Pierre_Kirby
Joined Feb 2007
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Pierre_Kirby's rating
Pride And Glory joins MR73 and The Chaser as the best Crime/Thriller's of 2008. The movie revolves around a family of cops and the issues they deal with. While the script is spot on for the most part, the movie suffers from an illogical third part that would've been best if it were left out.
Edward Norton joins a fine cast that consists of Jon Voight, Colin Farrel, Noah Emmerich, John Ortiz, and Jennifer Ehle. Basically, the acting is as effective as expected, with strong performances by Colin, Jennifer, Ortiz and Voight specifically. Edward Norton is pretty much playing another variation of the same character, but that is to be expected (whoops!).
Sorry about that Norton fans. Anyways, onwards. Joe Carnahan seemed to be trying to write another Narc with this one, and he almost succeeded. The twists and turns the movie makes are very well written, and the characters have depth to them. The problem is that the third part of the movie falls flat on itself. We have a generic fight to determine the happy ending of the movie, and an illogically written case of karma. The good thing is that the movie covers these failings by shooting them as realistically as possible, making them seem believable.
Even though I'm starting to detest hand-held cinematography, in Pride And Glory, it benefits the story somewhat. The movie is gritty, harsh, violent, and the hand-held cinematography creates a documentary feel to the experience that, ultimately, the movie benefits from it.
If you like your Cop Drama's, then there is really no reason to ignore this one. In fact, its the only good Cop Drama from Hollywood that came last year. That alone will warrant some curiosity.
7.9/10
Edward Norton joins a fine cast that consists of Jon Voight, Colin Farrel, Noah Emmerich, John Ortiz, and Jennifer Ehle. Basically, the acting is as effective as expected, with strong performances by Colin, Jennifer, Ortiz and Voight specifically. Edward Norton is pretty much playing another variation of the same character, but that is to be expected (whoops!).
Sorry about that Norton fans. Anyways, onwards. Joe Carnahan seemed to be trying to write another Narc with this one, and he almost succeeded. The twists and turns the movie makes are very well written, and the characters have depth to them. The problem is that the third part of the movie falls flat on itself. We have a generic fight to determine the happy ending of the movie, and an illogically written case of karma. The good thing is that the movie covers these failings by shooting them as realistically as possible, making them seem believable.
Even though I'm starting to detest hand-held cinematography, in Pride And Glory, it benefits the story somewhat. The movie is gritty, harsh, violent, and the hand-held cinematography creates a documentary feel to the experience that, ultimately, the movie benefits from it.
If you like your Cop Drama's, then there is really no reason to ignore this one. In fact, its the only good Cop Drama from Hollywood that came last year. That alone will warrant some curiosity.
7.9/10
1- Stephen Baldwin doesn't care about his involvement in Stephen Baldwin vehicles.
2- The acting in any Stephen Baldwin vehicle ranges from horrible to mildly passable.
3- Writers don't write Stephen Baldwin vehicles, children do.
4- Most of the Stephen Baldwin vehicles revolve around one genre- the Actionless Action genre. It basically consists of crappy action sequences made with little to no effort whatsoever.
5- The director doesn't care about Stephen Baldwin vehicles; he passes his job to an orangutan from time to time.
And now you know.
2- The acting in any Stephen Baldwin vehicle ranges from horrible to mildly passable.
3- Writers don't write Stephen Baldwin vehicles, children do.
4- Most of the Stephen Baldwin vehicles revolve around one genre- the Actionless Action genre. It basically consists of crappy action sequences made with little to no effort whatsoever.
5- The director doesn't care about Stephen Baldwin vehicles; he passes his job to an orangutan from time to time.
And now you know.
Bangkok Dangerous suffers from a lackluster romantic subplot that would've served better if it didn't exist. The reason I start mentioning this is because the amount of Action the movie is suppose to have is substituted for Drama, which is NOT GOOD if the movie doesn't even have well written Drama. Anyways, Bangkok is a clichéd Hit-man movie that you have probably read in a book, or watched in a film, time and time again. You know those movies where the deeply disturbed assassin gets a change of heart? Same exact thing happens here, with clichéd villains and plot points to boot.
Nic has seen better times, and has appeared in better films, but with Bangkok he proves that phoning it in is the ultimate way to make money. Hell, ask Sam Jackson. Nic narrates and broodingly grumbles an assortment of passages that are not only unnecessary, but tediously clichéd; All they do is lazily describe a character that has incredible potential to be something memorable, but isn't. He falls in love, and he changes his ways. He gets heartbroken, and he gets angry again. Pleeease. Besides this, the performances by Nic and the supporting cast are decent at best.
The Pang Brothers, aka, the guys that did The Messengers have a solid flair for tasty imagery. The problem is that they are working with a redundant script that provides everything but a well written story. My opinion- stay in China.
And ... I really don't have nothing else to say about Bangkok Dangerous. If you're an Action fan, then this will probably satisfy your rental needs (the movie is kept at a nice pace, whilst having three good Action sequences). If you aren't, then you will probably hate this. This latest Nic Cage movie is a mediocrity that serves only one purpose- letting you know that it is based on a supposedly superior film. That and Nicolas Cage's wig. It's entrancing.
4.7/10
Nic has seen better times, and has appeared in better films, but with Bangkok he proves that phoning it in is the ultimate way to make money. Hell, ask Sam Jackson. Nic narrates and broodingly grumbles an assortment of passages that are not only unnecessary, but tediously clichéd; All they do is lazily describe a character that has incredible potential to be something memorable, but isn't. He falls in love, and he changes his ways. He gets heartbroken, and he gets angry again. Pleeease. Besides this, the performances by Nic and the supporting cast are decent at best.
The Pang Brothers, aka, the guys that did The Messengers have a solid flair for tasty imagery. The problem is that they are working with a redundant script that provides everything but a well written story. My opinion- stay in China.
And ... I really don't have nothing else to say about Bangkok Dangerous. If you're an Action fan, then this will probably satisfy your rental needs (the movie is kept at a nice pace, whilst having three good Action sequences). If you aren't, then you will probably hate this. This latest Nic Cage movie is a mediocrity that serves only one purpose- letting you know that it is based on a supposedly superior film. That and Nicolas Cage's wig. It's entrancing.
4.7/10