Friday, August 28, 2009

World's Greatest Dad

World's Greatest Dad
Robin Williams Latest

SPOILERS
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SPOILERS
Fair warning up front. This is a deranged, manic, dark comedy. Most of the movie revolves around a plot moment from around the 30 minute mark. And so I'm going to mention it here in a bit but first the topic I'm going to address is the set up of those thirty minutes. The film does what it can to try and get you to care about Robin Williams. And you do feel bad for him. This is because he has a son whose into snuff porn and Auto erotic asphyxiation. Then on top of that this is a kid whose the worlds biggest dick. He's an ass hole to everyone, including his best(only) friend. But back to Robin Williams. He's a poetry teacher at his son's school and also an aspiring writer. He's written five novel, not a one that has been published. He wants to be rich and critically accepted. He has a secret girlfriend whose one of the other teachers who keeps mysteriously canceling on him. And the one time Robin calls her on it. she gets bitchy and attacks him.
So you spend the first 30 minutes wondering if she is stepping out on Robin. There's also another teacher who is Robin's "friend". Sort of. But you can tell they are rivals more than friends and when he publishes something in a major magazine, Robin gets jealous, especially when his "girlfriend" starts spending more time with his "friend".
So at this point, you can tell that there are things going on behind the scenes but because the movie is told from just Robin's perspective you arn't entirely certain what's going to happen. And then that key moment happens. After a dinner where Robin introduces his son to his girlfriend(his son is an ass to her), his son goes home and Robin takes his girlfriend back to her place. When he gets back to his son, he minds something he didn't expect. His son is dead. This is done in a humourous fashion in that he died by trying to suffocate himself to masturbate. But having more respect for his son than that, he makes it look like he killed himself and writes him a suicide note. Well days go by and the school newspaper some how gets a hold of the police report and publishes the suicide note. This adversely affects the student population, everyone turning around and suddenly being sad he died and pretending that they used to be friends.
Things spiral out of control from there including Robin publishing his son's Diary( a new novel he wrote over the weekend) and appearing on a opera like show about this until finally in a renaming ceremony of some building does Robin reveal the charade. He then jumps into a pool naked(symbolism, or a chance to show off robin Williams naked, could go either way) and then the film ends as a musical number plays while the ripple effects of the revelation affects the school.
The humor is really dark stuff. You'd probably need a pretty dark and twisted mind to fully appreciate the humor. There are a few jokes here and there that are a real hoot, particularly the stuff involving the students in the school and their sudden affection for the Son. for any one who has seen Robert Rodriguez' family film, Spy Kids, its pretty jarring to see the lead boy from that series go on to play such a fucked up kid that really really could use some help in the world. I will admit I went into this moving not expecting much and I got some laughs and found it an interesting movie. Being a dark humor type film there are some moments where you are cringing at some of the stuff from the line being crossed, but the film is pretty good at balancing these with enough of the lighter moments in the movie to really balance the film into perspective. And in reality, you really do sympathize with Robin Williams character for just trying to do the right thing at first but being corrupted by the possibility.
So would I recommend this movie? Not necessarily as a theatrical experience, this isn't district 9 or Up where you really need that big screen effect, but it certainly would be worth your five dollars at the blockbuster truth be told you could see a lot worse movies this summer(the recent horror movies sans Drag me to Hell come to mind). So be Cautious with your dollar, because you vote with it about what you want to see in theaters during the next four years.

Top 11 Moments of Yu Yu Hakusho

Top 11 Moments of Yu Yu Hakusho


SPOILERS
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11. Kuwabara "Dies" by Toguro.
Now no matter who you are, this moment was a big fucking deal. Either you were crying in sorrow, your were crying in joy, or your crying because I kicked you in the balls, you know that this was one hell of a moment. As far as anyone knew, Kuwabara had died. This wasn't a little death either, this was blood bursting out your back bad. And yeah it's cliche now for action animes to do this, but bear in mind that YYH comes from the early nineties. So it was pretty much this and Dragon Ball Z that were THE premiere fighting animes(and still are to this day, Mecha be damned).

Number 10
The Dragon of the Darknes Flames owns Zeru

This was the moment that gave you so much hope for the Dark Tournament, Both Hiei and Zeru had tried to give the appearance of being bad ass, but when that dragon shows up, you feel its presence. And then you stop feeling Zeru's as he is deep fried, with not even a bone left for the dog demons. Truly prolific moment.



