Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Movie Reviews Thread

Thought I'd revive this thread.

We haven't been to the theater as much since we got married so I've only seen a handful of movies since my last post, but I thought I'd mention a few I thought were worth reviewing.

First one I'll mention is Burn After Reading, the new Coen Brothers film. I thought it was absolutely hilarious, and a good direction for them to go after winning their Oscars for No Country for Old Men. It's a whole movie full of misunderstandings and the whole point of the movie is that there is no point. I'm not a fan of George Clooney, but I do love Brad Pitt (who was really, really funny in this) and Frances McDormand, also funny, when paired with Brad Pitt. Overall, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The next one is Hounddog, more commonly referred to as "The Dakota Fanning Rape Movie". I've been wanting to see this ever since it started making such a fuss at the Sundance film festival last year. Finally a year later, it gets a limited release across the country and comes to ONE theater in the greater Chicago area, which happens to be in the area of the city I live in.
All in all, I enjoyed the film (even though based on the reviews it sounds like I'm the only one who did). Sure there were a few ridiculous elements in there, but it had a nice southern gothic feel to it. I don't think I'd watch it again, but I'm not wishing for those 102 minutes of my life back (unlike my husband).

As for the rape scene... I have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was actually rather...tasteful, for what it was. Now please, that does NOT mean that it wasn't still disturbing to watch, because it absolutely was. I will say that I'm grateful that I knew it was coming so that I was prepared for it. If I saw that movie without knowing anything about it, that would be a different story. One thing that made it easier to watch was that the person who does it in the movie is a pimply-faced teenager. When I read "milkman" in the reviews, I pictured some creepy old guy with a sick penchant for kids. As it turns out, it was a creepy young guy with a sick penchant for one kid. Again, still disturbing to watch, but for some reason that made me feel better.

All in all, there's really a reason why this movie is referred to as the one where Dakota Fanning gets raped. There isn't much else that happens in the movie, and that scene is pretty much all that anyone's going to talk about as far as the movie is concerned. I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

On a lighter note, I'll also mention the new Frat Pack hit, Tropic Thunder. Can I just say how awesome it is that Robert Downey Jr is making such a huge comeback and broadening his acting horizons? I've always liked him. I love him more as Iron Man, but seeing him as a black guy really takes the cake.
The best part of the movie (aside from the big star cameos of Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise) for me was definitely the mock trailers at the beginning. Priceless. The other part of the movie I thought really made me laugh was seeing an almost unrecognizable Tom Cruise, fat and balding, dancing to "Low" by Flo-Rida, a popular hip hop song. I didn't even recognize him as Tom Cruise until a few seconds beforehand, and I was nearly doubled over in laughter in my seat when he started busting a move. Entertainment Weekly actually said this might be the movie that makes Tom Cruise cool again, after his somewhat controversial personal life in the tabloids and string of flop movies, and I have to say I agree. Of course the rest of the movie is amusing too. Ben Stiller is kind of hit or miss with me, but we wasn't too bad in this one. Of course though, much of my laughter was due to RD Jr.
Did I also mention Ethan Coen (of the aforementioned Coen Brothers) co-wrote this with Stiller?
I give it a 4 out of 5 because I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard in the theater. (Actually I do, and it was Talladega Nights, but you catch my drift.)

I recently saw The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. As sequels go it was okay. Honestly though I think that that was one too many I mean seen one you've seen them all (although I heard somewhere that Brendan Fraser was signed on to do 5 Mummy movies).

my poor hubby bought There Will Be Blood and by the end we were both tearing our hair out asking "what the HELL was this movie about?" We both also noticed that Daniel Day Lewis sounds a lot like Jack Palance. That's pretty much all we got out of that movie. We want our money and the time we spent on the movie back, and would like to have the director, screen writer, and producers all beaten within an inch of their lives.

On the other hand, Journey to the Center of the Earth was cute. It had hot sweaty Brendan Fraser and pretty much kept up the action most of the movie.

