bigHEADinc
El Dandy
Wanted Conway Twitty as a special title.
lest we forget...
Posts: 7,711
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Post by bigHEADinc on Feb 8, 2008 10:52:58 GMT -5
THE NAMESAKE
Being from an Arabic background and having parents that came from what seems like whole other world is something I got used to over the years. It's hard to truly identify with my parents as we grew up in completely different environments but they always tried to instill a bit of the old world respect system in me. As I grew up, I stopped resenting my father's ways and started actually learning from them. This is, essentially, what The Namesake is about.
The Namesake takes place across a couple separate timelines of the Ganguli family, an Indian family living in America. The movie mainly centers on the parents, Ashoke and Ashima (Played by Irfan Khan and Tabu, respectively) and the beginnings of their love the hardships they had to endure throughout their marriage. Later, after they have children, the story begins to center on their son Gogol (played by Kal Penn of Harold & Kumar fame) and his struggles with trying to be accepted with a name like Gogol. As he goes through life, he goes from outright hating the name and trying as hard as he can to be "American" to later, after the death of his Father, accepting his name and his heritage.
While this movie centers on an Indian family, I could still identify greatly with Gogol who just wanted, for once in his life, to simply fit in. Kal Penn showed that he's not just some bit actor in stoner comedies and he brought a lot of real emotion to the role. Irfan Khan also deserves tons of credit with his role as Gogol's father and cornerstone of the family. With the real emotion he portrays throughout the movie, it makes his imminent death a lot harder to take and will probably choke up a few viewers.
I really can't recommend this enough.
****1/2 out of *****
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4real
Wade Wilson
Posts: 28,702
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Post by 4real on Feb 8, 2008 13:27:37 GMT -5
Saw Cloverfield a few nights ago and it was great, best movie i've seen so far this year.
Even if it did make me dizzy.
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bigHEADinc
El Dandy
Wanted Conway Twitty as a special title.
lest we forget...
Posts: 7,711
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Post by bigHEADinc on Feb 8, 2008 18:30:48 GMT -5
LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
Enjoyable little flick. Big ups to Bill Murray. Ran a little too long for my taste and some of the humor was a little too dry.
***1/2 out of *****
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Jiren
Patti Mayonnaise
Hearts Bayformers
Posts: 35,163
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Post by Jiren on Feb 8, 2008 18:47:41 GMT -5
Drive - thru
This basically a "Nightmare On Elm Street" ripoff but as a full fledged slasher.
The characters are unlikable, The killers one liners are bad (And a few ripped off from "The Shining") & the story is a complete mess.
Avoid
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Post by Bob Schlapowitz on Feb 12, 2008 22:28:44 GMT -5
I just watched "We Own the Night". It wasn't great but it wasn't bad. I would give it a 6/10. It seemed like it could have been a lot better than it was. I have to say the opening scene with Eva Mendes was HOT.
