Quick Reviews

So since I’m so far behind with my reviews and can’t seem to find the time/motivation to play catch up with my blog entries, I’m just going to do a quick highlight of most of the movies I’ve seen over the last month or so, and try to get caught up at least a little bit. We'll see if I can keep up with newer movies from there. So here’s a quick, down-and-dirty update on the various movies I’ve seen recently. Let’s start things off with this spring's big super hero movie, Ghost Rider. I liked this movie quite a bit. It was a fun, action-packed movie, that still had the darker elements that you’d hope to find in a Ghost Rider movie. It was also surprisingly faithful to the original comics, and kept a number of elements that I half expected to be dropped from the film, so that was nice to see. On the subject of Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze, I must say that my feelings are mixed. He does a better job in the role than I expected, but sadly he's still too much Nicolas Cage, and you see too much of the actor in the role. But as I said, he wasn't as bad as I'd expected, so I can live with him in the role. In summation, while it’s not my favorite super-hero movie by any means, this is one I really enjoyed and will likely pick up on DVD.

Our next film (which I actually saw before Ghost Rider), is also of a supernatural vein, and that is The Messengers, a creepy horror movie from Thai directors the Pang Brothers (who’s Thai film The Eye is a really, really enjoyable Asian horror film that I picked up on DVD. I also have the sequel, but haven’t had a chance to watch it yet). It's the story of a city family that moves into a farm out in the country, where the teenage daughter discovers that the house is haunted, but only she and her infant brother can see the ghosts. While not a great movie, The Messengers wasn’t too bad if you enjoy that sort of creepy, suspenseful ghost story movie (and I do). While not one I’m going to rush out and buy on DVD, I am glad that I went and saw it while it was at the theater.

The next creepy movie that I saw, which wasn’t even close to being as good, was Jim Carrey's The Number 23. Sadly, while the trailer makes it look like this is going to be a fantastic movie, the movie itself is something of a letdown. I think the biggest problem is that the trailer is edited in such a way that it makes you think the movie is going to go in a much different direction than it does (the big emphasis in the trailer about the fact that 2 divided by 3 equals 666, the number of the Devil, for example – something that in the movie is a minor footnote and really plays no major role whatsoever in how the plot develops). In the end you get a fairly generic, by-the-numbers suspense thriller. I don’t think I’d recommend this movie to anyone unless they either really love thrillers of any sort, or are really big fans of Jim Carrey in his more serious roles (there’s absolutely no Jim Carrey comic elements in this movie at all).

The same weekend I went to see The Number 23, I also saw Billy Bob Thornton’s family film The Astronaut Farmer. While the premise is obviously really hokey, they do a better job with the whole concept of him building a rocket in his barn than I thought they would. And there are certainly some very funny bits, and some nice heartwarming moments. But all-in-all this is mostly a take it or leave it popcorn movie. While I can’t give it super high marks, there are definitely worse movies you can go see, especially if you’re looking for a movie you can take the whole family to see.

If you’re look for a good family movie, though, I cannot give high enough marks to Bridge to Terabithia. This is a 5-star movie, no question. Admittedly, it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. From the trailers, I was expecting a full-blown fantasy film, along the lines of the Chronicles of Narnia (which is why I was really eager to see it once I’d seen a couple of trailers). In reality, it turns out that the fantasy realm they show off in the trailers is only truly in the imaginations of the two main characters. The heart of the film is really the story of two young outsiders who establish a strong bond of friendship through their belief in this fantasy world that they’ve created. Along the way they deal with bullies, and with siblings, and school, and parents, etc. – all the elements of a good teen drama, and all used to good effect without being over-the-top or preachy or moralizing (like you tend to see in your after school special sort of movies).

One warning I will give for those who haven’t seen it that are thinking about taking younger kids to it (hopefully without giving too much away) – while a wonderful family drama, the movie also has a very tragic moment in it, one that hits and hits hard. And while there’s nothing violent or objectionable or anything like that, it’s still one of those things you’ll probably want to be prepared to talk with your kids about after the movie. But even with that being the case, I still can’t recommend this movie highly enough. The acting and directing are top-notch, and the story is incredibly powerful. I was just completely blown away. It’s the rare movie that you walk out of and you’re still reeling a bit from the impact of the story on you. You really feel the shock and the pain that the characters feel at the end of the story. So whether you have kids or not, or whether you’re into family-oriented movies or not, I have to say, go see this movie.

And on that note, I think I will bring this entry to a close. I’ve still got two foreign language films I need to review, but I think I’ll do those separately. And I’m headed to the theater tonight to go see 300 (I am SO psyched to see that one!!), so I’m sure I’ll have a nice long review for it. Of course, I’m writing this entry up at my parents’ house on my laptop (and only have limited Internet access), so this entry will actually get posted AFTER I see 300, but I’m going to publish this as if I still hadn’t seen it. So look for that review hopefully by the end of the week!!