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564,845 | 102,816 | 39,695 | 7 |
In vino veritas
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Tom is given the task of guarding the fridge during the night by Mammy-Two-Shoes ( NOT re-dubbed by the PC brigade in the version I saw , would you believe ) , but as soon as he has started he is tricked by Jerry into falling into the basement , where he lands in a barrel of cider . Obviously , everyone has a barrel of cider in their basement ! Now drunk , Tom staggers around in the house getting up to no good with Jerry , clearing out the fridge , making a mess , waking Mammy-Two-Shoes . You can tell this will only end in severe punishment , but Tom simply casts caution to the wind and gets even more drunk by downing a bottle of rum he finds in the bathroom . Obviously , everyone has a bottle of rum in their bathroom . A mildly funny cartoon , nothing particularly amazing about it . Tom actually speaks in this one but no one is credited for his voice .
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564,848 | 102,816 | 91,949 | 7 |
Don't worry little lady , I'll fix their wagon .
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Short Circuit is one of those films I rented as a kid back in the precious 80s when we got so many good family movies that just wouldn't see the light of day in these awful times . A Short Circuit made in 2007 would be mind-numbingly PC with bullet-time effects and a CGI Johnny voiced by a hip-hop ' artist ' . It's a grim time for this genre indeed . But back in 1986 I had nothing to complain about as most of the family movies from that decade are fondly remembered as classics . I loved this movie as a kid and it's been a long , long time since I watched it from start to finish . Plus the VHS I rented back then was in horrid pan and scan with half the picture chopped-off . Which is a real shame since John Badham shot it brilliantly-framed Panavision . So I've never really seen the FULL movie until now . How does it hold-up 21 years later ? Well , I guess you could say Johnny Five is kinda dated but not so much as all the rest of the ' ground-breaking ' technology at the Nova factory . Number Five is a robot made for Military Stealth purposes and armed with a laser beam . But designer Newton Crosby ( Steve Guttenberg ) and his partner Ben Jabituya ( a non-Indian and very funny Fisher Stevens ) originally designed him as a marital aid , apparently . They are unhappy with the way Nova has marketed the robot but after a demonstration to the Military , Five is struck by lightning and assumes consciousness . Needing input and desperate to learn more about his surroundings , he escapes the factory and journey's across Oregon , soaking up knowledge and the idiosyncrasies of modern human culture . As a reflection of today's ' zany ' society , Five is full of spirit , personality and random pop-culture references . The Military are kinda annoyed at a potential lethal weapon ( not the Mel Gibson kind ) running loose about America , so it's their new mission to find him and destroy him . Five , who has been taken in by animal-lover ( not in THAT way ) Stephanie Speck ( a gorgeous Ally Sheedy ) does everything he can to stay out of harm's way . But they are persistent and won't let him live because they don't believe he is truly alive . It's not totally original since some of it feels inspired by the works of Issac Asamov and I doubt a film like this would have been green-lighted had E . T . not been so successful . But it is very enjoyable and funny and Johnny Five is a great character despite being nothing more than a puppet . Short Circuit is definitely a film for any kid born in the 80s . The video-game obsessed kids of today might to be so interested but its charming simplicity and good-natured story will never really date despite the old-fashioned ' cutting-edge ' technology featured in the film .
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564,067 | 102,816 | 345,344 | 7 |
A Magic Twist
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This is one of the best remembered Genesis games . Tho it's absolutely nothing special . It's almost totally like Streets of Rage with magic spells instead of special kung-fu moves and set in the dark ages . You can choose the big Conan lookalike Ax Battler , who uses earth magic . Tyris Flare , the She-Ra type amazon woman who uses fire magic or Gilius Thunderhead , the viking dwarf uses lightning magic ( and the character who actually uses the Golden Axe ) or team up in a two-player ( the best way to play the game ) . The story is a load of cobblers . Some dude called Death Adder ( and his son Death Adder JNR ) are up to some amount of evil and you've got to stop him . So on you go on your journey of hacking and slashing goblins , skeletons and various other guys in armor . It's fun , but not great . The sound effects are pathetic and do not show off what the Genesis was capable of . David Whittaker's music , while being slightly tuneful and medieval , was pretty bad and wasn't as memorable as Yuzo Koshiro's effort on the Streets of Rage games . A fun game to play right to the end once ( in a two player ) but not as memorable as it's following would suggest .
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564,445 | 102,816 | 437,330 | 7 |
Treading water .
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Metal Slug 4 is certainly the weakest of the series so far with rehashed levels and same-old baddies . You get the option of a new playable character ( or at least it looks like someone new ) but what is the point of having four separate , playable characters when they all have the same ability ? It's not even like they come with different guns . And why do you get a life bar when only one bullet kills you ? This game does give you the bonus of ONE new weapon-the double machine gun . But every time you pick it up someone will come along and kill you . Honestly , these games are so damn hard . It's fine if you have infinite continues or an infinite supply of quarters but how on earth they expect you to survive to the end of the level with all your stats intact is beyond me . They should remain until your next continue instead of vanishing with every life lost . Yes , the level design is brilliantly detailed and the humor is still there but it's too hard and it's getting mighty damn repetitive . Give us something new for Metal Slug 5 please .
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563,774 | 102,816 | 364,961 | 7 |
London Bridge is Falling Down
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Much like the Joel Schumacher film of 1993 starring Michael Douglas , this film is about an ordinary man with an ordinary job who is driven to insanity by the injustice and unfairness of his world . While both films teach us that no matter how solid it seems , everything will crumble under enough pressure there is no humor to TAORN . In fact it's the most depressing film like . . . ever . I don't know what made me go see TAORN . I'd heard nothing of it but I like Sean Penn and Naomi Watts ( they were in the brilliant 21 Grams together ) and everything else at the cinema I had either seen or looked crap ( Man of the House , Miss Congenatailiality 2 ) so I chose this , hoping it to be a dark horse . It was well made and acted but it's really , really heavy and I would not recommend it to anyone bored with their jobs or lives in general . Sean Penn plays the true story of Sam Bicke , a furniture salesman who is estranged from his family , his wife , his children , his colleagues . . . basically everything . He sees the fatcats around him growing richer and richer while he rots away in his inescapable reality of nothingness . He blames Dick Nixon for his woes , the fattest of all fatcats , the man at the top of the food chain . He believes that if he kills Nixon he might be able to make the slightest of changes to the racist , lying world . Of course he failed , but watching Sam Bicke crash and burn is a very painful thing to do . What makes it more distressing is that there is never a reason given as to why everyone deserted him . It gave the impression that anyone can be so callous and uncaring and that anyone can be driven to such insanity and desperate measures . Not a film to see with your girlfriend that's for damn sure but certainly an impressive , if tough to watch , piece of work .
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564,484 | 102,816 | 250,198 | 7 |
Not exactly a Cancun booze-fest
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Back when having a car was about as rare as three-legged ballet dancer Indy aims to impress everyone at school by turning up to the prom in a Bugatti race-car and put tormentor Butch to shame . His girlfriend's dad is Edward Stratemayer ( the guy who created the Hardy Boys , Nancy Drew and Tom Swift ) and promises to loan him the Bugatti until the engine fails . Desperate to get it fixed in time Indy takes it to Edison Industries to have the guys in the science lab fit a new electric battery into it . But since the oil company's are such a fiendish bunch they steal the plans for the battery and trash the lab , leaving Indy to rescue them on his own if he wants to make an impression at the prom . In the second half Indy travels to Mexico with his cousin to have a good time in a whorehouse but he is kidnapped by a bunch of Mexican Revolutionaries and pressured into fighting for their cause . He gets to meet Pancho Villa , trash William Randolph Hearst's mansion south of the border and antagonize General Patton . In the end he just wants to go home but not before getting revenge on Demetrius , the baddie who eluded him six years earlier in Egypt . A solid adventure with a good cast , though it's weird seeing Lloyd Owen still play the Connery role since his is one year YOUNGER than Flannery who plays his son . It works though . . . somehow .
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564,211 | 102,816 | 95,863 | 7 |
An action sequel
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In the tradition of other horror movie franchises , Phantasm takes the action route for this sequel . The horror and sci-fi are still there but there's more combat , stuff blowing-up and gore than there was before . I suppose it does keep things fresh but it does get a bit too tongue-in-cheek sometimes . Kinda like Evil Dead II , I'm not sure if this really fits in with the tone set by the first film . Phantasm II begins right after where the first film left off . The freaky dwarfs have invaded Mike's home and Reggie must foil the Tall Man's attempts at kidnapping him . Flash forward seven years and Mike is in a mental institution . He is released upon admitting that the whole Phantasm experience was made up only to find that in his absence the Tall Man has been plundering many of America's small towns and thousands of graves are empty . After the Tall Man kills Reggie's family in a gas explosion , Reg teams up with Mike to hunt him down and kick his head in . . . again . All they have to do is follow the trail of dead people , right ? And this time they are ready for whatever outlandish tricks he's ready to play on them , armed to the teeth with quadruple-barrelled shotguns , flame-throwers and chainsaws . Complicating matters are Mike's inexplicable visions of the future and psychic connections to a mysterious girl he has never met before . As before , the Tall Man is the best thing in the film . Angus Scrimm is so wonderfully silent and unholy that no matter how slick and entertaining the rest of the film is he'll come out on top . Don Coscarelli was given a budget 10 times that of the original by Universal , but they did interfere with production quite a lot , much to his annoyance . They said that only one of the original cast members could return , so he chose Reggie Bannister and re-cast Mike with James LeGros ( after turning down Brad Pitt ! ) . It does kind of ruin the continuity a bit but it's not terribly distracting . They also demanded a more simple and linear story , so don't expect any of the bizarre dream sequences and flashbacks . If you're a big fan of the first this might seem disappointing but you know how studios love to think less of their audiences . The higher budget helps Phantasm to have a bigger scope than the original . The first half of the film feels like a road movie with lots of pretty scenery while the rest is kind of like a low-rent Ghostbusters / Lost Boys clone . Which sounds like a negative point , but the hokey tone of the film vanishes when it heads off into HP Lovecraft territory . If you're looking for answers as to what the first film was all about then you won't find many . In fact it raises more questions than anything else . But it's still a fun ride . I'm just kind of annoyed that the music took the more generic synth approach that was common in the 80's instead of the funky 70's beats we got before . The main Phantasm theme is still there for your enjoyment however and gets a great finish on the end credits .
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564,796 | 102,816 | 291,858 | 7 |
Puts you right in the movie
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There's a lot to like and a lot to dislike in this game . First of all it sticks very closely to the way Nakatomi Plaza looks and sounds so you feel like you really are there . The music is a lot like that in the movie and adds atmosphere . But there are only like 2 tracks ! The blood splatter effects are quite cool but shooting a bad guy is the only way to kill him . In this sense the game is VERY linear . There is absolutely no freedom . You HAVE to do what the game wants you to do . Which is really stupid considering the effort that has obviously went into crafting each and every floor of Nakatomi Plaza . There are a lot more than just 12 terrorists here . Obviously the game has to be beefed up to about 300 to make it more exciting and a few new scenarios are added ( And some stuff , like the media attention of the siege , totally ignored ) . It was also very annoying to see the FBI Chopper STILL flying around after the roof has blown up . I guess this was just a cheap way to avoid a cinematic . The voice acting is also rather poor . It makes the cinematics hard to watch sometimes . And what's the point of having a CB radio ( a cunning excuse to plug a certain product ) when it is only used during cinematics and NEVER when you want . In the ancient Die Hard Trilogy you got lots of weapons . But in this all you get is the ordinary gun , some flash grenades and 4 machine guns . The best of which are sparsely featured in the later levels . You can't even get into fist fights . So the fight with Karl is non-existent . All you do is shoot him . Wow ! And chances for really cool stuff have been ignored . How cool would it be to chuck bad guys thru the windows or off the roof or down the lift shafts ? Doesn't happen . Even you jump off the roof yourself it just cuts to ' game over ' . But the worst thing is the ending . It's nothing like the movie , boring and dull . It takes a lot of patience to get thru and then . . . nothing happens . A cheap , tiny cinematic follows and the game returns to the title screen . Come on ! That's it ? By only if you are a fan of the movie . For the casual gamer this is dated stuff .
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563,908 | 102,816 | 39,796 | 7 |
Life's a beach .
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Tom is spending the day at the seaside with his girlfriend and is trying hard to impress her , as usual . But Jerry has stowed away inside the picnic basket and does everything he can to torment him while scoffing the food for himself . You might find this cartoon very , very similar to the more popular Muscle Beach Tom from the 1950s . But this one came first . There are some very funny painful tricks played on Tom , but they do get a little tiresome after a while . But most of them work . Highlights include Tom drinking some very sandy tea and chewing his own broken teeth . How this is physically possible I don't know . But it's funny .
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563,816 | 102,816 | 36,294 | 7 |
Oh , what to do .
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If there is anyone out there who read the comic book ' Beezer ' as a kid then you will be familiar with ' The Knumbskulls ' . A strip about a guy with little dudes living in him that control what he does . This short uses the same device to make an important , kind of subtle , point to us . Some guy , starting out as a baby , sometimes follows his emotions and at other times sense . Just like everyone else . He sees a woman he likes on the street and follows his emotions . It ends up a slap in the face , but her common sense reacted , not her emotions , which said ' yes ' . The point of this is that Hitler used emotions to keep the Nazi's brainwashed . None of them used common sense to figure out that he was a lunatic . But perhaps today we should still use our common sense to not believe rubbish published in tabloids or biased news stations . The logic applies to many things , not just Hitler's Nazi regime .
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563,985 | 102,816 | 113,855 | 7 |
Anderson's best and definitely better than the sequel
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Okay , let me just say that the plot ain't exactly up to much . It's just one fight scene after another but this film is miles ahead of other video game movies like Tomb Raider or House of the Dead . Video games will NEVER make classic films or even half-way decent movies . They CAN be entertaining in a no-brainer way and at this Mortal Kombat succeeds . It's a low aim after all . The sequel is terrible but this is a pretty cool film . Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa loves his role . He plays the part of Shang Tsung with unholy relish and delivers each line of dialogue like a REAL tyrant . ' Fools ! ' , ' Seize them ! ' and ' YOU-WILL-DIE ! ' are but three examples . All villains in all other movies can learn from this guy . There are three fight scenes in particular that are way cool . Liu Kang Vs Reptile , Liu Kang Vs Sub-Zero and Liu Kang Vs Shang Tsung . George S . Clinton's music is brilliant and the main Mortal Kombat theme is sooooooo cool . Also the music during the final showdown is ace . It does feel rather 90s when watching it today but when it sounds this cool , who cares ? A lot of the budget was clearly spent on production design as the sets are very impressive . That particular place that Scorpion takes Johnny Cage to , for example , is very atmospheric . Every scene in this film is like jumping from one theme park ride to another . Director Paul Anderson went on to make the dull ' Event Horizon ' , the terrible ' Soldier ' and the horrendous ' Alien vs Predator ' . After making such a promising start with Mortal Kombat one can only assume now that it was a fluke . The DVD leaves a lot to be desired . The film is in non-anamorphic 1 . 85 : 1 but does have a terrific Dolby 5 . 1 sound design . Though I would liked to have had a DTS option . There are also no features . Considering how much money this film made and that it was No . 1 at the box office for three consecutive weeks , I would have expected New Line to put a lot more thought into this DVD . I can only hope they release a Special Edition some time .
