Displaying all 2 Review

• Believe only what you see - no, believe half of what you see! — for The Crimson Pirate
  Written by thecrimsonidiot on 15.09.2009

  The opening sequence: A topless blond Burt Lancaster is swinging from one mast to another in a Tarzan style and then, he´s speaking directly to the audience: “...you´ve been shanghaied aboard for the last cruise of the crimson pirate...“
  Yes, no doubt about. This is a pirate movie and it was and still is a benchmark for all other pirate movies.

  We´re introduced to the carebean some time in the 18th century.
  Cpt. Vallo aka the Crimson Pirate tries to make a good profit with a conquered royal spanish ship full of guns and ammunition even though this means cooperation with the evil pirate hunter Baron Gruda (Leslie Bradley).
  First of all the rebel leader of the small island of Cobra „El Libre“ (Frederick Leister) should be liberated from a spanish prison, where he´s held captive.
  Afterwards the conquered guns should be sold to him and then El Libre would be handed out to the spanish again, for a big reward of course. So far so good.
  But no 1950´s adventure movie without a romantic love story. El Libres doughter Consuelo (Eva Bartok) is part of the resistance and naturally Vallo falls in love with her. Changes in the former plan are inevitable.
  Obviously some of Vallos crewmembers aren´t happy about the new situation and until the showdown finale the Crimson Pirate and his dumb mate Ojo (Nick Cravat) tumble from one adventure into the other, giving both actors plenty of opportunities to show their brilliant artistic skills.
  Famous director Robert Siodmak (The Great Sinner, The Killers) offers us 100 min. of funny and pure entertaining pleasure in bright technicolor. The enchanting classic soundtrack by William Alwyn supports the numerous slapstick-style fight scenes in a perfect way. One can see in many scenes, how much fun it must have been to make this movie. Burt Lancaster, the former circus-artist can show that he hasn´t lost any of his abilities and to achieve his goal, he uses charm and wit instead of guns and rude violence.
  To be honest, this film classic from 1952 is not very demanding, but great fun for all kids and all adults, who have kept childhood memories in their mind.

  My favourite quote (from the first sea battle-scene) is:
  Baron Grouda: „You may be overconfident Cpt. Vallo. There are 200 of the king´s marines aboard this vessel.“
  Vallo: „And only 20 pirates! That puts the odds slightly in my favour. Better surrender the ship.“

• All Quiet on the Sci-Fi Front! — for Oblivion
  Written by thecrimsonidiot on 26.09.2013

  Great images, awesome soundtrack, solid acting, but nothing really new from Hollywood!

  The year 2077: The earth is abandoned by the human race. 60 years before, aliens (called scavengers, or scavs) had attacked the planet and destroyed the moon, which caused heavy natural disasters. After the massive use of nuclear weapons, mankind had won the war, but all survivors were forced to leave the contaminated planet.

  The giant spaceship "Tet" orbiting earth, is waiting with these last people to set course to the Saturn moon Titan, that should be the new home for all of them.
  Before it can start the voyage, fusion-energy is needed. Therefore, giant machines collect hydrogen from sea-water.

  Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his colleague Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are a technical team on a nearly finished, five year mission, responsible for some drones, that protect these machines from a few remaining scavs.
  In case, that they would be captured by the scavs, their memories were erased before, so they could't reveal details about the plans of mankind.

  Victoria is doing her job without questioning it, but Jack has weird dreams, reminding him of a past before the war. While repairing the drones, he is collecting books and other items he can find and he is taking them to a secret idyllic sanctuary.
  He can neither explain himself his own strange behavior, nor the fact, that he is not killed by the scavs, when he is defeated by them, until he realizes, that there are thousands of human survivors, living underneath the surface.
  Beech (Morgan Freeman), the leader of them, is presenting Jack the real truth and a final struggle for mankind is about to begin.

  DirectorJoseph Kosinski's (Tron: Legacy) roots lie in making commercial films. This is one possible explanation, why the fascination of Oblivion appears to be similar to an iPhone: a perfect glossy surface, but no real flesh and blood inside.

  Breathtaking filmed flights through beautiful landscapes and an epic soundtrack by M83: this will remain.

  Tom Cruise shows a proper performance and Morgan Freeman can never act really bad, but all other actors are as colorless as the drones. Probably due to the script, or the unfinished graphic novel (by Kosinski as well), there is not enough substance for them.

  The quality of the storyline is varying from a promising start into way too many ridiculous and predictable twists at the end and one should't seek for any deep message in this movie.
  I can underline the words of a review of "The observer" , that said, that Oblivion is nothing more but a mixture of 2001, Wall-E, Total Recall, Planet of the Apes, etc. and I would personally add The Matrix to this list. Especially the Revolutions part ;-)

  So finally, I'm looking forward to see some more Oblivion-shots on WTM, but I don't recommend this film as something special. It's OK to watch it on a boring rainy sunday afternoon, but only hardcore TC-fans should buy it.