FilmWatcha Reviews

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

An Immaculate, Visually-told Film

[10/10 · 6 March 2004]

The Passion of the Christ is a very unique film to review. It is not told through dialogue, nor it is really one of those films with any extended talking at all. It's basically a visual tour of the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ, and at that it is a masterpiece. To note: this movie isn't really for entertainment. It's a work of faith, as another IMDB reviewer put it. Don't expect a fun trip.

Acting: The acting in this film is nothing sort of brillant. The majority (or all; I'm not sure)the dialogue in this movie is in either Latin or Armaic (with subtitles) but the intense emotion in every shot shines through to any langauge. Much of the drama consists of facial expressions and body movements (esp. of Jesus Christ suffering), and the feeling of the scene are powerful enough to smack you.

Story: Generally, this film is a condensed version of the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ as told in the Bible. Everything is told in a powerful, brutal way, and is very well done.

Visuals: This is the essense of the film. Beautiful cineamotgraphy (I apologize for the poor spelling), horrifying beatings, and spirtual scene setups make for a great movie.

Well this is my short review. This is an amazing film, for non-believers and believers.

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

The Matrix Trilogy is the Modern Citizen Kane

[10/10 · 11 November 2003]

The Matrix Revolutions is the third and final chapter in the mind-blowing Matrix trilogy. It stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Sing Ngai and Jada Pinkett Smith.

The story, simplified, is as follows (assuming you know the stories of The Matrix 1 and The Matrix Reloaded): A huge machine army digs it's way closer to Zion, the last free human city. In the time span of just a couple of hours, they will make their way to the dock walls of Zion on their mission to destroy Zion. Neo (Keanu Reeves) is being held captive by the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) Meanwhile, Smith (formerly Agent Smith) is spreading like a virus inside the Matrix, making copies of himself at an exponentially increasing rate. Also, his copy in the Real World inside the body of Bain (Ian Bliss), who is now conscious. Now, the future of both the Machine World and humanity lies in the hands of freed Neo, who must travel to the Machine City and talk to the Deus Ex Machina - the ultimate power in the Machine World and God of the Machines - and make a bargain for the future of both machines and humans.

The acting is superb. Each and every character plays the role to perfection, with every line, gesture, and movement filled with heart and emotion befitting the scene and current state of affairs in that part of the movie.

The special effects really seem like their from the future. They are completely mind-blowing, and blow every other movie out of the water. And the climatic fight scene is the best, most complicated fight scene EVER in movie history.

The script and dialogue are marvelous, with every frame deep with meaning and emotion. The fight scenes are each completely tailored to the situation and characters involved.

The soundtrack is simply astounding, filled with passion and intensity, and totally tailored to the scene.

Want the bottom line? The Matrix Trilogy (each movie and the trilogy as a whole) is the Modern Citizen Kane.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

The same old recycled non-sense, boring and cliched to the bone

[9 November 2003]

The Fast and the Furious didn't change anything. It didn't change movie-making, it didn't make a cultural shift. However, it was relatively new and it was enjoyable, which is expotionally more than I can say about it's sequal, 2 Fast 2 Furious.

I won't even go into the plot of this movie, as it is near- non existent. The plot is basically the same old thing we have seen for years, although it has very rarely been this poorely exectued. The action has changed very little since The Fast and the Furious, and is pretty much the same old boring cliched fast-paced, repetative, poorely-filmed car chases we've all seen. Watching this, you might lose track of what movie your seeing...it could be any street racing movie in the last decade.

The acting is just terrible. Very little emotion is shown, but then again, the script is so bad that I doubt there was anything to show. Just the title alone should be a hint to stay away from this stupid film.

Basically, I suggest that you stay away from this boring, cliched piece of garbage. It tries to be to fast and furious, and it is. But so was the first movie. So was pretty much every other race movie.

