Collecting Movie Reviews

One negative point is that the video isn't restored. Of course, given the nature of this series (a heavily edited and re-edited showing of three very different television shows), I'm not surprised. However, the video is at the same level as the original broadcasts (which unfortunately speaks ill of how TV shows were broadcast in the days before cable was in most of our homes), and everything is included (even commercial bumpers, recaps, and previews). The special features disc is equally loaded, with a special premeire movie (and commentary by Carl Macek, who is for all intents the "creator" of Robotech) and a series of character model sheets.

While certainly dated, with its sometimes primitive animation and now-unimaginable dubbing policies, Robotech is an essential series for all cartoon fans, and (naturally) this set is the best place to start.

Spielberg's dinosaur adventure Jurassic Park is up there with the all-time greats. Taken from Michael Crichton's thrilling novel, Jurassic Park is one of the most entertaining and exciting films ever made. The special effects are from FX maestro Stan Winston, who did the special effects for Aliens (1986) and Terminator 2 (1991). The seamless combination of CGI and robotic creatures creates some truly terrifying action set- pieces.

Despite what some critics thought when the film was released, I feel that all the principal actors give good performances, especially Sam Neill as Alan Grant and Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm. But admittedly, the special effects are the main attraction, and Winston's dinosaurs (which won him another Oscar after Terminator 2) are truly frightening. Great entertainment.

The film's transfer onto DVD is first- rate, with superb picture and sound. The special features are exceptional, with a 50 minute 'making of' of the film and trailers for Jurassic Park, the Lost World and the teaser for Jurassic Park 3. Most interesting, however, is the footage of early pre-production meetings with Spielberg and the FX team discussing how certain shots and effects should be done. Also, there's a Phil Tippett animatic "Raptors in the Kitchen", showing how claymation assists the director in visualising the shots and camera angles. Also there are storyboards, production photos and web links. A 5 star film, 5 star extras. Excellent entertainment.

The Lost World is an exciting adventure starring Jeff Goldblum, Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore and Pete Postlethwaite. The film picks up four years after the incident at Jurassic Park, where a corporate businessman Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) plans to take dinosaurs off the second island (Isla Sorna, where dinosaurs have been breeding) and bring them to a theme park in San Diego.

Spielberg knows what the audience wants; the film has more dinosaurs, even better CGI and impressive animatronic dinosaurs from the maestro Stan Winston. The action throughout the film is exciting and while not as astonishing as Jurassic, the effects are first-rate. John William's music for the film is suitably jungle -driven, with a dark and exhilarating score that fits the film's tone. There are problems, the tagged- on ending with the T. Rex stomping through San Diego is silly, and although the action is good, the story isn't one of Spielberg's best. That said, the principal cast are fine, especially Goldblum as Malcolm ("Ooh, aah, that's how it always starts, and then later the running and screaming") and Postewaite as Roland Tembo, a game hunter intent on shooting one of the Tyrannosaurs. Silly in parts, it's still an exciting adventure movie, with enough action and light humour to satisfy audiences.

The DVD extras are great, with a 50 minute 'making of', deleted scenes, trailers for all 3 Jurassic movies, a huge amount of conceptual drawings, storyboards, a featurette 'The world of Jurassic Park', marketing, posters and toys, production notes and web links. Great stuff.

Spielberg's dinosaur adventure Jurassic Park is up there with the all-time greats. Taken from Michael Crichton's thrilling novel, Jurassic Park is one of the most entertaining and exciting films ever made. The special effects are from FX maestro Stan Winston, who did the special effects for Aliens (1986) and Terminator 2 (1991). The seamless combination of CGI and robotic creatures creates some truly terrifying action set- pieces.

Despite what some critics thought when the film was released, I feel that all the principal actors give good performances, especially Sam Neill as Alan Grant and Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm. But admittedly, the special effects are the main attraction, and Winston's dinosaurs (which won him another Oscar after Terminator 2) are truly frightening. Great entertainment.

The film's transfer onto DVD is first- rate, with superb picture and sound. The special features are exceptional, with a 50 minute 'making of' of the film and trailers for Jurassic Park, the Lost World and the teaser for Jurassic Park 3. Most interesting, however, is the footage of early pre-production meetings with Spielberg and the FX team discussing how certain shots and effects should be done. Also, there's a Phil Tippett animatic "Raptors in the Kitchen", showing how claymation assists the director in visualising the shots and camera angles. Also there are storyboards, production photos and web links. A 5 star film, 5 star extras. Excellent entertainment.

