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Reviews
Good Boy! (2003)
Overall, a cute movie with some mild crude humor.
I thought that the plot was pretty creative, as was the writing. Two or three jokes related to bodily functions, but mostly they were cute jokes with creative insight on what a dog might say to us if we could understand them. Also, some creative insight on what a dog's place is in this world and who is really in charge of who. Some of the acting was a little stale(no academy awards here), but most of the acting was good to very good. My test is the "suspension of dis-belief" test. Can I forget reality long enough to accept the story line and think of the actors as the characters they are portraying? The answer here was yes. The acting was good enough that I suspended my dis-belief and was able to enjoy the story line and the humor. My kids are 7 and 4 1/2 and they loved it. For them, I will almost surely end up buying it. I would give it a 7 out of 10.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
The violence went too far.
I, like the previous reviewer, needed a couple days to recover from the movie before I could write my review. I am certainly a person who believes that Jesus went through immense pain. However, I thought the scene with the whipping went way too far. A simple whipping with a bull whip is pain like you can not imagine. A bamboo switch like those used in the film is even worse. This is as far as I thought the movie should have gone. When that guard picked up the stick with nails in it, I thought "please do not show them using that on another human being." So when the guard put it down I was relieved. Only to be more horrified by the whip with the little metal bits on it. After the first stroke, when I saw what the result was, I couldn't bear to look. I listened to the continuing strokes, knowing what each was doing to Jesus, and counting along with them in Italian. When he got to 20 I thought "OK, its over." But on it went...25, 30, 35, 40. Finally it stopped. They are done right? Nope. They flip him over and start again from 1. And the way they (The Roman soldiers) were enjoying it. When I came out of the movie, I didn't hate Jews. But I wasn't too fond of Romans, and I truly hated Mel Gibson. I will not see another one of his movies, ever. This was a sick torture scene invented in his mind and goes far beyond what is in the bible. And, if you are a Christian, you believe the bible is the word of God, verbatim. No discussion, no interpretation. This goes far beyond the word of God and adds lots of speculation. How many time did Jesus fall? 3 in the bible, 6 on screen. There are other discrepancies which I will not go into. My point is that it should have eased off on the torture, and focused more on what was known to have happened to Jesus. If you enjoy watching the very lowest of humans torture another human in the most graphic of manners, then this is your movie. If you don't I would suggest that when they start hitting Jesus with the bamboo, leave the theater to go to the bathroom and don't come back for at least 10 minutes. The rest of the movie, overall, was very good. I am sorry he ruined it with his vision of a beating and torture that went far beyond reasonable.
X-Men (2000)
Excellent Effects, disappointing plot.
I was a big X-Men fan and was excited to see the movie being released (especially with Patrick Stewart). I was underimpressed with the storyline (there were many better ones to choose from in the comic), although there were some good plot twists. I liked the effects and makeup (costumes), but felt that they should have been more true to the comic. Overall, I would recommend this movie to sci-fi lovers, but warn X-Men fans that they will be slightly disappointed. I am not sure yet whether I want to have this movie in my collection.