An American action noir film directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, starring Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Bruce Willis and Christopher Lloyd.
Various characters from the original Sin City film have continued story lines that branch out. They gamble, drink, have sex and kill each other.
Compared with the original, this was a steaming pile of waste. The filmmakers must have been like: "Sin City was really cool. What if we removed all the style, flavor and magic? Would we be able to sell another one?" No is the answer. The 30 million dollar loss shows that quite clearly. The plot was more desultory than the first, rendering it inconsequential, irrelevant and incoherent. The characters were forgettable extras and the story was constantly switching between them, not letting the viewer settle into a section. The video looked like the original in many ways, but upon comparison, one may notice subtle differences. These would mostly be in shot composition, lighting, sets, physical effects, the stuff that really makes a difference. The CG in this version is cranked up to 11, but it does fuck all to make it a better movie. Sure, it looks like the comic book, but that doesn't make it good. The audio is similar to the other aspects. Similar to the original, but lacking that undefinable flair for the debonair. Overall, a total disappointment. I rate this bad. Watch the original again if you are ever tempted to view this.
An American science fiction horror directed by Robert Rodriguez, starring Elijah Wood and Clea DuVall.
Little fish aliens are infecting people at a school, primarily teachers. A small group of students try to fight them.
This was pretty standard of the time and genre. The plot was a typical teen horror; including elements such as social groupings or statuses, drugs, romantic interests and interactions with parents and other authority figures. I liked how the alien activity escalated as the film progressed. The characters were also typical high school stereotypes, but the roles were played convincingly. The main video element to mention is the special effects on the aliens. They did a great job on the little fish and tentacles. The larger aliens looked a little faker and less convincing to me. The editing on the football game scene was spot-on, capturing the heightened action. The coach smiled as his team infected the other players and fireworks went off in the background. The audio was hit and miss. I could hear all of the dialogue and the subtitles were very good. The music was terrible though. It mainly featured covers of '70s rock songs that had been overplayed. Overall, a standard teen sci-fi horror with some decent production value. I rate this o.k.
An American action comedy directed by Robert Rodriguez, starring Danny Trejo, Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Mel Gibson.
Machete is recruited by the U.S. president for a special mission. He goes to Mexico to stop a revolutionary with a missile pointed at Washington D.C. When he meets the man, it is revealed that the launcher is linked to the man's heart. Machete takes the revolutionary back to America to find the man who made the technology and have him disarm it. Turns out this guy is psycho too and conflict ensues.
Way over the top in every way. The plot is standard of '80s Schwarzenegger and Stalone flicks, hinging on the conflict of one hero against limitless, expendable enemies. There were a very large number of characters, but the main ones were pretty clearly defined. They were not, however, developed well. Everyone fit into a stereotype, but played their role well. The video was full of tricks and CG that added to the action. The level of overkill on this is most of what added the comedic element. Some of the dialogue helped to make it funny, but the humor was mostly visual. The fictional weapons, dismemberment and El Camaleon's costume changes were some of my favorites. The audio was pretty good. I could hear all of the dialogue and it was accompanied by appropriate soundtrack music. Overall, I thought it was fun to watch and would recommend it. I rate this good.
An American adventure written, directed and produced by Robert Rodriguez.
A cartel mobster is attacked in jail, but overpowers his attackers and gets free. The mob boss puts out a hit on him, hiring men who don't know what this guy looks like. The hit men are told that their mark wears black and has a guitar case full of weapons. A guitarist enters the same town where the hit men are looking for the mobster and tries to find work as a musician in bars. He is mistaken for the mobster and then the guitar cases get switched.
This was pretty cool. The plot kept developing at a steady pace throughout the duration, with a quicker up-turn at the end. The characters were not extremely well developed, but they were acted well and fit their roles. The video featured a few absurdly experimental camera angles, but was mostly done very well. One scene that stood out was the hotel manager dialing the phone in high speed after he books the musician into a room. "I came across a turtle" was amazing.
The musician waking up on the floor with the dog over him was good too. The audio was generally decent. Non-diegetic music stayed in the background, but the musician's diegetic guitar playing was appropriately loud. I watched a version in Spanish, with English subtitles so I can't really attest to the dialogue. Most of it sounded about right to me though. Long time readers will know what I mean by the undefinable something that I call style. This movie has it. It all just seems to work together so well. All the elements combine to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. I rate this awesome. As a bonus, the version that I watched came with a director's commentary that I will definitely be listening to.
A film noir directed by Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and Quentin Tarantino, starring Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro and Elijah Wood.A detective seeks to protect the girl who he saved when she was a child. A thug has a one night stand with a hooker and wakes up to find her dead.With a team of directors like this, the movie is as good as it should be. The style of the film is great and the scarce use of color is great for the film noir feeling. The characters are extreme stereotypes, but good anyway and the plot keeps my interest every time I watch it. I'm rating it best.Excuse the short reviews today. I've got this giant stack of DVDs that I've seen a few hundred times each and I'm just cranking out reviews as quick as I can.
An action by Robert Rodriguez.A Mexican who is a federale gets mixed up in political agendas involving extreme amounts of violence.This is supposed to be some type of illuminati trick flick to put a spin on some issue, but if it's viewed as just an action film, it kicks ass. From the intestine rope swing to the gatling gun on the motorcycle, I was cracking up. I'm rating it good for entertainment value alone.
A drama directed by Robert Rodriguez.A greaser in a small town in the 50s has a Spanish girlfriend and many enemies. The police chief encourages his son (the greaser's main enemy) to kill him.I could tell by the amount of action who directed this film. The powerful music choices were also a hint. I thought the plot and characters were great, so I'm rating it good.
An action directed by Robert Rodriguez.A mariachi with a guitar case full of guns is on a quest to kill the local gang leader. The gang leader knows about this and has his gang try to kill the mariachi.With an all-star cast and top notch director, this is one of the better mariachi films I've seen. While watching it, I was wondering if it was one of the other ones that I had already seen, but forgotten. They are just so similar. I'm rating this blue for better than o.k., but not quite good. If you like this type of thing, watch Once Upon a Time in Mexico and El Mariachi.
A drama directed by Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.A bell hop at a hotel answers calls to his desk which put him into strange situations.This is my second viewing of this film. The first time I watched it, I missed the first room. Without spoiling the plot, all I can tell you is: room 1 is witches, room 2 is a husband and wife having problems (which the bell hop only enters because he is told the wrong room to bring ice to), room 3 is a rich family and room 4 is movie stars. The only other fact that I can relate is how GOOD this is. Watch it!
A science fiction directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by Quentin Tarantino.A small group of people gather and fight for their lives when a chemical weapon is released into the air.the audio and video were very good.check out: The 3 "friends" that work fast.Remember how I wanted to see a disaster movie with smart people doing the right things and not getting killed? This is that movie. It's difficult to find something I don't like about this. If you like "Deathproof", "From Dusk till Dawn", or "Kill Bill", you'll like this. There's lots of action and well written dialogue. Enjoy.
