Griever_2112 Reviews

The Greatest Showman (2017)

I am not a fan of musicals... but I loved this movie.

[10/10 · 21 February 2018]

Historical inaccuracies/omissions aside, this was a fantastic movie. This is one of those rare gems that hits every mark and does it well. First off the story and pacing. The movie is 105 mins, and it, for me, never had any slow spots or things that seemed dragged out, it fits a lot into the run time and it never feels rushed. Second the acting, everyone was good, Hugh Jackman, Zendaya, Zac Efron, Keala Settle, Michelle Williams all great performances. Also they made me care about the characters. And third, the music... oh my god, the music... now I have done amateur theater, and been is numerous musicals in my youth. I've seen musical movies, and my kids love Disney movies. I've never enjoyed a musical soundtrack like I have this. All the songs are good, they play well to the characters, and hands down best song in the movie is, again for me, "From now on". This is a movie I have no problem recommending .

Day 5 (2016–2017)

Fresh take on an established genre

[9/10 · 21 February 2018]

We have all seen some kind of "End of days" movie or TV show or even a video game. With the causes range from nuclear fallout to zombies to global war to a worldwide pandemic, the list goes on... but what would happen if out of nowhere, sleep... yes, sleep just became lethal... I've been a fan of Rooster Teeth for years, and while they are more known for comedy, this is by far one of the best things they have ever produced. The mystery at start has you questioning what is going on, then the jump to Day 5 of the... whatever you want to call this and seeing what people will do to stay awake is quite interesting. If you like this type of genre, or just curious as to how is this different. I strongly recommend this.

The Mummy (1999)

An fun and exciting movie.

[9/10 · 10 February 2018]

Yes, this is technically a remake. But if I learned anything from Oceans Eleven. It's not always a bad thing. It is a decent story of a ancient Egyptian priest who comes back from the dead to rule the world... or destroy it... bring about plagues... rescue his love... OK that part gets a little lost. But the events play out with plenty of action, danger, and pretty well timed comedy.

The cast is too notch, Brendan Fraiser at his height, personally I thought he would have been the next Indiana Jones. RACHEL Wisez was great and adorable. I've always liked Arnold Vosloo as an actor. And this movie introduced me to Oded Fher, who is also great.

Over all a great popcorn movie. It's not deep, but it has everything you could ask for in a good relaxing after a lo g day movie.

Batman Forever (1995)

Not Bad... but far from good...

[5/10 · 17 June 2015]

Now... in my personal opinion when making a Batman movie, the main actor needs to hit 2 points... 1) Gotta nail Bruce Wayne 2) Gotta believe he is Batman. Now I love the Tim Burton movies, Michael Keaton was good, He was a great Bruce, but a passable Batman... In Forever, Val Kilmer was a Good Batman, he was spot on... but he was a terrible Bruce Wayne. I'll explain that, what I thought of the characters, then the story...

(Spoilers incoming) Now what do I mean by that... well as Batman, he seemed dark and brooding (which is expected) The fighting was good, even the deep voice wasn't bad. But as Bruce Wayne... he was still dark and brooding... going after Chase (the doctor) seemed forced, like he only liked her cause it was in the script (which I'll touch on later) and HOW COULD YOU FORGET WHY YOU DRESS UP LIKE A BAT!?!?! The whole psychological, repressed memory issue he is dealing with felt like such a stupid shoehorned maguffin it made me want to cry... He is Batman, he watched his parents die in front of him... I think if he would repress it would be at age 13 not 33. You wouldn't be a master detective fighting crime in a costume and all of a sudden not remember why your doing it, unless he developed Alzheimer or dementia. That is why he was a Good Batman but a shitty Bruce Wayne, and that is why I can't back this... now onto the rest....

Robin... Need I say more... oh, I do... OK then... Chris O'Donnell looks 25 and acts like a 12 year old... He acts like an angst filled teenager, but he looks like he skipped college to join the circus. He takes the Batmobile out for a joy ride, having a grand old time, then tries to rescue some random girl, being all bad ass... and then upon seeing Batman, turns into a sniveling crybaby. I know he blames him for what Two-Face did... but I would have been waiting in the batcave for him to show up and beat the snot out of him... not steal his car and think it is the coolest thing in the world... the only saving grace was the rusted metal joke... well played.

