Starship Troopers [1997] Blu-Ray

I finished reading Joe Haldeman’s THE FOREVER WAR (great read) and it put me in the mood to watch STARSHIP TROOPERS – as I remember it being similar (if only because it involved war against aliens on other planets and sex).

I guess it had been long enough since I saw it that I didn’t remember the cheekiness of it all – the little commercials and how everyone was “perfect”. I think I honestly just remember it being a war, bug, boobie flick. Starship Troopers is a sci-fi war satire – it’s fun – but I’m not sure if it holds up enough for me.

I mean – how can you not be all over that chick, Dizzy (played by Dina Meyer), if she constantly fawns over you and Denise Richards (your "girlfriend") is constantly flirting with other guys? Is it the boobs? I guess he’s just out of high school or college – or whatever – and he hasn’t learned there’s more to life than great boobs... Aw... I think I just broke my own heart with that comment... With her dying breath – she thanked God that she was finally able to have sex with you for 20 minutes? I mean – c’mon!!!!! That out does boobs any day!

One thing I never ran into before was that my Blu-Ray player refused the disc – even though it looked perfect. It was an older release so I didn’t expect that I needed to update my firmware – as even with brand new releases I’ve never had to. So, I returned it to N’flix as defective and asked for a new one – and the new disc gave me the same grief.

A quickie Google search and I discovered that I needed to “add” more memory to my Blu-Ray player to get the disc to play! I’ve never heard of that!

I grabbed the podunk SD camera card that came with my camera (which I never unwrapped as I purchased a better card at the same time) – I slid that into my Blu-Ray player and the movie loaded up fine. That’s just weird to me.

The movie looked AMAZING! It’s a fantastic looking movie on Blu – if you love the movie – you will want to upgrade (or wait until the XXth anniversary release that is sure to come out). If you like the movie and want to watch it – rent it on Blu – it looks great.

The Bridge On the River Kwai [1957]

I liked THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI – but honestly I wished I liked more. The movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes – and it felt every bit of it. It was two different stories – and they weren’t blended together well – even though I understood why and liked each story it just felt like “we showed the British officer’s side of the story – let’s now show the American soldier’s side of the story”. There were some great performances – and I really liked the build up to the conclusion (even though it’s become one of those famous scenes that you can’t help but run into – so you kind of already know how it ends). I’m glad I finally watched it – but I’m also glad I didn’t purchase it like I intended to at the Half-Price Books Labor Day sale – it’s not a keeper to me at the moment.

Battle Los Angeles [2011]

Essentially, BLACK HAWK DOWN meets an alien invasion. We follow a group of marines into the war zone - to rescue refugees hiding in a police station before Santa Monica is bombed to stop the alien invasion.

It was pretty good – though some of the action was incomprehensible because of the shaky cam – but you’ve got to use the camera to do that in modern intense war movies these days (I guess). I wish they would use camera angles and lighting to create that suspense rather than shake the camera all around leaving the audience more confused and disoriented than the marines. The smoke from the city burning was good enough to create tension and confusion with the audience – the shaking of the camera was just unneeded cheap tricks.

Aaron Eckhart was excellent in the “I’m one day from retirement” marine role and his subplot was interesting – lent enough depth to his role. The rest of the cast did their job – by staying in formation, shooting, panting, running, dying and stuff – standard stuff – don’t need to be an acting genius in a film like this. The action that you could make out was great – the aliens were interesting, there were some stunning visuals of the destruction of Los Angeles and I liked that the 24-hour news cycle was still going trying to fill in cracks with speculation about the invasion. Overall – it was fun – it wasn’t dumb – it was exactly what it advertised itself to be – a “get what you pay for” action war alien movie.

What I think I really liked - was there was so much noise and explosions happening in the background that they can take this one incident and expand it to be a franchise but different squads - different parts of town - different characters... Just show different aspects of the same attack.

Weekend Viewing - April 23-24, 2011

I watched BIRDEMIC & TROLL 2 on Saturday night – details of which I posted on Sunday. We were going to watch my blu-ray of HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PT. 1 but obviously – it got a little late for a 3 hour film (or half a film).

Sunday – it was HEREAFTER and THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS – both fairly solid films – with flaws on both.

HEREAFTER is another absolutely magnificent directing effort by Clint Eastwood – he lets his characters work their story. Clint is an actor’s director – he appreciates what it was like for him to be in front of that camera – and knows what it takes to pull the performance of the actors out of a solid story. The story is what kind of lets down HEREAFTER – it is good – but there’s not as strong of a thread connecting everyone – and the kind of hidden epiphanies that they go through didn’t work for me.


THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS was all right – certainly not as good as I thought it would be. The film probably suffers from the fact that I’ve seen a lot of films that followed and copied it – and that simply made me feel like this film was weak. Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor – but I wanted more scene chewing. (C’mon – take a big bite, Danny! Nom nom nom!) The action was pretty good – fairly intense – yet disjoined in parts that made me just not enjoy the film for all that it was. It’s something I will probably rent later to take a second glance – as it’s one I will probably think about for a little while.

Weekend Viewing - Feb 19-21 (part 1)

Shutter Island [2010, directed by Martin Scorsese]

A patient has escaped from the mental hospital on Shutter Island – and two US Marshals are brought in to investigate. The more they investigate – the more questions they raise as to what’s really happening on the island.

Shutter Island is a good film if you want to be taken for a ride that will tease your brain – and at times frustrate you. I’m really not quite sure how I want to rate this film – on it’s surface and looking back – I’d give it a 4 – but I’m not sure if that 4 would last under more scrutiny.

On a side note – my dad told me he had a dream about the movie (which he hadn’t seen) – and basically told me what my thoughts were half-way through the film on what was happening. If he only knew how right he was.

Kelly’s Heroes [1970, directed by Brian Hutton]

Kelly got wind of $16 million in gold behind Nazi lines – and hatches a plan to go and get it.

This film has aged badly – the humor – the soundtrack – the direction – the pacing – all doesn't really work in today's eye. Donald Sutherland’s Oddball character – felt completely out of place – I know he was supposed to be a gypsy or something – but came off as a hippie – which in WWII felt wrong. All that said it was kind of fun – and I liked it just a tick more than I disliked it – I’m stretching out and giving it a 3 out of 5.

Feb 7th - Feb 8th - Movie Watching Part 2

Traitor [2008]

A twisting turning tale of a bomb expert in a terrorist organization that has plans for a massive strike on the US on Thanksgiving.

What ruined this film was the title. We all know terrorism is a sensitive topic – and with the lead character a Muslim bomb expert it would be perceived as a Hollywood risk. Meaning - if you want to make it hard for the audience to root for your main character initially - you'd better let them know that it's okay - because there's a twist coming (hence the title). It’d be better to leave the audience guessing the entire time – and the let the twists unfold from the perspective of the FBI agents. I liked the acting by all the principles (fantastic cast!) – it’s just the convoluted and fairly predictable story arc that does in the movie.

Recommendation: Hunt it down only if you are bored

Downfall [2004]

Chronicling the final days of World War II from the perspective of the people in Hitler’s bunker.

This could easily pass as a sort of big budget documentary on the end of the Nazi regime – with how spot on everything seems to be. The details paid to the acting – especially Bruno Ganz as Hitler was outstanding. The story humanizes the leaders of the Nazi party – yet you feel no sympathy for their plight – simply because they don’t ask for it (and in context of history – it is well documented that they don't deserve it). This is easily one of the best WWII films out there – as morbid and real one would expect it to be.


Recommendation: A must see