2008 Movie #163 - The Wrestler
I was really looking forward to watching this one, even before all of the positive buzz started to come in. Now I gotta say, this is one fantastic movie. It's easily making it's way onto the top 10 list I would say. It may be nearish the bottom, but it's still a great movie.
A lot has been said about the performance of Mickey Rourke in the lead role and I have to say, it's deserved. I don't think it's as impressive as Marv in Sin City, but it's damn good. His character reminded me a slightly smarter, more crass, Rocky Balboa. Despite his many mistakes, you can't help but root for the guy. You want things to work out for him and it's genuinely sad when they don't, even when it's his own fault. Great character and a great performance.
It was also cool to see a good role go to Marisa Tomei. And she shows her boobs a lot, so nothing wrong there either. I thought she was really good and I also liked Evan Rachel Wood in a somewhat small role. She's another actress I don't think I've seen in a while. Then again I can't think of anything I liked her in so maybe that's ok. She's good here though.
I just liked watching this movie unfold. I love the camraderie between all of the wrestlers. It's a side you don't normally see and there's a great scene at the beginning where they are all discussing what they will each do in their matches. Very cool stuff.
Also any movie that not only features an original Nintendo, but actually takes the time to invent a game for it, is automatically awesome. I mean they took the fucking time to show us an 8-bit wrestling game that doesn't even exist! That's just pure awesome.
It's a simple movie, but it's a great way. It has a sort of documentary feel to it that really works well and really helps draw you in to the story and the characters. Great movie.
**** 1/2 /5
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Shawn's Bedtime Stories Review
2008 Movie #162 - Bedtime Stories
I was pretty damn ready to hate this one. The trailers made it look pretty bad and the reviews for it certainly aren't great. In the end, I didn't hate it. In fact I kind of liked it. Only kind of though, I still thought there were a lot of problems with it.
My first problem is with Sandler himself. I like Sandler, despite some of his recent film choices. He's not bad here and it's kind of neat to see him doing a kid's movie, but he seems to be trying way too fucking hard. He uses his traditional goofy voice he uses in most of his movies but it's way too overdone here. I can't help but wonder how much of the dialogue was improvised by him. This could have been a very different movie with someone else in the lead. Anyway, he's ok in it but it reminded me a bit of Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty where you just wanted to tell him "ok shhhhhhhhhh!!"
The rest of the cast is good. Always great to see Keri Russell in a movie since she always looks fantastic. The rich daughter character was extemely attractive and kudos to the writers for not making her a complete airhead bitch either. It would have been the easy route so at least they chose not to go on it. It's weird to see Russel Brand in a family movie but he does alright here. It's also a little weird that Courtenay Cox is playing Sandler's sister here after playing his wife in Longest Yard but hey, whatever.
Another thing that bugged me is the universe in which this movie takes place. I understand the idea of bedtime stories becoming true is pretty god damn out there in the first place, but I assumed aside from that the movie was supposed to take place in some sort of reality. Then the cartoon eyed guinea pig shows up and throws that idea right out the fuckign window. I hated that thing. Every time it showed him having a cartoony reaction to something I wanted to step on it. Who the fuck thought of that? And why did so many jokes center on it?! There were at least 90..at least! Also stop having dogs react to things!! It's not funny! AAAAAAAA!!!
To continue on the same idea, there is a scene at the end on a motorcycle that is so fucking out there and ridiculous I couldn't believe it. By this point there is no WAY this movie can be grounded in reality at all. ...Although I guess the whole movie is supposed to be like one big bedtime story huh? Well shit. Meh...either way that hamster was not fucking funny!!
In the end, it's an ok kid's flick. It's a feel good movie and pretty fitting for the holidays...unlike that Seven Pounds. Which by the way is now being marketed in the commercials as a "feel good holiday gift for the whole family." Did the commercial not see the actual movie? Cuz it should check it out before it says shit like that. As for Bedtime Stories...
** 1/2 / 5
I was pretty damn ready to hate this one. The trailers made it look pretty bad and the reviews for it certainly aren't great. In the end, I didn't hate it. In fact I kind of liked it. Only kind of though, I still thought there were a lot of problems with it.
My first problem is with Sandler himself. I like Sandler, despite some of his recent film choices. He's not bad here and it's kind of neat to see him doing a kid's movie, but he seems to be trying way too fucking hard. He uses his traditional goofy voice he uses in most of his movies but it's way too overdone here. I can't help but wonder how much of the dialogue was improvised by him. This could have been a very different movie with someone else in the lead. Anyway, he's ok in it but it reminded me a bit of Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty where you just wanted to tell him "ok shhhhhhhhhh!!"
The rest of the cast is good. Always great to see Keri Russell in a movie since she always looks fantastic. The rich daughter character was extemely attractive and kudos to the writers for not making her a complete airhead bitch either. It would have been the easy route so at least they chose not to go on it. It's weird to see Russel Brand in a family movie but he does alright here. It's also a little weird that Courtenay Cox is playing Sandler's sister here after playing his wife in Longest Yard but hey, whatever.
Another thing that bugged me is the universe in which this movie takes place. I understand the idea of bedtime stories becoming true is pretty god damn out there in the first place, but I assumed aside from that the movie was supposed to take place in some sort of reality. Then the cartoon eyed guinea pig shows up and throws that idea right out the fuckign window. I hated that thing. Every time it showed him having a cartoony reaction to something I wanted to step on it. Who the fuck thought of that? And why did so many jokes center on it?! There were at least 90..at least! Also stop having dogs react to things!! It's not funny! AAAAAAAA!!!
To continue on the same idea, there is a scene at the end on a motorcycle that is so fucking out there and ridiculous I couldn't believe it. By this point there is no WAY this movie can be grounded in reality at all. ...Although I guess the whole movie is supposed to be like one big bedtime story huh? Well shit. Meh...either way that hamster was not fucking funny!!
In the end, it's an ok kid's flick. It's a feel good movie and pretty fitting for the holidays...unlike that Seven Pounds. Which by the way is now being marketed in the commercials as a "feel good holiday gift for the whole family." Did the commercial not see the actual movie? Cuz it should check it out before it says shit like that. As for Bedtime Stories...
** 1/2 / 5
Shawn's Changeling Review
2008 Movie #161 - Changeling
Now we're getting back to the good stuff. I had wanted to see this movie for a while but only had the chance to sit down and watch it yesterday afternoon. This is one hell of a movie that I really hope gets a good chunk of nominations at Oscar time. I think Jolie should be up for Best Actress, Eastwood for Best Director, Costume Design, even Best Picture maybe. I really hope to be seeing a lot of this one.
To begin with, I really liked the story for this movie. I like that it's based on a true story that I would say 99% of the population most likely aren't familiar with at all. It's cool that there are stories like this that haven't been told in a movie yet. The story keeps you interested and is very well told. It's powerful stuff man, powerful stuff.
I've already touched on the performances a little bit but let's get back to that for a moment. Jolie is great in this movie. It's weird to watch Wanted and go on to this one because they are two very, VERY, different roles for her. At least we know she can act now. My respect for her went up infinitely after this one. It was also very cool to see John Malkovich playing a good guy. I don't think that's ever happened before. He may play a good guy who is also creepy, but never just a flat out good guy, so I enjoyed that as well.
This movie also made me mad, but in a good way. Remember how in my Gran Torino review I mentioned how rare it is to actually hate the bad guys in a movie? Well I fucking HATED them in thsi one. I mean I wanted to walk into the actual movie and just start kicking the shit out of everyone. All of the cops and doctors are just so fucking smug and assholey that it drove me insane. I wanted Jolie to expose these assholes more than I wanted to be alive. Good job Changeling, it's not easy to ge tme that fired up.
All in all, this is great stuff. Great story, excellent performances and characters so well written you just want to fucking stab them in the face.
**** 1/2 / 5
Now we're getting back to the good stuff. I had wanted to see this movie for a while but only had the chance to sit down and watch it yesterday afternoon. This is one hell of a movie that I really hope gets a good chunk of nominations at Oscar time. I think Jolie should be up for Best Actress, Eastwood for Best Director, Costume Design, even Best Picture maybe. I really hope to be seeing a lot of this one.
To begin with, I really liked the story for this movie. I like that it's based on a true story that I would say 99% of the population most likely aren't familiar with at all. It's cool that there are stories like this that haven't been told in a movie yet. The story keeps you interested and is very well told. It's powerful stuff man, powerful stuff.
I've already touched on the performances a little bit but let's get back to that for a moment. Jolie is great in this movie. It's weird to watch Wanted and go on to this one because they are two very, VERY, different roles for her. At least we know she can act now. My respect for her went up infinitely after this one. It was also very cool to see John Malkovich playing a good guy. I don't think that's ever happened before. He may play a good guy who is also creepy, but never just a flat out good guy, so I enjoyed that as well.
This movie also made me mad, but in a good way. Remember how in my Gran Torino review I mentioned how rare it is to actually hate the bad guys in a movie? Well I fucking HATED them in thsi one. I mean I wanted to walk into the actual movie and just start kicking the shit out of everyone. All of the cops and doctors are just so fucking smug and assholey that it drove me insane. I wanted Jolie to expose these assholes more than I wanted to be alive. Good job Changeling, it's not easy to ge tme that fired up.
All in all, this is great stuff. Great story, excellent performances and characters so well written you just want to fucking stab them in the face.
**** 1/2 / 5
Shawn's Redbelt Review
2008 Movie #160 - Redbelt
Another movie I was sure I was going to miss. Actually I've had it available for a while so I mostly assumed I would miss it because I would never take the time to sit down and watch it. The main reason I did is because I've started to see it show up on a huge bunch of Top Movies of 2008 lists so I got curious. After watching it, I don't really get why it's showing up on these lists really. It's not a bad movie don't get me wrong, but I definitely couldn't place this one in my top 10. Hell I doubt I could do the top 30 or maybe even 50. It just wasn't for me really.
As with Secret Life of Bees, it's a performance from this movie that stood out to me more than anything. That would of course be Tim Allen. Now I should stay up front that I am anything but a fan of his. I don't like Home Improvement (if you would like I could summarize every episode of the show ever in about 10 seconds...I have a feeling I actually did that in another post somewhere in this blog) and most of his movies are crap. Galaxy Quest aside, we have Wild Hogs, all three Santa Clause movies, Zoom, Jungle 2 Jungle, Christmas with the Kranks and the list probably goes on.
Here however he does alright because he takes on a more serious role. The man is actually a pretty decent actor if given the right oppurtunity. Plus it was kind of cool to hear him say fuck. Tim's performance was the one thing I really carried away from this movie.
Well him and this one scene where a woman is supposed to be angry at the main character for something I won't spoil here. The reason this scene stands out is that the woman isn't exactly what you would call good at acting. She doesn't seem angry, she barely seems mildly upset. I would go as far as to call her disinterested even. It's a bizarre scene that actually made me laugh, which considering the context, probably wasn't their intention.
That's about all I have to say. The plot is ok, the performances are mostly good aside from the one mentioned in the last paragraph, and some of the fighting is cool. Other than that, meh.
**/5
Another movie I was sure I was going to miss. Actually I've had it available for a while so I mostly assumed I would miss it because I would never take the time to sit down and watch it. The main reason I did is because I've started to see it show up on a huge bunch of Top Movies of 2008 lists so I got curious. After watching it, I don't really get why it's showing up on these lists really. It's not a bad movie don't get me wrong, but I definitely couldn't place this one in my top 10. Hell I doubt I could do the top 30 or maybe even 50. It just wasn't for me really.
As with Secret Life of Bees, it's a performance from this movie that stood out to me more than anything. That would of course be Tim Allen. Now I should stay up front that I am anything but a fan of his. I don't like Home Improvement (if you would like I could summarize every episode of the show ever in about 10 seconds...I have a feeling I actually did that in another post somewhere in this blog) and most of his movies are crap. Galaxy Quest aside, we have Wild Hogs, all three Santa Clause movies, Zoom, Jungle 2 Jungle, Christmas with the Kranks and the list probably goes on.
Here however he does alright because he takes on a more serious role. The man is actually a pretty decent actor if given the right oppurtunity. Plus it was kind of cool to hear him say fuck. Tim's performance was the one thing I really carried away from this movie.
Well him and this one scene where a woman is supposed to be angry at the main character for something I won't spoil here. The reason this scene stands out is that the woman isn't exactly what you would call good at acting. She doesn't seem angry, she barely seems mildly upset. I would go as far as to call her disinterested even. It's a bizarre scene that actually made me laugh, which considering the context, probably wasn't their intention.
That's about all I have to say. The plot is ok, the performances are mostly good aside from the one mentioned in the last paragraph, and some of the fighting is cool. Other than that, meh.
**/5
Shawn's The Secret Life of Bees Review
2008 Movie #159 - The Secret Life of Bees
Well it happened again. I actually watched this movie right after I finished watching Swing Vote and then just completely forgot about it and never wrote the review. It's only a few days later and I can't remember too much about the movie to even talk about it here. I guess that pretty much sums up everything you need to know about the movie right there. It's ok, but pretty forgettable.
The one thing I took away from this movie was that Dakota Fanning is getting older. I haven't seen her in a movie in a while now and she looks a whole lot different from what I remember. She's still a good actress though so hopefully she can stick around as she gets older. Very few child stars have managed to pull that off, with Elijah Wood being one of the few examples I can think of right now. *moment of silence for the career of Macauly Culkin*
Also Paul Bettany is really fucking good at playing a backwoods redneck. I was surprised to find out it was him because for the first part of the movie I really had no idea. So kudos to him because he did a stand out job.
Aside from those 2 facts, nothing much else about the movie stands out to me now that I think back to it. It was pretty decent, with some really good performances and a merely ok plot. It probably doesn't help either that I watched this one in the middle of a huge field of Oscar and award movies. Really doesn't help this one stand out. I guess check it out? Really though there's a whole lot of good stuff out there right now that you should be checking out instead.
** 1/2 / 5
Well it happened again. I actually watched this movie right after I finished watching Swing Vote and then just completely forgot about it and never wrote the review. It's only a few days later and I can't remember too much about the movie to even talk about it here. I guess that pretty much sums up everything you need to know about the movie right there. It's ok, but pretty forgettable.
The one thing I took away from this movie was that Dakota Fanning is getting older. I haven't seen her in a movie in a while now and she looks a whole lot different from what I remember. She's still a good actress though so hopefully she can stick around as she gets older. Very few child stars have managed to pull that off, with Elijah Wood being one of the few examples I can think of right now. *moment of silence for the career of Macauly Culkin*
Also Paul Bettany is really fucking good at playing a backwoods redneck. I was surprised to find out it was him because for the first part of the movie I really had no idea. So kudos to him because he did a stand out job.
Aside from those 2 facts, nothing much else about the movie stands out to me now that I think back to it. It was pretty decent, with some really good performances and a merely ok plot. It probably doesn't help either that I watched this one in the middle of a huge field of Oscar and award movies. Really doesn't help this one stand out. I guess check it out? Really though there's a whole lot of good stuff out there right now that you should be checking out instead.
** 1/2 / 5
Monday, December 29, 2008
Shawn's Revolutionary Road Review
2008 Movie #158 - Revolutionary Road
After a slight break for an animated mouse, we’re back to the awards movies. This is another one I knew nothing about before I watched it. I had never seen a trailer and aside from the cast, that was about all the knowledge I had.
The plot is pretty simple. It’s basically a married couple in the fifties who are having some problems. It’s a simple premise but they do a great job with it. Things get off to a good start and then the movie does slow down. However when it picks back up again, it picks up like a motherfucker. It really gets you into the story and you HAVE to know just what the hell is going to happen.
The movie hinges on the performances and my god these are some quality performances. Leo and Kate go the exact opposite route as Titantic and spend a good chunk of this movie just screaming at each other. I have to give particular props to Leo though. He is great in this movie. I would maybe go as far as to say this is his best performance, and he has given some damn good ones. Kate is really good too, but it’s Leo who steals the show. He has one scene near the end of the movie where he is yelling at a character who isn’t Kate (I don’t want to give anything away) that is fantastic. It’s also satisfying because you’re waiting and waiting for him to unleash so when he does, it just feels damn good to watch it unfold. If he doesn’t get a best actor nomination for this, I’ll eat Hollywood. The whole damn thing.
There isn’t much more to say about this one. It features two excellent performances and a simple, but well told plot. Another great movie that comes right at the end of the year.
****/5
After a slight break for an animated mouse, we’re back to the awards movies. This is another one I knew nothing about before I watched it. I had never seen a trailer and aside from the cast, that was about all the knowledge I had.
The plot is pretty simple. It’s basically a married couple in the fifties who are having some problems. It’s a simple premise but they do a great job with it. Things get off to a good start and then the movie does slow down. However when it picks back up again, it picks up like a motherfucker. It really gets you into the story and you HAVE to know just what the hell is going to happen.
The movie hinges on the performances and my god these are some quality performances. Leo and Kate go the exact opposite route as Titantic and spend a good chunk of this movie just screaming at each other. I have to give particular props to Leo though. He is great in this movie. I would maybe go as far as to say this is his best performance, and he has given some damn good ones. Kate is really good too, but it’s Leo who steals the show. He has one scene near the end of the movie where he is yelling at a character who isn’t Kate (I don’t want to give anything away) that is fantastic. It’s also satisfying because you’re waiting and waiting for him to unleash so when he does, it just feels damn good to watch it unfold. If he doesn’t get a best actor nomination for this, I’ll eat Hollywood. The whole damn thing.
