Reviews by Prelude

no, unlike typical M. Night Shyamalan's films, this doesnt really have any 'twists'

yes, the story is far-fetched, and every part of the plot just falls exactly in place - as you'd expect in a bed-time story

yes, it mixes a real-life enviroment (an apartment complex in present-day) with mythical creatures and fantasy and legends - usually NOT a good mixture (example, if this plot was set in medieval times, it may have won over more people in the audience)

and despite it not really being a horror film, and gore is non-existant, Shyamalan does the 'suspense' aspect so perfectly, just like in 'Signs' and 'The Village'. To me, the perfect suspense film has 95% anticipation, 5% action, and this director is one of my faves because he does that.

another highlight of this film is Paul Giamatti. From his performances here, as well as in 'Sideways' and 'The Illusionist', this guy has quickly became one of my top actors, and I think a few Oscars are in his future. And the stunning Bryce Dallas Howard. She was absolutely mesmerizing to watch.

Overrall, I give it an 8/10, though admitelly the plot was sub-standard.

ok, perhaps I was a bit harsh comparing it to 'Jackass number 2', as I did notice the film made fun of itself, making it perhaps more of a comedy then an action film. However, with that said, I guess the main thing that annoyed me and I couldnt get past is the entire plot from the start to the end. Remember all those James Bond flicks, where the bad guy devises a cunning slow painful way to kill Bond, and then walks away, assuming Bond will die? Austin Powers made a good mockery of that concept. I mean, in the end, why not just KILL the guy, or at least stick around and make sure he really suffers, but to put a poison in him that makes his body the equivalent of 'Bus can't go slower than 55mph' from 'Speed', and then leave a DVD for him to know how he will die, and then near the end, when he by miracle catches up to you, instead of FINALLY putting a bullet in his head, you go and stick him with a needle with a bit more dosage of that same poison? I'm sorry, having the entire movie revolve around such an idiotic way to kill someone, thats what really bugged me.

I've heard 'Children of Men' be described as a 'thinking man's action movie'. Well in that same train of thought, I think 'Crank' itself could best be described as an 'A.D.D.-afflicted man's action movie', or perhaps another way, a 'slow-witted, easily-entertained man's action movie'.

Does it have action? sure it does! is it loud, in-your-face, racist, sexist, piece of hollywood escapism? yup! does it require you to turn off your brain? most definately. but for some of today's kids, who seem to have an attention span of 5 minutes max, and think 'Jackass Number 2' is a cinematic masterpiece, they'll sure find 'Crank' a blast to watch.

I don't know what's worse:

- the fact that the director PURPOSEFULLY made all the MALE cows have udders, thinking it was funny

- when the male cows walk around, it looks like they have some sort of mutated penises (or is it penii?)

- when the male cows 'get off' on attaching their udders to the milking machines

or

THE BLOODY FACT THAT THIS IS MARKETTED AS A KIDS MOVIE

have they no goddamn shame?

I loved this film, every part of it. Maybe I'm biased since I lived in Montreal (and still go there regularly to party and explore the city). What a fine choice, to film it in the most beautiful city in North America.

Back to the movie itself, I didnt know what to expect first time i've seen this film, but the jokes just kept on rolling in and the twists and the turns and the double-crosses just kept pilling up. This film's a blast to watch!

Only thing keeping it from a perfect 10 is the sequel, Whole Ten Yards, was a disaster.

I wasn't expecting too much out of this, since I'm not a Hartnett fan, and I'm very selective when it comes to so-called 'chick flicks' that I'm forced to watch, but I was pleasantly surprised both at the storyline and the acting in this film. It reminded me a lot of my other fave romantic film, Serendipity, with the two main characters always crossing paths, searching for each other, but never having any luck, but Wicker Park threw in a lot more psycho mystery element, and what started off as an above average romantic film turned into a series of twists after twists with a very well written plot. Gals, don't miss this film, it's great. and Guys, if your better half twists your arm and makes you agree to a 'chick flick night', I recommend this to at least make it bearable, or even enjoyable viewing.

man, i hate Wallyworld as much as the next guy, for how they treat their workers like crap, for how they have cheezy lovey-dovey ads about 'made in USA' when in reality 95% of their stuff is from chinese sweatshops, for how they screw small communities, and this film touches on all of that plus more, but this is amateur documentary 101. It feels more like a local news special report than a real documentary. and some of the stuff they blame wal-mart for, well its a bit ridiculous.

Pretty much most of the employees gripes were about getting no health care, or lousy health insurance, etc, etc. it wasn't about wages. I mean, its a mininum-wage job, what do you really expect worker there, stacking boxes, $15/hour or more? but the issue with lack of health care is more an American issue, hopefully addressed well in Michael Moore's upcoming 'Sicko' documentary. We have Wal-marts in Canada, and people for the most part just treat it as another minimum wage job. Health care isnt an issue. But its true even up here, that wal-mart considers full-time something like 20 hrs/week, and even though they could use more workers since stores are packed, they always seem to be short-staffed and only have a couple of checkout counters open.

The other issue they really pushed was how dangerous it is in their parking lots, how people have been raped, shot, killed, kidnapped, robbed. Well, see Moore's Bowling for Columbine to further analyze America's violent society. Once again, in Canada's walmarts, its not an issue. If my wife went to walmart, even at midnight, and told me she was scared in the parking lot, i'd laugh at her.

Or that part where some local lady is worried about having an empty ambandoned old PARKING LOT turned into a Walmart superstore. Oh, the humanity!!! can't walmart just leave that pristine parking lot alone? or that rich snob in california in her mansion who didnt want a walmart built close to her house, i guess because it would spoil her neighborhood of fake lakes and palm trees and golf courses built upon desert soil. give me a break, how can anoyone sympathize with those cases?

Overall, quite dissapointed at this film. I expect a LOT more investigation, and a LOT less fear-mongering.

Awesome! I'm glad this movie is so well rated here on listal. Shows hope for the future of our earth.

Rather than review, let me copy/paste narrator's first few lines in the film:

narrator: 150 years ago, the business corporation was a relatively insignificant institution. Today, it is all-pervasive. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, the corporation is today's dominant institution. This documentary examines the nature, evolution, impacts, and possible futures of the modern business corporation. Initially given a narrow legal mandate, what has allowed today's corporation to achieve such extraordinary power and influence over our lives? We begin our inquiry as scandals threaten to trigger a wide debate about the lack of public control over big corporations.

and this quote from a NY stock broker, one of most memorable quotes in the film:
Carlton Brown: I've got to be honest with you. When the September 11th situation happened, and I must say, and I wanna say this because I don't want to take it lightly. It's not a light situation. It was a devastating act. It was really a bad thing. It was one of the worst things I've seen in my lifetime, you know. But, I will tell you and every trade will tell you, who was not in that building and who was buying gold and who owned gold and silver, that when it happened, the first thing you thought about was, "well, how much is gold up?" The first thing that came to mind was, "my God, gold must be exploding". Fortunately, for us, all our clients were in gold. So when it went up they all doubled their money. Everybody doubled their money. It was a blessing in disguise. Devastating, crushing, heart shattering, but on the financial sense, for my clients that were in the market, they all made money. Now, I wasn't looking for this type of help, but it happened. When the USA bombed Iraq back in 1991 the price of oil went from $13 to £40 a barrel, for cying out loud! Now, we couldn't wait for the bombs to start raining down on Saddam Hussein. We were all excited. We wanted Saddam to really create problems. "Do whatever you have to do, set fire to some more oil wells, because the price is going to go higher." Every broker was chanting that. There was not a broker that I know of that wasn't excited about that. This was a disaster. This was something that was, you know, catastrophe happening. Bombing. Wars. In devastation there is opportunity.

Similar in theme to the Illusionist, I found Prestige great, awesome acting by Bale, yet can't list this movie as a clear favorite because of one problem: for a mystery, it's way too predictable. I figured out Bale's secret about half way thru the film, so the 2nd half of the movie with all the build up and suspense to reveal the 'secret', well, it was just way too obvious, and it did end up being obvious. and then Jackman's magic, well, it borders way too much into fantasy sci-fi. bottom line is story feels way too forced.

Overall, I recommend it as its a good watch, worth price of admission, worth a rental or even a DVD purchase, but if you want a real magic/mystery story, with a completely stunning twist at the end, see the Illusionist instead.

p.s. what really irks me is that since everything seemed too obvious, i started assuming a major twist would occur with Scarlett's character, and perhaps she's involved in some way with both 'secrets', but instead, her character just stopped being on screen during the last 20 minutes of the film. what a letdown. she seemed like such a pivotal role, and then, nothing, almost like she got fired off the set.

this movie finally answered for me WHY america keeps voting idiots like Bush into power: the nation is being brainwashed by extremist christian movement. I especially love how they used Ted Haggard in some of the interviews near the end, the same Ted Haggard who, after this movie was released, was found to be snorting speed while in the company of male hookers. Oh, the hypocricy knows no bounds.

And to put people's fear at ease, it isnt anti or pro religion, at least not obviously. in fact, no opinion is given at all by any sort of narrator. Camera follows a radical bible camp teacher, shows how they interact with kids at these camps, and to counter-balance that, we hear serveral times clips of Mike Papantonio's radio show about how he feels about the religious right. viewer is left to make their own opinion. I can totally picture an evangelical person watching this and not seeing any of the irony found throughout, whereas an anti-bush anti-right person such as myself picked up on all the ironic clips and interviews.

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