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Reviews
Battlestar Galactica: Black Market (2006)
weakest episode of a great series
I'm not really sure what happened with the writing here. A few of my favorite episodes (Pegasus, Resurrection Ship 1 & 2) had some great drama (even though I hated Cain, that was the role she was supposed to play) followed up with a series of clunkers like Epiphanies and Black Market. The first thirty minutes are pretty atrocious. Fisk was a character I thought could be quite interesting, but his part is pretty short lived. The subplots with Apollo and the prostitute and the flashback of Apollo and his girlfriend go nowhere. After this episode they don't seem to exist. The first 30 minutes I would rate a generous 5 stars, mostly for cinematography and technical specs. The last 15 minutes bump it up about 1.5 stars for the simple fact that Bill Duke was brilliantly cast and that we finally get another little surprising glimpse of Apollo reaching down and finding a pair of balls again. I say surprising because Apollo always seems to be riding the Idealist Railway instead of the looking down the Realist Track.
Hiroshima (2005)
Well done docudrama
I thought this was a very well done docudrama about the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. It mixed historical footage, survivor interviews and dramatic re-enactments to bring the story to light. It left out almost all of the moralistic arguments used to frame today's arguments and just told the story of what happened, mostly through the eyes of the people involved (of which there are precious few left). Whether you think the decision to drop the bombs was right or wrong, this is an excellent movie to help understand the event. If you don't know much about the circumstances surrounding the dropping of the A-bomb on Hiroshima, this should be one of the first sources you visit to add to your knowledge base.
The Outer Limits: Quality of Mercy (1995)
My favorite episode of the series
This is easily my favorite episode of the new Outer Limits series. It's also the most memorable, followed by The Sandkings and Think Like a Dinosaur. The performances of Nikki de Boer and Robert Patrick are remarkable. I consider this to be THE exemplar episode of what a show can do with a limited budget, set design, and actors. This was my first experience with Robert Patrick outside of Terminator 2 (later Dogget on The X-Files), and first ever with Nicole de Boer (later Ezri Dax on Deep Space 9 and Sarah on The Dead Zone).
My heart wept for what the characters went through. The emotional journey this episode takes the viewer is on par with such multimillion dollar Hollywood movies as The Passion of the Christ or Schindler's List. The production values aren't super, but the writing and acting is quite good.
Plot synopsis: Contains Spoilers
Two prisoners of war share a cell in an alien prison. One prisoner, de Boer, is subjected to grueling experiments changing her into an alien. As her situation deteriorates, she and Patrick's character bond emotionally. When her situation appears hopeless, he offers her a small piece of knowledge to ease her pain. Only after does he find out the high cost of his little mercy.
Dance of the Dwarfs (1983)
Bad movie, but better than the book
I liked watching Deborah Raffin. And Peter Fonda gave a decent performance as the drunken pilot. But, overall, the movie sucked. However, it was better than the book, which is usually pretty rare thing to say.
Deborah Raffin is always good looking. But this didn't really give her much breadth or depth of performance. Peter Fonda was decent. He provided the comic relief as the continually drunk helicopter pilot.
I read the book in high school as it was suggested by my literature teacher as similar to Jurassic Park in concept (which I had just finished reading). It wasn't really. And the writing was vastly inferior. The movie improves on the story, but not by much.
If you've got nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon but contemplate your navel lint, it might do for a couple hours of entertainment. Otherwise, avoid it like a root canal.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Great movie, ruined by poor cinematography
I loved the action in this movie, and thought the writing and acting were great. I would have given this movie a rating somewhere between 9.0 and 9.5. I end up giving it an 8 however. The camera work looked like it was done by a fourth grader. It bounced around, wasn't in focus, sudden zoom in closeups for no reason and lots of unnecessary "MTV style" quick cuts. The steadiest camera work was done from the helicopter. I was very, very disappointed by the camera work.
**mild spoilers**
in the scene where Bourne is talking to Marie's brother, half the screen is taken up by the back of the person's head as they are doing an over the shoulder shot. Worse, the camera kept bouncing around and head/shoulders were seriously out of focus.
in the early scenes in Moscow, the camera is bouncing around so much that I thought I was going to get motion sick.
in the fight scene in the hallway at the train station, the camera is moving so much, that nothing is in focus. It's very difficult to tell what is going on, other than that some people are moving and that the walls appear to be white.
Seriously, the camera work looked like the worst from "America's Funniest Home Videos". If I wanted to see a home movie, I would get my grand fathers old super 8 movies out of the closet. As good as this movie was, it could have been so much better.
Very Bad Things (1998)
Worst Movie I have ever seen
This is the worst movie I have ever seen. I don't think I can even describe just how bad it is. It looks like it was written and directed by a couple of high school kids. The dialogue was painful, the acting was atrocious. Considering the big names in this, it should have been a good movie. It was like they threw a bunch of money at these actors, told them to go into a room and make whatever they wanted up.
Movies like this make people want to shoot themselves in the head rather than go to a theatre again. Who ever Green lighted this had better have been run out of town on a rail. Don't rent this movie, ever! Save you money for something more worthwhile, like rubber dog-doo. This movie deserves a negative rating, 1 is being much too generous.
Fargo (1996)
interesting
Fargo? Let's face it, the Cohen's didn't think "Bemidji" made a good sounding title. Being from Fargo, I remember when they were shooting the outdoor scenes (it was a warm winter and they were having trouble finding snow). The only scene in Fargo (and it wasn't even shot here) is at the very beginning. Everything else takes place in Minnesota. Some people criticized the accents (but I've been in a lot of little towns where the people sound exactly like that).
That being said, I did like the movie. The pace was rather slow, but it was funny, maybe a little to violent for violence sake. It's good movie to rent if you've got nothing to do on a Sunday night.
Jaws (1975)
I know it's a cliché, but
I know it's a cliché, but for as good as this movie is, the book is much better. The movie scared me, but the book kept me from swimming for a summer (maybe I shouldn't have read it at the lake). Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss are great as usual. I love Robert Shaw in these roles.
The photography was wonderful. It's too bad the shark doesn't look very real (you work with what you have at the time I guess). This is the only non-documentary shark movie I actually care for.
The 2nd one is OK, but not nearly as good at keeping tension as this. I wouldn't bother with any of the others in this series.
Aliens (1986)
On par with the first
A sequel that rivals the original, while having a completely different feel to it. The first one was horror, this one is pure action. Sigourney Weaver plays the part perfectly. I have to admit that this seems like an odd movie for Paul Reiser to be in, but he plays it straight enough to not be annoying. And it's always fun to go back and watch young actors as they're coming up (Mark Rolston and Bill Paxton).
If there is something that does bother me, it's that the vehicles look like they're from a James Cameron film. He's really re-used some concepts in his early work. Overall, a very solid film. I like the fact that the clothing is realistic, not fanciful (see Logan's Run or Star Trek).
In my opinion, the 2nd best sci fi series (behind Star Wars).
Alien (1979)
still scares me
I have watched this movie dozens of times, almost as much as Star Wars, and it still scares me. It's scary because it built tension the old way, like Hitchcock did. It's scary because of what it doesn't show you.
I was only in grade school when this came out, and my parents wouldn't let me go to it. I finally saw it on video years later and was totally blown away. One of the best sci fi movies ever, also one of the best horror movies. I really wish I had seen it in the theatre.
I would say this is the 2nd best sci fi series (behind Star Wars). Even though it has a different feel from the later movies in the series, it's still my favorite.