Quick movie reviews...

[Slaughter]

Seen this for games on another forum I frequent and liked the idea. I don't want to sit down and write long reviews for movies, as I'm not very good at it and have no time to read or write them. But a tread where people can post short ones is a good thing. Follow my setup and write a little review of a movie you like. One movie per post, and feel free to write several reviews!

 

Will start a tread for games and books as well soon if this turns out good. You can comment the movie reviews in this thread.

[Slaughter]

Mystic River (2003)

 

Director: Clint Eastwood

Novel: Dennis Lehane

Screenplay: Brian Helgeland

Cast: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne.

Genre: Drama / Crime / Mystery

More info: IMDB

 

I don't know if it's me getting older or Hollywood getting worse but for some reason most of

the movies I watch these days rate from acceptable to bad. A good movie is rare, and a fantastic

movie is a miracle. Guess it's a combination... At any rate, what I find most important in most

movies is cast and story. Special effects and other cosmetic stuff is of virtually no importance.

 

Anyway, Mystic River follows 3 childhood friends when special circumstances bring them together

again as grown ups. They have walked very different roads in life, and had little or no contact.

The circumstances that bring them back together are not happy ones, and throughout the movie

we get a closer look at their past.

 

The cast is fantastic in Mystic River. Penn, Robbins and Bacon play the childhood friends, with

Fishburne as Bacon's fellow investigator. Strong performances by all of them and the additional

cast. You believe in the characters, and they fit the story well. And as it has a good story for

them to fit into, most of the important elements are covered.

 

Mystic River is a must see for anyone that likes the Drama / Crime genre. Has a very real life

feeling too it, though I am happy it's not my reality. I find it hard to pinpoint why I like

this movie, but the director and cast should speak for themselves.

 

My rating: 7.5 out of 10

[Aralez]

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

 

Director: Zack Snyder

Screenplay: George Romero, James Gunn

Cast: Sarah Polley, Ving Rahmes, Jake Weber

Genre: Action / Horror / Drama / Thriller

More info: IMDB

 

I'm used to the original Romero version of this film and was a bit afraid seeing a "remake" (or so i thought) of the movie that i liked so much. But when i stumbled over the DVD today at a good price i gave it a chance. And i was not dissapointed! Unlike the film "28 days" that left me back with a somewhat unsatisfied feeling, this film is not a watered-down 1:1 copy of an once good idea, it is a completely new story and a really good one. Sure there are small similarities to the original film, but they do not feel "stolen", they are respectful tributes to the original. The actors do a nice job, they seem very believable and the bonus-films on the disk ("Andys last days" and "Special report") are adding lots to the excellent film.

 

The basic story, hm, well it is hard to do this without spoilers, but i'll try: There's an outbreak of a huge epidemic in the USA (later the whole world) where people/deads/zombies are biting/eating and killing each other and some of the surviviors of this apocalypse can make it into a shopping mall and hide themselves there. This part of the story is about the only 1:1 copy from the original Romero film, everything else is different. I won't tell you more about the story, just see for yourselves, you will not be dissapointed if you like action/horror films.

 

My rating: 9 of 10 (maybe could have been 10 of 10 if the film had been a bit longer)

[FullAuto]

The Killer

 

Directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun-Fat. That's basically all you need to know.

Described as the best Hong Kong film ever by some, this film has Chow playing a hitman who, during the course of a job, blinds a lounge singer. The rest of the film is Chow chasing his payment for the usually-mythical last job, while being chased by a very determined copper. Double-crosses and shootouts abound as Woo chucks away such boring stuff as reloading, staying behind cover, etc and puts ridiculous displays of double-gunnery and utterly cool violence in their place.

The action is most definitely the star of the film, and though this might put some people off, that's them losing out on some truly balletic displays of bloodshed. There is a non-stop energy to the action and the camera, always moving, never standing still. Characters dive and leap, wasted henchmen twist and writhe, bullets blast things to pieces instead of making neat little holes. The violence in this film is not only cool, it's beautiful. The carnage only gets bigger and better as the film goes on, until the inevitable final awesome shootout.

Some fail to see the point of such films, pointing out with incredible po-faced ignorance, that the films do not represent reality, they glamourise things that are not desirable in real life.

