Entries Tagged 'Action' ↓

The Placebo soundtrack on the trailer really drew me in.  That and the tag line "The Matrix meets 28 Days Later." Overall, it was following the recent trend i.e. normal vampire movie with a twist.  Not very engaging. The only link to the Matrix was tehir se of humans to survive… for blood this time, obviously.. not being used as batteries.  The Matrix had it done better though… they had a plan in place to replace dead humans… here the dead humans just die… leaving a blood shortage.

Anyway… it was a filler movie. something you can waste your time with and would be just as good if you got it on DVD or waited for it come on TV.

What was great about it was the colouring and the cinematography. It was noir in a  modern way and the soundtrack fit the movie really well.  Also, Ethan Hawke makes a really good vampire. On the plot… I like how they put in all the normal stuff that happens after being a vampire becomes normalised.  Things like the economy, class systems, food shortages, etc. start to take over the agenda.

I’d give the movie a 6/10 Enjoy.

Link

Armored

Rating:

It starts with a simple enough idea. A couple of guys working for an armored car company. In about three words they tell the few ideas that are necessary for the story to work. The cars will all be outfitted with GPS (when, who knows…they just aren’t there yet) and that the next day they will be transporting forty-two million dollars. A whole lotta dough. In another two minutes they lay it all out for us. Ty (Columbus Short) is having money problems. Big ones that unsurprisingly decide to be unbearable just a few days before the big heist. Mike (Matt Dillon) decides that since Ty has earned his stripes he should be brought into the loop. They are going to jack their own cars. Stash the money then set it up to look like they were robbed. Easy as that. To make everything look good, Ty has to say no. He has to worry about the whole thing before he agrees. Magically nine hours after the idea is floated he shows up ready to play his part. Lets just say that things go downhill from there (Take that how you wish).

If they had taken the time to do rewrites on the script they would have noticed that it is some of the most inane drivel ever seen on paper. The fact that the characters names were repeated dozens of times was the least of the problems. I would be more then happy to send over a few books on screenwriting to Mr. Simpson if he would like. All I need is your address.

Screenplay problems aside, the movie was still flawed. Matt Dillon was in full drama mode with his face set and his eyes bold. His voice extra strong. It was a shame to see such a great cast take their places in the back, relegated to such obscure tasks as pounding bolts, and grunting a lot. They additions (Fishburne, and Reno mostly) were brought on to accent the cast, but their inability to show their acting ability brought the entire movie down a notch. It was sad to watch.

Mostly this movie suffered from having no story. No story meant they had to find some way to take up time. Some way to fill the onscreen minutes. Instead of filling the time with car chases (There was one, we’ll get to that in a minute) and beatings, they chose to fill it with insane conversations where nothing happened except the characters names were repeated a few more times and they both pleaded their side of the story. About the car chase. Imagine the sheer power, the power brought on by the weight of two armored trucks trying to ram each other off the road. Strong right, can’t you just see the dust billowing up, the metal sheering off where the two ran into each other in their attempts to be the victor. Ok, that’s what it could have been. Somehow they managed to turn a car chase with great potential into one of the slowest sequences in the film. Shame.

Please don’t waste your time on this. It’s not even looking out for at RedBox. Just let it die. Please.

The trailer for the new TV movie – ‘Battlestar Galactica: The Plan’ chronicling the battle between the Humans and the Cylons, this time from the viewpoint of the Cylons. I assume it would be summarised seeing as the human side was told across five seasons and this new movie is only two hours long. But check out the Trailer below… it looks AWESOME.

Technorati Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Movie

Bottom Line: Your $10 would be better spent on a few gallons of gas for YOUR car.

Death Race is a pretty ambitious undertaking, Paul W.S. Anderson not only has to attempt to recreate the feel of the original movie, but he has to prove that his imagining of the film is superior. While he recreated the gritty feel of the movies from the 70’s fairly accurately, nothing was done to prove the superiority of his film. Starting in the beginning with the opening words (a totally unnecessary attempt at explaining the setting and story to us) to the consistantly horrid dialogue, all Mr. Anderson proved was his ineptitude in writing scripts. The back story provided in the beginning of the movie (and later repeated in flashbacks) should have only been introduced in short flashbacks, instead of taking up almost 15 minutes of the movie.

The acting in this film is far from good, Joan Allen is shown as the stereotypical power hungry woman, and her dialogue is full of prosaic statements. The rest of the supporting cast is mediocre at best. As the main character, Jason Statham provides a nice breath of fresh air to this film, but it is not enough to salvage it.

The cinematography in this film is nothing special. At times it comes across as a little too dark, a problem that could have easily been rectified.

The one thing done right in this film is the action, it is brutal and relentless. As long as you ignore the claim that 35 gallon gas tank would take a several ton Mustang around a 4-5 mile course several times, it doesn’t dissapoint. The action is so severe that there is a nice little disclaimer at the end of the film.

Death Race isn’t going to win any awards (Razzie?) but if you are looking for a mindless action film, you may enjoy it when it comes out on DVD (as long as you mute it). One (more) plus about this film is that it would make one hell of a video game.