Movies

Quote of the day

Bush vs. Kerry – Whoever wins… we lose!

(if you don’t get it, than watch a trailer for “Alien vs. Predator“)

Man on Fire

Olga and I went to the cinema today to watch “Man on Fire“. It turned out to be a much better movie than I expected.

The story was pretty predictable and unoriginal. Except maybe for a half happy ending. Anyway, the story is not the strongest side of this movie. The way it was told is. This film is not actually an action like it seemed it would be from the trailer, and like a billion of other movies based on the same story are. This film is actually a drama. And a good one.

The movie starts very slow. And it keeps very slow until about a little after middle. Than it gets really fast. And than it slows down towards the end again, now for a dramatic ending. This way setting it was very original and did make the movie seem deeper than it is.

There was a lot of good acting. Denzel Washington was the best choice for the main role. It is exactly his type of movie and his type of role. And he did it better than he did it ever before. Dakota Fanning, a young star, was also very good and feeling provocative. Everyone else were supportive but nobody I can pick out with excellence.

Summary: the movie is a strong 8 out 10. I’ll watch it again after some time.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

Watched “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” with Olga on DVD. Both she and I really enjoyed the first two movies, and both she and I didn’t like this one. Let me explain a bit…

First of all, the expectations. Both the first and the second parts were entertaining, active and in general fantastic. So our expectations were a bit boosted up. Especially mine. And it is always a pity when a movie doesn’t live up to expectations.

Misuse of the resources. This film is full of stars. First and totally undoubtful is the directory himself –
Robert Rodriguez. He proved many times that he knows a lot about how movies should be done, and that he can do movies the right way. Here something went wrong. It felt very empty, lifeless, boring and commercial. Cast for this film has such a long list of well known names that I cannot even remember another movie like this. Among the ones who don’t need no introduction: Antonio Banderas, Sylvester Stallone, Mike Judge, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, and others. I mean there are probably more people you can name without IMDB than in any other movie. And they all have nothing to do there.

The story sucked. It was so pure and transparent that it was very boring. I bet that even kids were falling asleep while watching it. All coolness was gone. Noone was cool anymore. Superheros running towards their grandpa in case of any minor danger. No gadgets. No spy talk. Nothing.

There were plenty of annimation. Actually the whole film is one huge animation with real people in it (supposedly inside a video game). But even this was boring. It wasn’t anything like a computer game. Take for example a scene where they are racing some strange vehicles at magnificent speeds – no thrill and no turns. They drive in a straight line. In which video game was that? :)

Anyway, I have a bunch of complains about this film. I expected it to be in line with the previous two, but it was way off. I will write it off as something Rodriguez wanted to do for his own reasons and I will forget about this film. I’ll rate as 4 out of 10. Save you money and spend them on something else. Watch this on TV when it’ll come… it will help you fall asleep. With your kids.

Superstar

Watched “Superstar” on TV. This is a rather average comedy with a few laughs which is mostly for teenagers. It covers the regular topics of school, dating, and coolness. It has some religion stuff in it too. Will Ferrell is the ultimate Jesus – the best I’ve ever seen so far.

This movie is based on a very regular story. How an ugly girl can get the dating attention of the coolest guy in school, while he is dating the prettiest girl around? And than, how comes that the coolest guy is actually a sucky date and the actual love strikes from someone who has been a friend for some time now. The good part though is the setup. All happens in a catholic school with church personalities shown pretty good. The ugliest girl is actually so desperate for date that she kisses every other tree and talks to every other traffic sign.

The long story short, 5 out of 10 does this movie justice. If you’ve been on more than 5 dates with a total of more than 2 different people, go watch some romance if you are a girl or porn if you are a boy.

The Pledge

Olga and I watched “The Pledge” on DVD. The cover got all my attention with names like Jack Nicholson, Benicio Del Toro, and Mickey Rourke all over it. I immidiately wanted to watch it.

When the film started I had a strong feeling of deja vu. I knew every scene, but I never could say what will happen next or what else is there in the movie. It’s deep into the second half of it when I realized that I’ve seen it. It is one of my favourites from the passive memory flicks. No matter what IMDB says about this film – it is a very strong drama. I also very much enjoy how symbolical the whole film is. Every frame can be watched separately, kind of like a photograph, and each frame will have a story just within it. Great work there!

Basically, Nicholson plays the main role in the movie and he has most of the screen time. He is excellent as usual, although his make-up is kind of original. He looks very casual. Kind of like everyone else. There is no focus on him what-so-ever. Actually, sometimes in the beginning of the movie it is even difficult to say if it is him or not. As story unfolds, it is, of course, impossible to make a mistake.

Another great acting part was done by Del Toro. His part is kind of short, but it looks very realistic and, well… dramatic.

The film is a little long and slow paced at 123 minutes (just over 2 hours), but if you enjoy compressed and defragmented camera work and composition – that’s you film. Overall, I would rate as a strong 8 out of 10. It does lean towards the 9 a lot.