Riddler... Jim Carry was a good choice, he had the goofiness that the Riddler needed, But they made him a little too goofy... comparing him to Riddler from... lets say the Animated Series (best example given the time frame) Where the Riddler was calculating, cunning and serious at times. Carry played the character more like Frank Langella in the old 60's series, A big goofball. I did like moments of his, but over all it felt like he was playing the Riddler trying to be the joker.

Two-Face... Tommy Lee Jones... why? Yes the character does have a personality disorder, he relies on the coin for decision making... but again... he played it like such a goofball... when "Harvey" was talking he was calm, when "Two-Face" talked, it was like Tommy Lee dropped acid... too wild, too rash, too unpredictable, which his NOT how the character is... I will give credit, the makeup and costume were cool.

The Story... it was a interesting one... If the characters had been more believable, it could have passed for a better story... who am I kidding... a Bruce Wayne who have some psych issues that NOW surface, an holo-projector that sucks the brain waves from all the viewers... AND...that single product becomes a rival to Wayne Enterprises... really...

Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014 Video)

A Great side story for the Arkhamverse

[8/10 · 20 August 2014]

I wouldn't call this a Batman movie per se. It has him in it for sure, but the story is more focused around the mysterious Task Force X, also known as the Suicide Squad. Amanda Waller recruits some of the past members and some fresh meat, pun fully intended, to pull off a job in, Arkham Asylum. The cast for the Suicide Squad is a good collection of villains. The story itself takes place in the "Arkhamverse" This is the DC Universe that houses the stories of the Arkham video games, Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins and the up coming Arkham Knight. This particular story takes place between Origin and Asylum, using (except for Harley Quinn) The costumes worn or associated with Asylum. Overall This was surprisingly very good. I loved the humor and demeanor between all the squad members. The story was compact but fulfilling. The animation was really good. and the voice acting had Kevin Conroy as Batman (because he IS Batman) Troy Baker as the Joker (he took over for Mark Hamil in origin and did a damn good job) And Neal MacDonald as Deadshot (honestly he was my favorite in the whole movie) surprisingly absent was Tara Strong as Harley Quinn, who has done the voice since taking over for Arleen Sorkin. I give this a 8 out of 10, it would have been a 9 if they had more Batman.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Not bad... could have been much better.

[6/10 · 28 April 2014]

I'll address the elephant in the room now... It was OK, yes it could have been better, but some things were not too bad. Please read on, and fair warning spoilers ahead.

So a big thing in this movie was people felt there where too many villains. I don't feel that it had too many, there were 3 on paper, but in reality it was actually 2 at a time. You start off with "new" Goblin, and then add Sandman into the mix... then once Goblin is sidelined, you then get Venom. And let me address the villains. "new" Goblin was a sad version of Green Goblin of the first one, there was no crazy, the updated glider was a hoverboard on steroids (and still had those dumbass spike... did he learn NOTHING) and no goblin mask. I honestly would have rather have seen Harry wearing the full goblin armor from the first movie. Or paint it goldish, make him Hobgoblin (I am aware Harry Osborne was NOT the hobgoblin)...the new version just seemed so generic.

Second... Sandman... Thomas Haden Church... holy crap... nailed the look to the T... HOWEVER... they made his super sympathetic... like your rooting for him at some points more than Spiderman. Which is a big contrast from his comic book counterpart... but I digress, that happens a lot on comic movies... especially this one.

Lastly... Venom... ohh... the humanity... If you wanted to see the annoying bitch version on Venom... well this is your movie. The difference between Spiderman and Venom physically alone, is like Max and Mike Tyson from Punch-Out... instead in the movie they are the same size. Venom is supposed to a murderous psychopath... that stalks Spiderman, screwing with him left and right... in the movie, he calls him right out. He could have been much better if he was introduced halfway through the movie rather than last minute. They wasted the villain... similar to Two-Face in The Dark Knight.

Now the rest of the movie... the story itself is fairly solid... but the dialog and "Emo" Peter were lame. If "Emo" Peter was more hardass then douchebag, he would have been better.

The movie had potential to live up to Spiderman 2, but due to the lackluster Villains, and poor plot scenarios hurt this more than anything... and I don't blame too many villains, I blame the writing more than anything cause a group of villains, when written right works fine. Seem my Dark Knight review for that explanation.

