Movie Reviews

[simply_cyn]

Okay, there are tons of movies out right now that I want to see but I'm curious as to what other people think before going out and spending the money to go see them (Yup ... I'm cheap, especially right after Christmas).

The ones I'm interested in are:
King Kong
Brokeback Mountain
Zathura
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

So ... what did y'all think? Worth going to see? Some that I should just wait until their release on DVD? What movies are you interested in getting reviews on?

 

[drksideofthemoon]

King Kong

Kong is good, so is the Narnia movie....Brokeback Mountain...I wouldn't waste my fuckin' time...

 

[davidwatts]

Okay, there are tons of movies out right now that I want to see but I'm curious as to what other people think before going out and spending the money to go see them (Yup ... I'm cheap, especially right after Christmas).

The ones I'm interested in are:
King Kong
Brokeback Mountain
Zathura
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

So ... what did y'all think? Worth going to see? Some that I should just wait until their release on DVD? What movies are you interested in getting reviews on?

Hello.

My impression of King Kong was that it was in dire need of some editing, particularly in the beginning. Parts of it I found amazing, especially the section when they arrive at Kong Island. When things get going, they really get going, but almost too much so. It's a sensory overload after a while. Your Jack Black tolerance level will factor in as well. Little ones start roaming around after a time too, and I was jealous of them.

Kong is one that, if you have a good sized TV, you might find worth waiting for and watching at home. At least there you can give yourself an intermission, which is what Kong desperately needed. As for missing the "in theatre" experience, the old geezer sitting toward the rear of the theatre summed in up for us.

Every ten minutes or so, you would start to hear snoring, which grew louder and more nasal until someone would apparently poke him in the ribs. At that point he would awaken startled and blurt out ... "HUH? Whassamatter? Kong whassat? Where's Kong?". He was annoying, but not rising to the Jack Black level. And someone please buy Naomi Watts a pizza.

 

[HLD]

I went to see Narnia with my wife because she liked the books. I have never read them, and since the fundy Christians are so into CS Lewis, I didn't want to like it.

Having said that, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is pretty good.

The special effects are "Lord of the Rings Lite" since WETA did all the effects, but with only a fraction of the budget. Some of the CGI is obvious, but some of the effects are seamless.

The kids are fair actors, the plot is fairly straight forward (with only a handful of continuity questions), and from what I hear, sticks pretty closely to the books. If you enjoy fantasy movies, you will probably enjoy Narnia.

I don't think I would pay full price to see it, but it's worth the matinee fare.

 

[rgraham666]

I quite enjoyed The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

It may not be one of the 'Great Movies', but it kept very close to the book. I thought they did an excellent job with character development. You needn't have had to read the book to enjoy the movie.

I don't believe you'll be disappointed if you go, cyn.

 

[simply_cyn]

Okay, so it sounds like Kong could be a renter although I'm a lover of the big Blockbuster movies. (Call me crazy ...)

Any more thoughts on that one?

I'm assuming from the comments that Narnia is a good choice at the theatre ...

Has anyone actually SEEN Brokeback Mountain?

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Narnia was good... haven't seen the others...

do want to plug "Walk The Line" with Joaquin Phoenix... it was a fantastic love story, and compelling and interesting... I never knew Johnny Cash had that kind of depth... I wouldn't have gone to see it if my husband weren't a fan, but I was blown away.

 

[simply_cyn]

Narnia was good... haven't seen the others...

do want to plug "Walk The Line" with Joaquin Phoenix... it was a fantastic love story, and compelling and interesting... I never knew Johnny Cash had that kind of depth... I wouldn't have gone to see it if my husband weren't a fan, but I was blown away.

AWESOME!
That's the kind of information I want, Selena!
Thanks for sharing!

I love Joaquin Phoenix ... and my daughter is a HUGE Reese Witherspoon fan.
I gotta admit, I love the Legally Blonde movies. LOL

 

[BlackShanglan]

I quite liked "The Chronicles of Narnia." I'd definitely recommend it.

