Reviews

One of the worst I've seen in years. Corny music, stereotype characters, laughably bad dialog. How people could read this and go "Yeah, I'm in!" is a mystery. This writer-director is cashing all his chips from directing better films for this piece of crap.

This was a mash up of Strange Days, which did VR memories better, Inception, which did dream detective better, and China Town, which did gumshoe better. Should have just been a TV show as others observed.

Washed up actors in cliched devices, improbably events after improbable events, and 1-liners. How did the Sicario guy write this crap?

This was crap. Poor writing, poor direction, tired rehashed sci-fi tropes. What's with Willem Defoe and bad sci-fi?

this was a pretty good version of Shadow Over Innsmouth, right down to several of the same characters from the original, such as a young liquor store clerk.

i find it embarrassing that so many fellow Lovecraft fans seem to have sexual hangups, complaining about the gay element of the story. who cares? it completely works for the character and the store (adding to his outsider mentality) and is *not a big deal*. geeze! grow up!

the general mood and atmosphere was completely Lovecraftian. uneasiness. not quite seeing things clearly... dread, gloom. these things the film did perfectly.

modern film noir, pure and simple. a few twists, some titillation, and it's a nice little thriller. clever version of hamlet to boot.

the sound track is excellent. I'm guessing it was an indy film and I'm pretty impressed. the actors put out good performances and several of them went on to become mainstream talent.

thumbs up.

geeze the length requirement here is overkill. OK what else...the film was shot almost exclusively at nite, with some touching little flashbacks done in a retro home-movie style, which were always outdoors in the sun. I loved that -- that the actual lives of the characters is dark and bleak but their memories are sweet and in color. except tho Julia makes a comment about not having sweet memories like that.

too staged to be an indie flick, too obvious to be a satire, too boring to be worth a damn.

i read somewhere it was based on a comic strip; that wouldn't surprise me -- a short comic would be a much more suitable vehicle than a feature film. I've read better amateur screenplays.

what the hell -- IMDb is actually requiring me to write more lines of text for this review. why? why cant succinct opinions stand next to bloated opinions?

what more can i say?

bueller?

a predictable, if pretty, scifi flick filled with man of the space opera cliches we've seen before: tendril-twisting aliens, self-sacrificing wounded space marines, a military commander bent on using brute force...oh, and a council. because no apocalyptic future is complete w/o an ethnically-diverse council, right!?

sadly, the most interesting aspect of the story was never fully explored--Aki's dreams involving the aliens' homeworld. the first time we see the power-armored (and thus intelligent) aliens stop running and just stare at her, i thought "cool, maybe theres some message theyre trying to communicate. i wonder what it is?" errt. nothing much. it would have been far more interesting if there was some sort of payoff, a further glimmer of intelligence or intrigue from the otherwise gooey-red-alien-guts tossed all over the place.

so, it seems to me there have been a lot of negative reviews. they break down into two categories: 1) those that say its got "too much sex". blah. grow up. 2) those who say "it's a mess". okay...we can work with that.

this really isnt a plot-based scifi like Star Wars. its not about linear events with obvious cause-and-effects, good guys and bad. its part scifi, part art film, and part trippy 70s movie. these movies dont speak with dialogue, they speak with images, and with mood (ie, "How does this sequence make you feel?" warm? uncomfortable? etc) thats just what this movie is. if you dont like these types of movies--movies in which you may have to do some interpretation--you wont like this one either. simple. its not Star Wars, people...Lucas isnt here to hold your hand.

for instance, one of the "gratuitous" sex scenes near the end, after Mary Lou has aged, was not gratuitous but in fact grotesque. it made me uncomfortable. which i am certain is exactly what it was supposed to do--to show me what a sham Newton's relationship with Mary Lou had become. it had become merely a drunken-memory, for them both... and their sex-scene-revisited depicted that, perfectly.

the whole movie is like that, speaking in general feelings and mood rather than black-and-white dialogue. and its more powerful because of it.

so...put it in perspective as you critic it. dont like romantic comedies? then youre not gonna like the latest Hugh Grant film. but that doesnt mean it isnt good. capese? (btw, i think hugh grant movies suck).

...sorta, anyway. in the tv series, we've heard her say, "He's hiding something," a million times. which is supposedly why she goes on away missions.

