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filmman3000
Reviews
The Ward (2010)
John Carpenter returns
The Ward doesn't live up to My John Carpenter favorites: Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, The Thing , Escape from New York, The fog, Big Trouble In Little China, Star Man, In The Mouth of Madness, They Live, and Prince of Darkness.
Right under this list you have Someone's Watching Me! Village of the Damned, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Pro-Life, and Cigarette Burn. That I still enjoy a lot but not as much.
Finally all the others, excluding Christine since I didn't watch in years, that I just find entertaining but not as hard hitting.
For me The Ward take the second place in the second list.
I think it affects the films reputation that it doesn't climb in the first list, since it was years ago that we had a great Carpenter Fix.
It's quite a good film,but for a Carpenter film it lacked of Pulp.
The horror was very good but not as sharp as Halloween or as dark as Prince Of Darkness.
A bit of more of one or the other would have helped.
The pace is very good and the ending is extremely well thought out.
The film is the victim of the fact it's a good John Carpenter Movie, not a great John Carpenter Movie. And his fans are too hungry for a great one.
Still a very good and satisfying film experience. I wouldn't be surprise if it becomes a cult among teens.
In my opinion, in future John Carpenter films they should promote his name a lot less. To avoid bad publicity over fan expectations.
This film still show that a quality director is behind it.
Moonlight (2007)
Great Show.
My friend owns a DVD set of the complete series and lent it to me, if not I would have never heard of it.
The concept is simple Sherlock Holmes is a Vampire and a Hollywood Pretty boy. Now that's the kind of idea which I find very "Roger Corman" and would except only cheese out of hearing from it.
In my opinion, they are a few elements that makes the show quite good.
1. The execution is slick, sexy and first class.
2. Great Soundtrack.
3. Nice plots.
4. Amazing characters development, you care about everyone, you know them and you want to know what will happen to them. It really makes the show.
5. Very well thought villains.
The only downfall of the show lasted one season and it leave the destiny of Coraline quite ambiguous. The same thing for the lover of Josef Kostan.
In my opinion they should make a TV movie just to tie these two things.
The Karate Kid (2010)
Corny and most of the time entertaining.
I thought the Karate Kid remake was watchable, but I wouldn't be able to sit through it without the fast forward button.
Let look at the Pro's and Con's
Pro's Jaden character makes a fresh new character he is a spoiled brad with an attitude. The movie has some great photography. Also the fact that the love interest of the plays violin adds a lot of texture to the film.
Con's The story structure is the same one the original one had, only this time the Kid goes to China. It will be a week point if you saw the original, because it makes the movie so predictable. The montage scenes slow downs the movie ridiculously. That why I mentioned the fast forward button is essential to the viewing.
Final verdict. They had all the element to do something new a fresh except they did the old Karate Kid script with the kid moving to China. Never the less the movie is professionally crafted and it will be good entertainment for a rainy day.
I give it a passing grade.
The Expendables (2010)
Good But Rambo 4 is better
I had the action and the thrills I wanted, but since i am a fan of a few of the actors I wanted much more.
I think Stallone, did such a good job on Rambo 4 that my expectations were too high.
Now as a Rambo 4 fan, these are the 1 things that was better in Rambo 4 and less good in "The Expendables".
1. A lot of the blood in"The Expendables" was CGI. In Rambo 4 it was much more splashy and the blood seemed real. I have nothing against CGIs when they do not look like a computer cartoon in the movie, in many moments in "The Expendables" the blood looks very computerish.
Two things I was expecting that didn't live up to my expectation.
The fight between Dolph and Li is lot less mythical then I expected. I was expecting Bruce Lee VS Chuck Norris part 2. On the reverse side I like the twist and the consequences of this combat.
The rest of the fights and this one are very good but the difference between Li and Lundgren VS the rest of the cast, minus Gary Daniels and Randy Couture, is that they are Martial legends.
In my opinion, if you put them in the ring the expectation are bigger then Stallone VS Austin, that ends being a better looking fight scene.
3. I feel that the team was too sporadic, for Example in the film "The Predator", they manage to keep the audience focused on the team. I was expecting a full adventure with these characters. It's not that the camaraderie is less good, it's just that in the beginning you have quite a few scenes that focuses on Stallone and Statham. Those have scenes have all the elements to make them great except you miss the rest of the team. A few walkie-talkie moments with the rest of the guys and a few jokes would have done it. Still when they are together it's great.
In the end, the movie is fun, the entire cast is good, the story is great and I am looking forward for the sequel.
The Hole (2009)
Best 3D movie so far
Just for the records I live in Thailand and this film is receiving the full theatrical treatment and I just attended the premiere.
The only reason I saw it. Is that I saw the name Joe Dante on the poster.
We are now in a period where 3D is in full swing and I have seen "My Bloody Valentine 3D" and "Avatar".
Avatar was great in his own right, but I found the whole thing over the top. Now I like simpler movies in general. So my preference is a question of taste.
Also I not have wide knowledge of 3D and special effects, but I was satisfied.
