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564,230 | 102,816 | 30,069 | 6 |
Not as funny as Caddyshack
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In this cartoon Donald is out on a coastal golf course for a relaxing eighteen as his nephews caddie for him . Everything would have worked out fine if he were not so bossy . Huey , Duey and Louie play tricks on him to throw him ( such as swapping his clubs for nets and giving him phony balls ) off his game . And that's about as creative as the cartoon gets . Donald Duck cartoons are so easy to set up and seem to spend the entire eight minutes knocking down . You can tell that whatever Donald is involved in is going to end up in disaster but sometimes it can be quite inventive . This one just seems to be going through the motions . Why can't he and his nephew cooperate for a change ?
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563,996 | 102,816 | 32,251 | 6 |
Fun , if senseless
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In this cartoon Donald and Goofy are out in the countryside pasting up posters for tomato soup . It's a rather odd place to be doing such a thing considering such ads are usually pasted over the plywood boards of an abandoned shop in a dreary ghetto , but never mind . Goofy decides to paste a poster onto a windmill ( a rather odd choice ) but ends up getting frustrated by the twirling blades . Donald is pasting a poster on a farmhouse but is tormented by a tin can-eating goat ( cartoons often portray goats as can-eaters-is this for real or is it just a myth ? ) who eats the posters as soon as he puts them up . After some effort they both overcome their obstacles and succeed at their task . Now all the country animals can appreciate the tomato soup ad . Weird .
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564,522 | 102,816 | 160,009 | 6 |
Worthwhile
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I liked this movie and I was glad I spent the money on it but the direction was awful . Christian Duguay tries so hard to inject flair and coolness into the movie but fails badly . Filters and rain do not make for flashy and original direction , it's been done a hundred times before . Also , the constant rain adds a REALLY depressing mood to the film . If you're upset or want to escape from reality it's not a good idea to see this movie . Wesley Snipes is very good in his role . He always is , he is probably the most versatile actor out there . The way he can be cool without being over-confident or is refreshing . I hate seeing arrogant actors show off ( Nic Cage and John Travolta in Face / Off done my head in ) and ruin the movie . Five minutes into this film you will know who the bad guy is . No director will ever have Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as a good guy . Although he always is a great villain , smooth and smart , it's no big secret as soon as you see him . But he was half the reason that I saw the film . You can always be guaranteed a quintessential villain when he plays the part . The action was quite cool . The scene with the car driving into the diner was impressive . It was my favourite scene . The huge leap of the skyscraper was eye pleasing , it was a great opening to the movie . It may be better than most other junk that's out in the theatre but the direction lets it down big time . But it's worth it for the hero and villain and the action . See it for yourself .
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564,217 | 102,816 | 60,907 | 6 |
Cradle will rock
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The Pink Panther is sleeping in the treetops in a secluded part of the forest when a noisy man and his dog set up their camp below him for the night . The camper is happy to hog all the comfort for himself and leave his dog out in the cold but his snoring is keeping Pinky awake . Obviously less than pleased at this intrusion , Pinky takes it upon himself to play tricks on the camper as he sleeps , leaving the dog to rescue him . Each time the camper awakens he thinks it's the dog that has sabotaged his sleep and scolds him for it . Promptly going back to sleep and snoring loudly . Not a particularly imaginative set-up but has a good reasonable amount of laughs to keep it going .
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564,827 | 102,816 | 162,222 | 6 |
Could have been great
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Robert Zemeckis should know better than to make this the way he did . The scenes on the island are very cool and attractively shot but why on earth was this film made in 1 . 85 : 1 ? Zemeckis did Forrest Gump , Contact and What Lies Beneath in 2 . 35 : 1 so why not this film ? The beautiful island location would have been so much cooler if it were . But still it beats ' The Beach ' any day . The starting is a little slow but the sudden decompression of the FedEx plane is quite nerve-wracking . This is the point is which the movie really gets going and the crash is incredible . It's hard not to wince when Hanks is injured repeatedly as he struggles for survival and the sound effects of it really make you squirm . The creation of Wilson as Hanks hurts his hand is quite cool too . But it's heartbreaking when Wilson floats away . It really was the saddest moment of the film . Other cool moments include a scene in which a surfacing whale opens it's eye and looks at Hanks and when he eats a live fish . Yuck ! But the ending to the film is awful . Suddenly cutting to ' 4 years later ' when Hanks was on the island is bad enough . But when the movie goes from a ship rescuing him to ' 4 weeks later ' is goes from bad to worse . The events of him being rescued and coming back to civilization and being rehabilitated and repaired are just skipped . He goes from being a cave man to civilised in an obscenely short space of time . For a man who was alone on an island for 4 years ( unless Wilson counts ) he sure does adjust back to normal very quickly . And Zemeckis simply doesn't know how to end the film . We are forced to sit thru scene after scene of Hanks long after the island is gone . The wrap-up of his affair with Helen Hunt is lame and we don't even get to see the reaction of the woman , who's package he was determined to deliver for 4 years , when she opens her FedEx box up . Instead we have Hanks in a ' where do I go now ' debate . It is such a disappointing ending that lets the whole film down . It could have been so much better . I give this because it should have been made in widescreen and should have had a MUCH better ending .
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564,530 | 102,816 | 241,526 | 6 |
Cheap , but mildly effective and robust
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I first heard about this film a long time ago . I can't remember how but I remember it had glowing reviews and that it was in the style of the Blair Witch Project . Well , it's NOT in the style of BWP . Yes , there are 3 youths out in the woods being stalked by an unseen psycho but they never acknowledge the presence of the camera because it's not that kind of movie . Three girls Sarah , Ellie and Angelique go to Angelique's grandfather's cabin out in the wilderness for a weekend of boozing it up . But Angelique has a hidden motive . She's there to go through her grandfather's notes and find out who murdered him and why . It turns out he may have been murdered by a group of hardcore satanists . And when one of the girls makes a prank call to the leader ( one Aleister Crowley the man who apparently did zillions of black magic rituals in Boleskin House up at Loch Ness ) all hell literally breaks loose . Their car vanishes , a man in a cloak is seen standing before the trees in the distance and sinister notes are shoved under the door . Sal Ciavarello does create a good amount of tension and mystery but the cheapness almost kills some of the big scares . Some of the chase scenes and especially the ending are just plain confusing because it's cut too fast and shot too darkly . He does however make up for it in sheer brazenness . It's one of those films where what you don't see is scarier than giving us a full-blown monster ( like BWP ) . However , I personally wanted to see more of the villain . Most cheap horror films force the characters to do stupid things and foolishly walk into obviously dangerous situations on their own in order to get slashed . HPE does not do this . The girls are forced to spew out hate for religion and their nerves send them almost crazy . Sal Ciavarello is guilty of cramming way too many ideas into a 90-minute film though . I would like to see this remade with a bigger budget and stronger technical skill . Much like El Cheapo El Mariachi became the much bigger and livelier Desperado . The DVD of this film is IMPOSSIBLE to find . I managed to hunt down a copy and while it's not a film I would watch again it does make a change from junk like I Forgot What You Did 7 Summers Ago 50 , 000 , 000 .
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564,734 | 102,816 | 241,527 | 6 |
It's ' Philosopher's Stone ' !
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I'm not really a big fan of the HP films . I don't think that they translate well from the books as they are often quite long and need severe cutting down in order to fit into a 2 hour + film . This has been increasingly evident in the later HP sequels , but Philosopher's Stone seems to be pretty much all intact . I do find Chris Columbus ' mostly naturalized approach to shooting the film to be the most appropriate . In GOF , Mike Newell had the cheap and uncheerful logic of shooting everything with a heavy green filter to make it look ' mysterious ' and ' magical ' . I think it just looks stupid and that the far-fetched fantasy nature is more identifiable if shot more ordinarily . What does bug me about this film and always surprises me on repeat viewings , is how horrible the entire kiddie cast are at acting . Check out the terrible performance from the guy who plays the blandly named Oliver Wood ! Woof ! It's like watching some rubbish Primary School play with big budget visual effects . It takes me out of the movie every time . The 150-minute running time seems to pass by in a breeze , something I've never really felt with the sequels . But something that bugs me is even right here at the beginning Dumbledore seems to be like ' I'll tell you about it when you're older , Harry . ' Which is a cheap hook to make us read / watch the later installments . I don't really have that much to say about Philosopher's Stone , which is why my review is short and spiceless . It's a shame the sequels had to be so boring . Stick with the books , a couple are overwritten but they are superior to the films . A clichéd thing to say , but still true .
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564,310 | 102,816 | 109,327 | 6 |
A strange , curious little movie
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I liked Brainscan when I was younger but it seems a bit dated now , even for a film made in 1994 . It just makes such a big deal out of CD-ROM technology . I guess the only game out back then was Myst . Michael Brower ( Furlong ) is a lonely kid . His mother is dead and his dad is often away on long business trips leaving him alone in his attic bedroom with his massive computer station big enough to be the Skynet system core ( one presumes his dad is computer salesman or something ) . Horror movies are his obsession and spying on his would-be girlfriend next door breaks up the day . For him , life is easier when seen through a TV rather than dealing with it up front . His attention is drawn to an ad in Fangoria , a video game called Brainscan which promises the ultimate high in interactive gaming . It's a horror game that is so real it'll chill your blood etc etc . Michael is sceptical but goes along with it anyway . He dials the number and gets his ( apparently free ) Brainscan disc . The object of the game is to kill and that's exactly what Michael does . He's sent into a state of deep hypnosis through the TV and wakes up on his ultimate killing high . So THIS is what it feels like to be Jason Voorhees ! Trouble is it appears that Michael really is killing people and when he tries to shut the game down wonderfully mad character called The Trickster pops out of the TV and involves himself in conversations regarding the nature of horror that become a bit too philosophical . Brainscan ends with a plot twist that is quite ingenious and caught me totally off-guard the first time I saw it . However , a couple of plot points that occur after this make no sense and throw the whole logic of the plot into confusion . Written by Andrew Kevin Walker ( the very man who gave us Se7en and 8mm ) you can expect there to be a certain tightness to the structure of the film but it seems to be to small and restricted for it's own good . If more opportunities created by the bizarre story were explored and fleshed out it could have been a great film instead of only being a good one . The Brainscan DVD is in average looking 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with average Dolby 2 . 0 sound . The region 1 disc is really the only way to go as the Region 2 is in crappy fullscreen . Neither have any features . Don't pay more than 5 bucks this if you really want it .
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563,757 | 102,816 | 454,778 | 6 |
Fun for a short while
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I first got this game way back in March 1993 when I was 12 and for some reason I thought it was great . Originally released on the Commodore Amiga in summer 1992 to coincide with the Barcelona Olympics it eventually found its way onto the Genesis at around the same time as Robocod ( which I also loved ) , so I guess my fondness of James Pond made me turn a blind eye to the limited appeal of the game . Basically there are 10 different aquatic events that Pond and his pals take part in . Some are fun , like the Hop , Skip and Jump , 100 Metre Splash , Shell Shooting , Bouncy Castle but others like Feeding Time and Kipper Watching are really boring and last for 4 very long minutes . The multi-player was even more tedious and I rarely stuck with it long enough for it to be worthwhile . I would like to see all 4 James Pond games re-released and perhaps The Aquatic Games could be improved if more events and bonus games were added to it . As it stands right now , it's just not worth it for 10 different events . Graphics Sound B Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,380 | 102,816 | 104,534 | 6 |
Not as relevant
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When compared to the original Charlie Brown Christmas this movie seems to be less social commentary and more an excuse for gags . It's more cartoony and has more obvious laughs rather than any irony or important things to say . There's another Xmas play in this ' un . Peppermint Patty is refusing to do any homework and is annoyed that Marice is playing Mary and she is left with the thankless role of a sheep . Still , she's determined to steal as much scenery as possible . Charlie Brown is selling his old comics to buy an Xmas present for his wannabe girlfriend and his sister Sally has only one word to say in the play ' HARK ' but she ends up yelling ' HOCKEY STICK ' instead . More like a series of Peanuts vignettes than a real TV special . But still nice .
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564,494 | 102,816 | 401,233 | 6 |
Clichéd , slow and melodramatic , but worth it when it gets going
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Appleseed simultaneously suffers from the worst Anime has to offer and benefits from the best animation and production a modern production can have . If you are a hardcore Manga fan ( or just occasionally fond of it like me ) you'll be aware of the most typical clichés , most of which make up the bulk of the Appleseed story . So . . . we have a world set after WWIII , in which a Utopian Society has finally found peace . But there are still some people who cannot help but let their anger and bigotry take hold . Android / Clones with suppressed emotions help balance out Utopia and some even want to be fully-fledged humans . There are humans who hate these Androids and wish them to all die out . And there are some Android who hate humans and wish them to all die out . And finally , there is a big computer who runs everything . Nothing there you haven't seen before huh ? It also takes a while to build up momentum . Though when it does , the plot twists and turns and action scenes are truly exhilarating . The animation quality is breath-taking with seamless blending of hand-drawn , motion capture , CGI and 3D images . Style and plot-wise it is very , very similar to Sky Blue / Wonderful Days . But since they were in production at the same time one cannot accuse the other of plagiarism . The sheer amount of technology and hardware in the movie will make you drool . There are loads of cool devices , futuristic inventions and awesome weaponry . There is also loads of atmosphere with gorgeous , gorgeous sunsets , storm-lashed oil rigs and wonderfully blue-sky-ed cityscapes with an environmentally friendly amount of trees everywhere . The Matrix ' inspired ' action can be a bit annoying sometimes . We've seen people diving through the air in slow motion will taking out supposedly highly-trained soldiers ? And the music is kinda uninspiring . With contributions from Basement Jaxx and Paul Oakenfold one expected it to be a lot better . When you take the good with the bad , Appleseed still comes out as worthwhile and enjoyable . If your new to Anime then you can forgive the clichés , if your a big fan then you'll be awe-struck by the impressive production values .
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564,741 | 102,816 | 97,814 | 6 |
Nice , but pointless
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While I understand all of Hayao Miyazaki's work cannot be heavy , 2 hour-plus epics , this is the lamest of all his films . Don't get me wrong , I like it . But there isn't really a lot of story or character to make a feature length film out of . I watched the English dub with Kirsten Dunst doing the voice of Kiki and the late , great Phil Hartman doing her talking cat Jiji . Much like Sabrina The Late-Thirties Teenage Witch , Jiki is black , cynical and funny . He provides most of the film's laughs and is impossibly cute . As I have said , the film is very light . So light it could float in the air without the need for a broomstick . Nothing is really made a big deal of and no real story develops . What gives the film class is Miyazaki's attention to detail and gorgeous production design . Kiki exists in a perfect , transethnical European town with wonderful architecture and scenery . The flying scenes look brilliant and the colors are always bright and cheerful . Still , no-matter how pretty and easy-going , it doesn't have that long-lasting appeal of Nausicaa or Castle of Cagliostro .
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564,309 | 102,816 | 386,789 | 6 |
It's fun to smash things !
