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Bud_Brewster
Reviews
AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007)
I'll keep this short but sweet.
Didn't like Alien. Loved Aliens. Didn't like Alien 3. Liked Alien 4 - Resurrection. Loved Predator 1 and 2. Was disappointed in Alien vs Predator but I bought it anyway because it had some nice points.
That said -- I despised Aliens vs Predator Requiem. It's a complete mess. It doesn't have a plot, it doesn't have any characters the audience cares about, and it doesn't present a single interesting or imaginative idea. It's filled with laughable dialog like, "People are dying! We need guns!". It's also riddled with worn-out movie cliques, such as unlikable characters who later die horribly and ruthless military commanders who care nothing for the lives of the characters effected by their decisions.
Don't go see this movie. Don't buy the DVD. Don't rent it from Netflix. Don't watch it when it's shown on cable or satellite.
I hope I've made my position clear.
Beowulf (2007)
A noble -- but unsuccessful -- endeavor.
This should have been a great movie, a movie on a par with Ray Harryhausen's "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts".
Unfortunately it was a costly endeavor that only succeeded in proving that an all-CGI movie intended to look like reality can't be produced yet.
-- Or maybe the people who made "Beowulf" just didn't have what it takes. Tough to say.
The main problem with this movie (in addition to several lesser problems) is that it isn't realistic enough to convince the audience that it is not CGI, and it isn't stylized enough to make the audience glad it isn't just plain old reality.
Add to this the fact that the story is often dull (and it's never really great) and you've got a disappointing movie. The fight with the dragon was exciting -- but it would have been a lot more effective if the whole movie had been as great as should have been.
Ride Lonesome (1959)
Great cast! Terrible script . . .
Don't get me wrong. I love Westerns! This one offers some real pluses: The cast is great -- Randolf Scott (a Western legion), Pernell Roberts (the heart-throb from Bonanza), Karen Steele (a smokin' hot babe in any film), and James Coburn (star of "The Magnificent Seven" and the "Flint" films).
The story is fantastic. A group of macho guys agree to transport a gorgeous women across the dessert to the nearest town -- along with a captured prisoner (James Best) that all the men want to retain possession of for their own personal reasons.
Unfortunately, the dialog in this low-budget opus is so bad that the audience has a hard time taking the story seriously. While watching it I felt sorry for the actors. Their dialog was embarrassingly bad.
Pernell, for example, is forced to utter lines which bear little resemblance to the intelligent scripts he was graced with in "Bonanza".
That said, I must say that "Ride Lonesome" is not great Western film. However, you should watch it and judge for yourself.
Bud the bartender of this here saloon. (Howdy!)
Twist Around the Clock (1961)
alternate title -- Twist Around the Twilight Zone!
TCM showed a marathon of rock n' roll movies on January 31, 2007 and I taped the entire 12-hour run. I really enjoyed "Rock Around the Clock" (1956). It was energetic and fun, with plenty of good music.
Then I started watching the next feature, "Twist Around the Clock" (1961).
I expected the two films to be similar -- but I was flabbergasted when I realized that "Twist" was filmed using exactly the same script as "Rock"! The plot elements were copied perfectly, scene-for-scene. In fact, the dialog was even the same word-for-word throughout both movies!
Watching these two films back-to-back is like a trip to the Twilight Zone -- a perfect example of parallel universes.
Maverick (1994)
A worthy sequel to the 1950s TV show!
This is an extremely enjoyable movie, based on an extremely enjoyable TV show from the 1950s. I was a kid in the 1950s an advantage I have over some of you poor younger folks but never mind that.
The casting of this delightful movie is perfection: Mel Gibson is wonderful as the son of the original Bret Maverick (forgiven me if you didn't already know this), and Jodie Foster is sexy as hell playing Annabelle Branford, the lovely female counterpart to Bret Maverick Jr., who keeps our hero on his toes throughout the entire story.
If you haven't seen this film, you won't regret going to Amazon and ordering the DVD of it like I did. It you do regret it . . . let me know and I'll apologize profusely.
Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
A disappointing sequel. "Maverick" (1994) was much better.
Turner South showed "Support Your Local Sheriff" and "Support Your Local Gunfight" back-to-back on Sunday night (11/20). And after enjoying my umpteenth viewing of "Sheriff", I tried to enjoy "Gunfighter" after failing to do so the first time I saw it, a few years ago.
Admittedly, the first time I watched "Gunfighter", I quit watching it less than thirty-minutes into the movie, because it just didn't seem to be doing what "Sheriff" did so well.
This time, thanks to some of the comments of other IMDb users, I stuck with it . . . and I finally got the point. Even though I don't like "Gunfigher" nearly as much as "Sheriff", I think I understand why I don't like it as much as its predecessor.
