Category Archives: Thriller

Transformers (2007)

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Transformers

Transformers

I went into this movie expecting the worst; after all, I figured it was just another comic book action flick. Which it was – but it was a well-done, comic book action flick.


And the action starts right off the bat, rarely letting up. The movie clocks in at 2 hours and 24 minutes, but you hardly notice. The transformations were quite impressive – and often. I have read critics claim that this aspect was over done, something I disagree with. After all, that is what the whole movie was about and skimping on the effects would have killed the spirit of the thing.

The casting is good, the story is good enough to carry (I have no idea if it is true to the original series) – the effects are fun & fantastic (did I mention that already?) My only complaint is that after the big finish, we get another finish with voice over narration that is a bit cheesy. Five minutes out of 144 – I can live with that.

I can give this 4.5 stars because, despite the explosive action, there is little to no blood. One or two slightly off color jokes. I think Mom could even watch this and get a chuckle. I am not a big Michael Bay fan, but this one works.


Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing critics 59%; users 84%
(I think the critics missed the point of a movie like this)

Case in point, the New York Times – I don’t think he saw the same movie I did. For instance:

The result is part car commercial, part military recruitment ad, a bumper-to-bumper pileup of big cars, big guns and, as befits its recently weaned target demographic, big breasts. [I don’t usually miss big breasts but, though the girls were hot, I don’t remember big breasts]

There, under the desert sun, muscly, sweaty military types clash with an ominous helicopter that converts into a mysteriously angry critter with an articulated tail like that of a scorpion. [As I remember it, two different robots in two different battles]

And on it goes – I wholeheartedly disagree and wonder what trailer he based his review on.

Shadowboxer (2005)

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Shadowboxer

A late-career change of heart leads to a dangerous life on the run for two seasoned assassins whose complex relationship masks a dark past in Shadowboxer, Lee Daniels‘ pulpy film noir. But when Rose is diagnosed with terminal cancer; she decides to carry out one final killing.

Sounds like a good idea and a great cast; Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding, Stephen Dorff.

Unfortunately, it fails miserably. Even the fine acting can’t save this creepy, icky flick.

I’d sooner sit through 32 hours of Congressional committee testimony about imported yarn than watch “Shadowboxer” again.

Violence, sex….it only merits the half star on the Word of Mouth Scale because of the great cast…and Cuba Gooding’s great backside


Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 19%; Audience 40%

Hard Candy (2005)

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Hard Candy

Hard Candy

Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl — but even smart girls make mistakes.

She’s hooking up in a coffee shop with Jeff, a guy she’s met on the Internet. And even though he’s a cute, smooth high-end fashion photographer in his early 30s, Hayley shouldn’t be suggesting that the two of them go back to his house-alone.

Here is where the Word of Mouth Scale gets confusing; this was quite a good movie but, due to the subject matter and graphic presentation, I can’t recommend it to most of my circle. I can’t imagine my mother enjoying it, after all.

This is an interesting concept, fairly well executed. You need to have pretty tight writing and extraordinary performances when the entire story involves two characters on one set. The dialog is crisp and intense and the actors are up to the challenge.

Movies generally require a suspension of disbelief, and this one is no exception. It clings precariously close to the edge for so long, I thought it would make it all the way. Unfortunately, just before the bathroom scene (you’ll know it when you see it) the train jumps clean off the tracks. There were moments after when I thought they were going to manage to regroup and bring the story to a convincing conclusion – no such luck.

I still think it is a really good movie, an original concept, a risky staging……just not great.

And it is very graphic – so

“Disturbing, controversial, but entirely engrossing, Hard Candy is well written with strong lead performances, especially that of newcomer Ellen Page. A movie that stays with the viewer long after leaving the theater.”


Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 68%; Audience 76%

Thriller: They Call Her One Eye (1973)

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Thriller

Thriller: They Call Her One Eye

This is decidedly not a movie for everyone, not even a movie for most. It is sexually explicit, graphically violent, and in all ways over the top.

And it is great – if you are into that sort of thing.


This is the movie that is said to have inspired Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies. There certainly is enough in this film to support that contention. Because of that connection, I would most certainly recommend this flick to Gonzo – but, because of that connection, I imagine he has already seen it. Other than Gonzo, I have few friends to whom I would/could recommend it.

However, if you are into sex, drugs and bloodshed, check this one out.


Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 40%; Audience 66%

snakes on a plane

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Snakes on a Plane

the anticipation is finally over.

the movie that has captured the attention of internet geeks around the country has finally been unleashed on an unsuspecting public.

SNAKES ON A PLANE!

the plot is simple the story is predictable. just by looking at the title, you know what the movie is about.

