Yeah I can see that viewpoint. I was disappointed, to be certain. And I think the movie is not successful. But the filmmaking is such that I can't give it lower than a **1/2

I caught Chronicle which was decent enough, I suppose. Frankly, I expected a bit more given the praise the film received here. Perhaps some of that praise is because expectations were low or because there weren't too many good movies out at the time? In any case, Chronicle is decently acted and has an interesting spin on the superhero genre but it's nothing revelatory and does opt for the cringe-inducing found-footage style. 6/10.

I think it's better than you're giving it credit for. It's the best school-shooting movie ever made, for one, even though it doesn't feature a school shooting

And here come the Gus Van Sant fans!

I agree, by the way. On this one and Van Sant's crapfest.

My biggest problem with Chronicle was that by the end of the film the found footage premise turned into a gimmick. Still a very good movie, though.

Congo

Well, that wasn't quite so bad that it was good, but damn it came close. I've heard about it and read a review or two so I knew what to expect. However I was still disappointed, as I'd read the book by Chrichton, which I remember enjoying reading as a kid, so the level of stupidity still caught me off guard.

I'm not really sure where to begin. There seemed a lot of elements thrown in just for the sake of having them. Erupting volcanos, killer apes, (which I recall from the book) plus killer hypotamouses, political strife, collapsing cave mines, and so on, which my memory is a bit foggy on. Plus the whole genetic memory issue (while scientifically implausable) was an interesting touch in the book, but never really brought up in the movie, which was a shame. In the film, it was just "oh we're just going to trust this ape which has never been to the area and hope she knows the way to where we're going because she once made a drawing of an open eye and looks rather like this other eye on a ring that Tim currey has (and eyes are obviously very uncommon symbols that almost no one uses), because well, it is obvious evidence that she must know, well, *something*."

1 star out of 4.
-Jeremy

I enjoyed Chronicle as well but the one guy's "transformation" felt a bit contrived, and the whole time I was watching the film, I was thinking about how the found footage gimmick didn't really add anything to the film.

The Iron Giant (1999)

One of my very favourite books of all time is The Iron Man by Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes. A wonderful story of how a boy gradually befriends a giant iron man in his homely English villiage and how the villiage and eventually the world come to accept him.

I'm surprised in this case that I only got around to watching the film adaptation last night, 13 years after its release.

Some things have changed. Firstly the story is moved from (old) England to New England. And of course there are some significant story alterations - but I will say this, the alterations, much to my great surprise, don't wholly diminish the story or message. Which is remarkable really.

The film is not the equal of the book, but it is a genuinly tasteful adaptation nontheless and the for me it gets the look and feeling of the giant/man himself bang on the money. Ultimately, Brad Bird is a good film maker.

8/10

Perfect Sense: Ewan McGregor and Eva Green star as two people who enter into a relationship just as humanity is starting to break down. All over the world, people have lost their sense of smell, and over a small period of time, other senses start to fade as well, one by one. Director David Mackenzie, working with a low budget, keeps everything suitably intimate and personal, providing small glimpses at the bigger picture without removing the focus from the central characters. There are some truly harrowing moments, particularly when people realize their senses are fading and make last-gasp attempts to take everything in before it's gone, but there are some deeply affecting moments as well, as everyone learns to continue on with their lives, if only for a short while before the next change. Like the equally overlooked and tonally similar Never Let Me Go, Berardinelli gave this film a dismissive **1/2 rating. Personally, I found it an incredibly moving and effective piece of work, and it stands a good chance of finding its way into my top 10 at the end of the year. 9/10.

Thanks for your write-up. Added it to my queue.



I would have preferred this movie if they had eschewed the laxative jokes, dumb beatnik characterizations and single-note villains. I felt they had a wonderful little movie in their hands but they were like "Hey we need to make this kid-friendly" and so dumbed down their film.