Anyways back to a normal review. Like Dante promised it's a horror film for the family, and he does what he does best again. Unlike Gremlins or any of his previous family horror film this one scares you as well as being clean.
I had a few jump and was spooked by some scenes.
Also I went with a date and it was a proper film for that. She was holding on to me and the rest... And we were watching a proper film without a ton of gore.
I am not a fan of horror film with too much gore so I was happy. If you like that stuff it's not on "The Hole" menu.
Well the story is simple there is a trap in the basement. Kids open it a their greatest fears become true. Well acted, and well directed with a fresh concept.
A touchdown for Dante.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)
So cheesy it funny
When I first saw the trailer in the Cinema, I burst out laughing, like a 1/4 of the people there.
It looks like a Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears video from beginning to the end. With a dialogue that is so corny.
I will give the movie some credits for first class photography, performance, dance, and everything else is pro.
Down the line I grew up on hard core hip hop and it's really not my type of film.
But again it's so corny it's funny. I was so well entertained that I give it a good passing grade.
The Blind Side (2009)
Near perfect movie with 3 mistakes
I love that movie inspiring, funny, with good values and the list goes on. It's definitely a feel good movie. I has the same kind feel Forest Gump has. It's very American. Personally I am generally turned off by this genre of film. I like dark Indie movie, Stanley Kubrick,action films and everything unpredictable. I am not saying that people who generally share the same taste has me would like but it worked on me.
The story is about Micheal a gigantic Black teenager from the projects who gets a scholarship I upper class white school. The reason for this is his size and the possibilities he has for the football team. A mother, played by Sandra Bullock, gets concerned and takes him in her wealthy family.
The main qualities of the movie is that it's packed with original jokes, a very solid script, unpredictable, captivating characters, and excellent acting.
The movie had two mistake that weaken the intelligence of the film and they are two cliché moments. Like I said it's a very American film, I was expecting to have those spread around all over the film, which is not the case. But only two times. It also has something I cant explain.
He are those moments do not read or you'll be spoiled.
Micheal, the black kid, passes by a park and small kids seem to like him and ask him to push them on the swings. The daughter of the Mother sees that and at that moment she becomes sympathetic of him. A little later he plays football and gets distracted by balloon flying by and it's funny. I felt she should have became sympathetic at that moment. The scene with the kids was a bit unreal I don't think a Black guy from the project would play with little white kids, even pushing kids nicely on swings. Never the less everyone around the knew him so it's not impossible either. Also it's not executed in a over the top cheesy manner too, like it may sound, but we have seen this before.
When Micheal trains for football there is a training montage with an unessential homage to the Rocky films. It's not over the the top but obvious.
They hire a tutor, played by Katie Bates, to help him in school. She is sympathetic the whole film. When Micheal needs to choose a university later in the film she convince him to choose a university instead of another, because extremely fantastic weird stuff. That gets Micheal in problems, down the line it is never explained why she did that and she isn't punish for it... I find very odd.
Excellent film
Star Trek (2009)
More Star Wars then Star Trek
I am a fan of the original series, so this one was a disappointment on many levels. They were a lot of trademark from the original missing for example interesting philosophy and hypothesis about outer space, Kirk is more of a pimp in the original ones and few more things like that.
I was expecting kick ass action with a script true to the series.
It was completely untrue to the what will happen next in series. Captain Pike and Kirk don't meet until much later in series. Uhura never had an affair with Spock. Chekov comes much later in the series. Kirk had a brother. And many other details like this that bother me.
I think it looks more like Star War then Star Trek. Example that creature with Scotty.
Never the less the action is good, the actors are good, the effects are good and it's never boring. But it will be frustrating if you are a fan of the originals.
I think the script and story line are quite lousy. And they did a lazy job keeping it true.
Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (1986)
good flick but the Japanese kitsh kills it
GOOD DRAWING AND A GOOD IDEA Doesn't obligatory MAKE A GOOD FILM.This film prove it. Miyazaki is Greta animator who stands at the top for creativeness and great animation. The movie has a great concept a lost kingdom in the Sky, an abandoned princess, fun characters... A lot of people love this movie and I understand why. I think its not that good. Well I don't need to describe to you people what Japanese kitch is like. Overdone music for emotion, when the little girl is scared she scream like a women having an or@#$%%$, and it goes on for little annoying details. The kitch in Japanese animation is very different from the kitch in American animation, at least they didn't sing an Elton John song. If you want to watch a good movie who shows you what Japanese kitch is all about. this one is for you.
Wizards (1977)
excellent
Well it was an excellent film. A very basic story "evil VS good", but very effective if you get the main messages and all the hidden messages. I like the artwork in that movie but its not for everybody. A lot of people complain about Ralph Bakshi style other praise it. I praise it. The public and the critic will always have a love and hate relationship with bakshi. one half love him one half hate him. Its always been that way whit him always will be.
Finally its a worth watching sci/fi a movie that doesn't look like anything else. Its original, conceptual, well intentioned, well toughs and very effective.