Fun, twisted. Great late night movie, especially if you're a fan of Alan Rickman and suspense films. I would say it was made at the wrong time, and it never really made a splash when it came out as far as I know. It definitely kept me entertained the whole time. I wouldn't seek it out, but if it's on, it's worth a watch.
Baiscally, Alan Rickman is miserably married, and on a vacation with his wife, ostensibly to patch things up, though things never seem quite right. A younger guy who seems like trouble shows up, and begins an inappropriately close relationship with the wife. And from there, it actually gets interesting.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Reeker
I love bad films, but this one occupies that realm of "why'd I bother", rather than "that was amazing".
The first five minutes definitely outshine the rest of this movie. It starts off giving the impression that a really bad stench is killing people violently. That's right- a woman hits a deer, she stops, and her husband and dog are killed horribly by a cloud of stink while her kid screams. Amazingly bad/good start.
Unfortunately, it turns out that when you're on the verge of death, or having a near death experience, you 'smell death' or something, and get sucked into this trippy fight-fo- your-life game with some kind of robo-death villain. It's less fun than it sounds- if you're in the mood for something decently bad in this genre, go watch Running Man. That one's worth watching.
The first five minutes definitely outshine the rest of this movie. It starts off giving the impression that a really bad stench is killing people violently. That's right- a woman hits a deer, she stops, and her husband and dog are killed horribly by a cloud of stink while her kid screams. Amazingly bad/good start.
Unfortunately, it turns out that when you're on the verge of death, or having a near death experience, you 'smell death' or something, and get sucked into this trippy fight-fo- your-life game with some kind of robo-death villain. It's less fun than it sounds- if you're in the mood for something decently bad in this genre, go watch Running Man. That one's worth watching.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Extract
I'm a big Mike Judge fan.
Still, don't see extract. Sorry Mike.
I think what was going on in this film was an attempt to adapt the humor of awkward situations done so perfectly in King of the Hill to the big screen. The problem is that the main character sails through it too smoothly, handles it too well. Never a blush, never a real outburst, never real panic. This man's life goes down the drain, but he handles it calmly, and in the end pulls it back out. His botched attempts in the mean time are carried off without flourish or self consciousness, and the absurdity of the situations blurs into everyday disasters.
The only thing that really had people laughing during the entire movie was David Koechner's untimely death, and that scene was set up by Kristin Wiig, who actually managed to put on an entertaining performance when her character's life started going to shit. Good, considering she had something like five minutes on screen.
Still, don't see extract. Sorry Mike.
I think what was going on in this film was an attempt to adapt the humor of awkward situations done so perfectly in King of the Hill to the big screen. The problem is that the main character sails through it too smoothly, handles it too well. Never a blush, never a real outburst, never real panic. This man's life goes down the drain, but he handles it calmly, and in the end pulls it back out. His botched attempts in the mean time are carried off without flourish or self consciousness, and the absurdity of the situations blurs into everyday disasters.
The only thing that really had people laughing during the entire movie was David Koechner's untimely death, and that scene was set up by Kristin Wiig, who actually managed to put on an entertaining performance when her character's life started going to shit. Good, considering she had something like five minutes on screen.
almost there...
Final Destination 3-D
Uneven. I liked the first two. The third was... meh. This one is a little more meh.
The thing is that in the first two movies, there's a certain amount of fear on behalf of the characters. You don't like all of them, but you're cheering them on to beat death, until someone finally does in the second. Even the third had some semblance of humanity in the characters.
By this point, we don't really get to know any of them well enough to care when they bite it. There's not really any suspense (hell, the main character's is something in this one, so we even get to know what's going to happen before it does), there's no horror movie adrenaline. Really, you're just waiting to see how the next person is going to die. It's like a weird kind of porn, with previews, teases, awkward premises, all of which are just muck to get through until the bodily fluids start flying. You end up cheering for death, instead of the characters.
The most disconcerting part- the standard horror movie morality starts poppilng up in this one. Have sex, and you get killed. Separate, and you get killed. Be addicted to something, and get killed. What was refreshing, or at all good for that matter, about the previous two was the amorality of death, and the unpredictability. In the end, everyone dies, because, well, everyone dies eventually. That's how death works. Not because they banged someone in the pool-house. Trying to bring a moral compass to it, just felt... out of place.
