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Reviews
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Who in the **** edited this?
Wow! This movie has some excellent fight sequences. Whoever
was the fight choreographer deserves applause. Hip Hip Hooray. Wow! This movie has some horrible editing. Whoever was the
editor deserves to be shot. Now that I got your attention, 'cause the movie won't, I'll give you
the rundown. A) Decent script - good idea with interesting characters that
always seem to surprise. B) Fair directing - we're talking about Simon West here folks.
Remember Con Air? C) Cheesy Special Effects - cut scenes in the game were thrown
together faster and better than this. D) Horrendous use of blue screen - Horrendous use of blue
screen. E) BAD EDITING.
Let's face it people. This movie was rushed. It was actually a
pretty good idea. But as is obvious, the studio only put so much
money towards it. The production team knew that they could only
sell it with a big name because it's based on a game. So they
spent half the budget on Angelina. The other half, they had to
make sacrifices with. A bad editor, a bad effects team, and an
awful, cut-rate, film-school cinematographer. I was a film student myself and the shots in this film are what we
were told never to do! Ever! Bye.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Beats a day a Disneyland
I recently saw Terrence Malick's first film in 20 years and what can I say - unbelievable. We saw two war films come out in 1998, "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Thin Red Line". While most Americans were shocked by war yet fell in love with Spielberg's seemingly realistic approach to it, there were the select few, mainly filmmakers and critics, who saw something more special in Malick's film.
I was like most Americans, captivated by such beautiful yet gruesome depiction of WWII that I was not willing to agree that any movie could be better. I watched in awe during the opening sequence as young, confident soldiers took the beach with their skills only to be shot down as quickly as they stood up. When I watched "Private Ryan" for the second time, there was something missing. The war looked real in the film. The performances were great. So what was it? Character development.
I decided since I had lost my feelings for this "great" war film that I would check out the other war film of 1998. I was blown away. It had the feeling and emotion that I had only seen in one other film before - "All Quite on the Western Front." Terrence Malick created raw emotion or what I would like to call moving poetry. What kept people watching "Private Ryan" was the battles and how they looked through the viewer's eyes. But what kept people watching "Thin Red Line" was what went on through the soldier's eyes; what the soldier's felt in their hearts.
I can't quite explain the raw emotion which I felt because I felt different about the film that my friends did. We all liked it, but each and every one of us became attached to one or another character for different reasons. For anyone who reads this, who is looking to get touched, check out this film. It is slow at times, it's not an action film. What it is though is a perfect example of seeing into a soldier's psyche.
The Mosquito Coast (1986)
The King and the Cardinal
Peter Weir directs this film about a man, Allie, fed up with society who travels with his family to the Mosquito Coast to set up his own Utopia. In the tradition of the Conrad novel Heart of Darkness, Allie(Ford) becomes obsessed with the Utopia he has created a will not let anything or anyone stop him from his near perfect world. The person intent on stopping Allie from his "destruction of mankind" is the Rev. Spellgood, a missionary who plans on converting the "heathens" along the coast. Allie has his atheistic beliefs though and is not willing to left Rev. Spellgood interfere with anything that he does. For many people this movie was an absolute disgrace and according to my mother it was a complete attack at Christianity and GOD. But if you are willing to put religion aside to get a view from both sides of the fence then Mosquito Coast might have something to offer you. Insight.
The Corruptor (1999)
Not Bad, Not Great
First off let me say this. For the story that Chow Yun Fat was given he did a great job.
When I saw The Corrupter this afternoon, I expected to see another Chow Yun Fat movie with a decent storyline, decent camera shooting, and incredible action. What I got was a confusing storyline, one second attention span editing, and action scenes that burst out of nowhere.
The Corrupter made little sense at the beginning and spanned the course of four or five days in the first ten minutes.
Fans of Fat's previous work will be pleased but the directing style took away greatly from the well choreographed action scenes. 7.5
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999)
From Dusk Till Dawn 2? Is that how long I slept?
A friend of mine got me a copy of this movie and I must say I was psyched. Bad idea. The second I put it in, I saw what looked to me like a made for TV movie. Then a smile returned to my face when I saw Bruce Campbell. Once again the smile left my face when Tiffany Amber Thiessan begins screaming as Bruce gets his head bit off by obvious rubber bats.
Bored yet? I was. For a movie that had so much potential it lost it. The movie was loaded with horrible special effects, bad directing, a medium which looked like Digital made for TV, and bad acting on everbody's part. Was the director trying to spoof eighties camp horror flicks or is he really that stupid when it comes to scaring people?
There was only one pleasing thing about the movie and that was a great line said by Robert Patrick.
In short - if you just want to see Robert Patrick or Bruce Campbell, rent it. Actually, if you're a movie buff and you like to analyze all movies, see it. But if you are the average fair weather film goer - stay away.