Wanted could have been a fun action movie, but it’s just boring and bad. Angelina Jolie is technically in the movie. However, she’s only one of several minor characters in an ensemble cast. She spends most of her time posing under lights that make her look attractive as possible. That’s about it. Morgan Freeman shows up for his multi-million dollar pay cheque too. Sometime stupid action movies can be fun, but Wanted is just a rip-off.
The Incredible Hulk is another Marvel comic book movie. The Hulk smashes the crap out of everything. Ed Norton and the rest of the cast play their roles well. The story isn’t as involving as Iron Man, but it’s done well and it’s never boring. What else do you want from a comic book movie? It’s fun for what it is.
A big ominous ugly truck comes barrelling down the highway and makes life difficult for a lonely businessman in a car on his way to a meeting. Duel is like Jaws on wheels. Directed for TV by Steven Speilberg in 1971, this 90-minute theatrical cut is nothing but entertainment. There’s no moral to the story. It’s just one long chase scene that keeps you wondering, “How the hell is he going to get away from that truck?” Speilberg takes that simple concept and milks it to the hilt. Well done.
Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fun movie if you don’t take it seriously. The first and third Indian Jones movies have stories that are fun and characters you can care about. The second movie doesn’t. This, the fourth in the series, has one interesting character (Indiana Jones), and a story that just barely pulls the action forward. But it does manage to make it over the finish line without thoroughly disappointing. There is some CGI, but it’s not distracting. There are no scary or super evil villains, but there is plenty of entertaining action. I had fun watching Harrison Ford play Indiana Jones one last time. Every other aspect of movie is forgettable.
I enjoyed Iron Man more than any super hero movie that has come out in recent years. It’s well-acted and it tells a good story that doesn’t exist just to show off special effects. Had the producers gone heavy on the CGI, it could have easily slipped into mind-numbing territory like Transformers. Instead, it’s in a league of its own, presenting us with real characters and a compelling origin story that doesn’t feel childish or cartoonish but is still entertaining and full of really cool stuff.
The sequel to the apocalyptic zombie thriller 28 Days Later. That movie, which fell a little short of being great, scared the crap out of me and is worth watching because it presents such a convincing last-man-on-earth scenario. 28 Weeks Later gives us all-new characters and then brings on “the infected” (or the zombies) in full force. It effectively re-creates the run-for-life elements of the original movie. The ending is stupid, but it’s passable, creepy entertainment.
The Forbidden Kingdom is a forgettable martial arts film with Jet Li and Jackie Chan. It’s not unwatchable but it ain’t worth watching.
In The Bank Job, Jason Statham plays exactly the same character he plays in all his movies, but he has enough charisma to keep things interesting. (I could have sworn I originally wrote more than this. At any rate, it’s a passable heist movie.)
Cloverfield is the Blair Witch version of Godzilla. Passable entertainment for what it is: a monster movie full of beautiful people running and screaming — all through a single hand-held home video. We get glimpses of the monster destroying Manhattan, but the scares and thrills are fairly tame; frightening isn’t the word for it. More like indifference. Seeing how it’s supposed to be a video tape, it would probably play just as well on a TV (i.e., it’s a rental).
Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto has plenty of blood, violence, gore. Good cinematography.
In Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood shows us the Japanese side of the story. An excellent story, though it’s almost too good to be great.
I Am Legend is one of the best science fiction movies of recent years, which unfortunately isn’t saying much, but at least it’s watchable. Will Smith does a good job playing the last man on earth and you feel for the guy. He has to fight some vampire-werewolf people from time to time, which isn’t as stupid as you might think (the CGI isn’t always the best, but it holds up well enough). Most science fiction movies begin with great potential and then get stupid and change genres for the last act (e.g., Sunshine). I Am Legend, for the most part, manages to dodge that bullet. I can imagine a more accomplished science fiction director like Ridley Scott really digging his teeth into this one. There’s loss potential here. But I enjoyed it.
I don’t like James Bond movies, but I like Casino Royale. The love story is too long, but the action is excellent.
Rocky Balboa is a completely watchable Rocky movie. Not great but not bad. I was never a big fan of Rocky. I’d say this one is the best of them all.
I am Phillip with 2 Ls! Hark! Be warned! Hearing “I am Beowulf!” ten times in two hours gets old really fast! Computer-animated humans will never be as good as the real thing! When the people aren’t real, the drama isn’t real, not for a second! My time would have been better spent playing Donkey Kong! Arrgh! (Note: I didn’t see the 3-D Imax version of Beowulf.) If it’s meant to be a dramatic telling of Beowulf, it fails. If it’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek, then it might be a good laugh. I don’t know. I don’t plan to see it again either way.
Transformers may be the worst movie I’ve ever seen. It’s not even worth the trouble of a download just to see how bad it is (unless you’re 10 years old and don’t know any better; I thought Dukes of Hazzard was the best show on TV when I was 10). Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is a masterpiece next to this.
Death Proof (Extended and Unrated) is Quentin Tarantino’s tribute to Grindhouse films and is better than the theatrical cut, though it’s difficult to qualify “better” in a movie that doesn’t strive too hard to be good in the first place (there are some unpleasant though quick gore shots). Tarantino doesn’t bring anything new to the table (the dialogue and direction are derivative of himself) — except for the car chase scene at the end which is fun and funny.
I’ve seen all of Taratino’s movies. I’ll eventually post about them as I re-watch them.
As straight up science fiction movies, Star Trek movies are kind of lame — but they’re fun if you can get into the whole Star Trek universe, and I do. That being said, Star Trek: Nemesis is a mess. Data has another evil twin? Captain Picard has been cloned? Why is this the first time we’ve heard of the Remans, and now we’re supposed to be scared of them? And how many women squirmed in their seats during Riker and Troi’s love scene? That was disgusting. It’s no wonder Nemesis put an end to the Next Generation movies.
The Gauntlet is a 1977 Clint Eastwood cop movie with a snazzy jazzy soundtrack that has Clint falling in love and on the run with a prostitute because he was set up, and I wonder who set him up? A totally lame and predictable movie, but watching the cops shoot the shit out of everything is kind of fun. Famous for the final scene where the shoot a bus up with about 10 million bullet holes. Stupid… yet classic. Also directed by Clint (before he became a respectable director).
Seraphim Falls could be titled 101 Things to Do With a Knife (watch the movie to get that joke). The first 15 minutes play like a Grizzly Adams version of 24. It’s brutal. Pierce Brosnan’s performance as a man on the run — who knows how to fight back — is outstanding. The film is mostly one long chase scene with a slightly surreal ending, but it’s the best western I’ve seen for awhile.