Agent Flynn, played brilliantly by Samuel L. Jackson, has to escort a key witness to a mob hit from Hawaii to Los Angeles to testify. All the cliches are there: its a flight attendant’s last day; kids are flying alone for the first time, there’s a dog, a baby, a celebrity, and a lil’ sex in the bathroom.

the movie practically writes itself.

snakes

why did i find it so good? i didn’t expect anything out of it. i knew there was going to be a high level of cheese. i knew the plot was totally ridiculous. i just wanted to see a fun movie. plus, sam jackson is the man.

snakes on a plane is completely enjoyable from start to finish.

i’m gonna say it… greatest movie ever!

i attended a noon showing with some people from work, and we all had a good time. i couldn’t imagine what it would be like to see it in a crowded theatre.

it could easily gain the cult status of a rocky horror picture show.

World Trade Center (2006)

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World Trade Center

On September, 11th 2001, after the terrorist attack to the World Trade Center, the building collapses over the rescue team from the Port Authority Police Department. Will Jimeno and his sergeant John McLoughlin are found alive trapped under the wreckage while the rescue teams fight to save them.

~ Claudio Carvalho

 

I hadn’t planned on seeing this one when I heard about it, since Oliver Stone is so completely in the tin-foil-hat club. I was not about to pay money to sit through two hours of his theories of how the 9/11 attacks were America’s fault, or perhaps a government plot. When Jeff Jarvis gave his reaction, I felt more inclined to give it a chance. After all, he lived the day more directly than anyone I have actually met and through his blogging I get the New York flavor, not just my distant Arizona memories of the day.

Other reviews, as well, said this was not like other Oliver Stone movies, that he allows the story to tell itself. Good enough, it is a story that needs to be told.

My trepidation, then, became solely my expected reaction to the heart wrenching emotion of it. The trapped police who were there to help, the men who put their lives on the line to help others, just the thought of it breaks my heart. The families who waited and hoped, not knowing. In my safe little house here in Phoenix I was unable to process the loss and I cried imagining what those families were going through; wondering if your loved ones were alive or dead, knowing that, either way, they had been terrified and in pain. I remember how we waited for more of these happy endings, how we would call each other about every rumor that they found someone alive.

I have to say that I agree with US Weekly in their review of this movie: “A disturbing and disjointed letdown”

Maybe I went from expecting too little to expecting too much. I kept waiting to be moved, kept wondering when the emotions would hit. In fact, at one point in the movie (one of the more action packed portions) there was a man in front of us snoring – yep, SNORING – his wife(?) had to jab him in the ribs to wake him up.

I was disappointed by what seemed like a lack of urgency on everyone’s part; the people leaving the buildings (which Jarvis commented on), the police and fire entering the building, the rescue crews working after the collapse. Everyone seemed sort of lackadaisical, not at all what I imagine it was really like.

I never believed that the wives were really waiting for that kind of news, I never felt anguish or longing… They are both fine actresses so I am not sure what the problem was (well, I did find the blue contacts on Maria Bello very distracting). The one moment of true emotion I felt came late in the film when another woman in the hospital was relating her last conversation with her son, an elevator operator. In her eyes, I saw the terror and the grief.

I wouldn’t say this was a bad movie, just not a good one. I needn’t have feared the blame America angle, it wasn’t here really. It may be worth seeing this picture, just for the story, but it needn’t be seen on the big screen. There is just nothing big in the way Stone presents it.

(I think they have the actual guys in the BBQ scene at the end. Anyone?)

UPDATE: Just found another reviewer who was bothered by (among other things) those stupid blue contacts. He, like several other reviewers I found through Rotten Tomatoes, claims to have dreaded United 93 and eagerly anticipated World Trade Center – only to have his opinion of both of them flipped.


Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 71%; Users 70%

Derailed (2005)

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Derailed

Derailed

Yeah, yeah, yeah – I heard the bad reviews. I like Jennifer Aniston, though, and Clive Owen is usually good to watch (in more ways than one), so I gave it a try.

I tend to like my suspense movies to be, well, suspenseful. This one was so obvious I kept thinking I must be wrong; surely there must be a twist coming that I was not seeing, surely it couldn’t be as insipid as it seemed. Unfortunately, it was every bit as predictable as the alphabet, but not as nuanced.

It also suffers from Thelma & Louise syndrome – two people making bad decision after bad decision, spiraling down into a worsening situation, able to stop it at any point simply by going to the authorities, choosing to continue on their merry little doomed way. By the end you actually want them to get taken out of the gene pool (I was so glad to see Thelma & Louise die – they were just wasting oxygen and police resources).

However, it took my boyfriend to point out one of the big failings – I just couldn’t put my finger on it. He nailed it right away; you just don’t buy Clive Owen as such a wuss. 1 of 5 just because I know a couple of girls who will sit through it solely to look at him for an hour or so.


Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 20%; Audience 61%

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