Antz (1998) review

(9/10)

   Antz still remains one of the most nostalgic animated films from my childhood, earning more respect with its all-star cast, creative animation, pleasant storytelling, and an appealing dark side.

PLOT: Z (Woody Allen) is just your average worker ant in a colony of ants. However, Z isn't happy with his place in life and never has been. One night, when Z and his best friend, army ant Weaver (Sylvester Stallone), go to the bar, Z gets a chance to dance, unknowingly, with Princess Bala (Sharon Stone). When Z finally finds out this fact, he figures he'd switch places with Weaver in order to see the Princess. What Z doesn't know is that, on the day they switch places, the army's going to war with vicious termites. Through all this, however, Z lives to be the lone survivor and an icon among his peers. Things are going great for Z up until he meets Princess Bala. In a strange turn of events, Z "takes the princess hostage" and flees to the outside world. Now Z and the Princess must either agree to go home or go on to discover the legendary Insectopia, but what they don't know is that General Mandible (Gene Hackman) has a few fatal plans for the anthill. The plot is very well thought out and executed brilliantly, with a perfect balance of humor and dark.

VOICES: The voice acting for the film is very well cast and performed. I can imagine no one but Woody Allen suitable enough for the part of neurotic Z. Everybody does a great job, especially (aside from Allen) Sylvester Stallone as Weaver, Sharon Stone as Princess Bala, Danny Glover as selfless army ant, Barbadus, Jennifer Lopez as friendly worker ant, Azteca, and Christopher Walken as Col. Cutter. This is one of the few animated films that boasts a cast as diverse and all-star as this without ruining it.

SCORE: The score is very upbeat, inspiring, and at times, kind of delightful. Harry-Gregson Willams definitely brings some of his best work to the table for this film. The catchy version of "High Hopes" during the credits has also become very nostalgic.

ANIMATION: The animation for this film is not only nostalgic, but very innovative for its time. The ants actually somewhat resemble their voice actors, the background and effects for the outside world are both colorful and almost whimsical, and the animation for the war/death scenes are very gruesome. This type of animation may be outdated today, but it's still very excellently done for DreamWorks debut.

OTHER CONTENT: This film is probably one of the most memorable, nostalgic films from my childhood, but to the dismay of DreamWorks fans, I feel it pales in comparison to Pixar's A Bug's Life. Had I never seen A Bug's Life, this film would be perfect, but Pixar set my standard for insect movies. In comparison, this film is more dark, less kid-friendly, sloppier with animation, and less creative with its settings and insect variety. Pixar just made their bug movie more clean cut, while DreamWorks went for the risky choice. This film is still fantastic in most every way, winning over Pixar with only clever humor, but there can only be one best.

   Antz, though not the best, is definitely a nostalgic, impressive, and even fun watch for families and people who grew up around the same time as I. Everything from the animation to the score is excellently done.

Upcoming Plans and Previous Distractions (Update)

Hi, everyone! I just want to post and let everyone know that my move across the country is finally complete, and I will start posting again. Coming up within the next couple months is the start of my Halloween horror marathon, which I try to start early every year. Within the next few months, expect plenty of horror and Halloween reviews and lists (to add a bit more excitement this year) Though I'm in the middle of adjusting to a new life, I have not lost passion for film and am planning on continuing my casual criticisms, maybe even more now due to faster internet access. Also expect more new-release reviews, for I have two theaters just down the road from my house now. The future's bright in this critic's life. Stay tuned, friends, for horror and new releases.

Chappie (2015) review

(5/10)

   Chappie has great special effects, a surprising amount of charm, and a surreal approach to the editing and execution, but the acting is hit-and-miss, there's barely any character development, and the plot is both preposterous and way too familiar.

