KCR: Cowboys and Aliens (movie, western, scifi)

Went to see Cowboys and Aliens yesterday. It was a fun movie that is about the same as Battle: LA... looks great, but the motivations doesn't make sense, esp. for the other side. It's fun, but it's not THAT good.

WARNING

MAJOR

SPOILERS

AHEAD

SO

STOP

READING

ALREADY

Movie starts with the hero wakes up in the middle of the desert with almost no memory, wound, almost no cloths, but a very good survival instincts... when set upon by 3 brothers. There's this mysterious bracer on his left wrist. He went into town, was helped by the preacher, met a mysterious woman, and was arrested for being a wanted outlaw who robbed a stagecoach belonging to the local rich man... oh, and he pissed off the rich guy's spoiled brat.

As he's about to be transported to Santa Fe, the rich guy arrived with his "mob"... they want the guy... and the son... then the flying aliens attacked, and roped off a lot of people. The stranger, who we now know is "Jake", found his bracer activated into a weapon system, and shot down one of the flyers.

Now it's a battle. How will Jake find out who he is, what happened to him, and who is that woman in his dreams or visions? And what horrible things had he done that he can't remember?

When you examine the plot a bit closer, there's a ton of problems.

1) How would an alien weapon/bracer just happen to fit a human wrist, and be activated by it?

2) Why would an alien weapon/bracer react to other aliens, when they are hunting HUMANS?

3) Why kidnap all those humans any way? There's too many of them needed for "experimentation".

4) Mining for gold... doesn't make sense at all. They could have found far more precious metals and such out in the asteroid belt. They have plenty of technology. Why come to Earth at all?

5) There is only ONE of those bracers?!  Others have those big rifles, but haven't seen more than a handful of them. Most of the aliens do hand-to-hand only.

Told you, doesn't make that much sense.

KCR: Shaolin (2011, Movie, Martial Arts, China)

Image by inspbylife via FlickrShaolin, i.e. "New Shaolin Temple" is a 2011 movie starring Andy Lau as a man who seeks redemption. As a deputy of one of the warlords, he holds absolute power over all in the city... in the land next to the Shaolin Temple. He has the guns, he has the soldiers. When he tried to kill his boss, his subordinate decided to kill them both. He barely escaped, but his daughter died, and after a bit of self exploration, he chose to become a monk and trained as Shaolin. When his subordinate, now "general", decided to steal Chinese treasure and sell them to some foreigners for weapons. Can the Shaolin monks save the population, and defeat the evil warlord?

The movie is heavy on redemption, and the meaning of zen and all that. There are some funny moments, as you know when Jackie Chan's involved. Who knew cooking can be used as kung fu? There's a ton of sacrifice, tons of backstabbing, and so on. Evil is truly evil... but there is redemption. Really.

Shaolin vs. guns? There will be a lot of death, but the Shaolin give more than they get, that's for sure. Still, bring knives and sticks to a gunfight? Hmmm...

Still, it's worth watching. Really.

KCR: The Lost Bladesman (movie, China)

Image via WikipediaThe Lost Bladesman is a movie about the ancient China's top bladesman Guan Yu, who simply had too much honor for his time, and therefore is sometimes had his honor used against him by the likes of Cao Cao. This movie gave a very interesting portrayal of this ligendary figure, who did not exactly die a good death, but he did die in battle, and was honored forever, as a part of Chinese legend.

The movie... is interesting, as Guan Yu (who is also known as Guan Gong, or Guan Yun Chang) is usually not given much detail, other than he is a VERY good martial artist with his signature weapon, the blade that now bears his name, the Guan Dao. It is basically a staff with a hard point on one end and a very sharp blade on the other end. It is a heavy weapon that requires a real master to wield well.

The plot itself gave a lot of insights into this legend's life... fictional of course. It claims he may be a secret admirer of his godbrother's wife, and again, he was used by Cao Cao for his purposes.

The movie starts with a huge state burial... of Guan Yu. That's right, this is a bookend beginning and ending. In the middle is his life... starting with him as a prisoner of Cao Cao, and ends with his... sort of... hmmm. let's just say... permanent retirement. In between, he's... too good for himself. Either he's on their side, or he's someone too dangerous to be kept alive. It's basically escaping from one ambush to another, and some wars in between. It's a tragedy of a great guy who gets used by others.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1648093/

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KCR: Red Cliff (Movie, War, China)

Image via Wikipedia

Red Cliff, international version poster

Red Cliff is a movie version of "Battle of Red Cliff", a war between Cao Cao and the "rebels" that was a part of "Romance of Three Kingdoms". This is a war movie, and it's a John Woo production, so you can expect some odd angle fires, explosions, and people flying through the air and all that. Yes, in ancient China and all that.

They picked the biggest names that are somewhat known in the west and gave them top billing, but they are not necessarily the lead actors. On the other hand, this is an ensemble movie, and even the international version is over two hours long. (The Chinese version, in two parts is even longer.)

The movie managed to cram in many of the plot points from the novel, such as borrow 10000 arrows, borrow east wind, fire ship attack, and much more. Those who know Chinese myth should find this movie a lot of fun. Those who don't know Chinese myth can enjoy the action sequences and the various tricks and strategems employed, as well as the nice costumes and martial arts.

KCR: Future X-Cops (scifi / Hong Kong / movie)

Image via WikipediaFuture X-Cops is one of those shameless Hong Kong "homage" movies that manage to demonstrate how bigger budget doesn't add to creativity.

Premise: after his wife was killed protecting a VIP against half-machine assassins, this cop must don a mechanical body and go back in time to prevent the assassination of the VIP, who is critical to Earth's future. However, two of the assassins are there, and they have a showdown.

The society depicted was futuristic looking... though it's hardly utopia. Regular cops have no firepower against these half-machine assassins who are obviously inspired by various comic book villains, such as Dr. Octopus (from Spiderman), and others. I mean, bat wings, prehensile tail, lobster claw... heh.

The fights are obviously CGI ish and way too choreographed. How they managed to convince Andy Lau to do the lead role, I have no idea. The plot is pieced together from various major movies, like Time Cop, Black Mask 2, even a few bits from Asimov's stories (about the girl who didn't know she's a robot). Add bits from Jurassic park (hide and seek in the kitchen), Matrix (sky duel between the hero and villain), and a few bits from Superman (bad guy keep using innocent civilians to distract the hero), and you get a feeling that this is a chop suey of a movie.

And yes, Big S (i.e. Barbie Hsu) is the leading lady. Hmmm... Okay...

May be worth watching once.

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KCR: Rambo (2008)

Cover of Rambo (Widescreen Edition)Rambo 4 is a good wrap-up of the John Rambo lore. It gave the character much needed humanity, about believing in something, Trivia on IMDB said that "Live for nothing, or die for something" became a battle cry for the real Karen rebels, and Stallone is quite proud to have contributed that.

Premise: John Rambo is in Thailand, working the "simple life" as a snake hunter and boatman, no questions asked. One day, he got a request from a Missionary Group to take them into Burma / Myanmar, to help the Karen villages. He was successful. After he left, the village was attacked and razed government troops, with the missionaries dead or captured, and all occupants killed or fled into the jungle. The Missionary leader came to seek Rambo for help: a group of mercenaries will go back to find what happened to the missionaries, and needs his help. He agreed...

The movie is quite slow at the beginning, but there is some tension, as the boat tries to sneak into Burma, past the river patrols and the pirates. The attack sequences are brutal and thus, excellent, rivaling "Saving Private Ryan" in intensity of Omaha beach sequence. You can almost feel the mortar rounds dropping and guns firing. And it all builds up to the big fight at the end, and the conclusion.

Problem? Let's just say there's a ton of body count... 236 kills as counted on IMDB, mostly at the end. Also, some of the battle tactics makes little sense. Why hit the patrol boat with the rocket after everybody onboard is toast? It has only one flame-thrower (very short range) and one HMG any way. Once the sniper took out the HMG gunner, the boat is no threat. Also, what's with the 50-cal sniper rifle? It's in there because it looked cool, but a smaller rifle would have made much more sense. At least with the huge rifle you can pretend the body will be flung back 10 ft without a head.

Still, it's heck fun to watch if you dig this type of movie.

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KCR: Equilibrium (movie)

Image via WikipediaEquilibrium is either a prophetic cautionary tale warning of a dystopia without emotion, or one of the most silly but cool looking movies ever made. It is actually both, and thus, you'll either love or hate this movie. There is no in between.

