Recently back from watching the Dark Knight, I feel as though I must tell someone about it. Internet, here I come!
I had a friend in college who would watch movies on a screen to his left while he played video games. If you went into his room, there was a good chance that one of two things would be showing to his left: one of the Lord of the Rings movies, or an episode of Angel.
If I had an extra screen in my room, you would probably find Futurama, Firefly, and a few other movies with high re-watchability showing continuously on my wall. It's not hard to imagine Dark Knight being added to that short list.
Christian Bale was, of course, buff and badass.
Whatever you may think about Heath Ledger, the sensationalism surrounding his death does not change the fact that he WAS the Joker. Phenomenal casting there.
It was an epic story, and it was very well told. Christopher Nolan has been added to my list of Storytellers To Watch For - a hard list to make in my ADD addled brain.
I don't regret making Dark Knight the movie that I'll spend my $8/year theater budget on.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
2008-07-18
2006-05-08
It's (A short movie review of Hoodwinked)
It's another animated movie with Patrick Wartburton! Wartburton, AKA Kronk, AKA Joe Swanson, AKA Brock Samson, is as good a reason as any to see a movie. But this movie delivers on other levels, as well!
It's funny, yet clean enough to watch with the family. It's got characters you pretty much all know, without resorting to a rehash of old fairy tales or a straight-up irreverent spoof of their Disney equivalents (Shrek).
It's a quality children's movie, that manages to avoid fart jokes for an entire 80 minutes, and still remain cool enough to watch in the pad of some frat boy on a weekend.
I realize that this review gives no synopsis of the movie whatsoever, so if you want an idea of what it's like, check out the trailer on Apple's Page. This movie receives the Duff Seal of Approval.
It's funny, yet clean enough to watch with the family. It's got characters you pretty much all know, without resorting to a rehash of old fairy tales or a straight-up irreverent spoof of their Disney equivalents (Shrek).
It's a quality children's movie, that manages to avoid fart jokes for an entire 80 minutes, and still remain cool enough to watch in the pad of some frat boy on a weekend.
I realize that this review gives no synopsis of the movie whatsoever, so if you want an idea of what it's like, check out the trailer on Apple's Page. This movie receives the Duff Seal of Approval.
2006-05-04
Movie Review: Ultraviolet
Yes, I saw this movie.
It was directed by Kurt Wimmer, director of Equilibrium (one of my favorite movies)! It stars Milla Jovovich, who did a pretty good job playing an action-heroine in the Resident Evil movies. The trailers made it look good! Action and guns and swords and stuff... I was ready to pay $2 to see this one.
I really don't know what to say about the movie overall. There wasn't much dialogue, which is a plus, since the only lines were flat, worthless, and worse than predictable (I would have predicted less cheesy lines).
There were two basic fight scenes - in the first, a small army rushes in and surrounds her. She spins around somehow with a sword, and they all fall over dead at once. In the second, they run at her one at a time, and she slashes 'em down.
Either way, half the movie is taken up with those same two fight scenes played over and over again on mildly different sets.
Let's see, bad dialogue, bad fight scenes... those were really the defining points of this movie. It's hard to say too much about the acting, since the actors weren't really given much to work with, but they didn't appear to make much of an effort anyway.
There were some bad CG effects... shaky camera work... all those scenes where the picture was blurred to make up for a lack of effort in shooting... yeah, don't even get close to this one. If you ever feel tempted to check it out, go watch Equilibrium instead. There's a quality film.
It was directed by Kurt Wimmer, director of Equilibrium (one of my favorite movies)! It stars Milla Jovovich, who did a pretty good job playing an action-heroine in the Resident Evil movies. The trailers made it look good! Action and guns and swords and stuff... I was ready to pay $2 to see this one.
I really don't know what to say about the movie overall. There wasn't much dialogue, which is a plus, since the only lines were flat, worthless, and worse than predictable (I would have predicted less cheesy lines).
There were two basic fight scenes - in the first, a small army rushes in and surrounds her. She spins around somehow with a sword, and they all fall over dead at once. In the second, they run at her one at a time, and she slashes 'em down.
Either way, half the movie is taken up with those same two fight scenes played over and over again on mildly different sets.
Let's see, bad dialogue, bad fight scenes... those were really the defining points of this movie. It's hard to say too much about the acting, since the actors weren't really given much to work with, but they didn't appear to make much of an effort anyway.
There were some bad CG effects... shaky camera work... all those scenes where the picture was blurred to make up for a lack of effort in shooting... yeah, don't even get close to this one. If you ever feel tempted to check it out, go watch Equilibrium instead. There's a quality film.
2006-01-10
Band of the week - nay, the month!
A few months ago, I stumbled upon Pandora.com. Pandora is an online radio that builds a custom station for you based on a band you enter. It's a good way to find new bands in the same genre as your favorite artists.
I was listening to Sum 41 radio, and getting a bunch of crap punk - when all of a sudden, I hear a new sound. I was a bit worried at first - it seemed so outrageous, so ridiculous - what the junk was up with the lead singer's voice? It was almost as if he was trying to sing normally, but what he really wanted to do was be screaming at the top of his lungs.
