Is there a reason to put reviews in spoiler boxes if the reviews don’t contain spoilers?
No Country for Old Men
Loved it. Terrific film. I was actually spoiled on the ending (my own fault, st00pid TVTropes), but I actually found that helped me a bit. If I’d seen it without knowing what would happen, I might have felt cheated. As it was, though, I understood why they ended it the way they did (as it better reflects the harsh realism of the rest of the film). It also didn’t occur to me that the film took place in the early 80’s until near the end of the film, which I also liked, oddly enough (because really, the events that take place could happen just about anytime, and timeliness is always a good thing in a film). Anton Chigurh is one of the creepiest villains I’ve encountered yet–I nearly gnawed through my fingers during the gas station scene, and literally had nightmares about him. At the same time, though, what a badass.
Das Boot
Holy crap, what a great flick. There were scenes where I could’ve napped and not missed a thing, and scenes where I nearly shit my pants, and I loved the skillfulness of that combination. One of the better war films I’ve ever seen, and certainly the best submarine film I’ve seen. It’s long (I saw the Director’s Cut, which is about 3 hours and…20 minutes?), but I think it needs to be. Kudos to any filmmaker who can make me sympathize with Nazis, of all people (though to be fair, it was made quite clear that they were submariners first, and Nazis second). Had a lot of echoes in Master and Commander, which was also a great film.
Airplane!
This one was fun. Had a nice mix of silly, stupid humor and subtle, witty humor. It’s true what the critics said: if you don’t like the joke they just told, another one will come along in a few seconds.
Spaceballs
Meh. Kind of stupid and overrated. I got a few chuckles out of it, but no real laughs.
I saw Invictus this week. It simply confirmed my dislike of rugby, and made me realise that I don’t mind Morgan Freeman playing God, but please not Nelson Mandela. The anti-apartheid message - so readily apparent from the very subject matter - is still further trowelled on in some amazingly clunky over-earnest dialogue.
For a decent South African drama, I’d recommend Lethal Weapon 2.
Yes. I blame Canada.
Groundhog Day. I want to see it again.
Well both films were about a woman who is rumored to have had sex, flounting the prevailing social conventions about That Sort Of Thing, and the scandalized response of the community, the ostracism, at one point the main character actually wears a scarlet letter. True, modern themes and values are applied in “Easy A,” as well as significant amounts of humor and snark, so I guess a better term would be “an update of the Scarlet Letter.”
Goddammit! Its been like 10 years, and still want my money back!
The Adjustment Bureau
Interesting movie, except for the plot.
I watched Rain Man last night. It was good, but not as good as I’d expected. I guess I’d heard so much about how great it was, and it didn’t live up to its reputation. Dustin Hoffman was really good, but the rest of the movie around him wasn’t as good as he was.
missed edit window
I also thought it was weird that Raymond knew to give the answer to the square root in exactly the same number of digits as the guy’s calculator had
We watched “The Hulk” from 2008 (the Ed Norton version) and it was pretty damned good. Ed Norton made a great David Banner. Liv Tyler, however, still can’t act very well.
We also watched “Date Night” with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, too. It was very good - very funny.
I’m currently watching “The Brave One” with Jodie Foster. Good so far. Pretty intense.
Mean Creek
I loved it. One of those movies that portrays adolesence accurately, and therefore makes you squirm during every scene. Do not read the summary of this movie before watching it because you want to go into it not knowing what the hell is going to happen. Rory Caulkin stars in it and he’s pretty good.
George Washington
It’s an independent film, which means it’s not going to hit you with a lot of shiny lights and big explosions. Like Mean Creek, it goes slow at first, but the climax comes as a complete shock. The acting chops of the teenaged characters in this movie are all over the place, but the beautiful imagery of a rural, broken-down small town will compensate. For this movie, you may want to read the summary before jumping in. I’ll say that I liked, but not loved, it. If I was flipping through the TV channels and landed on it, I would watch it from start to finish. But it’s not a “repeat” rental.
Skin
Based on a truly incredible story, but told in only a so-so manner, IMHO. I mean, it’s worth watching just to know the story of Sandra Laing (an Africaaner with two white parents, who is born mysteriously with brown skin…a rare example of what is called a “throw back”). As expected, it is a sad story. I just wish Sophie Okonedo, who plays Sandra, didn’t remind me of her crazy-ass character in “The Secret Life of Bees” every time I see her. Perhaps that’s my problem, but I still think the woman needs to work on different facial expressions.
