Change Your Image
RobStradling
Reviews
Solar Strike (2006)
Superior TV disaster movie
These made-for-TV apocalypses are almost an industry in themselves at present, but at least this one has some redeeming qualities. A much better script than most, for a start. The acting is acceptable throughout and the sci-fi eco-disaster premise is outwardly convincing, at least. Too many "magic" computers, of course, but it's an acceptable shorthand when telling this kind of story.
SFX are presentable, and there's enough tension in the climax to keep watching. That's about as much as can be reasonably asked of such a flick. It may be faint praise, but this is a decent effort in an increasingly dumb genre.
Crimson Force (2005)
Passable bubblegum
This really is Science Fiction by numbers - it feels like it was written by someone who has read books on how to write SF, but never actually seen any.
The "World Government vs The Corporations" backstory is laughably juvenile it its monochrome simplicity and - considering this was written in 2005 - the "future history" it tries to establish is woefully naive and dated. It's made clear at the start that this is the first manned mission to Mars. Yet the crew behave throughout as if crash-landing in Cydonia, discovering an ancient civilization, and meeting alien life (and having sex with it), constitutes no more than a rather busy day at the office.
All that said, it's engagingly played by all involved, the moral ambiguities are quite interesting, and everything holds together just about well enough to remain watchable. A thoroughly missable movie, but a generally inoffensive one.
Last Action Hero (1993)
Whoops - too subtle, Arnie?
Badly misunderstood, criminally underrated movie.
Witty, charming, and overflowing with enthusiasm, John McTiernan's love song to the action movie genre is just way, way too rich for the palate of lazy critics who see Schwarzenegger's presence as a license to dismiss. Casting a better actor rather than having Arnie play "himself" might have mollified the nay-sayers, but it would also have missed the point; this movie is as cathartic for its star as for its audience.
If you don't "get it", it's a shame, but it's not the movie's fault.
At times "Last Action Hero" is up there with the movies of Billy Wilder or Rob Reiner for arch quotability. The "Hamlet" trailer is worth the price of a "magic ticket" all on its own!