This weekend the SO and I saw "Cassanova." It's not bad. Not brilliant either; I think it could have used another ten minutes of development in the main love relationships, and it does get a touch preachy here and there. But the costuming and shots of Venice are gorgeous, there are some good comic moments, and they do nice work with the tragicomic lard merchant from Genoa. It's worth a lazy view - sort of a B/B minus film, but if you can fill in the missing character development in your head, it's watchable.

"War of the Worlds," on the other hand ... ! I know it's been out a while, but I just saw it last night in the hotel room. That was one of the most annoying and pointless movies I have seen in a very long time. Start with the premise that aliens visited the Earth thousands of years ago, buried thousands of massive warships deep underground, and then decided to just leave them there and bugger off back to their homeworld for a few millenia. Go on from there. Oh, and they then zap their soldiers down into the buried ships via bolts of lightning. Because, evidently, it's simpler that way. *bangs head on desk* Lord, the whole thing is that stupid.

Shanglan

 

[simply_cyn]

That's the new Cassanova with Heath Ledger, right?

*Takes a moment to flip on the fan thinking about him ...*

That really looks like a good movie. I can't wait to see it!

War of The Worlds - holy hell, where to begin?
Just BLEH covers it for me.
I usually like Tom Cruise movies but every once in a while he comes out with a major LOSER. War was definately one of them.

 

[kromen]

Has to be a better way

I have to agree with Black Shanglan about War of the Worlds. I would have rather listened to the Orson Welles recording than sit through that crap again. Honestly, the last movie i saw in the theater was "Hustle and Flow" which was decent. I ended up buying a video pass at Hollywood Video for 10.49 a month and wait a couple of months for the DVD. That way I don't feel bad about shelling out good money for snoozers like W.O.T.W.
Not wanting to take over your thread, but has anyone ever pulled the old buy one, see three at the theaters?

 

[simply_cyn]

What's the buy one, see three thing? I'm a movie buff and I've never heard of that. Is that with a certain theatre line?

 

[Selena_Kitt]

This weekend the SO and I saw "Cassanova."

Ok, Shang... what did you think of Heath Ledger in the role? Did he pull it off??

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Not wanting to take over your thread, but has anyone ever pulled the old buy one, see three at the theaters?

Not since I was 12 and saw Star Wars three times in a row... LOL

We used to do that all the time, though, buy one ticket and stay all day, just skip from movie to movie... sometimes had to miss the beginning, oh well... made for a fun day...

 

[simply_cyn]

Not since I was 12 and saw Star Wars three times in a row... LOL

We used to do that all the time, though, buy one ticket and stay all day, just skip from movie to movie... sometimes had to miss the beginning, oh well... made for a fun day...

Okay, now I DO remember that ... but it was "illegal" to just skip from theatre to theatre. Not that I would know, of course ...

 

[kromen]

Welcome to the dark side

I hate to say it, but American Cinema fell by the wayside. They are too busy rehashing remakes, stealing foreign ideas, and making 200 million dollar visual stimulators, then simply tell a good story. I started following Hispanic and Asian cinema and found it very interesting. Here is a list of my favorites I found in Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.

1.Old Boy (Korean)
2.Tae Guk Gi (Korean)
3. Attack the Gas Station (Korean)
4. 3 Iron (Japanese)
5. The eel (Chinese)
6. Audition (Japanese)
7. Y tu mama tambien (Hispanic, but not sure which origin)
8. Los Debutantes (Hispanic)
9. Carandiru (Brazilian, based on a true story)
10. Phone (Japanese)
11. Xiu Xiu, the sent down girl (Chinese) Actually made a grown man cry
12. Live Flesh
13. Bad Education (Both this and # 12 were by Pedro Almodovar, great stories)
Don't get me wrong. I love all the Harry Potters and I'm a fan of "low brow" humor, like anything by the Farrelly brothers, but how many time can you rerelease the Stars Wars series and how many King Kongs are we gonna sit through before we die. Oh yeah, Happy New year! everyone.
p.s. I might have to pay for Brokeback Mountian, then sneak into King Kong, The Ringer, and flip a coin for the last one.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Ok, Shang... what did you think of Heath Ledger in the role? Did he pull it off??

