The 2009 Movie Genre of the Month

[Heineken Skywalker]

Oh sure, if I hadn't read the book first the changes probably wouldn't bother me either, but even besides that, I still think the movie is really lame.

[slayrrr666]

Chill Factor-1999
Two men must keep a deadly biological device out of the hands of traitorous US agents, but since the weapon will detonate if it reaches a temperature of 50 degrees, it must be kept cold for the duration of the trek, which includes about 90% of the time being inside an ice-cream truck. Traditional, predictable action film, designed to allow for a wide arrangement of shoot-outs, fighting, stunts and explosions, yet if you really paid attention, nothing makes sense and everything can be safely avoided with one or two important questions that effectively kills everything dead, yet because of the break-neck pace, far-more impacting comedy than expected, and a never-ending series of chases, shoot-outs and things going boom, you hardly notice. In other words, a film perfect for me yet others won't really find much to it beyond the mediocre.
9/10

[slayrrr666]

Air Force One-1997
A film from my action-film loving youth, and one that, still, holds up for me. Sure, most of the action is highly improbable and designed just for making the film more exciting but would be illogical if the situation were to happen in real life, this is still a really good film. The improbable action doesn't have a drawback when it comes to excitement, as I mentioned earlier, and there's several really fun gunfights to occur throughout, as well as the wholly-appreciated inclusion of ingenuity to make it's way through the encounters and show off some rather thrilling encounters. With all three of the big aerial action scenes (the fighter jets vs the plane, the refueling sequence and the jets vs the MiGs) occurring at the end pretty much right after another, this one ends on a strong note, and while some of the political commentary included here wasn't my cup of tea, it isn't a total distraction from a really enjoyable film.
8.5/10

Executive Decision-1996
Strangely enough, either due to the fact that I saw this one later in the day, or the fact that I had seen the other one before yesterday and not this one, making me more familiar with it, I just couldn't get into this one. It seems tailor-made for me, as the commandos are dispatched into the plane quite early on and there's some rather fun encounters between them and the terrorists on-board, including my favorite when they try to take over the cock-pit, but there's some unknown factor right now that's keeping me from saying this was a really good film. Could be due to the lengthy dialogue scenes where each of the commandos try to get Russell to man-up, which get old after a while, or the overall length, which is actually noticeable here as opposed to AF1, but I just couldn't say this was all that great. Some good moments here and there, but an overall disappointment.
5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974)

When her infant son is placed with foster parents, Lou-Jean Poplin (Goldie Hawn) forces her husband, Clovis (William Atherton), to escape from a minimum security prison so they can go kidnap their own child. They take a rookie Texas State trooper hostage, and make a run for it in his patrol car. As they head across Texas, they are pursued by dozens of police cars, meanwhile the media and the public elevate the trio to the status of folk heroes.
This was director Steven Spielberg's first feature film (A year later he would make JAWS), and while it's interesting for that fact, and it features nice performances by Hawn and Atherton, I was kind of bored by it. Even the car chase isn't really that dynamic, imho.

5/10

TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM (1988)

Based on the true story of entrepreneur Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) and the innovative car he designed in the late 1940s. He obtains funding, builds a factory, and begins producing the cars. Problem is, the Big Three automakers don't want the competition and set out to crush Tucker's dreams.
Great performance by Bridges and a cast of mostly character actors.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and executive produced by George Lucas, and you can definitely see the parallels between Tucker and the two maverick filmmakers, especially Coppola, who faced many challenges when trying to build his own movie studio.

6.5/10

[slayrrr666]

Passenger 57-1992
I think I'm going to stop with the planes for a while, as this was so formulaic and lacking that it almost became a chore to sit through. Very little action, not all that much when it did happen, and it was entirely unspectacular as well, hampered by mixing in so many different elements from the films I had seen during the week (which, since this was released first, were ripped off from here) but it just seems to work better there than here, and despite some drama over the passengers fighting back, it still wasn't that enjoyable. A little bit of over-exposure mixed with a lacking film to start with makes this one not all that worthwhile.
3/10

[slayrrr666]

Herbie: Fully Loaded-2007
Now, while I do know a little about the original series, I had never seen one until this one, and while there's some good stuff here, the fact that this one just seemed to scream out to be made for a teen audience really didn't do much for me. The relationship between the car and the girl allowed for some fine slapstick moments, the races throughout are the sort of pure fluff that manage to entertain without being realistic, and they all pretty much paint the entire story without going in any new route, pretty much signaling where it's going quite early on and arriving there without much surprise. It's nothing new, but it serves as serviceable entertainment fodder.
6/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

HELL RIDE (2008)

Bikers seeking revenge, naked babes, fights, killing, motorcycles, Michael Madsen, Dennis Hopper, David Carradine and Vinnie Jones. Sounds great on paper, but never has so much potentially great stuff been wasted like this. Writer/director/star Larry Bishop can take full blame for this fiasco. He desperately tries to recreate Quentin Tarantino's talent for paying homage to 70's cinema, and even tries such Tarantino-isms as a non-linear storyline and witty banter, but clearly doesn't have a clue. His buddy Tarantino, who produced this mess, needed to step in and do a major re-write to show Bishop how it's done.
The script is laughable, the plot is incoherent, and most of the cast just sleepwalks through the story. If you're going to do an homage to 60's/70's biker flicks you can't make it this boring.

3.5/10

BROKEN ARROW (1996)

Two US Air Force pilots, Major Vic Deakins (John Travolta) and Captain Riley Hale (Christian Slater), are pitted against each other, when Deakins reveals a plot to steal the two live nuclear warheads they are carrying in their B-3 bomber over a Utah desert. The plane crashes in the desert, the warheads and both pilots survive, and Hale teams up with spunky park ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) to thwart Deakins' plan to ransom the warheads.
Lots of things go "boom", there are plenty of chases and fights, and it meets all the requirements of this month's genre, with the warheads being transported at different times, first by plane, later by military truck and finally by a train. Travolta seems to be having a good time playing the villain, but Slater seems a little dull as the hero. Thought he was fantastic in TRUE ROMANCE, but not so much here.
Director John Woo's usual stuff like the Mexican standoffs and the slo-mo shots all make appearances.
Not terrible, but kind of cliché and not that great either.

5.5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

SPEED RACER (2008)

Live-action version of the 60's cult classic Anime tv series about Speed Racer, the seemingly unbeatable teenage race car driver. I vaguely remember watching reruns of the animated series as a kid in the 70's, but was never a huge fan and this flick's certainly not going to change my mind. As kinetically filmed and fast-paced as it is, I also found it boring, ponderous and bloated. A 135 minute family film? What kid is going to sit through that without getting antsy? Actually, I'm not sure who this film is supposed to be aimed at? It's kind of all over the place in it's content, style and pacing, and I guess that's to replicate the style of the cartoon, but stuff that you accept in a cartoon doesn't always transfer well to live-action.
Kudos to the Wachowski brothers (The MATRIX Trilogy) for the film's visual style, but I lost interest pretty quickly.

3/10

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)

Speaking of style over content, here's a perfect example. There are tons of battles between the Decepticons and the Autobots, to the point where you just don't care. After a while it's like, "Oh, here's another robot fight.". And when they're not beating the nuts and bolts out of each other and speak, you kind of wish they'd shut up and fight, because some of the personalities of the robot characters are really lame and unfunny. Sam Witwicky's parents, who were somewhat funny in the first movie, seem to be given more screen time and man, are they hilarious this time around. No, not really. And Megan Fox is filmed like she's in a music video, to the point of being really distracting.
I enjoyed the first movie for what it was, some fun eye candy, but this sequel was too much of a good thing.

4/10

[slayrrr666]

Nuts about Speed Racer. I was going to catch that one this week.

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory-1995
Easily my favorite Seagal film, there was a lot to like with this one. From one of the best demonstrations of his talents spread throughout the film's many fine action scenes, to a lot of things being blown up (much more than you would expect being trapped in a train, at least) some fun dialogue that shows off a sense of humor and along with a great story, fun villains and a lot more in here, this one is easily just as good as the original but I find it a lot more entertaining and enjoyable. Sure, it's paint-by-numbers plot and all the technobabble makes little to no sense, but it's kept to a minimum merely to understand the device and thus isn't really impacting on a good time.
9/10

