Better late than never...
Here are my thoughts on the movies/DVDs I saw from July 1- December 31, 2008. As always, these are just gut reactions to what I watched. Hopefully, I can point you in the direction of something you maybe hadn't heard of-- or keep you away from others.
After a good first half of the year (lots of A's and B's), the second half was pretty disappointing. I blame the change in some of my reading materials. Entertainment Weekly decided to greatly reduce their DVD reviews, which was instrumental in giving me direction on some great movies on DVD. Also, my local newspaper stopped running DVD (and even the weekly movie) reviews altogether.
I'm sure they had their reasons, but I can't go to the movie theatre every week to see the newest movies, and by the time they come out on DVD, I can't remember which ones were considered good enough to see.
I also spent a great deal of time watching TV on DVDs, which cut down on my movie watching. So I was often stuck watching whatever I had at the time from the library instead of being more proactive and searching things out.
But, hey, not everything I saw was bad.
And I always lay out the "rules", so here goes:
A: Must-watch.
B: Lots of good stuff and worth checking out
C: Not a time-waster, but not mandatory watching either.
D: Bad. There may be one or two things that make it worth suffering through.
F: Terrible. Not worth the money or the time.
Also, I list where I watched the film. Always assume it was on DVD unless I state otherwise. Why is that important? Because sometimes the experience can enhance or detract from my enjoyment. Watching a film in the theatre (noted as "film") usually bumps a movie up a half-grade just because some movies work better on the big screen.
And, finally, I have to apologize if these don't seem all that coherent. I wrote these reviews over many days at various points and moods. I could have edited them more, but I'm already way late, and if I don't start posting, they'll get added to the large pile of "things I never posted".
And, as always, I start with the worst (and, this time an "incomplete").
AVP 2—I enjoyed most of the films of both the Aliens and the Predator films, but this thing was almost unwatchable. No dialogue with the A’s or the P’s made it tough to figure out the reasons behind their actions (okay, maybe I didn’t need the Alien perspective, but the Predator one would have been nice). And the humans in the movie were just there to be killed. Nothing more. And it was all filmed at night or in very dark places. And it was usually raining. Nice for atmosphere (and scariness), but impossible to actually tell what was going on. I’m guessing the budget was so low, having impossible-to-see action sequences worked out nicely. D
Jumper-- I have now given up on Hayden Christiansen. This movie tried so hard to be more, and failed so much in the attempt. D+
Made of Honor-- It’s been done before. The performances weren’t all that special (even Kevin McKidd couldn’t raise the standards any). This is one of those “chick flicks” you can point to and say “if you’ve seen one of them, you’ve seen them all”. D
Good Luck Chuck—This movie made me give up on Jessica Alba (who I’ve liked quite a bit in the past). I knew this movie wasn’t going to be good (it stars “good movie Kryptonite” Dane Cook), but it was just bad. Not Waiting bad, but not much better. I will say Cook is the luckiest man on the planet, though Dude spent a solid day or three of filming simulated sex scenes with a bevy of hot (and at least topless) women. D-
Meet the Spartans—As bad as I thought it would be. I don’t know why I watch these movies. Well, I do know why: once in a great while, these parody movies are half-way decent, and it’s been a long while since one of those came out. At least they’re short (usually less than an hour of actual opening to closing credits)—and I get my copies from the library, so I’m not throwing money out the window. But I am wasting time… D-
Superhero Movie—I’m not even gonna waste the time reviewing it. F
Persepolis—This film got all sorts of recognition and made a number of critics lists last year, but it didn’t grab me the way I was hoping it would. Visually, it was interesting (black and white animation that aped the look of the graphic novel it’s based on), but I had a hard time keeping interested. At one point, I put the closed captioning on and played it at 2X speed just to speed it up a little and still know what was being said. I don’t want to give this a bad grade because I’ll take some of the blame for not being in an open mood when I watched it. Maybe I should go back and watch it another time. Incomplete.
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