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Reviews
The First Men in the Moon (2010)
Fun and faithful adaption of a lesser known work by H.G. Wells
I had already read the original book by H.G. Wells, so when I found this movie for sale at a local store I bought it.
One thing I particularly liked about the movie is the fact it's faithful to the original story, only leaving out a few details (for example, in the book Cavor and Bedford get lost and start hallucinating after eating some of the plants on the moon before being captured) and not adding too much new material (just enough to explain why the moon has no atmosphere anymore). That seems to be a rarity for adaptations of H.G. Wells-stories, because the most well known adaptations of his books are either modernized versions of the story (War of the Worlds) or add a lot of new plot elements (The Time Machine).
The special effects are decent enough. It is a television movie after all, so you can expect it won't have the same production values as a Hollywood blockbuster. One thing the movie could have done without however is the short dream sequence Bedford has when he just escaped from the moon, which is filmed in the style of the old silent movie "A Trip to the Moon".
Overall, this is a movie that a fan of H.G. Wells' works should see at least once.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)
The best part of going to this movie....
... was the 15 minute walk from the hotel to the theater.
I saw Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance while I was staying in Irvine, CA, for a couple of weeks. But it turned out to be a complete waste of my time and money.
This movie is a disgrace for Marvel Comic films or films based on comic books overall. Weak plot, bad acting, poor effects etc. My advice would be not to go see it, even if you did like the first Ghost Rider movie.
It's a shame Mystery Science Theater 3000 is no longer running, because this movie would have perfectly fit in there. In fact, I think it's safe to say that this is the movie Dr. Forrester was looking for al these years.