Reviews by Happy Vader

Superman media never made a big impact on my life. This and Spider-Man. I guess I tend to go for more darker and mature stuff like Batman and Savage Dragon. This film had violence and brutal deaths but they were nothing compared to the 90's Batman cartoons.

Anyway, the storyline was good and the reason why I saw this is because I'm working on a similar story of my own and I wanted some ideas and influences. Although I got next to nothing, I did manage to "steal" some dialogues.

I always found Lois Lane to be an attractive, but dull, character but that's not the point, the point is WOAH! I loved Anne Heche's V.O. as the character. Seriously, I love woman voices like these and it fit almost perfectly. She should now play Lois Lane from now on. Frankly speaking, she was the only redeeming point. Lex Luthor, on the other hand, was like a big joke. Hardly intimidating and boring, I kinda felt sorry for him. Do you honestly think the real Superman is foolish enough to step in that little red room and dance with you? Ha! and I thought Luthor was supposed to be the greatest thinker of all time!

In conclusion, I kinda liked it, has shocking moments but doesn't have much redeeming points though. I just wanted to see the death of Superman and it gave... end of story!

7.2/10

Tom Hanks's first strongest work after Forrest Gump, this Robert Zemeckis directed flick is a true winner. He has done 2 live-films with Hanks, above mentioned, and both are solid winners. Cast Away is one of those performance driven films with a heavy dramatic tone to it and several emotional scenes which makes you glad that you're not in their shoes, in this case, Chuck Noland, the film's hero.

I loved the film and the use of just one character for the majority of the film and Tom Hanks is an actor who can move you dramatically and emotionally and he excellently does both. Within just 20 minutes into his arrival on the island you start feeling for his character and start associating yourself with him. Aren't we really all stuck in our own private islands desperate to get out? That's right, whether we admit it or not, we're all stuck and Cast Away spells it out for us. I liked the fact that the hero was a simple, mild-mannered everyman and not some millionaire or rich tycoon of some sort. It made the story much more believable and everything seemed plausible. And is it me or did the last few minutes seemed too similar to Forrest Gump?

Anyway, this film is not to be viewed while eating, believe me. If you're a fan of long scenes with minimal dialogues or excellent acting, then give this a go because if you stop it mid-way, it would be a terrible shame...

9.0/10

I was always interested in reading Mark Miller's defining Batman: Year One but couldn't find the comic anywhere, real-life or online. When I read that there's a movie based on it, I had to see it, nomadder what and boy, was it impressive. It's realistic, gritty, violent and top of all, it captures Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne perfectly, although I do wish Bruce Greenwood or Kevin Conroy had voiced the latter but Benjamin McKenzie wasn't bad at all, providing a-lot of character in his voice.

Basically, I liked the story and the human, likable portrayal of the two lead protagonists and a further insight to the corrupt streets and people of Gotham. Despite the increase in technology, I still think no other direct-to-video Batman feature, including this one, can beat Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero released back in 1998. That looked and felt amazing but Year One was great nonetheless!

From the V.O's, I enjoyed everyone especially Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle. Her warm and rich voice really was one of the strong points even though she only appears sporadically. She should appear in a full animation of her own and in that character because it really suits her. Maybe a live-action film?

In conclusion, this is great, has a wide variety of characters and the animation is fluid.... and, oh yes! I finally found a PDF copy on the internet! WOOHOO!

7.9/10

Now Road to Perdition is a film that plays itself like a film-noir so expertly that should it had been released at the 40's, the heyday of film-noir, it would've been very trend-setting. But of course, technology sometimes has it's advantages and it's brilliantly showcased here, making it one of the most beautiful, visual-wise, films I've ever seen. The story-line is simple, yet capturing and is very plausible. I liked virtually everything about this film: The actors, the set, the dialogues, the scenes everything...

Now you see, Tom Hanks's career is divided into two parts: Pro-Gump and Post-Grump and this film, alongside Cast Away and, to further extend, The Terminal stands out as his best pro-Gump films. Not to say his others are not good but these three are among his greatest. His portrayal of Michael Sullivan won me over. He had the built, the look and the voice of a 30's / 40's gangster and he blended in easily. He shares an almost flawless chemistry with Daniel Craig, who plays Connor Rooney, despite the fact they're together on-screen only for a couple of minutes. I would love to see them together in another film. Paul Newman as John Rooney was like the backbone of the film. Handling his character effortlessly, he reminded me of a less-lazy version of Vito Corleone. Tyler Hoechlin gave a decent performance as Michael Sullivan, Jr. If you watch the film, it may not seem much but if you review it afterwards, then you will realize how convincing he really was. A minor setback, however, was Jude Law as the merciless photo-killer Maguire. His performance was good but it bordered somewhere in the lines of being cartoonish. It was like as if the school's nerdiest kid trying to act like a tough bully but an OK performance nonetheless.

In conclusion, this is one of the best polished, and beautiful, gangster films of all time and one that has a-lot more than just your average Tommy-guns or violence acts. It has a story and it has fleshed-out characters! A must watch...

8.5/10