Thursday, December 27, 2007

Movie Review: National Treasure - Book of Secrets

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Ed Harris, Harvey Keitel

Genre: action, adventure

Plot: Ben Gates goes on another treasure hunt

Acting: too much action to leave time for acting

Drama: err… just look at all that gold

Action: imagine Indiana Jones merged with Thomas Crown Affair

Funny: the dialogue is

Visuals: nothing outstanding though we did get to see the oval office

Soundtrack: don’t remember

Official website: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/nationaltreasure/

Comments: Come to think of it I don’t remember much of the first one… I do remember I didn’t think much of it thought. Regarding the sequel… I guess it was alright for a Saturday action movie night. Had a bit of laugh in places, but I found it too rushed and schematically explained. Missed Sean Bean, Ed Harris tried to do his best with what he had to work with… so did Jon Voight and Helen Mirren who made an entertaining couple together. I was expecting Lara Croft to show up at the end and save the day declaring she was Ben’s half long lost sister…

Rating: 3/5

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Movie Review: I Am Legend

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Will Smith

Genre: action, sci fi

Plot: human kind turned into monsters by virus, only one man fights to find a cure

Acting: for a one man show Will Smith does it pretty well

Drama: monsters are taking over the world

Action: not so much though there are some fights/chases with the monsters

Funny: oh yeah… like in the video store when he talks to the dummies

Visuals: New York deserted

Soundtrack: don’t remember even having one

Official website: http://iamlegend.warnerbros.com/

Comments: I don’t know what I was expecting, but there was a lot of hype about this movie before coming out. Well… Let’s not bad mouth it too much. Or let’s. There’s little dialogue in this movie and while this isn’t a problem really I would have liked it to have a little more explaining done… at least for those of us who haven’t read the book. There’s tons of discrepancies given the time and circumstances, not sure whether it was the screenplay writer or the director’s fault but I wonder how come the other 100+ people involved in the production didn’t notice any of them. The first three quarters of the movie it’s a rather decent one and not really bad but then things just got all wrong and with no reason. The ending was a big let down, even I could have come up with a better one. Come to think of it I don’t have to tire my brain at all cause he could have escape the same way the woman and the kid did. And did the dog really have to die? I know it was expected from the start but still…

Rating: 3/5

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Movie Review: Fred Claus

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates

Genre: comedy, fantasy

Plot: sorry, unable to see the plot because of the holes

Acting: hats off to Paul Giamatti and Rachel Weisz for putting up with such crappy movie

Drama: two hours of my life are forever gone

Action: flying with the sledge… looking fake as ever

Funny: pathetically

Visuals: thank God we had Rachel Weisz to rest our eye on

Soundtrack: don’t remember

Official website: http://fredclaus.warnerbros.com/

Comments: It’s total crap. Vince Vaughan should either retire or totally change direction from these disgustingly retarded characters he’d played lately. He should try a gay or disabled part, anything but not that again.

Rating: 2/5

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Movie Review: The Golden Compass

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Ben Walker, Freddie Highmore, Ian McKellen, Eva Green

Genre: fantasy, adventure

Plot: girls goes north guides by a compass

Acting: so so

Drama: Nicole Kidman is the evil one

Action: bear fight

Funny: the deamons

Visuals: fake looking bears and snow… but Nicole’s golden dress is gorgeous

Soundtrack: don’t remember

Official website: http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/

Comments: I haven’t read the books. As far as the movie goes though the plot is an one liner there’s no development from there as if they’re expecting to fill in the rest with beautiful cinematics. Maybe if we’ve been brainwashed before. I really think I should have read the books to understand all the missing points they haven’t even bothered to mention about. Given the simplicity of the movie it seemed to be aimed at preschooler kids but then again it is too violent in places for this target audience. One in all it’s a big mess which leaves us with the feeling that it could have been something and we didn’t get it. It was as if we ordered steak and got a hamburger instead. Compared with the other fantasy movies released this year I’d place Enchanted on first, Stardust on second and The Golden Compass somewhere further down the list.

