Monster Movie Mondays presents: Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris.
This is the final Gamera film of the Heisei era. A good era if a bit on the dramatic side. The fights in the other 2 were good and the effects were wicked – only I felt some of the fun factor was left out. But they are still great films.
This third one is no different but it has a really interesting and unique creature – Iris, and it has one hell of a great final battle and it deals with issues never addressed before. Like one girl hates Gamera because he crushed her family’s house. I mean Gamera has to walk around too, and sometimes not everyone has evacuated, so they get killed or hurt. It was an interesting angle for the story.
Also note the use of CGI in this installment to help the monsters fly. No more wires here – they are flying around like Ultraman or something!
This was also the bloodiest one of the bunch and at one point a Gyaos has his eyeball hanging out! And Gamera is forced to cut off his own arm! And tons of humans get killed in the crossfire between Gamera and Gyaos (I forgot to mention that Gyaos is also in this, besides Iris.)
One flaw – this movie ends with a cliffhanger where 1000 Gyaos are flying towards the city and Gamera (now with one arm) is going to defend Earth one last time. But then no other movie was made after that!
The next film is Gamera the Brave – and to my knowledge it DOES NOT continue. Well maybe it does, Ill see next Monday for the FINAL MONSTER MOVIE MONDAY GAMERA FLICK!
5/5
J-Man.
The Brave One.
Very satisfying revenge drama with Jodie Foster as a sort of a Lady Death Wish. This is done in a very realistic way and I have to say it has one of the better endings to similar films of this genre (Death Sentence, Death Wish 1-5, Vigilante, Exterminator 1-2, Law Abiding Citizen, etc).
Jodie and her fiancé are brutally beaten by a pack of thugs, she survives, he doesn’t. What follows is Jodie becoming a vigilante and taking care o business! (TCB-ing as I put it). And I love her style!
I am very pleased with the fact that they had a woman be the killer in this one, cause they don’t do that too much in the movies – sure there’s Baise Moi and stuff, but that’s not a very serious take on the subject and this is.
I was totally on her side the entire movie and I bloody hated the thugs that beat her up. I HATE BEATINGS – especially by a group of thugs. I am getting angry now!
Terrence Howard is the cop assigned to the case and Jodie and him end up being friends, so when he eventually finds out that she’s a vigilante, some interesting stuff happens.
All in all this was a great movie – very serious and well done. I like Jodie Foster (always have) and she played well in this – and as I said I was VERY VERY happy with the ending. Finally a movie with some guts.
4/5
J-Man.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Finally a comedy with no sex, gross-out humor or drugs and its still pretty funny. Will Ferrell is always funny or at least likable funny in movies. This, like Semi-pro is one such performance.
Anchorman wasn’t really so funny but I liked his character, so that’s enough for me! I mean the parts that were funny were hilarious! And I love that his weakness is that he will read anything that is on the teleprompter! Hahahah.
Fun movie and I totally get the cult following for it – just check 80s tees and you’ll see tons of shirts for it!
3.5/5
J-Man.
The Taking of Pelham 123.
Solid remake pits Denzel Washington (does this guy ever put in a bad performance?) against John Travolta (now a veteran in these rolls).
I am usually not for remakes, and this one doesn’t really add much to the concept – nothing new here. Taking hostages, wanting money, hero needs to be redeemed etc. But you know what, I enjoyed it anyway.
Washington is the man. I mean the guy rocks in every stinking movie he’s in and he is just really likable here too.
So go check it out.
3/5
J-Man.
So, I was trying to write this review for a while, but the blogger page kept giving me the dreaded '404' error...I guess I'm outdated. Nothing new there. Okay, so everyone loves the first one, likes the second one and finds the 3rd one absurd. I...like the first one...thought the second one was alright...and thought the 3rd one was too long and sort of incomprehensible. So, not the biggest Pirates fan, though I always give them a chance.
This one is one of the best in the series if not the best in the series. I know a lot of people are saying "it's more of the same like 3", but don't believe it. There's no women growing to enormous size and then turning into crabs, there's no flipping the boat to survive, there's none of that. Thankfully, there is also no Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley. Watching this film, I came to realize how much both characters SUCKED in the first 3 films. They did, Bloom was a whiny little wimp and Knightley pouted and did stupid things. This one is all about Jack Sparrow (well, almost all...more on that later) and that's how it should be. Depp is clearly the best actor in this series and his character is obviously the most interesting. In this one I actually liked him...I didn't like in the first three. He's supposed to be a hero, but he's a scoundrel? Why would they go to World's End to save his weaselly ass? The focus should be on him, not some gawd-awful love affair that is poorly written. This movie, the focus is on him, which is a plus.
