22 posts tagged “four thumbs”
It isn't perfect, though. The main actor, Jesse Eisenberg, looks and behaves so much like Michael Cera that it is distracting.
The film also is a bit slow to really get started. There's a flashback to how Eisenberg's character first encountered a zombie that is just slow and not all that interesting. There's also this kind of series of cute meets between Eisenberg's character and Stone's that are sort of entertaining but pointless since the commercials have shown all of them together which means that viewers know that they are going to team up rather than be at odds.
The film also uses one of my pet peeves: letters floating in mid-air for no reason. I hate when Fringe does it (I keep waiting for someone on Fringe to point at the floating letters and freak out "aaaaaahhhhh") and I didn't like it here either.
Once it does get started though the film is pretty sweet. Bill Murray's appearance is pure gold. The climax in an amusement park is pretty cool and not one that I recall seeing before. It is disappointing that the film falls back on the damsel in distress motif and that a kid is the cause of the problem once again but I can kind of overlook it because the zombie killing is so much fun.
four thumbs up
Couldn't get Cera
But zombies make up for it
Kid to blame again....
The film is really low budget but it has a great simple plot that doesn't need a big budget and is really well shot. The plot is basically that the friends, co-workers, and ex-lover of a woman are being killed. Less basically, the people are being killed by themselves. I don't mean that they are committing suicide. No, they are being killed by people who look just like themselves.
The question that is going throughout the film is "what the hell is going on?" and it is that sense of mystery that makes the film work so well. I really wish that they hadn't explained anything. It would have been a much more powerful film if it has just ended with everyone saying, "What the hell just happened?" Instead they do try to explain it.
Now they don't explain it entirely. There is a sense of mystery about it but they do explain it a little bit. The explanation they give, to get a bit spoilery here, is like The Forgotten but without any children which makes it better. Like The Forgotten the explanation is less than satisfying to me at least.
Four thumbs up
The killer in me...
Is disarming, so to speak
Just don't explain it
This is a pretty entertaining, if not entirely successful little movie. The basic plot is that a computer programmer starts getting packages and the people in his apartment building start getting killed. It is a very stylish film but that is also one of its weaknesses. It is very Cyber-goth, The Matrix-y looking. The apartment building is very amber looking and rooms are greenish. Things seem old and run down (the main guy's apartment, while ran down, is really sweet with wood paneled walled and high ceilings) and there is some leather and bondage-style stuff going on. That part isn't the weakness. The weakness is the way technology is presented.
The world is some sort of future where there's some genetic engineering and nanotechnology. The main character is a computer programmer and yet, in this future world, all the computers are huge with green-monochrome screens. Even the video conferencing is low res and green. The apartment superintendent has cameras everywhere but the video from them is also green and low res. What is the deal? Is this the future or not?
Anyway, as the main character gets these packages, and the other people in the building start to go crazy, the film is pretty interesting if only because I was trying to figure out what was going on. Is the guy being spied on? Is he part of some conspiracy? Is he being followed? Why is everyone in the building obsessed with specific foods? The contents of one person's refrigerator consists solely of meat, another milk, and a third cola. Is that some kind of statement on consumerism by the filmmaker or is it part of the plot? Is the neighbor really dead? Who killed him?
Unfortunately, it also drags on a bit and you wonder what the film's point is. The end isn't exactly clear but it can probably can be understood. The film is worthwhile if not great.
Four thumbs up
Be sure to drink milk
for strong bones and weakened minds
So what's in the box?
So it has bee a while. If anything could make me write new reviews it is Jennifer Connelly. Sigh.
This didn't get great reviews but honestly I'm not sure what people were expecting. The commercials make it pretty clear what the film is about: alien come to Earth and is going to wipe out humanity and Jennifer tries to convince him not to. I'm not sure what else could happen in this film that people would or wouldn't like.
The robot, Gort looks kind of dopy since he's 100% computer generated. He kind of looks spongy and his movements aren't quite right. Other than that the special effects are ok.
