The following is the be all and the end all of top 5 movie lists. Normally I would add something funny here but not today, instead.... bam, here is the list:
5)Finding Nemo
Ok so I put Finding Nemo on my list, but it was good, better then most of the stuff that came out this summer, and dammit I liked it.
4)Matrix: Reloaded
This basically had to make my list, huge fan of the first. I had this movie as my number 1 of the summer before the movie came out and seeing it really only ended up hurting it in the long run so number 4 is where it ended up. Some may complain that this movie sucked but once you get the critic out of your system this movie(other then the the cave scene) wasn't that bad.
3)Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Suprised to say the least. I for one was expecting this movie to suck it up more then anything known to this world, but I really kinda liked it. Now I wouldn't say it was as good as the second or even the first but still pretty good. Even without James Cameron this movie turned out good.
2)X2
To start out I loved the first one, thought I was going to hate it, but loved it. So it isn't much of a leap that I would love this movie as well. They didn't go that far from the original stories of the characters and I had no problems with the changes that they made. So as a comic fan as a kid I was happy.
1)Pirates of the Caribbean
Sweet movie. Easily the best of the summer. Not much to say about this movie, the perfect mix of comedy and action, Johnny Depp is the man, good story, nice special effects, and I'm done... Best movie.
Honourable mention goes out to The Hulk for the fantasitic cinematography of displaying the movie as if it were a comic book.
Quite honestly, I didn’t know what to expect from this remake of the 1969 classic that I have in truth never seen. This one surprised me though. It is a well worked heist film that kept me entertained throughout. Seth Green alone made this movie great and I don’t know if the movie would have come across so well had he not been envolved.
4. X2
Everyone should know the story behind this one. A group of mutants led by Professor Charles Xavier battle evil mutants in their struggle to live in harmony with the rest of mankind. Or is it? Up is down and down is up as Xavier and arch-nemesis Magneto team up against a force bent on destroying all mutant life. A good movie with fantastic special effects. I love the way they handled Nightcrawler, but I could have used more Colossus who was a favorite character of mine. I can’t wait for the next one and you know that’s where they are headed.
3. 28 Days Later
I will probably receive a lot of flack for this. I loved this movie. While it is admittedly not the scare-the-shit-out-of-you film that it was presented as in ads, this was a great movie with an intriguing idea for a story. I think that the message this movie drives home is what makes it such a great film. This movie is all about the breakdown of society and humanity at its worst in an attempt to make it through to the next day. A great movie and it was definitely underappreciated.
2. T3: Rise of the Machines
I, like just about everyone in the world with a though process, was intrigued as to how this movie would come off being the first time that the director of the first two had opted not to contribute for a third film. I had faith though. The past history of the franchise left a lot of material to work with and it is to this end that this movie turned out to be pretty damn good. The story was great and the humor was evenly and well disbursed throughout to help make it a fun summer movie.
1. American Wedding
Another sequel from a proven franchise that had lost a lot of dead weight from the first two films, but like T3 also lost the original directors as well. The ball was picked up and not only was it ran with but it was slam dunked as well. This was a hilarious movie that had me laughing from start to finish. While not quite as good as the first but worlds better than the second, this is my hands down choice for number one movie of the summer. The comedy in this movie was perfect and once again Stifler churned out a show stealing performance.
5. Pirates of the Caribbean - Orlando Bloom seems to be in a lot of big money making movies. Sounds like "Troy" will be a blockbuster. I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. Johnny Depp is fantasic in this flick, and Geoffery Rush shouldn't be overlooked for his perfromance as well.
4. X-Men 2 - Never saw the cartoon or read the comic books when I was a kid, so I can't judge the movie on how the characters were treated, or where were Beast & Gambit?? The story is awesome, and the little things they do to foreshadow possible storylines in future films are nice. The opening scene with Nightcrawler is excellent, and worth the $8 right there.
3. Terminator 3 - This doesn't mean the movie was bad, but the best part was the credits when they played the Terminator theme music. Best theme music ever!!! This movie is non-stop action from beginning to end, and the chase scene in the middle of the city is the best action sequence of the summer. Movie was a little on the short side, and had a bit too much comedy.
2. Matrix 2 - My expectations for this movie were too high. I was dissapointed the day after seeing it, but at the end of summer realize it's a great movie. The fighting scenes are sweet, and Monica Bellucci has a very nice rack. Not a fan of the architect scene, never will be. Have to be a super geek to understand, so Lunchbox knows it perfectly.
1. American Wedding - Very funny!! Stiffler is gold in the movie, and Finch is a very close second. Didn't miss the members of the first two that didn't make this movie, except Tara Reid, and Shannon Elizabeth. The stripper scene is awesome, and Stiffler Dance scene is a classic, but why was Kevin even in the movie. He had three lines.
Overall I thought the summer was pretty good, just a tad too many sequels. I'm giving it 7/10, would have been 7.5, but I saw the last 20 minutes of "Hulk". Movies close to making the list were Italian Job, and S.W.A.T. Sea ya next year for Spiderman 2, and whatever movie that Pixar makes, and grosses 8 billion dollars
Not much to say about this movie. Excellent, best of the series. If you saw the first two then see this movie, if you haven't seen the first two movies then why are you even reading this, get lost.
9.5/10 Sweet!
Even though you just read it in the title here is the same line again. Time for the rundown on the Rundown.
Starring 'The Rock', Seann William Scott and Christopher Walken in what critics are calling one of the best action comedies in the last couple of years. I for one however am going to totally agree with them. Not only is this movie a riot it's also packed with action. Christopher Walken not only plays the villian in the movie but also has some of the best lines that I just couldn't stop laughing at, but I won't ruin any of the jokes for you now. The chemistry between 'The Rock' and Seann William Scott(who I will now call SWS for the rest of this review) is for lack of a better word, awesome. None of the scenes seem to drag despite the movie running 1 hour and 44 minutes which can be kinda long for an action flick.
