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matt1958
Reviews
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Evil Star Wars
The setting: a nightmarish interstellar future. The plot: an evil dictator, using mysterious powers and world-destroying weaponry seeks to crush all resistance to his reign of destruction. Sound like Star Wars? Of course! Because, when you get down to it, it's a damn good story. So if you want to get a feel for this movie, take your mental image of Star Wars: the OLD Star Wars, in all it's camp and circumstance. Now change the characters into convicted murderers, the bad guys into religious zealout zombies, and the Death Star into a really interesting Baroque statue. THAT's what this movie feels like, and although many people seem to be disregarding it because of this, I personally think we should embrace it as a return to the kind of sci-fi epic that Star Wars once was. We suspended our disbelieve for A New Hope, and if you put yourself in the right mindset (childish? No, imaginative!) this film is not at all disappointing
The main leap of this film is at the very beginning, as you have to cram lots of ideas and awkward sci-fi names into your head all at once. The Necromongers, Elementals, and Furians - The Underverse, Helion, and Crematoria. If you can get past your initial overly-sophisticated rejection of these fantastical ideas, you are now in a world as deep as any since Dune. (With just as rich a backstory - go to the official website and delve into the reams of background data)
Now enter the next big stumbling block for viewers: The Camp! Yes, I will freely shout that this movie is CAMP!!! So was Star Wars! This movie is a fairy tale about futuristic heroes doing amazing deeds. This isn't MEANT to be Twelve Angry Men; it's meant to be a story about epic struggles and massive battles, about the fate of humanity resting on a lone and reluctant hero! Of COURSE the dialogue sounds forced! Who cares? Most all of it works within the film, and that's what matters.
It's somewhat saddening that people who look back so fondly on the space-operas of times gone by (Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica) now reject the same style of film outright when it's made by people of this era with modern special effects. We so easily overlook the poor delivery of Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, but now Vin Diesel offers up an occasionally forced one-liner and people scream bloody murder!
The Chronicles of Riddick is exactly what its director and star wanted it to be: Evil Star Wars - and that was good enough for me.
The Creature Wasn't Nice (1981)
The WORST movie ever
I am absolutely astonished that this movie ever got made, much less released. It isn't self mocking enough to make you think they were trying to be bad on purpose...Leslie Nielsen is great at that and while they all did their best...they had nothing to work with. I figure the stars must've owed someone a favor. This movie sucks! Zero positive points...Just awful! If you don't believe me, watch it...but I warned you!