Reviews

Robocop - Great Movie

Imagine the terminator is back, this time with armor plating. But inside... oh no .... it's not Arnold at all.....It's Dirty Harry Callahan !.

Well for my tastes a Robocop movie should be all about action, fantasy, wonder and fun. And I thought this movie hit it on all four food groups. I would think a great motto for this movie would be "If it does not go "whirrrrr" and "clank", then you really got nothing to worry about.

Add Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) as the bad guy and Samuel L. Jackson as the commentator, and you have good casting as well.

On the other hand, if you ask if this movie was based on a true story, then it might be the wrong movie for you. You would be thinking of Driving Miss Daisy likely... which this is not.

Why did I vote so high? For what this movie was supposed to be ... for the type of movie, I think it hit it out of the park. I recommend people to see it... who like these kinds of movies.

While yes this is a cartoon, most cartoons that I have seen are clever and can appeal to audiences at many levels. While the movie Wizard of Oz was not a cartoon, it is an example of a Children's story that has many levels of interest and can get into even some deep philosophies as an adult. At a more common cartoon level, I find that often Disney and Pixar cartoons appeal to multiple age groups. This movie I felt was one dimensional. While it may appeal to some children, I found it to have little of interest, little subtlety that could keep the interest of the older audience. The theater we viewed it in was almost empty while other shows in the same movie house were packed. I also heard no applause or people expressing interest. Also one member that was supposed to go with us just refused to see the movie. I now see why. Now in fairness, this movie seems to have been done by South Korea and perhaps they lack experience in making these kinds of movies. South Korea has excelled however at several other fields including certainly electronics. Perhaps the first time any of us do something, it is not going to be great. But I suspect South Korea will learn as they have in other fields and I would not count them out of movie making in the future. My advice? Unless you have a youngster dying to see it, this is one to take a pass on.

Movie Burlesque

First of all, regardless of what I say during this, I do recommend the movie. I am a sucker for a group of pretty women dancing. Partially because I am a male, but women to me often have great moves and are not afraid to go with the music as many males are. Also this movie was done in what I would call good taste and there was honestly little that even I an older person would find offensive. And Cher And Christine Aguilera also played their parts well, and were often fun at times.

That being said, I would say that this movie called Burlesque had little to do with Burlesque, and I for one am fine with that, but it needs to be said. The women wore cute costumes, seldom showed much, and mostly had brash powerful music. Were they trying to threaten the audience? So I sort of saw this as "Burlesque as preferred by a women" ha, ha, sort of along the lines of, "I am woman, hear me roar". But I do not think the Moulin Rouge in Paris will be picking up this act soon. If meant as an allure alone, most men I think prefer at least a small amount of feminine side and sweetness on stage of the women. But again, what is wrong here is that I would not call this Burlesque, but something quite good more along the lines of the Rockettes. And as for the music, Cher sang two nice songs I believe and was her usual great self. I did not recognize Christine Aguilera at first and had to look up her name, but her voice was beyond talented. She had exceptional range and was able to do voice tricks such as being gravely at this point or smooth at another. But again for my tastes, even though I call that extreme talent, I tend to like songs more melodic, perhaps dare I say romantic. Christine's songs were too powerful for my tastes and came across more as if she were doing "76 trombones" rather than trying for sexy. But talented? Quite talented. I was left wondering who else on this planet could have sung the parts of Christine Aguilera.

And so I would highly recommend it as decent acting, good taste, great female dancing, even though the title "Burlesque" would seem not quite right. But yes I want to watch it again. Perhaps I am even happy that it was not the normal Burlesque.

