Movie Reviews!!

[jgags6]

I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread where we could review movies. Ill try to review any new movie that I see whether it is a new movie from the theater, or a new HD DVD or DVD. I dont have a blu-ray player so I obiously cant review BDs.

If anyone else wants to comment on a review and tell everyone what they thought of the movie that would be awesome, and feel free to make your own reviews on movies that I havnt.

 

[jgags6]

Review for 300

I went and saw this movie yesterday in the theaters, and while other reviews like yahoo movies gave it good reviews i didnt think it was anything to write home about. The movie is about the battle at Thermapoyle back in the times of the ancient city of Sparta. Anyone who has seen the movie 300 Spartains should be familier with the story.

For those of you who dont know it heres a brief overview. The Spartans had the most advanced army in the world of the time. But at the same time king Xerxes, who has conqured most of the known world, wants Sparta to kneel to him and become part of his conqured army. Sparta refuses, and with just 300 soldiers, the spartans put up one hell of a fight. They kill much of the persian army, and by showing their commitment to democracy, rather than the persian tyranny, they get all of Greece to help them take down King Xerxes.

The movie was beautifully made, every scene looked like a beautifully painted picture. Also the fight scenes were pretty well done. (If you like seeing people heads, legs, and arms being chopped off then you should spend the 9 bucks to see this one.) There were a couple of things which the movie lacked though. First was alot of the history was wrong, and being a Roman History major in college, this tended to bug me. Also i found the beginning of the story to be pretty boring. The best parts of this movie is the fighting.

Overall if you like ancient history and you like movies of war you should definately see this. The movie is a good one but I dont know if i will buy it when it comes to DVD.

I give this movie a 7/10

 

[navychop]

Why do I suspect movie reviews will end up in the pit?

 

[dfergie]

Actually this is a good idea and should stay here in chit chat, but any pitworthy posts will be put there...

 

[boston area dtv]

Jgags6-

I have not seen the movie. Would you think that this movie would translate very well to HD DVD's or Bluray?

Every time I see a commercial I keep thinking wow thats gonna look great in HD.

 

[jgags6]

You know i think it would look great in HD. The director, who i believe is the same guy who directed Sin City, has a very interesting way of using colors. There are not many colors in 300. Theres alot of browns and reds, but the way in which he uses them make the movie look (like i said in my other post) like a painted picture. But i think that when Warner releases it on HD it will look very good.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

We are discussing Movie Reviews in the Pub Area, and I would love to see this expanded.

If you would like to review movies for us please post a review or two here. We would consider making a few members our official SatelliteGuys Movie Reviewers And we could possibly have 3 movie review sections

1) Now Playing (Movies now showing at a theater near you)
2) HD DVD Reviews
3) Blu Ray DVD Reviews

(In fact once movies come out on one of the HD formats we could move the review of it from Now Playing and into the correct format area and just update the review to talk about the HD features and quality.

The sky is the limit.

 

[jgags6]

scott also we should have a poll so people could vote on how good they think the movie is.

 

[jgags6]

Babel (HD-DVD)

For those of you who have seen the movie Crash, this movie will remind you a lot of that. The movie is based around four different families who are all from different countries and cultures—American, Japanese, Moroccan, Mexican. The main story is about an American couple who are touring Morocco when the wife (Kate Blanchett) gets shot by a Moroccan farmer boy. A Japanese girl and a Mexican nanny also face very hard times and are both also connected to the plot.

The movie looked very good in HD I was surprised. The picture was amazing, but the sound wasn’t anything great (then again there weren’t any explosions that would make the surround sound really be felt!)

Overall the movie wasn’t as good as I thought it would have been, in fact it really would have sucked if it didn’t have Brad Pitt as the main character. Babel was good to see once but I surely wouldn’t buy it or watch it multiple times. The plot is good but as I said before Crash was significantly better.

I give this movie a 6.5/10

 

[Sean Mota]

How about movies in the HBOs, Vooms, Hdnet movies, etc...?

