Since I took a long weekend for my birthday Heather and I got to a chance to catch up on some movies we missed while they were in the theater.
Sideways
After reading all the positive reviews about the film I was surprised to find that I didn’t like it. It had a few funny moments but overall I thought it was dull. In a way it reminded me of Lost in Translation; however, I thought it lacked its charm and intelligence. Granted it could just be that I could relate to the humor better since I have visited Japan.
Closer
What a turd. I swear the first half of the movie the characters seemed to talk in long dull asides never actually interacting with each other - by the time it finally started to get interesting I had long since stopped caring.
Elektra
I didn’t think it was possible to make a movie dumber than Daredevil, but somehow the filmmakers managed to succeed. I wasn’t expecting a lot going in but I had at least hoped it would be be so bad it would be funny - unfortunately it wasn’t. What tried to pass as a plot could be summed up like this: “Elektra is a bad ass assassin who is contracted to kill a young girl & her father, she feels bad for them and decided to protect them instead, the guy from Mortal Kombat sends some generic Metal Gear style bad guys after them, and they all learn an important lesson in the end.” *Yawn*.
Movies
Tonight I made the mistake of wasting my time watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I picked up the DVD a few months ago and never had the time or desire to watch it until now. All of the reviews I had read were positive - I was kinda shocked to find it to be such a complete turd. It essentially was a less interesting version of Moonraker devoid of any real substance, plot, or character development. It is sad when you produce a film that comes up lacking in plot when compared to a Bond film.
Movies
This AOL exclusive Sin City trailer looks awesome. I can’t wait for it to come out 
Movies
I went and saw Constantine on Friday. I liked the film but after viewing it I can’t help but wonder why it was so unremarkable. The premise and characters were interesting but the film plods along and seemed to me very cookie cutter in its execution. Taken as a whole the film was not remarkably dramatic, action packed, scary, packed full of special effects, or intriguing. The absence of one or more of these qualities is why I found it dull - the director had a great world to explore but ultimately produced a superficial and predictable treatment of it. I liked the acting and the atmosphere but there wasn’t too much else to enjoy here. I thought the Order was a much more interesting example of a religiously themed intrigue movie.
Movies
Heather and I caught a matinee of House of Flying Daggers earlier this week. I found it to be a resounding disappointment - the film is cinematically beautiful but largely void of substance. Basically you have a ho-hum love triangle that has an ending that reminded me of Reservoir Dogs sans the character development or drama.
I felt Yimou Zhang’s Hero was a much better example of the genre.
Movies
Heather and I saw Blade Trinity this afternoon. My short synopsis: longest & dumbest iPod commercial ever.
Read more…
Movies
Several years ago while Heather and I were still living in Milwaukee we happened across this odd business called Yes Men. I used to pass their Farwell Ave storefront every day on my commute from Shorewood to MSOE, where I was a student at the time, and I had always wondered what the deal was with them. They never seemed to be open and their storefront gave no real indication of what they did. In addition to appearing to never be open their windows were shuttered so you could not look inside the space. One day out of curiosity Heather looked up their phone number and tried to call them. Their answering machine message was equally obscure providing no real information about what went on there. Years go by and we still have wondered what the deal with them was. This week I accidentally happened across the answer.
Read more…
Movies, Random
Heather and I caught a sneak preview of Team America World Police tonight. The film stars puppets (ala Thunderbirds) who are locked in the global war on terrorism. The movie is irreverent, offensive, violent, and downright hilarious. I would suggest people catch it on the big screen while they can as the film is sure to incur a backlash from those who miss the satire. I think Parker & Stone’s Orgasmo is still their best work to-date; however, Team America would have to be a close second.
Movies
Last weekend I took Heather to see the Bourne Supremacy. I was excited to see it as I thought the prior film was a good modern spy / thriller with an interesting premise and set of characters.
Unfortunately for this go around the good qualities of the first film seem to be lost. The acting seemed wooden and since the main characters were established in the prior film there is no real development of them. I thought the plot was downright dull. It seemed more like the poorly conceived idea for a 1 hour TV show than that of a movie (let alone a movie based on a novel). I thought it was odd that about half way through the movie the clear antagonist dies and we are left with 45 minutes to an hour of essentially frivolous plot needing to be wrapped up. Much like my complaint about the second installment of the Lord of the Rings a good portion of this movie simply was characters wandering around on screen - unfortunately this film lacked both the production values and interesting scenery of Lord of the Rings. The constant jerky cinematography didn’t help either. I found about 10 or 15 minutes into the film I simply stopped caring and was eager for it to end.
I really wanted to enjoy this film but I found it a resounding failure on pretty much all accounts turning the experience into a two hour exercise in boredom. Strangely the reviews I read prior to seeing the movie were largely positive so maybe I’m in the minority here.
Movies
Warner Brothers has a teaser trailer up for Batman Begins.
I thought it looked pretty promising since it features a good cast and seems to lack the neon and rubber nipples that plagued the earlier Batman films. From what I have read about the movie it is going to offer a fresh take on the character and ignore the prior films completely. It should be interesting to see how this develops.
Movies
Recent Comments