A bit later, another song by the same artist rolled around. I was starting to get interested - this stuff sounded fresh, and I wanted more. I looked into the band - named Billy Talent, I had been catching tracks off of their self titled album from 2003.
I acquired the album, and started listening to it liberally. It's an album with a solid rock beat, appealing guitar riffs, and energetic vocals. Apparently, they're on the popularity upswing at the moment, and have a few music videos out already. They're worth noting just because they seem to have found a genre untouched by most pop bands - avoiding the ho-hum rock formula, they've got the energy to pull off the yelling and screaming that they let fly.
The lyrics might not be anything terribly special, but at least they don't try for some kind of vague deepness. The album is well executed, with an entertaining new riff in almost every song. A solid secular band - worth a listen or two, at least.
I was listening to Sum 41 radio, and getting a bunch of crap punk - when all of a sudden, I hear a new sound. I was a bit worried at first - it seemed so outrageous, so ridiculous - what the junk was up with the lead singer's voice? It was almost as if he was trying to sing normally, but what he really wanted to do was be screaming at the top of his lungs.
A bit later, another song by the same artist rolled around. I was starting to get interested - this stuff sounded fresh, and I wanted more. I looked into the band - named Billy Talent, I had been catching tracks off of their self titled album from 2003.
I acquired the album, and started listening to it liberally. It's an album with a solid rock beat, appealing guitar riffs, and energetic vocals. Apparently, they're on the popularity upswing at the moment, and have a few music videos out already. They're worth noting just because they seem to have found a genre untouched by most pop bands - avoiding the ho-hum rock formula, they've got the energy to pull off the yelling and screaming that they let fly.
The lyrics might not be anything terribly special, but at least they don't try for some kind of vague deepness. The album is well executed, with an entertaining new riff in almost every song. A solid secular band - worth a listen or two, at least.
2006-01-06
Movie review: King Kong
I don't usually pay full price to watch a movie in theatres, and King Kong reminded me of why this is.
Being a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings movies, how could I not be interested in watching Peter Jackson's latest production? I mean, it may have been based on a cheesy movie that I never cared enough about to bother watching, but still - I was willing to give Jackson the benefit of the doubt.
But not even an optimistically attitude could make this movie any more than a forgettable CG fest. Flanked fore and aft by half hours of corny tripe, the most interesting parts of the movie are the ones full of expensive looking computer generated dinosaurs and people getting crushed.
It turns out that the most interesting aspects of the movie are the details surrounding it, not the movie itself - the special effects were done by Weta Workshop, of Lord of the Rings (and Narnia!) fame, and they did look top-notch. The big monkey looked real, and the dinosaur/Kong battles were downright exciting. And yes, the bugs were creepy.
Apparently, I almost got to enjoy another Howard Shore soundtrack, but he had a falling out with Jackson a few months before the movie's release. The final soundtrack was composed by some guy named James Newton Howard, who's written soundtracks for other movies that are pretty well known (though perhaps not for their soundtracks, as LotR was).
I wanted to enjoy a Jackson movie between Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit - but it's starting to look like Hobbit might not get made in the near future after all. Peter Jackson's next two scheduled movies are The Lovely Bones and Halo - not Tolkien related at all! Maybe Peter Jackson is just good at remaking old stories. With lots of pretty CG.
He certainly had the budget to make it look all fancified and shiny - apparently, the film had a budget of $207 million. They've made about 75% of that back already. Jackson got paid $20 million in advance to direct the movie - setting a record, as well as emphasizing a Hollywood trend equating quantity with quality. Eh well, I should stop ragging on Jackson - I still owe him plenty of props for his big trilogy.
Being a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings movies, how could I not be interested in watching Peter Jackson's latest production? I mean, it may have been based on a cheesy movie that I never cared enough about to bother watching, but still - I was willing to give Jackson the benefit of the doubt.
But not even an optimistically attitude could make this movie any more than a forgettable CG fest. Flanked fore and aft by half hours of corny tripe, the most interesting parts of the movie are the ones full of expensive looking computer generated dinosaurs and people getting crushed.
It turns out that the most interesting aspects of the movie are the details surrounding it, not the movie itself - the special effects were done by Weta Workshop, of Lord of the Rings (and Narnia!) fame, and they did look top-notch. The big monkey looked real, and the dinosaur/Kong battles were downright exciting. And yes, the bugs were creepy.
Apparently, I almost got to enjoy another Howard Shore soundtrack, but he had a falling out with Jackson a few months before the movie's release. The final soundtrack was composed by some guy named James Newton Howard, who's written soundtracks for other movies that are pretty well known (though perhaps not for their soundtracks, as LotR was).
I wanted to enjoy a Jackson movie between Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit - but it's starting to look like Hobbit might not get made in the near future after all. Peter Jackson's next two scheduled movies are The Lovely Bones and Halo - not Tolkien related at all! Maybe Peter Jackson is just good at remaking old stories. With lots of pretty CG.
He certainly had the budget to make it look all fancified and shiny - apparently, the film had a budget of $207 million. They've made about 75% of that back already. Jackson got paid $20 million in advance to direct the movie - setting a record, as well as emphasizing a Hollywood trend equating quantity with quality. Eh well, I should stop ragging on Jackson - I still owe him plenty of props for his big trilogy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
