Reviews

In a very dark and depressing world a father and son try to find and do some good in this world while they try to survive themselves and at the same time the father tries to teach his son the skills to survive.

While I liked the character study of the movie, I just wasn't intrigued by it. I think if there was at least some mention on what caused the apocalypse it could have taken my interest in the story even deeper. However that isn't what this movie was set out to do but I also think that's what lead to its problems.

Since this was a strictly character driven movie the performances had to be top-notch and they were from top to bottom.

As for the ending, I can sum it up in one world... blah.

P.S. Why is Guy Pearce being reduced to cameo roles these days? He's a good freakin' actor, use him!

While this is THE lone "bad ass" cop film that started it all within that genre, I was really impressed with cat and mouse game between Harry and Scorpio, it was methodical and well executed.

Direction was smooth and setup the next scenes well. Cinematography was great showing the many areas of San Francisco.

Clint Eastwood was great as Dirty Harry but a lot of credit also has to go to Andrew Robinson (from Deep Space 9 fame as Garak) who was fantastic as the psychotic Scorpio.

While the one shot kills with a .44 magnum were a little over the top and the music might seem a little dated, don't let it put you off to a great cop movie.

While I don't believe this movie should win best picture at this years Oscars (and neither should Avatar), I have to say this was a very well done movie.

George Clooney is brilliant in his performance. While some say he's that "cool guy" in every movie, he seems to be able to mold a character on to his personality very well.

Supporting actress Anna Kendrick shines bright in this movie, she does an amazing job in her role as Ryan's sidekick. This girl is gonna go places.

Jason Reitman does a fine job with his directing, it was fluid and clear between scenes.

My only gripe is the final act, it suddenly became a "romantic comedy" ending and while it was done well, I was expecting a somewhat different outcome or a different way in handling the ending.

A very raw look at the bomb disposal squad operating in Iraq. This movie puts you on the edge of your seat every time the bomb squad is sent in to disarm a bomb, you just don't know what the outcome will be. The other action scenes are fantastic, very genuine in my opinion.

The acting is strong with Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie sharing some very strong scenes together.

The flow of the movie is excellent thanks to good editing and Kathryn Bigelow set the war in Iraq perfectly as not a complete hellish war zone and not a walk in the park either, more like a "watch your back at all times no matter what you're doing" situation.

Bottom line, this is a VERY STRONG contender for best picture and best director.

A naive male prostitute and a low-down thief try to make it through New York City life.

This movie is quite raw for something filmed in 1969. The performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are the stuff of legends. Even though their characters are to be disliked naturally, you feel a huge sense of pity for them because it feels as though it isn't their fault that life is this way for them, but it's life's fault for making their lives the way it is. If they could just get one lucky break, they would stop doing all the rotten things that they do just to survive.

One scene I found that went on way too long was the crazy 60's party scene, although it established the tone for the time and NYC life (although some would probably argue that it's STILL this way).

Fantastic movie overall.

There are things I liked and disliked about this movie. What I liked was the action (love the kills) and original story with themes from human history, apartheid, segregation and suppression of a race being some of them.

What I disliked is this sudden fixation by film makers to use documentary style handicam movie making that's suddenly become the norm to make it feel more "real". It seems like every movie is done by Paul Greengrass. I'm really getting sick of it to be honest.

The villains were really unbelievable, I mean come on, the government and military heads suddenly think like Nazi's and don't have an ounce of human compassion? Their dialogue was cringe worthy.

It's an overall good watch, but didn't live up to the hype for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for CGI but not when it completely dominates the movie. Van Helsing utilized it way too much, from the buildings, to the characters, to the stunts, the environment, etc. It looked as though 90% of the movie was done completely on a computer. If you're going to use CG use it when you really have to, if it costs way too much to do the real deal or the model costs too much or you can make the image look very realistic (I know, it can't be perfect, but damn close to it is possible these days). LXG had this problem as well and it seems like the makers of Van Helsing didn't learn from LXG's mistakes.

The story, acting, cinematography were pretty good. Not amazing, but pretty good. Directing seemed kind of rushed to me as though Stephen Sommers just wanted to get to the next CGI scene or action scene.