PLOT: Sometime in the near future in South Africa, a company named Tetravaal arises and invents a strong, robotic police force ideal for taking down crime rates and the gangster underground. One day, the inventor of the robotic police, Deon Wilson (Dave Patel), invents a sort of robotic consciousness that can give these robots feelings and the potential to be human. When he presents this idea to Tetravaal's leader (Sigourney Weaver), however, she shoots it down and disregards it altogether. Deon, being confident in his abilities, attempts to sneak out a badly damaged robot with intentions to fix it up and run his consciousness programming on it. In the process, however, Deon is ambushed by small group of thugs containing gangster, Ninja, his girlfriend, Yolandi (Yolandi Visser), and their foreign friend, Amerika (Jose Pablo Cantillo). These thugs capture Deon and his robot and force him to program the robot to fight for them in their gangster wars, though Deon's new consciousness program forces the robot to have to learn slowly, like a child. With only a few days battery left on the robot (whom they name Chappie), a major heist coming up, and a jealous coworker (Hugh Jackman) out to shut down Deon's project, tensions are high in teaching Chappie how to be both a gangster and a scientific marvel. The plot has great potential and is executed fairly well, but it has a couple fatal flaws that set it away from being truly great. For one, the plot is way too familiar. The ideas of robotic cops and street education have been overdone greatly and don't add anything too fresh to this movie. Also, the plot twists just end up making the plot itself so preposterous and unrealistic that it veers into very spacey territory. The plot had potential, but it just ended up being wasted.

ACTING: The performances in this movie weren't all really solid. The majority of the performances were truly hit-and-miss. Some actors were excellent in their roles while others made you question why they were chosen for their parts. The best performances came from Hugh Jackman as Vincent Moore, Dev Patel as Deon Wilson, and Sigourney Weaver as Michelle Bradley. The addition of veteran actors really helped this movie succeed performance-wise but only by a little. The rest of the performances were good in some parts and mediocre in others. It almost feels like the actors only acted right in the parts they wanted to. Sharlto Copley also did a pretty good job as the voice of Chappie.

SCORE: The score was pretty good, but the soundtrack was pretty horrible. The great Hanz Zimmer conducted the score for the movie, which was pretty fantastic in the dramatic and action-packed parts. The soundtrack, however, consisted mainly of mediocre-sounding rap and hip-hop songs, more than likely done by Ninja himself.

EFFECTS: The special effects were probably one of the best parts about the movie. The effects seemed fairly realistic at certain points in the movie. The robots looked nice and real for the most part and the explosions were pretty nice. If there was a big budget for this movie, it went mainly into the special effects and the big name casting.

OTHER CONTENT: This movie had two other prime factors that helped it succeed just a little more than it should have: its unexpected charm and its surreal editing. For a movie about robotic cops and gangsters, Chappie had a surprising amount of unexpected charm, from teaching Chappie how to be a human to seeing him become a true gangster. The charm inspires a lot of humor, which keeps the movie from truly sinking. Also, the editing in this movie made it seem so much more possible and surreal, like the beginning scenes where the robots were on CNN. However, with these great pros comes at least one more great con. This movie's character development, except for Chappie himself, was rather pathetic. From the start of the movie, we're just thrust headfirst into the main plot with possible main characters we're just supposed to be expected to know. The only true backstory we get is that of the robots themselves, and even that's minimal.

   Chappie wasn't a terrible movie, but it wasn't one of the greats either. The special effects, veteran actors, surprising charm, and surreal editing kept the movie from truly sinking, but the familiar and preposterous plot, hit-and-miss supporting cast, lack of character development, and terrible soundtrack kept it from becoming one of the greats. I would watch it again, but it's nowhere close to one of my favorites.

AC/DC: No Bull - The Directors Cut (1996) review

(9/10)

   For any true AC/DC fan, this concert film is a wild treat. It's not as fantastic as their show at Donnington, but its definitely a close second with the band putting on one hell of a show.

This concert film covers the entire show in Madrid, Spain, from the 1996 Ballbreaker tour, from the opening notes of "Back in Black" to the closing rock frenzy of "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)". The band definitely puts on one of their best shows to date, with Angus, Malcolm, Brian, Cliff, and Phil at their wildest. In this show, clearly, Angus is the star of the show, letting out some monster solos, acting crazy as he can, and sweating himself to near death. Not to say the others didn't rock out, with Brian's wrecking ball stunt (long before Miley trashed the idea) during "Ballbreaker" and Phil's constant smoking through all of his best beats. The show is clearly one of the best they put on, falling barely short of their concert performance, Live at Donnington. The only reason this didn't reach the same heights as Donnington is because they focused more on the outward show and a little less on their sound. If Donnington hadn't come first and set their performance standards, this would have definitely been one of their best performances.