 

[8bitbytes]

See, this is the problem with a thread. A forum section would allow a different thread for each film and to eliminate having several sub-forums you could preface each review like so:

Now Showing: The Prestige
HBO: The Prestige (or whatever channel)
DVD: The Prestige
HDDVD: The Prestige
BluRay: The Prestige

Each review should end with a final rating for each of the following qualities:

Picture
Cinematic Scope
Sound Track / Audio
Acting
Theme
Accuracy
See it again
Recommendation



What say ye?

 

[dimi1963]

This is, hands down, the best Bond movie I have ever seen. The acting is superb, the action is breath taking. Oh my.... Guys I recommend this movie highly, and if you have a BD you will really enjoy it.

BluRay: Casino Royal
Picture: Excellent
Cinematic Scope: Excellent
Sound Track / Audio:Excellent
Acting: Excellent
Theme: Good
Accuracy: Excellent
See it again; Hell Yeah
Recommendation: Must See it

 

[jgags6]

Reno 911: Miami

For any of you who have seen the TV show (Reno 911) on comedy central, know that this show is hilarious. Reno 911 Miami is about the Reno sheriffs department who gets an invitation to go to the national police convention in Miami. Soon after their arrival in Miami, the city gets bioattacked and all of the police (except for Reno) get quarantined. This leaves the whole city to be watched by the Reno Sheriffs department.

I love the TV show and I had really high hopes for this movie, but unfortunately the movie didn’t come close to what I was expecting. Sure it was funny at parts, but I found that their TV show was a lot more entertaining.

Showing In theaters
Picture: Good
Audio: Okay, nothing special
Acting: Good
Theme: Pointless
See it Again: Maybe when it comes to movie
Recommendation: Wait until it comes to DVD

 

[Van]

How about movies now on dvd? I've seen a few good ones, a few bad ones, and a few family ones lately that I could review.

 

[Van]

Crank now on DVD

Good idea of the action in the film, this is cencored due to grey area racial content

Movie Trailer

Director Brian Taylor, Mark Neveldine
Starring Amy Smart, Dwight Yoakam, Jason Statham, Efren Ramirez, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Carlos Sanz
Composer Paul Haslinger
Costume Designer Christopher Lawrence
Director of Photography Adam Biddle
Editor Brian Berdan
Producer Richard Wright
Production Designer Jerry Fleming
Screenwriter Brian Taylor


Notes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Closed Captioned; Additional Footage; Soundtrack English; English Subtitles; Dolby Digital 5.1 Re

Description

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Screenwriters and directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor make their feature-film debut in this fast-paced action film. Freelance hitman Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) wakes up with a big problem; a DVD left in his apartment by smalltime gangster Ricky Vanero (Jose Pablo Cantillo) tells him that he has only one hour to live. While Chev was asleep, Vanero injected him with a deadly synthetic drug from China--known as the Beijing Cocktail--as payback for Chev’s last hit. Now, Chev’s only hope to stay alive is to keep his adrenalin pumping. Dead set on revenge against Vanero, Chev also has to keep his girlfriend, Eve (Amy Smart), out of the mob’s hands. To complicate matters, naïve, sweet Eve has no idea that her charming British boyfriend is a hitman. Even worse, Chev’s boss, Carlito (Carlos Sanz) has no intention of helping his favorite freelancer. Luckily, Chev’s friend Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam) can offer some temporary lifesaving advice; his drugged pal has to keep moving. Downing cans of Red Bull and popping over-the-counter energy pills, Chev is a crazed man on a mission. He has to exact revenge on Vanero, save his girlfriend, and find an antidote, all while keeping his slowing heart pumping. Fear, sex and violence are the best way to keep adrenalin flowing, and there’s no shortage of any of them in this nonstop action flick. Extreme chase scenes, shootouts, and romance abound, along with plenty of clipped dialogue and just enough dark humor. Statham plays Chev with a perfect combination of steely determination and utter insanity--a guy who is finally trying to do the right thing, even if it means killing lots of people along the way. Cantillo’s Vanero is a little fish playing in a very big pond, but not quite the player he thinks he is.
Theatrical Release Date: September 1, 2006

