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564,366 | 102,816 | 79,714 | 8 |
Very odd , but very cool .
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As a successful director of kid's films , Don Coscarelli felt like moving into horror . But he was out of ideas so he shut himself in a mountain cabin for a few weeks and dreamt up Phantasm . God only knows what he was smoking or drinking in order to conjure up a story like this . I've been watching it for over six years , trying to get my head around it . But like the most complex of David Lynch films , there are still some parts of the puzzle that are too warped to fit . Mike and Jody Pearson are two brothers living in small town California . Their parents have recently died , leaving twenty-something Jody in charge of 13-year-old Mike . But Jody is restless and cannot stay cooped up in such a small town for long . Mike dreads that Jody will dump him with an aunt or uncle and disappear beyond the horizon . But that's the least of his worries for the moment . Jody's friend has mysteriously committed suicide and after his funeral Mike , hiding in the bushes , sees the undertaker , a sinister Tall Man , heave the coffin out of the ground all by himself and dump it back in the Hearse . Knowing something ain't quite right about all this , Mike investigates the funeral home and is attacked by hooded dwarfs , flying killer chrome spheres ( inspired by one of Coscarelli's nightmares ) and is chased by the Tall Man . He gets away but loses a shoe and hacks off some of the Tall Man's fingers for proof . It's not an ordinary finger , it oozes some kind of yellow puss ( embalming fluid perhaps ) and still pokes around on it's own . Convinced of supernatural interference , the brothers team up with their Ice Cream vendor pal Reggie to kick the Tall Man's head in . It ain't that easy I'm afraid and the film turns from weirdo horror into positively strange sci-fi as the trio discover more and more inexplicable activity going on at Morningside Cemetery . The film doesn't have many faults . But it is quite frustrating seeing the characters do no more than go to the cemetery and go home , then go to the cemetery and go home for , more or less , the entire running time . Don Coscarelli shot about 3 hours worth of footage and only ended up using half that . There are loads of fun scenes left out that , while not essential to the film's plot , could have kept things more balanced . The total 70s feel is a major plus though . Man , I wish I were a kid back then . The big hair , the flares , the cool cars , the loose women and the funky music are all part of this film . The hip 70s score is also incredibly funky and spooky at the same time . Once you start humming it there's no stop . It's also very different from the typical 70s horror formula . There are no masked killers , no women being chased through the woods and no slasher fodder characters . Mike , Jody and Reggie are bold and decisive and choose to fight instead of running and hiding . The setting of rural California is also a refreshing change from medieval castles , hick villages or haunted houses . Angus Scrimm , who plays the Tall Man , is no doubt the film's best asset . He hardly says a word but he OWNS every scene he's in . His physical presence and menace makes him a damn cool horror villain and he ought to be as iconic as Freddy or Jason . No matter what way you look at it , Phantasm never makes complete sense . You can turn it upside down , inside out and back-to-front and you might be able to work most of it out , but there will always be one thing that sticks out . Don Coscarelli claimed he wanted it to be open-ended and ambiguous as a way of not having to make any sequels . That tactic didn't work .
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564,145 | 102,816 | 381,061 | 8 |
A Royale without cheese .
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CR is a major step-up from the flamboyant Die Another Day . Obnoxious 50-something runt Pierce Brosnan has been replaced by a young Daniel Craig , there is no Q , no campy gadgets , no silly naked women silhouettes in the opening credits , no world-dominating super-colossus villains , no Miss Funnyfanny ( or whatever ) and no silly one-liners after killing bad guys . Basically everything that can date Bond film very quickly is gone . I never expected international espionage to look the way it has in past few Bond outings and I'm glad someone had the balls to go back to the hard-edged nature of the series , last seen in Licence to Kill . The longest Bond movie so far , at 145 minutes , but it breezes by even though it reigns in on the normally excessive action scenes and depicts spying a more ' mundane ' and ' realistic ' manner ( or at least as true as the series has been so far ) . But the one-thing that bugs me about action movies , particularly the Bond franchise , is that they are , most of the time , childish male fantasies with an indestructible hero who has fun shooting up the place and beds beautiful women . I would like something new for a change but CR does have Bond get hurt and go through more pain than he has previously . Daniel Craig has been given a lot of hassle over his casting as Bond ( like Clive Owen , Jude ' Mr Pretension ' Law or 10-year-old girl masquerading as a grown man Orlando Bloom WOULDN'T have been a big mistake ? ) but not only does he have his youth as an advantage ( he's the first 30-something to be cast in the role since Lazenby ) , he's also pretty damn trim , has the intensity Brosnan lacked and is surprisingly loose in a role that usually requires actors to be stiff and unemotional . It's also good to a fresh face in the role and who cares if he is blonde ? Or the shortest actor to play him so far ? I would have preferred that composer David Arnold went too . They didn't seem to be holding back on the amount of regular production team members who got axed . Even Vic Armstrong didn't return . I've never liked Arnold's work on the movies and I hate to think of it as something that's now exclusively HIS baby . But the theme song was cool , despite the criticism and it was cool to have the Bond theme at the end instead of some tacky song . I just wish the product placements would go too . Nice try attempting to ' subtly ' plug Blu-Ray Sony . But it ain't gonna work on me . Now that the franchise has a different outlook , I hope some of Ian Fleming's more downbeat , not - exactly - blockbuster - material Bond stories can make it to the screen .
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564,627 | 102,816 | 112,281 | 8 |
BumbleBee Tuna
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If there was to be just one pop-culture character with ' franchise ' written all over it , it would be Ace Ventura . After the sleeper hit that was the original , Ace is shipped off to Africa , via Tibet , to find the missing sacred animal of the peaceful Wachati tribe . It is supposed to be a wedding gift to the savage Wachutu tribe , marking the congregation of their people . Ace is the best there is ( the only there is ) surely sending him to find the sacred bat ( his most hated creature ) is the ' right ' thing to do . No matter how crazy he is . And how crazy indeed ! This time around Jim Carrey goes completely wild as Ace . Any trace of an actual human that we saw before is surrendered to complete insanity . You can tell that Carrey is having the time of his just ad-libbing and winging it . You can almost hear director Steve Oedekerk struggle to contain his laughter off-camera . There are even a few moments when Carrey himself almost cracks-up . I prefer this one to the first for a few reasons . First of all the production design is far superior and the faux-African jungle and tribal village colors really come alive . The widescreen photography gives the film a more expansive look than Tom Shadyac's original . Plus , it has a lot more animals , which I think is cool . Beside's the animated show , there's been no more of Ace Ventura since . But don't rule him out . Carrey may be sick of being regarded as the guy who made his anus talk , but I can only hope he'll do a third one day .
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563,822 | 102,816 | 36,718 | 8 |
Heh heh
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Easily one of the worst soldiers the Army has ever seen ( judging by his previous cartoon hijinks ) , Donald is dropped out of an airplane and right into enemy territory . That's somewhere in the Japan jungle actually . The air is ripe for typical wartime xenophobia as things go wrong for poor old ducky right from the start . He sniped at by stereotyped Japanese soldiers and runs for his feathered life . The funny thing is , while running he tries to escape on a rubber raft . But the raft gets caught under a waterfall and fills up with river water . Soon it becomes a massive waterballoon and Donald running for his life once more , tho not from the ' Japs ' but from the impending doom of a mile high water balloon . It's very funny and highly inventive . Definitely one of Donald's better wartime efforts .
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564,515 | 102,816 | 26,816 | 8 |
Very Xmas-y
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This cartoon probably works best around the holiday season . It's very busy animation indeed as most of the Disney favorites go ice skating on a frozen river ( ! ) . Mickey impresses Minnie with his skating acrobatics , Goofy ( dressed in awful hillbilly gear ) tries to fish using tobacco instead of worms and Donald torments poor old Pluto by sticking skates on his paws and watching him fall all over the place . Donald soon gets what he deserves when a huge gust of wind takes him and his kite / sail thingy off the edge of the waterfall ( which mysteriously has not frozen even though the river has ) . Mickey tries to rescue him but succeeds only in humiliating Donald further . But he did deserve it this time . A very cozy cartoon for Xmas time .
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564,640 | 102,816 | 185,937 | 8 |
Too over-hyped , judge it on it's own level
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This film has been harshly judged . It is a low-budget film school experimentation and I am going to review it with that in mind . Artisan really did hype this film up a lot and people judged it like they would any other movie . We all know the plot . 3 campers get lost in the woods while making a documentary about the force that eventually kills them . With the minimal of money the makers , of this over-exposed movie , create a good deal of tension and raw excitement . Of course there are a few logic errors but I'm kind-hearted enough to see past that . Although this film is shown on a 1 . 85 : 1 screen in the cinema the entire movie in is 1 . 33 : 1 because it is all shot on video . The photography may be jumpy but it didn't make me seasick like it did to some people . It is a little strange to film everything that is going on but if they didn't there would be no movie . If Jaws made you feel afraid to go in the water The Blair Witch project will make afraid to go wandering in the woods . One last thing ? it's not a true story .
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564,679 | 102,816 | 377,091 | 8 |
Beautifully shot and brilliantly acted tragedy
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Teen life isn't The OC . There's always something deeper occasionally sinister beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary kids . Some lash out , some keep it in and let it eat them alive . George is a fat kid with learning difficulties who eats alone in the cafeteria and aggressively bullies every other kid around him , especially Sam ( Rory Culkin ) . When enough is enough Sam gets help from his older brother's pal to set George up for a prank that will teach him a lesson . They go on a mock birthday boating trip with the intention of humiliating him . Trouble is , when George has people being nice to him he's very , very nice and quiet back to them . He has no clue of what their planning . Sam and his brother want to back down but the leader Marty won't leave it alone . George is like the spawn of Satan and the son of God . His unpredictable manner throw the gang into a state of confusion over what to do with him . But he pushes his luck to far and ends up dead . Did he deserve it or not ? It's entirely up to you . Mean Creek is a sombre morality play that is as gritty and realistic as anything you'll witness in real life . Director Jacob Aaron Estes draws faultless performances out of his young cast , so much so that even when they are not speaking you can read what they are thinking in their eyes . He atmospherically captures the Pacific-Northwest countryside and pulls you into a engaging story without making it seem overbearing . It's ironic that a realistic teen movie would be rated R instead of PG-13 but if you're a concerned parent worried whether or not this is suitable for younger kids then I would suggest you give it a shot . There's nothing suggestive about it and it might actually help your kids understand bullies rather than hating them . Either way , this is a great film for anyone who enjoys good acting and an involving story .
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564,508 | 102,816 | 377,092 | 8 |
I liked it at first , but I do not like Lohan at all anymore .
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I knew nothing of this movie before I saw it . In fact I only went to see because I have a crush on Lindsay Lohan and I really liked her in Freaky Friday . So it was quite a payoff when it turned out to be quite fun film and nothing like the dreadful teen comedies we've suffered too much off in the past five years ( making love to pies , losing ones ' car and certain Scary Movies ) . The story has Cady Heron go through her first day of school . . . at sixteen . She's been homeschooled all her life and lived with her parents in the African bush . She has known nothing of the deceitful , backstabbing and ugly world of high school . Upon arrival she makes friends with a level-headed goth and a fat guy gay . They instruct her on who is naughty , nice and full of vice . The ' in ' group of the school are ' The Plastics ' ( because they're so fake ) , a trio of cheerleaders who make everyone's life hell . The leader is Regina George , the nastiest girl in the universe and at her side and the dumb and airheaded Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith ( played by the impossibly cute Amanda Seyfried ) . In order to take them down Cady must become one of them . She takes great pride in ruining Regina only to take her place . Much like Arnie did in Predator , she became a monster in order to destroy a monster . With loads of observational humor and satire , Mean Girls ends up being a very intelligent movie , sort of a ' Clueless ' that's not so nineties . A lot of attention is paid to character and performance , not something hastily thrown together and chucked out there . Originally it ended up with an R rating and had to be toned down . I would have loved to see that cut of the film . Another interesting thing is that I've always though Lindsay Lohan looked like the character of Ginny in Friday the 13th Part 2 . So it was weird when the movie was featured in Mean Girls and had Cady startle her pals watching it by bursting through the door as soon as Jason bursts through the window . I will probably buy this on DVD when it comes out and I suggest you see it on the big screen . My showing was pretty packed and everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot .
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564,579 | 102,816 | 38,586 | 8 |
Not so scary .
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I love the big hairy monster guy . He might not have any arms but you just want to hug him , even tho he won't hug back . The Doctor guy who owns him however , HE is scary . With a grotesquely over-sized head and massive eyes he makes Stewie Griffin from Family Guy look normal . There's always some insane reason for Bugs Bunny to wander into his castle and get involved in a chase and that's exactly what happens . However , in the end Bugs and the monster become pals and the evil doctor gets what he deserves . It's been done before and this cartoon is only one version of this same old plot but it's still very funny as anything with Bugs Bunny is . Daffy is still my fave tho .
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564,604 | 102,816 | 99,399 | 8 |
Kids playing action movie as an actual film .
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An unfortunate , misjudged and misunderstood film that could have been something great but only clings to the bottom-rung of respectability . For a start , it has an unashamedly awful and truly despicable villain who oozes evil from every stinking orifice . When eccentric bad guys are not hammy , they are Ramon Cota ( a sickening performance by villain's villain of choice and villain of the week Billy Drago ) . Cota is a Columbian drug lord , who ships massive amounts of cocaine into America . He kills DEA agents with unnatural glee , murders pregnant women , tortures people to death in a gas chamber , rapes women , murders their husbands , murders sick babies and uses their bodies to smuggle cocaine - you get the picture , this guy is lower than minus infinity . In a rare opportunity to catch him , Colonel Scott McCoy ( the ever-bearded Chuck Norris ) kidnaps Cota in mid-air and drags him into court only to watch him leave with virtually no charge . More DEA agents are kidnapped and it's up to Chuck to rescue them from death . So he heads off to the fictional South American country of San Carlos for some mighty kicking-of-ass . Killing Cota is not his mission , rescuing the DEA agents is , but you know that Cota is going to get what he deserves ( with a little bit of slightly unsubtle philosophy from Norris ) . The script is generic and by numbers . Never before has a movie been so strictly routine , but there are some real cool action scenes and so much melodrama that it could fuel EastEnders for a decade . The direction leaves a lot to be desired . If someone other than Chuck's brother had made this , we would have a hugely enjoyable film on our hands . Instead plot holes , illogical moments and a general feel of immaturity bog it down . The action ranges from Norris flying through the sky , swinging through the jungle , falling off cliffs and dodging rockets . The main problem with the direction is that Aaron Norris uses the logic , " If it is in slow motion , then it is cool . " He wants to drag out every bloody detail , every death dance and every penetration of every bullet . It's a shame Delta Force 2 isn't hyper-kinetic , because the slo-mo becomes very noticeable . Chuck Norris ' methods are also highly questionable . For a man who moves at 48 frames per second he sure does lay waste to thousands of Drago's henchman very well . And beating up the new Delta Force recruits to train them in the deadly arts is just bizarre . General Taylor ( John P . Ryan ) , a character so relentless gung-ho and over-the-top that he really should be in a pantomime , is McCoy's boss and he enjoys himself way too much when he tags along on the mission to blow away zillions of nameless henchman from a helicopter that is so indestructible and equipped with a never-ending supply of ammo you wonder why the REAL Delta Force doesn't use this thing over in Afghanistan . Ryan certainly did wrap himself in the American flag for this character . But hey , it worked for Stallone with John Rambo . The single spot-on aspect of the whole movie has to be the strong and rousing musical score by Frederick Talgorn . If the rest of the movie was as good as this , then everything would be different . Instead Delta Force 2 is a mixed bag . There is a good film here , desperate to get out , but you have to claw your way through to find it .
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564,716 | 102,816 | 310,775 | 8 |
Grips you like a vice . Hits you like a ton of bricks .
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Before you watch this film , just be aware that you're not going to walk away from it with a big smile on your face . More like you'll want to slit your wrists . To say that Mr . Vengeance is a powerful , gut-wrenching nightmare is like saying that DaVinci merely dabbled in art . The plot is so simple yet so complex . The direction is so elegant yet so hard-hitting . The simplistic nature of the story makes the descent into hell so shocking and captivating . You don't realize there is no going back until it's far , FAR too late . Ryu is a deaf / mute who works in the loudest factory in the world , doing a really depressing job . His sister needs a kidney transplant , but they don't have the money to pay for it . He cannot give her one of his own because their blood types do not match . Ryu decides to go to black market organ traders to trade one of his own for one that matches his sister . Waking up naked and kidney-less in an abandoned building he now needs to raise money for his own kidney . Ryu is now fired from his job by President Park , who is downsizing the company . His anarchist girlfriend Yeong-mi convinces him to kidnap Park's daughter and hold her to ransom . From then on , things get very , very , VERY heavy and the idea of who exactly Mr . Vengeance is is blurred and sympathy is felt for almost everyone . Revenge comes at a high price and seemingly never ends . Not that I am saying forgiving and forgetting is the way . But this movie will make you think twice about getting your own back . The violence is spontaneous and extremely graphic without ever feeling exploitational . Sometimes it has a darkly comic feel to it , the rest of the time it's goddamn hardcore . You'll wince a great deal during this movie , that's for damn sure . Park Chan-wook directs with such beautifully composed images that are far from the the garish MTV-style action / thriller movies produced in Hollywood these days . I don't want to sound like some sort of snob who proclaims all foreign films to be great and all Hollywood to be crap but it's not very often that Hollywood makes a film like this unless it's a remake . Written in a mere 20 hours in a single massive , creative outburst , this movie seems to have genius laced through every minute of it's running time . Not a date movie , not a whogivesadamn pig-out movie . Sympathy for Mr . Vengeance is a film you will be sucked right into and you'll be far from happy when you emerge at the end . But what a horrific ride !
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564,440 | 102,816 | 928,051 | 8 |
Don't bother with the arcade versions now .
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The Metal Slug arcade machines are notorious for being unbelievably hard . It's not uncommon to find yourself feeding well over $10 into a machine just to finish the game . Multiply that by 7 and you might come close to even $100 if you are playing with a partner . Instead , invest your dough in the Metal Slug Anthology . The games are perfect arcade emulations and you get infinite continues . They are still very , very hard and you'll never finish a single level with all of your stats intact , but it's a fun ride nonetheless . Some of the games can be a bit samey and you'll finish them all in about an hour . But for chaotic , button-bashing mayhem with loads of explosions and firepower , you can't go wrong with Metal Slug . Graphics A Sound B Gameplay B Lasting Appeal
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563,842 | 102,816 | 434,188 | 8 |
Ouch !
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When asked to name something hard one might suggest Mr . T or the Incredible Hulk . What you don't know is that there is nothing harder on this Earth than the video game Metal Slug . It is honestly one of the most punishing arcade experiences of my life . Obviously it's designed to be this way since it prompts the player to feed more and more coins into the machine . It took me 41 continues to finish the entire game , that would work out at over $10 if I was spending quarters . Why would anyone play such a difficult game ? How about because Metal Slug is bursting at the seams with action and humor . Along with Turrican and Midnight Resistance it's one of the best side-scrolling , run and gun shoot-em-ups ever . Watching things blow up has never been so much fun . But you'll be getting blisters pretty damn fast on the tips of your fingers .
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563,841 | 102,816 | 434,189 | 8 |
Action-packed !