This movie is said to have at least a minor connection to the previous Alien series of movies. What I remember most about the very first Alien movie was that it stretched my imagination. Never before had I seen or ever thought of a space ship that large. Some of the other oddities encountered by the crew also to me seemed very unique. While some space movies seem cutesy, such as Star Wars, or one of my early favorites Forbidden Planet, or even Star Trek, there was a seriousness to the Alien movie that seemed to make it its own creation. The tag line "In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream" was a fair way to describe the seriousness. So in my mind, the first Alien movie set some new standards for creativity, at least in my judgment. But of course, Alien 2 and Alien 3 built somewhat on Alien 1 and just did not strike me with the same freshness. In the same way, the first Jurassic Park was beyond great for my tastes and set new standards for CGI, but of course the next two in that series while good lacked the original creative hit of the first. Of course Prometheus to be good had to be better than just another sequel. In this movie, I again wanted something that tickled my imagination - something out of the normal - something we do not see every day out of Hollywood. While I will not give spoilers, it did not disappoint. Even the plot itself is something that creates great interest in a few of us. And the items that the crew finds along the way I find also quite interesting. It did stretch my imagination, and that was mostly what I wanted. But in general, for my tastes, I would also say that the acting and the plot, the script and direction were also done well.

This is the most racist movie I have seen yet. As such I gave it the lowest grade allowed since nonsense like this can inspire hatred that the world just does not need. It seems to show one race as totally inept, immoral, stupid and without any abilities to be strong or not be cowards. It shows another race as being strong, able to do anything and having the highest ethics. Even when this second race conquers people, those people just love to be conquered - as in the equally fictional "Alexander" movie. As many of us know, racism is wrong on two counts. The first is that it is very demeaning to a group of people and therefore evil. The second reason is that it is just plain dumb.

Anyone with an open mind who has traveled and been with multiple cultures as I have knows that there are no bad races, no bad religious choices, no bad countries, and no bad genders. However in each of those groups is a mixture of mostly good people mixed in with some bad people. Some of the greatest leaders of today such as Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King give us the answer. And the answer is that the opposite of racism is simply equality. Or as Rodney King who just passed away once said "Why cannot we all get along?". Great words are sometimes found when you search for them.

This movie makes a mockery of history. Anyone who has studied history and used even a little bit of logic would know that world conquerors or even local conquerors are not always nice people. Yet some Hollywood movies seem to claim that some are just wonderful. I am certain that they people that those world conquerors have killed have a different opinion. The other issue that students of history know is that slavery is far, far worse than Hollywood says. It was mostly worldwide and still goes on today. it was not just some white people in America enslaving Black people, but also some Black people enslaving Black people, some Black people at least in Northern Africa who raided European towns to enslave white people - including white women for their harems. Some Asians would enslave other Asians as well and South America and islanders and Europe and Asia were into this as well. So it was not one race who had slaves. It was not one race who were victims. It was far, far worse. And of course only "some" in each race participated as either slave owner or slave. However, a racist movie like this one distorts history and seems to make the claim that worldwide slavery really only occurred in one country - and that everyone in that race was guilty. Believe this movie if you are as bigoted as these people are. But I suggest, it is time for all of us to stop the nonsense of elevating a group or race to being supreme and others get thrown down as garbage. As Rodney King once said "Why can't we all just get along?"

This movie in my mind goes way beyond other war movies that I have seen since it adds much realism. With real live Navy Seals in it who helped rewrite the script, and live ammunition used at times, it starts out there with a great deal of realism. But even beyond that it seemed far more real than past Hollywood movies. I have decided that the reasons were in the faces of the Military people. While Hollywood military people some days seem over confident and even egotistical, the Military people I have met have a totally different look. They look a mixture of determination, a bit of fear or at least caution, mixed with some confidence from their training. That leads to much more realistic facial expressions than I saw in previous war movies. I highly recommend it.

First of all, let me be clear that not everyone will like this movie. I know a number of people who just do not like fantasy or silliness in movies. If you are one of those serious people, this movie is not for you. But if you are open minded and say - hey just show me something fun and silly that may not have any reality, then this could be your movie. It also however, does have some R rated sections for both violence and sexiness.

I also believe that movies should be rated on what they claim to be. This movie certainly is not "Gone with the Wind", but then again, it does not claim to be. It claims to be a silly movie about a comic book heroine that is merely trying to be entertaining - assuming one likes that genre in the first place. To a certain extent, this movie reminded me a bit of a more modern version of Jane Fonda's Barbarella - a movie also made with a sexy most odd female in an odd sci-fi world. If you liked Barbarella or the silly movie Mars Attacks, you might like this one as well.

