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JOhlendorf
Reviews
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
decent movie, with several flaws
i will make this short. its not a bad movie, but neither a great one. My girlfriend and I liked the first movie much better. now for the Pros and Contras.
on the one hand: Technically the movie was good. Decent animations that fitted perfectly into the movie. A decent idea for a story, that tries to combine humor, adventure and action. But...
...but on the other hand: Who has read the book, will be disappointed, how very different the movie is. Then again who did not read the book, may have trouble understanding the first 15 minutes right away.
The The focus of the movie is on action scenes, and character development had to make space for those.
Then what really annoyed me, was that this movie looked like a cheap copy of Lord of the Rings. Many say this about any fantasy movie, but i would disagree most of the time. But this one sure is stealing quite a lot, not only from LOTR. I will not go into details (dont want to spoil), but two examples:
I Reepicheep, the newly introduced character is very original. Change $mouse to $cat and you got...."Puss in Boots" (If you have seen Shrek2 or 3).
II ...the enemy is attacking through the deep river... when suddenly (who has seen LOTR?) a big water wave comes and crushes them. Alright, i admit, this time the wave forms into some water giant, not water horses...
Then another mood killer, the never ending ending-scene (again, hardly anyone an endless ending like in LOTR, where you get hit with a very unfitting song. Why not put a rap song into it, would have been as badly placed as this kind of music.
Last but not least, i don't like it at all, when the things that happen do not make any sense. In this movie, people appear out of nowhere, do things when they should have just done them 5 minutes earlier to "save the world". Susan for example does bot shoot an imminent threat to her sisters live, but does not hesitate to kill a man she just saw for a few seconds, not knowing who he is, not being threatened at all.
all in all its a watchable movie, which is just a bit ill, by the current "more wild senseless action scenes"- epidemic, that seem to have hit Hollywood.
Loaded (2007)
not bad for a Low Budget production
Upfront. It is a low Budget Production and the Image and Light Quality often gives this away. If it wasn't for this, it would probably have been one of THE Action Summer Movies. And THE Action Movies generally miss a bit here and there.
Alright that said, to the goods and bads of this Movie.
Bad things first: One of the major Characters, played by Lynn A. Freedman, is acted very weak, that she should rethink their profession. Sorry, but true.
Some Parts of the Plot, that seem to very important, are not followed up. This is not really effecting the movie, but you wonder afterwards.
The Quality of the places they shot the movie. Detective bureaus are simply a white room with a desk and a lamp. Lots of the Scenes where shot in Locations which miss a realistic touch. Often a Problem in Low Budget Movies, so it was expected.
Now to the Good things: The main Character and several small ones where acted very convincing.
Some very nice (small but effective) Effects. The Showdown is just awesome, and can almost be compared to fighting sequences of real good blockbusters.
All in all the best action scenes i have ever seen in a low-budget movie.
Some nice turns and twists in the plot. Not awesome, but still good.
this is waaay better then any Steven Seagal Movie. :)
Ole
Secret of the Cave (2006)
average movie should be in mystery, not adventure
This is rather a mystery then an adventure Movie.
I am generally careful with movies where the main character is a little boy. There are good ones, like "tom sawyer", where you are with him the whole time, and his actions/reaction make sense. But most of these movies tend to have a mediocre acting main character. They often also have allot of scenes where i find myself thinking "why would he do that/go there/say this?". This movie belongs to this 2nd type.
Do not get me wrong, its a watchable movie, where many side characters are casted and acted great. But it has it long boring parts and there are the "what/why the ..." parts.
What me annoyed the most, is that the frame story is completely unconnected to the main plot, but for some reason it comes back and back into the movie. With no real influence.
(please excuse bad grammar, English is not my native language.)
Shadow Man (2006)
typical Steven Seagal movie, simple plot, bad stunts,...
I mights add upfront, that i am no Steven Seagal fan.
The movie is similar to all Steven Seagal movies. So if you don't mind that you never see "stevens" head/face in any stunt ( which includes anything with more action that jogging or crouching) nor worse effects then a 1950 movie "high speed" chase, then you might enjoy this movie.
if you hate to see slowly moving vehicles through a shaking camera (which somehow is supposed to make it look more action/speed loaded...) i suggest not to waste your time with it. If you hate flat dialogs (there a re a few "good" ones, but Steven manages to spoil them by reading them with no emotions nor ambition) then again, this movie should probably not to waste your time.
summery: Steven, if you are a good guy, which i hope, then you wont take this personal: please stop trying to be an actor. you are wasting peoples lifetime.
Fainaru fantajî sebun adobento chirudoren (2005)
boring compared to the first movie, pure action trys to be deep
*spoiler - don't think i spoiled anything, but just to be sure, only read the first 2 paragraphs ;)
remembering the first movie as an interesting, innovative and surprising movie, i was happy to finally get my hands on the followup.
I was quite disappointed. This flick is 3/4 of the time "unreal" (even more unreal then "normal" eastern movies), confusing, senseless action. the movie tries to be deep, by having some slow motion scenes in between, filled with big words. On the bright side, the animations where mostly awesome and the music is well chosen and used.
you want to save time, just Imagine you see Godzilla vs KingKong fighting, but you only see their faces closeup and some explosions in the background. all this images are turning around and zooming in and out all the time. and after 5 minutes of this the two leave each other alone again, to sit down and think about the secret of life for a few minutes. then they call each other and meet at another location. there you go time saved, now you have some spare to watch the 2001 mother movie again. :)
Ole (sorry for all the spelling mistakes)