Persepolis

In my corner of the world, this biographical cartoon about the Iranian Revolution and its aftermath got loads of hype. I wasn't that blown away by it, but at the same time it was really well done with beautiful animation. Probably deserving of the Oscar nomination, even though it didn't win. I admit I switched the dubbing over to English 10 minutes in because I was getting tired of reading subtitles and trying to half understand the French. I normally don't do that, but because it was a cartoon I don't think very much was lost...

Night at the Museum

I avoided this movie for ages, and I'm not quite sure why. Despite that fact that I missed the first 15 minutes, I saw all the meaty parts I think, and was highly entertained. Original idea and creative story. Kids must have loved it...

Final Draft

While I'm sure JVDB wants to shed the persona of Dawson very badly, it felt to me that this film was kind of picking up where the Creek left off. When we last left the DC crew, Pacey and Joey were living in NYC being romantic and creative and shit, Jen had died of some rare disease, and Dawson had made the leap to L.A. to become a successful movie maker, now with a hit show about his Norman Rockwell-ish childhood back east...

Now, in Final Draft, Dawson (albeit under a different name) has become a struggling screenwriter, living in some factory-warehouse loft space in what looks to be Allentown or Gary or someplace cold (in fact, this movie is Canadian, so the nameless place is probably Hamilton or Ottawa or something like that). He is mooching off his actor friend, who himself is desperate for a big role to jumpstart his career. Hollywood eats its own, right? Only the young survive...
Anyway, Dawson locks himself in his dump of a loft, and slowly goes insane writing a screenplay about a vengeful ghost of a circus clown. To be honest, I like Pacey's turn as a Hemingway wannabe in Americano much better. At least JVDB is getting work though...

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

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Americano

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10,000 B.C.

Sometimes I think that sweet CGI will overcome any plot or story problems that a movie may have. Occasionally, that is the case, but usually not. 10,000 B.C. epitomizes this phenomena. It has decent visual effects, but the story feels like it was written by a middle-schooler. So, there is this tribe of savage people living in some sort of snowy, mountain-top tundra land. For generations, they never leave the area until a bunch of their people get kidnapped by 'four-legged demons'. Then, the tribe's manly men follow the kidnappers, manage to easily cross the mountains, and all of a sudden are in the jungle getting attacked by huge birds, then just as quickly they stroll into the desert and meet African tribesman. Then they get to the pyramids...where there somehow are woolly mammoths. I guess that explains the miracle of how the Egyptians did it.
The ending was ripped straight out of Conan the Barbarian (Crom help me, I mentioned such a classic in the same breadth as this piece of crap).
Bottom line, CGI did nothing to redeem the slipshod research and dull pacing of this snoozer. Even watching it on Blu-Ray wasn't enough to make me feel like it wasn't a huge waste of time.

Premonition

Alright, not going to waste a lot of time talking about this movie. Another feeble attempt at playing with time and events, it's like a really weak attempt at copying the general premise of Memento. The only problem is the resolution is muddled and unconvincing, and at the end you get this sort of "whatever" feeling. Good thing I watched this on Showtime and didn't rent it. It did generate some debate between me and my wife about what exactly was happening and when, but even that was half-hearted because the movie was so blah...

Be Kind Rewind

Wow, I was so disenchanted with this film I nearly forgot to add it to the blog. Needless to say, when I first saw the trailers for this sometime last year, I was excited. The concept was fresh and unique: two guys work in a video store, accidentally erase all the store's tapes, then decide to refilm their own versions of many of the movies. Good actors that I generally like, especially Mos Def, and Michel Gondry at the helm (just like Stuff White People like says, all white people love Gondry flicks, myself included).

That said, this was terribly disappointing. The parts that I thought would be funny either weren't or were just too short, and the whole thing turned into a feel-good, save-our-inner-city type of message. I wasn't feeling it, and so I definitely wouldn't recommend it. Plus it has that hypocrite, Chavez-lover Danny Glover in it. I can barely stand to even look at the guy now.

