Three Reviews 3 - Double Edition

Well since it's a new year and all, here's 6 movie reviews for a change :)

Dirty (2005)

The story of two corrupt cops. One with good intentions, in the wrong place. The other one with bad intentions, also at the wrong place. It's a drama, with a little action, and a sad insight in corrupt cop life.

The filming is great. Just the intro is a masterpiece in itself. The different transitions flow together smoothly and the special effects all appear at the right moment. Some of them are so good you almost don't notice when they're cut, must be the best transitions I've ever seen in a movie. I spot Wyclef Jean in the short note of credits and think this movie will truly be great, but it isn't.

The actors or good, the filming is genius and the plot is a smart one as well. All the characters have clear personality displays, the plot is complex, the lighting is always right and theres a sort of brown/depressing color in the whole thing. It really is a great movie, so why don't I like it? It's just not what I like watching. It progresses slowly, contains little action, no beautiful sceneries, no heroes, no anger, no love, just normal emotionless street life.

 rated 2/5: decent

Ong-Bak (2003)

I've only watched two movies from Thailand in my life. I watched the first one, one that I can't remember the title of, two weeks ago. It was good, low budget but funny and well-made, so I looked up another movie, and it was a real goldmine. Never heard of it before, but I'm happy to have found it because it turned out to be one of the best movies I have ever seen.

The plot is about a Buddhist statue head stolen from a small village (the statue representing the god Ong-Bak). Without the statue the village's time of prosperity will be over, chaos will rule and their crops won't grow. Therefore a young man volunteers to head into the city and get the statue back. A unique storyline follows, with a lot of running, fighting and fun.

It's a both comical and sad movie. And it's low-budget, it is, but they still somehow managed to make better use of their money than Hollywood managed to do with any of their latest blockbuster hits. All the stunts are real, no strings attached, no special effects. People got hurt in the making of the movie too, it's not only fake fighting, and that's another part of it which is, to me, pretty amazing. Thailand's style, when it comes to movies, is much more serious and brutal than in the western world, even when it involves comedy. The main character isn't your typical American tough guy, with bigass muscles and witty comments, neither is he your typical Asian assassin, with smooth moves and wise words to throw. He's just a normal person, with amazing fighting abilities. It's not often you get to see Mui Thai either, the form of fighting they use so often in this movie, which involves more knees and elbows than any other martial arts I've seen.

At times during they movie, they show the same event from different angles, multiple times, which I don't recall seeing in any other films. It really looks pretty good though, and they chose to repeat the kind of scenes that you want to watch again, and again, and again. The main characters always have unique personalities, the fighting is realistic, and though the main character has a good portion of luck as well as skill, you never get to the "that wouldn't have worked in real life" comments, as in all other action movies nowadays. Everything is well made, they've thought closely about every aspect while making the movie. Some say that the main character (the actor) is better than Bruce Lee, and I might agree, though they didn't have the same filming techniques or stunt capability back in Bruce Lee's time, so we may never know how good he really was. Anyhow, this movie is a masterpiece in action. I highly recommend you watch it!

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome

Grind (2003)

An adventure movie, of modern sort, featuring a skater novice on his mission to become a professional. Lots of skating, lots of comedy and lots of adventure. It's a typical Hollywood movie too, with predictable events and happy endings. Doesn't mean it's not good though, the actors do their job, the storyline is well written and everything is nicely filmed. I haven't seen any skating movies other than this, unless you count the cartoon one with Goofy in so I don't have anything to compare to. But nevertheless, this is a good movie. If you don't have anything better to see, or if this just happens to playing on a channel you switch to, watch it.

 rated 3/5: not bad

One (2001)

Theres not one universe, there are many. A multiverse, 125 different universes, all linked together. There is not one unit, there are many. 124 units, all linked together. A squad has been built to keep law and order between these dimensions. One of the people in it, Yulaw, once had to confront a unit linked to him, and kill it. The energy from the victim flowed into him, and the other remaining version of him, and he was addicted. This is the story of his encounter with the very last unit like him. Things don't turn out as easy as with his previous killings this time. The unit he meets is well-balanced, and lives a completely different life than he does, but is still great at fighting. A simple, yet unique plot, with great heavy music in the background.

At the end when the two are having their final showdown and Papa Roaches tune pops into the background, singing "is it our nature to kill ourselves, is it our nature to destroy ourselves, is it our nature to kill each other..." the song gets a whole new meaning, heh. The actors are good, specially Jet Li, who plays both main characters, and one of the previous victims. The special effects however, are pretty crappy at times. The movie isn't that old, so I think they could have done a better job when it comes to that. If you look closely you'll notice a few mistakes they've made once and then, but other than that this is a truly good movie. Very nicely filmed, with a great storyline and good actors. I definitely recommend this one.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

Hot Shots 2 (1993)

Another great parody featuring the same characters as the first one, and many more. I didn't get as much of a laugh watching this one as I did during the last though. Sure, there are a lot of funny aspects in it, but they just don't seem to affect me anymore. Is it because they're so exaggerated? Is it because there's too many of them? Is it because I've watched this movie twice now? I don't know, but that's the way it is. If you haven't seen the first one, it's a military parody featuring the life of a Soldier, now retired, that comes back into play to take out a deadly thread in the middle east. Great actors, great filming and a great storyline as well, but it just doesn't do the getting-me-to-laugh job right. If you haven't watched the first one, see that instead.

 rated 3/5: not bad

Hot Shots (1991)

A great parody featuring the life of a previously traumatized fighter pilot on his mission to save the nation, to overcome his fears and to pursue his fathers dreams and visions. As a side story, it also features his romance with the psychologist, an evil plan from a plane manufacturer, and the story of some other pilots with less luck than himself. Lots of witty events in this, I laughed nonstop while watching this. It's exaggerated and insane, but still not too exaggerated, and the storyline is a great one. Btw, the movie this parody is based upon is Top Gun, one which I haven't seen and one which there is no need to see with a great movie like this as an alternative. I highly recommend it!

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle