Jungleground/The Magnificent Seven
Okay, now that I've had a few hours to calm myself down, I'll try and make a more coherent post. :P
I started watching Bleak House tonight, but I just can't focus on a lot of boring period dramas like that. Sorry, Gillian Anderson, even you can't keep me paying attention to that one. She rocked in the parts I saw, though.
Jungleground
So, being me, I instead put on a movie where lots of stuff blows up - Jungleground. Basic plot: cop gets nabbed by a gang in the bad part of town (dubbed "Jungleground") and they play a game with him - he has to escape Jungleground and get back to the good part of town before dawn, or they kill him and his girlfriend. I think the whole movie was really an excuse to blow up cars, 'cause they did that A LOT. Not that I'm complaining, because the explosion footage was gorgeous. My pyromaniac side was drooling.
As for the characters... well, I ended up hating the "good guy" and loving the "bad guys." The good guy, Jake, was your generic, all-too-serious action hero with big muscles. In short, he was BORING. Also, it doesn't hurt that the lead bad guy was JR Bourne (Martouf on SG-1), who was particularly hot in this one. And one of his henchmen was Peter Williams (Apophis on SG-1) who was just cool. And the gang members were all so quirky that I couldn't help but love them. SurveySays!kid and the PowerRangerWannabe!guy were the best! In fact, half the time I was shouting "No!!" as the different bad guys got cut down. And of course, Torri Higginson was the girlfriend. I felt really bad for her, 'cause she was really innocent in all of the ordeal, and got dragged into it. Without giving anything away, though, I give her mad props for one trick she pulled on the bad guys while trying to get away. That took some brains! :P I do have to question, however, where an idealistic artist learned to fire an Uzi so suddenly. But props to her for dealing with being tied up in duct tape, 'cause pulling that stuff off hurts. Not as much as gaff tape, but that's another story.
Overall, it wasn't a great movie, but it wasn't awful either. As I mentioned before, at least to me, the bad guys are easier to like than the good guy! There's some serious eye candy in JR Bourne. YUM. The generic gunfight-action-fighting is pretty mediocre, but I give it extra points simply for the sheer number of Really Cool Car Explosions. There's also lots of stuff in there that just comes across as hilarious where I don't know if it was actually intended to be funny. Of course, having Torri Higginson in it adds to the coolness points. Bottom line: I wouldn't go out of your way for it. But if you've got something like Netflix where it doesn't cost extra to rent it, it's entertaining.
But seriously. All the cars blowing up are teh pretty.
The Magnificent Seven
Okay, forgot I watched this one last night, so I'm adding it in. AWESOME movie. Loved it! I'm talking about the old 60's film, not the newer series. For those who haven't seen it, the basic plot: a bandit and his 40 cronies (*giggle*) continually robs a poor Mexican farming village, so seven guys band together to defend the village.
The characters in this one were fun, but some of them sort of blended together. There were three or four of the "Magnificent Seven" that really stood out, and the other three I never could tell apart. Chris was sort of the leader, and probably the one of them all that got the most screen time (and was the most well-developed). Chico was the whiny one that annoyed the crap outta me. Lee was the chicken of the bunch. Played by Robert Vaughn, he's such a dead ringer for David Hewlett that I was a bit weirded out. His character was even a bit MicKay-ish. Fernardo I could tell apart because he was a dead ringer for my Vertebrate Natural History professor, Dr. Pregill. Creepy. Anyways, the other three I really couldn't tell apart well, if that says anything about them.
Great action scenes, though. Gotta love those classic gunfights! Seriously. The body count in this one even puts modern action movies to shame. The end caught me off-guard a bit.. it just wasn't quite what I was expecting. Still great, though!
And seriously, this has one of the prettiest movie themes ever. I hear it a lot whenever I walk through Frontierland, and it's always been one of my favorites!
Definitely worth watching this one!
I started watching Bleak House tonight, but I just can't focus on a lot of boring period dramas like that. Sorry, Gillian Anderson, even you can't keep me paying attention to that one. She rocked in the parts I saw, though.
Jungleground
So, being me, I instead put on a movie where lots of stuff blows up - Jungleground. Basic plot: cop gets nabbed by a gang in the bad part of town (dubbed "Jungleground") and they play a game with him - he has to escape Jungleground and get back to the good part of town before dawn, or they kill him and his girlfriend. I think the whole movie was really an excuse to blow up cars, 'cause they did that A LOT. Not that I'm complaining, because the explosion footage was gorgeous. My pyromaniac side was drooling.
As for the characters... well, I ended up hating the "good guy" and loving the "bad guys." The good guy, Jake, was your generic, all-too-serious action hero with big muscles. In short, he was BORING. Also, it doesn't hurt that the lead bad guy was JR Bourne (Martouf on SG-1), who was particularly hot in this one. And one of his henchmen was Peter Williams (Apophis on SG-1) who was just cool. And the gang members were all so quirky that I couldn't help but love them. SurveySays!kid and the PowerRangerWannabe!guy were the best! In fact, half the time I was shouting "No!!" as the different bad guys got cut down. And of course, Torri Higginson was the girlfriend. I felt really bad for her, 'cause she was really innocent in all of the ordeal, and got dragged into it. Without giving anything away, though, I give her mad props for one trick she pulled on the bad guys while trying to get away. That took some brains! :P I do have to question, however, where an idealistic artist learned to fire an Uzi so suddenly. But props to her for dealing with being tied up in duct tape, 'cause pulling that stuff off hurts. Not as much as gaff tape, but that's another story.
Overall, it wasn't a great movie, but it wasn't awful either. As I mentioned before, at least to me, the bad guys are easier to like than the good guy! There's some serious eye candy in JR Bourne. YUM. The generic gunfight-action-fighting is pretty mediocre, but I give it extra points simply for the sheer number of Really Cool Car Explosions. There's also lots of stuff in there that just comes across as hilarious where I don't know if it was actually intended to be funny. Of course, having Torri Higginson in it adds to the coolness points. Bottom line: I wouldn't go out of your way for it. But if you've got something like Netflix where it doesn't cost extra to rent it, it's entertaining.
But seriously. All the cars blowing up are teh pretty.
The Magnificent Seven
Okay, forgot I watched this one last night, so I'm adding it in. AWESOME movie. Loved it! I'm talking about the old 60's film, not the newer series. For those who haven't seen it, the basic plot: a bandit and his 40 cronies (*giggle*) continually robs a poor Mexican farming village, so seven guys band together to defend the village.
The characters in this one were fun, but some of them sort of blended together. There were three or four of the "Magnificent Seven" that really stood out, and the other three I never could tell apart. Chris was sort of the leader, and probably the one of them all that got the most screen time (and was the most well-developed). Chico was the whiny one that annoyed the crap outta me. Lee was the chicken of the bunch. Played by Robert Vaughn, he's such a dead ringer for David Hewlett that I was a bit weirded out. His character was even a bit MicKay-ish. Fernardo I could tell apart because he was a dead ringer for my Vertebrate Natural History professor, Dr. Pregill. Creepy. Anyways, the other three I really couldn't tell apart well, if that says anything about them.
Great action scenes, though. Gotta love those classic gunfights! Seriously. The body count in this one even puts modern action movies to shame. The end caught me off-guard a bit.. it just wasn't quite what I was expecting. Still great, though!
And seriously, this has one of the prettiest movie themes ever. I hear it a lot whenever I walk through Frontierland, and it's always been one of my favorites!
Definitely worth watching this one!