iSee Movies

Mixed Nuts

2011-01-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

It achieves a kind of silly pleasantness, but starts off truly bad. Feels like a stodgy stage play for the first act, at least, before the entertainments finally perks it up.

Not to blame it, but this flick has the biggest misuse of Jon Stewart, don't it?

Something finally occurred to me that I think in other movies I never quite wanted to realize: Steve Martin is a bad actor. I can and do appreciate his absurd, over-the-topness in, say, The Jerk, or Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. But in movies like this, or Roxanne, or the truly miscast and stupid My Blue Heaven, he's just no damned good at all. Which is too bad, cause I'm a fan otherwise and dude's clearly a genius.

2 stars; computer; December

Love and Other Catastrophes

2011-01-13T06:03:00.000-08:00

Nowhere near as good as I remember. I think maybe younger-me was more impressed by the sometimes-witty script. Recalling this movie is what made me think of finally watching Meet Me in St Louis. Then rewatching this.

Not that that needed explaining....

2.5 stars; computer; December

It's a Wonderful Life

2011-01-13T06:00:00.001-08:00

Yeah; good, enjoyable, fun. But fucking loooooooooooooooong.

And then some.

3 stars; computer; December

Four Lions (2010)

2011-01-13T05:58:00.001-08:00

Imperfect, but very, very funny.

3.5 stars; iPad; December

Meet Me in St. Louis

2011-01-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

Harmless movie with the occasionally fun character (the psychopathic kid sister entertains) that turns stupid the first time the father mentions New York (actually, at the reaction to the news) and fucking retarded when the boy can't get his tux.

But, hey, now I've seen it....

2 stars; computer; December

White Christmas

2011-01-13T05:53:00.001-08:00

Did I just become a Bing Crosby fan? I may have. Who's next - Bob Hope?

Also too long.

I'm glad people don't really decorate their trees with tinsel anymore. Good Christ is that tacky-looking. (See also: The Bishop's Wife.)

3 stars; computer; December

Holiday Inn

2011-01-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

Just damned fine. The blackface scene was... y'know... unfuckingcalledfor. But the rest was good. I enjoyed Bing quite a lot, which is a first.

Too long, but good.

3.5 stars; iPad; December

The Bishop's Wife

2011-01-13T05:47:00.000-08:00

I've never seen It's a Wonderful Life, which seems to plow similar ground, but I doubt it's any better. TB'sW manages to be sweet without being hokey, religious (in the way such things inevitably are) without being stupid, while also being quite funny. A significant part of the credit goes to Grant, of course. Treasure, he was.

3.5 stars; computer; December

About a Boy

2011-01-13T05:44:00.001-08:00

What, I can't watch this movie for like the thousanth time? Eff off.

4 stars; computer; December

The Departed

2010-09-12T08:51:00.001-07:00

Such a great movie, but it leaves you feeling not so good about humanity or the world or whatever. Basically.

4 stars; iPad; September 11th

Following

2010-09-10T08:41:00.001-07:00

Kind of really good. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

3.5 stars; iPad; September 10th

Red Belt

2010-09-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

It still seems like a big buildup to a small payoff, but I've decided that the first - what, 3/4s? - is a lot of fun to watch. Chiwetel Ejiofor is terrific.

3.5 stars in spite of itself; iPad; September 9th

Hit Girl

2010-09-10T08:22:00.001-07:00

Cute. I liked it just fine.

3 stars; iMac; September 1st, maybe?

The Runaways

2010-09-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

Didn't seem like a whole movie for whatever reason. There's a great scene between Haley Joel Osmet, or whatever her name is, and the woman playing her sister, that includes some of the worst acting I've seen in a while.

2 stars; iPad; September 8th (This should've gone before the last one, but you know what I don't feel like changing?)

The French Connection

2010-09-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

You can't beat the look of NYC in the '70s, can you? No, you can't. And it's totes gorg here. The movie's fine, too.

3.5 stars; iPad; September 9th

Fish Tank (2009)

2010-03-06T15:54:00.000-08:00

Not quite as incredible as Red Road, but it's incredible nonetheless.

3.5 stars; theater; March 6th

The Reader

2010-03-04T06:19:00.000-08:00

Just a tremendous performance by Kate Winslet, but I didn't believe most of the guy's story. But let's get to the meat of the beast:

I spent a good long time trying to figure out who the hell the young lead actor - David Kross - reminded me of. Not who he was, or where I'd seen him, but what it was about him that was familiar. Then - what, halfway thru the movie? - he's having the sex with the other girl and it hit me. He's the spitting fucking image of an Alex Gregory* man. The spit fucking image. Watch. You'll see.

Great performance by Winslet, tho.

2 stars; DVD; March 2nd

* I tried desperately to find a link to something featuring him, but apparently ever link leading to such a thing has died. Some sort of incredibly consistent and specific illness.

Touching the Void

2010-03-04T06:09:00.000-08:00

Just thoroughly engrossing.

3.5 stars; TCM or IFC; February 28th

Pretty in Pink

2010-03-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

There are a handful of movies that, no matter how many times I've seen them, just leave my brain without much of a trace. Okay, they leave a trace, but it's niggling and worthless. Pretty in Pink is one of those movies. Sixteen Candles, is another. I like John Hughes' movies just fine - The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off are terrific - but those two movies: poof! So I watched this one again... for the first time.

While this isn't a terrible movie at all, I don't have a lot of fun watching it. Maybe if I was a wee girl - or was once a wee girl - I'd be a big fan. Dunno. I've only ever been a massive fatty girl. Anyway, there are scenes that work really well (the dance scene is the movie's best and the only good thing Jon Cryer ever did), but I kinda don't like the cast - altho, I guess, Molly Ringwald gives a better performance than I could recall. Harry Dean Stanton just... I dunno. He seems like a really easy choice for that character and... whatever. It's better than I remembered.

3 stars; DVD; February 28th

Observe & Report

2010-03-03T16:53:00.001-08:00

Bafflingly weird movie, I didn't like terribly.

2 stars; DVD; February sometime

Adam (2009)

2010-02-04T03:44:00.000-08:00

This is a handsome movie. Not the story or the plot; I mean it's well-shot. The movie itself has an occasionally sweet (albeit too reminiscent of Science of Sleep while having far too little of that movie's) creativity and is not otherwise bad, but.... It took me a while to settle on its flaw. The problem with the movie is that at any time Adam is exactly as mentally retarded as the plot requires him to be. After a while, that makes the movie tiring; by the end, it's a little hard to take.

But it does it while looking okay.

2 stars; USB; Feb 1st.

The Damned United

2010-02-02T02:37:00.000-08:00

I can't say how good Michael Sheen's impression is (altho based on the bit they showed at the end, it does seem pretty solid), but his performance here is great. It makes a fairly formulaic movie a whole lot of fun to watch.

I forgot to add that this is a great-looking movie. There's a lot of really nice essentially-still-photography. I'd like to see the cinematographer's (Ben Smithard) photos.

3 stars; TV/USB; January 31st

Humpday (2009)

2010-01-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

The movie is called Humpday but the, uh, 'action' itself takes place on a Sunday. Whatevs. But maybe the original idea - the dare - took place on a Wednesday. That would actually make sense considering [spoilers].

The movie is often really hard to look at, but the acting and the script kept me from turning it off. But I wish they would've invested in both a higher quality camera and filters for it. Making the effort to have the film look nice really would've elevated the result. (There is a bit midway thru with static shots of stuff and that sequence was really quite pretty.)

3 stars, TV/USB, January 15th

Funny People (2009)

2010-01-16T15:41:00.000-08:00

Pretty great, innit?

Here's a thought I had while watching it again. Eric Bana is a terrible actor, and yet his near total inability to merge action to words occasionally results here in funny moments. It's like he keeps slipping in shit, but occasionally lands in some gold.

Shut up, yes it is - it's exactly like that.

3.5 stars; DVD; January 15th

New Moon/Twilight 2/Whatever

2010-01-04T00:28:00.000-08:00

There's a demonstrated self-awareness, at least in the first half, that this is a bad movie. Or at least a self-consciousness that we might think it is. There are 2 scenes where bad movies are both brought up and made fun of. I couldn't decide if they were intended to be knowing or defensive.

The movie itself is markedly better than the first one. It's not good at all - not even remotely good - but it is better. Like, they're both really fucking ugly kids, but at least this one doesn't have that one's nose.

1.5 stars; theater; January 3rd

Twilight (2008)

2010-01-03T06:15:00.001-08:00

One of my friends pointed out that this was the first movie each of us watched this year. We laughed, 'cause, y'know.

It just really sucks, doesn't it? It was fun to make fun of, but the movie itself, realistically, is just rotten. The acting is bad (notably exception is Anna Kendrick), the story sucks, the script is awful, the direction is passable, I gues, the effects are terrible. Yeah, it's just a turd, this.

