ryanvance Reviews

We Bought a Zoo (2011)

Not a great family movie, full of heart but does not quite deliver

[5/10 · 13 November 2012]

There are two reasons this film did not work for me. First off, for a movie that surely looks to be marketed to kids under 12, this one really misses the mark. There is a fair amount of curse words which is totally inappropriate, plus the easter bunny comment was not necessary either. The film was very slow and much of the dialog was over the head of the viewers under 12.

Second, this was a very typical Hollywood, feel good, cliché production. The believability factor was totally out of wack. Here goes-How could an unemployed person with two kids afford to buy a zoo in Southern California? Who is paying for the staff and upkeep of the animals? Why would the property listing not include a mention of the zoo? They list if the property has ceiling fans, but not a wild animal park? How could someone finance the complete restoration of the park? remember he is unemployed. Why would his late wife put the secret financial documents in a sweatshirt pocket? When snakes escape they do not congregate in the driveway.

The setting of the film was breathtaking, I wish they would have had a better shot of the whole property. Visually the film felt disconnected, the house, the park, the restaurant, all of the buildings. This just amplified the unbelievability rating for me.

Matt Damon did a fine job with the screenplay but I don't think he was the right actor for the part. The girl was adorable, his son's character was typical bad attitude teen turned dad's best bud. Overall it was somewhat boring, not an animal movie, not a kids movie. Kind of a love story maybe?

The Thing (I) (2011)

Unbelievably true to Carpenter's Classic

[17 October 2011]

The film is set in 1982 and this is very accurately portrayed, it is clear that the intent of the film was set as a true companion to the 1982 original. I call the 1982 film "the original", because the 1951 version titled "The Thing from Another Planet", was only loosely based on the short story; Who Goes There? Carpenter's film, follows the intent of the short story very closely, character names and all. Interestingly, after having to wait for the delayed opening, I had a chance to view the trailer and 2.5 minute teaser very closely. The are a couple of scenes that appear to have been removed from the final film. As the teaser has the character Adam stating "someone was attacked", and Dr. Halvorson responds "clearly we are all here". This discussion did not happen in the film. Why is this important? My main gripe about the film, is that it all moved too fast, there was little time in which the characters, and therefore the audience, was allowed to ponder just who was the thing? This eliminates much of the paranoia developed with the 1982 film, and ultimately makes the 2011 film, much less scary. In the original, there was 10-15 minutes of which no one knew who the thing was. This paranoia of not knowing was totally missing in the new film. Other than this large storytelling snafu, the film was great. I enjoyed the actors, the main character Kate Lloyd was great. The supporting actors were good. And the production design was perfect, again a brilliant tribute to the original. Ultimately I did enjoy the film very much, the last 10 minutes makes the film worth watching. I can't wait to see the Blu-Ray version, maybe we can see that missing meeting and other scenes that were removed in post-production.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

This is a good film, solid story with a plot. You can't beat the CGI.

[10/10 · 5 July 2011]

The movie is extremely entertaining, and a visual masterpiece. Yes I said masterpiece. It does move the bar to the next level visually. So unless you are just another hater (Bay, Transformers, sci-fi, whatever) you will enjoy the film. It is long, but it goes by very fast. Although there are some points in the story that seem to drag a bit. It is not perfect by any means. It is not a film for the Hollywood film critics either. I am sure most of them hated it and the first two films as well.

But all that aside. The story is very well played out, a few twists, lots of action. All of the characters (human and alien robots) are accounted for, except for Meagan Fox of course but her replacement does a fine job. The new characters, Sentinel Prime, Shockwave, Lazerbeak and the Wreckers are all awesome. You can nit pick the small stuff, there are a few plot holes, the dialog is not always flowing with the story. But overall it was very enjoyable. Everyone in the cinema applauded at the end of the film, so if you are reading all the negative stuff, put that in to perspective. This film makes up for the second films missteps. This film stands on its own. The best part is that all of the action takes place in the daytime, you get to see all of the bits and pieces (literally, especially in 3D) of what makes this film so memorable. Go see it, you will not be disappointed.

Avatar (2009)

Very Disappointing all of the great CGI in this world could not save this film

[2/10 · 18 April 2011]

I finally saw this film over the weekend. I am a huge fan of the sci-fi genre, so why did I wait to see it? After all the Hollywood hype I figured (correctly) that this film was all bark and no bite. The story started off great, but once the forest scenes started it was seeming all to familiar, Dances with Wolves all over again, just with blue aliens. Except in repeat mode it was even worse. It became very evident that the intent of this film was to box up all of the "evil" ideologies of our society and wrap them up in a kid flick to further brainwash our society. There were so many "unbelievable" ideas (even in a Hollywood fantasy) that I could not take any more. A networked environment of beings, plants and animals like some sort of living internet? Floating pieces of earth with waterfalls that come from no where, I guess gravity does not exist there? Some mineral (unobtainium? give me a break) that we have no idea what it is. They did not even show this stuff and we are supposed be believe that it is worth exterminating an entire race for? What was happening on earth that demanded this war? I felt like I was back on Endor with the Ewoks. The General even had scars like Anakin Skywalker as Darth Vader. Cameron should have just put him in a black cape. There was absolutely nothing original about this film, very unfortunate. James Cameron used to be a pillar in the sci-fi genre. To make it worse it that the CGI was not that great, the mixing of live action made it very apparent what was real and what was animated. This film should have been done 100% in CGI and sold as a kid flick. I just don't get where the great reviews are coming from? I actually fast forwarded through much of the overdrawn "utopian" scenes. James should have just called the planet Utopia instead of Pandora, how original would that be? If you are planning on seeing the film just do not expect to know or care for any of the characters, understand what it is they are fighting for and give up all notions of general relativity as we know it. Just sit back and choke down all of Cameron's blatant rip-offs.

The World Beyond (1978 TV Movie)

The most terrifying movie from my child hood

[10/10 · 18 October 2006]

This is too wild! I am reading reviews from other people that I felt were my own memories of this flick. The monster, apparently created from mud, gets its hand cut off in the door, and then the hand crawls away. This memory has been with me for my entire life. I have talked to others about the movie and no one knew what I was talking about. So I started to think that maybe this was actually a dream I had and not a movie. But when I searched for "Mud Monster" this came up, finally I can confirm that I was not the only child to be haunted by this terrifically scary story. I always thought the name of the film was something along the lines of "Monster at the end of the World" so that did not help when I would try to describe the film to people. I would love to see it again, maybe it is not nearly as scary as I remember? I can't wait to call my brother to see if he remembers it. Thanks IMDb