Just Watched Movies: 2007

[Phoenix]

pulpmariachi said:

The Mist (Frank Darabont) -- for about an hour-and-fifty-five minutes, this was one of the best horror movies I've seen. Incredibly intense, wonderfully character driven, and downright moody; it's very well-crafted. Then the last ten minutes hit and God, what a terrible ending, almost a "Fuck you" to the audience. If and when you see it, my advice would be when some of the characters get into the car (is that that big of a spoiler?), leave. Let it hang ambiguously over you. Because otherwise...I dunno. A-.

I'm lying, of course, about skipping out on the ending. I'd suggest you watch it because interpretations and the things people see and want in anything differ, so you may find something about it.

I feel like I've seen a lot of Stephen King movies with bad endings. Of course, there are great ones too but I think based on you guys' reviews I'll wait for DVD.

I saw Beowolf in Imax 3-D. It was just okay for me - the 3-D effects just aren't quite where they should be, when things move fast everything gets blurry and jumps around. I had to close one eye to really get what was going on. Overall, a mediocre film even if it wasn't in 3-D. 5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998)

Believe it or not, I finally got around to seeing this!
Cute romantic comedy about how young William Shakespeare was inspired to write Romeo & Juliet.
The actors are all very good, but I thought the movie itself was just pretty good. Definitely above average, but not excellent.
This film beat SAVING PRIVATE RYAN for Best Picture? It seems like one of those movies that people get really caught up in when it's new, but then slowly start forgetting about. Whereas, RYAN is still being watched and discussed pretty regularly, making it stand the test of time better.

7/10

FARCE OF THE PENGUINS (2007)

So, what happens when Bob Saget (former "Full House" dad and potty mouth comedian) writes, directs and stars in a spoof of MARCH OF THE PENGUINS? Well, first he gathers all the penguin stock footage he can and edits it all together into a fairly cohesive storyline. He then calls in favors to a bunch of his showbiz buddies, ie: Gilbert Gottfried, Lewis Black, Tracy Morgan, Jason Alexander, Christina Applegate, Whoopi Goldberg, the cast of "Full House", etc., to voice all the animals in the film. And then he hires a bonafide major movie star, Samuel L. Jackson, to narrate it, ala Morgan Freeman.
The result is this decidedly low budget, low brow flick. While pretty uneven, it does feature some fairly hilarious and laugh out loud moments. Maybe it's the wine we were drinking talking.
Is it worth the $5 to rent it? Don't know, I watched it on one of the movie channels. It was definitely worth that.

7/10

[slayrrr666]

Hard to Die-Exactly the kind of cheesy, sleazy, action-packed film that makes me glad to be a horror fan.
imdb.com/title/tt0103111/usercomments-19

Mortuary-Gets in some good moments, but not enough to really stand out from the pack.
imdb.com/title/tt0087746/usercomments-22

Night School-Gets really good with it's slashing scenes, but overeall hurt by the lack of good kills and gore.
imdb.com/title/tt0082812/usercomments-26

Video Violence-Noticeably cheap, but still manages to be entertaining and rather interesting.
imdb.com/title/tt0094262/usercomments-17

The Last Sect-Has some nice moments, but overall let down by lack of action for majority of film.
imdb.com/title/tt0494746/usercomments-8

Big Bad Wolf-Incredibly fun werewolf film, and if there's a gorier genre entry out there, I want to find it.
imdb.com/title/tt0488962/usercomments-22

Demons-Absolutely one of the all-time best monster movies, and Italian films, of all time.
imdb.com/title/tt0089013/usercomments-139

Blood Tide-A monster movie without much of a monster, but at least it has a few worthwhile moments spread throughout.
imdb.com/title/tt0083661/usercomments-29

[LivingDeadGirl]

Four Brothers 1/4- Bleh, bad acting, bad dialogue...definately not up there with Singleton's other works (Higher Learning, Boyz n the Hood).

