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UMass95
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BattleBots (2000)
Oh, I miss seeing stuff get destroyed
Why, Comedy Central, why? Battlebots rocked, but they've seen fit to do away with it. And just when they really started marketing the toys, too. It was good, clean, violent fun. But I'd like to address the comments by "TheUnholyArmpit." Battlebots is not a ripoff of the British show "Robot Wars." "Robot Wars" is a pseudo-intellectual contest between various mechanical creations. Battlebots is simply the televised version of an exhibition of fighting robots that started in the early '90s. Robot Wars was actually the first show of its kind, but they used American robots, as that's where it all started. Battlebots was created by the guys who first started the original competition, then brought their bots to Britain for that show. (Check amazon.com for the Official Battlebots book for more history and info). In fact, the first time I ever heard of the competition was back in the '90s, when CNN (I think) did a story on it. So, in a way, neither show is entirely original, or a ripoff of something else. Regardless, I still miss it.
Sliver (1993)
I'd rather have a sliver than see this mess again.
Good Lord, where to begin? The performances were wooden and unconvincing. Director Noyce - who wouldn't know subtlety if it hit him with a sledgehammer - tried way too hard to force suspense, and failed miserably. And that script. Hoo-boy.
Joe Eszterhas started his "Trilogy of Crap" with this horrendous dung-heap (The other two being "Showgirls" and "Burn, Hollywood, Burn"). So, I guess the best thing I can say about the script is that it isn't quite as bad as Showgirls. How's that for a back-handed compliment? And how about that ending? I fully expected to hear a rimshot after the line "Get a life."
Some movies are unintentionally hilarious. "Sliver" falls into that category, only it isn't funny. It's just painful. At least the title is appropriate.
Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
Gabba-Gabba Hey!
So bad, it's good! Totally cheesy low-budget camp - and those are the good points. Everyone at Vince Lombardi High School just LOVES The Ramones - except evil Principal Togar. One-dimensional teen rebellion punctuated by almost constant Ramones songs. Screw "Rocky Horror," THIS is a damn cult movie. But how could ANYONE find Joey Ramone attractive?
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Good, but not THAT good
I used to think "Dances With Wolves" was the most overrated movie of all time. It wasn't bad, per se, but it was certainly not deserving of its Best Picture Oscar (Should've been GoodFellas). The three hour+ movie can be summed up thusly: white man bad, red man good. OH, and the cinematography was gorgeous. And perhaps it is the cinematography that suckered so many into believing LOTR was so amazing. It works as a very effective commercial for New Zealand tourism. However, as a film, it breaks no new ground. Elijah Wood spends three hours looking like a deer caught in high beams. It gets annoying about 45 minutes in. Merry and Pippin, the two pointless sidekick hobbits, are the equivalent of Disney's stereotypical comic relief fuzzy sidekicks (see: Timon and Pumbaa (Lion King), Sebastian and Flounder (Little Mermaid), etc.) The battle scenes are fairly typical for the genre: overwhelming odds, poor shooting bad guys, perfectly accurate good guys, false alarm main character "death", dramatic actual death scene of semi-major character. I do realize it is simply part one of three, so I won't criticize the non-ending. However, I do not expect much more from the second installment.