I might be the only one who thought this movie felt old and worn out. I realize it's gritty and human compared to the majority of X-men movies but I just didn't find it that interesting. The plot seems spoon-fed to the audience and while it allows the story to focus on the drama it just doesn't feel all that spectacular. Not my cup of tea I guess.
I watched it a ton of times in '99 but I was just 9 years old at the time. After well over a decade of never viewing it I decided to dust it off.
"Wooden" is probably the best way to describe the film. Every scene has the same tone and feel to it, from the action sequences to the scenes with heavy dialogue. Interestingly the pace of the film is lightning fast, the first time it actually stops to focus on something for more than a minute or two is the Podrace. It lends a strange detachment from the film as none of the plot points are focused on in much detail. It seems like too much is crammed into it.
The character development is also lackluster. Obi and Qui-Gon have been together for some time at the opening of the film and their chemistry is as if they got stuck together for this one assignment and don't really care for each other at all. Natalie Portman and Jake Lloyd have no chemistry (which ironically mirrors their character's futures) and can't act too well here.
Not much to say about Jar-Jar that hasn't already been said, Captain Tarpals is how I prefer to think about Gungans in general. If you go back and view a lot of scenes with Jar-Jar in them you can see how Lucas literally shoehorned him into so many scenes where he just didn't belong, it's infuriating. The Pod race and the duel with Maul are really the only two highlights here. The Anakin space battle is pathetic, I've hated Naboo starfighters ever since.
Darth Vader is one of the most recognizable villains in movie history, if not the most recognizable. It was 22 years after we saw him for the first time that this film was made. I've always been under the impression that the task of telling the origin story of arguably the biggest villain ever turned out to be too monumental a task for Lucas. Either that or he just didn't even try. Think about it, the origin of Darth Vader and this is how he did it? Casting Hayden Christensen and giving him such a lousy script pretty much doomed the story. It really is a tragedy, folks.
Quite possibly the darkest movie that Disney ever made, back when they had the guts to do so. The songs are magical and the stop motion animation is spectacularly done. Some of the scenes like Christmas town and Boogey's lair are masterfully crafted.
It's a bit quirky and the animation isn't the best, I wonder how many people watched this movie and then decided the show wasn't for them. A shame really because the show turned out to be pretty good and since they made it officially Canon it opened the door for all kinds of development within the storytelling universe.
In case you are unfamiliar, the show takes place solely between episodes 2 and 3 and gives you so much awesome content between the movies. The clone wars were one of the coolest times in Star Wars and Episode 2 starts the war at the end of the movie while Episode 3 ends it. There is sooo much happening between those episodes that the series was essential.
Make no mistake, this is better than the new 2017 version. That skydiving sequence still kicks some serious butt after all this time and the Zord sequences are always fun.
I've seen a good number of very old horror movies and it's kind of common knowledge that almost none of them nowadays would scare a 2-year old. However, even then you could put yourself in that time and place and at least imagine how audiences would have reacted in horror, you can't really do that with The Blob. My father described it as "schlocky" before watching it as a family and I have to admit I severely underestimated the schlocky-ness. It's not even quite a B-movie but more of the feel of a high school play gone wrong but you are too embarrassed to ask for your money back.
Zordon once said a long time ago to "recruit a team of teenagers with attitude." Somehow the message was lost over the years and became "recruit a team of teenage criminals with suicidal tendencies." Thus goes the theme of this flick. The characters in this movie make no sense, they act like idiots and then wonder why everything goes wrong for them and proceed to blame everybody and everything else. It is truly an insult to the original series even if it has been "modernized" to reflect an edgier (read: criminal) teenage crew. At one point in the movie Kimberly is wearing a tank top with the emblazoned words "it was all a dream" on it. That is so appropriate, I kind of wish this movie was just a dream, a bad one at that.
Rita Repulsa taking a break to eat a Krispy Kreme donut? This movie dragged my childhood out into the street and emptied a machine gun into it.
It's a mess, no better way to put it. The kind of movie where you want to ram your fingers into your ears and close your eyes while begging it to stop. David Ayer manages to make the movie feel like it isn't even in the same DC universe as Batman and Superman but some alternate world where everything is turned on its head... and then hit with a sledgehammer for good measure. It's just so bad, I can't even find the right way to convey it. The script is awful, it seems like a teenager wrote it. The plot is literally all over the place. I hated Jared Leto as Mister J, but strangely not as much by the end of movie because I just wrote off the entire messy affair. Don't even get me started on the gold chains, tattoos, and grills. I've seen dozens of better Joker renditions at comic conventions. If this is the new Joker that DC is going to be using then they have literally lost their minds. They'll have to take the character back to the drawing board and start all over again, I cannot in any way see them going forward the way he is.
