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Showing posts from August, 2009

Review: Inglorious Basterds

Anyone else's theater have this displayed as "Inglorious B" since apparently even when spelled incorrectly, "Basterd" cannot be displayed at a movie theater. (Although "Meet the Fockers" is apparently fine?) Quintin Tarantino does not disappoint in this WWII Nazi explotation flick. While it's got quite the running time (153 mins) it never gets boring. The story is almost 3 different stories woven into one. The main one being a group of Jewish-Americans led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) are dropped in France for one reason, and one reason alone: Killin' Nazis. Yes, they are referred to as the "Basterds" they don't just shoot the Nazis, they scalp them, terrorize them, and have the Bear Jew (The man behind the 'Hostel' flicks, Eli Roth) bash their heads in with a baseball bat. The ones that they do let live get a swastika carved on their forehead. Oh yes, the Basterds are brutal, but it's all in good fun. After all, th

Review: District 9

South African born Neill Blomkamp brings us an interesting take on the Alien/Human genre. The Peter Jackson produced "District 9" is a lower budget sci fi film that never quite feels that way. It greatly exceeded my expectations. District 9 sets itself in Johannesburg, South Africa. An alien race nicknamed "Prawns" hovers above the city before humans decide to take matters into their own hands and invade the ship discover that the aliens are ill. They are placed in government slum-like camps, the humans will not let them leave. Multi-National United (MNU)is a private company more interested in using the aliens for warfare then for the Prawn's actual well-being. Newcomer Sharlto Copley plays Wikus, a filed operative who is supposed to help move the aliens to a new districts. Wilkus is exposed to some liquid of the Prawns, and eventually begins to mutate some similarities of theirs. MNU tries to preform tests on him, but he escapes into District 9. He strikes a

Review: GI Joe: Rise of Cobra

There's a certain set of expectations you need to go into a movie like this. By a movie like this, I mean 1) They didn't screen it for critics. 2) It's star (Sienna Miller) admits upfront that it's not the best acting they've ever done. 3) Rumors swirled about this film months before it's release about the studio not liking it. With that being said, my only expectation going into this film was that I wanted to see some explode, and I wanted to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander. I was disappointed. GI Joe: is based of the series of comic books and children toys from the 80's-90's. This film tried to base it off the comics. A special team of operatives lead by Hawk (Dennis Quaid, who obviously did this just for the pay check) consists of Duke (a very wooden Channing Tatum), Ripcord (slightly amusing Marlon Waynes) Scarlett (Rachel Nichols, who has absolutely nothing to do) Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Snake Eyes (the always cool,

DVD Review: Push

"Push" is one of those screenplays that probably sounded really good on paper, but didn't quite fully transition on to screen. Not to say that this is a bad film, only some parts of it seem silly and out of place. "Push" is about people with special abilities. A group known as 'Division' wants to find all these people and create weapons out of them. There are many different kinds of these people. Pushers can push thoughts into other's minds and get them to believe any lie they make up. Watchers see the future, as if they are shown pictures of things that will happen. Movers can move objects with their minds. Stitchers have the power to heel, Screamers can scream really loud and basically blow out your eardrums (one of those things that didn't really transition well) Sniffers (another) can smell anything and tell you exactly where it has been and who had it. Shifters can change the appearance of objects and Shadows can cast a protective shadow o

Review: (500) Days of Summer.

Academy Award Winner for Best Film Editing: Alan Edward Bell. You heard it here first. "(500) Days of Summer" is not a romantic comedy. It's actually quite the opposite. It's about a relationship, but it's not all the good. It shows the bad, the complicated, the ups the downs. Its what makes this movie feel real and fresh, and is officially one of my favorite films of the year so far. The film follows Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a boy who believes in true love, and that he will never be truly happy until he finds it. He meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel) a free spirit who doesn't believe in love. 500 days is the length of Tom's infatuation with Summer, but we don't see it in order. We jump around their unofficial relationship, we see how they met, how they fight, the good cutesy times, and ultimately it's end. The jumping around never gets confusing, and the split screen technique that the film occasionally uses helps. Split screen is a hard thing

Review: Funny People

Judd Apatow and crew are back in this comedy/drama 'Funny People'. The name is accurate, stars Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan and Leslie Mann are indeed funny, however this film isn't a full on comedy. It deals with some serious issues, and while the jokes are clever the film itself is about 30 minutes too long. George Simmons (Sandler) is a famous comedian who finds out he has a terminal illness. He realizes he really doesn't have any close relationships with anyone, and while doing an impromptu stand up routine he meets an aspiring comedian Ira (Rogen) and hires him to write jokes for him and be his assistant. As much as Simmons doesn't want to admit it, Ira eventually becomes his close friend. He talks him to sleep every night, he becomes his opening act, he also tags along when Simmons tries to rekindle is romance with a previous flame, Laura (Leslie Mann) who is already married and has children. At 146 mins it is a very long film, some scenes drag and feel like t