105. Cutter's Way [B-] 106. Nine Lives [A-] 107. Wings of Desire [A] 108. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [B-] 109. Exorcist II: The Heretic [F] 110. Edmond [D] 111. Office Space [B+] 112. Being There [B-] 113. The Trouble with Harry [B+] 114. The Final Sacrifice [F] 115. Freeway [B ] 116. Iron Man 2 [B+] 117. Starship Troopers [A] 118. The Wedding Weekend [C-] 119. Fight Club [A] 120. The Informant! [A-] 121. It's Alive [F] 122. Grace [D+] 123. Tamara [F] 124. Avatar [C+] 125. Good Will Hunting [B-] 126. Grosse Pointe Blank [B+] 127. Living in Oblivion [A-] 128. Blow-Up [C+] 129. Innerspace [C-] 130. Bottle Shock [B ] 131. Brazil [A] 132. Fido [B+] 133. Robin Hood [C-] 134. Groundhog Day [B+] 135. Falling Down [B ] Robin Hood: Not the Russel Crowe version, but the Disney animated film. As a child, this was one of my favorites, but my parents hated it. With the perspective of time, it's not hard to see why. Take away the fact that it's about Robin Hood (rather appealing to me at six years old) and it doesn't have much going for it. There are other Disney animated productions with a better sense of scope, funnier gags, better songs, and more memorable animation. This is passable, but never exceptional. Groundhog Day: I've probably seen this film six or seven times since it was released, and it still holds up. Yes, the ending is entirely Hollywood, and the relationships Phil suddenly has with everyone in the town aren't believable, but it's a minor complaint. The premise alone is far more interesting than most other romantic comedies being produced today, and Bill Murray and Andie McDowell a much more interesting couple. Visually, it's a little drab at times, but it gets the job done. Falling Down: For the first half, the film lives and dies on Michael Douglas' terrific central performance as a man who has had it with the world and finally snapped. Until the midpoint, the subplot with Robert Duvall takes away from the insane energy of Douglas' "D-Fens," who inspires tragedy and comedy in equal measure, and a few supporting performances fall flat. But the look of Los Angeles here (with a brown tint of smog, this is not Michael Mann's romanticized version of the city) is spot on, and by the second half Duvall's character has more relevance (both thematically and plot-wise). It's not a great film, but it's a good one, and it looks fantastic on Blu-Ray.
My first visit to the theatre in a while: 64. Harry Brown (B+) A 2009-debuting film now getting a somewhat wider release in North America, I've seen this called the British Gran Torino - while there are superficial similarities, I do wonder if the people making those comparisons haven't fundamentally missed the point of Gran Torino. Eastwood was deconstructing the urban vigilante, and the whole climax is about the hero realizing that the escalation schtick doesn't actually work. This is pretty much a straight example of the genre, albeit extremely gritty. It's a well-done film, though, featuring a convincing lead performance by Michael Caine (and, unlike in a lot of the "old person kicks ass" films, the film never asks Caine to do anything that seems especially implausible for his age). And, if it's not a genre deconstruction, it's not out to make the act of vigilantism look thrilling; every gunshot in the movie makes you jump a bit. I'm not sure about Emily Mortimer as the main cop, who seems a bit too fragile to be believable in her job (though that may be the point). The villains are all effectively painted as the scum of the earth (and about the least hygienic people you'll ever meet).
