This is the comic book geek speaking, not the movie critic. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is going to be amazing. If you think differently, don’t talk to me until after May 1st. And if you STILL dislike it after seeing it, we will probably have to stop being friends for a while.
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/xmen-origins-wolverine/trailer
Comcast Video-On-Demand is great. I found Muppets From Space the other day and had to watch it again.
While I love the supporting cast (Muppet & human alike), I’m dismayed by this representation of the Henson legacy. They EXPLAINED Gonzo’s background & history?! That’s like destroying him! I was terribly disappointed that they felt this was something that needed any resolution.
Also, they can get rid of a couple of the newer muppets and bring back some more classics…where was Sweetums?!
I did love the security bear though. Hilarious. And Jeffrey Tambor is hilarious too.
Sorry for the short review, but I have a baby now and am much more time-conscious.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/happygolucky/
I haven’t seen it yet, but I saw the trailer show up on my favorite trailer site (albeit sometimes behind the curve – Apple.com/trailers) and just thought I’d share my views on it.
It’s about time.
Seriously. I love a lot of the recent movies I’ve reviewed and talked about, but it has been some time now since a feel-good movie came along and discussed having a positive attitude in the real world without getting mocked. This one was written and directed by Mike Leigh (Topsy Turvy) and set in the bleaker side of England. With everyone trying to convince her that life is unfortunate (at best) Poppy just can’t seem to wipe the smile off of her face. Even when her driving coach says, “You can make jokes while you’re driving, but you will crash, and you will DIE laughing,” Poppy just responds, “Well if you’re gonna go, it’s the best way to go I s’pose.” Later in the trailer they’re outside of the car with him chasing her around and around…seemingly to try and strangle her. Awesome.
This is just what our world needs right now in the seemingly dense fog of bleak cynicism that permeates all mainstream media, to have this movie come out and make it “cool” to be happy again.
I’m going to check it out when I get the chance.
The 4th film by Quentin Tarantino (Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction & Jackie Brown make up his first three), this movie is his apparent homage to cheesy 70’s Kung Fu movies.
With gushing blood, violent swordfights, unbelievably hot women, and amazing music, he’s taken a dead or dying genre, and pumped new life back into it, or just completely obliterated it, depeding on your view.
In this movie we follow the unnamed Bride of a wedding, whose entire party of 8 was massacred, including her unborn baby (so she believes), and where she is the only sole survivor, after a bullet to the head from nearly point-blank range.
After waking up in a hospital four years later from the coma it put her into, she realizes what has happened, and takes some quick maneuvering to get out of the hospital unnoticed (after a brutal beating on some potential rapists, long story, watch the movie), where she quickly devises her plan to get her body back in working order, and seek revenge on those who did this to her…the Deadly Viper Assasination Squad, a team she used to be a part of. (Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Elle Macpherson, & led by David Carradine).
O-Ren Ishii (Liu) is head of the Japanese Crime syndicates and living prosperously there, while being guarded by her gang, the Crazy 88’s, who the Bride must completely descimate if she wants a shot at killing her nemesis.
Vernita Green (Fox) is now a suburban homemaker for her husband and daughter and challaneges the Bride to a knifefight which never occurs.
This movie is edited slightly out of order, which personally I LOVED in Pulp Fiction, but felt it was slightly unnecessary for this movie. It didn’t really drive the story ahead to do it that way, and seems as if it would’ve been perfectly fine had it been IN order. Maybe I’m wrong…probably. Who knows.
Oh, yes, the film is violent. Is it the most violent movie I’ve ever seen? Nope. Sin City probably takes that cake. (Side note: Sin City was guest directed by Tarantino).
I think this movie is great. But more than that, it’s a great lead-in to an even better movie, Kill Bill: Volume 2.
Kill Bill: Volume 2 was the much anticipated continuation and conclusion to the Kill Bill saga. Most of you have seen it by now I’m sure, but I have to share my two cents about this film.
To me each movie is more like mini-stories woven into a movie format, and edited all out of order to leave the viewer on the edge of their seat (and out of their mind, curious).
This movie brings together The Bride (whom we find out has a name in this movie: Beatrix Kiddo) with two of her attackers, all of which is merely a roadblock on her way to kill her former lover and Master, Bill.
