I rented Before The Devil Knows You're Dead this weekend. I thought it was well made and well-acted, but ultimately forgettable. Like crazed, I will give a big thumbs up to Marisa Tomei's nude scenes though. For being in her mid-40s, she is one hot babe!

B-

I also got out to see Iron Man this weekend. It's probably one of the better superhero flicks I've seen. I think Robert Downey Jr. really makes the film. Where most superhero alter-egos are introverted, ackward, and brooding, Downey's Tony Stark is charming and funny. He's an unlikely hero, and I think that's what makes the movie that much more enjoyable.

A-

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
The Golden Compass
Didn't read the book or hear about any controversy til recently. But all in all I enjoyed this fantasy/adventure flick. Dakota Blue Richards steals the show as Lyra Belacqua, though all the cast does a fine job. I'm guessing there's to be a sequel and if so, I hope there's more depth to the story and more evil to the villains.

I just saw it this weekend, too, and I was pleasantely surprised. I had heard about the "controversy", but after watching the film, think it's way overblown. I don't see any intentional (or unintentional) anti-Christianity aspects. Were people opposed to the daemons? Anyway, back to the film. It did seem incomplete - Daniel Craig sort of disappears and you never see him again - until the sequel I suppose. The climactic battle scene is a little bit underwhelming, as well. That said, I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel for this film more than Narnia.

Charlie Wilson's War - Just saw this last night. What a taught little gem. I think this film was way underrated. Maybe people are just tired of Tom Hanks. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant once again. Tom Hanks turns in one of his better - understated - performances, and Julia Roberts isn't bad either. The decision not to blow this movie up to epic proportions is appreciated - as it comes in at just over 90 minutes - and actually left me wanting more.

Iron Man - I think my expectations were too high for this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film. I just don't think it deserves the extremely high praise it's been getting. There are short spurts of greatness - mostly in the buttkicking scenes. But there's just as much tedium in the "setting up" scenes in between. Probably a more judicious use of editing could've made the film a bit snappier. Also, many of the roles are extremely one-dimensional (Stark's "assistant" in the cave, the slutty - but principled - cub reporter, and Roadey - the government liason to Stark's company). I like Jeff Bridges, but he's clearly channeling Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor here. Gwyneth Paltrow and Downey Jr. are excellent, and the chemistry between them is fun too watch - maybe I wanted even more, though.

Harold and Kumar go to guantanamo bay
10,000 BC

-jon umgd

Bleh, I haven't posted here in quite some time...

No Country for Old Meh

Anticlimatic. It's pretty interesting most of the way through and I genuinely enjoyed most of it, but the ending ruined it for me. It wasn't bad by any means it just could have been better. In addition, I found a lot of it slow and pointless but there are some brilliant scenes throughout.
C


There Will Be Blehd

Actually, I liked this one more than No Country and appreciated the soundtrack much more after seeing the film but this one is pretty slow and considering the title, I was expecting something a little more exciting.
C+

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I loved everything about this film. It's dark, tragic, humorous, and, above all else, beautiful. I'm not much of a fan of musicals, but this is another classic put forth by Tim Burton and Depp.
A

Turistas

Cliched garbage that I watched for no other reason than boredom.
F

The Man in the Attic (1953)
Jack Palance stars in this adaptation of "The Lodger" story. Is he or isn't he Jack the Ripper? Well, Frances "Aunt Bee" Bavier thinks so and it's she whose lodging's he's renting. An okay film though predictable.

Tarzan Finds a Son (1939)
Plane crashes in jungle. Monkeys find baby. Tarzan & Jane raise baby. Name baby Boy. Boy grows into boy. Relatives hunt for boy. Tarzan & Jane no want give up boy. Crazed like movie.

A Blueprint for Murder (1953)
Fine whodunit starring Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters. Cotten suspects his late brother's wife of poisoning his niece (inheritance is the motive). To protect his nephew, he persure Peters in hope of proving her guilt. Nice flick, always happy to see Cotten in a good role.

Most Recent movie I saw was Iron Man... hands down... Great.. nuf said

I was restless last night so I watched "The Butterfly Effect : Director's Cut"

I liked the part where Ashton Kutcher kills himself before ever being born and everyone's life turns out great. Ahh the magic of movies...

Honestly, I've just watched Babel for the first time. I liked it a fair bit. I thought that it was well made and was admirable in it's multicultural approach in storytelling. I've had several people tell me that the ending was a cop-out, but I disagree. No matter what was in the note that she gave to the police officer, it doesn't matter. Whatever it was, it let her communicate her deepest feelings to someone that she cared about and kept her from feeling like she needed to jump. Why is that a cop-out?

Saw "Then you find him" last night. Find him, lost me. Cliche' riddled. Overacted when Bette Middler is on stage. Helen Hunt starred and tried to direct, but didn't quite make it. Very disjointed. At the end, I was confused as to what happened. I heard many others leaving the theater with the same puzzled look and asking the same questions as we had. Save your money...there are better things to do.

I just saw both (wait, I think there's actually more?!) Major League movies recently.

Major League - Awesome, kick-ass baseball movie, the trendsetter for all the bad-team-becomes-good-team movies to come. The movie flowed so great that it almost touched on inspiring! Jolly good fun!-- A-

Major League 2 - There was one thing I liked about this movie: All the actors came back to do it which is rare in comedy sequels. Other than that it was just a toned-down (this one was PG-13, as opposed to the R-rated first one), even more formulatic and overall just lame rip-off of the predecessor. Although it was entertaining and had it's laughs. -- C-

I watched Ocean's Eleven (the one with Clooney, not Sinatra) last night. Hadn't seen it in a while. Entertaining, I guess. Much better than Ocean's Twelve anyway.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978)

ZzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz.

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

Well, it was better than the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, I'll give it that much. Please, no more NT sequels.

Iron Man

Finally Marvel releases a good comic book movie after so many clunkers. Downey Jr is definitely Tony Stark, at least Silver Age version Stark. Glad to see Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper didn't get blocked out by too many SFX. Hope she returns in the sequel (Mandarin as villain? hope so). Too bad these characters suck in the comics today.

found a new movie review site with good writing ala sight and sound: http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/

watched In the Mood for Love again last night. as beautiful as ever. The music creates a perfect atmosphere and Cheung and Leung are impressive as lovers who don't dare touch each other. Gotta watch 2046 again now

Good Will Hunting was WGN this weekend. I haven't seen it since it came out. It was as good as I remembered, except all the mother f-in' commercials!

The Golden Compass

quote:

Originally posted by ezatldude:
I just saw it this weekend, too, and I was pleasantely surprised. I had heard about the "controversy", but after watching the film, think it's way overblown. I don't see any intentional (or unintentional) anti-Christianity aspects. Were people opposed to the daemons?

I just checked it out... and honestly, how could you NOT see the anti-christian aspects? They were there and they were definetly in BOLD! I'm not gonna make a big stink about it, but I'm just saying that the christians weren't "all out crazy" with this particular point. Maybe you have to be somewhat religious to "get it". Pesonally, none of that bothered me (even if it WAS blatantly obvious). It's only a movie, but it isn't a very good one.

As I watched it, I wondered where the "fantasy" was. Everybody had talking "pets" (I know what they were supposed to be, but they seemed more like a pet than anything else to me. Maybe they shoulda been something other than a small animal. Some even had regular, plain old cats and dogs!), there are flying witches, there is a land of powerful, talking polar bears, large camera sweeps over snowy mountains & expansive cities and some weird vehicles and junk, but that was it! Those things make the movie a fantasy? Where are the strange creatures who couldn't possibly exist in OUR WORLD? Where are the foriegn, ancient ruins and structures that show this world has existed since before this movie was made? The end battle was a bunch of humans fighting as their little pets exploded all Blade-like whenever one of 'em died. Where are the magical creatures? The witches, you say? The only things "magical" about them was that they could fly and live a long time. They didn't cast spells, they shot arrows! Not from their fingertips, but from bows! No, this guy apparently knew NOTHING of fantasy. The only cool thing was a fight between the polar bears. NOW THAT WAS AWESOME! But it wasn't worth the price of a rental. The CGI wasn't even all that great and it makes me wonder why nobody's pointed that out. They also made the hero a lying, backtalkin' brat! I HATE those kinda kids! I didn't like her one bit. And the more she disobeyed and lied and did her own thing, the more I really didn't like this little girl. They actually seemed to encourage her lying by rewarding her with the name "Lyra: Silver Tongue", or sumpthin' like that. It's weird because they made her alot like the villainess, but she's supposed to be the heroine?!

I have ZERO curiosity of what's in store for the sequels. (If they're made. I had read somewhere that the movie didn't even make back its budget. At least in America it didn't.)

D (The polar bear fight saved it from an F.)

Night at the Museum

A wonderful family flick. Not so wonderful without the family. (The wife wanted to watch it after the kids went to bed. ) I'd only recommend it if you have children. I did really enjoy the scene with Larry and Dexter (the monkey) slapping each other. KinKaid and I used to do that for minutes at a time. Then, when one of us got tired of it, one jumped on the other and started biting. He'd bite my arm, I'd chew on his tail. I swear, their tails must be ULTRA sensitive because that little bastard would jump a mile high when I chomped on that thing and then it was on! I sure do miss him.

C

Well the movie is shit and not anywhere near as anti-christian as the books.

In the books (which are quite good) the main conflict concerns humans versus god. "Heaven" is portrayed as a desolate place where people go and essentially stand around and forget who they are. This is all pretty rough and its more complicated, but the metatron is also depicted as having a "fondness" for human women. Its a fairly anti-religion set of books and the movie is extremely watered down, not to mention shit.

I just saw sex and the city and it exceeded my expectations. I thought it was not going to be that great, but it tied all of their stories together very well.

-Leslie