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Grand Theft Simpsons is a great idea . But the execution is not in regards to this game . It may look wonderful but the graphics are not without their annoying flaws and while the voice cast may be great the initial hilarity quickly gives way to tedium . Simpsons : Hit and Run is an average game . It has a lot of coolness to it but also a lot of crappiness that severely cripples enjoyment . Pros : - Zillions of in jokes - It's incredibly cute - Some nice moments in the music-Some of the levels look simply gorgeous - The levels are big enough without being too big and there's lots to explore . - The cut-scenes are brilliant ! - It's got a better plot than the lame , tired TV show has had in years . Cons : - Not enough ways to make money - Money is all too easily taken from you-Many cool things are available to buy but there isn't enough money in the level to buy them - All missions are timed and involve collecting things - Traffic jams occur faaaar too easily and they are very , very hard to get out of - Wherever you want to go , a hundred cars will be blocking your way - Many kinds of car are available , but they're all crap - Certain cars are required for certain missions but for no real reason - When the Police are after you it's almost impossible to get away - The police will come after you too quickly and easily - Whenever you desperately need a car there won't be one for miles - Many , MANY opportunities for amazing stunts are ignored , most of the time the game will simple fade out and then back in rather than show a cool crash-There's not really that much interaction with the environment - There is no proper mapping system - The camera often gets stuck - Since when was Springfield a vast metropolis ? I'll admit that I simply gave up on this game , it's just absolutely IN-FUR-I-ATING . I wanted to crush the controls with my hand and smash in my TV screen in uncontrollable , blind , ugly rage . THAT is what this game will do to you . The poor programming and unfair disadvantages will drive you crazy . If this is the kind of game you like ( and why ? ) then go ahead . For the rest of us who rely on skill and strategy ( and not just luck ) in order to get through video games , we'll calmly put this game aside and move onto something else .
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564,224 | 102,816 | 95,925 | 6 |
Enthusiastically , if slightly amateurishly , made horror hokum
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Keep away from Pumpkinhead , Unless you're tired of living , His enemies are mostly dead , He's mean and unforgiving , Bolted doors and windows barred , Guard dogs prowling in the yard , Won't protect you in your bed , Nothing will , from Pumpkinhead . So goes the poem by Ed Justin . I've never heard of it previously . I'm assuming it's more of an American pop culture thing . Stan Winston may be the man behind many of todays horror icons and creatures but how exactly does he hold up as a director ? Not that great I'm afraid to say . But let's be reasonable . This film is almost 20 years old ( it was completed in 1987 ) and Winston has no doubt improved in many ways since . But what he lacks in style he makes up for in enthusiasm . The ever-brilliant Lance Henrikson ( the man with THE coolest voice in the world ) is Ed Harley , a backwoods shopkeep who's Milky-Bar Kid-lookalike son is killed by reckless dirt-bikers . After this surprising sad and touching scene , Ed visits the house of a mysterious old hag who has ties with the forces of darkness . Wishing vengeance upon the bikers he is sent on a mission to dig up the remains of a demon buried in a pumpkin patch . With his blood thrown into the mix of an evil spell , the demon is soon resurrected and goes about his usual mission of killing people who deserve it . And so begins a series of scenes you've seen many times in numerous Friday the 13th films and the subsequent rip-offs . Only instead of a masked killer you get a very tall , weird looking creature that looks a lot like the Xenomorph from the Alien series . Despite Winston's usually awkward framing and cutting , he does pull off a couple of good scares and generates a decent amount of atmosphere . But the constant unnatural lighting , floodlit woods and fog effects get a bit annoying . Pumpkinhead is , essentially , a tribute to urban legends and ancient scary stories told for generations before TV and mass-communication came along . In that sense , Pumpkinhead ranks alongside other mythical characters such as Spring-heeled Jack , the Skunk-Ape , Shadow People and El Chupacabra . Many of these characters are in the public subconscious , but like I said , perhaps the Pumkinhead myth is too uncommon outside of America to make that kind of impact . Plus , there is good amount of story going untold . The whole idea of Harley and Pumpkinhead being connected through blood and bloodlust isn't developed too well and the film should have had a stronger showdown between them . The mysterious old hag could have had a bigger part too . But if you're in the mood for undemanding horror , with slight irony , mild mythology , an interesting killer and one of the coolest actors ever ( Mr Henrikson , take a bow ) then go for it . Don't expect anything groundbreaking or memorable .
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564,313 | 102,816 | 27,964 | 6 |
A Bully for Mickey
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Mickey and Minnie are out in the country for a nice quiet picnic . But that's soon rudely interrupted by the arrival of Mortimer Mouse , who promptly gatecrashes their pleasant afternoon . Mortimer is a loudmouth show-off with a big car , Minnie instantly swoons over him ( how shallow is that ? ) even though he takes great pleasure in tormenting and humiliating Mickey . He even sets a mad bull loose on him , which destroys any remaining hope of a relaxing picnic . Chaos follows as per normal . Not that funny though . Isn't it weird how much Mickey's car looks like Benny the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit ?
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564,385 | 102,816 | 27,963 | 6 |
Ugly humans .
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I've never seen humans drawn so ugly . Not so much the Polo players like Laurel and Hardy ( I always like them ) but more the spectators in the audience . I don't know who that huge-headed , bulbous-eyed guy was supposed to be but he freaked me out . Anyways , it's Disney stars vs Real Actors in this Polo match ( A rather odd choice of sport . Was it popular in the ' 30s ? ) and nothing really funny happens . Sure there are a couple of clever moments but , like far too many Disney toons , it's all a set-up for everything to come crashing down . Vividly animated as it may be , it's still a bit too boring and doesn't hold up against Looney Tunes when it comes to hijinks .
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564,183 | 102,816 | 27,961 | 6 |
Pluto's Pal
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The King of Siam ( or something ) sends Mickey little Bobo , a baby elephant , for a new pet ( he could have phoned ahead ) and a pal for Pluto . So Mickey get down to hard work building an Elephant kennel . Pluto's lil ' Devil on his shoulder ( er . . . where did the angel go ? ) tells him that the elephant is his replacement and to plot against him . Obviously Pluto cannot reads the innocence and friendliness in Bobo's eyes and relentlessly tries to run Bobo off . He just won't give in to his devil's side . Would this be allowed in the disgustingly PC world of Disney today . NO ! A mildly amusing cartoon .
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564,668 | 102,816 | 463,915 | 6 |
A fun space shooter
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In a time where space-shooter were a dime a dozen , Blazing Lazers has long faded into obscurity . But if you come across it cheap ( very unlikely it only came out on the Turbo-Grafx and is generally very expensive ) I suggest you give it a go . The game has more in common with shooters like the 1942 series than say , R-Type . There's absolutely nothing special or stand-out about it other than it is simply fun to play . You get the usual power-ups and bosses and stuff and you'll have a good time blasting away at everything . Only problem is that the levels are very long and when you die you'll be sent way back , which is annoying . Graphics Sound B Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,181 | 102,816 | 27,960 | 6 |
Nothing like a little gratitude eh ?
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Mickey's Circus is having an ' orphans for free ' day . All of the orphans appear to be Mickey Mice . His circus ain't up to much as far as we see . All he appears to have are a bunch of dancing seals , they baby is the cutest . Though classed as a Mickey cartoon , he disappears for most of the show , leaving Donald to go crazy in that way he always does . Obviously the seals torment Donald and cause him no end of grief but why do the orphans suddenly turn on Mickey's Circus ? The pack him and Donald into the cannon and blast them off . Nothing like saying thanks huh ? There are a few laughs in this one . But not a lot . I don't like circuses .
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564,760 | 102,816 | 26,029 | 6 |
The 86 Minutes
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I was really looking forward to this movie since the Criterion DVD is rather costly and a rerelease with a flawless screening seemed like the perfect way to be introduced to this so-called Hitchcock classic . It's a real shame the film ends up being so damn twee . The main problem is that the film is just too quaint . None of the bad guys feel like a real threat and are frequently fooled by Hanney's simple tricks , the stakes aren't exactly high and the MacGuffin is surely Hitchcock's lamest . The final scene in which a memory man ( a pre-USB key device ) recites a vital formula to no one of importance before dying is a dumb way to end the film . I was expecting some gripping set-piece like at the end of North By Northwest or Saboteur when the hero and villain went head to head at Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty . But a single shot fired at the London Palladium ? Come on ! And what's the deal with that silly chase sequence over the moors of Scotland . The stupid speeded-up footage makes it look like a Benny Hill skit sans music . Plus there absolutely ain't no atmosphere to speak of . The only thing that really amused me was the chemistry between Hannay and Pamela , but that came too late in the movie . They also changed too much from the book . Pretty much all that's left is the name Richard Hannay and the words ' the 39 steps ' . Take away those and it's something completely different from John Buchan's book . A true adaptation would have been much better .
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564,108 | 102,816 | 462,217 | 6 |
Derivative , but fun for a while
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I've never read the comic-book on which this game is based , nor have I seen the animated series . But the game was fun enough for me to consider checking out the comic-book whenever I get the chance . As a side-scrolling beat-em-up it's nothing spectacular . The dinosaurs are not really in it as much as typical human villains . And the Caddy hardly makes and appearance at all . It had the chance of being a strange kind of Mad Max kind of game but it never really came together . Still , the graphics and gameplay are above average and the satisfaction of beating up lunkheads is still there . As arcade games go it's worth the money if you've not really much to do or somewhere else to be . You'll finish it easy as there are not really many levels . And , obviously , the 2-player mode is more fun .
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564,699 | 102,816 | 462,321 | 6 |
Very cute and fun while it lasts .
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But it's over , quite literally , in minutes . You could honestly finish the whole game in under 20 minutes , I kid you not . Basically , there are 4 ways to play Gremlins : Stripe vs Gizmo . You can the play as the very cute Gizmo , running around the various levels ( The Chinese Junk Shop , The Bank , The Police Station , The Cinema , The Firehouse and The Final Encounter ) collecting presents stolen by Stripe either at your own pace or in a time attack ( against the clock ) . Or you can play as Stripe , stealing all the presents from Gizmo ( is he a Gremlin or a Grinch ) at your own pace or in a time attack . And that's it . Despite being really short , the graphics are great and the sound effects and music are entertaining enough . So much more could have been made of this game and of the franchise . Since the game includes characters from Gremlins 2 it's puzzling why they never merged them both together into something bigger . The level designs are fun and gameplay easy to get the hang of , but it's too much of a kid's game . Not a bad game by any means , but just too short . Give it a go if you can find it cheap . Graphics A Sound B Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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563,762 | 102,816 | 470,929 | 6 |
A bit slow and meandering
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Plus I'm not entirely sure if this is based on truth or if it's all just a complete fantasy . The idea of Doyle's life being picked apart by an apparition of the very character he created but it's a bit far-fetched to be believable . Still , it's interesting at the very least . However , very sad people like me will notice many anachronisms . Such as The Hound of the Baskervilles being hailed as Holmes ' return from the grave even though it is set before his encounter with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls . I did find it weird that Brian Cox plays Doyle's mentor Doctor Joseph Bell while his son Alan Cox played Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes . Some nice locations and warm photography are about all this TV movie has to offer in terms of atmosphere . It's sparsely populated and some things are never quite clear . Like what was that gunshot when Kingsley briefly disappeared in the woods ? Did that manifest in the cupboard actually exist ? How did an apparition of Holmes , that only Doyle could see , end up questioning his mother ? The score is also minimal , but could have been taken a bit further without being intrusive . For Holmes / Doyle fans and the merely curious alike .
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564,244 | 102,816 | 29,930 | 6 |
All aboard !
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If Mickey , Donald and Goofy build themselves a boat ( ' so easy even a child can do it ' ) do you REALLY think that by the end of the cartoon it is still going to be standing ? Obviously not . Their usual lack of skill and ignorance for each other's well-being cause enough problems during the actual building of said boat but it is when Minnie christens the boat ' Queen Minnie ' that all their hard work slaps them in the face . And who would have known that Goofy was dumb enough to think a figurehead is a real lady and fall in love with her . Mildy amusing .
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564,735 | 102,816 | 37,709 | 6 |
A mouse in the hand .
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Tom has caught Jerry and is about to make a sandwich out of him when a buzzard swoops down out of the sky and snatches the sandwich from his hands , just as he is about to take a bite . Not taking kindly to such acts of heinous theft , Tom goes after his sandwich , but the buzzard isn't going to give it up so easily . Cue many gags and schemes in which Tom tries to get Jerry back . Not to rescue him of course . Tom finds that the best scheme is to dress up as a weird-looking female buzzard . Of course the bird falls in love at first sight and makes it harder for Tom to escape than he ever imagined . Not the best T & J cartoon but loads of funny visual gags .
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564,738 | 102,816 | 452,681 | 6 |
Better than I expected
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Don't get me wrong , there's a lot of sheer crappiness in Santa Clause 3 , but there is still enough imagination and twists to balance it out and keep it alive for one more ( and hopefully last ) movie . I say hopefully last because I don't really think that Tim Allen really has any talent . He seems to have coasted his way into stardom . He also has a thing for doing Xmas-themed movies when he's not making utter crud like The Shaggy Dog or Zoom . But less about him and more about Santa Clause 3 . As Santa / Scott prepares for his massive annual delivery he must disguise the North Pole as Canada so the visiting in-laws don't find out his secret . Also Jack Frost ( Martin Short ) wants to take over Xmas so he plots to have Santa wiped out of Scott Calvin's history . Cue time travelling and alternate universes . I really didn't feel a pressing desire to see this film . I did see the first two in the cinema but felt that a third was really pushing it . But when Peter Boyle died and I learned that this would be his last movie I felt like I owed it to him . It's not as bad as it's low score would suggest but is still nowhere near as good as Polar Express or any other recent Xmas film . There's just no magic in it . Santa Clause 3 all looks rather false and phony . Actors like Alan Arkin , Judge Reinhold and Wendy Crewson are wasted with this kind of material and really should have been allowed to have more freedom with their limited roles . At the very least it rounds-off a neat little family Xmas trilogy . Please no more . Oh , and by-the-way , ' Jingle Bells ' is not a Xmas song . It's a Thanksgiving Song ! And the image of Santa as being the big white-bearded guy in a red suit with fluffy white bits was invented by Coca-Cola to match their bottle coloring .
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563,847 | 102,816 | 303,231 | 6 |
Eh . . . it's okay
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None of the scenes in this DVD are outstanding and the girls are only above average . The first girl Layla Gates does anal and DP with Marc Davis and Lex Steele , it's an alright scene but it's not hard enough or deep enough and the good bits are blandly shot and brief . Second is Christina , ( she says she is a Devon housewife with two kids ) she takes on Mark , Lex and Omar and does anal and DP . She doesn't like it too much and it's not much of a turn on to watch . Sarah Edwards is next . Plain , boring straight sex with Mark . Kelly-Ann follows and does anal and DP with Mark and Lex , not after Mark offends her slightly with incest jokes . Penetration is not deep enough and looks exceptionally dull . A rogue fly crawling inside Kelly-Ann's vagina is the only interesting thing about the scene . Zoe Rose does the best scene with Mark , Lex and Omar , doing anal and DP , which is better than the other attempts on this DVD . But I could have done without the male rimming . The last girl is a screamer and she does anal and DP with Omar and Lex , nothing too impressive as , once more , it's not deep or hard enough . Rent it .
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564,630 | 102,816 | 107,254 | 6 |
Okay movie with serious lack of skill
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The plot to this movie is just ridiculous . What were they thinking ? Any TRUE Friday the 13th fan ( myself included ) knows that the series officially ended with Jason Takes Manhatten . And this movie here is not a Friday the 13th film . It's a JASON movie . And not a terribly good one either . First off , the make-up for old Jay isn't so cool . It looks fake . The hokey is too small and seems to have been melted onto his face . Plus he doesn't have much screen time ( always a mistake in JASON movie ) . The dialogue and acting ( some cast members are competent enough I should stress ) is unbelievable . It's so basic ! And this JASON movie seems to rip-off plot elements from Evil Dead ( the presence of the Necronomicon and the Dagger ) and The Hidden . Did Pamela Voorhees use the Necronomicon to bring back old Jay ? Does this explain the whole ' Hell Baby ' thing going on ? It might , but it ' never really made clear to us . The showdown at the end is a bit of an anti-climax . There's no real energy or excitement to it . And Jason's decent into hell is just big non-event . A couple of over-sized Cookie Monster hands come up from the ground and drag him thru the suspiciously loose gravel . Zuh ? But New Line makes up for this by providing us with an unrated DVD that restores the gore . This is something Paramount never did . Now the movie seems very over-the-top and some of it is really gross . This was the whole idea for parts 1-8 . People cringe and freak at the blood and guts . When you cut them out you castrate the movie and it becomes exceedingly dull . So far this DVD is the only glimpse of what the first 8 could have been like . Plus the 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic picture is looking fine . And the DTS 5 . 1 soundtrack is loud , loud , loud . This is very good when considering the ambient effects and constant surround use . But Harry Manfredini's score is not . . . good . His music in Friday the 13th Part 1-7 ( Fred Mollin for part 8 ) was dead cool and used screeching strings and orchestra . Now if JGTH he uses a badly out of tune synthesiser . And it's simply awful . Buy this DVD . It makes for a great double-bill with Jason X . And New Line's quality and commitment to making it the best possible DVD presentation is something Paramount would never do . Originally titled Friday the 13th Part IX : The Dark Heart of Jason Voorhees .
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564,146 | 102,816 | 369,339 | 6 |
Worst Assassin in history
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I recently played the game Hit-man 2 : Silent Assassin on my Gamecube . The title really says it all : SILENT Assassin . Yes ? However I didn't particularly find it much fun with all that stealth and creeping around . I just went in guns blazing . I was crap . But I wasn't as bad as Vincent in this movie . Tom Cruise plays Vincent ( ooh ahh , Tom is playing a bad guy , hype , hype , hype ) a thoroughly conspicuous looking character who is in LA for a spot of contract killing . He hires unhappy cabbie Max ( Jamie Foxx ) for the whole night . Five stops , five kills , yadda yadda yadda . . . you've seen the trailer . This arrangement might have worked if Vincent were competent in the least . But he's just terrible . He leaves evidence everywhere , makes moronic mistakes , walks in front of every CCTV camera in LA and blabs far too much to Max , who any half-competent assassin would off at the end of the night anyway . Whatever the bad guys are paying him , the paycheck far exceeds the skill . Michael Mann directs the film with amazing skill , brilliantly capturing the multiple looks and feelings of night-time LA . There are many scenes of tangible atmosphere in Collateral , so much so that the film is eerily calming . A very slickly crafted film , but not as memorable as previous films in Mann's career . Cruise and Foxx have great chemistry together though it must be said that Foxx comes off as the better performer / character . Neither of them overact and keep their cool but there's a true realistic edge to his lonely cabbie than Cruise's idiot assassin who leaves incriminating exhibits A-Z all over LA . The DVD is in gorgeous looking 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with colors so vivid and lifelike you'll forget your watching a movie and not real life . The Dolby 5 . 1 soundtrack is also stunning , fully complimenting the movie's dynamic sound design . Gunshots and very loud and pack a heavy punch , if you have a home theatre you'll love it . James Newton Howard's atmospheric score is also seamlessly woven into the film's sound design and it's surely Howard at the top of his game , miraculously blending his own score with non-original tracks . Once again , if you have a home theatre you'll LOVE the Fever Club scene . Look out for a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from Jason Statham right at the very start .
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564,479 | 102,816 | 902,272 | 6 |
Potentially brilliant if it weren't for that stupid , stupid plot
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There's a lot to like about Justice League : The New Frontier , but I'm afraid all of that is counterbalanced by one of the silliest stories I've ever seen in animation . Set mostly in the 50s and featuring the DC hero fashion of that period the paranoid US government have blackballed all superheroes , claiming that they have something to hide beside their identities and dismiss them as Commies . The Flash is even ridiculed because of his RED costume . But soon they will have to come together again to fight a common enemy when ( and I'm not kidding ) a large floating , living island of dinosaurs called The Center plans to wipe out humanity . I've read hundreds of comic books in my life and that is seriously the dumbest crap I have ever heard . Every other part of JL : TNF is far superior to this ' Center ' nonsense , so it's such a shame that the main plot drags it down . I especially like the story about the Martian Manhunter and the Flash . Most of the JLA get a look-in but these two have the most substantial plots . The animation style will be familiar to those who are fans of Warner / DC cartoons such as Batman and the 50s production design creates a nice atmosphere . But that idiotic plot . . .
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563,891 | 102,816 | 33,460 | 6 |
Kitchen Chaos
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In this cartoon Donald tries his hand at some baking . A radio cookery show is own and the female host is instructing listeners on how to make their very own waffles covered in butter and maple syrup . Feeling hungry , Donald decides to join in . And he does well enough until , in a moment of distraction , he adds rubber cement to the mix instead of baking powder . Now he's created some kind of flubber substance with enough elasticity to cause no end of havoc in the kitchen . The gags are mostly quite simple but there's enough invention in some of the havoc to make it an above average Donald cartoon .
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563,964 | 102,816 | 31,905 | 6 |
Sea Duck
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When this cartoon isn't busy with those really old ' bum ' jokes that were only funny in 1903 it's actually quite fun with an untypical ending . Donald , fancying himself as an old-fashioned Navy Captain , takes his nephews out on the sea in a pretty big sailboat . But , being Donald he has no idea how to hoist the anchor safely or even how to properly cast off the ropes . Pretty soon he's flying around in the sky attached to the mast which has broken off and turned into a kite . And then he battles a hungry shark and , you know what , he actually wins by punching it out . Strange to think that Donald actually succeeds at something .
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564,063 | 102,816 | 28,059 | 6 |
Amusing silliness
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Charley Chase recounts his experiences of his doomed trip to California with his wife and mother-in-law to his work colleagues . Apparently it was hell from the very beginning as his in-law nags and treats him like a hapless know-nothing . His wife always backs up this nagging by saying ' mother knows best ' . Listening to her advice only lands them in more trouble . After being held up by highway thieves , Charley accidentally trashes some old geezers car , refuses to pick up two apparently desperate hitchhikers ( Laurel and Hardy no less ) and is barred from entering California as the border patrol think he's just a hobo . It's an amusing short , with some laugh out loud scenes . It comes to an abrupt end and I'm not sure about the spontaneous musical number , but pretty entertaining nonetheless .
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563,935 | 102,816 | 43,128 | 6 |
Not many laughs
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In this short , Bugs tells the story of his life from the day he was born right up until his discovery in Hollywood and subsequent stardom . It isn't really funny as Bugs doesn't have anyone to work with for most of the cartoon . There are a couple of scenes with Elmer Fudd but he doesn't do or say much . And the running joke with the chorus dancers in the tuxedos wasn't all that amusing . I was also a bit annoyed at the end because not only is it not funny but it isn't true . I've seen better Bugs cartoons than this . Though I must say the title song is very cool ( used in many of ' Rabbit / Duck season ' cartoons with Bugs , Daffy and Elmer ) . It just seems weird using it without having Daffy anywhere in sight .
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564,687 | 102,816 | 29,797 | 6 |
Kinda good
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Mickey brews up potion , in his mad scientist lab , to give super-courage and strength ( the secret ingredient is Bravo Pronto ) to it's consumer . He tests it on a fly , which soon beats up the spider who's web it is caught in . To make sure the potion is a complete success Mickey gives it to a mouse to in turn beats up a cat ( they look soooo much like Tom and Jerry btw , odd since they weren't invented yet ) , the cat beats up the dog ( Pluto ) who then beats up the Dog Warden . With such an inventive and imaginative plot I would have expected more laughs and more complexity . I'm sorry to say that the cartoon is only mildly amusing and has an abrupt and rather senseless ending .
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564,653 | 102,816 | 462,199 | 6 |
Atmospheric , mildly interesting game ruined by terrible ending
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I'm not really all that interested in adventure games for the PC , to be honest . I was really into them on the Commodore 64 back in the 80s , which is weird considering how much more visual and dynamic they are these days . The Black Mirror does have some gorgeous graphics and an impressively Gothic atmosphere , but it's ruined by perpetual slowness and many , many scenes of long , long conversations . Samuel Gordon ( the most arrogant man in a video-game ever ) is the wayward heir to the Gordon Manor ( Black Mirror Castle ) who returns to his rural England roots when his grandfather is killed in suspicious circumstances . It's up to you to guide him around the Manor and village , talking to people and investigating . Typical ' adventure ' gameplay mechanics are involved in progressing through the chapters . Which is fine , but when the game makes you wait for other characters to do stuff for you , boy does it make you WAIT . I've had the game running for over 6 hours while other characters waste you're time doing stuff for you ( or not doing it rather ) . And there's nothing else for YOU do to when this is going on . It's infuriating . The ending to the game is profoundly weak . A lame twist I should have seen coming is capped-off with dull , whogivesadamn cut-scene and then the end credits . When I play a game for so long I expect more than that ! It also leaves many questions unanswered . Who EXACTLY killed William Gordon ? Where did Uncle Robert really go ? What's the deal with Samuel's long-dead lover ? How did the Priest not find the secret crypt halfway through the game ? Why is it set in 1981 ? I was impressed with the game at first but in the last third it got pretty damn tiresome and the end is no real pay-off . For serious adventure gamers ONLY .
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564,394 | 102,816 | 71,807 | 6 |
Goodnight , Sir .
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The nefarious ( I've no idea what that means , but I know it works ) super-assassin Francisco Saramanga is out to kill Bond . Because he's like that . Scaramanga charges a million dollars a hit and is the only person in the world who has a slim chance of getting to Bond . Concerned for his safety , M takes Bond off active duty . Never perturbed ( not really sure of that word either ) , Bond still investigates and soon discovers that Scaramanga has stolen the ' priceless ' Solex Agitator . Oh yeah , one of those ! A mere MacGuffin and no more . In his mission to retrieve said ' agitator ' Bond travels to Thailand and Hong Kong and gets into many silly fights , one involving a midget butler . He even finds time stress-out hillbilly Sheriff JW Pepper once more and . . . erm . . . ' roger ' his gorgeous assistant Mary Goodnight . It's very dumb and thoroughly unsophisticated but it's all in the name of fun and Roger Moore's light , somewhat innocent way of playing Bond just keeps you smiling all the way through . I also liked John Barry's score , despite the fact he claims it's his weakest effort on the series . TMWTGG was the last Bond film to be shot in a 1 . 85 : 1 aspect ratio and I do feel that if it was shot in Panavision then it would have more slick and polished look . 33 years on , TMWTGG looks too grainy and dated and appears older than it is . I'm not sure why Guy Hamilton chose to film it this way when 4 previous Bond films had already been made in Scope widescreen . Definitely one of the lesser Bond movies but saved by sense of humor and never-ending fun . Rent this one .
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563,830 | 102,816 | 58,471 | 6 |
So tired
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The Pink Panther is worn out and tired . All he needs is a place to catch a few Z's . The only flophouse around kicks him out for some reason ( prejudiced probably ) . So old Pinky goes for a desperate wander . Soon he comes across an empty house and invites himself in . Little does he know that the owner will be back soon and is about to get the fright of his life . Tricks and hijinks follow . It's all funny stuff with the slightest bit of cleverness without being overly intelligent . The Pink Panther's coolness is in abundance in this cartoon . While not his best , it's still rather funny .
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563,860 | 102,816 | 327,056 | 6 |
Brilliant acting and directing . But forgettable .
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Spoilers thar be ! I remember being hyped at seeing this film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last year , as were a lot of other people . Then , for no known reason , Clint Eastwood cancelled and we were left to wait another six months for the film to be released nationwide . Was it worth the wait ? Well , while I've never doubted Eastwood's talents behind the camera ( I really liked Absolute Power ) there is just something in this film that fails to connect with me . The story of three childhood friends ( Penn , Robbins , Bacon ) torn apart as adults after one of them is abducted is intriguing . Penn is the thug father with a loathsome and heartless wife ( Laura Linney ) , Robbin's is the meek and humble dad with a loving ( but totally traitor ) wife ( Marcia Gay Harden ) and Bacon is the investigating Cop who's wife has run away . All of them perform very well , especially Robbin's who has always struggled to shed his ' nice but dim ' typecasting . And Eastwood's direction takes its time and builds the story at a deliberate , unrushed pace . But as soon as Sean Penn's daughter is murdered I lost all sympathy for them . The story falls into darkness as suspicions and tensions mount . Every character gets what they deserve . I had no connection with Marcia Gay Harden at all and her panic and denial at the end is her own fault . Her character was the wife of Tim Robbins ' for what appears to be over a decade , she simply would have known her husband wasn't a killer , should never have confided in Sean Penn . Tim Robbins is also to blame for telling lies about how he came home bleeding and shaken . Sean Penn's character also gets what's coming to him ( though it's a bit of a let-down we don't actually see it ) . He's a bad man and despite his brilliant acting and grief at the loss of his daughter , why on earth would I care about such a despicable man ? Basically , many horrors and tragedies could have been avoided in this story if people just told the truth . Fair enough , there wouldn't BE a story if that were so but the result is a film that I cannot engage with and in the end I just don't care . The DVD is in great-looking 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5 . 1 sound . There are 2 extra discs worth of features ( one of them is a soundtrack CD ) if you can't get enough . I've had my share of this movie . It may have much greatness to it , but I want no more .