Reviews:

4 stars out of 5 -- "[An] exuberant actioner....CRANK wouldn't work without Jason Statham. Battered, weary, wiescracking and astoundingly, viciously lethal, he's the working class angel of death cinema..."-- Ceri Thomas, Total Film

"[A]s showily amped and amiably amoral an extreme action pic as the exhaust-end of summer deserves."-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Ok heres the skinny on this movie wich should have gotten alot and I do mean ALOT more commercial play prior to and during its release. If you liked the driving and fighting action in The Transporters 1 and 2 and you like the quiet cool of Jason Statham and your looking for something new in action films then this is for you. This is not a special effects overload movie or you kid brothers action hero film, this film kicks raw ass all the way through right from the begining all the way to the end where you get a good punch in the face ending. Besides some of the best driving action you will see outside of the Transporter films and Crash there are some of really " oh crap no he didnt" fight scenes that are eclipsed by some not for the feint of heart gun battles with a few gallons of blood tossed around.

This is a movie definitely not for anyone thats feint of heart or for any kids under 16 not just due to the blood and some gore or language but also due to a graphic sexual encounter in the film ( it doesnt show anything outside of some upper frontal nudity ) but these things aside there are some very funny moments in the film and if you walk away from this one disapointed then your just to girly.

NOTE, This is honestly not a movie for any kids at all what so ever, there are some graphic moments and some really bloody moments in this film that kids and your mother should not see though if you have a mother inlaw encourage her to watch it with you :devil:

 

[jgags6]

Harsh Times

Synapsis from www.movies.yahoo.com :

Jim Davis (Christian Bale) is an ex-Army Ranger recently discharged from the military, yet still haunted by nightmares of his former occupation. While seeking a position with the LAPD that will allow him to marry his Mexican girlfriend and bring her to the United States, Jim kills time chilling with his best friend, Mike (Freddy Rodriguez). Mike is feeling the heat from his longtime girlfriend, Sylvia (Eva Longoria): either get a job or get out. But the love of a beautiful woman can't compare to the bonds of friendship, and Jim and Mike are soon cruising the streets of South Central, slipping back into a deceitful life of drugs, violence and petty crime, just like when they were kids.

For those of you who like hardcore, I’m a psycho and I want to kill and/or beat everyone’s ass, this movie is for you. Bale does an amazing job in this film and I would definitely recommend it for those who like his acting.

Type of movie: DVD
Picture: Good
Audio: Not much action or explosion but overall good
Acting: very good
Theme: interesting and I thought very good
See it Again: Absolutely
Recommendation: I’m going to buy this next time I go to the store!

Just a note, this will be released on HD DVD on May 12th so you might want to wait for that... I believe it will look pretty good in HD!

 

[cybok0]

This is the worse Bond movie, behind Dalton movies that I have ever seen. Graig is a boring actor, the whole movie was boring.

DVD: Casino Royal
Picture: Good
Cinematic Scope: Excellent
Sound Track / Audio:Good
Acting: Terrible
Theme: Boring
See it again: No
Recommendation: Dont get

 

[jgags6]

The Departed

Synopsis provided by www.movies.yahoo.com.

'The Departed' is set in South Boston, where the state police force is waging war on organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Costello (Jack Nicholson). While Billy is quickly gaining Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the gangsters and the police that there's a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy -- and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.

This movie got a bunch of Academy Awards a couple weeks ago including Best Film. I’ve heard a lot of talk about how this is the best movie ever. Now I don’t know about the best movie EVER but it sure is a good fricking movie. There was never a dull moment and although the movie was two and a half hours long it didn’t seem longer than 90 minutes, which is a good thing!

Movie Type: HD DVD
Picture: Great, looked awesome in HD
Audio: Sounded amazing in TrueHD
Acting: Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon…what a great cast
Theme: Very good, with a great ending
See it Again: Absolutely, I bought it
Recommendation: A must see