Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Three years after he successfully thwarted the Nazis attempt to harness the power of the Ark of the Covenant; Indiana Jones is back for even more adventure with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. Joining star Harrison Ford and director Steven Spielberg we have a new lead actress, as Kate Capshaw (“Black Rain”) becomes the newest Indy girl, and young actor Jonathan Ke Quan as Indy’s latest associate, the pint-sized Short Round; along with two new writers, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, that had previously worked with producer and co-creator George Lucas on his teen classic “American Graffiti”. With all of the pieces in place, it was time for the adventure to continue, as “The Man in the Hat” was back once more on the silver screen.

“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” finds our hero (Harrison Ford) narrowly escaping a Shanghai nightclub, and traveling deep into the heart of India where he suddenly finds himself neck-deep in an evil plot to enslave the children of a small village. After discovering the source of the enslavement to be that of the sadistic Thuggee cult; Indy will do whatever it takes to save the innocent children from becoming permanent slaves in a labor camp, with the assistance of his diminutive sidekick Short Round and his newest bit of eye-candy, a lounge singer named Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw).

With the first film, the burgeoning Indiana Jones franchise established itself as a light-hearted, family friendly, action-packed, thrill ride full of adventure and wonder; however, with this next film “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, the series took on a decidedly darker and more sinister tone. I personally enjoyed this darker take on the character and his adventures, and thought the film, even though it was more mature than its predecessor, was still full of fun and adventure that the whole family could enjoy; just with a few parts that the little ones may need to look away from or have explained to them due to the maturity level being raised. Apparently, many fans of the series and moviegoers in general, felt differently than I about the direction this particular installment took. Many felt that the series was better served by a lighter storyline with more comedy and action, and not so much drama and even a little horror thrown into the mix. With that being said, most still enjoyed this newest adventure of archaeologist Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr., and even with the darker storyline gave this movie enough box office treasure to ensure another adventure would grace the silver screen yet again. So, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on the whole “tone of the movie” issue.

Harrison Ford fresh off his final turn as Han Solo in “Star Wars – Episode 6: Return of the Jedi”, gave audiences yet another terrific performance as Indiana Jones, his second most iconic character in his long-lasting career. Having already played the role once before, Harrison definitely seemed more confident as the adventurous tomb raider; and the darker storyline allowed for a new, more dangerous side of our hero to be showcased, albeit briefly. I’m sure this new aspect of the character was fun for Harrison to play, and as a fan of the series, I appreciated that the writers took a chance on having Indy be a little darker in this film than he is in any of the others. Alongside Harrison Ford, we have actress Kate Capshaw as Indy’s newest love interest, Willie Scott. Out of the entire film, if there was one thing I feel the need to complain about it would have to be Kate Capshaw’s character. Now, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Karen Allen’s character of Marion Ravenwood in the first film, but after about the first 5 to 10 times Willie whines to Indy about this and that, I found myself wishing Marion would show up and deliver that same punch to Willie that she landed on Indy after they first met in the beginning of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. Some may think I’m being a bit too harsh, it’s not that I disliked Kate’s portrayal for the entire duration of the film, and I don’t believe the whining aspect of the character to be completely her fault, I just thought that for the lead female character in the story she seemed far too annoying to root for or care anything about. This in turn made me wonder aside from her physical attractiveness, what could Indy possibly see in her that would allow him to ignore her lesser qualities like incessant whining or extreme materialism?

Joining the more experienced actors, we have newcomer Jonathan Ke Quan (“Goonies”), as Indy’s hilarious sidekick, Short Round. His wide-eyed wonderment, along with the semi-father/son connection between he and Indy, made many of the really dramatic moments of the film even more touching, not to mention his wonderful comedic timing made some very tense moments a little less so, but without being out of place or detrimental to the story’s integrity. Not to sell the rest of the cast short by not giving them their due attention, most of them did a really good job throughout the film, so they deserve a lot of praise as well; especially the actor who portrayed the leader of the Thuggee cult, now that’s one voodoo guy that you wouldn’t ever want to cross.

Oddly enough, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” is actually intended as a prequel to the first film. Many viewers may not be aware of this fact, and I personally find it somewhat surprising to think that even back in 1984, producer George Lucas (“Star Wars” saga) was hard at work making yet another movie series move backwards in time once he had already established such beloved characters’ with their initial movie(s). Here I thought this was something he did only recently when he revisited his Star Wars universe to create the first three chapters in his epic six-part space saga. Anyways, I digress.

To sum up, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” is a much darker film than its predecessor, and to some viewers that can be construed as a problem for the movie. I personally disagree, but to each his own. Despite its darker tone, the movie is still full of action and adventure, and even some good laughs to lighten the mood, and I believe it to still be a movie that the entire family can sit around and enjoy together, along with the first one.

“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” is rated PG for violence and brief language.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Due to the recent release of the fourth installment, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, in the long-time trilogy, now turned ongoing “Indiana Jones” series; I felt the need to go back and re-watch all the classic original films that started this whole franchise. Without further ado, let us begin with the 1981 adventure flick that made Harrison Ford even more of a household name, with his second most iconic character’s first film, “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” (as it was known when initially released to theaters) follows the adventures of Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford), an archaeology professor/tomb raider. After being contacted by members of the U.S. government concerning a former colleague’s connection to the Nazis and Hitler’s interest in all things related to the occult, Indy embarks upon a quest to discover the powerful Ark of the Covenant before the evil Nazis can get their hands on it. To do so, Indy must ally himself with a former love, Marian Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who fully lives up to the phrase “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”, and do his best to keep both of them alive as their harrowing journey takes them from South America to the streets of Cairo, and beyond.

Many movie fans have long held “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” in extremely high regard as being one of the all-time classics of American cinema, along with being heralded as the best in the “Indiana Jones” series. I agree with the first half of the statement, but I beg to differ on the latter. Although I do enjoy “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, I do feel that in the early stages of the movie, the story seems to struggle to find its footing. This results in some rather uneven pacing problems in the first 30 to 45 minutes of the film. While the lulls in the story are never so problematic that the movie begins to truly suffer for it, these moments do tend to draw some attention and caused me to become a bit restless early on. That being said, all the minor problems were fully taken care of by the 45 minute to 1 hour mark, when the movie really kicked into gear and the pace began moving along at a very steady clip; but without going so fast as to make the early parts feel too out of place.

I think my biggest problem with the story for “Raiders”, is that early on in the movie there seems to be so much backstory between Indy and Marion, and while it is dealt with to an extent, it never quite seems to get the attention it deserves. I mean, this woman clearly despises this man for something he’s done in the past, yet she seems more than willing to let bygones be bygones. And she does so in a manner that makes her anger in the beginning seem immature and irrational. Now, I will be honest that I’m a little at odds with myself on my viewpoint for this aspect of the story. On the one hand, I wish that they would have fleshed out the history between Indy and Marion a little further to justify her intense anger for him; while on the other hand, I’m glad they didn’t because this was the very portion of the story that I felt caused the movie to seem uneven. So, I guess I can’t have it both ways, but the resulting conundrum regarding this part of the film is most likely the primary reason for why this movie doesn’t rank as the best in the series for me, unlike most other fans of the “Indiana Jones” franchise.

From an acting standpoint the movie is very solid across the board. Harrison Ford (“Star Wars” original trilogy) creates another classically heroic, yet flawed character for audiences to easily relate to. Harrison provided Indy with a dry wit, intelligence, and strength that allowed audiences to embrace more of a thinking man’s hero that still knows how to handle himself in a fight, without resorting to the typical one-dimensional action hero that one would normally find in these types of movies. Karen Allen (“Starman”) is nearly perfect as the fiery ex-girlfriend of Indiana Jones, while she ultimately becomes the typical damsel-in-distress this kind of movie requires; she proves herself to be quite capable of handling herself in minor fights and drinking games as well. The only problem I had with Karen in this movie, aside from her seemingly irrational disdain for Indy early on, was that at times her line readings seem a bit forced. I don’t know if this was due to rewrites of the script during the filming or what, perhaps it was just nerves; whatever the case may be, her performance just didn’t seem to be consistent all the way through the movie. Serving as Indy’s go-to-guy in Cairo, named Sallah, we have actor John Rhys-Davies (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy), who delivers the majority of the comedic moments for the film; while still getting to see his fair share of adventure during his stint in the story. For the most part, the majority of the cast created some very memorable characters, all of which were entertaining and interesting; two qualities that are sometimes hard to come by in these types of films, where the characters usually tend to be a bit more one-dimensional.

With this movie being 27 years old, I find myself surprised by some of the bold stunts that director Steven Spielberg (“Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) and his producer/co-creator of the story George Lucas (“Star Wars” saga) dared to accomplish in the film. The boulder chasing Indy in the opening moments of the movie, and the scenes at the end involving the Ark of the Covenant are exceptional works of movie magic. The fact that these two sequences, along with a few others, still look as good as they do even to this day is amazing to me; while at the same time, serving as a fitting tribute to the talent and ingenuity that these two men and the many individuals in their employ, that help to make this magic happen, have at their disposal to take audiences on an adventure that they’ll not soon forget.

When all is said and done, “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” is an incredibly fun movie to watch. While it does have some problems during the first half of the movie, overall it’s a film that stands strong on its own and kicks off one of the greatest adventure series’ in cinematic history.

“Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” is rated PG for violence and brief language.

Speed Racer

I haven’t watched all that many episodes of the popular Japanese animated series “Speed Racer”, upon which the famed writer/director team known as the Wachowski brothers based their newest movie. So, when this live-action version of the series debuted in theaters earlier in 2008, I wasn’t all that excited to see it. To me it looked cheesy, childish, and generally uninteresting; although I always thought the visual effects looked impressive, as well they should coming from the creators of “The Matrix” trilogy. With that being said, “Speed Racer” has recently arrived on DVD and Blu-ray, and I figured I’d eventually get around to watching it, mostly to see the visual effects. Suffice it to say, I did finally rent the movie, and even though I went in with very low expectations after reading all the negative reviews it received, I have to say “Speed Racer” actually wasn’t the horrible disaster of a movie that I was expecting to see.

“Speed Racer” follows an up-and-coming race car driver named Speed (Emile Hirsch), who along with the support of Mom and Pops Racer (Susan Sarandon and John Goodman), is taking the professional racing circuit by storm in his lightning quick Mach 5. However, just as Speed is beginning to make a name for himself in racing, the corruption of this world quickly tries to topple this wholesome family, and without the additional aid of his girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) and the ninja-like prowess of Racer X (Matthew Fox), Speed and the entire Racer family may lose more than just the sport they love.

I know someone could make the argument that when a person goes into a movie with low expectations it wouldn’t take much for the movie to actually seem impressive to that viewer. And this is true, and I wondered if that was the case here, because I didn’t want my opinion affected by my previous bias towards the film. So, after I thought about it for a little bit, I feel I can honestly say that I actually found “Speed Racer” to be moderately enjoyable, regardless of what my initial thoughts had been. It’s not the perfect movie, not by any means, but it does provide some very entertaining and visually impressive racing sequences that have not been seen before in movies; and it was kind of nice to have a movie that was essentially safe for the entire family to watch, which is something of a rarity these days.

