pancakes27 Reviews

Three Days (2001 TV Movie)

Very sweet and simple movie...

[7/10 · 6 November 2005]

that stirs a few thoughts here and there as a reminder, for those that are too busy with their daily chores and goals, that they forget to see what's around them and cherish the moment.

The main actors did a pretty decent job, where Reed always had a stiff face to show his unhappiness. It did get a bit irritating at a point as a viewer, because you just want to slap him for not doing something about anything...

Kristin Davis is great as usual with the roles as a sweet and sensitive lady. Her acting and cuteness simply makes hearts melt in this case, even if it can be seen as corny... But that's just how life is... She did a great job showing her emotions and didn't overdo any of the parts, which simply made it worthwhile and gave an effect.

The movie could definitely have been made with a much greater emotional and serious impact... as it had a lot of potential. But I don't believe that the movie was meant to be like that.

This is definitely a movie to check out with an open mind, to be able to have the full effect. If one starts watching it with a critical mind, then you won't enjoy it at all. But as a nice simple Christmas story, it is great fun and can be noted as one of the best sappy ones out there :).

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Long, yet short, but entertaining enough :). *SPOILERS*

[7/10 · 27 June 2004]

I went to watch this movie earlier today. I had no idea what to expect, as I had not watched the trailers nor followed any of the reviews that had been played over and over again on TV. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

The movie didn't feel as if it dragged on for a long time at all. I wouldn't say that I was at the edge of my seat throughout the movie either but looked forward to what was next in line. Thus in that sense, it captured my interest.

As a disaster movie, one can't expect much more than what it's supposed to portray. When you're smacked in the middle of a disaster, what kind of "plot" are you actually expected to have? Imagine yourself being in the middle of one... and think about the possible outcomes. Given that you are not allowed to portray the disasters and destruction caused by them, which you had just witnessed, will you see it as an interesting story to tell? Not really right? At the end of the day, it's a "I WANTED TO SURVIVE!" situation, where people are going to react spontaneously or not at all. Anything can basically happen.

TDAT is a simple story without many angles and is focused in the US but finds ways to hint that the issues relate to other countries as well. The government doesn't want to listen to the scientists; the scientists are of course more or less correct; incidents occur; the main man has to fulfill a promise that he has made and end of story. Where haven't we seen that before? But does it really matter? Life itself is filled with clichés. I believe its how a movie is willing to portray these clichés, which is interesting. And how many plots does one really want to focus on, in such a movie? One could of course focus on how different families would react to such an ordeal, due to their upbringing, environment etc. however, despite the lack of foreshadowing, that wasn't the point of the movie afterall :).

We're again in Manhatten and L.A. again. New York is up north and it happens to carry plenty of symbols. The Statue of Liberty for one, I believe, is a symbol of hope and people working together to find solutions for any ordeal. One good thing for picking such busy cities is that there's plenty of activity and most people are rather infatuated and caught up with their daily lives. With this in mind, the director probably threw a disaster upon them, just to watch how they'd react (some funny scenes there). It also added extra magnificent work for the CGI creators. The effects and cinematography were excellent, making the movie a 'cinema must see.'

The character development wasn't at its best. But it was enough to get to know the characters a bit. However, if one is expects to feel deeply for the characters, this is not the movie to watch. The characters are skimmed over, as the main issue of the movie after all, is the climatic shift, in which the whole world is in. I would have liked more character development but on the other hand, what I liked about the movie not having weighed a lot on this is that you get a better feel of what's happening everywhere else.

The script itself could have been better of course but then again, there's not much to say, when you're in such a situation, besides, "OH MY GOD!" or "LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT WAVE!" etc. I don't think it's a time to get all poetic now. Despite having its flaws, the dialogue was natural enough and had its humorous moments.

The acting wasn't too bad. Bits could have been done better, as I couldn't feel the hurt and pain. On the other hand, the camera didn't focus on that dimension, as anyone will notice, when watching the movie. However, there's a feel of anger, frustration and despair that arises in the movie, due to the conflicts between the characters.

The students in the movie created an interesting enough subplot. This subplot also gave rise, later on in the movie, to a rather exciting scene, which was nicely made.

