Christopher Nolan is proving to be one of the most exciting and reliable directors we have today. He has yet to make a bad movie and even though I had some problems with The Prestige it was an incredibly well-crafted film that had me riveted the whole way through.
The story is about the career-long conflicts between two turn of the century magicians in England played by Christian Bale (Batman) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine). Like we haven't longed to see those two go at it before. Bale and Jackman give great performances as does Michael Caine (Alfred the butler) as Cutter the engineer. A tragic accident during a magic trick involving a water tank claims the life of Jackman's wife and sets off the vicious the antagonism between the two magicians. As they try to one-up and sabotage each other's acts we get a glimpse into the unseemly backstage-view of 19th century magic seeing how some of these tricks are performed. Both magicians are obsessed with their craft and will play very dirty to get ahead.
The problem I have with the film is the very end which involves a couple of twists that I won't spoil here. One of them however is pretty obvious if you watch closely (like they tell you to do at the beginning of the film). The other seems to go against the sensibilities set up by the film, introducing an otherworldly element that, although thought-provoking and interesting, disregards the nature of illusion for the sake of science fiction.
Martin Scorcese returns to form with his new film, The Departed after trying with his last couple of movies to court Academy voters with little success. His Gangs of New York was a bloated, big budget period epic. The Aviator, which I really liked, was his period bio-pic. Now with the third film of his Leo trilogy (triLeogy, maybe?) he returns to his bread and butter - the crime story. But this time, like Woody Allen with Match Point, Scorcese has left his comfort zone of New York and sets the film in Boston giving him new mean streets, new accents and a mafia full of Irish instead of Italian tough guys.
This is a welcome return to what Scorcese does best. And it isn't even the virtuoso cinematic performance you expect from him. A lot of the sweeping cameras and ever-present classic rock soundtrack is actually toned down a bit to give room to the great performances he gets from Leo DiCaprio, Matt Damn, Alec Baldwin, Mark Walhberg, Martin Sheen and newcomer Vera Farmiga.
This is totally my kind of film. There are some shocking plot twists, some funny bits of dialogue and a great premise about two undercover moles who are searching for each other not knowing who the other actually is. Undercover cop stories allow for some great scenes of soul searching and struggle with self-identity. Here things even get to the point where Matt Damon, a cop on the take, ends up having to find a mole in his unit, the mole actually being himself. It's a paradox that reminds me of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly, which I read recently, where an undercover narc has to keep tabs on his own alias. This film also deals with the old intriguing spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold trope of an undercover agent who is so deep undercover that only a couple of people know who he really is. And what happens if those people are suddenly gone?
I really loved this film and look forward to seeing the original on which it was based, the 2004 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs.
You've seen this one before. 30 year old guy meets 14 year old girl online. They meet at a coffee shop. He invites her to his house to listen to mp3s. She slips him a mickey. She tortures and castrates him.
Okay I'm wrong you haven't seen this before and Hard Candy practically vibrates with the tension of not knowing where this is going or how far they're going to take it. There is one scene in particular that I've already more than hinted at that will be especially hard to watch for any guy out there.
There's a certain point in the film where they probably should have ended it I would have been really happy with it all. It would have avoided some scenes of struggling and fighting that bring this a little too close to standard Hollywood thriller territory. They work too hard to tidy up the plot while still leaving me confused on a couple of things.
Jennifer Aniston is pretty good in this but I'm not sure I can buy her as a cleaning woman. But that probably speaks to a larger problem of actors getting to a level of popularity so high that not only can you not buy them as average people but you can't even buy them as someone other than who they actually are. But I guess in this case, everyone feels so bad for Aniston after Brad Pitt dumped her that maybe we actually can imagine her as a sad case who can't get her life in order and resorts to cleaning other people's houses for a living.
It's been a little while since I've seen this film so I can't actually remember anything else about it but I think it was okay.
Garden State this ain't. Though the only reason to think that it would be is because Zach Braff stars in this film. In actuality it is a remake of an Italian film and Braff did not direct this like he did Garden State. Well, I guess it also deals with a similar theme of the plight of the modern day 30-something but it does it in a much bleaker way without the hopeful absurdity of the other film.
