Mr. Superbad Reviews

Battle Royale II (2003)

What can I say?

[8/10 · 29 December 2003]

It's like the director was giving the middle finger to American sensibilities. Not as good as the first, but I liked it. For the most part, it was over the top in the acting department. But if you like watching movies where the good guys are a group of terrorist kids who declare war on adults, this one's for you.

Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Entertaining but biased and loose with the facts.

[17 February 2003]

I found it entertaining enough, but having events I'm familiar with misrepresented and lied about is kind of annoying.I don't know if Moore doesn't know better, or is just playing fast and loose with the facts to appease his target audience, either way I would suggest people research some of the claims he makes in this movie, hopefully using sources without an obvious political slant.

The movie can be funny, touching, and scary, and there are some great interviews and moments in it, but I think I rolled my eyes more than anything.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

The best film I've seen in years.

[10/10 · 8 February 2003]

This movie is highly original and unconventional, which means the reactions of viewers will be polarized. I loved it. Great cinematography, acting, direction, with nice dark humor throughout. It also has one of the best love montages ever put in a film. I had to see this one twice in the theater, something I don't often do. A solid 10/10.

Good job Clooney.

Hard Boiled (1992)

Nothing can top this movie.

[9/10 · 20 August 2002]

Nothing.

This movie is an action masterpiece.

Watch this movie, The Killer, and Bullet in the Head, and then cry when all the mediocre action movies and pale imitations you've been subjected to throughout the years get ruthlessly bitch-slapped across the room and forced to beg for forgiveness.

Bullet in the Head (1990)

Best movie I've ever seen. It's also completely insane.

[10/10 · 20 August 2002]

How can you not like a movie that starts out with a bloody street fight to an instrumental version of The Monkees "I'm a believer"?

When you start watching this you'll probably laugh at some of the sentiment of the beginning, (the three main guys jump rope, ride bikes, and sing together for instance. Go ahead, try not to snicker, you won't succeed.) This is all a perfect setup for the following sucker punch of the most brutally and entertainingly violent and horrifying series of events ever put on film. People are shot in their head, people explode, demonstrators are shot, exploding Cuban cigars, etc. The thing is that this mix of melodrama, action, and violence comes together into a cohesive whole and works amazingly well.

By the end of the film will drain you physically and emotionally from what you have seen, which is probably why so many people would prefer the shorter ending of this movie. The ending fight is one of the best ever filmed, but by the time you get to it you'll be exhausted. Personally, I like the long ending.

Honestly, this is the best movie I have ever seen. It is the best mix of melodrama and violence ever put on film. It's over the top in almost every way imaginable. It's suprisingly moving. I love it.

Signs (2002)

A pretentious Outer Limits episode

[4/10 · 8 August 2002]

It had good acting, some genuinely scary moments, and some funny moments, but overall it just ends up being a well-polished turd. It also features the dumbest aliens to ever master interstellar travel depicted on screen. "Hmm, we are allergic to water, so lets invade a planet covered by the substance, in dew-covered fields, and kidnap people who are made primarily of the stuff! Yeah, and lets not wear any protective gear at all! Brilliant plan! Oh no, they turned on the sprinklers! Retreat, retreat!" But since that apparently wasn't the real focus of the story (they only devoted about 90% of the movie building up that aspect, after all) The real story is about how a reverend deals with the invasion and gets his superficial faith back because of all the stupid coincidences helped him save his family, or something. It's not that the aliens border on being retarded, it must have been a higher power, yeah, that's the ticket.

Windtalkers (2002)

Unfairly maligned

[8/10 · 8 August 2002]

First of all, most of the armchair historians who criticize this movie based on historical inaccuracies don't know what they are talking about.

Yes, some Japanese did carry katanas and used them on the battlefield. Yes, the US troops did use flamethrowers as depicted in the movie. Yes, there were racists back in the 40's. Yes, contrary to what the military would like to portray, the code-talkers who were guarded thought it was understood that they were to be killed rather than captured (And this is perfectly understandable considering what the Japanese did to POW's, so I don't know why they are protesting it). Yes, the Japanese did insane charges that left them with enormous casualties. Yes, in the real battle the number of Japanese to American casualties was heavily lopsided in favor of the Americans because of said tactics. And yes, contrary to what some have said, there are plenty of American casualties depicted in the movie. How some reviewers missed them, I don't know.

