The Punisher (2004)

Posted on May 1, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

Let those who enter this film remember, this is nothing like the film which was released in 1988. A film that was very loosely based on this comic book yet was only used as a cheap vehicle for the fading acting career of Dolph Lundgren. Don’t get the two mixed up; for that one was a mindless action cheese fest, this one is far more superior and intelligent. For those who have read my reviews and noticed my high reviews for the comic book movies, you’ll notice I’m a comic book fanatic. I read “The Punisher” comic books when I was a kid; they were very violent but they were damn good and fun to read, and I wasn’t surprised to discover that Marvel has scored another hit with this loyal adaptation that respects its audience and readers. Hear that DC Comics? Marvel respects its audience.

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Posted on March 14, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

Twas once a skeptic to the quality of the film now am a believer that Disney can still trot out quality films. My Mea Culpa was to assume that even with such a cast as Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp aboard that this would be a stinker, but once more I was wrong. Gore Verbinski who did an excellent directing job in the recent thriller “The Ring” conveys the true spirit of swashbuckling films in “Pirates of the Caribbean”, a film that is very reminiscent of the old Errol Flynn Pirate epics that stunned audiences in the early 1900’s in its truest essence; the swashbuckling film genre is dead only recently being brought to the screen with the bland “Cutthroat Island” a film that had style but little substance.

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A Man Apart (2003)

Posted on March 14, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

Diesel stars as Sean Vetter a DEA agent who with his friend Demetrius Hicks are in the midst of taking down a brutal drug cartel led by Memo Lucera (Geno Silva); after busting him and taking down the crime ring that they’ve spent seven years investigating, Sean finally can take some off-time. Enter wife Stacy, the loving beautiful wife to the character of Sean. By now, if you haven’t seen the movie, you can guess what will happen next, and do I even have to tell you anything else besides the fact that she becomes a motivation for vengeance? Watch the trailer and you won’t even have to see the movie. Simply because the plot twist is predictable and formula.

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Bringing Down The House (2003)

Posted on February 29, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

This movie presents a common comedy formula often ensured to bring laughs but hardly do they ever and “Bringing Down the House” tackles the formula head-on: upper class white family is intruded by hip black person, hip black person lives with upper class white family, teaches upper class white father to appreciate kids and wife more and upper class white family grow to love hip minority. In a star vehicle of this kind I expected what I’d heard of “Non-stop laughs”; sure someone who watches comedies lately knows to never listen to hype, and boy was this film hyped.

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Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Posted on February 29, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

We’re raised at early ages to fear in America, and we’re also bombarded with images of violence and sex, so much so it becomes numbing. As many of us have periodic moments of violence, many of the people in this tend to look at violence with a sort of comfort, almost as if they perceive violence to be apart of life, almost expected of us. Such is shown when a man accused of aiding the Uni-bomber sticks a gun to his head to demonstrate the accuracy of his gun. In another part of the world, a young boy in kindergarten shot another classmate; why he did what he did is never explained, or perhaps it can’t be explained. When asked why he did so, he replied with an uncertain answer; perhaps he was angry, or mentally disturbed, but that seems too easy. No one is really sure why he shot another student, but it seems the young boy simply shot her; almost as if it was an expected course of action, a first response.

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Basic (2003)

Posted on February 29, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

Director John McTiernan, after directing the horrible “Rollerball” remake, displays a high energy thriller which is beautifully directed; there some great shots in the film and the right mood and tension but ultimately it’s all wasted beneath the muddled confusing story. Taking it’s lesson from the classic “Rashomon”, an infantry group witnesses a murder take place attempting to rescue some survivors that never returned from a mission; they soon learn there was a large incident that took place and attempt to discover what occurred. Finding no options they call in DEA agent Tom Hardy played by the energetic John Travolta to take the reigns and interrogate the survivors and unfoil what occured while assisted by the scruffy Lt. Julia Osborne who discover a plot involving sadistic Sgt. Nathan West and his soldiers who hate him with a passion, and soon find much more beneath what looks like murder and drug dealing within the troop.

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Open Range (2003)

Posted on February 15, 2004 by Felix Vasquez

Based on the novel “The Open Range Men” by Lauran Paine, Charley is a free ranger along with his superior whom he calls boss; the two friends are teamed with two other young employees and live a simple life out on the open range as nomads herding cows for a living until one of the young employees is badly beaten and imprisoned in a town. When Charley and Boss go to retrieve him they come across a crooked Marshall and town mayor and upon their arrival to their campground, they’re soon being watched and stalked by masked men upon their return to their home, but when Charley and boss decide to take it upon themselves to stop the stalkers, they return to their home ravaged beyond belief and their friends hurt badly.

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