Quick reviews

Some quick reviews of films screened since the last entry

The Dark Knight A

This is the only film this year that is in the running to unseat WALL*E as the best film of the year. I hope to do a more exstensive blog on this film (including spoilers) after I see it for a third time so I will leave further comment on the film until then.

Superhero Movie C

Saw this in the hotel room with Alex and he laughed his butt off which elevated this to a C, anything that gives your kids pleasure it's hard to be too rough on. Others wise a somewhat lazy effort as all these films tend to be better than Epic Movie, but that isn't saying much.

National Treasure II: Book of Secrets C-

Actually a little bit better than the first one, which to my mind was unwatchable, this is still pretty ridiculous, seeking logic look elswhere.

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D B-

This is fun, especially in 3-D, I was expecting to enjoy the 3-Dness of it but be pretty bored by the story. What I found was that they were actually fairly clever on the story front, they had a nice entry into the story, this isn't a remake of an earlier version but a new way to explore the novel.

Space Chimps C-

Yeah better to just not, it's not so bad it's offensive but it also isn't really worth your time.


The Age of Innocence A

This is part of Ali and I's linking film game, the previous film was a Room With a View, the link between the films is actually multiple, Daniel Day-Lewis is a link, also adaptations from novels, period films with the class system as a theme. When I first saw this film upon it's initial release at the Century Seven theatre in Fargo I was underwhelmed. My initial feeling was that the voice over narration did not work, and the the film seemed devoid of any real emotion. Then a few years later I rewatched it on laserdisc and was astonished at how different my reaction was. This is a great film, the voice over narration is pitch perfect, and it is all about emotion, and the burying of it. Great film, fantastic performances throughout.

Next film in our linking game was....

The Dead Poets Society B+

Link here being Robert Sean Leonard who appears at the very end of The Age Of Innocence. Films holds up fairly well, I had not seen it since it's release in theatres, when Robin Williams first came on screen I got a little worried that this would be with hindsight a Patch Adams performance, thankfully not, this is Williams the actor not williams the Ham. Also very good was Robert Sean Leonard and Josh Charles. The one thing that struck me was the lack of story arc for what seemed at times to be the main character played by Ethan Hawke. He had some scenes that seemed to sort of deal with his issues but he didn't really seem to be the focus of the film most of the time and then also seemed at times that he was supposed to be the character through whose eyes we experienced the story. That part didn't really seem to come together, but that is a minor quibble.

The next film was ...

Flirting A-

The link being a boys school. I remember it was around new years 1993 Scott, Dawn, June, and I were in MPLS to celebrate the holidays with my Mom and little brother Aaron, we went to a screening of Peter's Friends at the Uptown theatre. Before it was saw two trailers that I remember to this day, Strictly Ballroom, and Flirting. Neither of which I was ever able to see until they came out on home video both of which I owned on laserdisc and now on DVD. This film is actually a sequel to a film The Year My Voice Broke and is actually the second in a planned trilogy, the third installment of which seems destined never to be made. Flirting is one of the best films about young love ever made. It perfectly captures the growning love and respect between two individuals it acknowledges the importance of the sexual feelings of characters at this age but also shows it as more than just hormones. You have a genuine desire for these two people to get together, and you can only hope that someday down the road they will find each other again. The film does a great job of rounding out the supporting characters with very little effort or screen time, no one outside the main characters really has a story arc and yet you feel like you know them, at least as well as you know the people you went to school with. It captures so many things about adolecence besides first love, like the cruelty of kids that age towards each other, and how ridiculous adults can be.




X-Files: I Want to Believe B

I'm a fan of the show, I'm a fan of the characters, I liked it. I can understand why some people would be expecting Aliens or something that played into the x-files mythology more, but I didn't have a problem with that chance. I thought the story was engaging, and creepy. but really what I was there for was the Scully Mulder dynamic and I thought it gave us a nice little. update on that.

The Tracey Fragments D+

yeah, I like Ellen Page too, I like her a lot, and she's does what she can here, but this is just a mess that really doesn't seem to go anywhere and it's derailed by it's overbearing technique, fractured screens to the tenth power, almost unwatchable I found myself constantly checking the time elapsed to see if it was almost over.

The Martian Chronicles C

This is a made for early 80's TV miniseries and it shows, the best parts are the ideas which come from master story teller Ray Bradbury, but pretty much everything else is cheese on toast. Interesting but this production did not age well.

Torn Curtain B-

This is one of the few Hitchcock films I had never seen before, finally got around to it and I can see why it isn't considered a classic, but it's still true Hitchcock, and there are many scenes that work very well. This is definitely one I would check out again.

Topaz D+

One of the other Hitchcock's I had never seen, this one will not be veiwed again it was a tough screening. There was one scene that felt like classic Hitchcock and that was the opening sequence. Beyond that it really felt like a mess and the ending is terribly anticlimatic, something you do not expect from Hitch.

Smart People B

This was a much more enjoyable outing from Ellen Page. Thomas Haden Church is also very good here, the less effective performance is that of the lead Dennis Quaid, he made one wrong choice in his performance and while it doesn't ruin the film or even his contribution it is unsuccessful, it is the choices he made to physicalize his characters conceitedness. the raised nose and affected speech patterns in certain scenes were just off otherwise it was good.

Tropic Thunder A-

This is very funny very enjoyable time at the movies. Great comedic performances from Steve Coogan, Robert Downey Jr. and Jay Baruchel in particular. In fact performance wise the only not pitch perfect one was Ben Stiller, who was still good, he just seemed to be playing it a little broader than the rest of the cast. Tom Cruise also give a completely original performance as an obnoxious bald foulmouthed studio exec.