Finally finished with September! :-|

Okay, so more and more it’s looking like I’m not likely to ever get caught up with my entries, so it’s time to jump forward and get current. So instead of reviewing all the movies I’ve seen September – January, I’m just going to hit the big movies of the last several months that impressed me enough to comment on them. Along the way I may just touch on other movies (enough to say that I watched them and whether I liked them or not), but that’s about it. So on with the show!

September brought quite a few movies that I didn’t get around to seeing, and several that were disappointing. However, the end of the month brought one of my absolute favorite movies of the year – Serenity. So here’s a quick rundown of the rest of the month:

Transporter 2 – You just gotta love Jason Statham. He is such a kick ass action star. He is so much more fun to watch than Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Steven Seagal. His martial arts style is amazing to watch. Sadly this movie is a little too over the top in spots, and so it’s not as good as the original, but it’s still really fun. Great popcorn movie.

Into the Blue – Jessica Alba looking amazingly sexy in a bikini for an hour and a half. What more needs to be said?

Flightplan – Much as I like Jodi Foster as an actress, this was a very mediocre and predictable film. I wasn’t impressed with this one at all. Panic Room was so much better.

A History of Violence – It stuns me that this film is not only receiving award nominations, but actually winning awards (mostly in Canada, where the director is from – go figure)! This movie was such a disappointment. I’m as big a fan of sex and violence in movies as anyone, but this movie is the definition of “gratuitous.” Okay, so maybe the director was trying to make a statement about the gratuitous sex and violence that’s rampant in our entertainment and our society (that’s what all those idiotic movie critics out there seemed to think). If so, his big, bold statement was lost on me. All I saw was a movie filled with sex, nudity, and violent murder strictly for their own sake. But my bigger complaint goes to story. Being a writer of sorts, I love a good story. As a wannabe filmmaker, I also understand the nature of a good film script – keep the story moving forward, keep the pace steady. Here we have a movie that’s only 96 minutes long (so there’s not much story there to begin with), and yet I repeatedly saw scenes that in my mind had no point being in the movie. They were extraneous distractions that could have easily been removed with no negative impact on the story flow at all. Which leaves you with probably less than an hour of actual relevant scenes. I’m sorry, but if I’m looking for an hour’s worth of nudity and mob violence, I can watch an episode of The Sopranos – and I’m pretty much guaranteed a hell of a lot better story than what I saw in A History of Violence. So my recommendation – if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t waste your time.

Which brings me to the climax of September, the best science fiction movie of 2005 (and easily one of the best overall movies of 2005) – Serenity!! Now, I do have to make one admission – this movie is very much the end cap to the series Firefly, and if you haven’t seen the TV show, then you’re not going to enjoy the movie as much. From an objective perspective (well, as much as I can be objective, considering that I’m a HUGE fan of the show), I would have to say that as a general sci-fi movie, just on it’s own, Serenity is only a pretty good movie (but still very worth seeing). It only becomes a truly great movie when you factor in the character and story development from the series that preceded it. As the theatrical finale to the show, the movie truly shines.

This is probably not going to surprise anyone, but I just can’t help myself – I have to compare Serenity with the other two big sci-fi films that were released this summer: Star Wars Episode III and War of the Worlds (and I have to smile and say that for once the critics and I agree – they also generally feel that Serenity is the better movie over Episode III, and that George Lucas could learn a thing or two from Joss Whedon). Primarily because of who was involved in the making those other two movies (at least as far as I’m concerned), both of them did blockbuster numbers and were huge successes at the box office, while Serenity was a disappointment, to say the least. Which is a shame considering that the first of those other two movies was bad, while the other was downright horrible (I’ve actually read reviews talking about how good War of the Worlds was, which just floors me – what the hell movie were THEY watching?! Obviously there are a few critics out there that figure Steven Spielberg and/or Tom Cruise can do no wrong. Well, sadly they are seriously mistaken). While Serenity had neither the big budget nor massive fan base of the other two movies, it had one thing going for it in spades that the other two films were completely lacking in – a well written script with great dialogue (I’m sorry, but some of the dialogue in Episode III was just painful, and the weak performances that delivered said dialogue certainly didn’t help). Whatever else you may say about Joss Whedon, he is above all the master of fun, engaging, memorable dialogue.

