So...Movie...Last One You Saw...Go. Vol XXII

I thought Sheen was pretty good as the pedantic douchebag as well, even though he was only in a handful of scenes.

 

See, I'm doing these reviews to counter these stereotypes. Only 9 of the 30 films I've seen roughly follow your formula.

There is a kind of secret revealed by watching all the Van Damme movies. Taken as a whole, they form a movie on their own: the story of Van Damme's career. Derailed may have been a bad movie, but it is a necessary part of the overall story. The ambition of youth is followed by arrogance and the fall, which is followed by depression and survival, and then maturity, redemption, and rebirth. And the story is still going on. So you see, there had to have been a movie as bad as Derailed at that point in his career.

I really, really recommend that you see JCVD. It's surprising and unexpected. It will turn you into a believer.

 

Definitely meta-reflexive, and the glasses are key because they are the signal that it is meta-reflexive by being so obviously anti-reflexive.

The glasses imply that the figure is the un-idealized or "real" version of the ideal. But his one bragging point is one of the key features of the idealized Van Damme (his glorious and frequently-displayed-in-movies ass). So while Van Damme remains "real" within the universe of the skit, the audience realized the confluence of archetypes (movie Van Damme with glorious ass, off screen womanizing Van Damme, in-skit human with failings Van Damme) just as we realize that Superman with glasses is still Superman.

 

But nobody else does. And that's why Van Damme has adopted such a successful disguise.

 

Good post! In some ways we do the same . My wife and pick up a lot of foreign made movies that turn out to be excellent watching. Often they turn up a couple of years later in slicker Hollywood editions but not better.

I don't pretend to be a movie critic any more than I let Siskel (Yeh, I know)and Ebert pick my movies. My background, my lifestyle, my likes and dislikes are far different than people who went to collage to study journalism and have no "Real" life experiences, could imagine.

We don't all get the same out of a movie and that's what makes the movie world ...and this thread, go around...Right!!!?

 

Then they're prolly the only 9 I've seen...
Couldn't rep you but I like your thoughts on his life and movies. I'm afraid I lost out by giving up on him..

 

It was a bit long. Either that or I was just exhausted from my day. But the characters were charming, if quirky. I LOVED Analeigh Tipton (Lily). Didn't realize she was on Top Model.

 

I know nothing about this movie before I stuck it in the slot.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Turned out to be a lot of fun. The humour changed this from being a tiresome run of the mill action movie into enjoyable watching. Simon Pegg was pretty good as was Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton as co stars.

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RT: 'With fast-paced directing by Brad Bird and exciting action sequences, yet with funny moments, this movie is a thrilling ride worth to experience.'

 

Have not seen this movie, but I remember her also being quite good in "Crazy Stupid Love".

 

Yup saw her in crazy stupid love, she did do a good job ther

 

Which probably means she's the first person who turns a run on Top Model into a real career?

 

really really liked the new Mission Impossible. You can sense Bird's whimsicality. The plot is outrageous, the set pieces, etc all outrageous so it makes sense to bookend a lot of the serious exposition with some humor. Woul like if he directed the next as well.

 

The Innkeepers (2011)
Dir. Ti West



An old inn is a couple of days away from going out of business to make place for a parking lot. We follow the pair of employees still on staff as they serve the handful of guests who patron the place in its final days. To kill the time, they dabble in a bit of ghost-hunting, only a few weird occurrences make it apparent that there is actually some truth to the stories of the place being haunted by the spirit of a woman who died in its basement.

This is a very slow horror movie. The first hour or so feels more like a not-too-funny comedy than a horror-thriller. And when the horror does come, its nature feels a bit cheap as a pay-off to all that build-up. The one thing I did like was the use of the soundtrack for scares. The audience actually hears what the protagonists are hearing and taping on their EVP recorder, which manages to make a few simple scenes - like a girl walking around an empty hotel holding a microphone - somewhat suspenseful.

But the eventual climax was cheap enough to ruin whatever good might have come before. Though it did remind me of what a great location a largely empty hotel can be for a horror movie.

 

Project X (2012)
Dir. Nima Nourizadeh



Have we seen this before? Yes. But it's done so well that its lack of true originality does not really matter. Apart from the last ten minutes or so when they take the craziness (flamethrower???) a bit too far, this was a fun, wild ride of a movie. What I also loved was the fact that it lacked the usual moralizing message at the end. So it remained a celebration of mindless, irresponsible fun throughout. Which is probably what so many critics hated about it.

