movie review every day

3:10 to Yuma

2007-09-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

A small-time rancher agrees to hold a captured outlaw who's awaiting a train to go to court in Yuma. A battle of wills ensues as the outlaw tries to psych out the rancher.
(IMDB, trailer, news about)

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

2007-08-27T03:03:00.000-07:00

squallz10 from United States

I thought this movie was actually good. It was everything i excepted it to be,funny and has action. I don't know why people are hating, but the jokes i guess could be said they've been done before. Either way the whole audience was laughing in the theater i went too. It deserves be watched.
Jackie Chan's thoughts were cool too,not compared to other the movies he has done, but for a movie like this they are considerably good. i thought the story was pretty basic though, but i didn't go in excepting an epic movie like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc.I went to laugh and i did,and Chris tucker just kinda does the same thing like the previous movie. But isn't that why we love Rush Hour?

The Nanny Diaries

2007-08-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

“The Nanny Diaries,” a scattershot screen adaptation of Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’s 2002 satirical beach read, has one unassailable asset. As this exposé of the rich and miserable on the Upper East Side wobbles along uncertainly, it rests on the tense, squared shoulders of Laura Linney. Ms. Linney defies a screenplay that paints her character, Mrs. X, a Park Avenue socialite, as a monstrous control freak. She is a smart, flexible actress who invests her role, a composite of former employers of the novel’s authors, with enough humanity to arouse some pity.
The movie, like the book, is narrated by Annie Braddock (Scarlett Johansson), a New Jersey-born anthropology student hired by Mrs. X to be the latest in a stream of nannies for her spoiled little boy, Grayer (Nicholas Reese Art). In many ways Mrs. X is as much a slave driver as Miranda Priestly, the fashion editor indelibly played by Meryl Streep in the movie version of the novel “The Devil Wears Prada.”
(trailer)
But Ms. Linney’s rich, high-strung snob and Ms. Streep’s chilly fashion empress are markedly different personalities. Mrs. X, for all her pretensions of grandeur, must answer to her husband (Paul Giamatti), a crude, ugly, foulmouthed boor who keeps his wife on a tight leash. (In one of his few exchanges with his son Mr. X barks to Grayer that he had better be ready to take over the world next week.) Miranda, however, calls the shots in her life. Where Ms. Linney’s Park Avenue mother can be heard screaming at her husband behind closed doors, Ms. Streep’s Miranda never, ever raises her voice. (via NYT)
(IMDB)

300. it is enough

2007-08-17T05:09:00.000-07:00

300 is a 2007 film adaptation of the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller, and is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. The film is directed by Zack Snyder with Frank Miller attached as an executive producer and consultant, and was shot mostly with bluescreen to duplicate the imagery of the original comic book.

Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fight to the last man against Persian King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his army of over one million soldiers, while in Sparta, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) attempts to rally support for her husband. The story is framed by a voice-over narrative by the Spartan soldier Dilios (David Wenham). Through this narrative technique, various fantastical creatures are introduced, placing 300 within the genre of historical fantasy.

300 was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters in the United States on March 9, 2007, and on DVD on July 31, 2007. The film broke box office records, although critics were divided over its look and style. Some acclaimed it as an original achievement, while others criticized it for favoring visuals over characterization and its controversial depiction of the ancient Persians. (via W)

deadmonkeys from Ottawa, Ontario wrote:

After I saw the teaser for 300 I knew I HAD to see this movie! From then on I avoided all other previews, reviews, etc. as not to influence my expectations of the movie. I then went into the theater on opening night with no knowledge of the plot... only that it had something to do with Greeks and Frank Miller! Ignorance is bliss! I was absolutely blown away. I'm a 26 yr old female who generally doesn't watch violent films... but I found the battle scenes so well done and breath taking. I had chills and goosebumps virtually the entire film. I'm with many other reviewers, who felt like they had to contain themselves from shouting "yeah!" at times. Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought the whole movie was very sexy and passionate, whether it was the sex scene, a battle scene, or Leonidis addressing his men.

I think it is a shame that so many people are condemning this movie for it's historical inaccuracies, or it's "racism", etc. People are reading far too into this movie. Whatever happened to enjoying a movie simply because it is entertaining and pleasing to to the eye? Don't people watch movies anymore to escape from the daily grind of life? I know I'm not as well spoken as many who have posted here. I just think this was a fantastic movie. I didn't go see it to learn anything! I just wanted to be entertained! And boy was I!