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Post by REDUNBECK~! on Feb 13, 2008 5:02:22 GMT -5
A Sound of ThunderYou know how there are some time travel stories where you can go in the past and see yourself, and others where you can't? Or how there are some time travel stories where if you change the past, nobody back in the future remembers how the world used to be, and others where they do remember? A Sound of Thunder tries to be all of those at the same time, contradictions be damned. Now, as someone who actually studied the logistics and philosophy of theoretical time travel in a college course, I'm more in-tune with the intricacies of time travel stories than most people are. I'm also a massive dork. But anyone, anyone at all - even someone who has never heard of time travel before - would see how smurfed up this movie's time travel rule book is and feel insulted by the insinuation that they're supposed to buy into it. And then they'd feel insulted by every other aspect of this horrible film as well. The plot of the original short story "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury is simple: man goes back in time, accidentally kills a butterfly, changes the future into something horrible and must prevent himself from making the changes he did. The movie A Sound of Thunder complicates this so unnecessarily that one cannot call the script "lazy". You have to work at it to produce something this convoluted and yet so dumb. Travis Ryer (Ed Burns) is a scientist who works for Ben Kingsley's Toupee (Ben Kingsley's Toupee) at a futuristic facility that takes rich white folk on trips back in time to hunt Allosaurus' while Travis collects DNA samples from local creatures in hopes of bringing back Earth's animal population, which went completely extinct following a virus called, get this, "THE VIRUS". The rich folk have fun, Travis gets his research and everyone is happy. The Allosaurus has been very carefully chosen: they go to a moment when it's about to die anyway (a volcano is shortly to erupt nearby), so they're hunting it does not effect the timeline. Also, there's a designated path the hunting party must stay on to make sure they don't step on anything in the natural habitat. On one trip, the guns malfunction and in a moment of panic, a client accidentally steps on a butterfly and kills it. When the group returns to the future, gigantic TIME WAVES (echo) begin running over the world, changing the timeline. It begins with the simplest things - the climate, plants, bugs - but soon the waves will begin changing the higher-evolved organisms - namely, humans. Before that happens, Travis and Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack) - a disgruntled former employee of Ben Kingsley's Toupee who just knew this would happen - must change the past to save the future. Now, their plan is to send Travis back to that last hunting trip to warn himself about what will happen. Problem is this: every hunting trip goes to the exact same moment in time (we see three such trips) yet never run into each other because that's just how time travel works. Until they change it so Travis has some way to fix things. Inconsistency number one. Inconsistency number two is this: after the TIME WAVES begin, the world is changed to being practically prehistoric because evolution happened differently. OK, but why does everyone remember how it used to be if the entire history of EARTH is now different? And why, at the same time, are they used to living like this like things have always been this way? Which is it, guys? This distracted me so badly I needed to pause the movie just so I could think for a while. I couldn't work it out, decided they just didn't care when they made this, and gave up on that. But then I went back to watching the movie, and now I was able to see all the other issues it has. The special effects are awful. These are sub-N64 graphics they've concocted. Everything looks fake: the monsters, the CGI cityscape, the CGI cars. Everything. And the actors aren't even blended in well; they have gigantic borders around them that makes them look like cardboard cut-outs being pushed around in front of a matte painting from hell. I thought "Well, maybe it's a low-budget kind of thing". Well, no. They had Eighty million dollars to work with. Apparently it all went into maintaining Ben Kingsley's Toupee which, admittedly, is immaculate. And then there's the acting. Ben Kingsley's Toupee hams it up because he could plainly see what kind of movie he was in and decided to just have fun with it. Everyone else is as wooden as the forest. Ed Burns is comatose and everyone else is bored. Not that I blame them, 'cause I was too. So A Sound of Thunder plods along. Evolution changes to give us monsters to run from. Yawn. The TIME WAVES are blocking the time travel portals, so we have to use the risky, possibly-lethal, untested time travel protocol instead. Meh. Travis saves the day. Duh. A Sound of Thunder slogs through these plot points so lifelessly that you couldn't possibly care. Once you've given up on working out the philosophical implications of this mess, there's nothing to hold your interest. But I used every ounce of my being to stay strong and get to the end, just to save y'all the trouble of seeing this. And then the end totally smurfing sucked. This Sound of Thunder sounds eerily like a turd hitting the toilet bowl.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Feb 13, 2008 7:16:54 GMT -5
Watched "I Am Legend" the other night. Loved it at first, the whole thing about his obsession to find a cure and his slow descent into madness (which by they way ALOT of people in the theater didn't get and thought it was supposed to be humour). But it slowly turns more and more into a glorified Zombie flick, which I felt hurt it overall.
*** out of *****
Had it stayed more focused on the character development, and struggles it would've been ****
EDIT: I should add I had no advance knowledge of previous versions of the film, or of the book.
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bigHEADinc
El Dandy
Wanted Conway Twitty as a special title.
lest we forget...
