Change Your Image
adynomoose
Reviews
Warbirds (2008)
At least most SciFi original movies are funny...
Not so with this one. It's just painfully bad. Brian Krause is the best actor in this dog and that's really saying something. Something not at all good.
The premise promises plenty of laughs (WWII airwomen and soldiers stranded on an island of killer dinosaurs and Japanese soldiers), but the writing takes itself entirely too seriously, as do the painfully, painfully bad actors. The woman who plays the skipper is beyond dreadful. Whoever approved this POS really needs to reevaluate their career. Seriously. I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of Scifi original movie cheese and even I couldn't stand this thing.
Primer (2004)
Even ignoring the budget, this is an amazing film.
While it gets more than a little confusing for the viewer (as well as for the characters) in the final third of the film, this is a really engaging story. The actors delivered top notch performances and the cinematography and camera-work were beautiful. The last half hour could have been less confusing without losing impact, but it makes you pay attention. The relationships between the main characters were nicely fleshed out and i felt I could get behind their individual motivations. The plot is not spoon-fed to the viewers, with unrealistic explanations, instead showing events as they happened and re-happened. A great idea, brilliantly executed for less than the cost of a decent used car. WOW! People in the Hollywood movie industry should all watch this film and then shoot themselves for their wasteful mediocrity!
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Disappointment
I saw The Matrix: Reloaded today. I wish I could say it was good. Really. The first Matrix had a good premise and was brilliant on the follow-through. Reloaded give the impression that they spent four years working on the special effects and four minutes throwing together a screenplay to fit them. Once again, the premise had a great deal of potential, but they never bothered to delvelop it. In the end, the plot was thin and the dialog was pathetic. The sad part is, the effects weren't even very good! In the fight scene between Neo and the Smiths, it was obvious when they switched from live action to CGI. The shots of the ships looked completely animated. Zion is a giant rave full of sexed up, fashion victim hard bodies. For some strange reason, while the crew of the Nebachanezer wears rags and eats flavorless slop, the people of Zion wear the finest fabrics and eat a variety of tasty dishes. What's with that? The whole Zion sequence was an overblown music video and less than steamy sex scene. It did have an element of Star Wars envy, with flight controllers remincent of those of Hoth in Empire Strikes Back, and men wearing jedi-like robes and shirts.
For the most part, the fight scenes were good and the car chase was exciting, but all in all I'd rather have spent my movie dollar elsewhere.
The clifhanger ending leaves one with some hope that Revolutions (opening in the fall) may kick the quality back up to the level of the first film. With the price of movie tickets being what they are, I sure do hope so!
Cube 2: Hypercube (2002)
They missed the point
Last night I watched Cube2-Hypercube. Now Cube was one of the most amazing low-budget horror films of all times. The villain, rather than some monster or ax wielding maniac, was the end product of mindless bureaucracy and the paranoia produced by a pointless system out of control. It was brilliant in it's simplicity, plausibility and it's message. Hypercube missed all that. By placing the new Cube in the world of theoretical physics, the filmmakers seemed to be trying to cover up poorly written characters and dialog with second rate special effects. Where Cube worked in it's simplicity and plausibility, Hypercube floundered with it's pointless complexity and impossible situations. The whole point of The Cube was the danger of bureaucracy run amok. Hypercube chose to ignore this, in favor of the cliché government conspiracy plot line. Cube's characters were believable and sympathetic. Hypercube's cardboard and irritating. Though, it was neat seeing classic B syndicated TV actors Geraint Wyn Davies (Forever Knight) and Matthew Ferguson (La Femme Nikita) again. If only to remind us of their limited acting range. If you get a chance to see Hypercube, read a book.