Reviews

The Legend of Zorro

There are some films that I just can’t miss – I have to see them and I have to see them on the big screen. “The Legend of Zorro” is one of them.

Directed by: Martin Campbell
Genres: Action, Adventure, Western
Cast: Alberto Reyes, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Gustavo Sanchez-Parra, Adrian Alonso, Nick Chinlund, Giovanna Zacarías, Carlos Cobos, Antonio Banderas, Michael Emerson, Shuler Hensley, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Mary Crosby, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mauricio Bonet, Fernando Becerril
IMDB raintg: 5.7
My rating: 7.0 [rate 7.0]

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Back to the Future Part II

The television is getting better. Apparently they decided to show the complete trilogy – one part every day. Today they showed the second part – “Back to the Future Part II“.

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Elisabeth Shue, James Tolkan, Jeffrey Weissman, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Zane, J.J. Cohen, Charles Fleischer, E. Casanova Evans, Jay Koch, Charles Gherardi, Ricky Dean Logan
IMDB raintg: 7.0
My rating: 4 out of 5

This part is somewhat weaker than the first film, but it’s worth seeing anyway. Some of the ideas for the future were really cool – others sucked completely. 15 years later it’s easy to say though.

The atmosphere of the film follows the first part very closely and that’s what counts, isn’t it?

Strongly recommended too.

Back to the Future

With Martin’s DVD club closed, I have nothing better to do than enjoy the wonders of television. Of course, I don’t watch all the crap that they broadcast around. But I couldn’t miss the classic – “Back to the Future“.

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Claudia Wells, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, George DiCenzo, Frances Lee McCain, James Tolkan, J.J. Cohen, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Zane, Harry Waters Jr.
IMDB raintg: 8.1
My rating: 5 out of 5

Of course, I’ve seen all three parts of “Back to the future” and I’ve seen them several times. But it was some time now since I did so for the last time. I was wondering if my attitude towards this film would change at all.

It didn’t. The film is as good today as it was back in 1985. It’s innovative, funny, and entertaining. Excellent ideas, excellent special effects, good acting, and fast pace – perfect recipe for a movie. No ads during the whole film – was also a nice touch by local TV station.

Highly recommended.

The Island

“The Island” is one of those new movies that everyone has seen except for Olga and me. I rented and watched it, so Olga now is pretty much the only person in the world to miss it.

Directed by: Michael Bay
Genres: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ethan Phillips, Brian Stepanek, Noa Tishby, Siobhan Flynn, Troy Blendell, Jamie McBride, Kevin McCorkle, Gary Nickens, Kathleen Rose Perkins
IMDB raintg: 6.8
My rating: 5.0

But she is not missing a lot. The film is surely overhyped.

This film is very shallow considering the topic it deals with – human cloning. I think that this topic is one of the most philosophical issues of the recent times. There is a lot to discuss. And there are a lot of viewpoints. Also, depending on the point of view, it can be very dramatic. And a very dramatic point of view was chosen for the film – cloning as seen by clones. Those who realise that they are clones that is. But there was no drama. What-so-ever. Ever.

Somehow, the movie managed to be a pure action. There was nothing else – no drama, no romance, no comedy. Nothing. Only action. And while there were some excellent action sequences and special effects in the second part of the film, the first hour or so sucked pretty bad. It was very slow and boring. And I almost fell asleep watching it. Twice.

What made it even worse were all the inconsitences in the film. It looked like those who made this film didn’t believe in what they were showing themselves. Skills and knowledge were appearing and disappearing from people’s and clone’s behaviors. They were swallowing new concepts like they were peanuts. “- You are not humans. You are clones. – Oh, Ok, then. Thanks for telling us.” And stuff like that.

Overall I think that this film is a waste of time and I am glad I didn’t spend my money in the cinema.

Primer

Working down the list of movies to see, I can across “Primer“. Again, I don’t remember the reason I added it to the list, but I can think of a couple…

Directed by: Shane Carruth
Genres: Drama, Thriller, Sci-Fi
Cast: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie Crawford, Jay Butler, John Carruth, Juan Tapia, Ashley Warren, Samantha Thomson, Chip Carruth, Delaney Price, Jack Pyland, Keith Bradshaw, Ashok Upadhyaya
IMDB raintg: 6.6
My rating: 6.5 [rate 6.5]

There is something magical about $7,000 USD. I guess this is exactly how much money you need to have to make a good movie. Robert Rodriguez proved it some time ago with his “El Mariachi”. Shane Carruth proved it very recently with “Primer”. And although the films are completely different and very separated by the genre, there is something that unites them. The feeling of hard work and fun in the process.

“Primer” is another good take at time travelling. But instead of fancy and expensive visual effects it goes for the phylosophy of the issue. Everyone knows that time travelling is a very confusing, dramatic and plain dangerous activity. But movies usually avoid the confusing and dramatic parts to make more room for dangerous stuff that is easier shown with computer graphics. “Primer”, while being a very low budget film, concentrates more on the confusing part. And in does the job so good that the film itself becomes pretty confusing. It is very difficult to follow it sometimes.

And although it gets a bit too slow in several scenes, I really enjoyed the film. For once there is a movie that makes you think and figure out things instead of providing cheap popcorn entertainment. I’m glad I saw this one.