2001 YONGGARY (1999) **1/2 Hyung-rae Shim sets and maintains an outstanding pace, and generally presides over great fun involving dinosaurs, space aliens, and desperate generals. Vampires and werewolves not included. It only escapes greatness due to the lack of original ideas: they have a bunch of aliens on a fish-looking spaceship who sound like Jimi Hendrix tape-delayed (or is that Mandrax?) on "Electric Ladyland," a giant of a fire-breathing dinosaur, and a bevy of tormented academics, but after laying an, obviously, brilliant foundation, Shim resorts to a cinematic consecution of merely touching base with the principals. You can't just rest on your laurels in a film like this-you have to constantly generate new ideas, and the dumber the better! The film also benefits from a cast of actors more than capable of delivering their lines in a manner at once invoking the most grandiose melodrama and hysteria in its many forms...but none so good that they could afford to kill off that farm-faced lookin' guy before the opening credits. Come on, be resourceful! Who do you think you are, Hyung-rae, the CEO of Exxon?! Source material for anyone wondering what to do with their new computer graphics software, and sure to be cited in requests for an increase in Pentagon funding. Moral of the story? If an 200 million year old fossil is resurrected by aliens, cut off its head and shoot fire down its neck until it blows up.
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