June 11, 2005
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Lifeforce
is the sci-fi movie that remained trap in the back of my memories, even
though I saw it almost two decades ago. The primary reason? Mathilda May.
For those who’ve seen this movie, you know what I’m talking about. For
those who don’t know, well, let’s just say that she’s NUDE for about
95% of her screen time. God bless her for putting up with all the
male fantasies that went into this film. Besides that, I couldn’t
remember if the movie was any good at all, so I had to re-watch it when
I was given the opportunity.
Lifeforce is based off a novel, but that’s besides the point I suppose
because the movie is pretty darn cheesy. The actors are over acting
sooo much it’s actually hilarious. The special effects weren’t
bad for it’s time, and if you ever wanted to see Patrick Stewart
of Star Trek fame in an unintentionally homosexual scene, this is your
movie. This is that movie you might want to bring out if all the guys
are over your house, and you’d like to invent a drinking game. “C-“
Lords of Dogtown peaked my curiousity on how the Z-boyz propelled the skateboard scene to new heights. I’ve never seen the documentary Dogtown and the Z-boyz,
but after watching this feature film, I now really want to. The film
itself is pretty good, following the history of these young boys that
started off as enthusiastic surfers into the ones who ignited the
flames of making skateboarding an “extreme sport.” Sure it kinda
follows that traditional biopic which starts with happy promises and
fame in the beginning, the inevitable fame / money breaks them up, to
the happy “we’re still friends” ending. The camera shots of some
skate boarding scenes didn’t please me too much, as it’s really a bunch
of quick cuts, which doesn’t allow me to appreciate what I just saw so
much. There are some really good skateboarding scenes though, so
it isn’t all bad. I’ve got to point out that Heath Ledger surprised the hell out of me, because it seems like he was chanelling Val Kilmer for his performance. It’s worth watching enough, and I enjoyed it. “B-”
I remember Mortal Kombat
being a lot better than I thought it was. I suppose it was the
fanboyism back then that blinded me at how pedestrian this film is,
even though it paid pretty good homage to the video games that it was
spawned from. The acting was pretty luckluster, the story follows your
standard martial arts B-movie, and the fight sequences (while better
than the worse out there) had so much flaw that it’s funny. Speaking of
funny, the fact that they literally used cheesy lines like “FINISH
HIM,” “FATALITY,” or “GET OVER HERE,” like they do in the games comes
off a lot more hilarious than I think was intended. I suppose one main
advantage that this movie has is that it’s still better than the sequel
that’s soooo horrible. “D+”
