It's been a while since I've done a movie review. Sneak preview was courtesy of Teresa and BB. Short movie deserves a short concise(?) review.
Robots was a movie without any lulls in the middle; it kept the excitement up throughout. It does help that it was a short movie. (at least it seemed that way) Lots of excitement for kids and the usual (clean) adult trinkets thrown in to amuse the parents and couples who watch the movie as a date. If you liked those (someone help me out here) convoluted machines where a toaster goes off and sets off another device, etc…you'll like the thought the CG'ers put into it. Since it had a lot in the nerd department, I'd give it a higher rating than other full length animations I've seen. Probably not higher than a lot of animes in terms of best picture kind of category, but definitely a movie to be seen.
Another ethnic movie, much like Bend It Like Beckham. I enjoy movies when they can connect with the audience and this one did it. Showing the history of Calvin's shop and how [forgot his name — the barber with free rent] first met with Calvin's father and their relationship gave a glimpse into how their relationship developed and came to be. The scene where the community comes together to fight commercial takeover showed the reality of life and how a big business can bully people out of their livelihood just for that bottom line. The ending, however, is quite weak and shortchanged in my opinion, but overall that can be forgotten.
My eloquence at it's best. lol.
Today was an off day for watching movies: I didn't get the nap that I was supposed to take prior to the midnight showing. The guys sitting next to us had uncontrollable IcantStopShakingMyLegItis. The sound goes awry after a loud scene and all the words that trail with “s” start sounding like “SSSSSS”. The dynamics are lost and the surround speakers start to sound louder than the front channels. I think it was a cumulative thing that led to me walking out of the theatre. (My weaseling out excuse to Shihab? “I'm really tired and I don't think it'd be wise to not get much sleep.” — It was partially true!) Shihab was saying that as long as he could hear the dialog, there was nothing wrong. It's tough having discerning ears :-D.
But lets get to the 45 minutes that I did get to see. There seems to have been a few more comic relief scenes put in. Most of the weird crowd that was there seemed to roar hysterically. The pace seemed a bit off and scenes seem to jump from one to another instead of transitioning…
Anyways, perhaps this is just cause I seemed to enjoy The Two Towers much more at home on a system that I'm familiar with. What can I say? I'm a critic. And an ego balloon full of hot air. ;-)
I hate scary movies, but this one was good. The tone was very consistent (and kept very taut) throughout.
Warning: May keep you up at night. ;-p
Boy, The Rock looked good in that movie. Whoops, did I just let my mind slip for a sec? I mean, he looked cut, in a non-I-like-men kind of way. And Stifler, he was pretty buff too. The movie was entertaining. Stupidly so, but I enjoyed it. The cameo by Arnold [can't spell his last name] was great as were all the fight scenes. Too bad the little Portuguese kid dies before adding much to the plot. In the end, The Rock does the right thing. Another point I really enjoyed wath Emril talking about Porchini mushrooms. That was uh….”kickin' it up a notch…”
A rather darkly filmed movie that was quite enjoyable. Rather comedic at times, actually. Kate Beckinsdale portrayed her character very well, and was, (maybe I have weird taste) very attractive while she sucked blood from a human. The plot was a bit difficult to follow in the beginning, but unwinds in an easy to follow fashion after the first half. Overall, I liked it for it's cars, interesting ammunition, and the way Seline (Kate's character) portrayed herself as a strong, self-assured vampiress. And the cool contact lenses and fake teeth
Oh, and to make this entry more unorganized, it had bits of Lord of the Rings and Terminator like narration at times.
And that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. (Basically, if Kate Beckinsdale weren't in it, it wouldn't be so good in my book. HA! I'm a stupid guy!)
“We ride together. We die together. Bad boys for life.”
Lots of gun fights and blowing things up. This time the boys just happen to make bigger messes of themselves. Mike Lawry drives a 575 Maranello and sports a posh mansion instead of an apartment. Martin Lawrence's character has a cheap above ground pool that bursts everytime the dog walks buy, washing it's occupants into the nearby bay.
If you liked the first one, you'll like the second one. At first I thought the sound was just bad in the theatre we saw it in, but after a few scenes, it became clear that the sound was poorly mixed — the intensity of certain explosions and other loud noises just didn't mesh with the rest of the movie. I give it a 4/10 for sound. (I don't think I'll be rating movies on a scale anytime soon as I think much depends on the mood and level of anticipation from the viewer when he/she sits down to watch it.)
The movie did seem drawn out though, as it was nearly 2 1/2 hours long.
Interesting plot, but like Memento, after you see it once, you've seen it a million times. Bernice mentioned Collin Ferrell's eye brows — they are really bushy and odd looking. I think the sets were well designed; however, the computer mock-ups were pretty fake. I guess ICE9's power grid network is too. Ok, ok, it's just a movie. ;-p
To start off, I liked this movie. It was different and better than what I expected. The ending was surprising and lends itself well to another sequel. (But I wonder if Arnold will still be able to play the Terminator?) Speaking of Arnold, he looked as if he didn't age a bit. From the HBO short, they said he worked out like crazy for it.
The way the character time-lines are interwoven is a nicety, plus a certain Juliet is in there too! I think she's matured a lot since her TV days. As the title suggests, this film gives a good glimpse to how Skynet formed and became self-aware.
There's an interesting line about how the internet becomes the machine — software without a localized hardware base that can be shutdown. While this is true to a certain extent, the internet that we have is still quite susceptible to massive outage by shutting down certain strategic nodes across the world. The interesting thing here is that by setting off a chain of nuclear explosions in major world cities would probably take out most of the internet due to the electromagnetic energy generated in the explosions. (Remember the EMP device in Ocean's Eleven and what the bomb tech character said about nuclear bombs?) That however, would not lend itself well to the successful “rise of the machines”.
Note: Ocean's Eleven was not very accurate in that the EMP would have destroyed the electronic devices instead of just knocking the power out.
Seen On: July 4th