gabbahey10 Reviews

Superman (1978)

Still the grandest of all super-hero movies.

[25 December 2003]

WARNING: Spoilers

'Superman: The Movie' is a grand, superb and spectacular masterpiece. It has been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it when I was only six. It is one of those movies that will sink you in and capture your imagination no matter what your age is.

STORY: This version of the Superman legend starts where it should, from the beginning. It shows the final days of Krypton and the reasons for why Jor-El (Superman's father) sending his infant son Kal-El (Superman's given name on Krypton) to Earth. Then we see Kal-El grow up on Earth in the rural town of Smallville Kansas where he is raised up an Clark Kent but discovers that he has abilities that are far beyond belief until the time has come where he is guided up to the arctic so his Fortress Of Solitude will form and young Clark will discover who and what he really is. Then he moves to the great city of Metropolis and has to live two identities, Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter working for the Daily Planet newspaper and.......come on, you know, Superman, a man with the capabilities of flight, super strength, super speed, super hearing, X-ray vision and many other great powers which he must use to serve for truth, justice and for the very good of humanity in which he made his first appearance rescuing Lois Lane, another Daily Planet reporter who becomes close friends with both his identities, from a helicopter accident. Yet, a big challenge was yet to come when Lex Luthor, a criminal mastermind, plans to challenge Superman so he can commit the crime of the century. It was an excellent screenplay by Mario Puzo (Godfather).

CAST: Christopher Reeve was excellent as the man of steel. He was an unknown actor when he was casted for the part because director Richard Donner felt that an unknown actor will be the best for the part. He wanted the audience to see this character as Superman so people will believe that he can fly. A much better idea then casting a big name/big face because if a famous actor played the part, it would just be a familiar face in tights therefor it wouldn't have the magic. Also, there was an amazing different look from Reeve as Clark Kent and Superman. I think that disguise actually can fool a few people. Christopher Reeve was one of the least famous leading actors in this movie. Marlon Brando as Jor-El was well done. Notice that he had the curl in his hair too. Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor was very well done. He was very funny and not to cheesy. I like how his hair was different in every scene then in the end, we see that he's bald. I really got a kick out of his sidekick Otis, played by Ned Beatty. Margot Kidder did a good performance as Lois Lane, especially in the flying scene with the 'Can You Read My Mind' poem. However, I thought Glenn Ford as Jonathon Kent was the best. Everyone else was great too. I wasn't disappointed with anyone.

CINEMATOGRAPHY, PROPS AND VISUAL EFFECTS: Cinematography was amazing. This film has the best opening credits ever. What can be better then blue 3-D letters coming out of the screen while seeing stars coming out at you and tripy colors shooting everywhere? It's a true Superman movie trademark. The sets were pretty cool, especially the planet Krypton and the Fortress of Solitude. The visual effects were very good. Not as advanced as today's visual effects but still satisfying. Remember, this was the first movie that tried to make a man look like he can really fly.

MUSIC: When it comes to musical scores for movies, John Williams is the best. Of all his scores he wrote such as Jaws, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, E.T., I think his Superman score was his best and I seem to remember hearing somewhere that it was his favorite too.

SEQUELS: Superman II was a pretty good movie. It would have been far better if the producers didn't fire director Richard Donner 3/4 through the making of the movie and replaced him with Richard Lester (who carried on with Superman III). That's where the movie suffered really bad. Brando quit and wouldn't allow any footage of him shown. Hackman quit and they just had to do with the footage of him they already have. However it was the best Superman sequel and still worth watching only because it still had a lot of that Richard Donner touch in it and because the story was still by Mario Puzo and the thing with the Kryptonian villains payed off the opening Krypton scene in the first Superman. Stay away from Superman III and Superman IV. I won't even get into those terrible follow-ups. It seems that sequels go downhill when they change writers and directors. Therefor (just like the Batman movies) only the first two Supermans are worth watching.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

It'll bend your mind and grip your heart.

[26 November 2003]

Warning: Spoilers

I have seen many movies that totally bended my mind. Movies that made me stop and think about the coarse of everything around me, how it all started and what it could lead up to. I have also seen movies that gripped my heart. Movies that are emotional or movies that are touching. But never have I ever seen a movie that actually did both at the same time until I saw 'Artificial Intelligence: AI'.

