watching movies one cup at a time

I really enjoyed this movie but I gotta tell ya, it was a huge bummer.

But first, what I liked about it. I always dig movies like this with big apocalyptic scenarios set in the future. It’s fascinating to me to speculate what could happen in certain circumstances. And good movies make it look so real, it’s easy to get into it. I Am Legend is a good movie. The scenario is believable and the flashback scenes of the impending doom are very dramatic and have weight. A movie is much scarier when it has an element of reality to it. Zombies and aliens are one thing, but an out-of-control virus that wipes out most of the planet is far too potentially real. And the scenes of a deserted NYC are amazing. Very effective and you can’t help but wonder how the hell they did that. Read the rest of this entry »

So they drag Indiana Jones out from storage after almost 20 years, dusting him off and sending him back out for one more adventure. Sounds great on paper but the truth is that the original three movies are held in such high regard, you have got to come out with a really, really, REALLY good story in order justify adding a fourth movie in to the mix. ESPECIALLY after such a huge gap in time between films. You shouldn’t just do it for the sake of doing it. There should be a damn good reason. Well, does the fourth film live up to that hype? Not even close unfortunately.

Where do we begin with the flaws in this movie. How about Shia Lebouff? Indy’s so-called son is thrown in the mix here as a psuedo-Marlon Brando “Wild One” figure that one assumes is supposed to attract a younger audience to the film. However, not only is Shia a lame, one-note actor, but he is given one of the absolute WORST moments in film history as he “tarzan” vine swings through the jungle in one of the film’s many chase scenes. Just appalling. Not to mention that he is immediately out acted every second he and Harrison Ford share the screen. If anyone ever had a thought that Shia would take over for Harrison Ford as the lead in the Indiana Jones movies, he must have been hit over the head with a crystal skull. Not even close. Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones is a film icon. Shia Lebouff couldn’t win an acting battle with a big car-smashing robot. As long as Shia has idiot costars like Megan Fox, he’ll be fine. But keep him far away from anything even resembling a classic. Read the rest of this entry »

In theaters now, Iron Man is the long-awaited film based on the Marvel comic book superhero. Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, a rich, boyish genius whose company builds sophisticated weapons for the military. But after he’s kidnapped by terrorists using his own company’s weapons, he decides he can no longer be a part of building tools of destruction. While held captive he builds his first version of the Iron Man suit which he uses to escape. Once home he declares that his company will no longer be making weapons, which doesn’t sit well with his partner Obidiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). Tony starts to perfect his Iron Man suit in order to go out and stop the terrorists who have been using his company’s weapons. And of course eventually he and Stane have to come to a final showdown.

Robert Downey Jr. may have seemed like an odd choice for Tony Stark at first, but we could even tell in the movie trailers for this film that he was going to give it all he had and make this character work. And he sure does deliver. This is a great actor that had gone through some troubled times, not unlike the character of Tony Stark. One of the challenges of this role was to show the transformation of Tony Stark from bored playboy to a hero and from a jerk to someone likable. Downey did it brilliantly and really showed what he could do here as he effortlessly rattled off witty one-liners, channeled Errol Flynn and Howard Hughes, and created a character so completely that you cannot imagine anyone else in that role once you’ve seen the film. He made the movie fun. Unlike the tortured Batman and Superman, this movie’s Iron Man is having a really good time. Read the rest of this entry »

This film is the 4th version of the Invasion of The Body Snatchers that’s been released. Originally the first film released in the 50’s was a rather obvious “red scare” flick barely hiding it’s metaphor of alien clones as evil commies coming and brainwashing freedom-loving Americans. However now that the “red menace” is a forgotten bedtime story, what do the aliens represent this time?

There are some huge plot differences in this version. The main one being that the humans are no longer replaced by alien clones. In the original, there would be a pod-like thing that would suck all your mojo from you while you slept and then spit out a perfectly identical clone. In the new version tho the alien takeover is more like a virus that gets in your system and kind of reprograms you. But it can be cured, whereas in all the previous flicks once they got you, it was over. You were dead and Mr. Pod Clone was the new you. Which is how this movie scored a happy ending while the other ones kind of ended rather ominously. Does this help or hurt the movie? Well it’s not as scary if you can “cure” an alien invasion. It was much more frightening when they were just straight up killing people and replacing them with “pod people.” Read the rest of this entry »