There isn’t much more to say about this one. It features two excellent performances and a simple, but well told plot. Another great movie that comes right at the end of the year.
****/5
Shawn's The Tale of Despereux Review
2008 Movie #157 - The Tale of Despereux
I have never read the book this is based on. In fact I didn’t even know it was based on a book until it was released. The movie gave me no real desire to go back and read the book, but it does a few things right that I have to give it credit for.
It’s been an up and down year for animated movies. On one end of the spectrum, we have great movies like Kung Fu Panda, Wall-e, and even Horton Hears a Who. On the far opposite end, we have ones such as Madagascar 2, Igor and Veggie Tales (wow now that one takes me back). Somewhere in the middle of all that, lies The Tale of Despereaux.
First off, I’ll list the things I thought the movie did well. For starters, I liked the look of the movie. It goes a very different route than most animated movies. Usually they are bright and colourful, but this one has a much more drab colour palette. Not that it looks bad, it looks very good. It has a unique look that makes it stand out from just about every other animated movie that has come out this year.
Second of all, this is a kid’s movie that gives kids some credit. You know this is an issue I have with most kids movies and it’s always nice to see one go a different route. Sure there are some slapstick moments and whatever, but not nearly to the point we’re used to. This one actually tries to tell a story and actually features some darker moments. I could see a lot of kids finding this movie slow since it doesn’t spend the whole time screaming in their faces, like fucking Madagascar 2 never stopped doing.
Those points aside, it’s still a pretty average movie. It looks great and doesn’t condescend to the kids, but it’s still just ok. The storyline is in fact a little on the slow side and the storyline is a little familiar. There is a scene with a cat that I rather liked though. Overall, not bad.
** ½ / 5
I have never read the book this is based on. In fact I didn’t even know it was based on a book until it was released. The movie gave me no real desire to go back and read the book, but it does a few things right that I have to give it credit for.
It’s been an up and down year for animated movies. On one end of the spectrum, we have great movies like Kung Fu Panda, Wall-e, and even Horton Hears a Who. On the far opposite end, we have ones such as Madagascar 2, Igor and Veggie Tales (wow now that one takes me back). Somewhere in the middle of all that, lies The Tale of Despereaux.
First off, I’ll list the things I thought the movie did well. For starters, I liked the look of the movie. It goes a very different route than most animated movies. Usually they are bright and colourful, but this one has a much more drab colour palette. Not that it looks bad, it looks very good. It has a unique look that makes it stand out from just about every other animated movie that has come out this year.
Second of all, this is a kid’s movie that gives kids some credit. You know this is an issue I have with most kids movies and it’s always nice to see one go a different route. Sure there are some slapstick moments and whatever, but not nearly to the point we’re used to. This one actually tries to tell a story and actually features some darker moments. I could see a lot of kids finding this movie slow since it doesn’t spend the whole time screaming in their faces, like fucking Madagascar 2 never stopped doing.
Those points aside, it’s still a pretty average movie. It looks great and doesn’t condescend to the kids, but it’s still just ok. The storyline is in fact a little on the slow side and the storyline is a little familiar. There is a scene with a cat that I rather liked though. Overall, not bad.
** ½ / 5
Shawn's Slumdog Millionaire Review
2008 Movie #156 - Slumdog Millionaire
Let’s keep the award movies coming! This was one of the biggies. It’s made just about every 2008 top 10 list I’ve read. Not to mention the tons of nominations it’s gotten/is bound to get. That’s a whole lot of hype for a movie to live up to. I was pretty positive it could never manage to meet the high expectations I set for it. What do you know? It pulled it off.
First of all, I love the narrative device this movie uses. It has the main character on the India version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire being interrogated for cheating since he is winning big on the show. The movie consists of him telling the stories about how he knows all of the answers to the questions. These all lead to flashbacks of his life. Each story is interesting and will really have you wanting to know just what is going to happen.
Few movies can draw you in like this one did. This is one of those movies where things just HAVE to work out for all of the characters…except for maybe one. I don’t think I have felt this strongly about 2 people ending up together since Wall-e. I’m pretty sure this son of a bitch got me to the edge of my seat, especially in the finale. Slumdog Millionaire is just an example of fucking great storytelling. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen and puts most of the stories from 2008 movies to absolute shame.
I was very impressed with the acting in this movie, particularly from the boys who portray the main characters when they are younger. They do a fantastic job. Of course all of the adult versions are good as well. There really isn’t a weak performance in the bunch.
The movie also looks great. The scenery and everything is fantastic to look at. Yep, that’s that paragraph.
Slumdog Millionaire manages to live up to a huge amount of hype, and even surpasses it in some ways. It’s a shame it took until the end of the year to get some more movies of this quality but I would say this is one that is worth the wait.
****1/2 / 5
Let’s keep the award movies coming! This was one of the biggies. It’s made just about every 2008 top 10 list I’ve read. Not to mention the tons of nominations it’s gotten/is bound to get. That’s a whole lot of hype for a movie to live up to. I was pretty positive it could never manage to meet the high expectations I set for it. What do you know? It pulled it off.
First of all, I love the narrative device this movie uses. It has the main character on the India version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire being interrogated for cheating since he is winning big on the show. The movie consists of him telling the stories about how he knows all of the answers to the questions. These all lead to flashbacks of his life. Each story is interesting and will really have you wanting to know just what is going to happen.
Few movies can draw you in like this one did. This is one of those movies where things just HAVE to work out for all of the characters…except for maybe one. I don’t think I have felt this strongly about 2 people ending up together since Wall-e. I’m pretty sure this son of a bitch got me to the edge of my seat, especially in the finale. Slumdog Millionaire is just an example of fucking great storytelling. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen and puts most of the stories from 2008 movies to absolute shame.
I was very impressed with the acting in this movie, particularly from the boys who portray the main characters when they are younger. They do a fantastic job. Of course all of the adult versions are good as well. There really isn’t a weak performance in the bunch.
The movie also looks great. The scenery and everything is fantastic to look at. Yep, that’s that paragraph.
Slumdog Millionaire manages to live up to a huge amount of hype, and even surpasses it in some ways. It’s a shame it took until the end of the year to get some more movies of this quality but I would say this is one that is worth the wait.
****1/2 / 5
Shawn's Milk Review
2008 Movie #155 - Milk
After a slew of mediocre and shit movies it’s nice to finally start delving into the award movies. The Oscar nominations haven’t been announced yet but I’m just now getting into the movies that will apparently be up for a bunch of them. Milk got it all kicked off and it was a great start to things I would say. This is a very good movie that helped to sort of wipe away the memory of things like An American Carol.
The movie is based on a true story that I really knew nothing about which may have helped make the movie more interesting to me. It tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first gay person to become an elected government official in the history of America. It’s a really good story that I’m surprised took this long to be made into a movie. I mean fuck, look at some of the stories movies have told us this year. You’re telling me Martin Lawrence taking his daughter on a road trip probably got greenlit and made before this one? Disgusting. Thankfully the story has been made into a movie now because it’s one that deserves to be told.
Sean Penn does great in the role of Harvey Milk. I’m not a huge Sean Penn fan (as an actor he’s fine but as a person I think he’s a humourless prick) but I got to respect what he has done here. It could have easily come off as him playing the stereotypical, flamboyant gay character but it doesn’t. He plays it more lowkey, which could be how Harvey was really like I’m not sure. Either way kudos to Penn. Now if you just fucking laugh or smile once in real life we would be in business.
James Franco goes back to his usual, more brooding roles here, which is too bad because he was fantastic in Pineapple Express and I want to see more comedy from him. He’s still good, but it felt like all of his other characters, except this time, gay. I didn’t even know Emile Hirsh and Josh Brolin were in this movie but I’m big fans of both of them and they do great work here.
I can see why this one has a lot of award talk around it. It’s a well told story with great characters and performances. It keeps you interested and really makes you want to see what happens, unless you’re not me and knew the actual story it was based on. Check this one out for sure.
****/5
After a slew of mediocre and shit movies it’s nice to finally start delving into the award movies. The Oscar nominations haven’t been announced yet but I’m just now getting into the movies that will apparently be up for a bunch of them. Milk got it all kicked off and it was a great start to things I would say. This is a very good movie that helped to sort of wipe away the memory of things like An American Carol.
The movie is based on a true story that I really knew nothing about which may have helped make the movie more interesting to me. It tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first gay person to become an elected government official in the history of America. It’s a really good story that I’m surprised took this long to be made into a movie. I mean fuck, look at some of the stories movies have told us this year. You’re telling me Martin Lawrence taking his daughter on a road trip probably got greenlit and made before this one? Disgusting. Thankfully the story has been made into a movie now because it’s one that deserves to be told.
Sean Penn does great in the role of Harvey Milk. I’m not a huge Sean Penn fan (as an actor he’s fine but as a person I think he’s a humourless prick) but I got to respect what he has done here. It could have easily come off as him playing the stereotypical, flamboyant gay character but it doesn’t. He plays it more lowkey, which could be how Harvey was really like I’m not sure. Either way kudos to Penn. Now if you just fucking laugh or smile once in real life we would be in business.
James Franco goes back to his usual, more brooding roles here, which is too bad because he was fantastic in Pineapple Express and I want to see more comedy from him. He’s still good, but it felt like all of his other characters, except this time, gay. I didn’t even know Emile Hirsh and Josh Brolin were in this movie but I’m big fans of both of them and they do great work here.
I can see why this one has a lot of award talk around it. It’s a well told story with great characters and performances. It keeps you interested and really makes you want to see what happens, unless you’re not me and knew the actual story it was based on. Check this one out for sure.
****/5
Shawn's Swing Vote Review
2008 Movie #154 - Swing Vote
Swing Vote is another movie I was sure I was going to miss this year. I did get the chance to get watch it after all and unlike American Carol, at least this one wasn’t a complete waste of time.
Although far fetched, I was somewhat into the whole idea of this movie. Yea the idea of an entire election coming down to one person is pretty fucking ridiculous, but so are most movie plots. Therefore I was kind of into it. The movie did get a little preachy at times about how it’s our civic duty to vote and all that but it was an election year so I can almost forgive it. Plus coming off American Carol, it’s not nearly as go America go as that one so that helped too.
Having said that I kind of liked the idea of the movie, I should say that the movie itself is still not that great. It reminded me a lot of, of all fucking movies, Welcome to Mooseport. Both are 2 hour movies with election themes, that are intended to be comedies but don’t seem to contain a whole lot of comedy. Granted this one is supposed to also be a drama, and some of those moments work better, but the movie never quite succeeds as either a comedy or a drama. Though I have to admit I was entertained by the campaign commercials the candidates did that were designed to appeal to just one guy. Those were actually pretty funny and I was kind of hoping for more of them since the rest of the movie pales in comparison.
It’s also weird this movie also had both Dennis Hopper and Kelsey Grammer, as did American Carol. They must have been all fucking about America this year. At least I can understand a little more why they would choose to do this movie. Kevin Costner’s role isn’t much of a stretch for him but he does fine and makes the character likable when he probably shouldn’t be. I can’t decide my thoughts on the character of his daughter. I think the actress did a really good job but I was constantly going back and forth on whether or not I actually liked her character.
Swing Vote isn’t bad, but it’s easily forgettable. It’s not that funny aside from a few moments here and there, and the drama never quite works either. I was interested though because I sort of liked the idea behind the whole thing and was curious how it would all turn out. One last thing, the movie is a little too long.
**/5
Swing Vote is another movie I was sure I was going to miss this year. I did get the chance to get watch it after all and unlike American Carol, at least this one wasn’t a complete waste of time.
Although far fetched, I was somewhat into the whole idea of this movie. Yea the idea of an entire election coming down to one person is pretty fucking ridiculous, but so are most movie plots. Therefore I was kind of into it. The movie did get a little preachy at times about how it’s our civic duty to vote and all that but it was an election year so I can almost forgive it. Plus coming off American Carol, it’s not nearly as go America go as that one so that helped too.
Having said that I kind of liked the idea of the movie, I should say that the movie itself is still not that great. It reminded me a lot of, of all fucking movies, Welcome to Mooseport. Both are 2 hour movies with election themes, that are intended to be comedies but don’t seem to contain a whole lot of comedy. Granted this one is supposed to also be a drama, and some of those moments work better, but the movie never quite succeeds as either a comedy or a drama. Though I have to admit I was entertained by the campaign commercials the candidates did that were designed to appeal to just one guy. Those were actually pretty funny and I was kind of hoping for more of them since the rest of the movie pales in comparison.
It’s also weird this movie also had both Dennis Hopper and Kelsey Grammer, as did American Carol. They must have been all fucking about America this year. At least I can understand a little more why they would choose to do this movie. Kevin Costner’s role isn’t much of a stretch for him but he does fine and makes the character likable when he probably shouldn’t be. I can’t decide my thoughts on the character of his daughter. I think the actress did a really good job but I was constantly going back and forth on whether or not I actually liked her character.
Swing Vote isn’t bad, but it’s easily forgettable. It’s not that funny aside from a few moments here and there, and the drama never quite works either. I was interested though because I sort of liked the idea behind the whole thing and was curious how it would all turn out. One last thing, the movie is a little too long.
**/5
Shawn's An American Carol Review
2008 Movie #153 - An American Carol
Speaking of movies with no redeeming qualities (which I was at the end of my last review in case you aren’t keeping up), here we have a great example of one. I was sure this was going to be one of the 2008 movies I missed (which wasn’t too upsetting) but the DVD is coming out and lucky me, I got to watch it. It isn’t Meet the Spartans or Disaster Movie bad, but it’s really fucking terrible.
I’m going to try and get through this review without too much political talk since well, I don’t want to get into that shit here. The movie is coming from a completely Conservative viewpoint though so it’s hard to not at least mention something about it. The movie is of course a huge, blatant rip on Michael Moore. Right there should be a warning since he has been made fun of for years now. This movie seems to think it’s doing something new though. Lots of jokes about he likes to eat and how he is fat. Wow, cutting fucking edge.
The movie also takes a firm standpoint that America is perfect in every single way and that criticizing it means you hate it. It also takes stabs at college education and so on. I can’t just can’t support the viewpoint of this movie (then again I’m Canadian too) so right there I can’t like it. It’s just so “yay America!” that by the end it’s fucking nauseating. We get it, you like your country and hate anyone who thinks it has flaws. STOP! STOP!!!!
I could maybe look past the go America go stuff if at least the movie was funny. Of course it isn’t. Oh god is it ever not funny. I can’t even accept that they thought they were making a funny movie during production. I smiled once at a cameo by Elaine’s boss from Seinfeld as himself, but that’s it. The rest of the humour is just pratfalls and bullshit you’ve seen be unfunny 1000 times before. There’s also a bizarre 9/11 reference that actually shows the smoldering remains of the two towers. This ranks as one of the most out of place moments I’ve ever seen in any movie. Then 10 seconds later the main character is hitting his head on bells…fuckin’ movie. There’s also a musical number that they try to justify by mocking the fact there is a musical number. It doesn’t work and that 3 minute stretch is just fucking death.
I can’t help but wonder what attracted this cast to the movie. They aren’t huge names but there are genuinely talented people in this thing. I guess maybe the Conservative agenda attracted them initially maybe. But then how did the terrible fucking script not drive them away immediately afterwards? I just don’t get it.
It has been an awful year for the parody movie. I can’t help but wonder, and hope, if this is the end of them. …oh god someone is going to try and remake Airplane aren’t they? I saw give it two years and that will either have happened or be in the process of happening. Mark my fucking words. In the meantime, stay far, far away from this crap. I look forward to talking about it again in a couple of days when it hold it’s place in the bottom 10 movies of 2008.
0/5
Speaking of movies with no redeeming qualities (which I was at the end of my last review in case you aren’t keeping up), here we have a great example of one. I was sure this was going to be one of the 2008 movies I missed (which wasn’t too upsetting) but the DVD is coming out and lucky me, I got to watch it. It isn’t Meet the Spartans or Disaster Movie bad, but it’s really fucking terrible.
I’m going to try and get through this review without too much political talk since well, I don’t want to get into that shit here. The movie is coming from a completely Conservative viewpoint though so it’s hard to not at least mention something about it. The movie is of course a huge, blatant rip on Michael Moore. Right there should be a warning since he has been made fun of for years now. This movie seems to think it’s doing something new though. Lots of jokes about he likes to eat and how he is fat. Wow, cutting fucking edge.
The movie also takes a firm standpoint that America is perfect in every single way and that criticizing it means you hate it. It also takes stabs at college education and so on. I can’t just can’t support the viewpoint of this movie (then again I’m Canadian too) so right there I can’t like it. It’s just so “yay America!” that by the end it’s fucking nauseating. We get it, you like your country and hate anyone who thinks it has flaws. STOP! STOP!!!!