But it was fun to make fun of.

.5 star; theater; January 1st

The English Surgeon (2007)

2010-01-03T06:14:00.001-08:00

Not a happy movie. Good, tho. Well told.

3 stars; TV/USB; December 31st

Up in the Air

2009-12-27T22:09:00.000-08:00

A good adult movie about adults for adults. Not great, but better than passable.

3 stars; theater; December 27th

Vvvvzzzzzzz

2009-12-27T04:05:00.000-08:00

Months have passed, and many, many movies have been seen since I updated this ~~hunk of crap~~ blog. That marks the first time in, like, 15 years I've made no effort to keep track of what I've seen (this place's raison d'etre for the last few years). I might pick it up again in '10, but '9's compliment ain't nearly complete - nor will it ever be.

Here're a couple/few more, tho, off the top of my head:

Step Up 2: The Streets - when the nerd dances on the stairs? That's the only part of this hunk of shit anyone ever needs to see. 1 star; TV (Encore)
Grand Torino - I liked the relationship between Eastwood's character and the girl's, but she's a really terrible actor. I also liked the song at the end. 3 stars; uomc
(500) Days of Summer - quality workmanship. 3.5 stars; DVD

----

Another: Invictus: A quality made-for-TV movie. Essentially. Good tho. But here's a strange thing. It's a movie about racial harmony and getting past barriers between people in order to work together. To some degree at least. Basically it's a movie that celebrates liberal inclusiveness. But immediately before it, ran a trailer for Mel Gibson's latest movie. You see that, right? The Sexist, homophobic, bigoted, anti-Semite's movie ad ran just before this movie. Seemed... wrong. 3 stars; theater

Séraphine

2009-08-26T03:32:00.000-07:00

Good lead performance and well made generally, but I never really cared. And I wanted to care.

Oh, I wanted to mention this: I can't remember the last time - and it's possible there was no last time - where a movie showed someone actually making art. Not drawing or painting over already made images, but making their own, right there onscreen, new art, virgin lines.

2 stars; theater; August 25th

Up

2009-08-25T01:01:00.001-07:00

Cute, sweet, nice, moving at times, decent.

3 stars; theater; August 23rd
The first movie I've seen at the Avalon?

Catchup

2009-08-23T03:25:00.000-07:00

Once you start making a list of shit to blog, it becomes much, much harder to get around to the blogging. As the list grows, it grows worse. Anyway, minus 2 movies I can't remember (that I know of, there may be others) here's what I've seen since, in chronological order.

April:
Badlands: marvelous, 4 stars, theater
Friday: I love this movie, but the Baghdad sure wasn't the place to have seen it. 3 stars, theater, same Friday as Badlands
Adventureland: a sweet coming of age story not the comedy the trailers made it out to be. 3 stars, theater
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29: Enjoyable - especially the movie's classic arch-villain. 3 stars, theater
Last Chance Harvey: watchable in spite of itself. 3 stars, theater
Hunger: really pretty great. 3.5 stars, theater
State of Play: Saw it on the DVD, but can't remember what I thought of it or much else. 2.5 stars, DVD
Caprica: Watched this before BSG and it was interesting enough to make me start the series (which I have yet to finish because Jesus Christ). 3 stars, theater
Anvil: The Story of Anvil: I fully expected to love - or anyway really like - this movie, but I just didn't. I thought it'd be sweet and funny watching these two characters do their thing, and to an extent it was, but mostly it just made me sad. Well made, I guess, but I didn't like it. 2 stars, theater

May:
Watchmen: What an atrocious piece of shit. Watched maybe half before walking out. I want someone to edit out the redundant bits and speed up the slo-mo. That's a short film I'd watch. zero stars, theater
Star Trek: Shocked how much I liked this. Nerds were freaking out so much, I expected it to kinda suck. But it's a great time. I hope Spock-guy - who stole the movie, btw - gets a nomination for being awesome. 3.5 stars, theater
Tyson: The screening was full of frat boys, so instead of watching a movie about the man, they all came for a fight and laughed at weird moments. Psychopaths. Really terrific movie tho - even with all the split-screen crap. 3.5 stars, theater, 28th
The Girlfriend Experience: Terrific. Slow, but really good. Liked it. 3, theater, 31st
Amarcord: God damned marvelous. The best Fellini I've seen. I'm starting to come around on heem. 4 stars, theater, 31st

June:
Objectified: A good enough follow up to the delightful Helvetica, but I don't want to frame it or nothing. 3 stars, theater, 9th
Away We Go: Loved this kinda. Very good. 3 stars, theater, 21st
The Hangover: It's the weirdest thing: a comedy without laughs that somehow works. I can't figure it out. Craziness! 3 stars, theater, 28th

July:
Public Enemies: Imperfect, but not terrible, in spite of its direction and look. Normally I think Mann is a genius, but this thing... I just didn't like its look at all. Or much else about it, really. But I didn't hate it. 2.5 stars, theater, 4th
Whatever Works: Also imperfect (especially the casting of the lovely Evan Rachel Wood as a hillbilly) but Woody's scripted flourishes and David's delivery of them pulls it thru nicely. A good time was had. 3 stars, theater, 16th
Every Little Step: Interesting, informative, can't remember what I was going to say about it. 3 stars, theater, 18th
Funny People: Really very good. Not his masterpiece yet, but it confirms Apatow is working toward one; it's his best yet by a mile. 3.5 stars, theater, 31st

August:
Moon: Boy howdy, I wanted this to be great sci-fi, but it's good sci-fi and I guess that's good and rare enough. 3 stars, theater, 2nd
Julie & Julia: I appreciated a lot about this movie - especially Streep's performance - but I never really fell in love with it. Maybe because the other arc (Julie's) never really defends its presence. 2.5 stars, theater, 7th
The Ugly Truth: What do you want? They weren't showing (500) Days of Summer in McMinnville and we wanted to see something romantical on our anniversary. Terrible god damned movie. 1 star (tops), theater, 8th
(500) Days of Summer: For a while it was my favorite movie of the year so far. For a while. You'll see why in a moment. 3.5 stars, theater, 9th
In the Loop: Not as good as The Thick of It, but still very funny. It'd probably be more successful, to be honest, had most of the shit in this movie not pretty much happened in 2003, y'know? I'm just sayin'. 3 stars, theater, 16th
Inglourious Basterds: Perfect? I think it just might be. I'm a pretty huge Tarantino booster and it blew me away. (It has me wanting to watch other movies about the love of movies, but I'm having trouble thinking of them - rec's accepted eagerly.) I will definitely go see this again before it leaves theaters. What a fucking thing. If this doesn't end up my favorite movie of the year, I can't wait to see whatever does. 4 stars (but really 5, I think), theater, 20th
The Lady Vanishes: Really well made and fun to watch again. 3.5 stars, DVD, 21st
Summertime: Really nice photography by Lean and Hildyard and a kind of sweet performance by Hepburn, but the rest is an overlong mess, really. Great review by New York Magazine's (!) David Denby on the insert, tho. Made me wish I liked the movie more. 2 stars, DVD, 21st

Kicking and Screaming (1995)

2009-04-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

For some reason I'd forgotten I'd seen this, but remembered the moment it started. It's often very funny, often too knowingly witty, but generally shows promise.

3 stars; DVD; April 1st

Seconds (1966)

2009-04-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

"The question of death selection may be the most important decision in your life."

"There never was a struggle in the soul of a good man that wasn't hard."

Incredible photography. Terrific movie.

4 stars; DVD; April 1st

Song of the South (1946)

2009-04-02T00:49:00.000-07:00

"Uncle Remus, you tell the best tales in the United States of Georgia."

It should've been that those living in 1946 would've realized that cartoon depictions of blacks were inaccurate, unfair, and cruel, but we're a retarded species slow to learn. As such, there's far too much yassuh- and massuh-like speech from the black characters. With that baggage and more, I was surprised to find that the movie works at all, but it does - and actually quite well. It manages to be sweet and enjoyable, and the black characters, slathered in derogation and belittlement, to be sure, give the thing its heart.

I wouldn't want to watch this movie with others, or to see it shown in schools, but I'd watch it again and I'll think fondly of it. I didn't expect that beforehand.

4 stars; DVD/LD; April 1st

Oxford Blues (1984)

2009-04-02T00:40:00.000-07:00

High-powered 1980s cheese that's predictable and unexciting, and, for some reason, likable. Ally Sheedy was incredibly cute.

3 stars; DVD/LD; April 1st

The Game (1997)

2009-04-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I still like it quite a bit.

(I watched a rip of the old LaserDisc that included the only interesting slice-n-dice commentary I've heard; I listened to it after I finished watching the movie.)

