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The Black Adder (1982)
Probably the funniest of the series with hardly any weak episodes
IMO The Blackadder is the best of the four series - edging out Series 3. When I first saw Episode One, however, I hated it. I had seen The Blackadder series pretty much in reverse order, so I was used to seeing the confident, sarcastic, clever & scheming Blackadder character.
In series one, the character of Edmund was different epitomised by the way he talked and his spineless,cowardly persona. But with several viewings you get used to it, and from then on you can concentrate on the comedy - that is brilliant! Set in The Middle Ages - when life was cheap - you actually get the sense that his life really is in danger in every episode.
The relationship between Blackadder, Baldrick and Percy was different in this first series. In the others, Percy and Baldrick were just the butt of Blackadder's jokes - mocked and openly loathed by him.
In The Blackadder, he actually needs their help, and together they go through a series of hilarious and dangerous situations. 'Baldrick' in series one was much better than say the Baldrick of Series 4. He was smart and street-wise - and he genuinely believed he had 'cunning plans' to get Blackadder out of trouble. Typically it was Baldrick who sparked off Blackadder's scheming with his subtle insinuations. Baldrick also displayed a ruthless side, not seen in the other series. He held a knife to a priest's throat and assaulted a Bishop - all in good fun of course!
By series 4, Baldrick was a more a figure of fun, an empty vessel - his main purpose was to act stupid and make Blackadder look clever.
The supporting cast in the first series was also the best IMO: Brian Blessed was brilliant as the menacing King and Blackadder's 'Dad'. Robert East as Prince Harry, Elspet Gray as the Queen. Throw in guest appearances by Peter Cook, Alex Norton as 'McAngus', Frank Finlay as 'The Witchsmeller' and Miriam Margolyes and Jim Broadbent in one of the funniest episodes of all the series - 'The Spanish Infanta's Beard'.
This was the only series that featured outside locations, which made it more 'real'.
My main gripe with Series 2 - was the irritating Queenie and Nursie. Their humour was very childish and generally unfunny. There was also one very weak episode 5. Baldrick was just slightly disappointing. Blackadder himself though was very good - but just a little too smug.
Series 3 -the Blackadder character was on a par with that of Series 2 very intelligent - but less smug. Great scenes between Blackadder, Prince George and Baldrick. Also loved the 'coffee-shop scenes'. Episodes 2, 3 and 4 are outstanding.
Series 4 - Captain Darling wasn't as good as Percy from Series 1 and 2. General Melchett and George - brilliant. Blackadder IMO was too much of a know-it-all in Series 4 and he rarely looked ruffled even when faced with death (total contrast to Series 1). They also overcooked the 'canned laughter'. All the episodes though were solid.
Series 1 didn't really have any 'weak' episodes. If I had to pick one weaker episode, it would be episode 5 (Witchsmeller Pursuivant). The final episode 6 - was more story-based and introduced a whole new group of characters - the writers appeared to try and end the series with a bang.
Rambo (2008)
Graphic, extremely bloody and a very good finale to the Rambo series
A great effort from Stallone(who directed) and definitely ends the Rambo series on a high. As an action film and a Rambo film it stands up well on both counts. My score after one viewing is 7.5/10. This places it second on my list behind First Blood.
I'll mention the negatives first:
Negatives:
The film was too short, and seemed to have a "chapter" missing. The way the Christian Aid workers just turned up asking Rambo to help them take them up the river to Burma was done abruptly and pretty clumsily. Instead of starting with Rambo in the jungle catching snakes, they could have started with the missionary workers making their way to Rambo's location- with a bit of explanation of who they were and whether they had already heard of Rambo. In the film, the woman talks to Rambo as if she already knows him and these early scenes are over-dramatised and get all heavy and pretentious- when all she wants is a lift up the river! These early exchanges weren't the best. Rambo in turn is portrayed as uninterested and unsympathetic and there's a brooding sense of old-man pessimism about him.
For me another negative was Rambo's opening line ...the first words that we hear from Rambo in nearly 20 years.... is an expletive. Hmm...unfortunate but does set the harsh tone of the movie.
Later the Minister comes to inform Rambo of the groups disappearance and if he will escort a rescue team of mercenaries - this again echoed the scenario in Rambo 3 (official turns up with the bad news....cue Rambo involvement.) Also a scene where the mercenaries are introduced to Rambo before setting off on the trip would have been far better than just instantly showing them altogether in the boat mid-river.
