This by no means shouldn't be a good movie to watch but yet it somehow works out as a very good and entertaining one.

There are a lot of silly and over-the-top things about this movie and perhaps that's the very same reason why it becomes such an entertaining one to watch. It has a silly and bad straightforward story in it, some over-the-top action (exploding motorcycles!) and some extremely bad B-acting performances by some of its actors. Seriously, Michael Paré is terrible in this but yet his performances really suits the movie and is part of the reason why it's such a perfectly fun and watchable one.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that this movie is a pretty good one to watch, seeing how its directed by Walter Hill. His movies perhaps aren't amongst the best ones ever made but a lot of the movies he has done have grown into semi-classics and cult favorites, with of course "The Warriors" as the best known example.

The only thing that really matters about this movie is that's a fun one to watch. Forget about the story, forget about the acting, this is just simply a movie to enjoy and not one to think too hard about or nitpick to death. It serves its purpose and it serves it well!

It's really a typical 'cheap' '80's action flick, in the way how it looks, feels and sounds. The action is all good and while never anything truly spectacular it's always something very raw and enjoyable to watch and the movie features an '80's soundtrack that will make your head spin! Some people even consider this to be a musical, due to the Diane Lane character being a singer in this and the movie indeed also features more than a few songs in it.

Despite having mostly bad acting in it, there also are some good performances in this movie. I for instance really enjoyed Willem Dafoe's performance, as the main villain. I would even go as far to say that it's one of the best villainous roles he's ever played and that's of course saying a lot, seeing how many villains he has played throughout his career. He's just evil and insane in this and I loved it. Rick Moranis was also good and enjoyable as the movie's main comic relief, though it's not the usual 'Rick Moranis comical type of role' he's playing in this. His character has some more meat to it, so to speak.

Some enjoyable, over-the-top, '80's action fun!

7/10

Watch trailer

This is a weird one. This movie by all means should be a good and fun one to watch but yet it feels like it's still missing something to truly turn it into a totally successful and entertaining movie to watch.

Don't get me wrong, this movie still is a perfectly watchable one but it so easily could have been so much more and it also definitely feels like it should have been a way better movie, considering all its potential and the people involved. The story is there, the characters are there, the right actors are there, yet it somehow doesn't all come together.

It's hard to put my finger on. It's not just one thing causing all of the problems but it rather are a bunch of much smaller things that cause this movie to never work out as an entirely successful and effective one. One is its pacing. While this is a fast paced movie it still isn't snappy enough. You can argue that it's also wasting too much time with some of its side plots and side characters, which all no doubt is done in an attempt to give the movie some more meaning and depth to its story. But that's another problem really; the story feels like a too simplistic and straightforward one, despite the presence of many different characters. It besides is never really anything surprising enough and when it does surprise, it's usually with something silly and totally unlikely.

The comedy often also falls kind of flat because all of this, Not that this movie ever becomes a completely unfunny one but it's all a bit too predictable and simple really at times. It isn't ever being original enough with anything and instead this movie feels like a mishmash of different genre movies combined. Not that it makes the movie an entirely messy one but I still don't really know how I should take this movie. Is it more of an action movie? More of a crime flick? Or perhaps simply just a comedy?

Also don't really understand what Denzel Washington is doing in this movie. I see him as someone who is above these type of movies. I enjoyed him in the movie but still...It's also a movie that mostly just focuses on its two main characters and spends all of its time on making them engaging and fun ones to have to follow around, which in this case definitely goes at the expense of its supporting cast. Bill Paxton, James Marsden and Edward James Olmos all seem to be playing some intriguing and fun characters but the movie hardly expands on them and doesn't provide enough background information, which all feels like a missed opportunity.

A too simple, too formulaic and too predictable movie that's still entertaining enough to watch but is hardly anything that's going to impress you with anything or is one that's going to stick in your mind for a very long time.

6/10

Watch trailer

Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature. From: IMDb.com

A DEA agent and a naval intelligence officer find themselves on the run after a botched attempt to infiltrate a drug cartel. While fleeing, they learn the secret of their shaky alliance: Neither knew that the other was an undercover agent. From: IMDb.com

A DEA agent and a naval intelligence officer find themselves on the run after a botched attempt to infiltrate a drug cartel. While fleeing, they learn the secret of their shaky alliance: Neither knew that the other was an undercover agent. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur

Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton and others

Current release date: August 2, 2013

This movie had potential but it's pretty much all wasted by its unimaginative script and the underlying feeling that it's in a constant hurry to finish.

This movie feels really rushed. Don't know if they were truly stressed for time or they ran out of money about halfway through but simple fact is that the movie doesn't take the time to setup its story and characters or let anything ever develop properly enough, which also is making this an ultimately very shallow movie experience.

