Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Good Will Hunting

1 word....AMAZING

Quantum of Solace

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=quantum_of_phallus

I didn't think it was good either.

This is James Bond. SHOW THE STUNT! Don't hide it with computer graphics and quick edits.

Monsters Vs. Aliens

3D is in. This movie looked amazing, it doesn't seem bothersome, and there is a LOT more ground to be covered just from a shot standpoint. The tech is here though.

This movie was a pretty good time. At points it got a bit slow and some turns were a little predictable. Seth Rogan as the Blob was really funny.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Sphere

So I decided to watch this again. Man I love these sci-fi surrealist films like this. Great plot, insane idea, and one of the few movies Samual L Jackson doesn't suck in. Really enjoy seeing Dustin Hoffman in this, still one of my favorite sci-fi films of all time.

The Fugitive

This is a great film to just sit back and get into. A fast paced thriller that Ive had on my Netflix for awhile and finally decided to check it out. Very good film and entertaining. I miss young Harrison Ford, and man I love that beard.

Rounders

Wow, this movie has shot on my shelf in its packaging for a few years now. Bout time I checked it out. A very well done film that I really enjoyed every minute of. Watching this makes me realize how much I like Edward Norton and how much of a douche Matt Damon is though. But I will admit I really want to play poker after seeing this.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

JAM

This was great.

I love documentaries that offer a slice of the population that is intensly interested in fringe things. This is all about roller derby.

I was involved in a local wrestling promotion as a younger man and there are so many parralells. The STRANGE people, the naive promoter, the pathetic veterans, the backstabbing and fighting over small bits of sucess, the self deception. Incredibly sad.

On top of that I've always liked roller derby. I really wish it would come back in a big bad way.

Anyone want to see the Derby Dolls next Saturday?

Rachel Getting Married

Forgettable.

Treasure of Sierra Madre

This movie immediately reminded me of 'There Will be Blood'. Very much about greed and what fortune does to a man's soul.

It was gripping from the very begining. A very easy movie to understand and get involved in.

It's cool to see Humphry Bogart play a rotten guy. Not charming rotten, just bad. Walter seemd to set the table for the 'old prospector' character, but was really charming and trustworthy.

Definetly a good one for the AFI list. I'm getting close to knocking that one out.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

I Love You, Man

I have a secret love for the romantic comedy. They are usually not great movies, but the formula is very tight. My favorite part is when the couple breaks up right before the climax.

The fun thing about 'I Love You, Man' was that it subverts the formula by treating male friendship as something to be attained instead of something that can be taken for granted. It follows a very formulaic arc but the fact that its men makes it feel fresh.

Paul Rudd and Jasan Segal are both hilarious. I'm a big fan of them both. I hope this movie does good box office because I'd like to see them more in leading roles.

I do think the 'bro talk' felt a little too hip. It got annoying sometimes. Although it was always funny to see Rudd stumble through it.

good flick.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Watchmen

Alright. I'm in the middle of Nancy's class, so I figure its a good enough time to do my Watchmen post, which has been a long time coming.

This isn't a fresh thought about the movie. I've had a lot of discussion time with people. I've read a lot of different reviews, and I've had a chance to see it twice now.

I really like the movie after all this. As time goes by my appretiation has degraded, but at the end of the day, this was a huge ambitious story told with reverence towards some very unique source material.

If I do have a problem its with Zak Snyder's direction. At the end of the day this is a movie where the best parts of it aren't action, they're talking. The conversation on Mars, the first Watchmen meeting, the cat and mouse game in the prison with Rorschach. Snyder is not an actor's director. He leaves some of his actor's out to dry. Malin Ackerman was pretty awful. I thought that Rorschach was well played. I thought Dr. Manhattan was well played.

The other thing about Zak Snyder that I can't defend is his violence fetish. The book is violent, and that is part of the subversion that is supposed to go with the story. At the same time he took the violent bits and extended them out too long. The skeleton arm hanging from the ceiling is ridiculous.

I couldn't do this without talking about the music. Maybe a bit much. I think the design idea was bold, but fell a little short.