   It doesn't reach the same heights as their show at Donnington, but it's still a damn good show with the band at their near-best and Angus at his wildest.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) review

(7/10)

   This half crime drama and half Grindhouse type horror movie proves that when two great minds come together, gold is made. With excellent performances by an all-star cast, campy special effects, hilarious dialogue, and intelligent plot execution, From Dusk Til Dawn makes its place as an instant classic in the horror world and in both Quentin Tarentino and Robert Rodriguez's fantastic film canon.

PLOT: Wanted bank robbers Seth Gecko (George Clooney) and Richard Gecko (Quentin Tarentino) have plans to travel into Mexico to flee the law and continue their lives without bother. To help on their journey across the border, the Gecko brothers take a vacationing family hostage, including faithless pastor, Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his children, Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu). Once across the border, the unlikely posse stops at a shady bar and strip club open from dusk until dawn, known as the Titty Twister, whose main customers turn out to be more than expected. The customers turn out, unbelievably, to be vampires thrown into a frenzy by the scent of blood. Now the Gecko brothers, the Fuller family, and their new bar friends, Sex Machine (Tom Savini) and Frost (Fred Williamson), must fight their way through the night until the sun comes up at dawn. The plot is unique and very excellently executed. The switch from Tarentino's crime drama to Rodriguez's vampire flick is obvious, but fun to watch. The whole movie is a lot of fun and excellently thought out for the movie that it really is.

ACTING: The performances in this film are not only supplied by an all-star cast, but they are also excellently and professionally done. Clooney and Tarentino made a charismatic, professional acting team creating a presence of a stoic older brother and a loony younger brother as well as an epic criminal team. Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis also did a great job creating a very real family with issues to work out, as well as Ernest Liu in his first role. Everyone in this movie did a fantastic job of performing, from the leads to the supporting cast, including movie veterans Cheech Marin, Salma Hayek, Tom Savini, and Danny Trejo (who would later come to play Machete).

SCORE: The soundtrack and score in this movie was excellently crafted, signalling the many mood changes with rockin' artists. The soundtrack contains the music from rock greats, ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and The Blasters while also introducing the bar bad, Tito & Tarantula with excellent action score by Graeme Revell. The soundtrack is probably one of the best, among the ranks of Pulp Fiction and Dazed and Confused.

EFFECTS: The special effects in this movie are cheap but fun. The effects are made to be cheap and campy, bringing on a familiar Evil Dead-esque feel. They aren't professionally done, but they do their job in securing their type as a Rodriguez exploitation film.

OTHER CONTENT: This movie succeeds as both a crime drama and Grindhouse horror film. The two great directors, Quentin Tarentino and Robert Rodriguez, come together to make greatness. Almost as if they split the movie in half, you can tell when one man's vision ends and the other man's begins. Along with tall of the achievements this movie has scored for me, it also brings home excellent dialogue from sarcastic jokes to clever references. The movie is also affected by very professional direction and editing, bringing out the color in everything. This movie, to say the least, is a lot of fun to watch and a treat for horror fans. However, it wasn't made to be perfect. It's not a movie for everybody and it really isn't made to be taken seriously. I really like the movie, but it's not a milestone in cinema, just a treat for fans everywhere.

   From Dusk Till Dawn is a treat for Grindhouse and Tarentino fans everywhere, blending horror and drama together in an engaging, fun, campy movie experience with expert acting, an awesome soundtrack, and a pair of geniuses behind the wheel.

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) review

(4/10)

   Standing as a grave improvement over Godzilla's Revenge, this movie has a lot more potential to be a great monster movie. However, the movie focuses too much on an overly-preposterous plot and less on the monsters that made the franchise famous, also with a handful of awkward, unnecessary faults in plot execution.

PLOT: After Godzilla destroys Mechagodzilla once more, a group of scientists scavenge the ocean to find all of his scattered parts and discover the dinosaur, Titanosaurus, who's control was harbored by traitorous scientist, Prof. Mafune (Akihiko Hirata), and his cyborg daughter, Katsura (Tomoko Ai). As it turns out, these scientists are actually aliens seeking revenge on Godzilla and the human race, and they're planning on rebuilding Mechagodzilla to ensure dominance over Tokyo. Unless Godzilla steps in and beats the two opposing monsters, Tokyo may be doomed to alien domination. The plot is truly quite preposterous. The writers couldn't leave the plot with the threat of Titanosaurus and Mechagodzilla but had to include a nonsensical story for alien domination. The plot, though preposterous, had some potential. However, the possible potential was squandered on too little of the monsters on camera and too much of the drama with the aliens. Katsura, and Prof. Mafune. It makes no sense to focus on a nonsensical plot when one could focus on the action.