At this point I don't really know what to say, the fight scenes are sweet, the comedy is sweet, this movie in general is sweet. Are you a fan of 'The Rock' or a fan of SWS(I told you that I would use it) or a fan of Christopher Walken or a fan of Action/Comedies? If you answered yes to any of those questions then go WATCH THIS MOVIE! 9/10. I loved it.
So I saw Anything Else in the theatres not too long ago and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this movie that I went into knowing next to nothing about. It was a film that I expected to be just another teen movie, but what I got was actually Woody Allen’s latest stab at movie-making.
The story is told from the perspective of Jerry Falk, played by Jason Biggs. Jerry is an aspiring comedy writer with problems with all sorts of relationships who lives in New York with his girlfriend, Amanda (Christiana Ricci). Their relationship is anything but normal however. Amanda is an actress who is beautiful, but, to put it mildly, difficult and insane. Jerry is simply put, a neurotic (in a Woody Allen movie, you may ask?) door mat. As neurotic as Jerry is, his friend and mentor Dobel, played by Woody Allen, makes Jerry neurosis pale in comparison. Dobel is paranoid of everything from Anti-Semites to well, everyone. Dobel keeps a survival kit as well as a gun in every room of his apartment. He hears people make Anti-Somatic remarks when nobody else hears anything.
Dobel and Jerry have a Bizzaro Tuesday’s with Morey kind of relationship where Dobel imparks nuggets of wisdom from his slightly skewed perspective on Jerry during their afternoons in Central Park. Most of these are so insane that they are hilarious analogies. My favorite one is when Dobel says with a hint of sarcasm “So space and time are the same? If you ask someone what time it is, does that mean they can say six miles?” Dobel also notices how everyone Jerry is in a relationship of any kind takes advantage of him. It seems that everyone is taking advantage of Jerry’s fear of being alone from his incompetent agent (Danny Devito), who when making any kind of analogy always makes reference to something being like a suit, his girlfriend Amanda, and even his own psychiatrist. Amanda and Jerry have gotten to a point where Amanda can no longer be intimate with Jerry after a sex filled initial period at the start of the relationship.
Jerry is being pressured to make a change in every aspect of his life to cut ties with everyone who mistreats him and move out to California for a better life. Jerry must first come to terms with his fear of loneliness and his own neurosis. It is clear that Dobel is an extreme version of what Jerry may become if he doesn’t make a change in his life. But can he throw away everything he has, despite his desire not to hurt anyone in order for him to make a fresh start?
There are moments of pure hilarity in this movie, almost all of which come from Devito and Allen. Allen is hilarious when he is at his most insane in this movie, and his rants on social issues are pure gold. Devito is hilarious as the incompetent talent agent who. Christina Ricci is insanely hot in this movie despite apparently having her jaw bone removed. Her character is bitchy, fussy, selfish, and annoying. It makes Kate Hudson’s character from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days look like the perfect relationship. I have no clue if it’s still in the theatres, but if it is, check it out. It might surprise you. Or it might not. In that case, you should have waited for it to come out on video, you stupid fuck.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Wednesday, September 24 2003 - 7:30 PM by: Lunchbox
Johnny Depp rules! I'm partially tempted to end the review right there, but I guess I should tell you some more about the movie itself.
To start the movie stars Johnny Depp, Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. How Salma Hayek gets the title of 'starring' in this movie still confuses me, not to ruin the movie for anyone but she is in for a total of 5 minutes. Somehow out of her 5 minutes of work she gets 1/3 the movie poster and labled as a star. Now I'm not saying that this is a bad thing that her part is cut down to nothing but she is kinda easy on eyes and it's missed.
The story is your standard mix of man gets plan, man gets crossed, other man gets double crossed, then double crossed again, then everything is fine and bam double crossed. Or at least it goes a little something like that. The plot seems to flow pretty well during the movie however as always I was left with a few questions such as:
If he was so good, shouldn't he have known that?
Why is Antonio Banderas in this movie?
Did they use a handhelm cam for that shot?
How long is this movie?
If you didn't guess by the questions I was asking myself I didn't think the movie was great. Actually the scenes that don't have Johnny Depp in them kinda suck, and even go to the extreme of suck when you add Enrique Iglesias to the mix. The ending drags and some of the scenes are so low quality that you ask yourself if they did this with a handheld camera.
Better then the first one, no. Worth spending $8 on, not really. Wait until it hits the cheap theater, you bet.
If you cut out all the scenes that don't have Johnny Depp in them this movie would get an 8.7/10, but since you can't do that 6.5/10.
The first question you should ask yourself is, does Blade plus The Matrix equal Underworld? Can this equation work? Apparently not.
Underworld is about a war between vampires and lycans (aka werewolves), where the latter group is facing certain annihilation. Mix one human into the fray and you’ve got one mystery for our heroine, Selene, (Kate Beckinsale) to solve before the tides of war make a complete u-turn.
The ambience of the movie is very well done; the entire movie is set in the rainy nights of some unknown city (probably London.) The vampires are a group of aristocrats who dresses with a similar gothic flare as their castle like dwellings. The lycans are portrayed as uncivilized thugs, held together only by their hatred for the vampires. The music used for the movie was equally suitable, and may even be the one saving grace of a less than mediocre movie at best.
As an action movie, it lacked the most crucial element common to all action movies, the action. Gun fights are the prevalent method of combat, but was far too Rambo to be taken seriously. There are no hand to hand combat to speak of, save for the final battle which is also a disappointment. If looks can kill, Beckinsale may not even need her machine gun like pistols (don’t even get me started about those). But she’s certainly no Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss, The Matrix). Underworld’s plot is virtually free of faults, but fatally suffered from various missing pieces, such as character development between Selene and Michael, (the previously mentioned human), which throws even its chic flic status out the window. At two hours, this movie is already 20 minutes too long, which explains the missing pieces ending up on the cutting room floor.
If it’s not a horror flic, and it fails at being action, then what is it? It is a rookie director’s attempt to blend two great movies into something that can’t measure up to either. 6.95/10 Thank you, come again.
S.W.A.T. is a remake of a 70’s show of the same name. It only lasted 2 seasons on air, but was well known for the theme song that I tried to sing to you above.
Movie starts with a S.W.A.T. mission involving Jim Street (Colin Farrell). His partner Gamble goes against stand down orders and ends up injuring a hostage. Gamble & Street have it out with their captain at headquarters; which ends up leading to Gamble quitting S.W.A.T. and Street moving to cage work.
With the violence getting bigger in the city, Hondo (Samuel L Jackson) is brought back to lead a new super team of S.W.A.T. The next section of the movie involves Hondo recruiting this new super team, and their training including a cool scene that involves them training during a mock airplane heist. Others joining the team are Deke (LL Cool J), Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez), and McCabe (Josh Charles), and Street himself. On what seems to be their first day, there’s a shootout in downtown U.S. involving a convict named Alex Montel (Oliver Martinez) trying to escape a bus taking him to jail. S.W.A.T. ends up transporting him to the facility. Due to the shootout, media is all over this, and Montel says he’ll give 100 million dollars to anyone who gets him out of jail. This gets gang members and former S.W.A.T. members to create chaos and the movie takes off from there.
Farrell was solid again in this one, and is really becoming one of my favorite actors, Sammy Jackson was good, but name one movie where you didn’t like him. The training & recruiting scenes were great, with a nice mix of comedy added in. The action sequences were nice, especially the final showdown.
Only negatives of the movie were all the storylines that were started, but ended up going nowhere. Why did Hondo get removed from S.W.A.T. before? Why the 3 second cameo of Farrell’s girlfriend?? It really served no purpose. Also does Michelle Rodriguez play anything other than the tough girl?
In case you couldn’t tell by the title of the movie, this chapter in the American Pie series centers on a wedding. Jim and his girlfriend of three years Michelle are getting married as the movie begins with the most awkward proposal you are likely to ever see. From there on we watch as Jim struggles to impress Michelle’s parents, learn to dance, and give Michelle her ideal wedding (which leads to a hilarious night in Chicago where the guys are trying to find Michelle the perfect wedding dress.)
The real highlight of the movie however is Stifler who once again manages to steal the movie even though most of the humorous scenes are built around his character. In the beginning of the movie we see Stifler at his most obnoxious. As the movie progresses we see him evolve and borrow some traits from his polar-opposite Finch in order to nail Michelle’s sister, Cadence. Stifler is at his absolute best portraying an all around nice guy one second and changing to the Stifler we know when the right people’s backs are turned. We also see some good in Stifler’s character come out, which really helps to give his character some depth.
As the third movie in the series this movie works very well considering that there is a new director. The movie has the same feel as the last two, and the director has a good idea of what worked in the last two movies and what didn’t. We see more Stifler and less Kevin (who is barely visible), some hilarious exchanges between Finch and Stifler as they swap personalities to compete for the same girl, and some more pure gross out moments that the series has set the bar for.
With most of the original cast missing from the movie they do an awesome job of holding the series together. Overall, I give this movie **** out of *****. Go see this movie. Now. Peace.
Before I start this review I have to say a few things:
a) I dont' like the Tomb Raider video games
2) I didn't like the first movie
With that out of the way I'm ready to say what I thought about this movie. Its not that bad. The movie is your standard Tomb Raider video game cookie cutter story. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I'm just saying that it's very predictable and a lot of the scenes just dont' make that much sense when you take them out of a video game where you would normally give them a little bit of leeway. Speaking of things I don't like to see in movies is hordes of bad guys with 'StormTrooper' aim, thats what I call it when you see group of bad guys unload clip after clip at the good guy in the open and they don't even come close to hitting them except for the normal flashes by their feet. The stormtrooper aim in the movie was bad but it was still better then in the first movie where she didn't even bother moving to even make it look like she was trying to dodge the bullets.
What can I say? Its a story about an ancient artifact that will bring destruction to the world, its about a love story between two ex's that they dont' really bother explaning instead hoping that you will make it up in your head for them, and its a story filled with unexplained deadends. At one point they look like they are about to explain a major plot twist then just drop it and thats it... nothing else they just leave it, its stuff like that which prevents this movie from doing something the first was unable to do... not suck. For as harsh as I may have sounded there its not that bad, but its not as good as some of the other movie options out there.
spend the cash to see this??? I don't suggest it unless you liked the first one or have nothing better to do that night. Otherwise I would wait for the cheap theaters to start showing it. 6/10.
Bad boys, bad boys. What ya goin' do, what ya goin' do when they come for you? If you any thing like Martin Lawrence or Will Smith you are going to have a heart to heart moment.
Not to ruin the movie for anyone but here is the layout for the movie: Action scene followed by heart to heart moment, repeat as needed to fill 2 hours and 38 minutes. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying thats a bad thing, its just very predictable.
The movie runs your standard cookie cutter mold of buddy cop movies, one is a lose cannon and the other one is the 'I'm getting too old for this shit' character. Martin Lawrence plays the 'I'm getting too old for this shit' character and Will Smith is your lose cannon, who for the most part have the most heated romance in the movie leading to the fear that in most of the heart to heart moments they are going to kiss.
The action is sweet, the heart to heart moments aren't that bad, humour is good(note I say good not great) but not up to par with the first one. A quick comment about the action sequences of the movie: While they are some of the best I have seen this summer they lack that... certain something, you never feel on the edge of your seat during the action scenes, which is a shame considering the amount of money that went into them.
Big summer hit??? I wouldn't say that. See this movie on the big screen??? That sounds like a better statement, but its nothing you couldn't miss. While this movie never seems to gel that much it is still a fun movie that requires no thought at all and is fun to watch shit get blowed up real good. 7.45/10
To the league I went and now I return to tell the story, mega cheese. Now don't get me wrong that isn't a bad thing, well if you like mega cheese that is. This movie is by far one of the cheesyest movies that I have had the pleasure of seeing in the last year or so... maybe even since BattleField Earth.
To start I had trouble focusing on the movie as my thoughts were filled with the warning I received from the door guy I had worked with before "Just to warn you, this movie is really bad." So as you can guess I was pretty hyped to see the movie after that comment just to see if I could spot all of the problems with the movie(which there are a bunch) and piss of the people I was seeing the movie with afterwards(always fun).
The story is about a collection of 'Extraordinary' people that are gathered together to fight a threat against mother England and the world in the year 1899(this date becomes important later). The 'heroes' that are collected run the gauntlet of literary characters from the invisble man, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, a vampire, an immortal who can't be killed who also seems to possess an immortal shirt as it gets repaired everytime he steps off camera in the scene, Captain 'kung-fu' Nemo, Tom Sawyer(yes thats right Tom Sawyer) as the young brash US Agent, and Sean Connery as the aging Adventurer. All of these people are brought together to fight the greatest threat to 1899... 1938, which is what they are fighting. An inventor has discovered all the technology that will be invented/used in WWII and plans to take over the world with it. Ok so he didn't discover it but rather invented it, but my first impression in the movie is that they are fighting a time traveller who has visited WWII and stole the technology. Even though they throw the date at you several times in the first 10 minutes of the movie you quickly forget what year it is as the screen is littered with rockets and machine guns.
A fun mega cheesy movie that is maybe worth your money. For me this movie was 7.75/10 but cheesy movies are right up my alley. For the average movie goer this could be avoided at the theater 5.5/10.
Are you looking for a fun, fast paced movie with lots and I mean lots of tongue in cheek jokes??? If so then I have found the movie for you, Pirates of the Caribbean.
Its a tale of good and evil, or at least pirates and ghosts with a bit of a love story thrown in there. Starring Johnny Depp as 'Captain' Jack Sparrow, Orlando Bloom as the plucky blacksmith Will Turner, Geoffrey Rush as the undead captain of the Black Pearl Barbossa, and Keira Knightley as the damsel in distress Elizabeth Swann. All of which do a fantastic job in there role.
The story is that of cursed Aztec gold that was stolen by a group of pirates who now hunt down the gold so that they can put an end to the undead curse they live. Keira Knightley is the possessor of one of these cursed Aztec gold pieces and becomes kidnapped by the crew of the Black Pearl and the chase begins with a dark deal and a few laughs.
First off Johnny Depp is awesome in this movie from start to finish he is the movie, without a doubt he is man in this flick.
Should you go out and see Pirates of the Caribbean??? Do you like movies??? If your answer to that last one was yes then go out and see this movie.
The first good action/comedy of the summer is out and its worth your money... come to think about it this is probably the best Action/Comedy to come out in the last year or so that I can remember.... SEE IT. 8.5/10
The summer of sequels continues with a third instalment to the Terminator series. This long awaited sequel seems to me to have very little hype surrounding it given the extreme success of its predecessor. This loss of hype is no doubt due to the loss of many of the key players which made the previous Terminators such successes. First of all this movie goes ahead with out any input whatsoever from The Terminator, and T2’s creator/writer/director James “Don’t call me Justin” Cameron, and Linda “Thanks for writing me out of the script, Jerks” Hamilton. T3 also has recast the role of John Connor, taking the role away from it’s originator Edward “ I’d rather do e than do T3” Furlong, and given it to Nick “an MTV movie and then onto Terminator 3, you lucky bastard” Stahl.
So who is left to carry this ‘titanic’ of a series? Who else, but Arnold “Talk to the hand” Schwartzenegger.
The best thing about this movie is that it doesn’t pretend or attempt to be anything that it’s not, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The powerful drama and emotion that carried the first two movies isn’t there this time and is instead replaced by a lot of tongue-in-cheek campy-ness, which this reviewer found entertaining. Arnie is up to the challenge and is in as good a form as he was 12 years ago, and plays the dead pan Terminator to good humour. Stahl admirably makes the character of John Connor his own, creating a more thoughtful and less edgy and rebellious young man. Some young teen girls will appreciate Stahl’s teddy bear mug, while others may miss the bad boy long haired edginess of Furlong. Kristanna “Check out my Britney Spears impression” Loken provides a very entertaining and very easy on the eyes TX, that makes you want to run in fear, and run to a cold shower at the same time.
Overall, the story holds no new surprises. A lot of stuff gets blown up, the Terminator arrives on the scene just as things look hopeless etc.etc No new groundbreaking philosophical message that hasn’t already been covered in the first two. It’s nothing that a regular Terminator fan hasn’t already seen. 6 ½ out of 10.
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle on Friday night. Check your brains at the door because you won’t need it for this one. Not to say the movie is bad, I quite enjoyed the flick. If your looking for mindless fun, this is the movie for you, the action sequences were WAY over the top, and I think Lunchbox found 28 plot holes in the movie, but that’s his gimmick.
Plot for the movie has someone after two titanium rings that contain the new names of the people in the Witness Protection Program. The Angel’s job (Cameron Diaz, Lucy Lui, Drew Berrymore) is to find out who’s trying to obtain the rings, join up with this person, and kill the people in the program (maybe not the last two parts) The trailer basically tells you that a former angel is the person trying to obtain the rings, Madison Lee (played by Demi Moore) who is a former angel herself.
