DefenderOfKnowledge's Movies > Movie reviews by DefenderOfKnowledge

Corny, but funny.

Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 13 March 2008 04:51 (A review of Enchanted)

When walking into the theater, you can't but expect this movie to be corny. And it is. The mere fact that the Prince decides to marry Giselle after just learning her name provides proof enough. It was strange to view transitions between animation and reality, but it did it well. The prince was quite a character himself, and added alot to the movie. The squirrel, named "Pip", is a sidekick with a very annoying accent (which fortunately leaves when he travels to the real world ;]) but really doesn't add as much comedy as you might think a talking chipmunk might add.

Anyway, Patrick Dempsey does a wonderful job playing Robert, as does Amy Adams to Giselle. Me being a guy, there was quite a bit too much singing going on, but it still retained its comical theme. The best part of the movie, IMHO, would be after a song when a pigeon leans over and eats a cockroach. The Jamaican band following them around is also quite funny, and the fact that everyone, including the construction workers, joined in and danced was a very funny sight.

It was a pleasant surprise also to find that Nancy, Robert's girlfriend, was not evil, as first portrayed, and also got a happily ever after. It's also funny how Nathaniel -played wonderfully by Timothy Spall- picks up on all of the nuances of the real world, including selling candied apples, pizza, etc, when the prince and Giselle are clueless to everything. The bike scene that others thought was hilarious, I found to be annoying at best, probably because of stupid Disney 411. (CURSE YOU, SURFERS!) I did like, however, the scene with the bus, and probably my favorite line from the movie was "Nobody stabs my bus!"
The CGI for Pip is ok, but for the dragon is quite laughable. The queen made more lame jokes in the last 10 minutes of the film that anyone else made the entire movie. The ending is a corny, fairy tale ending, to be expected.

All in all, it's still a wonderful movie....for kids and hopeless romantics. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the comedy in this film, and it still retains its family friendliness. I give it a good 4/10.

~Dok

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"Ogres are like onions." -Instant classi

Posted : 2 years, 11 months ago on 14 August 2007 02:39 (A review of Shrek)

We have all heard the happy bedtime stories with princesses and fairies and beautiful creatures great and small, but Shrek breaks the mold by showing how things would really be like.

The main character is Shrek, a rude and crude Ogre, who simply wants to live alone in peace, until he meets his soon to be friend, Donkey, a talking donkey. The two instantly become friends, at least in Donkey's eyes, and become inseparable. Then one night, Shrek discovers that hundreds of "fairy tale creatures" have moved into his swamp in order to escape the evil Lord Farquaad's decree against all magical beings. Shrek sets out to find Farquaad and get his swamp back, only to be sent on yet another journey to rescue one spunky Princess Fiona. But soon, Shrek begins to fall in love with the feisty princess. It's a love story completely in it's own league.

______________________________________

Shrek is instantly a classic. The main character, Shrek, is a very gruff, mean looking character, but does have a soft spot, though he argues differently. Mike Meyers portrays this character Donkey, the supporting role, is the comic relief for the movie, and an excellent job at it. Eddi Murphy brings the entire movie to life with this character. Fiona is voiced by Cameron Diaz, who also does a fantastic job.

The plot is very original. It's nothing like any fairy tale you've heard before. The romance adds a nice twist, making you wonder if the good guy might actually get the girl in the end.

The dialog is very good; funny too. Unfortunately, there are far too many "ass" jokes with Donkey than I'd prefer there to be. Still, it's one of the funniest movies I can think of.

The music is fantastic, one of the best sountracks I own. Smashmouth does two numbers which are amazing. Very good.

The animation is good, period.


Overall, this movie is one of the best CGI movies out there right now. Instantly a classic. Highly recommended.

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Borne to be good.

Posted : 2 years, 11 months ago on 13 August 2007 10:57 (A review of The Bourne Ultimatum)

This movie was a fantastic addition to the trilogy. At first, I thought that the movie was too much about the CIA, and that kinda turned me away, but then it gained momentum and started in on Bourne at his best: kicking butt and taking names.

