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SHADOW MAN
2006
Usually i dont mind a Seagal wot kung fu dat thriller, certainly his early half dozen films were ok but they seemed to get cheaper and poorer. This one was tolerable, Steve goes to bucharest and his little girl is kidnapped because of some stolen virus, so he goes on the warpath. Plot-wise there was a whole middle chunk of the film where he spends time with a totally pointless female character (with awkward line delivery) who knows where his daughter is being held but for half the film he doesn't make her take him to her. Didnt add up but, of course, we have the obligatory final shootout in a library where he promptly wipes out kgb, rogue americans and crooked bucharest police, who are working for russians.
4.5 out of 10. Mitch will be proud of me!
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HOWARD THE DUCK
Heard it was bad, never knew how bad. Even 5 year olds in the cinema were probably turning to each other and saying "This is bad." Only watched it coz ive got the main John Barry theme and i wanted to see how it fitted and the rest of the music. To be frank, the movie was so truly terrible it didnt deserve the score it got.
2 out of 10. Even as a kids film
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THE DOORS (1991)
Made during Oliver Stone's imperial phase of the late 80s-early 90s, this saga of the Dionysian Jim Morrison, iconic leader of the The Doors rock group, never really rises above the standard tropes of most movie biopics - events telescoped, the myths caricatured; a hagiography for the fans rather than an incisive study. I would have preferred a more cutting look at how a sexy dude who writes third-rate Beat verse becomes an icon (helped by the Publicity Machine) for confused youths, but Stone himself, going by his commentary, seems to buy into the myth of excess and Morrison-as-Byronic-misunderstood-genius. (In an accompanying documentary, Stone even compares himself to Morrison - two visionary artists pilloried by the cognoscenti.)
Val Kilmer certainly looks like the late Morrison, but is given a shallowly-written role. My favorite scenes come early on: A lovely recreation of Venice Beach circa 1965 - a funky, laid-back beach culture that you want to visit and wander around in, rather than have to sit through the 2-plus hours of cliches to come.
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HOWARD THE DUCK
I agree with you, this movie doesn't get a 10 even from me!
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Posted: |
Nov 29, 2020 - 2:19 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) ...7/10
When I last saw this - Feb 19, TV broadcast - I enjoyed it sufficiently to think I'd like to watch the set of films again, so bought the BluRays (discounted  ) only to be critical of each film's enjoyment-value. Until last evening, #2 rated highest for me and I admit that I was very surprised by just how much I enjoyed watching #5 again.
Silly, stupid, way OTT but I clicked with the notion that it was taking itself for fun and by borrowing numerous scenes from other films became almost a Best of ... compilation but done cleverly enough so as to camouflage the joins. The first half is better and the midway bank water-tank security sequence (a re-run of the Langley break-in from #1) is the weak point. But the film gets off to great, fun start - though what happens to Ethan and the cargo is unexplained - and we have lots of high level intrigue (Senate Committee, CIA, MI6 involvement) to keep the story rolling along.
As the heroine, Rebecca Ferguson is the best yet, whilst the usual gang on Ving Rhames, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg are all excellent.
The Vienna opera sequence is a significant improvement on the feeble similar scene in Quantum of Solace (2008) and the race around a near deserted London in the finale is, again, so much better than the JB007 take in Spectre (2015) ... I hope the film crews didn't clash ... whilst the car chase in Marrakech is more enjoyable than its opposite number: the Instanbul opening sequence in Skyfall (2012). To even things up, I did find the bike chase too long and uninteresting (no doubt very challenging to perform and film) with similar JB007 scenes winning. Of course, we can bring The Bourne ... films in, too, but there are only so many action sequences which can be scripted and filmed.
Plenty of world-wide travel, unlimited supply of gadgets (how, where, etc. especially for a rogue agent) and facilities and a music score which was a little more interesting than the last two.
I'm now looking forward to watching #6 (no BluRay, yet) ... I hope the entertainment value holds-up.
Mitch
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BEYOND THE LAW
2019
Oh my, what a pile of shit. Steven Seagal top-billed but he plays a crim with a rogue, snidey son and it looks like they got Seagal to do his four scenes in an afternoon. A ex-cop's son is killed by Steven Seagal's son and so cop goes on rampage. Truly cheap, nasty and just plain odd. The movie's only redeeming feature was octogenarian black actor Bill Cobbs, still delivering great timing, who we know from Cotton Club, Trading Places, Color of Money and Things to do in Denver.
Overall, incohesive claptrap, mostly risible script. Likely Seagal's worst film ever - including the ones where they dubbed his voice.
3 out of 10, and all 3 points were for Bill Cobb's performance.
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DEATH WISH
Bruce Willis.
I started this with some trepidation, expecting it to be a waste of time. Was it as gritty and as well-constructed as the Bronson original? No, of course not. But it was another of those remakes where they simply wouldve been better off not giving it the same title. Towards the end it got sillier and more contrived, but overall it passed a few hours.