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563,941 | 102,816 | 115,641 | 7 |
Don't mis-judge Mike Judge
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I know a lot of you who have never seen Beavis and Butthead probably think very little of the show based on the low-brow nature of it ( I was one of them ) , but if you give this movie a chance you'll see that it's actually as well written and at times as , dare I say , subtle as King of the Hill . Beavis and Butthead have their TV stolen and when trying to get it back are mistaken for hit men by drunken drunk Muddy Grimes ( Bruce Willis , as I was rather shocked to find out once the credits rolled ) , who sends them on a mission to ' do his wife ' Dallas . Misinterpreting this as any horny teenagers would , B+B head to Las Vegas to carry out the terrible act . But we discover ( they don't , however ) that Dallas and Muddy are part of international weapons conspiracy and our two teen-aged heroes are being set-up to take the blame . So , as they take off across the country , causing absolute mayhem wherever they go , the ATF closely follow , giving full body cavity searches to everyone and anyone they meet at the order of head honcho Agent Flemming ( the late Robert Stack ) , who comes out with some brilliant , deadpan one-liners . The set-pieces are wonderful and the mushroom-induced dream sequence by Rob Zombie looks amazing . Mike Judge's animation style also brilliant . Avoiding bright , primary colors used in shows such as The Simpsons , Family Guy and Futurama , he uses mainly softer colors , pencil-effect scenery and water-color backgrounds . It's a sort of calming , easy-going animation style that he's totally made his own . You should totally check-out this movie . Don't be put off by what you may have heard or may think of Beavis and Butthead . You'll be conning yourself out of loads of laughs if you do . And look-out for Daria Morgendorfer in the ' Lesbian Seagull ' scene .
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564,379 | 102,816 | 339,160 | 7 |
Fun to begin with , but gets boring
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While it's loads of fun running around blasting people ( forget stealth ) and even more fun sniping from great distances , I found this game to get a bit boring about halfway through . There's just no variation on the gameplay between levels . Plus the game is basically a first person shooter , something I have grown VERY tired of . And even though there are loads of weapons to choose from , they basically all do the same thing . The Revolvers and Ballers were cool , blasting people halfway across the screen , but there is no breathtaking violence . How about limbs coming off , or decapitations or amputations when you whack someone with a fireaxe ? It's an easy game and always available cheap . Get it for a quick rush but don't expect a classic .
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563,837 | 102,816 | 415,156 | 7 |
Certainly not sluggish
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The action reaches new heights in this , the third game in the Metal Slug series . The action now takes place underwater , in the sky and out into space for those who have grown tired of gunning your way through streets and tunnels . The enemies you'll encounter now range from Yetis , giant lobsters , zombies and aliens . . . again . The levels , while occasionally offering non-linear routes , are quite short but still gorgeously detailed . But those who are sensitive to over-stimulation should beware some parts of the game , especially the E-P-I-C ( overlong ) last level could trigger epileptic seizures . Asides from that , the series is still button-bashing mayhem fun .
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564,616 | 102,816 | 211,443 | 7 |
Weird , neither good nor terrible
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As weird as Jason in space may seem , his fans finally got what they asked for - something new - when , after four false starts , this movie was finally made . Four hundred and fifty five years in the future , earth is dead and the recently defrosted J-Man finds himself aboard the Grendel , a field-trip vessel carrying students from Earth 2 . So , basically , Jason + teenagers = mass death . Something old and something new . Something borrowed , or nicked , are the best bits from the Alien movies . You know what's in store , long scenes of creeping around dark corridors before being carved up . What I don't get is the fact that the filmmakers knew that we didn't want Camp Crystal Lake AGAIN and so decided to take us as far away as possible from the previous nine movies . Why must they give us the ancient and decrepit stalk'n'slash scenario yet again ? Fresh zazz , or zing , or fizz , or even pop could have been added . But no ! It threatens to get very dull and the only thing that saves it are the gorgeous SFX , stronger production values and more determined than usual characters ( slabs of meat ) . James Isaac has had plenty experience in the horror genre and , along with his cinematographer , has given this movie a far more sophisticated look than most other horror flicks . Lighting is provocative and the colour palette is well thought out and bright . It's a shame that nothing of real genius , or imagination , occurs within this unique environment . Plus , I'm getting real sick of Kane Hodder , as Jason . At first , I liked him - F13 , Part VII , was his premier outing - but now he's changed the character too much . Instead of an evil , worm-infested zombie , with incredible strength , he's a massive brick shithouse , who moves slower than your average glacier . How can these kids not escape him ? The acting , by a bunch of Canadian TV folk , is tolerable . None has enough skill to bring any real humour , or depth , to roles . Who cares when they die ? The only interesting character is a female robot , or Fembot , as the Austin Powers movies put it , with no feelings - how ironic ! There's no good excuse for Jason X being so average . Even the presence of Uber-Jason - Robocop , only not friendly - is too little too late , although he , along with Janessa's cleavage , doesn't get enough screen time . If you're having a beer blast , or a stein-hoist , then Jason X is worth the rental . If you're after classical entertainment then . . . probably not .
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564,123 | 102,816 | 36,349 | 7 |
More anachronistic mystery
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Beginning with the usual explanation / apology as to why Holmes exists in the ' modern ' day , the film has the character travel to Washington to help solve where a British Secret Service agent hid a precious microfilm . It's not exactly Conan Doyle but it's very fast moving and sharply written . Unfortunately there are not many moments of atmosphere and the film is blandly shot like any other 40s movie and doesn't affect an air of mystery . Watson is a bit more of a comical buffoon than usual , but I find it entertaining even if it doesn't fit the original image of the character . The patriotic speech at the end ( typical of the modern , WWII Sherlock Holmes movies ) does feel tacked on and is pretty damn unsubtle .
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564,331 | 102,816 | 1,097,636 | 7 |
Stay Cool , Scooby-Doo !
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Shaggy and Scooby get on the wrong plane when en route to meet the rest of the Mystery Inc . gang in Paris and end up lost in the Himalayas while an abdominal snowman is on the loose . There is the usual amount of suspects and motives but it's just fresh enough to prevent the plot from becoming tiresome . The animation just gets better and better with each entry in the Scooby-Doo series and the bright colors and active sound design are a long way from the grainy TV show back in 1969 ( though that still has its charm ) . Fans of the series will be glad to hear that the character of Dell Chillman from the Loch Ness adventure returns for this one , giving some continuity to the otherwise unrelated mysteries . I must admit that I preferred it when the monsters ended up being real but I guess that each mystery has its own logic and you'll be surprised at who is behind the mask of the adorable snowman . Keep ' em coming , Warner . That ol ' Great Dane could live to a hundred .
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564,456 | 102,816 | 45,037 | 7 |
Violent Night
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The Walt Disney cartoons have always been the best at creating atmosphere . The Looney Tunes shorts really lacked in this regard , as their backgrounds were usually somewhat more generic . So obviously the Xmas-themed Disney cartoons are perfect to get you in the mood . Pluto's Christmas Tree also has an even more vibrant detailed color pallet than usual . This one has Mickey living in a mountain cabin with hyperactive Pluto . The go out one snowy night to find their Xmas tree . The tree that they just happen to pick is the one that is home to Chip and Dale . Once inside Mickey's cabin the chipmunks play tricks on Pluto and taunt him , all while Mickey thinks it's just his imagination . In the end , Mickey decides to keep them because hey . . . it's Xmas .
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563,881 | 102,816 | 209,163 | 7 |
A fast-paced , inventive adventure
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Mummy Returns takes the characters and story from the first film and develops on them in a big , big way . The situations and set-pieces are wilder , the odds even bigger and character arcs more complex . Set 10 years after the first movie Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz have made a rich living out of plundering tombs and pyramids . Who could have predicted that their old nemesis I'm-Ho-Tep would return faster and stronger than before . But I'm still having trouble seeing I'm-Ho-Tep as a villain . Surely it's the scheming , lying , conspiring supplicants that are the real villains . The look in his eyes at the end , when his lover betrays him , is heartbreaking . I can't root for him as a bad guy when he never really does anything bad . Sure he wants to rule the world and all but who doesn't ? The effects are not the best ( Star Wars Episode 2 used up all the space at ILM at the time ) but there are loads of them and they're all lavish and imaginative . I HATE movies that are carried by SFX but Mummy Returns incorporates them into the story in a seamless way . How cool is the big balloon ? Or the approach of Anubis ' army ? Most directors screw-up big budget , big scale movies ( AVP , King Arthur , Sky Captain , Exorcist Prequel , Catwoman ) but Stephen Sommers knows where the heart of this kind of movie is and delivers , once again , a cheeky adventure with loads and loads of action and enough story and character to back it up . Filmed in Panavision the 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic picture is perfect and the Dolby / DTS 5 . 1 is very loud and thundering . A very good soundtrack indeed . The extras are total fluff and not worth the time .
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564,457 | 102,816 | 37,929 | 7 |
Bright Mice , Big Kitty
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This cartoon has T & J living a quiet life out in a cosy country cottage . Tom is bored with country life and decides to leave for the Big Apple one night . Writing a goodbye note to Tom , he catches the next train to his new , exciting life . When he gets there he discovers that Manhattan is not so inviting to small rodents . Everywhere he goes , from Grand Central to posh dinner parties , he is tormented with the rude idiosyncrasies of big city life . Eventually landing in a dirty alley , he is run out of town by an army of hungry stray cats . Back the cottage , the still sleeping Tom ( who does nothing else in this cartoon ) has not yet read the note , which Jerry promptly tears up before going back into his mouse-hole . Better the Devil you know huh ?
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564,462 | 102,816 | 37,928 | 7 |
What's cookin ' ?
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Mammy-Two-Shoes ( who was actually NOT dubbed in the version I watched , would you believe ) has set up a huge banquet for guests of some kind , who will be arriving soon . Tom sneaks into the dining room and calls his girlfriend Toots , inviting her over . Using Jerry as a reluctant butler Tom tries numerous times to impress Toots and fails again and again . What was surprising about this cartoon is that it's a bit crueler than usual . The violence and pain were on level with an episode of Itchy and Scratchy . There is even one moment of torture in which Tom holds Jerry , in a teaspoon , over a candle . Hey , I'm not complaining . I'm not some nut who is against cartoon violence . I actually thought that this one was damn funny .
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564,259 | 102,816 | 36,231 | 7 |
Never heard of this game .
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Donald has snuck out of the barracks with the rest of the Privates . But he's the first to return and the first to meet the wrath of Sargent Pete , who is not impressed with his hijinks . A chase around the barracks follows as Donald hides from Pete and a possible thrashing . At one point Pete chucks Donald along a spiked fence and the little duck believes he's been cut in half . Donald and Pete both shed tears over this awful situation and Donald tries to end it all with a bullet to the brain ( sure this would never be allowed in a cartoon today ) . A mild plot revolving around a chase , seems more like the basis for a Tom and Jerry . Kinda funny though Donald has done better .
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564,643 | 102,816 | 88,944 | 7 |
Big , dumb fun
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This movie was made in 1985 , right after Terminator . I guess studios only had one way to sell Arnie in those days , as a bad-joke making killing machine . Although in this he gets to play a father to sweet , innocent Alyssa Milano ( ? ) . The movie is about John Matrix ( you heard me ) , a retired ( at 37 ) Commando leader who's team are all killed despite having new identities . Two soldiers ( as if they are any real protection ) are sent to keep an eye on Matrix and his daughter . But in this film you know they are only there to be killed right away . And I mean right away . If trained Commandos are killed easily what kind of safety are two junior Privates gonna make ? The real bad guys ( don't read this sentence if you don't want to know the ' twist ' ) are the hammy and stereotyped Latin Dictator Arius and the outrageously campy Bennett , who was thrown out of Matrix's unit and is out for revenge . Arius and Bennett want Matrix to kill the President of the fictional Latin American country of Valverde . Arnie kills 88 people in this film , some of them with bad but hilarious kiss-off lines . This film is supposed to be dumb . Some of the macho dialogue is quite appalling , but it's funny . Check out the fight scene between Matrix and Cooke . A number of revealing mistakes are noticeable in this movie . For example we can see a cable on Sully's leg when he is being hanged over the cliff . And when Matrix and Cindy crash into a telephone pole ( at 200 mph ) the heads of the dummy's come off . Needless to say that this film requires a constant suspension of disbelief . Like the scene where Matrix jumps from a 747 , when it's in the air , and survives unharmed . Or the scene where he hides in a rickety old shed and 1000 soldiers fire 1 , 000 , 000 bullets into it . Arnie walks out unharmed . Commando is pure entertainment . And entertain it surely does . But one last thing , when you consider the way Bennett dresses and ESPECIALLY the way he behaves ? it makes you wonder exactly WHY he was thrown out of Matrix's unit .
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564,219 | 102,816 | 490,812 | 7 |
Lots of sex , nothing particularly special .
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I only got this because of the incredibly cute Manami Yoshii , not because it stood from the rest of pornworld in any certain way . In this movie she is filmed gonzo style by a bunch of black guys driving around LA . They take her into a store and tease her with pornography . She acts all coy and shy but proves to be anything but a few moments later . She is taken to some kind of lair and repeated shagged by about 20 of them , over and over . They each cum on her face , so much so that almost her entire head disappears . The next scene has her in some kind of bedroom , wearing a pretty nice nightdress , once again being taken every way possible ( sadly , no anal ! ) and being cummed on . At the end , one of them picks her up and she pees on the floor . She then thanks them for a wonderful time . What a polite girl . Pick up cheap , if you fancy Manami Yoshii .
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564,817 | 102,816 | 87,015 | 7 |
Crafty . Hokey . Utterly Demented
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Honestly , I wasn't expecting to like CHUD . I only got it out of curiosity as it was one of those horror movies I used to see in the video store as a kid . While it may be low-budget schlock it's still rather good . John Heard plays a photojournalist who is suspicious of multiple disappearings in his New York neighborhood . The local Fuzz are suspicious too . As is a half-man soup-kitchen Reverend ( Daniel Stern ) . Together they uncover a ruthless plot by some government scumbags ( are there any other kind ) . The monsters may be cheap looking but they still make formidable bad guys and set pieces still excite . For all it's low-budgetness , CHUD still has a decent plot , good characters and , would you believe , a surprising twist near the end . Just try to ignore the tacky synthesizer score and enjoy the OTT silliness . And keep a lookout for John Goodman and Jon Polito . The DVD is in not bad-looking 1 . 78 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with Mono sound . Extras are a trailer and a hilarious commentary track with Heard , Douglas Cheek and Christopher Curry but dominated by Daniel Stern .
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564,414 | 102,816 | 62,123 | 7 |
Spooky Pink
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Caught in a rainstorm out in the desert ( that cat sure does get around doesn't he ) the Pink Panther takes shelter in an old hotel in a ghost town . But the ghouls ain't gonna make it an easy night for him and play loads of amusing pranks . Initially , Pinky is oblivious to the hauntings but when he sees the skeleton on his bed a madcap chase around the hotel begins . There's a lot of visual humor in this cartoon and it's a bit more vividly drawn than the minimalist nature of most Pink Panther shorts , which adds to the atmosphere of the ghost town . It's a shame to see Pinky constantly victimized wherever he goes . But he manages to take it with coolness .
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564,635 | 102,816 | 100,114 | 7 |
Has some good scenes but it's not a good movie .