Number 9
The doctor kills people left and right

This is just one of those straight up, holy shit moments where this series lives up to its name for being the best straight up action anime. When the doctor first slices into someone you see the blood fly and you actually feel some fear for the supporting characters lives. He pushes you into wondering what the hell is going to happen. There is no question how strong this opponent is. The best bit is that up to this point the blood as been rather understated unless its an important battle, but here we are 6 episodes into a new arc and the blood is flying, The doctor does what bullseye proposed to do to daredevil, "put the fear in him".


Number 8
they let Gamer die.

This is one of the awesome moments that is clearly fucked over by what is likely an editorial retcon. I'm referring to just a few episodes later where it turns out that Koenma saved him. coughBullshitcough. But I digress. This is by and far one of those moments where you know they have been pushed to their limits and corrupted. Especially Kurama. This is the beginning of the end for our heroes being able to be called good without some hesitation. I mean, these are supposed to be the good guys, since when do the good guys just let little kids die, Fuck you Roland the Gunslinger you be quiet.


Nummber 7(a tie)
Yomi beats Yusuke
Enki wins the Makai tournament

This was as much a two way tie as a double whammy what the fuck moment. first we find out via flashback that Yusuke lost. Which for an action anime that's impressive. And since he's the main character and this is an elimination tournament that's even more impressive that the main character LOSES. It was pretty typical up to this point that the hero wouldn't lose a major tournament that c(w)ould change the fate of the worlds. and then add on that we then suddenly find out that one of Raizens old friends and all around nice guys, Enki, went on to win the tournament. From the shows final arc, this isn't quite what is expected. But its also one of those moments where you know exactly why you love this show.


Number 6
Genkai's ruse


This is such a fun twist that I couldn't not include it. When it is revealed that these characters that had been introduced and displayed as what was going to be the arc's villains turns out to just be the flunkies of none other than Genkai, its another of those moments that says, hey this Sensui arc might be different.

Number Five
Yusuke owns Kuroda the mind reader

Now going into this list, I knew I could rely solely on the touching and the whiskey Tango Foxtrots. I knew I'd need to have moments of Comedy because that was more than half of this show. It was an action/comedy. So I thought about it and my fave moment was the "I'll throw a straight right hook and stop just before I hit his face" moment. Not only does it catch the audience off guard, it catches a guy who can read minds off balance. This is also one of those hilarious little bits that sets up this guy as an asshole, and certainly not a good guy, or at least not a hero(hence why after the doctor's bit, we never see him again despite his obvious usefulness). I'm also just going to mention a related fave moment of Kuroda's: "she's going to make out with her teacher! he have to stop her!...Or watch!"



Number four
Yuu Kaito's and Kuramas' battle of wits

this falls into a similar place as number five. It was with this awesome sequence that the creators were looking at their audience and saying, HEY, this will be both cool and different. Finally proving once and for all that Kurama really is this brilliant tactician and on top of that getting one of the most hilarious Hiei gets owned for his own stupidity moments, this section has the laughs and the tension. The other cool bit? The show decides to prove that this is equally a team show by having Yusuke sit out this sub arc.

Number three
Kurama mind fucks Elder Toguro

If you don't know what this moment is, go rewatch Kurama's anger. When Kurama loses his cool, you know shit is going to go down. And it does.

Number two
Raizen takes over Yusuke

If you didn't see this moment making this list, you weren't watching the same show, its one thing to have your main character die and come back stronger than ever. ITs quite another for even that not to be enough to kill the bad guy. So when Yusuke's Demon ancestor the Mazoku comes back to inhabit his body and just beat the snot out of of sensui, only to have yusuke take over at the last minute (and fuel a rage and empties that would drive Yusuke next arc) you've done a pretty impressive job with a moment that could have been crappy. Plus, how creepy was Yusuke as a possessed demon?


and the number one moment of Yu Yu Hakusho is....


Yusuke dies in the first 5 minutes.



Holy panda hell. that was my first reaction to seeing that first episode, not knowing what the show was about, and to watch a main character die in the first five minutes and go on to keep narating and explain things, I knew this show would be something special. It may not be much, but it is the defining moment of Yu Yu Hakusho, telling you that while death may not be permanent, the stories that can be told and the emotion from those moments will have an effect,



Here are some of the other moments that are clearly awesome too, but I had to cut down my fave 21 moments down to 11 so There it is.