2.5 stars; DVD/LD; March 28th

Caddyshack (1980)

2009-04-01T17:53:00.001-07:00

This is a lot more adult than I remembered. (Is there a more disturbing line from an '80s film than "Man in the boat overload"?)

3 stars; DVD; March 28

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

2009-04-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

I loved the pace of the thing and its almost hyper-dramatic tone.

3.5 stars; DVD; March 27th

Night of the Comet (1984)

2009-03-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

Truly horrible movie that was a lot of fun to make fun of.

.5 stars; theater; March 26th

Klute (1971)

2009-03-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

This movie has a huge amount, stylistically, in common with The Conversation. I expected to see a personnel overlap, but according to IMDb there isn't one.

My lone complaint is I never saw the connection between Tom and the abusive john. They both 'meet' the Fonda character around the same time, but after it's established that they're different people, I failed to get why it was anything more than coincidence. *Spoiler:*

The abusive John kills Tom, right, so that's how they tie together ultimately, but looking at it from Klute's point of view, chronologically, what kept him pursuing the john? Is that a plot hole or did I miss a thing?

It's a good performance by Fonda, especially in the final scene, but it's slightly odd casting, because, talented as she is, Fonda isn't sultry. Seemed like the part needed someone who was.

4 stars; theater; March 26th

Changeling (2008)

2009-03-26T03:48:00.003-07:00

Good performance by Jolie, but the subject matter was unpleasant.

3 stars; DVD; March 24th

I Love You, Man (2009)

2009-03-26T03:48:00.001-07:00

It doesn't amount to much, but it's laugh-heavy and enjoyable.

3 stars; theater; March 22nd

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2007)

2009-03-26T03:47:00.000-07:00

The love story was really well handled, and was moving, but so much of the rest seemed like chunks taken from other movies. The lightning strikes for example. For some reason, they killed when I saw the movie, but they felt entirely out of place here. All the boat stuff should've been scrapped, too. There was no reason this thing should've been that long.

And another thing: how the hell was Robert Redford not cast as Pitt's father? Did they look too much alike?

2.5 stars (because of the love story, or in spite of it); theater; March 20th

Che (2008)

2009-03-26T03:44:00.001-07:00

Likely in the top five from 2008.

4 stars; theater; March 18th

Harold & Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay

2009-03-26T03:42:00.001-07:00

It's weird how little of this movie actually takes place in Guantanamo, for all the press it got as being a satire of the place.

2.5 stars; DVD; March 1st

Son of Rambow

2009-03-26T03:40:00.002-07:00

Terrific.

3.5 stars; DVD; February 24th

The American President

2009-03-26T03:40:00.000-07:00

Good times.

4 stars; DVD; February 18th

Body of Lies

2009-03-26T03:38:00.000-07:00

I loved the stuff between DiCaprio and Crowe and found the movie engaging enough, but I wonder what was with the black-n-white portrayal of the CIA and the Kingdom of Jordan. I realize the CIA's a mess and has almost certainly done us more harm than good, so fine, but the filmmakers seem oblivious to the fact that Jordan is hardly a wonderful place - it does routinely torture prisoners, for example.

3 stars; DVD; February 18th

Gomorrah

2009-03-26T03:32:00.000-07:00

Very good.

3.5 stars; DVD; February 16th

Pineapple Express

2009-03-26T03:31:00.000-07:00

After the first 20 minutes or so, I laughed enough.

3 stars; uomc; February 15th

I've Loved You So Long

2009-03-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

What the hell is wrong with the Academy, seriously? How was this not nominated for Best Picture (let alone Best Foreign Film, an also-ran, xenophobic category that's never not disappointing) and how in the hell did Scott-Thomas herself not get nominated then win in the Best Actress category?

Might be the best movie of '08.

4 stars; uomc; February 14th

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

2009-03-02T13:30:00.001-08:00

I laughed at some bits, enjoyed some others, but the movie was largely meh-y.

2 stars; DVD; February 14th

Once

2009-03-02T13:29:00.001-08:00

Still terrific, still the 2nd best film of 2007.

4 stars; theater; February 14th

The Life & Times of Allan Ginsberg

2009-03-02T13:28:00.001-08:00

I know almost nothing of the Beats, so this was interesting in that way, but, oddly, it made me not like Ginsberg very much. Couldn't put my finger on why.

