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Archive for December, 2007

Happy New Year!

By
Dave
Published: December 31, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , ,

Video Game Movie Month has been a lot of fun and Vincent D’Onofrio Month was awesome as well. It is the end of the year and there are a lot of things changing at Dave’s Movie Reviews. I have a couple more video game movie posts to put up (Final Fantasy and Super Mario Bros.), but I am looking forward to the new year.

For 2008 I would like Dave’s Movie Reviews to gain a lot more readers. The more readers we have the more comments there will be and it is all about the discussion of movies. As the new year roles around I will be adding the Deeper Thoughts Blog (the first movie is Thumbsucker) so be on the look out for the link! Also, I would like to make Dave’s Movie Reviews better for everyone; this means I need help from you. Please comment here with any of the suggestions you may have to make DMR better. I would really love to hear what you have to say. If you would like to make a comment through email, please email me at davesmoviereviews@mac.com.

Thanks for your loyal support and I wish everyone a Happy New Year!


Movie Review – I Am Legend (2007)

By
Dave
Published: December 28, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , ,
I Am Legend


What’s It About

The story seems compelling and is one that will likely bring many viewers in. Robert Neville is the only man living in New York, but is he alone? A great tag line and great story. In I Am Legend a cure for cancer has been found, but possibly not the cure that people were looking for. As more and more people are cured some start to get sick in a different way and many die. The city is evacuated and that only leaves Robert Neville (Will Smith) and his dog to figure out what happened and how to cure it. The story and idea behind this movie is what grabbed me from the start.

How’d They Act

The acting was quite good as was to be expected from Will Smith. He is the only actor in the movie for all intensive purposes and he holds his own pretty well. There were a few times that the lines could have been delivered with more humor, but then the movie may not have been the serious film that it seemed to be trying to be. Overall there was nothing to complain about in the acting department. If you like the way that Will Smith has matured in his acting ability, then you will like what you see here.

Delivery

Francis Lawrence does a great job here with the directing in many respects. The movie has a constant sense of loneliness. The sounds around the city are quite and peaceful and help to exaggerate the solidarity of the film. These quite moments and loneliness help tremendously to heighten the suspense of the movie when you begin to see the humans that are infected with the virus.

Those are the good things about the movie, but that is not all there was to it. I have not read the book, but the movie has some serious problems towards the end. I will try not to give anything away, but you may want to stop reading if you are planning to see the movie soon. The majority of the film is quite good and seems to be going the right way, but for the last quarter of the movie or so everything that was going so well was lost. Those that have seen it know why. There was still hope at this point until the ending which seemed to be a complete cop-out. There were so many ways that it could have ended better that it left much to be desired right at the end. This may have been how the book ended, but either it was not pulled off well or it just should have been changed.

The Real Deal

I was truly excited about seeing this film. The concept of one person being alone in a huge city is great. It reminded me a lot of 28 Days Later and is similar in a lot of ways actually. This was pulled off very well for most of the movie, but if I could have gone back and changed the way that the movie ended I definitely would. I liked how they brought God and mankind’s faith in God into the movie. Unfortunately, this was a movie that had everything going for it, but in the end failed to impress and left me wanting more.

The Skinny Version

Should you see it? Yes. 714,764 out of 1,000,000 Stars
Not a Sharon Movie!

Movie Review – Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)

By
Dave
Published: December 28, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , ,
Resident Evil Extinction

No pictures necessary.

What’s It About

Basically, Resident Evil Extinction is about how the world is years after Apocalypse. This movie seems even more out of place and disconnected from the games than the last.

How’d They Act

Most of the acting was typical of the other movies, but Milla Jovovich seemed very different. Lucky for her it was part of who Alice is supposed to be as a character. Of all of the rest of the actors only a couple did a decent job. There were a few terrible performances that overshadow any performances that may have been good. I digress.

