g-furr Reviews

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

Worth Seeing

[9/10 · 24 September 2004]

I appreciated what they were trying to accomplish. The robots were realistic, The action was fairly continuous and the characters were good enough to care about. You never doubted that there would be a good ending. Movies in the 30's nearly always did so. I think the goal was to let us see what the people in 1939 thought the future might look like in 1949, through a comic book on film. If you watch it with that in mind and not try to compare it to "I, Robot" or "Riddick" it might make more sense.

I enjoyed the relationship between Law and Paltrow. This was again very reminiscent of golden age movies, with their banter and teasing. They did a fine job. I appreciated that the language was clean and the manners were curteous. I'm glad the film did not attempt to force 2004 behavior onto the characters; they kept to the period (at least as we remember it).

The Alamo (2004)

Maybe I'm Getting Old, But I Enjoyed This

[9/10 · 24 April 2004]

I cannot understand why this movie is being panned and rated down. The acting is so well done without being overdone (as is the case in so many movies these days). Billy Bob Thornton as David Crockett was phenomenal. He portrayed Crockett just as I imagined the man probably was, a somewhat unwilling legend who is not really where he wants to be but who nonetheless does what he can to help a bad situation. His story about a battle with Creek Indians that he participated in as a youth is riveting.

Santa Ana is a true despot, in love with himself and his glory, even considering his own soldiers chickens to be slaughtered. The Texians were portrayed as very human: selfish, greedy, violent, but capable of great heroism and sacrifice. The Mexicans were appropriately shown as brave capable soldiers, on both sides of the battle. I feared there might be political revisionism at work, but overall I think the attitudes and words of the participants were probably pretty accurate reflections of the times. I never had any illusions that the Texians were saints.

As promised, the set is outstanding. The battle scenes are very realistic. Gunfire is heard less sporadically than you would expect in a modern battle because it took so long to load for one shot. It takes a while for the plot to get to the battle, but the tension builds quite well. The pacing was very effective as the doomed men in the Alamo slowly came to realize there would be no escape. The director did a good job of drawing me into understanding that feeling of hopelessness.

I guess people don't go to see movies unless they contain exploding helicopters, massive CG created armies in battle and funny characters who do things that are not believable. It's too bad people can't watch two hours of well acted staging of a historical event that includes some good dialogue. I guess today's movie goers have an attention span for conversation of about 30 seconds.

The one negative was the ending which crammed the month long retreat of Sam Houston and his eventual victory at San Jacinto into about 20 minutes. It was somewhat anti-climactic after what happened at the Alamo. I know that needed to be shown because it is also part of the story, but it just seemed a little out of synch after the breath taking drama in San Antonio.

I recommend this movie to all.

Walking Tall (2004)

Let Down

[3/10 · 9 April 2004]

The first half was promising. They did a good job of building up the Rock as a man of integrity amidst a sea of moral sewage in his hometown. He has a likable family. He has good friends. It really made me lok forward to what I knew would happen-- he would be beaten senseless, exact a measure of painful revenge on his enemies, and go about cleaning up the place and setting things aright. My expectations were high.

But then he becomes sherriff. It must be something about the office because his moral compass turns out to be just as screwed up as everyone else's. He hires a felon as a deputy (against the law), sleeps with his girlfriend in the office (seems he didn't mind her being a stripper as long as she put on her show for him at the jail). He tramples people's rights, plants evidence on suspects, intimidates through physical violence, etc. Sure he was trying to clean the place up but I was hoping that, with an appropriate measure of butt-kicking when needed, he would overcome evil with good. But he only knew how to fight evil with more evil.

The whole back half seemed to be rushed and almost unplanned as events hurled toward the inevitable winner take all clash with the bad guy. The Rock put on a good performance as did most of the other actors but the script and directing were awful after the mid-point of the movie. I gave it a 3.

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

Stunning

[10/10 · 28 February 2004]

This movie was so stunning that I find myself thinking about it 3 days later. I felt like I was in the crowd. The acting was so realistic. Cavaziel gave the best portrayal of Jesus I've seen.

The Roman soldiers were positively frightening. During the scourging scenes you could hear everyone in the audience gasping. It was that horrible to watch. It's so scary to see what is being done and realize that humans are capable of doing such things.

I thought the subtitles would be a distraction but the use of Aramaic and Latin gave it a true feeling of "another time and place". The final scene makes the entire 2 hours worth while.