Who knows, with a month or two of extra shooting time and an additional million or two, this actually might have been a pretty decent genre flick. It certainly features an interesting enough main concept! Rather than a nuclear war or global warming, the apocalypse in this movie got caused by a new ice age and nowadays the common flu is the biggest threat, since chances of survival are minimal and the contagion rate is high. And as if that isn't enough already, the characters in this movie also also have to deal with a bunch of cannibals, that behave more zombie-like than human-like really. Sounds like good enough fun all, especially once you see the cast that's involved but ultimately, the movie really isn't anything good or fun enough to watch.

Nothing about it works out as it all obviously was intended to do. It doesn't ever successfully manage to creating a good enough atmosphere, while the movie itself was obviously going for a tense, spectacular, mysterious, claustrophobic "Aliens" (and about a dozen of other well known movies) type of approach with its atmosphere and settings (perhaps that's also why Bill Paxton is in it). But the movie as it is only shows hints of a tense, spectacular, mysterious and claustrophobic movie in it. All the right ingredients and intentions were there but it didn't quite work out all, due to the earlier mentioned reasons.

Because the movie feels rushed and doesn't really take its time to build up anything, it also feels like a very short movie. Just when you think things are finely going the right way and stuff starts to get truly interesting, the movie is over already. Perhaps they were aiming for a sequel but fact remains that the movie feels to short and even incomplete. The ending itself also totally isn't satisfying, which always leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

It doesn't matter too much that the movie features some pretty decent and well known actors in it. They don't really make the movie any more interesting or worthwhile, despite their best efforts. The script just wasn't solid enough and the execution of it was lacking as well but none of that was really the actor's faults in my opinion.

The movie also isn't always looking that great. When you can't afford decent special effects, don't use them at all! It distracts from the movie and only causes the movie to look all the more cheap.

Wish I could say that it at least was an entertaining enough movie to watch but there is in fact far too little to enjoy about this rushed and poorly handled movie.

5/10

Watch trailer

Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Jeff Renfroe

Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Zegers, Bill Paxton and others

Current release date: 2013

A DEA agent and an undercover Naval Intelligence officer who have been tasked with investigating one another find they have been set up by the mob -- the very organization the two men believe they have been stealing money from. From: IMDb.com

A DEA agent and an undercover Naval Intelligence officer who have been tasked with investigating one another find they have been set up by the mob -- the very organization the two men believe they have been stealing money from. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur

Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton and others

Current release date: August 2, 2013

Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Jeff Renfroe

Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Zegers, Bill Paxton and others

Current release date: April 12, 2013

This is a different type of vampire movie, that's not all focused on the monster or horror aspects but more on its storytelling, characters and dramatic aspects, without becoming a melodrama or anything like that.

It's a pretty subtle and more quiet type of movie, so to speak. That's also being really the foremost thing that I didn't like all that much about it; it isn't really following a clear main story. Its more the type of movie that follows its characters around and shows things as they happen, without building up to anything. There also isn't a classic type of hero or main villain in the movie, which is of course something that not every movie needs to have in it but in this case, I think I would had most definitely preferred it if this movie had those type of characters in it and followed a more usual main story, with a more typical beginning, middle and end in it.

Other than that, I can't say that the movie is a bad one but it indeed is one that never hits a home-run, metaphorically speaking. It's nice that the movie tries out plenty of new and unusual stuff and it's definitely being an original movie in the vampire genre but not one that's an absolute must-see for anyone. It's just not quite interesting or entertaining enough for that.

Also don't expect this movie to be filled with action or bloodsucking. But that's not a complaint from my part. I liked it that the movie only had a handful of typical vampire moments in it and just about only one big action set piece, that worked out great for the movie and really was all that this movie needed. It set the atmospheric tone and established the 'rules' for this movie, so that the rest of the movie could focus on doing completely other things, which you perhaps normally wouldn't expect being in a vampire flick.

The movie also features Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen in it, among many others. And remember, this is an 80's movie, so that means that it has still awesome Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen in it! No doubt it helped that director Kathryn Bigelow still was with James Cameron at the time, since he's a director who worked a lot with Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen around that same time. Same goes for Jenette Goldstein by the way but she is somewhat of a lesser known actress.

The main characters are still played by some big unknowns (Adrian Pasdar & Jenny Wright), which is perhaps also being something that somewhat keeps the movie down. A more charismatic main lead for instance could had most likely spiced up things a little bit more and would had gotten you more involved with the movie its story and main character.

All in all its being a quite good and different little vampire flick but it's nothing to get all too excited about. Very watchable but not a must-see by any means, not even for the most hardened vampire lovers out there.

7/10

Watch trailer

Watch trailer

(Review originally written at 30 December 2007)

This is one of those rare fairly recent movies in which everything just adds up perfectly. It also pleases me to see that you don't necessarily need a big budget to make a brilliant with these days and still have a great talented and acclaimed cast & crew involved in it.

This movie has always been compared a lot to "Fargo". And yes, there also are similarities; both movies involve a large sum of movie, both involve some odd but yet realistic character, both involve killings, both involve a seemingly good plan that goes from bad till worse and both involve snow. A lot of snow. "A Simple Plan" is also a very white looking movie, which provides the movie with a good- as well as beautiful looking settings and atmosphere. But perhaps the reason why this movie never really became a financial or critical big success was also "Fargo". This movie was made only 2 years after the brilliant "Fargo" and like always the majority of the public say this movie as a bad copy, trying to cash in after the success of "Fargo". And also like always, the movie is now, almost 10 years later, slowly gaining more credit and is better known and watched by more and more people.