What I will say positive about Zak Snyder is he kept the story intact. This was in development for a long long time, and this could have went a lot of different ways. Snyder kept the story as faithful as he could with the restraints from the studio. He used a lot of creative capital to make this work and I applaud him for it.

I do think it was a little bit short. I can't wait for the director's cut. The great thing about this story is the world it is set in. It makes a whole universe in a very short amount of time. In the director's cut I'm sure we'll get to spend more time in this universe.

I do think that the movie is better if you came from the book. My hope is that the movie will get people to read the book. It's not for everyone, which is great for a big movie.

AND...best credits ever!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sunshine

This was a really good one.

The biggest thing about this was how small this thing was domestically. This seems like a movie that should have found an audience but never did. Maybe after the success of 'Slumdog Millionaire'it wil find a DVD audience.

I thought it reminded me a lot of 2001, Alien, and Event Horizon. I hear it's a lot like Solaris, but I haven't seen that.

It plays on a really big scale but its actually not a very big budget. Just the thought of saving the dying sun was enough to make this movie seem big. the computer effects were nothing more than establishing shots.

This movie is really enjoyable if you like "hard" sci-fi.



by the way, got to see watchmen for the second time. I'm writing my thoughts now. Should be up soon.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sophie's Choice

I think that 'The Reader has ruined holocaust movies.

I was actually intrigued by the whole small town boy in the big city writer thing. I really like Meryl Streep and the relationship with Kevin Kline. The accent didn't bother me at all, in fact it was kind of charming.

When it got to the holocaust stuff however, I just felt kind of cynical towards it. The choice scene was high drama though.

A pretty disapointing AFI 100 movie.

The Last House On The Left (2009)

This has to stop... NOW!

These choads need to stop remaking old horror movies from the 70s and 80s (hell, even from the 00s!). Updating or rebooting (ha, asshole!) these movies has given us only faster and dumber movies and more edit-induced headaches than even the staunchest of horror fans can stomach (although this film spared the audience of having to endure an entire film of flash cuts and instead just bored us to tears with wooden characters and terrible screenwriting. Linda would be beside herself trying to find praise within such a crass and insulting script...)

We saw a preview of this worthless turd last week because we were told that Wes Craven would be doing a Q&A session afterwards. We even saw a little red carpet rolled out in front of the theater, ostensibly for some Hollywood muckity-muck to come parading through a very small doorway into the theater. But who the hell would want to stick around to answer questions about rape and murder? And that ending? I admit, I jumped a little in my seat, just grateful that these guys knew that what they were making was a filthy, stupid joke. But the original was no joke. It was mean and gory and let the audience know that it had to pay for enjoying so much carnage and degradation on screen. The reboot (ASSHOLE!) wanted to rub the audience's face in grime then laugh it off at the end...

Skip this wretched flick. Or download it off of Bit Torrent, if you really want to see it. You'd be better off renting "Funny Games" (which I borrowed from a friend later that night) or watching the original.

Doesn't "Watchmen" open this week?

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Frozen River

It's wierd that there aren't many movies about this level of poverty. There was a real humdinger of a moment that was a huge twist. Pretty good.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Taken

This was a strange action movie because I wanted to hear the main hero talk about kicking ass more than I wanted to see him do it.

I thought that you have to suspend your disbelief pretty heavily, but if you can, this can be a lot of fun. The action was alright, nothing special, but Liam Neeson (SP?) has so much gravitas that his character worked.

Slumdog Millionare

Yes I know, I did just finally see it...but wow was it amazing. It reminded me a lot of the first time I saw City of God. It was filmed in a similar way with the whole in the slums theme to it. I really loved the cinematography in it, and know I know why it won so many Oscars. They were well deserved.

And then there is that stupid dance at the end. Who was it that came up with the Indian version of the Macarena??

Punisher: War Zone

So this is a little closer to the Ennis Dillon run of the early 2000s. It had the right level of irreverence, but not the black humor.

It was fun, but I wouldn't really reccomend it. Maybe in 10 years we can have a real punisher movie.