hotlurvemachine

I didn't have high hopes when I went to see this film and expected it to be little more than Jessica Alba in a bikini and her friends arguing over some underwater goodies. How wrong I was ! Ms Alba is the only 'big' name in this film but all the actors do an excellent job in building-up and developing their characters. The dialogue and interaction is very good, how the characters relate to each other and how they behave is completely believable and its a really good story. Its starts off slow, setting the scene and introducing characters gradually and then it suddenly begins to accelerate - soon enough there are British gangsters appearing, a bit of piracy going-on, some mystery over a sunken ship and several plot twists. Yes Miss Alba is scantily clad but this is a good thriller with a good story that keeps adding surprises along the way.

Cartooney swash-buckling action, with a strong cast (Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta Jones and Antonio Banderas) and lots of poor repressed Spanish peasants to save. This is an enjoyable film that reminded me of the old Musketeer films staring Richard Chamberlain.

This film was also interesting to me on a historical level as it is set in the days when Spain still had control over areas of northern America, such as California. However after I'd seen this film something bugged me about it for days later and then I suddenly realized what it was – there's an American soldier in this film in a Union uniform who seemed rather anachronistic. Wasn't the Union formed after the American civil war and wasn't that after the state of California had become part of the rest of the northern states and under control of the English ? Hmmm… But I could be wrong !

Its still a fun film to watch though (especially for the kids and the big kids like me) !

As one of many recent 'cartoon super hero' films that have emerged (most of which I liked to some degree) I enjoyed this and was glad I went to see it and didn't let all the negative comments sway me. I am very surprised how badly it seems to be doing and how much bad publicity it has received - so much so that I feel obligated to write these comments.

This film is NOT as action packed as Spiderman 2, nor is it as dark as Batman 2 but what it lacks in arty atmosphere and action I feel it makes up for in other areas.

Firstly, Halle Berry was hot and Sharon Stone sizzled ! It was great to see Sharon back in action as a foxy femme fatale (the type of part she was once typecast for) and Ms Berry was simply drool inspiring - and she gave a very strong performance throughout the film, too.

That aside, this film actually has a bit more of a story in terms of relationships between characters, which I found very engaging. I liked the Egyptian mythological elements to the film, which suggested how Catwoman came into being (but I can see how most people would think this a bit far-fetched, but then again - its a cartoon !)

I noticed early on that this film was produced by Tim Burtons buddy and usual producer, Denise Di Novi (who also produced Batman 2). And so, even if the direction was a little lacking for the fight scenes the production values were still there. Also, there were lots of similarities to the Catwoman of Batman 2 to this new version, such as the villainous employer, the memory loss, the duality and obsession with revenge, e.t.c

I think if anything this film is aimed at a more adult audience than teeny-boppers. Its slower and has a much meatier story than similar film like Daredevil, which by comparison is all action and effects.

I suppose, as with most things, its down to personal taste. This is no masterpiece, but if you tend to like films of this genre and want something that tries to be a bit more grown up than Spiderman, than this film could be for you (despite what the critics say)...

Although this movie has not done well on the polls of Amazon, whenever I've seen it I've always found it enjoyable. (So much so that I felt obliged to write this brief review on it !!) O.k, its a bit daft in places and some of the humour is a bit dated perhaps, but the story trundles along with plenty of twists, its not predictable and the relationship between the two main two characters slowly builds up and develops throughout the film.

Both Tom Conti and Terri Garr give good performances and are believable in their roles. (And I've always had a shot spot for Terri Gar, and I find her particularly appealing in this film !)

The bungling villains are also well played (though a bit cheesy) and Christopher Lloyd seems to enjoy playing his part.

Overall, this film is never going to be considered a masterpiece as its just a light hearted family comedy adventure story - designed to be watched by kids, but engaging and entertaining enough to be watched by their parents as well.

At first this film reminded me of Sleepy Hollow, with several main characters stuck together in an isolated fort, each with their own agendas and problems... (it even has one of the actors from Sleepy Hollow in !). However, unlike Sleepy Hollow all the characters are very well developed, interesting and believable - they don't just appear briefly once and then turn up again later to be bumped-off.

The script and dialogue is very good and there are a few very surprising twists in the story with an excellent macabre taste to them.

The sets are atmospheric and believable, the costumes look lived-in and the music (by the guy who did Clint's spaghetti westerns) is weird and slightly unsettling, but this I find strangely apt.

Any fan of gothic horror and old Hammer Horror would probably enjoy this film. The end fight scene is a big disappointment, but I think that probably due to budget restraints more than poor direction.

All in all, a good gothic horror film with some originality to it, but with a few weak areas caused by over-stretched budgets.

I had high hopes for this film, as the cast seemed very promising - but I soon found myself falling into a stupor of utter boredom. This is one of the few films that I've actually given up on watching through to the bitter end, preferring instead to watching something more exciting (like paint drying !).

This film was a big disappointment, I'm afraid...

I must confess that I avoided watching this film as I thought it sounded rather silly...

However, despite my initial reservations, I finally gave in and watched it - and was surprised at how enjoyable I found it.

This film is a superb spoof of super hero films like the Batman films, the X-Men, Spiderman, e.t.c - and yet it still retains some original ideas.

The humour seemed reminiscent of the Naked gun movies, so if you liked those then I would recommend this to you.

It could have been funnier and sillier (perhaps a few Batman 'BAMS' and 'BIFFS' during the final fight-scene), but I think the production team wanted to keep an element of more subtle tongue-in-cheek humour and in so-doing they were able to retain an element of plausibility (if thats the right word ?!) and a better story overall. In fact, I'd say the story itself is actually stronger than those of the later Batman films and has more elements to it.

The main characters seemed better developed and better scripted than most of the super-hero films that they are sending-up. I thought the main baddie (bizarrely named 'Casanova Frankenstein' and deliberately hammed-up by Geoffrey Rush) was particularly good, though he didn't seem to have many scenes... This is compensated by the frequent appearance of his 70's disco-obsessed henchmen, who I found hilarious !



Overall - an enjoyable film as long as you don't take it too seriously.

I had high hopes for this film, but could not help but feel rather disappointed having seen it for the first time...

I was expecting to see a gothic-horror version of the traditional kiddies story tale, but instead this film seems to be more of an attempt to re-tell the tale in a more realistic and believable way by filling it with lots of (more) historically accurate details. For example -: the 'drawfs' are now a cross between outlaws from Sherwood Forest and the Dirty Dozen. One of them even pounces upon the unsuspecting Snow White at the first chance he gets !

The (unfamiliar) actress playing 'Snow White' struck me as being very pretty, but she seemed rather wooden in most of her scenes.

Sigorney Weaver was surprising good as the 'wicked witch', however.

This was not one of Sam Neill's better films. He usually strikes me as having quite a strong screen presence, but in this film he just seems to be just 'going through the motions' of acting.

Visually and atmospherically speaking - this film is pretty good. But the background/incidental music was very lackluster. A gothic-sounding orchestral musical score would have improved this film considerably.

Probably due to a limited budget and an unadventurous director, the 'special effects' aren't particularly special either, though they can best be described as 'adequate'.

If you have a passion for traditional fantasy films though (as opposed to gothic horror) then this film could be for you. But for someone with a fondness of horror and gothic horror (such as myself), then I'd give this one a miss.

Overall, I give this movie 6/10. It could have been much better - and a lot more scary !