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Hadn't a clue
The best thing about the classic Trap Door TV show were those rare moments when you actually got to see what was down there and in all those tunnels and catacombs . This video has loads of exactly that . It began with Boni getting kidnapped by a monster and , as Berk , you had to go down the trap door to get him back . I though this bit was really cool as when you went through Berk fell down into the abyss for ages and ages . But soon after that I didn't have a clue where to go or what to do . The instructions never gave you any directions or objective so I was just lost . I remember a cool bit where Berk got wings and could fly but I was just too hard for the age group it was aimed at . Nice graphics though . Graphics Sound C Gameplay C Lasting Appeal
564,280
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4
Bland
Out of all the movies Grant and Bullock have ever done which is the most re-occurring genre ? Rom-com . How many rom-coms are out there ( especially at present ) ? Too many . What new material / angle does Two Weeks Notice offer ? None . There really is no point in this movie . It was only made because the public still go to see the same predictable rubbish over and over and therefor would more than likely make a profit . Every single rom-com cliché you can think of is in this movie : The High Flying Businessman , the lowly and accident-prone but clever pretty girl , the snaky but attractive woman introduced halfway-thru who may become a threat to the clever pretty girl , the ' world is a safe place ' backdrop , the ratty ex-wife , women who cry at the mere mention ( or even suggestion ) of the word ' love ' and a general sense of security in KNOWING how the movie will end . It's not even a slick looking film from a directing point of view . The photography is muddy , grey and unattractive , the production design is muted to the point of invisibility and the whole enterprise just feels so . . . pedestrian . The only people I could recommend this to are those who have never seen Hugh Grant play a dashing English gent or Sandra Bullock play an unlucky in love ( how ? ) but strong-minded heroine . Unfortunately that only adds up to about 4 people and those who have been in comas for the past decade . Even the poster is even more basic than usual . EVERY rom-com in existence has the man and woman only on a white background . How imaginative ! Only this time it just looks plainer . Much like the film .
564,872
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40,361
4
Not a Foghorn Leghorn fan
I'll admit I love the look of Foghorn Leghorn but I hate his cartoons . Come on , they are ALL the same . It'll start out a normal day on the farm then that annoying bird will come along and say ' I'm a chicken hawk ' a hundred times . Foghorn will pretend to not be a chicken but get clobbered anyway . The impartial barnyard dog will get involved and they'll repeat the same unfunny joke over and over until the 7 minutes are up . Am I right or am I right ? This was the routine EVERY Foghorn Leghorn cartoon followed and I have never liked , even when I was a little kid . This cartoon is notable for being the first appearance of the Rooster but for no other reason .
564,425
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4
Winging it simply doesn't make a good movie .
Steve Oedekirk's tepid Nothing to Lose is a lame comedy with Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence as an odd-couple buddy pairing who team up to steal $600 , 000 . Robbin's comes home early to find his wife in bed with his boss and runs away to the desert , taking car-jacker Lawrence with him , to think things over . The dialogue is hackneyed and stilted , the plot is horribly contrived and Lawrence seems to have been given freedom to improvise , which is is clearly not good at . He resorts mainly to doing his xenophobic ' Oooh white folks ' thing while Robbins lumbers around like an idiot . None of the jokes work , the humor is far from clever and the set-ups are obvious . The bland photography and silly score are so incredibly 90s that the film , merely ten years old , looks heavily dated . There are better things that you could be doing with your time .
564,592
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4
Poor
Substituting the wide open spaces of the old west for the dingy , dirty streets of London is not fun . Roy O'Bannon and Chon Wang do not look like they belong there ( and that's not meant to be part of the fun ) . The plot is the weakest , most uninspired and half-baked codswallop you can imagine , probably churned out in a few days , with a stereotyped villain so mass-produced and static that you'd be right in assuming the makers found him in a cereal box . Sometimes the writing is creative , such as the nods to Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chaplin , but Britain is represented in the most cliched ' Hollywood ' way that it bogs everything else down . The escalating series of set-pieces may be imaginative but they sure do become very boring and repetitive . All they are really doing is filling the screen with movement , none of it being exciting or engaging ( the same problem Matrix : Reloaded had ) and when the movie is carried by these scenes alone , as the plot is not up to much , it almost completely fails . The only saving grace is Owen Wilson who is far too talented and likeable to be wasting his time on this . He and Jackie made a sweet team in the first but this is not a good film for them . The DVD is in 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby 5 . 1 sound . It contains dozens of deleted scenes , 2 commentaries ( I find it hard to believe that there are 2 commentaries worth of things to be said about this ) and an ' Action Overload ' featurette .
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4
I don't like racing games .
So maybe I'm the wrong person to be doing a review . But they are all basically the same and while Double Dash looks pretty it does little to further the genre . The graphics are , quite simply , gorgeous . Mario Kart Double Dash shows what the Gamecube is capable of with brilliant colors , wonderful landscapes and vivid race courses . The sound isn't up to much though . Sound effects are kind of generic and the music is hardly a standout . Pretty much , if racing games are for you then Mario Kart Double Dash is essential if you have a Gamecube . I couldn't care less about this genre so I can gladly never play again , no matter how stunning it looks .
564,010
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4
Very , very weak
Back again in the brand new slicker animation form , the Mystery Inc gang head down to Mexico to visit Fred's e-mail pal but get caught up in the Chupacapra mystery as said beast begins terrorising the locals . It's not very good as the plot is practically discarded in favor of endless running around scenes and over-indulgence in set pieces . The recent Scooby Doo feature-length animations have had decent stories , nice atmospheres and a couple red-herrings . It's very post modern and has certainly help revamp the franchise . But Monster of Mexico feels very dated and 60's . The gang are back wearing their old clothes instead of the modern gear they wore in the first four animated movies . The ending is no surprise and completely unsatisfying . I don't like it . I wish for the next one to be a little more sophisticated . I mean children are intelligent and they deserve intelligent entertainment . Monster of Mexico may have been okay back in the 60's but in the modern day it's quite poor . The DVD has a great 1 . 33 : 1 picture and a rather good Dolby 5 . 1 soundtrack . The extras are rubbish apart from the commentary by Shaggy and Scooby which is actually a really neat touch . I was excited at the Batman : Mystery of the Batwoman trailer featured here but it's 20 seconds long and shows you nothing . What's the point ?
564,686
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29,237
4
Boring and predictable
Mickey cartoons all follow the same formula . Whatever he's doing will soon fall into chaos as soon as Donald shows up or whatever he's in charge of inexplicable rebels . In this cartoon , nothing is different . He's hosting an amateur music show on the radio and Donald forgets the lyrics to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star . He's not happy about being booed and won't give up even after being kicked off . Clara Cow ( or whoever ) and Goofy turn up with some failed acts ( both interrupted by Donald ) that go haywire in the most predictable of fashions . Not that funny and not that interesting . So much so that I did the hoovering while watching it .
563,893
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4
And on that farm he had a . . .
Man , I hate that song . And this cartoon fares little better . Honestly , of all the Donald Duck shorts that I've seen and reviewed , this is the worst . Nothing really happens in it . Donald is a farmer who strolls through his yard one morning , greeting all his animals . His cow Clementine is sitting in a tree eating the leaves . Reasons unknown . Donald proceeds to milk her but is bothered by a troublesome fly . And erm . . . that's it . There is no inventive mayhem or moments of brilliant animation . It's all very unimpressive and definitely one of the blandest cartoons starring any character . Donald deserves better than this bore .
564,028
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469,641
4
Horrible , inappropriate soap opera on par with Pearl Harbor
I'm not going to go off in a rant about how it is insensitive to make a World Trade Center movie a mere 5 years after the atrocity but I will say that it's largely pointless . The images and stories have been covered on TV so many times from so many angles and people that there's really nothing left to learn . When Oliver Stone announced this movie I assume that many of his fans predicted the conspiracy theories and finger pointing he is famous for as well as the highly stylistic and surrealist editing . Well . . . NONE of that is present here . All we get is pedestrian direction that might as well for a TV movie and a very lame , mawkish soap opera plot that is really dragged-out far too damn long . Nic Cage and Michael Peña play real life ' heroes ' who were buried under the WTC rubble for a few days and managed to stay alive by shouting at each other . Each of them have flashbacks to their sweethearts sitting at home pouting and whimpering as their family pat them on the back saying " It's okay " . Wow , you could cut that tension with a chainsaw , it's electric ( the tension , not the chainsaw ) ! The only impressive thing that WTC really boasts is a brilliant sound design , asides from that there's not much reason to watch the film . Nicolas Cage is hardly given much to do apart from lie on his back , Maggie Gyllenhaal as ' the wife ' is given almost nothing to do apart from the quivering lip thing and Maria Bello ( didn't she used to have BROWN eyes ? ) is alarmingly frozen-faced as ' the other wife ' . Stone's usually flamboyant and trip-like cinematography has been replaced with framing so bland you'd be forgiven for thinking you're looking at a series of still photographs . I know anyone wishing to defend this film can easily say that sort of film-making technique is not suitable for a story like this . If so , then why the hell would Oliver Stone , of all people choose to make it ? A completely pointless film that pussyfoots around tougher issues and makes a triumph out of a loss . And don't give me any of that ' triumph of the human spirit ' crap either . There was no reason for this film to be made and everyone involved could have something more worthy with a little extra imagination or balls .
563,758
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31,086
4
Not funny
In this cartoon Donald goes to the beach for some fun in the sun . He takes a giant inflatable horse ( called Seabiscuit ) with him to play with in the water . Everything seems fine until Donald decides to torment Pluto for some reason by blowing water and air into his face , or something . The cartoon lingers on this bit of unfunnyness for a few minutes before it goes to the typical ' picnic being stolen by ants ' routine . Good God , man . How many times have I seen that in a cartoon ? Donald and Pluto try to take them on but lose to their own arrogance and stupidity . No , this cartoon is not really that funny at all and Donald surely deserves better than this . I don't rate Beach Picnic very highly I'm afraid .
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4
What's the point ?
I came out of this film completely unaffected . Am I really supposed to care about what allegedly happened 2000 years ago ? There is NOTHING to TPOTC . A mere 2 hour exhibition of sadomasochism / sexual perversion . It just goes on and on and on . Mel Gibson creates a few tangents with flashbacks and a pointless Judas Iscariot story though but they're not enough to distract from the bore of Jesus ' torture . And it's not even that bad in terms of gore . I've seen worse , a LOT worse . But as 90 % of this film is in slo-mo the torture and punishment is sensationalized rather than realistic and harrowing . I kept yawning , looking at my watch to see how long was left . I'm sorry to say that I just did not care for this film , I feel completely indifferent . From a technical point of view it's well made , but it's boring and pointless . I've never been able to understand the logic of ' Jesus ( who isn't even called Jesus in this , not even phonetically . Where did the name Jesus come from ? ) died for our sins ' . And there's no explanation here . He died ( if he really existed ) BECAUSE of our ignorance and stupidity if anything . TPOTC is no more than an overblown , overrated film about the genesis of an overblown , overrated , God-fearing religion . I'll pass .
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4
Not very good at all
I somehow remember this film being way better than it is . It certainly does take a special sense of humor to watch but nothing interesting happens for so long and Carpenter's direction is strangely unspectacular . The story concerns big-headed trucker Jack Burton and an adventure he has in the underworld of San Francisco . Sounds a little weird ? It gets weirder . His friend's fiancée is kidnapped by 3 Chinese gods to become a bride for a 2000-year-old magician , monsters show up , the Magician has an army and many hostages for some reason and Jack sets them free . The fight scenes are badly executed and lack any vivid depth . Sound effects are poorly synced and are too loud . Check out the pathetic ambient surround effects during Jack's first dialogue with Gracie Law . The SFX are decent enough , especially for 1986 , but can't save it . On the plus side you can get enjoyment from the weird side if this film . And from this perspective you can almost get what carpenter was aiming for . Kind if like David Lynch with lost highway . There is so much opportunity for a great movie in here but unfortunately Carpenter realises little of large potential . Even at 99 minutes the story is slowed by too much explanation and set-up . We wait so long for something to happen and when it does it's all rather tame . I find it no big surprise that this film flopped . There was , and perhaps still is , no audience for it . Too many different tones and genre are mixed together , creating confusion rather than inspiration or enjoyment . I'm shocked that Carpenter made something as amateur and poor as this . This film is DOA , no doubt .
564,807
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4
Theatrical cut is miserable as hell , see the extended version .
In regards to the version that was released in cinemas . . . miss it . That's for damn sure . This was the first film that David Fincher directed and it has that dark , smelly and grimy look that he is only capable of . After the highly exciting Aliens there is ZERO entertainment here and only one Alien . Very fake looking and largely unseen for most of the movie . Apparently the Alien Queen laid one last face hugger egg on the Marine ship ( didn't she already detach herself from her birth tunnel thingy ) . The egg hatches and lays another Alien egg in Ripley , which just happens to be a queen . For a reason , which is unclear to us , the face hugger sprays acid on the ship , which catches fire and breaks off the cryo-tube section . This sends Ripley , Newt , Hicks and Bishop crashing down onto a lice-infected prison planet called Furiona 161 . Just for the hell of it ( it seems ) Newt , Hicks and Bishop are killed off because the film is deliberately miserable as it possibly can be . Weaver is the only female character in it and is very much indistinctive among the rest of the indistinctive cast as she is bald-headed ( because of the Lice problem ) with a bunch of bald-headed guys who all appear to be English and ugly . There is another face hugger ( so the Queen laid 2 eggs before it died ? ) that the prisoners seem to miss as they rescue Ripley . It impregnates a dog and a new Alien is born in the form of a canine , giving us the impression that the beast mimics the form of the creature that became its host . We are supposed to observe this as it is never cleared up in dialogue . There are numerous scenes in which Ripley ( or bald-headed prisoners ? I can't tell ) run down damp corridors ( or perhaps the same one over and over ) being chased by the Alien . But for budget reasons we don't actually SEE the Alien , just its point of vision . Characters are killed with no care , passion or meaning to their deaths and how the hell anyone believed that an audience of any kind would enjoy this film is beyond my great understanding . It is so bad that Fincher didn't get work for 3 years after this until he was called upon to direct Se7en . The only reason he got to do that is because it is a depressing and ugly film , much like this . The extended version featured on the Special Edition DVD is a far superior version of the film , though not a director's cut or without faults , it's the best version of the film you're likely to see . Characters are fleshed out , sense-making scenes are restored and the creature is born out of a dead ox instead of a dog . It doesn't sound like much but it almost changes it into a completely new and more satisfying film . Either or depending on the version you watch . overall .
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4
A distinct lack of laughs .
In this cartoon the Three Bears sit at the dinner table in their ramshackle hut and think of a way to temp some unwitting fool into the cauldron . That unwitting fool ends up being Bugs Bunny . But , as usual , he's to clever to fall for any tricks . Too bad the outsmarting isn't really so funny or clever . It definitely wasn't the funniest Bugs I've ever seen . I was kind of bored with it very quickly as the start is also kind of slow and humor is not up to scratch . Plus the animation of the Three Bears looks kind of rough and ragged and really distracts your attention . Don't bother going out your way to catch this ' un .
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4
A lion's fist in an iron glove
Confused ? Not as much as you will be while watching this movie . And it's not even confusing in a good way like Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive ( also starring the lurvly Naomi Watts ) . The Ring was a passable thriller that had about as much logic as my review title . None ! Still , Gore Verbinski took as much advantage as he could out of that logic-free world where you can't rely on the laws of nature and physics to protect you and delivered a few iconic images and some good scares . The Ring 2 exploits and manipulates that world and gives us loads of utterly senseless plot developments that barely connect . You won't be as scared as you will be annoyed at the increasing stupidness of the film and it's sheer reluctance to make sense . Characters are not as important as confusion . Like David Lynch himself once said ' An audience would rather be confused than bored ' . I mean what purpose did the character of Max serve ? None ! He might as well have not been in the film at all . Also , the ' circle ' imagery hardly makes an appearance in the film at all and we are left with not too subtle ' crescent-moon ' images . However unsubtle the thin substance of The Ring 2 it will go completely unnoticed among the hundreds of 13-year-olds in the audience . Seriously , this is the kind of film that you go see early in the morning if you want quiet . Still , no matter how disappointed I was with this film , it's still miles ahead of the appalling Grudge ( Japanese AND American ) . It's also worth noting that this has nothing to do with the Japanese sequel or Kôji Suzuki's literal sequel .
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4
Rather bland and mediocre
It was hardly revolutionary , I mean its only saving grace was its ensemble cast . I think Famke Jansen is totally hot and Clea Duvall especially , she's just totally gorgeous . Not enough gore either . In , fact there's not much else to The Faculty . The cheap CGI effects were pretty crap and the post-Scream script by over-celebrated writer Kevin Williamson is too self-aware and modern to be effective . In a few years , this kind of thing is going to seem dated . I guess it was entertaining in a silly kind of way which it was supposed to be but it could have been a LOT better . Not the kind of film I would watch again .
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4
Failed Potential
With the exception of the opening 10 minutes , 28 Days Later fails completely . The scenes of the Jim ( Cillian Murphy ) walking around an abandoned , completely deserted London are creepy and un-nerving . The scenes that hint at mystery and unknown danger are far more intriguing than the rest of the movie . As soon as Jim hooks up with other survivors the scares are lost . Danny Boyle stupidly telegraphs every jump to the point of disqualification . When the survivors leave London and are ' rescued ' by a bunch of thuggish army louts it degenerates into extremely cruddy sub-straight-to-video nonsense . I've never seen a film lose its way so badly as this . What could have been really exciting and scary ends up being too cheap and confused . There are hardly any ' zombies ' in this movie . Any action or thrills are over within seconds and the complete lack of logical thinking ( even within the morally bankrupt army ) becomes annoying . It did appreciate the raw-looking photography , it gave the movie a realistic edge but it's soon ruined as the plot meanders and doesn't know what to do . Cillian Murphy was quite good as the hero but the woman playing Selena was too brutish and hostile to be sympathetic . I did like Brendan Gleeson's character but he wasn't in it long enough . Mainly , 28 Days Later suffers badly from minimal plotting , awkward characters , a distinct lack of scares and a corny ending that's out of sync with everything that preceded it . Danny Boyle should NOT attempt horror again . The DVD is in 1 . 78 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5 . 1 sound . Extras include a commentary , documentary and deleted scenes . The cut scenes ( and alternate ending ) are worthless and not interesting . For a superior and more exciting zombie movie wait for the new Dawn of the Dead to hit DVD . In the meantime , rent this one .
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4
Simple-minded , female chauvinist , pot-boiling crap .
What the hell has happened to Wes Craven ? The man who went straight for the raw nerve with Last House on the Left and The Hills have Eyes has seriously gone downhill in the rotten , PC-driven , PG-13 driven Hollywood of today . Studios are afraid to make R-rated movies these days . Not that Red Eye really needs it . But an injection of breathtaking suspense would have really helped this movie along and help us forget the silliness of the plot . If his last movie Cursed wasn't bad enough he continues a downward spiral with this very childish quickie with about as much intelligence as a typical episode of The A-Team ( no offence to that great show ) . The plot is thin excuse for the preposterous events in the film to happen and the political sub-plot is so vague and transparent it almost isn't even there . See if you can swallow this . Some hit-man ( Cillian Murphy ) , part of a larger group , wants to convince a hotel manager ( Rachel McAdams ) to have a VIP move to another suite so he can fire a rocket at him from the ocean that the suite faces . He does this by cornering her on a late night flight ( the ' Red Eye ' ) with the threat of one of his henchmen parked outside her unaware dad's ( the brilliant Brian Cox ) house waiting to kill him if she does not comply . It's very pointlessly contrived . Why do they not just aim at the VIP from a different position and take him out from his original room rather than stalking and planning to scare a hotel manager for 8 weeks ? Sixty minutes of this eighty-five minute film is spent on so-called ' mind games ' with McAdams and Murphy trying to outwit each other on the plane . It's not thrilling and Craven fails to add any sense of hard edge or unbearable tension to it . Marco Beltrami's intrusive score never lets any scene speak for itself . McAdams and Murphy give half-hearted performances , totally aware that they are starring in a generic , mundane film . Brian Cox is completely and utterly wasted in a thankless role that requires him to do no more than sit around in a living room speaking single-word lines of dialogue . I can only assume he had a credit card bill to pay off that starring in this bore would settle . The subtext of the oppressed McAdams fighting back against Male tormentors is obvious and actually quite labored . How many more movies must we sit through where females face great ( male-driven ) opposition and pull through by relying on sheer women-only courage . In the last twenty-minutes McAdams does nothing but beat-down and mutilate Murphy . Fair enough he head-butted her and choked her a bit , but this part is played down and forgotten quickly while Craven makes a point out of Murphy's pain and suffering . I understand that women are easy to feel sorry for in movies ( a bit sexist and narrow-minded if you ask me-but hey . . . I hate PC ) but I would like to see a film where a man fights back at a woman who has made his life hell . It does happen in real life you know . But men are worthless according to films like this . And I'm not being homophobic but am I registering some subliminal gay relationship at the end ? Red Eye pretty much fails at everything it sets out to do simply by having a weak script and tepid direction . The teeny-bopper crowd , that this film was undeniably made for , may get a kick out of it but us older and wiser viewers who have been around long enough to appreciate Craven's stronger work will be seriously disappointed . It's worth pretty much none of your attention or hard-earned cash , but at least it's better than Cursed .
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4
Tacky , uneventful western
For a Western movie this was very boring and had very little going on . There is no real plot and only a couple of muddled and drama-free sub-plots . The movie is about some hit-man in a cell who is awaiting hanging for the killing of some cattleboys . The sheriff wants a peaceful hanging ( ! ) without having to prove that he's as good a Sheriff as his father was . And a couple of other minor characters serve no purpose other than to complicate matters for petty reasons . There are a few silly fight scenes that remind of the A-Team with the wooden furniture falling apart very easily . And , as always , there are embarrassingly fake fights in which there is no penetration seen or any shown . Were there any R-rated movies in the 50's ? But the most annoying thing about this movie is the songs but the ' singing narrator ' who only ever uses the same tune but uses marginally different words each time . Ugh ! If this is on TV on a Sunday afternoon ? miss it . Go out for a walk , even if it's raining .
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Overwrought teen soap
I did not enjoy this movie very much . The only good part about it is that the director did not portray Britain as a miserable dump and shot the film in rather attractive widescreen . But the story is a mess . Very little of this film makes sense and it is very badly written . And boring . The direction is borderline lifeless and Nick Hamm uses all of the " Channel 4 / Thinks he's hip / Wants to show off " clichés that a British director can use . That puts me off . There is no original dialogue at all . There is some stuff referring to student personalities in a snobby private school but it's nothing that you haven't heard in Clueless or noticed in real life . That's about as rich ( ? ) as the dialogue gets . I should suggest that Thora Birch never attempt an English accent again . Several times thru out the film is could hear her real American voice . It was quite awful . Her real voice is nice enough already . The other actors didn't do much for me either , especially the guy who played Geoff . The actor playing Martin was cool tho . Pity he weren't in it much . The ending was questionable . The attempts at trying make Thora Birch look evil and manipulative at the end were laughable . Do they really expect us to accept that ?
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4
The worst of 80's cop movie clichés , but it's still better than Bad Boys II
The plot in this movie is absolutely nothing spectacular and is VERY basic . There are also plot holes all over the place . The constant arguing between Smith and Laurence also gets on the nerves and spoils the slight chemistry that they have . But Michael Bay's direction puts a glossy shine on an otherwise cruddy movie . But he made the movie in 1 . 85 : 1 . Why ? The plot , for what it's worth , concerns a dealer ( Tchecky Kayro in a virtually nameless role ) who s an idiot member of his gang . Beautiful Julie Mott ( Tea Leoni ) witnesses the slaying and is marked for . She calls the cops but for a dumb reason will only talk to Mike Lowrey ( Will Smith ) . Marcus Burnett ( Martin Lawrence ) is the only person there who can take the call and assumes the role of Mike in order to take Julie into ' in-home ' protective custody . Why he doesn't just reveal to her right away that he told a little white lie only to get her out of harms way ? I dunno . Perhaps it is because it's the only plot element that the legion of writers could abuse to inject the slightest amount of comedy and drag out an 85-minute to 2 hours . It irritates beyond comprehension and the film should really have been dumped in the direct to video bucket instead of having a cinema release . But as long as the film masquerades as a proper Hollywood movie everything will be okay . A Hollywood movie it certainly is . It took 10 years for Bad Boys to be made and many changes to the script took place in that time . It was originally set in New York and was to star John Lovitz and Dana Carvey as the leads . It was shopped around Hollywood , chewed-up and spat out by many studios , until Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckhiemer picked it up and thought that turning it into a shiny and bright action adventure could redeem it . The budget wasn't too high and Bay did as much as he could considering the tiny amount of money he had ( even spending part of his own salary ) and did an impressive job too . The action scenes certainly make up for the lulls in the plot . Too bad there is not enough of them . The van chase , shootout in the lobby and final battle are way cool and Mark Mancina's score is incredible . Too bad the score isn't available on CD but there is 5 . 1 isolated score on the DVD . Everyone should see Bad Boys at least once as there will be something for everyone but do not expect a great or original plot . There isn't one .
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Short lifespan
The novelty of this game wears off very quickly . At first it was fun to play as several of the Simpsons characters but when they started repeating their dialogue for the 50th time it became mighty tedious and tiresome . The gameplay is very simple . If GTA : Vice City is the Lego Technic of road rage games then Simpsons : Road Rage is , without a doubt the Lego Duplo . It is SOOO aimed at kids . No one over the age of 13 will be particularly impressed with this . It's just far to ' safe ' . The Simpsons TV show is full of satirical humor and intelligence but this game is just a cheap spin-off aimed at a much younger audience .
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I guess I'll die another day
What a big step-down QoS is . If you are expecting the Godfather Part II or a film equal to The Dark Knight you are in for a huge disappointment . Despite being the highest budgeted Bond film ever ( just where all the money went is beyond me ) , QoS is half-hearted and extremely simple . Of all the Bond films in history I've never seen one as straight-forward as this . As a direct sequel to Casino Royale the film drops pretty much ALL plot and focuses on action . What little story there is , almost the same story from A View to a Kill ( which was actually a carbon copy of Goldfinger ) , is nothing more than a weak excuse to string together a bunch of action scenes that feel more like alternate Jason Bourne fights rather than a Bond film . There's no mystery , no puzzle-solving and nothing resembling dangerous espionage . The 105-minute running time cripples QoS . Don't get me wrong , I hate films that are padded with dead weight , but QoS just feels too light and too hurried . Daniel Craig handles the action well , but is thoroughly un-engaging when it comes to the emotional scenes . I don't like his interpretation of Bond and I am sick to death of all these ' tragic action heroes ' that are so damn common these days . I'm also sick of guns as an extension of manhood , which QoS has a lot of . The British press made a big hoo-hah over Gemma Arterton being cast as a Bond Girl ( a term that I really don't like ) , but I swear she's in it for about five minutes and has about ten lines of dialogue before she meets a strange end in an obscure Goldfinger reference . On the plus side , David Arnold delivers his best Bond score to date , it's just a shame it didn't have a better movie to provide the images to his sounds . Bond should call it a day . He's been in the movies for close to 50 years and , in my opinion , he's had too many restarts , too many women and too many missions . Bond is a dinosaur and completely out of place in the modern world . Despite attempts at making him relevant and contemporary , I feel that his time is up and that he should step aside for a new hero . Just not a ' tragic ' one .
