I wanted to go ahead and review this movie before I forget it. Nathan and I went to see Quantum of Solace on Saturday, it being the 22nd installment in the James Bond series, the 2nd movie in the series restart since Casino Royale (2?) years ago. Also, I'll do a full review of Casino Royale fairly soon, seeing as how it's a slightly better movie than this one.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0830515/
The movie starts fast, continues it's pace with some minor filler plot development in the meantime, and stays action packed until the very last scene. Daniel Craig is by far the best actor to ever portray the womanizing James Bond. His aloof and cold manner is what I would have always imagined the British Secret Agent as at his best. Director Marc Forster seems to have a very different viewpoint of the series than the first 20 movies, to which I wasn't to fond of at first, but quickly grew to absolutely love the style in which they are develop and are portrayed. His James Bond is nothing short of the former super hero persona, with a little bit of human emotion thrown in the mix, although the Bond we see in this movie is much colder and perhaps wiser than in it's predecessor. The official reviews I've seen of this movie so far haven't shown it in the best of light, saying that it's a mere shadow of Casino Royale, which although it may be true, I still think this movie is very good for what it's worth. The action explodes off the screen, definitely worth seeing in theaters. The movie itself picks up almost an hour after the last movie ended and manages to incorporate most of the characters from it.
The Good: Daniel Craig is stupendous, the action is magnificant, even at the dull points I feel like I'm watching a master of his trade. Not one frame is unnecessary.
The Bad: The theme song of this movie is shitty. The supporting actress is completely overshadowed by Daniel Craig. Supporters of the original series will once again find themselves disappointed by the lack of gadgets.
Overview: 4/5 Stars. I'm being generous with this one. I feel the first one is better like I said, but that's definitely not a 5 star movie either. I feel this movie deserved more than a 3 star rating though, as I would place it above both the average official review and current user review. If you haven't seen this movie yet, go watch it. Now.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Movie Review: The Prestige
I wanted to wait until I was a little more awake to write this review, but oh well. Today's movie... The Prestige. This is another movie I own and probably my favorite movie of all time currently.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482571/
I want to start this synopsis off with a quote from the movie.
"Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"."
This movie is literally a magic trick. There's a quote on the front cover of this DVD case that says "You want to see it again the second it's over." I remember when I saw the movie in theaters, I sat there blinking at the credits for probably 2 minutes trying to figure out what happened. I've watched it probably 20 times since then and have come to the conclusion that it's perfect. The plot plays out like Memento, where it bouces back and forth between the present and past events being read through diaries. It weaves mysticism with believable reality and blends in a superb cast with little moral lessons throughout the dialogue. There's not a lot I can say about this movie without giving away it's greatness.
The Good: Everything is perfect. Acting is top notch, music is dead on, suspense is there, mystery is there and the storyline is captivating.
The Bad: There is nothing wrong with this movie, there is honestly not a second that needs to be changed. Watch everything carefully because everything that is shown is there for a reason.
Overall: 5/5 stars. Probably the only movie you will ever see me give a 5 star rating to until I find another of equal respect. If there was ever a movie I would recommend to anyone, this is it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482571/
I want to start this synopsis off with a quote from the movie.
"Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"."
This movie is literally a magic trick. There's a quote on the front cover of this DVD case that says "You want to see it again the second it's over." I remember when I saw the movie in theaters, I sat there blinking at the credits for probably 2 minutes trying to figure out what happened. I've watched it probably 20 times since then and have come to the conclusion that it's perfect. The plot plays out like Memento, where it bouces back and forth between the present and past events being read through diaries. It weaves mysticism with believable reality and blends in a superb cast with little moral lessons throughout the dialogue. There's not a lot I can say about this movie without giving away it's greatness.
The Good: Everything is perfect. Acting is top notch, music is dead on, suspense is there, mystery is there and the storyline is captivating.
The Bad: There is nothing wrong with this movie, there is honestly not a second that needs to be changed. Watch everything carefully because everything that is shown is there for a reason.
Overall: 5/5 stars. Probably the only movie you will ever see me give a 5 star rating to until I find another of equal respect. If there was ever a movie I would recommend to anyone, this is it.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Movie Review: Max Payne
I'm going to step away from movies I own for a second and switch gears back to what I really intended with this site, but before I go ahead and continue with this review I wanted to ask you to cut me a break with this one, it's almost 3am. I'm tired and it's been a pretty long week. Lost my job at Hollywood and I've spent this week frantically going back and forth between closing my store and looking for a new job (anywhere really). Long story short, Nathan and I went to see the Max Payne movie yesterday.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467197/
I'm not going to lie, I never played either of the two video games, although I had to sit there and watch people buy them for almost 3 years. I heard they they are pretty good, but both of them are almost as old as the pervious gen video game systems are now (ps2,xbox). As for the movie, I can't say for sure if it's based on one of the storylines in either game, but I think that the movie's story would have made for an excellent game plot. Unforunately, it didn't transfer smoothly to a movie. My favorite Video Game Movie to date is still Silent Hill. Despite having Mark Wahlberg (who's come a long way now since Marky Mark) and that guy Jim Bravura who I love from Prison Break, the acting in this movie leaves a lot to be desired. This makes two bad roles in a row that Wahlberg has picked up (other being The Happening.... god awful - OMG THE PLANTS ARE ATTACKING US). So basically, Max Payne's wife and child are killed. He's seeking revenge. He's really badass. He uncovers a pretty see-through scheme (it's a wonder he didn't uncover it sooner) and finds her killer, who gives away the reason he did it all (which is basically because he can), then he tries to kill Max. Max survives, takes some LSD or whatever and goes on a warpath equal to the end of the First Matrix Movie where Neo and Trinity go into that building with all those guns. It's pretty funny, if nothing else.
The Good: There was some very sick action in this movie, along with an almost interesting plot. Like I said, it would have made a very good video game plot. The music is pretty good as well.
The Bad: The major actors in the movie aren't terrible, but I'm not really sure what they had to work with. The plot twists are pretty un-needed as they lead you to believe one thing for over an hour and then shift gears completely in what comes off as a fairly lame attempt to add 30 more minutes to the movie. There are a decent amount of scenes that are unnecessary.
Overall: 1/5 stars. I'm going to make a point to give movies that really are not that good, a crappy score. I'm tired of reviews of bad movies trying to bring to light what might actually be good about them, because in the end, the fact that the movie was just overall bad should cast a shadow on any of it's redeeming qualities. This movie is bad, it's almost funny enough to watch as a comedy. It's by far, not the worst movie I've ever seen, but again, stay away from it in theaters, it's definitely not worth the 10 bucks.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467197/
I'm not going to lie, I never played either of the two video games, although I had to sit there and watch people buy them for almost 3 years. I heard they they are pretty good, but both of them are almost as old as the pervious gen video game systems are now (ps2,xbox). As for the movie, I can't say for sure if it's based on one of the storylines in either game, but I think that the movie's story would have made for an excellent game plot. Unforunately, it didn't transfer smoothly to a movie. My favorite Video Game Movie to date is still Silent Hill. Despite having Mark Wahlberg (who's come a long way now since Marky Mark) and that guy Jim Bravura who I love from Prison Break, the acting in this movie leaves a lot to be desired. This makes two bad roles in a row that Wahlberg has picked up (other being The Happening.... god awful - OMG THE PLANTS ARE ATTACKING US). So basically, Max Payne's wife and child are killed. He's seeking revenge. He's really badass. He uncovers a pretty see-through scheme (it's a wonder he didn't uncover it sooner) and finds her killer, who gives away the reason he did it all (which is basically because he can), then he tries to kill Max. Max survives, takes some LSD or whatever and goes on a warpath equal to the end of the First Matrix Movie where Neo and Trinity go into that building with all those guns. It's pretty funny, if nothing else.
The Good: There was some very sick action in this movie, along with an almost interesting plot. Like I said, it would have made a very good video game plot. The music is pretty good as well.