I could maybe look past the go America go stuff if at least the movie was funny. Of course it isn’t. Oh god is it ever not funny. I can’t even accept that they thought they were making a funny movie during production. I smiled once at a cameo by Elaine’s boss from Seinfeld as himself, but that’s it. The rest of the humour is just pratfalls and bullshit you’ve seen be unfunny 1000 times before. There’s also a bizarre 9/11 reference that actually shows the smoldering remains of the two towers. This ranks as one of the most out of place moments I’ve ever seen in any movie. Then 10 seconds later the main character is hitting his head on bells…fuckin’ movie. There’s also a musical number that they try to justify by mocking the fact there is a musical number. It doesn’t work and that 3 minute stretch is just fucking death.
I can’t help but wonder what attracted this cast to the movie. They aren’t huge names but there are genuinely talented people in this thing. I guess maybe the Conservative agenda attracted them initially maybe. But then how did the terrible fucking script not drive them away immediately afterwards? I just don’t get it.
It has been an awful year for the parody movie. I can’t help but wonder, and hope, if this is the end of them. …oh god someone is going to try and remake Airplane aren’t they? I saw give it two years and that will either have happened or be in the process of happening. Mark my fucking words. In the meantime, stay far, far away from this crap. I look forward to talking about it again in a couple of days when it hold it’s place in the bottom 10 movies of 2008.
0/5
Shawn's The Women Review
2008 Movie #152 - The Women
This one is similar to Sex and the City and Twilight in that maybe I’m just not supposed to get this movie. Either that or it’s my other theory, the movie just isn’t very good. Right now, I’m going to choose to lean towards the second option.
This will be my third really short movie review in a row. I just didn’t like this movie. I really don’t even know how to expand on that further. I didn’t care about the main story, or any of the smaller subplots. None of the characters were interesting and some were just flat out unlikable. The jokes fall flat just about every single time. One about referencing the original movie by saying “what is this a movie from the 30’s” actually made me angry because I’m pretty damn sure the writers thought that was really fucking clever. Not so much guys, sorry.
The movie is also really, really long. I remember checking the length when I thought that it had to be just about over, only to discover there was still just over an hour to go. The movie is 2 hours long just about and doesn’t have anything to say or do that justifies that long of a running time. Yes there are a lot of characters but aside from Meg Ryan and Annette Bening, most of them don’t have more than 10, maybe 15 minutes of screen time each. I actually forgot about some characters when they would come back. Not a good sign.
This could be another one of those movies that I’m not supposed to get. Obviously it isn’t tailored towards me. I can safely give it a 1 because of 2 scenes I can think of that actually got me a little interested. Therefore it isn’t completely without any redeeming qualities, but it’s damn close to having none.
*/5
This one is similar to Sex and the City and Twilight in that maybe I’m just not supposed to get this movie. Either that or it’s my other theory, the movie just isn’t very good. Right now, I’m going to choose to lean towards the second option.
This will be my third really short movie review in a row. I just didn’t like this movie. I really don’t even know how to expand on that further. I didn’t care about the main story, or any of the smaller subplots. None of the characters were interesting and some were just flat out unlikable. The jokes fall flat just about every single time. One about referencing the original movie by saying “what is this a movie from the 30’s” actually made me angry because I’m pretty damn sure the writers thought that was really fucking clever. Not so much guys, sorry.
The movie is also really, really long. I remember checking the length when I thought that it had to be just about over, only to discover there was still just over an hour to go. The movie is 2 hours long just about and doesn’t have anything to say or do that justifies that long of a running time. Yes there are a lot of characters but aside from Meg Ryan and Annette Bening, most of them don’t have more than 10, maybe 15 minutes of screen time each. I actually forgot about some characters when they would come back. Not a good sign.
This could be another one of those movies that I’m not supposed to get. Obviously it isn’t tailored towards me. I can safely give it a 1 because of 2 scenes I can think of that actually got me a little interested. Therefore it isn’t completely without any redeeming qualities, but it’s damn close to having none.
*/5
Shawn's The Dutchess Review
2008 Movie #151 - The Dutchess
My god Keira Knightly sure does love her some old time movies. I would say 90% of her movies take place before the year 1900. The only one that doesn’t that I can think of is Domino, and there is no real reason to talk any further about that one. This is one of the first ones I’ve seen of hers though since I never did watch Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, Silk, and others I’m sure I can’t think of right now. Maybe this one wasn’t the best to start with because while not a bad movie, it was nothing spectacular I didn’t think.
Keira is definitely good in the movie, as is the rest of the cast. In fact I would say the cast is probably the highlight. I didn’t know what the movie was about and once the plot started to reveal itself I couldn’t help but think “…that’s it?” The whole movie sort of reminded me The Other Boelyn Girl, which I thought was overall the better movie out of the two. A lot of betrayal and trying to father a son and what not.
Once again it falls back into the familiar idea of I was never bored, but never that invested in things either. You know what, I have too many reviews to write to focus more on this one so that’s all I’m going to say. It’s weird though that I could type up more about Feast 2 than I could about this one. Basically, it’s a decent movie with really good performances, and the whole thing looks great too. The problem I had with it is that the plot never got me hooked in. Plus not once did Keira show her boobs which I thought was supposed to be a staple now? *sigh*
** ½
My god Keira Knightly sure does love her some old time movies. I would say 90% of her movies take place before the year 1900. The only one that doesn’t that I can think of is Domino, and there is no real reason to talk any further about that one. This is one of the first ones I’ve seen of hers though since I never did watch Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, Silk, and others I’m sure I can’t think of right now. Maybe this one wasn’t the best to start with because while not a bad movie, it was nothing spectacular I didn’t think.
Keira is definitely good in the movie, as is the rest of the cast. In fact I would say the cast is probably the highlight. I didn’t know what the movie was about and once the plot started to reveal itself I couldn’t help but think “…that’s it?” The whole movie sort of reminded me The Other Boelyn Girl, which I thought was overall the better movie out of the two. A lot of betrayal and trying to father a son and what not.
Once again it falls back into the familiar idea of I was never bored, but never that invested in things either. You know what, I have too many reviews to write to focus more on this one so that’s all I’m going to say. It’s weird though that I could type up more about Feast 2 than I could about this one. Basically, it’s a decent movie with really good performances, and the whole thing looks great too. The problem I had with it is that the plot never got me hooked in. Plus not once did Keira show her boobs which I thought was supposed to be a staple now? *sigh*
** ½
Shawn's Pride and Glory Review
2008 Movie #150 - Pride and Glory
Another huge milestone in the number of movies watched. No way will 200 be reached though, at least not with 48 hours left to watch movies. It's almost too bad because I bet with a bit more time, I could easily do it.
Everything about this movie screamed generic when I first heard about it. The trailer, the title, the story, everything about it looked so painfully generic. The usual cop drama we see at least once or twice a year really. After having finally seen the movie, well I can safely say the movie itself is just as generic as everything lead me to believe.
This review is also going to be short because I really don’t have anything to say about this one. It’s not really bad. It manages to at least stay somewhat entertaining, but it all feels so familiar. There is hardly an original moment in this entire movie. Except for one scene involving a baby and an iron. That was the one moment that made me sit up and pay some real attention. Other than that though, there is nothing to get one invested in what’s going on.
The acting is just fine, which isn’t really a surprise with a cast like this. It just kind of makes me wonder what actors like Edward Norton, Colin Farrel and Jon Voight saw in this one. Then again Jon Voight was in the Bratz movie last year so maybe it shouldn’t be too shocking he would appear in this one.
That’s about all I have to say about Pride and Glory. Not a horrible movie mat all, but it’s way too long (over two hours) to say it doesn’t have a whole lot to say or do that’s in any way original. It sort of reminded of Street Kings, another really generic movie. I would have to say Street Kings was the more entertaining of the two of them though. I would skip this one.
**/5
Another huge milestone in the number of movies watched. No way will 200 be reached though, at least not with 48 hours left to watch movies. It's almost too bad because I bet with a bit more time, I could easily do it.
Everything about this movie screamed generic when I first heard about it. The trailer, the title, the story, everything about it looked so painfully generic. The usual cop drama we see at least once or twice a year really. After having finally seen the movie, well I can safely say the movie itself is just as generic as everything lead me to believe.
This review is also going to be short because I really don’t have anything to say about this one. It’s not really bad. It manages to at least stay somewhat entertaining, but it all feels so familiar. There is hardly an original moment in this entire movie. Except for one scene involving a baby and an iron. That was the one moment that made me sit up and pay some real attention. Other than that though, there is nothing to get one invested in what’s going on.
The acting is just fine, which isn’t really a surprise with a cast like this. It just kind of makes me wonder what actors like Edward Norton, Colin Farrel and Jon Voight saw in this one. Then again Jon Voight was in the Bratz movie last year so maybe it shouldn’t be too shocking he would appear in this one.
That’s about all I have to say about Pride and Glory. Not a horrible movie mat all, but it’s way too long (over two hours) to say it doesn’t have a whole lot to say or do that’s in any way original. It sort of reminded of Street Kings, another really generic movie. I would have to say Street Kings was the more entertaining of the two of them though. I would skip this one.
**/5
Shawn's Feast 2 Review
2008 Movie #149 - Feast 2
I rather enjoyed the first Feast. Sure it was stupid but I had fun with it. Although it may have helped that my now girlfriend has just agreed to our first date earlier that day so I was in a really good fucking mood when I watched it. I also watched this one on Christmas Eve (what a fucked up double bill with this one and Blindess eh?) so I was in a good mood while viewing this one as well. I guess the trick to enjoying these movies is watching them in high spirits because you know what, I didn’t mind this one either.
The plot takes place I think just after the first one ends. A big problem I had with this movie is that it assumes the first Feast is fresh in your memory since there were moments and characters I’m sure I was supposed to remember that I really didn’t. Instead of being trapped inside a bar the characters get trapped in a few different places as they navigate through a city full of the monsters.
The budget must have been a lot lower this time because we don’t see the creatures as much as we did in the first one. Unless we didn’t see them a lot in the first one either I really don’t fucking remember. Either way, you only get to see them a few times but it is kind of cool that we get to see them in broad daylight. You don’t see that very often with monster movies. The creatures themselves are ok looking, kind of generic though.
The acting is what you would expect from this type of movie. It’s probably a cut above average and is definitely an improvement over my last direct to dvd horror sequel, Pulse 2. The swearing did seem excessive though, from one character in particular. I don’t know if the overuse of ‘fuck’ was supposed to be played for comedy, but it really just came off as annoying.
Speaking of which, the humour in this tries so hard to be shocking and edgy but it fails for the most part. It just comes off as childish really. It kind of reminded me of my thoughts on Postal in that the movie is trying way too hard to show off how ballsy it is. A couple of the jokes work but for the most part they fall flat. There is one involving a baby that I can’t decide if that crossed a line or not. I would assume most people would be pretty pissed about it though.
The movie does deliver a heaping amount of gore though. Hardly a few minutes will go without some icky gore, and it’s pretty good actually. Nothing we haven’t really seen before but it keeps things interesting.
I know it sounds like I should have hated the movie after all of those complaints but I didn’t. Like I said though being in a good mood probably helped me look past all of its many flaws and actually have a pretty good time with it. Watch this thing when you’re feeling good.
** ½ / 5
I rather enjoyed the first Feast. Sure it was stupid but I had fun with it. Although it may have helped that my now girlfriend has just agreed to our first date earlier that day so I was in a really good fucking mood when I watched it. I also watched this one on Christmas Eve (what a fucked up double bill with this one and Blindess eh?) so I was in a good mood while viewing this one as well. I guess the trick to enjoying these movies is watching them in high spirits because you know what, I didn’t mind this one either.
The plot takes place I think just after the first one ends. A big problem I had with this movie is that it assumes the first Feast is fresh in your memory since there were moments and characters I’m sure I was supposed to remember that I really didn’t. Instead of being trapped inside a bar the characters get trapped in a few different places as they navigate through a city full of the monsters.
The budget must have been a lot lower this time because we don’t see the creatures as much as we did in the first one. Unless we didn’t see them a lot in the first one either I really don’t fucking remember. Either way, you only get to see them a few times but it is kind of cool that we get to see them in broad daylight. You don’t see that very often with monster movies. The creatures themselves are ok looking, kind of generic though.
The acting is what you would expect from this type of movie. It’s probably a cut above average and is definitely an improvement over my last direct to dvd horror sequel, Pulse 2. The swearing did seem excessive though, from one character in particular. I don’t know if the overuse of ‘fuck’ was supposed to be played for comedy, but it really just came off as annoying.
Speaking of which, the humour in this tries so hard to be shocking and edgy but it fails for the most part. It just comes off as childish really. It kind of reminded me of my thoughts on Postal in that the movie is trying way too hard to show off how ballsy it is. A couple of the jokes work but for the most part they fall flat. There is one involving a baby that I can’t decide if that crossed a line or not. I would assume most people would be pretty pissed about it though.
The movie does deliver a heaping amount of gore though. Hardly a few minutes will go without some icky gore, and it’s pretty good actually. Nothing we haven’t really seen before but it keeps things interesting.
I know it sounds like I should have hated the movie after all of those complaints but I didn’t. Like I said though being in a good mood probably helped me look past all of its many flaws and actually have a pretty good time with it. Watch this thing when you’re feeling good.
** ½ / 5
Shawn's Blindness Review
2008 Movie #148 - Blindness
I watched this movie on Christmas Eve of all days. Nothing like a bleak drama about the end of the world to get into the ole holiday spirit. I was even wrapping presents while this was playing in the background. I had been curious about this one for a while. I liked the premise and I liked the cast and I wanted to see how it all came together. I had been warned that it was a very depressing movie though so I never was really in the mood to watch it. For some reason Christmas Eve became the day. Overall, I’m not too upset that I waited this long to watch it.
My main problem with this movie is the execution. I think this is a solid idea for a movie (the whole world going blind at once) that could have been really great and really creepy. This just isn’t the movie I was hoping for to go with this plot idea.
It starts off really well with a great opening sequence that really shows how sudden and fucked up the situation is. This really got my hopes up for what was about to transpire. Then things take a turn and the movie starts to unravel.
Right after this sequence we enter the hospital wards where all of the blind people are taken. This is where the majority of the movie then takes place. That’s another huge problem I have with the movie. After a while the movie focuses on the breakdown of the ward and how food is running low and how one of the wards has gotten power hungry and started to run things. For a while I forgot everyone was blind. It plays a role sure, but it’s not the focus. It felt a lot like Lord of the Flies and I wasn’t really interested in any of it. I was more interested in seeing how everyone was dealing with suddenly going blind, not how they would get food from their evil co-patients.
There is a bit at the end that shows how the world has been affected by it, and it’s more of how I envisioned things, but sadly there isn’t a whole lot of it. It doesn’t make up for the hospital portion of the movie, which I found to be boring after a while.
The performances are good, although at times I felt people seemed to be handling the fact they had just gone blind a little too well. People would be in hysterics if this happened but in the movie, people were generally calm and fairly ok with what was happening.
Good concept, blah execution. That about sums up my thoughts on Blindness. Maybe down the road someone will take another stab at a movie about this. I do think it deserves to have a better movie made about the subject.
** ½ /5
I watched this movie on Christmas Eve of all days. Nothing like a bleak drama about the end of the world to get into the ole holiday spirit. I was even wrapping presents while this was playing in the background. I had been curious about this one for a while. I liked the premise and I liked the cast and I wanted to see how it all came together. I had been warned that it was a very depressing movie though so I never was really in the mood to watch it. For some reason Christmas Eve became the day. Overall, I’m not too upset that I waited this long to watch it.
My main problem with this movie is the execution. I think this is a solid idea for a movie (the whole world going blind at once) that could have been really great and really creepy. This just isn’t the movie I was hoping for to go with this plot idea.
It starts off really well with a great opening sequence that really shows how sudden and fucked up the situation is. This really got my hopes up for what was about to transpire. Then things take a turn and the movie starts to unravel.
Right after this sequence we enter the hospital wards where all of the blind people are taken. This is where the majority of the movie then takes place. That’s another huge problem I have with the movie. After a while the movie focuses on the breakdown of the ward and how food is running low and how one of the wards has gotten power hungry and started to run things. For a while I forgot everyone was blind. It plays a role sure, but it’s not the focus. It felt a lot like Lord of the Flies and I wasn’t really interested in any of it. I was more interested in seeing how everyone was dealing with suddenly going blind, not how they would get food from their evil co-patients.
There is a bit at the end that shows how the world has been affected by it, and it’s more of how I envisioned things, but sadly there isn’t a whole lot of it. It doesn’t make up for the hospital portion of the movie, which I found to be boring after a while.
The performances are good, although at times I felt people seemed to be handling the fact they had just gone blind a little too well. People would be in hysterics if this happened but in the movie, people were generally calm and fairly ok with what was happening.
Good concept, blah execution. That about sums up my thoughts on Blindness. Maybe down the road someone will take another stab at a movie about this. I do think it deserves to have a better movie made about the subject.
** ½ /5
Shawn's Traitor Review
2008 Movie #147 - Traitor
I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one. I’ve had it ready to watch for months now but never felt like sitting down to watch it. Having now finally done it, I don’t regret the time I spent watching it but it’s not even a week later and I forget just about everything about it. That right there tells you just about everything you need to know about Traitor.
