What I'm Watching
Man of the Year
Robin Williams is always funny, but this one just doesn’t fit him so well. His movies seem to be "hit or miss." This book could have been a pamphlet -- this movie could have lasted 10 minutes, but they needed a story and characters to wrap around the really funny 10 minutes of Williams.
Babel
A not-as-good version of Crash. Not quite the same, but a lot of similarities. I liked it a lot, but Katherine didn't. Interesting stories -- it seems like it is trying to make a point, but I'm not quite sure. It feels like they are trying to tell a good story about really significant things, without being "preachy" -- but that's impossible, I think. Slightly artsy. Requires some engagement. Difficult tension. Not fun. Great images (cinematographic, mental, iconographic, and otherwise). Good stories. Good characters. Conspicuously missing resolution.
Graphic nudity which fit the story well, and was a necessary part of the story, but I'm not sure that part of the story needs to be told. In the end, I can recommend the movie, but I'm certainly conflicted about this particular scene (not comfortable, but not outraged, either). I would feel more comfortable if I knew that it wasn't a real person who had to act that role.
Night at the Museum
More fun than I thought. I mostly like Ben Stiller. They do a good job of keeping to the two main elements -- Ben Stiller's comedy and the imaginative humor that can come from a mostly CG movie. Cameos by such stars as Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, Brad Garrett and Owen Wilson. Fun movie. Worth watching once only.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
I remember seeing this one a long time ago, but mostly forgotten. It's one of the best "summer blockbuster" movies ever. Johnny Depp is simply amazing, Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley are terrific, too. This movie now defines what "pirate" means.
Bridge to Terabithia
Aweseome! One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Ranks up there with Little Miss Sunshine (Bridge is one rung lower). I sure appreciate any movie that deals with death so honestly, and especially one that comes from a child's perspective with mythological imagery. Those two kids have great potential in the acting world, I think.
Kill Bill Vol.2
Not as good as vol.1, I think. It's a bit of a different movie, in many ways. More intimate, more character driven. Anyway, I really enjoy Tarantino's sense of style. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again. Further, Uma Thurman is simply amazing. Lots of blood and violence, but quite stylized. I understand a new version will be released with both movies together and edited to be an NC-17 version. I'm not interested. I think I got what I wanted from these two. Excellent for the style.
Sling Blade
It's been a long time since I saw this one that launched Billy Bob Thorton's career. He wrote, directed and starred this one. Amazingly slow, but fascinating. Character driven. Not so fun.
Idiocracy
From Mike Judge. Basically -- anything from him is worth seeing, I think. Starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. This movie reminded me a lot of Judge's classic, Office Space in that it was an awesome idea with hilarious situations and one-liners, but then the story kinda dropped off and went nowhere. The first 25 minutes of Idiocracy is phenomenal, but then it slowly tanks. If you like Office Space, you'll like Idiocracy, too.
Harry Potter 5
Awesome. My only complaint is that it didn't include some of my favorite scenes from the book. However, since the book is so long, what can we reasonably expect? My love of Harry Potter is well documented, so I won't go into it here, but I love the movies only half as much as the books, which put them pretty high anyway.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Perhaps better than the original. See above for the other Pirates movie. It's the same movie, with different plot and effects. With this kind of movie, that's just fine.
Simpsons Movie
Excellent Simpsons. If you like Simpsons, you'll love the movie. They took all the best writers, and hammered out a very tight story with tons of great jokes -- very fast paced. It's basically the best Simposons episode ever because they spent so much time on it, and it's really long.
Robin Williams is always funny, but this one just doesn’t fit him so well. His movies seem to be "hit or miss." This book could have been a pamphlet -- this movie could have lasted 10 minutes, but they needed a story and characters to wrap around the really funny 10 minutes of Williams.
Babel
A not-as-good version of Crash. Not quite the same, but a lot of similarities. I liked it a lot, but Katherine didn't. Interesting stories -- it seems like it is trying to make a point, but I'm not quite sure. It feels like they are trying to tell a good story about really significant things, without being "preachy" -- but that's impossible, I think. Slightly artsy. Requires some engagement. Difficult tension. Not fun. Great images (cinematographic, mental, iconographic, and otherwise). Good stories. Good characters. Conspicuously missing resolution.