The screenplay written by Larry and Andy Wachowski, who also directed the movie, is for the most part very straightforward and simplistic, which is absolutely perfect for the kind of movie this is. The characters are clearly defined as to who is good and who is bad, making it easy for children to know who to root for; and the morality on display is quite obvious, but without becoming too heavy-handed as to take away from the overall story. Basically, this movie’s story is geared specifically towards kids, or those that are hardcore fans of the animated series, so all other moviegoers should just sit back, relax, and turn their brains off because for the most part you won’t really need it on.

However, approximately 75% of the way through the movie, the Wachowski’s attempt to throw in some plot twists and betrayals, causing the story to become a bit more complicated than it initially had been. The problem with complicating this movie’s story is that for most adult members of the audience who were not fans of the series, and therefore, have been able to just enjoy the movie for the piece of fluff that it is; we now have to re-engage our brains to tag along for the plot twists. When this occurs, at least in my case, it also allowed me time to begin analyzing what I had been watching, and before too long I started to notice little problems I had with various aspects of the movie. The problems I had were nothing too big to cause the movie to flop in my eyes, but merely annoyances that I had noticed when they occurred but had dismissed because the movie was still kind of fun and very fast-moving so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to dwell upon them. But, when the Wachowski’s introduced some plot twists, and attempted to throw in some drama for good measure, the movie kind of slowed down, which felt really odd being that the movie was a mere 30 minutes from conclusion; thus allowing me a moment to reflect. In my opinion, “Speed Racer” would have been a much better movie experience had the Wachowski’s simply ignored their penchant for over-complicating things, so that this movie could have remained the simple kids’ movie it started out as. Instead, it wound up being just an average movie that will most likely be forgotten over time by all who’ve seen it, when it could have been a classic for many kids to enjoy for years to come.

The cast of “Speed Racer” is a decent ensemble line-up with rising star Emile Hirsch (“The Girl Next Door”) in the lead as Speed. Emile does a good job of making this two-dimensional cartoon character feel just a little bit more real to the audience. His performance is nothing stellar, but neither is anyone else’s in this movie. I find it strange that for all the over-complicating the Wachowski’s tried to do with this movie, they could have at least thrown in a little bit of character development for the actors and actresses to dig into. Is that too much to ask? I guess so. Alongside Emile we have veteran actors John Goodman (“Death Sentence”) and Susan Sarandon (“The Client”) as Speed’s parents. Both give good performances, although I thought Susan was maybe phoning it in a little bit in places. Rounding out the cast we have Christina Ricci (“Sleepy Hollow”) and Matthew Fox (“We Are Marshall”). Christina portrays Speed’s girlfriend Trixie, a role that could probably be called her most sweet and innocent to date. Typically, Christina plays much more complicated or troubled characters, but she handled the uncomplicated and uncompromising Trixie surprisingly well, even to the point of being cute in a few instances. Matthew Fox as the mysterious Racer X was probably given the least to do out of the entire cast, but I imagine he signed on to this movie for the same reason as all the other members of the cast, a chance to work with the creators of “The Matrix”. I mean, seriously who’s going to pass up an opportunity like that? Even though Matthew wasn’t given much more to do than just fight as Racer X, it was clear in the little screen time that he did have that he was obviously having a good time.

From a visual effects standpoint, “Speed Racer” is one of the most mind-blowing experiences you can have at the movies. Almost every single special effect is amazing, as the Wachowski’s create their hyper-reality or whatever you would call the world of this movie. As awesome as most of the special effects were, there were a few moments I found to be weak spots, and I don’t know if this was intentional or not. One particular moment dealt with a chase sequence involving a semi truck that seemed unfinished and looked far too fake, even for this kind of movie. The other complaint I had regarding the visual effects, and I know this one was intentional, was when the characters would be viewed from the side for a kind of side-scrolling action sequence; which I presume was meant to resemble the classic anime of the animated series. To me these few moments were utterly pointless and felt out of place in a movie with essentially top-notch visual effects. I’m sure some of the fans of the series loved these moments, but they weren’t for me and I wish they would have been left out of the film.

Overall, “Speed Racer” is a fairly entertaining movie, it’s not the best thing you’ll ever watch, nor does it strive to be. Even so, it will provide you with a two hour escape from the real world, and some good old fashioned family fun that is at least worth seeing once, but probably not much more than that.

“Speed Racer” is rated PG for violence and brief language.

The Happening

You know, I used to think that writer/director M. Night Shymalan was actually a really talented filmmaker; one who knew how to make movies that audiences the world over could enjoy. I mean this was the man that chilled audiences with his breakthrough hit “The Sixth Sense”, showed us a burgeoning hero coming to grips with who and what he was becoming in “Unbreakable”, and then explored faith and paranoia in “Signs”. As good as those movies were, with “The Sixth Sense” being the best of them, after only three movies something began to go wrong and we were suddenly given some rather underwhelming films, such as “The Village” or the extremely dull and quirky “Lady in the Water”. Even with M. Night’s apparent fall from Hollywood grace due to his previous two efforts, his latest movie looked as if it might actually have what it takes to stand tall amongst the earlier work in his career. However, after watching the recently released “The Happening” I have now come to the realization that M. Night Shymalan is officially overrated and that he no longer understands what it takes to make a truly great movie.

“The Happening” follows a science teacher, Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), as he tries to grasp what is causing some extremely bizarre events that have begun to plague the people around him. As more and more people begin acting strangely, Elliot senses that perhaps an unseen force is causing humans to do bizarre and violent things to themselves. The further Elliot tries to understand what is happening around him, the more shocking the truth becomes as it appears that humanity may be under attack from the very plants that surround us everywhere.

For some reason I really did want to see this movie when I first saw the trailer. Regardless, of the less-than-stellar results his last two films yielded, I thought that perhaps M. Night Shymalan had once more discovered what he seemed to have forgotten that made his early movies favorites among moviegoers. However, after only getting 20 minutes into “The Happening” it was painfully clear that I was wrong, and that M. Night had once again delivered a steaming pile of crap to audiences. Now, I did go ahead and finish this movie, but I couldn’t hardly wait for the 90 minute long running time to come to a close so that I could swiftly eject this movie from my player, and soon begin purging the memory of this movie from my mind; sadly I have yet to succeed in doing this completely.

The plot for this movie is such a ludicrous concept, and obviously done in an attempt to cash in on the whole “Go Green” craze that seems to be sweeping the nation. I believe even the most ardent “Green” supporter will laugh at the sheer stupidity of the notion that perhaps the plant-life of Earth is attempting to kill humanity in response to all the damage we’ve done to the environment over the years. As if the basic plot for this movie wasn’t bad enough, the dialogue was sub-par throughout the entire movie. I don’t know what M. Night was thinking when writing this movie, but he seems to have forgotten how to write clever, intriguing, and realistic dialogue for his characters to recite. In place of well-written dialogue we find surprisingly pointless conversations and even a few areas where characters are given a line to say that feels completely out of place given everything they’ve been experiencing over the course of the film. Essentially, nothing in the story for “The Happening” worked for me, and if the studio felt that this would be a nice attempt to cash in on the “Go Green” agenda, they were sorely mistaken as this movie made only a paltry amount of money during its mercifully brief stint at the box office.

To top off this movie’s horrible excuse for a story, “The Happening” also managed to have really talented actors give some of the worst performances of their careers. The movie’s lead, Mark Wahlberg (“The Departed”), is an actor who I would normally classify as extremely talented and one of my favorite actor’s in the business today; however, this movie really causes one to question what Mark was thinking in signing on for such an obvious flop. For an actor that generally chooses really good roles in typically great movies, this seems like a giant blunder on his part; especially when his overall performance is very uneven and generally uninspired, complete with some poor line readings and unconvincing acting in places. Supporting Mark we have actress Zooey Deschanel (“Failure to Launch”) who does an average job as Elliot’s distant wife, although a couple of times her performance seemed to falter, but this could have been caused by the rather dim-witted lines of dialogue her character was given to speak. Rounding out the primary supporting cast we have comedian and actor John Leguizamo (“Righteous Kill”). John is typically a fairly solid character actor, but here I think he was trying too hard to create a quirky character to the point that he ends up becoming more annoying than unique. I must point out that even though the cast had some rough spots in their performances, I believe a lot of the blame must rest with M. Night Shymalan for not giving his actors something worthy of their talents to work with.

At one time writer/director M. Night Shymalan was being heralded as one of the most original filmmakers to hit Hollywood in years, thanks in no small part to the blockbuster successes of “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs”; and yet over the course of his career, only half of the movies he has made have actually been worth watching. “The Happening” continues the streak of cinematic garbage that M. Night has dumped upon unsuspecting moviegoers hoping for some sort of surprising movie experience, the likes of which we haven’t seen since “The Sixth Sense”. Perhaps with three well-below average movies in a row both studios and audiences will cease to give this overrated hack a chance, at least until he can come up with a story worthy of our attention once again.

For those of you that may have noticed, “The Happening” is M. Night Shymalan’s first rated R movie, a fact that the studio is heavily touting in their advertising for the recent DVD release; but I honestly can’t say that I saw anything in this movie that should have garnered such a rating. Although, I do find it somewhat humorous that the only aspect of this movie the studio’s marketing department can choose to focus on is its rating. When something like this occurs it’s a pretty clear indication that the movie won’t be worth your time or money.

“The Happening” is rated R for violence and brief language.

Prom Night

28 years ago a fairly successful horror movie was released starring the then-reigning scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis (“Halloween”), and dealt with teenagers being murdered on what should be one of the happiest nights of their lives, Prom Night. Fast-forward to 2008, and director Nelson McCormick (TV’s “Prison Break”) and writer J.S. Cardone (“The Covenant”) have attempted to serve up another dose of mayhem and murder surrounding that festive evening with a loosely-inspired remake of the 1980 slasher film of the same name, the appropriately titled “Prom Night”.

“Prom Night” is the story, as you may have guessed by the title, of a group of teenage friends attending their high school prom, except what should be a night of fond memories, will end up becoming a night of horrifying nightmares for those that survive. Three years ago, Donna (Brittany Snow), a popular girl in the school, lost her entire family to a killer obsessed with being with her. Now, on the night she has waited for throughout her entire high school life, the killer returns to finish what he started.

I will admit that I have only seen bits and pieces of the original “Prom Night” that starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen, and what I’ve seen appeared to be fairly predictable, as most horror films in the 80’s tended to be. So, I’m pretty confident I could surmise what happened in the end without ever finishing the movie. With this 2008 incarnation that has been dubbed a remake by most viewers, albeit an extremely loose one at that, the same predictability of the original continues to exist even in today’s incarnation and the movie definitely does not benefit from it. “Prom Night” begins with a very brutal opening sequence that definitely catches the audience by surprise. When watching this surprising opening portion of the movie, you are given this false sense that perhaps you are going to be watching a horror film that is in the vein of the slashers of the 80’s; except that this is one that actually knows how to send thrills and chills through you. However, after that initial sequence ends you quickly begin to realize that this movie is going to fall extremely short of the expectations that its opening had set you up with.

I was intrigued by the story at first, not just because of the opening sequence, but because writer J.S. Cardone had actually created an extremely creepy villain (Johnathon Schaech) that was not supernatural as many of the villains in the traditional horror films have been. This villain is one that may actually exist somewhere in the world, and that is a very frightening prospect when you stop to think about it. Even though the killer was much more believable than most within horror films, the movie quickly loses itself amongst numerous horror movie clichés, insipid dialogue, and an undeniably heavy dose of plot holes and continuity errors; not to mention the fact that the movie unfolds in such a predictable fashion that it simply boggles the mind that any writer would even bother submitting this as a finished screenplay.

The biggest problem that I had with “Prom Night” was the numerous plot holes and continuity errors that plagued the film. Many movies have these problems, sometimes you can ignore them, but there are times when they occur so frequently that it becomes flat-out distracting and there’s just no denying their existence. “Prom Night” falls into the category of a movie with so many plot holes/errors that there isn’t enough substance left over to make the movie work in any logical sense. One of the main sources of the problem was the fact that whenever the killer murders someone (and this isn’t really spoiling anything, because everyone has figured out by now that murders occur in horror films), he somehow is able to move their body without making any noise when someone may be in the other room, and also without leaving any kind of bloody trail or blood stain of any kind. Yeah right, give me a break.

Leading the cast of mostly unknown teenagers, many of which I doubt will have all that lengthy of a career in Hollywood, was the surprisingly talented actress Brittany Snow (“Hairspray”). Brittany easily carried this film on her own, and her likeability and talent as an actress made the movie at least bearable, but one can’t help but wonder why a young actress as talented as she bothers to debase herself by coming within ten feet of this garbage. The only reason I can figure is that Brittany most likely viewed this as an opportunity to expand her fan base by gaining the exposure amongst teenagers that a horror film can provide; however, there have got to be better choices out there than something this ridiculous and uninspired.

The rest of the teenage cast, or at least those pretending to be that young, was a mixture of those that were moderately talented individuals, to those that shouldn’t expect much more work to come their way later. Many members of the cast fell into the latter category. The only other good performance in the movie, aside from Brittany Snow’s, would be from Johnathon Schaech as the film’s creepy villain. Although Johnathon created an interesting and realistic villain, whoever made the decision to have him walk slower than a snail during the killing sequences really should have taken a few more moments to think that through. In most horror movies, especially those of the “Halloween” or “Friday the 13th” variety, the killer tends to walk unbelievably slow for someone trying to make a killing; however, as slow as those killers walk, their victims normally stop to hide/catch their breath which allows the killer to catch them. With “Prom Night” the killer walks slower than Jason or Michael Myers ever did, and his victims rarely stop running away; yet somehow he manages to catch them every time and to me that is a problem for believability in a movie that is already pushing the limits in that area to begin with.

With too many problems that plague the entire movie, “Prom Night” fails to deliver any sort of thrills or chills to the audience; mostly because the audience is too busy laughing at how stupid everything and everyone is within this movie. I must point out that the filmmaker, Nelson McCormick, was smart enough to determine that his movie had far too many problems; so he kept the movie’s pace going along at a very fast rate. This was done so the audience would hardly have any time to notice all of the little inconsistencies or impossibilities that kept occurring throughout his pale imitation of a horror thriller.

“Prom Night” is available in PG-13 and unrated editions both contain violence, language, and sensuality.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

With two highly successful entries, the Terminator franchise seemed to suddenly hit a standstill when trying to get a second sequel off the ground to follow-up the events of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”. Throughout the nineties, writer/director James Cameron (“The Terminator” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”) touted numerous times that a third film would be on the way; however, never once were one of these proclamations followed by any substantial proof of a sequel actually being in the works. Finally, after many years of back and forth, the next installment in the series began production in 2002, but this time James Cameron was not involved, nor was actress Linda Hamilton who had portrayed Sarah Connor in the first two movies. Taking over for Cameron was director Jonathan Mostow (“U-571”), and with all the shifts within cast and crew some worried that perhaps Arnold would stick to his original statement that he would not return for “T3” if James Cameron didn’t. For some reason, Arnold didn’t stick to his guns, which was probably a fortunate decision for the sake of this film, and the actor was ready to take on his fellow machines once more, alongside Nick Stahl as John Connor (replacing Edward Furlong), in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”.

“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” takes place approximately 10 years after the previous movie, and John Connor (Nick Stahl) is living out his life in fear that one day the dreaded events of the prophesied “Judgment Day” would still occur. Soon John begins to wonder if all his worries have been in vain, when a new threat from the future, a super-advanced Terminator identified simply as T-X (aka Terminatrix), arrives in the present day to eliminate all of the high ranking members of the human resistance before they are allowed to join forces against Skynet. Around this time, John encounters a former childhood friend named Kate Brewster (Claire Danes); however, this reunion could be cut short if the T-X has her way. To attempt to prevent the T-X’s success, the resistance has once more sent back a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) of their own assigned to protect all those on the T-X hit list before it’s too late.

With so many difficulties plaguing this sequel prior to it beginning production in 2002, I’m sure many wondered if there was even a need to continue the series; especially with writer/director James Cameron opting out of the project. If the series’ mastermind isn’t willing to return for a third go-round, what possible good could come with pursuing the movie anyways? Apparently, this kind of logical thinking didn’t enter into the minds of the people at Warner Brothers, and based on the final product of “T3” I would have to say that avoiding that kind of thinking paid off rather well for the most part.

Regarding James Cameron’s replacement, Jonathan Mostow, he was given the unenviable job of following up two highly successful and extremely well-respected movies in the realm of sci-fi. Not to mention following behind arguably one of the best director’s in modern cinema. I have to say that barring a few gripes, Mostow’s “T3” holds up well, but does fall just a tad shy of its predecessors. Jonathan’s previous film, the World War II submarine action/drama “U-571”, most likely prepared him to handle large scale action sequences, and gripping drama that deals with the fate of many people’s lives hanging in the balance. So, as far as replacements go, I think that Warner Brothers left the series in extremely capable hands.

Due to James Cameron not returning for this entry, two new writers were brought onboard to pen the script for Arnold’s third outing as the leather-clad killing machine. Writers John Brancato (“The Net”) and Michael Ferris (“Catwoman”) co-wrote the screenplay borrowing heavily from other Terminator related sources, such as; the concepts of a female Terminator and Judgment Day being postponed from the novel T2: Infiltrator, and taking some cues from a previous script written by Tedi Serafian that included Sarah dying of cancer a few years after “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”. Even with the less-than original ideas, John and Michael still delivered a tight script that boasted plenty of fast-paced action, and finally pushed the series closer to the futuristic events that we have only seen glimpses of in the previous movies. One somewhat disappointing aspect to the story of “T3” is that the movie feels like there is less going on here than in the previous two films. The first movie was essentially this two hour cat-and-mouse game between the Terminator and Sarah and Reese; the second one had a similar feel, but also had so much other stuff going on that the film was just incredibly rich with storytelling. However, in this third movie the story, although solid, didn’t seem to have as much drama and actual plot going on as the first two movies had, which may explain why the action sequences were bigger, and possibly more frequent in this movie than the previous ones.

One area of these films that has improved significantly from movie to movie is the visual effects. In the first movie, “The Terminator”, the effects were good for their time, although incredibly dated by today’s standards; in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” the special effects were given a major boost by the advent of CGI. So, twelve years after the release of “T2”, one can easily say the capabilities of today’s visual effects wizards are nothing short of astonishing. Therefore, it really comes as no surprise that for “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” the numerous effects sequences were obviously the best in the series’ history, but also were some of the best of the year 2003.

Lastly, the cast of “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” was mostly impressive, maintaining the high standards the series had held since it began back in 1984. Arnold Schwarzenegger (“The Terminator” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”) was a surprise to me, because so much time had passed since his time as the Terminator that I wondered if he could physically get back in shape for the role at his age, and with his interest in politics beginning to eat up more of his time. Surprisingly, Arnold pulled it all off, and aside from a few possible extra wrinkles he appeared to look virtually the same as he had back in 1991, which served the continuity of the series very well I might add. From an acting standpoint, after two previous movies, I believe Arnold knows this character inside and out, so for him there wasn’t anything new to work with, most likely he just wanted to do it for the fans of the series. Plus, what would a Terminator movie be without Arnold somewhere in sight? Regarding the remainder of the cast, Claire Danes was a good choice for Kate Brewster, John’s childhood friend, she brought a kind of toughness and a slight leadership quality that somewhat made up for the absence of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Newcomer Kristanna Loken (“Bloodrayne”) was a nice addition as the lethal femme fatale model of Terminator known as T-X or Terminatrix as she was sometimes referred; and she is easily the most dangerous, and attractive, of all the Terminator villains we’ve seen so far.

Out of the entire cast I only had one problem with one of the main members, and by this time you have probably figured out who I’m talking about, by looking at whom I haven’t discussed yet. You guessed it, actor Nick Stahl (“Sin City”) as John Connor was a major problem for me in this movie. As an actor I think Nick has done a good job in the various roles I have seen him in over the years; however, I for one don’t believe he was a great choice to play John this close to the period in his life where he may possibly be called upon to lead humanity in its darkest hours. I thought that Nick made John seem far too whiny with his whole poor pitiful me routine that he kept using over and over throughout the movie. I kind of felt like for the future leader of mankind, I sure wouldn’t follow this loser into battle; honestly, he kind of seemed like Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars – Episode II: Attack of the Clones”, where he was constantly whining about Obi-Wan and the council holding him back from greatness. The difference being, here John wasn’t seeking greatness, he just wanted to runaway and hide somewhere like a coward; although I must admit that around the midpoint of the movie, John does take a more proactive stance and begins to show signs that perhaps the leader that has been prophesied about may yet exist.

After watching all three Terminator films back-to-back over an incredibly fun Saturday, I have to say that while “T3” is still a highly entertaining entry into the series; it is the weakest one out of the three. The story is fast-paced, but feels at times to be a little weaker due to not nearly as much going on as there was in “T2”; the action sequences were fun and on occasion were flat-out impressive to watch, and of course the visual effects were the best in the series. However, the slightly weaker story, coupled with a questionable performance from Nick Stahl as a semi-weak acting John Connor, and a few possible continuity errors between this movie and the previous ones made “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” not quite as good as either of the previous films in the series.

