williambertram Reviews

Nightflyers (2018)

Lots of early promise, but gets progressively worse

[4/10 · 8 June 2023]

Sci-fi/horror with psychic powers, and insane AI, and first contact sounds like a recipe for a show I'd love. Unfortunately, it's not done very well.

Way too much time is spent on the romantic interests of the characters. Some people may like that, but it's not for me. I don't watch sci-fi horror for romance and relationship counselling scenes.

The whole thing with the captain's mom being the insane AI didn't work for me. I also didn't understand why the captain refused to appear in person the first few episodes, then has no problem with it later.

I think this could have been a great movie, rather than a show. Give it some structure like a beginning, middle, and end would have made it far better. As a show it just kind of meanders around from one ham handed idea after another to create filler material.

Nightflyers seems like someone took all the great ideas for a movie I'd enjoy and turned it into a tedious soap opera.

Savageland (2015)

Slow, unsatisfying, and poorly made

[3/10 · 16 April 2023]

I like the concept of Savageland. A border town gets attacked by zombies, and they blame it on a Mexican drifter. It plays on both the savage violence and racism sometimes found at the border.

The execution was terrible.

First, the pictures of zombies are ineffective because they are too blurry. I get that the guy was on the run, in fear for his life, etc. But they were just too blurry to be scary. The few that were not blurry were also not scary.

Second, the evidence was too obvious. We have a history of racism in law enforcement, but there was just no way Salazar COULD have committed the crimes. Forget whether he would or not, it just wasn't physically possible. Ok, so I'll buy that some small time kangaroo court would crucify a Mexican, but not the appeals court. There's just no way this shoddy evidence gets past the appeals court. "He took a picture of a sandwich and road kill" is not evidence.

My third problem with this FF documentary is that it's WAY too long. They repeatedly go over the same basic ideas over, and over, and over. It quickly became boring. So much of Savageland should have been left on the cutting room floor.

I think Savageland COULD have been a decent FF documentary if it was around thirty minutes. Tighten the whole thing up. Zombies roll through a border town, the drifter is obviously framed, and improve the quality of the photos to make them scary. I would almost call this a lesson in how NOT to make a FF documentary.

The Blackout (2019)

So many absurd plot holes

[1/10 · 16 April 2023]

It's hard to even know where to begin.

First, we have a godlike alien who can mentally control entire cities, and have advanced MMA gadgets, and superhuman strength and speed. This near immortal alien is defeated by a kid who tackles him off the top of a building.

Next, we have an entire race of these aliens. Millions of them. Their ship lands on Earth at the end, and the entire race is asleep. Yep. The entire invasion force is asleep in chambers that... get ready for this... have oxygen pumped into them. The humans kill them by cutting their oxygen supply. On Earth. We know they can breath our atmosphere, and a woman kills hundreds of thousands of them by chopping an axe into tubes pumping OXYGEN into their suspension chambers. You know, the stuff that makes up our atmosphere? The same stuff we've already seen them breathing through half the movie? Why were they asleep? Because one of the aliens on earth didn't push the "wake up" button he had on his person. He couldn't press it because an unarmed teenage boy killed him. It almost seems like an advanced godlike alien race capable of interstellar travel might have some kind of automated system to just pop open their suspension chambers when they land on a habitable planet or something.

I have never seen a movie fail so spectacularly on elementary school level problem solving. The people who made this movie were REALLY dumb!

Don't Breathe (2016)

Passable thriller with a LOT of dumb ideas

[5/10 · 15 April 2023]

First, the brutally stupid things.

1. Blind guy keeps $300k cash in his desolate house.

2. Gun runs out of bullets when a protagonist is about to die.

3. Protagonists think $300k is their last score, split three ways. Will that even buy a cheeseburger anymore? I expected to see Dr. Evil in this scene.

4. Teenage boy has access to magic device that shuts off all home alarms because his dad is a cop.

5. Another movie about a sex dungeon in a Detroit no-go zone. I don't even doubt these exist, I'm just tired of seeing movies about them. Granted, this one came before Barbarian, but I didn't like that movie either.

6. Cute girl's bad boyfriend is called Money. I refuse to believe that anyone currently exists on planet earth that goes by the nickname Money.

7. Blind guy has two safes with the same code.

8. Protagonist is able to deduce safe code by hearing the beeps while she's in fear for her life.

This isn't a terrible movie if you just accept that literally nothing in it makes sense outside the context of creating a plot gimmick.

The White Ribbon (2009)

Another perfectly imperfect Haneke film

[9/10 · 17 December 2022]

10/10. "Come and witness the violence inherent in the system!" -- Monty Python.

It took me a while to REALLY come around to Haneke's methods, and his complicated and unresolved endings, but for a while at least, more traditional movie endings might seem unsatisfying and contrived.

Things that happen to me in life that I consider interesting are rarely, if ever, totally clear. They are interesting because I have to think about them, consider the outcomes of various possible actions, and weigh the costs and benefits. The usual outcome of this exercise is me shaking my head and wondering one of two things. 1) "What just happened?" Or, 2) "This can only be the best possible solution because we are mercilessly punished for literally everything enjoyable in life." This is how I feel at the end of Haneke movies.

The ending of Burn After Reading, the excellent Cohen Brothers movie is also like this and portrays J. K. Simmons trying to make sense of the film's incomprehensible nonsense. I'll also give the Coen Brothers credit for pulling one of these non-endings off in No Country For Old Men, which was my favorite movie for a long, long time.

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994)

Similar to Code Unknown, but not quite as good

[8/10 · 12 December 2022]

A very early Haneke that is quite similar to Code Unknown, a collection of incomplete vignettes. Again, here, it's all about scene design, and we can see even in 1994 Haneke was one of the best at it.

The scene with the middle-aged couple eating dinner made me wonder, again, if men and women are actually ever happy living together, or whether it's more about finding ways to tolerate each other for some deeper fulfillment. The film doesn't even attempt to answer this question, which makes me feel a little better not knowing it myself. I'm almost 51, so maybe I'll never know the answer, but scenes like this can only be described as distinctly Haneke. I don't know what he's like in person, but the more of his movies I watch, the more I wonder if the character Antlers Holst from Nope is based on him, or possibly Ingmar Bergman.

Code Unknown is the better of the two films, mostly because of Juliette Binoche, but both are definitely worth watching.

Code Unknown (2000)

Perfectly incomplete messterpeice

[8/10 · 12 December 2022]

Code inconnu: Récit incomplete de divers voyages, roughly translated as an incomplete collection of loosely connected vignettes, is exactly what it says. There are quite a few of these interconnected vignette movies I enjoy; Burn After Reading, Magnolia, Pulp Fiction, Crash, and Traffic just to name a few.

Code Unknown is an uncompromising and piercing look at the day-to-day lives of several people in Paris by Michael Haneke. As you can expect with any Michael Haneke movie, this movie is edgy, and it was a little disturbing for reasons I can't explain. He has this unique way of pulling the viewer into the scene so it feels raw and personal. Just amazing scene work from start to finish, which was critical since the movie essentially has no unified plot. It's incomplete, and perfect. Perfectly incomplete.

Juliette Binoche was her usual amazing self, and her performance REALLY added those unsettling tones to the movie. She's just sizzling in this one, and I would have voted her best actress. That scene in the grocery store was just on fire. She can make your heart pound, then rip it right out all in the same scene. I think I'm in love. The rest of the cast was fantastic as well. Great performances all around.

Michael Haneke was kind of an acquired taste for me, and I'm very happy I didn't watch this one first. Funny Games, The Piano Teacher, and Cache gave me a feel for his style I didn't appreciate at first. If I had watched this one first, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much.

If you've enjoyed some of Haneke's other movies, this one is practically required viewing. You'll probably also like it if you enjoyed some of the movies I mentioned above. It's worth watching for Juliette Binoche's scenes alone, especially if you're a fan of her other work.

I'm giving it 10/10, but I honestly expect your average moviegoer would go 7 or even 6/10 if they have any idea what to expect with a Michael Haneke movie, so YMMV.

The Piano Teacher (2001)

You may enjoy The Pianist if you enjoyed Black Swan

[10/10 · 11 December 2022]

I have a life-long obsession with power dynamics in romantic relationships, although I've never found a partner to explore them with.

This probably is not an uncommon scenario. You meet someone, become infatuated with them, then eventually you have a conversation about the birds and the bees. "Do you like kissing? I'm a great kisser. Your turn." "I like to be slapped and humiliated." (sound of needle scratching across record). Usually this results in being single again, but what else can we do? We can't pick and choose what actually turns us on.

