I have been very lax on keeping on my movie posts. It is not that I haven't seen movies, in fact I have seen to many. There were so many great movies this summer that I did not have time to keep up. So, I am going to try to get back into the groove. Starting with the last movie I saw, Eagle Eye.
I liked it. I liked it quite a bit. The themes are not necessarily new, but they were combined in a way that has never been done before, and the story was quite compelling right to the end. And I can't really complain to much about the technology and the ideas behind them, something that often bugs me in movies. They did a fairly good job making everything believable and justifiable. And all the characters were strong, interesting, and real.
Speaking of the characters, let's talk about Shia Labeouf. Unlike many people I know, I did not care for Shia in the Indiana Jones movie. In my mind his character was an over-done caricature. He was fine in Transformers, but I thought his character was the weakest part of the Indiana movie.
However, his Jerry Shaw character worked just fine in Eagle Eye. The character felt real from the selfish beginning to the selfless end. And his growth and development as the story progressed was never cheesy or overdone, and in my mind endeared him to the audience. Shia has really shown his ability to be a leading man, albeit a young one.
I really only had one complaint. I wish they had not had quite as much swearing as they did. I don't think the movie was too scary for my 11 year old, but it might have just a little to many swear words, although nothing to kick it out of it's pg-13 rating.
So, yah, I liked this movie.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Cloverfield (2008)
I am going to do this review in two parts. The main review here will be vague and reveal as little as possible, while sharing my overall feeling of the film. However, there are many things I want to talk about that would be spoilers for the film. So I will post a comment with those points. If you don't want to read spoilers, just dont read the comments.
This movie was a great, intense story that dragged you right into the plight of the main characters. It was probably one of the most realist feeling movies I have seen in a long time. Which is amazing considering the story was so fantastical.
Here is the big warning. Sit in the back. And if you get motion sickness, take your Dramamine. Or don't go. My brother-in-law had to leave the movie toward the end, and get a little fresh air.
Without revealing to much I think I can get away with saying that the entire movie is supposed to be from the visual point-of-view of the people in the story holding a camcorder, recording what is going on. However, the filming in this film was much better than Blair Witch. In fact, I thought the filming was fantastic.
The very first of the film had the video quality of camcorder, although perhaps a really nice one. I was worried because visual quality is something that can wreck a movie for me. But that first part was just to establish the framework of the film, because not a minute into the movie and we were at full qualify. What was really nifty was they sneaked the switch in so I didn't see where the switch was made, and I bet no one else in the theater even noticed.
The really masterful thing about the filming was that you never once got pulled out of the idea it was these people just holding a camcorder while experiencing the intense events. And yet, while it felt like some amateur holding the camera, you saw exactly what you needed to understand the story. It was masterful. Even that does not describe how this movie felt to me. Emotionally, it felt to me like maybe I was the one holding the camera. Maybe I was there going through this too.
I don't know how soon I can see this film again. It was very intense. And I really empathized with the people and their plight. When it was over I was exhausted. However, the ride was fantastic.
This movie was a great, intense story that dragged you right into the plight of the main characters. It was probably one of the most realist feeling movies I have seen in a long time. Which is amazing considering the story was so fantastical.
Here is the big warning. Sit in the back. And if you get motion sickness, take your Dramamine. Or don't go. My brother-in-law had to leave the movie toward the end, and get a little fresh air.
Without revealing to much I think I can get away with saying that the entire movie is supposed to be from the visual point-of-view of the people in the story holding a camcorder, recording what is going on. However, the filming in this film was much better than Blair Witch. In fact, I thought the filming was fantastic.
The very first of the film had the video quality of camcorder, although perhaps a really nice one. I was worried because visual quality is something that can wreck a movie for me. But that first part was just to establish the framework of the film, because not a minute into the movie and we were at full qualify. What was really nifty was they sneaked the switch in so I didn't see where the switch was made, and I bet no one else in the theater even noticed.