What mainly makes "A Simple Plan" such a great movie is that it features ordinary everyday people. It makes the characters and therefor the movie as a whole, a very realistic feeling one to watch. It of course also helps that they are being played by some top-class actors. It's funny how Bill Paxton always basically plays the same guy but hey, he's good at it. Billy Bob Thornton is also always at his best playing these sort of simple minded characters. This is yet another wonderful performance by him and he rightfully so was also nominated for an Oscar for it.

This is not really the sort of movie you 1,2,3 would expect from a guy like Sam Raimi. There is also basically very little in this movie that can be described as 'typicaly Raimi'. Not even Ted Raimi is present in it! Everything indicates that his is just an in between little project for him, which all makes it sort of ironic that this is also one of his best movies.

It has a very effective story, that on top of all things is really well written and constructed. It's a character movie but also with lots of twists and turns in the actual plot. The story style reminds us of a good old fashioned film-noir. It's about ordinary people who get themselves into an ordinary situation. They form 'a simple plan' but almost immediately things start to go from bad till worse, without giving any spoilers. The story was written by Scott B. Smith, who based it on his own novel. The screenplay was even nominated for an Oscar as well.

A rare great movie, that is so great due to its realistic approach, performances and a well written and constructed story.

10/10

(Review originally written at 5 October 2006)

I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the western genre, although the genre has definitely grown onto me the last couple of years. But even as a non-fan of the genre I've just always loved this movie.

A '90's western is per definition a rare thing. Even rarer is that it's also a great one. "Tombstone" is a movie made in the tradition of the old spaghetti westerns but with a flavor of '90's action added to it. The end result is a great to watch and spectacular movie.

Of course one of the reason why this movie is such a great one to watch is due to the story that is filled with some of the best known character of the wild west. The Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, Johnny Ringo etcetera. Everybody knows these persons, no introductions are required, which means that the story can do to them what they want without ever having to explain to much about their motivations or background. The movie is filled with well known characters, which are all portrayed by well known and excellent actors.

The cast is also definitely one of the things that distinct this movie from other genre movies. The movie basically has an all-star cast but on top of that every actor is well cast as well. They suit their roles fine and make sure that the all-star cast doesn't distract from the movie its story. The cast has both well known established actors, like Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Charlton Heston, Michael Biehn, among others and yet fairly unknown actors that now are well known names such as Thomas Haden Church, Billy Bob Thornton and Billy Zane. So I say, good casting!

It would be impossible to name and rate every actors performance in this movie but still I would like to mention a few. Kurt Russell works better than expected in the main part. Sam Elliott is solid as always and he delivers a powerful performance and puts down a strong character. Powers Boothe is truly great as Curly Bill Brocious, the leader of the cowboy-gang. Michael Biehn is also a great ruthless and hard tough cowboy, that also knows how to handle a pistol. Movie icons like Charlton Heston and Robert Mitchum as the narrator at the ending also show up in this movie. But obviously the one that steals the show, is Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday. It's a real shame that his performance was overlooked by the academy awards and any other award show for that matter. His performance is among the best of the '90's and definitely Kilmer's best till date.

All of the characters also work well on an emotional level. It makes this movie so much more than just another western but a solid drama about true friendship, brotherhood and loyalty. The movie even manages to put a love-story into the movie, which works in a non-distractive way which is of course a real positive thing,

The movie is basically filled with all of the western clichés and characters. You can say that this movie is a great homage to the good old westerns but that is also a great movie on its own. The movie is however not made in old western style but in '90's action style instead. This works surprisingly well for the movie and its story. It makes this movie perhaps the most awesome western ever made and an original one as well.

The movie is filled with some great and memorable moments. Lots of those moments feature Doc Holiday. A coincidence? I think not. It proofs how utterly brilliant Val Kilmer is in his role and how well his character works out in the movie. Especially the stand-off between Johnny Ringo and Doc Holiday is one to remember.

The movie might start off as a cliché filled western with nostalgic feelings but from the moment on when Wyatt's revenge starts, there is no holding back. The movie takes pace quickly and the movie turns into a non-stop action filled feast with some true awesome and well filmed moments, that are unforgettable.

The way the cowboys are portrayed as a early group of organized crime is an interesting take, which works well for the story and the events in it. It also is another reason why this movie distinct itself from other genre movies.

Visually the movie is great with some wonderful looking sets and costumes and a sweeping musical score from Bruce Broughton. I'll admit that the musical score is one of the biggest reasons why I love this movie so much. Broughton has composed some great musical scores over the years but yet he remains fairly unknown and underrated and mostly works on TV projects.

I just totally love this movie, although I'll admit that it's not a flawless one.

8/10

Watch trailer