The Death Of Genkai
Chu's Knife edge death Match
Yusuke vs Jin, a battle of Friends
Sniper Owns Kuroda the Mind Reader
Hiei vs Yusuke:The REmatch
Yusuke Dies again.
Yuskue and puu both evolve
Hiei cuts open Shigures head
Mukuro's a chick
Chu, Rinku, Toyua, Shikki, Jinn and The Beautiful Suzuka return!
The Kiss of Legend(Yusuke+Keiko)


So thats it, the complete top 11 awesome moments of Yu Yu Hakusho.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Avatar Preview footage

Avatar scenes:



Let me break it down for you: On Friday August 21st, James Cameron did something cool. On top of dropping a trailer this week, he also did Avatar Day. Around the nation IMAX theaters were given the opportunity to show off a few select scenes from his new Science Fiction epic, Avatar.
I'm going to break down each scene for you as they appeared and make some conjecture about how the plot had unfolded at that point.
Before the film began James Cameron came on screen and gave us a small primer about the film and also made sure to emphasize that the scenes were all from the first half of the film, so in his words "no spoilers".
Scene one:
This was a scene fairly early. It shows a military leader in front of a group of soldiers on Pandora. This leader(I don't remember if he was a general or a captain or something) explains that it his job to protect them but that he will fail, that a number of them will die. We then see our main protagonist roll in and we are to infer he is a disable vet(? He might still be soldier). He also gives some info on the Na'Vi.

Scene two:
We watch Jake and a doctor/scientist played by Sigorney Weaver place Jake into his new Avatar body. We also get to see Jake try out his new body and flee the compound out into Pandora.

Scene three:
Jake(in Avatar form) and several others(including Sigorney) in Avatar form are hunting. Jake plays chicken with one of the coolest effects creatures you will ever see and Eventuality it backs down because a much more vicious creature shows up and chases Jake into the forest.

Scene four:
Jake is trapped fighting a bunch of small creatures, having seemingly been seperated from the military. and is saved by a female Na'vi who then has a short conversation about the value of life with.

Scene five:
This scene indicates that Jake has joined together with a tribe of Na'vi with said girl and it indicates they are a further human evolution. but really the scene is Jake wrangling a flying alien creature, somehow he uses some fibers in his hair to link into the creature and he becomes tame, He then has to fly and we get some impressive visuals.
Now these descriptions may not sound that exciting but trust me when I tell you that IMAX 3-D is the only way to see this film. The teaser trailer(all of whoms footage was included at different parts of the presentation) doesn't even compare to when you see it like this.
I'm starting to spread the word and build the buzz(which I'm sure was their plan) because this is the movie everyone needs to see this year(and they need to be seen in true IMAX 3-D, not things like recently install FauxMax or SmallMax that say IMAX but really the screen is the same size).
I hope ya'll will enjoy the adventure as must as I expect we will.


As a note, Avatar form is when a human mind is deposited into a Na'Vi body.

Post Note: I've read some opinions of people who only saw the comicon footage(2-D version of the footage, and slightly longer) and people who've seen the teaser trailer. a number have said they were underwhelmed. These people really need to see the footage in IMAX 3-D to truly appreciate it. If I took 25 minutes from various points in the first half of the Dark Knight, I bet I could get you to think it was underwhelming too. So don't let the naysayers discourage you gentle viewers, get ready and be excited, this movie is going to blow you away.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

GI JOE:

This post is to make up for Wednesday. Tomorrow I'll post something of a treat that'll make up for yesterday and then Monday we shall continue onwards hopefully.
GI JOE:

Oh Boy, Where do I even start?

Let us try the easy stuff. That is to say the few things this movie does that works. The look. I will admit, the characters look right. Including Cobra Commander.

There are two characters who were done pitch perfectly through out the entire movie, and that was Destro and Snake eyes. This has a lot of do with the fact that they both have competent actors playing them. More so you have Snake eyes getting the best fights in the movie. And you have Destro who is the only character who feels like he knows what it is his plan is exactly.

