stevegx Reviews

Stripes (1981)

First movie I stopped watching partway through due to quality issues

[1 December 2005]

This movie severely disappointed me. Maybe I was comparing this too much to the portrayal of boot camp in Full Metal Jacket, but the situations depicted seemed entirely unbelievable. I could go through some of them, but I'd probably end up listing every scene in the movie. I found myself scowling at most of the attempts at jokes and not laughing from those that managed not to offend me. Once the guys go into the general's home, I decided that this movie was an waste of my time. I didn't see the movie going anywhere interesting, and could basically guess what the general outline of the rest of the movie would be based on what had previously been mentioned.

No rating since I couldn't bare to sit through it all.

Taken (2002)

Alright, I guess

[6/10 · 16 September 2003]

A decently intriguing storyline that goes on for twice as long as it really should have. The story moves very, very slowly, and it got very hard for me to keep track of all the connections between the characters. The first and second weeks felt almost like completely different movies, the first week being a great movie about how aliens have landed and penetrated our society, despite attempts from the government to deal with them. The second slowed down the pace of time advancement, and dealt more with what the alien's presence on Earth put forth by the first week's programs culminated in. Taken as separate movies, they probably work better than considered to be part of a whole, somehow. We don't need to second to have the first make sense. It could have just been wrapped up in one episode or something (my mother assumed it was going to be - she didn't know it was only halfway done). The second week didn't need the huge buildup of the first week to work at all.

As to the plot and the characters, they were decent but not spectacular. I love Matt Frewer in general, so while his character's appearance is a bit...odd, I loved it anyway.

Overall, the 40 hours of this series is overly long, and somewhat incongruous.

6/10

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Overall pretty good.

[8/10 · 16 September 2003]

I've only seen the TV edit of this film, and I think that the alternate versions section didn't list all of the scenes that were removed for it after reading the other reviews, but I hope that they don't detract from it.

Reading the opening credits the second time I saw it, I noticed it was based on a book, which is quite understandable. This is not your average Hollywood movie. There's basically no action, and all the plot is very cerebral in nature. The author of the book and the screenplay did a very good job portraying the reactions of various people, as well as of the computer itself.

Below are possible spoilers.

I said there are spoilers below, so don't blame me.

The one thing that has bugged me ever since I saw this was the concern of whether submitting to the computer's will is all that bad of a thing. The last chapter of Asimov's "I, Robot" presents a similar issue, and the way it's written suggests that we'd better let the computers guide us, because they're programmed to have at heart the good of all mankind. The difference, however, is that the Machines that Asimov had controlling the World's production were only willing to force those against them away from positions of power, and such resembled Earth politicians. Colossus and Guardian act more like aliens in their imprisonment and murder of innocent civilians in order to make sure that they can control the world for the betterment of mankind in the long run. Even Klaatu of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was unwilling to sacrifice human life or machinery in order to get across his point that there were more powerful forces at work on Earth.

The supercomputers of this movie are far more akin to those whose mantra is "to save X, we must destroy X," just not as extreme. They are what people were afraid of happening to machines in Asimov's world if his famous 3 laws were not imprinted so deeply within the robot's positronic brain. Their programming is to make guide humans towards a peaceful existence, but their design allowed them to think far beyond the parameters they were given, and allow them to threaten mankind into doing something they wouldn't do normally in order to "preserve the peace." The extreme tactics of the machines makes one so opposed to them that sympathizing with them in anyway is impossible. The second time I watched this, I seriously had doubts to why Forbin was acting the way he did at the end. Clearly he can see that mankind will be better off under this computer's guidance, even if it does mean a bit of oppression along they way, right? Well, clearly Forbin is much too human than we are initially led to believe, and like most humans is unwilling to have his life and the lives of his fellow men dictated by a machine of their design. Never mind that the original programming was partly for that exact purpose.

My problems with this include the fact I find it rather preposterous that Colossus would cease with its surveillance of Forbin while he's in bed with the mistress, given that Colossus is watching him in the bathroom and such. Also, the fact that Colossus couldn't have just been shut down (by either side) suggests that it is some sort of perpetual motion machine. Even if it had a power plant inside of it, humans have to supply it with fuel at some point. The best I can come up with is that it's given fuel for the year in some sort of non-reversible passageway, and that one of the things it blackmails humans into doing is making sure its power supply is uninterrupted. Also, it seems rather likely that all the missiles could have been capped and evacuated, forcing Colossus' weapons to be unable to be launched. That they'd have to be disarmed in the way shown is rather foolish.

Overall, I give this 8/10

Rejected (2000)

The monkey poured coffee in my boots

[9/10 · 9 September 2003]

I can only echo the comments of most the reviewers here. This movie is purely absurdity from beginning to end. The humor comes from the fact that it makes absolutely no sense at all, but at the same time makes perfect sense. I always find myself ripping out a person's torso, putting on my head, the extending and waving my arms saying, "I'm the queen of France."

The last sequence is what really makes this film for me. It goes from just a series of violent and non-sequitur jokes to wrapping up the entirety of the world in some sort of absurd apocalypse. The effects used is this were absolutely amazing, but it's hard to even notice them the first couple times through given how hard you should be laughing.

Of course, I can see how some people just don't get it. There are absolutely no real jokes ala Leno and Letterman. It's just pure absurdity at its best.

9/10

Re-Animator (1985)

Decent, but abuses the story

[6/10 · 9 September 2003]

This review is based on the unrated DVD version. The DVD contains many extended scenes that flesh out the plot, as well as a deleted scene that makes absolutely no sense at all.

A fairly decent horror flick, especially compared to some of the ones my girlfriend's made me watch. I'm a huge fan of Lovecraft, and had hoped the filmmakers would respect the story much more than they did, but it certainly wasn't normal Hollywood material without a love interest and a much more evolving plot than the story provided. I really disliked the addition of the meddling old doctor with the hypnosis powers. It takes even truth stretching to believe that some little serum is going to revive people's brains and such, but a guy who can do what are basically Jedi mind tricks? Please. Still, since it was so different from the original story, I was a bit surprised at some of the turn of events.

6/10

Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Yuck

[3/10 · 9 September 2003]

Horrid Acting, a ridiculous plot, an overlong introduction (the DVD version was 12 minutes as opposed to the trivia's noting it as 15), and no elements of Jason that we really come to know him by leads to a movie that really is a waste of time. Please only see this if you're just seeing the entire series for kicks.

3/10