Reviews - District 9, Tyson

District 9 – starring nobody recognizable ... I’ll start off by saying that I was left with the same feeling from watching this movie, as I was with The Dark Knight last year ... left with a few unanswered questions ... BUT, that being said, I have to give this movie some major props for being different, original, unpredictable (Thank God) and realistic ... to elaborate on the last point (which I’m sure some of you will question considering this is an alien movie), the characters in the film reacted to situations how I would expect them to if this really happened ... I will say that this movie is definitely not for everyone ... One thing I liked about the movie was that it was not some “Grand Hollywood” production, ie. typical apocalyptic/disaster flick shot in one of the big cities (NYC, LA, London), as it was set in South Africa ... lastly, another element of the film that I liked was that a good percentage of it was shot documentary style, props to the director on that ... District 9 wasn’t bad at all, I just wasn’t wow’d ... score: 3.25/5

Tyson – documentary/biography by James Toback ... picked up this DVD on the first day of release like I said I would ... there was a lot of hype about this film and after viewing it, I can vouch that it is as good as advertised, if not better ... I’m kind of biased, because Mike Tyson was one of my childhood heroes as I’ve mentioned before ... but what I enjoyed the most about this film was that Mike’s accounts and dialogue were as real and as raw as it gets, really taking you into his frame of mind ... and his logic, I’m sure to most people, will come off as really twisted and borderline psycho ... his life is really just a tragic story, but I feel that he’s redeemed because (and whether you choose to believe him or not) he owns up to everything he’s done in the past, saying various times “I can only blame myself” ... over the years Mike’s come across like an insane animal (and admittedly much of it was his doing) but you really get to see the human side of him which is just a sad individual, some scenes saw him fighting back tears ... the film gives you Mike’s account of the significant moments in his life: his early years, career, marriage to Robin Givens, Buster Douglas, prison sentence, return to glory and fall from grace ... finally, in my opinion, if Tyson had gotten the opportunity to face Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis in his prime, he would’ve gone down as the greatest to ever lace up gloves, because they both would’ve fallen ... he may not have gone down as THE greatest of all time, but his documentary/biography definitely is ... score: 4.75/5

~J-Smooth~