Lance's Recent Reviews
The Escapist
Unrated
A fantastic escape from prison movie up there with Shawshank Redemption and The Great Escape. Ben Cox (The Bourne Identity; Rushmore) is great as an old con who finds out his daughter is dying and decides to break out to see her. The movie starts with the escape, then flashes back and forth, showing the planning and how the other convicts join him, all the while dealing with a cruel inmate who runs the cell block like he's the warden. Nice twist at the end, not original, but good just the same. This is only available at Blockbuster I think, so it might be hard to find, but it is well worth watching - The accents are hard to keep up with, but that's what subtitles are for. :) Watch it!
Avatar
PG-13
It's nice to have James Cameron back directing after a long absence. The story was nothing new, basically Dances with Wolves (or Dances with Smurfs as South Park dubbed it) with a sci-fi setting, with the Na'vi subbing for Native Americans. It had Native American themes of everything being connected, in this case literally, as the Na'vi had little tentacles at the end of their hair that can connects with all living things on the planet. The visuals were outstanding, and this was my first time seeing a movie in 3-D and I'm hooked. My only problem was a simplified story, which is kind of incredible considering the movie is almost 3 hours long. But a one-dimensional evil Colonel and a simplified plot is the only thing that keeps the movie from making an emotional connection with me. But it was a great film to watch, with amazing special effects that have changed the ball game for motion pictures.