I thought that the ending of the movie was pretty good, despite it "suddenly ending". However, the audience is after all expected to figure out what things are happening throughout the movie. The thought I had in the end was, "Mess with Earth and Earth will find a way to balance itself, even if it means the death to all of us."

The political issue was a rather amusing part as I saw it as what some would stereotypically call it, "Anti-American". I think that it's basically giving out a partial message reminding of how materialistic that many people in the world are becoming. So materialistic that anything which goes against their goals of being able to obtain these items, should be shot down; that they have end up looking at things in the short run.

With regards to the way the movie displayed stereotypes in the movie, I found it funny but OK. There are particular stereotypes in this world, which will set the audience's mind off into thinking, "Okay, I've seen X and I relate X to that culture." Thus in that sense, I thought it was okay, as the movie was probably trying to pace the introduction.

The musical score was beautiful. It had a bit of everything. It had similarities to some other soundtracks like Vertical Limit but that was fine.

Overall, I found the movie entertaining. If you're expecting a mind wrenching experience, this is not the kind of movie for one to watch in the first place. It could have focused more on the pain and so forth; how it feels like to be frozen, infected, etc. However, I thought that it was fine the way it was. I would give it a 7-7.5/10

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Either you're gonna love it or you won't.

[8/10 · 5 April 2004]

I just watched this movie in the theatres as it was released just a few days ago overhere. What can you expect from it? You've seen the trailers... It looks pretty much like Dead Poet's Society doesn't it? But with women instead? :-D.

Well, I had that feeling indeed. It felt like Dead Poet's Society during some periods in the movie. But overall, it was still different. The surface story isn't that complicated and easy to follow. It's nothing new either. But it was displayed very well.

Sure, it's about a teacher... her passion to teach and the way she outwitted the students to get the best out of them... It also shows the way a good teacher cares for their students and so forth... and the way contradicting ideas may blind one's ideas and actions, towards those who they are meant for. Did that sentence sound weird or what? :).

You can't go wrong with the cast here. You've got Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnefer Goodwin, etc. They played great in the movie.

Julia Roberts is just great at playing these emotional roles. It was believable as well. I at least could feel the frustration which she had. Her character is more of a confused type. She reminded me of Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds... There was basically a mixture of confusion and dedication... thus as a teacher, despite how sure of she may be of her teaching methods, you also sense a nervousness in her... a feeling of uncertainty as to whether her methods of getting the messages across to the students or not will work. I thought Julia Roberts did a great job in that area.

Kirsten was just excellent. You could feel the internal turmoil going through her throughout the movie. One might argue that she had a pretty wack role and that she overacted etc. but I don't agree with that. She's practically a heartless b**** through the movie, but you can't help but understand why. The same goes for Julia and Maggie. Just the way they were depicted in the movie, you really felt for them. Ginnefer Goodwin's character was also funny and emotional to watch.

Marcia Gay Harden, as Julia's friend was great. She was a pretty funny character to watch, but at the same time, you just can't help but feel sorry for her.

Times have changed... from those times and now. Many might watch this movie and go, "Uhm, okay, what's the big deal?" But the problem is that women have gone through a great ordeal and struggle to get to where they are today in society. Even today, they still fight to gain respect in many areas in the world today.

I've heard many bad comments about this movie. And funnily enough, most of them come from guys... whilst the females found it a bit better. There were some negative comments but many said that they loved it, but felt that it wasn't a movie for everyone.

The movie tackling the issue of feminism only touches upon a small part of it all of course. One cannot tackle the whole aspect of feminism in any one single movie at all, and I found the focus to be good enough. There are many stereotypes here and I found them necessary to get the points across. If it were not for the stereotypes, people would be wondering what the point really was. But now that there are stereotypes, people will complain about them.

I thought that it was a bit too short. It could have focused a bit more on the other characters in the movie... i.e. the girls in school. A few more subplots and build ups may have been better. There was a little foreshadowing in the movie but one couldn't help but wonder where the movie was going. But what overcame this, from my point of view, was that you just felt that you wanted to get to know the characters in the movie more. The more you knew about each character, the more the characters knew about one another. I thought that was quite nice.

