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Reviews
Minority Report (2002)
Great Premise, Flaws, Flaws, Flaws
(Spoilers herein)
Even the premise, the idea of stopping murders prior to them happening, has problems of execution (no pun intended) in this movie. A ball is rolled off a table, but is caught. Of course, it is explained, the ball WOULD have fallen to the ground. I see, and so this movie explained. BUT, let's rationalize the rest: The ball did NOT fall to the ground, and therefore did not get scratched, dented, etc. from falling. HENCE, the ball did not SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES for it's fall because it didn't happen. Oh well, we can suspend disbelief, because after all we're watching a movie.
Try also not to examine the computers of the future too closely, or you'll realize how antiquated it is that you need something the size of a floppy disc to store information. Or, God help us, you'll have to transfer picture files from one supercomputer to another via a notebook-sized piece of glass.
For continuity, the eyeball doctor's revenge was horribly misplaced and unnecessary. The moldy sandwich/spoiled milk bit was abominable, and served no point being in the movie.
And unfortunately I don't believe that someone with the power given to the Director Burgess couldn't get a court order for custody of a child rather than having to murder her mother. Perhaps this could happen in the vein of 'Homeland Security'.
I also question the society that has cars driving down walls but doesn't have effective antidepressants for our grief-stricken hero.
Amazingly, this movie manages to get a 5/10, which is probably 2 points too high. I'm sure I'll lower my score after watching Blade Runner again...
Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
PRESS STOP NOW
Heed my advice on this film - watch the opening credits, then INSTANTLY STOP THE MOVIE. Pretend that you watched a superbly animated, engrossing film with and excellent hard yet fitting soundtrack. Sadly, too many have already and too many to come will not heed these sage words. What remains, for those who have suffered through this movie, is poor animation, plot and dialogue concocted by a first-grader (no offense to first graders), and not much else. This movie insults anime. This movie insults action films. This movie insults animation. This movie insults heavy metal the music genre. This movie is so bad that it insults, well, everyone who watches it. If you have not, count your blessings.
Spider-Man (2002)
Simply Terrible
Unless you watch this movie to see Tobey's pecs or Kirsten's breasts, I see absolutely no reason to waste the air it takes to breathe through this movie. Thankfully, I was able to become near-comatose after only 20 minutes of this awful film, thus restricting the air that I potentially wasted. Terrible acting? Yes. Horrible depiction of corporations, especially corporate boards? Yes. Completely unbelievable premise? Yes. Surprised that Hollywood could make such a bad movie? No. The people who lauded this dud, however...
Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture (1990)
Take a hard look
There are clunky parts to this film, and the film is not flawless. This film obviously, in the vein of The Green Mile and Dead Man Walking, carries a staunch anti-death penalty political view. Those who agree with such a standpoint will rate it far higher than the sum of the parts. For the pro-death penalty crowd, this film undoubtedly is seen as left-leaning liberal crap. While fictitious, the story nonetheless resonates with too many real-life counterparts. The prevailing strength of this film is the social reality that resonate throughout. Undoubtedly, this film's ratings on IMDB will be hurt by political views alone. I invite - no, plead - with all of those like-minded individuals to see the unique possibilities that this film implies. This is one of the disturbing films, like the movie Kids, that should be seen at least once by us all.
Waking Life (2001)
SPOILERS - Wonderful movie
This contains spoilers.
I watched the film, and loved much of the artwork. There was one or two segments that weren't visually appealing to me, but some others blew my mind. The idea of drawing over digital film is a good one.
Alright, so I've perused the first 50 or so reviews, and haven't found one that aligns with my perception of this film. (Forgive me if a review is posted in the interim that blathers out the same ideas as mine!) I saw it as a slowly layering film ending up with the realization that the main character is dead. This film wasn't about life, and the philosophies of life, but of finding out that you're dead. At first, I thought that he died when he got hit in the road when reading the note. However, I now think that he was dead from the time he got off the plane. C'mon - the whole thing was unreal from the start: recurring characters (starting with the girl in the airport); bizarre yet unquestioned people, places, or things (the boat-car, etc.); unsteady periphery (stairs melted into one another, hedges danced in the background); and memories intermixed with current thoughts ('Hey, man, what are YOU doing here?').
On that basis, I didn't really want the movie to end. I wanted our friend to realize that he wasn't sleeping, but in fact was dead.
I could be wrong, too, but if you watch it like I did it is much more enjoyable.
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Better than the other 4
It doesn't take much, however, to be better than the other 4 movies. You need to suspend disbelief of even the most astute disbelief at several points of this movie. Notably (or should I say regrettably): 1. All the times where Anakin openly disrespects Obi-Wan. Good grief - there must have been SOME discipline in his 10 years of training. 2. A senator in a republic 'appointing' a useless toolbag to sit in for her and instigate legislation that will ultimately bring years of war. 3. Public executions being held in a tremendous outside arena (where did the rain go?) and in medieval fashion. Why didn't Dooku just kill Obi-Wan when he was in bondage? 4. Amidala falling out of a moving vehicle, knocking herself unconscious, then suddenly waking up and running to save Anakin. Right. 5. Why does Yoda limp around if he's as agile and dexterous as we see in the fight scene? I personally thought the final fight scene was lame, and should have lasted longer between Anakin/Obi Wan and Dooku. 6. The 'Sound of Music' coming-over-the-hills scene with Anakin and Amidala.
Fortunately, there are other pieces of this film that make it enjoyable. Lucas certainly seems to be filling in the gaps in the story, making it possible to link back to a story that technological achievement in film threatened to make impossible. I kept wondering why Stormtroopers were humans if they had armies of fighting droids. Now we know - sort of.
On a scale of 1-10, I gave this movie a 7. For reference, I gave Episode I a 1, Episode IV a 4, Episode V a 5, and Episode VI a 3.
Crazy/Beautiful (2001)
Hollywood has to explain why rich kids are brats
I can't admire a movie that chooses to use traumatic events to explain why rich people act like spoiled brats. We have to get the traumatic events of Kirsten Dunst's character's mother, instead of focusing on a group of people who just have too much money and are spoiled brats. I want to see K Dunst's character as just a rich brat who doesn't care or know what she has. And PLEASE don't feed me the whole life-changing event from a 2-minute father-daughter conversation.