The Dark Knight (2008)

THE Definitive Batman Movie.

[9/10 · 28 April 2014]

OK, first off I really like this one. My favorite out of the Nolan Trilogy, and in my top 5 of all time comic book movies.

The movie take place 1 year after the events of Batman Begins. Batman has done a good job keeping criminals off the streets, and those that are still around, scared to conduct business as usual. The criminals turn there attention to someone who has been robbing them... Enter The Joker. Now right off the bat (no pun intended) this is not the fun-loving psycho joker of the comics... nor the laughing pun-loving Joker that Jack Nicholson performed. Heath Ledger did a great job in reinventing the Joker, he didn't have the gag-weapons, but he had that twisted humor, and while he played himself off as a "mad dog" he knew what he was doing at every step of the way.

Now, this movie had a multitude of Villains, which many people claimed to be the downfall of Spiderman 3, but Dark Knight did it well, but not perfect. You had The Joker right out front, but you also had all the mobsters (an included in that Sam Maroni, known Batman rouge) and then they threw in Two-Face in the third act. The downside to Two-Face was, his ending... they could have introduced him in this movie and carried him through to the next. That is one of my downsides to this movie.

Overall though this was a good movie. Maggie was a much better replacement to Katie Holmes. But the character was still not my favorite. The story worked well and played out good. Some things were a little far-fetched, but this was, for me really only 2 points maybe 3. Other than that, this was a super solid action movie, and a must see for any Batman fan.

Predators (2010)

I think we've seen this before... but that isn't a bad thing.

[7/10 · 14 April 2014]

This is by rights the 3rd movie in the Predator series. The story centers around a group of unknowns in a tropical jungle. They don't know why they are there, how they got there, or who each other are....

As the movie progresses we are introduced to each character, an American Mercenary, an Israeli sniper, Russian Spetsnaz (Russian special forces), a Los Zetas cartel enforcer, an RUF Death Squad member, Death Row serial killer, Yakuza assassin, and a doctor...

They come to find out they are on an alien world and that they are being hunted. Not by the Predators we think, no, they are being hunted by Predators on steroids (Now that is a scary concept) They must learn to survive or die one by one...

Now I like that this is a "proper" Predator movie, and much better than the very forgettable AvP series. But I was disappointing in this movie for going to the well one too many times. The Spetsnaz was armed with a Minigun (a la Jesse Ventura, in the first movie) The events take place in a Jungle which you could have told me it was the same jungle from the first movie, and I would have believed you. The RUF member is fairly superstitious (a la Sonny Landham character)The music is spot on the soundtrack from the original movie. And Royce in the end does the Arnie mud cameo trick. A lot of it just felt like they took what everyone liked from the first movie, and tweaked it to look different but it felt like the first one. They even have Long Tall Sally as the closing credits. Now that is not necessarily bad, I loved the original movie, however I was hoping for more from this. Robert Rodriguez did a good job, I just wish he tried to make it more a stand out film then, retooling the first movie. In my opinion its a good viewing, definitely re-watchable, but as far as a good sequel goes, I think Predator 2 was a better follow up, due to the originality that made it different from the first.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

A great piece of underestimated cinema

[8/10 · 17 October 2013]

This movie gets a lot of crap, because people say it's hard to follow, or the story is weak, it's too SFX heavy.

Personally I do not find the story hard to follow. Since it's fairly easy to follow along and if you bother to pay attention to it. I think it is strong in the sense that it is simple. It's about Polly Perkins, a go-getting news reporter in and Alt. 1939. She along with "Sky Captain" Joe Sullivan must find a deranged scientist named Totemkopf before he can destroy the world.

The visuals are stunning. It's filmed very much like Sin City where a lot of the scenery is CGI, and the film itself, while in color has a bit a of a Sepia film over it. I love the setting, but I like films set in the 20's and 30's.

I would recommend this film to someone who like old school stuff.

Godzilla (I) (1998)

Why This is a Terrible Movie.

[1/10 · 8 October 2013]

This is going to have spoilers in it, and this is coming from a life long Toho Godzilla fan too. You don't like it don't read it.