The Premise: John Preston, a Grammaton Cleric, is tasked by the government to hunt down sense offenders... people who choose to not take their daily dose drug to dampen their feelings, and destroy all remaining tokens that evoke strong feelings, such as art, music, poetry, and so on. When he accidentally missed a dose of his own medicine, he realized the world may not be as he saw it before. One transgression lead to another, and soon, Preston is about to make the unthinkable choice... go up against Father, the leader of all...

In the strictest sense, Equilibrium is not comparable to the Matrix, but rather, is more akin to Orwell's 1984 brought to life, with thought-police using lethal force to enforce order, and how one man can make a difference... if he had been trained in this special martial arts called gun-kata.

And that's the biggest schtick in the movie: gun-kata. The idea is by analyzing the close-quarters engagements, you can synthesize a series of moves that combines dodging and counter-attack that will significantly enhance your chances of survival. The director, Kurt Wimmer, had one idea on what it should look like. Unfortunately,  his martial arts advisor for this movie had a very different idea. The result is a style that doesn't quite mesh, but sure is heck cool to look at.

The plot points can get rather silly, as Preston's transformation starts and accelerates. The problem mainly is the trigger to "cross the Rubicon", so to speak, is just plain silly. Let's just say the instigator is a puppy.

Still, worth watching at least once, then check out the spiritual successor, Ultraviolet.

KCR: Tron Legacy (scifi, and yes, I was late)

Image via WikipediaYes, I missed Tron Legacy. In fact, I missed the original Tron as well.

For a sequel to a film made almost 30 years ago, the movie looks absolutely amazing, even by today's standards. The original featured state of the art graphics for its day, and the idea of a world within the computer completely independent of our own has since been redone by a dozen films, including the Matrix trilogy, and in a certain level, by Inception.

The plot is relatively simple: Sam Flynn, son of Kevin Flynn, investigates the old arcade, and was zapped into the virtual world inside the machine created by his father. As Flynn discovered the rules in this virtual world, he encountered "Clu", a program that look just like his father, and later, his father, Kevin Flynn himself, and a program called Quorra, Sam Flynn wants to take his father home, when he learned the stakes of his failure to go back through the portal. Because Clu has a plan for all the "users" of the system...

The modern graphics are absolutely amazing, as the virtual world, previously only somewhat visualized in the original Tron, is now fully realized, by combining CGI with live action, and a LOT of post-processing. Disc combat is now far more stylized yet deadlier, and scenes that evoke "remake" of the original are now much better. The light cycle races are brilliant, and the lightjet dogfight is beautiful, if a bit cliche.

The plot is a bit formulaic, but the plot points and complications are laid out brilliantly, and character growth feels natural, nothing too forced here. My problem mainly is how much power Kevin Flynn has over the grid himself, as it seem to be wildly inconsistent. Also, about crossing over.. seem to violate conservation of mass. :)

All in all, Tron Legacy is a beautiful sequel / homage to the original, while making a ton of sense standing by itself. You don't need to know the original to enjoy this one.

Definitely watch it at least once.

KCR: Brooklyn's Finest (movie)

Brooklyn's Finest is a movie about three cops and one crook, whose lives brought them into this single housing project this fateful night, and they each will face their destiny. It's about each man going after his own dreams, and following his morals. It's a great crime drama.

Tango (Don Cheadle) is an undercover narc who had infiltrated the gangster's (Wesley Snipes) organization, and is torn between his loyalty to the police (who is pushing him to "get" the gangster) and his loyalty to the gangster (who saved his life before). Sal (Ethan Hawke) is a family cop working the narc detail who can't make ends meet, and is actually robbing dealers here and there. With his wife pregnant with twins and his house infested by mold, Sal is looking for a big break... Eddie (Richard Gere) is a week or so away from retirement as a regular uniform cop, but can't imagine another job, but can't imagine staying in either. Fate brought them to this one housing project, and meet their destiny.

The acting is pretty good all around, and the way the plots intertwine is pretty interesting.

Rating: watch it at least once.

KCR: Collateral Damage (movie)

Collateral Damage is almost a "last hurrah" for Arnold, as he is no longer acting an action hero, and the movie is basically formula Arnold, with a couple twists and turns that borders on the absurd. However, he's also more... "human", and less action hero. It's not that bad.

Premise: Fireman Gordon Brewer watched his wife and son die in a bombing of downtown LA Pavilion. Despite several warnings from FBI and CIA, Brewer managed to get infiltrate the perp's Colombian hideout, and have to work his way to stop the next bombing, in Washington D.C.

This revenge fantasy basically have Arnold, supposedly just a firefighter, was simply TOYED with by the bad guy, as if the bad guy is amused that some moron dare come after him. It simply makes little sense. In other words, this movie has Arnold running AWAY from fights instead of toward it. It is the most un-Arnold of all Arnold movies. Some even remarked that Arnold looks rather lousy, but then he's not playing an action hero here, is he?

Not quite good enough to buy, maybe watch once.

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KCR: God of Gambler's Return (movie)

God of Gambler's Return is a sequel to the original "God of Gamblers", a Hong Kong movie that started the "gambling movie" craze, starring Chow Yun Fat. (NOTE: God of Gamblers II is not a true sequel, but a spin-off). This one is even glossier, with some truly evil people, and enough trickery, plotting, and such that makes it a little deeper than your usual gambling movie.

Premise: Ko, "God of Gamblers", have retired to France with his pregnant wife and is living a happy life without games of chance. However, when a former rival reemerged from jail, and met up with a psychopathic gambler and killer, Ko found his wife and unborn child murdered. Before her death, she forced him to promise to not gamble for one full year. While travelling in China, Ko stumbles onto a gang turf fight, have a run from the law, and eventually have a showdown with the killer that took his family.

There is plenty of gunplay as bad guys are out to take down the good guys, and good guys shoot back, of course. There's a bit of trickery here and there, and some of the plans seem to be VERY long range, leading to a satisfying conclusion.

This movie is 1994, so production values are quite low by today's standards, and some of the stuff may make people squeam. There is also quite a bit of crude HK style humor. If you don't mind some slapstick humor this is not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

Rating: watch it once

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KCR: Green Lantern (2011) Movie Review

Image via WikipediaJust came out of a 3D screening. While the movie is not that good (not on the level of Iron Man / Iron Man 2), it's not quite as bad as DareDevil or worse, Elektra.

Premise: a UBG who feeds on fear had been imprisoned on a random planet in the lost sector by the Green Lantern Corp. A crashed space ship and stranded crew allowed the UBG to revive and escape, and destroyed several Lanterns, and two civilizations. It also mortally wounded the lantern that had previously defeated and imprisoned him, but he managed to get away... and crash landed on Earth, where he passed his ring onto test pilot Hal Jordan. When the UBG discovered the ring is now on Earth, it came to consume Earth... unless the newest Green Lantern Hal Jordan can defeat it...

Ryan Reynolds has a heavy resemblance to Ben Affleck, who had the pretty disastrous Daredevil movie to his credit. This movie will be measured up to that, and while it's not terrific, it is not horrible either. My main problem is there is not quite enough fighting, and not quite enough special effects. The fight scenes are basically TOO SHORT.   There are basically, uh... five action sequences in the whole movie. The jet, the training, the toy car, the first fight, and the BIG fight.

Also, the "cloud eating all" is a bit overdone. It's in a ton of movies, from GI Joe to The Day Earth Stood Still and now Green Lantern. It's getting tiresome. The soul-eating thing is a lot like, Final Fantasy / Spirit Within. The result is feeling of deja vu all over again, and again, and again.

Still, the backstory is sufficiently well told not to offend the fans completely but makes you wonder how much better it could have been. There is not quite enough fighting to satisfy the fans who come to see spectacles.

Rating: maybe wait until pay per view?

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KCR: Fearless, starring Jet Li

The real Ho Yuan Jia
Image via WikipediaJet Li, with his thorough mastery of various Chinese Martial Arts disciplines, had taken on many of the iconic "folk hero" roles in the history of China. In this movie, he is portraying master Huo Yuanjia, a master about the turn of the century, when Western powers and Japan are trying to push the corrupt Chinese government into more concessions by awing them with other masters.

