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Post by blackrose on Jan 6, 2010 10:09:58 GMT -5
Get Smart
2.5/5
I should say upfront that slapstick, in general, isn't my preferred form of comedy. Also, I'm not generally a big fan of Steve Carell. There were some chuckle worthy parts, so it wasn't a total suckfest like, say, Napoleon Dynamite, but it wasn't great and some gags were just trying too hard. Also, I couldn't get into the pairing of him with Anne Hathaway, 'cause it just didn't work for me at all.
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Post by Shannon on Jan 10, 2010 13:08:00 GMT -5
I watched Premonition on tv last night and cried. It wasn't the best movie ever, I'm just a sap.
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Post by blackrose on Jan 11, 2010 10:12:40 GMT -5
I didn't like Premonition, tho it did have a few heart-string moments. But the plot was absurd, and the whole thing about how it's ok he died because at least she has another baby by him? Ugh - I wanted to kill something.
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Post by Shannon on Jan 12, 2010 8:15:16 GMT -5
Yeah, that was disappointing. I wanted him to live. Live, Christian!!!! Oh wait, right actor, wrong character. But there's another example of a fleshed out FEMALE character and a one-dimensional male character.
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Post by blackrose on Jan 12, 2010 8:57:00 GMT -5
I see what you did there. Though I'm not entirely sure I'd say her character was entirely fleshed out.
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Post by Denethor on Jan 28, 2010 1:13:32 GMT -5
Hm, lessee, I have seen several since last I posted on them so I'll be fast on each of them. 2012. Should be subtitled "when real estate attacks". Bad. C- at best. Only watch until things are done blowing up, and skip all the "dialogue", all the "characters", and the, erm, "plot". Sherlock Holmes. I've always liked those stories but I'm no purist, especially for a film version, so despite the portrayal of Holmes as an action-packer I'd still give it a B. A certain element does look like a betrayal of the Holmes approach to the universe until near the end, so don't leave early. That won't be hard, because the film's not that long and even if you don't like the story there's plenty of eye candy of both, erm, flavors. Like a Holmes story though, it's plot driven and there's a good chance that anyone reading this who has not seen it yet is planning to rent it, so I won't say much more. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. If you want to see this in theaters, you'd better hurry, at least on the coasts. It's starting to disappear. It'll work on the small screen though. And it's Terry Gilliam! What's not to love! It definitely has his oddball dark-humor take on things, both visually and story-wise. The scenes in the Imaginarium itself are the most fun. Also a B, an A- if one's in the right kind of mood. Avatar. Everything you have heard about that one is true. You'll never see a prettier piece of political and diplomatic fail, ever. If you see it go for the full poison in 3D on the big screen because that's it's strength. Otherwise it has such flat characters and such a stock story I can't believe it wasn't released in the summertime. A+ for fancy special effects, D- in everything else. It's really that divided. I'll say no more because, duh, you've seen it anyway. I think it's in theaters on the Moon by now. Lastly, the religion-themed twofer: The Book of Eli and Legion. BofE had a stoooopid premise but was the better of the two movie wise. Legion is short 'n' gory. (BofE is also gory, hello, Denzel Washington, but it's longer). If you like post-apocalyptic heroics and don't mind a few elements not really adding up, see Bof E. If you like angels but wish they were badass the way they were supposed to be instead of the fluffy New Age kind, see Legion. But don't expect the plot to hang together or any of the actions of the people in either film to make any damn sense. They're religion-themed, after all. Yeah, I got a theater gift certificate for my birthday, what of it?
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Post by Shannon on Feb 2, 2010 10:58:03 GMT -5
Saw a few movies over the weekend..
9. I liked it well enough. I was sort of irritated that it followed the basic kid's movie formula, just in a darker way, but overall it was still enjoyable. I would like to think it's representative of religion and not technology, though.
Surrogates. I think you definitely have to suspend belief for this one. The idea is definitely possible, but how it changes the world? I think not. It could have been better, and I bet the graphic novel is.
Inglourious Basterds. (Did I misspell that correctly? Heh.) A fun movie, that is completely irreverent of the actual second world war and disrespectful of the men who really fought it. But whatever. The dialogue was genius, IMO. The action was meh. I heart Soshanna.