In The Last Kiss, Braff finds out his girlfriend is pregnant and begins to worry that his life will no longer surprise him. At the same time he meets a cute college girl played by Rachel Bilson who is unabashedly attracted to him. Braff's character makes some wrong choices but he doesn't seem to be alone. The film decides to make his fear of committment and life in general a virus that seems to have infected all 30-something men like his friends for instance but in much less interesting ways. But wait, it's not just a problem for 30-something men, 50-something women can get it too so we get a sub-plot involving Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson having some marital issues. It all kind of dilutes the main story which actually has the chance to be powerful if handled properly. But it isn't, even though towards the end it almost does a good job of showing the grueling effects of infedelity. Almost.
It should be noted that Rachel Bilson really stands out in this movie and deserves more work. Plus her character actually rises above the cliched "other woman" by being the most sympathetic character in the film.
I've been so busy lately that I haven't been keep track of the movies I watch recently. I've also been so busy that I actually haven't watched many movies to begin with so this list will be fairly short.
Brick: A This is a clever, well-filmed crime thriller set in a high school in which the usual investigator role is filled by a student trying to get to the bottom of who killed the girl he loves. His investigation takes takes him on a tour through his high school's various 'types': the snobby popular girl, the Brain, the druggies, the jock. He even finds himself in the role of snitch/man-on-the-inside for the Vice Principal. All of this is played seriously which makes it surprisingly dour but nonetheless brilliant in it's transference of crime cinema tropes to the high school setting. The dialogue especially is pitch perfect in its crime-noir rhythm.
Little Miss Sunshine: A Very funny and perfectly cast. A dysfunctional (read: typical indie movie) family travel from Arizona to California in a barely road-worthy VW bus so that their daughter (the very cute Abigail Breslin) can enter into a beauty pageant. Everyone in this movie from Greg Kinnear to Steve Carell to the scene stealing Alan Arkin are perfect in this. A smart, feel good comedy.
Miami Vice: C- I was not clamoring for a Miami Vice remake but I was still disappointed in this since it came from original series creator and usually brilliant director Michael Mann. The film starts out with Crockett and Tubbs trailing a drug dealer in a nightclub. This scene is quickly abandoned for the actual story and I kind of wished that I could have seen that movie instead. Mann disguises a very bland, typical drug-bust movie with indeciperable dialogue and some nicely composed cinematography. There was really no reason to care about what was going on here.
Talladega Nights: B+ The only thing that disappointed me about this movie was that the Charlotte location shots weren't really recognizeable. There are a lot of laughs here, especially when Sascha Baron Cohen is on-screen as Will Ferrell's French, Formula-1 nemesis. And you can't really say that the Southern stereotypes they play with here are inaccurate since many of the people in the Matthews, NC theater I saw this in audibly groaned and winced during the gay scenes with Cohen.
There were definitely some weird story structure things going on here. Both Amy Adams and Andy Richter, both talented actors, seemed like they must have had scenes cut from the movie because both were meant to be important characters but they only had a few minutes of screentime.
A Praerie Home Companion: D I've never listened to Garrison Keillor's radio show and I've never had any desire to do so either. I actually didn't have too much desire to see this film either and doing so didn't really change my mind about any of it. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin were pretty enjoyable but otherwise I found this slow, silly and just not for me.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: A This however is exactly my kind of movie. A sexy, stylish crime thriller that doesn't take itself seriously at all. The best movie Val Kilmer has done in years.
Syriana: B+ As I expected this was a little hard to follow. I barely understood anything that happened with Jeffrey Wright's storyline. But, like with Traffic, I love Stephen Gaghan's 360¬? view of the problem here. Covering all the angles and showing you just what a big, complicated, maybe unsolvable problem the oil industry is.
Happy Endings: B A little hard to remember this one. Some good performances by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Ritter, Lisa Kudrow and Tom Arnold(!) It consists of a few different stories whose characters intersect here and there. Some of the stories and their characters are more interesting than others.
Weak acting and dialogue and even weaker special effects tilts this unfortunately in the direction of Roger Corman's notorious B-movie FF film from 1994. In a number of ways it totally misses the point and is at its worst when it veers to far from the comic. Watching Reed and Sue become a couple again after a pre-movie breakup is like watching characters from different movies trying to share a scene. There is no chemistry whatsoever so they would have been better off in just making it a fact that they are husband and wife rather than trying to sell us on what attracts them to each other. Dr. Doom as corporate megalomaniac sounds good on paper but how could anyone become succesful with a company called "Von Doom"? The idea of a relationship between Von Doom and Sue is so awful that no one in the movie seems to take it seriously either. And if you're going to work with the creations of the hyper-imaginative Jack Kirby you shouldn't really go cheap on the fx. The FF is all about wild cosmic, sci-fi and that takes a little work to achieve.
At times it really comes close to bringing the comic to life though. The superhero as celebrity idea makes these guys stand out from Spider-man and the X-men and I'm glad they had a little of that. And the frat-boy antagonism between Johnny and Ben was a lot of fun here. Actually, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm is probably the most successful at pulling off his character. He steals the show every time he's on the screen. Michael Chiklis is probably perfect for Ben Grimm but unfortunately his get-up invokes giggles more than anything else. Jessica Alba is nothing more than eye-candy but even if she was a better actress she couldn't do much with the laughable situations they put Sue Storm into here. And Ian Gruffold just does not come across as either genius or leader here and the movie and the team really needed that from him.
I'm not sure I believe the movie studios when they say that this is the final x-men film but there is definitely a deck-clearing finality to the events here that really work in it's favor. When you start to see main characters getting knocked off it gives the story a sense of real consequence that you wouldn't expect from a summer superhero flick. We all know the next X-men movie is going to be a Wolverine spin-off which makes a lot of sense but it seems they might be moving towards a new set of x-men films that would only have the younger characters (read: less expensive actors) which might be a tough sell for most people. One of the problems with this movie is the over-populated cast, which is also a problem in the comic books. Too many characters get short-shrifted here so moving the Wolverine focus to another film entirely might help that problem the next time around. But will anyone want to see an X-men movie without Wolverine (or some of the other bigger names for that matter)?
It's hard not to think how much better this movie might have been if Bryan Singer stayed on as director. Instead we get Brett Ratner who does a decent job keeping the look and feel consitent with the series but he never blows you away with either the story or the action the way Singer did with X2. The biggest problem this movie has is that it tries to do too much. We get the Cure storyline and the Dark Phoenix story in one movie which doesn't do either plot any favors. The Jean Grey/Pheonix story is especially a disappointment because they do such a great job in adapting the most famous X-men story of all time, excising the galactic aspect of it and replacing it with a more interesting schizonphrenia angle, but they never really give it enough time to develop or explain. This really should have had it's own movie.
This was still really fun though. Ian McKellan is great as usual. Halle Berry is given more to do and is much less embarrassing than in the last two movies. I liked Kitty Pryde a lot and some of the new mutants they introduce were used very well. And like I said before, they wipe out a surprising number of characters here which made it more involving than it might have been otherwise. But they've also set it up so they can go in a number of directions from here and that's good too.
This is probably a movie that can only be recommended to former art students or for fans of Daniel Clowes' graphic novels. This film is based on a short but brilliant comic strip he did many years ago and here he has adapted it himself with director Terry Zwigoff into a story that feels very much like one of his but that probably doesn't work as well as a mainstream Hollwyood film as it would as a graphic novel. It's a little dark and the protagonist, Jerome, is not the most fleshed out, likeable character you've ever seen in a film, but he is not too far removed from some of Clowes' usual characters. Unfortunately, the idea was probably for him to walk as an observer through a film version of art school that contains a colorful cast of funny stereotypes, which is what the original strip basically did, but that never really happens here except in a short scene towards the beginning. Instead we get a story of boy-meets-girl and a murder mystery that seems out of place until it eventually swallows up the entire film.
