I Love You Man 👍👍
Simple premise, good results. The idea is to take the normal romantic comedy and turn it on its head. Guy has no trouble meeting girl. Guy has trouble meeting guy friends. Hilarity ensues.
It's a straightforward movie that refuses to take itself too seriously. Lots of very funny moments. The drama that was added to move the plot along wasn't particularly interesting, but they don't dwell on it.
Good fun. Definitely recommended.
Confessions of a Shopaholic 👎👎
Pain.
From one end of the film to the other, this movie stinks. The dialogue is horrific, characters aren't consistent, the drama is trumped up. More than that, the fundamental character flaw that the movie is based on - addiction to shopping - is just so incredibly difficult for me to relate to, that I just came off thinking that the main character was a moron. You're supposed to have some level of sympathy, but I couldn't.
I'll give you an example of writing that doesn't make sense. There's a scene in which a girl is supposed to be humiliated by the fact that she shows up to a party wearing a very similar outfit to the servers. She gets handed a tray and is told to go serve her co-workers food. When she (for some inexplicable reason) shows up at the table, she is embarrassed to be serving food to her co-workers. One of her friends at the table "saves the day" by getting up and taking the tray from her and serving everyone himself - saying that he used to do it in college.
Does that make any sense to anyone? How on earth it makes anything less embarrassing for her I have no idea. It didn't offer any resolution whatsoever, but somehow we're supposed to think that he got her off the hook.
The movie was filled, from one end to the other, with this sort of nonsensical writing. Yuck.
Howl's Moving Castle 👍👎
It's original, that's for sure. The movie is about a magician who is fighting against both sides of a war. And... well... it's complicated. He has a moving castle, and lots of magic goes on.
This movie fails on many levels. Almost nothing is properly motivated. Why is there a war going on? Dunno. Why does Howl care about it? Dunno. Why do certain characters get forgiven and others do not? Dunno. Why does Howl get into his predicament in the first place? Dunno, they answer how, but not why. Why can some things be done with magic and others can not? Dunno. How does the magic work? Dunno. Where does the boy come from? Dunno. What fundamentally causes the resolution in the film? No clue.
I'm ok with some of those questions being unanswered. But a few too many of them were left hanging out there, leaving the me confused and irritated.
But on some level, this movie just works. Not sure exactly why. Some of the characters had enough charisma to pull it off I guess. The voice acting is solid (they hired brand-name actors). The music is quite good. And there's just so much creativity in this film, that you almost can't help but keep watching out of wonder for what's going to happen next.
I wouldn't call it an excellent film, but it was certainly entertaining. I'm not unhappy that I saw it.
District 9 👎👎
Pain.
Obviously this movie is not on DVD yet. It was the first time I'd been to the theater in over a year, and it was not at all pleasant. I went because I had no power at home and was bored. I think I might have been better off sitting in the dark.
This movie worked on so many levels. Good plot, fantastic acting, awesome special effects, good dialogue, and an excellent overall feel. It didn't have good music, but that's because it was a documentary-style film, so I was willing to overlook the soundtrack.
What I was not willing to overlook was the horrific shaky cam throughout the movie. I thought I was going to puke before it was over. I literally had to look away from the screen for extended periods of time to avoid having to run out of the theater to hurl. As I explained in the district 9 thread, the camera constantly swayed. Even in scenes where someone is laying perfectly still in the grass, the camera is moving. I could have held the camera more still if I were balancing on a ball while juggling chainsaws. The camera man could not have been over the age of 6 years, and he delighted in making the camera work just as violent as the scene. So if that character was walking, the camera would bounce a little. If the character was fighting with someone, the camera would whirl around so much that deciphering what was happening was completely impossible.
I have never seen such a good movie ruined by something so completely unnecessary, but that is exactly what happened - the film was ruined. I don't recommend that anyone see this movie in the theater, and I'm not sure whether it would work on DVD.
Duplicity 👍👍
Smart, fun, well acted. Certainly not amazing, the movie had flaws. It was hard to really get invested in any of the characters, because they all had major flaws. It was also hard to get invested for the same reason that the characters were having trouble getting invested - nobody knew who to believe. That was simultaneously an intelligent, interesting aspect of the movie, and a drag, because forced you to keep the characters at arm's length.
I didn't particularly care for the end. I thought the movie outsmarted itself a bit. But I'm willing to overlook it. Clive Owen has some real charisma, and Julia Roberts... well.. they could have gotten somebody I'd enjoy more, but she was passable. Overall the film was definitely enjoyable.
Species 👍👍
Way better than expected.
The movie is dated at this point, that's for sure. And it was pretty one-dimensional. But it's a good dimension. The basic premise is that a team of experts is tracking down a beautiful alien woman who is killing off bachelors. The real premise is something a little more intelligent than that, but I don't want to ruin anything for anyone.
I believe this movie needs to be remade. The execution could have been much better, and with today's special effects they could have a lot more fun. The plot is quite solid, and intriguing.
Mulholland Drive 👎👎
W...T...F....
Ok. I think I understand the plot (after looking it up on wikipedia when the movie ended - I needed a translation). But this movie was really freaking bizarre. I think I might have enjoyed it more if I'd known the punchline going into it.
I had about a thousand problems with it up until the half-way point, when I realized that I wasn't watching what I thought I was watching and the problems that I had were actually quite intentional. Then I spent the rest of the movie trying to figure out what was really going on.
When wikipedia tells you what was actually going on (and I do think they got it right), it turns out to be an intriguing premise for a movie. But only because of the creative twist. If this movie were told in a straightforward fashion it would be about as dull as possible.
If you want to see something pretty far out in left field, go for it. If you want a story that's interesting in its own right, and not just because its told in an incoherent, stream-of-consciousness fashion.... well... this movie is not for you.
And it is indeed Miike's one.
). For those who don't know what it's about, I suggest watching it, now. It's about an oddball journalist (johnny Depp) and his psychopathic lawyer (Benicio del Toro), who travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades, and the whole thing is about so many drug-induced trips. It's also directed by Terry Gilliam, so you know you're in for a very psychedelic experience. Especially when these two guys go to Vegas with:
