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Reviews
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
Disappointment
Disappointment. It seemed like they got a great cast of actors and the Miami Dolphins pro football team together to make a comedy, then realized that they needed to write a funny script and had writer's block. Jim Carrey is his usual silly goof and his humorist brilliance does show through but the story is rather lame, stupid and painful to watch. The story is also not child friendly as in the opening scene there is a oral sex joke and there is s sprinkling of adult humor throughout the movie. Cringe alert. Parents beware, this is a case of Hollywood being out of touch with the mainstream. Carrey's follow on movies "the Mask" and "Bruce Almighty" are much better but you can't use their success to judge this film. It is just not as good.
Red Dawn (2012)
Fortress Hollywood rises again
This Hollywood made movie is much like many things from the Korean peninsula, (the peninsula that gave us "Gangnam Style"), it defies explanation. Once I heard that there was a RED DAWN remake of the 1984 version (except the Soviets and Cubans were replaced by North Koreans and Russians), I wasn't expecting much. And in this this movie exceeded my expectations.
Yes, it is very unlikely that the North Koreans could invade the mainland of the United States, but I understand that the original antagonist was suppose to be Communist China, until the Peoples Republic caught wind of the plot and threatened the movie producer. But knowing this and still seeing the movie then ones expectations should be moderated.
So for a quick plot recap, the North Koreans invade the Western USA while Russia apparently invades the Eastern Coastline. A bunch of high school students in Spokane form a guerrilla group calling themselves the "Wolverines" after their high school nick name.
Yes, the plot is somewhat unrealistic. But there are several good points about the movie.
1. The acting was not as all around bad as some of the others would have you believe. The acting was OK. Chris Hemsworth (Jed Eckert) was pretty good, and his acting skills salvaged the movie. Also there was some good supporting acting from Brett Cullen (Eckert's Dad), Michael Beach (The mayor) and Jeffery Dean Morgan (the Soldier). Will Yun Lee played a menacing Captain Cho and showed his best acting when under pressure from his general (that story should have been developed more). In some sense it was like Adrianne Palicki and Isabel Lucas were in the wrong movie, but that was probably due to the weakness of the plot.
2. While watching the movie and realizing that we (the USA) are just concluding military incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan. In both of those countries we have experienced insurgency problems, whose insurgents were likely saying the same things to their people that the Hemsworth character was saying to the Wolverines. So in a strange sense this is the movie of the occupied made in a way where those people are sympathetic to the viewer. It is a perspective which one does not get in American movies.
3. The 1984 RED DAWN is an artifact of a time when an invasion of America was more plausible. It was so much more in American popular culture that there were actually board games made on the subject such as "Invasion America" and "Fortress America," (games where the communist world gangs up and attacks the USA). This is THE MOVIE for those games.
Many of the reviewers were exceptionally hard on the movie, so I am guessing that they were expecting some other type of movie. If you can suspend common sense for the premise and not take the movie too seriously then its not a bad rental. I am sure this movie will become very inexpensive. When it does I might pick it up and keep it in my copy of Fortress America.
The truth is I've seen movies that were a lot worst.
The Collingswood Story (2002)
College Student's Nightmare
What a surprise this little gem is! This horror film is gripping as is unfolds and parses out the town's secret piece by piece. The setting is a old house in a small suburban town of Camden, NJ, (which is in the shadow of Philadelphia, Pa). Living in a Rutgers-Camden off campus housing apartment in Collingswood, NJ, Rebecca keeps in touch with her out of state boyfriend using her computer laptop and a internet web phone. Kudos to the kids for being so tech savvy. Online they stumble across a horrific secret about the town. Things go downhill from there. I know this town, and while the story is a fiction, the town does have history. Even though the town borough incorporated in 1888 at the breakup of Newton Township, the area was first settled by Europeans in the 1680s. Crows Park is actually Knights Park, and Haddon Avenue and Lees Lane do exist! The movie is unrated, but I would consider it PG. There are pretty intense scary scenes. Not suitable for children under 13. Great Halloween movie in the dorms.
Species (1995)
Overrated waste of time
This movie is billed as a sci-fi movie, but it is a monster movie, and not a very good one. While what ever the producers wanted to achieve with this movie, I think they missed big time. A space mission accidentally brings back some alien virus or something, and it infects people with a magic goop that can spray over distances. This is bit of a rip off from the other older sci-fi movie "The Thing." Except "The Thing" did a little better job of it. In order to sell the movie there was a young good looking 20 something blond girl who was infected and under alien control had no regard for clothes. But while there is nudity and sexual acts in the movie, it is not graphic enough to save this R-rated bomb. If one wants to see a movie with sex, why not drop all pretenses and just get a porno. Not only did I regret the money I spent on renting this movie, this was one a the few time that i regretted taking the time to watch it all the way through. The sequel was no better. And they actually made a SpeciesIII?
Liberty's Kids (2002)
American History the easy way
Liberty's Kids is a story of American History told as a cartoon. While the story revolves around three children (or teens, not sure what are their actual ages) acting as reporters for Ben Franklin's news reporters for the Pennsylvania Gazette, the people they interact with are the historical people from the birth of our nation. George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Br. Generals Howe, and Cornwallis are all present. This is an easy way for people to learn history. For example, I like history, but did not know the story about Delaware's Sidney Rodney. After taking my children to see the still operating printing press at the Ben Franklin Museum in Olde City Philadelphia, it was neat to see in the cartoon Sarah Phillips inking the print the same way. The cartoon does a good job at the balancing act of showing that the war was no picnic without gratuitous violence. It is safe for young kids to watch. Battles are shown, but it is the political action that is more important. Likewise, the English, (and Hessians) are not made out to be evil, but are shown as any history book would. This series is suitable for all ages.