Bernie Mac does an excellent job as the new Bosley; he’s involved in many funny moments, especially the scene at the beach. The beach also introduces us to the Demi Moore character, and Demi Moore in a bikini automatically gives this movie thumbs up. Also Justin Theroux does a great job as Irish gangster from Drew Berrymore’s past.
On the negative side, I can’t really think of anything. I’m a 23-year-old male, so I don’t mind Cameron Diaz showing off her ass, but this could bug some people. Luke Wilson, and John Cleese are too talented for the roles they played. If you don’t like action sequences that look too fake, stay away from this flick.
I quite enjoyed this movie, and I give it a 7.5/10.
Look for a cool cameo by Bruce Willis, and the new hit song from Nickelback & Kid Rock called Saturday Night’s Alright (for fighting)
Its good its just no Shrek. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the movie but just not near as much as I enjoyed Shrek.
For the most part the movie is made up of your standard collection of characters, your main character plays the story mover, the annoying side kick that provides some laughs and serves to slow down the main character while teaching him valuable lessons. Then your standard collection of speed bump characters fill out the rest of the cast providing some laughs.
The CG in this movie doesn't make any leaps or bounds above Shrek or Monster Inc but does look very impressive due to the sheer amount of animated fish that are the screen at one time. Then fill out the voice cast with some well know vocal talent such as Cliff from Cheers(John Ratzenberger).
Final verdict: its a good kids movie that you don't feel bad about seeing. Once again not as good as Shrek. 7.5/10(This may be a little high but what are you going to do about it???)
On a quick side note this movie is going to make sick money. I saw it on a Wednesday night and it was packed, now I'm not saying Opening night I have to sit in the front row packed, but It was hard to find two seats that didn't suck packed.
Hulk want to smash reviewers but Hulk know not everyone read comics
b) Like everyone I have a certain predisposition towards things I already like and things I hate, like Tomb raider, I hated the game and I hated the movie.
As with everyone else in the world I have read, heard and seen the bad reviews of this movie prior to me checking it out on the opening Friday. What do I have to say about those bad reviews I read, heard and saw.... these people are just all to ready to jump onto the fanboy wagon of hating everything that isn't to the letter of the comic, or they have never heard the story before. As I said before I read a lot of comics as a kid and was quite hyped to see this movie or at least Ang Lee's interpretation of the Hulk story. The movie does seem to drag at bits but this is because they are trying to cover a large portion of the hulk story in a very short amount of time(148min). I know this is actually kinda long for an action movie but take what you can get and look at it as more movie for your buck. Is the CG as bad as you have heard? No, when you have to create a 12 foot tall 500 pound beast of a man you are not going to find him on the street, so CG is your only option and personally I thought it was done quite well.
As for the casting of the movie I have no complaints, with an incredible job being done by the casting crew chosing Eric Bana as Bruce Banner and every other character fitting into place in the movie, but on a quick side note, Nick Nolte while some of this scenes where he is suppose to be caring come off cheesy his other scenes of crazy come off.... crazy good. While not being able to do crying without being cheesy, I'll take a crazy Nick Nolte anytime.
So this is the part of the review where I give the movie a rating so here it is 7.65/10, not as good as Spiderman but better then Daredevil(but I had a huge problem with the end of Daredevil, something to do with the fact that I didn't receive major head trauma before watching the movie and thus found the ending to be dumb and unbelieveable, and that is with me believing that someone can have super powers).
2 Fast 2 Furious is your standard summer popcorn movie, now this is not always a bad thing. While 2 Fast 2 Furious is generally predictable at every moment and has the feel of a 2 hour episode of 'Fast Lane,' but it is also a straight up fun movie.
Now the dialog in some parts of the movie just doesn't make sense as it's repeated from scene to scene, but this can be excused due to the fact that no one is there to listen to witty dialog. Oh and it had to be partially rewritten since the asking price of Vin Diesel was too high and he had to be cut out and replaced by Tyrese.
I went in with pretty low expectations for this movie and ended up pleasantly suprised. From fast paced car chases 2 funny one-liners this movie is 2 fun from start 2 finish.
8/10 maybe 8.5/10 if you haven't seen just a good fun movie lately.
Going into the movie, I assumed it was a regular job, only with Mozza Cheese and Tomato Sauce, thus making it Italian.
This is a remake of the 1969 movie of the same name starring Michael Caine. If you’ve seen the trailer for the movie, you get the general plot of the movie.
Charlie Croker (Marc Wahlberg) successfully steals $35 million in gold bars with the help of his crew; in one of the most original heists I’ve seen. One of his crewmembers Steve Frezelli (Ed Norton) double-crosses everybody, steals the money, kills their mentor John Bridger (Donald Sutherland), and runs off to California. After meticulous research, Croker decides to reassemble the crew, with the addition of Bridger's daughter Stella (Charlize Theron, a safecracker who actually works for the police).
The rest of the crew (Marky Mark's new Funky Bunch???) consists of demolitions expert Left Ear (Mos Def), computer expert Lyle (Seth Green), and driver Handsome Rob (Jason Statham). The centerpiece of The Italian Job is an elaborate scheme to raid Frezelli's compound, crack the safe and steal back the gold.
The supporting cast really makes this movie, Mos Def, Jason Statham (who is the driver of the team, which made me think I was watching The Transporter again!!), and Seth Green who is involved in the funniest scene in the movie, and also has a running gag involving an old music file-sharing friend of ours.
Only critism of the movie would have to be Ed Norton, who just didn’t seem to be into his role. Rumors say he didn’t want to do the movie, maybe because it’s the same character he played in The Score, but was forced into it from an old picture deal he signed.