It's probably true that many people like Erika had an unhealthy childhood and/or career. The human mind and body can only be pushed so far. What's worse is that it's VERY tough to seek help for these things. I tried, but was unable to discuss any of this with a therapist. It's too embarrassing to discuss, even with a professional. So we go through life trying in vain to sort these things out, until we resign ourselves to a relationship with internet pornography, or finally meet someone else who is "into it." The sad thing is, once I met someone who was "into it," and it scared me to much to proceed. Yup, I chickened out. Meeting someone who shared my thoughts and desires scared me off. I'm not proud of it, but this is what people like Erika deal with on a daily basis.

I think The Pianist is a good exploration of sexualizing power dynamics. If you are someone cursed with this "perversion," and/or had to live with it, then it should be easier to empathize with Erika's character.

I'm going 9/10 because of the amazing amount of thought that went into this exploration. If you enjoyed Black Swan, and (I won't say or) you get turned on by sexualizing power dynamics and humiliation, then The Pianist is for you.

Caché (2005)

Another bleak narrative from Michael Haneke

[8/10 · 11 December 2022]

Another bleak narrative from Michael Haneke, directory of Funny Games.

I'm not necessarily opposed to bleak narratives, especially when I agree with them. Funny Games deconstructs the nature of bullying and how it is often used for entertainment purposes.

Cache deals with the same essential topic but with more of a focus on racism and class warfare.

Like Funny Games, it held my interest from start to finish. I'm knocking off a star for the ambiguous ending. I enjoy viewer agency, but I feel like too much was left unexplained. Enough is there to make some basic assumptions, and it didn't ruin the movie.

I'm also knocking off another star for a few unnecessary and weird character decisions that also did not advance the plot. Maybe I didn't understand some French cultural nuances or maybe it can be chalked up to stress, but these scenes muddied up the narrative.

Overall it's an interesting and tense thriller I have no reservations in recommending.

Funny Games (1997)

Decent thriller

[9/10 · 11 December 2022]

Funny Games is a well-directed thriller with solid performances all around. Tension is built steadily and well-maintained up until the deal with the remote. I'm not a fan of fourth wall gimmicks, and I'm knocking a star off for that. I'm also knocking another star off for being a bit predictable. I guessed the general idea of the ending about 20-25 minutes into the movie, but it was good enough to keep me interested.

I'm not suggesting that there should have been a happy ending, I just would have been happier without the unnecessary fourth wall gimmick. I think the movie stands on its own as a statement on the reality of bullying in all societies, and could have even revealed the wealthy couple to be corrupt in some way to present viewers with a "who's really the bad guy?" dilemma.

I'll just hit the erase button on my remote for that scene, and call it an enjoyable thriller with a sad but realistic take on bullying I can't recall seeing in any other movie.

House (1977)

Mary Poppins as a Japanese horror movie

[8/10 · 11 December 2022]

The only way I can think of to describe this movie is if Mary Poppins or The Sound Of Music were a Japanese horror movie. It has all the campy effects, music, and acting, complete with the carefree bucolic setting. Only it's Japanese horror.

It resembles some of the other intentionally campy comedy-horror movies I've seen like The Comedy Of Terrors, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but the Japanese cultural elements take it to another level of bizarre. It really starts to mess with your head after a while, and despite being completely sober, it had me feeling a little dazed and confused.

I feel fairly confident recommending it to anyone who enjoyed The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and can appreciate the absolutely bonkers Japanese flavor.

If you ever wondered what it would look like, in gruesome detail, if an evil sentient piano possessed, then dismembered and consumed a Japanese girl with special effects straight out of a Monty Python short, you have found your movie.

I'm not even scratching the surface, you really must see this to believe it.

Pulse (2001)

Excellent Japanese horror

[8/10 · 11 December 2022]

If you liked Noroi: The Curse, you will probably like Pulse. It abstractly deals with the concept of voluntary isolationism, and having voluntarily isolated myself in the past, it succeeds with shocking accuracy. The person or people who made this must have either isolated themselves, or been close to someone who did, because they captured that feeling of wanting to withdraw from society very well. I reached a point where I didn't enjoy anything society had to offer me that was attainable, and just stopped interacting with it. I think this movie captures that feeling perfectly, in an abstract manner. Also the scenes of abandoned cities captured the early days of Covid isolation perfectly. Empty streets and buildings, nobody outside.