Super High Me

Decent comedy/documentary by a stand-up comic who loves to smoke weed. He spoofs Super Size Me by first abstaining from pot for 30 days, then smoking constantly for the next 30. He does some perfunctory things to test the difference, like taking the SAT during both periods, getting regular medical tests, testing psychic ability, determining sperm count, etc. The pic is a bit disjointed (haha, unintentional pun), not quite a marijuana advocacy movie, but certainly not objective either. It was based on a joke Benson made about "how cool would it be to make a film like that McDonald's guy did but with weed...", and then that's what he did.

There was a bit of a look into the lives and neuroses of stand-up comics. Overall they do seem like a pretty miserable bunch. There was also very interesting info on the number of dispensaries that have popped up in California since 2005, and the whole State vs. Federal law struggle as the DEA constantly swoops in to bust these places despite their legal right to do business.

Resolved

Documentary about high school debating that really gets into the borderline absurd way the "art" has developed in the United States. This style of "debating" doesn't resemble anything close to what a lay person would envision it as. It is speed reading at its best, and while those who advocate for it as the ultimate in intellectual warfare, it seemed so absolutely insane to me that I thought the first five minutes of the film, where you get to see some of the best high schoolers in action, was a joke. The story was put together extremely well, and is riveting as it follows two principal groups of debaters through two years of travel and tournaments, anxiety and drama. Highly recommended.

Jumper

Highly disappointing because the concept is very cool, and the possibilities that go along with teleportation are very intriguing. That said, this movie was flawed on so many levels. First of all, why is every big blockbuster these days only about 90 minutes long? Am I alone in thinking movies should be 2 hours? Secondly, Jumper glossed over a lot of back story and left me confused about the main characters powers. What were the limitations? For example, could he have donned a space suit and gone to the moon or something? Anyway...I felt like I was re-watching some of the crappiest scenes from the updated Star Wars trilogy, with Christensen and Sam Jackson, plus Rachel Bilson is a Natalie Portman lookalike. I liked that the beginning of the movie was set in Ann Arbor, but it really could have been any nondescript town. The plot seemed thin, and the movie felt like a setup for sequels...which I hate. Any decent movie in whatever genre should be able to stand alone as a work, and not rely on what may or may not come in the future. For all its big budget special effects and glamor, Jumper was forgettable at best...

Shortbus

Weird, arty film. A little too much male frontal for me, and kind of a draggy, unstable plot. Didn't make a hell of a lot of sense, but then again I don't suppose it was meant to. I fell asleep half a dozen times watching it, and for good reason. Oh yeah, it was a Canadian film...set in NYC. Probably filmed in Toronto. Gotta love it.

Georgia Rule

For all the big names that were in this movie, including director Garry Marshall, the story was pretty piss-poor. And we don't even get the convenient "moral wrap-up" at the ending. Lindsay Lohan is a horrible actress, but I suppose she was sort of in her element playing a slutty teenager. I felt bad for Jane Fonda...when she finally decides to unretire and make another film, she is handed this pile of shit. The only thing memorable about this was that it was set in Idaho. Not too many films can say that... maybe Napoleon Dynamite.

Bottom line: barely watchable, even on cable.

Semi-Pro

Not as bad as everyone said it was. Low expectations, and sometimes you get a surprise...

Varsity Blues

Oh, Dawson, where for art thou, Dawson? This flick may have be the pinnacle of James Van Der Beek's film career, and a good one it was. Saw this on TNT...even though I'm not a big repeat film watcher, I've probably seen it at least three times. It's kind of fun to watch movies again a decade later to see which actors are still around and which have faded into obscurity. Varsity Blues is full of both. Feels like an episode of Friday Night Lights without all the melancholy music and dramatic pauses.

Lars and the Real Girl

A cynic will call this movie sentimental and cheesy, and the eternal optimist will call it heroic. I found it entertaining, let's leave it at that. A different kind of idea for a film, and a fresh perspective on human compassion.

Untraceable

While the plot was definitely formulaic, there were some creative and unique aspects to this film. Didn't deserve the complete thrashing it got from the critics. A poor man's Silence of the Lambs if you will.

Shrek the Third

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Bachelor Party

"Gentlemen, start your boners..."

Rambo

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Aliens vs Predator - Requiem

A lot of this movie appears to have been shot in the dark to compensate for the shitty plot and mediocre special effects. 

Recount

HBO original about the theft of the 2000 U.S. Presidential election.