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This film was originally called " Screwface " after it's villain . But basically it's another excuse for Seagal ( wearing the same suit he wore in Hard To Kill ) to go around killing everyone in his own handsome style . But this time he's killing Jamaican drug dealers because they've marked him for death . He teams up with his old army buddy Keith David and takes on an entire army of them . Like you do . The action is affective and does excite but the rest of the movie doesn't generate much interest and leads us to believe that a lot of scenes were dropped . This could explain some of the confusion and plot holes ( we are told Screwface is so-called for a reason , which is never given ) and the trailer and R2 DVD cover features scenes and stills that are nowhere to be seen in the film . This movie injects a theme of voodoo that got me excited at first but disappointed me when nothing happens with it . Joanna Pacula is in the movie for about a minute but gets second billing on the cast list . Oh , it also has a bizarre plot twist that I won't ruin for you . Fox's DVD is not up to scratch . The 2 . 35 : 1 picture is not anamorphic and is troublesome . Very poor blacks and badly contrasted scenes mar the film . As I have said , upon viewing the theatrical trailer and spying the cover of the R2 release I can spot at least 2 deleted scenes . The insert card only lists half of the chapter stops the DVD has ( apparently the film ends at chapter 10 ) . The insert card also displays a picture from Under Siege 2 ( which is not even owned by Fox , but Warner ) . And if you think that is bad then wait for this . . . the back cover claims the DVD is in 1 . 85 : 1 ( it's not ) and displays a picture from the 007 movie License to Kill ( which is owned by MGM ! ) . I can't imagine how that got in there but I have a good feeling Fox will re-release this in anamorphic and DTS sound . They did this with the Die Hard Trilogy , Predator and The Siege . Hopefully these errors will be corrected when they do so . Even if the sole extra is still the theatrical trailer I would still by re-release of M4D . The car chase and final rumble are way cool scenes and James Newton Howard's score is very cool indeed . I would only buy this for cheap as I am 99 % sure that Fox will re-release it .
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563,987 | 102,816 | 117,571 | 7 |
Over-hyped but still worth a look
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But once again actors in their mid-to-late twenties are playing teenagers and the effect of the film is totally ruined as they behave and act so unrealistic . While most people may consider this a cool movie just because of the scares and the over-hyped ' irony ' there is actually an intelligent plot with a pretty good twist . I notice this more as I am a writer and this is one of my fave horror / thrillers . I advise you not to watch this for the pumped up scares ( to a very loud soundtrack ) but for how a typical ' who's the killer ? ' plot line can be a little better than it is believed to be . Some of the characters can be really annoying . In fact the only one that doesn't enrage me is Dewey . His idiotness makes me laugh and diverts my attention from the other characters in the very slow ' character building scenes ' . The direction and photography are very bland . Wes Craven did a much better job of a real horror film with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET . Here it just seems as if he aiming at the teen / popcorn market . You'll notice that , with these kind of movies , most of the characters ( not actors ) are teenagers and the tone of the film is mostly ' safe ' . In the Scream ' sub-genre ' there is never any REAL edge . After this movie was made , many , increasing bad , movies that were all exactly the same rolled off a conveyor belt in Hollywood . They were easy moneymakers . Craven knew this beforehand but deep , intelligent movies do not sit well with mass audiences . The blander the style of film is , the more popular it will be with the majority of audiences . The plot in this one redeems these bad qualities . I just wish for a real horror film to come out of Hollywood .
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564,799 | 102,816 | 102,266 | 7 |
Should have been a franchise
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Back in 1991 there was still only one way that studios could sell Bruce Willis and that was as various incarnations of his Die Hard hero . Even Eddie ( Hudson ) Hawkins had similarities to John McClane . Joe Hallenback is a sort of mix between McClane and Snake Plissken . Watching him mumble and grunt thru various near-deaths and close shaves makes for much fun . Hallenback is a P . I . and scrounges for work wherever he can find it . So he takes up a job protecting a stripper named Cory and soon finds himself in a lot of trouble . Bad guys are trying to get him left right and centre and his bratty 13-year-old daughter tagging along doesn't help much . The bad guys are truly evil and Hallenback seems more like an anti-hero . This adds to the rough nature of the movie and heightens the sense of adventure . Tony Scott's style of direction is best suited to this type of action flick . The flashy , exotic editing and cinematographic techniques lend a lot to the witty script and compliment the seedy or pretty locations . Shane Black has also written dozens of one-liners and riddled the script with funny dialogue and exciting situations . It's no surprise that this was once the most expensive script ever sold in Hollywood . Some people say that this film is too violent and misogynist but I honestly cannot understand what they are talking about . I guess it was just a little out of the norm back in 1991 . But still the tone of the film is so light and enjoyable you begin to wonder how this never made up for it . Check it out for yourself and I am sure that you will enjoy . Love that opening song , man .
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564,732 | 102,816 | 119,303 | 7 |
Severely under-rated sequel .
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Home Alone 3 has a lot of unfair criticism . I mean , how many of you would really have wanted a 16-year-old Mac Culkin doing the same-old same-old to Harry and Marv . Of course it was a better idea to do in a different direction and with John Hughes still producing and writing you know there's going to be a good amount of imagination and creativity . This time around we have 8-year-old Alex Pruitt defend his house against international criminals . Stuck at home with Chicken Pox with both his parents tied-up in work matters , Alex suspects foul play on his snowy street when he witnesses strangers poking around in his neighbor's house . Of course , no one believes an imaginative 8-year-old so he has to deal with them himself . It turns out that a toy car Alex got from the old-lady across the street is actually a Trojan horse to smuggle a priceless defence microchip to the North Korean mob . They really ought to hire better criminals as they fall for every one of Alex's sadistic booby-traps . Yes , that is basically the whole plot but it gets enough mileage out of it and it's still very funny . Set in January , it lacks the Xmas feel of the first two , but I guess that would have just been a distraction . John Williams ' theme only gets a brief recital at the start , but from then on it's an adequate ( if not exceptional ) score from Hans Zimmer pal Nick Glennie-Smith . Despite these key differences of characters and theme , it still feels like it has enough continuity with the others . It's a totally worthwhile and enjoyable sequel that has a bad rep for no reason . Home Alone 4 on the other hand . . . now THAT is BAD !
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564,763 | 102,816 | 1,194,566 | 7 |
Still no consistent plot , but a fun adventure anyways
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In this instalment Indy travels to Africa and meets up with President Roosevelt on a safari trip . Keen to hunt down a rare animal Indy helps the President out by going off on his own with a local tribes-boy and getting into the usual trouble . He's not happy with Teddy gunning down all the wildlife and urges him to limit his killing . It's a believable development since he found the hunting of the famous ' Teddy Bear ' to be un-sportsmanlike ( it was later killed anyway ) . The film then moves on to Paris where Indy meets a young Norman Rockwell and sneaks off into the city where he meets Pablo Picasso ( played by Danny Webb , who you might recognise as Morse from Alien 3 ) . I found this scene to be a bit confusing as Picasso is Hitler's exact double in the movie , right down to the hair and moustache and everyone knows that Hitler was a failed artist before a dictator . So when we are introduced to Picasso as a man who is adamant that his art is understood I immediately got it wrong . The lack of plot is kind of annoying , but it's a decent movie .
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564,754 | 102,816 | 484,439 | 7 |
A nice Xmas Cartoon
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That is for some reason tagged onto the reels for the very halloween-y Wallace and Gromitt's Curse of the Wear Rabbit . It would have made more sense for this film to be tagged onto something in December but hey-ho . I've not actually seen Madagascar , so I'm not immediately familiar with these characters . But I have to say that the penguins were very funny . The story has one of them leave Central Park Zoo to look for the perfect Xmas present , only to end up an Xmas present himself . The other penguins soon follow him to a posh apartment building where a blind old lady plans to give him to her evil pet poodle . Very funny antics and hijinks follow . I wouldn't be surprised if this cartoon were nominated for an Oscar come February .
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564,577 | 102,816 | 426,436 | 7 |
Limited appeal
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Once you finish Def Jam : Fight for NY there's not much reason to go back to it . But as a VS game it's one of the best . I'm so sick and tired of utterly endless Tekken / MK / Soul Caliber / etc variations with effects and moves that are far too fantastical . Def Jam gives us real , bloody , bone-crunching action with characters we know and recognize from real life . For those of you who like this simple form of gameplay I urge you to get this game above all . The Pros : Amazing graphics . Simply GREAT music . Grim satisfaction in breaking an opponents bones . Cool finishing moves and slo-mo shots . Involving cut-scenes . Gorgeous girls . Henry Rollins . The Cons : Incredibly linear story progression . Far too many long loading times . Massive range of clothing that differs little . Same for tattoos . And jewelery . Weapons too difficult to pick up ( if you stand over it and hit the pick-up button your character will often foolishly grab at a non-nearby opponent instead of the weapon ) . Poor crowd animation . No opportunity to customize player name , resulting in bland text when other fighters have cool fonts and logos . Repetitive gameplay . Playing areas are not big enough . Could have been gorier . No reason given for main characters motivations / involvement . It took me just over a week to finish this game . And once it's over there's no point in going on unless your playing head to head with a pal . But at that point you're likely to be so advanced in your stats you'll make easy work of them . Rent this game .
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564,878 | 102,816 | 46,811 | 7 |
Very Bunny
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I was never too interested in the character of Rocky , he always seemed too one-dimensional and monotone . Of course this is intentional but I could never excited when a Rocky and Bugs cartoon came on . He was however great in Daffy's Golden Yeggs . This time around Bugs is taking it easy in the city as Rabbit Season ( DUCK SEASON ! ) is kicking off in the country . He hails a taxi to go for a cruise but ends up in the backseat of Rocky's getaway car . Seconds later , Rocky has robbed a bank and is using Bugs as a hostage . Bugs a hostage ? Puh-lease ! He's got more wits and cunning in his baby finger than both Rocky and Mugsy together . Very clever hijinks follow with a very funny ending .
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563,782 | 102,816 | 185,371 | 7 |
Very scary imagery
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But the only thing scary about the plot is how much has been cut out to create a bare-bone running time of 93 minutes . I think that if I were really in The House on Haunted Hill I would go insane just like the ghosts . The film does create a heavy atmosphere of dread and pure evil . This is where the film succeeds best . Where it fails the most however is that it's very corny with some truly dreadful dialogue here and there . Geoffrey Rush is terrific as Steven Price , an extravagant theme park owner who has set up an elaborate birthday party for his wife . That party is in the titular house and if the 5 guests can survive the night they get $1 , 000 , 000 each . But his wife isn't THE friendliest woman in the world . Even if the house weren't haunted it would be an awkward party . The ending is a BIG letdown and is very lazy on behalf of the director and writer . For a film that scared us with imagery and the unseen , the ending ( in which CGI tries to impress us to death ) is such a disappointment . This film went head-to-head with The Haunting in 1999 . But this loses points right away because The Haunting is in 2 . 35 : 1 and this is in 1 . 85 : 1 . You don't get the same sense of scope . Rent this movie for a night in with your friends .
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564,048 | 102,816 | 414,852 | 7 |
Hyper-kinetic , if unfortunately slight , action flick
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I'm not really convinced of this free-running thing . The only time I really see it on TV is when it's involved in some kind of baggy-pants , ' yoof ' skateboarding crap . I was intrigued to see how it would end up in an action movie . In recent years , Luc Besson has been making quite a name for himself in producing loads of tough , anti-Hollywood values action movies ( though the less said about the downright awful Le Transporteur II the better ) . One of his pals , Cyril Raffaelli , who had small roles in Le Baiser mortel du dragon as one of the blonde non-twins and Le Transporteur , is pretty much the most flexible , extreme martial artist in movies today . Christ almighty , can we possibly make this guy anything more than just ' movie star ' ? Demi-God ? Teaming him up with Parkour ( free-running ) ' founder ' David Belle for movie with loads of jumping , kicking and shooting seems like such a wonderful , high-concept idea . And it is . Mostly . Set in 2010 , in which the slum of Paris has been walled off from the rest of the world , a stolen nuclear device has fallen into the hands of ruthlessly evil gang boss Taha ( Bibi Naceri , who also wrote the movie ) and it's up to renegade cop Cyril and not-so-good pal David to go into the slum and beat-up all the scumbags . The action scenes are brilliant and feature some of the coolest martial arts sequences in ages . All with a slight touch of humor . The tone of the film is somewhere in between the light-hearted nature of the Taxi movies and the violence , mean spiritedness of Le Baiser mortel du dragon . It's all wrapped up in a lean 85-minutes but it just lacked that one final punch to knock us out of our seats . A special mention must be made for the gorgeous former porn-star Dany Verissimo ( check out some of her stuff , she's awesome ) , who plays David's kidnapped sister . I just have a thing for slutty-looking girls in torn suspenders with running mascara . Meh ! One helluva cool action movie , just falls short of being one you can enjoy a zillion times over .
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564,464 | 102,816 | 484,859 | 7 |
Just too damn hard !
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I had a lot of fun playing Mario and Luigi : Partners in Time , but in the end it just proved to be too damn hard . Overall , there are more pros than cons but it's a close call . Pros : Very cute , quite funny , gameplay is easy to get to grips with , nice graphics . Cons : Too hard , loads of very , very long cut-scenes , not much to differentiate it from every other hand-held RPG out there , power-ups not so powerful , can get a bit repetitive , did I mention those cut-scenes ? I really must continue this gripe . It's something that is increasingly common in RPGs . I am sick to death of sitting through endless dialogue bubbles of generic dialogue . There should be a button that you can choose to press to skip by it all . But there's not . Even when you lose against a boss and have to try again you have to suffer the same crap over and over . I got completely sick of it . The worst part was when I spent 45 minutes killing a near-impossible boss only to be tortured with 15 minutes of unskippable dialogue crap . I was fighting against the clock as my DS was almost out of power . In the end I could not save it in time and I lost my game . If there was a way to skip the stupid dialogue I could have . It's at this point I gave up on M & L : PIT and I had to resist the urge of throwing my DS against a wall . Man , writing this review has gotten me so angry again that I am seriously thinking about retracting my score . Graphics A Sound Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,751 | 102,816 | 362,004 | 7 |
' Can you get pregnant when it goes in there ? '
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While not exactly a ' part 2 ' kind of sequel to Welcome to the Dollhouse , Palindromes is more than a film just set in the same universe . Several characters from Dollhouse are featured and many references are made to events in said previous movie . It's best to be familiar with Dollhouse first before watching Palindromes . Dawn Weiner , our lovely protagonist from Dollhouse , is dead . She committed suicide after getting pregnant from a date-rape . And even in death people cannot hold back on talking trash about her . Her 12-year-old cousin Aviva ( she IS 12 , a lot of people are mentioning various ages , she only turns 13 at the end ) is so affecting by her tragic life that she vows to never turn out like her . Her mum ( Ellen Barkin who appears to have had some dodgy face-lift ) promises that will never happen as she loves Aviva more than Dawn's family loved her . Which could not be further than the truth . As soon as she becomes pregnant to some horny boy Aviva's mum shows her true colors . She is selfish , ignorant and downright cruel . Her dad also . They may well be angry but that's no excuse for the pressure they put her under . Aviva is forced into having an abortion . But it goes wrong and she ends up having an emergency hysterectomy . Thinking only of the effect it has upon herself , Aviva's mum keeps this part secret from her . Obviously devastated at the lost of her unborn child , Aviva takes off on a journey to find a new lover and make a new baby , unaware that she never will . Upon this journey Aviva is played by many different actresses , all of whom portray her with the same facial expressions and mannerisms . She meets a variety of characters , including her cousin Mark ( Dawn's older brother ) , a trucker who isn't a pedo but loves her anyway and family of disabled Jesus loving Christians who secretly fund abortionist assassinations . It's bizarre and sometimes outrageous journey full of some typical Todd Solondz moments ; scenes where the far-fetched becomes very believable because human-nature often stretches beyond normality when no one is looking . It was sad to see that Mark Weiner's life ruined in the way that it is . But he came through as a more mature and sympathetic character than the bully older brother he was before . And he did have some good scenes . Now , about the whole pre-teen sexuality thing . I do not have a problem with this but I know a lot of people do . I don't find anything offensive about it but this is the third time Solondz has tackled the subject . Is he into it ? Is he against it ? Does he find it humorous ? Or does he just use it as an easy way to rile us up and make us react ? While it's integral to the story , it's not anything a fan of Solondz hasn't seen before . Palindromes more than about a girl who's name is the spelled forwards as backwards . It's a film about how life goes around in circles and no one really ever changes or goes anywhere . It sounds like a pointless journey when I put it that way . But it's worth it .
