Jeff likes Movies

2007-10-26T21:47:00.001-07:00

Well it's Oscar season, or near enough, and hence I'm at the movies a number of times a week.

I've had the joy of seeing Michael Clayton, The Assassination of Jesse James, Gone Baby Gone, Eastern Promises etc all relatively recently, and it's been great seeing good movies, since they were few and far between for the majority of the year.

I'm not gonna say much about Michael Clayton here, just that it's one of the best movies I've seen this year, and I highly recommend it.

This review will mainly be on Gone Baby Gone with a bit of Jesse James thrown in for good measure.

I was lucky enough to see AJJ on Wednesday and GBG tonight, both starring Casey Affleck, who I am digging more and more with every role I see him in. The similarities between the characters he portrays is evident, in their being small, young, and this being used against them. He's much more cocksure in GBG, which maybe doesn't make him as interesting, but it's still fun to watch.

Gone Baby Gone is a mystery directed by Ben Affleck and based off of a Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) book. This story is based in a poor area of Boston, much like Mystic River, though this urban Boston is portrayed much more real and gritty, which is a credit to the crew.

The story follows the younger Affleck as a PI hired to augment the investigation of a small girl, since some people will talk to PIs and not cops. Morgan Freeman is a captain of police, and Ed Harris is a detective. One of the unique things about this movie is the narrative structure. You're only about an hour into the movie when suddenly the mystery is solved, but there's still another hour to go. It's very offsetting and I was surprised by it, though it all comes together eventually.

Now as time goes on, and the plot comes around full circle, and you learn of everything, well I wasn't sold. I'm having a hard time explaining what I mean, but basically as Affleck starts investigating what happened, everything is just coming so easily. I have begun watching The Wire on HBO On Demand. The Wire, for those that haven't seen it, is a cop drama that blows all previous cop dramas out of the water. It's ultra-realistic, and thus it's warped my mind on this mysteries. I watched 13 hour-long episodes of the first season of the Wire to see them wrap up a case on some drug dealers, so it's hard to see people chase down some bad guys in the space of 30 minutes.

Basically, my problem with the mystery part of the movie was that it seemed somewhat humdrum. I love mysteries, but this one didn't particularly rock my socks, while Mystic River blew me away. However, the dilemma at the end is what sets this film apart from most mysteries you will see. I won't give anything away, but it'll get you thinking and possibly arguing. It was really the big thing that saved this film from being a run of the mill mystery.

The film is aided by the aforementioned gritty urban Boston and the denizens withing. Ben Affleck apparently got non-actors from the area to play parts, and it works to wonderful effect.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, also starring Casey Affleck as Robert Ford and with Brad Pitt as Jesse James was much more adored by me.

This is a western about the infamous outlaw. I'm not very familiar with Jesse James, I just know he's one of the villains of the Wild West, though this film painted him in a much more morose light. This film covers his gangs' final big time robbery and the months that would follow. Robert Ford is a sad creeeeeeeepy sap that is a hanger-on with the group, and has a sick sort of admiration for James.

Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, and Paul Schneider play other members of the gang, and they're all superb. I love that they casted these guys for these roles, using actual actors over nobodies or pretty faces, as it adds something.

People have likened this movie to something that Terrence Malick might make. I've seen The Thin Red Line and The New World, and Malick loves to use poetic voiceover narration and beautiful shots of landscape and such. While that is present in AJJ, the narration is more straightforward and actually relevant to the story. This movie is definitely slow and long, coming in at 160 minutes, and I guess you could say it's Malickese, but there is also something of the violence that the director, Andrew Dominik, displayed in his prison drama, Chopper.

So the film covers the lives of James, Ford, and the others in the time following their last train robbery as James becomes paranoid of his friends turning him in for the crimes he's committed, and Ford getting more and more angry with the constant teasing for his oddness.

Casey Affleck is absolutely amazing in this movie. Brad Pitt is good, but Affleck steals the show. From his first scene when he asked Jesse James' brother if he can become a member of the gang, to when he kills someone in the middle of the movie, to his conversation at dinner with Jesse James one night about what they have in common... one thing that makes this movie so interesting and great is how I feel that it would only work this well in this genre during this era. It's so interesting seeing a movie about celebrity and fame, with a creepy character like Robert Ford in a Western based in 1882.

There was a review on AICN by the webmaster, Harry Knowles about how films like this killed the Western, and how a movie like 3:10 to Yuma was what a classical Western was like. He commends both movies for being great. I can absolutely see what he means with the former. You can truly feel that the age of the cowboy and outlaw is coming to an end with this movie. James, Ford, and the others are portrayed a bit pathetically, with none of the bluster you would expect. Even their one robbery at the beginning is done unprofessionally and messily. A masterful job is done humanizing these characters that would so often be represented as superheroes in a previous era.

So that's that. Go see Michael Clayton and AJJ if you possibly could, and also Eastern Promises, 3:10 to Yuma and In the Valley of Elah are all great movies. Gone Baby Gone is maybe a step down, but still worth seeing.

DVD rentals

2007-07-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

I rented a couple of horror movies recently, so I'll give them some quick mini-reviews.

First and foremost, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. The premise is that there's a new serial killer in town, in the vein of Freddy, Jason and Michael, and he is hiring a documentary team to film him preparing for the slaughter of some hapless teens. What it ends up being for at least the first two thirds of the film, is a rather hysterical satire on the slasher horror movie. Any cliche you can think of is broken down in this movie, to why the serial killers never get hurt and can always catch up with their prey, to how come so many of the victims die (because the killer has already prepared every inch of the site).

It's a rather brilliant look at the genre. However, for the final third, the movie becomes a typical slasher film, made only slightly more interesting by the fact that the victims know the killer's plan of action, and need to find a way out of it.

Still, this movie is a lot of fun, and if you like your Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween, then you will like this one.

Unfortunately, I also rented this movie called Perfect Creature. Humorously enough, the box proclaims it to be Children of Men meets Underworld. I can envision something like that I guess, but this movie was nothing like it.

Basically, in an alternate Earth, before Gregor Mendel, some guy created vampires through genetic manipulation. These vampires are smarter than us regular humans, and thus become our protectors and scientists and such. Flu is a major problem, and they are the main workers trying to find a vaccine for it. So as a result, it creates an interesting hierarchy, where vampires agree to protect and serve the humans so long as the humans donate their blood to feed the vampires. However, a vampire named Edgar is eventually infected with a new vampire disease that basically makes them go insane and turn into the more violent vampires we are familiar with from other movies.

Edgar goes on a rampage, infects humans to make them bloodthirsty crazy vampires, and kidnaps a woman, and the movie deteriorates into convention and boredom. The movie is left open to a sequel, but hopefully that won't happen.

The acting is laughably serious, with everyone whispering for the most part. The budget was small obviously, but above average camera work does a pretty good job of hiding the limitations that low budget brings.

Still, it was a rather pointless movie. It started out well enough and I liked the idea of the vampires being the humans' protectors and helpers, but it all had to break down and be lame.

What else... Black Sheep was another horror movie I've seen recently. It's basically a zombie movie if you replaced the zombies with sheep. But because they ARE sheep, and it's a well done funny horror movie, I have to recommend it.

Basically, some scientists are working with gene therapy to create amazing sheep breeds, but they end up creating flesh eating sheep instead and all hell breaks loose.

Summer Blockbuster Wrap-up

2007-07-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

So another summer blockbuster season is over for me. I'm not going to consider Simpsons and Bourne Ultimatum to be blockbuster caliber, though both will hopefully be good.

My blockbusters were Spiderman 3, POTC3, Harry Potter 5, Transformers, and Die Hard 4. I've already done reviews for Spiderman 3 and POTC3. To summarize, Spider-Man I didn't find to be awful. I enjoyed it mildly... very mildly. Pirates I found to be very bad, about as bad as 2.

So what happened with the remaining three?

Well the next that I saw was Transformers. After seeing it, I thought, ok it was better than Spiderman, but just barely. Since, I've thought about it, and it's fallen from grace. I really can't stand it. People are saying "oh come on, it was fun, it was about big robots fighting each other, what did you expect?" Well for one, I expected Michael Bay to become a good director since The Island. I don't know why, I did, that's my fault. Really, it was Michael Bay that killed this movie for me. He's terrible. He doesn't get a free pass because every single one of his other movies was a mindless action film. I just thought Transformers was bad.

Harry Potter on the other hand improved greatly from the fourth installment, which I didn't like. OOTP could have suffered from the same things Goblet suffered from. That is, I thought Goblet was emotionless and vapid. I felt that they were just going over the major events in the book, and that was it. Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson were awful to watch "act".

In Order of the Phoenix, which was even longer, I felt that it was much sleeker, and a better job was done injecting feeling into the movie. It wasn's great, but it was based off of a 900 page book or something like that. Things were left out I thought might not have been. But for a shallower movie version of an already shallow book series, it wasn't as terrible as I might have feared.

Finally, Die Hard 4. While it wasn't really a Die Hard per se, it was still a well done action film, that could have done without the terrible John McClane standing on a flying F35 fighter jet scene. Unlike Transformers, which had awful out of place humor at all the wrong moments, the humor in this movie is wellplaced and actually funny. The action scenes were scattershot, some good, some ridiculous, but worked for the most part pretty well. Again, not great, but worthwhile.

So as the summer ends, at least for tentpole films, how did this summer do? Better than last year, thank heavens. Last year was disgusting. This year was alright. Nothing brilliant, and while Pirates really stunk it up, Die Hard and Harry Potter made up for it.

What else have I seen?

Well nothing really amazing, some good stuff though. Still a weak year for movies that I hope improves. I'll be back as soon as something blows me away, good or bad.

On The Lot and Top Chef

2007-06-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

This is not movie related, but rather reality tv related.

I don't much like reality TV. E! and VH1 have destroyed the genre, as has MTV. Not that it was anything great to begin with.

In any case, I watch two reality shows, those being On the Lot (for directors) and Top Chef (guess). In my life, I watched early seasons of Real World, when they casted the show with unique people named Genesis and Montana, as well as the first season of Survivor. But really, that's been about it. So, moving on.

On the Lot began with about 50 contestants, which they knocked down to 18 in about 90 minutes or so of tv time. right now, we're at 13. basically a group of them air their short films, and America votes.

To begin, this show began as poorly edited and put together as shows get. From 50 down to 18, it was sloppy, they totally skipped the 24 to 18 elimination round, it was just shoddy. Eventually, if you stuck around, you got to the live movie premiere part, where we now stand.

The first round, wherein we went from 18 to 15, was one minute comedy shorts. I voted for maybe half, granting a lot of leeway. There is one guy named Zach is ridiculous, but otherwise nothing spectacular, nothing that said "this person deserves a 1 mil dollar deal with Dreamworks."

Now we're in round two, which was do whatever you want in three minutes. It's been rough. Most of the directors stuck with comedy, and did it poorly. I mean, the short films have been crap all around. That Zach guy did another good one, and others have done ones that have been alright, but I mean come on now folks.

The judges are Carrie Fisher (the woman that played Tom Hanks' wife in the Burbs)

sidenote- I know she's Princess Leia, it was just that when I saw the first episode of this show, a contestant says "so I walk in and there she is, Princess Leia herself) and I thought ' it would have been funny if he would've substituted Princess Leia with Tom Hanks' wife from the Burbs).

also included are Gary Marshall (did Pretty Woman and some other stuff) and then they get a guest judge, which have been DJ Caruso, Michael Bay, and Wes Craven in previous eps.

The guest and Gary Marshall typically give good interesting advice, but Carrie Fisher is stuck in this whole opinionated quagmire of crap advice. If i were on that show, I'd be a much better Carrie Fisher.

I hope the quality of the shorts picks up, because it's just rough. Everyone loves one contestant Will Bigham, who makes "sweet" little live action cartoons. He sucks.

On the other hand, Top Chef is awesome.... I just lost the desire to type anymore. I might finish this later, goodnight.

Pirates and Others

2007-06-18T14:16:00.001-07:00

So it's been another long while between posts unfortunately.

I saw Pirates, and was not a fan at all. It started out well enough, slowly, was building nicely. And then the plot lost all cohesion. Things were happening that were not making sense. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention you might say. But I had the same problem with Pirates 2, so going into 3, I said to myself "The only thing you are concentrating on is the incredibly intricate plot of Pirates 3." And that's what I did. And STILL, characters are doing shit that makes no sense, there are a ridiculous number of plot twists and turns that don't really add up. If I had written this review right after seeing the movie, I might be able to go more in depth, but as it is, i have thankfully forgotten most of the ridiculous plot.

What is too bad is that the characters were a lot of fun in this one. I loved Geoffrey Rush' Captain Barbossa, Chow Yun Fat's short role was pretty good.

And then the ending fight scene. Well for one, the whole thing with Calypso was pointless. They built that whole thing up forever, and all she does is create a storm/maelstrom that did nothing. They might as well have not done it. And while Gore Verbinski (director) might not understand how cannonballs work, I believe I do. See, when they hit a ship, they create a hole, and in this hole, water might flow in. When this happens repeatedly, the ship begins to fill with water and sink. When it happens for a long period of time, as was happening between The Black Pearl and ... damn I can't remember it's name... ANyways, Davy Jones' ship, then the ships are going to be destroyed. I am nitpicking, I know, but I just wanted to see a movie, not a cartoon.

And also, there were maybe a hundred or so British ships, and ten or so pirate ships. The Black Pearl and Davy Jones' ship destroy the flagship, and that signals the end of the battle? It's still 99 on 10. I guess they really loved that commander.

In any case, I'm getting off track.

Knocked Up was great. I hope you have seen it by this point.

Saw Oceans 13. It was fun, much better than 12. Still, I had a major problem with this one also. This heist required an unbelievably complex setup. So complex, it's already pretty much in progress by the time the movie begins. The casino they're trying to take down is so well defended, it may seem impossible. And it would be, if Danny Ocean and his gang weren't involved. The movie builds up all these seemingly impossible to overcome conflicts and obstacles, but Danny Ocean et al constantly overcome them. And it's not really because of intelligence or finesse like in 11, but rather because of A.)The unexplained way in which they can get any of their guys a job anywhere doing whatever it is they need them to do
or B.)The fact that they apparently have hundreds of millions of dollars stored away somewhere.

And I Know, they're professional robbers, they would have a ton of money. But that is no excuse why everything that is defeated by our protagonists in this movie eventually can come back to the amount of money they can spend.

It just seems cheap. I gave up on logic maybe 20 minutes in, when they somehow got licensed a drill to shake the foundation of the casino as an exit strategy. They can also pimp out girls, which was a surprise. I guess you'll have to watch it to see what I mean. It just seemed that if you have the resources these guys apparently have, you could rob anything.

I just wasn't expecting this to basically be the least realistic heist film ever made. But that doesn't mean it's bad. It's really very funny, and the powerhouse cast doesn't nothing but help it. Of course, Pitt and Clooney don't really act so much as just be cool, but it's still fun to watch.

I have such a hard time commending a movie if I nothing to gripe about, and that's the case with Paris Je T'aime. This movie was a collection of short films by 18 famous directors, all based in Paris. Of course there were some meh shorts, but most were good, and a couple were amazing.