Looking forward to seeing American Carol this weekend.

TEEEEEEEJ

REALLY looking forward to American Carol this weekend.

I mean, Airplane director, Zucker, spoofing the pompous likes of Michael Moore... It's gotta be good.

I went to see Paeschendaele last night. Wow it was really great. I don't know if its getting an American release -- this is a Canadian movie about WWi, but it was really terrific. Took my breath away. I recommend it to everyone. Its a love story but its also about the war. We took my 12 year old son, and afterward he was very thoughtful about the violence , the war, and also about hte violence he normally sees in movies.

It's been a while since I've seen a good movie, but Stuart and I really enjoyed In Bruges last week. Very violent, but poignant too, with excellent character studies and very funny in places. I love irony. And I do enjoy a plot where a lot of seemingly disparate threads come together - in an ironic and ultimately tragic way in this case.

LabRat

Well, I haven't weighed in here, but I saw Pixar's Wall-E the other day and really liked it. Beautifully animated, and it sure contained food for thought, too.

Speaking about animated movies, the best movie hands down I have seen this year is Persepolis. It's a moving, poignant, delightful tale of an Iranian girl forced into exile in Europe. The movie is poetically, beautifully animated, and the fact that it tells the true story of the woman who has made the movie herself, Marjane Satrapi, totally suckerpunched me.

Ann

A couple days ago, my husband and I went to go see Religulous, a satirical documentary by comedian Bill Maher on organized religion and the problems it brings about. I'm not going to go into details about it because I'm not up for turning this thread into a religious debate, but I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I give it 4 of 5 stars. Bill Maher brings up some interesting points, and the film really does fall more under the genre of comedy than documentary.

I also watched The Kite Runner for the first time a couple weeks ago and loved it. It's a very powerful and moving story of a boy from Kabul, Afghanistan who is haunted by the guilt of abandoning his childhood friend. If the book is anything like the movie, I can see why it did so well. It's a really, really great story, and I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a drama so much. 4.5 of 5 stars.

I also want to offer an alternate review of There Will Be Blood. I saw this in the theater, just before it got all the Oscar buzz. I didn't want to go, it didn't sound like my type of film, but it was hubby's pick, so I obliged.

I was actually really glad that I went. The film is inspired by a book called "OIL!" by Upton Sinclair, and it inspired a lot of positive buzz and reviews from those of us that spend a lot of time reviewing and analyzing in the industry, mostly due to the acting and direction.

The story is about two different men ruled by their obsessions. Daniel Plainview, a self-made oil tycoon, and Eli Sunday, a smooth talking manipulative faith healer and leader of a small town church. Both men want power, and through both of them the film dives into really heavy themes and characterization based on power, faith, ambition, corruption, evil, and most of all, madness.

The acting is pretty incredible. Daniel Day-Lewis certainly deserved the Oscar he won for his portrayal of the oil man, whose sanity grows seemingly more nonexistent throughout the film. Visually, the director did a great job, alternating between gorgeous widescreen shots of the desert and dark, (sometimes creepy) close ups of the actors, leaving the audience with layered images of the simpleness of American landscape mixed with the complexity of the humans that inhabit it.

I admit, this film isn't for everyone. It's very slow moving, but it's thorough in its plot and character direction. But if you can handle that, I'd highly recommend taking the time to check this one out. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

I went to see Quantum of Solace last night.

Typical Bond, losts of explosions, high tech stuff, car chases etc. You can't go wrong with that, although as with last time the corn factor was sadly absent - he didn't even say Bondjamesbond!
It was written by Paul Haggis (Due South , Crash fame) and while I thought Casino Royale was more entertaining, this is still worth an 8/10. Highly recommended if this is your thing.

I saw Repo! The Genetic Opera last night. I started a thread for this movie some time ago when I first found out about it. It finally got a limited (and when I say limited, I mean 6 theaters in the whole country) release last week. Unfortunately Chicago wasn't one of the cities it opened in, but lucky for me, the director and co-creator took a copy of the film and went on a tour of another handful of cities to show the film for one-night engagements across the country, and Chicago was one of them.