Con Air-1997
Surely a film that wouldn't appeal all that much in the first half, due to it being mainly character-based and whatnot, this was manages to still retain it's rankings of Best Action film of the 90s with a lot of stuff I really like. With all the criminals getting more than a fair share of time, there's a lot of comedy in the beginning with them bickering and bantering, the take-over scenes are just expertly accomplished and manage to have some sense of realism to them, and then the finale is just an all-out action spectacular, with massive shoot-outs, a great aerial battle, a great car chase and the usual tons of things blowing up. I really can't find fault here, it still holds up for me.
9.5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

CARS (2006)

Pixar's animated film that takes place in a world inhabited by talking, self-driving cars, trucks, etc.
On his way to California to compete in a major race, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), a hotshot rookie race car, is accidentally stranded in a small forgotten town on Route 66. Forced to stay in town to perform community service for accidentally damaging the main road, he learns to slow down from his usual fast-paced life and appreciate the little things.
While there he has run-ins with Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), a 1951 Hudson Hornet who takes an immediate dislike to McQueen, he befriends Mater (Larry The Cable Guy), a rusty tow truck, and falls for Sally (Bonnie Hunt), a cute little Porsche who isn't easily impressed by him.
A couple of the other cars in town are voiced by Cheech Marin and the late great George Carlin.

This is one Pixar movie that I didn't immediately love, but it has gotten better with repeated viewings. But it's their own fault for setting the bar so incredibly high that their only real competition is themselves. As I said when this movie was first released, even average Pixar is better than some other studio's best efforts. As expected, the animation is absolutely stellar, and every voice is spot-on perfectly cast.

7.5/10

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 (2009)

Denzel Washington and John Travolta star in this remake of the 70's Robert Shaw/Walter Matthau film. Travolta plays Ryder, the leader of a four man gang who hijack a subway train in Manhattan and demand $10 million within the hour or they'll start shooting hostages. Washington plays Walter Garber, the dispatcher watching that line and the only one with whom Ryder will deal with.

The original is considered a classic by many, but I have to admit, having seen it for the first time just last year, I wasn't exactly blown away by it and actually enjoyed this version more. Is that sacrilege?

Washington and Travolta are both very good here, and there is some good tension between them, even though most of their scenes are over the phone. The rest of Travolta's gang barely register as characters though, they're pretty much just there to hold guns on the hostages. Former Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini, plays the Mayor who is forced to give in to the hijacker's demands.

The ending, even though fast-paced, is probably not that believable, but for what is essentially an action thriller, it's pretty much what you would expect.

7/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

DEATH RACE (2008)

Jason Statham stars in this loose remake of the 70's cult classic. Set in the future of 2012, where Americans watch convicted criminals race, and kill, each other in armored cars on Terminal Island. Statham is framed and convicted for the murder of his wife, and sent to Terminal Island, where the warden (Joan Allen) offers him the chance to race for his freedom.
This is an action flick that has no pretenses about being anything else. You know exactly where the story is headed from the beginning, it features lots of exciting racing with plenty of crashes and explosions, and even throws in a few fight scenes.
THE ROAD WARRIOR meets ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Not as good as either of those, but it's fun in a "check your brain at the door" kind of way.

6/10

AIR FORCE ONE (1997)

Harrison Ford is the President of the United States, a former soldier and Medal of Honor winner. Gary Oldman is the leader of a gang of terrorists who have hijacked the President's plane, Air Force One. Let the ass-kicking begin.

This action thriller, basically DIE HARD on a plane, is a good popcorn flick with better than usual performances and some great visuals.

8/10

[slayrrr666]

Death Race-1975
I really wanted to hold off on this one, due to seeing a lot of similar films this month, and after viewing it for the first time, I think I should've held off a little longer as I really didn't get this one. Sure, the fact that the kills are rather inventive at times and definitely get fun after a while due to the desensitizing of it all, the thing I found with this one is that, if you start to grow bored with just watching people getting run over by cars again and again or just don't really care about that to start with, this movie grows old really quickly, which is what it did for me. It's sleazy fun with a mixture of camp and darkness to it, but I just grew rather bored of it after a while, and it just didn't do enough things to keep my interest after a strong opening. A cult film that really hasn't aged all that well, and one I'm dying to see that remake you did, Heiney.
5.5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy the remake more, Slayrrr. I think the original is pretty overrated myself, and found the remake, while not a great film, to at least be more fun and fast-paced.

