Name: chelano
Most Recent Reviews by chelano
It has been awhile since I watched this film. So I had to watch it again to get the full effect before the newer one was released. I have a lot of things against this film though as a movie. The concept for its time was amazing. I will give it that. But the filming was a bit off. The cast was half and half. Jeff Bridges was great. He basically made the movie. Bruce Boxleitner who is Allen and Tron did a decent job. As Allen he didn't seem to fit well, but did fit as Tron. Cindy Morgan was the love interest of both Bridges character and Boxleitner. She was not a very good actress. It was like her emotion was shut off. David Warner was a excellent bad guy. Even though Master Control was pretty much the main bad guy, Warner was a close second. Like I said, the concept was great. It really had something going for it. The Grid world was excellent and how most of the small characters were named after computer terms was clever. An example would be Dan Shor's character named RAM. The film on the grid was shot combination rotoscope and hand drawn. This gave the film more of a fantasy feel when you were in the Grid. The use of colors in the film were vibrant and interesting to keep the viewers attention. Now they needed this since some of the scenes were just really boring; making you wait for the more interesting parts. The music was orchestrated, but at sound parts sounded like a Sunday afternoon made for TV movie; which didn't fit with the epic feel of the film. The only other problem was the ending of the film. It just stopped. Very undeveloped with the characters and the story. They were trying to set it up for a sequel, but the way it was done, you couldn't even tell. You just felt like everything was left out. Tron was a gem of its time. But if you look at it as a whole, it is just a decent movie.
This documentary on Joaquin Phoenix was very interesting. It is mostly showing his life in 2009 when he had a change in his life. The piece is directed by Casey Affleck who is Phoenix's brother in law and friend. He shows up in the movie at points too. Why he did this I don't know. Everyone knows that Phoenix was a bit messed up after he went on the Letterman show. But there is a lot more too it and that is why I watched this film. I will say that I do feel very sorry for him now, but he still has a lot of problems he needs to work out. One day he just decided he did not want to act anymore and quit. Phoenix explains that he wants to be himself and is tired of others telling him how to act all the time. So his mind kind of snaps and he uses up all his money to just enjoy life. Which includes never grooming, gaining weight and for some reason, loves to wear sunglasses. To me I think he wears them to hide. He is afraid of the outside world now. He also keeps partying and gets addicted to drugs and booze; with the occasional hooker now and then. Two things made me really feel for the guy. One his music. The reason he wanted to be a hip-hop artist was to express his feelings. He was really passionate about it. He never really asked to do it live. He just wanted to make a cd so he had some money to live off of and people could see why he acts this way. But he was booked as a joke and never got to release anything. The other thing was the Letterman interview. Now the world saw him as a washed up joke. But there is a reason why he did it and why he acted that way on the show. He did it for a little money and he did it to show the world he is still around and he was not a joke. But as soon as he came on, Letterman made fun. Phoenix was so nervous he could not speak and then he got angry because he was the joke. Once he left, they had to pull the car over cause he was so stressed and crying. This is why you need to know the back story. But like I said, the drugs, booze and women, I do not feel sorry. He does have a lot he has to work out. Only two things made me not like the film. One was that it needed more subtitles because Phoenix was hard to understand at points and the ending was kind of strange. Wanted more of a resolution. But this film will give you a better understanding of Joaquin Phoenix.
I had three reactions when watching this film. Laughing out loud, smirking and then yawning. Not a very good combination. If it was just the first two, it would of been better. The comedy in this film at some parts really had me laughing a lot, but then they tried to get serious at some points and it ruined it. The cast was great to horrible. Will Forte is Macgruber and he was just hilarious. Kristen Wiig was his sidekick and she was just ok. Some parts she was pretty funny, but only a few. Ryan Phillippe was also part of the Macgruber team and I don't know why. He played a serious character that really didn't have any funny parts and one disturbing part. Val Kilmer was the villain and he was horrible. He looked out of shape and sick. Back in his prime, when he was young, he was great at comedies, but that time is gone now. The story line was pretty bad, but it was suppose to be that way since it was a spoof made up in Saturday Night Live. So they had to rely on the comedy, which worked sorta. For the most part, it was a better movie that was brought up by SNL, but not one of the best. All I know is that Will Forte is a pretty funny guy and his character proved that, just wish the film and the rest of the cast was better.
This was a funny little movie, but I wouldn't say it had a lot going for it. The story line was decent, but not as strong as you would want to to be. But that makes for a nice Sunday afternoon movie where you don't have to think a lot. It does have some light comedy and tries to show a life lesson, but only succeeds about sixty percent. I did enjoy the dialog, but mostly from the main character played by Anton Yelchin. He was a joy to watch. He had some pretty great acting skills. The rest of the cast was ok to not so good. Robert Downey Jr. was a big name in this film, but didn't seem to fit his part too well. The love interest of the main character is played by Kat Dennings who at sometimes seemed pretty good and others, a bit off. There is one character that bugged me and it was played by Tyler Hilton. He really didn't have the acting skills or the look for his character. Then you have Hope Davis who didn't seem to fit very well. The whole outcome of the film was funny to watch, but if you cut it up, you start to see a lot of things wrong.