2 stars; iPod, then iTunes; February 13th

Confessions of a Shopaholic

2009-03-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

Just not good. Fisher has a knack for comedy, but she plays this movie way too slapstickily.

2 stars; theater; February 13th

The Third Man

2009-03-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

I don't think I'd noticed the parallels with Casablanca before.

4 stars (but really 5); DVD; February 11th

He's Just Not That Into You

2009-02-11T02:26:00.001-08:00

This movie will be much better after the rewrites. The talking-heads bit, for example, that'll go pretty quickly into draft-2, I figure. (Because what the hell?) And soon after the script is finished, they'll recast it, surely, finding couples that actually have chemistry. That'll help the final film quite a lot. I can't wait.

I realized while watching this that I don't believe Jennifer Aniston when she acts. I don't think it occured to me before because she seems nice, and I give nice people a break, and likable, and the same applies here, and because I enjoyed her work on Friends. But when she smiles or is happy or whatever, she does a smoosh-face thing that really doesn't resemble any sincere expression made by real people. Whatever it's suppose to communicate doesn't make it thru the translation and engenderes instead quite a different what-is-that response. In me, at least. (I have a similar, only much more severe, reaction to the lady who plays Addison in Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice: I don't remotely believe her at all. Whatever it is she does isn't acting, and I think it was realizing that recently that helped grease the skids of my Aniston-epiphany.)

Back to the movie: It commits what might be the worst possible sin in pictures: it just sits there lifeless onscreen. It's not particularly bad or good, it just is. There. Dead for all to see.

1 star; theater; February 8th

Taken

2009-02-11T02:25:00.001-08:00

Right, so I'm aware this is just trashy mcgarbage crap, but I really enjoyed it much, much more than I thought I would. Like, it's actually trash done well (like Entourage, only completely different).

I expected to sit thru it, but instead I was entertained and engaged. Good times.

Oh, and this, because the movie put me into an ass-kicking state of mind: I saw this on the top floor of a mall. Afterward, while waiting for Scout to rest, I was leaning, kinda-sorta, on a railing that prevents people from walking into the open-air, 6-storey abyss and falling to their floor-smacking doom, when the thought occurred to me that an advantage of being fat is homicidal strangers would have a much harder time flipping you over the precipice to your unwanted death. This was a realization that gave me great comfort for the moment I stood looking over. Then I walked to the opposite wall, and waited there, safe even from strong men.

3 stars; theater; February 4th

Savage Grace

2009-02-11T02:24:00.002-08:00

Apparently the rich - even the ugly rich - have loads and loads of sex. This movie took a weird turn at the end....

Often when there's a movie that doesn't succeed terribly well but is shot in loads of different foreign locations, I start to wonder if it was written that way just so the filmmakers could get in some traveling. I spent a fair amount of this movie wondering how short the days were.

2 stars; uomc; February 3rd

The Sum of All Fears

2009-02-11T02:24:00.001-08:00

You finally get patched into (the ad hoc) Air Force One, why do you not lead with 'The plutonium was ours!'? Seriously. It's not a time for lede burying; the world is about to end; you can defend yourself later.

It's an astonishingly weak point in an otherwise fairly strong movie.

3 stars; DVD; February 1st

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

2009-02-11T02:23:00.001-08:00

Not really the movie the ads make it out to be. They make it look much more like Die Hard than it is. The trapped-in-a-place-with-bad-guys stuff is a fairly small part of the movie. Most of the comedy is uncomfortable. Not actively terrible, but less escapist than I expected.

2 stars; theater; February 1st

Wanted

2009-01-31T01:14:00.001-08:00

Not without a respectable sense of humor, but markedly without *good*. This is a bad movie, witty at times, very occasionally interesting to look at, but in the main, fairly awful.

1.5 stars; iPod Touch; January 27th

Tropic Thunder

2009-01-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

There's fully no chance of this happening, but were Downey, Jr to go home with the Supporting Actor Oscar, I'd be downright pleased.

The movie plods in parts where its overplotting drags on the characters, but it's mostly a whole lot of fun.

3.5 stars; DVD; January 26th

Christopher Strong

2009-01-25T01:32:00.000-08:00

Boy howdy, there's just a lot of really terrible acting in this thing.

Otherwise: uncompelling.

2 stars; DVR (TCM); January 20th

Revolutionary Road

2009-01-14T03:31:00.000-08:00

There's a lot here I liked, but I didn't like the movie very much.