The visual effects aren’t nearly as high-end as those in Star Wars (or War of the Worlds, as far as that goes), but they do justice to the story, which is what really counts, since that’s what they’re there for (George Lucas has a weakness for getting overly focused on the visual effects that I feel hurts his films – a habit that sadly it seems Peter Jackson is developing, but I’ll go more into that once I get to my King Kong review). It’s nice to see the occasional sci-fi movie that has a more lo-tech feel to its technology, as opposed to the shiny, glossy, super-sophisticated hi-tech that’s so common in most science fiction (this was one of the things I loved about Wing Commander, a very highly underrated sci-fi movie in my opinion).

Joss Whedon is just such a master storyteller. His characters have depth and personality, his stories are well thought out, and he combines drama and humor and action and emotional depth together into a compelling tapestry probably better than any writer/director I’ve seen (although I’m sure there are plenty of independent filmmakers out there that are as good; sadly I just seem to watch a lot more Hollywood films than independent films, and I don’t think I’ll get much argument from people about Hollywood’s serious lack of creativity and storytelling ability these days. I mean, my God, just how many sequels, remakes, and movie versions of TV shows can they pump out?).

Well, I think that’s about it. I think I’ve written enough to make it pretty obvious how I feel about Serenity. Bottom line – if you’re a fan of the show, this is a must-see movie without question. If you’re not, but you like well-written, well-acted sci-fi, then this movie is still worth checking out (but maybe not must-see). Of course, if you haven’t seen the original show, I highly recommend it. It is just a fantastic series (it’s just a shame that it aired on Fox, who completely bungled it from word go – not airing the episodes in order, putting it in a lousy time slot, basically giving it no support whatsoever. But that’s a totally different discussion that I could go on about at length, so I’ll just stop now). So until next time (and God knows when that’ll be), take life easy, and make sure to support your local Cineplex.

Movies from August (only 4 months behind!!)

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!). :-)

Blogging in Arkansas

This week's blog comes to you from Camp Robinson, AR (just outside of North Little Rock), where I am attending a one week course for work. But since I've got a laptop and Internet access, I'm not going to let that stop me from getting my blog out! :-]

So the final two weekends in July brought us 3 more movies that I deemed worthy of spending my hard-earned dollars on – The Island, followed the next weekend by Sky High and Stealth. The Island, sadly, was quite a disappointment (not nearly as much as previous lame summer movies, but still not nearly as good as I’d hoped it would be). Being a Michael Bay movie, you have to expect that the story is going to play second fiddle to the action and explosions and special effects. That’s just a given. But that being said, The Island’s story is still so weak and full of holes that it really takes away from the movie. I’m as willing as anyone to turn my brain off for a little mindless summer movie eye candy, but I’d still like a basically believable story. Especially when I’m watching a sci-fi movie (and despite what critics of the genre might think, YES, you can have a sci-fi/fantasy film that has a believable story – there is a difference between a believable story and a realistic, true-to-life story). And while the action scenes are fun to watch, they’re no different from any other of a dozen action movies that have come out over the years (many of them directed by Michael Bay, and most of them done better). The critics hammered it like they do most of his movies, but in this particular case I can’t really bring myself to disagree with them (although most of them hated it much more than I did). Scarlett Johansson (who I was very surprised to see in Home Alone 3, which I watched on HBO Family last night because there wasn't much else on and there's not a whole lot else to do in a hotel) and Ewan McGregor are both fun to watch, but they didn't really seem to have much chemistry between them, and just can’t save this lackluster film. To be honest, I actually much more enjoyed the performances of Sean Bean and Djimon Hounsou as secondary characters than I did the performances of the main characters.

