June 2012, Movies #134-159

159. The Thing Called Love (1993)

Rating: 6.5/10

Review: River Pheonix backlog. My only reason for watching this was to see River's last starring part and I don't feel like his talents were wasted here.  But overall though River is the most compelling part of the movie even though he isn't the main character.

158. Silent Tongue (1993)

Rating: 5.5/10

Review: River Pheonix backlog. This was a waste of the talent involved. Skip this.

157. Guilty of Romance (2011)

Rating: 5.5/10

Review: This tries to be many things but just skip this and be properly weirded out by a Takaski Miike film.

156. Salmon Fishing in The Yemen (2011)

Rating: 7/10

Review: Average drama about a subject that isn't really interesting but through the characters I was won over.

155. Design for Living (1933)

Rating: 7/10

Review: This movie was released almost 80 years ago and yet the dialouge is still just as fresh today with a few slang terms here and there but otherwise this could be released today and would be better written than the majority of romantic comedies I've ever seen.  Great treasure from yesteryear. The new Criterion Blu-ray remaster of this is a must see.

154. I Love You To Death (1990)

Rating: 7/10

Review: River Pheonix backlog. While Kevin Kline is basically an Italian stereotype, this movie was still pretty enjoyable because of the cast involved.  A really young Heather Graham has a cameo.

153. Jeff Who Lives at Home (2011)

Rating: 7.5/10

Review: The ads for this movie really set it up to be a straight forward comedy when really its a tragi-comedy, without the big laughs you would be expecting from the ads the movie would seem disappointing but I really enjoyed the hard right turn the film takes at the end.

152. My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Rating: 8.5/10

Review: I don't know why I hadn't seen this movie before but I'm kind of glad I hadn't because I wouldn't have really understood it if I had tried to watch a decade ago.  This is probably my favorite movie that River starred in. Jim Cavisel cameo.

151. Dogfight (1991)

Rating: 6/10

Review: River Pheonix backlog. River is on leave and his buddies have a contest to bring the ugliest girl possible. Average film but River kept my interest. A young Brendan Fraser has a cameo with his only line being "How'd you like to eat my shit?"

150. Running on Empty (1988)

Rating: 7/10

Review: River Pheonix backlog. This plays like a TV movie of the weeks at times but it always shines when ever River is on the screen, he got an Oscar nod with this role.

149. 21 Jump St (2012)

Rating: 7/10

Review: This was way better than it had any business being.  This funny movie delivers the laughs.

148. Hysteria (2011)

Rating: 6/10

Review: Film about the creation of an electric vibrator, but one that was the size of oven and had to be operated by three people so yea, quite a bit different.  I wasn't really expecting the goofy turn that takes with some over the top humor on a half serious subject about how little the medical establishment knew at the time.

147. Little Nikita (1988)

Rating: 6/10

Review: River Pheonix backlog. Average Coldwar spy drama.

146. Mosquito Coast (1986)

Rating: 7/10

Review: River Pheonix backlog. This movie was extremely interesting to watch because Harrison Ford hasn't really played any character like it before or after. Jason Alexander has a cameo as a hardware store clerk.

145. The Station Agent (2003)

Rating: 7.5/10

Review: After watching the second season of Game of Thrones I wanted to see what brought Peter Dinhlage fame initially and this is quite a charming movie that is an extremely well written character piece.

144. Whatever Works (2009)

Rating: 6/10

Review: I was so excited when this Woody Allen/Larry David film was announced because it seemed like such a great combination of simalair comedic minds.  But what works on paper doesn't always work on the screen, the tone of the movie seems slightly off.  Maybe if David had played a character closer to his persona who know of him instead of a scientific genius that we are supposed to believe he portrays here.

143. Mind Game (2004)

Rating: 7/10

Review: Extremely kinetic animation combines to tell the story of sevearl outcasts trying to get away from the police that then get swallowed by a whale and what they do to occupy their time while inside the whale.  Descriptions kind of fail to explain what makes this movie interesting.

142. Hara- Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)

Rating: 8/10

Review: Takashi Miike direction.  Really good slow burn of a movie about family honor.

141. Mirror Mirror (2012)

Rating: 5/10

Review: After watching the trailer I was expecting a laugh a minute crap shoot, but this is just boring.

140. Maniac Cop 3 (1993)

Rating: 5/10

Review: Jackie Heart Earle has a starring part as a junkie. I can't recommend it.

139. Maniac Cop 2 (1990)

Rating: 5/10

Review: Young Danny Trejo has a brief cameo as prison imate. Bruce Campbell gets killed off early in this installment. I can't recommend it.