DiCaprio, who gives a good performance, wasn't right for his role. That might be a first for him. He just seems too young. You can see the ending - or a variant of it - coming from way, way early in the movie and you really shouldn't be able to: it neutralizes the ending's power. The bad-stuff's-a-comin' music is tiresome. The camera, while taking pretty pictures, surely, is often lifeless, dead.

Fix those things and you'd have a compelling picture.

Good stuff: the children reveal. The (overdone) clear loathing of suburbia and parenthood - and unfulfilled dreams. Winslet (especially her morning-after-a-fight HAL-like style of speech: "How would you like your eggs, Frank?"). The wardrobe (the sets seemed occasionally overpacked). The crazy guy (j'adore!). Kathy Bates.

2 stars; theater; January 13th

Zack & Miri Make a Porno

2009-01-13T03:41:00.000-08:00

Enjoyed it.

3 stars; theater; January 10th

Religulous

2009-01-13T03:38:00.000-08:00

I really kinda loved this movie. I'm an easy target, being, as I am, completely without religiousity, but it's much funnier and engaging than I thought it would be and Bill Maher, who I've never been much of a fan of comes off really nicely here.

Good times.

4 stars; uomc; January 7th

Rachel Getting Married

2009-01-06T23:57:00.000-08:00

The art direction was incredible. I can't imagine this movie working on TV even a 10th as well as it does on a theater screen.

And what was the average length of its scenes - 5 minutes? 6? I haven't seen a movie that spent this much time with the characters in a long, long while. The rehearsal scene, especially, and the wedding, will remain two of my favorite sequences from last year('s movies).

I liked this one a whole lot.

4 stars; theater; Jan 6th.

The Duchess

2009-01-06T23:51:00.000-08:00

I never really found myself caring.

I should clarify, probably, that Ralph Fiennes is a problem for me. There's something about his abject inability to act that I find particularly bothersome. So he certainly didn't help things, and the movie was bound to be on weak footing with me for his casting alone. But the rest of it, I dunno, I just didn't care.

2 stars; uomc; January 6th

Burn After Reading

2008-12-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

What a strange fucking movie. I don't think I liked it, but I was fond of it, and it has one sequence that is bound to remain one of my favorite of the year. I love the Coen brothers's ability to make a small story seem epic, and I'm again impressed with how they managed to make a movie where no one knows what's going on (or, I guess technically, they've managed it for the first time, since there is one character in Blood Simple who understands - for a moment). This isn't a particularly funny movie and its characters aren't particularly stupid. Why it's being lumped in with the likes of Raising Arizona, O Brother, or Lebowski, I don't quite understand. It isn't a drama, surely, but it is more its own thing than those.

2 stars; DVD; December 23rd

Snow Angels

2008-12-22T23:31:00.000-08:00

I liked the stuff between Thirlby and the nervous-tick-y boy from Sky High.

2 stars; uomc; December 22nd

Man on Wire

2008-12-22T23:30:00.000-08:00

Flawed but entertaining.

3 stars; DVD; December 21st

Slumdog Millionaire

2008-12-22T23:28:00.000-08:00

I may have been a hair quick in declaring this the movie of the year (especially in a year where I missed so many movies...), but I did like this quite a lot. I can't remember the last movie that kept me so thoroughly entertained. It's been a while, anyway.

4 stars; theater; December 11th (I think)

Stop-Loss

2008-12-22T23:26:00.000-08:00

I love when folks really try to say stuff while at the same time being careful not to say stuff. It protects your faith in the status quo.

2 stars; uomc; December 10th

Happy Go Lucky

2008-12-22T23:25:00.000-08:00

It'll make you smile, anyway.

3 starsl theater; December 7th

Milk

2008-12-22T23:20:00.000-08:00

Really sound performances. I hate to be one of those people who would not award the MVP to Jordan every year because they grew to expect his greatness, but Penn deserves the notices he gets, having turned in a terrific performance. But, and I'll probably be out there alone on this one, I think James Franco gives the movie's best performance. At least when prior work is considered. He's never shown much of a talent at all, but here he plays the straight man (no pun intended) and does a really great job of keeping the movie grounded. Good movie, but formulaic.

3 stars; theater; the Sunday after it opened, whenever that was.

Some of the movies I've seen...

2008-11-27T02:27:00.000-08:00

... and not blogged about, because really, who gives a fuck?