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564,130 | 102,816 | 265,349 | 6 |
A very interesting , if inconclusive , ghost story
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I am not a skeptic , but I do like to look for the most logical explanations of paranormal events . Skeptics , on the other hand , look for equally preposterous ' real ' explanations for stuff that humans perhaps just don't understand . The Mothman Prophecies is full of mystery and subversion . Some parts of it could be explained , but negated by others . It's far-fetched but directed with such sombre timing that the unbelievable slowly creeps up on you . Ghost stories ( yes , I am aware that the Mothman is not a ghost but I don't know what else to call him ) are , by their very nature , far-fetched and this is probably why most people are eager to dismiss them . But most people fail to remember that their very existence in this Universe is the most far-fetched thing of all . There is an infinity out there than man does not / will never understand . It's arrogance to think that we've got our world figured out already and dismiss anything that doesn't fit in with our day to day lives . So yes , I am inclined to believe in stuff like the Loch Ness Monster , Bigfoot , the Skunk Ape and Little Green Men . Like the movie said , the Mothman has appeared in scriptures and literature of many cultures worldwide for thousands of years . Apparently the book on which the movie is based has more stories of strange happenings and info on Indrid Cold ( who is probably the most puzzling , enigmatic character since the Mystery Man from Lost Highway ) , so it's perhaps a good idea to check it out if you were intrigued by the movie . Director Mark Pellington creates a spooky and haunting Xmas atmosphere and uses the widescreen frame brilliantly . Occasionally he'll throw in a subliminal shot of the Mothman ( sometimes obvious , sometimes subtle ) or use bizarre imagery to heighten the sense of dread or mystery . It's very well edited and has a lot more class and sophistication than many recent corny PG-13 ' horrors ' like The Skeleton Key or The Forgotten . In many respects , Mothman is a lot like The Ring in terms of moody atmosphere and cryptic messages . But Mothman , while not a perfect film , is certainly the better of the two . My main problem is that nothing is really wrapped up . I mean I know it cannot be fully explained because no one knows what the Mothman is or who Indrid Cold was but maybe there was more explained or suggested in John A . Keel's book ( the man who Richard Gere's character was based on ) than the movie featured . Overall , it's a pretty good film and I look forward to Mark Pellington's next movie as I've been impressed with his work on this and Arlington Road so far .
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564,733 | 102,816 | 38,011 | 6 |
Keep it down !
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Spike is stressed out and in need of a good sleep . Which is kind of hard to do when Tom is chasing Jerry , blasting at him with a shotgun and trampling over poor Spike . Threatened with silence or death , Tom backs off , but has to deal with Jerry running around deliberately making noise . This short won an Academy Award back in 1945 , but I wouldn't really say that's THAT funny . For a T & J cartoon it's pretty much in the middle . Yes , there are laughs but not Oscar material laughs and it's not too inventive . There is actually some dialogue too , further proving the awful 1992 movie wrong , but no one is credited for providing the voices .
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564,442 | 102,816 | 38,008 | 6 |
Sea-through mystery .
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Pursuit to Algiers is unfortunately void of any kind of mystery . The villains and their intentions are made clear to the characters and audience very early on so there's no puzzle or clues for Holmes to work with . The opening is quite well done , however , with Holmes being secretly led to a meeting with foreign officials . His mission is to escort a would-be King back to his native Romanovajebrovia or whatever . But there is a bunch of assassins after him making the chore somewhat difficult . Why Sherlock Holmes , a detective , is hired to do the job of a Secret Agent is a little weird , but it does set up a potentially interesting story as Holmes and Watson board a cruise ship with a bunch of shady characters watching their every move . There's not much atmosphere to be had , but some of the fog-bound deck scenes are effective . The only thing this entry seems to have going for it is a surprising twist ending with the credits following rather abruptly . Still worth investing your time in though .
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564,119 | 102,816 | 36,348 | 6 |
Sherlock Holmes actually doesn't face death .
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I am not sure where the title comes from . It seems to be rather generic and meaningless if you ask me . I could have come up with something better than that . I'm not sure why they didn't just name it Sherlock Holmes and the Musgrave Ritual since it is based on that particular Conan Doyle story anyway . This film has Watson helping out with combat fatigued war veterans ( post-WII ) who are recovering in a spooky old manor . When one of the residents is attacked by a mysterious figure , Watson recruits Holmes to uncover the reasons . Bodies soon pile up and a deeper mystery is revealed to be lurking beneath the surface . The atmosphere is pretty thick and the set design and photography are right on the button . This is what I like best about these old Sherlock Holmes movies . The howling wind , creepy old mansions , ominous clouds and rural settings give it a truly unique feel , though you can tell that is it merely filmed on the ' European Village ' set on the Universal backlot . The modern setting does detract from the overall quality of the film however . And even though the silly , patriotic WWII nonsense is pretty much gone , there is still a tacked-on speech at the end on how Britain is entering ' a new era ' in which people will trust one another and look after their fellow man instead of pursuing wealth and unending greed . Did that actually happen ? I don't recall there being a time like that in Britain . I think that Holmes and Watson would turn in their graves if they knew how degraded and utterly without morals this place has become .
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564,498 | 102,816 | 103,956 | 6 |
Stretching the formula too far .
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Set 8 years after Child's Play 2 , this sequel sees Andy Barclay attending Military School and getting bullied by the Drill Sergeant . Meanwhile , the Play Pals company has reopened the Good Guy factory and is starting production of the doll once more . But when clearing away Chucky's grisly remains , some of his blood spills into a vat of molten plastic and he is born once more in a new body . After a good old strangulation to get the circulation going he locates Andy at his military school and somehow figures out a way to mail himself there . However , once the package gets there it is promptly snatched by a very annoying , extremely gay and highly wimpy little kid called Tyler . Since he has a new body Chucky reveals his birth name once more , hoping to get a fast and easy ticket out of his plastic shell . As before there are too many distractions . And as before the film spends way too much time with boring humans who spend too much time lurking in the dark wondering why a doll seems to appear and reappear and not enough time with Chucky . He IS the star of the show and he should OWN this movie . The director never really gives him the chance . Which is a shame since the animatronics had improved over Child's Play 2 and Chucky is beginning to look nastily cute . And more and more like Brad Dourif if you look hard enough . The score is a major downer though . Greame Revell's wonderful orchestral adventure of Child's Play 2 has been replaced with a horrid synthesized , death-metal score filled with tacky and unimaginative stingers . Revell , fortunately , returned for Bride of Chucky . Jack Bender's direction ( he's done episodes of Lost , Alias and The Sopranos ) is slick but lacks edge , invention or humor . He seems to be ignorant of the potential Chucky has and treats the film like another mechanical TV series with no spark or signature . Child's Play 3 is no more than a competent sequel . Writer Don Mancini said he wasn't even ready to do a 3rd movie but Universal forced him to before the second was even released . As he was out of ideas he claims this film to be his least favorite of them all . If a better director were involved it could still have been a good film instead of being a merely an above average ( by a tiny , tiny bit ) one . Filmed in standard widescreen , the DVD is in 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 2 . 0 surround . The only extra is an R-rated red band trailer .
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564,711 | 102,816 | 366,174 | 6 |
Perfect , dumb entertainment !
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No one really wanted , or asked for , a sequel to the seriously stupid 1997 creature feature Anaconda . But it was a hit ( somehow ) and you know how studios are when it comes to milking something for all it's worth - yes , Halloween 9 is currently in pre-production ! Surprisingly , Anacondas is actually quite good for what it is . Originally meant to be a direct-to-video production , Sony was so impressed with the dailies that they more than doubled the budget and elevated it to a theatrical release . The budget constraints still cramp its style , compared to A-list studio stuff , but it's the best film it possibly can be . With a touch more plot , involving a search for an ultra-mega-massively rare flower , called the Blood Orchid , that only blooms every seven years and can unlock the secret to everlasting life , there is a sophistication to the script , rather than plain old slither'n'slash . So we have a bunch of scientists on an expedition to the unknown depths of the Borneo jungle and it's not off to a good start . They can only afford a ramshackle boat ; it's the rainy season and the rivers are mighty treacherous . Also , their boat captain ( Johnny Messner ) is a gruff ex-Special Forces American , with the cutest pet monkey ever . Everyone seems to be okay about their perilous quest until they are attacked by big crocs , go over a waterfall and become shipwrecked . Then , when things can't get any worse , one of them is gobbled up by - you've guessed it - an anaconda . Instead of the traditional one-by-one deaths story , like the first film , there is more conflict and interaction . These characters may not be the best , or the most well written , but the actors do what they can with what they've been given . Messner is especially good , keeping a cool head as snakes prey upon them from every shadow . J-Low-IQ , the hammy John Voight and Ice Cube may be gone ( there is a quick reference to them ) , but fellow Boyz N The Hood alumni Morris Chestnut and E . R . star Salli Richardson are offered up as potential reptile food . And it just so happens that it's mating season . And the snakes are all up for a big orgy . And guess where the Blood Orchids are ? Right above their shagging pit . Oh bloody hell ! Luis Llosa made Anaconda in the most simplistic and static way possible . This time Dwight H . Little , the very man who gave us Halloween 4 , the epic Steven Seagal movie Marked For Death and err . . . Free Willy 2 , brings strong direction and integrity . It's a darker , more complex film that seriously promises to deliver the goods , but comes up a bit short . If it had been taken a few steps further , then it would have been great . As it is , it's more atmospheric and professional , but still , a bleaker ending , with more gobbled-up characters , would have suited me better . The snakes themselves look okay , nothing special . Little keeps them hidden for as long as possible , only offering brief glimpses here and there . A snake is an awkward looking villain , so keeping it hidden is probably wiser . There is also , thank heavens , no dodgy animatronics . Incredibly dumb and unnecessary it may be , but Anacondas is easy , inoffensive entertainment that will surely appeal to some part of everybody's taste .
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564,673 | 102,816 | 469,194 | 6 |
Fun , but pointless
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Despite the beautiful graphics and multiple characters to choose from ( including several from Final Fight ) I just can't see any REAL difference between this and the endless other 1-on-1 beat-em-ups out there . I never really mastered all of the special moves but there weren't needed as fighting with simple punches and kicks was good enough . It's fun for a while but in no way a game I would spend ages playing and finishing as every last character . I'm not that sad and I've got better things to do with my time . Graphics A Sound B Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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564,270 | 102,816 | 469,199 | 6 |
Actually quite good
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The Looney Tunes have had a spotty history on the Genesis . I hated the Bug Bunny : Double Trouble game and Taz : Escape from Mars was just okay . This one however got it right and delivered nice graphics and decent gameplay . There are 7 levels , each one set up as a different cartoon with it's own title . You'll recognise most of the locations if you are familiar with the Looney Tunes cartoons . Your mission is to catch that awful Tweety and devour him . But loads of painful and dangerous obstructions lie in your way . As a platformer , it's hardly the best but the bright colors and sense of humor will distract you enough . I'd give it a go , even if you are a serious game and regard it as too much of a kiddies game . Graphics A Sound Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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564,495 | 102,816 | 62,126 | 6 |
Always recycle
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In the trash covered desert town of Littersburg , the Pink Panther is sitting on a park bench eating a banana . He throws the peel away but is arrested by a cop and charged with littering ( even though a banana peel is biodegradable ) . His punishment is to clean up the whole town . This task does manage pretty well , but he has to do it over and over because whatever method of disposal he uses always ends up in the litter raining back down over everything again . In the end he flattens it all with a steamroller , cuts it all into squares , frames them and makes a fortune in selling it as modern art . He becomes the town hero and earns the key to the city . But there's a twist . . .
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564,084 | 102,816 | 62,127 | 6 |
Thumbing it
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The Pink Panther is ambitious enough to attempt to hitchhike his way to Anaheim , California despite the fact that it's over 1500 . The reason why he wants to go there is never explained and he's not having much luck finding sympathetic drivers willing to take him this massive distance . A nearby horse laughs at him , so Pinky has the brilliant idea of riding the horse all the way . But the horsey is having none of it and the rest of the cartoon is made up of Pinky's various attempts at mounting it . A thin excuse for some slight gags . One of them involves Pinky falling off a cliff and landing in a puff of smoke like Wile E . Coyote ( director Hawley Pratt was involved in several RoadRunner cartoons ) . But the very end in which the horse gets the very last laugh makes up for the rest of the tedium .
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564,657 | 102,816 | 469,212 | 6 |
Would be good if it were not so bloody hard !
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As usual , Turrican 3 delivers on action and button bashing with inventive , imaginative level design and furious gameplay . There comes a point though , in level 2 , where the game becomes impossible and you ( or at least me ) go any further unless you have the timing of the Gods or something . Which is a shame , since the Turrican series is what run-and-gun platformers are all about . The music is once again brilliant , with loads of cool tunes by Chris Huelsbeck and the graphics are great considering the hardware . The Amiga version does have slightly better graphics than the Sega version , but otherwise , they're identical . It's just too damn bad that it's too damn hard . Graphics A Sound A Gameplay A Lasting Appeal
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563,766 | 102,816 | 222,407 | 6 |
Cute enough , but I just can't get into it
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Super Mario World 2 : Super Mario Advance 3 : Yoshi's Island . Phew ! How about that for a title . I admit I found it a bit confusing putting these Mario Advance games in order but I think I've figured it out now . You gotta admit it's a bit convoluted . This game is a simple 2D platformer like most of the retro Mario games only it has four more levels than the SNES version released in 1995 . It's got easy-going gameplay in the typical Super Mario style , gorgeous graphics , generic sounds and not much to keep me interested . Yoshi IS impossibly cute but even for a guy who likes cute stuff this game is just TOO childish . Graphics A Sound C Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,134 | 102,816 | 481,086 | 6 |
Good up until a certain point
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I had Curse of Sherwood on my trusty old Commodore 64 back in the 80s . It was a fun game in which you explored Sherwood Forest as Friar Tuck , picking up artifacts and tackling demon skeletons , while occasionally shopping for bigger weapons . In this respect it was a very , very basic RPG but still quite enjoyable . Your mission was to rescue Robin Hood and the rest of the guys from some evil cult and a riddle contained in the cassette box was apparently full of clues on how to do just that . But there was one major thing that ruined it for me . . . the swamp . There was a certain part of Sherwood Forest that was nothing but a huge bog . And you had to make your way across it without sinking . Well , I never could , it was impossible . The correct path to take was invisible to the human eye and evil skeletons chasing after me I always watched in horror as Friar Tuck descended to his boggy doom . I remember the video-game mags of the time published complete maps of Curse of Sherwood and I finally got to see all the cool places I could never explore because getting through the bog was so damn hard . I still would like to play it once more and maybe finish the game once and for all . The graphics were the exact same as the Speccy version but they were still pretty good and rather atmospheric . In regards to color schemes and environments the game was a lot like the original Sabre Wulf from 1984 . This was one of those games that I loaded up quite a lot only to never get past that one bit . Still , it was probably better than I got to know . Graphics B Sound Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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563,786 | 102,816 | 42,926 | 6 |
Cats : The Original Musical
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Mammy-Two-Shoes ( dubbed to sound less ' racist ' to appease the narrow-minded PC brigade in the version that I saw ) goes out for the night , leaving Tom alone with the house to himself . He immediately invites a bunch of alley cats around for a party , causing no end of disturbance to Jerry , who doesn't take kindly to their music . After attempts at silencing them fail , Jerry is tortured and tied up , but he still has enough in him to call Mammy-Two-Shoes ( the number he dials is nothing but 1-1-1-1-1 ) and get Tom in trouble . It's an average cartoon , which nothing to make it really stand out above the rest with the exception of two frames in which you actually get to see Mammy-Two-Shoes ' face . Otherwise ; bland .
