Dec 15, 2008

Movie Reviews @ The Temple

Charlie Wilson's War - Huh, this wasn't quite what I expected.  I figured it'd be a very sober political drama.  And to be sure, it has dramatic historical weight, especially as it comes to the end.  Most of the movie, though, is very funny, it's practically a dark comedy.  It's written very slickly, too slickly, really.  I thought to myself "this seems like an aaron sorkin show" and sure enough, his name pops up immediately in the credits.  I didn't need so much smooth banter dialogue.  I like it, I loved west wing, but I think it's had its time and you need to be a little less slick to be believable.  But it is good, it's very enjoyable, and it fills in some important things I didn't know about those events.

The Savages - Wow, what a depressing damn movie.  It's just about being old, and how it sucks and sucks for everyone around you!  It's good, the three actors do a great job, it's just so sad, it's hard to feel good about the movie.  I don't really get while it's supposed to be a dark comedy.  It had a couple moments, I guess, but most of the humor was so muted by the opressing situation, that it wasn't funny so much as that much more depressing.  It's good, it's just a bear to watch.

Before The Devil Knows Your Dead - Umm.... well... it's good... I guess?  I guess it's my time for depressing Phillip Seymour Hoffman movies.  It's not as overtly sad, it's supposed to be a tense thriller, although I don't totally get that.  It tries to play with time, but not in a way that matters.  It's not like there's a mystery or big plot gaps.  It's just filling in the details as it goes along, I'm not really sure why they bothered with that.  For the first while I was pretty much not into it.  It picks up at the end and there is some reall good acting from Hoffman and Ethan Hawke.  I'm a little less impressed with Alfred Finney, it was mostly just trembling with rage.  In fact, there was a lot of trembling with rage in this movie, I got sick of it.  In the end, espeically the end, it's a very dramatic movie.  I'm not sure why I didn't totally buy into it, the parts were good, it just didn't completely resonate with me, not sure.

Chop Shop - Wow, what a great little movie. It's very simple, just this young boy who is trying to make his life, working at a garage, selling bootleg dvds, trying to get enough money to start a better life for him and his sister. It doesn't all work out, of course, and there's no real resolution, it's just a segment of their lives. But damn it's beautiful. It's filmed hand-held (but good quality) making it seem like you are
just watching them go. The acting, if I'm being critical, is a little forced, but it's completely forgivable. The ending actually made me say
"wow" out loud. Great movie.

The Good German - Umm... it's a good try I guess.  So this is George Clooney doing a WWII movie, filmed like an old movie.  It's black and white, it has overly dramatic music, there's even this weird softness to it all.  Not like barbara walters inerview soft, but just a weird saturation.  The sky was bright white all the time, the characters seemed to glow a bit.  Maybe all the war-time backgrounds had to be digital so it gave it a fakey look.  The story is just average, kind of a suspense mystery thing, but not all that engaging.  People act fine, I just don't there's that far to go with the script.  The big bombshell is not big at all, so instead of an oh em gee moment at the end, I'm left with a "huh.... k, was that supposed to be a Casablanca homage? cuz you aren't as good as that movie, so don't make me think of it"  I dunno, it's not bad, it's cool they were trying to do something like that, I just don't think it was that interesting, separate from style.  Oh well, another movie in the "meh" column for George Clooney.

Flakes - Ugh.  Okay, so while I watched this I thought of one or two good things to say about it, but now I really can't remember them.  The bad things? everything else.  It's a douchebag hipster story with douchebag hipster actors saying douchebag hipster dialogue.  To be fair, this movie had an uphill climb for me.  If I had never heard of a Cereal Bar, I would think that is quirky and cute and would never exist.  Problem is, it does exist, on campus, and it's stupid.  Plus this movie has Zooey Daschanel in it, who I have a well-documented dislike for.  Turns out she can, ocassionally, have a personality, unfortunately it's the personality of a bad actress.  The plot is just amateurish anti-starbucks lame ass hippy-hipster bleating with weak characters filling their token roles.  It feels like it was made by a rebellious teenager who probably thinks that if his movie made any money, he's a sellout working for the man.  It's forced, it's awkward, some of the one-on-one scenes are downright uncomfortable.  Also, they ruined Christopher Lloyd.  Oh, I remember the one good thing, the one and only time Deschanel's drab tranquilized monotone acting has ever been good, said in the context of a relationship: "What has been sufficient to get us to this step is insufficient to get us to the next step.  I got that from a fortune cookie and it's true."  That's it, now you don't have to see the movie.

No comments: