Movie Reviews
Alright, so it's that time again :) I'm finally getting around to doing another round of movie reviews. Most of this round are movies that I didn't do in my last one, some will be recent. Honestly I'm not sure what will happen in this one *face palm* I'm SO far behind in commenting to posts I dont' know what I'm doing! Either way some are going to be in theaters, in limbo (not in theaters or on DVD yet), or on DVD.
ALL movies are behind cuts, spoilers may/may not be involved. So please read with your own risk. Considering how many movies usually end up in these posts for me some 'reviews' will be brief, others might not be so brief. Will just have to see how it goes :) And one final note, movies are in no particular order.
Deja Vu: Okay this was a movie I didn't expect to watch or have any huge desire to. I ended up renting it because I knew a lot of people would ask about it at work. Now after seeing it...honestly it was pretty good. The beginning is a power hitter, then the story kind of drags with the usually dodgy science aspect, but then it picks up a lot again. The movie was really enjoyable minus that little boring bit to get back to the story. I'm not a huge Denzel fan but he did a great job in this movie. I don't really think there's much else I can say to the movie aside from this little blurb. But *shrugs* it's one that I will recommend to people when they ask what's out that's new and decent :)
Thr3e: Like with Deja Vu this was a movie that I wasn't really into watching but rented it just because. Although I rented it in some ways because one of my friends really wanted to see it when it was in theaters and I wanted to see why. That said if anyone out there has seen Adaptation - this movie is NOT worth seeing. It was about 3/4-ths of the way through when I started realizing the plot was moving way too familiar. I haven't been able to find my parents copy of Adaptation to double check but if anyone has seen it - you know the bit where the "twin brother" is talking about the movie idea he had, talking about how there would be a serial killer and there would be other characters and the whole big twist at the end? And yes...I know I'm being vague but I'm doing that in case people haven't seen Adapation cause that whole "plot" is this movie. I kid you not. I watched the end of the movie just to see if I was right and yep - the thing ends just the way the twist was in Adaptation. So yeah...that said the movie would be 'okay' if you don't have that background but it's honestly not something I would recommend. The movie was just kind of so-so and it was more interesting to see Marc Blucas as a scruffy lead then anything.
Dead Silence: The follow up movie from the creators of Saw (post being in the Saw franchise) - and I LOVED it! It wasn't nearly as enrapturing as Saw but I really liked it. The movie deals with a lot of things that usually scare people - aka puppets - and is really slow moving, but in a good way. One thing I'm realizing is that the writers are very into setting and character development over hollywood scares - which is why I like them :) Donnie Wahlberg did a great job as an asshole-ish cop - yet again (since he kind of was in Saw 2). The score is amazing (I LOVE Charlie Clouser as a composer) and I love picking out all of the similarities with the Saw score and Dead Silence. Speaking of similarities with Saw I was very amused to see the Jigsaw Puppet in Dead Silence ;) It was a small cameo but a cameo none the less. For people that aren't really into gore...the movie does have it, but I think it's less gory then the Saw movies. And it does have a supernatural twist unlike the Saw movies that are very human based horror. So for certain people on my friendslist *winks at jassyskie* you might be able to handle this one if you want a good "traditional" horror movie.
Freedom Writers: I ended up renting this movie at the insistence of a lot of my friends. I didn't really want to see it just because it sounded like so many movies of it's kind - a new teacher going to a bad school and getting stuck with the worse students, etc etc etc. Sounded too much like Dangerous Minds - considering that's the first movie I can remember seeing like that. However, all of that said this movie was WORTH seeing just for the various voices from the students. The voice overs in the movie are not done by the main characters you would expect and instead are the students internal voices as they write in their journals. Seeing that and how the community of students dealt with learning about the Holocaust and everything like that made the movie move to a different level then Dangerous Minds. If anyone has been kind of teetering on the edge for seeing this movie you really should. The style of it is well worth the cost of the rental.
The Fountain: Okay...Hugh Jackman is hot. Hugh Jackman can be a great actor. This movie? I could NOT get into it at all. I stopped an hour into the movie and gave up cause there was no way in hell I was watching it all. The story was just so....slow and really annoying with jumps. I get that one story is reality, another is fiction, and one fantasy but all three were boring. Now I know I could have been in the wrong mood to watch the movie but *shivers* I am not going to watch that again - ever.
The Painted Veil: This will make me sound horrid but I only watched the scenes that Liev was in. I put the movie in, fast forwarded til I found him, watched those scenes, and moved on. There were like 5 scenes...was interesting seeing him in an asshole-ish role again since he hasn't been in one for awhile. Looked very pretty though :) The rest of the movie didn't interest me in the least - so that's all I've got about that.
Alpha Dog: Another movie that I didn't really like at all. The trailers for this make it look much better then it really was. The acting seemed really off throughout the whole movie. But honestly my biggest problem with the movie was NONE of the characters were like-able. Even in bad storylines if there's a character I like I can say something was okay to watch. When there aren't any characters I care about and the story isn't thrilling me I often lose interest. Alpha Dog definitely fit that bill.
Little Children: Ever since I saw the trailers for this I was interested in seeing it. Then my theater didn't pick it up at all when it was in theaters. So my interest in seeing it kind of built up and was a little higher then it should have been for seeing the movie. The movie was interesting to see...I mean the story isn't unfamiliar with there being two couples that are having problems and two of them end up cheating on their spouse. Nothing unfamiliar at all there. The thing that actually made me like the movie was the A plot in the movie (ironically not with the cheating spouses) but instead the child molester that is let back into the community. The story line there had my interest way more then Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson. That and I found it interesting that the movie's narrator was never anyone that was seen in the movie, made me get the feeling of it being based off a book (which I know it's based off a book but the technique made it feel that way). I haven't read the book so I'm not sure how it stands up against the original text but the movie was good for a single viewing. I don't think I would rent the movie again or ever pick it up to own. Although...I have to wonder how many people know about the child molester storyline before going into the movie since I don't remember that being all that notice-able in the trailers for the movie when it was in theaters.
Creepshow 3: Cheesey to the extreme. But considering I've seen the first one I kind of expected that. I ended up renting the movie because my dad asked me to (he's a fan of the other two Creepshow movies) and we both found this one...lacking. There was really only one story in the movie that really was any good and it was very over the top. I don't remember too much of the first Creepshow, and I never saw the second, but the centeral point in this one is a neighborhood. Not really sure I would recommend this to anyone, if you want to see it wait for it to come on tv rather then spending your money on it to rent.
Happily N'ever After: After the previous comment about renting Creepshow 3 for my dad this will sound very odd - but I ended up seeing this because my dad, of all people, wanted to see it in my house hold o.O Still trying to work that one out. But yeah...ummm...wasn't too fond of this. The last kids movie I've seen and really enjoyed that was animated was Over the Hedge (and this excludes Happy Feet as I haven't sat down and watched that yet). So yeah. Don't bother.
Breaking and Entering: If you take out the fact that Jude Law has played this kind of character (an adulterous one) and had a bit in his own personal life - this movie is great. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I had to go and rent it from my work's competition because my work didn't get it (shocker) but wow. It's something that I really had to kind of process (although I had to rewatch a good half hour because I got a long distance call from my Aunt and missed a large chunk) but after thinking about it for a week or so I did enjoy it a lot. The movie has a very subtle slow way of moving - which I picked up from the score (this is one of those movies I had the score for months before ever seeing the movie - weird yes but *shrugs* that's me). Because it wasn't really on sale here in my town I'm going to wait until the store I rented it from pulls it off their shelves and buy it used for myself. I don't know if a lot of people would be interested in a character study movie like this...but I really enjoyed it. I don't know what/where to start talking about for it so if anyone has specific questions I won't be offended by you asking me them :) I think I'm getting a bit movie scatter brained typing these up tonight.