Pulse accurately portrays one common result of voluntary isolation, which is suicide, or lack of desire to keep living. The first scene in the movie captures how I felt. I think people who have never been suicidal have no idea how it feels. It's not some gothic tragedy, steeped in drama, with pipe organs and people crying out in sorrow. It wasn't like that for me anyway. It wasn't even necessarily a sad feeling at all. I just didn't enjoy anything anymore, and didn't want to continue on with the drudgery of day-to-day life. Whoever created that scene knows this feeling, and people who haven't felt it probably won't understand what it is trying to convey.

I think now I am on the boat going into the future, but again, Pulse seems to intimately understand the drudgery of day-to-day life for those of us who have at one time reached the conclusion that life is a completely pointless malaise. Like living out life on a boat. Boring, repetitive, and ultimately pointless.

I'm giving Pulse 10/10 because I have never seen a more accurate portrayal of how I felt when I was isolated and suicidal, and to compensate for lower star ratings from people who don't understand the subject matter due to lack of context.

Wanted (2008)

A Matrix better than The

[9/10 · 25 November 2022]

Wanted is a movie like The Matrix. A miserable office worker uses newfound powers to set off on a life of adventure. In the Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic is lured into an existence worse than his current one by a ragtag and presumably smelly group of outcasts who live on oatmeal. Blue pill, please.

Wanted solves this problem by sending Angelina Jolie in a red sports car to lure the protagonist away from his hellish cubicle slavery. No logical problems here. I'd hop right into that sports car even if it was headed over a cliff.

Extra stars for the ending. It's a question worth asking even if there is no answer.

Great 90s flick made in 2008. 9/10.

Barbarian (2022)

Serviceable horror movie if you've seen all the really good ones

[7/10 · 5 November 2022]

TLDR: Barbarian is a decent but overrated horror movie with poorly written characters.

The good: The creepiness is well done. Barbarian features some run-of-the-mill but well-done horror tropes. The monster is scary and succeeds at being a monster.

The bad: Justin Long as an actor, and his character. Unnecessarily unrealistic characters and situations may have been written by middle-school students. Barbarian tries so hard to be clever but succeeds at being imbecilic in parts. Justin Long's character is your prototypical "too stupid to live" horror movie character, and to make it worse he's a terrible actor. I'm knocking off two stars for him alone.

Overall: It's not terrible, but I can think of a few hundred better horror movies right off the top of my head. If you have HBO Max and you've seen literally everything else, Barbarian is serviceable.

7/10.

Vesper (2022)

Beautiful, enjoyable, but the story is flat and the ending didn't satisfy me at all

[6/10 · 23 October 2022]

Vesper's plot hinges on whether or not you believe a minority of privileged elites would isolate themselves in technology fortresses and intentionally starve everyone else to death simply because they can. Not only do I believe this would happen, I believe it is currently happening. A functional plot does not necessarily make an enjoyable movie, however, and Vesper is so intentionally depressing it can't even bring itself to tell us if the unlocked seeds grow in the end. Minus one star for the unnecessarily ambiguous ending.

Vesper has a certain beauty despite the oppressive dystopian atmosphere. Vesper seems able to grow all kinds of biological marvels except food, which seems a bit odd. Wouldn't food be her top priority in a starving world? So while I agree that a small group of elites would 100% starve everyone else to death for no good reason, I don't understand why Vesper doesn't use her bio-engineering skills to grow food. Someone smart enough to unlock futuristic Monsanto seeds could surely grow SOME form of sustenance. Minus one star for this logical failure.

Minus another star because this is basically the plot of Mad Max Thunder road. Take the magic seeds to the promised land.

Minus another star for totally unnecessary and gross sexual innuendo with a minor.

Final score: 6/10. I'm being unusually harsh in my rating because I think this could have been a great movie if someone else had made it.

