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Reviews
Point Break (1991)
Illogical story but exciting
This movie has a very simple and illogical story; a FBI agent learns to surf because they find out that a group of bank robbers are surfers??? In my opinion this is a waste of our taxes because the chances of finding the bank robbers with this method is about one to 1 million. Apart from this, Point Break is quite a good film. It contains the best sky diving, surf und chase scenes I've ever seen. I ask myself how it was possible to film the surf scene in Australia during this storm of the century. By the way, the second sky diving scene is absolutely impossible. Utah hesitates over 5 seconds before he jumps. The airspeed of the plane is about 400 m/h. So Utah would have to fly over 800 m horizontally to reach the others.
Evaluation 8/10
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
"A shark is not a fish but a mammal......"
I was able to watch this movie in August in Pazifica in San Francisco 3 months earlier than I normally would have seen it in Switzerland. After I had read some bad reviews of Deep Blue Sea, I was a little suspicious. But because I didn't know what to do, I decided nevertheless to watch it. On the whole I found DBS was worth the money but there are 2 things which are very bad. First, the underwater-animation of the sharks. It looks like a real-time animation of a bad computergame and is much worse than for example in Episode One. Second, the background of the scientific work was probably the most illogical thing I've ever seen. The scientists want to make neurological experiments to find a treatment for Alzheimer's. A serious scientist would take monkeys, which have, as the sole mammals, a great-brain-part or it would be at least reasonable to take other mammals. But the scientists in DBS take great and dangerous sharks which brains have practically no similarity to human brains. Wouldn't it be more logical if the army bred the sharks to use as organic weapons? I appreciate it when the background of a film is logical, otherwise I can't take it seriously.
Evaluation 7/10
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Interesting criminal movie
LA Confidential is one of the most intelligent and most interesting movies I've ever seen. The film has about 10 subplots which will be gradually integrated into the main plot. What I found really good was the fact that the individual persons aren't classifiable as good or bad, but they coexist with each other in a special zone between good and bad. I think the main question of this movie is: What does justice really mean?
Evaluation 9/10
Gran Turismo (1997)
Best simulation game ever
When I bought this game I was so interested and fascinated that I played it for 2 weeks continuously. Now, a year later with about 1000 driving hours I´m still playing it. I´ve never before played a game with such motivation in the single and multiplayer mode. It´s simply brilliant and the makers of this masterpiece know how to utilize the PSX and what game design really means.
Recently I saw a demonstration of Gran Turismo for PSX 2 which is able to represent 66 million polygons per second. Although it was calculated in realtime it looked like the intro of the old Gran Turismo, almost real. I hardly wait to play it.
I´ll try to enumerate the positive aspects of Gran Turismo
The realtime graphics and the intrographics are very good, especially the graphics of the cars. You can even see the springs of the cars and rotation of the wheels. I suppose it isn´t possible to create a better graphic representation on this console. The graphics of Ridge Racer 4 is a little bit better but the physical driving capacities are not so accurate and you can see only one car at a time. I personally prefer the game design of Gran Turismo because interesting game capacities are more important than a small improvement in the graphics.
The physical driving conditions are calculated with absolut accuracy. Even if you have a lot of driving experience you have to learn to drive at least 10 hours before you are be able to so well. Perhaps it is a little bit laborious but you´ll have motivation for months and the driving experience is very dynamic and interesting.
The idea of finishing 3 different driving tests is absolutely brilliant. It is very important to pass these tests because you learn step by step to improve your driving competence and you are allowed to play tournaments on a higher level. This is absolutely necessary if you want to have any chance to win.
The idea of buying new cars and improving them is brilliant as well. There´s a lot of motivation because you are only able to win in higher tournaments when you own a fast car and because you have to learn the different driving capacities of cars ranging from a little 100 HP family car to a 600 HP racing machine.
After a race, you can watch it again in different video positions. It´s interesting and important to realize your driving faults or to see unfair driving maneuvers from your opponents (or from you).
Evaluation 10/10
Flatliners (1990)
Illogical because they have no proof
How stupid could be medicinal students who kill themselves to find out whether there ist life after death? Even if they had a near-death experience, which is probably caused by hallucinations of a lack of oxygen, they would have absolutely no way of proving that, just as other persons haven´t.
