http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754264/
where do i even begin. i dunno. it seems like there is no beginning, nor any end. all i can say for sure is that there were way too many tattoos and way too little blood.
i watched this movie because i thought, hey, michael jai white. he is awesome. there will have to be at least a few good moments, right? and sure, he beat the hell out of like twenty racist police officers with his hands cuffed, but that was pretty much it. the sexy time scenes (in a fighting movie???) were also pretty terrible and, disconcertingly, shot in the same style as the fighting scenes. there must have been an analogy or something that i missed, probably because i do not know any analogies about having sex with random strippers in a back room of a strip club.
oh, the fighting was fine, by the way. pretty fluid, and probably decently choreographed. good enough to fool me, anyway. unfortunately, it was all empty, and they were spouting most of the same platitudes as any other fighting movie. eg, control your anger so you can more effectively beat the hell out of people.
never back down 2 gets one beatdown. michael jai white is still awesome.
2013-02-19
2013-02-18
lockout
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592525/
look, here is the thing. if you are going to build a super futuristic prison, why would you include any kind of stasis technology? what would have to be wrong with your brain in order for that to be a thing? you would have to be a capitalist or something.
perhaps you are thinking of demolition man right now and thinking to yourself that it is clearly a data point that contradicts me, but you are wrong. see, demolition man had a *rehabilitating* stasis--the criminals who came out of it were all peaceful and stuff. theoretically. lockout's stasis was sort of the opposite, it amplified the violent tendencies in a bold move to *increase* recidivism, and thereby increase demand for the super-prison's services. this is what happens when you let major corporations run prisons as for-profit enterprises. they develop stasis technology and feed it to the prisoners.
i like to think that prisons count as systems that should have a degree of high reliability to them. when you are developing a reliable system, you basically go through the system piece by piece and ask yourself: "what if this piece fails?" the prison featured in lockout seems to have had some of that planning built into it, but it really bothers me that they do not seem to have planned for the case where the thing that goes wrong is that a prisoner gets loose in the interrogation room. typically, an obvious failure scenario like that one should not lead to the prisoner single-handedly taking over the prison and releasing all of the other prisoners. who are, technically, no longer prisoners at that point.
lockout gets one frozen cupcake.
look, here is the thing. if you are going to build a super futuristic prison, why would you include any kind of stasis technology? what would have to be wrong with your brain in order for that to be a thing? you would have to be a capitalist or something.
perhaps you are thinking of demolition man right now and thinking to yourself that it is clearly a data point that contradicts me, but you are wrong. see, demolition man had a *rehabilitating* stasis--the criminals who came out of it were all peaceful and stuff. theoretically. lockout's stasis was sort of the opposite, it amplified the violent tendencies in a bold move to *increase* recidivism, and thereby increase demand for the super-prison's services. this is what happens when you let major corporations run prisons as for-profit enterprises. they develop stasis technology and feed it to the prisoners.
i like to think that prisons count as systems that should have a degree of high reliability to them. when you are developing a reliable system, you basically go through the system piece by piece and ask yourself: "what if this piece fails?" the prison featured in lockout seems to have had some of that planning built into it, but it really bothers me that they do not seem to have planned for the case where the thing that goes wrong is that a prisoner gets loose in the interrogation room. typically, an obvious failure scenario like that one should not lead to the prisoner single-handedly taking over the prison and releasing all of the other prisoners. who are, technically, no longer prisoners at that point.
lockout gets one frozen cupcake.
fight night
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756707
the only thing that impressed me about fight night was the number of extras they appear to have used. i know they were not computer generated people because the entire effects budget had to have been used up on slow-mo punches. all ten dollars of it.
anyway, fight night gets one night of fighting. everything about it was horrible.
the only thing that impressed me about fight night was the number of extras they appear to have used. i know they were not computer generated people because the entire effects budget had to have been used up on slow-mo punches. all ten dollars of it.
anyway, fight night gets one night of fighting. everything about it was horrible.
2013-02-05
bunraku
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181795
bunraku is told with the same comic book styling as sin city, and it looks, sounds, and plays great. the choreography was well-done and totally appropriate to the flavour of the movie. very watchable, thoroughly enjoyable. if i were going to complain about something, it would be the length. it seems to me that they did not really need to have quite so many killers, though i grant that they did a fine job of giving them all their own styles.
bunraku gets four bunrakus.
bunraku is told with the same comic book styling as sin city, and it looks, sounds, and plays great. the choreography was well-done and totally appropriate to the flavour of the movie. very watchable, thoroughly enjoyable. if i were going to complain about something, it would be the length. it seems to me that they did not really need to have quite so many killers, though i grant that they did a fine job of giving them all their own styles.
bunraku gets four bunrakus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)