Formula 51 (2002)

Posted on May 5, 2003 by Felix Vasquez

There have been many rip-offs of “Pulp Fiction” over the past years, many movies mimicking the exact formula that made this influential movie so famous. This movie is an incredible mess including crude humor, a lot of which involving butts and farting, a running gag that plays throughout the movie about a common stereotype of African American genitalia, and a few plot holes here and there including one large one that made absolutely no sense. After Elmo McElroy is caught with marijuana, his potential career as a pharmacist is over. Thirty years later, a crime syndicate led by the Lizard wants his formula for the ultimate addictive drug POS Formula 51.

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Serving Sara (2002)

Posted on April 23, 2003 by Felix Vasquez

It’s difficult to see this movie as nothing more than a romantic comedy than a real one. Many of the jokes tend to fall flat on its ears with badly written puns and comebacks often spewed by Perry. This movie has many of the usual elements a humdrum romantic comedy has including the obligatory villain, and the formula in which the characters hate each other at first but soon grow to love each other.

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Murd3r By Num83r5 (2002)

Posted on April 12, 2003 by Felix Vasquez

The movie barely has any legs to stand on as far as a real story goes. The story is slow moving and often lagging, going on and on focusing on Sandra Bullock’s character, who is barely interesting to begin with. I like Sandra Bullock and know she’s capable of giving great performances in movies, but her selection of scripts is terrible. I found her character to be very unlikable and often annoying as her personality goes all over the place in the movie. I’m not sure if I can call this a true psychological thriller, based on the fact that the movie’s tension and atmosphere is all wrong and often very annoying.

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Empire (2002)

Posted on March 23, 2003 by Felix Vasquez

“Empire” is a fiasco for the record books, one that desperately tries to carve heroes out of thugs, gangsters, and deviants, and fails horribly. The movie, noticeably, takes much of its formula from better gangster flicks, including “Scarface” and rips apart the movies, taking each element, pasting it together in this. The entire narrative and pitiful attempts at character development are annoying, slow and so predictable it’s disgusting. Franc. Reyes directs this like a film student, never contributing anything new or different to talk about.

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The Opportunists (2000)

Posted on March 15, 2003 by Felix Vasquez

Victor Kelly (Christopher Walken Catch me if you can, Deer Hunter) is an ex – con from Queens who’s out of luck running an auto shop that basically being driven into the ground. One day a mysterious Irish relative appears claiming he’s related to him. However, he is soon lured back into crime by he and two other eager security and, left without any options, he decides to plan a heist to rob a low – security bank.

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Deuce’s Wild (2002)

Posted on March 12, 2003 by Felix Vasquez

Despite the slick and grim tone of “Deuce’s Wild,” Scott Kalvert’s attempt at a gangster picture is the worst film of 2002. And it’s likely one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. We get a nonsensical, clichéd movie with a contrived plot and go-nowhere characters, all of whom are nothing but comical walking clichés with writers Paul Kimatian, and Christopher Gambale showing zero restraint in predictability. How do you waste such a dynamic cast on such a putrid waste of film?

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Knockaround Guys (2001) (DVD)

Posted on March 5, 2003 by Felix Vasquez

I went into this movie with generally low expectations, I mean with a movie that was shelved constantly for nearly four years and re-shot numerously, I had no doubt this would be a flop. Those expectations seemingly helped this movie, because I was pleasantly surprised. Probably the most intriguing part of the movie is Barry Pepper’s character that wants badly to be one of the guys in the mob but can’t find the strength to pull a trigger. He pulls the Brooklyn accent off well, and never goes over the top. He’s a regular guy who wants to work like everyone else but can’t quite get past the name. He tough and intimidating and very likeable as well. Seth Green is his usual self but is likeable all at the same time; he’s annoying and irritating but he serves his purpose as the character.

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