Ok, so when she accompanied Picard as he met The Bad Guy, why didnt she say it this time? you know, as the man who is plotting to WIPE OUT ALL OF EARTH calmly says he wants peace. Hello? hiding something...?

first she trashes the enterprise. now she derelicts her most base duties. what is she good for, other than tormenting worf!!?

ok, so by now you know im not a fan, as im not gushing about her in the Summary line. so i think that grants me a little more credibility...

this was not really a documentary as i envision one, mostly because she was the subject *and* executive producer -- meaning she called the shots on this film. it is therefor impossible not to paint a completely biased and self-interested picture. frankly, it's modanna propaganda (propadonna?). she knew she was making a movie about herself while she was making it... from the voice-over narrations to the staff testimonies of how "sensitive she really is", it all seemed contrived. in fact, the only real part about it were the music videos, and warren beatty (he was hilarious because he seemed so bored or disgusted of the whole thing. sardonically he humors her: "Why would you say something if it's off-camera? What..what point is there existing?"). a that being said....madonna is a terrific performer. her costumes, routines, songs, sets, and raw sexual energy just blow me away.

she's one of the privileged-few in society, but i can see why she got there.

visually stimulating...mental masturbation.

the animation is a feat to be proud of. the so-called story is such a yawner i couldnt get past the first 25 minutes before skipping around.

like some of the other readers, i felt this moved talked about everything and showed us nothing. talk talk talk. and its not i dont mind movies w/ a lot of dialogue. i rather liked Linklater's one-room talker, "Tape". because there the dialogue meant something and the characters were interesting. this? just people rambling the same old pop-philopsopy you may have heard at a sophmore college kegger. yawn.

visually nothing like any dream ive had--too boring.

ok, so a lot of folks here have beening writing "if youre not from the 60s you wont like/get it", "its a no good sober", "no plot", etc..

wrong. sorry. try again.

the movie is a slice of american life from the late 60s--just as the golden days were ending and things were beginning to change. free love was dying, harder drugs were replacing the goodwill days of dopers, etc..

the movie doesnt make a hardline, obvious "STATEMENT ABOUT SOCIETY" like one might expect. nor is there an antagonist twirling his waxed moustache. it just uses the open road and the adventures of two riders to show you what was going on in the country. make your own conclusions.

and the music kicked ass. according to hopper, it was one of the first films to use a pure pop-music soundtrack. and what a selection he made.. nearly all classics now.

as for the intentionally enigmatic line toward the end, "we blew it"... while probably not planned as such, i think it could be symbolic of the way america was changing in 1969--the end of the 60s, an era known for love and idealism. replaced by the 70s (coke, disco, bad taste), and the 80s (coke, greed, big macs). so yeah, maybe we did blow it...

Better than platoon and FMJ? come on! not even close..

it was plain ok. its all been done before, better.

colin farel's perfomance wasnt anything out of this world. doing a twangy accent != good acting. (if you really want to squirm, watch the audition takes).

some crazy fake stuff: the attempted-murderer not getting punished by their superiors (in fact he was put in charge of a dangerous training mission. whaaa?), Bozz's getting everybody out of the army, etc etc.

Unlike many of the comments here that seem to think only folks in the "industry" like this movie, let me say that i enjoyed it very much. To suggest otherwise would be akin to saying only pro athletes enjoyed the insider-look at "Any Given Sunday". Or politicians w/ poli movies, etc..

i guess i just like murder movies, seeing a character squirm and thinking, "No, you idiot!" to myself..

funny, too.

...to see First Avenue. ive spent countless weeknites and weekends at the club, yet i know it only as a friday-nite-techno bar, and not at all as the star-creating powerhouse it's famed for. unfortunately it doesnt draw many bands i want to see anymore. (ironically, most of those bands now play at a rival club owned by--at one time anyway--Prince himself. im referring to The Quest).

so the movie was ok. didnt age well i guess.. the strongest character is all the classic songs we all know as prince hits (im not really big fan, but his hits are hits). the actual characters are weak.. the acting is bad, and seems unplausible at times. for instance, prince's usually femme-y Kid character suddenly back-slapping his new girlfriend, not apologizing about it, and neither of them acting as if it was unusual. uhhh ok..

there was tremendous potentially to explore his relation w/ his onscreen parents, but instead they are seen only in a couple seens, and usually only yelling/crying. would have been soemthing if The Kid had actually engaged in some meaningful conversation with them.

great rock sequences.

and the best part about 80s movies? female leads gettin nekkid.