From what I understand, Lionsgate (the film company) gave them such a limited release because they didn't believe there was an audience for this movie. I beg to differ. The theater was sold out last night, packed to the gills. The movie has gotten some pretty horrible reviews (namely from Entertainment Weekly and Rolling stone), but it's got a HUGE underground cult following, with very, very little advertisement and marketing.

The movie itself was... interesting. Someone on IMDB described it as "An opera that makes Sweeney Todd look like Hairspray". I say that's putting it mildly. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. Here's the summary from the other thread:

An epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Panic erupts and scientists feverishly make plans for a massive organ harvest. Out of the tragedy, GeneCo a multi-billion dollar biotech company, emerges. GeneCo provides organ transplantation for a profit. In addition to financing options, GeneCo reserves the right to implement default remedies, including reposession. For those who can't keep up with their organ payments, collection is the responsibility of "organ repo men", skilled assassins contracted by GeneCo, ordered to recover GeneCo's property by any means necessary.

So...yeah. It's bloody. It has the makings of a gothic cult masterpiece akin to 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'. It has visually stimulating (albeit jarring) direction like 'Moulin Rouge', except with the blood and gore of the 'Saw' movies. But come on... you know you want to see a movie with such a random mixed bag cast like Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Brightman, and Paris Hilton.

One really cool thing about it was that they used comic book artwork to help move along the story. It was definitely a clearer way of getting some of the plot points across (as opposed to singing, which can sometimes be hard to understand), and it was much quicker.

I'm not sure this is a movie I'd want to watch all the way through again, but I'm definitely in love with the soundtrack (And Anthony Stewart Head's voice). If you like rock music, this definitely has a bad*ss soundtrack, and you should check it out. It's up on iTunes if you want a preview.

All in all, I give it 7/10. If you like horror movies you'll definitely want to check this out.

"Repo! The Genetic Opera" official trailer.

I finally saw Get Smart last night and it was better than I thought. I had seen a lot of bad reviews, but it tried to stay close to the original series with a few basic changes.

Despite the differences, Steve Carell was ideal for Max while Anne Hathaway made for a pretty good 99. But Steve was clearly the better of the two. Too bad Don Adams couldn't have seen it.

This, along with I Dream of Jeannie, was my all-time favorite program from the 60's. I'm glad the movie wasn't a total travesty like the older Get Smart movies were, even with Don Adams.

I give this a 3 1/2 to 4 out of 5 stars.

Well, I finally got to see Prince Caspian today on Blu-Ray - absolutely adored it from start to finish. Wonderful escapism. Even though, by necessity, a large portion of the film isn't in the book, it all blends together seamlessly with the bare bones that C. S. Lewis provides.

Can't wait for Dawn Treader in 2010. Although I'll miss Peter and Susan - who really came into their own in this movie, I thought. Still, Eustace should prove to be a more than able substitute, I imagine.

The only slight disappointment was Reepicheep. I didn't think that either Eddie Izzard as the voice talent or the script really captured the arrogance and over-inflated pride of that little mouse. He needed to be much larger-than-life, much more in your face than we got. But that's a small quibble.

Also loved the inclusion of a certain villain.

LabRat

We're getting that one for our oldest for Christmas, Labby. I enjoyed it - as did she - but it was too much for DD5 [then 4] when we saw it at the theater in August, but it was the day DS got out of the hospital and I hadn't seen them for four days so she wanted to come too even though I discouraged her. She has such a gentle spirit that I knew she wouldn't do well with it.

It's been a long day and my head hurts. Which villain?

I must admit I imagine Reepicheep when I think of a 'Labrat' .

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The White Witch. I loved the scene in Aslan's How, where Caspian was conned into trying to bring her back and Edmund saved the day.

LabRat