James Berardinelli famous quotes

John Wick is a rousing action thriller of the sort rarely encountered in theaters these days.
-- James Berardinelli

#Action #Thrillers #Theater

It's not hard to understand why an accomplished director like Gus Van Sant (whose most recent success, Good Will Hunting , gave him mainstream clout) would be interested in making this film. The lure of an exact remake presents a tremendous challenge. Unfortunately, it was undoubtedly a lot more stimulating for Van Sant and his crew to make Psycho than it is for an audience to watch it. [C]uriosity is going to be one of the primary reasons why people pay money to see this movie; boredom will be the predominant result.
-- James Berardinelli

#Hunting #Boredom #People

Aside from a couple of signature flourishes, there's nothing to mark Paycheck as the product of acclaimed action director John Woo. In fact, there's little about this movie that makes it worth anyone's time and money. With a script that waffles between being hilariously absurd and insultingly stupid, and action scenes that won't cause anyone's pulse to skip a beat, Paycheck is less appealing than a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking.
-- James Berardinelli

#Couple #Stupid #Causes

Despite his reputation as one of America's foremost "serious" filmmakers, Oliver Stone's name under the "director" caption does not guarantee a good movie. I learned that lesson while enduring the seemingly-endless tedium of The Doors , and was reminded of it during some of the long, drawn-out portions of JFK . However, nothing that Stone has directed or misdirected prepared me for the grotesque mess that is Natural Born Killers .
-- James Berardinelli

#Names #America #Doors

The term "godawful" should be used sparingly in connection with motion pictures. With Angels & Demons , however, it seems oddly appropriate. Not only does this prequel-turned-sequel to The Da Vinci Code make its predecessor seem like a masterwork of pacing and plotting, but it may represent a nadir for director Ron Howard and is probably the worst instance of acting from star Tom Hanks since back in the days when he was struggling out from under the shadow of Bosom Buddies .
-- James Berardinelli

#Stars #Struggle #Angel

Norbit operates on the principle that vulgarity is automatically funny. Crassness doesn't need a joke attached because it is (in and of itself) the height of hilarity.
-- James Berardinelli

#Principles #Needs #Hilarity

Side note to parents: Anyone who thinks 'Dude, Where's My Car' is more appropriate for children than 'American Pie' because it obtained a PG-13 rating needs to stop trusting the MPAA.
-- James Berardinelli

#Children #Thinking #Pie

There's nothing terribly wrong with The November Man in a serviceable late-night cable TV sort of way but neither is there anything terribly right about it. It's unnecessary and derivative.
-- James Berardinelli

#Night #Men #Cable Tv

A sci-fi yarn that ponders the meaning of time and the importance of evolution while occasionally throwing in some shootouts.
-- James Berardinelli

#Yarn #Evolution #Sci Fi

This is as brain-dead as a movie can be and it assumes the audience will have the I.Q. of a rutabaga.
-- James Berardinelli

#Brain #Assuming #Audience

Being snarky and smug doesn't equate to providing insight, and there's more than one occasion when the filmmakers lose sight of this in their zeal to spread the Gospel According to Maher.
-- James Berardinelli

#Sight #Filmmaker #Spread

Short of climbing aboard a time capsule and peeling back eight and one-half decades, James Cameron's magnificent Titanic is the closest any of us will get to walking the decks of the doomed ocean liner. Meticulous in detail, yet vast in scope and intent, Titanic is the kind of epic motion picture event that has become a rarity. You don't just watch Titanic , you experience it from the launch to the sinking, then on a journey two and one-half miles below the surface, into the cold, watery grave where Cameron has shot never-before seen documentary footage specifically for this movie.
-- James Berardinelli

#Ocean #Journey #Epic

If you thought it was impossible for a film to contain less effective comedy than Date Movie , here's evidence to the contrary.
-- James Berardinelli

#Comedy #Impossible #Film

Although I am not averse to wasting a few hours playing computer games, I have never tried my hand at Doom . Judging by sales figures and testimonials, playing the game has to be an infinitely preferable experience to watching this pathetic excuse for a movie.
-- James Berardinelli

#Hands #Games #Judging

Those who delight in bad movies and enjoy producing their own unfilmed versions of Mystery Science Theater 3000 may gain a measure of semi-masochistic enjoyment out of Van Helsing . There are quite a few unintentionally funny moments, although the overall experience was too intensely painful for me to be able to advocate it as being "so bad, it's good.
-- James Berardinelli

#Delight #May #Able

There's good news and bad news about 2 Fast 2 Furious , the moronic follow-up to The Fast and the Furious and a contender for the worst movie of 2003. The good news is that it's better, albeit marginally, than Freddy Got Fingered . The bad news is that it's 15 minutes longer.
-- James Berardinelli

#News #Minutes #Worst

It's mind-boggling to consider that movies this bad are actually committed to film. The poor quality of The Pest in almost every category humor, intelligence, creativity, and just plain entertainment value ranks it somewhere between a bad infomercial and a local cable newscast. Rarely do I consider the act of seeing a movie to be a chore, but this kind of experience is the exception - Directed By Paul Miller.
-- James Berardinelli

#Creativity #Mind #Quality

Michael made his debut in John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic, Halloween , possibly the best scare movie to come along in the last twenty-five years. ... [W]ith the release of the sixth (and hopefully final) movie to bear the Halloween moniker, we see how far the mighty have fallen. ... In the final analysis, The Curse of Michael Myers is a horrific motion picture just not in the way the film makers intended - Directed By Joe Chappelle.
-- James Berardinelli

