threaten to launch chemical missiles at San Francisco Bay (which could kill hundreds of thousands instantly) unless he and other former marines are paid $100 million by the U.S. government. Since when does our government bow to the demands of terrorists? Whether global jihadists or angry domestic troublemakers, negotiation with the enemy is not an option...

Nicholas Cage is a young FBI chemical-weapons expert who is sent along with a group of soldiers as well as Sean Connery (a life-long prisoner who is sent in with the soldiers because he knows the layout of Alcatraz, having been the "only prisoner there to ever escape"). They plan to stop Harris from firing his missiles but they are met inside the prison by an ambush of heavy fire (remember, the "terrorists" here are well-trained, decorated former U.S. soldiers) and many are killed. Alone and planning to save many innocent lives, Cage and Connery plot to fight until they win over the prison's occupiers and save America from bowing to terrorist demands....

This film was fantastic and was a great action film, running along the ranks of "Air Force One" and "Face/Off"... Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Face/Off (1997)

Fantastic action film

[8/10 · 20 June 2005]

What a great film... I am an action-film fan, and this film was a great way to entertain the audience with our favorite stars from "The Rock", "Broken Arrow", "Pulp Fiction", and many more... together!!! In the film, John Travolta plays an FBI agent who is hunting down arch-terrorist Nicholas Cage. Cage is in control of a very violent group of thugs and he is accused by the FBI of many violent acts of terrorism. He is not Osama bin Laden or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi supporting global jihad and personally beheading innocent hostages with a dull knife, but he is still quite a vicious man. After Cage is captured by Travolta and his crew, he is obviously facing a lengthy prison term... The only problem is that the rest of Cage's organization has not yet been infiltrated by the bureau! What better way for Travolta to get "on the inside" than by coming Cage himself?

So doctors perform a complicated surgical operation during which Travolta receives the face of Cage and his body is surgically operated on so as to appear quite similar and pass off as Cage himself. Travolta has so "become" his enemy Cage that he even fools Cage's closest family members and "friends" and even has to serve part of Cage's prison term before he breaks out. Once out of prison, Travolta (now wearing Cage's face) has to not only find the real Cage (who has stolen Travolta's face as well and escaped from the hospital where the operation took place) and take him down but also get closer with Cage's group for important information and convince his own family that HE is the real Travolta, not Nicholas Cage the murderous terrorist whose face he is wearing.

This film is an slam-bang thriller from start to finish that should be seen by all film fans whether you really like action as I do, or not. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Wild Things (1998)

Heh... what a wild film! But GREAT!!!

[8/10 · 20 June 2005]

I think that Wild Things was an excellent film. While I see movies for their plot, excitement, and drama, I was originally drawn to renting "Wild Things" by its review that I saw in my local paper (The Ann Arbor News) a few years ago... I remember that it was singled out specifically for its "graphic sexual content and violence"... I will admit, yes, this is primarily what cause me to rent the film besides my interest in all three main actors= Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, and Matt Dillon. However, this was not just some "dark porn" as I expected but rather, a fantastic and "different" film that was very very interesting...

Basically, Campbell and Richards are two high school seniors who have an interesting three-some relationship with their high school guidance counselor, Matt Dillon. He appears to be quite the stud throughout the film and there is an attraction to him by nearly every female character that he seems to meet (especially Richards's mom). After sexual encounters with Richards and Campbell, Richards is convinced by her parents to accuse Dillon of rape as a way to extort money from him... Dillon has quite the spotlight on him from the media and other high-authority figures, as a rape accusation directed towards any high school faculty these days is sure to raise some eyebrows. In the end, Richards/Campbell are really not working against Dillon but rather, they are working with him to in fact extort money from Richards's mother.... What a surprise!

There is still conflict and tension between the trio of lovers from start to finish. The ending is quite shocking and unexpected but a great conclusion to this film noir classic... This film should definitely be seen and feel free to email me with any questions or comments...

Se7en (1995)

Wow... all I gotta say

[10/10 · 20 June 2005]

At first, I was a little hesitant about taking time out of my life to see Seven. I mean, I am a busy person... but this film was well worth my time... Perhaps the best Brad Pitt film that I have seen, this film involves two detectives (Pitt and Freeman) going after a delusional killer (Kevin Spacey) who murders his victims according to the seven deadly sins: gluttony, greed, lust, etc... Spacey takes pride in his killings and leaves clues for the police, similar to "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz when he murdered six women in New York City in the 1970's ("Summer of Sam"= another great film)... This was an intense thriller that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish...

Movies generally take a lot to keep me interested, and I am generally a fan of comedies and action flicks. But Seven was different.... it was a fantastic thriller that kept you thinking and waiting to see what happens as Pitt and Freeman chase down the barbaric killer who feels that he is doing "God's deed"... This film is a must-see!! My only regret is that I had did not see it until 10 years after its theatrical release... Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments...