Displaying Category: Rating_4

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

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

I fuckin' loved it! This movie felt a lot like the TV show 24, except not in "real-time" and instead of CTU and FBI agents, it follows a group of reporters trying to find the story behind a series of murders and turn up a Capital Hill scandal. State of Play is set entirely in the DC metro area, and they did everything they could to capture the feel of DC from the often icky weather to people drinking out of Redskins mugs, to high profile locations like Chinatown, the Kennedy Center, to Crystal City. It was fun to recognize these locations, not only in name, but for them being real locations. Scenes filmed in the Rosslyn Metro station. I recognized an exit of 66. Obviously we all know the Kennedy Center... That's all well and good, but what all these things, in such casual settings, does is lend credibility to the these characters as residents of this city who know it and love it. It felt whole, not like other "DC" films where there's a couple helicopter shots of the capital and drive over a bridge and maybe a shot outside the Capital. They used the DC Metro, not the LA subway. They walked the walk, you know?

The plot was compelling and the action felt well-paced. I was actually shaking throughout the movie because it all had me so worked up. I was into it and I was buying it. In fact, I was completely sold. This movie won't get a perfect five because the twist at the end kind of stole a little bit of the satisfaction I was anticipating and because almost nothing gets a five, but it was really an excellent excellent flick.

4/5

A warm hearted feel-good R-rated summer romantic comedy featuring young people (well, early 20's) drinking, smoking lots of weed, and trying to enjoy the worst summer job ever. It was excellent. The plot was predictable, but I never cared, I just wanted to watch these interesting characters doing things.

So here's my gripe about this movie and other movies like it. You've got this intelligent, kind of awkward nerdy guy who clearly isn't so great with the ladies, and yet... Really attractive edgy girl mysteriously falls for him. I love watching those sorts of things happen because it makes me believe it's possible, but it's kind of like believing in Santa Claus (sorry kids)... This shit just doesn't happen.

4/5

There really isn't much to reveal about this movie, if you've seen the trailer you pretty much know what to expect. That's not really as bad as it sounds. This movie isn't about plot, it's about characters. It's about how life and death impacts these characters and how cope and keep pushing forward. It's not deep in the existential sense, but there is depth. It's not especially sad or happy. Sunshine Cleaning actually manages to walk a very thin line balanced between all of these extremes thanks to some wonderful acting and some fantastic writing. I also really liked the music, which wasn't your typical theatrical scoring, but smaller and more about acoustic guitar that really matched the emotional themes in ways most scores never dream of.

The only real disappointing part happened in the restroom after the movie in which I overheard two older guys talking about the movie. One days "Well that was a waste of a couple hours!" and the other says "But at least Amy Adams was pleasant to look at." Which was at least 50% true, but made me sad that they missed out on so much more. That's okay, I'll take their portion gladly.

4/5

In short, this was a fantastically enjoyable movie. In somewhat more length, a really fun take on a classic theme mixed with some hip pop-culture references and really fantastic visuals (especially in 3D) and you have a can't miss formula for fun. /cliche

Alright, so it's basically a movie for kids with a nice soft PG rating, but like any good animated movie for kids, they've managed to inject enough adult-only jokes and references that no one in the audience should be bored. What surprised me was the "message" the movie is pushing. I was expecting something about how we should rejoice in our differentness, how there's nothing wrong with being a freak, and all that. But the message was actually more about having the strength to do what you want and being your own person and, you know, rejoicing in our differentness, etc. The main character is Susan (the ginormous woman you see in the trailers), and it's mostly about her realizing she doesn't need to be with the selfish career focused Derek that she was planning to marry. She has all the strenth and smarts and will she needs to be her own person and not part of "Team Deedle" as Derek would say. I guess an unexpected feminist breeze that I found quite refreshing presentation and overtness.

Negatives? Well, there were kids in the theater.

4/5

Big movie, lots of hype, and a blue naked guy. How could this possibly go wrong? In short, it's too good. It reproduces the graphic novel so well as to make you question what you're getting out of the movie that you wouldn't get from the graphic novel. Well obviously there's the moving pictures part, that's always nice. There's also lots of slow motion effects, which segues nicely into the other issue I have with this movie: pacing. Get some. Admittedly it's been a long time since I've ready the GN, but I suspect the pacing is probably pretty well reproduced in the movie, which is to say, the GN is probably poorly paced as well. But that's fine, you know. With a book you can always put it down and come back later and it'll seem fresh again... When you're sitting in the theater for 2 hours and 43 minutes you really have to wonder when we'll be getting to the "good parts."

All that said, this really isn't as big an issue as it sounds. I still enjoyed the movie and except for some slow moments I didn't find myself bored or wondering how much time had passed. So should you see it in the theater? Well, if you have any interest at all in comic superheroes and the gritty lives they might lead then you're likely to enjoy the full experience in the theater. Otherwise, catch it on DVD and you'll be able to pause for those bathroom breaks.

4/5