johnnyonthespot

Many will call this a "mindless action movie", and I don't think that's fair at all. Sure, it has quite a bit of action and not as much thought/story as the first one, but that is done intentionally and by necessity, not laziness on the part of the writers. The 1st Matrix had to introduce the audience to a new and completely foreign world, and thus a lot of explanation was necessary. The end of the 1st one set the stage for the beginning of "the war" and this Matrix is the war in action. This makes perfect sense. Preparation for a war is very cerebral, but once the fighting begins, it becomes a lot less so. But fear not, there is still quite a bit of new information that we learn (most, but not all of which, comes during the final 25 minutes) and I can honestly say that I was anticipating much less story and was happy to be proved wrong. The ending, of course, is not an ending at all, and a number of events that occur at the end can not be fully judged now but will have to wait till the 3rd, when the truth (hopefully) will finally be revealed and we can trace events back in our mind. I would currently rate this film a 9/10, but, like many of the critics have stated, that rating may well change pending the conclusion in November. For now, though, this is an extremely fun sci-fi action film that, while not as smart as the original, is certainly smarter than most films and leaps and bounds above the typical summer blockbuster. Come into it expecting to hate it and you will, but approach it looking to be drawn in and have a good time and you will most definitely not be disappointed.

Well, it's definitely not horrible, that much can be said for it. And there are definitely about 5-7 truly hysterical parts, which I guess is reason enough to see it. But there are just as many, if not more, jokes that just fall flat, and often times the characters say unfunny things that are so out of character that they're expected to be funny simply because they're out of character. Also, don't expect any further witty parodies of the Bond series, other than the title character (who pretty much exists solely as an excuse to give the movie its title). Most of the humor now comes from a series of celebrity cameo appearances, rips of modern pop-culture, and a rehashing of previous Powers' jokes (and sometimes all three together). About the only truly original funny pieces involve some misinterpretation of subtitles (though even this is dumbed down unneccesarily). Also, I love Michael Caine, and I think with the right material he can be one of the best comedic actors, but the character he plays has little depth and doesn't give him much to work with, which is a shame.

Overall, you won't be wanting the 90 minutes of your life back, and you probably won't want your money back, but you also will probably not be eagerly anticipating a 4th installment. Myers said before that he'd keep making these as long as people came to see them. Well, I came to see this one, and I'd probably go see the next one, but I still hope he stops.

I am an avid horror fan and have always had a fascination with those creatures from the dark that used to deprive me of sleep when I was just a wee tot. Thus it was with great anticipation that I pre-ordered this DVD and my mind reeled with the possibilities of how cool this DVD could be. The verdict: Boogeymen delivers - sort of.

My biggest complaint has to be the length of the feature. 58 minutes. To me that's hardly enough time to do justice to 17 different characters (just over 3 minutes per). And why is it that each character has to be given only one scene. Don't get me wrong, I love cheesy horror movies and cartoonish monsters, but had they given some of the more prolific characters (Freddy, Jason, Pinhead, Leatherface, etc) 2-3 scenes and 6-8 minutes each and cut down some of the filler (Leprechaun, the Ugly, the Dentist) to 2 minutes or so, you'd have had a nice 100-110 minute feature that would have hit on all cylinders. Another small gripe - none of the scenes are widescreen. Also, the atmosphere just didn't do it for me. The scenes are broken up by loud, grungy metal guitar and there's a 3-sentence synopsis of each boogeyman. I think it would have been much better to just have a simple title of the character with soft eerie music in the background (perhaps Tubular Bells). Along those lines, noticeably absent is The Exorcist, Last House on the Left, The Omen, the Evil Dead series, and the Night of the Living Dead series. I realize that they wanted really specific, identifiable boogeymen but come one, who wouldn't rather see the zombies from Dawn of the Dead, or Ash's hand from Evil Dead II instead of The Guardian and The Dentist?

I don't want to give the impression that there isn't much here to enjoy, there is. Robert Englund's commentary is first rate fun (it's particularly gratifying to hear him cringe during a scene from The Dentist). And a lot of the extras are quite entertaining. Still, I was hoping for a DVD that I could throw on every few months or so when I got the horror bug and there were no decent flicks in theatres. So far I've watched it twice (once with the commentary, once without) and I don't see myself watching it more than another 1-2 times in my life. Also, I will echo the sentiments of other comments, this is flick for those that have seen most of these films, as some of the endings are given away. While showing Warwick Davis pogo-sticking a guy to death may not be much of a reveal, showing the end of Texas Chainsaw certainly is.

Bottom line: Lots of fun with a fair share of camp, but not as good as it could have been, so rent it first.