HorrorFan72 Reviews

Batman Begins (2005)

I wanted to like it, honestly!

[2/10 · 15 June 2005]

I wanted to like it, honestly!

I've been a huge Batman Fan all my life. And yes I still have a copy of Batman Year One. Love it. But unfortunately....

Take a seemingless endless budget, and all–star cast, great special effects, set design, costume design, and add in a monkey for a script writer / director. What do you get? A movie a bunch of hopefull Batman fans go to, and end up grimacing at every line of dialog. You get a movie that is trying hard to be a psychological thriller, but seems to have been written by a 8 year old. The movie lacks any consistency, and any real understanding of what it is trying to do. By then end of the movie, you are stuck wondering , what the bleep was the point of any of this!?!??! You get a beautiful to watch, yet, literally painful to follow mess.

What happened? In earlier Batman movies Burton went for a more campy vision of Batman.

Well the fans wanted something darker, something along the lines for the more realistic "Batman: Year One". So Hollywood decides to cash in on another attempt at Batman, in the height of the whole Comic book movie craze. And someone decided this meant diving into Bruce Wayne's psyche, and showing his "transition" to Batman. In Burton's Batman, they just showed enough of a story we all know and let us settle the rest in our imagination. In Nolan's version everything is so blatant yet not thought out enough to stop it from completely contradicting itself. We are beat over the head again and again with Wayne's inner conflicts. There are several excellent ideas throughout the fill that just keep falling flat on their face, either because of not getting fleshed out properly, or just simply from contradicting themselves. Little about the movie makes any sense, from the characters philosophies, to training with live metal swords and no head gear.

Burton's movies were at least consistent. They worked within themselves, creating a world that gelled together. He stayed true to his vision of Batman, and came up with some solid, consistent movies.

With Batman begins, expect to go from a great scene, to sitting there and just thinking, what the bleep did I just see. The scenes with a child Bruce Wayne are just painfully bad. Expect no consistency, no vision, no cohesive story.

So what is this film worth? It is a typical shallow action based comic book hero movie with little true substance behind it. Expect ridiculous leaps of faith as far as what is physically "possible", expect stupid car chases where the "hero" almost gets dozens of people killed and tears of the city, expect anything but a good story.

Production value 9/10. Story and script 2/10. Overall 4/10.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

"Everything it should have been"

[10/10 · 19 May 2005]

"Everything it should have been" After watching "Attack of the Clones" I was left wondering how on earth they could wrap up the transition from that to StarWars in a single movie. Well "Revenge of the Sith" not only accomplishes this, it is absolutely everything it should be. The special effects, story, everything was A+ quality. Its Achilles' heal; CG special effects, we've seen it all before. Star Wars redefined special effects. Revenge of the Sith only uses it. And because of this, it will entertain all, but be appreciated by few. It can never, and will never replace the original Star Wars, any more then we can return to our childhood and experience Star Wars for the first time. However, it is a worthy completion to the series. If seen before Star Wars, maybe our view would be switched.

Compared to the Star Wars movies of this generation, this is by far the closest to the first generation, with an Empire Strikes Back type feel. And much like Empire Strikes Back, it leaves you yearning for the next chapter, "A new hope".

One friend of mine said, and well put, the first three movies we saw, made it a story about Luke. After adding these new three, the six become a story about Anakin.

The only thing I felt that lacked is the inclusion of a likable, more light hearted character. The first generation of Star Wars had Han Solo. This generation lacks a more "human" character like him. And many of the characters remain "stiff" in their character. This movie in particular, doesn't let up on the seriousness.

Would I recommend it? Yes, very highly. Would I watch it again. I will definitely see it again, in the theater. And that's the first movie I've said that about in a long time.

Absolution (2003 Video)

Who gave this anything more then a 0/10???!?!?!?

[18 October 2004]

I can best describe this movie as a high school drama class project. Honestly, it has about as the same crew experience level and budget. Pathetic, long pointless scenes with even more pointless dialog, which at times is barely audible. I once heard that every detail in a movie is done for a reason. In this movie, the details just happened to be in front of the camera wherever they spontaneously decided to film.

The only saving grace of this whole DVD are the shock style trailers in the extra's.

0/10. A complete waste a a ____ to the people who voted anything else for this POS. I wasted $20 on the DVD. I guess the real idiot here is me.

The Fanglys (2004 Video)

Cathy's curse has competition

[27 July 2004]

What was right about this movie? Was it the shadows pointing in the wrong direction from the lights in the scene; was it the audio distortion heard on the messed up audio track? Or is it just everything?

What was good about this movie?

Expect a horribly poor implementation of what could be an interesting story.

I don't get it, 20 years ago, with none of the current technology straight to video quality B movies got done. This whole new generation of straight to video, campy horror movies are worse then anything the 70's ever put out.

I think we should coin a new genre called Halloween store videos, based off of the quality of the props.

Just plain disappointing.

American Wedding (2003)

Somethings are just done right

[3 August 2003]

*****10/10***** The movie isn't everyone's idea of what a comedy should be, a little gross or crude for some. American Pie did for the 2000's what Porky's did for the 80's, except even better! If you don't mind that sort of comedy, this is one of, if not the best. Bottom line, they tried to make a certain movie, and hit it exactly on the mark. My, only two negative comments, 1) watching the first few minutes of the movie, with the exception of Jason Biggs, no one else seemed like they wanted to be in the movie. We see a VERY p888ed of f Seann William Scott. Maybe some people will notice a feeling of negativity in the actors, maybe it's just my imagination. Anyhow this quickly gives way to a masterpiece of comedy and filmmaking. Second, it didn't have the fellowship of the previous movies, with an uneven focus on Stifler and Jim, and nearly nothing for Kevin. A must see for anyone wanting pure entertainment.

Midnight Mass (2003)

Like watching a train wreck

[17 July 2003]

Like watching a train wreck

Horrible, but you couldn't stop watching it. The first few minutes are an eerie prelude to a pathetic B- movie. An excellent story and idea As I watched this movie I kept hoping to see something get better, I kept wanting and hoping for the movie to be what I wished it would be. Maybe because there were some honestly well done shots in the film, like when the priest is giving a last prayer to a group of dead bodies. 10 minutes into the movie we placed bets that the leading lady got her job by being someone's daughter. Her acting, only matched by the vampire priests, shadowed even the pathetic make up effects. The fight scenes were laughable and made no sense.

An exercise in frustration. With all that's done right, and all that's done wrong, this film should be watched as a lesson in what not to do in filmmaking.

Run Like Hell (2002 Video Game)

What a disappointment

[25 November 2002]

A true disappointment: Although a great game engine was put in place, during production most of the key players on the title, seeing the poor game design decided to leave. What was left was a boring, uninventive, pulp title. Purchase at your own risk.