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This first sequel in the Metal Slug series is every bit as furious and chaotic as the original . This time you can play as one of four characters across the usual variety of wonderfully detail and humorous landscapes as you blast seven shades of excrement out of enemy commandos . There are explosions and laughs galore as you battle your way through 6 stages teeming with baddies . The level are a bit more eccentric this time with mummy's tombs and giant killer whales popping up . The finale even throws in an unexpected twist when you have to team up with your enemies to fight off an alien invasion , complete with and ID4 rip-off / homage ending . Play this in the arcade and expect to be sent home penniless with your fingers all blistered .
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564,662 | 102,816 | 36,547 | 8 |
An perfect game of Cat and Mouse
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In this Oscar-winning cartoon ( a fact that they're modest enough to mention in the opening credits ) Tom and Jerry wage war on each other in the basement of a house . Using household objects as weapons in a variety of imaginative ways , they advance and retreat on each other , desperate to win their mini-conflict . I suppose this was one of MGMs entries into the pro-WWII cartoon efforts that Disney and Warner seemed to be having a blast with . It's got a very patriotic feel to it and makes war out to be fun . I have no problem with this kind of propaganda at all , but I am surprised that PC-thug groups haven't forced outrage over this , since their lot have ruined many other Tom and Jerry cartoons . Maybe their so blinkered that they cannot really see the subtext . Anyway , it's a surprisingly good cartoon and really did earn the Academy Award it was honored with .
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564,187 | 102,816 | 96,895 | 8 |
Dark and Doomy
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Tim Burton has a good eye . The Batman series from the 1960s is how people tended to think of Batman pre-1989 but this engraved the words ' dark , sinister and Gothic ' in the minds of audiences . The original material is respected and the characters are deep instead of campy . Michael Keaton is the best Bruce Wayne . When he plays both Bruce Wayne and Batman you have to watch what he doesn't say and doesn't do . He's a rich , socio-phobic megalomaniac who has more money than sense . This is very different from Adam West's turtleneck playboy . Jack Nicolson is a great Joker too . The make-up for his character is funny when you first see it but when you think about it more it's REALLY freaky . Nicolson's Joker is an evil lunatic . Nothing like Caesar Romero's campy , hop-skipping-and-jumping villain . The design of Gotham City is very original and unique and is very much in the style of the Comic book . The smoke-blackened , cramped and claustrophobic 1920s buildings look and create a very oppressive atmosphere . This is definitely GOTHam City . Not LA like the TV series . They didn't even make any attempt . In fact the Batcave in the TV series was like the set of a mad scientists lab from a 1950s movie . But the REAL Batcave in this movie is a monstrous cavern filled with stalagmites and it actually HAS bats in it . And there's no fireman's pole leading into it . This movie and its sequel rock big time . See it when you can . Preferably in widescreen and on a big TV .
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564,800 | 102,816 | 242,445 | 8 |
Seagal proved he still had it , then flunked out again
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A lot of you may consider Steven Seagal's non-presence for the past 4 years a blessing ( he last appeared in 1997's Fire Down Below , which was a No . 1 hit but still weak movie ) but I think that audiences are just too dismissive of him and that he needs to be given another chance . They waited for him to slip up and as soon as he delivered a flop We called him names and forgot about him . But now veteran action producer Joel Silver has thrust Steve back in the limelight , put him on the Slimfast diet ( it really , really works ) and given him better material to work with . After all an actor can only do as good as the script . From a novel of the same name by John Westerman ( but bearing about % 40 resemblance to it ) the plot centres on Orin Boyd . A cop busted down to Patrolman after a rough encounter with the Vice-President ( Gore ? Cheney ? ) . Once on the streets Boyd's suspicious nose can't keep him out of trouble with undercover cops who are trying to bust local Drug Boss Latrell Walker ( DMX ) ? or so it seems . Boyd smells foul play and intrudes upon a stakeout , handcuffing TK , one of Walkers men ( Anthony Anderson ) to the front of his car before doing so . When he returns to find the front of his car missing and the thug long gone Boyd takes it upon as his responsibility to get it back and inadvertently expose a ring of corrupt cops in the process . After all his car comes first . There are many attempts at irony throughout the movie and surprisingly enough most of them work . Boyd is forced to attend rage control classes in which he meets eccentric TV host Henry Wayne ( Tom Arnold ) who becomes his wannabe partner . But sadly enough the classes don't work as Boyd continues to uses violence first , ask questions later . And there is a public service announcement too . Seagal survives a car wreck by airbag . A later car crash victim ? doesn't have one and dies ? I think . There are only a couple of ' cop movie ' clichés but not much else . The bad guys aren't too hissable either although they do stink . And it's a pity we know who they are as soon as we see them but this was never intended to be used for suspense in the first place . But they really do stink the place out . You WANT them to die . Bartkowiak's direction is better than in his debut Romeo Must Die and adds a heavy dose of frenetic rush to such a fast-paced film . Action scenes are handled with experience and care . There is no MTV-style editing and no confusion to be had . He should have spent just a tiny little bit more time with the characters . It's not often that action movies have such strong characters and Exit Wounds does give us enough of them . Seagal has learned a little , just a little , more in the acting area but still doesn't know how to express himself much . There's too much frowning and not enough other emotions from Boyd . We do want to feel more from him but he won't allow us . I guess this is just how Seagal is . He just can't get away from himself too much no matter what role he plays . I wish Seagal would try harder . He'll win more fans this way . But it's good to see that he is in better condition than of late and has proved to Hollywood that he is still here and still frowning . Sadly he has chosen to star in loads of rather poor Asian movies since ( the real-life . Mob forced him into this ) and as we all await Under Siege 3 we don't hold our breath .
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564,434 | 102,816 | 92,948 | 8 |
What have you done for me LATELY ? ? ?
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There was once a day when everything Eddie Murphy said and did was hee-larious . Back in 1987 , at the height of his powers , Eddie released a movie version of his stand-up act Raw , a sort of follow-up to 1983's Delirious . Film at New York's Felt Room , Eddie discusses Mr T , Bill Cosby , Richard Pryor ( doing faultless impressions of all ) , Johnny Carson's costly divorce , relationships , gays , a home-made McDonalds burger that ruined his childhood etc . It's all pure comedy gold . After about half an hour you'll realize that the reason your face hurts so much is because you're smiling too hard . My favorite moment has to be any impression Eddie does of the average white guy , especially the ' white dude dancing ' moment . Where did this Eddie Murphy go and who is the man that gives us kiddie drek such as Daddy Day Care and Haunted Mansion ? If you need a major dose of Eddie in his prime then check this one out . I promise you'll love it and you'll be quoting it for days . Look out for a youthful Samuel L . Jackson and Basil Wallace as Eddie ' uncle and dad too .
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564,681 | 102,816 | 456,118 | 8 |
A well above average porno DV
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This DVD starts off with the gorgeous Michelle Banks . She enters a ( totally deserted ) restaurant and awaits her boyfriend . As she does so she imagines what it would be like to get a double-penetration from the 2 waiters . This fantasy lasts for about 25 minutes . Next up is Alicia Rhodes , her house is being decorated by 2 guys so obviously she fantasises about getting a DP . A good scene with a cute girl . Nicola Holt is third . She's working-out in a gym with 2 guys and imagines herself exercising naked . Sex and double penetration follow . She loves what she does and it really makes the scene work . Why can't all porn actresses show the enthusiasm she does ? The next scene is the weakest of the whole DVD . A pool cleaner fantasises about the 2 women ( McKenzie Lee and Angel Long ) sitting in the garden of the house he is attending . The sex is quite dull and the DP only comes in the form of a strap-on wearing girl . Plus he wears a condom with only one of them so it's a bit weird he'd fantasise about THAT . Last is Nikita Devine , who has a gorgeous shaven haven . The plumbers are looking at her sink but she can't help but think about getting a double penetration from them . The sex is good and it caps off a great DVD that you should definitely get if you like easy-going porn . Obviously the acting is terrible and the rehearsal bad ( do you even rehearse porn ? ) . Why the waiters would scan around an empty restaurant for a table is beyond me . It is a shame there is no double vaginal , double anal or gapes though .
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564,093 | 102,816 | 77,766 | 8 |
A BETTER THAN AVERAGE SEQUEL
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This and the first are the OFFICIAL Jaws movies in my opinion . Before it got REALLY bad . The shark is just as scary as it was before and it's good to have storylines from the first film present here . Trust me , it's not as bad as REVENGE .
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564,314 | 102,816 | 101,452 | 8 |
A wild , imaginative and eccentric fantasy
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Sequels rarely improve on the originals . Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is bursting at the seams with wacky humor , craziness and invention . Yes , the first was a brilliant ride too but it doesn't live up to this . Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are just great in their dual roles as good Bill and Ted and evil Bill and Ted robots from the future . I've never really seen Keanu as convincing in anything else , maybe it's the characters he chooses and not his talent . Too bad his biggest exposure has been as a wooden statue in the god-awful Matrix trilogy . But it's not just Reeves and Winter this time , William Sadler's Grim Reaper is also along for the ride and he steals the show like you've never seen before . Rufus isn't in this one for very long but William Sadler more than makes up for that . The plot is a bit much to swallow if you're not familiar with the mechanics of the original . A nasty old tyrant 700 years in the future sends evil robot Bill and Teds back through time in the phone booth time machines to kill the good Bill and Ted and prevent their perfect society taking over the world . Once dead Bill and Ted go to hell , challenge the Grim Reaper to a game of Battleship , visit God ( after a spot of mugging in heaven ) , get help from a Martian , brought back from the dead , make good Bill and Ted robots and take on the evil Tyrant guy during a Battle of the Bands finale . Whew ! Peter Hewitt ( only 25 at the time ) brings a bizarre sophistication to the sequel that wasn't present in the blandly shot first film . B & TBJ literally looks like a whacked-out cartoon come to life . The production design is very colorful and vivid , reminiscent of Tim Burton , only not crap . Don't misjudge this film as being in the same sub-genre as those awful stoners Jay and Silent Bob or even Wayne's World . This is not a dumb generation Xer film , it's a lovely , silly fantasy for all ages and is definitely superior to the original . Hey Warner , hurry up and release the Bill and Ted animated series on DVD . I want it NOW ! Unlike Excellent adventure , this film was shot in plain-old 1 . 85 : 1 and the anamorphic transfer on the DVD looks fine and does justice to the very broad color pallet of film . The soundtrack is in Remastered Dolby 5 . 1 and it sounds above average if not amazing . Definitely get this . Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is thoroughly non-non-non heinous .
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564,658 | 102,816 | 82,198 | 8 |
Powerhouse of Might and Magic !
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In recent years so very few sword-and-sorcery movies have been made . One struggles to think of anything in between Conan The Destroyer and Gladiator . They are difficult to pull off and even harder to involve the audience with an obviously unidentifiable world . It may not be bestowed with Oscars , but Conan The Barbarian is just as classy as Ben Hur and more brutal than Gladiator . In an almost wordless set-up , a young Conan is orphaned by the androgynous warlord Thulsa Doom ( James Earl Jones ) and dragged off to some kind of weird labour camp where children are exploited and punished - no , this is not Euro Disney . Years go by and Conan grows up into a huge , bloated and bulging muscle-bound killing machine . At this point , he is used as a money-making tool by his captors , who set up death matches with other killing machines . Soon , he becomes the most honoured fighter in the land , so his captors set him free as he can win no more tournaments . He has a hard time surviving on his own until he finds his own special sword , makes a new best friend in Subotai ( Gerry Lopez ) and finds a girlfriend in Valeria ( Sandahl Bergman ) . Together , they live the high life of barbarians - robbing , grunting , clubbing people . All goes well until Conan makes it his personal quest to go after Thulsa Doom for revenge . Can three simple thieves take on an entire army of brainwashed warriors ? Of course ! This is Conan . James Earl Jones appears threatening , even though he doesn't even look like the kind of guy who would say boo to a goose . Imagine Oprah Winfrey in Hells Angels biker gear and you'll have an accurate description of Thulsa Doom . He's not a totally formidable foe for Conan in the larger-than-life sense , but psychologically he's a scary dude . Schwarzenegger does a great job . There really is only one person in the world who could play Conan , as sympathetic and brutal as he is , and Arnie definitely pulls it off , in this , his first major starring role . Of course , there is not much acting going on - he says only five words to Valeria in the whole movie - but it's all about physical presence , rather than thespianism . Most of the dialogue is unspoken . Conan was brought up to be a killing machine , but he does learn humanity through feeling his own mortality . Producer Dino De Laurentiis , a veteran movie-maker , brought a whole load of money to give Conan a massive scale . John Milius stages some h-u-g-e scenes , with excellent production values , and his cinematographer Duke Callaghan uses widescreen framing brilliantly . The gore and violence is on a par with Paul Verhoeven and is so frequent that after a while it becomes almost comical . Despite it's reputation of being nothing more than a cheap schlock movie , there are moments of true spectacle . Basil Poledouris , who wrote wonderful music for Robocop and many others , creates a truly majestic score that is absolutely spellbinding . You may not think it , but there is a dimension of class to Conan that may have gone unnoticed in previous viewings . As a tribute to Robert E . Howard's pulp hero , as a stand-alone movie , as an Arnie vehicle and cult picture , Conan is now almost a classic . Sure , there are faults , but you'll be too damn entertained to care .
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564,240 | 102,816 | 59,590 | 8 |
Spare change
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Sitting on a park bench alone and homeless ( awww . . . he can stay with me any day ) the Pink Panther befriends a drunk man on his way back to his nagging wife . Luckily the drunkard has a fondness for Pink Panthers and offers Pinky a place to stay . As long as his wife doesn't find out . So you can imagine , every move they make is scrutinised by the wifey but the Pink Panther uses his cunning skills at disguise to get around her nosing . It's consistently funny , but not amazingly so . Still a great cartoon though . I love the Pink Panther and the brilliant abstract style of the animation . He's the King of Cartoon Cool . No doubt .
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564,201 | 102,816 | 1,031,211 | 9 |
Breathtakingly realistic
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I'm not such a big fan of all these flight sim games and was a bit weary of tackling Ace Combat 6 , but I needn't worry . It's not really about getting all of the technical controls accurate as much as it's about ACTION ! As the first of the Ace Combat games to be released on a next-gen console , Atari have certainly given their best effort at using the XBOX 360 to the max . I'm not the best when it comes to controlling games but the gradual increasing complexity of the game eases you into it nicely . But less about that and more about the graphics . Though far from being an avid video-gamer , I have been playing video games since the mid-80s and it's no exaggeration to say that Ace Combat 6 literally has the BEST graphics I have ever seen . They are so incredibly photo-realistic that you'll think you're actually in control of a real fighter plane . Most of the aircraft are actual licensed fighter planes though there aren't as many to choose from this time around . The stunning environments and landscapes are so gorgeous and believable you'd be forgiven that they are lifted from Google earth ( albeit an extremely high-resolution Google Earth ) . It's the kind of game where simply flying around and buzzing over the mountains and oceans is its own kind of fun . In some ways I wish I had my own plane so I could soar into the heavens like I did with this game . Terrific escapism indeed . But this game isn't actually set on Earth . To avoid any serious political subtext ( I assume ) the good guys in the game are from a country called Emmeria , where all is well and happy and the bad guys from from Estovakia . At the risk of sounding xenophobic , Estovakia is where evil comes from . The good guys refer to them as ' Stovies ' but here in Scotland that word means ' Corned Beef Hash ' . So that is quite funny for me . I can't play online , as I don't have that capability . But the single player is splendid on it's own . With great graphics , impressive visual effects , an awesome sound design and a thumpingly good score ( where is the CD ? ) , what more could you want from a game ? Be nice to your XBOX and buy it some eye candy .
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563,909 | 102,816 | 112,641 | 9 |
Is it just me . . .
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. . . or is this the darkest black comedy ever made ? I just find Casino so amusing and funny that I hardly even notice the grim violence and harrowing drama . I also think that Casino is far , far superior to the over-rated Goodfellas . Even though it's longer , it passes in a breeze . Casino is just so colorful , multi-layered and intricate despite it's apparent simplicity . The film has three different characters narrating the story but none of it feels like exposition and it's never over-bearing . Adapted from a true story , the film focuses on the fictional Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas . The boss is Sam ' Ace ' Rothstein , his wife , volatile hustler Ginger and his psychotic ' friend ' Nicky Santoro . All they needed to do was to keep the cash-flow at the Casino steady to satisfy the bosses back home . But it was just never meant to be . And everything implodes at the end . Casino is filled with dozens of sub-plots , tangent stories and brilliant side-characters . James Woods is especially funny as a lowlife con-man who can't even win a fight with a ten-year-old girl . Vinny Vella also amuses as long-suffering Artie Piscano . But it's Sharon Stone who walks away with the movie . Despite starring opposite loads of well-established male lead actors she owns Casino . She was absolutely robbed at the Academy Awards when they gave the Oscar to Susan Sarandon . Stone delivered a performance so authentic that it's truly unfair the amount of criticism she gets for her other , less-important films . The violence will satisfy gore fans . In this lovely film we have a dope with his head in a vice ( after getting icepicks in his balls ) , a truly brutal beating with baseball bats , some moron getting a pen shoved into his neck and a cheater getting his hand mashed by a hammer . Don't let this put you off , that was the old Vegas . Nowadays you just get told not to come back . I know most people will call it sacrilege to condemn Goodfellas but Casino is just the better film of the two , plain and simple . Better lighting , far more impressive cinematography and more entertaining characters . It just has so much going for it that Goodfellas did not .
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564,654 | 102,816 | 856,805 | 9 |
The older the fiddle , the sweeter the tune .
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Arsch-Grotten starts off with a group of 4 mature women ( 50 plus ) sitting around in a mansion-type house playing bridge or something . There is a porn shoot going in one of the rooms and Eve Delage leaves the game for a moment to check up on it . When she comes back the rest of them go up , one by one , to have a peek at the sex . Thoroughly impressed by it they beg Eve to tell them how it all came about . We go into a flashback in which Eve interviews the photographer , gets friendly with him and shags him . What is notable about this scene are the multiple vaginal piercings Eve has and the fact that they go straight to hard anal , bypassing plain vaginal sex altogether . The photographer , needing a rest , interrupts the story only to have Sandra Wicked and Marie Therese pounce on him . A great scene of rough sex , anal and fisting follows . Meanwhile , Christine Gonod goes upstairs and meets two of the male actors . She is wearing the coolest see-through black top and goes straight to hard anal and then onto DP . Once she is done , Fanny , the model , enters the room when Christine is in her post-DP euphoria and fists her . The next morning Sandra meets one of the actors and gets a hard anal while Marie Therese watches , masturbating . The other actor catches her and the get it on before Eve turns up . Eve now gets hard anal while Marie Therese fists her . Still , the photographer is having problems making his shoot work . Christine enters and offers to pose for him with Fanny . Fisting , both vaginal and anal precedes sex with the photographer . It's brilliant , hard stuff . But why the thing with the mashed up cake ? I don't get it . Once they are done Fanny pees on Christine . As you do ! Cut to one month later and Eve and Sandra are reminiscing about their recent sexperiences . In need of another shag they call up the two actors from the porn shoot and invite them over . Hard anal follows before the film wraps up . A great DVD and well worth it if you are bored of US porn and need some harder Euro stuff .
