Spring 2006

So we’ve finally made it to March and April. If I can hurry up and get this entry done, I’ll only be one month behind! And if I do a separate entry for X-Men: The Last Stand shortly after I watch it like I did with The Da Vinci Code, then I’ll only have two movies to review for May, and then I’ll be caught up! Can you imagine it, dear readers? It’s almost frightening, I know, but it really could happen. But not if I don’t get a move on! So on we go with movies from March.

The first movie of March (at least that I saw) was the Richard Donner action thriller 16 Blocks, which starred Bruce Willis and Mos Def. I didn’t realize that this was a Richard Donner movie until the end credits, at which point I realized the reason why I enjoyed the movie so much (how can you not enjoy a movie brought to you by the man who brought us all four Lethal Weapon movies, among others?). This movie was action-packed, exciting, and generally just fun to watch – a perfect Saturday matinee popcorn movie. Bruce Willis does a solid job as always, and Mos Def does a very good job (after seeing him in this, following on his great performances in The Italian Job and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I have to say I look forward to seeing what he does next). I'd also like to compliment David Morse, a great character actor whom I've always liked, who does a great job as the corrupt cop chasing after them. It’s your pretty standard action/thriller fare, so I don’t know that there’s anything specific I really want to touch on about the movie, other than to say I really enjoyed it and will probably pick it up on DVD.

The other movie that came out this same weekend was one I was much more excited to see, but which turned out to be something of a disappointment. The movie I’m talking about is Ultraviolet, starring the very sexy Milla Jovovich. This is basically a sci-fi vampire movie, but sadly I think it tries to be too many things, and doesn’t do justice to any of them. The background of the film isn't developed very well, and the characters are really not that believable. Visually the movie is pretty stunning, and the special effects are top notch, but sadly that’s not exactly something special or unique these days. Any movie with any sort of budget can have incredible visuals, but if you don’t have a decent story to go with it (which Ultraviolet very much doesn’t), you end up with a weak movie. I’d say it’s worth seeing if you can rent it on the cheap (if for no other reason than the visuals are interesting to watch), but that’s about it. I do have to make note of the performance by young Cameron Bright, though, who plays the boy that Milla Jovovich is trying to save. He does a really good job not only in this movie, but in the several other roles I've seen him in (including a great guest role on Stargate: SG1). I'm looking forward to seeing him playing Leech in X-Men: The Last Stand.

The second two movies of March that I saw were both top notch, kick ass movies that left the month's early movies completely in the dust, starting with the first Top 10 contender of 2006, the stellar V for Vendetta. I loved this movie!! Natalie Portman was fantastic. Her British accent was very well done (and very sexy), and even with her head shaved, she is as beautiful as ever. She is certainly one of my very favorite actresses, and her performance in this movie is an excellent example of why. Also great in this movie is Hugo Weaving, whose voice is perfect for the enigmatic and very verbose V. And certainly worth mentioning as well is Stephen Rea, who does a wonderful job as the police inspector who’s trying to track V down.

I’ve read the original graphic novel that this is based on, and I have to say I was very impressed with how they developed the story for the screen. To my surprise, they didn’t dumb it down for movie audiences like I expected, and much of V’s dialogue is in the movie (much of it very Shakespearean sounding and a little hard for even me to follow at times), which I was thrilled to see. The story is very engaging and really keeps your attention throughout the movie. The actors all did a wonderful job, and the cinematography was great. The critics generally gave it good reviews (surprise, surprise), although I do think that too many of them made too big a deal out of the political aspects of the movie, trying to compare it to current real world events (it's just a movie, people – the original story was written long before George W. Bush ever got into office). This was definitely the first big movie of 2006 as far as I'm concerned, and I can’t wait for it to show up on DVD. With any luck, the success of such movies as this and Sin City will lead to more non-superhero comics being developed for the movies, which I think is a wonderful thing (how many people realize that the incredible Tom Hanks gangster picture Road to Perdition is actually based on a comic book graphic novel, for example). Being a huge comic book fan, I love the idea of people being exposed to the many wonderful, complex, amazing stories that comic books can tell, that have nothing to do with super-powered guys and gals running around wearing spandex (not that I don't enjoy those comics and their movies as well).

The final movie of March was also a great film (although not quite on par with V for Vendetta). It was Inside Man, from director Spike Lee. While I’m not generally a big Spike Lee fan, I am big heist movie fan, and this is just a damned good heist movie. Even better, it’s part heist movie, part suspense thriller, so there are some great twists and turns to the plot that aren’t generally part of a heist movie that made it even better. And with the all-star cast they put together, how can you go wrong? Denzel Washington and Clive Owen do a great job as always, and Jody Foster’s manipulative, amoral character is just fun to watch. She really does a good job with the role. And I loved the bhangra song that was used in the opening credits (especially since this is a genre of music that I’m just starting to get into). I highly recommend this movie.

And now we head into the month of April, which only brought us two new movies that I managed to see at the theater. As I believe I mentioned earlier, I caught both of these on a Sunday afternoon as a sort of double feature (the theater wasn’t playing them as a double feature, I just saw one, then turned right around and saw the other). And of course I did this just as I was developing a really nasty flu, and so I ended up deathly ill by the time the second movie was over, and the week following was one of the most miserable of my life, but we won’t go into that.

The first of these two movies was the video game horror movie Silent Hill. This was a very creepy movie, and the director did a great job with the atmosphere for the movie. The story wasn’t too bad, but it was pretty confusing at times, and there were a few inconsistencies that just didn’t make sense at all that muddled the story a bit. I do have to say I liked the twisted, messed up ending to the movie (which was very much in line with this sort of spooky horror film). The cast does a really good job, and I liked the little girl (because what’s a creepy, spooky horror movie these days without a creepy little girl with long, dark hair, right?). But all in all I’d have to say this movie is just okay. Part of that, however, I think comes from the fact that I tend to set the bar pretty high these days for horror movies, because of the fantastic horror movies that have been coming out in the last couple of years, especially those coming out of Asia. So if you’re a big fan of this genre of movie, I’d say go ahead and check it out (if for no other reason than just to say you’ve seen it); otherwise it’s probably not worth your time.

