ghost town

diana and i saw this one on the way to mexico on the flight. now, i know that doesnt really count as 'seeing' the movie, since they usually cut it up a ton and get rid of anything that might be considered even slightly offensive. but from what we did see, it was pretty funny, but instantly forgettable.
the story is this: ricky gervais plays a guy who doesnt really like anyone and doesnt like to be around anybody. all is going well in that regard, until a routine surgery ends up making it so that he can see and hear the dead. suddenly they are all pestering him to help them out with something. one dead guy in particular, greg kinnear, wants him to help him make things right with his widowed wife. gervais starts to fall for her, and the typical romantic comedy hijinx ensue.
the only thing that makes this movie passable is gervais and his hysterical delivery of lines! there was one scene in particular where he his talking about teeth that had me laughing uncontrollably out loud (which is really embarrassing when watching it on a plane...). over all, its not really worth spending your time on, a whole movie for one funny moment? pass.

i love you, man

the guys and i actually went to go see this on the day of my bachelor party- perfect timing! the film itself is about a guy who is getting married but doesnt have any guy friends that he can ask to stand up for him or be his best man in the ceremony. he goes on a quest to find some guy friends, and perhaps even find himself that elusive 'best friend'.
when we went to see it we totally loved it! i am totally bias though. first, i have a man crush on paul rudd, and one of my favorite shows is 'how i met your mother', so i already love jason segel too! we had a great time watching the movie and then quoting it the rest of the night during the bachelor party (slappin' da bass!). the film does a great job of balancing humor and heart. the interactions between the two guys are really funny and paul rudd does a great job of being a guy who doesnt quite know how to hang out with other guys.
this is definitely one that i would like to add to my dvd collection- it will be watched and quoted regularly!

watchmen

i loved the comic book, and i was really eager to see this film. i guess it had been too long since i read the comic book because i didn't remember much of the storyline at all! the film was decent, but i would really like to revisit the comic book and see this movie again when it comes out on dvd.
how about i'll do that, and then get back to you about the film. sound good?

chaos theory

it was cheap, it has ryan reynolds in it, that means its worth a shot, right? for a movie that went straight to dvd (usually that means it was too bad to actually be released in the theaters) it wasnt terrible. its a bit of a chick flick, and unfortunately follows the most basic of all chick flick criteria: the problems that cause everything to go wrong could have been avoided by just having the two people sit down and talk it out.
here's the set up: reynolds goes to give a time management seminar and is late, thus throwing his speech and day into trouble. he makes some poor decisions, but makes it home safe and faithful. his wife goes ballistic because she gets some bad information, she gets kicked out of the house and so he rebels against his time management life and lives a life of chaos. will his wife welcome him back? will he even want to go back?
reynolds does a great job with playing a guy who goes to extremes and tries to make sense of it all, but i couldn't get past the fact that all of the chaos, frustration, and life destroying choices could have been avoided with a five minute conversation between the husband and wife. argh.

chaos

i wasn't sure what to expect with this one. the cast made me think it would be great- its got jason statham and wesley snipes?!? awesome! but the fact that this one went straight to dvd had me worried.
turns out both responses were valid. the basic story follows a statham as a disgraced cop who is called back into service to help with a bank robbery lead by snipes. the rest of the film is a chasing game between the two. the cast is great, we see these two guys try and one-up each other every chance they can get. they dont have very many scenes together, which leads to the unfortunate news that we dont ever get to see a stath/snipes fight. and there is the unfortunate fact that it also has ryan phillippe in it. he is about as good of an actor as a stalk of brocolli... there are some nice twists and turns through out the film, but when all is said and done, it becomes appearant why this one was sent straight to dvd. the story is weak and offers nothing new. its pretty well done, and if it had been made about 1o or 15 years earlier, it probably would have been quite a hit. its just kind of over done and feels more like an extended episode of a cop show than an actual movie. sure, its in my dvd collection, but it was only four bucks (only about fifty cents more than actually renting it...) so i dont feel so bad.

my best friend's girl

i saw this one when the guys were over and we had a great time watching it. i cant say it was really that great, but there were enough good parts that we had a ball! the story is this: jason biggs really likes kate hudson but she doesn't feel very strongly about him, so biggs hires his roommate, played by dane cook to fix things. cook plays a guy who is hired by guys who have just been dumped to go out on a date with their exes and be a complete jerk, the goal is to get the women to realize just how good they had it with their old boyfriends and come crawling back to them. there are a couple examples of him doing this and they are hilarious! cook does such a good job at being a total jerk. all the best parts of the movie are from the intentionally bad dates he takes these women on. well, he tries to get hudson back with biggs, but ends up falling for her himself when she sees through all his jerky tricks and plays along with them.
as the movie goes on it does fall into a couple of the 'chick flick' cliches, but does a very funny job of avoiding most of them. at one point the couple find themselves at a high school prom. cook sits next to the fat kid who is too timid to dance with a girl, he tries to encourage him. we, the audience, wait for the sappy feel good moment that always comes from these cliches, but they twist this one on its head and it becomes a really funny bit instead!
over all its a pretty funny movie, and worth watching just for the wedding date!

