the_shadow_guard

Pretty-looking movie EXTREMELY loosely based on someone's inaccurate conception of what Transylvania is like. This is one of those movies tailored to look good at the expense of the amount of realism that would be appropriate. But remember, Hungarians don't really sound like that, Dracula did not really live in the years given, and (believe it or not) Halloween is not and never was celebrated in Hungary, no matter how obligatory the holiday may seem in a "scary" movie. If you think Kate Beckinsale is hot, then by all means see it, but don't look if you don't want to feel embarrassed by her poor acting or accent (and, after being surrounded by real Hungarians in Underworld, she had no excuse). Enjoy.

You don't have to be an Iliad purist to feel that this could have been a much, much better adaptation, though one might think so. This movie doesn't simply deviate from the original in huge ways; it is a modern movie, a modern culture, with swords, bows and arrows, the institution of slavery, and weird hairstyles thrown in to make it look like it takes place in ancient times. It takes itself too seriously, and so do people. The Iliad is a difficult read, and people would rather watch this movie. Of course, many classicists can take solace in the idea that they can test their students in some pretty cool ways to see who actually read it. "Who kills Agamemnon?"

Watch this movie if you want to see some nice eye candy, but don't take it seriously at all. Not even Priam was close enough to his original character. "Sword of Troy" given to the wussiest son of all, my ass.

Upon the first viewing, I found this tale to be at least less annoying than other Cannon Movie Tales. After many more, I think it's one of the best. Some of the songs are pretty bad, especially the love song, but two things stand out that make the movie, even the singing, worthwhile. One is the art direction. Like the other Cannon Movie Tales, this is a beautifully decorated period piece; every piece of cloth and jewel (both of which have major parts in this movie's plot) look fresh and new, and contrast with the plain clothes of the peasants. Even during the love song I find myself studying the dress and hair of the princess, wonderfully done. The other thing is the comic timing. A lot of the movie is cheesy, but the emperor's vanity (and his making fun of himself in the end), the suspicious guard, the guard chasing Nicholas, and the stupid prince, were all quite funny and seem to be ridiculous quite on purpose. And the sequence during the song Weave-O makes up for the songs that weren't so good.

I don't know if there's and English (or other) translation available, but if you can find it or understand Hungarian, this is one of their better films. The cast (like Egri Csillagok) consists of many actors famous in Hungary; the story is classic. A young man seeks revenge for his father's death by the sword of a Turk, and gets even more: that Turk's very expensive property, much of it gold, as well as his daughter, and finds that he needs to defend both against a group of bandits. Like Egri Csillagok, this is a good movie about what's really important in life and does not have a one-dimensional view of Turks like many other Hungarian movies do.

A girl from an important family wants freedom, so she goes out while in Europe, runs around, loses virginity. Seen that story many times. Watch Roman Holiday instead; it's somewhat similar in a few ways (such as being in Europe, coming from a "royal" family), but pulls it off much better.

Not all teen's lives are full of gross-out occurrences, incredibly beautiful women who are obviously too old to be in high school, or losing virginity, but on seeing the most popular teen flicks that are released into theaters, you wouldn't know it.

This movie, unfortunately, is made for TV and not nearly as accessible as other teen movies, yet it has the best combination of both realism and fiction. On the side of realism, the girls in this movie are not supermodels, but cute, interested in school and activities, flirt with boys, and are actual teenagers. One is an upper-middle class teen living with her parents and siblings in a large house. The other is a lower-middle class girl living with her mother and Italian, maternal grandfather (the wonderful as always Sid Caesar) by the deli where they work. Both girls feel a mixture of being happy in their own type of living, but feeling jealous and curious of how the other lives. After pulling too many pranks on each other, their punishment--and I think this is where fiction sets in--is to live in each other's houses, obey each other's parents, and see what life is like on the other side.

Maybe this doesn't happen in real life, but I'd really have loved to be the poor girl moving into the beautiful big house where I find out that the girl I'm taking the place of has a hunky brother who is actually mature enough to show his attraction for me without constantly trying to get me into bed.

Funnily enough, I also envied the rich girl, simply because I would sure love to spend some time around Sid Caesar.

All movies have some amount of fantasy, but this is as close to everyday life adventure as you might get. Wish I was a teenager again.

As someone who has read the books and spoken with people who saw the movie before I did, I can still assure you that the movie was extremely suspenseful and emotional all the same. Very engaging.

My main problems were that there was a perfectly fine opening where they could have shown at least a few seconds of Saruman pacing around, or have had Grima thrown the palantir out of the tower in anger, just to explain why the heck the ball just happened to be sitting in the water, rather than upstairs in the tower where we last saw it.

The movie actually explained the ghost characters to me where I had been very confused about them in the book. Simple and straightforward.

This movie was more or less like the book, but was not all that "pure"--the book had a much longer, detailed resolution. The resolution phase of this movie worked well; it was quite a tearjerker. Which brings me to the problem of having heard some people comment on the sexuality of some of the characters. Those made no sense to me; the characters had obviously become much closer friends after the adventure, and if anything, their interaction was very toned down in comparison with the book. There was nothing "gay" about it. Obviously, this movie does not take place in early 21st century America, nor is our culture also that of Middle Earth. Don't forget that when watching.

Good job changing the book into a movie; beautiful visuals that did not detract from the actors or their performances. 9.5 out of 10... that'll round up to a 10 here.

This movie did not try as hard to be good; it went more for some suspense, visuals, and more dinosaurs. It didn't pretend that certain people, such as Tea Leoni's character, were supposed to be geniuses even though they weren't. And it worked. It ended up being better than Jurassic Park 2 in terms of the story and the characters. Not that huge of a plot, mind you, but it gave some things to think about without parading its great ideas too much (for example, the idea of the boy having found surviving on the island somewhat easier than surviving his family problems). If you want to see some suspense, Tea Leoni flipping out, and a flying dinosaur walking on its wings, this is it.

*Spoilers* The visual effects and the idea behind the movie were as good, if not better, as the original Jurassic Park.

The actual characters and the plot, however, weren't. Here's something that stood out: a baby T-Rex is injured, and so Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore's character) decides that taking it over to the trailer to fix its leg is the best thing to do. Vince Vaughn's character doesn't really seem to mind; he just helps her. Earlier in the film, Sarah said she was sure she can prove that father T-Rexes, as well as the mothers, care for and protect their young. Therefore, why does she not stay as far away from the baby T-Rex as possible? Even if she is suicidal, which she isn't, does she not remember that not only is her new assistant, her boyfriend Malcolm, and his daughter on the island, but so are other people. She's putting everyone around her in danger just so she can nurse the animal. Sorry... human lives really aren't worth one T-Rex.

The result? Sarah, her boyfriend, and her assistant all nearly die when the adult T-Rexes push their trailer over a cliff. Instead, the man who keeps persisting in trying to pull the trailer back with a rope attached to his car, even when T-Rexes come and surround him, is then ripped apart. Way to go. Yet the only time this is discussed in the movie is when Malcolm asks

the "real" villain not to refer to the T-Rexes as "feeding," as this would dehumanize the man's sacrifice of his life. But did Malcolm bother to yell at his girlfriend for being, well, a little less caring about other people? The movie took itself and its attempts at morals a little too seriously.

This may be too sci-fi for some, but if you both like that kind of stuff and are looking for some skin also, well, this works. The girls look lovely for the most part, except that Taimie Hannum has an odd mouth that makes her look like she's snarling, and Amber Newman's make-up simply makes her eyes look weird, alien I suppose. Brandy Davis is perfectly cute, though. Environment is important to me, and outer space is exotic enough (as is California). Lastly something needs to be said about the guys. As a straight woman, I'm quite happy with the casting of Juan Carlos as the captain. Indeed, a guy who can control himself and hold out until the end for the best woman, and still be the hottest guy in the movie, certainly blows my mind; and his acting is good considering the type of movie this is. Better than average softcore movie overall.