Movie review rant

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hix said:
The Bourne Legacy

I saw an advance screening of this movie on Monday night, and was interested to see how this story went, without Matt Damon. And it went OK. Storyline was entertaining, although I found it a little hard to follow some of the conversations from Edward Norton, Stacy Keach and Scott Glenn's characters. Probably the most surprising thing for me was Rachel Wiesz - I didn't recognise her, and she looks like she's only in her late 20's (well, to me anyway). But she gave a great performance - although I don't really enjoy characters that spend part of the movie terrified, she really did a good, believable job of it. And Shane Jacobson makes an appearance in a factory in the Philippines.

If you like the previous Bourne movies, then you'll probably like this.

On a sidenote: yesterday I found a copy of the original Bourne Identity (1988) on DVD - starring Richard Chamberlain and Jacklyn Smith. And only $6.99!

:p

Hix
Click to expand...

I saw this over the weekend and I am still confused. :confused:

The movie appears to be set during one of the later Bourne movies (probably Ultimatum) as they kept referencing Jason Bourne (while showing a photo of Matt Damon). It is not a prequel due to the timeline and the loose association with Treadstone: I would call it a spin-off.

However, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of following the storyline if you did not see all the other Bourne films. Even if you did see them all, you will need to have your companion notes handy to reference the litany of old characters, plus all the ominous sounding project names like 'Treadstone', 'Blackbriar', 'Outcome', and 'LARX'.

The story was a mess. The action sequences were few and far between, and when you did wake up, all you got was a car chase. The action paled in comparison to Bourne's hand-to-hand combat scenes, or the nailbiting scene in the London train station.

As a Bourne fanboy, I found this movie to be highly disappointing because of the lack of action scenes, the story's snail pace, and the totally confusing plotline.

Don't waste your time with this one.

Rating: 5/10 (where the last Bourne movie was easily an 8)
 
The Watch

I quite like Ben Stiller, Vince Vaugh, and Jonah Hill. It seemed logical that I would like this movie three times as much as a movie with each on his own. Not surprisingly, I was three times as disappointed, and wanted three hours of my life back.

There are a few funny scenes but by and large, this film fell flat on its face. I know it's a comedy, but there were so many inconsistencies and plot holes that it makes you wonder if the writers/directors watched the movie at all before giving the green light for it to be released.

Folks, this movie was not 'The Heartbreak Kid' meets 'Wedding Crashers' meets 'Superbad': it was just plain, unadulterated crap.

There are amateur films on YouTube that are funnier than this movie. You've been warned.

Rating: 5/10 (where the aforementioned movies were 8s)
 
nanoboy said:
I saw this over the weekend and I am still confused. :confused:

The movie appears to be set during one of the later Bourne movies (probably Ultimatum) as they kept referencing Jason Bourne (while showing a photo of Matt Damon). It is not a prequel due to the timeline and the loose association with Treadstone: I would call it a spin-off.

However, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of following the storyline if you did not see all the other Bourne films. Even if you did see them all, you will need to have your companion notes handy to reference the litany of old characters, plus all the ominous sounding project names like 'Treadstone', 'Blackbriar', 'Outcome', and 'LARX'.

The story was a mess. The action sequences were few and far between, and when you did wake up, all you got was a car chase. The action paled in comparison to Bourne's hand-to-hand combat scenes, or the nailbiting scene in the London train station.

As a Bourne fanboy, I found this movie to be highly disappointing because of the lack of action scenes, the story's snail pace, and the totally confusing plotline.

Don't waste your time with this one.

Rating: 5/10 (where the last Bourne movie was easily an 8)
Click to expand...
that sounds about right. I'd probably rate it a little higher than 5 out of 10 but still nowhere near as good as the Matt Damon movies. Pretty confusing and trying far far too hard to shoe-horn it into the Bourne franchise (all the mentions of Jason Bourne, etc) rather than just making a movie for its own sake.

What I said about it (way back on page three!): "I'd agree with Hix's comments above. It's alright, not great, not as good as Matt Damon's ones (well, not so much the unnecessary third installment) but still worth watching. Some of the conversations were a bit hard to follow. I think you would have to have seen the Matt Damon movies to really get what was going on, otherwise it would just be confusing. And if Hix hadn't said about Rachel Weisz I wouldn't have recognised her either. Some of the stunts in the motorbike chase were a bit over the top for a Bourne movie I thought.

