The Shrine

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>God, where to start... in the beginning of the movie, they had too many close-ups on people's faces when I <i>wanted to see what was going on</i>. Once I noticed it, I couldn't un-notice it. And then they did this annoying camera tilt thing in a few sequences which got on my nerves.

The story was so full of holes. Really bad guy kills off his team of scientists and engineers. Okay tough guy, you've shown us how evil you are, but what do you do <i>if the machine you just spent millions on breaks</i>? Or what if you want another one? He was awful trusting that it would even work the first time - what if it didn't? "Uh, guys, I know I just tried to kill you all, but would you mind fixing the chemical weapons? Pretty please?"

Then there was the "Russian intelligence forgot about me" thing. Excuse me? They just <i>forgot</i> about an agent? One who was assigned to an obviously important mission? Sorry, not buying it. I realize they're having some issues, but that's too much. Even if you buy that, she's an intelligence agent, and the best thing she could come up with was to sit around and wait for bad things to happen, dutifuly taking notes? There are so many different ways she could have gotten out of the situation.

Wanna take out a communications tower? There are far easier ways than causing an avalanche. And during the battle with the Colombian military, what was the point of all of those bike jumps? Not to mention half the time I couldn't see how he had gotten up in the air.

And the name "Anarchy99"? Gotta go. I have problems when my evil organizations sound like some ten-year-old's screen name.

Then, of course, it was predictable. Most of the time I knew what was going to happen next.

Despite all of its faults, it was entertaining. Most of the stunts were lots of fun to watch. However, there are action movies that have good stunts and a far better story and script. <i>The Long Kiss Goodnight</i> and <i>Goldeneye</i> come to mind.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>Yeah he kills off the scientists, so what? He has no reason to believe it WON'T work-- they tested the bloody thing first and the test is what killed them all. And when was he going to go back and get it repaired? Before or after his boat is speeding down a river in a residential area with big ass missles sticking out of it's hood? He killed them after it was tested to work; beyond that if anything were to go wrong it would be too late or too public to simply bring the boat back and fix it.

Besides that yeah, I can buy the whole Russian spy thing to an extent; I assumed she was originally part of the KGB and when the Union fell she was lost in the shuffle. The avalanche was just an excuse for a cool scene; I think a few pounds of C-4 woulda done a job just as well. And of course the Columbian thing was ridiculous-- apparantly you're immune to bullets if you are in the air on a bike and every roof is angled steep enough for a great takeoff.

Still entertaining in the end</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '><i>Yeah he kills off the scientists, so what? He has no reason to believe it WON'T work-- they tested the bloody thing first and the test is what killed them all</i>

Tests fail all the time. That's why we have tests. There's plenty of reason to believe it won't work - it hasn't been tested. Failure is a reasonable outcome of a test. What if the test on the scientists had not worked? Who would he get to fix it? "Yeah, sure, you just tried to kill me, and when I'm finished, I am fairly sure you'll do it again, I'll fix your doomsday device."

<i> He killed them after it was tested to work; beyond that if anything were to go wrong it would be too late or too public to simply bring the boat back and fix it.</i>

No, killing the scientists was the first use of it. Also, what if it broke in the future? What if he wanted more? Is he going to get his legion army of leprachauns to make him more? It was a stupid way of demonstrating how ruthless he is.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>in the future? He wasn't planning for a future-- it was to be a one time thing.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Why not leave your options open? It's a wee bit expensive in time and money to say "Alright, one time, then we're done." Also, that doesn't take into account it failing the first time.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>So-wait, you paid attention to the plot?</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Not much else to do when it there's nothing more than talking heads.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>you know what they were trying to do-- that alone doesn't speak too highly for their mental stability</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Eh, that's a cop out.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>no it isn't, it makes perfect sense. You can't really be of sound mind to want to plan something like that in the first place</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Being psychotic does not mean you'll make decisions that can obviously harm yourself. It was detrimental to his own interests.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>no it wasn't. He wanted to do it once, the test worked. Didn't need them, they no longer a problem.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Round and round... he didn't know the test was going to work. If the test failed, who would fix it?</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>stereotypical scientists (whom these all were) were pussies and ignorant to begin with. It wouldn't have taken much to force them back to work</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>One, two, three... yup, three too many assumptions for me to take your claim seriously.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>you think they were there on their own free will to begin with?</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>When they know they're going to die anyway, the threat of force is less compelling.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Yeah, check your brain at the door and go look at the (mostly) badass stunts and explosions. The sequence of him jumping from the airplane on the snowboard, and then snowboarding down the mountain is still one of the best continuous stunt sequences in any movie, IMO.</div>