Reviews

I am baffled why people find the morally bankrupt women of Fairview so appealing. I realize that at the heart of a good story is a flawed protagonist this show takes it too far. They go out of the way to make every single character have one or more glaring character flaws. The show builds many of its stories around these artificial--not that any fiction is real!--flaws. Further the show creates these pseudo-mysteries. Deep dark secrets, skeletons lurking in every characters closet. And we get piecemeal bits of information about the various mysteries given to us across the season. At the heart of the matter is the need to identify on some level with the protagonist. Every good story has protagonists that we love--or love to hate--. The characters on this show are so horrid that they are impossible to identify with.

We start the movie with a precognitive nightmare that our protagonist(Lincoln) is having. This nightmare which is supposed to be fueling Linclon and be the impetus for his quest is never explained, it just is. Which seems to be the theme for the whole movie, it just is.

The basic plot of the movie is: we have Lincoln who feels something is wrong with his world. He finds out some disturbing truths and goes on the run with his lady-friend. They are chased from place to place etc...

The movie borrows heavily from numerous other sources and throws in some chase scenes, explosions, shrapnel and loud noises and hopes we won't notice that this movie sucks. Everything in the entire movie feels wooden and shallow. Many things contribute to the crappiness of this film. For instance the complete lack of character development except for one attempt where a character does a 180 that makes almost no sense and obtains instant redemption. The terror that we are meant to feel never comes through. And the chase scenes were nothing special.

What allowed me to give this film 4/10 is the cohesiveness of the overall plot. Despite some things that don't quite make sense, the plot seems to flow logically and smoothly and the pacing is pretty good.

Overall: This film felt cut and pasted. Save your money!

First let me say that I love the Fantastic Four comic books. I know exactly what works and what doesn't. So I feel well qualified to evaluate this film.

Secondly we need to address the issue of: Should a movie be 100% faithful to source material? Well, even if it were possible would you want the movie to be a carbon copy of the source material? Some things don't translate well to the screen. And sometimes (Harry Potter 1 *cough*) trying to be just like the original material is a bad idea! But when a character is fundamentally changed that's usually a bad idea. Fantastic Four takes many liberties with the characters some are worse than others. But a director and writer need to find the right medium that is a balance between the source and making a good movie. In this movie they changed the story around to try to make a better movie and failed! Perhaps they should have hired Goyer (Blade films, Batman Begins) to write the script, somebody who appreciates the original material.

Fantastic Four is a film about a group of four people who are changed in a cosmic "accident" and form a Super-Hero team. The film tries to make it a movie about coping with change and family strife, which is in theory a good idea but fails here. We are presented with a film that tries many things and all of them feel half-done. The only things that saved the film and made me give it a 7/10 are the Ben Grimm parts of the story. We have somebody who is transformed into a monster and hates it. Also the movie tries to rush into the transformation, which is a good idea, but slows down right afterwards and just meanders forward.

Overall: Not horrible. But if the people at FOX are reading this: You had a chance to make a great movie and blew it with a mediocre script, crappy director and over mediocrity!

Spielberg attempts to hoodwink us out of our 10 dollars in this movie. This movie is not a movie about an alien invasion. It is a movie about one man and his kids living through a disaster. Or at least that's what the book is. The movie tries to mix that idea with poorly developed characters and superfluous sub-plots. Spielberg introduces two new characters in his adaptation a daughter and son who live with their mother, but are staying with Ray (Cruise) for the weekend. They are obviously only their to give Ray a reason to keep going and to make him more likable. But the movie fails on both counts. The kid's characters are never devolved enough. They feel like useless appendages.

We see Cruise running from one disaster to another; in the end it just seems tired. You might as well be watching volcano with aliens inserted instead of a volcano. Spielberg does deserve credit for keeping the characters (all of them even the extras) actions seem realistic and prudent.

This movie is in the end merely watchable. My advice: save your money for a better movie.

After many years Batman makes his return to the big screen. In this movie we get to see the journey that transformed Bruce Wayne from a despondent youth into the "Dark Knight". While this movie succeeds on many levels: as an action film, a drama, and as a origin story, it has it's shortcomings. The movie is held back from being great by some plot holes, unrealistic dialouge, poorly filmed action sequences, and sub-par acting. The film must be evaluated separately from the rest of the Bat franchise; while the film is a good movie people have been reviewing it in comparison to the Joel Schumacher crap. Overall its a film worth watching.

The concept of death stalking a group of people is an interesting idea. It was executed fairly well, and originally in the first Final Destination film. Unfortunately this film seems to take for granted that you've seen the original. It skips some much-needed explanation of death and etc. Even had the film added the explanations it still would have felt old. We've seen it all before. Where the original had endearing characters, here we have shallow and unintresting characters.

The film is rife with musical cues that foreshadow exactly what will happen. When the horror occurs in the movie it feels just plain silly. It seems the filmmakers didn't take themselves seriously. Basically the film is a cheap attempt to cash in on the original. You would be better off having Death stalk you than watching this film.

Well, the only Bullshit! in this show, is the stuff spewing out Penn's mouth. He chooses seemingly every topic under the sun, and tries to "disprove" it. His non-evenhanded approach to all of his topics is quite frankly embarrassing. He presents a topic(that he wants to disprove), and will show one person giving little or no credible evidence for that topic. Then he proceeds to clips of "real" scientists arguing and saying all of the stuff said by the first guy is Bullshit. What he never does is, present the issue and examine the facts. He simply uses his didactic reasoning, and says Bullshit a lot. Maybe Penn believes that by saying Bullshit a lot and by being a pompous bombastic idiot people will believe him and his show won't get canceled.

Let me preface this by saying I am a Science Fiction fan, and a fan of good TV in general(Go 24!). I have seen numerous Sci-Fi shows and movies, including but not limited to All star trek series(except Enterprise), Farscape, X-Files(semi Sci-Fi),Sliders(Waste of time),Babylon 5,Outer Limits, Twilight Zone,and others.

I came into this series wanting to like it, I heard good things from my friend. But I was instead treated to a TV show that follows every cliché possible, the entire episode is transparent from the first five minutes. The entire premise of the show is also somewhat contrived as well, to believe that the SG1 team makes the sort of unilateral decisions that they do is pushing it. Many times after the SG-1 team arrives on a new planet, they are somehow magically able to asses the entire planet from a sample of a minuscule area surrounding the gate.

The show failed for me even further by trying introduce a shady conspiracy, which not only seemed implausible, it also seemed like an attempt to gain extra mileage from the show, a cheap plot device that goes beyond the bounds of the show.

What has saved this show for me is the acting, the characters even though their actions and attitudes are unbelievable, the actors make them seem convincing. The producers were able to form a nice dynamic with the 5 main characters, although I feel adding one or two main characters wouldn't have hurt.

The show has two more flaws that must be pointed out, firstly the writers on the show manipulate the personality of the characters to fit the needs of each individual episode. This makes for unrealistic characters who have no set personality. Further the 42 minutes confines of the episodes make for a highly episodic show. One is able to tell where the plot is going simply by looking at his watch. The show needed/needs more ongoing story lines.

Finally I would like to recommend an episode or two, to watch:

"Absoulote Power"- from season 4, even though the episode was fairly predictable, it was fun.

Conversly one my least favorite episodes is also from season 4, the second episode in the season:

"The Other Side"

In conclusion, the show bears watching on an occasional basis, but for consistent viewing I believe your time is best spent elsewhere. I would recommend:

I) Some of HBO's original series

II)24(Warning:If you haven't seen 24 before I would recommend picking up the first three seasons before watching the 4th, my only complaint with the show is I've felt let down by the final resolutions in the show.)

III) Either go and and buy, or rent Farscape(Warning: The show is difficult to follow, but has some great episodes and ongoing sub-plots.The show has been canceled I myself have yet to see the final mini-series I've only seen the first 3 seasons)

IV) Pick up the Prisoner on DVD, I really liked the show(The main actor Patrick McGoohan was offered the part of James Bond before Sean Connery)

V)Pick up NowhereMan off of Ebay, great show also was canceled.

VI)Simpsons, after watching the Super Bowl episode, my faith has been restored that this series still has some life

VII)Family Guy: Sort of a low-brow version of the simpsons just the characters are not as endearing. Show features lots of pop cultures references from the sixties till today.

VIII)X-Files: This show had/has huge mass market appeal, while it suffered from many flaws, there are some good conspiracy and stand alone episodes. Yet the ending was very unsatisfying("The Truth" I think it was called)

IX) Babylon 5: Very interesting concept, the creator J.M.S. pitched this show as a 5 season story Arc. What was amazing is that it actually worked, the show had some good stand-alone episodes as well as good storyline episodes. What I really loved about this show is, that unlike Star Trek The technology was more like our own, and thus seemed more realistic.

X)The Highlander: While not a great show by any means, the show succeeded as a decent Movie Spin Off, and in my opinion surpassed the movie itself. The plots were not so great, and it lost creative steam in the later season but it was a fun show.

I went into the movie with high expectations, and was let down. Peter pan was not played well, and the movie did not feel real. It was difficult to feel for the characters. Despite the fact that neverland is not such a serious place, when The kids were in danger, There was no sense of any danger at all. Although Hook was not the true story of peter pan, I still feel it's a better Pan movie.