ballet_man Reviews

Roll Bounce (2005)

Greatest movie I've ever seen

[10/10 · 3 April 2006]

I was expecting it to be good, but not his good. Sweetness is the greatest quasi-antagonist ever. Wow.

It was a genuinely funny film with a ton of quotable one-liners, memorable moments, incredible skate choreography, a few serious moments with some serious acting to boot. Bow Wow has come a long way as an actor with this film. I think he may be the next Denzel Washington. The kid has some serious untapped talent.

Anyway, I'd watch it again, and I don't re-watch movies very often. Can you beat a combination like rollerskating, disco/funk music and 1978? I don't think so.

The Collectors (2003 Video)

low budget martial arts/sci-fi with a nice preachy twist

[6/10 · 18 October 2005]

This movie was fun to watch for personal reasons. For one, my taekwondo teacher plays an extra and it was a kick to see him beaten so easily in the movie. For such a low budget film it was surprisingly well done. And while I found much of the fight choreography a bit contrived, there are still quite a few innovative stand-up sequences to be seen, featuring some of the biggest names in the Utah martial arts community in various styles including taekwondo, capoeira, muay thai, karate and jujuitsu.

The story revolves around former kickboxer Logan Despain, a bitter young man, paralyzed from the waist down. After trying out a virtual reality type fighting game, Logan finds himself pitted against an onslaught of kung-fu brawlers including "the collectors" themselves. (think about a cross between Agent Smith from "the Matrix" and Vin Diesel times two)

While the movie is consistently action packed, it takes a number of well placed time outs (in the form of flashbacks) to tell a heartfelt story with a moral. Aside from stylized martial arts violence, there is virtually no offensive material to be found in the film. The DVD includes commentaries, out-takes and promos for various martial arts schools. Like I said, it's low budget and laughable at times, but it was fun to watch and never boring.