Movie Reviews

[Mynx]

Just sitting here and going through some of these reviews, i find myself very entertained at my own twisted thoughts and opinions on movies.

Everyone is entitled to their own view so I thought I'd give my own take on some of the more recent ones reviewed here and a couple of my own...

 

Batman Begins - To be honest, I was hideously disappointed by this film. Being someone who usually tries to remain neutral about a film until it is actually seen so as not to over excite or disappoint, I actually broke my rules for this. I wanted to like BB - I just couldn't. I can respect their exceedingly valiant attempt to revive the Batman franchise and Bale is a good actor but to be honest I spent most of the movie crying to the screen "But that's not what happens!" (key example there being the killer of Wayne's parents and thus the motivation for his undertaking...and others).

Plus, while Scarecrow was a brilliant concept for a villian, he fell exceedingly short when his height of 'evil-ness' involved galloping around on a horse until Missy Whatserface (Holmes) tasered him.

I hope it keeps the bat alive, but after all I heard this one let me down.

 

Sin City - I've noticed a range of views around on this one. In my opinion, I liked it. It was new, different and had a nice style that I found hugely entertaining. I haven't actually read any of the comics, but after seeing this I have set out to track them down. I've found a couple so far and the lengths that were taken to make the film so faithful to the books only raised my opinions of it.

Lots of fun.

 

War of the Worlds - Heh. I liked this one. And I normally don't like Spielberg. The effects blew me away and the fact that this film showed human nature at its most real and darkest made the film all the more real and enjoyable for me. Yeah I agree that the end was rather sudden and 'Spielberg-happy-ending', but after reading H.G Wells' book, it's understandable; the end in book and film is nearly identicle, all that was really changed was the era in which this took place.

I enjoyed it, but I can see why others wouldn't.

(Just out of curiosity to anyone out there who is a fan of Justice League - Do the tripods look familier?)

 

Family Guy - I have to back Wyvern up on this and say that this show is hilarious. I picked up the first 3 seasons when I was in the UK and the 4th is currently playing over here. Maybe it's just me, but the show gets funnier when you have people to compare it to. The first person to introduce me to Family Guy was the spitting image of Quagmire. Then I started working with Stewie...

The memory of Peter's trip to Narnia still rings in my ears.

 

Narnia - I've met people who've loved this and hated this. Being a fan of the books, I was hugely impressed with the faithful reproduction of Lion/Witch/Wardrobe to the screen. I thouroughly enjoyed it but can only wonder which one they will tackle next...

 

I could go into some of the DVDs I picked up while I was in the UK, but admittedly they are horror and probably better discussed in the Scarlett Pen.

 

But yeah. Those are my thoughts...

[Wyvern]

I saw "Crash" recently after hearing that it won "Best Picture of the Year" at the Academy Awards. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews about the movie prior to seeing it, and the blunt philosophical racial dialogue of the first twenty minutes made me roll my eyes. Fortunatly, the film took a sharp turn uphill after its rather shakey intro, and it turned out to be an excellent movie. The character dynamics made for numerous interesting situations, and the lives of the different characters were tied together very well a' la "Magnolia." I can't judge it against the other films that were nominated this year since I haven't seen them yet, but I thought that "Crash" had quite a few touching moments and it left me impressed.

 

I also watched "The Hudsucker Proxy" recently after hearing a lot of good reviews for it from some of my friends. I have no idea how I managed to overlook this film for so long, but I thought it was brilliant. The Coen Brothers did an excellent job in directing the movie with a very original comic slant, and the premise of the invention of the Hula Hoop worked very well. The whole clockwork/life metaphor was brilliant as well. Laugh-out-loud funny. I highly recommend it to those who haven't seen it yet.

 

I watched "Wedding Crashers" a couple of months back as well, though I ain't gonna bother reviewing that one. ;-p Not a big fan... blame my sister for renting it!

[The Portrait of Zool]

The Coen Brothers are my heroes! I will definitely catch The Hudsucker Proxy as soon as I can.

[The Portrait of Zool]

Last weekend I went to see 'Ultraviolet', mainly because my brother wanted to see it and he was buying.