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4
Why are you still watching ?
The Last Horror Movie thinks that it's more clever than it actually is . It begins by telling us that we've never quite seen horror as intense as this and that we're truly in for the ride of our lives . While some of the following murders are interesting , it completely fails at living up to such high self-regard . It's a film within a film . Sort of . We begin by watching a the REAL Last Horror movie , a direct to video slasher with bad acting and wobbly sets , but after a few minutes of that ( a cunning ploy to make what follows look good by comparison ) some guy appears and claims to have taped over it with his own home-made horror ( obviously he has a full editing suite somewhere in his house ) and tells his own story of killing and torture . Why would be bother watching this ? Well we supposedly rented the fake horror movie so what's wrong with wanting to witness some real horror ? He never seems to shut up about this . The guy in question is Max Parry , a mild-mannered ( to the point of being a bit camp ) wedding planner with a healthy relationship with his family , despite not being married himself . He's nice to his grandmother and good with the kids . No one would ever think him a psycho killer . But death and torture are his thing indeed . He's hired a homeless cameraman ( who is Scottish , therefor by English law must be portrayed as a total mongo ) to follow him around and capture his killings on film . Some of them are innocent and would really rather not be dead , but others are twats who deserve it . Max has no quibbles about killing old or young , man or woman , black or white . He never explains why he does it , but only justifies his actions by waffling on about twisted morals . Max claims the best part of horror movies is witnessing the kill . But most of his murders occur off-camera , which is a bit of a rip-off . I'll admit there is one cool scene in which a bully is immolated and another where he stabs a housewife , but I wanted more blood and perhaps some dismemberment . So much for being the last word in horror movies . Another problem is that the convoluted narrative constantly conflicts itself and could never actually add up in real life . Sad people like me notice this and it kind of distracts from the point the film is trying to make . And the ending could only ever be scary if one is half-baked . I can't imagine any clear-headed person getting even the slightest bit chilled by it at all . It's an ambitious project and I feel bad for rating it so poorly , but it's rather pretentious and just doesn't offer enough gruesomeness for the particularly blood-thirsty . If this really is the Last Horror Movie then it's a shame that the genre had end on such a weak note .
563,855
102,816
102,943
5
Nothing special
A day in the life of nobodies . Sound like a good movie ? It probably sounded like a good experiment to Richard Linklater who made this for about $20 , 000 . It's a nice film to start out with but it's really of no use or interest outside of college film students . There's not much to Slacker other than a bunch of meandering dialogue scenes and long steadicam shots ( in a 100 minute movie there are only 163 cuts ) . We follow one character who talks nonsense onto another character who talks nonsense onto another character yadda yadda yadda . Each scene is shot the same way and had little to make it stand out . None of the characters last more than 5 minutes and their stories just seem like an outlet for Linklater to vent some of his cynicism or frustration with society . Much like the characters it superficially studies , Slacker wanders nowhere , achieves nothing and wastes time . It's NOT a good way to spend a Saturday night . The DVD is in 1 . 33 : 1 as originally shot with Dolby 2 . 0 surround . It contains a zillion extras over 2 discs that I plain and simple will NEVER watch because the film bored me to death . I give it a purely because it's different from the usual mass-produced crap we get from the big studios .
564,590
102,816
275,230
5
It's 46 minutes long !
Manga craftily fail to mention this on the cover and I was very let down when the movie faded out to the end titles merely 40 minutes into the film . I liked where it was going and it could have gone further but it just ended ! What's the point in a 46 minute long movie ? What I don't understand is if Saya in the movie is a vampire then how can she go out in the daylight ? Is she like Blade in some way ? I didn't get this at all . The CG animation looked wonderful and the 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic picture on the DVD makes it even better . It also has a decent Dolby 5 . 1 track ( the language is in both English AND Japanese-not either ) . But there is no point in buying this . Rent it . Blood : The Last Vampire is cool , but not worth buying .
564,178
102,816
388,419
5
Rather flat and uneventful
Christmas with the Kranks did not fill me with holiday spirit . This movie rudely tries to shove yuletide cheer down our throats and the end result is a mild comedy with only a few laughs ( most attempts at jokes just die ) . Luther Krank ( Tim Allen in yet another Xmas movie ) decides he and his wife ( a rapidly aging Jamie-Lee Curtis ) can skip all this Crimbo nonsense to go on a Caribbean Cruise . Easier said than done when their Xmas fascist neighbors ( led by Dan Ackroyd ) gang up on them and force the Kranks to conform to brainless consumerism . Man if that ain't the most important Xmas message ever committed to film then I just don't know what is . It's hard to believe Chris Columbus ( a veteran at Xmas movies ) produced a such a laugh-free ' comedy ' . Only a couple of the gags work , which is half the reason I'm giving this 3 stars , but the cast just don't have any comic timing . The other reason I'm giving this a 3 instead of 2 ? Well , we're kind of shafted when it comes to Xmas movies this year . First there was the wretched Ben Affleck disaster Surviving Christmas and then the slightly awkward Polar Express . Christmas with the Kranks is only worthwhile to kill a few hours while your husband / wife / whatever does the Xmas shopping . Destined to certainly NOT become a holiday tradition .
564,249
102,816
338,095
5
Recycled clichés in a somewhat entertaining order
High Tension offers nothing new to the slasher movie genre . It's nothing more than a succession of set-pieces manipulated to provoke maximum dread from the audience . Everything you've seen before , but the relentless gore , superb photography and eerie , minimalist atmosphere make it a decent time-waster and probably one to share with all your pals . Marie and Alex are 2 college girls vacationing at Alex's parents house in the country . Marie is given her own room and seems comfortable sleeping on her lonesome despite feeling a little unnerved by the isolation of the farmhouse . Not long after nightfall a stranger in grubby cover-alls pulls up in his rust-bucket van / tank and sets about murdering Alex's dad , mum and brother . He kidnap's Alex and plans to rape , torture and kill her but Marie is hot on his heels . Can she rescue her in time . For most of the running time this film works purely on eager energy but in the last act , when the director has wrung out everything he can from the cliché-ridden script he chucks in a stupid , ridiculous plot twist that completely contradicts everything established in the opening act . Yes , there are clues and hints that limply tie it together but it still doesn't add up to sense . I saw Wolf Creek recently and found it rather dull . Upon reading a lot of reviews of it I was made aware of many people comparing it to High Tension , which is what made me check it out in the first place . Yes , the films are very similar but High Tension is surely the best of the 2 , no matter how dumb it gets at the end .
564,666
102,816
455,384
5
A rather bland platformer
I first got Chakan when I was 13 and for some reason I liked it . It's not really that good and is nowhere near as cool as the underground comic-book it's based on . As Chakan you fight through many different planes ( levels ) and baddies such as Dragonfly Kings and evil slugs while using magic potions you come across to give you power-ups . The levels are uninteresting , baddies boring and the fighting is quite simple and lacks satisfaction . Overall it's quite a disappointing game considering how much potential the concept has . If you do like Chakan however , I suggest you track down the comics . THOSE are cool . Graphics Sound Gameplay C Lasting Appeal
564,104
102,816
297,407
5
Too short
And not much in the way of playability . I liked the feature of taking pictures and selling them the Daily Bugle but there's not much else going on . There are only 6 levels and some of them , like the power station , are REALLY short . I liked this game when I was younger but I was used to more simpler games then . But it doesn't really even push the limited ( then wonderful ) capabilities of the Genesis . The graphics are very basic and Spiderman doesn't get much of a workout other than some unspectacular swinging around . There's also a very pointless ' go home for a while ' feature that has no use whatsoever . Don't get me wrong , it's miles better than that awful Spiderman / X-Men game but still not too Amazing . Pick it up cheap , finish it then trade it . Hint : You MUST play the game on Nightmare mode to finish it otherwise you'll only get a couple of levels .
563,783
102,816
116,629
5
Mediocre
I really don't know what to make of ID4 . If you take away the SFX and the patriotic , flag-waving in this film you are left with a very cheap pile of melodramatic sludge . For a first viewing you cannot see this but the 2nd and 3rd time you begin to notice the seriously bad dialogue . It won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects but some of them are REALLY bad . The flames that flow thru the tunnel at the end of the first destruction scene are SO unrealistic . They are way too red . Escape from LA was panned for having crap FX but this is worse . I feel that if ID4 maintained a dark and ominous tone , much like the shadows cast by the spacecraft , it would have been a much better film . But instead the scriptwriters decided to go for the cheap and easy way of bad jokes and clichéd ' human drama ' story lines . The ending is exciting to watch and the final scenes inside the mothership are VERY eye-pleasing . I wish we could see more of this . There were plans for a sequel in early 1997 to be released on January 1st 2000 but Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin left 20th Century Fox , so it was never made .
564,612
102,816
246,544
5
Too hurried
I've never seen any Musketeer movies , not even the Kiefer Sutherland one , but I can tell this one ain't the best . It's very rushed and the script is as flat as a blown-out tire . I mean it's written by the guy who created the Police Academy franchise . Surely he should be blacklisted in Hollywood by now . Peter Hyams once again becomes his own cinematographer and does a kinda okay job . None of his trademark flair or wonderful use of widescreen is in this film and nothing really comes across as pretty or atmospheric . And this whole deal with the film apparently having an Eastern influence is total nonsense . There is like 2 fight scenes and neither of them are that spectacular and come across as a bit contrived . Just because an Asian guy did the choreography it doesn't mean that this film has to look like The Matrix . The actors do what they can with the poor story and limp dialogue but still come across as being bored , especially Stepehen Rea . Tim Roth looks and acts like a cross between Chuck Norris and Charles Dance and his character is a bit of a cliché . ' The Man in Black ' . . . puh-lease . And if you're kinda wondering who that is playing Mena Suvari's evil uncle then you might recognise him as Arthur Fowler from long over-running BBC1 misery and despair soap Eastenders . The Musketeer also seems to be badly edited around the PG-rating . Obviously this is what the studio wanted to aim for but it just seem right given the tone of the film and any scene in which someone dies looks like a badly staged pantomime . Even Dogtanian and the Three Muskahounds was more grown-up than this . And boy are those opening credits ugly ! See it only for free on a day you've got nothing better to do .
564,423
102,816
120,338
5
Don't be fooled
This film has action for the guys , romance for the ladies and a lavish ( ? ) period setting for the older generation . This is the only reason many people went to see it . Cameron knew he could lure everyone into the cinema if he gave them all a little bit of what they wanted . This caused more people to review it and feel obliged to give it good word of mouth . Even if it was a load of garbage . The characters are paper-thin if not thinner . The only reason the ladies cried at the end is because they didn't want LEONARDO DICAPRIO to die . Not Jack Dawson . I must have heard about 300 ladies coming out of the cinema crying " OH MY LEO " . If they had David SCHWIMMER play jack Dawson . . .
564,641
102,816
93,393
5
Very Weird and strange
This film seems to be a bizarre hybrid of David Lynch at his most weirdest and Jim Jarmush on an acid trip . There is no linear progression or any character development . Or any real characters when I think about it . Or story . Just a very strange mixture of disgusting visuals and gay imagery . For the first half of the movie we linger on a bunch of hobos in a demolished wasteland . We can't really tell if they are just living in an old factory or if the world has been destroyed by nuclear apocalypse . These scenes are tinted ( or flooded ) by either red , green or blue . The guys just walk around and stuff . Nothing special . I don't know why I didn't walk out of this movie . Obviously some part of it held my attention . I don't know what though . What's even stranger is that I WOULD recommend this film to others . If you like movies it's a good idea to see a few bizarre ones . If you don't like it that's fine . But I bet you can't fully explain WHY you don't like it . I can't explain why I even sat thru it . It's good to see . Even though it doesn't have the normal things associated with movies . IE script , producer and well ? I dunno . Not much dialogue either .
564,268
102,816
388,482
5
Disappointing sequel
The Transporter franchise suffers from some serious engine failure in this slickly produced sequel and only just makes it over the finishing line . The original had a thin premise and an anorexic plot but delivered brilliantly choreographed fight scenes and down-played gun violence . For number 2 the action is relocated from the French Riviera to Miami , a city often featured in bad sequel movies ( 2 Fast 2 Furious , Bad Boys II , Police Academy 5 ) . Frank Martin ( a skin-headed , forever grimacing Jason Statham ) no longer takes dodgy package from A to B , instead he's temping as a chauffeur for a wealthy family . But when the kid is snatched by stereotyped Columbian villain he springs back into action , kicking ass in his own special way . It turns out that the kid has been injected with a deadly virus . And everyone he breathes on will catch it . And so on and so on . An interesting plot device that soon crumbles into a massive pile of plot holes . The action doesn't have the same edge as it did before . I can appreciate far-fetched action films as long as they stay within relative distance of reality . Transporter 2 goes way beyond reality in well into stupidity , turning Frank Martin from delivery man into indestructible super-hero . After a while you'll realize this man can do anything and will always walk out of the worst scenario alive . It totally kills the excitement . And as if the plot wasn't flimsy enough , the narrative just completely shatters and will leave you disorientated and lost among the brawling and battling . Characters come and go with no explanation , sub-plots are abandoned and the film is totally void of a denouement or climax . There's no satisfaction in the silly story being wrapped up . All Transporter 2 really does is showcase a bunch of totally far-fetched fight scenes , while failing at everything else that could have made the film a contender . Even the relentlessly silly Danny the Dog did better than this . Even though it's made by a European director and producer and funded with European money , something that gave the first such a unique feel , this feels an awful lot like a Hollywood trash flick . It's a shame the series had to stumble so soon . Since the end hints a third , one can only hope that Leterrier and Besson get their act together . What began as a series made in the style of Taxi , Ronin and Kiss of the Dragon has ended up tumbling into world where movies like Stealth and SWAT live . And that ain't good . Oh , and I'm tired of hearing about the movie's so-called homo-eroticism . Like I just said , this film is made by Europeans who are not as homophobic as the rest of the world and see nothing wrong with a man visiting another man for a holiday . Frank Martin is not gay .