It’s not that it’s a bad movie, it’s just not really a good one either. It’s a decent watch that never stops feeling familiar. It does what it does well, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before I would say. The plot has a few twists and turns but if I remember correctly the trailer gave most of them away since I already knew about a huge revelation that happens about halfway through the movie.
The acting is good, but that’s pretty much what I expect from Don Cheadle. Jeff Daniels has one of those “why did he bother roles” that seem to be popping up quite a bit lately. I think he was only in 3 scenes and one of them he didn’t even speak. When he did speak he only said a couple of lines. He was good at saying those lines, but I expected him to have a lot more to do.
There are some good sequences in this movie, some with actual suspense. I just never got that invested in this movie. I blanked out a few times too I admit that. I can’t say not to watch it since I do feel it was a decent viewing, but there are just so many other movies out there I would recommend above this one that it just fades into the background. It’s another movie I don’t think I will remember at all once the year is over.
** ½ / 5
I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one. I’ve had it ready to watch for months now but never felt like sitting down to watch it. Having now finally done it, I don’t regret the time I spent watching it but it’s not even a week later and I forget just about everything about it. That right there tells you just about everything you need to know about Traitor.
It’s not that it’s a bad movie, it’s just not really a good one either. It’s a decent watch that never stops feeling familiar. It does what it does well, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before I would say. The plot has a few twists and turns but if I remember correctly the trailer gave most of them away since I already knew about a huge revelation that happens about halfway through the movie.
The acting is good, but that’s pretty much what I expect from Don Cheadle. Jeff Daniels has one of those “why did he bother roles” that seem to be popping up quite a bit lately. I think he was only in 3 scenes and one of them he didn’t even speak. When he did speak he only said a couple of lines. He was good at saying those lines, but I expected him to have a lot more to do.
There are some good sequences in this movie, some with actual suspense. I just never got that invested in this movie. I blanked out a few times too I admit that. I can’t say not to watch it since I do feel it was a decent viewing, but there are just so many other movies out there I would recommend above this one that it just fades into the background. It’s another movie I don’t think I will remember at all once the year is over.
** ½ / 5
Shawn's Gran Torino Review
2008 Movie #146 - Gran Torino
I’m going to have to go the exact opposite route of my fellow 2008 movie reviewer on this one because I really enjoyed this movie. I went in knowing absolutely nothing about it and came out very pleasantly surprised by it. But then I would call myself a Clint Eastwood fan, which is pretty important when it comes to the enjoyment of this movie.
The plot is pretty simple. It’s basically about a racist Korean war vet who ends up befriending the foreign family next door. I did find it a bit strange how often he casually threw out racial slurs around them without them seeming to mind, but whatever I guess I can look past that. That’s probably not how it would go down in the real world but again, let’s forget about that. Overall, it’s a simple story that’s more about the characters than anything.
Thankfully the characters we follow are very interesting. Eastwood takes a character who should be pretty unlikable, and manages to make him both compelling and oddly sympathetic. The young boy he befriends is also good and you do get quite caught up in the story and what is going to happen. I was pretty close to the edge of my seat during the final act because I really wanted to know how it was all going to turn out. That’s pretty rare so hats off to you Gran Torino.
Something else I liked about this movie (maybe liked isn’t the right word, respected maybe) is that they do a really good job of making the viewer hate the villains. Usually the villain is either more interesting than the hero (Dark Knight), or just there for plot sake with no real emotional attachment to the viewer on any level (most every other action movie). It’s not often a movie comes along where you just want the bad guys to be fucking murdered. This is one of those times.
I guess I don’t really have anymore to say. It’s a really good movie with great acting, characters and a well told story. I don’t know if it will be a huge Oscar player but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it got at least a few nominations. I think it deserves them.
****/5
I’m going to have to go the exact opposite route of my fellow 2008 movie reviewer on this one because I really enjoyed this movie. I went in knowing absolutely nothing about it and came out very pleasantly surprised by it. But then I would call myself a Clint Eastwood fan, which is pretty important when it comes to the enjoyment of this movie.
The plot is pretty simple. It’s basically about a racist Korean war vet who ends up befriending the foreign family next door. I did find it a bit strange how often he casually threw out racial slurs around them without them seeming to mind, but whatever I guess I can look past that. That’s probably not how it would go down in the real world but again, let’s forget about that. Overall, it’s a simple story that’s more about the characters than anything.
Thankfully the characters we follow are very interesting. Eastwood takes a character who should be pretty unlikable, and manages to make him both compelling and oddly sympathetic. The young boy he befriends is also good and you do get quite caught up in the story and what is going to happen. I was pretty close to the edge of my seat during the final act because I really wanted to know how it was all going to turn out. That’s pretty rare so hats off to you Gran Torino.
Something else I liked about this movie (maybe liked isn’t the right word, respected maybe) is that they do a really good job of making the viewer hate the villains. Usually the villain is either more interesting than the hero (Dark Knight), or just there for plot sake with no real emotional attachment to the viewer on any level (most every other action movie). It’s not often a movie comes along where you just want the bad guys to be fucking murdered. This is one of those times.
I guess I don’t really have anymore to say. It’s a really good movie with great acting, characters and a well told story. I don’t know if it will be a huge Oscar player but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it got at least a few nominations. I think it deserves them.
****/5
Shawn's Ghost Town Review
2008 Movie #145 - Ghost Town
It’s a shame this movie didn’t do better because I would say this is for sure one of the most underrated movies of the year. Hopefully it finds a better life when it comes out on DVD this week because it really does deserve some recognition.
For the most part this is a pretty standard romantic comedy. It follows all the basic rules, even throwing in the usual cliché of the guy being an asshole until he meets the main girl and she changes him around and makes him believe in love and all that. There’s a fight in the third act and basically everything you would ever expect to happen in a romantic comedy. The key thing here is that this movie does it well. Sure you never doubt what will happen, but the plot manages to throw in a few little surprises and keep things interesting. It tries, which is more than I can say about most of the other romantic comedies I’ve had to endure this year.
Ricky Gervais is for sure an odd choice to play the lead role in a romantic comedy, but hell that’s why they deserve some credit. It was not the safe choice and the movie benefits greatly from it. Gervais is great and I hope this movie’s poor box office performance doesn’t stop people from giving him the lead in movies more often. He really elevates this movie higher than it should probably deserve to go. Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni are good as well, but it’s for sure Gervais who steals the entire show.
The movie is also funny. It doesn’t rely on wacky situations (although the whole ghost thing in itself is pretty out there I guess) or over the top characters to get some cheap laughs. Instead it relies on smart dialogue to bring the funny. You don’t see that much so again, kudos to Ghost Town on that one as well. There’s no musical number or some silly fucking montage of trying on different clothes or whatever, just a straight forward good old fashioned romantic comedy.
I really can’t stress enough how much you should check this one out. It’s good for just about all ages and dares to do something different with a tired movie genre. Don’t let Hollywood think we’re scared of actual good movies. Give this one some money and buy the DVD.
*** ½ / 5
It’s a shame this movie didn’t do better because I would say this is for sure one of the most underrated movies of the year. Hopefully it finds a better life when it comes out on DVD this week because it really does deserve some recognition.
For the most part this is a pretty standard romantic comedy. It follows all the basic rules, even throwing in the usual cliché of the guy being an asshole until he meets the main girl and she changes him around and makes him believe in love and all that. There’s a fight in the third act and basically everything you would ever expect to happen in a romantic comedy. The key thing here is that this movie does it well. Sure you never doubt what will happen, but the plot manages to throw in a few little surprises and keep things interesting. It tries, which is more than I can say about most of the other romantic comedies I’ve had to endure this year.
Ricky Gervais is for sure an odd choice to play the lead role in a romantic comedy, but hell that’s why they deserve some credit. It was not the safe choice and the movie benefits greatly from it. Gervais is great and I hope this movie’s poor box office performance doesn’t stop people from giving him the lead in movies more often. He really elevates this movie higher than it should probably deserve to go. Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni are good as well, but it’s for sure Gervais who steals the entire show.
The movie is also funny. It doesn’t rely on wacky situations (although the whole ghost thing in itself is pretty out there I guess) or over the top characters to get some cheap laughs. Instead it relies on smart dialogue to bring the funny. You don’t see that much so again, kudos to Ghost Town on that one as well. There’s no musical number or some silly fucking montage of trying on different clothes or whatever, just a straight forward good old fashioned romantic comedy.
I really can’t stress enough how much you should check this one out. It’s good for just about all ages and dares to do something different with a tired movie genre. Don’t let Hollywood think we’re scared of actual good movies. Give this one some money and buy the DVD.
*** ½ / 5
Shawn's Madagascar Escape 2 Africa Review
2008 Movie #144 - Madagascar Escape 2 Africa
This is such a great example of a sequel nobody fucking wanted. There seems to have been a lot of these this year. Sometimes an unneeded sequel turns out to be pretty good, but this one…this one…wow. I didn’t much care for the first Madagascar and couldn’t imagine why they would bother to make another one. Oh wait I know, because the first one made lots and lots of money. The sequel has to be one of the biggest, most blatant cash grabs I have ever fucking seen. I knew pretty much from the beginning I wouldn’t like this movie but I have to say that I flat out fucking despised it.
For the most part I don’t expect much of a plot from my animated movies. Even Kung Fu Panda, which I loved, didn’t have a whole lot of story to tell. But this one doesn’t even seem to slightly try. It touches on things we’ve seen done (and done better) 1000 times before and it really feels like the writers knew they needed some sort of a story and just slapped something together about friendship or some shit. I think some of this was even ripped right off of the Lion King. A sequel should feel like the natural progression of a story, just some fucking pile of random whatever that was thrown together for the sake of making a movie.
I could look past the lack of anything resembling a plot if at least what was going on was funny or entertaining. To go back to it, Kung Fu Panda was a great example of how to do this. Madagascar 2 doesn’t seem to have any sort of idea how to accomplish being good on any sort of level whatsoever. The humour of this movie falls flat just about constantly. It borders on embarrassing at times. Some of the jokes drag on forever, which makes it that much fucking worse. A bad joke is one thing, but when I then have to watch it drag on for 15 fucking minutes, it becomes something unholy. I mean the old lady character? She was fine in the first one for a few seconds but they really weren’t satisfied until they buried that joke into the fucking ground in this one. I can’t believe how highly they relied on it.
The animation is fine, but when compared to stuff like Walle and Kung Fu Panda, pretty damn underwhelming. I almost feel bad for the animators though because clearly a lot of effort went into making this movie, just not enough into the script or making sure it was you know, actually a good movie.
The voice acting feels like everyone is just going through the motions. As mentioned above, Sasha Baron Cohen seems to be the only person who is even trying and for the most part he does ok. Everyone else seems to be there to collect a paycheck and since the budget for this movie was around $150 million, I’m guessing those paychecks were pretty good. Hopefully their new boat or whatever was worth the price of unleashing this garbage on the world.
Like I said I never expected to hate this movie, especially as much as I did. It was a money grab that had little to no effort go into it, beside some decent animation. Skip it.
.5 / 5
This is such a great example of a sequel nobody fucking wanted. There seems to have been a lot of these this year. Sometimes an unneeded sequel turns out to be pretty good, but this one…this one…wow. I didn’t much care for the first Madagascar and couldn’t imagine why they would bother to make another one. Oh wait I know, because the first one made lots and lots of money. The sequel has to be one of the biggest, most blatant cash grabs I have ever fucking seen. I knew pretty much from the beginning I wouldn’t like this movie but I have to say that I flat out fucking despised it.
For the most part I don’t expect much of a plot from my animated movies. Even Kung Fu Panda, which I loved, didn’t have a whole lot of story to tell. But this one doesn’t even seem to slightly try. It touches on things we’ve seen done (and done better) 1000 times before and it really feels like the writers knew they needed some sort of a story and just slapped something together about friendship or some shit. I think some of this was even ripped right off of the Lion King. A sequel should feel like the natural progression of a story, just some fucking pile of random whatever that was thrown together for the sake of making a movie.
I could look past the lack of anything resembling a plot if at least what was going on was funny or entertaining. To go back to it, Kung Fu Panda was a great example of how to do this. Madagascar 2 doesn’t seem to have any sort of idea how to accomplish being good on any sort of level whatsoever. The humour of this movie falls flat just about constantly. It borders on embarrassing at times. Some of the jokes drag on forever, which makes it that much fucking worse. A bad joke is one thing, but when I then have to watch it drag on for 15 fucking minutes, it becomes something unholy. I mean the old lady character? She was fine in the first one for a few seconds but they really weren’t satisfied until they buried that joke into the fucking ground in this one. I can’t believe how highly they relied on it.
The animation is fine, but when compared to stuff like Walle and Kung Fu Panda, pretty damn underwhelming. I almost feel bad for the animators though because clearly a lot of effort went into making this movie, just not enough into the script or making sure it was you know, actually a good movie.
The voice acting feels like everyone is just going through the motions. As mentioned above, Sasha Baron Cohen seems to be the only person who is even trying and for the most part he does ok. Everyone else seems to be there to collect a paycheck and since the budget for this movie was around $150 million, I’m guessing those paychecks were pretty good. Hopefully their new boat or whatever was worth the price of unleashing this garbage on the world.
Like I said I never expected to hate this movie, especially as much as I did. It was a money grab that had little to no effort go into it, beside some decent animation. Skip it.
.5 / 5
Shawn's Seven Pounds Review
2008 Movie #143 - Seven Pounds
What a bizarre movie to release around the holidays. I can imagine a lot of families deciding to go out together and see the new Will Smith movie, and getting quite a surprise. This is overall a pretty dark and bleak movie. I remember when I first saw the trailer I thought maybe Will Smith was an angel or something who was helping people. Not so much. Dark overtones aside, it’s still a pretty good movie.
This seems like another Oscar grab on Will Smith’s part but there is no doubt that he is good in this movie. I like Will Smith though, so I can’t criticize him too much for this blatant attempt at his Oscar. I think maybe one day he will get one, he’s a hell of an actor. I just don’t think this is the movie that is going to do it for him.
This movie has been getting just raped by most of the critics and I think most of that is undeserved. I’ve even heard a couple of critics call it one of the worst movies of the year. Are you serious? Did you only see this and two other movies? I’m getting ready to do my list of the worst movies of the year and this movie isn’t going to anywhere close to being on it. It won’t be on the top 10 best either, just somewhere in between
The way the plot unfolds seems to be something that has really divided the audience. Instead of a natural progression, the plot only gives you a little bit of information at a time. The whole movie is sort of like a puzzle, where you’re given a few pieces of time and you have to put everything together. A lot of people seemed to hate this element of the movie but I very much enjoyed it. It kept things interesting for me, especially during a relatively slow middle section of the movie.
This brings me to my next point, the pace of the movie. It can be a little boring at times. As I said there is a huge middle section that I started to lose interest. I would say the opening and closing sections of the movie are definitely the highlights, with the middle hour being ok, but a little on the slow side.
The acting is good with Will Smith turning in a great lead performance. Certainly a huge step up from Hancock that’s for god damn sure. Rosario Dawson is also great in her role. Those 2 are the main characters, with a few others (such as Woody Harrelson) hardly having any screentime at all. They do well with what they are given however.
I did like this movie and think it deserves better reviews than what it has been getting. It’s still a strange choice for a holiday release, but check this one out. It’s a little on the slow side, but overall a good watch with an enjoyable story presentation.
***/5
What a bizarre movie to release around the holidays. I can imagine a lot of families deciding to go out together and see the new Will Smith movie, and getting quite a surprise. This is overall a pretty dark and bleak movie. I remember when I first saw the trailer I thought maybe Will Smith was an angel or something who was helping people. Not so much. Dark overtones aside, it’s still a pretty good movie.
This seems like another Oscar grab on Will Smith’s part but there is no doubt that he is good in this movie. I like Will Smith though, so I can’t criticize him too much for this blatant attempt at his Oscar. I think maybe one day he will get one, he’s a hell of an actor. I just don’t think this is the movie that is going to do it for him.
This movie has been getting just raped by most of the critics and I think most of that is undeserved. I’ve even heard a couple of critics call it one of the worst movies of the year. Are you serious? Did you only see this and two other movies? I’m getting ready to do my list of the worst movies of the year and this movie isn’t going to anywhere close to being on it. It won’t be on the top 10 best either, just somewhere in between
The way the plot unfolds seems to be something that has really divided the audience. Instead of a natural progression, the plot only gives you a little bit of information at a time. The whole movie is sort of like a puzzle, where you’re given a few pieces of time and you have to put everything together. A lot of people seemed to hate this element of the movie but I very much enjoyed it. It kept things interesting for me, especially during a relatively slow middle section of the movie.
This brings me to my next point, the pace of the movie. It can be a little boring at times. As I said there is a huge middle section that I started to lose interest. I would say the opening and closing sections of the movie are definitely the highlights, with the middle hour being ok, but a little on the slow side.
The acting is good with Will Smith turning in a great lead performance. Certainly a huge step up from Hancock that’s for god damn sure. Rosario Dawson is also great in her role. Those 2 are the main characters, with a few others (such as Woody Harrelson) hardly having any screentime at all. They do well with what they are given however.
