Last night I rented two movies: Constantine and Assault on Precinct 13.
Not a great movie night, lemme tell ya!
Constantine isn't a very good movie. The subject matter is very interesting, but it's not very well presented and Master Keanu Reeves doesn't help. I like movies that take a different or uncommon view of heaven and hell, and this one falls in that category. It got me disserting on the philosophy of religion afterwards, which is always fun. Definitely not a movie for the whole family, but I think the rating shows that. I expected something scarier, and perhaps it was on big screen, but the only scary moments are when they surprise you with big lights and sound out of the blue and not from the demons themselves -- I hate it when they do that, it feels like a cheap attempt that fright because they couldn't convey it any other way. My biggest beef is with Reaves who decided that acting like Neo from The Matrix is where the money's at. In his defense, he can't really act but it still wasn't very good. Oh! and someone PLEASE show him what is the proper and cool way to light a zippo, darn it!
Speaking of Neo and The Matrix, did y'all know that Will Smith actually turned down that role (sixth trivia from the bottom)?
Assault on Precinct 13 was far worse, as it turned out. Heck, after Assault, Constantine seemed like a pretty decent movie. Assault is very predictable (except for the one time where the girl gets shot, that was so refreshingly unexpected that it got me laughing and cheering) and not very convincing. Before seeing it, I was under the impression that Ethan Hawke is a decently good looking guy; I don't know what he did (or didn't do) for this movie, but man was it wrong. The characters aren't very personable and the story isn't particularly well written (in the end I was left wondering that the heck was the name of the doctor, a somewhat important role in the movie... I think her name comes out only once, and she isn't credited credited as "Doctor Whatever"; thank you IMDB). I was expecting to turn my brain off and be entertained by gun fire and explosions, but that was deceiving. The action sequences are quite realistic, but we've learned that realistic action isn't the spectacular, eye-popping stuff we are now used to.
So all and all, I somewhat recommend renting Constantine, but not Assault on Precinct 13. Actually, I recommend renting both and watching Assault first so that Constantine seems that much better by comparison.
