battlefield earth


this one deserves all the hate that has been piled on it.  the story is not only cheesy and lame, but its also boring.  there are so many nonsensical elements to it that its kind of amazing that someone thought that this could be passed off as a real movie!  how on earth did they convince these actors to take part in it?  i understand that it was travolta's passion project, but how did he con forest whitaker into donning that make-up?

fast times at ridgemont high


i know this movie was a huge touchstone for a generation but it doesn't hold up.  the characters are too broad and the events are way too ridiculous to actually happen.  i know sean penn got his start on this one and is seen as an iconic character in this movie, but he is really the worst part of the movie!

only the lonely


john candy is better than this.  its a love story where there is no reason to like either of the characters who fall in love.

cool as ice


i know what you're thinking: this movie must be terrible.  you have no idea!  as bad as you think it could be, its actually worse.

law abiding citizen


a fun little B movie.  the twists and turns along the way are pretty great as we see butler's character try to outsmart everyone.

underworld: rise of the lycans

ugh.  these movies keep getting worse.  the first one was a kind of fun B movie with some great style.  the second one was ok, but this one was just terrible.  they try to throw in a whole family melodrama with a father and brother and it just plain doesn't work.  really terrible writing and stupid conflicts.  even though they have released more of these, i'm pretty sure this is my last one.  i'm throwing in the towel with this series.

othello

a pretty good telling of the shakespeare classic.  branagh always does a great job with these sorts of movies, making sure to give the work its proper grandure.

carolina

this one is a pretty low end romantic comedy.  not memorable at all.

something wild

i do love jeff daniels but this one was pretty dumb.

true grit

i've never seen the original film with john wayne but thought i'd give this one a try.  i went to see it with my dad who loves the original.  its a great story of a girl who wants to find and arrest the men who killed her father.  she goes and hires jeff bridges character to track them down and she goes along on the journey.  the bridges character is very cool and the whole movie rests on his shoulders.  everyone in it does a great job and its a fun one to watch, especially if you like westerns.



taking of pelham 123


the other 'we've got to stop this train!' movie with denzel in it!  with this and 'unstoppable' i'm starting to sense a theme... if they ever remake 'the great train robbery' with denzel he would have a train trilogy!
this is a remake of the 70s film, updated with denzel and travolta.  denzel is a man who works at the transit company and travolta is a man who is tired of what is happening to him in life and takes a stand by taking over one of the subway trains in new york.  the tension and back and forth between the two men as they start to understand each other's perspectives and points of view lead to an interesting showdown where you know who is the good guy, but the situation has you wondering if there even is a bad guy.

far from heaven


kind of a middling drama set in the 50s about a housewife who is unhappy and how she befriends a gay man who cannot come out of the closet.

unstoppable

this is about as simple of an action movie as you can get.  denzel and chris pine are trying to stop a runaway train.  that's it, that's the whole movie.  its pretty tense along the way, offering some fun tension and clever challenges they need to overcome.  its pretty good.

faster

i love the rock so i was totally up for a revenge action movie with him as the lead.  and to make it even better its rated R so we get some really cool action.  i liked this movie quite a bit, its pretty generic and straight forward, but when you've got the rock in the lead that's really about all you need.


blindness


wow, this film is fantastic!  its a kind of study in 'what if'.  the question it starts with is what if the whole population of earth suddenly went blind?  how would we deal with the loss of our sense of sight?  the film deals with the societal repercussions of such an extreme loss.  its a pretty heavy drama about how human nature turns to savagery and fear when this happens.  we as the audience follow our main character, the only person left who can still see.  i am genuinely confused as to why this movie doesn't get mentioned more- it is truly amazing.  seek it out!

last chance harvey


a mediocre drama about a man who gives love one last chance.  very forgettable.

the fall

a film by the director tarsum, this movie is absolutely beautiful.  the visuals on this movie are so striking and incredible that the story and plot are almost unnecessary.  its about a man who is in a hospital and strikes up a friendship with a small girl who stops by his room.  the man tells her stories about an intrepid hero who saves the day.  whether or not the stories are true is beside the point, the real goal for him telling the stories is to try and get the little girl to get him more to fend off the pain.  the stories he tells take place in some amazing locations that seem to beautiful to actually exist in the real world.  the flashes to the story are breath taking in their visuals and make this one worth watching for that alone.

the imaginarium of dr. parnassus

i really like terry gilliam, the director, so i really wanted to like this movie. unfortunately, terry does everything possible to work against that good will. the story follows a traveling sideshow that features an old man and his daughter, as well as other helpers including heath ledger in his final role.

the young victoria


a decent historical drama that shares the sad story of queen victoria's husband dying.  its well acted and interesting, but not exactly my cup of tea.

heart and souls


kinda dumb but the acting is pretty good.

weekend at bernies


alright, i know this is a terrible movie.  but the surprise to me was that its not really as bad as it's reputation.  i remember loving this one when i was a kid, and now rewatching it i can see why i loved it.  its really dumb but the jokes and gags kinda hold up!  i was very pleasantly surprised and actually impressed by how well it holds up!

up


this is a pretty cute and fun little movie.  it goes in some unexpected places- especially with the bad guy and his zeppelin.  the real movie though is in the first 4 minutes, when we see the life remembered by the old man.  that part alone gives this movie 5 stars!

tyson


an interesting look at this polarizing sports figure.  he did some pretty amazing stuff, but he has also done terrible things.  the interesting part of this documentary is that everything is in tyson's own words.  there is no narrator or anything, its just mike tyson talking about his life.  i was impressed by just how honest he is with himself and willing to admit his own faults.