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563,839 | 102,816 | 280,938 | 7 |
Metal Slug 2 Redux
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Those of you thinking that Metal Slug X is a brand new game are mistaken , I am afraid to say . It's actually just a little bit bigger and a little bit better version of Metal Slug 2 . It was a fine game on it's own , but now you have some slightly altered enemies and new graphics here and there . It's not a major improvement and almost doesn't justify it's reason to exist . But since I got it included in my Metal Slug Anthology for the Nintendo Wii it's not like I went out of my way to pay extra for it . It's inclusion in this particular package is a mystery since one cannot possible feel the need to play it immediately after Metal Slug 2 . SNK should have replaced with Metal Slug Advance at the very least . A fun shooter nonetheless .
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563,967 | 102,816 | 404,390 | 7 |
A highly enjoyable , though very mixed-up , action film .
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I'll admit I knew absolutely nothing of this film until I walked into the cinema . I saw no ads on TV or blurbs on the internet . And as far as I knew it was a remake of the movie with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines . Well , it's not ! It's actually a rather bizarre actioner . I'll get to that in a minute . First of all , if you are kind of annoyed at the lack of good , old-fashioned R-rated action movies these days then this film will definitely set the balance straight . There are many , many , MANY gory , and even sometimes shocking , deaths in this film that make A History of Violence look like an episode of Sesame Street . It plays like one of Robert Altman's multi-story character dramas . At the very beginning we are treated to a bloody gunfight in a motel room after a drug deal goes sour . Head thug Tommy ' Tombs ' Perello ( Johnny Messner ) instructs henchman Joey ( Paul Walker ) to dispose of his gun . He was going to right after dinner but the battered kid next door nicks it to shoot his abusive father and legs it across Brooklyn . Joey must then find him and make up a story to prevent a zillion plot threads ( involving crooked cops , rival Mafia families , evil pimps , child rapists / killers ) from snapping . The gun itself is a curious MacGuffin . It passes through the hands of many people who's lives all connect . There doesn't seem to be any main story as the film spends equal amounts of time developing every one and although it seems interesting it also feels like loads of different films crammed together . It's constantly meandering and going in another direction and revealing twist after twist . Yes , it keeps the film interesting but by the time the main twist comes at the end you're too exhilarated too care . Running Scared is probably one of those films that improves upon repeat viewings . Besides the schizophrenic story , what really brings the film down to a slightly above-average experience is the fact that director Wayne Kramer uses every editing technique he can think of despite whether they are appropriate or not . They may be technically impressive but they lack class and pull the film into a kind of Michael Bay-Area , where it doesn't belong . I was also kind of weary of the fact that it headlines Paul Walker . I've never liked any of the teen-oriented movies he's been mugging in but I have to say that this is definitely his most demanding role yet and he tries really , really hard to convince . But I'm still undecided about him . If he can pull off this kind of this kind of role again and ditch the pretty-boy image I'll forgive him for previous crimes . But the highlight of the movie is Cameron Bright who plays Oleg , the abused kid . He's a way better child-actor than Dakota Fanning and can express loads of different emotions even with a blank face . The amount of nasty stuff his character goes through is probably unfamiliar and difficult for a child-actor to understand but he handles it extremely well and his scenes with Paul Walker are faultless . Don't put the lack of publicity for this film put you off . It's not perfect but it's far from being a failure . Like I said , it'll probably be better on a second viewing but the first one will still be a thrilling experience .
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564,137 | 102,816 | 78,856 | 7 |
Go back . Go . . . beyond .
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Since the original Poseidon Adventure raked in so much dough , Irwin Allen wanted to get a sequel off the ground right away . It would eventually take him 7 years to get it made and in that space of time it would go through many changes . To begin with , Beyond the Poseidon Adventure was to star Borgnine , Buttons and the rest of the survivors . After being rescued by the French Coast Guard they were to be transported to safety by train through the French Alps . A tunnel cave-in was to trap them all over again amid other , more sinister , drama . That idea was soon squashed . Hackman didn't want to return ( as Reverend Scott's brother ! ) and even though poster art was created ( you can still find the train / gun image out there ) , that's about as far as production got . Allen focused on making other movies for the time being . Then , in 1978 he asked Paul Gallico to write a sequel . Gallico obliged but died before Beyond was published . His novel had Rogo , Martin and Manny Rosen being forced at gunpoint to return to the ship to plunder its secret cargo . Bandits , pirates , double-crosses and macabre plot developments followed . Unable to convince Borgnine and the others to return at this point , Allen changed the story to accommodate a bunch of new characters . This Mike Rogo became Mike Turner ( Michael Caine ) and Bandits and Pirates became Stefan Svevo ( Television Savalas ) and his group of terrorists . Beginning just before the storm in which the Poseidon capsized , Turner and his crew ( Sally Field and Karl Malden ) are out in Jenny the Tugboat . Turner loses his cargo and worries about the bank taking his precious boat away . New Years Day arrives and the sea is calm once again . Turner sees the French Coast Guard chopper buzzing overhead and figures there must be something interesting over the horizon . Interesting indeed . An abandoned 5-star , world-class super-liner designed to carry hundreds of wealthy passengers . There's sure to be riches to plunder and a quick trip down to the Purser's Office ( the idiot who chose to die in the first ) might save Jenny from the banks greedy hands . ' Doctor ' Stefan Svevo ( trying saying that while drunk ) and his group of suspicious men dressed in impeccably white clothes follow Turner inside , hoping to save some remaining survivors . Yeah right ! Svevo just happens to be after a secret cargo of guns and plutonium and has an agent still stuck on-board . Turner and his crew find the Purser's safe quite easy and load up on the loot . But they also find a bunch of stranded passengers including a very young-looking Peter Boyle , Slim Pickens , Mark Harmon and Jack Warden as a blind writer . His quick trip to pinch the riches turns into the much more noble task of leading the rest to safety . But once they discover Svevo's plot a fight breaks out . I think that BTPA has had an unfair amount of criticism . Until the 2006 DVD release the film suffered 27 years of pan and scan TV screenings and videos , which completely screws up the scope photography . Seeing the film in widescreen , as intended , gives it a much slicker look . But I wasn't too impressed with the set-decoration and lighting . The Poseidon was already trashed and unstable before the first survivors escaped . By now it should be seriously threatening to sink or explode and the sets should reflect how much stress the ship is under . But they do look too spotless and the lighting is too bright and un-atmospheric . And , just so you know , a ship of this size would have more than one kitchen . So moans about it ' already being flooded ' are invalid . And I do think that the ending is kind of abrupt and rushed . It was a bit of a let-down having finish with such a lame , flippant finale . And , despite , previous criticisms , I do think that the characters are just as good as before . I felt sorry for Jack Warden when his wife died , or when Michael Caine realised that he lost the gold . Wilbur ( Karl Malden ) was a good character too and I think that his exit from the film was less than what he deserved . There is also more continuity with the original than the negative reviews proclaim . So don't let that put you off . It's had a bad reputation , but BTPA isn't as bad as pretentious movie zealots would have you think . If you are a fan of the original then it is at least worth a rental .
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564,469 | 102,816 | 163,862 | 7 |
Short , but entertaining
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From the bulk of reviews on this site I gather most people don't realize that IMAX is about presentation and style rather than story and content . Shot on vertical 70mm film the reels in the projection booth take up a huge amount of space , thus the running time of IMAX movies tends to be kept to around 45-50 minutes . Thus the format lends itself more towards the documentary / short movie genre . Most of the movies are factual but sometimes original stories come along . T-Rex : Back to the Cretaceous is one of them . It came out in 1998 and when I was at the Trocadero IMAX-3D cinema in London I had to choose between this movie and another called Across the Sea of Time . I chose the latter . Which is a shame coz the dinosaurs and huge shots of this movie would have looked better in 3D . T-Rex begins with an impressive opening shot of the camera swooping over the Arizona desert , which still looks great even on a widescreen TV instead of the huge IMAX screen . There's a hefty narration from the lead actress conveying relevant information about dinosaurs . In this respect the film feels a bit like a 10-year-old's educational program . But being familiar with IMAX movies I was expecting this . I think too many people were expecting a Jurassic Park variant . Tho I would have expected a few more dinosaurs . In the 45 minute running time there wasn't much dinosaur action . Though there was a good amount of story that I did get into . Plus the movie has a great score by William Ross . He released a promo CD of this score but it's impossible to find . Hey , I was entertained and I thot the brief story was quite okay . The horribly slanderous reviews on this site really baffle me . The IMAX format does not work well on DVD , you have to see these movies in the cinema . But if you have a good sound system then the DVD is still worth it . The DVD is in 1 . 33 : 1 full frame ( they are shown theatrically at 1 . 44 : 1 so there isn't much modification to the framing ) with a Dolby 5 . 1 soundtrack that is quite impressive . A slight featurette and an IMAX movies trailer are also included .
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564,867 | 102,816 | 42,613 | 7 |
I ain't lion
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Tom is listening to smooth jazz on the radio when the tunes are interrupted by an announcement claiming that a lion has escaped from the circus . Freaking out , Tom slams shut every window and makes a barricade in the corner where he arms himself with a rifle . Meanwhile , in the basement , Jerry finds the lion hiding in the shadows . He's desperate to get back to Africa as he hates life at the circus . Jerry agrees to help him , but the lion needs a bite to eat . The joke of the cartoon is that Tom never actually sees the lion , believing that the one foiling him during every attack is Jerry . There's a few good visual jokes and it's one of the better shorts , if forgettable in the long run .
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563,960 | 102,816 | 31,243 | 7 |
I want a Penguin
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Though , let's face it , it would probably be not as cute as the one in this cartoon . For some reason a pal of Donalds sends him a penguin as a present out of the blue . Donald doesn't quite know what it is ( despite hunting them in The Polar Trappers cartoon ) or how to work it . He freaks when he sees that the penguin , called Tootsy , has eaten his goldfish but apologises when it turns out he didn't . So to make Tootsy feel better Donald gives him a fish from the refrigerator . Which means that Donald has fish for pets and for dinner . A bit odd . So annoyed is Donald by his inability to care for Tootsy that he tries to execute him but ends up only loving more . Still , it's a funny cartoon and it's good to see Donald making pals .
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563,965 | 102,816 | 473,297 | 7 |
One of the most fun games on the Commodore 64
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Out around the same time as the first Tim Burton movie this Batman game wasn't about the Dark Knight but the Caped Crusader . It resembled the campy 60s show and the more colorful comic-books but it was still a lot of fun to play . The comic-book panel representation of the graphics was brilliant and the ' Dizzy ' style puzzle solving elements quite engaging . What let the game down slightly was the beat-em-up element because you could never totally kill the baddies ( Batman doesn't do that ) and they'd just keep coming back for you , even when you kicked them off a roof . The tough edge of Batman doesn't really come through where as the detective side to him does . The game was actually 2 separate games on either side of the tape ( remember loading tapes ? ) with the Joker story on one side and the Penguin story on the other . Both were as good as each other and it was fun to alternate between them . Definitely one to check out . Graphics B Sound B Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,227 | 102,816 | 31,242 | 7 |
Ch ch ch ah ah ah
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No Jason Voorhees is not out to kill Donald but it IS Friday the 13th and Donald is a messenger-boy who must deliver a suspicious package to number 13 on 13th street . Inside the package is a bomb set to go off at midnight by a couple of unseen thugs . Who they are and why they want to blow up someone else is never know . What this cartoon focuses on is Donald's conflict with a black cat who has crossed his path . Yes , you can pretty much figure out that Donald is going to lose his tempter and go mad , delaying delivery of the package and risk blowing himself to smithereens . But the color pallet of this short is dark and noir-ish and is a welcome difference from the usual sunny atmospheres Donald finds himself in . A better than average Donald Duck cartoon .
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564,325 | 102,816 | 102,070 | 7 |
Way ahead of it's time
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Which is why many people never got it . They were probably expecting Die Hard or a hard action film but this is delightfully lighthearted and funny in a silly kind of way . No way is it meant to be taken seriously . Like a film where thieves time their robberies to songs is supposed to be real ? Eddie Hawkins ( Willis ) is the Hudson Hawk , the greatest cat-burglar who ever lived and he has been blackmailed by the CIA and an OTT camp villain couple called The Mayflowers ( Richard E . Grant and Sandra Bernhard ) . Against his will he is shipped off to Rome ( literally ) to steal some of DaVinci's greatest works . His friend Tommy ( Danny Aiello ) and an undercover nun ( Andie MacDowell ) assist him as he robs the Vatican and tries to shake off a bunch of MTV-generation CIA agents called the Candy Bars ( Kit-Kat , Butterfinger , Snickers and Almond Joy ) . Much adventure and comedy follows . It's got lots of silly humor and cool stunts and is richly bizarre too . Quite refreshing really . Don't watch this expecting anything else than deliberate silliness . It's a film I can watch when I'm in any mood as it is major fun . The DVD is in pretty plain Dolby 2 . 0 surround and is anamorphically enhanced at 1 . 85 : 1
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564,204 | 102,816 | 69,525 | 7 |
You're not even running for office , Charlie Brown .
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With the office of class President available in the coming elections Linus and Russell compete with each other in an effort to take over the school . Lucy threatens most of the students into voting for Linus while everyone else pitches in and helps . Even Snoopy and Woodstock help out with the picket signs . Snoopy also comes to school as ' Joe Cool ' and fails to impress anyone . Linus wins the campaign by one vote but turns himself into a laughing stock when he mentions the Great Pumpkin in his inauguration speech . It's fun and entertaining , even if some of the scenes bear no relevance to the story . Why exactly is Snoopy turning up to class ? And the title is a bit odd . Charlie Brown doesn't even compete , so he's obviously not going to be elected .
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564,055 | 102,816 | 96,256 | 7 |
. . . we sleep .
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Almost every John Carpenter flick is cult , or underrated , or a sleeper . It seems that audiences never truly " get " his films until long after their release . Only now are people warming slightly to Escape From L . A . They Live is no exception . It takes forever to get going and has hardly any dialogue . But remember , I'm talking from the angle of someone who lives in an era where there is always an explosion in the first ten minutes , just to interest the audience . Taken from a short story , Eight O'Clock In The Morning , the film focuses on John Nada ( Roddy Piper ) , a drifter , who comes to L . A . in search of work . After scrounging a job at a construction site , he stays in a shantytown , run by Gilbert ( Peter Jason ) , and becomes friendly with Frank ( Keith David ) . After a while , he reckons that Gilbert is up to no good , as he is always disappearing into the gospel church across the street , and is reluctant to spill the beans too easily . Nada gets the feeling that something's not quite right . And so do we . Only we can't figure out what . Then the fuzz show up and lay waste to the shantytown . Nada just stands there and watches , looking totally confused . Next day , he raids the church , only to find boxes of sunglasses . He swipes one and when he wears it , not only does he see in black-and-white , but the world isn't quite the same . Ads and billboards tell him to " Eat " , " Sleep " or " Marry And Reproduce " . Magazines say nothing but " No Independent Thought " and " Do Not Question Authority " . But , most distressingly , some humans do not look human in the least . They have big bulging eyes , with purple skull-heads . Naturally , Nada is freaked out . Everything rests on his shoulders . He hardly ever speaks , yet the story is told through his eyes . We know what he knows only by reaction and facial expression . It's a difficult role and yet Piper handles is pretty good . Although the dialogue is pure exposition , Carpenter never fully presents us , or Nada , with a threatening situation . Obviously , the non-humans are aliens . But , like the tagline says , who are they , and what do they want ? It seems like they want to rule the world and exploit the working class , but that's the way things are anyhow . Apparently , they lead ordinary lives . If they weren't around , then someone would still be running the show , probably in the exact same way . It is because of this that Nada's sudden desire to go on an alien killing spree is too much to handle . Carpenter fails to make much of the movie after this . Meg Foster's character is almost totally irrelevant and extraneous . She serves no purpose . The prolonged fight scene between Nada and Frank is supposed to be funny , but simply isn't . It just feels odd and the comedy doesn't come through . I guess Carpenter let this scene go because Piper had a lot of wrestling experience and it might be a good idea to film a less fake-looking fight with him . Although Nada and Frank are friends , the reason for them to beat the crap out of each is stupid and not ironic at all . The ending is a bit abrupt , but the director has never been one for indulgence . It's a good ending though and it will make you laugh , which is fortunate , because you're hardly likely to smile much in the second half . Interesting , but not up to the standard of Carpenter's earlier work .