Not to say the other people in this movie weren't good, as well. Geoffrey Rush is solid as usual as Barbossa, he's the best thing in the entire series next to Depp. Penelope Cruz is a lot sexier and a lot more credible as a female lead than Knightley was. Ian McShane is great as Blackbeard, I mean, he's just really good, he stands out in every scene and unlike some characters in this series, he's actually a menace, it isn't all for show. Oh and for those who like creatures, there's zombies and the mermaids kind of are like vampires, so there you go.
The action...well I could see it. There is quite a bit too, especially near the start. There is a lull in the middle but luckily, the characters are (for the most part) interesting enough to keep the story moving, though the movie is still far too long. I don't know why they think these movies have to be 2+ hours, there isn't enough story to really justify the length. It could have been trimmed by 20 minutes, no problem. One thing they could have done is trimmed the romantic subplot between the religious guy and the mermaid. It was pointless and once again, just poorly written. The Pirates writers cannot write romance, period. They should just stick their strength which is writing swashbuckling action and (somewhat lame) jokes.
Anyhow, there's my review of Pirates. I enjoyed it probably the most I'll enjoy any of the movies in the series.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
- Stephenstein
Black Death.
Sean Bean is one of my faves. Loved him in Lord of the Rings and Silent Hill. Never saw the remake of Hitcher, but I would consider it because he rocks.
Cant wait to see Game of Thrones too, but until then I see that, I have Black Death. I basically only got this cause he is in it and I like some of the art that was done – see above.
The movie looked good in the trailers and I was hoping to see it in theatres, but it didn’t come out anywhere here.
The movie looked like a Solomon Kane style – dark fantasy. The other dark fantasy that came out this year – Season of the Witch, was really cool and I guess Priest kind of falls in that category too. I like these types of films.
Black Death isn’t really like those though. It only has one action scene and the final battle is a psychological one instead of a physical one. But this film was really really good.
It takes place in the 1300’s when the black death killed almost half the English population. During this time a young monk/priest named Osmund, is considering leaving the priesthood because he has fallen in love with his childhood friend Averill. She is leaving to go back to her home village and she says that she will give Osmund one week to decide if he wants to leave the monastery. You see he has never left and he isn’t allowed to leave unless its for a higher purpose.
He prays for a sign and Sean Bean (Ulric) shows up. Ulric is on a mission from the church to find this village that has NOT been hit by the plague. Apparently these villagers are evil witches, and demons led by a Necromancer and Ulric must find and destroy him. He requires a guide and Osmund volunteers, giving him the chance to leave the monastery but still remain in God’s service.
Half the movie is finding the village, and half is at the village. When they get there, things really pick up and get weird.
I will not reveal what happens, but keep this in mind, there is no action except one very quick fight scene – this is a serious movie with something to say. The end involves a realistic mental battle.
This is the first movie in a long time that has characters that truly believe in God and the church without making them stupid, or trying to justify anything. They are who they are and the movie gives you a lot to think about.
See it.
4.5/5
J-Man.
Randy “Macho Man” Savage.
Randy Savage was a great wrestler in the 80s and one of the best of all time. In terms of ability and character, he was a force of nature in the WWF (now WWE). When Hogan and him formed the Mega-Powers it was just the best ever!
I actually remember that moment and the famous hand shake that took forever! Boy did they build up the momentum for that moment!
After that, the Mega-Powers exploded due to Elizabeth, and Savage was back to being a bad guy. He was one of the few wrestlers that really worked either way.
His character didn’t change much when he was bad or good (think Stone Cold) he was the Madness!!! He is best known for his Ricky the Dragon Steamboat match that is considered to be the best matched ever performed for a live audience and I although I personally don’t think it’s the best, it’s definitely in the top matches.
For those of you not in the know, Savage was Bone-saw in Spiderman – the wrestler that Spidey fought in the first Sam Raimi film.
It’s unfortunate that the only DVD compilation available (which I own) is a 3 disc set with Maria and some other douche talking about his career. All the other DVDS of this kind usually have the actual wrestler commenting on his career – but they couldn’t get Macho, so they used these 2 idiots – oh well. At least that set is better than nothing and now we will never get one with him, so I’ll have to live with it.
Macho Man was a great entertainer and will be missed by the fans of wrestling!
J-Man.
