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Reviews
Yes Man (2008)
Your typical Carrey film
"Yes Man" seems to follow almost the exact same pattern as most of the Jim Carrey movies. We have an every-day-guy, who's life isn't what he would want it to be, then something bizarre happens that changes his life for a moment. During this moment he ends up in unusual events and he meets a girl, breaks up with her and gets together with her again in the end. Hmm...sounds familiar.
Although "Yes Man" doesn't give us anything new or special by storyline, it is still entertaining and for me at least fun/funny as hell. Carrey doesn't fail in performance, not a chance. Not nearly as good as his best performances (Me, Myself & Irene, for example) but still amusing and, as said before, funny as hell. Carrey has already proved his other side of his acting abilities (Number 23) so I forgive him this slightly overused style of self-expressionism.
I would recommend "Yes Man" for almost anyone who is not looking for anything "groundbreaking" from a Carrey flick, but who is in the need of a cheap laugh and a fun little detach from the boring reality. I give "Yes Man" a 7 out of 10 rating for keeping me interested in the life of Carl Allen, the man who has to say "yes" to everything. Nice one, Jim!
Katastrofin aineksia (2008)
Interesting idea
"Receipes for Disaster" is about a family that decides to try living a full year without using any products or services manufactured or carried out by using oil and carbon. It was an entertaining and fun ride for about an hour and ten minutes, but in the near end I was getting restless and waiting for the conclusion. Finally it felt like one of those movies that could be 10 or 15 minutes shorter.
Even though the movie was a bit too long, I was still very pleased about the whole thing. It was an interesting idea to kick in for the fight against the global warming and if every person on the planet would do the same, we could manage to get ourselves a little more time before the oil runs out completely. If it really is so hard to live without oil for one year, how hard will it be when there isn't any 40 years from now? 8 out of 10 stars.
Epic Movie (2007)
In between of Superhero Movie and Date Movie
"Epic Movie" is something you really need to download from the internet instead of paying any money for it. At least it had it's moments, unlike "Date Movie" which was a total disaster. Epic Movie's biggest problem is that it's just...not funny. Instead of making people laugh, it makes people BORED and UNCOMFORTABLED with the idea of watching this garbage.
Hopefully they stop making movie-movies. I know the film makers eventually run out of ideas and start desperately copying earlier, classic films to make money out of something, but even that is better than making these unfunny time wasters that have no particular reason for their existence.
If you have nothing, absolutely NOTHING else to do, you can watch this, but whatever you do, don't expect anything else than killing boredom and rare entertaining moments that eventually don't make you laugh. 2 out of 10 stars.
Date Movie (2006)
Horrible!
"Meet the Spartans" is the only movie-movie after Scary Movie that was funny enough to keep me entertained. This has got to be the worst. The only funny part of the film was the opening titles, which was just so ridiculously awful that it made me laugh. Makers of the movie desperately in the need of easy money? Very likely.
I really hope they stop making these money and time wasting, worthless peaces of dog sh*t. It seems that they're just repeating the same "jokes" over and over again and thinking that it still makes people laugh. Luckily this came out of the TV and I didn't need to waste anything else than electricity on it. I switched the channel after an hour of TRYING to watch it.
Anyone who is interested in seeing this, stop being interested. Spend your money on something reasonable and skip this one. Ugh, even "Superhero Movie" was better than this, can you believe it? 1 out of 10 stars.
Balls of Fury (2007)
I lasted 30 minutes
I picked this film from the local video store when noticing that Christopher Walken was in it. Man, it wasn't even "so bad it's good". It was just simply horrible and I couldn't watch it more than 30 minutes. The so called "jokes" were desperately trying to be funny and I found myself shaking my head and wondering what was going through Walken's mind when he agreed to be in this one. I guess every great actor makes mistakes, but...ugh! I tried, I really tried to watch it till Walken would appear, but I just couldn't. So here I am, warning you who haven't seen this movie yet. Don't watch it. Don't rent it. Don't buy it. Don't even THINK about it. Read a good book instead, you will thank me later. 1 out of 10 stars.
88 Minutes (2007)
Very good, underrated film
I can't believe that most people actually find this movie that bad. Al Pacino is still able to perform his thrilling roles with stunning professionalism that lacks in so much else. The action is well paced and the story is cliché but well constructed and interesting. You who haven't seen this film yet; do not believe this rating. For the past few weeks I have watched some movies with low expectations because of IMDb's ratings and been amazed by how some people really can't understand the difference between bad and good movies. "88 Minutes" was a well done flick that is definitely not bad, and with Pacino it even exceeds itself to become one of the most underrated films of 2008. 88 stars out of 100.
Max Payne (2008)
Not that good but not that bad either
Not knowing much about the video game, I didn't expect nothing from this film except a possible disappointment due to IMDb reviews. In the end I was quite pleased.
Max Payne starts off well, but then starts slowly going downhill with every bad dialog and plot turn. Yet soon after the middle of the film it starts getting better and better and keeps you on the edge of your seat with enjoyable shootout sequences and wonderful performance by Mark Walhberg.
The script is clearly awful and cliché, but the direction fills the movie with entertainment that keeps us interested till the end. During the last scene I was praying it wouldn't end badly and luckily it had only a few icky moments.
The whole movie is a roller-coaster ride with very bad and occasionally genius moments, so as a whole it's an OK flick, slightly above average. Plus Mark Walhberg's performance, it gets 6 ½ out of 10 stars.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Slight step up from 3-D
Jason, now transferred to a local hospital's morgue, wakes up, kills two hospital employees and heads back to Crystal Lake, where he encounters another group of people. Again it's time to start chopping up some teenagers.
"3-D" and "The Final Chapter" are one of the best films in the series with their creative kills and ridiculous characters. Jason looks really good in this chapter, his hockey mask shines with blood hunger as he impales people with machetes, iron pipes and even rakes.
By this point we have lost all remains of suspense and classiness from the very first films, but who cares? Jason is really out of control and gives us another pile of bodies that is the actual point in all slasher movies.
"The Final Chapter" is an exceptional Friday -film with the fact that the people actually know who is killing them (the female survivor investigates the camp's history from newspaper articles etc.) and that one of the heroes uses Jason's own personality to make him vulnerable. Eventually Jason is defeated, but no-one will never forget him.
Jason remains unseen in the next chapter, "A New Beginning", and returns not before the sixth part, "Jason Lives", which is probably my personal favorite Friday -movie.
"The Final Chapter" is a slight step up from the previous movie "3-D" and is by far one of the best Fridays ever made. 7 out of 10 stars.
Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
One of my favorite Fridays
Now after Friday the 13th part one and two, we receive part 3-D, which has one of the highest entertainment-levels in the whole series. The killings, stereotypic characters and other events are fun to watch and this is also the first appearance of Jason's classic trademark hockey mask.
The movie is placed right after the events of part two; Jason is lying on the floor with a deadly wound on his chest, but he somehow manages to travel to a local grocery store, where he brutally murders two people and gets clean clothes. Shortly after that he arrives to a farm area where - surprise, surprise - a group of teenagers are having a quality vacation. The third massacre is about to begin...
Friday the 13th part 3-D has one of my favorite death sequences in the whole series, which are even more creative than in the previous film, for example a harpoon in the eye, machete sliced vertically through a person's whole body, and the classic "head squeezed until eye pops out".
The characters are obviously ridiculous, at least the "tough guys" at a grocery store who eventually end up in the same farm as the teenagers and get killed by Jason for being total dumb asses (pitch fork in the neck, stomach and wrench in the face).
In the end Jason gets an axe in his head by the last survivor - who just by coincidence happens to be a female - and dies for real. Or does he? The story continues in part four: The Final Chapter. This chapter was of course stupid when thinking about it as a movie, but when watching it as an every-day-slasher flick, it deserves 7 out of 10 stars.
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
The same suspense as in the previous film
On 1978, we were on the edge of our seats as John Carpenter created one of the most markable horror masterpieces ever made. Two years later, we were entertained with another serial killer -flick including a now cult classic character. A year later, we got the sequel that offered us the same amount of suspense as the previous one, although not as much entertainment.
Now, the last survivor of the massacre at Camp Crystal Lake, gets killed by the revenge-seeking Jason Voorhees, who is out of his mind after seeing his own mother killed before his eyes. After getting his revenge, he returns to Crystal Lake right when new counselors are staying at another camp nearby. It's Jason's turn to get even...
There is slightly more creativeness in the killings, for example the cripple in the wheelchair getting a machete in the face and rolling down the stairs, but it isn't enough to entertain the audience more than the previous film did.
Before getting his trademark hockey mask, Jason uses a potato sack to cover his deformed head. Although the potato sack inspired many later horror films and games (for example, Resident Evil 4's chainsaw-waving character) it isn't enough to give Jason the appearance he gets in the next sequel, part 3-D.
All in all, Friday the 13th -series' two first movies are on the same level, although the first film one step higher in entertainment and second in creativeness. Part two was an okay film, but it still doesn't reach the level of part one when talking about entertainment. 6 out of 10 stars.
Friday the 13th (1980)
The beginning of a cult classic
"Friday the 13th" may have a big amount of similarities with 1978's "Halloween", but it still manages to contain it's own interesting story and it was the beginning of an even bigger cult classic than Halloween's serial killer Michael Myers.
The story begins with a double-murder; a teen couple is killed at a children's camp by a mother seeking revenge for the death of her son, Jason Voorhees, who was drowned at the same camp because of the indifferent camp counselors. After this incident, the camp was closed for several years, until it was re-opened, just to become the center of the blood festival once again when Jason's mother returns to kill.
"Friday the 13th" may be a little cliché, it may not have the most likable characters, but it still delivers the basics of a good slasher film; blood, guts and screams. That's all you can ask from an entertaining slasher flick among many others. Also, a movie that keeps the audience entertained for about ten following sequels can't be bad.
The sequels may be more entertaining than this one, but none of them has the classic suspense that we feel here. We won't be surprised when seeing someone getting an axe in the face or a knife in the throat, but in the middle of the murdering scenes we actually feel the killer stalking around us; the same feel that "Halloween" provided us.
I strongly recommend this film to anyone who likes horror, maybe not strong and disturbing horror we see in many other movies (modern, classic, whatever), but an entertaining amount of people getting killed in a creative way. This is truly a perfect way to kill time on a nice, Friday night...but on Friday the THIRTEENTH...you are doomed...7 out of 10 stars.
Ted Bundy (2002)
Fun and entertaining
"Ted Bundy" is not a masterpiece, but definitely not bad either! It was a small risk to make a movie about a person who has killed tens, maybe hundreds of people, especially thinking about the families of Bundy's victims, but this came out as well directed, written and acted (well, mostly).
The film begins with Bundy talking to himself in the mirror and ends with him being electrocuted in the chair (as in real life he received a death penalty) and in between Bundy (played by Michael Reilly Burke) kills a bunch of people, either on-screen or off the screen.
"Ted Bundy" differs from many other serial killer -movies by not being just slashing people up to peaces, but showing dead bodies investigated at the crime scenes with a documentary -kind of feel, which gives the story's process a big boost.
There is also a small amount of comedy involved, for example the scene where Ted - after picking up a hitchhiker into his car - shouts: "Holy s**t, look at that!" pointing at nothing and then slams his passenger in the face making her unconscious. Another example is when he kidnaps a twelve-year-old girl, luring her into his car by claiming her father "has been in an accident" which really cracked me up to laugh, although in real life the situation hardly was so amusing.
I recommend you to watch this film as a black comedy more than a serious biography about a twisted psychopath. By doing that you will prevent yourself from getting disturbed in some parts and you will also like this movie a lot more. I gave it two thumbs up for being fun and entertaining. 8 out of 10 stars.
Apocalypto (2006)
Brilliant!
I was quite pleased with Mel Gibson's "Braveheart", and I had a good feeling about this one too. I bought the DVD when it was on sale, and watched it. "Apocalypto" subtended my expectations, and even exceeded them.
I have never actually liked prehistorical movies (if you don't count "Jurassic Park") but films which include human hunt for example is a different thing. The movie gives a whole new dimension to the line "Payback's a Bitch, Ain't it?" and I found myself repeating it in my mind many times during the second half of the film.
People who don't like gore didn't seem to like this movie very much either, but hey, that's the way it was back in those days, get over it. Constant survival between the Mayan tribes was rolling every minute, and the weakest ones were sacrificed to the Gods. I have always been a fan of horror movies, so blood and gore didn't bother me at all.
What did bother me was the birth scene near the end. It was baldly ridiculous, and looked like a scene from a terrible comedy movie. Other than that, I have no complains.
The ending was also surprising and interesting, when the Spanish boats ran ashore.
My opinion: Interesting movie with well done scenes that included entertaining action and still focusing on the subject, "Apocalypto". 8 out of 10 stars.
Collateral (2004)
Instant classic, one of my favorites
"Collateral" tells the story of a hit-man Vincent (played perfectly by Tom Cruise), hired to kill five targets in Los Angeles with an every-day-taxi driver Max (played amazingly by Jamie Foxx) as his life insurance. Vincent's job is to take care of five witnesses and after the fourth one, Max decides to fight back and the race for the life of Vincent's final target begins.