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564,740 | 102,816 | 419,420 | 6 |
You do drugs . . . you die
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Everybody in the world ought to know that . Yet there are still people who do . Adam and Paul proves this as well as showing the hopeless deprivation homeless junkies exist in . It's not depressing , unless you're a junkie yourself and are heading in that direction . In the course of one single day , Adam and Paul try to scam their way through hunger , friends and their relentless need for more heroin . They are clueless , zombified and about as dead as living people get . It's hard to feel sorry for them , in fact you'll probably feel as much contempt for them as their former friends ( hardly first-class citizens themselves ) do when they show up and mooch . If you think your life is crap then you need only to compare it to Adam and Paul to cheer yourself up . And if you were ever tempted by drugs then this film ought to put you off that curiosity .
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564,788 | 102,816 | 166,204 | 6 |
The thinnest Garfield special
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I was never too keen on Garfield in Paradise , there is just something about it that doesn't gel . Garfield TV specials are always great but there's a couple of annoying things in this one . Jon has taken Garfield ( and a stowaway Odie ) to Hawaii for a vacation , staying in a lousy hotel after a third class plane ride . Everything about their trip reeks of sleaze . Soon they happen upon a native village ( containing a very irritating , gibberish-talking short guy showing asscrack that belongs in something like The Simpons ) and have to drive their 1957 vintage rentacar into a volcano to plug the hole . There's not much more to it than that I'm afraid . Though seeing as how I'm trying to plan a sunny beach holiday it did kinda put me off booking a cheap hotel and flight .
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564,866 | 102,816 | 42,916 | 6 |
Danger First
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It's Independence Day , and Jerry's nephew Nibbles is determined to get himself blown up by playing around with all kinds of fireworks , leading to Jerry getting blasted every time . Tom appears and torments the mice , and a war breaks out between them leading to the usual tricks , chases and fights . Safety Seconds repeats a lot of jokes from previous cartoons and is treading water for most of the running time . One thing I don't get is why Nibbles wears a diaper . I mean , neither he nor Jerry are toilet trained and mice just defecate wherever they please . So surely it would be more hygienic for Nibbles to do just that rather than going around with it all mashed-up between his butt cheeks . An average cartoon regardless .
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563,991 | 102,816 | 96,734 | 6 |
Interesting , amusing and loads of fun , but it's just missing something .
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Although this movie is imaginative and fun it fails to take full advantage of the ' zany ' set-up it creates so well . I feel as if there are a lot of scenes cut out and the movie was cut down to size in the editing room . Tom Hanks and his pals get carried away with the idea that their neighbors ( The Klopeks ) are psychos and they take their suspicions to morbid extremes by spying , nosing around and harassing them . I enjoyed this movie as a kid but it's a bit annoying now . We never REALLY find out what exactly it is the Klopeks do or who they are . All we know is that they don't mow their front lawn and that's it . Bruce Dern has a lively role as an old Army Vet , Rick Ducommun is Hanks ' scrounger pal , Corey Feldman is a stereotyped ' Bill and Ted ' stoned teen and Dick Miller makes his obligatory appearance in a Joe Dante movie . The strongest feature of the movie is Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful score which is full of atmosphere and brilliant themes . Why can't more comedy movies have scores as lively as this ? Dante's signature is all over this movie . It's just a shame they decided to cut it down due to running time ( if that is the case ) . I know of the alternate ending in which Hanks is killed . I think that would have saved the movie . Anyway , it's well worth checking out .
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564,026 | 102,816 | 58,150 | 6 |
Cheap-ass , simplistic Bond bore .
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I know I'm just asking to be hauled over the coals for this , but Goldfinger is surely one of the dullest Bond films . I am not some cheeseburger junkie brought up on Die Another Day and xXx , before you make that assumption . But I found Goldfinger to be tolerable only because it was rather short for a Bond film and had a villain who was somewhat likable instead of a despicable super-arch-nemesis living in a volcano lair . Despite the fact that this film apparently cost more to make then the first two Bond films combined it is so amazingly cheap you could be fooled into thinking it they filmed it all for free . First of all , Sean Connery is obviously never outside of Pinewood Studios ( or the nearby , surrounding countryside ) since every time he appears ' on location ' it's ridiculously fake-looking rear-projection . My God , if you're going to make a spy movie in a franchise that sells itself on globe-trotting how about actually having your actor BE there ! The locations , as a result , are all low-key and not much to look at . The gold-melting plant in Geneva , for example , is blatantly an anonymous alleyway out the back of Pinewood . I was never really one for the silly gadget's in Bond film's either , so I'm glad that they never played a big part in the story and the stuff that he did use ( homing devices ) were believable . But don't get me started about the car ! Why , why , why do people always cream their panties over these inane Bond cars ? Let me tell you something ; the Aston Martin is lamest thing I have ever seen , I wouldn't be seen dead in one and it irritates the hell out of me that they keep cropping up in this series . And that's even WITH Q's cunning extras . The Goldfinger Aston Martin spawned a die-cast toy car that's worth zillions on E-Bay these days and is worth even more if you have the box ( why would you ) with the ejector seat still intact . Wow . . . the ejector seat . Such a big deal is made out of this but I swear the guy Bond launches out of his car soars a whopping one foot in the air . Adventure doesn't get any bigger than THAT huh ? Despite it's undeserved praise as a classic and a definitive Bond film , Goldfinger is clearly a rush-job with an Oddjob . This was Connery's third Bond film ( as well as others ) in two years . If they took a little more time and effort and delivered something with more sophisticated framing and effects then Goldfinger could have been worthy of being called a classic . As it is it's merely a fond childhood event for a lot of older adults who are unable to see how naff it is since they can only view it through nostalgic goggles .
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563,865 | 102,816 | 168,163 | 6 |
We're doing our part with all our heart , heigh-ho !
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For fans of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this'll be a truly bizarre experience to see them promoting war . . . bonds . This short was made with funding from the Canadian Government to encourage citizens to buy war dollars to help with Canada's involvement in WWII . It begins with the dwarfs digging for diamonds in their mine singing an alternate , propaganda themed version of their heigh-ho song . After digging they take the diamonds to the local bank to buy war dollars . It's at this point that the hugely unsubtle propaganda kicks in . BUY WAR DOLLARS ! DO YOUR PART ! HELP US WIN THE WAR ! It's weird watching this . It's not something you'd get on the Disney channel . More like the History channel . And at four minutes it's not very long either .
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564,148 | 102,816 | 27,281 | 6 |
Not that funny
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The typical chaos that follows Mickey and Donald everywhere provide most of the laughs in this cartoon . They're climbing the Alps and literally dragging Pluto behind them . Donald decides to mad at a little mountain goat for some reason , Mickey attempts the ridiculously evil crime of stealing an eagles eggs and Pluto ends up freezing and being rescued by one of those mountain dwelling St . Bernards with the barrel of booze ( do these really exist btw ? ) . It's 10 minutes of putting the characters through as much aggravation as possible withing their environment . A lot of Mickey / Donald cartoons are like this and this one is nothing special .
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563,775 | 102,816 | 298,130 | 6 |
Nonsense played straight
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Morose color schemes , oddball characters and lots of rain apparently make a popular and successful film . While the Ring is an interesting view ( once ) if you look too closely at this film you'll realize that it's a huge pile of codswhallop that will never add up no matter how much you force it . Let's disassemble . . . A girl is born to a stray woman but possessed with the soul of a vengeful spirit in need of love and a mother but never in need of sleep . The child is named Samara and adopted by horse breeders Mr . and Mrs . Morgan . But because Samara is cursed with freakyness the horses go crazy and commit suicide while others fail to breed . As punishment for being this way the Morgans trap her in a big attic in a barn . Not content with this they smack her on the back of the head with a rock and chuck her down a well . Their suicides soon follow . Many years later Samara , using her freaky powers at the bottom of the well , somehow brings into existence a video tape featuring a freaky student film of imagery of her freaky life . Anyone who watches this tape dies 7 days later . Which doesn't make sense either as the first person who watched it wouldn't know they were going to die . And neither would the second . So how the urban legend surrounding it got started is a mystery . And why 7 days ? Why not right away ? Does she want the tape to be deciphered and to be found ? A journalist called Rachel investigates the tape , luckily making a copy-ridding herself of the 7-day curse and unravels Samara's freaky life . Her body is found and laid to rest properly . BUT THIS IS A BAD THING ! Somehow . It's never really explained why it is but other than the uttering of cryptic dialogue such as ' You let the dead get in ' . But bad things don't really happen after this anyway , other than more people watching the video tape . And then everything's okay right ? We might as well fade out now . . .
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564,774 | 102,816 | 33,908 | 6 |
Funny , slightly
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Not much is happening in this short . Jerry fancies himself a midnight snack , so he decides to raid the fridge . Tom in watching and foils his plans . Content with neutralizing the mouse , Tom helps himself to whatever he feels in the fridge . But he soon makes a mess and the offensive , highly stereotypical black slave / owner goes mad at him . Tom pins the blame on Jerry and a chase follows . There's not much in the way of creativity in this short . The kitchen environment just doesn't seem to offer too many traps , props or tricks . And while Jerry looks normal , Tom looks more feline and raggedy than he does in the later cartoons . Yes , it's worth watching but it's not as good as the Tom and Jerry we're familiar with .
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564,764 | 102,816 | 1,190,535 | 6 |
Should be first ' adventures '
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The title is a bit of an inappropriately long mouthful and the film is clearly split into two separate halves that have nothing to do with each other . I'm not really fussed about this , as they both have enough plot and developments to keep the viewer interested . It opens with Young Indy explaining how he is no ordinary child before being shipped off around the world as his dad ( Lloyd Owen doing a very good Sean Connery impression ) goes on a lecture tour . Though his mother and private tutor don't take too kindly to his willingness to get into loads of trouble . When in Egypt Indy meets Laurence of Arabia and helps unearth a tomb in which a priceless headpiece is stolen ( this plot is never resolved but I assume it will in later instalments ) . In Morocco he is kidnapped by slave traders and makes pals with a young servant . That's it really . Nothing really involving but it is nice , light entertainment . The educational aspect of Indy meeting historical figures and learning a wide range of things from them is not in the least distracting and is actually convincing as what inspires him to be the famous archaeologist that he ends up being . A promising start , I don't why John Williams didn't allow for his theme to be used though . It was even in the video games after all . And since this is a genuine Lucasfilm production I was surprised it was not included even if it would have been a bit out of place considering the material .
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564,212 | 102,816 | 253,754 | 6 |
Curious ' end ' to the Next Gen series
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The longest in production , the lowest grossing and most limbo-bound Star Trek movie of all . Nemesis is neither here nor there . It entertains without satisfying and features loads of brilliant SFX , but little awe . Perhaps we are all just too familiar with franchise and it needs to forever be increasingly far-reaching to keep it fresh . However , it IS a lot better than Insurrection . In terms of direction anyway . Jonothan Frake's TV movie approach to the franchise lacked any sort of class or sophistication but Stuart Baird fixes that with a darker and more menacing tone . The script is more sinister than that of Insurrection or First Contact ( the Next Gen movie titles still remain uninspired ) but what ends up in the film is confused and undefined . The plot has Picard sent out to Romulous to help make peace with the new Preator , a man who calls himself Shinzon and who happens to be an exact clone of Picard . Data finds an android identical to himself buried in the sand of a nearby desert planet . Picard and Data are suspicious of their radical finds and the suspicion soon proves to be justified as treachery and double-crosses are revealed . With an unconfirmed amount of deleted scenes ( rumors put it around the 50 minute mark ) it's painfully obvious that important plot developments have been cut out of the film . The sense of the Enterprise emptying as all the main characters leave for new career paths is lost . Worf and Crusher are hardly featured for some reason . The relationship between Data and his long-lost brother B-4 seems very thin . The sub-text is muddled and hard to get to grips with . And a sub-plot involving Praetor Shinzon's lust ( and subsequent repeated rape ) for Deanna Troi is abandoned as soon as it starts . What was the point of starting it in the first place ? Is B-4 actually Data's evil brother Lore ? And despite the fact that Star Trek has been around for almost 40 years at this point , the STILL do the cheap ' desert outside of LA as some other planet ' trick . And the dune buggies seemed to be kind of out of place . Like it was just added in at the last minute to make the film more exciting . Shinzon is not the slightest bit scary and even looks like the 3rd place runner-up in a Right Said Fred lookalike competition . For all the talk of him looking slightly different from Picard due to his life of hardship , he didn't look very hard . Also , Jerry Goldsmith's score just seems like loads of his previous scores with some cues altered slightly . Honestly , I recognised several cues from Executive Decision , Gremlins 2 , The ' Burbs and many other movies changed just a little bit to make it sound different . Though I understand Goldsmith was very ill at this point so I can forgive him for that . But it's hard to forgive the rest of the film . Like I said , it's entertaining , but falls apart under even the most superficial of scrutiny . It could have been handled a lot better and I'm surprised and disappointed that Paramount fumbled their flagship series so badly .
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564,228 | 102,816 | 445,563 | 6 |
Unbelievably hard , surprisingly short
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The Metal Slug games are famous for their button-bashing action , slapstick humor and white-knuckle difficulty . Not surprising that they are so hard considering they were first made for the arcade and it's a ploy by SNK for you to spend more money playing it . Now everything you loved about Metal Slug is on the Gameboy Advance , with a few new bonuses . One of them is the card system , which I cared not for , which you are awarded for rescuing certain prisoners or destroying certain bosses . Personally , I didn't think this changed the game much at all . Second is that you can save your progress in Metal Slug Advance , which will comes as a huge relief to anyone who's just defeated a near-impossible boss and doesn't think they'll be able to do so again . There are only five ( very hard ) levels in this game and you'll get through them in a week . Yes , at some points you'll want to hurl your GBA at the wall in frustration but stick at it and you'll learn certain patterns in which to get through the levels . And after you complete it you'll more than likely never play it again , no matter what cheap rubbish SNK have put in there to make you go through it again . There's just no enough variety for it to pay off . Graphics A Sound A Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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564,485 | 102,816 | 1,201,558 | 6 |
End of the line of Corey Carrier
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In his final outing as Young Indy Corey Carrier goes out with a whimper rather than a bang , but that's to be expected since he's lies about dying in the last act . The movie , written by Jonathan Hensleigh ( Armageddon , Jumanji , Die Hard 3 , The Punisher ) opens with the Joneses traveling to India where local charlatan claims to have found the second coming of Christ ( or something like it ) in a modest local Indian boy . Indy makes pals with him and teaches him baseball . In return he gets a tour of Benares and learns of all the major religions and how they tie together . It's then on to China where Indy takes ill after a visit to the great wall . With his father absent and their carriage stuck out in the wilds a peasant family take them in while Indy struggles to fight off Typhoid . In between his conscious moments we learn that Indy had a sister who also died when she was young . A local doctor saves the day by sticking Indy full of acupuncture needles so the young adventurer can live to find the ark , rescue the slave children and drink from the holy grail . And now for Sean Patrick Flannery . . .