But there is a DEFINATE flaw in this movie, as expressed by Vix, is that the shaky camera. I've see worse, in Spiderman 3, but it was still TERRIBLE! Many of the fight scenes were actually dulled down because of it! For example, when he's fighting that one dude in Madrid. They are throwing some KILLER moves, and the dude totally does a side twist, but I could barely even tell because of the camera. I had to deduct it in logic, actually. "Ah, he was trapped, and there was a whirring sound, thus he must have done some type of flip." Another prime example would be in the car chase, and they attempt to film the rear view mirror. I couldn't make out what was behind him to save my life. It couldn't been anything from a cow to Agent Smith for all I know. Terrible. It was also extremely evident when it changed from shaky back to still. Like after the car chase and Bourne walks over to the "asset" sitting in the car. One minute it's shaky so hard, you are about to vomit, the next, it's completely still. Gahg.

Overall, it was still a tremendous movie. AMAZING plot, acting, action scenes (other than camera), and everything. If you are thinking of buying this movie, I would, especially with the other two.

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Jurrassic Park 2? Since when?

Posted : 2 years, 11 months ago on 13 August 2007 10:44 (A review of The Lost World: Jurassic Park)

Now I recently acquired the books for free, from a giveaway thing. So I read the first and enjoyed it, then I read the second and LOVED it. I simply loved the character of Dr. Levine, and the kids. I imagined parts in the book on the main screen, like when the raptor sniffs the rapper and slowly looks up, scowling. But did I see that? No. Did I even see Levine? No. Arby? No.

Don't get me wrong, it was an ok movie, but what happened? The book was awesome, and it didn't need to be changed. The saddest part is that they still grabbed characters and ideas from the book, but that's about it.

All in all, it is a decent movie. Good plot, good acting, good everything, just somewhat disappointing in my opinion.

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*yawn*

Posted : 3 years, 1 month ago on 12 June 2007 05:53 (A review of Lady in the Water)

This movie was pretty bad. It jumps right into the plot in the first 10 minutes, then lingers. It is very predictable, and all very "What are the chances?", which is ok for a bedtime story, but is still very annoying. There is only one, maybe two, parts of the film that make you jump, or are actually suspenseful. There was one suprising part, when you figure out the role of Reggie. Two funny parts, one at the beginning when he is smashing a spider, the other when he is trying to act like a kid.

Paul's acting is still terrific, nonetheless. I love when he is talking about his family.

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Wow. Bravo.

Posted : 3 years, 1 month ago on 10 June 2007 12:32 (A review of The Illusionist)

Just finished watching it, loved it.

This movie is simply amazing. It goes right in hand with "The Prestige" (though I do like the Prestige more) with it's sudden plot twists and "wha?" moments. The beginning is a little hard to understand, until you begin to see what happens.

The whole fact that magic actually exists kinda makes me go "meh" to this movie, but otherwise, it's wonderful. Wonderful acting, plot, everything. It's still very confusing at the end, though, so make sure you're paying attention.

Certainly a "woah, I guessed that part wrong" film. 8/10, I recommend it.

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Here comes the Spidermaaaan! (For the th

Posted : 3 years, 2 months ago on 5 May 2007 11:00 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

WARNING: SPOILERS THROUGHOUT! SCROLL DOWN TO VERY BOTTOM TO SEE SPOILER-FREE REVIEW.

Overall, this movie was ok. I'll have to watch it again at home to give my full review.

Well, Pros:
It has Spiderman, Venom, and keeps the line of the story pretty well. It doesn't add some lame bad guy, it keeps to the comic strips. The dialog is awesome, even FRIGGIN HILARIOUS at some parts. There's action, romance, emo hair, it's got it all. Then there's Venom. I honestly LOVED how they did the fangs, the screaming, the bell ordeal, and the whole "taking over" thing. Oh, and I love how Eddie got fangs too. I'm glad they waited until they had the technology to do it. I swear, though, if Venom is already frikkin dead, I'm gonna riot. And of course there's the waiter: Funniest character of the movie.

Cons:
For starters, the camera was a big let down at some parts. One would be the fact that sometimes, it is literally the camerman just running alongside a sitting truck or something. Good for a documentary, not so good for an action movie. Way too jerky. You want to feel like you're 3rd person, not actually doing it.

Secondly, it would be the fight scenes. At some parts, it's extremely zoomed in, or too dark, so you can't really see what is going on. (Or maybe it was just seeing it in a theater, I dunno.)