Is the movie 100% accurate? No. Neither is any war movie ever made. The explosions were a bit too much, Joe has a few too many bullets in each clip, and there should have been more air support, but so what? If that sort of thing bothers you enough to take you out of a movie, find a hobby. This movie had good acting and characters I actually cared about, and actually did have character development and a plot. Obviously it didn't work for some people, but it hit the right chords with me.

Is it perfect? Not really. It's pretty damn good, though, and so far it has been the best movie I've seen this year. I thought it was so good that I keep checking in to see how people are responding to it two months after seeing it. It's just unfortunate that people have been burned out on too many recent and well-done war movies to give this one a chance. Hopefully, people will discover how good this movie is on video.

The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

Surprisingly Good

[8/10 · 30 June 2000]

This must have had one of the worst, and most misleading, ad campaigns in the history of cinema, ever. The ads made me expect a generic b sci-fi/horror matrix clone. Instead, it was a well thought out, interesting, and solid sci-fi movie about the nature of AI. Good acting across the board, good cinematography, good script, good movie. It's not that it's a great movie or anything, but it is remarkable good. A better sci-fi movie than almost every sci-fi movie that's come out within the past five years. The only problem is that it doesn't seem like it would be fun watching this movie repeatedly.

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Wonderful!

[4/10 · 16 June 2000]

If you like melodramatic tripe. I saw this years ago, and thought it was so-so. Saw it again last night and it blew me away at how awful the whole movie is. So while I was watching it, i was trying to figure out just what makes this so awful. Is it the actors? Well.. no.. brad pit can act, just watch seven, fight club, 12 monkeys, or true romance... and he's the center of the movie. Is it the director? Well.. no.. there are plenty of well shot and memorable scenes. I believe it all comes down to the source material. The dialogue is so cheesy, often to the point of being downright idiotic, that there is no way you can present it with out being completely awful. I'm sorry, but it's Anne Rice's fault. I believe a more appropriate title for this movie would be "Brad Pitt's Flowing Locks", since that's what it seems to be centered on. This movie went through me like a pane of glass, to paraphrase a line from the movie. Truly awful.

Dune (1984)

I never read the book and I still enjoy this movie

[8/10 · 9 June 2000]

Honestly, the main plot is not hard to follow. You may not get the backstory for every character, but the plot points are not difficult to grasp. Of course, this requires you to use the power of deduction, like most Lynch movies. It's also has some of the coolest looking art direction ever. Hearing the characters thoughts, and the surreal dream sequences, helped to give this movie a phsychic, metaphysical vibe that enhances the mood quite a bit. The only bad thing about this movie are a few dated special effects.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

...

[30 May 2000]

What can I say? An original, weird, and funny comedy. All the characters that seem to be innocent and nice turn out to be evil and self-serving. All of them. The only good people in this movie are Charlie Sheen and Malkovich himself. That's probably the best thing about the movie. I would have liked to see the chimp go inside the portal, but that's the only thing I would have changed. Brilliant. If you haven't seen it, go see it.

Gladiator (2000)

amazing

[8/10 · 22 May 2000]

Let me say that I saw this in an old theater with natural reverb, that was freezing the whole time. I've noticed Ridley Scott movies have a slightly muddy soundtrack. It's hard to describe, but it's noticeably when you view them. The natural reverb of the theater made it difficult to understand some of the movie, but I still found myself enjoying this movie.

Fuzzy, muddy, indistinct? I don't think so. Practically every scene in this film is beautifully shot, and looks like it could be turned into a painting. From the contrast of fire against the dark woods in the beginning, to the fights in the Coliseum , this film looks amazing. The cgi people weren't going for stark realism, but a very stylized look and I believe it works. If you look at the Coliseum the first row of people is real, and the second is cgi, and for the life of me I couldn't tell the difference. Since everyone seems intent on comparing this to Braveheart, I'll do the same. To put it simply, it makes Braveheart's cinematography look amateurish by comparison.

On top of the amazing cinematography, you have a completely immersive score. I never found it cheesy or manipulative, and I HATE manipulative scores (for example: Braveheart).

