flatworlder Reviews

Independence Day (1996)

Fun to watch

[9/10 · 30 August 2007]

I don't care who you are or how much you hate America, you've got to love this movie.

The effects are still good, even eleven years later, the actors all pull through to do their roles to create a movie that is better than the sum of its parts. The scenes are well paced, even if the scale is a bit lost.

All of those things that make an average drama bad help to make the sci-fi good. When I want to watch a movie about aliens invading and destroying everything, thats what I want to see. The convenient coincidences, the pathetic love stories and typical characters don't' matter too much.

It seems that internationally this movie isn't very well appreciated, "the gun-ho Americans at it again" or some such talk. To that I say, whatever.

Military and government inacurracies aside, small plot holes and loose ends taken for granted, I watch movies to be entertained, Independence Day still delivers, eleven years later.

Wrong Turn (I) (2003)

Wrong Turn in a nutshell

[7/10 · 9 May 2006]

There was once a slasher film, we like to call it Scream, that was the end of all slasher films. Scream set a "new bar" that made slasher movies "funny" and "sexy" and "quotable" Well, this slasher film was the death of all modern slasher films until...Wrong Turn.

Wrong turn is a lost script from the seventies in many ways. First, the lack of sex. Second, the lack of humor. And Third, its in the woods. (well, a lot of horror flicks are in the woods) In Wrong Turn, a few sexy characters are stranded in the middle of the woods. They are soon hunted down in a predictable fashion by cannibalistic, uber ugly inbreds. (Which is a very bad joke pointed at West Virginia) In every new scene, one young adult is going to die. However, the scenes are fresh. Sure, we've seen a lot of sadistic houses in our movie going lives, but the way the house scene unravels is grade A. What we haven't seen is the junkyard, which shows just how many people have been killed, the watch tower and the tree tops.

I would have given this movie a 10 out of 10 for sheer slasher relief, but the last 15 seconds of the movie (which come after a few credits role) was so cliché that I had to knock it down 3 whole points.

And as an "oh by the way" the three women were absolutely gorgeous.

The Pink Panther (2006)

Love it or Leave It

[10/10 · 25 February 2006]

From what I can tell, this movie is a love it or hate it affair. Personally, I loved it. This is the best slap-stick since Dumb and Dumber. Everything is so over-the-top that you just have to laugh. Steve Martin is at his best; personally, I think this is Steve's best movie since The Three Amigos. All of the acting in this movie is spot on and the jokes are hilarious. It follows what I believe to be a good formula for a comedy: First 20 minutes-non stop jokes-next hour-plot and fewer jokes, less slapstick, better setup-last 20 minutes-more non stop laughs and unexpected resolution.

Watch this movie, laugh at it, laugh with it, whatever.

I love it...My neighbor hates it(not the same as the original)...But I love it.

Spies Like Us (1985)

Straight Up Silly

[9/10 · 25 February 2006]

I bought the DVD of this movie for six dollars. Best deal on a movie I've ever seen. Having been raised in the 90's I missed out on many of those fantastic 80's films. Dan and Chevy really make the movie work. Very few actors could have taken a movie with as little plot as Spies Like Us and turned into a funny soup bowl full of laughs. One more thing, perhaps the funniest scene in any movie happens early on. Where Chevy Chase is cheating on the test...Priceless. If you like over-the-top government action, with hilarious scenes and horrible attempts to hit on beautiful women. You'll love this movie.

If not...Then you need to take a moment to look at your life, relax, and just enjoy something every once in a while.

Four Brothers (2005)

FANTASTIC, this movie is one of the best of 2005

[10/10 · 25 November 2005]

In a year with movies such as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Star Wars episode III, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and War of the Worlds the best movie I watched was Four Brothers. The movie was an emotional roller-coaster from beginning to end.

I have almost no qualms about this movie. Great action sequences, an awesome chase scene, laughter, tragedy, and a truly despicable villain. How can you go wrong? Throughout the whole movie, I was trying to put it down, "How could a movie keep this up? It is gong to slow down" were thoughts that coursed through my mind whenever there was a slower section. Of which the dips in action were all well timed and weren't frivolous.

All four brothers, a few villains, and the cops were all well developed characters. Where most movies have trouble developing two or three characters, this movie managed to develop nine characters by my count.

I write this review several months after I saw the movie in theater, and I am anticipating the DVD. Which I will happily spend twenty dollars on.

Doom (2005)

Fantastic Action Movie, Doom Feel, Not the DOOM I hoped for

[9/10 · 26 October 2005]

Doom, for what it was, was the best action movie I've seen since (ironically) The Rock, (the one with Nicholas Cage) The movie had almost perfect pacing, It didn't move so fast that you got lost, but it didn't move so slow that you got bored. The Marines put up a good fight and actually stood a chance. For example, the fight between Destroyer and the original monster was good and he almost defeated him, I mean he kicked the monster's ass, but fell just short. The movie looked great, so great in fact I wouldn't recommend younger kids or people with weak stomachs to see the chunks of gore that fill this movie. The Characters were all characters, none of them were boring and if they survived long enough, you could grow to love them. Then feel the agony as one of the boys dies. The developments of Sarge and Grimm were particularly well done.

The Movie had a Doom feel with the high technology, dark corners and cramped corridors. Though it deviated from the original plot quite a bit, I think they have it set up so a sequel could perfectly capture the release of Hell's Demons. What with Karl Urban prepared to be the super marine the gamer plays in the games.

Some things that I would have done differently would be to save the room full of people, (not having Sarge kill them) and have the black dude live (and instead have the crazy white guy get pulled through the grate). Breaking the horror film mold of having only one or two survivors at the end.

Overall this was a great movie and should be what action/horror films attempt to match, though a few things could have been more innovative towards the end...it was a great movie.

By The Way, Ebert and Roeper have no idea what they are talking about, the FPS scene was fantastic.