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Reviews
Smallville (2001)
Smallville has something for everyone
Smallville has been one of the best shows on TV for the last 10 years. It has evolved over 10 seasons from a teen drama to a top of the line action show. The show started as a normal WB show, following in the footsteps of Dawsons Creek. Only Dawson was a young Clark Kent. It slowly grew from a teen drama to a more young adult action show while still keeping its dramatic elements. By the 7th season, it had become a weekly one hour action movie. Smallville pares no expense on the special effects. Watching a season of the show on DVD is like watching a 20 hour movie. Experiencing the whole series so far has been like watching a 200 hour movie that you don't want to end. I highly recommend it for both fan boys or someone who has never read a comic book.
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
I hate myself for watching this more than once
Rick Rosenthal directed Halloween 2. I thought he did a fine job. He also directed this piece. Why would he agree to do it? This movie kills me. The first 10 minutes is actually OK. Jamie Lee Curtis is great. They should have done another one with her starring, and finally dying at the end. That would have been great.I thought Halloween 6 was bad. This makes it look like the Godfather. Simply think about this. Someone actually pitched this idea and it worked: Why don't we kill Jamie Lee Curtis 10 minutes in, have Michael Myers come back to his house where Busta Rhymes will be filming a reality internet show. Michael will kill some kids in front of a big internet audience, only for Busta to whip him with some kung fu. Nice. And some fool paid a bunch of money for this to get made. I know that making films is a business, but at some point there has to be some kind of artistic integrity maintained. I mean, this was so bad that they couldn't even make another one for 5 years.
All the Love You Cannes! (2002)
Very nice documentary, especially for Troma fans
All the Love You Cannes was a very entertaining documentary. I am a new Troma fan and a lover of independent movies, especially those in the horror genre. I recently attended Dragoncon in Atlanta,GA and met Lloyd Kaufman who was very nice.
The Troma team use some original techniques in trying to get the Troma name out there in this doc. It seems that while Kaufman has a good head on his shoulders, some of his employees(particularly one obnoxious fellow) do not. The doc shows the struggle of a small studio fighting to get attention away from the majors.
Particularly the theme of breaking the monopoly that the major studios have on not only the Cannes film festival but the business in general is always prevalent in the doc. If there's one educational thing about this film, it is that most "independent" movies are not that independent at all. A film that is truly independent will have to fight to be seen, and tactics out of the norm may have to be used.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Truly Magnificent
I'll have to admit, I had high expectations going into The Dark Knight. I think a lot of people did. Batman Begins was very good and showed great potential for a sequel. All the reviews were saying that Heath Ledger's performance was Oscar worthy even before his tragic death. All of the previews were very well done. It's not very often when a movie can live up to the hype. This movie far exceeded it.
The acting was superb. Christian Bale proves with every performance that he is the real deal. He is the new standard as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Aaron Eckhart was very good as Harvey Dent. It would have been easy to overlook him as a hero seeing as how it is a Batman movie but the character Harvey Dent was playing on a level playing field with Batman and that is a tribute to the acting. Maggie Gyllenhaal did a good job at playing the Rahel Dawes character very close to the way Katie Holmes played it, which is all that could be asked of her. You could write a book on how great Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is. From the moment he speaks you know you are watching true greatness. He is fully committed to making you believe he is the Joker. The Joker is a complete psychopath, and Ledger conveys this brilliantly with every word spoken, every facial expression, every movement. Certainly Oscar worthy, definitely unforgettable. It is truly a shame we will never get to see Ledger in this role again. But for the 2 and a half hours I did, it was an honor.
Christopher Nolan is proving to be one of the great directors of his generation. From Memento to now he has grown and had great successes all the way. He has been quoted many times as saying he wants to keep the Batman story as realistic as possible and has done a great job doing it. Watching his work you truly feel like you are in the Batman universe. From lighting to special effects he and his crew do a phenomenal job. Nolan was a brilliant choice to bring Batman back to the screen.
The Dark Knight is not just a great comic book movie or great summer blockbuster. It is so much more. I believe it should be nominated at next years Oscars. If this isn't one of the best 5 or movies of the year then we as fans are in for the best year in film history. I've seen it once, I'll see it at least one more time at the theater. This movie is as close to perfect as they come. Hopefully it and the performance of Heath Ledger will live on forever.
