Blog Archives
Flash Movie Review: School for Scoundrels
I believe I had this instructor for a teacher years ago. He was not a nice man and neither was the one in this movie. The teacher was Dr. P and he was played by Billy Bob Thornton (Mr. Woodcock, The Astronaut Farmer). One could trademark Billy Bob’s sarcastic meanness; he does it very well. The only thing though, it was nothing new for me; he has done this type of character before. The other lead actor was meter reader Roger, played by Jon Heder (Blades of Glory, Napoleon Dynamite). And here again, was a role similar to others Jon has done before. It just may be that Jon has a narrow range in his acting abilities, so he can only get cast for these type of characters. In this story Roger signed up for Dr. P’s confidence building course, hoping to gain assertiveness and get the girl of his dreams. I am afraid some of the actions taken in the course were far-fetched for me. With so few fun scenes, I started to get bored as the movie progressed. There was nothing horrendous in the movie, but there was not a lot of levity either. At the end of the day, just like I did not like that mean teacher back in school, I did not like this movie.
1 3/4 stars — DVD
Flash Movie Review: The Three Musketeers
That famous quote, “One for all and all for one,” took on a new meaning for the making of this movie. The film studio must have thought it meant for them to pick parts of different movies and blend them into one story. Sacrebleu, there was a little part of The Matrix; a cup of The Wild, Wild West and a touch of Mission Impossible all stirred into this confused film. Right from the beginning, when the ninja looking scuba diver rose from the depths of the murky water, I realized these musketeers were not the same as the ones I read about in school. Though the movie had an imaginative look about it, along with fun fighting scenes, I found myself growing tired from the poorly written script. A surprise for me was seeing Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Carnage) playing Cardinal Richelieu. Why did he agree to do this movie? Though I will say, he tried his best with what he had been handed. The character Milady de Winter, played by Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element, Resident Evil franchise) was so odd to me; she came across as a poor excuse for my beloved Emma Peel from the old television series. I could understand the Musketeers coming out of retirement to foil the sinister Richelieu’s plot against the king; sadly, they were not good enough to save this movie.
1 3/4 stars — DVD
Flash Movie Review: Act of Valor
One would think, with live bullets and real U.S. Navy SEALS, this movie would be a safe bet for excitement. Alas, that was not the case for me. The conflict scenes were well done and had a good amount of building tension with intense action. However, the in between scenes were simply dreadful. I knew going into this film that the military men were actual special force fighters not actors. And I was okay with that, realizing this story was not going to be actor driven. However, I do not care if military people talk like that in real life; it was absolutely corny and cliched. If you are making a movie, then you need a good script writer. For me, I felt I was viewing an extended ad campaign. It was a real shame, because with a decent script, this film would have had a steady balance of drama and excitement. Instead, I quickly became bored with the non fighting scenes. One thing I found very curious was the crowd’s reaction to a woman being tortured. I believe it made everyone more squeamish than if it was a man getting abused. If I were you, I would wait for this film on DVD, so you can fast forward through parts of it.
1 3/4 stars
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