My knee jerk reaction to The Quest was that Van Damme, was trying to recreate some of his early success that came from Blood Sport in this movie. By making a movie about a martial arts tournament he gets to have multiple fight scenes, that he does not have to necessarily participate in and still keep the action moving. Van Damme also wrote and Directed this movie, which may explain the random back story that gets Christ Dubois, Van Damme’s character, to the Ghang-gheng martial arts tournament, in stead of just focusing on the tournament itself. That said for a first time behind the lense he did well.
In short Van Damme is a street hustler that has adopted a bunch of young orphans and is training them to be hustlers also. Eventually Dubois’ dirt catches us with him and he has to leave New York, only to find himself a slave on a gun smuggling ship. The ship he is on is taken over by buccaneers, the captain of this crew is Lord Edgar Dobbs played by Roger Moore, yeah that’s right Van Damme went out and dug-up Roger Moore for this flick, one thing leads to another and Van Damme ends up on an island in Thailand where he allies himself with the Muyi-Thai fighters and their trainer. After a brief stay with these fighter he crosses paths with Dobbs again. This time they strike a deal to go the Ghang-gheng and steal a large solid gold statue.
Some stuff happens, but you don’t want to hear about that you want to hear about the action sequences. I have to give it up to Van Damme, while story may have been so, so, he did a nice job behind the caamera capturing the action, particularly the tournament, which featured a variety of fighting skills. What also made the tournament stuff work was that the fighters that represented their various countries became mini-charicatures of each country. So the dude from Spain had a white silk shirt and some black pants and fought almost like he was dancing, the guy from china utilized different kung-fu styles; monkey, tiger, etc. The guy from Brazil was a capoera fighter and had the drums accompany his fighting. You get the point.
In all the action sequences that Van Damme was in he utilized a lot of his traditional jump kicks and spinning kicks, although the more movies he makes the more varied his fighting becomes. He is still a kick first fighter, but he did incorporate more punches and elbows to reflect the Thai influences in his fighting. The climax of the movie was the final fight scene between Van Damme and Khan, the Mongolian fighter, which was played by Abdel Quissi, which played the role of Van Damme’s last opponent in Lion Heart. This fight was a little over the top, I think Van Damme took too much of a beating to believe that it would be possible for him to actually come back and beat this guy, but it was a fun fight to watch.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sudden Death
Van Damme running around a hockey arena trying to diffuse some bombs and outwit Powers Booth, before he kills the Vice President and blows up the entire arena. I know the story sounds a little like Die Hard 2, but instead of an airport it takes place in a hockey rink, but it still works. Van Damme actually manages to bounce back a little after that disgrace of a movie called Street Fighter.
Sudden Death features a variety of different action sequences and fight scenes, including a fight in kitchen between Van Damme and an almost seven foot tall woman in the Pittsburg Penguin mascot suit, a gun fight between two guys in the equipment room and a couple action sequences featuring some home made arson weapons Van Damme cooked up, good times.
Because of the nature of the character in this movie, he does not have a special forces background or anything like that, Van Damme uses a lot of weapons and grappling, he does not make uses of use famous jump kicks and that sort of thing, the fights are gruesome and punishing. These kinds of movies are a testament to Mr. Van Damme’s versatility, because they work just as well as some of his more typical fancy jumping spinning martial arts movies.
Sudden Death features a variety of different action sequences and fight scenes, including a fight in kitchen between Van Damme and an almost seven foot tall woman in the Pittsburg Penguin mascot suit, a gun fight between two guys in the equipment room and a couple action sequences featuring some home made arson weapons Van Damme cooked up, good times.
Because of the nature of the character in this movie, he does not have a special forces background or anything like that, Van Damme uses a lot of weapons and grappling, he does not make uses of use famous jump kicks and that sort of thing, the fights are gruesome and punishing. These kinds of movies are a testament to Mr. Van Damme’s versatility, because they work just as well as some of his more typical fancy jumping spinning martial arts movies.
Street Fighter
Sometimes you see a movie and you think to yourself, wow that was a terrible movie and then you rewatch it years later and realize that it wasn't that bad and then sometimes you realize that it was worse, Street Fighter definately fits into the latter category. This movie was so much worse than I remember I could not get through it fast enough. There is no wonder that movie really did mark the beginning of the end of Van Damme's block buster career.
