Charlie inspired me to try to do something new (check out The-Broll below), so I'm going to watch 4 movies a week and write my little review about them, or steal John's reviews from Making the Movie.
I won't give ratings, just a when you should see it rating...i.e. my favorites will be rated NOW, for "GO SEE IT NOW". Others will include Indie Film Mood, Date Night, or Drunken Guys Night ect..
You will learn very quickly that writing isn't my strongest skill so please excuse the many errors.
It's 1984, and Michael Jackson is king-even in Waihau Bay, New Zealand. Here we meet Boy, an 11-year-old who lives on a farm with his gran, a goat, and his younger brother, Rocky (who thinks he has magic powers).
I watched this movie while I was half asleep on an airplane, so I wasn't expecting much. As the movie started I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision in what to watch, but it didn't take long to realize that I had found a true gem.
The movie is about "Boy", a boy who always talks about two things, Michael Jackson and his dad. He hadn't seen his dad since he was just a little boy, but all of his memories make his father out to be a super hero. Then when his dad shows up at his house one day with his two friends, Boy thinks his life is perfect. He soon finds out that his dad is a kid trapped in a mans body.
Sometimes it is hard to understand what they are saying or they use words that I've never heard before, so that will occasionally take you out of the movie. It really is unfortunate because I feel like alot of jokes I might be missing.
The relationship dynamics in this movie are great, and how the change from the beginning to the end makes this more than just a comedy.
As computer hacker Lisbeth and journalist Mikael investigate a sex-trafficking ring, Lisbeth is accused of three murders, causing her to go on the run while Mikael works to clear her name.
The "Millennium" trilogy has been an exciting export from Sweden over the last couple of years, so good in fact that Hollywood is already working on re-making the three films even though the 3rd one has just come out in America. For people who can handle sub-titles, I would recommend watching the originals first.
I saw the first one to long ago to do a review on it, but I just watched the last two movies this week, and they do not disappoint. Every film in the series seems to have a different genre to it.
40-year-old Jimmy is growing up, or at least he's getting older. While mooching the upper bunk of his ten-year-old nephew's bed, he enjoys the never-ending generosity of his sister Aiko, and dodges the wrath of his impatient brother-in-law Tak.
This is one of the funnier indie movies I have seen this year. Hiroshi Watanabe plays Jimmy, who lives with his sister and her husband because his wife divorced him and he is trying to get back on his feet. Something is a little off about Jimmy, he moved from Japan to America because he ran out of the food that his wife had prepared after she she told him she wanted a divorce. So we know Jimmy has a hard time taken care of himself, but he also has a big heart and only wants whats best for his sisters family.
Jimmy makes this movie hilarious, he isn't afraid to say whats on his mind for better or for worse. He is also trying to get a girl that is 15 years younger than him, who is a family friend that refers to him as Uncle Jimmy. (Not as creepy as I made it sound, actually very funny).
The movie also has heart which is nice, as Jimmy try's to find love, his sisters family struggles through a marriage that seems very distant and a young child that seems to be completely ignored by the family. They will all have to discover things about each other in order to keep the family together, even it takes people accidentally stabbing themselves in the stomach. The one thing I felt like the movie didn't do was give enough closure on the family though. That was a little disappointing.
I laughed a lot more watching this movie then I thought I would when I first saw the trailer, but I'm glad that I watched it as it was a wonderful surprise.
Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point.
This is the type of movie that unless it is done right can be pushing a very sensitive subject. When you make a movie about four people who want to be suicide bombers I think you can do it two ways. One, you can make it a very serious movie that takes inside the culture and mindset of these people and give an unseen look into their world. Two, make it a comedy about these characters that want to be jihadists but are just to stupid to make anything work. The one thing that wont work is combining the two.
The movie starts out as a comedy, and it has some pretty funny moments. While in a terrorist training camp, two of the members try to take down an American spy plane with a rocket launcher, they accidentally shoot backwards and take out a terrorist camp. It seems like everything they do is a mistake, their leader seems to be the only one capable of doing things right.
As the movie progresses though it starts to get a little more serious, but you still think that it will all turn out with a funny ending because these guys never seem to get things right. There is a moment in the movie where one of the character accidentally kills himself, and it is supposed to be funny (think Tropic Thunder), but you realize this is a character I actual like and it isn't funny how he dies. From there on out it continues to push a subject that really isn't funny. When you make jokes about suicide bomber killing people you have crossed a line.
There is one character in this movie that I think they delve far enough into his character that when he completes his suicide mission you don't feel like it was all for nothing. That being said the movie crosses some touchy subjects and isn't really funny enough to make it worth it.
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.
Danny Boyle returns to the big screen again with his first movie since Slumdog Millionaire. Boyle seems intent on mastering every single genre of movies, and he doesn't disappoint with this psychological/thriller/adventure/action/drama. Boyle recreates the story of Aron Ralston, a hiker who gets trapped when a boulder comes loose pins his arm to the canyon wall. Over the next 127 hours he will have to deal with the physical and emotional struggle to survive, and eventually have to make the decision of how far he is willing to go to get out from under the rock.
James Franco plays Aron, and already there is oscar buzz about his performance. Its hard to even imagine what you would go through in that situation, and watching Franco's performance it seems that he must have spent a lot of time with Ralston, trying to find the right emotions to put into each day that he is stuck under the rock. Franco's performance is great as he struggles between trying to survive and the realization that he is about to die, and he is not happy with the way that he left his relationships with family and friends.
