Transporting Satisfaction. By Mark Wilson
Jason Statham stars as the Transporter in the highly enjoyable action adventure films called The Transporter and The Transporter 2. And what he transports is cinematic satisfaction.
There is a certain satisfaction in an action film as one watches the hero dispense Justice against a huge number of evil men whom wish to exploit and hurt the innocent. It is even more satisfying for your movie viewing pleasure when this is done in a Jackie Chanish sort of way. Jackie Chan is not only known for his incredible stunt work but for his incredibly choreographed fight scenes in which everyday objects become his weapons and defenses against attackers whom wish to do him harm. This approach is taken in both Transporter films
One scene in the first one stands out. The hero ends up beating up a bunch of bad guys in a room in which oil drums have spilled over making a huge lake of oil in the middle of the room. He manages to slick him self up with oil thus slipping out of his enemies hands every time they try to attack him. It has to seen to be believed. In the second one he manages to thwart off his attackers with a single fire hose. These types of action sequences make these type of action films stand far and above the typical action film, which is why they are so enjoyable to watch.
The plots of both movies are very simple. Frank Martin will transport anything for anyone. He has some simple rules that he goes by. One rule states that he will never open the package that he is transporting. But of course He does, thus vesting the vengeance of the bad guys upon him in the first film. He ends up getting involved with this very beautiful Asian girl and helping her rescue her Asian brothers and sisters from being sold into slavery. The final chase scene is right out of Raiders of the Lost ark when Indiana is chasing after the ark stored in some Nazi trucks. This scene is however done with some huge Mac trucks. In the 2nd one he tries to rescue his employers kid from a bunch of goons who have kidnapped him for evil purposes.
It’s easy to like the no-nonsense personality that Jason gives to the role of Frank. That mixed with his dry British wit and humor. One other aspect film that I liked that there are times when he could have killed his opponents but instead incapacitated them. It shows at least to some degree that he has respect for even (the lowest of the low, just because their human.)
I don’t recall knowing about The Transporter until I saw the preview for the 2nd one. The enjoyment level for both movies is about the same, although I think I liked the 1st one more. The 2nd one although enjoyable didn’t wow me like the first one did.
So if your in the mood to watch a good kick butt action adventure unbelievable Jackie Chanish type of movie rent the Transporter on DVD or video. Or if you feel like getting off campus and getting out , go down to the local Cinema and watch the Transporter 2 on the big screen. I’m sure either one will satisfy your movie going experience.
A NOTE FROM THE SUB-CREATOR
This film review was rejected by my college newspaper for lack of quality in writing.
Start a Fire
Storyblazer Introduction
Showing posts with label Blaze Zanikey: The Catholic College Film Student. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blaze Zanikey: The Catholic College Film Student. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Another Movie from the Days of Steubenville
‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’, was a hard movie to convince my fellow grad students to go see with me. Not a lot of people wanted to watch a film that would scare them with nightmares for the rest of the week. I can testify that I jumped out of my seat quite a few times scaring the poor girl next to me as I latched on to her in those moments of cinematic terror.
‘Emily Rose’ however is not a straight out horror film. It is more like a courtroom drama with horror elements. The film however seems to go beyond the description of any one genre. Those of you, who might like to see it but are expecting ‘The Exorcist’, can rest assured. The movie is actually based upon the true story of a young German woman named Anneliese Michel who died in 1976 after a year of exorcism sessions given to her by her local priest. In the film version she is an American young woman named Emily Rose.
Emily Rose had started to have some very serous medical problems including seizures and what appear to be psychotic episodes after going away to college. Her parents trusted her to the care of their local priest Fr. Moore (Tom Wilkerson.) After she dies the priest is put on trial for negligent homicide. He clams that she was the victim of demonic possession and not anything medically related. Instead of keeping her on medicine that supposedly would have saved her life, Fr. Moore relayed on faith alone to cure her of what he perceived to be spiritual problems alone.
Out to put the priest behind bars is Prosecuting Attorney Ethan Thomas (Campbell Scott). Even though he clams to be a devout believer in God, he seems to leave no room for the possibility that demons might be the cause of this young girls death. Out to defend the priest is Erin Bruner (Laura Linney). She on the other hand is agnostic, but yet seems to leave room open for the possibility that the spiritual world does exist. Either a world with or without God , she reminds the jury, is something to ponder at. While none of the characters in the film are really that in-depth, the story in and of itself, plus the questions and ideas that it raises, more then make up for the lack of deep character development.
What side does the film side with? Was it spiritual or physical and psychological problems that killed this young girl.? The film tries to present a nice neutral opinion, giving enough evidence from both sides to suggest that either would be possible. The priest wants so bad to testify on the stand as he believes that it is his mission in life to tell Emily’s story. And according to the film itself, that is the mission of the movie.