Delivery

The directing degrades again and Paul W.S. Anderson still cashes in on the writing (and by cashing in I do not mean it was good; in fact it was terrible, but he still got paid). At least no one actually flew through a window on a motorcycle. The movie kept coming back to a scene with lots of zombies swarming a small over ground facility in the desert. It seemed like the zombies could have easily torn down the fence by there number or at lest could have climbed on top of one another to get in. The beginning of the movie was terrible; Alice comes to a place thinking that she can save some people in distress and then they turn on her and try to feed her to the zombie dogs. It seemed like this was only put in here for some fighting action, but she seemed less capable in this part than she did in the last movie. Unbelievable character interactions. Everything seemed cliche and boring. The movie took about 45 minutes to pick up some substance and lost it very quickly towards……… aww forget it. Let’s skip to the juice.

The Real Deal

It was terrible.

The Skinny Version

Should you see it? No. 413,875 out of 1,000,000 Stars
Not a Sharon Movie!

Movie Review – Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

By
Dave
Published: December 27, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , ,
Resident Evil Apocalypse

What’s It About

This movie picks up right where the first Resident Evil Movie left off; except they briefly explain how the virus was able to get out of the Hive again. Raccoon City has been ravaged by the plague and the people who work for Umbrella are getting out. That leaves Alice to save the day again. Valentine and Olivera are here from Nemesis, but they are not the heroes that they seemed to be in the game. They are all trying to get out of the city after Umbrella has decided to close it off and nuke it so that the virus does not spread. The creator of the virus is evacuated, but he needs to get his daughter back. He decides to get the few people that survive on the inside to help him in exchange for a helicopter out of the city. Overall, the story worked well, but not having conclusive endings is scary when the second movie in the series has gotten worse.


How’d They Act

Milla Jovovich stays consistent with her character in the first movie; little talking and completely sure of herself. There are low expectations for acting in this type of movie which certainly helps here, but no acting is very good in Apocalypse. On the flip side, there is not any acting that is absolutely horrible to watch. The main problems come in with the directing.


Delivery

Paul W.S. Anderson wrote the first Resident Evil and Apocalypse as well which is probably why the actual story seemed fairly solid. There are shaky times of course, but it manages to make some sense once you get to the end. However, the directing was sloppy to say the least. There were a few notable things missing from the original. First, there were very little scenes that had a single person slowly walking to find that horror lurking in the darkness. Although there were a couple of scenes that did have one person and the suspense building, there were noticeably less than the first movie had which was already too few considering the original intent of the video games. The second problem was the fight scenes. Although they often were visually impressive at times, they lost any sense of realism and came across sloppily. Third; if you are going to have a person on a motorcycle fly through the second story window of a church at a painfully coincidental time you could at least explain how they were able to reach that height and why they decided to be there at that moment. ARghh! Just thinking about that moment in the movie has forced me to lower the score.


The Real Deal

When I originally saw this movie I was shocked and appalled at how poor it was, but after a second visit I have found it to be less painful to watch. Some of the story began to shine through and possibly seeing the two back to back helped it make more sense. Also, I went into this movie thinking that it was going to be very difficult to watch because it was so bad (that always helps the movie seem better than it is). Overall though, there was nothing that could save this movie from being a prime example of why sequels are such a bad idea.


The Skinny Version

Should you see it? Maybe. 526,487 out of 1,000,000 Stars
Not a Sharon Movie!

Remakes Are For Losers

By
Dave
Published: December 27, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , ,

It is true; many remakes have been made by many great filmmakers. This however, does not necessarily make it a good thing. For instance King Kong; who doesn’t love at least some of Peter Jackson’s work? Most will think about Lord of the Rings, but Peter Jackson also made some classic movies like Bad Taste and Forgotten Silver that seem a lot more original. Of course these were less popular; even after his great fame with LOTR those movies are not raking in the money that King Kong did. There are plenty of reasons for Jackson to decide to remake the classic King Kong, but were they the right reasons?