The other thing I really liked about the movie was it had a message, it seems like most movies these days are just about the big action scenes or the creepy hauntings, but don't have much heart. This movie brings a great message whether you are rock climbing alone in Utah or driving your car on the 101. You never know what moment is going to be your last, either from a rock trapping you in a canyon or your car flipping over on the highway. No one ever goes out expecting it to happen to them, so people don't think about the things that matter most in their lives until it is to late.
Danny Boyle seems to have a little bit of a goofy side that comes out of him every once in a while, and unfortunately I think its the biggest setback in some of his movies. The Beach has the scene where it turns into a video game, and 127 hours has little pieces that seem just a little out of place. It doesn't hurt the movie at all, but I couldn't help like it took me out of the movie at the moment. Reviewer John Ott put it best I think when he said it's a small budget movie made with a big budget, and I think at times it can feel a little over done.
127 Hours is a very tense movie that isn't for the feint of heart, but it is a true story that will entertain you as well as make you think. While it isn't the masterpiece that Slumdog Millionaire was, it is another excellent film from Danny Boyle.
The supervillain Megamind finally conquers his nemesis, the hero Metro Man... but finds his life pointless without a hero to fight.
Dreamworks brings its new animated comedy to the big screen in the form of Megamind, an evil blue alien with a giant head. Megamind was sent away from his planet as a small child just moments before his planet was sucked into a black hole. At the same time another space ship left the planet heading for earth also. And so began the rivalry of Megamind and Metro Man. Even in grade school Metro Man was always the popular one, as all of Megaminds creations seemed to do more bad than good. Then Megamind realized that maybe instead of trying to be popular he should be evil.
The movie is voiced by an all star cast of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Brad Pitt, Ben Stiller, David Cross and J.K. Simmons. Will Ferrell is funny as always and really does a good job doing the voice acting, my favorite part is when he is voicing "Space Dad". The only actor in the movie that just doesn't feel like he fits is Jonah Hill. He is does a good job as the dorky camera guy but doesn't quite fit the role of Titan.
The animation is what you expect out of a Dreamworks movie, it looks great and even better in 3D. Dreamworks still isnt on the same level as Pixar, but they still do a good job.
Megamind is not on the same level as movies like Up and Wall-E, but it is fueled by a very funny cast and a fun super hero story that the whole family will enjoy.
Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run.
There really isnt alot to review when it comes to a movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, that won 4 academy awards and was nominated for 7 total. It was a movie that I loved as a kid and is still one of my favorite westerns. The only reason I review it is in case some unlucky person has yet to watch it yet.
It has a little bit of everything it seems. comedy, action, romance and suspense throughout the movie. The dynamic between Redford and Newman is fantastic whether they are fighting with each other, making jokes before jumping off cliffs or in the middle of a shootout.
The film is also does things differently than most other films would. The film is split up into two segments that is split by pictures that moves the story from America to Bolivia. They also use "pop" music for the montage sequences which was sort of surprising to hear when I watched it again but I think it works very well.
The movie was shot by Conrad Hall so it looks beautiful and it goes in and out of a sepia color that gives a good old west feeling to the movie.
The end of the movie is classic, all the way up to the very last line the movie keeps you laughing and guessing what is going to happen next.
In Brooklyn, a youth from an Orthodox Jewish community is lured into becoming an Ecstasy dealer by his pal who has ties to an Israel drug cartel.
Justin Bartha (The Hangover) and Michael Cer.......uh I mean Jesse Eisenberg star in Holy Rollers. Jesse Eisenberg really stands out for once for not being the quite awkward guy who wants the girl. He does start out the quite awkward Jew who wants the girl, but this time his character actually progresses into something much more. Justin Bartha was the only actor in The Hangover that didn't have a stand out role, so I was interested to see how he would do in a leading role. It would be nice to see a little more from him, especially in this type of role, but I think his performance was still good.
The movie started very slow and it was hard to keep my attention. Jesse's character is worried about what career he is going to be given and if he will be allowed to marry the girl he wants to. He has a strong business sense, but that doesn't help him in his fathers business. Once he finds out he can't marry the girl he wants he blames it on his families social status. Justin Bartha's character then brings him along to make extra money bringing "medicine" back from Europe. All of this seems to go very slow and is boring, it is not until Jesse finds out that he is actually smuggling ecstasy that the movie starts to get good.
The movie is very bland, probably intentionally in the beginning while in the Jewish community, but as it picks up and they are in Europe and Jesse's character is getting partying, drinking, and taking drugs for the first time that the movie starts to take a cool style. The movies pace picks up and Jesse's character development going from a quiet Jewish boy who is too awkward to talk to girls, to a drug smuggler who is making business deals and getting more Orthodox Jewish kids involved is fun to watch.
The movie opens up your eyes to how some kids in these communities grow up and how their decisions are made for them. How every decision that they make is scrutinized by the community. It is also a pretty crazy true story about how the Jewish kids were not ever searched by airport security because no one would think that they would be doing anything wrong.
