Movies #142-145

05/18/2008

145. Blacula (1972)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies (Widescreen, Uncut)
Besides having the greatest character name ever, this isn't really that much to stick around for in this film. I like that whitey is the one who made the black guy Dracula (by biting him), so Blacula of course isn't to blame for feeding a majority of the time, on black people. Good for a laugh.

05/17/2008

142. Walk Softly, Stranger (1950)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies
I've always been a big Joseph Cotton fan, and this has Cotton in spades. This is a watch-able noir piece about new beginnings, and it doesn't fall flat, it's just average.


143. Corvette Summer (1978)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies (Widescreen, Uncut)
This is a camp classic, well, really anything with Mark Hamill in it besides the Star Wars series is automatically considered a camp classic. There isn't really much going on in this besides Mark looking for a car that he is to the point of being disturbed enraptured about. Annie Potts (the secretary from Ghostbusters) is surprisingly hot in this movie, but unless you a Hamill uberite, you can miss this and go on living.


144. The Rack (1956)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies
The issue raised in this film, such as being in a POW camp and being tortured, and if you do break, how would the prosecution of treason be handled, but these issues are bigger than the film itself, with solid acting all around the movie really grows stagnant with all the scenes taking pretty much in the court and he never have a flashback to what the POW camp or what situations looked like, so I can't say this is a must see, only recommended for Paul Newman fanatics.

Movies #140-141

05/11/2008

140. Eragon (2006) (with MST3K/Rifftrax Commentary)
Other Means
Oh man, this movie is as awful as I was expecting so I'm glad I watched it with the MST3K/Rifftrax commentary on over the film, which is the only way that this movie is watchable, the guys on the riff track point out how many times this movie apes from other films.


141. Cleaner (2007)
Other Means
With Renny Harlin directing I had something much worse that this ended up being, but this is still achingly mediocre and actually plays alot like an extended pilot episode of a series, all the fake editing tricks are in the scenes of high tension, to ramp things up. Not really worth anyone's time to watch this but this is easily the best that thing Renny Harlin has ever made, which is good for him i guess.

Movies #138-139

05/02/2008

139. Iron Man (2008)
In Theaters (DLP Screening)
Yeah, so believe the hype, this movie is really good. This is the first Marvel character film under the new Marvel Studios banner, which means that Marvel was able to put up the entire budget for the film out of their own pocket and Paramount only is the distributer which means that Marvel has a lot more control of the films that it's characters are in so we won't have Spider-Man 3/ X-Men 3 like debacles again because people who actually care about these characters are making the decisions and not some aloof studio heads. I whole heartedly welcome this if this is the quality of movie that they want to turn out. Highly Recommended Watch.

04/29/2008

138. The Name of the Rose (1986)
Other Means
Sean Connery plays a monk Sherlock Holmes in this film which features a young looking Ron Perlman, and an almost infantile Christian Slater. I'm usually bored by films that take place in the dark ages but this one held my interest, worth a watch for Connery who surprisingly doesn't stick out like sore thumb like he usually does in period pieces.

Movie #137

04/23/2008

137. Super High Me (2007)
Other Means
This movie was a lot more funny than I was expecting, the stand-up comedian who you'll probably recognize goes 30 days without smoking any weed, and then goes 30 days smoking it non-stop. I actually found this more entertaining to watch than Super Size Me. Recommended for the green enthusiasts

Movies #127-136

04/20/2008

134. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
In Theaters
Judd Apatow produced films are on a roll and this film definitely continues that successful streak. This movie is a really good date movie because it's actually really funny. Highly Recommended


135. Billy Liar (1963)
Off DVR, Shown on FLIX (widescreen, uncut)
This takes what could be a rather stiff setting with 60's England and infuses it with energy through the random imagination of the main character, the amount of editing and bouncing back and forth was definitely a head of it's time. Highly Recommended


136. Crawlspace (1986)
Off DVR, Shown on FLIX (widescreen, uncut)
I hadn't ever seen Klaus Kinski in anything besides Werner Herzog's films, so this was the primary reason why I wanted to watch this, but this has lots of camp value and it runs under 80 minutes so it doesn't waste your time. Worth watching if you have added your own commentary to a movie in a while.

04/19/2008

131. The Water Lilies (2007)
Other Means
This movie is pretty good and not something that I could see being made in the same way over in the states. Good movie following French youths which is not something that I'm exposed to that often.