I followed up Silent Hill by turning around and seeing The Sentinel. It’s hard to compare the two movies because they’re two completely different genres, but all in all I’d have to rate them the same – not bad, but not great, either. A number of critics compared it with 24 (and generally not favorably), since both star Kiefer Sutherland and have the same general concept. I do have to say there are similarities, but I can’t really compare quality since I stopped watching 24 mid-way through season 3 (since in my mind the show had really gone downhill since the first season and the plot was way too all over the place. A buddy of mine tells me the storyline tightened up and got a lot better several episodes after I stopped watching, so I’m now watching the series over in syndication – we’ll see if he was right or not). But back to The Sentinel. The story is okay, but it gets a little far fetched at times, even for this sort of political action thriller. Nothing about the movie really stands out that I can think of (well, other than the fact that Eva Longoria is really hot), so that’s about all I can think to say about it.

Okay, turns out I lied. There were actually three movies from April that I saw at the theaters (but in my defense, this third one I just caught last weekend or the weekend before; I forget). This last movie, that I’m guessing I caught just before it left theatres, was the Robin Williams comedy RV. Now I don’t care what the critics say – I thought this movie was funny as hell! Okay, yes it was over-the-top and dumb at spots, and it started going downhill towards the end, it was still really a joy to watch. Robin Williams is just such a nut, and since his last several movies have been much more serious, dramatic films, it’s nice to see him getting back to his comic roots. So if you’re looking for a good, funny, family-friendly movie, and can accept the fact that yes, it gets really dumb at times, I’d say this movie is worth checking out.

Well look at that! March and April all done! Not exactly long, detailed reviews of the movies in question, but hey, better than nothing, right? Well since I’m on such a roll, I think I’ll continue right on into May. This is the month that officially kicks off the summer movie season (which used to start on Memorial Day weekend, but as movies started being released a week or two before this in order to try and get the jump on their bigger, more highly anticipated competition, the beginning of the summer blockbuster season has slowly crept backwards until nowadays it seems to pretty much start the first weekend in May). The nice thing about the start of summer movie season from my perspective (especially as far as my blog entries go) is that for the next several months I will generally only have one new movie per weekend coming out that I really want to see, which makes it a lot easier to keep up on my movie reviews.

So I’ve got just two movies to cover for May, and then I’ll be all caught up (since I already reviewed The Da Vinci Code, and I won’t be seeing X-Men: The Last Stand until tomorrow). How unbelievable is that?! So neither of the movies I caught in early May were all the great, but they were both worth seeing at the theater. The first of these was Mission: Impossible III. Now I loved the original movie, and I really enjoyed the second one (more so than the critics, or most of the people I know who’ve seen it – but then again, I’m a HUGE John Woo fan, so what can I say). The third one, however, didn’t really do a whole lot for me. For starters, I’ve never really been a big fan of Tom Cruise, and like a lot of people, I’m really getting tired of hearing about his escapades in this news. The other thing with this movie, that a few critics commented on that I have to agree with, is that unlike some of the other action/spy/thriller franchises out there, this one never really developed characters that you’re involved with. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt just isn’t that likable a character, and it’s really hard to care one way or the other what happens to him. And the rest of the cast (with the exception of Ving Rhames, whose just great in everything he does, and is one of the few endearing things about this franchise) seems to change every movie. Which means that as opposed to being a franchise that builds on itself from movie to movie, like that Bourne films or the James Bond series, for example, the Mission: Impossible movies pretty much are forced to stand alone as individual films. And while I’m a big fan of J. J. Abrams, this movie doesn’t really impress all that much. It’s not that bad; I’m glad I went and saw it at the theater (although I do wish my dumb ass would have remembered I had a free movie ticket in my Mission Impossible DVD so that I could have saved myself $5 – oh well), but at the same time, I doubt that I’ll pick it up on DVD until it’s on sale and I can get it for $10 or something. I do have to give props, though, to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays an incredible, very sinister villain, and to Maggie Q, who is a very sexy and fun to watch (I absolutely love her line when Tom Cruise tells her to blow up the Ferrari (or whatever type of high end sports car it was), and she says, “It’s such a nice car . . . .” The delivery is just superb).

My final movie to review for the month of May is the disaster movie remake Poseidon. Now normally I’m a really big fan of Wolfgang Petersen’s movies, especially when he’s doing any sort of sea picture, but I have to say that Poseidon was a bit of a disappointment, especially when compared to the 1972 original The Poseidon Adventure. As disaster epics go, Poseidon isn’t too bad, and I must admit it does a pretty good job of showing just how horrific this sort of tragedy would likely be (although I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, as it is something of a downer when you really think about it). The visual effects are pretty good, but you just don’t really get as involved with the characters as you do in the original movie, and so it’s hard to care as much when they get killed. I am glad I saw this on the big screen (as it is certainly a big screen sort of movie), and as a disaster movie fan, I did enjoy it, but unless you’re a big fan of this genre, I’d say it’s probably one you can skip.

And so, shock of shocks, I am actually all caught up!! And as I said, I’ll be seeing X-Men: The Last Stand tomorrow, so I'll try and get a review up for it early next week. And then it’s onward and upward from there! And since I’m actually caught up on movie reviews, I can actually start doing some entries that aren't specifically movie reviews, and branch out into other movie-related articles. That should be fun. Well, until then, see you at the movies!!