To be frank I am grateful that this little project of reviewing Van Damme’s movies does not extend to the entirety of the movies themselves and is simply about the martial arts performance of Van Damme. I am further grateful that outside of the final action sequence Van Damme is not involved in too many of the actions scenes. Therefore I can get this over with.
The thing to keep in mind about this movie is that it is based on a video game so many of the actors in the film were cast to mimic the video game characters. Just a brief word on the casting, Steven Brooksbank if the casting director, I looked it up on IMDB and I am pleased to report he has not been part of anything of note, though he still manages to find work. I don't think there is a single more poorly casted movie made. Van Damme is cast to the play the lead character, Colonel William Guile who is supposed to be a Colonel in the United States Army, in this movie Guile is the ranking officer of the Allied Nations peace keeping force and chief rival the psychotic megalomaniac Bison. Brooksbank actually casted the late Raul Julia, yeah it is as ridiculous as it sounds, to play the role of Van Damme's nemesis. Bsion is supposed to like 6'6" 230+lbs, instead of minurature Raul Julia. And it goes on and on, I mean really this casting in this movie was just awgul. So basically the story is this; Bison is out for world domination and Guile’s mission is to stop him, nothing about this movie was good.
Guile and Bison don’t meet until the end of the movie and the fight is choreographed to mimic many of the moves from the video game. In addition to the elaborate jumps kicks that are typical of a Van Damme movie, he also uses a jumping bicycle backflip kick. Deciding to go with an actor instead of a fighter for the role of Bison handicapped the final fight sequence as it has in previous Van Damme films, i.e. Death Warrant. Instead of Guile and Bison capping off the movie in big fight sequence we were left with a bunch of far shots of some stunt double filling in for Julia to punch Van Damme and then some close ups of Julai choking Van Damme. The fight is capped off with Raul Julia being pulled all over the screen on wires in an attempt to simulate flight. Basically the only thing redeemable about the final fight is that Van Damme utilized his world famous jumping roundhouse kick, other than that this movie was absolutely worthless.
To be frank I am grateful that this little project of reviewing Van Damme’s movies does not extend to the entirety of the movies themselves and is simply about the martial arts performance of Van Damme. I am further grateful that outside of the final action sequence Van Damme is not involved in too many of the actions scenes. Therefore I can get this over with.
The thing to keep in mind about this movie is that it is based on a video game so many of the actors in the film were cast to mimic the video game characters. Just a brief word on the casting, Steven Brooksbank if the casting director, I looked it up on IMDB and I am pleased to report he has not been part of anything of note, though he still manages to find work. I don't think there is a single more poorly casted movie made. Van Damme is cast to the play the lead character, Colonel William Guile who is supposed to be a Colonel in the United States Army, in this movie Guile is the ranking officer of the Allied Nations peace keeping force and chief rival the psychotic megalomaniac Bison. Brooksbank actually casted the late Raul Julia, yeah it is as ridiculous as it sounds, to play the role of Van Damme's nemesis. Bsion is supposed to like 6'6" 230+lbs, instead of minurature Raul Julia. And it goes on and on, I mean really this casting in this movie was just awgul. So basically the story is this; Bison is out for world domination and Guile’s mission is to stop him, nothing about this movie was good.
Guile and Bison don’t meet until the end of the movie and the fight is choreographed to mimic many of the moves from the video game. In addition to the elaborate jumps kicks that are typical of a Van Damme movie, he also uses a jumping bicycle backflip kick. Deciding to go with an actor instead of a fighter for the role of Bison handicapped the final fight sequence as it has in previous Van Damme films, i.e. Death Warrant. Instead of Guile and Bison capping off the movie in big fight sequence we were left with a bunch of far shots of some stunt double filling in for Julia to punch Van Damme and then some close ups of Julai choking Van Damme. The fight is capped off with Raul Julia being pulled all over the screen on wires in an attempt to simulate flight. Basically the only thing redeemable about the final fight is that Van Damme utilized his world famous jumping roundhouse kick, other than that this movie was absolutely worthless.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
I consider myself to be a reasonable man, I can make decision about something, but have no problem changing my mind if compelling evidence to the contrary presents itself. After watching the first pirates movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, in 2003 to say I was not impressed was putting it mildly. To be honest much of my opinion was influenced by the fact that I was not, and to be completely honest am still not, a huge Johnny Depp fan. Essentially the first pirates movie was a lot of Johnny Depp running around being this quirky pirate captain character, Captain Jack Sparrow. I would have been completely ok if they stopped making the movies at that point, however many, many, many more people disagreed with me and the movie did well enough to warrant the making of not one, but two more movies, shot simultaneously. Last year Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was a summer block buster, made tons of money and convinced me that maybe I was a little too hard on Mr. Depp and this franchise. I would be less than honest to say I was amped about this summer third installment, but I was certainly curious and anticipating its release. And I can honestly saying I am a Pirates fan.
Rather than give the typical plot summary of the movie to tease and bait you into watching the film, if you haven’t already I want to get straight to the fun part and talk about how I was won over. First of all I have the respect for movies that know what they are and don’t attempt to be anything more. Gore Verbinski, director of all three films in the franchise, and his team made three funny, action filled adventure movies, about the fictional life of one Captain Jack Sparrow and those that were close to him during a certain period in his life. That is it, there is not much more to it than that, there are other characters with their own stories and issues, but for the most part everything comes back to Jack. Therefore the franchise lives and dies with Johnny Depp, I may be a huge fan, but I can respect his abilities and he can definitely do characters in a way no one else can, and there is no clearer indication of that than Captain Jack Sparrow.
In addition to the strength of Johnny’s performance this movie featured an extended cameo from Mr. Yun-Fat Chow - the man, a cameo from Keith Richards, Johnny Depp’s inspiration for Jack Sparrow, who played Jack’s dad, we got the gathering of the pirate lords, we got Jack Sparrow going literally insane and we got a huge at sea battle between Davy Jones, Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, and Cutler Beckett. All of this and nothing in the movie suffered for the inclusion of anything else. The major knock I had against Spiderman 3 was that in order to include the two major villains the villain turned ally, Gwen Stacy, and the Mary and Peter engagement a lot of the story had to suffer in order to get everyone adequate face time on the screen, well Pirates managed to make it work and did it in such a way as to not short change any of the major players. Part of this was accomplished by not even showing Jack Sparrow until about twenty minutes into the movie. The movie did not drag without him, but certainly picked when he was on screen.
In closing I also would be remise if I did not comment on the clarity with which ILM was able to pull off some of the more complex and spectacular visual effects like for example Jack Sparrow stabbing a shirtless version of himself during one of his psychotic episodes. Everything was amazing, the cannon blasts from ship to ship, the Black Pearl reemerging from beneath the water, even the exploding of the East India Tea Company’s mother ship, all of it was amazing, and crisp and very, very pretty. Thank you Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, you may have just saved the summer.
GRADE – A-
Rather than give the typical plot summary of the movie to tease and bait you into watching the film, if you haven’t already I want to get straight to the fun part and talk about how I was won over. First of all I have the respect for movies that know what they are and don’t attempt to be anything more. Gore Verbinski, director of all three films in the franchise, and his team made three funny, action filled adventure movies, about the fictional life of one Captain Jack Sparrow and those that were close to him during a certain period in his life. That is it, there is not much more to it than that, there are other characters with their own stories and issues, but for the most part everything comes back to Jack. Therefore the franchise lives and dies with Johnny Depp, I may be a huge fan, but I can respect his abilities and he can definitely do characters in a way no one else can, and there is no clearer indication of that than Captain Jack Sparrow.
In addition to the strength of Johnny’s performance this movie featured an extended cameo from Mr. Yun-Fat Chow - the man, a cameo from Keith Richards, Johnny Depp’s inspiration for Jack Sparrow, who played Jack’s dad, we got the gathering of the pirate lords, we got Jack Sparrow going literally insane and we got a huge at sea battle between Davy Jones, Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, and Cutler Beckett. All of this and nothing in the movie suffered for the inclusion of anything else. The major knock I had against Spiderman 3 was that in order to include the two major villains the villain turned ally, Gwen Stacy, and the Mary and Peter engagement a lot of the story had to suffer in order to get everyone adequate face time on the screen, well Pirates managed to make it work and did it in such a way as to not short change any of the major players. Part of this was accomplished by not even showing Jack Sparrow until about twenty minutes into the movie. The movie did not drag without him, but certainly picked when he was on screen.
