Kristen Stewart stars in this new age vampire film. She is cute, not Jennifer Love Hewitt or anything.
This movie was decent but after thinking about if for a while, I now wished Blade would have appeared and ended this perpetual fantasy these vampires in this small town were/are living.
Robert Pattinson is the teenage vampire young female fans will come to see this movie for.
Two oringinal scenes or aspects is the combination of the local Indian tribe. The local Indian tribe are cognizant of the vampires and apparently, a few centuries prior, settled a pact with the vampire family. They do not want them killing deer or game on their land. If they do or are found to be on their land, the Indians would inform the white man or pale faces as the early settlers or Americans are referred to of the vampire existence. Not sure who would believe the story, but I am sure the Indians could convince someone of their existence.
The movie starts out in Phoenix but then her Stewart's character relocates to a small town in Washington, in the woods with her father. Her father just happens to be the new town COP, Chief of Police. The high school kids believe the Cullen's are weird. Not sure how a kid/student can remain in high school indefinitely and one realizes this or notices he does not age. Oh well. I did not pay too close attention to the particulars.
This movie sort of copied Jumper from earlier this year. Accept Jumper had Samuel L. Jackson and this movie does not. Jumper was also completely original, had several action scenes, and much of it was original. Jumper also went to various parts of the world, Twilight lacks so many of these attributes.
The baseball scene in Twilight was funny and creative. They had to play during a Thunderstorm because the bat hitting the ball was so powerful. Hilarious. Any wooden bat hitting an object that hard, either the bat would blow up in a hail of splinters or the ball's cover would be torn apart like the slugger Roy Hobbs did in the outstanding movie The Natural. But teenage girls watching this do not know about this nor care.
Bella Swan is Stewart's character and she does not become a vampire as far as I know. Edward Cullen played by Pattinson resists the urge to bite her, turn her, or eat her, what ever the proper nomenclature is.
The music in this movie was unimpressive, the action was weak to nonexistent, but the acting was decent. Normal human male teenagers were shown to be either potential rapists or just jerks, unless they were Indian. I used to live in Phoenix so that was interesting, then they went to small town Washington and favored this environment. I would take rain and cold over dust storms and scorpions as well.
I allocate this movie one star. *
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Transporter 3
Another action packed movie with Jason Statham as the lead. I do not think he cares about being typecasted since there are so many villians that need to be killed. And we know Barnie Frank and Nanci Pilosi will not be there to take care of that.
This movie was not that good though. The action was there but it was predictable and much of it was unoriginal. Robert Knepper is the evil culprit, another star from the widely acclaimed Prison Break to spread his wings into other directions. I do not blame him.
One strike against this series is that they are separate from each other. What happened to the beautiful Chinese girl from the first one? Statham's character Frank Martin I guess grue bored of her and decided to relocate to Miami. Why? Now he is back in France but the city mentioned and shown in this movie was Budapest. Hungary has some wonderful scenery which is shown in this movie throughout. No one is going to argue with that.
Martin has to deliver some packages that are not worth much, the unnappealing girl which ofcourse becomes Martin's love interest in the movie is the true package. This is what needs to be delivered to Budapest. Natalya Rudakova is this girl-Valentina, she is a red headed Ukrainian and apparently Hollywood is enraptured with any female actress who is from the Ukraine. The problem is this girl is a far cry from Olga Kurylenko who stars in new Bond film and last year's Hitman.
Knepper plays Johnson, someone who is trying to blackmail the Hungarian minister I presume into signing some papers to allow 8 ships with highly toxic chemicals and poisons onto the mainland. Where these chemicals came from and what exactly they will be used for, I am not sure. Can not be good though.
Statham is a stud but him fighting with his shirt off while she druels over him, what is the viewer supposed to think about this? Male or female. I am not impressed, I do not want to see that. I have to deduct one star just for this uncomfortable scene. He is in this car garage with his friend who seems to have the answer for everything and while they are talking, about 10 guys come out of no where who do not like what Martin is doing. This friend is named Auto, but he seems more of a computer hacker than greasy car mechanic. Where do these bad asses come from? Were they following him? Evidently, why do they not deliver the girl then? They do not want Martin to take the high tech chemical bomb that is around his wrist off what is magnetically or wirelessly linked to a sensor in the car. Whatever.
François Berléand is back as Detective Tarconi and he is not on vacation in this film. His character is still friends with Martin as this film begins and ends with them on a quiet and relaxing fishing trip. He f0llows Martin through Central Europe with the local police magistrate to attempt to aprehend the villians.
There is a cool car chase in the film with some super high speed action. Martin even pops his car on the side, doing a two wheely.
The hip hop music is mixed in, but the action is not spectacular. It is not as unbelievable or just as fantastical as Transporter II which was just so over the top, it is comical. Martin using a jet ski and jumping that on the road and then jumping from that machine to a moving bus is just old school James Bond ridiculous heroics.
The funny scene in the movie occurs when Martin is sitting on his car while a local farmer pulls it out using a tractor my dad could appreciate.
Too many strikes agains this movie. The star girl is not that hot, can not act, does drugs and hard liquor when any half way intelligent person would be taking this situation that she is in much more serious. So obviously she is not half way to the level of any intelligence. Just stupid and borderline unwatchable. She undermines the movie, too skinny and her lines were just terrible. The villians are well organized but it has all been done before. Budapest has not been mentioned by Hollywood in a while so that is fresh but it does not take superlative writing or creativity to make this the central backdrop.
I never critiqued Transporter II, I would have given that one two stars as well. This one is slightly better because it is a little more believable. Transporter I was probably one of the best action packed movies in the past ten years. It has a pretty girl, all star music, stunning action, and a charismatic villian. Four stars for that one, perhaps five.
Therefore, I would allocate this movie two stars. **
This movie was not that good though. The action was there but it was predictable and much of it was unoriginal. Robert Knepper is the evil culprit, another star from the widely acclaimed Prison Break to spread his wings into other directions. I do not blame him.
One strike against this series is that they are separate from each other. What happened to the beautiful Chinese girl from the first one? Statham's character Frank Martin I guess grue bored of her and decided to relocate to Miami. Why? Now he is back in France but the city mentioned and shown in this movie was Budapest. Hungary has some wonderful scenery which is shown in this movie throughout. No one is going to argue with that.
Martin has to deliver some packages that are not worth much, the unnappealing girl which ofcourse becomes Martin's love interest in the movie is the true package. This is what needs to be delivered to Budapest. Natalya Rudakova is this girl-Valentina, she is a red headed Ukrainian and apparently Hollywood is enraptured with any female actress who is from the Ukraine. The problem is this girl is a far cry from Olga Kurylenko who stars in new Bond film and last year's Hitman.
Knepper plays Johnson, someone who is trying to blackmail the Hungarian minister I presume into signing some papers to allow 8 ships with highly toxic chemicals and poisons onto the mainland. Where these chemicals came from and what exactly they will be used for, I am not sure. Can not be good though.
Statham is a stud but him fighting with his shirt off while she druels over him, what is the viewer supposed to think about this? Male or female. I am not impressed, I do not want to see that. I have to deduct one star just for this uncomfortable scene. He is in this car garage with his friend who seems to have the answer for everything and while they are talking, about 10 guys come out of no where who do not like what Martin is doing. This friend is named Auto, but he seems more of a computer hacker than greasy car mechanic. Where do these bad asses come from? Were they following him? Evidently, why do they not deliver the girl then? They do not want Martin to take the high tech chemical bomb that is around his wrist off what is magnetically or wirelessly linked to a sensor in the car. Whatever.
François Berléand is back as Detective Tarconi and he is not on vacation in this film. His character is still friends with Martin as this film begins and ends with them on a quiet and relaxing fishing trip. He f0llows Martin through Central Europe with the local police magistrate to attempt to aprehend the villians.
There is a cool car chase in the film with some super high speed action. Martin even pops his car on the side, doing a two wheely.
The hip hop music is mixed in, but the action is not spectacular. It is not as unbelievable or just as fantastical as Transporter II which was just so over the top, it is comical. Martin using a jet ski and jumping that on the road and then jumping from that machine to a moving bus is just old school James Bond ridiculous heroics.
The funny scene in the movie occurs when Martin is sitting on his car while a local farmer pulls it out using a tractor my dad could appreciate.
Too many strikes agains this movie. The star girl is not that hot, can not act, does drugs and hard liquor when any half way intelligent person would be taking this situation that she is in much more serious. So obviously she is not half way to the level of any intelligence. Just stupid and borderline unwatchable. She undermines the movie, too skinny and her lines were just terrible. The villians are well organized but it has all been done before. Budapest has not been mentioned by Hollywood in a while so that is fresh but it does not take superlative writing or creativity to make this the central backdrop.