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564,482 | 102,816 | 892,743 | 6 |
Too tame and childish
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I never could see Jonathan Pryce as Holmes myself but he was the only good thing about this otherwise sterile family drama that seems like it was made for CITV or CBEEBIES . There's absolutely no bloody atmosphere to it . Holmes ' trusty Baker Street kids lose their leader when he apparently drowns in the Thames and the victim's sister begins to turn against Holmes claiming that he doesn't really care for them . But he still needs them to carry on working for him since he's in the middle of a difficult case . It's not the best of plots and the acting from the majority of the cast would make the ' actors ' in Hollyoaks cringe . The stupid slow motion and editing techniques do not fit the context and the music is completely anachronistic , if terribly dull . The production design was pretty though , it has to be said . For Sherlock Holmes fans and very young kids only .
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563,807 | 102,816 | 106,429 | 6 |
Better than average TV fare
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Most TV movies I've seen are abysmal . But this one manages to rise above than with some okay photography and a really cool musical score by David Michael Frank ( whatever became of him ? ) . Jeff Fahey is quite good at playing Frank , a crooked cop who is hiding out from the bad guys who blinded him in Mexico . There he meets Mia Sara who plays Chandler Strange and he becomes involved in a schemey sub-plot . Things turn against him as events arise suspicion . This TV movie has it's roots in low-key gangster movies and sticks to them like glue . By doing this the whole movie feels authentic and atmospheric . Which is not something you see all the time in TV movies . Overall
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564,840 | 102,816 | 99,864 | 6 |
Stripped down , but still stands well on ITs own .
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I've never read the book of IT , but I did buy it for my mother's 30th birthday some years ago . She never took much interest so I had a browse myself . While not reading it cover to cover I did read about 100 pages in the middle section of the book just to see if it bore any resemblance to the TV-movie . Yes it does and no is doesn't . If that makes any sense . The characters are there and King's ever-recurring Derry is portrayed effectively enough as a dead-end , horrible town . But like most screen adaptations , it lacks the heavy substance of King's writing . But it would be hard to squeeze in over 1000 pages of story into a movie , even if it is 3 hours long . Split into two halves , the movie begins with the disappearance of a little girl , taken by an evil clown named Pennywise ( a deeply sinister Tim Curry ) . A local librarian recognizes the pattern of the murders and calls each of his friends ( The Lucky Seven / Losers Club ) who helped defeat Pennywise 30 years previously . Pennywise is not bound by the laws of physics and takes on the form of what each of the lucky seven are most afraid of . They find no other appropriate word to describe the phenomena other than IT . We see the backstory to each of them as they suddenly remember events they have mysteriously forgotten . A simple plot device , but effective . It makes the first half stronger than the second . From the 90-minute mark onwards we have a bunch of scared grown-ups who just seem to ask ' What are we going to do ? ' about a zillion times even though as kids they knew exactly what they were doing and were a lot tougher . The ultimate ending is a bit of a let down as it totally erases King's mythology and gives us some lame monster that is nothing compared to Pennywise himself . A helluva lot of King's mystery is simply torn out but IT still has enough energy and intrigue to make a decent stand-alone movie . But after 3 hours , I just wanted a better ending . Director Tommy Lee Wallace did want to shoot in Panavision ( an unusual move for a TV movie ) but the studio wouldn't allow him and so he compromised by shooting in flat 1 . 85 : 1 ( still irregular for 1990 ) . It would have been better to have a scope aspect ratio , especially with 7 characters sometimes occupying the screen at once . But you can blame studio interference for that . An above average TV movie , no doubt . Just loses momentum after the half-way mark and loses points for not sticking closer to King's book .
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563,825 | 102,816 | 36,011 | 6 |
Just a couple of laughs .
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Donald is stationed at some listening post in what appears to be a remote part of the Pacific coast . Not a lot is happening . So much so that he falls asleep . His snoring / trumpeting , wakes up his nephews Huey , Duey and Louie who then play a couple of tricks on him . The few laughs come from Donald thinking he's under attack . Yes , it is a Disney war propaganda cartoon but the Xenophobia isn't as obvious as in other cartoons of the time . The main problem is that the idea is kind of limited . It never leaves Donald's listening post and there's not a lot of imagination or stuff going on . Meh ! You've seen worse .
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564,860 | 102,816 | 758,746 | 6 |
A very , very poor film but more of Jason Voorhees is always a good thing
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I was wise enough to not get my hopes up . The Friday the 13th films have always fluctuated in quality , but aside from Part V they have always delivered the goods in either meagre or generous amounts . Platinum Dunes ' restart is utterly determined to gives us the best Jason possible , and it's evident that they tried their best . But the collective best of Michael Bay , Marcus Nispel , Damian Shannon , Mark Swift , and composer Steve Jablonsky ( music has always played an important part of this franchise ) just isn't good enough . The characters are flat , boring , and lifeless cardboards cut-outs . A mistake that most slasher films make is giving us horrible , nasty characters that we WANT to see killed ( turning the killer into a sort of anti-hero in the process ) rather than characters we like . There is no excitement or horror in counting down the minutes until the stock jerk boyfriend gets eviscerated . There is also a shocking dearth of common sense or logic to their actions . I understand that the extended version of the film may fill in some blanks and fill out their reasoning somewhat , but I still cannot side with characters who make stupid , stupid decisions and just don't use their head . I appreciate the fact that they shot the film in anamorphic Panavision ( something that is sadly dying out a world of cheap , ugly Super35 ) but the high key , polished , and shiny photography doesn't seem to fit . Take a look at Part IV . It wasn't the best entry in the series , but the grainy as hell photography created an undeniably bleak , depressing atmosphere and gave the film a unique kind of intensity that is missing here . Jablonsky's score is nothing more than the same noise he gave us with every single one of his previous movies . If the man has any kind of musical talent he's yet to convince me of it . Yes , it works , but only on an extremely basic level . But blasting us with a sudden storm of noise as Jason appears on screen is a dated ' stinger ' scare and is void of sophistication . I know that complexity is not something one should be looking for in a Jason movie , but Harry Manfredini's Herrmann-esquire scores for parts I-VI were far superior . The actors do their best with the weak script , so I can't really fault them . The low body count also disappoints . Was it really necessary to specifically give us thirteen kills ? It doesn't give the film any kind of clever or ironic edge , if anything it just saves on the blood and gore effects . Since 1980 we've had twelve Jason movies ( counting his brief appearance in the first ) , so did we really need yet ANOTHER slow , stalk and slash entry set at Camp Crystal Lake ? Jason has been to New York , Hell , and outer space . Why , oh why , go back to the same old , same old ? This film should have given us something new , but did absolutely did not . Why don't people from the town realize that so many victims are splattered right on their doorstep ? How did little Jason come to fend for himself in the woods ? Is he EVER going to go on a gung-ho rampage through the streets ? Hiding in the trees while the music whispers CH CH CH AH AH AH is old , old , old , and I am sick and tired of it . Apparently Shannon and Swift are working on the script for the sequel as we speak . Get it right this time , guys . There's a reason why this film sank like brick after it's first week . You promised something new but gave us something embarrassingly ancient . The audience stayed away once word of mouth got around that you took advantage of their trusting nature . Having said all that , I will always invest my time in watching Jason carve ' em up . He deserves a lot better though . BTW , it's not really a reboot . The film still acknowledges the events of the 1980 original while tweaking the continuity a little bit ( the Friday the 13th films were never really solid with the timeline anyway ) . Think of it as just another Jason adventure . Calling it Part XII would have alienated potential viewers , but the simple Friday the 13th doesn't necessarily mean it's a straight-up remake .
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563,880 | 102,816 | 42,584 | 6 |
Who ?
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I've never heard of Claude Cat but he's another one of those Cartoon cats who likes to chase after mice / birds but never gets them . Only this time there's a twist . . . he's a hypochondriac . Dumb mice Bertie and Hubie break into his house ( so they are in the wrong ! ) in order to steal some cheese . Claude doesn't like this and gives chase . Only when he runs past the open window they came in from he gets a sudden chill and believes he might have pneumonia . Trust me , I've had it , and it's a lot worse than a sudden chill . The mice pretend that Claude is dying and ending convincing him he has died a fake death . Since I have never seen Claude since watching this cartoon today I can only assume his weak personality and unaesthetic appearance only did send him to Cat Heaven forever .
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564,709 | 102,816 | 377,471 | 6 |
I prefer this one .
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I was never really that much of a fan of Get Shorty , but for some reason I watched it like a zillion times after I taped it off TV years ago ( I guess Dennis Farina was just too funny ) , so much so that I was word perfect in every scene . Sure , it was funny , but what ruined it for me was the obnoxious direction by Barry Sonnenfeld ( who , in The Gator's opinion , is down there with Kevin " Antichrist " Smith as THE worst director in Hollywood ) that oozed falseness and tackiness at every opportunity . Thankfully , F . Gary Gray has taken control of the sequel and it feels / looks less pedestrian and more er . . . cool . It's a stronger and funnier movie and , for a change , more of a new story than a simple sequel . Chili Palmer ( John Travolta ) is now bored with movies , sequels and Harry Zimm and reckons the music industry will be more exciting . His pal Tommy Athens ( James Woods , who appears to have aged about 20 years since Vampires ) is a veteran music producer and keen to get a movie made about his life , something involving gangsters , crooked deals and the Russian Mafia . Too bad Tommy is promptly gunned down in broad daylight by the evil Ruskies . Instead of making a movie about it , Chili takes Tommy's place and decides to stir things up at his record label and takes a shine to his widow ( Uma Thurman ) . After watching starlet Linda Moon ( Christina Milan ) performing in a tawdry club , he promptly nicks her from her moron manager ( a very funny Vince Vaughn ) and promises to make her a huge star . Only problem is there's about 20 gangsters , a rival producer , a hit-man ( the very funny and late Robert Pastorelli , whom I like a lot in his final movie ever ) and a gay bodyguard ( The Rock ) out there to make things difficult for him . One might accuse Be Cool of being too self-aware in attempting to smooth over its shortcomings , but the cheeky humour and welcome light touch make it thoroughly inoffensive . Farina may be absent this time round , but The Rock , providing more proof then ever before that he's a great actor , steals the show and Vaughn is a laugh riot . It could be interpreted as a major flaw that these two characters totally overshadow Travolta and Thurman , but one can hardly be cool and eccentric at the same time . As a result , the leads seem a bit dull . Since the first was hardly high art , it would be insane to judge Be Cool too harshly . Enjoy it on its own level and you'll see that it's actually better than the irritating Get Shorty .
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564,307 | 102,816 | 29,260 | 6 |
How nice
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Mickey , Donald ( who's species are used to being hunted ) and Goofy are on a hunting trip in what appears to be the Canadian wilderness . Goofy and Donald disguise themselves as ( a horribly ugly ) female moose in order to get close enough to blow it's brains out . The plan works but the male moose falls in love with there disguise ( I guess it was the lipstick that fooled him ) and they have trouble shaking him off . Meanwhile , Mickey has broken his gun and is stuck in a tree as a moose takes bites out of the leaves , exposing him more and more . The two mooses finally fall in love with the Goofy / Donald disguise and go to war with each other . The disguise soon fails . The cartoon ends . Not heavily funny but a mindless 8 minutes .
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564,747 | 102,816 | 29,257 | 6 |
Robots back then ?
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In this 9-minute cartoon , Donald enters a museum exhibiting the latest inventions , such as robot butlers , robot hitchhikers , robot nannies , robot barber chairs . . . basically all robot stuff . And still , 70 years later , we have no robots . Weird . Anyway , Donald , being as irritable as he is , quickly becomes angered by the inventions and ends up getting slapped around and tormented in the usual ways . It serves him right for scamming himself into the museum for free . It's funny without being thigh-slappingly hilarious . And some of the robots will probably remind you of Bender and his pals from Futurama .
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564,510 | 102,816 | 181,316 | 6 |
Mindless Fun
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In one of the few movies where Martin Lawrence's humor doesn't become seriously racist and xenophobic he plays Miles Logan , a jewel thief , after a $20 million diamond . But one of his team betrays him ( Peter Greene , once again playing a bad guy ) and they're plan is thrown all out of whack . After hastily stashing the diamond in a nearby construction site he is soon arrested sent away for 2 years . Upon release he heads back to the construction site only to find it's turned into a police station . No luck getting back in unless you're a cop then . A series of disguises fail and Logan ends up impersonating a cop in order to get to the diamond . But he's so good at the impersonation that police duty gets in the way and he's partnered with Carlson ( Luke Wilson ) . Mild plot complications ensue and it becomes increasingly difficult for Logan to get to the diamond . Though the trouble really starts when Deacon ( Peter Greene ) comes back to get him . It's all brainless stuff but it makes for enjoyably silly viewing . Lawrence's improv isn't all that funny but the rest of his performance is strangely tolerable . Wilson isn't his usual self in the wimpy cop role but it's weird watching him pronounce ' real OLD SCHOOL ' 4 years before said movie was released . And Dave Chappelle is hilarious Tulley , the amateur liquor store robber . There was supposed to be a sequel but plans for it fell through . It would have been a hundred times better than the awful Bad Boys sequel regardless of script quality . The DVD is in bright , clean 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with a lively Dolby 5 . 1 soundtrack . There are some extras but nothing groundbreaking .
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564,056 | 102,816 | 317,919 | 6 |
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
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The first was very complex . We moaned about it . The second was very simple . We moaned about it . I guess they wanted a mid-level of complexity to this film , it works in a very basic way but nothing other than some fantastic set-pieces really becomes of it . In fact , the only thing that stops this from being a typical action movie is the soppy romance laced through it and Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance as the baddie . This particular baddie sells things to people who should own them wants to steal a Maguffin ( a completely unimaginative plot mechanism ) to sell to the Arabs . Cruise and Co try to stop him but he slips out of their hands and promises to make Cruise cry unless he does his bidding . You don't have to do much to make that happen . Just point a water pistol at him . The Maguffin is none other than the Rabbit's Foot ? What's the Rabbit's Foot you ask ? Who cares ? Like I said already , it's just an excuse for action to happen . We've seen plots like this before in Pulp Fiction and Ronin , but done to much better and much more intriguing effect . The action scenes are superb ! The chopper chase , bridge attack , skyscraper swing and Vatican Heist are bursting at the seems with excitement and are all shot and cut brilliantly . They add a huge sense of death-defying spectacle to a film that's low on ideas but high on espionage thrills . There are some weak links though . I HATED Simon Pegg's cameo and his apparent ad-libbing was the unfunniest thing I have ever heard in my life . The romance talk does reek of that corny ' You complete me ' scene in Jerry Maguire and Ving Rhame's character STILL gets no development whatsoever , spending practically the whole movie sitting at a laptop , again ! As a popcorn movie it works very well , but I had higher expectations so I was kinda let-down . But it never fails to entertain .