Honestly, what I would like to have seen is more aftermath. Before Keanu stops killing humanity (and that's not really a spoiler since no one really expected humanity to get totally wiped out, did they?) there is a fair amount of damage done. It would be kind of neat to see humanity recover. It would of course be a totally different kind of film and might not be as visually interesting but I always find post-apocalyptic to be more interesting than apocalyptic.
I don't mind Keanu all that much. People talk about him being wooden and such but he's supposed to be alien and odd so what else would you want? The bit of casting that is, sadly, kind of odd is WIll Smith and Jada Pinkett's kid Jaden. I hated his throughout the film. His character is kind of a jerk and I have to wonder if he is in the film just because of his parents. He's no Dakota Fanning irritating but he is incredibly irritating.
four thumbs up
Understand the score
Any film with Jennifer
Gets two extra thumbs
The storyline of the film is that humans polluted the planet and left it while an army of little robots gathers up all the junk. At the start of the film only one of these WALL-E units seems to be left alive and it is our hero. One day a rocket lands and out comes a fancier new robot. This EVE robot and WALL-E bond. The rocket comes to take back EVE and WALL-E hitches along and encounters what has become of humanity.
One of the weirdest things about the film is that WALL-E is basically a STALK-R. EVE doesn't want all that much to do with him at first. He just keeps following her around and even when he follows her to the humans she doesn't even know about it. Of course in the end they fall in love which sends the message that you just need to keep bothering a woman until they give in no matter how much they tell you that they aren't interested in you.
There is also the matter of the depiction of the humans in the film. For one thing, there are live action people shown in historic video clips from the company that built the ships for escaping Earth. However, the humans that WALL-E meets are computer generated. I guess that they were trying to draw a line between the normal people of the past and the obese people of the films setting but I'm not at all sure that it works well.
The obese nature of the people is also kind of weird as well. I'm not really sure what the message about them is supposed to be. I guess that it is some sort of message about consumerism, mediated societies and sedentary lifestyles but the message is muddied by the fact that aside from obesity there really isn't much of a downside to their lifestyle. Everything on the ship is well run, and everyone seems happy, nice, and without negatives such as hate, violence, or other evils of society. If everyone is happy -- and there is even an off-handed rational why everyone seems obese because of the low gravity which indicates that maybe their physical condition might not even be all that unhealthy for them -- then what is the problem? The Earth is ruined and no amount of exercise or good health is gong to change that.
four thumbs up
Cute little robot
WALL-E should be called STALK-R
But no fatties please
This is a romantic comedy about a guy who loses a girlfriend, goes on vacation to forget her only to see her there. So he falls in love with the girl who works the front desk. It is standard but it is pretty funny.
I've had a huge crush on Kristin Bell since the awesome Veronica Mars but Mila Kunis steals the show here. Sure it helps that Bell plays the woman who dumped our main character and Kunis is the new love interest but she is really sweet here.
Watching this made me feel damn lonely. I need me some love people! But it was still pretty fun.
four thumbs up
Kristin and Mila
Make me feel really lonely!
damn you hot women!
There's a comic book out now called Kick Ass that is about a normal kid in a normal world without superheroes who one day decides to become one and naturally gets beaten up.
I'd heard about Robot Ninja for a few years. It is by the same guy who made Dead Next Door which is a favorite of mine and so I wanted to see it. So it is a coincidence that after reading Kick Ass I see the similarly themed Robot Ninja.
The movie is about a guy who writes and draws the Robot Ninja comic book. The character has been licensed to a television producer that has made it more like the Batman television show than the serious project the creator intended.
On the way back from arguing with the television producers, the creator sees a crime occurring and tries to stop it. He gets his ass kicked. So he has someone make a real Robot Ninja outfit for him and he gets his ass kicked again.
Although the acting is laughable, the movie is pretty good. Rather than have the story be some simple revenge movie it looks at what would happen if one unarmed guy were to take on a gang of people. The end is a big muddled and the creator's final actions aren't quite clear but it is certainly not what I thought would happen.
four thumbs up
Don't try to fight crime
Unless you have a big gun
and the bad guys don't
This is a really interesting film and a great premise but its pacing is all off.
