two sentence movie reviews:
movies i've caught of late, summed up short and sweet:
the savages - depressing, in an uninspired way. well acted, but i'm just tired of movies like this. C+.
semi-pro - same formula as all other recent ferrell vehicles (magnetic/clueless star at the top of his game, everything spirals downhill, miraculous recovery). ferrell is the shit but he needs a straight man to be at his best (a la old school). C.
the zodiac - high quality. jarhead was surprising, but this is likely gyllenhaal's best role. A-.
the kite runner - never read the book, but i enjoyed the flick. the notorious scene was pretty rough, and the crisis of conscience/courage that followed was engaging. B.
the happening - very dissappointing. i like night's stuff, really liked lady in the water [you're wrong hillary, it was a novel and interesting flick], but the acting by both leads in this one was surprisingly poor and the story didn't go anywhere. D*.
* upon further reflection i ammend this to a C-. i was dissappointed, but D is too harsh.
posted by Huevos McGringo at
2:43 PM
6 Comments:
If by "novel and interesting," you mean "fairly stupidly plotted and weird in some bad ways (as well as good ones)." I still want to see The Happening, though. In fact, every time I hear how terrible it is, I kind of want to see it a little more.
Also, sir, have you seen Bubble Boy?
an elaborate fable that takes place in a dinky apartment complex is a "novel and interesting" idea (even if you don't think it's a good one). like pan's labyrinth without the pomp/sophistication.
though i concede i in part may have been impressed because my expectations were so low.
"Pan's Labyrinth" was horrible, by the way.
Saying the movie is novel and interesting is different from saying the idea is novel and interesting. I don't have any problem with the idea. I just think, for example, the banding together of folks with different abilities was done really clunkily.
I'd actually put The Savages in my top 5 of last year. Even though it deals with inherently depressing subject matter and has a wicked sense of humor about it, I would argue that the overall impact of the movie is genuinely uplifting, particularly the ending.
I would give The savages a B- at best, so I might have liked it a little more than you. But not much. It kind of illuminates the lameness of the lives of half-ass intellectuals more than anything else. Yeah, those dudes were lame as fuck. I mean, a FEMA grant? Get a fucking job. PSH's character turned out to be the more likable of the bro/sis combo, which was a surprise, because I first sided with the sis. I think that's what earned the b- rating.
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