Archive for August, 2008

Movie Review – In Bruges (2008)

By
Dave
Published: August 30, 2008Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , ,


From the preview, I could tell I was really going to like In Bruges and when I saw it I was not disappointed. Martin McDonagh is now on my watch list because this was just my type of movie. In Bruges follows a couple of hitmen fresh off a job; there boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes) wants them to lay low for a while so he sends them to Bruges. It turns out that one of them, Ken (Brendan Gleeson), loves it and the other, Ray (Colin Farrell), truly hates it. So now how are they going to stay out of trouble with Ray being so restless.


Martin McDonagh did nore than just direct this one; he has the writing credit too. He has proven himsel quite competent with In Bruges and I hope to see more films like this one. In Bruges is a fresh comedy/crime film that truly utilizes the potential that both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have. Farrell is at his best here and oddly it involves him playing a fairly normal and down to earth person. He is the guy you are really pulling for cause he has a heart, but the last person I would normally care about is Colin Farrell’s character; whoever it is really. It turns out that Farrell can actually do a great job of making you care about his character and Gleeson adds plenty to the mix. Fiennnes is the one that seemed a little out of place, but he often places a role that is slightly out there.


The story seems fresh, but the directing of it is what really brings it to life and held my interest. There were only a couple of parts that I found uninteresting, but it is always good to have a breather here and there. There was even a good couple scenes of gore mixed into the offbeat comedy.


The Real Deal

In Bruges was more than your average pick at Blockbuster. I was looking for a comedy that was alitle different, but got more than I was even expecting. In Bruges is the kind of movie I really like; it felt unique and fresh and had comedy, crime, and was well directed and acted. The quirkiness of the film is likely to push a few potential viewers away, but if you are keeping your mind open to the unusual and aren’t too sensitive to the gore, sex, and language, then this is certainly a film to check out.


The Short Version

Raw Score: 833,192
Sharon Movie? No


Movie Review – In The Valley of Elah (2007)

By
Dave
Published: August 28, 2008Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , ,


Beautifully directed by Paul Haggis, In the Valley of Elah follows the story of a father (Tommy Lee Jones) of a soldier who is reported AWOL. Hank Deerfield (the father) is sure that his son would not leave without calling him or letting someone know, so he sets out to investigate what happened.


Tommy Lee Jones is the star of the show and he does as great job, but he is supported by other veterans Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon as well as rising stars James Franco and Jonathan Tucker. Jones plays the part of ex-military almost flawlessly and commands the screen with his slow moving, yet powerful performance. Jones won’t put up with incompetance and of course he is the smart one in the Valley. Charlize plays the police woman who wants to help, but really doesn’t sem to have the time or patience. Of course she also has the son which she struggles to parent on her own (sort of cliche, but effective). Susan Sarandon put on the angry tearfest that was required of her as the sobing mother. To be honest I do not even remember James Franco being in the film and I am not sure if that is good or bad. Jonathan Tucker holds his own with the small screen time he has as the son.


The directing and overall ambience of the film is what sets Valley out from the rest. It is slow moving (probably too slow for some), but the powerful emotion of what alomst seems a lost cause is engrained in every moment of the film. Haggis takes a few easy outs, like the poor single mom cliche I mentioned before, but overall the directing is very strong. At first it is the story that seems lacking, but as the film goes on and Jones’s acting grows on you, the film really starts to capture the emotion of it all. The film puts you in the father’s shoes and that is just where you are supposed to be to really care about the story.


The Real Deal

It has been a while since I watched this one, but I would still say it burned a decent memory into my head. I would have liked things in the film to be even more powerful, but the way the film brought you into a situation that would be difficult to understand unless you have been there, was amazing. It made me think and care about something I had not really thought much of in the past. It was original and emotional; two things I love for a film to be. I recommend for those looking for a slow yet powerful film who can handle the language, sex, and violence.