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564,287 | 102,816 | 348,034 | 9 |
Seems to have been forgotten by most people
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When you mention Christmas specials one would normally think of Charlie Brown , The Smurfs , He-Man / She-Ra or any other franchise that ' saves Christmas ' . No one really remembers that the Simpsons began with their very own Christmas special . Already a hit as an animated short series on the Tracey Ullman show , The Simpsons kicked off their 17-year plus career as a prime-time family with this festive episode . Excited and filled with yuletide cheer The Simpsons come face to face with disaster when Marge's savings need to be blown on tattoo-removal surgery for Bart . And Mr . Burns cancels bonuses for all his semi-skilled employees . Flanders is already throwing his family the best Christmas ever and to make matters worse Patty and Selma show up and cast their judging eyes upon Homer in a more evil way than usual . He can't let them all down so he humiliates himself with a job as a mall Santa Claus . The job pays poorly so he gambles it at the track , expecting a miracle to happen . Do you think it will ? Since this was way back at the very beginning of The Simpsons the animation looks pretty rough and the voice acting ( especially from some of the children ) sounds a lot like the Charlie Brown phonetic acting . And since this is an older episode Homer isn't the machine he became in 1998 + seasons . He's still a human being with feelings who tries to be a good dad . Bart is still a kid who gets in trouble and Marge is still a devoted mum . You know what I mean when I say that none of this is really relevant in The Simpsons anymore since every new season just gets worse and worse as the writers get more and more cynical . This one Christmas Special represents the exact opposite of all that . It was made to make a difference to your Christmas . And if your tired of the awful bore that it's become now then perhaps you should check it out .
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564,232 | 102,816 | 30,196 | 9 |
Happy campers
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In this cartoon Donald is taking his nephews ( no a helluva lot more well-behaved ) on a camping trip in the wilderness . Donald is their leader and well . . . you can pretty much guess that every time he tries to show off to them that disaster will promptly follow . Be it chopping down a tree , pitching a tent or fending off wild bears , Donald does it all badly . And funny . And this is the first cartoon in which Donald actually appears cute instead of frowning and shouting all the time . It's also one of the few cartoons in which is face doesn't turn firetruck red through sheer anger . For a short made in 1938 it's brilliantly drawn and very funny .
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563,814 | 102,816 | 100,802 | 9 |
One of Verhoeven's best movies , no doubt .
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Arnie is Doug Quaid , a simple construction worker who is bored with his uneventful life and wishes to be more and to do something meaningful . He's fascinated with going to Mars and meeting the mysterious woman of his dreams ( that would be Melina ) despite the civil war brewing withing the colonies . His wife Lori ( Sharon Stone , looking gorgeous ) is appalled with all things Martian and quickly nixes that idea . The only way Quaid is going to come close to the red planet is if he takes a Rekall vacation , a company that literally offers you a ' dream ' vacation memory implant . Quaid wishes to go as a secret agent and all seems well until they send him to sleep . As soon as he's unconscious Quaid seems to wake up in a rage , claiming his name is not Quaid but Hauser . And it's not just the dream going wrong since the Rekall technicians have not even implanted the dream yet . Blacking out again and waking up in a cab , Quaid has totally no recollection of anything that has happened and is confused to find his life turned upside down . His wife and colleagues are trying to kill him , dozens of armed henchmen are after him , he seems to have acquired lethal killing skills from nowhere and he apparently has some unfinished business back on Mars , despite the fact that he's never been there . Or has he ? Once on Mars for real ( or is it ? ) he finds himself involved with the beautiful Melina ( Rachel Ticotin , even prettier than Sharon Stone ) , the underground resistance and battling their arch-nemesis Vilos Cohaagen , a bureaucrat who has the entire planet under his control . It seems that Hauser was Cohaagen's right hand man and left clues for the fabricated Quaid persona to topple Cohaagen's regime . Total Recall is certainly one of Arnie's and Verhoeven's most imaginative and creative movies . The Mars town of Venusville is basically Amsterdam's Red Light District with booze , drugs and sex everywhere , the violence is so ridiculously over-the-top that one cannot help but laugh at it ( despite a lot of the gorier bits being censored by the evil MPAA ) , the vision of the future is incongruously bleak but colorful and fanciful yet primitive . The contrasts between Earth and Mars are similar to Western and Third World comparisons . The visual effects , if slightly dated , are simply amazing . Jerry Goldsmith's awesome score is , at once , atmospheric and action-packed . The set-pieces , especially Quaids vision of the alien furnaces , are just ludicrously entertaining and the ' is it a dream or is it real ' premise puts such a wonderfully surreal twist on the whole thing . Sci-Fi has never been so outrageous . What do you expect with mad genius Dutchman directing ? And I do believe that it IS real .
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564,745 | 102,816 | 366,777 | 9 |
The first Danny Boyle Film I have liked
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Shoot me if you want but I never much fancied Shallow Grave , Trainspotting , A Life Less Ordinary or The Beach . And I thought that 28 Days Later was awful . Danny Boyle's innovative style always seemed out of place or incongruous with the kind of material he worked with ( probably the reason why some narrow-minded people thought that Trainspotting ' glamorised ' drugs . . . yeah right ) . But with Millions he takes a kids book and makes a wonderful film that is nothing like the dark tone of his previous works . Two kids , Damian and Anthony , move to a brand new housing estate with their dad ( James Nesbit ) after mum dies . A railroad cuts right across the fields next to their house and eight-year-old Damian builds a makeshift gang-hut right there . Damian is no ordinary kid . He is exceptionally honest and has frequent chats with Saints visiting from heaven . During once such chat in his cardboard gang-hut a train passes by and a huge bag of £20 notes crashes through the roof . Damian , believing it came from God , wants to give the money to the poor but Anthony uses it to get street cred . Trouble is that the Euro comes to Britain in only a few days and Anthony , being a junior stockbroker , struggles to think of a secure investment in time . It's all fun and games until a sinister gangster turns up asking questions and making threats . What makes the film memorable is the whimsical insight to the naive , innocent and pure-hearted life of a child . Millions mostly concentrates on Damian and Alex Etel who plays him is absolutely bloody perfect . Kids in movies are usually brats ( check out anything by Steven Spielberg ) but Damian is good enough to balance out a whole century of Daddy Day Cares and Crapper By The Dozens . His story and the world he lives in is amazing stuff and to narrow Millions down to just a kids film would be a bad thing to do . His innocence might just inspire you to stop doing bad things . Boyle's use of songs and music is also professional . It was not hacked together to make a ' Songs inspired by ' album that has little to do with the film ( which so many people unfortunately fall for ) and not only do I recommend this film highly but I would consider buying the CD too . One moan : The film is set over the Xmas period but is obviously filmed during a hot summer !
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564,491 | 102,816 | 364,569 | 9 |
An absolutely intriguing mystery
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I was often recommended Oldboy by loads of people but kept putting it off for some reason . Well , I'm glad I just decided to go ' what the hell ' because it IS actually really , really good . Even though the plot has been outlined a zillion times in other reviews , I will simply say that some seemingly random dude is plucked from the streets , imprisoned in a shoddy apartment for 15 years and let loose with a wallet full of money and a cell phone . He has 5 days to find the man who imprisoned him and why . An absorbing set-up and the clues as he slowly finds them and slowly puts them together make for a brilliant mystery movie with a wicked dark sense of humor . The plot has layers and layers of mystery and our hapless hero wades through thick twists and turns , always keeping us on the edge of our seats . There are some brilliant fight scenes and some truly bizarre moments , such as a live octopus being eaten whole . But what really floored me was the ending . I won't tell you a tiny little bit of it . But . . . wow ! As is the case with EVERY SINGLE Asian MOVIE , Oldboy is currently being remade by Hollywood . Because anything that the Asians can do , Hollywood can apparently do better . In my opinion this film really doesn't need a remake as this version is strong enough to appeal to the whole world . Too bad most of the planet are philistines who would rather ' watch ' a film than ' read ' it . A complaint I hear often enough . If your impression of Asian films is they are all shoddy and not very modern looking then , in the case of Oldboy , you are very much mistaken . Among the many strong points of the movie are the faultless editing and stunning photography . Oldboy is the slickest movie I have seen in a good while and can easily out-gloss anything by Michael Bay . Do yourself a favor and check this movie out . If you don't love it then you truly have no business watching films at all . I'll save you time and tell you outright that if you like stuff like Crapper By The Dozen 2 and Miss Congenatiliality 2 then is best you just stick to stuff like that . At the risk of sounding like a pretentious ass , leave the more important films to the brainiacs .
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563,990 | 102,816 | 87,363 | 9 |
A classic film
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I first saw this film when I was 5 and I am ashamed to say that it scared me . It's just a tad too violent and scary for younger children but it's great family entertainment and there are dozens of in-jokes for film-buffs to spot . Not only is Gremlins a very original and inventive film the animatronic effects are ahead of it's time and way cool . Anyone who is not totally overcome by Gizmo's cuteness and his cool little song must have a heart of stone . The gremlins themselves are nothing but big grins with arms and legs . Their idea of having fun is smashing everything . Who can't agree with and identify with that . I have never seen any of the cut scenes and I hope that in a future DVD special edition they will be included along with the sub-plot about Mrs . Deagle building a Nuclear Power plant in Kingston Falls . This was one of Joe Dante's first movies and you can tell that everything he grew up with and movies he studied as a child are on-screen in Gremlins . A perfect movie made by the right director .
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563,937 | 102,816 | 456,912 | 9 |
Punished for doing the right thing
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Sun-Woo is the manager of sleek modern restaurant in uptown Seoul called La Dolce Vita , but that's not his only employment . He is also the errand-boy of underworld Kingpin Mr Kang . A job he fulfils ruthlessly and efficiently , until the day Mr Kang takes off for a week , leaving Sun-Woo to mind his much younger girlfriend Hee-Soo to make sure she doesn't sleep around . If she does , he is to execute both of them . Hee-Soo cheats . Sun-Woo almost sentences them to death , but has a sober moment and realises that letting them go is the right thing to do . In Mr Kang's absence a rival crime syndicate , headed by President Baek and his over-confident son is becoming more and more impatient to force a business merger with Kang . Despite Kang's reluctance to go through with this deal one of his own men , Sun-Woo's cohort , Min-Gi welcomes the business with Baek and his son and complicates matters . Upon Kang's return he figures out Sun-Woo's failure to carry out his orders and demands he be killed unless he apologises . At this moment , Sun-Woo is about to be tortured to death by Baek Jr . but is returned to Kang on the promise that he will do business . It's out of the frying pan and into the deepest pits of fiery hell for Sun-Woo . Already bashed and bruised and beaten he is cast down in the mud during a heavy rainstorm and forced to apologise . He resists . His hand is crushed with a massive wrench he is buried alive . He survives and breaks through the loose soil . Sun-Woo and the audience breathe a sigh of relief . But it's far from over . Min-Ji and a large group of thugs are still waiting by the shallow grave . They drag him into a old building and give him 15 minutes to call Mr . Kang and beg for his life . Still he refuses . And when those 15 minutes are up Sun-Woo unleashes an incredibly lethal and jaw-droppingly furious ass-kicking like you have never seen . He goes through about 20 men like they weren't even there and dishes out agonising , blood-soaked punishment in one of the most nail-biting escapes you'll ever see . It's now time for Sun-Woo to plan his revenge . And that he does with lovingly violent detail . A Bittersweet Life comes in 3 large acts that make the 120-minute running time pass in a breeze . The set-up and story are so simple and honest that you can literally start-watching the film at any point and still become immersed in the action . But , I feel that many viewers may be missing the twist at the end . By ' twist ' I mean after Sun-Woo's death the film goes back to the beginning , revealing that he only fantasised the whole thing . He says the cruelty of any sweet dream is waking up to find yourself back in the real world . He is still in his restaurant and when no one is looking , insecurely looking over his shoulder to make sure , Sun-Woo shadow boxes for fun or curiosity . Hardly the kind of behavior you would expect from a man who has just annihilated 50 baddies . But , regardless of the final outcome , it's the high-octane journey you take to get there that really matters right ? And A Bittersweet Life is one movie you'll want to watch over and over again .
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564,715 | 102,816 | 82,971 | 9 |
Will stand the test of time forever .
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I've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark numerous times on TV , DVD and big screen . My local theatre had a special showing last night and the 400-seat screen completely sold out ( as Indy films always do ) . Luckily for me and my pal , we got the last 2 tickets available ! I can't think of many films that still sell-out 25 years after their original release . There's just something about Indy movies ( iconic hero , affection , epic spectacle ) that brings you back again and again . The only trouble with that is there are zillions of reviews , critiques and dissections of this movie already out there , so what I have to offer will probably not be anything new . I will however not go the way of the cliché and mention 1930's serials , Tom Selleck or the sword / gun fight . I will , however , ask you one question . Did you know that some of the more iconic , memorable sequences from Raiders owe quite a lot to Duck Tales ? What ? Surely it's the other way around ? Well , no . The globe-trotting adventures of Scrooge McDuck , Huey , Duey , Luey and Donald in Carl Bank's Disney comic-books from the 50s came first . If you can find some of these then you'll surely notice the similarities . The hunt for the Ark of the Covenant is more than just an excuse for action . So many movies these days seem to come up with action first and string them together with some lame plot . Movies like this are quickly forgotten and one of the reasons Raiders holds up so well is because it works the Covenant story so well into the plot . The action comes in a succession of set-pieces . I do enjoy films that have to increasingly better themselves in every scene . Raiders introduced this as a standard that the sequels had to live up to . My fave scene has to be the massive truck chase through Egypt , which is made up of many of its own smaller sequences . One little idiosyncrasy I like about Indy is that even though he's a College Professor and Doctor , he has no beef killing people . So very far from the ubiquitous PC heroes of todays movies . You might think that it's rather geeky to hype up the editing and sound design , but they do stand out from recent action movies . The gunfire and punching seem to have a sort of ' Indy ' signature sound to them , that I've not heard in any other films . And obviously , John William's classic score is one of those themes that just everybody in the world knows ( though I prefer his score to Temple of Doom ) , truly one of the best movie themes ever . Better than Star Wars ! I'm not sure if Spielberg planned on Raiders starting the Indy franchise but there's already enough in here to establish a whole universe of potential stories and character arcs . There's talk of a fourth movie at the moment , but I personally don't think it will happen and I don't want it to . It's perfect existing as a trilogy and a sequel that comes traipsing in 18 years after the last is just not going to feel right . Even if you are hungry for more Indy then there are loads of books and video games out there and then there's the Young Indiana Jones TV show ( where are the DVDs ? ) , which are official Indy canon and even starred Ford once ( they bounced around in time ) . I am giving Raiders because I just have a soft spot for Temple of Doom ( which is obviously a movie ) . Even 25 years after it first came out it still has the power to captivate the audience and provoke sheer excitement every time . And in 25 years it will still be far superior to almost everything . Now there's something you cannot say about The Fast and the Furious ! Sigh , where did all the special movies go ?
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564,094 | 102,816 | 78,748 | 9 |
Never has the contrast been clearer
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I'm a fan of the old Ridley Scott , which was ironically the young Ridley Scott . Back in his youth he made some great films and Alien is one of his crowning achievements . But let's ignore the film for just a second . You see the Scott Brothers ( Ridley and Tony ) had a highly visual sense of film-making that used the widescreen frame to its fullest potential . From quite early on they were made best pals of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and they made their reputations with such films like Beverly Hills Cop 2 , Blade Runner and Top Gun . In the early 90's their careers briefly faltered and a hack called Michael Bay went into business . Michael Bay ripped off everything he possible could from the Scotts . So much so that in recent years Ridley and Tony have had to exaggerate their style in an effort to distance themselves from this man . The result has been films that look more like agonising , drawn-out epileptic seizures ( Man on Fire , Black Hawk Down , Domino ) than works of art . Now let's get back to Alien . A beautifully paced , shot and cut fright machine with perfectly timed scares , meaningful subtext and an iron-grip on the audience . How far removed from the work of the Scott Brothers today . The franchise went to hell in 2004 with the awful Alien vs Predator movie but in its beginning the Alien films were a thing of greatness . If you can , see the director's cut . I saw this film twice in the cinema ( original cut , then director's cut ) and while they're both good the director's cut is a bit faster and has a couple real cool extra scenes and shot of the creature . And of course , widescreen is how this film MUST be seen .
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564,027 | 102,816 | 418,279 | 9 |
Best film of Summer 2007 .
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Despite the fact that , in my opinion , Michael Bay has directed two of the worst films of all time ( that would be Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys II ) I knew , from the beginning that his glossy , high-key style of film-making would be PERFECT for a live-action Transformers movie . Since The Rock in 1996 , all of Bay's films have been 2-hour plus epics and that is surely the kind of treatment that a Transformers movie deserves . No 90-minute piece of crap here . I was a fan of the animated show and toys as a kid , but viewing them now I can see how clumsy , poorly animated and just plain impractical it was . There was no reason for it to exist other than to market toys , which is fine when your five-years-old , I guess . Despite the family-friendly rating , the showing I went to had absolutely ZERO kids in the audience as it was mainly made up of twenty-somethings who had watched the show in their childhood and who would appreciate it better . Well , where to begin about how good it is . I regard this as an ' Event ' movie way more than endless , tiresome Spider-Man and Shrek sequels . The Transformers movie was anticipated for a long , long time and only in the past few years has the technology to realize the giant , alien robots on film been advanced enough . The Transformers are so photo-realistic that I'm beginning to suspect that they actually exist and are being kept secret by Sector 7 . This film will SURELY win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects next year . Nothing can rival this . The story ( written by the team that wrote the Goonies II video game , would you believe ) and characters are rather medium-sliced . Nothing superficial yet nothing heavy enough to slow the film down . The Transformers mythology has been altered somewhat from the TV series but only to tie-up loose ends and plot holes and to give it a more contemporary feel . If you were really cynical you say that it's just a big chase movie , but so many plot threads building at once there's enough complexity to keep most cynics quiet . Shia LeBouf ( who seems to be Hollywood's biggest young star right now ) plays Sam Witwicky , a nerdy high-schooler with dreams of being a popular ladies man . His dad buys him a mysterious , banged-up yellow Camaro for getting good grades but the car seems to have a mind of it's own . Of course it does-it's Bumblebee and he's been sent to Earth to protect Sam from the Decepticon's who want an old artifact of Sam's that belonged to his great-grandfather , an explorer who discovered the long , long frozen Megatron in an underground Arctic cave . Over the course of his adventures Sam encounters a showcase of actors including Jon Voight , Josh Duhamel , Anthony Anderson , John Turturro , Bernie Mac and , eventually Optimus Prime , who is a star in his own right . All of these actors try to run away with the film , which helps since the characters , like I said , are not densely written so their energetic performances make up for this . Though Megan Fox looks a bit older than her years and has an unlikeable ' attitude ' . Did she really have a good reason to be knitting her eyebrows like that for the whole film or is she just posing for the camera ? My only other complaint is that Steve Jablonsky's dull score is basically a carbon-copy of Klaus Badelt's score for Poseidon . Both men are protégé's of Hans Zimmer I believe and their imaginations have so far proved to be rather meagre for every film they have scored . Transformers reminded me a lot of ID4 . Now how cool was David Arnold's score for that ? Steve Jablonsky could have really made something out of this but instead he just goes for dull synthy sounds and jarring sound effects . Yeesh ! Transformers is definitely an epic , must-see movie and is surely bursting at the seams with amazing set-pieces and breathtaking action . I impatiently await a sequel and look forward to owning it in glorious HD . The best film of the summer , no doubt .
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564,871 | 102,816 | 232,531 | 9 |
Addictive and clever , easier too .
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I loved the first RE game on the Gamecube . The graphics , the sound , the ambiance were all top-notch . Never before ( with the exceptions of the Myst games on the PC ) had I been so totally immersed in the atmosphere of a video game before . RE was thrilling and frightening . All of that returns in Resident Evil Zero , a prequel about the events leading up to the T-Virus outbreak in the Umbrella Mansion in the Arklay Mountains . There are a few differences though . This time around you are in control of 2 characters . One is Rebecca Chambers , the medic girl from RE . And the other is Billy Cowen , an escaped convict who teams up with Rebecca when they meet on an abandoned train . Together they take on Zombies and giant insects as they try to figure out what has happened in the Umbrella training facility . It's a lot easier than the first one . Though there are far more enemies to blow away , there are way more bullets . So you don't have to be so careful about reserving ammo . The Crimson Heads are also gone ( thankfully ) so when a zombie is dead it stays dead . And lets be honest , those Crimson Heads were terrifying . Originally this game was made for the Nintendo 64 but was never released so they just remade it for the Gamecube . I wise choice as the game fully shows off what the Gamecube is capable of . RE Zero is full of ominous camera angles , dingy locations and a dark atmosphere extending all the way down to the tiniest detail . Though I did particularly like the bright and somber ( ? ) ending . Complete this game quick enough and you'll unlock a bonus game called Leech Hunter in which Rebecca and Billy ( now in different clothing ) can run around the training facility blasting at things . It's just for fun but it's still quite cool . If you're a fan of RE 1 then RE Zero is a must have . Not quite as good but still a damn cool game !
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564,372 | 102,816 | 248,048 | 9 |
Cool Game and Highly Addictive
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I remember I once played this game for 5 hours straight and I still could not get past the first level . But for me , most of the time , I'm having so much fun killing people and smashing up cars that I don't care about the missions . It's also most fun to defect from your current gang and just kill ' em all off . This is one game that makes it look like so much to actually run people over . It's a pity that only the Playstation version doubles as a soundtrack CD but I gotta admit that is one cool radio station . These songs are rockin ' . This is rather good considering it's only a game . The graphics are kind of poor tho and the gameplay doesn't change much from level to level but who cares ? ! ? !
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564,373 | 102,816 | 255,202 | 9 |
Highly addictive once more . . .
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. . . but still not much of an improvement . The gameplay is still EXACTLY the same and the missions are not too dissimilar either . But the cool soundtrack is still there and those radio DJs are funny as hell . Jill Tasker's news updates are awesome and there are some brilliant songs too . The graphics have improved tho and there are some real cool weapons . Check out the colors as you blow up 10 cars with a ray gun . But this is the only real difference between this and the first . If you have the original this is , at a push , still worth buying . But it just feels so much more like an expansion pack than a whole new game tho .
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563,933 | 102,816 | 27,538 | 9 |
Donald's first disaster outing .
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As we all know , whatever Donald Duck sets out doing at the start of any cartoon , by the end everything in the vicinity , be it house , car , shop , work , will be destroyed and Donald will be left fuming . Here , Donald is working on plumbing in his basement , using a magnet to pick up objects from the floor . Pluto becomes curious to the magnet's strange powers and mucks around with it . Soon enough he's swallowed it and scrambles around the house trying to get it out , eventually tying up Donald in the shenanigans . Cue running from flying knives , walking on the ceiling ( including one moment when Donald bizarrely defies gravity ) and general mayhem in which Donald's house is left in ruins . It's what we expect and love about Donald .
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563,923 | 102,816 | 83,972 | 9 |
A review of the 3-D theatrical version
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Last night , the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh , screened an ultra-rare showing of Friday the 13th Part 3 in all it's gore-splattered 3D glory . The cinema was packed , the screening sold out and the audience absolutely loved it . Every scare worked , the 3D effects leaped right off the screen and lovingly poked us in the eye and when the film was over it got the longest applause I've ever seen a film get . For those pretentious cynics who think that the Friday the 13th films are not great then there's nothing like a 350 + audience to prove you wrong . Since this film was in ' polarised ' 3D ( see-thru glasses instead of a red-blue blur ) then it's not possible to transfer the effect to DVD . Besides , nothing beats seeing this on the big screen with Jason's face 10-feet tall and his massive hands reaching out for you . If there is EVER a 3D screening of this then you really ought to go see , even if you have to sell your own grandmother for a ticket .
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564,210 | 102,816 | 489,229 | 9 |
Action-packed !
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Remember the arcades back in the ' good old days ' of video-gaming ? Before polygons and 3D took over there was a time when you could walk into an arcade that was thick with the smell of sweat as dozens of teenagers hammered away furiously at the buttons of countless machines . You'd probably have to queue-up to play your favorite game or if you had no money you'd just watch someone else who was better than you . When you did get a go the stick was hard to get a grip it'd be soaked in sweat so much and your fingers would be so numb after a few minutes of play that your hand would go all cramped . Midnight Resistance ( a sequel to the 1987 game Heavy Barrel ) was one of those classic arcade games made by Data East ( one of the top companies at the time ) that was so cool you didn't care how hard it was . If you're familiar with the Turrican series of games then you'll love Midnight Resistance . It features 10 levels of similar gameplay with hordes of enemies coming at you from all directions and enough mega-firepower to deal with them all . You'll be leaping , jumping , climbing and crawling everywhere as hundreds of bursts of gunfire blaze across the screen . The fire-fight just doesn't let up for a second for the entire game . And you'll love it . Having said that , it's a very weird and surrealistic game . You're supposed to be a member of some Drug Enforcemant Squad , according to the instructions , but the enemies are often demonic and the ' story ' takes you through industrial cities , laboratories , forests and outer-space to battle giant , disembodied brain stems and free you're family from mad scientists . Very weird indeed . But that was all the rage back in 1990 , when arcade games were filled with bizarre imagery and disorientating level designs to keep you off-guard . Like other games of the era it is very , very hard ; a dastardly ploy to make you spend more and more money to get through the game . But when you had this much fun , it was worth it . Definitely one to hunt down . Graphics Sound B Gameplay A Lasting
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564,206 | 102,816 | 483,496 | 10 |
Great documentary
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Everything you ever wanted to know about Phantasm is right here in this 97-minute feature with interviews from Don Coscarelli , producer Paul Pepperman , Angus Scrimm , Reggie Bannister , Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury . The inspirations , the studio politics , the filming , the SFX , the brilliant score and the characters are all discussed in great length and detail and if your into these films you'll totally love it . All of the interviewees have perfect recollection of most of the events , dating as far back as 28 years ago . Especially interesting is Don Coscarelli's explanations of the evolution of the story as the series progressed and anything the elegant and classy Angus Scrimm says is like listening to an old English professor read poetry from a book , even if he is talking about an inter-dimensional grave-robbing Tall Man . If only all film documentaries were this way instead of the usual promotional fluff rubbish eh ?
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564,165 | 102,816 | 483,497 | 10 |
A phun and phact-philled tour .
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Yes , I know my substituting F for PH is getting old . But allow me some bad humor . 28 years after the first Phantasm movie was made , nothing much has changed in the fictional small town where the Tall Man started pillaging graves . Reggie Bannister hosts the feature and takes us to the house where Mike and Jodie lived ( which still looks pretty much the same ) to sit on the front porch and reminisce about the good times he had strumming on his guitar with Jodie . Then he visits the fortune teller's house , the graveyard ( actually a park ) and to place that was supposed to be the entry gates to Morningside . Reggie's a good host and has a good memory of the stories and the history of the area . I would have liked to have seen more , like which town the filmed ' Main Street ' on or the mansion that doubled as the Mausoleum ( which was also Tanya Robert's house in A View to a Kill ) but it's still a nice little feature .
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564,050 | 102,816 | 872,115 | 10 |
Best Mario Kart game
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As much as I like Mario Kart DS , this one is simply so much better . I came across this game in an arcade when I was on holiday and discovered that while it's so much like Mario Kart DS it's also much bigger and better . I do love racing games in the arcade , with the steering wheel and pedals and seat and all . It starts of with you getting your picture taken and the facial characteristics of your chosen driver ( Luigi for me ) super-imposed over your own photo . Then it's the usual course selection and driving skills . But what a fun ride ! I could literally play this game for hours and hours . Unlocking all the courses and prizes . I was doing quite well and was pretty damn pleased with myself . But to continue playing would have cost a fortune . If I were a millionaire I would . I would probably just buy the machine if I were a millionaire . Cute , colorful eye-candy . Everything such an arcade game should be . Spend your pennies on this ' un .
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564,767 | 102,816 | 462,499 | 10 |
Every new town just seems to bring you down
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I'll get my one and only gripe out of the way first . I don't like the title . Rambo 4 or John Rambo would have been far more appropriate but I will call the film Fourth Blood in this review to avoid confusion between the characters name and the film title . For the past 20 years John Rambo has remained in Thailand since his rescue of Colonel Trautman in Afghanistan . He lives a quiet life as a snake hunter and fisherman until he is propositioned by a group of simple and naive American missionaries from some quaint country town ( think of Ned Flanders and his pals ) to take them up river into wartorn Bhurma where carnage , rape , mutilations and amputations are a daily occurrence so they can help the sick and teach bible or some other such Mother Theresa uselessness . It takes some convincing but Rambo agrees to do it and is only happy to see the back of them . But when the missionaries are kidnapped ( which was inevitable ) he leads a ragtag bunch of mercenaries across the border to annihilate every Junta in their way . But Rambo doesn't merely shoot the baddies , he rips them apart in ways so bloody it would make Jason Voorhees blush . Yes , it's a rather thin story , but so what ? The only people who would point this out are those desperate to hate the film . But if your film taste usually involves Keira Knightley in a frock or Cameron Diaz doing romcom then what the hell are you doing watching a Rambo film anyway ? I had worries that the Rambo character might not be relevant anymore . He hasn't been around since the 80s and he stood for something rather different back then . Stallone has always played him as a cynic and someone who mostly doesn't care about the world after what it's done to him . With all of the carnage and cheapening of life that happens daily on our planet it does seem fitting that Rambo would retreat to a quiet corner until mankind needs his ruthless efficiency for killing again . Stallone looks great for his age and this , his seventh film as director , is certainly his most hardcore . At 61 it seems that old Sly has more testosterone pumping through his arteries than ever before . Another thing that worried me was the loss of Jerry Goldsmith and Richard Crenna . A Rambo movie simply cannot be a Rambo movie without those classic , signature themes . Brian Tyler , who is certainly not the best composer in Hollywood , does a competent , if not exceptional , job of blending his own tough action noise with Goldsmith's memorable tunes . Richard Crenna on the other hand is one of those actors that really should have lived forever without aging . His absence is not explained in the movie but Stallone claims that ' Trautman died the day my friend Richard died ' . Though I did love the black and white dream sequence at the halfway mark . Rambo has vivid flashbacks to the previous films with images of Colonel Trautman . His voice calls out to him ' John . . . John ! ' until it fades into the voice of a Pastor calling for Rambo's help . It's like Trautman , Rambo's only real friend / father figure , is still trying to give him guidance from the next world . It could have been longer , but legend has it that Stallone has a director's cut in the works for DVD and it's surely a great night at the movies . It finishes of the Rambo story perfectly will surely please every single Rambo fan on the face of the earth . Fourth Blood is a real action movie , no PG13 Live Free or Die Hard garbage here . This is what an action film , a MAN'S film should be .
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563,801 | 102,816 | 93,220 | 10 |
Great Sequel
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This non-related sequel is so sweet-natured , so tame and family orientated that to assume otherwise is completely ludicrous . There is nothing in this movie that could possibly rate it above a PG , max . I wouldn't even have reservations letting younger children watch House 2 . A new house has a 20-something yuppie called Jesse ( Arye Gross ) move in with his girlfriend Kate ( Lar Park-Lincoln ) . His friend Charlie ( Jonathan Stark ) , a music agent , arrives with his new diva discovery Jana ( Amy Yasbeck ) to help him thru the unfamiliar first few days . The house is where Jesse's parents were killed when he was just a baby and it full of many curiosities . Crafted in a bizarre Gothic-Aztec style the house itself is a marvellous set and the many rooms and passages are as mysterious to us as they are to Jesse . Sitting on one of his many mantelpieces is a crystal skull that fascinates him for some reason . He even misses his housewarming party while studying the skull's history . His studies lead him to dig up the grave of his great , great grandfather , or Gramps ( Royal Dano ) , where he discovers the old coot isn't dead just in limbo . The person who possesses the skull is granted eternal youth but it also warps the space-time continuum within the House . Gramps comes home with Jesse , is more enthralled by Kleenex boxes and TV than the mysteries around him and ducks for cover whenever someone from another time comes to steal the skull . Just like the first movie different rooms lead into different time zones . Jesse and Charlie have many hilarious adventures battling caveman , dinosaurs , Aztecs an evil cowboy called Slim . The one that killed Jesse's parents and betrayed Gramps over a century ago . House 2 has so much careless abandon and zany plot twists that it is totally impossible not to love this movie . The huge success of the first movie meant that this one was put into production literally and hour later and Ethan Wiley was given the budget and green light to do whatever he wanted . How often does happen today ? Usually it would make for a bad movie considering this was the first movie Wiley directed . But it makes for an unusually cute and light-hearted supernatural romp . One of the weaker aspects of this sequel is that it has more SFX and animation by Phil Tippet's stop-motion workshop and less by Dreamquest . The matte paintings are gorgeous but the dated dinosaurs look hokey in a few shots . If you can just squint during these moments you won't notice . Bill Maher from TV's " Politically Incorrect " even manages to show up as a music producer who is interested in Yasbeck and mighty suspicious of Jesse's antics . John Ratzenberger ( this makes both movies star one of the " Cheers " barflies ) appears as a repairman / adventurer who assists Jesse and Charlie battle some Aztecs . Look out for Kane Hodder ( Jason ) in an ape costume . Jesse adopts a fluffy , little baby pterodactyl and a strange creature called a Caterpuppy , a cross between . . . well you know . You need an open mind and a suspension of disbelief to swallow the outrageous goings on in this movie . The commentary is better than the one on the first movie . Ethan Wiley and Cunningham get on well and have no quibbles pointing out how crazy the film is . They discuss the budget , tell tales of the late Royal Dano and explain how many of the effects were pulled off within the constraints of the budget . One of the most interesting things they mention is that even tho the movie was stuck in between The Color Purple and Beverly Hills Cop II the kids still preferred House 2 as their fave movie of the summer . But because the movie didn't have it's own opening weekend , unlike the original , it wasn't as successful . Didn't stop 2 more sequels being made . A theatrical trailer is also included . Much like the first film the picture has been brilliantly transferred onto DVD . The 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic picture looks super with very few glitches . Colors are rendered with pleasant accuracy and you wouldn't believe the low-budget origins when judging this picture . There is some grain during darker scenes but other than this the movie is looking great . The Mono soundtrack is not terribly engaging and most of the film's sound is centre-channel biased . But there's no hiss or pop to worry about . It may be Mono but it's clean and fresh sounding to me .
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564,261 | 102,816 | 295,274 | 10 |
Down and out cat .
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We all know how much Garfield hates going to the vet . So after wrecking Jon's house the fat cat is dragged , kicking and screaming , into the car . But even on the way there Garfield can't sit a peace . Until he falls out of the window and into the busy street . He quickly learns that freedom from Jon and life on the streets isn't all fun and games . No one is kind to him , he's cold and quickly hungry . So when he dips into a smelly garbage can he's met with hostility from a punk alley cat . Being house cat and used to home comforts , Garfield cannot match the aggression of this alley cat . More so when a hundred of them ( looking more like the Critters from the movie of the same name , than alley cats ) come after him . Garfield takes refuge in an old building which just happens to be Italian Restaurant where he was born . There he meets him mother and the rest of his family . Tho he doesn't belong . And Garfield learns that his real family is Jon and Odie . It's a very sweet natured story and the ending is cute and touching . There is a good reason why it won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program .
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564,507 | 102,816 | 325,258 | 10 |
This is knucking futs !
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David Spade is one of my fave SNL stars and he's made better movies than the rest of his old pals ( It's Pat , Coneheads and Master of Disguise are among the worst films ever made ) . I especially liked him as the voice of Kuzko in the Emperor's New Groove . Here he plays Dickie Roberts : ( former ) Child Star , a kid at the top , but a man at the bottom and absolutely desperate for a comeback . His agent ( John Lovitz ) cannot find him any work outside of celebrity boxing , his girlfriend has dumped him and Dickie's main source of income is parking cars . You get the picture , he's a completely fallen star . Rob Reiner has a role that Dickie would love to get his hands on but Rob wont touch him because it requires an actor who knows ' normal ' , someone who knows how to be an adult , someone who had a proper childhood . Desperate to get the part , Dickie hires an ordinary middle-class family ( dedicated mum , workaholic dad , bullied son , wishful daughter ) to look after him like proper parents . Trouble naturally follows . But Dickie's hijinks lessen and his new family's tolerance increases . Yes , they do learn from each other and become better people ( yadda yadda ) but there is just so much fun and craziness along the way and some genuine character moments . There are loads of celebrity cameos ( Tom Arnold , Corey Feldman , Brendan Fraser , Dustin Diamond ) and lots of biting satire and the movie industry but the bulk of the film relies upon Dickie learning family values and having fun with the kids , being a kid . Proof positive that he's still the best ( former ) SNL star . The only bad thing I can mention is Adam Sandler's involvement as executive producer , something that seriously tarnishes the film and prevents it from having any real class . The DVD is in great looking 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5 . 1 sound and quite a few extras .
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564,382 | 102,816 | 233,365 | 10 |
One of Ben's best
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As a fan of Ben Dover and his terrible jokes I am annoyed at the dwindling quality of his recent DVDs . Booty Bandit was one of the last good one's he did . The first scene features 19 year old Layla-Jade , freshly back from America , introducing a porn débutante to Ben . Her name is Emma and she has never had good sex . Yeah right ! She's got a lot of puppy fat but giggles a lot and is cute enough to make it worthwhile . Both women do anal but no DP even though there are 3 guys . Would have been a great scene if they did . Second is Tammi , a rather heavy-sized woman but she's still attractive and has a great sexual appetite . She does anal with both Pascal and Omar . There is some DP but it only lasts a few seconds ! Third is Bev . She's not much to look at but this was made before her breast implants so she at least has a natural-looking body . It takes too long to get down to the sex and the anal penetration is not deep enough . There is no DP . Finally there is Leanne , the actress featured in the notorious Channel 4 documentary Hardcore . She comes across as very sweet and eager to please . She does anal and DP ( she LOVES it ! ! ! ) with Pascal and Bob . The DVD includes bonus scenes from Ben Dover's Dirty Blondes and a brief still gallery .
