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Reviews
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
A movie about getting too old in America
Even the most glamorous star in America, and powerful Presidents end up getting 'too old'. They drift into a world of impotence where the bathroom and meals become the high points of the day. An endless cycle of memories, real and imagined is the only way to cope with the inevitable process of deterioration.
And then, one day, a Mummy shows up. And life takes on a whole new meaning.
This is a unique movie. Keep an open mind and experience the many levels, including a flirtation with the absurd. The acting is superb.
Don't miss it.
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Entertaining but ultimately falls short
The acting was just horrible, in part perhaps because the characters were one dimensional stereotypes. No big deal, this was not that kind of a movie.
The plot had potential But the thing that ruined the potential for me was the lack of attention to detail. A good hard, science fiction work is allowed to stretch the facts for the sake of a plot. But c'mon folks, the remnants of the party re-emerge on the surface and it must be balmy. The heroine's hair isn't even blowing. She looks like she's dressed for a day's jaunt on a mild winter day in Ohio. This is Antarctica, and when they went down in the hole perhaps a day ago at most there was a raging storm. The ice had not melted and they needed an icebreaking ship to get to the island, remember? And the chopper ride to reach the ship was all dressed up as a death defying expedition into the maelstrom of all time.
Then we have a winch which pulls a trolley of sorts up and down the 30 degree grade in the tunnel. We are supposed to believe that this beats an explosion out of the hole, racing just ahead of it. The cables on the winch are shown reeling frantically, as if any such device could in the wildest of imaginations outrace the explosion. At the very least they could have dressed the device up, encasing it in high tech finery in a concession to achieving suspension of disbelief. But you have to see this thing to believe it -- it looks like a medieval well bucket mechanism.
Then the trolley flies out of the shaft, a few seconds ahead of the explosion (apparently the cables on the winch actually beat it). An enormous eruption of flame is followed by shots of our heroes running through town, apparently unphased by what must have been a rather bone jarring impact of the trolley on "terra" frozena after being shot out of the tube.
Oh well. If you go to have twitch fun, it's not all that bad. But it could have been a whole lot better. I suspect that 99% of the effort went into the pyramid, and there was simply nothing left for the rest of the movie.
Septem8er Tapes (2004)
Not perfect but overall an excellent film
The interactions, particularly in Kabul are outstanding. This is definitely an area that is new to almost everybody because the major media has ignored it. When the more main stream TV correspondents go out and interview, they have a ton of equipment and plenty of armed guards. This had a much more face to face with reality feel to it. Wherever parts of it were filmed and however it was done, it projected a sense of constant danger which I suspect comes far closer to the reality of the situation than many are ready to admit.
People who like to ask the question of "why haven't we caught Bin Laden?" ought to get a sense of what we are up against after seeing this movie. And have a lot more respect for our small unit special forces who have fought and lived in this environment for years now.
Who is friend? Who is foe? Who knows exactly what is going on? The whole point of the movie is that all this is not laid out as simply as most Hollywood productions. And that point ought to be well taken.
None of the characters were particularly likable (although the cameraman comes close). But I think that was part of the point. This was not Rambo, nor was it Mother Theresa goes to save the world. The environment overshadows the individuals. Get it? Finally as far as the rather far fetched plot (certainly the ending is a stretch -- I hope that's vague enough not to be a spoiler), it's almost incidental to what the rest of the film conveys. It would have been a rather short movie if it were realistic and all three protagonists were killed in the first five minutes of the film.
Le temps du loup (2003)
This one will cure insomnia
In theory I should have loved this movie, given that my favorite plot is that of a small group facing the challenge of survival as a result of a cataclysm. It didn't bother me that the causality was not established. And it started with a bang at the cabin, a shocking event that was treated in an offhanded manner that set the tone for what was to come.
The problem was, not much else ever came. I guess if you enjoy kids wiping bleeding noses who run off at the drop of a hat, and mothers who dote on such behavior it might pass the time. What that lil fella needed was a good hard smack across the buttocks for endangering the protagonists every time they turned around. In between all that we get to see horses butchered and some sex, including some gratuitous porno pictures flashed on the screen while a child is writing a letter to her deceased father.
Maybe this was an explanation of why France has proved itself utterly incapable of defending itself since the death of Napolean? Major barf alert.