I did like this movie and think it deserves better reviews than what it has been getting. It’s still a strange choice for a holiday release, but check this one out. It’s a little on the slow side, but overall a good watch with an enjoyable story presentation.
***/5
Shawn's Passengers Review
2008 Movie #142 - Passengers
Man was this ever not the movie I thought it was going to be when I sat down to watch it. I knew very little about it aside from the cast. I actually thought it was a horror movie. Well, it isn’t…it really isn’t. It’s kind of a thriller, but I would describe it more as a drama than anything else. One thing is for sure, this movie has no real concrete reason for existing.
I can’t say the movie is terrible and I’m sure a lot of my hostility is because I was expecting something completely different from what I actually got. Even as a drama/thriller though, it’s not great and feels very, very generic. This is exactly the kind of movie I won’t even remember having seen in just a few months time.
The plot is pretty interesting at first. It sets up an interesting premise and doesn’t give out a whole lot of information in the beginning. It got me invested for a while I had genuine interest in what was actually happening. Then things get slow and you start to wonder if they forgot about the mystery that was set up in the first place. Then you get impatient and bored. Then you get all the answers. Then you get mad. Then the credits roll.
The final revelation of this movie just ridiculous. It’s the main reason I have to wonder why this movie got made. There can’t be a single person out there who hasn’t seen something similar done 100 times and it makes me curious what the makers of this movie were even thinking.
The acting is fine, with a lot of pretty well known actors showing up. It makes me wonder what it was that attracted all of these talented people to this script. It certainly couldn’t have been the story or the ending. So I don’t really get it.
I can’t recommend this one. It has a decent premise going for it and a pretty interesting first half, but everything just goes straight to hell in the second part, with an ending that will most likely just frustrate the piss out of you.
**/5
Man was this ever not the movie I thought it was going to be when I sat down to watch it. I knew very little about it aside from the cast. I actually thought it was a horror movie. Well, it isn’t…it really isn’t. It’s kind of a thriller, but I would describe it more as a drama than anything else. One thing is for sure, this movie has no real concrete reason for existing.
I can’t say the movie is terrible and I’m sure a lot of my hostility is because I was expecting something completely different from what I actually got. Even as a drama/thriller though, it’s not great and feels very, very generic. This is exactly the kind of movie I won’t even remember having seen in just a few months time.
The plot is pretty interesting at first. It sets up an interesting premise and doesn’t give out a whole lot of information in the beginning. It got me invested for a while I had genuine interest in what was actually happening. Then things get slow and you start to wonder if they forgot about the mystery that was set up in the first place. Then you get impatient and bored. Then you get all the answers. Then you get mad. Then the credits roll.
The final revelation of this movie just ridiculous. It’s the main reason I have to wonder why this movie got made. There can’t be a single person out there who hasn’t seen something similar done 100 times and it makes me curious what the makers of this movie were even thinking.
The acting is fine, with a lot of pretty well known actors showing up. It makes me wonder what it was that attracted all of these talented people to this script. It certainly couldn’t have been the story or the ending. So I don’t really get it.
I can’t recommend this one. It has a decent premise going for it and a pretty interesting first half, but everything just goes straight to hell in the second part, with an ending that will most likely just frustrate the piss out of you.
**/5
Shawn's Soul Men Review
2008 Movie #141 - Soul Men
This movie is only known at all because it stars both Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes, who of course died within days of each other this past summer. I wasn’t a huge fan of either one, but I definitely respected them and enjoyed elements of both of their work. It’s really too bad this movie is going to go down as their last big on screen performances. Nothing against them and their performances, they just got stuck in a pretty bad movie.
The first thing that surprised me about Soul Men is that I had no idea it was a rated R movie. The fucks just going flying left and right in this one. The problem is that it never really works. It feels like they are just swearing because they can. It’s way too casual and never really funny. I admit I laughed a little at first but I think that was just because I was so surprised how many fucks there were in this thing. By the end of this movie I was completely ‘fuck’ed out. It’s gratuitous and unnecessary.
The cast is fine. Samuel L. Jackson plays the same role he plays in most movies, so you can’t say he was bad. He’s just really good at doing the same thing. He and Bernie Mac do share some pretty good chemistry together though and some of the scenes where they verbally attack each other are actually a little amusing at times. Of course the movie also decides to bury this into the ground as well. Isaac Hayes is in the movie for about 2 minutes total playing himself, so not too much to say about his performance.
The second thing that surprised me about this movie was the music. It was actually pretty decent. It doesn’t come close to some of Sam J’s stuff in Black Snake Moan, but it’s actually pretty enjoyable. It was probably the best part of the whole movie I would say.
It wasn’t a terrible movie, but its’ a very weak comedy and not a good sendoff for Bernie Mac, who I know is capable of a lot better than this. I have to give it a decent score for the somewhat amusing moments it had scattered throughout, the surprisingly good music, and almost as a sympathy gesture for poor Bernie and Isaac. What a way to be remembered.
**/5
This movie is only known at all because it stars both Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes, who of course died within days of each other this past summer. I wasn’t a huge fan of either one, but I definitely respected them and enjoyed elements of both of their work. It’s really too bad this movie is going to go down as their last big on screen performances. Nothing against them and their performances, they just got stuck in a pretty bad movie.
The first thing that surprised me about Soul Men is that I had no idea it was a rated R movie. The fucks just going flying left and right in this one. The problem is that it never really works. It feels like they are just swearing because they can. It’s way too casual and never really funny. I admit I laughed a little at first but I think that was just because I was so surprised how many fucks there were in this thing. By the end of this movie I was completely ‘fuck’ed out. It’s gratuitous and unnecessary.
The cast is fine. Samuel L. Jackson plays the same role he plays in most movies, so you can’t say he was bad. He’s just really good at doing the same thing. He and Bernie Mac do share some pretty good chemistry together though and some of the scenes where they verbally attack each other are actually a little amusing at times. Of course the movie also decides to bury this into the ground as well. Isaac Hayes is in the movie for about 2 minutes total playing himself, so not too much to say about his performance.
The second thing that surprised me about this movie was the music. It was actually pretty decent. It doesn’t come close to some of Sam J’s stuff in Black Snake Moan, but it’s actually pretty enjoyable. It was probably the best part of the whole movie I would say.
It wasn’t a terrible movie, but its’ a very weak comedy and not a good sendoff for Bernie Mac, who I know is capable of a lot better than this. I have to give it a decent score for the somewhat amusing moments it had scattered throughout, the surprisingly good music, and almost as a sympathy gesture for poor Bernie and Isaac. What a way to be remembered.
**/5
Shawn's Young People Fucking Review
2008 Movie #140 - Young People Fucking
For the first time ever in this blog, I just completely forgot to review a movie. I saw this one a couple of months ago, made a mental note that I had to write a review for it, and then didn’t. I just remembered last night that I had to do it. So although I saw this one a while ago, here it is.
This is a Canadian movie so right there that should set off a whole bunch of fucking warning signals. But then, it has that title. We were all so pissed off this summer when our theatre didn’t get this movie but instead it went to the other theatre in the city that’s part of the same chain. Apparently none of the employees were allowed to say the uncensored name, but where is the fun in that? We all pretty much accepted that there was no way this movie could ever live up to the hype of that awesome name. Shockingly, it’s pretty good, especially when you factor in the Canadian-ness. Now remember I saw this a while ago so the details are going to be very vague and sketchy.
The plot is pretty simple. It follows I think 4, but maybe 5, stories all about people who are engaged in sex in some form. They’re young people…and they’re fucking. Hence the genius of that title. The stories are all pretty good and while none of them are flat out bad, there are some that are of course more interesting than others. Personally I didn’t care about the Ex’s or the new couple. The roommates and the married couple I thought were the 2 best. The best friends were also really good.
The acting is good, with a lot of “where do I know them from” faces throughout. The dialogue is quick and funny and filthy as all hell. There are obviously a lot of sex jokes in this movie and some of them are just downright fucking nuts. It could make for some awkward watching. Then again if you’re watching a movie called Young People Fucking with your children or parents, then maybe you should be hit by more busses and trucks.
Call this one a very pleasant surprise. My memory of it is a little fuzzy now and it makes me want to watch it again to remember more. In fact why haven’t I watched this again? Fuck this, I’m gonna go watch it again.
*** ½ / 5
For the first time ever in this blog, I just completely forgot to review a movie. I saw this one a couple of months ago, made a mental note that I had to write a review for it, and then didn’t. I just remembered last night that I had to do it. So although I saw this one a while ago, here it is.
This is a Canadian movie so right there that should set off a whole bunch of fucking warning signals. But then, it has that title. We were all so pissed off this summer when our theatre didn’t get this movie but instead it went to the other theatre in the city that’s part of the same chain. Apparently none of the employees were allowed to say the uncensored name, but where is the fun in that? We all pretty much accepted that there was no way this movie could ever live up to the hype of that awesome name. Shockingly, it’s pretty good, especially when you factor in the Canadian-ness. Now remember I saw this a while ago so the details are going to be very vague and sketchy.
The plot is pretty simple. It follows I think 4, but maybe 5, stories all about people who are engaged in sex in some form. They’re young people…and they’re fucking. Hence the genius of that title. The stories are all pretty good and while none of them are flat out bad, there are some that are of course more interesting than others. Personally I didn’t care about the Ex’s or the new couple. The roommates and the married couple I thought were the 2 best. The best friends were also really good.
The acting is good, with a lot of “where do I know them from” faces throughout. The dialogue is quick and funny and filthy as all hell. There are obviously a lot of sex jokes in this movie and some of them are just downright fucking nuts. It could make for some awkward watching. Then again if you’re watching a movie called Young People Fucking with your children or parents, then maybe you should be hit by more busses and trucks.
Call this one a very pleasant surprise. My memory of it is a little fuzzy now and it makes me want to watch it again to remember more. In fact why haven’t I watched this again? Fuck this, I’m gonna go watch it again.
*** ½ / 5
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Shawn's Punisher War Zone Review
2008 Movie #139 - Punisher War Zone
The Punisher seems like he should be the easiest character ever to make a movie about. Slap a badass in a skull shirt and have him kill people. Sounds simple enough right? Well up until now we had 2 movies try it and fuck it up. I didn't full out hate the 2004 version, but I agree with most people that it really didn't feel like the Punisher, at least not until the very, very end of it all. This movie goes the EXACT opposite route. The last movie took about 100 minutes to get to the violent Punisher kills, this movie however, takes maybe 100 seconds. Now that is more like it. This movie still isn't great, but for a Punisher movie, it's a definite step in the right direction. Also smashing a dude's face in with your first...always a great direction to step towards.
War Zone sort of feels like someone gave a decent budget to a cheesy 80's movie. Everything about this movie feels like something you would have seen from that timeframe. The oneliners, the over the top villians, the story itself...but you know what, it sort of works. It's a fucking ride. You laugh and enjoy yourself, knowing full well the movie is ridiculous but who cares? The Punisher himself is pretty fucking ridiculous. I mean...did you read the part about smashing a guy's face in with a single punch?
The action here is pretty standard, but pretty entertaining too. Lots of shootouts and the usual. The editing didn't suffer from the quick cuts like most recent movies do. They're there of course but they don't ruin it as much as they do some other movies. Plus I don't know if you heard this or read it anywhere, but this movie does contain a moment where a fist caves a face in.
I do think Thomas Jane made a great Punisher and it's really too bad he didn't come back for this one too. Ray Stevenson is still very good though. He fits the role quite well. The bad guys are crazy over the top in terms of acting. The main villain's brother was pretty god damn bad though. As was Julie Benz I thought. But whatever, you can look past the acting if it means seeing a fist smash in a face...which you do.
Overall this one is worth checking out if you're a Punisher fan you felt let down by the last movie attempt. It's a pretty good watch, but certainly not on par with well, just about every other comic book movie that came out this year. But then I don't remember Batman, Incredible Hulk, or Iron Man smashing a face in at any point. So maybe this one was the best actually.
***/5
The Punisher seems like he should be the easiest character ever to make a movie about. Slap a badass in a skull shirt and have him kill people. Sounds simple enough right? Well up until now we had 2 movies try it and fuck it up. I didn't full out hate the 2004 version, but I agree with most people that it really didn't feel like the Punisher, at least not until the very, very end of it all. This movie goes the EXACT opposite route. The last movie took about 100 minutes to get to the violent Punisher kills, this movie however, takes maybe 100 seconds. Now that is more like it. This movie still isn't great, but for a Punisher movie, it's a definite step in the right direction. Also smashing a dude's face in with your first...always a great direction to step towards.
War Zone sort of feels like someone gave a decent budget to a cheesy 80's movie. Everything about this movie feels like something you would have seen from that timeframe. The oneliners, the over the top villians, the story itself...but you know what, it sort of works. It's a fucking ride. You laugh and enjoy yourself, knowing full well the movie is ridiculous but who cares? The Punisher himself is pretty fucking ridiculous. I mean...did you read the part about smashing a guy's face in with a single punch?
The action here is pretty standard, but pretty entertaining too. Lots of shootouts and the usual. The editing didn't suffer from the quick cuts like most recent movies do. They're there of course but they don't ruin it as much as they do some other movies. Plus I don't know if you heard this or read it anywhere, but this movie does contain a moment where a fist caves a face in.
I do think Thomas Jane made a great Punisher and it's really too bad he didn't come back for this one too. Ray Stevenson is still very good though. He fits the role quite well. The bad guys are crazy over the top in terms of acting. The main villain's brother was pretty god damn bad though. As was Julie Benz I thought. But whatever, you can look past the acting if it means seeing a fist smash in a face...which you do.
Overall this one is worth checking out if you're a Punisher fan you felt let down by the last movie attempt. It's a pretty good watch, but certainly not on par with well, just about every other comic book movie that came out this year. But then I don't remember Batman, Incredible Hulk, or Iron Man smashing a face in at any point. So maybe this one was the best actually.
***/5
Shawn's The Day the Earth Stood Still Review
2008 Movie #138 - The Day the Earth Stood Still
I made a conscious decision before watching this movie to not watch the original. I own the original and had every intention of watching it before I saw the remake. Then the reviews for this one started to pour in and I decided that maybe it would be better if I didn't have the original to compare it to. I wanted to watch this one as its own thing. Turns out, this one ain't bad. I'm sure the original is the superior movie, but this one is still pretty entertaining.
I think the main problem here is the movie suffers from the dreaded trailer highlight syndrome. This of course is when the trailer highlights all of the big moments of the movie. Therefore when you actually sit down and watch it you know what's coming and you feel like you've seen it all before. There are few surprises. At least they kept Gort's appearence a secret in this one. That thing is just ...just awesome. Although I could have used a little more Gort to be honest. There's still some cool stuff here, but just not enough surprises.
The acting is ok. Keanu Reeves is a strange entity as an actor but the casting director on this movie sure knew what they were doing when they cast him as an emotionless alien. He sure fits the role there's no denying that. Jennifer Connoly is good, but we've seen her do better. I think? ...Have we? I can only think of Dark Water and Hulk and well, there's really never any good reason to ever think about those things. Either way, acting is decent. Robert Knepper shows up again, once more pretty much just playing T-bag.
However Jaden Smith as the son is one of the most irritating characters I've seen in quite some time. I can't completely fault the actor since I'm sure it has a lot to do with how the character is written, but my GOD! I don't think I've ever want a child smacked more in my entire life. How the aliens didn't see this little prick and immediatly wipe us all out is completely beyond me. His character barely even serves a purpose until the very end. Up until that point I had no idea what his purpose was except to piss me off. I think we're suppose to sympathize with him but it's impossible when he's such a little shit to everyone all the time.
Little bastard aside, movie isn't bad. It was shorter than I expected, which almost works against it. Events feel a little rushed and could have used a little more time to develop. The conclusion of everything happens so fast that I was a little thrown off the movie was already over. The trailers also lead you to belive there is a lot of big budget action moments when really I would say the action takes up 2 minutes of the total movie at the most. I don't really care but it's still a very different movie from what the trailers are hyping up.
I would recommend doing what I did and not watching the original movie first. I think it helps when enjoying this one. It's not terrific, but it's pretty entertaining and despite a lot of people who hate it, I sort of dug the message behind the whole movie. Check this one out at least as a rental down the road. It will probably look pretty sweet in bluray.
***/5
I made a conscious decision before watching this movie to not watch the original. I own the original and had every intention of watching it before I saw the remake. Then the reviews for this one started to pour in and I decided that maybe it would be better if I didn't have the original to compare it to. I wanted to watch this one as its own thing. Turns out, this one ain't bad. I'm sure the original is the superior movie, but this one is still pretty entertaining.
I think the main problem here is the movie suffers from the dreaded trailer highlight syndrome. This of course is when the trailer highlights all of the big moments of the movie. Therefore when you actually sit down and watch it you know what's coming and you feel like you've seen it all before. There are few surprises. At least they kept Gort's appearence a secret in this one. That thing is just ...just awesome. Although I could have used a little more Gort to be honest. There's still some cool stuff here, but just not enough surprises.
The acting is ok. Keanu Reeves is a strange entity as an actor but the casting director on this movie sure knew what they were doing when they cast him as an emotionless alien. He sure fits the role there's no denying that. Jennifer Connoly is good, but we've seen her do better. I think? ...Have we? I can only think of Dark Water and Hulk and well, there's really never any good reason to ever think about those things. Either way, acting is decent. Robert Knepper shows up again, once more pretty much just playing T-bag.
