The Dinosaur Project (2012)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Moonlighting Films

Runtime: 83 mins

Format: Imported DVD

Plot: A team of explorers go searching in the Congo jungle for proof of the mythical legend Mokele-Mbembe. When their helicopter is brought down in an undiscovered part of the jungle by a flock of strange enormous birds, they discover prehistoric creatures that civilization thought was extinct for millions of years.

Review: I know it's not a popular opinion, but I am totally in love with the Found Footage style of filmmaking. I also am (and always have been) totally in love with dinosaurs, so this should be a winning combination for me, but previous experience with this combination has left me a tad cautious here. See, The Dinosaur Project is actually the second movie of 2012 to combine the two together, with the first being Area 407, and that movie turned out to be a pretty large disappointment and mostly utter crap. With that fresh on my mind after having just watched it a few days before this, I approached this movie at a pretty weary pace.

To start, the whole Mokele-Mbembe myth of the Congo jungle is one of my favorites in the cryptozoological realm, so I was pretty happy when The Dinosaur Project started and one of the first things it talks about is that whole myth and it was great to see it get further explored as the movie went on and was, in fact, the backdrop for this movie. Even though I was cautious about it, this movie knew how to grip me from the get-go; Ever since found footage movies started being popular, I've been saying that I wanted a found footage movie to tackle a Mokele-Mbembe expedition, and by scott here we finally have one! Of course it quickly expands upon the myth, for where-in the classic legend is only about a single dinosaur (or type of dinosaur) and for the sake of the movie they've broadened that into an entire Lost World filled with many dinosaur species', both herbivores and carnivores, but I ended up being fine with that. Also surprisingly, and unlike most found footage flicks (especially the dreadful Area 407), you actually get really good solid looks at these creatures as well – sure, there's a few quick-cut/hard-to-notice shots, but only at first and it doesn't take long before we start seeing the dinosaurs in their full-on glory, which of course probably wouldn't have worked out quite so well if it wasn't for the fact that, despite this being a low budget affair, the creature CGI effects actually looked really damn good and loads better then I was expecting.

Something else this movie has going for it is that it's filled with a great sense of adventure, from the plane ride over the Congo when they first start to catch glimpses of mysterious creatures, to their physical trek through the thick jungle and murky rivers after they crash as they try to journey their way back to civilization, to their discovery of creepily-abandoned Native villages, to the fun wonderment as they discover a pack of small playful dinosaurs that they play around with for a bit, to the wide range of thrilling action scenes as they get chased by one vicious dinosaur or another – those that love adventure flicks will find plenty to enjoy here. And fear not about getting motion sickness or headaches from the camera, because even though this is a found footage movie, the camera holders (most of the time) are meant to be a professional camera crew, so for the most part the cameras are held with a very steady hand and there's not a whole lot of frequent quick panicky moving and bobbing around of the equipment.

What the movie does lack however, are strong likable characters. Nobody in the movie is really all that likable – The stern father that ignores his son and puts his TV show first, the whiny bratty son that does everything he can to ignore anything he's told and then complains about it, the argumentative fame-seeking producer of the show, the pushy superstitious guide that is leading them into the Congo – all of them are quite bland and/or annoying and just not fun to watch at all. The couple characters that did seem to have a personality about them and actually seemed like they might be ok to stick around with for the duration of the movie were of course the first couple of characters to get killed off early-on.

Another thing that kind of bothered me was the decision to not include a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the movie. I mean, I know not every dinosaur movie needs to have a Rex in it, but they're so incredibly common in them, what with being the King of the Dinosaurs and all, that their presence is indeed missed here. I'd be interested in hearing why the director decided to go that route, especially since he did include another large Rex-like species in the movie, which makes the absence of a Rex all the more puzzling. I mean, if you're going to throw in a large predator of that size, why not just go with the classic and beloved King? It also annoyed me a bit that not only did they not include the T. Rex, but after everything the characters (and us, the viewers) go through in the movie, it all results in a simple and mostly-dinosaurless man vs man climax, turning one of the characters (predictably enough) into a villain. I'm always ranting about how much I hate human villains in a killer maneating animal movie because I feel it takes the threat and impact away from the title creatures, and that could not be more true then with this movie. All the build-up during the movie of one dinosaur attack scene after another and it all builds to a simple, and quite-frankly overlong, confrontation between two humans.

