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Movie Review: Dragon Wars: D-Wars (2007)

My favorite films

Movie Review: Tropic Thunder (2008)

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Movie Review: Dragon Wars: D-Wars (2007)

December 29th 2008 09:36

Director: Hyung-rae Shim
Staring: Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster, Craig Robinson

Ok. I watched this last night. I had limited expectations of the movie and I stopped myself from going online to read any reviews. So i figured I wouldn't be prejudiced at all.

The movie is based on a Korean legend, that every five hundred years, a woman protected by a man transforms in a serpent to fight against a dragon in a battle between good and evil. In Los Angeles of the present days, after a mysterious accident, the reporter Ethan Kendrick recalls his meeting fifteen years ago with Jack, who owned an antique shop and told him that he was the one supposed to protect Sarah Daniels. Ethan seeks out Sarah and together they fight to survive and destroy the devilish dragon.

Now, the story line has alot of potential but is really poorly executed. The acting is ok but you just don't have any feeling's for any of the characters and there is near to no character development. The lead characters fall in love but it's like one minute they aren't and the next they are. It just doesn't make any sense.

The movie though does pick up when the dragons all descend onto the city. And that is the one thing that saves this movie, the dragon/snake.

They are fantastic.

Not one of the best movies ever, but IF there is nothing else on, nothing else to do and you have already washed your hair, done the house cleaning and re-arranged your furniture... give it a go!

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Posted By: Karyn Wiffen - Category: No Category

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My favorite films

December 29th 2008 05:03

There are those films that you just love. The ones that you can watch over and over again and still get the same out of it the millionth time as you did the very first.

I have a few films like this. Some are by no means "greats" but they are ones that no matter what I know if I watch it I will love it, here they are (in no particular order):

1) The Lost Boys - One of the best, cheesy, vampires. Great sound track for fans of the eights and Mr Sutherland is quietly fantastically evil in it.

The Lost Boys

2) The Shawshank Redemption - Great movie I think in most peoples books. Not one moment in the movie does it let off the tension and the acting is great.

3) Dumbo - I love elephants. Dumbo is an elephant. And yes I do cry, still, when he visits his mother in "jail" and sits on her trunk and swings.... damn getting chocked up just thinking about it!!!!

4) Stand by Me - One of the first movies I ever watched and thought - gee, that is a good movie. River Phoenix is great in it as, again is Mr Sutherland.

5) The Chronicles of Riddick - I also like Pitch Black but this one I think has more action in it, it's one of the few Vin Diesel movies I actually like (I do like XXX as well).

6) Walk the Line - I love the sound track and am a fan of Mr Cash. Very well acted I think by all, including those in smaller bit parts. I took my mum to the cinema to see this movie about 4 times lol. Happy times for me those. Good one to have the bass turned up loud for!

7) Legends of the Fall - A classic in my eyes. Well written and excellently acted.

8) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - This one of the trilogy is the only one I can actually watch all the way through without fast forwarding over any (which is mainly the bits with Frodo and Sam...) But I love the action scenes and the battle at Helm's Deep. Also, of the three I think this is the closest to the book.

9) Tombstone - When this first came out on 'video' I hired every week from the video shop for a good six months (I then bought it lol). I love all of this movie, Val Kilmer is great as Doc Holliday. Great story, very well acted. 'I'm your huckleberry' hehehe.

10) The Magnificent Seven - My favorite movie. The cast, the story, the acting, the scenery, everything. Love it.

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Movie Review: Tropic Thunder (2008)

December 27th 2008 04:44

Tropic Thunder

Director: Ben Stiller

Very rarely do comedies hit the mark in terms of both smart humor and dumb humor in the same movie, let alone the same scene. That's what we've got with Tropic Thunder, a comedy that excels in both satirical jokes and laugh out loud stupidity. If you're game for any of that, in addition to quite possibly the funniest and most shocking cameos of all time, then Tropic Thunder is the perfect movie to close the summer of 2008 with.

Ben Stiller has always been the poster boy for trying to mix these two severely different types of humor recently, and has failed in his other two main directing attempts (although Zoolander was funny). Here, he more than succeeds in making Hollywood the laughingstock of the summer, and who better than Stiller to do so, someone who has been around the business his entire life.

Obviously, what's going to get the most laughs is our cast, which is one of the best comedy casts assembled, in my opinion. Our supporting performers are just as strong, if not stronger than our big three leads (definitely stronger than Jack Black), and we are treated to some of the funniest cameos of all time...One of Tropic Thunder's cameos, one of the most famous and serious actors in the world, nearly steals the movie, and is funnier than the last time he did a role like this (Austin Powers 3). If you don't know who I'm talking about by now, just wait until you see him. He'll have you on the floor laughing by the end of the movie. Other cameos (including a Judd Apatow boy and a former People's Sexiest Man Alive) are entertaining, but they have nothing on the big guy.

Group Pic

Now, to the actual cast...Starting with Stiller himself. Stiller has always been great at playing over the top asses, and that's what his character here is. There's plenty of exaggeration, plenty of laughs, but I felt there could have been more arrogance and more development in his character. The film though belongs to Robert Downey Jr. (why am I not shocked by this?), who could sneak a Golden Globe nomination in if he's lucky for his performance as super-serious "Aussie" star Kurt Lazarus. Downey is absolutely hilarious, yet believable as this actor who believes acting is larger than life, and provides for the best satire of all. Jack Black provided few laughs (though he does deliver one of the funniest lines of the movie). Jay Baruchel and Brandon Jackson are great in their supporting roles, and were the most well rounded characters (especially Baruchel). Danny McBride (three out of the last four movies I've watched have had this guy in it) of Pineapple Express is just as great here in another hilarious role tailor made for him. Nick Nolte is an odd presence, but an asset nonetheless. Steve Coogan's short role is memorable.

Stiller's main point in the film was obviously to make fun of Hollywood and his fellow actors as well, and he succeeds enormously. The fact that mentally challenged rights groups are calling for boycotts only proves Stiller's point: we all need to chill out, and stop taking things so seriously (where's The Joker when you need him?). The "bad" scene where the characters say 'retard' a few times is actually one of the best satire scenes in the movie. The scene isn't making fun of mentally challenged people, rather the actors that have won Oscars for playing them. Dustin Hoffman and Peter Sellers are not spared.

Stiller and Downey Jr

Like Pineapple Express before it, Tropic Thunder suffers from a less than stellar second act, which is used to attempt to ground the film in reality. This is unnecessary. We know that this could never happen. Insurance policies wouldn't even let a director think about doing what Coogan's character does in this film. However, the film starts and finishes very well (in fact, it starts better than any comedy of the year). It finishes with roars of laughter, and even though it is just absurd, it doesn't matter, because we've had a great time along the ride. Yes, Tropic Thunder is vulgar, but nowhere near the other Apatow brand products out these days. There's some blood and graphic violence, but nothing too bad.

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