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josh-694
Reviews
Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011)
Horrible Crap Movie Regardless of your Political Beliefs
My wife and I couldn't get through 25 minutes of this movie. It was just a horrible and dull movie. If we wanted to be assaulted with political propaganda we would watch a documentary or the news. Unfortunately, we wanted to be entertained and the bottom line is that this movie was not built to entertain, it was built for propaganda just like the book that started the movement in the 50's.
First off, if you don't know the beliefs of Ayn Rand then you may want to read about it a bit and see for yourself if it makes sense to you. It's not my cup of tea, but to each their own. Anti-religion, anti- charity and pro-greed just seems like a polarizing and sad world to me.
Secondly, the movie is hard to watch because they haven't adapted it to film by updating the premise. It is about railroad companies in the future who are creating new types of metal that will change the industry and the government that wants to stop them. If you are going to create a sci-fi movie set in the near future, at least come up with a reason their technology is inferior to today's technology and not just "well that was how Ayn Rand depicted it in the 50's".
Thirdly, the acting was horrible. Perhaps it was just their dialog that was long and drawn out but it was so bad at a times that I thought a porn star was going to come out and turn the whole thing in to a cheesy porno.
Lastly, the movie isn't getting bad reviews because it is a good movie that just happens to have political views that differ from Hollywood's. It is getting horrible reviews because it is a poorly constructed movie that is almost unwatchable unless you go into watching the movie with one thing in mind: Watching political propaganda that agrees with your vision of America.
300 (2006)
An action inspired battle movie meets comic book madness
An action inspired battle movie meets comic book madness. This is what 300 is all about! Bloody battle after bloody battle the special effects and directing are both beautiful and awe inspiring at times. Occasionally the blood spatters and giant foes go over the top but for the most part it is very well done and welcome.
My only real complaints with the movie is that it was a bit predictable, the narrator hurt the momentum and there was no emotions in this film. With this said, the acting was decent and Gerard Butler, King Leonidas, was very commanding and played the role of a fearless king very well. The narration helped explain the background of the film but would come at times where the battles just finished and the tension should be building. The tension probably would have been increased more if the audience was meant to care for any of the characters. Since the characters were mostly emotionless and nameless there was no hoping that they would live or die. The result is that the audience never feels tension and instead is left with just the pure amusement of the battle and the creative directing.
Like I said before, 300 is a mix of a action inspired battle movie with the creativity of a comic book. If you like how that sounds check it out, if not stay away.
The Good Shepherd (2006)
Great story and good acting -- a bit slow though
The CIA has all the answers to everything except how to be human. In the height of the Cold War, the CIA is formed to save the American way of life from the communists. One man, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) sacrifices everything for his love of the USA. This movie depicts a depressing story about happiness and how it is never found by this man who Russia calls "Mother".
Trust no one. This is the premises of the whole movie, and directory Robert De Niro does a good job of showing how this lack of trust makes being happy impossible. It is refreshing to see a movie about a secret government agency that didn't involve high-tech inventions and crazy action sequences. Instead, the film is more about the drama of loosing everything that is important in a game where there are no winners. The movie is a tad long but still a good watch. The acting from Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie was great and really helped make the story a very memorable one.
An American Haunting (2005)
The only scary thing about this film was how many 13-year-old girls turned up to the theater to watch this on opening night.
Since most of the movie was utterly disappointing, I will start with the only positive aspect, Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. Both of these actors played their part well and if it weren't for such a terrible story and generic scare tactics, they may have been able to save the movie. Alas, like many of the PG-13 horror films of today not even good acting can make up for a shady plot, bad directing and terrible editing. The film is based on the poltergeist story involving a family in rural Tennessee in the early 1800's. The story is filled with the garbled and incoherent dreams of seemingly possessed Betsy Bell, played by Rachel Hurd-Wood. In a movie built around a ghost story it was disappointing to see cheap scare tactics instead of making the movie all around eerie. I am not sure what director Courtney Solomon was thinking when he chose to film the movie with a style similar to a low budget "hack 'em slash 'em" film from the 80's, but clearly there are better ways of scaring an audience. While the filming style could have used some work, the editing and special effects were a disaster. It mostly resembled a bad soap opera. It jumps around between dreams and reality faster than Ricky Williams' in a Marijuana haze. A movie like this doesn't need a whole lot of special effects but the few that it had were terrible and even ruined the scenes. The poltergeist was nothing more than Betsy with a slight hue around her.