564,185
102,816
52,651
5
Nothing special
Here's my problem . . . I like Foghorn Leghorn but I hate the characters he is constantly lumbered to work with . They are all crap . Give us a Foghorn Leghorn and Bugs / Daffy team-up . All these chicken hawk stories down on Old MacDonald's farm are boring . In this one old Miss Prissy is a hen who never lays an egg until Foghorn tries to make her feel better by nicking someone else's and puts it in her nest . Well the egg hatches and a chick is born . A rooster chick who is determined to take Foghorn's place . Foghorn tries to off the little chick in various ways , all backfiring of course , before being kicked off the farm by Old MacDonald . Foghorn is funny , the rest isn't .
564,538
102,816
212,346
5
Unessential potboiler
And not too demanding but not exactly a no-brainer . It's the perfect movie to relax to . Sandra Bullock is charming enough as a tough , tom-boy FBI agent and the resulting hijinks as she tries to track down a Miss America killer is amusing fare indeed . The direction , although pedestrian , has enough flare and the script has enough interesting moments to make the by-the-numbers film-making disappear . The characters are interesting too . Benjamin Bratt was my fave but the others , including some of the Pageant contestants strangely enough , were entertaining although not engaging . The film does have flaws ( Sandra Bullock's laugh and some over-sugary moments ) but for easy on the brain entertainment that neither confirms nor contradicts Sandra Bullock's position as a Superstar .
564,125
102,816
200,659
5
Do YOU believe in ghosts ?
Having seen two different ghosts on separate occasions in my life , then my answer is , most definitely , yes . And no , I wasn't dreaming . I wasn't allowed to see this show back when it originally aired back in 1992 , my mother and aunt were busy keeping the living room for their own drunken yacking . But I did sneak in a couple of times and saw a couple of definitive bits such as the ghost of Pipes appearing behind the curtains . I never knew it was a sham at the time but was intrigued nonetheless . Afterwards , BBC 2 screened Halloween 2 and I was more freaked out by that . But then came Sunday and the whole of Britain was buzzing about it . That particular Saturday night was probably the most iconic Halloween in a long time . The BBC even kept the show hidden away for many years afterwards because of all the controversy it stirred up . So anyone who has memories of being scared back then have not been able to see the show up until recently since the British Film Institute released a DVD . Fifteen years on , in the middle of a reality TV craze and with inattentive audiences , Ghostwatch would certainly not work in 2007 . People now are just too cynical and no one really watches TV on a Saturday night now . There are many other distractions . It was the fact that so many people at Halloween parties , kids and adults alike , were fooled by this that made it so notorious . And there was hardly any advertising for Ghostwatch either and the only way people would know what was on is by checking the TV guides . Now we have the internet and almost every element of a production is scrutinized before anyone sees it . You could say that it was part of Ghostwatch's power that despite hardly any advertising and being bookended with ' this is not real ' that was taken so seriously . But that would an absurd statement . It's a pretty affair . The acting and direction is often stale and clumsy but the subliminal shots of Pipes going unnoticed by the crew make it so brilliant to watch . Set up like a Crimewatch show we have Parkinson in the studio with a Parapsychologist discussing the Pipes phenomena and other ghost stories while Sarah Greene and Craig ' No Talent Whatsoever ' Charles are on location in a council estate where Pipes the ghost is making life a misery for the Early family . As you can imagine , there's a lot of hand-held camera action and quick glimpses of the ghost . I've spotted about seven but there may be more . It's rather dated and badly acted but it's still got enough in it to be interesting in these cynical times . Just try to blank out Craig Charles , why he was chosen to be in this I'll never know . I just wish that the BBC went further and push Ghostwatch to the max instead of mainly just playing it safe .
564,611
102,816
409,320
5
Has dated quite badly
Originally a hit when released in the arcades in the 80's Spy vs Spy also enjoyed success on just about every home console . I myself had it on the Commodore 64 along with the sequel ' Island Adventure ' and the third one called ' Arctic Antics ' , which were better . The trouble with the original Spy vs Spy is that the gameplay , while briefly fun , was too limited and the rooms of the big building you ran about in looked the same . It was easy to get lost and there was nothing particularly visually interesting about the game . But for Spy vs Spy or MAD Magazine completest this game is a must . I've yet to play the new Spy vs Spy game ( it only came out on PS2 and XBOX-I have a Gamecube ) but it will probably be better than this . If you have a vintage console at home then get Spy vs Spy II or III .
564,245
102,816
30,447
5
Polly wanna cracker
Can someone explain to my why Polly is a common name for a parrot ? And why do they have a fascination for crackers ? I've never seen a real life parrot each a cracker . In this cartoon a moving van goes over a nasty bump and a birdcage falls out . The newly freed parrot inside immediately flies into Mickey's house where Mickey mistakes his noisy presence as an invasion by escaped convict Machine-gun Charlie ( or something ) . This is the set-up for the usual hijinks seen in Disney cartoons in which everything Mickey , Donald or Goofy owns is trashed because of their own clumsiness . Something different it ain't .
564,335
102,816
493,247
5
Where have I seen this before ?
If Origin : Spirits of the past seems familiar to you then you are not alone . Even the most indiscriminate anime fan can tell that this is basically a watered-down copy of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind . There are so many similarities that I'm surprised no lawsuits were involved . Set in a future where plant life has taken control of a desecrated world the survivors try to live a delicate existence between the powerful forest and the fascist military until one day a mysterious girl arrives out of the past with lots of questions and long , drawn-out answers . Meh , it's all just so generic and dull full of all the usual anime nonsense . I never really understood why the hero , Agito , falls in love with her so easily . There's not much going on between them . And who was that calling her on that weird phone thingy near the start ? It's never explained . This story has been done bigger and better 25 years ago and there's not any particular reason why anyone should rush out and see Origin . Sorry .
564,748
102,816
462,642
5
Too hard for me
Back in the day of the Commodore 64 , if you were one of the coolest people who had one , you'd remember that there were thousands and thousands of games out there . I had zillions of them . But the queerest of them was a side-scrolling space-shooter called Zybex . It kinda played like Space Harrier , only from a different perspective . You played a dude in a spacesuit who flew over planet surfaces shooting generic enemies and collecting generic power-ups . Aside from it's odd graphics and downright bizarreness , the game was nothing special and was just too hard for a kid my age . My mother loved it though and would often go mental , chucking the joystick across the room , when it became too frustratingly difficult , in the same way R-Type was . Man , I can't believe I'm writing a review for Zybex .
564,790
102,816
120,685
5
Hit and miss .
After scoring a huge hit with ID4 everyone expected Roland Emmerich to really impress us with this movie . Godzilla had a lot to live up to . It disappointed on every level imaginable . The only way to enjoy this is as purely brain-dead nonsense . Think about it and you'll realize how bad it is . So seriously , switch your brain off . The problems mainly lie with the fact that Godzilla himself is very unremarkable . He's just a giant lizard . Hardly threatening . And like Matthew Broderick's character says , he's not evil-he just wants food . It's hard to consider him a baddie when all he does is accidentally trash New York . Plus he moves and looks too much like the Jurassic Park T-Rex to be particularly impressive . None of the characters are interesting either . Which makes the ' character building ' scenes completely useless . That time could have been put to much better use in this 140 minute long film . Only Jean Reno comes away with his dignity intact ( can you believe he turned down playing Agent Smith to be in this ? ) . Though it is cool to see Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria ( Principal Skinner / Kent Brockman and Moe / Apu ) in a movie together but they don't get much screen time . In comparison to ID4 , Emmerich's direction kind of falls flat . Remember the public reactions as huge spaceships descended upon New York and LA and how everyone kind of watched in hypnotical awe as panic arose around them . The same could have been used in Godzilla but far too much of the movie has New Yorkers acting completely indifferently to a 1000 foot reptile hopping through the city . And I know those Apache helicopter scenes featuring the ' miniature ' buildings are supposed to be an homage to the Japanese Godzilla flicks but here they look completely stupid and seem like they belong in a different movie . They just don't fit in with the rest of the film and it's very distracting . That could have been handled a lot better . The ending sets up story for two sequels which never happened because of massive audience disappointment . A shame kind of since Emmerich could have learned from his mistakes in this movie and made a sequel that is much better . I own the Superbit DVD of Godzilla ( only available in Region 2 at the moment ) and the DTS 5 . 1 sound is awesome . With every pounding footstep of the big lizard the living room booms and shakes . Plus the 2 . 40 : 1 anamorphic picture is flawless .
564,135
102,816
58,996
5
Where have I seen this before ?
The Pink Panther fancies a job as a Matador but moths have eaten his red cape , so he decides to steal an enchanted cape from a Magician . Once in the arena his taunting of the bull only leads to magic going awry and the bull freaking out . It's mildly amusing without ever being laugh-out-loud funny . The whole premise is nicked from the 1953 cartoon A Bully for Bugs in which Bugs , as a matador , outsmarts a raging bull . Pinky doesn't do it quite so well and as a result the cartoon is quite boring . Not much effort put into the backgrounds either so it also looks quite cheap as well as being laugh-less .
563,790
102,816
41,605
5
No love from me
There's not much original about this short . Tom chases Jerry in the yard where they encounter Spike and his son Tyke sleeping peacefully . Jerry seeks refuge in their kennels while setting up Tom as the bad guy to the irritable Spike ( voiced by an uncredited actor ) . Jerry comes across as much more malevolent than Tom in this one , and deserves a comeuppance . The visual humor involves stepping on rakes ( fans of Sideshow Bob will be very familiar with this ) and a gag I'm sure I've seen before in which Tom prods around in Spike's mouth looking for Jerry . It's mildly amusing , but far from being a standout T & J short .
563,962
102,816
301,766
5
Not that great
There were 2 versions of Rambo III ( once the most expensive film ever , and the biggest loss ever ) released on home consoles . One was a first-person shooter that incorporated the light-gun ( much like Operation Wolf ) released on the Sega Master System and Commodore 64 . This one was slightly better . The other was a top-down vertically and horizontally scrolling shooter ( much , MUCH like the far superior Ikari Warriors ) . This is the version I got for the Mega Drive / Genesis . As a shoot-'em-up it's boring . You never really feel the violence or feel the impact of war . You only get one gun , with a never ending supply of bullets . But you do get bombs and a bow with a limited supply of arrows . Still , the gameplay is pretty mundane and the targeting sequences in between the ( very similar ) levels don't distract enough from the dullness . Nothing in this game really sticks out or makes an impression . The Genesis was capable of so much better than this . And why do stock photographs of Rutger Hauer show up in this when he was never in the film ? Graphics Sound D Gameplay D Lasting Appeal
564,528
102,816
167,901
5
Guns . Guns ! And more Guns ! !
Just what were war bonds anyway ? I've never actually found out but from the looks of this Disney wartime propaganda cartoon it looks like some sort of bank . How else would we invest in victory ? The cartoon begins with Donald relaxing in his hammock as the radio advertises war bond savings . Donald says he'll do it tomorrow but a little Donald angel pops up and insists he do it today . Then the Donald Devil shows and says ' why not spend that money on yourself ? ' But if we lose the war there won't even be a Donald ! Shameless scare tactics indeed . I guess if we didn't all go down to the post office and hand over our green then we would have lost the war huh ? The bit at the end saying ' we need more guns , guns , guns ' would have modern-day censors going nuts . The ' good old days ' you say ?
563,978
102,816
185,014
5
Not much going on
For a film that has such interesting characters we only scratch the surface if exploring them fully . Hardly anything about why Tobey Maguire is a bit weird is explained to us . This is very annoying as he is the most intriguing character in the film . Although it was cool to see him paired up with Katie Holmes again . Michael Douglas turns in a terrific performance but he is not as good as he was in Falling Down which was definitely his best . But he certainly does come close here . As a writer myself I kind of understood his frustration but his reasons for not writing like he used to just didn't convince me . The photography in this film was superb . Dante Spinotti ( LA Confidential , Heat , The Insider ) creates a very unique and effective atmosphere . The scene outside the house during the party was very impressive . The snow , the silence and the slight wind were all wonderfully captured . This is without a doubt the film's strong point . This is by no means a bad film but it's not a great one either . But no matter what your tastes , you'll never waste your time watching it .
