Reviews

Number 5, the fifth member of a line of super powered killer robots being developed by a defense contractor, is struck by lightning and becomes self-conscious. He then escapes from the research facility and takes up residence with animal lover Stephanie (Ali Sheedy), who recognizes Number 5 for what he is. Newton (Steve Guttenberg), the engineer who developed Number 5, sets out to recover and fix his creation, while other elements in the company have more devious plans in store for Number 5.

Its refreshing to finally see a movie in which self-aware robots aren't trying to kill us or take over the earth. Number 5 wouldn't harm a fly, and his only objective in life seems to be acquiring "more input." He's adorable, and the film delves into surprisingly deep themes, such as what it means to be alive, and whether or not the spontaneous generation of life as an "accident" somehow cheapens its value. Afterall, if you believe in evolution, didn't all life on Earth arise by chance? The movie is somewhat cheesy in that its villains are one dimensional, and their actions and motives are apparent a mile away.

Overall, if you are looking for a light-hearted comedy that will shock you at times with its depth and thoughtfulness, you will enjoy this film.

Please note my rating. I have given this movie 4 stars out of 10, since it is not even half the movie that the last movie of the trilogy (The Last Crusade) was. Now, on to my review.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal skull sees Harrison Ford taking up the role of the titular character once again, this time in 1957 in the middle of the US/Soviet Cold War. The bad guys this time are Commies, and although they are diabolical, they lack the pure hate-ability of the Nazis. Anyway, the movie depicts Indiana Jones racing against the Soviets to return a crystal skull to its resting place, which will unlock the lost city of El Dorado. Along the way the nature of the crystal skull and its apparent ties to the supernatural are revealed.

Overall, I can't fault the movie entirely. The action sequences are still top notch, and although there is CGI, the movie doesn't rely on it like most of today's blockbusters. The on-screen chemistry between Harrison Ford and Shia LeBouf was far more cohesive and fun to watch than I thought it would be. And yes, there are some memorable one-liners and scenes in the vein of what the previous films offered.

Now, on to the films many flaws. There's one common source to these problems: George Lucas. As some people have probably read, George Lucas's premise for the fourth installment of this series involved Indiana Jones fighting the Martians (seriously). While the film is certainly winds up being more subtle than that, the extra-terrestrial aspect was not necessary at all. Lucas has lost his mind, and the script ultimately bends to his self-indulgent, I'm-George-Lucas-I-can-do-anything whims. If this man could have been shut out of the creative process, I'm sure I'd be dialing in an 8 or a 9 for this movie instead of a 4.

Overall, yes, I'm probably being harsh on this movie because of the 3 that preceded it. If this had been the first in the franchise, would I have hated it? Who knows. But consider this. The thing I couldn't stand about this movie was how over the top and ridiculous it was. That's right. After watching a movie in which the Ark of the Covenant melts Nazis, Indian people eat chilled monkey brain, and a catacombs is found underneath an Italian library, this manages to somehow exceed all those others in terms of ridiculousness. That should tell you something about what you're in store for.

First let me start by saying I was a huge Van Wilder fan and enjoy all of Kal Penn's work, be it in Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar, and even American Desi. This film, however, was a disaster. The plot is unimaginative; Taj arrives in a British university and leads a misfit group of losers against a wealthy, socially elite house in an intra-fraternal competition. The object of Taj's affection unfortunately winds up being the girlfriend of his biggest antagonist, the head of the rival fraternity house (see the original Van Wilder for a blatantly similar romantic situation).

This just wasn't funny at all. I crack up pretty easily and laughed less than 5 or 6 times during an hour an a half. And even then, I was forcing it just because I felt like I forked down $10, and if I didn't even laugh once, I'd have been bamboozled of my money. The only redeeming scenes are those featuring Taj's parents, who are in the film for less than 10 minutes and managed to pull my rating from a 1 to a 2. Every other joke was corny, unfunny, and otherwise dull. The writing and directing were so uninspired that it was actually painful to watch this movie. The problem with this film was half conceptual too, since Taj was only funny in Van Wilder in the limited doses we got. Goofy Indian accents aren't enough to carry an hour and a half long poorly written train wreck, and that's what we saw here.

The thing that really bothered me was that I could feel Kal Penn's career dying before my eyes. I really don't know how anyone who read this script could agree to do it, especially him, because he was the only actor with a future in this movie. He had at least moderate buzz going for him after a string of decent performances, and then releases this nonsense. I can only hope that movie studios will forgive him, because it was difficult to watch this.

If you view this thing as a sequel, of course you'll be disappointed. The was made on $5 million, there's no way it could match the huge battle scenes of the original Starship Troopers.

That being said, it's not a bad movie at all. It's got a hackneyed but frightening storyline, and the movie does make you think a lot more than the original film. Of course, that's because the first one just had gratuitous violence and nothing else.

The CGI wasn't that bad, I've seen movies with bigger budgets with crappier effects. The guns were kinda stupid, but the sets were the ugliest part. They implied the out doors using fog, which looked really bad. The acting was not bad though.