the box.

if i presented you with the proposition to press a button that would kill someone, somewhere in the world that you did not know for one million dollars, what would you do?

i’d press the button and be on my way.

it is that question of morality that the film the box plays on.  and i have to say through about three quarters of the film it is a well acted, well produced and well directed   unfortunatly it had a fourth quarter to go.

let me discuss the things about this movie i liked.  it is set in the late 70’s and looks, sounds and feels like a film out of that era.  the wall paper is terrible, the wide men’s ties are atrocious and the soundtrack is killer.  any time you can fit “bell bottom blues” by eric clapton into a film, i’m a happy camper.  the original score is excellent as well.  it could very easily have been lifted from a 1976 film noir.

i was on imdb.com today and everyone seems to have a good time bashing cameron diaz’ accent.  which may not be the best virginia accent in the world but it beats the hell out of tom cruise’s german in valkyrie.  i’m not a big cameron diaz fan, but i thought she did a pretty good job considering the script she had to work with.  james marsden is pretty spot on too.  and i can never get enough frank langella.  that old dude just rocks.

the film is based on a short story by richard matheson called “button, button.”  matheson also wrote the story the film i am legend was based on.  and that movie pretty much rocked up until the final quarter too.  i need to read some of his work to see who i need to blame for the ending of his movies sucking.  but on this one i’m gonna go ahead and blame richard kelly.

richard kelly was the dude that directed donnie darko, so he’s a little out there anyway.  but come on dude.  just because you think you are so smart don’t mean you are.  just leave him as the mysterious man with the box.  that would have been much more better than that thin attempt to explain what’s going on.  sometimes we don’t need to know.  our imagination fills in the holes in your otherwise weak screenplay.

but whatever, that’s why i work at a movie theater and review movies on my blog.  because i’m so smart….

i don’t think this is going to be the movie to see this weekend.  i’ve not had the chance to screen the men who stare at goats or the fourth kind or disney’s a christmas carol.  thought i’m pretty sure how that last one goes.  it should still be fun to watch jim carrey’s animated old scrooge in 3D.

i did find it interesting that the button was only pushed by women…

one and a half cameron diazes out of five.

law abiding citizen.

well, gerard butler looks pretty awesome with his shirt off.  and i’m really starting to miss the in living color jamie foxx days.  dude is just way too serious.

other than that, i really can’t say a lot about this film.  other than people seem to like it.  the friend i was with when i saw it really liked it as well.  i think i’m just an uber critic.

i think their objective in this film, other than blowing a bunch of stuff up, was to point out some flaws with our legal system.  like making deals with murderers and bad guys and giving them lesser sentences so they can give another bad guy and murderer a harsher sentence.  and i know this goes on.  i’ve seen it in other movies.

ol’ gerard loses his mind when the murderer of his wife and daughter get off with a light sentence because the guy testifies against another bad guy.  and he really does kill everybody.

it’s one of those deals where they set him up like a regular dude then we find out he’s got some mysterious lump sum payments made to him by the department of defense.  and no one thinks anything of it until people start dying.  turns out he’s like some brilliant black ops mastermind.

wow, who saw that coming?

i did come in late, which i really hate to do, and missed the terrible murder that started it.  maybe i would have bought into it a little more.  i just didn’t think all that was necessary.

there are some good action sequences and the actors all do a good job.  i particularly liked leslie bibb who plays jamie foxx’s assistant and bruce mcgill who plays the old lawyer confidant.  colm meaney is good as the cop.  i love that dude, he used to be star trek: the next generation and also in one of the spin offs.

two large movie theater popcorns out of five.  go see paranormal activity.

whiteout.

i do love me some kate beckinsale.  but i reckon i coulda passed on this one.  it’s just not very good.  there’s nothing particularly compelling about any of it.

kate beckinsale is the overly sexy u.s. marshall assigned to a post in friggin’ antartica.  we learn though flashbacks she was an overly sexy u.s. marshall in miami but had some serious shit break out and she spazzed and took a post as far away from civilization as possible.  blah blah blah.  some folks start ending up dead and frozen, people walk around in negative 65 degree weather without freezing their lips off, some fool in full face winter gear starts slashing at people with one of those climbing spike thingies, kate gets frostbite and loses some fingers and…

SPOILER ALERT…

tom skerritt did it.

i love you kate beckinsale but you need a better agent.  and maybe you should read the script before cashing the check.  but then again, it’s not like you really had to stretch yourself for this one.  this movie only gets a half a kate beckinsale out of five.

my sister’s keeper.

everything that is bad about hollywood that is reflected in transformers, this film is everything good about hollywood.  a compelling story, believable characters, true human emotion.  it’s great.  it made me cry.