I would advise everyone with an open mind for dramas to go watch this movie. If guys see this movie as a "chick flick"... they really won't know what to expect cause this would be "the most THE chick flick for chicks" if you get my drift. I'm a guy and I found it entertaining... Whether it was insightful or not, I wouldn't say it was, due to experiences and stories throughout my life.

The movie isn't without flaws... There could have been even more character build up if only the director's were given more film to record the picture. But do watch this if you can :). It'll be worth the time, if you're patient enough :).

The Mexican (2001)

Fun fun fun, yet odd.

[7/10 · 5 April 2004]

I found the performances fine, as I did not know what to expect from the movie. I couldn't remember what the movie was about so I took it as I went along with the movie.

I already sensed from the beginning that it was a comedy, thus I did not take the movie seriously in any way. Sure there were some cliche spit splat jokes here and there, but overall, I thought it was carried through alright. There were times though, where it felt like I was watching some acting on a set, rather than the movie itself but the performances were good enough.

Julia Roberts is always does what she's good at. She's excellent at playing crazy. Some might be irritated with her character, as she complains about everything and goes back and forth etc. But I found it quite amusing and in some cases, emotional.

Brad Pitt did a good job in being a funny joke. You just wanted to slap him sometimes to wake him up, just because he didn't notice the most obvious. But he had a good enough character in the movie. And I liked his relationship with the dog, who acted great! :).

Mr. Soprano himself... he was great! I loved his character. He did a great job in the movie and he had good chemistry with Julia Roberts.

There were a few others with funny enough acting. Gene Hackman had a small role and did what he had to do :).

The story itself is pretty simple, but it all becomes understandable in the end. Whilst you watch the movie, you really start wondering what the point of the movie is... but The Mexican explains it all in the end. I won't put any spoilers here though.

It's worth a look, if you can start the movie with a very open mind and not expect ANYTHING what so ever.

Hulk (2003)

I found it pretty good... But of course, it is not without flaws. Nothing is perfect.:) Enjoyable. *SPOILERS AHEAD*

[8/10 · 14 March 2004]

I only just got around to watching the movie today. When it came out in the movies, I heard so many bad things about it... how fake it looked, how long winded and boring it was, how stupid it was, how it wasn't all that great etc... the list goes on... We can see it in the debates here as well. Then there were of course mixed critics about it but either way, I wanted to see it for myself to judge, as always but I never got around to it, due to lack of time :(.

So... I just watched the DVD and I was surprisingly rather amused by it. I must say that I didn't expect much from it and actually didn't even know what to expect anymore. But I quite liked it.

I've skimmed through some of the comments made in the threads here and also managed to grasp some of the msgs in between the flaming posts :-D hehe... and this is what I think:

"If The Hulk was announced in the beginning that it was going to be a trilogy... right from the start and that the story is going to be split into different parts... I think the critics might be a little different." It's kind fo hard to say now, now that most people's frame of mind are in the "this movie was so bad I walked out after 10 mins or fell asleep or whatever. But I personally just saw this movie as an introduction. Why? Well... :

As many in here mentioned... IT WAS A LOOOOONG movie. As others mentioned... "Where in the world was THE HULK??? Me wanna see mo' gweeeen guy" However, I thought that there was more character build up by not showing the HULK all the time. It didn't overdo the character build up either but shot scenes at the right time. I guess the reason why I felt this way, when watching it was cause I walked into the movie with a very neutral frame of mind. Most that I have come across had expected this movie to be something like Spiderman, X-Men, etc... the ones which really got a better audience than previous attempts like Spawn hehe.

But, what I found was that the beginning had a pretty cool introduction. It showed different parts and made one wonder what really happened. It kind of followed the mindset of the Hulk himself... Whatever he didn't know, we didn't know... The way he was emotionless most of the time, carried a fake smile every now and then... I thought that it fit with the character, esp. considering the internal turmoil that he's been going through, day in and out. It already hinted to us in the beginning how he was already as well, when Betty said to him that it wasn't his fault that it didn't work out etc... and that she just can't be with someone who's so emotionally distant... And this is what I liked in the movie too... There was consistency in that retrospect.

