The work week is coming to a close and if I have something pressing to discuss I will post it over the weekend. If not, I will leave you with the weekend film recommendation:
CONTROL (2007)
While it is not the feel-good movie of the decade, it certainly paints a powerfully tragic portrait of the lead singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis. The trailer is posted below.
We all know these movies, the ones from our childhood that we can quote over and over and still never get tired of watching as adults. To me, the quintessential childhood movie was “The Sandlot”. That film had something for everyone, even adults. Every person could look at those characters and see hints of people they knew or people they were on the Sandlot. That coming of age tale became a staple in households everywhere…FOR-EV-ER.
What happened to those kinds of films? There was a slew of them from the 1980’s until the mid-nineties. There was “The Goonies”, “Stand By Me”, “The Outsiders”, etc. and they became staples coming of age tales for generations to come. Since “The Sandlot” what film has come to stand as a coming of age tale that all ages can enjoy?
I said for ALL ages
Maybe it is that I do not have kids and am not as attuned to seeing what non-animated children’s films have to offer, but I do not hear the buzz about one like it since “The Sandlot”. I have talked to people that have kids right now and say that they still quote “The Sandlot” or “The Goonies” more than any kids movie that has come out in the last ten years. I am not saying that there haven’t been any good non-animated kids movies that have come out recently, but none of them seem to stand the test of time.
I am interested to hear some different opinions about this subject because, as a 25-year-old without kids, I have a skewed perspective. I am not claiming that there isn’t one, but I have polled several different people about this, even people with kids ranging from ages 7-17 and they can’t think of a kids movie since The Sandlot that will be timeless. If you can think of one, post it in the comments.
For those of you out there who love the intricacies of “Inception” as well as the brainless comedy of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, I found this video and thought I would share it with my readers. I hope you enjoy it for a mid-week laugh.
REVIEW: DESPICABLE ME (2010): *** out of 4 stars.
It has been a while since a non-Pixar animated movie made me laugh this hard. “Despicable Me” unfurled in a such a playful manner that it was a true delight to watch. From the pace and comedic timing to the animation and character selection, this film succeeded in creating one of the funniest films of the year.
Steve Carell voices the main character, Gru, who is an evil mastermind past his prime. When an up and coming villain steals a pyramid, Gru thinks it is time to get back on top and steal something bigger, the moon. Gru, assisted by Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and his team of roundish, yellow creatures known as “minions”, attempts to steal a shrink ray so he can shrink the moon and steal it. However, his plans are impeded by a trio of little girls that he has adopted to incorporate into his plan of world domination, as well as the up and coming supervillain and arch-nemesis, Vector (Jason Segel).
The voice cast is a conglomerate of outstanding comedic actors that bring so much to the film. None of them over-do their characters, but play them to perfection, forming a great ensemble. Almost every new character that was brought on the scene was voiced by someone that was easily recognizable, including Will Arnett, Jack Mcbrayer, Danny McBride, Kristen Wiig, and Julie Andrews. It became part of the excitement every time a new character was introduced.
The best part of the film was watching the minions and their gibberish (with some Spanish mixed in I think). Their loyalty to their evil boss ,despite the ridiculous tasking and experiments, plus their love of fun and disco make them very endearing characters.
The film had some minor flaws, but not many, and I think some of them came from the fact that I was an adult watching a kids movie. However, the flaws were not gaping enough to take away from the enjoyability of the film. It is very easy to tell that the director, animators, and writers had a lot of fun with this film and it translates incredibly well to the screen. The use of 3-D was not overwhelming and they used it to enhance the film, especially in the roller coaster scene. They even show how cool it can be to break the fourth wall in the end credits.
In a year that is bereft of refreshing movies (with the exception of “Inception” and maybe one other) “Despicable Me” came as a surprise and I will definitely be looking for it on DVD in hopes of seeing more misadventures with the minions.
It was another scintillating conversation here in the CROC (Community Relations Operations Center) this afternoon. We were discussing classic horror films and their ominous soundtracks and which ones disturbed us the most.