As for me, I rated this movie somewhat high based on that I think it did what it promised to do - be a silly, entertaining comedy. I also find it has an odd attraction. Again, this movie is not for everyone. But for some of us, was entertaining for 90 minutes or so.

Overall, I did enjoy watching this movie. I would not list it as great however. In a way, I see this movie as being in two parts - the human part with the drama and very good acting. Then there was the second part which did venture into Scifi. The first part, the humans were good, but the Scifi part was done so badly it reminded me of 1960's Scifi movies.

The real problem on Scifi, as many of us know, is that several Scifi movies along with custom graphics have just wowed us lately with special effects - the Alien series, the Star Wars Series, Jurassic Park and more have raised our expectations quite high on the fantasy that could be done if one branches into Scifi. Scifi has moved so far along that 1960's Scifi has become sort of funny in fact to us. For example the beginning of Men in Black II was incredibly funny since it used 1960's techniques on Scifi to get us laughing. It was beyond "precious". I would say that if nowadays if one wishes to get into Scifi, you have to get into the 21st century - since we now expect it rather than being amazed.

But putting the Scifi thing aside, I did enjoy watching the movie. It had some good acting and some good mystery and drama. I would rate it a little about average - which means entertaining and okay.

I admit that some days I look for movies that break out into new levels of graphic art or exceptional drams. On the other hand, I also enjoy movies that are simply entertaining. Some days the motive for myself watching a movie is just to spend some time enjoying my evenings. This movie is the second kind - the enjoyable kind.

To be sure, the actors and actresses did a fine job. Melanie Griffith has the lead, but Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver do fine jobs as well, as well as Alec Baldwin. And having big names in a movie to ensure that the main characters do well, is not a bad idea. Melanie Griffith does a great job as making her character lovable and interesting and of course it is easy to root for her during the movie. As for my recommendation, it depends on what you are looking for. Want to relax and just enjoy some movie time? This might do it for you.

Since this movie both deals with very strong emotions, and as it honestly also points out, very strong sexual content, right there will give many people cause to be concerned about it. But assuming one can get passed that, I found the movie oddly haunting, oddly attracting in the middle of all of those other items.

One could argue that this movie at moments seems like Fatal Attraction revisited, or that we are seeing the new version of the Robinson family in the latest "Graduate" movie copy. I can see all of that. At moments I also felt that way. But there was always something more that made this unique - a reason why I could not stop watching it. I believe the real issue was the way Amanda Seyfried played Chloe, a very unique seeming prostitute in this film. Well Chloe seemed more than that, so let me say Lady Escort or something nicer. While movies about prostitutes seem quite common, the way Amanda played Chloe I thought was both wonderful and deep. She sort of forces you to care about her, as maybe no prostitute in the past. You want the best for her. At any rate, I found the movie deep and haunting and much more impact than I expected. If you can deal with strong sexual content and be able to look beyond it, you might find this movie... interesting. Only, caution about seeing it with your mother - unless your mother is a very open minded person.

I was truly amazed by this movie. It riveted me to my chair and made me not to want to leave till I saw the whole thing. I found the acting quite excellent, particularly by Angelina Jolie. It was the plot that truly amazed me. I am one of those people who want to see something different than the same old tried and true movie plots, perhaps the most common being the LA Detective who works with the LA prostitute. Cute maybe - the first many times you see that, and boring at some point. The plot here, which I will not give is more than action. It is an interesting premise that I found quite interesting. After a while in this movie I was really wondering who was who and who was on what side. So for my tastes, a great plot meets great acting. That is by itself a very great start.

But adding to that is action, action and more action. To be sure, some of it was let me say ... amazing which might imply above normal belief, but of course that much is Hollywood. Without some amazing things, perhaps we would think movies did not do enough for us. I saw the action as adding quite nicely to the comments I made about a great plot and also exceptional acting. So for me, this was by far one of the better movies of its type that I have seen in a long time. I hope others enjoy it as well.