 

Contraband (2012)
Dir. Baltasar Kormákur



Not really note-worthy or worthwhile in any way. And I say this as someone who likes Marky Mark , Giovanni Ribisi and Kate Beckinsale. I liked the idea of making a movie about smugglers, but this was a poor effort throughout. It remains somewhat watchable until the main protagonists reach Panama, but the wheels really come off there. The remainder of the movie is more like an exercise in the theater of the absurd. Each plot development is slightly more outrageous than the one before.

As a side-note, Ribisi is still a very interesting actor and I wish he would get more and better work.

 

Haywire

Phenomenal. My favorite of the year so far.

 

The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
Dir. Peter & Bobby Farrelly



A Farrelly brother comedy that reunited them with their "There's something about Mary" star. It wasn't terrible, just maybe a little underwhelming. Part of the problem is that we've reached the point where we've seen Ben Stiller play this same character once too many. But the issues went beyond Stiller's character. The movie was generally a bit low on real laughs.

There were a handful of aspects that still made it enjoyable. Malin Akerman has some genuine comedic talent, which was a pleasant surprise. I mostly know her from the Watchmen movie, so it was a trait of her craft I had not yet been introduced to. After seeing around a half a dozen of her movies, I couldn't really say if Michelle Monaghan is a good actress or not, but she does possess a near effortless on-screen charm. And this might seem contradictory to my earlier point about Stiller, but I think I will never tire of seeing Danny McBride portray douchebags. He has really elevated it to an artform in its own right.

In my Farrelly flick rankings, it would fall somewhere in between the nadir that was "Fever pitch" and the pleasant mediocrity of "Hall Pass".

 

Remember that girl at school that all the girls hated but also wanted to be and all the guys wanted to bang? Charlize Theron is her....but I still want to ....umm nevermind.....focus on the movie. SO Charlize Theron is a young adult. But she's more of a petulant teenager who is in an adult body to get what she wants and not thinking of the consequences except for herself. It's from the same writer/director that brought you "Juno" this seems to be a movie in the same genre. Charlize plays a character who I started detesting but I ended up pitying her by the end of the movie as the life everyone thinks she has is not actually made of gold but pyrite. It's hard for this character to be likeable in any way, but eventually Theron pulls it off. It took a while though as you realize Maevis is stunted, while thinking she has her life pretty sorted out.

The story is about a woman who is a writer of teenage novels (actually the ghost writer) whose series is ending. She panics (for a reason unbeknownst to the audience) and decides to go back home to her small town and rekindle an old high school relationship.

Patrick Wilson plays the man she's after, but he has a baby and a wife standing in her way. He's either completely oblivious or taking the high road when Maevis (sp) is flirting and making advances. Patrick Wilson is adequare but the real heart and soul is Patton Oswalt. He is her voice of reason and is as emotionally/physically stunted as her but he recognizes it. I really enjoyed that last lines of dialogue between those two.

If you aren't the Happy Hollywood Ending type, you will enjoy this film more than others.

 

Went to go see this one last night. It's been a while since I've been excited about any sort of action film. This one was VERY well directed and choreographed. A real roller coaster of a film that I'd be happy to go see again. Lots of suspense and a whole lot of action.

Go see it.

 

Interesting. My own interpretation was slightly different, I thought the screenwriter made it quite apparent from the get-go that her life was less than perfect. The state of her apartment, her rather quirky diet, the way she regards the man she picked up as some foreign object the next morning... All were aimed at making it clear to the audience that this was not someone who had her shit totally together. And then we get the moment where she totally freaks out over the baby picture. I actually thought the facade had been pulled back from nearly the first scene, which was precisely what made many of the scenes that came after that so sad to watch.

 

You're right. I meant to say that and should have written more clearly. I write the previous critiique quickly as I was trying to get work done.

Maevis thinks her life is sorted out and she just needs that one thing to perfect it. Everyone else can see it (judging by her being invited by her old flame's wife, Patton Oswalt, etc etc) but she can't see it (the opening scenes, her disturbing hair thing and her "exciting" Minneapolis "life" as a writer) and she hasn't changed since high school.