Lucky You: Now the fact that I saw this movie will probably shock a number of people on my friends list. But I have a good reason for why I saw it. I saw it with peachy_penumbra while she was here visiting me :) She's an Eric Bana fan and because of roleplay I had an interest in seeing it as well. And we were all up for her seeing a movie filmed and set in Nevada while she was in Nevada ;) Made sense to us and it kept me from having to see Spiderman 3 the week it opened (although I might wait til DVD considering the things I've heard). But none the less, the movie really wasn't all that good. I learned a LOT about Texas Hold'em style poker. A lot more then I think I ever really wanted to know. Just because I was born, raised, and live in a gambling state doesn't mean I really care about gambling. And I would seriously cry if I lost the kind of money the people in this movie lose. But that's apparently just me ;) I think I had more fun seeing the movie because of the company of who I was with and being able to make comments about the "pretty boy" throughout it :D
Grindhouse: I guess as a whole the movie wasn't really as long as I thought it would be. I mean I kind of expected it to feel long since it's a double feature back to back, but it didn't feel that way. The trailers made for an okay transition. Although I am a little disturbed at how many people were in love with Thanksgiving's trailer. I mean I admit that I would probably go and see it just on principal...but *shrugs* I'm not a huge Eli Roth fan as of right now, I wasn't impressed with Hostel (although will admit Hostel 2 looks like it might be less porn based). I also found it interesting that I could tell who did each movie trailer without being told. Go me :)
Planet Terror: I LOVED this movie! Although I had a feeling if there was one out of the two I would enjoy more it would be this one - zombies! But Rose McGowan and Freddy Rodriguez completely made this movie for me. They both held their own considering how often neither of them are given huge roles in movies, good way for them to break out being "tv stars" too after their separate stints into tv. All the cameos were great and just...this movie was WORTH going to see. I loved it and I think I might have even talked my mom into watching this one when the DVD comes out (since this isn't her kind of thing). I really like the score for this movie as well :D
Death Proof: I didn't like this one as much, but not because it was typical Tarantino talky. I can handle talky in movies...the thing that made it not as great as Planet Terror was the first set of girls that Stuntman Mike goes after. They were BORING and I didn't care about a single one of them. Rose McGowan's cross over (just her - not character) was the only thing about the first part of the movie I liked. The movie seriously picked up for me when Rosario Dawson's group made their way into the storyline. After that the movie was smooth sailings.
I think that this is something that most people should watch at least once. Even if only for the cult classic feel to it :D
And with that I think I'm done. Looking at the time it's beyond time for bed and I really think that I'm rambling and not making much sense in this post anymore. If that's the case I'm sorry *hides*
Just for reference reviews still to come: Horrorfest [Dark Ride, The Hamiltons, Penny Dreadful, Wicked Little Things], Hot Fuzz, and 28 Weeks Later.
ALL movies are behind cuts, spoilers may/may not be involved. So please read with your own risk. Considering how many movies usually end up in these posts for me some 'reviews' will be brief, others might not be so brief. Will just have to see how it goes :) And one final note, movies are in no particular order.
Deja Vu: Okay this was a movie I didn't expect to watch or have any huge desire to. I ended up renting it because I knew a lot of people would ask about it at work. Now after seeing it...honestly it was pretty good. The beginning is a power hitter, then the story kind of drags with the usually dodgy science aspect, but then it picks up a lot again. The movie was really enjoyable minus that little boring bit to get back to the story. I'm not a huge Denzel fan but he did a great job in this movie. I don't really think there's much else I can say to the movie aside from this little blurb. But *shrugs* it's one that I will recommend to people when they ask what's out that's new and decent :)
Thr3e: Like with Deja Vu this was a movie that I wasn't really into watching but rented it just because. Although I rented it in some ways because one of my friends really wanted to see it when it was in theaters and I wanted to see why. That said if anyone out there has seen Adaptation - this movie is NOT worth seeing. It was about 3/4-ths of the way through when I started realizing the plot was moving way too familiar. I haven't been able to find my parents copy of Adaptation to double check but if anyone has seen it - you know the bit where the "twin brother" is talking about the movie idea he had, talking about how there would be a serial killer and there would be other characters and the whole big twist at the end? And yes...I know I'm being vague but I'm doing that in case people haven't seen Adapation cause that whole "plot" is this movie. I kid you not. I watched the end of the movie just to see if I was right and yep - the thing ends just the way the twist was in Adaptation. So yeah...that said the movie would be 'okay' if you don't have that background but it's honestly not something I would recommend. The movie was just kind of so-so and it was more interesting to see Marc Blucas as a scruffy lead then anything.
Dead Silence: The follow up movie from the creators of Saw (post being in the Saw franchise) - and I LOVED it! It wasn't nearly as enrapturing as Saw but I really liked it. The movie deals with a lot of things that usually scare people - aka puppets - and is really slow moving, but in a good way. One thing I'm realizing is that the writers are very into setting and character development over hollywood scares - which is why I like them :) Donnie Wahlberg did a great job as an asshole-ish cop - yet again (since he kind of was in Saw 2). The score is amazing (I LOVE Charlie Clouser as a composer) and I love picking out all of the similarities with the Saw score and Dead Silence. Speaking of similarities with Saw I was very amused to see the Jigsaw Puppet in Dead Silence ;) It was a small cameo but a cameo none the less. For people that aren't really into gore...the movie does have it, but I think it's less gory then the Saw movies. And it does have a supernatural twist unlike the Saw movies that are very human based horror. So for certain people on my friendslist *winks at jassyskie* you might be able to handle this one if you want a good "traditional" horror movie.
Freedom Writers: I ended up renting this movie at the insistence of a lot of my friends. I didn't really want to see it just because it sounded like so many movies of it's kind - a new teacher going to a bad school and getting stuck with the worse students, etc etc etc. Sounded too much like Dangerous Minds - considering that's the first movie I can remember seeing like that. However, all of that said this movie was WORTH seeing just for the various voices from the students. The voice overs in the movie are not done by the main characters you would expect and instead are the students internal voices as they write in their journals. Seeing that and how the community of students dealt with learning about the Holocaust and everything like that made the movie move to a different level then Dangerous Minds. If anyone has been kind of teetering on the edge for seeing this movie you really should. The style of it is well worth the cost of the rental.
The Fountain: Okay...Hugh Jackman is hot. Hugh Jackman can be a great actor. This movie? I could NOT get into it at all. I stopped an hour into the movie and gave up cause there was no way in hell I was watching it all. The story was just so....slow and really annoying with jumps. I get that one story is reality, another is fiction, and one fantasy but all three were boring. Now I know I could have been in the wrong mood to watch the movie but *shivers* I am not going to watch that again - ever.
The Painted Veil: This will make me sound horrid but I only watched the scenes that Liev was in. I put the movie in, fast forwarded til I found him, watched those scenes, and moved on. There were like 5 scenes...was interesting seeing him in an asshole-ish role again since he hasn't been in one for awhile. Looked very pretty though :) The rest of the movie didn't interest me in the least - so that's all I've got about that.
Alpha Dog: Another movie that I didn't really like at all. The trailers for this make it look much better then it really was. The acting seemed really off throughout the whole movie. But honestly my biggest problem with the movie was NONE of the characters were like-able. Even in bad storylines if there's a character I like I can say something was okay to watch. When there aren't any characters I care about and the story isn't thrilling me I often lose interest. Alpha Dog definitely fit that bill.
Little Children: Ever since I saw the trailers for this I was interested in seeing it. Then my theater didn't pick it up at all when it was in theaters. So my interest in seeing it kind of built up and was a little higher then it should have been for seeing the movie. The movie was interesting to see...I mean the story isn't unfamiliar with there being two couples that are having problems and two of them end up cheating on their spouse. Nothing unfamiliar at all there. The thing that actually made me like the movie was the A plot in the movie (ironically not with the cheating spouses) but instead the child molester that is let back into the community. The story line there had my interest way more then Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson. That and I found it interesting that the movie's narrator was never anyone that was seen in the movie, made me get the feeling of it being based off a book (which I know it's based off a book but the technique made it feel that way). I haven't read the book so I'm not sure how it stands up against the original text but the movie was good for a single viewing. I don't think I would rent the movie again or ever pick it up to own. Although...I have to wonder how many people know about the child molester storyline before going into the movie since I don't remember that being all that notice-able in the trailers for the movie when it was in theaters.
Creepshow 3: Cheesey to the extreme. But considering I've seen the first one I kind of expected that. I ended up renting the movie because my dad asked me to (he's a fan of the other two Creepshow movies) and we both found this one...lacking. There was really only one story in the movie that really was any good and it was very over the top. I don't remember too much of the first Creepshow, and I never saw the second, but the centeral point in this one is a neighborhood. Not really sure I would recommend this to anyone, if you want to see it wait for it to come on tv rather then spending your money on it to rent.
