vchimpanzee
Joined Oct 2002
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vchimpanzee's rating
Did I already see this? I didn't review it and nothing seemed familiar, but later on I got the feeling I had seen this before. I missed one of the movies and only others got shown. Anyway, it was worth it. Some of the action goes too fast to really appreciate, and I am grateful to have a recording device that lets me go back and see things again.
Three major car chase scenes, and a spectacular car chase involving a tank and numerous cars being destroyed, and even poor innocent civilians fleeing just before their vehicles are destroyed. Including one who is an accomplished stuntman. And that sequence ends with an amazing stunt that could not possibly have been done without CGI or a green screen or something.
Great looking bridges too. And there are a lot of great looking bridges in the scenes where there is only dialogue. Nice shots of the cities where action is supposedly taking place.
Getting back to the action, if that's not enough, the unbelievable sequence when a plane tries to take off from a military base. Very long, very exciting, almost nothing that could have really happened because of the great work of so many and so many techniques only possible in the movies.
Did I mention plenty of explosions? There could have been move, but there were enough for me.
I've always enjoyed watching Vin Diesel in these movies. He's tough but nice and even cute with a baby.
The Rock isn't like what I'm used to. Hobbs is tough but in charge with little or no sense of humor, but he is the dependable and strong force that keeps it all going. He's not there to be liked but respected.
Plenty of pretty women, and the ones who get the most screen time aren't just there for looks. They are tough and intelligent and some of them can fight. Toretto's girl does give us a chance to look while she's apparently not wearing anything. On The CW there may not have been as much as possible.
But of course there are women just there to look good, and wear little clothing, such as the women in short dresses on the first plane, the women grabbing cash flying through the air, and dancers at the street race.
Music is appropriate and maybe a little loud but not as annoying as in some action movies I've seen lately. Some rap but not metal. One the subject of volume, For some reason the sound quality on The CW wasn't good. Commercials were much louder. That's not how one wants to watch this kind of movie.
I'm not sure how to compare this to the others because it has been a while. But if you want action, it delivers.
Three major car chase scenes, and a spectacular car chase involving a tank and numerous cars being destroyed, and even poor innocent civilians fleeing just before their vehicles are destroyed. Including one who is an accomplished stuntman. And that sequence ends with an amazing stunt that could not possibly have been done without CGI or a green screen or something.
Great looking bridges too. And there are a lot of great looking bridges in the scenes where there is only dialogue. Nice shots of the cities where action is supposedly taking place.
Getting back to the action, if that's not enough, the unbelievable sequence when a plane tries to take off from a military base. Very long, very exciting, almost nothing that could have really happened because of the great work of so many and so many techniques only possible in the movies.
Did I mention plenty of explosions? There could have been move, but there were enough for me.
I've always enjoyed watching Vin Diesel in these movies. He's tough but nice and even cute with a baby.
The Rock isn't like what I'm used to. Hobbs is tough but in charge with little or no sense of humor, but he is the dependable and strong force that keeps it all going. He's not there to be liked but respected.
Plenty of pretty women, and the ones who get the most screen time aren't just there for looks. They are tough and intelligent and some of them can fight. Toretto's girl does give us a chance to look while she's apparently not wearing anything. On The CW there may not have been as much as possible.
But of course there are women just there to look good, and wear little clothing, such as the women in short dresses on the first plane, the women grabbing cash flying through the air, and dancers at the street race.
Music is appropriate and maybe a little loud but not as annoying as in some action movies I've seen lately. Some rap but not metal. One the subject of volume, For some reason the sound quality on The CW wasn't good. Commercials were much louder. That's not how one wants to watch this kind of movie.
I'm not sure how to compare this to the others because it has been a while. But if you want action, it delivers.
Once again, I just watched what was on rather than try those channels I can supposedly get now. I don't usually choose to watch action movies but it's what I end up watching most of the time.
I don't know that there is anything unique about this movie, but it seemed different to me. And in my opinion, there were a lot of good acting performances, even if the movie itself may have lacked something.
Ja Rule was surprisingly good as one of the main bad guys, who ended up being one of the heroes. At least I think he was. And he and Steven Seagal were so good together. This was almost a buddy comedy, except it wasn't funny that much of the time and they weren't together that much.
Seagal himself was good but not great. I liked the character and he was good at fighting. And there was a lot of fighting.
Morris Chestnut has been a good guy most of the times I have seen him, but here he was a good leading villain.