“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” is rated R for violence, language, and brief nudity.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

After the success of “The Terminator” in 1984, it strikes me as somewhat odd that there wasn’t a sequel rushed directly into production as soon as the original was deemed a hit. Nowadays, it seems like once a movie surpasses what it cost to make the movie then a sequel is virtually inevitable. This also seemed to be the mindset around certain movies back in the 1980’s, especially the slasher type of films; but for whatever reason seven long years passed between the release of “The Terminator” before director and writer James Cameron re-teamed with his stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton for “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”.

“Terminator 2: Judgment Day” picks up approximately ten or so years after the events of the first film. Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) has been locked away in a mental institution after her crazed warnings of an impending holocaust at the hands of machines, and her 10-year old son John (Edward Furlong) is living with foster parents. After the initial failure of the first Terminator to complete its mission of eliminating Sarah, the evil Skynet has sent back an even more advanced model, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), to hunt down and kill her son John before he can grow up to become the leader of the human resistance. However, John’s future self is not without his own resources as he has sent back a weapon of his own to protect his younger self, a reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) identical to the one that attempted to kill his mother ten years before.

A general rule about movies is that nine times out of ten the sequel may be on par with the original film, but rarely will it ever surpass what had come before; however, I feel very confident in saying that “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” is easily one prime example of an exception to that rule. “The Terminator” was an excellent sci-fi movie that mixed futuristic elements with those of the modern day, but some may have wondered what more story could there possibly be since Sarah defeated the first Terminator, which should have saved her son and the future as well. Based on what I saw in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, or “T2” for short, what happened in the original was merely the beginning of a much bigger problem for mankind.

Writer/director James Cameron has once more crafted an extremely taut, perfectly paced, sci-fi thriller that is leaps and bounds above what was done in the first movie. The story for “T2” is much bigger, the drama is more intense, the action is pulse-pounding, and the visual effects are still incredible even to this day. James Cameron must have known that he was merely laying the initial groundwork in “The Terminator” for a vast mythology surrounding mankind’s future against the evil machines, because that last scene in the original movie hinted that something bigger may be on the horizon. Even though so many of us had seen the first movie and caught on to the hint that there may be more to tell, who knew it would be this massive blockbuster of a film that remains just as popular all these years later. Where the first film briefly touched upon Skynet and gave us brief glimpses at the war that awaits us in the future, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” takes all of that and builds upon it greatly. “T2” explores how events in the original movie actually set into motion the events of the future, shows us a very emotionally raw heroine in Sarah Connor, a different side to the Terminator from the first film, and to top it off gave us even more glimpses into the future battles that will ravage mankind. The only thing I can say about the story for “T2” is that it is simply awesome, and is quite possibly one of the greatest follow-up story’s I have ever seen come out of Hollywood.

The cast of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” is comprised of a few familiar faces and some new ones as well. Linda Hamilton reprises her role of Sarah Connor with a much more emotionally charged performance than what was required of her in the original movie. Sarah is a completely different person than she was when we last saw her, now she is this highly trained warrior that is emotionally scarred and torn by what she feels to be her duty to train her son to become the leader of man, and yet to still protect him and care for him as her child. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, just as he promised in the first movie, as a reprogrammed Terminator, and proves yet again that this was the one role that he was born to play. Even though the character is just a machine, there are very neat moments within the movie where without saying much of anything, Arnold allows the Terminator to convey that there is some kind of connection that exists, a bond if you will, between the Terminator and John. James Cameron’s script really aided Arnold in what he was able to do with the Terminator this time around by exploring the fact that the machines can learn from and mimic humans, which allowed Arnold to show some, albeit limited, emotions while still remaining in character.

Joining the returning cast members we have newcomer Edward Furlong (“American History X”) as John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance. Considering the fact that “T2” was his first acting gig, Edward did an amazing job of bringing John to life in a very realistic way as a troubled kid whose destiny is too big for him to possibly fathom. The way Edward handled John’s interactions with the Terminator was very interesting, because early on John sees the machine as a means to an end, nothing more than an overgrown action figure of sorts; however, over the course of the movie he begins to form a bond with the Terminator that becomes almost like a father-son relationship, that was at times quite poignant. The other new addition to the series was actor Robert Patrick (“We Are Marshall”) as the new, deadlier, and much more sophisticated T-1000 Terminator model. Robert was given a very physically challenging role that required a lot of physical activity, but from an acting standpoint the role didn’t really challenge him all that much. That being said, as unchallenging as it was onscreen in the acting realm, I’m sure the preparation for all of the visual effects associated with his character were most likely quite time consuming and at times daunting.

In the first movie the visual effects were very good, especially given the time at which the film was made, although over time I admit that some of the effects have lost their luster. While that statement is true for 1984’s “The Terminator”, it couldn’t be farther from the truth when referring to the stellar special effects work done for 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”. While technology has definitely improved significantly since 1991, the effects within this movie still hold up quite well, and while maybe not as perfect as today’s effects, they are still very impressive in their own right. For example the morphing technology, used to create the numerous effects sequences for the liquid Terminator, was so mind-blowing back in 1991, and yet even today it still looks astonishing.

As I stated earlier, while “The Terminator” was a great movie, what James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger were able to achieve with the sequel “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” is simply amazing. Everything about this movie is just bigger and better than what was done in the original film, and this is an example of the kind of sequel that all studios should strive for when making a franchise.

“Terminator 2: Judgment Day” is rated R for violence and language.

The Terminator

With the new television season in full swing I find myself bombarded with a plethora of new shows vying for my attention, few will actually succeed in gaining it in the end; however, as many new shows try to become new favorites of mine, I still remain loyal to the ones I’ve enjoyed from previous seasons. One such show that became a favorite of mine last season was the Fox network’s mid-season replacement “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”. Now that the new season of this show has gone on for a few episodes, I recently found myself wanting to re-watch the original movies that spawned this entertaining weekly sci-fi series. So, I got out my Blu-ray copies of the Terminator trilogy and had myself a thrilling, action-packed, sci-fi weekend of machines bent on destroying humanity.