The Mummy was an awesome movie. Absolutely fantastic and used CG when they had to, but a lot of camera, makeup and other tricks were used to bring out the world of early-20th century Egypt. Van Helsing didn't, and that was its downfall.

Final Rating: 7/10

I've watched parts of many episodes of this show (usually to check if SpongeBob SquarePants is on) and it is my humble opinion, that this show is the worst show in T.V. history.

Not one thing about this show is funny. From beginning to end this show is annoying as Courtney Love! The skits and spots are dumb and pointless. The repetitive recorded laughter that's continually put into the show at an annoying rate makes me want to go Postal!

Saying the acting is terrible is the understatement of a life time! It's just a bunch of slap happy kids and out-of-work acting adults. Sea Lions at Marine Land do a better performance then this cast.

I'm glad this show is canceled and hope that the re-runs move past 12AM because to put this on anytime before is robbing other great Nickelodeon shows their deserved air time. So the best thing to do is to not put this show on at all!

Avoid like a U.S. imposed terror threat area!

Final Rating: 0/10

A very shallow story compared to Tarantino standards. Although it could be possible that the story really picks up in Volume 2, so far from what I saw, the story is what it is with no twists (expect at one point), turns or serious story development, "4 assassins were sent by Bill to kill 'The Bride' and now she wants revenge."

However, that aside, this movie is one of the best movies of 2003 so far. The directing is superb (as always by Tarantino), the cinematography is jaw-dropping, the same can be said for the stunts and visual effects, the score is fantastic and the acting is top notch.

A note about the stunts and visual effects. Since very minimal CGI was used (and I mean minimal), it made the movie even better. Directors and producers should take a page out of this movie and cut down on the use of visual effects, because it can seriously kill the appeal of a movie such as The Matrix: Reloaded did. If you go back to movies in the early 90's when CGI was just coming of age, it made those movies appealing and even better then present day CGI overloaded movies because it was amazing to see what was done without the use of CGI, and you start thinking "how did they do that?" Examples; Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall, Batman, Back To The Future: Part 2, etc.

If you're a definite fan of the genre of old Hong Kong and Japanese action movies, go see this ASAP. If you love sword fights, watch this now. If you're a Tarantino fan, what the heck are you waiting for? If you want to watch something different for once in the action movie genre, this is it.

Final Rating: 9/10

Oh BTW, this movie DEFINITELY deserves it's "R" rating!

First Dude Where's My Brain and now this!

Yes, he's funny in That 70's Show because he's probably not aloud to improvise his own dialogue on that show.

But everytime he makes a big screen movie it ends up being the type of movie where you leave your brain at the door and after watching his movie, you forget to pick it up again on your way out!

I thought this movie had the chance of at least being a cute romantic flick, but everything about this movie was awful. Every joke in the movie is in the trailer and only one joke that wasn't in it was funny.

I bet everyone in that movie was stoned while working on it, including my friend who rented this trash.

The only thing I liked was Brittnay Murphey because she's so cuteeeeeee. THAT'S IT.

Avoid at all costs! Go watch The Matrix Reloaded or something. Sure that was bad, but this is WORSE!

Final Rating: 3/10 (and that's being generous)

This movie has it all. A great story, great acting, great directing, great dialogue, great action, great suspense... everything I could ever want in a movie. I have watched this movie countless times, and each time it seems to just get better and better for me.

James Cameron's higher-budgeted action/adventure, is a work of art. This series is his baby and he treated it like one, with great care and vision to make sure it matured well in later parts of the movie.

Arnold Schwarzenegger shows why he is the man to destroy box office records with memorable characters such as The Terminator (Series 800 Model 101).

With a strong supporting cast as well by Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong by his side, the chemistry between all these characters was like a well oiled machine (no pun intended).

To top it off, one of the scariest villains of all time is in this movie, Robert Patrick's T-1000. The near emotionless face of his actions is always a site to behold as his mission is always focused on one thing and one thing only. To kill John Conner.

The final aspect of this film which makes it so great is one of the most memorable scores in movie history composed by Brad Fiedel. The strength of the sound of the Terminator, the deep and scary theme of the T-1000 and of course, the opening theme itself. The score, is this movies soul and it definitely shows in this movie.