I know Tony Plana best as Ugly Betty's father and he has done a good job everywhere I have seen him. Here he is a nice guy despite being in charge of Alcatraz, and too quick to give prisoners what they want considering the place's past reputation. This is the only possible explanation for a number of what could be considered problems, but I just decided not to worry about things not seeming normal for a prison. And in a couple of scenes he was strict about enforcing rules. He also doesn't let us forget he is Latino
Linda Thorson, who looks like Susan Sarandon, makes a good Supreme Court justice. She shows courage when she can but has a couple of scenes where being genuinely frightened is appropriate.
There is a big tough but warm and fuzzy prisoner that I liked. I wasn't seeing him enough at first, but he was in plenty of scenes later. I will conclude he was Little Joe.
Wasn't Bruce Weitz a tough rugged street type when he was a cop? Here he looked more like a judge, a rich businessman, or a government official. But he's actually on death row. And he was good in the role.
Kurupt talked tough because his Twitch was a little guy. If anyone was funny, he was. And you have to stay around for the credits because the funniest scene in the whole movie has him talking with Mo'nique as his girl.
Another funny scene came right before our heroes went into action. There were other heroes but it was uncertain they would arrive.
Yes, you will be asking questions about why didn't they do this or why didn't do that. Isn't it obvious what they will do? Well, just don't ask the questions and enjoy what they give you.
There were the obligatory explosions for no purpose other than to please the people who like seeing stuff blow up. And thousands and thousands of bullets that made holes in walls and doors but rarely people.
The final action scene is not to be believed, but not as special as it seemed like it would be.
On the subject of music, much what people might call music in the movie has as much relation to real music as the dumpster of a greasy spoon has to the cuisine of a 5-star restaurant. Considering the number of white people in the cast, the soundtrack leans heavily toward Black performers. I halfway expected to see Metallica or Megadeth but with rappers as vocalists, but as far as I could tell as I looked at the credits, no metal bands. I suppose this is the sort of thing the target audience wants.
It was entertaining enough, if not that special.
I don't know that there is anything unique about this movie, but it seemed different to me. And in my opinion, there were a lot of good acting performances, even if the movie itself may have lacked something.
Ja Rule was surprisingly good as one of the main bad guys, who ended up being one of the heroes. At least I think he was. And he and Steven Seagal were so good together. This was almost a buddy comedy, except it wasn't funny that much of the time and they weren't together that much.
Seagal himself was good but not great. I liked the character and he was good at fighting. And there was a lot of fighting.
Morris Chestnut has been a good guy most of the times I have seen him, but here he was a good leading villain.
I know Tony Plana best as Ugly Betty's father and he has done a good job everywhere I have seen him. Here he is a nice guy despite being in charge of Alcatraz, and too quick to give prisoners what they want considering the place's past reputation. This is the only possible explanation for a number of what could be considered problems, but I just decided not to worry about things not seeming normal for a prison. And in a couple of scenes he was strict about enforcing rules. He also doesn't let us forget he is Latino
Linda Thorson, who looks like Susan Sarandon, makes a good Supreme Court justice. She shows courage when she can but has a couple of scenes where being genuinely frightened is appropriate.
There is a big tough but warm and fuzzy prisoner that I liked. I wasn't seeing him enough at first, but he was in plenty of scenes later. I will conclude he was Little Joe.
Wasn't Bruce Weitz a tough rugged street type when he was a cop? Here he looked more like a judge, a rich businessman, or a government official. But he's actually on death row. And he was good in the role.
Kurupt talked tough because his Twitch was a little guy. If anyone was funny, he was. And you have to stay around for the credits because the funniest scene in the whole movie has him talking with Mo'nique as his girl.
Another funny scene came right before our heroes went into action. There were other heroes but it was uncertain they would arrive.
Yes, you will be asking questions about why didn't they do this or why didn't do that. Isn't it obvious what they will do? Well, just don't ask the questions and enjoy what they give you.
There were the obligatory explosions for no purpose other than to please the people who like seeing stuff blow up. And thousands and thousands of bullets that made holes in walls and doors but rarely people.
The final action scene is not to be believed, but not as special as it seemed like it would be.
On the subject of music, much what people might call music in the movie has as much relation to real music as the dumpster of a greasy spoon has to the cuisine of a 5-star restaurant. Considering the number of white people in the cast, the soundtrack leans heavily toward Black performers. I halfway expected to see Metallica or Megadeth but with rappers as vocalists, but as far as I could tell as I looked at the credits, no metal bands. I suppose this is the sort of thing the target audience wants.
It was entertaining enough, if not that special.
