blazingheat Reviews

Freedomland (2006)

Jackson's talent wasted on terrible film

[4/10 · 18 February 2006]

I went into the theater with high expectations. The trailer made the movie seem like it was going to be a very good suspense-thriller. I mean, Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Moore, how much could go wrong? The answer: a lot.

Moore plays Brenda Martin, a mother who works at a daycare center (or something like that). She walks into the hospital claiming that she was carjacked and her four-year-old son, Cody, was asleep in the backseat. Detective Lorenzo Council (Jackson) suspects that she's hiding something. With help from a group of people who look for missing children, led by reporter Karen Collucci (played by Edie Falco), Council searches for Brenda's son.

Eventually, however, Martin admits that she fabricated the incident to cover up what really happened: her son swallowed too much cough medicine and died. I won't go into details because they're so disorganized and stupid.

The acting is the best thing about the movie. Director Joe Roth fills the movie with way too much Hollywood material that only helps to make it worse. Everyone who sees this movie will most likely expect the kid to be dead in the first ten, fifteen minutes of the movie.

Bottom line, it could've been better. Maybe if just the main concept was used, there really was a carjacking and the kid really was in the car, there was no huge group looking for the child, and there was a twist ending and a shootout, it would've been better. Or maybe it was just destined to fail. If the actors are lucky, the film will go unnoticed enough not to seriously endanger their careers.

Oh, one other thing: Freedomland is a bad title for the movie, as the location Freedomland has almost nothing to do with the overall film.

Final Score--4/10

Narc (2005 Video Game)

Ignore the negative reviews, this is a great game.

[9/10 · 5 September 2005]

NARC centers around the story of Detective Jack Forzenski and DEA Agent Marcus Hill, formerly partners. The game opens with some nice dialog, followed by the event that starts the entire game: Eddie Jackson, a small-time drug dealer, is shot numerous times. Barely alive, he stabs a syringe into himself. Not seconds later, he rises, killing several police officers. You then play a short intro-level to the game.

You switch between Jack and Marcus, working your way towards the source of the mysterious drug.

The graphics are actually quite good in my opinion, especially during the cut-scenes. Sure there are a few errors in the graphics, but they're minor and pretty much unnoticeable, and most games, if not every game, has graphic errors here and there.

The game is very fun. You get to shoot people a lot, and who doesn't like shooting people? There are also some other nice features including taking drugs for special effects such as faster movement and better aim, arresting criminals, and special missions in between the story missions.

One thing I will say is that the controls are confusing at first, but you get used to them, especially if you play a lot of First-Person Shooters.

The voice-over talent is great. Famous actors Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill) and Bill Bellamy ("Fastlane") voice Jack and Marcus respectively, and relatively famous Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Blade II) voices Ed Kowalski, Jack's uncle and chief of police.

Sure, there are a few...okay, a lot of negative reviews out there, but that's only because a lot of people expected too much. No, it's not as good as Grand Theft Auto, but what is? I recommend buying this game. Sure, you could beat it in a rental, but this game is like GTA in the sense that it takes a long time to get the least bit old.

Final Score--9/10

Con Air (1997)

The best of Nicolas Cage

[10/10 · 22 August 2005]

Nicolas Cage plays Cameron Poe, a highly decorated Army Ranger who is coming home to his pregnant wife (Monica Potter). While he and his wife are about to go home, three bums attack Poe. Poe unintentionally kills one of the attackers and the other two get away. Poe is sent to prison where he remains for eight years. He makes friends with a fellow prisoner named Mike 'Baby-O' O'Dell (Mykelti Williamson). He is granted a parole and is put on a plane along with Baby-O and other convicts including Joe 'Pinball' Parker (David Chappelle), William 'Billy Bedlam' Bedford (Nick Chinlund), Johnny 'Johnny-23' Baca (Danny Trejo), Nathan 'Diamond Dog' Jones (Ving Rhames), and Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom (John Malkovich). Cyrus the Virus and Diamond Dog break out of their restraints and, with a little help from Pinball, take control of the plane.

On the ground, meanwhile, Cameron's wife and daughter (Landry Allbright) are waiting for Poe when they are requested to go to Carson City to answer a few questions for U.S. Marshall Vince Larkin (John Cusack), who is trying to get the plane down peacefully when his superior, DEA agent Duncan Malloy (Colm Meaney) is chasing the plane trying to shoot it down.

After a while, more convicts are loaded onto the plane including Ramon 'Sally-Can't-Dance' Martinez (Renoly Santiago), Swamp Thing (M.C. Gainey), Francisco Cindino (Jesse Borrego), and Garland 'The Marietta Mangler' Greene (Steve Buscemi) The movie is full of action, drama, and quite a bit of comedy (Cyrus the Virus and Garland Greene are quite funny). As well as that, it's sad enough to draw tears at some parts. I thought so at least.

The casting is flawless. Cage, Cusack, and Malkovich, as well as all the other actors/actresses, were perfect in their roles.

If you're looking for a great movie with action, drama, comedy, and some tear-jerking moments, then see this. I also recommend buying it.

Final Score--10/10

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004 Video Game)

A great game full of action, drama, and comedy that is quite possibly the best game ever

[10/10 · 1 August 2005]

Carl Johnson moved from San Andreas, a city corrupted by gang violence and drugs, to Liberty City. For five years he hid in Liberty City until one day when he got a call from his brother Sean, a.k.a. Sweet, who tells Carl that his mother has been killed. Carl flies back to San Andreas to set things straight in the city he once called home.

The game has a movie-like feel to it. After the first five or six missions, you start doing missions of your choice with Sweet, Ryder, Big Smoke, and other characters. You start out in Los Santos, then move on to the Badlands, San Fierro, the Desert, and Las Venturas. Along the way you meet interesting characters including OG Loc, a wannabe rapper, Cesar Vialpando, your sister Kendl's boyfriend, Wu Zi Mu, a.k.a. Woozie, leader of a Chinese gang called the Mountain Cloud Boys, a drug-dealing hippie who calls himself "The Truth", and the rogue CIA agent Mike Toreno.

The game's villains are a corrupt police gang called C.R.A.S.H. lead by officers Frank Tenpenny and Eddie Pulaski. You do a few missions for them as well.

The voice actors are excellent and provide a lot of lines for their characters.

The game, unlike most, is only around 30% or 40% complete when beaten. There's horseshoes to collect, oysters to grab, optional missions to finish, races to win, stats to max out, guns to collect, girlfriends to date, vehicles to steal, properties to buy, and useless crap to blow up.

Final Score--10/10

Die Hard (1988)

One of the best movies of all time

[10/10 · 4 July 2005]

This movie alone impressed me so much it made me a huge fan of Bruce Willis, who I wasn't a big fan of at the time I saw this.

Die Hard is a great thriller that remains just as good even after watching it 20 times. I own this movie and I watch it once a week at the least.

One of the most likable things about this movie is the humor that's mixed into the action. It's very rare that an actor can be good at both action and comedy, and Bruce Willis is one of those rare types of actors.

The casting is all but perfect. Bonnie Bedelia does a great job as Holly Gennero/McClane, Alan Rickman is superb in his role of Hans Gruber, leader of the terrorists, and the late Alexander Godunov is equally as good as Karl, Gruber's right hand man. Reginald VelJohnson is just as good as Al Powell, the officer who supports McClane in his battle with the terrorists, and the rest of the cast, though fairly minor, also pulls off great performances.

This movie is a great buy, and if you're into watching movies as much as I am, it's worth watching frequently.

Final Score--10/10

Elektra (2005)

Ruined by terrible acting and an equally terrible plot

[3/10 · 3 July 2005]

If I had a time machine right now, the first thing I would do is go back in time a month and tell myself to avoid this movie at all costs

The movie had good potential, and with much, much, much, MUCH better acting and a better plot, it could've been better.

And the characters. Was it just me, or did Stone die way too quickly? And why was McCabe in the movie at all? Oh, and Abby is quite possibly the most annoying character I've ever seen in a movie. The only members of the cast I found even remotely good were Will Yun Lee and Jennifer Garner.

One thing I should say is that the visual effects were great, one of few positive things about the movie and also one of few things that keep me from rating this movie a 1.

The only good scene is the final battle between Kirigi and Elektra, also one of few things keeping me from giving this a 1.

Final Score--3/10