Now, somewhere between the non serious title and the fact that this movie went straight to cable on the SyFy Channel, one certainly should get the idea that we are not dealing with "Gone with the Wind" here, but with a silly monster movie. But there is still a place for that. Sometimes some of us have had it with too many serious things in life and we just want to watch something light and silly, and movies like these fill that urge. The fact that several of us voted to watch it proves the point.

The good points? The rivalry between the two main actresses at times was interesting. The rest of the movie sort of went along with expectations. And by that I mean, the acting and drama did not even get to good, the special effects did not rival Jurassic Park, and no university professor (who is not high) is going to buy the explanation for the larger monsters and how they got that way. The bottom line is, if you are in the mood for something that you know is not serious nor pretends to be serious, this might fill some time for you.

Regrets from me after watching it? Some movies that know they are not the big time sometimes reach cult classic fame with the right amount of silliness and interest such as "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". I think this movie tried for that category also, but I do not feel it achieved that either. But I give it credit for being honest as to what it really was - a non serious monster movie.

Well, there are always going to be different opinions on some movies, but I found this movie quite exceptional - and also something of a breakthrough. It is hard to give a simple reason why - since I see it as a composite of things well done. If one considers the whole movie an art form, like a painting, it is just that I found the whole setting remarkably pleasing. The human acting portion, the amazing CGI that combined with real humans, the coloring, the incredible design of the red queen and the mad hatter, and of course the smile of Johny Depp which seems no one on the planet can duplicate or even tell if it is friendly or not. (smiles). All together, I find it casts an image that I have not seen before this time. It is fantasy at its best, done by the best.

And I would call it a breakthrough movie. One could credit the movie the Wizard of Oz with bringing us color, since it began in black and white and then switched to color, even if it was not the sole color movie of its time. And then there was Jurassic Park, which to me was far more than a movie, but the coming of age of CGI where it had matured to appear to be real - and could even describe a history of creatures we had never before seen. And of course during those years, some movies had real humans as always, and some were total animation and some had a combination of the two. But to me, the way that this Alice in Wonderland movie combines CGI with humans to create the Red Queen, to create Tweedledee and Tweedledum as composite humans and CGI with exceptional creativity, I believe takes us to a new level. Now fantasy can be combinations of the real and imaginary - perhaps as our dreams really are.

I really did like this movie - a lot. One could argue that the movie theme reminds one of that Eagles song "Take It Easy" - about having 7 women on their mind - "four that want to own me, two that want to stone me, one says she's a friend of mine". Well, in this movie, the breakdown of those who wish to stone the lead actor is not the same number, but I will not give that away.

I found it a quite funny romantic comedy that works and works quite well. The script for my tastes had a number of jokes and humorous situations that I felt worked quite well. Well, I do have to admit, that my last movie before this was an Adam Sandler movie that even though Sandler is talented was straining for humor (Grownups). So that I admit could give this one an edge for me, comparing the two. The other thing I believe that makes for a good movie is casting and using the actors and actresses at their best. Yeah, I loved the characters. The head guy, Jesse seems so confused that there is a tendency to forgive all that he does. That is a feature by the way. And Hannah and some of the other characters also played great character parts. I felt that this movie works quite well, and really enjoyed it. Hope you do also.

Well first of all, to be fair, one can do worse than an Adam Sandler Happy Madison picture. It will of course be at least light entertainment and a good means for some at least minor enjoyment for a few hours. So let me be clear that I am not suggesting you take a pass on this movie. Maybe light entertainment is what you want.

But Gone with the Wind it is not. While watching this movie I kept feeling that Adam Sandler must find his jokes far funnier than I did. I had to ask myself why, and I think Sandler, who is talented, is trying to do so much that he is over his head. Clearly with this being a Happy Madison picture, Sandler had a lot to do with the movie control as well. Well, the problem was that he was also too much the actor center of attention in the movie. He had some good cast with him, like Chris Rock, David Spade and others that can be quite funny. But I got the feeling that Sandler held them back, and they mostly stood around watching all the lead lines going to Adam Sandler and far too much of the action. One also suspects who did the script, since jokes could have been funnier - and yeah, guess, Sandler did much of that as well. So the issue is while he is talented, he struggles trying to produce, star, monopolize most of the most action and also write a funny movie. A smart person knows when to stop and when to turn loose your cast - Chris Rock, David Spade and others and let them be their funny selves.