However Jaden Smith as the son is one of the most irritating characters I've seen in quite some time. I can't completely fault the actor since I'm sure it has a lot to do with how the character is written, but my GOD! I don't think I've ever want a child smacked more in my entire life. How the aliens didn't see this little prick and immediatly wipe us all out is completely beyond me. His character barely even serves a purpose until the very end. Up until that point I had no idea what his purpose was except to piss me off. I think we're suppose to sympathize with him but it's impossible when he's such a little shit to everyone all the time.
Little bastard aside, movie isn't bad. It was shorter than I expected, which almost works against it. Events feel a little rushed and could have used a little more time to develop. The conclusion of everything happens so fast that I was a little thrown off the movie was already over. The trailers also lead you to belive there is a lot of big budget action moments when really I would say the action takes up 2 minutes of the total movie at the most. I don't really care but it's still a very different movie from what the trailers are hyping up.
I would recommend doing what I did and not watching the original movie first. I think it helps when enjoying this one. It's not terrific, but it's pretty entertaining and despite a lot of people who hate it, I sort of dug the message behind the whole movie. Check this one out at least as a rental down the road. It will probably look pretty sweet in bluray.
***/5
Shawn's The Family That Preys
2008 Movie #137 - The Family That Preys
Just like how I got to review two of those fucking “parody” movies this me, lucky me I got to watch two Tyler Perry movies as well. I’ll say the same thing now that I said when I reviewed whatever the fuck the other one was, Meet the Browns maybe? I don’t get it! I just don’t fucking understand why these movies get to keep coming out!
The movie does nothing better than your average daily soap opera. In fact I bet a lot of those do this even better. Nothing interesting happens in this movie. I was numbed the entire time, just struggling to figure out why I should give a shit about anything that was happening or anyone that it was happening to.
You know what, I don’t even have the energy. I’m so fucking happy that next year I don’t have to watch any more of these god damn things. It’s not that it’s offensively bad or anything, I just really don’t get it. It doesn’t seem like anything in the story needed to be told. It’s a movie that really has no reason to exist. That’s about all I have to say. At least someone gets slapped really fucking hard. So that’s something I guess.
*/5
Just like how I got to review two of those fucking “parody” movies this me, lucky me I got to watch two Tyler Perry movies as well. I’ll say the same thing now that I said when I reviewed whatever the fuck the other one was, Meet the Browns maybe? I don’t get it! I just don’t fucking understand why these movies get to keep coming out!
The movie does nothing better than your average daily soap opera. In fact I bet a lot of those do this even better. Nothing interesting happens in this movie. I was numbed the entire time, just struggling to figure out why I should give a shit about anything that was happening or anyone that it was happening to.
You know what, I don’t even have the energy. I’m so fucking happy that next year I don’t have to watch any more of these god damn things. It’s not that it’s offensively bad or anything, I just really don’t get it. It doesn’t seem like anything in the story needed to be told. It’s a movie that really has no reason to exist. That’s about all I have to say. At least someone gets slapped really fucking hard. So that’s something I guess.
*/5
Shawn's Transporter 3 Review
2008 Movie #136 - Transporter 3
I love the Transporter movies and it’s no secret to anyone who has even glimpsed at this blog that I am a huge Jason Statham fan. I just feel he usually deserves better than what he gets. He didn’t start off the year well with Dungeon Siege, but he has really picked things up from there. Bank Job was good, Death Race was eerily entertaining, and now we have this. It’s not a great movie, it’s not even a very good movie, but it’s still entertaining.
The plot doesn’t really matter, nor has it mattered in any of the Transporter movies. At least not to me anyway. The plot is merely something that gets in the way of more people getting their asses kicked by hoses or whatever. In fact I can barely even remember what the plot of this one is. So there you have it.
The acting is fine. Jason Statham does his usual badass, raspy voice routine but well, he’s really fucking good at it so who can really say anything about that. The girl in this movie however was very annoying. I was actually mad when he started falling for her because as far as I could tell, she had absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. This movie would have gotten a 5/5 if Transporter has just punched her square in the face or vagina. Sadly he does not which is simply no good. Robert Knepper is ok as the main villain, although he is pretty much just playing T-bag from Prison Break.
The action in this one is pretty ok, but I would say the weakest in the series so far. The fights are good but suffer from that quick editing that is plaguing just about every action movie that comes out now. Of course it wouldn’t be a Transporter movie without some shit that makes you go “get the fuck out of here,” which this one delivers. Nothing quite compares to the bomb car in part 2, but there’s no amount of insanity that can top that anyway.
I would say this one is the worst in the Transporter series, but it’s still a decent enough movie. It’s not as gritty and awesome as the first one, and it’s not as off the wall fucking ridiculous in the 2nd one. Still pretty good watching though.
***/5
I love the Transporter movies and it’s no secret to anyone who has even glimpsed at this blog that I am a huge Jason Statham fan. I just feel he usually deserves better than what he gets. He didn’t start off the year well with Dungeon Siege, but he has really picked things up from there. Bank Job was good, Death Race was eerily entertaining, and now we have this. It’s not a great movie, it’s not even a very good movie, but it’s still entertaining.
The plot doesn’t really matter, nor has it mattered in any of the Transporter movies. At least not to me anyway. The plot is merely something that gets in the way of more people getting their asses kicked by hoses or whatever. In fact I can barely even remember what the plot of this one is. So there you have it.
The acting is fine. Jason Statham does his usual badass, raspy voice routine but well, he’s really fucking good at it so who can really say anything about that. The girl in this movie however was very annoying. I was actually mad when he started falling for her because as far as I could tell, she had absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. This movie would have gotten a 5/5 if Transporter has just punched her square in the face or vagina. Sadly he does not which is simply no good. Robert Knepper is ok as the main villain, although he is pretty much just playing T-bag from Prison Break.
The action in this one is pretty ok, but I would say the weakest in the series so far. The fights are good but suffer from that quick editing that is plaguing just about every action movie that comes out now. Of course it wouldn’t be a Transporter movie without some shit that makes you go “get the fuck out of here,” which this one delivers. Nothing quite compares to the bomb car in part 2, but there’s no amount of insanity that can top that anyway.
I would say this one is the worst in the Transporter series, but it’s still a decent enough movie. It’s not as gritty and awesome as the first one, and it’s not as off the wall fucking ridiculous in the 2nd one. Still pretty good watching though.
***/5
Shawn's Pulse 2 Review
2008 Movie #135 - Pulse 2
Well at least it’s good to know that even at this stage in the game it’s not too late for movies to enter the bottom 10 of the year. Pulse 2 now officially makes that list with a bullet. I’ve been putting off watching it forever but with the upcoming release of Pulse 3, I was curious to see if maybe they were actually taking the story somewhere interesting to justify a trilogy. Turns out nope…good god nope.
This movie is fucking atrotious in ways that are rarely seen. Let’s start with the movie’s existence in the first place. I’ve never seen the original Japanese Pulse but I saw the unrated cut of the remake. It was not very good, not terrible mind you, but not good. Certainly not worthy of a sequel. But then when has that stopped anyone from making them these days.
At least if they had done something worthwhile with the plot of the movie then maybe it would be ok. The first movie ended on a downer note that actually could have lead to a pretty interesting sequel. I don’t know what the fuck happened here though. If someone asked me to list 100 possible plot lines for Pulse 2, none of them would have been even close to this one. Who the fuck thought this was a story worth telling? This could have been a pretty cool end of the world scenario movie but instead it’s just a huge cock-up.
The acting is, as expected, quite bad. It’s not the worst I’ve ever seen in one of these DTD sequels, but it’s bad. That’s basically all I have to say about the acting really. Let’s get on to the element of this movie that is so amazingly terrible I almost can’t believe it.
The special effects in this movie are jaw dropping. I don’t know what the budget of this movie actually was but it couldn’t have been more than 96 cents in loose change. You know how some movies use green screen to place characters in locations that aren’t normally possible? You know maybe outer space or a volcano or Sin City or something like that? Makes sense right? Well this movie uses green screen to put characters in locations such as an alley, a street, a house, a cabin, a field, and just about anywhere else you can imagine. It’s one of the most insane fucking things I have ever seen. I thought it was my imagination at first but no such luck. How anyone thought this movie was ok to be released is beyond me.
Pulse 2 does the unimaginable and surpasses the original in pure shittiness by an epic scale. It makes Pulse 1 look like fucking Back to the Future. I almost want to watch Pulse 3 more now just to see if they make up for this, or somehow take things even further. Stay far, FAR, away from this one.
0/5
Well at least it’s good to know that even at this stage in the game it’s not too late for movies to enter the bottom 10 of the year. Pulse 2 now officially makes that list with a bullet. I’ve been putting off watching it forever but with the upcoming release of Pulse 3, I was curious to see if maybe they were actually taking the story somewhere interesting to justify a trilogy. Turns out nope…good god nope.
This movie is fucking atrotious in ways that are rarely seen. Let’s start with the movie’s existence in the first place. I’ve never seen the original Japanese Pulse but I saw the unrated cut of the remake. It was not very good, not terrible mind you, but not good. Certainly not worthy of a sequel. But then when has that stopped anyone from making them these days.
At least if they had done something worthwhile with the plot of the movie then maybe it would be ok. The first movie ended on a downer note that actually could have lead to a pretty interesting sequel. I don’t know what the fuck happened here though. If someone asked me to list 100 possible plot lines for Pulse 2, none of them would have been even close to this one. Who the fuck thought this was a story worth telling? This could have been a pretty cool end of the world scenario movie but instead it’s just a huge cock-up.
The acting is, as expected, quite bad. It’s not the worst I’ve ever seen in one of these DTD sequels, but it’s bad. That’s basically all I have to say about the acting really. Let’s get on to the element of this movie that is so amazingly terrible I almost can’t believe it.
The special effects in this movie are jaw dropping. I don’t know what the budget of this movie actually was but it couldn’t have been more than 96 cents in loose change. You know how some movies use green screen to place characters in locations that aren’t normally possible? You know maybe outer space or a volcano or Sin City or something like that? Makes sense right? Well this movie uses green screen to put characters in locations such as an alley, a street, a house, a cabin, a field, and just about anywhere else you can imagine. It’s one of the most insane fucking things I have ever seen. I thought it was my imagination at first but no such luck. How anyone thought this movie was ok to be released is beyond me.
Pulse 2 does the unimaginable and surpasses the original in pure shittiness by an epic scale. It makes Pulse 1 look like fucking Back to the Future. I almost want to watch Pulse 3 more now just to see if they make up for this, or somehow take things even further. Stay far, FAR, away from this one.
0/5
Shawn's Frost/Nixon Review
2008 Movie #134 - Frost/Nixon
This is my first one of the recent slew of apparently Oscar worthy movies. I wasn’t familiar with the true story behind this movie, essentially all I knew was that it was a two hour movie that almost entirely consisted of 2 men having an interview. That’s not completely true. While the interview does take up a large part of the running time, a lot of the movies is focused on what is going on behind the scenes, as well as all of the events leading up to the interviews. Overall, it actually makes for a pretty compelling movie.
This movie could have ended up being very boring since really, there isn’t a whole lot going on. Somehow though they managed to find ways to keep the drama levels high and keep everything interesting and to make sure the viewer stays invested in the events taking place.
A lot of that has to do with the performances, which are across the board excellent. There has been a lot of talk about Frank Langella’s performance as Richard Nixon and after watching the movie I can understand why. He doesn’t really look anything like Nixon but he has the voice down and by the end of the movie you look past the appearance and he really does become the part. Michael Sheen also does a great job as David Frost, giving the character a lot of depth and making you root for him. The supporting cast is also great, with Kevin Bacon and Sam Rockwell being highlights.
The movie does drag a little in the middle part but it’s overall very engaging and entertaining. I don’t think I would ever watch it again but it’s definitely worth at least one viewing.
*** ½ /5
This is my first one of the recent slew of apparently Oscar worthy movies. I wasn’t familiar with the true story behind this movie, essentially all I knew was that it was a two hour movie that almost entirely consisted of 2 men having an interview. That’s not completely true. While the interview does take up a large part of the running time, a lot of the movies is focused on what is going on behind the scenes, as well as all of the events leading up to the interviews. Overall, it actually makes for a pretty compelling movie.
This movie could have ended up being very boring since really, there isn’t a whole lot going on. Somehow though they managed to find ways to keep the drama levels high and keep everything interesting and to make sure the viewer stays invested in the events taking place.
A lot of that has to do with the performances, which are across the board excellent. There has been a lot of talk about Frank Langella’s performance as Richard Nixon and after watching the movie I can understand why. He doesn’t really look anything like Nixon but he has the voice down and by the end of the movie you look past the appearance and he really does become the part. Michael Sheen also does a great job as David Frost, giving the character a lot of depth and making you root for him. The supporting cast is also great, with Kevin Bacon and Sam Rockwell being highlights.
The movie does drag a little in the middle part but it’s overall very engaging and entertaining. I don’t think I would ever watch it again but it’s definitely worth at least one viewing.
*** ½ /5
Shawn's Four Christmases Review
2008 Movie #133 - Four Christmases
Here we have Vince Vaughn’s second go at a Christmas movie. Fred Claus wasn’t really a hard act to follow but somehow this one doesn’t even measure up to it. Of course given the insane amount of money this one made/is making I wouldn’t be surprised if we get his third attempt this same time next year.
Once again we’ll back to the reasoning behind my Hamlet 2 score, this movie is not funny. Oh it tries really fucking hard to be funny and wacky, but in the end it just ends up as a second rate, maybe even third or fourth rate, clone of Meet the Parents. Some scenes even felt like they were flat out fucking lifted straight out of that movie.
There sure are a lot of name actors in this thing, although I’m guessing the large budget for this movie meant they were compensated quite well. Most of the actors have little to do since the movie has a lot of ground to cover and only uses 80 minutes to try and cover all of it. As a result, the movie is very fast paced but that doesn’t work in it’s favour. Well unless you count the fact that means it’s over quickly. Mostly though we just a bunch of one dimensional, underdeveloped characters with unfunny dialogue.
The actors are all ok, although Vince needs to find a different act. We’ve seen him do this movie role many times before and it simply doesn’t work here. Also he looks huge! I don’t know if he was always like this but my god he looks like he could eat Witherspoon, who is also ok but their chemistry is never quite there except for a little in the car fighting scenes.
It’s a small concern but I feel I should mention the timeline of the movie. We’re lead to believe that just about this entire movie takes place over the course of one day. I’m sorry but unless each family lived on the same block, this is impossible. Hell even in that situation it’s pretty fucking unlikely. It doesn’t even become nighttime until almost the end of the movie. Small complaint sure, but it never stopped bothering me the whole time.
I don’t know why it’s so hard to get a good Christmas movie these days. This one doesn’t even really feel like a Christmas movie half the time. It’s better than other recent efforts such as Deck the Halls and Christmas with the Kranks (easily one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen) but it’s still not good. Once again, I just can’t recommend this one.
* ½ /5
Here we have Vince Vaughn’s second go at a Christmas movie. Fred Claus wasn’t really a hard act to follow but somehow this one doesn’t even measure up to it. Of course given the insane amount of money this one made/is making I wouldn’t be surprised if we get his third attempt this same time next year.
Once again we’ll back to the reasoning behind my Hamlet 2 score, this movie is not funny. Oh it tries really fucking hard to be funny and wacky, but in the end it just ends up as a second rate, maybe even third or fourth rate, clone of Meet the Parents. Some scenes even felt like they were flat out fucking lifted straight out of that movie.
There sure are a lot of name actors in this thing, although I’m guessing the large budget for this movie meant they were compensated quite well. Most of the actors have little to do since the movie has a lot of ground to cover and only uses 80 minutes to try and cover all of it. As a result, the movie is very fast paced but that doesn’t work in it’s favour. Well unless you count the fact that means it’s over quickly. Mostly though we just a bunch of one dimensional, underdeveloped characters with unfunny dialogue.
The actors are all ok, although Vince needs to find a different act. We’ve seen him do this movie role many times before and it simply doesn’t work here. Also he looks huge! I don’t know if he was always like this but my god he looks like he could eat Witherspoon, who is also ok but their chemistry is never quite there except for a little in the car fighting scenes.
It’s a small concern but I feel I should mention the timeline of the movie. We’re lead to believe that just about this entire movie takes place over the course of one day. I’m sorry but unless each family lived on the same block, this is impossible. Hell even in that situation it’s pretty fucking unlikely. It doesn’t even become nighttime until almost the end of the movie. Small complaint sure, but it never stopped bothering me the whole time.
I don’t know why it’s so hard to get a good Christmas movie these days. This one doesn’t even really feel like a Christmas movie half the time. It’s better than other recent efforts such as Deck the Halls and Christmas with the Kranks (easily one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen) but it’s still not good. Once again, I just can’t recommend this one.