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564,266 | 102,816 | 483,041 | 6 |
One of the better Bond games on the C64 .
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The Bond license ( to kill ) was wasted on a lot of crappy C64 games . View to a Kill was pants , as was The Living Daylights . But Live and Let Die fared much better as , instead of following the film's plot , the developers made the entire game a boat race based on the film's chase scene on the Florida everglades . It looks and feels a lot like the old Spy Hunter video game as you zoom around corners , take-off on ramps , smash through targets for bonus points and blast away at enemies . It vaguely resembles the film but it was definitely one of the more fun Bond games the C64 had . Graphics Sound B Gameplay B Last Appeal
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563,944 | 102,816 | 781,425 | 6 |
Only a couple of good moments
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I only watched this because of Naomi St . James , who is one of the most gorgeous porn actresses ever , but her scene wasn't that good . It was just plain sex with a tiny bit of badly done anal at the end and then a weak cumshot . The only good bit is at the end when Donna Warner gets a DP and Patty Rouge enters to be DP'd also but then gets an anal fisting from Donna . THAT was pretty damn cool , but the rest in mundane . If they were going be extreme then why not all the way through instead of just one bit at the end . Give it a go if you come by it , but only if it's cheap .
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564,586 | 102,816 | 165,982 | 6 |
Mediocre
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I don't want to be mean but I am not surprised this movie flopped so bad . Audiences seem to be turning their backs on traditional animation in favor of CGI ( check out Finding Nemo's box office results , like $300 million and climbing ) . There's nothing particularly wrong with Sinbad . It just doesn't stand out in any way . There is no edge or spark or real reason why we should pay it any attention . Sure there are some funny jokes , a bit of humor and dramatic scenes backed by a loud and appropriately jingoistic score . But we've seen this hundreds of times . Be it DreamWorks or Disney , hand drawn animation is DEFINITELY out . Piglet's Big Movie , Spirit : Stallion of the Cimarron , Treasure Planet , Atlantis and Road to El Dorado all bombed . The Emperor's New Groove was the last successful one I can think of but it had a sense of humor more in common with The Simpsons or Family Guy ; widening the audience appeal . No doubt DreamWorks are hoping this will do better on DVD . Though I still can't see any reason why anyone should choose this over something more ambitious such as Monsters Inc . or Nemo . It's a good way to kill 90 minutes , but nothing you'll want to watch again .
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563,918 | 102,816 | 106,292 | 6 |
Lacking the class of the original . . .
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. . . but still good to watch . It's consistently funny and has a reasonable plot but you get the feeling it should have been better . Maybe it's too late to save the series with another movie but it would be great to see Richard Dreyfuss on the big screen again , he really is an under-appreciated and underrated actor . The main problem with Another Stakeout is that it just isn't as strong as the first film . Sure it was funny and had childish humor , but Stakeout had hard edge that this sequel just doesn't equal . The dropping of the R-rating for a PG-13 might have made economic sense but it betrays fans of the original . Second is all Another Stakeout has going for it is the endless arguing and fast-talking banter between the 3 characters . There's no perfect mix of smart-mouthing and action . In fact , the action is far too toned down and only really occurs at the very beginning and very end of the film . And for all the work John Badham has done in the past , the direction is lacklustre and uninventive . With the sole exception of the cat's bum POV shot of course . And he does do a great job with the Pacific Northwest scenery . But enough with the in-jokes . Yes , they are fun but there's too many for a film like this . If you're a fan of the first you might be disappointed at how diluted Another Stakeout is but you'll still laugh enough for it to be worthwhile .
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564,286 | 102,816 | 33,952 | 6 |
Nothing special
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Outside of a cozy Xmas atmosphere and the look and feel of a lovely country Xmas , this Tom and Jerry cartoon doesn't have much going for it outside of the usual hijinks . Jerry wanders around late on Xmas Eve , nosing at all the presents . House guardian Tom , doing his duty , chases him . It ends up with Jerry being booted out into the freezing cold . Feeling guilty , Tom eventually goes out to rescue him and the two of them enjoy the warmth of the fire together . Like I said , it's nothing special and not very inventive at all . A good cartoon to view at Xmastime however .
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564,081 | 102,816 | 467,417 | 6 |
Good in it's day , hopelessly out of date now .
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Suicide Express was one of those games that was fun to play on the Commodore 64 back in the days when stuff like that was mind-blowing . Today , you can get far superior stuff downloaded onto cell phones to the ultra-simplistic nature of Suicide Express is probably hard to forgive when you play it in 2006 . The graphics , to me when I was a kid , were quite cool with ' vividly ' detailed otherworldly landscapes and the idea of controlling a train as it hurtles toward oblivion , switching tracks , never taking the same route twice seemed amazing . The music too was minimalistic , but has inspired quite a few trance remixes in its time . Almost completely made by Antony Crowther on his own , then still a teenager as far as I believe , it's ' impressive ' that kid with a C64 program book could make a whole game . Also released as a slightly different game called Black Thunder , Suicide Express is now really just a game that belongs in a museum . It's an antique and so badly dated that it's almost unplayable today . Graphics ( by 1985 standards ) Sound Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,229 | 102,816 | 465,428 | 6 |
Fun , but ends too quick
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I got this for my Gamecube believing that it might be a big epic ( it was a 2-disc game ) like Dungeon Siege but I was rather saddened when I finished it alarmingly quick . It's like they never even bothered to complete production of the game . It IS a lot like Dungeon Siege in regards to the exotic locations , RPG and free-roaming elements but none of them come anywhere near reaching their potential . Basil Poledouris ' thunderous score is only used ( albeit to good effect ) over the opening credits and a more generic and flat score continues through the rest of the game . The cut-scenes are alright but don't have anywhere near as much magic or integrity as Robert E . Howard's stories . In fact , this is just an ' in name only ' Conan product . Since we only ever see the character from behind he could really just be anybody and there are dozens of similar games out there so if your really into prehistoric hack and slashers then try it out . If not , stick with Dungeon Siege or save your pennies for Dungeon Siege II this summer . Graphics Sound B Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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564,345 | 102,816 | 357,277 | 6 |
Better than expected
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I thought Daredevil was an absolutely pointless film with anonymous direction and an unappealing , non-unapalling lead actor . Thankfully , Elektra has a prettier lead and stronger direction from Rob Bowman , who seems to have ditched the slimy creature effects he seemed so fond of in X-Files and Reign of Fire . Daredevil is nowhere near as popular in the collective public conscience as Spiderman or even the Hulk . So imagine why Elektra failed at the Box Office . The whole world saw the poster and thought ' Who is she supposed to be ? ' . Either that or they saw the horrible , highly clichéd trailer that totally misrepresented the film . The resulting critical mauling by just about everyone wasn't completely fair nor was it completely unexpected . The film reeks of deleted scenes and subplots that have been completely cut out . It fades out at the 90-minute mark , leaving us wondering why they even bothered . However , what we do get is a mild , but nonetheless entertaining action movie with an almost constant spooky atmosphere . The plot is meagre and many of the subs and tangents are never explained or developed . Or they were then they were cut out in the editing room ( along with Ben Affleck , thankfully ) ? If they got Frank Miller ( he did create the character after all ! ) to write the script instead of 3 nobodies then it could have been something special . The DVD is in crisp 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with loud , sometimes dynamic Dolby / DTS 5 . 1 sound . Besides a trailer for the new Family Guy series the extras are of the usual ' whogivesadamn ' lot . Perhaps a future directors cut will improve the film , but as it is Elektra is hardly brilliant , but definitely an above average brainless movie .
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564,795 | 102,816 | 251,075 | 6 |
Just plain fun
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It's clear that as long as Ivan Reitman works in sci-fi comedy he will never achieve the greatness he did with Ghostbusters . That movie was a masterpiece of genius . Evolution is nothing but a fun ride that comes nowhere near the class of Ghostbusters . But it's still well worth it . Weird really when you consider that Ghostbusters : Go to Hell , the second sequel in which hell got so full that spirits started spilling out into the real world , was re-written and redrafted that it became this . . . something completely different . You probably know the story . A meteor crash lands in the desert and the single celled organisms living on it very , very quickly become multi celled and then little worm creatures and then . . . many other things . The movie repeatedly calls them aliens but since they evolve from nothing on earth and are conditioned by earth's environment they are , effectively , earth creatures . Watching them run riot and cause havoc is the main fun of this film . Ghostbusters had a dry , sarcastic sense of humor , like a fine wine . Evolution has a crude , gross-out sense of humor like American Pie , which seriously lessens the overall quality of the film . The lead trio of actors perform rather well together . Duchovny is much looser and easy-going here than his stiff , X-Files character . Seann William-Scott once again plays a dufus but he's more endearing here than he has been in other roles . Orlando Jones is kind of good but he too often takes his role in the stereotyped ' only black guy in a white movie ' direction . Sadly though , Julianne Moore's accident-prone scientist just isn't funny and her clumsiness seems false and forced . But obviously when you judge Evolution next to something better it seems an inferior movie . Judge it on it's own terms and you'll definitely enjoy . The DVD is in 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic widescreen ( though it really could have benefited from a scope 2 . 35 : 1 aspect ratio ) and is in rather lacklustre Dolby 5 . 1
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563,863 | 102,816 | 34,667 | 6 |
Isn't the army fun ?
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After receiving his draft letter Donald marches his way right into the delivery office to sign up . He is probed and prodded during his medical and is soon down at the barracks getting trained to be a killer duck . A rather false portrayal of the army is offered here ( along to a lovely song ' The Army's not the Army anymore ' ) in which everyone smiles , everyone matters , battles are clean , ritual humiliation is absent and Drill Sargent's are for some reason not total psychopaths who force you do to infinity push-ups while standing on your back . Donald ( who's middle name is revealed as Fauntleroy here ) is the average Joe who makes a great soldier . Such propaganda may have easily convinced naive Joe Public back in the early forties but now , in this cynical day and age , it's a laughable experience watching this short .
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563,829 | 102,816 | 42,290 | 6 |
The usual hijinks . . .
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. . . only this time not up to the usual high standard . It's a one-joke cartoon that kinda stretches it's premise too thin . Bugs is his usual self but Yosemite Sam is now Sam Von Schamm The Hessian and during the American Revolutionary War they have a face-off in the Battle of Bagel Heights . Basically , this involves Bugs doing his usual outsmarting of Sam and torturing him , blowing him up etc . Most of the time this never gets tiring . Though some of the jokes drag on bit but the others have that sense of perfect timing only Looney Tunes are capable of . Not their best work but still good for a few silly laughs .
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564,297 | 102,816 | 105,690 | 6 |
Doesn't live up to the sequel
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Despite popular belief , this isn't the big man's best movie . Competent and skillful it may well be but there's far too much espionage and not enough action . It was made in that period of the early to mid-nineties where every action movie was ' Terrorists take over a ( fill in the blank ) ' . In this case it's a Naval Battleship . Gary Busey , always one of the best bad guys ever , is the evil second in command who hates his crew and his captain . But the person he hates most in the entire world is the obnoxious cook Casey Ryback . Well he's an ex-Navy SEAL first and a cook second . Enter William Strannix ( Tommy Lee Jones ) and his band of mercenaries , disguised as a rock star and busboys , who take over the ship , kill the captain and lock what's left of the crew away . Strannix is hell-bent on blowing up Hawaii and Krill ( Gary Busey ) plans to sell off the ships nuclear weapons to the Ruskies . But wait . . . Krill has forgotten about the irritating cook he locked away in the freezer . And Ryback makes it his mission to find out what the hell is going on and put a stop to whatever it is . Erika Eleniak pops up to provide some help and toplessness . I'm not such a fan of the first Under Siege , the sequel is much , much better but they both have their pros and cons . For some reason , Ryback's renegade , rule-breaking personality was played down in Under Siege 2 and Seagal made NO effort at his acting in that film ( he hated the idea of a sequel ) . However Under Siege 2 is much faster , has 50 times as much action , is way more exciting , has a higher sense of escapism and atmosphere ( compared to the repetitive battleship scenes in this one ) and has better villains . I know you'll disagree with me on the last point . But Strannix and Krill seem too over the top and seem to be acting up to the camera compared to the sequel with Travis Dane's wild eccentrics and Penn's icy , emotionless stare . Plus , Strannix's constant Looney Tunes references were totally out of place and distracting . Well all know Steven Seagal is good with the martial arts , so it's kind of odd that he simply shoots most of the bad guys in this movie . In Under Siege 2 he chops , slices , breaks , burns , chucks , slashes , strangles , explodes , smashes and crushes . It makes for a great movie is definitely the clear winner over this one . The DVD has a great looking 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic picture with a loud and impressive Dolby 5 . 1 track . 8 trailers for Steven Seagal films are included . The R1 version still comes in a cruddy snap case but the R2 version now comes in a sturdy keep case , complete with lovely Warner hologram . If you have a multi-region DVD player , get this one .
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564,120 | 102,816 | 31,022 | 6 |
Sparkless , but still an interesting watch
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There's no real Conan Doyle mystery here , the title is just a generic label to lure viewers . But there are still some interesting moments here and there despite the tepid nature of the plot . Moriarty ( apparently the only villain the Holmes ever faced ) plans to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London and sidetracks Holmes by leaving lots of red herrings in his wake . But he's clearly not going to be fooled for long . Rathbone and Bruce are watchable , as always . But there's just something missing from this entry . It's all so twee and ordinary with no real moments of atmosphere . And the ending is a bit of a cop-out . Moriarty clearly dies but it's not really acknowledged and he ended up returning in a later instalment anyway . He might as well be a cartoon villain if that's their attitude . At least it's set in the 19th century , unlike some of the later WWII propaganda Holmes movies .
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563,958 | 102,816 | 353,014 | 6 |
Pretty to look at , but has a really dull story
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I had absolutely no clue what to expect from this movie . All I had seen were those really cool posters and I'm glad to say that the actual animation of the movie is brilliant . It's an utterly seamless mix of live action , 3D CGI and traditional drawn images . A wonderfully detailed and beautiful world is created and it's highly atmospheric . A shame that the story ends up being crud . In the future , thanks to major pollution , the world lives under constant rain that has destroyed civilisation to the point of near extinction . There are some folks who still live in luxury in a huge , self-contained city called Echo-Ban ( why it's called this is anyone's guess ) who take advantage of the peasants living in shanty towns out in the miserable weather . Inside Echo-Ban there is this supercomputer that has a secret button that will blow a hole in the sky so big that the rain will disappear and sunshine will return . Yes , it's absolute total nonsense and silly science is all through this movie . You won't have a clue what anyone is talking about or what any of the hardware is . And why doesn't anyone simply press this secret button sooner ? What is it about living under rain that the posh folks are willing to kill for ? Still , it's miles better than that awful Final Fantasy movie . Just don't expect to remember it for very long . Nice try however , it's the story that lets it down .
