Watchmen (script) "David Hayter has managed to accomplish what so many fanboys thought impossible: he has written a faithful and entertaining adaptation of a work almost universally considered the very best its medium has to offer. Despite my nitpicks with some of the changes and alterations made, I commend Hayter for not betraying the graphic novel and its fans. Here's hoping that Paramount might actually let us someday watch the Watchmen..." (full review)
Be Cool "All in all, they've got a pretty good movie here, with the exception that huge elements of the plot have been completely recycled from the previous film. But, hey, if I hadn't rented "Shorty" the night before, I wouldn't have even noticed. I think this review is focusing more on the negative than actually making the point of just how funny this movie is, so let me just stress the point: There are some great laughs to be had here. Just not too many surprises..." (full review)
Ocean's Twelve "What they did with this cast was atrocious. Bernie Mac - gets a total of 2 or 3 lines. Andy Garcia? Shows up to get his money back with his best menacing face in the first 5 minutes, then completely disappears for the rest of the movie. Matt Damon plays his character for laughs this time as the young guy learning the ropes, the rookie so to speak. Brad Pitt is still eating his way through scenes, but he and Clooney's witty repartee mostly falls flat this time..." (full review)
Kinsey "Condon's careful, compassionate work will stand as its own loud refutation of such fact-challenged noise, for his is a film interested in opening minds rather than closing them. In this year of great "importance", nothing could be more essential..." (full review)
Resident Evil: Apocalypse "Why do we have to sit through 75 minutes of regurgitated crap to get to something actually interesting that of course acts as nothing more than a setup for the next film? I honestly felt cheated, and had I actually paid to see the movie I would have demanded my money back so that I could place it into an interest-bearing account to use to pay for my ticket to the next installment, which might actually be good..." (full review)
"After watching "Resident Evil: Apocalypse," a loud, overblown, action-driven sequel to the likable 2002 original, you won't hardly believe the one thing this production could've used more of would be the loving hand of Paul W.S. Anderson behind the camera. I never thought I'd see the day when a film is that bad..." (full review)
Cellular ""Cellular" is a deeply silly production, asking the audience to swallow quite a bit in terms of logic and believability. However, when it approaches its B-list thrills with simplicity, the film does have some fun moments. Too bad director David R. Ellis loses his nerve quickly, and starts stacking this frail little film with enough double-crosses and subplots to snap its spine..." (full review)
Primer "Although the idea may be exciting, 'Primer' shows that there is a darker side to everything- even the time travel genre. The movie is perfection, which is why I'm sure it beat out movies like 'Saw,' 'Napoleon Dynamite' and 'Open Water' at the Sundance Film Festival..." (full review)
Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow by 'Brent Lane' I saw a preview screening of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" last night at the Cinerama in Seattle. I was really trying to keep my expectations low for this, since there has been very little even remotely good sci-fi/fantasy/horror lately and I did not want to set myself up for yet another disappointment. Yes, I'm looking at you Mr. Lucas, Mr. Sommers, Mr. Anderson, Mr. - well, you get the point. The short of it is that I really enjoyed Sky Captain. If you've seen the trailers or commercials for it, you get an idea of the visual style of it, but only the original teaser for the movie (shown about 9 months ago) really got the movie's overall feel across. The visual style borrows heavily from old serials, German expressionism, pulp comics and even a little film noir. There are also a bunch of subtle and not-so-subtle references and nods made to other movies, both visual and aural. The effects in the movie fit well with the style. You may be looking at obvious CGI effects, but the style of the movie is shot in such a way that it fits in very well. There is also a very interesting cameo in the movie as well... The movie itself is adventure, probably most similar in structure to something like "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The dialog is pretty pulp novel - cheesy at times, but quite self-aware and having fun with it, so check your cynicism at the door. There's a fair amount of humor to it that seemed to work well, but things certainly aren't played over-the-top for laughs. The characters are plenty interesting, though the character of Polly is pretty annoying at the beginning when she doesn't get some things that are pretty darn obvious... She does gets better and ,even at her worst, is nowhere near the level of worst movie characters ever (the US remake of Godzilla immediately comes to mind.) Any other criticisms I might have of the movie are small and probably nitpicky. Basically, this is a popcorn movie. Not like today's popcorn movie, with bloody skewerings, F-bombs and gratuitous butt shots, but more like a romanticized ideal of what action movies and serials were like 50-60 years ago: a Buck Rogers movie shot with the technology of "The World of Tomorrow." I think the director of the movie, Kerry Conran, (who was there for a Q&A after the movie,) said it best - "We wanted this to be like a movie that was found in the movie vaults after all this time." I think they did a great job. I look forward to seeing his future projects (he has recently started work on John Carter of Mars)".
