Showing posts with label Action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Action. Show all posts

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Feast


IMDB: Feast
  • OVERALL: 80
  • VISUAL: 84
  • STORY: 87
  • ACTING: 68
  • BETTER THAN: The Hills Have Eyes II (2007)
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: The Descent
  • WAS MISSING: There are so many ways that this is a tongue-and-cheek send up of bad horror-action films that it probably could've thrown in a bit more sex and rock and roll.
  • SEE IT FOR: With about 10 characters each getting their own G.I. Joe profiles, there's bound to be at least a couple that you are rooting for. For every bad performance, there's somebody with a good one. Allen and Rollins are quite tasty, though you won't want to eat during this Feast. Jason Mewes as Jason Mewes is also something you don't see every day.
Feast Trailer

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Batman: Gotham Knight


IMDB: Batman: Gotham Knight
  • OVERALL: 81
  • VISUAL: 96
  • STORY: 68
  • ACTING: 78
  • BETTER THAN: The Invincible Iron Man
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: The Animatrix
  • WAS MISSING: Longer scenes with the Batman variations at the beginning.
  • SEE IT FOR: The Deadshot section has an amazing art style to watch Batman running at bullets on a subway. Plus, the Tekkon Kinkreet art style at the beginning displays a demonic butterfly Batman, and an uber-cool vaporizing-into-shadows Batman. Different takes on a classic end in a successful animated experiment.

Eye See You (D-Tox)


IMDB: Eye See You (D-Tox)
  • OVERALL: 67
  • VISUAL: 71
  • STORY: 59
  • ACTING: 72
  • BETTER THAN: Wind Chill
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Shoot to Kill
  • WAS MISSING: "I Know What You Did Last Winter" tagline. (What's funny is I wrote that before realizing that it was actually from the director of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" lol)
  • SEE IT FOR: A pre-T2 Robert Patrick performance that manages to thaw out the rest of the cold and stiff cast. The score would be much higher if you cut out the first half of the movie.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The Bank Job


IMDB: The Bank Job
  • OVERALL: 90
  • VISUAL: 94
  • STORY: 92
  • ACTING: 85
  • BETTER THAN: The Italian Job
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Heat
  • WAS MISSING: The Statham flying split kick and a real-life-person-to-actor comparison at the end.
  • SEE IT FOR: Loads of brilliant British accents, especially on the lady-types, plus a really tense storyline that involves everybody exploiting everybody. The based-on-a-true-story aspect never hurts.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Superhero Movie


IMDB: Superhero Movie
  • OVERALL: 45
  • VISUAL: 68
  • STORY: 12
  • ACTING: 56
  • BETTER THAN: The Fantastic Four (1994 Version)
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: My Super Ex-Girlfriend
  • WAS MISSING: A "Skip" feature... for the entire movie.
  • SEE IT FOR: The first couple of Nielsen and McDonald scenes, or if you've misplaced your X-Men movie and the sound and picture don't work on your TV.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le pacte des loups)


IMDB: Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le pacte des loups)
  • OVERALL: 93
  • VISUAL: 95
  • STORY: 94
  • ACTING: 90
  • BETTER THAN: Dancing with Wolves
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Babe
  • WAS MISSING: An even creepier score.
  • SEE IT FOR: Fighting in the rain, vengeance personified and one of the best movie monsters ever.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Renaissance


IMDB: Renaissance
  • OVERALL: 82
  • VISUAL: 99
  • STORY: 63
  • ACTING: 83
  • BETTER THAN: Ultraviolet
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Sim City
  • WAS MISSING: Surprises. The plot moved too slowly and too much toward an expected ending to really hold your interest.
  • SEE IT FOR: The black and white animation is stunning and shines most in the backgrounds, including simple things like bricks and rooftops. You feel like you're in a graphic novel. Plus, the baddie with the cloaking device and Gatling-gun arm is pretty impressive.

Dragons II: The Metal Age


IMDB: Dragons II: The Metal Age

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Fulltime Killer (Chuen jik sat sau)


IMDB: Fulltime Killer (Chuen jik sat sau)
  • OVERALL: 91
  • VISUAL: 92
  • STORY: 91
  • ACTING: 89
  • BETTER THAN: Kill Zone (Saat po long)
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Versus
  • WAS MISSING: A need for aiming. I mean, does anybody look where they're pointing that thing?
  • SEE IT FOR: The best Bill Clinton mask scene since Point Break, combined with very stylized fight scenes and a sinister performance from Andy Lau.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

War


IMDB: War
  • OVERALL: 69
  • VISUAL: 78
  • STORY: 66
  • ACTING: 63
  • BETTER THAN: Rush Hour 3
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Rush Hour 2
  • WAS MISSING: The patented tough guy humor Statham usually brings. Triads? More like try agains!
  • SEE IT FOR: Jet Li, but barely.