 

What can I say? The movie is exactly what you would expect - a 20 pound bag of eye candy, and nothing more. (Just watch out for visual cavities after the movie! )

 

A combination of Kill Bill, Matrix, and Aeon Flux (with various elements of various others), it does pretty well visually in the comic-to-movie genre, except for all the comic-to-movie genre films that have already done what this film does. If you enjoy the genre, then you might want to see it, otherwise, I advise seeing this movie only if you know your attention will be elsewhere.

[Zadown]

Saw "9-ya rota" (The 9th Company) a week ago. It's a russian movie about Afganistan war, a combination that might result in some originality I thought ... and was wrong. The director had just taken about every succesful Vietnam movie and blended them together, changed the jungle into mountains and deserts. Watching the resulting mix was like having a constant deja vu. Perhaps if it was the first war movie I've ever seen it would have been impressive - the visual side of it was well done but in the end it was a beautiful but empty shell, a movie with no spirit to call its own.

[Yui-chan]

Last weekend I went to see 'Ultraviolet', mainly because my brother wanted to see it and he was buying.

 

What can I say? The movie is exactly what you would expect - a 20 pound bag of eye candy, and nothing more. (Just watch out for visual cavities after the movie! )

 

A combination of Kill Bill, Matrix, and Aeon Flux (with various elements of various others), it does pretty well visually in the comic-to-movie genre, except for all the comic-to-movie genre films that have already done what this film does. If you enjoy the genre, then you might want to see it, otherwise, I advise seeing this movie only if you know your attention will be elsewhere.

Spoiler Warning!

 

I usually enjoy the comic-to-movie genre, but I have to say that Ultraviolet was the worst movie I've seen in a long time. It played like a B Hong Kong flick, rushed through some really rather pathetic attempts to reveal background and personality to us on the characters, and was rife with lines that put me in the mood for some good, Danish Havarti or some lovely English Cheddar. Mila Jovovich looked relatively good, and the special effects were neat enough, but I found the hard-as-nails killer vs. emotionally-vulnerable-woman transitions way, way too extreme to be believable. Ugh. And don't even get me started on the crying man-vampire who went from 'Don't bring your problems to me, girl' to 'OMG, I love you, don't die!!1!one!' >_

 

Not a fan,

~Yui

[Gyrfalcon]

More Spoilers Below!

 

Ultraviolet

 

Hehe, I just went and saw that with a friend yesterday, and I have to say Yui-chan is spot on... especially on the 'wanting a null-space storage thingy!'

 

But yah, the mood swings from psychopathic killer to emotionally distressed woman are too extreme. She's actually a walking nutcase as far as I can tell.

 

The whole infecting the kid with a tear to bring him back was also really off the wall. I suppose it works... but not really. ;P

 

Finally... so she's an uber vampire, so I can understand her beating up the humans without issues. But when she's facing off against twenty other vampires, she has no problems there, either. Come on! They're supposed to be fast, strong, and skilled as she is, she should have had to make a run for it with the kid with the vampires in hot pursuit. Instead, she kills them all inside thirty seconds.

[The Portrait of Zool]

LOL! Wow! and I thought I was being rough! You guys really shoot to the heart of a flick, don'cha?

 

Arright, since we got the spoilers going, I'll chip in to add to Ultraviolet.

 

First off, what was with the lack of blood? IMO, swords and blood go together like ham & cheese, peanut butter & jelly, sandwiches & bliss. The only blood shown in the flick was hers. Even when the enemy wore white suits and was getting hacked to bits, you still didn't see any blood! Was this to say only her blood mattered? Strange.

 

Yeah, the color changing thingy was pretty cool, but as I implied earlier the CGI thing is getting pretty old. Also, just how many 'all the cool people are vampires' flicks can we stomach?

 

And yeah, what really killed this flick was bad writing. Was her tear magic or something, to infect the kid and save him within seconds of death? Not to mention the abrupt transitions and unconvincing background, and even one scene early in the movie which showed her surrounded, then simply cut to a scene of her walking somewhere else.

 

Yeesh.

 

Like I said, it certainly was a big bag of eye candy. The motorcycling on the sides of the buildings was cool, as were most of the action sequences, but overall, it stuck pretty hard to the bad stereotype of 'comic'.

[The Portrait of Zool]

Recently I went to see Brokeback Mountain. This is actually a rather simple story, that if acted out under differing genders wouldn't have been a blip on anyone's radar, as just another adulterous affair movie.

