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Reviews
The Hitcher (2007)
Why Was This Even Made?
Considering that "The Hitcher" from 1986 was a very well-made film, remaking the movie would have been unnecessary. And although there are remakes which could potentially be good movies, this is definitely not one of them. Not by a long shot.
Now getting into the movie itself, I thought that this movie was boring and didn't contain a single scene which was remotely as emotional or as suspenseful as the original. C. Thomas Howell gave in a brilliant performance as the lead in the original, while Rutger Hauer played an excellent villain. In this movie, none of the actors did a good job with their roles. While Sean Bean is good in other movies, he was definitely a forgettable villain as The Hitcher in this movie. And as for the other two main leads; absolutely forgettable characters as well, whom you didn't care for because they were so horribly miscast and badly-written that you didn't connect with them on an emotional level at all. Horrible, horrible casting.
Another problem with this film, besides the casting, is the mere fact that it's almost a carbon-copy of the original (except for a couple of changes). Almost every scene from this movie seems to have been plucked out of the original, which defeats the whole purpose of suspense, not to mention that almost every scene which was copied is absolutely inferior to the original.
All in all, I have no idea what the director Dave Meyers was thinking when he decided to make this film. As others have said, you might as well just show 1986's "The Hitcher" in cinemas again and it won't make a difference. Why Sean Bean and Neal McDonough decided to even bother starring in this film is beyond me. My advice is to stay away from this film and just watch the original instead. 1/10. Absolutely dreadful.
Con Air (1997)
A Very Fun Action-Packed Movie!
If you enjoy movies with a lot of fast paced and intense action, some good acting, and a pretty good emotional vibe, then you will probably enjoy "Con Air".
Filled in with some top-notch actors (Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi), you believe John Malkovich as the bad guy in this role and I would say that Malkovich probably delivered one of the best performances of a villain in an action movie of all time. You could tell that he was having a blast with the role and Malkovich himself is usually never disappointing whenever he gets an opportunity to have time on screen in any movie he's in.
As for the plot, you don't really rely much on the plot in these sort of movies due to the action scenes that are provided in the film, although I do think that the movie handled itself well and had some pretty good emotional scenes, as well as some great action scenes as well.
7/10
Phone Booth (2002)
One Of My Favorite Movies
Seeing that the whole movie takes place in a phone booth, people probably wouldn't think that this is any good of a movie, and would probably think it will be a boring movie. But trust when I say that this movie was just great! The film stars Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes, and Radha Mitchell, and is about a man who is held hostage in a phone booth by a sniper. Without spoiling anything, I will say that this is definitely a comeback for Joel Schumacher, after making Batman & Robin. It is a well-directed, well-acted, fast paced, solid flick which I wasn't bored with for a second. I thought that Colin Farrell was great as the lead actor in the movie, and I'm sure that whoever is interested in solid thrillers will most likely like this flick. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of the genre! 10/10
Zombieland (2009)
A Very Fun Zombie Flick!
I had watched "Zombieland" a couple years ago on DVD, and seeing that I didn't really remember much of the movie (besides the fact that I liked it), I decided to re-watch it a few days ago.
"Zombieland" stars Woody Harrelson ("Natural Born Killers", "No Country for Old Men"), Jesse Eisenberg ("The Squid and the Whale", "The Social Network"), Emma Stone ("Crazy, Stupid, Love", "The Amazing Spider-Man), and Abigail Breslin ("No Reservations", "Rango").
The movie is about a group of survivors who are trying to find a place to go to (which isn't zombie-infested) during a zombie apocalypse, with "Columbus" (Jesse Eisenberg) pairing up with "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson), who meet a pair of sisters, Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, respectively), who are on their way to an amusement park.
I thought that almost everything of this movie was pretty good. The visuals looked pretty good (I liked "The Rules for Survival"), I thought that the plot was alright, the cast was splendid (Woody Harrelson, in particular), the action with the zombie killing was very fun to watch (I liked the ending action scene in the amusement park when a whole bunch of zombies came along), oh, and I also liked Bill Murray's cameo appearance in the movie as himself, as I thought that that was pretty good and funny.
Overall, this is an action-comedy-zombie movie which is definitely worth watching if you're looking for a movie with 1) zombies, 2) action, and 3) comedy!
8/10
The Negotiator (1998)
I'm Sure That Everyone Got What They Were Looking For!
Going into this movie, you shouldn't really have such high expectations. You should look at it for what it is: a good, solid action thriller. Even though you probably wouldn't have very, very high expectations going into this movie, I think you would have gotten much more than what you were looking for! I think that the best aspect of the movie would probably be the performances given by Samuel Jackon ("Pulp Fiction", "Die Hard with a Vengeance"), and Kevin Spacey ("Seven", "The Usual Suspects"), as well as a solid performance by David Morse (who, in the following year, gave another solid performance in "The Green Mile"). I thought that they were all great.
The reason I say that you might have gotten much more than what you were looking for is because of the movie's unpredictable scenarios and how well they were handled. During the course of the movie, I didn't really expect that Frost (played by Ron Rifkin) was going to be behind it all.
Overall, this should definitely please fans of the genre and anyone who is a fan of Samuel Jackson and Kevin Spacey should definitely check this movie out, as it is going to keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time!
8/10
127 Hours (2010)
The ultimate will to survive!
