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Reviews
The Happening (2008)
mixed feeling
Having just come from this movie, I cant help but get the feeling that the movie itself was indecisive. It seemed to attempt to combine Shyamalan's trademark suspense with more contemporary, quirky humor, with somewhat disheartening results.
I will say that when the movie creates suspense, it does it with amazing skill. This, however, is also the problem. This is only WHEN it creates suspense, and it rarely does. Less than a third of the movie held the thick atmosphere I came to see. It almost always seemed as though the unsettling atmosphere depicted in the trailers would last for about 5-10 minutes before the pace of the movie was broken by humorous moments.
Humor was quite prevalent through this movie, though half of it seems to be unintentionally delivered through awkwardly worded or poorly delivered lines.
The musical score, though enjoyable, was occasionally over-the-top, and altogether so dramatic that it even became amusing, especially in the beginning. This didn't happen too often, though, so it did not greatly hurt the film
The plot was nicely thought out, with references to real life scientific occurrences, and with the main plot itself actually bearing relation to factual phenomenon.
Make no mistake, this movie was not absolutely terrible, it simply could have been much, much better, especially when faced with what possibilities the plot held. Despite being nicely filmed, the movie does not deliver what was promised, and the combination of genres it seemed to attempt broke the pacing and atmosphere. Overall, these factors were severely detrimental to the overall feel of the movie and made it so that it was impossible to become truly immersed in the world of the movie.
Cai yang nu bang zhu (1980)
You want bad kung-fu? You've found it.
Terrible acting, bad sound effects, plot pits (they have far passed the level of simple plot holes), bad dubbing (they don't even dub everything), obviously out-of-place scenery, repeated clips to increase length, punches that obviously don't hit. Man, this movie has got it all.
From the moment bamboo connected with brick to make a metal clang, I knew this movie was going to be brilliant. It even has a borderline-zombie character.
The film will randomly stop at places and hold frames, and skip around without warning. If you are looking to have a good movie to watch and laugh at with friends, this is the motherload. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
A clever satire, and a simply enjoyable movie.
First and foremost a disclaimer: do not go into this movie for a serious movie. With a name like "Shoot 'Em Up" and some of the most outrageous action you will ever see, this movie presents itself as a satire of the innumerable action movies out there.
If you bear this in mind, or go for simple mindless action fun, you will love this movie. As I state before, the action is overdone, the plot is insane, the characters for the most part are unbelievable in their various ways, and the hero is altogether too perfect at what he does. In short, yes: this movie is every bit as amazing and ridiculous as it was meant to be.
Im honestly amazed at how many people did not understand that this movie was made with the intention of mocking the action genre which seems to spit out "serious" movies of roughly the same makings as this with shocking regularity. In short, don't take this movie too seriously, and it in turn will provide you with a comical, if occasionally awkward action romp that is thoroughly enjoyable.