Alfred Hitchcock was often in his own movies, but often you could not even find him, and his movies were great. He knew where to limit. Clint Eastwood made the transition from actor to director and then sometimes both director and actor - but he does it. Eastwood makes it work. In an Eastwood movie, Eastwood is already an important character, but I never get the feeling that he is hogging the spotlight. So Eastwood films even with him doing multiple jobs stays real. Something Sandler should think about - be real to how much you can do.

I did like this movie. It had some good comedy in it that at times was both fun and unique. Yes, obvious comedy, but if done well, some of that is the funniest. The acting was also good with Sarah Jessica Parker, and also, surprise, surprise Craig Ferguson. I have to give Craig credit - even though i recognized him right away - since his acting was really pretty decent. Before this movie I had thought that talk show hosts are not that great in movies since it is a different technique, such as Jay Leno in his movie looking at the camera directly too often -a talk show trait. But Craig did well and played a part well and proved that yeah, some talk show hosts can make the transition.

I will say that the jokes seemed to go from quite good to dragging a bit at times, but I still would rate it highly as a light comedy. In other words, at least for people like me, it can be a nice way to spend an evening.

I tend to seek out movies that maybe have a unique theme, a theme that has not been overworked by Hollywood. This movie has a fairly unique theme - with George Clooney Road Warrior. In the business world, a road warrior is someone who travels a great deal, which today mostly means planes,rental cars and hotel rooms. A good number of people have lived that life, including me (but not to the extent as George) and it was great to see it as a movie subject. If you have traveled a lot, especially for a business, you would likely smile at his inside knowledge how to get through airports fast and comfortably and dealing with life in a 10 by 15 foot hotel room most of your life. Nice Portrayal.

That is part of the movie, and another part I feel was a fairly serious portrayal of relationships. Business relationships to be sure, but also personal relationships of singles and married folk. Since these are relationships, perhaps not all will always like how things turn out, but I felt it was a fairly deep portrayal that does bring you into the feelings of the movie characters. The acting is good or better than good, the movie has both a light feel and a very serious one both at the same time - which gives it depth.

I am sure that there will be things in this film that some can criticize, but its main point is a powerful one - that science should be open minded and discussed. As someone with 8 years of science college training and over 30 years in practice I would say that the two most important items for any scientist are (1) an open mind and (2) rigorous proof using established scientific method before calling any theory a fact. The idea that both of these basic ingredients are too often missing in some science circles today, is something I believe that is quite dangerous. And since this is the point that Ben Stein is basically making, then I would say that he has chosen a very powerful subject. Taking science hostage for politics or ideology is akin to taking away freedom of speech, and telling people to stop thinking.

This movie is amazing. In many ways today it is more scary than the saw movie series and I for one cannot believe it was even made. It is a wholesome movie that sometimes focuses on people being nice to each other.

It should sometimes surprise us that a wholesome movie with some religious content makes us more uncomfortable at least in the movie beginnings than the slasher movies or saw movies or the like. We have been programmed I believe to think that movies like this are square or out of date, or just not cool or with it. So there is a tendency to want to hide your face at the start of the movie and slink to the door hoping no one will see you.

But if you brave it out, and yes, you can even hold hands in the scary parts, you might find something unique. You might find the movie touching, and you might even want to cry a little, yes, even if you are a male. And at the end you might ask, why is it again that we are so afraid to be nice to other humans or watch movies that show that? Maybe if we give it a chance, and this movie a chance, being nice to each other might just catch on.

I suspect some might question my reasons for liking this movie, but I actually liked it a lot. While movies on terror nowadays seem to involve gore and torture, this one is more mental. Oh yes, the title does say naked fear and it does involve nudity, but for me the real horror here is where it should be - a mental thing. I do think for many of us perhaps the most frightening thing is for us to be vulnerable and scared - even more so than the events themselves that scare us. And what could make one more vulnerable than to be naked, alone, and fearing someone out to kill you? If you can identify at all with this actress, you might come away with something of real horror and true fear - and yet have that fear without the chainsaws and other items of gore so frequent nowadays. It would be wrong to say what happens, but I do think the plot developed well and led to a story that I felt perhaps was more believable than some who rated this movie. And maybe since this is situational mental horror, the movie just might stay in our minds more than the simplistic slasher movies.

