The last thread for quick movie reviews was a lot of fun, so I thought a lazy January 1st would be a good time for another one.
I Am Legend - People either loved it or hated it and I loved it. Will Smith is a movie god and we should all try to be more like him.
Death Proof - Definitely the better half of Grindhouse, but a good 20-30 minutes could have been cut out of the first half easily to make it a much better movie.
Party Girl - Every minute of this movie that was spent outside the library was pure torture.
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem - Not too bad. Not too bad at all. Nowhere near as cool as Aliens or the first Predator, but the little shoutouts to both series…
“Get to the chopper!”, Kelly and her daughter doing a good Ripley/Newt impersonation, Ms. Yutani’s cameo and the bloodthirstiness of it all (killing the girlfriend, killing a kid, killing pregnant women, killing babies and then nuking the town from orbit (it was the only way to be sure)
My wife and I mainly watch DVD’s, so with the Writer’s strike we’re watching more DVD movies than anything now.
**Star Trek: Generations ***: This movie was better when I was 16 and it was new. The first hour is too choppy and the last hour has about 40 minutes of ok Star Trek. Capt. Kirk should have died better.
Rush Hour 3: Wow. Horrible. We love Rush Hour 1 and 2, but this was terrible. Avoid! The Horror! The Horror!
Stardust: Brilliant! A great find! I recommend this movie to everyone. We love just about everything in this movie and my wife and I were both surprised to find this climbing our top 10 list for 2007. Rent this movie!
The Mummy Returns: Worse than the first. We like these movies, though. Brendan Fraser is funny and the effects were cheesy. This movie is still better than most SFX movies this last year.
*We have one question about this movie. When Kirk and Picard come out of the Nexus to fight Dr. Soron, what’s the rush? If they fail, can’t the just find each other again and try over and over endlessly? I mean, it’s important the succeed, but did they have only one shot?
**The Waterhorse: ** Very nice kids movies. My 7 year old declared it the best movie he had ever seen, but he has said this often. He lives for the moment you might say. My 10 year old really enjoyed. I found it fun and tolerable and I was amazed at the casting. Angus looked like Angus at all three ages and the sister looked so much like Emily Watson (who played the Mom) that I was wondering if it was her daughter. I would give it a 6 but highly recommend it for those with kids.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: My wife and I both enjoyed it. It was very good. I did not like it as much as Big Fish or Edward Scissorhands but I would give it a solid 8. My wife liked it more than I did. The principles were all very good.
**National Treasure: Book of Secrets **: A fun and silly movie. My son, my best friend & I all really enjoyed it. My wife and daughter, not so much. I would give it a solid 6. It was fun if silly. On the Raiders Scale[sup]TM[/sup] I would rate it 4th. This scale is Raiders of the Lost Arc #1, Raiders 3 #2, National Treasure #3, National Treasure: Book of Secrets #4 and Raiders 3 as a distant #5.
The Golden Compass: I would give this disappointment a 4. I read the book and I was unimpressed. I thought the movie was a little worse. It was disjointed, the acting was terrible and the rewrite worthless. Blah! Only my son liked it, but no where near as much as **Waterhorse ** or even **National Treasure: Book of Secrets **
Jim
ETA: We loved Stardust, we were among the few that caught it in the theater. So much better than Golden Compass, it is silly. I would give Stardust an 8 on the first viewing and I would be willing to watch it again and I suspect I might be willing to go higher.
Exactly. My wife and I actually re-watched this one week after seeing it, and our love for it grew dramatically. I actually think they need to make a extended cut of it to slow things down a bit.
30 Days of Night - Some nice atmosphere, but ultimately unsatisfying vampires and plot. The cat & mouse aspect was severely underplayed and lacking in strategy.
Two Stupid Eggs (Chinese) - Surprisingly funny and absurd movie about a loser who decides to make a movie based on a book about love. Zany characters abound, and the majority happen to be entertaining.