The Bad: The major actors in the movie aren't terrible, but I'm not really sure what they had to work with. The plot twists are pretty un-needed as they lead you to believe one thing for over an hour and then shift gears completely in what comes off as a fairly lame attempt to add 30 more minutes to the movie. There are a decent amount of scenes that are unnecessary.
Overall: 1/5 stars. I'm going to make a point to give movies that really are not that good, a crappy score. I'm tired of reviews of bad movies trying to bring to light what might actually be good about them, because in the end, the fact that the movie was just overall bad should cast a shadow on any of it's redeeming qualities. This movie is bad, it's almost funny enough to watch as a comedy. It's by far, not the worst movie I've ever seen, but again, stay away from it in theaters, it's definitely not worth the 10 bucks.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Movie Review: American Gangster
Following the trend I created in my last post, I'm going to keep going with review of movies I own and happen to like. Today's movie? American Gangster.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765429/
American Gangster is the Hollywood portrayal inspired by the true life story of Frank Lucas (Assuming the name has been changed), about a black drug kingpin out of Harlem in the 60's. Denzel Washington plays Frank, and honestly, I love this man. His acting in every movie i've ever seen has never looked anything but natural. He stars alongside Russell Crowe, who plays the detective trying to put an end to police drug corruption. I enjoy the music in this movie, and the dramatic events leading upto the obvious yet beautifully portrayed ending. This movie is flawless in terms of plot and storytelling, transitions and scripts are excellent. Every character is believeble.
The Good: I have a soft spot for outrageous plots based on true events. This movie depicts, very thoroughly, the rise of a very disciplined black man in the 60s. I believed every second of the movie as if I was watching real life events.
The Bad: Honestly, this movie is solid. There isn't anything really bad about it. It's not perfectly amazing, but it's very strong.
Overall: 4/5 Stars. Like I said, I never really give something 5 stars unless it's spectacular and brings something completely unexpected to the table, but this movie it's damn good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765429/
American Gangster is the Hollywood portrayal inspired by the true life story of Frank Lucas (Assuming the name has been changed), about a black drug kingpin out of Harlem in the 60's. Denzel Washington plays Frank, and honestly, I love this man. His acting in every movie i've ever seen has never looked anything but natural. He stars alongside Russell Crowe, who plays the detective trying to put an end to police drug corruption. I enjoy the music in this movie, and the dramatic events leading upto the obvious yet beautifully portrayed ending. This movie is flawless in terms of plot and storytelling, transitions and scripts are excellent. Every character is believeble.
The Good: I have a soft spot for outrageous plots based on true events. This movie depicts, very thoroughly, the rise of a very disciplined black man in the 60s. I believed every second of the movie as if I was watching real life events.
The Bad: Honestly, this movie is solid. There isn't anything really bad about it. It's not perfectly amazing, but it's very strong.
Overall: 4/5 Stars. Like I said, I never really give something 5 stars unless it's spectacular and brings something completely unexpected to the table, but this movie it's damn good.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
About This Blog. Movie Review: The Good Shepherd
As I recently discovered, this website is not setup very well for giving me a section to post up a description of it. I have a semi-profile thing in place, but I'd like to take the opportunity here to list what I feel my goal is with this Blog.
This... it seems, is mostly for me. Frankly, I love watching movies and I love expressing my opinions on them. I've seen so many that I feel I almost have developed a real taste for what a good movie should include.
A good movie, to me, needs more than just a lot of mindless action and bloodspilling. If any of you saw the movie "Shoot Em Up" with Clive Owen, you may or may not agree that it was a pretty entertaining movie. See, for me? That movie was awful. A good movie should include a detailed plot that makes the watcher think at least a little bit to understand it all, perhaps even leaving a few details to the imagination. A good movie will have amazing acting. I cannot stand movies where I can imagine myself in the roll. The more drama the better, don't get me wrong... I love comedies but I rarely consider a comedy as an extremely good movie. A good movie should have good music, music that matches and adds to whatever situation and finally screenplay - a good movie needs to have perfect screen play and transitions. Of course, no movie is absolutely perfect, thus some of the above is forgiveble, but there is a very fine line between cheesy and dramatic.