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564,330 | 102,816 | 817,910 | 7 |
Better than Sword of Storms
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The first animated Hellboy movie wasn't bad but I didn't like the Japanese mythology and I felt like Big Red should have had a more accessible story after the 2004 movie . Blood and Iron keeps the action in America ( with the exception of a few flashbacks ) and focuses on a haunted house . The BRPD are assigned to a case involving a mysterious mansion in the Hamptons where spirit Erzsebet Ondrushko ( based on Elizabeth Bathory , the legendary Blood Countess ) , defeated by Professor Broom in the early 40s , plots her own resurrection after selling her soul to Hecate , the queen of the witches . The Professor joins HB , Liz and Abe ( clearly this is set before the movie ) in solving the case so he can finally put the Blood Countess out of action forever . The humor is as dry as ever and the animation would shame both traditionally animated shows and all the modern 3D CGI rubbish . I wish all animation could look this good without having to resort to the ugly aesthetics experimented with in Batman : Gotham Knight . With so many Hellboy graphic novels out there these animated movies could go on for ages if they were to base their stories on them . Blood and Iron itself is based on the ' Wake the Devil ' storyline from the comics . It's far superior to modern cartoons . And what's with the 15-rating in the UK ?
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564,443 | 102,816 | 479,101 | 7 |
An improvement over 4 , no doubt .
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With newer enemies ( from generic to final bosses ) and more original level designs , Metal Slug 5 is a clear improvement over the previous entry in the series . But it's still a near impossible game to survive through with all of your stats intact . This time the levels include jungles , deserts and factories . It doesn't sound like anything new but at least their isn't the heavy sense of Deja Vu that plagued Metal Slug 4 . Though I still have no idea why your character gets a life bar when the tiniest contact with a bullet kills him / her . And please , give us some new playable characters next time , or at least change their clothing . A fun shooter nonetheless , but it does seem a little shorter than the others .
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564,737 | 102,816 | 38,152 | 7 |
Tee ( hee )
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The cartoon begins with Tom in the middle of a VERY bad game of golf . Already about 86 over par he , for some reason , uses Jerry as a Tee . Not taking kindly to this Jerry turns the table and plays tricks on Tom . And that's pretty much it for the rest of the cartoon . This one has quite a thin premise but gets enough mileage out of it I guess . The visual jokes are all rather amusing but I do feel sorry for Tom when he's victimized in such a way . Whether it's being stung by a hoard of bees or having his teeth smashed out by a rogue ball , Tom seems to get more than his usual share of pain in Tee for Two . Does that make me a bad person for thinking that it's funny ?
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564,031 | 102,816 | 31,448 | 7 |
Too short and slightly contracted but still worthwhile
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Libraries and bookstores often put Hound of the Baskervilles in the horror section , well I never thought of the book to be exactly that . As Sherlock Holmes mysteries go , it was a long if nothing truly outstanding . There have been many movie interpretations over the years including Hammer horror versions , spoofs and multiple TV movies . There was even a silent version before this one , if my memory serves me correctly . So I guess it's one of the more famous of the original stories . Produced by 20th Century Fox , this was the first of 14 Holmes adventures to star Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce ( descendant of ' Robert The ' ) as Holmes and Watson . It stays fairly faithful to the book but misses out some of the meatier parts . Barrymore and his wife ( here called Barryman instead ) are no longer secretly brother and sister and the presence of the hound isn't as oppressive as it seemed in the novel . And it's obvious that the movie is clearly not really shot on Dartmoor but on a sound-stage in California . But it's none the worse for that . The studio setting actually lends a unique atmosphere to the gloomy Grimpen Mire and I especially like the dark and shadowy Baskerville Hall . I just wish more happened in and around it . The chemistry between Rathbone and Bruce here already seems to be perfect . Watson and Holmes have an original friendship and , as actors , they take advantage of that to accentuate their performances . I am aware that all Holmes / Watson combination of actors have done this over the years , but not as frequently as these two . A good timekiller , I just wish they made it longer .
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564,646 | 102,816 | 443,453 | 7 |
You must see this movie-film . . . so my country can be free .
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Borat is sent to America with producer Azamat Bagatov to brush with American culture and help Kazakhstan move forward in the 21st Century . While there , he goes renegade and tries to hunt down Pamela Anderson for a quick marriage ( with his ' wedding sack ' ) after his wife Oksana is killed by a bear while walking his retarded brother Bilo . I will admit that this film is frequently hilarious , but it's not as good as I thought it could be . Sacha Baron Cohen recycles a lot of jokes and situations from the TV show . I've seen every Borat sketch that has been made available to the public and the easy targets are beginning to not be as shocking or entertaining as they once were . He aims all of his material at the idiots who fall for it or who have not seen him on TV . Bringing a ( fake ) hooker to a snooty High Society dinner , boozing with moronic college frat-boys or jive-talking to a stuck-up concierge is not intelligent comedy anymore . His method of exposing bigots , hypocrites and narrow-minded idiots with his special blend of Socratic irony and entrapment has been used to great effect in the past but it's getting old . Since this movie is probably the last we will see of Borat it's a shame he didn't come up with a new edge . Sacha Baron Cohen must have the biggest balls in the whole world to do what he does though . I could never keep a straight face while pretending to interrogate a yard sale lady / gypsy over a Barbie doll / woman she has shrunk . Nor could I deliberately , over-exaggerate a massive fall into priceless antiques in a store and not pay for it . There is one particular scene that pushes the boundaries of taste so far back that it could circle Pluto several times over . I will mention nothing of the content of this scene but I have to warn you , it is insane , teeth-grindingly funny and absolutely disgusting . You need to see it to believe it . Obviously there are some parts to this film that are totally staged but if you try to figure it out , Sacha Baron Cohen has to tried to make it as little-faked as possible and you'll realize how it's all done . Of particular note is the surprisingly emotional musical score to the film which really stood out and made an impression . Strange considering the type of film that it is . I must hunt down the CD . No one will fall for Borat's schtick anymore . This movie will make him too popular . He goes out with a predictable BANG instead of KABOOM !
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563,898 | 102,816 | 189,998 | 7 |
Big movie on a small budget
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I cannot believe that for a film made for 8 million dollars you get a million times the movie that Battlefield Earth was . Ironic ? No , just good film-making . If Willem Dafoe doesn't win an Oscar for this on the 25th of this month then there is no justice . The photography is outstanding . The music is creepy and atmospheric and the setting is both original and photogenic . The cast was also perfect , I never quite liked Eddie Izzard until this and John Malkovich was effortlessly impressive as the eccentric German filmmaker Wilhelm Frederich Murneu . I really do wonder how much of this film was true . I wish people would realise that not all Hollywood films are bad and not all independent films are good . All movies have to be are well made , well written and well acted . And Shadow of the Vampire has all 3 of those qualities . I very much recommend this movie to you and suggest that you see it on the big screen . But if you don't you gotta get the DVD . And just a word of trivia ? ' Yes Nicolas Cage is the producer ' . When I saw this in the cinema the rest of the audience said , one by one , ' Hey Nicolas Cage ' when his credit appeared . It was like a never-ending echo .
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564,289 | 102,816 | 479,161 | 7 |
A ton of fun , but very , very short
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Having enjoyed Sonic Advance I was eager to get my hands on Sonic Rush . With brilliant graphics and the fastest gameplay yet in a Sonic game it sure does make for a great video-game experience . But there's just not enough of it and not much is made of the Nintendo DS potential outside of some slight touch-screen interaction and tall graphics . As always the levels range from tropical islands to mechanical metropolis with all the usual powers ups , springs and speed barriers . They are brilliantly designed and contain so many loop-the-loops and massive jumps that you'll go cock-eyed . The sheer speed that you can fire through the levels is amazing . The music top-notch too and there are loads of cool tunes . You can play as Sonic , with his usual abilities , or as Blaze the Cat , who has her own mission opposite Sonic . Obviously this involves defeating Doctor Eggman , but you now have a ' rush ' ability which acts as a booster to make Sonic or Blaze go even faster . My major complaint is with the Special Stages . They are the same as the were in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 , involving the 3D tunnels . And they are impossible . The one that I actually managed to enter requires 160 rings to catch the Chaos Emerald . Not only do I not think there were even 160 IN the whole stage but it's impossible to keep a hold of them as there are so many dangerous obstacles and traps . Plus , you control Sonic with the stylus pen in this stage and it's not got such a great response . And the last boss is impossible also . There is no way to defeat Doctor Eggman and the controls frequently contradict each other , it's all down to bad programming . The game sure has a few bugs ( nothing major ) that should have been sorted out . So apart from the special stage and the final boss , the game is just too damn easy and has nothing to bring you back for more . Yes , I had loads of fun playing it but it would be only worth the money if it were longer and had more to it . Graphics Sound Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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564,792 | 102,816 | 144,084 | 7 |
This is a COMEDY !
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When I first saw this in the cinema in April 2000 I hated it . But I watched it with the wrong attitude . I was judging American Psycho as a horror film . Which it certainly is NOT . It's about ( as the film constantly says ) a complete [ loser ] . He's no friends . Unable to communicate on any level with anyone of his superficial , yuppie colleagues ( some of which don't even know his name ) , takes far , far too much pride in his appearance and has way , way to much love for his material possessions . He is Patrick Bateman . And fitting in / looking normal / being just like everyone else is the toughest thing in his life . But murder , misogyny , degradation and mutilation is what he secretly longs for . It's really only Huey Lewis and the News that prevents him from doing so . American Psycho is full scenes that are tough to watch . You'll be watching them through the gaps between your fingers . How can you not squirm as Patrick Bateman looks in the mirror smiling , flexing his muscles , while having sex with a call girl ? Or taking the whole business card thing WAY too seriously ? Other times the film is just laugh out loud hilarious . Bateman tells Willem Dafoe's detective he would love to help him with his case but he has a lunch meeting with Cliff Huxtable . Come on ! Cliff Huxtable ? ? ? Or how about the scene in the Men's Room when Patrick attempts to strangle the gay guy ? Don't watch this as a horror film . It's a comic , drama-tragedy . Patrick Bateman is a disaster waiting to happen . And his inability to stay connected to the world around him is a wicked delight . Though his world of slick , cocaine-snorting , superficial , Wall Street yuppies of 80s credibility is not really the thing anyone would want to be connected to . Maybe he's better off as a psycho with no pals . The DVD has a great looking 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic picture and a loud , well produced Dolby 5 . 1 soundtrack . The extras ( apart from the deleted scenes ) , unfortunately , are pathetic . e movie with a scene of Bateman discussing his morning facial cream routine ) that the point of the satire is nearly lost : Without the fickle trends of society , Bateman is an empty shell . Save his greed and bloodlust , he is a robot . Harron tones down the violence to a lesser degree - although it is no less gruesome ; the scene where Bateman , nude and bloody , chases a hooker with a chainsaw is an edge-of-the-seater - and emphasizes the story's taking place in the " Me Decade " with appropriate song and fashion that add to one's enjoyment of the film . Despite a lame " Is Patrick really nutso ? " twist that hurts the movie , the point is not lost here , and Harron has a solid sophomore hit on her hands . Bale shines as Bateman , making us thank God the powers that be did not go with Leonardo DiCaprio as they at one point hoped to . Whether he's stiff , menacing , dryly sarcastic , tortured or over the edge psychotic , Bale is mesmerizing . If there's any justice in the world , Patrick Bateman will be a career maker . Too bad the supporting actors don't fare as well . With the exception of Matt Ross , who steals his scenes as a homosexual co-worker of Bateman's in a memorable bathroom confrontation , all other actors are window dressing . Witherspoon's role is written so blandly anybody could have played it , while Sevigny is incredible annoying as her characer moons over Patrick . Willem Dafoe is amiable enough as a detective investigating one of Bateman's crimes , but . . . this is Bale's movie . It's a wild ride that gets a little hazy in parts , but is certainly enjoyable in most places .
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564,618 | 102,816 | 38,333 | 7 |
A bit repetitive .
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The cheapness of this cartoon is evident from the beginning . Much of the animation is clearly recycled . Some of Bugs Bunny's jokes fall flat too but there's still plenty of zany , wackiness surrounding him to make up for it . The story is this . Bug's baseball team ( made up of very old men ) is losing to a bunch of brutish , thug-types . He makes them a bet he can beat them all on his own . And , as usual , it's Bugs ' wits and brain against the stupid , easily manipulated opponents . This is also an earlier cartoon too . So Bugs ' personality is not as honed and developed as later outings and the design of the character is a bit off . Still funny with lots of laughs tho .
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564,694 | 102,816 | 29,188 | 7 |
One of the better Mickey shorts
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In this short , Mickey is performing magic tricks on stage while Goofy does all the behind the scenes work , even though all of Mickey's tricks seem to be for real . But Donald , as usual , isn't convinced and causes a fuss with his loud sarcasm and shouting . Mickey quickly silences him by using his magic . Donald becomes part of the act and is humiliated in various ways . It's actually quite imaginative and much better than the usual Mickey cartoons . If only Mickey ( who only has one line here ) consistently kept to this high standard . He really needs Donald to make him funnier than he is and it's pretty obvious in this cartoon that the laughs come from angry Duck .
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564,392 | 102,816 | 298,052 | 7 |
Very summery game .
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SMS is definitely a gorgeous game to look at and a perfect game to get you in a summertime mood . The perfect blue skies , glorious sunshine and beautiful water effects make you just want to pass through the screen and into the Isle of Delfino in the game itself . Mario vacations in this sunny resort only to find it's covered in pollution when he arrives . So now it's up to him to clean it up across the various levels and worlds . It's one of those games that you can just keep on playing over the years and even put aside for a while before going back to it . It doesn't really have the same charm in the winter months however . The music , the graphics , the humor are all cute and colorful . It makes for perfect escapism . However , the designers have simply tried to cram in too many controls on the Gamecube pad and , as a result , it's a very hard game to control . Many levels and missions require precision manoeuvring and can often take several minutes of painstaking balance and ascension only for it all to be undone , as Mario plummets several hundred feet , by a tiny little flaw in your button-bashing . It will seriously drive you C-R-A-Z-Y . Had it not been for this , I would probably have stuck with SMS to the end , but I had to just be done with it once and for all , otherwise I would have chucked my Gamecube at the wall . Graphics A Sound A Gameplay C Lasting Appeal
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564,378 | 102,816 | 387,301 | 7 |
Cute DVD for Xmas
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This 40-minute TV special tells the story of Rerun , Linus and Lucy's very cute younger brother ( I loved the scenes with him stuck on the back of his mother's bicycle ) . As the smallest child he feels left out of playing around with the other kids and wishes for a dog for Xmas . He starts a great friendship with Snoopy but Charlie Brown is reluctant to let him go . Snoopy's brothers also visit and cause much calamity . It's all harmless fun , if not completely indisposable . Though the DVD is where the real worth comes in . Included is a decent documentary on the original Charlie Brown Christmas , with interviews with cast members and the filmmakers . Also included is Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales , a series of Xmas sketches featuring different Peanuts characters , lasting about 5 minutes each . Some very kiddie trailers are on there also . The DVD is in 1 . 33 : 1 full frame , as drawn , with Dolby 2 . 0 sound .
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563,877 | 102,816 | 44,609 | 7 |
Cats and Dogs
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For anyone who foolishly believes that canines and felines hate each other then perhaps this cartoon will sway your mind . Never before have a kitty and doggy gotten on so well . It marks the first appearance of Pussyfoot and the curiously named Marc Anthony , a massive bulldog who goes through hell to protect cute little cat who constantly , walks into danger unawares . I find the idea of a dog having a pet of his own utterly charming and funny . The animation and backgrounds echo Tom and Jerry rather than Looney Tunes , but for 2 lesser characters Pussyfoot and Marc Anthony make for a great twosome .
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564,575 | 102,816 | 59,721 | 7 |
Why can't men be more like Animals ?
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A bit more like Looney Tunes than usual for old Pinky here . But that's to be expected when most of the Pink Panther cartoons are from Freleng and Depatie . This time round a Texan Big Game hunter is rounding up animals for his ' ark ' so he can just go about shooting fish in a barrel . Kind of takes the sport out of it but . . . hey ho . The last on his list is a Pink Panther and he goes after our favorite cat like Wile E . Coyote would go after the Roadrunner . Of course Pinky outsmarts him at every turn , even causes him to go plummeting from cliffs Coyote style . And in the end , of course , he wins and talks for one of those very few times . I love the Pink Panther .
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564,513 | 102,816 | 26,706 | 7 |
Don't call these guys .
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A hotel is burning and Mickey's Fire Brigade is answering the distress call . But Mickey , Goofy and Donald are not so great when it comes to fighting fire . In fact , everything that can go wrong between their ramshackle fire truck and worthless tactics does . Donald's fight with the fire gets a bit too personal , Mickey cannot keep the wild hose under control and Goofy does a bit of peeping on a cow taking a bath ( cows are always naked anyway ) who doesn't realize the hotel is on fire . And why does she have horns if she is indeed a SHE ? ? ? Most bizarre , of all their hijinks , is the scenes in which Goofy chucks everything he can get his paws on out the window , only to be incinerated in the fire truck furnace . What ? ? ? This I totally do not understand . Was this an attempt at irony ? It comes of as just plain confusing . A funny and imaginative cartoon nonetheless .
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564,855 | 102,816 | 59,713 | 7 |
Could have done without the canned laughter
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In this cartoon Pinky is happily lazing about in a hammock when a snooty narrator interrupts and prompts him into doing some DIY instead guiltless relaxation . At first Pinky tries to make something out of wood but ends up sawing part of his house off . And then his tail . While trying to relax in bed he is put off by the sound of his shower leaking . The snooty narrator encourages him to fix it but old Pinky has no idea how to so he just tapes up the shower door and lets it slowly fill up . Finally , tiring of the narrator intrusive nagging he loads up a blunderbuss and scares him away . It's quite funny but don't ask me why there is canned laughter . It's completely pointless .
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564,388 | 102,816 | 40,661 | 7 |
No new cats !
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Jerry is tormenting Mammy-Two-Shoes ( dubbed to sound less ' offensive ' in the version that I watched and I suspect they have rewritten some of her dialogue too ) but Tom is too slow and too lazy to catch him . Annoyed with this , she introduces a new orange cat called Lightning and kicks Tom out of the house , along with Jerry , for good . But Lightning turns out to be a glutton and T & J reckon it's time they teamed up and hatch a plan to give Lightning what he deserves ( IE a painful walloping and framing him ) . Some good gags and visual humor along with a more original plot make this a better than average T & J short .
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564,665 | 102,816 | 34,657 | 7 |
Woof !
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Tom and Jerry are doing their usual chasing-around-the-house / cat tail in a mousetrap antics when Tom slams right into the sleeping big bulldog later to be known as Spike . Angery at being woken from his peaceful sleep , he chases after the cat and mouse , forcing them to team up to defeat him . Jerry sets the trap while Tom uses himself as bait , soon enough the house is trashed and Spike is thrown out . Really simple stuff with only some slight invention . Mammy-Two-Shoes makes an appearance , but chances are you'll see the PC version in which she is unnatually re-dubbed to sound less ' racist ' . Whatever !
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563,846 | 102,816 | 29,161 | 7 |
Who ya gonna call
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Almost 55 years before Bill Murray and Co . cleaned up New York there was a different trio of ' fearless ' spook-fighters . They were Mickey , Donald and Goofy . Though none of their equipment is high-tech ( they carry nets and , bizarrely , axes ) they make up for it with phony bravery . A quartet of ghosts in a spooky old mansion phone them up and get them over to scare them and play tricks . So , you can pretty much guess that the rest of the cartoon will be made up of related hijinks . Though this time , it's slightly more imaginative than usual . Nice animation and spooky atmosphere too .
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564,437 | 102,816 | 38,494 | 7 |
The last of the finest .
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In their last on-screen outing as Holmes and Watson ( they still did radio plays with each other after this movie ) Rathbone and Bruce find themselves involved in a music box mystery . It seems that anyone who bought one of three matching boxes from a recent auction ends up either dead or with a nasty bump on the head . Assuming that there must be a weird connection Holmes takes the case . The story rivals even The Voice of Terror in terms of sheer implausibility . When the purpose of the music box is reveal you have to wonder why anyone would go to all that effort . But it's still entertaining and Patricia Morrison makes for a brilliant villainess . Producer and Director Roy William Neill died not long after this film was released , which is probably why it ended up being the last . They could have went on a lot longer , especially if they started using some of Conan Doyle's original works ( something that they very rarely did , opting for original screenplays instead ) , although this one does reference two of stories as past cases . A fine , if unspectacular end of a definitive era .
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564,032 | 102,816 | 118,928 | 7 |
Enjoy the fireworks .
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The ' old-fashioned ' disaster movie scenario enjoyed a brief resurgence in the latter half of the 90s . After the success of Twister and ID4 , films like Hard Rain , Titanic , Armageddon and Deep Impact followed in its wake . Like the two competing asteroid movies , Dante's Peak was in competition with the imaginatively named Volcano as THE Lava flow of 1997 . Which one is better ? Well , comparing the two is like comparing an atomic blast to a popping pimple . Pierce Brosnan is Harry Dalton , a Vulcanologist ( or James Bond in disguise if you want ) who predicts a major eruption in the quaint Pacific-Northwestern town of Dante's Peak . No one wants to listen to him since the town has just been named the 2nd most desirable place to live in America and is in the early stages of a thriving economy . It's the politics from Jaws all over again . Despite being shouted down by his superiors , Harry sticks around to keep his eye on the imposing mountain and woo Mayor Wando ( Linda Hamilton ) , who is the only one who believes the 4000-year dormant volcano might blow its top . If you've seen one disaster movie , you've seen ' em all in terms of character importance . Yes , it's bloody obvious who is going to die , some of these people might as well have a death clock counting down stuck on their foreheads . And the panicking idiot mobs don't deserve anything less firey . When will nameless extras learn that following the crowd isn't the best way ? I guess this is the weakest part of Dante's Peak , it never really distances itself from that single , eternal cliché of disaster films . But the film is really nothing but a showcase for special effects and it does them surprisingly well . Made before the extreme popularity of CGI , Dante's Peak has a lot of real-life destruction , in-camera effects and stunt-work . Yes , there is a fair bit of CGI and for a 10-year-old film they still hold up really well . All Volano ( Zzzz . . . ) had to offer was a very , very slight lava flow and an unintentionally hilarious scene with a melting man but with Dante's Peak we get earthquakes , boiled skinny dippers , lakes of acid , ash blizzards that create a unique atmosphere , thunder and lightning , red hot boulders raining down from the sky , mudslides , lava ( of course ) , a massive pyroclastic cloud and lots of deep , deep bass sound effects . It's not a life-changing film by any means , but as disaster movies go it's one of the best , has an occasionally spooky score and entertains really well despite Brosnan taking it all so seriously . I would have given it a higher rating if they killed the dog ( more original ) and deleted the annoying Grant Heslov's utterly pointless character .
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563,907 | 102,816 | 958,860 | 7 |
Seventy grand , I want it back .
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Before studio execs and Mel Gibson got all uppity with Brian Helgeland , Payback was a darker , meaner film . But after an apparently poor test screening in 1997 ( honestly , what IS the point of these ? ) they put Payback on hold for over a year so Mel could do Lethal Weapon 4 before going back for some re-shoots , with a new director , to make the film happier . So they approved a script of a dark , moody revenge thriller , green-lighted it for production and changed their minds to make it lighter because a ragtag audience didn't understand / like it ? Man , Hollywood is one weird town . The resulting film , which was eventually released in 1999 , seemed a bit tacked together . There were scenes that just seemed out of place and irregular . It was obvious that any scene actually shot back in 1997 was shot on location and any scene shot for the 1999 cut was just shot in the generic ' street set ' on the Warner back-lot . Despite all of this , Payback was still a fun film that failed to go all the way with it's concept . The new DC is a superior version , no doubt and is about 33 % different . There are new scenes and odds and ends through out the running time and the last act is completely different . Kris Kristoffersen is gone and replaced by Sally Kellerman ( voice only , Bronson is never seen ) . James Coburn and John Glover also have smaller roles . The narration from Porter is gone as well as the blue tint to most of the film . Now most scenes are just lit as normal without any post-production filtering . There is also a new musical score . The jazzy feel to the opening scenes is still there but through-out the rest of the film the score is more atmospheric and understated . Both are as good as each and fit the differing tones , so there's no better of the two . It does end a bit abruptly and without any truly satisfying conclusion . I guess this is what annoyed test audiences . But a disgruntled audience should not be a decision-making committee when it comes to making movies .
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564,162 | 102,816 | 495,727 | 7 |
Highly addictive , but not enough of it .
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It doesn't make much use of the touch-screen feature of the DS but the dual-screen fits perfect for the tall nature of a pinball table ( though there is annoying unseen space between them ) . I've never played any of the other Metroid games but I do know that the main character can turn into a ball . You play that ball in this game ( or just control the flippers that move it ) and the tables are brilliantly done and are full of wild features . However , there are only 2 main tables , with a couple of extra bonus tables . Which is a bit of a let down since they could have crammed loads of crazy environments on there but we only get 2 . Yes the game is very , very addictive but since it's so short it will only have a limited lifespan . Pick it up cheap . Graphics Sound B Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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563,957 | 102,816 | 31,064 | 7 |
Surely that should be Autograph Duck
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Donald sneaks into a movie studio to get autographs from all his favorite stars in a big book . At first the stereotypical Irish cop chucks him out but Donald outwits him and seeks signatures from the likes of Mickey Rooney ( who is still alive ) , Greta Garbo , Shirely Temple ( who is also still alive ) and others . But as soon as all the big stars in the studio find out Donald is in the midst they all hound him and he drowns in their own autographs books . A simple idea and a weak plot and it's got those freaky-looking caricatures of real people again but I did find this funnier than usual .
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564,857 | 102,816 | 283,530 | 7 |
Good luck finding a teacher like this in real life !
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I can't help feel bit jealous when ever I see Private Schools in movies . My high school was unfortunately full of teachers who didn't give half a goddamn about you . And it was / is one of the most respected ( read pretentious ) in the country . I never learned one single thing that was actually of use to me and I believe going to such a place is mostly responsible for turning me into the faithless cynic that I am now . In this movie Kevin Kline ( a seriously underused actor ) plays a history teacher who is dedicated to making sure his students grow up to be fine and morally sound , upstanding people . They all get along until Sedgewick Bell ( Emile Hirsh ) the hell-raising son of an arrogant Governor arrives in class . His grades are terrible but Mr . Hundert sees intelligence in the boy and struggles to push him in the right direction at the expense of the rest of the class who actually want and care for education . Over the years he comes to regret his mistakes but sees a chance to put things right again with a reunion of all his former students organised by Sedgewick who appears to want to put things right . There are loads of Student / Teacher movies out there but what separates The Emperor's Club from the likes of Dead Poet's Society and Mr . Holland's Opus is that Mr . Hundert's teaching is never in doubt . But he is flawed . Kevin Kline is so good in the role that for most of the film I thought I was watching a real person and not a character . And doesn't he sound like Niles from Frasier ? I do wish I went to somewhere like St . Benedicts or at least had a teacher like Mr . Hundert . It seems that teachers who really care only exist in the movies As are students who are willing to learn . Or perhaps it's just my bad non-education that skews my opinion . Still , I know good movies when I see one and The Emperor's Club get's my recommendation if you're sick of Hollywood , massive budgets , overblown SFX and intrusive marketing and just want a good character drama .
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564,057 | 102,816 | 117,060 | 7 |
Not really THAT confusing
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I first saw Mission : Impossible when I was 15 and I didn't have a Scooby what the hell was going on . And I considered myself to be smarter than the average bear . In retrospect , it's not that muddled . In comparison to the very-dumbed down sequel it stands out as a better example of film-making made by a director who doesn't underestimate the audience . Brian De Palma is known to be a wildly inconsistent filmmaker . From the over-rated Carrie , to the under-rated Snake Eyes , the classic Untouchables and the downright hideous Mission to Mars and Scarface , he's been through just about everything . But Mission : Impossible was his first true mega-hit . Movies from TV shows are a dime a dozen these days and are rarely taken seriously , I mean look at trash like S . W . A . T . or Dukes of Hazard , but M : I is actually supposed to be a continuation of the show , rather than a spin-off . Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt ( no , not cockney rhyming slang ) an IMF agent who's entire team is killed in a phony sting operation in Prague . Accused of being a traitor he legs it before they can nab him and assembles a team of rogue operatives to find out who the REAL traitor is . Many double-crosses and double-double crosses ensue . For those who cannot follow the plot there are some really good set-pieces with enough tension and excitement to carry the whole movie . You'll know by now the dangling scene in the top-secret room but the best scene in the movie is the high-speed train rocketing through the English countryside . While other directors might use this as a chance to show off , De Palma keeps it as realistic as possible which makes it infinitely more cooler . Parts of the movie may seem a bit dated now and it's weird seeing Tom Cruise look like a little boy even though he was already 33 . He even sounds different . And what kind of supervillian uses floppy discs ? They could have tried something a bit more high-tech there . The M : I franchise could be a helluva lot better , I suppose . The second film was terrible and the third merely average . But they're still better than the last few Bond outings , though it ain't quite up to the rugged quality of the Jason Bourne movies . At least it got off to a good start . But can the world tolerate Cruise long enough to ever get a fourth made ?
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564,518 | 102,816 | 120,910 | 7 |
Pretty good , but I wish it was longer .
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Top quality animation and a sense of humour make this sequel / add-on a formidable animated movie in its own right . The running time of 74 minutes is a bit of a let-down . I would have liked to have seen more pieces and more imagination . And be warned , The Sorcerer's Apprentice remains . As this was the original's ONLY real selling point they decided to stick it back in there , so you're really only get just over an hours worth of new footage . Which feels like a bit of a rip-off . But my favorite segment is the one with Donald Duck , in fact they were all cool , especially the one with the volcano . The music matches the story perfectly and it has some truly beautiful animation . Far superior to those ugly CGI crap we get these days . And the TV show style introductions were more watchable than the dubbed Deems Taylor segments in the original . This was the first animated movie to be made for IMAX screens and the digital picture is amazing . See this preferably on an IMAX screen or on DVD . Watching it on VHS would only insult the brilliant animation . It's sad that Disney has abandoned traditional hand-drawn animation for theatrical projects . It's what the studio was built on after all . But Disney is shadow of its former self , we all know that . Just as good as the original Fantasia , but loses points for not being longer and more ambitious .
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564,035 | 102,816 | 40,611 | 7 |
Cleanliness is next to godliness
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Mammy-Two-Shoes ( not dubbed by the PC-brigade in the version I saw ) has just finished cleaning the whole house when Tom bursts in the door , covered in muck , chasing Jerry . She freaks and tells him to keep the house spic and span until she gets back from the store . This he has no problem doing , but Jerry , for no other reason than to be mean , decides to wreck the place so Tom works himself to death picking it up after him . There are some good gags but I'm surprised no one complained at the final bit where Tom , covered in coal dust ( now looking like a black cat ) pretends to be some other cat to Mammy-Two-Shoes and acts like a retarded , cotton-picking 19th century slave . I don't find it offensive , he's probably just mimicking Jim from Huckleberry Finn but it's this kind of thing that cartoons got away with back in the day and something you'll never see in the airbrushed , static , PC crap of today . No one is credited for Tom's voice or Mammy-Two-Shoes ' .
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564,877 | 102,816 | 48,320 | 7 |
Who ?
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Mac and Tosh ? The Goofy Gophers ? Never heard of them . And I bet Walt Disney cried plagiarism the day this came out . And I don't blame him if he did as they are a total rip-off of Chip and Dale . They are kinda funny funny though . Mac and Tosh both have English accents and are very well spoken . When lumberjacks show up in their forest and cut their home down they go off to the lumber mill to get it back . Only it's made into furniture ( you can't help but notice the tiniest environmental subtext here ) and they plan to steal it back , nonetheless , from the delivery drivers ( one of whom sounds EXACTLY like Bugs ) . They are cute but not strong enough to really last as long as the better known Looney Tunes . And perhaps Disney put an injunction on Warner preventing such blatant plagiarism . Is this why we never saw Mac and Tosh again ?
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564,461 | 102,816 | 99,785 | 7 |
Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal !
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In the Eighties , John Hughes churned out a handful of movies and scored many , many hits . Quite rightly , as most of them were seriously funny - I'm DEFINITELY not referring to Curly Sue , so relax ! In one particular scene from Uncle Buck , Macaulay Culkin interrogates a babysitter through the letterbox to make sure she's not a baddie . This inspired Hughes to write a whole new movie . Who would have known that this and its sequel would go on to become two of the biggest hits of all time ? Both Hughes and Chris Columbus seem to prefer setting their movies during the holiday season ( Gremlins , Planes , Trains & Automobiles , Christmas Vacation ) and manage to pull them off without too much sentiment , or sickening amounts of gooey love . There are two reasons why Home Alone was such a big success . The first is that it's about a kid who outsmarts grown-ups , something that happens every day , only there's a worldwide conspiracy of silence . This movie yells it out loud and clear . The second is John Williams's magical score , which elevates the movie way above slapstick family fare to something more serious and regarded . It was nominated for an Academy Award , along with the Christmas carol Somewhere In My Memory , but lost to John Barry's Dances with Wolves . Damn ! In a mad rush to the airport one morning , the MacCallister family forget one little thing . . . Kevin ( Culkin ) . He is an eight-year-old kid who wants nothing better than a peaceful Christmas and some time to himself . It's hard for him to get this when living in a house with seven other people ( the exact same house from Planes , Trains And Automobiles , don't you know0 . With the rest of the MacCallisters in Paris , Kevin runs wild doing whatever he wants , eating whatever he wants and watching whatever TV show he wants . But there's one major problem . The Wet Bandits , Harry ( Joe Pesci ) and Marv ( Daniel Stern ) , are on the prowl and have knocked off every other house in Kevin's street . His is next . And seeing that he's man-of-the-house now , he HAS to defend it . Using whatever tools are at his disposal ( rusty nails , blow torches , Micro Machines ) he sets up a labyrinth of booby traps , so that the Wets can't break in . Their idiot-proof determination proves to be their downfall , as they are tortured and torn-up upon entering Kevin's domain . Although this is not the only point of the film , there is an important message that family is what really matters to a child , or to anyone , and having them home for the holidays is better than wandering a huge house all by yourself . There are some movies that work best at Christmas and this is one of them . I'm not saying that in a couple of decades it will be the new It's A Wonderful Life , but it will be remembered fondly at the very least . Don't be a Scrooge . It's Christmastime . Go rush to check out Home Alone .
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564,553 | 102,816 | 34,806 | 7 |
I never knew corn was so . . . important
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This animated short was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject . Quite right as I found it very informative . It details the history of corn . Yes , a strange subject indeed , but apparently without the Native American ' invention ' of corn on the cob , we'd have precious little of the products and medicines we'd have today . Produced in co-operation with the Canadian film board I believe this was made to educate the masses on corn ( for some reason ) . Why the Canadian government felt the need to do this back in 1942 is anyone's guess but it's still a neat little documentary . You'll find it in the Disney Treasures : On the Front Lines DVD set .
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564,569 | 102,816 | 40,514 | 7 |
Spare some change ?
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A homeless Sylvester bullies a small orange cat and kicks him out of his garbage can territory . But the night grows colder and Sylvester knocks on the door of a random house for sanctuary . Elmer Fudd answers and takes him in . But seconds later the orange kitty is back and Elmer takes him in too . He'd like to keep them both but can only keep one . After attempts at out-cutting each other fail the cats finally decide to frame each other as noise pets as Elmer tries to sleep . It's fun to watch Sylvester's plans back fire on him and desperately trying to stop the kitty's evil ways . I love Sylvester . Who goes in the end ? Well you'll have to watch it to find out .
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564,450 | 102,816 | 357,139 | 7 |
One of the better of the recent Scoobys
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I wasn't sure if taking the gang out of their usual locale of haunted mansions and creepy amusement parks and sending them to Australia was a good idea . While it is still a cool movie it would have worked just as well in Death Valley than in the Outback . The villain this time is a Vampire called Yahoo-Yahweh , a bit of stupid name . It never sounds right when the characters say it . That minor quibble aside it's another solid entry in the recent Scooby Made For TV feature-length mysteries . Frank Welker ( who's birthday it is today , coincidentally ) is back as Fred and Scooby and Kasey Kasem is back as Shaggy ( tho Scott Innes was perfect in the previous instalments and it puzzles why he didn't do Scooby's voice in the movie ) . It feels like a slickly animated version of the original show . Especially considering how Warner have decked the characters in their original clothes after fans objected to the modern clothes in the previous efforts . I have no opinion on this matter . It was cool to see the Hex Girls return and the music this time has a slightly hipper , more techno feel and lacks the orchestral fantasy of Louis Febre's scores for Alien Invaders and Cyber Chase . It's a shame there's no soundtrack CD for this one . I'd definitely buy it . The extras consist of a childish game and a commentary by Shaggy , Scooby and Fred . Which should be fun . The DVD is presented in bright and colorful 1 . 33 : 1 full frame ( as drawn ) with an above average Dolby 5 . 1 soundtrack .
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564,066 | 102,816 | 26,872 | 7 |
Pluto Goes To Hell
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This cartoon sees Pluto dream of a cat-controlled hell . After chasing a cute little kitten about the house and throwing mud everywhere , Mickey tells Pluto off and gives him some kind of Puritan Christian warning of hell and damnation . Once fallen asleep in front of the fire , Pluto's vision of cat-run hell and all the cats he's ever tormented coming back for vengeance quickly teaches him the error of his ways and he wakes up with a new-found love for felines . Kind of cute if you can get around the not-so-subtle Christian values message .
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564,334 | 102,816 | 1,117,563 | 7 |
Loads of potential , mostly squandered
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Batman : Gotham Knight is a lot like The Animatrix in that it bridges two movies with colorful and varied animation and innovative stories . Or at least that's what it should have been . While The Animatrix was fresh and exciting and superior to the live-action films Batman : Gotham Knight just seems to plod around familiar territory without ever getting too deep . Averaging at about 11 minutes each the stories are just too short to really make an impression and a couple of them end abruptly much to the annoyance of the viewer . Kevin Conroy returns as the voice of Batman ( this will come as a great relief to fans who have had to put up with Rino Romano's voice in the new , inferior series ) but there's none of the wild invention seen in the 90s TV series or any of the subsequent feature-length movies . Each story seems to have one idea and sticks with it to the bitter end whether it works or not . It would have been better if they connected the stories and built towards a better end . As a movie it fails . As a sequence of quick adventures leading up to The Dark Knight it kinda works . The animation is pretty and I'd like to see more but give us more depth next time , Warner .
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564,413 | 102,816 | 495,772 | 7 |
Pretty good , but needs more Jenna !
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The movie starts of with Jenna Brooks and Katana , both wearing very sexy and revealing outfits , skating around a neighborhood . They decide to go to a nearby garage for something to do . And when they get there , well . . . there's a big gangbang . Both Jenna and Katana are incredibly hot and both get some serious banging from the guys ( about 10 in total ) . Katana gets the most attention and does anal and DP about a zillion times . Jenna ( who is prettier ) is left in the background quite a lot and only does regular sex , which is annoying . And despite the massive amount of penetrations Katana gets , there's a tiny bit of brief . . . uncleanliness . If you know what I mean . It ends with copious cumshots , the last one coming at such a speed that Jenna actually jumps with fright .
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563,942 | 102,816 | 428,803 | 7 |
Heartwarming / Heartbreaking
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And oh so cute ! Emporer Penguins achieve many miracles every year in their quest for reproduction . How exactly they know how to do all this is incredible . First they all leap out of the ocean and begin to march , single file , for over 70 miles , to their preferred breeding ground . They look really cute as they do this . Then , when they are at their breeding ground , they look for a partner . There are loads more boys than girls , so the competition is stiff . But , eventually , they find a partner and the magic happens . Do penguins fall in love ? It seems they do and they all have strange rituals of hugging and talking gibberish . I have no doubts that they are actually talking to each other . As winter comes , they all huddle together in a group . Eggs are laid and passed onto the male as the female go off to search for food . Some eggs are misplaced and the unhatched baby penguin dies . It's really sad . As the girls are away , the boys have to suffer intense blizzards and snow storms . Some of the older ones die , or as Morgan Freeman says , simply go to sleep . A close-up of a penguin closing his eyes for the final time is truly a deeply affecting moment . Since this is the part where it's the males fighting for themselves , this is probably the reason there are less of them . When the girls return , the eggs hatch and adorable little babies poke their heads out and see the world for the first time . But since they are so small , they need to stay sheltered . The males are still sheltering and when the female wants it back they have to move very quickly since the fragile little penguin cannot be out of warmth for more than a few moments . Some die . And a scene where a mother pokes at her dead chick is utterly heartbreaking . However , the majority survives . As they have done for thousands of years . And as summer arrives they grown-ups depart , leaving the babies on their own . And when one of the plucks up enough courage to dive in the ocean , the rest follow . And soon , they'll be back to take part in the same ritual , the same survival quest . It's a purity and innocence that humans have long , long , LONG lost . Every creature on earth exists simply to multiply and be the dominant species . But surely Emperor Penguins do it in the toughest of conditions . Nature may be cruel , but it's pure . You might even end up a little jealous and insist on living as a hermit or wildman in a vain attempt at getting back to nature . But , inevitable , you'll probably miss your playstation and porn too much . Morgan Freeman's narration is brilliant . But since he has the second coolest voice in the world ( after Lance Henrikson ) I could probably listen to him for hours even if he was just reading the dictionary . The score by Alex Wurman is also great and when coupled with the beautiful cinematography it makes for huge escapism . It reminds me a lot of the Landscape Channel , which I used to watch as a kid . I totally recommend the film . And it's cool that for once a family film can be a documentary and NOT some total crap with Eddie Murphy or Steve Martin selling themselves out .
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564,099 | 102,816 | 259,685 | 7 |
Lighthearted , silly fun
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I really wasn't expecting much from a third in the series even tho Tremors 2 added so much more imagination . So I was pleasantly surprised when this turned out to be so much fun . It begins with a rather cool opening scene in which Burt Gummer ( still in Mexico ) takes out zillions of Shriekers with a massive machine-gun tank thing . After returning home to Perfection Burt must deal with new graboids , new shriekers and another metamorphosis . . . The shriekers turn into Ass-Blasters , flying creatures with rocket propelled farts . As the town ( and the returning , surviving cast from the first film ) is besieged by all forms of these animals , Burt and his pals must figure out increasing desperate ways to destroy them . There's loads of energy and self-referential humor and the locations have a more dark / sophisticated look to them than in the previous 2 films . A light-hearted tone is still in check tho . There's even one teriffic scene in which Burt is swallowed by a Graboid and taken halfway across the desert . I paniced , I honestly thot we'd lost him . Turns out he's okay in the end . Fred Ward is definitely missed tho his abscence is explained ( Earl and Grady went to make a Graboid amusement park ) but Michael Gross is simply irreplaceable as the eccentric and paranoid Burt Gummer . And Ariana Richards is so much more cuter now that she's grown up . Tremors 3 is the best presented Tremors movie on DVD . The 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic picture looks great and the Dolby 5 . 1 is reasonably lively with lots of bass during the tunnelling scenes . A fair amount of extras come along too .
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564,846 | 102,816 | 68,638 | 7 |
Pulp Fiction at its most authentic .
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I'm not so familiar with Sam Peckinpah's career as I have only seen this and The Osterman Weekend ( which I hated ) but you can tell from his style that he has certainly influenced a lot of modern day directors . The perfect widescreen photography , quick editing ( but not a blur , I should add ) and dramatic use of slow-motion give the action in The Getaway an authentic edge . And all done on a low-budget too . Adapted from a Jim Thompson novel by Walter Hill ( his macho characteristics are all in there ) , the story has newly-freed jailbird Carter McCoy forced into a bank robbery by crime boss Jack Benyon . He's also forced to work with rank amateur Frank and psychotic renegade Rudy . You can tell that this dost not bode well . Rudy goes haywire , killing everyone in sight but is soon put out of action by McCoy , who then legs it across country with his cheating wife ( the lovely Ali McGraw ) and a bag full of simoleons . Down , but not out , Rudy follows him , as well as several associates of the recently deceased Jack Benyon , not to mention loads of cops . The film is basically one action scene after the other but it doesn't pretend to be anything other than tough-guy entertainment . I find it bizarre that this film is rated PG in America and the exact same version is rated 18 in the UK . But the blood effects in the film are pretty damn fake so it does take it out of reality a little bit . Plus there are no ( audible ) F-words and the nudity is minimum and quick . I saw the 1994 remake first and while it's passable it's not really as rustic and straight-forward as this . It was quite a pointless film and virtually identical , shot-for-shot . Everything that The Getaway has to offer is done best in this one . Unpretenious fun indeed .