GI JOE suffers from a problem that I refer to as JOE logic. These are things that don't make sense in the real world but make perfect sense for GIJOE logic. GI JOE does in fact believe in character development. what?! GASP! it's just really bad at it. The best example is Cobra commander. I say best in the sense that he actually has a semi believable story arc. It's not by any means good or well thought out, but its there. It feels more like the first story idea you came up with as a kid to explain these characters.
Worst is Scarlet who for no reason of logical or discernible mind skills are able to explain. Honestly, you will see her arc(which involves the not horribly acted Ripcord) and come out going Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
In the middle falls Duke/Baroness. Its obvious this section was written by someone who wrote for soap operas(no wait, that applies to the whole movie) and with some more development and some sharper dialogue this could have been the highlight of the movie(and a point to draw in both male and female audiences) but alas the producers apparently felt it was better to serve the audience nothing than to give them something of value.

One of the best aspects of the movie is the Tech. It actually feels like they were trying to ground this movie in the not so distant future and grounding the movie with extreme versions of technology we have today. Sure almost all of it comes out of nowhere, but in 5-10 years from now, most of it would be possible. The other thing to point out is that this tech is all obviously designed to sell toys. But if you dare try to complain about a movie called GIJOE trying to sell toys, you went to see the wrong movie.
The accelerator suits while depicted as horrific robotic monstrosities in the trailers, are kind of nifty albeit they would piss you off in any larger dose. I'm serious, two minutes more of them would have been too much and well that would be bad.

So lets talk movie stuff. I can honestly say the director can direct action but not drama. Which isn't his fault, that has been his choice of movies thus far. Sure he gave Brennan Fraser a cameo, meh. He actually works in that regard.
The effects team wasn't bad. From a technical stand point, there weren't any obvious flaws in the work. Which is saying something coughtransformrs2:roflcoptercough.
The writers need to not do this again. They were really bad. And I think part of this has to do with too much studio involvement and too much of the system. And I am here to tell you this is a system film. Hollywood has been pushing these small piles of action garbage out for years and if you keep giving them your money for them, they will continue. This isn't a good thing. My motto(if I started having a motto) is that we should have half as many movies made a year and double the quality for each film. if you do that, we will end up with more Up's, More Drag Me To Hells. and more District 9s. The great films of 2009.
So my advice, if someone you know mistakenly buys the film, watch it with them. If it shows up on your HBO, watch it there. But by all means avoid paying to see this at all costs. Or at least avoid DIRECTLY paying for this movie. Give your money to the movies that deserve it like the three I just mentioned. They are worth it. Or the upcomming Avatar.

Monday, August 17, 2009

District 9

(please please please, if you were considering seeing this movie, just go see it. Don't read reviews or spoilers because you get more enjoyment out of it if it just surprises you and is unexpected.)

Okay here is the deal: District 9 is brilliant. It is the best movie this year. Yes, I thought it was more enjoyable than Up. And it took quite a bit of effort to prove to me that something could be better than Up this year.

So here's the basic basic premise: In an alternate time line to our own, a alien ship appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. Soon they find Aliens inside, derogatorily called Prawns. They then move the aliens into a segregated district called District 9. The story is then about moving them from their current location District 9 to a new location, district 10. The aliens are refugees and can't get leave the planet Earth.

I've got to hand it to the Director/Co-Writer, he managed to(with the help from an amazing effects team) to create a living, breathing world that I truely believe exists. I watched the entire film and most of the time, the effects were so good, I couldn't even tell if they were CGI or if they we're just well designed animatronics. As it turns out its CGI, but it is still remarkably impressive. The other thing is that not since LOTR(which I am not a fan of) have I believed a CGI character was real. I think that's an atestiment to the story and the creative team.

The message of the movie may appear to be obvious at first glance, that its a reference to apartheid. This is true, but there is a much deeper and more important meaning in a broader sense that deals with the rampant and incessant hatred and attacks that is so common in today's world society. This message is important and has a real impact on our world today, not just America or South Africa, but the world at large is a hatred filed place.

Other things that are impressive is the acting. I swear, the actor playing Christopher Johnson is the next Doug Jones or Andy Sirkus. I hate that our society is formed so that such talent actors don't get nearly the work or respect but really these are the true skill workers of their craft. When I believe that CGI can be better than the people around them then clearly the actors are doing the very best job possible.
On top of that, the lead actor is really really good for a virgin actor. Virgin in the sense that this was his first movie. And yet he manages to portray this characters evolution and trials. When you see him at the beginning of the film, you really would probably want to kick the brown noser in the balls and tell him to grow a new pair. But by the end of the film you are rooting for the guy to succeed and get to live a real normal life again.

