I'm back!!!

So after an almost 2 year hiatus (wow, has it really been THAT long?), I've decided to try and revive the ol' movie blog. Of late I've found myself posting mini-reviews on Facebook for movies I'd seen, but more and more I'm coming to the conclusion that you just can't put enough details into a Facebook post to do a full review. So I've decided to start putting my reviews here, and then just linking over to my blog posts on Facebook (and who knows, maybe that way I'll end up with more than 2 readers of my blog!).

One of the other changes I think I'd like to make as I reboot my blog is to try and get away from just doing the weekly movie review (which was the habit I'd gotten into previously that was kind of the reason I lost interest in doing the blog), and focus a little more on general movie commentary -- do some ranting about things I love (like foreign films and under-rated B movies) and things I hate (like movie critics and Hollywood's complete lack of creativity of late). As such, I'll probably leave some of my reviews from the weekend over on Facebook (for movies I don't really have a whole lot to say about), and save the blog for the longer, more involved reviews.

So to start things off, I think I'm going to do a little survey (if for no other reason than just to see who, if anyone, comes over from Facebook to read my blog). So the question I'd like to pose to those of you actually still reading is this -- what would say is your favorite under-rated film genre? When I say "under-rated", I mean step away from the big categories like action movies, romantic comedies, Disney/Pixar family films -- your standard summer and holiday fare that gets plenty of press -- and think about the more niche genres: westerns, heist movies, quirky indie dramas, film noir, etc. What category of film do you think has been ignored by Hollywood lately, that you'd like to see more of? And what's your favorite film in that genre? In my next post I'll talk about one of my favorite genres (one of many favorites, as I'm all about the genre films); in the meantime, let's see if I get any comments to this one. :)

Movies Movies Movies

So I managed to see 3 of the 4 movies I’d wanted to see weekend before last (I couldn’t motivate myself to do a double feature on Sunday like I did on Saturday, so TMNT had to wait until last weekend). The movie I saw on Sunday was one that had come out the weekend prior, and that is Sandra Bullock’s new mystery/thriller Premonition. Sadly this was a pretty mediocre flick. The basic premise is that every morning when Sandra Bullock wakes up, she finds herself jumping back and forth between before and after a horrible car wreck that caused the death of her husband. She spends the movie first convincing herself she’s not insane, then trying to figure out how to prevent her husband from being killed.

In a word, the movie is confusing. You really have to pay attention to keep track of what’s going on, and to keep up with what’s pre-accident and what’s post-accident. And once everything finally plays out, the ending just isn’t that satisfying (especially with all the work you've put in to keep up with what's going on), and the movie just kind of ends. While an interesting idea, there were just too many things that didn’t really add up, and a lot of potential to do interesting things with the story that just never play out. There are definitely worse movies out there, but this one didn’t really impress me much.

On Saturday, I saw two much better movies. They were also two very, very different kinds of movies. The first was the sci-fi family movie The Last Mimzi. A young brother and sister discover a box sent from the future. In it are items that somehow grant them extraordinary powers. They learn from one of the items (a stuffed rabbit) that they must build a bridge to the future to save humanity. And things progress from there.

While not a spectacular movie, I’d say this is still a very solid family drama. And there’s a lot more to the story than your average animated kids’ movie, so it’s a little easier for the parents to sit through, while still being a movie that I think most kids can enjoy. It’s probably over the heads of really young children, but otherwise this is certainly a movie that the whole family can enjoy.

The other movie that I saw along with The Last Mimzy was the action thriller Shooter (which is definitely NOT a family movie). I really, really enjoyed this movie. Admittedly, it doesn’t truly stand out from any of the other action thrillers out there as far as story and direction goes, and while the acting is solid (with a great cast) there are no real stand-out performances. But there are a couple of things about the movie that I loved that made it stand out for me. The first is that the main character is a sniper, and there are a number of great scenes where he shows off his sniper skills, which I just loved (especially since I know a couple of snipers). The other part of the movie that just put a smile on my face is when they reveal that the mastermind of the big conspiracy is a Senator from Montana. This was especially gratifying watching the movie in a theater, specifically when a fellow audience member yelled out, “Burns!” when this bit of info is revealed, which got a chuckle from most of the rest of the audience (Conrad Burns, for those who don’t know, was until recently a Montana Senator (he finally got the boot during the last election) who, as far as I’m concerned, is about as corrupt as you’re likely to find in Washington, so hearing his name called out was pretty funny, IMHO).

