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TheRedGen
Reviews
Hoodwinked! (2005)
Surprising yet slightly disappointing
I had no clue what I was walking into, yesterday night, but I knew it wasn't Disney so I might have had high expectations. Might have, because I'm not all too sure of they were all that high. (try to follow my logic :p) Anywho, I bought the ticket (took the ride) and the film started with a bang! Action, Desire, .. well, no desire but a lot of action. What started as Lil red riding hood, quickly turned into a crime mystery, with a nice climax. Spiked with great jokes and a witty explanation after wards. The first flashback had some weird inconsistencies and some typical cartoon weirdness, It was Extremely nice to (finally) see all those "coincidences" and weird events explained in the later flashbacks! Genius in its detail and simplicity!
But.. there s always a but :( Some of the jokes weren't THAT great. I had moments of Crazy Uncontrolled Laughter; but other moments.. the jokes just really missed their point! I got them, but they weren't funny enough to actually laugh at. I did have the feeling that If I had been 14 something I would have LOVED it all! .. And, The graphics weren't all that impressive. Having seen Ice Age recently, I was not awed. On the other hand, I didn't mind it all that much and after the first minutes, I was just watching the story instead of the graphics!
In the end, It was a great movie! Weird stuff happened, Some parts could have been a lot better. If it had been longer it would probably have bored, but since it wasn't, thats not an issue, is it. The story was very complete, surprising and it made me laugh. I left a happy man!
Doom (2005)
There s only 1 thing I expected from Doom..
Doom is originally a Computer game.
When anyone says doom, I think about pixels, green barrels of ooze standing around, those weird brownish monsters and a shotgun. Yeah, the opening scene of the first Doom game. Next thing I remember is the ending of the second Doom game. Big flying tomatoes with teeth, out to get you and an infinite amount of monsters, spawning every few seconds. A huge room with some weird huge stairs and .. Yeah, the last level.. Then there s also a twinge of Quake. The start of the original quake.. a hand gun and some fallen down walls.
The only thing I expected from this movie was that it d be true to the Doom concept. I at least expected that Doom monster, the Doom 2 tomato, ..
What did we get. It felt like a zombie film. The classical story of experiment gone wrong, everyone dead and trying to get at the living. Doom felt like a recycling of a Resident Evil scenario. Yet it deserves so much more! There were monsters in it, alright. And yes, I admit, they were doom monsters. But only from Doom 3! Why do I care? I grew up with this. If I think Doom, I think the aforementioned. Fair enough I d come to expect some of that stuff. Yet they chose to only incorporate Doom 3. Its sad, its a missed opportunity.
And that quite sums this movie! A missed opportunity. They could get away with a lot, making a Doom movie. All we expected was a Gore fest in the world of Doom. Yet they weren't even able to live up to that. And We would still be forgiving if they d have made a movie based upon Doom with a Good scenario. But even that is crap.
Oh.. & the end sequence, where you get the standard gun in hands view.. That was just cheap! (I like the idea tough.. but .. not after that heap of crap!)
So no respect for the Doom universe AND a crappy scenario? Doom fully deserves the 2 I'm rating it.
Flightplan (2005)
Quite the surprise!
Spoilers!! DO NOT read this if you have Not seen the movie yet!
When I looked this up in IMDb & after seeing the trailers, I expected a cheap thriller, horror movie. I was ready for the whole can of effects, the incredible amount of empty flashes that make you jittery and scared for Nothing. The effect they can put on the Teletubbies to make it look like a Gore movie.
Imagine my surprise when it went weird.. turned into pure paranoia and psychosis but not a hint of horror, or monsters, or ghosts or .. And then she sees the lil heart, decides her daughter should indeed still be alive & not dead as everyone around her tells her.. and she goes on the look again. Now, after seeing all those movies where indeed the woman was just mad and disturbed and everyone around her was right indeed.. you finally believe that this is indeed the fact. She s mad and thats it. And now she goes even more berserk .. Oh My, She IS a nut-case!
But thats not the fact, no, when you thought you had it all figured out, after the first plot change, .. it seems it has a mundane, worldly explanation after all. Followed by a great fight against her enemy, blowing up the plane and saving her kid in the end.
Proving to everyone her child Does exist and even that she was simply kidnapped and that she s not mad and just the victim in the end and .. and .. and .....
Yeah, its quite incredible! Nice & surprising movie :)
Predator 2 (1990)
Back in time
Although its quite unbelievable, it took me 16 years before I watched my first real predator movie. I haven't seen the first one yet and I wont count "Alien vs Predator", so .. 16 years of ignorance.. Not bad, isn't it :)
I was positively surprised! I had expected a train wreck as I'm getting used to in these modern action / scifi / horror films, but I didn't take into account that it was made at the end of the 80s. Danny Glover was a nice and really unexpected surprise, the whole thing was ..! I guess I really expected a stereotype Action Hero (Arny, whoever) Great!