The escape sequence through the jungle lacked a couple more action "set-pieces" prior to the explosion of the big WWII bomb. It would have been great to see Rambo for the last time, taking on a couple of small units of enemy soldiers using his old survival skills in the jungle.
I didn't like the British character who led the group of mercenaries- supposedly ex-SAS- he seemed stereotyped- basically a foul-mouthed, obnoxious, ageing yob with a machine gun who would have looked more at home picking fights in a pub. His introductory scene on the boat was overplayed and unrealistic given the dangerous circumstances- as he was very hostile towards Rambo who was doing them a favour by "escorting" them upriver as the "boat-man" (although Rambo has other motives for making the trip). I just wanted Rambo to knock him over-board for being so disrespectful but here a mature Rambo instead shows restraint.
Lastly the ending was a touch weak and attempted to bring Rambo full-circle and give some sense of closure to the series. I thought this scene was just tacked-on the end(Stallone appears quite older in this last scene, without the headband and greased-back hair - and you know this is the end of the Rambo journey).
Positives:
Actually there are some refreshing changes in this Rambo. It could have been so easy for Rambo to go through the old favourite "captured, tortured, escape and dish out retribution" sequence -but that wouldn't have been original and credit to Stallone for not going down that old plot-line. We don't see a shirtless Rambo either, muscles pumped, doing the infamous roar as he peppers the enemy with dozens of rounds of bullets. That wouldn't have looked right considering Rambo is a lot older. Also Rambo eventually fights as "one of a group" instead of the usual one-man-on-a-mission, as he helps out the mercenaries in their quest to rescue the doomed missionaries.
I thought that Rambo's life was more in danger and that he was more vulnerable (this was mainly due to his age) - he was not portrayed as the invincible fighting machine of the past- Ironically though Rambo suffers the least physical injuries by far out of all the films... a bullet to the shoulder. His vast experience of conflict/violent situations does come through as he takes pretty much everything in his stride (you won't see the classic shots of Rambo with his "eyes wide open" during moments of danger). Rambo still has that smouldering pent-up anger, and when the time comes for him to kill- he shows absolutely no mercy to the enemy who are real scum in this film. The scene where he takes out the river-pirates was classic Rambo.
Rambo as a film, in some ways is more true to the original -First Blood in that there is hardly any of the '80's cheesiness' that was present in Rambo 2 and 3 and thankfully there is a lack of corny one-liners (the absence of Colonol Trautman helped in this regard). There is however a black and white 'flash-back' moment where various clips are shown -mainly of the first two movies. I didn't really like that- as Stallone did exactly the same in Rocky Balboa - its a blatant "signing off" montage of the franchise.
The violence is intense and graphic and this has to be one of the bloodiest films of all time- limbs, various body parts can be seen flying around the screen- it really is grim stuff and is backed up by the stat that it has the highest body-count of all the Rambo movies. Yes, Rambo does what he does best and takes out so many of the vile baddies- its breathtaking action at its finest and is great to watch on the big screen. If you are a Rambo fan- I'm sure you will not be disappointed.
Scum (1979)
Pulls no Punches
I remember seeing this back in the early 90's when it was shown on British TV for the first time (Channel 4's- 'Banned Season'). At the time I'd never heard of the film and knew nothing about it- this was probably the best way as the first time you watch it will give you the most shock-factor.
Grim, depressing and punctuated with scenes of brutal violence, bullying, suicide attempts, and extremely strong language - this film paints a disturbing picture of a British borstal at the end of the 1970's.
The 'screws' (the term used in the film for the men who run the borstal) are generally portrayed as unsympathetic sadistic disciplinarians - which in a strange way comes across as a refreshing change from the politically-correct, almost poncy state that is the Britain we live in now-a-days. The way the screws lay down the law and try to intimidate the three new arrivals including Carlin (a known troublemaker with a hard-man reputation) - is played out brilliantly by all.