Rating: 3/5

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Movie Review: August Rush

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard, Robin Williams

Genre: drama

Plot: musically gifted orphan looks for his parents

Acting: the kid is brilliant

Drama: young lovers separated by a drastic father and child given for adoption while considered dead

Action: not much, the movie has a slow somehow out of this world pace

Funny: some, but not comically

Visuals: pretty… Keri Russell still looks good and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is not too bad on the eye

Soundtrack: mixture of all types of music… very enjoyable

Official website: http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com/

Comments: A modern Oliver Twist story with Robin Williams as the bad guy and Freddie Highmore the runaway who only care about music and finding his parents. And in all this there are also two young adults who had lost their way for a while. Slightly hard to believe for a story anything is possible in the imaginary world. It’s a movie for the heart with a plot that could have used more development and more details explained perhaps. Of course, their timing is perfect just in time for the happy-end.

Rating: 3/5

Friday, November 30, 2007

Movie Review: The Mist

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher

Genre: horror, thriller, sci fi

Plot: creatures from the mist take over the world

Acting: believable

Drama: survival is at stake

Action: fights with the beasts

Funny: not at all

Visuals: disgusting… horror freaks will have a ball

Soundtrack: -

Official website: http://www.themist-movie.com/

Comments: I’ve never read one of Stephen King’s book, I started one a few years ago and then I put it away and never finished it, it was just not my cup of tea. Oddly enough I’ve always liked the movies made after his books. It’s the only reason way I watched The Mist. Maybe I shouldn’t have. It left me with a shaken up feeling that I found it hard to get rid of. The way I remember it King’s movie used to be more about the psychology of fear, a feature that still remains, and less about the actual violence. Well, except for maybe the Children of the Corn series. You want to see monsters and people ripped in half? There you go. And here’s some more. Beside the fact that it portrays normal human reactions, as bad as these may be, and you know from the start that nothing good can happen on the way, after all it is a King movie, nothing can prepare for the ending. Who on earth wants to see cutie Thomas Jane with that bovine look of his suffer to no end even after the movie ends? It makes no sense and even in the context of the movie it doesn’t make any. And I would say more but I don’t want to spoil it for everyone else, so see it for yourself… if you dare.

Rating: 3/5

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Movie Review: Enchanted

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Susan Sarandon

Genre: fantasy, adventure, comedy, romance, animation

Plot: cartoon princess lost in the real world

Acting: very good

Drama: the Princess falls in love with a real human

Action: Prince Edward is always chasing something, and did I mention the dragon?

Funny: very funny and unlike Stardust it really fits

Visuals: nice, very nice without being over the top or trying to be really fantastic

Soundtrack: great musical numbers written by Alan Menken who also wrote the scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame… would have liked to hear Patrick Dempsey sing too

Official website: http://enchantedmovie.com/

Comments: This is one of those modern tales that have the potential to become a cult and be remembered years to come. This having been said, and let me insist on the part that this is indeed a great movie, there are some things that annoy me. The lead actors are a bit too old for their parts, like a good 10 years too old. While they all look great, fairytales Princesses are supposed to be in their late teens or early twenties and not in their thirties like Amy Adams is. And let’s not even mention Patrick Dempsey who’s in his forties. It is obvious that Amy Adams has studied the Disney Princesses well, perhaps too well even, since she’s playing a real life one to the dot sometimes even exaggerating it a bit too much. Big wide open eye doesn’t bother us so much in cartoon characters but they’re not natural for normal people. The white dress she’s wearing in the beginning is lovely, must be magical too since she gets with it through the sewer, in the metro, gets rained on and does a full house cleaning in it managing to have it remain bright clean. And how many days do you think she’d last in the lawyer’s house before she ran out of curtains and carpets to make new dresses of? Patrick Dempsey plays his part perfectly impersonating this a tad cynic single father who’s swept away by the beautiful girl escaped from the asylum, sorry that should be Andalasia. He’s the one who looks best in period attire, reminding us vaguely of Leopold from Kate & Leopold played by Hugh Jackman. He could have used a better nicer fiancée though. Getting to James Marsden now, he plays the valiant handsome silly Prince were so used to in all Disney movies. No wonder the Princess has to save the day! I feel like Susan Sarandon could have been used more, and so the sidekick chipmunk. But other than that it’s a lovely story fit for children and adults too, perfectly fit for holidays. Enjoy!

Rating: 4/5