Change Your Image
Trevor-6
Reviews
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Incomplete but effective biography
Ron Howard directs this admittedly incomplete biography of mathematician John Forbes Nash (Russell Crowe), from his years at Princeton, to his descent into madness and his recovery. Crowe does great work, though his fidgeting is difficult to watch at times, and Connelly, Bettany and Harris support him perfectly. Unlike most biographies, the movie doesn't come off as a series of vignettes from the subject's life, it's all tied together very nicely and cleanly. It's a fascinating story, no matter how much of it was left out, though it may not be Best Picture material, but then few movies are.
The Time Machine (2002)
Not really an improvement over the original...
It's not really an improvement over George Pal's 1960 film, except for the vastly superior effects, but the 1978 made-for-TV version is practically an embarrassment next to this updated take on H.G. Wells' classic story. Directed by Wells' great-grandson Simon Wells, whose previous experience is solely non-Disney animation like Prince of Egypt, the story follows Professor Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) as he first travels back in time to try to save the life of his fiancée (Sienna Guillory), and then forward in time to find out why he failed. Most of the movie takes place some 800,000 years in the future, when humanity has been divided into two sects, the peace loving Eloi and the Morlocks, who hunt the Eloi for food. I found it a little hard to believe that so many New York City artifacts survived all those centuries (the Eloi use them to teach their children English), but I was willing to let it all slide because the movie was otherwise enjoyable. Don't listen to the critics, if you like science-fiction, you'll probably enjoy The Time Machine.
Resident Evil (2002)
Yet another entry in the video game to movie sweepstakes...
Yet another entry in the video game to movie sweepstakes. Last year's Tomb Raider movie made a lot of money, but critics weren't kind (not that that matters), and Resident Evil looks to be in the same boat. Milla Jovovich stars as a temporary amnesiac who's dragged into an underground laboratory to help shut down a maniacal super computer, along with her husband (Eric Mabius) and a cop who happened to be around when she was grabbed by a special military unit, which includes Michelle Rodriguez, who needs to find at least one role where she isn't constantly angry. Directed by guilty pleasure specialist Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon), Evil borrows a lot from other movies, which is probably a fault of the game and not the screenplay. You can see bits of last year's 13 Ghosts (killer building), as well as Frankenstein (man-made monster), Night of the Living Dead (zombies) and even Speed (there's a scene on an underground train where one person wants to go faster and another shouts that it would make them fly off the tracks, and I thought to myself that that's exactly what happened in the 1994 thriller), among others. Most of those comparisons can only be made after the movie's over, since the action rarely lets up. Originality has never been important to science fiction/horror/action movies, they all happily feed off of their elders, so I can't really hold that against this movie. It's good fun and would make a good double bill with Tomb Raider (perhaps Jovovich or Rodriguez could join Angelina Jolie for the inevitable sequel).
Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)
Great title, lousy movie
I think I've discovered why Troma Studios has never had a major hit. They're clearly aiming for the straight faced comedy of movies like Airplane!, but they end up not even on par with the unintentional comedy of movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space. Surf Nazis Must Die is an excellent example of this, it's a movie that could have been so much more than it is. The set up is promising: Los Angeles, in the not to distant future, immediately after a devastating earthquake, is overrun by gangs who are fighting between themselves for control of the beaches. The Nazis, run by a guy named Adolf (Barry Brenner) and his psycho girlfriend Eva, are in position to win the battle, until they kill the son of Eleanor Washington (Gail Neely). She just lost her house in the earthquake and is living in a home with the world's most irritating nurse, and this is the last straw. Like all Troma films, Surf Nazis has a lot of violence and cruelty, most of which is completely gratuitous, and things are going along swimmingly until you realize that this movie isn't funny at all. They aren't even trying. With these characters and situations, the movie could have been a classic comedy, but as it is it's just a cool title. But maybe Troma is happy with that.
The Black Hole (1979)
This movie deserves it's bomb status.
I rented the 20th Anniversary edition of this tape, just to be sure to get the absolute best version available of one of Disney's most expensive flops ever. Unfortunately, the only special feature is the fact that it's in widescreen. The cover sleeve admirably admits that this movie only exists because Disney wanted to capitalize on the success of Star Wars, but it also rats on Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture for doing the same thing. It goes on and on about how ground breaking and impressive it was in 1979, and how it used every available technology to create it's 550 effect shots. But this is one of those cases where just because you can, it doesn't mean you should. The story isn't bad - a mad scientist (Schell) kills his entire crew, turns them into robots to serve him loyally and to live out his ultimate plan, to drive his massive ship directly into a black hole. The rest of the cast stumbles upon the ship, boards it and tries to muck everything up. Just like every sci-fi movie of that era, there's a cute robot that gets irritating fast. The effects can only be described as interesting... for their day. I'm sure it laid the ground work for the seamless effects we see today, but I refuse to be impressed by things I've seen done better just because they came first. Lousy performances by everyone except Schell, awful dialogue and scenes of the robots acting very human made me quickly realize that this movie deserves it's bomb status.
A Bucket of Blood (1995)
Ghoulish and witty, surprisingly entertaining
This remake of Roger Corman's 1959 film is even better than 1995's Sawbones. The wit overshadows the gruesome (though somewhat predictable) plot and some clever casting helps move things along. Anthony Michael Hall is better than ever here and Justine Bateman's phoney accent suits her well. Too much nudity almost ruins this comedy (not horror) but overall, A Bucket of Blood is one nifty flick.