Aging Movie Reviews

Last Saturday, me and my b/f were bored. So, we decided to rent
some videos, 'cause his mom was away and his dad was
at work. Anyway, we went to the rental place nearest
his house. We got some movies. One of the movies we got was Olive Juice. I'm ashamed to admit this,
but part of the reason we got OJ was my b/f, I know I
worried about this too, thought the girl on the cover was
cute. Speaking of the cover, I felt so bad for James
Berlou, the only real actor, he got like 1/16 of the

cover if that. When we got back to his home we decided
to see OJ first. First off, my b/f kept asking where
did the chick from the box go. I told him 'michelle',
Leighnne's part, was the girl. He kept asked how her nose
got so big. He looked digusted everytime he saw her
profile. Also, he kept saying she had a ton of wrinkles.
God, she looked like 43 in this movie. His dad came home early. His dad came in around half way through the movie. He kept
asking who the actors were, because he knew they weren't
famous. The part he came in on was the part were the
black doctor brought a watermelon to the funeral. My
God, I thought he was gonna [potty] his pants laughing.
In his own words, "Ok, it's SUPPOSE to be a funeral.
Which usually is a sad thing, and they decide to have a
black man come in carrying a watermelon. Besides,
that's racist." I really don't see how it's racist, but
I do agree it's funny. Funerals aren't suppose to
be funny. Speaking of death, when Leigh's character
finds out her mom died she couldn't even cry. No tears.
Not even a sniffle. She just layed in the mom's bed
and closed her eyes and like shaked while the black
doctor, same guy who brought the watermelon to the
funeral, looked at her like 'WTF?'. Then, they show this
black dj, I forgot his name, peeing in someone's
backyard and riding a bike like he's a retard. I hope some
idoit actually does something like that and sues the
idoits who put out OJ. The end scene they stop

Michelle's moving van, which she's driving, and her and
Kneeler, James Berlou's character, makeout on the back of
the van. Then, Kneeler talks while the screen goes
black. God, this movie [stunk].

This movie was slow, predictable and quite frankly stupid. It had good intentions, but didn't pull them off very well. It totally trades on lead actress Leighann Littrell's famous Backstreet Boy husband, Brian and fellow Backstreet Boy, A.J. McClean (both of whom appear in the movie). I can see why it never made it to the theaters.

for an independant film, this was great! i loved the movie as soon as i started watching it. DJ Dan is fantastic!

i do think they over publicised brian littrell and aj mclean's appearances in the film, but it was still a great movie. lil' tyke was my favorite. he was so cute!

leighanne is a great actress. she is beautiful and can act. she really got into her role and i really liked that.

it is a really great movie and i recommend it to everyone!

This is one remake that shouldn't have been made! The only thing it has in common with the original is that a cat came home wearing a wristwatch on his neck, everything else is a totally new story that doesn't make any sense. It appears that the current producers disliked the original plot so they added a bunch of silly subplots just to fill space. The lady butcher in love with a security guard leaving packages of meat on his doorstep, the "bloody twig" clue which turned out to be a maraschino cherry stem, the person who hasn't left their apartment for years, etc. were all distracting elements that nobody would have missed had they been left out.

My sons hadn't seen the original yet, and they thought this movie was stupid. They did enjoy the original when I rented it the following week.

There are only a few movies where the remake is as good as or better than the original. This one is the worst I ever have seen. I have bought this on DVD in a PAL country expecting a reissue of a former released NTSC Laserdisc containing the original movie of 1965. What I have got was a production (1997) with shallow entertainment not even amusing or funny, created loveless.
Although the original movie exists in a restored version I don't understand why it is not yet released on DVD in place of that nonsense of 1997. Therefore I share the same opinion with the reviewer who said: "buy That Darn Cat (VHS) in place of That Darn Cat (DVD)"!

While the remake version of "That Darn Cat" was pretty good, it pales in comparison to the classic original with the Siamese Cat. Instead of spending my money on this version, I will anxiously await the day when the original 1965 version of "That Darn Cat" comes to DVD !

King Cobra

I didn't know this was a sequel to the 1997 sleeper "Anaconda" until I looked it up on IMDb. Needless to say, it's worse than the original.