Unfortunately being based on a true story it has kind of an abrupt ending. The movie is just picking up to a great climax and then two minutes later its over it seems. It's a good thing if that is how the real story happened, but it does feel like a let down to the audience. The movie is fairly short anyways so the abrupt ending feels like there could have been more to enjoy.
After experiencing what they think are a series of "break-ins", a family sets up security cameras around their home, only to realize that the events unfolding before them are more sinister than they seem.
I am not a big fan of these type of movies. I did not see the first movie, and don't really find it worth the money to go to a theater to just be scared. That being said, if you are the type of person who likes to be scared this would be a good movie for you. The way the movie is shot using the "security" cameras and the occasional shots from the hand held camera add alot of anticipation, because at any point anything can happen. You aren't warned by any creepy music or seeing the villain sneaking up on someone.
The story itself is not that exciting, but it is cool that it ties into the first movie (or so I'm told), and is not just another random security camera movie that is trying to just make money off the first movies success. The biggest problem I have with the story besides all of the boring filler that takes up 3/4 of this movie is when things start to go crazy and the family watches it on the security footage they still stay in this same place and don't really take any action. I know this there wouldn't be a movie if they did not do it this way, but its hard to believe a movie that is being shot like real archival footage if the people take it unrealistically. I'm not sure I know anyone that would stay in a house after watching footage of the things that are happening to these people.
With a 3 million dollar budget it has already made over 40 million dollars, which goes to show that you don't have to have a high budget movie to scare and entertain people.
The acting in the movie is pretty bad, but at the same time, you aren't watching this movie to see good acting or to see a great story. You are there to be scared, and Paranormal Acticity 2 has quite a few jump out of your seat moments that come out of nowhere that will leave you satisfied.
A period comedy about an illegal radio station in the North Sea in the 1960s.
Carl is sent by his mother to live on a pirate radio ship that broadcasts rock n' roll to Great Britain. On board he meets a wide range of characters who all bring something new to the table. Together they all live life with no regrets, just trying to bring rock n' roll to Britain. Meanwhile the British government is trying to find ways to make these radio boats illegal.
One of the biggest problems with this movie is it doesn't really feel like there is much of a story. While on the boat it seems like one big party, sex, drugs and music. There is the occasional issues between the people on the boat but it is usually solved very quickly, in a funny way. Life for them is all about having the best times of their life. Then we see the one member of the British government who only cares about shutting them down no matter what he has to do. We rarely see anything that he does have an impact on them until the very end of the movie, which really seemed to make them feel like an afterthought.
The movie is fueled by yet another great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of my favorite actors. Even though he is not the main actor in the movie I think he still steals the spotlight in the scenes he is in. Rhys Ifans and Bill Nighy both put in notable performances. This movie is very character driven, the story itself would be nothing without the interesting, fun characters. One bad performance could have ruined this movie, but I thought the movie was cast very well and it is the highlight of the film.
A movie about pirate radio in the 60's needs a good soundtrack, and Pirate Radio did not disappoint, this was the other thing that stood out baout this movie besides the acting. The movie features a wide selection of music, with bands including Cat Stevens, Rolling Stones, Neil Young, The Box Tops, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, The Hollies, Smokey Robinson, The Seekers, and Leonard Cohen.
Overall it was a fun movie, the story has its issues and I'm not sure how much I liked the ending, but it was worth it with a solid cast and great music.
This documentary follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his talented teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Ohio and James' journey to fame.
Almost everyone know who LeBron James is, but most people don't know how he got to be where he is today. LeBron really became famous when he attempted to forfeit his senior year of high school and go to the NBA draft after his junior season. After he was denied by the NBA, he returned for his senior season, which was one of the most anticipated seasons by any high school player ever. It was not only because LeBron James was supposed to be the next Michael Jordan, but the high school team that he played for was in contention for the national championship.
This documentary show how these four friends started playing basketball together as kids, coached by one of the kids dads. It follows them as they go on to play in high school together, instantly transforming their school into a powerhouse.
The documentary does a good job at bringing you into the lives of these kids. How they got into the sport and what their friendship meant to each other. It shows how they had to deal with adversity, especially LeBron becoming famous. It really shows how much these kids valued each others friendships, and always wanted to play together. It also helps you understand why LeBron James decided to change teams this season to play with his friends.
The movie is a mixture of interviews, still photos and archival footage. A lot of times this can make for a very boring movie, but the still images are all done a very cool way that really make the photos seem more like videos and keep you entertained. It is also very fun to see the archival footage of LeBron and his teammates as young middle school kids.
The only problems it seemed with this documentary is it seems to go back over certain story points to many times. They talk about how Dru Joyce III was to small to play basketball and was always overlooked. Then 10 minutes later they go over the same thing, it seems very redundant, and it happens multiple times in the movie.
This is a must see for sports fans, and I believe if you are a fan of documentaries you may also become a fan of More Than a Game.
There really isn't that much to say about Jackass 3D. The only questions that can be answered are is it funny? Is it worth to see it in 3D? How crazy are the stunts? Should I take a girl?
This is coming from a big Jackass fan, I have enjoyed all of their previous films and still watch the old episodes when they play on MTV, so I may be to much of a fan. $50 million opening weekend means they must be doing something good though.
Quesiton: Is it funny?
Answer: Jet airplanes, 10 ft deep snake pits, midget fights, flying port-o-potties and taser filled obstacle courses. If that doesn't answer it for you then probably not.