The premise: Huo YuanJia was the youngest son of a kungfu master. The young Huo had always been way too proud of his skills, instead of learning any restraint, which eventually lead to a series of personal tragedies. He tried to commit suicide, but he survived, and lived in the wilderness as penance for a long period before coming to his senses, and returning to the city, just in time to encounter the imperialists and others trying to denigrate China. Huo was able to rally supporters into forming a Wushu association. Then the imperialists challenged him to a match, against other masters... and they want to win at ANY cost...

The martial arts are excellent as always, and this movie is not shy about showing some blood when it calls for it. AND there's a plot instead of just slash and cut and punch. There's a theme behind it, about pride, about not backing down in face of challenge, and about the true winner of spirit if not in body... and about redemption.

Allegedly Jet Li's final martial arts film (except as fantasy characters), this is a masterpiece.

Rating: Watch it!

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KCR: The Kingdom (movie)

Cover via AmazonThe Kingdom is a fun action flick that depicts a fictional scenario where FBI was called to help catch terrorists in Saudi Arabia where they fight prejudice, suspicion, and more.

Premise: terrorists infiltrate a "foreign compound" as security guards, then with guns and suicide belts, inflict huge amounts of casualties... and it was filmed. When rescuers arrive to clean up, a bomb hidden in one of the ambulances caused even more casualties. Saudi King called in the FBI, but local security forces don't like the idea. The FBI agents have to work against prejudice (some are female), suspicion, while trying to ferret out the bad guys. The end gun battle was impressive as they fight through apartment complex one room at a time.

One of my top terrorist-topic films. (I also like "The Traitor" and "Green Zone")

Rating: Watch it!

KCR: Tom Yum Koong / The Protector (movie)

Image via WikipediaThe protector is an action movie where Thai action star Tony Jaa shows off his Muy Thai skills against wide variety of opponents by taking on a subject dear to any Thai: elephants.

Premise: Tony Jaa was asked to recover the two sacred elephants of the village by his dying father, killed by the thieves. Tony Jaa tracked the elephants to Australia, where he met up with a Thai-descent policemen, and a beautiful Thai girl who may be part of the organization he is tracking. He digs deeper, he finds that the local Triad boss (Jing Xing) is invovled, and the front is... a restaurant.

This movie combines "fish out of water" premise, plus plenty of action as Tony Jaa knees and elbows his way through Sydney Australia against all bad guys, leaving most of them writhing on the ground in pain. The additional fighting against kapoera fighter, a swordsman, and a very big guy, is great. Later there's even MORE fighting. The non-stop action scene where Tony Jaa fights his way up 4 levels, lasting 5 minutes and dispatching 50+ goons, is probably one of the most interesting action scenes ever (without special effects).

Worth watching at least once.

KCR: Triple Tap (movie, shooting, Hong Kong)

Image via WikipediaThe movie "Triple Tap" is a Hong Kong crime drama that has a couple twists and turns that you may not see coming, and as a result, is a much better thriller than what typically comes out of Hong Kong.

Premise: competition shooter "Ken" had just beaten a cop "Jerry" at a live ammo shooting competition by 0.31 seconds with zero misses. On the way home, he interrupted an armored car heist and shot several of the robbers, who were killing the guards. A traffic cop who came onto the scene was also shot. One robber got away. Ken was arrested for murder and illegal discharge of firearms, but was released and hailed as a hero by the media. But not all is as it looked on the surface. Ken has been illegally accessing his supervisor's funds in the investment firm trying to cover his losses. The supervisor wants him as her boyfriend, even though he already has a nice nurse for a girlfriend at home. As Jerry digs deeper for the truth, he discovers that Ken is a methodical planner, possibly with a killer instinct, trying to live a double life. When more people turned up dead, Jerry and Ken match wits resulting in a showdown... Who is the ultimate pistolero?

This psychological thriller is much better than your typical Hong Kong action film, with really tense moments without too much special effects, big explosions, or even much gore. The movie, in a sense, reminded a bit like Roshomon, that Japanese classic where we get four different versions of the story. It's a bit of whodunit, a bit of crime drama, and as clues are revealed, the showdown at the end is inevitable. The only problem I have is with the re-enactment scene, where "Jerry" the cop went to see this retired cop for some advice on reenacting the shooting to get the pscyhological state. It's as if the other guy went into a trance channeling the killer's spirit, and that's just dumb.

Rating: Watch it at least once.