Sure, the movie may only have a small few complaints from me, but those few complaints are things that bother me quite a bit and certainly amount to a bit of a lower score then I was planning on giving upon initially watching things unfold. However, there's still quite a lot to enjoy here as well and in the end this came out as quite the fun adventure of a found footage flick, and for those looking for some thrilling dinosaur chase scenes in the jungle, this one has that in spades. If you crossed the TV show Destination Truth with Jurassic Park (but removed the likability of Josh Gates), this would pretty much be the end result.

It's also miles and miles ahead of the craptastic Area 407, so if there's only one Found Footage Dinosaur movie you check out, make sure it's this one.

7/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

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Death Race 2 (2010)

REVIEW BY: Michael Banno

Company: Moonlighting Films

Runtime: 101 mins

Format: BluRay

Plot: Death Race 2 explores the origins of the first "Frankenstein" car driver, Carl "Luke" Lucas. After discovering there’s a price on his head for crimes he's committed, his only hope is to survive the dangerous new sport of Death Race against an army of hardened criminals and tricked out cars.

Review: I realize I'm doing this a bit backwards. I’ve already given my review of Death Race 3 a few months ago but I wasn’t reviewing for Watching Full Movie Online Free when Death Race 2 initially came out. Anyway, many of you probably by now know that Death Race is one of my favorite Paul W.S. Anderson movies (along with his Resident Evil series), so when this direct-to-video sequel came out back in January of 2011, it was only natural that I was going to pick this up as a Day 1 BluRay purchase. Now, I love action movies, whether there’s a good story to it or not - as long as I’m entertained by its action scenes and characters and whatnot, then it’s done its job as far as I’m concerned. In this regard I loved the first Death Race film, and the entire trilogy as a whole, so how does Death Race 2 stack up upon a repeat viewing?

To start, I’m not really sure what to say about the story - overall its not too bad, but it's not really anything groundbreaking or new either. After Luke Goss' character, Carl Lucas, ends up in prison, a crime lord wants him dead so he doesn’t squeal to the cops about some illegal stuff he's involved in, so he puts a bounty on his head. Said situation is made easier considering the deadly new tournament that Carl finds himself in. But, as you can likely guess, not all things go according to plan and plenty of wrenches get thrown into the bad guys' plan as the story progresses. Like I said, not the greatest or most inventive plot in the world but serviceable enough, I can assure you.

One of the things that can take your mind off a bland plot however, is good acting from the people on-screen, and said acting for this one is about as good as can be expected for a direct-to-video sequel to an mindless action movie like Death Race, if not slightly better. Personally I thought it was pretty darn good for what I was expecting, and the actors did justice to their roles. Luke Goss as Carl Lucas was a good casting call as he played his part perfectly as both a law-breaking bad ass as well as our central hero with a heart. Robin Shou from Mortal Kombat fame returns as 14-K, his role in the first Death Race movie, and as to be expected from him, he did fine with what he was given. It should also be noted here that he’s the only actor to appear in all three Death Race movies.

Of course the biggest selling point of these movies are the rip-roaring mindless edge-of-your seat vehicular slaughter and action, and I thought this movie did great justice to the series in that area. First off we get a few nice big set pieces - we have a car chase concerning bank robbers which while not the big highlight of the movie was still a pretty nice start to all the fun, then we get to the predecessor to Death Race event itself, a game titled Death Match which is an all-out fight to the death (or till submission) involving hand-held weapons in arenas that are uniquely done up with weapon caches, props, and set designs and came across to me very much like a level of the computer game Unreal Tournament. We get at least two fight scenes of this Death Match game before the minds behind it upgrade it to what the movie series is known for, and the main event comes to call: The Death Race. And that in itself is a big win for fans as we finally get to see the vehicular-created chaos that we all know and love from the Death Race franchise.

The action wouldn't be very exciting though if the special effects weren't up to par with them, which so often they're not in cheap CGI-filled B-movies, but the visual effects for a movie like this requires some nice oldschool practical effects-work that all movies (especially these B ones) seem to have forsaken this day in age, and boy is this movie so much better off for it; It has some truly amazing and very real stunts, gory blood-packet effects, full-scale pyrotechnics, and some truly impressive and crazy driving skills. Oh, and the explosions are no laughing matter either and will certainly please fans of mindless action flicks. All these things lead to some good and unique death scenes as well.

Like with my Death Race 3 review, there’s really not much more I can say other than the heat really gets turned up from the first more in this one. Death Race 2 was so well-made, it really could have gone theatrical like the first, and I’d have seen it Day 1 if it had.

Death Race 2, as far as I’m concerned, was just as good as the first Death Race directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, and was an excellent prequel and addition to the series that holds up quite well upon re-watches.