Question: Is it worth it in 3D?
Answer: Jackass 3D was filmed using the same technology as Avatar.....so yes.
Question: How crazy are the stunts?
Answer: See question one. There is a variety that will keep you guessing what your going to see next.
Question: Should I take a girl?
Answer: If the girl is ok with slow motion 3D male nudity, slow motion 3D poop and guys getting hurt a lot then yes. Otherwise you may need to cover her eyes a little bit.
It may not be as funny as Jackass 2, but it is very close and with the 3D it may be the best movie of the series. Jackass 3D is a fun, hilarious movie that will keep you laughing the entire time and is well worth the $200 it takes to go to a 3D movie.
The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.
You would think a movie that makes $255 million, wins the award for best actress and is nominated for best picture would be a lock to be a good movie. Not so fast. Can you argue though with a movie that did so well with audiences and critics?
If this movie was not based on a true story it would seem like your typical kids Disney movie. Person made for sport, but has (add problem). Person gets a chance to succeed, but needs to learn to play. Person gets coached by small child. Person almost instantly becomes great. Person has problem that could ruin everything. Person triumphs. So what makes this movie any different.
Sandra Bullock is a highlight to the movie, wouldn't cross my mind for an award, but the academy was set on giving her an award. You can't blame her for some of the writing that makes her character seem way to over the top.
The story of Michael Oher is incredible, but oddly enough happens quite often. Check out this interesting article on black athletes that come from bad homes and go on to live with white families, and excel in sports. http://www.slate.com/id/2270482/
So I want to know how a movie that cinematically falls very short, only has one strong performance and no climax can do so good. I have a theory that also is some aspects goes along with the success of the 2009 best picture winner Slumdog Millionaire and 2010 nominee Precious. People see these situations that people are stuck in, coming from broken homes where their mothers throw their babies on the couch like a football, or 2 young boys watch their mother die and have to survive in the slums of India. Their reactions are "I can't believe people actually go through this, this movie really blew my mind." (Actual reaction I have heard) That alone seems to give movies some merit on being a great movie, regardless if the story is true or if the movie was made well.
This seems to be the effect that The Blind Side had on people, and with the "true story" tagged on, it was sure to succeed. This seems to me the only way this movie could have done so well, if it weren't for that factor you could place it right up there with movies like The Rookie. Interesting true story, nothing more.
Ghetto Physics is about the affiliation between the pimp and the ho and how that relationship can be extrapolated into politics, the economy, and even one’s everyday encounters.
Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire.
If you have read the review for Let Me In, then you already know my feelings about the two movies. This was one of my favorite movies of 2008, and one of my favorite vampire movies of all time. Also one of my favorite foreign films, the movie is Swedish.
The film is shot very beautifully, from the opening shot of snow falling in the black of night you know what this movie is going to look excellent. They take advantage of shooting in Sweden, and even though most of the movie is at night you still get some beautiful shots of the woods in winter.
Sometimes it is hard to really judge the acting of foreign films actors, because you are to busy reading the subtitles to be able to focus on the character. This may be true in my case for this movie, but I think that it was excellently cast and Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson are fantastic.
The biggest complaint I have received about this movie is how slow it is. It definitely has the the pacing of a foreign film and I think that it adds to the movie. Those who are looking for an action packed vampire movie will not get that, but you will get a great movie that focuses on the relationship of these two children build.
If you have to choose between Let The Right One In or Let Me In, go with the original. I can't find one thing in that is better with the new one. The best thing to do though is watch them both and find out for yourself which one you like better.
A story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook.
A sharp script, great music and David Fincher being David Fincher makes for one of the best movies so far this year. As usual I will let a better writer do a good review.
Based on the true story of the First Jamaican bobsled team trying to make it to the winter Olympics.
This was one of my favorite movies as a kid so I decided to watch it to see why I liked it so much. Its a goofy comedy about Jamaican track stars that lose there chance at the summer olympics so they decide to start a bobsled team to compete in the winter olympics. The enroll the help of Irving Blitzer (John Candy), a former olympic bobsledder who had his medals taken away for cheating.
The comedy in this movie is fueled by Sanka (Doug E. Doug) who is the only one of the group who is not a sprinter. He is the only one of the group that doesn't go through some personal transformation of the group, he is there only to bring the jokes. These 4 have to conquer the cold, learn to run on ice and deal with all of the bobsledding purists who dont believe that they should be there.
The movie is based on a true story, but really is only true on about two points. The coach originally wanted sprinters but got no interest from the countries best. They did borrow a bobsled from the USA, and they did crash in their final run, after crashing they did walk their sled to the finish line (not on their shoulders). Thats about as close it comes to being true, they do use actual footage from the crash which is cool.
This is your basic Disney kids movie, goofy villains, cheap jokes and a happy ending (sort of). I can see how I would of liked it so much as a kid, but its not really as fun for adults.
A bullied young boy befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian.
When I heard that they were remaking one of my favorite movies of 2008, Let The Right One In, I was very upset. Not only that they were remaking the foreign film which I thought was already excellent, but that they were doing in 2 years later. I was also worried about the director choice, Matt Reeves, who was the director of Cloverfield. The cast was one thing that did excite me, Kodi Smit-McPhee was excellent in The Road and Chloe Moretz was great in Kickass.