dead like me: life after death

jeffry lee was really excited to see this one. a few years ago there was a show on showtime called 'dead like me' and jeff loved it. in fact, he actually bought both seasons, which he never does. over the past year or two he has let me borrow them and i have watched most of the episodes. the premise is a pretty good one: each of the main characters are dead, but havent moved on to the afterlife yet. instead, they have been recruited to do the grim reaper's dirty work. each morning they meet and get their target for the day and must go and reap the soul of someone the moment before they die. the series dealt with what it means to be a reaper and the importance of the job they do. if they don't take the souls before the person dies the death might be avoided, but it just means they will end up dying a grizzlier death soon after. these reapers try to make peace with what they do and with the fact that they are no longer who they were. the main character that we follow through out the show was recently deceased and still wants to be with her family but must deal with all of these things.
this direct to dvd movie is set soon after the second season ends. the guy who gives them their target for the day doesnt show up one morning and they have to figure out what to do next. again it deals with fulfilling the job they were given and what that means for them and their targets. it was fun to see all these characters back together again doing their thing, but im not entirely sure that it was necessary. the whole plot only slightly develops the characters as they struggle with the same decisions that they faced in every episode of the show. not much was added, and it felt like there really was no reason to revisit this world. it was all done well, but it felt kind of ho hum.

coraline

the talent behind this movie alone made me excited for it: its directed by the same guy who directed 'nightmare before christmas' and its based on the book by neil gaiman, a favorite author of mine.
the story is a simple one: a curious girl finds a door in her new house that leads to another strange new world. its a play on the old 'alice in wonderland' premise. the magic here is in the animation, its done in claymation, the same process used in 'nightmare before christmas' and 'wallace and gromit'. the style is made even more amazing through the use of the new 3D technology that has been used for the past couple years.
the film itself though is amazing! as coraline goes through the door into the other world she finds her family there, but slightly skewed. she meets up with some of her neighbors which leads to some amazing sights. all of this she finds wonderful and loves being there in that different world. slowly she starts to realize things arent as good as she first thought as everything begins to change and get pretty creepy. i've got to admit- this movie is really scary! i don't mean frightening or gory, it is rated PG after all, but there are some moments of real dread where you just know 'this isn't going to turn out well!' my heart was racing! i was originally thinking maybe this could be a movie i take my little nephew to, but i realized quickly that there is no way i would take him to see this- he would have nightmares for months! heck, i had nightmares after seeing it! it's intense at parts, but the magic and wonder of the film is so enchanting that i was blown away! i eagerly await seeing it again.

outlander

i didn't know much about this movie going in, which might have to do with the fact that there was absolutely no advertising for it... i had read a very short description of it online a month or two ago, it simply said 'an alien versus viking movie'. that was all i really needed- i'm in!!! when i saw that is was playing at rivertown, i knew i couldn't miss it! it was showing in only 19 theaters around the country, so this was a rare opportunity.
and wouldn't you know it? its actually pretty good! the story is about a space craft that crashes on earth in the tenth century. there was a terrible scary monster on board, and the surviving pilot of the ship works with the locals (who just happen to be vikings) to kill it. the story is very simple, and a slight twist on the beowulf story, but its done well. the first half of the movie is a bit slow and falls into some basic movie cliches: outsider who no one trusts, a beautiful girl willing to give him a chance, a king who is in poor health... the list goes on. but its the action scenes and the really cool monster that keeps this one from being lame. the creature is very cool and most of the special effects with him are done quite well. it didn't live up to the movie i imagined after reading that first description, but it was sure a good time anyway!

yes man

this movie really makes me wish jim carrey would do a third 'ace ventura' movie! he does a good job of playing the normal every-man, but he is at his best when he gets those brief moments of manic craziness- so why not just do another 'ace ventura' where its all manic craziness?!?
this story follows a guy who never does anything, just keeps to himself, and always turns down any offers to do anything social. but, after attending a seminaar where he is confronted and convinced to say 'yes' to everything, he does. this leads to all kinds of kooky high-jinks. there are some funny moments in the film, but it just made me wish for more. i dont understand why jim carrey forces himself to do these calm and boring characters, he's got so much more than that to offer! because he stays subdued, many of the laughs are stolen from him by rhys darby who plays his boss norman. its pretty bad when a relative unknown (other than 'flight of the concords') can steal away a movie from someone as big as jim carrey! also, i've got to say, the relationship between 29 year old zooey daschanel and 47 year old jim carrey is not even remotely believable...

