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Freudianspud's Reviews

Displaying Review 16 - 20 of 24 in total

  • Written by Freudianspud on 14.03.2010

    I recently commented on a review about The Incredible Hulk (written by Oldzia999), saying that Marvel didn't really get the hang of making films up until 2008, when they came out with Iron Man, said Hulk and Punisher: Warzone. Seeing as how both The Incredible Hulk and Punisher: Warzone are remakes (or do-overs, I guess), I thought it'd be fun to write a review for both the second and the third Punisher film. The first is of course the one with Dolph Lundgren, who never needs a review. Everything he does is pure awesome, after all.

    So that brings us to the Punisher the 2nd. The story is, for those who know the character, pretty straight forward. Frank Castle (Christopher Lambe - I mean Thomas Jane, Dreamcatcher) has just retired from the police force and is enjoying a relaxing holiday with his entire family when everyone gets brutally murdered. Don't worry, that's not a spoiler, happens pretty much right of the bat. It turns out that the son of crime-boss Howard Saint (John Travolta, Grease) was killed during Castle's last assignment, and Saint is holding Castle responsible. Of course, Frank survives the assault and vows to become that which his enemies fear the most: The Batman!

    Just kidding. He puts on a shirt with a skull and starts seeking revenge on Saint and his syndicate, doing so by an intricate web of lies and deceit. In fact, the only times the Punisher can be seen doing the punishing is when he's assaulted by two hitmen (not at the same time) who seem to be pulled straight out of Desperado and that Rocky movie with Dolph Lundgren as the giant Russian.

    The Punisher was of course an adaptation of the same-titled Marvel Comic, but as many may have noticed, movie-Castle isn't as violet as comic-Castle by a long shot. Sure, he knows how to handle himself, but he'd rather avoid conflict altogether.
    The acting isn't all that great either, even with Travolta playing one of the leads. I blame it on the fact that it's an early marvel film. Much like Ghost Rider or Daredevil (which were, in my opinion, still awesome though), the Punisher doesn't quite get there. It's more of an entertaining action flick that happens to have a dude with a skull-shirt as well, but to me, that's where the comparison ends.
    As for the story itself, there's not a lot of originality here either. The whole revenge-thing is obligatory, but then there's that scene with the giant Russian in the Where's Wally outfit. Also, the scene where they're singing and dancing. That never works. Not even as a trick to get cheap laughs from the audience. Never works. Ever.

    In short: The Punisher is to Punisher Warzone as what a traffic warden is to a marine: Something relatively soft trying to be bad-ass. If you're a fan of Marvel, you'll probably like it. If you're a die-hard Punisher fan, maybe a little less.

  • Written by Freudianspud on 14.03.2010

    Welcome to the second instalment of "Punisher Review". I'm your host Freudian and in this episode I will take you through the new and improved Marvel Knights edition of The Punisher, Punisher: Warzone.

    The story is pretty much the same but does the same thing as they did in Incredible Hulk: they don't repeat the origins, they just get to the point and begin with Frank Castle (Played this time by Steven Seag - er...Ray Stevenson, The Book Of Eli) killing a whole lot of people. He also manages to disfigure Billy 'the Pretty Boy' Russoti (Dominic West, Hannibal Rising), who then turns into Jigsaw, an insane crime-lord with an even more insane brother, Loony Bin Jim (Doug Hutchinson, The Green Mile).
    After that, Castle finds out that an innocent man was shot during the raid, which makes Frank turn into some kind of emo who tries to set things straight with the remaining family of said innocent man.
    Meanwhile, Jigsaw seeks revenge on the one that maimed him, so he decides to go for Castle the easy way: through the family of the innocent dead guy and by means of killing Castle's partners. This makes Castle angry, and he then decides to take up the skull once more to put an end to Jigsaw's madness. (By the way, it's not the old Jigsaw from Saw. You know, in case you were wondering.)

    Punisher: Warzone is what The Punisher should have been like. A bad-ass dude with a skull on his chest wreaking havoc in the underworld. There is significantly more violence, which is utilized in some pretty brutal ways. I especially liked the part when a 'good cop' has one of Jigsaw's men in custody when Castle walks in and flat out shoots the guy's head off with a 12-gauge (God dammit Castle!). He also shoots a free-runner with a rocket in mid-air.
    The acting in this flick is a lot better compared to The Punisher. I'd say that this is mainly because the characters are a lot more fun to watch, since they're a lot more bad-ass/insane. Stevenson's Punisher is the dark, broody motherfucker we expect the Punisher to be. Jigsaw and his brother Loony Bin Jim's insanity are a delight to watch and the rest of the characters aren't that bad either, even though they're mostly there for comical relief.

    So, if you'd like to see a Punisher film, but you're not sure which one you should take, I recommend this one over the previous one, simply because I believe that Warzone portrays the Punisher as he should be: Awesome.

  • Written by Freudianspud on 21.03.2010

    It's not often that I reward a film with 10 stars, but Serenity is one of those that just works in every single way. I might be a little biased because I also think that Firefly, the series on which the film is based, is the best series ever made, so keep that in mind as you read the rest of this review.

    The story pretty much follows the happenings in the series and adds a little history to the mix. We see how River Tam (Summer Glau) is rescued from a government facility where she is experimented on for her mental abilities (including telepathy). Her brother Simon (Sean Maher) manages to get her out of the facility and, as it was shown in the series, becomes the medic on a ship called Serenity. In response to the rescue operation, the Alliance (A collaboration between several parliaments from different planets throughout the universe.) sends out an assassin to capture River and Simon.
    In the mean time, the crew of the Serenity, lead by captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds (Nathan Filion) is planning a heist on a small planet. Together with his second in command Zoe (Gina Torres), hired gun Jayne (Adam Baldwin) and Summer they plan on stealing some money from a local bank when their plan is rudely interrupted by Reavers; a race of humans gone mad when they saw the edge of space, and who rape, murder and pillage their way through life.
    They manage to escape with the booty and make their way to the rendezvous where they meet up with the men who gave them their assignment. At this bar, a subliminal message triggers something in Summer's brain, making her beat up everyone and everything in the near vicinity. Thanks to this stir-up, the Alliance's assassin is able to track down the Serenity and Summer with it. You're going top have to find out about the rest for yourself.

    The things that make Serenity such a great film are almost too many to count. Even though the series was a somewhat better, the film does not disappoint the fans of Firefly. The characters are as awesome as they were in the series and we get to know even more about their backgrounds, the characters that are introduced, such as the assassin (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mr. Universe (David Krumholtz), fit inside the story perfectly and the entire feel of the movie is just as it should be: laid-back with just the right amount of fuck-yeah.
    Another thing that adds to the mix is the realism. Even though it is a sci-fi that takes place about 50 years into the future, it looks like it could actually happen. The planets and cities look a lot like what we have now or what we used to have; little towns straight out of old westerns, harbours that seem to have taken a hint from the ones in Titanic, etcetera. Of course there's also the huge futuristic cities on the Central Planets where the Alliance rules, and there's lasers and spaceships and what not, but still, it looks like it could happen.
    The third thing is something that I noticed right away and loved so much it's creepy. It's simply the lack of sound in space. Apart from the soundtrack (which is, by the way, beautifully done) and the dialogues, you hear absolutely nothing when there's shots filmed in space. Explosions, crashes, engines firing up, everything is absolutely silent. I love that. There's tons of sci-fi that has sound in space, even Star Wars is guilty of this, but Joss Whedon (The guy that also brought us Buffy and Angel) said 'Fuck that noise' and went for realism 'till the end.
    There's only one thing that's a bit of a let down to me, but that's mostly because I am a huge fan of the series. It seems that, while making this film, the crew didn't pay as much attention to detail as they did in the series. For the series, the Chinese used was always carefully translated, give or take a different symbol for the same word here or there. In the film, a lot of Chinese is nonsense. Of course, this doesn't do anything to the feel of the movie. it's just some tiny details the hard-core fans might notice.

    All in all, Serenity is definitely worth your time, but personally, I would recommend watching the series first. It's just 14 episodes and it adds so much to the story of the film, you'd be crazy to miss out on that.

  • Written by Freudianspud on 30.03.2010

    I know, the title of this review screams innuendo. That's the point.

    The Princess And The Frog, Disney's first hand-drawn feature film since what seems to be ages, tells us the classic story of a prince, prince Naveen (Bruno Campos, mostly in series) who gets turned into a frog and then has to be kissed by a princess to break the spell. Unfortunately, that's not what happens. He's kissed by waitress Tiana (Anika Noni Rose, Dreamgirls) instead, and what apparently happens when a non-princess kisses a frog is that she turns into a frog herself as well.
    Of course, this is all the doing of evil voodoo mastermind Dr. Facilier (Keith David, Gamer), who is hoping to please the Shadow Side with his scheme to take over New Orleans in order to get his Other Side buddies some souls to snack on.
    After an escape from some party thrown in the prince's honour, they end up in the bayou and start their quest to become human again. On their way they meet jazz-trumpet player and alligator Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley, Dreamgirls), who offers to lead them to Mama Otis (Jennifer Lewis, Cars), a voodoo lady who lives in the bayou. After heading the wrong direction for a while, they're set straight by Cajun lightning bug Ray (Jim Cumming, all-round voice-actor) and the rest of the way is smooth sailing. Or is it?