X-Men -> X-ellent entertainment!

2007-08-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

"MinorityReporter" from Denmark wrote

If this film had been given to the wrong director it could have been incredibly cheesy. Being a reader of the comics I know that there are a few things that works on the page of a comic book but not in a film and let me say that the costumes is one of these things that in all probability wouldn't work. Singer chose to go with black leather outfits and I, for one, am very thankful for this choice. There are many things in this film that works but unfortunately there are a few things as well that prevent the film from being truly great.

Lets start with the things that work. Acting wise the film is very good. This is above all attributed to some excellent casting. Hugh Jackman is simply perfect as Wolverine and brings out the duality of the character in a very satisfactory manner. Also the scenes were we see a glimpse of the rage in the character work remarkably well. The only thing that could be said about him is that he is too tall but it seems most people, including myself, have accepted this fact. I think also that it was a wise choice to let a relatively unknown actor play the part because in that way we have no preconceived notions about him. As for Professor X no other man than Patrick Stewart could/should play him. Stewart simply becomes Xavier both in presence, voice and looks. An example of perfect casting. Ian McKellen is brilliant as Magneto and succeeds in creating a human villain rather than the usual cliché like villains we see in Hollywood productions. The acting aside from the ones mentioned above is pretty good. Not spectacular but good. The only one who does not look and act like the character we know from the comics is Anna Paquin who plays Rogue. The character is nothing like in the comics and Paquin's performance doesn't help the character.

When it comes to music and sound effects in general the film is a notch above average. The musical score has a very grand, even epic, feel to it and this suits the film very well. The score is not as memorable as the score from Batman (1989) but it is very adequate. As for the general sound effects they are both very fitting and believable adding to the overall credibility of the film which is considerable. The sound Wolverine's claws make when they come out is exactly as I imagined it. Very well done. The effects in general are also very well made. Not as good as in Spider-Man but still very good. A lot of care has been taken to make the effects seem as believable as possible and from where I'm standing they work. The only character whose powers I did not fully believe in was Toad's. Ray Park is an excellent athlete but many of his stunts look like obvious wire work. This is a pretty general complaint I have as some of the action look rehearsed. There is, however, some interesting action scenes and overall the action is acceptable.

The story is pretty well written and the dialog is both witty and sharp. Especially much of the dialog between Wolverine and Cyclops (James Marsden) is very entertaining and true to the comic books. Where I feel the story is lacking is in the climax which I am afraid to say is a little silly. Magneto's plan for world domination is actually pretty stupid when you think about it and that is a shame because much of the exposition is very well done. Generally, however, the first film is all about setting the stage for the films to come and it does do that in a satisfactory manner.

All in all X-Men is definitely one of the better super hero movies out there and although it was surpassed by the sequel it still stands as a true testament to Singer's skill.

Do you wanna know announces?

2007-08-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

Read this blog about announced movies.
I recommend.

Zodiac

2007-08-16T03:41:00.000-07:00

Based on the Robert Graysmith books about the real life notorious Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco with a string of seemingly random murders during the 1960s and 1970s. (IMDB)

Book story

"SHE WAS YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL BUT NOW SHE IS BATTERED AND DEAD. SHE IS NOT THE FIRST AND SHE WILL NOT BE THE LAST." Few cases in the history of true crime are as colorful and intriguing as that of Zodiac, the bizarre gunman in an executioner's hood who hunted the streets of San Francisco in the late 1960s and sent dozens of taunting letters to the police. Robert Graysmith provides ample details about the police investigation, including the full text and photos of most of the letters. Zodiac is an excellent starting point not only for the casual reader, but also for those interested in retracing the author's steps in order to pursue their own ideas about who the killer may have been. This book has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle, the very paper in which the Zodiac's eerie messages and cryptograms were published: "Graysmith's taut narrative brings the horror back with jolt upon jolt."