The thing is, though I wish we got more of the insightful characterizing of art school stereotypes from the comic, they still do a really good job of making some of the art school scenes feel authentic. Especially the critiques which present the battle between concept and technique in painting and drawing in a way that actually has some nuance to it. It reminded me of my early days of school, coming in wanting to draw as realistically as possible and not quite getting why abstract art should be appreciated. I liked how Jerome was ganged up on in these critiques but that it was his opinion that seemed narrow-minded even though he was the one we were supposed to be identifying with. Of course his journey to gain artistic acceptance goes pretty far off the rails but it seemed like it was at least grounded in some truth.
As cheesy as the book was, The Da Vinci Code works a little better in that format than as a movie. What was great about the book was not it's plot or it's characters or it's action but it's academic theories. That's a challenge to translate into a watchable summer blockbuster but Ron Howard doesn't particularly rise to the challenge. Instead he falls back on his glowy word, A Beautiful Mind visual trick that make decoding anagrams look like it takes mutant powers rather than concentration. The quick history scenes work a little better when he uses them and then there's the hi tech dragging and dropping of elements of the Last Supper which I didn't care for. Kind of a cheesy, Hollywood approach to technology that takes me out of the story every time they do things like that.
The most annoying thing about the movie though is how apologetic it is. Tom Hanks plays Professor Disclaimer who runs around shouting things like "Of course, it's just a myth! We don't really know for sure that any of this is true" everytime they uncover some new hidden secret about Jesus. The book at least took it's conspiracy theories seriously and as the Robert Langdon character uncovered each bit of secret history, he drew on his knowledge of these events and was definitive about his theories. This mixture of fact with suppostion is why a lot of people might have read the book and thought the theories were proven fact. It at least made you feel it was possible and that is what was cool about the book. The movie won't let you get so caught up in it like that. I almost groaned when towards the end, Professor Disclaimer reaches out to all the nervous Christians in the theater and assuringly pats their hands saying "All that matters is what you believe." I believe Ron Howard is a pussy.
There's something to be said that in these days of politicians pandering to Christian voters, Dan Brown was able to write a book that claimed that Jesus was just a regular guy and that the Catholic church is historically corrupt and evil and he still made more money than god.
All that said, the movie isn't as bad as a lot of people make it out to be. It's mostly just too long and drawn out. And if you haven't read the book you might enjoy it since it will be the first time you're exposed to the ideas it presents.
United 93: A+
I was one of those that felt this movie was coming out way too soon. But I guess I was mostly worried that it would exploit the events of 9/11 in order to create a pandering, self-important Hollywood-style drama that...
Good Night and Good Luck: B
I was frankly a little underwhelmed with this after all the hype I've been hearing for months now. That said, it was nice to see a film about real events that didn't feel the need to sensationalize them or force...
Serenity: A
I've never seen the tv show that this is a sequel to but I didn't really need to. Director Joss Whedon has created a sci-fi action film that has everything the recent Star Wars trilogy lacked: cool and likeable characters,...
American Dreamz: D-
American Dreamz made me feel that maybe movies shouldn't make fun of President Bush. He's done enough to make himself a walking joke there really isn't anything a lame movie that spells dreams with a 'z' can add. The same...
V For Vendetta - B
V for Vendetta is without a doubt the best adaption of an Alan Moore graphic novel ever although Moore refuses to have his name appear in the credits and will not accept any money for the film. It's also pretty...
Me and You and Everyone We Know: A
A small but brilliant indie film about a group of interconnected people centering on a young female artist/cab driver and a divorced shoe salesman. This film may live forever in cult status based on this alone: ))<>((. forever. You have...
Junebug: A
Amy Adams was nominated for best supporting actress this year for Junebug and she more than deserves it. She is the life and heart of this film which is probably meant to be more about Madeline, the character played by...
Oldboy: A
Oldboy is a recent Korean film about a guy who gets out of prison and seeks revenge on the man who put him there. If I left the description at that it would be doing this film a great injustice...