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564,753 | 102,816 | 24,601 | 7 |
Tee hee
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Stan and Ollie are part of a Freemason's lodge and take an oath to go to their annual convention in Chicago . No one has ever broken this oath in the zillion year history of the Sons of the Desert Lodge so they'd better now screw up . Only Stan and Ollie are both dominated by their wives who won't allow them to do anything with-out strict approval first . So they concoct a plan that involves pretending to go to Hawaii for a relaxing cruise but really going off to the windy city . Too bad the ship sinks on the way their and they have fake being rescued ( much quicker than everyone else ) when they come back from the convention . Loads of hectic hiding and digging out of deep trouble follow . Much funnier than I've made it sound . Honest !
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564,446 | 102,816 | 285,627 | 7 |
Deadpan cynicism
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I totally loved this show . It's full of crazy characters ( Daria's dad in particular ) and hilarious stereotypes ( who sadly reoccur with frightening frequency in real life ) . Plus it's the second show to be spun-off from Beavis and Butthead ( King of the Hill being the first ) . It's weird to think of them all existing in the same world . What separates Daria from other popular animation such as The Simpson's or Family Guy is the character interaction . In some places Daria almost feels like a drama , giving it a touch more integrity . She's a tough girl to love . Daria basically has no faith in anything but her own judgment . It's makes a little bit hard to get close to her but she is a proud outsider in a mad world . This DVD features the last ( extended ) episode of Daria making it to college and what happens once her High School life is over . There are two bonus episodes ( Boxing Daria and Lucky Strike ) included . The DVD is in 1 . 33 : 1 as drawn , the colors are bright and clear as is the Dolby 2 . 0 soundtrack .
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564,374 | 102,816 | 139,414 | 7 |
Mindless fun
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Take away the beginning and end credits and what you are left with is a 75-minute long movie that you'll never watch more than once if you buy the DVD ( like me ) but will still have a fun time watching . Steve Miner returns to the tranquil lakeside settings he captured so well in the Friday the 13th movies and gives us more horror hokum . What I liked about Lake Placid is that it is kind of light-hearted and doesn't try and make itself a full-blown horror by showing us guts and entrails . The movie is NOT serious and has many suspenseful scenes packed into it's VERY brief running time . The cast are delightful and the big nasty croc is actually quite sympathetic at the end . Buy this DVD and enjoy for what it is . . . a light , breezy comedy-thriller that nails the bullseye instead of aiming for higher ( and ultimately lesser ) results . Fox may well re-release this movie on DVD with an anamorphic picture and DTS sound . When they do that I suggest you buy . You will like . Trust me .
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564,435 | 102,816 | 38,740 | 7 |
Who has custard pies anyway ?
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Jerry wakes from a nightmare by a knock at the door only to discover he's been made a surrogate daddy to a baby mouse called Tuffy . The attached note claims that Tuffy loves milk and Jerry must find a way to get him some . Tom has a big bowl full of it , but they'd only be asking for trouble if they were to go steal . The chase begins and it is rather funny , if a bit generic . I did notice moment of weird editing in a certain scene , but later found out that the version I saw was censored by the PC Police for containing a scene where Jerry and Tuffy disguise themselves as African Americans . I would say ' black men ' but they ARE mouses . I do wish the overzealous censors would leave these harmless cartoons alone . This gripe aside , it was entertaining nonetheless . But the crappy custard pie jokes are beneath Tom and Jerry standards !
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564,000 | 102,816 | 257,548 | 7 |
Two great games , one crap game
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Die Hard Trilogy was one of the first games I ever got for my PC many years ago . And it's still fun to play thanks to the fast and furious gameplay , well of the first 2 games anyway . The third was awful . Die Hard is a third-shooter set in the Nakatomi Plaza in LA's Century City . The set design is impressively similar to that of the movie and John McClane's mission involves scouring each and every floor for terrorist ( actually just thieves ) scum , hostages and bombs . The graphics are slightly dodgy and can get a bit confusing but it's a bloody thrill ride for sure . This game was developed upon more in the under-rated Die Hard : Nakatomi Plaza from 2001 . Die Harder is a first person shooter much like Operation Wolf in which you go through Washington DC's Dulles Airport blasting at everything you see . The best thing about this game is that everything in it can be shot and destroyed . It was hectic carnage and there are some brilliant blood splatters . Die Hard with a Vengeance ( my fave film of the trilogy ) is a really crappy driving game much like Crazy Taxi only with boring , near impossible mission , terrible graphics and no lasting appeal . I never went back to this game more than twice . The others however , can be played again and again . And furthermore , the musical score on the first two games were brilliant ! The third has pleasant enough tunes but it never came near the action-packed cues that came before it . Nothing like Michael Kamen's work on the movies , but cool anyway . Graphics B Sound Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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563,961 | 102,816 | 356,994 | 7 |
Mickey in Living Color
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For the REAL first time . This short was made for the Academy Awards banquet back in 1932 , before politics and TV ratings ruined the prestigious awards AND the ' ceremony ' . Funny thing is , Mickey appears wearing green shorts instead of his usual red and Pluto is grey . The short itself is nothing more than a walking parade of all the particular Oscar Nominees that year , including Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper , Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt , Helen Hayes , Fredric March and Marie Dressler from Emma . I can see how this would appeal to those at the dinner and no one else but it's cool to be able to watch this for nostalgia purposes . I did review this before but the IMDb deleted my review for no reason , so lets keep our fingers crossed that they don't do it again eh .
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564,074 | 102,816 | 34,368 | 7 |
Morbidly Obese Elmer
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Ew ! Elmer Fudd's appearance in this short is quite disgusting and distracting . He's so fat with a horrible red nose that it's not nice to look at . One of those awful human-exaggerations that were thankfully infrequent in Looney Tunes cartoons . Here he shows up a Jellystone park for a few days camping . Bugs naturally does not want to have a fat man in his space so he proceeds to make Elmer's trip hell by playing all sorts of tricks on him . The humor is still funny and intelligent but the fact that Elmer is not the way we know ( and prefer ) him lessens the appeal of the short . Fortunately , this bloated version of him only ever appeared in 4 cartoons .
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563,922 | 102,816 | 82,340 | 7 |
SNAKE RULES
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He's the best anti-hero in the history of cinema and ALWAYS has the last laugh . He just doesn't care . All Americans wish they could feel this way but Snake . . . he's just conscience free . The only person he looks out for or cares about is himself . And he's an ex-soldier too . The action scenes in this film are few and far between but it has a strange feel to it . It's gritty film-making . Much better than the cheesy ( but still good ) sequel . Check this out whenever you can .
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564,144 | 102,816 | 69,113 | 7 |
Sometimes , if you wanna go up , you have to go down .
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It may not seem like anything particularly new these days , especially after the revival of disaster films in the late 90s . But in 1972 , The Poseidon Adventure was a somewhat groundbreaking film . But we're used to a group of survivors fighting against floods , earthquakes , storms , sinking vessels , zombies , volcanoes etc so you have to keep this in mind when watching it . Taken from Paul Gallico's novel ( who himself was one a ship that almost capsized ) the film features an all-star cast ( though young viewers will probably not recognize a single one of them save Gene Hackman or Leslie Nielsen ) with 7 Academy Awards between them . Surely , the bigger the stars have a bigger chance of survival ! Not so ! A capsized ship has many different ways of killing you as our unfortunate stars learn . . . the hard way . None of it is particularly graphic but there is a lot of tension and claustrophobia that makes it work . And the sets are quite impressive , if a little dated . When the Poseidon flips over it's already an ancient ship heading for the scrapyard . It would have been better if they destroyed something brand new and pretty , but I guess that means it wouldn't be so dirty and menacing when upside-down and full of salt-water . Followed by a sequel in 1979 and a new version in 2006 , TPA has become famous as the film that started the disaster genre and Irwin Allen as its creator . Truth be told , Allen only ever directed 2 ( and a bit ) of these movies and produced a couple more . I guess it's because TPA made such an impression that his name was linked to disaster movies he wasn't even involved with . Strange though to think that Gene Hackman hated making the movie and has apparently , to this day , refused to watch it . Much like Ed Harris in the Abyss . I guess some bald actors should just stay out of the water .
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563,866 | 102,816 | 385,690 | 7 |
A rather scatter-shot approach to comedy but still very funny
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This movie has a lot of fans , as expected . But there's a lot of people comparing it to the South Park Movie and I feel it's a fair comparison . Does it match up to Bigger , Longer and Uncut ? No . For the simple reason that the South Park movie had a plot , a story and a point to make . It was a movie that spoke loudly against censorship and promoted free speech . The Family Guy movie just uses the ' uncut ' slogan as a way of dragging in more vulgar humor . Originally conceived as a movie and then broken up into 3 individual episodes for airing on TV , the movie comes in 3 very noticeable parts . As separate episodes there's no real story at all and nothing to make you catch it again the next week because loads of little sub-plots that begin are never finished . There is a slight bias of gearing most of these stories in Stewie's direction but not so much that the movie should be named after him . Every half hour the it goes in a new direction and we never feel like we're getting anywhere with other than into another thing to make fun of . I can't really give a breakdown of the movie or the main characters involved as it just goes everywhere and all over the place . So much more could have become of a feature length Family Guy but Seth McFarlane and Co . do nothing with it and seize no opportunity other than swearing and racier humor . However it is very funny and there are some classic moments that will have you in suffocating fits of laughter , such as the wacky , waving , inflatable , arm-flailing tube man commercial , the Thundercats scene , Britney Spears getting burned alive , the scene that dumps on the shoddy morals and ethics of Blockbuster Video , the restaurant with Tom Tucker's private booth and . . . well pretty much everything is spot on . But this scatter-shot approach to comedy has all the sophistication of sticking a shotgun into a crowd and pulling the trigger . Sure you're going to hit everyone but it's not very clever . But Family Guy was never about subtlety or holding back on the mayhem . If anything it's the modern day equivalent of the Looney Tunes . Anyone who hoped for something big or king-sized from this 88-minute movie will be sorely disappointed at the low-aiming nature of it . It succeeds at exactly what it wants to do ; it makes us laugh hysterically . It could / should have been more . It all depends on what you expect from an animated TV show turned movie . It's still a billion times better than Pokemon : The Movie , though that's hardly a huge compliment .
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564,408 | 102,816 | 103,772 | 7 |
Well remembered , but not a classic
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At the time , Basic Instinct was considered shocking and new . In retrospect , in a world where much harder pornography is so commonplace , it's not got much sex appeal going for it . What I do like is the OTT game of cat and mouse between Stone and Douglas . Catherine Tramell is a writer of sleazy novels who lives out her pulp trash after she's written it . This would be fine if she wrote about saving the children or building churches but Tramell writes about sex , murder and betrayal . She's accused of murdering her Rock-star boyfriend by icepicking his head 86-times during a massive shagathon . She feels no guilt and no sadness and Detective Nick Curran regards her with utmost suspicion even though she passed a lie-detector test . Determined to find the truth among Catherine Tramell's web of pork-pies , Curran falls into her world of sin and seduction . Already a bad cop well on the way to cleaning up his act , all of his nasty habits come flooding back to him . The drinking , the snorting , the smoking . . . all because of a blonde . I would be impervious to this . In fact , Jeanne Triplehorn , who plays Curran's psychiatrist , is a billion times more sexy than Sharon Stone . Especially when she wears her glasses . But that's just my thing . One can accuse Basic Instinct of being contrived , overly-complicated and over-plotted but they'd be missing the point . I do feel that the irony of gutter-level fiction becoming real within gutter-level fiction would have been more appropriate and perhaps louder if Basic Instinct were a book , but as a movie it makes its point despite the high level tawdriness that most audiences are going think is all the film has to offer . Paul Verhoeven takes a Hitchcockian approach to the material as there are already a few connections to Vertigo . At one point in the film , Sharon Stone even dresses up in an outfit identical to Kim Novak ( hairstyle and all ) . You can't help but notice the sleaze sometimes though . Like Michael Douglas walking around a nightclub in a horrible V-neck sweater or the ' infamous ' leg-crossing scene with is only really notable for its unsubtlety . There are also some parts of the film which kind of date it badly . The production design and fashion is sooo early 90s . It's not the kind of story that oozes class but the outdated look kinda distracts . But the one amazing thing Basic Instinct has going for it is Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully haunting score . Truly one of his best in the latter part of his career . Add it all up and Basic Instinct is wildly inconsistent in terms of quality but the sheer OTT nature of plot is enough to keep it afloat . And all these years later , when we have mostly become impervious to titillation , people still remember all the skanky publicity and the aroma of sleaze will never quite die away . See past all that and you'll find a clever thriller underneath .
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564,407 | 102,816 | 430,912 | 7 |
A rehash , but an entertaining rehash
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A sequel that comes traipsing in 14 years after the original can be accused of cashing-in . But you shouldn't judge a film until you've seen it right ? Yes , I know I am being a total hypocrite here . And if Basic Instinct 2 were to be accepted as a potentially good movie then perhaps they should have done it back in the late 90s when David Cronenberg was involved . Think of the movie he would have made ! But , Hollywood being that grinding , pounding machine that it is , postponed this film until 2006 . Verhoeven , Cronenberg , Jan De Bont and even John McTiernan all came and went . Lead actors such as Michael Douglas , Benjamin Bratt , Kurt Russell , Robert Downey Jr and Pierce Brosnan all passed . As the years passed , the film shifted from America to London and underdog director Michael Caton-Jones took charge . The lead went to David Morrissey , who I have never heard of and a supporting cast of recognisable British faces filled out the rest of the characters . But after all this . . . is all this teasing and sexual depravity still relevant ? A lot has changed in 14 years . We no longer need to walk away from newsagents ashamed for buying a jizz mag because so much better stuff is easy available for free on the internet . And I know where to find the best stuff ! Softcore porn is almost extinct and TV has become racier and more hedonistic . A film selling itself on sex would have to be more than just competent in the story and character department . If this is what matters to you I am afraid that Basic Instinct 2 is pretty much the exact same as the original with the same character arcs and developments . The new location and a fresh crop of characters to kill is really all it's got to offer . This time around Catherine Tramell is causing havoc in the streets of London and ' accidently ' causes the death of a famous football star by driving her car into the Thames . She's not sorry and shows no sympathy . Sent for a psych evaluation she meets Dr . Michael Glass who convinces the judge she has a ' risk addiction ' and will not stop pushing the limits to her madness until it costs her her own life . Glass must be a convincing man as Tramell is soon scot-free to do more evil deeds . And Glass , despite being as reserved and collected as a man can possibly be , like Nick Curran before him , falls head first into a wildly complex plot that bears more than just a shadow of a resemblance to the first . But this time we go a little bit deeper into the devious mind of Catherine Tramell . As a writer myself ( simultaneously really crap and unbelievably brilliant ) I really dig her style . She lies and deceives and manipulates people in diabolically genius ways for her own inspiration . She hides it from everyone but when you look in her eyes you can see the fire of a brilliantly evil mind blazing away . She's a great character and Stone pulls it off perfectly . She may be pushing 50 but she's still gorgeous and in my opinion she looks better in this than she did in the first . What Basic Instinct 2 lacks is a defining set-piece or action scene . It's most all talk and has none of the car chases or panic the original had . Michael Caton-Jones , who's career in film has been extremely unbalanced brings a slick edge to movie and makes it a bit darker than Verhoeven's approach . The world of Basic Instinct 2 is set in a London filled with shining glass and steel surfaces by day and dark shadows by night . Jerry Goldsmith was set to score the film but due to his untimely death the duties were passed onto John Murphy . But worry not , all of Goldsmith's wonderful themes return and although Murphy tries to make it his own by adding his own developments , almost every cue still belongs to Jerry . It's a great score and one of those that stays in your head forever . It's easy to criticize Basic Instinct 2 . It's easy to call it loads of names . But the first film suffered from this exact same problem , but the audiences of today are just far more savage and unforgiving . See past these problems and , like before , you'll discover a film that the rest of the world seems to be missing .
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