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Jason and Shawn versus Stolen and Dredd

Stolen

Jason: I want to point out right off the bat that, unlike Shawn, I am not a Nicolas Cage hater. I've liked his work in The Rock, Con Air, Gone in 60 Seconds, Bringing Out the Dead and a number of mid-to-late 90s films.

But the man's star has fallen hard. Stolen is proof of that. Maybe it's because he's flat broke and has to take every film that comes his way, but Cage phones it in here. He can be a fun and quirky actor, but he's just going through the motions in Stolen. He's boring, just like the movie.

There's technically nothing wrong with Stolen. It's well made and, essentially well written. But the action is nothing better than a TV movie, save for one great car-jump trick inside a parking garage. Otherwise it's boring foot and car chases, plus a lame fistfight or two. Yawn. Been there, done that.

It didn't take long for Cage to fall from award winner to Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Stolen is just the latest entry in his descent. Here's hoping The Expendables 3 wakes him up. A Bad from me.

Shawn: Nick Cage. Again. I’ve seen this same guy in a lot of films lately. And it’s just that. It isn’t the character in ANY of these movies. It’s Nicolas Cage.

He gets movies where they’re like: “Be yourself, but pretending you are cooler." But he fails. And I have a hard time with the watch, cause I’m too busy loathing him. Get over myself? OK.

The movie was a decent idea, not like we haven’t seen it before, done over and over by better AND worse actors. This was a mediocre film that was made Ugly to me by the cast. Can’t watch it again. Would pee on it, but it's on my computer, and I need that. So . . . That’s where I stand on that.

Dredd


Jason: Dredd is fucking awesome! For the record, this film went into production before the much more hyped -- and deservedly so -- The Raid. But the only similarities are its cops-trapped-in-a-building-by-drug-dealers theme. The Raid is a hard core martial arts/action film. Dredd is a Judge Dredd movie that happens to take place inside a building. Deal with it.

Karl Urban embodies Dredd perfectly. He's a sci-fi Clint Eastwood who looks like the comic version of Dredd, right down to the sour look on his face throughout. I want a dozen Dredd movie just because Urban is that good. Too bad this bombed and it'll never happen.

Action? Bloody and R-rated. This movie doesn't fuck around one bit with the violence. And there's plenty of profanity too. The world needs more hard-R action movies. Hopefully Dredd and the recent announcement of an R-rate Die Hard movie is the beginning of the tide turning.

Fuck yeah, this movie rates a Good. The Raid is still the best action movie I've seen in years, but Dredd is hands down the most bad ass of comic book movies to come down the pike in a long time.


Shawn: Sometimes a movie comes along that, when the final credits roll, you just sit there and reflect. One word: bravo. Two more: thank you.

I liked this movie as much as I liked Robocop when I first saw that. This movie is adjusted for the time travel between then and now. It’s sad that it got ZERO attention when it made Stallone’s Judge Dredd look like a kids cartoon. No attention. I guess the bastards in Hollow wood…Yes, hollow…are zombifying the masses with such shit as Twilight. My  HAND is a better love story than Twilight.

Too bad.

This was a Good, and for the first time in Basement Reviews history, left me longing for a rating a step up from a Good.

Thank you.

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