it’s the story of a family that concieves a child to be a donor child for thier older daughter that has lukemia.  they will use the younger daughter’s organs for transplants, her blood for transfusions and her bone marrow when needed to keep the older daughter alive.  that’s some pretty gruesome stuff if you ask me.  but then again, if i had a daughter with a disease like that what lengths would i go to keep her alive?  and there is no one that hasn’t been touched by cancer in some way or another.  and this film tells the story of how one family was affected. 

i’m not generally a big cameron diaz fan.  i believe her best work was in the mask with jim carrey about a hundred years ago, but she’s still sexy as all get out.  jason patric is fantastic as the husband, the little girl from little miss sunshine is great as the younger daughter.  Abigail Breslin is her name and she is spectacular.  this little girl is great in everything she’s been in so far.  or at least that i’ve seen.  she’s gonna be around for a long, long time.  unless of course she gets hooked on drugs in her teens and ends up on “where are they now.”  let’s hope not, she’s a very talented young actress.

don’t see this movie alone unless you just need a good cry.  because cry you will.  take a girl and you’ll be her hero for the night.  i have to give this movie a five out of five.  and i don’t even have anything to give it other than stars.  anything else would just be wrong.  i’m probably never going to purchase this film just because it’s one of those i’m glad to have seen it, but do not want to see it again.  unless i think i might be able to get a little lovin’, then i might pick it up.

the taking of pelham 123.

summer blockbuster this ain’t.  as the number since it’s release have shown.  in my theater it hasn’t finished better than third on any given day.  disney pixar’s up is still kicking ass and taking names followed not really that closely by the hangover.  that’s not to say the taking of pelham 123 is a bad movie.  it’s very well done and has a very compelling cast.  i think it was just released at the wrong time.  it might not have made any more money if it had been released in winter or early spring or something liek that.  but it might be number one if it had.

like i said, it’s not a bad movie.  it’s very well done.  i especially like the way the soundtrack and background noise work.  the train and railway sounds it uses in transitions i thought was very cool and everything just “sounded” right.  it’s just well put together.  good editing, great sound editting.  all that stuff is very sound.  solid.

the actors are all very good.  john travolta and denzel washington are professional actors who have been working in the business for a long time.  they are able to take a plot line that is pretty well worn and make it intriguing for 2 hours.  everyone is just believable.  there’s some really good dialog and interaction between the main characters and also everyone else in the movie.

it’s got tony soprano as the embattled mayor of new york, john turturro as the fbi hostage negotiator guy.  and i love all those guys. 

if you’re an avid movie fan, like me.  this is a good film.  you will not be disappointed.  this is a good flick to pick up on dvd and watch on a sunday evening on the couch with you lady friend.  i give it three new york hostages out of five.

angels and demons.

maybe if i hadn’t seen star trek last week this film might have been better.  but then again, it’s not as good as the da vinci code anyway.  well, it’s actually pretty much the same movie as the da vinci code but since we’ve already seen that one, this one seems just a little flat.

it’s basically tom hanks running around rome looking for ancient symbols leading him on a path to other symbols that point him in other directions.  and if you saw da vinci, then you can take out the knights of the templar and replace them with the illuminati and you have angels and demons.

angels and demons was the first of the two books by dan brown made into movies yet in this film angels is set up as a sequel.  which is no big deal.  but some key elements from the book are simply left out.  for what reason, i do not know.  it’s in this book that professor langdon has a serious romantic interest in his female lead.  but there is none of that in the film.  there was more of a relationship for him in the da vinci code.

all in all, it’s still a pretty good film.  like i said, if i hadn’t seen star trek last week this might be a better movie to me.  but star trek just blows everything out of the water so far this summer.  it’s not even close.

the history and things like that just don’t seem as interesting to me this time around.  meaning, the da vinci code was just way better.  sorry ron howard, you just missed on this one a little bit.  i’m sure you’ll still make a hundred million bucks, but maybe not.

one of the things that makes da vinci a better film is there is a compelling villian in the albino.  but there is none such in angels and demons.  the peices to the puzzles just don’t seem to fit as well in this one as in the last film.  and it’s a shame.  it’s a pretty good story, they just missed a little.

two dead catholic popes out of five.

state of play.

it don’t suck that bad.  it’s actually pretty good.  mostly the actors were better than the plot line.  i had given up on the big twist i was waiting for and started to think to myself that this flick wasn’t half bad with that twist missing.  then they hit me with.

it’s like they filmed the whole thing and right before it’s released someone screens the film and says, i think we should put that plot twist in now.  i just scribbled it out on my napkin.  it’s a bad spot for it and we knew it was coming all the time.  it’s not as dissapointing but imagine watching four hours of jodi foster in contact only to be let down when the alien looks like her father. 

but not near that bad.  no jodi foster.

