I really disliked the first film, I mean for a franchise that had the ability to be a winning formula, it’s sad the studios completely botched it with a low grade, sub-par, and lackluster film. Sure, it had a sense of entertainment, but that only a hint of it, and it attempted to become a feminine “Indiana Jones” while instead transforming in to a poor man’s “Indiana Jones”. When a video game with controllable characters has more life in it than a movie with real actors, that’s just pathetic. With “The Cradle of Life” I didn’t really expect anything different in terms of quality and depth of story. Angelina Jolie is cute, but hardly has the charisma needed for Lara Croft, and “The Cradle of Life” proves it. And surprisingly Jolie is not sexy here.
I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
Very crafty of the little gray rabbit, or something to that effect. With films these days you have only black and white, heads or tails, films that are just dumb, and films that are thought provoking, hardly ever in a blue moon are we given a film that looks like entertainment but is really thought provoking brain candy. But David O. Russell is the crafty madman behind “I ♥ Huckabees”, a film that examines existentialism through a company conglomerate of department stores that are just a microcosm for life and the big picture. We never really see many Huckabees stores here, but that’s because the Huckabees presence is only that, a presence which serves as a link to connect all the characters here in this story. It’s the Nucleus for the story that serves as a source to connect the characters in an uneasy situation whether they like it or not.
WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception (2004)
“WMD” is a shocking, sometimes much too disturbing account of the biggest crime that went completely unnoticed, and will continue to go unpunished. This is not a study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, but what this does probe in to is the utter destruction and obliteration of the American journalistic sentiment. Growing up, I was taught that journalists are the people who keep those in power, in line, and catch them in their misdeeds and wrong doings to better serve the public and teach them that we are being looked out for, so that those in power do not abuse what they’ve been given. People like Woodward and Bernstein who helped unravel the Watergate scandal and the legendary Edward R. Murrow who gave the art of journalism the reputation that it was a dynasty of honesty, and truth, and seeking to help those who don’t have a voice. What documentarian Danny Schecter does is give the audience a message we’ll never be given.
The Man with the Screaming Brain (2005)
Bruce Campbell attempts yet again to make another movie with his deal of difficulties, and finally had it released. Granted it was released on the “Sci-Fi” Channel, but it still ends up being a pretty entertaining throwback to the fifties with a mix of schlock for much effect to what the topic of the film entails, because–seriously–comedy or drama, would you watch this film with a straight face? This is science fiction comedy, or comedy with a science fiction twist? Because the screenplay never seems to know.
Shark Tale (2004)
I’m as to Will Smith’s real appeal these days. Every role he’s in, he basically plays himself, and in “Shark Tale”, Will Smith plays Will Smith… as a fish; How incredibly original. Oscar, his character is very superficial. He has no real redeeming qualities, is more based on his personality than actually making him a three-dimensional character with traits, and never really convinces me that I should like him, and I ended up liking Lenny (Jack Black) much more. Every other character is just there to pop jokes in now and again.
Pilots Reviews: CBS' "How I Met Your Mother," UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris"
So what the hell do both of these shows have to do with each other? Well, simply put: they flash back to a time that would lead to something big eventually, and both could either deliver to the audience what we want, or can drag on and on and on until the gimmicks are so tired, we beg for it to be cancelled. But surprisingly, one gimmick works better than the other. Sometimes flashback shows work (“Wonder Years”, My Beloved “American Dreams”), and sometimes they don’t (“Do Over”, “That Was Then”), and both shows rely on this gimmick to spawn an entire series. With “How I Met Your Mother”, we see an old man telling his two children how he met their mom, and it’s safe to say this show has a big gimmick that will only tell how long this show will last. I mean how long will these kids sit to listen to this story? More importantly how long will the audience?
Cube Zero (2004)
Just so we know where we stand, I disliked Cube, and hated Cube 2: Hypercube, both films that made the basic horror/science fiction fan cream their pants. Though the concepts were original, the writers and creators did very little with it and thus we were given much repetition in both. One is about a bunch of people in a cube maze with death traps, Cube 2 was just basically a lot more of the same thing, and it seems to me the creators figured out that they needed to change it or else continue repeating the same old stuff, so they created this prequel/semi-sequel called “Cube Zero”.