In closing I also would be remise if I did not comment on the clarity with which ILM was able to pull off some of the more complex and spectacular visual effects like for example Jack Sparrow stabbing a shirtless version of himself during one of his psychotic episodes. Everything was amazing, the cannon blasts from ship to ship, the Black Pearl reemerging from beneath the water, even the exploding of the East India Tea Company’s mother ship, all of it was amazing, and crisp and very, very pretty. Thank you Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, you may have just saved the summer.
GRADE – A-
Shrek the Third
Over the past few years kids CGI movies have become like any other genre of movie. Once upon a time one or two were released a year, Toy Story, Monster’s Inc., Shrek. Now they are all over the place and for a parent that enjoys going to movies they are a welcome addition to family time activities. Typically these movies are very formulaic and cookie cutter, every once in while one of these movies stands out as exceptional, either good or bad. Six years ago the original Shrek was released to critical acclaim and overwhelming box office success, three years later Shrek 2 was released and it broke all sorts of box office records, clearly this is a juggernaut franchise. Shrek the Third hit theaters last week and one would assume it academic that the third installment of this franchise would be a repeat of the previous two movies success, well if one were to do that one would be very wrong. I don’t know what else to say about Shrek the Third other than it was hugely disappointing.
From a formula stand point the movie had all the pieces in place, all the voice-actors came back, with the introduction of yet another large celebrity, this time it was Justin Timberlake, the movie featured many recognizable characters with the usual comedic twist, the narcoleptic sleeping beauty, the bungling merlin, King Arthur as a wimp. So the problem with the movie was not the formula it was simple a matter of execution or lack there of. The writers sat back on their previous two successes and got lazy. The jokes were ill-timed and redundant, even for potty-jokes, which by their nature are less about timing and more about being gross. The story was weak and unnecessarily dark; you are making a kids movie, there is no need to get all pretentious and attempt to make a serious story about the nature of villainy, just be what you are, a silly franchise featuring an Ogre anti-hero and a talking donkey, seriously that is all you need.
In the end Shrek the Third, fell well short of expectations. I am sure it will still make a staggering amount of money, but not nearly what it could have. If this is any indication of what the summer of sequels is going to be like I would just assume fast forward to Oscar Season.
GRADE - D
From a formula stand point the movie had all the pieces in place, all the voice-actors came back, with the introduction of yet another large celebrity, this time it was Justin Timberlake, the movie featured many recognizable characters with the usual comedic twist, the narcoleptic sleeping beauty, the bungling merlin, King Arthur as a wimp. So the problem with the movie was not the formula it was simple a matter of execution or lack there of. The writers sat back on their previous two successes and got lazy. The jokes were ill-timed and redundant, even for potty-jokes, which by their nature are less about timing and more about being gross. The story was weak and unnecessarily dark; you are making a kids movie, there is no need to get all pretentious and attempt to make a serious story about the nature of villainy, just be what you are, a silly franchise featuring an Ogre anti-hero and a talking donkey, seriously that is all you need.
In the end Shrek the Third, fell well short of expectations. I am sure it will still make a staggering amount of money, but not nearly what it could have. If this is any indication of what the summer of sequels is going to be like I would just assume fast forward to Oscar Season.
GRADE - D
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Spiderman 3
I have been putting this review off for a couple of reasons, mostly because when I am through I will have concluded that the Spiderman franchise would have been better off had this movie not been made, or at least been made a lot differently, also because other than one or two directorial decisions I am having a difficult time articulating exactly what my problem is with this movie and lastly because I was hoping to see the movie one more time before I had to write this review. Well enough procrastinating, here goes.
Spiderman 3 was disappointing in a way that hurts your heart. Not the kind of disappointment you feel from the Superbowl, or even the kind of disappointment you get from a highly regarded restaurant that doesn’t serve your favorite dessert, no this was more like the kind of disappointment that comes after you have spent the last couple of months working tirelessly on a school project only to receive a C or like waiting two years for the release of an amazing movie, starring amazing actors, with an amazing story, only to have the movie be everything but amazing.
