While I was interested in watching “Constantine”, I didn’t really get what I was expecting. I never once read a comic of “Hellblazer”, but I know the general gist of it, and despite my disappointment with the miscasting of Reeves and the loose adaptation, I did get more than I bargained for. Constantine was essentially a story that takes place in the UK, but despite the Americanization, it ends up becoming a really solid adult thriller in the end. Constantine is a demon fighter who has been diagnosed with cancer and is now seeking to buy his way in to heaven, and through that journey, director Francis Lawrence who is shockingly a music video director, surprisingly gives some grade A direction for what is rightly a stylish yet very murky supernatural thriller.
Tag Archives: War
Starship Troopers 2 – Hero of the Federation (2004)
What occurs in “Starship Troopers 2” is an odd thing, something that happens very rarely in franchise land. First off, I’ll be the first to admit that the sub-title “Hero of the Federation” makes no sense to me. What is it supposed to mean? Is it supposed to refer to the character Dax? Regardless, I would have preferred something like “Dark Corruption” or something to that effect, something that refers to the plot. What’s odd is, this is so very different from the first film, and that was perplexing to me. I’d read about this movie and about how dark and murky it would be from the original film, but I didn’t expect anything like this. I thought the original film was decent for what it was; a balls to the wall action film without a brain in its head, but I liked it, and I even liked the obscure dark animated series “Roughnecks”, so it’s safe to say the writer strays away from the original formula that made the Verhoeven directed original so successful and decides to take its own route in storytelling.
The Last Samurai (2003)
This elegant love letter to the samurai and to the old world Japanese culture takes place in the late 1800’s, the civil war era, an ex-confederate soldier Captain Nathan Algren, a drunken has been is tortured by his past after being forced to slaughter an Indian village during Custer’s last stand is now a has been who advertises guns for the Winchester company until he’s approached by friend Zebulon Grant played very poignantly by Billy Connolly who makes an offer to Algren to re-claim his respect as a soldier and take a job from the Japanese government to modernize their army to fight against the rebels, an army of Samurai’s, a dying breed from the old world, who are being led by a mysterious leader known as Katsumoto.
Dog Soldiers (2002)
What if Steven Spielberg and Stephen King got together and decided to mix “Silver Bullet” with “Saving Private Ryan”? You have a rather large hunk of horror/action fare for any movie nut to chew on, and this is some film to chew on. Take a group of completely different people, store them in a confined space with very little and/or limited weapons while they’re forced to fend off against ravenous monsters who are lurking at every corner while they’re forced to deal with each other, as paranoia inevitably ensues. “Dog Soldiers” is one bad mutha of a horror film successfully following that formula and creating an experience for viewers that will linger on your mind forever.
The Pianist (2002)
The holocaust was the worst crime against humanity and a race ever committed; the concept as to the extermination of the Jewish race and it’s allies is simply ridiculous and thus a thought is shown in “The Pianist” a film that rivals every one of the greatest Holocaust films ever made, including the best “Schindler’s List”. Based upon the autobiography and chronicle of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman through his struggle for survival from the beginning of the holocaust, his family’s move from smaller place to smaller place to finally a concentration camp, his escape from the concentration camp and his survival in the Warsaw ghetto, we learn something about the people of that time, the Jewish people who were persecuted among the Nazi’s; these were survivors, these were true heroes who managed to stay alive along the course of the Holocaust.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
It’s been a turbulent and bittersweet three years with the good vs. evil “Lord of the Rings” trilogy making its way into theaters and creating a phenomenal and historic legacy. Director Peter Jackson has so skillfully created a trilogy that has been flawlessly taken from the pages of the legendary JRR Tolkien books and put it on the big screen for all to glimpse at the magic of Middle Earth. “The Return of the King” manages to come out of the first two with much individuality but fits into the first two films tightly coming together as an incredible whole. As individual movies, these are jaw-dropping stunners, and as a whole they’re truly an accomplishment only Peter Jackson could have constructed.
The Grey Zone (2001)
“If you understand what happened in the camps, you have a much better understanding of what we’re all about as human beings” says Tim Blake Nelson, director and writer of “The Grey Zone”. But will we ever be able to understand the holocaust? Will we ever be able to understand why we as humans would destroy others like us? Why we would kill Children, and elderly people who were treated like worthless animals? Why one man ordered the destruction of the Jewish race nearly wiping out the entire population of Polish Jews? Based on the play by Tim Blake Nelson and Miklos Nyiszli’s book “Auschwitz: a Doctor’s Eyewitness Account”, “The Grey Zone” dares to explore that question but never gives an answer. There is no answer good enough to explain why the holocaust even happened in the first place.