Without going on and on about the differences "Sheriff" offers idealistic and hero-worshiping viewers like me a character who Waltzes through life with complete confidence, solving problems quickly and easily.
"Gunfighter", on the other hand, is about a morally confused person who seems reluctant to do any honest work, and who prefers to make desperate attempts to con the local residences out of a few bucks.
The defining moment in "Sheriff" is the scene in which Gardner goes on a picnic with Joanne Hatchet and realizes that his plan to leave town before the big gun battle with the bad guys (which he plans to do) would be a cowardly act.
"Gunfighter" doesn't contain a scene like this one and James Garner's character does not have the kind of moral fiber that would permit the story to include this kind of scene.
For this reason, "Gunfighter" is decidedly inferior to "Sheriff".
But, for the record, "Maverick" (1994 which also starred James Garner contains many scenes which compare favorably to "Support Your Local Sheriff".
Oddly enough, Turner South showed "Maverick" right after "Support Your Local Gunfighter" on the afore-mentioned Sunday night.
Weird, eh?
The Mating Game (1959)
Sexy, smart,, and wildly hysterical!
I saw this movie in 1959 when I was 11 years old at a drive-in theater with my family.
Way back then, I thought it was very funny . . . even though I was too young to understand 90% of what makes this marvelous movie such a delight! I saw it again this morning on "Turner South". As I watched it, I was absolutely convulsed with laughter! "The Mating Game" is a unique classic from a by-gone age. If you're too young to have experienced the enchanting period in history that produced this film, I feel very sorry for you. There's no way you can watch movies like this and understand how they can (even today) deliver such a delightful slice of heaven to "old timers" like me.
Having said that, all I can do is respectfully request that younger people refrain from commenting on films like "The Mating Game".
Movies like this were made for the generation that preceded the current group of your people. And as such, these films speak a very different language than any of you can understand.
In other words if you don't understand the issues the film is addressing, please don't embarrass yourself by offering comments which frankly make no sense.
Evolution (2001)
The perfect comic / sci-fi / adventure!
"Evolution" is a wonderful comedy/sci-fi/adventure that really has no equal. As much as I love "Ghost Busters" I and II, this is a movie I can watch over and over again.
The set designs and special effects are fantastic. The music by John Powell is dynamic and thrilling. The chemistry between the characters is delightful, including the two fat guys who turn out to be far more intelligent than the audience realizes. Dan Aykroyd is fabulous as the governor of Arizona. Every line he utters is hysterical. Dan improvised most of them during filming.
The film works perfectly as a comedy, but it also works extremely well as a sci-fi adventure/thriller. In fact, the story was originally conceived as a serious sci-fi thriller, but director Ivan Reitman wisely realized that a comic version would be much better.
As one of the millions of intelligent people who realize that the theory of evolution is actually just a joke that Charles Darwin never intended for anybody to take seriously, this movie does a fabulous job of demonstrating just how ridiculous it is to believe that complex lifeforms could "accidentally" develop from simpler organisms. (Just try demonstrating this moronic idea in the laboratory. Good luck, pal . . . )
As a true fan of the best of the 1950s sci-fi films, "Evolution" is the perfect ancestor to movies like the Harryhausen classics like "It Came from Beneath the Sea" and "20 Million Miles to Earth", and director Jack Arnold's two best films, "It Came from Outer Space", and "The Space Children".
Ironically, the people who criticize this movie often seem to do so because they object to the fact that the "science" is inaccurate. Ivan Reitman states on the commentary track of the DVD that he took great pains to get the science in he story correct, including the use of science advisors. It's obvious that these people's objections are based on their pathetic defense of the totally illogical "theory of evolution" (pause for chuckle).
It you don't like "Evolution", try rethinking your personal philosophies. As soon as you get them right, you'll love this movie.
Bewitched (2005)
Big disappointment . . .
If you were enticed by all the hip that preceded this film, you might have expected a witty and amusing film like "Bruce Almighty".
Instead, what we got was a very unimaginative film that delivered no more than two or three laughs in the whole movie. Nicole Kidman is a talented and lovely actress, but Will Ferrell has less charm and acting ability than either of the two Darrens from the original show. His character in the movie is supposed to be an egotistical ham actor, but all he succeeds in doing is demonstrating that he is, in fact, just an egotistical ham actor -- even when he's supposed to be displaying his "sensitive side".
There were lots of things they could have done with the idea of a modern-day remake of "Bewitch" that unwittingly casts a real witch in the role of Samantha -- but what they actually did with it was just noodle around for two hours without ever realizing the potential the concept possessed.