In vaguely chronological order:

Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired - Most informative documentary I've seen in years. - theater
About a Boy - It's a favorite, etc, etc. - DVD
Contact - much worse than I recalled or thought after previous viewings. - DVD
Role Models - Nowhere near as funny as people keep saying; very light comedy. Enough of it worked to make it harmless. - theater
Possession - I just really love this movie.
Quantum of Solace - Terrible title and inferior sequel, but I did enjoy it, all things considered. The fight/action scenes were filmed too Bourne-like, which isn't a good thing. Whatever happened to good direction of action scenes? - theater

There might've been others, but I haven't seen much since July, after seeing too many movies in the first half of the year.

Vicky Christina Barcelona

2008-08-19T22:50:00.001-07:00

Good, but I'm a sucker for Woody's movies, so what'd you expect?

3 stars; theater; August 19th

Encounters at the End of the World

2008-08-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

Beautiful.

3.5 stars; theater; 16th

Tell No One

2008-08-19T22:48:00.001-07:00

Runs a little long, but I really enjoyed this. For the first half, I thought I was watching a masterpiece. Good times.

3.5 stars; theater; August 2nd

The Wackness

2008-08-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

Maintains a steady level of eh for pretty much its entire running time. I like Olivia Thirlby and Ben Kingsley (an ugly bastard I realized) is occasionally funny (even while his character seemed wholly artificial). The lead guy should've been recast. It's always nice to see Method Man....

2 stars; theater; July 26th

WALL·E

2008-08-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

Imperfect but almost entirely wonderful anyway.

3.5 stars; theater; July 6th

[Friend's movie]

2008-08-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

We went to see one of my friends's first feature. Saying anything about it here (pseudo-anonymously on the Internets) feels inappropriate so I won't - aside from this place-holder.

theater; July 5th

Hancock

2008-08-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Will Smith was miscast here, but I did enjoy a fair amount of it. Once again, Jason Bateman excels.

2.5 stars; theater; July 4th

Get Smart

2008-08-19T22:39:00.002-07:00

Some bits to laugh at.

2.5 stars; theater; June 29th

Smiles of a Summer Night

2008-08-19T22:39:00.001-07:00

Masterwork.

4 stars; DVD; June 28th

Rashōmon

2008-08-19T22:36:00.001-07:00

Kinda terrific. When I have time I'll get back to this and its commentary/ies and extras and whatnot(s).

3.5 stars; DVD; June 27th

Lethal Weapon 2

2008-08-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

The best of the genre. Everything that came before it was inferior, everything that followed derivative. It was a load of fun to watch this again - it's been ages.

4 stars; iTunes Rental; June 25th

My streak ended this day.

Arthur

2008-08-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

Wonderful. Still.

4 stars; iTunes rental; June 24th

Sunshine

2008-08-19T22:32:00.001-07:00

Really interesting and beautiful and then suddenly maddeningly stupid. Truly terrible final act; one of the worst endings I can remember.

2 stars (entirely because of the start - or the ending, depending how you look at it); iTunes rental; June 23rd

Without Limits

2008-08-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

Terrible. Movie-of-the-week-y: manipulative and ~~inartful~~ inartistic. Horrid.

1 star; DVD; June 22nd

Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

2008-08-19T22:27:00.001-07:00

I remember thinking the ending was disappointing, and the movie was not at all what I expected, but appreciating something about it, but not caring a tremendous amount generally.

2.5 stars; DVD; June 21st

Can-Can

2008-08-19T22:26:00.001-07:00

Entertaining, bold, and grand, but damned long.

3 stars; DVD; June 20th

12 Angry Men

2008-08-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

I rented this because I had jury duty coming up and I wanted to learn how to be vindictive, censorious, and punishing.

4 stars; iTunes rental; June 19th

Be Kind Rewind

2008-08-19T22:22:00.001-07:00

Kinda sweet, fun to watch, entertaining atmosphere and ideas, but minor.

3 stars; iTunes rental; June 18th

Cloverfield

2008-08-19T22:21:00.001-07:00

I remember the first part of this being irritating, but it improving a considerable amount as it ran.

?; iTunes rental; June 17th

Factotum

2008-08-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

Fuck - I saw this a long time ago. More than two months ago. How'm I supposed to remember anything about it?

?: uomc; June 16th

Flawless

2008-06-29T18:25:00.001-07:00

Strangely minor movie.

2 stars; uomc; theater 15th

The Gods Must be Crazy

2008-06-29T18:11:00.001-07:00

Cute, funny.

3 stars; OnDemand; June 14th