Christian cinema has really come into its own in the past 5 years or so and the latest treat is this particular movie. The Case for Christ takes a different approach with regards to many other Christian movies and is aimed primarily at skeptics. It is very well done and well acted. I'm partially familiar with the book and even though the novel is kind of dry (most hardcore research is) the movie is briskly paced and highlights all the main points in Strobel's quest to uncover the truth, only to find that it is not what he expected.
Midway is one my favorite WWII events so I enjoyed it but I can imagine the average watcher not getting a whole lot out of it. The titlecards throughout the film help to put the action and events into perspective but it can be easily lost in the moment if you aren't familiar with the main players and ships. Charlton Heston is lackluster, but only because the role he's playing is not that interesting and Henry Fonda as Chester Nimitz could have been played by virtually any actor.
I think that we just expected more with Del Toro at the helm with this film. He is a superb director and a visionary so put him in charge and you expect some awesome monster vs. machine action but tastefully done. We got the action but that's it. Everything else like the cast, script, and characters are so lackluster. If I didn't know in advance that Del Toro was directing it I never, ever would have believed it. It just doesn't feel like his work at all.
It's probably a long wait for the average moviegoer before the action begins but I think it is worth it. They certainly managed to get their hands on enough vehicles, ships, and aircraft from the WWII era to make it look authentic. The entire attack sequence is well filmed and the Arizona's artillery battery blowing sky high is probably the highlight. Though there is one part of the movie that is pretty spectacular, at 2:02:36 a stunt actor trips and hits the ground hard and is nearly run over by an exploding airplane. I re-watched it a half dozen times, incredible.
This was the harbinger of the lifeless Dirty Harry that the series would eventually end with. Should have just stayed in San Francisco with another "day in the life of Harry Callahan" kind of plots.
This movie blew the highest grossing rom-com list to shreds and according to IMDB still holds the top spot... and I have no idea how. Granted it is hardly a bad movie but the most popular of all time money-wise? I've been scratching my head as to why since I saw it.
It plods along and serves as almost a documentary of sorts. One can almost see it becoming a historical film as Barnum and Bailey just wrapped their final show a few days ago. Normally I really wouldn't mind that this got Best Picture in 1952 but the fact that Singin' in the Rain, one of the greatest films of all time, didn't even get nominated is cinematic blasphemy.
Finally I'm beginning to realize why Dietrich plays saloon girls with loose morals so amazingly well, it's a sad case of art imitating life. Kind of a strange off the wall comedy western.
Jimmy Stewart is great here but the whole cast succeeds to make this a quaint little romantic story set in Budapest. Stewart's characterization of "Mr. Popkin" towards the end of the film is so well done you can completely picture him and nearly feel contempt for Stewart for stealing Ms. Novak away from this imaginary character.
I love Jimmy Stewart and I love repeating rifles so I'm biased to the max here. It's a good little western that features a great shooting competition at the beginning but the rest of the movie I think struggles to maintain the story of following the seemingly cursed rifle from owner to owner.
Upon second viewing I think it gets better. There are a few western films that focus really well on say, cattle driving, pioneering, etc. This film is the highlight western film for the repeating rifle.
This latest installment of the beloved series suffers mostly from a lackluster plot and it affects the rest of the film. Rescuing a kid and his chaperone from an island where we all know anyone with a brain would avoid just makes it all seem silly. The whole series is chock full of humans making dumb mistakes and that pushes the plot forward, but this time it is thinly disguised and not enjoyable. Sam Neill is ok but it's a pretty worthless script overall.
I second that emotion. Compared to the great Noir films it barely even registers. Stewart does what he can with a lackluster script but the pace kind of dooms the film.
This is an empty shell of a movie. Truly it is well acted and the cinematography is quite breathtaking at some points, however the severe lack of character development hurts it immensely. I can't care about what happens to the characters because I know nothing about them. It makes you as emotionally cold towards them as the bleak environments we see on screen. The plotline is simple which is ok but since we end up knowing practically nothing about the characters it just feels hollow which is a real shame because it's an artistically beautiful film. Ultimately I try to judge movies on what they set out to accomplish and how well they achieve that goal. That being said, isn't character development a basic aspiration of every movie that wants to be labeled as "good" or "great?" I think The Revenant fails miserably in that regard. One IMDB reviewer described the movie as "pure eyecandy" and I can't help but agree.