#Halloween #Years #Scare

I could start this review by stating that Dumb and Dumberer lives up to its name, or by calling it stupid, moronic, and idiotic, but I believe that approach is a trap, since a movie like this might relish being the object of such bland invectives. Instead, let me try a few that can't possibly be misconstrued as twisted praise: unfunny, boring, torturous, and unwatchable. ... [N]o movie could be more aptly compared to raw sewage than this film - Directed By Troy Miller.
-- James Berardinelli

#Stupid #Believe #Names

For the most part, however, Lady in the Water comes across as a movie that's too bad to be good, and not bad enough to be so bad that it's good.
-- James Berardinelli

#Water #Enough #Be Good

It's rare that the sequel to a good movie lives up to expectations. Such is the case with Die Hard 2 , the somewhat-muddled but still entertaining return of Bruce Willis' John McClane. Fortunately, the original Die Hard was good enough that there's room for the second installment to be enjoyable while still not matching the pace or possessing the flair of its predecessor.
-- James Berardinelli

#Expectations #Good Movie #Pace

The Phantom Menace is not a masterpiece, but it's an example of how imagination, craftsmanship, and technological bravura can fashion superior entertainment out of something that is far from flawless.
-- James Berardinelli

#Fashion #Imagination #Example

Although The Terminator is arguably the more visionary of the first two films, [ Terminator 2 ] is the more visually and viscerally satisfying. It's an exhausting experience and, even 18 years after its release (as I write this review), few films have matched it within the science fiction genre for sheer white-knuckle exhilaration.
-- James Berardinelli

#Writing #Years #Two

Die Hard represents the class of modern action pictures and the standard by which they must be judged. Few films falling into the "mindless entertainment" genre have as much going for them as this movie. Not only is it a thrill-a-minute ride, but it has one of the best film villains in recent memory, a hero everyone can relate to, dialogue that crackles with wit, and a lot of very impressive pyrotechnics.
-- James Berardinelli

#Memories #Hero #Fall

Since 1977, there have been many science fiction movies, but none has managed to equal [ A New Hope 's] blend of adventure, likable characters, and epic storytelling.
-- James Berardinelli

#Adventure #Character #Epic

Seventeen years after its intial release, The Empire Strikes Back is still as thrilling and involving as ever. Because of the high quality of the original product, it doesn't show a hint of dating. Neither [ Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope nor Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi ] were able to match the narrative scope of Empire , which today remains one of the finest and most rousing science fiction tales ever committed to the screen.
-- James Berardinelli

#Stars #War #Years

Blade Runner is a rare science fiction movie so full of material that pages can be written about it without scratching the surface. A review like this can provide little more than an overview. A detailed exploration of the movie, its style, and its mysteries requires dedication that only someone immersed in Blade Runner lore can provide.
-- James Berardinelli

#Dedication #Blade Runner #Style

[Director Christopher] Nolan has not only crafted the best Batman movie, but arguably the second-best motion picture superhero narrative (topped only by the linked duo of Superman and Superman II ). For those who thought Spider-Man and X-Men had a lot to offer, wait till you see where this film goes. ... Batman Begins is a strong re-start to a franchise that deserves better than it has often been accorded.
-- James Berardinelli

#Strong #Men #Superhero

Parodies are hard to do well, as is shown by the mediocrity of so many recent attempts. No matter how ripe a genre is for satirizing, unless you know how to do it, there are no guarantees.
-- James Berardinelli

#Mediocrity #Guarantees #Matter

Live Free or Die Hard may work better for an audience that doesn't know much about the series is than it will for Die Hard die hards, who will be wondering who that impersonator is and what he did with the real John McClane. The original Die Hard came out of nowhere to blitz the 1988 summer box office. The fourth installment arrives with a weight of expectations that Atlas would have trouble shouldering and, when the dust settles in September, it's unlikely that Live Free or Die Hard will be one of this year's big success stories.
-- James Berardinelli

#Summer #Real #Dust

After the second Die Hard , Bruce Willis stated he would never do another. He should have stayed firm in his resolve. If quality is any indication (and it may be, with all the available blockbusters), box office returns will be disappointing this time around and, if nothing else, that will do to John McClane what dozens of assorted bad guys couldn't manage: kill him.
-- James Berardinelli

#Office #Guy #Quality

Looking back at Batman from a distance after all the hype has dried up and the franchise has at least temporarily been abandoned it's easy to see the movie for what it is: a moderately diverting motion picture that should have been shorter and better paced. There are a lot of things wrong with Batman , but it still makes for decent entertainment in the fine tradition of the typical low-intelligence summer movie. The best thing that can be said about Batman is that it led to Batman Returns , which was a far superior effort.
-- James Berardinelli

#Summer #Distance #Hype

A generic vampire tale in the Underworld vein that comes closer to the infamous Van Helsing than a memorable re-interpretation of a legendary monster.
-- James Berardinelli

#Memorable #Vampire #Monsters

The Drop's unpredictability is organic rather than sensationalistic. The movie doesn't pull surprises out of thin air for the sole purpose of shocking an audience - it lets them develop naturally.
-- James Berardinelli

#Air #Purpose #Surprise

With Batman & Robin , the fourth entry in the recent Batman movie series, the profitable franchise appears poised to take a nosedive. This film, which places yet another actor in the batsuit, has all the necessary hallmarks of a sorry sequel pointless, plodding plotting; asinine action; clueless, comatose characterization; and dumb dialogue. ... Batman & Robin moves at a dizzying pace, yet goes absolutely nowhere.
-- James Berardinelli

#Sorry #Moving #Clueless