i think i’ve lost my train of thought…anywho, the actors all do a pretty good job.  i hate ben afflack, not as much as i hate nicholas cage, but i hate ben afflack.  and he’s quite good here.  sometimes when you put a couple of big ticket actors together it’s almost like they compete too hard, and try to hard to out act the other guy.  but i find ben afflack often acts up to his competition.  and he does in this. 

russell crow gets back to being russell crow.  i thougth he sucked in body of lies.  but body of lies really sucked from all angles so i can’t hold that against him.  he’s a damn fine actor.

rachel mcadams is about as cute as they come.  and she more than holds her own with these big boys of hollywood star power. 

helen mirren is delightful as always.  she plays russell crow’s editor in chief.

it’s based on an BBC original series which i might download and watch.  might be interesting. 

i’ll prob not purchase this disc unless i’m trying to hook up with a chick that really digs russell crow and or ben afflack.  in that case, i’d totally get it out of the three for twenty rack at blockbuster.

gran torino.

Gran Torino.

 

Is freaking awesome!

 

If this were really to be Clint’s last movie role, it is his grand opus.  His requiem.  His fifth symphony.  It is his most epic western.

 

And it is an epic western.  It just happens to be set in a modern day suburb of Detroit where all the old white folks have moved out and left codgy old bastard Clint surrounded by gooks, spooks and deigos.

 

Clint Eastwood creates a character that people can easily relate to.  The audience can feel this old man’s pain. 

 

The movie opens at his wife of a thousand year’s funeral.  His spoiled, detached and otherwise unlikable sons complaining about the old man. 

 

At one point a little later in the film, Clint comments to his own image in the mirror that he has more in common with his gook neighbors that with his own family.

 

The core of the story revolves around the gooks next door and their fight against the gangs that are running rabid in the ‘burbs.  The young boy is pressured to try and steal Clint’s prized 1972 Gran Torino and culminates with ultimate redemption.

 

I can see Eastwood walking away with lots of little gold statues.

 

In fact, I give this film nine and a half Oscars out of a possible ten.

 

Go see this film.  Now. 

seven pounds

Seven Pounds.

 

Boy, that Will Smith is pretty good.  And Rosario Dawson is smokin’ hot.

 

I did kinda figure out what was going on in the first third of the film.  And yes, I figured out where they got the title from within that same first third of the film.

 

I was asked the other day, before I saw the film, what seven pounds meant.  And I had no idea, having not seen the flick.  I said I think it comes from some biblical story where some dude has to pay for his sins with seven pounds of flesh. 

 

I think that’s actually the Merchant of Venice now that I think about it…

 

But anyway, it’s a pretty damn good movie.  I mean, if you like drama, emotionally charged drama, this is the film for you.

 

I’m trying to think of a film to compare it to.  Probably the Pursuit of Happyness.  But I never saw that one.  It’s got the same director.  And even though this one was really good, I’m not likely to go and rent or purchase the Pursuit of Happyness.

 

As far as Will Smith movies go, I’d rather buy I am Legend.

 

I like my Will Smith kicking zombie ass.  I don’t, however, like my Will Smith dropping F-bombs.

 

 

Will Smith might get an Oscar nomination.  Rosario Dawson might get a nomination.  It really is that good.  Those two actors carry the film.  Like I said, if you’re halfway paying attention, you know the twist.  But I got kinda emotionally attached to the characters.

 

I give this film four jellyfish suicides out of five jellyfish suicides.

 

If you’re going to the movies before the weekend and you’ve already seen Benjamin Button, I would recommend Seven Pounds over Valkyrie.  But you’re not making a mistake going to see Valkyrie.

some recent dvd’s.

watching movies helps me recover from what my phycologist calls “blue funk”.   so i’ve been on a movie watching tear as of late.  here are some of the dvd’s i’ve watched recently and what i think about them.

national lampoon’s van wilder.  ranks right up there animal house.

the big lebowski.  whenever i get stranded on that island where i can only take ten dvd’s with me, it’s one of them.

waiting.  so i might have a man crush on ryan reynolds.  but this movie hits so close to home for anyone that’s ever worked in the food service industry.  it’s real close to making that ten.

the pick of destiny.  looks like they had a really good time making that movie…and the music sequences are hilarious.  i kinda wish they would have put thier first album to celluloid rock opera style ala tommy.  that would have been awesome.  it’s still funny though.

V for Vendetta.  it’s one of the ten for sure.  i freaking love it.  natalie portman is sexy bald.  incredible peice of cinema.

casino royal.  better than those last couple of peirce brosnan ones they made.  but too damn long.  we didn’t need to see the last thirty minutes.

batman begins.  can’t wait to see the new one.

the royal tenenbaums.  classic.  not all people like wes anderson.  i do.  makes me want to go buy steve zissou and the life aquatic.  zissou makes the island.