563,890
102,816
287,963
5
Not shocking or sexy at all
In fact it's a bit of a soap opera . Take away all the sex and you're left with some boring office politics you've seen dozens of times before . The story has 2 girls ( Nathalie and Sandrine ) get fired from their jobs at a tawdry Paris strip club . They move in together and strike up some kind of weird , half-lesbian friendship . Sandrine has never had an honest orgasm and Nathalie teaches her how to . She also teaches her to lose her inhibitions and masturbate in public . Wow , this may have been shocking back in the 80s with Nine and Half Weeks and even lesser drivel like Wild Orchid but now , in the 21st century it's just plain boring . If the film thought it could use this frank portrayal of sexuality in its favor then it is very much mistaken . In fact , the most interesting part of the film is when Nathalie and Sandrine both get jobs in the same office and use their sexiness to climb the ladder . This bit has also been done before in Neil Labute's In The Company of Men , but not as good . It's here that the best characters are featured but towards the end of the second act the film goes off in another tangent with the evil boss of the company turning out to be a crazed sex-maniac with delusions of godhood . Again , sexuality is used as a way of shock or arousing us , but it just fails . There's so many other films out there that try the same thing and if you want to succeed at it then you either have to be really erotic or just plain pornographic ( yup , two different things ) . Choses Secretes is neither . And the women need to seriously think about shaving George W . if you know what I mean . I know European women like to be au naturel but DAMN ! Overall , Choses Secretes is neither good or bad . It's simply middle of the road . For a film that tries to sell itself on loads of sex it's somewhat ironic that the best bits are in the scenes where people are just talking .
564,869
102,816
43,495
5
This is Looney Tunes ?
' cause it sure doesn't feel like it . In fact it seems more like a Disney Public Service Announcement from the 40's . I mean , there is a black and white cat in this short and it's not even Sylvester . Why ? Basically it's about how fool's gamble their life away with opportunities they know are phony . A gambling bug ( a very unaesthetic character ) bites the cat in the ear and he feels compelled to play cards with a big dog . If he loses the penalty is torture . And he does nowt but lose . Man , that message there is really subtle huh ? The only good thing about this cartoon is the music , which is rather lively and engaging .
564,472
102,816
287,978
5
Fluff
Have never read one single Daredevil comic book in my life I guess my review is kind of unbiased . Okay , I am certainly NOT a fan of Ben Affleck but his presence in this film was an indifferent one rather than an aggravating one . For those of you who are unfamiliar Daredevil is also known as Matt Murdock , the blind lawyer . But though his eyes do not work his other 4 sense do to a superhuman degree . Sounds , smells , touches and tastes go together to form a bizarre sight that has pros and cons over normal vision . It's pretty cool concept and it's reasonably well done . But Daredevil has NO plot ! It's a swift 90 minutes of practically nothing . The most involving part of the film is the romance between Affleck and Garner but it's cut short with the arrival of Colin Farrell who plays Bullseye , a paper-thin but funny character . Many have been annoyed at the fact that the Kingpin is played by a Black-American actor . But what does THAT matter ? Who cares if he's white in the comic book ? Michael Clarke Duncan brings some formidable integrity to the role but does come off as a bit too cuddly at the same time . A tiny bit of story is set up but it's over very soon . I guess the best you could say is that Daredevil doesn't outstay its welcome . But you'll not remember it 5 minutes after seeing it . And I don't like the fact they chose to separate all Daredevil and Spiderman links just because they were licensed to different studios . The DVD is in 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with a very powerful DTS 5 . 1 track . Plus a bunch of extras I don't care about .
563,811
102,816
160,236
5
Better than I expected
I though this film was going to be nothing but juvenile nonsense . How pleased I was when I discovered that it was a lot livelier and energetic than I predicted . The voice-over never once annoyed me as I thought it would and everyone in this movie seems to go overboard with their characters . Yet , despite all the energy and frenetic comedy , the film never feels indulgent . The plot is , of course , nonsense . But then again you hardly want a family movie to have a labyrinth plot . Dudley Do-Right may have flopped but I don't know why . It's in the same field as the terrible " Waterboy " but that made over $100 , 000 , 000 . This I won't understand . Maybe it's only because Canadians will truly love the intellectually-challenged Mountie .
564,639
102,816
146,882
5
Talk , talk , talk , talk talk ,
I don't mind movies having cool dialogue in every other scene . Talking about and building plot is important but HIGH FIDELITY has NO plot . It is nothing but talking . There are some cool scenes but it gets very boring very quickly . It was a long 113 minutes let me tell ya . I know what this movie is about . A man growing up years after he should have . But it should have been shorter . All the performances are very good . Especially Jack Black as Barry . It's the biggest role he's had so far after smaller roles in movies like THE JACKEL and MARS ATTACKS . But Tim Robbins steals the show . Rent this movie on DVD and keep it turned down low because the music throughout is outrageously loud .
563,906
102,816
39,637
5
Generic T & J short .
In this cartoon Mammy-Two-Shoes ( not dubbed to be less ' offensive ' in the one I saw ) is devastated to learn that there is a mouse in the house and he's eating all the food and making a mess . So far , so typical . She gives the two lazy cats ( Tom and someone else who isn't named ) and ultimatum-the one that catches Jerry will not be thrown out . Cue the usual chases around the house and tricks using household objects in a cartoon that is so generic and formulaic it's almost a cut and paste of many other T & J shorts strung along in succession for 7 minutes . Yes , there are laughs , but it's utterly forgettable and average at best .
564,455
102,816
69,995
5
Not scary
I can't understand why this is regarded as a classic . The plot is simple and offers no real twists , the scenery is drab and depressing and there is some really ugly 70's fashion on display . I went to see this movie because I like Donald Sutherland but he looks more like 70's porn star John Holmes than the Donald Sutherland I know . There are some odd moments to the direction and Nicolas Roeg has a strange way of cutting and editing . So many people has said so many great things about this movie but I honestly couldn't see them . You'd have to be a fool to not know the outcome at the end . Also the film seems to be in the same league as all those Redemption titles from the 70's . The gritty style and the massive lack of any beautiful images give Don't Look Now a rugged and haggard look . Watch this in the Theatre not on TV .
564,636
102,816
126,816
5
Ach , it's okay
This movie is closer to movies John Woo did before he came to Hollywood . I'm talking about Hard Boiled and The Killer . These both had high melodrama and an emotionally troubled hero . Dolph does quite a good job of this and gives a pretty good performance . Many people criticise Dolph for not being a good actor but when you forget that your watching him you'll realise that he's quite good despite never having any acting lessons . This is the first film in which I've seen him be a sort of father figure . I think he handles dialogue well and tries his best to do as much as he can in the mediocre roles he is offered . He should be in more high-profile movies and should climb out of the DTV hell his career is in . His best film so far is Joshua Tree but Blackjack is good to watch . John Woo's style is written all over this film . More so than Broken Arrow ( in which his style was entirely muted ) . Color schemes , camera tricks and slow-mo shootouts are all present in this movie . It's a little lacking , and confusing , in the plot department but when your having so much fun it doesn't matter THAT much . I heard somewhere that there is soon to be a TV series of Blackjack . If there were I think I would enjoy it very much . The only thing stopping this from being a high-profile hit is the fact that it's a TV movie . But don't let that put you off .
564,236
102,816
397,042
5
Wears thin fast
Six years have passed since the Umbrella Corporation released the T-Virus into the small town of Raccoon City and turned almost the entire population in flesh-eating zombies . Leon Kennedy , one of the survivors has risen from ordinary cop to a special agent in charge of VIP security . When the President's daughter is kidnapped by a deranged evil cult in rural France he must do whatever it takes to get her back . What he discovers is a conspiracy that makes the T-Virus outbreak look like a 70s episode of Blue Peter . For the next several hours you'll run through zillions of different environments blasting as mad villagers and collecting gold . The more gold you collect the better weapons you can buy from the creepy merchant who shows up throughout every level . Yes , it all looks very pretty . But it's increasingly tedious stuff . Let me just say that I loved Resident Evil ( the Gamecube remake ) and I thought that Resident Evil Zero was quite a lot of fun too . While Resident Evil 4 is an improvement in terms of graphics and hardware it doesn't have any atmosphere or the overwhelming sensation of dread and fear . This is basically down to the style of gameplay . Gone are the spooky camera angles for a start . Instead , this time the camera is constantly behind Leon , following him in whatever direction he goes . It's a bit tricky at first but after a few minutes you'll get the hang of it . Also , the game is not really about exploration and mystery solving and you never really go back to the same place twice . Okay , this is a good thing in some ways as it did get a little annoying before ( the ' door-opening ' cut-scenes are also gone ) and I understand the gameplay of the franchise had to evolve but , the way it is , RE 4 just feels like a shoot-em-up . In your long , long journey ( the game is absolutely MASSIVE ) Leon visits a rickety European village that seems stuck in the dark ages , onto an old castle , then to a creepy island and on into a huge fortress and laboratory . In this respect it feels a LOT like a Dungeon Siege game in regards to the constant running around in torch-lit catacombs , killing big insects , collecting treasures , trading / building up your stats and weapons and looking for that way out which seems to be miles away through endless , labyrinthine corridors . All you really do in this game is go forward and shoot . And it gets quite boring after the halfway mark . There is some very slight puzzle-solving but I suspect this was only put in to satisfy hardcore RE fans . And what really gets on my nerves is the stupidness of it all . The RE games are notorious for having extremely convoluted plots but the story in this one will have you tying your brain in knots . And why the hell does Leon battle 20-foot tall ogres ? Is this a Lord of the Rings game ? The realism of the first games is absent and with it goes the sense of gut-wrenching tension . You know this game is just fantasy hokum whereas before the sense that it all could happen is what made the zombies all the more terrifying . A sload of homages and references to other movies are peppered through the game . Try to spot references to Splatterhouse , The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , hell ? even Harry Potter . All interesting but still totally inappropriate for an RE game . There are plenty of pros , like the previously mentioned brilliant graphics , the sheer size of the game is impressive , the cool extras and mini-games awarded after finishing ( I did it in 15 hours and I WON'T be going through it again ) and faster loading times . But the boredom of killing the zillionth evil henchman and his twin really gets mind-numbingly dull after hour 10 . I finished this in 6 days ( the original and Zero took me much longer ) so I suggest you rent this if you're not the obsessive RE collector type . While it is a great-looking game and very slick , it just didn't keep me as thrilled ( or as scared ) as it could have . Graphics Absolutely wonderful . The RE games on the Gamecube have always looked brilliant but it's hard to find better looking games than this . The environments and locations are all so vividly detailed it would be scary if the game were not so corny . Sound Again , almost perfect . But I would have had more satisfaction is blowing the heads of freaks off if the gunshots were louder and more dynamic . The musical score comes and goes and it's nothing special but if you've got it hooked up to a home theatre the best thing is hearing those freaks creep up behind you . Extras As with the previous games , the faster you finish the game , the better extras you will unlock . Mini games , special costumes , heavy artillery , hidden treasures and bottle caps are but some of the goodies awaiting you . Final Thoughts I am disappointed that the game doesn't live up to it's predecessors . I understand a 4th in a series must be radically new and different but this feels too far removed from the original games and the outlandish plot connections seem false and forced . A decent shoot-em-up for a once around only . Despite the bonus unlockables , it was too derivative for me to come back . The PS2 version is also available in a metal case .
564,769
102,816
45,063
5
A doped up Puma ?
Not much going on in this short , I'm afraid . Bugs saves his little , hyperactive pal Junior from being eaten by the slow-witted Pete Puma ( who acts like junkie looking for a fix ) . Bugs proceeds to execute a lame running gag with a hammer and hitting the poor doped-up puma on the head . It's not intelligent stuff , by any means . Odd , considering how great Bugs ' usual standard is . The main problem lies with the fact that Pete Puma is not a great foil for Bugs , Junior is too hyper to be likable and there's a huge lack of real invention and mania . The Puma in drag scene also looked a bit disturbing . Bugs has done much better than this .
564,587
102,816
184,894
5
So Light It Floats
There's a fair amount of fun to be had with this film . It doesn't take itself seriously or bother going too deep . The tone is bright and happy and it makes for perfect mindless entertainment . But nothing else . Seriously , there is no need to watch this more than once as it is the most forgetable pile of utter silliness in a long time . Owen Wilson is so charming as the hapless but innocent crook Roy O'Bannon who teams up Jackie Chan's Chong Wang / John Wayne to put an evil Sheriff out of business , rescue a Princess and defeat some stock Chinese Bad Guy . It's all harmless stuff with some neat fight scenes that never get too violent and a gleefully light-hearted sense of humor . Randy Edelman's generic Western score is terrible ( as usual ) and sounds like everything else he's ever done only with a few notes changed . But it's the only weak part of a thoroughly indifferent , inoffensive and passive movie . The DVD is in 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5 . 1 sound .
563,921
102,816
80,761
5
A slick potboiler , but pretty tame in retrospect .
In 1979 Sean S . Cunningham was looking to produce a mere potboiler to tide him over until his next serious project . His idea of a Summer Camp Killer movie seemed like a decent , low-budget , one-shot deal and he went with it . There was nothing particularly memorable or unique about it but it was bought by Paramount and released as a mainstream film , rather than a independent struggler . The response was huge and it soon became clear that Friday the 13th was not a mere paycheck but a serious cash-cow . Sequels followed . And the rest is history . Many , many people claim that Friday the 13th rips off Halloween . Which is not a very fair or kind statement . Sure , it's no work of art and has many similarities , but Halloween was NOT the first slasher movie as Black Christmas and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre came before it . I was actually draw more parallels between this and The Last House on the Left , which was also produced by Cunningham . Friday the 13th is a slicker , tamer film in comparison but if TLHOTL never existed then we would have the Friday the 13th franchise that we have today . The characters and deaths are not so imaginative . All we really get is throat slashings and impalings . But at least the fodder are not as obnoxious and annoying as they would later become in the sequels , when they truly deserved more grotesque deaths . At the time , the ending was surprising only because it came out of nowhere . The sudden unveiling of the killer and motives was random and unexpected . It's weird watching it now , knowing that Jason and parts 2-infinity were never planned . Jason was just a dead boy and nothing more . It's hard to review Friday the 13th on it's own merits rather than the movie that launched a major franchise . A low-brow slasher script made into a potboiler movie that ended up making zillions in sequels , spin-offs , TV series ' , toys , games and accessories seems so far-fetched .
