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Glad you finally got a chance to see "World's Greatest Dad," Dell.
The ending was a little out of left field and rushed (seeing Williams' dong was a bit of a shock) but it worked.
Have you seen "Whiteout" yet?Comment
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you dont want to see Whiteout. Please give it a 0.Comment
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The Proposition is a great movie, Bromar.Comment
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9
Directed by Shane Acker.
2009. Rated PG-13, 79 minutes.
Cast:
Elijah Wood
Christopher Plummer
Martin Landau
Jennifer Connelly
John C. Reilly
Alan Oppenheimer
Crispin Glover
Plot: Man has been completely destroyed by it's war with machines. A group of dolls created shortly before this that have been given life, is the closest thing to humanity left. Each is known only by a number, and appear to be made of burlap. Together, they try to overcome what man couldn't.
The Good: It's an interesting take on a post-apocalyptic world where man vs. machine has technically become machine vs. machine. The overally dusty look works well and aids in the mood of the story. The moral dilemma of whether to run and hide or stay and fight is played quite nicely. On top of those things, we get excellent visuals during the many chase sequences.
The Bad: At only 79 minutes, it doesn't seem to fulfill it's potential. So much more could've been said and done. It's PG-13 rating ensures that it's not strictly for kids so worrying about the audience's attention span shouldn't be an issue. Therefore, it should've been free to expand it's world, situations and relationships, becoming a serious epic. Instead, it ends and leaves us feeling like it pulled it's punches.
The Ugly: We get perhaps the most menacing use of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, ever.
Recommendation: First, don't go in thinking this is another cuddly kiddie flick because it's not. Though the creative minds behind The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride are producers, Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, don't even think this is in a similar vein to those. This is not a musical and is a rather humorless affair. That said, it is a fascinating watch. I just wish there were more of it to see and absorb.
The Opposite View: Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
What the Internet Says: 7.0/10 on imdb.com (2/1/10), 57% on rottentomatoes.com, 60/100 on metacritic.com
MY SCORE: 7/10Last edited by dell71; 02-02-2010, 02:55 AM.Comment
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Hmph. I just saw To Save a Life Saturday and Year One and District 9 last night.
Really impressed with D9. I don't know why people didn't like Year One... It wasn't quite Life of Brian, but my mom compared it to Mel Brook's History of the World.
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Up in the Air
Directed by Jason Reitman.
2009. Rated R, 109 minutes.
Cast:
George Clooney
Vera Farmiga
Anna Kendrick
Jason Bateman
Amy Morton
J.K. Simmons
Melanie Lynskey
Sam Elliot
Plot: Ryan Bingham's (Clooney) job is to travel around the country firing people. However, he faces an uncertain future as his company considers taking him off the road.
The Good: George Clooney has entered the rarefied air of Pacino, DeNiro, Nicholson and Washington. I mean, his persona and presence is so overwhelming that he seems to be playing himself in every role but it still works perfectly. He simply dominates the screen, commands you to look at him and compels you to root for him, even when we know we shouldn't. This quality combines with an outstanding script to make the movie work wonders. It vacilates between funny and sad to create empathy. Clooney isn't alone in excellence. His two female co-stars, Farmiga and Kendrick are both great, as is Jason Bateman as Clooney's boss. Still, it's the series of firings that ground the movie, with two that particularly stand out. One is the first victim of the company's new technology. It's a jarring look at the coldness that advancing technology can often bring with it. The other is a brief but powerful cameo by Tamala Jones (Daddy Day Camp, The Brothers, The Wood) that literally haunts the movie.
The Bad: As much as it plays on our economic fears, it still manages to largely avoid real issues of recession. It's present but our characters are not only above it all, but seem almost totally unaffected (aside from their occasional sympathy). Yes, what the company is considering is a cost-cutting measure but it's more the natural evolution of a business that's thriving. Therefore, it can come across as insensitive, at times. Finally, near the end, our hero begins to make a grand gesture for one of his sisters. However, we never see how that plays out and are robbed of a potentially great moment.
The Ugly: Natalie (Kendrick) repeatedly calling Ryan and Alex (Farmiga) old.
Recommendation: 2009 gave us two movies essentially about hopeless womanizers and the path to loneliness that the playboy lifestyle really is, this one and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past*. If that premise appeals to you, see this one and skip that one. That is, if you're looking for something that handles the subject with both humor and maturity. If you desire to see something zany with more eye candy...and stupidity, then go for the other one.
The Opposite View: Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York
What the Internet Says: 8.0/10 on imdb.com (2/1/10), 90% on rottentomatoes.com, 83/100 on metacritic.com
MY SCORE: 9/10
* As of 2/1/10 I've seen Ghosts of Girlfriends Past but haven't yet posted the review, which I should do sometime this week.Comment
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Give that movie a 4/10, for making the playboy lifestyle look good and then saying it's bad.Comment
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I felt like the ending of 9 came out of nowhere. I was very dissappointed that it ended like that.Comment
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I Love You, Beth Cooper
Directed by Chris Columbus.
2009. Rated PG-13, 102 minutes.
Cast:
Hayden Panettiere
Paul Rust
Jack Carpenter
Lauren London
Lauren Storm
Shawn Roberts
Alan Ruck
Cynthis Stevenson
Pat Finn
Plot: Valedictorian Denis (Rust) professes his love for head cheerleader Beth Cooper (Panettiere) during his speech at graduation. Hijinks and shenanigans ensue.
The Good: The speech that opens the movie is genuinely funny. Our hero overcomes insecurities and calls out a number of classmates on a grand scale. Along the way, the rest of the movie has it's moments. There's also little denying the charm and sex appeal of our star, Hayden Panettiere. Essentially, this is the movie's real premise and carries it as far as it can go.
The Bad: There is a flip side to having Panettiere in a movie like this. It wants to be a raunchy, over the top teen sex farce. The problem is, in order to capitalize on her popularity with people who know her from Bring it On or TV's Heroes you have to tone things down a bit. What we get is pseudo-raunch that the film is only clever enough to overcome on a few scattered occasions. And will this girl ever tire of playing cheerleaders?
The Ugly: Our two female sidekicks, Cammy (London) and Treece (Storm) simultaneously licking the cream from a Suzy Q. Um...nice.
Recommendation: It's one of those movies teenagers, particularly horny boys, will appreciate more than anyone else but even they won't think it's better than average. For the rest of us, it falls well below average with it's laundry list of jokes recycled from other movies, "almost" nudity and overall predictability.
The Opposite View: Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
What the Internet Says: 5.1/10 on imdb.com (2/2/10), 15% on rottentomatoes.com, 32/100 on metacritic.com
MY SCORE: 3.5/10Comment
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the problem they had with Beth Cooper is Hayden isnt very hot, and you gotta dig how they got a 30 year old dude play a high school graduate.Comment
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Fame
Directed by Alan Parker.
1980. Rated R, 134 minutes.
Cast:
Irene Cara
Eddie Barth
Lee Curreri
Laura Dean
Gene Anthony Ray
Antonia Franceschi
Debbie Allen
Barry Miller
Albert Hague
We follow a class of students through their four years at New York's School of the Performing Arts. This is a bit of an oddity for a musical. At it's core, it's pure Broadway. We get big production numbers that break out anywhere, complete with infectious choruses and highly choreographed dance routines. What makes it different is it's wrapped in a truly gritty, urban package that movies like West Side Story and Grease can only feign. This is channelled most effectively through the remarkable performance of Gene Anthony Ray as the talented but troubled Leroy. Then pop-star Irene Cara received top billing, even singing two Oscar nominated songs from the soundtrack. However, it's Ray who is the real star. In fact, of the students, he was one of the few allowed to reprise their role for the long-running Fame TV series which followed (a number of the instructors did the same). Adding to this is the very real possibility most of the kids we're watching will utterly fail when it comes to achieving their dream of becoming rich, famous entertainers as there are reminders of this everywhere around them. Still, it steers clear of becoming the total agent of despair and desolation it's urban musical successor Rent turned out to be. It strikes a nice balance betwee hope and reality. I'm not much for musicals, but this is one of my faves.
MY SCORE: 8/10
Fame
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen.
2009. Rated PG, 107 minutes.
Cast:
Kay Panabaker
Naturi Naughton
Kherington Payne
Asher Book
Anna Maria Perez de Tagle
Walter Perez
Megan Mullally
Charles S. Dutton
Debbie Allen
We follow a class of students through their four years at New York's School of the Performing Arts. Any movie that happens to be a remake automatically sends up red flags. Before you even start watching this one, even more than normal go up. It's a PG-rated remake of an R-rated movie and is nearly a half-hour shorter. To me, this screams that it's a stripped down, scrubbed up but ultimately too thin version of the original. Well, that's precisely what it is. It maintains the original's hyper-kinetic energy through it's song and dance routines and may even be better at that aspect. It also manages to have intriguing classroom scenes. In fact, the scenes of teachers teaching are the best in the movie. This is particularly true of the acting classes taught by Mr. Dowd (Dutton). What it lacks is the ability to create any connection between the students and us, the viewers. It both needs and wants us to. However, instead of nurturing that relationship it just bounces along from one melodramatic scene to the next, showing us what happens but never making us feel it. It doesn't help that the students are largely the same on graduation day as they were when they were first auditioning to get into the school. Denise (Naughton) is a notable exception. This is where those extra 30 minutes could've come in handy. They could've been used to fully immerse us in their world rather than leaving us on the outside as it does. In that respect, it's much like 2008's Cadillac Records. It's a movie about people who pour their heart and soul into their craft, but it has no soul of it's own.
MY SCORE: 5/10Comment
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Personally, I disagree with you about her hotness. I think she is. More importantly, lots of guys in the target audience do, as well. Then again, even if she was butt-ass ugly, the movie has more problems than her.
And he's hardly the first old guy to play a high school kid. Think about Grease. Everyone in that movie was damn near 30 when it shot. And don't even get me started on 90210 (the original show).Comment
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