The Departed

2007-08-15T01:11:00.000-07:00

John DeSando:

"The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have Our contract celebrated." Shakespeare, The Winter's tale

It's not Taxi Driver or even Goodfellas, but Martin Scorsese's Departed is one of the year's best films and one of his best, after his 2 or 3 indisputable classics such as Raging Bull. The director has assembled a first-rate cast, who, right down to Jack Nicholson as mobster kingpin Frank Costello, are having a great time nudging each other's performances toward excellence through collaboration.

Remade from a 2002 Hong Kong smash called Infernal Affairs, The Departed tells of moles within the Boston State Police Department and the South Boston Irish-American mob. When the director opens the film with Costello's brief narration and the Stones' Gimme Shelter for background music, we're in for a whole lot of no shelter for anyone and uncommon acting for everyone.

The set up is just complex enough to act as a metaphor for the nasty workings of the United Nations, Iraqi Assembly, and US Congress. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) willingly serves as a mole in the South Boston Irish-American mob for the State Police, while Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) does the same in the State Police for the mob.

Amongst the intertwining machinations of cell phones and lies is a triangle with those two operatives and a psychologist Madolyn (Vera Farmiga), as well played by the three as could be hoped for in such a trumped-up situation that provides little sexual payoff for audience voyeurs and many scratched heads for those who enjoy well-structured plots. This triangle is the only disappointment in a film layered expertly to show how intertwined crime and punishment can be in a world last laid bare by Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning Mystic River (2003).

Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and production designer Kristie Zea are winning collaborators with the director for a look that is authentic (I worked in South Boston for 3 year), crisp, and dark. But in the end the film belongs to the actors, chief among them DiCaprio as a young Scorsese acolyte showing the master's handiwork after 3 films with him. And Matt Damon has never been better in his hometown, as has fellow South Bostonian Mark Wahlberg in his role as a detective with a barbed tongue and equally sharp intuition.

Welcome back, Martin S. The Departed may not win you an Oscar, but it does guarantee you never will be "departed" from the pantheon of premiere American directors.

(IMDB)

The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green

2007-08-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Based on Eric Ormer's comic strip, The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green is an almost fluffy romantic comedy starring Ethan (Daniel Letterle), a gay man whose trials and tribulations amount to not much more than difficulties in dating and finding a rented apartment. Leo (David Monahan), Ethan's ex-boyfriend, is selling the house Ethan currently resides in, while Ethan enters a whirlwind romance with baseball fetishist, Kyle (Diego Serrano). While Ethan debates where to live, he dumps Kyle and starts dating Punch (Dean Shelton), a cute, young real estate agent who hatches a plan to sabotage Leo's intentions to sell the property. The finest moments of this situational comedy occur when the Hat Sisters (Joel Brooks and Richard Riehle), a pair of cross-dressing, older lovers, are on screen cracking jokes and looking like Erma Bombeck. Meanwhile, Ethan's mom (Meredith Baxter) advises him to seek courage in order to find the right man, as Ethan tires of the dating game. Director George Bamber's adaptation is entertaining, though the entertainment feels as if its at the expense of some characters who are the most stereotypically gay. Because of the film's employment of stereotypes, it's difficult to sympathize with Ethan's plight. Clearly not meant to challenge intellectually, Ethan Green does contain some endearing scenes that make it mostly fun to watch. --Trinie Dalton
And impressive comment at IMDB djtoboe from United States

I just wanted to give a quick review and say that I really enjoyed this movie. I saw it at a gay film festival in Austin, and the audience was in a constant laughing uproar. I don't know what film festival the other review went to, but I think it was in D.C.

I didn't notice any bad acting. I quite enjoyed it. The dates he went on and the people he met were all too real. It very-much resembles the gay scene in a humorous way. One of the last scenes was very American Pie style, and it was a riot! Loved every minute of this movie.

