jwfritz

Renfield didn't have a lot of comedy and even less horror. This movie's idea of horror was more gratuitous violence. The gratuitous violence wasn't as great as in other movies like Kingsmen 2. It shared this jellyfish easy death concept with Dusk 'til Dawn. The only major differences between them: were Dusk 'til Dawn made vampires as fragile as jellyfish instead of humans like Renfield; and the jellyfish deaths weren't as fragile or often as they were in Dusk'til Dawn. Renfield himself is cast quite erroneously as a sympathetic protagonist but his doubts and emotions are quite questionable given how long he's been like he is and how many crimes he was involved with. The movie wants us viewers to believe his criminal history somehow vanished because he helped a few people for perhaps the first time in his life.

It's almost a forceful preachy proclamation that he's suddenly a good guy despite his horrific past. In the other hand he's certainly the coolest rendition of the Renfield character. There's quite a bit of great action and fight scenes. Despite the unrealism of many of the fights, they are still entertaining and fun to watch.

This story would be a bit more believable at least from a moral dilemma standpoint if it took place much earlier in time like several decades earlier. The premise of how he functions aka gets his unique gifts of you will was a fairly original spin/expansion of what has already been depicted about him. This makes the creativity of that aspect at least, quite potent. Several scenes are a bit over the top and frankly the last scenes are relatively questionable. Some questions/questionable elements appear which I discuss below with spoiler warning.

****SPOILER ALERT **** For example, if he had a fraction of that dark power, does it weaken the giver equally? Can he boost higher than the giver with his 'fuel source? (It sort of implies something like that is possible). Aren't vampires supposed to only have one guardian type of subordinate? And wouldn't it have made more sense to vampirize the others instead of the guardianship thing? The circumstances, especially near the end are more than just puzzling and dare I say, strays quite far from the vampire lore Dracula canon.

****SPOILER ALERT CLOSE ****

Overall this is a fairly fun to watch action romp but simultaneously filled with contradictions and lore lapses and such as mentioned above. So don't expect a life changing experience either.

Among the most interesting aspects are the childhood backgrounds of two key players: Leonides and Xerxes. They could almost have been rivals or best friends if they grew up together. It's an epic irony of fate that both had very harsh, challenging, and dangerous upbringings. Xerxes in a sense sounds like a Spartan or that he might have been equally at home in either nation and Leonides likewise could have been equally at home as a Persian noble given the almost eerie way both were taught and raised. The next comparison is the immortals versus the Homoioi Spartoi. The immortals were silent ghost like entities who would instill fear in enemies by the dehumanized armor and attire that's designed to cover up the face and all signs of individuality to make them more imposing and easier to create the myth of their immortal nature. The homoioi were loud, hairy, heavily armored and their faces were only covered during battles when they put their helmets on. Homoioi taunted enemies while the ghost walking Persian elites marched as if moving silently on water. Both outfit depictions are pretty cool in their own right.

The show mentioned lightly armored Persian grunts which is true and technically most of the Greeks were likely also lightly armored and armed skirmishers and missile troops. I can only loosely confirm about 1700 were equipped as the heavily armed hoplites so the rest may well have been light troops. The Homoioi were the most elite among the most elite warriors of the day, the Spartans so even comparing to the very elite immortals might still not be relatively equal. Partly I say this because immortals were immediately replaced upon death and ALWAYS had 10,000 members but they were likely replaced by standouts from the regular troops. They wouldn't or at least they all wouldn't have had the intense training of standard Spartans nor the dedication and time spent focusing on combat and war. Plus as good as their armor was, it was still fairly light compared to lamellar or cuirasses.

This doesn't take away their own unique distinctness and cool factors though either. It's mostly because tge cultures and mindsets are different. Even non military focused Greeks spent a great deal of time on combat with other city states or on athletic competitions. Their environment was smaller with more variety of terrain where Persian were mostly adapted to speed, support of their cavalry, and light armor because vast stretches of the empire were open flat and hot or humid terrain. This is at least hinted at in the documentary but more detailed information is easily accessible. Themistocles is cast almost looking like a myrmidon, who were sometimes depicted were cool black armor too.

The 'second' Thermopylae battle at sea is an interesting little known add on fact. Some seemed to think it was imbalanced bias against Persians, but I don't see it. In point of fact, if anything the Spartans and Greeks are cast in a harsher light with mentioning of constant internal city state warfare; harsh nearly inhuman training of Spartan children; and euthanasia of imperfect babies.