8/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

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Death Race 3: Inferno (2013)

REVIEW BY: Michael Banno

COMPANY: Moonlighting Films

RUNTIME: 105 mins

FORMAT: Netflix

PLOT: Convicted cop-killer Carl Lucas, aka Frankenstein, is a superstar driver in the brutal prison yard demolition derby known as Death Race, and is only one victory away from winning freedom for himself and his pit crew when the Powers That Be decide to change up the rules, as well as the race location.

REVIEW: Death Race: Inferno marks only my second review here, so a lot of you don’t know who I am. My name is Michael Banno and I'm a close friend of Jeffrey Long, the owner of Watching Full Movie Online Free blog. Many of you have probably read my review for Age of the Hobbits, AKA Clash of the Empires, so we’re not complete strangers. But considering that you do not know me personally, let me make one thing clear: I am a very big fan of the Death Race movies. I went to the theaters to see the first movie opening weekend, and bought the second movie as soon as it was released on BluRay. I know exactly what they are - They are big-budget B-movie action hits. So it is no surprise that when Death Race: Inferno was announced, I squealed like a schoolgirl. Sadly, money is an issue for me right now so I was not able to buy the movie upon release, however thanks to my recent acquisition of a Netflix account, I discovered that Death Race 3 was available on there. So naturally, it became my movie to watch for today and I decided to type this review up since Jeffrey hadn't yet covered it on here.

It begins with the takeover of the company that started Death Race. It then goes on to tell you about the story leading up to the beginning of the movie, and the events that have transpired since the ending of Part 2. Frankenstein ( Luke Goss) has made quite a name for himself; He is now quite a celebrity, having won four Death Races. But it looks like something is in the works as the new owner of Death Race wants to franchise it out to the world, and he wants to start it off with a bang. Now Frankenstein and his pit crew are being shipped off to an African prison where they must do battle with one old enemy and a group of new enemies. It’s a new race, and a new set of dangers as Frankenstein tries to keep himself and his crew alive to see the finish line.

Paul W.S. Anderson has, in my opinion, made a good name for himself when it comes to making some movies that I like. He made the first Mortal Kombat, the Resident Evil franchise, and is responsible for the Death Race franchise (he directed the first and has produced the second and third). In my opinion, that is a very good track record, as I love the majority of all those movies. So how does Death Race 3 hold up?

First up comes the story. I personally thought that the story was as straightforward as you can get - Someone buys out the company that was responsible for the franchise out Death Race, and makes a big deal out of Frankenstein. But Frankenstein has other plans and thus cue endless mayhem until finish, where a nice little twist comes into play. Technically we should know how certain things come to be due to the fact that this and the previous movie are prequels to the first, but I still felt little surprised when everything was revealed at the end. For such a simple and straight-forward movie, I felt the surprises throughout (especially at the end) were very well done and unexpected.

The action was quite well-shot and very entertaining, and there was not a single moment throughout the long runtime where I was bored. You have vehicular roadrage action, yet hand to hand combat, and even some good old-fashioned gunplay from time to time. The car violence may seem a little familiar when watching all three movies within quick succession, as it doesn't really do much in that area that we haven't already seen in the other three movies, but as long as I was entertained, which I very much was, then that’s the main thing for me.

The acting I thought was actually pretty good. Seeing as how this is a direct to video movie, I wasn't expecting like an Oscar winner here, but I was still pleasantly surprised with what we did get. I know that may seem like a cliché statement to make during a review for a movie like Death Race 3, but let’s face it: It’s true. Everyone seems to be really into their roles and having a blast on-set. I personally liked seeing Robin Shou back, as he is a regular in the franchise by this point and I've been a fan of him ever since his Mortal Kombat days. Also, the amazingly beautiful girls like Tanit Phoenix was a huge plus - there was definitely some good eye candy on display here.

I would probably talk about the visual effects a bit more right around here, but I don’t think there was much in a film like this except for maybe some pyrotechnics and the amazing car stunts. And for what it’s worth, I thought those were really well done, and you definitely saw some very big explosions throughout the film. Whether it was flipping cars or falling off cliffs, the stunt actors here had their work cut out for them, and luckily it all came across great on-screen.

In the end, I must say that it was well worth the wait and should be a very pleasing entry in the series for the fans. Leading up to it, I wasn’t quite sure what they were going to give us, but what we ultimately got exceeded my expectations, and brings everything full circle, making this quite the fun little trilogy. Death Race: Inferno deserves its place in the rebooted Death Race franchise, and hopefully eventually in my BluRay collection.

10/10  rooms in the Psych Ward

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