Killshot

Good movie. I don't really have any complaints with it. Good pacing, good acting, simple but interesting story. Mickey Rourke plays his part perfectly. He's a cold-blooded killer with the same cool attitude we all love him for, but he injects just enough humanity into his performance to make the character compelling. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a joy to watch, as always. He really pushes the envelope of his ability here. This is the first character of his that I hated by the end of the movie, which I'm pretty sure is what the filmmakers intended. Rosario Dawson is so good that I fell in love with her character and completely forgot it was her I was watching. Definitely worth checking out.

My Bloody Valentine

Nice little horror flick. It doesn't aspire to be anything more than what it is, but it has a firm plot to stand on and deep enough characters to drive the story. There's some bad acting here and there, but the majority of it is tolerable. The gore is where the bulk of the budget went, and it pays off. It's good ol' fashioned, overblown violence that's meant to amuse the audience more than horrify them. I have no complaints with it. My Bloody Valentine is bloody fun and nothing more.

Minority Report

Good, solid sci-fi flick. Nice balance of story, characters/acting, visuals, etc. In fact the visuals are excellent -- a whole world of future Washington D.C., with a lot of cool tech, but some oppressive overtones, and then plenty of seedier parts of town, country homes, and so on. I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan, but he does a nice job as lead. One of my favorite Spielberg flicks. I appreciate that he doesn't dumb it down -- you have to pay attention, there's a lot going on, and you have to think through the implications of being able to "know" the future ahead of time, destiny vs. free will, etc...

Friday the 13th (2009)

What a waste of potential...

Friday the 13th could have been a great remake, especially with Marcus Nispel (whose remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre I found pretty impressive) at the helm. In the months leading up to its release, I read in interviews and articles about how different the filmmakers were trying to make this Jason. They wanted him to be more expressive in his movements. They wanted him to be quicker and more aggressive. They wanted him to run more. All of this interested me, and gave me hope that the standard, by-the-book horror movie was going to be steadily fazed out by a new movement of better, smart(er) horror movies.

My hopes were misplaced.

Nispel's Friday the 13th is the same old horror movie studios have been cranking out for decades. Jason is anything but new. He's the same, lumbering zombie he's always been. There is aboslutely nothing fresh about this movie. Everything in it has been done a thousand times before, and not particularly well, for that matter. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of Wax were nothing new, but they were well done with decent plots and interesting characters.

The violence is another issue I have with this movie. I'm not morally opposed to gore in movies, but I do feel that too much too often is distracting. There's one scene in particular in this film involving a chisel and a guy's throat that was dragged out much longer than it needed to be.

All in all, I don't think Nispel's Friday the 13th is worth watching if you're looking for something new.

Big Night

I'd forgotten how good this movie is, a love song to food and Italian culture. Great acting all around, great directing, interesting characters. I think you sort of have to be in the right mood for this, but once you get into it, it is just a joy to be in this world. The last scene, where Secondo cooks a simple frittata and eats it with his brother Primo, and they make up (after a huge fight) without a word, is just sublime...

Scenes that give me goosebumps

Along similar lines as my dad's "most audacious scene" post, I've decided to list a few scenes from movies that never fail to give me goosebumps when I see them. These are scenes that make me feel like a kid in oversized clothes while I watch them.

(In no particular order...)
1. The Dark Knight: The Batmobile has been hit by a bazooka (which was meant for an armored vehicle carrying Harvey Dent) and is a wreck. It looks like Batman's going to have to huff it on foot at this point. Then one of the front wheels starts spinning, and you're reminded that Batman is the James Bond of superheros and is always prepared for anything. Wondering what's going to happen and how it's going to happen, you sit on the edge of your seat, eyes glued to the screen. BOOM! The Batpod explodes out of the wreckage of the Batmobile, drums pounding triumphantly, and Batman zooms off to save Harvey Dent.