Match Point: A
Woody Allen so needed a change. Here he changes almost everything about how he has been making movies. Gone are the bloated casts impersonating Woody Allen characters. Gone is the wholly imagined Upper East Side backdrop that only exists in...
Battlestar Galactica (Miniseries 2003): A
This is one of those shows that when it first started I never would have thought to give it a chance but now that it is on DVD and has received a lot of unexpected praise I decided to give...
Favorite Movies of 2005
Here's my top 10 movies of the year and these I will list in order. One caveat though, there's a handful of movies I haven't yet seen that may or may not have made it on this list. They are:...
Brokeback Mountain: A
I'm a little surprised this movie came to our conservative little city but I'm even more surprised that all the opening night shows were sold out. This was really quite an amazing movie and is so much more than the...
King Kong: A
They probably could have shaved at least half an hour off of this and I have to say a few of the effects scenes in the middle looked too green-screened for me (plus Jackson's penchant for that blurry slow motion...
Melinda and Melinda: C+
Though the concept of taking the story and telling it from two perspectives, one as a serious Woody Allen film and one as a funny Woody Allen film is a good one, in the end the story is just another...
Pretty Persuasion: C
A dark comedy about high school (ugh not another one of those) that fails to be funny on any level. It's redeeming feature is Evan Rachel Wood who carries the movie as the conniving and aspiring actress who becomes the...
Munich: A-
I'm glad to see that Steven Spielberg is finally getting the respect he deserves as a director these days because he's really put out some amazing films in the past few years (let's try to forget about The Terminal). And...
The Family Stone: B
The trailer for this film is slightly misleading as it's cut to look like it would be a trite, Nora Ephron-style holiday comedy. It's actually a lot more interesting than that. It sports a talented cast playing a large close-knit...
Murderball: B+
A documentary about quadriplegics that do not let themselves be confined to their wheelchairs. Instead they hop into Mad Max-style, two-wheel battering rams and knock each other around in a para-olympic version of rugby. The depictions of the sport itself...
March of the Penguins: C+
Lush photography and scenes so so precisely shot you would swear it was all choreographed however I just didn't really care that much....
The Squid and the Whale: A+
Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney play a divorcing pair of Brooklyn novelists in 1980's Park Slope that can't seem to help but have damaging influences on their two sons as they break apart from each other and attempt joint custody....
Kicking and Screaming: B+
We laughed out loud quite a bit with this family-friendly Will Ferrell comedy in which he plays a hapless dad coaching his son's helpless soccer team against league's toughest team, coached by his own dad (played by Robert Duvall). There...
Bee Season: D
The melancholy pacing of this film literally put me to sleep for the first hour yet I didn't seem to miss anything pertinent. It seems odd to say that this movie makes spelling bees boring (anyone who has seen Spellbound...
Inside Deep Throat: B
An amusing and interesting inside story behind the most famous porn film in history. The legal difficulties the film and its makers and distributors faced is relevant now in 21st century Religious-Right-run America. Towards the end of the film there...
Ice Harvest: B-
A competant film noir dark comedy directed by Harold Ramis of all people. It clicks all the usual film noir checkpoints: protagonist with a skewed moral compass, somewhat colorful cast of supporting characters, night time setting, vague heist plot used...
Mad Hot Ballroom: B
A fun little documentary about under-privileged kids in New York City that take Ballroom dancing classes and eventually compete against each other in a large city-wide tournament. It's refreshing in that it shows it's subjects in a situation that might...
Walk The Line: B+
Two outstanding performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon elevate this above a lot of other films in the now tired biopic genre. Plot for plot this is not much different than other films about musicians but there is something...
Capote: B+
I never really knew the behind the scenes story of Truman Capote's brilliant novel, In Cold Blood. This film is not really a biopic as the eponymous title might suggest. Rather it's about Capote's life during the writing and research...
Land of the Dead: C-
It's ironic that director George Romero's return to zombies will probably be the final staggering lurch of this genre's recent revival. If Romero's movies actually share the same continuity, Land of the Dead seems to take place much later on...