Is Paris Burning? - Old 60s style WWII epic about the liberation of Paris. Worth watching, but it's odd that the partisans, who spend inordinate amounts of time bickering and jockeying for position vs other paritsan factions, and who could have safeguarded Paris simply by sitting on their hands and waiting for the Allies to encircle Paris, end up looking a bit unsympathetic, while the German commander of Paris, who risks his neck by defying Hitler's order to destroy the city, comes off as the most heroic character in the story. Kirk Douglas as Patton was the oddest casting I've seen since the Duke played Ghengis Khan. Shutter Island - A spooky, stylish thriller - very entertaining, if you overlook the plot twist that I'm sure everyone can see coming a mile away, and the large amount of illogic needed to make that twist work, namely: Spoiler: spoilers for Shutter Island The point of the island is that the psychos can't escape, yet the psychiatrists took the risk of letting Laeddis off the island so he could come back on the ferry. Laeddis' delusion would already provide the memory of the ferry ride (how else could he have gotten there), so why take the risk? Or was that scene part of his delusion, and if so, that means that Dr. Sheehan was playing the role of Chuck in both hallucinations and literal real world scenes, which would be a ludicrous cheat on Scorsese's part. After Laeddis almost kills the inmate who jumped him, Dr. Sheehan, who supposedly is babysitting him at all times to make sure he doesn't go off the deep end, leaves him alone - isn't that insanely dangerous? He also leaves him alone at the lighthouse scene - why? Did he know he had an important rendezvous with a hallucination in a cave? How can they rationalize this preposterous role-playing "therapy" if it means giving a dangerous psycho free run of the island? And "Andrew Laeddis" sounds more like a made-up name based on an anagram of a normal name than "Edward Daniels" does - if that was in the novel, then the novelist gets the blame for that bit of contrivance. At the very least, he could have flipped the names. I also wonder whether it made sense to have Laeddis' memory of liberating Dachau be apparently real in the context of the story. The parallels between his guilt at not saving the inmates and the later guilt that he couldn't save his family seems like another absurd coincidence in a story that already has too many. It would have been better if he'd imagined Dachau as yet another reflection of his guilt over his family. It would have also been better if Teddy's suspicions about Shutter Island had been less outlandish than the Manchurian Candidate-ish stuff he whomped up. It was when I started to wonder, 'how are they going to pull that shit off without it being laughable?' that I started to suspect that it all had to be a hallucination, just to salvage the story. Sure enough...
"The Loser", the "B-TEAM"....that's what it is. The characters and/or actors aren't engaging. 4/10 "Clash of the Titans", like a SyFy channel film with an enormous budget. Sam Worthington has no screen presence. He's just hard bodied mook trying to disguise an Aussie accent. Liam Neeson has hit Ben Kingsley level slumming..."I'm Zeus...now where's my paycheck?". The confrontation with Medusa should be exciting, but barely registers a raised eyebrow. Possibly the most soulless action-fantasy movie since VAN HELSING, and I'm not referring to the constant use of CGI effects. Made THE LOSERS look better. And oh, yes, I maintain my theory that Joseph Fiennes is a sure sign a movie will stink, even though it was his brother Ralph in this...Joe must've put him up to it. 3/10
105. Cutter's Way [B-] 106. Nine Lives [A-] 107. Wings of Desire [A] 108. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [B-] 109. Exorcist II: The Heretic [F] 110. Edmond [D] 111. Office Space [B+] 112. Being There [B-] 113. The Trouble with Harry [B+] 114. The Final Sacrifice [F] 115. Freeway [B ] 116. Iron Man 2 [B+] 117. Starship Troopers [A] 118. The Wedding Weekend [C-] 119. Fight Club [A] 120. The Informant! [A-] 121. It's Alive [F] 122. Grace [D+] 123. Tamara [F] 124. Avatar [C+] 125. Good Will Hunting [B-] 126. Grosse Pointe Blank [B+] 127. Living in Oblivion [A-] 128. Blow-Up [C+] 129. Innerspace [C-] 130. Bottle Shock [B ] 131. Brazil [A] 132. Fido [B+] 133. Robin Hood [C-] 134. Groundhog Day [B+] 135. Falling Down [B ] 136. Wedding Crashers [B-] Wedding Crashers: I don't know why this movie works as well as it does. I imagine that, if the screenplay was read in outline form, it would be mind-numbing in its reliance on formula. But Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn (as well as a terrific supporting cast) make it work. It's not a classic, and the happy ending, inevitable to the genre, is as out of place as ever, but it's funny and I wasn't unhappy to spend an evening with friends watching it. I would like to see Harry Brown at some point. Michael Caine is usually brilliant (yes, I've seen Jaws IV: The Revenge...shh!) and it looks at least as good as The Brave One and other recent vigilante films. As for Shutter Island, I found that it worked (more or less) as visceral entertainment, but it doesn't hold up to close analysis. It does have quite a soundtrack, though.
