George-Miller Movie Reviews

This is not a good movie. It is not even close to a good movie. It did keep my six year old occupied for 90 minutes... so it does have some merits. But movies like "Toy Story" (both of them), "Shrek," and "A Bug's Life" have proven that "kids" movies can be articulate, well-made, and enjoyable by all ages. "Looney Tunes" is a contrived, plotless, poorly acted mess. Two stars for special effects.

I was a little skeptical about Looney Tunes: Back in Action. I was never really a fan of animation mixed with live action. I would have preferred an all animated Looney Tunes film, but I digress. The film itself is funny, Steve Martin does a bang-up job as the head of the Acme corporation. He remains one of the finest physical comedians of all-time and he gets full reign to go crazy in Back in Action. The two stars Brendan Frasier and Jenna Elfman are servicable in their lead roles but they could have found funnier actors to play these characters. Wrestling fans will recognize Bill Goldberg as Steve Martin's henchman, but Goldberg has no lines in the film. As far as the toons go, Back in Action really belongs to Daffy Duck who is hilarious, Bugs is his usual annoying self. But, the periphery characters get little to no screen time which stinks. Taz, Roadrunner, Wily E Coyote, Elmer Fudd, Tweety and Sylvester barely grace the screen before they are gone. Yosemite Sam has one good scene in the casino that is pretty funny. Overall, Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a fun ride but needed more of what it's title suggests...more toons less actors. Recommended to die-hard Looney Tunes fans only.

I'm 36, and don't have any children; but I do remember growing up with the great Looney Tunes cartoons. I also am a fan of the work of director Joe Dante, including "Gremlins" and the underrated "Police Squad!" TV series.

While this movie has the expected general zaniness, what really makes it great is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. The gags are done with a knowing wink to the adults, and an unbridled sense of fun for the kids.

There's no smarmy self-importance that spoils a lot of movies these days. In fact, this film enjoys poking fun at political correctness (courtesy of Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales).

This movie is a lot of fun, and has something for everyone.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was an attempt to make the worst movie of all times (the hoped to beat Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space). It is hard to tell which is worse, but there is a certain appeal to Tomatoes (and not just the wonderful theme song).

A genetic experiment gets out of hand and tomatoes turn on humans. The government wants to keep things quiet so the hire Mason Dixon to lead the investigation. But soon the tomatoes are everywhere and the army seems powerless to stop them.

The end of the film mas seem familiar to a larger-budget invasion film (I won't tell you which, but they did it in Tomatoes first). According to the credits, the scene contains "Every nutcase in San Diego." Even the San Diego Chicken makes an appearance (and he was really big at the time).

The whole film is full of gags (visual and spoken) in a way that makes one believe that the movie spawned the Airplane franchise. A favorite is when the dubbed Japanese scientist accidently knocks a picture of the USS Arizona into a fish tank. When the giant tomatoes attack, look for the stage hands pushing them from behind.

Just remember that this film is intended to be bad.

This has got to be the most bizarre movie I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of weirdos. Tomatoes the size of minivans terrorizing the country. I could probably have single-handedly paid all costs for this movie- gives a new meaning to the term "low budget". The director and producer each had about fifteen roles, appeared to have recruited the cast out of their friends and relatives, and must have taken bad hallucinogens while eating a Caesar salad as small children. The movie was deservedly given bad ratings by the reviewers, yet this is the main part of its charm- watch it, laugh, and then groan at the same time. This is such a stinker it's zillions of times more enjoyable than most serious movies given great reviews.

I hadn't heard about the director's cut, so I was stunned to see that the movie that I watched dozens of times in my youth had been changed. Missing are some of my favorite bits, like the radio dj mocking the "Giant tomatoes mean bigger pizzas" line and the character of the bland receptionist who says everything with absolutely no inflection. Bring back the original!!!

Having said that, there still are some great surreal jokes floating around. It only appeals to a certain sense of humor, but I have it so...