In all fairness I must preface my next few comments by saying that I went into Spiderman 3 with perhaps unreasonably high expectations, but I think in the case of this franchise as with the other two franchises that released third installments this summer, Pirates of the Caribbean and Shrek, the expectations are only a result of tremendously positive experiences from the first two movies. There is no question that Spiderman and Spiderman 2 were ground braking pieces of cinema that proved comic movies don’t have to be niche films for comic geeks, but can be great movies for anyone and everyone. With all the build-up surrounding Spiderman 3 there was no reason to expect anything but greatness. Venom, Sandman, Hobb Goblin, Gwen Stacy, this movie was going to have it all, however therein lies the key flaw. Perchance this is the final movie under the direction of Sam Raimi that stars both Tobey and Kirsten, it felt like Sam tried to include every remaining fundamental element to the series in his potentially final film of the franchise. In the end it was just too much.
Story and character development were sacrificed in order to get stuff on screen, we knew nothing about Eddie Brock’s back story including how he ended up in New York and falling for Gwen Stacy. Even Gwen herself was sort of pushed into the story as one of Peter’s “lab partners” at school. Sandman comes out of nowhere as the guy that really killed Ben Parker, and Harry becomes the Hobb Goblin for a little while, then goes insane for a little while then comes to Peter’s aid during a huge final battle. It really was just too much. We did not need the Sandman at all and really could have done without Harry for the entire second half of the movie. Instead of focusing on Peter’s endless battle with trying to balance his own happiness with being responsible with the powers he had been given, we got a lot Peter interacting with all these different characters in different situations that really did not add anymore depth to the story. There was no reason to change the formula from the first two movies. One villain, Peter and Mary struggling to be happy, Peter struggling with his powers – this works, why change it now. This movie would have worked really well, if Harry disappeared after his big fight with Peter, if the extraterestial dark plasma that gives Spiderman his new powers drives Peter to be more eggressive and therefore he struggles between wanting to grow his relationship with MJ or move one with Gwen, something like that, instead we got this super hero, super villain, soup that just made things messy.
Don’t get me wrong the movie was not a complete waste, there were some very cool visuals and the actors are too good for the movie to just be terrible, it was not terrible, but some movies and directors I have to hold to a higher standard and based on past experience I have to hold Spiderman 3 is one of those movies.
GRADE - C
Spiderman 3 was disappointing in a way that hurts your heart. Not the kind of disappointment you feel from the Superbowl, or even the kind of disappointment you get from a highly regarded restaurant that doesn’t serve your favorite dessert, no this was more like the kind of disappointment that comes after you have spent the last couple of months working tirelessly on a school project only to receive a C or like waiting two years for the release of an amazing movie, starring amazing actors, with an amazing story, only to have the movie be everything but amazing.
In all fairness I must preface my next few comments by saying that I went into Spiderman 3 with perhaps unreasonably high expectations, but I think in the case of this franchise as with the other two franchises that released third installments this summer, Pirates of the Caribbean and Shrek, the expectations are only a result of tremendously positive experiences from the first two movies. There is no question that Spiderman and Spiderman 2 were ground braking pieces of cinema that proved comic movies don’t have to be niche films for comic geeks, but can be great movies for anyone and everyone. With all the build-up surrounding Spiderman 3 there was no reason to expect anything but greatness. Venom, Sandman, Hobb Goblin, Gwen Stacy, this movie was going to have it all, however therein lies the key flaw. Perchance this is the final movie under the direction of Sam Raimi that stars both Tobey and Kirsten, it felt like Sam tried to include every remaining fundamental element to the series in his potentially final film of the franchise. In the end it was just too much.
Story and character development were sacrificed in order to get stuff on screen, we knew nothing about Eddie Brock’s back story including how he ended up in New York and falling for Gwen Stacy. Even Gwen herself was sort of pushed into the story as one of Peter’s “lab partners” at school. Sandman comes out of nowhere as the guy that really killed Ben Parker, and Harry becomes the Hobb Goblin for a little while, then goes insane for a little while then comes to Peter’s aid during a huge final battle. It really was just too much. We did not need the Sandman at all and really could have done without Harry for the entire second half of the movie. Instead of focusing on Peter’s endless battle with trying to balance his own happiness with being responsible with the powers he had been given, we got a lot Peter interacting with all these different characters in different situations that really did not add anymore depth to the story. There was no reason to change the formula from the first two movies. One villain, Peter and Mary struggling to be happy, Peter struggling with his powers – this works, why change it now. This movie would have worked really well, if Harry disappeared after his big fight with Peter, if the extraterestial dark plasma that gives Spiderman his new powers drives Peter to be more eggressive and therefore he struggles between wanting to grow his relationship with MJ or move one with Gwen, something like that, instead we got this super hero, super villain, soup that just made things messy.