What can I say about the story? It's a simple revenge story, but that really doesn't matter because the execution is so masterful. It's about death and redemption. My only complaint is that it seemed like some of the plot was cut out to make this more of a summer movie. I'm sure the dvd will fix the situation, though. Is this completely historically accurate? Of course not, and it doesn't pretend to be. It's a fictional tale, told in a historical setting. Demanding 100% historical accuracy from a movie that doesn't claim to be historically accurate is absurd and unfair.

Overall, though, I don't really care what other people think about this movie. To me it is a work of art.

Aliens (1986)

Not as great as I was lead to believe...

[6/10 · 8 January 2000]

The whole first hour could have been cut down to about 15 minutes and not have lost anything. Why? Because nothing happens. Nothing. We get the plot set up and are introduced to a bunch of 2 dimensional macho marines, and that's it. It didn't need to take an hour to present this. It didn't establish a mood, all it did was make me wonder why they are wasting my time like this. I also thought the introduction of Newt was a pretty lame attempt to get me to care about the story. I'm glad she died in the third movie after seeing this. "They mostly come out at night... mostly..." What a joke.

Now, after about the hour and a half mark things actually start to get interesting, and from there on out it's a pretty cool movie. Even though the whole ending battle was forced and shouldn't have happened at all if Ripley didn't take pot-shots at the queens eggs (even thought they would have died anyway), It was still a pretty good ending.

BTW, I saw the 168 minute directors cut, which may be why I think it drags for so long at the beginning.

Total Recall (1990)

Is it real, or is it memorex?

[9/10 · 21 December 1999]

Eye-ball popping, ultra-violence, mutants, a giant homing device being pulled out through the nose, an exploding head, a three breasted hooker, a midget hooker firing a machinegun, some great one-liners, more eyeball popping, a great plot, and in the end it's up to you to decide if what you saw was real, or fantasy. What a great movie!

What Dreams May Come (1998)

Breathtaking

[10/10 · 17 November 1999]

amazingly beautiful and perfect, everything about this movie is perfect

if you know what love truly is and if you've really felt it then you will love this movie, if not you probably shouldn't bother

if you don't like this movie then you have never been in love, or are too bitter to see beauty

The One and Only (1978)

I'm gonna go with classic

[8/10 · 17 November 1999]

Well I guess it supposedly not a classic because there are only a few easily recognizable faces, but I personally think it is... It's a very beautiful sweet movie, Henry Winkler did a GREAT job with his character and it really impressed me.

The Vanishing (1988)

A pretty good movie...

[6/10 · 6 November 1999]

This is a pretty good movie. The acting is great, the plot is good, and the ending is good. For some reason though people just have to praise the hell out of this movie, because they didn't like the remake. It's far from perfect, however. I found the symbolism a bit heavy-handed, and I don't think that it reached a logical conclusion towards the end. It seems like the writers forced the characters into the situation, but it's probably just me. I also didn't find the ending that disturbing. It seemed quite happy in it's own way.

One thing that bugs me though (might be a minor spoiler) is at the end, when Rex snatches the keys from Raymond, Rex starts to walk away with them. Then Raymond pours a drink, makes his final proposition, and STARTS HIS CAR. How? He could have had an extra set, I suppose, but the way it's presented seems more like the writers forgot he took the keys. It is also one of the reasons why I felt like the ending was forced on the characters.

Dark City (1998)

It's just so... so... boring...

[4/10 · 24 October 1999]

There is just so much wrong with this movie that I don't see how people can like it so much. First there is the constant chase music playing in the background. It just doesn't let up. It's even in the boring dialogue scenes where it just doesn't belong. Some character could be asking to pass the mustard and there would be chase music playing. Why did they do this? It doesn't make the movie any more exciting, just annoying.

The movie looks neat, and there are some good chase sequences, but that's about all it adds up to. If you find "dude... what if.. like... my reality... may not be actual REALITY!!!" plotlines deep and meaningful, then you should find this movie deep and meaningful. I don't, and was just bored thoroughly during almost all of the movie.

Alien 3 (1992)

the complete opposite of Aliens

[22 October 1999]

Which is a reason why this movie is hated so much. Even though Alien 3 is much closer to the intent of the original movie. Aliens turned Alien into a neat action/sci-fi flick with a bunch of simple characters and moronic catch-phrases, and Alien 3 takes it to the opposite extreme. It's a dark thriller, not an action flick.

