the bank job

as a jason statham fan, i've been wanting to see this one since it first came out in theaters. i finally had the chance to watch it, and i was quite impressed. the plot is easy to guess: its a bank heist. a very simple plot, simply done. this film does a great job of just telling the story, silly plot twists or a director trying to be sneaky, its a straight forward story done very well. statham and his gang are trying to rob a bank. there are a couple twists as far as the peoples loyalty, but over all its a strong story told well. one small note: if you want to watch it, make sure you put the subtitles on- the english accents are very thick!

tropic thunder

jeffry lee, aaron, and i went to go see this. we couldnt decide if we should see this one, or 'pineapple express'. we figured the other one would have better dvd stuff, so we could wait. this one won out by default. this is a bit of a metaphor about the movie itself, as it turns out...
the film is about a bunch of actors making a movie about a war, and then they accidentally find themselves in a war in the jungle for real. there was a lot of possibilities for this movie, but it kind of felt like it went nowhere. every character and every joke setup was ripe with humor and ridiculous antics, but the execution was way off. an actor known for fart jokes just makes more fart jokes, an actor known for action just does action, and an actor known for his roles just plays a role. it didnt go anywhere. it seemed like a lot of noise and explosions with no substance. a banana peel, with no bananas. there were a couple good jokes, mostly during the fake previews before the story even started, but not enough to keep it going. i like all three of the main actors, but they just werent able to keep this clunker afloat.

doomsday

i guess i should admit my bias right up front: i have no love for post-apocalyptic mad max movies. and this is one of them. this film is by the same director/writer as 'descent', which was a really good and scary cave diving movie. it seems that he ran out of ideas after that one and instead just decided to copy a bunch of other movies. this one feels like a combination of so many other movies, that there is really no real new idea in it. it steals liberally from movies like '28 days later', 'mad max: escape from thunderdome', 'waterworld', 'reign of fire', 'resident evil: apocalypse', 'robin hood: prince of thieves', 'devil's rejects', and about a dozen others. its lame, its tired, and ive seen it done better. way better. often.

rent

diana has been obsessed with this one lately. shes had it saved on her tivo for a while (with movies she keeps then on there even after she watches it). about a month ago i surprised her with the soundtrack, which she loved. i reluctantly listened to it while we were on a drive a couple weeks ago, and it turns out its not that bad. she would try and explain the story as we would listen to each song so that it would make sense. it sounded mildly interesting, so i told her i wouldnt mind watching it some time. dang, i should have known that she would take me up on that... oops!
most of the original broadway cast is in this movie, which is great in that we get to see the story with its original vision, but also a bit strange because these actors are 10 to 15 years too old for their parts. instead of it being college age kids trying to live out their dreams, we see 35 to 40 year olds desperately clinging on to a past life and they should know better. the music is definitely the best part of the film, but im not crazy about musicals, so even that took a bit to get past. these being broadway actors, they have a very distinctive singing style, and it really annoys me. they over pronounciate everything. granted, its good to understand what they are singing, but they take it a bit too far with their exacting word use. at times the story was quite engaging, and when a character dies, it is actually very moving. there are a ton of main characters to follow, which isnt too hard, but it does lead to another big problem with the movie- id didnt quite know when to stop. the pacing is a bit off, and it feels like the movie ends at three different points, yet it keeps going. this could have been done a bit better. by the final ending i didnt really care because i would have turned it off after the first ending.

x-files: i want to believe

as a fan of the television show, i was quite excited for this movie. i remember when i first heard that it was announced i couldnt wait to see it! i really liked the show, and watched it as often as i could. i was really into it around the time that the first movie came out, and i loved it! it was a culmination of all the story lines of the show coming together and we finally got some answers about the whole thing. it had all the complicated story lines from the show and all the shadowy characters, and all the mythology and noir that had been building up for five or six years. this new movie has none of that. which sucks.
in all the interviews and everything the actors and director have been very adamant that you dont need to be familiar with the series to enjoy the movie, there is no mythology from the show in this film. that is true, unfortunately thats what makes the movie lame. with so much to draw from, they decide to ignore all of it? how does that make sense? this movie is pretty much just a straight forward detective movie. with about two minutes of editing, this could have just as easily been a generic thriller, thats how loosely it sticks to the x-files history. i guess if it had been just another generic thriller i would have enjoyed it more, but to put the x-files name on it i expected a whole lot more.

return to me

i must admit, there are chick flicks that i like. i dont usually care for them because they are typically very predictable and always involve characters doing things and reacting in ways that dont make any sense.
but some i like. and then theres 'return to me', which is one i absolutely love! its got so much going for it: david duchovny is a great actor, and a totally underutilized funny man, and minnie driver is very cute. not just good looking, but cute in the sense that she seems very playful and someone youd like to hang out with. plus, its got an amazing suporting cast: david allen greer, bonnie hunt, jim belushi, and carrol o'conner.
yes, it is one of those predictable chick flick movies, but it is done so well that all is forgiven. the premise is pretty rediculous, duchovny is happily married when his wife suddenly dies. she is an organ donor and her heart is transplanted into a needy patient, minnie driver. a year or two later they meet cute and fall for each other. she finds out that she has his wife's heart, but is scared to tell him. he eventually finds out and they have to deal with the consiquences. a lame plot, but the actors involved turn this from generic to heartwarming. give it a try, it really is a great film!

charlie bartlett

this past weekend jeffry lee and i watched this movie. i didnt really have any interest in it, the commercials for it looked kind of lame, but he had watched it earlier, and said i should give it a try. so i did.
this movie falls into the very narrow category of 'confident high school kid' movies, along the same lines as 'ferris beuler' and 'parker lewis cant loose' (i know that was a tv show, but i needed two examples...). charlie starts at a new school and trys to find his place among the students. he starts by befriending the bully and making him a business proposition. as things start to unfold his business changes into a role of psychiatrist for all the students. the nice thing about the movie is that it doesnt really fall into the high school stereotypes of nerds vs. jocks type stuff. characters may belong to those groups, but are much more than the label. robert downey jr. does a great job as the principle of the school who tries to crush charlie, but ends up crushing himself. anton yelchin, who plays charlie, does a great job here. his calm demeanor and matter of fact style really makes charlie an interesting character. in the end much of the film works, but the answers it arrives at are too easy and wrap up a bit too nicely, kind of like an 80s sitcom life lesson.