Movie Review Thread

S-Des said:

Personally, I was completely let down. Forget expectations, I just didn't buy very much of it, no matter what came before it. I wouldn't say to not see it, but I wish I had waited for it to come out on HBO (I wouldn't have thought it was worth it to pay the $3.99 for PPV).

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Well, I really liked it (Indy 4). I was a little surprised at what the crystal skulls were, but then again, they had a cult in Indy 2 that could pull your heart out of your chest with bare hands, so it really wasn't that far fetched considering. Plus, it gave it a little bit more modern, passing of time slant to it.

The only thing I kept saying "no way" to was the refrigerator bit.

But all in all, I came out of the theater thinking, "That was awesome!" I loved the ending too.

Charlie Bartlett - an excellent little movie with Robert Downey Jr. Sort of a fractured Ferris Bueller. Keep your eye on the lead, Anton Yelchin; he should go places.

S-Des said:

Personally, I was completely let down. Forget expectations, I just didn't buy very much of it, no matter what came before it. I wouldn't say to not see it, but I wish I had waited for it to come out on HBO (I wouldn't have thought it was worth it to pay the $3.99 for PPV).

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CrimsonMaiden said:

Well, I really liked it (Indy 4). I was a little surprised at what the crystal skulls were, but then again, they had a cult in Indy 2 that could pull your heart out of your chest with bare hands, so it really wasn't that far fetched considering. Plus, it gave it a little bit more modern, passing of time slant to it.

The only thing I kept saying "no way" to was the refrigerator bit.

But all in all, I came out of the theater thinking, "That was awesome!" I loved the ending too.

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you need to remember the context.

The bad guys in each movie are reflective of the times in which the movies are set. It has zero to do with sensibilities of this decade.

Indy 4 is set in the fifites, when everyone was afraid of Nukes, the Reds and Flying Saucers.

Not so industrable after all.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I liked the first one, but I thought that it had pacing issues and spent too much time dealing with non-Hellboy characters. I was hoping that this movie would correct those problems. Not only did it meet my expectations, but it exceeded them. every time I thought that the movie was as good as it was going to get, it got better. Plenty of action, I laughed out loud at the comedy, and I truly came to enjoy each of the characters. I was pleasantly surprised by a movie that I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy.

TheeGoatPig said:

Not so industrable after all.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I liked the first one, but I thought that it had pacing issues and spent too much time dealing with non-Hellboy characters. I was hoping that this movie would correct those problems. Not only did it meet my expectations, but it exceeded them. every time I thought that the movie was as good as it was going to get, it got better. Plenty of action, I laughed out loud at the comedy, and I truly came to enjoy each of the characters. I was pleasantly surprised by a movie that I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy.

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Cool soundtrack, too.

cloudy said:

Cool soundtrack, too.

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If it doesn't piss me off I usually don't even notice.

Which is really weird since I consider myself a musician...

TheeGoatPig said:

If it doesn't piss me off I usually don't even notice.

Which is really weird since I consider myself a musician...

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Rammstein.

cloudy said:

Rammstein.

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That would fall under "annoying" and "boring" for me.

*listening to Anthrax - Keep it in the Family*

*rocks out*

I enjoyed Hellboy II a great deal... and the scene with Red and Abe and the case of Tecate is absolutely fucking classic

The Dark Knight

Awesome. I was surprised hot 2 and a half shot by. I was a little turned off by the gravely power voice of Batman but Heath Ledger as Joker buried Nicholson's performance. Great plot twists and I found myself grimacing at Harvey Dent in the end. I wish i could have seen it in an Imax theater though.

War, Inc

I love Ben Kingsley and John Cusack. And Marisa Tomei is looking good...

But this movie falls a little short even though it's entertaining. I don't think it knew what it wanted to be at heart. Very watchable though.

Southland Tales

This one made no sense. Maybe it was due to the wine, but I can't be sure. I did like Justin Timberlake's lip sync scene of the Killers All These Things That I've Done.

jomar said:

And Marisa Tomei is looking good...

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You're just saying that because ever since she made The Slums of Beverly Hills in 1998 she's been obsessive about bearing her breasts in indie films. Like it makes her more credible or something. Sure, Marisa, just hitch your wagon to Chloe Sevigny's star. It's okay. Or whatever.
(Jo, you dirty dog.)

And now for my terribly crafted contribution:

W.