2012 I only watched part of this. I wasn't in the mood for an end-of-the-world flick. What I saw was ok.
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Post by Denethor on Feb 7, 2010 19:09:41 GMT -5
Well if you only watched the first half or so of 2012, not to worry, you saw the good part. The whole rest of it with the "arks" carrying refugees and artwork to the last remaining land (Southern Africa, "Cape of Good Hope" - I would actually like to think at that point it would more likely be, Cape of We-Still-Have-a-Functioning-Navy-And-You-Asshole-Refugees-Are-Not-Welcome) was no end of cheesy and one didn't even care about any of the characters at that point. The movie's virtue lay entirely in blowing shit up and that was mostly in the first half.
But you know how I get. Legion was so stupid it had Archangels beating on each other with vaguely clockpunk weapons, not to mention possessed people who were clearly an excuse to put zombies in an angel movie, and I still liked that one better.
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Post by blackrose on Feb 9, 2010 10:35:34 GMT -5
Up
It was cute, and I liked it, but it was also depressing. My gods, I cried more than I laughed... 4/5
Inglourious Basterds
I liked it. It wasn't quite what I expected from the previews, and I thought it was a bit ponderous in places, but overall it was good. 3.5 / 5
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Post by blackrose on Mar 11, 2010 9:15:19 GMT -5
Casanova
It was ok, kind of funny in places, but mostly predictable. 3/5
District 9
I wasn't as blown away as others. The whole moral of how humans suck was sort of covered in the first 5 minutes. But it was ok. 3.5/5
Better Off Dead
I had never seen this, but got recommended it to me by Netflix. Maybe you had to watch it back in the 80s for it to be funny? 2/5
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Post by blackrose on Mar 15, 2010 7:40:11 GMT -5
Zombieland
3.5/5
This is one of those movies where I was prompted to rent it based more on other people's say so than my own interest from the previews - which is to say that I went in expecting it to kinda suck. Well, it didn't suck, but I didn't think it was as rip-roaringly awesome as others did, either.
At first I was afraid it was just going to be a gross-out movie, and there is a lot of gross-out stuff, but there's also some kinda funny stuff. And some predictable stuff. And some "how come they never stop for gas or food aside from Twinkies" stuff - but maybe that's just me overthinking what is fundamentally a brainless comedy.
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Post by Shannon on Mar 17, 2010 3:32:47 GMT -5
Zombieland3.5/5 This is one of those movies where I was prompted to rent it based more on other people's say so than my own interest from the previews - which is to say that I went in expecting it to kinda suck. Well, it didn't suck, but I didn't think it was as rip-roaringly awesome as others did, either. At first I was afraid it was just going to be a gross-out movie, and there is a lot of gross-out stuff, but there's also some kinda funny stuff. And some predictable stuff. And some "how come they never stop for gas or food aside from Twinkies" stuff - but maybe that's just me overthinking what is fundamentally a brainless comedy. Or, how come these people never freaking drive a car through the doors of Wal-mart etc. (I say Wal-mart only because they have those massive entrances) and just grab food and shit as they drive through the aisles? Why do they always park and get out? Not as hilarious as Ben and Aaron made it seem, either, but then they caught a lot of guy humor that I guess I didn't. I guess.
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Post by blackrose on Mar 23, 2010 9:20:41 GMT -5
Alice in Wonderland
We went to see this in IMAX 3-D, and it was pretty good. I was a little worried from the reviews which said it looked good but had no plot. I admit that the plot was a bit thin, but it was a perfectly acceptable plot for an action-adventure type story, which this was. My biggest complaint is that I couldn't always understand what was being said, but that was only occasionally. Overall I enjoyed it.
