| I am tempted to give this movie a full price recommendation because it is better than some I have awarded that prize to (yeah thank you Karina!)...but I know that there are some problems with it, plot-hole wise. But I enjoyed the crap out of it! |
| Christian Slater is not doing a Jack Nicholson impression at all, Morgan Freeman finally gets to play a bad guy (but he is still the nicest bad guy you could ever want to know), and Minnie Driver is again, large in the head but all honesty and sweetness. Randy Quaid is a sheriff and he's actually really good, I have to say. Formerly titled The Flood, Hard Rain was about to get lost in a deluge (pun intended) of disaster movies earlier this year. |
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| Thankfully, it waited and now we get to really pay attention to it. Yes, there is massive flooding and lots of Act of God non-insurable claims. Sure, some of the peril our folks get into is a result of the flooding. At he same time, the flood is really just a convenient situation for a bank heist and some non-disaster movie activity and predatory behavior, and THAT is why this is a good movie. |
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Sure, there are some "that sure was convenient!" moments and "oh come on just do the thing!" moments but by and large, it was interesting to watch the characters change tunes in midstream, and to see how an act of opportunism can turn into a world gone mad. It's cool, really. |
| I do have to say (and a guy in the movie theatre actually asked me to stop talking about it - I wasn't talking during the movie, there was a false fire alarm so we were recapping the 10 minutes of the movie we had seen thus far) that the computer generated effects were disturbing. |
| I saw blue screen lines and that kooky anamorphic "about to do a CGI effect" effect all over the place and couldn't help but wonder why - it got to the point that my companions and I would make a WHATEVER gesture at the screen and our co-patrons would giggle. |
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| The opening has a great tracking shot over some flooded out areas and it swoops for quite a few muddy, wet miles - it's cool, but digitally it was like, straight to video man, what's up with that? |
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The bass was cranked - I called it Dolby Digital Sensurround - towards the end is a lot of shooting and other loud occurrences and my seat was vibrating like a bed in a Vegas brothel. The sound mixing was enough to get the point across, is what I mean, but this movie has the camera jerking, as if either jarred by the sound or the shockwave, every time a gun goes off. |
It's like playing Virtuacop. I didn't realize it for some time and then I
noticed the camera kicking every time a gun shot. (Does that mean an ex-con gets his wings?) The effect was actually kind of cool, just weird to be conscious of. So, I ruin it for you. :) Go see it, it's a fun ride, and better than we have had action-wise for some time. |
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