Archive for March, 2009
« Previous EntriesStar Trek 11 - the end of the line?
Rating 4.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
Speaking of films that are mixing old ideas in a new ‘revisioned’ theme, I saw something today about the next Star Trek movie. This adds to my growing unease about this film. I am becoming more and more filled with dread about how this film will ultimately turn [...]
Looking for a plot
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
Last night, while at my Monday 8-ball pool tournament, a discussion came up about movies. The differences between old classics and great films and modern films. This focused mostly on sci-fi films.
It all started with the horribly wrong movie Dragon Wars (please don’t see this, not on DVD [...]
Making the case for incomprehensibility
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
Here’s my question for the day. Must a movie be comprehensible to be worthwhile? For me, the answer is a resounding “no.” If I didn’t believe that, I’d never look at another of David Lynch’s films. Does “Mulholland Drive” make perfect sense? Of course not. Does it sweep [...]
Talk about a bad piece of real estate
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
Right out of the box, “The Haunting in Connecticut” tells us that what we’re about to see is based on a true story. This information may be meant to raise the chill factor, causing us to wonder whether the ensuing parade of bumps, thumps and jolts might actually [...]
“Monsters vs. Aliens” is stuffed to the gills
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
Forget the 49-foot woman in “Monsters vs. Aliens.” Actually she’s an inch shy of 50 feet tall.
One of the fiercest women I’ve known was my paternal grandmother, and she barely broke 5-feet. If anyone wants to do an animated feature about a tough Jewish lady who was hell-on-wheels [...]
What I know about the pending apocalypse
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
After reading Roger Ebert’s four-star review of “Knowing,” I decided that I couldn’t skip the movie no matter how Nicolas Cage-averse I’ve become. It’s not that I expected to find what I might consider a four-star movie, it’s just that I already was curious and Ebert’s [...]
Movies to see before you die
Rating 4.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
There is nothing quite like a list of something to get the blood boiling. When that list happens to be of movies, and is called the
Analyzing a master of big-screen poetry
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
British director Terence Davies just might be the cinema’s greatest living poet. Davies, whose films include “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes,” hasn’t made many films, but he’s proven himself a master of memory, a filmmaker who captures the exquisite sadness that accompanies our awareness [...]
Black Entertainment USA presents a first look at the next Dennis Dortch film
Rating 4.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
Here it is. A sneak peek at part of the next thing to come from Sundance Film Festival recognized writer/director Dennis Dortch. This is an exclusive that even the hollywood gossip sites do not have yet. You my readers get it first.
As I mentioned earlier, Dennis has been [...]
Cleaning, magic and crossing borders
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
This week’s biggie — a thriller starring Julia Robers and Clive Owens — is accompanied into the marketplace by two smaller films, both of which pass as easily as sighs and both of which have something to recommend them. And both, by the way, feature the work of [...]
I don’t love you, “Man”
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
The new comedy, “I Love You, Man” stars Paul Rudd as a recently engaged real estate agent who needs a pal to bring out his inner frat boy. Enter Sydney Fife (Jason Segel), a disreputable beach bum who encourages Rudd’s character to loosen up. Despite some serious ho [...]
For spies, love is a tricky business
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
Too complex for its own good, “Duplicity” nonetheless gives us a chance to watch a well-matched Julia Roberts and Clive Owen navigate their way through a movie about characters who seldom seem in control of their fate. To say that “Duplicity” is contrived is to do it an [...]
Movie Preview: Pandorum
Rating 4.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
Well at least Hollywood is consistent. That’s the first impression I get from the movie trailer for Pandorum.
Instantly you get the feeling that the movie is a mix of sci-fi horror movies – specifically Alien – and the recent rash of video games. The fact that the producers [...]
Movie Preview: 12 Rounds
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
The question some may be asking is if a pro-wrestler has the ability to become a movie star. That is definitely the question that the WWE are betting on. 12 Rounds will likely put that question to rest.
Now I must start off with the revelation that I don’t [...]
A lot fewer folks watching “Watchmen”
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
A week or so ago, I more or less (mostly more) predicted a second week tumble for “Watchmen” revenues. It seemed to me that a two-hour and 43-minute movie that received mostly mixed reviews would have a difficult time repeating its opening weekend triumph. I was right.
In its [...]
A crime wave that never seems to break
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
There so much chaos in the Italian crime movie “Gomorrah” that it practically obliterates any semblance of plot. Rather than tell a straight-ahead story, director Matteo Garrone assembles a series of violent episodes that bring the activities of the Camorra crime syndicate to light. Garrone, whose movie won [...]
This ‘House’ deserves foreclosure
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
To understand how a movie as ragged as 1972’s “The Last House on the Left” acquired its cult reputation, you have to understand something about the 1970s. The war in Vietnam increasingly looked like a lost cause; the Manson family’s carnage was still fresh in memory; the counterculture [...]
If it’s a horror movie, leave the kids home
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
Here’s the question of the day: Would you take a child to see a movie in which a teen-aged woman is pinned to the ground and raped, in which another woman appears topless and in which sadistic villains threaten a family in its isolated country home? You wouldn’t, [...]
“Watchmen” kicks box-office butt
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
According to the aggregate reviews site, metacritic.com, “Watchmen” scored an average of 56 on the site’s one-to-100 rating scale. Five of metacritic’s surveyed critics gave the movie a 100 rating, an unusually strong level of acclaim. Their enthusiasm, however, was tempered by the fact that 18 surveyed critics [...]
The story of a girl and her dog
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
“Wendy and Lucy,” released in New York and Los Angeles last year, is a slender, minimalist movie that many critics have embraced, perhaps because of its very smallness. It’s set in a backwater town in Oregon. It’s not overburdened with plot, and it inches its way toward the [...]
Movie preview: Public Enemies
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
Johhny Depp is back. And he has Christian Bale along for the ride with him.
The movie Public Enemies is a romanticized re-telling of the life and exploits of John Dillenger. A bank robber that defied the federal government for years, and became a media sensation long before television [...]
Movie preview: Pelham 123
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
Going to a very different place, with a pace more akin to the tastes of most American fans is the remake of Pelham 123. I’ve spoken about this before [ Movie Preview: Pelham 123 and G-Force] . And yes it is a remake – there can be exceptions [...]
Movie preview: Limits of Control
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
Moving on to another film that caught my eye is Limits of Control. This is a film by Jim Jarmusch, who did the impressive Ghost Dog. It is based in Spain, and again takes the viewer to a different place than expected.
Based on the movie trailer there are [...]
Movie Preview: 12
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Written by Michael Vass
In general I despise remakes. This is most directly true of any movie were the word ‘revisioned’ is in any way attached. As has been obvious to most movie-goers over the last decade or 2, more often than not such a film is not only a waste of [...]
Flawed heroes, brutal action and a blue guy
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]Submitted by Denerstein Unleashed
During the course of “Watchmen,” the two-hour and 43 minute adaptation of a graphic novel by Alan Moore, a convict has his arms sawed off and a giant blue superhero walks around naked. But wait! There’s more! Women in leather prance through dystopian debris, and real-life figures such [...]
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