2. Iron Man: Tony Stark has just learned that his company has been selling weapons under the table to terrorists in the Middle East. Determined to help those who are being harmed by his own weapons, he dons the suit and jets off to Gulmira, not far from where he had been held prisoner earlier in the film. As he arrives, a group of terrorists is raiding a village and generally causing mayhem. Just as an innocent father and husband is about to be shot, Iron Man descends from the sky, stands tall, and kicks some major ass. Then, when a few terrorists use women and children as human shields, he uses his computer to lock exclusively onto the hostiles and drops them in less than a second with tiny projectiles in his shoulders.

3. Die Hard: The LAPD is finally aware that a group of international terrorists have taken hostages in a building and are recklessly executing an assault. They are quickly cut down, though, by the terrorists, who were more than ready. McClaine, pissed that cops are getting killed, puts some C-4 explosives on a desk chair and weights it down with a computer monitor. Just before dropping it down the elevator shaft and creating a huge explosion that rips through a whole floor of the building, he says, "Geranimo, motherf**ker!"

4. Casino Roayle: James Bond is chasing a bomb maker through a construction sight in South Africa. The bomb maker is very fast and hops around almost effortlessly, using pieces of the construction sight to accelerate him as he jumps. At one point, he jumps up, grabs a bar, and slides through a thin slot several feet up the wall. Bond, utilizing more force and less grace, bursts through the wall like the Hulk, shakes off the dust, and keeps running.

5. Transformers: There are several moments in this movie. The first is when Bumblee, after saving Sam and Mikayla from Barricade and speeding away, transforms and puts his fists up, ready to throwdown with Barricade.

Another is when we are first introduced to Optimus Prime. I will never, ever forget seeing this on opening day at 10 pm with a full audience... The Autobots descend from space in a beautifully scored sequence, pick cars to transform into, and converge on Bumblebee, Sam, and Mikayla. The moment Optimus Prime emerged from the mist, drove up, and transformed, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. It was one of the greatest moments of my life.

Finally, we come to the climax of the film, where the Autobots and the Decepticons are battling it out in a city. Things are looking rough for the good guys, who are doing their best despite the fact that their leader isn't with them. Then, in a moment that makes my heart flutter every time, Optimus Prime arrives just in the nick of time, transforms, and faces off against Megatron. It's a shamless heroic moment, but it gets me every time. (I remember the first or second time I watched Transformers with my brother, he cheered, "Go Optimus Prime!" at this moment.)

Brüno

This movie is...different. There's really no other way to put it. Some people will love it and some people will hate it. I'm in the middle.

Brüno is presented as a "mockumentary" in the style of Spinal Tap and other Christopher Guest films, and it's executed pretty well. There's a good balance between Brüno's interaction with the audience and with the other characters.

The humor is pretty ridiculous, and MUST be taken with a grain of salt. The movie is about a gay Austrian fashion designer, so sex is worked into just about every joke of the movie. (Racial stereotypes come in at a close second.) Some of it is pretty clever, while a lot of it is shamelessly extreme. It all boils down to taste. If vulgarity is not your cup of tea, then you will absolutely hate this movie. The only other movie I can readily think of that is as blatantly offensive as this film is South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

Brüno is a pretty one-dimensional character, but he is fun to watch. He alternates between speaking in English and speaking in German, so his hackneyed German accent doesn't get tiring. His homosexuality is hardly anything new, either. It isn't representitive of any new ideas toward homosexuality and exists soley to be laughed at, which will undoubtedly annoy many homosexuals. All of this, however, isn't meant to offend so much as present a caricature of the modern celebrity and the public's attitude toward him.

All in all, I liked Brüno. While I laughed at the obscene jokes, I really enjoyed the smaller and smarter jokes. I also can't help but admire how authentic this film feels. Its truly outrageous parts are bountiful, but they cross so far over the line of credibility that they entertain instead of annoy.

Again, this movie does not aspire to be anything more than a laugh-fest, so bear that in mind if and when you see it.

An Elaboration on Watchmen

This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, and what better place to do it than here?

I've seen Watchmen twice now. Upon my first viewing, I was not impressed. I scrutinized it heavily against the graphic novel and concluded that it was, as Alan Moore told Terry Gilliam so many years ago, simply unfilmable.

When I watched it again months later, however, I enjoyed it much more, and that is because I didn't constantly compare it to the graphic novel. I watched it simply as a movie. I still have issues with it, though. The violence is, in places, gratuitous. Not that I'm morally opposed to it, but I feel that it detracts from the realism of the movie. Same with the ultra-slow-mo, which was awesome in 300 (Zack Snyder's previous film), but feels out of place here.

Still, all in all, Snyder made a great movie in Watchmen. It's smarter and deeper than the average superhero movie.

However, I can't help but wonder how much better it would have been if it had done a few things a little more in the spirit of the graphic novel...

I'll start with the characters. I feel that the casting of the characters was good with the exception of Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias. In the graphic novel, Adrian Veidt is a complex man, both exceptionally intelligent and exceptionally powerful. (I always saw him as a cross between a jock and a genius.) In the movie, Matthew Goode portrays Ozymandias as a soft-spoken aristocrat. The graphic novel's Ozymandias is beyond any stereotype, which is more than the movie's can say.

I was a little disappointed with Dr. Manhatten's portrayal, as well. Billy Crudup is a great actor and he does a decent enough job, but he failed to carry the godly quality of the graphic novel's Dr. Manhatten over to the big screen.

More disappointing to me than the aforementioned flukes, however, is that the movie is devoid of the graphic novel's spirit. In the graphic novel, the Cold War plays a huge role in the plot and the sense of imminent armaggeddon is constantly felt. This is what made the climax of the story so poignant and so intense that it transcended the page and gripped the reader. THE ENTIRE PLOT HINGED ON IT!

The film, however, spends far too much time with the characters and far too little time on the plot. From what I can deduce, Snyder tried to cram as much of the graphic novel into the movie as he could. While his effort to remain as dogmatically faithful to the source material is commendable, it ultimately proves to be the film's worst attribute. The climax (which was altered from the graphic novel in order to save time) works, but not nearly as well as it could have. What I would have done had I made the movie is focused less on the details of the characters' backgrounds and spent more time on the Doomsday Clock (figuratively speaking).

Cthulhu

I'm conflicted on this one. There are things I really like about it and things I think are severely lacking.

I like the atmosphere. It's dark and mysterious, which lends a lot to the film's creepiness. The acting is good for the most part, though there were a few parts that bugged me. The leading actor (Jason Cottle), who I'd never heard of prior to this or seen in anything else, is a really strong performer. The cinematography is very professional and pleasing to watch.

However, I think the film really falls short when it comes to plot and editing. The basic story, which is a very loose adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," had tons of potential. The plot, though, is very thin and a lot of the events in the film have little or no bearing on it. It's very easy to get lost in the web of random happenings and forget what the actual conflict is. The ending, though powerful, feels underdeveloped and rushed.

Cthulhu is by no means a great movie. That being said, it is worth watching for the parts of it that work well.

most audacious scene

For now I'm going to skip the obvious lists like "My Top Ten Favorite Movies Of All Time...", and try something a little more specific. And actually this first one, for me, won't even be a list, because there is a single, clear stand-out in my mind...

Each of us want different things from movies at different times. Usually I just like a good, comfortable, interesting story -- as I get older, I look less for action and crazy, over-the-top stuff. Still, sometimes it is great to be taken for a roller coaster ride, to experience that WOW feeling...

And for me, after seeing hundreds of movies in my life (so far), Terminator 2: Judgment Day stands out as having the top "Holy Sh*t!" scenes...

• Just when it seems John O'Conner has escaped the T-1000 on his motorcycle, a diesel truck crashes down from an overpass and starts chasing him. I was lucky enough to see this scene in a full Friday-night theatre, and the crowd got quiet, and then went nuts...
  
  
• Then, the reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold!) rides to the rescue on his chopper, cocking a shotgun by spinning it one-handed! The crowd went even MORE nuts at this point, cheering and screaming! Against all odds he grabs O'Conner off his bike, duels the T-1000 to a stop, and rides away to safety (for now)...
  

