Shadow Man

At times it's almost as crazy as Belly of the Beast with the use of Dim Mak or The Touch of Death! Steven Seagal explodes a watermelon, explodes a guys eyes out of his head and probably explodes a guy's heart. He also McGuyver's a couple pipe bombs and a shotgun out of household items!

On the other hand, at times it is a bit boring and yes, it is overplotted, but I was expecting worse so I'm happy with it.

5/10

Last night, I watched Kelly Reichardt's "Old Joy". I really loved it, but I don't have a hard time seeing why many others passionately hated it. More than anything, it just made me want to go camping...

And, inspired by several members of this board, I finally watched "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" this afternoon after having it laying around for awhile. Needless to say, it's put me in a rather foul mood. Very dark and bleak, but immensely powerful. It's so beautifully shot, as well. Can't wait to see it again!

Watched two last night:

Vicky Christina Barcelona: How many times have I seen a review of a Woody Allen mention, in some way, his "style" and consistency...basically another way of saying he makes the same film all the time. Ladies and gentleman of the jury, as proof for the defense, I give you Vicky Christina Barcelona, which, had it not been for the font of the opening credits and my knowledge prior to watching, I would never have guessed was a Woody Allen film. Breathtaking cinematography...phenomenal performances...great dialogue and an involving, intriguing story (so much so that my wife, who absolutely HATES all things Woody Allen, was quite engaged). I have three caveats: 1) Why is Penelope Ann Cruz being singled out from the cast as "Oscar-worthy"? She is wonderful, but Rebecca Hall and Javier Bardem are equally wonderful, IMHO. 2) The ending is very unsatisfying...it's not unearned and probably the most realistic decision, but couldn't help but feel let down. 3) I'm not sure the narration quite works.

Overall: ***1/2 (four-star scale), or an 8/10 on the IMDb scale

Here may be spoilers...

Quarantine: This one surprised me. Early last year, Cloverfield finally delivered a great "subjective shaky cam" film...but Quarantine also proved to be worthy contender. The plot is definitely somewhat well-worn......yet, for some reason, I found this film quite enjoyable and effective as a horror. True, despite the faux-documentary setup, the actors often behave like they are in a horror film, but the first 15 minutes also provides a nice expository setup so that, going in, we actually find ourselves caring about the principles (can't say the same for Blair Witch).

Overall: ***, or 7/10

Erik

I just saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona the other day, as well, ADayintheLife1979.

I think the star in that movie was Spain itself. Absolutely beautiful. I agree the ending is really flat and kind of a letdown. I also agree with you and Mr. B about the voiceover. "Man, just shut up," I kept thinking to myself.

And yeah, Cruz, Bardem, and Hall did an excellent job...but damn if Cruz is not sexiest of them.

There was a Rocky marathon playing last night that I caught between 3 and 4. Something about the campy Stallone mingled with the 80s action smorgosboard gets me everytime. Hearing Mr. T say "I pity the fool" was quite worth it but the Rocky monologue in Siberia after his victory where the crowd + soviet politicians go wild in there seats.. shake my head every time. Now I have all the memories revitalized.. where's the topic where I can rant about Tango & Cash, haha!

At home: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

In theater: Coraline

Smart People

This is a movie that's just as soulless as a movie filled with explosions, car chases and shoot-outs. The main problem I had with this is that none of it felt real, it was all a writer's construct. Thomas Haden Church was the only one who rose above it by being consistently real. Dennis Quaid and Ellen Page also rise above the script at times but sometimes the script defeats them and you can see the fakeness out of it. Then there's Sarah Jessica Parker...I don't think I actually liked her in a movie since LA Story but I always found her attractive. Not here, she basically looks like Skeletor with cleavage...bah. As for the son, cut him out and nothing changes, the movie would've been shorter and that would've been fine.

But I did like the dialogue. There are some good lines here, most of them by Thomas Haden Church.