The really masterful thing about the filming was that you never once got pulled out of the idea it was these people just holding a camcorder while experiencing the intense events. And yet, while it felt like some amateur holding the camera, you saw exactly what you needed to understand the story. It was masterful. Even that does not describe how this movie felt to me. Emotionally, it felt to me like maybe I was the one holding the camera. Maybe I was there going through this too.
I don't know how soon I can see this film again. It was very intense. And I really empathized with the people and their plight. When it was over I was exhausted. However, the ride was fantastic.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
It used to be that if you were watching a movie on TV, you were stuck with full screen and stereo. Nowadays you can watch in glorious 16x9 wide screen, HD and full surround sound. It's nice for those of us that would rather see a cleaned up, edited version of a film like the movies from the Die Hard series, but want the full experience. Only problem is, there are some films that just don't work when they get cleaned up, no matter how good your sound and picture are.
I think I have seen most of Die Hard films on TV at one point or another, and I seem to remember thinking I liked this one the best. It definitely has some great twists, and the conflict/cooperation between McClane and Zeus keeps things snappy. Unfortunately, whoever wrote this script must have been a big fan of swear words, because every sentence seems to have three or four words blanked out. These are not just interjections, they are adjectives, verbs, nouns, and everything in between. And with them gone the dialog is often very hard to follow.
The other problem is the violence. There were times where they cut huge chunks of time to get rid of something excessively violent, and the jump in the editing leaves you confused as to what just happened. At one point you see McClane is bleeding very profusely from a wound to his shoulder, but we missed the scene where the injury happened. And John's big fight scene on the boat must have been quite extreme, because half of it was gone. I have no idea what happened in any of it.
Is it better than being assaulted if the words and violence were left in? Oh, very much so. However, after the editing are you left with a good movie? Not really. Of course, while many people would disagree with me, I am not sure it was that great of a movie to begin with.
There were times where I had to say to myself, "come on!". McClane gets blown out of the tunnel by the rushing water, flying twenty feet into the air, and just happens to land by the side the of road where Zeus is driving at that very moment? What were the chances of that? And the film was that way throughout. Although I think the weakest part of the film was the dialog. With the swear words gone, it was obvious just how thin most of the dialog was.
Over all, I would not say it is a terrible movie, but not a very strong one either. And unfortunately, they tried to pad it with the very stuff that gets cleaned out when they show a movie on TV. So unless you like that kinda stuff and are going to watch the rated R theater release, I would say this movie is not really worth watching. Of course, I would say the rated R version is not worth watching either.
I think I have seen most of Die Hard films on TV at one point or another, and I seem to remember thinking I liked this one the best. It definitely has some great twists, and the conflict/cooperation between McClane and Zeus keeps things snappy. Unfortunately, whoever wrote this script must have been a big fan of swear words, because every sentence seems to have three or four words blanked out. These are not just interjections, they are adjectives, verbs, nouns, and everything in between. And with them gone the dialog is often very hard to follow.
The other problem is the violence. There were times where they cut huge chunks of time to get rid of something excessively violent, and the jump in the editing leaves you confused as to what just happened. At one point you see McClane is bleeding very profusely from a wound to his shoulder, but we missed the scene where the injury happened. And John's big fight scene on the boat must have been quite extreme, because half of it was gone. I have no idea what happened in any of it.
Is it better than being assaulted if the words and violence were left in? Oh, very much so. However, after the editing are you left with a good movie? Not really. Of course, while many people would disagree with me, I am not sure it was that great of a movie to begin with.
There were times where I had to say to myself, "come on!". McClane gets blown out of the tunnel by the rushing water, flying twenty feet into the air, and just happens to land by the side the of road where Zeus is driving at that very moment? What were the chances of that? And the film was that way throughout. Although I think the weakest part of the film was the dialog. With the swear words gone, it was obvious just how thin most of the dialog was.
Over all, I would not say it is a terrible movie, but not a very strong one either. And unfortunately, they tried to pad it with the very stuff that gets cleaned out when they show a movie on TV. So unless you like that kinda stuff and are going to watch the rated R theater release, I would say this movie is not really worth watching. Of course, I would say the rated R version is not worth watching either.
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