Review: RAMBO

So it was a very eventful weekend, movie wise, for me…I finally broke out of my shell and went to TWO count them two movies.

Not that it really counts since the first movie I took in was a second viewing of Cloverfield ….which only got better the second time around. I didn’t even really mind all the set up work. But, that’s not the movie I was really excited about seeing this weekend I was looking forward to a little Opus known as RAMBO (Rambo #4 for those scoring at home).

Going into the movie here were the areas of concern for me:
1) It was starring Sylvester Stallone
2) it was written by Sylvester Stallone
3) it was produced by Sylvester Stallone
4) it was directed by Sylvester Stallone
5) SYLVESTER STALLONE IS 61 YEARS OLD

But, I am a twenty something male who owns and loves the other three movies so it was really a given that I would show up to the theatre for this one too. Plus, it has one of my favorite actresses in the form of Julie Benz (Old school Angel Alum, and current Dexter hottie).

Stallone has said in interviews that the violence in this movie is ramped up to bring attention to the plight of people in Burma….since day in and day out these are the situation that they have to actually deal with!

As for said violence...Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Enquirer referred to it as “a slab of action Porn”. Not really sure what that means? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we all love it but hate to have other people know we love it!! Or, I could be way off base.

From an acting perspective….Stallone knows his range and stays there…and for a character who really has no true emotions left…it works well. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see a senior citizen move as well as he did in his return to the role. I was also happy to see that when the final climactic battle gets underway….Rambo shows his age a little…enough said.

I also thought that Julie Benz played the damsel in distress roll well. She was the obvious moral compass of the movie. I would have loved more screen time for her. I thought that maybe she would get John Rambo to open up a little bit…could have been interesting.

But, overall I would say that if you are looking for a good action movie (and Stallone still knows action) with a ton of shooting, killing, exploding heads (thought I was watching a George Romero zombie flick there for a second!) this movie is the guilty pleasure you have been waiting for.

No motion sickness issues like with Cloverfield, no indepth emotional storyline to worry about…no distracting best acting award winners to make you think…just John Rambo, a bow and arrow, some guns and a lot of pissed off Burmese soldiers!!

REVIEW: Cloverfield

Cloverfield the new monster movie that took the weekend box office by storm (a reported $41 Million) is a fun movie...pay no attention to what my father thinks!

I hit up the movie theatre this weekend for a long overdue movie night. Not a lot out there that I wanted to see! But, low and behold, what has a 01-18-08 release date (happy birthday to me) CLOVERFIELD.

As I said a few weeks ago, for a movie with little, or no, traditional advertising....I was looking forward to this movie. Now...if you haven't seen the movie yet you may want to stop reading now.

SPOILER ALERT!!! SORT OF!!

Let me start off by saying that I truly enjoyed this movie. But!.....I know a lot of people will not agree with me. First off the camera "work" is a little hard to watch at times.

The man on the street approach is a very convincing style choice here. I think that it even works better than it did back in 1999 with The Blair Witch Project. But, like that movie Cloverfield does have a few short comings.

With the handheld home movie look you get a lot of times that the screen is unwatchable, especially if you have motion sickness issues. But, for the most part the feel of the movie is dead on.

What I really enjoyed was the point of view take this movie gives you. In the past "monster" movies were all about a battle between the unstoppable monster and the main characters....this time you get the view of the everyman just trying to get out of the monsters way...and stay alive in the process. Because of this fact we really only get a few really good look at the main monster itself. (don't want to give away too much!) This movie does a good job of showing the chaos at ground level for the average Joe!

The cast is made of up "mostly unknown" talent. But, if you have been watching a little TV over the last year or so you will recognize a few faces: Lizzy Caplan (from "The Class"), Michael Stahl-David (Black Donnellys), and Jessica Lucas (four episodes of CSI from this year) are the most recognizable faces in the cast and they all do an outstanding job.

A major distinction between Cloverfield and Blair Witch is that Cloverfield was scripted. Some of the dialogue is hokey...but when is a movie totally believable? Some of the best line in the movie come from T.J Miller (Hud, A.K.A. the Cameraman) While you really have to be paying attention to the dialogue rather than to the action....he has some killer lines.

My only true knock on the movie itself is that it spends too much time setting up the quasi-documentary feel. We get about twenty-minutes of setup footage of the going away party before the monster attack begins, and this is 20 minutes out of the total 88 minutes of the movie. I understand the overall reason for those 20 minutes...but I also don't need to get the full run down to get "emotionally attached" to the characters. The whole set up could have been done in 10 minutes and not lost it's effect.

All in all I would say that, while it won't win any awards, it is well worth seeing. If you were not all that impressed by Blair Witch...you may want to sit this one out. The same goes for those people who suffer from motion sickness...

On a final note...stick around, not a big deal..but you may want to just for fun....also, if you are going to see the movie for the first time....or a second time for that matter! Pay attention to the Coney Island Footage near the end of the movie! If you don't have the patience, or money, to go back to the movie....check this out...it's audio from the very end of the credits. If you listen to the audio in the theatre it is supposed to sound like "help us" but if you play it backwards you get....well listen to it for yourself.