Prisoners (2013) Dir. Denis Villeneuve This movie features two very good performances: Hugh Jackman as a father desperate to get his daughter back and Paul Dano as the mentally challenged lead suspect of the kidnapping. Unfortunately the plot is too far-fetched for this to be a good movie. Beyond that, for a movie that has so much riding on a Big Reveal, it is surprisingly easy to figure out: I got there 45 minutes into a 2.5 hour movie...
anyone going to see the Cesar Chavez movie? The rotten tomatoes index hasn't been too kind to it, but haven't really dug too deep into why that is. I'm interested in the subject and kind of stoked to see a feature film about him. Hopefully it is good.
Yep, they pretty much give you any clues necessary very early on. I don't know if they thought they were being cryptic...because if so it didn't work. The whole film seemed long a super long episode of criminal minds to me...that's not a good thing by the way.
This film was the source of many lolz here in england when it came out. From the accents to climbing over a dover wall and being in Nottingham, it really was quite ridiculous
PFFR Special - plus revelation about myself Wonder Showzen (2005) [between 14 and 16 episodes] Trying to stick too hard to the Sesame Street parody format hurts it. Like that show, Showzen has multiple segments including animations from multiple sources and various live action skits, and their quality is highly uneven. At best, they serve as camouflage for the society-destroying truths that the better parts of the show have. Truths like: Q: "What is a Hero?" A: "Whoever dies for my cause" But at worst they are cringe inducing. There were some segments - such as Clarence the bum accosting puppet - I regularly fast forward through. And I really don't understand the second to last episode, which was totally an unfunny He-Haw parody. Maybe as the show went on the creators got a little tired of it (or at least ran out of material) - later episodes get very meta and skip the joke format to do things that are extremely unconventional. But when the show is good it is absolutely amazing and absolutely unique and it's still one of my favorite things despite all my criticism. You can actually see bits of what later became Xavier - one cartoon has a similar figure, and the voice and verbal wordplay were used in a few skits. Xavier: Renegade Angel (2007) [20 episodes] A bizarre creature wanders the land and uses New Age religion to create problems and then make them worse. Much worse. Even though each episode is only 11 minutes long, going through all this in one sitting was not the way to do it. Each episode is so dense with language deconstruction and brain exploding philosophy that they require time to savor. Going through them quickly overwhelms you with the gore and perversions. And the revelation: If you buy the DVD, you can hear my voice. I did the commentary track for the first episode. It was well received by critics. For example, DVDTalk.com called it "overwrought and pedantic". So.... yeah.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford (2007) Dir. Andrew Dominik I had not seen this again since I saw it in the theater and I have to say it left a better impression on me back then. Much of the cinematography likely worked a lot better on the big screen. I did not really like the voice-over narration, as much of it felt very unnecessary. It's never a good sign when we have to be told how to feel about a certain character or incident. Beyond that, this movie does have two very good performances: Pitt as Jesse James and Sam Rockwell as Charlie Ford. I'm not the biggest fan of Pitt, but he embodies the character of Jesse James very well, likely because some of his acting tics match well with the paranoid narcissist James. Rockwell's Charlie is the movie's moral center and perhaps the only character you feel truly sorry for in the end. What bothers me about Casey Affleck's Robert Ford is that the way he acted - even his facial expressions - would have never allowed him to survive as long as he did living nearby Jesse James (or at least, James the way he is portrayed in this movie). It doesn't work if you portray one man as having a supernatural sense for sniffing out traitors and then have his killer make his intentions so obvious that even a fool would have figured it out. Even if it is heavily implied that Jesse James gave Ford the opportunity to kill him as a form of assisted suicide. The supporting cast whom portray the remainder of the James gang are a pretty impressive ensemble: Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Schneider and Sam Shepard as older brother Frank.
Actually that wall they climb and the tree the kid climbs to dodge the dogs is "Hadrian's wall" up in Northumberland somewhere. Even farther away... A photo of that was on my photography board. Ah, here it is.
A Case of You (2013) Dir. Kat Coiro An aspiring young writer who is becoming a bit disillusioned with his job (his only published works are novelizations of popular teen vampire movies) and life in general (he has no girlfriend nor any hobbies that allow for real social contact) decides to try and seduce the attractive barista at his local coffee shop by becoming her "dream man", using her FB profile to figure out what she likes. His plan sort of works, but then he finds it increasingly difficult to keep up the act. A pretty standard rom-com. The leads are both fine, but I got most of my enjoyment out of the many cameo appearances: Sam Rockwell as a guitar teacher/"Spin Doctors" superfan, Brendan Fraser as a handyman/aspiring musician, Peter Dinklage as the gay, slightly gauche colleague of the girl at the coffee shop and Vince Vaughn as the fast-talking, douchey literary agent.
American Hustle (2013) Dir. David O. Russell For all the love this got during awards season, I found it to be incredibly underwhelming. I can sort of see why the nature of the characters would appeal awards judges, as they are the kind of larger than life individuals that actors can have a lot of fun with. However, apart from Jennifer Lawrence (who is hilarious), I don't believe any of them give a truly memorable performance here, certainly not compared to their other recent work. The rest of the movie rarely rises above mediocrity. I would rank it only behind "Crash" in terms of overrated Oscar darlings, and that is mostly because unlike the Paul Haggis movie, this feature is not intellectually insulting. If not for the murderers row of a cast, this flick would have likely gone by entirely unnoticed.
