Kevin's Blog2EndAllBlogs Blog

Great Movie!
****

This movie's got everybody in it. Al Pacino, Ashley Judd, Henry Rollins, Jon Voight, Robert DeNiro, Ted Levine, Tone Loc and Val Kilmer. Its your typical cops and robbers movie. Great acting, many action sequences and a decent plot make this a classic movie.

This is definitely a "guy's" flic. The last heist shootout scene is sick. The robbers actually choose decent guns for such a high-risk bank job. Seems realistic (see excerpt below). The shootout lasts a while and the robbers make decent choices (not commonly found in movies like this), with the exception of Robert DeNiro's poor choice of a getaway vehicle, a Ford Taurus Wagon. Believe me, I own a Taurus and these are not a great choice when the cops are chasing you.

Excert from:
Some online movie selling joint

"A brilliant Los Angeles cop (Al Pacino) follows the trail from a deadly armed robbery to a crew headed by an equally brilliant master thief (Robert Deniro). An ironic note on this film shot in 1994 and released in 1995, the scene where they have the shoot out with cops was remarkably similar to the real-life shootout between bank robbers and LA police in February of 1997."

...Whoa!

Disappointing
*

This movie can best be described as overkill. It is gratuitously violent and extremely disturbing in many parts. I do not recommend this movie for the weak at heart. As a matter of fact, I would not recommend this movie to anyone unless they like movies with terrible plots and a grotestly huge amount of blood shed.

This movie did however have a lot of good and reknown actors and actresses. This is the only reason I even gave it a star.

CAST:
Uma Thurman
Lucy Liu
David Carradine
Sonny Chiba (Famous Kung Fu Movie Star)
Vivica A. Fox
Daryl Hannah
Gordon Liu (Famous Kung Fu Movie Star)

I had no idea what I was getting into when I sat down to watch this movie. The trailers on TV had made it out to be more of a comedy with samurai swords and beautiful actresses. This is only a small fraction of the truth. The movie starts out like a Shaw Brother's kung fu flic, with Shaw Brother's splash screen, music and all. I assume this was done for Master Killer's (Gordon Liu) insignificant and unfortunate cameo. Needless to say, being a HUGE Shaw Brothers and Master Killer fan, I was eccstatic to see this. That optimism soon dwindled.

The movie seemed to drag on forever and not even in details that would thicken the plot. It seemed to exaggerate the things movies usually breeze through. I'm not sure what Quetin was trying to develop here, but it made the movie slow, long and very boring. Personally, I like long action sequences, but this was ridiculous. About as ridiculous as Uma Thurman being a master of katana sword form and kung fu.

Did we ever see Bill's (played by David Carridine) face in the movie? I was positive we did not, but a friend of mine said she saw it at the very end. Is this true?

Late-Late-Night TV Worthy
*

Ok. Will Ferrell can be hilarious sometimes. And then he can be put into a semi-serious role and be ok. I laughed hard a few times. For the most part though, the movie was boring and Will was just bizarre. The movie really focused around the Christmas ritual and Santa Claus. I think this was supposed to be a funny kids movie, but the kids watching the movie in the front row were not laughing.

All in all. Take it for face value. Its about an Elf who saves Christmas.

Link to the movie's homepage:

Geez, I didn't know Bob Newhart was so small.

Entertaining/Good
***

This movie has all the elements of a standard, fun, simply entertaining film. The best part is, its not your typical Adam Sandler movie. For those of you who dislike Adam's movies, you might actually enjoy this one. I personally like some of his movies and so maybe I can tolerate him a little better.

"1 hr. 46 min. Henry Roth (Sandler), a veterinarian at an aquarium in Hawaii, falls in love with a girl, Lucy (Barrymore), with short-term memory loss, but he has to keep getting her to fall in love with him every time they meet in order for them to have a relationship, since she never remembers the last time she met him."

Synopsis looted from: Yahoo Movies

Drew Barrymore is hot! And she plays her character very well, although, being a slightly brain damaged, laid-back, aloha babe isn't a far stretch from herself. Adam, surprisingly, handles himself very well. He is not the loud, obnoxious character he usually plays. His character was more reserved, pleasent and all-around chill. Rob Schnieder is the comic relief and pretty good also. He plays a Hawaiian? stoner with like ten kids. I enjoyed him a lot since I could tell he was enjoying the part even more.

People to mention: Dan Aykroyd. He is the man! I love all his movies and having him in this one was an extreme bonus. He plays his usual, above-all, quick whitted and all-knowledgable character. Great! Sean Astin. You may remember him from "The Goonies," at least I do. He was also "Rudy," and in all of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. He was a trip in this movie. He plays Drew's brother, a body builder/ex Mr. Hawaii Nominee.

One of the things I didn't like was how the movie opened. With all these girls telling their friends about how great their date was with Henry Roth, I imagined him to be this Don Juan DiMarco/Cassanova character. This wasn't the total truth. He was more of a down-to-Earth decent guy. Also, the movie made a huge jump from the women praising him, to him just working at an aquarium. I know now that they were establishing him as a real lady's man, who has trouble getting one woman, but that was a very vague step. They basically went from A to C and never established B. Thats okay, I'm somewhat intelligent and can figure that out, but they spent the entire rest of the movie showing him attempting to get Lucy. A brief and unclear background left me wondering if there was more. Nope! Thats it. I did however, like the end and how everything built up to it. Not a bad movie.

Link to the movie's homepage:
50 First Dates

Madd Cow Kung Fu

Have you seen this cow?

Hoof of the White Lotus

Send all sightings of Madd Cow Disease to chewcud@pasturepattie.com. Do NOT, under any circumstances, attempt to approach these cows alone.

Not Even Worth Mentioning
1/2 *

I thought they might recover with this sequel, but in fact, it was even worse than the first one (see my review of Kill Bill Part I here).

I was only intrigued to watch this sequel by the mention of Pai Mai played by none other than the Master Killer himself, Gordon Liu (AKA Liu Chi Hui, Lau Ka Fa). Unfortunately, the epic training sequence with Pai Mai lasted a whole ten minutes. The rest of the 80 minutes I spent switching between boredom, frustration, and utter disgust for a poorly written script/plot.

The Bottom Line: Kill yourself for renting this movie!