Movie Reviews & More
Hero (2004)
The previews for this movie made it look vibrant, action packed, and based in reality, like a little more down to earth with some Matrix type feel to it. The last hour of the movie, I was just praying for the end. Even if I didn’t hate reading my movies, this would have still been about the silliest piece of crap I have ever seen. By the end I was just like, "What the Hell?" those goofy asians. That is about the extent of it, that’s all, that’s it. If you like flying people dressed in really dynamic flowing and colorful clothing saying silly things, then see this movie. Otherwise, there are many other movies already on video where Jet Li is looking stern faced and not saying very much.
King Arthur (2004)
This movie started out slow, with Clive Owen not initially convincing as Arthur. As I watched I realized why this movie had such a dismal showing at the theaters. Unlike Pirates, Jerry Bruckheimer’s success last year dealt with a long removed subject matters, pirates. But this movie is another war between some powerful history group of people Romans, vs outlandish types.
The great thing about this movie, and any Bruckheimer is that is always asks, why can’t this be done. Why can’t we reinterpret this, and do it in an intelligent way so we don’t just retell the story for the heck of it. The end battle was inventive, the idea of more realistic stories of the amount of nights, their appearance, and their interactions, and the love story between Guinevere and Arthur and her history were all more realistic views and interesting insight into these beloved characters.
Four Feathers (2002)
Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley of American Beauty and Kate Hudson. A respectable cast but not enough to make this Shakur movie the same success Elizabeth was. A long drawling war intertwined with a thickly veiled plot, this movie is as bleak as any other movie in the past that revolves around the iron ruling hand the English had in the 19th century and their obviously hideous style of fighting.
Paycheck (2004)
A fun, unexpected romp with an interesting premise, Paycheck is a welcome return to good movie stature for director John Woo. Ben Affleck is a corporate tool who looks donates his body in exchange for the big payoff. With the promise of one final self sustaining job he is caught in a swirling conspiracy without any memory of two years prior. A thriller that ends up being more fun in the end, a highly entertaining movie.
Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Thirty minutes of action that goes from solid special effects and intrigue to a typical drama and really bad dialogue. Tomorrow is a good movie in a sense, but even for a destruction movie it was anticlimactic, not really showing that much destruction in context, instead giving more global verbalizations of future destructive events.
With interesting theories on the Atlantic current and instantaneous freezing temperatures, this movie isn’t all BS. It is also good for enormous tornadoes destroying a metropolitan city where the country setting of Twister fell short. But with a weird ending I would say rent for a dollar but don’t even expect two and a half hours of good summer movie fare.
South Park the Movie (1999)
Having seen this movie for the first time in four years, it’s rating slipped some then if I had commented on it at that time. With edgy jabs and the best musical revolving around body noises ever constructed, this is still a classic and a piece of my college nostalgia.
Matchstick Men (2003)
A movie about a con artist, Nicolas Cage was the overwhelming obsessive compulsive in this movie, further blurring the line between his personal reality and acting. Obnoxiously quirky Cage’s conscience and obsessive personality overtakes him and he reaches out for his long lost daughter, another great performance by Alison Lohman. I was so bored that the major twist and the end of the movie was too little too late.
