C
Cats and Dogs - 73 none
Story: 22 - Fun concept that gets carried out relatively smoothly. For a very unbelievable premise, it carries rather well, but the cliches are rolled out en masse for the human dog relationship.

Acting: 22 - Cat and dog characters were fun and voices well cast. It was the human actors that came across a little flat. Goldblum was funny but too much over the top.

Creators: 20 - Great CGI work. The matching of voices to animal mouth movement was perfect. Some great facial expressions.

Impact: 6 - It was never clear to me why the cats were obviously the villians. I think it would have been much more interesting to actually come up with a reason why they were fighting each other.

Modifiers: + 3 - Great effects! Talking animals is hard enough. Try to combine Garfield with Jackie Chan.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - 75  visual
Story: 23 -  The story seemed to wander a little and not decide who was the main character. Farily predictible romance element. But there were a couple of interesting twists. Not everything was predictable in the American movie sense. The part I did not like was a flashback scene that appeared to be short one, that ended up taking half the length of the movie.

Acting: 24 -  I couldn't tell if the acting was lacking, or the dialouge was hindering the actors. If the movie were not subtitled the answer would have been clear. Overall I think it had good actors with mild dialouge.

Creators: 20 -  Excellent production and directing. Incredible visuals that leave a strong imprint on the mind.

Impact: 6 -  The film looses a little of its impact, as any forgien language film does, due to subtitling.

Modifiers: 2 -  This movie would have much higher marks in this category due to originality if it had been released before The Matrix.

Crow : City of Angels, The - 36  sooze
Story: 8 -  The small sparks of originality in this story were utterly drowned by the torrent of revisitation to the original Crow story. The bad thing is that if the movie was trying to rehash the old story, it didn't even do a good job at that. In a sequel you need to either closely tie into the original, or let it stand on its own. This movie does neither!

Acting: 14 -  Vincent Perez and Mia Kirshner have a few shining moments, but the flock of lame supporting characters, and horrible dialogue completely ruins the things they do accomplish.

Creators: 10 -  Part excellent, part hideous. Some very cool camera work and good stunts. But the whole movie was an obvious indoor set with ideas stolen directly from Alex Proyas' brain...which isnt bad if they make it convincing. Which they did not.

Impact: 2 -  This sequel took everything that made the original good, and repeated in lower-quality. Not a good idea for a sequel.

Modifiers: + 2 -  Some very cool lighting. A little strange but pretty unique.

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