There are so many memorable one-liners in the film. This was in a time when the term 'political correctness' was unheard of and is reflected in the dialogue throughout. Don't be surprised if you find yourself 'devouring up' some of the memorable quotes and replaying them in your mind over and over again. The tough regime in the institution is evident and reinforced during several scenes involving the screws and the offenders. The way they showed how the young-inmates had to appear in front of The Governor of the borstal was portrayed very effectively. Each one in turn was marched in and shouted at -army style.... then made to stand in front of his desk - with two screws standing in an intimidating manner either side right in the face of the subject ....'face the Governor -name and number!!' - brilliant.
The most memorable and disturbing scenes (like the infamous gang-rape scene) have already been referred to many times by other posters- but there are a probably only a couple of moments in the film that may make you laugh...for example -during the basketball game, where the big-moustache tough-looking 70's gym instructor complete with hairy chest,lays down the rules before start of play. All hell breaks loose with players fighting and verbally abusing each other- the instructor then gets stuck in and barges the yobs out of the way to restore order.
There are no heroes in this and the main protagonists all end up out on their feet...beaten up with bloodied faces, as the screws drag them to their cells as a punishment for the rioting at the end of the film.
Yes this is a gritty and at times disturbing film but brilliantly executed.
Transformers (2007)
Ruined by inexplicably bad directing and full of horrible and tedious pop culture moments
Having never watched the Transformers cartoons in the 80's I'm no fanboy, but I remember as a boy the Transformer toys and the cool autobot/decepticon logos. With very little info about the film but aware of the relatively high votes this had received from IMDb users, I went to the cinema expecting to see, for once a quality 'summer blockbuster'.Just before walking in I saw a flyer about the film and it mentioned the director being Michael Bay who directed 'Armageddon' and 'Pearl Harbour'.....and I thought 'Oh-oh, this could be a terrible omen for the movie I was about to see'
After about 15-20 minutes, my respect for the movie was already in danger of dissipating and had already lost 2 points out of 10 vote-wise. Why? Teenagers.... nauseating adolescents with raging hormones and big mouths on screen trying to look cool, meanwhile soldiers on the other side of the world...annoying grunts are trying to be macho and blurting out banal lines, one of them talks to himself in Spanish, another blurts out 'Speak in English'- 'its my heritage, man' he responds, another mentions the wife and baby 'waiting for him back home' -cliché -whom they cut to in one of many completely unnecessary scenes that punctuate this flick. Pentagon officials and other 'hangers-on' walking around being extremely important, 'Mr President' blah blah-how many times do we see this in Hollywood movies! And the film takes the audience from one scene to the next- no story, no introduction, no relevance. Later the film relies on Optimus Prime narrating the backdrop to the story when Megatron first landed on Earth in the last century....why couldn't they have started with this instead?
The casting for the main characters and their initial interactions on screen were terrible! We have this so annoying highly-strung teenage boy who's obsessed with a girl (she's just there for eye candy) and the audience have to endure SO MANY sexualised gratuitous camera shots of him checking her out, shots of her cleavage and derriere and close-up shots of her face taking up the whole screen- Michael Bay seemed to have a personal fixation with her! I was thinking 'I've come to see Transformers, if I want to watch a bunch of teenagers talking garbage, ogling over each other and planning how they are going to get laid, I'll just rent 'American Pie' on DVD.-Be warned, I am not joking- there are some excruciatingly bad and out-of-place scenes for this genre of film. The long farcical scene at the boy's house that has got to be one of the worst I have seen for a long time in a big-budget movie, where all the Transformers are outside 'hiding' with a silly conversation taking place between the boy and his parents in his bedroom and where a reference to 'Masturbation' is made not once, but about 3 times!!! Can you believe it? Everyone in the cinema cringed in embarrassment thanks to this piece of crass and gratuitous directing. I felt for the parents who went with their kids (this was a 12 certificate) and who probably came out with that one line ringing in their ears with little Johnny asking them what masturbate means. Then you get the secret services turning up at the house, with John Turturro doing almost a parody of an FBI agent- he is later stripped to his underwear and handcuffed to a street lamp post in another ridiculous scene (I kid you not!) Why the pathetic attempt to inject moments of humour and the rubbish one-liners? Just cut it out- as most of it fell flat on it's face. Check the scene, when the autobot comes out of the back-garden swimming pool with the little girl standing there...the camera closes in on her for the inevitable one-liner.... I thought- 'no don't do it'....as she says 'Are you the tooth fairy?' - Christ...knock another point off. Btw- no-one laughed in the theatre.