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563,858 | 102,816 | 281,686 | 10 |
All is well
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Who would have thought it ? Don Coscarelli , the man who wrote and directed Phantasm a long , long time ago comes back out of nowhere , after spending his entire career in the dregs , with something like this . A film that is more an exploration of regret , fading dignity and growing old than it is about a soul-sucking mummy . Very old Elvis is brilliantly played by Bruce Campbell . The voice , the hair , the mannerisms are all perfect . He's stuck in Mud Creek rest home where the cynical staff believe he's really called Sebastian Haff , the man Elvis traded places with back in the 70s . And when Haff died , so did the Elvis the public loved . This only left the REAL Elvis free to live his life in peace and eventually indignity . He pals up with a man who believes he's JFK , only problem is he's black . Though it's more likely he's senile rather than a truth-teller like the so-called Sebastian Haff . Both men have one concern , to stop some kind of Bubba Ho-Tep mummy from taking the souls of all the rest home residents . Yes , it's insane . But also wildly imaginative and more than balances out the endless , heartless , conveyer belt Hollywood productions . Elements of the story will stay with you and the character development is graceful and important . The finishing touch is Brian Tyler's awesome score . The main theme is one of the best ever and will flood you will feeling and emotion . Not only is Bubba Ho-Tep blessed with a cast and crew who care about the film their making , it also has wonderful music too . I am lucky enough to have the rare score CD ( autographed by Coscarelli and Tyler ) . Hunt it down , it's seriously worth it . The DVD is in flawless 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with loud , effective Dolby 5 . 1 sound . There is an absolute truckload of features which are , for a change , worth it considering how good the film is . You seriously have to get this , baby . Keep a lookout for Reggie Bannister as the rest home manager . And watch all the way to the end of the credits for a weird message . . . ELVIS RETURNS IN ' BUBBA NOSFERATU : CURSE OF THE SHE VAMPIRES '
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564,619 | 102,816 | 43,953 | 10 |
DUCK SEASON ! FIRE !
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In the first of a series of three , Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny argue over which one of them should be hunted and shot by the ever-gullible Elmer Fudd . Bugs is too smart to be outwitted by the reactionary and hyperactive Daffy . He keeps it cool and collected as Daffy screams his head off never knowing what he really IS saying . He even grabs Elmer's shotgun and screams ' Duck season ! Fire ! ' , resulting in his bill being blown off . It's the biggest laugh in the cartoon . And it's a laugh so good Joe Dante re-used it in Looney Tunes : Back in Action . Though at the end of this one , Elmer Fudd gets what he deserves and Bugs and Daffy get a little payback . Followed by Rabbit Seasoning and Duck , Rabbit , Duck . Daffy Rules !
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564,771 | 102,816 | 45,585 | 10 |
Bugs the Matador
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On his way to a carrot festival in Mexico , Bugs Bunny typically gets lost and ends up burrowing right into the middle of a sports arena just as a Matador is smashed out of the stadium by an angry bull . Annoyed at losing his way Bugs repeatedly tries to ask for directions and ends up get smashed out of the stadium himself . Of course you realize , this means war . What follows is a match of wits in which Bugs is always the winner . He's got a zillion times as much cunning and clever as any rival and before long the poor bull is in no condition to ever fight again . Don't mess with the Bunny .
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563,820 | 102,816 | 238,924 | 10 |
Totally great
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The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys is kind of like a cross between The Virgin Suicides and Stand By Me . Set in the 70's ( featuring many cool 70's haircuts ) in small town Georgia , the story focuses on Francis , a 14-year-old dreamer and troublemaker . He and his pals , Tim , Wade , and Joey cope with life under the oppressive rule of one-legged nun Sister Assumpta ( Jodie Foster ) at the Puritan Christian high school they're unfortunate enough to attend . One of their methods of escape is the ' The Atomic Trinity ' comic book . Each of them have their own character with superpowers ( such as The Muscle , Captain Asskicker and Skeleton Boy ) , battling against the tyrannical regime of Nunzilla / Pegleg ( a gross caricature of Sister Assumpta ) . These fantasy stories make up the terrific animated sequences of the film . The cool thing is that they are not so totally removed from the reality of Francis , Tim , Wade and Joey . The boys soon find their way into a lot of trouble though . After stealing the school's nun statue mascot the quartet plan to steal a cougar from the zoo and put in Sister Assumpta's office . A mad plan yes , but their determination and invention behind it is very clever . Some scenes of the film are very emotional , so if you have soft spot you'll find it tough to get through the scene where Tim finds a dying dog by the side of the road or Francis reading a poem at the funeral . Francis ' relationship with Margie ( the very cute Jenna Malone ) also takes many curious and unique turns . The scene with the ghost watching them sleep was pleasingly weird . Taken from the one and only book ( posthumously ) by Chris Fuhrman ( a book I must get as soon as I see ) , The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys is attractively shot , wonderfully acted and definitely worth getting . The DVD is in 1 . 85 : 1 widescreen ( strangely non-anamorphic , though the region 2 version is ) with Dolby 5 . 1 sound and a mild bunch of extras .
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564,343 | 102,816 | 453,502 | 10 |
One of the best plat-formers for the Genesis
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I was a huge fan of James Pond II : Robocod and I loved the theme tune . I remember getting it for Xmas in 1992 and thinking it was so cool . So when this third one came out in 1993 I was first in line to get a copy . I sure do miss the days of the traditional plat-former . There's too much complication and eye-candy these days and I prefer simpler games . Tho I'm not saying this game is simple . The level of game play is so good that it borderlines on being a platformer and RPG . It was one of the first non-linear games I played on the Genesis . Fresh from his defeat at the North Pole , Dr . Maybe heads for the moon in order to mine it's wealth of cheese and flood the global markets . It's up to James Pond to stop him once again . What follows is an incredibly inventive and cute 75 levels of various moon locations . Tho this time there is no sponsorship from Penguin biscuits so don't expect to see them everywhere . The ending is a bit of a let down unless you find all of the missing satellite parts so make sure you scour every level before reaching the exit beacons . And am I the only one in thinking that Dave Arnold's score for ID4 ' borrowed ' from this just a little too much ? I do wish the James Pond franchise had been even half as successful as Sonic the Hedgehog but there may be life in the old guppy yet .
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563,862 | 102,816 | 271,027 | 10 |
Terrific Modern Action Movie
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Kiss of the Dragon is a hyperactive martial arts movie with a heavy European feel . After Jet Li's fans were left disappointed with the fake , CGI-enhanced fighting in Romeo Must Die he decided to go back to practical , hand-to-hand combat with literally no strings attached . KOTD is the perfect excuse for action , with minimal plot and impossible odds . Basically , Jet Li plays a Chinese cop Lui Jian who travels to Paris to help the police bring a crime boss to justice . But the French police just happen to be heavily , heavily corrupt and kill Mr . Big , framing Lui Jian in the process . Keen to stay alive , Lui Jian flees the scene , but not before screaming , mad and completely hat stand police inspector Richard ( Tcheky Caryo in his typically delirious role ) sends just about every hardened police psycho after him . Outrageously outnumbered , Lui Jian prevails and fights his way through swarms and swarms of thugs out for his blood . Using only his hands and feet ( and any useful nearby tool ) he manages to wipe them all out . Far-fetched it may be , but action choreographer Cory Yuen shoots it all in the most realistic and stylish way . You really will believe Lui Jian is capable of such an impossible feat , that's how realistic the action is . And all without glamorising guns . KOTD uses the rule of increasingly mad set-pieces . The first desperate escape through the corridors and passageways of the hotel , the death-defying escape from the Seine Barge and through the tunnels and sewers , the orphanage confrontation and ( especially ) the final scene in the police station where Lui Jian takes on a dojo full of martial artist police officers , evil twins and finally Inspector Richard . It's all breathtaking stuff and very , very violent . With far too many sanitised PG-13 minded ' action ' movies abundant these days KOTD is a breath of hardcore fresh air . If you like this then I suggest checking out The Transporter . It may be slightly tamer but it's made by the same people ( producer Luc Besson , Writer Robert Mark Kamen and Cory Yuen ) and is also set in France , only with a warmer , more exotic look . The DVD is in 2 . 35 : 1 anamorphic widescreen with a great Dolby 5 . 1 soundtrack . There are some extras and a commentary if you're into that sort of thing .
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564,164 | 102,816 | 177,842 | 10 |
Unprocessed fishsticks !
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Not wishing to suffer a night of boring stories and horrid family activities with Patty and Selma , Homer scours the house for a hiding place and has to settle for a spot behind the bookcase after Bart , Lisa and the pets take the better ones . But behind the bookcase is the doorway to another dimension , a place where shapes are extended beyond the 2 dimensions of the Simpsons universe , along the hypothetical ' Z-Axis ' . This leads to Homer noticing things he has never been able to see before , such as his big belly and butt . The place Homer is taken to is a massive grid-like universe , not unlike the movie Tron , where the stars shine brightly above and odd shapes and idiosyncrasies are in abundance . Among the many curious things Homer encounters is the library from Myst , which I thought was a cool reference . Also , the music as Homer wanders around in this mysterious place is very nice , it's a shame it never made it to any of the Simpsons CDs . In the end , though Homer's own ignorance of quantum physics ( he never read the book by that wheelchair guy ) and despite Bart's rescue attempts , the universe collapses on itself and Homer falls into oblivion , or some place much , much worse . . . . . . the real world . Well , at least he still has his erotic cakes .
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564,400 | 102,816 | 101,134 | 10 |
The best of early 90s experimental animation .
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Liquid Television was a series shown on MTV in which animators , directors and producers could feature their own creations and characters in wildly different forms and genres . Some could be live-action , some were computer CGI ( a pioneering technique at the time ) or hand-drawn , some were done with puppets and some were stop-motion . Pretty much , this was a wonderful show for people who love all kinds of random , bizarre and crazy animated shorts . If it were not for shows like Liquid Television there'd be no Aeon Flux , Beavis and Butthead , King of the Hill , Daria or Office Space . But there were also many other lesser known characters and segments such as Dog Boy , The Art School Girls of Doom , Psycho Gram ( which were brilliant ! ) , Bobby and Billy ( also brilliant ) , Winter Steele and Joe Normal . Basically all of the weirdest experimental stuff MTV could find . I used to watch this on TV when I was 10 years old and I must say , for my fertile imagination at the time , this show was light-years ahead of the tame , PC crap that kids watch these days . I do wish a complete anthology of Liquid Television was put on DVD instead of this lame ' Best Of . . . ' DVD that's OOP . Come on Paramount , why are we waiting ?
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564,583 | 102,816 | 90,094 | 10 |
Good stuff
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As a rather unsubtle allegory of mindless consumerism The Stuff works quite well . It'd be easy to dismiss it as an 80's shlockfest but there is some brains behind it and Larry Cohen ( the very man who wrote Maniac Cop , Phone Booth and Cellular ) keeps the film fun until the last frame . It's a cool story too . A weird goo oozes out of the ground in a quarry and it tastes good . So good in fact that within days it's being sold in mass , mass , incredibly mass quantities to the whole country . People are having it for breakfast , lunch , dinner , desert and supper . They feed it to their pets and put it in their coffee . Enough is not enough as the slogan goes . Rival candy companies don't like the look of this and hire a very smooth industrial spy , David ' Mo ' Rutherford , to find out exactly what it is . What he finds is rather sinister indeed . And with the help of a commercial maker , a runaway kid and a gung-ho militia leader he tries to put a stop to The Stuff . My main problem is that the origins off The Stuff and its ' intentions ' are never fully revealed or exploited . It ends without a satisfactory explanation which is quite a shame considering how much potential is wasted . There are stories that Larry Cohen cut 30 minutes of erm ? stuff from the movie and perhaps there's more to the missing scenes . But for what it is , The Stuff , is a fun 90-minute movie that will not linger in your memory too long after seeing it . Anchor Bay's DVD of The Stuff presents the film in 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic widescreen . The picture is generally clean and dirt free but has some trouble in a few scenes . The Mono sound is adequate and tolerable but the ADR is too apparent in the early scenes and there are brief drop-outs towards the end . A commentary by Larry Cohen is also included .
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563,972 | 102,816 | 462,388 | 10 |
And on that festive bombshell . . .
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Quite how Alan Partridge managed to wangle the BBC into giving him his own Xmas special after murdering Forbes McAllister in his last TV appearance is a mystery . But since disaster clings to his heels and everything he touches becomes a shambles he is always worth watching to see his ever-increasing denial of the trouble he is in . In this Xmas special he has created a mock-up of his very own living room in the TV studio . He tries to create a cozy Xmas atmosphere with a large tree , a crackling log fire and frequent visits to Fanny Thomas , a whorish TV chef cooking up Xmas snacks in his kitchen . His guests are a typically incongruous lot consisting of a Christian Zealot , Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC Programs ( and Alan's arch-Nemesis ) Tony Hayers and a pro-golfer who's career was robbed from him when he was struck by lightning . Also on the guest-list a car-dealer from a local Rover showroom dressed up as Santa who uses Alan to shamelessly plug his cars , which is illegal on the BBC . As you probably know , Alan is notorious for insulting his guests and is frequently intimidated by anyone who is not completely normal . There is no shortage of his loathsome personality and it leads to some harsh confrontations between him and the interviewees . But it's all hilarious . Since I only ever saw this for the first time yesterday I haven't been able to make an Xmas tradition of it but I will from now . It's brilliant !
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564,708 | 102,816 | 118,715 | 10 |
You see what happens , Larry ?
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It's hard to pick out one line of dialogue in particular for two reasons . One-almost everything said in this film is downright hilarious . And Two-the F word is spoken 281 times so there's not many sentences that don't contain it . 144 sentences also end in ' man ' . Jeff ' The Dude ' Lebowski is a man living a minimalistic existence . He has no job , no ambitions and no worries . His days , be they weekdays or weekends , are spent bowling , driving around or having the occasional acid flashback . His pals are Walter Sobchak , a security expert and half-crazed Vietnam vet and Donny , a humble , mousy little man who is left out of almost every conversation . The Dude is happy with his easy-going life of nothingness until two thugs ambush him in his house believing him to the OTHER Jeff ' The Big ' Lebowski , the millionaire with a trouble-making wife who owes money all over town . These thugs are none too happy with their dumb error and re-assert themselves by peeing on The Dude's rug . This very much displeases The Dude as this rug really tied the room together and since he cannot track down the ' Chinaman ' thug responsible he decides to take it out of the Big Lebowski , as it's now HIM who owes a new rug . The Dude is welcomed into the Big Lebowski's mansion by Brandt the butler , a man so appallingly sycophantic he'd make Weylon Smither's look bad . But his millionaire namesake is not so ready and willing to give hand-outs and basically tells The Dude to get lost . At this point things become quite complicated as a bunch of ex-pop star Nihilist thugs , a powerful pornographer , a dejected feminist daughter , a Brother Seamus ( NOT an Irish Monk ) , a joyriding teenager , a revolting pederast champion bowler , Saddam Hussein , a mysterious cowboy and a doctor who is insistent on him removing his shorts all make The Dude's life suddenly a helluva lot more interesting . The plot thickens and thickens and the dude is dragged to dozens of different places across LA , going from limo to limo , never too far from a white Russian or a doobie . There are zillions of idiosyncrasies in this film that keeps it new and interesting every time you watch it . Every scene and every line of dialogue is so memorable that , like me , you'll be acting the film out for years . Even on a 100th viewing you'll notice dramatic ironies , character arcs and ingenious wordplay that went right over your head before . The acting is superb . I am a fan of Jeff Bridges but he completely disappears in this film . He truly BECOMES The Dude and shows little of his recognisable self . John Goodman , in probably the most under-rated role of his career , is the world's angriest man . Bringing frustration and smart-ass arrogance to every scene ( though he's almost always right ) . Set well over a decade after ' nam ( and during the first Gulf conflict ) Walter seems to be suffering from perpetual , ever-lasting post-traumatic stress syndrome as he blows up in any situation . Take a look at his ' minor ' confrontation with Smokey for example . It's not about plot , or even characters . It's about a certain moment in time , the early 90s . And the definitive man of that time was the Dude . The rug-peeing just happened to occur simultaneously .
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564,100 | 102,816 | 268,583 | 10 |
Impossible
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This game was probably one of the most violent and bloody I have ever played . Even by modern standards . But it was absolutely impossible to finish . And I played it with the infinite lives cheat too and it still took hours and hours . The premise of the game came from the Dark Horse comics of the same name in which Robocop's technology is linked to Cyberdyne . In order to stop the technology ( and even himself ever existing ) Robocop must travel to the future and defeat Skynet . But not before taking on zillions of T-800s and T-1000s first . One of the coolest features of the game were the power-ups that modified Robocop's armour or game him massive new weapons . And you needed them as you were under constant assault from all directions . The Sega Genesis version was the best as the Super-Nintendo had all the blood cut out of it . I hope one day this is reprogrammed for the PC . Virgin sure did a great job of making the comic book into a game and how cool would it be to have a Robocop vs Terminator movie . It would surely be the greatest thing ever ! ! !
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563,876 | 102,816 | 45,697 | 10 |
Utter genius
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There's no flies on Sam Sheepdog , don't even bother trying to fool him because he can see through ALL your little tricks . Wile E . Coyote , taking a break from trying to catch that pesky Roadrunner , spies his long suspended dinner in a flock of sheep grazing happily in a field . Unfortunately for him , Sam has just started his shift and he isn't going to make it easy for him . A series of brilliant gags follow , all of them utter genius , as Coyote goes to more and more ridiculous measures to obtain his main course . Ending in a surprise twist that will leave you in stitches . A very funny , very clever cartoon .
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564,096 | 102,816 | 45,708 | 10 |
Tormented Daffy
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Poor old Daffy . He never gets his way . And in this 7-minute short he never even gets his story started it's just Daffy being tormented and riled up all the way through . Can't this Duck ever get that one moment of glory he's been after all these years ? It begins as some sort of Robin Hood type story but the animator has fun switching backgrounds so Daffy never knows what scene he is in or where he is . At one point he switches sound effects around which truly drives Daffy mad . Then after the utter humiliation of switching his parachute for an anvil ( after erasing his airplane ) the animator is revealed as . . . Bugs Bunny . " Ain't I a stinker ? " He confirms rather than asks . Yes , he is a stinker . Daffy Duck rules !
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564,352 | 102,816 | 83,505 | 10 |
Absolute genius classic !
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There was never anything quite like The Young Ones and there never will be . It's almost impossible to copy this outrageously bizarre and far-fetched TV show anyway . It's even impossible to exaggerate how crazy it was . Do I have to say I totally love it ? each episode is crammed full of eternally quotable dialogue , wonderful physical comedy and insane , unexpected plot developments . The Young Ones takes place in a universe where absolutely ANTHING can and WILL happen . Rick is undeniably the best character tho . He and Vivian get into the stupidest fights and argue over the dumbest of things . Neil the hippy is also consistently amusing in his many failed attempts to off himself . Mike hardly ever had any funny lines but thankfully no episode really ever revolved around him . Plus a Bolowski family member ( always played by Alexi Sayle ) pops up in each episode to add to the mayhem . What makes the show priceless are the totally irrelevant and senseless intercut scenes . Check out the episode ' CASH ' for the best example of this . And , in an effort to raise the budget from ' sitcom ' to ' light entertainment ' the show had a musical performance each week from the likes of Jools Holland , Madness and Motorhead . They never intrude tho as they are cut over madcap montages . It speaks volumes of the youth of 80's Britain and has a lot to say about the politics of the Tory Government at the time . All four play penniless students , surviving on lentils , who are completely unconcerned about their exams or coming bottom in the whole world . This is mainly channelled thru Rick ( Mayall co-wrote the show with Ben Elton ) who is the most studenty of them all , a wannabe anarchist and people's poet . Vyvian is a hard , hardcore Sex Pistols-like punk / thug who thinks nothing of having steel stars stuck onto his forehead or chopping his fingers off for a laugh . Neil smells . And has no quibbles picking up dead pigeons off the street to cook for dinner . Mike is a ladies man , despite the fact there are precious few ladies around him . All four get on like a house burning down . Or exploding like a cigar thrown into fart gas . The show was shot on early 80's video with an aspect ratio of 1 . 33 : 1 . the picture quality is not the best but it's always looked like a TV show so it's perfectly adequate . The sound is Mono but that's all you need to enjoy . The extras seem cool but they're not really . There is a bonus episode from Filthy Rich and Catflap and one from Bottom ( the episode ' Smells ' in which Ritchie and Eddie try to lure two lesbians with foul-smelling pheromone spray ) . The 15-minutes long ' Creating the Young Ones ' is quite superficial and deserved to be much longer . And where are the new interviews with Edmondson , Ryan and Sayle ? The same applies to ' The Young Ones and the 80s ' . Why wasn't it longer ? Five postcards of all the main stars are also included in the set . And you must buy it .