**
Dante’s Peak** - A great movie for making fun of while drunk on New Year’s Eve. Pierce Brosnan tries to do an American accent while playing the part of the ignored scientist who (correctly) warns of impending doom. It’s like every other disaster movie out there, with an evil volcano, mass stupidity, and silly plotholes as the villains.
**
Futurama: Bender’s Big Score** - A decent Futurama episode stretched to 80 minutes; a somewhat interesting story that tries to cover too much ground and give cameos to Futurama favorites. Some smiley moments, but wasn’t able to elicit genuine laughs.
Charlie Wilson’s War - Very, very good. Loved, loved, loved the interactions between the three most prominent characters (Charlie, Joanne, Gust)
Hairspray - Loved the original movie, like the musical in a different way. Feels very wrong to think Zac Efron is sexy, but get to balance that with a love for James Marsden.
White Christmas - Classic, as always. Best numbers - Mandy, Love You Didn’t Do Right By Me
We tend to rent or watch HBO rather than go to the movies, so:
Spiderman 3: Pretty well done and entertaining, and has a ton of cool people in it, but jeez, they tried to do way too much and it was too long. Four villains for one movie?
Severance: Damn, I had a good time with this. It is much less a comedy than it’s billed - rather it’s a very good slasher flick, with characters who mostly make intelligent choices and a couple nice cliche-bashing moments.
Knocked Up: Liked it a lot. I think Seth Rogen is cute, Katherine Heigl did a good job, and it made me laugh. I also liked that the birthing scene was a little less typical Hollywood camp and a little more friendly to natural birth. Plus, they had a lot of balls to show a baby crowning (good effects too).
The Return: Can I have this two hours of my life back? We watched it largely because we’d just exhausted our pre-strike Tivo cache, and I wish I’d just turned it off in the middle and played cards instead. I’m not averse to watching a bad horror or suspense movie. But this was bad in that long, slow, pointless, and boring way that is no fun at all.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Intense. Moving. Gorgeous. French. Sweeney Todd Horribly Disappointing. I really don’t understand the great reviews this lazy piece of shit is getting. Sacha Baron Cohen was the only bright spot in this otherwise dull and boring waste of time. I Am Legend Despite its faults, a great time and surprisingly good movie. I especially like the freakout when he has his first human contact. “I was saving that Bacon.” Ending wasn’t so great, but I didn’t really expect it to end on a bleak and nihilistic note. No Country For Old Men Fucking brilliant. I was emotionally drained for hours afterward and just all around stunned at how effective this movie is. See this movie.
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls - So, so much funnier when I was 10 years younger, but Jim Carrey still makes me smile.
Sky Captain and the World Of Tomorrow - Fun movie, but it makes me long for a Crimson Skies movie instead; less love triangle, more aerial action.
Escape From LA - It’s Snake Plissken. What more could you want?
Ghost Rider - On the one hand, it’s good to have an enthusiastic lead. On the other hand, Nick Cage is too much of a fanboy to play the part straight, and he comes off goofier than anything.
Charlie Wilson’s War - So-so. PSH was the best thing about it. Julia Roberts was the worst. The anti-commie rhetoric was kind of over the top and silly. (ETA, Emily Blunt looked SMOKING hot in that bikini)
Juno. Good if a little bit too hip and precious for its own good at times.
Sweeney Todd - Dark and visually interesting but musicals aren’t really my thing.
Walk Hard - A parody of musical bio pics that is well observed at times, overly broad at others. The ending was more moving than it had any right to be. Probably would have been better with Will Farrell in the lead.
No Country For Old Men - glad I read the book, everyone else seemed confused by one or another plot points. Great acting.
Marie Antionette - Nothing. . . . Ever . . . Happens . . . Ever. I resolve to avoid any future Sofia Coppola movies.
The Simpson’s Movie - Not as fun as watching reruns.
Eastern Promises - Kicks Ass.