564,132
102,816
60,835
5
Off on a pink hurl
The Pink Panther is nosing around a used-car lot and is contemplating buying a small bug car that looks like it would fit him perfectly . Only it's the wrong color . So he happily pays good money for it and takes it home to spray-paint . Once out on the streets with his new pink bug the car starts to give him hassle and is finally pushed over the edge when Pinky drag races an old granny . I'm not that impressed with this cartoon . Nothing much really happens and it's not really that hilarious despite few funny moments . It's mostly a one joke affair and doesn't really get good mileage out of it . Pun intended .
563,793
102,816
41,446
5
Blah
I'm not too keen on this one , I'm afraid . Jerry becomes an unexpected ' mama ' to a baby woodpecker after an egg falls out of a nest and rolls into his quarters beneath the house . The baby bird hatches and mistakes Jerry for it's mother . Hardly an original concept for a cartoon , even back in 1949 . As expected , the Woodpecker goes crazy , pecking stuff to into dust . When out in the open , Tom ( who appears just two minutes before it's finished ) takes an instant dislike when his afternoon sitting in a deckchair is interrupted and tries to kill the annoying little chick . I'm with Tom on this one .
564,155
102,816
364,725
5
Two parts Baseketball , One Part Kingpin
I have never seen a more unoriginal movie in my life . Every single joke , gag or pun in Dodgeball is blatantly and openly stolen from another movie . And this really , really bugs me . However I did laugh constantly and it was enjoyable . Though I must confess my hatred of Ben Stiller and his insistence to crank out 200 unfunny films a year ( a schedule typically reserved for porn stars ) . Initially , I hated Vince Vaughn and liked Stiller . But now that's kind of flip-flopped . After Vaughn's funny performance in Old School I warmed to him but Stiller is under the impression that everything he does is funny . He certainly is not ; anyone can act like a jerk . The plot is old hat . But Vaughn's ragtag group of losers and their determination to win the Dodgeball tournament is the real laugh machine . Though I was constantly thinking about how they worked much better in Baseketball or Kingpin . Asides from Vaughn and the so-not-funny anymore Stiller the cast is good . Rip Torn as Patches O'Houlihan is amusing ( though he did the exact same role in Summer Rental ) , Stephen Root ( that's Bill Dauterive for all you King of the Hill fans ) was my fave and there's plenty of cameos from the likes of Hank Azaria , Jason Bateman , William Shatner , David Hasselhoff and Chuck Norris . Funny it may well be but expect practically every laugh to come with a heavy sense of Déjà vu . I wouldn't bother buying the DVD when it comes out . Just watch Baseketball and Kingpin side by side on 2 TVs and you'll end up watching this . And trust me , if ESPN 8-The Ocho , was a real channel , I'd be watching it every day .
564,277
102,816
284,490
5
Lukewarm
Such a promising concept ( as unoriginal as it may be ) like this cannot be fully exercised in a 95 minute long movie . Had this movie been made a few years ago then it may have been a bit more original and ' in time ' to be a part of the whole ' reality TV ' boom . As it stands ' Showtime ' is neither ironic nor exciting and you will forget it completely 5 minutes after watching it . If the movie were extended to a little over 2 hours , with tighter editing and a better script it may have worked . Nothing is fully explored or exploited in this film and the villain is so weak and pointless his role could easily have been played by a ghost . ' Showtime ' really ought to have been a mini-series . This would have offered a greater sense of self-referential , ironic humor and given more time to devote to plot , character , action and intelligence . But in this hour and a half movie , director Tom Dey cannot make anything work . Murphy isn't funny , DeNiro is sleepwalking and Russo is wasted . The only person contributing anything of worth is Shatner . And the references to his TJ Hooker show are ironic by accident in regards to Hooker being better than ' Showtime ' and ' Showtime ' within the movie . This movie is only an example of money thrown away and the totally wrong approach given to a promising concept . I would rent it . But make sure it is the widescreen version as the fullscreen ( actually pan and scan , or ' CROPPED ' ) has about % 50 of the picture missing . The commentary is uninteresting and I must seriously point out that the advertised ' Uproarious additional scenes , including hilarious improvised Eddie Murphy ' are anything but . Even if I had watched my own autopsy they probably still would be the most uncomfortable and unfunny things I have ever witnessed in my life . The HBO documentary is light promotional fluff hosted by William Shatner and the extended scenes offer nothing new .
563,910
102,816
295,846
5
Better than Goldeneye : Rogue Agent , but still a bland FPS .
I'm not really big on the Bond games . Most of then are no more than ordinary first person shooters with licensed characters . I guess since the original Goldeneye game on the Nintendo 64 was so popular they felt like they shouldn't stray to far from the winning formula . In this game we have a generic interpretation of Bond involved in a dull plot involving clones and kidnapped world leaders . We go through several different locations but only some of them are cool and none are used to their full potential . There are a couple of driving levels too , but the street design is just uninspired . The best thing about FPS games is the ability to just go berserk and shoot-up the place , hoping to catch the baddies in the crossfire . But you don't really get a lot of ammo and reloading is painfully slow sometimes . And the destruction you can inflict upon the environment is very limited . I can really only recommend AUF to Bond fans . The rest of you have soooo many other choices for superior FPS games , you don't want to waste your time with this one .
564,697
102,816
819,940
5
You have to be kidding me !
Is this a video-game or a book ? I've never done so much reading in my life so I'm sure it's not a video-game . Trace Memory is one of the early Nintendo DS titles and it seems to have been made to showcase the DS features as any kind of enjoyable gameplay has been totally thrown out the window . You play a very cute Japanese girl ( the white hair thing is cool ) called Ashley Mizuki Robbins on the day of her 14th birthday , since she shared the same birthday as me I am assuming that the personalised DS changes it for each player . She journeys to Blood Edward Island to reunite with her estranged dad but when she arrives he's not there and you must find him . So begins a long , long and even more tedious game of looking everywhere and talking to other characters and a ghost kid with loads and loads and loads and loads of reading dialogue . Dialogue that there is no button simply skip by and get on with the game . It's a bloody pain in the ass I tell you . Each of the DS features is used at least once in the game , such as blowing on the screen to help Ashley blow dust off an old mirror or folding the screen together to solve some sort of reflection code . Oooh . . . wow ! But where the hell is the enjoyment ? And get this , not only is this game torture to get through , but you actually have to complete it TWICE ! No way man ! You solve all of the mystery regarding the missing dad but then you start at the beginning again in what they call a ' starred ' game in which you must do THE EXACT SAME THING again ( including reading all that bloody dialogue ) only to have a slightly different ending in which the ghost kid remembers his past . Well he can ' live ' the rest of his death in ignorance because I ain't wasting my precious time helping him . There are better games out there than this . I mean , the graphics are nice and it's a very summery looking but the generic music , slowness , endless reading and dull plot make a game that's more of a sleeping pill than a fun experience . Graphics Sound C Gameplay Lasting Appeal
563,930
102,816
319,262
5
Important message drowned in clichés and empty effects
Roland Emmerich seems to have learned a few lessons from ID4 . TDAT is not disgustingly patriotic and is far more darker and serious . The comical nature of ID4 ruined it somewhat and I'm glad he chose to mute it for this movie . But still , though the subject matter is serious and definitely needs more consideration in real life , TDAT fails to disturb or scare us into saving the environment . Emmerich seems fascinated with destroying the Big Orange and the Big Apple . In ID4 both were obliterated by fire . In Godzilla New York was smashed by a big lizard and instead of a wall of fire in TDAT , we have a wall of water wiping out New York while twisters tear LA apart . These effects could have been scary and ominous and utterly engaging . But the point of view we see them from showcases them as big budget movie effects rather than believable ( and eventually possible ) disasters . There are also zillions of clichés to deal with . The minor character who sacrifices himself , the character who puts his / her life in grave danger for stupidest of reasons , the ignorant authority figure who dismisses the intelligent warnings and puts dozens / hundreds / millions of lives at risk . All here for your annoyment . There actors did their best with the weak characters . Dennis Quaid ( his brother was the hero in ID4 ) is good in the lead and always watchable . Jake Gyllenhaal is kind of wasted in a role that requires him to do nothing more than stand around looking blank . Though Ian Holme was quite cool and the plot involving Scotland freezing was interesting ( though it already IS freezing ) . It bugs me when people criticize the film for having no story . There IS a story ( there'd be no movie otherwise ) , but it's minimal . Roland Emmerich seems to be serious about saving the environment and uses this film to push a message to ignorant politicians . A shame then as the story is nothing but an excuse to tie together a bunch of SFX set-pieces . You gotta give Emmerich some credit though , the scale of this is huge , as were his previous movies . He certainly knows how to handle these massive projects but there is a distinct lack of ' epic ' feel to TDAT . Even ID4 has this . However , no director in history has ever made frost look so menacing .
564,766
102,816
475,592
5
More like Plastic Axe
I was dreading playing this game after suffering the unspeakably awful Golden Axe 2 . Honestly , I have played few video games that made me want to hurl my console out the window but the first sequel to Golden Axe brought me very close . Originally not released outside of Japan , Golden Axe three offers a bit more in the way of gameplay by introducing unlockable characters and a non-linear route to final boss . The graphics are merely adequate , not pushing the Mega Drive potential in the slightest . The backgrounds are mainly bland and generic but not to the point of being distracting , if that makes sense . There are only about five character models for the villains and about two different ( and rubbish ) music tracks . The sound effects suck , the combat is painfully limited and the character magic is utterly unimpressive . Despite all this , I didn't feel like turning it off in disgust and stuck with it until the end . I had fun , not lots of fun , but still felt like I had played a semi-decent game . Skip Golden Axe 2 and go straight to this one .
564,176
102,816
27,962
5
Awful Opera
Eesh , if I were making an Opera I would NOT cast a hen as the fat lady . Sorry . She's just awful , that noise . . . ugh ! I think Disney should have realized her singing would have put people off ! The 1 minute shot of her just singing was too much to bear . As usual for a Disney cartoon , calamity is not far behind . Backstage Pluto is being tormented by rabbits in a top hat , conductor Mickey is desperately trying to keep the Opera from falling apart and Donald has trouble with his acting skills and prodding stuff with his sword prop . The audience gets a fair chuckle as everything goes badly . And the cartoon ends on an abrupt note , as many Disney toons do . Mildly funny .
564,255
102,816
416,315
5
Extremely predictable and a mighty slow start
There is not one wolf in the film . But that doesn't mean there ain't no predator and prey . Three friends : Ben , Lizzie and Kirsty are off on a hedonistic tour across the Austrailian outback . It's a pleasant enough trip despite the usual country hicks making fun of them . Upon visiting the second largest asteroid crater in the world they ponder whether or not the rock was drawn to that part of the earth . What is it about the endless , lifeless desert ? Why do so many people hike out to the middle of nowhere just to see it ? Maybe they like feeling small and insignificant when compared to the infinite space above and the ominous desert around them . Satisfied with their viewing of a big hole they decide to crack on with their trip . But when they get back to their car it mysteriously won't start . By now they are getting a little freaked out but relax somewhat when a Crocodile Dundee-type hickster comes along and offers them a tow back to his ranch where he offers to fix their car for free . At this point Wolf Creek drastically begins to resemble House of 1000 Corpses , Wrong Turn and Texas Chainsaw Massacre . The hicksters compound turns out to be a torture dungeon / mass murder burial ground . There are rotting bodies everywhere and the hickster turns out to be into Ed Gein style rape and dismemberment . Each of the three victims gets their own segment in which they try to escape the hickster's compound . I'll admit that this is the strongest part of the film with some genuine moments of gut-wrenching tension and chills and brutal gore but the victims make such dumb decisions that you'll more than likely be overcome with anger at their stupidity . You just know that they're gonna end up dead meat . And you just know that any kindly bystander that offers help is gonna buy the farm too . So much of this will be the usual routine for horror fans . The hickster turns out to be just as indestructible as any other slasher killer you may be familiar with and the psychotic country-bumpkin thing is certainly nothing new . Despite turning a few of the genre clichés on its head and reversing our expectations a few times , Wolf Creek is a dunderheaded exercise in routine horror . It takes ages to get going and doesn't add up to much in the end . But for a good bit , in the middle , the film delivers enough excitement to make it worthwhile . However I am glad that there are people out there who are ready and willing to make a non PG-13 rated horror , despite the end result being somewhat a disappointment . Oh and it's NOT a true story despite what the narrative and over-zealous ad campaign suggests . It's loosely based on separate true events but has as much truth to it as Braveheart II .
