LBWood

I'm glad I only rented this through Redbox; that way, I only wasted a dollar. The only time I've found Seth Rogen even remotely funny was his voice work in Kung-Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens. Other than that, I don't think Rogen should be allowed to make movies. Ever.

There are some good things, such as the Black Beauty and using the flip- over platform for it. Also, Christoph Waltz as the villain was a good choice. I like that they got in the original logo and the music at the end. And the fight scenes with Jay Chou as Kato were fun to watch. But the climactic battle was way over the top and Rogen playing Brit Reid as a doofus was a mistake. I understand that maybe they wanted to do something different but it just didn't work for me. Rogen's not smart enough to know how to do it right. My sympathies to anyone who paid full price to see this in the theaters.

We saw this in 2D, on a digital projection system. While the movie is an hour and 36 minutes, it felt longer to me. I guess it's because there was nothing new about this, it was all pretty predictable. I even dozed off for a few minutes part way through.

Now, on the positive side, the movie's colors are rich and vibrant. The animation quality is simply amazing; some of the wide scenic shots looked almost real. The music is a lot of fun and there are some good laughs, especially in the latter half of the film. My 10-year old son was glued to the screen; even asked us when it was over which was our favorite scene(s). Overall, it's a good film. I'd say take the kids and go have some fun.

I was a big Chuck Norris fan in the 80's and saw all of his movies almost as soon as they were released. As Norris' films go, this is one of his better ones; particularly when compared to such fare as "Lone Wolf McQuade". The movie actually got some decent critic's reviews at the time, saying that this one put Norris on par with Eastwood and Bronson in the action genre. There was not a big emphasis on the martial arts this time and the pool room fight is a little more realistic than most others since then. A couple of the sub-plots, like Farina always coming up with a new business for the two of them, were nice ideas but weak. And the ending always felt like it was kind of "Well, we don't know what else to do here so just have a lot of explosions and gun fire and call it done". On the whole, it's not bad popcorn fare and if you are looking for a decent Norris movie, this is the one.