Mediocre NetFlix Reviews #14
Got a couple of matched pairs in this set, older film connected to a recent/current one.
GET SMART (2009): * * *
I'm going to be kind with three stars, because it had a few really funny bits (virtually all of which were shown in trailers beforehand) and some decent spy movie bits, especially at the car-chase smash-things ending. But mostly, it was lacking in energy or chemistry, mean without being funny much of the time, and it just wasn't really worthy of the Get Smart name.
ABRIDGED SHAKESPEARE: * * *
A recording of a live comedy theater group's 90-minute act, in which they cover all of Shakespeare. Very entertaining if you're really into Shakespeare, or into stage comedy; I'm a reasonable fan of both but found myself wanting to fast forward a few times as they hammer most of their time into, basically, Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet. The latter was more bang for the buck than the former, I thought. Titus Andronicus as a cooking show and running all of the Comedies as a single Comedy are great high-concept skits, too.
IRON MAN: * * * * *
Re-watching with Carmel, who was only eh about it. But I can't help myself, even with the flaws more apparent on a second viewing. I just love the movie.
UP IN THE AIR: * * *
Eh. Has its moments throughout but the heartbreaking turn was… well, maybe it's only supposed to be surprising to him, not to us, since it should have been obvious what was going on within 90 seconds. And we have this potentially great female co-lead with a potentially great point about embracing change… who instead turns all weepy and needy and comes to realize she's not so smart after all. Nice. Anyway, it was okay but sort of wander-y (which I guess one assumes it's supposed to be since it's about wandering) and ultimately, I just don't understand all the effusive love for it.
PARTY DOWN SEASON 1: * * * *
Despite being very much structured on the same formula as THE OFFICE (one normal everday joe deals with painfully incompetent boss, misfit colleagues, workplace romance, only minus the faux documentary look) it manages to find its own way and then wraps up the formula at the end of the season, allowing the second season to get out from under the shadow. Makes me even more glad than ever that I don't live in Los Angeles.
WITHOUT A CLUE: * * * *
While we were waiting for the 2009 Sherlock Holmes to hit the available list, we took in this 1988 comedy Holmes tale, with Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley, as a sort of amuse bouche. All-around swell.
DREAMCATCHER: * * *
This is such a statistically improbable movie. Stephen King origin, William Goldman on screenplay, Lawrence Kasdan directing, a great cast of stars including Morgan F'ing Freeman… and it's terrible. Oh, man, it's just awful. You'd probably need another hour of material just to make it hold together logically, but so much of it is just entirely uninspired in its execution that more of it would just make you hang yourself. It's several different kinds of King story all crammed together into one, a horror-SF-nostalgia-psychics-military thing that just throws all the various parts up in the air in the hope that they will somehow magically come together and form a totally awesome giant robot of a movie. But, no, the parts smash together and debris rains down on all sides from pretty much the very start. And yet, weirdly enough, I really rather enjoyed it. There was something really appealing about watching a bunch of top-shelf talent wreck this train. It's like they secretly made a pact to attempt the most ludicrous idea for a big-budget horror film ever, and then used quantum probability manipulation to make it happen against all imaginable odds. If you don't believe me, please read this entirely serious summary of the film, which anyone else who has ever seen it can confirm: Dreamcatcher is about four friends camping in the snow who must use the psychic powers, that their mentally-handicapped buddy once gave them, when the military tries to stop an alien invasion by space-eels who hatch out of your butthole and talk with a bad English accent. If you are like me, reading a sentence like that is a challenge that you must accept, no matter how bad the film is going to be. And it will be really, really bad.
FANTASTIC MISTER FOX: * * * *
The original book is short and actually pretty lacking in any real character development, so Wes Anderson adds a bunch to make it long enough for a feature. Unsurprisingly, that additional material has to do with the dysfunctional and increasingly estranged relationship between father and son, and peer-rivalry among youth. Because otherwise, you know, it wouldn't be a Wes Anderson movie. However, it all works pretty well and the animation is a kick to watch. The three farmers are marvelously realized. The book had a proper impact on Liana when we read it; she loved the adaptation.
GET SMART: THE NUDE BOMB: * * *
Wanted to go back to original material to wash some of the distaste of the remake out of my brain. I somehow was remembering this as having been made in the early 70s but, no, during the Paramount Studios chase sequences they run into the old-school Battlestar Galactica section, haha! Anyway, this was a mind-blowing movie when I was ten but now, of course, it was a little disappointing to revisit. Maybe I should watch some of the actual early episodes of the show.
SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009): * * * *
Heard really mixed responses to this from my friends but thought it was pretty good myself. Although, we did have to watch it with subtitles because frankly, Downey's accent was so unintelligible half the time he could have been Johnny Depp.
