Reviews

True Lies

Watched “True Lies” again yesterday. Now this one is a special movie for me. I first saw back in 1994 or 1995, during my first ever trip out of the country, when I went to the Flint, Michigan, USA under a student exchange program. This was “the first” of many things – the first film I’ve seen in English, the first action film I’ve seen on the big screen, etc. It brings back a lot of memories, and it itself is being one huge memory. Even so many years after I saw it, I still remember it almost to a word.

Obviously, I am very biased in this case. But I spoke to a few of my friends about this film, and practically every one of them remembers the film quite well and has only good things to say about it. Even now, decades later, it still looks pretty awesome. I guess the fact that it has lots of real stunts as opposed to CGI helps it to survive the time. Also, this film being a mix of action and comedy, even with action bits slightly outdated, the comedy is still there, doing just fine.

Overall, an excellent entertainment. 5 stars.

Matador

Just watched “The Matador“, which turned out to be an entertaining movie. It’s one of those few films which switches back and forward all the time. The moment you think that this is going to be a spy movie, the spy atmosphere disappears. Then you assume it’ll have some action, and all action is gone. Then you start seeing drama in it, and the moment you realize that, the drama changes into comedy. But the second you smile wide for a joke, the jokes are gone and the film goes into something else. The story twists, the genre changes, the tempo swings back and side. And that all makes it interesting to watch.

Technically, it’s done nicely. There are only a few characters and they are played well. Directing is nice. Camera is nice. Sound score is nice. There is nothing there which is exceptional or amazing, but whatever is there is of a good quality and fits nicely with the rest of the parts.

Overall rating, 4 stars. Solid good.

Rob Roy

I just watched “Rob Roy” a truly classic film, which I somehow missed when it came out back in 1995. This is something! I can’t remember the film which would have been so packed with moral, and which would be as engaging to watch. Really.

The film has it all – honour, love, friendship, and more. It shows how hard simple things can be sometimes. And how place, time, age, gender and social status have nothing to do with who you really are, how much of a human being you are. It also touches upon marriage, and the places of both husband and wife in the family. Compared to this film, most of the other modern film seem to be quite empty. Yes, there is plenty of action and special effects these days, but so little of what people are made of and how they are supposed to be. I think that we need more films like this, and this film in particular should be a part of formal education and character development. If it influence me so much, I suspect it’ll have a quite an effect (and a positive one at that) on the teenagers’ understanding of the world. However, it’s been a while since I was a teenager, so I might be wrong there…

There is plenty of good in this film beside moral. The story itself is quite interesting, even if not new. There is lots of good acting by talented cast. The directing and the visuals are also nice. I also remember positively noticing the music score a few times during the film.

One thing I wanted to mention separately are the sword fights. There are a few and they are awesome. The final fight deserves a film on its own. It’s original, dynamic, and powerful. One of the best ones I’ve seen ever.

Overall rating – 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Pineapple Express

I just watched one of the worst films of the year, maybe even two – “Pineapple Express“. It’s one of those films which is not funny enough to be a comedy and not serious enough to be an action movie. All the main characters are stoned during the whole film, but being an average actors and not being actually stoned while shooting the film, that looks pretty bad. I mean, I’m all for people to do silly things, but people who badly pretend doing silly things, it’s just silly.

There were a couple of good scenes, but they were very short and far apart. There were some special effects, with explosions and such, but definitely not enough to save the film.

And on top of that, the film is rated 7.3 on IMDB, with more than 50,000 voters. I don’t know who all of those people are, but them being all in one place is actually scary.

My rating – 2 stars. Barely.

The Escapist

Just watched “The Escapist“. I think all the dramatic prison escape movies are enough now to have their own genre. I also think that I am becoming a fan of this genre. All these films seem to be based on the same simple story, which they twist and turn in many different ways, making it original and interesting enough to watch over and over again.

“The Escapist” is just such movie. Same old story of a few people breaking out of prizon – each of his own reasons. They need to build the team, conceal a plan, and then execute that plan, loosing as few as possible on the way, and avoid getting caught. This film in particular is extra good because of the story telling and some really good acting.

Moving, dramatic, engaging – highly recommended to the fans of the genre. 5 stars.