jon503 Reviews

The Man from Nowhere (2010)

Standard story, but superbly executed

[9/10 · 9 January 2011]

"This Man" is about as standard plot-wise as action movies get. A lone wolf type takes a little girl under his wing, the kid gets kidnapped, and he ends up having to go through heaps of bad guys in his quest to save the girl.

By all accounts, the movie should have evoked little more than a shrug. After all, anyone who has seen even just a moderate amount of action movies will have seen countless movies with variations of this basic plot. One might think of "Leon" or "Man on Fire" for some closer examples, or movies such as "Taken" in other respects.

What made this movie into my favorite action movie in a long while is the execution of that basic plot. "This Man" manages to create just the right dark, gloomy mood to match the story and all the characters are believable. None of the scenes appear contrived or overly tear-jerker. Another vital aspect for an action movie is, of course, that the action sequences are very well done. The movie is quite graphic, but not gratuitously so or for its own sake such as in many a recent horror movie (the Saw series comes to mind).

I guess the movie could be likened to a good apple pie - certainly nothing revolutionary, in fact quite the staple of its genre, but who would want to turn down a really good apple pie with quality ingredients?

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

CG-galore

[1/10 · 28 August 2010]

I do not rate movies 1 out of 10 very often, but this movie is truly terrible. Michael Bay once again succeeded in completely missing the point of what CG is all about. CG is a tool, not a replacement for any coherent plot and even acceptable acting. I do not expect a popcorn action movie to have a really intricate plot line or first class acting, but some minimum is required; you can only gloss over so many insufficiencies with more explosions and CG. The movie is incredibly fast-paced, which I attribute to an attempt to prevent movie-goers from stopping to think about all the plot holes and sappy lines. Non of the characters are at all fleshed out, the characters added for comic relief are simply annoying and not even remotely funny.

To sum this movie up in a few words I'd say that anyone planning on watching it can prepare for a bunch of well-animated CG explosions and machine gun-totting robots, but nothing in terms of plot or acting.

The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

I'm gonna go with 'interesting'

[6/10 · 23 January 2010]

I was thinking for a minute about how to caption this movie, and as you can see, I went with 'interesting', that wonderful word you can use when you really don't know what to make of something but want to be polite. I'm not just being polite though, it really was interesting. The movie was advertised as a comedy, and the basic premise clearly sets it up in this manner. Yet despite its often quirky, sometimes hilarious moments, the movie seems conflicted as to what it sets out to be. There are some allusions to controversial practices of the US military such as those seen in Abu Ghraib which had me trying to interpret the movie as a satirical depiction of military transgressions. Such critique is not pointed enough to amount to a real persiflage, however. The result was not so much a thought-provoking comedy, perhaps the intended effect, but rather a movie where the viewer is tempted to over-intellectualize about its purpose while watching it - not a good sign.

As to the performances, the acting was satisfactory, but nobody really shone. Then again, I didn't find any of the characters to be complex enough to inspire or require above-average acting. Even though he is an accomplished actor easily up to the task, I kept wondering whether Ewan McGregor was cast simply because he was Obi-Wan Kenobi in the new Star Wars movies, or whether that was just an added bonus for the director to play with. Either way, I'm afraid they overdid the Jedi references, which were funny at most the first two or three times.

These flaws notwithstanding, the movie is interesting because it really makes you want to jump on Wikipedia and check out what is known about the actual US Army Psy-Ops project (which I'm going to do after writing this review, I know I've heard that the staring at goats actually happened). I definitely did not regret watching this movie, though I do not know whether I would have gone to see it in the theater if I'd known what it was like. I recommend catching it on pay-per-view or renting it at blockbuster.

Dark Resurrection (2007 Video)

Surprisingly good

[6/10 · 12 July 2008]

I watched this movie not really knowing what to expect. It seemed to be a Star Wars title that popped up out of nowhere. Seeing as there was no hype about it, and no announcements I never thought it to be original, so I figured it would be bad (the latest original ones were disappointing enough), but I was wrong. You could criticize the production values, the story-line is fairly basic, and there are some inconsistencies.I should add though, that I watched it in Italian, and only speak French and Spanish. I was able to piece together most of the dialog, but not everything.

But then consider that this was done by what seems to be some tiny Italian studio with semi-professional actors, and it is amazing. I have big budget movies that weren't half as good. The special effects are excellent, the acting is superb and the storyline is also pretty decent (in relative terms). So don't watch this movie expecting anything fantastic, but if you want to see what can be done by some small Italian production company probably with virtually no money, then it certainly is inspiring.

Perfect Hideout (2008)

Unlogical even for an action movie

[3/10 · 24 April 2008]

OK, so as usual I checked out IMDb before watching this movie, to see what I was up for. I read the first comment that appeared and took it to be a spoof of some sort. Then is started watching the movie and realized that it actually takes itself seriously. So next I assumed it would somehow be so bad, that it was funny again (which is the only reason I ever watch horror movies). Well, what can I say? I was wrong. There are a few scenes that will get you to chuckle a little, but nothing really funny. Without any comedy to speak of, you are left with an action movie, and that's where the problems really start. To sum up the movie, all I can think of is that none of the character's decisions after entering the house even remotely make any sense. To start with, the movie is set in Germany and everyone is American. That much would still fall within your normal action movie inaccuracies, but from that point it just rapidly goes downhill. I can't comment more on the details without spoilers, but take my word for it, nothing makes sense. So the only reason to watch this movie would be if you're hanging out with some friends and enjoy making fun of movies for their horrible plots (which I know to be a fun activity at times).