If you liked the style of Ocean’s 11, the heist elements of The Score, and the chase scenes in Gone in 60 Seconds, you’ll love Italian Job. 7.5/10
I really, really, really wanted this movie to be every bit as good, if not better, than the first Matrix. But who didn’t? The first Matrix was one of the greatest movie accomplishments of our generation. Who didn’t want to relive that experience of watching ‘The Matrix’ for the very first time? It was one of the most memorable movies in the last 10 years, was it not? (btw- If you answered ‘No’ to any or all of the above rhetorical questions then I say: a) why are you answering rhetorical questions? and b) why are you even reading this review you poor pathetic soul.) Anyway, I realized going into this movie that the dream of reliving that experience is just going to have to wait till the next cinematic masterpiece. ‘The Matrix Reloaded’, and the subsequent ‘The Matrix Revolutions’ just cannot accomplish the same experience that the first movie could. Not to say that they won’t try. But dramatically, it is impossible.
Let’s look at the first Matrix plot: Ordinary man(Neo) gets opportunity to overcome massive obstacles and become the hero of humanity. It’s the same plot as any great movie or fairy tale; ie- James Bond, Jackie Chan, Indiana Jones, Cinderella, Snow White, etc. etc. etc.(note the purposeful exclusion of the names VanDamme and Segal because of the aforementioned pronoun ‘great’ movies) Underdog defeats the seemingly all powerful evil overlord. We love to watch that dramatic structure.
So now lets look at the plot line of ‘Matrix Reloaded’: Man(Neo) who has recently achieved ultimate power and lives with the love of his life, fights off men of lesser power in attempts to destroy the Matrix.
Now hold on a second here…. this dramatic structure seems a little backwards. Our Hero is the all powerful being, and he’s trying to destroy the world of the Matrix, and you want me to root for him?? And he already has the girl??? But I wanted to root for the underdog!(pouting child voice). We don’t get that satisfaction in this movie. Instead we get to follow Neo through a sersies of exotic battles knowing full well that he’s going to kick some ass and take some names no questions asked. Where’s the suspense in that? Where’s that feeling of satisfaction you get when the evil power is defeated by the struggling weaker underdog? The answer to that rhetorical question my friend is… not in this movie. That proven dramatic structure is what puts the guts into any good fight sequence and this movie unfortunately lacks it.
Dramatic story line aside the Wachowski Brothers do create a well photographed moving picture film, and build the suspense towards the end and leave you anticipating the third and final chapter. The action sequences are elaborate and should put the first movie to shame, but don’t always because of lack of drama and one other key factor: The CGI. As I think most hardcore movie fans would agree: CGI can ruin a movie. i.e- Trilogy Star Wars or CGI Star Wars? Huh, huh….. yeah, point proven. The multiple Agent Smiths and vanishing ghost twins made certain fighting sequences look closer a cool video game than a cool movie.
I could go on and continue to nit pick at an otherwise good movie, I could go further and comment on how -kiss lady, and the twins aside- the acting of the new characters makes Keanu look like Marlon Brando, but I won’t. However in this case I won’t because all is forgiven by the always amazing Laurence Fishburne and the ever beautiful Carrie-Anne Moss. Overall I will give the movie a 7/10.
I checked out Bruce Almighty the other day in the afternoon(this statement will make sense later). What can I say about this movie... well it had its moments. The first part of the movie is kinda slow with the usual build up to Bruce getting his God powers, you know what i'm talking about, but if you dont' then see this movie because it will be a suprise to you. To everyone else the first 30min will feel very predictable, followed by the next 81min of predictable moments. This is not to say that the movie is terrible, its just to say that if you put any thought into the movie while watching you already know the end.
Bruce is littered with laugh points, where they insert a joke that you see coming just to make some of the story moments funny, but most of these fall just short of laugh out loadness(not a word, but i don't care), maybe if the theater was full some of these would have gotten a good laugh but as i mentioned before, it was in the afternoon. However the few jokes that you don't see coming are priceless.
Is this a tier 1 theater movie??? If you are a BIG fan of Jim Carrey then yes. Else I would wait until you have nothing else to do or it moves down to a cheap theater. But then again i'm just not a big fan of super happy family movies which this movie ends up smelling like.
So for me this is a 6.5/10 movie.
For Rent
PoolHall Junkies
Thursdayday, September 25 2003 - 11:37 PM by: Lil' Vinnie
I swear that there is a review in here somewhere.
I had a customer come into my store the other day asking for movies that were “stolen from brown people“. A little taken back by his comment, I asked what he was talking about. He proceeded to tell me that there are a number of movies that were made in India and, due to budget constraints, never made it over that bit of water that separates us. So Hollywood, being the magical place that it is, dug into its pockets and coughed up a chunk of money and “stole” these few titles. This is what I am told so the validity of the statements above is questionable but understandable. One of such movies is one that I had mentioned a week ago, Bend it Like Beckham. Now I’ve seen this movie a couple times and if you have seen it as well, it’s understandable that the movie may have been made in India. But didn’t everyone in the movie speak with an English accent? What’s up with that? Thought that it was interesting to mention. Go about your lives again.
On a totally unrelated topic, the movie that I’m actually reviewing is called Poolhall Junkies. As soon as I saw the cover of this movie about a month ago, I’d been dying to see it. I know some of you had hoped that I would miss it or that it would be delayed long enough for me to kick the bucket, but fuck you. I’m still here and I saw the movie.
In one word--awesome. This movie came out of the blue and, although a little predictable at times, starred Christopher Walken. I love this guy. I honestly think that he is the greatest actor in the world. He is not a bad guy in this movie, believe it or not. The bad guy here is Chaz Palminteri who plays, Joe; a pool hustler manager that dashes the dreams of the young and talented, Johnny (played by Mars Callahan). The story follows Johnny as he tries to make a living as a hustler who was destined for the big times.