The one that came up immediately was “Jaws”. The distinct two-note stroke of horror movie genius that created the monster was the obvious stand out to be the most ominous soundtrack to a film, right? “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween” don’t come close and “Psycho” , while it has the signature note repetition while the knife is in the air, doesn’t equate to ominous and disturbing as much as it is just startling.
But then my co-worker, Wayne, said something that I believe tops “Jaws” as the most ominous soundtrack…..”Deliverance”. The song ‘Dueling Banjos’, while a lot of fun to play on the guitar and banjo, is most likely now carved in the minds of all that have seen that film as “that song that goes with the in-bred redneck squealing pig movie”. While the song isn’t played in the most memorable and disturbing scene in the film, it is a precursor to it and will forever be associated with it. As soon as those opening notes are played and heard it sends chills down the spine thinking about “Deliverance”, creepy rednecks having “fun” in the woods, and a stone-faced banjo boy.
Wanna jam?
We didn’t go into a whole lot of depth of discussion on this topic, but I thought I would share it with you, my readers, and see if you all could think of something that could top it.
REVIEW: SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE (2010): ** out of 4 stars.
The word ‘forgettable’ best describes this film. I remember I laughed at a couple points in this movie, but I don’t remember what I was laughing at.
“She’s Out of My League” centers around the premise that a really hot girl, Molly (Alice Eve), unbelievably falls for a nerdy airport security worker, Kirk (Jay Baruchel). The writer and director try to make this couple believeable, but just like Kirk and Molly’s friends in the movie, the audience is still left wondering why the heck they are together. There is nothing established that they really have in common besides that they both like the Boston Bruins and being awkward. While Molly says that she is looking for a nice guy after having a dated a bunch of much better looking jerks, there still was not any chemistry established between her and Kirk in the film to build a believable relationship.
There were a few laughs, like I mentioned, but it never kept up a good comedic pace and the laughs it did have were re-treads of worn out jokes from the American Pie series. The funniest characters and situations were brought on by the supporting cast rather than its leads, which is fine, but when Kirk was placed in a humorous situation he seemed to rely too heavily on his facial expressions to carry the gag.
One of the main problems with the film was that its leads were not lead actor material. Jay Baruchel played mildly humorous supporting characters in “Tropic Thunder” and “Knocked Up”, but he is only good in small doses. Alice Eve is like a cheap version of Jessica Alba, she is there just to look nice. She can’t carry a movie on her acting or comedic chops so she is there to just be the “hot girl”, which she does, but making her a convincing match for Jay Baruchel required her character to have a little more depth.
All-in-all, “She’s Out of My League” would suffice for a background movie during a get together of some sort; something for people to sit and stare at to be mildly entertained while waiting to do something better.
Hey everyone it has been a busy week, but I promise I will be back in full force on Monday. My film recommendation for the weekend is “The Lives of Others”.
In addition to the last article, I decided to write about some pet peeves that I have while I am watching films. These aren’t necessarily things in the films themselves, but more having to do with the environment that I am in or people who I am watching the film with. So, here goes:
#4 The Mom Who Doesn’t Think That Baby is Bothering Anyone
I tend to avoid animated movies in the theater for this sole reason. I know there will be loud kids and that mother who brings the baby that screams its head off and she just lets her do it like people are not bothered by it. My sister-in-law, Julie, has a 1 year old and she is decent enough to find a babysitter beforehand (plus I couldn’t speak bad about my niece), but there seems to be an inordinate amount of mothers that think it is acceptable to have their baby crying in a theater for 10 minutes. I understand that not everyone can hire a babysitter, but f you are going to bring a baby and it cries, please take it outside until it calms down or use a pacifier or something.
#3 The Inquisitive Idiot
This type of person astounds me and I hate watching movies that require advanced thought with them. They are the type that wants to know everything right now. You will be getting into a scene in some complex movie, when all of a sudden the protagonist does something that doesn’t make sense because it isn’t supposed to yet; it is supposed to be intriguing. The inquisitive idiot will usually be sitting next to you, and also annoyingly smack you on the shoulder, lean over to you and ask “What did he do that for?” I just want to be like, “I don’t frickin’ know! I haven’t seen this yet either.” Why can’t they just wait until after the film is over when most everything will be explained (unless it is The Haunting of Molly Hartley which I am still confused about why that movie ever came into existence in the first place)?