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: A-
I was once of the belief that the original Willy Wonka film did not need to be remade. Tim Burton's shiny re-packaging has made me realize that there is room for a new version. After all, we really didn't need...
A Lot Like Love: B
An experimental film in which the director (whoever he is) takes two actors who normally make terrible films (Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet) and put them together to see what kind of disaster can be created. The experiment is a...
Lost Season 1: A
As usual I was a late starter with this one, despite everyone I know pleading with me to give it a try. I am now fully involved though, caught up with the new episodes and entrenched in all the...
Prime: B
Prime is a movie about a hot 38 year old shiksa (Uma Thurman) who is fretting about dating a hot 23 year old Jewish painter (some new actor I don't know). Little does she know her therapist (Meryl Streep playing...
Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: B+
It's great to see a new W&G film again after all these years. This movie is packed with visual jokes and Gromit is the greatest mini-actor this side of Dakota Fanning. It's amazing what they can do with just his...
A History of Violence: A -
A thinking man's tough guy film about a small town family man named Tom Stalls (Viggo Mortensen) who becomes a local hero by killing two men who hold up his diner. The publicity that surrounds him from this incident brings...
War of The Worlds: A
I finally got to see this over at the local $1.50 theater(where by the way we had a very un-Charlotte experience of some noisy moviegoers talking throughout the film - it was like being back in NY). An amazing post-9/11...
Flight Plan: B-
Another thriller set almost entirely on an airplane. Whereas Red Eye was economic in it's storytelling until it got to it's standard chase scene ending, Flight Plan is as cumbersome as the double decker airliner it takes place on. It's...
Crash: B+
A film reminiscent of Grand Canyon and Magnolia but without the former's treacly heavy handedness and the latter's out of nowhere attempts to be different. It also has a better sense of signficance than either of those two were able...
Red Eye: B+
You have to give a lot of credit to a thriller that consists mostly of two people sitting next to each other on an airplane and manages to be tense and scary. A lot of that credit of course goes...
The Constant Gardner: A
Yes, you're right. I watched two Rachel Weisz films that both contain the word "Constant" back to back. What about it? This is an amazing film directed by City of God's Fernando Meirelles. Like that film, it is beautifully and...
Constantine: C+
Based on the comic book character, John Constantine, this film replaces the character's signature Britishness with Keanu Reeve's signature spaciness. I've not read many "Hellblazer" comics (of which Constantine is the star) so I'm not as offended by this adaptation...
Cellular: D
A silly film that showcases the many features of the Nokia cellphone, some of which are impossible and of course do not exist (Ending-of-the-movie, I'm looking in your direction). Not that the product placement actually bothered me. I was more...
McLibel: B+
Have to thank Karen for finding this one, a documentary about two British environmentalists who were taken to court by McDonald's for distributing flyers spouting libelous claims about the business practices of the company and the poor health value of...
A Dirty Shame: B-
This is a truly crazy movie directed by John Waters about a suburb of Baltimore that gets overrun by sex addicts. The zombie like sexual transformations are instigated by concussions which occur with ridiculous frequency throughout the film. I like...
The 40 Year Old Virgin: A
I was a big fan of both of Judd Apatow's short lived, mostly ignored TV shows, "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared". He's had some more success in writing films like "Anchorman" and now he has directed his first film and...
DiG!: B+
DiG! is a documentary that covers about 7 years of the intertwined careers of two indie rock bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. BJM is lead by a brilliant but disturbed megalo-maniac, Anton Newcombe, who rejects success...
A Very Long Engagement: B+
The latest film from Amelie's Jean-Pierre Jeunet and his muse Audrey Tautou is a more serious film as it is set amidst the horrors of World War I but it still contains the whimsical narrative touches that made Amelie so...
Be Cool: D
Why do I keep renting John Travolta movies? Get Shorty is one of my favorite films and Ellmore Leonard one of my favorite writers but this sequel to that film has none of the style and seems to bear almost...
The Shield (Season 3): A+
Pretty much spent my whole week of surgery recovery watching this on DVD. After three seasons this show has not slipped in quality or intensity one bit. I haven't watched season 4 so I'm nervous about what an addition of...
Ladder 49: C-
I'm convinced this movie was made so that John Travolta could go on Oprah and cry about how brave firemen are (I have no idea if he actually did this but I'd be willing to bet money on it). The...
Shallow Hal: B-
I actually saw this movie once before but didn't remember watching it. The real reason we rented it this time is because we found out that the whole movie was filmed on location in Charlotte. Either I'm not familiar enough...
The Life Aquatic: C+
A dissappointing follow-up by Wes Andersen to Rushmore and The Royal Tennenbaums, two of my favorite films. Even the art direction, with the ode to '70s Jacque Cousteau films and the weird use of stop motion animation for the sea...
Bad News Bears: B
I actually don't think I've seen the orginal film though I think I should sometime. A team of raunchy, cursing little leaguers probably had more shock and humor value in the 70s whereas now it's only successful as lite summer...
Wedding Crashers: B+
I love any movie that uses any combination of Vince Vaughan, the Wilson brothers, Will Ferell, and Ben Stiller. This one uses Vaughan and Owen Wilson plus one surprise guest. It isn't so much that the script or the jokes...
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle: B
I have absolutely nothing to say about this movie but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Much more watchable than Napoleon Dynamite I would say....
Batman: A
By the far the best superhero movie ever. Nearly perfect in its execution. Probably the only things it did wrong was shooting the fight scenes a bit too up close and tight and casting Katie Holmes but who knew at...
House of Flying Daggers: B+
Though I really didn't enjoy Yimou Zhang's last movie "Hero", I found this one more to my liking. The story kept my attention more and the visual were more lush and technically brilliant. My problem with both movies is that...
Revenge of the Sith: A-
Now this is the movie I've been waiting since 1983 for. Episodes I and II were simply a five hour setup for this film, the real story of the prequel, and fucking thank god Lucas pretty much nailed it. It's...
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A-
It's been over 10 years since I read these book so they're not exactly fresh in my mind. If they were I might be disappointed with how it was adapted here. What was changed, what was left out, etc. But...
Ocean's Twelve: B+
I'm a sucker for these movies. The more non-sensical and impossible the heists are the better. It's all about the style. And I enjoyed the meta-jokes like Topher Grace playing himself all strung out and saying he "phoned in that...
Birth: B+
This recent Nicole Kidman film is known for (and sunk in the box office because of) a scene in which she takes a bath with a naked 10 year old boy. It really is a daring, and unusual film -...
Fever Pitch: A
A really funny romantic comedy for people who are obsessive about something that's kind of immature, or for the people that love them. In this case it's about a guy who really really really loves the Red Sox to the...
I Heart Huckabees: C
Disappointing offering from David O. Russell that doesn't deliver on its off-kilter premise of an existential detective agency investigating a man (Jason Schwartzman) who runs into the same tall African man on three unrelated instances. It's either sillier than it...
Sin City: B+
As many have said, the best and worst thing about this film is how closely it follows the comic. Stylistically it's stunning to look at (though not always, sometimes the effects just look goofy) and I love that Robert Rodriguez...
The Upside of Anger: B
An interesting family drama with Joan Allen and Kevin Costner back to playing the only role he does best - washed up ex-ballplayer. He's good at it. The surprising thing is this is a pretty good film written and directed...
Strangers on a Train: B
The classic Hitchcock scenario: Two strangers meet on a train and come to discuss a plan to help each other eliminate each other's problematic family members - one man's wife and the other man's father. As great as the premise...
The Grifters: B+
A twisted but old fashioned noir con artist film. The Elmer Bernstein soundtrack is probably what makes me say it was old fashioned. Hearing it conjures up the suspense of the classic black and white thrillers. Annette Bening was surprisingly...
Ray: B
Great music, great performance, not really a great movie though. Too many scenes felt like they were more fiction than fact. It was nicely filmed, but awkwardly told....
