Movie Reviews & More
Return to Paradise (1998)
By virtue that this movie had an Elvis faced young Vince Vaughn I gave this movie a whirl. I actually came in to watch the second half of the movie, Sarah had some time to start it and I walked in when things were just getting interesting. But that was just it, they were a little more interesting second half.
The movie revolves around three friends that go to Malaysia to party one summer before going into the working world. They indulge themselves fully, including over 100 kilos of weed and have a great time until the money runs out. Then one day two friends leave and the other one stays and that same day, the police come, take away the third friend and lock him up for two years for drug trafficking. The amount of weed he had was just enough to receive a status, unless the other two friends (one is Vaughn) come back a claim some responsibility.
Malaysia had stricter laws on drugs, and that is interesting, but that is where the cool stuff stops. The first half of the movie involves this twisted budding romance between Vaughn and Anne Heche. It is this kind of love hate thing to begin with, but it gets old and ridiculous really quickly. Then, like I said, Vaughn resolves to return to Malaysia, the other friend gets hung for trafficking drugs anyway, and then the movie ends with Vaughn in jail and you saying, what the heck!
Don’t see this movie, unless you are in love with Vince Vaughn or for some bizarre reason, Joaquin Pheonix who is the friend that is imprisoned for two years.
Lord of the Rings : Return of the King (2003)
It had been almost a full year since I had last seen this movie, and was fortunate to borrow it over the long weekend. But I remember loving it, and wondered why for each of the three movies, why it took so long to see them again. (I always seem to wait a year). Maybe it makes them better.
I have done a bunch of movie reviews on movies I love lately so I will try to not repeat myself here. A fantastic movie in vision, direction, and staying true to the original work, this is truly the penultimate chapter in the story.
My favorite, while silly part of this movie, is how story of Frodo and Sam. As gay as it gets some times between the two of them with the crying, it is touching to see how Sam actually is the hero in the end. All of the three characters including Gollum make sure an incredible transformation along their trip. Sam into this great leader and savior, Frodo into a possessed and burdened bearer of the ring, and Gollum, evil incarnate with split personalities. Then in the end, how Frodo can never be the same. Sam and he return home, but nothing is ever the same for him and how really that delves into the feelings of and after effects of such a life changing event. For all of the hobbits, they share this knowledge of something so terrible that everything else seems trivial.
Of course, there is only the best battle scenes and characters in the history of movies in the attack on Minas Tirith. I can’t even go into how much that battle doesn’t even compare on a small TV to the big screen. It is just a wonder.
Congratulations to Peter Jackson, for taking 9 years total to get the rights, and to have such a strong vision to execute three of the greatest movies ever. That is truly an accomplishment he will always be enshrined for.
Bring It On (2000)
The opening cheer in this movie is the complete encapsulation of why any guy would even bother. Pre Mary Jane fame, this is Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku in a movie about, well, cheerleading and finding some integrity.
I was at a friend’s house over the weekend and she had this movie so as we caught up I popped it in. It was weird to feel really
old as I saw how young some of the people were in this movie. But I still enjoyed the dance like cheers that involved people flying all about and the music of time period.
But of course there were the typical girly things with romance and boys, and even Elisa wasn’t very believable as the “bad girl” from out of town. This movie may not be most people’s “thang”, but every once in awhile with a good glass of wine in hand, they can be fun.
Shrek 2 (2004)
The second part of this lovable tale of the ugly orge with Mike Myers voice who has strange adventures with a talking donkey with the voice of Eddie Murphy. We were looking forward to this movie, and were able to see it for a first time in early May with a gift certificate that I got for being the best man in Justin Varner’s wedding.
We liked the movie mainly because it is breathtaking to see what they creators can come up with. This movie does top just about everything that Pixar had done to date, except for maybe Finding Nemo. But it was also fun to see all the spoofs they did off other movies.