#2 The Texter/Phone Talker
I hit on this one in my Predators blog, and this one really confuses me because there has been such an increase in the amount of reminders to turn off your cell phones before movies. For some reason, people take it as a mere suggestion, like everyone will be okay with them texting still. I think it should be a movie theater policy that people who do this are subject to increasingly larger objects being thrown at them until they stop. We could start with popcorn (we got it bud you forgot to turn off your phone, it happens to the best of us, but you are still getting popcorn thrown at you), then move to junior mints (they are a little harder and you can get more velocity), then I would take gum and throw it at them so it gets stuck in their hair as a reminder to not leave your cell phone on. All this while I would tell them (in a whisper of course) to turn off their phone. If they continued despite the harassment, I would have small fruits ready, and if that wasn’t convincing enough I would throw a full water bottle. At this point that person would probably try to come after me, but at that point I would be ready for a full on fight.
#1 The Person Who Thinks We are Just Hanging Out
This one is a little tricky to deal with, but I think it is the thing that bothers me the most when I am watching a movie, and this one usually happens at home. Say it is a random night and you and your friends want to get together to watch a movie everyone hasn’t seen yet. Everyone shows up at 7 and there are six people. After breaking out the snacks, getting the small talk out of the way, drinking a beer or two and socializing, you put in “Memento”. Everyone shuts up and starts watching because they are there to watch the film…..except for one person. There is always that person that is there to socialize, which is cool if everyone has seen the movie, or if it is something light that really doesn’t need to be paid attention to (i.e. cheap horror movie). But, when it is a smarter movie where you really have to pay attention, that person is the most annoying to have around. At least the texter doesn’t talk and the question-asker person is at least focused on the movie. This person is just totally oblivious to the fact that people are trying to watch a movie. They will be like, “Did you see who Josh was talking to at the party?” or “Did you hear about blah blah..something…blah..no life…blah blah…pay attention to me..blah blah?” It is difficult to tell them to be quiet because they are your friends, but come on, I am sure there will be plenty of time to have you talk and pretend like I am listening after the movie as well. I love doing movie nights, but if you are there just to hang out please hold your thoughts about Lindsay Lohan until after the film (or just forever), or we will just let you know when the movie is done and you can come over.
So, I was watching “Inception” last night and was bothered by seeing Robert Fischer’s dad and his sickly form because I knew I knew him from somewhere! I would miss like 3 minutes of the film after he showed up on screen because it would just drive me crazy that I couldn’t place him. I hate when that happens in the theater because I don’t have the comfort of my laptop (or Droid X now- thanks Meg) for IMDB access to figure it out. After getting on IMDB this morning I learned that he is Pete Postlethwaite who played Kobayashi in “The Usual Suspects”. I just thought I would share my frustration with you in case any of you were having that same issue. He is one weird looking dude….
REVIEW: INCEPTION (2010): **** out of 4 Stars.
I have to admit that with all the hype that came for this film I kind of expected to be slightly let down with the end result. While I was confident in Christopher Nolan‘s ability to weave an intricate story, I thought that he could not possibly live up to my high expectations for “Inception“. After all the crap that I had to slog through this summer (and really for the past year and a half or so to find an original film done on an epic scale), I had started to get cynical. Then, as I watched I realized that the hype could not have lived up to the magnitude of the film that was playing out in front of me.
“Inception” focuses on a small team of “extractors”, who are hired to commit corporate espionage by stealing ideas from the dreams of corporate big wigs. When one of their extractions goes wrong they are blackmailed into inception, which is planting an idea in someone’s head. The team is lead by a dream expert named Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who designs a complex plan to complete the inception. But, when they go inside the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) to plant the idea to break up his father’s corporate empire, they are met with more than they expected, including the dark past of Cobb himself.
This film goes above and beyond what I expected in terms of complexity, but it uses just the right amount. Nolan does not leave the audience oblivious to what is going on in the dreams, instead he spends the first 1/3 of the film explaining the different levels of the psyche as well the rules of the dream world. He does not bore the audience with long explanations, but instead matches his descriptions with stunning visuals of the subconcious. He goes into incredible detail to bring the audience in on his dream and extensive imagination. The latter 2/3 of the film delves deeper and deeper into the subconcious with stunning action and great cinematography. A lot of his visuals are obviously CGI, but not to the point where it is incredibly noticeable, which makes the world he creates that much more impressive.
Many reviews I read seem to think that Nolan had a lack of emotion in his film and that it was hard to relate to any of the characters, but I personally don’t think that was the case. DiCaprio played Cobb extremely well as a tormented genius struggling to maintain control of his subconcious and the guilt that consumed it regarding the death of his wife. I thought that the emotions from his past worked well towards a satisfying (even if it was somewhat open-ended) ending to the film.
Nolan definitely has an eye for stellar action. There is a particular scene in a hotel with one team member, Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt), that was spectacular and an absolute joy to watch. While the final assault on a snow fortress was a little bit over the top, it is a dream world and Nolan could have done whatever he wanted; it was still pretty good.
When it came to the end, Nolan rewarded his fans with a little bit of what felt like a “wink”. The last shot of the film provokes a lot of conversation about the film as a whole and will definitely warrant a second viewing. “Inception” succeeds on every level, as both a smart film and a summer blockbuster. This was by far the best overall film that I have seen in years.
REVIEW: PREDATORS (2010) * 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Wow, thank God it was $5 movie Monday when I saw this. I went into this film wanting so bad to like it because I had heard so many good things about it and I liked the first Predator movie, but none of the rest after it. I thought that the film had promise, especially since Robert Rodriguez seemed to be the perfect director for this kind of movie. However, I left the theater extremely disappointed. While I knew this would be the type of film where my mind would have to be on standby, I didn’t think that it would be so bad to the point that it expected me to shut it down completely.
“Predators” starts out great, launching us right into the story with Adrien Brody (since you don’t find out his name until later), falling from the sky onto an unknown planet. He is soon greeted by other strangers and it turns out that they are all various types of assassins or killers, with the exception of a mysterious doctor (Topher Grace). They soon find out that they are on an alien hunting ground and need to adapt quickly in order to survive. I could say that there was more to the plot, but there really isn’t.
I thought the opening 20 minutes were great and suspenseful, hitting the ground (literally) running and creating an eerie mysterious atmosphere and some great visuals. Adrien Brody, even with 20 added pounds, didn’t make a great action star, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief there (gotcha Rodriguez, mind is on standby). Lots of ammo wasted in the first 30 minutes, okay, I can deal with that, it’s just a fun summer movie. Then, came the kicker, the female assassin figures out what the creatures are and even tells everyone how they are beaten; you put mud all over your body to block your heat signature. I expected everyone to right away find any mud they could and cover themselves with it. Instead, they go, “Ohhhh, that’s cool,” and completely ignore her. Even the girl doesn’t heed her own advice. I could understand if they left one person uncovered as bait so they could find out more about the predators, but instead they just all stay fully visible with their heat signatures. Maybe I missed something, I hope I did (even though everyone that I was with couldn’t see why they didn’t do it either), but all I could think about the whole movie is that they know how to beat them and they just are too lazy or something to do it until almost all of them are dead. It’s like having a wound that is very clearly going to get infected, but not wanting to go grab the rubbing alcohol to clean the wound because it is on the other side of the room and then complaining that it is getting infected.
From there, it is all downhill. They meet a crazy and overweight Laurence Fishburne and several useless plot devices are introduced, such as there being two breeds of feuding Predators and one of the most boring samurai sword fights I have ever seen. I think if I hadn’t been so put off by the fact at how stupid they were and how they deserved to die I think I would have been entertained, but my brain just could not shut itself completely down to care about these people.
Also, I was pissed off because I counted seven different people throughout the movie who were texting on their phones and it was distracting. This one guy in front of me had a full blown twenty minute text conversation on his phone during the movie. He had his phone open the whole time. I was able to read it over his shoulder and the guy was catching up with an old friend or something about his lack of life .Who does that during a movie? There is a special layer of hell reserved for people who text or talk on cell phones during movies (unless it is a total emergency and if that is happening you should probably leave the theater or it isn’t that much of an emergency).