Having just finished watching 127 Hours, I am pretty pleased with the movie. Directed, co-written and produced by Danny Boyle, and starring James Franco as real-life cayoneer Aron Ralston, I thought that Danny Boyle didn't do a bad job with this film. The only other Boyle film which I have seen (besides 127 Hours) is 28 Days Later, which will definitely come off as a shock, seeing that I have still not seen Trainspotting or Slumdog Millionaire. Nonetheless, moving on with the movie...
Plot-wise...it's kind of hard to actually call this a plot. I mean, the movie is basically about this guy who gets stuck a bit underground by a huge rock while canyoning. Being based off a true story, you would wonder how accurate this movie is to the source material, and from all the research I've done, this movie is actually pretty accurate! Aron Ralston himself has stated that this movie is almost completely accurate (besides the part when he's showing the two girls the hidden pool). And this is always a good thing when you are doing movies based on true stories.
Getting into what I liked and didn't like about the movie, I thought that almost everything was great. One of the main issues of the film is that there just isn't much dialog being said, and this is due to the main character being trapped by himself with no one to share dialog with, and getting into what I didn't like about the film, I didn't like the way they kept on swapping from present to all the flashbacks with Ralston and his family and all of that that they did in the film to actually provide us with something. Now I know that this is based on a true story and this is actually what happened (the main character being trapped by himself), but this also makes you question whether this should just have been a documentary instead of an actual film.
Overall, the film didn't really bug me that much besides the time when they kept on switching back and forth with the time line and showing all those flashbacks, but besides that, mostly everything was good. James Franco's performance in this movie was awesome (he deserved the Oscar nomination), truly showing us how Aron Ralston was a man of true courage and had endless passion to get out of the situation he was in. Cinematography was good, sound editing was good, directing was good, acting was good, and this is a film which I would highly recommend to people who are interested in a good movie based on a true story, and a good movie in general! 7/10
Red Dawn (2012)
Horrible movie
Having not seen the original Red Dawn (with Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell), I could still tell that that movie definitely did not need a remake! Starting off with the plot; I find it hard to believe that the US would be able to suffer an Invasion by North Korea. It just isn't believable. Yes, movies like Spider-Man and Superman and any other superhero movie are also not believable as actually happening for real (you have to admit). But with this sort of film, you would expect it to at least be believable. Unfortunately, it is not.....and the plot isn't the only thing wrong with this movie. The Cast. The cast proved to be one of the dilemmas that this film had faced and it cannot go unnoticed. Chris Hemsworth is a good actor (I liked him as Thor and also liked him in Cabin in the Woods) but he was just boring in this film. No depth at all (just like all the other characters). Josh Peck....was not really familiar with him before this movie, but I really didn't care about his character in this movie. Without moving forward with the rest of the cast, I will just say that none of them were good. Maybe some weren't that bad....but at the same time, also not that good. None of the characters had any depth to them and made it hard for us to sympathize with them and get emotionally engaged with their characters. The only reason I'm going to give this movie two stars and not one, is because some, and only some, of the action scenes were probably a bit decent. The fight scene between the North Korean leader and Chris Hemsworth was not good at all though, and was so cringe-worthy with all the shaky cam going on. Overall, this was a movie which should have never been made (I should check out the original some time down the road). 2/10
Snakes on a Plane (2006)
An alright movie.....
Seeing that I hadn't seen Snakes on a Plane for quite sometime, I decided to re-watch it yesterday. Right off the back, I must say that "Snakes on a Plane" is a pretty convincing title to a movie, and I think that a lot of hype for this movie came due to its title. But anyway, let's get started with the movie! Samuel L. Jackson and David Koechner are the only actors I knew who starred in this film, and yes, this is the movie where Samuel delivers that one line which gained a huge cult following. The first time I saw this movie (years ago) I actually remember liking it a lot. Having re- watched it yesterday, I actually liked it less. Personally, I just thought that much intensity just really wasn't involved in it. I mean, snakes on a plane, yeah, that is a really interesting concept which could make for a fun movie, but sadly, it comes off as....okay. The main characters didn't really have much depth driven into them (Samuel's performance was okay, but I prefer him more in Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained). The guy who plays Sean (guy who Samuel's character has to look after) didn't even do much on the plane. I mean, if you are willing to sit back and turn your brain off while watching this movie you might enjoy it more, but....I'd say I'm okay with the movie, simply because Samuel L. Jackson's in the movie, and because the visuals in the film actually look alright. 5/10
Pulp Fiction (1994)
A movie that will stick with you for a very long time!
Pulp Fiction is a movie which not only grabs the viewers attention throughout the course of the movie, but also makes you beg for more after it is done. Quentin Tarantino definitely knew what he was doing while making this movie. Some people may complain of the way that this movie is presented but with all honesty, it is fairly simple and isn't something like...let's say Inception (which is probably not even relevant to this genre but you know what I'm saying). The best thing about this movie would definitely either be its electric dialog, nonlinear storytelling (which i actually found very interesting in this movie) or its acting. Speaking of the acting, I thought that everyone was excellent, from John Travolta to Tim Roth to Ving Rhames to Harvey Keitel, and even Christopher Walken's single scene in this movie left a lasting impression. Overall, a very good movie with an incredible sense of humor, witty dialog, superb acting, great directing, and is a fun movie for anyone who is looking for a very well-made movie. 10/10