The last weekend of July brought a couple of better movies (although not necessarily great movies). The first was Stealth. While the story was a little preposterous, it was a whole lot more believable and well thought out than The Island was. Though hardly the best movie to come out this year, it was still fun to watch. I haven’t decided yet if it’s worth buying on DVD – probably be one I pick up when I can get it on sale (I passed on it when it first came out, so it'll probably be awhile before I pick it up).

The other movie that came out this weekend was Sky High. This was a fun movie. I really, really enjoyed this movie, quite a bit more than I thought I would. Sadly it’s been long enough since I’ve seen it, though, that I can’t remember all the specifics of the movie that I’d like to talk about, so a fuller review will have to wait. I picked it up on DVD right before I came down here to Arkansas, so once I get home and get a chance to watch it, I'll do a fuller review of the movie.

And so we come to August. The first movie of August was one that looked like it was going to be pretty stupid, but was one I just had to see regardless – The Dukes of Hazzard. And much to my surprise, it was actually good! Not great, mind you, not even really good. But still all in all an enjoyable movie. What impressed (and surprised) me the most was how many things it pulled from the original series. Naturally all of the characters from the show were there, and the General Lee (of course), and even the exploding dynamite arrows. And of course the car chases and unbelievable jumps with the General Lee were still there. But they also had the narration just like the original show, and even the brief moments where the scene was frozen and the narrator would make some goofy comment (like the show always did right before it went to commercial). I thought little touches like this were just great. And while I still say Daisy Duke has no business being a blonde, I have to admit that Jessica Simpson did a pretty good job with the role (and looked damned, damned fine doing it!!).

My biggest complaint about the movie would have to be the characters of Bo and Luke, which sadly were way too over-the-top and really not at all true to the original show. Luke Duke was the worst. The way they made his character not only completely stupid, but seemingly in love/lust with the General Lee, was just sad and lame and wrong. This is one of the big things that made the movie go from really good to just pretty good. So while I enjoyed it, I also think with a few minor changes it could have been a lot better. But still, all in all it made for a fun summer popcorn movie. Regardless of what the critics thought (of course they hated it, but that’s the reaction the critics always have to dumb, goofy comedies. All I can say to them is – get a sense of humor already, for crying out loud!!), I have to say that it was worth the $5 I spent to go see it.

Well I think that’s about enough for this entry. I’ll cover the rest of August next time out. Until then, my dear readers! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

So it's Thanksgiving day and I’m back with another entry! Before I get started with my reviews of the films of late summer and fall 2005, I’d like to briefly mention an older movie that I finally got around to watching – School of Rock. This was a movie that I was pretty sure I was going to like (I’ve always liked Jack Black – can't wait to see him in King Kong), but I have to say, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. This movie was just really, really cool! It was fun and light-hearted, and filled with rock music. What more can you ask from a movie? If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you do. And if you have seen it – well then, go see it again!! It’s just that good!

And now, on with the reviews for this year. After the tragic and painful weekend that brought us War of the Worlds, the next weekend brought with it two more movies that I’d really been looking forward to seeing (and thank God neither one was the horrid disappointment that War of the Worlds was) – Fantastic Four, and the US remake of Dark Water starring Jennifer Connelly. Let’s start with Fantastic Four. This movie I loved! It was everything a good summer comic book blockbuster should be – it was action-packed, it had some really good special effects, it actually had characters you could identify with and root for, it had a great bad guy, the works. Admittedly, it’s not what you’d call a Best Picture nominee (but what summer blockbuster is?), and I know a few people that thought it was kind of silly, but I loved it. I think what most drew me into the movie was the characters. While they did update their origins (which is to be expected), and they did mess with Dr. Doom’s origin, and gave him powers I don’t believe he ever had in the comic book, they still did a fantastic job (pardon the pun) in getting the personalities of the characters right. And to me, that’s what counts more than anything in a good comic book movie.

Bottom line, you can’t keep the story perfectly true to the source material. It just isn’t possible. You’ve got decades worth of stories that you’re trying to condense into a 2-hour movie. You’re just not going to do it. Not to mention that science has evolved enough since these comics first came out that you have to update them to make the movie more believable, and not appear dated (hence Peter Parker gets bitten by a genetically enhanced spider as opposed to a radioactive spider, for example). So the goal instead should be to stay true to the essence of the original stories, and more importantly, to stay true to the personalities of the characters. Fantastic Four does a wonderful job of this, and for me that more than anything made it a great movie (this is the same thing that made both the Spider-man and X-Men franchises so great, and was partly why I was somewhat disappointed with Daredevil). The critics didn’t like Fantastic Four, naturally, but what do they know? Admittedly, it wasn't quite as good as some of the earlier superhero franchises that are out, but considering how incredibly amazing those movies are, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Let's face it– it's going to take quite the movie to be in the same league as the Spider-man and X-Men films, but just because this doesn't quite reach that level doesn't mean that it's not a really good movie.

It’s a toss up for me as to which I preferred more this year, Fantastic Four or Batman Begins (I like the fact that Batman Begins was a darker, more serious movie, but being a really, really big fan of the Batman comics (and not much of a Fantastic Four reader), I’m also a lot more picky about how the movie versions for it are done), but they were both definitely great movies worth seeing again. I haven’t picked up Batman Begins yet on DVD (mainly because the initial DVD release was a completely no frills rental release version that I refuse to pay money for, especially when it’s almost a certainty that at some point they’ll release a special edition filled with all kinds of extras), but once a special edition version is released, I almost certainly will.

Our other beginning of July release was the remake of Dark Water. Now first I have to say that I have the original Japanese version of Dark Water on DVD and I absolutely loved it (it is directed by Hideo Nakata, director of the original Ringu films, as well as The Ring Two in the US), so the remake was going to have to be pretty damned spectacular for me to enjoy it more than the original. Sadly, it wasn’t. Which isn’t to say that it was a bad movie, because it wasn’t. It very much built up the tension well (although not as well as the original), and I think Jennifer Connelly did a great job with the character. I think you really get to know the characters well, and take an active interest in what’s happening to them as the movie plays out. The big problem, though, is with the ending. The original film’s ending completely hits you out of the blue and really throws you for a loop. And the epilogue at the end is beautiful and touching and wonderfully handled. The ending to the remake, however, just feels rushed and it doesn’t surprise you at all (even if you haven’t seen the original). And let’s face it, when it comes right down to it, a movie is all about the ending. You can have a great movie all the way through, but if the ending falls flat, that’s the biggest thing the audience is going to take away with them when they leave the theater. And that’s what happened to me when I saw Dark Water.

The critics actually gave it some pretty good reviews, especially for a horror movie, which I like, and I have to agree with. If I hadn’t seen the original, I’d probably have rated the remake a little bit higher. But having seen both versions, I’d have to say 2 1/2 stars for the remake, and 4 1/2 stars for the original (if you like Japanese suspense/horror movies at all, I’d highly recommend seeing the original).

The following weekend brought us two of the absolute best movies of the summer – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Wedding Crashers. It was pretty much a given that Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was going to be a great movie – when you combine the talents of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp with such a wonderful, classic story, you know you can expect great cinema (then again, a lot of people figured that would be the case with this year’s Spielberg/Cruise team-up, and look at how THAT turned out. Luckily such was NOT the case here). I would have to rate this movie as easily 3rd best for the year so far (after Serenity and Sin City). And it came really, really close to tying with Sin City for 2nd place. Let’s start with what was easily the best part of the movie – Johnny Depp. The man is brilliant. That’s all there is to it. He completely inhabits the character (at times you have to remind yourself that it is actually Johnny Depp that you’re watching). And unlike Gene Wilder’s happy-go-lucky Willy Wonka from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Depp very much presents us with a character that you can easily believe has spent most of his life by himself locked away from the rest of the world. The way in which he interacts with the children and their parents is inspired.

