Reviews

THANK YOU, thank you, thank you! This is the Batman I've been waiting over a decade for. Batman is back to being dark, but most importantly, Batman is back to being PLAUSIBLE! What made Batman a unique superhero to begin with was that there was no need for aliens, super powers, magic potions, cosmic radiation, whatever. Batman as a concept is easily the easiest to swallow out of all the major superheroes. Here was a guy who could actually live in our world and needed only great wealth and a dedication to his cause to make the hero a reality.

It was that plausibility that I felt was the most precious thing that a Batman film had to maintain. And especially since Batman Forever, the films have been pissing all over it, culminating in that crap fiesta Batman & Robin.

I for one didn't care if some of the Batman mythology details had to be changed, as long as it seemed believable. Nolan seemed to agree. We can finally swallow the Batsuit, Batmobile, Batcave, Batman's martial arts, Batgadgets, and Gotham City. The previous films shamelessly used Alfred to explain every unlikely thing, much in the same way religious people use God.

"Batman has a brand-new Batmobile! How? Alfred's a damn good mechanic! Batgirl wants to fight alongside Batman right this second but she has no form-fitting suit! That's OK, Alfred took the liberty! Alfred makes all the suits, cars, gadgets, and singlehandedly built the Batcave." Bull%$#@. Schumacher ran Batman into the ground, hopelessly mucking up the story. Nolan refused to pay for Schmucker's mistake and started with a blank slate. Good choice. Though truth be told, it was the only choice.

So now we FINALLY get the story on how Batman and his world came to be. And not only does that bring in the credibility, but it also puts the focus back on Batman!! Batman's been upstaged by the villain in all 4 previous films... and it's not that the bad guys this time around are somehow lamer, it's just that every previous movie has dealt with how and why THEY came to be instead of how BATMAN came to be. THEY were the ones undergoing the character arc while Batman was pretty much the good boy scout and the same character throughout all the movies.

Anyway, I could go on and on. But stop reading this, go watch the movie. Kudos, kudos, kudos.

Will Ferrel is a tool. Yes, Will. Not Jack Wyatt. Will Ferrel. Much like Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider, Will stars in another self-serving vehicle where he gets to spazz out and act like an obnoxious A-hole and then get paid a couple million dollars for it.

A handful of one-dimensional characters stuck in a four-dimensional film that drags on for two hours makes for a lot of time that you wished you could get back. Ferrel and Kidman's romantic involvement felt tacked on like a huge "Kick Me" sign on the back of this movie... and boy, do you ever feel like kicking the living &^%$ out of it. The only thing that felt more forced that the romance was Ferrel trying to make you laugh and instead making you wonder "what time is it?"

2 stars because at least Nicole didn't act like a tool.

Someone here wrote "The crucial word in all this is subtlety. The explosions of colour and sound that are used to portray Japan, are juxtaposed perfectly with the quiet, nervous, glances and words shared by the main actors. You can almost see what they are thinking, and read the confusion and turmoil that they are experiencing, at the same time as the pure pleasure and enjoyment of each other's company." Yeah, I didn't understand what they were talking about either. To me, it sounded a little like "The emperor's bright clothes are juxtaposed perfectly with his dark boots"...

If you like plot-driven movies, don't waste your time. It's just introspective images again and again and again. You may accuse me of being dull and having a short attention span, but it's quite the other way around: I quickly understood that the two characters feel alienated and disenchanted. I didn't need repetitive shots of Scarlett in the tub or looking out the window to get the point.

And after I got the point, I was looking forward to something actually happening with it. Surprise, nothing does. Instead, I get beaten over the head with the "We're so lonely, no one here understands us, but we understand each other" shtick. Not only is that horribly cliché, but it's nothing that I want to spend another 2 hours of my life watching.

And I willingly rented this thing... that's right, I didn't expect any car chases or explosions. I was hoping to get the story of two strangers connecting and at least attempting to solve their problems together to teach some kind of new lesson to me. But the only moral I got was "There are people you have fun with. Then they have to go away." Very profound, but I learned that when I graduated from high school. And yeah, I knew that "you can never get the perfect person" bit too.

Finally, Peter Travers, did you watch this movie high? That's the only explanation I can think of for your "Flat Out Hilarious!" comment branded on the back of the box. Okay, there were some chuckle moments. But I really must've missed the hilarious ones. I wish I could say I slept through them... that would have been less of a waste of time.

3 stars... all for Scarlett's performance.

Slow and boring; this film oddly sucked all the energy out of me. After the end, I felt like sitting in a tub for half an hour.

I guess the filmmakers had a genius idea: "I know! Let's forget dialogue and instead of having characters express themselves verbally in 2 seconds, let's convey the same information through silent animations that take 8 times longer! Bada-bing, now we have a feature-length film out of a 15-minute plot!" "-gasp-! But won't that make the film horribly long and boring?" "Nah, we'll give them beautiful animation to look at in the meantime and we'll rely on our lovable quirky Frenchness to fill out the rest!" The result is a film which painfully grinds on much like whatever-the-hell-the-bicyclists-were-pedaling at the end of the movie.

I don't know if it's my short American attention span or what, but movies have dialogue for a reason: to avoid long-ass drawn-out artsy student film style "character studies" where you see a person sigh and blink for half an hour. If you like movies where stuff happens, then don't bother with this one.

The script is 80% responsible for everything that's great in this movie. As much of action and sci-fi as this is, the driving force behind the film is really the characters. These are the kinds of characters you really give a damn about. You envision yourself in their place, you root for them, think with them, feel with them and that makes it all the more satisfying in the end.

This film is definitely worth a view, whoever you are, even if you've never thought of yourself as a sci-fi fan. To be honest, you'll be lucky if you can find this movie (even on VHS) at your local rental place, and the DVD is tough to get unless you go online. I spent 8 months trying to find it with no luck until I stopped by Best Buy and found the DVD in their discount aisle for $7. If you're lucky enough that your local movie store carries it for that amount, grab it. Take it, watch it, I doubt you'll regret your purchase.

If you're looking for a typical war movie, this is not it, so a note to all the testosterone-pumped carnage-craving war buffs out there, don't bother. Although the film is about Russian characters in WWII, don't expect to see any Nazis, cannons, blood, gore, etc. It's not a film about people who cause a war or who fight a war. It's a film about ordinary people who war happens to and the choices they make in dealing with it.

Acting, cinematography, writing: all perfect 10s here. You'll certainly appreciate it if you're Russian like me, but even if not, you'll probably love it. If you speak no Russian, look for the RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council) DVD version. It's got subtitles in about 14 different languages, but the English dubbing on this one I'd say is just as good. It's of course not as good as the original Russian track (some stuff is lost in translation), but just as good as the English subtitles. So go check it out, especially if you're studying film in any aspect.

First of all, I appreciate any art that makes the viewer want to think. That's one of the most stimulating things in movies... But whatever deep/intellectual psychobabble they crammed into this film was too much to even make out due to its jumbled nature, and the ideas that were actually presented in a clear and cohesive manner were nothing new; it's the kind of stuff I've been thinking about since I was 12 and have already reached all the "revelations" by 14...

Morpheus, the Architect, and the french guy in the middle all seem to have Thesauri up their asses because every line they pull out of there is chock full of words that you need an English degree from Dartmouth to understand. Sure, I can take out a dictionary and learn them, that's not hard to do. Sure, I can see the movie again and pause at every sentence just to process and think about the 7 ideas included and repeat the procedure for the next sentence. But that's not good filmmaking. You can make a great film that's entertaining but has no point, but you can't make a good film that's heavily thematic, but too jumbled to be entertaining. It's no wonder you find "Movies" in the "Entertainment" (rather than the "Science") section of the newspaper; a film must first entertain. Whether you do it with brainless slaughterfests or with a lecture by Stephen Hawking is irrelevant.

And that's where this sequel f***ed up. The hodgepodge of intellectual dialogue is discernible only when the movie is watched 600 times and the ideas are analyzed to shreds. And that's exactly what the Wachowski brothers are aiming for: a new wave of Matrix cult fans to peruse deep into the film and get excited every time they make another new connection. This, of course, was already done to death with the first film, in which Neo = The One, Morpheus = God of Dreams, Nebuchadnezzar = etc... Throwing in obvious religious and mythical references such as these may be "cool", but is hardly anything to base a movie on. And the twisting plotline only helps the film feel like scrambled eggs. But once again, the movie evokes interest only when reviewed a million times. Unfortunately, $8.50 was already too much for me to spend on it.

When you're confused while watching this movie, you may be tempted to wonder if Larry and Andy threw together an inkblot of a movie and left the interpretation up in the air for people to gaze at and see whatever it is they want. (Which is not a bad thing to do, but must provide some serious food for thought instead of empty fodder for cute little allegorical connections)

Another chief rule in film story: The audience has to give a damn about the characters. Who can honestly be concerned for the invicible and all-powerful Neo's welfare when there's 100 CGI Agent Smiths attacking a computized mockup of himself? The background beat makes virtually every fight sequence seem more like a peaceful and choreographed dance than a real and agonizing struggle. If Neo can kick anyone's ass, why waste 30 combined minutes of the film confirming what we already know?

The threat of Trinity dying was lame and unprovoking. Neo died in the last Matrix and came back to life seconds later. Same thing happened to Trinity. I assume it's Morpheus's turn in Revolutions. Just like in any typical war saga, it is only the minor and unimportant characters who ever die, and our knowledge of that heading into this film is barely shaken as it progresses.

I agree with those who hail the first Matrix as a smart classic. Though you can try and attribute its success to the intelligent plotline or deep messages, but first and foremost, it was just cool. You can't argue with that. It created its own universally recognized trademark, a lot like Batman or the Terminator, and that instantly struck a chord with audiences. And indeed, the dark shades/trenchcoat/guns look was instantly associated with the Matrix (How easily was it recognized in the Columbine incident?).

And yes, when I ventured to a Hot Topic shortly after the film opened, what did I see but a brand new array of black trenchcoats for sale, along with a display of new sunglasses? Face it, The Matrix is cool. People love the stylized image. And that was the first thing that contributed to the success of the orignal Matrix. Matrix 2 has a bit of these new images to offer (like the albino Rastafarians), but overall, shows us nothing else distinctive. Perhaps the film should've been titled "The Matrix: Regurgitated", as it reuses and intensifies old tactics but loses its creativeness and originality in the process.

Finally, one of the most painful things that a sequel can do to a viewer is to destroy their conceptions of the franchise's plotline. As we have previously seen, a successful and bright outlook at the end of MIB was completely trashed and destroyed in MIB2, creating its own unnessessarily harsh reality. A sequel should favorably continue and build on a story, rather than destroy or rearrange it with its own pitfall-like revelations.

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Miscellaneous: Morpeus's speech to the masses at Zion made him look less like the intelligent and sophisticated leader of the resistance in the first Matrix, and more like a hormonally-charged ape bellowing some patriotic mumbo-jumbo to his primate followers.

This, of course, was followed with a sex/rave scene that I didn't understand at all. "Oh s***, the machines are coming, we better f*** each other like animals so that we can repopulate the Earth when the machines blow Zion to hell!"? I figure this was thrown in for the horny teens (or maybe there just to secure the film an R rating so that the fans don't think the directors "wussed out" with a milder sequel, since there is little else in the movie that a PG-13 rating wouldn't easily cover). The crotch close-up of the woman at the restaurant was also pointless and arousing only to 13-year-olds...

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Watch the movie, but don't throw away theater ticket money... maybe go to a party where someone else has spent their money on renting the DVD and see for yourself why the second installment seems a bit flat.

This is a wonderfully done cartoon; every song is superb and catchy, highly recommended for those who don't even speak the language since every piece of dialogue is part of a song anyway, and you don't really have to know Russian to appreciate those.

Alright, I gotta admit: I went to DisneyWorld in March of 2002 to get a first-hand look/preview of this movie and I thought to myself "Well, I suppose after hacking through all the classics, Disney decides to go for something original, though that's what will make it outright stupid."

Then I saw it in theaters with family, and I gotta say, the only problem I had with it was that it was too short. Other than that, I'd say this one was a winner.

First off, Stitch is the cutest original character since I can remember. (Yea, I'm a heterosexual adult male saying this, but I'm giving credit where it's due.) Maybe it's the fact that he's not a typical cutesey teddy bear, but a bit of a punk in a Disneyfied version... but that's ok cause it still works. Example: Seeing him with the cape and bra at the end credits is both funny and an "awwww" moment.

Lilo comes off as a brat I'd love to smack upside the head a few times (and the way that Nani deals with her is great too)... but then you start to pretty much identify with her when Stitch comes along and all is well again. Dr Jumba and Pleakley are great characters and funny, not irritating (as some Disney comic reliefs are)...

The previews for the movie (that you can see on the DVD) are hilarious as well, and it's good to see that not all of Disney is so incredibly PC and sugar-coated... (Stitch steals Aladdin's girl: funniest thing I've seen from Disney in years)

And also, it's rather moving (at times) for a Disney movie, so all in all, seems like good fun for all ages as long as you give it a chance... Worth a purchase.

This was plain sad. This 25-minute long waste of time had virtually nothing to offer save for a few deleted scenes (more of which you can view on the BTTF trilogy DVD box set anyway) and some behind-the-scenes shots and quick interviews... all that takes up maybe 7 minutes max, and the rest is pathetically and annoyingly stretched out with spacefiller that includes dozens of clips from the three movies and the irritating teen host who reads and answers some of the most ridiculous letters "sent in" by fans (yaha, right)...

One of the questions reads "I haven't seen BTTF part 3 yet, but someone spilled the beans that Doc Brown falls in love! What kind of woman does it take to win Doc's heart?" And then, of course there's a load of clips and maybe 15 seconds worth of commentary from Mary Steenburgen, and bingo, another letter answered, another 8 minutes successfully filled up. If I was the host, I'd flip off whoever "wrote" the question and tell them to watch the damn trilogy and find out for themselves so that they don't have to ask such ridiculous questions.