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Star Wars RANK=1000
Star Wars Episode 4
Category : Adventure
Description :
The One, The Only, Star Wars.
Mere words just can't do justice to this classic SF film.
I saw Star Wars SE on the big screen on its opening night in Brisbane.
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is True
SeenOnTV is True
#viewings=5
First seen
in /1985
 
 
Starship Troopers RANK=78

Category : Action
Description :
BEM story - literally.
Young people sign up for the Space Marines and do training and fight big insects on faraway planets while maintaining a friendship, etc.
Good side: VERY nice creature FX, cute babes.
Bad side: No plot, no character development.
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is False
SeenOnTV is False
#viewings=1
First seen
in /1998
 
 
Sudden Death RANK=35

Category : Action
Description :
Jean Claude Van Damme saves a crowd at an ice hockey game.
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is False
SeenOnTV is True
#viewings=1
First seen
in /1996
 
 
The Sum of All Fears RANK=552

Category : Not Sure
Description :
Unlike other examples of Hollywood arithmetic, The Sum Of All Fears adds up properly. Unfortunately, like any sum, it keeps to the formula. :-) Clancy's stock Cold War spy thrillers, including Spy and Love Interest, but updated with Noughties motives and terminology.

Fascists. Aryans. Terrorists. Put all three together and you have Da Bad Guyz(tm). USA's CIA are (of course) Da Good Guyz(tm). Russia/CIS are pretty much the Piggy In The Middle. Aryan fascists aim to frame the Russians for setting off a nuclear bomb in the U.S., which will provoke a nuclear war between Russia and the U.S. in which both sides will be weakened, so clearing the way for the fascist regime to emerge as a dominant power. Standard SkyNET tactics.

Jack Ryan, ace desk jockey and general CIA tosser extraordinaire, is roped into some "field work" for a change, meaning he gets to punch people. The White House dudes are in a dither over who set off the nuke, and what to do next. Ryan learns vital information in the field which must be conveyed to Da Prez so that he can hold off WWIII for a while longer.

Solid pace. Built tension well, but in our terrorist-infested world it didn't have to reach very far to pull heartstrings. Very surreal to see a movie actor playing a president talking about curtailing WMD, and then switch on the TV and see the same happen for real. Sign of the times I guess.

The way all the "loose threads" are tidied up at the end is accompanied by populist orchestral music, which I took to be a tongue-in-cheek expression of admiration for the well-oiled spy network that still exists and is still just as capable of covert asassinations today as it was when it began in the 1950s.

Somehow Jack Ryan got 20 years younger since I last saw said character in Clear and Present Danger, by virtue of the role being handed from Harrison Ford to Ben Affleck. Young Ben does a good enough acting job where possible, and is quite a bit nimbler on his feet than his predecessor.

OK... is it wrong of me to wish the yield had been a bit higher?
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is False
SeenOnTV is False
#viewings=1
First seen
in 9/2002
 
 
Swordfish RANK=817

Category : Action
Description :
Those wacky brothers of Matrix fame are at it again, and they continue to demonstrate inventiveness in both script and visuals. Real innovation and "f#&%ing-with-the-format" rarely emerge from the big budget US film factory, and Swordfish is a pleasing exception. These guys rock, and every movie they touch is golden. Three from three is a good score in anyone's book, especially for the movie business.
In case you haven't figured it out by now, I think the Wacioski borthers are legends.

But back to the film!
The first ten minutes make the whole movie, both for the witty monologue by Travolta, and for the most extensive and awesome use of Matrix-style time-stretching that has ever been put on film. There's one or two plot twists along the way, which helps. See this!
And yes, every bloke in the cinema was sniggering with appreciation during the "Job Interview" scene. Hell, if Helga worked at Centrelink I'd quit tomorrow!
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is False
SeenOnTV is False
#viewings=1
First seen
in 8/2001
 
 
Tears of the Sun RANK=283

Category : War
Description :
You've probably read the advertising blurb, so you know this is about a bunch of U.S. marines that are sent to evacuate U.S. citizens from Nigeria during a time of civil war. And you also know from the advertising trailer that a handful of these dudes have to fight hundreds of rebel soldiers. And you also know it stars Bruce Willis.
Put all that together and it doesn't mean a thing, because this movie isn't about any of that. The title has no apparent connection with the story. The packaging used to sell the movie is very disjoint from what lies beneath.

