Well, I think I liked the first one the best, but the 4th, really, it seemed like Paul Anderson didn't have much of a budget; I thought it was a straight-to-video release too. I'll watch the new one when it comes out on video, I don't trust the franchise anymore to actually go to the theater for it.
Paul still holds the title for best videogame-to-movie adaptation with "Mortal Kombat" and the guy has done some other great movies like "Solider" (Kurt Russell), and "Event Horizon" (
Horror movie in space which ranked as one of the scariest movies I ever saw for a time in my book), etc. His "AVP: Alien vs. Predator" was pretty decent, I bought that on BluRay and actually "Mortal Kombat" came out on BluRay recently as well so I picked that up - seen it way too much already (
, one of the best fight scenes EVER, except for the scissor kick deal, that was lame-looking but true to the videogame. Reptile got robbed if you ask me! Hehe! All that hyper-speed, ass-kicking he lays down on Kang, and yet he still loses!), but why not once more in HighDef!
And Wolf, good review on Ex2, I didn't mind the director so much...but I found the final fight against JCVD could'e been longer. Like after they fell down to the bottom floor to fight, Van Damme was perfectly fine for the 2nd round then...BAM, it's over cause JC brought a knife to a chain fight . It had potential to be a huge brawlfest and it wasn't like the running time was too long or anything, dunno why they cut it so short.
Yup, it was way too short, and his name was too cheesy/uninspired, you know? "Vilain" who is the main bad guy or villain? And the first movie, the island where all the bad guys were on was called... Vilena... Coincidence? I dunno... But definitely villain to Vilain wasn't one. The other cheesy thing was using the theme from "The Good, the Bad, the Ugly" as Chuck Norris' theme... Hehe!!! I'm glad they gave Norris a shot, but he needed some more takes; his lines/jokes were coming off way too stiff but that's always been a problem for him.
Also...casting wise, i wish they asked Michelle Yeoh who still looks GREAT to play the female part instead of whats her name...
She would've been alright too, but I liked the chick that they chose well enough. Never seen her before, but she was good.
And finally, i'm gonna admit i'm a big JCVD nut so i'm totaly biased but, i was super happy to see the guy back on the big screen as lately he's really worked on his acting. the film JCVD is a classic example, but I also recommend Until Death which came out 2007. You can see in in interviews, he's really matured and has turned over a new leaf from his druggy days...
Yeah, I bought JCVD too... I'm still a fan, even though I make fun of him at times. "Wake of Death" was another great straight-to-video release he did a couple of years back, dunno if you saw it. It actually had an uncensored torture scene with a drill, the whole deal, you get the idea.... They really went to work on the guy to get the information and by the end of it after he sings like a canary, they put him out of his misery... I mean, it was raw, bloody, merciless and they showed you every minute of it practically. I was surprised that scene was allowed, in such detail, to remain in the movie.
Ah yeah, I've seen Until Death as well. That was a while ago, I rented it... Pretty good, I would recommend that one too.