    The Princess And The Frog does what Disney has always done: it entertains to no end. The characters are colourful and hilarious to say the least. And sure, the story is kind of predictable, but hey, it's Disney.
    The voice-acting is great, as is to be expected from Disney. The New Orleans accents aren't too overplayed, which gives it a pretty realistic feel. The Cajun accent they gave Ray the lightning bug is hilarious and works like a charm as the comic relief, together with the big ol' 'gater that keeps bumbling about.
    The animation itself is classic Disney. Of course, it's smoother than what we're used to, but take into consideration that Pixar's own John Lasseter was responsible for the animation department and you'll get a pretty clear answer as to why it looks so good. Because it does. It may be a new Disney flick, but it gives one the old Disney feeling. It's been a while since an animated film pulled that one off.
    Of course, it wouldn't be Disney without music, and so there's a healthy share of Jazz inspired music throughout the entire ordeal, from street-parades to Mama Otis doing her thing up in her tree house.

    All in all, if you're a fan of Disney's works, you're going to like this one. It feels like the old days, when you were a kid, but still manages to entertain to no end. I say, great job on this hand-drawn comeback.

  • Written by Freudianspud on 02.04.2010

    I'm guessing that pretty much everyone over the age of 18 (Give or take) knows the movie RoboCop. If not, shame on you. To me, RoboCop is one of the most iconic action films in the history of action films. It was also the very first action flick I ever saw.
    For the poor few who've never seen it or heard of it, here's a quick recap of the story.

    Crime is at an all-time high in Detroit and the police is just about ready to strike. Two officers, Alex Murphy (Peter Weller, RoboCop) and Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen, RoboCop) manage to track down crime-lord Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith, RoboCop) and move in to arrest him. During this arrest, Murphy gets murdered by Boddicker's goons.
    Instead of burying the man and be done with it, a young go-getter, Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer, RoboCop), at OCP (Omni Consumer Products, kind of like Umbrella Corp. from Resident Evil) manages to use Murphy for his Future Cop programme, in an attempt to one-up his older OCP colleague who designed a giant, two-legged death-machine by the name of ED-209 for the same programme that aims to help the police force to uphold the law.
    So, Morton manages to transform Murphy into the RoboCop, a half-man/half-machine android super-cop who starts kicking names and taking ass as soon as he is booted up.
    There's just one glitch; he still has memories from his past life as Alex Murphy, so he starts a personal vendetta against Boddicker for murdering him and thus leaving his wife and son behind. When he finally confronts Boddicker, we find out that there's way more behind everything and that there's a conspiracy going on behind the scenes that leads all the way to the top of OCP.
    Also, RoboCop and Ed-209 duke it out in one of the most awesome scenes ever.

    RoboCop was directed by the legendary Paul Verhoeven, the Dutchman who can also add Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and Starship Trooper to his list of achievements. That should already speak for something.
    Much like James Cameron, Verhoeven isn't one for deep dialogues and lots of character development, but rather goes where the action is. The same goes for RoboCop. There's plenty of well-known actors in this film, alongside plenty of lesser-known actors, but the acting in general isn't what you would call the stuff of legends.

    But that's okay.

    Remember, this is RoboCop we're talking about. It's like Terminator, but with a helmet and a different storyline. Okay, so maybe not a lot. But it's like Terminator in that the action sequences are awesome as all Hell and that there's a ton of legendary catchphrases, starting with the one titling this review.
    Another great part is the satire this film lays on America. Everything, from the commercials on TV to news broadcasts to the OCP organisation to the cars and guns used in this alternative reality are so far over the top that it loops back to being awesome again. The sheer stupidity of that show with the guy going "I'd buy that for a dollar!", and the fact that everyone finds this hilarious is just one of the many winks at the TV-addicted, brain-dead society of that (and perhaps even this) age.

    Like I said, RoboCop was my first real action film, so I might be biased, but it's an undeniable fact that this film is a classic when it comes to '80s pop culture, just as much as Alien, Gremlins, Back To The Future or Terminator.

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