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564,182 | 102,816 | 374,900 | 10 |
You will DIE laughing at this film
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Napoleon Dynamite was a total surprise . For me it just came out of nowhere and I only went to see it because of the whacky title . How was I supposed to know I was about to see one of the funniest movies ever . But it's not HAHA funny . Or funny STRANGE . It's a weird kind of bizarre humor that will only appeal to those sick of American Pie 4 , 357 . The story is not original by any means ( a high school loser overcomes his adversaries and gets the girl ) but the absurdest approach and catatonically laid-back humor make the movie a true gem . Napoleon Dynamite is a stroppy , slack jawed , gangly high school teen . He's an uber-dork . He loves tacky drawings of fantasy creatures ( It's a Liger . My favorite animal . A cross between a tiger and a lion . ) and has a thing about telling unbelievable lies . But it's not like he feels disadvantaged . As far as Napoleon is concerned , it's everyone else that's retarded . Including his 85-pound , 32-year-old , still living at home nerdy brother . 24 year old directer Jared Hess has created a wonderful universe with Napoleon Dynamite . It's full of oddities and quirky characters of the Coen Brothers variety and a thoroughly unoppressive sense of light-heartiness . Plus , Jon Heder is BRILLIANT as Napoleon . If he don't get an Academy Award come February then there ain't no justice . His performance is just perfect in every way . The speech , the posture , the mannerisms the comic-timing . All brilliant . Definitely ! As it turns out in my investigation into the wonderful movie , the film was a bit of a sleeper hit when it came out in America . And quite deservedly so . I can assure you I will be buying the DVD of this movie .
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564,818 | 102,816 | 332,375 | 10 |
Meaner Girls
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Saved is very funny satire / comedy-drama on whacked-out Christian fundamentalists . Basically at a Christian High-School ( which is about as narrow-minded , hypocritical and contradicting as my own was ) there is this clique of girls called the ' Christian Jewels ' , which are not to dissimilar from ' The Plastics ' in Mean Girls . Every girl wants to be a part of the Jewels , including geeky , desperate Tia ( Heather Matarazazazazazo rehashing her role from Welcome to the Dollhouse ) . I would find her attractive if she hadn't dyed her hair an unconvincing blonde . Too bad she's er . . . married . After earning her way into this clique Mary ( Jena Malone ) is devastated when her boyfriend confesses his massive gayness . Eager to ' cure ' him of this ungodly condition Mary offers up her virginity to him , only to get pregnant . Obviously this bun in the oven secret threatens to tear everyone's flimsy little world apart . Hilary Faye , the leader of the Christian Jewels is appalled at Mary's sudden lack of faith and makes it her mission to save her , whatever the method or cost . Obviously Mary doesn't appreciate this and it only drives her to further isolation . Saved is superior to Mean Girls in terms of relevance and wit . Though I'm afraid the target audience will no doubt pass this over in favor for Miss Lohan as discussion of God and the lack of pink will fail to attract as young an audience . The acting is great . Jena Malone is more of an actress than Lohan / Duff , Macaulay Culkin was effective as the wheelchair-bound Roland , Mandy Moore is so innocently evil as Hilary Faye she makes Regina George look timid and Eva Amurri is like so totally gorgeous ! Seriously ! Wow ! Too bad she smokes . NEXT ! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Saved to anyone . It's funny and clever and outdoes all ' teen-comedies ' by transcending the genre . A rarity indeed .
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563,952 | 102,816 | 108,740 | 10 |
Those are the headlines ! God , I wish they weren't !
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The headlines tonight : NATO annulled after delegate swallows treaty , car drives by window in town and Leicester man wins right to eat sister . Those are the headlines ! Now fact me till I fart ! I was 13 when this life-changing show came on TV . Reaching a small audience on BBC2 at night , The Day Today was a parody of the distinctly British way of News programming , exaggerating all the usual idiosyncrasies and formalities . My granddad made me suffer the News every night when I was a kid so I really got the sense of humor that this show layed on so thickly . Chris Morris is your utterly , utterly deadpan Anchorman delivering lines like ' " I'm so sorry " , yells exploding cleaner ' to perfection . Alan Partridge ( my first introduction to this popular character ) is the sports presenter who hasn't a clue how to commentate or appeal to his audience , Peter O'Hanarha-hanrahan is the dunderhead foreign correspondent , Colaterie Sisters does the business news and Valerie Sinatra takes care of the roads in The Day Today Travel Tower a mile above the centre of London . There's also Sylvester Stewart doing the weather but explaining it with cryptic double-meanings that no one could ever figure out . Example ' Thunder and lightning about the volume of a Thin Lizzie concert . ' Crazy one-off reporters such as Jonathan Sizz , Eugene Fraxby , Donnald Beth'le'Hem , Harfynn Teuport and Suzanna Geckaloyce are all equally as good despite their small amount of air time . But the best of them all , without a doubt , is the hard-as-fock , the man without fear , the terrifyingly important mean machine Ted Maul . Always sent out to scope the most dangerous stories ( such as a commuter train full of businessmen who have turned into barbarians because of track delays ) , Ted demands you pay attention and scares you into accepting the facts with his frighteningly authoritative voice . He's just so great , I cannot describe . There was also several stories by American reporter Barbera Wintergreen with her horribly blown-out NTSC color . Barbera mostly reported on the many , many deaths of American serial killer Chapman Baxter , who always got the chair but actually died on it in various different ways ( an electric toilet , while stuffing himself with cheeseburgers ) . Without a single duff story , The Day Today is infinitely funny and endlessly quotable . Back in 1994 , we never had MP3 players or sound-clips on the internet , so I actually made mix tapes of all the best bits ( really hard to choose ) and memorised practically every episode from beginning to end . To this Day ( today ) I still remember it all . Why haven't I bought the DVD yet ? And remember , fact times importance equals NEWS !
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564,875 | 102,816 | 307,987 | 10 |
Suffocatingly Hilarious
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For far too long we've been denied a decent Xmas movie , one that can become an annual tradition . There are movies like Christmas Vacation , Scrooged and Home Alones 1 and 2 that you have to watch every year . Bad Santa is now , definitely one of those movies . Billy plays Willie , a shopping mall Santa who is the sleaziest and filthiest scumbag ever . The kind we all aspire to be . A man who would rather pee himself than be bothered getting up to go to the john . He loathes kids ( as we all do ) and the Santa thing is only a front for robbing the mall on Christmas Eve . It's the same old scam him and his midget pal have been pulling for years . Only this year it's all about to change . Santa meets a fat , retarded kid who likes to ask LOADS of questions and seemingly lives alone in a massive , empty house ( grandma is everything but dead ) . Seizing the opportunity , Santa moves in and ends up being a ( very , very , very reluctant , surrogate father ) for the kid ( charmingly named Thurman Murman ) . But this ain't no tale of redemption . Santa maintains his sleaziness and keeps on drinking , drinking , drinking . . . though he does manage to get a totally hot girlfriend . There is some nice support from Bernie Mac and the late John Ritter ( as a fan I especially appreciated the appropriate tribute to him at the end ) but it's the kid who ends up being the one who steals the scene with his glazed , dead-eye look and unending , never-ever ending questions . Come on , what other character has mortally wounded themselves carving out a wooden pickle for an Xmas present ? I suppose I have no option but to buy the Badder Santa unrated DVD coz more of this movie will always be better . Willie is no Kris Kringle but that doesn't mean this movie isn't suitable for kids . I would still love this film even if I were 10 years old . Sure there's lots of swearing in it but point out one kid to me that won't swear when he / she grows up . If sickening sugary rubbish like Miracle on 54th Street and Home Alone 86 are making you suicidal then watch Bad Santa . The real miracle is how a film this foul can end up being so endearing .
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564,367 | 102,816 | 83,944 | 10 |
Total classic
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Everything about this movie rocks . From Goldsmith's rousing score to Stallone's perfect performance . Yes , you heard me . Stallone does act in this movie . I feel so sorry for Rambo . People are real nasty to him . Especially the deputy with the moustache . He was a real jerk . The scene in which Rambo finally explodes in the jail cell is way cool . The music that goes with this scene is SO intense . I highly recommend this movie and the soundtrack . This is a proper movie by the way . I know that the character of Rambo became a ' little ' exaggerated and silly in the sequels but do not let that alter your opinion of this movie . The Pacific Northwest scenery is also very beautiful and atmospheric . The sound design seems to be crafted so that dialogue sound natural like it would in a mountain forest or in dead cold environments where the air cannot carry sound so well . See this movie in widescreen to appreciate how cool it really is .
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564,680 | 102,816 | 457,504 | 10 |
Fairly generic but fun racing game
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I remember playing Top Speed in the arcades when I was only 7-years-old . Being that age I was really crap at it but it was one of those game where the more money you put in , the further you got . I never really had more than a couple of pounds to spare at that age . Perhaps if I saved up over a week I could have finished it but at that age a week is an eternity . The game itself played very much like the original Out Run . Except you drove a different kind of car with a nitro boost ( back then I thought that was the coolest thing but EVERY driving game now has it ) that would make it go seriously fast . Trouble is , you had to know your driving tactics ( that game was controlled with a steering wheel , stick shift and pedals ) and , being 7 , I wasn't exactly the best . When you would crash , the car would also do some really cool flips and bounces . Crashing is something I often did while playing this game . Another thing about the game that was really cool was the music . 80's arcade games REALLY DID have the best tunes ever . Thanks to my useless photographic memory I can still remember to this day the opening music . I would buy this game if I could just to hear it again . The only thing dated about it is the graphics and repetitive scenery , it does make the game look a little odd but the multiple environments make up for it . I never managed to get further than the canyon level . Top Speed did get a lot of criticism for being too much like Out Run but if it did rip it off then Turbo Out Run is a rip-off of Top Speed . Definitely a cool game .
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564,290 | 102,816 | 462,720 | 10 |
An absolutely mad ( and tragic ) pisstake .
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In his US version of his TV show Ali G had an episode where he visited loads of Top Brass in the TV business . As a joke he created a pilot episode of a show called ' Spyz ' in which he played . . . wait for it . . . James Bond . But this is not the James Bond we know of . Instead it's a horribly low-budget amateur film with all the sophistication of something slapped together on a high school editing suite complete with a tawdry urban / industrial soundtrack that actually gets a bit infectious . It's so deliberately awful that you'll wet yourself . The film begins with Ali G / Bond strolling , rather unrealistically , through some sort of common ground when he is ambushed by a bunch of anonymous thugs . The ensuing fight is terribly choreographed and looks even faker than a toy-fight , playground wrestling match . The one thug Ali G / Bond doesn't kill happens to a lady ( Isla Fisher ) and they end up making spontaneous ' love ' against the nearest tree . Before Ali G / Bond is finished he receives an important phone-call about a bomb in a ' nucular plant ' and rushes off home to get his Uzi ( which he keeps on top of a cupboard in the kitchen ) . At home his wife moans at him that he spends more time saving the world than their marriage and that he better not miss ' little Jonathan's birthday baseball match ' later on that night . Ali G / Bond's response is no more than ' fck off ' . Once he has found the ' bomb ' ( which is nothing more than a couple of wires wrapped around a battery in a small plastic toolbox ) and disarms it he is once again ambushed by more anonymous heavies . The gun battle involves them not actually firing at each other but instead pointing their weapons and making the sound effects themselves . Ali G / Bond manages to kill them all but none of the impacts on the body are actually seen . Instead , once they are already dead we see close-ups of their ' wounds ' which are made up of strawberry syrup being poured onto their bodies and oozing out of their mouths . Now Ali G / Bond goes back to the lady spy's house and makes more misogynistic love to her , her pal and her pal's pal . It's a horribly superfluous scene , but it's supposed to be . It ends up being a bit hard to watch and you'll be seriously embarrassed if your parents or grandparents are there watching with you . The film ends with Ali G / Bond actually making it to little Jonathan's birthday baseball match ( though he is now cryptically referred to as ' little Tommy ' ) and taking loads of pleasure in proving his wife wrong . He does his own version of walking off into the sunset , complete with that unrealistic swagger , as the film fades out . Back in the offices of the TV Top Brass , all of these clueless , uptight phonies reacted to it with utter contempt . Which is understandable if you're an average guy on the street , but these dudes should KNOW when someone is pulling their leg . ' Spyz ' is obviously , deliberately a spoof . It's far to simple-minded and could only ever take place in a sexist male fantasy world . But . . . is this really THAT different from movies and TV today ? Is it really ? Sacha Baron Cohen keeps an impossibly straight face throughout . So maybe this is how the dunder-headed execs thought he was being serious . If so , it proves once again that he can always expose people for the fakes and charlatans that they are . A cruel idea of humor it may well be , but phonies always end up exposing themselves and Sacha only helps them along .
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564,416 | 102,816 | 122,690 | 10 |
Brilliance
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John Frankenheimer didn't have a lot of credibility in his last few years . His final film was the rather crap Reindeer Games , with Ben Affleck , and in 1996 he gave us the utterly terrible Island Of Doctor Moreau . However , he did do Ronin in 1998 , which makes up for absolutely everything . It is a detachment from glossy , MTV-directed , Hollywood action movies . If you want trash , like Bad Boys 2 , then this isn't for you . Ronin returns to the gritty , rustic and deadly serious actioners of the Seventies , much like Frankenheimer's own French Connection 2 . The title refers to Samurai warriors in ancient Japan who were left with no cause , or purpose , if their master was killed . They'd roam the countryside , pretending to be thieves , beggars , even madmen and hiring their skills out to the highest bidder . Much like the lost , wandering freelancers that make up our cast of characters . Robert De Niro is Sam , an ex-CIA agent ( or is he ? ) , who bands together with a ragtag group of similar ex-spies for a " no questions asked " job with what appears to be the IRA . First we have Vincent ( the wonderful Jean Reno ) , as a French agent who knows where to find just about anything you want . Spence ( Sean Bean ) is a gung-ho SAS dropout who is waaaaay out of his depth and ends up jeopardising the whole mission . Gregor ( Stellan Skarsgard ) , an ex-KGB spy who knows his gadgets and another American called Larry ( who is rather disposable ) . All of these men are led by Deirdre ( Natascha McElhone ) , a young Irish woman who answers to Seamus O'Rourke ( Jonathan Price ) , an IRA boss who is in a lot of trouble with his superiors . Still with me ? No ? Well I'm gonna continue anyway . The group's mission is to steal a metallic briefcase from the Russian Mafia . The contents of this case are a mystery ; all we know is that a lot of people are willing to pay mucho plento to get their hands on it . As if the set-up wasn't tenuous enough , there is immediately too much suspicion within the group to bear . And the already complicated plot is thrown into endless chaos as double-crosses , double-double-crosses , secrets and lies screw things up in a big , big way . It sounds tough going , but it's not really . I'll admit I didn't really like Ronin when I first saw it ( or the second or third for that matter ) , but it's one of those movies that creeps back on you . Frankenheimer's direction is so flawless and masterful that every frame of every scene flows effortlessly The acting is so well rehearsed and the cast so well chosen that even in every gesture , idiosyncrasy and subtle glance you can read into the characters's hidden motives . It takes a good number of viewings to decipher Ronin , but when the story is this well done , who cares ? Since its release there have been few action films that have come close to its intensity . Some , like Bourne Identity / Supremacy try to emulate its bleak tone , but don't match up . Supremacy has a car chase that was desperate to beat Ronin's , but is far too flashy . That's also the ace up it's sleeve . About 80 minutes into the film , the second car chase is a juggernaut of film-making . Never before and probably never again for a long , long time , has there been a car chase so completely mental . No Michael Bay 1000 cuts a second , no slow-motion , no stunts silhouetted against the sunset , just sheer , relentless adrenaline , as DeNiro and Reno tear up the streets of Paris . It's the centrepiece of the movie and a perfect example of what REAL action film-making is . Elia Cmiral's score is the other utterly perfect aspect of the movie . Simultaneously lonely , seductive and mysterious , it surely is one of the best themes ever and anyone with sense would go out and buy the soundtrack CD right away . Though most jive turkeys will disagree - with the Gator ? How dare you ! - Ronin is perfection from beginning to end , from Frankenheimer's strong , imposing direction to David Mamet's script , riddled with cryptic dialogue and double-meanings . No one can deny Ronin's importance as a real action picture . No one can watch crap like xXx , or 6 Fast 6 Furious , and claim Ronin to be a bad movie . It has enough , maybe too much , integrity and intelligence to shame anything that comes even halfway close . If you're sick of action flicks , or films in general , where the audience just sits there passively and is fed information , then Ronin is the cure . It may sound like a bizarre comparison , but it's on par with Lost Highway , as one of those movies you have to figure out in your own damn time .
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564,505 | 102,816 | 108,755 | 10 |
The BEST animated TV show EVER !
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I've always enjoyed animated ducks for some reason : Duck Tales , Darkwing Duck , Daffy Duck , Donald Duck . Though none of them are as deranged as Duckman . Originally broadcast between 1994 and 1997 Duckman lasted for a total 70 episodes but could easily have gone on forever without becoming stale . The titular character is a discombobulated , unapologetic slob and pretty much the worst living person in the world . He's a private detective , a widower , a peeping tom , an alcoholic , a sex maniac , a murderer , a ( fill in the blank ) . You name it , Duckman has done it . But who can blame him for being such a slimeball when the world he / we live in is so insane , outrageous and just plain nonsensical ? Eric Tiberius Duckman ( voiced by the maniacal Jason Alexander ) could carry the whole show by himself but when he's surrounded by a bunch of eccentric supporting characters you just know that trouble is just waiting to explode at every opportunity . My favorite has to be Willibald Feivel Cornfed ( or just Cornfed Pig ) , Duckman's incredibly deadpan sidekick who is seemingly talented and highly skilled at everything and is perpetually oblivious to his partner's infinity of vices and incompetence . The typical plot will involve some bizarre case he'll inevitably blunder through or will revolve around his highly dysfunctional household , though every now and again Duckman's arch-enemy King Chicken ( Tim Curry ) , a sort of Professor Moriarty in fowl form , hatches some diabolical scheme in revenge for being bullied in high school . Since I was a teenager this has been my absolute favorite animated show , better than The Simpsons , Family Guy and even King of the Hill . Nothing will ever surpass it . There never was , or will be , anything quite like Duckman ever again . The level of satire , observational humor and writing is so sharp it's deadly and the animation is done in that unique Klasky / Csupo style ( anyone who has seen Rugrats will understand ) . It's a wonderful , highly imaginative and wild world and all with a noirish , 1940s feel . You can never have too much of this particular bird .
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563,798 | 102,816 | 41,598 | 10 |
Opera Torture
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Quite happily playing the banjo and singing on the edge of his Rabbit hole , Bugs is rudely interrupted and his banjo broken when a huge , bullish Opera singer called Giovanni Jones throttles him for bugging him during opera practice . Of course you realize , this means war . Bugs goes to his Opera and disguises himself as top conductor Leopold Stokowski ( from Disney's Fantasia ) . Jones easily falls for the disguise and Bugs proceeds to torture him with the most difficult and straining Opera conducting ever . And it serves him right . The cartoon reaches high and mighty levels of insane humor when Bugs forces Jones to maintain a huge , high note for several minutes , bringing on almost death . Once Jone's voice , and confidence , has caved in , Bugs brings his banjo back for a quick strum and last laugh . Don't mess with the Bunny .
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564,061 | 102,816 | 424,451 | 10 |
Bursting with coolness
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There's a lot going on in this game and so many devices and sub-games to keep you addicted . Not so much a DX than an updated version of the Sonic Adventure , from the now obsolete Dreamcast , with better graphics , new missions and loads of extras . You play the game as seven different characters : Sonic , Tails , Knuckles , Amy , Big the Cat , The Robot Dude and ( much later ) Super Sonic . The Sonic , Tails and Knuckles levels are the best . The Big the Cat levels are really boring and slow . Each character has their own story and their own power-ups , all happening at the same time . The result is almost an RPG-like game . If this were taken a few steps further who knows how great the game could have been . Though it's still brilliant as it is . The structure is also genius and easy to get to grips with . As whatever character , you run around massive levels like Station Square and The Mystic Ruins which leads to many different action stages . The action stages can range between casinos , snowboarding , racing through sky-high circuits , go-carting , flying around in Tails ' red bi-plane , flying through wind tunnels , chases across the city rooftops and racing across sandy beaches . As always the Sonic world ( curiously earthlike and nothing like the planet Mobius from before ) is absolutely gorgeous with an exotic feel , eternal sunshine and the bluest of skies . What I like best about the game are the Chao . The cute little creatures you hatch and raise between levels . They are so great they became my reason for getting through the game . And as a bonus all Sonic games from the old Sega Game Gear are included . Each one is unlocked after every 20 emblems collected ( 1 awarded after each mission complete and others scattered about levels ) . Some parts of the game can be awfully repetitive . Certain FMV sequences were used more than once and there was no point in that . And intros to certain parts of the game took too long and became quite annoying when losing a life and starting again . The self-controlled camera was cool and useful . Though in cramped quarters it seemed to get stuck and being unable to see the character due to the spasming camera sometimes resulted in the loss of a life . That was quite annoying . The music is great and I strongly suggest you get all the soundtrack CDs ( I did ) . There are brilliant , fun-loving themes that totally carry the action along . The voices however , were a bit off from the original Japanese lip movements . A totally brilliant game that you simply must get . Sonic Adventure DX will keep you entertained for ages . Graphics A Sound A Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,563 | 102,816 | 189,072 | 10 |
Scooby and Shaggy take a break
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I saw this like a hundred times when I was a kid and I did not think I would laugh at it as much as I did then . Especially considering this is old school Scooby animation and not the sleeker , brighter animation of recent years . I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this . It's even better than Scooby's most recent adventure ( The Monster of Mexico ) . There is no Mystery Inc or Mystery Machine in this movie . It's just Shaggy ( wearing a red shirt instead of a green one ) and Scooby ( and unfortunately , Scrappy , tho he doesn't feature prominently ) and Shag's girlfriend Googy . Shaggy lives in an alarmingly large , mansion-esque house and is chosen by Count Dracula to become a werewolf so he can take part in a race for monsters . Despite looking cute and cuddly as a Werewolf , Shaggy obviously doesn't want to do it but Dracula promises to change him back to human if he wins . What follows is a Scooby Doo version of the Wacky Races as insane customized cars battle it out on an anything-goes Transylvanian race-course . The majority of laughs come from Dracula , ever so desperate to keep his wicked plan from falling apart and always making a complete idiot of himself . It's also new to see Shaggy not jump into Scooby's arms every time he sees a monster . And this time they're real too , not just some guy in a mask . I would definitely recommend this to Scooby fans and those who are just total Scooby completists ( like me ) . It's very funny and totally rewatchable . The DVD is in 1 . 33 : 1 , as drawn and comes with a Dolby Mono soundtrack .
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564,831 | 102,816 | 97,366 | 10 |
My fave film when I was a kid
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Peggy-Lee Zorba , Nostradamus , The Colonel , Billy-Jean King , Claude-Henry Smoot , Peter Lemonjello , Ed Harley , Elmer-Fudd Gantry and Bobby-Lee Schwartz II . Not to mention Fletch himself . Has Chevy Chase ever played so many people in one film ? I love Fletch Live , it is so damn funny and cackles with hilarious dialogue . It's a bloody shame that the critics were beastly , when it first came out . Chevy Chase , once again , nails the role of Fletch and only he can deliver the deadpan sarcasm in a way no other actor can . The plot may be a little weak but it works fine . Fletch quits his job as an investigative reporter after he inherits a plantation mansion in Louisiana . But he stumbles upon another mystery and does his best to unravel it . His disguises will make you grin from ear to ear ( Claude Henry Smoot steals the show ) and they way he comes out with the most ridiculous of things when he's talking to people makes you wonder why they ever believe it . As Peter Lemonjello , Fletch tells a studio camera operator that his house is on fire . The guy believes him ! I do wish that they had used more of the Bibleland sets as it seems so much for so little screen time but the presence of R . Lee Ermey as the eccentric TV Evangelist makes up for it . I'm not really that impressed with this lacklustre DVD . There are still pictures over the end credits that hint at deleted scenes , but none of them are on here . The 1 . 85 : 1 anamorphic picture is fine , as is the Dolby Surround sound design . But it's yet another non-effort by Universal . Fletch Lives really deserved a lot more than this . And to any of you who are puzzled why Mr . Underhill is credited in the cast of characters but not actually in the film , he IS . Look closely at the Zipedee Doo-Dah sequence and you can see him as one of the dancers .
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564,816 | 102,816 | 279,830 | 10 |
Gimme !
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Such a wonderful way to ask for candycandycandycandy . Well it's Garfield's way . And candy he certainly gets in this wonderful Halloween Special . It all starts on one cozy Halloween morn with Garfield waking to the sound of the TV . Normally he'd be irate at waking so early but when he learns what day it is he cannot wait to go trickortreating and get his paws on some candycandycandycandy ! He and Odie dress as pirates and go off on an adventure that happens to involve the ghosts of REAL pirates and real buried treasure . In the course of these brilliant 25 minutes we get the typical assortment of great Garfield humor and wonderful songs . If only the movie were this good .
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564,173 | 102,816 | 325,448 | 10 |
Absolutely brilliant
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Garfield is bored out of his mind . With nothing do to he rummages in the closet and unearths an old raincoat and fedora hat . All of a sudden he has the desire to fantasise himself as a jaded dime-novel private detective called Sam Spayed . At this point the show turns to black and white , a bold move considering most studios only want to give kids garish loud colors . Sam Spayed is the typical 1940's private dick . He narrates with the usual cynicism and attention to obscure detail . Women and dames or broads and every scam or crime is the ' oldest trick in the book ' . A beautiful broad called Tanya enters his office asking for help . Her husband drove his car off a cliff and the police are only too eager to assume he fell asleep at the wheel . Smelling foul play she hires Spayed to find the truth . And through a series of odd clues Sam finally deduces the whos , whys and whens . A radically different turn for Garfield sure , but still very funny , with some great dialogue and one-liners . Phil Roman directs as if he's doing a black and white dime novel story and not the usual Garfield stuff ( as great as the usual is ) . As thin as the story may sound it actually comes across as quite clever and it is surely one of the best Garfield TV specials . And they are all great so that's pretty much saying a lot .
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564,682 | 102,816 | 451,088 | 10 |
Very cute game and loads of fun but a bit too short
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I first got this game way back in Xmas 1992 , which is rather appropriate coz it's a very Xmasy game . Pond's villain Doctor Maybe has seized control of Santa's workshop in the North Pole , kidnapped his workers and halted toy production . Obviously someone has to save Xmas so F . I . 5 . H . send James Pond to the rescue . The object of the game is to rescue Santa's workers in all departments of his toy empire ( sports toys , candy , bath toys , musical instruments , toy cars ) while avoiding Doctor Maybe's minions and collecting zillions of fun , random objects for points . I have not played the original Genesis version in a few years but recently bought the gameboy advance version . The GBA release is faster and features redesigned levels ( still the same themes and colors ) but I was sad to see that there is no snowfall on the outside of the Santa's castle and that the bonuses underground were no longer accessible . The only one of the original cheats that remains is the invincibility code ( on the roof of the castle collect the Cake , Hammer , Earth , Apple , Tap in that order ) but it only lasts for a few minutes now instead of being permanent . The ending also cuts off pretty quickly instead of showing us Doctor Maybe escaping to the moon ( which leads to James Pond 3 ) . But the final score screen says ' theme completed ' , which confused me . I have no idea what it means . The best thing about this game is Richard Joseph's impossibly cute music . The main Robocod theme is a brilliant alternate version of Basil Poledouris ' Robocop score and the main Robocod jingle is THE most whistleable tune EVER . I first heard that jingle 13 years ago and I can't get it out of my head . Definitely a keeper for James Pond fans but James Pond 3 : Operation Starfish is even better an really ought to be remade of the GBA . Come on . . . where is it ? ? ?
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564,051 | 102,816 | 83,791 | 10 |
A major accomplishment !
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It took an infinity of imagination to make The Dark Crystal , a film so overflowing with invention that you literally have to watch it about 100 times just to take it all in . Everyone involved , from the director to the best boy gave the film such loving affection and made it the best it could possibly be . Kid's movies ( if you want to call it that ) these days simply are not what they used to be and probably never will be again . This is yet another thing that makes The Dark Crystal so damn precious . The film is set in another world , in another time in an age of wonder . It has been 999 years and 1 year since the powerful , life-giving crystal cracked and stopping shining . Since then the land has become barren and the Urskeks ( a race of God-like beings ) have split into two separate races , the peaceful Uru ' Mystics ' and the evil Skeksis-a horrific cross between bird and reptile . The three suns that shine upon the land are about to line up in a great conjunction that only happens once every 1000 years . If the crystal is not repaired before then the cruel Skeksis will rule the land forever . Jen is a Gelfling ( a sort of fairy creature ) , believed to be the last of his race . A prophecy tells of a single Gelfling defeating the Skeksis and restoring peace to the land . Raised by the Uru , Jen begins a journey to repair the crystal when the Skeksis Emperor dies ( in a truly disturbing scene ) . On his way he meets Aughra , a sort of witch creature and Kira , another Gelfling and her race of Podling people ( sort of like Fraggles ) . Though there is no specific love scene between them , there is a very nice romance developing through-out the story . Filmed in gorgeous locations across England and Scotland ( with the use of a lot of matte paintings of course ) the film really , really does take you to another world . There's not a single human in sight ( a perfect world or what ) and , with exception to the awful Skeksis , almost every creature is cute and fluffy ( such as Kira's Fizzgig ) . The production design , in particular the genius contributions by Brian Froud , is so immense and impressive that you wish you could jump through the screen and actually be there in order to appreciate it more . Trevor Jones ' breathtaking , beautiful score is among his best work ( tying with Merlin in 1998 ) and is surely some of the best film music you are ever likely to hear . Ever ! There was a limited edition of the score put on CD a few years ago but only 5000 were ever printed . It's sure to be quite expensive now but it's so goddamn worth it ! Henson , Oz and Froud teamed up again a few years later to make Labyrinth which seems to be more fondly remembered as it's not as sinister as The Dark Crystal and has human actors in it to make it more accessible to those with narrower minds . I prefer this one though ( no fruity songs , no David Bowie ! ) as it has a certain edge to it that Labyrinth lacks . An epic . A masterpiece . An unforgettable classic . The Dark Crystal is magical , mystical timeless classic . I can't recommend it enough . If only we still had movies like this . I'll take risk-taking The Dark Crystal over PC drek like The Shaggy Dog any day .
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563,808 | 102,816 | 118,475 | 10 |
So much better than the movie !
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The movie was one of the worst I had seen in my life . I did not have high hope for the animated series but I was very much surprised . The dialogue and , bizarrely enough , the acting are a hundred times as good as the film and the plot and characters are also much more intriguing . Sadly production ended before the 4th season of Spawn and it just seemed to be getting darker and darker . But the one thing I can be sure of from this is that it's going to have one hell of a send-off when the entire story finally climaxes ( if HBO ever bring it back , which they should ! ! ! ) I'd start watching this if I were you . But be prepared . The violence is quite graphic .
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564,556 | 102,816 | 316,697 | 10 |
Get ready to rumble !
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Wow ! This was like the best fighting game ever . I totally loved Streets of Rage 2 . This was one of the true CLASSICS of the Sega Genesis . Whenever I fondly remember my beloved 16-bit console the fun I had playing SOR2 always comes to mind . Yuzo Koshiro's jazzy score was mind-blowing ! It completely immersed you in the seedy nightlife and underworld the game took place in . Even with this simple 16-machine SOR2 showed just how cool the music could still be . Me and my best pal played this non-stop on 2-player mode . It was definitely the most fun you could have on the Genesis . What a game it is ! ! ! If you see a copy snap it up quickly as they are rare and expensive . Graphics A Sound A Gameplay A Lasting Appeal
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564,163 | 102,816 | 294,536 | 10 |
THE definitive beat-em-up
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Double Dragon is commonly referred to as the first side-scrolling beat-em-up . It's not , there were a couple of minor hits before it , but it sure is the best that has ever dominated our arcades . Back in 1987 me and my uncle spent a fortune on this game and it took us about 40 million credits to get to the end . It was almost as exhausting as actually beating up hundreds of thugs . You'd hammer the buttons so hard that by the time the game had ended , you're arm would be tripled in size and you'd be sweating like crazy . And I was only 7-years-old at the time ! Despite the games that followed which were classics in their own right ( Streets of Rage , Final Fight ) none really ever matched up to Double Dragon . When playing as 2 players , this game is absolutely lethal . By the time I was 12 I managed to finish it with a single credit . That's how sad I am . Or is it because the game is so good ? But it ain't just it's high playability that makes it so good . The cartoonish graphics have just enough color and Manga to make them almost iconic . And the music ? It's amazing ! When I was 7 I'd be humming this at school or while I was walking down the road . Even 19 years later it hasn't dated a bit and still sounds brilliant . So many themes , so many melodies and so bloody cool . Double Dragon was also released on practically every home platform ( don't get me started on the awful C64 version ) but none of them , not even the recent Gameboy Advance version , really ever matched up to the awesomeness of the arcade machine . If you see this game , do not hesitate to spend all of your hard-earned pennies on it . It's well worth it . Graphics A Sound Gameplay Lasting Appeal
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564,112 | 102,816 | 451,177 | 10 |
A pioneering but phenomenally hard space-shooter
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In 1987 shoot-em-up video games were hardly new . But R-Type gave new meaning to the term ' side-scrolling space-shooter ' . Featuring subliminal imagery , awe-inspiring bio-mechanical villains , jaw-clenching gameplay , brilliant music and amazing power-ups , R-Type set a new standard that was soon mimicked in more games to follow than you can shake a stick at . The story behind the game has earth come under attack from a race of mutant aliens called The Bydo Empire . Instead of sending a whole fleet of warships to fend them off a single R-series space vessel must penetrate the hordes of Bydo scum and make it to the core of the mothership and blast them back to the far side of the galaxy . It's hard . Very , very hard . And you'll be screaming with frustration . But that was the ingenuous part . IREM deliberately made the game near-impossible so you'd spend more money on it . And by jove it worked on me . Apart from several R-Type sequels , IREM never mounted to much after this . R-Type was their one hit wonder . Ported onto just about every home console you can think of , the best version of R-Type was always the arcade machine . If you see it , don't think twice about playing . And paying .
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564,040 | 102,816 | 116,253 | 10 |
Life reflects art .
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In the modern world , Exec Dec strikes closer to home than it originally intended as it eerily foreshadows and other acts of terrorism . It makes for a perfect flip-side companion piece to Paul Greengrass's little-seen United 93 . In the world of Exec Dec the heroes save the day and America wins . In United 93 ( and the real world ) life isn't that simple . But since this was made 5 years prior to it should be judged purely as entertainment and not as any political statement . Kurt Russell plays David Grant , a counter-terrorist expert who is called into the Pentagon when a group of crazed Muslim extremists taken over a flight from Athens to Washington DC . After blowing up civilians in London , they demand that their recently captured terrorist leader El Sayed Jaffa ( think O . B . L . ) be released and that they be given millions of dollars in gold bullion . Grant , suspects that this is merely a ploy to get into US airspace to set off a massive bomb rigged with huge supply of DZ-5 poison gas . Their only apparent option is to blow the plane up over the Atlantic , killing everyone on-board and sinking any evidence that they might have . But Colonel Travis ( that's Steven Seagal folks ! ) suggests hooking up the 747 with a modified Remora stealth bomber while it's still in the air so he and his commandos can kick some terrorist ass . Dragged along for the ride , Grant and computer nerd Dennis Cahill ( Oliver Platt ) are to supervise the link-up and identify Cell Leader Nagi Hassan ( David Suchet ) from the Remora . But the link-up faulters and only 4 commandos plus Grant and Cahill make it on-board . Travis is killed and the Remora is destroyed , along with most of their equipment . With only a few hours before the plane reaches US airspace and the bare-minimum of equipment the group have to sneak around in the crawlspaces of airplane attics , cargo bays and elevator shafts searching for the bomb and spying on the terrorists . It's highly intense , superbly photographed and expertly edited entertainment . What first attracted me to Exec Dec was obviously the casting of Russell and Seagal but link-up with the Remora and the 747 is definitely one of the most unique action scenes in the past decade and was the major selling point of the film for me . I do realize that Seagal has many critics and most of them judge him far , far to harshly and play up his characters death in this film claiming that the only good thing about Exec Dec is ' the death of Seagal 10 minutes into an extended cameo ' . Which is a totally foolish and untrue thing to say . Seagal is in the movie for a full 45 minutes before he dies . Which was done to shock the audience into believing that if Seagal dies then any of the cast could be next . And even if you're a Seagal hater ( understandable considering his recent poor output ) don't let that overshadow the rest of the film which is , in it's final half-hour , so exciting that you'll be so on the edge of your seat that you won't actually be sitting on it . It does lose some of it's power when compared to the horror-show that is United 93 , but like I said , they are either side of the same coin . In the world of Executive Decision the terrorist attacks of would never have happened . And if was an always inevitable event , then I guess the film IS far-fetched . But it was made pre - for entertainment , nothing else , so I guess I can forgive it for being so .
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564,422 | 102,816 | 116,225 | 10 |
Snake is Back , baby
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This movie is very unfairly under-rated . Just because when it came out America was in a feel good phase with the 1996 Olympics and the release of Independence Day . A lot of people have criticized the visual effects but the surfing scene ain't that bad and are far superior to that of the flames in the tunnel in ID4 . Kurt Russell is brilliant as Snake , his most iconic character and the whole movie is kind of lighthearted . The music especially . I have also never seen a film with an ending quite like this . Now for the announced Escape from Earth , it may not happen due to the dark nature of the series and studio reluctance to not do anything but kiddie crap , but it would be a wonderful finale .
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564,696 | 102,816 | 814,293 | 10 |
Choo choo ! Hilariously funny !