I've never walked out of a movie before but if there was one I should have it would be this one. My friend at the time who was sitting next to me loved it but then again he was one of the most crude kids I've ever known. Needless to say I didn't laugh once but there were times I nearly covered my eyes. The IMDB parent's guide exists for movies like this. Terrible.
Ghost Rider is literally one of the coolest comic book characters and had the potential to be a gritty, no-holds-bar transfer to the big screen. Unfortunately that is in no way what we ended up getting. I usually hate re-makes in cinema but if there is one series of comic book movies that desperately needs to be done again in the right way, it is definitely this one.
Hitchcock is probably by default my favorite director as more movies of his are my favorites than any other. That being said, if you are a fan of the master of suspense in any way then this movie is definitely worth a watch. It struggles occasionally with style over substance and at times it simply feels like a feature length background story that you would find on the Psycho DVD special features but it is still good. Hopkins elevates the film a lot with his portrayal of old Hitch and the cast is well rounded out. Perhaps the greatest moment of the film is Hitchcock dancing around composing a screaming audience. It gave me chills.
Comments 476 - 500 of 734
Movie comment on Logan
DisneyStitch
I might be the only one who thought this movie felt old and worn out. I realize it's gritty and human compared to the majority of X-men movies but I just didn't find it that interesting. The plot seems spoon-fed to the audience and while it allows the story to focus on the drama it just doesn't feel all that spectacular. Not my cup of tea I guess.Movie comment on Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
DisneyStitch
I watched it a ton of times in '99 but I was just 9 years old at the time. After well over a decade of never viewing it I decided to dust it off."Wooden" is probably the best way to describe the film. Every scene has the same tone and feel to it, from the action sequences to the scenes with heavy dialogue. Interestingly the pace of the film is lightning fast, the first time it actually stops to focus on something for more than a minute or two is the Podrace. It lends a strange detachment from the film as none of the plot points are focused on in much detail. It seems like too much is crammed into it.
The character development is also lackluster. Obi and Qui-Gon have been together for some time at the opening of the film and their chemistry is as if they got stuck together for this one assignment and don't really care for each other at all. Natalie Portman and Jake Lloyd have no chemistry (which ironically mirrors their character's futures) and can't act too well here.
Not much to say about Jar-Jar that hasn't already been said, Captain Tarpals is how I prefer to think about Gungans in general. If you go back and view a lot of scenes with Jar-Jar in them you can see how Lucas literally shoehorned him into so many scenes where he just didn't belong, it's infuriating. The Pod race and the duel with Maul are really the only two highlights here. The Anakin space battle is pathetic, I've hated Naboo starfighters ever since.
Darth Vader is one of the most recognizable villains in movie history, if not the most recognizable. It was 22 years after we saw him for the first time that this film was made. I've always been under the impression that the task of telling the origin story of arguably the biggest villain ever turned out to be too monumental a task for Lucas. Either that or he just didn't even try. Think about it, the origin of Darth Vader and this is how he did it? Casting Hayden Christensen and giving him such a lousy script pretty much doomed the story. It really is a tragedy, folks.
Movie comment on The Nightmare Before Christmas
DisneyStitch
Quite possibly the darkest movie that Disney ever made, back when they had the guts to do so. The songs are magical and the stop motion animation is spectacularly done. Some of the scenes like Christmas town and Boogey's lair are masterfully crafted.Movie comment on Star Wars: The Clone Wars
DisneyStitch
It's a bit quirky and the animation isn't the best, I wonder how many people watched this movie and then decided the show wasn't for them. A shame really because the show turned out to be pretty good and since they made it officially Canon it opened the door for all kinds of development within the storytelling universe.In case you are unfamiliar, the show takes place solely between episodes 2 and 3 and gives you so much awesome content between the movies. The clone wars were one of the coolest times in Star Wars and Episode 2 starts the war at the end of the movie while Episode 3 ends it. There is sooo much happening between those episodes that the series was essential.
