watching movies one cup at a time

I feel like the knives were out for M. Night Shyamalan this time around. No matter what movie he did, I get the impression the critics were going to rip him and people just weren’t going to get behind it. I think it’s a common phenomenon where an artist peaks on their first project and then spends the rest of their career trying to best that initial success. And it really does seem like each of his films has gotten weaker and weaker. Now I didn’t hate his last film, The Lady In The Water, like so many other people did. But it wasn’t great. And now we have The Happening and again pressure is put on M. Night Shyamalan to “win back” his audience and live up to the burden of his potential that was put on him after The Sixth Sense.

But unfortunately The Happening isn’t the one that’s going to do that. The story is interesting but it’s paper-thin. There is just not much to grab on to here and the characters spend most of the time running from the wind. Yes, the wind. Sound scary? “It’s getting windy!!! HOLY CRAP!!!” is not really the spine-chilling scream we usually hear in movies like this. But yea, it’s the wind. Ya see, the plants are revolting against the evil, polluting humans and are releasing a chemical toxin into the air that basically reverses a person’s self-preservation instinct. So as a result they immediately kill themselves. I didn’t think about it before I saw the movie, but once I was watching it I realized I was watching over an hour of people committing suicide. Sound like a good time? Not really. It was kind of a big bummer actually. Especially when they throw in kids and parents and all that sentimental stuff that is only there to make you feel terrible. Read the rest of this entry »

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is the sequel to 2004’s Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, the stoner comedy that became a hit on DVD generating a well-deserved large group of fans. This sequel picks up immediately after the end of the first story as roommates Harold and Kumar set off on a trip to Amsterdam to get the girl Harold is in love with and of course do all the things stoner’s would do in Amsterdam. Things go terribly wrong however when they get mistaken for terrorists on the plane and wind up getting sent to Guantanamo. Wackiness ensues.

I really enjoyed the first film. I thought it was clever and well done with just the right balance of low-brow humor and good natured fun. But for the second movie it feels like the filmmakers took all the things I liked about the first one and tossed them completely out the window. Any cleverness, any subtlety, and any logical sense has pretty much left the building. Instead we get 100 minutes of wince-inducing gross-out humor strung together with a series of nonsensical skits that are neither funny or fun. While the first film was one adventurous night in Jersey, this film is all over the place for no apparent reason and with no apparent direction. Read the rest of this entry »

This movie got kind of a bad rap when it came out recently. It seemed like it was blown off as just another video game movie. Well, it is just another video game movie, but what makes it actually pretty decent is the incredible performance by Timothy Olyphant. When I heard he was doing this movie, I didn’t really get it because he just didn’t seem the type that fit the character. But I shouldn’t have underestimated him because he pulled it off perfectly. He plays the character as a cold, merciless killer but does it intelligently enough to make him likable and have you rooting for him. And he is just super-smooth and cool the entire time. He makes Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible look like a clumsy 14 year old. Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Wise directed this between West Side Story and The Sound Of Music. And though it isn’t as grandiose as either of those, it is still an exceptional movie executed by a very talented director. It’s essentially a ghost story, and what I like about it is that it simply relies on sounds, shadows, and camera work to convey the terror. Shot in gorgeous black and white, it leaves more to the imagination than anything else, and that is always more effective at scaring the audience. Read the rest of this entry »

Why? Why redo this movie? The original was a subtle, black and white haunted house movie. This new version went completely psycho-nuts with the computer-generated crap all over the place. WAY over the top. I’m all for CGI adding something to a movie, but they just ripped out any subtlety and ran right into using every opportunity they could to CGI something. Doors, curtains, fireplaces, paintings, smoke, beds, you name it. And it was ugly CGI too with weird beds coming to life looking like some kind of alien escaped from war of the worlds. Read the rest of this entry »

Eh. It just wasn’t very funny. It was a pleasant enough movie but it just didn’t hold my interest. I’m a big fan of Samberg & Co.’s Digital Shorts on SNL. But maybe they wouldn’t work either if they were stretched out to 2 hours. Some of the jokes in the film seem like the kind of things comedians brainstorm in a writer’s meeting but probably sound much better as an idea rather than actually doing it. Other jokes feel like they were just shoe-horned in so the guys could do something “quirky” that didn’t have anything to do with the movie. You never really find much out about these characters or why they do the things they do. Why does Rod keep doing stunts when he always fails? Why do his friends support him so blindly? I know it’s just a silly movie but there really wasn’t much to grab on to in terms of empathizing with this guy. A movie like this wants you to root for the lead character, but we’re not given a good enough reason WHY we should root for him. All would have been forgiven if the movie was really funny, but unfortunately it falls short.

What happens when Peter Pan grows up? It’s an interesting question. And one this movie attempts to answer. The story is set when Peter Pan is in is late 30’s and has completely forgotten his past. He stayed in the real world, got adopted, got married and now has children of his own. And in the process he became an overworked businessman who has lost touch with his family. A trip back to London sparks a new confrontation with Capt. Hook, played by Dustin Hoffman, as he kidnaps Peter’s children to provoke him into a fight. However Hook is disappointed to find a middle-aged out-of-shape Peter, played by Robin Williams, and not the young scraper he feels was his only worthy foe. Peter eventually remembers who he is and the two enemies fight it out. And Peter returns home with a new sense of joy and all is well in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Just plain awful. This movie is a classic example of advertising bait-and-switch. The trailer for this movie clearly portrays it as a light romantic-comedy, some cutesy piffle with Drew Barrymore falling in love with Luke Wilson. But when you actually watch the flick, it’s really about this outrageous scenario where Luke Wilson and his crazy brother are manipulated by their psychotic mother to harass their step-father, killing him in the process, and going after Drew whom they believe knows what they did. There are fighter jets, people dying, attempts on Drew’s life (her character is pregnant btw). Granted it still TRYS to be a romantic-comedy, but this whole crazy story about the step-dad and the psycho family out to get Drew is just weird and poorly done. It sucks for people who may rent this thinking it’s something like Riding in Cars with Boys or Never Been Kissed (2 way better Drew Barrymore chick flicks), because it’s totally not what is advertised. It’s way, way worse. Avoid at all costs.

This movie was really stupid. It pairs up the Farrelly Brothers and Ben Stiller once again but unlike There’s Something About Mary, the jokes here fall flat and Ben Stiller’s character is a lot less likable. In fact, many of the jokes here feel like they’re recycled from Mary like a bad imitation. Read the rest of this entry »