Reviews

So basically, a quick note about "Two Minute Warning". It has two main versions. It theatrical release, and it's TV release. I watched the theatrical version, so this review is entirely based off of that version only. Now for the review.

It starts off with an introduction to our main villain: the sniper. He assembles a gun, finds a random person on the street, and shoots them dead. This introduction, or at least in my theory, says a lot about the sniper. He is insane and bloodthirsty for no reason at all. I saw some people talking about his lack of motive for his future actions, but scene this exposes his motive, that being wanting to kill. After this scene, we are introduced to other side characters who will play a role in the story. Most of them are meh, but some of them and their stories are quite interesting.

These first few scenes are over, and we quickly arrive at the Super Bowl. The gunman takes his place, and the suspense begins. As the game progresses, more and more suspense builds up around the impending danger of the gunman. Every minute brings you closer to the edge of your seat, as the police finds out about the sniper, and it becomes a secret battle between Heston and the gunman. What was going on inside the stadium with the spectators was nothing to write home about, but the main plot with Heston and the gunman were very thrilling.

Eventually, after a long wait and during the last 20 minutes or so, the gunman starts shooting. The shootings, though gruesome, also had a thrilling aspect. Unfortunately, this scene soon degrades into just crowd members screaming and running, and all of the other subplots between the fans in the stadium get forgotten and looked over. Mostly because the characters just get shot. In the end, the gunman is taken down, and the movie quickly finishes itself without expanding upon what happened to the other characters.

Overall, pretty thrilling and entertaining, but some parts I didn't really care for (of course, this is all just my own personal opinion). 7/10.

"The Hindenburg", as the title obviously suggests, is a recounting of the last and tragic trip of the Hindenburg from 1937. The events are actually highly fictionalized, but I think this was a good call, since a story about sabotage is much more exciting than a story about sparks igniting leaking gas.

The film opens up with a great opening song, and a very quick introduction to its characters. Before long, the Hindenburg is off the ground and on its way. Combine this with some great sets (which received the movie a well deserved academy nomination), it looks like we're getting into a good movie. Unfortunately, right after leaving the airport, the film falls asleep, and takes an hour long nap of mostly just filler.

Sure, during the flight we get to see a tad bit more of a few characters, and there's a pretty intense sequence involving a rip in the wing, but this period of the movie was boring nonetheless. Quick side note: I forgot to mention that in the very beginning of the movie, we're told that there's a time bomb on the ship, so it's a lot less shocking when we discover that one of the characters is holding a time bomb. When the other characters find out about the bomb, it's too late, and the airship explodes.

This explosion results in, well in my opinion at least, a cool looking but underwhelming sequence. First of all, the entire sequence is spliced in with real footage of the Hindenburg disaster. Secondly, to match up with this footage, they made all filmed footage for the disaster black and white as well. This doesn't seem that bad, but thirdly, they cover the screen with fire and smoke, which combined with the lack of color, make it a bit difficult to see what's going on (I should clarify though, I liked some of the intensity in the scene). Then the disaster is over.

It may seem I'm being extremely negative about the movie, but it wasn't all bad. I thought Scott, though not his best performance, did pretty well, and like a commented above, it includes some very nice sets and decoration, a good (but rarely used) soundtrack, and it also has some pretty good costumes and cinematography. I feel as if "Stylish" is a very accurate word for it.

Overall, there's boring filler for a lot of it, but it's very good in other aspects. 6/10.

With 1970's "Airport" being a major box office success, winning an Oscar, and being nominated for many, disaster movies became the big thing for movies. After several big hits for the sub genre, it started to die down, and by the late 70s, they had gone from big-budget thrills to more cash-grabby flicks. Avalanche is one of those flicks.

The film takes place at a winter resort, where for nearly the entire first hour, it just follows the drama amongst the vacationers who are staying there. The owner does at some point call for a plane to go over the resort, and said plane ends up crashing into a mountain. The final 30 minutes are spent on the actual disaster that was pretty much neglected for the most of the film by now, aside from some foreshadowing.

Throughout the movie, it set up a few subplots, and most of these subplots don't play that much importance in the story until the final scenes of rescuing everyone trapped from the avalanche, and credit where credit is due, these scenes were pretty intense, and the cinematography was also really good. Speaking of the avalanche, the special effects used to simulate it were really bad, and everything looked really fake. Other than those, everything else about the movie was quite average. The acting was average, the sets were average, and the Music was average.

Overall, it's a disaster movie, it's a drama movie, it's flawed in some places, better in others, and mostly average. 5/10.

Africa Addio is a documentary horror film, maybe even an exploitation film or a mondo film. It's not the scariest film I've seen, but it's definitely the most disturbing, Even with the fact I saw a cut version (128 minutes). If you dislike racism or animal cruelty/massacre/murder/poaching, then don't watch this movie. The movie itself is about Africa after decolonization, and what happened to the people and their nations. The thing about this movie is that it's hard to judge. Some scenes are real, some are staged, and a lot of the audio is re-recorded. These fake scenes and re-recordings were probably done for dramatic effect, which is obviously wrong for the filmmakers to try and make the scenes more dramatic for the entertainment of the viewer. I also don't know if it's historically accurate or not. Multiple sources have claimed the footage is real, and just as many have claimed it's faked. Whatever the movie is, it certainly gets the job done at showing the cruelty and evils on earth, while also sometimes showing the happy moments (I mean the scenes that weren't faked). Some scenes were just heartbreaking and really evoked emotion out of me (but the realness of a few of the said scenes are questionable). In the end, Most of the movie was somewhat good. Another thing: at over 2 hours, the runtime stretched past it's welcome (by 20 minutes or so in my opinion). The soundtrack and cinematography were powerful at least. Overall, it's a sometimes real, sometimes staged, sometimes disturbing, sometimes powerful documentary. 6/10.

"The twelve chairs" is a Mel brooks movie that not enough people talk about. It was the second film he directed, was the first of his films that he starred in, and was the first of several films of his that starred Dom DeLuise. It's about 3 men of different backgrounds going on a hunt all across Russia trying to find 1 of 12 chairs that contains a massive fortune. It is very funny, with the great acting making it even better. Ron Moody was great and funny in it, Dom DeLuise was great and funny in it, Mel Brooks was great and funny in it, and it was one of the first feature roles of Frank Langella, who was also great and funny in it. The film is also accompanied by a great score. Its pretty different from some other Mel Brooks movies, and has some heavy themes to it, such as depression, loss, and even suicide. I'd even say some parts were heart-touching. The most prominent theme being greed, as most of the main characters are driven literally insane over the fortune. The biggest problem in it is it's pacing, which makes the whole hunt seem a bit drawn out, but the slow movement is made up for by the things listed above. Overall, it is an underrated, funny, and deeper Mel Brooks film.