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KCR: True Lies

True Lies is an action movie with several elements of comedy. It is as hilarious today as it was back in 1994. There are so many impossibilities that makes you go "did that really happen?"  but that's Hollywood for you.

Premise: Harry Tasker is a spy who chases down terrorists and do other spy things with help of his team. He kept his professional life separate from his home life, but he is having trouble at home. He thinks his wife may be having an affair with a smarmy car salesman, and his daughter is apparently a pickpocket and of relatively low morals. Unfortunately, he really has no time to take care of stuff at home when some terrorists may be smuggling in nukes into Florida...  Then everybody in the family got involved, and things got VERY complicated indeed...

The idea of secrets and multiple identities are used for comic relief very effectively in this movie. The scene where Tasker got the truth serum is hilarious.

The movie could be improved on several levels, but it is great fun. And admit it, you don't watch Arnold films to get educated or have deep thoughts...

KCR: Rambo III (movie)

Image via WikipediaRambo III is logical extension of Rambo 2... what war is there to fight besides Vietnam? In that time, the obvious answer is Afghanistan. Rather ironic isn't it that decades later, the American army is fighting in Afghanistan?

Premise: Colonel Trautman and a team was trying to sneak in some supplies for the mujahadeen (Afghani freedom fighters) when their convoy was intercepted by Soviet forces and taken prisoner. Rambo felt responsible because he had turned down Trautman earlier, so he is going in alone. On the way, Rambo befriends Afghani fighters, infiltrate the fortress held by the sadistic commander, steals and chopper, rescues a bunch of prisoners, plays hide and seek with Spetnatz commandos, rescues Trautman, fight their way out, and have a big fight at the end against the camp commander.

What's REALLY hilarious is the movie's actually filmed in Israel. However, it's not important. The idea is the action is better than ever. Rambo will of course, get wounded a bit, kill lots and lots of bad guys, get bombed almost by napalm (just like the previous movie!) do some arrow hunting, and so on and so forth. It's formulaic, but it works.

You may as well complete the collection. Available in combo packs.

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KCR: 6th Day (movie)

Cover of The 6th Day6th Day, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of those movies that takes a high concept and takes it to the ridiculous extreme, but it sure sounds interesting. It's basically "The One" starring Jet Li, but in reverse, with more plausible sci-fi explanations.

Premise: in the near future, a secret cabal is "curing" almost lethal and disabling injuries and other problems by basically replacing the original with clones infused with memories from the original. A football star broken neck and life-threatening injuries? No problem... Zap his eyes to retrieve his memories, then kill the original, then activate a clone, reload the memories, and voila, he's "cured". Unfortunately for the cabal, this time, they cloned the wrong guy... And this guy will do all he can to protect his family... well... okay, THEIR family...

This movie has all the cliche plots thrown in, with lots of stupid one-liners. There's also more than a hint from Arnold's previous movie "Total Recall" which has a similar high concept: what if his entire life was a figment of someone else's imagination? Or as a critic puts it, both movie has that "Who am I really?" type of soul-searching.

It's also a bit funny about how those three assassins are really energizer bunnies... they keep going, and even when 'killed', comes back for some more. They are heck funny, even more than Arnold.

Not one of Arnold's best works (for that, I still say Commando or Predator) but watchable... once. Not quite enough to own.

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KCR: Doom the movie

Cover via AmazonLet's put it this way: you know this movie won't be a masterpiece when you go in. It is based on a GAME about shooting nasty things that came out many many years ago. And it's NOT directed by Uwe Boll. So it is not that bad... as long as you don't have too high of expectation for it.

Setup: some sort of nasty things have invaded the Mars research facility. The "marines" have been called in. In the dark research facility marines encounter mad humans, creatures from nightmares, and illegal experiments that should have never been done... something of pure evil... When even the marines started to die, there may only be one way out... through hell...

The Doom movie can be viewed as sort of a pastiche / sendup of action movies, and for that it ain't bad. The action is quite good, though the marines rarely hit something. There's also a lot of favorite weapons in Doom that didn't make it into the movie, like pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher, and so on. However, the "first person" sequence near the end is pretty cool. There's also some sci-fi mumbo jumbo about extra set of chromosomes, experiments on death row inmate, and so on.

It is worth watching once, if you like the game. Else, forget it.

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