The Lost World is an exciting adventure starring Jeff Goldblum, Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore and Pete Postlethwaite. The film picks up four years after the incident at Jurassic Park, where a corporate businessman Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) plans to take dinosaurs off the second island (Isla Sorna, where dinosaurs have been breeding) and bring them to a theme park in San Diego.

Spielberg knows what the audience wants; the film has more dinosaurs, even better CGI and impressive animatronic dinosaurs from the maestro Stan Winston. The action throughout the film is exciting and while not as astonishing as Jurassic, the effects are first-rate. John William's music for the film is suitably jungle -driven, with a dark and exhilarating score that fits the film's tone. There are problems, the tagged- on ending with the T. Rex stomping through San Diego is silly, and although the action is good, the story isn't one of Spielberg's best. That said, the principal cast are fine, especially Goldblum as Malcolm ("Ooh, aah, that's how it always starts, and then later the running and screaming") and Postewaite as Roland Tembo, a game hunter intent on shooting one of the Tyrannosaurs. Silly in parts, it's still an exciting adventure movie, with enough action and light humour to satisfy audiences.

The DVD extras are great, with a 50 minute 'making of', deleted scenes, trailers for all 3 Jurassic movies, a huge amount of conceptual drawings, storyboards, a featurette 'The world of Jurassic Park', marketing, posters and toys, production notes and web links. Great stuff.

The film is better than the TV series, that's for sure. I love this movie. It had some great comedy (I mean, come on, who doesn't love the prank they did with Hotlips?), some interesting drama, and a LOT of cynicsm. Robert Duvall was my favorite actor in the movie, right next to the great Elliot Gould.

There were some scenes that confused me, but this is a movie that needs to be watched a 2ns, or 3rd time. It's very confusing if you don't know what the atmosphere was like in 1970. Just a great film, glad to have seen it.

At it's release, MASH was received as an overtly left-of-center showcase for the most urgent progressive causes: the anti-war movement, sexual liberation, integration, anti-authority, 70's style feminism.

The MASH version of feminism is particularly ironic. As in the later TV version, feminism is mostly expressed as a woman's "empowerment" to engage in promiscuous, premarital sex. Men and women engaged in open, frank and raunchy dialogue and interaction was then considered sexy, fresh, and indicative of the "new lines of honest communication" between the sexes. Today, men who talk to women as do captains Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland) or Trapper John (Elliott Gould) would be run out of the officer corps and sued for sexual harrassment. The famous Hotlips' (Sally Kellerman) shower scene would never make the final cut in today's Hollywood.

The liberal minded irony behind the handle "Spearchucker Jones" is now considered too subtle or esoteric to ever be trusted to modern audiences. A new movie would never risk such a character name in today's hyper-sensitive times.

The suicide-spoof scene is of a resounding political incorrectness. The linked lyrics in the original theme didn't even survive to see the TV series (which featured only the score). "Irreverence" in today's cinema is usually code for scatalogical humor.

The substance abuse/heavy drinking is portrayed off-handedly, incidentally and for comic effect. Today's director would need not even a prompt to self-censor himself through either: (a) direct, negative consequences for such behaviour, or (b) confining the imbibing to secondary, "idiot" characters.

The characters meant to show the Establishment's backside are only slightly more extreme than characters that are back on today's Good Guy rosters. In fact, some of the sanctimonious drivel from none other than Major Burns (Robert Duvall) is very similar to what, today, is uttered in all earnestness.

Like Welles' "Citizen Kane", Altman pioneered many fresh cinematic and soundtrack innovations here. Also, the viewer is flattered with nuanced characterizations and an absence of spoon-fed audience "lessons". More importantly, the viewer is presented a gut-splitting riot of comedic scenes that entertain throughout.

it's far better than the boring TV series that hold the

same title.The direction by Robert Altman is great and

the cast including:Donald Sutherland,Elliott Gould and Robert

Duvall did a wonderful performances.

Is it Kubrick's finest film? Well, frankly no it isn't. It's an interesting mishmash between Kubrick's detached, ironic style and Hollywood glitz. Spartacus is Kubrick for people who don't care for Kubrick's detached style. It doesn't measure up to Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001 or A Clockwork Orange although it does compare favorable to the much darker Paths of Glory.

Kubrick stated that his intend at the time was to subvert the cliches of the genre. As a result, Kubrick manages to reinvent a genre that was in danger of becoming a parody of itself. As a collaborative effort, Spartacus is a great piece of entertainment and far more sophisticated than almost everything else that came out of Hollywood at the time.

The transfer is beautiful with much of Kubrick's bold use of color restored. The strong acting of most of the cast has always been a virtue of Sparatcus. The soundtrack has been meticulously transferred to 5.1 and Alex North's beatiful score has never sounded so sweet, tragic and powerful before. The audio commentary is the same one that was on the laserdisc version. It provides additional understanding about the complexity of making an independently produced project like Spartacus. Kirk Douglas' bold decision to produce the film himself (with Universal-International distributing)was a leap of faith in both the material and the talented director.

The second disc is stuffed with supplements that are found nowhere else.There's two older interviews with Peter Ustinov, Jean Simmons plus one that Ustinov did in 1992 for the laserdisc edition. It's delightful and he shares a number of funny stories about the picture. There's also a text overview of Kubrick's career and his involvement with the picture. Included also are sketches Kubrick made for the motion picture (artistically they're nothing special but they do provide insight into Kubrick's role in the visualization of the film). Included are some vintage newsreels and a promotional film originally made but unfinished for Spartacus that gives us a glimpse behind the scenes. The promotional film is missing it's soundtrack (in fact, it might have been lost if not for the forsight of a private collector) and has much from North's score. We also get to glimpse at Saul Bass' wonderful title design sequence.

Criterion has been both praised and criticized for their DVDs and laserdiscs before. While they tend to be expensive, this is the complete package. Occasionally Criterion will release a package that isn't up to their usual standards. Spartacus isn't one of them. Robert Harris (Harris restored the film along with Vertigo)evidently was also involved in the transfer to DVD. If you want a spectacular transfer of the film, loads of extras about the making and background of the project from those involved, this is the set to pick up.

Spartacus hardly could have hoped to win his revolution, but that is not the point. He deals Rome a staggering blow, and in that respect he and his army of slaves is extremely successful. This is perhaps best illustrated in the final duel between Spartacus and Antoninus. This is no fairy tale, and Spartacus's revolution, though brave, is always in danger of proving utterly futile. Rome simply has too many resources, too many men, and too well-trained of an army to ultimately allow herself to be pushed around by her slaves. Still, Spartacus tries, and in this, at least, he asserts his right to be a human being just like anybody else.

This film is rightly labeled a "thinking man's epic." It was revolutionary for its time, and still holds up forty years later as a poignant reminder that all men are created equal, and that thousands and even millions of people have suffered and died in a world that did not understand that as we do today. The battle scenes in this movie are phenomenal for their grand scale, and the action keeps you on your toes. Great acting, great directing, and a captivating story--this is Spartacus.

This version of SOLARIS, sadly, leaves more to be desired than it delivers. The writing is intentionally enigmatic, and one gets the sense that the filmmaker doesn't really know what's going on, so he's hiding his cluelessness behind a thin veneer of "cleverness".

It doesn't work.

There is nothing in the film I would call brilliant. The acting is so-so (having the lead walking around looking at things to creepy music for an hour is pretty lame), the photography is average, and the script doesn't do justice to the original material.

I expect great art to leave me a better person - I can get lost in a masterpiece for hours. This film left me thinking I had wasted my hours.

Director Andrei Tarkovsky has created visually stunning movie discusses what it means to love and to be a human being. Filled with fine acting performances by Donatas Banionis as Kris Kelvin and Natalya Bondarchuk as his dead wife Hari, the film relies much more on storytelling than special effects. The only drawback to the film is its length. A few scenes seem to drag on forever with no point to them. But, those can be easily overlooked.

Don't confuse this with the George Clooney remake! There is no comparison between the two.

To fully appreciate Heavy Metal, one has to understand the era it came out in. At the time, most animation, at least what was seen in the US, was frequently of the "family entertainment" variety seen in Saturday morning cartoons and TV commercials. Apart from Ralph Bakshi, most animators were basically shackled by the need to present something that was "rated G". Heavy Metal took the exact opposite route. It was a liberating experience for the animators working on the film to be allowed to draw things they usually weren't allowed. And they got paid to do it, too!

After the opening Soft Landing sequence, we're introduced to the Loc-Nar, a glowing green orb responsible for all the evil that has plagued the universe (or at least, that which has plagued the human race). The various stories contained in the film are told by the Loc-Nar to a young girl, as examples of it's awesome power.

The stories include the film noir homage Harry Canyon, the male "wish fulfillment fantasy" of Den (which demonstrates the versatility of the late John Candy, who voices both Dan, the science nerd who gets transported into an alternate dimension by the Loc-Nar, as well as Den, the Conan/He-Man-esque beefcake that he is magically transformed into), the highly amusing Captain Sternn (trivia: the voice of the prosecutor is done by John Vernon, the actor who portrayed Dean Wormer in Animal House), the EC-esque B-17 (aka Gremlins, which went through so many script revisions, it's a miracle it got finished at all), the bizarrely hilarious So Beautiful And So Dangerous (ok, maybe there's some truth to the juvenilia charges during this segment, but only a corpse could keep from laughing at this piece), and revenge scenario of Taarna (imagine a tougher, sexier version of Xena, only about a decade and a half earlier).

While there IS some element of juvenilia here, it's no worse than any other movie that's been released by any major studio during the last 25 years. In fact, I bet it's a little more cerebral than most of those other movies. Harry Canyon is a rather crafted film noir homage, while some elements of Taarna are clearly patterned on Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. And while there are a couple sex scenes and a certain amount of excessive violince in Heavy Metal, again, it's nothing compared to some of the garbage that's shown on cable TV these days. I'd certainly rather watch this than Basic Instinct or No Way Out.

This movie is a classic piece of animation. Yeah, some of it's rough around the edges, but that has a lot to do with Columbia's decision to move up the deadline so they could have the original movie out in time for the summer 81 season. One has to consider the scope of the undertaking, and the relatively short time that was at hand to create it.

Look at the "travelling sequence" during Taarna, where she's shown riding her mount (a sort of large bird creature) over a rolling landscape, and consider that it was done WITHOUT the use of any kind of computer generated work. It's explained in the audio commentary on the rough cut of the film, as well as during the documentary how it was done, and why it didn't quite turn out as planned). No one had ever done anything like that, and it had to all be done by hand.

Really, you can't take this movie too seriously. It's a movie that exists soley to entertain. There's no big message or point to the movie. Just put the DVD in the player, turn out the lights, turn up the volume LOUD, and just enjoy the trip.

It should be noted, that this disc also contains some of the best bonus features I've seen on any DVD. Besides the regular movie, you get a full length "rough cut" of the film, consisting of storyboards, pencil tests, and some completed animation. The only audio for this rough cut (besides the optional audio commentary, by Carl Macek, who also does a completely different commentary for the finished movie) is the dialog. There's long stretches of silence, but it's worth watching, as there's lots of bits of dialog that were cut from the final movie (we learn, for instance, that Katharine, like Den, was also transformed when she was transported to this mysterious alternate universe). It's also interesting to note that the stories weren't always in the order that they were in the final movie.

There's also a half hour documentary with interviews from many of the filmmakers involved in making the film. We finally find out why we see a model of a house blowing up at the end (because they didn't have time to finish the animation for that one bit), and also why Cornelius Cole's Neverwhere Land was cut from the movie (either for reasons of length/continuity, or because Cole didn't finish it in time, depending on exactly which version of the story you wish to believe.

You also get a few minutes of deleted scenes, most notably the above mentioned Neverwhere Land, which was originally supposed to link Captain Sternn and B-17. There's also a few minutes that surround an early version of the framing story (in whence the Loc-Nar was actually the power source of a magical merry-go-round, and the various objects on the merry-go-round related in one way to the stories...ie, there's a taxicab, Taarna's mount, etc...each time the girl takes a ride in a different vehicle on the merry-go-round, she experiences a different story).

And finally, you get all Heavy Metal covers up through 1999, plus various bits of production drawings, cels, etc.

In short, this is a classic film that should be viewed by all fans of animation and/or heavy flicks. Prudes and conservatives who get cranky at the very thought of a movie being ruined by a little too much flesh or blood (and really, there isn't THAT much of either in this film) or a little warped humor (ok, there's PLENTY of that here) are advised to keep away. I just wish they had restored Neverwhere Land to it's original place between Captain Sternn and B-17.

This classic is for fans of the 70's and 80's generation and truly enjoyed the music from those days. Fans of Heavy Metal magazine will defintely love this also. Today's snobbish teenies need not apply!!

