Jeez, one measly writers' strike and I have no choice but to watch a kajillion movies:
Sweeney Todd - Pretty good! The movie part was great, the style was great (Burton Blue, naturally), the musical part was alright. Some songs were good, some not so much. The only overtly bad thing was the title sequence, which was awful. I know the blood was supposed to be stylistically reminiscent of the blood in the movie, but jeez was it bad looking.
The Golden Compass - Sigh. Why must you ruin great things, Hollywood Types?! I mean, it wasn't awful. CGI was mostly okay (besides the persistant problem that CGI stands out unrealistically). The fights were pretty cool, I guess. Nicole Kidman was nicely evil, Sam Eliot is a badass, Daniel Craig was unfortunately forgetable. There were lots of little things that worked, and lots of things that annoyed me. The whole movie felt like it was on fast forward. Maybe this was because I know the full plot, but if you didn't, you'd probably just feel confused. Also, I was so incredibly annoyed with Lyra and her "I do what I want!" attitude, which I don't remember feeling much of with the book. So, I don't know, it wasn't awful, just lots of flaws. Good enough, I hope, to make another one.
Across The Universe - Holy shit balls, this was great! Interesting to see a week after Sweeney Todd, cuz I think it blows it out of the water. There's nothing original about the story (apparently it's just a Hair rip-off anyway), and it was by no means perfect, but it is just handled in such a fantastic way, I loved it. The choreography (or whatever you'd call it) of the musical numbers is magical, the songs are great, the gospel version of Let It Be is fucking amazing. Eddie Izzard, I'm sad to say, was in the weakest part of the film (a super-surreal carnival-inspired but ultimately lackluster trip). Still, falling just short of Chicago, I think this is the second best musical I've ever seen.
Hair - Well, now I had to go see Hair just to compare to Across the Universe. I'm not sure it gets a fair shake from me, it's so old, and silly, and the songs are not my style, it couldn't help but fall short to the amazing AtU. The ending was pretty wow, and I'm sure it was great for it's time. But it's hard for it to appeal to me on first viewing in 2008.
The Kingdom - Well, despite being CSI: Riyadh for a while, this was actually quite good. I always feel unsure with these type things (and there are increasingly more these days) if they do the subject justice, it's hard to tackle and make entertaining, I imagine. Nonetheless, I thought they did both and I enjoyed it.
Shoot 'em Up - Hahahaha. This movie is 5 pounds of ridiculous in a 3 pound bag. It is also 4 pounds of awesome in a similarly sized, but different color, 3 pound bag. Which is to say, it is more ridiculous than awesome (though the ratio is more like 5 to 1), but there is awesomeness to be had, if you're into it.
Halloween, 2007 Edition - So, did we need this? Nah. Was it alright? Sure. Boobs, blood, slow lumbering guy who I discovered is much more threatening when in fast forward. What else did you want?
The Brave One - Everyone likes vigilante movies, right? This was a different take, I guess. It didn't totally catch me, to be honest. No real failing, I just wasn't taken in by it. Maybe in the wrong mood, maybe not for me, dunno.
Evan Almighty - Seems like it shoulda been funny. I guess I was playing a game at the same time. Some funny moments, but just seemed like an exaggeration of the first one that was funny, I think.
The Eye - So there's a remake of this coming, I figured I'd watch the original. It was pretty cool, not really a scary movie. Some tense moments which were good, but nothing like the ring or grudge. And in that sense I actually liked it more than those, neither ring nor grudge really scared me. So it was more of a thriller, rather american actually, were there's this ability, a mystery, a solution, etc. Nothing awesome, but worth seeing.
Step Up - Well, this was a dance movie, I was hoping to see lots of cool stuff. Frankly I saw way better on every single episode of So You Think You Can Dance. I was totally dissappointed.
Goya's Ghosts - Well, this was an interesting one. Period piece, around the time of the Inquistion & Napoleon. The first 20 or 30 minutes were fantastic, and the last 10 minutes were as well. The middle... seemed a little meandering to me. I mean, there's a pretty focused story, but somehow the middle felt loose. It felt like it went fast, but at the same time that not a lot was happening, sorta weird. The acting was respectible from the three main people. Javier Bardem (from No Country For Old Men) is pretty good, though nothing like NCFOM, Natalie Portman has a smallish crazy role that's fine. Over all, it's interesting, but something is wrong.
Elizabeth - I know I'm years behind on this one, but I wanted to watch the sequel, and I had never seen this one. No surprise, it was very good. A very nice historic drama, well acted and full of intrigue and all that. Quite good.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age - What the hell happened?! The hollywood'd up the first movie! It's all war and battles and STUPID soap opera romance bullcrap. I have no idea why anyone came back for this.
The Condemned - This movie is alright in a simple action way, but it sort of argues with itself and loses. The idea is 10 convicts fight to the death on some island for uber internet ratings/money. Of course there is talk about if this is right or not. So nominally, the movie is saying this is wrong, but they are making us a fake version of it anyway, because we all want to see people beat the shit out of each other. BUT, assuming you've made that seemingly hypocritical decision, the movie is monstrously tame. There is some implied brutality, but nothing really shown, barely any blood, certainly no gore. If you want to be disgusting, be disgusting! If you want to say such things are bad, don't do it. Pick one, I don't care, just make up your mind!
Inland Empire - Wtf? Ok, well this is one of those movies, either self-indulgent or genius depending on your point of view. It's David Lynch, I've never seen any of his movies, so I didn't know it'd be so effin' weird. It's all psychological and stuff, all filmed on what seems like handy cam way zoomed it so it seems nightmarish. There were a couple parts with really terrifying sounds too. In the end, this film is either beyond me or I don't care, I'm not sure which. I'm sure you could put a lot of effort into deciphering what was real and what wasn't, or if that's not even the point. It's 3 hours and I totally don't have the energy/capability to figure it out. But if you are into that sorta thing, you'll love it.
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