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Reviews
eXistenZ (1999)
A Smart Little Gem
It's a shame this little gem was released around the same time as The Matrix, a similarly-themed but very different film. The special effects pale in comparison, but what it misses in big-budget special effects and polish it makes up with great performances and a clever plot. Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh are particularly good, and they work well together. The supporting cast is also excellent.
The plot is complex and enjoyable, and I was left with many questions. Which is a good thing. By the end of the first half hour, I was completely caught up in the movie's world and didn't mind that there weren't any people running along the walls or dodging bullets.
Check this movie out, you'll be glad you did.
Virtual Nightmare (2000)
I sorta liked it
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this flick. Being a made-for-TV movie, the special effects and production values aren't all that great, but the plot is interesting and even clever at times. I was genuinely surprised by some of its twists. One of the highlights of the film is Tasma Walton as Wendy; she provides an odd mix of crankiness and warmth that really made me like her character.
You really can't compare the movie to the Matrix, which it resembles at a superficial level, and if you expect that sort of movie you'll be disappointed (this was made-for-TV, after all). It has more in common with eXistenZ.
So check it out, it's surprisingly enjoyable.
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Pretty Bad
Star Trek: Nemesis is a poorly written, misogynistic film. The plot of Nemesis has the Enterprise traveling to Romulus. While there, they encounter (drum roll, please)... Picard's nemesis, Praetor Shinzon. Labored story arcs, idiotic plot twists, and poor dialogue ensue.
The main villain is a clone of Picard, which is supposed to make him more nemesis-y. There's a lot of illogical dialogue about how Picard could have turned out just like Shinzon, and vice-versa, and the evil in Shinzon is present in Picard, and the good in Picard is present in Shinzon, and so on. Whatever. I don't know a whole lot about cloning, and I know even less about cloning in the future, but isn't a clone is just a genetic replica of a person--an identical twin? The clone doesn't share any memories with the original person, or personality traits. Given that perspective, I found the whole We-are-the-same banter between Picard and Shinzon annoying. It seemed as though, lacking any more creative ideas, the writers reached into a bag of soap-opera clichés and pulled out the "evil twin" card.
Then there's B-4. I had been wondering what they would do about Data, now that he has emotions. Every Star Trek series has had a main character who's an outsider. The original series has Spock, Voyager has Seven-Of-Nine, Deep Space Nine has Odo, Enterprise has T'Pol, and The Next Generation has Data, who strove to become more human-like over the course of the series and finally acquired an emotion chip. But Data with emotions isn't as great a plot device as emotionless Data. So, B-4, an earlier Data prototype Shinzon somehow finds, is used as a way of "undoing" Data's evolution, returning him to his former, emotionless state. Why did they have to kill off Data and replace him with B-4? Couldn't they have made his emotion chip stop working? That could have been very interesting. Poor Data, having experienced the full gamut of human emotion, becomes an emotionless machine again when his chip malfunctions; he's aware of his loss, but unable to feel sadness over it. That would have been neat.
Also, the name B-4 is really annoying. I envision Star Trek versions of that old "Who's on First" joke:
Picard: Who had the previous shift? Riker: B-4. Picard: Yes, who was at that station before? Riker: B-4. Picard: Yes, tell me who had the previous shift?
Hilarity ensues.
That's not the only thing to dislike about this movie; its treatment of its female characters is offensive. Women are confined to the roles of mother/caretaker, bride, rape victim, and seductress. For example, Troi's major contributions to the plot are getting married, becoming the object of Shinzon's lust, and then being mentally raped by Shinzon and his fish-faced mentor. Sigh. Perhaps, in future Star Trek movies, women will be confined to their quarters, barefoot and pregnant, to keep them from being raped by space baddies. Eventually, Troi is able to, umm, "rape" Shinzon back, but that's just not good for anyone.
In summary, this film is just awful, and at times even offensive.
The Punisher (2004)
Could have Been Better
I've never read a Punisher comic. Prior to seeing this movie, all I knew about the Punisher is that he's angry, likes guns, and really understands the importance of branding (check out that t-shirt!). I have a weakness for dark and gloomy comic-book adaptations, so I was looking forward to seeing this movie. That t-shirt is really neat! And the name is so cool... the punisher.
Unfortunately, it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen. A quick plot synopsis: The son of Howard Saint, a powerful drug dealer played by John Travolta, is killed during a drug bust in which Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) was involved. Saint has Frank's family killed, and attempts to have Frank killed. Frank embarks on a quest to get revenge on Saint, his family, and his henchmen. Along the way, he meets a down-trodden waitress with a heart of gold and a pair of lovable misfits.
The movie starts off well enough--the chase seen in which Frank's wife and son try to escape Howard Saint's henchman is fantastic. But it's mostly downhill from there. Revenge movies can be a lot of fun, and the best ones even manage to have their characters deal with moral dilemmas. Not so with The Punisher! The morality of Frank's punishment spree isn't ever questioned. Everything is very much black and white--the bad guys are drug dealers and the good guy is a cop. In fact, Frank's alcoholism seems to be a bigger issue than his murderous rampages and wanton destruction of property. I'm not saying that someone with a name like punisher should be all warm and fuzzy, but presenting him as the righteous sword of justice isn't the way to go, either.
In addition to providing a bizarre perspective on the morality of revenge, the film is poorly done. The audience is forced to suspend their disbelief beyond acceptable limits. Somehow, the main character survives being shot multiple times at point-blank range and shoved off a pier. Frank seems to have no fear of having his acts of revenge discovered by the police, nor is that ever really an issue. He has a seemingly unlimited supply of cash. It's a standard, 80's-style action flick in which the rules of reality are bent and, at times, utterly broken. The characters have all been done before: the drug lord, the drug-lord's ambitious son, the drug-lord's pampered wife, the downtrodden waitress with a heart of gold, and the lovable, shy misfits.
The only fun parts of the movie are the chase scene at the beginning and the Frank's fight with a Russian wrestler towards the end. All in all, the film is just bad enough to disappoint, without being bad enough to be enjoyable.