The premise is that a series of seemingly normal people with no connection to one another begin to go on a killing spree and when the police arrive and ask why they did it they always say, "God told me to." Unfortunately, we are really only shown two of the killers (one of whom is Andy Kaufman as a police office who starts to shoot people while marching in a parade with dozens of other police officers. "God told me to" is his only line). Once that happens the film goes off in an odd direction which I found a little too cryptic and unresolved for its own good.
If it could have stayed with the police office, our hero, as he tried to figure things out a bit more before going into the weirdness it might have worked better. Or if it were done a bit better. Maybe I missed it but at one point near the end the police officer says something about him being special and I was like, "he is?" I just thought that he was a random cop assigned to the case but apparently he was special. Maybe making that clearer would have been more effective. There's also a subplot about his estranged wife and his girlfriend that seems as if it could have been eliminated although I admit in hindsight there is at least one bit of information that comes out about the cop that does indicate something about his specialness. I think that could have been revealed without the complication of the girlfriend and the added scenes with her that distracted from the more interesting murderers.
That's not to say that there aren't some good parts. There are quite a few. The beginning is solid and two other scenes stick out. The cop goes to talk to a man who killed his wife and child(ren? I can't remember). It is really eerie to see the guy so calmly and dispassionately talk about shooting his wife and then trying to talk his daughter out of a locked room so he can kill her too. Then there is also a scene, and again, perhaps I wasn't paying attention, where you think the person is talking about one guy but then you realize the person is talking about someone else entirely which was pretty good as well. The film is certainly worth a watch though
four thumbs up
remake this movie
so it is more like Se7en
then it would kick ass
I'm not a fan of Full Moon movies. Films like the Puppet Master films are usually too cutesy in their corny-ness for me. I would rather have a film that is corny but trying to be serious than a film that is trying to be corny and just comes off cutesy.
I am, however, a fan of Jeffrey Combs who is the man. He is the only actor to play two different characters in the same episode of Star Trek series.
So because of the Full Moon angle I wasn't expecting too much from this but I did get it because of Combs' involvement. I'm glad I got it. This is probably one of the best Full Moon movies.
What makes it so good is that there aren't any of the Full Moon signatures: no puppets, no humor, and obvious teaser for a sequel. In fact, for a film that does revolve around a creepy guy who has been trapped in a basement for years, it is kind of thoughtful. Honestly, the final scene really surprised me with its (almost entirely successful) attempt at artfullness and emotional impact.
Combs finds out that he has inherited a castle and he and his wife and daughter go to Italy to check it out. The daughter is recently blind due to an accident in which Combs drove drunk. That accident also resulted into death of the son. Because of this, Combs and his wife are on the edge of a divorce. Although Combs has been sober for 90 days the wife still blames him for the death of the son. After a fight, Combs goes into town, gets drunk, and brings a prostitute back to the castle. The next morning the prostitute is missing and Combs is suspected. Because of some stories and some sounds his daughter had been hearing, he tells the cops that it is the scary guy that has been kept in the basement for years. They, of course, don't believe him.
four thumbs up
It really is good
just give it a better name
Like, "Jeffrey Combs Rocks."
Although it looks like this movie stars Puck from the Real World it doesn't. And although there is someone named Liz Hurley in it, this Liz Hurley isn't the famous Elizabeth Hurley. Nope, there isn't anyone famous in this but it is still a fairly entertaining film.
Combining elements from HP Lovecraft's From Beyond, Buckaroo Banzai, and Videodrome, the movie is about a film geek, Shemp, who films everything and his friends. They find a tape that turns out to be from a scientist who invented a machine to view other dimensions (actually the scientist invented a way to record audio and video before film was invented and somehow -- how is never explained -- that recording was transfered to a VHS tape). So of course the gang goes to investigate this guy.
Luckily, he was from their town and they eventually find his machine and then the movie pretty much goes to hell. Shemp gets melded to his video camera and goes crazy. Some zombies turn up. Some alien insects also show up as well. But forget about those zombies and insects because the film makers did since there really isn't any reason for them to be in the film and they get taken care of really quickly. Shemp is the main problem. If the film had managed to keep its tone and plot together this film might have been a personal favorite.
four thumbs up
Opportunities
they missed nearly all of them
with tunnel vision.