Nope (2022)

Near perfect modern movie making

[10/10 · 6 September 2022]

Nope is deceptive. On the surface, you have a cool, modern horror sci-fi horror movie that has mainstream appeal. Based on that alone, I give it 9/10. Cinematography, sets, setting, performances, soundtrack, story, and everything else you might want out of a movie are expertly done. Nope is nothing short of a modern John Carpenter movie, the kind he made in his prime. These superficial things are only the tip of the iceberg, however. Nope is a deep movie. At its core, Nope is a spiritual movie dressed up as sci-fi/horror. It's a story of a brother and sister trying to keep a family business together in a crazy, declining world. There are themes of loss, struggle, triumph, connectedness, and redemption. The neat trick here is that all of this feels genuine and relevant. Nope is art.

In addition to being a competent John Carpenter movie, David Lynch is also an obvious influence. I defy you to watch the diner or The Cowboy scene from Mullholland Drive and deny it would be right at home in Nope. As a life-long David Lynch fan, let me tell you, not many people can pull this style off. Sometimes David Lynch can't even pull it off. This style of movie-making goes for a primal, visceral response over traditional storytelling. I can only think of a handful of movies where this has been done well, and Nope is one of them. Much as I'll always love Mullholland Drive, Nope managed to pull those savage responses out of me, and also tell a John Carpenter story. I mean... I just... HOW DO YOU EVEN DO THAT?? Clearly, Jordan Peele is a wizard.

To some extent, you must have an appreciation, even love, for David Lynch and John Carpenter movies to fully appreciate Nope. Not only that, Nope is a movie for people who like to think about what they just watched. If it bothers you to not have everything clearly explained and understood, if you don't have any need for viewer agency in what you watch, Nope might fall a little flat for you. If, on the other hand, you are a fan of John Carpenter and David Lynch, and like deep, thought-provoking movies, Nope may instantly become a classic for you, as it did for me. This is modern movie-making at its best, and I haven't been this excited about a movie since seeing Pulp Fiction for the first time. 10/10.

Lake Mungo (2008)

Decent found footage ghost story

[8/10 · 21 August 2022]

Moves a little slow for my taste. There are actual documentaries that move at a better pace like Dear Zachary. In a fictional documentary, there's literally no reason not to give it a little more traction. The slower pace did, however, help to deliver a sad, creepy atmosphere that perhaps might not have been possible in a faster paced movie.

The interviews in Lake Mungo are better than you normally see in found footage movies. Lake Mungo is entirely based on interviews, however, so they had to get that right.

I enjoyed Lake Mungo, and put it in my top five found footage movies.

Hell House LLC (2015)

Decent found footage horror

[7/10 · 21 August 2022]

Hell House LLC succeeds in being an above average, watchable found footage horror movie.

That said, it didn't really grab me and creep me out like some other found footage movies I've seen like Noroi: The Curse, Rec, and Blair Witch. I'd put it a notch below those movies.

The interview scenes were flat, and didn't really succeed at getting me in the mood. They weren't bad, but felt more like I was watching a found footage movie, and less authentic.

Overall, it's not terrible, and I recommended it to people who have already seen the best of the genre and are looking for more.

Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021)

Fantastically underrated movie

[8/10 · 14 August 2022]

First off, I MUST mention the IMDB rating of 6.0 (at the time of writing). I just... Why the... I can't even formulate a sentence worthy of questioning why this movie is rated so low.

If you like writer Taylor Sheridan's other movies like Sicario, Hell Or High Water, and Wind River, Those Who Wish Me Dead is a slam dunk. I mean, there's no way to like Wind River and not this one. Hell Or High Water is probably the best of them, but watch them all. Really, really enjoyable movies with just the right amount of action, emotion, beautiful scenery, and great performances. Sheridan really has a winning formula, and knows how to capture the best of wide open spaces like West Texas, Wyoming, and Montana.

The protagonists are likeable but flawed (in a good way). The "likeable but flawed" formula can be poorly done, but it's well done here. The antagonists are some SERIOUS jerks! I can usually keep everything in perspective, but I was vocally rooting against these guys, and hats off to

Seriously, my jaw dropped when I saw the 6.0 rating for this movie. I've watched over 2,000 movies in my life, and I know a good one when I see it. This is an excellent movie. Hats off to Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen for pulling off the tough, tough role of soulless assassins. Seriously, that's a tough part, because the characters are necessarily flat by nature, but man they REALLY make you hate them in this one.

Angelina Jolie is outstanding, and she also pulls off a tough role with flying colors. I really liked her in this.

Highly recommended.

