Cultural learnings and a flaming skull
February 24th, 2007 by Michael Kwan|
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I remember a long, long while back, Darren Barefoot said that he was going to review every movie that he was going to watch in 2006. I’m not entirely sure if he ever followed through on that to its entirety, but it seemed like a pretty good goal. As such, I’m inspired to do the same for 2007. I’ve been pretty busy these past couple of months, so I haven’t watched as many flicks as I normally do, but I did manage to catch a couple this past week or so. They’re pretty different from one another too: Borat and Ghost Rider.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
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Joseph Planta of The Commentary is a big fan of Ali G, but I never really “got” his sense of humour. I just don’t find Ali G particularly funny, and as such, I didn’t think that I would be all that interested in Borat, considering that the principal actor is the same Sacha Baron Cohen. Unless you’ve been living under an Amish rock for the past year, you’ve surely heard about this movie and all the controversy that it caused. It’s lewd, it’s crude, and at times I was on the cusp of hurling (the hotel wrestling scene was sickening), but by the same accord, I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s a shame that the trailer shows most of the best parts already, so watching the film from beginning to end didn’t bring as many surprises as I was hoping, but it was still thoroughly enjoyable and an absolute riot. Don’t look for character development, an exceptional plot, or anything of that sort. Yes, the sight gags can be pretty gross, but that’s what makes them funny. Great work, Mr. Cohen.
4 out of 5 stars
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Ghost Rider
Call me a kid at heart or call me an action junkie (or an idiot), but I love movies based on comic books, particularly those with super heroes in some shape or form. At the same time, I perfectly understand that these movies can get really cheesy, receive some really poor translations, and come off seeming incredibly kitchy and unbelievable. Among the rotten apples like Daredevil and Electra, however, are gems like X-Men and the old live action Ninja Turtles. I can’t say that I had high hopes for Ghost Rider and I don’t quite understand the casting choice behind nabbing Nicolas Cage for the title role, but I was hoping for some killer action, some excellent fight scenes, and a nice distraction from the mundane everyday routine. Personally, I found that the build-up took far too long before “Ghost Rider” was actually born, and even when he was, the action scenes were nowhere near as impressive as they could have been. And don’t get me started on how cheesy a lot of the scenes were. That said, if you can manage to suspend your disbelief and just take in the cool special effects (I like the flaming skull), you will probably find some value in this flick… but not much.
2 out of 5 stars
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Filed under Arts and Entertainment.
Yes I loved the flaming skull. I didn’t really like the fighting scenes to much with the frst 3 bad guys(forgot the 1st guy, wind and water). The last fight scene with Blackheart was okay but could have done better. The other 3 fights finished to quickly for my taste. You can compare those fight scene lengths to the fight scenes in the movie Elektra. The fights with Stone, Tattoo, Typhoid and Kirigi. All short and easily killed. LOL!!! All in all I give this movie a 2/10.
Yeah, it was pretty bad. People coming to watch Ghost Rider wanted action, fighting, and so on and the director/producer/writers didn’t exactly deliver.
I havn;t seen both. They don;t really appeal to me either. Oh well
I’m right there with you on Borat – never have been a big fan of Sacha Baron Cohen, but when I first saw previews for Borat, well, hilarious! And yeah, the hotel scene I could have done without heh
The hotel scene was definitely a bit much.
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