So if you’re from Montana and you enjoy a good action sniper movie, this is certainly one to check out. And even if you’re not from Montana, go ahead and see it anyways. :)

So last weekend there was nothing new out that I had any real interest in seeing, so I managed to catch the one movie I hadn’t gotten around to seeing the weekend before, and that was TMNT (oh, and I also found time to see 300 a second time – man, I love that movie!!). After passing on it the weekend before, I had thought about just skipping TMNT at the theater (since I was never a huge fan of the original movies), but a couple of friends of mine convinced me it was worth seeing, and since there wasn’t much else out I wanted to see, I decided to give it a go. And I’m glad I did. This was an enjoyable, fun movie. The CGI is spectacular, the voice performances are solid (if they didn’t get the actors from the cartoon show, they got people who’s voices sound pretty close), and the storyline is surprisingly well thought out. And as my buddy commented to me, it was a nice surprise to see that this wasn’t a remake of the original movie, or an attempt to re-imagine or restart the franchise from scratch. The movie very much takes place after the story lines of the original movies and cartoons. Their main villain Shredder has already been defeated, and they are facing a brand new set of foes (although the Foot ninja clan still plays a part in the film).

This is another good movie to take the kids to. It’s action-packed, it’s funny, and just all-around enjoyable to watch. Oh, and here’s a little side tidbit about the movie that I read on imdb that I thought was amusing enough to share. Not surprisingly, when the movie was first released their were comments/criticisms made about this being just an excuse to push the toy line and other merchandising avenues (because hey, let’s face it, what’s the point of having a popular movie these days without cashing in on the merchandising opportunities, right?). The creators of the movie responded by saying that the reverse is actually the case here, that the movie wasn’t designed to push the merchandising, but that the merchandising that’s already out there is what prompted the making of the movie. They were still seeing strong enough sales from Turtles’ cartoons and action figures, etc. that they felt it only made sense to bring the characters back to the big screen for another go around (and from their opening weekend numbers, it looks like they were right – quite a few of those toy-buying kids rushed out to the theaters to see the movie).

Well, that’s about it for this entry. Coming up this weekend we have the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez exploitation double-feature extravaganza Grindhouse!! While I do admit this movie(s) has the potential to just be horribly dumb, I’m still super excited to see it. While I’m sure that it will indeed be really dumb (and I’m sure the critics will absolutely hate it), I’m also expecting (hoping) that it’s just going to be a hell of a lot of fun! So stayed tuned right here for that review, coming your way soon!!

Frank Miller's 300!!

Before I go into detail about this wonderful, fantastic, incredible movie, I’d just like to comment on the fact that 300 is further proof that the vast majority of professional, paid movie critics are brainless hacks who need to go get real jobs! I wish I could say I was surprised or shocked by how many critics slammed this movie and gave it super low ratings. But sadly all I am is disgusted. This is why I would never waste my time reading any newspaper’s movie review, because you know the idiot that wrote the review doesn’t like anything but snooty art house movies (it is nice to know, however, that you can find a few intelligent movie critics online if you look around some – although there are quite a few hacks online as well).

I don’t care what any of those newspaper hacks have to say – 300 is indeed graphic and violent and intense. But these are GOOD qualities! It is also visually stunning!! I love this movie! And for all those jackasses who want to bitch about how it wasn’t historically accurate or was too over the top, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah, let me just remind them of one thing – it’s a comic book movie!! This is NOT a retelling of a historical event. It is a movie version of a graphic novel that tells a stylized version of a historic event. So I’m sorry if it doesn’t feel like something that would air on The Discovery Channel. But guess what? It’s not supposed to!! Criticizing this movie for not being historically accurate would be like criticizing a cheesy comedy because it just wasn’t as scary and edge-of-your-seat as you’d hoped it would be.

Okay, now that I feel a little better having vented my frustrations about the hacks that plague the movie industry, let’s get back to the matter at hand: Frank Miller’s 300. Let’s start right at the beginning. I have to admit the movie does start out a bit slow. Which always makes you a little nervous when you go into a movie with as high of expectations as I had for this film. If it doesn’t immediately grip your attention, you start to worry that it’s going to be a let-down. And so I was a bit tense as they developed the background, especially since the narrator starts to get a bit annoying, and I started worrying that he was going to drone on through the whole movie (he continues to narrate off and on throughout the film, but once the movie gets going he’s not as bad as in the beginning when he’s trying to give you the background info that you need).