564,529
102,816
309,698
5
Engaging thriller that deflates halfway through
Identity quickly sets itself up as a tightly-drawn whodunnit mystery thriller . As 10 strangers ( including John Cusack , Ray Liotta , John C . McGinley , Clea Duvall , Rebecca DeMornay , Amanda Peet , Jake Busey ) come together in a rundown desert motel during a rainstorm , suspicions and fear among them rise when it appears their is a killer in their midst . Adding the intrigue are the seemingly unconnected scenes of a late-night hearing of a would-be sent-to-death serial taking place far , far away from the motel . For about 60 minutes , this 90-minute movie keeps you hooked . Then it sets about breaking all the rules it has set up and massive gaps in logic distract your attention from the increasingly preposterous climax . I can honestly say I never saw the twist coming . But it came too early and led the film into stupidness . It is atmospherically shot and the feeling of isolation is quite cool , even if it doesn't last very long . But , in the end , I've seen episodes of Midsomer Murders that are far better than this . But what do you expect from a film written by the guy who wrote Jack Frost 2 : Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman . The DVD is in 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5 . 1 sound . There are a bunch of extras I don't care about .
564,784
102,816
395,109
5
Not great , but better than Vengeance
I hated Batman : Vengeance and I was a little bit weary about playing this game . So I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually a fun little beat-em-up in the tradition of Streets of Rage and Double Dragon . However it is still quite a shallow game . Each level looks exactly the same as you ( as Batman , Robin , Batgirl or Nightwing ) run around levels like the City Streets , the Sewers , Museums etc and beat-up generic looking villains . The graphics and levels look pretty but the scenery is rather flat and unengaging . Plus the upgrades with special moves are hardly that exciting though it is slightly fun using them to kick-in the heads of evil henchmen . But when you do it for the forty-millionth time it does get a bit boring . And every level involves either defusing a bomb against 3-minute time limits and rescuing hostages against 3-minute time limits . Wow ! But , like I said , it's still far better than Vengeance and the cut-scenes look lovely . And for the tiny amount of pennies that I paid for it I can hardly complain really .
564,677
102,816
454,923
5
SNES version is a classic , GBA version is a disgrace
The evil scum of the Bydo Empire are at it again . So it's up to you to climb into your R-9 Ragnarok vessel and blast off to defeat the mutant alien slime . This second sequel ( or third if you count the Japanese Arcade-only R-Type Leo ) was originally just as solid as any other game in the series . This GBA version is tepid to the point of redundancy . The cut-scenes have been omitted so the game is just one level after another . While the graphics look good they have a tacky cheapness about them that is distracting . And don't get me started on the music . The R-Type series is famous for having some of the most coolest of the coolest tunes ever , sort of like a futuristic space-rave . Sadly , in this GBA version they have been cut down to the most horrible sounding and basic midi files . It almost feels like there is no music at all . The gameplay just sucks , plain and simple . Nothing is about skill , instead one must memorise their way around the levels . There is no fun to be had in risk-taking as you will always lose coz the odds are so heavily against you . And too often there are long gaps in which nothing happens , just the ship cruising through empty space . And when you inevitably die you get sent miles back and must do it all over again . Since finishing this near-impossible games requires doing levels over and over again it becomes very repetitive and tedious very quickly . Anyone keen to check out R-Type III ought to get the SNES version and leave this disgrace be . Unless you like game that will make you tear the hair from your head in frustration and bore the pants off you with the dull levels . Graphics Sound Gameplay Lasting Appeal
564,312
102,816
28,069
5
Very Bad Kids
Mickey and Donald very kindly treat the local orphans to a picnic in the countryside . And how do they repay them ? By tormenting them and ruining the picnic . How about that for gratitude . It's not massively funny but the orphans ( all looking like little Mickeys ) are so cute . And would I be correct in assuming that they made an appearance in the Toon Town scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit ? Vividly animated it may well be but beneath the cleverness of some gags and the class of it's appearance there ain't much laughs in Orphan's Picnic . If I had my way the little scoundrels would be cleaning chimneys for the rest of their life for that behaviour .
564,648
102,816
37,793
5
Not Dracula's house .
Count Dracula and Larry Talbot ( the Wolfman ) turn up at Doctor Edelman's house asking for a cure . But they have to get in line behind hunchback nurse . Edelman has found a new sort of fungus with potential cure possibilities and the best place to grow it is in an old cave beneath the house . This just happens to be where the quicksand has deposited Frankenstein's monster . You just know that this is not going to end well . There's a decent amount of drama but little action and no scares . Once again it is set in no place in particular with English and American accents all over the place ( said ' place ' is a village straight out the European dark ages ) ) . Worth watching only for nostalgic value .
564,856
102,816
291,715
5
An okay platformer . . .
. . . though increasingly tedious and a bit dull . As usual for film tie-ins of the time it had little do with the story of Alien 3 . Ripley runs about with a big gun ( there were no guns in the film ) shooting at loads of aliens ( there was only one in the film ) through many different levels . While the levels looks good and had a decent atmosphere about them it looked nothing like the Fury-161 prison / refinery of the movie and all you really did in them was jump from platform to platform and go up and ladders . Occasionally a Xenomorph would rush and knock you over if you didn't blow it away . It became really boring after a while and only those with seriously nothing better to do would be able to stick it out until the end . And why is Ripley alive at the end ?
564,651
102,816
190,374
5
Not as bad as most would have you believe .
While not a masterpiece of any kind ( the film barely exceeds mere competence ) I didn't find D & D to be as bad as the negative reviews claimed . I put off watching it for so long for this reason , but it was enjoyable enough . Comparisons to the LOTR trilogy are inevitable , so I'm not going to avoid it . I didn't really like the LOTR trilogy . It just seemed to be a bunch of movies that everyone was forced to like and if you didn't then there must be something wrong with you . Yes , they are much , much better made than the rather quaint D & D , but if you want a smaller , unassuming fantasy ride then don't completely rule this movie out . The visual effects and production design of D & D are very similar to Paul Anderson's Mortal Kombat . Yes , it looks fake , but with just a little bit of suspension of disbelief you'll not even notice . I have a feeling that Courtney Solomon tried really hard to make it a good film but his talent doesn't extend as far as his enthusiasm . In terms of character and story it is all pretty bland and generic . There's nothing in this movie that you haven't seen somewhere else . The actors do their best with the tepid dialogue and almost manage to not look embarrassed . The best thing about the film is it's surprisingly ferocious ( maybe a bit too OTT ) sound design . And the Dragon fight at the end was impressive for a medium budget film . I was actually surprised to find Joel Silver's name on the closing credits . I will assume that without him the film would have been a REAL stinker . And what's with that ending ? Either way , I am still interested in the sequel .
563,778
102,816
146,336
5
Very Clichéd
Almost every horror cliché is present in this movie . Cars not starting , a girl not believing the guy is really getting killed , the dumb authority dismissing the heroine's cry for help as nonsense and many , many more . All teens ( actors in their 20s ) are booze and sex hounds who do nothing more than party and laugh at serious stuff . How annoying . Once you find out who the killer is you realize that it would have taken precision planning on the scale of Desert Storm to pull off the murders that happen in the movie , even if some of them are purely by chance and some don't even coincide with Urban Legends which is what the whole movie is based on . Many characters are given ( very ) brief roles and ( very ) small personalities . Then they are killed . Like they are just teenage meat that are killed for our pleasure . I thought Hollywood had stopped making conveyor belt movie like this , but obviously not . When will filmmakers realize that horror films should be surreal , elaborate , scary , daring and manipulative ? Never apparently . The only reason for watching this movie is Chris Young's pounding musical score . Once again he has creating a soundtrack that is simultaneously action packed and creepy . But compared with trash like I STILL KNOW , this is a good movie .
564,171
102,816
331,468
5
Really ought to have been made in Britain with an unknown cast
With a more low-key theatrical release and no big-names stars Cold Creek Manor might have had some more credibility . Director Mike Figgis has no real experience , or business , in Hollywood movies and the mere fact that this got such a big release may be part of the films downfall . With such marketing , word-of-mouth and hype that a Hollywood film gets one always expects something crowd-pleasing . It's clear when watching Cold Creek Manor that Mike Figgis is more at home making small British movies that are not exposed to such harsh criticism and are generally accepted as being good even though they are nothing special . There nothing much thrilling about Cold Creek Manor . But Stephen Dorff does manage to create some amount of tension with the crazed psycho character he plays . The rest of the film seems like an awkward mix of Pacific Heights and The Ring , despite some moments of genuine atmosphere that reminded me a lot of the Myst video games . In a diluted , no-brainer , who-gives-a-damn way Cold Creek Manor makes for an above-average nights entertainment . But just don't expect anything mind-blowing . And can someone tell me where the Cold Creek is ? The DVD is in very good looking 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with a great Dolby 5 . 1 soundtrack that's ten times more dynamic than anything in the film .
564,397
102,816
62,124
5
Where's Pink ?
The Pink Panther turns up on a tropical island after walking all the way there under water , holding his breath , with an umbrella up to keep him dry . All he wants is a relaxing vacation but a little hunter man and his faithful dog are disturbing him . So he plays tricks on them . Pinky is hardly in this cartoon at all and most of the sight gags come from the numerous explosions the little hunter man suffers at the paws of his dog who is so faithful he doesn't realize he shouldn't be playing fetch with a stick of dynamite . It ain't that funny and there's not much invention to it either . Not really a good vehicle for the Pink Panther and it's almost an exact carbon of 1966's Smile Pretty , Say Pink .
564,672
102,816
469,205
5
Cute game with no lasting appeal at all
For a game made in 1994 this Sega Genesis platformer does have some clunky controls and a real lack of innovation . Yes , the graphics are brilliant but the sound effects are rotten and the music is worse . The gameplay has a few neat tricks but nothing amazing . And the lack of steady control when Taz goes into a whirlwind ( imagine Sonic when he's spinning ) will really get on your nerves after a short while . The game has Taz kidnapped by Marvin the Martian and taken to a Space Zoo . Taz , being the irritable sort breaks out and rampages across the planet . Before making it back to Tazmania he visits the MoleWorld , Planet X , Mexico ( where he encounters Yosemite Sam ) a haunted castle and finally Marvin's house . Anyone familiar with Looney Tunes cartoons will no doubt get the zillions of references . So the title is a bit of a lie then . Especially since you GO BACK to Mars after reaching Earth . Once you finish this there is no need to ever play it again . Graphics A Sound D Gameplay Lasting Appeal
563,895
102,816
483,141
5
Gorgeous to look at , little else .
Road Avenger was one of the games Sega used to promote the Sega CD system on its launch . You can see why when looking at clips from the game . The graphics are wonderful and to the naive it would seem looks like a living anime cartoon that you can control . But looks can be deceiving . The story had you play as an ex-cop who is out to avenge the death of his new wife , who was driven off the road by a gang of Mad Max style bandits . The game is a first person driving game but not in the usual style of Out Run or Formula One or such . In fact , all you were required to do was to push the control pad in the right direction . As the car you drove would pass through varied territories like urban down town , the forest , desert canyons etc a direction ( either up , left , right or brake ) would appear on the screen . If you push that direction the car would continue on its rampage , otherwise you would crash with a generic death animation . It was fun if you got the game right and the car would tear through buildings and stuff , while scared pedestrians would look on in amazement . The music was also cool and I wish Sega released a soundtrack CD as some of the level tunes and the main theme song were great . Sadly , Road Avenger was about no more than pushing buttons . It was the most linear game I have ever played . Even if you chose what direction the car took it would have been slightly re-playable . But it wasn't . Graphics A Sound A Gameplay D Lasting Appeal
564,263
102,816
36,278
5
Quite Boring
In this short , Pluto is assigned to guard the army base against potential invaders . This task he accepts with keen enthusiasm . But the invaders turn out to be Chip and Dale ( before they became Rescue Rangers ) and they play lots of pranks on poor old Pluto . Basically , they are using the weight of a huge gun barrel to crack nuts . But when Pluto gets angry at this they use it , instead , to crack Pluto's head . Not very nice and the bulk of the ' humor ' comes from this . I didn't find myself laughing so much , or at all . Pluto isn't really a strong enough character on his own . He works better when teamed with Mickey . There's not much invention going on here and the short is rather simple-minded . Not a classic .
564,328
102,816
1,020,530
5
Pointless though modestly entertaining nonsense
I'll be blunt . There is not a single part of Eden Lake ( oh , the irony ) that has not been done in another film . From beginning to end you will recognize elements from Last House on the Left , Texas Chainsaw Massacre ( old and new ) , Wrong Turn , Breakdown , Judgment Night , The Descent etc etc etc . It goes on and on . I feel like many of the makers of the aforementioned films deserve a royalty check from Eden Lake . Plot : Couple harassed by delinquent kids in rural area . It's really not worth more than that nine word description . It's brutal and sick and some moments do get an unnerving reaction out of you but you'll leave the cinema either feeling cheated or with a strong sense of deja-vu . One of the many films it borrows from is the original Friday the 13th ; a film that was only supposed to exist as a pure potboiler before evolving into an important 30-year franchise . Eden Lake is a similar kind of potboiler in that it only exists to serve itself , the director's resume and further the cast's experience . I don't know if I'd want to have THIS on my filmography but a couple of them ( Bronson Webb , Thomas Turgoose ) are slumming it with this dredge . Not a bad film by any means , and not a good one by a long shot . Eden Lake is just very , very ' meh ' .