138. Maniac Cop (1988)

Rating: 5/10

Review: a Pre-Army of Darkness Bruce Campbell is the only reason why I tried to get through this B grade Maniac Cop Trilogy.  I can't recommend it.

137. Beats, Rhymes, and Life (2011)

Rating: 7.5/10

Review: While I'm glad that a feature length doc on Tribe Called Quest was made and it got a theatrical release, I felt that it focused way too much on the inner turmoil inside the group and less on the music.  Still this did make me dust off a few Tribe albums I hadn't listened to in a decade or more.

136. Iron Sky (2012)

Rating: 7/10

Review: This definitely lived up to my expectations of a movie that would feature a secret Nazi Moon Base on the "dark" side of the moon. But this looks like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow but has a campy vibe through out.

135. Take This Waltz (2011)

Rating: 6/10

Review: Middle of the road movie about relationships, one of the few movies that features the female character tempted outside of the relationship with the male being completely happy.

134. Wanderlust (2012)

Rating: 7.5/10

Review: The newest film from David Wain (Stella, Wet Hot American Summer) is really funny, I have to admit that until recently I didn't really care for Jennifer Aniston at all, but this follows up several other comedic roles in movies that were
actually funny.

Lone Wolf and Cub, Movies #128-133

This is a special post just to review the Lone Wolf and Cub 6 part movie series that I watched in order in May. Now I have seen Shogun Assassin previously which was edited together from the first and second movies but bare little resemblance to the original movies.  So for that reason I still counting these as first viewings because I actually understood tons more of  what was going on in the first two films. Now all the movies do follow a formula of Okami being tracked by some new amazingly trained assassin and their clan being hired to kill Okami to little success  but to much violence and a blood geyser or two.  And then at the end of each movie he usually faces off against that clan usually being out number 30 or 40 to 1.  Because of that the movies are kind of interchangeable but I enjoyed them all, part 6 features an upgraded cart that has been turned into the most badass sled ever.  My favorite in order, part 1, part 4, part 6, part 5, part 2, part 3.  This movie has gotten some press recently because it's been picked up for the recently successful Justin Lin to direct, and while I usually decry silly remakes that have to effort or imagination put into them I definitely see room for where a new Lone Wolf and Cub series could flourish with the original Manga it was based on lasting 28 volumes there is plenty of story that hasn't been covered by these movies that were already produced.

Trailer for Part 1-

133. Lone Wolf & Cub Part 6 - White Heaven in Hell (1974)

Rating: 7/10

132. Lone Wolf & Cub Part 5 -.Babycart in the Land of Demons (1973)

Rating: 7/10

131. Lone Wolf & Cub Part 4 - Babycart in Peril (1972)

Rating: 7.5/10

130. Lone Wolf & Cub Part 3 - Babycart to Hades (1972)

Rating: 6.5/10

129. Lone Wolf & Cub Part 2 - Babycart at the River Styx (1972)

Rating: 6.5/10

128. Lone Wolf & Cub Part 1 -.Sword.of.Vengeance (1972)

Rating: 7,5/10

May 2012, Movies #107-128

128. Going Places (1974)

Rating: 8/10

Review: This is easily the best  Gérard Depardieumovie I've ever seen.  I've read that this was compared to Clockwork Orange and I understand why because the two leads are both twenty something criminals on the prowl and looking to rape or steal anything they come across. but as you would expect they do have a few redeeming qualities to keep the audience interested, but they are mostly bad seeds.

127. In The Realm of Senses (1976)

Rating: 6/10

Review: Controversial movie because of the depiction of the sexual relationship that makes up the core of the film.  But once you get past the sexuality of the film I didn't really see anything else going on to keep my interest.

126. The American Friend (1977)

Rating: 7.5/10

Review: Wim Wenders directing.  Well done character study of a desperate man and an art dealer who befriends him.  Good seeing Dennis Hopper in his prime.

125. Klown The Movie (2010)

Rating: 7.5/10

Review: Extremely funny Swedish movie that is going to get the American remake in the near future, but this version is just fine for me.  I thought this was a lot funnier than either Hangover.

124. Ghosts of Mars (2001)

Rating: 5/10

Review: John Carpenter? Ugh.  This is basically a poorly done remake of Assault Precinct 13 but has Ice Cube, Mars, and mutant half breeds that were obviously ad-libing a language as they shot. Yikes.

123. Prince of Darkness (1987)

Rating: 5/10

Review: John Carpenter did this??? Oh god this movie is bad, watching it I was reminded that it could have been a choice for MST3K in it's hay day because they did quite a few of these terrible horror movies that had no budget. This poster for the japanese release is more interesting than the film.

