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Vaggs
Reviews
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Disappointing my dear Potter.... disappointing
I'm probably one of the few people on this planet that's not bothered to read the telephone books posing as fantasy novels. So I've gone into each of the Potter movies expecting little other than to be entertained for a few hours, without any knowledge of the plot nor the surprises - expect it would be impossible not to know who's going to die in the next movie... but I digress.
I've not felt compelled to comment on the previous movies as I found them all thoroughly enjoyable, both on a story level and on an eye-candy level. Not totally mind blowing - but just good movies that was worth a chunk of my cinema budget.
This movie was definitely strong on the eye candy... totally delicious effects artwork. The dragons took my breath away, and some of the magic effects were stunning. But plot wise, I found it boring, contrived, and very "slapped together". The plot was so straight forward and predictable that I was scratching my head wondering where the playful plots had gone. The not-so-subtle introduction of attraction to the opposite gender I felt was tacky and unimaginative, the tension between Harry and Ron was bordering on laughable. The almost complete lack of subplots too made this movie far too shallow for my liking.
I felt the acting was flat too - which is odd given the far better performances in the previous movies, when the actors were younger and less experienced. I'm no movie expert, but I'd be pointing my cuss wand at the director and possibly their acting coaches for that.
Still... I felt the chunk of my movie budget was fairly applied - definitely worth seeing this on the big screen, albeit as disappointed in the result as I was. I hope the next movie is better done.
The Last Samurai (2003)
I was right, Cruise still can't act.
Whilst I wasn't dragged kicking and screaming to see the movie, I was reluctant to see it tonight. After searching IMDB and reading a few positive reviews, and the insistence of my friend that Tom was on the receiving end of some praise, I conceded and went to see it.
Dang - there goes $14 of my hard earned cash... Ultimately, I wasn't wrong. Cruise was wooden and unconvincing. I tried and *almost* felt emotional, but nope, the close up of his face wrecked that idea. I'd be interested to hear from people who speak fluent Japanese to see if his delivery of those lines were as stunted as most of his non-aggressive english ones. To cap it off, his closing line was delivered with more corn than the Corn-on-the-stick guy at the Rocks Market in Sydney.
Then again, there was a plenty of polenta sprinkled all over the movie. The digital special effects would have been impressive 5 years ago (although one of the brief aerial battle scenes wasn't bad), and some of the sets looked just plain fake. In terms of plot - it was Hollywood 101, but at the same time, given the whole package, it was palatable enough for a DVD rental - just not sure that I got value in my ticket this time round.
On the more positive side, I did like most of the battle and fight scenes - the subtle Manga influence of blood spraying around was well done, and actually added some character to the sequences. Cruise looked like he could fight too - he did a nice job of training himself for this movie.
Pity I had hoped for more from this movie.
Farscape: Premiere (1999)
Surprisingly good and engrossing Sci-Fi
Having just borrowing the Series one DVD collection from my somewhat obsessive brother, I was expecting to get through the first couple of episodes and handing it back. I have just found myself yelling at the screen for ending the first season on a cliff-hanger - a mere week later and I've watched the entire season. Where I found the time for this I have no idea.
This show is great. It doesn't take itself too seriously, it has likeable characters who are well acted, and the special effects (ignoring the odd tacky puppet here and there) are "special" enough to give it that polished feel. At first, I didn't realise it was filmed mostly here, and it seemed odd to hear so many Aussie accents on a Sci-Fi show - it was most amusing for the main character (John) to land back in Sydney midway through the first season.
I believe this show's biggest strength is the vision that the creators of the show obviously had. They have gradually introduced new aspects of the characters that have explain previous actions, and the continue to smatter John's conversations with slang in an amusing and unforced way. On top of that, having watched the entire Voyager and Next Gen series, I see little plot rip-off - so it has managed to maintain a sense of originality throughout the entire first season. I hope the rest of it is as good.
Farscape is not like any other Sci-Fi that I've enjoyed in the past. I heard that the fourth season wasn't as good as the first three, and I am now quite annoyed that they cancelled it before the 5th. I hope that they revive this show - with the same actors in either a movie or another series. It would be a shame to leave so many plot lines unfinished as I imagine that with a show that's had so much thought put into it, to have it axed without adequate warning will leave me feeling robbed.
Gotta go now... heading back to my brother's place to snaffle the 2nd season.
V.
Crackerjack (2002)
Surprisingly Entertaining
Considering the appalling track record of Mick Molloy since going out on his own, I had rather low expectations of Crackerjack. Even the promotional posters for the movie had me nervous. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that I'd received free tickets to the preview, I would have resisted the pressure from the missus (who thinks Mick's a hunk - there's a worry) to pay money for it.
The first few minutes of the movie had me worried - it starts with one of Micks tired "get angry at insignificant things" routines, but that was given a neat touch, which at least made it a little refreshing. The rest of the script was pretty good, and very light hearted - even the typical Mick Molloy (and Judith Lucy) humour was delivered well and whilst I never had to pick myself up from the aisles, it generated a lot more chuckles that I was expecting (and it was consistant).
There's nothing new in the plot - pretty predictable, but it moved along quickly between one-liners and other jokes - I never felt it harboured on any element too long or too short; Mick must have worked hard on polishing his script. There were a one or two "Late Show" in-jokes, and one or two jokes that only Melbournians would get - but certainly there's plenty of generic stuff in there for a wider audience.
Something that I found disappointing was the relative unfunnyness of John Clarke - he just didn't seem to work as the bad guy, but that doesn't detract from the movie too much.
Over all, I enjoyed this Australain comedy, and was pleasantly entertained for the duration of the movie. I left the cinema with a decent sized grin - a pretty hard thing for an Australian comedy to do in my books. 7.5/10