137. Broadcast News [B ] 138. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [B ] 139. Robocop 2 [C-] Broadcast News: When the film focuses on the insanely chaotic, fake, and superficial world of network news, it's hilarious and cutting. Bill Conti's score (typical to the composer) exemplifies the tone of these scenes. So does Jack Nicholson's small role as the lead anchor of the news ("we could cut a million from your salary..."). When the film is preoccupied with the love triangle of sorts between Holly Hunter, William Hurt, and Albert Brooks it is less successful. The turning point where Hunter discovers that Hurt faked a reverse shot where he was crying was, frankly, unbelievable for a character of her position--if the thought occurred to me, it would have occurred to an experienced news producer. Thankfully, James L. Brooks was unable to use the happier ending which united Hurt and Hunter, resulting in a conclusion that feels genuine. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: Steve Martin and Michael Caine are excellent together as a pair of mischievous bastards. The way the continuously counter each other until the end is funny as hell (Caine, suave as ever, is particularly good). That they're being played the entire time by the woman is pretty clear after a while, but I can buy into the two men being so consumed by their competition that they don't realize. Robocop 2: I'm not sure if it's as bad as everyone makes it out to be, or if the first one simply isn't as good. Actually, it's probably the latter. Like the first installment, this one has the potential of a good movie in it, but the end result fails to meet those expectations. The stop-motion effects are as bad here as they are in the previous film, and perhaps worse. They deflate any sense of excitement in the action. Nancy Allen has almost nothing at all to to, and it's no surprise that she quickly fled the franchise. There's a kid as a villain, which is as ludicrous as it is annoying. The satire is on the same level as the first movie--funny, but far too heavy handed. The news broadcasts come with the same subtlety as the ones on Family Guy. There's an interesting story about Murphy remembering his past, but it's quickly forgotten. Is he Murphy? Is he Robocop? The film quickly forgets the question and opts for explosions. Then there's Robocop himself, who still isn't a very good policeman. He's good at shooting, but it's hard to imagine the streets filled with a force of cops as trigger happy as he is. No wonder Detroit has gone to shit.
Updates (in bold): Aliens in the Attic (6) Armored Trooper Votoms: Big Battle (7) Armored Trooper Votoms: Roots of Ambition (8) Armored Trooper Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder (8) Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files: The Movie (7) Boondock Saints (10) Boondock Saints: All Saint's Day (9) The Book of Eli (8) Cargo (7) Cencoroll (8) Les Chevaliers du Ciel (8) Clash of the Titans (2010) (8) Date Night (7) District 9 (8) Eden of the East: The King of Eden (9) The Edge of Darkness (9) Evangelion 2.0: You Can [Not] Advance (9) The Fantastic Mr. Fox (8) G-9 (6) Gamer (6) Green Zone (7) Higurashi no Naka Koroni Chikai (7) Inglorious Bastards (7) Iron Man 2 (9) Jonah Hex (6) The Killers (6) Law Abiding Citizen (9) Lupin the 3rd VS Detective Konan (7) Naruto Shippuden Movie 3 (8) Oblivion Island (6) Oldboy (9) Pandorum (7) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (8) Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind (8) Summer Wars (9) Sword For Truth (6) Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen (8) They Were 11 (9) The Uninvited (7) Wicked City (8)
65. Toy Story 3 (A+) Already reviewed this over in the SFF thread, but in short: up there with Pixar's best, easily the best film of the year so far, and the other studios will have to go to the max to beat it.
I pretty much feel the same way. So far the best movies this year have been animated films, with How to Train Your Dragon really great too. Other than Inception, I'm not really sure what else I'm looking forward to this year. Maybe Cyrus with John C Reily but who knows when that will show up to theaters as it's a smaller release and probably will be up for Oscars.
The Road - Both Viggo and the kid turned in very powerful performances, but the ending left me . I thought the whole dilemma was that, in a world of collapsing resources, nobody would stick their neck out for anyone else, yet Spoiler: the ending the son was adopted into a family who seemed willing to share what little they had with him, and treat him as their own child. I didn't see how the dour story at all warranted such a cheerful ending. Burma VJ - Documentary of repression in Burma, provided by sequences filmed on the sly by brave journalists. The need to hide the cameras gives the results a claustrophobic feel that might be a necessary evil but produces a style that perfectly matches the topic. Invictus - Uplifting, if predictable movie that can be enjoyed even if you don't care about rugby. I never really felt like I was watching Nelson Mandela instead of Morgan Freeman, but Matt Damon manages to completely disappear into the role (for which he is probably at least ten years too old, but oh well). Funny Face - Lightweight 50s fluff, not as good as similar musicals like An American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain, but pretty watchable anyway. Audrey Hepburn's attempts at singing should have been dubbed over with a real singer (like they did later with in My Fair Lady) but she can hold her own in dancing with Fred Astaire.
137. Broadcast News [B ] 138. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [B ] 139. Robocop 2 [C-] 140. The A-Team [C+] 141. Rushmore [A-] 142. In the Loop [B+] The A-Team: This movie surprises, in a good way, but not the point of blowing me away. The cast left a mixed impression. Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson mumbles his way through the first half of the movie. He looks the part, but his acting leaves much to be desired. Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper fit the bill in their respective roles. Sharlto Copley, however, steals the show as Murdoch. He has a great future, regardless of how the film does financially. The less said about Jessica Biel, the better. She weighs down the movie. Henry Czerny is a non-entity, sadly, and John Hamm's short cameo leaves one wishing he could have been in the movie proper. The cameos are fun, though, including Benedict, Schultz, and director Joe Carnahan. When the movie is really absurd, it's a lot of fun. The epitome of this being the tank drop sequence, though the cargo ship container magic trick bit is a close second. Too often, it is bogged down by an overly complicated plot, and the first forty minutes spend too much time on not one, but two origin stories. It's prime for a (superior) sequel, though. I hope it gets one. Rushmore: I have mixed feelings about Wes Anderson. I like his style of comedy, which mixes a sensibility that is visually childish with more mature narrative elements, as well as a comedic sensibility that hinges on awkwardness. But I've also grown tired with his style over the years. Luckily, this is early Anderson, and possibly his best film (though my favorite remains The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). In The Loop: This is a spin-off of sorts of a British television series about the lower levels of British politics, and although I haven't seen its progenitor, it doesn't seem to matter. All the pieces are here, and once the film establishes its pace (it takes about 20 minutes) it is really, really funny. Which might be surprising, given the subject matter (the build up to war in the middle east--probably Iraq, though the specifics are kept coyly vague), but its pulled off brilliantly. James Gandolfini is especially good in a comedic role (the highlights: calculating troop deaths with a talking pink calculator in a child's room). Tom Hollander is also good, which only makes me sadder that he was caught up in the silliness of the Pirates trilogy for so long.
Just recently saw "I'm a Cyborg, but I'm ok". Clever, quirky and very pleasant to watch. The ending did leave me a bit... *bzuh?* but over all, all of the actors turned in good performances. I'd recommend giving it a whirl.
My shortlist of anticipated films: 1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 - of course; not a BP contender, though I could see it scoring one of the bottom-five slots. 2. Hereafter - Clint Eastwood's latest. 3. Never Let Me Go - Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, plus Mark Romanek finally making another film, based on a book by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day). 4. The Town - Ben Affleck's second film as director, costarring Mad Men 's Jon Hamm. 5. True Grit - the Coens, Jeff Bridges, and Matt Damon.
137. Broadcast News [B ] 138. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [B ] 139. Robocop 2 [C-] 140. The A-Team [C+] 141. Rushmore [A-] 142. In the Loop [B+] 143. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [A-] 144. Not Quite Hollywood [B+] 145. Mallrats [C-] Star Trek II: The Blu-Ray looks lovely, though I hope for the slightly longer director's cut, which helps to flesh out things and make the editing of certain scenes smoother. There are times when it looks very low-budget, but it almost never looks cheap. Bennett and Meyer knew how to stretch a dollar and they do it well. The most glaring thing visually is the third matte painting in the Genesis cave--it's not up to the standards of the rest of the movie, and hurts the sequence a little bit. I long for the day when someone ponies up the money to have it replaced. I'd say more, but I'd like to write longer reviews of the Trek films at some point in the future. Not Quite Hollywood: This is a fast-paced documentary about Australian exploitation films from the 70s and 80s. The style is aggressive, but if ever there was a subject that deserved such a treatment, it would be the films covered herein. And despite the subject matter, there are a few films introduced that look rather promising (including Long Weekend and Dead-End Drive In). Nevertheless, there's a lot of reverence (especially from Quentin Tarantino, who is prominently featured) for films that appear to be pretty awful, even when reduced to short clips. Mallrats: I've only seen this film once before, and until now I hadn't seen it in this extended version (it's about 30 minutes longer than the theatrical cut). It still isn't any good, but there are enough moments of brilliant verbal exchanges that the entire experience is both passable as entertainment, and frustrating for the film's unrealized potential. The characters of the Jay & Silent Bob films have always been better on smaller budgets (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Clerks II), so the bigger budget of this studio film doesn't help.