 

Of course, it is the larger social implications of the relationship that have caused all the noise. Those people shouldn't have that kind of relationship in that place at that time. As such the controversey, to me, is less about the relationship itself, and much more about the strict moral codes of our society, in our very heartland, that we all unwittingly buy into and perpetuate - morals of fear, hatred, prejudice, and ignorance. The characters all pay dearly for ignoring those silent rules. The popularity of such a simple story itself tells how it has touched a nerve in America, and should be seen if for no other reason than for you to be able to say you have seen it.

 

It is a beautifully made picture, with superb acting and wonderful writing. The screenplay Oscar was well deserved. I highly recommend this movie.

[Gyrfalcon]

LOL! Wow! and I thought I was being rough! You guys really shoot to the heart of a flick, don'cha?

 

Arright, since we got the spoilers going, I'll chip in to add to Ultraviolet.

 

First off, what was with the lack of blood? IMO, swords and blood go together like ham & cheese, peanut butter & jelly, sandwiches & bliss. The only blood shown in the flick was hers. Even when the enemy wore white suits and was getting hacked to bits, you still didn't see any blood! Was this to say only her blood mattered? Strange.

That and they liked their PG-13 rating and didn't want to hit R. You see, with only about three scenes involving blood, there is some blood in one of the top-down shots after she kills a ring of soldiers around her, and the whole stigmata/wounds on the hands thing going on. If they go Blade on it, with everyone spurting blood, you hit an 'R' rated movie rather quickly, which all three Blade movies did.

 

 

 

Yeah, the color changing thingy was pretty cool, but as I implied earlier the CGI thing is getting pretty old. Also, just how many 'all the cool people are vampires' flicks can we stomach?

But... vampires *are* the cool people. I mean, unless its a horror flick from the human's viewpoint, you always want to make your protagonists people you can admire... even if its just because they're 'cool'.

 

And yeah, what really killed this flick was bad writing. Was her tear magic or something, to infect the kid and save him within seconds of death? Not to mention the abrupt transitions and unconvincing background, and even one scene early in the movie which showed her surrounded, then simply cut to a scene of her walking somewhere else.

Well, I think their point was that her tears also contained the vampiric vector (hemophage? Whatever...). However, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work correctly, but... it's a movie.

[The Portrait of Zool]

That and they liked their PG-13 rating and didn't want to hit R. You see, with only about three scenes involving blood, there is some blood in one of the top-down shots after she kills a ring of soldiers around her, and the whole stigmata/wounds on the hands thing going on. If they go Blade on it, with everyone spurting blood, you hit an 'R' rated movie rather quickly, which all three Blade movies did.

Ya know, I hadn't thought of that, but it makes perfect sense.

 

But... vampires *are* the cool people. I mean, unless its a horror flick from the human's viewpoint, you always want to make your protagonists people you can admire... even if its just because they're 'cool'.

I was thinking about that. Let's see, a 'disease' that makes you faster, stronger, and more resilient, with the *negative points* of slightly pointy canines and light sensitivity - I wonder how long it would take for the world's armies to be infecting it's troops wholesale? I mean, what's wrong with this picture (pun intended)?

 

but... it's a movie.

Ah, yes. The infamous 'Hollywood Logic' is indeed alive and well.

[Appy]

I saw "The Island" this weekend and thought I should comment and even recommend. Not because of it's deep meaning, or crazy action, or pretty actors. No, because of a combination of the three.

 

What it is about will interest pretty much anyone who's slightly familiar with sci-fi how it used to be, even though it's not the whole human race on the line this time, at least not in the way that we're used to. It's a new, refreshing angle, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's based on a book somewhere. I'm not going to reveal anything though, since that'll pretty much ruin it all.

In fact, if you really want to enjoy the movie, you don't read on..so:

 

*ALMOST SPOILER WARNING*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The action is crazy, like I said. A bit too many high-way scenes though, I had the feeling that they rented the high-way stretch used in the Matrix and wanted to get all their money out of this piece of asphalt. The scene's are slightly original, in that at some point it's not the regular getaway motor-cycle, but some flying hybrid which looked pretty cool and I want one.

 

The actors play their part well, and they all, somehow, make sense. As in, they were casted well.