Directed by Oliver Stone, and I think that Oliver Stone should perhaps not be allowed in the editing booth anymore. Because it was too long and, as a movie, made almost no sense and created no discernible timeline (in other words, it was confusing as hell to follow with all the jumping around).

Stone basically kept spanning back and forth between the "present" Bush and the past Bush, with accompanying dates and isolated clips of Bush in his empty baseball stadium, and it became wearying and hard to follow. Kind of like what they did with La Vie En Rose, but not really successful. I know what he was doing with the stadium shots, but for me it didn't really propel the movie at all, or say what I think he wanted it to say.
His camera shots also made me really motion-sick.

To be honest, the whole point of this movie is the acting. The casting choices. Those, unlike the pacing, were AMAZING (except, I wasn't really digging the Tony Blair they brought on. They should have used Martin Sheen again ).

Josh Brolin did a superb job of letting the camera get close up to his bloated party-boy face, and he really nailed the accent. He really nailed, just, the whole thing. And I did enjoy how they worked George Sr. into the mix. Ha, and Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush was inspired.

Thandie Newton as Condi Rice was...omg, I didn't even recognize her, she was so good. Facial twitches and grimaces and toothy smile-like things, and the voice. Whoa.

And let's face it about Richard Dreyfuss: ever since he made Mr. Holland's Opus he's been getting old, making worse and worse movies (Tin Man made me cringe for him), and looking more and more like Dick Cheney; it's been downright depressing for all of us. So, make the man Vice. Brilliant. He's now atoned for Krippendorf's Tribe (well...sorta).

So if you're gonna see it, just know it's not a stellar movie, but it sure is a showcase of wonderful acting talent. I see what the critics mean by saying it views a bit too sympathetic a portrait of W. It's not that it couldn't be true, but it definitely comes across as an ultimate Daddy Issues story.

Quarantine. Stay away from this drivel. It's Blair witch on meth. The plot was decent enough but the worst was the crappy, shaky, camera told from the eyes of a professional television photgrapher. I wanted to shout, "Hold the lens still, asshole!" and that wasn't when thewy weren't running around in the dark hallways, fighting rabid people.

Tropic Thunder - A Ben Stiller movie. Raw in some parts (so you sensitive types will have to close your ears), but very entertaining. As you know from commercials, it's a movie about making a war movie in which the actors are plunged into the real thing, but don't recognize it. There's a lot going on here actually - over the top homage to war movies you should recognize, poking actors and the Business, inside jokes...

Jack Black does his thing, which they thankfully kept below the "enough already" threshold (I couldn't watch his whole special features scene). And three actors who I had no idea were even in the movie showed up in substantial roles and were a hoot. Robert Downey, Jr, as a dude, playing a dude, disguised as another dude, was the Dude! The score/soundtrack was yet another character and really enhanced the experience. So expect silliness and stupidity and enjoy. And don't miss the "choose a dude" special features clip.

Soul men. Last film of comedian Bernie Mac and musician Issac Hayes. Pretty smooth team-up between Mac and Samuel L. Jackson. I was really shocked when 80's porn queen Vanessa Del Rio made a cameo. Worth a look.

Zack and Miri make a porno.
Pretty funny story about two roomates way past broke trying to start up a porno company to pay the bills. Some site gags, great writing from Kevin Smith.

I downloaded and watched The Happening today. As with all of M. Night Shyamalan's films, the emphasis is on the characters and how they cope with the situation in which they're placed. Unlike a lot of his films, however, this one does not feature water as a central plot device.

To me, the acting felt a bit "off." I don't know how else to explain it. I've liked Mark Wahlberg since the incredible job he did with Boogie Nights, but his portrayal of a Boston high school science teacher seems forced. It's not one of Wahlberg's usual characters, and it shows. Zooey Deschanel -- never heard of her before -- plays his wife, who is a very reserved and skittish woman. Her performance seemed rather plastic as well. Shyamalan plays on the tried-and-true backstory of a young couple with problems, but it doesn't help the story at all.

Essentially, The Happening is about a virus/bacterial agent/drug which causes people to become at first confused, then seek out the most expedient method of committing suicide. The ways depicted in which people kill themselves is morbidly interesting. Apparently, an individual's pain response is turned off as well, making it that much more feasible for, say, a man to turn on a riding lawnmower then lay down before it.

At it's heart, The Happening is like The Day After Tomorrow; it is basically an environmentalist's message. The film ends with a warning that comes across as "Oh, that's what you were really saying."