"The Karate Kid" star Pat Morita (yeah, the Chinese guy) stars as a snake hunter who must track down a genetically-altered King Cobra python-whatever when it escapes its super-duper high tech prison: a tin cage. Wow, the government must really be cutting down on containment these days. Anyway, Pat goes after the snake with the help of Scott Hillenbrand (also co-director of this journey) and Casey Fallo, who do, of course, fall in love and kiss right after a snake is about to chomp their heads off. But that's okay - it's in the script.

There are countless things in this film that are truly laughable, including the scene where Pat Morita tells Hillenbrand that he injects himself with snake venom to acquire an immunity to it. You can see the regret in Pat's eyes. He knows this is a stinky movie, and he hates having to say what he's saying. He's been around in the Hollywood circuit long enough to know that saying that kind of thing can get a film - and an actor - killed. But directors can be very picky about their films. I just thought of something that rhymes with 'picky,' as well.

Pat Morita is in the low-point of his career. Actually, let's face it: He doesn't have a career. He got lucky off a few 'Karate Kid' movies, and his fame disappeared instantaneously. He tried to get back in the acting showbiz with 'The Next Karate Kid,' but his plan backfired, and his apprentice in the film became the one to gain worldwide recognition AND an Oscar (Hilary Swank). Too bad for Pat.

Scott Hillenbrand is like scraping the bottom of the barrel. His acting talent is niltch. He can't direct or act, which leaves me to wonder...how did he get his big break? I can't imagine he gained anything from the 1997 thriller 'Hostile Takeover'.

David Hillenbrand, Scott's brother, is the other co-director of this film. And quite frankly, they both share the family gene specialty, which is being manager at a McDonald's somewhere out in Oklahoma. That's their specialty, and they should stick to it.

Saying this movie is bad is like saying "Anaconda" was sort of bad. The original was awful enough, but this sinks even lower in the depths than the original.

Sure, it's great for a Friday or Saturday night when you've got nothing else to do. But in all honestly, I'd rather waste 93 minutes of my life on something good than something below-average, even if it has a campy quality to it (and not much at that!).

Worth avoiding at all costs. Well, almost all costs. It's hard to keep a straight face when Morita says he injects himself with snake poison. What a pathetic way to make the hero immune to venom. B-A-D is written all over this straight-to-video flop.

Giant snake movies have been popular enough for quite a few of them to be made. This one involves a giant snake that is half king cobra and half diamondback rattler. That alone would make for a nasty critter, but there is no explanation as to why the thing is so big.

There is also a gap after the snake escapes (before the credits) and the main bulk of the movie. We get a screen with the words "2 Years Later". What has the giant snake been doing in all that time?

There was a touch of Jaws added in that the snake comes to a small town that is just about to be in the middle of a festival that spells financial freedom for much of the town (a local brewery is going to go national).

Our cast of characters includes the Mayor (Hoyt Axton is great as usual), his daughter who is a police officer, and her boyfriend who is the town doctor but is moving to the big city. Add the scientist whose lab the snake escape from (actually a good guy) and a herpetologist (Pat Morita) and you have pretty much the whole thing.

While this snake is huge, it is not bulletproof like Python. It is a normal genetically-spliced specimen. Ordinary tactics will work against it.

The film does a pretty good job of adding some tension and scenes that make you jump or flinch (something lacking from most of the snake movies). All in all a pretty good effort.

I rented this not knowing what to expect. This is one of the better Giant snake movies. I thought the snake design was quite good considering it is a strait to video release. The acting and camera shots were well done (though there is some limitations to everthing). What made this movie stand out to me is the fact that they didn't screw it up with any noticeable computer effects, unlike Boa, Python 2, and any other movie by Nu Image. This is worth a rental at the least.

Before I begin dishing this out for Disney, I will give my one (and ONLY) praise about this movie. The music in it is beautifully written. It's only too bad the rest of the movie couldn't have been this good.
If anyone out there is thinking of renting/buying this movie and showing it to their kids, expecting it to be an animated version of the original, FORGET IT. Wait until they're old enough to see the really thing. This movie would be good as a stand-a-lone, if they had been the first to make the whole thing up. But it is a true disgrace to compare this to the original film. Even the story line strays from what we would all expect to see....

