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Nazi Overlord (2018)
What's wrong with this Picture
Did anyone care about accuracy, or was this movie an attempt to set the world's record for most mistakes? The movie opens with the hero captain killing a German soldier with his bare hands on the Normandy D-Day landing beach-in the surf. Except, the Germans were not on the beach. Tom Sizemore appears as the colonel giving our hero captain his mission. Sizemore looks stoned, wearing makeup left over from a zombie movie. The most jarring part is that COLONEL SIZEMORE IS WEARING SERGEANT STRIPES. Maybe he just brought his uniform over from Saving Private Ryan. We have soldiers wearing gas masks for no reason. This is supposed to be post D-Day, but our soldiers are given their mission while standing in front of their beds in wooden barracks. These mistakes do not distract from the lack of plot and wooden acting. Everyone from the producers to the actors phoned this one in-and there was lots of static on the line.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Great Recreation of Attack-Cringeworthy Plot and Dialog
What's good: The recreation of the actual attack on Pearl Harbor is stunning. Told from the point of view of both the Japanese and Americans, the movie captures the surprise and the destruction. Second only to that is Kate Beckinsale. This woman should be required to wear 40's style red lipstick and hair. Drop dead beautiful. The bad: Almost anything having to do with Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett. I have seen them in other movies. They can be very good. The dialog they work with here makes me thankful for my fast forward button. The one line that sticks out (and sticks in my throat) is Affleck during the attack who says (more than once), "Somebody get me into a damn airplane." Savor that for a moment. People are dying. War has just started. And Affleck wants "somebody" to pick him up and deposit him in an airplane. If only we had known. We may have saved the USS Arizona-maybe even won the war right then and there. Once "somebody" does get Josh and Ben in airplanes (in their Hawaiian shirts), they commence to shoot a bunch of of Japanese down down and outfly veteran Japanese pilots so badly that they actually cause the Japanese to run into each other! By the way, all the air combat takes place at an altitude of about 75 feet. In real life, I don't believe any Japanese planes were shot down by American fighter planes. This movie is a real mix. Bring your fast forward button.
Hurricane (2018)
One Dimensional-Poor Perspective
When Goering told Hitler that he could bomb Britain into submission, a few heroic badly outnumbered pilots stood between Britain and defeat. This movie manages to make the British pilots look like a bunch of snobbish elitists and the Polish pilots look like drunken louts with a perpetual chip on their shoulder who are otherwise superstar pilots. The plot revolves around Polish pilots who escaped Hitler's conquest of Eastern Europe and came to Britain to fly against Germany. We are told that Poles would be great pilots if just given a chance, but were not given the chance because of prejudice. More likely, Britain didn't have the aircraft. When they are finally given the chance, no one believes how good they are. This is a story that had to be told. It could have been told better.
A Christmas Carol (2019)
Not Dickens' Scrooge
You will not find Dickens' Ebeneezer Scrooge in this film. Dickens' Scrooge is a greedy, unhappy man who is isolates himself from humanity in his single minded greed. His priorities are wrong and his soul has shriveled. Even before his transformation, you don't hate Dickens' Scrooge. You feel kind of sorry for him. This Scrooge is a genuinely evil man. Brilliantly portrayed by Guy Pierce as cold blooded and unreachable, this Scrooge kills dozens in a mining accident (he skimps on the lumber for shoring). He closes factories throwing hundreds out of work. He preys upon people in their moment of weakness to turn a profit. His cold blooded "experiment" with Mrs. Cratchit shows he has more going on is his twisted brain than just greed. Dickens' Scrooge is indifferent to people. This Scrooge actively hates people. "A Christmas Carol" is a story about transformation and redemption. In the end, this Scrooge wonders whether he really should be redeemed. Given all he has done, I wonder too. I watch Dickens' "Christmas Carol" every Christmas. I am glad I watched this version, but it will be only once. Pluses: acting, atmosphere, and imaginative plot. Minuses: drags in places (this should be a tight two hour movie-not a three hour mini-series), unnecessary profanity.
The Dreamers (2003)
Free Love in the Sixties from France
As a child of the Sixties, I have a different perspective on "Dreamers". Dreamers portrays the free love lifestyle that I heard everyone else was living, but that I never actually saw. An American in Paris, Matthew is taken home by a French brother and sister and finds himself being seduced by the impossibly beautiful and smokingly sexy Eva Green-with the full cooperation of her brother, Theo. Strangely enough, he resists Isabelle (Green) to the point that he actually offends her. I felt that Matthew kind of let us American boys down by his reaction to a nude Eva Green offering herself to him. Matthew eventually joins in the fantasy and the fun, but there is a constant tension between Matthew and Theo, and between Matthew and the whole set-up. Frankly, I found Matthew's character not believable compared to how most guys his age would react.
King Arthur (2004)
Better as a Silent Movie
If you find yourself in need of some sword fighting battle scenes, and pull this movie off the shelf, I recommend turning off the volume. You will thereby avoid
the stilted, over the top, pompous dialog, the mind numbing speeches and the fact that people placed in the situations created by this movie simply do not say the things these actors are made to say. You will be free to enjoy some great action and innovative battle scenes-the frozen lake battle is original, and well done. You can relish watching six Sarmatian knights (from which, we surmise, we get the round table knights, since they have the same names) defeat 20,00 or so Viking wannabes and all 98 pounds of Kiera Knightly take down full size warriors. The movie is very entertaining, but best watched in silent movie mode.
Sinister (2012)
Genuine scary movie
The first movie since I was a child that actually scared me. This movie produces constant dread with a few shout out loud surprise scares. (I did not scream. A lawyer in his 70's does not scream. Those were high pitched shouts.) Ethan Hawk, who does a good job with any part he takes, plays the washed up author who had one best seller too long ago. Desperate to repeat success, he moves his family into a house to write a book about the prior residents who would up handing around the tree in the back yard (literally). The movie gets spookier as he gets pulled in to the evil. The scariest horror movie in a long time.
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
Avoid at All Costs
I own complete sets of several franchises. I watched H2 and almost broke up the Highlander set just to throw it away. Highlander had a great premise that permitted lots of historical flashbacks and lovely sword fights. Then they get the old gang back together and make some post-apocalyptic environmental warning movie that has nothing to do with the original. Standing on its own, it is terrible. As a sequel, to steal from another reviewer, it acts as a case study on how not to do it. The only explanation is that some radical tree hugger group ponied up their money, kidnapped family members of the people involved and forced the filming of this atrocity. Avoid at all costs.
Long zhi zhan (2017)
Great Battle Scenes Supported by Great Acting and Cinematography
Chinese directors making historical war movies seem to have a simple formula. Find out how many participated in the actual battle and then hire that many extras. This movie is like "Saving Private Ryan" only with bigger battle scenes. Major battles are lavishly and realistically portrayed making the point that virtuous kung fu is no match for artillery and Gatling guns. The Chinese characters are fully fleshed out and well acted from the wily old general who comes out of retirement to fight the French to corrupt Imperial officials profiting from the war. The French are one dimensional, evil, greedy, heartless and willing to kill innocent peasants without compunction. Reminds us of the way many directors portray Asian enemies in American war movies. A word about the cinematography: outstanding. The opening scene is an overhead shot of a troop of Chinese calvary winding through the forest to a river. As they cross, we are suddenly taken underwater to watch alligators attack the calvary. It adds zero to the plot, but every second is breathtaking. Just like the rest of the movie.
Bullitt (1968)
The Coolest Actor and the Greatest Car Chase
There are car chase scenes, and then there is Bullit. McQueen chases the bad guys through the streets of San Francisco in his supercharged Mustang leaving diving pedestrians and other movie chase scenes in his wake. McQueen was the real "Cool Hand Luke" bring a icy danger wrapped in a deceptively calm package. A good plot, great acting and lots of action.
Grand Prix (1966)
Puts You in the Driver's Seat
Grand Prix was made during the epic movie era with a musical overture followed by a movie longer than anything anyone would make today. The Formula One cars are the real stars, and the races are what you come to see. The crash sequence in the first race is incredible considering no models, no CGI and no fakery. They filmed a spectacular crash by staging a spectacular crash. Garner holds the soap opera together when no one is racing, but, candidly, the movie is much improved by the skillful use of a fast forward button on your video player. Racing fan or not, this movie is a must see.
Taken 3 (2014)
Terrible Direction-waste of time
This review contains some spoilers.
The biggest problem with this movie is the central premise: if the police are trying to arrest you for a crime you did not commit, you can create whatever level of death and destruction you deem necessary to escape and prove your innocence. At the end of the movie, the main police character, Forrest Whitaker, tells Mills (Liam Neeson) that Mills' hacking the police computer is a crime and Mills could be arrested. They both have a quiet chuckle and Neeson is "free to leave". After assaulting a number of police officers, wrecking several police cars, stealing a police car, throwing officers out of moving cars, shooting the obligatory dozen bad guys and causing a freeway crash that is supposed to be one of the highlights of the movie, hacking the police computer would be the least of Mill's problems.
Prior "Taken" movies require some suspension of your disbelief. One guy creates total havoc and kills several dozen bad guys and then walks away with family member in hand. This is theoretically possible because Mills leaves the country after all the death and destruction. This movie takes place in America. In the world where Taken 3 takes place, if you uncover an evil plot and confine your killing to the guys who have the right tattoos, Forrest Whitaker will smile genially and send you on your way. This movie requires that you be a complete idiot.
Then there are the mistakes. Brian Mills finds the body of a main character in his bed whom he tries to revive by patting the wrist! One suspects the character was poisoned. Later, we are told the character's throat was cut. Yet no blood anywhere!
Don't get "Taken". Stay away from this stinker.