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meehawl
Reviews
Evil Eyes (2004)
Writing is *Hard*
This plot has been done many times in the past, and will undoubtedly be redone many times in the future - can we expect ominously precognitive MySpace pages or blogs in the future? Anyway, Kristin Lorenz is exciting and brings a sense of fun to her character but is removed from the main action a little too early. Jennifer Gates as "The Wife" is a bit too Anne Archer... while Adam Baldwin is no Harrison Ford, alas. The cutting is a little disjointed and the narrative feels a little over-forced in places. There are a bunch of minor continuity snafus with lighting and time of day. Nevetherless, this is a well-done little movie considering its obvious limitations in budget and shooting schedule.
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
A Bit Like Point Break, Only Duller, And With Less Water
I just saw this movie.
It borrows a great deal from Point Break - heists, bit of the old Zen stuff, misplaced bad guys identity, botched raid.
But the biggest "homage"?
Paul Walker's undercover cop speaks with the same accent and diction as Keanu Reeve's Johnny Utah.
Close your eyes and listen and you could be hearing the same guy!
And of course, despite the ethnic mix in reality of souped-up import car culture, there are hardly any Asians in this movie except as background. The one main Asian character turns out be a homicidal maniac.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Goriest Snuff Movie Ever
This is the goriest snuff movie ever.
It makes Tarantino's Kill Bill seem quaint.
However it lacks Uma Thurman in a hot outfit.
On the whole, avoid unless you're into sado-masochism.
I can't wait until Mel remakes Spartacus. Just think - instead of three guys getting crucified, in 70 BCE the Romans tortured and crucified Spartacus and 6000 of his closest friends, then left their rotting bodies strung up along the Appian Way for decades.
Mel, if you're reading this, you can make a movie with several thousand times the violence!
Pearl Harbor (2001)
More bombs, less baloney
the trailers are *all* about the key sequence, which is the fight. Subjecting viewers to 2+ hours of baloney beforehand is just plain stupid. Playing hard to get only made me realise how sore my bum was after so many hours in the seat waiting for something to happen and praying that somewhere, anywhere, the $150m+ budget had left room to hire a screenwriter with some understanding of snappy and/or engaging dialog. Suckiest megaflop movie since Waterworld... or it should be.
Russia's War: Blood Upon the Snow (1998)
The *real* story of who won WW2 -- not the sideshow in Europe that the US spectated on
Absolutely amazing and startling documentary about the most terrible tyrant of the 20th century. Compared to Stalin, Hitler comes out of this as a buffoon, and an incompetent one at that. Perhaps Stalin's greatest victory was to leave to posterity so few living enemies that even today he is the subject of worship by so many Russians. This one evil and profoundly ambiguous man was the greatest mass murdered in history -- and the appalling scope of his crimes is made shockingly clear by the well-balanced, delicate survivors' accounts in this long video set.
Sôseiji (1999)
Stunning cinematography, dualist identity crisis plot
Stunning cinematography, moments of serene bliss cutting effortlessly to shocking scenes more akin to his earlier Tetsuo imagery. Tour de force and evidence of a rapidly growing range and depth. So so plot though, the beast within, Jekyll and Hyde, Janus, that sort of thing.
Blood (2000)
Best vampire movie in years... and it doesn't even have classic vampires in it!
Amazing. The single best vampire lore movie in years... and it doesn't even have any vampires in it! All about rapture and addiction and inauthentic communication. This movie could only have come out of the UK, where nearly 15 years of club culture has engendered a generation increasingly and intimately familiar with ecstatic, narcotic highs and normality, come-down lows.
The Matrix (1999)
Good film, but very reminiscent of Dark City (and a tip of the hat to Mortal Kombat)
Yes, The Matrix is a great film. It's tightly edited and the action rarely flags. However, all this semi-mystical nonsense about the "incomprehensibility" of the plot is overblown. In essence, it's the same plot as last year's woefully neglected Dark City. Just replace shiny 1990s pseudo-city with dark gothic 1920s pseudo-city (and robots with aliens) and voila! And the lauded kung-fu scenes put me very much in mind of 1995's Mortal Kombat.