jinjaninja Reviews

The Big Red One (1980)

An Awful War Film

[23 August 2004]

Ok, saw this the other day, comments:

Lee Marvin is a Sgt. in ww1, then he's a Sgt. in ww2, what a progression in those 20 odd years. The 'german' tanks are american late war ones painted differently. Some things are just stupid: The over-use of knives (Knives were a very ww1 thing by then), crummy death sequences, a guys friend just blowing him away over a disagreement, the overblown 'bangalore relay' sequence, which is totally inaccurate and stupid, more knives, the annoying characters, Griff's first kill in the oven (Wow, it's almost interesting, no, wait, it isnt), the Sgt. taking pot shots at Griff to get him to move, knives galore. Lee Marvin always looks about 80 years old as well, way too old to be a typical Sgt.

This is worse than 'Battle of the Bulge'. It's a complete waste of time and money.

Watch 'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Full Metal Jacket' instead to learn about surviving (ie: dont get shot).

ZERO stars out of TEN

Windtalkers (2002)

A bit 'too woo' in places, but..

[3 March 2004]

I have to admit, I am a WW2 buff, but I really enjoyed windtalkers. I think it told the story of Enders and his small band of Marines well, even if it was fictional, I enjoyed the characters and their differences. If there were a directors cut that I could make then here are the pieces I would edit out:

A 16-inch naval shell makes a smaller explosion than a 60mm bazooka rocket. The rocket actually flies far enough to wipe out a platoon of japs. A grenade makes a big enough explosion to wipe out a block of flats. There are just too many big fiery explosions to mention, and with a few exceptions, they should all go to the cutting room floor.

But, the effort put into the film was amazing, the sheer amount of material used, and the scope, made it good enough for a 3/5 mark. Let's just hope that directors cut(Or more accurately, my cut) makes it out!

Peter Pan (2003)

Well at least they tried....SPOILERS

[1/10 · 25 February 2004]

Honestly, in retrospect I did not like this movie. As someone that was brought up with 'Hook' and the original Peter Pan, I am of course biased. I was led to believe that Neverland was actually a real-world place, like 'Hogwarts Castle' in Harry Potter. This film starts out ok, with decent enough special effects, but what really put me off was the invention of 'the kiss' in Wendy's and her mum's mouth. What the heck are they talking about? And the way that Peter Pan is 'linked' with Neverland. He even states in this film that he ran away, and came to Neverland, and thereafter became the leader of the lost boys. The events in this film also act very strangely. At one point, Hook just up and kills a fairy, but since the fairy had no name in the script it doesnt seem to matter. Not really child's film material. Near the climax, Hook starts slaughtering his own crew (Perhaps to tell us YET AGAIN that he is a 'bad guy' - Which is obvious) and as he is splattering the crew's brains across the deck, the children sitting next to them seem completely unperturbed and the next minute are smiling and merry, as if nothing had happened. I said the special effects in the film started out well, and they do, before the Darling children take off through space (As it seems now that the 'second star to the right and straight on till morning' is no longer a portal or key that opens neverland, it is an actual journey, taking away some of the 'real place' effect) they sail past planets that do not exist and also make their orbits about 2 inches away from each other. The only thing that really appealed to me was the 'Long Tom' cannon, as it showed that Hook wasn't really all that bad as he tries to kill the Children with it. Overall: 2/10

School of Rock (2003)

Rocks!

[8 February 2004]

I just came back from seeing this movie and I have to say it ROCKS! Jack Black was great, the kids were great, the songs were great, and the ending, though you knew exactly what was going to happen, was great.

I highly recommend this to families with kids aged 5-50.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Spearhead (2003 Video Game)

Mistakes

[4 May 2003]

There are a number of mistakes in this game: 1. The British did not paratroop with the Americans on D-day.

2. The allied soldiers in the winter levels are rangers, not airborne.

3. What the hell is he doing in Berlin? However I felt that the game overcame these, and was very enjoyable to play.