The month of August saw a slew of new movies hitting the big screen. Following The Dukes of Hazzard, the second weekend of August brought us four, count them four, new movies to theatres (of which I managed to see three – the fourth being Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, which I had no interest in seeing). The three movies that I did see that weekend were: Four Brothers, The Great Raid, and The Skeleton Key. All were surprisingly good movies. So let’s get started with Four Brothers. This is the story of four former juvenile delinquents, all of whom had been adopted by the same woman. Having grown up and gone their separate ways, they are reunited when their foster mother is murdered. They band together to track down and kill the men responsible. Pretty much a straight-forward revenge movie.
Now I’ve only seen a few of John Singleton’s other movies, but I’ve certainly enjoyed the films of his that I have seen, going all the way back to his first film, Boyz n the Hood (I was also excited to see when I looked him up on imdb that he’s scheduled to direct a Luke Cage movie – be interesting to see who they cast in the title role). As far as the stars go, all give solid performances. Mark Wahlberg does a really good job as always, and Andre Benjamin continues to impress me with his acting skills. The story is pretty straight-forward, but it is paced well and makes for a good show. It’s not Oscar material by any stretch of the imagination, nor would I call it summer blockbuster material, but for what it is, it was very enjoyable. Well worth the price of a matinee ticket.
The Skeleton Key really surprised me. Not only was it better than I expected it to be, but the story had a few more twists to it than I expected (the ending is absolutely killer!!!). And the fact that it stars the very talented and very sexy Kate Hudson certainly doesn’t hurt it any, either. And it’s not yet another PG-13 spooky ghost story film (like all the recent films we’ve seen hit theatres inspired by the success of various Japanese horror movie remakes). Not that I have anything against those sorts of films, mind you. On the contrary, I think I’ve seen pretty much every one of them that’s come out, and enjoyed pretty much all of them. But every now and then it’s nice to have a change, and The Skeleton Key provides that. It’s much more suspense thriller than it is horror movie, and it should keep you guessing right up until the end. On the down side, it’s one of those movies that once you know the big secret and know how it all turns out, it’s hard to convince yourself to see it again (which is while it’ll probably be awhile before I bother getting it on DVD). But if you like spooky movies about voodoo, or just enjoy watching Kate Hudson, I would highly recommend renting this one.
As much as I’ve never been a fan of Benjamin Bratt’s (although E-Ring is quickly starting to change my mind on that score), I had to go see The Great Raid at the theatre simply because I love war movies, especially World War II movies. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one, since I’d barely seen any previews for it, but I’ve always been of the opinion that even a mediocre WWII movie is usually still a pretty enjoyable movie. And The Great Raid certainly didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t at all what I expected, but at the same time it was so much better than I could have imagined. The most surprising thing about the movie (and something I’m sure will disappoint anyone who’s a big fan of the big budget, action-packed war movies of recent years) is how slowly it moves, and how little action is in it. As a matter of fact, the 132-minute film only has one big battle scene, and that is the titular raid on a Japanese POW camp that is the climax of the film. Up until then it is very much a drama, made up of three separate but connected stories – that of the prisoners in the camp, the soldiers planning to free them, and a woman working with the local resistance to try and get medicine to the prisoners (who also happens to be in love with one of them).
The film goes back and forth between all three stories, slowly developing the characters and building the drama and tension as the woman tries not to get caught by the Japanese and the prisoners fight to stay alive and the soldiers overcome obstacles and delays to get to their goal. It’s hard to describe it all without doing a play-by-play of the film (which I’d rather not do – you’re better off going and seeing the movie for yourself). The bottom line, though, is that I found myself completely drawn into these people’s stories and completely swept up in the events leading up to the raid. It was just an incredibly good film, and one I will definitely be buying on DVD.
The next weekend in August brought only one movie I had any interest in seeing – Wes Craven’s Red Eye. Now I have to admit, after the horrible waste of celluloid that was Cursed (when a movie is so bad that even getting to watch Christina Ricci, Shannon Elizabeth, and Portia de Rossi for an hour and a half isn’t worth the five bucks you spent on the ticket, you know it’s a crappy movie), I was somewhat concerned about whether or not Red Eye was going to be any good. But the trailers looked intriguing, and it looked to be a suspense thriller as opposed to a horror film, so I decided to give it a shot. And I was in no way disappointed. This was just an all around really enjoyable movie. Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy both give tremendous performances. Yes, like most thrillers, there are definitely scenes that push believability, and some of the actions of the characters defy logic, but that’s to be expected. The movie does a great job of keeping the tension up and keeping you on the edge of your seat, and that’s what counts. And this is one that I thinks is worth seeing more than once (although I want to rent it/catch it on TV before I actually buy the DVD, since I don't know how well this one will hold up to repeated viewings).
The final movie of August that I saw (which is just now being released on DVD) was The Brothers Grimm. Now first off, I must say that I’ve always been a fan of Terry Gilliam. He’s put out some wonderful, bizarre, surreal films that are just fun to watch. And The Brothers Grimm fits in well with the rest of his pictures. Sadly, it is far from his best movie, but it’s still fun to watch. I especially enjoyed how he took so many different fairy tales and merged them all together (although I think it pushed it a bit with the Gingerbread Man). The visuals are all pretty good, and the story is okay (but not great). I’d say if you like Terry Gilliam, or enjoy fun, goofy fantasy films, this one’s worth checking out (although I’d definitely recommend renting it before I bought it).
And that about does it for August. Next up, September, featuring one of my absolute favorite movies of the year, Serenity!! But, that will have to wait for another entry. And hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll start putting together my best/worst lists of 2005 (because you know you just gotta do those!). :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment