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Post by Enigma! on Jul 30, 2004 14:25:20 GMT -5
Welcome to the Balcony. This is where you may review, comment on, and rant about any movies you have recently seen. Kinda Like Ebert and Roeper, without the uppity behavior.  The Balcony is now open. |
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Post by JP Gibb on Dec 6, 2005 20:55:48 GMT -5
First review!!!
So Saturday night I finally got around to watching H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, the version from Pendragon Pictures,
which is billed as the first completely faithful retelling of Well's original novel. It is that, more or less scene for scene with the book. Some parts were left out, simply because they wouldn't have added anything to the movie. The Martians and their machines are what you'd expect them to look like, based on the descriptions in the book. It is a genuinely entertaining movie, with a few flaws.
The actors are alright, not quite major motion picture, but not "Manos" either. The only exception is the actor portraying The Writer. You'd think the main protagonist of the movie would be the best of the lot, and he does okay, until the end of the movie, during and after he's trapped in the house with the Curate. Then he starts slipping in to ACTING! a little too deep. I hope the actor wasn't Jewish, because he was certainly hamming it up. The SFX are bad. Somewhere between History Channel and made for Sci Fi Channel bad. The CGI is blatantly obvious, and the "day-for-night" scenes are, well, amateurish is being charitable in the extreme. The soundtrack is okay when the main actors are talking, but background noises and crowd screams are occasionally tinny. Several anachronisms are listed over on the imdb, but aside from the issue of the soldiers' uniforms (which no one's going to notice anyway), you'd have to go through frame-by-frame to catch them.
All in all, it's a good movie, and a needed adaptation of a sci fi classic. Add this to the 1953 version, now out on DVD!
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Post by J. T./Jessica on Jan 8, 2006 16:05:09 GMT -5
Starship Troopers 2: Hero of The Federation.
I don't see why no one likes it. So it doesn't have all the big names and flash Special Effects of the original Starship Troopers, it's still a pretty good movie in it's own right.
(As anyone who's heard me talk about Steel knows, I am, a proponant of judging movies for themselves and not something they tie into or are a sequel off, and not of a different format's version of the characters.)
To sum it up without spoilers; Starship Troopers is how a man, John Rico, became a hero. Hero Of The Federation is that a hero, Capt. Dax (First name unknown to me at this time), is still a man.
Ironically, at the end of the movie the Federation turns him, one of the last people you'd expect, into a hero and recruiting icon.
*SPOILERS*
Pvt. Sahara, who was pregnant on the planet with the battle, and was the member of Bravo Company that befriended Dax closest... was the only survivor.
At one point, Dax talks to her about kids dying and how the Federation doesn't really care about them, and the movie ends with her standing at the door of a recruiting center with her newborn watching the whole 'Dax; Hero of The Federation' recruiting video and a Sergeant comments to the baby to 'grow up fast, we need more meat for the grinder.'
The end of the movie is Sahara running away from the recruiting center with her baby.
*/SPOILERS*
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Post by J. T./Jessica on Jan 16, 2006 21:03:54 GMT -5
REVIEWED: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Before I even watch the movie, just looking at the 'Scene Selection' menu, I've made the following notations:
1. It mentions a city called Gotham - DC reference.
2. The robots that are in the movie, the larger walking robots and flying wings to be specific, are similar to the Nazi Sleeper robots that Captain America faced in Tales of Suspense Ish. 72 - Ish. 74. (A Third Sleeper, in the form of a giant flying Skull, also appeared in those issues. After his return, the Red Skull would create the Fourth and Fifth Sleepers that Cap would also battle and defeat. - Marvelite Magnus)
3. The Flying Fortress is similar in design to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier that appeared in the '97 Nick Fury movie (Which was an aircraft carrier with giant turbines to give it flight, different than the numerous Helicarriers S.H.I.E.L.D. has possessed over the years in the comics - Walking S.H.I.E.L.D. Database J.T.)
4. One of the locations in the film is 'Monster Island', another place that shares a name with a location in the Marvel-verse.
And now, the movie...
Five minutes in and so far, it has a nice thirties/forties feel to it. From the zeppelin to the names like "Polly Perkins", even the outfits.
"I was one of seven scientists", six missing scientists, of course he's next! The lady reporter is DENSE.
Why are female reporters incapable of listening when people tell them things like "Stop" "Get the hell out of there" or "Stay here"?
Teched-out P-40? (P-51?)... cool. and Classic.
And a nice scene when Sky Captain flies past and, seeing her, mutters to himself, "Polly." and at the same time, on the ground, she's smiling and whispers "Joe."
What can I say? I'm a nut for the classic style.
An island base for mercenaries... reminds me of DC's Blackhawks (and Blackhawk himself, their leader.)
Interesting couple...
Was that a miniture elephant? Weird...
It's more dangerous if she stays on the ground!
That pilot's crazy... oh, wait, pilot and crazy usually mean the same thing.
OKAY! A plane that becomes a sub.
Got the idea from a comic book? Okay, it's official, I like Dex's style.
I REALLY like Dex's style.
Offhand, I'd say he's been up to building a doomsday weapon.
Three cases of... Vienna sausages...
I need to listen to and memorize what Kaji was saying, if for no other reason than so I can honestly say I'd know how to talk dirty in Tibetan...
Any place people say is supernatural like that usually means it's the bad guy's base (or one of them.)
Oh... Shit.
A Geiger counter? In a mining outpost... Ah, Uranium.
And of course the woman goes off on her own.
THAT is a LOT of Dynamite... and it's gonna blow.
BIG BOOM! (I recommend this scene to any Mythbusters fan.)
AGH! I think I'da preferred the view on my left than the one on my right if I were Joe... and I prefer redheads!
"I've come to kill him" - short and to the point.
I knew that he was gonna ask Joe to kill him.
Rana... that's a name for the moon, isn't it?
Ok, a star.
Definately reminds me of the Live Action Helicarrier. (A design, I might add, I adopted for the refitted U.S.S. Flagg.)
Oh... Shit. "It's been a long time since Nanjing." That means Polly's been right all along.
That's a LOT of submersible aircraft... like early SHARCs...
Sky Captain just stepped into a BIG trap. He can fly like the devil, but he doesn't know how to avoid feminine landmines.
And this new one looks like a crab.
And Joseph? There's a crab in the way.
Why pull up when you can eject and fox-five something? (Fox-Five is an unofficial term, fox-two is heat-seekers, fox-four is guns, fox-five is ramming the target. Unfortunately, I can't remember what foxes one and three are off-hand.)
Aw... "h11od" is actually "Polly" upside down and backwards...
Oh, yes, it is funny.
VERY interesting couple.
Oh... shit. (big cat)
Oh... shit. (underground complex)
I'll lay my money down on it being Joe proposing.
Standard megalomaniacal plot... easy to beat.
A ray-gun you have to recharge by shaking? Inventive, at least...
"I am the last hope for a doomed planet", yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Anyone else heard that before? Yeah, thought so, and the ones that said it those times got their asses kicked too!
"I meant throw something." *laughs*
It was all programmed into the machines, wasn't it? (that or the assistant.)
Well, and keep in mind that I'm an advocate of force, I say nuke the place.
*groans* Stubborn women...
He HIT his girlfriend!?
Polly went after the plane, didn't she...
Okay, so she just went back for Joe.
You... REALLY should have expected that, Sky Captain...
You really expect her not to touch anything?
Frying the whole damn system works better than the 'subtle approach' any day in my book.
That's quite a number of 'Manta Stations'.
"Lens cap" *starts laughing again.*
In conclusion? If you like your sci-fi serious and believable, don't bother. But if you're like me and enjoy the old-style 'pulp' stories, this is something you'd like. It's so 'cheesy' and old-school that you can't help but enjoy it.
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Post by JP Gibb on Jan 27, 2006 18:59:44 GMT -5
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Post by Enigma! on Jan 27, 2006 21:10:49 GMT -5
Hmm. Should we add our own ratings to this? This is good, but it's missing a few...
