When <a href="http://us.imdb.com/Title?0253556">Reign of Fire </a>first came out, I thought ?Is this what Matthew McConaughey?s career has come to?? But after getting some pretty good reviews from trusted sources, namely my buddy <a href="http://www.2aldgate.net">Paul Beaulieu</a>, I thought I would give it a shot. After all, I had a Friday night alone with Patti and Emily in Colorado, sausage and peppers cooking on the stove and a free Blockbuster rental. So I rented and watched.
Surprisingly, I was very happy with this movie. Sure, it had more holes than an Enron tax return, was pretty silly in main parts and was beyond belief, but it was pretty freakin? cool. I am a fan of the Mad Max, Waterworld, future scenes from the Terminator, post Apocalyptic world theories, so I was into this thing from the getgo.
It starts with the release of the dragons, and quickly enters the world of a band of survivors who are met by a para-military group who have a plan to end the madness and save the world. Or at least what?s left of it. This all may sound routine, and seeing a truly original movie is very rare indeed, but the movie does a couple of things that kept me interested. First, it takes place in England. Too often we are forced to watch a post-war NY City or LA, or some other major American city. Second, it keeps things simple and, well, not sure how to say this, but macho. The scenes were written with a ton of testosterone. Finally, it was pure entertainment. It was a little predictable but in this case, it worked. I was routing for the dirty, scared and beat up survivors using sling shots and spit balls to try to kill the evil, bad dragons who breathe fire and hate tomatoes.
The movie did have its bad points. It had a major military-type character played by a chick to add a stupid romantic element that would have been much better with a dude playing the part, the movie had a bunch of scared, shaking, frightened hobos doing something every military in the world was unable to do, and they could have used a comic presence like Hudson from Aliens. And I could have used a much better ending.
But overall, it was entertaining. If you are in a sci-fi mood, feel like sitting back and watching pure entertainment with no cultural or artistic benefit, and want to see s**t blown up, rent this movie.
My rating: Free Night (?Free Night? is defined as if you have a free night, see or rent this movie, there are worse things to do with your time).