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nikajan
Reviews
Serenity (2005)
Shiny
I love this film. I'm not a huge fan of Sci-Fi, but Serenity blew me away. The characters are engaging, there's great humour in the script, and the storyline kept me interested. Just wish I knew what they were saying when they speak Chinese! Watching this got me into Firefly. It's such a shame it was cancelled. Love the crew, the universe joss Whedon created and the little details like their slang. The ship is not too slick and perfect, which adds a great deal of character, and really enables viewers to identify more with the crew, a group of underdogs in a tumbledown ship trying to evade the authorities. The Reavers are frankly rather scary. Overall, this film comes off very well, you really feel the chemistry between the crew as well. Brilliant!
Eragon (2006)
not terrible, but disappointing
Translating a book into film is not an easy task, but this could have been done better. i didn't expect the film to be totally true to every event in the book, but they could at least have kept the sense of the book and the integrity of the characters. The storyline comes across as rushed, there is no sense of the passage of time. This would not have been hard to incorporate. THe film also felt as if they had cut scenes out, there is quite a disconnected feel to the story at times. The characters lose a lot of their depth, you don't feel you know them, and you just don't care. And why didn't Arya, the elf, have pointy ears? It isn't a bad movie, as such, but they could have done so much more with what they were given. Great special effects do not compensate for a storyline with a good flow.
The Pacifier (2005)
Family fun
Critics may not rate this film, and I have to admit that when I saw the posters for The Pacifier, I wrote it off completely, not being much of a Vin Diesel fan. Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised when I actually watched this. The script is genuinely laugh out loud funny, and Vin Diesel pulls off the act surprisingly well. Forget the critics for a few hours and let yourself enjoy this film. It is a great piece of light-hearted fun, and doesn't pretend to be anything else.
Sure, you'll find a few clichés and stereotypes, but the film has an extra spark which lifts it. Not least is the chemistry between Diesel and the children. Most parents will be able to sympathise with the trouble the children give him initially, and most of us can remember pulling similar tricks as children.
In a way, this film is a breath of fresh air. Unpretentious and tongue-in-cheek, it doesn't rely too heavily on special effects, and is not too earnest. Among the mixture of thought provoking films and utter drivel that has been produced recently, it is refreshing to find and entertaining film that is not too emotional and yet avoids coming across one-dimensional trash.