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Post by Enigma! on Mar 25, 2006 22:34:32 GMT -5
Iggy's first Review
V For Vendetta:
Okay, last Sunday I went and saw V with a few art buddies (READ: fellow comics geeks) of mine. Allow me to first get my rant about expensive tickets, sticky floors, expensive snacks, and too many previews out of the way.
Done.
"V" is about a terrorist/hero in futuristic England fighting against a facist regime, Guy Fawks style. Blowing buildings up. A lady, Evie, is saved from govenment cerfew enforcers by the hero V, and thus is dragged into his world. A police detective working for England believes Evey is working with V, and seperately, they find out about the conspiracy that made V and the Government as it is in the movie.
The story was hard to follow at times, and V's classical, anarchistic banter was almost impossible to understand at times. I honestly couldn't symapthise with V (He is, technically a terrorrist, and isn't there a better way to save England than blowing the crap out of it?) or Evey (Whiny, conformist damsel in distress.), and found myself waiting impatiently for the sweet final battle and the explosion of of a famous building - the name of which escapes me now. What few moving moments that presented themselves were brief and broken up by more confusing conspiracy. In conclusion, the movie wasn't bad, but it didn't scratch my comic-book-movie itch.
Plot: 6/10
Action: 8/10
Characters/Dialogue: 5/10
OVERALL RATING: 7/10 (Read the graphic novel first.)
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Mortimus
Bard
"I look forward to killing you soon!"
Posts: 496
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Post by Mortimus on Mar 26, 2006 1:28:46 GMT -5
Ah, first review. Didn't agree with your V: For Vendetta review Iggy. I loved that film, thought it was so-so when I first went to see it, then went with a good friend of mine again and ended up liking it a little more. But enough about that, I'm going to review the film "Stay Alive"
Personally, I hate scarry movies. Never enjoyed watching films for the soul perpose of scaring the crap out of you. This one, I didn't find scary surprisingly. Could've been helpful with the PG-13 rating of the film, so it didn't show any gory killing in it. But like The Ring, it tries to use sound and sudden flashes on screen to make you jump. I'll admit there were a couple of scenes that should have made me jump, because my best friend jumped and he likes scary movies.
The film had a decent cast, was surprised to see the actor who plays Malcolm from "Malcolm in the Middle" as part of the cast. It was an interesting film and I would recommend you check it out, if not for a good scare them maybe for a cheap laugh. . .a cheap and disturbing laugh.
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Post by J. T./Jessica on Apr 7, 2006 1:06:06 GMT -5
Herbie: Fully Loaded - Overall? Good. But the whole sequence of events from agreeing to race for pinks to Kevin, Maggie and Herbie all making up is kinda forced.
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Post by Enigma! on Jul 19, 2006 22:39:47 GMT -5
I would post a review of Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest, but I think I should rent the first one before I make any snap judgments. I will say this: Considering that Amanda and her muses have seen the film, and considering a certain scene in it, I feel a bit sorry for Legolas right now...
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Post by BloodAngel on Jul 21, 2006 9:00:46 GMT -5
I must ask: Why would you feel bad for Leggy?
He likes that kinda stuff. 
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Post by Enigma! on Jul 21, 2006 12:48:15 GMT -5
I dunno. I just coudn't see myself going through that...
... For too long...
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Mortimus
Bard
"I look forward to killing you soon!"
Posts: 496
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Post by Mortimus on Jul 21, 2006 17:38:06 GMT -5
Hey, if any of you want a really good laugh and you have a high speed internet connection, you should check out this website. www.askaninja.comCheck out the videos they guy has, especially his review of pirates of the carribean. |
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Post by BloodAngel on Jul 26, 2006 10:31:05 GMT -5
I'm about to go see Clerks 2, so I'll be back with a review of it tomorrow.
Bye!
Correction:
Dalton doesn't have, and according to Tyler, never will show Clerks 2. I just saw Pirates a thrid time.
(Whip crack) I want that whip from the movie...
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Post by BloodAngel on Aug 21, 2006 12:25:30 GMT -5
Review of "Silent Hill":
Good, the creature effects were great. Sean Bean was the only "Bankable" face in the film, though.
The only thing I have complaints with is the ending. I mean, what the hell?!
Do rent. It's actually quite good.
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