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Reviews
Dynamite (2004)
Too much time to do too little with far too great a risk to gain nothing much.
Too many threads weaving too many fractured scenes in a dissembled conglomerate of randomly disparate pieces of meaningless dialogue make this a muddled concoction of a cinema buffet of tasteless morsels more of a snack for a buffoon.
This mixture of Die Hard and Leave It to Beaver leaves much to be desired as action in one place seems so unnecessarily unrelated to the main action in the other. The threat of needing to kill an entire family by blowing up their home with them in it over a mere collection of gold coins does not equate with the need to blow up a building in Die Hard along with all the hostages for 700 million dollars in bearer bonds.
The bad guys at their best are exaggerations of futility and at their worst are unbelievable as weak-minded antagonists. Melinda Clark would have been better cast as Cat Woman and Derek Hamilton as a schizophrenic, psychotic misanthrope all mouth and no menace. Mel Harris does a credible job as a caring parent but does not show enough of the fear that would be more natural for a parent in that situation with pistols aimed at them in a continuous "I wanna shoot you but won't" series of idle threats.
Cameron Bowen as Nick is the MacGyver of the family with unique and fearless ingenuity despite his seemingly superfluous asthma while Michelle Jackson portrays one of more credibility had she been in Ferris Buhler's Day Off. As for Fred lane, he might as well have been MIA since he had no meaningfully significant role other than to be there as a reference.
The shift from scene to scene, house to house, set to set makes this more of a bad soap than a good action-less mystery. The title is a misnomer but it is certainly better than the original, Dynamite, because with either one, as a success, certainly all blows up in their collective faces.
The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All (1999)
Good movie like Death Wish series where good overcomes evil, in general
To watch enjoyably, engage in willing suspension of disbelief. That is, enjoy as you would the Roadrunner. Schools on high school level or colleges, no matter how small, do NOT have teachers or students like this. BUT, this being fiction allows the watcher to engage in hero worship and share the role of the hero without knowing what is to develop next. It does give the viewer the chance to enjoy seeing good prevail over evil, justice over injustice, and persistence over passive acquiescence. The introduction of new gimmicks as weaponry that get the job done without the atypical bloodletting of the horror series which lose characters faster than an exodus of patrons from "D" movie. Treat Williams is, again, a treat as a martial arts specialist who can show the value of defense versus aggression. The classroom scene by itself is worth the price of admission. To see adverse elements like drugs, alcohol, and steroids put into their proper negative position is a positive effect on youthful viewers and a reminder to the older generation. This is not an Oscar worthy film nor does it pretend to be. It is fiction with a non-fiction lesson to be learned -- that steroids are bad, that justice is good, and that violence is not always best served by more violence.