132. Infernal Affairs (2002)
Other Means
So I'll admit that I saw The Departed before seeing this (The Departed is a remake of this film), so my review is pretty much comparing the two. The Departed is nearly an hour longer than this version and that time is spent in character development, I really didn't feel like I had as much invested in the characters by the time that shit starts to go down. Also the musical score for Infernal Affairs is the only part of the movie that sticks out as being cheaply done, there are a few scenes that stick out in my mind that are definitely hurt by the almost midi sounding soundtrack. But this movie does get mad props because there are a lot of scenes from this film that are almost verbatim done in The Departed. I almost hate to say this but if you've seen The Departed, then you've seen the best version of this already. Now I'll have to seek out the other two films in the Infernal Affairs trilogy, maybe this will give me more perspective on this film when viewed with trilogy (also in case you were wondering, there isn't a stupid rat at the end of this version).


133. The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies (widescreen, uncut)
This movie could have easily had thirty minutes cut from it, the plot takes for ever to advance once it's been set-up. Pretty typical 70's pseudo disaster movie.

04/17/2008

130. Five Miles to Midnight (1962)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies (widescreen)
Sofia Loren and Anthony Perkins at the top of their games in terms of youthful appearence, but this movie was a little more average than I was expecting, the end result was kind of ho-hum.

04/16/2008

129. 88 Minutes (2007)
Other Means
Now I've read blurbs on the internet (Variety) that claimed this to be the worst movie that Al Pacino has ever acted in. But I beg to differ, yes this movie is stupid and has lots of plot holes and the script is poorly written. But it's more average than it is all out bad. This isn't worth watching but I would say to the people calling this the worst of Pacino's career that they need to go check out Revolution, Bobby Deerfield, and Cruising because those pictures are head and shoulders of badness worse than this. But my biggest disappointment with this film is that this guy Avnet also directed Pacino in Righteous Kill, which comes out later this year and pairs up De Niro and Pacino again which is something that I would be greatly anticipating had I not seen this movie.

04/15/2008

128. Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
Other Means
The best part of watching this movie was seeing Whoville come to life, the animation is really faithful in representing what Dr. Seuss style would look like in 3D animation. I could have really done with out the sing-a-long part to that terrible song not worth mentioning. Otherwise I think this is easily the best of the Seuss adaptations that have been done in recent years.

04/14/2008

127. The Ruins (2008)
In Theaters
I have to confess that the trailers and press I had seen on this film did not make me want to go see it. The head geek at Aint it Cool posted a review of this film and in the title it made it out to be a positive review, he doesn't do reviews for something that I considered a nothing movie. Based on that I gave it a chance, and I'm really glad i did. Where as a lot of the recent slate of crap horror films like Saw/Hostel, this movie has characters that you don't cheer when they die because they are actually written like real people and the decisions they make are logical, huh? This is not what I was expecting at all. Above average horror film when compared to the recent crop of crap. And I'm completely mystified by some of the reviews that have been written on imdb saying if you like "torture porn" like Saw/Hostel then you'll like this, WTF??? There is no torture in this movie at all, in Saw/Hostel all the violence done to people is by other people, but in Ruins pretty much all the violence is done by forces other than humans (which is a lot better).

Movies #123-126

04/11/2005

126. Frontier(s) (2007) Uncut Version
Other Means
This movie shows that the French are capable of making stylishly dumb horror movies just as well as Hollywood can. This shares all the bad acting and story holes of Hostel and Saw, the one thing this has over them is that I had to read the dialogue so by default I didn't feel as dumb watching it, and there is so much gore in this uncut version that it does lead to an amusing chuckle or two. Nothing makes this a must see, been there done that.

04/10/2008

125. [Rec] (2007)
Other Means
This movie is told POV from a news crew and zombie related stuff happens. My biggest problem with the movie is that this film has more shaky camera work than the Bourne Trilogy and Cloverfield combined, which makes it almost unwatchable on a television because I kept getting slightly nauseous, so I had to downsize to a computer screen, I would have definitely walked out of a showing of this at the theater. If your going to do the POV movie that's cool, but at least try to have the camera steady, so that we can see what going on and don't get sick watching it. The premise for this is cooler than the end result. An American remake of this is already in the works so hopefully they'll get a few of the camera kinks worked out (The American remake is called "Quarantine").

