action « Jim Smetchland Reviews

Stupid 8

7 09 2011

I was excited to see this movie and then entirely disappointed. Big budget movies; the preview is a better film. The preview had suspense, intrigue, mystery- the movie has very little of these. I won’t give anything away, but i will tell you what this flick isn’t. Its not a thought provoking intelligent sci-fi centered around a super 8 video recording. There just happens to be a super 8 camera present in the film, but its clearly tacked in for the purposes of title. All an attempt to prop up a very tired, very very familiar plot. Audio and video effects are stunning though, so down a few whacko caps and pretend this one’s worth watching once.

Jim Smetchland’s Rating: C+

Super 8 (2011) – 2.5/5 (allenwatcheseverything.wordpress.com)
Super 8: Super stupid (powerlineblog.com)

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Tags: action, Arts, fiction, film, Filmmaking, hollywood, movie, movies, science fiction, steven spielberg, super, super 8, video
Categories : 10's, action, Rating C, sci-fi

The Extendables

23 11 2010

Its like a highschool yearbook for action stars; the camera didn’t capture anything interesting, but everyone managed to sit still and smile long enough to get some shots for the final print. Willis and Schwarzeneggar would only agree to appear with each other and Stallone. No Stratham scenes- they’re above that type of thing. I watched this crap maybe 2 weeks ago, i can’t tell you what it was about, I think there was a helicopter and a jungle drug lord or something. I do, however, clearly remember the posters with the eight-ish big stars standing in a row. That was the only image that mattered anyway wasn’t it? Sell us the movie first and foremost; its why the previews leave you feeling more entertained than the movie. I could get a year’s worth of Hollywood garbage over within a short night of nothing but “trailers” and confidently discuss anything that went on that year.

Rating D

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Tags: action, action star, action stars, actors, big budget, comedy, comical, critic review, expendables, expendibles, film review, films, funny, hollywood stars, movie reviews, super action, the expendables
Categories : 10's, action, Rating D

Green Zone

19 04 2010

Matt Affleck tromps around Baghdad as an army Sargent just following the invasion of Iraq (Bush II). Before each scene they karate chopped his neck to gruff up his voice disguising his pansiness somewhat. . . . New war movies suck, they’re like video games. Designed to get young people to sign up for the action, super action. Kids, you can’t be an individual in the army, there is no rogue soldier who can make a difference and discover the truth. This flick was about the missing WMD’s. There was a solid 1-2 mins of actual criticism of the American Iraq ‘mission’, if you made it that far. Oh but Greg Kinnear was in this, I was a fan of him long before you knew who he was.

It was the greatest moment in TV history as far as I’m concerned- and I watched it live! It happened on ‘Later With Bob Costas’- a late night interview show airing after either Leno or Letterman. Costas announces that his guest tonight will be Greg Kinnear, then lists his accomplishments to date including a couple episodes of Life Goes On. . . .Kinnear emerges and is interviewed by Costas for a few minutes. Frustrated by his crappy guest, Costas rises from his desk and says “that’s it I’m done, I swore I would only do this show so long as it remained interesting”. Storming out, Greg Kinnear looks at the camera and moves into the interviewer’s chair. This was the unannounced launch of the brand new show: ‘Later With Greg Kinnear’. The show never did loose that thrown together feel. . . .Wait, what did this all have to do with Green Zone again?

Rating: C+

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Categories : 10's

Star Trek 2009

7 12 2009

I was a bit skeptical going into this one.. ,wait. I’ll lay down my level of Trekness before i continue. Love the old trek, next generation and the movies- everything else trek is total crap. I’m not a superfan who can tell you who did what when and how many times such and such happened, but i could name all the regular characters from both crews. My nerd rating is maybe a C+ on trek. . . ..So Leonard Nemoy was in this one, which is cool for all the old time fans- I love when he shows up on The Simpsons. Shaun of the Dead guy Simon Pegg was young Mr. Scott. Which was a great selection- since the original Scotty was a riot. They chose all new young cast members to play Kirk and the gang. The story was set earlier in their history when the original crew all meets. The acting was good, right down to mannerisms, but i don’t know if they all really looked the part. These people were all just too pretty. Compared to other Trek movies, this one was an action super/action, good story line as well- with plenty of stuff to impress those of us familiar with the characters. One of them kisses Uhura! But it was no Wrath of Khan . . . . I did fall asleep and missed the means by which they solved the crisis, but I’m sure it was a string of techno mumbo jumbo as is the usual solution.

Rating B+

No Shatner in this one! Maybe they wouldn’t let him rap.

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Tags: action, action movies, film, films, movies, sci-fi, space, space ship
Categories : 00's, action, Rating: B, sci-fi

Jurassic Park

5 12 2009

Janis Wetmore: Contributor

Best movie ever. Really, ever.

I’ve never seen another movie where a lawyer gets eaten on the toilet – blew my mind. Not to overlook timely issues, JP offers lessons about genetic engineering, habitat encroachment and obesity. Samuel L plays a convincing computer-savvy chain smoker with Newman from Seinfield as a back-handed coworker. The always entertaining Jeff Goldblum plays a preachy and flirtatious geek…weird.

The only thing that could have possibly made Jurassic Park an even better movie, would have been if the kids got eaten by the tyrannosaurus in the last scene.

Rating: I stole the whole box set (A+)