6/10

Chapter 27

This is a decent character study undone by a fatal flaw. The voiceover is horrible and sucks the life out of the movie. Take out the voiceover and I would at least give this a recommendation.

FUN FACT TIME: Back in 1988, there was a John Lennon TV movie and the first choice for John Lennon was Mark Lindsay Chapman, but he got shot down cause his name was Mark Chapman. 20 years later, he's playing John Lennon here.

6/10

Feast III: The Happy Finish

The first Feast was a flawed but fun send-up of monster movies, a la Tremors. The second was stretching it, but it had its moments. This third one, however, outrightly flips off the audience and gives them a wholly inferior product, absolutely unnecessary and existing only to waste time while trying in vain to show off how "clever" it is. A true piece of garbage that pisses me off the more I think about it.

3/10

Death Race, with Jason Statham.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Just saw "Taken" 2 nights ago. Didn't know much about it but when I saw the co-written by credit for Luc Besson I thought, "All right...this can go one of 2 ways...very good or very bad because Besson usually doesn't wind up in the middle." I was actually pleased with the movie. There were a couple of clunker lines of dialogue/scenes, but otherwise I sat back and enjoyed the ride.

Bee Movie

I'm recommending this by the skin of its teeth. At times it is stupid as Seinfeld does his schtick which I am not a big fan of, considering I hate the show Seinfeld but this movie did rub off of me. There are some great scenes like Barry going out to the world for the first time and some of the driving scenes do have good energy to them. But I think what lifted this to a recommendation are Matthew Broderick, Chris Rock and Patrick Warburton. Those guys were awesome in this.

7/10

My kids went through a phase of watching this all the time. Yikes I could almost quote the thing. As always with animation the Blu ray is spectacular. I ma not quite as enthusiastic about this one being 5/10. I thought the trailer with Seinfold in a bee costume would have been a great movie.

Rob

That would be great and eliminate the disconnect with a Seinfeld voice-over...but I don't know, this grew on me cause it started off weak.

Coraline. At about the halfway mark I was sitting there thinking that this is one of the freshest, most engaging and greatest films that I have ever seen. I didn't see it in 3D but I don't think it would matter. I was absolutely enchanted with this movie but somewhere along the line it lost me. The script seems to have fallen apart about halfway though the picture. What was pure magic for the first half turned into something Disney would produce. Once the mystery was gone so was the magic that this film produced in it's first half. I sadly left the theater disappointed. What had shown such amazing promise early on kind of fizzled as the movie made it's way to it's sorry end.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

I though it was great. Kind of surprised how the Adam Sandler remake followed scene for scene with the original for the first half of the movie, right down to the scuffle with the literati. I want to check out some more stuff with Gary Cooper, anyone have suggestions?

High Noon

The Betrayal - Nerakhoon (B+)
~Its central theme of betrayal was a little muddled, but everything else was done really well. It didn't want to end, but it's forgivable given how interesting the preceding work was.

Trouble the Water (C)
~It didn't work for me. The first forty-five minutes or so were gripping, but it eventually lost focus. Also, the black girl narrating and holding the camera did a poor job of both. However, her rap was decent.

The Garden (B)
~I missed the first ten minutes, so I can't give it a much higher grade than this. However, it informed me of a situation that was slightly before my time and it accomplished its purpose admirably. It was relatively simple and could have been more political, but I otherwise dug it.

I also saw the Oscar-nominated short documentaries. They were all good, though The Conscience of Nhem En was miles better than the others.

Good Will Hunting - haven't seen it in quite a few years. Quite enjoyable though the first half is in a different class to the second.

Planning on going on a movie watching spree over the weekend, have:

City of God
Glengarry Glen Ross
Estomago - A Gastronomic Story
Pan's Labyrinth
It's A Wonderful Life
Into The Wild Green Yonder

Haven't seen any of them before.

Wo hoo - great fun ahead
Intrigued to hear what you think - particularly City Of God
Rob