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Phaedrus-8
Reviews
Age of Treason (1993)
The Roman Empire Revisited
This is a bit of an oddball of a movie. It is highly entertaining and it seems to have some very good and original ideas, but it is a bit messy in it's execution. The movie gives a highly detailed view of ancient Rome. Just like series such as Hercules and Xena, this movie transposes thoroughly modern plots and characters on a historical setting, thus sacrificing historical accuracy. Though I've to say that unlike Hercules and Xena, this is not fantasy. The plot is fairly contrived, but exiting 'till the. The settings and backgrounds are convincing. The acting is is good. There's only one minor fault which bothered me. Me personally, I love Bryan Brown and Amanda Pays. But their accents are continents apart, from each other as well as from Rome, and that disturbed my suspense of disbelief to such an extent, that I didn't enjoy the acting, plot and setting as much as I should've. But if you're not a nitpicker like me and you like the genre, then you'll probably enjoy this movie.
The Matrix (1999)
Total suspense of dispense of disbelief, until you start thinking about it.
I was absolutely blown away when I saw this movie in the cinema (I urge you to view it in the cinema, not on video). The special effects are top notch and this is the first time I saw Asian cinema style combat SFX and choreography used properly in a Hollywood production. The music is brilliant, the acting is more than adequate (Even by Keanu Reeves). It even pulls something of that very few modern action movies in succeed, it suspended my disbelief to such an extent that I didn't get the opportunity to be annoyed by impossibilities, improbabilities and inconsistencies.
It was only after I had left the cinema that I started thinking about what I'd seen and I started realizing that things didn't were as plausible as I'd presumed. The most annoying thing about the premise of the movie is the fact that humans are used as batteries because of a lack of other energy resources. It is completely ludricous to assume that with such advanced technology at their disposal that the machines couldn't find an alternative such as Nuclear fusion or fission, wind or wave energy, or even satelites with solar panels which beam their energy down in microwaves. There are other inconsistencies, most barely noticeable, but still annoying enough for me. My advice is that if you want to see an absolutely brilliant action movie, go see The Matrix, but if you want to see a similarly themed movie about the boundaries of perceived reality, go se Dark City. Dark City tells a similar story and doesn't focus as much on SFX and action and thus is able to tell a much better story. Still, as far as action movies go, The Matrix rates up there with the original Die Hard movie.
Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
Cute E.T. wannabe
The film treads where other movies have gone before, but it does it well. Harry (Bigfoot) is one of the first believable and truly charming animatronic puppet to come along in a long long while. It is probably only rivaled by E.T. and Yoda in that aspect. The acting is not bad and the script is quite good, but gets mushy near the end. All in all a good family movie.