This is a Remake of the 1954 classic Gojira/Godzilla King of the Monsters. The premise of the original was a great sci-fi movie with a strong message of impending doom of nuclear weapons and there effect. The Toho Godzilla (Toho is the Japanese production studio) had been around for 44 years when this came out and a slew of movies, some good, and some cheesy. But this was an insult to what we fans know as Godzilla. And these are the reasons why. I will be referring to Toho Godzilla as Godzilla, because that what it is. And the American Movie Godzilla as GINO, because that thing is Godzilla In Name Only.

1) - Godzilla is a irradiated dinosaur created from nuclear weapons testing in the pacific.

• GINO is a freaking iguana. one in thousands on a random island the French did nuclear testing on.

2) - Godzilla is nigh invulnerable to the weapons of man. Only being slowed down or stunned by them, Only killed once by removing every last molecule of oxygen in Tokyo Bay in the original movie and never since then.

• GINO take 6 sidewinder missiles and dies...

3) - Godzilla feeds on Radiation making him stronger.

• GINO eats Tuna...

4) - Godzilla can let loose a fiery Atomic Breath melting metal, destroying buildings, hurting other monsters.

• GINO can yell... really loud... no fire breath...

5) - Godzilla is attacked by the military he faces it head on taking whatever they can dish and more.

• GINO runs away.

That is why this movie is abysmal to true Godzilla fans. There is a reason Godzilla, the true Godzilla, has been around for 50 plus years, and why this tuna-eating wannabe had one movie and was throw away joke in Godzilla: Final Wars.

Predator 2 (1990)

I think this is a good follow up.

[8/10 · 20 August 2013]

We go from the jungle of Central America to the Concrete Jungle of Los Angeles. In a very violent "future" Los Angeles (the movie was filmed in 1990, but takes place in 1997) 2 major drug cartels have turned the city into a war zone. It's also during a massive heat wave. The perfect hunting environment for a certain alien hunter.

The star of the movie is Danny Glover, fresh off Lethal Weapon 2. He played Lt. Mike Harrigan a veteran, and grizzled, Los Angeles police officer. He is similar to Dutch (Arnold's character from the first movie) in that he has rules and cares for his teammates.

The movie starts off with a shoot out between cops and Columbian Drug Cartel. The cops are able to drive the bad guys into their hideout, and while those coke whore are reloading, something crashes through the ceiling and wipes them out... I think you know where this is going.

The movie plays out differently then the first one, where during the course of the events it seems like the Predator takes a fixation on Danny Glover, first taking out the Columbian Cartel they were fighting, then a group of Jamaican Cartel members, but then it gets weird.

The Predator goes back to where he killed the Jamaicans, and find Danny Glover's partner and takes him out. Now he was armed, but there was no conflict and his gun was only drawn in self defense really.

I know the whole "honor code of the Predators" is from the comics and such, but the movies is what established that line of thought so I stick with that.

Then the Predator stalks Danny Glover killing the head of the Jamaican Voodoo Posse right after he leaves, leaving part of his partners necklace in a cemetery.

The climax is really neat with the audience getting too see a Predator ship, internal and external for the first time really. Plus multiple Predators at once too.

Visually the movie was good. The story was solid, and different enough from the first to distinguish it.

I would have marked this higher if they had done more connection to the first. For example, Gary Busey's character Keyes, he knows about the Predator from debriefing tapes that Dutch and Anya gave after the events of the first movie. But they were cut from the final production (not sure if ever filmed) but that would have been a great tie-in, and making the connection cleaner, at least for me.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

If I could I would rate this a 0 out of 10

[1/10 · 6 December 2011]

Ohh... where to begin. Their is truly so much wrong with this movie it's sad. Now I try to give reviews either unbiased or try to find a common good and bad ground... but this was just all around a cluster of fail. Poor writing, very boring storyline, and action sequences that take place at night or in sewers making the only good parts barely watchable... literally they might as well have saved the special effects budget and just put a black screen up for them.

ohh.. and their be spoilers here... but trust me it doesn't matter It started off with a great concept. The hybrid of the two most feared alien species in science fiction (one of the only redeeming things of this film). And then it went to hell in a hand basket.

