|
|
|
| |
Have you seen a movie lately? Are you interested in telling
others about it? If so, write a review. Include your name,
the way you would like to have it appear in the review, title
of the movie and the review in either plain text or Word format.
Send your review to boettner@mscd.edu.
(People who submit a review should be either faculty, staff
or students of Metro.)
|
| |
The director Andrzej Bartkowiak brings a concept story about
a heist that goes in every direction. Staring Jet Li as a
Taiwanese Government agent and Rap artist DMX as a gang leader
by the name of Anthony Fait. When Anthony and his gang gets
hired to rob a major downtown vault filled with diamonds and
other precious stones, his contact isn’t the only one
who wants in on what he stole (particularly, one of them being
a bag of what looks like black diamonds). Within all the mess,
the same enemy kidnaps Anthony’s daughter. Jet Li (The
government agent from Taiwan) is up against an enemy from
his homeland. Jet Li, and DMX find a way to get his kidnapped
daughter back from the same enemy. So what’s makes the
stones so special? That’s for you people to find out!
Remember True Lies? Or maybe Raider Of The Lost Ark, I found
a little of both in this film. Kelly Hu and Mark Dacascos
play the enemies; Kelly was born and raised on the island
of Hawaii and became Miss Hawaii in 1993. Like True Lies,
Tia Carrere played a villain and she is also born and raised
from Hawaii. I’ve also seen Dacascos in several other
films based in Hawaii, but I’m unsure if he is from
Hawaii or not.
Truly, the action is to speak of. Although the cinematography
seemed rather choppy (put together too quickly), it definitely
kept me at the edge of my seat wanting to know more about
what was coming up. The whole plate of questions seemed to
pop into my head. “Where are the stones?” “What
is he going to do?” “I wonder if they plan on
killing that girl.” While all these questions came to
me, the one thing found interesting was that the story kept
me wondering what was so darn special about those stones?
And it’s not till the grand finale that they find out
what was special about it.
Now the correlation that it had to Raiders of The Lost Ark
was at the end. Remember the part where the guy had turned
inside out and his soul grinded into smithereens as the very
life of him came out of his body and the rest of the Germany
army.
The fighting scenes are outstanding. I can say suave with
a touch of uniqueness. Jet Li almost had me wondering about
the style because so many films with Jujitsu, Kung Fu, and
Karate seem to fall similar. He had something special. Let’s
compare; it was a cross between Steven Segal (because of the
standing still part) and Jackie Chan meeting Charles Bronson.
I thought that was so cool. I will let this mingle in your
head fellow reader and you will know what I mean when you
see it.
-by Jennifer Nacino
Headlines
|
| |
Dare Devil is an extremely entertaining movie. It's the real
thing, we have a real sense of life here. The main character
goes through a hardship of loosing his sight as a child, and
at nearly the same time loosing his father. However those
incidents that gave him hardship also gave him superhuman
senses and balance. Like a superhero he learns to use his
newly found strengths out of a tragic event. Here we follow
a boy through his vunerability and trials and watch him become
the Dare Devil. The movie is filmed in a darker light but
somehow you find yourself rooting for the main character,
hoping that he can do it. He's against all odds, being a blind
kid, who just lost his father, and he lives in a bad part
of town, but it makes him who he is. The scenes of superhuman
strength, speed, and cunning are done well. The only real
flaw of the film is that the fighting scences are so close
up you can't tell what's going on until it's over. Definately
a must see, if just for the industrial-like Batman similar
characteristics of the film.
-by Billie Diemand
Headlines
|
| |
The first Final Destination brought about a set of teens
experiencing freak of nature accidents and strange occurrences
in death. The second is somewhat similar. This time around
death is back with a vengeance, or to say that he’s
back to tie up loose ends because of one surviving person,
Clear Rivers. Clear, who wishes to stay in a mental ward
is asked for help by one of the survivors of a deadly car
wreck who saw the accident in a premonition. Like the first,
the survivors fight to stay alive and many fall into a “sort
of once in a lifetime chance accident happenings.”
I hadn’t seen the first Final Destination and I found
it quite intriguing that the story was thought about without
over emphasizing the necessity of real acting. I got an
idea of the possibility that as people you never know how
safe we are, how secure things are around us, and the question
of the higher being at work. The film is directed by David
Ellis and has also done Armageddon 1998. The subject matter
that he brings to film is what caught my attention. It’s
the kind of stories that ask the “what if” question.
