Movie Quickies 5/22

Quickies is a post I do every now and then to briefly talk about some movies or CDs I've experienced lately that I don't think I'd be able to come up with enough words for a full review.


Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
I'm not giving this a full review because everyone and their mother is going to see it regardless of what I have to say about it. I just thought I'd let everyone know my thoughts on the matter. First of all, it's still too fresh for me to consider ranking it amongst the rest of the Indy films so no, I'm not going to say I liked it better than the Last Crusade or less than Raiders. I will say I liked it a lot and it fits well with the rest of the trilogy. There was a car chase in the jungle featuring a sword fighting duel on the hoods of Jeeps. Crazy cool. The humor was perfect and yes, I personally think they were able to work the "weird" plot into it and still make it an Indiana Jones movie. And as great as Shia LeBeouf was, he really brought me out of the time period because I kept picturing him as Sam in Transformers. The return of Karen Allen was wonderful but there wasn't nearly enough Cate Blanchett. She was severely underused. All in all, though, a worthy (and hopefully final) Indiana Jones film.



The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
I was one of the few who really enjoyed The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. It wasn't an amazing movie, but it was definitely fun. And I was looking forward to something similar with Prince Caspian. I expected a better looking movie with a weaker story and that's exactly what I got. The Poseidon type guy at the end looked utterly realistic. I could have done with a lot more of Aslan and a lot less Christianity, though. Sadly, I hear the books have less and less fantasy as they continue and more regular people. Come on, Lewis. Don't you know why people were reading the Narnia books? It was for the minotaurs and fauns. And Aslan.


The Savages
This was a sincere and realistic portrayal of an ill-at-ease family dealing with a father's slip into dementia. With Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Philip Bosco, you know you're going to have really solid acting. Linney and Hoffman were so believable as siblings, that at times it seemed almost like a documentary. I'm surprised that this movie didn't do as well as it could have, especially with the cast involved. My guess is poor marketing. I expected this to be much more of a comedy than it actually was. Maybe people heard that it wasn't hilarious and they stayed away. Well, if that was you, then you should give this a shot. It's worth it.


Teeth
A horror movie featuring a vagina with teeth. Genius, right? I mean, if I was a studio exec and someone came to me and that's all they said, I'd sign off on it immediately. Well, something went wrong somewhere because this movie had serious potential and it fell flat. It wasn't bad, per se, but I had such high hopes for it. It was terribly predictable and had sub-par acting. It did have it's moments, though, and on originality alone, I have to at least give this a slight recommendation.