arvawter Reviews

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

Lost Sense of Identity

[5/10 · 2 May 2020]

Just rewatched all the Rush Hour movies, and this one stands out, and not in a good way. The first two Rush Hours use that buddy cop formula to perfection as Tucker and Chan have great chemistry together. The reason this movie feels lesser is that they spend so much time apart from each other that the movie loses that dynamic.

It starts with an action chase where it feels like they couldn't even get Tucker and Chan on set together, so are completely separated with Chan not even knowing that Tucker was there. When they finally do meet up at the end of the scene, they interact extremely breifly before taking us to the next scene. Even in scenes they are both in, they are often apart such as when Jackie Chan is fighting a woman and Chris Tucker is listening in through the door. The two never really have any consequential dispute or growth and they end the movie just like they started it without a sense of need for them to return in this sequel.

The action also takes a step down. The first film is a great action movie and I think the action in the second actually tops it with Chan doing many stunts with extensive choreography. One of the first fights is so overly cartoony it has a giant swinging a pole around as Chan and Tucker clutch on like it's some kind of amusement park ride. Chan's fight with the woman while Tucker is listening by the door is the stand out, but the big finale feels lesser. I'm not sure if it was because Jackie Chan is getting older or because the studio was worried about insurance costs for crazy action, or whatever it may be, but just as a pure action film it falters.

The story is also confusing with the real plot not getting revealed until the scene before the climax of the film. Overall, this movie is a decent action flick compared to others in the genre at the time of release, but lacks the charm of the previous films. It's not awful by any means, but forgettable and a disappointing follow-up.

Runaways (2017–2019)

Pretty Poorly Written

[4/10 · 12 April 2019]

First, the show's not all bad. It's actually pretty competently made. The actors all do a good job for the most part, the production is pretty high quality, and the effects are pretty good with a realistic looking dinosaur (granted it's hardly ever on screen as they always find a way to write it off the show for episodes at a time). The problem is the writing. The show works best when it's centered around the teens together, but fails when it focuses on the parents.

They establish pretty early on that the parents have been abducting and murdering teenagers for years in order to sacrifice them to an alien so he can get enough power to free more aliens that are buried under the earth which happens to also cause massive earthquakes. Yeah, really stupid. There are some really potentially awesome story possibilities in there, but they make every wrong turn they can.

The main problem is that the show really asks you to care about the parents and their well-intentions, but, at least to me, when parents are involved in a conspiracy to murder teenagers for years, they become pretty irredeemable early on. There are two parents that actually come across as likeable and kind of goofy, but then again, there are another two parents that are murderers outside of the sacrifices, and another 2 parents that are complicit in covering up the murder of their own daughter that they caused, so overall, they are terrible and have no sympathy from me.

They also just never know where to take the story. Rather than making it serialized by season or just one-off episodes, each story line has about 3 episodes until it is wrapped up and a new one starts. This makes it hard to get invested in side characters who disappear after a few episodes and are disposable.

Overall, while this show is Marvel's worst and a pin to watch, it does feature some real talent behind and in front of the camera, just not any talent holding the pen.

Answers to Nothing (2011)

Interesting Characters But No Climax

[6/10 · 3 January 2013]

Coming in to this movie, I thought it was going to be multiple peoples stories that all come together at the climax of the film. This did not happen. Each characters story is very compelling on their own and everyone is loosely connected to each other, but they don't make up one story as a whole. I felt like the movie was building up to the climax of them all impacting the finding the missing girl, but this is not the case. Only about 4 characters, out of a dozen, impact what could be called the climax, and I feel like the 4 that do had the least screen time. Overall, if you get invested into each and every character, the movie maintains interest. I would have rather seen each characters' story as its own short film rather than thrown into this hodgepodge of lives. If you enjoy movies like Crash or a much darker version of that comedy Valentine's Day, then you might like this.

PS: Dane Cook gives a surprisingly great performance.