Next, just the mere fact that they squeezed 3 villains into one movie. But when you think about it, they needed all three. The movie was about the black suit and venom. Now to get Peter to where the suit, he would need motivation. Hence comes Sandman. And of course Harry figured out about Spidey, so he's not going to sit around drinking whiskey and moping, he's got to take action. (Plus, who else could save Spidey's butt in a two on one?)
On to the villains. Now with Harry, they already explained basically how he would turn evil, but they really didn't go much into detail, or at least show him in the gas chamber.
Next we have the Sandman. True, they completely showed how he came to be, but it didn't really make sense very well. I mean sure they were "deatomitizing", but what were they doing it on? What was in there? Sand? They Deatomitized sand....into sand....ok....sure...I guess they could be testing the machine...
Lastly, there's Venom. He was perfectly well done, except for a few minor things that bugged me. (Later, under "small tick offs.")

And the last thing is that they basically just rushed the movie. I mean Peter is riding along and *SWOOP* he's picked up by Harry. There's other things too (none of which I can think of right now.) I think it comes from having three villains. But oh well. At least it wasn't an X3. ;) Still worth watching. A ton of things that make me go "Wha???" but I'd definately watch it again. And again. And again.


*MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!*

Small tick offs (in no particular order):
-That Harry basically flys around on a flying skateboard.
-That venom happens to fall from space (ok, believable) right into the park where Peter Parker is, at the exact time.
-That stupid line that Sandman said, "I'm not a bad person, I just had a bad chance" or something like that.
-That Harry didn't get a phsyco living in his head, even though he did the exact same thing as his dad.
-That Harry even got brain damage from that hit to the head in the first place!
-That the truck that the two policemen chase Sandman around HAPPENS to be filled with sand.
-That sandman grunts like a monster. Lower his voice, but don't make him a caveman.
-How big the Sandman's mouth is. (Ok, I'm sorry.....the thought just kept coming into my mind!!!)
-That they don't show Spiderman put his mask back on when he's down on the sand in the last fight and yells up "I'm coming Mary-Jane!" even though Venom clearly took it off of him, and did not even visibly throw it all the way to the ground (that I remember).
-That Eddie wants God to kill Peter Parker for stealing his job.
-That Eddie somehow figured out about Sandman's daughter and such.
-That Harry didn't totally get killed by that pumpkin grenade. (The one that scarred his face.)
-That Peter's professor isn't more suprised about an alien leech.
-That the Sandman wasn't amazed at his "slight change" at all.
-That Harry died. *cries*




*END OF SPOILERS*

So I basically give it around a 6 or 7. 7 because the ending won me over. 5 is like "eh, it's ai'ight" in my good. 6-10 is "I would watch it again." So basically, I give it a seven, because it had some 10 features (dialouge, comedy, plot fight scenes), and some 5 features (camera angles, back-story) . But still, watch it for the ten features, yall. :D

~ForgivenForSure

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Pursuit?

Posted : 3 years, 3 months ago on 27 April 2007 03:24 (A review of The Pursuit of Happyness)

This movie was amazing. Like Flash said, it is indeed a Rocky movie. Will plays the part amazingly well, as does his son (amazing for his first acting time!)

This movie actually suprised me because although it has the word "Happyness" in the title, it really isn't that happy. It is actually very sad most of the time. You will feel bad for the main actors. But fortunately, Will keeps hope, which gives the viewer hope. It's a tad long and monotonous, but still worth it. Definately the most inspiring true story I've ever seen. Bravo.

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Uh huh! Uh huh! Uh huh uh huh uh huh!

Posted : 3 years, 3 months ago on 19 April 2007 01:53 (A review of The Emperor's New Groove)

This movie will instantly become a classic the first time you watch it. David Spade does an AMAZING job as Kuzco, and Patrick Warburton is hillarious as Kronk. This movie stands alone in it's own level of comedy. It has a great moral, and the good guy wins in the end. And it has Llamas.

I highly recommend this movie. "Kronks new groove" and the tv series aren't as good, but this movie is awesome.

***SPOILERS***

"And do you want to know something else? I've never liked your spinach puffs! [gasp] Never! [Kronk begins to cry]
That's it. [cocks pitchfork like a gun] She's goin down.

"You know, it's a good thing you're not a big, fat guy or this would be really difficult."

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Eh......

Posted : 3 years, 8 months ago on 8 November 2006 12:53 (A review of King Kong)

I didn't care for this movie.

The first part of the movie was SOOO slow, and then later it's too action packed. Just one danger after another after another. They stretched the scenes out too long. Plus, the girl never even said "kong", and only said one word to the ape, yet loves him like a brother. The worst of all was the people just stared like 30 times in the movie! No talking! Just staring with a surprised/sad/clueless expression on their face! But I guess it was an ok movie. (Except for the bugs. You will hear me scream if I see a cockroach, worm, etc.)

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