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Review The 5th Commandment Movie 2008

| Thursday, December 4, 2008

If for no other reason one should view this movie as a perfect example one two things. First being why you should not let an actor of questionable talent write, produce, and star in his own film. Second would be how not to make a movie...period. I suppose I'll give Rick Yune an "A" for effort seeing as how he wrote the story, produced the film, and starred in it. That's got to take a lot of work. That does not, however, excuse his lackluster performance and the stinted dialogue of the lead and pretty much all characters. Even Keith David, a talented character actor who almost always seems to pick lousy roles, couldn't do much even with the rather limited time he's on screen. In the time Yune spent putting his name all over this thing he could've done things like...oh, I don't know...learned how work with a fight choreographer. The young Chance, played by the ridiculously-named-but-very-talented young martial artist Boo Boo Stewart, wastes his time impressing with his skills early. Then Yune pitches all of that out the window by displaying the martial arts skills of a bag of hammers. What action sequences there are do not come off as anything special and some almost yawn-inducing. Sadly this movie could have been a showcase for the potential of more than just Yune, but it trips out of the gate and just continues falling farther and farther back until you don't even care how it ends. Well, at least I didn't

Review Merlin And The War Of The Dragons Movie 2008

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Theasylum.cc Directed By Mark Atkins, Starring Jurgen Prochnow Dragons are beloved by the film watchers , They have a mystique that takes us away from Wall Street and Bail Outs. The dragons are depicted awesomely , CGI never looked so good in a film, Congrats to Tiny Juggernaut-again. The acting brings you in to this time of past, No actor let us down with unreal emoting. Jurgen Prochnow , Of DUNE fame; Could have phoned in his performance, BUT Prochnow does a great job as Mage and Mentor to Merlin. Great cover art, Great acting and let's face it you picked because of the dragons and the unusual way they exist is plausible. Whenever a film from The Merlin/King Arthur school is released we wonder if people go back to the source, Read a book or seek out earlier Knights Of The Round Table movie/TV fare.

Review Redemption Movie 2008

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It is going to be difficult to maintain the exceptional standards "24" has set over the years, however this feature length episode doesn't quite deliver as hoped. Re-worked formulas shows lack of creative imagination, something previous Seasons have (mostly) avoided. The script isn't as sharp as normal, possibly targeted at a less astute audience, and the characters lack subtlety. Too many bullets miraculously missing Jack and a sense of deja-vu. Whilst Robert Carlyle puts in a very credible performance, less believable is the UN Aid worker who is so crassly portrayed. Hopefully Season 7 will see improvement.

Review MR 73 Movie 2008

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A couple of years ago, Mr. Marchant delivered 36 Quai Des Orfèvres (basically is the address of the Paris police department); one of the best and most complex cop movies I ever saw; a great film but not perfect. It was not as realistic as I expected; cops were ambitious but no so dirt and the end felt really forced. With MR 73 the realism is all there and if the movie lacks the continuous action of the first one, it improves dramatically aside from a few clichés. The pace however is not Dirty Harry or Lethal Weapon. It is not even Righteous Kill but it is far better than all of them. Based on real and quite tragic events, the story introduces several characters getting related as the events progress. Louis, a drunken and completely finished cop (thanks to tragic family accident and the moral remorse of his own sins). There is a serial killer on the loose (plus other getting out of jail), a few very corrupt cops and a bunch of people more worried on getting rid of problems that to hold the law or protect people. There is not a hint of humor in the movie; in fact it is really terrifying that this tribe of monsters is there to protect us. Giving up more will affect the complex of the narrative. Let's simple state that the end is far more accomplish than the previous movie and the intensity of the situations takes the breath away. A few minutes less could probably had improve the pace, but just because some moments are difficult to bear. Great movie, but aside from the cars there is nothing comparable to American cop movies.

Review Changeling Movie 2008

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Changeling - In 1928, Single mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) returns home one day to discover her nine-year-old son, Walter, is missing. She calls the police and, after enduring a grueling 24 hours, they search for her son. But the boy they return to her is not her son. After confronting corrupt city authorities, Collins is vilified as an unfit mother and sent to an asylum.

This is a grueling film to watch. I have not felt this hideous since North Country, a film which also dealt with misogyny within the power structure. Women are treated as fragile, emotional, and not believable. This film tackles corruption to boot, as the LAPD is accused of being a gang of thugs that answer to no one. Eastwood is old school with the violence, understanding that the mind can fill in the very brutal gaps.

