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Reviews
Rambo (2008)
tag line says all, the year's first great action movie.
A straight action film only Stallone could deliver. Nobody else could direct such an uncompromising pursuit of battle. The battle sequences of this movie are glorious and violent in a way that is special, a new extreme level of tension was achieved in my opinion and I don't say this in blind excitement.
This movie delivers a movie-high that is not often attempted. Movies usually hold back or simply fail at achieving visceral action and instead try to balance themselves between action, plot, drama, comedy, etc, and in many cases in modern films this only lowers the quality of the experience. The downfall of Rambo you could say is its small concern for character drama, indeed the scenes looking at the female lead and the mercenary group are pretty poorly acted (though this allows the scenes to focus on Stallone's disregard for their antics, it can get annoying to sit through).
The mercenary group's character were so over the top in acting however it came off like farce to me which was actually really entertaining, seeing their macho lines fall dead in the air, Stallone giving them no respect.
The battles were glorious even if the film has flaws, but it focuses on the battle as it should, and achieves glorious cinematic victory. Great experience.
AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007)
a return to the intense style of both original classics - forget avp1!!
The best action movie in many many years returns to the style that makes the original alien and Predator movies so classic and enjoyable. The terror of the alien invasion tactic is amazing to watch, and Predator culture is as badass as ever.
The fights are very epic... far better than the first avp movie. The sets showing aliens infesting human territory are excellently done, more like in Aliens. Also, unlike in Transformers, the use of human and military characters doesn't interrupt the real focus we're here to see: aliens and predators causing terror and destruction! That said, a few things are understated and some impacts could've been more brutal, but the action is in many cases easily better than many recent action movies.
The real gold under it all was that I was intensely satisfied by the expansion of the epic mythology built up through each Alien and Predator movie so far, as well as in the AVP games and novels. It was epic to see the beginnings of the Wayland-Yutani Corporation taken a step further (it appears in Alien and Aliens, and remember the Weyland corporation that starts the search for the temple in AVP1?) Also there's some internet joke references that are like icing on the cake (admiral ackbar, Schwarzenegger quotes).
I was really satisfied overall and hope more movies are like this, it could be the revival of the true Hollywood action blockbuster.
Fletch (1985)
amazingly smart spoof of lethal weapon/Beverly hills cop genre movies
I caught this really randomly on TV in an afternoon once, and rented it again later to show to some friends. On the surface its in the exact same style as Beverly Hills Cop etc that type of action/comedy with a rogue cop/news reporter, it has all the required elements of the genre -fighting with his boss for being wild, uncovering a huge rare cover-up, doing dashing dangerous stunts and clever schemes
the special thing with this movie though is its amazing inane/ironic dialogue style that fits perfect with the running commentary on similar crime movies of the 80s.
Its sort of like the comedy style of Space Balls or Blazing Saddles, but more covertly inserted within another film style instead of openly as an absurd comedy - and both styles are naturally funny and interesting. I was really satisfied by the genius of the script and directing, and all the one-liners are great.
Seemingly serious and dramatic scenes will have moments and lines that are perfectly irreverently hilarious, but the style will ignore them and the actors and music will keep going without noticing. Some of the jokes about the main character being a narcissist genius are ridiculously hilarious in this odd detached way, like the way Eddie Murphy's character is full of himself and his magic crime fighting powers, except the film style is completely self-reflexive instead of just pulp comedy. I really loved this movie and recommend it to everybody who likes smart comedy.
Pippi Longstocking (1997)
awesome show, makes fun of old people
I remember as a younger male, the show hadn't much appeal- it was about some girl, there didn't seem to be explosions, etc. But i've been watching it lately and it is brilliant. Pippi Longstocking has a great absurdish, cheerful, wonderful way about herself, insulting fogey town council people and disregarding rules etc. The starting theme song is awesome if you imagine it with enough energy and enough pirates or whatever you need- the initial 'What shall we do today?' is answered with a chorus of 'WHAT SHALL WE DO TODAY', its so full of energy and awesomeness.
I recommend watching it again to everybody, and do it in the right mood for adventure and wonderfulness.