I never critiqued Transporter II, I would have given that one two stars as well. This one is slightly better because it is a little more believable. Transporter I was probably one of the best action packed movies in the past ten years. It has a pretty girl, all star music, stunning action, and a charismatic villian. Four stars for that one, perhaps five.
Therefore, I would allocate this movie two stars. **
Friday, November 28, 2008
Changeling
Angelina Jolie plays Christine Collins in this solid movie by Clint Eastwood. It was probably the worst movie directed by Eastwood that I can remember but that is not saying much. Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers were superior, especially the latter. Million Dollar Baby was clearly better made but the second half of that film is only watchable once. Mystic River is probably still his best movie that I can think of.
Jolie may be nominated for this role, her performance was on the mark. The problem with this film is there is not much of a climax and the story sort of drags at times. The impression is not imprinted on the viewer, there is not that riveting minutes of footage.
John Malkovich's character is a Prespertarian reverend called Gustav Briegleb who rails against police corruption in his sermon at the pulpit and on his radio show. This movie does not prove much of anything on that front nor does it illustrate this besides this one case. This is just Hollywood being it's typical liberal self. Ironically, Eastwood is a Republican. Ofcourse he did not write the movie.
Regardless, there is a sloppy, lazy, and immoral police captain in the film who seemingly had or has too much power. He can summarily order people/woman into psycopathic wards without a warrant, without other justification, without a Doctor's order? Apparently, at this point he can, and just strip away people's freedom. What is worse, is that he forces a child that looks about the same as Collin's child, has him memorize Collin's address and tells him to act like her son. This is not shown but it is indicated that this occurs at the end when the boy states out loud that the police made him do it. The police would want to do this so they can claim this missing child case is solved.
The plot it is this, Collins's son does not return home one night. Collins is typically distraught but supposedly her son is found a couple of weeks later. Or this boy claims he is her son by calling her mother and siting the address. Collins later notices the child is not hers for sure when she realizes he is circumsized and that he is 3 inches shorter than when her son was last measured which is only a few weeks ago. She fights with the police over this, she is tossed into a nut ward, but the case is blown up when a child steps forth who says he helped kill and bury children out at this ranch he was living on with his uncle or cousin. The police later find children's bodies buried out there, Collins is released and Rev. Briegleb with a strong and recogniable lawyer go on the offensive. Collin's son is not proven to be one of the dead children ever in the movie so she retains hope all the way to the end. Collins works at a phone call center and is a skilled employee, she is a manager in fact.
When Collins's son is supposedly found and returned to her, she is knows it is not her son. Who would not believe a mother, or most mothers? An asinine police captain is one of the villians or atleast someone highly unethical in this film. It was his idea to plan Collin's address in the child's head, or the police captain's immediate supervisor. Either way, before this is revealed, the immorality of a few people in the LAPD chain of command, I thought the child was some sort of entity. Or an alien. I thought Eastwood was making a mysterious movie, something more along the science fiction lines. It was just my imagination though. That is more like M. Night Shyamalan's role in cinema. Despite his last movie being terrible and The Village was pathetic and hopelessly disappointing as well.
The killer who forced this child to become an accomplice is hanged in San Quentin I believe. Why they allow him to run his mouth like that until they drop the wooden bottom out is beyond me? Should have taped it shut but atleast he was spitting out remorse and not antagonizing the present family members.
When I first began this post, I sort of displayed my cards. Furthermore, this movie was not really that suspenseful, just because a movie fills time with some drama this does not automatically become amazing and edge of one's seat climatic acting and scenery. The cast was there but what did they do? Some talking and acting. Eastwood dropped the ball here. Sean Penn's screaming to the sky which required a dozen police officers to hold him back when he realized his daughter was killed in the spectacular movie Mystic River is still felt by me. Where was that in this film? Perhaps when Jolie was screaming behind the bars when the killer could not man up and truly confess that he killed her son to give Collins some closure? Not quite, it just was not there.
This movie does not have allot of compeition now so it could do OK. It is not as good as Pride and Glory but some people may favor this movie since it takes us to another time and there has been a smorgasbord or plethora of police movies that some people could be just weary of this type of film. Regardless, I think Pride and Glory should be given the nod here but neither are worthy of that much commendation.
I would allocate this movie three stars.***
Jolie may be nominated for this role, her performance was on the mark. The problem with this film is there is not much of a climax and the story sort of drags at times. The impression is not imprinted on the viewer, there is not that riveting minutes of footage.
John Malkovich's character is a Prespertarian reverend called Gustav Briegleb who rails against police corruption in his sermon at the pulpit and on his radio show. This movie does not prove much of anything on that front nor does it illustrate this besides this one case. This is just Hollywood being it's typical liberal self. Ironically, Eastwood is a Republican. Ofcourse he did not write the movie.
Regardless, there is a sloppy, lazy, and immoral police captain in the film who seemingly had or has too much power. He can summarily order people/woman into psycopathic wards without a warrant, without other justification, without a Doctor's order? Apparently, at this point he can, and just strip away people's freedom. What is worse, is that he forces a child that looks about the same as Collin's child, has him memorize Collin's address and tells him to act like her son. This is not shown but it is indicated that this occurs at the end when the boy states out loud that the police made him do it. The police would want to do this so they can claim this missing child case is solved.
The plot it is this, Collins's son does not return home one night. Collins is typically distraught but supposedly her son is found a couple of weeks later. Or this boy claims he is her son by calling her mother and siting the address. Collins later notices the child is not hers for sure when she realizes he is circumsized and that he is 3 inches shorter than when her son was last measured which is only a few weeks ago. She fights with the police over this, she is tossed into a nut ward, but the case is blown up when a child steps forth who says he helped kill and bury children out at this ranch he was living on with his uncle or cousin. The police later find children's bodies buried out there, Collins is released and Rev. Briegleb with a strong and recogniable lawyer go on the offensive. Collin's son is not proven to be one of the dead children ever in the movie so she retains hope all the way to the end. Collins works at a phone call center and is a skilled employee, she is a manager in fact.
When Collins's son is supposedly found and returned to her, she is knows it is not her son. Who would not believe a mother, or most mothers? An asinine police captain is one of the villians or atleast someone highly unethical in this film. It was his idea to plan Collin's address in the child's head, or the police captain's immediate supervisor. Either way, before this is revealed, the immorality of a few people in the LAPD chain of command, I thought the child was some sort of entity. Or an alien. I thought Eastwood was making a mysterious movie, something more along the science fiction lines. It was just my imagination though. That is more like M. Night Shyamalan's role in cinema. Despite his last movie being terrible and The Village was pathetic and hopelessly disappointing as well.
The killer who forced this child to become an accomplice is hanged in San Quentin I believe. Why they allow him to run his mouth like that until they drop the wooden bottom out is beyond me? Should have taped it shut but atleast he was spitting out remorse and not antagonizing the present family members.
When I first began this post, I sort of displayed my cards. Furthermore, this movie was not really that suspenseful, just because a movie fills time with some drama this does not automatically become amazing and edge of one's seat climatic acting and scenery. The cast was there but what did they do? Some talking and acting. Eastwood dropped the ball here. Sean Penn's screaming to the sky which required a dozen police officers to hold him back when he realized his daughter was killed in the spectacular movie Mystic River is still felt by me. Where was that in this film? Perhaps when Jolie was screaming behind the bars when the killer could not man up and truly confess that he killed her son to give Collins some closure? Not quite, it just was not there.
This movie does not have allot of compeition now so it could do OK. It is not as good as Pride and Glory but some people may favor this movie since it takes us to another time and there has been a smorgasbord or plethora of police movies that some people could be just weary of this type of film. Regardless, I think Pride and Glory should be given the nod here but neither are worthy of that much commendation.
I would allocate this movie three stars.***
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Slap Shot 3: The Junior League
This movie was not watched in depth by me. It is pretty funny. If one likes hockey, it is for them. But this is small time hockey. A love interested in included. A small town hockey team that consists of boys that all live together since they are orphans. This story is not unique, the poor or common against the good looking and wealthy. The underdog team wins in the end, and the good boy gets the pretty girl. He scores the winning goal against the movie jerk or antagonist.
The movie also has a city official who wants this rag tag team to do poorly. Her part is not unlike the Indian's female owner in the 1980's movie Major League.
This girl is cute and she has an impressive hockey game herself. She is on the roster in the final game, who scores a goal on the rival and another boy who used to like her. Nothing here is original.
Leslie Nielsen is the mayor who loves this team. He stars but it is not a typical slap stick or goofy movie that many other movies have copied.
Hockey legend Mark Messier makes a cameo.
The movie is pretty funny, some aspects are fresh. The orphan boys even obtain a new home at the end or a home that is more suitable and nicer than their run down home that has been housing them for and other orphan boys for many years.
I allocate two stars for this movie. **
The movie also has a city official who wants this rag tag team to do poorly. Her part is not unlike the Indian's female owner in the 1980's movie Major League.