First she comes along Budd, Bill’s brother and one of the Deadly Viper Assasination Squad’s less tactful members. He’s now living in a trailer in the desert of Texas, acting as a bouncer for a strip club. Hating his life, and awaiting Kiddo to come and relieve him of it, he wants to go down swinging, or not at all. I love how this sequence and her subsequent living burial take us into the sequence of her early training with Pai Mei (the guy standing on her sword in the picture above). Bill trained under Pai Mei, so as far as he’s concerned, so must B.
Jumping forward, her next target, is Elle Driver, Bill’s new lover, and B’s deadliest enemy as far as Elle is concerned.
Once she’s climbed over the pile of bodies left in her wake, Kiddo finds that she’s not only person to have survived the small wedding massacre from the first film, but her daughter is actually alive, and in the care of her natural father, Bill.
The film has a great ending, that’s all I can say. I love how even-tempered Bill is throughtout, but especially the last part of this movie. So calm, so collected. If that doesn’t intimidate a person…nothing does.
Haven’t seen it? Go get the first volume, then finish it off, same day, with this one.
Quotable quotes from The Princess Bride:
“Inconceivable!”
“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
“Stop that rhyming now, I mean it!
Anybody want a peanut?”
This movie was a great for those days when I stayed home sick from school, because it had ME in it. Fred Savage played that character, “The Grandson” who stayed home sick from school. All we know is he’d had a fever at one point. It was vauge. Then Peter Falk, “The Grandfather” came over to read him a story, which quickly put a stop to his Sega playing time. As the grandfather says, this book (movie) has everything. Adventure, romance, comedy, swordplay, giants, death, torture, pirates, princes & princesses…and a Spaniard.
My wife had never seen this when we first started dating, and she relentlessly made fun of me for loving a movie called “The Princess Bride.” And admittedly, I remember my parents telling me I’d love this movie and thinking…”Uh…are you joking?” But it worked, I watched, I loved. Chandra started watching it with me a couple of years ago, but quickly fell out of interest during the first 10 minutes. This time, I got her to sit and watch almost the whole movie with me. She fell asleep towards the end because it was almost midnight, but she said she enjoyed it. HURRAH!
This story of True Love, has it’s main character fighting almost to the death to save his love from marrying an evil prince, dangers in the fire swamp, murder at the hands of her betrothed (to then be blamed on feuding neighbors Gilder). But along the way are GREAT characters that add a lot of depth and fun to the story. My favorite (as is most) are the partners Fezzik & Inigo. Played masterfully by Andre the Giant (WWF wrestler) and Mandy Patinkin (Criminal Minds), these two are hilarious, and lovable. Inigo wants nothing out of life except to avenge his father’s death at the hands of the six-fingered man. Fezzik, is a brute who has a huge heart and wants to be loved by his fellow man.
You know this story. You have to. If you haven’t seen it, I require you to go watch it. It’s a modern-day classic. It’s got everything anyone could want in a movie, and unlike other cult classics like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I don’t know ANYONE who’s seen this movie and said they didn’t like it. This has a 100% recommendation from me.
Yeah, I know you’ve seen this by now. If you haven’t….well, that’d be ridiculous, I’m sure you have.
Left to right in the above picture are Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell, David Koechner, & Steve Carell. All four of these guys are geniuses. Paul Rudd has been in a number of flicks, and is definitely one of my favorites after cementing himself in the Judd Apatow crew of friends. Steve Carell and he would later star together in the 40 Year Old Virgin, which was also genius. And of course, there was a guest appearance from former SNL alum, David Koechner. These guys are fantastic alone, but together, this is a masterpiece of comedy.
Sadly for Ferrell, he set the bar so hi with this movie, people have been disappointed ever since with his follow-ups. Most just haven’t quite met the standard. Including Semi-Pro, Blades of Glory & Talladega Nights. All good, but few are this good.
Steve Carrell playing the semi-retarded Brick Tamlin also set his career further into motion. He first showed up on my radar on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a reporter, and frankly he was genius. After that I saw him on Bruce Almighty as the fellow TV reporter Evan Baxter, and he was genius. Here, he played a….TV weatherman (finally, some variety) and he was genius.
This movie produced classic scenes, lines, quotes and much more. If you HAVE seen it, go watch it again. It’s still great.
Also in this movie although (in my mind) of lesser note are Christina Applegate, Fred Ward, and even a minor role for one of my favorites, Seth Rogen (as a cameraman).