Lets think about where were going. Mankind is getting advanced at an astonishing rate. We are the only species that conquered nature and shaped the world around us but how much of us can the world take. We like to think of our selves as good but what is good, really? Technology is growing more advanced by the day. One day, technology will grow so intelligent and so advanced that it will have the ability to take over and continue to make itself even greater on its own without the help of man and possibly outlive man.

AI was a masterpiece. It was by far the best thing that Steven Spielberg ever got into, of coarse a lot of the credit goes to the late Stanley Kubrick. An idea of showing the first machine to have desires, emotions, a machine that actually can love someone and seek its own destiny in its own way. It was called a Mecha. It looked like an ordinary ten year-old boy. His name was David. David was the first of his kind. Other Mechas around him were different. They just did what they were programed to do. They had no feelings or desires. David was the start of a whole new evolution. When he was put to the test, he was adopted by a couple. But things didn't work out. David's mother (I guess I could call her that) who David got attached to couldn't handle David so she abandoned him. From there on, David wanted to become a real boy so his mother will love him. During David's adventures, he discovers that he is just a machine from an assembly line but he didn't want to bye it. David ended up frozen in ice for two thousand years due to an ice age. In this time, machines were roaming the earth, man was long gone. When a group of advanced robots were searching for their origins, they found David. David was like Adam and Eve to them. He was the first of their kind. They worshiped him, but all David wanted was to be with his mother who he truly loved. That was the ending that blew my mind and gripped my heart at the same time.

Overall this was an excellent movie. The story was spectacular, the characters were great (Teddy rocked) and it was not just another CGI show-off as many movies in the past few years have been.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

A movie that makes you wonder about everything.

[14 October 2003]

WARNING: Spoilers

From the dawn of man to man destiny. From the time man created technology to the time technology fought back against man. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a movie like no other, it stands as a category of its own. Legendary director Stanley Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clark have put together a spectacular masterpiece that can make one wonder about life and the universe.

This is a story about the entire evolution and destiny of humanity, how it started and where it's headed. It starts off showing how man got seperated from the ape species and went its own way like no other creature on earth had done before. Four billion years ago, a spices of ape had lived as helpless scavengers, carefully feeding themselves at day, hiding together in caves at night, tribes fighting together with tribes over territory and muddy water but not knowing how to fight. They were living in fear of predators, seeing their friends get attacked and killed and not knowing what to do about it. Then one morning, a small tribe had been encountered by a mystical black, rectangular object which changed the way that this certain small group of apes think. One ape discovered that he could use a bone as a weapon to attack others and defend himself, this was the very first wave of technology. He uses it so his tribe could defend their territory against other apes. This will be the tribe that will evolve into man. The black object known as the monolith was calling man out to the orbit of Jupiter and it waited four billion years for man to have the capability to make it there so man can confront its true destiny. The mission was almost unsuccessful. Just as man had the technology to transport themselves to Jupiter, man's technology, the HAL-9000 got so advanced that it turned against man which could have been the start of a more advanced evolution that could have overpowered man (an idea that Stanley Kubrick was also going to work on in the movie 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' but sadly didn't live to do it). However the mission was successful. Astronaut David Bowman defeated the HAL-9000 and went as the representative for the entire history of humanity (without knowing it) and became a supernatural being.

Sounds crazy? Of coarse this movie is all fiction but lets face it. There has to be a good explanation for why man is so intelligent. All other creatures on this planet just live by their natural instincts. Do you really think that nature made man what it is today? Why would nature give man the capabilities to destroy nature? The reason for man's intelligence can't be natural, it has to be supernatural.

This movie has blown many minds away, not only by the plot but also by the whole style of the way that this movie was made. It has such a bizarre style of cinematography that it will send your mind light-years away even if you're not under the influence of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'.

I'll give this movie **** out of four stars.

Followed by '2010'. It was OK.

Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

"Things sure changed since we got kicked outta hi-skoooo": JOEY RAMONE 1951-2001

[11 September 2003]

Warning: Spoilers

Forget Grease, Saturday Night Fever, The Wall, or Rocky Horror Picture Show, those movies were alright but THIS is THEEEEE cult movie. Its got everything from hot-boxed washrooms to exploding mice.