The story here is much closer to the book, and anyone expecting the original movie is likely to be highly disappointed. But for me, this version is leaps and bounds better. About the only thing I’d say I preferred with the original (and don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the first one and think it’s a great movie; the new one is just much better) is the oompa loompa songs. In the new movie they tried to update the songs and make each one a different style of modern music, which isn’t necessarily bad, but the originals were just such timeless little tunes that I don’t think you can really improve upon them. But other than that, I don’t think there’s anything bad I can say about this movie. And it’s finally out on DVD!! I have it in my hot little hands and will hopefully be watching it today! And unlike Batman Begins, they actually released a 2-disk Special Edition at the same time as they release the boring, no-frills version for the Wal-Mart crowd.

Next up we have Wedding Crashers, a surprisingly good (and surprisingly R-rated) comedy. I went to this mainly because I loved Vince Vaughn in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and expected another goofy, fun-filled movie like that. It fits that description, all right, but I didn’t pay attention to the rating, and so was expecting a PG-13 film (since that's become the rating of choice for movies these days to try and attract the widest audience). So when the first topless women show up early in the movie, I was very surprised (pleasantly so, mind you, but still surprised). Of course, that also made me initially nervous, because once I realized what it was rated, I halfway expected it to turn into a gross out comedy along the lines of the American Pie films (not that I have anything against those sorts of movies, per se, but some of the gross “humor” in those sorts of movies I can do without). Luckily this is not what you get with Wedding Crashers. It is much more like the old cheesy sex comedies of the 80s, that were goofy and funny and nudity filled and politically incorrect without being juvenile and disgusting and trying their best to push the boundaries of good taste like most R-rated comedies these days are. This is the sort of R-rated comedy that I’d love to see more of. And considering that it was a very solid hit at the box office (especially considering it’s rating), we can only hope that more movies of this type will follow.

Well, that’s probably enough for today’s entry. This puts me halfway through July. Next entry we’ll finish July up and maybe move into August (depending on how many movies are left in July that are worth commenting on). See you all then! :-)

Oh, one final quick comment. Went to the midnight premiere showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last Thursday. That movie rocked!! It was SO much better than the previous one. I can't wait to see it again. If you haven't seen, what are you waiting for?!?

War of the Worlds -- What a Waste!!

Finally got another post completed! It’s amazing how much time you lose when you take a few trips out of town and then the new TV season starts and you’re enjoying your new DVR WAAAAYYYY too much (I actually think I had something like 70 or 80 hours of TV shows & movies recorded at one point. Admittedly, I'd been out of town for about 4 days, but it was till pretty out of control). But I’m FINALLY getting back to it. I'm caught up on my TV watching, I've watched quite a few of the movies (although lord knows I've got plenty left), and now it's time to get moving forward again with my blog! Of course, the first thing I had to do was go in and clean out some of the comments on my blogs and turn on word verification for comments to deal with the wonderful spammers out there (what a joy!). Those of you actually reading my blog on occasion should please post comments on now and then, just so I know you’re out there. Or not. Hell, I’ve been talking to myself for years, so why change now? ;-P

So two weeks went by after Batman Begins before I saw another movie at the theater. In the intervening period, 4 movies came out that I didn’t get around to seeing: The Perfect Man, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Bewitched, and George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead. Of those, there was only one that I actually had any interest in seeing at all (and if you guessed anything other than the last one, you obviously haven’t been paying much attention to my previous blog entries). It’s one I still want to see, but I just never got around to getting to it while it was at the theaters.

So following these came the highly, highly anticipated sci-fi thriller collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise – War of the Worlds. Pretty much a must see for any sci-fi fan, so naturally I made sure I saw it at the theater. Well, I shouldn’t have wasted my money. And I truly wish I could have gotten this review out soon enough to prevent others from wasting their money. If this movie isn’t worst movie of the year so far, I don’t know what is. Hell, this thing even beat out a certain other horribly, horribly disappointing sci-fi film that came out back in May (that I don’t even want to name, or I’ll start going off on it again). That movie at least had some pretty cool space battles in it, even if they were cut way too short so the writer/director could have more boring scenes filled with crappy dialogue (see, there I go). War of the Worlds doesn’t even have THAT going for it!