While Constantine used spiritual warfare in a purely mythological way to create just another action film, ‘Emily Rose’, uses spiritual warfare not just to tell a good compelling courtroom drama, but to bring to light the reality of a world apart from our own. It does not shove this reality down your throat but presents questions and facts and lets you like the jury in the film decide for yourself. And my verdict is that this is one of the most faith affirming movies Hollywood has put out since the “The Passion”. See the movie with out fear, but be prepared to grab the person next to you.
‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’, was a hard movie to convince my fellow grad students to go see with me. Not a lot of people wanted to watch a film that would scare them with nightmares for the rest of the week. I can testify that I jumped out of my seat quite a few times scaring the poor girl next to me as I latched on to her in those moments of cinematic terror.
‘Emily Rose’ however is not a straight out horror film. It is more like a courtroom drama with horror elements. The film however seems to go beyond the description of any one genre. Those of you, who might like to see it but are expecting ‘The Exorcist’, can rest assured. The movie is actually based upon the true story of a young German woman named Anneliese Michel who died in 1976 after a year of exorcism sessions given to her by her local priest. In the film version she is an American young woman named Emily Rose.
Emily Rose had started to have some very serous medical problems including seizures and what appear to be psychotic episodes after going away to college. Her parents trusted her to the care of their local priest Fr. Moore (Tom Wilkerson.) After she dies the priest is put on trial for negligent homicide. He clams that she was the victim of demonic possession and not anything medically related. Instead of keeping her on medicine that supposedly would have saved her life, Fr. Moore relayed on faith alone to cure her of what he perceived to be spiritual problems alone.
Out to put the priest behind bars is Prosecuting Attorney Ethan Thomas (Campbell Scott). Even though he clams to be a devout believer in God, he seems to leave no room for the possibility that demons might be the cause of this young girls death. Out to defend the priest is Erin Bruner (Laura Linney). She on the other hand is agnostic, but yet seems to leave room open for the possibility that the spiritual world does exist. Either a world with or without God , she reminds the jury, is something to ponder at. While none of the characters in the film are really that in-depth, the story in and of itself, plus the questions and ideas that it raises, more then make up for the lack of deep character development.
What side does the film side with? Was it spiritual or physical and psychological problems that killed this young girl.? The film tries to present a nice neutral opinion, giving enough evidence from both sides to suggest that either would be possible. The priest wants so bad to testify on the stand as he believes that it is his mission in life to tell Emily’s story. And according to the film itself, that is the mission of the movie.
While Constantine used spiritual warfare in a purely mythological way to create just another action film, ‘Emily Rose’, uses spiritual warfare not just to tell a good compelling courtroom drama, but to bring to light the reality of a world apart from our own. It does not shove this reality down your throat but presents questions and facts and lets you like the jury in the film decide for yourself. And my verdict is that this is one of the most faith affirming movies Hollywood has put out since the “The Passion”. See the movie with out fear, but be prepared to grab the person next to you.
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still
For the first 20 – 30 minutes of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, it was an invigorating, exciting film, worthy of the $ 20th Century Fox put into it. It was worthy of my time being cooped up in a house floating through space. That’s another story for another time. My job is to review this movie for other people. That is the job of a Storyblazer, which is what I am. There is nothing much else to do in a house floating through space. Back to the $ issue. Apparently 20th century fox gave the special effects dept. more $ then the script writing dept. After the first 20 – 30 minutes of the film the script writers got board or lazy and decided to not put so much detail into the story. Hopefully this review will not follow the same path after a few paragraphs.
The first time around in the original film, Klatu the messenger from another world, wanted to warn the earth that if they didn’t start being nice to one another, they would wipe them off the face of the earth. This time around the message is, if you don’t start being nice to the planet, will wipe you off the face of the earth. These are very extreme Envirmentalists from another planet. After being denied to speak to the United Nations after asking politely one time, Klatu ( played ever so blahly by sci-fi veteran Keenu Reeves) decides that he is going to destroy the earth.
But after a rousing 2 minute speech by John Cleese in non-Monty Phyan funny speech and after witnessing Jennifer Connely hug her kid near the grave of her dead husband, he decides that he just might let the earth survive. Complex decision making is not a complex process on Klatu’s planet. Their easily peeved off and easily pleased again also.
Apparently he is not the only alien of his kind on the planet. He meets an old buddy of his at MacDonalds. They discuss over product placements, the fate of mankind.
But is it too late? Gort the bodyguard robot (now the size of Godzilla) has split into several thousand metal locusts who devour everything in its path, in its quest to rid the planet of the nasty humans who are killing the polar bears. But the polar bears have been sucked up by the glowing snow globe, so they can survive the onslaught by GORT.