Happily N'ever After: After the previous comment about renting Creepshow 3 for my dad this will sound very odd - but I ended up seeing this because my dad, of all people, wanted to see it in my house hold o.O Still trying to work that one out. But yeah...ummm...wasn't too fond of this. The last kids movie I've seen and really enjoyed that was animated was Over the Hedge (and this excludes Happy Feet as I haven't sat down and watched that yet). So yeah. Don't bother.
Breaking and Entering: If you take out the fact that Jude Law has played this kind of character (an adulterous one) and had a bit in his own personal life - this movie is great. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I had to go and rent it from my work's competition because my work didn't get it (shocker) but wow. It's something that I really had to kind of process (although I had to rewatch a good half hour because I got a long distance call from my Aunt and missed a large chunk) but after thinking about it for a week or so I did enjoy it a lot. The movie has a very subtle slow way of moving - which I picked up from the score (this is one of those movies I had the score for months before ever seeing the movie - weird yes but *shrugs* that's me). Because it wasn't really on sale here in my town I'm going to wait until the store I rented it from pulls it off their shelves and buy it used for myself. I don't know if a lot of people would be interested in a character study movie like this...but I really enjoyed it. I don't know what/where to start talking about for it so if anyone has specific questions I won't be offended by you asking me them :) I think I'm getting a bit movie scatter brained typing these up tonight.
Lucky You: Now the fact that I saw this movie will probably shock a number of people on my friends list. But I have a good reason for why I saw it. I saw it with peachy_penumbra while she was here visiting me :) She's an Eric Bana fan and because of roleplay I had an interest in seeing it as well. And we were all up for her seeing a movie filmed and set in Nevada while she was in Nevada ;) Made sense to us and it kept me from having to see Spiderman 3 the week it opened (although I might wait til DVD considering the things I've heard). But none the less, the movie really wasn't all that good. I learned a LOT about Texas Hold'em style poker. A lot more then I think I ever really wanted to know. Just because I was born, raised, and live in a gambling state doesn't mean I really care about gambling. And I would seriously cry if I lost the kind of money the people in this movie lose. But that's apparently just me ;) I think I had more fun seeing the movie because of the company of who I was with and being able to make comments about the "pretty boy" throughout it :D
Grindhouse: I guess as a whole the movie wasn't really as long as I thought it would be. I mean I kind of expected it to feel long since it's a double feature back to back, but it didn't feel that way. The trailers made for an okay transition. Although I am a little disturbed at how many people were in love with Thanksgiving's trailer. I mean I admit that I would probably go and see it just on principal...but *shrugs* I'm not a huge Eli Roth fan as of right now, I wasn't impressed with Hostel (although will admit Hostel 2 looks like it might be less porn based). I also found it interesting that I could tell who did each movie trailer without being told. Go me :)
Planet Terror: I LOVED this movie! Although I had a feeling if there was one out of the two I would enjoy more it would be this one - zombies! But Rose McGowan and Freddy Rodriguez completely made this movie for me. They both held their own considering how often neither of them are given huge roles in movies, good way for them to break out being "tv stars" too after their separate stints into tv. All the cameos were great and just...this movie was WORTH going to see. I loved it and I think I might have even talked my mom into watching this one when the DVD comes out (since this isn't her kind of thing). I really like the score for this movie as well :D
Death Proof: I didn't like this one as much, but not because it was typical Tarantino talky. I can handle talky in movies...the thing that made it not as great as Planet Terror was the first set of girls that Stuntman Mike goes after. They were BORING and I didn't care about a single one of them. Rose McGowan's cross over (just her - not character) was the only thing about the first part of the movie I liked. The movie seriously picked up for me when Rosario Dawson's group made their way into the storyline. After that the movie was smooth sailings.
I think that this is something that most people should watch at least once. Even if only for the cult classic feel to it :D
And with that I think I'm done. Looking at the time it's beyond time for bed and I really think that I'm rambling and not making much sense in this post anymore. If that's the case I'm sorry *hides*
Just for reference reviews still to come: Horrorfest [Dark Ride, The Hamiltons, Penny Dreadful, Wicked Little Things], Hot Fuzz, and 28 Weeks Later.