Don’t get me wrong the movie was not a complete waste, there were some very cool visuals and the actors are too good for the movie to just be terrible, it was not terrible, but some movies and directors I have to hold to a higher standard and based on past experience I have to hold Spiderman 3 is one of those movies.
GRADE - C
The Condemned
There is not whole lot better than Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones running around on a jungle trying to kill each other. Sometimes you just need to take step say lets not over think the room, Steve is a mean cuss and can bust open some heads, Vinnie is wise cracking Brit that is also capable of busting some heads we don’t need to dress this thing up a whole lot more than that. The Condemned is the story us ten different death row inmates who are given a chance at freedom by participating in an online video broadcast. The broadcast is off the inmates trying to kill each other in order to become the last one standing. The last one standing is given a full pardon and some cash to start their new life. Steve’s character, Jack Conrad, is hesistant to get involved in the game and only wants to find a way to get word back to his girlfriend. However once he accomplished that he dedicated himself to taking out Vinnie’s character, Ewan McStarley, because well Steve has to have someone to after in this movie and since he is the good guy and can’t very well go around killing his fellow convicts simply for the sake of survival.
Alright so the premise of the movie works and key character work, but were this movie stops being enjoyable is where most current action movie made is the country fall short, during the action sequences, particularly the fighting sequences, the director does this epileptic thing with camera where is starts moving all over the place in an erratic manner in no discernable pattern. Typical directors do this to hide whatever their actors lack in order to make the fights work, however in this movie there is nothing to hide, Steve may be old, but he can do all the fighting stuff, and Vinnie is a seasoned vet so I can’t believe the camera was compensating for him. I mean there was even a fight scene between Steve and Nathan Jones and even that scene was all crazy and wacky camera stuff. When you have people that can do that action, just shoot them doing the do, you don’t need to get overly sophisticated with the camera, just point and shoot.
When it comes to movies like this for me all they can do is hurt themselves. I make no apologies about the fact that I am an action movie junkie, I love them. It takes a lot for me to walk out of an action movie disappointed or upset, although it does happen; see Pathfinder here. However in the case of The Condemned, while I was not disappointed the wacky camera did leave a seriously bad taste in my mouth, along with the writers trying to give freaking Stone Cold Steve Austin a tender moment on the phone with his girl. Look Steve is a beer swilling, butt kicking, Texas red neck, don’t change that, it works. While I have seen worse so far this year, unfortunately The Condemned will not be breaking into the top of half of movies viewed this year.
GRADE - C
Alright so the premise of the movie works and key character work, but were this movie stops being enjoyable is where most current action movie made is the country fall short, during the action sequences, particularly the fighting sequences, the director does this epileptic thing with camera where is starts moving all over the place in an erratic manner in no discernable pattern. Typical directors do this to hide whatever their actors lack in order to make the fights work, however in this movie there is nothing to hide, Steve may be old, but he can do all the fighting stuff, and Vinnie is a seasoned vet so I can’t believe the camera was compensating for him. I mean there was even a fight scene between Steve and Nathan Jones and even that scene was all crazy and wacky camera stuff. When you have people that can do that action, just shoot them doing the do, you don’t need to get overly sophisticated with the camera, just point and shoot.
When it comes to movies like this for me all they can do is hurt themselves. I make no apologies about the fact that I am an action movie junkie, I love them. It takes a lot for me to walk out of an action movie disappointed or upset, although it does happen; see Pathfinder here. However in the case of The Condemned, while I was not disappointed the wacky camera did leave a seriously bad taste in my mouth, along with the writers trying to give freaking Stone Cold Steve Austin a tender moment on the phone with his girl. Look Steve is a beer swilling, butt kicking, Texas red neck, don’t change that, it works. While I have seen worse so far this year, unfortunately The Condemned will not be breaking into the top of half of movies viewed this year.
GRADE - C
Hot Fuzz
I do not like horror films at all, just not my genre, but I thought Shaun of the Dead was funny and very entertaining so when I saw the same guys that made that were doing a similar movie, but for the action genre I was all over it and very excited. Hot Fuzz is a comedic action movie about an over acheiving London Cop Sergeant Nicolas Angel, Simon Pegg, who is transfered to the most peaceful of London's suburbs where there hasn't been a murder in almost a decade or at least one hasn't been reported.