The best comparison for these two movies I can think of is Let Me In is a color by numbers version of Let The Right One In. Imagine getting a color by numbers version of the Mona Lisa, you are told what colors to go where to make it look as good as the original, but many factors would hurt it. Are the colors exactly the same, did you color over the line, did you try to make parts original? In the end of it all though it really never had a chance to be as good as the original but it could be very good.
They decided to keep many of the same dialogue and scenes which was very nice to see, if it's not broke, then why fix it? Other things that they decided to add I thought worked really well. They made Abby's guardian more of a villain when he goes to find blood for Abby. They also put more into the story about Abby's relationship with the guardian and who he really was. It may be pushed on you a little much, the less you have to keep pushing it on an audience seems to be better.
The changes were also for the worse in this movie. Making Abby turn into a monster I think was a huge mistake, the relationship she has with Owen is build on them both needing friends because they are outcasts. Turning her into a monster would really change that dynamic. Also the police man who is not in the original, is neither made into a good guy or a villain so in the end you don't know how to feel about him, whats the point of having him be such a big character if you aren't going to develop him. I think Matt Reeves really failed to understand the mindset of some of these characters in the original or just decided to change it, which was a bad idea.
In a world where Let The Right One In doesn't exist, Let Me In would a good film. It would be different than anything that we have seen in the vampire genre. Unfortunately there is a better version of this film that has a better script, much better cinematography, quality acting and is original.
A documentary that examines the relationship between celebrity and society.
Adrian Grenier turns his fascination about a 14-year-old paparazzo, Austin Visschedyk, into a documentary following Austin as he tries to succeed as a boy in a mans game. He also delves into society's infatuation with celebrities.
Adrian is shunned at first from the paparazzi at first, as they think he is using Austin to make a documentary that shows them in a bad light, but they slowly start to allow him into their world. The life of a paparazzi is like living in another world. Some are hired by a company to stay outside of someone's neighborhood all day long, just waiting to see if that celebrity is going to come out. You can't leave to eat or go to the bathroom for fear that you may miss your one shot.
Austin has become famous with celebrities because most of them are surprised to see a small boy trying to take their picture and some even let him get the pictures that others cannot get. At the same time he has to deal with the mob of paparazzi, grown men, pushing and shoving trying to get the picture, when he is only half as tall as most of them.
The documentary is a great social commentary on our obsession with celebrities. People want to live like celebrities, but since most of us will never be movie stars or professional athletes, we have to live out our dreams through these people. That is why we care with Brad and Angelina are together or not, or what Britney was wearing the other day, its an escape from our own reality. That need fuels our urge to buy these magazines and watch TMZ, thus making a high demand "The Photo or Video Clip".
A lot of paparazzi get a bad rap for what they do, but in all honesty they are just doing a job that pays good, trying to support their own families. One of the great points of the movie is that celebrities can't complain that they are having their picture taken out on the street all the time, as soon as they hired a publicist they wanted to have their name out there. If it weren't for these magazines a lot of them would lose their celebrity status and the perks that come with that.
This documentary was very entertaining and makes you really think about our addiction to celebrities, especially since we all know that one person that always has the latest US Weekly or can't miss an episode of TMZ.
In The Burial Society, Sheldon Kasner, an unlikely criminal who works as a bank loan manager, infiltrates the mysterious world of the Chevrah Kadisha (the Jewish society that prepares bodies for burial according to ancient ritual).
There wasn't much to like about this movie. It was slow (I fell asleep), the cinematography was bad, the acting was sub-par and the editing just made things more confusing. The one thing about the movie that could have been good was the script, but all of those other elements can ruin a good script very quickly.
The movie drags by slowly revealing small pieces to the puzzle of why Sheldon, a middle age man is trying to join the Chevrah Kadisha who is made up of 3 old men. By the end of the movie I wasn't exactly sure who was in on what. And to make matters worse the twist of the movie is made even more confusing with bad editing.
I would say to stay away from this movie unless you want to learn a little bit about the Chevrah Kadisha. When it comes to indie movies this isn't a terrible movie, just not a good one.
Waking groggy in pitch darkness, Paul Conroy, an American truck driver working as a contractor in Iraq in 2006, slowly realizes he is trapped inside a wooden coffin, buried alive.
When I was buying my ticket, I was asked by the employee why I was going to see this movie. He said "why would you want to see a movie where there is only one actor in the entire movie and he is in a coffin the entire time. Other people have been leaving very angry that this is the entire movie."
That is what this movie is, so do not go to this movie expecting to see an action packed thriller. Prepare to be in a suffocating, dark hole with Ryan Reynolds for 95 minutes.
Ryan Reynolds has come a long way since Van Wilder. I thought he did a very good job in this role, having no one to feed off of and only a tiny space to act in, he really played a convincing role. He takes us on a emotional roller coaster that really makes this film enjoyable.
The film is very frustrating to watch but in a good way. Every step that Reynolds character has to go through seems to be hindered by someone who seems to ask to many stupid questions or has other priorities above him. That's what really made the script good, you know he doesn't have much time to live and with limited cell phone battery every second is important. Yet everyone he talks to seems to take forever to help him out.