Graphic nudity which fit the story well, and was a necessary part of the story, but I'm not sure that part of the story needs to be told. In the end, I can recommend the movie, but I'm certainly conflicted about this particular scene (not comfortable, but not outraged, either). I would feel more comfortable if I knew that it wasn't a real person who had to act that role.
Night at the Museum
More fun than I thought. I mostly like Ben Stiller. They do a good job of keeping to the two main elements -- Ben Stiller's comedy and the imaginative humor that can come from a mostly CG movie. Cameos by such stars as Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, Brad Garrett and Owen Wilson. Fun movie. Worth watching once only.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
I remember seeing this one a long time ago, but mostly forgotten. It's one of the best "summer blockbuster" movies ever. Johnny Depp is simply amazing, Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley are terrific, too. This movie now defines what "pirate" means.
Bridge to Terabithia
Aweseome! One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Ranks up there with Little Miss Sunshine (Bridge is one rung lower). I sure appreciate any movie that deals with death so honestly, and especially one that comes from a child's perspective with mythological imagery. Those two kids have great potential in the acting world, I think.
Kill Bill Vol.2
Not as good as vol.1, I think. It's a bit of a different movie, in many ways. More intimate, more character driven. Anyway, I really enjoy Tarantino's sense of style. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again. Further, Uma Thurman is simply amazing. Lots of blood and violence, but quite stylized. I understand a new version will be released with both movies together and edited to be an NC-17 version. I'm not interested. I think I got what I wanted from these two. Excellent for the style.
Sling Blade
It's been a long time since I saw this one that launched Billy Bob Thorton's career. He wrote, directed and starred this one. Amazingly slow, but fascinating. Character driven. Not so fun.
Idiocracy
From Mike Judge. Basically -- anything from him is worth seeing, I think. Starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. This movie reminded me a lot of Judge's classic, Office Space in that it was an awesome idea with hilarious situations and one-liners, but then the story kinda dropped off and went nowhere. The first 25 minutes of Idiocracy is phenomenal, but then it slowly tanks. If you like Office Space, you'll like Idiocracy, too.
Harry Potter 5
Awesome. My only complaint is that it didn't include some of my favorite scenes from the book. However, since the book is so long, what can we reasonably expect? My love of Harry Potter is well documented, so I won't go into it here, but I love the movies only half as much as the books, which put them pretty high anyway.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Perhaps better than the original. See above for the other Pirates movie. It's the same movie, with different plot and effects. With this kind of movie, that's just fine.
Simpsons Movie
Excellent Simpsons. If you like Simpsons, you'll love the movie. They took all the best writers, and hammered out a very tight story with tons of great jokes -- very fast paced. It's basically the best Simposons episode ever because they spent so much time on it, and it's really long.
Labels: Harry Potter, movies
posted by William Sofield at 9:19 AM
2 Comments:
Good Lord! That's a a lot of movies!
Actually I wanted to comment on a few.
I felt exactly the way you did about Babel. The only character I cared about was the Japanese girl. By the end of the movie I didn't care what happened to those 2 kids in the desert, I just wanted it to end. Too much drama all around, and way too disconnected. The story of the Mexican mother was actually almost comical. If the intent there was to garner sympathy for illegal immigrants, it had the exact opposite effect on me. "Crash" was amazing, however.
"Bridge To..." was excellent. I watched it with my daughter. My favorite scene is the conversation coming back from church.
"Kill Bill", both of them, are the best Tarantino has done.
And in closing, Harry Potter is an instrument of Satan used to deceive our young children to attend a school called Hogwarts and lead them into a life of witchcraft and Satanic worship while listening to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin back-masked songs, followed by a viewing of Sleeping Beauty, which also portrays a witch and further teaches our children to cast spells on people, metaphorically speaking, into a "sleep" whereby they are numbed to the Word of God, and culminates in a bath of several soaps produced by Proctor and Gamble, who everyone knows by their symbolic representation of moon and stars on their logo, attended Hogwarts and learned how to make magical soaps used to keep Christians preoccuppied by compelling them to protest the use of beauty aides, make them smelly, and thereby causing people to stay away from Christians because, well, they stink.
Great movie reviews.
I must agree with Marcos on the demon spawn that is Harry Potter. Upon learning of the completion of the seventh wretched manuscript (in a series of 666 I'm sure) I needed a good hour-long Joel Osteen pick-me-up sermon to just make it through the rest of my day.
As for the Simpsons, I hold that "Last Exit to Springfield" is the greatest installment of any program ever. Including the news and sporting events.
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