As we reach the midpoint of 2007, I'm still hoping it takes off in terms of quality. As of right now, I have maybe 5 or 6 movies I really liked, and of those, only three are actually 2007 releases (Zodiac, Grindhouse, Paris Je T'aime). I haven't really hated too much, only Ghost Rider, Breach, and Pirates 3. It's just been real middle of the road. Nothing has stood out yet, but hopefully that'll change.

Spider-Man 3, and some other tidbits

2007-05-19T16:18:00.001-07:00

Alright, so Neuromancer is supposedly getting made into a movie finally. This is one of the pieces of source material Matrix took from. It is amazing, and was one of the first cyberpunk novels. It's a quick story, but is a lot of fun and I recommend it. Hopefully the movie will be as amazing.

Spider-Man 3... now I loved the first, but unlike many a person, I did not adore the second. I don't really like Doctor Octopus, and I just didn't dig it. Batman Begins and the first two X-Men movies are the pinnacle of superhero movies for me, along with Spider-Man 1. I read a bunch of reviews for the third Spider-Man, and it got shellacked in a number of them. So, whereas earlier in the year, this was my most anticipated summer blockbuster (which isn't saying much), I quickly lowered my expectations. And it worked accordingly.

Overall, I enjoyed it as much as I had hoped to. At first, I didn't think this was going to be so. The movie opens with Peter Parker talking about how great his life is, and Tobey Maguire is giving the narrative in this ridiculously fake happy voice. Not very long after this, the first action scene of the movie commences between Spider-Man and The New Goblin (James Franco). The special effects in this scene were pretty bad. It just looked incredibly computer generated. Eventually though, I felt the movie picked up.

James Franco is just weird in this movie. He gets amnesia for no real reason, because an hour later in the movie, he's the same spoiled Spider-Man hater he was at the beginning of the movie. I think they just did it so they could "realistically" leave that plot thread hanging for a bit while the other 40 plot threads get some time.

Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) was done well, but Venom needed MORE face time, and LESS Topher Grace.

"Evil-emo" Peter Parker was fun, and while I know some probably thought he was cheesy and lame, I enjoyed it.

I guess the bottom line is, Spider Man 3 was not a great movie. However, I found it to be fun. Being that I don't like the Spider-Man franchise as much as others, it didn't bother me that this movie was far less than stellar. Still, it was no X-Men 3 or Batman and Robin... woo wee.

So I wanted to talk about the remaining blockbusters, at least the ones I'm seeing. I am NOT seeing Shrek 3 or Fantastic Four 2. But lets see about the rest.

Next up will be Pirates 3. Pirates 1 was amazing, a genuine surprise that I did expect, with great acting and a fun story. Pirates 2 was the exact opposite. It was a boring retread on the second and suffered from "second movie in a trilogy-itis" worse than Matrix Revolutions, which is bad. It was just a pointless side quest, meant to introduce a villain and "kill off" Jack Sparrow. There were some bad action scenes mixed in also.

Now with the third, I am hoping they get back to the basics. The trailer looks fun, what with the various pirate groups meeting up. Chow Yun Fat is sweet. I DO NOT want another fight on some rolling wheel, vertical, horizontal or otherwise, which has appeared in the last two films. The special effects have been very good for the previous two, so I don't expect that to let up.

Die Hard 4... or Live Free or Die Hard. The studio is going for a PG-13 rating with this, but Bruce Willis claims it's even better than the first one. I don't know if this is necessary, but they're doing it anyhow. I just want it to be a good action movie. When was the last good big budget straight up, good guys vs bad guys action movie?

Transformers... I'm reading good things about it. It looks like fun, and Michael Bay, who is hit and miss on my chart, is the man to go to for fun summer blockbuster action fests. I of course enjoyed the cartoon as a child and even now. The robots in the trailer look astounding. I have a good feeling for this one.

Harry Potter... I'm counting this because they tend to make big money. The only harry potter movie I've liked was Prisoner of Azkaban. The first two were made for pre-teenagers, and the fourth felt jumbled and messy. And Daniel Radcliffe (who plays harry potter) and the girl that plays hermione truly showed there is no hope for their acting skills. They are just terrible. With Order of the Phoenix enters Dolores Umbridge, played by Imelda Staunton. Umbridge is probably one of my most hated villains in a book ever, and that's a good thing, so hopefully this will make the film fun. It's a pretty good book, hope it translates well.

So that's it for the bigguns. We also have movies like The Bourne Ultimatum, The Simpsons Movie, Oceans Thirteen, 1408, and Knocked Up which look poised to be pretty big earners. I think all five of these could be great movies. There are probably others that'll be good, but I don't want to be here all night typing.

I hope this summer as a whole is better than last, which was pretty bad. Mission Impossible 3 and Da Vinci Code were watchable, but Superman was boring, X3 was awful, and POTC2 was, as mentioned earlier, a mix of boring and awful.

Next summer is where it's at, even though Avatar, the revolutionary scifi film by James Cameron, got pushed back to '09. Next year we have The Incredible Hulk, with Edward Norton and Tim Roth. You can hate the Eric Bana one all you want, I know I do, but this is a restart with Ed Norton! There is Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr and Terrence Howard. And The Dark Knight!! I mean, it's the summer of superheroes played by Jeff's favorite actors. I can't ask for much more. But there is.

The next Narnia movie is supposed to be released, Prince Caspian. The first wasn't anything amazing, but it was worth seeing. Speed Racer will be released, directed by the Wachowski Bros. Who knows how this'll be. They're able filmmakers, so maybe this will be good.

On the unnecessary remake front, we have The Day The Earth Stood Still. I don't know why.

Hopefully, Indiana Jones 4 will be released.

Hellboy 2... Get Smart with Steve Carell... and the new probably going to be laughably terrible M Night Shyamalan movie.

Alrighty I'm done. Later.

UPdate

2007-05-10T19:36:00.001-07:00

Man, I haven't posted since the Scifi Marathon, but I have not stopped seeing movies.

Lets see...

most recently I saw Vacancy, with Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson. This was a short 80 minutes long, but for the most part, it was enjoyable and intense. It becomes more vanilla as it continues, but to begin, it's a truly great scary movie. I absolutely loved when they first got to the hotel, there was something so REAL about it. Basically, they've just gotten into their room, and someones pounding on their door from the room next door. It's before the two heroes know they're meant to be part of a snuff film, and it's a lot of fun to watch, but also scary because you don't know just what is going on. It's still a quick fun movie, but I'd say wait for the rental.

Hot Fuzz was amazing, no Shaun of the Dead, but still just as brilliant at dissecting and making fun of a genre.

I still haven't seen Spider-Man 3, though I hope to within a few days.

I saw Fracture, which, for all it's great acting, turned to absolute crap. It was interesting and involving, and then suddenly the film treats the audience like a 12 year old, spelling out all the mystery of the movie with laughably obvious scenes. Definitely should be skipped.

24 hour Scifi Marathon at Drexel Gateway

2007-04-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

So I attended the 24 hour scifi marathon at the drexel for the first time this year. it was very good. here is a small review package:

The first film was 12 Monkeys, which I own and love. It's just superb. But I had already seen it, so no big deal.

Next we moved into a 1955 movie, King Dinosaur, which was a terrible movie, but was made better by the audience. Basically, a new planet appears in our solar system, and some people go explore it and discover dinosaurs, which are actually iguanas and baby alligators and stuff like that. At the end, they nuke the island the dinosaurs are on, and the best line of the movie is said:
"do you realize what we've done?" "yes... we've brought civilization to Planet Nova."