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was an attempt to make the worst movie of all times (the hoped to beat Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space). It is hard to tell which is worse, but there is a certain appeal to Tomatoes (and not just the wonderful theme song).

A genetic experiment gets out of hand and tomatoes turn on humans. The government wants to keep things quiet so the hire Mason Dixon to lead the investigation. But soon the tomatoes are everywhere and the army seems powerless to stop them.

The end of the film mas seem familiar to a larger-budget invasion film (I won't tell you which, but they did it in Tomatoes first). According to the credits, the scene contains "Every nutcase in San Diego." Even the San Diego Chicken makes an appearance (and he was really big at the time).

The whole film is full of gags (visual and spoken) in a way that makes one believe that the movie spawned the Airplane franchise. A favorite is when the dubbed Japanese scientist accidently knocks a picture of the USS Arizona into a fish tank. When the giant tomatoes attack, look for the stage hands pushing them from behind.

Just remember that this film is intended to be bad.

This has got to be the most bizarre movie I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of weirdos. Tomatoes the size of minivans terrorizing the country. I could probably have single-handedly paid all costs for this movie- gives a new meaning to the term "low budget". The director and producer each had about fifteen roles, appeared to have recruited the cast out of their friends and relatives, and must have taken bad hallucinogens while eating a Caesar salad as small children. The movie was deservedly given bad ratings by the reviewers, yet this is the main part of its charm- watch it, laugh, and then groan at the same time. This is such a stinker it's zillions of times more enjoyable than most serious movies given great reviews.

I hadn't heard about the director's cut, so I was stunned to see that the movie that I watched dozens of times in my youth had been changed. Missing are some of my favorite bits, like the radio dj mocking the "Giant tomatoes mean bigger pizzas" line and the character of the bland receptionist who says everything with absolutely no inflection. Bring back the original!!!

Having said that, there still are some great surreal jokes floating around. It only appeals to a certain sense of humor, but I have it so...

This movie has a good young cast. From this point on the word "good" will no longer appear in this review. This movie is more like a "nice try" picture. As these types of pictures go, it is cliche ridden and dial down the center. From the opening shot of the film one thing is clear: there is a factory, and it does not look like a slap happy good time to work there.

Young Tom Cruise plays Stef, a factory worker's son in a factory workers' town. The only way out of this town, hence not working at the factory the rest of your life, is to get a football scholarship to college. Stef happens to be good at football, so he won't have to work at the factory right? Well, it is clear that he and the coach (Craig T. Nelson) are not always on the same page. So, of course, the pressure is building. The best schools aren't calling, his girlfriend (Lea Thompson) won't sleep with him, and his best friend (Chris Penn, also a football player) is having a baby (which means he will work in the factory). Something has to give? It does, in the big game. Where else?

This movie is just perfectly ordinary. The attempt to get into the characters mostly makes no sense. And when it does it is just typical diologue we have heard a thousand times before. It seemed like Cruise was almost forced to self-destruct and then someone decided that it couldn't end on a downer. The ending is laughable it is so forced and out of place. With a cast like this, given they were young, I expected more.

So why did Cruise do this movie? Good question. He made another film the same year that dealt with similar subject matter, a teenager trying to get into college and the powers that are working against him. It is called Risky Business and it successful in all the areas that All the Right Moves fails. See Risky Business, forget this movie. I'm sure Cruise would like to.

You get to see Tom Cruise before he exploded and Lea Thompson like you will never see her again. Add Craig T. Nelson as coach Nickerson (what a stetch) and you can't help but have a very good movie. The plot is pretty predictable with a couple sad twists. The only thing I was disappointed in was there were not as many football scenes as I would like. But anybody who grew up in a blue-collar small town where football was king will appreciate this show.

Best exchange of dialogue in motion picture history!

Had it not been for an irresponsible gamble on the part of John Landis that killed actor Vic Morrow and two innocent Vietnamese kids, TWILIGHT ZONE--THE MOVIE would have been not merely a great omnibus movie version of Rod Serling's classic TV series, but perhaps even a masterpiece.

