richardnovak77 Reviews

Bringing Down the House (2003)

Horrible, stereotypical movie.

[2/10 · 19 January 2008]

This is another one of those movies where we're forced to watch a clash of two extremely stereotypical groups based on culture, and as usual it's a white Anglo-Saxon protestant (WASP) male and his family who meets the street-smart black gangsta-ish ex-con woman. As usual the conflict arises when the two are forced to get along and develop a friendship while uptight neighbors/bosses/coworkers who aren't okay with mixed-race friendships watch disapprovingly.

Unfortunately, this movie has too few laughs to make up for the stereotypical crap. There wasn't a single white person in the movie that wasn't an uptight stereotypical nerd (except for the stereotypical party animal high schoolers), and there wasn't a single memorable black character who was articulate and didn't act like your stereotypical thug or party animal.

Steve Martin is one of my favorite comedians (since The Jerk, pick it up if you want to see a movie done right) and Queen Latifah is always a pleasure to watch (beautiful), but this movie just didn't do it for me. I get tired of movies where all the comedy stems from reinforcing stereotypes that are less accurate every year.

Yes, there are uptight WASPs in this country, but you know what? I don't know any. They're not as common as this movie portrays (which is everyone). Yes, there are black gangstas in this country but not every black person around. There are a lot of well-spoken, cultured blacks out there. One is Secretary of State. Another is running for President.

A little bit of believability would take this movie a LONG way. I don't find a lot of humor in racial stereotypes, not when on the one hand we're supposed to laugh at it here and on the other hand, it's taboo to mention things like this in public. The word Negro is used in this movie so many times but I haven't heard that word used in real life in years (except for some Mormons I went to school with).

Anyhow, I'm tired of the stereotypes. 2/10 stars.

King of the Lost World (2004)

If you can't do it right, don't do it at all.

[1/10 · 24 February 2007]

What a dumb movie. The special effects were so horrible I started to think this was really just a 3rd grade class project. The creators decided to cast some moderately pretty women in this film to make up for the complete lack of acting, personality, or talent. I can only imagine the budget for this film being in the realm of some kid's allowance. An incredibly poorly-done "movie" based on an incredible story. If you don't have the budget or talent to do the original story justice, then hands off please. With series like Battlestar Galactica out there, I expect rental DVDs to be of at least decent quality. The giant ape was a joke, the scorpions were moronic, and those flying dragon things? Please. And how come the flight attendant mistook her own plane for a fighter jet?

Captain Barbell (2003)

What a junk movie...

[1/10 · 20 August 2006]

This movie is pure cheese, with no explanation of how the folks gain their powers. Freezy is assaulted and frozen in a block of ice. Suddenly she comes back to life with the power to create ice. The whole movie is like that. The special effects aren't very special. In fact they're horrible. Yes, I've seen the 1978 Superman. The effects there were way better than they are in this movie. The difference is Superman the Movie is approximately 25 years older than this film. Lots of goofs in this film too, for example, the guy with the hostage is wielding what is OBVIOUSLY a 6-shooter, yet he fires 7 shots at Captain Barbell.

This movie isn't made to be taken seriously of course, but they should have put more effort into it. If I trusted someone to do justice to my creation in film, they'd better do it right. Mr. Mars Ravelo is probably rolling over in his grave because of this film.

Ultraviolet (2006)

All style, little substance

[2/10 · 28 June 2006]

Mila Jovovich could be a pretty decent actress. I have no idea why she always takes the role of super-killer babe in cheesy sci-fi flicks. This movie had fair special effects but there wasn't much to it. It seemed like they threw in a story to show off the visuals. The villains were crap. The writer didn't do their homework because only in cheesy sci-fi movies do groups of gunmen actually stand in circles around an enemy and point weapons with complete disregard of their comrades. The scene where the scientists are attacked at the very beginning, and they all fall in perfect domino order, is laughable it's so bad. The characters are not endearing. Just another sci-fi flick where nobody on Earth matters to the big bad government who's just out for money or power, fill in the blank. It's every cheesy movie you've ever seen rolled into one convenient package. Overall very poor.