This girl is cute and she has an impressive hockey game herself. She is on the roster in the final game, who scores a goal on the rival and another boy who used to like her. Nothing here is original.
Leslie Nielsen is the mayor who loves this team. He stars but it is not a typical slap stick or goofy movie that many other movies have copied.
Hockey legend Mark Messier makes a cameo.
The movie is pretty funny, some aspects are fresh. The orphan boys even obtain a new home at the end or a home that is more suitable and nicer than their run down home that has been housing them for and other orphan boys for many years.
I allocate two stars for this movie. **
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Scorched
This was a low budget Australian movie which occurs in Sydney. It is example on why people can not trust government for their lives or futures. And should not expect too.
This movie is not unlike the English disaster movie which arrived earlier in the year called Flood. Flood had a larger budget. Scorched was a drought that was extending to about 250 days in the South Eastern portion of the Australian continent. The time frame is Christmas which is strange to me since I am not use to seeing hot weather in late December.
The movie presents a mystery to the viewer in putting forth the idea that the western side of Sydney does not have sufficient fresh water. Later on in the movie, it is disclosed, the western side of the side is not even connected to the main water supply. Which makes absolutely no sense. The end of the movie it is pointed out the mayor verbally makes a deal with a private company to be provided free energy for an unlimited amount of free fresh water. She had no right to do this even if this made some sense. Icing on the cake is when she takes a $1,000,000 campaign pledge or prize from this company. This is filmed somehow and emailed to the cheif of the cities emergency services. The mayor seems unconcerned and indifferent towards the people that are dying in the fire and the drastic situation the city faces. So what happens at the end is not a real surprise. The shock is that the conversation was recorded and sent to the right person.
She is arrested but this is not shown. The fire trucks and fighters did not have enough water pressure at the end to fight the fire and the winds drove the fire further into neighborhoods and residential areas. The citizens were helpless while the mayor just allowed this to occur. All for political ambition.
The movie was well acted and written. It is not Armegeddon, not even close, but it is decent for a lower budgeted movie.
Government can not be trusted for either incompetence or corruption. This time it was the latter.
I would allocate two stars for this movie. **
This movie is not unlike the English disaster movie which arrived earlier in the year called Flood. Flood had a larger budget. Scorched was a drought that was extending to about 250 days in the South Eastern portion of the Australian continent. The time frame is Christmas which is strange to me since I am not use to seeing hot weather in late December.
The movie presents a mystery to the viewer in putting forth the idea that the western side of Sydney does not have sufficient fresh water. Later on in the movie, it is disclosed, the western side of the side is not even connected to the main water supply. Which makes absolutely no sense. The end of the movie it is pointed out the mayor verbally makes a deal with a private company to be provided free energy for an unlimited amount of free fresh water. She had no right to do this even if this made some sense. Icing on the cake is when she takes a $1,000,000 campaign pledge or prize from this company. This is filmed somehow and emailed to the cheif of the cities emergency services. The mayor seems unconcerned and indifferent towards the people that are dying in the fire and the drastic situation the city faces. So what happens at the end is not a real surprise. The shock is that the conversation was recorded and sent to the right person.
She is arrested but this is not shown. The fire trucks and fighters did not have enough water pressure at the end to fight the fire and the winds drove the fire further into neighborhoods and residential areas. The citizens were helpless while the mayor just allowed this to occur. All for political ambition.
The movie was well acted and written. It is not Armegeddon, not even close, but it is decent for a lower budgeted movie.
Government can not be trusted for either incompetence or corruption. This time it was the latter.
I would allocate two stars for this movie. **
Friday, November 21, 2008
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Elizabeth Banks is nothing to go crazy over but she is OK looking. There were some beauties in the movie though, they were not her. This movie was funny, it was about two losers that knew each other from childhood who ended up being roommates together. They live in a dump, spend their time thinking about inane subjects and waste their money. Seth Rogen is the male friend and is just on a role. Though his movies are pretty disgusting, nothing I would recommend to my mother.
This movie was sort of a copy of Bowfinger with Steve Martin and the gorgeous Heather Graham. About a bunch of regular folks, some dirt poor who want to finance a movie to enrich themselves. The reason Banks and Rogen want to make a porno are not for altruistic purposes, they need the money. But the extra income will not make them any more intelligent or financially astute. Rogen's character does not pay the electric bill but he waste's money on ridiculous objects like sex toys and the like.
The electricty is turned off and this forces Rogen and Banks to take some drastic measures. The decide to shoot a porno. Up to this point they have been friends, but they slowly fall for each other.
Craig Robinson is Rogen's co worker at a small coffee shop and he is hilarious. He has some funny lines, he provides the black comedy and attitude that I think is hilarious. His wife is hilarious and when she screams at Rogen and calls him "white boy" that is outragious. Robinson and his nasty wife, their intense but insulting conversation in that scene is just complete hilarity. Apparently his character settled with the post office and he took in $160,000. None of this is really explained deeply, the viewer is just supposed to log all of this and nod on. Too bad his ferocious and pit bull wife is in charge of spending it all.
This movie is not really unique, it is similiar to Bowfinger and the relationship struggle between Rogen and Banks has been done before. The movie is decent, nothing special. It is not Pineapple Express, Rogen's other movie of this year and that was the funniest movie of the year. Burn After Reading was up there as well with it's creativity and casting.
Justin Long makes a funny but nasty cameo appearance. It is what he says is disturbing. He has not done much since starring with the superstar Bruce Willis in the pretty good Die Hard IV. Long is in the same scene as Superman-Brandon Routh. This sequence is sort of funny, but these lines have been heard and how much gay comedy or scenes can we take? Most people are not gay but Hollywood believes about quarter of us are since that is how many gay character's or innuendoes are tossed into movies.
Rogen probably should have said what he really felt along time ago but that can be said about many of us. But I am not sure why he did not complete the movie. That was unprofessional and sloppy. He just drove off, quit his job, weird. He is right, he is the biggest wimp. He flaked out on his employees who he actively recruited and hired. Strange behavior. Almost unforgiveable. This detracts from the movie. Why did he leave the movie because he had an argument with Banks, his obvious love interest? Leaving did not solve his money problems and he probably slept a couple of nights, or weeks in that piece of junk car he drove around.
The ending was terribly weak. Banks and Rogen agree they should be together which was predictable. The movie is not really completed, there is not any conclusion to this. What will Banks and Rogen work and live? This is not explained. This movie needed another 5 minutes and could actually be somewhat good with a better ending. Funny, the porno flick they were working on did not have an ending, in fact, it had only 3 scenes, there was not even a dorky or pathetic plot. There was not any story line at all. The movie within a movie needen an ending as much as the real movie did. Just goofy, the title does not stick. They never made a porno, the appropriate title should be: Zack and Miri Start a Porno.
This movie was not horrendous though, nothing like Nicholas Cage's Wicker Man. It is allocated one star. *
This movie was sort of a copy of Bowfinger with Steve Martin and the gorgeous Heather Graham. About a bunch of regular folks, some dirt poor who want to finance a movie to enrich themselves. The reason Banks and Rogen want to make a porno are not for altruistic purposes, they need the money. But the extra income will not make them any more intelligent or financially astute. Rogen's character does not pay the electric bill but he waste's money on ridiculous objects like sex toys and the like.
The electricty is turned off and this forces Rogen and Banks to take some drastic measures. The decide to shoot a porno. Up to this point they have been friends, but they slowly fall for each other.
Craig Robinson is Rogen's co worker at a small coffee shop and he is hilarious. He has some funny lines, he provides the black comedy and attitude that I think is hilarious. His wife is hilarious and when she screams at Rogen and calls him "white boy" that is outragious. Robinson and his nasty wife, their intense but insulting conversation in that scene is just complete hilarity. Apparently his character settled with the post office and he took in $160,000. None of this is really explained deeply, the viewer is just supposed to log all of this and nod on. Too bad his ferocious and pit bull wife is in charge of spending it all.
This movie is not really unique, it is similiar to Bowfinger and the relationship struggle between Rogen and Banks has been done before. The movie is decent, nothing special. It is not Pineapple Express, Rogen's other movie of this year and that was the funniest movie of the year. Burn After Reading was up there as well with it's creativity and casting.
Justin Long makes a funny but nasty cameo appearance. It is what he says is disturbing. He has not done much since starring with the superstar Bruce Willis in the pretty good Die Hard IV. Long is in the same scene as Superman-Brandon Routh. This sequence is sort of funny, but these lines have been heard and how much gay comedy or scenes can we take? Most people are not gay but Hollywood believes about quarter of us are since that is how many gay character's or innuendoes are tossed into movies.
Rogen probably should have said what he really felt along time ago but that can be said about many of us. But I am not sure why he did not complete the movie. That was unprofessional and sloppy. He just drove off, quit his job, weird. He is right, he is the biggest wimp. He flaked out on his employees who he actively recruited and hired. Strange behavior. Almost unforgiveable. This detracts from the movie. Why did he leave the movie because he had an argument with Banks, his obvious love interest? Leaving did not solve his money problems and he probably slept a couple of nights, or weeks in that piece of junk car he drove around.