* ½ /5
Shawn's Hamlet 2 Review
2008 Movie #132 - Hamlet 2
For at least 5 or 6 months before this movie opened, a movie playing at our theatre had some form of the trailer before it. I have heard that trailer easily 100 times. Surprisingly it never made me hate the movie. It actually gave me hope. I figured if the trailer isn’t driving me completely insane (obviously a little insane) then this should be a pretty damn funny movie. I mean Rock Me Sexy Jesus alone is worth a few dozen points. Some friends of mine saw it and absolutely hated it. I’m just getting around to seeing it now and I definitely didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t too good either.
The problem here is of course the biggest problem one can have with a comedy, I didn’t find it funny. It flips back and forth between being a more character centered piece, and an off the wall slapstick comedy. It’s not that great at being either one of those things. I wanted to like it, I really did. I was trying so hard to find it funny, even forcing myself to laugh on occasion. However the sad truth is that when you have to fool yourself into thinking you’re enjoying something, no amount of positive thinking is going to make it any better.
I think a lot of it was the performance of Steve Coogan. I like Coogan, I think he’s funny for the most part, but not here. He’s a little too over the top and it rarely works well for the movie. It’s just a bit on the shrill side. Catherine Keener plays a similar character to a lot of the ones she plays. I’m not even sure what the hell David Arquette was doing in this movie. I’m pretty sure he only spoke 3 times and each time contained one full sentence. His purpose confuses me. Elizabeth Shue did have some funny moments and I would put as the highlight of the cast for sure.
Another problem I had with this movie is that it contains a lot of the dreaded “pause for laughter” moments. I’m sure you know them. When after a joke the scene lingers on for a few seconds, presumably to give the audience time to start laughing before moving on. More often that not these moments are just brutal to watch. It’s something the Epic Movie series of crap contains a lot of. It makes the movie come off as a little arrogant too. Basically, fuck these moments. Don’t assume you’re funnier than you are.
I still can’t completely hate this movie though because the last 20 minutes or so does contain some funny moments. The play itself is funny, with the songs of course being a highlight. It’s too bad the buildup towards the finale takes too long because there really is some good stuff to be found in the last act.
The movie was a definite disappointment, especially compared with some of the great comedies this year has given us. It’s not awful but I think the last part really helped take the memories away from the first hour of the movie. That’s why I can give it the score I am giving it.
**/5
For at least 5 or 6 months before this movie opened, a movie playing at our theatre had some form of the trailer before it. I have heard that trailer easily 100 times. Surprisingly it never made me hate the movie. It actually gave me hope. I figured if the trailer isn’t driving me completely insane (obviously a little insane) then this should be a pretty damn funny movie. I mean Rock Me Sexy Jesus alone is worth a few dozen points. Some friends of mine saw it and absolutely hated it. I’m just getting around to seeing it now and I definitely didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t too good either.
The problem here is of course the biggest problem one can have with a comedy, I didn’t find it funny. It flips back and forth between being a more character centered piece, and an off the wall slapstick comedy. It’s not that great at being either one of those things. I wanted to like it, I really did. I was trying so hard to find it funny, even forcing myself to laugh on occasion. However the sad truth is that when you have to fool yourself into thinking you’re enjoying something, no amount of positive thinking is going to make it any better.
I think a lot of it was the performance of Steve Coogan. I like Coogan, I think he’s funny for the most part, but not here. He’s a little too over the top and it rarely works well for the movie. It’s just a bit on the shrill side. Catherine Keener plays a similar character to a lot of the ones she plays. I’m not even sure what the hell David Arquette was doing in this movie. I’m pretty sure he only spoke 3 times and each time contained one full sentence. His purpose confuses me. Elizabeth Shue did have some funny moments and I would put as the highlight of the cast for sure.
Another problem I had with this movie is that it contains a lot of the dreaded “pause for laughter” moments. I’m sure you know them. When after a joke the scene lingers on for a few seconds, presumably to give the audience time to start laughing before moving on. More often that not these moments are just brutal to watch. It’s something the Epic Movie series of crap contains a lot of. It makes the movie come off as a little arrogant too. Basically, fuck these moments. Don’t assume you’re funnier than you are.
I still can’t completely hate this movie though because the last 20 minutes or so does contain some funny moments. The play itself is funny, with the songs of course being a highlight. It’s too bad the buildup towards the finale takes too long because there really is some good stuff to be found in the last act.
The movie was a definite disappointment, especially compared with some of the great comedies this year has given us. It’s not awful but I think the last part really helped take the memories away from the first hour of the movie. That’s why I can give it the score I am giving it.
**/5
Monday, December 15, 2008
Shawn's Max Payne Review
2008 Movie #131 - Max Payne
I think I played the original Max Payne game once for about 10 minutes like 7 or 8 years ago. That's the extent of my experience with the games. Therefore I had no expectations when it came to the movie adaptation.I would have no idea whether it was being faithful to the games or not. From what I hear, it wasn't faithful at all. I had no way of knowing that however, and actually didn't mind the movie.
I'm guessing those who are loyal fans of the game didn't like this one, but as someone who has never really played them much, I thought it wasn't half bad. The problem is that it's really just painfully average. It doesn't do anything particularily well, it just does alright at pretty much everything.
The movie is actually a lot more focused on story than I thought it would be. The action really doesn't show up until around the last half hour. The problem here of course is, the storyline isn't all that great. It's pretty generic cop stuff, except with the occasional trip out Norse mythology sequence. It's just interesting enough to keep your attention for the full running time, but it's hard to not find 8 movies with the exact same plot on TV at any given time.
When there is action, it too, is merely ok. There is one hilariously over the top bit near the end that is a great example of "what the fuck were they thinking with that one", but most of it is the usual slow motion shootouts you see all the time. I hate to always go back to the Shoot 'Em Up well, but god damn it's too awesome for me not to reference it 1000 times. I don't think that movie resorted to slow motion at all, or at least if it did it was very rare. It's possible to do a great shootout in normal speed, more movies need to realize that.
The acting is good, with Marky Mark playing the same tough guy role as in a lot of his movies. It's a huge step up from The Happening, but few things wouldn't be. If Marky Mark spent the whole movie sleeping it would already be a much better performance than The Happening. Mila Kunis doesn't have a whole lot to do but my GOD is she ever looking good in this one. The whole movie really should have been about her in a bikini shooting people. Movie would have made $100 million in it's first hour of release if that had been the case.
Overall it's a very average movie that I couldn't hate or love. It passed the time and did a decent job of that. The look of the movie is pretty cool but reminded me a bit too much of Sin City. The acting is pretty good, while the storyline, the action and just about everything else in the movie are merely adequate. It's worth a rental, unless you're a huge fan of the games in which case I hear you'll hate it.
** 1/2 / 5
I think I played the original Max Payne game once for about 10 minutes like 7 or 8 years ago. That's the extent of my experience with the games. Therefore I had no expectations when it came to the movie adaptation.I would have no idea whether it was being faithful to the games or not. From what I hear, it wasn't faithful at all. I had no way of knowing that however, and actually didn't mind the movie.
I'm guessing those who are loyal fans of the game didn't like this one, but as someone who has never really played them much, I thought it wasn't half bad. The problem is that it's really just painfully average. It doesn't do anything particularily well, it just does alright at pretty much everything.
The movie is actually a lot more focused on story than I thought it would be. The action really doesn't show up until around the last half hour. The problem here of course is, the storyline isn't all that great. It's pretty generic cop stuff, except with the occasional trip out Norse mythology sequence. It's just interesting enough to keep your attention for the full running time, but it's hard to not find 8 movies with the exact same plot on TV at any given time.
When there is action, it too, is merely ok. There is one hilariously over the top bit near the end that is a great example of "what the fuck were they thinking with that one", but most of it is the usual slow motion shootouts you see all the time. I hate to always go back to the Shoot 'Em Up well, but god damn it's too awesome for me not to reference it 1000 times. I don't think that movie resorted to slow motion at all, or at least if it did it was very rare. It's possible to do a great shootout in normal speed, more movies need to realize that.
The acting is good, with Marky Mark playing the same tough guy role as in a lot of his movies. It's a huge step up from The Happening, but few things wouldn't be. If Marky Mark spent the whole movie sleeping it would already be a much better performance than The Happening. Mila Kunis doesn't have a whole lot to do but my GOD is she ever looking good in this one. The whole movie really should have been about her in a bikini shooting people. Movie would have made $100 million in it's first hour of release if that had been the case.
Overall it's a very average movie that I couldn't hate or love. It passed the time and did a decent job of that. The look of the movie is pretty cool but reminded me a bit too much of Sin City. The acting is pretty good, while the storyline, the action and just about everything else in the movie are merely adequate. It's worth a rental, unless you're a huge fan of the games in which case I hear you'll hate it.
** 1/2 / 5
Shawn's Resident Evil Degeneration Review
2008 Movie #130 - Resident Evil Degeneration
The first Resident Evil movie blew my fucking mind when I saw it the first time. I don't know if I was just in the right mood or what but I remember really enjoying the hell out of it. The second one was pretty bad, but somehow still entertaining for the most part. The third found a middle ground and was just pretty good. Now we have this one, a CGI animated movie much in the vein of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, a movie I found kind of underwhelming.
This one sort of plays out like watching a very long cut scene from one of the Resident Evil games. The animation is pretty good, but nothing better than what you would see in the games themselves. It features Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, which as a huge fan of the games is pretty cool to me. I think the storyline is supposed to take place after Resident Evil 4 but I'm not entirely sure about that.
The storyline is ok, pretty much the standard stuff you see in the games. Just stopping one of the viruses from getting loose. It's not a bad story, but there really isn't much to it. Then again the same thing can be said about the games too. There is a lot of action though, most of it pretty entertaining. Parts of the movie do drag but it's never boring.
The voice acting is not that good. I was hoping that if it was bad, maybe we would be lucky and get that over the top Resident Evil 1 acting ("You were almost a Jill Sandwich") but so such luck. We just get something in between that is mostly serviceable.
Similar to what I said in the My Name is Bruce review, your enjoyment of this completely stems from your enjoyment of the video game series. I am a huge fan of the video games and therefore I found a lot to like about this movie. It's pretty average overall, and not any better than the live action adaptations (except the second one of course), but it has highlights and I overall enjoyed it.
***/5
The first Resident Evil movie blew my fucking mind when I saw it the first time. I don't know if I was just in the right mood or what but I remember really enjoying the hell out of it. The second one was pretty bad, but somehow still entertaining for the most part. The third found a middle ground and was just pretty good. Now we have this one, a CGI animated movie much in the vein of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, a movie I found kind of underwhelming.
This one sort of plays out like watching a very long cut scene from one of the Resident Evil games. The animation is pretty good, but nothing better than what you would see in the games themselves. It features Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, which as a huge fan of the games is pretty cool to me. I think the storyline is supposed to take place after Resident Evil 4 but I'm not entirely sure about that.
The storyline is ok, pretty much the standard stuff you see in the games. Just stopping one of the viruses from getting loose. It's not a bad story, but there really isn't much to it. Then again the same thing can be said about the games too. There is a lot of action though, most of it pretty entertaining. Parts of the movie do drag but it's never boring.
The voice acting is not that good. I was hoping that if it was bad, maybe we would be lucky and get that over the top Resident Evil 1 acting ("You were almost a Jill Sandwich") but so such luck. We just get something in between that is mostly serviceable.
Similar to what I said in the My Name is Bruce review, your enjoyment of this completely stems from your enjoyment of the video game series. I am a huge fan of the video games and therefore I found a lot to like about this movie. It's pretty average overall, and not any better than the live action adaptations (except the second one of course), but it has highlights and I overall enjoyed it.
***/5
Shawn's My Name is Bruce Review
2008 Movie #129 - My Name is Bruce
I've been interested in this movie for what is easily years now. It's almost a little hard to believe I've finally seen it. It felt like it was never going to be released. But it's coming to DVD soon and I have finally sat down and watched it. All I can say is well, you better be a fan because otherwise you ain't getting anything out of this one.
I would for sure put myself in the Campbell fan camp. I love the Evil Dead movies and have watched many of his other movies, often purely because he is in them. I've stayed away from the real bottom of the barrel stuff however, like Alien Apocalypse. I do like the man though and find he can elevate a movie above what it often deserves. I've also read both his books and played all of the Evil Dead video games. Anyway, in any case, I like the man.
I say this because your amount of Bruce Campbell liking is equally proportional to the amount you'll like this movie. I can't stress enough how essential it is that not only do you like the actor, but are pretty familiar with him and his work too. If you meet all of those criteria, you will definitely find a lot to like here. If you're not a fan, you'll sit and stare at the screen, struggling to understand what the hell the appeal is.
The movie doesn't have much of a plot to speak of, not that I speak of the plots in these reviews anyway. The directing is meh, the screenplay is all over the place and loaded with corny jokes, the acting (outside of Campbell) is pretty bad in mose cases, and overall, the movie is really not very good. But damn, it's certainly entertaining. No denying that. It's just a fun time and it never stops being cool that this movie got made in the first place.
My biggest complaint is the finale. I thought the movie was building up to a huge confrontation that might give us a little glimpse at what an Evil Dead 4 could be like. Unfortunatly we never get that moment. The finale as a whole just felt underwhelming to me and the movie went out on a bit of a weak note overall.
That's about all I can say really about this one really. If you're a fan of Bruce, you already know you're going to watch this and you pretty much already know that you're going to like it. I can't say that I loved it, but I was never bored.
***/5
I've been interested in this movie for what is easily years now. It's almost a little hard to believe I've finally seen it. It felt like it was never going to be released. But it's coming to DVD soon and I have finally sat down and watched it. All I can say is well, you better be a fan because otherwise you ain't getting anything out of this one.
I would for sure put myself in the Campbell fan camp. I love the Evil Dead movies and have watched many of his other movies, often purely because he is in them. I've stayed away from the real bottom of the barrel stuff however, like Alien Apocalypse. I do like the man though and find he can elevate a movie above what it often deserves. I've also read both his books and played all of the Evil Dead video games. Anyway, in any case, I like the man.
I say this because your amount of Bruce Campbell liking is equally proportional to the amount you'll like this movie. I can't stress enough how essential it is that not only do you like the actor, but are pretty familiar with him and his work too. If you meet all of those criteria, you will definitely find a lot to like here. If you're not a fan, you'll sit and stare at the screen, struggling to understand what the hell the appeal is.
The movie doesn't have much of a plot to speak of, not that I speak of the plots in these reviews anyway. The directing is meh, the screenplay is all over the place and loaded with corny jokes, the acting (outside of Campbell) is pretty bad in mose cases, and overall, the movie is really not very good. But damn, it's certainly entertaining. No denying that. It's just a fun time and it never stops being cool that this movie got made in the first place.
My biggest complaint is the finale. I thought the movie was building up to a huge confrontation that might give us a little glimpse at what an Evil Dead 4 could be like. Unfortunatly we never get that moment. The finale as a whole just felt underwhelming to me and the movie went out on a bit of a weak note overall.
That's about all I can say really about this one really. If you're a fan of Bruce, you already know you're going to watch this and you pretty much already know that you're going to like it. I can't say that I loved it, but I was never bored.
***/5
Shawn's Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Review
2008 Movie #128 - Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
I really don’t feel like spending a lot of time talking about this one. I watched the first movie back when I got free DVD rentals and it was very average. I really was only interested in one story (Amber Tamblyn’s), while the rest were very disposable. When they announced the sequel I couldn’t help but think, where the hell else is there to go with that story? Turns out, pretty much nowhere.
This movie is the very definition of pointless. The characters don’t really grow at all. They fight and stuff sure but I never felt like I needed to know this is where they ended up. None of the stories are interesting this time around. For the most part they are all generic love stories where I didn’t give a crap about who ended up with who. I didn’t even really have Amber Tamblyn’s story to fall back on this time, although her story still is the only one that stands out, at least in the beginning.
My biggest problem with this movie, and I don’t remember if I had this issue with the first one too or not, is that the characters are actually pretty unlikable in this movie. They make decisions that the movie seems to think we should understand and sympathize with, when they are really being irrational and irritating. There is a lot of fighting and hostility but it never felt justified. It just felt whiny. The movie flat out angered me at points, which is something I never expected. I knew I wouldn’t like it but to be physically angry because of it? Wow.
So the stories aren’t interesting, the characters aren’t sympathetic and the whole thing is way too long. What does that leave us with? A big plate of fuck all I suppose.
*½ / 5
I really don’t feel like spending a lot of time talking about this one. I watched the first movie back when I got free DVD rentals and it was very average. I really was only interested in one story (Amber Tamblyn’s), while the rest were very disposable. When they announced the sequel I couldn’t help but think, where the hell else is there to go with that story? Turns out, pretty much nowhere.
This movie is the very definition of pointless. The characters don’t really grow at all. They fight and stuff sure but I never felt like I needed to know this is where they ended up. None of the stories are interesting this time around. For the most part they are all generic love stories where I didn’t give a crap about who ended up with who. I didn’t even really have Amber Tamblyn’s story to fall back on this time, although her story still is the only one that stands out, at least in the beginning.
My biggest problem with this movie, and I don’t remember if I had this issue with the first one too or not, is that the characters are actually pretty unlikable in this movie. They make decisions that the movie seems to think we should understand and sympathize with, when they are really being irrational and irritating. There is a lot of fighting and hostility but it never felt justified. It just felt whiny. The movie flat out angered me at points, which is something I never expected. I knew I wouldn’t like it but to be physically angry because of it? Wow.