It's difficult to avoid comparisons with Terrence Malick's war film The Thin Red Line due to similar location, theme, charaters, and photography. In that context, Thin Red Line is vastly superior, with better script, acting, and depth.

Moreover, there are several annoying moments in Tears where all Bruce Willis can do is grimace and frown with mechanical indifference - what an effective way to convey emotion and narrate a story! (Just kidding.)
Willis is absolutely upstaged by a great scene between one of the other marines and a Nigerian refugee woman, in which the marine promises to help them escape to Cameroon. I think she is the best actor in the movie.

What it boils down to is that you think this movie is going to be another trade-mark Willis gung-ho bullet fest, because that's kindof what the packaging says it is. Then when you've paid your AUD $13.50 ticket price and get in there, you instead find that the director has tried to go head-to-head with Thin Red Line and has lost badly. That's not a pleasant surpise.

The theme is that the marines can't look at the refugees as just a 'package for a job', because now they care too much about the refugees' welfare. And yes, the theme is spelled out in nearly as many words by one of the characters - just in case you couldn't figure it out. Thanks.

This is not a bad movie, but in pretending on the surface to be something it isn't and then being only mediocre at what it really aims for, it may leave you somewhat disappointed.
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is False
SeenOnTV is False
#viewings=1
First seen
in 8/2003
 
 
The Terminator RANK=826

Category : SciFi
Description :
A flesh-covered cyborg is sent back through time to kill the mother of a future leader. Classic.
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is False
SeenOnVideo is True
SeenOnTV is True
#viewings=3
First seen
in /1986
 
 
Terminator 2 RANK=904
Judgment Day
Category : SciFi
Description :
Another cyborg is sent to kill future leader John Connor.
Classic.
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is True
SeenOnTV is True
#viewings=5
First seen
in /1990
 
 
Terminator 3 RANK=404
Rise of The Machines
Category : Action
Description :
It's been 20 years since Arnie was in the first Terminator movie. When he makes his signature nude time travel entrance into T3, even though you can tell he's slightly heftier than one he made the first one, Arnie's still got it. By some miracle of camera angles and makeup, and maybe some old fashioned iron pumping, Arnie has been made to look very Schwarzneggar in this installment, despite my fears that this old man would look and act like an old man. I hope this is the last time he puts on the metal endoskeleton, as decrepit has-been action heroes kept on life support is the stuff that movie nightmares are made of. Make no mistake, this movie would be nothing without him.

The premise of T3 in brief: A new kind of terminator, now faster, more intelligent, more powerful and in a female form, has been sent back in time to kill the lieutenants and other high ranking officers of the future human resistance army. As always, the resistance have sent a terminator back to protect them.

Plenty of violence and glorious gratuitous destruction! Some great Arnie style one-liners that I will have to study and remember. It has some funny moments too, especially between the Terminator, John Connor, and a future resistance fighter played by Claire Danes.

Some liberties have been taken with the script, such as the absence of Linda Hamilton being explained away by Sahrah Connor having conveniently died of leukemia in the years between T2 and T3. On the bright side, there is a total spinout on the background of the protective terminator.

Not a patch on the original, and looks deathly pale in comparison to T2, but T3 is still enjoyable entertainment.
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is False
SeenOnTV is False
#viewings=1
First seen
in 7/2003
 
 
The Thin Red Line RANK=978

Category : War
Description :
Exquisite.

Gorgeous leafy green jungles of Guadalcanal (actually filmed in Queensland) provide the backdrop for this superb film.
Private Ryan was released a few months earlier, but it is not even in the same league as Red Line. The Thin Red Line is so much more in several ways.
+ Exacting dialogue, almost poetic in quality.
+ Absolutely beautifully composed shots and cinematography.
+ Attention to detail to really create the atmosphere of the war and the environment that it occurs in.
+ I have a huge bias in favour of jungle settings because I like jungles heaps. :-)
+ Rich and moving soundscapes and narration to accompany the screen.
+ Well defined main characters.

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen.
Highly recommended. See it at least twice.
Rather a shame that it loses some impact on small screens.
 
Viewing Status
SeenInCinema is True
SeenOnVideo is False
SeenOnTV is True
#viewings=2
First seen
in 3/1999
 

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