I feel like it's been a really long time since I've loved a movie I've seen at the theater. In fact, since Serenity in September '05, I've seen 23 films in the theater and nothing's come close to my enjoyment of that gem. This is probably just because I'm a nerd, but what are you going to do? I've seen a lot of decent flicks, but here's a list in chronological order:
A History of Violence - Well, it's violent. I guess it's supposed to be an examination of the effects of violence on the people around us, and the potential of violent acts to be seen as heroic. Pretty brutal, and other than being shocking, a little un-pointed.
Recommended? It really depends, but probably not.
Domino - No. Just... no. Tony Scott, why have you forsaken me?
Recommended? No. Just... no.
The Weather Man - Hey, a movie about a screw-up screwing up! It's a pretty dismal semi-comedy, but as I recall, I enjoyed it.
Recommended? A cautious yes.
Jarhead - It's a movie about being bored in Iraq during Desert Storm. It's not boring, though, but it's every bit as foul as I'm told the real Marines are, so take that into advisement. I thought it was pretty good.
Recommended? Again, it really depends, but again, probably not.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - It was fun, but it didn't grab me the way the others did.
Recommended? Yeah.
The Ice Harvest - I didn't really care, but I wonder how many people were pissed seeing this after the previews made it look like a romping caper comedy. It's dark (which is fine by me), not that funny, and pretty lame.
Recommended? No.
The Chronicles of Narnia - Longish, but pretty good. Didn't love it, though. I'm not getting into this one; there are people who might hurt me.
Recommended? I suppose, but I'd rather watch a Harry Potter movie.
Syriana - This is a compelling and politically charged drama, if only you can figure out what the heck is going on. I couldn't, so there you go--oil has never been so confusing.
Recommended? Only if you're in MENSA. But seriously, no.
King Kong - Much too much. Take out everything before New York and maybe we'll talk. I hear there's an extended edition in the works. This is insane.
Recommended? Not particularly.
Firewall - Why do I do this to myself?
Recommended? Heavens no.
16 Blocks - Decent formulaic buddy-type action.
Recommended? If the mood strikes. It was fair enough.
The Hills Have Eyes - A family gets killed by mutants in the desert. That's pretty much it. A lot of blood and screaming and stuff. And a dog. A serviceable horror movie.
Recommended? Only if that first sentence up there sounds interesting to you.
V for Vendetta - A movie about an individual trying to bring about freedom from the totalitarian government through terrorist acts. It's adapted from a graphic novel, and it was written for the screen by the Wachowskis, which means there's slow motion. It really failed to be interesting.
Recommended? Not really. You might be better off just checking out the graphic novel.
Inside Man - This one came close to breaking the streak of un-loved movies, and I guess it could have, if I hadn't forgotten about it completely when I was getting ready to write this. It was a pretty twisty movie about a bank robbery that ended up being pretty darn engaging, but not so memorable, I guess.
Recommended? Definitely.
The Sentinel - See Firewall.
Recommended? Don't do this to yourself.
Silent Hill - Good visuals in the movie, but where it was perhaps attempting to be scary or creepy, it only managed to be gross. Also, are there any female cops ever in movies who aren't butch hardcases?
Recommended? No.
Mission Impossible III - Pretty decent. Philip Seymour Hoffman didn't get much of a chance to be his awesome self in this, though. Also, I might add that there were no motorcycle pirouettes, which is a vast improvement.
Recommended? Why not?
X-Men: The Last Stand - Um. This one, I've decided, was neither good nor bad. I just didn't care one bit, and the story they used sort of required some investment to work at all. Pretty unmemorable.
Recommended? No thanks.
A Prairie Home Companion - A sweet little movie about Garrison Keillor's radio variety show. It's less plotted and more a collection of moments, but it focuses on the impending demise of the show and the effect on the people involved. Also, an angel. This makes me want to watch more Altman movies.
Recommended? Yeah, in the right group or by yourself.
Nacho Libre - Well, it's no Napoleon Dynamite, but that's a good thing, I think. Pretty amusing in spots, especially if you see it with my brother.
