Movie reviews
Aug. 29th, 2004 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerI actually have seen movies on a movie screen this weekend. First time in a while so I am posting some reviews that I hope are not spoilers but I will put them behind cuts for the purists.
While exiting the theater having seen the movie I overheard two gentlemen complain to each other that they didn’t understand why Tarrintino would attach his name to this film. It was nothing like a Tarrintino film and they felt slightly ripped off but the fights were great. I think they thought from their conversation that Tarrintino directed it, which is not the case.
If you liked “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” this might be a good film for you. If you have seen “Drunken Master” or “Shaolin and Wu Tang” and think the Hong Kong Martial Arts genre is the bees knees then this is the film for you. It is also really good if you think the structure of ‘Rashomon” was a great idea in filmmaking. It is sort of an elevated Hong Kong Kung Fu flick. I also liked the art director’s and costume designer’s use of color through the whole movie. Overall I did enjoy myself but didn’t find myself swept away as I was in CTHD. It is one of those few films that should be seen on the big screen. There is a scope that will be lost even on a big home screen TV.
In the late 80s or early 90s Dark Horse comics published an Alien vs. Predator comic book that sold pretty well. I read it and the story was not bad. While watching the movie AvP, I kept thinking about the comic book since it felt, to me, that this was based on the comic. No credit to Dark Horse was given at the end but the idea was such a general one I could see why they wouldn’t. I found it interesting that I was not startled by anything on the screen. I can remember jumping in my seat a number of times while watching the Alien films and the Predator films in the theater. All the elements were there but by this time we are so use to the tropes that it is no longer scary. There were things in the film I did enjoy and the time passed very quickly. A number of tips to the hat for the previous films brought a smile to my face. It was a good mindless popcorn flick but it didn’t elevate to the level of enjoyment of either of its predecessors.
Most people think that Spielberg’s career launched with “Jaws” and that is probably correct. The project that put him on the map to make “Jaws” was a TV movie called “Duel.” They have released “Duel” on DVD with the cleanest print I have ever seen. Dennis Weaver is incredible in this film. He conveys so much with just a look or expression. I watched this film and could see the beginnings of the Spielberg style of filmmaking. It has a lot of tension and one dirty word used which was a biggie in 1971. Ariel commented that it would be hard to make it these days between cars being able to go faster and cell phones. Peter pointed out that in a desert lots of time cell phones don’t work and the basic elements of the film would still work. One of the things I never noticed was that the license plates on the truck’s bumper were like notches in a belt.
I am grateful for DVD technology. It is a heck of a lot easier to store DVDs than it is to store videotape.
While exiting the theater having seen the movie I overheard two gentlemen complain to each other that they didn’t understand why Tarrintino would attach his name to this film. It was nothing like a Tarrintino film and they felt slightly ripped off but the fights were great. I think they thought from their conversation that Tarrintino directed it, which is not the case.
If you liked “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” this might be a good film for you. If you have seen “Drunken Master” or “Shaolin and Wu Tang” and think the Hong Kong Martial Arts genre is the bees knees then this is the film for you. It is also really good if you think the structure of ‘Rashomon” was a great idea in filmmaking. It is sort of an elevated Hong Kong Kung Fu flick. I also liked the art director’s and costume designer’s use of color through the whole movie. Overall I did enjoy myself but didn’t find myself swept away as I was in CTHD. It is one of those few films that should be seen on the big screen. There is a scope that will be lost even on a big home screen TV.
In the late 80s or early 90s Dark Horse comics published an Alien vs. Predator comic book that sold pretty well. I read it and the story was not bad. While watching the movie AvP, I kept thinking about the comic book since it felt, to me, that this was based on the comic. No credit to Dark Horse was given at the end but the idea was such a general one I could see why they wouldn’t. I found it interesting that I was not startled by anything on the screen. I can remember jumping in my seat a number of times while watching the Alien films and the Predator films in the theater. All the elements were there but by this time we are so use to the tropes that it is no longer scary. There were things in the film I did enjoy and the time passed very quickly. A number of tips to the hat for the previous films brought a smile to my face. It was a good mindless popcorn flick but it didn’t elevate to the level of enjoyment of either of its predecessors.
Most people think that Spielberg’s career launched with “Jaws” and that is probably correct. The project that put him on the map to make “Jaws” was a TV movie called “Duel.” They have released “Duel” on DVD with the cleanest print I have ever seen. Dennis Weaver is incredible in this film. He conveys so much with just a look or expression. I watched this film and could see the beginnings of the Spielberg style of filmmaking. It has a lot of tension and one dirty word used which was a biggie in 1971. Ariel commented that it would be hard to make it these days between cars being able to go faster and cell phones. Peter pointed out that in a desert lots of time cell phones don’t work and the basic elements of the film would still work. One of the things I never noticed was that the license plates on the truck’s bumper were like notches in a belt.
I am grateful for DVD technology. It is a heck of a lot easier to store DVDs than it is to store videotape.
