A Few Good Men

After a long hiatus due mostly to all of our research papers being due in English class this week, we are back and hopefully we will get some new reviews and thoughts on here for all 4 of our loyal fans out there.



"You want the truth?"

Tonight I watched the 1992 movie A Few Good Men on TNT. While I usually would not review a rated R movie that I saw on network TV, I am going to make an exception in this case just to make a much needed new post. First of all a quick plot summary: young hotshot JAG lawyer is assigned to a case involving the death of a marine in Guantanamo Bay. The accused are two other marines who claim that they were only following orders. The trial and events leading up to the trial ensue.

The thing that jumps out about the this movie is the amount of big name actors involved. With names like Cruise, Nicholson, Moore, Bacon, and Sutherland, this is a star-studded affair to say the least. And thats not even mentioning Kevin Pollack or a cameo from Cuba Gooding. With all of the talent in this movie, one would think that the acting would be lights out, but in my opinion it was hit or miss at best. Cruise progressed as the movie went along but was unspectacular until the court scene. Nicholson did a solid job in a role that did not require too much real talent. Cruise and Nicholson did have good chemistry on screen and were fun to watch when together. Moore gave a stoic unemotional performance and had little to no chemistry with the other actors. Bacon and Sutherland were decent, but nothing to write home about. Most of the other supporting acting was ho-hum, with the exception of little known Wolgang Bodison who played the role of Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson, one of the accused marines. I thought that he did a great job portraying his character and easily outperformed every big name actor in the movie.

The script in the movie was fairy well-written for the most part. It did its primary job of getting me interested in plot. However, the attempts at humor were pitiful and painful to watch. The court scene though is where the script really comes into its own. One of, if not the best written court cases that I have seen on screen. I really enjoyed the way it was paced and the quick wit used by Cruise's character. That was fun to watch.

Overall, this was an average movie. The acting was not what it should have been. The script was pretty good but not outstanding. I liked the plot of the movie even though it was predictable at times. The court scene and the plight of the accused marines saved this movie for me personally and made it somewhat enjoyable.

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH"

Heath Ledger dead at 28

Heath Ledger was found unresponsive in his apartment today and died shortly after, apparently of an accidental overdose of something.

Heath was in my opinion one of the best actors of our time. He was talented and not afraid to take challenging roles (i.e. Brokeback Mountain). Why is it that so many talented young people die before they make it to 30? I don't understand. A curse maybe? A conspiracy? I don't know.

It will be interesting to see what this does to "The Dark Knight." From what I understand, filming is complete and they are well into post-production with the release a good 6 months away.

For a more in depth and articulate article that does a much better job of saying what I'm trying to say, you can go here.

Our hearts go out to his family and child.

Cloverfield

It's not very often that a movie surprises and impresses me the way "Cloverfield" did. It happened with "No Country for Old Men," and I guess it happened with "Juno" (to a lesser extent), but with "Cloverfield," I was really just blown away. I can't remeber a movie built up with so much hype for so many months that actually delivered. This is the second best movie I've seen in years.

Now I'm done blowing it and I'll review the movie.

As far as direction and acting, I think it was very well done. Everything seemed very realistic and believable and I enjoyed watching every second of it. As for everything else, I've never seen such a clusterfuck of insanity, both in the events on screen and in the presentation. The shakey camera didn't bother me personally, but in the majority of reviews out there, it was mentioned to give audiences headaches and motion sickness, and in some cases go behind curtains and explode.

Go into this movie with an open mind and let yourself have fun. Unless you are a sourpuss, you should love it.

9/10

Whoa.

Cloverfield review as soon as I unscramble my brains and stuff my intestines back into my abdominal cavity.

Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem

If this movie were a meal, it would be a shit sandwich.
If this movie were an organ, it would be an appendix.
If this movie were a person, it would be Carlos Mencia.
If this movie were a movie, it would be awful.
Lucky for me and a hand-full of blissfully optimistic movie-goers, AVP-R is, in my expert opinion, not a movie at all. It was a theatrical joke. You see, if you waltz into your local cineplex expecting some brilliant cinematography, capital acting, and unprecedented plot-twists then you're going to slump out feeling sick to your stomach (perhaps the movie would have done better if, after your exit from the movie plaza, a predalien exploded from your chest. You would probably die, but you would die with some sense of finality and accomplishment.) No, you must enter the film expecting it for what it is, a two-dollar snuff film as anti-climactic as a still-born rhinoceros. Aside from some crap of a "twist" ending involving a Mrs. Utani (that left all six members of the audience scratching their heads), the picture was as predictable as the PredAlien's head was big.
Oh yeah, if you're into it for the action, the majority of the film takes place at midnight in a storm in city with a power outage, so bring your nightvision goggles.

As a movie, 1/10
As a joke, 4/10

My Favorite Movie Scene

The Kitchen Scene in "Jurassic Park"















As a four year old in a dark theater in 1993, this scared the crap out of me. I think I kept my eyes closed for most of it, but the part where Lex hides in the cabinet and it looks like she's about to get gutted and ripped in two... shit. That was intense.

I don't know about you, but I'm excited about "The Dark Knight."

So in case you've been living at the bottom of the ocean, there's movie coming out in July. It's the sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins" and it's called the "The Dark Knight." Now if you are a Batman fan, or a comic book fan, you may find yourself creaming your jeans in anticipation for this film (not that I am or anything). As for me, if I can live long enough, this is going to be my favorite movie of 2008.

Allow me to tell you a few things about it this movie. . .
The Joker will be there, but not as the main villain.
We are probably going to see Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face.
Batman will go to China.
Scarecrow is back.
A lot of it is based on this (which is freaking sweet):


























Anyway, here's the trailer:


July 18, 2008

1-18-08

J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield is finally being released on Friday after about a good half-year of rumors, speculation, and viral marketing(http://www.slusho.jp/). The trailer that we all saw before Transformers (http://youtube.com/watch?v=IvNkGm8mxiM) caused quite a buzz and started many "interesting" theories behind the mysterious movie without a title such as http://youtube.com/watch?v=_3Oh8Msw4SM , http://youtube.com/watch?v=KJs9NqlbEyw&feature=related , and my personal favorite http://youtube.com/watch?v=UggWziLEK98&feature=related

I plan on going to see the movie on Friday night and whether it will be a good movie or not, I don't know, but I do know that all of the hype and speculation has certainly gotten me interested in the movie. However, the question is how many other people will be interested enough to go see this movie as well. If it has a big opening and does well at the box office, then we may be seeing more and more movies made and marketed similar to Cloverfield. It is not often that one movie has a chance to change or at least shake-up the way Hollywood goes about its business, but Cloverfield certainly has the potential to do this.
Be on the lookout for a Cloverfield review this weekend as well as any other opinions and or rants that we may have on the movie.

New Stuff (I know... it's all new)

Over the next few days we're going to try to introduce some regular features to the site. These will include pieces that focus on specific film makers, reviews of old movies, and our favorite film experiences, all complete with lame, cliché titles.

Also, if any of us find ourselves with "opinions" on things movie-related, we may feel free to espouse them here.

I'll try to get back to posting some real reviews now. Thank you.

Good Things to Come.

We would now like to welcome two new members to our crack team of movie fans and reviews: Joe and Jake. You can read Joe's colorful review of his new favorite film, "In the Name of the King," below. Jake will be chiming in soon on the riveting "Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem."

In the Name of the King

Uwe Boll sucks... Whoever keeps giving him scripts to make movies from needs to stop. In the Name of the King sucked! I didn't stay for the whole 2 hour 7 minute feature but after the first hour I had seen enough. Jason Statham is called Farmer in the movie. That's stupid. He should stick to acting in fighting movies like transporter and his role was terrible. Burt Reynolds should stay out of movies like this and keep to the Longest Yard. The creatures reminded me of ninja turtles that tried to dress up like orcs from the Lord of the Rings. I actually thought of the Lord of the Rings during the movie. I thought, how can people make the monsters in one movie look real and in another movie made more recently with more technology come up with shit. The monsters looked fake and the movie fucking sucked. Ray Liotta did bad acting along with everyone in the movie. Those of you thinking about seeing this movie, don't. AVPR, a very weak movie, is a thousand times more entertaining. I hate this movie so much I am having trouble writing about it. When Statham and his companions come to a bridge that was destroyed by the monsters, but the monsters left a rope tied across, they zip-line across it. His companions fall over 100 feet into rocky rapids and come out unharmed. The jokes attempted are fucking horrible. I'm done writing about this bullshit.