But I still go back to the wonders that they are able to create. I have done some computer modeling and although I am sure it is not with as nice of a program as they are using, it is still plenty hard. Hell, I had a hard time modeling a Foreman Grill, let along a whole world of creatures.
My one problem, even having seen the movie twice now (borrowing from a friend at work), it didn’t make me laugh out loud that much. I really laughed a ton during the first movie, and that one was something were weren’t expecting much when we went to see it in Ann Arbor three or four years ago.
But it is still a fun movie, and the trailers didn’t do it justice. You have to see it for the graphics at the very least and see what a movie can be for all of those bombs that get released every day.
I, Robot (2004)
I have seen a good deal of Will Smith movies. I think I have seen just about every movie he has made, and I followed him even before that as the snappy remark kid from Philly in “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. But Will’s act has gotten tired specifically recently in “Men in Black 2” as the leading actor that says the right sarcastic thing at the right time.
But Will’s character was just enough different in this movie to be refreshing but to have the remaining qualities of why I tend to like Will Smith movies, action and a huge superstar hero that is larger than life.
This movie has the perfect use of special effects. It didn’t seem over the top, they created this great alter reality in the future but used a nice blend of real scenes and regular old sets and things. The best quality of the movie was that I never had to second guess a thing. I never got bored, I never said “that looks funny” or anything. It was just seamless, and it even passed the Sarah test which means she didn’t fall asleep. She has been doing that in every movie.
There is one part where he is in the tunnel in a car where the robots come in droves to attack him and when the carrier flips and explodes it looks a little fake, and I think that they don’t totally explain why it seems he has had time off from the police force. They don’t really specify if the accident that happens to Smith has just taken place or if it was a long time ago. But that is me being particularly picky.
You need to see this movie. You need to see that droves of robots attack and go “Holy Crap!”. You need to see a nice sparing use of dramatic slow mo to intensify the action scenes. You need to sit back and enjoy this one.
Man on Fire (2004)
Denzel Washington is a tortured soul, and ex Marine with a drinking problem. Isn’t that how every one of his movies starts out now? No reason to live, down on his luck, with some sort of drug problem? But I knew that going in, and I rented it anyway.
Denzel is the bodyguard of a little girl for an American Woman and her Spanish husband in Mexico City, the child kidnapping center USA. He resists at first, but soon falls in love with the little girl just in time to have her kidnapped. Shot four times, he still comes back in Denzel style, bleeding but so dang thick, you can’t stop that big ol bear.
He then hunts down and tortures one by one each member that was involved in the kidnapping to end it once and for all. Pretty straightforward and brutal, but that dark part of me loves that revenge. These scum bags kidnapped a little girl, what would you do? It leads him to quite a chain of corruption that ends up back in the family but in the end the girl gets saved, and Denzel dies, fulfilled in life.
Feeling like violence, and vengeance, with quite the stylizing cinematics, check this out. Not for the faint of heart, one guy gets his finger chopped off.
Welcome to Mooseport (2004)
The previews for this movie weren’t flattering, but it ended up being different then I expected. I thought it was going to be some bad acting by Ray Romano, some believable transition to the big screen but something that didn’t do him justice, and I figured it was going to be based around how podunk and silly this little town was that he lived in.
In the end, it was amusing. Romano ends up running against the former president of the United States all to win a girl’s heart that he was too dense to propose to for over six years. “Everybody Still Loves Raymond” and Romano is consistently winning in the polls, but in the end, he doesn’t win. But the moral of the story is he is honest, awww.
For those of you who love “Raymond” because of it’s crazy situations, dysfunctional family matters, and relatable situations, this doesn’t’ have any of that. It does have Romano’s trademark “wandering speak” type of humor. Instead of “Ray’s” hornball husband personality, in this movie, he is honest and fair and never has done anything wrong or told a lie. Kind of unbelievable. But it is funny to see Romano get hit with a golf ball, so at least rent it for that.