Believe me, I wanted to like this movie. I tried to like this movie. Really I did. Even after a good friend of mine who managed to see it before I did warned me that it was really disappointing, I still went in with an open mind, hopeful of at least a fun movie, if not an intellectually stirring movie. Even as the movie got more and more progressively dumber and more pointless, STILL I tried my best to focus on the positive elements. Finally about halfway through the movie I was forced to accept that the movie just didn’t have any real redeeming values (okay, so Dakota Fanning gave a wonderful performance like she always does, but she just doesn't add enough to the movie to make it worth seeing). And it just kept getting worse and worse and worse!! So why did I find this to be such an incredible waste of time and money? Where do I start?!

There are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the film yet – well, keep reading so you’ll know why NOT to bother seeing it. In movies like this, there’s naturally a certain amount of suspension of disbelief required. That’s a given. So when the aliens send out some sort of EMP blast that shorts out everything electrical, and Tom Cruise is the only person who knows exactly what part to replace in a car’s engine so that he has a working vehicle when no one else does, you just accept that as standard Hollywood nonsense and don't let it bother you. But when he’s running from the aliens as they’re blasting everyone with their disintegration rays, and they zap people on both sides of him but somehow manage to miss just Tom Cruise, that’s pushing believability a little too much for me, especially when it is as incredibly, horribly blatant as it is in this scene. And it gets worse from there (as hard as that is to believe)! Scene after scene, Cruise and his kids somehow manage to barely escape from the aliens while everyone around them is getting killed.

I can more or less put up with this sort of stuff as part of your standard, cheesy Hollywood action blockbuster. Let’s face it, there are a lot of movies out there that do about the same thing, but there’s enough action and explosions and chase scenes and cool effects that you can forgive quite a lot and just enjoy it as a mindless popcorn movie (although War of the Worlds pushes that limit even for me, and I’m pretty forgiving, especially when it’s not just an action movie, but an action sci-fi movie). But then the movie takes this bizarre morbid twist as it attempts to become a sci-fi thriller or something, and we suddenly find our hero and his daughter in a basement with Tim Robbins. I won’t go into the details, but the scene ends with Tom Cruise killing Tim Robbins. It’s just a weird, grim, pointless scene. And the movie steadily loses coherence from there. And of course it has to have the sickly sweet Hollywood happy ending where we find out that the son who disappeared and was presumed dead halfway through the movie is really alive and well and with his mom waiting for Dad and sister to arrive. How lame and predictable and disappointing is that??? You’d think Spielberg of all people would know better than to deliver such a cookie cutter, by-the-numbers ending, predictable Hollywood ending. Come on, let's show at least a little originality!

The only positive thing about this whole mess is that the original story ended in such a way as to pretty much rule out any possibility of a sequel (which is a good thing, because despite being a horrid piece of trash, it made enough at the box office to absolutely guarantee at least a trilogy if it wasn’t for the fact that the original story doesn’t really leave room for anything further). Admittedly there was a TV show a number of years ago that put forth the idea that some of the aliens DID survive by taking over human bodies and plotting the overthrow of Earth from there (and it was actually a surprisingly good show for the couple of seasons it was on), but somehow I don’t see that idea really working as a movie sequel (thank God!). Well, that’s it for this entry. More to follow hopefully before too long (and looking at the next movies, I should actually have some POSITIVE reviews in store for you). I have decided, however, that because of how far behind I am and how much trouble I’ve been having finding time to work on my blog, my next entry will more than likely just be a quick overview of the rest of the summer and fall, just covering the highlights of movies I saw, as opposed to the full reviews that I’ve been doing. That way I can get caught and actually start writing about movies that just came out! :-)

Serenity, of course (being the greatest film to come out so far this year by a long shot), will of course get a nice long, full review so that I can sing the praises of all things Whedon (it’s a damned shame that Serenity is easily 10 times the movie that Episode III is, but only made a fraction of the money at the box office – but I’ll rant further about that when I get to my review). So, until next time, bye for now! :)