ShadySovereign

The first time I saw the DVD of Backdraft available at the local entertainment store, I was not at all interested in watching it because of my naive mind-set that "firefighters are boring". But then I found out that Jennifer Jason Leigh (one of my all-time favorite actresses) starred in the movie, so I decided to buy the DVD and give the film a chance.

After seeing the movie, I was mildly impressed by its spectacular fire special effects. I had never seen a film that focuses on fire as much as this one. The strong focus on fire kept me interested throughout the movie, as I had never known that firefighters had to put up with so much fire problems in their daily lives.

The movie has a great all-star cast, ranging from Kurt Russell to Donald Sutherland to Jennifer Jason Leigh. All these familiar Hollywood faces will surely appeal to movie lovers and keep them interested until the end of the movie.

I loved seeing Jennifer Jason Leigh's post-Fast Times at Ridgemont High acting skills. Her character in Backdraft was beautiful and fascinating, and her relationship with William Baldwin's character was clearly shown.

This brings me to the problems I had with this movie. First of all, Jennifer's character never interacts with any character except William Baldwin's character. This really got on my nerves because I wanted to see her be a main character in this movie. She had so much potential to be a strong character in the film.

Another problem is the movie's long running time. In my opinion, the film did not need to be 2 hours longs. There were some scenes that could have been deleted to keep the film moving better at its fast pace. After all, this film IS classified as a thriller, and thrillers should never be too long because you would get too tired to follow the plot twists & turns.

Overall, Backdraft is an above-average thriller that gives some focus on the issue of firefighting and the problems they have to face in their lives battling fires. But to tell the truth, the movie is not for everyone. It will mostly likely appeal only to real-life firefighters and fans of the all-star cast.

I give this film a 6/10.

Here is a brief description of "Genji: Days of the Blade" : Genji 2, as most people call it, is an ACTION game. It is based on ancient Japanese history. So here is this giant enemy crab (yes, a CRAB). You must flip over this crab with your weapon and attack its weak point for MASSIVE damage. Special features in the game include features such as real-time weapon change (a feature which almost every other new game nowadays has already). And that's all this game has to offer.

I played this game at a friend's house. This friend of mine actually bought a Playstation 3 and bought this game along with it. He seriously wasted his money on both the game system and the game itself. Do what smart people do: avoid Genji 2 and the PS3 like the plague.

The Cat in the Hat is yet another PG-rated film which defies the laws of film ratings. The movie is supposed to be a kid's film, but sneaks in some mild adult content to get laughs.

This film is unfunny on all levels. Okay, there are probably one or two scenes that made me laugh, but the rest of the movie has stupidly unfunny jokes. Worst of all, the funny parts are supposed to be those that have the mild adult themes. I thought this was a FAMILY movie, not a sex comedy!

I guess only those kids who are spoiled and are used to nudity & porn will like this movie. There is a cameo appearance by Paris Hilton, who has done a sex video before. Maybe those kids who watched her sex tape will love seeing her dance suggestively in this movie. They would also love the mild sexual jokes, since they would understand them. It is sickening to think about the young children knowing about all this adult stuff at a young age.

The cat himself is very annoying. It seems that the filmmakers were trying to make him scary & funny at the same time. They were probably thinking of creating the cat as a Freddy Krueger carbon copy. Freddy is one thousand times funnier than this lame cat. In fact, Freddy could slice him up any time. I would get more laughs that way.

And lastly, of course, this film has nothing to do with the Dr. Seuss books. It's no wonder that the fans of the Dr. Seuss series were angry at this movie. If I was a fan of those books, I would be angry too.

To sum up, this film was really an insult to Dr. Seuss, to nursery rhymes, and to comedy itself. I despised this film on all levels, even if a few parts were funny. Watch this movie only if you're a kid who knows a lot about adult themes.

I give this movie a 0/10.