the sum of all fears

my dad never read much for fun, but when he did, it was always tom
clancy books. for this reason, i have always been interested in tom clancy book based movies. it started with 'the hunt for red october',
and continued with harrison ford's entries into the series. i was
disappointed that he didn't continue the series, but was ok with ben
affleck as a replacement to reboot the franchise. this one was all right,
you know, as far as political intrigue thrillers go. it follows a group of
terrorists who get a hold of a nuclear weapon and detonate it inside
america's borders, and the start of jack ryan's career in the
government. its a pretty good yarn, nothing to interesting, nothing too terrible. a note of interest: this was the first big action movie to come
out in america after the attack on the world trade center. the depiction of terrorism in our borders was an unfortunate coincidence.
as a result of the events, many of the special effects that were to show
the destruction of the city were tamed down or scrapped all together.

in bruges

this film is a story about two assassins who are sent away to lay low after a hit goes wrong. the two guys are very different, but are good friends. colin farrell plays the young brash assassin who made the mistake in the first place, and brendan gleeson is the more mature reasonable fellow accompanying him. to lay low, they head to bruges, a quaint beautiful town in belgium. gleeson likes the mellow feel of the place and enjoys the brake, but ferrell hates it and is itching to get out of there. what follows is a slow, beautiful character study about what it really means to be an assassin, and how it has effected these two guys. its no wonder farrell won a golden globe for his work here. there are some great moments of humor along the way as these two figure out what's next. by the ending we have found a respect for both these men, and a twisted strange little tale told well.

the last holiday

a pretty straight forward story of a woman who is told by doctors that she doesnt have much time to live. having spent all her life saving money and keeping to herself, she sees this as an opportunity to let loose her personality and her pockets. she goes to a ski resort and gains the confidence of a woman who just doesnt care what others think- why should she, she's about to die! queen latifah does a great job as the mousy woman who finds herself during her last days. this comedy isn't really very funny, but it is rather sweet. latifah is the real point of interest in the movie, playing innocent and confident equally well. the story is certainly beyond believable, but it is a fun ride none the less.

twilight

after all the hype and hoopla, diana wanted to watch it again and suckered me into watching it with her. i decided to try and enjoy it even though i know it's not meant for me (and by me, i mean my entire gender). turns out, its not as bad as i had expected- it's certainly not good, but its not terrible either. well, at least it wouldn't have been terrible if not for one big mistake: the director. the story itself wasnt that bad, its a rather harmless little tale of a sad little girl who falls for the wrong mysterious boy who happens to be a vampire. the vampires themselves are perfectly harmless. actually, they are a bit too harmless- they should be vampires, after all! this could have been a decent movie if they had gotten someone with any sort of skill to direct it. at every opportunity the director uses cheesy camera effects and terrible angles to catch the action. there is never any sense of perspective or understanding about where the action is taking place. if ive said it once, ive said it a million times- you need establishing shots!!! we are brought to different locations without really being shown where we are, the action is always close up so we never get any sense of scale or flow, and there are just too many shots of people standing around brooding. and dont even get me started on the lame dialog (granted, i know that's not really the directors fault, but i'm on a roll here...).i know my wife will drag me to the sequel, but at least i can take comfort in the fact that the next one has a different director!

congo

you know how sometimes when there are memories of things from our childhood that we really loved, but then if you actually revisit them you come to find out that they kind of sucked? that was fortunately not the case with congo!
this is a movie i loved and was obsessed with growing up, i had the poster on my bedroom wall, i had the action figures, hat, keychain, i even bought the movie's instrumental soundtrack (which is truly amazing- it features lebo-m, the guy who also sang on the lion king soundtrack). when the movie came out i went to go see it on opening day, and then actually convinced my dad, cousin, and uncle to go see it with me again the next day! i loved this movie, and rewatching it now, i still do! the story follows a group of people trying to track down a missing team that went in search of blue diamonds for a corporation. along the way they team up with a scientist who is trying to set free his sign language talking gorilla. as they try to get into the congo to find the team they come across a bunch of wild characters, the man who helps them at the airport, the military leader who must give them permission to enter his area, and the african guide to lead them where they want to go. though i have seen these actors in many different movies since this film, i still think of them in these rolls. and oh, the great lines! some choice examples: ernie hudson as their guide 'i am your great white hunter, even though i may be black', joe pantoliano as the airport checkpoint 'i just felt the money hairs on my neck go 'woo woo woo'!', and delroy lindo as the the military leader 'don't want nobody peeking...'. and, for goodness sakes, its even got bruce cambell! how can you go wrong? oh, that's right, by having terrible costumed gorillas and a lame sign language translator. oh, but all of the camp and cheese just add up to one of the most fun b-movies ever! i know this position will be in a very distinct minority, but i give it 5 stars! i've seen this one over a dozen times by now, and i look forward to the next dozen!

crank: high voltage

what a disappointment. i really loved the first one, but man, there is no excuse for this terrible follow up!
the thing that was so great about the first one was that it was over the top ridiculous, but it was fun. this second crank movie goes even further over the top, which would have been great, but it completely takes away any of the fun! in the first one its about a guy who has to keep his adrenaline going, and each thing that he does to keep it going is more and more outrageous. this time he has a pacemaker that has a dead battery so he must keep himself charged. he continually tries to create voltage through different methods, but each one is more terrible than the last. in this installment, the whole thing takes on an evil tone. where the first one was lighthearted and silly, this one is mean-spirited and angry. most of the time the violence has nothing to do with him trying to keep his battery going, its just there to cause pain to those around him. i have never walked out of a movie before, but this is the first time i was tempted to. i had been looking forward to this movie for months, talking it up with friends and everything. i had originally planned to see it with some of them, but i am really glad it didn't work out, i would have felt terrible for making someone else sit through this film.
i think i am going to just pretend i didn't see it at all, that way it wont taint my enjoyment of the first one...

the fugitive

ah, now this is a real movie! the story, often seen and often repeated, is a man wrongly accused of killing his wife, gets free from prison and is on the lam. he tries to track down the real killer while trying to evade capture himself. though the story has been told many times before, it has never been told so well. its always the details that make an old story new again. in this one its the spectacular acting by both harrison ford and tommy lee jones. ford, as the man who must find the truth about his beloved wife, and jones as the undeterred marshal who just wants to do the job right. the back and forth between the two gives this tale its heart. the solid storytelling also keeps it grounded and realistic. both men are flawed, but both are determined to do what is right. jones won an oscar for this film, and deserved every bit of it, the fact ford wasnt even nominated is the real shame here. an amazing film all around, its no wonder they tried the formula again a few years later, with less success, in 'u.s. marshals'.

two week notice

this is definitely a predictable chick flick. everything in the story is by the numbers, very bland. but i am a sucker for hugh grant! he is able to take something so boring and uninspired, and turn it into something charming and fun. in this one hugh grant's charms cover over a multitude of sins, but even he cant save this one from being less than mediocre.

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.