Once this movie kicks into gear, however, it never lets up. I was glued to the screen. The combat scenes are incredible and violent and just fun to watch. Visually, I love the dark, gritty feel to the movie. It so reminds me of Frank Miller’s other recent film adaptation, Sin City, another movie that I absolutely loved. This is a movie that I want to see over and over. And so naturally, I’m having a heck of a time getting back to theatre to see it (isn’t that always the way?). Last weekend was St. Patrick’s Day, and every year for St. Patrick’s Day (well, since last year, anyways) I spend the day working the door at the Irish Pub where my buddy works (they close off the street in front of the bar and throw a huge street party, including an all-you-can-eat Irish buffet; so needless to say they triple the number of bouncers they normally have working). It’s a hectic, 16-hour day, and by 4 AM when you’re finally done, you’re bone weary (and just my luck, I was also seriously sunburned), but it’s also a hell of a lot of fun. But consequently I was not up to going to the movies the next day. And now this weekend we’ve got a ton of new releases, and I’m looking at 4 new movies I’d like to see (one that was released last weekend, and three of the four new movies released this weekend). So it looks like it will be at least one more weekend before I’ll have a chance to see it again (but without question I plan to see 300 at least one more time before it leaves the theatres).

And so I now bring this somewhat rambling review to a close. In closing, all I can say is this: if you haven’t seen 300, go see it!! If you have, then by all means, see it again! And as I mentioned above, I've got 4 new movies I'm hoping to see this weekend, so look for reviews of those coming soon (and I've still got a couple of foreign film reviews I need to get done sometime soon). Until then, see you at the movies!! :)

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!!

Long Overdue Post

Okay, so I’m way, way past due for another blog entry. No excuses – I’ve just been lazy and busy with other things (the biggest of those being my newest obsession, a fun little online role-playing game called Kingdom of Loathing, which is taking up a lot more of my free time than I had expected when I first started playing), and just haven’t gotten around to putting together a new entry. But on the plus side, I’ve got several movies to cover since my last review came out. I’m going to start with one that I saw a couple weekends ago just get it out of the way. The movie in question would be Epic Movie (which was anything but). In a word, this movie sucked! And that’s being polite. This hadn’t been my top movie choice for that weekend, and I didn’t exactly have high hopes for it, but I’d had the same reservations about Date Movie (made by the same people) and it had turned out to be pretty damned funny. So my buddy and I decided to go see it. This movie was absolutely not funny. Okay, so I did chuckle a couple of times at a few of the gags, but as a whole this film was a complete and utter (not to mention almost painful) waste of time.

In my not-so-humble opinion, this movie had two major things going against it. First off, I must be getting old or something, because what seems to pass for humor these days just isn’t funny (Napoleon Dynamite, Jackass, and Steve Carell all come to mind). This movie is gross and vulgar and juvenile (which admittedly can be mildly amusing when done right), but there’s almost no humor to be found. And the creators were obviously trying way too hard to make things funny that just aren’t that funny. Which brings us to the second major problem with this movie – they picked the wrong type of movies to parody. Big, epic action/adventure movies just don’t really have much in the way of parody potential. It’s different when you’re parodying horror movies, because there’s always all kinds of goofy, cheesy concepts in those movies that are easy to make fun of. Same goes for romantic comedies (which is why Date Movie was pretty funny, although even it went a little too far with the vulgarity a few times if you ask me). But the movies they’re trying to parody in Epic Movie for the most parts are very serious, dramatic films, so there’s not a whole lot to work with that you can twist around or exaggerate and have it be funny. It just doesn’t work.

Sadly this movie managed to make it to the top spot at the box office despite being utter crap (but it’s certainly not the first time that’s happened), primarily I’m sure because of how funny it’s predecessors were. Not surprisingly it took a serious nosedive its second weekend, however (although I would have liked to have seen it drop even further). I can't imagine that word-of-mouth for this film was anything but horrid. If this movie’s still in the theaters in another week I’ll be surprised.

So prior to seeing Epic Movie, I went to another potentially dumb B-movie that I didn’t have too high of expectations for, and that was the horror film Primeval. In this case, however, I was far from disappointed. As a matter of fact, I was impressed enough with the movie I’m seriously tempted to buy it when it comes out on DVD (if I can get it on sale, that is. I don’t really see myself paying $20 for it – but I’ve gotten to the point that there’s almost no mainstream movie I’ll pay that price for. If I’m paying more than about $15, it had better be a fairly high-end special edition or a hard-to-get foreign film, or something along those lines). It took me awhile to get to the theater to see Primeval, and I almost didn’t bother (mainly because it did look like a fairly B-caliber horror flick). The big thing that kept it on my radar was that I loved the cast. Dominic Purcell, Orlando Jones, and Jurgen Prochnow are all just stellar actors. So finally I dragged my butt to the theater to see it (even paid full evening price, because by the time I went to see it they weren’t showing matinees of it any longer).