 

The story isn't really told as much as shown through the actions of the leading actor. And the makers are very much letting the environment speak for itself as well. They used subtle cgi even though it's obvious when you think about it afterwards.. for a change, this is cgi that made absoluut sense without being obvious, I thought.

Nothing much is explained about what's going on, except halfway through the movie, otherwise the main characters would've been running around pretty much clueless. I'm being nicely descriptive aren't I?

 

All in all, a good action movie, big scenes with an even more interesting story. Go rent it or something, I'm sure I'm pretty late with this.

[Patrick]

Well I'm pretty late with writing this movie review since I saw the film about a month ago, but I don't remember seeing anyone talking about it here.

 

So...I saw Munich some time ago. I was pretty interested by this film and not because it was Spielberg, neither because of the actors playing in it, but because I had heard that it was taking a quite intriguing approach to the whole story. I was not disappointed. Instead of focusing on the action, or justifications for the actions, the main focus of the film was on the character that Eric Bana portrayed (in my opinion) really well. Inner conflict, sometimes even outer conflict, the film had both and very well played/filmed.

 

An interesting question was posed about the justification/use of these actions though, in the form of the film asking the question of what all of these assassinations served. Each time a Black September member got killed he would be replaced by several others. The film, very wisely leaves the question wide open though.

 

All in all it is a film that I would recommend, although it is definitely not an easy to digest one.

Edited March 13, 2006 by Patrick Durham

[Annael]

Saw two movies this weekend.

 

Brokeback Mountain: In my opionion, one of the best movies that I have seen in a long time. Not only was the movie beautifully directed by Ang Lee (and filmed in my lovely Canada ) and wonderfully written, I thought that all the actors did an amazing job. When Jake Gillenhall's (I know, spelt wrong) character Jack would see Heath Ledger, Ennis, his face would just light up. You could see the love that they shared for each other. The fact that it had such amazing reviews is not surprising. What I do find surprising is the reaction that the population had towards it. In this day in age when the view on homosexuality is so liberal, I find it appaling the slack that the actors got for portraying the characters, and the lack of appreciation for Ang Lee's vision in directing such a controversial, beautiful movie.

 

Failure to Launch: Yeah yeah, it's a chick flick, but it's good. Matthew is just yummy and Sarah Jessica Parker is cute. A cute movie all over, with some laughs. Recommend it if you need a light evening.

[Patrick]

I saw Innocent Voices ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387914/ ) this weekend during a festival of iberic/latin american films. To be honest, I had never heard of the film before seeing it, but it was a very good film. The story is about the Salvadorean civil war viewed from the eyes of an 11 year old boy. The young actor playing the boy is superb, and so is the film itself. It tells a heart-wrenching story, and tells it very well. The main song of the film is very haunting as well, and fits the film perfectly.

[Gryphon]

Mynx and I went to see Aeon Flux the other day and all up I found it to be an enjoyable movie.

 

I believe that it is based on a (manga?) tv show, but having never seen that I got to judge it on its own merits.

 

First up, I'd have to say that I'd like to watch it again, so it was good enough for that. While I was watching it I found myself being confused by the twists and turns and seemingly random things that were happening in the film. This is not to say that its a particularly convoluted movie, but more that I'm not a particularly sophisticated watcher.

 

I did like that even for me (lil' ol' unsophisticated me) the twists and turns of the movie brought me to exactly the right conclusions at exactly the right moments enabling me to blurt out the conclusions we'd been carefully lead to seconds before they said them on screen.

 

(I'm sure that this annoyed Mynx no end while we were watching as she tends to watch movies on a much more sophisticated level than I - I'm fairly certain that she'd already come to the same conclusions as I did, just 5 minutes earlier.)

 

As far as action and CGI and all those other little elements that make us love or hate movies so very much, there was enough action to keep me happy, and plenty of nice CGI which, to me, didn't seem out of place in the context of the movie.

 

I'd say that if you missed this in the cinemas, and you're not someone who likes double lashings of drama and a movie that "makes you think", get it when it hits the DVD shelves next time you're in the mood for some semi-scifi action. If you're disappointed by it. It wasn't me, blame the penguins.

[Mira]

Some recent good films I've watched were...

 

Good Night, and Good Luck, Jarhead, The Weather Underground, No Direction Home, The Station Agent, and Blade Runner.

