Monday, March 03, 2008

The Hunted Are Doomed

I flipped through the channels last night and came across Doom on TNT. Due to stupidity, I went ahead and watched it. Big mistake. I was dismayed to learn that it wasn't bad in the way that lets you have a blast mocking it, it was just bad. Eh, that might be too harsh. I imagine that if Alex had been here, it could have been properly mocked, so maybe it was bad enough to enjoy poking fun at it. It's just so hard when you don't have someone else to banter with.

I think they wasted the Rock on an overly serious movie. I used to watch a lot of pro wrestling, and while I never cared much about his matches, I was always glad to see the Rock with a microphone, because it meant guaranteed laughs. And most of his movies seem to have a light-hearted moment here and there, but not this time. I imagine they felt since this was based on a hardcore game, there could be no room for amusing scenes. Unless I was supposed to be laughing during the extended scene done to look like you were actually playing a game. I didn't, but maybe that's what that was about. Probably not, but I'm trying to give benefit of the doubt here.

Fortunately, the movie ended, and by then USA was showing The Hunted, which I find to be much better entertainment. It's practically an extended chase scene, but it's very well done, and I like how Tommy Lee Jones plays his character. Not much for talking, and clearly not comfortable in the urban wilderness. He paces, rubs his hands a lot, pays only minimal attention to those around him, clearly a guy who just wants to go back to his place out in the woods. Also, the fight scenes between he and Benicio del Toro are simplistic, very efficient affairs. There's no spin kicks or fancy flips, just a lot of grappling and attempts to choke the other into submission. It's fighting by guys just looking to win, without style points, and without wasting any more energy than they have to. Plus, they battle with homemade knives at the end, which is pretty nifty.

2 comments:

Jason said...

Oddly enough, I enjoyed the TNT double-feature last night of Con Air & Doom. Maybe after the goofy-ness that was Con Air, I was happy to just watch the Rock & Co. shoot things in Doom. One thing that bugged me was the constant dubbing. It's not like they blanked out any of the violence, so you would watch a violent, bloody dismemberment and then they would all scream, "Let's get the *heck* outta here!"

I wanted to stay up for the Hunted, but man's gotta sleep, maybe I'll throw that DVD in tomorrow.

CalvinPitt said...

jason: I know what you mean about the dubbing. If they're going to do that, I wish they would at least be clever. Like with Die Hard with a Vengeance, Samuel L. Jackson calls Bruce Willis a 'racist melonfarmer', that was awesomely hilarious.