atlasredux's Reviews

How I Met Your Mother: Pilot (2005)

Season 1, Episode 1

10/10

3 February 2011

Completely without spoilers : There's a reason I'm giving the pilot of the show a 10/10. This sets the standard for how the show is going to progress. It's hilarious and introduces us to all the main characters perfectly, we all get a great feeling on who they are and where they are in life. The humour is great, the pilot story is a great introduction to the rest of the series and the characters is a perfect mix where everyone can identify.

Ted himself is a naive romantic, though a bit nevrotic, but just lovable ( this coming from a guy ). He's the perfect lead, but compared to other series where the lead is the most reasonable and sane ... Ted is perhaps the one who really needs guidance. He is flawed, but in a likable manner. His friends are flawed, but they all got the components to learn Ted to overcome his nevrotics and and naiveness.

Have we seen this before? Yes. But not this well executed. A great pilot for a great series, it absolutely shows what the show is all about and really sets a high bar of standard the show has managed to keep up.

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The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

8/10

This sure was a surprise!

6 December 2010

What I expected was a kids movie that would entertain me a lot. I watch a LOT of movies, from classic to new sci-fi and find good movies entertaining regardless of age or the age it was going for in case of audience.

However, this surprised me. It's definitely not a kids movie, it's a really adult family-movie, with lots of eye-candy for the kids and a story that might just tilt more toward the adult audience without going over the head for the kids.

There's tons of good humor ( I burst out in laughter several times, which does not happen often for me in a movie ), the story is of course done before, but just with enough twist to be interesting.

The visuals are very nice ( in HD at or cinema at least ) and I quite enjoyed the entire "magic is a scientific thing" even though it is not at all.

All in all, I think this movie worked even better than the makers thought it would. I could write more, but don't wanna give away spoilers, just take the word from a fellow movie-lover of all good movies : this is done surprisingly well.

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Primer (2004)

10/10

An absolute gem of sci-fi.

24 June 2010

Well, I read some IMDb reviews before I watched it, being careful not to read anything that contained spoilers, and MAN am I happy I did. I watched it at night being bored, had nothing to watch and thought, ah what the heck, give it a chance. I shouldn't give it a chance. I should have been prepared for a mind-twisting awesome experience of a movie which sets the example that script makes a good movie, NOT special effects! Don't get me wrong, I love retarded eyecandy as well ( read : Transformers ) but this movie luckily proved I still have a bit of sanity left. And then the movie took away my sanity, twisted it and gave me an experience like no other movie in a long time. Watch Primer, don't watch what it's about and enjoy!

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The Man from Earth (2007)

8/10

Nice story ... yet ....

18 November 2008

Warning: Spoilers

I find the movie a tad overrated. Yes, it brings up philosophical issues, but nothing else that hasn't been brung up before or discussed almost every year by your friends. Immortality, religion, morales, imagination ... it's just done with a different twist. Immortality is already proved, it is our own genes that are killing us with our own gene-codes to prevent overpopulation and endorse evolution. We just haven't found the key to make it work yet. But HERE the movie takes a good issue : the morality of immortality. Too sad there was way too little on that matter. The rest is mainly old conversations / ideas we all have thought through at one point or another, unless you've never read a book. However, it was beautifully told and I really promote any movie that is entirely about philosophy and does it well, despite some of the ideas has been done to death, just with a twist. All in all ... with some minor changes, I would have given the story a 10 ... 2 points off for too many clichès and not ENDING the movie philosophically! Should have left it open ... But again, it is a wonderful movie nevertheless.