The Short Version

Raw Score: 823,787
Sharon Movie? No


Movie Review – Mama’s Boy (2007)

By
Dave
Published: August 25, 2008Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , ,


The Story

Jeffrey Mannus (Jon Heder) is a mama’s boy and is barely able to hold a job. When his single mother Jan (Diane Keaton) starts to take interest in Mert Rosenbloom (Jeff Daniels), Jeffrey will do whatever it takes to get rid of Mert. Unfortunately for Jeffrey, it seems that his mother really likes this guy. Typical pranking nonsense ensues.
Everything Else
Let’s face it, the writer might as well have waved a white flag on this one. He did not make any effort to come up with an original story nor did the dialog seem very fresh. These are the two biggest problems with Mama’s Boy, but we could tell that from the title pretty much. The truth is there was actually a decent movie behind all of the cliches if you are willing to dig for it.
Jon Heder is not surprisingly having a difficult time acting much different from his Napoleon character (I admit he did show some promise a couple of times). This was the third most annoying thing about the film. Heder really needs to work on some interesting roles that take him away from that character completely or his career might as well be considered dead already. Jef Daniels on the other hand is still trying to keep it fresh with different odd roles in dramas, thrillers, and comedies. He again does well in this one and manages to stay under the radar as far as most moviegoers are concerned; he does not get the recognition he deserves. Diane Keaton didn’t impress me, but she did not really bother me either; lackluster performance.
The laughs were there and the directing was smooth and well timed. The editing also did well with the comedy to keep things rolling pretty well. The real problem with this film was the story. If it had some stronger dialog to make it fresh I probably would have cut it some slack, but as it were; no can do.
The Real Deal
I liked Mama’s Boy a lot more than I thought I was going to, but it still wasn’t very good. We have all seen this movie before many times over in fact. The problem is that there is little room for making this story any different from the others. This is the kind of ilm that makes you want the main character to die or something completely off the wall that would take the movie for a complete 180 turn. Unfortunately, this one could not have been much more predictable.


The Short Version

Raw Score: 653,022
Sharon Movie? No

Movie Review – Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

By
Dave
Published: August 17, 2008Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , ,


Director: Dave Filoni
Writer: Henry Gilroy (screenplay) and George Lucas (characters and universe)
Genre: Animation/Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi

The Story

The background of Clone Wars is in between Episode II and Episode III of the “real” Star Wars films. Anakin and Obi-Wan are in the heat of battle as the film starts, but back at the Jedi temple Yoda and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) are working on a way to get safe passage through Jabba the Hutt’s territory. It turns out that Jabba the Hutt’s son has been captured and to get safe passage through Jabba’s territory the Jedis will have to rescue his son. Just as it seems that the Jedis are beginning to hold back Separatists and their droid army, the dark side gains control of a force field and now the Galactic Republic is in a lot of trouble. The only hope they have is for Anakin and his newly assigned Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, to shut down the force field in time. Then Anakin, the Padawan, and Obi-wan must work to get Jabba’s son safely home to gain his favor.


Everything Else

The directing was clean and the story made sense, but there was a certain amount of emotion and elegance missing that is hard to describe. Possibly it was simply the fact that we all want more Star Wars, but this is just a tease or maybe it is simply that animation dulls some of the emotion. Either way, there was something missing that made this film fail to capture the true essence of Star Wars. This felt more like the CGI in a Star Wars video game than an actual movie. Nevertheless it did give us some lightsaber action to enjoy for a while.


The battles were interesting, but I would not call them overly exciting. It is almost as if the characters that we once cared about in the regular films are not important to us here. I could not have cared less whether Anakin or the others survived and yet he is really who Star Wars is really all about. The Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, was apparently there to add some flavor and make things more interesting, but she was a tad on the annoying side. Of course I would gladly watch a film with her in it rather than Jar Jar (let’s not even go there). Mace Windu had his normal voice from Samuel L. Jackson which was good to hear, but he was not in the film very much. Along with the lack of Windu was the lack of Yoda, and let’s face it, Yoda is the coolest character. The dynamics of Anakin also seemed very off. The first two episodes and into the third episode really showed how Anakin was sort of a loose cannon from the beginning, but here he seemed to have a very good handle on himself and even taught the Padawan well. this showed a good side of him, but one that almosted seemed out f character. I would have liked to have seen a couple more hints of Anakins transition here.