Uneven. I liked the first two. The third was... meh. This one is a little more meh.
The thing is that in the first two movies, there's a certain amount of fear on behalf of the characters. You don't like all of them, but you're cheering them on to beat death, until someone finally does in the second. Even the third had some semblance of humanity in the characters.
By this point, we don't really get to know any of them well enough to care when they bite it. There's not really any suspense (hell, the main character's is something in this one, so we even get to know what's going to happen before it does), there's no horror movie adrenaline. Really, you're just waiting to see how the next person is going to die. It's like a weird kind of porn, with previews, teases, awkward premises, all of which are just muck to get through until the bodily fluids start flying. You end up cheering for death, instead of the characters.
The most disconcerting part- the standard horror movie morality starts poppilng up in this one. Have sex, and you get killed. Separate, and you get killed. Be addicted to something, and get killed. What was refreshing, or at all good for that matter, about the previous two was the amorality of death, and the unpredictability. In the end, everyone dies, because, well, everyone dies eventually. That's how death works. Not because they banged someone in the pool-house. Trying to bring a moral compass to it, just felt... out of place.
More Catsup
Ok, now what... I've seen a bunch of films this summer, but I'm already forgetting most of them.
500 days of summer-
Enjoyable. Twisted. Mean. I liked it. My main complaint is the cheezy ending. We're left with the choice that either a) stuff just works out in the end because the universe has a sense of humor or something (gag me) or b) the main character still hasn't figured out it doesn't, but that's okay for some reason.
Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying one relationship that was a bad idea to begin with should sour the main character on love for life. I'm not even saying it should sour him on love for more time than it takes him to get over summer. What I'm saying is that by the end, he should have at least realized that these things aren't fated, or that if they are, we can't spot them.
Either way, I'd be willing to give it another watch.
Moving on...
Star Trek 99999999 (or whatever we call it)
Great fun. Shockingly, it entertained the non-trekkies, the moderate sci-fi fans, and the die-hard trekkies all at once. Bravo J.J. Abrams. You don't even have to like sci fi. Rag on it for the Beastie Boys, and the very un-trek product placement, but whatever, you know you had fun.
The Proposal-
Romantic Comedy... which means its predictable. But I'm pretty much ok with that at this point- by now I think of Romantic Comedies as a highly structured sub-genre of movie making. It's almost like a performance of a classic piece of music- the skill is in the execution. You don't go to a romantic comedy to be shocked, you go to be entertained, amused, and to think things will all work out for a little while.
In this genre, it was fairly entertaining. The start was awkward to the point of painful, and I'd say that Bullock and Ryan Reynolds almost had better antagonistic chemistry than romantic chemistry. But overall, it ended up having some clever moments, some fresh gags, and decent enough pace to keep me awake. Not bad overall, but I don't feel the need to watch it again.
District 9... get's its own post. I hate that I'm into it, because everyone else liked it too, but it's worth a watch or two.
500 days of summer-
Enjoyable. Twisted. Mean. I liked it. My main complaint is the cheezy ending. We're left with the choice that either a) stuff just works out in the end because the universe has a sense of humor or something (gag me) or b) the main character still hasn't figured out it doesn't, but that's okay for some reason.
Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying one relationship that was a bad idea to begin with should sour the main character on love for life. I'm not even saying it should sour him on love for more time than it takes him to get over summer. What I'm saying is that by the end, he should have at least realized that these things aren't fated, or that if they are, we can't spot them.
Either way, I'd be willing to give it another watch.
Moving on...
Star Trek 99999999 (or whatever we call it)
Great fun. Shockingly, it entertained the non-trekkies, the moderate sci-fi fans, and the die-hard trekkies all at once. Bravo J.J. Abrams. You don't even have to like sci fi. Rag on it for the Beastie Boys, and the very un-trek product placement, but whatever, you know you had fun.
The Proposal-
Romantic Comedy... which means its predictable. But I'm pretty much ok with that at this point- by now I think of Romantic Comedies as a highly structured sub-genre of movie making. It's almost like a performance of a classic piece of music- the skill is in the execution. You don't go to a romantic comedy to be shocked, you go to be entertained, amused, and to think things will all work out for a little while.