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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)

9/10

Simply astounding,

16 October 2008

We all know, the FF-series of the games got a great recipe for working ( not in right order ):

1. Great story 2. Awesome cutscenes 3. Great music 4. Great gameplay 5. Great characters 6. Great music

In Advent Children, they basically has made a massive cutscene using latest animation-technology and the people behind the cutscenes and added the story from the most popular FF-game directly to make it a full-feature movie. Fail-potential? Non-existing. This is a visually stunning movie with great music and story, with added eastereggs for us who loves the game(s). What came as a surprise is the fact that the movie is a great standalone movie for those that has NOT played the game. Watching it might even get you intrigued to play the game ( and fact is, my own mother has now taken interest ). Without telling spoilers, there not much left to say ... we who know the FF-series know what to expect, it is awesome. Spirits Within failed in many levels, Advent Children does what they do best ... making a reaaaally long cutscene, with story. And it works. The rest of you : this is awesome. Watch it.

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Rambo (2008)

8/10

Yes yes yes!

21 June 2008

Being "lucky" on the relativity of the conflict in Burma, with the attention due to the disaster in the area, the movie gives an important glimpse into how the situation really is. And it sure does it, Rambo style. Hard, brutal, to the point, but yet with undertones and short shocking and hard-to-fathom situations. Shortly described, as with former Rambo's, the movie is short and up-your-face. This one just takes realism to a whole new level when it comes to violence. Stallone simply tells us : this is war. War is some !"#%! up !"#¤. The storyline are more believable this time around as well, despite the usual Rambo-exaggerations and stereotypical mercenaries. The movie is gruesome in terms of violence, and I am glad it was. It was needed for us to accept Rambo. It was needed to show the dark side of what Rambo is and what lengths he is willing and able to go to. Thanks Stallone, for giving us back Rambo as well. You sure had to work to beat Rocky's comeback, and my, did you do well. Thanks for all the great entertainment so far.

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The Skeleton Key (2005)

3/10

Horrificly predictable.

5 January 2007

Yet, even though you have to be a complete idiot not to understand how the movie will end about 3/4 into it ( actually, you get pointers all the freaking way, ruining the experience ), it has it moments. I suggest you watch it if you have nothing better to do. It has no scare, it's an attempt to make an "intelligent" horror-movie, but fails completely in both horror and intelligence. Yet once again, Americans ruin a movie by giving away the ending midways in the movie. The ending might be "original" in some few peoples eyes...but we've all seen it COUNTLESS times before. Americans knows only 2 endings in a movie. Good or bad. And the buildup for this gives it away. And "the twist" in the end...it is not a twist. It's the most common ending. When the heck are you going to learn?! Thank you America, for yet again disappointing me. The Others at least was intelligent... I still haven't seen a scary movie originally from USA.

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The Grudge (2004)

10/10

Most scary movie ever...or dullest?

5 September 2006

To start of, this will be my favorite horror-movie and will probably will stay that way forever. The "problem" with this movie however, is that you need to be able to live into the movie. Either you get scared senseless or you simply won't care at all and be bored. And that's the only two reactions I've seen. I've shown this movie to a load of my friends. The mental horror in these movies scared 75% more than they ever have been by a movie. The rest was bored. But for you who are able to live into the horror of the movie... It's a winner. It's a 10 out of 10. It is a tad slow too start with, but that works well to let you ease into the movie before the real horror begins. Just watch it. Don't hate me if you're bored, it just means you have no fantasy and ability to focus ;)

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The Waking (2001)

1/10

Definitely the worst "movie" ever.

9 July 2006

Seriously, I tend to enjoy terrible movies, just to get a laugh at plot-holes, miserable acting and crappy effects. The problem with this movie is that there can't be a plot-hole simply because there's no plot. It doesn't even seem to be a story! The ending is just weird, without any relevance to the movie elsewhere whatsoever. Also, earlier in the movie, you see a scene of the main character sitting in a bar, then all of a sudden he is being beat up in the forest! I might be wrong about the bar-part, it might have been some other place, it's some time since I've seen it...the movie just is annoying. Miserable acting? I've never ever heard such terrible acting in my life! Actually, that part could be interesting for you to check out. This has to be the worlds worst actors. Effects? Slim to none. Fake blood is the best effect they've got ;)

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