The Great Yokai War- this is a Takashi Miike movie, and the best way I can describe it as was what I heard from someone else, in that it is like a live action Miyazaki film. It's a pretty good movie and well worth watching.

Puzzlehead- very low key indie film about a man that makes an android in his likeness. if you liked primer or pi, you'll like this one, has that same feel to it. kind of loses steam at the end.

Frankenstein meets the Space Monster- similar to King Dinosaur in it's old B movie-ness and the fact that the audience made it much more watchable... has some hilariously stupid characters in it

fido- this one might give shaun of the dead a run for funniest zombie movie... it's hysterical, best movie of the marathon for me

automatons- .... this is the worst film i have ever seen. that is not an exaggeration either. oh man. let me delve into this further. this movie is filmed in awfully grainy black and white, and the sound mixing is friggin terrible. it has robots in it that are basically like what you would dress up as for halloween, in that they're like cardboard boxes. this movie was made in 2005. Basically, we have two sides at war. angus scrimm from phantasm is in it. i missed the first half hour, and i come in, and angus scrimm is continually giving updates on the war that's happening, and some girl is building robots in her workshop. this continues for thirty minutes, and the guy i was with said it had been like that for the thirty minutes before. then, the girl sends the robots out. Now before, the movie was just bad and boring. now it became another animal entirely. we have a 20 minute robot battle, but replacing the man sized cardboard robots, are miniature gi joe sized robots. and they're firing their little guns, and this is depicted with little circular flashes of lights, and sparklers are being thrown all over. And then, for 90 straight seconds, we see one of the miniatures burn. and then the surviving robots reach the enemy base and kill everyone in the base very slowly and disgustingly for about 10 more minutes. there is a lot of screaming and it's all terrible. then the enemy commander is stabbed through the heart, but she lives long enough to have .... forget it, i hate this movie. i'm not going on anymore, it's the worst movie ever made.

chopping mall- 80s slasher movie using robots, lots of fun... man that automatons review flashback took it out of me, i barely feel like continuing

so i'm going to stop

but i did see star trek: the motion picture and flash gordon which both rocked, and a couple of other 80s movies, lots of good stuff

Grindhouse

2007-04-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

Haven't been reviewing much lately, but I wanted to preach of my love for Grindhouse for a few minutes.

Grindhouse is the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double feature tribute to theaters of the 60s and 70s that used to show B-movie fare. Tarantino did Death Proof, about a serial killer that uses his car as his weapon, and Rodriguez did Planet Terror, a zombie movie. I am familiar with these types of movies... well mainly with Planet Terror-esque movies, I cannot say I have really ever seen anything that Death Proof might be considered similar to.

We'll begin with Machete, the first fake trailer shown, this one done by Rodriguez. I can't say much about this one... I'd go see it. It's basically about Danny Trejo as a guy that uses machetes and awesome other weapons to kill "the bad guys". It was fun, but nothing amazing.

Next, we moved into Planet Terror. I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It's hilarious, the characters are wonderful, it has Jeff Fahey and Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis and Sayid from Lost (Naveen Andrews) are both real cool in it. It's just a lot of fun, with great humor and great gore. Another Grindhouse like movie that Rodriguez has done is From Dusk Til Dawn, but I liked this one just a bit more.

After Planet Terror, three more fake trailers played.

The first was by Rob Zombie, and it was Werewolf Women of the SS. I have seen a number of vintage trailers that were JUST like this, and unlike the two that followed, if you didn't know it was fake, you might actually believe it existed. I mean, I've seen a real trailer about Werewolf Biker Gangs. This movie could exist, and it's goofy and fun to see, but still. However it ends with a great cameo from Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu that needs to be seen.

Next, we had Don't, by Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame. This was the funniest 3 minutes of film I have seen in a very long time. I don't want to get into it, I don't know if explaining it could give it justice. It's unbelievable.

Finally, we had Thanksgiving from Eli Roth (Hostel/Cabin Fever). While nothing could beat Don't, this one came damn close. I greatly dislike Roth for Hostel, and the fact that he's making Hostel 2, but he showed that he knows his horror with this beauty. My favorite old type of trailer were the ones this one was spoofing, such as Black Christmas or My Bloody Valentine. It has this very deep voiced guy doing the narration for the trailer, and he's not stressing any words. He is just very dark, and just saying shit like "This year, death comes home for christmas" or something like that, but just really matter of factly, and with his deep voice, it just sounds scary. The sound is always terrible in the trailers, and entire death scenes are shown for whatever reason. Thanksgiving does this all wonderfully. It was so spot-on, I absolutely adored it. The discoloring of the film in the trailer was just right, everything was so perfect, the voice included, and of course it was absolutely hysterically over the top.

So with this perfect intermission over, we moved into Death Proof.

First the bad. This movie is so Tarantino, you forget it's supposed to be part of a grindhouse double feature. You have characters with a lot of smart-ass dialogue, people talking about movies, long scenes in cars or bars of people just talking and talking, and of course feet. Tarantino has a weird foot fetish, and he films feet, a lot, especially in this movie. Also, through Planet Terror and the first half of Proof, the film is artificially aged to look old. That just stops in this middle of Death Proof, and it's obviously being shot on present day digital. That was a weird choice.

And finally, the movie begins with some girls just shooting the shit, talking about guys, for a pretty extended scene. At the halfway point, another group of girls shoots the shit and talks about guys again, for another extended scene. Just couldn't get into that, especially twice.

Through all of that, Tarantino shows he's something special. There are two distinct parts to the movie and I won't spoil too much at all. The plotting of the movie is superb, though someone that expects the constant barrage of goofiness you see in Planet Terror might be disappointed as that is not present here. I haven't seen anything quite like Death Proof ever before. It ends with one of the best climaxes I've seen in a long while as well, it's intense, hilarious and exhilarating all at once. I was seriously breathing in short gasps for the last 15 minutes, it's very well done.

I know I'm not saying much about Death Proof here, but I don't honestly know what to say. I don't want to say much plot-wise, because it does twist and turn nicely. The acting is great, though I could go without seeing Vanessa Ferlito's ugly face ever again.

Death Proof is just so different and unexpected. See it.

Overall, Grindhouse is my favorite "movie" of the year, though I guess there was two in there, wasn't there. It's 3 hours, twenty minutes long, and I wanted more when it was all said and done. It's just a ton of fun to be had.

Some more reviews

2007-03-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Still don't really feel like doing any long reviews, but here are some ratings.

Zodiac- 8/10- great mystery and police procedural, maybe a bit over-long, and robert downey jr/mark ruffalo didn't bring a new edge to their typical character

300- 8/10- very fun movie

a guide to recognizing your saints (DVD)- 7/10

tideland (DVD)- 3/10

the lives of others- 9/10

Black Snake Moan- 7/10

Update and Hiatus

2007-03-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

So as you can tell, I've been on a bit of a hiatus, and this will continue. I just don't feel like writing up long reviews, but I will bring you up to date on what I've seen.

The Good German (4 out of 10)

Sherrybaby (DVD) (7 out of 10)- buoyed by the very human, real characters in the movie, liked this one a good bit

Breach (4 out of 10)- so cliched and bland, but Chris Cooper was great

Unknown (DVD) (4 out of 10)- enjoyable characters, but I don't really understand their actions at all, considering the end of the film was given about halfway through

Reno 911: Miami (5 out of 10)- i liked the tv show, i mildly liked this extended version of the tv show

The Abandoned (3 out of 10)- like Unknown, gave away the ending far too soon, and then just kept going... also, if you're in a very haunted house, act like you are in a very haunted house

Ghost Rider (2 out of 10)- worst movie I've seen this year so far, Wes Bentley played the worst supervillain I have ever seen, he was so terrible... i think the director just watched a bunch of other superhero movies and ripped off of all of them, but made it bland enough so that the studio would be happy... the movie was laughably bad

Haha, I just read that the guy that did Ghost Rider did Elektra and Daredevil. I wouldn't have seen Ghost Rider if I had known that.

so yeah, it's been a rough month, but it's going to get better with Zodiac and 300 getting released!

