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nickybee12
Reviews
Nikita (2010)
Awful.
Wooden acting.
Peta Wilson was better than this.
Even Bridget Fonda was far superior to this. Gabriel Byrne we don't even have to discuss.
(and yes I realise I'm talking about the remake here...that's just to be nice. The original french film is stylistically superior to both.)
Maggie Q is just dead emotionally - her eyes say nothing and her continuously downturned smile makes her look boring and asexual (no matter how hard her legs or lithe physique might try otherwise)
I have only seen the first two episodes so far - and will check out one or two more to see where this goes - but the cast is just not strong enough.
Xander Berkeley is one-note. Shane West thinks he's still in a boy-band movie - Lyndsy Fonseca thinks she's in 90210...
Dollhouse (2009)
godawful.
I enjoyed Buffy - and I was a huuuge Firefly fan (loved the movie, got the box set etc etc).
But Dollhouse is just atrocious. Joss Whedon usually masterfully constructs his unique take on the world - whether the vampires and their hunters of Buffy or the galactic wanderers of Firefly.
With Dollhouse he has misfired in a major way. Dushku is annoying and repetitive but it's not entirely her fault.
Where are the snappy and eminently quotable lines we all knew and loved in Firefly. Where is the solid direction and story development.
Nowhere. Instead we get Mulder-style cop angst from Tahmoh Penikett's character and some weird but lazy hybrid of Dark Angel, Alias and La Femme Nikita from Dushku.
Out of respect for Joss Whedon I will watch one more - but if there isn't marked improvement that'll be the last one.
Boarding Gate (2007)
convoluted plot shot nicely with typical Asia genital shots
Asia Argento has never done a film (so far as I know, and this includes ones directed by her own father, Dario) where she fails to show all of her anatomy at some point. Sure enough, in the most boring opening dialogue scene ever, poor Madsen has her coming into his office and right there, reminding us that even though her hair is up, she can still stick her fingers in her crotch at any given second (which she does but in such a random "what? am I really seeing that?" kind of way). The DVD box, packaging, makes this look like a femme fatale film so you keep waiting to see her turn into a sleek and minimalist killer.. no such luck. She's verbose, hung up on some aging has been and even worse, has no credible skills in physical agility other than (surprise!) taking off ALL the clothes when any scene allows it. Her accented English would be cool if only she didn't try to make it sound so affected and try to talk like a 12 year old. How about this plot? Weak-minded but simultaneously nymphomaniacal woman is suddenly driven to kill while she already has another affair on the go and is running some cheap drug deal ... huh? what? does anyone have motivation in this movie to do anything other than buy a hamster? The screenplay seems to be oriented by letting everyone talk a lot about the same things over and over (I was expecting to see the worst acting on this appear as a producer who dumped money in it just to have some screen time) - there is nothing going on sub the obvious flaws of Asia's character that at any point in the movie delivers what the DVD cover promises. She's weak... but she knows how to kill. she flails A LOT. She flails naked, she flails half dressed, she even flails in a dead woman's clothing.. she is very floppy and unmotivated. In fact "Floppy" would have been a great name for this movie.. and a shot of Asia passed out looking angry on the cover would have been a better representation ... there are actually shots of her eating airplane food!!! What's that about?
THe ending makes 0 sense - everyone is just annoyingly wishy washy in their intent and their execution of all objectives. The wife of Lester doesn't deliver any REAL vengeance (taking someone to bad karoeke IS life threatening but not really valid).. and Lester just floats around without really making much proclaimation of anything. Totally misleading key art... yeah, we know Asia lost the baby fat of her first born but really, a whole movie trying to pretend like that's interesting enough to drive a film about a passive-aggressive chick is not worth your while. See Point of No Return instead.