Movie viewers this past weekend were treated to a teaser of one of the most anticipated movies of 2007.
The only words I can think of to describe it is “Holy god!”
Category Archives: Movies
Cars
What is about a Pixar animation that just puts it head and shoulders above the rest?
The previews leading up to the new hit Cars explained it all. Having Cars collowing previews for films like Barnyard and Open Season probably did more damage than good for those films; especially considering that last two things to play were Pixar and Brad Bird’s (Iron Giant) Ratatouille and a Pixar short film, One-Man Band.. These two, let’s call them animated shorts, showed off the power that Pixar has to offer.
With that said, Cars was visually stunning, but the story, well, it had a little lacking.
X-Men: The Last Stand
There’s a special place in my heart for comic book movies. With the right director, they can take an otherwise outrageous comic and turn it into something that makes you think, “Yeah, I can buy into that.” Sam Raimi’s doing it with the Spiderman movies, and Bryan Singer did it with the first two X-Men. Fear set in when Singer stepped aside to put new life into the Superman franchise, and Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1 & 2, The Family Man) took over the helm. Visions of Joel Schumacher ruining Tim Burton’s Batman movies started dancing in my head.
Capote (2005)
Capote
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
I must confess at the start of this review that I went into this viewing expecting the best. I think that Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the best actors working right now, and find his performances enjoyable even in less than stellar movies. I also, generally, enjoy Catherine Keener, and I had heard that this movie was a knockout.
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United 93 (2006)
United 93
A real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
If you have not yet seen this movie – go.
If you have already seen this movie – go again.
If you are afraid to see this movie, don’t be. It is very respectfully done, very moving, and very palatable. This is not an action movie interpretation, it isn’t presenting any specific viewpoint, yet you do get a sense of all the things that went wrong and just how complacent we were. Just how complacent we are becoming again, BTW.
This isn’t a good movie for children, not because of the subject matter but because of the pacing. There isn’t a lot of overt violence to scare them and bad language is minimal. The movie, however, is presented more or less in real time and so young viewers, with no idea of what is unfolding, will be squirmy. For teens, it is a good movie to see, though their level of interest will be directly proportional, I imagine, to their knowledge of the events of 9/11.
For those of us who remember that day, the violence will be mostly in your memories – not on the screen. He does show us the towers burning, and we hear about the Pentagon being hit, but the focus is really on what is happening on flight 93 and with the military, ATC and FAA workers trying to deal with the unfolding tragedy. I found myself tearing up at times that I wouldn’t have expected – and not tearing up during the scenes you would expect to elicit the most emotion.
Really, truly – no matter where you stand politically, you should see this film.
When I say to GO see this, that is exactly what I mean – in a theater with a crowd of people. The experience is compelling. I have never been in a theater that was so quiet through an entire movie – not even candy wrappers crinkling. When the film ended and the lights came up, you could see in the faces of the other patrons the fear and the sorrow and the pride and the questions…
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 91%; Users 89%
King Kong
Caught an early showing of King Kong Friday night, and I went in with seriously low expectations. I am sick of Hollywood’s insistence on remaking movies rather than showing a smidgen of creativity and perhaps giving us something original.
Peter Jackson has given us a most excellent film. This is the movie they will use as justification for all the crappy remakes, past and future. This movie will make other directors think they, too, have what it takes to furbish a classic.
Beautiful. Stimulating. Heartbreaking….Outstanding. And what an amazing job they did with Kong – I can’t imagine there was anything else this year that will come close for the effects Oscar®. They really need to come up with an award for Andy Serkis whose work here as the giant ape, and as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies, is integral to the success of our experience – and outside the scope of traditional Academy categories.
I have only a few small complaints:
- Too long. I am not the first to say this, but I definitely agree. It didn’t really need to be 3 hours long; a full hour is gone before we even get a hint of Kong, a lot of time is spent on developing characters we don’t really need to know, and some of the loving homage to New York in the 30’s, though impressive, is not needed (can’t believe I am advocating taking that out).
- Too scary for the little ones. There were several families in attendance with small children. People, this flick is rated PG-13 for a reason, in this case because of the violence and scary monsters. Think of the bits you know will be in the film, the giant ape, the dinosaurs, the screaming damsel – then realize they are being presented on the big screen with surround sound in a dark theater – NOT good for kidlings. Throw in the tribe of cannibals, the giant bugs…. You get the picture and should leave the little ones with a sitter. But, why should this movie be any different? To clarify, my complaint isn’t with the level of scary in the film, but with the parents who insist on bringing their children.
- Jack Black. This surprised me, because I am a Jack Black fan. He just didn’t fit this part, and he was a bit distracting to me.
- The effects. Most of the effects were so breathtaking you forget that what you are watching is computer generated. Because of the success of most of the CGI, when it stumbles even slightly (e.g. during the Brontosaurus chase), it becomes a glaring disappointment. Though far beyond what you’ve seen elsewhere, that sequence just seems sloppy here.
Small complaints, to be sure, and they don’t diminish my Word of Mouth rating at all.
BTW: I didn’t cry at the end, though I was fully expecting to – perhaps because of that expectation I was sufficiently braced for the trauma…
School Ties (1992)
School Ties
A Jewish boy goes to an elite prep school in the 1950’s and hides his religion until a jealous bigot forces it out in the open.
A while back I went through Blockbuster online and added a bunch of Brendan Fraser movies to my queue, every now and then one shows up. Some are throw aways (i.e. Airheads) some are surprisingly good. Like School Ties.
I didn’t watch it right away, once I saw that Ben Affleck was in it I was prepared for major suckage. I would have to say that this may well be Affleck’s best movie, in much the same way that The Outsiders was Tom Cruise’s best movie. 
I was expecting just your standard prep school conflict type movie but, while there were certainly a lot of cliches, I was quite pleasantly surprised. Prejudice, traditions, friendship, conscience – and Brendan Fraser (oh, and Matt Damon, Chris O’Donnell….) My circle will love it.
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics 68%; Audience 67%