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Reviews
Runaway Car (1997)
The true events it's "inspired by".
The true story was a woman driving a Volkswagen (not a Ford Maverik) that seemed to have a problem with a sticky throttle. There was never anyone else in the car. The throttle stuck wide open and it was later determined something had gone wrong in the shift linkage (IIRC it was a column shift, not floor shift) which prevented the transmission from being shifted from Drive and the key couldn't be turned off. Some cars with column shift have a physical interlock which blocks the key from being turned to Start unless the shifter is in Park.
Police tried to do a rolling roadblock, intending to let her car hit the back of a police car so they could slow it down but she thought she'd wreck the police car and drove onto the shoulder to pass.
IIRC how it ended was the police set up a water barrier (those large plastic dumpster-like containers full of water) to stop the car but instead she drove into the freeway median, rolling over. The drivers first words upon being pulled from the wreckage were "Did I kill anyone?" Reader's Digest had an article on it, I think it was one of their Drama in Real Life stories.
I'd give the real story 5 stars and this awful movie zero. The movie would've been much better had they simply stuck exactly to the truth.
Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West (2005)
It's not a "parallel" with Nazism...
...it's a direct link to radical Islam. Adolph Hitler met several times with Haj Amin al-Hussieni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Hitler put him in charge of recruiting three divisions of Muslim SS troops. Haj Amin al-Hussieni was Yasser Arafat's uncle. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Muslim SS troops took their Nazi indoctrination and anti-semitism home with them and indoctrinated their children in the Nazi beliefs.
One thing this documentary missed is that Arabic translations of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" are among the best selling books in the middle east.
The Allied countries focused mainly on the Germans and Italians after the war, letting go the SS and others from other countries who served Hitler and the Nazis.
Now, in the 21st century the civilized world is reaping what Chamberlain and all the other appeasers of tyrants, dictators and terrorists have sown.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Based on half the novel by J. K. Rowling
That was my comment when "Based on the novel by J. K. Rowling" came up in the end credits.
It _is_ a good movie on its own, but it's going to upset many plot applecarts for the later movies with all the stuff left out and the changes.
It opens with the caretaker scene in the old mansion, with Barty Crouch Jr. added, but not identified yet. Then it jumps to Hermione waking up Harry and Ron at the Weasleys to go to the Quidditch World Cup. They portkey right to the wizard camp and all the bits with muggles are left out (there's not a spot of anything muggle in the whole movie). Then it cuts to just before they go to the Weasley's tent where there's a good scene then *fwing!* they're climbing up to their seats at the Quidditch match where they run into the Malfoys for a bit of banter.
Then it's another jump to the teams' entrances, which is all you get to see of the QWC! There's no fairy gold, Ron has the fancy telescope with no explanation of how, and worst of all, the Bulgarian's cheerleaders aren't shown so there's nothing about the veela, which leads to there being nothing about Fleur being part veela. (THAT is going to cause trouble in later movies!) After the non-match, it's a jump cut back to Weasley's tent, just in time for the Death Eaters to blow up the camp, they're just walking around like the KKK in black robes, no torturing of muggles. Crouch Jr. (still unidentified) is shown setting the Dark Mark.
After all that quick jumping, the movie finally settles down a bit and gets into a more steady flow.
As for the three tests, only Harry's dragon battle is shown, and other than "Accio Firebolt!" it's totally different and needlessly drawn out, and not a bit of humor in the fight. (I was like "What?! He doesn't win by giving the dragon severe conjunctivitis?) Sticking closer to the book here would've at least allowed showing Cedric's battle! The lake test is the segment most true to the book and very well done. (If you've read the book, there's nothing more to say about that!) The maze was a big letdown. No blast ended skrewts, no Sphinx, no monsters at all other than the maze itself.
The resurrection and fight with Voldemort was quite well done, but it left out the bit where Harry and Voldemort fly into the air while their wands are magically connected. (That would have reinforced the concept that they were connected.) I'm looking forward to the extended cut DVD, since there are several posts here by people who saw early screenings saying it was three or more hours long! Hopefully there is quite a bit of footage, especially early in the film, to put back in and make it less jumpy.
Serenity (2005)
Wow, just wow.
I won't go into all the back story in the series and characters. There's 26 or more pages of comments on here already that cover it all.
What "Serenity" delivers is the "man behind the curtain" about the reavers, while it totally misses giving any details about other mysteries from the series. It also stirs up some new things that'll make you desperately want to see the next film.
If you were expecting revelations about BLUE SUN and why River Tam had such a destructive fascination towards things with the logo, such as the food cans and Jayne's shirt, there's only a single item in the whole movie with the BLUE SUN logo. (I made a fancy BLUE SUN shirt and wore it to the movie!) The "two by two, hands of blue" guys with their brain blasting weapon also are not in the movie.
If you haven't seen the series, you've no idea what I'm on about, if you've seen the series, you won't miss BLUE SUN or the blue handed men. There's so much else going on you won't have time to worry/think about them! There's a scene where you get whip-lashed from elation to despair so complete that everyone in the theater will go dead silent. Some viewers may even cry, so bring extra tissues! River is in a pair of fight scenes that make Jackie Chan and Jet Li's best look like musical dance scenes. She's graceful while kicking butt against multiple attackers. In the first, she's only in "defense mode" while in the second she's full-on berserker VS a shipload of reavers, wielding a sword and battle axe. No silly wire-work or "bullet time" or impossible moves, just gritty hand to hand and mêlée fighting.
What made it even better was the 21 screen theater I went to had it on two screens (40 feet tall! Almost as good as IMAX.) and every screening was sold out all day Friday! Hopefully they'll have to put it onto one or two more to handle the demand.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Almost, but not quite, exactly unlike...
...any previous version.
I really liked the movie, especially the new stuff. Visually, it's an eye candy shop where everything is free.
Where it fell down for me was the bits where they used dialog word for word from the books or TV series, but left out the best lines! The Vogon poetry scene loses its punch without "Actually, I write poetry to throw my cold, callous exterior into sharp relief!" and the Arthur lying in front of the bulldozer scene is lacking in humor with a bunch of hilarious dialog condensed into one line about the cellar. Could they not at least have done this? "I had to go down to the cellar, with a torch!" "Perhaps the lights had gone?" "So had the stairs!".
This movie spends great tracts of time (which is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so) on visuals, crowding out the dialogs that are what make the Guide series so funny and fun-poking at the human condition.
Overall, the movie just skims the surface of the depths found in the original radio series, the books and even the TV series.
But no matter what, see the movie, especially if you've never experienced any other version. Then grab an omnibus version of the trilogy (which contains five books plus a short story) and explore the even deeper realms of Douglas Adams humor.