Letters from Iwo Jima (7 out of 10)

2007-02-10T20:08:00.000-08:00

I am feeling tired right now, so this won't be the greatest of reviews, but I want to get it typed out.

Letters from Iwo Jima is the second part of Clint Eastwoods' Iwo Jima duology, this one told from the Japanese perspective. (Flags of Our Fathers being the American one). It tells the story of three soldiers on Iwo Jima, a general (played by Ken Watanabe) and two infantrymen.

The characters are pretty much cookie cutter archetypes. The general is the guy with radical tactics that nobody else likes, and therefore he himself is not liked. One of the soldiers, Saigo, hates being in the war, and just wants to go home and be with his wife. The other soldier is believed by everybody to be a spy. Really, Letters from Iwo Jima is not entirely different than any other American war movie. Of course, it is greatly different because of the issues in the movie, such as all the ritual suicide, and the fighting to the death stuff that only the Imperial Japanese subscribed to. Still, the characters and the way they acted was very derivative of American war movies, and I'm not sure if this was on purpose or not.

LFIJ tells each characters' story wonderfully, past and present. The way in which each character interacted with one another and the way the plot progressed during the battle was my favorite part. Even though I didn't feel like this movie was entirely original, I was still captivated by the story and it's characters.

I'm not sure if there was meant to be any sort of bias in the movie. The Japanese look somewhat insane at times with their harikiri, and killing off soldiers that disobey. It is no wonder they lost the war if they commit suicide every time something doesn't go their way.

So yeah, I really thought about this movie. In retrospect, I don't really like Bobby as much as I thought I did. I wanted to make sure I didn't do the same here. But it was a well-directed film with great cinematography and colors, and while you aren't missing much if you don't see this movie, because you have seen nearly all of it's elements in other war movies, it is still interesting to see this sort of movie from the Japanese side. The characters and story helped a great deal as well to make this a very interesting movie.

But after seeing it, I don't think it as deserving as Babel/Departed for Best Picture or Scorsese for Best Director... I don't even really think it's worthy of a Best Picture Nomination, but I'm not in charge of that.

Smokin Aces (7 out of 10)

2007-02-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

Smokin Aces, starring a lot of peple, among them Ben Affleck, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, and Andy Garcia, is about a gangster/casino showman that turns snitch, and is going to rat about the Mafia to the FBI. The Mafia answers by contracting a number of assassins to take him out, to the winner go the spoils.

As you can see, it's a pretty basic plot, and unless there was a ton of action, you couldn't make too much of a movie out of this. And there ISN'T a lot of action, and instead, there is actually character development and substance, which absolutely shocked me. I was expecting something in the vein of Domino or Running Scared, ridiculous, far-fetched, but still a bit fun, action movies. However, with Smokin Aces, the only action is with the end setpiece, and instead, the film builds off of character interaction and behavior.

I never thought I'd say in a cast of this size that Ryan Reynolds would have the best performance, but indeed he does. Everyone else is pretty good, Chris Pine is superb as the main Tremor Brother. Alicia Keys is alright until the end, when that falls apart. Andy Garcia is made to do a terrible Southern accent and it really kills his character. For the first part of the movie, Jeremy Piven is obviously channelling his Ari Gold character from Entourage, but eventually he plays someone with a bit more heart later.

This movie is incredibly unpredictable, and there is no guessing what is going to happen next. It also has it's fair share of greatly shot scenes, one of my faves being Ray Liotta in an elevator, I won't say anything more.

So, with all these goodness, why only a 7? Well, the "twist" ending. At the end, the director, Joe Carnahan, decides to toss out a few quick twists. They were absurdly out of place, and there was no point. They didn't add anything to the movie, but rather detracted from it. The movie goes through the typical playback of scenes where the end was hinted at, and that's getting old also. Ryan Reynolds' saves the train from going all the way off the tracks with a very good end sequence to close the movie.

Overall, this was a very fun movie that I liked for the characters and the unpredictability. I really want to see it again.

Alpha Dog (6 out of 10)

2007-02-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

Alpha Dog, directed by Nick Cassavetes, and starring Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, and Justin Timberlake among others, tells the true story of the kidnapping and murder of Zack Mazursky by the order of drug dealer Johnny Truelove (Jesse James Hollywood in real life).

Basically, Ben Fosters' character, Jake Mazursky, owes Truelove some money, and it escalates to the kidnapping of Mazursky's half-brother, played by Anton Yelchin. The impromptu and odd kidnapping is not your average kidnapping, wherein Zack is actually treated like one of the guys, meets some girls, gets high and drunk, and becomes close friends with one of the kidnappers played by Justin Timberlake. However, things spin out of control, and eventually Zack is murdered.

I don't know what it is, but at it's most basic, the story sounds like something out of Greek or Shakespearean tragedy. Of course, get rid of all the modern day bits, but the whole idea has some classical about it, and that makes this whole movie a bit more watchable. It's hard to believe this is a true story, though some of it could be exaggerated or made up for film.

This movie was at times great, and at others ridiculously poor. At it's best, it was fun, with just the right amount of suspense and doom in each scene, but at other times, you really wonder what these people were thinking.

The performances were a mixed bag. Emile Hirsch was real good, Ben Foster was unbelievable, and even Justin Timberlake did pretty well for most of the movie until the end when he is supposed to do a crying scene and it fails horribly. Anton Yelchin still has not impressed me, and Sharon Stones' one dramatic scene at the end is literally covered up by her ridiculous fat suit.

This movie objectifies girls to an unnecessary end. Now, I wasn't there, I don't know if all of these girls actually hung all over the guys and made out with their necks and chests constantly, and did nothing but laugh and scream, but I doubt it. However, in this movie, that is ALL that they do. There is one girl that actually seems to have a working brain and is freaked out by the kidnapping, whereas every other girl in the movie acts like complete and utter idiots, and I'm saying that they don't even function as humans, but rather as some sub-race. It's embarassing, and I don't really know why this decision was made.

I had also feared this movie would go the way of Harsh Times, and just so the guys partying, getting wasted, and doing stupid stuff, and at the beginning, I thought that was what it was going to do. For example, everyone is partying at Johnny Trueloves' house, and Shawn Hatosy (one of the members of Trueloves' posse) is drinking and trying to make out with girls for about five minutes. It's just that for five long minutes. I understood that the guy was an idiot after about 20 seconds, but it just dragged on and on. However, this sort of thing ended, and the movie moved forward without getting mired in this sort of subject matter again.

Alpha Dog was a pretty interesting movie that had some bad decisions made during the filming obviously. After seeing Bully, nothing about this movie phased me. Bully still is the most disturbing movie I have ever seen, and it covers much of the same ground as Alpha Dog. Alpha Dog has better acting and is more mainstream, but it didn't affect me on the same level as Bully.

January Wrap-Up and February Look Ahead

2007-01-31T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is something I have decided to do and I will do it at the end of every month.

So, January. Normally January and February are throw away months, where studios toss out movies they don't anticipate making much money. However, there was an incredible flux of December independents and movies that made Oscar runs early that came out in January which lended to a month of incredible quality. I'm also lucky the Wexner Center chose to play The Aura. But being able to see Children of Men, Little Children, Pan's Labyrinth, The Aura, Smokin' Aces, and Notes on a Scandal among so many others is awesome. Sure, I probably saw TOO many movies this month, and it was overwhelming, but the only one that I rated low was We Are Marshall, and even that wasn't awful. Of course, I only saw two movies that were actual 2007 releases this month, those being Alpha Dog and Smokin' Aces, so the quality of this month doesn't say much for the quality of 2007, though both Dog and Aces were pretty good movies. I'll review them here in the coming days. But yeah, it was a good month.

