2004 Movie Reviews
Blade Trinity
Wesley Snipes
returns as the vampire Hunter Blade in
the third installment of the Blade
franchise. David Goyer who was the
writer on the first two films returns in
an expanded role as director as well as
writer in this film. This film
follow Blade on the hunt for the
greatest vampire of them all, Dracula.
This time Blade is assisted by the
Nightstalkers led by Abigail Whister and
Hannibal King played by Ryan Reynolds
who steals every scene he is in.
This film seems very different than the
first two and you can definitely see
David Goyer's flaws as a rookie
director. It plays more on comedy
and Dracula does not seem to have the
presence his character should evoke
another negative to this film is the
acting by Parker Posey whose dialogue
and acting seem dull. This film is
the black sheep in the Blade franchise
and hopefully this will be David Goyer's
first and last outing as a director.
Grade: C-
The Village
M. Night Shyamalan's
fourth film has either been loved or
hated by most people. I think I sit
somewhere in the middle I quite enjoyed
the film and thought that the Shymalan
twist was quite clever. The film stars
William Hurt as the leader of a small
rural village in the woods around 1897.
The settlers of these woods moved here
from the towns to escape the corruption
and crime of the big towns. In the
woods lurks creatures that do not enter
the village and the villagers do not
enter the woods. The cinematography on
this film like most of Shymalan's movies
is quite stunning and beautiful. I
think this is probably M. Night's second
best movie and a nice sigh of relief
after the horrible Signs.
Grade: B+
I, Robot
Will Smith stars
in the film loosely based on Issac
Asimov's short story collection. The
film takes place in the future with one
of the biggest robot distributions in
history, but Will Smith's character
feels there is something wrong with the
robots after the murder of a robot
scientist played by James Cromwell.
Along Will Smith's side is a robot
psychologist played by Bridget Moynahan
(The Recruit) who tries to unravel the
mystery of the renegade robots. This
film is visually quite stunning and
takes the audience for a great ride from
start to end.
Grade: B+
SpiderMan 2
The most
anticipated sequel/film of 2004 and it
delivers on all levels. It is hard for
sequels based on blockbuster movies to
deliver but like Shrek 2 this one does.
Toby Maguire returns in the Spider-Man
tights to save New York against Doc Ock
played masterfully by Alfred Molina.
Although this is an action film the
majority of the time is used for
character development which in essence
is the real story behind Peter Parker.
Sam Raimi has done it again with a movie
that many will consider the best super
hero movie in history. One of the
highlights of this film is the way
Spider-Man swings through New York it
seems like a choreographed dance and I
can't wait until the next installment.
Grade: A
Harry Potter & the
Prisoner of Azkaban
Chris Columbus the
director of the original two Harry
Potter films, hangs up his director's
hat to produce the third film in the
series. Alfonso Cuaron takes over the
reigns to direct and unfortunately does
not live up to Columbus' talent. This
film follows Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) in
his third year at Hogwarts. A lunatic
has escaped Azkaban prison and is after
Harry. Gary Oldman plays Sirius Black
and is one of the highlights of this
film. This movie is much darker than
the first two and has a much different
feel. In a book that is much more dense
than the original two Cuaron spends too
much camera time on filler and leaves
the audience confused on major plot
twits. I was really looking forward to
this film but went away a bit
disappointed it had a lot of potential
but Cuaron leaned on making his film
artsy.
Grade: B-
Dodgeball
Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn star in
another hilarious movie. Ben Stiller
owns a large chain of gyms and tries to
take over Vince Vaughn's small time
gym. Vaughn tries to save his gym by
entering in a dodgeball tournament to
win some money. Stiller and Vaughn have
never failed to make the audience laugh
and this film is no exception. Although
the story is not one of the most
intricate it still makes you laugh.
Grade: B+
The Terminal
Steven Spielberg
returns to direct Tom Hanks in another
film. The Terminal is a story about
Victor an immigrant who travels to the
United States only to learn his country
has gone through a revolution and no
longer exists. Victor is forced to stay
in the airport terminal and wait to
enter the US. The film also stars
Catherine Zeta-Jones as his love
interest. I found this film to be quite
boring at most times and the story
seemed a little far-fetched the cast did
a good job but it was still lacking that
magic. On a side note I was actually an
extra on this film although I didn't
make it in the final film (My brother
and a few of our other friends did
though). Unfortunately this was not
Spielberg or Hank's best.
Grade: C+
Shrek 2
Another sequel, but this film surpasses
the original. Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz
and Eddie Murphy return in their
original roles with the addition of John
Cleese and Rupert Everett. The film
continues where the last left off and
Shrek and his new bride Princess Fiona
are off to a kingdom far far away to see
her parents. Another addition to the
cast is Antonia Banderas who plays the
hilarious Puss in Boots. If you loved
the original you will definitely like
this film.
Grade: A-
Chronicles of Riddick
Many people will probably
not remember the film Pitch Black but it
was the starting of Vin Diesel’s movie
career. Pitch Black has become a cult
hit and Universal thought it should
continue the story of Riddick (Diesel).
This story continues five years later
and finds Riddick running from bounty
hunters. An evil religion known as the
Necromongers
are going planet
to planet destroying those who do not
turn to them. I can honestly say that
this is one of the best action films I
have seen in a long time and Diesel
plays the role as if it were made for
him. This film is also visually
stunning considering we as the viewer
are jumping from planet to planet. It
also stays true to the Pitch Black
formula and keeps the viewer planted in
his seat wondering what will happen
next.
