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nateb88
Reviews
The Village (2004)
Oh, come on, it's not THAT bad...
I have some concessions to make. Yes, the twist was predictable. Yes, the ending did seem a little weak, but i do not regret paying for this movie. The first hour of the movie is highly entertaining as the villagers attempt to cope with the threat of the creatures. That in and of itself would have made an excellent movie. From there, it begins to slide a bit as the twist becomes almost painfully obvious. Fortunately, Night manages to salvage his reputation with an incredibly intense scene about an hour and a half into the film. Almost everyone in the theater was freaking out at that point. From there it spirals into what you knew was happening all along and ends on a semi-sentimental, where-do-we-go-from-here note that will probably make you groan. I thought it worth the money, but this is probably M. Night Shyamalan's weakest film to date.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Necessary? I think so.
It seems that every time I mention this movie to a friend of mine (especially one that isn't familiar with the gospels), they ask me if I thought all the violence was even necessary. My answer: I think it was. There have been too many films about Christ that seem to portray His flogging as sort of a "roughing up" before they nailed him to the cross so he could simply droop his head and slip into death.
One huge criticism of this movie is that we need to focus on the life and teaching of Jesus, not his gruesome death. To that, I give this reminder: without his passion, or suffering, his teachings mean absolutely nothing. In order to fulfill his claim that he was the Son of God and the only way to the Father, he had to pay the price for our sins. This is what Mel Gibson is trying to convey: the price that had to be paid.
Also, there was no point in this movie at which I caught any hint of anti-Semitism. Yes, the Jewish priests are portrayed as ruthless and unyielding over the crucifixion of Jesus, but for every one of them, there are at least two other Jews pleading for Jesus' life.However, if someone ALREADY is an anti-Semite, there may be some ground for them in this movie, but only by distorting the facts.
There are some things that you can always hear about, but sometimes you have to see them to fully comprehend them. The Passion of Jesus is one of them. There is no way to prove that it happened exactly as shown in the film, but it surely struck me as more realistic than any other version I have ever seen.
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1993)
Not quite up to snuff with the original
I'm not quite sure what I expected. After all, it was only 5 bucks. The plot feels almost identical to begin with. Jaffar shows up, kicks you out of the kingdom, and the princess will die within 75 minutes unless you save her. Mechner throws a new flavor in by taking you out of the kingdom and around the world (in 75 minutes?), but none of the gameplay feels right anymore. The animations seem to conform to the quicker, less detailed process rather than the smooth style of the original. You do, however, learn more of the prince's past and background; and there are some new, deadlier traps that give new challenge to fans of the original. Maybe Jordan Mechner fell victim to the same laziness that has plagued the Star Wars prequels.
Prince of Persia (1989)
This is what great games are made of.
This may very well be the game that set the tone for the gaming industry of the 1990s. Jordan Mechner takes a simple conflict (save the princess from Jaffar) and complicates the hell out of it. You start in a dungeon with virtually nothing (three life potions). The first level gets you your sword and your first taste of swordplay. Though it may seem somewhat linear to begin with, especially the first two levels, you will soon realize that this is much more than linear gameplay. The levels grow more and more vast, the guards increasingly skilled with the sword, and Mechner even manges to throw in the evil twin that always shows up when it is most inconvenient. The backgrounds and locals never grow boring or repetitive, and the final battle of the game is nothing other than epic. A real classic.