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steve-ballantyne
Bewertungen
Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
It took three tries to do the first film justice
When Die Hard came out, we hadn't seem anything like it. One loud mouth cop against the bad guys (where bad guys are unstoppable international terrorists).
Oddly enough, every sequel since has carried the same theme. A bunch of foreign dudes with a lot of henchmen and a slew of artillery decide to rip off a bunch of money. And somehow, just somehow, we know that John McClain is going to stop them. We know he's going to get beat up a little bit. He will probably have a fist fight or two. Things will explode. You get the idea. Yet, the past two Die Hard films have left me limp. When the credits rolled at Die Hard 2 I thought "well there goes the franchise!". When I was done with Die Hard 3 I thought, "great, we turned John McClain into a buddy-cop series".
But Die Hard 4 was special. The director seemed to encapsulate what we liked about the first film. John is just a cop who seems to get himself into a nasty situation. He bleeds, he hurts, he nearly passes out. But it's John against the bad guys, and he's gotta do what he's gotta do. And we are with him on this adventure.
Expect to see a lot of "digital John". Obviously Bruno can't take a spill like he used to. Expect some cheesy one-liners when bad guys get what they had coming. Expect John to have absolutely no remorse. Expect to stand up and cheer, because John McClain is back.
There were some inconsistencies with this film. Some plot flaws. Even a bad cameo (sorry Kevin Smith). And heck, some plain out cheesy expected results. Yet it still stands out as the best action movie I have seen in the past couple of years, so you allow it. I give it a full 9 and 1/4 out of ten stars. Welcome back John. We actually look forward to Die Hard 5.
28 Weeks Later (2007)
An excellent play on our fears, a "zombie film" for modern time
Many argue that they just don't make good zombie movies any more. When George Romero created his classic movie about the common man becoming the undead, he was making a political statement. He brought race, gender, and the Vietnam war all into a sick and horrifying satire and made you digest it until the credits rolled.
Somehow this film managed to draw you in a similar way. It seemed that the director was able to bottle up some of our worst imaginable nightmares and feed them to us with a hand-held camera on foot.
Some great directorial ploys which work very well in this film: Empty streets - nothing is creepier than seeing people tread around a completely dead city which once thrived with life. Crowded dark streets - we know how people react in a panic situation (and it was painful to watch). Confronting loved ones - I don't want to spoil the whole film if you haven't seen it ... but what a set up! Military loses control - the American military is sure that they are in control, but they slip their grip and we are all in danger. Seeing horrors unfold from a child's eyes - Most of this film takes place around a young boy who is just old enough to know what's going on, but not quite man enough to control the situation. You are in constant fear that he's going to be next. Musical score - rather than plug a lousy soundtrack, this film used non-vocal scores to push your buttons and give you the willies (which was quite effective).
I would sincerely like to see a follow up to this film, if the same writers, directors, etc. are all involved. A highly underrated success, which deserves multiple watchings.
Transformers (2007)
Badly paced, and confused about it's audience
When I was merely a boy, my folks took me out to see the animated Transformers movie. My mother will still tell you that it was "awkward" to kill off the hero in a movie that was obviously targeted for children.
The modern day live action remake seemed just as awkward to me. The theater ran "R" rated previews for this film, even though it was a PG-13 movie. One I would later learn was linked to this film for it's audience. The humor in the movie went from cornball cartoon references "there's definitely more to you - than meets the eye" - to masturbation humor - without skipping a beat. It seems that they just couldn't decide who to market this to, so they left it open to several audiences. Rather than having wide appeal, it proved awkward for kids and adults alike.
The drama and bad comedy was poorly edited to space out what everyone wanted to see - robot fighting. When the robots finally went on screen and started ripping each other up, the action was so fast that the crummy film running through the projector in the theater just wasn't fast enough to keep up. It seems I will have to rent the DVD in a couple of months to see what was really going on the whole time. All I remember is the occasional explosion, snarling, and emotive robot faces.
There was plenty of good talent here - and I can't say that it was wasted. Yet the character development was just lacking. You were expected to root for the soldier who wanted to get home to his young wife and daughter. But you weren't supposed to care when the loaner was ripped apart. He was obviously invented solely to play a victim. Did anyone care that the "hot love interest" of the lead character had a troubled past and a daddy that taught her how to hot-wire cars? The only black robot was ripped in half and nobody blinked. I thought Tyrese would be next - but splitting a human in half would have upset any kids that came to see this. Robot's are okay to kill off, because they don't have souls.
I could go on - but fan-boys will sink this like they do every honest review that gets written here. So let me roll off a few more things that bothered me.
* Stop putting Bernie Mack in everything. * Bumblebee was a Volkswagen Beetle. Not a lame ass Camero. * Do bad-ass robots really like teenagers to dry-hump on their hoods? * Why was Megatron only in the film for a couple minutes? Does he turn into a gun ... or anything? Or is he always a big stupid robot?
I would like to think that in a couple of years, we will see a Transformers 2 made with a new director. Sorry Michael Bay.
Brothers & Sisters (2006)
Slow Moving, Highly Predictable Evening Soap
My wife and I watched this show after several people recommended it to us. I was not the least bit impressed. The writing and dialogue on this show are awful. Predictable outcomes to every situation leave you wondering what the characters are thinking (if I saw it coming, why didn't they?). Nothing that happens in this show warrants its 60 minute running time. A waste of good talents from actors who have proved themselves in film and TV careers before coming to this show. It will likely be cancelled due to lack of interest, but develop an eager fan base consisting predominantly of women who just want to watch something "smarter" than Desperate Housewives.