Posts: 7,711
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Post by bigHEADinc on Feb 13, 2008 10:52:01 GMT -5
I just watched "We Own the Night". It wasn't great but it wasn't bad. I would give it a 6/10. It seemed like it could have been a lot better than it was. I have to say the opening scene with Eva Mendes was HOT. Oh man, I re-watched that opening scene a few times... I was all Watched "I Am Legend" the other night. Loved it at first, the whole thing about his obsession to find a cure and his slow descent into madness (which by they way ALOT of people in the theater didn't get and thought it was supposed to be humour). But it slowly turns more and more into a glorified Zombie flick, which I felt hurt it overall. *** out of ***** Had it stayed more focused on the character development, and struggles it would've been **** EDIT: I should add I had no advance knowledge of previous versions of the film, or of the book. I completely agree. Now, for another movie I saw... BEND IT LIKE BECKHAMIt was a cute little movie that didn't really stand out too much. I did enjoy their realistic portrayals of the families (And the in-talking between them). Also, Keira Knightly shows her stomach and legs (let's not forget her pretty face) for pretty much the whole movie so that made an alright movie even easier to watch. *** out of *****
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bigHEADinc
El Dandy
Wanted Conway Twitty as a special title.
lest we forget...
Posts: 7,711
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Post by bigHEADinc on Feb 13, 2008 11:21:22 GMT -5
BEE MOVIE The movie is pretty much Jerry's stand-up act made into a kids movie. The animation is good, but the story moves way too quickly for what could've been a really interesting premise. I feel like if they gave the script to the guys at Pixar for a once-over it could've been a good movie. Some jokes were good but, as a whole, the movie kinda sucked.
** out of *****
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DJ Peapod
Samurai Cop
RKO...Romantically Evil
Posts: 2,115
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Post by DJ Peapod on Feb 13, 2008 11:58:37 GMT -5
Just saw Juno recently...
3.5/5...it's funny, somewhat of a date movie...but pretty interesting dry humor in it.
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Millie D
El Dandy
Something VERY special.
I Love Glee!
Posts: 8,923
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Post by Millie D on Feb 13, 2008 14:54:52 GMT -5
IN THE NAME OF THE KING with Jason Statham
2 hours of my life I ain't getting back! It was a redundant plotline and a waste of mt time
MR WOODCOCK
hated it! I am not a billy bob fan and I thought it sucked cheeseballs!
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bigHEADinc
El Dandy
Wanted Conway Twitty as a special title.
lest we forget...
Posts: 7,711
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Post by bigHEADinc on Feb 13, 2008 14:56:54 GMT -5
IN THE NAME OF THE KING with Jason Statham 2 hours of my life I ain't getting back! It was a redundant plotline and a waste of mt time MR WOODCOCK hated it! I am not a billy bob fan and I thought it sucked cheeseballs! I'm not stupid enough to watch In The Name of the King (Not saying anything about you, Millie... ) but Mr. Woodcock was a huge pile of s***. * out of ***** (One star given because Susan Sarandon is still hot)
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bigHEADinc
El Dandy
Wanted Conway Twitty as a special title.
lest we forget...
Posts: 7,711
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Post by bigHEADinc on Feb 14, 2008 2:49:28 GMT -5
STRANGE WILDERNESS
Let me just say, 2007/Early-2008 has been an awesome time for cinema in general. With so many good movies, such as Juno, Eastern Promises, Michael Clayton, and much more, it's become tough to truly pin-point the best movie.
This will never be considered among them.
The story, about a nature show that is being run into the ground by the original host's son trying to save the show, is abysmal at best. The shooting, with it's mix of stock footage and poorly shot new footage, is horrible. The script is amateurish and lacks any sort of depth.
BUT I LOVED THIS MOVIE!
It's a stoner movie. It's a stupidly wonderful stoner movie that understands how dumb it is, but every single person just hams it up and look like they're having such a wonderful time doing it. There were so many laugh out loud moments that I can't really say that I didn't completely enjoy it.
And yes, I was flying like a kite when I watched it.
***1/2 out of *****
P.S. Holy crap the Turkey scene, when they met a man named Dick, and the Nitrous scene were amazing.
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bigHEADinc
El Dandy
Wanted Conway Twitty as a special title.
lest we forget...
Posts: 7,711
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Post by bigHEADinc on Feb 15, 2008 13:59:28 GMT -5
CHARLIE BARTLETT
When I first saw the previews for this movie, it looked like nothing more than Van Wilder in high school (down to the suit jacket over a t-shirt with jeans). I was happily proven wrong.
Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) is an intelligent, self-motivated, and very creative individual who is also rich and lives in a mansion. You can compare him to, say, Van Wilder or Zack Morris, but he's a little bit more innocent than either of those two. His entire goal for his high school career is to be popular, usually by any means necessary. He's been kicked out of a lot of private schools, with his most recent one finding out that he had made fake IDs for a good portion of the school population. His mother (Hope Davis), who treats him more as a friend than a son, decides that it'd be best if he lived at home and went to the public school. There, he is quickly relegated to the title of "loser" and beaten up due to his unusual outfit (A prep school outfit). After being prescribed Ritalin, he finds his niche selling the drug to students by forging a relationship with the school bully. Soon enough, though, Charlie is not only prescribing medications (2nd hand by going through various therapists) but being a therapist himself to a good portion of the student body. He also gains a love interest in Susan Gardner (Kat Dennings, from the 40 Year Old Virgin) who is, coincidentally, the daughter of Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.).
When I first saw the preview, I really didn't think much of it. Like I said, it looked like a low-rent Van Wilder. What the previews don't show you is the amount of heart and honesty behind the script. What they also don't show you is the excellent interplay between Yelchin's Bartlett and Downey's Principal Gardner that made this movie a joy to watch. Yelchin has an undeniable charisma and, while his character's methods are unorthodox, you constantly root for him throughout the movie. Robert Downey Jr. pours a lot of emotion into what could've been a very stereotypical role for him. As a man who's lost his wife to her affairs. trying to take care of his 17 year old daughter who is also a student, and trying to make the best out of his stressful job as Principal, Downey's facial expressions play a big part into showing you the sadness behind his character.
The film itself has it's funny moments as it's a comedy at heart but it's the interactions of the students and Charlie Bartlett himself that makes this an immensely enjoyable teen comedy that doesn't have to resort to nudity or the over-done "stoner comedy" to make it work. I can easily recommend this movie.
**** out of *****
P.S. For all you Degrassi fans, Paige, Jimmy, and Craig all make appearances in the movie.
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Grendel
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
But ... why is all the rum gone?
Posts: 17,593
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Post by Grendel on Feb 15, 2008 14:09:03 GMT -5
The Princess Bride is on HBO right at this moment, and I'm watching it for some odd reason. I've seen it at least a half a dozen times, but I'll still watch it when it comes on. Isn't it supposed to be a kid's movie or something?
But I recommend it. Beats the hell out of watching Willow any day, in my opinion.
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Grendel
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
But ... why is all the rum gone?
Posts: 17,593
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Post by Grendel on Feb 15, 2008 14:11:25 GMT -5
CHARLIE BARTLETTWhen I first saw the previews for this movie, it looked like nothing more than Van Wilder in high school (down to the suit jacket over a t-shirt with jeans). I was happily proven wrong. Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) is an intelligent, self-motivated, and very creative individual who is also rich and lives in a mansion. You can compare him to, say, Van Wilder or Zack Morris, but he's a little bit more innocent than either of those two. His entire goal for his high school career is to be popular, usually by any means necessary. He's been kicked out of a lot of private schools, with his most recent one finding out that he had made fake IDs for a good portion of the school population. His mother (Hope Davis), who treats him more as a friend than a son, decides that it'd be best if he lived at home and went to the public school. There, he is quickly relegated to the title of "loser" and beaten up due to his unusual outfit (A prep school outfit). After being prescribed Ritalin, he finds his niche selling the drug to students by forging a relationship with the school bully. Soon enough, though, Charlie is not only prescribing medications (2nd hand by going through various therapists) but being a therapist himself to a good portion of the student body. He also gains a love interest in Susan Gardner (Kat Dennings, from the 40 Year Old Virgin) who is, coincidentally, the daughter of Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.). When I first saw the preview, I really didn't think much of it. Like I said, it looked like a low-rent Van Wilder. What the previews don't show you