Reviews

I can kind of see where people critical of the movie are coming from but their complaints are very exaggerated. This is a philosophy movie, not a thriller. And its philosophy indicts so many people in one of two classes: Those that have been directed into a dependent state by society, and those that exploit those that have been directed there.

The message is what is important and the vehicle that carries it is good enough in Atlas Shrugged 3. I've seen the critics forgive far worse-time and time again. I've all but given up watching movies they say are "good" only to be disgusted yet again by two certified morons in yet another unneeded sex scene to take them seriously. And even Gone with the Wind was the nemesis of the critics when it came out. Fact.

People need to learn that the water of capitalism merely carries the addictive poison of statism, and that the cure is not to add more poison and then continue blame drinking water for making them sick. I'd be happy to see it done better but for some reason I don't anticipate many critics with government funded liberal arts educations would feel good about such a message.

Overall Robocop was not a great movie but it was not a disappointment either. What I enjoyed mostly about it was how it showed a political debate as to whether or not criminal law should be enforced by machines. I thought this was a timely issue to think about and quite often movies and novels (eg science fiction) are the first places issues like these enter the minds of the people. The story line took a hypothetical debate as such and followed a possible course of action that a corporate oligopoly with puppet representatives unconcerned with the dignity of the people along with one or two heroes of liberty and made a possible scenario of how it might unfold. You would not happen to know of such a government form today would you? There are a number of minor flaws with the movie but they are mostly best forgiven by mentioning that this is not a movie that will ever make it to the best of the bunch anyway-and leave it at that. I thought the robocop overacted in some scenes. Movies like this tend to exaggerate emotions in personal relationships (perhaps as a vicarious escape from the shallow relationships of many of their viewers); yes it is true that parents love their wives and children enormously but not so much that they would freak out and go ballistic or irrational in response to stress...unless the police department does a particularly bad job of screening cops' personalities in this case.

How do these ghosts from a long time ago seem to understand how our modern day technology works-and how to use it to kill us? I have a thing about ghosts that seem to have superhuman strength. I think ghosts are scary and could possibly do things to the minds of people with active imaginations but from what we know about ghosts today, I do not see them physically assaulting people or attacking them with bludgeoning weapons.

The movie attempted to redeem itself with good horror movie music, good acting and one hell of a sexy ghost but in the end you just can't make a good ghost movie that has too much unfinished business that does not have to do with ghosts.

A tale of an eccentric genius with an equally eccentric dream and his desire to escape a supposedly doomed America with his family to form a retro civilization in the tropics. It's difficult to like Harrison Ford (Allie)-especially in the last third of this movie when he starts really going off the deep end. But it is unique and really illustrates the mindset of an eccentric genius character well. If you are a middle-of-the-road (perhaps slightly Democratic) person with a 9-5 job-you know...the kind that the doomsayers claim has not "woke up" to what is going on, then you won't get it. You won't like it at all either. But art is not about being liked and often it is not even about passing judgment. Art is about illustrating the phenomenon of what it is to be human-without using crayons.

Wow, what a movie. And get this: Michael Keaton is the villain! It is kind of hard to depict him as one as per his roles in other movies. He's great! But what is even more great is how this movie does what movies ought to do: it depicts what happens in real life employing an analysis of how events can unfold heuristically and intuitively. Every new landlord ought to watch this-all the more if you live in an area that tends to favor the renter in disputes. There appears to be some exaggeration in how tenant law is carried out in California but maybe not-I'm not a landlord. Again, since this movie does what it is supposed to do, words are difficult to describe the plot. Moral of story is not to get manipulated and how an experienced con artist knows how to rely on both his experience and quick exploitation of the unexpected along with a strong dose of sociopathic tendencies to get what he wants.

Imagine a movie in the 80's depicting Africans as primitive people without being racist or disrespectful. That alone was a huge challenge in those sensitive times and this movie did it. It is a mockery of civilization along with a silly "G" rated love story/comedy-basically two plots in one movie loosely tied together. I first "heard" this movie when I somehow got a TV signal on my radio. I was in Army barracks and I liked nature shows so I listened without visual for a while at this odd narrative coming through the speakers. For a while I thought it *was* a nature show but I had never heard one so silly. Later I found out how unpopular it was with critics and "cool" people so after buying it I put it in the closet with my old Carpenters album and Dr. Demento video cassette only to be taken out when I was alone and wanted a little guilty pleasure from something I truly enjoyed after sitting through numerous fart jokes and other stuff that strained a laugh.

Weird Al is funny. He's also smart and generally respectful to audiences of all ages. Yet he succeeds in light cynicism aimed at those things that annoy us-like commercials, cheesy TV shows and exaggerated scenes in movies. Back in those days, we still had two band selections on the TV and VHF was where all the good programming was. UHF had a lot of channels but only a few were used and people did not switch to UHF often unless they wanted to watch a community channel, church service, foreign language show or some other oddity. You need to understand this before you watch the movie so ask someone older if you are young. Given that, it is a pretty funny idea for a movie and the mock commercials and TV shows are a laugh. True to name, Al finds lots of weird people to play parts in the movie and work with him-some with a touch of late 80's nerdity about them as well. It had a few stretches-like I cannot see a whole bar captivated by a low IQ person lecturing the value of character over a mop. But heck, just like a bum who asks you for change and then gives you back an equal amount of dollars to the coins you gave him, UHF will return your money's worth.

Worth watching, not worth going far out of your way to watch. Somewhat over rated thriller combines the story of American cowboys and Indians with our wars in the Middle East and throws it all on a faraway planet with environmentalist blue human/catlike-aliens. The military (it appears to be a spoof of the US military) dutifully fights these profound and peaceful aliens and attempts to relocate them for the greedy stock holders back home with little regard for environment or culture (I did not buy this misguided innuendo because in our culture, the people who support this sort of thing are rarely the ones that actually do the fighting as they are in the movie). Anyways that's all you get for plot summary. I recommend this movie mostly to the 18-30 age group (leaning towards the younger numbers) and those that like somewhat romantic thrillers. It rates a 4 from me personally but separating my personal bias as I should-I give it a 6 as I can see why some others would like it more than I do and it really is not so flawed. Your girl may give you a kiss, but all you will get from me is a hiss.