The Movie picks up pretty much right where AvP ended with the Predalien (Predator based Alien) chestburster popping out. It then grows and goes on a killing rampage in the spaceship causing it to crash in rural Washington State. A distress call is put out and for the first time we get a glimpse of the Predator home world and the Wolf Predator (the only other redeeming things in this film) who is a seasoned hunter, and I can only best describe as "clean up crew" for when things go wrong.

We then meet the human actors... their is nothing redeeming or good about the story revolving around them... it was so boring, the acting was bad the plot was very lame. This was really a stand alone story they decided to make a sequel to a movie it had nothing to do with.

The town is eventually over run by Aliens because the Predalien is some weird queen crossbreed that can hentai tentacle rape pregnant women and make their stomachs then explode with 6-8 chestbursters. The big climax is the complete destruction of the town a la Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. And that they also introduced us to Mrs. Yutani (the second half of the famous Weyland-Yutani corporation. But it was such a brief scene if you didn't finish the movie it's missed.

I will tell you truthfully. This movie was so bad I couldn't even watch it. I got about 20 minutes through and was so bored with the story I fast forwarded to the parts with the Aliens and Predator. Which also sucked because they fought at night or in sewers so their was little light which made the only good scenes the bad ones.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Great Concept... Poorly Executed.

[2/10 · 6 December 2011]

I love the Alien and Predator franchises... when I heard they were bringing the AvP series to theaters I was stoked. And then we get this.

I will say I am kind of a stickler for If you are taking an idea straight from another source, be it comics, video games, books or TV. My belief is, stay true to the source material. That is what made the idea popular enough for you to make a movie to begin with.

The Concept of the comics and video games were, futuristic with the Space Marines from the Aliens movie (not the same squad but the soldier) on alien planets. The only real concepts that Paul Anderson took were the humans and Predators working against the Aliens, and that the Predators use the Aliens for hunting.

The Movie is a pseudo-prequel-sequel movie. It's a sequel to the Predator movies (albeit indirectly) and a prequel to the Alien franchise, with the introduction of Charles Bishop Weyland, one half of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the "Company" from Alien, and the model for the Bishop android in Aliens and Alien 3.

The story takes place in Antarctica, a far throw from the hot jungles of Central America and the 100+ weather of L.A. Where Weyland makes a remarkable discovery, a huge heat bloom on frozen wasteland. He takes a team of archaeologist along with some personal security (probably ex-military although never mentioned) to find the heat bloom, only to find in a large underground cave a Pyramid. But the pyramid has designs and carving and markings from three separate cultures that never had contact with each other.

Well that's because they were build by the Predators. SEE Aliens DID build the pyramids.... anyway. It turns out the pyramid is a training facility for a certain tier or clan of the Predator species that a right of passage is to hunt and kill Aliens. There are some spoilers after this point. Unfortunately I need them to explain why I did not like this movie.

So brings out a Queen Alien to start making eggs, so that the humans can become hosts for Aliens for the Predators to hunt. The Predators show up. Three of them, one similar to the ones from previous movies (called Scar), another close to him but with huge blade swords on his arms (can't remember his name) and one huge Predator (named Celtic) Well the one I can't remember his name is killed like instantly. Scar disappears, and Celtic goes after the one who killed the first Predator and they have like a huge 5 minute fight. the Battle was really cool, but Celtic is cut down and the Aliens take a huge advantage.

At this point the humans are split up Main Characters together and secondary are lost and going to die soon. They start learning about what's going on by translating the hieroglyphics and decide they need help the last remaining predator.

The fault I have with this movie is. Besides bad acting, a poor sense of location, it is dark a lot in this movie. And the fact that the Predators are built as these bad ass hunters to kill 2 of them in really the first 10 minutes of them actually getting screen time was stupid. That and Paul Anderson doesn't really understand how the Alien species works. To make an Alien you need an egg, which makes a face-hugger, which implants an embryo into a host, which then becomes an Alien. By my count their were about a dozen or so people in that temple... there are a lot more Aliens then just that dozen. And also that 2 Predators are killed by one Alien, and yet 1 Predator can kill 5 or 6, plus the Queen with the lousy help of someone who is pretty much a pacifist. It just seemed very unbalanced.

Truthfully this movie would have worked out a lot better had the plot been Set on some outpost on another world. Where the Predators dropped some eggs and breed Aliens for a hunt, and the Marines were called in to investigate a distress beacon from the outpost. And have a huge 3 way battle royal. And I will have a review for AvP:Requiem the sequel to this movie... and lets just say this was Shakespeare compared to the the sequel.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

Godzilla meets his match, in himself....

[10/10 · 13 December 2010]

Godzilla who is established in the Showa series of movies as a hero seems to turn on his homeland and begins attacking Japan. We the faithful Godzilla fans know something is up, as the Godzilla attacking has red/orange Atomic Breath... Godzilla's breath is blue... Me thinks something is amiss here.

Low and behold this impostor is confronted by the real Godzilla in a spectacular fight on a refinery. But as Godzilla damages his doppelganger we see metallic underlaying... The fake is really a ROBOT!!! created bye space aliens, they built a giant robot version of Godzilla named... Mechagodzilla.

The movie progresses like all Godzilla films do, and In the crescendo Godzilla is aided by the guardian deity monster King Ceasar (who looks like those Japanese dog statues) Overall I like this movie in the Showa series. defiantly in my top 5 of the Showa series, but not my overall.

Mortal Kombat (1995)

Best Video Game Movie EVER!!!!!

[8/10 · 13 December 2010]

OK, first and foremost I find this to be the best and most faithful movie adaptation of a video game yet. That being said this did loose some points with me for a few reasons.

1) This is PG13 and the source material is Mature (that's Rated R in video game terms) The violence was cut down to appease a "wider" audience. I found that as a cope out and it should have been Rated R and had all its gory glory.

2) They did mesh the first and second games together into one, and their are obvious changes to characters, namely Sub-Zero and Scorpion. But that is forgiven, as it was explained in the story so I am not happy with but I understand it.

3) The fights were good but I would have liked more recognizable locations from the Game. They have some vague reference to some locations, the Sonya/Kano fight could be the courtyard, Cage/Scorpion could be the Living Forest, but the second half was meant to be the Netherrealm...though they don't explain how Cage escapes. Liu Kang/Sub-Zero could be a location from MKII. But nothing Definably noticeable.

The movie story follows Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade entering the Mortal Kombat tournament for their own reasons. Liu Kang is looking to avenge his brothers death at the hands of Shang Tsung from the prior tournament. Johnny Cage an action movie star is looking to make a name for himself as a real martial artist admit rumors his movies are all fake. Sonya is looking for a dangerous arms dealer named Kano and finds him boarding the ship that is taking the Kombatants to the tournament grounds and subsequently gets entered in the tournament. They are aided and guided by Raiden, the Thunder God and guardian of the Earthrealm. Raiden unlike his game counterpart does not participate in the movie tournament, but acts as coach for the three main characters. Other established characters from the game that appear in the movie are, Princess Kitana, Goro, and Reptile. The Movie also holds a decent cast of actual martial artists as Kombatants (characters and originals for the movie) like Chris Cassamassa as Scorpion and Hakim Alstin as Liu Kang's first opponent.

Over all the story progresses very easily and is not difficult to follow, the roles Shang Tsung and Goro play are exactly that of their game counterparts and the matches are choreographed very well. We do also see some of the characters "special moves" we see Johnny Cage's Shadow Kick, Scorpion's Spear, Sub-Zero's freeze and Liu Kang's Bicycle kick (first seen in MKII) The overall movie I enjoyed and would recommend as a "Good" Video Game Movie, and actually a Good movie overall.

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

A Great Sendoff for the Showa Era

[10/10 · 3 September 2010]

Ichinose of the Oceanic Institute is brought into a deadly accident. A submarine searching for the head of Mechagodzilla is destroyed by a "giant dinosaur" aided by his friend Murakoshi from Interpol to find a scientist, Dr. Mafune, who specializes in dinosaurs, only to find his daughter and that he is dead.

Or so they think. Dr Mafune is working with the Alien Race who built Mechagodzilla, and is in control of a giant dinosaur, the Titanosaurus. When Titanosaurus is released into a populated area, it is met by the defender of Japan, Godzilla, who is able to hold off Titanosaurus until it is called back. Now the Aliens reveal that MEchagodzilla is rebuilt and ready for action. Godzilla mus face not only the new threat of Titanosaurus, but the destructive Mechagodzilla once more...and this time he is on his own.

