Displaying Category: Movie

Your basic geek loves cheerleader story complete with geek's sexually ambiguous best friend and the cheerleader's own doltish hangers-on. In short, nothing I haven't seen already. It clearly wants to be something like Superbad, but doesn't even come close. I'm moving on.

2/5

The movie opens by explaining that the Autobots have partnered with an American military unit to form "NEST" and together, they seek out and destroy Decepticons wherever they are found. So that's nice.

Then things get stupid as we follow the daily drama of the Witwicky family and the completely incoherent relationship between Sam and Mikaela. Skipping that crap we next find Sam going autistic and possibly schizophrenic. Moving on... we see giant robots fucking up some shit. Finally, what we came here for! Actually, we got a dose of that in the opening, but now we're pushing through to the more "plot" driven fucking shit up stuff. I know, it's as weird to type that as it is to read it.

That's pretty much the extent of it. I will say, though, that I was rather impressed with the on-location work at the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum and this old relic in particular. Really, I just like location shots I recognize. So if it wasn't already clear, the movie was entertaining in that stuff blowed up real good. That's really all I care to remember.

3/5

Whisper of the Heart is a Miyazaki film from 1995 (and it shows, no cell phones, really old laptops... it's almost historical!) about an eighth grade Japanese girl named Shizuku who struggles to discover who she is and who she wants to be just as she's falling in love for the first time.

Well, when I write it out like that it seems so simple and trite, but it honestly is a really enjoyable little journey. Like all Miyazaki films, I really love the detail that goes into the world that's created in animation. It's not a huge thing, but it's like really great set dressing, it makes you feel as though there's a living world outside of the pictures you see on the screen. Flies and moths buzzing around a light at night or the papers and clothes strewn about the tiny bedroom Shizuku shares with her college-aged sister (sleeping in bunk beds, nonetheless!), the "lived in" touches around the kitchenette. It feels like a real family lives in that cramped apartment.

I also enjoyed the humorous, but honest portrayal of first crushes and the whole "boys are dumb!" and the cries from the class of "Shizuku has a boyfriend!" when a boy comes looking for Shizuku in her class and her utter embarrassment. It all seems like a game at that age, but everyone takes it so seriously. If we only knew then how serious it gets later on...

More important than the romantic elements, though, is the self-discovery that goes on. As Shizuku realizes her attraction to Seiji, she finds herself overwhelmed by the thought that Seiji has his life all worked out. He knows what he wants to do with himself and he'll probably be quite good at it and this leaves Shizuku feeling undeserving of his interest. Forget that she's only 13, she desperately wants to be good at something in order to make herself worthy of Seiji, and this drives her to write a story in a world of her own creation. While Shizuku found Seiji's drive to make violins inspiring, I can't help but feel inspired by Shizuku's drive to become a great writer.

While there isn't any particularly noteworthy action in this movie, it still feels like the audience is following Shizuku on a grand adventure as she strives to discover who she is and who she might become. I find myself drawn to the characters and I can't help but wonder how they turn out ten or twenty years down the road...

Of course, knowing we're talking about kids in their early teens, I'm sure this whole thing breaks up come next year as they progress into high school... right?

4/5

This is a fun little romantic comedy about an uptight wannabe history professor working as a tour guide in Greece. It relies on and plays heavily off of the classic tourist stereotypes including the tipsy Australians (who always have a can of Foster's in their hands), the old people, the divorcees who have sworn off men but are still looking, the overly nice Canadians, the rude Americans, and the "funny guy." It's funny because we've all seen them, it's less funny because we've all seen movies using these stereotypes before.

Everything about this movie is predictable, but I didn't care at all. It was fun and funny and had at least one really touching moment to get me all teary. The movie stars Nina Vardalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding and while I have not seen that movie, I found her sense of humor to be immediately entertaining. I like her style of humor and I find her timing spot on. I did not know that Richard Dreyfus has a supporting role in this movie, but he does, and he pretty much steals the show. He has most of the best lines and is the center of the most touching moments and is also the motivation for much of the action of the movie. That's not bad at all, he certainly pulls it off well, it's just unexpected.

It's certainly not a destination movie, but if you find yourself at a theater and nothing is swaying you one way or the other, I can say you almost certainly won't be disappointed by My Life in Ruins.

4/5

On my drive into the office this morning I finally remembered what Pixar's Up reminded me of...

Watch this video of Nightwish's The Islander and let me know if you catch any similarities.

Unfortunately, no stub for this movie. The kiosk printed the receipt, but neglected to print a ticket. That was about three and a half minutes before the movie sold out for a 7:15pm showing on a Saturday evening. The fact that this flick is still selling out a week after release should tell you something. This movie is good.