There were many other audacious scenes in this movie (the nuclear bomb explosion being one of my favorites; I have a sick fascination with them), but those two stick in my mind as the most shocking and satisfying.

All of this is probably a low bar compared to my son, who is much more into action and horror and stuff... {smile}

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I'm going to have to disagree with my dad on this movie. While I in no way think it a bad movie, I found Button boring and pretty unremarkable. I've liked everything David Fincher has directed up until now and, as a fan of his, it's hard for me to say I didn't like Button.

First off, I will give praise where praise is due. The cast works so well together in this movie. In my opinion, Taraji Henson had the strongest performance and should have won Best Supporting Actress. It's hard to pick out names, though, since everybody did such a fantastic job. I was even impressed with Brad Pitt, who I generally don't care for. (I don't dislike him; I just get tired of his pretty-boy leading-man act.)

The cinematography is beautiful, and it is complimented well by the visual effects. The film has a nice darkness to it that gives character to the film without affecting the mood too much.

Despite the aforementioned prasies, however, I found the story pretty predictable and boring. There were certainly some sweet, funny, and interesting parts of the movie that I enjoyed, but overall I just remember thinking that there were large chunks of the movie that could have been a little more exciting and other parts that could have been cut. I just wish the writer would have tried a little harder to suprise me.

In the end, I think the key to enjoying this movie lay in one's taste. It was too slow and transparent for me, but I can see why others would like it. And even though I didn't really care for it, I would recommend it, because it is worth watching. Again, I hate criticizing a David Fincher movie. I really like the guy and his movies, but Button just didn't do it for me.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I don't like long movies. I think a movie has to be pretty good to justify being longer than two hours; I prefer a taut 90 minute feature. I also don't care for predictable movies. I like unusual, ambiguous, twisty storylines; I get bored when the story arc is so obvious we can see what's coming from miles away...

So when I approach a three hour movie where the basic premise is known up front, it has to be really well done to keep my interest. Titanic was an extreme example of this, but it did in fact pull it off (at least for me).

Benjamin Button is another example, and it also pulled it off for me, and did it even better. Most people either know the premise before even seeing the movie, or get it early on: a man is born old and grows younger. And not too far into the movie you realize it is a doomed love story: the man and the woman are destined for each other, but given that they are aging in opposite directions, their relationship can't last.

And yet the execution of the story is so well done, the acting, the details, the overall mood and feel, that it kept me interested straight through. Nothing earth shattering, but a great story...

A complaint I've heard applied to Benjamin Button is that it is too much like Forrest Gump. First, that's not necessarily a bad thing -- I happen to like Gump. Second, while there are definitely similarities and parallels, ultimately Benjamin Button becomes its own movie, especially in the second half. Personally I think it dials back a bit on the drama and sentimentality compared to Gump, and doesn't rely as much on gimmicks like Gump being involved in historical events. Button is that much more poignant for telling an interesting and subtle story...

The Strangers

Nice little suspense flick. It's refreshing to see a horror movie where the body count can be counted on one hand and there's next to no blood. Definitely worth seeing.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Pretty bad. Whereas the other X-Men movies managed to be more than just "comic book movies," this one is a collection of bad cliches and crappy dialogue. The plot had potential but the execution was too by-the-book to make it stand out. Even though Hugh Jackman returns as Logan/Wolverine, he plays a very watered-down version of the character. I was not impressed.

Watchmen

Not as good as the graphic novel, but still very entertaining. Good special effects. (Fun fact: Terry Gilliam tried to make this movie a few years ago, but Alan Moore told him it was "unfilmable.")

He Was A Quiet Man

He Was A Quiet Man -- decent, mildly quirky dark comedy with good acting and good music. Nice little twist at the end. I liked it.

welcome

My son and I share a love of movies, and we spend hours/pages talking about them. So we decided to try blogging this stuff. We'll see what happens...