I truly enjoyed this movie. It is highly underrated and hopefully will be appreciated in years to come. Instead of going over plot details, I trust just about everyone is familiar with "The King and I," I'll instead go over the things that I enjoyed most about the film.

Director Richard Rich, who helmed Disney's The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron, helms a very Disney-worthy animated feature for another movie studio. The artwork is beautiful, very vibrant, but the animation is on par with alot of the Disney films from the 1980s, maybe. The characters are basically the same from the original musical, The King of Siam and Anna included. However, there is a new character named Master Little who is voiced by SNL funnyman Darrell Hammond. He's probably the funniest part of the movie. One detractor, is that I thought that the villian, The Kralahome, was a bit too much like Jafar from Disney's Aladdin in his attempt to manipulate various characters, the King included.

However, I think the number one reason I like it better than the 1956 version is because it is only a brief 90 minutes while the original tops out at a whopping 133 mins. Overall I enjoyed Warner's 'King,' even though it seems to drag at points, I will no doubt enjoy watching it for years to come.

This version of "The King And I" seems to have gotten a bad rap!
Sure, much of the original story has been altered to make this "Family Viewing" but, the true heart remains! And those wonderful songs by R & H beautifully performed by Martin Vidnovik (The King) and Christiaine Noll (Singing Anna) are pure joy!
WB threw their hat into the animated feature film ring and created something as impressive as Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks ever could! However, this film did not achieve Disney or Dreamworks box office success! This film is a great introduction for children and adults to a classic american musical. I would love to have seen a new trend of animated classic musicals begin such as "Flower Drum Song", "Anything Goes", "Annie Get Your Gun", "Into The Woods", "Fiddler On The Roof" "Hello, Dolly!" or even "Gypsy" now wouldn't that be interesting! The animated TK&I has alot going for it gorgeous animation, great voices (speaking and singing), a great story and a timeless musical score! The running time is just under 90 minutes. Some of the songs were cut from the film but included in the closing credits performed by Barbara Streisand. The DVD has many cool features like a couple of "Making Of" featurettes. Cast & Character Bios and a sing-a-long! A DVD essential for any musical theater fan! Although, I'm sure many musical theater fans would strongly disagree with me!
Also see: "Anna And The King Of Siam (1948), "The King And I" (1956) and "Anna And The King" (1999) or read many of the books written about the life of Anna Leonowens and The King Of Siam.

I bought this film only today & despite the quality cast & talented director, this film was a real disappointment. The plot is minimal as was to be expected and the stunt action was well on track with all Jet Li movies. But the voices.............

No. what let this film down were the appalling voice-overs. Why? For Gods sake Why? Karen Mok, who is my all time favorite actress speaks flawless, cultured English and yet her voice and those of the other actors are dubbed over by people who sound like 'chipmunks on speed', (for those who remember the cartoon chipmunks, alvin, simon & theodore).

Surely a film budget could stretch to allowing voice-overs by people who speak both languages fluently? God knows there's enough Cantonese who speak the Queens English and could have been trained to dub for cinema to cover those actors, such as Jet Li whose spoken English at the time of this film wasn't all that great!

I've seen it the once, it didn't cost me all that much, but I'll be honest, this was far from being Tsui Hark's best work and as much as I love Karen Mok, I won't watch this film again because it just isn't worthy of her. This film was simply bad and my apologies to Jet Li fans, (who I admire as an action star), but his stunt efforts simply don't carry this dud over the line.

Good choregraphed fight scenes by Yuen woo ping and good performance by Jet Li as usual. But a bit too unbeliveable, because if they cant feel pain, then they cant know where their feets or hands are so how can they do martial arts? pretty stupid in fact, they should have thought it thru before filming it.

As a Jet Li fan, I really enjoyed the fight scenes in this movie, but the story is nothing. My version is dubbed in english and probably cut, so cant rate this one fair. Anyway, see this movie for the fight scenes, not for the story.

Well Sony has now replaced Warner Brothers in the cheap DVD production market. Where as Warners is now starting to make and reissue better quality DVDs of their movies, Sony and it's related company outlets are putting out very junk style DVDs and this so called Godzilla collection of DVDs is among them. They are cheap copies of poor film prints with terrible picture and sound quality. No widescreen or bonus features, and terrible cut and paste editing. I can't watch Godzilla now because of it. Don't waste your money.

This is a fairly nice 5 disk box set of classic Godzilla movies. The quality is decent, but don't expect the crystal clear image quality of today's releases. These generally look and sound just like they did when you watched them on TV 20 years ago.

Most disappointing to me is that these films are presented in 1.33:1 pan & scan instead of the original widescreen aspect ratio. All the films are Englished dubbed, no original language sound tracks included.

I've always wondered what Godzilla films' on DVD would sound like, and look like. So many explosions and effects exploding in sharp colour, and awesome roars and the rika-tika of army machine guns on a sorround sound stereo is what I wanted. My expectations were a bit too high. First of all, the selection. Godzilla, King of the Monster. An INSTANT essential in any Godzilla collection with the word 'Ultimate' included. Godzilla vs. Mothra was a nice choice, not bad at all. Godzilla's Revenge. OK, now do not get me wrong folks, i am obsessed with all Godzilla films and love them all more than any movie, well any thing in the world. But why did they have to include this one out of all the films? I would have prefered Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, Godzilla vs. Gigan or Godzilla vs. Ebirah if we are talking in terms of the showa series. Thats alright, this is still a pretty fun film, just wondered why that one of all was included. Terror of Mechagodzilla. This is a great Godzilla flick, not a bad choice - but it is thrown in with the earlier Showa flicks which is a bit odd, since TOM is the last Showa Godzilla Film. Rodan. Rodan? Rodan. Rodan?! Why? I thought this was a Godzilla Collection! Well, Rodan is awesome as Godzilla's sidekick in his films, and Rodan is a pretty good film but I wanted them all to be Godzilla Films. Godzilla vs. Hedorah or Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla prehaps? Now that that is out of the way, on to the transfer. Godzilla King of the Monsters - The Sound Transfer is very very nice on my sorround sound, no inconvenient humming or buzzing during the quiet moments. The soundtrack transfer rocks! The Picture has been sharpened a bit, but still is a tad bit murky. Godzilla vs. Mothra - The Picture is nice and sharp, better than GKOTM. The Sound is great as well. Mothra's chirping does get annoying though, lol. Godzilla's revenge - The Picture quality is pretty much the same as my video, scratchy in places. But the sound is amazing! The jazz score the beggining kicks! Terror of Mechagodzilla - Both Picture and Sound are excellent on this transfer.Rodan - Sound is a bit musty and murky, a bit blurbed if you will - but the picture is good.
I dont know why people complained about the transfers so much - They are actually pretty good. Maybe something is wrong with their Stereo or Screen. I have a big screen and 5-piece sorround stereo set up so I notice alot of the details.
Anyway, this is a nice set. Good Transfers, All the films rock -
but the inclusion of 'Rodan' sags the rating a bit.

This movie is a complete waste of time. Terrible plot, acting and martial arts. You'd have a better time watching a marathon of "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag" on TNT.

Chow Yun-Fat plays a nameless monk in charge of protecting a sacred scroll possessing mystical powers so great that who ever reads the scroll would be endowed with the ability to turn the world into a paradise or a living hell. Now, my first thought was if this dang thing poses such a potential danger to the world, why not just destroy it? Well, another reviewer stated that the reason it was so closely protected and not destroyed, as spelled out in the movie, was that the human race just wasn't ready for such power at this time.

Anyway, Chow is the latest in a long line of protectors, and each protector has the responsibility for a period of 60 years, and then they pass on the responsibility to another chosen one. Why 60 years? Who knows? I guess just because it's in the script. Also know that whoever is chosen as protector of the scroll is endowed with special powers, one being that the protector doesn't suffer the effects of time. The reasoning for that is as the protector protects the scroll, so shall the scroll protect the protector.

So now Chow's 60 year term as guardian comes to its' end, he's looking for the next protector, who comes in the form of Kar (Sean William Scott), a petty thief and pickpocket who lives in a movie theater and learned martial arts by imitating old kung fu movies. Oh yeah, for like the last 60 years Chow has been pursued by a crazed Nazi intent on stealing the scroll, taking the power, and cleansing the Earth of so called inferior races.

Jaime King plays Jade, Kar's love interest. As I watched the movie, it seemed to me that her character had no real reason for being in the movie other than giving the male viewers an attractive woman to look at, but by the end, we are enlightened to the importance of her role in the outcome of the storyline. I thought her connection to the other characters in the movie was paper thin, but hey, whatever...the actress I most enjoyed watching was Victoria Smurfit. She played Nina, the grand daughter to the psycho Nazi and is helping him to acquire the sacred scroll. She is truly easy on the eyes and seemed to make the most of what little screen time she had.

The movie, based on a comic book, plays out that way, keeping things pretty simple with lots of action, some humor, a smidgen of romance, and a little philosophical nonsense thrown in for good measure. Suspension of disbelief is required throughout the movie, but I kinda enjoy this film, as it reminded me of some of those old Hong Kong chop socky movies.

As far as extras go, there are some deleted scenes, an alternate ending, some 'making of' stuff and the usual trailers. I would be hard pressed for anyone to run out and buy this movie, but if you're looking for a fun way to kill an hour and a half, this works pretty well.

Chow Yun Fat and Sean "Stifler" William Scott team up in a fun, harmless action flick.

THE MOVIE

The Story

Throughout the ages the Tibetan priests have safe-guarded a sacred scroll that holds ultimate power. The Monk with No Name (Chow Yun Fat) is the latest monk to defend the scrolls. Pursued for 50 years by a Nazi officer Fat must defend the scrolls and seek out the next person to take over as the defender of the scrolls. He takes on an unlikely partner in the streetwise thief Kar.

The Cool Things

Being a Chow Yun Fat film, the action is just as solid as you'd expect. The contrast between Fat's "Monk" character and wisdom and Scott's "Urban Thug" is a pleasure to see. Overall, this is a decent action film to kill a few hours with for some guilty pleasure entertainment.

Best Scenes

1.Monk trains Kar

2.Most of the fight scenes...

THE DVD EXTRAS

If you liked stacked DVDs you'll love the package they've put together for the Bulletproof Monk release. Here's what you get:

1.Two Commentary Tracks, one with director Paul Hunter and producers Charles Roven and Douglas Segal and one with writers Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris.

2."The Tao of Monk" featurettes
a."Fists of Fury" - 6 minute featurette detailing Sean William Scott and Jaime King's martial arts training and wirework.

b."Enter the Monk" - 19 minute production featurette detailing how the actors were cast, how the costumes were selected and how the shooting locations were picked as well as the movie's comic book origins.

c."Zen Palette" - 9 minute featurette detailing how various sets used in the movie (Wooden Bridge, Tibetan Temple, Gang Hangout, Nazi base) were built, both manually and computer generated.

d."Smoke and Mirrors" - 7 minute featurette detailing how the special FX and CGI FX were done for the big actions scenes in the movie such as the helicopter and the wooden bridge fight scenes.

e."The Art of Score" - Cool 10 minute featurette detailing how the music was written for the movie. The feature literally shows how the movie was edited from picture and how the music and sound effects were edited into the scenes.

3."Monk Unrobed" - 6 minute featurette that talks about the movie's comic book origins.

4.5 deleted scenes with optional commentary track

5.Alternate Ending with optional commentary track

6.Trailers for the movie, its soundtrack, video game and other movies

7."Behind the Scenes Gallery" of stills from the set

THE VERDICT:

Overall, the movie itself, while not knock-out fantastic, is a decent action flick that makes a great rental to fix one's action cravings. The loaded DVD extras are a great insight into the movie-making process, well worth the price of the DVD if you are so inclined to purchase.

THE GRADES

The Movie: 3.5 stars
The Extras: 5 stars
Overall: 4.25 stars

Recommended

Considering her reputation as a perfectionist, I'm surprised that Streisand let the many mistakes in this film get past her. Fans who have the soundtrack will catch how Streisand messes up the lyrics in the finale, but presses on anyway. In the scene where she wrestles in the mud with Kris (in her expensive white outfit), she has mud on the back of her outfit before they even get down in the dirt. Jon Peters is shown in the background of one of the concert scenes. And the "concert tour" takes place almost entirely on the same stage - at least she changed outfits a few times.

All in all, I still enjoy this movie once in a while. It reminds me of how over-the-top the 1970's were.

The Classic James Mason and Judy Garland version of "A Star Is Born will never be topped. And I don't believe that they tried to in 1976. A Star is Born in 1976 was an incredibly popular movie, and although it was shunned ,and skewered by the critics, it played in theatres for 6 months. So in the 21st Century you have to have the wisdom of watching this movie through a 1970's lens. I ENJOY watching a rather young Barbra Streisand rocking out on the Finale-Watch Closely Now.

I loved this movie! I watched it as a child, and watched it again recently as an adult. I've asked my family for it as a gift for Christmas (hopefully it will be out in DVD by then but I will wait.) It's a beautiful love story of a destructive man and a caring woman. It's very moving, passionate. I'm not particularily a big fan of Babs or Kris but when they are together in this movie, it's incredible. I've cried everytime I've watched it.

I was really amazed with the attitude of the character played by Martin Lawrence. It was absolutely racist to the point that the Lawrence character send an innocent cop to jail and that is supposed to be funny. His obsession about being black is showed during most of the scenes with special stress on his lack-of-brilliant conclusion to the white cop when he tells him that "being innocent in jail + your girlfriend dumped you + an underpaid job after that" means you're a black guy. Basically the simple action plot was just an excuse to portrait was the movie is about: A different version of racism, promoted by the black not-funny main character.

Maybe I am not the target audience of this movie!. At least it was a rental

funny as hell all the way through, though is lags in some of the action parts and Eric Roberts seems like a dumb blonde with his blonde hair. my favortie part is when Zahn and Lawrence meet and then that damn bumblebee comes along and it looks like on a camera that Zahn is beating Lawrence up and he goes to jail. Zahn and Lawrence both have great one liners

favorite line
Martin Lawrence- Ma'am, you can repracure your vehicle(then it blows up and he turns to her and says) what the problem is?

I thought that this was great. I didn't think it was rasist at all (I'm not black, but srtongly apposed to rasicm.). I thought that it was very funny. I saw alot of reveiws saying that it was stero tyipcal, but of whites too so everyone was stero typed. It was a great film and it had some great action scenes although over all it was a comedy.

oh boy, where to begin. Seagal is send to prison undercover and then Morris Chestnut breaks in and they want some money or something, I dont know I got lost in the beginning and then sorta fell asleep for 20 minutes, woke up and then fell asleep again when a stupid action scene came on or the ever so girly running Seagal started to fight. man, Seagal's movies have gotten way crappy all of a sudden. you had The Patriot, The Glimmer Man, Exit Wounds, The Foreinger, I mean come on man, do some drama or something, forget this crap. and Ja Rule took a big leap from The Fast and The Furious to this. Seagal even Chestnut has had a better career lately then you man

Now I understand why the critics did not think much of this film when it was released. "Half Past Dead" basically tells the story of the "new Alcatraz" in which one of the prisoners, who hides a secret worth millions, is going to be executed. Seems like a pretty decent storyline until the action starts happening. Morris Chestnut's and Nia Peeple's characters hold the prison hostage (as well as some very important figures there to witness the execution) hoping to get the very valuable secret out of the prisoner. Steven Seagal plays an undercover FBI agent who must fix the situation promptly with his bad acting a guns. Ja Rule makes an appearance as a prisoner as well as Seagal's unaware best friend. Ja basically gets thrown around the entire movie and his trying to look and be as hard as possible becomes very annoying early on in the film.

I personally wouldn't recommend this film since there are so many other good action films out there, but I'm sure action buffs will probably enjoy this one.

I wasn't expecting much out of this movie, but it was suprisingly tolerable. The fight scenes are good, although I don't like those lame camera effects where something's in slow motion, then suddenly it's in fast motion for 2 seconds, then back to slow motion. Nia Peeples was awesome. I've never seen her like this before. This makes me forget about her lame charactor in The Blues Brothers 2000. The bad guys are led by Morris Chestnut, who was Segeal's sidekick in Under Siege 2 as the porter on the train. He does a decent job as the villian. Then, of course, there's a couple of rap singers trying to get into acting. Ja Rule and Kurupt (?) They're acting is okay, but I don't see them winning any academy awards for Best Supporing Actor in this movie. This dvd is worth checking out if you like Steven Segeal movies. It's already in the "cheap" section at certain stores. I guess that's just because only 4 people saw the movie in the theater.