All in all, not a bad film. Not as notable as The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable, but good nonetheless.

slyc_willie said:

I downloaded and watched The Happening today. As with all of M. Night Shyamalan's films, the emphasis is on the characters and how they cope with the situation in which they're placed. Unlike a lot of his films, however, this one does not feature water as a central plot device.

To me, the acting felt a bit "off." I don't know how else to explain it. I've liked Mark Wahlberg since the incredible job he did with Boogie Nights, but his portrayal of a Boston high school science teacher seems forced. It's not one of Wahlberg's usual characters, and it shows. Zooey Deschanel -- never heard of her before -- plays his wife, who is a very reserved and skittish woman. Her performance seemed rather plastic as well. Shyamalan plays on the tried-and-true backstory of a young couple with problems, but it doesn't help the story at all.

Essentially, The Happening is about a virus/bacterial agent/drug which causes people to become at first confused, then seek out the most expedient method of committing suicide. The ways depicted in which people kill themselves is morbidly interesting. Apparently, an individual's pain response is turned off as well, making it that much more feasible for, say, a man to turn on a riding lawnmower then lay down before it.

At it's heart, The Happening is like The Day After Tomorrow; it is basically an environmentalist's message. The film ends with a warning that comes across as "Oh, that's what you were really saying."

All in all, not a bad film. Not as notable as The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable, but good nonetheless.

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I still appreciate Shyamalan's films. I know that Lady in the Water was panned, but I loved it for it's focus on a writer, and the whole story behind the lady.

I found my cure for "quaratine" last night when I got to watch George Romero's "Diary of the Dead". Romero actually has a deeper message than zombies stumbling around chewing on people. He makes us question our own humanity when confronted by the uncontrollable. Hmmmm. Wonder If he'll ever appear on "In the actor's studio", even though he's a director.

cloudy said:

I still appreciate Shyamalan's films. I know that Lady in the Water was panned, but I loved it for it's focus on a writer, and the whole story behind the lady.

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And I thought I was the only one who actually LIKED "Lady"

kromen said:

I found my cure for "quaratine" last night when I got to watch George Romero's "Diary of the Dead". Romero actually has a deeper message than zombies stumbling around chewing on people. He makes us question our own humanity when confronted by the uncontrollable. Hmmmm. Wonder If he'll ever appear on "In the actor's studio", even though he's a director.

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Try Shaun of the Dead for a lighter mood.

jomar said:

Try Shaun of the Dead for a lighter mood.

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Truly excellent movie (although the first thirty minutes are a bit slow).

When it comes to zombies I like this one.

I just saw Mallrats (most of it, missed the beginning). Even though I laughed at quite a few jokes in it, I'm still not sure what to think of it.

Also, I thought I saw Luke Wilson in the audience of the game show in the second row, near the middle. I could be mistaken though.

TheeGoatPig said:

I just saw Mallrats (most of it, missed the beginning). Even though I laughed at quite a few jokes in it, I'm still not sure what to think of it.

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That reminds me of an article by Lawrence Block I read once, probably a good fifteen or so years ago. He was on a plane, and the in-flight movie happened to be the Whoopi Goldberg movie, Burglar (which was based on the book by Block). The man sitting next to Block was laughing his ass off throughout the movie, which made Block feel pretty good (apparently, the movie was fairly close to the original story, including Block's dry and sometimes twisted sense of humor).

After the movie, Block comments to his fellow passenger, "Pretty good movie, huh?"

The man just shrugged and said, "I've seen better." He did not know who the man was sitting beside him.

"But you laughed throughout the whole thing."

"Yeah, it was funny, but as a movie, it sucked. There were a couple of major plot holes, but, hey, what do you expect from Hollywood?"

Just goes to show that a movie can make you laugh, but that doesn't mean it's good.

The movie Heat just came on Bravo. Damn, but it has to rank as one of the best movies ever made. Michael Mann is an icon in Hollywood, one of the few film makers who still sees his craft as an art. The characters are deep and three-dimensional, the plot involving, the action intense and blunt. This is no fairy tale action shoot-em-up, but a real story that could really happen.

De Niro, Pacino, Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore put in some of their best performances, but to be honest, there isn't an actor or actress in Heat that didn't do their best. A lot of that is due to Michael Mann, of course. He is a gifted director.

I remember seeing this in the theater when it first came out. The scene in the diner between Pacino and De Niro was pure gold. It was one of the few times in which the big screen really looked BIG.