Overall, not something you really need to see at the movies. Might as well wait for the DVD and watch it at home."
 
Chlidonias said:
I liked the tv series. The ending sucked though and just created a massive continuity error (well, actually I guess the entire series was a bit of a continuity error but that was mainly due to having to pretend that T3 didn't exist).
Click to expand...

I also thought that "the Sarah Connor Chronicles" was a great television series. That ending with John Connor going back to the future as a kid was not intended as the end of the series. They were anticipating another season that never happened unfortunately, so that was one of those series that ended on a perpetual cliffhanger. The same thing happened with "Twin Peaks" with Dale Cooper getting possessed by the demon BOB.
 
Well look at that! We agree on a movie being crap. Christmas really is in the air. :p

David, I don't actually remember the ending. I do remember there was an oriental Aussie who was hot, and that the story got way way confusing towards the end.
 
nanoboy said:
Well look at that! We agree on a movie being crap. Christmas really is in the air. :p

David, I don't actually remember the ending. I do remember there was an oriental Aussie who was hot, and that the story got way way confusing towards the end.
Click to expand...

The Terminator show did get somewhat confusing. The implication was that the Shirley Manson character who was really a shape-shifting Terminator was trying to prevent the construction of Skynet for reasons never really revealed - presumably she (or rather "it") wanted to save humanity for some reason. Her company built a "good" AI system called John Henry which the machines from the future were trying to corrupt and turn into Skynet. At the end of the series the "good" AI, Shirley Manson's terminator, and young John Connor went to the future to try and prevent the machines from winning. John Connor met several characters that 1) didn't recognize who John Connor was and 2) were dead in the present timeline, so the timeline had shifted. Whatever caused the timeline to shift was never revealed.
 
Hix said:
Looper

Interesting concept, and some great special effects. I wasn't too thrilled with what 2044 looked like, but it didn't really detract from the storyline. As welll as Bruce Willis it also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (whom I've never heard of), Emily Blunt, and some brief appearances by Jeff Daniels and Piper Perabo. There's also a kid - Pierce Gagnon - who is pretty good for his age.

I liked it, and if you like sci-fi, especially with a time-travel element, you'll probably enjoy this (although the time-travel concept is fairly basic if you're used to the non-linear variability of temporal mechanics explored in the Star Trek franchise).

:p

Hix
Click to expand...

We saw this last night, and we didn't like it. The time travelling was complicated and was not explained well at all. I do wonder what the point of the movie was, as the action was tame and the story confusing. The child with telekinetic powers remind me of the little girl from the Skrillex video though.
 
I thought Looper was entertaining enough, but there were massive plot holes aplenty. Hix, you benefited from not knowing who Joseph Gordon-Levitt is, because if you knew what he really looked like you would have been unnerved by his prosthetic face which made him look rather peculiar and semi-expressionless. It was supposed to make him resemble a younger Bruce Willis,although I thought he would have passed for a youthful Robert de Niro more convincingly.
 
Hix said:
Taken 2

Set shortly after the first movie, this time it's Liam Neeson who is taken (with his wife) and his daughter helps to find and rescue him. Instead of Paris, this movie is set in Istanbul, with narrow cobbled streets and old decrepit buildings (and virtually no trees or greenery anywhere). A little slow to start but once it gets going it doesn't stop.

If you liked Taken, you'll enjoy Taken 2.

Also saw the trailer for Skyfall - looks great (as expected) - and for a movie called Argo, which looks good, and the reports I've read online suggest it is brilliant. Directed by and starring Ben Affleck, it's based on a true story about some American diplomats in hiding in Tehran after the siege of the US Embassy in 1979 and 52 Americans were taken hostage. At the Toronto Film Festival it received great reviews and applause from the audience at it's conclusion.

Looking forward to seeing both movies.

:p

Hix
Click to expand...

Taken 2 was great. As Hix said, if you enjoyed the first instalment, then you'll love this one. Like the first movie, it takes a while to get going, but once it does, th action doesn't stop. I don't recall seeing Hagia Sofia in the movie, which is weird, given that it was the largest church in Christendom for a thousand years and is more impressive than the mosques they kept showing. I love the way that Liam Neeson kills everyone as usual, and has no qualms about shooting a baddie in the back. :D I can't wait for Taken 3.



{Note from mods - this thread continues here: Movie review rant 2013}
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top