District 9
It is good, not great. I don’t like science fiction movies that don’t make sense, and there were some holes in this one. But if you just kind of close your mind and go along with the plot, it’s not that bad. The idea of an irritating but misunderstood alien race being segregated in 21st century SA-apartheid style is realistic, though. I’m guessing there will be an awful sequel to this one, so you might as well go ahead and watch this one.
Gummo
Do not watch this movie if you like plots. Watch it if you like randomness and characters who seem to be pulled right out of the parking lot of the most backwater Wal-Mart. But if you’re expecting something that makes sense, there’s nothing to see here.
Precious
Very depressing movie, but I loved it. I admit, I loved all the cameos–from an uglified Mariah Carey to an easy-going Lenny Kravitz. Monique plays a scarily realistic version of a stereotypical “welfare queen.” Gabourey Sidibe’s transformation into the pathetic but loveable protagonist Precious is amazing for a debut actress. The story is almost too depressing to be credible, though. Not only is Precious morbidly obese, illiterate, stuck with two abusive monsters-as-parents, and a pregnant teenaged mother of a Down’s Syndrome child, she is also infected with HIV! I mean, except for not being homeless or addicted to drugs, she’s a walking poster child of Everything That Can Go Wrong. The movie is great because it shows not only how strong the character is, but how a community, even a worn-down community in 1980s Harlem, can offer help to someone in her situation. Some people don’t like the openness of the ending, but I did. The movie closes with Precious carrying her baby and walking with her toddler down the street, all alone, but equipped with resolve and hope. We don’t know what’s going to happen–maybe she’ll end up hooking up with a fool and end up like her horrible mother–but there’s no reason to believe she won’t end up doing right in life either.
Much like the source material.
Gone With the Wind:
Frankly Scarlett, I don’t give a fuck, you whiny, flighty, slave-owning bitch.
Since it’s HIV in the 80’s and she has no real way of getting advanced medical treatment, I always assumed she just, you know, dies. Maybe not immediately but I didn’t feel invested in her at the end knowing that her story would be rapidly closing.
While watching this movie my friend and I talked about how it would’ve been more interesting as a political-drama. Or as anything else, really. We both liked the characters, but not the story surrounding them.
Yeah, I bet you didn’t like Birth Of A Nation either…
Recently rewatched “The King’s Speech.” I hardly need use spoiler boxes to say it was a terrific movie.
I wanted to use it, though, to talk about how our political agendas can affect our view of a movie. Before I ever saw the film I read Christopher’s Hitchens’s critique of it:
Hitchens complains that the movie essentially lies about King George VI’s relationship with the various Prime Ministers of the time, pretending Churchill was “a consistent friend” of the King and not to Edward VIII, that George VI unreasonably supported Chamberlain, so on and so forth.
When I saw the movie I was amazed to discover that Hitchens was in fact completely, absolutely full of shit. It’s not that the movie says differently. It’s that the movie doesn’t say any of this AT ALL. It’s never addressed, never the point of the film at all. Churchill is not presented as being a “consistent friend” of anyone; he appears in essentially one scene, in what is basically a bit part, saying a few words of support. He’s barely even mentioned off camera. The intricacies of the diplomacy leading up to the war, the decision between Halifax and Churchill, the rise and fall of Chamberlain… none of that is in the movie, which concentrated entirely on George VI’s personal struggles and mentions politics only as briefly as possible to keep the narrative going, in part because George VI, of course, didn’t really have much influence on any of it. His only real influence was in his role as Inspirer-in-Chief - which is, in fact, what we see in the film. Indeed, Hitchens criticizes the film for misconstruing events that took place after the film’s narrative ended.
Reading Hitchens’s review, you would never in a million years know what “The King’s Speech” was about and you’d find yourself wondering if you had watched a version with 40 minutes of scenes cut out. It was exactly equivalent to someone criticizing, say, “The Social Network” for not including detailed and accurate commentary on the Bush administration’s preparation for the invasion of Iraq.
“The Brave One” was good - it was pretty intense, but interesting. It tackled a very difficult subject, and I’m not sure if they did a good job of it or not, but it was entertaining.
We also watched “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (with Brad Pitt) yesterday - other than being a blatant Oscar grab and being totally Forrest Gump-flavoured, it was enjoyable.
Just watched Unknown with Liam Neeson and True Grit with Jeff Bridges for the first time…waited for Blu Ray for both.
Unknown was entertaining but a bit predictable. I called the end near the beginning. But Liam Neeson was good.
True Grit was excellent, a hell of a good movie with much more of an authentic, period feel to it than the original.