Reviews

I read several reviews of this movie before I actually saw it and every review was BAD. But, I believe in giving movies a chance because many times I like poorly rated movies but not this time.

The general gist of the film centers around the orbital colony known as Elysium. Elysium is the home of the wealthy and well to do. They live in a paradise free from hunger or disease due to the "healing beds." The people on earth live in total poverty as they slave away in the factories owned by the people of Elysium. In short, it is a take on the old argument of rich vs, poor. And in trying to get that message across, the movie falls flat.

In the opening scenes, we hear the characters speaking Spanish. Later, they are speaking English. No explanation was given as to why this happened. We see robot cops and robot parole officers. Again, the reason for this is never given. Now, lets get to important stuff; we see that Los Angeles of 2154 is nothing but one huge slum. Shanties and run down buildings everywhere. We see Max, Matt Damon's character, going to work and we see manufacturing sites everywhere but no stores, no shops so where do they spend their money? We see people like Spider having access to DNA marking equipment and access to several exo-atmospheric shuttles used to fly people up to Elysium. Now, if the people on earth can just jump onto a shuttle and leave the atmosphere, why can't they produce healing beds and such themselves. A lot of it stems from the fact that the earth people have no respect for anything.

Now, lets look at the acting. There are some very talented people in this film. Matt Damon's portrayal of Max was just BAD! He has already proved that he can play an odd man out type hero with his role of Jason Bourne. The character of Max reminded someone of a blundering idiot that went from screw up to the next. Another disappoint was the character of John Carlyle. He was played by one of the most underrated character actors in the business today and that is William Fichtner. Fichtner has had supporting roles in many blockbuster films, such as Col. Willie Sharp in Armageddon; SFC Jeff Sanderson in Black Hawk Down and others. Fichtner almost appeared to be reading que cards. Now we come to the character of Defense Secretary Jessica Delacourt. Jodie Foster appeared to be attempting to act like a combination of Hannibal Lector, Darth Vader and a damsel in distress. She sucked just like the movie.

Calling this film awful is an understatement. I can't even begin to explain the historical inaccuracies in this film. Every director and screen is allowed and expected to take some artistic license with a story but to totally ignore facts is pathetic. What were the writers thinking? This movie is worse than The Memphis Belle and that is saying a lot. Now for what I consider the worst part of this piece of junk; the casting of Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Doolittle is an INSULT to that great man's memory and legacy. Baldwin, politically stands for nearly everything that Doolittle stood and fought against. Over and over in his long life, General Doolittle put his life on the line for his country and what he believed in. Many of the safety standards in aviation today were pioneered by Gen. Doolittle. He made the world's first instrument and helped to develop the first ILS systems. Volumes have been written about what he did. And he lived by a code that a person should do what ever they could to leave the world a better place than it was when they entered it.

I was waiting with great anticipation for this movie. But after seeing it I can say that it was the most disappointing movie that I have ever seen in my entire life.

I watch movies for entertainment. If I want to find out about environmental issues I will watch a documentary. This movie was pure, junk-science propaganda and that is all it was. The acting was dismal, the plot line infantile and the overall effects outlandish. In all I considered an insult to my intelligence. Take for example Klaatu's line about the earth not belonging to man and that if we live the earth dies. The Bible says that MAN has dominion over the earth. I wish that the left would look that word up.

In all I consider this movie a bad piece of left-wing environmentalist BS that must have been made by Al Gore.

Rewatched recently...worse than I remember!

I really looked forward to this program for two reasons; I really liked Jan Michael Vincent and I am an aviation nut and have a serious love affair with helicopters. I don't like this program because it takes fantasy to an unbelievable level. The world speed record for helicopters was set at 249 mph by a Westland Lynx several years ago. The only chopper that was ever faster was the experimental Lockheed AH56A in the 1960's. It hit over 300 and was a compound helicopter, which means it had a pusher propeller at the end of its fuselage providing thrust.

In short, no helicopter can fly much over 275 because of the principle of rotary wing flight. And the Bell 222, the "actor" that portrayed Airwolf wasn't very fast even by helicopter standards. And it didn't stay in production very long.

There was a movie that came out during this time period called "Blue Thunder" that was much more realistic.

I remember the hoopla that preceded this piece of trash. This movie doesn't even make good science fiction! The writers of this trash could not have consulted a single scientist when they compiled it. There is not a single scientific fact mentioned in the entire movie. They got EVERYTHING wrong. IF the tropospheric air could be brought down at great speed, it would warm up to around 30 degrees. AND it is only about -50 degrees at that altitude to begin with.

The credits of this movie should have read, "Made by Al Gore and the pseudo-science crowd of low IQ idiots." Global warming is a myth and this movie didn't help the cause of the global alarmists. By the way, even the "global warming alarmists" have openly criticized this piece of garbage.

Okay, I will admit that this movie was stupid. But it was stupid in a good way. It was funny and it was funny without bare boobs or butts or sexual situations or drugs. I guess that to be "good" a comedy has to have sex, gross humor or humiliation in it. Some people don't think that way. Movies like Howard and "Spaced Invaders" are just plain funny.

We need more movies like Howard. Not everyone likes to watch grossness or just plain retarded behavior on the screen. Keep your "American Pie" and your parodies. If you are into mind-numbing stupidity. I'll stick with good, clean silliness. Howard is a movie worthy of the comic geniuses of the past.

CSI is without a doubt the best crime drama to ever be aired. The series is technologically correct. The series shows how things are actually done in crime labs. The events are sped up for TV's sake. An example of this is how they get fingerprint hits in seconds on AFIS. I never saw it happened that fast in real life.

What won me over to this program was a scene that took place in the lab. The tech was looking at a .45 cal. bullet that had been recovered from a murder victim. The tech made the remark that there were no rifling marks on the bullet. He got up and went over to the weapons rack and said "that means that it was a fired by a Glock or an HK." Which is the truth. They are the only two weapons made with polygonal rifling with does not cut into the bullet.

All in all, the most realistic crime series ever.

My wife found this movie at the county library and wanted me to watch it with her. Now, I knew that it had two of my favorite actors in it, Bruce Dern and Jon Voight but it also had my least favorite actress in it, which is of course Jane Fonda. Well, I decided to give it a shot and I regretted every minute of it. I lost an uncle in Vietnam in 1968 and my hometown of 2000 lost around 20 young men in the war. The movie starts off pretty good but it loses ground very quickly. Basiclly, it shows returning vets as physical cripples or mental cripples. Both views are wrong but is to be expected if Jane Fonda was involved. In short, this movie is just a bag of anti-war propaganda, no more and no less. If you want to see a movie about Vietnam, watch Hamburger Hill or Gardens of Stone. Both are excellent.

I was in my early-20's when this series started. My best friend and my wife thought this was the greatest series ever. I didn't. Now the series did have its good points: field agents of the intel services, special forces and other elite units use things like Mac's ever-present Swiss Army knife much, much more than they would a "Rambo" knife. They also use their minds much more than they would a weapon. But this is taken to an extreme in this series.

Don't get me wrong, most people in Mac's line of work aren't hard-cussing, trigger-happy thugs, they are more like Mac in temperament. And I realize that this is a fantasy program. But the story lines are just LAME. Most of the stories just don't make sense and the situations that he finds himself in just aren't believable. And this mess of NEVER carrying a weapon just isn't reality.

Anderson redeemed himself in the role of Col. Jack O'Neil in SG-1.

This movie was stupid. It was meant to be! I've read several commits on it and most are negative. People please!!! This movie was NOT MEANT to be serious. It wasn't supposed to tell a story or to be Oscar material. It was supposed to be the way it was made. Did it EVER occur to some of you that actors MIGHT just want to act in a movie that was fun? Look at Gene Hackman's role of "Harold" in "Young Frankenstien." Oh yeah, you can talk about Nicholson, Close, Benning and the other top billers "wasting" their talent, but you are missing the point. This movie was SUPPOSED to be goofy. It was not supposed to make sense. The movie had several real good parts--bowling down the heads on Easter Island for one. The alien's heads exploded when exposed to Slim Whitman's yodeling is another good part. But the best part of this movie is that Jack Black gets ZAPPED! My only question about the whole film is; WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH THE BIRDS!!??

This movie made absolutely no sense to me. Until I realized that it was NOT based on New Testament teachings (ie, Christian) it was based on Old Testament teachings. And as such is one of the most anti-Semitic films that I have ever seen. The laws of this mythical republic were based on the Law of Moses. They were not based on the teachings of Christ. In fact, there is a scene in the movie where they show troops rounding up "Baptist Fundamentalists." Anyone that is familiar with the Bible knows that the use of handmaids was never mentioned in the New Testament. the greatest problem with this movie is that although the "ruling class" is never called "Jew" they still are put in the stereotypical mode that anti-Semites place Jews--arrogant snobs that run everything. In short, this movie isn't anti-Christian, it's anti-Jewish and is so in the extreme. Stay clear of it.