In this genre, it was fairly entertaining. The start was awkward to the point of painful, and I'd say that Bullock and Ryan Reynolds almost had better antagonistic chemistry than romantic chemistry. But overall, it ended up having some clever moments, some fresh gags, and decent enough pace to keep me awake. Not bad overall, but I don't feel the need to watch it again.
District 9... get's its own post. I hate that I'm into it, because everyone else liked it too, but it's worth a watch or two.
Ketchup
I'm going to put a few retroactive reviews up here, films that I don't want to forget from earlier this summer. While these three are new, I do watch a lot of older movies too, because I don't always have the time/money for the theater. Plus, my babe has a vast collection of old films.
The Watchmen-
It's been gone over and gone over. I saw it once, I'd like to see it again and really make up my mind. It was definitely beautiful, visually and conceptually. It was faithful to the graphic novel to a fault, at times in a panel by panel way that made for weirdly timed transitions and dialogue. Other than that, I enjoyed it.
It's hard for me to really pass judgement because I'm already a fan of the graphic novel. My girlfriend, a confessed nerd but not a comic reader, thought it was very good, so it has the outsider appeal.
Now the real meat- some people claimed that it was a movie about nothing, or more accurately that the graphic novel was about something that we are supposedly over. The whole idea of violence being the only uniter. Or of humanity being meaningless. Or about teenage despair. Or something.
I think those all miss the point. The point is, in the midst of all this hero, superhero, and superhero as metaphor for political super power hype, what kind of person becomes a hero? What kind of person do you become, in being a hero? What would having control over the world be like?
If you ask me, the point of the watchmen is not the (honestly) stock sci-fi plot that everyone tries to deconstruct. It's a beautifully plotted character study, taking you deep into the flaws, foibles, madness, and arroagance at the center of the kind of person who would want to save us all.
So what if Rorschach's dialogue is cheezy- he's a grown man who dresses like Dick Tracy for god's sake. He has a screw loose, and talks like bad noir because that's what he thinks he is- a tough ass private dick done wrong, saving us from our weakness, who got so twisted up along the way he lost himself to the character.
Yes, the sex scene is awkward. She's immature, he's an overweight doofus.
Yes, there's a naked blue man all over the place. When you can see the atoms inside someone's brain change states while they're thinking, and already know what they're thinking, and what they're going to think, does modesty really make any sense any more?
Bah, anyway, I liked it. But then I liked 2001 a space odyssey, somehow.
The Watchmen-
It's been gone over and gone over. I saw it once, I'd like to see it again and really make up my mind. It was definitely beautiful, visually and conceptually. It was faithful to the graphic novel to a fault, at times in a panel by panel way that made for weirdly timed transitions and dialogue. Other than that, I enjoyed it.
It's hard for me to really pass judgement because I'm already a fan of the graphic novel. My girlfriend, a confessed nerd but not a comic reader, thought it was very good, so it has the outsider appeal.
Now the real meat- some people claimed that it was a movie about nothing, or more accurately that the graphic novel was about something that we are supposedly over. The whole idea of violence being the only uniter. Or of humanity being meaningless. Or about teenage despair. Or something.
I think those all miss the point. The point is, in the midst of all this hero, superhero, and superhero as metaphor for political super power hype, what kind of person becomes a hero? What kind of person do you become, in being a hero? What would having control over the world be like?
If you ask me, the point of the watchmen is not the (honestly) stock sci-fi plot that everyone tries to deconstruct. It's a beautifully plotted character study, taking you deep into the flaws, foibles, madness, and arroagance at the center of the kind of person who would want to save us all.
So what if Rorschach's dialogue is cheezy- he's a grown man who dresses like Dick Tracy for god's sake. He has a screw loose, and talks like bad noir because that's what he thinks he is- a tough ass private dick done wrong, saving us from our weakness, who got so twisted up along the way he lost himself to the character.
Yes, the sex scene is awkward. She's immature, he's an overweight doofus.
Yes, there's a naked blue man all over the place. When you can see the atoms inside someone's brain change states while they're thinking, and already know what they're thinking, and what they're going to think, does modesty really make any sense any more?
Bah, anyway, I liked it. But then I liked 2001 a space odyssey, somehow.
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