Tag: review

It’s been a while since I have posted a review on this blog. It seems that the last thing I told you guys that I have seen was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s also been a while since I posted anything. I have seen some movies since last month and also read a book. So my movie viewing habit continues unabated and my quixotic quest continues slowly but surely. Here’s the ratings for the last thing I saw and read.

The Dukes of Hazzard 2 of 5 stars. (I would’ve given it 1, but there was some funny business with an armadillo helmet and Sean William Scott carried the day)

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A- (You know you like a book when at the end you wish you could learn more about the characters. This deserves a longer review and/or a discussion.)

Tim Burton’s version of Roald Daahl’s Charlie and The Chocalate Factory was an unexpected pleasing movie. Very different than my childhood favortie Willie Wonka, yet eerily similar. Plot very much the same. Supposedly, Tim Burton’s film hewed to the book much better. The most striking part was the music. The lyrics are directly from the book, but the backing rythms are today. I didn’t like it. I missed the campy oompa loompa songs of the earlier one. Danny Elfman is really becoming an annoying composer.

3 of 5 stars.

Fantastic Four 2 of 5 stars. Action with no action. Should’ve stayed in the 60s mileaux. Although Jessica Alba is hot.
Dark Water 2 of 5 stars. Boring. Not scary and the story is predictable.
Wedding Crashers 3 of 5 stars. Funny, but thinking it over it is just not that great.

Tom Cruise is a good actor. The Steven Spielberg’s version War of the Worlds not so good.

I wondered why make a remake anyway when it is so like the 1950s version.

I hated the fact that what was added to the story was the father healing his family and saving his imperiled children. It did not help that Dakota Fanning was one of the kids in danger. Everytime she was threatened I was rooting for the aliens.

Same lame virus ending.

2 of 5 stars.

Oh, yeah, I forgot. I saw Lords of Dogtown last week also. Shows how memorable the movie was.

Watching it I kept waiting for one of the skaters to pop a backside kick flip 360. Alas, they were still sidewalk surfing. I loved the pool scenes. Jay Adams must be one fucked up dude. The actors were second rate.

3 of 5 stars. It made me want to skate.

That title should properly be George A> Romero’s Land of the Dead. Yes a new movie from the zombie master himself. And to distinguish this one from the other copy cats, the zombies return to their slow ways. If you ask me that is more scarier.

“Look a zombie!”

(minutes pass)

“Raarrr”

I don’t understand the appeal of zombies. Are they scary? If they’re as slow as Romero’s version. I think I can run away from them and I do a 5.5 forty! The movie was alright, but nothing special.

How come we have to have a zombie revival everytime some nut Republican is in the White House? Is it because we are all mindless scum to have put them in power?

3 of 5 stars.

I was first in line for Herbie: Fully Loaded, because I am a fan of Lindsay Lohan. And that goes way back to when she did The Parent Trap and Life Size. She’s a much better actor than the other teen divas her age. She also so over.

As much as I wanted to love Herbie, it was a terrible movie. It got good reviews in the NY Times an Baltimore Sun, but I think those were written by people who brought their kids.

NASCAR ruined Herbie. I just could not believe that a VW bug can compete in that race. Plus the wacked out hijinks of Herbie do not make sense in a race that goes around in circles. Climbing up buildings or flying through the air is perfect in a rally race. Wall riding the fence at a NASCAR race not so much. Lame. Damn you NASCAR why did you kill the soul of Herbie.

Lindsay was okay in it. Catch it for that, but don’t think too much of it.

2 of 5 stars.

I was never a big Batman reader when I was actively reading comics. Perhaps, it was because I was a Marvel guy and always thought of DC Comics as the home of the SuperFriends cheese. I never even read Crisis on Infinite Earths until the late 90s.

Well, I caught Batman Begins last Wednesday. Let me tell you, I don’t even know what issue was this story line from. It certainly is from the post Frank Miller/Dark Knight Batman. Was this Detective Comics? Or Batman proper? Or maybe it is Year One? Am I getting this right you Batman fans?

Anyway, I liked the movie. Less campy than Tim Burton’s version. More dark and realistic which gave it a different tone.

Problems occured when the action was filmed too close. I could not understand what was going on. Also, Katie Holmes should stick with being Dawson’s girlfriend. She was too light and unserious for this film.

3 of 5 stars.

Let me just say right off the bat, the reason you should see this is (if you’re male or as a female into this type of thing) that Angelina Jolie is real hot in this. For me, I never really found her hot. I mean she is very smoking, but she was never my type of woman. Plus, the weirdness with her brother and being Billy Bob Thorton’s ex was a turn off. Except seeing her in this. She was hot. I think it was the fact that her cover was some sort of IT/helpdesk worker. Where are these hotties in x1861? Anyway when she wears office wear, smoking!!

The movie overall was not bad. I am giving it a high rating because 1) Angelina Jolie 2) Doug Liman, the director. I am a fan of Doug Liman. Swingers. Bourne Identity. I definitely noticed his style throughout this flick.

I originally wrote this movie off. The trailers and television commercials seemed to show the entire thing. Married couple with a mediocre marriage are hired to kill each other. The try, they fail, they gang up on those who want them dead, and fall in love all over again. Yes and no. I was pleasantly surprised on where the story went. Taking twists I wasn’t expecting. I like that it challenged my original idea and made me like the story.

4 of 5 stars.