Evaluation 6/10
Titanic (1997)
Well done but boring
On account to its great success (takings: 1.8 billion $) I had very high expectations of this movie but unfortunately I was a little bit disappointed. It was quite boring, especially the first 2.5 h (of 3). As well the special effects are not so well done, for example the unrealistic animation of the water. The special effects of Star Wars Episode I or Starship Troopers are much better.
I think the reason why I find this movie boring is not that it is badly done or the average quality of the special effects. I even suppose, it isn't possible to create a better film about this theme. But I'm not interested in a movie just about the sinking of a ship.
Evaluation: 6/10
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Humorous adventure movie
In 1991 I played the game to this movie. It was quite good so I had high expectations of this film. When I saw it the first time about two years later, it exceeded my expectations by far. It's a very exciting, interesting and humorous adventure movie. Especially the relationship between Indy and his father is very funny. I highly recommend it. By the way, this movie has a real background. The Nazis were interested in the Grail story, but they didn't want to live forever, they were just interested in mythical German stories.
Evaluation: 10/10
Starship Troopers (1997)
Cynical science fiction war movie
This movie is based on the novel by Robert Heinlein which describes polemic a prosperous fascist future. The humans are united, there are no social, religious or racial differences. The energy problem is solved. A murderer is arrested, sentenced and executed in one day. There is no regime but a military oligarchy. The sole problem is some extraterrestrial bugs which were able to throw asteroids at Earth.
Verhoeven took propaganda movies from the second World War and translated them into its primitive structure. He thought, the result of this would clearly reveal the cynical character of the film. This cynical character shows how primitive and bad fascist ideals are and how stupid people are who believe in them. It is as well the reason that the violent scenes you see somehow don't matter. You see these scenes, but you have the feeling that they are far away. I'm usually not interested in violent movies, but here I can make an exception because it shows what fascism really means and what you can expect if you join the army.
But there's one problem. The significance and the message of a movie does not depend on the intention of the makers, it is decided by the majority of the audience. I suppose that some of the viewers think, admittedly unintentionally, that fascism is ok, but it isn't. So, it's a dangerous movie. But normally dangerous things are good and in my opinion Starship Troopers is a very good movie.
Evaluation: 9/10
Predator (1987)
Extraterrestrial warrior goes trophy hunting
This film concerns an extraterrestrial warrior who goes trophy hunting for humans in South America. Normally his booty is quite easy to catch, but now he must fight against armed marines, who have the order to destroy a military sowjetcamp. The story is quite simple, the actors aren't very talented but nevertheless it is one of the most exciting movies who I have seen. By the way, I enjoyed seeing that this time not animals are hunted by humans, but humans are hunted by this predator.
Evaluation: 8/10
GoldenEye (1995)
The game is better
I've played the game about 500 h (especially in the multiplayer mode). It's one of my favourite games, so I had very high expectations of the movie but I was a little bit disappointed. The acting is poor (Brosnan is obviously only able to portray two facial expressions), the story is quite unbelievable (the motives of Traveylean are implausible), the quality of the special effects, for example the aero crash of the the MiG's in Serjenawa, is very bad. Altogether, GoldenEye is not so bad, but I suppose it would have been better, if they had first made the game and then created the movie.
Evaluation 6/10
Aliens (1986)
Exciting and realistic science fiction movie
When I saw this movie the first time at the age of 10, I was so impressed and shocked that I couldn't sleep until 3 a.m. This is one of the most exciting movies I know and it is by far the best one of the Alien series. It is even much better than the last film of Cameron´s, Titanic. I ask myself how it is possible to create such a film with an expenditure of only 18 Mio. $.
I´ll try to enumerate the positive aspects of Aliens:
1) The acting is quite good, especially the acting of S. Weaver
2) The special effects of the spaceships and the aliens are good, even by present standards
3) Aliens is, compared with other science fiction movies, quite realistic; the technology is not on a much higher level than today / physical aspects are considered / weapons and military are still important
4) The anatomy and the morphology of the aliens are completely strange and exotic and that's realistic. If there are somewhere extraterrestrial creatures (intelligent or not), their appearance and biological mode of operation would most likely be quite different from that of the living beings on the earth.
5) The music and the soundeffects are quite good
6) The ending of the movie is totally surprising
Evaluation: 9/10