I often find myself comparing historical movies to real history. One way of doing that is to both see the movie and then also read up on the reality and / or see comments from the History Channel. In most cases in the past I have been disappointed. Real history is often more interesting and at times even more fun than the movie regarding it.

But in the movie 300, I have to give full credit to Frank Miller's handling of the movie. It kept close to history and in fact embraces many of the realities of history. However, we of course must give the movie industry some poetic license. Frank Miller then adds a dramatization and human interest stories on top of it. In my opinion this is the movie industry at its best - stick to the basic truth, but add some drama and entertainment to the story line. Excellent movie, and close enough to recorded history to receive a very good grade there also.

I should warn some without giving away the plot here that the movie is a war movie. There is much bloodshed here. Of course there also was much in history. The movie was also believable. The actors playing world conquerors and military leaders actually looked the part. Very well done in my opinion.

If you are a fan of fantasy, science fiction or comics, you may find watching this movie enjoyable. The basic premise is not bad. The special effects are very good and Nicholas Cage seems to try his best to make this into a complete picture. So, I would recommend it for those who like fantasy and wish to pass some time in a somewhat enjoyable movie that is simply entertainment.

As far as the movie being great, however, that is quite another question. The script writing seems one dimensional and contains too many past clichés to have any real depth. Therefore, do not look for any true depth in character portrayal or in the plot itself. It just isn't there.

Movies that also dealt with fantasy but which had a much better script and therefore depth of plot and character I would say include Spiderman and Hell Boy. Hell Boy was a find for me since I thought the title might suggest a bad script, but I was quite surprised by its depth and quality.

This movie can be quite funny for most of us. Keep in mind though to put the youngsters to bed. The language is beyond adult, and the puppet sex scene (actually marionettes) can be too much for some.

When one gets beyond the vulgarities the movie is refreshingly funny. Unlike many comedians nowadays who laugh at those they do not like and are unable to laugh at themselves, the South Park creators continue their even keel approach. Their approach is to laugh at everything. No group escapes South Park. So, keep in mind that regardless of what politics you may have or religious inclination, that South Park will eventually pick on your group also. However, that does give us a chance to laugh at ourselves - something that can be therapeutic. We can laugh at ourselves because we know that the emphasis will soon shift to other belief systems that will also get their turn of laughter. South Park seems to have no ideology. They simply seem to ask, what is funny about this group or that, and then put it on film.

And beyond all of that, the South Park writers are clearly quite intelligent. So the humor abounds. South Park even laughs at itself. There are a few scenes that marionettes simply cannot do, such as street fights, yet they do it anyway. And that just makes it so much funnier.

So, this movie is not for everyone. If you do not wish adult language or very adult sex scenes (even with puppets) you may be offended by this movie. However, if you can get past that, you might find this one of the funniest movies you have ever seen.

This movie at first looked like the simplistic movie that could be entertaining on a Saturday afternoon. One never thought it would be great, but the hope was there for a pleasant if not simple few hours.

This movie could not even achieve those simple explanations. The movie started with some good scenes and some interest. But after a bit the acting seemed to grow much worse. The creatures looked sort of like people in gorilla suits - who also seemed to be guilty of bad acting. The Plot seemed to quickly drift downward into filling up time. Awful. It is hard to imagine a movie that is not even good enough to take a nap to, but this one seems to hit that level.

This is perhaps a movie for those who are okay with viewing disaster films and are tired of watching the Titanic sink again. The movie is not bad as soon as one gets past some issues. The movie at this point is dated (1975), and also has the oddity that all Germans seem to speak a US version of English and also look like Hollywood actors and actresses.

When one gets past those issues, however, it is not a bad movie. The acting is good, and the characters plausible. I imagine that no one knows exactly all that happened on the Hindenburg during that period, but the plot given here seems reasonable. Well done.