Still, this film manages to work. Ironically, the Landis segment (with Morrow as a bigot who gets a taste of what he's dished out) and the Spielberg one that follows (an elderly magician [Scatman Crothers] gives new life to old folks) are the weak links in this film. Joe Dante's segment, a reworking of the classic "It's A GOOD Life", is really a blackly comic sketch. But the finale, George Miller's take on Richard Matheson's classic "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet", is the absolute best--suspense and horror combine seamlessly, with John Lithgow's performance as the terrified airline traveller possibly a warm-up of sorts for a similar role in "2010".

Jerry Goldsmith's excellent score and narration provided by Burgess Meredith (star of the classic episode "Time Enough At Last"), subbing for Serling, who passed away in 1975, make up for this film's unfortunate flaws, which had nothing to do with the film itself but Landis' idiotic and fatal delusions of grandeur.

This movie features four classic stories from the Twilight Zone recreated for the big screen. There are several cameos in each story and a big leading star in each tale. The first story is of a man tired of the racial diversity in the US, where he then finds himself leading the life of a Jewish man in Nazi Germany, a black man caught in the KKK tribe and another. The second is a good story of a retirement home that finds youth in its heart after becoming children again and finding that it is not worth staying young. The third is a twist on the original tale of a boy who's wishes come true as an unknowing women looking for adventure was lured in by the child. The final story is of the Gremlin on the wing of a plane as John Lithgow plays the sole man who sees the monster ripping up the plane. With this performance you can put John Lithgow in an empty room with a window and it would still be just as terrifying from the way he conveys what is out there.

I think that this was a cleaver movie because it had 4 differendt shows in it, I espeacally liked the last 2 shows....
-Casey

Had it not been for an irresponsible gamble on the part of John Landis that killed actor Vic Morrow and two innocent Vietnamese kids, TWILIGHT ZONE--THE MOVIE would have been not merely a great omnibus movie version of Rod Serling's classic TV series, but perhaps even a masterpiece.

Still, this film manages to work. Ironically, the Landis segment (with Morrow as a bigot who gets a taste of what he's dished out) and the Spielberg one that follows (an elderly magician [Scatman Crothers] gives new life to old folks) are the weak links in this film. Joe Dante's segment, a reworking of the classic "It's A GOOD Life", is really a blackly comic sketch. But the finale, George Miller's take on Richard Matheson's classic "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet", is the absolute best--suspense and horror combine seamlessly, with John Lithgow's performance as the terrified airline traveller possibly a warm-up of sorts for a similar role in "2010".

Jerry Goldsmith's excellent score and narration provided by Burgess Meredith (star of the classic episode "Time Enough At Last"), subbing for Serling, who passed away in 1975, make up for this film's unfortunate flaws, which had nothing to do with the film itself but Landis' idiotic and fatal delusions of grandeur.

This movie features four classic stories from the Twilight Zone recreated for the big screen. There are several cameos in each story and a big leading star in each tale. The first story is of a man tired of the racial diversity in the US, where he then finds himself leading the life of a Jewish man in Nazi Germany, a black man caught in the KKK tribe and another. The second is a good story of a retirement home that finds youth in its heart after becoming children again and finding that it is not worth staying young. The third is a twist on the original tale of a boy who's wishes come true as an unknowing women looking for adventure was lured in by the child. The final story is of the Gremlin on the wing of a plane as John Lithgow plays the sole man who sees the monster ripping up the plane. With this performance you can put John Lithgow in an empty room with a window and it would still be just as terrifying from the way he conveys what is out there.

I think that this was a cleaver movie because it had 4 differendt shows in it, I espeacally liked the last 2 shows....
-Casey

Van DAmme knows his real market in the videos, not in the theaters. Because, when you're wasting your time at home with nothing to do, a good-old action movie is a good choice, not having to "think", just enjoy the action sequences. THis movie does its function well.

If you would of said Van Damme back in 1990,people would of responded he was in Bloodsport or Kickboxer which were simply martial art type of films.Van Damme stepped up to the level with Schwarzenegger and Stallone in this box-office hit.Even though jail movies have been done before like Stallones "Lockup" and Sean Penn's "Bad Boy's" Death Warrant took it into overtime,having a convincing villian in the "Sandman" and a believing hero in Van Damme.An undercover cop in jail?Dangerous if you ask me but Van Damme fights the odds and comes up victorious in an all out supercharged war.With fast pace kicks and fight sequences Van Damme is your ticket to nonstop action...

I liked this movie, filled with a couple of fight scenes.At the end he fights the sandman,across Van Damne kicked his ass.This is a good slambanging Van Damne flick.

Van DAmme knows his real market in the videos, not in the theaters. Because, when you're wasting your time at home with nothing to do, a good-old action movie is a good choice, not having to "think", just enjoy the action sequences. THis movie does its function well.

If you would of said Van Damme back in 1990,people would of responded he was in Bloodsport or Kickboxer which were simply martial art type of films.Van Damme stepped up to the level with Schwarzenegger and Stallone in this box-office hit.Even though jail movies have been done before like Stallones "Lockup" and Sean Penn's "Bad Boy's" Death Warrant took it into overtime,having a convincing villian in the "Sandman" and a believing hero in Van Damme.An undercover cop in jail?Dangerous if you ask me but Van Damme fights the odds and comes up victorious in an all out supercharged war.With fast pace kicks and fight sequences Van Damme is your ticket to nonstop action...

I liked this movie, filled with a couple of fight scenes.At the end he fights the sandman,across Van Damne kicked his ass.This is a good slambanging Van Damne flick.

The first movie was interesting, but this just gets weird. Pretty bad acting by most involved too, including the main kid. Corny lines don't help much either.

"Letrayel...get real!"
"I am real."
[Bad laugh track]

This is truly the movie that never ends.

OK, let's admit it. This movie isn't half bad. You should all know that the first movie (The NeverEnding Story) is a ton better, and the third movie (The NeverEnding Story III - Escape From Fantasia) STINKS!!! But on the subject of this movie, I would say I enjoy watching it from time to time, and that in and of itself makes the movie worthwhile. Do I feel it is worthy of the being in league with the NeverEnding Story saga??? In a way. It somewhat follows the book after chapter M (#13), the second half. However, this movie has some obvious faults. For one, the atmosphere of the movie is close to neither the first movie (dark, depressing, but really good) nor the book (intelligent, witty, amazing). I liked Jonathan Brandis (Bastian) but not Kenny Morrison (Atreyu). The chick who played the Childlike Empress, in my mind, was not right for the part at all. On the plus side, I thought Xayide was excelently portrayed: Very sinister and evil but clever. The status of Bastian's relationship to his father was more prevalent, and made more sweet. (Awww...)
This movie was my first NeverEnding Story "experience" and it was good enough to interest me in the first movie and on to the book.
By the way, do not waste your precious time in viewing the piece of crud known as The NeverEnding Story III - Escape From Fantasia. It stinks.
That is all. Thank you and fare well.

"The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter" is a decent and on-par sequel to the original 1984 classic. Although it lacked the direction that acclaimed director Wolfgang Petersen(sho also helmed "Air Force One" and "The Perfect Storm"), I thought i t was still a nice little fantasy adventure film.

Jonathan Brandis was okay in his role as Bastian, but I feel that someone else could have done better in carrying the role. John Wesley Shipp probably did the best acting job of the whole cast in his portrayal of Bastian's father. However, his role was very limited. The only key cast member that returned from the original was Thomas Hill, who reprises his role as the bookstore owner Mr. Koreander. I feel this movie would have benefited from additional cast members from the orginal had returned to reprise their roles in this sequel. But I was glad to see a lot of characters from the original featured in this sequel, and some of the new characters were good too.

I found the plot to be rather depressing at times. Bastian is giving the Auryn necklace, but the evil sorceress Xayide, has cast a spell on the Auryn which causes Bastian to lose a memory everytime he makes a wish. Somes of the memories he loses are of his mother(it is explained that she died of cancer when Bastian was very young).