Although Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines was good, it lacked the soul and feel of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

The greatest movie of all time.

Final Rating: 10/10

Just came back from seeing Terminator 3 and I must say, this movie was fantastic. Great action, great story, great intensity, great acting and great ending. This movie is a must see and definitely worth the price of admission (or even if you're over charged). It definitely felt like a different Terminator movie. Overall very well done.

BUT. It was not as good as Terminator 2. The movie lacked a few things to make me say it was one of the best movies ever (as T2 is my favorite movie of all time). The biggest item it was missing was the depth of Terminator 1 and 2. It was missing a soul. The movie seemed REALLY fast, the first 30 minutes were paced very well and then it was sent into overdrive from there. Arnold's character of the T-101 was good, but come on, way too many funny lines and he's not as ruthless as he should be! My biggest complaint though is the music. PLEASE BRING BACK BRAD FIEDEL, I BEG YOU! Marco Beltrami's score, FLAT OUT SUCKED or WAS NON-EXISTENT! Who hired this goof?! The movie could have been EVEN BETTER if the score was good!

Mostow, you did a good job, but seriously you have to pace a movie a little better instead of one big rush like most of your movies are.

The car/crane chase was absolutely amazing... WOW. Bathroom fight was nuts. But I have to say the graveyard shoot out was WAY TOO SHORT.

Yes, it does seem like there are more cons then pros, but trust me, this is a great film and definitely worth the watch. If there is a Terminator 4, I can't wait for it.

Final Rating: 9/10

Again, PLEASE BRING BACK BRAD FIEDEL, I'M BEGGING YOU! I'M ON MY KNEES HERE!

The effects and fight scenes were great, no doubt, I don't need to get into that any further. It's what makes me give the movie my final rating.

My complaints are:

1) The dialogue, it's as though when this script was written the Bros. kept refering to a thesaurus just to make it sound "intelligent" when it doesn't have to (like the first one). I got the movie fine, but I was not impressed by the delivery.

2) There was also a slight overkill with the action, the first had a perfect blend of story and action.

3) Should have been more screen time for the virus twins.

4) The weapons suck in Reloaded compared to the first one.

It was good movie, but not great like I expected. It's worth the price of admission. I don't know if I want to "reload" this into my DVD collection though... will have to wait and see what Revolutions offers.

Final Rating: 8/10

This movie was supposed to be hardcore action, but I laughed out loud most of the time at how cheesey this movie was. Especially the part where Kaminsky puts on a tape of "I can't get no satisfaction" and goes around killing people while in his car and getting great shots on them, but they can't shoot him! And the one liners! CLASSIC! LOL!!!

Unless you're a hardcore Arnold Schwarzenegger fan (like me) or like 80's action flicks, watch this. Please don't come back and review it and say "It wasn't intellectually stimulating enough." CAUSE IT'S NOT SUPPOSE TO BE!

Final Rating: 6/10

Finally, John Travolta gets a role which fits him very well, a strong story to back it up and a great director to put it all together. Bravo to Connie Nielsen who is proving she can carry a movie on her own if she has to. Samuel L. Jackson was barely in the movie but it was cool everytime he was on screen. And the rest of the co-stars did a fine job as well.

The twists and turns were very well done and an interesting ending to top it off, not the best ending, but an interesting one. One complaint I have was that it was hard to understand the dialogue at times, but still got the jist of it.

Compared to the other non-oscar movies out right now, this is a great choice for a way to kill 98 minutes.

Recommended: 7/10

Honestly, I'm getting sick of tired of racially-black comedies. I was told that this one was "different." It didn't have all the cliches that every other racially-black comedy did. So I watched it.

Was a different? Not very much. 75% of it was still cliched. Now, if I review a movie based on that premise, I give it a 7/10. Compared to other comdies, 5/10.

One good thing is, they address the problems with the cliches. Which is why I gave this movie a normally higher rating then I think it deserved.

If you got nothing better to do, watch this movie. If you do, DO THAT INSTEAD by all means.

Just saw this movie and I have to say it was good, but it felt like it was missing something. Like the power or strength of the first Conan movie. It's hard to explain, it's something this director couldn't bring out. The first Conan was amazing, this movie felt like a sub-story in Conan's life, instead of a major story in his life.

Acting and effects were fine, although a little shallow from time to time from the supporting cast. Arnold as usual was great as Conan. I just can't wait for the 3rd installment of this movie.

7/10

I'm usually a positive reviewer. Given a movie the benefit of the doubt usually. But my goodness, Jurrasic Park 2 is awful, story wise. Special effects, acting and suspense was good. But story seemed to be written by a 3 year old who did it for "Creative Writing" class.

If you're a fan of the first JP, get ready to be dissapointed. If you've never seen it, DON'T! Just skip to the 3rd one which is much much better this this pile of T-Rex dung.

5/10 (and that's being generous)

What a ride this movie was. This movie takes no time getting to the point. The action picks up right from the first 2 minutes of the movie and it just doesn't stop until the movie is over.

The combo of Willis & Jackson was a beautiful one. They played off each other very well and left some very memorable quotes in the process. Jeremy Iron did a damn good job as they villain of the movie.

This movie was just as intense, funny and exciting as the first one. A must see for any action fan. See this movie at once if you haven't yet!

10/10

My personal favorite action movie of all time, as well as favorite movie of all time is, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This however, ranks right up there with the greats.

What's great about this movie is that it's not just another shoot-em-up, load it with pyro action movie... ok well it is, BUT, it's a very SMART shoot-em-up, load it with pyro action movie. As you watch this movie you definitely feel McClane frustration and pain. It shows that Bruce Willis is not a dumb-ass when it comes to portraying a character very well.

This movie also proves why John McTiernan is one of the best action movie directors in Hollywood (other than Rollerball of coarse). I heard there's gonna be a Die Hard 4... now THAT is something I'm definitely looking forward to.

Final Rating: 10/10

Dear god the accents were bad in this movie. I have never seen such bad Russian accents in any other movie. Hell, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a better job in Red Heat! I could hear right through the accents and pick up the "American" in them. LOL

Other then that element, I'm at a lose on why this movie flopped at the box office? It's a very solid movie. Better than U-571, although it focused more on the action of the movie. Director Kathryn Bigelow shows that she is a very skilled director who is able to capture the suspense and emotion very well.

Definitely a good movie to see, 8.5/10.

This movie kept me on the edge of my seat the first time I saw it and I still like this movie just as much today. This is an action thriller that definitely comes out big with the pay off. If you're an action fan PERIOD, watch this movie.

The only complaint I have, is the acting. Other than Hopper, Bullock, Morton, Daniels and (yes I'll let him slide) Reeves, the acting was beyond dismal. I'm talking mainly about the hostages. My god, who casted these cardboard cutouts? Especially the guy who says, "Yeah, a bomb, some joke" or something like that... my god if I was the director, I would slap the sh*t out of the guy until he got it right or fire his ass and rather cast MYSELF!

Other then that minor detail... 9/10.

I initially saw this movie to see what Jonathan Mostow could do with a big budget movie, since he is directing Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines.

After watching Breakdown I knew he could capture the audience members in suspense. And after watching U-571, I know he can do action sequences very well.

One thing that seemed to be flawed though, was the pacing of the movie. Certain parts seemed to drag, certain parts seemed rush and overall, it felt like, I knew 2 hours have pasted, but in the movie made me feel like everything took place in 30 minutes.

Overall, throughly entertaining and now have no doubt, Mostow has the talent to make a very entertaining movie, but can he capture the emotion, pace and heart of The Terminator series? On July 2, 2003 we will find out if Mostow will pass the ultimate test of his career.

8/10

Straight to the point, I watched it and I like it. Isn't that the point? It certainly wasn't Star Wars (Episode 4), but it was certainly not a "Red Planet".

Given that the story felt childish and predictable but this movie still kept my attention.

The pod race and the final battle sequences were amazing, the sound was awesome and so were the special effects.

On to Episode 2. For anyone who's always wanted to see Star Wars and never got around to it, best thing is to start with Star Wars (Episode 4) and then go back to Episode 1 so you don't get disappointed with Episode 1 and not watch the rest of the series. 8/10