event horizon

i saw this one quite some years ago in the theater with rex and a few other friends, i remember thinking it was pretty cool, but i didn't remember much else. i happened to see that they released a two disc special edition selling for pretty cheap (six bucks), so i figured it would be worth revisiting.
its meant to be a sci-fi horror movie, basically a haunted house story set in space. the set up is that a spaceship that had been lost for years shows up again, so a crew is sent to go check it out and try to figure out why it had disappeared. they arrive and chaos ensues. as far as horror movies go, it does a good job of amping up the tension and having some bloody good deaths. there are a few twists and turns along the way which are done very well. everyone in it does a good job, especially sam neil, who is very convincing as the conflicted scientist who designed the ship in the first place. i remembered it being a lot more shocking and gruesome, but i think ive just become more desensitized to it... it was certainly worth revisiting. the special effects hold up quite well considering it came out more than a decade ago!

curious case of benjamin button

this film is based on a short story by f. scott fitzgerald, and is about a man who lives his life aging backwards. when first born, he has all the ailments of an old man, bad eyes, arthritis, bald head, etc., as he grows up he gets healthier and eventually becomes a child. the premise is very interesting, and the execution is astonishing! the special effects used to make brad pitt age from young to old is really amazing, its obvious that it is him during almost every age. the most incredible job is done when he is in his twenties- he looks exactly like he used to back when he first started making movies! its really quite jarring how they were able to pull that off.
the film itself is very much in the vein of 'forrest gump', in that it follows the life of a guy as he goes through different parts of his life and interacts with different historical events through the years. the driving force behind his journey is, of course, love. he falls in love with a girl when he is an old man. as he grows younger, she grows older, eventually they are able to reconnect when they are about the same age. the film is a hearbreaking look at age, time, and death. the theme throughout is death and its impact and value on life.
i was moved through out the film by its acceptance of death as the culmination of a life well lived. every interaction between benjamin and anyone else is shaded by the looming realization that he is so different from them and he cant allow himself to get too close for too long. the story is also beautifully told through the direction of david fincher's artistic style. all of which adds up to be a film worthy of being called the best film of the year.

my dvd collection

i watch many movies. some of them i see in the theater, but love them so much i end up buying them and adding them to my (sizable) dvd collection.

aside from giving some thoughts about movies ive seen, and ranking them with a five star system, i have also added a new category that also lists if i have it in my dvd collection. with some hard work, i would like to eventually have a review up for every movie i have. until then, enjoy the reviews and the selection from my dvd collection! (some of the girly movies were diana's, but i am bound by law to claim them since they will be sitting on my shelf...)

also, just so you know, i have many tv seasons on dvd too, but since they dont fall into the category of 'movies', they will not be included.

transporter 3

oh, jason statham, can you do no wrong? i finally got around to seeing this one in the theater. it was a ton of fun! in the story (if you can call it that) we once again meet up with frank, a professional transporter who will deliver goods for a price, no questions asked. this time he is visiting his friend, the french detective, and enjoying a vacation. he is forced, against his will, to deliver another package, and of course violence ensues. the whole 'transporter' series does not in any way rely on story, choosing instead to be an excuse to show statham kicking butt. and butt certainly gets kicked in this one! the best part of the trilogy is that the action ramps up in each one, going from slightly absurd, to downright silly. the fights are basically just there to show statham with his shirt off, and the car chases are an elaborate car commercial for audi.

the third transporter doesn't stray too far away from the path of the first two, sharing the same basic story as the last two, just in different locations. the one drawback of this film is that it is poorly edited. there were a bunch of really cool beats in the action, but due to bad editing, they don't have the fun factor that the first one did.

as far as the franchise goes, this one is better than the bland second one, but not as good as the fun first one.

madagascar 2

i had some free time, it was at the dollar theater- can you blame me? (and i totally understand if you do). i have never seen the first one, but i figured it wouldn't matter too much for this one. i didn't imagine i would find myself saying 'whats going on? i am totally lost!' i had read a couple reviews that said it was actually a decent sequel and was better than it needed to be. that was good enough for me, so i decided to check it out. i've got to say, i was not impressed. the story line was lame, and lifted straight from 'the lion king'. the four main characters are about as simple as they come, and the plot was unbelievably predictable. they all start out happy, each of them runs into some sort of miscommunication with the others and their friendships are in jeopardy- oh no! will they be able to overcome their problems and come together to put the bad guy in his place?!? um, yes. and the biggest problem is this: they arent even funny! all the humor and fun comes from the secondary characters like the penguins and the lemurs. the king lemur, voiced by sacha baron cohen, was by far the best part of the film, he easily stole the show with only about four minutes of time on screen. now, if they make a movie about just him, i'd probably really enjoy that!