So, for all of these aforementioned reasons (some cinematic some due to texters) I did not enjoy Predators. I will still probably go see the sequel that it got left open for because I do still hold out hope for a gritty version of the Predator franchise that will bring it back to its full potential.
REVIEW: INVICTUS (2009) *** out of 4 stars.
Well, I was finally able to get around to reviewing “Invictus”, a film based on the events following the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s president in 1994, and I am thankful to all who voted for me seeing that as opposed to “Grown Ups”. “Invictus”, directed by Clint Eastwood, draws from the book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation and the title of the film itself is a double entendre because not only when it is translated does it mean “unbeaten”, but it is also the name of a William Ernest Henley poem that is quoted throughout the film.
The film starts out when Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) is released after 27 years in a South African prison for anti-apartheid activities and skips three years ahead to his election as South African president in 1994. As Mandela struggles to balance the racial tension that still remained after his election he sees an opportunity to unite the country behind their struggling rugby team, the Springboks. The Springboks were primarily seen by the black people of South Africa as a symbol of white supremacy from the apartheid era since all but one of the players were white and they sported the green and gold colors from before the “Rainbow Flag”. Mandela meets with the captain of the Springboks, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to discuss the importance of doing well at the 1995 Rugby World Cup which was set to be hosted in South Africa. Mandela sees that if the team can succeed at the Rugby World Cup, the non-white support would get behind the team as well. Against all odds, the South Africans make a run at the finals and the nation becomes united behind the team.
While this is not one of Eastwood’s best directed films, it is still very good and is worth watching for Morgan Freeman’s portrayal of Mandela if nothing else. Freeman does a great job getting down Mandela’s mannerisms and quiet disposition while showing the toll the struggle uniting a country that was so divided took on his health and personal life. Matt Damon also provides a strong performance as the leader of a reluctant Rugby team, even if his accent sounded incredibly forced at times. Both Freeman and Damon rightfully received Oscar nominations in the Best Actor and Supporting Actor categories.
I researched the historical accuracy of the film as well and found several first hand accounts from South Africans who state that the film is almost 100% historically accurate, outside of a few small details used for ease of filming. With such an inspiring story, it did not take much effort from Eastwood to make this a gripping narrative. It plays out as both a political and racial drama as well as an underdog sports movie, which would seem like an impossible mix if it were not a true story.
Clint Eastwood, in my opinion, is one of the best directors in the business and outside of a few errors (including a terribly cheesy soundtrack choice about 2/3 of the way through the movie that sounded like something from Team America and made me dock the film a full half star in this review), the film is very well done and deserved the critical accolades it received.
Following the last note, one of the requests that I have gotten (some people requesting it in a threat-like fashion) was to list some of my favorite female performances of the decade. There were some women that were offended by my lack of females on the Top 20 Characters of the Decade and I had to explain to them that it wasn’t because I am a sexist, but because in terms of the characters that the women played weren’t exactly memorable characters. Their performances might have been spectacular, but the characters weren’t as charismatic.
That being said, I think there are some great female actresses out there right now. I would like to highlight the parentheses in article title and point out that these choices are out of the films that I have seen. I am sure there are many other great female performances than the ones that will be on this list. I was looking at the Academy Awards for Best Actress/ Supporting Actress in the last 10 years and I realized that there were a fair amount of those films that I hadn’t seen and I should. My list of films that I “should” see right now is getting longer by the day.
But, without further ado here are my picks for the Top 5 Female Performances (that I have seen) of the decade.
#5 Meryl Streep- “Adaptation” as Susan Orlean
It’s Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep that made this film as impressive as it was. For her to paint one side of Susan Orlean for 3/4ths of the film only to have the characters and the missing ending of “The Orchid Thief” play the twist in the story. The phrase that sticks out in the film and perfectly displays who her character is in the end is, “You are what you love.” Her performance landed her a Best Supporting Actress nod in 2003.