Forbidden World (1982)

Not great, but better than expected

[6/10 · 8 August 2022]

The acting was below average, but I've definitely seen worse in low-budget movies.

The soundtrack was surprisingly good if you like 80s electronica, and I do.

The story was very unoriginal, and the method of killing the antagonist seems ridiculous even in a sci-fi movie.

Overall, if you're in the mood for a good space horror movie and you've seen all the good ones, this isn't bad.

Rabid (1977)

Cronenberg at his best

[8/10 · 8 August 2022]

David Cronenberg's early movies are my favorites, and that includes Rabid. This is a raw, almost guerilla low-budget suspense horror classic. There's nothing polished about Rabid, and I love that about it. You can almost see Cronenberg out on location putting crosses on a "killer slant" like Mark Borchardt.

Cronenberg's early work reminds me a lot of John Carpenter. He's got the great horror soundtrack, and a gritty bare-knuckle story.

Rabid is essentially a zombie movie by a different name, but I enjoyed it far more than most of them. Zombie movies tend to be pretty slow and dumb for the most part, but Cronenberg's style is what makes Rabid better.

This is a fun one, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Cronenberg's other work, and well-made low-budget movies in general.

Brainscan (1994)

Overlooked 90s techo-horror-thriller that's a lot of fun

[8/10 · 7 August 2022]

Let's get the obvious out of the way. Brainscan is a 90s techno-thriller, so the tech featured in the movie is so ancient that younger viewers might not even recognize it. I'm not holding that against it, though, because they worked with what they had available at the time, and there is also a lot of nostalgia for that gear.

The soundtrack is good 90s hard rock and metal music. Works perfectly.

Acting is surprisingly good for a tile like this. Edward Furlong (John Connor), T. Ryder Smith, Frank Langella, and the rest of the cast did a great job of keeping Brainscan interesting. T. Ryder Smith had some really funny moments.

I never hear anyone mention this movie on social media groups, but I liked it. If you enjoy other 90s tech movies like The Matrix, Strange Days, Johnny Mnemonic, you'll probably like this.

Blind Fury (1989)

Bad ninja movie only tolerable because of Rutger Hauer

[6/10 · 31 July 2022]

Zatoichi in a modern setting.

This movie has one, and only one, thing going for it, and that's Rutger Hauer. The rest is a series of forced and unlikely action scenes featuring a blind man. There are a finite number of times you can surround a blind man with gun-toting assassins before even willing audiences roll their eyes when he kills them all with a sword. This was a tough sell even back in 1989 when there was still an appetite for ninja movies.

The plot is a common rescue-the-kid story we've all seen at least once.

Some of the sword fighting is impressive. I'm no expert, but Rutger Hauer seems to have done at least some training for the role.

Other than Rutger Hauer, the acting is B-Movie quality. The main thug is particularly bad, some of the worst acting I've ever seen, and he inexplicably has several scenes featuring only him. He must have been related to someone, because I'd give the movie another star without his ridiculous growling and one-liners. Really awful stuff.

Rutger Hauer does his best, and that's just good enough to make Blind Fury watchable for free on Prime Video. I seriously doubt this movie would have been made if he hadn't taken the role, because it's doubtful many other big names would sign on.

Freaks (2018)

Want to see the realities of being a shut-in? Neither did I.

[5/10 · 28 July 2022]

This is a decent movie in terms of acting and story. What I didn't want to see was the bleak and frankly gross life of a shut-in. You can just SEE the body odor in this movie. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem for me. I can handle gross. It's just so unnecessary, though. If you want to see how to do the "outcast living in a hostile society," watch They Live. The overall tone was angry and depressing, too. Again, I can normally handle angry and depressing, it just didn't work for me here.

Bleak, gross, angry, and depressing. That's how I'd sum up Freaks. It's a decent movie, but I did not enjoy watching it.

Monsters of Man (2020)

Not a bad killer robot movie. WAY too long.

[6/10 · 24 July 2022]

This wasn't a bad movie, and I think it's way better than the current 5.4 rating, especially sci-fi fans.

The biggest flaw is the the length. This should have been a 1 hour movie. They stretched the chase scene out for over an hour, and it was nowhere near as good as the one in The Terminator. I'm not sure why they wanted it to be so long, but it really hurt the overall result.

Other than the brutally long chase scene, I enjoyed it.