Grade: B+
Troy
Alas
the first popcorn flick of the year. I
was pleasantly surprised at how good
Troy really was. After being let down
so many other times by big budget action
flicks I was quite weary as I walked
into the theater and sat down. I have
always been a big fan of Wolfgang
Petersen the director, but I still had
reservations. The film started out with
an introduction to the hero of sorts
Achilles played by Brad Pitt. I have
always enjoyed Brad Pitt (especially in
Snatch) and he does a great job here
although as the viewer you do not know
if Achilles is good or bad. The best
actor award goes to Eric Bana in this
film who plays Hector of Troy. I have
never been a big Eric Bana fan
especially after Hulk (The worst comic
book movie ever). He has a lot to work
with in the film as he defends troy
against Greece. Orlando Bloom plays
Prince Paris in his worst film role
ever, every time he is on screen it is
terrible. The fight scenes are good but
nothing compared to Lord of the Rings
and the computer animation is
unrealistic. I felt that the
cinematography of this film was
compelling as well as the score.
Welcome to summer 2004.
Grade: B-
Kill Bill Vol. 2
This is part two
to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill volume
1. When I first reviewed Kill Bill Vol.
1 I gave the film a B+, I really enjoyed
the story and plot. Unfortunately I can
not say the same about volume 2, I felt
this film was completely different form
the first and took a different turn for
the worst. The style and direction
seems completely different from the
first and most of the film keeps jumping
form one type of camera work to
another. It seems as if Tarantino just
took parts of old films he loved and
refilmed them using the characters from
this film. The film continues Uma
Thurman's character who is on a mission
to kill Bill played by David Carradine.
She still has two more members of the
former gang to kill who include Michael
Madsen and Daryl Hannah. One of the
best parts of the film is where Uma
confronts Darryl Hannah's character in a
trailer. I am surprisingly disappointed
in this film considering how much I
enjoyed the first film.
Grade: D+
Hellboy
I have
never read the comic book Hellboy before
and the first I had even heard of the
character was through the movie
trailer. I was not sure what to expect
from this film since I knew nothing of
the characters or story lines from the
comics. I was pleasantly surprised at
how different this was from most comic
book movies. The story grabs the
audiences attention from the get go and
the film does a lot of character
building in the first half. This film
is directed by
Guillermo Del Toro
(Blade II) who admits he is a big fan
of Hellboy. The film stars Ron Perlman
as Hellboy the child of Satan who was
found by the allied troops during World
War II, he is part of a secret society
that stops paranormal activity and has
to stop a Nazi general who has risen
from the dead to destroy Earth. This
film has action and adventure but also
has a human story about the relationship
of father and son.
Grade: B+
Dawn of the Dead
Zack Snyder
directs the remake of the 1978 zombie
classic. Sarah Polley stars as a nurse
in a town where everyone is becoming a
zombie and she as well as others turn to
the local mall as a refuge from the
overwhelming number of zombies trying to
kill her and her companions. Although I
have never seen the original this film
will hold its own as a classic horror
movie. Snyder seems to have put every
detail into this film from the mall
music that plays, "everything is going
to be alright," that mocks the
survivors, to the fun they poke at the
situation they are in. I really enjoyed
this film and there was a humanistic
element as well. You do not know what
to expect at any point in this film and
you are along for the ride through the
end of the credits. If you are a gore
lover this movie has plenty of it. This
is your textbook popcorn flick.
Grade: B
Starsky & Hutch
Todd Phillips
(Road Trip, Old School) returns to
direct this throwback to the 1970s hot
television show. Although I barely
remember the show I felt this film was
extremely entertaining and fun. The
film stars Owen Wilson (Ken Hutchinson)
and Ben Stiller (David Starsky) who pair
up together for the fifth time, star as
the cop duo. Snoop Dogg also stars as
Huggy bear, a police informant and fits
right at home in the role of a pimp.
The plot is a run of the mill cop story
with Wilson and Stiller stopping a drug
dealer played by Vince Vaughn. One of
the highlights of this film is a cameo
by Will Farrell who plays a jailed
criminal who Starsky and Hutch try to
persuade to give them information.
There are many references to the
original show and it seems that Todd
Phillips was the right director for this
film to give it nostalgia as well as
the comic
style we have come to expect from
Phillips.
Grade: B-
The Passion of the Christ
Perhaps one
of the most controversial films in 2004,
Gibson’s The Passion stands alone
without the controversy. Instead of the
controversy I will analyze the film
elements themselves such as the
cinematography and score. The film is
visually beautiful and it transports you
to another
period of history. The cinematography
is complimented by the moving musical
score which gives the film emotion and a
real sense of despair. Jim Caviezel
plays Jesus in his last 12 hours of life
and his crucifixion. One of the major
drawbacks to this film is the senseless
violence that plays out on the screen.
It seems that Mel Gibson could have
found a more artistic way to show the
pain that Jesus went through. Any
audience member would feel sorry for any
character that went through that much
pain and it seems that this overshadows
the good points of the film.
Grade: B
50 First Dates
Drew
Barrymore and Adam Sandler team up again
in yet another romantic comedy from the
Sandler camp. Sandler implores all of
the same gang including a hilarious Rob
Schneider as a Hawaiian native. The
story follows Henry Roth (Sandler) who
falls ion love for a girl (Barrymore)
who suffers from short-term memory
loss. Roth has to introduce himself to
Lucy everyday and convince her to fall
for him. The film also stars Sean
Austin who stars as Lucy’s brother and
is hilarious as a body builder with a
lisp. Although this film does have some
funny parts most of which are exhausted
in the trailer it fails to capture the
magic that Sandler and Barrymore had in
The Wedding Singer,
Grade: C+
