Movie Review: War of the Worlds (4.7/5.0)

I finally got the chance to go and watch ‘War of the Worlds’. Before I go in to details of this movie review, let me try to sum it up in just one word first. Kids can you say A-W-E-S-O-M-E? From the part of the thunderstorm and up to the capsizing of the barge, I was literally at the edge of my seat.

The movie is based on H.G. Wells' Sci-Fi book ‘The War of the Worlds’ first published in 1898. H.G. Wells also wrote such famous works like ‘The Time Machine (1895)’ and ‘The Invisible Man (1897)’ etc, which later on also were brought to the big screen not only once but twice. The whole plot of the original ‘War of the Worlds’ was that Martians invade earth and try to annihilate the whole human race in order for them to make way for their own species.

In the latest movie, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a blue-collar average divorced Joe. His X-wife (Miranda Otto) leaves their two children Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) with Ray for the weekend, so she could go visit her parents. The same day there are reports of severe isolated lightning storms around the world. One such storm strikes in Ray’s town of residence unleashing a giant alien tripod from underground, exterminating every human in its path with its vaporizing ray gun. The rest of the movie is all about Ray trying to escape the alien onslaught along with his children.

The alien tripod attack sequence is the best part of the movie. The action is so intense that it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole alien attack. The sound was so good that it made it feel like the theater itself was under attack. Whenever the alien tripods approached, they made this loud eerie sound; it sent shivers down my spine every time. The tripod reminded me of the alien tripod from Half-Life 2.

I would rank this number 2 on my favorite Spielberg movie list right after ‘Jurassic Park’. I really was looking forward to watching another movie like ‘Jurassic Park’ because that was the movie made by my favorite writing (Michael Crichton) and directing (Steven Spielberg) geniuses. I thought ‘Minority Report’ was going to turn out great, but it sucked. When the trailer ‘War of the Worlds’ came out, I was so hoping that it doesn’t turn out to be another disappointment like ‘AI’ and ‘Minority Report’.

The story had some significant holes. The part about the father-son relationship between Ray and his son was poorly written. I’m used to the unrealistic and fake reaction to fear by Americans in movies. But, I didn’t get Ray’s son’s bullshit behavior at all. I mean what the hell was he saying? It seemed like laziness on the writer’s part. They didn’t pay much screen time to explain about the red veins growing all over the place either.

Overall, I would give this movie a rating of 4.7/5.0 for the sensational action sequences.

Movie Trivia: The actor who plays Mary Ann's (Miranda Otto) father (Gene Barry) also played the protagonist Dr. Clayton Forrester in the 1953 version of the War of the Worlds.

Movie Review: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (1.5/5.0)

Before I begin this review, I want to get something off my chest and out of my system. What the Sith was that all about? I mean did you get a load of that Sith? That was some crazy-ass Sith right there man! Ok, I think now I've got all of it out of my system. Well, most of it at least.

There were a lot of flashy lights that gave me a seizure. Basically I thought it was crap. The movie lacked drama. You know what? I'm bored. I don't think I want to review this piece of crap. I didn't like the last two episodes, I don't know why I went and saw the third. Probably because the whole country was nuts about it and I succumbed to peer pressure and that's why I saw the stinking movie. It was a whole lot better than the last two episode, but a piece of crap nonetheless.

I give it a 1.5/5.0 rating for the pre-release hype.

Movie Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (3.9/5.0)

Last Wednesday, I watched "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy". This movie is based on a book which is based on a BBC radio show written by Douglas Adams. I heard from the fans of the book that you'll enjoy watching the movie even more if you have read the book already. I should have read the book before I went and have seen the movie. Because the book is written in a way like Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", where there are deep statements and ideas the author is trying to convey.

You need time to think about what was just said. While watching the movie you start thinking about what the characters had said and the story moves on and you missed some things that way. You can download the audio-book from TorrentSpy.

The movie was a bit drag only to be punctuated by a few moments of extremely hilarious gut-bursting incidents. I think those few funny parts in the move made it overall a very good movie. Even if you haven't read the book, I recommend watching this movie.

Overall I rate this movie 3.9/5.0.

Movie Review: Kingdom of Heaven (3.0/5.0)

I watched Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" last Friday. I have to say that it turned out to be more "Fair and Balanced" than I expected. When I saw it's trailer three or four weeks before the movie release, I thought it was going to be just another cheap attempt by a Hollywood director to profit from the present American paranoia. A sort of fuel for the US war machine so to speak.

As a matter of fact, the movie was more like a documentary than a piece of entertainment. Come to think of it, after watching the movie I felt as if it missed something significant. A true hero! Yes that's right, a hero with substance. I've read the crusade history and I could just not recall any character by the name 'Balian' from it. I mean who was that guy? I would have seen Balian (Bloom) as a hero only if his intentions to go to Jerusalem were noble to begin with and the enemy was truly evil. I think the movie should have been told from Saladin's perspective. Because he was the conquering hero. He was the one who didn't not avenge the massacre of Muslims in the same barbaric way as the Christian crusaders. But, Ridley Scott's primary audience are right-wing nut-jobs, so they didn't

I was really glad to know that the filmmakers didn't portray Saladin as a hot-headed blood-thirsty Arab. Anyway, how could they? Saladin is the only person recognized in history by almost all historians as the most merciful and civilized Muslim ruler. No one tops prophet Muhammad (P. B. U. H), but there is too much dissent to his historical achievements.

Orlando Bloom was such a stiff in this movie. It's like the director knew how much of a stiff Orland is and that is why he had Orlando Bloom's character to have so few lines.

The movie is good and I would recommend watching it. Overall I would give it a 3.0/5.0 rating.

Movie Review: Hotel Rwanda (4.4/5.0)

I saw the movie Hotel Rwanda last night and it turned out to be mostly what I expected it to be (Blood, Violence, Gore, and Genocide!). Since its based on a true story, the filmmakers took into account all the realities of a genocide situation. I expected too much of blood and on screen killings but it didn't have the usual amount of live scenes of actual killings. Maybe that's why the movie had a PG-13 rating. Don Cheadle's acting seemed very authentic. Lets just say I didn't notice a shift in his Rwandan accent through out the whole movie and I usually do notice these things.

I would say this was a very good movie if I hadn't already seen to many documentaries on real genocides and God they're all equally horrifying! If you want to know how a genocide goes down then I would suggest that you watch a documentary. The most realistic documentary I ever saw related to a genocide was "Cry Freetown" by Sorious Samura. It has a lot of up close footages of all the worst acts that a human being can fathom and commit on another fellow human being.

I must say I was a bit surprised to see people blame the west for not doing anything to help in the movie, probably because its also based upon Paul Rusesabagina's accounts so I guess the filmmakers had to show it.

Spoiler Alert! I was sick to my stomach on the part where the UN peacekeeping troops only came to get the foreign nationals (whites) out of the country and leave all the Rwandan's (blacks) to be slaughtered at the hands of the Hutu militias. They didn't even take one child with them, those white sons of bitches!

There was only one actor or actress in this case that I just could not bare to see in the movie and that was Sophie Okonedo. Man she is Butt-ugly and she was the one with the least acting skills. If you ask me any other black actress would have been acceptable for this movie instead of Sophie.

Over all I would give this movie a 4.4/5.0 rating.

Movie Review : The Village

Production shot from "The Village"



Rating: 3.5/5.0



Another great movie from acclaimed film maker M. Night Shyamalan. "The Village" takes place around the late 1800s about a small village in the woods. The towns people don't venture out of the village because they consider the woods the domain of the creatures that haunt the woods around their village. It is said that the villagers have an unspoken pact with the creatures in the woods that they won't venture in the woods and the creatures will let the villagers live in peace. The creatures in the woods start leaving of signs in the village indicating that the pact has been broken. Although this movie is not as good as "The Signs" or "The Sixth Sense" but it does have a few twists like Night's previous work and makes watching this movie worth the money.

Movie Review : I, Robot

Production Shot from "I, Robot"



Rating : 3.5/5.0



I, Robot is based on a short SciFi story by Isaac Asimov. The year is 2035, where robots help people in their daily lives. Will Smith plays a police detective who is trying to solve a suicide of the genius who created the sophisticated robots. Smith's character suspects that the robot creator was murdered by one of his own robots. The robots are CGI and their physics is very much realistic. The action in this movie is heart-pounding.

Movie Review : Donnie Darko

Production Shot from "Donnie Darko"



Rating : 0.5/5.0



I can't believe they are going to release "Donnie Darko" again. It didn't make any sense the first time, why release it again? It cost around $4 million to make and earned $500,000. I saw it and wept like a little girl after watching it because I'm never getting back that time lost. I'm no pothead, but I think I would have liked the movie if I had watched it high. The recycled release includes 20 minutes of extra footage and enhanced special effects. All the CGI cannot make this poor excuse for art likeable again! Who knows, maybe they'll hand out a free joint on each purchase of the ticket for this movie. I saw the reviews on Yahoo Movies, the critics desecrated it and some pothead Yahoo users gave rave reviews to this movie.