What hurts the movie is that the movie is what it is. A man stuck in a coffin. He can say the same thing on the phone over and over trying to get out, but he is still stuck in the coffin, there are no other story plots developing. They also don't answer some questions that they bring up, like what is his relationship with his co-worker?
In the end of it all it was good for what it was, a 95 minute movie about a man in a coffin buried someone in the middle east. Don't expect anything more than that.
As he plans his next job, a longtime thief tries to balance his feelings for a bank manager connected to one of his earlier heists, as well as the FBI agent looking to bring him and his crew down.
After hearing a lot of buzz about this movie I was very excited to see it. The only part of this movie I think should be getting any buzz is Jeremy Renner. The movie was entertaining, but bad acting and a laughable script really took me out of the movie.
Being that most people have enjoyed this movie so far, I will link to a good writers review, that portrays what I have been hearing about the movie. Hopefully everyone will disagree with me and love the movie.
The fate of our country won't be decided on a battlefield, it will be determined in a classroom....
Director Davis Guggenheim's look into the public school system. How is it that more and more money is being pumped into the school systems and laws are being passed so that "No Child is Left Behind" but the reading and math scores have flat-lined since the 70's and the rates of students failing has only gone up.
Guggenheim follows 5 children that are all enrolled in public school around the country that are trying to get into prestigious charter schools with high success rates of students throughout high school and college. With such high rates of success though there are to many applicants for the available spots, some as low as 10 spots for over 100 applicants. To get into these schools you have to win a spot through a lottery.
He also goes inside several school systems that have tried reform, including following Michelle Rhee who did dramatic cuts in the District of Columbia. Her efforts though have her going up against the teachers union, which have the teachers first and studens second approach it seems.
Guggenheim does a good job at pointing out many out the many flaws of our academic system but does not give a lot of solutions for it. He shows how we got here, and how a couple of public schools have overcome being in low income neighborhoods, and shown that the right teaching strategies can produce successful students from any neighborhood. The problem is that these are the schools that only a handful of kids can get into every year and have to get the luck of the lottery to get in.
I think that Guggenheim does an excellent job in this documentary and really makes you wonder who is fighting for the youth to succeed. Will there ever be enough schools that aren't "failure factories"? Is there enough Geoffrey Canada's in the country to make a change? I think this is a must see for anyone with children in school.
Jackie works as a CCTV operator. Each day she watches over a small part of the world, protecting the people living their lives under her gaze...
Red Road won the 2006 Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival. One night while Jackie (Kate Dickie) is working she see's a man that sends her into a panic. She frantically begins calling people trying to find out if he has been released from prison early. She begins following the man, at work through the cameras, and in her off time in person.
I think what made this movie good also made me dislike it. This man is supposed to be kept a mystery, we know he was in prison and had something to do with Jackie, but Director Andrea Arnold wants to keep us guessing why the entire movie. At first it plays very well, as she follows him in person you think that if he see's her he will recognize her and that will start a confrontation. Then after they have a conversation and he hasn't recognized her you start to wonder why she has such an interest in him. And by the end of the movie I was beginning the think that Jackie is crazy.
Jackie lives a very cut off life. She doesn't speak to her parents much, she hadn't seen her sister in years before her wedding.She doesn't get together with friends. She works a job where she doesn't really have to deal much with other people, but instead gets to watch other peoples lives, which she enjoys. But we get the sense that things haven't always been this way.
The film kept me interested throughout because I wanted to know what this strange relationship that Jackie had with this man, and some of the scenes were very intense in large part to the sound design that was used instead of a music score, which I found brilliant. By the end of the movie though I had lost most of my interest, maybe in part to the heavy Scottish accents where I couldn't understand some of the dialogue or maybe to the fact that it took so long to get to the reveal and when it finally did the payoff didn't seem to be worth it.
In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother...
The word about Catfish started building at Sundance, a stranger than fiction documentary that follows the internet relationship of Nev Schulman, a photographer in New York, and a family in Michigan. After one of Nev's photographs is published in a magazine he receives a painting of the same picture by an 8 year old girl, Abby. Nev begins talking to Abby over the internet, and soon becomes friends with her mom Angela and sister Meagan.
Nev continues to receive paintings from Abby, who he is told has been selling paintings for up to $7000 dollars and is just about to open her our gallery. Nev's relationship with her older sister Meagan starts to become romantic as they talk though instant messaging and text messages daily.
One night while Nev is chatting with Meagan online he asks her to record a specific cover song for him, he is surprised when she comes back 20 minutes later with a beautiful recording. Nev starts suspecting something is up when he finds the exact recording on youtube by another singer. When he goes back and starts looking up her old songs she had "recorded" for him he starts finds that they are all other singers she had just taken off the internet. That is when Nev starts looking into all the things she has been telling him to see if any of them are true....
The filmmakers said they started recording the events because they thought it would be a good short film about a prodigy 8 year old artist, that Nev had somehow stumbled across and built this internet friendship with. They never could of guessed where this film would lead them.
All of the reviews coming out of Sundance were saying that "you will not believe the last 40 minutes of this film." So I went in with very high expectations on a huge twist. To me, the movie didn't deliver that. I won't give away the ending but there was really no surprise in what happened for me. It was still a fairly entertaining movie, that really makes you think about the power of the internet and Facebook, but was not the shocking documentary that I was expecting.