Halloween (2007)
A longtime Halloween fans view
I pride myself for being one of the biggest Halloween fans around. I saw Halloween when I was 5 and have loved it ever since. Now that I'm older and appreciate movies for more in depth reasons, I like it even more. When I heard Zombie was making a prequel/remake of Halloween, I was a little scared. But after having seen it I think it only adds to the Halloween legacy. This movie is not perfect by any means, but it is very good. It is my favorite horror movie of the past few years, maybe since the first Saw. The movie is very gory, but not just gory for the sake of gore. The excessive blood and such are there to demonstrate the psychotic soul that Michael Myers has. Another complaint people have is about the lack of character development. I think its important to understand that while the original Halloween was the story of Laurie Strode, Rob Zombie's Halloween is the story of Michael Myers. So while the characters all had their differences from their originals form 1978, we had a preconceived understanding of what they are all like. Myers, on the other hand, we knew very little about coming into the film and now know a lot about coming out of it. I also think their is a difference in how most people go into Horror movies and what their expectations are these days. While in the 70's as a society we rooted for the good guy, I think we generally go into a horror movie these days wanting the killer to kill just about everyone but the heroine. So really, their isn't much of a point in trying to get us to care about everyone, because we won't anyways. Finally, to Halloween purists like myself, just give it a chance before you hate it. If you go into this film expecting the worse you will not enjoy yourself no matter how good it is. There are enough of the classic elements of the film and enough of the likes and plot from the original to make you happy, plus its different enough that you will be interested in what happens next. Why would Zombie try to straight up remake the original Halloween? That would be stupid and inevitable a failure. Instead he put a twist on it that adds a little depth to the original. I'm sure whoever directs the upcoming 2 sequels will butcher them, but Zombie did not. You just have to watch it with an open mind.
Heroes (2006)
What a great show
This is such a great show. When I heard NBC was making a show about superheroes I was very skeptical. I've never been a huge fan of attempts at Sci-Fi shows on network TV, but I was wrong.This show is amazing. It follows a group of people from all over the world who all end up in either Las Vegas or New York as they develop supernatural powers and cross each others paths. Their ultimate goal is to come together to save the world, and as each episode plays out you get clues to how the world will be shattered and what each hero must do to help save it.
The show has a great cast. It is a combination of unknown up and comers and veteran actors. Milo Ventimiglia is going to be a big star. He does a great job on this show just as he did in Rocky Balboa. Ali Larter does the best acting she has ever done, and Hayden Panettiere is a very promising young actress.
The show is very complicated yet pretty easy to follow. There are 10-12 characters who are followed as they discover their powers and embark on their adventures. The show is a lot like Lost in the way most episodes end in a cliffhanger but unlike its counterpart, Heroes usually gives you an answer before asking more questions. The show gives you a clear direction in which it is going while giving you many surprises along the way. It might be the best show on TV. And no, you don't have to be a comic book fan to love this show.
The Marine (2006)
Never had more fun at a terrible movie(spoilers)
I have never had more fun watching such a bad movie before. My friends and I are big wrestling fans, so we had to see this film. We knew it would be bad, so we waited til it went to the cheap theater to see it. We spent two dollars to see it, and I think it was well worth it. No more than 5 minutes into the movie we erupted into laughter. John Cena is a decent wrestler, but a terrible actor. His sad attempts at showing any kind of emotion, even being mad(which, being a wrestler, you would think he might have down) were hilarious!
After being discharged, Cena gets a job as a security guard at a hotel. His partner could be the worst actor ever. Next in line are the bad guys. They rob a jewelry store then blow up a car in the middle of a huge city, and draw pretty much no attention. They then kidnap Cenas girlfriend at a gas station and blow it up. They literally blow off all the metal from Cenas car, then he wrecks into a lake. He clearly does this huge dive out of the car into the water. They know he is a marine at this point, but assume he will just drown and let him go.They are ruthless enough to kill a bunch of their own gang for nothing, but keep Cenas girlfriend alive as a hostage, though there is no logical reason to do so while trekking through swampland. Later on, Cena waits on one of the bad guys to come out of a cabin they are staying in, kills him, then about 15 minutes later one of the bad guys comes to check on the first on, and Cena kills him. And no one thinks anything is suspicious. I think Robert Patrick is a great actor, but he must have been paid a lot of movie to do this thing. He even acts goofy the whole time,like he knows the movie stinks.In one scene, he tells his partner over the phone that he is cut out of a deal, gets a beep, asks the guy to hold, and the guys response is yeah,sure. They even play looney tunes music in this movie.
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)
Why do people hate this movie?
I actually liked this movie. It's not going to go down as a classic or anything, but I thought it was good. Sean William Scott was hilarious as always, and Willie Nelson was awesome with all the one-liners. The movie was nothing like the TV show, but I don't think it should be anyways. Most movies that are remakes of old shows or movies almost always fail because they try too hard to play to the fans of the originals, who you can never seem to please. Now the movie did have flaws. Jessica Simpson, despite being from Texas, does a poor job of putting on a southern accent. I also understand that in the TV show, the Dukes were really smart and manly and all, but like I said before, this wasn't suppose to be like the show.
Halloween (1978)
Best Horror Movie Ever!
Why is this not the best rated horror movie ever? I can't believe this place rated it 38th! I mean, c'mon, Frankenstein, the Thing, and Rosemary's Baby are all rated higher? Halloween is one of the only truly popular horror movies that is mostly believable: crazy guy goes around killing unsuspecting victims, most of them drunk and horny. Michael Myers has no special powers really. No other horror movie has ever been copied or been more influential before or after it. And seriously, Jaws,Aliens,King Kong, all good but none are even horror movies. Aliens has never scared anyone.Now, there are a couple of movies rated above Halloween here that have arguments as the best horror movie ever, like Psycho or the Exorcist. I think Halloween should get the respect it deserves as at least one of the top 5 horror movies ever, though in my opinion it is the greatest.