The teenagers were so irritating that killing them off would have been a highlight, and what was with the totally irrelevant sub-plot about the girl having a criminal record? Who cares?!!Two other wastes of space are the Pentagon code analyser (who comes across as just some young Australian model who's there as eye-candy number two) and her 'In Da Hood hysterical fat Hacker friend' (of course such natural sidekicks). An old Jon Voight is pasted in here as a Defense Secretary in attempt to add some credibility to it all, but he comes across as worn and tired. Other cringe-making moments: Optimus Prime refers to the 'WWW and E-bay', violin music playing during a silly emotional-meant scene between the boy-hero and autobot Bumblebee who's been partially destroyed, fat hacker from 'da hood' freaks out in the FBI interrogation room, rock music inexplicably accompanying some of the action sequences, a soldier trying to phone in air support is connected to some nerdy type call centre worker in India! Absolutely disgraceful and I would have laughed if I hadn't forked out money to watch this.
On the only positive note the action sequences are spectacular and the special effects are top class, especially the way the autobots/decepticons transform during their battles. I give all 3 points for this alone. I wasn't too sure about the way Megatron was portrayed though, as he didn't appear to be true to the version I remember from the 80's- his design looked too insect-like and he talked like that tree character from Lord of the Rings. The only redeeming parts of the film are when the Transformers are on screen and it's a shame the film doesn't focus on them more as they far outshine the human characters in this extremely disappointing and tatty film.
King Kong (2005)
Overall an average movie that is dragged out too long
Saw this on DVD and had to fast forward some parts- yes this film at nearly 3 hours could have been cut by around 40 minutes. Many scenes were unnecessary or just too long and there were too many silly scenes between Kong and the girl. There was music in the background for nearly the whole movie, why do so many Hollywood directors insist on this in their films- do they think they are producing musicals?
There are some great action sequences here(there has to be for the console games that always follow these flicks), although at times I thought I was watching Jurassic Park. I liked Jack Black's performance but some of the interactions between Hayes and Jimmy were not needed as they were peripheral characters and their relationship was not relevant to the story. How did they transport such a huge gorilla back to New York?- none of this was shown, maybe a few scenes here would have been far better than some of the filler and melodramatic scenes that we got instead. Its just a straight cut from the island to some theatre in Broadway. Trim this movie and I'd raise it one point to 6/10 max.
Memento (2000)
Don't believe the hype
This is nothing special and I find it hard to accept the high voting for this film. The ending is so unspectacular and a huge anti-climax. With the excessive amount of time-shifting with scenes not shown in chronological order - it just overly confuses and irritates. Pulp Fiction for example did a much better job of this, but here scenes were all over the place and made the film difficult to follow. I stuck with it thinking that the ending will make sense of it all and will be worth the wait- but that turned out be very disappointing. Yes it has some clever moments in it but one viewing was enough for me-the film just doesn't interest to justify watching it again.
Ocean's Twelve (2004)
A truly awful sequel
This was a shambles, a terrible follow on from the first film which is far superior. Most of the team members do nothing in this and are just twiddling their thumbs throughout the whole movie! Danny Ocean plays second fiddle to Brad Pitt's character, Andy Garcia is there to make up the numbers along with Julia Roberts, who turns up at the end in a disgraceful and ridiculous ego-massaging scene with Bruce Willis!!! Catherine Zeta Jones? - get out! I hated the fact her character was made out to be cleverer than everybody else. I started losing interest in the difficult-to-follow bizarre plot after about 40 minutes. The original film had a simple idea - rob the casino vault, with everyone doing their part in the outrageous heist... this however, is just a mess. My advice is to avoid this completely.
Amityville II: The Possession (1982)
Great effort for an early 80's horror sequel
The unusual thing about this film in my opinion is that it was a sequel that was superior than the original. It's got plenty of tension and atmosphere with good characters. It does have some taboo themes in it though like the implied incest between the possessed eldest son and his younger sister, wife and child beating at the hands of the violent father, and at the end where the demon posing as the girl taunts the priest in a sexual manner.
However the film loses a lot of its momentum after a pivotal event during the film - when the family is murdered at the hands of the adolescent son in a disturbing sequence of merciless killing. After that the boy is arrested by the police and during the last third of the movie it's basically left to the priest to secure his release from jail (totally unrealistic)and try to defeat the demon thereby saving the boy.