A village in Nineteenth Century Europe is at first relieved when a circus breaks through the quarantine to take the local's minds off the plague...
Vampire Circus is a 70's grindhouse film that falls short on what makes the old grindhouse films great. It starts out strong as the town people get fed up with Count Mitterhaus, as he has been killing all of the children in the town with the help of the seduced Anna. The town storms into his castle and after a small battle, a stake is driven into Count Mitterhaus's heart. It combines all the great attributes of the old grandhouse films. Very fake but over the top violence, nudity for no reason,bad acting, comical visual effects and a ridiculous script.
Then the movie slows down, it still has the bad acting and ridiculous script but when you do not have all of the elements continuing throughout the movie it gets tough to watch.
There are still some good parts throughout the movie. A panther attacking a group of travelers in the forest, two circus acrobats turning into bats and then back to humans, David Prowse (who is Darth Vader) as the strongman and of course the final fight scene.
In the end there just isn't enough to make you laugh and keep you entertained. It should have followed in the footsteps of movies like The Wizard of Gore and played to the strengths of what really makes these movies fun to watch.
With the small number of films coming out of Australia, I'd be happy with just one or two good films each year. But this year has set the bar high, and Red Hill is yet another example of the talent down under in the filmmaking industry.
Red Hill is a modern day western, set in high country Australia. Young police officer Shane Cooper (Ryan Kwanten) has just relocated with his pregnant wife to the small country town of Red Hill. Shane's first day on the job turns into a nightmare when the town gets news that Jimmy Conway (Tom E. Lewis), a convicted murderer, has escaped maximum security prison. Led by Old Bill (Steve Bisley), the police captain, they prepare for all-out war that the revenge-seeking Jimmy Conway is bringing their way. Shane has to fight to survive while he slowly uncovers the mysteries of Red Hill.
The movie was written, directed and edited by Patrick Hughes. You can see he is heavily influenced by No Country For Old Men: his ability to create tension is excellent. Instead of someone coming into a room and shooting it up, he builds up the tension and makes every gunshot count. The villain, Jimmy Conway, feels very similar to Javier Bardem's character in No Country. There is one scene where he takes time to play a song on the jukebox, while his victim hides in the corner, watching and waiting for his death to come. You almost expect him to flip a coin.
The movie starts out a little rough, a little too 'on the nose.' The characters seem generic at first. But as the movie progresses, these 'generic characters' evolve into real people. Ryan Kwanten's and Steve Bisley's performances are excellent and really carry the movie when needed.
The movie was shot in Victoria, and the beautiful landscapes and the small rural town really give the sense that this still is the wild country, where things haven't changed much from the 1800's and where you would expect things to be solved in an ol' fashioned shootout.
Director Patrick Hughes said while he was writing the script he was trying to write something that would be easy to make on a tight budget. Instead, he ended up with a script loaded with stunts, shootouts, pyrotechnics, horse chases, car crashes and prosthetic limbs getting blown off. The film was all privately financed with neither a distributor nor any government grant. In the end Screen Australia and Arclight came on to help complete the film. The film was shot in four weeks on second-hand film stock from Hollywood, using short ends from productions such as Entourage and Fast and the Furious.
The score, done by Dmitri Golovko, does an excellent job of of going back and forth between the happy country music of a small town and the high tension of a horror film.
This movie isn't without flaws. One important flashback scene happens twice, when showing it only once would have made the ending even more memorable. Some people might also find it odd that no matter how far Shane ends up away from the town he is able to make it back extremely fast. The biggest downfall I can see for this movie is that it will be compared to another Australian film that came out this year, Animal Kingdom, which was one of the best movies of the year thus far. Red Hill is not on the same level, but is still an excellent film. It is a ripping modern day western that will keep you entertained.
Capitalism: A Love Story examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans...
I am not a fan of Michael Moore at all. I think he manipulates people into believing his opinion in his movies by using information that isn't true, faking news headlines and doing over the top antics to "prove" his point. A good example would be to watch Fahrenhype 9/11 after your watch Fahrenheit 9/11. That being said, I this was his first movie that I watched and actually ended up being mad with him instead of at him.
The over the top antics are still there. Michael Moore tries to go into bank corporation buildings and do a citizens arrest of the people running the banks. He of course can't even get into the building so he ends up just telling the security guard why he is there and then has to leave the building. Was this really necessary for me to see how corrupt these companies are?
Capitalism does seem to ask the right questions though of what has happened to our country. When the people that run the banks also are the financial advisers to our country it makes you wonder if there is any hope for the little guy, or are the rich just going to get richer.
Moore interviews members of congress about the bank bailout bill which gets some very surprising and shocking answers on how it all happened. It's kind of funny that Michael Moore talks about the Governments scare tactics to get things passed, but in reality his movie is a scare tactic to his audience.
This movie is very effective at pushing your anger at the government and the banks, and I feel would be even more effective if Michael Moore didn't do it, I look forward to "An Inside Job", which looks to touch the same subject without Michael Moore.
After being betrayed by the organization who hired him, an ex-Federale launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former boss.
What started as an brilliant trailer for the Rodriguez/Tarantino Grindhouse Films has finally come to the big screen as it's own feature. It features an awesome cast of Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Jeff Fahey, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Cheech Marin and Lindsay Lohan. This looked to be the ultimate B-Movie, and I love a great B-Movie.