Gun Crazy: Episode 2 - Beyond the Law (2002 Video)

Bad Ass Chick with guns

[9/10 · 23 April 2010]

This is a great movie of meek lawyer turned bad ass assassin. Yuki is convinced that the Law is flawless, until she sees the corruption surrounding her. When some gangsters come to take her out for going to blow the whistle on the corruption she is saved by a mysterious assassin. She then realizes that the justice from the gun was more powerful then any court or lawyer could ever be. She seeks out her hero to learn how to become an assassin like him.

Rei Kikukawa does a great job of turning the character the 180 degrees from meek to fearless. The story is very easy to follow and the action is fulfilling. Acting is pretty good, kept off the cheese except for Yuki's goof ball friend, and even in the end he is a bad ass. while the story does move at a quick pace, you can pinpoint the change in Rei's character Yuki when she goes from the suits to the leather.

I would recommend this movie for someone who likes a quick paced action flick with some substance.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

He's a very reasonable guy, who is experiencing some very unreasonable things.

[10/10 · 17 November 2009]

In my opinion John Carpenter's best work.

You have Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) who is a Trucker making a delivery to San Fransisco Chinatown, he meets up with his friend Wang, who they then gamble and drink...after loosing a bet of $1,148 x2, Jack takes Wang to the Airport to pick up Wang's fiancé, and then...it all begins.

The movie has everything, the Hero, antihero, the wise old man, the damsels in distress, brutal martial arts fights, The evil sorcerer, the loyal bodyguards, gunfights, vicious monsters, the most quotable lines in a movie I can think of, and Chinese black magic.

The one thing I love about the movie is, that Jack is not even the hero, well in the sense of the word, he is the focus of the movie, but he's more of the sidekick who does heroic stuff. I would recommend this movie to anyone I see or meet, it's not an overly serious movie like Carpenter's other works for example, Escape From NY, The Thing, Halloween, or Assault on Precinct 13. This is a fun movie with serious action, the dialog is well executed, the action is fulfilling, even the special effects for an 80's movie are pretty damn good.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Good movie, bad choice of title

[3/10 · 8 October 2009]

This movie was a good SciFi flick.It's set in a post apocalyptic world. Has the domed cities to protect the remaining human element. You have the pacifist heroine, and macho military hero. The evil alien invaders destroying the planet and able to kill anyone with a single swipe. You have the band of brothers who is under the command of said military hero, complete with the tough chick, the lovable bad ass and the smart mouthed scrawny guy and you have the douche bag high ranking officer. The premise is our heroine Dr. Aki Ross is trying to find lifeforms with a certain spirit, an aura if you will, that can bring balance back to Gaia, the earth spirit,which has been thrown out of balance thanks to these alien invaders. She is in the field when she finds one of these spirits but comes under attack by the aliens, called Phantoms (due to there ethereal forms), when she is rescued by our military hero and his squad. The rest of the movie follows protocol of a SciFi flick, they go looking for other spirits, douche bag thinks this is all a crock. City is invaded by the Phantoms, Douchebag tries to destroy the enemy by destroying the planet. and so on... Here is where I give it a 3 out of 10, this has nothing to do with Final Fantasy. It was written by the creator of Final Fantasy. But even key elements that are in all Final Fantasy's are missing from here. No Summons, No final confrontation with main villain. In all Final Fantasy Games, even those that have the heavy SciFi theme, aren't close to whatever this movie was. Don't get me wrong, I am not asking for something like Advent Children, but they could have done a stand alone story that had the Final Fantasy elements in it and it still would have worked. If the title of the movie was just "Spirits Within" It probably would get a higher rating from me. But if this is supposed to be a final fantasy, then it doesn't work.

Messiah (2001)

The BBC once again out does itself.

[9/10 · 3 August 2009]

I have to say when it comes to Book to Movie Adaptations the BBC rarely lets me down. Now regarding this mini-series. I love the Starling Novel, it's by far the best murder/mystery I've ever read. The Mini-series, it definitely made my day when I saw it. The primary story was kept near perfectly intact. The characters match the ones to the novel very well, the personalities and mannerisms were spot on for Red and Jez. I thought Duncan was done very well as was Kate, Eric came off as too much of a simplistic character, he had a little more depth in the book, but they also altered his sub-story so that may have had to deal with it. Of course there are changes, but most are cosmetic, but some I found disappointment in, the sub-story with Eric murder charge was changed and that changed the whole dynamic between Red and Eric for the movie, and they cut out the Triathalon training Jez was doing. Some of the other events in the book are changed to be viewer friendly. Over all if you liked the book, you will like this, if you like the mini-series, then you'll love the book. I must say, this is the most accurate Book to Movie adaptation I've seen.

The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus (1985 TV Movie)

Something that must be seen

[8/10 · 23 December 2008]

This is the most...unique...yeah that's a good word...unique take on the Santa Claus myth ever, I'll say in all existence. This story actually came from the scribe of the novel version of the Wizard of Oz, and has Santa...who was known then just as Claus, raised by immortal fairy folk, lead by the Great Ak, who looks like Odin of Norse Mythology and has a silver axe that shoots lasers, and cared for by a mountain lion...yeah you just read that right. The story follows Santa from his adoption into the fairy folks world to his last days as a mortal, where is invents toys... yes that is right Claus invented toys people... and he needed to defend himself from the evil Agwas, a band of weird demons who hate children and toys, even though Claus invented them only like 30 years prior. You also find out that Claus' reindeer are not his, but borrowed every year from the fairly folk, and they don't fly, they just jump REALLY far. It is like I said a unique take on the story, and one that has to be watched at least once. It's very random, and dear God is in inaccurate compared to most of the Santa origins, I do not condone drug use... but this must be great to watch high, but it is still one of those Christmas Classics a lot of people enjoy watching.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

Why did they even bother

[1/10 · 16 December 2008]

MK: Annihilation took everything good from the first movie, and totally disregarded it for this movie. 98% of the cast is replaced, the only ones returning from the original cast were Robin Shou and Talisa Soto, and most of the "villians" of the movie were played stiff or overacted. The special effect were kinda cheap and cheesy... correction they ARE cheap and cheesy.

The story development was nearly non-existent, how Kahn was able to merge the realms, and when they did bring up the plot it was the same point over, and over again, which was Queen Sindel is the key to all of this, and that is it, they also fail to mention things like, How Scorpion came back from the dead, why their are Robot ninjas, I know the answers cause I played the games, but for the casual viewer they won't know.They tried to fit more into this movie then there was in the first one, and yet they cut the run time shorter than the first movie. They also tried to give fans "what they wanted" by putting a fight with Scorpion and Sub-Zero in the movie... but it was a best a minute long, and really lame... the match between Scorpion and Cage was better.

And they mention Kombatants from the game and never even show them, and guess spot the some,like Nightwolf is in the movie for a solid 3 minutes, they show Noob Saibot but he appears as part of Ermac and no one realizes he is a separate character (in reality he is the original Sub-Zero returned from the dead as a wraith), Mileena appears for mud wrestling match with Sonya only to be beaten in like a minute. Cyrax and Smoke pop up out of nowhere and are easily dispatched. Also Storyline wise regarding the games, they when from Mortal Kombat to Mortal Kombat 3, skipping the second game and cutting out the introduction and character building for some characters, I know they used some of the elements from MKII in the first movie, but the second movie just bypasses Shao Kahn's tournament and goes straight to his invasion. Mortal Kombat and MK: Conquest are much better to watch than this movie. The only positive in the movie was the costumes for Smoke and Cyrax were dead on.

Smallville: Combat (2007) Season 6, Episode 17

I've seen this before

[10/10 · 30 October 2008]

If anyone who watches the Cartoon Network series Justice League Unlimited, this episode...or at least the concept of it should seem very familiar.

In an episode of JLU, Black Canary enlists the help of Green Arrow, to bring home her mentor, WildCat, who have become involved with an underground, online, Fight Club (called Meta Brawl), using MetaHumans...(people w/ powers) This Episode, Green Arrow enlists the help of Clark to stop an underground, online, Fight Club, using Meteor Freaks, but turns from just hunting Titan to now, beat Titan and rescue Lois.

Luckily I liked both episodes a lot, and this...despite what others say, enjoyed this episode...and the girl on girl action Lois and Athena (Ashley Massaro) have ain't too bad either :D