Without exposing the world to spoilers, I need to say that this is a great scifi story. It's certainly a heroes journey and the birth of universe that I highly doubt won't be visited again. And I am okay with that. Part of me wishes I could dive into spoilers so that I could tell you about some of the truly awesome moments. Those moments that make you verbally go "Wow, that was so cool" to some guy next to you that you don't even know. But that is what this movie evokes. That old school sense of unity among film goers. I get the feeling that no one in the audience knew what they were in for because every reaction was so real and we were loving every minute of it. This movie manages to do some truly original things and some rehashed ideas for the low low price of 30 million dollars. When you look at your average movie, it usually runs in the 75-90 million dollar range. And honestly this movie looks more professional and feels more complete than a great number of big budget movies released this year. I'm looking at you G.I. Joe, Watchmen, Wolverine, and of course that Bastard Son Transformers2:Roflcopter. I want this movie to make bank, but more than that I want it to prove to the studios that if you let the creators have real control and don't try to force feed us garbage we will not only love it, we will come back for more. I'm contemplating coming up with a way to see it again because it was just that great of an experience. And it's not too often that I see a movie that I still love after several days of contemplation and in all reality, this was truly a film EXPERIENCE.

Friday, August 14, 2009

a quick note.

I'm going to be playing around with the visual element of the blog over the next month or so up to the point when I move at the middle of september, therefore, I'm sorry if based on the colors and such it's hard to read. I'm working on it, trying to fix it.

Pushing Daisies: Season 2 Blu ray

Pushing Daisies: Season 2 Blu ray
Le sigh. Okay so I love this series. A Lot. Its my favorite series ever. Ever. It features witty dialogue, beautiful aesthetics, great and beautiful actors and actresses, and interesting stories. The second season is a continuation of the first season(and really the two should be viewed together and form a fairly lengthy and somewhat open story. There's only one storyline that doesn't get any resolution but otherwise its a great series. I'd argue the best.
so why Le sigh? That is for this box set. Aesthetically, the box is fantastic. a little thinner than the previous box set, but its inventive packaging which is Unbelievably awesome, is smartly designed like the first season box. But then lets open it up. Okay, it looks and sounds great. this is fantastic. The aspect ratio is slightly different from season one, which I'm not entirely certain why, but whatever we love the show. Its great lets not nitpick that. They've outdone themselves technologically from the first season box set(where they fit 9 episodes on 3 blu ray disks) here they did 13 episodes on 2 disks. A clear improvement in their usage of the technology.
But now comes the real debbie downer of the box set. The extras. Yes they are interesting. The first feature which is advertised on the box and the menu as a sort of tribute to Creator Bryan Fuller is in fact more of a season retrospective clocking in somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes total. Alright, that's acceptable. we still have three other bonus features....ten minutes later....that's it? forty minutes of extras for the entire season? No deleted scenes. no commentaries. Where are the commentaries Bryan? I know you can do them, you did half of wonderfalls with commentaries, so where are they? grrrrr. I HIGHLY recommend this series to everyone.
If you don't know the premise, find some way to watch the pilot episode. The premise of the series is that first episode and it plays out so beautifully that a summary will almost detract from your enjoyment of that first episode, which could have stood on its own without a series.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Dollhouse season 1 blu ray

Dollhouse: Season 1 on Blu Ray

For those of you who don't know, and based on the ratings, a lot of you don't know, Dollhouse is the show about a group of "volunteers" who agree to live and work in a facility called the Dollhouse for a period of five years. The concept is that they agree to have their mind taken out of their body and placed inside that of hard drive leaving them blank slates. These blank slates are then able to be programed and sent on engagements, missions if you will, of different types as paid for by clients. As the Dollhouse is secret only the super rich can use it, and they can use the Dolls for any mission they want, so long as the dolls aren't hurt. The story focuses on two main characters, Echo, an active who throughout the seasons seems to be different from the other blank slates, and Paul Ballard and FBI man in search of the Dollhouse.
As his obsession grows to find and Save her(Echo, or as he learns via anonymous sender, Caroline) she(Echo) begins to experiences engagements that eventually reveal there is more to the dollhouse than meets the eye.

Now this show is a bit of a labor of love, that is to say it is a Joss Whedon show but it is one that may not instantly grab you. And in fact the original pilot episode was thrown out leading to a 12 episode season instead of the original 13 episode order(though due to international deals they HAD to have an episode 13 so they made one for half the cost of a normal episode). So production issues abounded and more to the point that original episode is included, though isn't cannon.
The show really picks up after you sit through the first five episodes. They prepare you for this world. They set it up for you. They let you see the pieces of the world and then in episode six you see how these pieces all fit together and form a puzzle. Then the season slowly builds towards its finale aka episode 12 omega, and then caps it off with the coda otherwise known as Epitaph one, the mysterious new 13th episode(that never aired mind you).