Hogan's Heroes has one of the best most able casts ever on a tv show. Bob Crane's seemingly effortless dry wit and ne'er perfect dialogue timing works well with Klemperer & Banner's pitch perfect responses. Banner may not be quite as all around talented as Benny Hill, but few can match how perfectly both can time their interactions when playing off other actors. I'd almost think the entire cast did vaudeville like comedy acts together for years before getting hired into this show. Klemperer has Herb Tarlec level weaseling down to an art or perhaps Phil Hartman level brownosing character acting like he did in News Radio. He in fact got nominated for his acting skills for awards. Ivan Stone's stoic face that curls into knowing smiles at the most opportune moments adds to his seamless blending with the merry men like mates of barracks two. He's also the anchor that steadies the other cast members off wall behavior since he keeps a cool head even better and more consistently than Hogan, though not by much but helps balance things all the more as some questionable jokes and gags become far more potent just by his amused well timed smiles.

While Clary may not even be French, he plays the role well and never seems to leave it during an episode unless called for by one of their schemes. Dawson mostly does the same for a Brit but seems to lose the convincing act or accent more than Clary. Though his funny under breath remarks and reactions when doing pseudo clumsy comic duo routines with Carter counter balances Ivan's more stoic and rare smirks. Carter is played as an absent minded genius in the same light as Fred MacMurray's Absent Minded Professor. It's easy to get totally engrossed in their characters and believe they are real.

While many of their comic schemes are outrageous, they are also nearly believable enough to make you wonder. The general and gestopo officer often play a sort of straight man to the Hogan crew antics and like wise are skilled enough professionals they can shift roles, accents, or even voices as needed. As a cast, their teamwork is among the most well timed and amazing in comedy. Many of the best jokes are simply the result of professional level perfect performances. It's almost like a dream team cast or even a karmic miracle such able actors came together.

On the downside, you can't miss more than a few goofs that only makes sense after the war was over. So their set workers or prop masters may have been lacking. Such examples include: a map with West Germany (which didn't exist until a few years after the allies relaxed occupation forces and restrictions); some hairstyles don't exactly look period to WWII; an episode with a tiger is clearly not a tank at all let alone a tiger being both without a rotating turret and too small.; and so on. Though these mistakes are fairly few and far between and may not be noticeable to just anyone, they do stand out to anyone familiar with those time periods historically or for those who pay close enough attention.

This is one of the best tv shows ever and is easily watchable in marathons even repeatedly. The teamwork and missions actually mirror Mission Impossible in some ways but with a Carol Burnett show cast. Some later shows and even anime have similar dynamics or characteristics so they might not be all that unfamiliar to some.

While Adam may have questionable car expertise, he is funny, fun, & entertaining, but I wish it didn't feel like he was destined to lose or crash and destroy his ride in every episode. It loses the mystery of what shows should have. Though technically it doesn't happen quite every time, it's enough that it's almost miraculous when it doesn't. Rut certainly sounds a bit like a car tech who's other job is working for a NASCAR raceway, but it's also too dull that he usually either comes in second or wins the most after the pro racer, Tanner. Tanner is like a kid in a candy store in every episode and it shows. The dynamic between the hosts almost reflects high school friends who have known each other for years.

The drawbacks are mainly lack of consistency or variety. The show wavered one way or another but failed to stick to either. If it had, it'd have been much better. There's no sense to the so called competitions or races because they all either tend to take turns cheating or they have lousy unfair unbalanced competitive starting picks. One thing I saw on the Brit version at least once was, they changed drivers which balanced their races in a sense. I can think of a few ways how the show could and should have improved: first one of my biggest & best suggestions would be specializations. 1. When I first watched, I thought each host did have specialized types of races or vehicles they had advantages in, so if something like existed and was emphasized, it would have made the competition more exciting and less predictable. ; 2. Make them all skilled enough they won't pointlessly wreck every other episode, it might have been fun the first few times but it gets old and repetitive fast. ; 3. Pranks might be ok but cheating in every episode by at least one cast member makes the whole point of competition pointless.; 4. Pick one, consistency or random style. The series bounced around too much from having guest racers in tiny cars to stig test driving models to not having either but having random events or structures in some episodes. For a technical type show about cars, I'd expect some set pattern. While I might not expect even a consistent show to always be the same , it would at provide s consistent structure and viewer expectations. 5. Humor and jabs are ok but don't need to be based so heavily on ways that are NOT depending on competition or focusing on cars.

The big thing is, though the movie suggests it's supposed to be about zombies, it isn't. If I had to guess the titular enemies are more like vengeful wraiths. Even with the in movie explanation, zombie doesn't quite fit. I pondered many possibilities about who or what the nature of the antagonists were but zombie never quite fit. Any of the other half dozen or so thoughts I had would be far more suitable. While the story flowed well, the ending felt a bit lacking. The motivating factor for the antagonists fell a bit flat and didn't quite match what was revealed in the movie. The camera work was better than average and set a gloomy turbulent mood quite well. A couple spots had some plot holes like the room above the objective.

The strongest draw to the show is probably the characters save maybe two who I so far dislike. Sure she looks like a firefly wonder girl rip off from Firefly as is much of the show, but I see too much of her old self in her new self to truly enjoy her character or believe she has grown. Some of her bad decisions she gives pretty lame, clichéd, and even stupid sounding reasons for doing. Some of the worst choices she makes has to do with relationships it just makes her look too cheap and political in contrast to how she behaves otherwise most of the time. One starts off looking a bit like a red shirt from Star Trek, but he grows on you in his own right and he has unique qualities no other crewman has which gives the show much needed diversity and balance. Three is a colorful character to say the least and perhaps the most colorful and dynamic of any. Android often acts more human than any of the crew and her development is one of the most satisfying and strongest of any of the other characters where you literally see her character grow visually. Five has the same rattled hairstyle throughout that looks like she just woke up from a killer hangover. Her character has more depth and detail than most any other but that also kind of throws the characters a bit off balanced when compared to her. She seems to be unnaturally skilled in nearly everything but combat. Two when she isn't being a pill personality wise dominates the scene too often like wolverine in a any X-Men movie does. And too much tends to rely on her and her skill sets. It dumbs down the opportunities for the other characters to contribute. Four is probably the coolest character overall given his wild history which you eventually discover. His story might be somewhat clichéd but it is told in such a significantly special way it doesn't matter much. Six is portrayed by perhaps the best and most well known actor in the series with great skill and is the most versatile when it comes to drama and pure acting skills shown in his character. Some of the story arcs get a bit dull and repetitive especially by season two as if they were running dry on keeping things fresh and interesting. There are a lot of plot arcs going on at almost the same time mostly dealing with each of the character's past like some Agatha Christie story.

The drama is deeper and darker than Firefly the show it mostly resembles but the characters are more diverse partly because there are more of them and partly cause the series intertwine their pasts so well into the plot and story arcs. While it has a fresh upbeat light hearted edge crop up to lighten the mood, it is not as natural or as well done as in Firefly.

It is still a good story but unless these lost opportunities and character plot lines are carried over properly into future seasons, you might feel left wanting and even frustrated at how things get jumbled up in Season Two or left hanging and carried over from Season One.

*** SPOILER ALERT BEGIN *** When his character is excluded so heavily from season two, the series loses a lot of it's sense of diversity and balance that sadly the newly added characters just do not provide as well as one did. How he is missing from the season is also pretty poorly done. We have at least two solid foreshadowings that it won't happen then the series lets us down by making it happen anyway. It wastes a huge plot redevelopment story arc relating the one's arch nemesis and his back story which is left hanging by his unwanted absence. His double's fate is no better. For a guy they build up so much as one of the top wanted criminals in the galaxy and being every bit if not far worse than any of the crewmen, his fate is a pretty bland let down. He did not even try anything expected of his character after all that build up either. For missed opportunities and major let downs of character expectations from the characters development I have to drop my score a couple points. Season two so far is far less satisfactory than season one. It is also a bit more tedious and repetitive going back again and again on tired old plot devices already used nearly to death in season one but not as well. Five develops combat skills later in the series so now she seems a bit too perfect with too few vulnerabilities despite two being the special one but they up the anti and get a bit overloaded by adding not one but two more special ability characters. *** SPOILER ALERT END ***