There is no explanation as to why there is a presence of evil in the house in the first place - especially in that basement! A really good effort though thats improves on the first film and that is only really let down in the final stages.
Scanners (1981)
Interesting cult chiller/horror made on a budget.....
Scanners is one of those films that occasionally gets shown on terrestrial TV and when it does, I always try to see it. Yeah its dated -like many of the films that were made right at the end of the 70's or beginning of the 80's.
It has to be said there is some poor acting especially from the terrible actor who played the lead role in Cameron Vale. A young Michael Ironside is perfectly cast however as the menacing Darryl Revok and Patrick McGoohan adds a bit of quality as the mysterious, flawed Doctor Ruth.
The film starts off very well, but the second half is disappointing especially towards the end, what with Cameron Vale accessing a computer with his psychic powers (yes it was 1980- and films tended to be very exuberant about computers back then), and the disappointing way in which Dr Ruth and the corrupt informant Keller were killed off.
The music creates a very dark and disturbing atmosphere throughout and the film ends with a gory psychic duel between Revok and Vale illustrating some of the dubious special effects. Yes it's flawed and weird at times but definitely worth seeing if you're into alternative thriller/horror movies. I give it 6/10.
Rocky IV (1985)
Ridiculous, entertaining.... but not true to the originals.
As a kid, Rocky IV was the film I most wanted to see in the cinema - ever!! The hype was huge - I dreamt about the movie before even seeing it! I remember the aura surrounding the huge mysterious new bad guy in Drago and the rumours that Apollo gets killed.
Watching it as an adult though is obviously an entirely different experience. The film has dated mainly due to the anti-USSR overtones - but then this was made in the mid 80's cold-war era. It is laughable at times, what with Paulie's talking robot - the ridiculous press conference before Rocky v Drago, the sports scientists and their massive 80's computers and all the stereotypical portrayals of Russians and KGB agents - hey even ex-president Gorbachev(complete with stained forehead) is in it!!
Then there are the silly pop-video type scenes, the poor acting from the boxers' wives, and that cheesy final scene with Rocky's kid and friends watching the fight on TV (btw: poor casting of Rocky's son - both his parents are Italian-Americans yet the boy here wasn't -an indication of the lack of attention to detail and slipping standards in the Rocky series.)
The best thing about Rocky IV are the 2 fights, although totally unbelievable and the training scenes. Hats off to Dolph Lundgren, Stallone and Carl Weathers for getting into such fantastic physical shape for this film - it will probably inspire you to hit the gym and has that feel-good factor like Rocky III did.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
End of the prequel disaster...
*Spoilers ahead* For me this film was confirmation that the prequels should never have been made (well...not by George Lucas) I entered the cinema with low expectations after Lucas' first two disastrous efforts and really just watched it for completion's sake.
The obscene use of CGI effects was as expected and although impressive to begin with, soon became gratuitous and repetitive as the screen was just a constant flurry of activity. The only let-ups happened when there were cuts to (yet again!)boring conversations between Jedi, Palpatine-Anakin, Anakin-Padme, which badly interrupted the flow and pace of the film. Lucas - you just don't learn...unbelievable.
Lucas doesn't let the viewer use their imagination at all and had to show everything possible including a childbirth scene and Anakin being mutilated and burnt alive (a disturbing scene for a Starwars film). Yes, this film is darker then the others, but takes itself way too seriously for this genre of movie.
The dialogue between Palpatine and Anakin was excruciatingly pedestrian and just awful. Wookies were thrown in just for the hell of it - they did very little and Chewbacca's big moment was saying goodbye to Yoda as he made his way into "exile" - (with the music from "Yoda's Theme" playing in the background) pathetic George, really pathetic. The word "youngling" was used by Obi-Wan to refer to young Jedi - embarrassing and a disgrace that this didn't end up on the cutting floor.
Midiclorians cropped up again, just like aliens talking cartoonish English, the Viceroy (who were finally butchered - a rare highlight of the film), oh and the droids(R2 and 3po) were to have their memory's wiped -how convenient George -to tie up that gaping plot hole from the originals ...when the droids shouldn't have been in these prequels to begin with. And why was Palpatine made to look like a vampire from the 1987 film- The Lost Boys?