I only KIND OF wanted to see this movie. I love Steve Carell, but mostly when he’s being goofy. Not because he’s not a talented actor always, he is, but I just really enjoy his off-the-wall craziness ala Anchorman or Bruce Almighty. So I wasn’t sure if I’d see this one anytime soon, but fortunately my in-laws had it in from Netflix this weekend, so I sat and watched most of it (missed some of the beginning).
The general idea is that this widower father of three girls is headed to a family gathering at their cabin outside of the city after meeting this penultimate woman at the bookstore. He’s excited to share his news, but alas it turns out, this woman he met, is his younger brother’s (Dane Cook) girlfriend.
His family keeps haranging him about how he should move on and find a girl (unbeknownst to them that the perfect girl for him is sitting in the same room with them this entire time). He quickly finds himself becoming consumed with the thoughts of his brother’s girlfriend Marie (Juliette Pinoche) and realizes that it’s affecting all aspects of his life and that he needs to reign it in or he’s going to lose everyone he cares about…or is he?
It’s an interesting movie, with an adoring supporting cast. I think his parents were perfectly cast (Dianne Wiest & John Mahoney (Frasier’s dad)). And I think this made for a fun family movie, but it’s still not one of my favorites. Definitely worth watching though.
I remember hearing about this movie when it came out and thinking it was nice that the kid from Even Stevens (Shia Lebouf) was being given a shot at the movie business. Then I heard rave reviews about it and thought maybe I should check it out. But it never topped the list of movies I wanted to rent, so it wasn’t until yesterday when I caught it on ABC Family that I finall saw this movie, although, admittedly not in it’s original cut since there were commercials.
I liked it. Not great, but not terrible. I was expecting more of a fantasy twist on the holes. I thought some horrible monster would be unearthed or something. There was a BIT of fantasy to it being that there were some crazy lizards that looked like descendants of something out of Jurrassic Park (remember the spitters whose necks fanned out when they hissed?).
I think what I really liked about this movie was the parallel story that went with it. It wasn’t just about kids at a juvenile detention camp digging holes, it was also about the history of the area they were digging, and had the ‘famous’ (fictional) Kissing Kate Barlow, and her love for the black onion salesman, Sam. There was also a third story of an immigrant which sad to be said, I had a harder time following. But in the end they all tied together QUITE nicely.
This movie had some surprising stars including, Jon Voight, Sigourney Weaver, Tim Blake Nelson, Henry Winkler, Patricia Arquette, Eartha Kitt & more.
I think the story was strong on it’s own too. Originally written by Louis Sachar (the author of Sidways Stories of Wayside School) it was also adapted by him for the screen.
It’s basically about a family curse over 100 years time, from beginning to end. It’s about buried treasure, and greed. But it’s also about doing what’s right. I think this is a great movie for kids, and if you get a change to watch it, I recommend you do so.
Well, I didn’t wait in line for hours, I didn’t even have to sit next to a stranger. In fact, I was able to pick my seat when I walked into the theater, so I sat in right behind the wheelchair rail near the middle. I love that spot.
Oh, and I owe a mental apology to the late Mr. Ledger. When I first heard he’d been cast as The Joker, I was furious. There was no way in my mind he could live up to the insanity that this character deserved (from the comics of the same name).
All hype aside, this is now one of my favorite movies of all time…and it’s completely because of Heath Ledger’s performance. In a movie surrounded by superstars, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, & Morgan Freeman…the young Heath Ledger stood heads above the rest.
The words to describe his performance? Not crazy. Not insane. Not even tyrannical. Brilliantly out of control.
A word to the queasy – this movie has a few gruesome moments. Nothing bad for those of us who are used to it…but please, keep your kids away from this one. While the Joker is obviously the bad guy…he’s insane…and yet slightly lovable in his insanity. The same is true of the other villain in this movie, and for those who don’t know, I won’t spoil it.
Performances by everyone in this movie were amazing. The plot(s) were fantastic. The begining, middle and end were all just astounding. This broad, sweeping statement includes everything from the camera work, to the writing, to the performances and the sound effects….everything was just as it should be.
If someone sees this movie and thinks Heath Ledger is “no Jack Nicholson”…it’s because he’s not even TRYING to be. It’s a different take on a different style of a different plot of a different movie.
Go see it. Stop waiting. Go now. Don’t take young children. But enjoy.