[Tamaranis]

A bunch of things about ultraviolet

I'm eagerly awaiting the day they stop making movies where a virus just magically gives people super powers. I had this false hope going on when Doom of all movies, rose above this, but it looks like that was a false alarm.

 

Really, if a wizard did it just say a wizard did it.

[Wyvern]

I ended up watching a string of Oscar-related movies recently that I considered very average and overrated, though the most recent film I watched thankfully stood up to the hype. Some new reviews:

 

"The Constant Gardner" - This film had an interesting approach to the spy genre and was pretty original in its choices of settings and scenarios, but felt fragmented and a little directionless to me. The acting was pretty good and the international scenery was nice, but the obvious sense of futility in the missions of the characters somehow sucked the excitement out of it for me. I thought it had a nice message about America's exploitation of Africa, but overall it was a very average film in my opinion.

 

"Walk the Line" - I watched this without expecting anything great, and found my low expectations fufilled. The trouble with these Hollywood blockbuster "life of the music hero" films is that they all seem to play out the same. The mean/strict family in childhood, the love interest, the arrogance of fame, and (most irritably) the long hard drug addictions. Make Johnny Cash blind and black, change his guitar to a piano, and you'd have "Ray" (which I also wasn't a big fan of). The most disappointing element of the film to me is that it was advertised as being based on Cash's famous Folsom prison performance, but only spent around 5 minutes on it in the film. One thing that I will say in favor of this movie, though, is that Reese Witherspoone actually does a great job as June Carter... those expecting to see her in her typical "dumb blond" role might be surprised by her acting in this.

 

"Goodnight, and Good Luck" - This film was also pretty disappointing to me. The premise of the film is very intriguing, but outside of the historical context of McCarthyism, I didn't find it very gripping. I liked the black and white documentary style that George Clooney decided to use, as well as the historical clips interspersed throughout it, but thought that it had a very narrow viewpoint by using only the newsroom and became rather repetitive in the broadcasts. I was hoping they might spend more time on the personal lives of the characters, or on how McCarthyism was bred off of the fear of the American public, but didn''t feel that those issues were dealt with.

 

"Brokeback Mountain" - This one definitely lived up to the hype, in my book. :-) Fabulous movie! I agree with Zool that the screenplay was excellent, and would also add that the cinematography of Wyoming was outstanding. See this in the theatre if you can to experience the full effect. I also agree with Annael that Jake Gyllenhall ("Donnie Darko," anyone?!) did a fantastic job in his role, as did the other actors. One thing I really appreciate about this movie is that the issues that it raises were dealt with in a very subtle and profound way thanks to the script, unlike the blunt emphasis placed on theme in something like "Crash" (which is still a great movie). I highly recommend this one.

[Zadown]

I also saw "Brokeback Mountain" and liked it - there's been enough said of it already so I'll just add my voice to the chorus of recommendating.

 

The movie I saw last was "V is for Vendetta" however. It's always tricky to go see a movie that's gotten so good reviews, as it is hard to be surprised pleasantly and easy to be disappointed. It was slightly different from what I expected from the Matrix brothers, less action and more drama, the liberty of sciece fiction very sparsely used. It could have been present day London, mostly, just the invisible totalitarism permeating the air. Computers, cars, TVs - all looked normal, somehow underlining the message of "most of this could happen for real". I liked it a lot even if there were some details that could've been better and I can recommend to anybody who wants to see an utopia-gone-wrong movie. Even Natalie Portman doesn't spoil the film.

[Akallabeth]

Another bit on V for Vendetta

 

I'd looked forward to seeing this movie, and though I was disappointed in some spots, I liked it overall.

 

The acting seemed to be good, the setting and characters both seemed to be well thought out and well designed, and the action in the movie was excellent, though (as Zadown said) it is far less of an action movie than The Matrix.

 

One thing that I noticed in reading background on the movie in Wikipedia was that the author of the graphic novel the movie was based on (Alan Moore) didn't approve of the movie. As quoted from Wikipedia:

 

He (Alan Moore) also expressed concerns that the script defeats the primary theme of the original work, which was to place two political extremes (fascism and anarchism) against one another, while allowing readers to decide for themselves whether V was right in his actions or simply insane. He argues that this "little moral drama" has been reduced to debating "current American neo-conservatism vs. current American liberalism". V for Vendetta in Wikipedia

 

I have to agree with some of what he said on this, as it does seem to be a somewhat "anti-conservative" film, both in some of its subjects, and some of what is said about the current state of the world.

