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Now here is a movie I have been torn about watching.  I usually like science fiction, but with all the hype over this film, and James Cameron, I wasn't inspired to watch this film, but thought it was something I should check out at some point.

While James Cameron made two films which I thought were very well done and quite enjoyable (The Terminator and Aliens (Alien part 2), since those films I have felt he has been making films that have been vastly overrated.  I never cared for Terminator 2, as I thought it was trite.  In the original Terminator film, everything fit together perfectly, Kyle's story being completely without evidence (So it was impossible for anyone to discern that he was NOT crazy), the Terminator being pretty much unstoppable, but took bits  of damage and got worn down, etc.  In Terminator 2, it was just a story about two robots fighting, much of which didn't make sense.

Also, I have felt some resentment since Titanic over took Star Wars as the highest grossing movie.  Titanic did not create the phenomenon that Star Wars did (both in changing the movie industry, marketing and giving life to a new movie studio), and is vastly overrated, both as a film and for it's place in movie history.

As for the film Avatar itself, I fail to see what the big deal is.  It was.  A bunch of tall blue monkeys, in a black light world.  Also, blue skin is a cheap way to signify an alien race, and has been since it was first appeared in Star Blazers (Uchu Senkan Yamato).

The other problem with the film was that it was extremely predictable.  Of course the protagonist was going to sympathies with the alien race.  What other direction could the story possibly go in?  Basically, this was as South Park aptly described it "Dances with Smurfs".  The alien elements of the film take away from the possible significance of it, and make the film corny.

Also, the whole thing with the joining of the head tails made no sense.  There is no plausible reason that a cross species electrical plug would evolve.  The only thing that would make sense is that it was how they sexually reproduced, but in that case, it would be odd to say the least that they were bonding with animals and trees in that way.

As often happens with James Cameron's films, he doesn't get the real root of the character's dedication and makes up some odd element to justiy their dedication to their cause.  Instead of having the characters , there were odd electical currents running through the roots of the trees.  Like a need for a physical explanation for their bond with nature would make it clearer to the viewer, when it really just make it hokey.

Also, I am getting pretty sick of movies being given accolades for taking over the as the highest grossing film.  As the price of tickets go up, of course the amount of money a film can bring in will increase, Also, the continued increase in the population means there are more potential movie goers.  In the past there have been films that were considered so good that people went to see them repeatedly, some in excess of 10 or 20 times.  The number of tickets sold is a much better barometer of a films popularity (especially when taking the population at the time into consideration.)

Doraemon and the Robot Army

I was flipping through the channels and I have the Japanese channel on my favorites list, and I  saw the title Doraemon, and had a noslatigic feeling for this show so I decided I wanted to watch an episode of the show.  This was the closest I could get, and it is the first Doraemon movie I have watched.

Doraemon is a very popular children's TV show that has been running for more than 30 years.  Every year the studio releases a Doraemon movie in the theater which loads of kids go see.

I used to watch Doraemon in Japan for Japanese language listening practice.  I actually it was pretty easy to understand becuase the characters were talking about event happening around them, as opposed to other shows where the conversation often has little to do with the characters surroundings and it's easy lose the gist of the conversation.

Anyhow, in television format the show is fun, light and enjoyable.  In movie format, they try to make a more serious story, but I feel that detracts from the appeal of the Doraemon program.

I was also a bit surprised that they showed a pretty much complete naked female in this movie, but then again you have to remember that Japanese are not prudish about nudity, and do not feel it has negative connotations.

Pacific Heights (1990)

This film has been on my list for over a year, as it was recommend to me when I was learning about being a landlord.  A guy told me to watch this film, as it shows what a bad tenant can do.  Honestly, I think he was referring to the fact that in this film the bad guy takes tenancy (without paying any rent) and it is extremely difficult to get him out.  After that, the guy does a bunch of wild things that I don't think anyone could expect a tenant to do, but are vaguely possible.

Mathew Modine is in this film, but the only film I can ever recall seeing him in is Vision Quest, which I remember as a mediocre movie, and stands out more for the Journey song, "Only the Young".

After watching the film, I read some reviews, and I was surprised that the reviews came down so hard on the film.

As always, Michael Keaton gave a great performance, I thought, as he was great being professional when it was called for, and then switching to creepy.  I also enjoyed Melanie Griffith's performance, and I haven't seen a film that I didn't enjoy seeing her in (I have seen more of Melanie Griffith's films than you might imagine, though not intentionally)

As the advice I was given was "Anyone who wants to get into land lording should watch this this film" stands true, I recommend this film to with that same qualification.

Hancock (2008)

I had been planning on watching this film for quite a while, both for the superhero factor and for Will Smith.  I have always enjoyed Will Smiths films and intended to watch all of them, but that petered off.  Still I don't think he has made a bad film, though Bad Boys (1995) could be the exception, or at least blamed on Martin Lawerence.

I knew practically nothing about Hancock before I watched it.  All the pictures I had seen of the film merely confused me more, as they showed Hancock looking sort of like a homeless guy, though I recall one where he did look like an actual superhero.

The film itself was okay, and I give it accolades for being unprecedented.  Still, there were some things in the film that didn't make sense.  Hancock was supposed to be unaware of basic pleasantries, as well as having a complete disregard for property damage, but it's unfathomable as to how he could be oblivious to all that (was it supposed to be because he was drunk?).

The real problem with the film was when he discovered the other superpowered individual.  It was kind of like Highlander 2, which was a horrible mess.  From there, there were too many coincidental events, making a unique film into a bit of a let down.

Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

I have planned to watch this movie for quite a while, but haven't been motivated to do so.  A couple of days ago, I caught part of the movie on TV, and it looked interesting and a bit fun, so I thought I would go back and watch the whole thing.

As a kid, I watched the original film, and it's sequel I believe, so I thought I should see what they did with it.  Honestly, the original films were not that great, but that is not what they were striving for.  Disney was pumping out a lot of G rated live action films, which were good enough and entertaining, but not spectacular.  I did enjoy the film as a kid, but there were some pretty hokey special effects and a few inconsitancies which kinda stuck out.

With this new film Race to Witch Mountain, I wasn't expecting that improving the special effects would have a major effect on the quality of the picture, and it didn't.  It turns out that the place where I started watching the film from was near the middle, and the first hour or so proceeding it was not all that enthralling.

The whole mystery of the kids origin which was a key issue in the original film, was completely absent from this film.  The film was a mishmash of action, sci fi and a few other elements stuck in.  Added to that there was some kind of bounty hunter who wasn't particularly relevant, except for occasionally motivating the protagonists to vacate from their present location, as well as some questionable actions by the star of the film "The Rock", made this a rather mediocre film.

Starship Troopers

I've never heard anything compelling about this film that inspired me to watch it, but I've liked a number of Paul Verhoeven's films (Total Recall and Robocop) so I thought I would give it a shot.

Funny thing is, I played a computer game based on this film, so I was familar with the insects they battled before watching the film.  But some how I had never caught pieces of the film shown  on cable before.

The film was okay, but a bit short of the comedy elements from Robocop, and it lacked a compelling story that drove both Robocop and Total Recall.  It gave no sense of accomplishment of the characters, more like they were just lucky enough to survive the battles they were thrust into.  At the end, I felt like, "That's all?"  and "What happens next?"  Honestly, I think the computer game was better.

I was a surprised to see Clancy Brown (the Kurgen from Highlander) in this, as he always makes an impression.  Still, compared to some of his other characters, this one was less intimidating.

Red Tails

Being that this was a Lucasfilm release, I had considered watching it in the theater, even more so as it featured WWII dog fighting, which George Lucas had based his space battles on.  The preveiews looked promising, but some how I never made it to the theater.  Still, somewhere deep in my heart I hoped that this film would be a runaway success like Star Wars and add another franchise to Lucasfilm.

While I had read that the film didn't do great at the box office, I thought it was fairly well done as far as story elements went.  Some of the claims by the airmen will rather incredulous, as well as how many kills the squadron got, compared to nearly non existent losses.  While the air combat was good, it wasn't enough to make it as thrilling an experience as some other films which included dog fighting.

As for the name, it is interesting as it is not clear why it was called that name at first, and the name tells little about the content of the film.  Also such as name is Red Tails seems like it could be confused with the name of an animated feature.

Historically, this is a group and situations that people need to be aware of, and for that alone, it's good that it was made.  It was a good film, but perhaps not a great one.