It is hard to rate and review these movies after awhile. There are so many and some I loved while others I didn't. One thing is that every new movie there is something different they try and it either wins or fails. This movie had both. The win was focusing on the main characters more as grown ups than as kids and it really worked. I felt like I was watching more of an adult fantasy type movie. The fail was the use of action scenes. They tried the whole, "shaking the camera" to add special effect and more of the real to the action shots. This really took away from the film and even started giving me a headache. I am glad it was not in 3D because I probably would of passed out. The cast was still great and Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson blossom with each movie. The rest of the characters are fun to watch as always and a joy to see act. This film is darker than most of the other movies and did have some more passion towards characters too. So I did enjoy how it was filmed, but not the shaking camera. One more Harry Potter to go and it is over. Hopefully it will end and it will be a good end to a great series and everyone can focus on something new.
This movie was surprisingly pretty good. When I saw the trailer I really was not that interested and I wasn't even sure if I really liked the voice over choice. But I decided to give it a chance. I am glad I did, because I did enjoy the film. There were a few things that set me off a bit though. One is that you can watch it in 3D, yet the movie wasn't really made for it. I can only really remember a couple parts that really used the 3D effect. The other thing was the music. Alan Meken did the score for the movie. He also did the score for the Little Mermaid. So this movie seriously felt like I was watching the Little Mermaid every time someone would sing. It was like he took sound clips and words from that movie and put it in this movie. For the most part, the animation was decent and fun, but not amazing. The voice over cast really did fit with the characters. Zachary Levi did fit his character and I thought he wouldn't. Mandy Moore did a great job as her character. They managed to put a little lizard and a horse in the film for fun characters to watch and enjoy and I am glad they did. I really did enjoy the horse. That character had me laughing a lot. So overall, it was not the best, but it was a fun movie to watch.
I think I understand what the movie is about and what the directors were trying to get at. They wanted to show that the Kung Fu you see in movies is fake. That the actors are doing a form of it, but no one is really getting hurt. That the future is not about fighting, but about learning. They used Jackie Chan in the film because he is such a big star. He had very little scenes in the movie though. The movie was mostly about a boy who says that Jackie Chan is his hero. That he wants to go to China to find him so he can become he disciple and learn to basically beat up people. The kid learns a life lesson in this movie and that is pretty much what makes up the excitement of the movie. The music used in the movie is something you would hear out of a Saturday morning special. The actor was barely at par. Jackie Chan acted good, but again, he didn't have much of a role in a film that has his name written in hug letters. The poster of the film is very misleading, making viewers think it is a new Jackie Chan fighting movie. I believe it was done to get people to see the message of it all, but in return, it made viewers give pretty bad reviews. When I watched it, I realized what they did, but I was still going to watch the movie as a whole and rate it as I would any movie. Unfortunately, the movie was not that good at all and was lacking in many areas.
I really love the concept of this movie. The whole set up gave me chills. But the way the story panned out and ended, I was upset. I couldn't believe they took such a great idea and just tore it up. They had the feel, they had the cast, they had the look, they had the action; but a horrible planned out story. You see a lot of movies about vampires. All the movies are about people being turned and how blood is running out, so vampires are dying and humans are becoming extinct. One group though finds a way to save the human race though. I will not say because that is a big spoiler of the movie. When it got to this part, I thought the film might be saved and get really interesting again, but it didn't. Ethan Hawke is the main character and he was really good. Then you had Willem Dafoe who was strange, but ok. Claudia Karvan was decent in the film. My favorite vampire though was Sam Neill. I wasn't sure if he could pull it off, but he was great. Some of the side characters made no sense because the story was so much in pieces. An example would be Isabel Lucas. I understood her role, but the way they showed it in the movie was too quick and uneventful. I really wish this film could of been better because it would of made an excellent vampire movie. My mind through the one hour and thirty eight minutes kept saying, "love it, hated it, love it, hate it" and so on.
A very interesting film by Jonn-ho Bong. It is basically about a mutated creature that kills people. I am not ruining anything here because within ten minutes the creature it revealed. As for what the creature is, I have no idea. Someones warped mind made up this thing and I enjoyed it. Kang-ho Song is the lead. A bum type lazy father who just helps his father run a small food shop. His father is played by Hie-bong Byeon who did a decent job. Kang-ho Song has a daughter played by Ah-sung Ko who gets captured by this creature and with the help of his brother, sister and father, he finally grows up and tries to get her back. There were parts of the film that were somewhat slow, but other parts did make up for it. The CG was good enough to make you think that the creature was really running around and killing people. The film is called The Host for a reason. The government thinks that a virus made this monster and anyone who came in contact with it, should be dealt with. So you have this creature running around and the government going crazy and the people going crazy thinking they have a virus. This film combines drama with comedy and then adds a dash of the scary. So overall, it was not the best film in the world, but it was fun to watch. I will say there are a couple scenes that stick out that I really enjoyed and hopefully you will too.
Ok this movie is a mostly a horror comedy with zombies. I believe they called it a zombedy or something weird like that. When I first saw the movie start, I thought I might hate it. But surprisingly it was not that bad. It was good enough for me to want to finish it. The main characters are played by James Denton and Chris Kattan. Denton was more of the mean cool cowboy where Kattan was just a cowboy wannabe who couldn't even shoot a gun. They are met later by an Indian girl played by Navi Rawat. I actually liked the characters played by Denton and Kattan, but Rawat seemed a little off. There are a couple fun characters in the film that I enjoyed more who were side people. One would be the first zombie to appear in the film. It was Brian Posehn. It was interesting to see him in make up. Then there was the priest, played by Leslie Gordon. He has an older style of comedy that it fun to watch. Now the story line of the film was not that good. They really proved this at the ending. But the fun they have throughout the film is what keeps you interested. Another surprise was the make up used for the zombies. Some movies like this will just make the skin pale and the eyes colorless and that is it. The zombies in this film were rotting like normal zombies. So overall, it was not that bad to watch.
