You know the plot already. …Right? This version of the story involved a lot more mysticism than I recall, but having not read the original, I cannot truly comment on that. However, I can comment that I enjoyed this take on the tale more than several other versions I have seen, and that is thanks to the dedication of the filmmakers and actors…
Monthly Archives: January 2012
Contagion – Movie Review
I kept thinking about how lame ‘Outbreak’ seemed in comparison to ‘Contagion’ as I watched it. Soderbergh hops between blockbuster and indie purposefully, but this still wasn’t the rah-rah of ‘Erin Brockovich,’ nor was it the digestible indie eye behind ‘Traffic’. Instead, we get an interesting compromise – the balloon of several big name actors supporting this title, and the doom and silence-between-the-moments that we normally don’t get on the big screen…
Hesher – Movie Review
Ponderously paced, ‘Hesher; stop just short of being an annoying indie flick to come up with a respectably unique twist on a the “stranger enters our lives AND TOUCHES ALL OF OUR HEARTS MEANINGFULLY” style of film. At moments I felt like I was watching a less scatalogical ‘Visitor Q’, but ‘Hesher’ doesn’t quite have enough guts to leave us totally offended and in the dark. It aims to dip into real humanity and it does so… after a time…
Bad Island – Comic Book Review
Doug TenNapel’s a master of sloppy awesome. As has been the case with many of his me-aged fans, I fell in love with his character design when I played Earthworm Jim for Sega Genesis.
But TenNapel’s not perfect. His stories have tendency to have an idea-of-the-week feel, with a very basic moral structured around a very basic concept that’s brought to life by one push into the world of TenNapel. This means the stories’ conclusions rarely have much impact…
Puncture – Movie Review
Very interesting subject matter, presented cleanly and interestingly, ‘Puncture’ ends up acting more as a conversation starter than a thrilling view. Did you know about this story? I sure didn’t. But apparently plastic syringes (which are all I ever recall seeing) are the primary cause of needlestick injuries to nurses in hospitals. And what are needestick injuries, you may ask, as I would’ve prior to seeing this film…
12 Rounds – Movie Review
Boom Bap! 12 Rounds! John Cena! Boom! Renny Harlin! Zippy Zoom! Piece of shit!
Hokay, it ain’t that bad. Cena seems like a nice guy, and Harlin still copies every popular action movie shooting style effortlessly enough, but ’12 Rounds’ is such light fare that nips unexcitingly from movies you’ve seen before that it’s hard to even muster the channel surfer’s glaze of between-commerical contentment for any given scene…
Surveillance – Movie review
Well, I liked Surveillance.
Here’s the problem when your daddy’s famous for making weird movies and you also end up making weird movies: Inevitably – as the saying goes – you’re gonna’ have to grind that buckshot into silver. I’ve never understood the saying, so instead I would say that.. it sucks. ‘Cause no matter what you do, people can’t help but look at you through a cinema filter honed by watching dad’s films…
Serenity – Movie review
Whedon’s had me confused for a long while. We know he’s a dork. We know he has a huge following thanks to Buffy. So I watched a lot of post-Buffyness with “I’m too cool to let myself enjoy this too-cool stuff” hesitation. But his track record’s been pretty badass, ‘Serenity’ being my first real experience of that.
The background for the movie is sort of typical future sci-fi fare…
The Fall – Book review
The first book of the Strain Trilogy – called, uh, ‘The Strain’ – had fanboys automatically saying fanboy things and telling me that it was an awesome book when I would see them on the train or pass by them on the street. It had a nice built-in audience thanks to director Guillermo del Toro.
Because it’s important, let’s take a moment to talk about my feelings toward del Toro…
10 Dead Men – Movie review
During my movie adventures, I’ve watched a handful of no-budgets. It’s definitely a different genre of film, one that, when I undertook my strict “will watch anything from start to finish” policy, was unexpected. It continually makes me wonder how these films get distribution – not in the sense of whether or not they deserve it, just as a general question. I haven’t made a movie before, but it’s obvious to say that the rental business ain’t what it used to be anymore…
vaguely-offensive 