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rogue_trooper
Reviews
Hostage (2005)
interesting..to a point
Initially this film looks as if it will be interesting. Following a wonderful title sequence that borrows from David Fincher's Panic Room (as do some of the interior action sequences) we are introduced to Bruce Willis' character Jeff Tally. On first glance he appears as some kind of burnt out hostage negotiator and the film is largely about him finding redemption for his past failings. Without wanting to give away the story, it centres around three poor kids who decide to steal a rich mans car from his house and end up taking the family hostage. Whilst we are initially sympathetic to their plight one of the young men soon reveals himself to be a psychopath and the film veers into psychological thriller territory. The rich guy is actually a mob accountant and as a result Bruce has his own family taken hostage in order that the mob can get their hands on a computer disc inside the house.
Unfortunately, as is par for the course with this kind of movie, there are too many narrative strands that don't really come together very well.The films is sluggish in parts and towards the end the director seems to just throw visuals at the audience that are ripped from other(better) movies. (the crow, for example) The films would have worked much better if it was a good deal simpler and focused on one thing or another. either choose to focus on Bruce's need for redemption, the mob need for the disc, or even the increasing frustrations of America's poor in the face of obscene wealth.don't do all three, at least not without developing the characters, all of whom(bruce included) we actually learn very little about.
in the uk this film has been hyped as a return to form for bruce willis("up there with his die hard masterworks"). Its not(i think Sin City may manage that tho). its just another bruce movie that is "down there amongst the likes of the jackal and mercury rising" i.e highly promising but ultimately cinematic filler.
It seems that quite a few IMDb users rate this film highly (and i guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion), but i thought it sucked and am at a loss as to what exactly people felt was so good about it.I can only assume that as it has been so long since a really good bruce willis film people are perhaps beginning to use wishful thinking in attempts to make glitter out of a turd.
Taxi (2004)
another bad remake
After sitting through countless remakes of good films recently i can barely review this tripe.cars aren't as good, comedy isn't as good, baddies much sexier, dialogue much worse.id rather drive round marseilles anytime. But if you like crap i guess you'll like this.
Queen Latifah proves once again that she cant act and jimmy fallon(never heard of him), whilst occasionally amusing wasn't enough to divert attention to the fact that this is just by the numbers lazy remake stuff.although the car chases are quite good they just don't have the 'edge' that European set movies of this kind have. stuff like ronin, the transporter,even condorman. please America, stop making this tosh(although Luc Besson isn't entirly blameless either).
now I'm off to shoot myself before they remake withnail and i.
King Arthur (2004)
utter rubbish
this movie is utter rubbish. it is nothing more than summer blockbuster pap which is okay but from a source as ripe for milking as
the assorted Arthur legends it is crap.I've nothing against historical epics but by dumping more traditional elements of king Arthur stories (magic, nobility, tragedy) this film attempts to be one and fails.
whilst going for the kiddie audience it sanitises what would (historiaclly of course) been truly horrific ways to fight and die. also at times with a few of the earlier parts where they are wandering through snowy mountains it is reminiscent of lord of the rings.
someone once said when it comes to printing either the truth or printing the legend;print the legend. shame no one was listening in this case. check out boormans' Excalibur for a real king Arthur movie.
Shrek 2 (2004)
genuinely funny but...
Shrek 2 has some genuinely funny moments but is a different kind of film to the first one. Whereas the first movie cleverly used characters from classic fairy tales, it ultimately weaved its own fairytale that can hold its own amongst the familiar stories it parodied.
Whilst much of Shrek 2 made me roar with laughter, and the animation is equally as good, if not better than the first movie, a lot of Shrek 2 comes across as watching shrek crossed with airplane or some other spoof. Way too many contemporary gags that will not stand the test of time largely to do with removing almost completely the European Gothic tradition of fairy tales and shifting it to the US of A.
Id happily watch it again but it just isn't the gem that the first one was.
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Film Genius
apart from the terrain which looks like yugoslavia,and is, this film is faultless.perhaps because, as a war movie there has never been anything like it. It offers up parallels to Vietnam, the hippy sixties, plenty of film reference, career best turns from savalas, and in my opinion , sutherland too.
good action, blackly funny as well as downright hilarious, and surprisingly informative in its depiction of a bureaucratic army, (it all relies on a breakdown in logistics and communication)and the sheer chaos of the western front in 1945 for both allied and American forces.
it doesn't pull its punches and it offers a refreshingly new film perspective on what life on the frontline is like, albeit filtered thru a post 1960's lens.
if your expecting saving private ryan(ie, occasional schmaltz and it lookin like a capa photo)you womt get it. in stead you'll get something that is wildly derivative but totally original. an, often action based ,war movie that didn't even have anything in the same class til Three Kings in 1999?, and even that falls way short of Kelly Heroes. Film Genius
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991)
what can you say?
there's not much to say that hasnt been said of this movie before on these message boards. Watch it, it is unbelievable. You will either love it to death (as i do), or hate it and wish you could have the 100 or so minutes of your life back.
The Fantastic Four (1994)
Good old Roger Corman
I saw this not so long ago on a dogy bootleg copy. Terrible special effects and dreadful acting.All in all, yet another corman classic. Worth watching for the scene where reed richards waves from his wedding limo at the end-what a long arm he has! Woderfully silly.
Get Carter (2000)
a truly dreadful film
I truly wanted this film to be good, but as i suspected it is terrible.The film manages to wimp out at every moment that made the Caine version so hard hitting, brutal and memorable. Kay has given many of the charcters a moral compass, and from what i can see, for no other reason than that the producers obviously think an American audience need clearly drawn boundaries between who is 'good' and who is 'bad'. Stallone's burgeoning relationship with his niece (she is definitely his neice, none of the ambiguity concerning the girl's parentage in this version)is perhaps one of the most ill advised plot developments ever written. One minute he hardly knows her, the next they are big buddies. He even gives up smoking for chrissakes! Stallone's Carter is a far more sensitive man that Caine's and ultimately this is what makes the film so pedestrian. He has gone back home more in an attempt to fix the broken pieces of his own life, rather than in search of vengeance. The porno movie elements lack the genuine unpleasantness of the original, the movie balks at any realistic violence in favour of a more dumbass hollywood approach where grown men can fight for twenty minutes without collapsing from exhaustion. and what is all this rubbish about 'taking things to the next level'? This may be abit of a hastily written review, but words cannot express how crap this film is, especially when viewed in the light of the superior original. Im no film purist, (i genuinely think Money Train is a good film) but even without the memory of Hodge's film, Get Carter 2000 fails to convince. Having said that, the beefed up score (though underused) is a treat, and the title sequence on the train at the beginning is great. There is perverse pleasure to be taken in how dreadful this whole movie is, but i've seen grittier episodes of Airwolf than this.