The ending was terribly weak. Banks and Rogen agree they should be together which was predictable. The movie is not really completed, there is not any conclusion to this. What will Banks and Rogen work and live? This is not explained. This movie needed another 5 minutes and could actually be somewhat good with a better ending. Funny, the porno flick they were working on did not have an ending, in fact, it had only 3 scenes, there was not even a dorky or pathetic plot. There was not any story line at all. The movie within a movie needen an ending as much as the real movie did. Just goofy, the title does not stick. They never made a porno, the appropriate title should be: Zack and Miri Start a Porno.
This movie was not horrendous though, nothing like Nicholas Cage's Wicker Man. It is allocated one star. *
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Sex Drive
Seth Green made a guest appearance as an Amish guy, that was funny. No one else in the movie was worth watching. This movie is a smorsgaborg of movies just mish mashed together.
The jail scene was funny and they did not copy other movies here. There were some original parts. Josh Zuckerman character has been done many times before, American Pie for instance. The geeky guy, the nice guy, it has been written countless times it is pathetic. His friend who lives across the street is always getting in his way and messing him up. She ruins the movie, does not have a life of her own. His character is exactly like the Jason Biggs character in the popular series of American Pie.
Pretty simple plot. He seduces or she seduces a girl who is in Knoxville, TN. She is hot but the question in the movie, is she real? Is she who she says she is. She is but then she car jacks him, Josh's character.
The movie is pretty funny actually. Despite being a replicate of so many others. There is some hot Amish girls in the movie, one who Josh's friend falls for and sticks it out with. Where she gets the bail money is anyone's guess.
Couple of nice car's in the movie.
How is chunky, sloppy friend is a lady's man is the most fictional aspect of this story.
Happy ending abounds and I never knew Amish folks could fix cars so quickly and professionally. Seth Green is funny, is he serious in some of those scenes? The movie would have been more noble if the main character returned the favor of the Amish guys fixing his car by doing some work around there, making it even. Seth Green's character makes this proposal, he should not have to, it should have been presented by the loser, the main character. I think his character is so ridiculous, the spectacular movie Transformers is more realistic.
This movie is better than Role Models though. Role Models just fell apart in the latter half, there was not any hilarious scenes. Role Models had potential, it is a disappointment. Sean William Scott in Mr. Woodcock was so much funnier. That movie was hilarious. Billy Bobb just terrorizing those kids in P/E is classic. Sex Drive was consistently funny throughout the movie. Not sure why Alicia, Zuckerman's character's best friend who is always blocking him, why she does not say she likes him. When, as it turns out, she does and she made him feel terrible when he tried to kiss her. The cat fight at the end was hilarious. The prison scene with Alicia was just goofy.
Zuckerman's brother at the end was a typical jock type personality. But then at the end, they turn him into being gay which was not necessary. The gay community's influence is too strong with only a small minority actually being gay. The gay struggle is not akin to the black struggle in the mid 20th century. Even though they think it is.
Details about who is paying for the food, gas, hotels, on this road trip are over looked. Though his parents did leave him $40 on the living room table, what ever. Some good music in this movie, and many attractive females. Too bad the main character has been done repeatedly in the past 10 years.
I allocate this movie two stars. **
The jail scene was funny and they did not copy other movies here. There were some original parts. Josh Zuckerman character has been done many times before, American Pie for instance. The geeky guy, the nice guy, it has been written countless times it is pathetic. His friend who lives across the street is always getting in his way and messing him up. She ruins the movie, does not have a life of her own. His character is exactly like the Jason Biggs character in the popular series of American Pie.
Pretty simple plot. He seduces or she seduces a girl who is in Knoxville, TN. She is hot but the question in the movie, is she real? Is she who she says she is. She is but then she car jacks him, Josh's character.
The movie is pretty funny actually. Despite being a replicate of so many others. There is some hot Amish girls in the movie, one who Josh's friend falls for and sticks it out with. Where she gets the bail money is anyone's guess.
Couple of nice car's in the movie.
How is chunky, sloppy friend is a lady's man is the most fictional aspect of this story.
Happy ending abounds and I never knew Amish folks could fix cars so quickly and professionally. Seth Green is funny, is he serious in some of those scenes? The movie would have been more noble if the main character returned the favor of the Amish guys fixing his car by doing some work around there, making it even. Seth Green's character makes this proposal, he should not have to, it should have been presented by the loser, the main character. I think his character is so ridiculous, the spectacular movie Transformers is more realistic.
This movie is better than Role Models though. Role Models just fell apart in the latter half, there was not any hilarious scenes. Role Models had potential, it is a disappointment. Sean William Scott in Mr. Woodcock was so much funnier. That movie was hilarious. Billy Bobb just terrorizing those kids in P/E is classic. Sex Drive was consistently funny throughout the movie. Not sure why Alicia, Zuckerman's character's best friend who is always blocking him, why she does not say she likes him. When, as it turns out, she does and she made him feel terrible when he tried to kiss her. The cat fight at the end was hilarious. The prison scene with Alicia was just goofy.
Zuckerman's brother at the end was a typical jock type personality. But then at the end, they turn him into being gay which was not necessary. The gay community's influence is too strong with only a small minority actually being gay. The gay struggle is not akin to the black struggle in the mid 20th century. Even though they think it is.
Details about who is paying for the food, gas, hotels, on this road trip are over looked. Though his parents did leave him $40 on the living room table, what ever. Some good music in this movie, and many attractive females. Too bad the main character has been done repeatedly in the past 10 years.
I allocate this movie two stars. **
Friday, November 14, 2008
Role Models
Seann William Scott is back in this funny movie. He is one of the few to do anything with their American Pie fame. None of the others have built anything of a career like him, accept that geeky guy with the large nose who walked away from Nadia like a fool.
Bobb'e J. Thompson plays a potty mouth adolescent. He is funny and when he slaps Scott before he exits the car, it is hilarious. I am not sure why needs a friend, he has friends and this is displayed in the middle of the movie. A character or person like him would not be suitable for any role model. This is said, others always walk away from him but it does not diminish his behavior or confidence proving a court appointed role model is unnessesary. But it is a movie and one should overlook this.
The movie is funny, but it is not Pineapple Express, not even close, nor Burn After Reading. The first half is better than the second, in terms of hilarity. Thompson mellows out towards the end which is why the movie was funny to begin with. Whoever wrote his lines decided to take his comedy out of the movie. Which correlates with less laughter.
Elizabeth Banks is decent, nothing special in this movie.
Superbad geek star plays a loser, his character loves middle age Europe, the time frame of sword fighting and shield yielding. Honor and glory is what he seeks in a mythical world. He meets with his friends in the park and practices. He probably does need a mentor since his parents are cruel to him and he practices this at school, on the roof, all alone. Now that is odd. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is his name and he does a pretty good job. I guess he can play the geek or loser forever, he is attempting to carve his niche.
Scott and his buddy are energy drink sponsors. They get into a squabble with tow truck driver and drive their large truck, company vehicle, on top of a high school statue in broad daylight. Pretty foolish but funny nevertheless. As a punishment, and not wanting to go to jail for a month, well one was considering it since he did not want to hang out with a high school kid who lives in his own fantasy land. They have to hang out with these kids for 150 hours, attempt to mentor them or atleast be their friend or act friendly toward them. I did not laugh that much in the last 35 minutes so that stole some of the thunder from this movie. The idea and beginning held potential though.
I allocate this movie two stars. **
Bobb'e J. Thompson plays a potty mouth adolescent. He is funny and when he slaps Scott before he exits the car, it is hilarious. I am not sure why needs a friend, he has friends and this is displayed in the middle of the movie. A character or person like him would not be suitable for any role model. This is said, others always walk away from him but it does not diminish his behavior or confidence proving a court appointed role model is unnessesary. But it is a movie and one should overlook this.
The movie is funny, but it is not Pineapple Express, not even close, nor Burn After Reading. The first half is better than the second, in terms of hilarity. Thompson mellows out towards the end which is why the movie was funny to begin with. Whoever wrote his lines decided to take his comedy out of the movie. Which correlates with less laughter.
Elizabeth Banks is decent, nothing special in this movie.
Superbad geek star plays a loser, his character loves middle age Europe, the time frame of sword fighting and shield yielding. Honor and glory is what he seeks in a mythical world. He meets with his friends in the park and practices. He probably does need a mentor since his parents are cruel to him and he practices this at school, on the roof, all alone. Now that is odd. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is his name and he does a pretty good job. I guess he can play the geek or loser forever, he is attempting to carve his niche.