Angelina Jolie delivers another great performance. But unlike A Mighty Heart, this film actually deserves her presence. I don't think she really should have so much press coverage, but there is definitely reason for her acclaim as an actress. The situation her character goes through is so surreal and the film captures it perfectly. It gives you chills from the second Christine is given this pretender to raise and rarely lets up. And if for one moment you tell yourself "It's just a movie" as I tried to, this s*** actually happened. Characters were composited or changed, a disclaimer at the end states, but the events were the same.

An odd praise goes out to Jason Butler Harner, who plays Gordon Northcott, a kidnapper and murderer of many children. He has played one of the monsters of everyone's nightmares to perfection. Also of note is Jeffrey Donovan for his portrayal of J. J. Jones, corruption personified. Jones is a man able to whisk people away to asylums with no need of warrants. Scary indeed.

Changeling shares a theme with several of Clint Eastwood's other films. Unforgiven and Flags of Our Fathers come most readily to mind. His lesson concerns truth and lies, and exposing the hypocrisy of falsehoods for want of the truth. The truth is rarely pretty, but generally preferable to lies, and will often come to surface, if given enough time. I doubt I will watch this struggle for truth for a long time to come (it's not one for casual viewing), but it's a very good film.

Review Open Season 2 Movie 2008

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First part the movie is ok for me. So when sitting down for the second part, it was a fresh animated movie I was venturing into. The movie started off O.K. and the initial jokes would maybe bring a smile or two. But as the story moved forward, the dialogs got wittier and wittier. So much, that I actually paused the movie in between 2-3 times and had to take a minute to end my laughter. The Owl-like character, whose name evade my memory now, had the best lines put out for him.

The art direction is of a medium quality- not very good and not very bad. Also missing at times, were the facial expressions, which could very well be seen in Disney movies. Although Disney movies go over the top with the sense of caring and motions in between characters, which sometimes makes me puke, Open Season 2 keeps it at a proper place by not going overboard with it. It has a good pace, but too much for little kids to keep up at times. So maybe, I guess the movie makers missed the point in between as to which age group are they actually targeting.

To summarize it all, the movie is good and very much watchable if u keep patience for the initial few minutes and let the movie lead you to better moments ahead.

Recommended! Especially, for all those who like to listen to each and every dialogs. My personal favorite was the one where the conversation is about women grabbing Mr. Weenie and the dogs reacting with enthusiasm in listening to it

Review Open Season Movie 2006

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I'd have to agree with the critics on this one. When you release so many CGI movies with talking animals, there is a point at which mediocrity becomes common place. Open Season is no exception.

It seems to me that a lot of these movies released this past year revolve around this basic formula. 1) A plot involving talking animals. 2) Hire celebrities to do the voice acting (need at least one comedian). 3) Have a main character and an annoying obnoxious sidekick. 4) Have some simple plot in which the main characters are on a journey and have to reach from point A to point B.

When watching Open Season, I couldn't help but notice the parallels to Shrek. Boog (the bear) = Shrek, and Elliot (the deer) = Donkey. Need voice actors? Easy, let's hire two comedians (Mike Myers & Eddie Murphy vs Martin Lawrence & Ashton Kutcher). Plot? Well, let's just make them stranded somewhere and they have to reach from point A to point B. In this case, from the forest to Boog's old home. Of course, I could make the same case with Finding Nemo (comedians Albert Brooks & Ellen DeGeneres, main character and sidekick, travel from point A to point B plot).

Now don't get me wrong, I love Shrek and Finding Nemo. The problem is that when you have two great movies like these released previously, you can't help but notice how much Open Season recycles from previous movies. Open Season lacks any emotional charm or comedic originality. Another problem I had is that a lot of the jokes are based on clichés and stereotypes (Scottish squirrels? Male deers = high school jocks? Ducks = French resistance? Female skunks = black women?).

If there's any redeeming value in this film, it would be the fact that I watched it in IMAX 3D. It looks amazing. Wearing the 3D glasses, I could see each individual patch of fur on Boog's back and the characters literally came out from the screen.

Is this movie good for the kids? Yes. It had some laughs in it and it does bring about a moral message about the preservation of wildlife. It's a good way to kill and hour and a half. But don't expect to see anything new or original in this film.