This movie blew me away immediately I rested my eyes on it. The direction, acting and screen writing is beyond imagination. Exceptional directing can easily be seen from the detailed filming locations and backgrounds which are explained more than accurately on the "special features" -DVD.
I had never actually noticed Tom Cruise's extreme acting abilities before "Collateral". Cruise gives the character Vincent a soul which could not have been given by any other actor (playing a bad guy was a brilliant way to show Tom's more serious side and his dedication to what he does) and same as Jamie's character Max. What could be more brilliant than putting a philosophic, and slightly psychotic contract killer and a shy, vulnerable citizen in the same taxi cab having a conversation about life, death and everything between them?
"Collateral" is nothing like all other shoot-everything-up -movies. In Collateral there is philosophy, there is irony, there are exceptional characters and there is acting and direction which are the soul of the movie that should be in so many other films.
Tom Cruise showed us what he is able to do when necessary and therefore I move him to my "top 10 of actors" -list, which already includes for example Christian Bale from "American Psycho", Al Pacino from "Scarface" and Johnny Depp from "Edward Scissorhands". 9 out of 10 stars.
I Am Legend (2007)
Exceptional, slightly underrated thriller
I Am Legend tells the story of a scientist named Robert Neville. He is living in New York City, where a chemical virus, first believed to cure cancer, secondly found causing dangerous mutation and cannibalistic and violent behavior in humans it infects, broke out. After the failed evacuation of New York City, Neville (who is somehow immune to the virus) continues living all alone in New York, probably in the whole world, trying to find a cure at the same time when the infected mutants are stalking him in the shadows waiting for him to make a fatal mistake...
This film has almost everything that most of the modern day horror movies do not have. First of all, REAL suspense. My heart was pounding from the first minute of the movie all the way to the final showdown between Robert Neville and the infected New York citizens.
Secondly, Will Smith gives us here one of his best movie performances. In the scene where his dog, Samantha, runs after a deer into a dark, rotten building where the infected (later called "Dark Seekers") are living during the day, the fear on Will's face is incredibly amazing. I was completely shocked and I could barely breath during that scene, and only because of the fantastic performance Will gives us.
Thirdly, director Francis Lawrence (also the director of "Constantine") does a very good job with this one. The filming of the deserted locations in the city gives us a shivery feeling about being the last man on earth. It makes us thinking, "What if it was me who should lock all the doors and windows during the night? What if I should have to listen the growling of those creepy mutants outside?" Very effective.
The only reason why I didn't give this movie more stars, is the ending, that has been used too many times. "A man dedicated his life to find a cure, and he gave his life to protect it." An overused ending, but still better than the alternate ending, which after seeing I was happy with the real one.
"I Am Legend" is really an exceptional horror/thriller film with it's pure scariness which almost reaches the level of the 1978 classic "Halloween". It contains amazing direction and acting. It may be slightly cliché, but it has more perfectness than averageness. 8 out of 10 stars.
The Terminator (1984)
This film is, no doubt, in the group of 10 best movies in history.
I simply loved this clip. It has a bit from every movie genre, horror, romance, action, even comedy. Arnold Schwarzenegger's fate was to play the role of The Terminator, the unstoppable machine with an ability to erase everything between him and his target.
Terminator goes back through time from the year 2029 to the middle of the 80's. His mission is to kill Sarah Connor, the upcoming mother of mankind's only hope, John Connor. Arnold's acting is perfect, everything from the robotic movements to the experienced handling of fire-arms. The scene where he makes a killing spree in the police station with a machine gun in the other hand, and a shotgun in the other is bad ass! That is my favorite scene in the movie, and one of my favorite scenes in the movie history.
The human resistance sends a soldier named Kyle Reese, to protect Sarah. Later we find out that Kyle's only mission was not just to protect her, but to become the father of John Connor. This unique plot turn makes our minds go crazy from thinking all this, John sends his own father back through time to "make" him.
In the end Kyle blows up The Terminator, unfortunately not surviving from the explosion. But the machine isn't dead yet! Finally Sarah destroys it with a hydraulic compressor and soon is taken to the hospital.
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day we find out that after driving down the highway in the end of the previous movie Sarah tried to blow up the computer factory responsible from the nuclear war.
My opinion: Excellent story, excellent actors/acting, and excellent action scenes with mind-blowing gun-fights; definitely an amazing movie! 9/10 points.