Edgar Wright's films are meant to be somewhat tongue and cheek commentaries are the elements that make up a genre. Hot Fuzz is a clear example of the director having fun with themes of the genre. The movie has everything any action movie should, the mismatch partnership between an experienced veterian cop and his younger overly zealous partner looking for some action, elaborate chase sequences both on foot and in car, even people two guns at the same time whilst jumping through the air. This movie had it all. It made it all that more enjoyable becuase the villians in the movie were a bunch of older residents of the town that conspired to keep things the way they were. So in the end you have a bunch of 60 something year old towns folk shooting it out with the cops. Just good stuff.
This is one of the those you go to watch and even though you are constantly reminded that you are watching a movie it is o.k. becuase you are enjoying the experience. Edgar Wright does a good job of balancing the moments of levity with the moments of tension in his films. Hot Fuzz was an ejoyable combination of laughs and ironic action. It won't win any awards, but it was still a lot of fun.
GRADE - B
Edgar Wright's films are meant to be somewhat tongue and cheek commentaries are the elements that make up a genre. Hot Fuzz is a clear example of the director having fun with themes of the genre. The movie has everything any action movie should, the mismatch partnership between an experienced veterian cop and his younger overly zealous partner looking for some action, elaborate chase sequences both on foot and in car, even people two guns at the same time whilst jumping through the air. This movie had it all. It made it all that more enjoyable becuase the villians in the movie were a bunch of older residents of the town that conspired to keep things the way they were. So in the end you have a bunch of 60 something year old towns folk shooting it out with the cops. Just good stuff.
This is one of the those you go to watch and even though you are constantly reminded that you are watching a movie it is o.k. becuase you are enjoying the experience. Edgar Wright does a good job of balancing the moments of levity with the moments of tension in his films. Hot Fuzz was an ejoyable combination of laughs and ironic action. It won't win any awards, but it was still a lot of fun.
GRADE - B
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Time Cop
Five for five, can you believe it. Mr. Van Damme is having the run of a life time. Another great movie, another great performance. And again fresh story idea. Now time travel has been done before, but the idea of enforcing time travel through the use of a Washington DC law enforcement agency now that's different. In Time Cop Van Damme plays Office Max Walker a Washington DC cop that gets recruited into a newly formed law enforcement organization that polices time travel and arrests anyone that attempts to visit the past in an attempt to change anything, especially for personal gain. Walker's wife and unborn child are killed the night before he joins the new agency. He has resisted the temptation to return to the past and save their lives, until the opportunity arises where he gets to stop the greedy Senator Aaron McComb, Ron Silver, who is trying to position himself in the past to make a fortune in the future to fund is Presidential campaign. By tracking down this Senator Van Damme gets the chance to save his wife.
This movie feautres a couple of gun battle and some mixed fighting action sequence that make use of both weapons and hand to hand combat. One particular scene of note include Van Damme and one of the random thugs in a knife fight, which came across as very cool on the film. The fight was choregraphed so that knives were used as almost miniture swords. There was a lot of clashing and clanging of the blades with the occasional slash or two. Unlike Hard Target the action in this movie was not staged as a deliberate fight scene or was set up more like Universal Soldier where all the fighting happens within the context the storyline. Not to say that this is wrong; it is worth noting becuase even though it does not a huge elaborate action sqeunce it does have some great special effects and some memorable moments, like appearing in the past right in front of an 18-wheeler.
This movie feautres a couple of gun battle and some mixed fighting action sequence that make use of both weapons and hand to hand combat. One particular scene of note include Van Damme and one of the random thugs in a knife fight, which came across as very cool on the film. The fight was choregraphed so that knives were used as almost miniture swords. There was a lot of clashing and clanging of the blades with the occasional slash or two. Unlike Hard Target the action in this movie was not staged as a deliberate fight scene or was set up more like Universal Soldier where all the fighting happens within the context the storyline. Not to say that this is wrong; it is worth noting becuase even though it does not a huge elaborate action sqeunce it does have some great special effects and some memorable moments, like appearing in the past right in front of an 18-wheeler.
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