 

If you are tolerant of that, I'd recommend it as an interesting film.

[epinephrine]

I too saw V for Vendetta last night. Overall I was dissapointed. I had heard great things and felt let down by the now overdone polititian-bashing. The whole idea that V stood for some idea and that "ideas are bullet proof" was let down by the fact that his ideas were so mixed up. He was supposed to represent anarchy but had so many conservative aspects to him that he really flopped. Also the all too familiar "lets explain every single thing for all those inept at using their brains" got a bit much. I felt a bit spoon fed on the story.

 

ep

[reverie]

I sav "V" too, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing that disappointed me was some of the more "touching" scenes between Portman and "V" seemed a littled forced. But only a little bit. Think an actor with a greater awareness of his own body language would have helped, but then again you could just as easily blame the writer or the director and editor that cooridinated the voice-overs...

 

Ah, didn't really see the movie as anti-conservative. Saw it more as anti-faschist. The parallels to the High chancellors rise to power and Hitler seemed pretty obvious to me. Zealot leader arising out of Chaos/remains of a former empire created in part by the influence foreign nations that were then greater in power than his own nation. Seizes opportunity by tapping into and reinventing a home grown nationalism. Creating a crisis and thus a scapegoat for the crisis. Institutes Social/Racial/Intellectual Genecide all for the sake of a greater Germany/England. Yep, sounds like SS style fascism to me.

 

 

If it was anti-conservative, I'd think the movie would have argued for MORE government control in peoples lives and businesses, not less. Or has the world turned completely upside down???

 

 

rev...

Edited March 28, 2006 by reverie

[The Portrait of Zool]

I saw several movies recently; Good Night and Good Luck, Lord of War, and Doom.

 

First of all, Doom was a silly movie. However, if you are a big fan of the original Doom game, like I am, you should watch it. Even though it only sorta follows the original game, and the plot twists hinder rather than help the already somewhat loose association, I found it enjoyable simply for trying to bring to life that classic game. True, the writing was about on the level of a sci-fi channel original production, the production itself was inflated and the 'science' it tried to use to drive the plot was abysmal to the point of hilarity, I still found myself enjoying the ride thanks to some fairly decent acting and just enough familiarity with the game to keep me feeling like a part of the action. Overall, it was well done - though, again, if you're not a fan of the game, you will probably want to throw it into the same bin as pretty much any other sci-fi horror movie.

 

Good Night and Good luck I really enjoyed. SEMI-SPOILER alert! Contrary to some reviews here, I thought they did give a lot to background development and support characterization, in such details as the fact that no two CBS employees were supposed to be married, they lost their sponsor Alcoa (which is still a monster company even today) and the suicide of one of the staff. I thought the acting was stellar, and the black and white definitely added a lot to the atmosphere of the film. Everyone smoking like a chimney was very post-war realistic too. The only flaw that bugged me was I thought it ended rather abruptly. I would have liked some sort of epilogue scene, or even a paragraph of text, explaining what ahppened to Mr. Murrow and Senator McCarthey. While it is a matter of history, NOW I have to go research it to give closure to the story!

 

Saving the best for last, I can't recommend Lord of War enough. Fantastic writing, stellar production and acting, and a deep and heartfelt anti-war theme make this movie a must-see in my book. It is supposedly based on real events - and it is just fantastic and messed up enough to be fact, IMO. At any rate, without giving too much away, love it or hate it, I can't see how someone wouldn't at least respect it, from the opening sequence all the way through to the closing revelations. A lot of people might not want to see what this film portrays, but it is something which I think needs to be seen.

[Gyrfalcon]

Eh, they really billed it horribly then. I remember seeing the previews for Lord of War, and from reading the plot summary, what I got out of it was they were glorifying a gunrunner who helped supply some of the most brutal warlords in Africa.

 

Not exactly my idea of a good storyline.

 

I'm glad the previews must have been off, unless it was more a case of 'showing the horrors of war by following someone gleefully selling the tools of war'