The Real Deal

George Lucas just needs to give us what we all want; Episodes 7,8, and 9. The story is already there and if he did it right this time he could probably finish before he dies, but other than putting his name on stuff and making lots of money I have not seen much out of him. I thought the reason we were not getting more Star Wars was because Lucas wanted to do some smaller odder films much like his early days. Oh well, we can’t always get what we want. I just felt like Clone Wars was a tease. It could have been good if they had brought more emotion into it. Somehow they managed to make it feel more dry than the dry moments in the real films. I want more Star Wars and this stuff is not going to cut it! Clone Wars was entertaining and somewhat unique, but could have been much better.


The Short Version

Raw Score: 632,122
Sharon Movie? Yes

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Movie Review – Batman Begins (2005)

By
Dave
Published: August 11, 2008Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , ,


Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Bob Kane, David S. Goyer, and Christopher Nolan
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller/Action/Adventure

The Story

This is the story of how Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) became Batman. It starts of with some of his childhood and ties in the girl Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) and his fear of bats which ultimately led him to choose the bat as his suit. Bruce meets a man named Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) who asks Bruce to learn to fight. When Bruce returns to Gotham City which has been getting more and more overrun with crime, he decides to take matters into his own hands and try to save the city from the bad guys as Batman. Along the way he even runs into Dr. Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) who is obviously one of the bad guys.

Everything Else

Christopher Nolan takes a dying franchise in film and completely redeems it making you forget all about those last two horrendous Batman movies before it. This one starts from the beginning where it should and pretends that the others haven’t even happened. In fact this really is a remake; although it has been so long since I saw the first and second Batman movies that I really can’t remember the storyline of those.


The directing is very solid much like we would expect from Nolan as he has yet to disappoint. In the main stream audience I believe the only one that got lackluster reviews was Insomnia which I found to be very good even after seeing the original Norwegian version. Of course Jonathan is normally here to help Christopher, but for Batman Begins Jonathan Nolan left Christopher Nolan with Goyer and Kane for writing. It works well as the story makes sense and entertains; not to mention we were all wishing that someone would make a good Batman again (I had really lost hope).

The acting was brilliant even from Katie Holmes which I know people tend not to like. Obviously Bale was the star, but he has a tremendous cast behind him with Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Tom Wilkinson, and Morgan Freeman. With that cast and Nolan directing I would have been absolutely amazed if it had not been great. Basically the acting was really good, but you wouldn’t be surprised since these are all veterans.


The Real Deal

Let’s see, the real deal… um… it was awesome. I have never liked Batman this much. Although it doesn’t hurt that I am a huge fan of Nolan, Bale, and half the cast. This movie just had the right mix of drama, action, adventure, and thrills. It is sure to entertain most and it is even fairly clean.

The Short Version

Raw Score: 902,989
Sharon Movie? No

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Movie Review – Pineapple Express (2008)

By
Dave
Published: August 9, 2008Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , ,


Director: David Gordon Green
Writer: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Genre: Comedy/Crime/Thriller

The Story

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is an average guy living out his life when he happens to witness a murder at Ted Jones’ (Gary Cole) house. After witnessing the murder he runs to his drug dealer friend Saul (James Franco) cause he doesn’t know where else to go. It turns out that Ted Jones sells drugs to a guy named Red (Danny R. McBride) who sells those drugs to Saul. Ted Jones sends his goons to Red who then rats out Saul because he has the rare marijuana called Pineapple Express that Dale left at Ted Jones’ house. Now Dale and Saul are on the run, but smoking marijuana and running from killers makes for a crazy chain of events.


Everything Else

The directing of Pineapple Express was very good. The comedy and crime was mixed very well to create a nonstop comedy that never drug you into an immature and embarrassing lull as other movies like SuperBad. Seth Rogen is a really good writer and a funny actor, but in other movies he has created more immature jokes which end up not being as funny. Pineapple Express had a few of those jokes in it, but never enough to distract from the great action and crime jokes along with pot smoking jokes.