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Mind-blowingly entertaining

[10/10 · 6 November 2003]

The Matrix Revolutions is the third and final chapter in the amazing Matrix series. And it goes out with more than a bang (and yes, I know blowingly isn't a word, it seemed like the best way to describe this movie though).

The movie follows the journey of Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Smith (Hugo Weaving). The movie is also about the machines that are coming closer and closer to the last human city, Zion. This movie is action-packed. And the action is the best ever recorded on film. The special effects are obviously and by far the greatest special effects of ANY film, and I say that as fact, not opinion. The computer-generated effects are at the level were they are fully integrated with the real life sets and actors and actresses. It is impossible to tell the difference of real and computer-created (well, we know that they didn't make hundreds of thousands of machines to film, but it seems as though they did, since they look so real). The fight scenes are amazing--it appears as though there are no special effects, just people doing these amazing things (of course, that is impossible, but it really looks like they got people to fly). Not only that, but the special effects accomplish feats which have never been dreamt of, let alone put on film. The martial arts in this film are also pretty amazing.

The story is marvelous. It pushes the movie full throttle, and every frame is totally relevant to the story. Every fight scene is part of the story, and every fight scene has been totally tailored to the characters involved and the situation. The acting is astonishing. This film is the greatest acting challenge out of all the films, and all of the actors and actresses meet and surpass that challenge with stunningly emotional, intense and extremely cool performances. The film itself is different the other two. It is faster and much more dark. And it is really not as thought-provoking. It is extremely dark. However, it is really the most entertaining (in my opinion). In fact, that what it is: pure entertainment, full skin to bone. And that doesn't seem like such a bad thing for a film to be.

28 Days Later (2002)

Horror and Exploration of the Human Soul

[23 October 2003]

A terrible virus affecting the mind and the body has spread like wildfire. The virus is pure rage, blocking out all other thoughts and affecting the movement and of the infected. In 20 days, it has managed to take over all of London, and destroy and hope for a goverment or police. That's putting it lightly. There is no one left, no gangs, no nothing really. 28 Days Laters, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a deserted hospital. In a very impressive scene, he finds out all of London is deserted. He learns something bad happened. Soon after he is attacked by some infected, and is rescued by two other survivors (un-infected), Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley). However, the plot changes quickly (generally three times throughout the movie), but I will let you see it for yourself.

This movie has amazing performances. The characters change as different experiances affect them. The direction is great, and the use of digital camera throughout most of the movie gives the film a gritty, tough urban feel to it.

The horror is terrifying, because of the realism of the characters involved. This is no Jason movie, as we see in the beginning when Jim almost cries in fear from running from some infected.

However the genius of this film does not lie in the horror. It lies in the film's study of the human soul. We see that the rage of the infected is inside all of us, and in the film, the most horrible acts seem to be commited by the un-infected. Also interesting is how real the threat of an epidemic is.



This is a great film, and should be enjoyed and studied by all.

Platinum (2003)

A Great Rap Industry Drama

[7 May 2003]

Platinum is a great show. And rap isn't just a theme to add to a music industry show. The people, the records, and the brutal way of handling work is directly linked to the rap theme. And them the family theme is also very powerful, and is the things the brothers who own the company have to deal with. They have real problems, like company debt and such. It's not at all sterotypical black people, but real people trying to make it in the rap world.

Biker Boyz (2003)

Truly fun

[9/10 · 2 February 2003]

The acting is actually really good. The camera was expectional; you didn't at any point notice that this was camerawork. It seemed as though everything just streamed together. Unlike the previous comments, I went to the movie theater and people couldn't hold back from clapping. The races were better than Fast and the Fuious; much more dependent on the racing than slow-motion and camera tricks like that. The story at first was absent, which gave us a good generallt light-hearted feeling to the movie, but, then as we got into the movie, the scenes became powerful, both drama and acting wise. And story/script-wise. Everything ins this movie had meat to it; you just had to look past the fluff. Then, of course, why would anyone go to Biker Boyz to do that?