SILVER STREAK (1976)

A book editor (Gene Wilder) on a cross-country train trip, thinks he has witnessed a murder, but can't convince anyone else. When he starts investigating on his own, he ends up getting thrown off the train, several times, and has to team up with a car thief (Richard Pryor) to re-board the train, find the killer, and save the woman on-board he has fallen for.

A Hitchcockian suspense/thriller is given a comedy twist in this first pairing of Wilder and Pryor. Though Pryor's character doesn't show up until about an hour into the film, he's well worth the wait.

7.5/10

AIRPLANE! (1980)

The film that pretty much started the trend of parody movies. Spoofing the AIRPORT airplane disaster flicks of the 70's, and ZERO HOUR! (1957), the story centers around a former combat pilot who is forced to land a passenger plane when the crew, and many of the passengers, are stricken with food poisoning.
Unlike the modern spoof movies, AIRPLANE! is consistently funny. Even when it takes shots at non-AIRPORT movies like JAWS, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, the jokes never feel random or out of place and they flow with the story. As opposed to just forcing in cameos by characters from other popular films, like EPIC MOVIE and MEET THE SPARTANS, tend to do.
Another great idea was casting dramatic actors like Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielsen, who play their roles perfectly straight, but are all screamingly funny. Of course, nowadays, Nielsen is pretty much best-known for appearing in spoof movies like THE NAKED GUN, DRACULA: DEAD & LOVING IT and many others, but back then, he was a serious actor.

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

8.5/10

[slayrrr666]

Speed Racer-2008
Well, I guess we can think alike on this one, Heiney, as after watching it last night, I found the exact same problems with it you did: an over-bloated, overlong family film that takes way too long to get to a point I lost interest in about 350 laps previously, to use a racecar analogy. Sure, it looks really good visually and some of the races are kinetic action-laden spectacles, especially during the crashes, but really, that's all this one has going for it. It's all over the place with so many different ideas that it was hard to really get into one before something else came in, and with it's ungodly length for a family film forcing these issues out far longer than needed, this one just doesn't work at all.
2.5/10

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby-2006
Now, I must confess two things before I start here that might explain some thoughts here: I've never found Will Farrell funny at all in anything he's done, and I have next to no knowledge of auto racing as a sport as I don't follow it at all, and from watching this one, I have a strong feeling that had one or both of those were the opposite of how I am, this would be a great movie. However, since Will just makes my skin crawl and I grow irritated with him rather than laugh along, all the scenes of him in here just gave a stone-faced expression hoping he would quickly get off the screen. When it focuses on the racing between him and his rival, which is the main focus of the film anyway, unless cars were burning or crashing I found it boring because I don't follow the sport. As these took up nearly the film's entire running time, this one didn't work at all for and it was an even worse time than Speed Racer, which looked like a masterpiece compared to this one.
1/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

TRANSSIBERIAN (2008)

An American couple (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) in a strained relationship, are on the Trans-Siberia Express from China to Russia. Sharing their cabin with a younger couple, events happen that lead to a killing and suspicions of drug smuggling. Eventually they cross paths with a Russian narcotics detective (Ben Kingsley).
Pretty good suspense flick. Takes a little while to get going, but builds into an action-packed climax.

7/10

AIRPORT (1970)

An all-star cast (Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, etc.) in a soap opera-like story with many separate subplots set at a midwestern airport. The intertwined stories include the two male leads dealing with their wives and their mistresses (How's that for 70's political incorrectness?), a distraught man with a bomb, and a little old lady stowaway.

Melodramatic, but still pretty entertaining. Not as action-packed as later films in the series as they tended to focus on the disaster aspects of the story. This one takes it's time to introduce the huge cast and set up their various subplots. Hayes is especially fun, and a complete scene-stealer, as the stowaway. The effects still hold up really well too.

7/10

JOY RIDE (2001)

A pair of brothers, driving cross country to pick up another friend, use a cb radio to amuse themselves and play a prank on a truck driver. The joke takes a deadly turn and they find themselves being stalked by the trucker who is psychotic and will stop at nothing to teach them a lesson.

Reminiscent of Steven Spielberg's 70's tv movie "DUEL" and it's pretty suspenseful, but in the end there seemed to be too many plotholes and loose ends.

6/10