General Grevious was the new bad guy in town, although quite entertaining (apart from that silly coughing?!)- I don't think he belonged in a StarWars film. Now imagine if Darth Maul hadn't been killed off in the first, this would have been the chance for a long awaited climactic duel-to-the-death rematch with Obi-Wan. This lack of focus and development of a principal villain throughout has hurt these prequels. Obi-Wan v Maul, OW v Jango, OW v Dooku and now OW v Grevious -result: no one really cared because we didn't get to know any of the bad guys. Lucas should have stuck with Maul and fleshed out his character, then Obi-Wan finally killing him off in EpIII would have a brought cheers in the cinema and some positive feeling about something!!
Yoda by now had become an irritating know-it-all, blurting out the usual confusing one-liners. Anakin turns to the dark side far too easily and when we finally see him as Vader his first utterance is something like "Where's Padme?" - hilarious- comical rubbish and sacrilege -George. Thankfully its all over - pretend they don't exist next time you watch the originals -although that will be very hard now.
The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Alright if you're bored on a Sunday.
A lot of politics involved-which is realistic in the situation that was played out during the film-but it made me yawn. I suppose I was waiting for the nuke to go off - which also disappointed - ok it was a small device... maybe they didn't want to scare the audience too much. My vote is 6/10.
Spider-Man (2002)
Entertaining flick that hits and misses
Overall, this was an above-average effort at transforming Spider-Man the comic superhero into his movie counterpart. Given all the hype of the film though, I was a touch disappointed with this first part of a probable 3 episode series. It was entertaining stuff but at times the film seemed to fall between a romance/drama flick (emphasised by the nature of the ending) and a superhero action flick. Throughout Peter Parker was portrayed way too nerdy and besotted with the girl. Another actor -less geeky would have been a better choice than Tobey Maguire. There were too many sentimental scenes for this genre of movie- Spiderman's famous sense of humour was completely discarded-hopefully this side of his character will be developed in the sequel. I'd prefer this any day to the "blubbing" Parker that was seen here. The character played by Kirsten Dunst was iffy- portrayed as a materialistic, boyfriend-changing, Broadway wannabe who by the end is deeply "in love" with the nerdy Parker. This didn't really work and seemed contrived. The pacing was erratic at times - a measured build-up to develop the characters and introduce Spiderman...good, but then within seconds of film-time he's "well known" by everybody in New York City (this worked well in Ghostbusters '84 -but not here!) Also the Green Goblin character was a bit of a mystery-and what was with the ridiculous mask?! The best moments were when Spidey was in action- kicking ass,swinging through the avenues of Manhattan, posturing athletically- basically being a superhero. The special effects were good and Spiderman's acrobatics-enthralling, along with a mix of some really humourous moments and some great action scenes. The best characters in the movie were the ones who "had character" -Parker's uncle, Willem Dafoe's Dr Osborne and the newspaper editor Jamison. Look forward to Spiderman II. Overall rating 7/10.
Supergirl (1984)
Pitiful...
I'm not going to waste too much time writing about this one. Awful acting, awful plot, awful everything. This film makes the Superman series look classy in comparison! Everybody was miscast - Peter Cook, Faye Dunaway, Helen Slater.... A couple of words spring to mind .... boring and rubbish.
Alien Resurrection (1997)
A truly awful Alien movie
This film makes Alien 3 look good. One word for Alien Resurrection - GARBAGE. The Alien series stopped at Aliens - forget 3 and especially this last feeble effort. Full of wise-cracks/unnecessary gore and very little suspense - then how could you generate suspense about an Alien species that by then we knew so much about. This film should never have been made. My advice is to buy the original on DVD.
Gladiator (2000)
Entertaining...but not a great "Roman Epic."
Russell Crowe - very good performance. Great fight/battle scenes/tiger shots etc and even the special effects worked well - cool shots of the Colosseum. The film however lacks the quality of other Roman epics such as "Spartacus." Apart from Russell Crowe and Richard Harris, the other members of the cast weren't too impressive.(perhaps due to poor dialogue and lack of character development).