And now for February.
This upcoming month, there isn't as much coming out that interests me. I still am going to see Letters from Iwo Jima, the Academy Award contender. There is also The Good German, a post WW2 era mystery, filmed in black and white, and starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, and Tobey Maguire.

There are three larger studio releases that I think could either be very enjoyable and very bad, those being Ghost Rider, Breach, and The Number 23.

I am just hoping Ghost Rider is fun, like Constantine. I really dug Constantine, it wasn't amazing, but it was an effective dark comic book movie. Then again, I don't think Nic Cage is Keanu Reeves, who was a superb Constantine. Nic Cage just seems cheesy as the Ghost Rider, but Sam Elliot is one of the main reasons I am going to see it. I think there are three different times in the trailer where somebodies' face becomes transluscent so you can see their fangs underneath, which, as a note to the editors of the trailers, is not scary.

Breach is starring Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney, and Chris Cooper is about an FBI agent that is possibly selling American secrets to the Soviets, and a new agent needs to investigate him. It looks good, but we'll see.

And then Number 23, starring Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen, about a guy that discovers that the number 23 is everywhere, and thus goes insane. I don't much care what movies are rated, but the preview screamed PG13 at me, and it was rated R so that's interesting. I heard a rumor that after seeing a screening of this movie, Carrey fired his agent, so that's not good. Joel Schumacher is directing.

Finally, we have two indies that might not even come to Columbus.

Seraphim Falls I don't think is going to but I'll hold out hope. It stars Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan as two men with a blood vendetta against one another during the Civil War. The former goes chasing after the latter in the West. I like westerns.

Breaking and Entering, starring Jude Law and Juliette Binoche, is another adultery thriller, but I've read some pretty good things about it. I have a good feeling this will make it here.

So yeah, only six, maybe seven movies this month. March picks back up, but I will welcome this break. See you soon with my reviews of Alpha Dog and Smokin' Aces.

Pan's Labyrinth (8 out of 10)

2007-01-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

Pan's Labyrinth, by acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro, is a Spanish film set during the Spanish Civil War. Ofelia, a young girl, and her mother are moving to a villa in the forest to stay with her mother's new husband, Captain Vidal, an officer of the Fascist army. The Fascists are battling the Resistance in these very woods. Ofelia finds out she is the reborn princess of a king and must complete three tasks in order to be taken back to her kingdom.

If that sounds like a lot, it's because it is. For the first half of the movie, a number of different plotlines are threaded together, and it feels garbled. You can easily tell what each thread has to do with one another, but there is no real cohesion. Rather, it feels TOO epic. You are seeing the lives of about a dozen different characters and it can become overwhelming. One thing you need to realize is that this movie is not what the preview makes it look like. It's not 100 percent "adult fairy tale". That makes up a small fraction of this film. In fact, it is more a war drama than adult fairy tale. But the reason I start with this is that I just wanted to get out of the way the reason I didn't absolutely adore this movie like so many others have. For the first half, there was just so much going on and I was having trouble getting adjusted to any single thread.

Eventually, things start coming together, and while the pace quickens and the plot thickens, it became a lot easier to become absorbed into the movie. On a technical and artistic level, this movie is beautiful. The colors are dream-like, and the design of the entire film is amazing. The fantasy portions are in a league of their own, I don't think I can name anything that has the beauty and originality displayed here. There is a bit of gore, so if the presence of the fantasy element makes you think it is childish, think again. It's definitely deserving of it's R rating.

In the end, I really ended up liking this movie a lot. It is as well told a story as they come, and it is at once happy and unbelievably tragic. The ending gave me chills for days after. All of the characters are thought out and interesting. The protagonists and antagonists are so well drawn and convincing in their roles, adding to an already impressive wartime landscape.

Mini DVD Review- The Architect (3 out of 10)

2007-01-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

So I rented The Architect, a film starring Anthony LaPaglia as the titular character and Isabella Rossellini as his wife namely. It is a densely layered story, telling about the problems each member of LaPaglia's family is having, as well as the primary conflict wherein an activist is trying to get LaPaglia to sign a petition to knock down some apartments he designed. There are also some plots following denizens of the aforementioned apartment buildings. And this is an 82 minute film. So each plotline is really only covered rather shallowly.

I never really got into this movie, no matter how interested I tried to be in it. LaPaglia's two children both are having sexual problems, and like I said before, you never really understand why. I swear, the director just wanted to be edgy, but there is no explanation, no real substance. The daughter, played by Hayden Panettiere (the cheerleader from Heroes), developed at an early age and thus wants to be loved by a truck driver? Point A does not logically go to Point B right there.

Unfortunately for Isabella Rossellini, it is hard to tell her apart from Anthony LaPaglia. They have the same hair-do and body build and facial structure. Her character is also insane and I got the vibe that she was supposed to be like Juliette Binoche's character from Bee Season, but again, much less fleshed out.

There really is no humor in the movie, but the score makes this film seem like some happy-go-lucky family comedy with the way it marches happily along. It also sounds like a cheap Midi file at times.

The movie covers gentrification in a very interesting way, but it is often overshadowed by the melodrama that this movie wallows in.

The Architect ends strong, with a couple very good scenes, but it does nothing to save this boring, tepid affair.

The Painted Veil (7 out of 10) and other stuff

2007-01-26T14:10:00.000-08:00

First, the other stuff. We have Oscar Nominations just released, and Sundance Film Festival is currently going on (actually close to over with) in Park City, Utah. I am so happy Dreamgirls did not get nominated for best film, maybe the Academy is getting over their love affair with musicals. I am going to see Letters from Iwo Jima soon, and after that, I will have seen four of the five best picture nominees. I'm not going to see The Queen because I can fall asleep on my own, don't need a sedative. After I see LFIJ, I can better determine who I think should win, but as of right now I'm pulling for Departed, and wouldn't mind seeing Babel win, but Little Miss Sunshine, while a fun movie, is nowhere near an Academy Award worthy film. And Abigail Breslin one of the top five female performances of the year? Not at all. I mean, I liked the movie, it deserves its screenplay nomination and Alan Arkin deserves his nomination, but come on.

Pan's Labyrinth got six nominations, so that's amazing, and I'll be rooting for Children of Men to win cinematography and film editing.

For anyone that saw Click, maybe you can explain to me how it got nominated for Best Makeup, because I really need to know.

I thought Leo DiCaprio should've been nominated for Departed instead of Blood Diamond and that Jack Nicholson should've been nominated over Mark Wahlberg for Departed.

Forrest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, and Jennifer Hudson are all pretty much locks to win from what I've read.

I haven't seen any of the docs except for Jesus Camp, so I will root for that one because I loved it.

Otherwise, with the exception of Ellen Degeneres hosting, it should be fun, I love the Oscars, it's on February 25th at 8 pm, on ABC I believe but don't hold me to that.

So now for my Painted Veil review.

The Painted Veil stars Edward Norton as a doctor working in China, and Naomi Watts as his wife. The two marry early in the film, but Watts does it not out of love, but only to get away from her awful parents. It isn't long before Watts is being an adultress, and Norton finds out. He tells her to either go to a cholera outbreak in a small village, or be divorced which would be both embarassing and social-life ending for Watts. So she chooses the former and off they go to fall back in love.