Actually, that's fairly typical of a Pixar movie, but Up definitely doesn't disappoint. I actually saw the "Disney 3D" version and it was quite nice. Like any 3D movie, the effect is fun for a few minutes, but your brain quickly adapts and while the action certainly feels more natural, you very quickly stop finding the visuals neat.

The story is pretty much pitch perfect and had me wondering what makes the folks at Pixar such geniuses compared to all the other production companies and directors and writers out there that get a hold of great concepts but consistently fail to construct worthwhile features. What made Up special to me was actually it's bittersweet application of tears. There are several very touching and, honestly, quite sad moments in the movie that I found surprising for a "kid's movie" and yet, quite effective at rounding out the overall experience. I only wish I had someone to hold hands with during a few of the more tearful scenes. The application of comedy was also effective and pleasantly humorous. Though there weren't many pop-culture references, there was a rather satisfying (and unexpected) Star Wars reference toward the end that gets doubly supported if you catch the companion reference in the closing sequence.

See the movie, it's worth it. Bring a date.

5/5

Seriously, I'm getting too old to be going to midnight screenings... Thankfully, Salvation had enough action (pretty much wall-to-wall) and very loud effects to keep me awake and engaged all the way through. In trying to explain this movie to my father, I came up with "it follows a very monochromatic spectrum." This has nothing to do with the color palette used, I am referring to the themes, events, and travel the story makes. It sticks very close to its guiding rail and plays it hard and fast. No unexpected messages in this story, no unnecessary scenes to take you out of the world. It's very focused. That's a good thing in a movie like Salvation as long as you aren't expecting anything like the also action-packed but comparatively colorful and broad spectrumed Star Trek. The reason I am only giving Salvation a 4 is because of its lack of thematic diversity. It certainly doesn't make it any less entertaining, just less colorful and doesn't give you as much to think about on your way out, so it might lack staying power when you think back on it in a few years.

4/5

Wow. I'm still trying to work out how to review this movie, which is hard because I really don't want to give anything away, but it's tough to explain my thoughts on it without detailing elements of the film. It's a challenge!

It was definitely an excellent movie, no doubt, full of some wonderful nods to Star Trek history and mythos (can I call it that?) while introducing all new elements that really worked well. I was also impressed by how emotionally moving the movie was at points. We developed emotional connections with characters that were only on screen for a few minutes (except for Olsen, who was, unfortunately, wearing a red shirt) and those connections strengthened as we acquainted ourselves with these characters we've all known since forever, but now feel fresh and different and new.

While I can't come up with any obvious flaws, the movie does follow some classic space opera cliches and revisits the common Trek plot device of time travel. That doesn't detract at all, and is actually the spark that allows for this series reboot to happen and remain believable. Star Trek was well-worth seeing... probably even twice!

Update: Still lots of fun the second time around!

5/5

I got the impression the general assumption is that this movie would suck. In fact, it did not suck. We're not talking quality cinema, but it was sufficiently entertaining.

My biggest negative comment is how two dimensional everything felt. Plot, characters, it all felt thin and none of it was moving as it should have been.

It was nice to see some of the mutants in the earlier stages, but they had such bit parts that it wasn't really satisfying. In the end, for $6, it was a wonderfully entertaining morning.

3/5

Apparently, no one has heard of this movie. That's kind of a shame because this was a fairly decent movie. As I was standing up at the end of the film I was trying to come up with some way to easily describe it and the best I could come up with is "BSG-lite for kids" which I would consider a fair compliment. A brief summery is thus: humans invade a peaceful world and attempt to commit mass genocide. As any good BSG fan knows, though, it's more complicated than that, which is good. There were several challenging concepts raised involving justification for war, torture, military coups, friends, family, loyalty, and a few others I may not have immediately caught. I was actually impressed by the breadth of topics the writers attempted to tackle in a movie targeted toward that 12 year old boy and girl segment. Oh yes, the main character of the movie is a spunky, mechanically inclined and amazingly awesome pilot who is female. Think young Anakin Skywalker with every single ounce of annoying quality vigorously cleansed from her being.

Those of you who have seen a trailer for this movie might be wondering why I haven't mentioned the focal point of all the trailers, i.e., the fact that this movie is (best seen in) 3D and features large battles between small fighter craft (mostly). Well, while that is the reason I went to see this movie, it turned out there was so much more that easily surpassed the very awesome battle sequences that they really kind of slipped into the background in terms of what the main attraction to this film actually is. I think that's a good thing. The battles were a backdrop for character and plot development, but not a focal point of the feature.

This isn't a must-see movie and if you have interest in seeing it then a DVD rental might do you just fine. Sure, you won't catch it in 3D, but you'll probably still be happy with the movie and you won't be spending $15 on a 3D feature ticket.

4/5