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Reviews
The Missing (2003)
Incredible. I didn't know a big budget could make a movie this bad.
I'm very surprised how awful this film truly is. I don't want to write a very harsh negative review for this film because I believe the intent was good, but this film has the worst editing and pacing I have ever seen. Just to make a comparison, I watched Steven Segals "Attack Force" just the day before I watched this. Attack Force is a movie with such a low budget that Steven Seagals voice is dubbed during half the film because he didn't even bother to record for post production. It's rated something like 2.1 here on IMDb. I watch a lot of awful films (I'm the type of person who finds amusement in really bad movies.) So I know a bad movie... (I also like art-house and very good film as well) and The Missing is right there with some of the lowest budget films I've seen as far as it's editing cinematography and pacing goes. The entire film feels very 'cookie cutter' as though a young timid director had filmed this movie. Every scene is incredibly flat and underwhelming. Something dramatic happens on camera but everything is a step behind and totally misses giving you the feeling of involvement you would typically get out of a film that was made better.
y the end of the film you almost have more sympathy for the killer than you do for the family because of how stupid some of their actions were (I could name so many things, dropping the brush, flashing the binoculars) The whole movie I was thinking in my mind (god this is so awful, I have to write a review on IMDb) I actually wasn't aware that this movie was directed by Ron Howard either until the end credits. That was an even bigger surprise to me given how much I really liked some of his other films. I wonder if he is suffering from some sort of personal issues or just doesn't know how to make a dynamic film in this sort of setting. This movie felt like a low budget B film with an A film cast.
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2007)
If you're a fan of the original movie and didn't care more for the sequels or TV series...
I think you will enjoy this film. I only ever enjoyed the first Highlander film. So much so that I would consider myself to be a huge fan of it (I'd owned the laser disc way back and have owned several different versions of the DVD) The TV series didn't really do much for me and I thought the sequels were all terrible.
I'm not usually a fan of anime but I think this is probably the best anime I've seen since watching Akira long ago (and I would probably say that I enjoyed this movie more than Akira. I'm also a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki but I would never compare Akira or Highlander to his films since he's on a different level all together.) I wouldn't really compare Highlander to other anime films though since the story is much different and probably much easier for western audiences to grasp. Not going off on strange esoteric philosophical tangents etc. Less convoluted rather and a bit more focused than most anime I've seen anyways.
I have to admit I don't really like fantasy oriented anime much at all (aside from Hayao Miyazaki). I mainly don't like fantasy anime because it's a series of "what ifs" as though anything were possible and I find that rather boring. I guess I'm somewhat into realism. Fantasy anime is what 99% of the anime that is so popular these day is really (that I've noticed anyways) but I enjoyed this film much more that I'd expected too since it retains the highlander story in historical past as well as a post apocalyptic setting (love post apocalyptic movies). It has much more depth to it than you could imagine really.
There's a few bits towards the end that kind of turned me off from it (some references to religion and stuff and Colin finding love and a home in the setting from the original movie even though he's lived close to 1400 years already... Seemed a bit forced to me because I would think as that much time has passed, all the battles he's waged through etc he wouldn't really feel that intimate with becoming a MacLeod all of a sudden) but these are minor things that I don't think the vast majority of people would even bother to notice. I think fans of the first movie will really enjoy this and I think of it as being better than the TV series or and of the sequels that followed the original movie.
Dirty Sanchez: The Movie (2006)
I enjoyed it more than Jackass
I've been a big fan of jackass for years now. I hadn't known about Dirty Sanchez until recently (a bit ironic because I'm originally from the UK) but I'd saw their myspace page www.myspace.com/dirtysanchezdvd and read about how popular it was in the UK so I decided to check it out for myself. I haven't seen the entire movie yet (just a few scenes) but I have seen some of the shows and I find these guys much more enjoyable than the jackass crew. You can tell these guys are just insane and unlike the jackass crew at times (I still love jackass, don't get me wrong) these guys come of as entirely sincerely insane at times. Just incredible to watch really.
Chaos (2005)
Mundane
Well, I didn't really have high hopes for this film going in. Jason Stratham was pretty much the entire reason I decided to check this movie out. I have to say I'm disappointed in this film. Jason Strathams performance is decent but the rest of the film is about as generic as possible. It seems the Nsync clown Ryan Phillippe (I'm sorry but this guy just isn't an actor) only purpose in the film is to annoy the hell out of you. The movie made me want to fall asleep 20 mins into it. The Nsync dork only grated my nerves (really, I have to say I gave this guy a huge chance) This movie is about as generic as possible. If you want action you're better off watching the latest Robert Z'Dar or Rutger Hauer action flick. This movie is lame and fails on all counts. If Jason Strathams other leading action flicks are worthy of 6/10 to 7/10 then this movie could only be 3/10. It's really crap.
Sublime (2007)
Re: Life Lesson... too much nitpicking
Let me start off by saying I'm an avid Horror fan. I enjoy horror movies ranging from the classics such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Henry Portrait of a Killer, and Susperia to lesser known B horror such as Deranged, to esoteric masterful ghost films such as Ugetsu. With having been such a fan of these types of films, I have to say the previous reviewer was totally off base with his harsh criticisms of Sublime. Sublime is an allegorical graphic horror film that takes it's inspiration from many sources. The previous reviewer mentions a parallel between this film and Jacob's Ladder, while this may be true, I feel that there's nothing wrong with this since many modern films do this to pay homage to classic films. There have been numerous times where I've watched a Quentin Tarantino film and have been amazed that they've copied a scene from Sonny Chiba movies, or from great films such as the Lady Snowblood series, almost verbatim. Yet he is praised for being an innovator (and I think he in in many regards, if not slightly overrated). Sublime is a discordant yet captivating whirlpool of many different inspirations and a truly great graphic horror film. If you're a fan of horror, political allegory, and cult cinema then you should find no faults in Sublime.