Movie Monday: Bicentennial Man

This week for Movie Monday I’m covering a movie I was taken to by my dad when I was much younger. It’s Bicentennial Man!

Plot Synopsis: The NDR series robot “Andrew” is introduced in 2005 into the Martin family home to perform housekeeping and maintenance duties…..

Plot: The plot was way over my head as a kid. I think I mostly enjoyed Robin Williams portraying Andrew. That being said it was an interesting movie and it’s story has always stuck with me throughout the years, and definitely impacted more than a few choices when I was playing games like Mass Effect or reading books like Otherlife Dreams. That said the script was pretty bad, and handled incredibly poorly.

Casting: Robin Williams plays Andrew and he does a good job, but unfortunately the script of the movie itself makes his performance one of the only bright points in the film. The rest of the cast is okay, but again the script overshadows their performances.

Special Effects: Okay, especially when you consider that Robin Williams actually wore a robot suit to portray Andrew. It was nominated for multiple awards for the special effects, but none of were winning nominations.

Music: I don’t remember the musical background of the movie at all, I was pretty young when I watched the movie.

Overall: Not a must watch by any stretch, this is probably one of Robin Williams poorer performances.

For those who like: Sci-Fi, Romance, Drama, Comedy, Robin Williams.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Movie Monday: Armaggedon

This week for Movie Monday I’m covering a movie I saw on the TV recently after having forgotten about it. It’s Armaggedon!

Plot Synopsis: A massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis and bombards a swath of land around the North Atlantic. NASA discovers through the Hubble Space Telescope that the meteors were debris propelled from the asteroid belt by a rogue asteroid roughly the size of Texas, christened “Dottie” by its discoverer. The asteroid will collide with Earth in 18 days, causing a second extinction event. NASA scientists, led by Dan Truman, plan to trigger a thermonuclear detonation at least 800 ft (244 m) inside the asteroid to split it in two, driving the pieces apart so both will fly past the Earth. NASA contacts Harry Stamper, considered the best deep-sea oil driller in the world, for assistance. Harry insists he will need his full team to help execute NASA’s plan…

Plot: The plot isn’t that great, it’s highly inaccurate to science and plausability of NASA actually being able to do anything. Something that many critics have noted before I’m sure, in fact Roger Ebert hates this film so much that it even beat out Spice World for the worst movie of 1998 for him.

Casting: Bruce Willis is the star of the movie, and while he does a good job, I just couldn’t get into his character as it’s a bit too gruff for my tastes. Actually I didn’t really care about any of the characters, frankly I’m not a fan of the movie in general. The cast has some depth, but some of it is stereotypical.

Cinematography: The special effects are mediocre, not amazing, but not super terrible either.

Music: I didn’t remember much of the music, although the few bits I caught having seen parts of the movie on TV recently were okay. That being said it was during a family get together and I had much better things to do than watch a flop of a film.

Overall: A movie not worth watching in my opinion. Some Apocalypse junkies might enjoy it though.

For those who like: Apocalypse Settings, Sci-Fi, Bruce Willis.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Movie Monday: Shanghai Noon

This week for Movie Monday I’m covering a movie that I had some real trouble remembering the name of. It’s Shanghai Noon!

Plot Synopsis:In 1881, Chon Wang (pronounced as John Wayne) is a Chinese Imperial Guard in the Forbidden City. After Princess Pei-Pei (Liu) for whom Wang has affection, is abducted and taken to the United States, the Emperor of China sends three of his guards along with the Royal Interpreter to retrieve her. Wang is not one of the three, but he tells the Captain of the Imperial Guards that it was his fault the princess was kidnapped and insists on joining them. The Captain first refuses, but when the Royal Interpreter, Wang’s uncle, offers to allow Wang to come help with the baggage, the Captain agrees in the hopes that the “foreign devils” would get rid of Wang. In Nevada, Roy O’Bannon is an outlaw who, with his gang, hijacks the train Wang is on. When Wallace, a new member of Roy’s gang, kills Wang’s uncle, Wang chases the outlaws down.

Plot: The plot is nothing amazing, but pretty fun to watch with plenty of martial arts scenes mixed in with the classic western shootouts.

Casting: The cast is awesome, with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in the lead roles. They are both hilarious. The rest of the cast is just as great, but really don’t get nearly as much attention as the two lead stars.

Cinematography: The production is awesome, with some amazing martial arts sequences that are quite a lot of fun to watch, in addition to the western shootouts. There aren’t a ton of special effects used, but those that are, are done fairly well.

Overall: A fun movie to watch, but don’t expect an amazing story.

For those who like: Westerns, Martial Arts, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but how can you hate all that?