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a2guy
Reviews
Super Sucker (2002)
I was generally pleased. (SPOILER)
I saw Super Sucker at Madstone Theaters in Ann Arbor. While I was generally pleased with the movie, I found it to be forced in places, as if the actors were trying too hard to make the joke work. I was expecting a movie a la "Tin Men" or even "Glengarry Glen Ross". Low key, but with Daniels' brand of humor. Instead, "Super Sucker" is an over-the-top, farcical movie about sexually unsatisfied residents of a medium-sized city using a new vacuum cleaner "attachment" in the pursuit of pleasure. I think the intent of the movie was to preach a sexual liberation, anti-prude message, if Fred Barlow's (played by Daniels) "sermon" at the end is any indication. If that was the intent, the movie fell short of doing it well. I feel sly humor and innuendo, like that found in the beginning of the movie, would have played much better, but instead we were treated to sexual vaudeville, with biker mamas, cross dressers, and dirty old men cheering and marching. I'm certainly no prude, but I think the movie would have been much better leaving something up to the imagination instead of blasting us in the face with it. Kudos to: Daniels and the lesser known actors he chose for the film who really helped sell the film, the fact that the movie was shot 100% on location close to home in Jackson, MI, good character development, and the few scenes with truly sly, sarcastic humor. I would have liked more conflict between Barlow and the other vacuum cleaner distributor (played by Harve Presnell, an actor I love to watch), and more Dawn Wells, because unlike Howard Butterworth in the movie (played beautifully by Matt Letscher), I am a Marianne man all the way. Michigan residents should see the movie for sure, little kids shouldn't see it at all, and everyone else should see it if they're looking for a fairly predictable plot with comedy and farce, too few instances of well-done wit and satire, but want some chuckles and laughs from a movie targeted to adults instead of the Kangaroo Jack crowd.
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
If it weren't for Lucy Liu....
As soon as I heard the opening music on this movie, I knew it was going to be a turkey. I felt bad, too, because I really wanted to see Lucy Liu in an action movie. She was great in Charlie's Angels, I was hoping for more of the same.
Unfortunately, the movie was a complete disappointment. I rented it on DVD, and had to turn it off after 30 minutes, it was so bad. From the pathetically wimpy score to the chopped-to-oblivion plot to the normally decent actors obviously just cashing a check (Sandoval, Henry), it was a movie unworthy of Ms. Liu. I can understand Banderas getting stuck with this movie, but man, Liu should fire her agent right away, and sue them on top of it.
The score was something a child could create on their $60 Casio keyboard, and the dialogue couldn't have been worse. Two guys in a truck about to be blown up, and one guy says to other "Take the flank"?!?!?! You've gotta be kidding me!! LOL I honestly don't know what was going on with the music...the composer was the same guy that did "The Matrix" as well as "Behind Enemy Lines". Maybe they didn't pay him enough, or maybe he only had a weekend to do the scoring. Either way, it did nothing but make a bad movie worse.
Hopefully the group behind this picture will never try to make the public suffer through another monstrosity like this, and I surely hope Ms. Liu doesn't suffer because of it.
The 51st State (2001)
Unbelievably awful
I really expected a to have a great time watching this movie, I was really looking forward to it. The first few minutes were pretty cool, credits, opening scene, the music, etc. All very nice. After that, all downhill. In the movie, Jackson's character refers to the drug he creates as P.O.S. 51, and that's exactly what the movie is: a POS. For some reason, Jackson's character wears a kilt throughout the movie, and the director/producers don't even try and fake an explanation, they just leave you to wonder until at the very end, they actually put a blurb on the screen that says something like "we don't know why he wears a kilt all the time". 100% lame. Mix in chaotic characters with no foundation beyond Jackson's initial scene, Meat Loaf and his man breasts trying to be a tough drug kingpin, a ripoff joke on Mr. Bean and his Austin mini, and some indecipherable Liverpool English, and you end up with an achingly miserable movie. There's more, for example the director asking the audience to believe that Jackson would actually be able to carry a bag of golf clubs through airport security checkpoints unmolested (even in pre-Sept 11 time) and more. All in all, I am stunned that Jackson was even involved in this movie, and can only wonder why it took so long to be released. I'm just glad I didn't pay full price to watch it.