If you aren't sure about it, I'd watch an episode see if it catches your eye. If your already a Joss fan, watch it, buy it. Because it is another good work by Joss, albeit works much much better in quick succession on Blu Ray.
The menus and picture and sound are top notch as expected by Blu Ray disks. The extras are fantastic and really give you a window into the production of the show and on top of that gives you Deleted scenes, a Deleted Pilot, and Epitaph One. There is also some commentary which offers some insight, though as always, the more insightful commentary is Joss just talking about the show.

So I say this, I approve of this Blu ray. I bought it. It is worth your time.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Hollywood Sucks 1996

So welcome to Hollywood Sucks. To me, 1995 is the year when film starts taking an insane downturn towards being horrible.
Now now, I know. Some of you are crying foul. But by the end of this series I think I'll have made my case. Each week I'll be rolling a D10 and a D4 and adding together the FACE VALUE together to the year 1994. This will result in what year I am talking about.

So for this installment, I hit 0 and 2, thus the year 1996.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movies_in_1996


The top film that year? Independence day. Oh boy. and it made...306 Million dollars!? What the hell is this? If you've seen this movie, you know that as a Roland Emerich this movie is big on the epic, small on the characterization and you know, plot.
Oh kay, that was harsh. It does have a plot. Its just so absurdly simple that I wrote better material that year, and I was EIGHT! I will admit, there are a few cool visual elements, I admit it. I've watched it several times. but it doesn't make it a good movie not in the least.

Alright, what about number two that year? ...Twister?! That piece of shit movie about the estranged couple that chases and tornado of almost unprecedented size? Do I really need to explain how shitty this movie was? No? Good cause that's as much as I was going to.

So what about number three...Boring Impossible...I mean Mission Impossible. Four? Jerry Maguire. This isn't a good movie.
Five. Ransom. Mel fucking Gibson.
Six...wait what? There's actually a good movie on this list? Holy shit! That is 101 Dalmatians. Yes the puppy Disney movie. but the live action one, you know with Glenn Close and Hugh Laurie. Oh yeah, rematch it. Awesome.

Lets keep going.
Seven The Rock. As an action movie this is fun, but like Highlander, Sean Connery does not instantly make your movie a good movie(it can however make it a great cult classic, but that's a different category).

8. Nutty Professor. Eddie. Murphy.
9.Birdcage. Hey wait a second. This is a half decent comedy that's actually funny and happens to be respectful of its subject, people of homosexuality. I would like to point out that it is based on a great play, La Cage, not the film of the same name.

10. A time to kill. Long, boring and insanely predictable.

So many the movie that took home the most Oscars that year was...oh...lets not talk about that one.

so IN CONCLUSION 1996 sucked pretty badly or rather, America chose to see the really bad parts of 1996. Why? Because there were good parts, here's the highlights of 1996.





Dragonheart(its a fun movie)
Fargo
Fly Away Home
From Dusk till Dawn
Gamera 2:Attack of Legion(Kaiju!)
James and the Giant Peach(Brilliant)
Mars Attacks!
Muppet Treasure Islands
My Fellow Americans
Star Trek:First Contact
Trainspotting
Scream(of this list, scream was the highest at 13th that year)


So 12 movies in the year were worth watching. Maybe 14. But its a very small amount. Ugh.

So how about the bottom of the barrel?


Spy Hard
SpaceJam(only good with nostalgia glasses)
Romeo+Juliet
Ransom
Kazaam
Jingle All the way
Joe's appartment
Jack
Homeward bound 2
Flipper
Eraser
Dunston Checks in
D3
Down Periscope
The craft
Barb wire


Oh and for those wondering, and who think I'm harsh and crazy, The rotten tomatoes scores:


Independence day 62 percent
Twister 55%
Mission: Impossible 56%
Jerry Maguire ...84%
Ransom 70%
101 Dalmatians 40%
The Rock 65%
The Nutty Professor 65%
The Birdcage 75%
A Time to Kill 69%

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Repo:The Genetic Opera

-repo:The Genetic Opera-


It get's better. For anyone who sat through this movie and felt the first half hour felt bland, it's because it is. This movie isn't perfect. It's even marginably near the area known as decent.
This is actually my second review, as I was watching this on BLU RAY, I found myself witting the first draft based on my initial impressions of the movie as it began.
Things from my first review that I still firmly believe: The comic book sequences through out the movie that explain backstory are a distraction and could have better been served as a flashback(as proven by the Marni giving birth scene).
Worse is that some of them are very obviously Post Production additions that would try to clarify the story in the beginning. The problem is that you don't even need the grave robber, he seems like a bad narrator but can't even be called that. There is a lot of set up in the beginning in describing the world that this is set in, but the visual style and language already tells you what you need to know, so all of the set up of the past is useless.
A number of the musical sequences are filler and should have been cut. Especially the scene leading into the Genetic Opera with its arbitrary nudity.
the best element of the movie tis the relationship between Alexa Vega and Anthony Stewart Head. They are the only two(beside the actress who plays blind Mag) who can actually sing in the movie. And really, Tony Head is the only reason to watch this movie as it is his scenes that steal the show every time.
The visual style is pretty. It's very expressionistic and serves the story well. In fact, I'd give the director amazing praise if I knew he wasn't the person directing the singing, which other than for the three mentioned, feels flat and unimpressive throughout,
By the way, Alexa Vega looks awesome all gothed up. And Tony Head is just awesome throughout.
The drugs/Hooker sequence where Paris comes to see the Grave Robber for the first time, is an example of the film reaching for glory. If all of the sequences were as well designed as it the movie would be an easy 9.0
The best I can say is that it's worth a rental, and it's worth sitting to the end. It's not half bad. its only a quarter bad. 2 quarters okay. a one quarter good.
But if you do find yourself loving the movie, buy a copy for sure. It was a cool experiment. It didn't all work, but they we're at least trying new things and it looks cool.
8.0/10

Watchmen:The Theatrical Cut

This is an older review but its better late than never, and with the directors cut soon and me able to have time to sit and think about it more, I'll be able to give a better opinion soon.

-Watchmen:The Motion Picture-
Okay, okay. I know, Officialy the title is just Watchmen, but I feel the subtitle is necessary. You need it there to tell you that this is is an adaptation of a piece of amazing literature.
The movie is strong. very solid. It took me seeing it a second time several weeks later to make my opinion firm, but I REALLY liked this movie. It's hard to go into an adaptation without judging it against the original.
I couldn't the first time I watched. and other than some nit picky things that I'll get to in a second, it is a fairly faithful adaptation of the book. It gets the major emotional beats down, it gets the cool action moments and the big reveals.
The cool thing about Watchmen is that there is so much going on in every frame that a viewer can watch it several times and spot details across the board that are interesting. New viewers can go in, and come out with few questions regarding the film, such as Rorsharch's mask and some of the relationships, but in other obvious places they've structured the story after the book and for the most part it works. The changes to the ending were necessary, but the additions to characters we're not. For example they give one character at the end the strength to watch his best friend die and then punch the villain in the face. Not in the book and takes away his willingness to compromise. Another change is they made Rorsharch far more psychotic than he was in the book. But I'd say it was a fairly faithful adaptation and one that will be on the upper echelon of comic films. Its actually, much like The Dark Knight, a comic film that finds itself in the category of its genre, Drama/Action conspiracy, more than it is in the genre of SuperHero. And for this reason it is a component of our new age of film.

What happened.

So for the span of one month, this site will have gone black. My bad, sometimes life takes hold and you just don't have time to write a review or even a note. I mentioned it my twitter, which has also basically fallen to the way side. I can't gurrentee any real consistency till I end up moving again in September and see how things play out, so basically you'll see something at least once a week, and probaly quite alot showing up in the early weeks of october.
What I can say is coming hopefully next week is reviews for Wonderfalls:The complete series, Pushing Daisies:Season 2 on blu ray, Dollhouse:Season one on blu ray, Southland tales on Blu ray, Watchmen the directors cut on Blu ray, Marvels Civil War Hardcover and in september: Supernatural season four on Blu Ray.
Hopefully this week I'll finish up Gurren Laggan and will have that review out soon. Same to Smallvile season 8. Tonight I'm hopefully crafting my review of Harry Potter Six the film, and On top of that I'll soon have a very special 7-part long review.

I'm also working on putting together a little something extra for the minitures fans and looking into getting someone who actually still has a passion for Video Games still and get them working on this too.