White Chicks review

Posted : 2 months, 3 weeks ago on 26 May 2008 05:17 (A review of White Chicks)

In this comedy the Wayans brothers portray two FBI agents who have to disguise themselves as two spoiled rich girls and blend into high society. The problem: those two girls are "white chicks", which doesn't make the disguise any easier. But - behold - the allmighty FBI can easily transfer two black males into two white females. It just needs some contact lenses, lots of silicon and some suitcases full of expensive clothes. However, i'd really like to know how the FBI magicians manage to get those contact lenses automatically off together with the masks, when they are being taken off, in one step...

This comedy plays a lot with differences in social status, culture and sexes. Mostly in a slapstick way. Although many gags are clear misses, there are also some hits that will make you giggle at least. So, as already stated by other reviewers, this movie is certainly no sophisticated kind of comedy like Monty Python used to make, but more the kind of "turn off your brain and enjoy the pretty colors and action onscreen" comedy. Nonetheless, you could enjoy it if you are into the latter and can blend out the weak story and overall acting.

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GoodFellas review

Posted : 3 months, 2 weeks ago on 4 May 2008 10:31 (A review of GoodFellas)

GoodFellas is certainly well directed, has some very good supporting characters and a great score.

Nonetheless the story which is loosely based on the rise and fall of the real existing Henry Hill didn't catch me for most of the time. The portrayal of the Mafia was almost like they are a poker club for older men, occasionally stealing some money from the dumb. I really missed the constant menace like in The Godfather or the epic of Once Upon A Time In America. The movie was too lighthearted for my for fancy. Sure it had some hints of black comedy, which is always a bonus for me, but the film didn't captivate me. I never really cared for any of the characters, mostly because they were way too one-dimensional or underdeveloped. Also Ray Liotta was a bad choice for the main character. His obvious lack in acting didn't really help to enthrall me.

Still, for reasons mentioned at the beginning, this movie is good but not brilliant like it's IMDB-score would suggest. It is definitively one of the better Mafia movies out there, but in my opinion never reaches the best of this genre or Scorsese's portfolio.

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Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior review

Posted : 3 months, 3 weeks ago on 30 April 2008 11:42 (A review of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior)

I get this movie has a huge cult following, because i see no other reason why it is so highly rated. Of course, if you are into a young Mel Gibson clad in leather, sweating and bleeding, you will be more than satisfied. If you are into a good storyline or acting you should give chase like one of those you'll see in this movie.

The story kind of continues the first part of the Mad Max series, but on a second look it is only loosely tied into the trilogy, as you will notice some continuity and logical errors when you watch the movies from the beginning until the end. However, since the first part the world or at least Australia went down completely, because some kind of unspecified conflict got the world into a wasteland with marauding gangs of criminals roaming the lands. One of these gangs besieges a Fort that holds one of the last oil refineries, protected by lawful citizens.

At this point, where gas is scarce, you wonder how the gang is able to roam around the refinery 24/7 with their cars, bikes, trikes and whatnot. But this is only one of the many questions you will ask yourself. Another one is how a gang of supposedly brutal individuals follows someone who looks like an almost naked and ridiculous Jason Vorhees on steroids. However, amongst all the other campy elements in this movie you'll hardly notice that.

The only real interesting part are the stunts, especially the car chases. They make up most of this movie and are definitively worth watching.

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Along Came Polly review

Posted : 4 months ago on 21 April 2008 01:20 (A review of Along Came Polly)

The story evolves around the beaten to death horse "nerd guy gets ditched by dream girl, meets other nerd girl, dream girl wants to get back and nerd guy gets in conflict of which of them he should choose".

Naturally this is not much to fill a full length movie with, so you better got some brilliant cast to make up for this shortcoming. Unfortunately the cast of the movie is average at best, with a quite bland Jennifer Aniston and a mediocre Ben Stiller in the leading parts. Also i never had the impression of some chemistry between them, which never is a good sign for a romantic comedy.

The comedic value of this movie is low, with no memorable scenes whatsoever. Most of the gags are situational, which unfortunately are not well executed, but match the story in all it's irrelevance perfectly.

All in all it is a boring but quite family-safe romantic comedy, which doesn't rely too much on fart-jokes and vulgarity like other of Stiller's work.

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Death Proof review

Posted : 8 months, 2 weeks ago on 7 December 2007 01:50 (A review of Death Proof)

The Good:

- Kurt Russel. He just eminates coolness. He looks better than ever too. Also his portrayal of the menacing antagonist is very convincing (until near the end of the movie).

- The music. A very fine and fitting selection as in all Tarantino movies.

- The cars. Beauties to behold. A Tarantino standard too.

The Bad:

- The performances of the female actors. Mediocre at best.

- The dialogues. Tarantino got that better (with Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction). If he wanted us to endure this tedious movie, he should have made the dialogues at least interesting or witty.

The Ugly:

- The story. Where is it? "Death Proof" is almost like a reality soap about three little red ridinghoods talking trash until the motiveless big bad wolf comes out of nowhere and devours them. I've seen more story in most slasher movies.

- Character development. Absolutely missing. Not only there is none of it, the characters also get out of role for no or very little reason (see the overacted part of Kurt Russel's supposedly cool character near the end). Also at no pint in the movie you ever care about any of the characters. They live, they die? Who gives a damn. You just hope it all ends one way or the other.

- The ending. A huge disappointment. Absoultely unrealistic (if you can call anything in this movie realistic) and destroying any of the poor character development.

All in all Death Proof is a weak, outright boring movie that's undoubtedly stylish, but very empty.

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