Movies

Dawn of the Dead

Olga and I went to see “Dawn of the Dead” in the cinema today. I am not a particular fan of horror movies, but this one had an excellent trailer and a lot of positive hype around it, so I decided what the hell.

Short story: this movie sucked. A lot. All of it. Completely. And it has nothing to do with me not liking the genre of horror. There was no horror in this film. There were no stanning special effects. There were no scary moments. There was not story. There was no acting. And there was no soundtrack. Actually there was nothing except for a bunch of guys and gals shooting a bunch of zombies for two hours.

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The Boondock Saints

Today we watched “The Boondock Saints” on DVD. It is a very nice movie with a fast pace, good acting and an excellent soundtrack. Actually, everything was pretty good except for the Russians, which is my rather usual complain. :)

Interesting was the fact how the movie started and ended. In short you can call it a journey from nowhere to nowhere. There was almost no explanation where from these couple of superguys came about. There was no happy ending or any ending at all for that matter. New characters were introduced few minutes before you actually got bored with the existing ones. There was a handfull of humour too. Especially where the film touched mostly the “dirty” parts like dead bodies and staff.

And, although I am not a great fan of Willem Dafoe, his acting was excellent in this film.

Around the World in 80 Days

I was waiting to see “Around the World in 80 Days” for some time now. I thought it had a potential to be one of very good movies. It turned out I was right. It is an excellent movie for both kids and adults. There is an interesting and well-known story behind it, which has everything – adventures, action, love, friendship, humor, and whatever else you want. But not only the story is great. The realization of that story in this film is great. It is almost perfect (except for a bit longish ending, but who counts?). And it is way better then I expected.

There are so many stars in this movie that you will not beleive it when you see them coming. Jackie Chan (“Rush Hour”,”Shanghai Noon”), playing Passepartout brings in lots of action. All his regular fighting tricks taken to yet another extreme. Arnold Schwarzenegger (“Terminator”,”The Running Man”) reminds everyone what a “great” actor he is. Rob Schneider (“The Animal”,”The Hot Chick”) is there too with some cheap humour. Luke Wilson (“Charlie’s Angels”, “Old School”) and Owen Wilson (“Behind Enemy Lines”, “Shanghai Noon”), who are actually brothers, appear in a small episode as Wright brothers. Even John Cleese of Monty Python’s fame shows up. These are just a few…

Computer graphics and decorations design deserve a special mention. They bring back the magic of Disney animations from back when those guys did something fascinating. Mutation waves between movie and animation are mostly used to glue days together and they look really nice, causing a “Wow!” from the somewhat younger audience in the cinema.

Overall, I would easily give this movie a 8.5 (closer to 9) out of 10. DVD with this film should be a nice addition to a home collection and nice family time passing.

Another Stakeout

Good movies. There are so many of them. I have seen so many recently and there are so many I am about to see. In order to fully appreciate such amount of good movies, one has to see a couple of bad ones.

The best pile to find bad movies in is a police movies pile. “Starsky & Hutch” was not so long ago. Today I’ve got another one – “Another Stakeout“. Even the title sucks. Even IMDB doesn’t have a poster for this film.

Even Emilio Estevez (“Young Guns”, “Loaded Weapon”) and Dennis Farina (“Snatch”,”Saving Private Ryan”) don’t save it. Hopeless case. But now I am ready for the next portion of good films. :)

Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Finally, after almost a week of suspending and half a year of waiting, we went to see “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” today. Both Hazard and Olga liked this movie. Pretty much. I loved it! Tarantino is genious. In my book, he went over himself. In the middle of the film I realized that I way underestimated the first part and that I want to see it again.

If you read anywhere that the second part is totally different from the first, then you better beleive it. Some people do really see these two films separately. For me though, they were shot differently, they perfectly unite. Actually, these two films should be watched together with a smoke break in the middle. Not a half a year. I am getting both of them on DVD and rewatching it.

If there was something you didn’t like in the first part – don’t see this one, because here Tarantino goes in full depth of what he was giving a glimpse of in the first part. In my opinion, it’s rathy typical of him. He usually gives a fast and furios type of thing in the beginning just to start you off and prepare you for explanations of the main points by the end. When you are ready. And this was taken pretty far in “Kill Bill”.

Kudos to Q&U for the ultimate satisfaction! I don’t really remember when was the last time I enjoyed the movie this much. :)