0.7/10

No Country for Old Men

I first heard about "No Country for Old Men" a few months ago. I'd never heard of the book or Cormac McCarthy, it's writer, but I saw the Cohen Brothers' names attached and was immediately interested. I've been a fan of theirs for a while now and oddly enough, I think "Raising Arizona" is one of my earliest movie memories apart from Walt Disney stuff when I was a kid (or a younger one). I feel like I have an idea of what to expect from them. I kept hearing all these fantastic things about the movie, about the actors, and about the story in general. So I went in expecting something good.

I was blown away. It was one of the most intense, darkly funny, beautiful, and expertly made films I've seen in a long, long time, and undoubtedly the best in 2007.

I don't want to talk about the story, but I will say this: Javier Bardem, as Anton Chigurh, will freak you out. He will make you want to cringe and laugh at the same time.



See this movie. If it isn't playing anymore, then hide away some money and get ready for the DVD.

Final Rating: 10/10

Also check out:
"Fargo"
"The Big Lebowski"

Juno

Hello, my name is Dylan and I will be kicking off this brand new blog in style by reviewing the most recent movie that I have seen in theaters, Juno. I was not able to see Juno until a few weeks after it had been released, so I already knew about its lofty rating on rottentomatoes and I also knew that Roger Ebert had deemed it his favorite film of 2007. Because of the aforementioned factors I went into the movie with pretty high expectations.

I am happy to say that Juno fully lived up to my expectations and was a wonderful movie. There are so many great things about the movie, but my favorite part was the performance of Ellen Page as Juno, the sixteen-year old girl who is accidentally impregnated by her friend. She did an outstanding job making the role of Juno really come alive to the audience. Her performance was refreshing to say the least. The supporting roles, led by Micheal Cera as her friend Beaker and Allison Janney as her stepmother, were also very strong. Janney almost always provided a laugh during the limited time that she was on screen and Cera played the role of the dorky guy who has a crush on the girl to a T.

The writer of Juno, Diablo Cody, did a fine job on the script and is up for many awards because of it. The script really made Juno's situation feel very real and believable, as if it could have just as easily happened to someone that you know. This is important to an audience because it allows you to become more emotionally attached to the movie. However, my only small negatives regarding this movie are because of the script. I have two small problems. Numeber 1, I know that the language used by Juno is supposed to be "hip" and whatnot, but I just feel like Cody went a bit overboard with the "hip" language because it sort of takes the audience out of the movie because they can not comprehend some of the words that are coming out of the characters' mouths. I mean, I'm 17 years old, and I still could not understand some of that "hip" language. My other problem with the script is the outrageous amount of rock and pop culture knowledge that Juno possessed. While I do understand that it adds to the character, I feel like the movie would have been a little better if the vast amount of pop culture references would have been toned down just a little bit.

All in all, I truly enjoyed Juno. I would recommend it to anyone who is tired of seeing the same old popcorn movies every week. It was a romantic and funny movie that appeals to all ages. With outstanding acting, a good script, and not to a mention a really a great soundtrack, Juno is a really good movie that will surely cause you to leave the theater with a big smile on your face.

FINAL RATING: 8/10

Hello World

I love movies, and so does my friend Dylan. So we have decided to start this site to talk about those movies we particularly love (or hate), and to review new movies (that we care to shell out the cash to see). We hope you like it and we'll try to get some stuff up here as soon as we can. We plan on doing some neat things and having some very special guests.

Enjoy.