Mark Wahlberg is a kind-hearted hitman who agrees to take on a kidnapping scheme, forced upon him by his "buddy" (Lou Diamond Philips in one of the film's only memorable roles). And he could use the money as his Jewish princess girlfriend, played obnoxiously by Christina Applegate, and his woman on the side (Lela Rechon) are really sucking him dry. After his crew takes a young co-ed hostage, they are shocked to discover that she is actualy the Goddaughter of their short-tempered employer.

This film is so full of stupid cliches that I found myself repulsed by it before it even got rolling. We've got the afore-mentioned Jewish brat whose moronic parents don't help matters. We've got the never-enjoyable white guy who wants to be a rapper (ala Seth Green in "Can't Hardly Wait"). And then we have a favorite of mine, Bokeem Woodbine as a black guy who has stopped having sex because he has discovered the wonders of self-pleasure. Lou Diamond Philips as the backstabbing goon is the only real prize to be found here.

"The Big Hit" does a decent job of being an action movie with its outrageous car chases and non-stop gun fights but the comedy elements play so poorly, you'd swear you were watching a movie written by the writers of "Keenan & Kel". The movie seems to have gone the comedy route simply to display some ridicilously-chereographed stunts that would never work in a film that played itself seriously. In all honesty, they still don't work. Where else would you see a guy waiting in front of a video store get rear-ended off a massive cliff? And the gags seem to get beaten to death. We get non-stopping helpings of a video store clerk trying to get Wahlberg to return a movie and scenes that point out to us that Woodbine's character likes to masturbate. How funny!

"The Big Hit" could have worked. The premise seemed promising, the cast is excellent, but the writing was terrible. Where the action half of the movie was very creatively put together, the comedy is just autrocious. There are holes in the plot big enough to hold the Titanic. Uh, what could have been.

Mark Wahlberg stars as Melvin Smiley, a hitman with a heart of gold, sort of. Outside of his dubious career, he's a relatively nice guy with an airhead fiancee (Applegate). Anyway, his hitman buddies, specifically Cisco (Lou Diamond Phillips), devise a plan to kidnap Keiko Nishi (China Chow), the daughter of a super-rich Japanese businessman, not knowing the man has just went bankrupt (shown in a hilarious scene). Anyway, they have to store Keiko at Melvin's house, and he's forgotten that his fiancee and her parents are visiting for the weekend. To make matters worse, Keiko is the goddaughter of the hitmen's boss, Paris (Avery Brooks), who's looking to crack down on the guys who kidnapped her.

The Big Hit desires to work as an action and comedy, and succeeds quite well at both. The shootouts are pure Hong Kong-style (no surprise, it's directed by Kirk Wong), outrageous but cool to watch. The fight scenes are kinetic and well-choreographed, with the performers displaying some nice, agile moves without really going into all-out martial arts (by this, I'm referring to the final fight in the video store). None of the action is superspectacular or completely memorable, but it's all exciting and lots of fun, which is what it should be.

Director Kirk Wong also shows a capbable hand at humor. For once, the majority of the film's jokes actually work. Even a long-running gag involving Melvin and his overdue rental of King Kong Lives pays off in the end. A lot of people are going to find this humor stupid, but for me, it was stupid and funny. Some of these jokes probably wouldn't naturally be funny, but the cast (particularly Lou Diamond Phillips) pulls them off with a great sense of comic timing. Hell, I even laughed during that obvious "tracebuster" joke.

As I said before, most of the cast members are those I generally try to avoid when I watch movies and they're terrible here, but they're offset by the film's leads, thankfully. Mark Wahlberg is not a great actor by any stretch of the imagination, but he's likeable and perfect for this part. The lovely China Chow is a spirited foil for Wahlberg, she's smart, funny, and sassy, and also the film's most genuinely likeable character. Naturally, the film progresses by developing some romantic chemistry between her and Wahlberg, and to my surprise, those scenes actually work.

Stealing virtually the whole film is Lou Diamond Phillips (who I've always liked), who's hilarious as the two-timing hitman Cisco. Off the top of my head, I believe this is his only comic performance to date, and he's so good at it, I wish he'd delve into the genre more often. The always solid Avery Brooks has a few throwaway scenes, but it's always nice to see him in a role outside of Deep Space Nine. All in all, The Big Hit was a good time, never truly excellent as an action/comedy (it needs more even plotting and less superfluous characters) but just enjoyable enough, and that was good enough for me.