Seth Rogen does a great job as the lead Dale Denton and provides a character with enough smarts and yet enough sloppiness to entertain. Dale is a guy who has high hopes, but is too busy just getting high to really achieve anything aside from delivering subpoenas to everyone as a process server. James Franco is hilarious as the pot dealer Saul who is so high all the time that he really never knows what is going on. Although it was a little over the top and sometimes too cliche, Franco’s character was entertaining and added a strong sidekick to Dale. Other notables are Danny McBride as Red, Kevin Corrigan as Budlofsky, and Craig Robinson as Matheson. Danny was quite funny even though he got on my nerves a couple times and Kevin and Craig were great together as the goons.


The Real Deal

Most people loved SuperBad and will like compare these two movies because off Seth Rogen, but they are really different types of comedies and in my opinion Pineapple Express is a much better film. Pineapple Express puts a great mix of crime and comedy as well as Dazed and Confused or Cheech and Chong together. The best part about this movie was the lack of nasty sex jokes that plague most of the comedies these days. They were still there, but much fewer and further between. Don’t get me wrong, this movie is rated R for tons of language, violence and drug use so it isn’t for the kids. I found this movie much more enjoyable than SuperBad or Step Brothers (which was playing right after this one at the drive in) because the great jokes were much more frequent than the embarrassing dirty jokes. If I have not made myself clear, I really liked this movie and highly recommend it.

The Short Version

Raw Score: 825,393
Sharon Movie? No

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Remake: Psycho (1998)

By
Dave
Published: August 3, 2008Posted in: UncategorizedTags: , , , ,

Director: Gus Van Sant
Writer: Robert Bloch (novel) and Joseph Stefano (screenplay)
Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller

The Story

The story is just the same as the original, but with a couple of numbers and new things modernized. The girl steals $400,000 this time because in 1998 $40,000 is not that big of deal. Other than the updated cars, money, and technology, this film follows the original almost frame for frame.

Everything Else

The directing of Psycho (1998) is good if you consider completely copying a masterpiece good. Unfortunately for Gus Van Sant, the cards are not in his favor. Sant or Van Sant or Gus just tries to remake the original frame by frame with little difference to offer. In fact most of the shots are timed almost exactly the same as the original. This means that fans of the original will get nothing more than today’s actors and color picture. Although you are missing some of the classic Hitchcock feel and of course Hitchcock himself.

The acting was quite good from all of the actors involved here. I thought Vince Vaughn really stood out as doing a good job recreating the character of Norman Bates. The dialog was not changed except for those things that need to be updated like the $400,000 instead of the $40,000. This made for quite a sleeper after watching the original.

There were a few things that were changed in the new version, but they were not positive changes in my opinion. They are a little more revealing on the shower scene and leading up to the shower scene. This was one thing about the original that should not have been changed at all. They said in the making of video that they were going to change the shower scene to make it more intense, but then decided to leave like th original. Apparently they needed to watch the original a couple more times then because they made it feel completely different. I am sure it is difficult to recapture the genius of Hitchcock, but then why would you try. The new shower scene shows more blood and more nudity. This was like spitting in Hitchcock’s face.

The Real Deal

I am a little harsh here since I feel there was no need to take a film so dear to everyone’s heart and remake it frame by frame with only negative changes. The film was however quite good if you have never seen the original. As a stand alone movie (which is really how I try to rate movies) it was good. There are only a few complaints are ones that I had already mentioned. Also, some of the plot and way things go down seem less believable because there would have had to been more modern technologies to help track down people in the new films setting. Aside from a couple scenes in poor taste this film was fairly clean. Not as clean as the original and that means points off in my book. Gus Van Sant proves that adding more nudity and blood does not make a film better; I have to thank him for that at least. If you have seen the original Hitchcock classic and don’t care about comparisons then I would avoid the remake. If you have never seen either, then you should see the original as it is better.

The Short Version

Raw Score: 708,293
Sharon Movie? No

P.S. Yes it pains me to give such a high score to a film that is such a rip off, but I have to balance basing the score off of the comparison to the original and if the original had never existed. The problem is that Psycho is such a classic.

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