#4 Amy Ryan- “Gone Baby Gone” as Helen McCready
This film was incredible and stunning in just about every way. It plays very well as a suspenseful character drama and Amy Ryan did a great job playing the low-life mother of a missing child. Her lifestyle is so detestable that it becomes nearly impossible to make her sympathetic, but in very brief moments, Ryan shows hints of humanity which pull the audience in. This character was a long way off from when she eventually played Holly Flax in “The Office”. Ryan received an Academy Award nomincation for Best Supporting Actress.
#3 Reese Witherspoon- “Walk the Line” as June Carter
Reese Witherspoon charmed the audience as the bubbly singer and eventual beau of Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line”. Hollywood could have very easily made June Carter a static character, but Witherspoon brought depth to her and she plays so well off of Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash. She is a delight to watch in this film, plain and simple. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role.
#2 Cate Blanchett- “I’m Not There” as Bob Dylan
Blanchett is known for doing ridiculous accents, just listen to her in the Aviator (which while impressive definitely rated up there with Jim Carrey doing ‘the most annoying sound in the world’ in Dumb and Dumber), but in “I’m Not There” she not only does a great voice, she plays an entirely different gender! While it has been done before, she was portraying Bob Dylan, someone who was not easily imitated and did a tremendous job. When we see her for the first time in the film, turning around on stage, spraying rounds from a machine gun while smugly smoking a cig, I was already blown away (no pun intended). She received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this role.
#1 Kate Winslet- “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” as Clementine Kruczynski
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a near perfect movie (aside from Elijah Wood) and Kate Winslet had a hefty task in playing someone as complex as Clementine Kruczynski, who is a love-lorn Jim Carrey’s love interest. Her moods change as often as her hair color, but she plays the transition to each mood so fluidly it makes sense and makes the audience see exactly what Jim Carrey sees her as, a light in his gloomy world. The light gets hidden sometimes behind some character flaws, but Winslet makes Clementine infinitely interesting and makes the audience pull for the unlikely romance in the film. Winslet received a nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role for this film.
I have had a lot of requests to do different types of blogs and am working to tackle not only requests, but also other lists that I started over a month ago. As for the My 20 Favorite Films coutdown, I am terribly behind on that and the next installment will be #11 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when I can get around to watching it again. That was a film I hadn’t seen in a while so I didn’t want to write the article without having given it another look. I will most likely do the same when I get to “Apocalypse Now”.
“Invictus” was the winner of the next film that I review and I will do that as soon as I can as well. The fairness of the poll has come into question as well. A certain sister-in-law called challenge to the results of the poll and much lik how she is still upset about losing in Trivial Pursuit due to a disputed answer, my response to her is “Get over it and move on. You lost, deal with it.”
Thanks for your patience with the blog and I will try to get around to the different requests as soon as I can.
At family gatherings, my brother, his wife, and I are criticized for “talking in show”. We have watched so many movies and know so many quotes that it seems only the other two get, that it is hard to keep up with which movies or tv shows we are quoting. Plus, my Dad usually makes some sarcastic comment about how he wishes we had been able to quote literature or catechism as easily as we quote movies. There are movies and tv shows that we quote more often than others and below are two lists; one for movies and one for tv shows. While some other movies might have better/more deep and inspirational quotes, these are just the comedies that I end up quoting the most in everyday life.
Top 5 Most Quoted Movies
Quote Most Used in Real Life: “You shut your mouth when you’re talking to me!”
#4 Step Brothers
Quote Most Used in Real Life: “I don’t like your face and it’s not that you’re a bad guy or anything…it’s just your face. I-I don’t even hear what you’re saying right now. I don’t know what it is about your face, but every time I see it I just want to deliver one of thes (fist) right into your suck hole. Again, you’re not a bad guy, but if you don’t fix your face, I’ll fix it for you.”
Quote Most Used in Everyday Life: “It’s a metaphor for a crap movie.”
Quote Most Used in Everyday Life: “I’m going to start drinking….”
#1 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Quote Most Used in Everyday Life: “I immediately regret this decision!”
Top 5 Most Quoted TV Shows
Quote Most Used in Everyday Life: “Something was said! Not…good.”
Quote Most Used in Everyday Life: “Who wants to play drink the beer?”