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Only if you are really sick like me . We watched this movie in Primary School . I distinctly remember being in Primary 6 and it was the day before we all went off on our Easter holidays . They herded us into the gym hall where a representative from British Rail gave us a speech on why we shouldn't trespass on railways . It fell on deaf ears . Or at least it did in my case . After the speech he put on this movie . And let me tell you , the movie is brilliant because you get see a little boy get mown over by a train . When you're a sick-humored 10-year-old , it's the funniest thing . And don't single me out , the whole bunch of us found it hilarious and burst into laughter . I think the Brit Rail rep got a little pssed off . The bit where Robbie gets his feet sawn off was the best and then his big sister loses her voice through shock after witnessing such horror . Robbie was still alive though . . . but he WON'T be playing football again . Well that'll teach you not to play on the railroad then you silly boy ! Of course I thought I was above it all and immortal , as any kid does and a few years later I almost met the same fate myself as I was moronically playing on the railroad tracks . But through some sort of act-of-God miracle I survived intact . So kids . . . pay some bloody attention ! There were different versions of the film that had Robbie meet various grisly ends , such as being fried with electricity and stuff , the director must have had loads of fun killing him off so many times . But it's all for a good cause eh ? A cause I was too arrogant to pay attention to . The film is practically IMPOSSIBLE to find these days . They still tour schools with it , as far as I know . But there's no DVD . A lot of stuff that British Transport Films produced now belongs to the British Film Institute , so you should try contacting them . It would be a unique film to own , I must admit .
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564,188 | 102,816 | 98,061 | 10 |
Brilliant and inventive psychological fantasy
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This is a way cool fantasy movie . One of my faves , it really is so cool . The director is Bernard Rose who went on to direct Candyman , he made a great start with this film . The film about a girl called Anna who falls ill with glandular fever on her 11th birthday . She draws a house on a shred of paper from her exercise book and falls into a dream in which the house is real . Each subsequent dream that she has is altered by the presence of whatever she adds to the picture . In her third dream she meets a boy she thinks she has created called Mark . She befriends him and their relationship becomes stronger as the dreams become darker and scarier . Charlotte Burke who plays Anna is a terrific actress and it is very strange that , after just one film , she should disappear and never be in anything ever again . She really does give a great performance in this film . Hans Zimmer's score is also ace . Much like Broken Arrow , the music is ghostly and mysterious . It's a real shame that the soundtrack is not available on CD anymore . The DVD is available in R2 only .
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564,095 | 102,816 | 93,748 | 10 |
An annual tradition
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Even though we do not celebrate Thanksgiving here in Scotland I watch this film once a year before I get in the Xmas mood and watch loads of Xmas movies like Home Alone , Scrooged and Christmas Vacation . It has become a tradition and perhaps even a necessity . Neal Page ( Steve Martin , back when he was funny ) is a Marketing Exec who has just made a pointless trip to New York 2 days before Thanksgiving . The inconclusive meeting in question ends just half an hour before his flight back home . If he hurries , he'll catch the flight no problem and be home with the family before he knows it . Right ? Well , no . There are no cabs on Wall Street . After being hustled out of $75 for a cab someone else hailed it promptly takes off with passenger unknown . But no matter , the airport has delayed the flight because of snow . In the waiting lounge , Neal meets Del Griffith ( John Candy , man do I miss him ! ) , a shower curtain ring salesman and the very man who went off in his Taxi . Despite Del's insistence on making it up to Neal , he fobs him off and remains in a mood . Once on board the plane the fussy Flight Attendant seats him in coach as there was a mistake with his first class ticket . Guess who he is sat beside ? Del of course . And he blabs on and on , telling unfunny , unamusing anecdotes to an increasingly squashed and uncomfortable Neal . A huge snowstorm in Chicago results in the plane being diverted hundreds of miles , all the way down to Wichita , Kansas . Neal is forced to spend the night with Del in a unbelievably seedy motel . . . in the same bed . That night they are robbed and left with nothing but their credit cards . Since Del is a massive slob who leaves his dirty socks in the sink , crumbs and wrappers everywhere and spills beer on the bed , Neal would like nothing more than to ditch him and get on with his long journey home alone . It's here that the emotional punch of the movie really kicks in . Neal is arrogant and selfish but Del stills sees some good in him and would like nothing more than to be his best buddy . But he is repeatedly kicked aside and ignored as the two of them inch their way home . Fate crosses their paths over and over and Neal is pretty much only temporarily sticking with him to serve himself . Candy's need for a pal and his frustration at Neal only becomes apparent after the first viewing as it's the shocking twist ending that makes you add up his character and emotions . At the time this film was already brilliant , but it's the fact that Del Griffith and John Candy are almost one and the same that makes it that extra bit special . Both were friendly , chatty and tried really hard to be liked . And now that Candy is gone forever you can't help but really , really feel for him and see the trouble he is going through despite his best efforts to hide it . Neal and Del may be opposites but as they both struggle through setback after setback they eventually come to empathise and understand each other . I dare you not be moved to tears when Del is sitting alone in the train station and confesses his secret to Neal . If you are not crying then you truly have no soul . The film ain't just an emotional character drama . It's also a road movie with loads of snow covered middle-America scenery and is extremely funny and packed with classic scenes . Anyone who has seen it already will know what I mean when I say ' THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS ! ' Del driving on the wrong side of the highway will suffocate you as will Neal's confrontation with the rental car receptionist , the character of Owen ( Dylan Baker ) and his nasal problems . Ocassionaly , James Ira Newborn's score can be a bit distracting and even slightly inappropriate , but there are some deeply emotional cues in there that can easily shift the mood of a scene . Inconsistent it may be but overall it's better than most comedic scores . Planes , Trains and Automobiles is an eternal tribute to how great Martin used to be before he sold himself out to family movies and how wonderful John Candy was as an actor and a person . For him alone this film gets . He was brilliant and died far too young , but in his short career he did give us some unforgettable stuff and this movie is certainly one of them .
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564,405 | 102,816 | 814,329 | 10 |
One of the best !
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I used to love Public Information Films when I was a kid . Some of them were masterpieces of tension and scares . Always filmed on 16mm , always stark and to-the-point and mostly always featuring children as the victims . You were glued to the screen . There's just something so hauntingly brilliant about them and The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water is no exception . Directed by Rolf Harris , the film had Donald Pleasance play the voice of The Spirit-a sinister , robed apparition who would always be present when some foolish person ended up in a lake / pond / etc when they couldn't swim or when no one else could help . Of course the Spirit was powerless against sensible children but the echoing warning of ' I'll be back-ack-ack-ack ' reminded you that going for a dip in a flooded quarry would probably be dumb thing to do .
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563,984 | 102,816 | 98,141 | 10 |
While I love Dolph , Thomas Jane just did it better
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I can't decide whether or not Dolph did not apply himself to this role in the slightest and ended up turning in a monotone performance or because the character is supposed to be dark and depressed . Either way it's slightly depressing to watch . The plot concerns Frank Castle AKA The Punisher and his effort to rid Washington DC ( actually Melbourne , Australia ) of criminal scum . He's wiped out a million guys in a couple of years and the cops want to send him to prison . Frank Castle used to be a cop and since the Mob killed his family he's lived in the sewer . As you do ? This film has been cut to shreds . I know there was more story and action filmed than what was actually shown in the film . It's criminally short but seems to go on for an eternity . The director is Mark Goldblatt . He edited ' Total Recall ' , ' Starship Troopers ' and ' Hollow Man ' . The action is quite dull and Dolph has no one-liners and no emotion . Dolph can usually be relied upon to deliver the goods but not here . I guess in 1989 he couldn't pick and choose his roles . This film followed the abysmal ' Red Scorpion ' , his clout wasn't as such so he could so ' no ' . Dolph has enjoyed some decent roles but in recent years he has been offered some really bad scripts . I think it's time he realised he should be getting back into A-List films . This is not his best . Watch ' Joshua Tree ' instead or the brilliant 2004 remake .
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564,701 | 102,816 | 87,469 | 10 |
Anything goes !
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Set before the events of ' Raiders ' , Dr . Jones is in Shanghai doing business with Chinese crime boss Lau Che . Losing the upper hand in a night club he barely escapes with his life ( and baggage in the form of Willie Scott and sidekick kid Short Round ) to the airport . But little does he know the plane he gets on is owned by Lau Che and the pilots sneak out in mid-air while they are sleeping . After jumping to safety in an inflatable dinghy Indy , Willie and Short Round drift by an Indian village that has been stricken with bad luck since the theft of their magical Shankara stones . Encouraged by the villagers to go to Pankot palace and retrieve the stones , Indy has no idea that what he will find involves an evil cult hellbent on taking over the world with their lunatic new religion . Temple of Doom is , without a shadow of a doubt , the best Indiana Jones film . I know a lot of nerds are going to disagree with me but I do think it superior to Raiders of the Lost Ark because I prefer the darker , nastier tone and the fact that it just doesn't let up from the word ' go ' ! Two hours of Temple of Doom's running time pass in a breeze of sheer adventure as Spielberg takes us from one memorable set-piece to another . The opening musical number , the fight in the Obi-Wan Club , the chase through Shanghai , the plane crash / dingy ride , the journey to Pankot Palace , the dinner scene , the human sacrifice , the freeing of the slaves , the mine-cart ride , the water rush , the rope bridge , the cliff-hanging . . . wow ! How much more can you pack into a film ? It's physically impossible ! Originally criticised on it's release for being too dark , Temple of Doom still ends up being a classic . I guess the audiences of 1984 were expecting Raiders of the Lost Ark 2 and were taken aback when they got something else . If you watch it with the others you can feel how different the film is with no scenes taking place in America , no University and no Sallah or Marcus Brody . John Williams ' brilliant music is also at it's best . He even received an Academy Award nomination despite already being nominated for his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark , which is quite rare . The film did win an Oscar for its visual effects ( beating the equally impressive effects of Ghostbusters ) which , when viewed today , at least might seem a little bit dated , but still hold up quite well . Or course , there's nothing really important about the film . I mean it won't beat Schindler's List or Munich in terms of drama but if you want escapism and soaring , thrill-a-minute adventure his name is Indiana Jones and the place is the Temple of Doom .
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564,535 | 102,816 | 35,836 | 10 |
Chilling . And somehow still relevant .
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In this dark Disney short ( directed by the same guy who did Lady and the Tramp and Peter Pan ) we see a young German couple take their newborn baby to be registered as one of ' Hitler's Children ' . They have to prove their ethnic origin all the way back to their great-grandparents to authenticate the child's pure Aryan blood . One of Hitler's biggest mistakes is the fact that blue eyes / blonde hair is a recessive gene and is times dominated by dark eyes / hair . The parents must choose a name for the child but can only take what is not already chosen from ' the list ' . They choose Hans , which ends up being okay . Soon the child is in school and is taught warped versions of typical values . Hans is told of a fox hunting a rabbit . He takes sympathy on the poor rabbit and is ridiculed and tormented by his teacher and classmates . The lesson of ' only the strong survive ' is brutally hammered into him . And when Hans gets sick his parents are warned to cease all ' mollycoddling ' and he better get well quickly . Hitler's children do no get sick and those who do are taken away and never heard from again . More and more evil lesson and hailing the Fuehrer follow . Soon Hans is a grown man , marching in line with all the other soldiers . Neither of them are individuals . They are robots believing what Hitler wants them to believe . Doing what Hitler wants them to do . Saying what Hitler wants them to say . None of them know joy , happiness or laughter . And soon Hans is dead . Sympathy is felt for the child within who died a long time ago . It's alarming when you consider that this may feel far-fetched yet in today's society we are still reared and duped by lying world leaders . We still believe nonsense we read in tabloids and fear and xenophobia still overpower common sense . A very chilling cartoon .
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564,707 | 102,816 | 93,773 | 10 |
A man's movie . Girls not allowed
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After starring as one of the most iconic and unstoppable villains ever in Terminator , it was high time that Arnie had a worthy foe to fight against . And he got way more than he bargained for with the Predator . Before his crowning achievement of Die Hard , John McTiernan assembled a group of seven muscle-bound commandos in the South American jungle and let them unleash hell on Latino , Russian and Aliens alike with an awesome arsenal of macho weaponry . This is definitely a boys ' movie . Both Alien and Aliens - hell , even Friday The 13th - had a thing about two females going head to head at the end . How are us guys supposed to get a kick out of endings like that ? Arnie plays Major Alan ' Dutch ' Schaefer , the leader of an elite Spec Ops force . His team is called to duty by General Phillips ( R . G . Armstrong ) and the very suspicious Dillon ( Carl Weathers ) to rescue a bunch of government officials , who have been shot down in enemy territory in Latin America . As soon as they arrive in the jungle something is watching their every move from the trees . And they get the feeling that things just ain't right . The first rescue team is found disembowelled and skinned . Same goes for their chopper . None of them trust Dillon . He's up to no good . There are no cabinet ministers being held hostage , just a bunch of his CIA pals being tortured by the Russians . In no less than five minutes , all seven of them completely obliterate a rebel guerrilla camp . The CIA hostages are dead . Dutch is angry and feels mighty betrayed . Dillon lied to him and their mission is over as soon as it started . All they have to do is make a journey through one valley to the nearest rendezvous point and fly back home . Not so simple when a high-tech , seemingly invisible , 7'2 ' ' , extra-terrestrial Rastafarian hunter is picking them off one by one and keeping their skulls as trophies . This predator is obviously a fan of the 1932 movie , The Most Dangerous Game . In the same way that he created nervous claustrophobia around the Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard , McTiernan floods the movie with an oppressive and twitchy atmosphere . Half of the film's ominous tone comes from Alan Silvestri's militaristic and primeval score , with pounding drums and lurking strings , indicating that the Predator's haunting presence is everywhere . He could strike from any corner at any moment . And he does . Nothing Dutch and his men seem to do can thwart this enemy and in no time at all Dutch is the last one standing . He runs for his life with the Predator in hot pursuit . The final act is no doubt the strongest and can even be viewed as a separate movie altogether . McTiernan ditches the lush , steamy jungle from the first two acts and completely turns it around into a strikingly Gothic , baroque , supernatural landscape . There is a subtext of primitive brutality winning over highly advanced super-weapons . And there is enough testosterone between Dutch and the Predator to fill 100 tanker trucks . Women , totally , need not apply . Definitely one of Arnie's best and a landmark action movie . No doubt . Outdone only by the sequel . Note : When the Predator rises out of the lake and tries to Arnie , who is covered in mud , he notices a monkey sitting on a log . Freeze frame the film when he zooms in and you will see a single frame shot of a man in a white vest with an explosion / lens flare behind . It looks like a shot from Die Hard ( which wasn't made at the time ! ) and I have no clue how it got in there . Weird huh ?
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564,620 | 102,816 | 45,062 | 10 |
Battle of wits again .
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Once again Elmer is faced with the dilemma of who to shoot . Bugs of Daffy . He's unsure of what season it is and Bunny and Duck arguing help matters not . Though Bugs proves he's the smartest once more by repeatedly using reverse psychology on Daffy in increasingly subtle ways . And when that runs out he does his trademark cross-dressing thingy . Daffy freaks out and demands the bunny be shot . Though Elmer is too stupid he is hopelessly in love with the girl bunny thing . Elmer really is to blame for all this . If he weren't so dumb he'd know it REALLY is duck season and just blast Daffy . But poor old Daff can't believe the utter preposterousness of the situation . His cruel plans of misdirection have been foiled by Elmer's dumbness . Daffy is so shocked that he even goes home with Elmer to be blasted in his living room . Poor Daff . He rules !
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564,417 | 102,816 | 107,286 | 10 |
Great suspense , awesome set-pieces
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Since seeing this film I've never been comfortable with Denis Leary as a comedian because he's so damn convincing as the cold-hearted bad guy in this . I think he's a great actor but this is the movie to see him in as it's A . His best performance and B . One of the best villains ever in movies . Judgment Night kind of comes across as a modern , urban Deliverance . There are many similarities between them but Judgment Night clearly has more excitement . Estevez , Gooding Jnr , Piven and Dorff play well off each other and Piven especially seems to really get into the whiny runt of his character . Leary plays Fallon , a dangerous criminal from Chicago's bad side . And when the four pals cross him and witness a murder carried out by him a chase across derelict landscapes follows . Peter Greene , an actor I always like to see , plays Sykes , one of Fallon's cohorts as well as Everlast from the rap group House of Pain as Rhodes . They sure do make a threatening impression . Director Stephen Hopkins ( who also did Predator 2 and Blown Away ) uses creeping camera movements and neo-noir lighting to provoke multiple eerie moments as well as a great deal of tension . Slow-mo and warped sound effects are also used to great effect in the finale . The DVD by Universal massively improves on the old release by Goodtimes . Now the film is brilliantly presented in it's proper aspect ratio of 2 . 35 : 1 . This new framing wonderfully compliments the Gothic atmosphere and brooding silhouette photography . The terrible Dolby 2 . 0 soundtrack has been dropped and replaced with a grand DTS 5 . 1 track ( Judgment Night was one of the first movies to be released in DTS ) . For the presentation of the movie it's surely a great package but the only extra is a trailer . It's still a must buy !
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564,829 | 102,816 | 111,323 | 10 |
It had great potential
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For all this movie has going for it , nothing can overcome the weak dialogue and limp direction . Once the action kicks in it doesn't let up until the movie's climax and the villains are more than hissable . Ice-T turns in an okay performance as Jack Mason , a man unwittingly hired to be the human prey for a bunch of rich psychos who have nothing left to get pleasure from other than ' breaking necks with their bares hands ' . The bad guys are plentiful and are better written than Ice-T's character . Gary Busey has ( an unfortunately small ) role as Doc Hawkins who killed his beloved dog when he was 12 and has never looked back in the kill = fun department . John C . McGinley is John Griffin , a Texas oil tycoon who is convinced that Mason is the man who stalked and killed his daughter . He really goes over the edge and becomes some sort of obsessive maniac . F . Murray Abraham is Mr . Wolfe , ' the most feared man on Wall Street ' who proves that not all suits are wimpy , upper-class and civilized and wants his son Wolfe Jnr ( William McNamara ) to be the same way . Rutger Hauer and Charles S . Dutton play Thomas Burns and Walter Cole , the men who organise and arrange the hunt but do not actually participate in it . With all this character set up there is zero dialogue that is even slightly memorable or quotable and the direction leaves a lot to be considered . But Stewart Copeland's ace musical score and the beautiful Pacific Northwest scenery make up for that . I suggest that you buy this DVD if you can get a good price on it . The DVD is in Dolby 5 . 1 and is anamorphically enhanced at 1 . 85 : 1 .
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563,797 | 102,816 | 41,462 | 10 |
A masterwork of trickery and deception .
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Set back in the old west , during the days of the old traveling circuses , Bugs Bunny plays a stage presenter who oversells a high-diving act only for the diver to call in sick . Frustrated and mad at the disappointment , Yosemite Sam demands satisfaction and threatens Bugs to perform the stunts himself . You honestly think you can pull one over the Bunny ? Again and again Sam leads Bugs up the huge ladder to the diving board and every single time Bugs tricks him into going off himself . Basically , the entire cartoon is a list of increasingly creative ways you can trick someone , blinded with rage , into doing the same , stupid thing . Yosemite Sam is an idiot , and anyone with sense would just stop trying . But because he's so dumb it makes every fall more and more funny . A great short indeed .
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