ACTING: The performances in this movie are actually pretty okay. Even the American voice dubs are pretty good and well-matched. Unlike Godzilla's Revenge, the American voices matched up to the Japanese mouth movements more accurately and didn't sound so overdramatic. The best performances and voice dubs come from Tomoko Ai as Katsura and Akihiko Hirata as Prof. Mafune; they didn't do too bad. The acting isn't the saving grace of the movie, but it makes it a bit easier to watch.

SCORE: The score in this movie isn't anything special. You get a few dramatic, action themes but nothing unique.

EFFECTS: The effects in this movie were a tad cheesy at times, but suited the movie overall. The flame effects, monster costumes, and blood effects were pretty cool for your basic Godzilla film, only if that's all you tend to expect.

OTHER CONTENT: This Godzilla movie had the potential to become something great but wasted away on the plot and various awkward quirks. Some scenes were awkward, unnecessary, and unintentionally funny. If not for these fatal flaws, this would be a great Godzilla movie, especially with the always-entertaining monster fights that brought in and closed out the movie.

   All this movie ended up being was wasted potential. The performances were good, the monster fights were entertaining, and the concept was excellent, but they over-exaggerated the plot and left out the pieces to making the movie most worthwhile.

Godzilla's Revenge (1971) review

(3/10)

   As with most older Godzilla movies, this addition to the franchise is not to be taken seriously. The plot twists, voice dubs, and overall motion of the movie is cheesy and laughably bad. However, with the older Godzilla movies, that is only to be expected. The traditional monster effects and monster fights were pretty entertaining to watch at the least.

PLOT: Young schoolboy Ichiro (Tomonori Yazaki) has been dealing with a couple pressing struggles in his school life, such as his parents always being busy and bullies teasing him on his way home from school. Ichiro also idolizes the monsters on Monster Island, including the great Godzilla. After a rough day at school, Ichiro takes a nap in his older friend's, toymaker Inami (Eisei Amamoto), office. While asleep, Ichiro fantasizes himself on Monster Island seeing the many monsters fight each other. He also meets in his dream Godzilla's son, Minilla, who is also dealing with bully troubles from the other monsters and he can't quite get brave enough to face them. Ichiro has these dreams constantly, encouraging him to be brave, and with the local bank robberies going on, that may be just what he needs to avoid danger. The plot is very juvenile, but if done right, might have been fun to work with. However, the execution of the plot was very poor, with awkward dialogue, the traditional, over-dramatized fight scenes, and unnecessary plot twists that make very little sense. Something could have been made out of this, but instead, it leaves its entertainment factor up to laughter.

ACTING: The performances in this movie, both physical performances and the voice dubs, were quite terrible. With unrealistic motions, unfitting voice dubs, and annoying performing vocals, the performances literally create the stereotype of the old Godzilla movies to be off-sync. There was no saving this section of the movie.

SCORE: The score, though unfitting, was actually quite nostalgic. It gave one the feeling of watching an old monster movie, which this was. I didn't have too much of a problem with the soundtrack/score.

EFFECTS: The special effects were cheesy, as usual, but not too awful. If you like Godzilla and its lore, then it would be satisfying to see all of the many monsters, no matter how unrealistic or cheesy the costumes may look. I thought the all of the monster effects were actually pretty good except for the costume for Minilla. Godzilla's son should have looked more threatening and a little less like a worn-out Barney costume. If Minilla wouldn't have been so lazily done, I would be completely satisfied with the visual effects category.

OTHER CONTENT: Everything about this movie proved that the generic Godzilla movie has bad voice-overs and cheap costumes. However, the one thing that inspired a bit of pure entertainment value from this movie was the many monster fights not including Minilla. It's always fun to watch Godzilla beating up another clueless monster, usually brutally to a pulp. This movie is laughably bad and fun to watch only as ridicule. If you're a die-hard Godzilla fan, maybe this movie would fit you. Otherwise, prepare for a terrible treat.

   Most Godzilla movies are cheesy and only entertaining for a laugh. This movie is no exception. Awkward, juvenile and cheesy are just a few words to describe the feel of this movie. Though pretty terrible, I would rewatch this movie just to laugh or to mindlessly drool over the Godzilla fight scenes. My only source of real hate in this movie: Minilla.