Monday, December 23, 2002


The Two Towers - (***) GREEN LIGHT

I loved this movie. I will be buying it the first day it's available on DVD, but, I am giving it only three stars.

Good stuff first:

Special effects were great, better than the first which we watched the night before. Gollum was WAY better than I expected. They gave him life, conveyed his internal insanity, and even showed Frodo a peek at his future if he kept the ring. The ENTs were excellent! Did you see the one put that fire in his hair out in the flood of water!The Battles! The Balrog! The Nazgul!

The acting was super. Peter Jackson drags great performances out of them all! Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins is showing the burden in his face. Ian McKellen as Gandalf the White is great as expected. Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn was great, it will take me weeks to get the drool out of my shoes that was leaking from all the women in the theater (I hope it's drool...). Sean Astin as reliable as Samwise Gamgee. Orlando Bloom as Legolas and John Rhys-Davies as Gimli I love. Brad Dourif was perfectly cast as Wormtongue, right down to the oily hair.

The Locations were Awesome!

The bad guys were bad. The good guys were great! The three hours flew by. Now I want to go see it again, dammit!

Now the bad stuff (before I buy more tickets online).

I does not stand alone as a movie. My brother Eric went with us and had not seen the first movie. He liked it but was kind of lost for the first hour. He liked it so much he immediately borrowed one of my DVDs of the Fellowship.

It could have been paced a little better in a couple places.

There were also a few departures from the book that seemed to happen for no reason.

All and All a must see.

GREEN LIGHT!!


Saturday, December 21, 2002


Start Trek: Nemesis - (**1/2) green light

It was good. About as good as a two hour TV episode. So if you like Start Trek, go see it.

That being said, Stop reading if you don't want spoilers.

I am sick of the Doomsday machine plot. This movie started out great! The Romulans! I wanted political intrigue! I wanted a mystery! I thought I was going to get a complex plot about the cloning of Picard and Warf being naked!

It really needed to focus tighter. Make the movie about the harrowing aspects of marrying a Star Fleet Captain! Make a movie about Datas Quest for his humanity and family. Make an action adventure plot like the original Mission Impossible!

DO NOT regurgitate the "OH MY GOD! There is a Doomsday Machine headed for earth! and The Enterprise is the only Starship in the whole damn quadrant!"

I want Sisco... But Nemesis will do for now...



Die Another Day - (****) Green Light

The story begins in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea with a spectacular high-speed hovercraft chase and continues via Hong Kong to Cuba and London where Bond meets up with the two ladies who are to play such important and differing roles in his quest to unmask a traitor and to prevent a war of catastrophic consequence. Hot on the trail of the principle villains, Bond travels to Iceland where he experiences at first hand the power of an amazing new weapon before a dramatic confrontation with his main adversary back in Korea where it all started...

This is the Best James Bond movie since Sean Connery.