What I'm going to be doing in the next few entries is reviewing movies I already own that I do actually consider to be "good" movies. Today's will be The Good Shepherd.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343737/
This... it seems, is mostly for me. Frankly, I love watching movies and I love expressing my opinions on them. I've seen so many that I feel I almost have developed a real taste for what a good movie should include.
A good movie, to me, needs more than just a lot of mindless action and bloodspilling. If any of you saw the movie "Shoot Em Up" with Clive Owen, you may or may not agree that it was a pretty entertaining movie. See, for me? That movie was awful. A good movie should include a detailed plot that makes the watcher think at least a little bit to understand it all, perhaps even leaving a few details to the imagination. A good movie will have amazing acting. I cannot stand movies where I can imagine myself in the roll. The more drama the better, don't get me wrong... I love comedies but I rarely consider a comedy as an extremely good movie. A good movie should have good music, music that matches and adds to whatever situation and finally screenplay - a good movie needs to have perfect screen play and transitions. Of course, no movie is absolutely perfect, thus some of the above is forgiveble, but there is a very fine line between cheesy and dramatic.
What I'm going to be doing in the next few entries is reviewing movies I already own that I do actually consider to be "good" movies. Today's will be The Good Shepherd.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343737/
The First time I saw this movie it seemed to me like it was a spy action movie with no action. Truth be told, it's a lot deeper meaning than that. This movie follows Matt Damon's character through his life as one of the headnames of the CIA in it's birth. Really, this movie deals with the human cost of what being a head of intelligence really is. Truth, it would seem, is relative.
The Good: In my honest opinion, I believe this is Matt Damon's best performance. The drama in this movie is nearly unparalleled, which brings about why I've chosen it for one of my favorite movies of all time. The music is also a huge factor, overplaying dramatic events to near perfection. You'll rarely ever see me use cliche expressions, but Robert Dinero (Director) hits the nail on the head with this film.
The Bad: As I said earlier, if you're waiting for some action, you're going to be disappointed. Also I find the son slightly annoying.
Overall: 4/5 Stars. I doubt that you'll ever see me give something 5 stars. This is about as close as it will come unless the movie on top of being perfect has done something truely innovative.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
First Post Ever - Movie: Quarantine
Being as this is my first post ever, I'm going to go ahead and take the liberty of introducing what I'm trying to do here. You'll be able to gather a little information about me and my taste in movies from my profile, but essentially, my goal with this Blog is to provide YOU (the reader) with fair, completely opinionated, and hopefully hilarious reviews of movies. I'm going to be putting up a list of my "creditentials" in my profile, along with a few of my ideals about the current state of the movie industry to give YOU (the reader) a better feel about where some of these hair-brained reviews may be coming from. Meantime, I'm going to be rating movies in the typical 5 star format with a quick synopsis of what I thought were good and bad about each. Feel free to agree or disagree with me, it honestly doesn't matter. I consider my taste in movies to be somewhat different from Hollywood's mainstream, but hopefully what I want to accomplish with this site is to build a reader fanbase (good or bad), and share objective opinions about movies for the uninformed. I'm going to try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but as a warning, movie reviews that I do consider to be bad... MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1082868/
Quarantine is a horror movie as hopefully many of you would have gathered from watching the preview. If you're a fan of jump out scares... this is probably the movie for you. Personally, I think that movies relying strictly on the jump out tactic are lame. Now, Quarantine does for the beginning of the movie attempt to develop a plot. A News Story Team is trailing a few fire fighters (with a shakey-ass camera operater) when they get a call. If you've seen the previews, you already know that their call is leading them to some apartment building somewhere, at which the situation goes from playful to Resident Evil 1. The police (for whatever reason) and whoever else, decide to lock everyone in the building, so the camera crew, in true Cloverfield style, decides that "People have to know what happened here." and keep filming the event for our benefit. This movie at some points is VERY fast paced (which I really like sometimes), but as far as being scary, I would suggest using a different tactic than very obvious jump out situations. If I had to think of a movie to compare it to...... The Strangers (another movie that used PURE jump outs to create the illusion of horror). But in the end, with the camera style, I would say that the movie is a cross between Cloverfield, The Blair Witch Project, and Resident Evil.