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564,303 | 102,816 | 120,906 | 6 |
Had Zero Effect on me
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I like private eye movies but Zero Effect just took too long to get started and Daryll Zero himself ( although brilliantly played by Bill Pullman ) knows so many stupid things that no one would ever remember for any reason . Check out the scene in the crime scene motel for example . Ben Stiller is quite watchable too though . But for some reason in every scene with him and his girlfriend they are making out . I don't know if anyone else has noticed this . " Zero Effect " s main problem is that's it's too talky and almost every scene takes place indoors . This adds an unwanted sense of claustrophobia to the film . Writer / Director Jake Kasdan does have talent and I would like to see him go far in Hollywood . And perhaps even make a sequel to " Zero Effect " but with a bigger budget and a more accessible plot line . It would be a shame to kill of a potentially great franchise because of one rather lame movie .
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564,075 | 102,816 | 40,625 | 6 |
What's up MacDoc ?
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As usual , Bugs Bunny gets hopelessly lost when tunneling to his latest vacation ( the La Brea tar pits ) . This time he ends up in Scotland and mistakes a ( stereo ) typical ' Scotsman ' playing the bagpipes for an old lady being mauled by a monster . Bugs promptly jumps to her rescue and smashes the pipes to tiny little bits . Naturally the Scotsman ( named MacRory and a thinly disguised Yosemite Sam ) gets very angry at the smashing of said beloved pipes and , instead of a duel , challenges Bugs to a rather unfunny game of golf . Bugs does his usual outsmarting and nasty tricks but none are really too imaginative or clever . We've seen Bugs to better than this .
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563,951 | 102,816 | 364,013 | 6 |
Fun for the majority but ends up being too damn hard .
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Like any other 2D Sonic game , this game does offer a huge amount of fun , with colorful levels and jazzy music . But the last 3 stages are so damn hard you'll just be chucking your Nintendo against the wall in a fit of rage . There are too many traps and stingers in each level . For a game that sort of promotes itself on being the fastest platformer out there it is quite cruel to send you straight into enemy , losing all your rings and leaving you powerless to do anything about it . The levels do seem a bit expansive as well and lack that tight , punchy feel of the Mega Drive / Genesis games . In this game you can play as Sonic , Tails , Knuckles and a new character called Cream , who is a rabbit . Strangely enough , Sonic is the blandest character of the lot in this game as he has no useful powers . I ended up getting the furthest with Tails since he has the ability to go airbourne . The last boss is simply impossible and the game is not rewarding enough to take all 4 characters this far . But hey , if you can get it cheap then give it a go . Maybe I'm just really rubbish at it . Graphics A Sound B Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,225 | 102,816 | 110,399 | 6 |
If you take this seriously then you're totally missing the point !
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A Low Down Dirty Shame is really no more than all the most familiar Cop movie clichés arranged in an order that makes a barely cohesive story . But it's all the fun and silly action that occurs in between that really matters ! It's a bit like The Last Boy Scout from a spoof-blaxploitation angle . Shame ( Keenan Ivory Wayans ) is a former cop who has been blackballed after a major drugs bust went awry , leaving several DEA agents dead . He now works as a private detective , taking on suicide missions for peanuts and barely scraping by . His disapproving secretary Peaches ( a very funny and very , very small Jada Pinkett ) wants him to get his act together but he's too busy wallowing in self-pity . His old pal from the DEA shows up and offers him a side mission to help get back at the Drug Kingpin who ruined his career . And so , with only a few clues , Shame begins his search and soon all roads lead to lies and deception . Like I said , the plot is certainly nothing special . But it does contain a helluva lot of laughs and decent action . The one thing I can complain of is that the production design is kind of dated now . Action films have evolved so much in the past decade that watching ALDDS 12 years on can be a bit distracting . Wayans ( who also directs as well as writing and starring ) too often shoots non-actions scenes like a sitcom and his light-hearted editing may help remind you that this totally AIN'T a serious film but it's a little TV-ish if you know what I mean . If you find ALDDS for cheap somewhere or if it's showing on TV then don't con yourself out of a fun movie . High art is not what this film aims to be .
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564,551 | 102,816 | 365,748 | 6 |
Not really THAT great .
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It's time for a serious , level-headed review of Shaun of the Dead . This movie is one of the most over-hyped of the year . I'm tired of everyone calling it an instant cult classic . This phrase doesn't make any sense . A cult classic is a film that no one sees by has a small but loyal following . Shaun of the Dead was a big hit when it was released her back in April and it seems like it will do the same when it's released in America thanks to the alarmingly widespread positive word-of-mouth . Everyone seems to be caught up in the off-centre comedy to realize that the film is heavily conflicted and doesn't add up . First of all , this is not a romzomcom , or whatever . There is no romance , just a guy who wants to make up with his girlfriend while zombies get in the way . And to call it a comedy would be totally wrong , anyone paying the slightest iota of attention would see this film is not a comedy ! Some funny moments , yes . But not all the way . Like most other zombie flicks there is no explanation to why Britain is suddenly overrun by the undead . The plague slowly trickles to life from the odd zombie stumbling around to full-blown hoards of them . Amidst this Shaun ( Simon Pegg ) and Ed ( the great Nick Frost ) make fun of the undead and go about dealing with the holocaust in their own silly way . There are some pretty hard scenes of heavy emotion is this film ( I want say what , but some characters do die ) that totally contradict the ' comedy ' label it's been stuck with . And despite some scenes of graphic violence this is NOT a horror film . It's not a comedy , a romantic comedy a spoof or homage . It simply doesn't know what it is . Many people believe they got a breath of fresh ( or should that be old ) air when it was revealed the film would have slow zombies and not the faster ones like in DOTD 2004 and ( the dreadful ) 28 Days Later . I personally do not understand this overused moan . Slow zombies are not scary ; there is no threat from them . Shaun of the Dead starts out very stupid and slow . The opening scenes of people doing the repetitive things day in day out are not subtle at all and hammer the point to the audience way too forcefully . Then when the zombies first appear the characters and the audience don't fully realize / appreciate the danger until the last five minutes when the film finally becomes exciting and then that's when we get REALLY ripped off . The film ends way too quickly and conveniently . What a let down after building up so much only to collapse back into the stupid tone the film began in . Horror buffs will like the zillions of in-jokes and references to other horror movies . To the casual viewer , they will go right over your head . It's about the only thing that's consistent throughout the whole film . Don't listen to the word of over-excited reviewers who are inexplicably giving this film 5 stars . It is in no way the classic they are making it out to be . Good , yes . Entertaining , yes . The best movie you've ever seen / best zombie movie ever / yadda yadda yadda , definitely not . Shaun of the Dead has great potential come from inspiring sources , but the end result is not what the hype is telling you . Already out in UK , the DVD has great 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic picture with Dolby 5 . 1 sound and zillions of extras including Audio commentary from actor / writer Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright , Audio commentary from actors Simon Pegg , Nick Frost , Dylan Moran , Kate Ashfield and Lucy Davis . Audio commentary from actors Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton , Audio commentary from the zombies ! , Extended bits with audio commentary , Outtakes , ' The Man Who Would Be Shaun ' : Simon Pegg and Nick Frost impersonate Sean Connery and Michael Caine , ' Plotholes ' : comic strip sequences with voice-over from Lucy Davis , Simon Pegg and Nick Frost including What Happened To Shaun When He Ran Off ? / What Happened To Diane When She Left The Winchester ? / How Did Ed Get From The Cellar To The Shed ? , Extended edits of the TV Shows within the movie : Coldplay on T4 / Fun Dead / Trisha-'Your nine lives are up ! ' / Trisha-'I married a monster ' , ' Remembering Z Day ' : an interview with Jeremy Thompson , ' Electronic Press Kit ' featurette , Vignettes : Simon's cam / Lucy's cam / Joe's diary , ' Edgar Wright's and Simon Pegg's Flip Chart ' : a presentation of the first draft , SFX comparison from Double Negative , Make-up tests , Photo Gallery : photo's by Simon , Lucy and Charlotte , Poster Designs : from the original Oscar poster to the final official poster , 2000AD Strip : ' There's Something About Mary ' , TV spots , Official trailer , Official teaser trailer , ' Fright Fest ' exclusive trailer . Phew ! For those with a multi-region DVD player , get the R2 DVD version . Otherwise you'll have to wait until September 24 ( my birthday ! ! ! ) for the film to be released Nationwide in America .
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563,769 | 102,816 | 455,754 | 6 |
Way too easy !
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Shadow Dancer is the story of Joe Mushashi and his faithful dog Yamoto . Together they go out and beat up the ruthless thugs of the Neo Zeed Corporation and it's boss the Union Lizard . It's a load of confusing nonsense and in the journey from Arcade to Genesis the plot seems to have been erased and events taking place in the game just seem like gobbledygook . All you really do in this game is jump around taking strange-looking villains out with Surikens . To be honest , the arcade version of Shadow Dancer was much better . The graphics were far superior , the levels were cooler ( levels such as the airport and junkyard are missing in this version ) and the bad guys less weird . Plus it's very , very short with only 5 levels all over in a few minutes . As it was such a cool arcade game it's shocking that a game so easy and tepid could end up on the Genesis . It was capable of much more than this and Shadow Dancer is really only a game for Shinobi completist .
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564,785 | 102,816 | 314,353 | 6 |
Difficult to figure out but pays off emotionally
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Here is a worthless fact for you . Tear of the Sun was supposed to be Die Hard 4 . It was taken from a book called Les Larmes du Soleil by Henri Vernes . In " Les Larmes du Soleil " , a plane in which the hero is travelling over South America is hijacked by rebels . They intend on asking for a ransom to the Governments of the countries of the ' white ' passengers . The plane crashes and the hero escapes into the amazon . Soon he hooks up with a tribe of Aztec descendants and leads them away as the rebels are after them . This book was written as Die Hard 4 but Bruce Willis liked the title so much he agreed to do Die Hard 4 if he could use the Tears of the Sun title and script for a completely different movie . Now it's about a group of Elite Navy SEALS given the simple sounding mission of rescuing a doctor ( an American Citizen ) from a jungle village in war-torn Nigeria as an Evil General seizes control of the country and imposes brutal ethnic cleansing . Not a pretty situation . But as soon as Willis and his hardass SEALS ( including Cole Hauser , Johnny Messner and Nick Chinlund ) show up the stubborn Doctor ( that's the lurv-ley Monica Bellucci ) refuses to budge unless she can take 70 villagers with her . Willis lies , telling her that this is fine by him as long as she agrees to go . The choppers arrive , Bellucci freaks as Willis-calling him every name under the crying sun ( ! ) as only she is escorted to safety . Minutes later they fly over the village to find that the rebels have massacred everyone . His conscience gets the better of him , he orders the choppers back and they lead the ditched villagers to the safety of the Camaroon border through 40 miles of jungle . Trouble is , one of the villagers is a mole and someone else isn't who he says he is . As a result , what seems like every member of the Nigerian rebels go after them with about a bazillion bullets and rockets at their disposal . The difficulty lies in the fact that Tears of the Sun both does and does not glorify war . You can't really tell if the film is gung-ho or serious . But there's something quite moving and noble about a bunch of hardened commandos willing to die for a cause they've not had enough time to understand . Soldiers are humans and are too often portrayed as killing machines . There is no entertainment in the combat , only a sense of real danger and hopelessness . I actually prefer this film to the Black Hawk Down because A ) it's not a jumpy , jittery blur and B ) there a subtler emotional investment . Subtlety is something Black Hawk Down did NOT have . You can argue that it hardly belongs in a war film but it does give Tears of the Sun a strange edge . I have the Superbit DVD that has a brilliant 2 . 40 : 1 anamorphic widescreen picture with a loud , dynamic Dolby / DTS 5 . 1 soundtrack . Get this version , it's only available in R2 at the moment so you'll have to import if you live outside the UK .
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564,412 | 102,816 | 383,216 | 6 |
Don't listen to stuffy critics . This film is damn ( berger ) funny !
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I was expecting the worst . After reports of re-shoots and the film being delayed for the purposes of inserting some apparently much-needed humor I expected The Pink Panther to deliver a turd in 2006 . Much to my surprise , that is not exactly the case . I'll get to my main problem with the film right away . That's Shawn Levy . The man is a hack nobody who has ZERO class or sophistication as a director . The director of Just Married and Big Fat Lair is simply not the appropriate person to helm this movie . Blake Edwards shot ALL the original Pink Panther movies in scope widescreen . Levy shoots this one like a flat TV movie with NO visual flair whatsoever . The 2 . 35 : 1 aspect ratio is sorely missed . And at the risk of sounding superficial , it could have made up for Shawn Levy's shortcomings and glossed over the fact that he is way out of his depth with a movie that should live up to high expectations . That said , the rest of the movie is a whole load of fun . Steve Martin has committed the ultimate sin any comedian can with his constant selling-out and doing generic family movies . I can't stomach this talented guy doing any more rubbish like Bringing Down the Standards and Crapper by the Dozen . I found Shopgirl to be pretty damn good , so I know he still has the potential to be great when he feels like it . But as Inspector Clouseau I thought he was hilarious ! Disagree with me if you want , but to me he fits the role perfectly . Almost everything he says or does is amusing or laugh-out-loud funny . He has great chemistry with Jean Reno and Kevin Kline and his mannerisms , patter and big-headed over-confidence are so vivid you'll probably be imitating them when you leave the cinema . The plot is kinda weak , but like so many comedies , it's just an excuse for all the set-pieces and hijinks to happen . The bulk of the humor is purely character-based or physical comedy though . The music is mostly good . I'm not really sure about the techno remixes of the Pink Panther theme however . All of Henry Mancini's cues are in there but when you add bass and a beat it's sounds cheap and corny rather than modern . Are we so uncultured we cannot handle a film with a purely orchestra-based score ? This is another little part of the film that lacks sophistication and may lead too many unforgiving scrutineers into thinking that it's all a disaster . Hence the negative publicity . Had Ivan Reitman directed the film as well as produced , we might well have had a classic . Sadly , it's helmed by a nobody . And it's barely saved by Steve Martin's wild antics . Do check it out . Turn a blind eye to the blandness and you'll find that it's actually very funny .
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563,939 | 102,816 | 800,108 | 6 |
Like Rampage crossed with Street Fighter
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By that I mean you play as monsters who beat each other up against the backdrop of trashing cities . A novel idea , but I am assuming that King of the Monsters is a game that is probably best enjoyed in the arcade . After playing the Sega Genesis version I can definitely see the appeal but it's just not that appealing to come back to it again and again . There IS loads of fun to be had in smashing the place up and doing LOADS of damage to world but I know it's going to be even better in an arcade and the Genesis controls can be a bit sluggish sometimes , which isn't good when you rely on quick reflexes . Graphics C Sound C Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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