Past Due Reviews
Hey Everyone! I wrote this a couple of months ago and somehow missed posting it. It's too late to catch most of these movies in the theatre, but in case you haven't seen them, there's always netflix. The summer offerings (aside from Telluride) have been extraordinarilly slim this season. Here are a few that have stood out
War of the Worlds: I'd been anxiously awaiting this movie for the better part of a year and finally saw it after the 4th with Thomas, Allison and Jess. I've never read the book, seen the earlier version of the movie, or heard the story on radio so all I knew going in was that aliens invade. I was expecting something along the lines of Independence Day (a movie I LOVED), but with a better ending. I'd also seen the previews which were awesome. Now for the big however. ...this movie totally sucked. We were all so disappointed it was unbelievable. I kept thinking it had to get better, had to get more interesting. Wrong. It was so boring and so stupid I wanted to pound in Spielberg's head with a mallet for making me believe all the hype. Because despite Tom Cruise's couch moment, he was not the problem with this film. Cruise is a reliable actor. I can't remember a bad performance of his and he doesn't give one here. It's quite servicable. It's the direction that's the problem. Spielberg chose to focus on Cruise and his family exclusively. I kept wondering, What's the president saying, what's happening in NYC, in other countries, to anyone except the loathsome three (Cruise and his two mewling, worthless kids)? Spielberg compounded this mistake by spending what seemed like a decade on Cruise and his daughter stuck in a farmhouse with a deranged Tim Robbins as the aliens persistently try to find them. They're three people! Why do the aliens care so much about these three when later in the movie we see that Boston looks pretty much untouched. You'd think they'd want a bigger bang for their buck. But no, instead we see scenes of the aliens passing around old family photos and whatnot. I could go on, but it makes me too angry. This movie was an even bigger disappointment than Spielberg's AI - and that's saying something since after it I still despise that Haley kid. Spielberg's next film is Munich, the story of the Mossad agent who hunts down the Palestinian terrorists who assassinated Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Spielberg seems to have a much better track record with revisiting history than imagining the future (have you tried re-watching ET lately?) - think Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, so I have hope that he'll recover from this travesty. Rating: Must be paid to see
The Wedding Crashers: If you like Owen Wilson and/or Vince Vaughn, go see this movie. Thomas and I both really enjoyed it. It's a great comedy and a great date movie. Vaughn particularly is hilarious. The supporting cast is also wonderful. I've mentioned Rachel McAdams before (and will do again). She plays Wilson's love interest. It's not the best part in the movie (the movie belongs to the guys) but she fleshes it out and makes it more than the standard girlfriend role. Also doing great work are Isla Fischer (aka Ali G's real life girlfriend) as the deranged bridesmaid who terrorizes Vaughn, Bradley Cooper (aka Will from Alias) as McAdams's evil preppy boyfriend, and of course Christopher Walken as her scary Secratary of the Treasury dad. The movie goes on a bit too long and gets a bit weird and borderline depressing with a cameo by Will Ferrell, but it redeems itself in the end. Rating: Matinee
Skeleton Key: Thomas has this system for determining which movies he'll go see that he likes to torture me with - he goes pretty much by the magic Rotten Tomatoes number. And his cutoff is usually an 80. My cutoff - there isn't one. I tend to avoid reviews until after I've seen the movie, making me the kind of indiscriminate moviegoer that studios love. As for Skeleton Key, the tomameter was in the 30's or 40's. Usually this is enough to disqualify any movie, but he will occasionally make an exception - especially if it's a horror movie. Skeleton Key is not a horror movie and I'm baffled by the overall low rating. Methinks some people just don't like Kate Hudson. And I think these people are crazy. I've been a fan ever since her magical turn as Penny Lane in Almost Famous. And who could forget how funny she was in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Anyway, she tries something different with Skeleton Key, playing Caroline, a nurse who lives in New Orleans and travels to the bayou to care for stroke victim, Ben Devereaux, played by John Hurt. Caroline lives with Hurt and his wife Violet (Gena Rowlands - who'd have thought she could be so scary?) in one of those fabulous antibellum type mansions surrounded by beautiful trees and gardens. A truly great location for filming. The couple's lawyer (Peter Sarsgaard) also keeps popping up and flirting with Caroline throughout the movie. Anyway, Caroline quickly realizes that something's amiss in the house. And that something has to do with a type of voodoo (it's called Hoodoo - honest) that was practiced at the estate years and years ago by a couple of servants who were eventually hanged. The movie is beautifully filmed and has lots of scary scenes (but I didn't have to watch the whole thing from between my fingers, thank goodness). Caroline drove me crazy with her curiosity but the twist at the end - neither Thomas or I saw it coming - made it all worthwhile. Rating: Matinee
Next up: Reviews of a couple I've seen more recently - History of Violence and In Her Shoes.
Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day (courtesy of Jen): My other car is a college education.
-sunday
War of the Worlds: I'd been anxiously awaiting this movie for the better part of a year and finally saw it after the 4th with Thomas, Allison and Jess. I've never read the book, seen the earlier version of the movie, or heard the story on radio so all I knew going in was that aliens invade. I was expecting something along the lines of Independence Day (a movie I LOVED), but with a better ending. I'd also seen the previews which were awesome. Now for the big however. ...this movie totally sucked. We were all so disappointed it was unbelievable. I kept thinking it had to get better, had to get more interesting. Wrong. It was so boring and so stupid I wanted to pound in Spielberg's head with a mallet for making me believe all the hype. Because despite Tom Cruise's couch moment, he was not the problem with this film. Cruise is a reliable actor. I can't remember a bad performance of his and he doesn't give one here. It's quite servicable. It's the direction that's the problem. Spielberg chose to focus on Cruise and his family exclusively. I kept wondering, What's the president saying, what's happening in NYC, in other countries, to anyone except the loathsome three (Cruise and his two mewling, worthless kids)? Spielberg compounded this mistake by spending what seemed like a decade on Cruise and his daughter stuck in a farmhouse with a deranged Tim Robbins as the aliens persistently try to find them. They're three people! Why do the aliens care so much about these three when later in the movie we see that Boston looks pretty much untouched. You'd think they'd want a bigger bang for their buck. But no, instead we see scenes of the aliens passing around old family photos and whatnot. I could go on, but it makes me too angry. This movie was an even bigger disappointment than Spielberg's AI - and that's saying something since after it I still despise that Haley kid. Spielberg's next film is Munich, the story of the Mossad agent who hunts down the Palestinian terrorists who assassinated Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Spielberg seems to have a much better track record with revisiting history than imagining the future (have you tried re-watching ET lately?) - think Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, so I have hope that he'll recover from this travesty. Rating: Must be paid to see
The Wedding Crashers: If you like Owen Wilson and/or Vince Vaughn, go see this movie. Thomas and I both really enjoyed it. It's a great comedy and a great date movie. Vaughn particularly is hilarious. The supporting cast is also wonderful. I've mentioned Rachel McAdams before (and will do again). She plays Wilson's love interest. It's not the best part in the movie (the movie belongs to the guys) but she fleshes it out and makes it more than the standard girlfriend role. Also doing great work are Isla Fischer (aka Ali G's real life girlfriend) as the deranged bridesmaid who terrorizes Vaughn, Bradley Cooper (aka Will from Alias) as McAdams's evil preppy boyfriend, and of course Christopher Walken as her scary Secratary of the Treasury dad. The movie goes on a bit too long and gets a bit weird and borderline depressing with a cameo by Will Ferrell, but it redeems itself in the end. Rating: Matinee
Skeleton Key: Thomas has this system for determining which movies he'll go see that he likes to torture me with - he goes pretty much by the magic Rotten Tomatoes number. And his cutoff is usually an 80. My cutoff - there isn't one. I tend to avoid reviews until after I've seen the movie, making me the kind of indiscriminate moviegoer that studios love. As for Skeleton Key, the tomameter was in the 30's or 40's. Usually this is enough to disqualify any movie, but he will occasionally make an exception - especially if it's a horror movie. Skeleton Key is not a horror movie and I'm baffled by the overall low rating. Methinks some people just don't like Kate Hudson. And I think these people are crazy. I've been a fan ever since her magical turn as Penny Lane in Almost Famous. And who could forget how funny she was in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Anyway, she tries something different with Skeleton Key, playing Caroline, a nurse who lives in New Orleans and travels to the bayou to care for stroke victim, Ben Devereaux, played by John Hurt. Caroline lives with Hurt and his wife Violet (Gena Rowlands - who'd have thought she could be so scary?) in one of those fabulous antibellum type mansions surrounded by beautiful trees and gardens. A truly great location for filming. The couple's lawyer (Peter Sarsgaard) also keeps popping up and flirting with Caroline throughout the movie. Anyway, Caroline quickly realizes that something's amiss in the house. And that something has to do with a type of voodoo (it's called Hoodoo - honest) that was practiced at the estate years and years ago by a couple of servants who were eventually hanged. The movie is beautifully filmed and has lots of scary scenes (but I didn't have to watch the whole thing from between my fingers, thank goodness). Caroline drove me crazy with her curiosity but the twist at the end - neither Thomas or I saw it coming - made it all worthwhile. Rating: Matinee
Next up: Reviews of a couple I've seen more recently - History of Violence and In Her Shoes.
Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day (courtesy of Jen): My other car is a college education.
-sunday
posted by Sunday at
12:35 PM
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