Unfortunately it suffers from some big drawbacks. The sound mix is awful. For Example when Ripley is whispering you can barely make out what she's saying, so you turn the sound up and that's when a large explosion goes off and blows out your speakers. The effects hold up rather poorly. Also, every time they build up a character they kill them 5 minutes later. Leaving you with a bunch of characters you don't really care about.

There are some great moments in this movie, and the cinematography is great, but it could have been so much better. Fincher said it was only 25% of what he wanted, and it shows. Maybe if the studio hadn't screwed around with the script and the editing, trying to dumb down the movie, this could have been great. Unfortunatley it's not, and is just slightly above average.

Go (1999)

Do not miss this completely unimpressive movie!

[5/10 · 19 October 1999]

It's a slick film, and that's about it! The cinematograpy is mediocre at best! Awesome! The story completely lacks depth, and seems to have been written around the idea of having different viewpoints! Wow! It made me chuckle at least a HALF DOZEN TIMES!!!

Okay enough of that. A couple good scenes and a few snippits of clever dialog do not make a movie great. The cat scene, and the scene where yellow porsch run over the girl were amusing, but the rest of the story seemed rather pointless. In the end I was left with a feeling of "eh...". If you like movies that are neatly packaged, easily forgettable, and lack depth then maybe you should see this... maybe.

The Game (1997)

Amazing film that will leave some people cold.

[9/10 · 19 October 1999]

I love this movie, and have seen it several times. The first time you see the movie through Van Orton's eyes. The next time you watch the film you see it from CRS's view. This, to me, makes it great. Upon repeated viewing's I realized just how clever this film is.

It seems, though, that some people who watch this just won't pick up on a few things, and be left in the dark.

For instance, even though you might not react the same way that Van Orton acts, it doesn't matter because The Game is designed around him. They studied him for a whole day with comprehensive psychological exams, and probably learned a whole lot more from his brother. That way they know what he will most likely do, and have several safety nets in place if he doesn't. Magicians and Mentalists use these kind of techniques all the time in their shows.

If you focus too much on what you would do during the movie, it might effect your enjoyment of it, and might make you miss the whole point of the movie altogether.

This movie is amazing.



****SPOILER WARNING****

The only problem I had with this is the end. No, it's not that I wanted him to die. In fact I think it would have ruined the movie if he had died. To think that CRS could manipulate him so completely up to that point and then... whoops he's dead.. would have been a cop-out. No, the only problem I had was that if he had strayed to a few feet to the left when he went through the glass he would have hit a cross beam. The movie could have turned into a black comedy very easily. That's my one and only complaint.

******END SPOILER******

Gymkata (1985)

The most hilariously awful movie ever made.

[5/10 · 19 October 1999]

I first found this movie late at night on cable, and I couldn't stop watching it. This movie is amazingly bad, in the most hilarious sort of way. Did anyone who was making this movie know how bad this would be? I honestly don't know. Thank god it was made though, the village of the crazies scene is a classic.

This movie should have been on MST3K.

Fight Club (1999)

Brilliant...

[10/10 · 15 October 1999]

This movie is not for everyone, but it's definitely a masterpiece. I can't wait for more from David Fincher. If anyone tells you this is promoting fascism, or violence, they have completely missed the point. If showing an army of dimwitted drones being self-destructive counts as promoting fascism, I don't know how you could discourage it. The violence is portrayed in such a brutal way that you practically feel every blow. Every time someone gets their head pounded into the pavement you feel it. This movie is painful to watch, but well worth it.

If you wait to see this on video, you will deeply regret it. I haven't seen a movie put together with so much care in a long time, if ever. Instant classic.

The Matrix (1999)

Slick, good action, but the story is pretty lame.

[7/10 · 10 October 1999]

The action sequences are great, and the overall movie is entertaining, but the plot is lame. It's entertaining enough for me to not care about the plot holes, or the uneven performances, however. Imaginative, but flawed.

Wag the Dog (1997)

Over-hyped

[10 October 1999]

Ugh, what a waste of time. There is no reason why this movie should have gotten such good reviews. If there's any manipulation in the media it was for the reviews of this film. If you must watch this movie out of curiosity try not to pay for it.