Recommended? If you can get my brother to come over.
Superman Returns - Overall, a decent movie, but I had a couple issues with it. It was long, and felt like it. It didn't seem like there was a whole lot of, you know, Superman in it. And, while the idea of having very little in the way of actual superheroey fighting can be pulled off (see Unbreakable), I didn't feel like it worked here, especially in a summer "blockbuster" like this. Also, please deconstruct my heroes more.
Recommended? Yeah, but don't expect typical (maybe that's good).
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - I wanted to watch the first movie again before seeing this, but I didn't get around to it. I still enjoyed it, but three years between the two may have affected my appreciation. Awesome action setpieces abound, including a swordfight on a runaway watermill. Davey Jones' and his crew were pretty fantastically conceived and implemented. I may enjoy this one more if I see it again after a refresher, but suffice to say it didn't break the curse.
Recommended? Almost certainly.
A Scanner Darkly - Rotoscoped animation combined with a sci-fi addiction story equals decent. I was worried going in, because Linklater has a tendency to let things get out of hand in a conversationally philosophical direction, but it ended up moving along at a pretty good clip. Definitely not great, but there's some interesting stuff in there.
Recommended? If you bring your thinking cap.
And that's it for the mostly good but not great movies I've seen in the theater since Serenity. I must say that if I had seen Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang in the theater, this list would have been much shorter, but alas, it was viewed on DVD. That is a definite recommendation; Hollywood noirish goodness that is quite hilarious.
Also, there's an impending DVD release that might have shortened the list if I could have seen it anywhere. I am ridiculously stoked for Brick, which will be out on DVD on August 8th. It just looks awesome, and I'm trying to lower my expectations so I don't get demolished by reality.
And so that's the end. Hope I didn't waste too much of your time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I haven't had much time to see movies, what with a new baby and all. But I've seen a few on your list. Here's what I think:
First, I loved Inside Man. It almost achieved true greatness, but not quite. Denzel is not my favorite actor, but I thought he was actually decent in this. Also, it was a Spike Lee movie (aka "joint") that was actually worth watching. I think the thing that made it less than it could have been was the powerful-white-people-pulling-strings-behind-the-scenes motif (Jodi Foster). The free podcasts on iTunes were fairly interesting, too.
Syriana: Well, I can't get into MENSA because they only care about mathmatical intelligence and I don't have any of that. But I liked this movie. It wasn't great though; no Inside Man, that's for sure. I knew going in that there was no overall plot structure to this movie, just loosely connected vignettes. I think the point is to show how complex the problems of big oil and goverment are. That was my take away, at least. I think it was refreshing not to feel like Hollywood was preaching at me so much. The more inductive, subjective point was appealing to me. But it does get confusing; no doubt about it. The best parts are in the trailer, especially Matt Damon's speech to the Arab businessman.
Firewall: I liked this too, believe it or not. Yes, it was formuaic and (therefore) predictable. But it was visually interesting. And I love the scene where the girl goes to church to get that guy's cellphone. They had a contemporary worship team leading a racially integrated congregation in a vacuous Jesus song wtih a semi-African-American singing style. Hollywood's understanding of Christianity is so cliched. I'm sure this scene was designed to make you laugh. I certainly laughed, but probably not for the same reasons as the filmmakers. On the DVD extras, there is a an interview with the director and Harrison Ford. It becomes pretty clear that the director was in way over his head and Ford did what he could to rescue this movie from total disaster. The real point of this movie, of course, is that bad things will happen to you and your family if you use Dell PCs and servers running windows.
Thanks for the comments. I really did enjoy Inside Man but the fact that I forgot about it kinda threw me. And Syriana I can't really budge on, but I think that the problem was that the whole was less than the sum of the parts: the performances were excellent (Clooney and Damon, as you mentioned) and the visuals were well done and interesting, but I just felt like it didn't add up.
I would like to point out that I am, in fact, writing this blog from my Dell PC at home, and Paul Bettany has not invaded my home nor has he blackmailed me. So there.
Post a Comment