Movie comment on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
DisneyStitch
Make no mistake, this is better than the new 2017 version. That skydiving sequence still kicks some serious butt after all this time and the Zord sequences are always fun.Movie comment on The Blob
DisneyStitch
I've seen a good number of very old horror movies and it's kind of common knowledge that almost none of them nowadays would scare a 2-year old. However, even then you could put yourself in that time and place and at least imagine how audiences would have reacted in horror, you can't really do that with The Blob. My father described it as "schlocky" before watching it as a family and I have to admit I severely underestimated the schlocky-ness. It's not even quite a B-movie but more of the feel of a high school play gone wrong but you are too embarrassed to ask for your money back.Movie comment on Power Rangers
DisneyStitch
Zordon once said a long time ago to "recruit a team of teenagers with attitude." Somehow the message was lost over the years and became "recruit a team of teenage criminals with suicidal tendencies." Thus goes the theme of this flick. The characters in this movie make no sense, they act like idiots and then wonder why everything goes wrong for them and proceed to blame everybody and everything else. It is truly an insult to the original series even if it has been "modernized" to reflect an edgier (read: criminal) teenage crew. At one point in the movie Kimberly is wearing a tank top with the emblazoned words "it was all a dream" on it. That is so appropriate, I kind of wish this movie was just a dream, a bad one at that.Rita Repulsa taking a break to eat a Krispy Kreme donut? This movie dragged my childhood out into the street and emptied a machine gun into it.
Movie comment on Suicide Squad
DisneyStitch
It's a mess, no better way to put it. The kind of movie where you want to ram your fingers into your ears and close your eyes while begging it to stop. David Ayer manages to make the movie feel like it isn't even in the same DC universe as Batman and Superman but some alternate world where everything is turned on its head... and then hit with a sledgehammer for good measure. It's just so bad, I can't even find the right way to convey it. The script is awful, it seems like a teenager wrote it. The plot is literally all over the place. I hated Jared Leto as Mister J, but strangely not as much by the end of movie because I just wrote off the entire messy affair. Don't even get me started on the gold chains, tattoos, and grills. I've seen dozens of better Joker renditions at comic conventions. If this is the new Joker that DC is going to be using then they have literally lost their minds. They'll have to take the character back to the drawing board and start all over again, I cannot in any way see them going forward the way he is.Movie comment on The Case for Christ
DisneyStitch
Christian cinema has really come into its own in the past 5 years or so and the latest treat is this particular movie. The Case for Christ takes a different approach with regards to many other Christian movies and is aimed primarily at skeptics. It is very well done and well acted. I'm partially familiar with the book and even though the novel is kind of dry (most hardcore research is) the movie is briskly paced and highlights all the main points in Strobel's quest to uncover the truth, only to find that it is not what he expected.Movie comment on Midway
DisneyStitch
Midway is one my favorite WWII events so I enjoyed it but I can imagine the average watcher not getting a whole lot out of it. The titlecards throughout the film help to put the action and events into perspective but it can be easily lost in the moment if you aren't familiar with the main players and ships. Charlton Heston is lackluster, but only because the role he's playing is not that interesting and Henry Fonda as Chester Nimitz could have been played by virtually any actor.Movie comment on Pacific Rim
DisneyStitch
I think that we just expected more with Del Toro at the helm with this film. He is a superb director and a visionary so put him in charge and you expect some awesome monster vs. machine action but tastefully done. We got the action but that's it. Everything else like the cast, script, and characters are so lackluster. If I didn't know in advance that Del Toro was directing it I never, ever would have believed it. It just doesn't feel like his work at all.Movie comment on Tora! Tora! Tora!
