Category Archives: Movie Reviews

The Protector (2019) – MR00007 (2019) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
July 9 2019

Plot

A father hires an ex-SAS officer with a past to serve as his daughter’s bodyguard when he gets a series of threats against her.

What I Liked

The basic premise is sound, and the woman (Emma Rigby) is decent to watch. I saw her briefly before in Becoming Human but it wasn’t a show I was into, so didn’t see much of her there.

What I Didn’t Like

The production has a made-for-TV feel to it with low-budget action plus a schmaltzy romance feel to it. Plus showing his supposed flashbacks is a bit ridiculously done. And did I mention the “plot” makes no sense after the first round? The father is a big tycoon, and is being targeted for something else. His daughter is threatened so it makes sense to hire the bodyguard too. Except here’s the thing — the final revelation of who is behind it all makes NO SENSE for the methodology. As a spoiler alert, the father is being blackmailed by someone with photos of him in a compromising position. Which is enough on its own, and he’s paying the blackmail. But they also threaten his daughter, which MAKES NO SENSE. Two entirely different threats from the same person when the first one worked on its own. The person behind it is relatively obvious, and the “reveal” is all told to the viewer, not even shown. And finally, the main actor can’t act to save his life, nor the father, or the brother. Which leaves the daughter, her friend, the bodyguard’s booking agent/friend, and the mother. So why did I watch it? Because it accidentally ended up on my preview list when I thought it was the start of a TV series like the Equalizer. Nope.

The Bottom Line

Not worth watching unless nothing else is on.

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987) – MR00004 (2019) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
February 24 2019

Plot

Michael Dudikoff and Steve James are back as Army Ranger buddies sent to an island where some Marines have disappeared. The reason they’re sent? Witnesses saw guys in black outfits, hoods, and swords carrying them away…more ninjas!

What I Liked

The movie jumps from fight scene to fight scene so the action rarely slows down. And there is a great scene with Steve James using fairly large knives in an epic battle. Overall, most of the secondary fight scenes are much better done than in the first movie.

What I Didn’t Like

The plot is almost non-existent (super soldiers, meh), almost all of the acting is hammy, and the ultimate battle is a letdown compared to a big car chase scene doing a bit of a take-off of the first movie’s opening scene (person being dragged behind a vehicle).

The Bottom Line

A significant step down from the first movie.

American Ninja (1985) – MR00003 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
February 1 2019

Plot

An American soldier with special skills gets posted to an island base where someone keeps hijacking military convoys. When his convoy gets hit, he’s cooperating right up until someone hits the Colonel’s daughter, and then he intervenes. When the hijackers send Ninjas after him, it becomes even more obvious though that his skills are way more than just simple techniques. His memory of his childhood is mostly gone from an explosion on an island, but he has obviously had training.

What I Liked

Some of the basic fight scenes are fine, particularly between Joe and the Black Star Ninja. And the opening sequence is really well done. There’s a scene where they shoot arrows at him, and he uses the handle on a shovel to deflect their trajectory…highly iconic and when I first saw it as a kid, I was hooked.

What I Didn’t Like

I rewatched it recently, and it just doesn’t hold up. As I said, some of the basic fight scenes are good, but the fight scenes with guns seem more like a Stephen J. Cannell TV show where a million bullets are fired but nothing ever hits its target. In addition, some of the stunt work is either done at low speed, shows that it isn’t the actor doing the stunt (particularly a motorcycle jump), or in one case, requires a helicopter to hover in place for about 5 seconds for the stunt man to get ready to jump on the front.

The Bottom Line

A basic action movie from the ’80s but it doesn’t hold up.

Captain America (2011) – MR00001 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
January 23 2019

Plot

Captain America: The First Avenger (PWMR00001)

Steve Rogers, a scrawny young man, wants to enlist in the US Army and go overseas to fight in WWII. But his size and health mean his attempts at enlistment always end the same way — a 4F rating. Until a scientist sees him and recruits him to try out for a special training program to create a super-soldier.

What I Liked

The Marvel universe sticks pretty closely to classic script with him being given a serum that jacks his body into super muscle mode. He’s already brave and smart, so it would seem like a no-brainer to send him overseas? But the guy in charge of his training doesn’t want him, he’s just one man, so Rogers ends up doing public relations back home. And he is quite shocked that the men overseas don’t react as positively when they see him compared to the crowds back home. I really enjoyed the way they handle the first battle scene for him, basically, him figuring things out as he goes, a far cry from his battle-hardened approaches later.

I even liked his interactions with Agent Carter. I had thought it would be more subtle than it was, and I hoped we’d see a bit more of her operating on her own (after all, they gave her character a whole series on TV!), but she was second-fiddle to the hero.

What I Didn’t Like

The challenge with a lot of American movies of the war is that it is as if they are the only actors in the war, no allies, just them, and that level of nationalistic narrowmindedness in viewing actual history is a bit grating. That may be a small gripe when the show is called CAPTAIN AMERICA, not CAPTAIN OF WORKING WITH ALLIES, but still, it’s annoying. I also was disappointed there wasn’t a lot more on Red Skull. His history, his abilities, other pursuits, all of it was left basically unreferenced. Sure, some of it shows up elsewhere in the Marvel universe, but a bit more crosswalk would have been nice. I felt he really wasn’t that well-fleshed out as the uber-villain he could have been.

The Bottom Line

As an origin story, it lacks pizzazz.

Godzilla (1998) – MR00006 (1998) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
June 5 1998

Plot

A large reptile mutated by French nuclear tests in the Polynesian Islands goes on vacation in NYC.

What I Liked

Matthew Broderick (playing Nick Tatopoulos) adds another genre to his list of acting credits (following War Games, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Biloxi Blues, etc.) and takes on the role of the disrespected scientist who knows all about radiation effects on all creatures great and small because he has been studying mutated worms in Chernobyl. The special effects are pretty good (covering underground, undersea, the heart of NYC, etc.), and there is something somewhat more menacing about this big dumb creature than the smaller but far more intelligent raptors from Jurassic Park. And the scene at the start where three fishing trawlers are destroyed is far more interesting than anything seen during the sinking of James Cameron’s Titanic (with the possible exception of the propeller guy). Although this movie is not an actor’s dream, Matthew Broderick does a good job and seems more comfortable in front of the camera than usual. Jean Reno (playing outside “investigator” Philippe Roche) is the best of the supporting actors and he steals a couple of really good scenes. Hank Azaria (of sitcom fame like Herman’s Head) is surprisingly good as the cameraman, Animal.

What I Didn’t Like

The sub-storyline is Nick’s reunion with his college sweetheart Audrey Timmonds (played by Maria Pitillo) — an aspiring reporter who left him after college to tackle New York and who really wants this story as her big break. Standard fluff for the movie and no real sparks between the two of them — more like old friends running into each other on the street. Pitillo is poor generally, with some really bad lines and some really terrible scenes where she’s trying (but failing) to act upset. Other times you almost even care what happens to her — almost, but not quite. One downside to the special effects that are common in many movies of this type…most of the action takes place at night — in fact, there is not one single shot of the creature in good light and the efforts to stop him are hampered by the fact that it rains the entire week.

The Bottom Line

Too bad some of the budget wasn’t spent on plot or acting.