The only scary thing about this film was how many 13-year-old girls turned up to the theater to watch this on opening night. As a fan of horror films I understand if you want to judge this for yourself, but listen to my words wisely; don't bother.
V for Vendetta (2005)
"V for Vendetta" is a blast to watch
The verdict is in for "V for Vendetta", the vengeful and vastly versed V is very verbose and vivacious and will not be vacated from my mind. V played by William Rookwood is superbly articulate man who wants revenge on everyone that made him the way he is today. He wears a mask throughout the whole film, and although you never see his face it won't stop you from feeling every emotion he feels. He refers to "The Count of Monte Cristo" repeatedly which gives a lot of incite to what he is feeling and how obsessed and driven by vengeance he is. Evey, Natalie Portman, is a woman that gets thrown into his world and tries to figure out is she can/should help him and his crusade against the new dictatorship that runs England.
The movie takes place in the not so distant future and portrays a London run by a totalitarian government full of corruption and secrets. V tries to create a revolution by reminding people that, "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." He does this by reenacting the events of November 5th, 1605 when Guy Fawks tried to blow up the English Parliament; though he failed his name became synonymous with freedom. V is determined not to fail and tells the people of London to meet him at the Parliament in a year's time to overthrow the government on November 5th, 2020.
The movie has a few flaws, which is usual for comic book adaptations, but doesn't detract one bit to the movie's message or entertainment value. The style is similar to the Matrix and should be with the Assistant Director of the Matrix series, James McTeigue, directing the movie and the Wachowski brothers who wrote both the Matrix and V for Vendetta. Though the style is similar, V is not at all similar to Neo or any other character in the Matrix; V has qualities that are more similar to Eric Draven in "The Crow." He lurks in the shadows, hides his identity and kills anyone that tries to stop him.
There wasn't as much action as I had hoped but the action that was there was awesome. The ending contains a short fight scene that is truly amazing and shows V's determination and wrath. For the most part the movie is pretty well balanced with action, drama, suspense and science fiction. "V for Vendetta" is a blast to watch and will leave you thinking about the freedoms we have, and the freedoms we let go.
Open Water (2003)
If you weren't afraid of the water before this film you certainly will be after.
If you weren't afraid of the water before this film you certainly will be after. Open Water is the new, raw and unrefined, Jaws. It is filmed much like a documentary and it follows the life of one couple who gets stranded in the Caribbean. This style of filming takes a bit to get used to because it is usually associated with armature movies, but it is this style that really pulls the film together and makes it so believable.
The two main characters, Susan and Daniel; played by Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis are relatively new to having the starring role and do a great job. They have great chemistry together and really get the audience to relate to them because the dialog and acting is so raw. There is no "typical Hollywood formula" in this movie. I was waiting for events of deceit and betrayal because that is what Hollywood has made me expect. What you get here is a fairly predictable, but utterly scary and intense movie that will have you telling all your friends to watch it when you are done staring at the black screen after the credits are long over.
Open Water really gets you thinking about what you would do in a situation like that. How would you act? We would all like to think we would be shark-fighting machines yet in reality we would probably do the exact same thing they did, drift. They float and wait for their boat to pick them up. They are already lost for many hours before they allow themselves to admit that their boat has left them behind. At this point panic and what-ifs take over their actions. The most unsettling part about watching this, is that you typically only get a glimpse of what is beneath them, so you have to listen and watch them to figure out what, if anything, is below. This really creates a lot of suspense and keeps you wondering how long they will make it.
The film is only 81 minutes and normally that would really rub me the wrong way. In this case the film was just the right length, long enough to get us to care about the characters but short enough to not drag anything out. All-in-all, director Chris Kentis did a great job of scaring the crap out of me and any movie that can get me to say "holy @#$#" that many times is a good one.