I like to use the example of King Kong only because it is recent and very obvious. King Kong has been remade at least twice now if you do not count foreign films, sequels, TV shows, and spin-offs. Peter Jackson says that this was one of his favorite films and that is what led him to remake it. Also, special effects are a lot better now than they have ever been so King Kong could look more realistic and they could do more things in the visual department (just look at the individual computer generated hairs on King Kong, wow!). Does this really mean that we should remake the movie though? We have already seen King Kong or could certainly pick up a copy if we wanted to see it. We already know what happens so we are not getting anything new really. The only difference is new actors and a slightly different twist here and there. The visual aspect of the movie is far greater than the original or any of the remakes, but a lot of times it is the original that will really capture people’s hearts. This is because it is the story that held us originally. Once we have heard the story it will never be as good as the first time. This is proven by the ratings on IMDB; 8.1 for the original 5.6 for the 1976 version, and 7.7 for Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Even though Peter Jackson’s King Kong is a million times more visually compelling than the original 1933 version, the ratings are still higher for the original.

Enough of the Peter Jackson bashing, there are plenty of filmmakers that are responsible for remakes (and don’t get me wrong, Peter Jackson is great; it just seems lazy to do a remake after all he has done). Not too long ago I saw 3:10 to Yuma. When I saw the movie I thought that it was an original, but in fact it was a remake of a much older movie. This raises the question “how long can you wait until you remake a movie?” Is 50 years enough time to wait? Is 25 years enough? How about ten? Then you have other things like Insomnia or Vanilla Sky that are simply American versions of a foreign film. Is this ok because it is a different language and a different country or is this still just a remake?

Rant forever and all you get is frustration. Remakes of movies will always be released as long as the film industry is still around. I love some of the remakes out there, but usually I like the one that I saw first better. I liked Vanilla Sky better than Open Your Eyes. I have not even seen the original 3:10 to Yuma and I am sure that there are so many movies I have seen that are not original that it would almost be sickening. Sometimes it may make sense because a filmmaker can make right what once was wrong (Batman Begins), but other times it just seems like a lazy way to make a lot of money. Where is the fine line between these two opposing positions?

What are some of your experiences with movie remakes?


Merry Christmas

By
Dave
Published: December 25, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags:

I would like to take a moment and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

The video game movies are coming to an end, but there are a few good ones left. I will be back on the reviews tomorrow.

May you all have a blessed day with family and friends.


Movie Review – Resident Evil (2002)

By
Dave
Published: December 23, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , ,
Resident Evil

What’s It About

Resident Evil is based the video game of course. The main idea is that there is a corporation called Umbrella that is essentially taking over the world market for different household items. Unknown to most Umbrella has actually been experimenting with genetic research and viral warfare. When the T virus is stolen and unleashed in the underground research facility, the computer controlling the facility is forced to kill everyone within. The only problem is they aren’t really dead. That leaves a small group of soldiers and Milla Jovovich to shut down the computer and figure out what happened in the underground research facility called the Hive.


How’d They Act

The acting was on par with a movie in this genre. And that genre would obviously be Zombie Killfest. Milla Jovovich does not have to talk much, but her facial expressions become fairly important throughout the film. She does a good job and looking scared, confused, and furious. There are a few others here in this movie, but lets not get into the acting on this movie. There were no performances that really stand out and there were none that were terrible. Everyone was mediocre and therefore sustained the movie as it wandered through the somewhat weak plot.


Delivery

Directing was actually fairly good here. There was a lot of action and some good deaths here and there. The zombies were pretty interesting with the camera watching them as they did there classic slow moving and then sudden lunge at their prey. The effect was great and truly captured the feeling in the original video games. It always seemed weird how the zombies were slow until that last moment, but it is a great effect for the game and for the movie. Paul W.S. Anderson seems to like the video games since he actually decided to make another movie based on one even after Mortal Kombat (ouch). It is hard to understand how Event Horizon was in the mix, but that movie was excellent. Resident Evil thankfully follows more closely with the directing style of Event Horizon. There is a lot of gore and plenty of action and scenes that make you jump. The suspense that Anderson is able to create is good. Overall there was plenty of fun even if it was a little cheesy at times.

The Real Deal

I watched this movie in theaters and enjoyed it thoroughly. I am not sure why, but it just hit the spot at the time. The acting is decent and the directing is pretty good. The movie looks good and feels pretty good, but the question remains; why do people keep trying to continue what Paul W.S. Anderson has done with a video game movie. Both times it has ended in disaster. I have yet to see Resident Evil Extinction, but Apocalypse was a disappointment to say the least. This only proves that Anderson should direct the movies that he writes instead of letting others direct what he has written. So far sequels to video game movies are a supremely bad idea though, but this can be covered further in depth with the next review; Resident Evil Apocalypse.