Somehow, Klatu manages to shut down GORT and save the world. As he stops GORT, the Earth stands still. Actually it doesn’t stand still it just stops. The appropriate title of this film should be “The Day the Earth Just Stopped.”
We see about ½ a minute of the world without power and then the movie ends. Just stops with no rousing speech by Klatu. But how rousing a speech could Keanu Reeves give under his acting circumstances?
The big Line uttered by the female protagonist that gains her access to Klatu’s spaceship and stops GORT from vaporizing her is uttered so softly at the beginning of the film, you will miss it when your paying attention to the cool visuals. This is a major problem in the remake, as by leaving this line out, so people could actually hear it, they left out a major plot development that was crucial to the overall structure of the story.
At least in the Remake of ‘Planet of the Apes’, you could hear the classic Charlton Heston lines uttered even if they were somewhat different then in the original.
The remake of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, is not a terrible film overall. Being stuck in a house floating through space, you don’t usually complain about the TV choices except if their really really bad, which this wasn’t. But it really does the first film a grave injustice by jettisoning a storyline you could really cling to and care about. In the future when certain films are forgotten about, the newer fancy shamancy version will be among those, while the original film, with its primitive special effects will be remembered for it’s engaging story, that starts in the beginning and remains there until the end. Somehow that particular film was destroyed when I through it at a alien who had illegally entered the house.
This has been a Blaze Zanikey: The Catholic College Film Student Storyblazer report.
Copyright Storyblazer 2009
For the first 20 – 30 minutes of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, it was an invigorating, exciting film, worthy of the $ 20th Century Fox put into it. It was worthy of my time being cooped up in a house floating through space. That’s another story for another time. My job is to review this movie for other people. That is the job of a Storyblazer, which is what I am. There is nothing much else to do in a house floating through space. Back to the $ issue. Apparently 20th century fox gave the special effects dept. more $ then the script writing dept. After the first 20 – 30 minutes of the film the script writers got board or lazy and decided to not put so much detail into the story. Hopefully this review will not follow the same path after a few paragraphs.
The first time around in the original film, Klatu the messenger from another world, wanted to warn the earth that if they didn’t start being nice to one another, they would wipe them off the face of the earth. This time around the message is, if you don’t start being nice to the planet, will wipe you off the face of the earth. These are very extreme Envirmentalists from another planet. After being denied to speak to the United Nations after asking politely one time, Klatu ( played ever so blahly by sci-fi veteran Keenu Reeves) decides that he is going to destroy the earth.
But after a rousing 2 minute speech by John Cleese in non-Monty Phyan funny speech and after witnessing Jennifer Connely hug her kid near the grave of her dead husband, he decides that he just might let the earth survive. Complex decision making is not a complex process on Klatu’s planet. Their easily peeved off and easily pleased again also.
Apparently he is not the only alien of his kind on the planet. He meets an old buddy of his at MacDonalds. They discuss over product placements, the fate of mankind.
But is it too late? Gort the bodyguard robot (now the size of Godzilla) has split into several thousand metal locusts who devour everything in its path, in its quest to rid the planet of the nasty humans who are killing the polar bears. But the polar bears have been sucked up by the glowing snow globe, so they can survive the onslaught by GORT.
Somehow, Klatu manages to shut down GORT and save the world. As he stops GORT, the Earth stands still. Actually it doesn’t stand still it just stops. The appropriate title of this film should be “The Day the Earth Just Stopped.”
We see about ½ a minute of the world without power and then the movie ends. Just stops with no rousing speech by Klatu. But how rousing a speech could Keanu Reeves give under his acting circumstances?
The big Line uttered by the female protagonist that gains her access to Klatu’s spaceship and stops GORT from vaporizing her is uttered so softly at the beginning of the film, you will miss it when your paying attention to the cool visuals. This is a major problem in the remake, as by leaving this line out, so people could actually hear it, they left out a major plot development that was crucial to the overall structure of the story.
At least in the Remake of ‘Planet of the Apes’, you could hear the classic Charlton Heston lines uttered even if they were somewhat different then in the original.
The remake of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, is not a terrible film overall. Being stuck in a house floating through space, you don’t usually complain about the TV choices except if their really really bad, which this wasn’t. But it really does the first film a grave injustice by jettisoning a storyline you could really cling to and care about. In the future when certain films are forgotten about, the newer fancy shamancy version will be among those, while the original film, with its primitive special effects will be remembered for it’s engaging story, that starts in the beginning and remains there until the end. Somehow that particular film was destroyed when I through it at a alien who had illegally entered the house.
This has been a Blaze Zanikey: The Catholic College Film Student Storyblazer report.
Copyright Storyblazer 2009
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