Dec 2, 2008

Movie Reviews @ The Temple

Doomsday - Okay, here's how this movie's creation went.  Guy1: Y'know what's awesome?  Guns! and explosions!  Guy2: Y'know what's awesome?  ATVs! and car races! Guy3: Y'know what's awesome? The future! and a truly ridiculous and out of proportion amount of gore!  Guy4: Woah, guys, guys, guys, GUYS!  Isn't this getting a bit ridiculous?  I mean, how can we have guns and explosions and tanks and a retarded amount of blood, in the future, and still have full plate mail, horses, lances, maces, gladiator games, beheadings and CHICKS WITH SWORDS?!  Guys 1, 2, & 3: .......  Guy4: Nah, I'm just fuckin' with you, let's put it all in!

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Well, I heard this was really bad, and it's not really!  It's not really good either, I guess.  I saw the TV series, and it was decent.  The thing with a TV cartoon is you don't really expect much from it, just a fun star wars story, and that's what it gave you.  That's all the movie gives you, it doesn't much deserve to be a theater movie.  But it's fun, the fights are fun, the overarching story is good too.  For some baffling reason, the movie insists, every 10 minutes or so, on doing something unbelievably dumb.  Usually dialogue, often a failed joke, and it's just like "ugh, god dammit, why did you let george lucas write that line?"  I really did groan out loud more than once.  But the rest is just fine, I'd like to watch the new TV series.  Granted, I spent most of the movie paying more attention to Fallout 3 than the movie... but whatevs, it was decent!

 Son of Rambow - Awwww, this movie is adorable!  I apparently had no idea what this movie was about, I thought it was some cheap foreign action rip off thing.  It's actually the story of a boy who dreams of a life bigger than the one he's got, and of being a person who's bigger than he is, and finding a real friend.  It's not complicated or anything, nothing is surprising, but it's just so damn sweet.  It's genuinely funny, the boys are very charming.  Their performances don't quite hold up when things get very serious, but that is easily excused.  It's just a movie that makes you smile, its really worth seeing.

10,000 BC - Jesus fuck, is this entire movie going to look like it was done on a high school green screen?  Turns out, the answer is yes.  Also: what the hell continent do they live on that has every damn ethnicity?  Also also: just because you can make a convincing CG tiger doesn't mean it looks good.  CG has to fit, it has to blend into the movie, it has to be part of the movie.  It cannot be a very nice looking sticker on top of thefilm stock.  Also more: in all other unmentioned ways, this movie sucks nuts.  As a side note, I'm reading a book called The World Without Us about what would happen if humanity disappeared (but not our stuff or our impact) and it has much to say about the exctinction of the North American megafauna.  This movie makes me think of that and makes me kinda sad.

August Rush - Y'know, believe it or not, I think this movie maybe kinda possibly perhaps potentially could have been halfway decent!  There's actually a very nice mix of musical styles and what you might sillily call a journey of music.  I could see making a movie where a person comes of age or has a life that traverses musical moments or identities.  But, that's not what this movie does.  This movie talks about silly ass "connections" and bullshit "wavelengths" and robin williams dresses like a douche.  The kid does a good job, I think, he's got an innocence that would be very nice if it weren't embeded in the new agey bullshit.  The movie is pretty much as bad as you think it is, it tries too hard, its premise is too ridiculous, I can't see through it to get to the rest.  The tiny sad thing is just that glimmer of "hey, that could have been good.  damn."

Parallax View - Another reporter movie.  Turns out this is part of a "paranoia trilogy" by the same guy who did All The President's Men.  It certainly has the vibe.  The first 30 minutes is very good, draws you into this mystery and you really do want to know what's going on.  I'm afraid after a while I got a tiny bit bored.  I half imagine its just that I wasnt' in the mood for this kind of movie.  There's a lot of tension and quiet moments and not a lot going on.  It's still very good, I just wasn't super into the tension after a bit.  It picks up again at the end and it's got a great bookend of an ending.  I wish I loved it, I feel like I should have, but it was just good, not fantastic, for me.

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