razvan_alexandru

The good people of the P.R. of C. suddenly decide they've just about had it with the U.S. of A.'s outstanding debt and subsequently pull the proverbial rug from under their feet by activating some secret backdoor that renders all Chinese microprocessor powered machinery useless. America grinds to a halt, the Chinese starve them into submission, chaos ensues. Blah. Blah.

As if the underlying premise wasn't idiotic enough, the acting, the directing and the editing made short work of everything else. Rarely have I ever seen a movie as lame and as pitiful as "Dragon Day".

In a twisted sort of way, I'm actually glad I soldiered on until the end as sure enough the ending was the icing on the cake, with the protagonist once again resorting to an act of unspeakable stupidity involving a (Chinese made, I'll bet) power tool. You HAVE GOT to see it to believe it.

The fact that garbage such as this actually gets funded is in and of itself far more of a threat to America's integrity than anything an enemy could conjure up from the outside.

I watched 'Pandorum' a few hours ago and by God, was this refreshing. It's the kind of flick critics tend to frown upon while audiences tend to relish through and through. Well, not quite any audience. If you've enjoyed movies like 'The Descent', '30 Days of Night' or 'The Midnight Meat Train', then know 'Pandorum' is a bit of each and then some. If neither rings a bell, do pass it up.

It's brutal, it's gloomy, it's relentless and above all it's got a nice little story to tell on top of all that creature-related fun and frolic. And while we're on the creature subject, Stan Winston's company (R.I.P.) was on the job. Even though they borrowed heavily from 'The Descent' there, the creature kinetics was great. Acting was also way above par as both Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid delivered great, sustained performances throughout. One final word on the directing side. As I understand this was Christian Alvart's only significant job he's landed so far. Judging by the way he's handled Pandorum, he's bound to make it big. Fingers crossed, Chris.

With its winding post-apocalyptic story and that bleak, dense, impending doom Alien-like feel to it, 'Pandorum' was one of the only two sci-fi movies I enjoyed this year. Duncan Jones' 'Moon' was the other one, though GERTY never quite got round to butchering Sam. *Sigh*

The thought alone of M. Night becoming a source of inspiration to other filmmakers gives me the creeps. That is, unlike the spooky kids, nerdy astrophysicists (pardon the redundancy) and high pitch "awe-inspiring" sounds that this movie abounds in.

While watching the first half of Knowing felt a bit like an early episode of The X-Files ("Conduit"), the movie on the whole did have this direct-to-TV feel to it, had it not been for the decent FX. Story-wise though, Knowing is a disaster on its own. It does redeem itself to a certain extent during the second half, but the damage had already been done by then.

If there's one thing that sets this one apart from the rest of the doomsday blockbuster pack, it may well be what it seems to postulate at the end of the 2 hr long drag. Namely, that fluffy white bunnies, when not butchered for their fur and/or meat, will earn their salvation. You'll have to see it and laugh it out to believe it.