Contrast this to Spartacus - Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Charles Laughton and of course the fantastic Peter Ustinov (best supporting actor Oscar) - what a cast! Yet again like so many other films - music was unnecessarily included in scenes where silence would have been far better. Especially that early scene in the film (*spoiler alert) where Marcus Aurelius tells his son (the irritating Commodus) that he will not become Emperor. What follows is is a way-over-the-top emotionally charged sobbing scene with highly dramatic music involving two characters we hardly know. Its as if Ridley Scott is shouting at us "You must feel emotion here!" - ridiculous - the viewer doesn't care about Commodus at this stage of the film! - it made me cringe instead. Btw: What was with all those "flashbacks"?
The choice of music was iffy at times and the "incest" overtones - how did that help the film? The character of Commodus was poor - extremely annoying at times (like a brat) and cowardly. Apart from all that it was an entertaining film - it was an epic in terms of duration but not in quality. 7/10.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Lucas lost it.
Having seen the TPM three times now my opinion is that it was a disaster of a Star Wars film. Shockingly bad in parts, I believe the TPM has now seriously damaged the story of the prequels and infuriated many of the fans of the original films who expected to see a far superior film.
The pacing of TPM was erratic. The film started far too fast - this was Episode One - where it all began- we needed an opening scene to remember - one that said "this movie is going to be one of the greats." (**Spoiler Alert**) But before we could settle into our seats Qui Gon/Obi Wan were already on our screens battling with their lightsabers while green aliens (The Viceroy- see later) engaged in confusing banter.
A few minutes later having survived the forest scene and met that idiotic fool Jar Jar they're swimming towards an underwater city. Lucas wanted to cram so much into the 2 hours that it backfired and most likely left many viewers disoriented and lost. Silly music unnecessarily accompanied some of the scenes - an attempt to create a sense of emotion. Many directors these days appear to favour this strategy- sometimes silence is by far the most effective option.
The Characters: Qui-Gon/Obi Wan: Lucas didn't develop them enough and they seemed cold and wooden (probably due to Lucas' direction rather than the actors themselves - who did well.) Anakin: Huge mistake committed here - basically the kid was far too cocky and self-assured such that it was difficult to like him. If Lucas had made him more vulnerable/insecure and introverted - it would have worked a lot better. One never feels that this is the future Darth Vader. At no point do you feel he is in danger (e.g. pod-race scene) and later on when he takes off in the fighter and destroys the ship (btw: this makes a mockery of all the missions of the previous films - I mean a 10 year-old kid taking it out by himself - ridiculous.)
Jar Jar: This ridiculous character almost ruined the entire movie! Whenever he opened his mouth I cringed in embarrassment. I thought "George, what have you done?" This gungan idiot with his incomprehensible dialogue and childish slapstick was a disgrace.
The Viceroy: These guys were important characters as they were central to the plot - but they too were pathetic. They could have been much more sinister if they were human. Instead they were green cowardly weirdos with "Charlie Chan" accents.
The only "alien characters" who were any good were Watto and Sebulba. Previous characters from the original movies (Jabba/Sand People/Jawas) were thrown in for the sake of it. Also Darth Maul needed to be in this a lot more - we learned nothing about the Sith.
Great moments: Lightsaber duels - brilliant and any scene Darth Maul was in. Terrible moments (and there were many): Two-headed pod-race commentator/ kids talking/ Sand people behaving like a bunch of mischievous adolescents/seeing Mrs Jabba the Hut (with breasts)/ any scene Jar Jar was in.
I hope Lucas can get his act together for Episode II - with serious plot, more character development, less computer animation and oh yes- more Star Wars theme music.
Rocky V (1990)
Disastrous end to the series
This was such an awful Rocky movie. Rocky returning to where he began and wearing the same old clothes as in the original - oh dear. A tacky promoter who was a blatant Don King rip-off raving on about his fighter "Union Kane." That name made me laugh at this garbage of a film - one of many laughs I should add. Rocky V should never have been made in the first place and that sound-byte "Go For It" - ultra cheesy.
Commando (1985)
Hilarious and tacky film-making
The beginning of this film as the credits were rolling was cringe-making stuff - Arnie being so doting with his daughter. Upon learning that his name is "John Matrix" - you realise that this film is gonna be pretty bad.
However there are plenty of hilarious moments and corny one-liners during this movie which are basically the best bits about it. (**Spoiler Alert**) - The scene where the General leaves two soldiers to guard Arnie and his daughter was totally hilarious! The general is literally gone 5 seconds when Arnie "senses" the presence of gun-men and ducks, with the two soldiers getting it. I couldn't stop laughing.