------
For consideration: thanks to INCEPTION I will be catching up next on some earlier Christopher Nolan
GET SMART (2009): * * *
I'm going to be kind with three stars, because it had a few really funny bits (virtually all of which were shown in trailers beforehand) and some decent spy movie bits, especially at the car-chase smash-things ending. But mostly, it was lacking in energy or chemistry, mean without being funny much of the time, and it just wasn't really worthy of the Get Smart name.
ABRIDGED SHAKESPEARE: * * *
A recording of a live comedy theater group's 90-minute act, in which they cover all of Shakespeare. Very entertaining if you're really into Shakespeare, or into stage comedy; I'm a reasonable fan of both but found myself wanting to fast forward a few times as they hammer most of their time into, basically, Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet. The latter was more bang for the buck than the former, I thought. Titus Andronicus as a cooking show and running all of the Comedies as a single Comedy are great high-concept skits, too.
IRON MAN: * * * * *
Re-watching with Carmel, who was only eh about it. But I can't help myself, even with the flaws more apparent on a second viewing. I just love the movie.
UP IN THE AIR: * * *
Eh. Has its moments throughout but the heartbreaking turn was… well, maybe it's only supposed to be surprising to him, not to us, since it should have been obvious what was going on within 90 seconds. And we have this potentially great female co-lead with a potentially great point about embracing change… who instead turns all weepy and needy and comes to realize she's not so smart after all. Nice. Anyway, it was okay but sort of wander-y (which I guess one assumes it's supposed to be since it's about wandering) and ultimately, I just don't understand all the effusive love for it.
PARTY DOWN SEASON 1: * * * *
Despite being very much structured on the same formula as THE OFFICE (one normal everday joe deals with painfully incompetent boss, misfit colleagues, workplace romance, only minus the faux documentary look) it manages to find its own way and then wraps up the formula at the end of the season, allowing the second season to get out from under the shadow. Makes me even more glad than ever that I don't live in Los Angeles.
WITHOUT A CLUE: * * * *
While we were waiting for the 2009 Sherlock Holmes to hit the available list, we took in this 1988 comedy Holmes tale, with Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley, as a sort of amuse bouche. All-around swell.
DREAMCATCHER: * * *
This is such a statistically improbable movie. Stephen King origin, William Goldman on screenplay, Lawrence Kasdan directing, a great cast of stars including Morgan F'ing Freeman… and it's terrible. Oh, man, it's just awful. You'd probably need another hour of material just to make it hold together logically, but so much of it is just entirely uninspired in its execution that more of it would just make you hang yourself. It's several different kinds of King story all crammed together into one, a horror-SF-nostalgia-psychics-military thing that just throws all the various parts up in the air in the hope that they will somehow magically come together and form a totally awesome giant robot of a movie. But, no, the parts smash together and debris rains down on all sides from pretty much the very start. And yet, weirdly enough, I really rather enjoyed it. There was something really appealing about watching a bunch of top-shelf talent wreck this train. It's like they secretly made a pact to attempt the most ludicrous idea for a big-budget horror film ever, and then used quantum probability manipulation to make it happen against all imaginable odds. If you don't believe me, please read this entirely serious summary of the film, which anyone else who has ever seen it can confirm: Dreamcatcher is about four friends camping in the snow who must use the psychic powers, that their mentally-handicapped buddy once gave them, when the military tries to stop an alien invasion by space-eels who hatch out of your butthole and talk with a bad English accent. If you are like me, reading a sentence like that is a challenge that you must accept, no matter how bad the film is going to be. And it will be really, really bad.
FANTASTIC MISTER FOX: * * * *
The original book is short and actually pretty lacking in any real character development, so Wes Anderson adds a bunch to make it long enough for a feature. Unsurprisingly, that additional material has to do with the dysfunctional and increasingly estranged relationship between father and son, and peer-rivalry among youth. Because otherwise, you know, it wouldn't be a Wes Anderson movie. However, it all works pretty well and the animation is a kick to watch. The three farmers are marvelously realized. The book had a proper impact on Liana when we read it; she loved the adaptation.
GET SMART: THE NUDE BOMB: * * *
Wanted to go back to original material to wash some of the distaste of the remake out of my brain. I somehow was remembering this as having been made in the early 70s but, no, during the Paramount Studios chase sequences they run into the old-school Battlestar Galactica section, haha! Anyway, this was a mind-blowing movie when I was ten but now, of course, it was a little disappointing to revisit. Maybe I should watch some of the actual early episodes of the show.
SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009): * * * *
Heard really mixed responses to this from my friends but thought it was pretty good myself. Although, we did have to watch it with subtitles because frankly, Downey's accent was so unintelligible half the time he could have been Johnny Depp.
------
For consideration: thanks to INCEPTION I will be catching up next on some earlier Christopher Nolan