#3 Scrubs (only because of Dr. Cox’s rants; early Scrubs Dr. Cox quotes)
Quote Most Used in Everyday Life: “That’s a great antecdote. You should write that down in your journal… so your kids can read about it when you’re dead.”
Quote Most Used in Everyday Life: “I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.”
Quote Most Used in Everyday Life: Pretty much everything, but I probably use, “I don’t understand the question and I refuse to answer it,” the most.
Obviously, some of these quotes are not funny taken out of context and some are just funny to me, but regardless, these are the movies that I quote the most. I’d be interested in hearing some of your favorite quotable movies/tv shows in the comments.
While the 00’s produced a lot of great films, it also produced an unequivocal amount of cinematic garbage that I have unfortunately sat through. I have heard that films like “Battlefield Earth” and “Catwoman” are some of the lowest of the low, but fortunately (and unfortunately for this article) I have not seen them and cannot comment on such. Here are 10 movies in the last 10 years, that I have seen, that stick out in my mind as the most painful movie-watching experiences that I have had.
#10 Star Trek: Nemesis
#9 Twilight: New Moon
#8 Vertical Limit
#7 Ghost Rider
#6 The Number 23
#5 Step Up 2 The Streets
#4 Epic Movie
#3 Dumb and Dumberer
#2 Club Dread
#1 Strange Wilderness
While some people might not agree with me, that’s fine, but when I finished watching these films, I was either irate or just absolutely stunned in disbelief at what is passing for cinema. For some of these, such as “Step Up”, I could include their prequels and sequels as well, especially with “Epic Movie”. Leave your comments below at what you think some of the worst movies of the past decade are.
Well, the results are in and thanks to those of you who voted and decided that “Invictus” will be the next movie I review. Despite my brother Jerome, and his wife, Julie’s, best attempts to have me suffer through “Grown Ups”, I get to watch a film that has some promise. I will blog about my review as soon as I can get time to watch the film in the next couple of days.
Since I am one of the many anticipating an oasis from the sweltering heat of terrible summer movies, that oasis being Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”, I found an interesting article in the LA Times about the anticipation and hype for the film. If you are like me and counting down the days to its release, this might provide a good perspective going into the film.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/07/inception-chris-nolan-review-good.html
Before I start this off I wanted to clarify that I have not seen “The Last Airbender”, but that is mostly irrelevant to this article. But, seeing as it has 8% on RottenTomatoes.com I think I can at least say that I am pretty sure that this is another M. Night Shyamalan flop.
Watching M. Night Shyamalan’s decline has been like watching that guy in high school that everyone liked, and was voted “Most Likely to Succeed”, wind up being a registrar at a McDonald’s who gets drunk at the 10 year reunion trying to re-live the “good ol’ days’. He did two relatively unknown films, which apparently were in high regard among the indie community, before “The Sixth Sense”. In 1999 “The Sixth Sense” burst him onto the mainstream Hollywood scene with a killer twist of an ending and an outstanding performance by Haley Joel Osment. With his commercial success also came critical success, garnering three Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. For a movie that was written and directed by the same guy, he was essentially nominated for the triple crown of the Oscars.
Then, came his next film, “Unbreakable”, reuniting him with Bruce Willis and bringing Princess Buttercup and Samuel L. Jackson along for the ride. While the film was not as much of a commercial success as Hollywood hoped, the technical style presented was exceptional and seemed like a very personal film for Shyamalan, bringing him critical acclaim for this one as well. Plus, with another decent twist ending he was hailed as someone who might be “Hollywood’s Next Hitchcock”. Thumbs up, Shyamalan! You’re doing pretty well so far as a young director.
Why yes, I get my hair done at the same place as Carrot Top and Nic Cage!
Enter “Signs”, a summer film that Shyamalan claimed to have written as a film for everyone, and for the most part it was. This film was a great commercial success, bringing in more than $225 million dollars domestically and all-in-all it was a pretty entertaining, albeit completely irrational movie. For the most part people forgave the irrational part of the movie and just enjoyed it, including critics who scored it 74% on RottenTomatoes.