564,315
102,816
82,495
5
Already falling into tedium
When it comes to keeping a consistent plot the Halloween series has been the absolute worst . 1 and 2 follow each other okay , 3 is the joker in the pack , Return , Revenge and Curse were nothing but gibberish and H20 and Resurrection have been poor ' post-modern ' exercises in convention merely using the Halloween name . Right after the original Halloween ended , Laurie is taken away to get stitched up , but Michael Myers ain't quite dead yet . Much of this bore is set in a hospital as he very , very slowly goes about his killing machine business . Donald Pleasence does his mad doctor bit again spouting some crackpot dialogue in a strange , offbeat way . No one listens to him , of course and they end up dead . It's an okay sequel but it's marred by unbearable slowness . The pace for that particular night was already set by the first film so why slow down and build up again ? Regarded as a classic far too often the first film is somewhat obsolete today . But it does have one purpose : to always look good when compared to the drek of ' horror ' we suffer today . This first sequel , coming a mere three years after the original , already looks tired and the thin premise is stretched to breaking point . There's no purity or class here . Plus it leaves a lot of questions unanswered . What happened to Jimmy ? He died by gently banging his head but didn't keel over until 20 minutes later ? What ? Why do the credits list someone playing Michael Myers ( Age 23 ) when he is only 21 in the film and is played by Dick Warlock ? Why did he kill the Sheriff's daughter ( which he does again in Revenge ) ? This new DVD from Universal improves upon the cruddy Goodtimes release by giving us a new 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic picture and a sturdy keepcase instead of a horrid snapper . The sound is in not-bad-for-its-day Dolby Stereo . There are no features to speak of , which is annoying since Universal originally promised us commentaries , documentaries , deleted scenes etc . Pick it up cheap .
564,566
102,816
48,649
5
I HATE Speedy Gonzales
Man , I hope I'm in the majority here . But I gotta be honest , this mouse is so highly , extremely irritating . Does he ever shut up ? Not only that but the whole character is kind of xenophobic and un-PC . Now I am certainly NOT one for being PC but I still find Speedy kinda offensive . In this cartoon he asked by his Mexican mouse pals to cross the border into America in bring them back cheese as they are all starving . Is there subtext here or am I reading too much into it ? Sylvester is there to stop him . Or at least try . The usual Cat and Mouse hijinks follow . It's not really funny and I'm amazed it actually got an Academy Award .
564,762
102,816
1,194,567
5
If I wanted a love story I wouldn't watch Indiana Jones !
Young Indy travels to Austria with his parents where he meets Princess Sophie at a riding stable and falls madly in love when they sneak off for the afternoon . But her parents are furious and forbid them to see each other again . After taking dodgy advice from none other than Sigmund Freud Indy runs off to proclaim his love before leaving forever . It's sweet but barely holds the attention past the love story . The second half of the movie is inexcusable though as the Jones ' travel to Florence where opera composer Giacomo Puccini falls in love with Indy's mother while Henry Jones Sr . is out of town . The following story of ' will she or won't she cheat ' is certainly NOT what I want to see while watching an Indiana Jones adventure . There are plenty of crappy soap operas for that kind of stuff . I can't believe that Mike Newell ( Goblet of Fire , Donnie Brasco ) directed this . Watch only if your are an Indy completest or a sado-masochist .
564,670
102,816
322,435
5
Looks great but not my thing
Don't get me wrong . I love RPGs and building up custom characters but I don't like them in the 2D world of the GBA . On the PC I have played awesome games like Dungeon Siege , where the RPG element is at it's best but I found Golden Sun to be really slow . It took ages to get going and there is an unbelievable amount of dialogue in it . But there is no way to skip past it . You will literally be sitting there hitting the button for 10 minutes reading bland word bubbles . Some have given this game a great review but I'm afraid this RPG just didn't do anything for me and I won't be checking out the sequel . Graphics A Sound Gameplay Lasting Appeal
563,784
102,816
119,345
5
Quite boring
This was the first true product off the conveyor belt of Hollywood teen-slasher flicks after the highly over-exposed SCREAM . Teen-slashers were suddenly back in fashion . And Hollywood loves teen-slashers . These movies are basically the same tripe done over and over , made for very little , with no aces up the sleeve and ? actors in their 20s playing teenagers . Something that bothers me very much . You've probably noticed this by looking at my other reviews . IKWYDLS is no exception . Every scene has been done before and the film has little originality . Some of the killings are totally pointless and are only there to fill up the running time and give us something to look at while the characters argue over ' who is the killer ' . A standard argument in these kind of movies . It's a very boring film . It takes ages to get started and when it finally does get going it's more annoying than it is exciting . Bo-oring .
563,817
102,816
168,114
5
Blam ! Blam ! Shoot me with grease bullets !
Well , I had no idea bacon fat could be so deadly . And I'm sure the housewives of America at the time didn't know that common kitchen grease could be made into torpedoes that would sink Nazi U-boats or 1 billion steel tipped bullets to blow away the advancing army . And hey , you know what ? If you save a pound of fat and take it to your local butcher ( if he is an official fat collecting station ) he will give you cash-money for it . How about making a tidy little profit out of war eh ? This very , very short cartoon will probably never be shown again , even on TV unless another war breaks out and the Army needs your bacon fat . An interesting look at wartime propaganda nonetheless .
564,531
102,816
356,634
5
Below average generic kids movie .
And only marginally redeemed by Garfield . There's not much to separate this from rubbish like Cats and Dogs and Stuart Little . Everything that happens on screen is there to appeal to the youngest of kids . No one over the age of 8 will get much out of this movie . Unlike movies such as Shrek 2 or Brother Bear , there's absolutely NOTHING in this for adults at all . A shame really as the humor in the Garfield comic strip can sometimes be very clever and observant . It's worse when you go see this with a bunch of screaming kids ( and a baby-honestly why bring a baby to the cinema ? ! ? ) who laugh at every single thing . And that's including the stuff that isn't meant to be funny . It did get very irritating and proves furthermore that this is a movie for infants . The tiny bit of humor the movie does have comes ENTIRELY from Garfield . Bill Murray is great , his delivery is catatonically laid-back and dry . The CGI of Garfield is also very good . He looks to cute that you just want to keep him . But any positive the movie has begins and ends right there . Breckin Meyer may look the part of Jon but he has less than nothing to do in the role . Jeniffer Love Hewitt ( gorgeous as she is ) is totally slumming it in a role that requires her to do even less than Breckin Meyer and the other animal cast members resemble nothing like their comic-strip counterparts . I was a little annoyed at seeing Garfield talk in the trailers but in the movie no humans can hear him or the other animals . There are some other things they have changed . Odie comes straight from the vet , though in the comic-strip he came from Jon's friend Lyman . Nermal does not appear to be Garfield's cousin and Arlene doesn't appear to be his girlfriend either . The story of Garfield rescuing Odie from an ' evil ' TV host is completely uneventful and nothing much happens around it . The ending is an unentertaining , unexciting anti-climax and disgustingly childish . I appreciate kid's stuff . I could watch 100 episodes of Sesame Street back to back . But this film was the most brain dead excuse for low , low-grade kid's entertainment in a long , long time . Jim Davis should be ashamed for allowing his wonderful creation to me made into such a lousy movie . The 3 stars are for Garfield himself ONLY . Otherwise , without him , it's a hardcore 1-star experience . You wouldn't find Calvin and Hobbes behaving this way .
564,046
102,816
370,082
5
A significant lack of scares .
Wishing Stairs is the least scary of the Yeogo Goedam films so far ( I've still to see the fourth however ) . It's just the same old clichés of ' be careful what you wish for ' done in a South Korean girls school . It's like Wishmaster gone Asian with a bit of Grange Hill thrown in for abstract measure . The windy atmosphere is don again , the lesbian love thing is done AGAIN and the old , dusty secret room is done again too . In fact , when I think about it , this movie is nothing more than some rehashed scenes from the first two . It's not boring in any way , but is certainly not scary and not a film I could sit through again .
564,441
102,816
38,259
5
More like ' The Woman in Black and White '
A serial killer on the streets of London has Scotland Yard in a panic . Inspector Gregson ( replacing Lestrade , who is obviously not suited to this kind of story ) asks Holmes for help . On the case for only a few minutes , Holmes already makes keen observations and quickly deduces that it all must be the devilish work of Professor Moriarty . . . again . He's already died twice in these movies and another third time before this story is set . It annoys me that he's always so prominently featured in many Sherlock Holmes films when he really was no more than a come-and-go character in Conan-Doyle's stories . Henry Daniell is really bad as Moriarty and comes across as wimpy and effeminate . Not exactly a good approach , this ain't no pantomime . The reason behind the murders is also quite contrived and nonsensical and there's only a little bit of a mysterious atmosphere . A cheap and silly Holmes movie and certainly the lowest point so far for Rathbone and Bruce .
563,969
102,816
449,811
5
A bit weird
I'm not sure for what purposes this short was produced . It seems like the kind of thing Alan Partridge would do for Comic Relief or something . It was made after his talk show but before the docu-sitcom that followed in 1997 so I believe that Steve Coogan was trying to experiment with the character a bit . The short involves no more than Alan taking a stroll through the countryside on a misty December morning . He comments on how he's not allowed to walk on Mike Oldfield's estate , his idea for vending machines to be built into hedges to cut out the need for chippie vans and how miserable he was at college . If your familiar with Alan you'll know that he's a monster . But this is only funny when you realize he's just a victim of his own extreme ignorance and narrow-mindedness . But this short is actually a bit uncomfortable and is the first time that Steve Coogan really makes Alan Partridge look like a disturbed loner . This little quirk may have worked well in small doses but as we got to series 2 of I'm Alan Partridge it put me right off the character . I don't really find this funny or fitting . As a comedy character I think that Alan Partridge is great but as a tragi-comedy figure I can't bring myself to laugh at anything he says or does . And this short was the first time Coogan took the character in that mis-direction .
564,336
102,816
395,767
5
Sonic the Hedgehog should stay in 2
This game was an improvement over the awful Sonic Adventure 2 , but no by much . It has the potential to be more fun but is still crippled by horrible gameplay and bad camera problems . The switching between 3 characters , who each have 3 different abilities , became very annoying and the levels were all too alike and just seemed to be vaguely recycled levels of the 2 previous games . As much as I liked the original Sonic Adventure I have to say that Sonic in 3D just doesn't work and doesn't feel right . The original Sonic platformers , plus the new Sonic Advance games are what the blue hedgehog is all about and it's worth investing your time in them if you're a serious Sonic Fan . Leave stuff like this game to the kiddies .
563,761
102,816
31,241
5
' This is very , very exasperating . '
In this cartoon an ungainly and annoying goose called Gus turns up at Donald's house with a note from Aunt Fanny ( ? ) claiming that he is his cousin and is here for a visit . The note also says he doesn't eat much , which turns out to be a total lie since Gus proceeds to eat Donald out of house and home and turn an otherwise peaceful , non-stressful day for Donald into bedlam . Gus is an annoying character but thankfully he doesn't say much and only ever makes a honking sound when he wants attention , which he does by squeezing his ass ! Much like Donald , I hope to never see Gus again . And this cartoon ain't that great I'm afraid .
564,758
102,816
482,895
5
Not the best racing game , not the worst .
I can't remember what possessed me to buy BC Racers . From the package artwork it looked like a cute , cartoony kind of racing game but I usually hate racing games . However , I had just recently got a Sega CD and this was one of the games in the shop and it was rather cheap so I figured why not . As a racing game it's more like Mario Kart than say OutRun . All you do is lap the same course over and over . Obviously there are different courses and such but they're all flat terrain and not that interesting . They have all the usual perils and hard bits but there was an overwhelming blandness to it . The hook of this game was that it was set in the stone age and the racing karts were a lot like the kind of vehicles that Fred Flintstone would drive . I guess it was kinda cute . But it still lacked invention and creativity . I did actually finish this game on my own without cheating . Which is weird since it wasn't really addictive and I did attempt it several times . I felt no joy when I finally got there . BC Racers is a very average game in all departments . If you see it in a bargain bin and you just love Kart Racing games then give it a shot . Graphics B Sound C Gameplay Lasting Appeal
564,615
102,816
465,511
5
Five minutes of fun
I paid only 400 pennies for this game . And quite right too as it certainly does not have much lasting appeal . In fact I finished it twice the very day I started playing it and was about to go for a third today but it just wasn't worth it as all the levels ( 8 of them ) were the same and there was no variety other than the different types of attack between the 18 characters . The backgrounds are blandly drawn and the knockouts unspectacular . All the usual KOF characters are here , such as Terry , Andy , Joe , Mai and , my fave , Geese Howard but I'm afraid this game is rather tedious and far too easy . Graphics B Sound B Gameplay Lasting Appeal
564,370
102,816
133,412
5
Middle of the Road
The only reason I watched this is because my girlfriend threatened me to . This is movie is sooo desperate to be a post modern crime thriller that it looks and feels so relentlessly superficial . Most scenes are decked out in unpleasant pastel colors and interiors are always lit with warm lights . It's nice to look at but has a student filmmaking feel to it that distracts me . Something else that is quite unreal is the scene in which Nivola and Witherspoon discuss their forthcoming crime . . . on a roof in front of a neon sign on a sofa . Yeah . . . like people keep sofas on roofs in front of neon signs . This was obviously an attempt by the director to add a little sparkle to an otherwise BORING scene . Which is also the reason he throws in some cliched camera angles . It's a " film noir " you see . . . so diagonal shots on an ordinary scene are standard . Composer Craig Armstrong was obviously hired at the last minute when the director heard the score for Romeo and Juliet to provide a superficial ( that word again ) soundtrack . It sounds like it belongs in a totally different movie . But perhaps this is a good thing . There isn't much theme but the music does evoke some weird feelings from us . Much like the feelings the characters have . It's cool and I wish more scores were this way . The " twist " wasn't too obvious to me . Once it occurs it takes away all the tension and stress right away and will relieve you big time . It even manages to change the tone of the whole movie to light-hearted . In case your wondering my girlfriend lists this as number 2 in her top 3 movies . Number 1 is Devils Advocate and 3 is Moonwalker . . . ugh !