CX movie review - RAMBO 4

I did not have a good selection of movies to choose from so i settled for RAMBO 4.

Walking into the movie theater, i was unsure of what to expect; I had grown up with the original movies and loved them all, even with his messed up accent & lame acting.

The hype going around is that Silvester Stalone is old; he can't act and would probably be holding a walking stick throughout the movie .

The Plot
From the start, i was immediately shocked by the scenes of murder, genocide, torture, mutilation, rape and plunder that befell the Burmese people.

A group of missionaries hire RAMBO to take them to the outskirts of Burma where the villagers requireing aid, are deprived from basic necessities of life, living in fear of the Burmese military leadership and are prevented from worshiping their prefered religion.

The initial drop off goes well, with a little hick up that RAMBO takes care of in seconds.

The real story starts when the missionaries are captured by the Burmese military and a group of mercenaries + John RAMBO come to their aid.

There is a lot of VIOLENCE.

What I really thought of it:
This movie is absolutely disturbing; but one good it does is bringing the plight of the Burmese people and what they had to live through for the world to see. THE DEPTS OF EVIL WITHIN HUMANITY IS ENDLESS.

The CX Rating
The plot was OK and the acting wasn't bad, but just for bringing up the subject of Genocide and depicting the atrocities i'll give it a 7.

So go and enjoy the movie, learn about the happenings around us, but just make sure you don't have a week stomach, even i had a hard time watching some of the scenes.

Final note, i salute Silver Stalone on a job well done in Directing the M ovie......

The burden of being a movie Critique

I have been watching movies for as far back as I can remember. I believe it was when the first betamax format was introduced to Bahrain during the early eighties, if I am not mistaken. The first movie I watched was ‘Force Five’ a cool action movie, which my good friend calmly claimed was our future, yet to happen, and like a smuck it believed him, of all of five seconds.

From betamax, to VHS, to VCD and now DVD; soon to be replaced by R5 and the likes.

Anyways, I’ve gained a vast knowledge of films, from how the plot should progress to the acting, special effects etc or the ending.

So if I watch a movie that does not sum up to par, or anywhere close for that matter, I get pissed off and turn the bloody thing off. Let’s see, remember the movie ‘The Blair Witch project’, the hype created by the media and the internet let to box office records, the people who made the movie for a few thousand, mere pennies, reaped in millions.

Back then, i rented the DVD, 5 to 10 minutes into the movie, I turned it off, got into my car and drove to the DVD rental shop, exactly 45 minutes after I had first rented it. I burst into the shop and pushed the DVD back into the clerks face, shouting at him that if he did not immediately take the DVD and erase any record of my renting it from their computer, I’d kick his F*ing @ss. He obliged.

In my view, it was so bad that it did not deserve (a) to be listed on my rental sheet or (b) for me to cough up my hard earned money to rent the f*ing thing.

Need I say more, to date I have not watched it nor do I intent to, ever.

Now, what brought these feelings up to the surface, from the dark depths of my soul; the movie ‘The Reeping’, a horror movie wannabe.

Being this aware has its drawbacks, you don’t get to enjoy the movie but sit and analyze the scenes, the acting, plot, dialogue, and of course the bloody ending.

To date, I have watched some fantastic movies a few of which are ‘The Shawshank redemption’, ‘The Extremist’, ‘The Sixty sense’, ‘Fight Club’ & ‘Transformers’, just to name a few.

Granted, if I watch some of these movies today, I might find something wrong/outdated but when they first came out, they were mind blowing.

Now excuse me while I drive to the rental shop and have a few words with the clerk……

CX movie review - Shrek the Third

Dated 28 June 2007, but as usual lost in transit.

My intentions were to go to the cinema this weekend to watch the newly released movie ‘PREMONITION’, but because my son was accompanying me, WE (meaning my son) decided to watch ‘Pirates of the Caribbean – At World’s End’ instead; unfortunately since there were no seats available at the 8:00 pm screening except for the very front rows, we settled on ‘Shrek the Third’.

The Plot
The frog king is on his death bed, and very soon after the movie starts, he passes away, well eventually.
Shrek is then left with the predicament of taking over as the Kind of Ever Ever land, which he is not comfortable with; with the knowledge of the existence of another heir to the throne, he sets off to find his replacement…..

What I really thought of it:
The third episode of the SHREK trilogy is not as good as the original, which had taken us all by surprise; there were a few new ideas, and many new characters.

My favourites (a) the scene where Pinocchio tries not to lie but tell the truth in twists and turns making it hard for the prince to comprehend, and then the pigs squeal, and (b) close to the end a combination reaction between Shrek’s kid burping and Donkey’s kid sneezing resulting in a fire ball.

I didn’t appreciate the adult themes like the ‘Hooters’ sigh and the Bra burning incident, after all their main target audience are still children, even though a lot of adults will also be watching, me included.

Close to the end, the moral of the story is slowly poured on to us and it’s rather touching, up to then I was wondering what the kids watching the movie would be getting out of it, I was relived.

So, in the end the movie was Ok, not great.

The CX Rating

It started off at a 6, went up to an 8 but then ended at a 7, so the final average rating is 7.

It’s ok to watch it in the cinema, though by now it may have been taken off, just make sure there are no kids in the cinema with you with the exception of your child, aaah but that’s too much to ask.

Enjoy.

CX movie review - Transformers

Yesterday, I went to the cinema with my son to catch the 12:00 midnight screening of Transformers.

The Plot
Eighty years ago, an all powerful cosmic CUBE called the ‘All Spark’ fell to earth. The Cube had the power to transform electronic & mechanical gadgets into living megabots exoskeletons robots.

The CUBE is perused by the Evil Lord Megatron master of the Decepticons, a race of mebabots that were originally given life to by the CUBE; his aim, to use the cube to transform all the gadgets on earth into megabots and turn them loose onto the human race.
In his attempt to enter the earth’s atmosphere he looses control and falls into the Arctic Ocean where he is frozen solid by the sub zero water of the depths.

The CUBE is lost.

Present day, young Sam Witwicky is attempting to sell off his Grand father’s glasses on ebay to get some pocket money.

The good guys, Optimus Prime & his band of Autobots who are also megabots created by the CUBE, land on earth in a race against the collaborators of Lord Megatron to find the CUBE before it is too late for the man kind.

It takes the Autobots, the US army and Sam Witwicky’s bravery in the toughest of times to defeat the Decepticons.

The movie has a perfect ending with the song ‘What I’ve Done’ by Linkin Park echoing in the back Ground.

Now, at some point of time the word ‘Masturbation’ is uses, and immediately my son turns to me and asks, “Dad, what does that men?”, I was stupefied, what should I say? I looked at him, trying to keep a straight face and told him that I would explain it to him later when the movie ended. I have not and he has not asked, yet. My fear now is that when he watches the movie again on DVD, he’ll surely hear the word AGAIN and come running to me for an explanation. What in the world do I do then? My only option seems to be to lie to him and tell him that they will never release the DVD for financial reasons, and hope he believes me. I AM NOT SURE IT’S RIGHT TO SIT DOWN WITH MY 9 YEAR OLD SON AND EXPLAIN TO HIM WHAT ‘MASTERBATION’ IS. I STILL HAVE A COUPLE OF YEARS LEFT FOR THAN, I HOPE!

What I really thought of it:
I absolutely loved watching the movie; it was exciting, hilarious and utterly entertaining. Ali, my 9 year old son liked it as well though not as much as me.

So why did I like it so much? Well, firstly it really was a superb movie and very (very) entertaining but what really captivated me was the fact that it took me back 25 years to when I used to watch the transformer cartoons on TV, during my school heydays, I was no bigger than my son is now.

Also, let’s not forget that it’s produced by Steven Spielberg and anything he touches turns into gold.

Overall, the script was very well written, the acting of Shia LaBeouf was absolutely amazing. He was very funny in the scenes and was the glue that moulded the script together.

The CX Rating

It deservedly has to be rated as high up as a 9 out of 12, without question.

And YES, you must watch it in the cinema.

I suggest you watch it at the Al Jazeera cinema in Muharraq as it will cost you only BD2 per person.

Have a blast.

Transformers, more than meets the eyes…………….

CX movie review - Fantastic 4, rise of the Silver Surfer

Last weekend I went to the Cinema and watched the new F4 movie.






Big mistake, it was not worth the entrance fee, I should have waited until it came out of DVD.




The movie starts off well, the opening scene is cool; it’s in outer space, the scene slowly glides past planets until it comes up to what seems to be a world breaking up, slowly, with bursts of gigantic explosions protruding out of its surface; the planet then goes dark and dies.



The Plot
The Silver Surfer, a herald of Galactus – The world Devourer, swoops into earth on an excavation expedition with the intent to preparing the world for consumption by his master; and where ever the Silver Surfer goes, the world destroyer is not too far behind, off in the distant bringing with it death and destruction.
Our heroes are defeated on their first meeting with the Silver Surfer; with some valuable information provided to them by their arch nemeses DOOM they succeed in capturing him on the second attempt, and the prisoner is turned over to the army.
Realizing the DOOM has just used everyone to get what he really wanted, the Silver surf board which was the source of the Silver Surfer’s power; the team help the surfer to escape and retrieve his board before he then goes out and does a kamikaze and destroys Galactus, his master along with himself, thereby saving the world.


What I really thought of it:
I was crying at the end, not because it got to me emotionally but because it got to me in the worst way possible, it had made a hole in my pocket to the tune of BD6, and I didn’t even have a good time.

The acting was weak; everyone was just full of themselves. The movie plot was very weak, a battle between good and evil; a misguided convert that saves the day in the end; a wedding that has been postpone several times; a super heroes loosing his cool and powers when he need it the most; and finally, the writers should have known, Galactus is too big an adversary to be used in a movie this short.

I liked the special effects though, and some of the laughs but it was not enough to justify going to see it in the cinema.

It was Ok, not great.

The CX Rating

I give it a 6 out 0f 12.

And I recommend that you watch it on DVD if you get the urge to watch it.