When I searched for new anime to watch, the lead character of this show popped up many times as not only a great hidden power character but one that was just cool. And he is. His confidence or lack of emotional display rather, may give the impression he is overpowered but he is not though it is implied he could potentially reach that plateau, but so could dozens of others with the same kind of great powers he has. This anime shines mainly because it is anything but an atypical nor overly clichéd anime yet it brilliantly skirts the surface of many anime icons and popular genres without falling into those tired clichés that so often fill each of those genres. It does some of them in a rather skillful reverse gimmick like the harem theme. He is so socially awkward and unskilled such a thing does not even cross his mind but he is so smart and good at magical programming that he attracts girls' interests and guys as friends. Or the magic power theme, he has great and diverse power but he is not allowed to show it even if he wanted to which he doesn't since he isn't a showboat. His sister is essentially the princess of her class/grade but she is so dependent upon her brother she lacks confidence to take advantage of that position. He is a top notch martial artist as well but he doesn't flaunt it like in many other martial art focused anime. Characters are a bit more realistic who all have some flaws but not something so detrimental or unrealistic that could spoil the appeal of the anime or the main characters. You can see many themes portrayed in one way or another in the series like: High school; magic; mecha; espionage; martial arts; gunfights; sword play; sports; and more. The major drawback is the uneasy brocon aspect of Miyuki, which she always denies. It could do with a more in depth back story explanation that is only hinted at in the opening sequence. It does seem unfinished because it needs another 2 or 3 seasons. At the end we are left wondering how the others would react to all this new information and never quite get that satisfied probably because the studio must have planned more seasons and did not prepare an ending to slip in if no additional seasons were to be forthcoming. It is however one of the best animes, despite a few flaws, I have ever seen in part because it isn't the same as most and has few if any tired repetitive clichés. It is one of the few animes, I can also watch over and over or even more than once without getting overly bored or tired of it.

The pacing was OK. Much of the action centered around a relatively small area of location. It had a lot of the usual clichés often seen in such horror movies of a likewise nature such as zombie, or apocalypse, or general unknown versus man type themes. The sense of mystery develops pretty early into the story and has a few key cues to emphasize a sense of danger.

It resembles quite closely the nature and pacing of the Fog but reflects a atypical zombie apocalypse movie in the nature of how the characters are located and behave. The impending sense of doom and the sheer mass nature of the threat also add to that vibe.

***SPOILER*** What sucks most about the movie is the horrible ending. It is not just the ending is such a let down but the way the story develops up until the end should have deserved a much different ending. The main character especially and secondly the other characters featured in the last few scenes present the viewer with a "do not give up" easily mentality yet, we what we are shown is far from what we expected in regards to the character and that attitude constantly demonstrated throughout the movie. It is emphasized even more a few minutes after that critical yet flawed decision. The best scene is when the cultist nut job leader mets her just desserts but, it would have been nice if all the nut jobs in her gang also got a fitting punishment for their evil actions. So, as a viewer I feel let down twice in big ways and thus quite unfulfilled.

The enemies resemble a cross between Deep Rising, Monster, Starship Troopers, and some of the creatures seen in the British TV series, Primevil. Yet in a sense they lacked consistency and though in some ways that added to the unknown sense of fear in other ways it made it seem as if there was no concrete plan or nature to the enemies. If you like being filled in by the end of a story, then this movie is not for you. There are too many unknown variables by the movie's end to get a good grip on. It would have been nice to understand the nature of the mist. Was it a new alien environment or some poison gas or was it just colored smoke natural to Earth? The previous two, we would expect more reaction by the humans or a more cataclysmic event affecting the Earth and its atmosphere. Creatures like that can not exist in the human world based on what it appears to be which are mostly types of insects. There is not enough oxygen in the air for that. If that had been made a little more clear with respect to the nature of the mist and/or more about the world the creatures come from, then viewers would not feel like they are hanging as much. No one I know who watched this liked the ending either. And I am pretty sure they were also a bit left in the dark about what the enemy was.

***SPOILER END***

It is not a bad thing to have some mystery or even leave a few things unanswered but it feels like though the setting is certainly a good premise that it leaves too many open ends to delve into the story. It is a reflection of the rushed stories we often find in anime, where often when watching many a anime, I feel like I walked into the middle of a story with no idea how I got there. Granted, it doesn't quite feel like the story is in the middle at the start but, it doesn't quite feel ready to jump to where it does later on either based on the setting.

For the most part, it is a we'll enough paced movie with a good premise, but it feels like something is missing and that by the close of the movie I feel let down. It doesn't close with nearly the same impact as the story as a whole nor as it unfolds. The acting starts off well enough but later it feels a bit rushed. A few times it resembles Star Trek in the sense of the red shirts. Some parts are so pointless, it makes you want to roll your eyes. There are highlights that make me think of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, the original one. Then there are moments right out of the worst parts of the lamest zombie movies. I can not give this a strong review because what is wrong and missing are too heavy to overlook or forgive what is expected from Stephen King or those who adapt his works.

it still fell a little short. It only shows about 10 of the major characters. This is not bad. And it did show some of the buttkicking Hector and Achilles took turns

dishing out to each other's sides, but those two killed many renowned fighters. It would have been nice to explore that just a bit more. Achilles may have been the best, but Hector was a close second. While Achilles toughness was shown, Hector's was shortfalled more than I liked. I also think Menelaes got killed way too early. I wanted to see more faithfulness to the story not less. Why did Achilles only have 60 men, when it was probably more like 200 to 1500? For

that hyped up its scale this is a mistake. I did like the way Patrolocus was handled. The look was good. Why Cassipia instead of Breisis for Achilles?

While they had good actors, some of them were too old for the parts. The

conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon seemed real. It might have been

nice to display more of the allies of both sides too. Athens, Crete, and Thebes for Agamemnon and Lesbos and south Ionia for Priam. Some of Priams came

during the battle. The timescale was messed up. Not all fighting was even

done at Troy. More of that would have been nice or any of that. And where

were the heroes of Troy besides Hector. Overall good, more faithful than

previous attempts, but still a few steps from amazing and what it could have

been.

I have seen vacation film better than this. I bought this thing used from

blockbuster, just a few months after it came to DVD, because it was a good price and they had a lot of them. So I concluded that it had to be pretty good for Blockbuster to buy that many copies. Boy was I ever wrong. This is one the few movies that I could not even get through the first 15 minutes of. It has to be bad if even I cannot watch it. The effects were so cheap and poorly done, that it made the effects from 1926's Metropolis look like Stan Winston top of the line monster effects fromt the latest blockbuster. The acting was read like the script was handed to the actors just before shooting. They kept pausing as if they

were looking for the next line. It was so awful, I actually tried to get my money back, on grounds that this trash was misrepresented as a movie. It resembled poor home movies. It was also the first and only movie I ever threw away, since I could not take it back.

The '60's saw the creation of some excellent horror films. Seconds, Psycho, The Thing, Dementia 13 and this one some of the best made. This one like

Seconds, is reality bender, the film has the viewer wonder if the undertaker is somehow controlling fate. His reach is too far to be direct intervention, but even when its over, the question of reality still lingers. The ending is quite

spectacular for such an early film. With excellent use of suspense created by sound as in 1963's The Haunting, you'll be wound tight all the way til the end.

The first time I saw this was on tv, and I thought for sure I must be watching the Twilight Zone. But it kept going on much longer than any episode I had seen. Yet that is the impression one gets from watching this, even after multiple

viewings. It is hard to believe something this twisted and bizarre could have been made in 1966, surely that is a mistake and it was made within the last

decade in a black and white hommage. But no it is no mistake. It is all the more unusual that an actor like Rock Hudson stars in it. I don't discuss details to much for fear that I might spoil the movie, for this one takes on a wild ride from the get go. The lessons implied here are careful what you wish for and watch out what road you take, it maybe just a little bit bumpy.

I am not sure if this is the first one made, but I don't know of any before this one. The one starring Ice T made in the '90's does not endear the audience to both sides of the tale. This movie makes neither side as the bad guys. It is more of a misunderstanding that has dire consequences. A unique and strong element of

the film is the humanity shown by the hunters when one of the own falls.

Although Cornell Wilde is an olympian, you still wonder how he manages to

brake free in that first dash across the grasslands to the cover of the jungle. The leader of the hunters almost mimics Captain Ahab, as he becomes more and

more obsessed with catching the outsider. I love the scene when he fights a warrior with spear on spear combat. This scene is the best fight scene of the movie, and you can almost sense not only how the old weapons may have

historically been used in Africa, but perhaps in China and Greece as well. Even though there are few words spoken at all in the film, the acting is superb. Aside from Sidney Poitier, I know of few films this early that gave multiple, significant, or respectful roles to black actors.