3.5/5
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Post by Denethor on Apr 9, 2010 20:12:30 GMT -5
Clash of the Titans. Could anything be more ridiculous than Avatar? ...You had to ask. I am not evaluating with any thought toward mythological accuracy. Are you kidding? This is a CGI graphics movie. It had real actors, but there any semblance to reality ceases; if it had been a "mythological inaccuracies drinking game", I'd be in the hospital, and not writing this. Not even going there. But it had a bunch of familiar monsters from the Perseus story, imaginatively rendered, plus a few guest stars in that area. If CGI monsters are your thing, go see this. It's also got plenty of action (fighting type not adult type), but that goes with the territory. Can't-misses include Charon's ferry (my fave), the Stygian witches, and even Medusa (if you don't mind her being actually fairly good-looking, which I found a bit jarring). You can go to the bathroom during the scenes involving the people of Argos (in case you do this, I'll give the spoiler take-home from those scenes: the rulers of the city are becoming anti-theistic but the people are not). Due to time convenience factors I saw it in 2D rather than 3D; perhaps the Kraken would have been less of a disappointment if I'd done otherwise. The Gods look great. I would hope so. Now the Gods are the bad guys throughout this movie, which shouldn't be all that surprising; it's like the Perseus story as told by Christopher Hitchens. I found this a better fit than the angels-as-bad-guys in Legion, maybe that says something about me, maybe not, but at least here they're starting with entities that are not viewed by so many modern people as all-good. (Of course, the fact that I often find myself siding with the Gods and angels when they are in their "smitey" moods probably helps with that). I couldn't figure out if they were making an anti-Pagan statement, an anti-religion statement, or no statement at all, though I tend to the latter interpretation. I'd give it a C+, probably going up a grade if you're in the mood for the CGI; in that event, pop for the 3D. (I swear it even used some of the same music as Avatar).
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Post by Denethor on Apr 20, 2010 21:48:21 GMT -5
During my last trip I happened to pass by a movie rental place that was going out of business - which meant, of course, a cr*p*ss B movie bonanza, at a per-film purchase price that averaged well below what each film originally cost to rent, and a total price well below my per diem even though I did in fact eat that day. Naturally, given my recent inclinations, I went with a pop-religion-horror general theme, though not all of the films I picked up were in that category. So tonight's home movie feature was: Excorcism. It carried a copyright of 2005, though no one in the film had a cell phone or a home computer and at least one of the "screwup kids ripe for demon possession" looked like a pseudo-hippie circa 1975. Directed by You Never Heard Of Them, produced by You Never Heard Of Them, starring You Never Heard Of Them. You get the picture. Opening scenes are of a "home invasion" of a Nice White People House by Kids Of Various Colors From The Wrong Side Of The Tracks. The house, mind you, is chock full of angels. Figurines, statues, portraits, actual angels. (I had to laugh. No, my place is not that bad ). One kid thinks a picture of a warrior angel attacks him and the story gets kicked off; any normal human being entering that place would have simply assumed the human inhabitants of the place were selling angel geegaws to support themselves. But oh no, this is an Average Christian Family (except for the part about Dad having made a deal with the Devil a ways back), and the Evil Kid thinks the religious art is attacking him. And there's the odd fact that despite their being Christians with all these angels around, there are mysteriously no crosses anywhere to be seen. I've seen Pagans and Ceremonialists with angel decorations (though not usually that many), but I'm used to heavily dedicated Christian families adorning their homes with at least a cross or two. Also, though they're nominally Catholic, nowhere is there either a Christ or a Madonna. The fact that I had time for these details should tell the reader something about the quality of the show. And oh, the dialogue. Even the demons had bad dialogue. I am well used to the fact that the good guys and the angels in these things tend to have stilted, pedantic verse and the demons get all the good lines (we all know there's a "coolness bias" in favor of the infernal), which might have been the case here had there been any. Special effects? Erm, most impressive were the bluescreened ghostly figures of an actress provided with an old-fashioned dress and a visit to the hypnotist (seriously, she walked with her arms stretched out straight ahead, like someone sleepwalking in a cartoon, mumbling an utterly forgettable line which I forgot), and of the aforementioned somewhat clumsy attacking angel. There were some blah CGI demon faces. A darkened room with a red light sufficed for "one of the lower levels of Hell". Horrible. Traumatic. Vomit-rocious...and thus, of course, utterly delightful. I recommend supplementation with alcohol, though I'll have to wait to really try that because it's an office day tomorrow. Grades: D+; if you're in a B-movie mood, B-/C+; drunk out of your gourd, A-/B+. I'm going to hang on to this in case of a video party involving mead.
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