The Skinny Version

Should you see it? Yes. 601,582 out of 1,000,000 Stars
Not a Sharon Movie!

Movie Review – Juno (2007)

By
Dave
Published: December 21, 2007Posted in: Comedy, DramaTags: , , , , , , , ,

What’s It About

Juno is about a girl named Juno who is sixteen and pregnant. It sounds like a rough start, but it really is a great movie. Juno has to make the decision of whether to keep the baby or not. Obviously by the previews we knew she was at least going to have the baby. She decides to give the baby to parents that she feels will better take care of the child. Although the movie has a pretty simple plot the quirkiness of it make it very unique and entertaining.

How’d They Act

The acting is hard to describe or rate because it was all very quirky. Ellen Page did a great job as Juno, but at times may seem over the top. It takes a little time to adjust to the fast paced witty comments that here character has in every situation, but once you settle into it you will have a blast. Page has great talent that makes me want to see some more movies with her in it. Although Page is the star of the movie, there are good performances by the others in the movie. Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, and Jennifer Garner all did very well. Jennifer Garner played a character with actually a good bit of depth and J.K. Simmons was not anything like he was in Spider-Man (thank you). And don’t you forget Rainn Wilson who was not in the movie for long, but delivered some great lines. All of the acting was fresh and entertaining with some classic moments from everyone; Ellen Page to Michael Cera.


Delivery

This movie was very well directed. It could have had less filthy jokes in it, but you could not help but laugh at almost all of them because of their witty delivery. There must have been a lot of take to make the timing right in some scenes. This movie seemed very refined to get you tickled at the right moment and bring in great emotion when needed. Thank you to Diablo Cody (writer of Juno) and Jason Reitman (director of Juno and Thank You For Smoking) for doing an excellent job with this film. There were moments in this movie that are much like the quirkiness of Napoleon Dynamite, but with a fast paced edge to it that makes it exciting at all times. There was enough emotion and energy in the movie also to convey some meaning rather than it being a simple comedy.


The Real Deal

I was impressed with this movie. I was expecting it to be good because Thank You For Smoking was good and it just looked good in the previews, but it was better than I had expected even. There are some offensive things in the movie and that will be rough for some, but if you can go into it knowing that it will be a little rough here and there, then I am sure you will enjoy it.

The Skinny Version

Raw Score: 893,012
Sharon Movie? No

Movie Review – Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

By
Dave
Published: December 21, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags: ,

Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life

What’s It About

Let’s keep it short and sweet, I don’t have time for wasting. Tomb Raider Cradle of Life or Tomb Raider 2 is the second installment of the Tomb Raider Movie series (will it end?). Much like the first there is an artifact (this time Pandora’s Box) that can destroy the world and Lara Croft has to save the day and she does (oops; did I give it away). This movie starts in the ocean where she finds something that will lead her to the real treasure (sound familiar?). I think the fact that the was almost a redo of the first made it difficult enough to watch with out the other problems. Anyway, this time Lara has to do the same thing; stop a really rich guy from destroying the world by getting a treasure first. Wow, the more I think about it the worse it is.

How’d They Act

The acting was ok in this one, but Angelina was much different in mannerisms and accent (thanks Dove for pointing that out) than the first movie. This makes it difficult because you have to relearn her character. This is much like the games though. She changed throughout the games for the worse so that makes sense here I guess. You would think that they would want to learn from their mistakes instead of copy them; oh well. On a side note, the newest games in the series are starting to go back to the roots of the game more and are better. The acting was overall decent and nothing to get excited about.


Delivery

The special effects were good again, but there was a part in the beginning that made me want to take the DVD out and throw it into a ceiling fan running at high speed (it is actually a lot of fun; you should try it some time, but make sure you duck and cover). The part I am referring to is where Lara is underwater and needs to get to the surface quickly. Instead of simply swimming fast the director or writer obviously thought it would be cool if she had some interaction with a shark. She decides to cut herself to get blood flowing and attract a shark. When the shark comes for her she punches it (yes! she punches it) and then grabs it fin so it will go straight up for no reason. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! I can’t explain my frustration with this scene. Let’s move on.