To say the least, it was money well spent. While fairly formulaic (as all movies of this genre tend to be), it was still pretty well written, and very well acted. It also wasn’t at all what I was expecting. The big thing that threw me off was the trailer for the movie. It makes the big deal about the movie being inspired by the true story of supposedly the world’s most prolific serial killer, who’s killed hundreds of people in central Africa and never been caught. We see a scene of a group of people digging up a bunch of buried bodies, and then we see our news crew going on the hunt for the killer, only to be attacked by some mysterious and probably supernatural creature that’s obviously not human.

Well it turns out that the buried bodies we see being dug up in the trailer are a bit of a red herring. This is from the opening scene of the movie, and the bodies are actually the results of the bloody civil war that was going on in the country at the time, and were buried there by a local warlord. The whole point of this scene is that an American aid worked with the UN is killed by our killer at the end of this scene, which is what gets the attention of the American media. Our “serial killer” is in reality a giant Nile crocodile. And before anyone accuses me of dropping a spoiler without warning, should you see the movie you'll discover this is not the case. Despite the trailer not revealing anything, the movie itself lets you know they’re going after a crocodile pretty much immediately (I’d actually read a review of the movie before I saw it revealing the killer was a crocodile, and was a little disappointed/upset about finding this out ahead of time, until I actually went to the movie only to have this information given to you right up front).

So once the movie was over, I was very curious to know just how “inspired by true events” the movie really was, so after I’d seen it I got online and did a quick Google search. What I discovered actually surprised me (to find out more, do a search on “Gustave Burundi”. Gustave is the name the locals have given to the crocodile, and Burundi is the country he lives in). One of the links I found was to a National Geographic article about the search for this crocodile, which is the primary source of inspiration for the movie. Most of the characters in the movie and several events in the movie actually came right out of this article (including referring to the killer croc as a serial killer), the only major difference being that in real life they never actually tracked down Gustave, whereas in the movie (of course) they very much find him only to have him kill off most of their group.

The stats on this crocodile are pretty unbelievable. He’s estimated to be a good 20 feet long, and weigh close to a ton! And there are actually documented cases of dozens of people who’ve been maimed or killed by the crocodile over the years. The couple of articles I read online about him were really, really interesting, and I can see why the filmmakers were inspired to make a movie about it, because the real-life events so lend themselves to a movie (one of those truth is stranger than fiction sorts of situations). And while the finished product isn’t summer blockbuster or Academy Award quality by any means, it’s still a very interesting and fun movie to watch, especially with the real-world elements that are brought into the story. And the cast all do a brilliant job with their characters. So if you enjoy a good killer animal horror movie, this one’s certainly worth checking out.

So the same weekend I saw Epic Movie (which has to be about the most inaccurate movie title I’ve ever seen), I actually managed to get to the theater and see a GOOD movie. The movie in question – Smokin’ Aces! I loved this movie!! It was just . . . fun. Sure it’s way over the top and seriously filled with bloody violence, but hey, how’s that a bad thing, right? And the cast is pretty stellar. There are numerous great actors, including a well-done supporting role by Ben Affleck, who does a really good job (and if you’re not a fan of Ben’s, you’ll still like seeing him in this movie, if only for how his character ends up). Jeremy Piven is great as always, and Ryan Reynolds actually does a surprisingly good job playing a serious character (and you can tell he’s in “serious character” mode because he’s got a beard, as opposed to his comic roles where he’s always clean shaven, something I’ve always found a wee bit amusing). Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia are also top notch as always. And Alicia Keys is not only smokin’ hot as a female assassin, but does a solid job with the character as well. I’ll be interested to see her in future roles. There are numerous other outstanding performances by great supporting actors, including a small part by Matthew Fox of Lost fame.

So if you like over-the-top action movies, this movie should absolutely be on your must-see list. With a stellar cast and a pretty solid story (for this sort of movie, anyways), this one is definitely worth watching. And on that note, I think I’ll call this entry done (so that I can actually get it published on the blog). I’ve still got the two movies I saw last weekend to cover (there wasn't anything I really wanted to see coming out this weekend, so once I get those reviewed I'll actually be caught up), but I’ll get those in the next entry so that I can get this one done.