Despite having one very sad title, and dipping into the very tarnished ‘Die Hard’ franchise once again, this film was quick, cocky, and enjoyable to the final scene. I was rather distracted by the ‘Apple’ commercial guy playing co-lead, and a villain who had diminishing returns. Sequel franchising is a tricky business that rarely goes well, actors get desperate, studios make good money dragging things out as long as the brand has a name. ‘Terminator’, ‘Aliens’, ‘Predator’, ‘Batman’ (1989), ‘Lethal Weapon’, ‘Raiders’, ‘POTC’ are all examples of brilliant action/adventure films that got driven into the ground by lamer directors/screenwriters and bloated budgets (or as ‘AVP’ proved, not enough of a budget). The ‘Bourne’ and ‘LOTR’ trilogies stand as the only series’ that somehow avoided the problem–perhaps they were approached as single, seamless productions with a comprehensive narrative and not just a cash cow that got thrown up the flagpole every few years.
8 Oct 2009 • 7:13 pm 2
Observe And Report (1/5)
A delusional, inept, bi-polar, goober mall cop drinks free coffee, beats up skaters, date-rapes the cosmetic girl, tries out for the police force, and screams ‘fuck’ at every person on screen. If there was supposed to be a subversive, counter-cultural critique, I totally missed it. Don’t let anyone tell you this is on par with “Taxi Driver”, much closer to “The Cable Guy” meets “Waterboy”. Seth Rogen is not a fascinating sociopath, just a brutal ass who knocks down everything in his path. As a dark comedy it failed to have many laughs or compose any engrossing tragedy. No more than three kind moments in the entire 90 minutes. A dozen great cinematographic choices and two great stunts (the car driving through the mall, and Rogen taking on a whole squad with his flashlight) only added to the disappointment. Explain yourself Chad–best picture of the year?
7 Oct 2009 • 7:07 am 0
Point Break (3/5)
29 Sep 2009 • 7:30 am 0
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1/5)
No action, no drama, not much sci-fi, a lot of humanist hubris about how we learn to love and care when we’re “at the precipice” and that there is always hope for us to treat Mother well if aliens threaten to exterminate us. Recommended beverage: sight-impairing moonshine.
28 Sep 2009 • 7:32 am 0
The Pirates Of Silicon Valley (1/5)
A made-for-TV, low-budget movie that follows the early Apple/Microsoft rivalry and the madness/deception of Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates. Other than Anthony Michael Hall as Bill, the acting is atrocious. The photography and production is very sad, but if you wade through it all, there is some interesting insight into how these behemoths came to make and conquer the personal computer industry. Jobs-mania has always made me ill, and of course, the Microsoft legal issues are well documented at this point–I’m not going to feel good about either company for awhile.
• 7:26 am 0
I.O.U.S.A. (2/5)
Very well produced documentary that had all the pie charts and graphics that would serve as good supplemental material, had they any material to supplement. You could fit the interesting insights on a single note card, while the musical interludes could fill the National Archive. The national debt does scare me, spending money that you do not have is immoral, right? Never mind my mortgage or school loan.
25 Sep 2009 • 7:01 am 1
Man interviews horseradish.
When it comes to foreign policy with Axis of Evils, I used to believe in the bi-lateral approach that respected the sovereignty and dignity of the other and refused to name call, objectify their position, and attempt to see them as a reasonable and responsible equal–until I heard NPR’s brilliant Steve Inskeep totally waste his time interviewing Ahmadinejad this morning. That bag of wind managed to unanswer every question and distinctly take the piss out of every direct inquiry. Blech.
Filed under: Uncategorized
22 Sep 2009 • 2:30 pm 1
Role Models (2/5)
More adult-male-as-infants to drive a bland coming-of-age story (I thought coming-of-age was closer to thirteen). There must be an anthropological explanation as to why this subject matter puts butts in seats; one that I’m not interested in exploring right now, I have some “Grand Theft Auto 8: Sex Offender’s Delight” to play.
19 Sep 2009 • 2:21 pm 0
Scent Of A Woman (2/5)
Pacino can really wear me out; two hours of yelling and the evermore obnoxious “whoo-aa” suck it. If O’Donnell weren’t there to provide some Oregon-bred ease then this film would be a lance in the earhole. The tango scene wasn’t nearly as spectacular as I remember; the love interest in the second to last scene was insulting–I was plenty convinced that Pacino decided to embrace life when he played with his niece and nephew in the driveway, not when some professor ran out to flirt with him. My favorite moment, oddly, was when Pacino’s character degraded O’Donnell, stating that finer men than O’Donnell had saluted him and he shouldn’t have insulted the act as he had–it seemed like a reasonable, humble assessment of the kid and not a rash, scalding reprimand. It is refreshing to be reminded that we aren’t all astronauts, capable of anything we put our mind to, actually not ‘better than all the rest’ as Tina Turner would have us believe. Go rent the Turner record and skip this doozy.
8 Sep 2009 • 1:47 pm 0
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