|   Recent rentals | tugmcmartin
Oct 20, 2003 11:13 AM | | Been a while since i've posted anything in here. Been busy with travel and work, plus football season has taken away my prime movie watching time. But here's several rentals i've seen in the past several weeks and a few comments on each.
Quiet American - Decent enough movie. Nothing really special or noteworthy from it. Tough to see the Best Picture hype for this one. Seems like anything that has to do with injustices and war gets some sort of extra attention come award time. Brendan Frasier was refreshingly good, but Caine didn't do much to stretch from other performances he's had. He was good, but not great.
The Pianist - Brody was great in this, but i still think Lewis got robbed by the Academy for Best Actor. Bill the Butcher was such a memorable character. Anyway, this was a good period movie dealing with WWII and the holocaust, but like the Quiet American it didn't touch on anything we didn't already know about that time frame in history. War and destruction footage seemed pedestrian along side Private Ryan and Schindler. Still one of the best of the year though.
The Recruit - pretty average action thriller. Pacino doing Pacino was boring. Anyone else think he's over rated? Farrell wasn't that great either. Barely entertaining enough to hold my attention.
Love Liza - great movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a distressed widower who succombs to the magic of huffing. Great performance by Hoffman. Kathy Bates had a good turn as his mother-in-law who was also dealing with the death of her daughter (his wife). Some great comedic scenes centering around model airplaning and boating. Sad but insightful movie worth seeing.
Bulletproof Monk - another very average action flick. Stifler (Seann William Scott) was surprisingly decent in this one. Really stupid love story involved. Fight scenes were pretty cool. Entertaining enough, but not that good overall. Good popcorn muncher.
Identity - I really liked this one. Kept you on your toes the entire time. Some good twists kept it entertaining to the end. Though you have a sense that you know what's going on throughout the movie, you're never really sure. Good performances by pretty much everyone, most notably John Cusack and Ray Liotta as only Ray can be. Definitely worth seeing.
Far From Heaven - What a crock of shite this movie was. I dreaded every single minute of this movie. It was just soooo bland. The characters sucked. Everyone of them. The 1950's couldn't have possibly been that boring. And did people really talk and act that way? My parents said no. I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be a parody of 1950s living or not. I kept wanting to laugh at the screen, but the serious subject matter the movie tried to address made it difficult to do so. Absolutely awful movie. Ranks in my top 10 worst movies list.
Real Cancun - Sadly, this was more entertaining than Far From Heaven. At least these "performances" seemed real (despite the fact that we know they weren't cuz a camera makes everyone "act"). This was kinda like driving by a car crash on the highway for me. I wanted to hit stop about 30 times and go do something productive with my day, but i just couldn't keep from looking. Afterwards i felt pretty dirty and in need of a shower. A movie of absolutely no substance, and no social value. Yet i still rate it above Far From Heaven. Avoid this one.
Primal Fear - An older movie i've been wanting to see for a while but just never did. Pretty good and entertaining movie despite the fact that you know the ending before it happens. Gere (one of my least favorite actors) was surprisingly good. And i have yet to see Norton do something i didn't like. Glad i finally saw it.
Windtalkers - Interesting idea, but poorly executed. Seemed like the indian aspect of WWII took a back seat to showing explosives and body parts. As a result, the message i think the film-makers were trying to co |
| re: Recent rentals (continued) | tugmcmartin
Oct 20, 2003 11:15 AM | | Windtalkers - Interesting idea, but poorly executed. Seemed like the indian aspect of WWII took a back seat to showing explosives and body parts. As a result, the message i think the film-makers were trying to convey get lost on the cutting room floor. Movie seemed thrown together in hodge-podge fashion to try to recreate yet another WWII movie with realistic fighting when what it should have focused on with more acuity was the story of the navajo code talkers.
In the theaters i saw "Duplex" with Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore. Decent slapstick comedy movie, but you seen nothing new. Same Stiller act (which is pretty good for what it is) and same Barrymore act. The old lady who plays the tenant made the movie. Worth a rental, but not much else.
T- |
| If you like | RGA
Oct 25, 2003 7:38 PM | | movie discussions this place is pretty pathetic. You should try http://www.rottentomatoes.com/forum/ one of the biggest movie discussion forums I know of. |
| |