The acting in this movie is great and the pool is even better. It really makes you want to go out and chalk your stick. If you misinterpret that last line and get arrested for something, it’s your own fault and you don’t know me at all. It is really the kind of pool hall movie that you want. Better than The Colour of Money, Poolhall Junkies is a must see in my books. Mars Callahan was the perfect actor for the part and any movie that plays Walken is sure to beat you to the nine (that was a little 9-ball metaphor for ya’).
Great actors giving great performances. Great pool with lots of edge and wit. Solid story without any of the dull moments. It’s really everything that you’re looking for. Except tits.
-vinnie out
Solaris
Thursday, September 4 2003 - 12:59 PM by: Lunchbox
Not much to say about this movie other then there is a reason it did very poorly in the theaters... it sucked. Now it takes a lot for me to hate a movie, generally there isn't much that I dislike out there, but this was one of those few.
Starring George Clooney in the lead role of a scientist sent out to bring his friends back from a research mission gone wrong... why you ask did they send a scientist to bring them back instead of a trained military group? Because then it would have ended the movie right then and there and saved people the pain of watching this movie. I do have to say at least one nice thing about this movie and it is the scenes with Jeremy Davies are entertaining which basically makes him the only entertaining thing in this movie... thats about it for nice things, back to the review. Overall they don't really do anything in this movie... if you remember those 'how a story should flow graphs,' they always looked like this __---```_, well Solaris looks something like this _______. If had told me I had a choice between watching paint dry and this movie I would have choosen the movie but if I could redo that decision I think I would chose the paint now.
To sum it up Solaris is what you call and art movie, now I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to be an art movie it's just that this is an art movie that doesn't do anything new... where the character reactions to events doesn't make any sense or at least they don't follow human nature and did I mention there is a strange amount of silence? Like they wrote the movie to last 20 minutes then said 'shit, this is way too short, lets just add lots of silence and some star gazing, yeah star gazing, that's gold, gold I say!" The movie most of the time has the feel like someone watched 2001: A Space Odyssey and said to themselves "lets remake this movie as a romance" the set feels ripped off, the images feel ripped off and come to think about it I feel ripped off. Don't see this movie. 3/10
Road to Perdition is a mob movie based on revenge and a bringing together of father and son. The theme in Road to Perdition shows that parents will do anything within their power to save their own child from danger.
The basic plot is about Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) who works as a hitman to John Rooney (Paul Newman). The Paul Newman's character is almost a father for Sullivan but this relationship star to break, when Sullivan and Conner Rooney (Daniel Craig) go to talk with a man. Michael Sullivan Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) hides inside the car, and witnesses the “Hit”. Despite both Sullivan’s saying that the son won’t say anything, there is an attempting hit on the Sullivan’s.
After that, the revenge part of the movie takes over with Michael Sullivan going after Conner Rooney. Jude Law plays Harlen Maguire, a fellow hitman hired to kill both Sullivan’s. This leads to a pretty cool scene involving Hanks & Law in a diner. Not a scene like Deniro & Pacino in the coffee shop from Heat, but an awesome scene.
The acting is this movie is awesome, Hanks is solid as always, but the MVP’s of this flick are Paul Newman, who doesn’t have a huge amount of screen time, but is awesome in every scene and Tyler Hoechlin, who does a fantastic job.
wasn’t a fan of the amount of time given to Jude Law, he is barely in the movie, also Jennifer Jason Leigh is wasted playing Sullivan’s wife. The movie is a bit slow at the beginning, but starts to pickup about 1/3 into the movie.
This movie is a solid rental, and a good change of pace from all the summer blockbusters this year. I rate the movie a 7.75/10
Is Collinwood a poor mans Ocean eleven??? Yes but what wrong with that. This movie is as I said before a poor man's Ocean eleven even including George Clooney as your safe cracker.
The tale is that of a group of screw up thieves that have fallen on hard time, or at least regular times for them I guess. When a lifer in prison gives up his belinnie(i think thats spelled right) and chaos begins.
Good movie, great movie. If you liked Ocean's Eleven but wanted a british flair to it then this is your movie 8/10.
I finally got around to watching The Recruit. Al Pacino has been on this terrible slide lately (Simone, Insomnia, and the likes) but here he finally gives acting the old college try again. And here is an actor that is really going to start getting some more attention-Colin Farrell. This guy is great. His debut was a war movie (which I haven’t seen) called Tigerland; I’ve heard really good things about it though.
Throughout this movie I sat up straight, and was kept hooked to the storyline all the way to the end. It was a real ride. Plot twists keep you wondering and then bewildered and shocked. This is the kind of movie that I can’t say much about without ruining it. But I’ll try my best so here goes.
Colin Farrell plays a computer whiz that gets recruited by the CIA into the training program. The Farm (CIA training camp) is a place where everything is a test and as Pacino puts it, “nothing is what it seems”. Farrell’s character is hooked by Pacino with knowledge about the father that he really didn’t know. After the training camp, Farrell is involved with three things. One, a deadly computer program that can be transmitted through any electrical grid called ICE-9, two, another absolutely gorgeous agent played by Bridget Moynahan, and three, mystery, a touch of mayhem, and a mole in the agency.
I’m going to stop here. This movie, if you haven’t seen it yet, is a must see. I loved it, but I’m a sucker for the spy mystery thing. Also a sucker for Bridget Moynahan and her cute self (she’s no slouch, you know). As a rating I give her an 8.5 on 10. The movie gets a 9 on 10 but you have to like the spy-mystery thing. If you don’t, the movie gets an 8 on 10. It is really good. And you can believe me--I’ve got a scary judge of talent.
Rented “Catch Me If You Can” on Wednesday night. Heard it was a really good movie, and wanted to check it out for myself. I’ll listen to these people more often, because this movie was really good.