[Termination]

Wyatt Earp (1994) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 8/10

[Termination]

Hot Rod (2007) (HD DVD)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital Plus - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - 8/10

Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) (HD DVD)

HD Video - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital Plus - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - 9/10

[ZapRowsdower]

Monsoon Wedding (2001, Mira Nair) - 8/10

Run, Lola, Run (1998, Tom Tykwer) - Very different type of filmmaking. It was brilliant how someone can make a movie that is 90% running into something exciting. I'm not really doing this movie justice at all. It was absolutely great. I loved this movie. Franka Potente is excellent. 10/10

Esther Kahn (2000, Arnaud Desplechin) - Summer Phoenix should really do more movies. She's a fantastic actress. This film drags at parts, but for the most part was very interesting. It's Summer Phoenix who intrigued me the most here, though. 8/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

BAD NEWS BEARS (2005)

Remake of the 70's comedy hit about a grizzled alcoholic who is hired to coach a baseball team of misfit 12 year olds.
I was all set to not like this flick at all, but in all honesty, I was quite entertained and laughed a lot. Billy Bob Thornton takes over for Walter Matthau in the lead role and does a great job. He's basically playing a PG-13 version of his "BAD SANTA" character, but he's so good at playing that kind of apathetic, low-life that it almost feels like he's not really acting. Greg Kinnear plays an opposing coach and he too is perfectly cast as a jerk who snidely insults people and has to win at all costs.
The kids are all well cast and have some very funny lines as well.
Except for a little more political correctness, a sign of the times, the kids are almost as foul-mouthed as the kids in the original, which is good because I fully expected their characters to be completely watered down.

7.5/10

[slayrrr666]

See the B-Day thread for what I watched.

[Termination]

Oldboy (2003) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 6/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 8/10
HD Audio dts - 9/10

[ZapRowsdower]

The Celebration (1998, Thomas Vinterberg)

The beginning of the Dogme movement, if I'm not mistaken... and very well-made I might add. Also, this is the final film I'm watching for a class this semester. Now, I watch movies on my own. At least until January. 8/10

Awake (2007, Joby Harrold)

Hayden Christensen acts in this movie. He actually does a believable job. Actually, so does Jessica Alba. The movie for the most part isn't bad, just the final fifteen minutes requires a little more suspension of disbelief than I was willing to grant this sort of movie. But overall, I liked what I saw. 7/10

[Quorthon]

Elizabethtown

And I quite enjoyed it.

Funny note: I never before connected the movie "Elizabethtown" to the real-life Kentucky town which is not far from Fort Knox where I did my Army Basic Training. That town was mentioned by Drill Sergeants as a "place to go" during family day when we graduated from Hell's Asshole. It was funny because some of the people in Elizabethtown exactly replicated the feel of Kentucky: A state forgotten in the 1970's. However, it didn't touch on the agonizing terrible humidity that also plagues that backwards state. But then, Minnesota is hella humid in summer, too. So it probably just seemed worse, you know, because I was in the Army in training in that nightmare.

[Termination]

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 7/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 7/10
HD Audio LPCM - 9/10

Day of the Dead (1985) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 7/10
HD Audio LPCM - 8/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

HOSTEL (2005)

Not nearly as gruesome as I was expecting it to be, but not very good either.
The cut achilles heel? OUCH!!! The burned face and removed eyeball? Pretty fake looking.

SPOILER!!!

Having Jay Hernandez being able to get revenge on everyone who was directly connected with his involvement was pretty contrived. "Hey look, there's the asshole who recommended we come here, chatting with the two sluts who set us up. All conveniently standing in front of my car. Guess I'll run them all over." And on top of that, "Shaky Hands is on the train with me again? Might as well take him out too!".
I'm all for the hero exacting revenge, but just way too convenient.


4.5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

Just in time for the theatrical release of THE GOLDEN COMPASS, I finally got around to seeing

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (2005)

Man, that's a long title. Anyone else notice that fantasy movie titles in general are getting longer and longer? HARRY POTTER AND THE BLAH, BLAH, BLAH... THE LORD OF THE RINGS, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH... STAR WARS EPISODE BLAH, BLAH, BLAH... LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...
See what I mean?

But I digress.
I actually really enjoyed this movie. I thought it stuck pretty closely to the beloved classic book, but it didn't bore me like a group of certain Hobbits did, nor did it take itself as seriously as the adventures of the boy wizard. Except for the very beginning, when it was introducing all the main characters, it moved along at a pretty brisk pace. The acting was good, especially scene stealer Tilda Swinton as the White Witch and James McAvoy as Mr. Tumnus, the faun.
And come on, Qui-Gon Jinn himself as the voice of Aslan the lion? Bonus points for good taste right there.
The movie is a visual feast for the eyes, but doesn't get bogged down in trying to be all dark & moody. As a fantasy fan, it's great to see so many legendary mythological creatures on screen at the same time, everything from fauns and centaurs to minotaurs, unicorns and even griffins make appearances here. Great battle scenes too.
This is one I regret not having caught on the big screen.

8.5/10