DisneyStitch
It's probably a long wait for the average moviegoer before the action begins but I think it is worth it. They certainly managed to get their hands on enough vehicles, ships, and aircraft from the WWII era to make it look authentic. The entire attack sequence is well filmed and the Arizona's artillery battery blowing sky high is probably the highlight. Though there is one part of the movie that is pretty spectacular, at 2:02:36 a stunt actor trips and hits the ground hard and is nearly run over by an exploding airplane. I re-watched it a half dozen times, incredible.Movie comment on Sudden Impact
DisneyStitch
This was the harbinger of the lifeless Dirty Harry that the series would eventually end with. Should have just stayed in San Francisco with another "day in the life of Harry Callahan" kind of plots.Movie comment on My Big Fat Greek Wedding
DisneyStitch
This movie blew the highest grossing rom-com list to shreds and according to IMDB still holds the top spot... and I have no idea how. Granted it is hardly a bad movie but the most popular of all time money-wise? I've been scratching my head as to why since I saw it.Movie comment on The Greatest Show on Earth
DisneyStitch
It plods along and serves as almost a documentary of sorts. One can almost see it becoming a historical film as Barnum and Bailey just wrapped their final show a few days ago. Normally I really wouldn't mind that this got Best Picture in 1952 but the fact that Singin' in the Rain, one of the greatest films of all time, didn't even get nominated is cinematic blasphemy.Movie comment on The Spirit of St. Louis
DisneyStitch
Stewart elevates the film and it turns out to be a relatively entertaining picture chronicling the flight heard 'round the world.Movie comment on Destry Rides Again
DisneyStitch
Finally I'm beginning to realize why Dietrich plays saloon girls with loose morals so amazingly well, it's a sad case of art imitating life. Kind of a strange off the wall comedy western.Movie comment on The Shop Around the Corner
DisneyStitch
Jimmy Stewart is great here but the whole cast succeeds to make this a quaint little romantic story set in Budapest. Stewart's characterization of "Mr. Popkin" towards the end of the film is so well done you can completely picture him and nearly feel contempt for Stewart for stealing Ms. Novak away from this imaginary character.Movie comment on Winchester '73
DisneyStitch
I love Jimmy Stewart and I love repeating rifles so I'm biased to the max here. It's a good little western that features a great shooting competition at the beginning but the rest of the movie I think struggles to maintain the story of following the seemingly cursed rifle from owner to owner.Upon second viewing I think it gets better. There are a few western films that focus really well on say, cattle driving, pioneering, etc. This film is the highlight western film for the repeating rifle.
Movie comment on Jurassic Park III
DisneyStitch
This latest installment of the beloved series suffers mostly from a lackluster plot and it affects the rest of the film. Rescuing a kid and his chaperone from an island where we all know anyone with a brain would avoid just makes it all seem silly. The whole series is chock full of humans making dumb mistakes and that pushes the plot forward, but this time it is thinly disguised and not enjoyable. Sam Neill is ok but it's a pretty worthless script overall.Movie comment on Call Northside 777
DisneyStitch
"not very noir in my book." - mathiasaI second that emotion. Compared to the great Noir films it barely even registers. Stewart does what he can with a lackluster script but the pace kind of dooms the film.
Movie comment on The Revenant
DisneyStitch
This is an empty shell of a movie. Truly it is well acted and the cinematography is quite breathtaking at some points, however the severe lack of character development hurts it immensely. I can't care about what happens to the characters because I know nothing about them. It makes you as emotionally cold towards them as the bleak environments we see on screen. The plotline is simple which is ok but since we end up knowing practically nothing about the characters it just feels hollow which is a real shame because it's an artistically beautiful film. Ultimately I try to judge movies on what they set out to accomplish and how well they achieve that goal. That being said, isn't character development a basic aspiration of every movie that wants to be labeled as "good" or "great?" I think The Revenant fails miserably in that regard. One IMDB reviewer described the movie as "pure eyecandy" and I can't help but agree.Movie comment on MacGruber
DisneyStitch
I've never walked out of a movie before but if there was one I should have it would be this one. My friend at the time who was sitting next to me loved it but then again he was one of the most crude kids I've ever known. Needless to say I didn't laugh once but there were times I nearly covered my eyes. The IMDB parent's guide exists for movies like this. Terrible.Movie comment on Ghost Rider
DisneyStitch
Ghost Rider is literally one of the coolest comic book characters and had the potential to be a gritty, no-holds-bar transfer to the big screen. Unfortunately that is in no way what we ended up getting. I usually hate re-makes in cinema but if there is one series of comic book movies that desperately needs to be done again in the right way, it is definitely this one.Movie comment on Hitchcock
DisneyStitch
Hitchcock is probably by default my favorite director as more movies of his are my favorites than any other. That being said, if you are a fan of the master of suspense in any way then this movie is definitely worth a watch. It struggles occasionally with style over substance and at times it simply feels like a feature length background story that you would find on the Psycho DVD special features but it is still good. Hopkins elevates the film a lot with his portrayal of old Hitch and the cast is well rounded out. Perhaps the greatest moment of the film is Hitchcock dancing around composing a screaming audience. It gave me chills.Showing items 476 – 500 of 734