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Truck Turner (1974)
A must-see!
I've always loved Blaxploitation films but don't know them all, and I recently found Truck Turner by complete chance. I LOVED it, Turner is such a bad-ass! He would kick Dirty Harry's and Shaft's asses big time! The film itself is also technically quite interesting, both in the direction, cinematography and editing; I loved the camera on Blue's face when he's about to die, or the shots that make Turner appear taller or his gun appear gigantic. The movie is also very funny at times, maybe more than it was actually intended: the vocabulary, several one-liners and the way the main characters bully anyone in the way just cracked me up. Hayes' music is also great, as usual.
Great fun, great performances, great flick overall. A must-see for any who loves Blaxploitation. I wish I could see more of him; Turner deserved one or several sequels.
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Lacks heart
So. I more or less enjoyed the movie, but it just lacks heart. It is a Terminator itself: a flawless, eye-candy, well-oiled machine with great photography, great sets, great special effects, great sounds, great designs, great CGI Arnold, great music, but no heart. That kind of movie doesn't work without a heart, technics is just not enough! "Terminator 2" was the best of the series, because Cameron added a heart to his machine, like he added a heart to the Alien franchise. "Aliens" is pointless without its heart. I don't like that kind of flick because of drooling Xenomorphs, but because of a working chemistry between Ripley, Newt and Hicks, and even the other Marines. So a heart and character chemistry is what can save an action flick from being boring and/or shallow, and at least get some praise for the critics, which is always great for an action flick. Films are not made like in the 80s or the 90s, but that doesn't mean good movies cannot be made anymore.
The character development for "Terminator Salvation" is nonexistent. John Connor and its raspy voice and facial paralysis is boring, and you cannot attach or relate to him. He can die or live, it doesn't matter. He's just bland. The CGI Arnold was a good surprise for me, but again it's too anecdotal and Connor's reaction to the familiar face is everything but true to his background. I love Christian Bale's work, he made so many great movies, but this time he doesn't give his best (although it's obviously not entirely his fault, having little to no creative input as an actor). Connor's relation with Kate is anecdotal; they don't share a strong, deep moment of privacy together, there's no reference to her pregnancy, and her three lines don't make her believable. Good thing that Kyle Reese was not an annoying Anakin Skywalker-like teenager, so I guess the team remembered that no matter young a prequel character is, you have to avoid making them silly children or dumb teenagers. So he was OK, strong enough, not annoying at all (at least for me), but lacked depth. His only more or less deep sentence in the Terminator ship was really out of place, and one sentence doesn't catch up for the lack of everything else.
It seems that the team wanted to cover many subjects, so in the end they ended up with many good ideas, but wanted to keep them all. So in order to keep all those things in a 2-hour movie, nothing ends up fully finished but barely skimmed through, trimmed and half good or half bad. I think they should have left behind some stuff, and expanded only the best, to not end up with this feeling of an over-the-top, unfinished movie.
Blinding the audience with overwhelming special effects to cover the lack of heart will not dupe the hardened spectator. Giving this to McG was like giving the X-Men franchise to Brett Ratner. They are not incompetent, but that's just not their kind of thing. They should stick to making comedies and let people who can really relate to that genre do it. Of course, the screenwriters and the producers are the first to blame.
So yeah, "Terminator Salvation" is an eye-candy failure. You can enjoy it, but just forget it's a sequel to two great James Cameron films.
I Love You, Man (2009)
It was kinda bland, man!
When the movie was out in theaters, it was highly praised, and since I kinda like Paul Rudd since "The 40 Year Old Virgin", I was eager to rent the DVD. Then I saw the film, but I was a bit disappointed. I liked it, but something was missing, although I don't know what exactly. I guess this is because the chemistry between Rudd and Segel didn't work that good for me, added to the fact that I hate those silly, absurd nicknames. It was just too much, especially at the wedding at the end. Although I basically like them, those Apatow-like comedies always with the same actors, playing the same characters having the same upper class life in the same region of the US, it just gets repetitive in the end. The characters end up lacking depth, and the chemistry tend to become bland. That kind of flick really needs to bring something new to rise above the others, and I think "I Love You, Man" failed at that. So I'll just give it a 6, which is the average note I give movies, 8 being my maximum. Because you just cannot give 10/10 to a work of art, no matter how you love it.
S1m0ne (2002)
Ridiculous
This movie is ridiculous. Enjoyable, original, funny, the actors are OK, the directing is OK, the music is cool, but the story is not believable one second. The plot is a joke, the ideas are jokes. Computer science doesn't work that way. An old director can't learn to use so many complex techniques (even if most of the work is already programmed) in so little time with no prior knowledge in this field first (and he mentions to Hank he sucks in the computers). Viktor can't control everything himself, people must be involved, he needs help. Little help, but help. And his daughter heals the virus and Simone reappears, while the hard disk was thrown into the sea. And the divers are afraid of sharks while sharks are not that dangerous if they don't "smell" blood. This movie is ridiculous. Of course, there was a "message", and we should concentrate on that message instead of the plot flaws, but it's not a reason to botch that plot.