As a gay guy, previously straight, I enjoyed this movie and hope it sees a DVD soon.

enjoy and buy (at Amazon :))

A Scanner Darkly

2007-08-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result. (IMDB)

How well you respond to Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly depends on how much you know about the life and work of celebrated science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. While it qualifies as a faithful adaptation of Dick's semiautobiographical 1977 novel about the perils of drug abuse, Big Brother-like surveillance and rampant paranoia in a very near future ("seven years from now"), this is still very much a Linklater film, and those two qualities don't always connect effectively. The creepy potency of Dick's premise remains: The drug war's been lost, citizens are kept under rigid surveillance by holographic scanning recorders, and a schizoid addict named Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is facing an identity crisis he's not even aware of: Due to his voluminous intake of the highly addictive psychotropic drug Substance D, Arctor's brain has been split in two, each hemisphere functioning separately. So he doesn't know that he's also Agent Fred, an undercover agent assigned to infiltrate Arctor's circle of friends (played by Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane, and Robert Downey, Jr.) to track down the secret source of Substance D. As he wears a "scramble suit" that constantly shifts identities and renders Agent Fred/Arctor into "the ultimate everyman," Dick's drug-addled antihero must come to grips with a society where, as the movie's tag-line makes clear, "everything is not going to be OK."

And comment:

Hollywood has tried so many times to capture the feel of Philip K. Dick terms of his style and writing. Films like Total Recall, Paycheck, Minority Report, all were playing to the lowest common denominator and really lost a lot of the feel that Dick conveys in his writing. Blade Runner came close, but it still missed the essential darkness that Dick brings to each and every one of his works.

Enter "A Scanner Darkly", aside from the Interpolative Rotoscoping that the film maker used to put the graphical images of this movie together and give it an amazing visual feel all its own, the vision and imagery conveyed by the film are as true to Dick's original as any movie has come. I left the theater feeling overwhelmed, touched, and changed, much the same way as when I'd finished the book. This is rare, and it is decidedly a beautiful thing.

enjoy and buy (at Amazon :))

El Laberinto del fauno

2007-08-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world. (IMDB)

Set during Franco's mopping up exercise after the Spanish Civil War, Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is a wonderful, dark fairy tale that, in a metaphor for Spain itself, teeters on the edge of nightmare dreamscapes of corruption, violence and the death of innocents.

This film is definitely not for young children. Although the fantasy sequences are gorgeously realised, and are fairy tales in the truest sense (in that they are dark, fey, dangerous and violent), most of the story (about three quarters of it, in fact) exists outside of the dreamland, in the even more frightening (and sometimes shockingly violent) world of a real life struggle of ideas and ideology.

Sergi Lopez is excellent as the brutal (and possibly sadistic) Falangist Captain tasked with routing out the remaining leftists from the woods and hills of Northern Spain. Into this precarious situation come his new wife (a widow of a former marriage, who is carrying his son) and his stepdaughter Ofelia (played to absolute perfection, by the then 11 year old, Ivana Baquero).

Uncomfortable with her new surroundings, suspicious of her stepfather and desperately concerned about the worsening condition of her mother, Ofelia uncovers a strange alternative world, and the chance to escape forever the pain and uncertainty of her everyday life.

Thus the film alternates between the world of Civil War Spain and the increasingly bizarre, dark and frightening world of the Pan's Labyrinth. As the twin plots progress, they intertwine, with the tasks of Ofelia becoming the choices faced by a Spain at the crossroads. The poignancy of the film lies partly in the fact that the victories of the child are reflected so starkly by the failures of the adult world.

Apparently Pan's Labyrinth won a 20-minute standing ovation at Cannes, when it was shown. This may be a little bit over the top. I suspect when the furore has died down some will choose to swing the pendulum back and criticise it for its more obvious faults. Much of the film is derivative. There are few ideas in the film's magical dreamworld that haven't been seen before. There are also few ideas in the film's depiction of the Civil War that can't be read in Satre or Orwell; can't be viewed in Picasso's Guernica; or can't be watched in Land and Freedom.

For all the evident truth of these observations, to accept them would be to entirely miss the majesty of Pan's Labyrinth, which doesn't lie in its originality but its absolute mastery of execution. People will watch Pan's Labyrinth in a way that most won't watch Land and Freedom. In doing so, they will also discover a world of fairy tales which existed before Disney sunk its claws into them: a dangerous world, where nothing is as it seems and every step is a possible death – a place which may leave even adults shivering under the duvet, part in terror, part in wonder. And all this backed up by the finest cinematography I've seen.

The only real faults I am prepared to allow for this film is a slight tendency (particularly at the end) for a Narnia-like moralism, and the fact that the faun is, perhaps, is not quite wild enough! These are eminently forgivable, though. This is easily the best film I've seen this year, and a must see on the big screen.

enjoy and buy (at Amazon :))