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Reviews
Firewall (2006)
Don't encourage them by spending money to see this crap.
This mess is awful. Harrison Ford is way too old for this role. Schwartzenegger and Stallone are out of the game and this mook is still getting cast as an action hero? Looking all of his 64 years and using both of his facial expressions, frowning and suffering, he dispatches much younger villains as usual. Ridiculous. Air Force One was a stretch almost ten years ago; no way he can pull it off today.
There is better dialog in your average 50's crime movie. When the chief villain holds the antidote to save his son, ole Harrison sweet talks him into giving it up by saying please about four times.
And don't expect to be impressed by the use of high tech to resolve things, just because its called "Firewall", a name that has nothing to do with the movie. It's relatively low tech and not believable at all. I would say more but I don't want to put a spoiler in here. The plot is preposterous and full of holes no self respecting firewall would have.
Worse yet is some loud, obnoxious "suspense" music unparalleled since Vincent Price quit trying to scare people. I guess when editing this disaster and realizing the actors, script and direction were generating zero suspense, you resort to what you have to. Between the annoying music and lousy dialog, if you just have to watch this some day on cable, do it with the sound off.
I love movies like The Gingerbread Man that use rain almost like a character in the movie. It rains almost all the time in this thing. Why? Because it is set in Seattle! Shame to see water wasted like this.
Alan Arkin is given nothing to work with, 70 year old Robert Forster is no more believable than our Leading Old Fart as a bank dick, and Robert Patrick showed more emotion in Terminator II.
All I can figure is that somebody had a contract to fulfill and threw this one together with a director that hasn't done anything impressive in a 30 year career, a has-been over-age action hero, the notoriety of Virginia Madsen's recent Oscar, and a catchy title. We cannot contribute to letting a movie like this make money or we are encouraging them to do it again. I truly regret the $4.50 I paid for a matinée at a second run house on a rainy day to suffer through this thing.
If they have to make more geriatric action movies, at least give us Bruce Willis' sense of humor or Tommy Lee Jones' intensity to work with. Even Sam Jackson's one trick pony if they can set it near some golf course he wants to play.
And yet I can see their problem. Hard to visualize most of the young "talent" pulling it off. Vin Diesel has wasted his promise on junk, leaving the likes of Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Colin Farrel (Alexander, anyone?), Heath Ledger (smooch, smooch) and Orlando Bloom to work with. The best they can come up with is a former professional wrestler, The Rock, and he cuts all those guys. Give me a break.
Dancing with Danger (1994)
Better than that, especially the music.
They actually do a pretty good job of setting up a noir atmosphere, thanks in no small part to the music. Granted, the story/script is average TV slasher/mystery. Its all about atmoshpere and that music! Wish I could find the soundtrack.
Try to watch it on a cold rainy day or night and see if you don't catch the mood and enjoy it!
About Schmidt (2002)
I must be missing something
this is the most BORING movie I've seen in a long time. and I am recently retired so I know the subject matter pretty well. Jack said at the Golden Globes that he thought they made a comedy. just confirms that he was doped up at that event.
too few laughs and way too many closeups of OLD Jack. if you wanna see him do a better acting job of adjusting to retirement, go rent The Pledge. and it is a far more interesting movie, too.
The Pledge (2001)
Soooo much better than About Schmidt
can't believe the accolades Jack is getting for that dog, especially when he has already done the retirement thing so much better and in a so much more interesting movie here. save yourself a few bucks and rent this one instead going to see About Schmidt.
The Thing from Another World (1951)
Unexpected quality and genuine suspense.
Most of us have a movie or TV show that triggered nightmares when we were a child. This was mine. I saw it in a darkened theater when I was six years old, and it had just been released. You know the rest of that story.
Upon more recent and mature viewing, I was impressed with the relative quality of the production, the tightness of the script, and the comparative restraint of the melodrama, compared to its s-f peers.
It builds real suspense without resorting to the overdramatization so common in similar stories. I am not going into the details of the movie, but it is the best of the flying saucer survivor movies of its era. The isolated antarctic setting contributes to the sense of desperation and suspense that builds as the movie proceeds.
I haven't seen the eighties remake with Kurt Russell, but I doubt that it compares very well to this original.
Pitch Black (2000)
Top ten sci-fi, protagonist second only to the original Alien.
This is one of the ten best sci-fi films, with an intelligent premise and a protagonist rivaled only by Ripley in the original Alien (the best sci-fi ever). Vin Diesel makes his potential clear, and we will hear more and more of him. I could rave on and on about his performance here.
But there is much more to this movie, once you get past Diesel's dominating performance. Tight editing, unique use of cinematography, and suspense second only to (need I say it?) the original Alien!
Pitch Black (2000)
Top ten sci-fi, protagonist second only to the original Alien.
This is one of the ten best sci-fi films, with an intelligent premise and a protagonist rivaled only by Ripley in the original Alien (the best sci-fi ever). Vin Diesel makes his potential clear, and we will hear more and more of him. I could rave on and on about his performance here.
But there is much more to this movie, once you get past Diesel's dominating performance. Tight editing, unique use of cinematography, and suspense second only to (need I say it?) the original Alien!