I’m not a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan (how come no one admits to seeing Titanic anyway??), but he was very good in this flick.
"Catch Me If You Can" is based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, the most successful conman in history. By the age of 19, Frank had already posed as a pilot for Pan Am, paraded around as a medical doctor, and fooled everyone by taking an on-the-side-job as a lawyer. During this time he cashed fraudulent checks at various banks around the country, and eventually around various places in the world. Tom Hanks plays FBI Agent Carl Hanratty who is trying to catch Abagnale.
The acting is the movie is the best part of the movie. DiCaprio, Hanks are really good and show good chemistry in their scenes together, but Christopher Walken is the man in this movie, and the Oscar nomination is well deserved for his role.
I thought Jennifer Garner had a bigger part in the movie, but the scene she’s in is very funny (DiCaprio is the luckiest man alive!!!). Biggest laugh of the movie is by Hanks, when he’s in the car with his 2 partners. (Knock, Knock, very funny stuff)
Wasn’t a big fan of how they caught Abagnale, thought it was a little too easy considering how he’d been able to avoid them for so long.
The good far outweights the bad in this one, I give it 8.5/10
I have seen The Ring, would you care to take a look?
To start I normally don't check out horror/thriller movies but having heard the hype about how good the Ring is I had to take a look. I actually think that this movie for the most part lived up to the hype around it. There isn't much that I can say about this thing without giving away parts which would totally ruin it for you, so I will just say that some parts of the movie are 'make the hair on your arm stand' freaky. The acting is done quite well with a good preformance coming from both the adults and kids in the movie and the few special effects in the movie are done quite well adding to the 'spooky' atmosphere without making the movie totally unbelievable.
I would say this movie is a 7.75/10 and this is coming from someone who doesn't like horror/thriller movies, so you can trust me when I say its a good movie.
See the review for Harry Potter: The Philosphers Stone. I'm serious, this movie gets the exact same review that I gave the first one, call it lazy or call in brilliant. There is no difference between this movie and the first one, except the plot, same people, same place, kinda the same end to the story, you even start at the same place the first one did with the same problems. So if you liked the first one, see this one, if you haven't seen the first one don't see this one. In case you didn't check the other review 8.5/10 for kids and book readers, 7/10 for everyone else.
Are you asking yourself right now "I thought it was called the Sorcerer's Stone???" then you my friend saw the movie in the States where Philosopher is a bad word that can't be used because it involves the concept of free thought, the rest of the world saw this movie under its original title of Philosopher's Stone, but i ramble on.
Being neither a kid nor someone who has read the Harry Potter books this movie was just average, but I'm sure that if you have read the books then this would be one awesome movie, but I just can't say that from my point of view.
The movie was quite well acted for the cast being made up by 80% kids and 20% seasoned acters. I really have nothing to say about this movie, it was good and all its just nothing special that I will talk about with my friends. I really can't find any problem with the special effects, cast or story, except for the fact that I found myself during several parts of the movie saying "why don't they just get some help? I mean this could be over in 10 seconds if they get that guy to help." I was able to flush away those thoughts however by saying 'this is a kids movie' which it is by the way, don't go telling me this is a story for all ages, its a kid's movie.
Final score: If you read the books then I'm going to say 8.5/10, otherwise this is just a good kid's movie that you can enjoy without feeling like you are watching a kid's movie for the most part 7/10.
Checked out the latest in "I thought this was going to theaters" the other day, having actually seen the trailer for this movie on apple a couple months ago I was quite hyped to check it out. But in some twist of luck it turned into a limited release in the theaters and has just now been released on video. However this has nothing to do with how the movie actually is.
So on the topic of the movie its a cross between 1984,Fahrenheit 451 and Total Recall, and I guess in a little way Judge Dredd. I know what you are thinking, I have just associated this movie with Judge Dredd, which is never a positive thing, but in this case its not that bad. The movie is generally predictable if you have already read/seen the titles I listed before but still worth the watch too see how they combine them.
The story drags on parts and in other places leaves you squinting in disbelief as characters get away with things that should have ended the movie right there, not to mention some of the background story leaving you with a bad taste when you begin at actually think about the concept of this all working out.
Now that the negative has been said on to the positive, while the concept of gun-fu may sound a little strange, starting after the first action scene all the fights are rather fun. On the topic of the first fight scene, maybe in the future people don't need to dodge bullets anymore??? I know I said this was going to be the positive part but I just can't let some of the James Bond no need to dodge bullets stuff because i'm the good guy and all the bad guys have stormtrooper aim stuff go. And i'm done.
So if you liked the titles I listed above and aren't going to snap when you realized that its just stealing some of there original ideas then check this out just to see what would happen if they mated. Want some slick fight scenes that rock with a story to boot, then rent it. But if you aren't up to take the good with the bad and endure some horrible parts just for the good, leave this movie for dead.
All in all I'm giving this a 7 star performace, 7.5 if you are an action fan, possibly a 8 if you love fung-fu movies and are willing to put up with some slow parts(some extremly slow).
What can I say about Insomnia??? Well in review it was a good movie, that is to say that when I rewatch it in my head, I can actually say that I enjoyed it, but during the actual viewing period, it was less then enjoyable.
The movie moves at an icebergs pace, then breaks into a sprint for the last 20min(might I add the best part of the movie). Leaving you with a rushed feeling as if the director realized that he should wrap it up and did it like an assignment due the next day.
On a more positive note the performance by Robin Williams is truly awesome. Every scene that he graces is worth watching, unfortually he is only in the back half of the movie.
Is this worth the rental? That depends, are you an Al Pacino or Robin Williams fan? If so this is worth the rental, otherwise you could avoid this movie and not miss that much.
Al Pacino or Robin Williams fan 7.5/10 otherwise a 6/10