Scott and his buddy are energy drink sponsors. They get into a squabble with tow truck driver and drive their large truck, company vehicle, on top of a high school statue in broad daylight. Pretty foolish but funny nevertheless. As a punishment, and not wanting to go to jail for a month, well one was considering it since he did not want to hang out with a high school kid who lives in his own fantasy land. They have to hang out with these kids for 150 hours, attempt to mentor them or atleast be their friend or act friendly toward them. I did not laugh that much in the last 35 minutes so that stole some of the thunder from this movie. The idea and beginning held potential though.
I allocate this movie two stars. **
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
City of Ember
Bill Murray plays in this odd movie, something that Tim Burton would direct but he did not. I did not pay too much attention to it. So I am not going to be able to dive too deep into the movie which means very little. This is not a movie for most people, I am eccentric but this is a movie made for different types of people.
Apparently, the world ended. When this occured, all of human being's knowledge was placed in a box. How does this occur? Does not matter and it only takes about 5 seconds to realize this movie is so far removed from reality, tidbits like this are not to be dwelled over. Like Matrix, how the world ends, is not really known. The Matrix was frustrating for not explaining this, this movie is already so fantastical it does not matter as much. Another theme from the Matrix, was a city that survives underneath our surface. But it is not called Zion. It is lighted by a generator that is losing steam. This city is not massive, it seems to be smaller than my home town Sacramento. Does the entire world live underneath the planet? Something like Demolition Man, we do not know, atleast I did not hear it explained.
Tim Robbins has a small part. He is the father of the boy who becomes a mechanic who then becomes the hero the movie. Regarding this mechanic, I was not able to simply locate his name nor the cute heroine in the movie. Bill Murray is the mayor of this town, which is rather decrepid. Apparently, Murray's character is stealing food but obviously not clothes since it seems he wears rags too. This town subsists on whatever they produce and make from their own surroundings. No outside trade, no contact with anyone but themselves. Not an exciting existence. If the beginning was not explained, one would not know this is the future, they would like think it being an alternate universe, not that dissimilar to Lord of the Rings. There is not even a lap top computer shown in the movie. There are some small and funny looking robots though.
Murray's character perishes at the end in a similiar fashion to Paul Reiser's character in the blockbuster and incredible 1986 science fiction classic-Aliens. This movie's directos has obviously seen that movie as well.
Fruit like pineapple and probably every other type of fruit are a high commodity. In fact, if someone is seen with a can of pineapple, they are under suspicion.
Ian McElhinney, is an old Irish actor who plays a long time veteran builder. The builders are the town's supposed heroes. I guess they built the generator that powers the city, something like that.
The cute girl and the intrepid young man rides a wooden craft through and on a flooded river. This river escorts them out, in an exciting manner and accompanied by some outstanding music to the surface, or the cave entrance. It is right before sunrise, so they think the rumors are true about the surface always being dark. Not sure who spread these rumors but what ever. The people in this city fell for the big lie. The two young adults and the small child who road with them, watch the sunrise. They then follow a funny looking bird who flies down into the cave hole, the top the ceiling in this huge cave the city resides in. They drop a rock down there, with a note attached informing whomever picks it up, that the surface is the place to be and light is there. Tim Robbin's character, the boys father, just happens to be the one who picks up the rock. The narrator acts like the rock is the key and if it does not make it all the way down, gets caught someone's roof, then there is not any more hope of informing the city or cave dwellers that their is light at the end of the tunnel. The boy or girl only needs to drop another rock with a note attached, not that difficult.
I allocate this movie two stars. ** The music was stimulating.
Apparently, the world ended. When this occured, all of human being's knowledge was placed in a box. How does this occur? Does not matter and it only takes about 5 seconds to realize this movie is so far removed from reality, tidbits like this are not to be dwelled over. Like Matrix, how the world ends, is not really known. The Matrix was frustrating for not explaining this, this movie is already so fantastical it does not matter as much. Another theme from the Matrix, was a city that survives underneath our surface. But it is not called Zion. It is lighted by a generator that is losing steam. This city is not massive, it seems to be smaller than my home town Sacramento. Does the entire world live underneath the planet? Something like Demolition Man, we do not know, atleast I did not hear it explained.
Tim Robbins has a small part. He is the father of the boy who becomes a mechanic who then becomes the hero the movie. Regarding this mechanic, I was not able to simply locate his name nor the cute heroine in the movie. Bill Murray is the mayor of this town, which is rather decrepid. Apparently, Murray's character is stealing food but obviously not clothes since it seems he wears rags too. This town subsists on whatever they produce and make from their own surroundings. No outside trade, no contact with anyone but themselves. Not an exciting existence. If the beginning was not explained, one would not know this is the future, they would like think it being an alternate universe, not that dissimilar to Lord of the Rings. There is not even a lap top computer shown in the movie. There are some small and funny looking robots though.
Murray's character perishes at the end in a similiar fashion to Paul Reiser's character in the blockbuster and incredible 1986 science fiction classic-Aliens. This movie's directos has obviously seen that movie as well.
Fruit like pineapple and probably every other type of fruit are a high commodity. In fact, if someone is seen with a can of pineapple, they are under suspicion.
Ian McElhinney, is an old Irish actor who plays a long time veteran builder. The builders are the town's supposed heroes. I guess they built the generator that powers the city, something like that.
The cute girl and the intrepid young man rides a wooden craft through and on a flooded river. This river escorts them out, in an exciting manner and accompanied by some outstanding music to the surface, or the cave entrance. It is right before sunrise, so they think the rumors are true about the surface always being dark. Not sure who spread these rumors but what ever. The people in this city fell for the big lie. The two young adults and the small child who road with them, watch the sunrise. They then follow a funny looking bird who flies down into the cave hole, the top the ceiling in this huge cave the city resides in. They drop a rock down there, with a note attached informing whomever picks it up, that the surface is the place to be and light is there. Tim Robbin's character, the boys father, just happens to be the one who picks up the rock. The narrator acts like the rock is the key and if it does not make it all the way down, gets caught someone's roof, then there is not any more hope of informing the city or cave dwellers that their is light at the end of the tunnel. The boy or girl only needs to drop another rock with a note attached, not that difficult.
I allocate this movie two stars. ** The music was stimulating.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Quantum of Solace
Daniel Craig returns as the best Bond of all time. Traditionalists will reject this notion but I disagree with Sean Connery as being the best. First off, he played a stationary Bond, one who was cool and still swooped the ladies up. But this Bond does that but jumps, runs, chases, and fights back with a vengeance. He is a mover and a shaker, the villians be dammed.
This was another thriller, with nothing to compete against this movie, it should make a decent buck. Pride and Glory is a solid competitor, but nothing like DeJaVu was that came out about the same time as Casino Royale did a couple of years ago. That was tremendous movie, totally original, a cinematic wonder.
Olga Kurylenko can not be considered a bond girl but her looks are stunning. Probably the top 1-3 Bond actresses in the entire series. She hit the screens big time last year in the action movie Hitman. Olga is just stunning.
This Bond movie takes us to London, Italy, Haiti, and Bolivia. The villians again are this sinister group of men probably bent on upsetting the status quo of the world. This time, it is Bolivia, to close up the water movement in this counry and charge the populous a fortune for this essential ingredient. Among other utility fees. This is a pretty large group of people in this organization, Bond takes as many pictures as he can at this grand opera. He interups the conversation to see which ones reveal themselves in this massive audience. They reveal themselves by getting up and walking away, Bond, is up in the rafters, he snaps some photos but there are so many and the length of time to take a picture of each one does not exist. But with this informaton, M, Bond, and M16 are making headway into this organization and to know that it exists.
This organization is fiction though, the real villians on this planet are the members of radical Islam. They are the true culprits and are not afraid of suicide for there fringe viewpoints and lunatic beliefs.
Jeffrey Wright returns as the noble CIA agent. But he is buttressed by an overweight CIA agent, his supevisor, who is sloppy in his work, is a little more apt to deal with unsavior characters, and seems to be pretty unsympathetic towards the planet inhabitants.
Judi Dench is outstanding as M. She knows Bond should not trust anyone but is concerned that his vengeance can be too bloody. That is why this is an exceptional Bond movie, it is not independent of the previous one. The ending of Casino Royale rolls into this one, something the Bourne movies have woven into the film lore with success. That is why I liked this one, it was not separate from Royale, they were connected. If one has not seen Royale, they will miss some of the subtleties of this movie and what is driving Bond's rage. That is the way it should me. I wish the Lethal Weapons were more like they this, they were a little, but not as much as I would have liked. A sequel should have some times to the previous one, if it does not, might as well change the title completly.
The action was relentless and the movie starts off with an intense car chase and displays Bond's car driving skills and use of an automatic weapon.
The table like computer which M16 uses in the middle of the movie is impressive. That is the way flip technology and touch screen adaptations are headed.
