The Fantastic Four (script) "I'm a comic buff but was never into mutants and such like The X-Men but I LOVED THIS SCRIPT! A very enjoyable read with the right amount of action and character development. I never read the Fantastic Four Comics, but followed the cartoon from the late sixties on the BAM channel. The Fantastic Four are finally getting their just due as everyone knows the painful development and long journey of this movie over the years including that never released film that is a staple at comic conventions. I wasn't that crazy about HELLBOY but this script blows that one away. Mark Frost treated his characters and the mythology of The Fantastic Four with great respect. Fox finally got a winner on their hands and it is going to be exciting to see how this movie develops as it gets close to production..." (full review)
Van Helsing "There's not much to like about Van Helsing plot-wise and I got over the "cool factor" of seeing the Wolf Man on screen the minute I saw that trailer with the bad CGI werewolf in it. Dracula sucks. The Frankenstein Monster is fun, but is just kind of a character. Igor (Kevin J. O'Connor) has a couple of good lines, but is basically wasted. I can imagine going and enjoying this movie as a coked-out attention-deficit disorder type popcorn-fest if you really simply care nothing for plot and want the $180 million cinematic Universal Monsters equivalent of the last fifteen minutes of Torque, the thing of it is, if you're looking for The Mummy or something that really evokes the spirit of those great old Universal monster movies, you'll have to keep waiting..." (full review)
"Many flaws aside, the director's work has it's share of fans to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and it's not as though these films have created a deluge of copycatsbut it is irksome to think that this is what passes for mainstream sensibilities. Really, Really, these films don't have to be so dumb. Fantastic visions like Lord Of The Rings, the X-Men Films and last week's Hellboy can stand up to critical scrutiny and still showcase hard-core action/FX Porn. There are no longer any decent excuses for saccharine carnival rides like Van Helsing...." (full review)
"It's possible that Stephen Sommers's has crafted the biggest, loudest, most action-packed summer spectacle of all time with VAN HELSING, but it's for absolute certain that he has delivered the most relentlessly assaultive major studio tentpole flick since his own THE MUMMY RETURNS. From reel one to reel one-too-many, the movie piles on one set-piece after another with little regard to pacing or narrative coherency, stranding the viewer in lots of wild situations with poorly developed characters. The result is a film of epic tedium that never quiets down enough to allow for a proper nap...." (full review)
The Punisher "It's a difficult call to say which property should sue for copyright infringements. Every cliché you can possibly think of for a "tough guy" film or "Miami Vice" episode is here except the cops showing up to save the day after everything has been blown up. I had high hopes that this would be better than the last "Punisher" film. Those hopes were thrown off a high cliff and dashed upon the rocks. There are a few decent explosions and a couple of funny scenes, but save this one for the dollar movies. 1.5/5..." (full review)
"Combining brutal violence, lengthy action sequences, great Floridian locales, and even some comedy, "The Punisher" is the most unlikely success story found in the new wave of comic book adaptations. Writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh pieces together a nasty little revenge film, punctuated with operatic action sequences that keeps the film outside of the literal realm. Fun, hilarious, and beautifully to the point, "The Punisher" is a true spring surprise..." (full review)
"What is bad? The direction, the editing, the terrible action, the score underlining every moment with creepy lead in music. This flick had all the technique of a sculptor wearing oven mitts... clunky and ill-defined. I LOATHE THIS FILM. This is everything that we've grown past in the last 6 years of Comic Book Cinema. The tone is all over the place, the characters thinly drawn caricatures and the story resembling nothing of the original. This is a complete disaster, a turd, a blight upon Marvel's good name..." (full review)
