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.

Movie Quickies 5/12

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.


Iron Man
It was fun and worth seeing. It didn't really break any new ground, even in the superhero genre. Surprisingly, there wasn't as much action as I expected there to be. But then again, there was no real villain to fight. They did a great job making you like Tony Stark. He's a self absorbed womanizing prick but he's just so damn charming. And there was some cool moments...I guess. I just can't remember any of them. That's pretty telling. I know it's a summer popcorn movie but I only saw it a week ago. Easily forgettable. If you want a better experience, go see Speed Racer.


Forgetting Sarah Marshall
I wasn't paying any attention to this movie before it came out. Then I heard someone mention Judd Apatow's name in relation to it and my ears perked. After hearing that, I became slightly interested in it. But only slightly. I still didn't think it looked all that funny. It looked too much like a generic rom-com. And it was. As expected. there were moments that are hilarious (like the idea of Peter's Dracula puppet musical) but for the most part, this is definitely a movie you can skip.


For All Mankind
Apparently this movie is a big deal because Criterion put it out on DVD but I'd never heard of it until Netflix recommended it to me. It's a documentary composed almost entirely of actual footage of the first US manned mission to the moon. It was interesting but the best part is that Brian Eno scored the whole thing (the main reason I even bothered with it). And I discovered that one of the most recognizable tracks from 28 Days Later, Eno's An Ending (Ascent), was taken from For All Mankind. In addition to being in the movie, it plays over the DVD menu. That was a very pleasant surprise.

Quickies

Ils (Them)
Heard a lot of good buzz about this movie. One of the best horror movies in years, blah blah blah, all that type of stuff. Well, while I wouldn't say it lived up the the hype, it was still a really great movie. It knew how to scare and it did it well. Lots of suspense and the soundtrack was used to it's advantage. While this wasn't nearly as good as High Tension (one of my all time favorite horror movies), it still delivers. The French seem to be making lots of awesomeness as of late, both in the movie and music fields, and now we can add another one to the list.




Nacho Libre
A completely underrated movie. Even after multiple viewings, Nacho is as hilarious as the first time around, if not more so. Jack Black's fake Spanish accent is ridiculous but he adds the much needed flavor to this movie. It wouldn't be the same with Black. His delivery isn't yet overdone and it helps Nacho Libre quite a bit. I might even go so far as to argue that this is a better movie than Napoleon Dynamite, although it might just be due to the overexposure of Napoleon. Either way, I still love Nacho.




The Royal Tenenbaums
Another one of those movies that only gets better with age. Many would say this is Wes Anderson at his peak and that's hard to argue against. This movie greatly improves upon repeat viewings when you notice all of the little things missed previously. Like the clip of the tennis game where Richie choked, I realized for the first time that the two announcers (who aren't shown) are very clearly Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman. Perfect.




The Red Balloon/White Mane
Netflix has these two movies available on the same DVD. Apparently The Red Balloon is a classic that I'd never heard of. My wife said she wanted to watch it again because the last time she saw it was when she was a kid. I understand all of the symbolism and significance of this movie but it failed to entice. I thought it was really slow for the majority of it. The ending, however, was wonderful and visually spectacular. White Mane I liked a jot more, although I thought there was too much real life animal scaring. Otherwise, it was a beautiful movie with an otherworldly beautiful child. Kinda creepy.




Death Sentence
Silly. Not as much action as I would of hoped. It was like The Brave One without the underlying message. The violence was glorified and Kevin Bacon's character was a selfish prick. "I don't care what happens to me, just make sure my family is safe." Way to go, Bacon. Of course your family doesn't care if you die because you're such an asshole.

Quickies

In The Soup
A weird pseudo film-noir absurd comedy with Steve Buscemi and Seymour Cassel. I enjoyed it. I laughed a bit. A bit slow at times but there are definitely moments of greatness. Such as when Seymour is watching Steve try to learn the Cha Cha. Good stuff.


The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters
If you really needed one more person to recommend this movie, then I'll do it. It's fun. Even if you don't care about video games (such as my wife), it's still interesting because the characters are just so, well, full of character. It's worth watching at least once.


Bug
I've seen this before, and actually own it, but Elise hadn't seen it yet so we watched again the other night. The second time around, I definitely noticed more flaws, but I also noticed much more subtleties. It's kind of like watching The Sixth Sense again. You notice all of the signs of things about to go awry. And Michael Shannon is really great for the most part. There are times when he overdoes it a little bit but otherwise he does a good job.


The Painted Veil
This was shoot-me-in-the-head boring. Elise needed an old fashioned love story and this was the only time in 7 years that she's ever requested such a thing. So I obliged. I thought to myself, "I like Edward Norton, I definitely like Naomi Watts. This can't be that bad." And it wasn't. If you're my grandmother. The beautiful cinematography only went so far. Lets just hope Elise doesn't get these urges anymore.