is the amount of heart and honesty behind the script. What they also don't show you is the excellent interplay between Yelchin's Bartlett and Downey's Principal Gardner that made this movie a joy to watch. Yelchin has an undeniable charisma and, while his character's methods are unorthodox, you constantly root for him throughout the movie. Robert Downey Jr. pours a lot of emotion into what could've been a very stereotypical role for him. As a man who's lost his wife to her affairs. trying to take care of his 17 year old daughter who is also a student, and trying to make the best out of his stressful job as Principal, Downey's facial expressions play a big part into showing you the sadness behind his character. The film itself has it's funny moments as it's a comedy at heart but it's the interactions of the students and Charlie Bartlett himself that makes this an immensely enjoyable teen comedy that doesn't have to resort to nudity or the over-done "stoner comedy" to make it work. I can easily recommend this movie. **** out of ***** P.S. For all you Degrassi fans, Paige, Jimmy, and Craig all make appearances in the movie. I remember when this movie was being advertised last fall, but I thought it bombed at the theatre. Here it wasn't released because of all the comedies that were out at that time, and they release it now (at least I think that's what they did). It kind of looks interesting ... But then I'm kind of interested in seeing Jumper, too. Oh god, what's wrong with me ... ;D
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,970
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Post by Mozenrath on Feb 15, 2008 14:21:50 GMT -5
I've been mildly interested in Charlie Bartlett. Glad it doesn't suck.
THE EYE: Saw this yesterday, for Valentine's Day. Wasn't much else that was playing that I hadn't seen already.
I sat down, and expected to hate this movie. After all, the premise isn't really anything you hadn't seen before, and Alba isn't typically considered a very good actress. I'll tell you this, I left the theater pleasantly surprised.
Alba can act, shocking huh? I'm not going to tell you Alba was Meryl Streep, and this film sure as hell wasn't Sophie's Choice, but she was better than expected. She did a good job, and I left the film with a better opinion of her.
Now, the film has some silly holes sometimes, like why a blind woman would have paintings on her wall, but nothing too distracting. There were some good surprising scary bits, but I wouldn't call it terrifying by any means. It was more a thriller than a horror film.
Her love interest isn't anything that's gonna wow you, he was kind of blah, but Parker Posey does a good job as her sister. You don't get to know that many of the secondary characters, though, it's virtually Alba on film the whole time.
A movie should do three things: A. Entertain B. Get you from the beginning to the end in a way you can follow C. Make you give a crap what happens to the characters
In that sense, this movie passes with flying colors. I had fun. I could follow the plot easily, with enough mystery as to how to got to there. And, in the end, I honestly did care about how it would all play out.
I have decided not to use the star system in my reviews anymore, so I'll give it: Above Average. Not WAY above average, but enough to where I think you'll leave the film feeling like you had a good time.
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Post by A Dubya (El Hombre Muerto) on Feb 15, 2008 14:34:49 GMT -5
Ok, I just saw Juno on Wednesday, and thought it was a good flick. It was a cute story that I was surprised by. Surprised because I went into the theater with basically no expectations of it. I think I had heard it was good, but usually I don't have any high expectations for movies nowadays.
My girlfriend and I went to check it out for Valentine's Day, and I think it was a good choice. Seems like a great film for couples to see together. I liked it. I'd give it 3.5/5 stars.
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Millie D
El Dandy
Something VERY special.
I Love Glee!
Posts: 8,923
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Post by Millie D on Feb 15, 2008 14:44:19 GMT -5
I just watched a little documentry called TRANTASIA
it was about this transexxual beauty pagent in Las Vegas
I found it fascinating because its a culture I am not used to but do not fear and I like to see how they put themselves together, if the boobs are real or not and hear their life stories...I liked it
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Post by Virt McGirt on Feb 15, 2008 14:49:47 GMT -5
I just watched Batman Begins for the third time last night. (The ammount'd be higher if I had the DVD) Anyway, I'd never really seen a comic book treated the way Christopher Nolan did it (I know the comics it's based on pretty much do the same thing, but I'd never seen it on film), and am confident The Dark Knight will be just as, if not better, than the first one.
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