4 Movie Reviews
Some of these movies probably deserve a full review, but in order to catch up on all the movies and books I want to review, I picked some at random for a quick review.
Wedding Crashers
Took me long enough to see this movie, but it was well worth the wait. Owen Wilson generally gets on my nerves but not so much here, especially with the superb job of Vince Vaughn at his side. Their characters are ridiculously clever, almost to the point that it's scary to think people could spend this much time with conniving plans to meet women. Oh yeah, some Rachel McSomething is in this movie, too. Perhaps the biggest flaw of the movie is the possibility of falling in love with Vince and Owen and really not caring for the other people, well, except Christopher Walken. The crude comedy is cut to a minimum here, although the cursing nanny and blatantly vulgar Will Ferrell were good for their short appearances. The constant changes in character perspective John and Jeremy kept the movie entertaining instead of becoming another one joke movie. The ending, however, felt really stretched. A-.
Pork Chop Hill
Yes, Gregory Peck! This was a movie I would watch as a little kid just for a fun war movie to watch, but as I recently re-watched the movie, I noticed that a lot of elements of character that people praise so highly for soldiers like Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan and dozens of people in Band of Brothers are present in this movie, decades earlier. Peck's Lieutenent Clemons faces similar struggles and distinguishes himself apart from many irrational, younger soldiers, namely Private Franklin, who almost comes to the point of killing his superior. The Korean War was an ideal setting for a movie like this, and also fairly recent since the ending of the stalemate. For a war that had little conclusion to it, the lack of morale has a greater sensation to it than the dozens of World War II movies we see, where the Allied soldiers always struggle but are always on the winning side. There should be more Korean War movies. A.
In the Line of Fire
Clint Eastwood delivers the goods playing a Secret Service agent haunted by his believed failure to save JFK from assassination, and being constantly tormented by the wonderfully creepy (good oxymoron) John Malkovich. A terrific cat and mouse game between the two never loses its lustre, even when the silly romance story comes along. I guess no movie is complete without one, so I won't complain too much. Malkovich steals the show with his portrayal of the calm, yet more dangerous than you'd expect Mitch Leary. He creates a paradox with trying to become a figurehead of humanity yet his actions certainly don't reflect such an idea. On the same note, it was a good call to make Eastwood play a guy who can still hang tough despite receiving heavy criticism every day on the job, and doesn't overwhelm himself with self pity and sulking, he does it in moderation. I'd like to give this a higher score, but the thought of Eastwood trying to bang Rene Russo disturbs me. A-.
Hide & Seek
Oh, man, I was having fun with this group of movies until I came here. Well, where to start on this "scary" movie? Dakota Fanning stars in it as a traumatized and demented child, what do you expect? This movie heavily lacks originality, especially with it's dragged out ending, which has been done to death and is almost insulting at this point. Robert DeNiro pulls out a decent performance as Dakota's father, at least being believable in his acting. For a scary movie, you'd expect all the tension and suspense to be followed up with a shocking image of some sort, but instead we're treated with the cliche writing on the wall, and the most gruesome image we get is a drowned cat in the bathtub. In fact, there is nothing shocking at all in this movie, despite all the camera views of "Charlie" attacking people, which you would think means that "Charlie" is some sort of ghost, demon, scary evil being of your choice, based on the frightened looks of the victims. Hide & Seek couldn't even properly twist the game of Hide and Seek into something scary, which generally makes scary movies enjoyable. Take something that's supposed to be nice, cheery, etc. and make it terrifying, we see it all the time. The game of Hide and Seek isn't used enough, especially not enough to warrant titling the movie after it. D.
Wedding Crashers
Took me long enough to see this movie, but it was well worth the wait. Owen Wilson generally gets on my nerves but not so much here, especially with the superb job of Vince Vaughn at his side. Their characters are ridiculously clever, almost to the point that it's scary to think people could spend this much time with conniving plans to meet women. Oh yeah, some Rachel McSomething is in this movie, too. Perhaps the biggest flaw of the movie is the possibility of falling in love with Vince and Owen and really not caring for the other people, well, except Christopher Walken. The crude comedy is cut to a minimum here, although the cursing nanny and blatantly vulgar Will Ferrell were good for their short appearances. The constant changes in character perspective John and Jeremy kept the movie entertaining instead of becoming another one joke movie. The ending, however, felt really stretched. A-.
Pork Chop Hill
Yes, Gregory Peck! This was a movie I would watch as a little kid just for a fun war movie to watch, but as I recently re-watched the movie, I noticed that a lot of elements of character that people praise so highly for soldiers like Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan and dozens of people in Band of Brothers are present in this movie, decades earlier. Peck's Lieutenent Clemons faces similar struggles and distinguishes himself apart from many irrational, younger soldiers, namely Private Franklin, who almost comes to the point of killing his superior. The Korean War was an ideal setting for a movie like this, and also fairly recent since the ending of the stalemate. For a war that had little conclusion to it, the lack of morale has a greater sensation to it than the dozens of World War II movies we see, where the Allied soldiers always struggle but are always on the winning side. There should be more Korean War movies. A.
In the Line of Fire
Clint Eastwood delivers the goods playing a Secret Service agent haunted by his believed failure to save JFK from assassination, and being constantly tormented by the wonderfully creepy (good oxymoron) John Malkovich. A terrific cat and mouse game between the two never loses its lustre, even when the silly romance story comes along. I guess no movie is complete without one, so I won't complain too much. Malkovich steals the show with his portrayal of the calm, yet more dangerous than you'd expect Mitch Leary. He creates a paradox with trying to become a figurehead of humanity yet his actions certainly don't reflect such an idea. On the same note, it was a good call to make Eastwood play a guy who can still hang tough despite receiving heavy criticism every day on the job, and doesn't overwhelm himself with self pity and sulking, he does it in moderation. I'd like to give this a higher score, but the thought of Eastwood trying to bang Rene Russo disturbs me. A-.
Hide & Seek
Oh, man, I was having fun with this group of movies until I came here. Well, where to start on this "scary" movie? Dakota Fanning stars in it as a traumatized and demented child, what do you expect? This movie heavily lacks originality, especially with it's dragged out ending, which has been done to death and is almost insulting at this point. Robert DeNiro pulls out a decent performance as Dakota's father, at least being believable in his acting. For a scary movie, you'd expect all the tension and suspense to be followed up with a shocking image of some sort, but instead we're treated with the cliche writing on the wall, and the most gruesome image we get is a drowned cat in the bathtub. In fact, there is nothing shocking at all in this movie, despite all the camera views of "Charlie" attacking people, which you would think means that "Charlie" is some sort of ghost, demon, scary evil being of your choice, based on the frightened looks of the victims. Hide & Seek couldn't even properly twist the game of Hide and Seek into something scary, which generally makes scary movies enjoyable. Take something that's supposed to be nice, cheery, etc. and make it terrifying, we see it all the time. The game of Hide and Seek isn't used enough, especially not enough to warrant titling the movie after it. D.