I don't think he was bad. He wasn't, in my opinion, as interesting or seductive as Malkovich as the Vicomte de Valmont, but I'm not convinced that it was Ledger's acting that was the main issue. When one really gets down to it, the part didn't give him many opportunities to be seductive. We see the results of him being seductive, but rarely the process. It's not so much that Ledger does a poor job as that he didn't really get many scenes in which to be Cassanova as rake and seducer. They move fairly quickly to him falling in love with someone with whom he knows that that won't fly, and so he doesn't really try it. He acts more like a romance hero in love, and his efforts at seduction are largely limited to describing it to other people. Ledger does well with the part he's given, I think, and he has pose and style to a good degree; he just doesn't get much chance to be Cassanova as we think of him, and I do think that one of the weaknesses of the movie. I would have liked to have seen a little more struggle there. One doesn't get much reason for his sudden and utter conversion to faithful and unswerving romance-hero lover.

Shanglan

 

[impressive]

War of The Worlds - holy hell, where to begin?
Just BLEH covers it for me.
I usually like Tom Cruise movies but every once in a while he comes out with a major LOSER. War was definately one of them.

And "Eyes Wide Shut"


Blech!

 

[Evil Alpaca]

Okay, there are tons of movies out right now that I want to see but I'm curious as to what other people think before going out and spending the money to go see them (Yup ... I'm cheap, especially right after Christmas).

The ones I'm interested in are:
King Kong
Brokeback Mountain
Zathura
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

So ... what did y'all think? Worth going to see? Some that I should just wait until their release on DVD? What movies are you interested in getting reviews on?

The only one I've seen of those is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's not as good as the Lord of the Rings trilogy was (in an epic sense), but it was pretty good and certainly was visually stunning. Some of the animal effects were spectacular.

Some friends saw Brokeback Mountain and they pretty much gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up. I was worred that it would be a thick movie, but they said it flowed really well and didn't get overly deep until the last twenty minutes. I may go see it tomorrow.

I've seen three movies in three days.

Wolf Creek: Someone actually thought this movie was scary?
The Producers: A number of good laughs from this one.
The Ringer: Better than I thought it would be, but I'd stick with matinee prices.

 

[RogueLurker]

We saw both Narnia and King Kong over the holidays ...

Narnia wins hands down. It made me feel like a kid again. (And I love Tilda Swinton in anything she does).

King Kong ... fantastic special effects (icky effects in some parts) but a good portion of the first third of it could have been cut down quite a bit.

 

[Evil Alpaca]

"War of the Worlds," on the other hand ... ! I know it's been out a while, but I just saw it last night in the hotel room. That was one of the most annoying and pointless movies I have seen in a very long time. Start with the premise that aliens visited the Earth thousands of years ago, buried thousands of massive warships deep underground, and then decided to just leave them there and bugger off back to their homeworld for a few millenia. Go on from there. Oh, and they then zap their soldiers down into the buried ships via bolts of lightning. Because, evidently, it's simpler that way. *bangs head on desk* Lord, the whole thing is that stupid.

Shanglan

A-men!

I'm glad Serenity came out this year. It helped balance the Sci-Fi movie scales which would have otherwise been tipped to the "Ick" side by WOTW.

 

[LadyJeanne]

And "Eyes Wide Shut"


Blech!

That was one of the most boring, non-erotic movies I ever had to sit through. Fortunately, I didn't waste money on the theater, but it wasn't worth the rental price either. Or the hours of my life I can't get back.

 

[LadyJeanne]

We saw both Narnia and King Kong over the holidays ...

Narnia wins hands down. It made me feel like a kid again. (And I love Tilda Swinton in anything she does).

I haven't seen Narnia yet, but I can't get into the idea of a blonde as the White Witch. It's just wrong.

 

[RogueLurker]

I haven't seen Narnia yet, but I can't get into the idea of a blonde as the White Witch. It's just wrong.

I read the book so long ago, that I don't remember what colour hair that the Witch was supposed to have ... Don't let that stop you. It really is very well done.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I haven't seen Narnia yet, but I can't get into the idea of a blonde as the White Witch. It's just wrong.

I felt that way about the dark-haired actor they chose to play Dorian Gray in "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman"; when I first saw him, I was highly annoyed, as Dorian is clearly and specifically described as blonde.

That lasted about ten seconds. Damn, he's good.