“The Terminator” is set in the year 1984 where a young woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is trying to make a life for herself; however, that life may soon be cut short as a deadly cyborg, called a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), arrives from the future to kill her. As it turns out, Sarah is to eventually give birth to a boy who will one day grow up to become humanity’s last great hope for survival against the onslaught of these seemingly unstoppable killing machines. Now, Sarah is in a desperate struggle for survival for not only her own life and that of her unborn child, but also for the future of all mankind.

Science-fiction movies when done well can be extremely entertaining pieces of cinema that on occasion become important facets of our popular culture. Prior to 1984, the Star Wars and Star Trek movies were the two biggest science-fiction franchises ever to be made. That is, until a little known director named James Cameron released a movie starring a former Austrian body builder that would become the first true blockbuster for both men’s careers, and cement Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cinematic icon, causing his character to become one of the most quoted and recognizable characters of all time.

The story for “The Terminator” is a blend of both present day (well, back when 1984 was present day) reality with that of a dark, bleak future where humanity’s days could very well be numbered. The concept of having a cybernetic killer come back from the future to end the life of an innocent woman and her as yet unborn child was an intriguing one. It was made even more intriguing by the introduction of her protector (Michael Biehn) who was sent back in time by Sarah’s very own son to protect his mother and prevent the Terminator from succeeding in its mission. Talk about a mind-bending storyline. An interesting element within this movie is that the future may not be set in stone, which introduces some really interesting consequences into the story depending on what happens; therefore making the movie feel a bit more unpredictable and original than one might expect from the genre. It was nice to see that even back in 1984, long before the recent crop of sci-fi/superhero films set against a realistic, modern day backdrop, writer/director James Cameron was smart enough to create a fairly realistic world for his characters and his far fetched idea (although it doesn’t seem nearly as far fetched with today’s technology) to exist within. Thus, allowing us in the audience an easier time of relating to these characters who find themselves in this bizarre situation.

Leading the cast for “The Terminator” we have Arnold Schwarzenegger, who found great success as one of Hollywood’s new action heroes in films such as, “Predator”, “Commando”, and “Total Recall”, and all of it was due to his star making performance in this movie. The fact that Arnold became such a big star from this movie is actually somewhat surprising to me given the fact that he barely speaks in his role, shows zero emotional range (which is appropriate given that his character is a cyborg), and isn’t exactly challenged in a physical way either. Regardless of all of this, Arnold still managed to create a villain that instills fear by being this ultimate killing machine, not to mention the eerie way in which he systematically scans a room is perfectly robotic and creepy at the same time. All the while you’ll find yourself wondering is this possibly the future of our machines with the way A.I. is becoming more and more advanced these days. Just a little bit strange to think about, isn’t it.

The supporting cast led by Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn was surprisingly solid, providing intriguing characters that were easily accessible, allowing for us to quickly begin rooting for their survival and ultimate success against the onslaught of the Terminator. Linda Hamilton (“Dante’s Peak”) was given the most to do out of everyone within the cast. Over the course of this movie we see her character run through a wide range of emotions; from happiness to fear, from fear to surprising romantic bliss to an eventual undeterred resolve. Linda proved in this movie that she was definitely star material, by creating such a three-dimensional character that began the movie as a virtual nobody and ended it poised to become this virtual warrior-like woman determined to raise her son to be the one man that could save humankind from extinction. Along with Linda, actor Michael Biehn (“Aliens”) created a very human, yet at times almost superhuman hero in Sarah’s protector, Kyle Reese. His devotion to not only his mission, but also to Sarah, was a nice twist to the character, because it made him into a much more realistic hero. Normally in movies like this the hero is one that knows exactly what to do in every situation, and nine times out of ten Kyle was very much like that, but there were those moments where he clearly was flying by the seat of his pants, and just hoping for some miracle to occur to save both him and Sarah from the machine hunting them; it was this very human aspect to his heroic character that made him stand out more than what your typical action hero would have in any other movie.

Lastly, writer/director James Cameron did an excellent job of creating a visually thrilling science fiction experience with a significantly smaller budget than anything produced in movies or television today, and yet still his visuals hold up better than most from that time. That is as much to do with the excellent work on behalf of James Cameron and his crew as it is with the talented people working with Stan Winston to create the stunning, yet sometimes frightening images of a future where machines rule over the humans with an iron fist. Granted there are moments within the film where it definitely shows its age, and the practical and visual effects definitely look dated; however, given the time at which the film was made the results are still impressive even by today’s standards if you really stop to think about it. It would be nice (and I’m sure purists will disagree with me on this) if some of the weaker moments in the visual effects area could be tweaked/redone similar to what George Lucas did to his original Star Wars trilogy. I’m not saying to tweak the effects to the extent that George did, but there are definitely places where if an improvement could be made the movie would definitely benefit from it, and would feel more in line with the technological advancements made in between this first movie and its sequels.

Overall, “The Terminator” is an excellent science fiction thrill ride that grabs you early on, and only occasionally slows down long enough for you to catch your breath before quickly rushing forward once more. With an outstanding story, a surprising cast, and mostly solid visual effects work, this is a movie that kicked off one of the greatest sci-fi movie series’ of all time, and should definitely be on everyone’s must see list!

“The Terminator” is rated R for violence, language, and nudity/sexuality.