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CompleteIgnoramus
Reviews
The Cannonball Run (1981)
Lots of fun and major nostalgia - a real blast!
I was only a kid when this movie came out and it made a real impression on me. I already thought that Burt Reynolds was just about the coolest dude around (I wanted his black Trans Am so badly!) so the chances were pretty high that I would like it regardless of whether it was a good film or not. I ended up recording a copy off TV and pretty much burned out the tape watching the flick over and over again (Cannonball Run II as well). As I recently prepared to watch the film for the first time as an adult, I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't stand up to the high acclaim I had awarded it as a kid...particularly after noting the poor rating it has here on IMDb. Nevertheless, as I kicked back and turned it on I was immediately giddy with the initial scene of the Lamborghini chicks really putting the machine through the gears. While the humour is admittedly silly, that is what the movie is about - it's a silly but extremely entertaining movie with hot 80s chicks and fast cars. If you want to catch a fun movie with major nostalgia - take the Cannonball Run for a test drive! Don't let the ratings here turn you off, this movie is a blast.
Noble House (1988)
An excellent adaptation of Clavell's epic novel.
An excellent adaptation of Clavell's epic novel. True, the story told in the mini-series deviates that told in the the novel, but the changes make the mini-series much more accessible to a general audience (Clavell often rambles on about the nuances of Communist espionage which was likely far more pertinent and interesting when he was writing in the 1960s.). While the whole package consists of three maxed out VHS tapes, the fast pace of the story combined with the well-crafted romantic sub-plots (something lacking in the novel) keep you riveted and hardly wanting to take the time to rewind the tapes. In general, some of the acting performances are a bit rough, particularly from the female roles which is likely due to the fact that the series was never meant to be scrutinized by dorks on the internet (i.e., it's just a mini-series, we're not talking Oscar material!). However, the solid performances by Pierce Brosnan, John Rhys-Davies and Ben Masters (as the classic-80s millionaire playboy) more than make up for it. Overall, Noble House is immensely engaging and, due to the on-location shooting in the Pearl River delta, a great opportunity to take an armchair vacation to Hong Kong in its 1980s heyday.
Whale Rider (2002)
One of the best movies I've seen.
This is, quite simply, one of the best movies I've seen. It is a fantastic example of what indigenous film-making is capable of. Maori culture seems to have an innate knack for expressing themselves in this way. While Once Were Warriors offers a significantly different view into the lives of indigenous New Zealanders the emotional roller coaster ride is nevertheless the same. One can't help but feel as though they know the characters in the movie and thus they are intimately tied in to what happens to them throughout. Well done!