It starts out with heads rolling, blood spraying everywhere and naked women. The ultimate guy movie. But the movie fails to end with such a force, which made me leave the theater feeling let down by Machete.
The characters in the movie are great. Everyone is their own unique, over the top, B-Movie star. Of course when Steven Seagal is the ultimate Spanish speaking villain in any movie, you can't go wrong.
There is nothing bad to say about the first three-quarters of this movie. Perfection in my mind. The movie seems like it is building up to a huge "war" between two forces at the end of the movie, and with the way the movie started it looked like it was going to be epic........and then it happened. It's one of those movies that looked like their budget ran out before they could shoot the last scenes. Maybe it was intentionally that bad because Robert Rodriguez knows what he's making, and knows it's a B-Movie, but it was a giant letdown.
The first hour and a half of this movie are so good that it is still worth seeing, its just a shame that it couldn't finish as strong as it started.
A young man, realizes the shortcomings of the Utopian ideals on the hippie commune where he was raised...
This story takes an interesting look at the youth who are raised in a polygamist society. Instead of following in their parents footsteps and becoming free-loving hippies, they have become an angry, self-destructive group. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, they try to find any release from the world they live in.
I found it very interesting, trying to imagine what it would be like to grow up in this other world with practically no rules. As hard as the kids try to be different from their parents the things that they grew up around still have become a part of their lives. Such as casual sex between all of them from night to night, even though it seems that this is one thing that disgusts many of them when it comes to their parents.
The movie is shot beautifully, and has a unique style to it. It gives the feeling that you are in a place where normal isn't normal. I liked how the dream sequences were put together, really putting you in the head of one of the kids.
The movie seemed to drift in certain places and start to tell the story of another character, but then bring you back to the main character. Also at times it felt like the movie wasn't progressing, and they were just trying to show you how unhappy these kids are in as many ways as possible. With a run time of only 88 minutes though it didn't seem to hurt the movie to much.
Overall I really liked how they brought this film together to take you inside this world that seems like it should have been lost in the 70's but instead is a reality for these kids.
A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.
With such a good cast and a story that is absolutely crazy that any part of it is true, I thought this movie would be a can't miss. Wrong.
The movie jumps all over the place. It feels like a Cohen brothers movie gone wrong. The acting of course is good with this cast, but even that can't seem to save this movie. I believe that part of it that makes it seem so bad is how crazy it all seems, but being based on true events I imagine those parts really were that crazy.
The pace of the movie never really seems right, its to slow and then to fast. It jumps back and forth to much and doesn't really seem to know what it wants to be as a movie. A Comedy? Action? Just a crazy story?
Some of the scenes were funny, but I found most of the movie boring and very hard to watch.
***I recommend that if you think a movie looks good you should watch in anyway and then hopefully you will love it and write a comment on how horrible my review is.
After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area's new razor-toothed residents.
After seeing the trailers for this early in the summer I thought it looked like the worst movie that would come out in 2010. When the reviews started coming in though I kept hearing about the film makers doing it right and not trying to make it some hit 3D teen movie. That it was made knowing it was a B-Movie and made it over the top with boobs and gore. So I decided I had to see it.
I would say they got it about 65% right, there are many great elements to this movie. There is one epic scene where the piranha's finally make it to the Spring Break festivities and it doesn't disappoint. It has Troma film written all over it. I don't want to spoil any of it, but if there is one reason to see this movie, this scene is it (if your into Piranha's ripping people apart).
Many of the characters are great B-Movie rolls, Jerry O'Connell playing the coked up girls gone wild director. Ving Rhames chopping up piranha's with a boat propeller, Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfuss (all that needs to be said).
The rest of the movie seemed to be exactly what it shouldn't. A teen "comedy" that really isn't funny. It really seemed to bring down the movie and at times made me wonder why I wasted the money to be there. There is a very boring relationship subplot for the main character that really doesn't get explained very well and takes up way to much screen time.
Overall it was a fun trip to the movies, it had what was promised, boobs and over the top gore. There really isn't any other reason to see if besides that.
A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.
I saw this for the first time in the theaters last summer and absolutely loved it. It started out very slow (almost walked out of the theater), had terrible acting and looked horrible. Then came the nazi zombie's. Perfect B-Movie. The whole theater was a mixture of people dying laughing and people being completely grossed out by the over the top violent fight between the vacationing college kids and the nazi zombie's. It was one of my favorite B-Movies I could remember.
I watched the movie again just to have a laugh and was disappointed that it didn't hold up watching it alone. In fact it didn't hold up watching it with two people. The movie was still slow, bad acting and looked terrible, but without being on the big screen with a theater full of people, all of the deaths seemed cheap and not as funny. I thought I remembered over the top violence, heads getting chopped off, limbs severed ect...but instead saw mostly close up shots that didn't show any of that, just sound effects then a body dropping.
There are still some great scenes in this movie that lived up to what I remembered from the theater, but overall the film just doesn't hold up even as a good B-Movie unless you can have that theater experience.
Tells the story of seventeen year-old as he navigates his survival amongst an explosive criminal family and the detective who thinks he can save him.
Animal Kingdom was the winner at Sundance of the World Cinema Jury Prize and one of my favorite films of the year. Check out the Making the Movie Review.