The Real Deal

The movie was not all bad, it did seem to be pretty entertaining. The characters were more dynamic in this with the added role of a guy working on her side. Don’t expect much and you will likely get more out of it. There are lots of reasons though that this movie is not as good as the first.

The Skinny Version

Should you see it? No. 397,203 out of 1,000,000 Stars
Not a Sharon Movie!

Movie Review – Tomb Raider (2001)

By
Dave
Published: December 20, 2007Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , ,

Tomb Raider

What’s It About

Tomb Raider is based off of the popular Video Game Franchise. Just as the games were degrading to an unplayable state, they decided to come out with a movie staring Angelina Jolie. It was probably in the hopes that a good movie could get people excited about the games again and boost sales. It probably worked for the movie and for the game, but that does not mean that the movie was good.

Tomb Raider starts with Lara Croft training. They try to make you think that she is in an actual tomb doing some tomb raiding, but much like the later games in the franchise she is actually not tomb raiding at all. In fact she is only training in a controlled environment that would appear to have cost millions of dollars to create only so she could continually destroy it. It is however staying true to the game where you would normally start off in her mansion and have a training course to help you learn the controls. Although this part of the movie was completely overdone (or cooked if you will), it still proved to be entertaining and start the movie off with some excitement. And why not end it with a cheesy joke that is poorly timed. The movie can be summed up pretty fast actually if you boil it down.

Lara Croft wants nothing more than to have her father back. Some extremely rich man has figured out a way to control time; of course this would require that he get some lost artifact that has been broken and put on opposite sides of the world. The two pieces have to be put together and only at the exact time all of the planets are in perfect alignment (it only happens once every 5000 years so you have to time it just right). Lara wants to stop this guy and destroy the artifacts so that he does not destroy the world. So the question is can Lara Croft save the world.


How’d They Act

Angelina Jolie is quite a good actress, but she seemed out of place in this movie. It was either about the money or about just having some fun because there is no way that Jolie could have thought that this movie would turn out good. With that in mind, she did do a good job. Her character was one that was confident and did not need to show much emotion. She only had to show emotion a couple of times and briefly. The rest of the movie was about her impressing herself with every move she made. Daniel Craig was a person that I overlooked the first time I saw this movie. I was even surprised to see him in this movie. Craig did not do a great job, but he also did not have a big role in the movie. Jon Voight? Wait I thought he really was her father! He had about three lines, but delivered them well. The acting overall was good (especially for a video game movie), but there were no performances that are worth watching the movie to see.


Delivery

The directing was very action oriented. The story did not have much to offer so the movie relied on action to make it entertaining. The special effects carried the movie pretty well, but in the end you are left wondering why you would really be attached to any of the characters. The villain is over generalized and blown out of proportion while you have the complete opposite on the other side with Lara Croft. Lara can do no wrong; which leaves very little room for a dynamic character or anyone that you really need to root for. You do not need to root for Lara Croft because she does not need your support. She is so cool that she can do everything alone. This is pretty much how the video games are, but in the game you could jump off of a tower and watch her body collapse with a very gratifying bone crushing sound if you were to get annoyed with her. There is none of the pleasant solitude that was in the original video game. This movie took a brand at face value and presented it with no substance. What more could we really have expected; this is no Batman Begins.

The Real Deal

Maybe I have already covered it, but this movie made me want to play the original video game so that I could experience what I really liked about Tomb Raider. It was not present in the movie and only made me wish that it was. Even though I have been very harsh on Tomb Raider, it was a fairly decent and entertaining movie. There was nothing that stood out as being very bad besides possibly the occasional ridiculous music, but that was kept to a minimum. Overall this movie was good as compared to other video game movies. It did not pretend to be much that the video game was not, but if I could have chosen I would have wanted this movie to be based heavily off of the first game. Action was not what Tomb Raider was originally about; it was a solitary puzzle game that frustrated you constantly and had very little need for other characters or fighting.


The Skinny Version

Should you see it? Maybe. 526,902 out of 1,000,000 Stars
Sort of a Sharon Movie!

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