122. This Means War (2012)

Rating: 5/10

Review: Even with Tom Hardy this movie just lays there like a long expired fish.

121. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

Rating: 6/10

Review: Many times better than the first Ghost Rider but Cage is still here so it can only be so good.  Neveldine/Taylor of Crank fame take the directing reins this time and produce only a slightly more coherent film than Crank. Idris Elba's character is never really properly introduced or explained to the audience and wastes his acting talents.

120. Tiny Furniture (2010)

Rating: 6/10

Review: I've gotten into the HBO series Girls and this is movie that the creator/writer/director did before hand.  To tell you the truth if I had seen this movie first I probably wouldn't have been interested in the series because this movie is incredibly boring.  The series Girls is vast improvement over this film.

 119. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Rating: 6/10

Review: I re-watched John Carpenter's The Fog recently and wanted to fill in some of the holes in my  Carpenter filmography which was a let down. I tried watching Christine but couldn't even get halfway through the movie because it's so dumb.  This movie reminds me of The Fog somewhat because we have a faceless violent hoard heading towards our helpless surviving characters.  The title is incorrect because over the radio at the beginning of the movie the police officer is sent to Precinct 9, Division 13, kind of odd it was overlooked during the Additional Dialogue Replacement process on the film.

118. Timecrimes (2007)

Rating: 7/10

Review: Clever time travel movie that I read is getting the American remake treatment but I really enjoy this movie because its so small an unassuming but achieves quite a bit in it's limited framework.  Similar to Source Code in the broad strokes if you were just reading the summaries but both are unique on their own using similar concepts.

117. Silent Running (1972)

Rating: 5/10

Review: Great concept that was exceedingly boring to watch, would not be against remaking this one.

116. House of the Devil (2009)

Rating: 6/10

Review: Impressed with what was achieved on a small budget but I felt that introductory message that opens the movie tipped it's hand too much as to where the movie goes.

115. John Carter (2012)

Rating: 7/10

Review: With all the bad press about how bad this movie did at the box office people forgot about the actual movie.  The box office failure I put on the terrible promotion for the movie and not the quality of the movie because I enjoyed this quite a bit and it's a great adaption of the story.

114. Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

Rating: 8.5/10

Review: Highly recommended.  This is from the same director of the Anime film Paprika so I had to check it out.  Really well conceived and executed story with great act structure.  Don't really want to give away any more but it really surprised me with how good it was.

113. A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas (2011)

Rating: 6/10

Review: Goes well with the other movies in the series but not something that could bring new fans to the series.  Fun but completely disposable.

112. Outland (1981)

Rating: 6.5/10

Review: It was about half way though the movie when I realized this was just High Noon in space.  This movie is alright, standard space picture but nothing revelatory.

111.The Muppets (2011)

Rating: 6/10

Review: I had been watching a lot of the original Muppet show recently so I was primed for this movie, and it feels pretty lifeless even though I like the people involved.  Either way hopefully this will spark interest in another Muppet movie that is good is isn't the crap the Henson company had turned out in the past with Muppets in Space and Muppet Treasure Island.

110. Pootie Tang (2001)

Rating: 4/10

Review: Being that I'm a big fan of Louis CK I had kind of persuaded myself that this movie didn't exist and that the Louis we think of now has always existed.  Well in doing research Louis has disowned this movie because of how much was changed when it was taken away from him and very little of what he wanted made it to the final cut.  Which is good to know because this movie is just as bad as the hype of the years has made it up to be.  Black Dynamite succeed at every level this movie was trying to in terms of blaxsploitation parody.

109. Red Tails (2012)

Rating: 6/10

Review: The two oscar winners and Ne-yo some of the biggest problems with the movie because of how badly they act on screen, they take away from the other actor's performances.  Every time Ne-yo came on screen I would cringe because I knew I would be hearing that awful Louisiana accent he picked up in acting 101.  The fighter pilot scenes are obviously the highlight of the film, so in one aspect this does work as an action movie but it should have been more than than considering the historical significance of this squadron.

108. Mystery Team (2009)

Rating: 6.5/10

Review: Being a big fan of Donald Glover I had to check out this movie that he stars in and co-wrote, while it's a low budget affair they get the most out of the writing and i thought there was enough laughs spread throughout the movie to keep me watching.

107. Chronicle (2012)

Rating: 7.5/10

Review: Even though the found footage genre is old hat by now there does come an interesting take on it everyone in awhile and this is definitely one that stands out above most of the found footage movies.