I remember i watched some of this after a dinner party in 2005 and we all thought it was the funniest thing we ever saw (being wrecked). Then i forgot it existed until right now! Thanks!
Muppets Most Wanted I'm highly pro-Muppet. This is one delivers pretty well -- although let me just say off the bat that I am deeply against this new Muppet dude, Walter, or whatever his name is. I never saw all of the previous film, and I'm not sure I missed much -- seemed to be way too focused on Jason Segal and that new Muppet dude. Boo. This one is focused where it belongs, on Kermit and cameos and chaos. And the bad Kermit is pretty funny. Tina Fey and Ty Burrell and Ricky Gervais are well used. And the songs are really good -- written by the short half of Flight of the Conchords -- and the tall half has a great part as well. Many furry, flippery, and feathery thumbs up.
It was a dark and stormy night. This movie was terrible and you have no idea what you're talking about. The end.
No (2012) Dir. Pablo Larraín Roughly based on the events that saw the ouster of Pinochet in Chile, I kind of had mixed feelings about it. Gael Garcia Bernal was awesome as usual and the storytelling was pretty good, though it seemed a bit disjointed at times. After reading that the director's first cut was over four hours that made sense in that they obviously made some huge omissions to get it to a digestible length. It was entertaining despite dragging a bit in places, but I don't quite understand the hype it got and the Oscar nomination. It's worth watching, but I wasn't blown away. At the very least, it inspired me to read up on the subject more.
Prometheus (2012) I really hated this movie, and I'm usually easy going about bad movies. Maybe it was because it has 73% on rotten tomatoes. Maybe because the movie claimed to "ask important questions". Maybe because I really enjoyed Alien and Blade Runner. I dunno, I feel dumber for having watched this movie. Full of bad decision making by the characters and sci fi & horror movie cliches. Maybe the Mystery Science Theater 3000 will have this on their web show.
I mostly feel exactly the same way about this movie. What's most galling is that it was something of a missed opportunity, I think, because a lot of the visuals of this movie are cool as hell. And there are some really interesting ideas, but they don't end up going anywhere. I like some of the individual sequences and ideas well enough in this movie that I actually bought a copy when it was on sale for like $5. But you are right-- it doesn't hold together.
Ink (2009) Very low budget Sci-Fi/Fantasy thing about death and good/evil. Just waaaaay too art studenty for me.
John McLaine goes to the Washington... Sorry, I meant "White House Down" The built up is good and it creates some tension during the terrorists' break in into the WH. After that it becomes a DieHard reddux. Some good action sequences but the overall movie does not hold up.
Van Dammethon 40 Enemies Closer (2013) Forest ranger Henry is in charge of an almost uninhabited island located between America and Canada in the nation of Bulgaria. A small airplane full of drugs crashes in the water nearby and crazy-haired Van Damme leads a French-Canadian crew of murderers to retrieve it. They had a foolproof way to occupy Henry while they went diving, but upsetting their grand plan is Orlando Jones, who came to the islands for his own nefarious reasons. And that's where the clever title comes from. One path to making a good action movie is to have a charismatic bad guy, and Van Damme delivers. His wild look matches his wild, tick-filled personality. Maybe vegan environmentalists won't like a bad guy claiming membership in their group, but it mostly works here. adding some sinister motivations, humor, and a great, great final line from Van Damme. I'm a big Orlando Jones fan, but his turn as bad guy wasn't quite as believable. Probably because I've seen Drumline too often to see him that way. I like movies where the protagonist isn't the best hand-to-hand fighter in the film. It makes them depend a bit more on cleverness, and the film has less of that "trial by combat", strength-comes-from-moral-superiority crap. The main fight takes place in a tree(!), which I've never seen before.
Watched this the other night. I liked the cast a lot but the movie was over stylized for me. Lots of blood and snot and the bad guys got what they deserved. I liked Man on Fire a little better.
Snowpiercer (2013) Dir. Joon-Ho Bong The premise of this movie is ridiculous, yet I totally loved it. After a failed attempt to reduce the effects of carbon gases on the atmosphere - the compound released actually plunges Earth into an ice age - humanity survives on a self-sustaining train that makes a yearly run around a closed circuit all over the Eurasian and American continents. The passengers are divided into groups based upon the ticket they originally bought, from first class all the way down to the stowaways who got on board without any ticket in an attempt to save their hide. Seventeen years into their survival the inhabitants of the trains tail section rebel against their horrendous living conditions. What follows is non-stop action as they fight their way to the front (and engine section). This movie works so well because of its very good story-telling as well as the fact that it acknowledges the ludicrousness of its premise and actually embraces it. The story is obviously meant as an allegory of the 1% vs. 99% dichotomy. But it's a mostly very entertaining action flick in the best Asian tradition, visual style included. The cast makes for a very good ensemble: Chris Evans (of whom I am a fan in general) as the heroic protagonist, Jamie Bell as his second in command, John Hurt as his mentor, Tilda Swinton as a hilariously over the top antagonist (whose physical appearance can best be described as a real-life version of "The Incredibles" Edna Mode), Alison Pill as an equally disturbed primary school teacher, as well as director favorite Kang-Ho Song as the security expert who bypasses the gates that seal off the trains different sections. I'm not sure if this will be everyone's cup of tea (the embracing of the ludicrousness also extends to the dialogue) but I found this to be a blueprint for what a big-action spectacle should aspire to. You can find the trailer here.