As the movie goes on, Nick Nolte's character... I felt a mix there... One second I'm feeling p***ed off at him, the next I'm starting to feel sorry for him and I get the feeling that maybe he did what he did because of the situation... the next second he seems like a hypocrite but at the same time, you wonder if it was because despite his determination, his goodwill etc... he was weak... and "easily" influenced by the surroundings... self-esteem problem. If he doesn't get what he wants... he gets lost and after some time... angry because he can't solve the problem himself...

This trait passes onto Banner as well. Like father, like son... Even Banner seems to have a self confidence problem. At times he tries to act tough e.g. the scene where he tells that irritating dork to get out of the office etc... But at the same time, he never punched him or did anything drastic... Everything seemed to be a face thing... all a cover up of what was really going on inside.

I felt the confusion and trauma that he was going through - as in, I felt rather sorry for Banner and all that he was going through. You could just feel his frustration of not knowing what was going on. Sure, this part could have been done better.. by adding a few scenes and taking some out... But, overall, the effect came across to me anyways. Also the part where he's talking to General Ross and he's getting grilled. That part was efficient in bringing out the confusion aspect of it all.

I could go on about the small details of build up etc. but I won't, as you're probably falling asleep, reading this already :D Hehe.

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In the case of the filming... I thought it was nice that it changed angles here and there... camera view etc. And as for the "24" effect... yeah, it was a bit overdone in some areas BUT... I thought that the parts where it all looked like a comic book was pretty cool. It was a very experimental thing but new... and quite neat. Someone made a comment about whether it was necessary to shoot the same damn helicopter in all five screens haha. I agree with that point :-D... although with the helicopter in five scenes, I got an even better visual and feel of the large empty surroundings.

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As for the CGI itself... I thought it was amusing as well. Sure, it doesn't look "REAL"... but heck, it's an extract from a comic book... I gotta be open minded when I watch such a movie. But I definitely agree with those in here who mentioned about the details and all. The muscles and tissue texture... the face even (rather Shrek like :-D hhe), the details of the sand and dirt and wounds, the hair etc... that was all done REALLY well. Sure, it "could've been better" but man, it was nice enough. I also noticed that the more dirty he got, thereby having some brown, dark brown and light brown colours on his green skin, actually enabled him to blend in better with the surroundings. When all green, he stands out a bit too much but still... not too bad. If they had used a yellowy green, I think that would have made it easier to "blend in" to everything else. But that's besides the point really...

As for the movements... he's supposed to be fast, swift, etc. And when you're that, you're going to have those cartoony movements... "1 sec the hand is here, the next it's there..." etc. It would have been awesome to hvae a cartoon with that CGI, that's for sure... but I still thought that it was amusing watching him smash the tanks up... That scene was cool enough. And being open minded about the fakeness etc... let that part get by with no problems :).

I didn't want to bring this in but the discussion about Lord of the Rings... I can see that a lot of the stuff is CGI as well. But it's still amazing. Gollum vs. Hulk - I don't even think there should be such a comparison... The whole scenary is different... the envronment etc...

When comparing it like that, maybe one could just use "Mighty Joe Young" for comparison... when they digitally made the big ape... That was cool too. But I think props were used as well. I can't remember but I remember something about the hairs all being computer generated.

But ether way, I find both doing quite well. Gollum had a more emotional and in depth script... thus more forms of facial expressions... I was amazed by it... that's for sure... Yet with all these CGI things coming out, sometimes one just begins to take the enhancements for granted... e.g. "Ah, about time!:D" Hehe. But really cool.

The Hulk... if he was asked to act more, then maybe it could've been done... The scene where Hulk turns back into Banner with the SWAT team all around him... the stage in between The Savege Hulk and Banner, I thought was good... If they had made the movie with that shot of him... like that... withthat skin tone etc... I think that people would be complaining less... However, as fo teh movements etc. who knows. Poeple will always complain in some way or another :-D. But that's what makes the new things better:).

But... imagine if they had used Hulk... dressed up Banner with vasts amoutn of makeup, special fx, and given him props to wear to make huge muscles... etc. and then dumped all the actions into a computer and added it to the scenes etc... maybe that would have looked more "realistic"... But heck... comic book.... comic character... comic style movie... Cartoony is all cool :). ---

What I had hoped for was a bit more time of self reflection by Banner... e.g. when he's in the desert etc... looking at the plants and wanting to rest for a while... thinking things through, when he suddenly gets interrupted again. I would have liked a scene where they'd show a bit of "acting" by the CGI. But I guess being interrupted during such a moment is what would p*** someone off... But I thought he made a cute and cool face when he heard that the plane couldn't turn up and he jumped right on it to bring it under the bridge hehe.

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Ahh I could go on but I won't... I'll basically make the rest short now...

As for the ending... yeah, it would've been cool to actually see the Hulk interact with "bad guys" for once... (okay he did that in his own house, throwing the IDIOT out of the house and into the agent car etc.) but a bit more action with other types of props. And since they were in the jungle, that could've made things interesting ;). However... it ended that way... and if it ended with another form of cliffhanger... slightly different from that... "because we are making a trilogy"... I think the movie would have gotten slightly better reviews and this part... being long and all would be seen as an introduction.

It's kind of like LOTR, Fellowship - there it was extremely long in the beginning... You just had to give it the chance... get into the story... allow yourself to let your guard down and wait patiently for things to happen... After 1.x hrs... things start to happen... And just as soon as it gets more interesting... ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR... the movie ends and you had to wait a WHOLE YEAR before watching the second part... and the continuation... Hehe.

Then watching the 2nd part... you end up watching trees for one quarter of the movie :p. Nah, I liked it too... But it got slow in the middle of the second one as well but had some really cool fight scenes... The orcs and stuff looked real cause ... they were simply makeup and a lot of them were probably "copied and pasted" over and over again but doing different things... The large monsters were clearly CGI but I still found them cool... Big powerful beings with swift and fast fatal swings... But either way, the 2nd Part.... Two Towers... was yet another build up for the third part.. AND that's where suddenly most of the action comes into play... You start seeing new things etc... Some parts were really quite "fake" but I simply looked at the scenes where one could see a glow behind the characters... as a magical thing...

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Psssh all this makes me sound "ignorant" I'm sure hehe... As in, very "not critical" towards movies... However, I often try to make the best of every movie I watch. Some of them are just hard lol. When I watched Daredevil the first time around... I was like, "What in the world is this? What did they doooooo??? There was so much potential and they screwed it up pretty bad :("... Then I skimmed through the movie again, this one other time and some of the scenes were so so. It really does depend on the mood when you start to watch a movie... that's for sure... A lot of it depends on expectations too.

I personally have watched a movie where I didn't really like it the first time around but the 2nd time around, I ended up liking it... cause it had a deeper effect on me. Sounds weird huh? But I guess that's what can happen when you watch movies depending on the mood + attitude.

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So, overall, I found The Hulk pretty cool. As a standalone movie, it could have definitely done a better job, with regards to the script. The last fighting scene was so so but at the same time... unsatisfying. I would have liked a bigger fight but still... whatever happened to the dad? Hehe. He passed away from the bomb shock, even after gaining power? Or was he too unstable?

Ah yeah, Nick Nolte, I thought he did alright... I haven't seen him play like that for a while. The part where he goes nuts and says one thing and then the next... the whole scenary felt as if they were on a stage... performing some play... but I got the feeling, at the same time, that he was a bit of a nutcase... not really knowing what he wanted. One second he wants one thing, the next second he wants something else and starts saying that he had always wanted that something else in the first place, when in reality, he's hurt from all the years of distress... He was filled with anger... and that's what made him go crazy... But I thought the father's character could be built up a tad bit more... showing a bit more of his craziness etc... but all this adding will simply make the movie THAT long :p. I wonder if there's a director's cut of this movie or something.

Either way, I enjoyed it... I dunno why but I did :-D. Hehe. The acting I found was alright... Got a comic feel to it :). Hehe. Jennifer Connelly played quite alright... She's good with those tears :D Haha. But unfortunately, I didn't feel the hurt enough... It almost got to me when the scene changed... or when they said something else etc...

To those that haven't seen it, I still recommend you to watch it and not be overly critical in the beginning. Don't expect much when watching it and you might be surprised... Someone might come and say, "Don't waste 2.5hrs of your life for this movie etc." but we waste so much time doing other things anyways:D Haha j/k.

Check it out... and those are my $0.02 for today :).