This movie could easily have suffered from being standard fare, but it is saved by the performances of Norton and Watts. Norton is very formal, but shows a lot of emotion for playing the stiff doctor, and Watts is wonderful. The movie often looks as if it's going to go off the tracks and become mired in cliche, but it narrowly avoids this. Frequently there are moments when the two begin falling back in love that I've seen so often before and are so sappy, like Watts is playing the piano for some Chinese children and Norton walks in and suddenly this is an excuse to love her again. I feared this was going to continue, but it never becomes overwhelming.

The film is also helped by being beautifully photographed. The village is nestled in a misty valley, and the landscape is truly something to behold. The overarching plot itself. of the cholera epidemic, is also pretty interesting, if a little watered down.

All in all, while at times a bit banal and ordinary, the movie does a good job becoming it's own piece due to the setting, mood, and performances of the leads.

The Aura (9 out of 10)

2007-01-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

Last night, I saw The Aura, an Argentinian film by recently deceased director, Fabien Bielinsky. It stars Ricardo Darin, and is about a reclusive taxidermist that has a photographic memory, and fantasizes about staging the perfect heist. He goes on a hunting trip with a buddy, and from there, the opportunity presents itself.

I loved this film. It is so dark and quiet, and I loved Darin's character so much. He plays the part so well. I have not seen Ricardo Darin in any other movies, so I don't know if this was a big turn for him, but The Taxidermist (as he is called in the movie, doesn't have a name, a la Fight Club) is such a fascinating character. He is so quiet, a 40 something year old almost-loser, that has a hard time sticking up for himself. He's not overweight or overtly nerdy looking, but he just looks like he is so miserable.

The plotline is original and great fun. I love crime movies more than any other, so of course if it was going to work, it would automatically hold a special place in my heart, and oh man did this one work. I'd say Bielinsky did for a crime story set in the wilderness what Michael Mann does for crime stories such in cities a la LA or Miami. I hate using words I've read in other reviews, but two I've seen a lot are "Atmospheric' and "Moody", and those are exactly right. The ending is wonderful and makes sense, and doesn't do what you would expect.

The title comes from the fact that The Taxidermist is epileptic and right before a seizure sets in, he gets an aura, a moment of clarity right before it hits. This happens a couple times in a movie, and is done very well.

There are some minor plot holes, nothing that takes away from the plot, and some scenes are overly and unnecessarily long. For example, The Taxidermist is explaining the aura he gets, and 10 second pauses are inserted after every sentence in his already long explanation. Or he is following a man after a robbery, and this is a ridiculously drawn out scene.

Still, this is one of the most original and intense crime movies I've seen in a while.

Notes on a Scandal (7 out of 10)

2007-01-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

Notes on a Scandal stars Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, and Bill Nighy in a movie about a young teacher that becomes involved with a student and is basically blackmailed by an older teacher who finds out about it.

NoaS starts off and ends incredibly paced. For the beginning and end, the score, acting, and Judi Dench's narration all add together to create an intensely told story. Understandably, the movie slows down in the middle to allow the dread and suspense to mount as Dench finds out about Blanchett's affair and thus, manipulates her as a result.

The acting is superb by the three leads, but the boy involved in the affair is not realistically portrayed, and acts like more like a 35 year old than a 15 year old. The headmaster of the school also overacts greatly in his few scenes.

However, for as intense of a thriller as this is, as well done as it is for the most part, it ends so anti-climactically and poorly, it's something of a shock. I was so surprised when the film ended, all the buildup and what happens is so "meh". I also felt more could have been done to show Dench's manipulative behavior. We're given a lot of evidence she's somewhat crazy and obsessive, but no sooner does she learn of the affair, than the event which leads her to let the affair be known to the rest of the world occurs.

Also, Bill Nighy, who plays Cate Blanchett's husband, apparently doesn't like Judi Dench's character, but again, there is no background into this, and rather he goes from enjoying her company to calling her a witch in no time.

NoaS works as a superb thriller, but is also something of an incomplete movie. There should have been more to it I think, but the acting and pacing until the end make for a pretty fun time.

Volver (6 out of 10)

2007-01-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Volver, the newest Pedro Almodovar movie, stars Penelope Cruz, and is about some Spanish women. Cruz and her sister, played by Lola Duenas, are just living their lives in the wake of their mothers' passing in a fire. Cruz gets involved in a bit of a crime, while the "ghost" of the mother returns to Duenas. I don't want to go into too many details at this time if you're planning on seeing it. But this review will get spoilery, so I'll let you know when.

I can tell you what I liked about the movie. The interplay between the sisters and the women of the neighborhood was great to watch. It seemed very natural. Also, at the beginning, the movie almost seemed to start getting Hitchcockian, and it was interesting for a while, but this didn't last long.

Penelope Cruz is amazing in this movie. I have seen her in a number of her English language movies and she is only so-so, but she shines in this movie.

Ok, now for the spoilers.

My biggest problem came with the plot. It just seemed so unrealistic at times, and mundane at others. For example, when the ghost of the mother returns, everyone believes it's a ghost. You can argue, come on, they didn't actually believe it was a ghost, but they kept saying that it was her ghost. However, she goes by no ghostly rules. She actually sleeps and eats, and everyone can see her, and she has no ghostly powers like flying through walls or anything. So she was definitely not a ghost. But the characters of the movie keep saying "She's a ghost." This killed the movie for me. If you know she's not a ghost, say so. Otherwise, you have me believing you honestly think she's a ghost. It killed the realism of this movie.

The plotline just moved along so humdrummingly (I don't know if that's a word). There was never any real revelations until the end, and even then, they just seemed forced. For example, it turns out Penelope Cruz's daughter is actually also her sister (conceived it with her father via rape). This is just said for no real reason, it was never an issue earlier in this movie, and it's pretty much forgotten afterwards.

Penelope Cruz also opens up a restaurant for a time to feed a film crew. This takes up a lot of time in the movie, and little happens.

So back to the ghost thing, since that really took me out of this movie. Dina has said that Lola Duenas didn't actually think she was a ghost, and I can somewhat believe this. Maybe I missed a subtitle that said that. But I was watching a great portion of the movie thinking to myself "Come On People, You don't honestly think she's a ghost do you?"

Even if I ignore that aspect completely, thinking maybe I didn't understand that part and that's my fault, I still was bored by the plot of the movie. There was nothing in the technical side of the movie that was stunning either. It was buoyed by strong performances, but otherwise, the fact that I'm a male and this movie is decidedly for and about females didn't help. This movie doesn't have me dying to see any more Almodovar movies either.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (8 out of 10)

2007-01-14T17:46:00.000-08:00

I just saw Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. This is directed by Tom Tykwer, the guy that did Run Lola Run. It stars Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, and Alan Rickman namely. It is based in 18th century France, and it is a mix of thriller, mystery, fantasy, and a bit of black comedy. Mainly, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), is born with an incredible sense of smell. He can smell anything and everything, and one of his talents is being to tell the types and amounts of oils within perfumes. Therefore, he begins his job as an apprentice perfumier. However, he finds the most beautiful of scents comes from women, and in order to preserve their scent and make the most amazing perfume, he starts murdering them.

This movie is based off of a book even Stanley Kubrick believed was unadaptable (I got that tidbit off of IMDB). Tykwer does a wonderful job here though. The premise alone is original and interesting, but the movie is so vibrant and interesting. Ben Whishaw, who plays the lead, looks like a more disturbing Hayden Christensen in a way, though Ben Whishaw can actually act. He does a great job in this movie, acting so incredibly eerie.

The movie dragged as it came closer to the ending, but it was all brought together satisfyingly. Perfume is so colorful and beautiful to watch in that so much attention is paid to the details of what you are seeing. It's as if the makers wanted the audience to see the way Grenouille smells. Therefore, at it's dirtiest and it's most elegant, the film is a wonder to watch.