No cheap effects and tricks to get you scared (type of "The Ring" - not ringu mind you) but a plain action movie. Man VS smart Alien. Don't think too much, but if you really want to think a little, you wont poke trough the background as you would trough a wet piece of paper. Its fresh, these days.
So! A grand Hell Yeah for this one! Why don't they make stuff like this anymore in Hollywood today?
Ooh & gotta love the huge Alien skull (talking about the Alien, Aliens, .. monster here) on the thropy wall in the end.
Head in the Clouds (2004)
A real surprise!
Yes, I did just rank this movie at a 9. This is an Unusual high rank by my standards, yet I do think this one deserves it.
A movie that portrays the life of 2 young people and a lot of others surrounding them. World war 2 is coming at the start and ends with the movie. A romantic setting. This movie is classified as Drama, Romance, War and it really had me scared when I put it on. I'm not the type for those things apart, let alone compressed together in about two hours.
I was surprised. Very pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a thrilling life story, filled with Eros (I should have known when I saw the R rating..) and adventure. It didn't fall into the usual overly sweet scenes that leave you with a sugar mouth no water can ever remedy. Instead it kept up a flirtatious pace all along, with dramatic events to eventually come to the bittersweet picture this turned out to be. Another part I cant deny loving was the end. I wont say anything more about it, but it was a good end to the movie. And I'll leave it at that :)
I never realized that Charlize Theron was that attractive and the team with Penelope Cruz (forgive me any mistakes in spelling or names) was a match made in heaven. No complaints about Stuart Townsend either. ... This is beginning to sound a bit too positive but .. Yeah, well, I'm not going to look for negative stuff just to have it in.
In the end, this movie left me with a feeling I like. Not the typical heart-bleed I get from those Sugarbom Romantic flicks, and not the sad feeling a drama usually burdens me with either. A pleasant feeling. (pleasant doesn't mean happy mind you) It has me missing my girlfriend although she s only gone for the day. And gives me an ever stronger feeling that I love her than I usually have. This movie really did give me a Pleasant feeling! :) maybe bittersweet is the exact description for it.
Anyhow, i'm really glad I saw this one and it deserves a Nine. well, in my humble opinion it does :)
Transporter 2 (2005)
I expected more out of a "Transporter" sequel
Lets start of with saying I loved the first transporter movie. It was interesting, kept me watching, had some variation in it, .. It was a great movie!
And of course I expected nothing less of the sequel. It was easy, all they had to do was stick to their formula. I can only guess that someone important to the first script killed himself, thus leaving his legacy to be screwed over by some ignorant *generic insult here* responsible for writing every Hollywood action movie. (pardon my choice of words.)
Transporter 2 starts with one assignment and that one assignment is what the rest of the movie is about. Like any action hero, he becomes the underdog, tracks down his enemy and succeeds wonderfully in his attempts. Lots of car stunts (some slightly over the top.. The one with the crane really lacks credibility) and lots of fighting. The later made me realize that these days, dance oriented movies still exist. A new and updated version that is! The dances are made to appear like "Fights to the Death" but in the end, its still a dance. And usually I can live with that.. But this was again just ever so slightly over the top. The whole fire hose scene for example! A sequel wouldn't be a sequel if it didn't involve parts of the first movie. And this is a sequel! He drives .. cars .. and its the same person driving .. ... OK, this might appear a bit thin to really call it a sequel! ... So they poured in another character (more of a caricature to be honest) from the first movie & there we go :) We have a sequel. And this time.. he s in Miami!! Exciting isn't it! well, no! Its where any action movie happens these days! I was happy at the time of Transporter (one) to see an action movie set in France, inundated in French culture, that was new. But thats one of the aspects they decided to change in the sequel. Why move to Miami? It seems quite simple to me.. I'd guess to appeal to the general American public. I hope it worked! I was disappointed anyway. The story lacked the twists the first one had and the whole plot engine .. was OK, but not genius, or fresh for that matter.
In the end, I'm not saying that "The Transporter 2" is a bad movie.. Its just that I had expected A Lot more. Maybe its right to say they just "sold out"!
Blast (2004)
It feels like a recycling of all die hard movies combined with some segal flicks
It feels like a recycling of all "die hard" movies combined with some segal flicks! of course they cant get away with that so they put in a kid.. This way they could add a family drama type background and an angsty fireman. All they needed more was a hint of sex.. Which they clumsily poured in at the end! The movie runs like a train! Which is undeniably good, the problem is the background. You shouldn't think too much, actually I advise against thinking at all. You need to accept a lot of facts. One of the harder ones is a fireman who in the end turns out to be a near superman! I also have to admit.. the whole plot really doesn't get me worried about who wins! I really didn't care enough! Or any of my friends.
Its a nice no brainer, but don't spoil too much money on it!