Bond never makes a move, well, not really, toward Olga. He probably would have if he did not have the previous girl on his mind. The girl from Casino Royale, the accountant who double crosses Bond but actually saves his life be making a deal with this silent group. Apparently this group took some years off or were just laying super low since Pierce Brosnans James Bond's never mentioned this group. The evildoers in those movies were of their own making and had their own interests.
Two main culprits in this Bond. A Bolivian general and a Russian who is followed by Bond from Haiti, to I believe Italy, and then to Bolivia. The ending of this movie takes place at a desert home in Bolivia which has offices and residential section. It is gorgeous and quite large. Too bad about half of it is destroyed.
Bond has a wonderful part in this movie in which he gets these guys off their boat. Wow, I will have to see that scene again. It occurs quickly. Bond is out gunned and out manned but, with the help of Olga, knocks this ridged hulled boat up in the air. Prior to this scene, he just knocks a guy off of his motorcycle rather rudely. But Bond is on a mission, he blames this group for taking the girl he loves. Almost out of control, perhaps why Bond never falls for a girl like this again in any other movie. That is a liability.
Bond saves the English taxpayer a considerable amount throughout the film. In almost every place he goes, he does not rent a car or charge the taxpayer for these costs. He steals cars it seems like all of the time, steals motorcycles, boats, and even trades gorgeous cars he does not own for an airplane that is ultimately destroyed. Ofcourse he did not ask to be attacked in midflight.
I am still unsure of what the title means. Olga was spectacular and she was a fighter, they do not have to make her look super hot, she just is. Bond drops this villian off in the middle of the desert with some oil to drink at the end of the movie, righteous.
The nasty faction in this movie hide behind an environmentalist theme. They dupe the media and host country, they have the capital and finances to cause coups and prop up puppet dictators they can control. Hugo Chavez is mentioned in this movie. This movie hints that the US is too hamstrung in the middle east to do anything about South America, not sure how true this is. We could eliminate Hugo Chavez but so far, his words are just that. But it would be nice for Chavez to disappear, either publically or privately.
This movie is allocated 4 stars out of five. **** Would be five, just some scenes and some music that are not there that eliminate this possibility. Nevertheless, the movie is a triumph and worth seeing again.
This was another thriller, with nothing to compete against this movie, it should make a decent buck. Pride and Glory is a solid competitor, but nothing like DeJaVu was that came out about the same time as Casino Royale did a couple of years ago. That was tremendous movie, totally original, a cinematic wonder.
Olga Kurylenko can not be considered a bond girl but her looks are stunning. Probably the top 1-3 Bond actresses in the entire series. She hit the screens big time last year in the action movie Hitman. Olga is just stunning.
This Bond movie takes us to London, Italy, Haiti, and Bolivia. The villians again are this sinister group of men probably bent on upsetting the status quo of the world. This time, it is Bolivia, to close up the water movement in this counry and charge the populous a fortune for this essential ingredient. Among other utility fees. This is a pretty large group of people in this organization, Bond takes as many pictures as he can at this grand opera. He interups the conversation to see which ones reveal themselves in this massive audience. They reveal themselves by getting up and walking away, Bond, is up in the rafters, he snaps some photos but there are so many and the length of time to take a picture of each one does not exist. But with this informaton, M, Bond, and M16 are making headway into this organization and to know that it exists.
This organization is fiction though, the real villians on this planet are the members of radical Islam. They are the true culprits and are not afraid of suicide for there fringe viewpoints and lunatic beliefs.
Jeffrey Wright returns as the noble CIA agent. But he is buttressed by an overweight CIA agent, his supevisor, who is sloppy in his work, is a little more apt to deal with unsavior characters, and seems to be pretty unsympathetic towards the planet inhabitants.
Judi Dench is outstanding as M. She knows Bond should not trust anyone but is concerned that his vengeance can be too bloody. That is why this is an exceptional Bond movie, it is not independent of the previous one. The ending of Casino Royale rolls into this one, something the Bourne movies have woven into the film lore with success. That is why I liked this one, it was not separate from Royale, they were connected. If one has not seen Royale, they will miss some of the subtleties of this movie and what is driving Bond's rage. That is the way it should me. I wish the Lethal Weapons were more like they this, they were a little, but not as much as I would have liked. A sequel should have some times to the previous one, if it does not, might as well change the title completly.
The action was relentless and the movie starts off with an intense car chase and displays Bond's car driving skills and use of an automatic weapon.
The table like computer which M16 uses in the middle of the movie is impressive. That is the way flip technology and touch screen adaptations are headed.
Bond never makes a move, well, not really, toward Olga. He probably would have if he did not have the previous girl on his mind. The girl from Casino Royale, the accountant who double crosses Bond but actually saves his life be making a deal with this silent group. Apparently this group took some years off or were just laying super low since Pierce Brosnans James Bond's never mentioned this group. The evildoers in those movies were of their own making and had their own interests.
Two main culprits in this Bond. A Bolivian general and a Russian who is followed by Bond from Haiti, to I believe Italy, and then to Bolivia. The ending of this movie takes place at a desert home in Bolivia which has offices and residential section. It is gorgeous and quite large. Too bad about half of it is destroyed.
Bond has a wonderful part in this movie in which he gets these guys off their boat. Wow, I will have to see that scene again. It occurs quickly. Bond is out gunned and out manned but, with the help of Olga, knocks this ridged hulled boat up in the air. Prior to this scene, he just knocks a guy off of his motorcycle rather rudely. But Bond is on a mission, he blames this group for taking the girl he loves. Almost out of control, perhaps why Bond never falls for a girl like this again in any other movie. That is a liability.
Bond saves the English taxpayer a considerable amount throughout the film. In almost every place he goes, he does not rent a car or charge the taxpayer for these costs. He steals cars it seems like all of the time, steals motorcycles, boats, and even trades gorgeous cars he does not own for an airplane that is ultimately destroyed. Ofcourse he did not ask to be attacked in midflight.
I am still unsure of what the title means. Olga was spectacular and she was a fighter, they do not have to make her look super hot, she just is. Bond drops this villian off in the middle of the desert with some oil to drink at the end of the movie, righteous.
The nasty faction in this movie hide behind an environmentalist theme. They dupe the media and host country, they have the capital and finances to cause coups and prop up puppet dictators they can control. Hugo Chavez is mentioned in this movie. This movie hints that the US is too hamstrung in the middle east to do anything about South America, not sure how true this is. We could eliminate Hugo Chavez but so far, his words are just that. But it would be nice for Chavez to disappear, either publically or privately.
This movie is allocated 4 stars out of five. **** Would be five, just some scenes and some music that are not there that eliminate this possibility. Nevertheless, the movie is a triumph and worth seeing again.
Friday, November 7, 2008
While She Was Out
Kim Basinger stars in this movie with an abusive husband. Not much of an acting job since she put up with that psycho Alec Baldwin for many years. Baldwin likes to leave nasty phone messages on his daughter's cell phone.
Basinger is still gorgeous but she plays in a similar movie in the cell phone thriller called Cellular in 2004. This time, in the beginning, the cell phone does not work when she is trying to call 911. She should have never gotten out of her car right in the beginning nor confronted these young hooligans.
I am surprised Hollywood does not get lambasted by the feminists for portraying woman as poor drivers. Basinger can not drive a car worth squat. She needs no help in crashing her car, she just does this all on her own. Why does she not drive home? Why does she not drive right back into the area of people outside the department stores that she just left 3 minutes prior to meeting these ruffians?
She kills or maims them one at a time. They call her terrible names on the way, derogatory names towards a female. They are complete losers who just make terrible decisions and their wayward ways are evident throughout this film.
Not only can Basinger not drive a car properly, she can not run without tripping and making allot of noise. Why she is running with a tool box in the woods is beyond me. She has ample time and opportunity to make her escape but she is too brain dead, delusional, or inept to make it happen.
None of the characters in this movie are worth mentioning besides Basinger. One would not know who they were if I did. How she kills this guy with a lug wrench is just total fantasy and this fools just walks right into it and allows it to occur. Pretty disgusting, something Michael Myers would do to an unsuspecting victim. The four barbaric souls are killed one at a time be her. She should be given a medal, and probably would, by society for getting rid of four leaches.
I would allocate this movie one star. * It was not as terrible as the X Files so called sequal of last summer.
Basinger takes out a 5th villian at the end. It is her abusive and despicable husband. She might as well clean house while she has the stomach for it.
Basinger is still gorgeous but she plays in a similar movie in the cell phone thriller called Cellular in 2004. This time, in the beginning, the cell phone does not work when she is trying to call 911. She should have never gotten out of her car right in the beginning nor confronted these young hooligans.
I am surprised Hollywood does not get lambasted by the feminists for portraying woman as poor drivers. Basinger can not drive a car worth squat. She needs no help in crashing her car, she just does this all on her own. Why does she not drive home? Why does she not drive right back into the area of people outside the department stores that she just left 3 minutes prior to meeting these ruffians?