04/09/2008

124. 13 Ghosts (1960)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies (widescreen)
This movie is goofy as all get out, and it has the actress who played the wicked witch from Wizard of Oz, as you guessed it, an old witch. I watched the Black and White version which was even goofier because non of the 3D effects worked of course, so the scenes where we are supposed to be amazed at the technology are so silly because there are really long shots of bad special effects work (bad even for 1960). But, this is still much more enjoyable than that terrible remake they did of this a few years ago. Camp-tastic

04/07/2008

123. Trapeze (1956)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies (widescreen)
I'm a big fan of early Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster from any era, so I was expecting a good watch with this film where they team up again. Overall this movie is good and offers a good look at the circus lifestyle. The woman in the story ruins everything with her barely up to snuff acting, she doesn't really carry the same screen presence of Tony or Burt. Worth a watch if you want to see more circus life (but only if it's in widescreen).

Movies #113-122

04/06/2008

122. CJ7 (2008)
Other Means
I was expecting this to continue the "farcical romps" direction that Chow's last few movies have taken, but this is a family movie that is nice around the sides with very little edge to compel me to keep watching, if your looking for a cute non-offensive movie that the whole family can watch this is for you, but I'm not, so I didn't really like this.

04/04/2008

119. Leatherheads (2008)
In Theaters
This movie and Semi-Pro share quite a bit of story ideas, but Leatherheads has a lot more charm. Now their are two things working against the movie from the outset, Renee Zellweger is cast in this, and Randy Newman does the music. I'm happy to report that neither of these objects dominates the picture enough to annoy me. This is a good light movie.


120. Shine a Light (2008)
In Theaters (DLP Screening)
This is isn't really the backstage documentary that I was expecting, it's a performance documentary because 85% of the film is the Stones performing at the Beacon Theater, with a few cut outs to put the performance in context of their careers. If your expecting to see what the tour was like, your out of luck, because the whole film is only focused on the one performance. But for what it is, it does it extremely well, I like that they didn't try to shoot around how amazingly old all the players look. Good performance piece showing that they can put on a good show into their sixties.


121. Fulltime Killer (2001)
Off DVR, Shown on IFC (widescreen, uncut)
This movie is highly derivative of many films, but it moves along at a nice pace, but it has tons of plots holes and silly writing. Also for some reason this movie looks like it shot on VHS in the mid-nineties, when I saw the release date was 2001 after watching it I was astonished, I guess they didn't have that big of a budget or something. Probably only recommended to big Andy Lau fans.

04/03/2008

118. Torn Curtain (1966)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies (widescreen)
This is also one of the lesser talked about Hitchcock movies, but this one is actually good. It concerns Paul Newman defecting to Soviet Russia because he's a scientist and wants his special anti-weapons program built. This film uses the Hitchcock eye quite a bit so it's always fun to watch. Recommended if you've seen a lot of Hitchcock and want more.

04/02/2008

117. Topaz (1969)
Off DVR, Shown on Turner Classic Movies (widescreen, uncut)
This is one of the lesser talked about Hitchcock movies, and for a good reason, I found this film to be pretty life less and really long.

04/01/2008

116. Mondays in the Sun (2002)
Off DVR, Shown on IFC (widescreen, uncut)
If Javier Bardem is in a film, I'm going to watch it. I've been following Javier every since his first Oscar nod for Before Night Falls (a film that I highly recommend). Nobody else really holds the stage with Javier, I couldn't really get into the other characters storylines in this film and as the film is evenly balanced with regards to character time, there was a lot of time without Javier on the screen so I was bored. Javier fans should see this eventually, but otherwise not really stands out about this film in my mind right now.

03/31/2008

113. Red Lights (2004)
Off DVR, Shown on Sundance (widescreen, uncut)
This movie has a pretty beginning build up and character development, but the third act unfolds disappointingly traditional as compared with the first two acts. Still worth a watch but had greater potentional.


114. Avenue Montaigne (2006)
Off DVR, Shown on Sundance (widescreen, uncut)
Not badly acted or written just really average even for a mainstream film and not very memorable.


115. Priceless (2006)
Other Means
I'll watch anything that has Audrey Tautou as the lead actress, and I was skeptical that this romantic comedy would be any good because I usually hate all of them (Romantic Comedies that is). But this movie has quite a bit of charm and humor and it doesn't hurt the film that it sticks to the tried and true romantic comedy plot line. This actor Gad Elmaleh is someone that I'm going to have to look out for in the future. Above Average Rom-Com Watch