So the stories aren’t interesting, the characters aren’t sympathetic and the whole thing is way too long. What does that leave us with? A big plate of fuck all I suppose.
*½ / 5
Shawn's Twilight Review
2008 Movie #127 - Twilight
A few months ago my girlfriend and I went into a Chapters because there was a new book I really wanted to pick up. While there I made an offhand remark about how I heard this Twilight book was really good. It was only 10 bucks so she decided to give it a shot. Just one short month later and she had read all 4 books and was pumped as hell for the upcoming movie. I had created a monster and I was now essentially doomed to also go see the movie. The tragedy is, I never even read the book I bought that day so the trip was pointless on my end. At least I got to go and see this movie?
I can sum it up pretty simply …I don’t get it. I know I’m not the target audience but really, I don’t get it. I’ve talked with many people who completely loved the book and said while the movie doesn’t stack up, its still great. A couple of people have even refered to the movie as “the best movie ever”. I..I don’t get it. I guess girls just really like pale dudes? Is that it?
My review of this movie means virtually nothing because it’s obviously not made for me. I can sort of maybe see the appeal for girls but not really even. Sure it’s a love story but to me there are much better love stories out there. Hell Wall-e told a much, much better love story and it was between two cartoon robots.
The love story between the two leads was one of my bigger problems with the movie. I never once for a second bought that these two were in love, or meant for each other. He’s established that he’s basically just attracted to her scent, which I think just means he wants to eat her. I don’t really know what she sees in him. Yea it was nice of him to save her from bad drivers and rapists and stuff but to be willing to die to be with him forever? You’ve known him like a week. Come on now. I just never really bought into it.
The acting is for the most part pretty good, but nothing that really blew my mind. Some of the bad guy vampires (especially the lead) aren’t very good though. The villians were actually another problem I had with the movie. They’re introduced very late in the movie, and then vanish just as quickly. The main guy is established as the ultimate badass vampire who everyone is, or should be, afraid of. When you make promises like that, you damn sure better deliver on them. This movie does not. This lead vampire is far from intimidating and certainly doesn’t put up much of a fight in the end. It just seemed like they needed something to put in the trailers to make the movie look more action oriented. They sure as hell fooled me.
To round out a few of my other problems with the movie, it runs about 2 hours and it does drag in parts. Some of the dialogue is very silly and stiff. It seemed like it was trying to tell too much story in the time it had and as a result it feels very disjointed and many things go unexplained. I basically was told that the book does a much better job of telling the story. So why all the love for this movie then? I don’t know…I just don’t get it.
**/5
A few months ago my girlfriend and I went into a Chapters because there was a new book I really wanted to pick up. While there I made an offhand remark about how I heard this Twilight book was really good. It was only 10 bucks so she decided to give it a shot. Just one short month later and she had read all 4 books and was pumped as hell for the upcoming movie. I had created a monster and I was now essentially doomed to also go see the movie. The tragedy is, I never even read the book I bought that day so the trip was pointless on my end. At least I got to go and see this movie?
I can sum it up pretty simply …I don’t get it. I know I’m not the target audience but really, I don’t get it. I’ve talked with many people who completely loved the book and said while the movie doesn’t stack up, its still great. A couple of people have even refered to the movie as “the best movie ever”. I..I don’t get it. I guess girls just really like pale dudes? Is that it?
My review of this movie means virtually nothing because it’s obviously not made for me. I can sort of maybe see the appeal for girls but not really even. Sure it’s a love story but to me there are much better love stories out there. Hell Wall-e told a much, much better love story and it was between two cartoon robots.
The love story between the two leads was one of my bigger problems with the movie. I never once for a second bought that these two were in love, or meant for each other. He’s established that he’s basically just attracted to her scent, which I think just means he wants to eat her. I don’t really know what she sees in him. Yea it was nice of him to save her from bad drivers and rapists and stuff but to be willing to die to be with him forever? You’ve known him like a week. Come on now. I just never really bought into it.
The acting is for the most part pretty good, but nothing that really blew my mind. Some of the bad guy vampires (especially the lead) aren’t very good though. The villians were actually another problem I had with the movie. They’re introduced very late in the movie, and then vanish just as quickly. The main guy is established as the ultimate badass vampire who everyone is, or should be, afraid of. When you make promises like that, you damn sure better deliver on them. This movie does not. This lead vampire is far from intimidating and certainly doesn’t put up much of a fight in the end. It just seemed like they needed something to put in the trailers to make the movie look more action oriented. They sure as hell fooled me.
To round out a few of my other problems with the movie, it runs about 2 hours and it does drag in parts. Some of the dialogue is very silly and stiff. It seemed like it was trying to tell too much story in the time it had and as a result it feels very disjointed and many things go unexplained. I basically was told that the book does a much better job of telling the story. So why all the love for this movie then? I don’t know…I just don’t get it.
**/5
Shawn's Quantum of Solace Review
2008 Movie #126 - Quantum of Solace
I’m actually not all that familiar with the world of Bond. I’ve seen all of the Bronsnan ones (only 2 of which I enjoyed really) and Casino Royale, which I thought was fantastic, as did most people. I hadn’t seen any of the old ones until the past week or so and am just now starting to get into this movie series. I can definitely see how the series has changed with the new Daniel Craig installments. A lot of people are divided and either like the new Bond or hate him and miss the old gadgety Bond. Personally I think both of them have their positives and negatives but for now, I’m definitely enjoying the direction the Bond movies are taking.
This movie has received a lot of backlash, I’m sure because most people were expecting something at the same level of quality of Casino Royale. We certainly don’t get that, but this one is damn good. It’s also pretty cool that it’s a direct sequel, starting mere minutes after Casino Royale would have ended. It’s the first time a Bond movie has ever done this and it’s interesting to have a storyline that continues through multiple movies.
Another thing I keep hearing is that many people are saying this one is too much like a Bourne movie. I can see where they’re coming from that. The look and style of the movie does share some similarities with the Bourne movies. It’s never distracting though and the similarities aren’t too overwhelming so it never takes away from the movie.
The action is very good, if not maybe a bit much. The first 30 minutes of the movie are essentially non-stop action. It’s all entertaining but part of what made Casino Royale so great was it’s story. The story in this one doesn’t even really start until after that first half hour and while it’s adequate, it’s never that compelling and many times only serves to string together action scenes. There seems to be more action sequences in this one than any of the other Bond’s I’ve seen. What makes it even more intense is how short the movie is. It’s only around 100 minutes which for a Bond movie is very short. It does move very very quickly but I wouldn’t have minded an extra 10 minutes or so that was devoted to fleshing out the story and characters a little more.
I really liked the movie, while at the same time I get the backlash surrounding it. It’s not Casino Royale but it’s a damn good watch, no denying that.
***1/2 /5
I’m actually not all that familiar with the world of Bond. I’ve seen all of the Bronsnan ones (only 2 of which I enjoyed really) and Casino Royale, which I thought was fantastic, as did most people. I hadn’t seen any of the old ones until the past week or so and am just now starting to get into this movie series. I can definitely see how the series has changed with the new Daniel Craig installments. A lot of people are divided and either like the new Bond or hate him and miss the old gadgety Bond. Personally I think both of them have their positives and negatives but for now, I’m definitely enjoying the direction the Bond movies are taking.
This movie has received a lot of backlash, I’m sure because most people were expecting something at the same level of quality of Casino Royale. We certainly don’t get that, but this one is damn good. It’s also pretty cool that it’s a direct sequel, starting mere minutes after Casino Royale would have ended. It’s the first time a Bond movie has ever done this and it’s interesting to have a storyline that continues through multiple movies.
Another thing I keep hearing is that many people are saying this one is too much like a Bourne movie. I can see where they’re coming from that. The look and style of the movie does share some similarities with the Bourne movies. It’s never distracting though and the similarities aren’t too overwhelming so it never takes away from the movie.
The action is very good, if not maybe a bit much. The first 30 minutes of the movie are essentially non-stop action. It’s all entertaining but part of what made Casino Royale so great was it’s story. The story in this one doesn’t even really start until after that first half hour and while it’s adequate, it’s never that compelling and many times only serves to string together action scenes. There seems to be more action sequences in this one than any of the other Bond’s I’ve seen. What makes it even more intense is how short the movie is. It’s only around 100 minutes which for a Bond movie is very short. It does move very very quickly but I wouldn’t have minded an extra 10 minutes or so that was devoted to fleshing out the story and characters a little more.
I really liked the movie, while at the same time I get the backlash surrounding it. It’s not Casino Royale but it’s a damn good watch, no denying that.
***1/2 /5
Shawn's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People Review
2008 Movie #125 - How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
I fear a little for Simon Pegg. The double whammy of awesomeness that was Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz really helped establish him and made people realize just how fucking funny he is. This of course lead to him getting starring roles in other movis such as Run Fatboy Run and now this one. While he is still good in them (in fact in this one he is absolutely the best part), the poor reception and box office numbers are going to lead studios to think he can’t carry a movie and therefore his work will dwindle. The problem isn’t that he can’t carry a movie, he just has yet to be handed a great movie to carry.
Now I did enjoy Run Fatboy Run quite a bit more than I expected. This was almost entirely because of Pegg however. I didn’t enjoy this one as much, but still believe Pegg was absolutely the best part of it. Had you put pretty much anybody else in the role, the movie would have very few redeeming qualities. Thankfully Pegg manages to take a mediocre script and improve it just that little bit to make the movie watchable.
One thing I didn’t see coming was the R rating. I thought this was a Pg-13 so it was very surprising when the fucks just started dropping. I don’t think it really added much to the movie but at the same time it’s cool to see movies slowly becoming braver when it comes to this rating. It did allow for a few jokes that weren’t bad which wouldn’t have been allowed in a lower rated movie.
I’ve already mentioned Pegg, but the rest of the cast should be talked about too. Jeff Bridges is good, as the man usually is. He’s not in the movie much but he manages to steal every scene he’s in. It’s also cool to see Gillian Anderson in a non X-Files related role, even if she isn’t around all that much in the movie.
Megan Fox’s role is well, a little pointless. Her character is established as being a very central point to the plot of the movie but she never seems to be doing anything. Fox doesn’t bring much to a character that is already pretty thinly written. She also has this bizarre switch where at first it looks like they’re using her to parody air headed actresses (which has been done already anyway) but then suddenly she’s just an egomaniac manipulative slut bitch. The transition just happens out of nowhere and her entire character felt like the movie just didn’t know what the fuck to do with her. So they concluded they should just put Fox in her underwear, which is fine. To say Fox is apparently the next big thing, she has yet to really do anything that impresses me.
As for Kirsten Dunst, well I’ve never really been a fan of hers at all and this movie does nothing to change that. That about sums it up.
This movie could have been so much better but instead just falls into the trap of being another generic run of the mill romantic comedy. Pegg takes it a few notches higher than it probably deserves, but the movie itself is forgettable. The man deserves much better than this.
** ½ / 5
I fear a little for Simon Pegg. The double whammy of awesomeness that was Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz really helped establish him and made people realize just how fucking funny he is. This of course lead to him getting starring roles in other movis such as Run Fatboy Run and now this one. While he is still good in them (in fact in this one he is absolutely the best part), the poor reception and box office numbers are going to lead studios to think he can’t carry a movie and therefore his work will dwindle. The problem isn’t that he can’t carry a movie, he just has yet to be handed a great movie to carry.
Now I did enjoy Run Fatboy Run quite a bit more than I expected. This was almost entirely because of Pegg however. I didn’t enjoy this one as much, but still believe Pegg was absolutely the best part of it. Had you put pretty much anybody else in the role, the movie would have very few redeeming qualities. Thankfully Pegg manages to take a mediocre script and improve it just that little bit to make the movie watchable.
One thing I didn’t see coming was the R rating. I thought this was a Pg-13 so it was very surprising when the fucks just started dropping. I don’t think it really added much to the movie but at the same time it’s cool to see movies slowly becoming braver when it comes to this rating. It did allow for a few jokes that weren’t bad which wouldn’t have been allowed in a lower rated movie.
I’ve already mentioned Pegg, but the rest of the cast should be talked about too. Jeff Bridges is good, as the man usually is. He’s not in the movie much but he manages to steal every scene he’s in. It’s also cool to see Gillian Anderson in a non X-Files related role, even if she isn’t around all that much in the movie.
Megan Fox’s role is well, a little pointless. Her character is established as being a very central point to the plot of the movie but she never seems to be doing anything. Fox doesn’t bring much to a character that is already pretty thinly written. She also has this bizarre switch where at first it looks like they’re using her to parody air headed actresses (which has been done already anyway) but then suddenly she’s just an egomaniac manipulative slut bitch. The transition just happens out of nowhere and her entire character felt like the movie just didn’t know what the fuck to do with her. So they concluded they should just put Fox in her underwear, which is fine. To say Fox is apparently the next big thing, she has yet to really do anything that impresses me.
As for Kirsten Dunst, well I’ve never really been a fan of hers at all and this movie does nothing to change that. That about sums it up.
This movie could have been so much better but instead just falls into the trap of being another generic run of the mill romantic comedy. Pegg takes it a few notches higher than it probably deserves, but the movie itself is forgettable. The man deserves much better than this.
** ½ / 5
Shawn's Role Models Review
2008 Movie #124 - Role Models
Wow...just wow. Just over a month since I've posted my last review on here. It's not that I haven't been seeing movies. Well actually I haven't really. But school is now done for the holidays and damn it it's time to catch up on this thing. I've come to accept that I obviously won't be able to see all the movies by the end of the year as I had originally planned, but I'm going to come very , very close I think. So let's kick off the comeback with a movie I saw on November 7th, same day as Zack and Miri actually.
This is one of those movies where you see the trailer, you hear the premise and all you can think is, meh. The cast was undeniably funny, but it just sounded like another generic comedy premise that would more than likely get way too sentimental in the end. Thankfully this did not turn out to be that comedy. It’s a hard R rated movie that is very funny and while it has a few more serious moments, not once does it take the turn into an over the top sappy mess.
A movie like this lives or dies with it’s cast and thankfully it has a very good one. Paul Rudd is always reliable to bring the funny, even when you can tell he doesn’t want to be there, like in Over Her Dead Body. Wow remember that movie? It’s also great to once again see Seann William Scott in a funny movie. I’ve always thought he was a funny actor but he just ends up in a lot of crap, except of course for The Rundown. That movie is all sorts of crazy awesome. The two of them work well together here and play off each other great.
The supporting cast is also good. Even McLovin shows that he may just have some staying power in him after that role. Either that or he’ll just become the next Jon Heder. My GOD I haven’t thought about him in forever. What in the hell is he even up to now? He doesn’t have a career anymore am I right? Weird.
This movie has a heavy focus on the activity of live action role playing (LARP) and while it does poke a little fun it and it’s dedicated followers, it never makes fun of it and by the end, had just about everyone convinced that it would be damn fun to take part in. So kudos to the movie on that one because I never even thought that would be possible.
This was a damn funny movie and I’m glad it got to keep it’s R rating since there were rumours for a while that it was going to be knocked down to a PG-13. I can’t imagine this movie with a lower rating so at least that proves that maybe, just maybe, Hollywood is learning something about what the movie going public actually wants.
****/5
Wow...just wow. Just over a month since I've posted my last review on here. It's not that I haven't been seeing movies. Well actually I haven't really. But school is now done for the holidays and damn it it's time to catch up on this thing. I've come to accept that I obviously won't be able to see all the movies by the end of the year as I had originally planned, but I'm going to come very , very close I think. So let's kick off the comeback with a movie I saw on November 7th, same day as Zack and Miri actually.
This is one of those movies where you see the trailer, you hear the premise and all you can think is, meh. The cast was undeniably funny, but it just sounded like another generic comedy premise that would more than likely get way too sentimental in the end. Thankfully this did not turn out to be that comedy. It’s a hard R rated movie that is very funny and while it has a few more serious moments, not once does it take the turn into an over the top sappy mess.
A movie like this lives or dies with it’s cast and thankfully it has a very good one. Paul Rudd is always reliable to bring the funny, even when you can tell he doesn’t want to be there, like in Over Her Dead Body. Wow remember that movie? It’s also great to once again see Seann William Scott in a funny movie. I’ve always thought he was a funny actor but he just ends up in a lot of crap, except of course for The Rundown. That movie is all sorts of crazy awesome. The two of them work well together here and play off each other great.
The supporting cast is also good. Even McLovin shows that he may just have some staying power in him after that role. Either that or he’ll just become the next Jon Heder. My GOD I haven’t thought about him in forever. What in the hell is he even up to now? He doesn’t have a career anymore am I right? Weird.
This movie has a heavy focus on the activity of live action role playing (LARP) and while it does poke a little fun it and it’s dedicated followers, it never makes fun of it and by the end, had just about everyone convinced that it would be damn fun to take part in. So kudos to the movie on that one because I never even thought that would be possible.
This was a damn funny movie and I’m glad it got to keep it’s R rating since there were rumours for a while that it was going to be knocked down to a PG-13. I can’t imagine this movie with a lower rating so at least that proves that maybe, just maybe, Hollywood is learning something about what the movie going public actually wants.
****/5
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