She kills or maims them one at a time. They call her terrible names on the way, derogatory names towards a female. They are complete losers who just make terrible decisions and their wayward ways are evident throughout this film.
Not only can Basinger not drive a car properly, she can not run without tripping and making allot of noise. Why she is running with a tool box in the woods is beyond me. She has ample time and opportunity to make her escape but she is too brain dead, delusional, or inept to make it happen.
None of the characters in this movie are worth mentioning besides Basinger. One would not know who they were if I did. How she kills this guy with a lug wrench is just total fantasy and this fools just walks right into it and allows it to occur. Pretty disgusting, something Michael Myers would do to an unsuspecting victim. The four barbaric souls are killed one at a time be her. She should be given a medal, and probably would, by society for getting rid of four leaches.
I would allocate this movie one star. * It was not as terrible as the X Files so called sequal of last summer.
Basinger takes out a 5th villian at the end. It is her abusive and despicable husband. She might as well clean house while she has the stomach for it.
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
This has a funny, unknown Englishman who leads this funny movie. The first flaw in the movie was when I saw Kirsten Dunst, who is plain looking and who should have never been chosen for the Mary Jane role in Spiderman. How she stole that part is beyond human comprehension. Spiderman II and III were both terrible.
This movie has many characters that do not do much. The movie does have some funny scenes, the movie is actually pretty funny. It is not Pineapple Express but it is funny.
Gillian Anderson is in this movie and is stunning as usual. Good to see her do something since that X Files movie this year was the worst movie of the year for so many reasons it is just incomprehensible.
Simon Pegg is the crazed Englishman running all around in this movie. He is comical, he is outlandish. This movie celebrates Hollywood and how cool it is being a star, but this movie also points out that money can not buy happiness and certain stars are as dimwitted and moronic as any useless creature can be.
Besides Dunst, hard to believe she does not change her last name from genesis, this movie has many attractive females. There a couple of humorous scenes that occur when the female is not who we think she is, or he. This movie is not suitable for children which is kind of apparent.
Pegg and Dunst fall for each other, they flirt back and forth throughout this film. But Pegg has other girl friends and one appears in the scene and is spectacular. I would rather see this woman allot more than Dunst. The movie has some pretty good music.
I hope Megan Fox is in Transformers II. Fox playing Mother Theresa, now that must be fiction.
Pegg is treated petty badly by Fox towards the end of the movie. This destroys his fantastical ambitions to a girl either too good or bad for him depending on one's perspective. She orders him around in front of these other people, no guy or girl should submit themselves to someone so shallow. No guy should ever act like that, ever! And he gives Fox's character a special ring which he should have never done. He did not need to hang out with this character to know what type of person she is. I do not need to hang out with Paris Hilton to know she is as dumb as shit. What does someone this brain dead have to say? Nothing, that is her extensive vernacular extends to about 5 words. I love it last year when Letterman almost made her cry when asking her about her jail experience.
Dunst's character hurling inside the rental car is almost too much. Go out of window, Pegg's character should have though about that ahead of time and had the window down. The smell probably could have led to a maelstrom freeway experience.
The best scene in this movie is when Fox's ugly little dog is killed by a falling vase. Why people like chihuahuas, why people are fascinated with this disgusting little animal, is beyond me?
Jeff Bridges looks like a hippi with long hair. Not a compliment.
The movie takes place in NYC and LA, typical. It begins in London.
Burn After Reading was funnier and more original. That was a funny movie.
I allocate this movie two stars. **
This movie has many characters that do not do much. The movie does have some funny scenes, the movie is actually pretty funny. It is not Pineapple Express but it is funny.
Gillian Anderson is in this movie and is stunning as usual. Good to see her do something since that X Files movie this year was the worst movie of the year for so many reasons it is just incomprehensible.
Simon Pegg is the crazed Englishman running all around in this movie. He is comical, he is outlandish. This movie celebrates Hollywood and how cool it is being a star, but this movie also points out that money can not buy happiness and certain stars are as dimwitted and moronic as any useless creature can be.
Besides Dunst, hard to believe she does not change her last name from genesis, this movie has many attractive females. There a couple of humorous scenes that occur when the female is not who we think she is, or he. This movie is not suitable for children which is kind of apparent.
Pegg and Dunst fall for each other, they flirt back and forth throughout this film. But Pegg has other girl friends and one appears in the scene and is spectacular. I would rather see this woman allot more than Dunst. The movie has some pretty good music.
I hope Megan Fox is in Transformers II. Fox playing Mother Theresa, now that must be fiction.
Pegg is treated petty badly by Fox towards the end of the movie. This destroys his fantastical ambitions to a girl either too good or bad for him depending on one's perspective. She orders him around in front of these other people, no guy or girl should submit themselves to someone so shallow. No guy should ever act like that, ever! And he gives Fox's character a special ring which he should have never done. He did not need to hang out with this character to know what type of person she is. I do not need to hang out with Paris Hilton to know she is as dumb as shit. What does someone this brain dead have to say? Nothing, that is her extensive vernacular extends to about 5 words. I love it last year when Letterman almost made her cry when asking her about her jail experience.
Dunst's character hurling inside the rental car is almost too much. Go out of window, Pegg's character should have though about that ahead of time and had the window down. The smell probably could have led to a maelstrom freeway experience.
The best scene in this movie is when Fox's ugly little dog is killed by a falling vase. Why people like chihuahuas, why people are fascinated with this disgusting little animal, is beyond me?
Jeff Bridges looks like a hippi with long hair. Not a compliment.
The movie takes place in NYC and LA, typical. It begins in London.
Burn After Reading was funnier and more original. That was a funny movie.
I allocate this movie two stars. **
Pride and Glory
Colin Farrell and Edward Norton have been teamed by Hollywood in another police drama. We have seen police corruption before but this is outright horrendous. Police acting like common gangsters just holding up convienence stores and stealing their money and other miscellaneous store items. How they get away with this is pretty incredible. Finally, at the end, which tops off this mayhem, one store owner shoots the cop in the back. Which is risky on his part but it a suitable response to how he was treated and what the corrupt officer did to him by robbing him.
Norton is Ray and Farrell plays the out of control immoral officer Jimmy. They both know each other through family ties but professionally, they work in different sections of the department.
Jon Voight stars as Ray's father and he is a retired police captain who was an honest and proud officer who is ofcourse retired. He is devastated when accusations are pointing towards his own son, a professional actor which face is more recognizable than his name: Noah Emmerich. Noah plays Francis, Ray's brother and the family is almost to the point of breaking down through this madness. It all starts with several police officers being killed and then it turns out their target was tipped off by another police officer.
This movie is better than Copland which came out about ten years ago or more and explores the same subject. Is this movie better than Street Kings? I am not so sure, perhaps this movie had some better acting but Street King's acting was decent, had better music, and had a little more action. Neither are spectacular, but because of the music and excitement, I would give Street Kings the nod over this movie. For people who want a little more dialogue, Pride and Glory may be enjoyed by them a little more. I mean, the character development of Ray and his wife who he is about to divorce has been done so many times in movies, it is beyond old. I do not care, I am not sure who would. It does not have allot of bearing in the movie, I guess Ray's father, his attitude affected Ray's behavior and this may have contributed to the marriage downfall. OK, so there is not allot of wasted scenes in the movie.
The movie was sort of unique in that there was two police teams competing with each other, well, atleast one team was trying to beat the other team in finding this cop killer. This police team's reason were not really altruistic, they want to cover up their police misdeeds. They are led by Jimmy.
The movie takes place in NYC around Christmas time. I had no idea what this movie was going to be about, when it started out, I thought it was going to be a football, sports movie.
Jimmy gets his at the end. It blows up in their face. Being a police officer is really difficult. I am not sure, in this contempory world, the ACLU, liberals, the NAACP, why anyone would want to become a police officer. Why protect the people that will take your career with glee? But there is not any excuse to being police armed robber, that is bully behavior which can not be defended.
There is not any really attractive females in this movie, it was a solid drama though. The investigation scenes were entertaining and Norton playing the unsuspecting hero were impressive. He continues his outstanding career, Farrell adds to his as well. Ofcourse, Farrell is still in more of the building mode, Norton is established. Norton, his acting, in Primal Fear was just frighteningly good.
The other villians were gangster Mexicans in NYC. They were nasty, when people like that are killed, they are missed by only those of their own element.
I would allocate this movie 3 stars. ***
Norton is Ray and Farrell plays the out of control immoral officer Jimmy. They both know each other through family ties but professionally, they work in different sections of the department.
Jon Voight stars as Ray's father and he is a retired police captain who was an honest and proud officer who is ofcourse retired. He is devastated when accusations are pointing towards his own son, a professional actor which face is more recognizable than his name: Noah Emmerich. Noah plays Francis, Ray's brother and the family is almost to the point of breaking down through this madness. It all starts with several police officers being killed and then it turns out their target was tipped off by another police officer.