The ending is hilarious, and definitely puts this movie into the "fantasy" realm, if the Super Sense of Smell did not do that already. I loved the ending in that it did not go down safer, oft-travelled roads, but rather did it's own shocking thing. It's get more and more out there, and culminates superbly.

Perfume is a fun movie on many levels, and is wholly original. It has a number of great performances, and is only harmed by the pacing, as, like I said before, it gets somewhat bogged down as it reaches the end.

I am movied out. I have a review for Volver, but I will do that tomorrow. I'm taking a small break from seeing movies, but I'll be back at it soon. Columbus is getting a lot of great limited releases this month.

The Good Shepherd- (6 out of 10)

2007-01-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

I just saw The Good Shepherd, starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, William Hurt, and Robert DeNiro among others. It was also directed by Robert DeNiro. It is "The Story of the Birth of the CIA", as is stated in the preview, and it centers on Edward Wilson (Matt Damon's character).

The story is told in the present time of the movie, 1961, following the Bay of Pigs, and in flashbacks from 1939 to 1960. Now, try as I might, I cannot confirm whether or not this is really a true story. I'm looking up information on the CIA, and I'm not sure where Edward Wilson fits into all of this. So it might possibly be that Wilson is a made up character used to help push forward this story.

While TGS has a long runtime (160 minutes), it actually moves along at a very brisk pace, moving quickly between scenes. At the same time, the movie did not need to be 160 minutes. There is a lot of chaff in this movie, which brings me to my biggest gripe (I use this a lot, so I should trademark it). The movie cannot select a story it wants to follow. There is the Birth of the CIA and there is the Edward Wilson's Life story. I have nothing against telling both, but the former is almost buried beneath the latter. You get the general gist of how the CIA was brought about, but it's not in depth or informative at all. You see the OSS in action during and after WWII, and you see some interaction with Soviets, but really the movie focuses a little more broadly on Wilson's personal life and problems. This would've been fine it was more enjoyable to watch, or if I had been expecting this, but the previews said "The Good Shepherd: The Untold Story of the Birth of the CIA." So that's what I was expecting.

Matt Damon gives a pretty good performance as the austere and silent Edward Wilson, though his makeup when he is supposed to look like he's in his 40s is awful. It's like they just covered his face in a purple tint. Eddie Redmayne plays his son at the age of 20 or so, and I never want to see him in a movie again. He was terrible, overplayed his role, and I never bought into the fact that he could or would ever join a secret society at Yale. However, the separate casting of the son as a 20 year old and as a 7 year old was remarkable. The older looked exactly like the younger, just... older.

Joe Pesci has a very small role, and I have missed him. However, his role in this movie is pointless. It has nothing to do with the story, but is rather there to give Edward Wilson and the CIA a meaner looking side. It's like the writer didn't feel like he was getting the uglier side of the CIA across to the audience, so he stuck that scene in there with it's "beat you over the head" dialogue, which I still liked, there were some good lines said in that scene.

So, The Good Shepherd I think suffered from spending too much time on Edward Wilson's personal affairs, and not on the reason for the movie, that being the CIA. It's almost more of a family drama at times than it is a political/espionage type of movie. I took a class in school on the Cold War, and I was hoping there'd be more of that in this movie, but it wasn't there. Still, it's an alright movie, that has some interesting tidbits in it.

I wanted to close with a discussion of the ending, but there are spoilers, so skip this if you plan on seeing this movie.

SPOILERS!!

I did not like the ending. I highly doubt the reason the Bay of Pigs was blown was because Edward Wilson's son let the info of the raid slip to a Congolese spy for the KGB. That was an unnecessary add. That's something I'd expect out of Oliver Stone. There's no need to add such a twist to an important event like that. This also pushed Wilson's son to the forefront of the movie, and he was truly painful to watch.

DVD Quick Review- Idiocracy (6 out of 10)

2007-01-11T18:34:00.000-08:00

Idiocracy, starring Luke Wilson, is the new Mike Judge movie. He made Office Space. This movie got screwed pretty bad in marketing and release, and was pretty much straight to video.

The basic premise is that Wilson is a military pilot that undergoes a hibernation experiment, only to wake up 500 years later when the experiment is forgotten about. He learns that the world has become unbelievably stupid, and he is now the smartest man on the planet.

I want to keep this quick, so I'll just say that the movie depicts a very scathing look at the future, in which man has become progressively more stupid. Take the dumbest person you know, and dumb them down some more.

The movie starts off great, with that really goofy humor you can only find in Office Space, and with some great jokes about a pimp and a military guy. Then Luke awakes in the future, and for a while, it's funny just seeing how things have changed, and the ways Judge rips on current American culture. However, after a while, the novelty wears off, and the movie definitely becomes a lot less funny. While I was rolling for the first half, I was sitting silently for the latter half, still enjoying the movie, but somewhat disappointed at the turns the plot had taken.

The special effects in this movie are also terrible. I don't care if it's low budget, if you can't afford to make something NOT look like it belongs on Playstation One, don't add it into the movie.

So, I recommend the movie as a cheap rental, it's fun, but it could've been a lot better. There was so much more that could've been done.

Little Children- 8 out of 10

2007-01-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

This review will be a quickie.

Little Children, starring Kate Winslet, Jackie Earle Haley, Jennifer Connelly, and Patrick Wilson, centers on a suburb and its' denizens. It covers the issues of adultery, sex offenders, and happiness. To bring you up to speed, Kate Winslet is a stay at home mom, and Patrick Wilson is a stay at home dad. Neither are entirely happy with their married lives, so they begin to have an affair with one another. Jackie Earle Haley is an sex offender recently out of prison, and living at his mothers. An ex-cop, played by Noah Emmerich, spends his time harassing Haley.

So half the movie is basically about living the middle class suburban life and finding happiness with it, and the other half is about the fear going through the neighborhood what with the sex offender having moved in. I'm always up for a movie discussion with anyone that might have seen this movie, but since this is only a little review, I'm not going to get into the themes and ideas of the movie. However, they are covered so dramatically and wonderfully, even if you think you've seen this type of movie so often before. The affair movie never really entices me, but I really like the way it was done here.

Tom Perrotta, the author that wrote Little Children, also wrote Election, which was made into a movie, and if you've seen Election, you can expect much of the same black humor and sharp wit in this movie. There is a great narration to the movie as well, done by Will Lyman, that adds to the dry humor of the movie.

My only gripe comes that even with the humor involved in the movie, and that the slow pace added to the film so well, sometimes the movie still is not unlike anything you've ever seen before. At times in the movie, it becomes your basic marriage-affair film. It's not incredibly often, but it still takes away from the whole package. This of course goes back my own personal preference in that I do not typically enjoy affair movies. Luckily however, the movie concentrates more on the why of the affair between Winslet and Wilson instead of the "how are they going to cover it up."

Another interesting thing that at least I felt was that, with affair movies I've seen before, the main conflict I feel is "Oh dear, how and when is the hubby going to find out, and what will happen then?". I never felt that with this movie. Instead, the main conflict was how were the lives of Winslet and Wilson going to turn out. Such a nice job is done with making the affair between these two seem so necessary and natural, that whether or not their hubbies find out becomes irrelevant, but rather that the two find happiness, however temporary.

So in the end, this is a really great movie with wonderful performances by everyone, and I absolutely loved the arcs of the characters and how much they made sense. Jackie Earle Haley puts on a great subdued performance as the sexual deviant, Ronald McGorvey. He was apparently in Bad News Bears years ago, but I barely remember that movie.