The Aviator: A
I was taken by surprise by this one. An excellent movie from Scorsese. Much more watchable than Gangs of New York I think. And DiCaprio gives an outstanding performance. Even with the Oscar nomination, I don't think he's getting enough...
Open Water: A
I didn't really need this movie to influence me, but now for sure I'll never go out on a tour boat for scuba diving. This is a very tense and disturbing film. And surprisingly it holds the tension for the...
The Wedding Date (C)
Yeah, yeah, I know. You got to take one for the team. There was something very off about this whole movie. It's actually not the cookie-cutter chick flick you'd expect. That's good but there was just something off-kilter about the...
Million Dollar Baby (B)
I wonder how I would have felt about this film if I hadn't gone into it with all the expectations from the Oscar hype and the awards and critical praise that it has already received. It's a good film but...
The Village (B+)
This is a pretty weird film driven along by M. Night Shyamalan's absolute control of the story. He's one of the only directors out there that keeps you involved by not showing you too much. He knows how to creep...
Ghost in the Shell2: Innocence (B)
Best Basset Hound movie ever! Though I wish he had more screen time, the unnamed Basset in this Anime stole the show. There were so many little perfectly rendered moments that were so familiar to me, especially having my...
Anchorman (B)
Not as funny as you would expect, figuring that this would be Will Ferrel unleashed, doing just the kind of character he wants to do. But there were a number of laugh out loud moments like the Anchorman gang war...
The Bourne Supremacy (B+)
A bit more action than the first film which I thought was just good. I'm surprised by how cool Matt Damon actually is in this. It's a sophisticated action movie with a bit of a European flair....
In Good Company (A)
This movie made me so glad that I don't work for a big corporation anymore. It felt scarily realistic with it's depictions of senseless media mergers and inane talk of "synergy" and long-time employees who find that their rising salaries...
Before Sunset (A)
This is the sequel to one of the great conversation films of all time, "Before Sunrise". Though the original was not a great film, having seen it in college, it's one of those movies that feels like it was of...
Kinsey (A)
A really fascinating biography of the famous sex researcher with some good performances by everyone involved. It's interesting to watch this movie about another time and to see how far we've come with our society's repression of any mature discourse...
Finding Neverland (B)
I didn't love this movie as much as I was probably meant to and I'm not sure why. I was actually kind of tired that night and dozed off a little in the middle, no fault of the movie though....
Napoleon Dynamite (D)
A really poor man's Todd Solondz film. This film simply takes the idea of a somewhat retarded, badly dressed main character and tries to get us to laugh at his pathetic existance. Look at his 70's style tshirt with the...
We Don't Live Here Anymore (B)
An actors' movie about two adulturous couples. All four of the stars are very strong in this but I'm always captivated by Naomi Watts and Mark Ruffalo, two of the best actors in movies right now. I almost want them...
THX-1138 (B+)
What happened to the George Lucas who made this film? Why has he not retained some of the avante garde storytelling that he seems so adept at here? This isn't a great film but it is a beautiful hi tech...
Sideways (A)
Definitely one of the best movies of the year. Paul Giamatti has been fantastic in everything he's done but what's great about this film is the performances by actors whose careers have been long dead like Michael Haden Church (Loel!...
Closer
Very much a play as a movie, which it is, and that's a good thing since it drives itself on its excellent dialogue and interplay between characters. It's a showcase for some fine acting from all four of the players,...
Movie Review: The Incredibles
In a few ways, this is an unusual movie for Pixar. For one, it's a little longer than most animated movies. Secondly, there's a big focus from the press on the director, Brad Bird, who might become the Spielberg of...
Movie Review: Collateral
A lot of people will want to see this movie for the novelty of Tom Cruise playing a bad guy for the first time, but with that trademark cocky leer of his, I thought he was always playing a...
Movie Review: The Manchurian Candidate
It's probably best to go into this movie having not seen the original. Though they did a good job of making the premise more topical for a modern audience, this remake just isn't as chilling or as effective as it's...
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