This movie is better than Copland which came out about ten years ago or more and explores the same subject. Is this movie better than Street Kings? I am not so sure, perhaps this movie had some better acting but Street King's acting was decent, had better music, and had a little more action. Neither are spectacular, but because of the music and excitement, I would give Street Kings the nod over this movie. For people who want a little more dialogue, Pride and Glory may be enjoyed by them a little more. I mean, the character development of Ray and his wife who he is about to divorce has been done so many times in movies, it is beyond old. I do not care, I am not sure who would. It does not have allot of bearing in the movie, I guess Ray's father, his attitude affected Ray's behavior and this may have contributed to the marriage downfall. OK, so there is not allot of wasted scenes in the movie.
The movie was sort of unique in that there was two police teams competing with each other, well, atleast one team was trying to beat the other team in finding this cop killer. This police team's reason were not really altruistic, they want to cover up their police misdeeds. They are led by Jimmy.
The movie takes place in NYC around Christmas time. I had no idea what this movie was going to be about, when it started out, I thought it was going to be a football, sports movie.
Jimmy gets his at the end. It blows up in their face. Being a police officer is really difficult. I am not sure, in this contempory world, the ACLU, liberals, the NAACP, why anyone would want to become a police officer. Why protect the people that will take your career with glee? But there is not any excuse to being police armed robber, that is bully behavior which can not be defended.
There is not any really attractive females in this movie, it was a solid drama though. The investigation scenes were entertaining and Norton playing the unsuspecting hero were impressive. He continues his outstanding career, Farrell adds to his as well. Ofcourse, Farrell is still in more of the building mode, Norton is established. Norton, his acting, in Primal Fear was just frighteningly good.
The other villians were gangster Mexicans in NYC. They were nasty, when people like that are killed, they are missed by only those of their own element.
I would allocate this movie 3 stars. ***
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Appaloosa
This is one of the few good westerns to make its way to the big screen in a quite a while. 3:10 to Yuma was not a particularly well made movie because it did not make any sense. Russel Crowe's character was killing people on the way to his hanging and his buddies were causing mayhem to free him on his travels to the train in Yuma. The men in charge of escorting this violent individual should have just shot him out in the open after realizing what dangerous and deadly mission they had on delivering someone who was set to die any how. Crowe's character may have been a little over done though, he was made to be superhuman with a gun, and how he killed those Indians was just too surreal for me, sneaking up on them from behind was too make believe.
Viggo Mortensen is teamed up again with Ed Harris after playing in the movie A History of Violence a couple of years ago. They make a good pair in this western. Jeremy Irons is the villian in this one, he performed outstanding over 10 years ago in the mega movie Die Hard III, With a Vengeance. Interesting seeing him in this movie, a western, as a killer living off of his relative's protection who just happens to be the president of the US, Chester A. Arthur.
It is good to see Lance Henriksen is still alive. Have not seen him since he made foolish decisions in the movie Aliens verse Predator several years ago. He appeared me advanced in age in that movie, that was in 2004 if I recall correctly.
Renée Zellweger is the love interest of Ed Harris's character throughout the movie. She is troublesome and takes advantage of Ed Harris in this movie. She also tries to come in between and destroy the long time friendship of Viggo and Ed, she should have been punished for this. She was punished psychologically when Ed Harris disregards her nasty ploy and her word and defends Viggo. Ed Harris seemed to be OK with taking violence on men but seems to give this woman chance after chance.
Ed and Viggo are peace makers and come across this small town in Arizona which is the title of this movie. The local politicians hire Ed and Viggo to enforce the town's laws since Ed and Viggo want this to be legal. The problem is that Jeremy Irons's character is killer and brute who is living off the town like a leach does another animal. Irons employs and attracts some violent killers and companions. Irons kills a sherriff and two of his deputies at the outset of this film.
When ranch hand steps forward as a material witness in this killing, Ed and Viggo are dutifully impressed. Iron's character is convicted and sentenced to hang. One of two flaws in this movie is about to occur, the other regarding Ed's pass on Zellwegers characterss indiscretions has already been mentioned. Irons plays Randall Bragg and while Bragg is being escorted via train to be hung with Viggo and Ed, and two other sherriffs from another area, they stop the train to seemingly get some fresh air. By this point, Ed and Zellweger were already an item. Why Ed does not think she would be vulnerable at this point is beyond me. Then he does the dumbest thing to me is just unforgiveable and put a slight black mark on this movie. Up to this point, the movie was flawless. Two of Bragg's men, one being Henriksen, hold Zellweger hostage underneath a bridge the train stops over. These two men are out gunned and have the lower ground. Four rifles are pointed at them and Harris's character submits to their demands. Which is not even a trade for Bragg for Zellweger, they have to hand over Bragg and then leave on the train and Bragg's men say then they will let her go. Ridiculous. Both of these men could have been shot before they harmed her. And it was not even Harris's character Virgil Cole's call, he was outside his jurisdiction. Pathetic.
The movie had some funny lines, it was well written, and Cole and Viggo's character get along just dandy, sharing their feelings and thoughts as their character's are developed. The town officials are as wimpy as ever, similiar to the mercurial standards and sides of the officials in the movie Tombstone. But Tombstone devastates this movie, Appaloosa does not approach Tombstone in stamina, action, characters, and even music. Appaloosa was pretty good though, Ed and Viggo are some of the best actors of this day and the villian played by the outstanding Irons is totally recognizable and charismatic. Iron's character should have obeyed the bylaws posted up by Cole and everything would have been just tranquil. But then we would have had a movie absent of drama and forgettable.
I allocate this movie three stars out of five. ***
Viggo Mortensen is teamed up again with Ed Harris after playing in the movie A History of Violence a couple of years ago. They make a good pair in this western. Jeremy Irons is the villian in this one, he performed outstanding over 10 years ago in the mega movie Die Hard III, With a Vengeance. Interesting seeing him in this movie, a western, as a killer living off of his relative's protection who just happens to be the president of the US, Chester A. Arthur.
It is good to see Lance Henriksen is still alive. Have not seen him since he made foolish decisions in the movie Aliens verse Predator several years ago. He appeared me advanced in age in that movie, that was in 2004 if I recall correctly.
Renée Zellweger is the love interest of Ed Harris's character throughout the movie. She is troublesome and takes advantage of Ed Harris in this movie. She also tries to come in between and destroy the long time friendship of Viggo and Ed, she should have been punished for this. She was punished psychologically when Ed Harris disregards her nasty ploy and her word and defends Viggo. Ed Harris seemed to be OK with taking violence on men but seems to give this woman chance after chance.
Ed and Viggo are peace makers and come across this small town in Arizona which is the title of this movie. The local politicians hire Ed and Viggo to enforce the town's laws since Ed and Viggo want this to be legal. The problem is that Jeremy Irons's character is killer and brute who is living off the town like a leach does another animal. Irons employs and attracts some violent killers and companions. Irons kills a sherriff and two of his deputies at the outset of this film.
When ranch hand steps forward as a material witness in this killing, Ed and Viggo are dutifully impressed. Iron's character is convicted and sentenced to hang. One of two flaws in this movie is about to occur, the other regarding Ed's pass on Zellwegers characterss indiscretions has already been mentioned. Irons plays Randall Bragg and while Bragg is being escorted via train to be hung with Viggo and Ed, and two other sherriffs from another area, they stop the train to seemingly get some fresh air. By this point, Ed and Zellweger were already an item. Why Ed does not think she would be vulnerable at this point is beyond me. Then he does the dumbest thing to me is just unforgiveable and put a slight black mark on this movie. Up to this point, the movie was flawless. Two of Bragg's men, one being Henriksen, hold Zellweger hostage underneath a bridge the train stops over. These two men are out gunned and have the lower ground. Four rifles are pointed at them and Harris's character submits to their demands. Which is not even a trade for Bragg for Zellweger, they have to hand over Bragg and then leave on the train and Bragg's men say then they will let her go. Ridiculous. Both of these men could have been shot before they harmed her. And it was not even Harris's character Virgil Cole's call, he was outside his jurisdiction. Pathetic.
The movie had some funny lines, it was well written, and Cole and Viggo's character get along just dandy, sharing their feelings and thoughts as their character's are developed. The town officials are as wimpy as ever, similiar to the mercurial standards and sides of the officials in the movie Tombstone. But Tombstone devastates this movie, Appaloosa does not approach Tombstone in stamina, action, characters, and even music. Appaloosa was pretty good though, Ed and Viggo are some of the best actors of this day and the villian played by the outstanding Irons is totally recognizable and charismatic. Iron's character should have obeyed the bylaws posted up by Cole and everything would have been just tranquil. But then we would have had a movie absent of drama and forgettable.
I allocate this movie three stars out of five. ***
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