The Good: The main female actress is sort of hot. This is actually a lot bigger of an issue than people think. You take a movie like Bridget Jones's Diary where I really don't care how sophisticated the humor is, I can't get past the fact that Renée Zellweger looks awful. The "Zombies" are geniunly Zombie-like (AKA: The blood looks real and they do look soft of creepy). Some of the supporting actors in this movie were really actually good. One of the things I really find to my liking is the ability of a movie and it's actors to establish other characters, which unknowingly, this movie does a good job of. Look for the vet and the fire-fighter without the mustache.
The Bad: Lame scare-tactics, very obvious plot holes and I really really could not stand watching this dumb (but slightly hot) white bitch hyperventilate for half an hour at the end. Also - the very last scene in the preview where she gets dragged away is also the very last scene in the movie. WTB (wanting to buy) an explaination or what happened, or at least some real closure. This I would consider is the problem with making movies with a handycam (although I did enjoy Cloverfield).
Outlook: 2/5 Stars. I've seen movies MUCH worse than this, but the official reviews it's received up until this point make the movie actually look like it's worth it's ticket price... which it isn't.
But enough about that. My friend Nathan and I went to see the movie Quarantine. Nathan is my movie buddy, we pretty much go see whatever random shit is playing at the theater as long as it even looks slightly entertaining and/or is playing at about the time we arrive.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1082868/
Quarantine is a horror movie as hopefully many of you would have gathered from watching the preview. If you're a fan of jump out scares... this is probably the movie for you. Personally, I think that movies relying strictly on the jump out tactic are lame. Now, Quarantine does for the beginning of the movie attempt to develop a plot. A News Story Team is trailing a few fire fighters (with a shakey-ass camera operater) when they get a call. If you've seen the previews, you already know that their call is leading them to some apartment building somewhere, at which the situation goes from playful to Resident Evil 1. The police (for whatever reason) and whoever else, decide to lock everyone in the building, so the camera crew, in true Cloverfield style, decides that "People have to know what happened here." and keep filming the event for our benefit. This movie at some points is VERY fast paced (which I really like sometimes), but as far as being scary, I would suggest using a different tactic than very obvious jump out situations. If I had to think of a movie to compare it to...... The Strangers (another movie that used PURE jump outs to create the illusion of horror). But in the end, with the camera style, I would say that the movie is a cross between Cloverfield, The Blair Witch Project, and Resident Evil.
The Good: The main female actress is sort of hot. This is actually a lot bigger of an issue than people think. You take a movie like Bridget Jones's Diary where I really don't care how sophisticated the humor is, I can't get past the fact that Renée Zellweger looks awful. The "Zombies" are geniunly Zombie-like (AKA: The blood looks real and they do look soft of creepy). Some of the supporting actors in this movie were really actually good. One of the things I really find to my liking is the ability of a movie and it's actors to establish other characters, which unknowingly, this movie does a good job of. Look for the vet and the fire-fighter without the mustache.
The Bad: Lame scare-tactics, very obvious plot holes and I really really could not stand watching this dumb (but slightly hot) white bitch hyperventilate for half an hour at the end. Also - the very last scene in the preview where she gets dragged away is also the very last scene in the movie. WTB (wanting to buy) an explaination or what happened, or at least some real closure. This I would consider is the problem with making movies with a handycam (although I did enjoy Cloverfield).
Outlook: 2/5 Stars. I've seen movies MUCH worse than this, but the official reviews it's received up until this point make the movie actually look like it's worth it's ticket price... which it isn't.
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