An American crime drama directed by Jameson Brooks, starring Glenn Morshower and Marilyn Manson.
A group of punk rockers in a small town have conflict with the local high school athletes and one night, a young man is killed.
I think that this is an accurate depiction of how things go almost anywhere in America. It's totally wrong, but the punk rockers get abused by everyone, the cops are dicks and the "popular" high school kids are impervious. Marilyn Manson's intro and outro speeches were very appropriate to use in the context of this film. The punks dressed correctly. One of them had a jacket that was like 100% spikes that I really liked. I could prattle on and on about cinematic elements or societal group differences, but to what end? Nobody reads this. I rate this good.
An American documentary directed by Morgan Neville.
The story of Fred Rogers' life and career is told with interviews of family members and co-workers.
Technical proficiency and a positive message are what make this worth watching. It was a little tame for my tastes, except one short clip. I can't seem to find it in the timeline, but Fred Rogers says "I'll tell you what children need" in a way that makes the viewer know he means it. I thought that was priceless. The documentary covers his decision to start a television program, his rise to fame, how the show worked, parodies and controversies and finally, his death. The interviews were filmed well, even though some of them may have been "single camera single take" jobs. The audio was very level and video from multiple formats and dates were combined in a coherent fashion. Subject matter was ordered in a consecutive and sequential (by date) manner, with re-occurring themes that supported Mr. Rogers' philosophy and beliefs. I'm rating it adequate because it was of a high quality, but didn't go that extra step into good.
A Chinese American wuxia directed by Yuen Woo-ping, starring Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh.
A thief is sent from West Lotus to steal the Green Destiny sword from Sir Te's house where it was supposed to be hidden. Shu Lien captures the thief and hires a group of "Iron Way" warriors to help her guard it. Shu Lien's new student turns out to be related to the thief, everyone fights and most of them die.
Sometimes sequels are not so great. The original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was much better because it seemed sincere and there was not as much fast editing going on. The slower pace of the original allowed audiences to digest what was going on before something else happened, but this sequel seemed rushed. The flashbacks, storytelling and training scenes were too short. It seemed like the audience was not allowed time to get to know the characters in order to care about them. I also noticed that people were flying for no real reason. In the original, the wire flying was always motivated by a purpose in the fight or the plot. The plot in this was unoriginal: they are still fighting over that same sword. I know that the current trend in movies is sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes, but there are actually some decent original films being made. Sorry to Bother You (2018) is a good example of this. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie and not fix what is not broken (cliche' sentence anyone?). I rate this tolerable because it was insincere, unoriginal, but upheld the basic requirements of the genre.
An Italian American fantasy directed by Luigi Cozzi, starring Lou Ferrigno, Brad Harris and Sybil Danning.
Hercules must defeat Minos and save Cassiopea.
This was cheesy like only Luigi Cozzi can do. Knowing Greek mythology, some of the plot made no sense and it seemed like characters and quests were thrown in a hat to be chosen at random. Dedalos was a woman and the labyrinth held no minotaur. That was a Theseus story anyway. Circe actually helped Hercules, unlike what she did to Ulysses and his sailors. The acting was not terrible, but could have used some work. I liked how I could tell how every special effect was done. They would be easy in Premiere Pro, but with actual film, things would have been difficult. I would only recommend this if you like even cheesier movies than I do. I rate it tolerable because it sucked, but there were some laughs along the way.
An American direct to video science fiction directed by Anthony Doublin.
A man from another planet escapes slavery there and arrives on Earth. He is chased by a cyborg and some tyrannosaurs, but enlists the aid of a nun to defeat them.
No redeeming qualities. I'm sure that the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode was funny, but the original film was not. There was poor writing, bad acting and low budget production, but the worst part was the audio. The music was mixed too loud and the dialogue was mixed too low. There was also white noise through most of the duration. The special effects would be funny to mock, like the fishing line that sounds like a chain. The reappearing empty boxes actually were funny to me. The cyborg's lo-fi vision and servo sounds made it seem more like "Past War" set in the 1980s. Their fake Jean Claude Van Damme fought really slowly. When I see something this bad, it makes me question whether the filmmakers even watched it before the release. According to Wikipedia, it was screened for the crew and the director quit after he saw it. I rate this shit because it is totally worthless.
An American science fiction black comedy directed by Boots Riley, starring Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross and Danny Glover.
A black man working as a telemarketer learns to use his "white voice" and becomes successful. This distances him from his old friends who were unsuccessful or protesting against the company that he works for. Finally reaching the top of the corporate ladder, he learns a dark secret about the company.
Amazing! Being white and going to see this with a black friend lead to an interesting discussion afterward. He saw a movie about racial issues and I saw a movie about financial and societal class issues. Either way, the plot was thought provoking and the production quality was great. To elaborate on this, the dynamic plot begins as a regular comedy, turns to black/dark comedy and then to science fiction. The main character and his relationships change as the film develops as well. According to Wikipedia, the "white voice" for black characters was performed by a different person and lip synched. I would recommend this for those who question accepted societal value systems. I rate it awesome for being unique, thoughtful and entertaining.
An American adventure directed by Albert Hughes.
A prehistoric boy is injured and separated from his hunting group. When wolves chase him, he injures one of them. Unable to bring himself to kill it, he sits with the wolf in a cave while they both heal. Now a pair, they travel to find the boy's home.
I was not very impressed. I saw this in the theater in 3D and saw no need for that technology to be used on it. More than anything else, I was reminded of A Boy and His Dog (1975) and The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986). If anything, I think Alpha should have been filmed on an older camera system, possibly even in 4:3 aspect ratio with some nice video grain. The story has been over-told. Has anyone heard of White Fang? Any of the other boy and wolf or survival adventures out there? Same with characters. The only thing done really well was aerial shots of large landscapes. The animal and human fight scenes were not that impressive. The initial buffalo hunt is there to lure you in for a lack of action in the rest of the film. That saber tooth tiger or whatever it is in the cave during the preview fights for less than 5 seconds. I barely noticed the musical score, an area which could have been highlighted in this film. This is for those who like slow pacing and sappy endings, not for fans of 300 (2006) style action. I rate this tolerable. For the first half, I was wondering when it gets good. For the second half, I was wondering when it would end.