Prometheus (2012)

Let's start off with some other views first:



I find quite a bit to like about Prometheus and quite a bit to shake my head at. Probably 80% of my problems with the film come from the script and 20% from Scott's direction. Don't get me wrong, MOST of what I like about the film comes from Scott's direction, but there are scenes where character actions are quite abrupt and things just seem overly rushed. As a standalone sci-fi movie, I probably would have given this 3 stars. But I agree with Kunz that in its current incarnation, that the tie-in to the Alien franchise should have been jettisoned. The audacity of the main plot (expedition to discover an alien origin to human life) was strong enough to stand on its own; the allusions to the other movies served only as a distraction and engendered unwelcome comparisons. If it was truly intended that the planet in Prometheus was to become the same world as in Alien and Aliens, then there were too many inconsistencies to where this one left off and the next one begins that it really knocked off a full star from my rating. Another movie would be required to fix those threads leaving this one with a 2.0 / 4.0 in my book.

What I was always was why the they brought a damn cat on the ship to begin with, there was no reason for the cat being there other than to generate predictable jump scares.

Possibly for alternative companionship...why do people own cats in the first place? Or possibly to catch mice or other unwanted stow-aways? Jonesy wound up being a pretty good xenomorph detector...when he wanted, I guess...

You suggesting that Amadeus is not a rigid history lesson?!

Altered States William Hurt as a scientist who explores the depths of the human mind using psychotropic drugs and a sensory deprivation tank. The theory is that every single human memory ever stored is contained within every human mind. He finds himself going farther than anyone ever believed possible, arriving at the “first thought” of developed hominid, and actually having his physical state altered to that level. Sounds really good from that description? Would’ve lured me in. That’s for sure. BTW, there’s this woman that loves him. This was one from my sci-fi top 100 list of films.
While this may have been a cool made-for-TV movie, I couldn’t be drawn into it. The story felt a bit synthetic and we have the feeling that we are watching an addict spin out of control into a complete loss of self. That may have been more satisfying if that had been our destination. The ending was abrupt, meant to artificially satisfy with no courtesy of explanation of WTF happened. By that time I didn’t care. Many of the special effects came directly from the ain’t-it-cool bin and had little to no semblance of what the main character was experiencing. There are only so many close-ups of blood cells or synthesized event-horizons that make sense when we’re supposed be viewing a probe into the psyche. –To be honest, I was glad for my fast-forward during one of the more protracted of these trippy sequences. I found the Dr. Jessup (Hurt) character a bit distant and shallow, thinking that perhaps that Hurt wouldn’t have been my first choice for this role.
The Fly was much more fulfilling.

I give this one a tepid 2 out of 4

The movie did bring more attention to Salieri's music as well as Mozart's. I wouldn't mind seeing the one they were making fun of. And Mozart's, of course. The only Mozart opera I've seen is Cosi fan Tutte, which is a delight and not mentioned in the movie.

Fair enough. I didn't think of it like that when I saw that and therefore felt that it was stupid for someone to be wandering alone in a spaceship with an alien on the loose, one that exactly didn't announce itself as being friendly. As for your other thought, I agree with you. That is one aspect that isn't really explored. For me, I didn't give it that much thought since that wasn't what the film was really aiming at. However, it is a completely valid point.

Vexer, The presence of the cat didn't really bother me. In space, you really aren't going to have that much personal companionship apart from your crew mates. I can understand why one of those people would want to bring along a cat.

I liked this movie a lot, and I'm betting most people (I did) came to it like you did: well after the fact.

Did anybody actually see this in theaters?


The only Salieri opera I specifically remember being in the movie is Axur. It's a good'un.

I've seen Figaro and The Magic Flute, but I have yet to see the #1 on my Mozart opera bucket list: Don Giovanni. MSU did Don Giovanni and Figaro together in a series, but for some reason they put Don Giovanni first and I didn't find out about it in time. That really creamed my corn.

I know that, but it still seemed like a really contrived way to bring out jump scares when the film really didn't need it, granted it's only a minor nitpick but still.

Date Night

Genuine chemistry and some wonderful moments between Tina Fey and Steve Carrell aren't enough to lift this movie from the "enjoyable time waster" to "good" level. Things just got too silly. Now I would have watched 90 minutes of those two just living their lives and interacting, it would have made a good sitcom. On the run from the mob and dirty cops, not so much.

I still would like to have babies with Tina Fey, though.

Just introduced some friends to L.A. Confidential the other night. One friend's response at the end of the movie: "This might have had a better thought out plot than The Departed." Hard to think of a more ringing endorsement than that and while I would never wanna slight The Departed, which I also consider to be an American masterpiece, I would probably have to agree with my friend!