6.8 out of 10
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CHRISTMAS WALTZ (2020) – 6/10
IF I ONLY HAD CHRISTMAS (2020) – 7/10
FELIZ NAVIDAD (2020) – 6/10
Another Christmas season, another spate of holiday movies from the Hallmark and Lifetime cable channels. The former promises 40 new movies this year, while the latter is content to offer only 30 fresh films. Along with many returning favorites, Lifetime alone will provide 1200 hours of Yuletide programming.
Starting in mid-November, my sister pretty much keeps one or the other of these channels on throughout most waking hours. During my recent Thanksgiving visit (sorry, Covid naysayers), I paid enough attention to offer thoughts on three of them. All of these 2-hour films hang innumerable plots on the same basic structure: Incredibly beautiful (yet strangely unattached) woman is thrown together with a fairly hunky guy during Christmastime because of work or family circumstances. Although they may initially be at odds with one another, a romance develops as they engage in various Christmas-related activities. About 90 minutes in, one of the pair seemingly betrays the other. This is followed by 15 minutes of angst and then 15 minutes of reconciliation leading to the happy ending.
In CHRISTMAS WALTZ, “Avery” (Lacey Chabert) is dumped by her fiancé just a few months before their wedding. Trying to get her life back together, she decides to go through with a series of dance lessons that the pair had signed up for in anticipation of their wedding dance. The dance studio is run by “Roman Davidoff” (Will Kemp) a Russian-born Englishman now living in New York. The pair bond romantically during their dance sessions. The break-up comes when Avery’s fiancé tries to come back into her life, and tells Roman to back off. It takes another 30 minutes before Avery convinces him that she is done with her ex.
Thirty-eight-year-old Chabert and Kemp are re-teamed in this film after appearing in LOVE, ROMANCE & CHOCOLATE, a non-Christmas Hallmark romance in 2019. Kemp is an actual dancer, having studied with the Royal Ballet. But both actors needed lessons for their parts. As Kemp put it, “I’d never done ballroom. People think that when you dance, you dance [anything]. It is a different technique.” Twenty-two years ago, at age 16, Chabert was “Penny Robinson” in 1998’s LOST IN SPACE. She later had a supporting role in MEAN GIRLS (2004).
IF I ONLY HAD CHRISTMAS is this year’s offering from the Queen of Christmas Movies, Candace Cameron Bure. Bure has starred in no fewer than nine Christmas films in the last dozen years. In this one, publicist “Darcy” (Bure) leaves her Kansas home to compete for a corporate job in the big city. She auditions for the position by offering to do pro bono work for a children’s charity sponsored by the firm. She must perform various activities to promote the charity’s annual Christmas fundraiser. This is done under the watchful eye of a cynical VP, “Glenn” (Warren Christie). The pair gradually warm to each other, until Darcy finds out that Glenn is not who she thought him to be. She returns to Kansas. Will he follow? In addition to the romance, this film has a bigger dose of humor than most, which kicks it up a notch. Starting at age 11, the now 44-year-old Candace Cameron Bure starred for eight seasons on “Full House” as “D.J. Tanner.”
Set somewhere in Arizona (Tucson? Flagstaff?) FELIZ NAVIDAD finds Mario Lopez as “David,” a widower raising a high-school-age daughter. He is also the school’s principal. “Sophie” (AnnaLynne McCord) is an out-of-town musician with the Phoenix Symphony visiting her own widower father. To avoid thinking of his wife during the Christmas season, ever since his wife’s death, David has moonlighted as a delivery truck driver. He first meets Sophie when he goes to her house every day to pick up packages containing her father’s mechanical toy collection, which are being sold online. Then, the pair are (only in the movies) coincidentally matched up by an online dating service. Since the two don’t reside in the same city, romance seems unlikely, but the pair agree to keep going out on “practice” dates, as long as Sophie is in town. Meanwhile, Sophie is pressed into service by David to help put on the school’s holiday musical, since the school is without a music teacher. Can love overcome geography? It shouldn’t be too hard to guess. The film was directed by Melissa Joan Hart, best known for starring in seven seasons of “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.” During the past three years, she has been alternating acting in television with directing.
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Bob, another Hallmark movie out now is Christmas In Vienna. It follows that same patterns that you describe. However, the whole movie is filmed in Vienna, and Vienna during the Christmas season is stunning. We enjoyed seeing all the places we visited years ago.
It's unusual for these films to go on location. I suppose it was cheaper to actually go to Vienna than to re-create it elsewhere. The first two films I mentioned were shot in Vancouver and British Columbia, filling in for New York City and Kansas. Aside from some scene-setting Arizona shots, I suspect that most of FELIZ NAVIDAD was filmed in Canada as well.
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