Call it a cult movie, call it a high school movie, call it a comedy, or call it a musical. I just like to call it awesome. When ever you have a few buddies over for some beers and you guys want to watch a real hip flick for a good laugh, Rock 'n' Roll High School would be the perfect choice. Of coarse some people might say that you would have to be a Ramones fan (which I am) to enjoy this movie. Not true. Yes I'll admit that more then 50% of the music you'll hear from this movie is by the Ramones but this movie is so hip, high energy paced and full of great funny gags that it can be enjoyed by anybody who can appreciate a good comedy regardless of their taste in music.

P. J. Soles (Carrie, Halloween) did a super job in her leading role as Riff Randell, the rebellious high school student rebelling against her school principal Miss Togar, played very well by Mary Woronov. I was really amazed with Clint Howard's role as Eagle Bower and I just could not imagine any other rock 'n' roll band to star in this movie then the Ramones. Whoever it was that chosen this band to play the leading band in this movie has chosen very wisely. I mean what other band from 1979 could possibly bring this movie to its high energy level. The Ramones were the most fastest and hippest band at that time (and beyond). I also got a big kick out of those two hall monitors.

I am not sure if I can choose what my favorite scene was because there were so many cool scenes from start to finish, but I really like the 'office in a stall' bit.

Anyways, if you haven't seen this movie and you have an open mind and like hip, high energy comedies, then you better see this one.

Back to the Future (1985)

The best multi-part series ever. I speak for the whole trilogy.

[25 August 2003]

Warning: Spoilers

The Back To The Future trilogy is the most artistic, entertaining and well put-together multi-part series ever created. Me and my budies just love watching them in order back-to-back. I am a big fan of director Robert Zemeckis and I even like his earlier movies which were flops. Of all his films that he made which I love every one of them, I think the Back To The Future trilogy is his grandest design(even though it wasn't origionally going to be a trilogy).

Unlike other multi-part movies which only the first one is good and the sequels sucked, the magic of Back To The Future always stayed through-out the entire series. Other movies with sequels just don't know when to stop. I mean come on, Freddie vs. Jason? Give me a break. The Back To The Futures started and ended perfectly. Cause here you have it: In part I, the characters, places and hardware is introduced and movie takes it's audience on a fun adventure showing its idea of time-travel and the effects of time-travel. In part II, darkness falls. We see the effects of time-travel at its most nightmarish way and Doc and Marty must correct it. In part III, after what Doc and Marty have been through in the previous two movies, they must come to the conclusion to make the right decisions about what they should do and discover what their true destinies really are. Now THAT'S an example of good trilogy. I know many people think part III sucked, they probiably just didn't look at the movie correctly. What they don't realize is that part III wasn't a movie, it's the conclusion of a three part play.

As for the characters, I like them all. It was very interesting to see the families at all different generations like the McFlys, the Tannens, and even the Stricklands (if you noticed that Hill Valley's marshall in 1885 is an ansester to Marty's principal). All the actors did a great job, however the true star of these movies to me is Christopher Lloyd. He did such a spectacular performance in his role as Doctor Emmett Brown. No actor could have played that roll better then him, man he rocked.

The DeLorean was always a good character of its own. What's really interesting is that even the DeLorean was dressed appropriate to match each year that was shown in the trilogy. For 2015, it had Mr. Fusion and a hover conversion installed. In 1955 (in part III), it had 1950's wheels and a big 1950's circut board on the hood. And in 1885, it was pulled by horses like a coach and then train wheels were put on it so it can be pushed on the railroad tracks. It was sad seeing the car distroyed near the end of part III but then again, not too many cars live to be 70 years old.

The thing I think makes the Back To The Future movies fun to watch the most is Hill Valley. In every year shown in the trilogy, we always got a good at Hill Valley's Courthouse Square. We saw the Courthouse Square in 5 different versions: 1985, 1955, 2015, alternate 1985 and 1885.

Well I tell ya, they sure don't make si-fi/adventure movies like they used to. It seems that now days, there are more visual effects and less creativity. The Back To The Future trilogy sure made its mark in the film industry. It's a series which in my opinion will never be surpassed.