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Reviews
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Would have been much better without Will
I, and everyone in the theater, laughed a bunch through the first 3/4 of the movie, but when the Will Ferrell sequences came on the theater was silent. Overall it was a good movie. There were a few too many not so funny Vince rants and a couple slow spots beyond the Will sequences but there were a lot of great gags. There were several very subtle things that were done which really added to the humor.
The last 15 or so minutes almost ruined the movie with the long and unfunny Will Ferrell sequences which felt like they ran for hours. Putting something that bad at the end of the movie is almost enough to make you forget about the good first 3/4 of the movie.
Wedding Crashers without Ferrell rates 8.5 but with him it drops it to a 6.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Sky Captn and the 1.75 hour Star Wars series synopsis
Where to start? If you like eye candy alone then this movie has that. Sky Captain boasts a cast that provides poor performances. The story has many flaws including timeline issues. Most of it is an amazing parallel to the Star Wars series with a large portion of it mapping to Empire Strikes Back. Luke (Sky Captn), Leia (Polly), Han Solo (Dex), Lando (Frankie), Darth Vader, and even Yoda like characters are all hear. There's the droids, At-Ats, Cloud City, and even a Death Star of sorts fathered by a mad emperor type character. Originality is definitely a zero with this script. The visuals were decent but had a flatness of sorts to them. Considering how this film was made (all CGI except the actors) it is an interesting step but probably not in the right direction. I'd really like to see more movies with a well developed plot and characters rather than merely eye candy.
The Transporter (2002)
a good action movie
Like most true action movies this one had virtually no plot and a lot of action scenes. The action scenes in this movie were a little different from the standard fare which is what made this a good "ride". The opening car chase scene could have been really awesome if filmed differently but the rest of the action and fight sequences were very good.
It isn't an Oscar contender so don't expect a story, much less an elaborate one that goes into extensive details about every thing that happens. Most action movies don't have a story outside of "here's a bad guy, here's a hero foiling the bad guy, many people and things get damaged, destroyed, and/or killed along the way, The End". This isn't any different.
It definitely wasn't near as good as The Professional nor was it really that type of movie. It definitely was better than The Fifth Element which wasn't worth the celluloid it was distributed on. I liked this film a little better than xXx and I liked xXx.
Signs (2002)
Sign of a bad movie
The basic premise of an alien invasion from one family's point of view is a potentially interesting spin. Signs was billed as a 'War of the Worlds' type of film and that's probably an unfair comparison. M. Night missed many of things that made 'War of the Worlds' among others such good stories, letting the viewers use their own imagination to create the anxieties. It's a shame that we continue to see this type of screen play that tells you every step of the way what is going to happen in the next scene and keeps you from being engrossed in the story. As for the ending, it is very contrived, but thankfully it did end.
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Awful doesn't begin to describe it
This movie was terrible. It was essentially a movie about slavery and little else. There is no logical reason for the premise of this remake. In the original, the humans couldn't talk and were essentially disorganized savages creating a more plausible basis for the movie. In this one they are merely weaker and presumably more stupid. The Apes seemed to continually shift between the intelligent creatures to primitive apes lending even less credibility to the plot.
Some of the costumes were very well done and some looked only marginally different from the original movie. The effects were ok by today's standards but subpar for what this films tries to bill itself up to be.
The Mummy Returns (2001)
Saddly the first one was far better
The only thing this movie had that was even remotely interesting was how it ties the plot together.
The CGI was worse than the original. The acting was never that good. Plus, the jokes were recycled.
If it were free, maybe it would be worth seeing.
Shrek (2001)
Not as good as everyone says
Shrek is full of too many tired jokes that have been featured in just about every Mike Myers movie. In fairness there were one or two new jokes in this movie but they weren't that funny.
I was looking forward to the "great advances" in animation that this movie had made. To be honest I've seen better overall animation in a PC Video game. The 3D-ish characters were well done but they overlayed on painfully obvious 2D backgrounds that resembled paintings rather than animation. This is almost comparable to what Walt Disney did in the 40's its just that he didn't use the computer to create everything. Toy Story was a much better animation advance than Shrek as everything in it was an integrated design.
If you like bodily function jokes or Mike Myers a lot (or you're under the age of 12) Shrek would be a great movie for you. Otherwise, stay away from this one.
Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)
not a bad movie
This was a decent action flick albeit a bit drug out. An action flick is not suppose to have a believable plot or much depth just a lot of good action that goes together well. This movie fit the mold. Unfortunately, the middle of the movie spent far too long trying to develop the non-existent plot and secondary character backgrounds that added no value. I'd have rated this movie higher if a good chunk of the middle were replaced with more story pertinent details or omitted entirely. It just detracted from the movie as a whole.
End of Days (1999)
End of Days screwed me out of $8
I didn't think Arnie could do a film worse than the Last Action Hero, was I wrong.
Mostly lame action sequences definitely didn't save this film which lacked acting, dialog, or a fluid plot. I guess some of the scene and the camera work was OK. If you like the random bare breast shot there were several that just seemed to be thrown in there because they could.
Even for free this movie (if you want to call it that) is a rip-off!