That's because they're art. And when you see the blood splatter, you'll know it.

[Hobbes]

Army of Darkness

 

Director: Sam Raimi

Writer: Sam & Ivan Raimi

Genre: Adventure / Fantasy / Action / Comedy / Horror

 

OK, this basically is the story of Ashley J. 'Ash' Williams, who was a clerk at K-Mart until the Book of the Death (Necromicron) sends him back in time to the medieval era to fight the army of the dead. This movie is hilarious because of Ash, which has a chainsaw instead of a hand (there was a previous film where he cut it off - don't worry, you won't need to see it to enjoy, i never did find it), and uses lines like: ("gimme some sugar baby").

[bevan]

Equilibrium (2002) Action/Sci-Fi Directed by Kurt Wimmer

Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs, Sean Benn

Set in a post WWIII world (Nukes + population = death) A totalitarian government has enforced the mandatory administration of a drug "Prozium", which supresses emotion (anger, jealousy but also joy and stuff) and is waging a war on those who refused to take it. The main enforcers of this rule is the "Grammaton Cleric" Pretty much just special forces to the max. Long story short, top cleric misses a dose of this drug (entirely accidentally), Sees that the whole society is wrong and kills a lot of people trying to fix it.

Awesome gun fights, they made a martial art with guns in the movie so it looks great. Good music in it, classical score, sets the dramatic theme. Great plot twist and ending. Low budget doesnt really show.

My rating 10 out of 10. i think one of my friends has "misplaced" my DVD from my house so i hope to find it soon. If you like action you shouldnt be disappointed

 

more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/

[Aralez]

Der Untergang (The Downfall)

 

A film by Oliver Hirschbiegel and Bernd Eichinger

 

The Downfall is a film about the 12 last days of the "Third Reich" and focuses on the "Fuehrerbunker" in Berlin, the people in the bunker and the area nearby.

 

The film is a masterwork. One can almost feel the claustrophobic atmosphere in the bunker, Hitler's increasing loss of a sense of realism, his choleric speeches and his ignorance of the truth are excellently presented by the actor Bruno Ganz. This film was so impressing, the first thing i did after watching it was going out and take a walk in the sun, simply to get rid of that depressing and sinister "smell" of the bunker. And it is about the first film i ever saw in which the german soldiers don't act like complete idiots or clowns, they are believable human beings, which are caught in the problem of staying with Hitler and dying "in honour" or to do something reasonable like fleeing. The film even shows the different characters of each person, there are no "card-wall" soldiers here. From the WW1-veteran that kills himself rather than capitulate, or the SS-doctor that tries to save what's left of the troops and civilians around him, or the father that flees and tries to save his family in the hell around them, each actor has a believable and realistic role in that film, you never feel cheated like in some other WWII films.

 

150 minutes that really made an impression on me. Especially shocking are the moments, when Goebbels childs (which are absolutely unaware of the things that happen around them) sing for the bunkers generals, only to be moments later poisoned by their own mother, damn, that insanity...

 

Classic. Masterwork. Each of that word fits that film.

 

More info here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/

[Slaughter]

Sin City (2005)

 

Director: Frank Miller

Graphics Novel: Frank Miller

Cast: Too many good actors to mention!

Genre: Action / Crime / Thriller

More info: IMDB

 

I love reading comics. Preacher and Spawn are some of my favourites. Few in these comics are black or white, most of them are shades of grey. No, that's not true, most are evil and the rest are shades of grey. The world is a dark and gloomy place, and sin is everywhere. Sin City is just the same, and for the first time it's been properly ported to the big screen!

 

Sin CIty follows the fate of several individuals living there. Most of it is shown without colour, with only some showing - red lipstick, blue eyes and blood. And there are blood in this movie - A LOT of blood! It's all done very beautifully, and it really feels like watching the comic unfolding on screen. It may have been done before, but I can't remember seeing it like this - right!

 

There's not much more I wish to say about this movie really, you just have to go see it for yourself! It is true art on screen, dressed in violence. If you like comics like Spawn and Preacher (not to mention Sin City, though I've never read it), you WILL love this movie. It looses some of it's pacing at the end, but for the major part of the movie you'll be glued to the screen. WATCH IT NOW!

 

My rating: 9 out of 10