Updates (in bold): Aliens in the Attic (6)Armored Trooper Votoms: Big Battle (7) Armored Trooper Votoms: Roots of Ambition (8) Armored Trooper Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder (8) Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files: The Movie (7) Boondock Saints (10) Boondock Saints: All Saint's Day (9) The Book of Eli (8) Cargo (7) Cencoroll (8) Les Chevaliers du Ciel (8) Clash of the Titans (2010) (8) Crazy Heart (6) Dante's Inferno (2010) (7) Date Night (7) District 9 (8) Eden of the East: The King of Eden (9) The Edge of Darkness (9) Evangelion 2.0: You Can [Not] Advance (9) The Fantastic Mr. Fox (8) G-9 (6) Gamer (6) Green Zone (7) Higurashi no Naka Koroni Chikai (7) Inglorious Bastards (7) Iron Man 2 (9) Jonah Hex (6) The Killers (6) Law Abiding Citizen (9) The Lovely Bones (6) Lupin the 3rd VS Detective Konan (7) Naruto Shippuden Movie 3 (8) Oblivion Island (6) Oldboy (9) Pandorum (7) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (8) Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind (8) Summer Wars (9) Sword For Truth (6) Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen (8) They Were 11 (9) The Uninvited (7) Wicked City (8)
137. Broadcast News [B ] 138. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [B ] 139. Robocop 2 [C-] 140. The A-Team [C+] 141. Rushmore [A-] 142. In the Loop [B+] 143. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [A-] 144. Not Quite Hollywood [B+] 145. Mallrats [C-] 146. North by Northwest [A] 147. Chasing Amy [A-] North by Northwest: This remains my favorite Hitchcock film. It's certainly the high point when it comes to films about innocent men wrongfully accused. It's also, in many ways, a prototype for the James Bond film series that would come later. The plane chase, for example, being rather obviously borrowed in From Russia with Love (except with a helicopter). I'm amazed at how good the dialogue is, because it's taken four or five viewings for me to notice just how much rear projection photography Hitchcock employs. I'd wager a good 40% of the film uses it. Chasing Amy: The rule is that if you slash Kevin Smith's budget, you improve his work a great deal. I'm glad Harvey Weinstein (a rare statement on my part) chose to give Smith so little to make this film--it's only better for not having as many toys as Mallrats. And the use of Jay and Silent Bob feels appropriate. They get one scene, and it's an important one (and it makes fun of the previous film in the series), but they don't overstay their welcome. A few beats reach for the melodramatic (Affleck isn't the strongest actor in the world, though he mostly holds his own), but the film feels honest, for the most part. A bigger budgeted film certainly wouldn't have the same ending.
It's not art by any means, but Mallrats was still funnier than 90% of comedies made in the past 10 years. (I didn't notice it having a budget, either.) Some of it's forced, the teen girl documenting her sexual activities is like some adolescent's idea of a character (Jay and Silent Bob are, too, but at least are more likely to exist). On an unrelated note, the dollar theater near me closed abrubtly, meaning I'll be seeing a handful of movies at the theater now. Crap on a stick!
Movies Seen in 2010 Duplicity - C- The Hurt Locker - A Moon - A The Princess and the Frog - B Crazy Heart - B+ Julie & Julia - A- A Serious Man - A Fargo - A The Blind Side - B- The Informant! - C The Big Lebowski - A How to Train Your Dragon 3D - A Iron Man 2 - C- The Men Who Stare at Goats - D- Toy Story 3 - A+ Knight and Day - B+ Sometimes you just want a fun summer movie where you can just be entertained, and not having anything deep. That's what I would say Knight and Day was. I like both Diaz and Cruise, and they make for a great couple on the screen. It was a great action movie and just plain fun. The plot was decent but the strength of the movie was Cruise and Diaz and the great chemistry they both shared.