Monday, July 21, 2008

The Incredible Hulk


IMDB: The Incredible Hulk
  • OVERALL: 91
  • VISUAL: 93
  • STORY: 84
  • ACTING: 95
  • BETTER THAN: Hulk
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Superman II
  • WAS MISSING: Hulk surf Internet! Hulk ride gondola! Hulk become peaceful artist in tiny village!
  • SEE IT FOR: Hulk smash, thunderclap, Bill Bixby, Lou Ferigno... all there, as well as the always-brilliant Edward Norton. The last shot of the movie is tasty as well!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army


IMDB: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
  • OVERALL: 84
  • VISUAL: 91
  • STORY: 80
  • ACTING: 82
  • BETTER THAN: Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Hellboy
  • WAS MISSING: Mignola's striking artwork mixed in, and attention to gritty storytelling instead of the endless Shrek-like cheap laughs.
  • SEE IT FOR: A somewhat-romantic, drunken serenade, as well as steampunk in the 70 x 70 fashion. That will make sense when you see it.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Starcrash


IMDB: Starcrash
  • OVERALL: 49
  • VISUAL: 51
  • STORY: 39
  • ACTING: 32
  • BETTER THAN: Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Ice Pirates
  • WAS MISSING: A "Comedy" or "Parody" classification. Still, there's value here!
  • SEE IT FOR: Too many to list. You have redneck robots, leather slave girls, Argonaut-ish stop-motion giants, blatant Star Wars ripoffs, Windows Media Player-type special effects and hilariously voice-tracked dialogue. And, I haven't even mentioned The Hoff in makeup!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Gymkata

I'm about to get married. It's the tail end of my bachelor party. What would any respectable bunch of drunk men want to do to end the night? Well, watch Gymkata and play drinking games, of course!

One guy had to drink every time somebody got hurt. Another guy had to drink every time there was a gymnastic-related move. A third guy had to drink every time there was bad dialogue, and I had to drink every time there was a ninja. Needless to say, by the end of the movie, we might as well have all had IVs of Newcastle pumping through our veins!

You can either watch the movie as is, or read the back of the box to give it a pretty different meaning. My favorite part is where our young hero finds himself racing through the village of the crazies (how politically correct is that!?), and he finds himself surrounded by baddies. He is backed into the center of the town square where he finds a conveniently placed pommel horse. Olympic-inspired swift kicks ensue. God bless Gymkata.

IMDB: Gymkata
  • OVERALL: 80
  • VISUAL: 90
  • STORY: 92
  • ACTING: 59
  • BETTER THAN: Surviving the Game
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: The Condemned
  • WAS MISSING: A Russian judge giving Jonathan Cabot a 7.9 for his perfect dismount after each battle.
  • SEE IT FOR: The arms race in the fictional country of Parmestan! The only problem? You would never know that without reading the back of the box. The in-movie plot is all gymnastics, all ninjas, all the time. You can't get much better than this movie folks, especially for drinking games.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Tears of the Sun


IMDB: Tears of the Sun
  • OVERALL: 74
  • VISUAL: 74
  • STORY: 77
  • ACTING: 71
  • BETTER THAN: Men of War
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Let's Get Harry
  • WAS MISSING: The hectic pace and sneaky tension of a rescue film should have. Director Fuqua's deliberate style didn't mesh well with the jungle violence.
  • SEE IT FOR: Monica Bellucci and Bruce Willis fans may enjoy, but not much for the rest of us... even the war fanatics.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Lancelot of the Lake (Lancelot du Lac)


IMDB: Lancelot of the Lake (Lancelot du Lac)
  • OVERALL: 87
  • VISUAL: 89
  • STORY: 92
  • ACTING: 81
  • BETTER THAN: Lancelot and Guinevere
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: First Knight
  • WAS MISSING: Any sense of passion or leadership from the King Arthur character.
  • SEE IT FOR: One of the best "Huh? Say it ain't so!" endings ever. Plus, one of the rawest portrayals of Guinevere as a young, naive girl who finds herself innocently torn between her distant sense of duty and her blossoming intrigue for passion.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Jabberwocky


IMDB: Jabberwocky
  • OVERALL: 73
  • VISUAL: 79
  • STORY: 69
  • ACTING: 72
  • BETTER THAN: Satan's Cheerleaders
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  • WAS MISSING: John Cleese and gangs of medieval nuns.
  • SEE IT FOR: Slow-motion jousting and knights playing hide-and-seek. The movie ends with an impressive visual of the horned-helmet knight versus a great, giant Jabberwocky puppet monster.

Monday, June 23, 2008

The Professional (Leon)


IMDB: The Professional (Leon)
  • OVERALL: 94
  • VISUAL: 93
  • STORY: 98
  • ACTING: 92
  • BETTER THAN: Assassins
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: The Matador
  • WAS MISSING: A prologue and an epilogue would've been very fulfilling, even if they were just DVD extras.
  • SEE IT FOR: Action, tragedy and a touching tale of love between a guardian and protege.

Excalibur


IMDB: Excalibur
  • OVERALL: 99
  • VISUAL: 100
  • STORY: 100
  • ACTING: 96
  • BETTER THAN: The Sword in the Stone
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Braveheart
  • WAS MISSING: Not much. If I had to be picky, I'd say an original score that matched the greatness of the movie.
  • SEE IT FOR: One of Liam Neeson's first roles, as well as Orff's masterpiece Carmina Burana in its finest form. It's been used in so many movies since, but never has it been more inspiring and epic than Excalibur's scenes of the knights charging up over the misty hills on armored horseback.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Rambo (2008)


IMDB: Rambo (2008)
  • OVERALL: 93
  • VISUAL: 99
  • STORY: 93
  • ACTING: 86
  • BETTER THAN: Missing in Action
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Predator
  • WAS MISSING: A muddy waterfall and whites of the eyes, but that's probably for the best.
  • SEE IT FOR: Amazingly stylized visuals that rival 300's. Amazingly forceful bullet impacts that rival Saving Private Ryan's. Amazingly simple, stripped-down story that rightfully lets the visuals tell the story. It also has some of the hardest war scenes to watch when it involves the women and children. Rambo is a must-see for any fan of warfare or action.