I thought Bastian's friendship with Atreyu was very unconvincing. Bastian's friendship with the bird Nimbly(a messenger of Xayide) was more convincing. Nimbly is a likable character, but his betrayal of Bastian was questionable.

I feel that the producers tried to make this movie too mainstream, which alienated fans of the book. It doesn't have the heart or magic the original had. "Neverending Story II" tries to be too much like other fantasy movies. It's a decent little movie and a decent sequel, but is a masterpiece compared to the stinker "NeverEnding Story 3", which ruined the "Never Ending Story" series. If you are a fan of fantasy adventure films, this is for you. If you liked the original, you may have mixed feelings about this movie. But "NES2" is still worth a look.

The first movie was interesting, but this just gets weird. Pretty bad acting by most involved too, including the main kid. Corny lines don't help much either.

"Letrayel...get real!"
"I am real."
[Bad laugh track]

This is truly the movie that never ends.

OK, let's admit it. This movie isn't half bad. You should all know that the first movie (The NeverEnding Story) is a ton better, and the third movie (The NeverEnding Story III - Escape From Fantasia) STINKS!!! But on the subject of this movie, I would say I enjoy watching it from time to time, and that in and of itself makes the movie worthwhile. Do I feel it is worthy of the being in league with the NeverEnding Story saga??? In a way. It somewhat follows the book after chapter M (#13), the second half. However, this movie has some obvious faults. For one, the atmosphere of the movie is close to neither the first movie (dark, depressing, but really good) nor the book (intelligent, witty, amazing). I liked Jonathan Brandis (Bastian) but not Kenny Morrison (Atreyu). The chick who played the Childlike Empress, in my mind, was not right for the part at all. On the plus side, I thought Xayide was excelently portrayed: Very sinister and evil but clever. The status of Bastian's relationship to his father was more prevalent, and made more sweet. (Awww...)
This movie was my first NeverEnding Story "experience" and it was good enough to interest me in the first movie and on to the book.
By the way, do not waste your precious time in viewing the piece of crud known as The NeverEnding Story III - Escape From Fantasia. It stinks.
That is all. Thank you and fare well.

"The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter" is a decent and on-par sequel to the original 1984 classic. Although it lacked the direction that acclaimed director Wolfgang Petersen(sho also helmed "Air Force One" and "The Perfect Storm"), I thought i t was still a nice little fantasy adventure film.

Jonathan Brandis was okay in his role as Bastian, but I feel that someone else could have done better in carrying the role. John Wesley Shipp probably did the best acting job of the whole cast in his portrayal of Bastian's father. However, his role was very limited. The only key cast member that returned from the original was Thomas Hill, who reprises his role as the bookstore owner Mr. Koreander. I feel this movie would have benefited from additional cast members from the orginal had returned to reprise their roles in this sequel. But I was glad to see a lot of characters from the original featured in this sequel, and some of the new characters were good too.

I found the plot to be rather depressing at times. Bastian is giving the Auryn necklace, but the evil sorceress Xayide, has cast a spell on the Auryn which causes Bastian to lose a memory everytime he makes a wish. Somes of the memories he loses are of his mother(it is explained that she died of cancer when Bastian was very young).

I thought Bastian's friendship with Atreyu was very unconvincing. Bastian's friendship with the bird Nimbly(a messenger of Xayide) was more convincing. Nimbly is a likable character, but his betrayal of Bastian was questionable.

I feel that the producers tried to make this movie too mainstream, which alienated fans of the book. It doesn't have the heart or magic the original had. "Neverending Story II" tries to be too much like other fantasy movies. It's a decent little movie and a decent sequel, but is a masterpiece compared to the stinker "NeverEnding Story 3", which ruined the "Never Ending Story" series. If you are a fan of fantasy adventure films, this is for you. If you liked the original, you may have mixed feelings about this movie. But "NES2" is still worth a look.