But, it is here, with “Signs” that I first see the signs (haha, but seriously) of Shyamalan slowly starting to go off the deep end. I think a lot of it could be contributed to what seems like Shyamalan’s philosophy of quantity over quality, but it lacked some of the tightness and precision of his first two films. He had a good premise and translated it to the screen in an entertaining fashion, but to me it is in the dialogue that I find fault. The dialogue is very forced and seems too solemn and un-natural. Shyamalan seems to be on the opposite end of the spectrum from Quentin Tarantino when it comes to dialogue. Tarantino’s dialogue is very life-like, while Shyamalan is very rigid and does a lot more telling than showing. (Also, who says, “I’ll have a cheeseburger with bacon” when you can just say “bacon cheeseburger”?) Plus, we see his first trying-too-hard twist ending. Water? Really, dude? We are supposed to be surprised by this revelation, but a twist is supposed to be built up to and not contrived to be effective. It looks like he wrote the ending, then went back and tried to see how he could work things into the story to make it look like something surprising when it really wasn’t that shocking to begin with.
Coincidentally this film could have also caused the two main actors to both go legitimately insane.
Now, we come to “The Village” one of the biggest cinematic disappointments that I have seen in the theaters. While he sets up a pretty good premise for a suspense film, it is his dialogue again that torments me and actually gave away the “twist” ending to me in a way. Who talks like these people? Nobody, not even during the timeframe that it was supposedly set in. The dialogue is so unconvincing and bereft of emotion that it was painful to listen to. You can get all the technical aspects of a film right, the cinematography, the music, and the lighting (all of which he seems to do very well), but if you can’t deliver solid characters that people can support, understand, and relate to, then the film has no heart; it is just something nice to look at. While the dialogue isn’t as bad as say George Lucas’ in the new Star Wars movies, it is still just pretty awful.
The autobiographical story of how M. Night Shymalan grew up away from reality and normal people.
I am going to skip “Lady in the Water” because I have not seen all of it, but what I saw was just enough to let me know that Shyamalan was still heading in the wrong direction. Plus, he not only proved that his writing was souring, but that he couldn’t act either. At least in the films before “Lady” he only showed up on screen for a couple of minutes. In this one, he is a solid supporting character, which also earned him a Razzie for “Worst Supporting Actor.” In addition to that, he also received the Razzie for “Worst Director” for 2006. Tough break, buddy! But maybe you should just take a good 3-5 year break, collect your thoughts and maybe go watch some real people, instead of anime, to see what they are like to improve your writing style.
Instead of doing that, Shyamalan finally picked up on the hints from three movie studios that rejected his script “The Green Effect”, under the pretense that all of them said, “It needs a complete re-write and overhaul” and re-wrote it as the movie where trees kill people called “The Happening.” (One of the lamest titles I have ever seen which really didn’t give me much hope for the film itself). Suffice to say, while he still made a decent amount of money off of it, the film itself was far from a stellar rebound after “Lady in the Water.” Earning only 18% on RottenTomatoes, critics despised it and earned him even more Razzies. Plus, above all, he tainted Zooey Deschanel, one of the coolest actresses of today. I point primarily to the fact that the movie had no premise whatsoever (usually that’s a bad sign) and on top of that the dialogue again was awful. The characters’ decisions didn’t make sense, which isn’t uncommon in horror movies, but these were particularly bad. It’s definitely time to take a break right, M? I mean, 7 films in 10 years and each one getting worse and worse reviews? Salvage your reputation while people still admire you and take some time off to write another at least decent film…..
Or, come out with film #8….in 3D (I hate to say it M, but 3D doesn’t help bad dialogue). I promised I wouldn’t comment on that one any further because I haven’t seen it, so I will stop there.
Anyway, my point is that Shyamalan went wrong when he started pushing quantity over quality and sacrificing the heart that was seen in his first few movies. While he is a very technically gifted director and we all know he can write a decent film, he needs to be more particular about what he puts out and take the time and effort to put out another quality film, or even a mediocre one, to recover from the joke he is becoming in the world of film.
Brian Pac Sostak
Chris Petersen
Sarah Higgins
stjerome03
Chris and Pac Take on Hollywood 