Questions that I particularly ask is, “Is that possible
and it is, so what if? In Final
Destination 2, I see many questions coming to me in this
form. I believe situations that occur and place us in death
can be questioned in how it happens, but not why. The characters
of the film go through such parole and mental pain that
everything they do gets to a point of feeling like nothing
around them is safe and it makes them go into a fret of
panic. One important factor that the story brings is the
relation of the first final Destination. It was not implicated
until half way through the film that Clear Rivers was seen,
hence audiences related her to the first. Then when the
characters began to talk about how they managed to dodge
death in a so-called coincidences, they discovered amoungst
them that they all knew somebody from the incident of the
first Final Destination. The filmed runs about an hour and
a half and has tons of blood, gore, drugs, and language,
for mature audiences only.
-by Jennifer Nacino
Headlines
|
| |
Martin Scorsese works his unique ability to tell a one of
a kind story in "The Gangs of New York." With its
colorful and well acted cast, Leonardo Di Caprio, Daniel Day-Lewis,
and Cameron Diaz, the film weaves a sharp view of a violent
world that was almost forgotten. It seems Scorsese's vision,
what some might claim as outlandish in "Gangs,"
takes on a vibrant life of its own, showing the audience a
history almost forgotten and an aura of a young city.
-by Ian Paul
Headlines
|
| |
When Hollywood came out and started movies they also started
trailers and the trailers were suppose to tease the viewer
into seeing the movie, well this was the teaser that was told
the second I saw the film.
Charlie Carbone played by (Jerry O’Connell) was only
12yrs old when he was drowning and was saved by Louis Booker
(Anthony Anderson). They became friends since and life has
thrown them in the mix. Until Charlie’s step father
who is head of the mafia gets fed-up with him and his friend
Louis. He gives them a simple job in Australia that goes terribly
wrong and involves a kangaroo.
I couldn’t help, but wonder if they were trying to target
the children in the audience or the adult audience. One of
the interesting things they managed to depict is the friendship
of the characters. Children wouldn’t understand some
of the dialogue that they had in this film. I’m almost
positive that Louis Booker had gotten laughs out of almost
everyone in the audience. When there were clumsy, clunky,
funny situations these are the parts that the kids mostly
enjoyed. The whole audience enjoyed this film. My guess is
that mainly the fact that it’s something that the family
would enjoy. That’s why I went with my neighbor and
her kids.
Along with the film, at the end there is also what I call
“Kangaroo outtakes.” This is where the kangaroo
does some of his own comical stuff and even does something
from the Austin Powers, the Spy that shagged me. (Not that
I even seen it, but I know where it’s from). I always
think that films that have outtakes at the end show the audience
the other side of the filming aspect to seem light hearted
and fun added into the production of filming.
In any case the film had fluked out on the trailers and commercials,
but given the story and the comical idea placed in the film
it turns out for the younger generation of people. If you
have children to see it with, go bring them. If not, it’s
definitely something to rent (on sale!) or purchase as a gift
for someone with children.
-by Jennifer Nacino
Headlines
|
| |
In this sequel to Shanghai Noon, Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) and
Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson) get together for another adventure.
This time Chon’s sister Lin played by Fann Wong has witnessed
their fathers murder and is out to get revenge and to retrieve
the imperial seal. With the help of her brother Chon and his
friend Roy, they cross the seas to London to help Chon’s
sister. They meet up with adventure, fun, and learn a lesson
on friendship.
The film directed by David Millar and written screenplay by
Miles Millar and Al Gough, the action placed Jackie’s
character in yes, looking like it was all natural. His character
seemed to be more so the kind of guy that doesn’t want
any trouble, yet when he is bothered by the bad guy he manages
to jump into action and display the funny side that everyone
loves him for. Jackie Chan is also the Executive producer
for the film and his brother help out also, but I’m not
sure of what his first name is.
The Genre of this film is action, comedy, and sequel and is
rated PG-13 for the action violence and sexual content. In
my opinion the film is certainly great for the comedy, but
the beginning is much better then the last one. I also love
the fact that there are always outtakes at the end of the
film. Most of the film’s that Jackie Chan has done all
have some kind of outtake. In Shanghai Noon and in Shanghai
Knights Jackie makes it fun for everyone by incorporating
the whole cast.
-by Jennifer Nacino
Headlines
|
|
|
