Film is Pwn

Pale Rider suffers from its impressive company.  You see, Pale Rider is director/star Clint Eastwood’s second-to-last Western, the last being 1992’s Unforgiven, which is in my mind (and many others) the finest Western ever made.  Years ago, when I first saw Pale Rider, it was after I’d seen Unforgiven.  While I thought Pale Rider was “good,” it was nowhere near Unforgiven’s awesomeness.

Recently, I sat down and watched Pale Rider for a second time.  After the second go-round, as a more mature and observant movie connoisseur, I feel comfortable elevating Pale Rider from “pretty good” to “pretty great.” (more…)

Rather than go to the theater and see Benecio Del Toro’s remake Wolf Man (that can wait for the DVD release), I checked out a recent AMC Channel airing of the 1941 original.

Because I’m so squeamish, modern horror films hold little appeal for me.  It’s not that I don’t like being scared from time to time, rather it is just that I hate seeing blood and guts on screen.  “Disgusting” is not the same as “frightening.”  It’s not to say that fright and disgust do not co-exist or are  mutually exclusive.

A man wanders in the woods at night, his path lit by torch, a pistol clutched in his hands as he scans the bushes for sign of Monster.  That’s scary.  The Monster burst out of the woods and pounces at the man, who, in panic, fires his gun too high.  That’s scary.  Five minutes of the Monster devouring victim with a knife and fork as the victim watches his organs used to create a shish kabob.  That’s disgusting. (more…)

I recently saw a great little independent film called Following.  Generally I tend to avoid independent flicks because, quite frankly, they generally fall into one of three categories: Pretentious, amateurish, or crap.   But, every so often, there comes one that’s different, intriguing, inventive, and the sign of greatness.  Darren Arrenofsky’s Pi comes to mind, as does Primer.  Today’s subject, Following, was the feature debut of Christopher Nolan, so it shouldn’t be a big surprise that it falls into the rare category of great indy film.

In my view, Nolan’s decade (from 2000-2009) is better than any other director working.  In that time he’s given us Memento (my all-time favorite film), Insomnia (underrated Al Pacino-Robin Williams thriller), Batman Begins (revitalized the dying franchise with a brilliant flick), The Prestiege (superb mind-bender featuring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival magicians), and the Dark Knight (’nuff said).  Nolan’s next movie is Inception starring Leonardo Dicaprio, the movie I’m most looking forward to this Summer. (more…)

Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson
Directed By: The Hughes Brothers

Just saw The Book of Eli, and I liked it.  It’s a post-apocalyptic film that feels like a classic Clint Eastwood Western.  (more…)

There are some good movies now out on DVD.  And I mean legitimately good movies, not fun-bad like Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.  I’m talking about Oscar-caliber movies that I found actually entertaining, which is a rare breed of film.  One I just blogged on is the science fiction film Moon, read about it here.  Another is the gritty, critically acclaimed Iraq war movie The Hurt Locker.  (more…)

I saw Moon last night.  Not THE Moon of course, that would require looking out the window at nighttime, and I am far too timid for such a bold action. No, I refer to director Duncan Jones’ 2009 science fiction movie of the name, “Moon.” (more…)

I would like to begin this theatrical analysis with the best kind of compliment, a backhanded one: The Hangover is one of the better raunchy, difficult-to-watch comedies I’ve seen.  I’m not a fan of crass, “Shock and Awwwww” films such as American Pie and their ilk.  The “Shock” is because the punch line is more often than not either nudity or profanity, and the “Awwwww” is because my reaction is akin to: “Awwww that is thoroughly disgusting and unnecessary.” (more…)

 Back when Sky Captain was first coming out I stared at the trailers longingly. The posters called my name and in the years since the dvds have cried out to me from the shelves. Finally, at long last, I took the time to watch it. I loved and hated it. To some extent I still love what it could have been, but then reality strikes and I hate what it actually was. (more…)

Starring: Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich, Timothy Olyphant, Kiele Sanchez
Directed By: David Twohy

A Perfect Getaway is the kind of thriller where you just know there is going to be a twist ending.  The way my mind works, when I suspect a shocking twist is afoot, I can guess what it is going to be 94.7% of the time.  When you’re playing the “who’s the killer” game, generally it is as simple as  picking the individual the movie wants you to suspect the least.  For an example of how this ending can make you so mad you’ll want to find the screenwriter and sternly wag your finger in his direction, see my review of Halle Berry/Bruce Willis’ cinematic abomination Perfect Stranger.

I ended up liking A Perfect Getaway more than enough to recommend it as a “renter,” so I’m going to be rather vague and unspecific so as not to spoil aforementioned twist. Although if you are unable to guess the twist based off the following description and my assurance that there is a twist, I will be forced to ban you from this site forever. Be warned, be warners: (more…)

2009’s big budget/big screen Sherlock Holmes movie was preceded by a subpar trailer and a thorough lack of buzz as far as I could detect, and I am an expert buzz detector.  Maybe the lowered expectations helped elevate the experience, but I thoroughly enjoyed director Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of Holmes.  (more…)

I had to see Avatar. I’m not sure I had another choice in the matter. The buzz oozing from every orifice of movie goers round the world insisted upon it. The bad news is I rarely think as highly of movies with this much buzz. District 9 comes to mind.

For starters, James Cameron is talented. Very talented. He managed to bring life to a story I saw coming within the first ten minutes. He managed to make it interesting, heartwarming and very much engaging. The world was interesting and fresh, even if the story was tired. Somehow he managed to make me look past the thousand plot holes as I sat in the theater. My mind was fixated on the Na’vi and the inevitability of their story.

Visually it was pretty significant (it’s what everyone is talking about), the use of 3D mixed with live action was impressively done. The use of CGI with live action didn’t strike me as especially great or ground-breaking but I’ve seen a lot of movies so maybe that has something to do with it. Biologically I think his world had issues. For instance, why did all of his creatures seem to be carnivores despite mass quantities of jumbo size vegetation? But that’s nitpicking. The world is beautiful, fun and fairly scientifically accurate.

I hate that this film was so socially and politically charged. I like social cause movies and when it’s done well it can really be great. I think of “Hotel Rwanda” which though it wasn’t really accurate it shined a light on a grim reality; which I think is always a good thing. Avatar though didn’t shine light on a grim reality; it was preaching to the choir. The people who agreed with the message would cheer and those who didn’t would groan or get angry.

(more…)

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng
Directed By: Clint Eastwood

I can unequivocally say that Invictus is now officially my all-time favorite Rugby movie ever. (more…)