by Dean | Sep 15, 2010 | Movies
My bro Dean D. Gives his hip review of 2 movies. “Revolutionary Road” and “Taken” Que em up at Netflix and see if ya agree 🙂
Revolutionary Road
Did you know American suburbanites of the 1950s were often
Image by onkel_wart via Flickr
desperately unhappy? It’s true.
Know what else?
People today are often desperately unhappy as well, and many, many of them are secular liberals. What’s to become of them?
The frustrating Sam Mendes directed this movie. It’s even worse than his “American Beauty“ and “Road to Perdition.” Not only is it dated and banal and leaden, it is also written in such a way that it’s impossible to care about the characters. Pity those poor American suburbanites.
Taken
For a suspenseful action flick, Taken, which pits Liam Neeson against sex-slave traders who have kidnapped his daughter, is inferior to the TV series, “24.” This doesn’t mean it isn’t exciting or well-made, though.
It’s both. However . . .
Most of the violence the criminals receive at Neeson’s hand they absolutely deserve. On the other hand, the film glorifies a murderer.
by DaveStuff | Sep 8, 2010 | Movies
The original crew of the Starship Enterprise as young men and women is what we get from director J.J. Abrams and his writers in the ’09 “Star Trek,” a stirring adventure flick. Chris Pine (Jim Kirk) could use some charm and the plot could use a little less nonsense, but I thrilled at this-and-that–at some of Abrams’s action footage and the clever interaction between the Enterprise’s people.
The film is adeptly directed, edited, photographed and production-designed. It is a nice, fresh scene when Spock (Zachary Quinto) enters the ship elevator, then Uhura–Spock’s girlfriend! (Zoe Saldana)–enters, after which the dark-skinned officer sweetly comforts the quiet Vulcan now that evil Romulans have murdered his mother. Cropping up, too, are a couple of interesting images of planets being destroyed through implosion. Although lacking in charm, Pine is hardly uncompelling, while Quinto is merely okay. I’m not very assiduous about looking for cinematic sexism but, as often happens in movies, a woman–Saldana–gets half-naked for a brief while, but no man ever does. Maybe next time. Be that as it may, “ST” is almost as much fun as Abrams’s wacky TV series, “Lost.” As dramatic entertainment it means business. Permission to come on board.
by DaveStuff | Sep 3, 2010 | Movies
The naive, brutish and bipolar security guard played by Seth Rogen is a very interesting figure, but the other characterizations are what sink this comic film. The guard’s mother, the Ana Faris character–they’re sketchy, underwritten, uninteresting. Worse, “Observe and Report” is very often unfunny.
A flop.
Guest post by My bro Dean D.
by Dean | Sep 1, 2010 | Celebrity, Movies
Image via Wikipedia
I didn’t find Sam Raimi‘s “Drag Me to Hell” entertaining. It is an intelligently directed, edited and photographed horror flick with some canny moments, such as the weirdness at the dinner party. But those scary jolts can be clunky if not silly, and the writing is spotty, concerning as it does a young woman who is cursed by a Hungarian crone when the former declines to further extend the gypsy’s bank credit. “Lamia” time. As a Christian I believe in damnation, but I don’t believe in this film. It handles the subject of “eternal burning” too lightly, too frivolously–and, needless to say, with bad theology. Also, horror movies with abysmally dark endings stick in my craw. They’re not fun. As if all this weren’t enough, Alison Lohman, though lovely, gives a superficial performance as the cursed gal.
Reviewed by my bro Dean.
by Dean | Aug 28, 2010 | Movies
Watch the DVD Secuestro Express… A review
You haven’t seen squalor and crime until you’ve seen Venezuelan squalor and crime. And don’t ever trust a drug addict. This is what Jonathan Jakubowicz’s taut Venezuelan picture communicates.
Carla, a rich man’s daughter who does volunteer work with poor children, is kidnapped by lower-class thugs coveting ransom money. Her druggie fiance is kidnapped as well, but later escapes after turning unexpectedly treacherous toward Carla. Life is strange, Carla has to admit. The only good thing going on here is that the thugs decline to rape her.
“Secuestro” could easily have been tedious; we’ve seen all this Latin American ugliness before. But tedious it isn’t because it’s a vivid thriller. Mia Maestro, who plays Carla, is magnificently comely and histrionically hard-working and affecting. One hopes to see her in many future roles.
I chose to see “SE,” available to me only on DVD, instead of such American films as “Munich” and “The New World” because of possibly false reports that these two movies are boring. What if it’s true? CRITICS have made this charge. Can it be that U.S. filmmakers are ceasing to interest us? (Yes, it can be; you’d better believe it.) As I said, “Secuestro Express” could have been tedious, but Jakubowicz prevents it from happening. That’s meritorious filmmaking.
by DaveStuff | Aug 27, 2010 | Movies
Image via Wikipedia
I rented True Romance last weekend. It has been years since I seen it… It was written by Taranteno and you know I was completely entertained as I usually am by the films he is involved in.
The movie has an all star cast with many cameo’s. When some of these big names step in for little rolls like this it is often a good sign. These great actors just want to be part of a interesting project.
It includes all the good things:
- Love
- Drugs
- Violence
- Racism
- Roller Coasters
- Pimps
- Corrupt cops
- Snitches
Now don’t you want to see what happens?
If you have never seen this movie… Your missing out… Check it… And I wanted to post about a movie because I noticed there was only one post about movies in the archive for this site…And I have been once again trying to build up this site…Just for the fun of it.
