Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Category: Movies

  • S.W.A.T.

    Saw S.W.A.T. on Saturday, and it’s a pretty good movie. Most surprisingly, to me, was that it was directed by Clark Johnson, an old “Homicide” alum (who also has a small part in the movie, along with another ex-Homicider, Reed Diamond).

    (“Homicide” was one of those rare gems of a television show that, when I got into it, I would go out of my way to watch. When it was good, it was the best show on TV, period.)

    I had already recognized Clark Johnson (he plays LL Cool J’s partner early on), but was totally surprised to find out he had directed the movie; I had no idea he’d jumped to the big leagues. That’s cool.

  • Kill Bill

    I just watched the QuickTime trailer for the latest Quentin Tarantino movie, “Kill Bill”. Wow, I don’t even know how to describe it, other than damn.

    Thanks to Scoble for the link.

  • Chicago

    Just saw the movie version of Chicago this evening, and I just have to say: eh.

    I’m sure this will make me popular with those who loved the movie (even my wife loved it, and she normally hates musicals), but I honestly do not see the big deal with this movie, and I certainly don’t see why it garnered so many award nominations… unless it’s just because it has the label “musical” slapped on it. I’m sorry, but it was just a bit too tedious for me.

    Of course, it doesn’t help that I don’t really like René Zellweger, or that Richard Gere pretty much proved he can’t sing his way out of a paper bag. Those aside, it was simply a mediocre plot and thin storyline heavily padded with music and dance numbers.

    (I couldn’t sit through all of Moulin Rouge either.)

  • The Matrix Rebooted

    Yes indeed, saw The Matrix Reloaded Saturday (the 31st), and my short review is: I liked it a lot. Oddly, though, I’ve been seeing some interesting things about this movie: there’s a large portion of people who were big fans of the first movie that hate this movie. My wife seems to be one of them.

    As we left the theater, she said: “Was the first movie that stupid?”

    Upon further clarification, what she means is that there was too much talking and not enough action (although the action that it does have is great). This seems odd to me, because I remember re-watching The Matrix for the first or second time since I originally saw it, and I was struck by how relatively little action there actually was.

    Anyway.

    So I’m not entirely sure why people hated this movie; I have yet to find a good answer, other than of the “there was too much talking” variety which people mean to be slow for them: too much unnecessary filler between action scenes, the rave scene was too long and pointless, etc. etc. If anyone can give me a good, coherent answer to why you might have hated this movie, drop me a line.

    To each his own, I guess. As I said, I liked it quite a lot. The action was great, and the effects were flawless; as I mentioned in my X2 post, there’s pretty much nothing that can’t be done in movie effects anymore. I enjoyed the story, too, and I think most of it makes sense to me… there’s still a few things I’m mulling over.

    I’m thinking I’ll need to see it again before it leaves the theaters; the effects are that good, and it’s definitely a multi-tiered movie that warrants multiple viewings.

  • X2

    I saw X2 (X-Men 2, for the uninitiated) Saturday, and I’ll say right off, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was better than the original, which is a bold thing to say for a sequel, but it’s true. And I quite liked the first movie.

    About the only thing I didn’t like about it was the title; the subtitle to X2 was X-Men United, which didn’t really make any sense and certainly didn’t add anything to the movie; sort of like Star Wars Episode II‘s subtitle. At any rate, they could have just called the movie X2 and left it at that; it has a nicer ring to it, I think.

    Things I liked:

    • The overall plot and script was better than the last movie, too, much more coherent and sensible (well, as sensible as fantasy can be).
    • The special effects are spot on. I think we’re finally at the time where there’s pretty much nothing that can’t be done or depicted on the screen.
    • Consistent use of actors and characters. Nothing bothers me more than when a character in one movie was played by a certain actor, only to then pop up in another movie being played by a different actor. Not a problem here. Minor roles from the first movie are played by the same actors here.
    • Halle Berry does a much better job of portraying Storm this time. Her wig looks real, too.
    • Magneto is dangerous and more ruthless this time around, which is appropriate, but they haven’t elevated him to ridiculous power levels or made him a savage lunatic like they tend to do in the comics.
    • Wolverine kicks SO much ass. The way Wolverine should be done.
    • The School for mutants is actually a school (like in the first movie), not just a mutant paramilitary training ground, as it was almost always portrayed in the comics prior to the first movie.

    Overall, great movie. Go see it.

  • Oscar

    Didn’t catch most of the Oscars last night, nor did I really want to; I have no desire to sit through 3+ hours of drivel just to find out the only awards that really matter.

    (For those keeping track, those are best picture, director, actor/actress, and supporting actor/actress. Best script and musical score are okay, too.)

    Wouldn’t it be nice if the Academy Awards only consisted of these six awards? Then I’d watch them every year.

    And of course, I missed Michael Moore entirely. That seems to be what everybody’s talking about. That and Eminem winning best song.

  • The Man Without Fear

    Went and saw “Daredevil” Friday night. I liked it quite a lot, it’s worth seeing if you’re into the action/comic-book-adaption movie thing. I was especially interested as Daredevil, the comic book, has been the one comic I’ve consistently collected for, oh, the past 15 years or more. I’ll try not to spoil any critical parts of it.

    What I liked:

    • The realistic costume. No more of those 80 pound stiff rubber batsuits!
    • The realistic portrayal of a blind man going about his daily routine— folding various denominations of money in different ways to distinguish them, dark rooms (if you’re blind, why use lights?), all the braille.
    • The way they depicted DD’s “radar sense” was well done. Likewise, the fact that he spent nights in a sensory deprivation tank to give his ultra-senses a break was an excellent touch.
    • Depicting the physical strain and toll it must be to do what Daredevil does, night after night, by the scars all over his back in the shower, and pulling out a tooth (in a scene lifted neatly from “Fight Club”) in the same scene.
    • Colin Farrell as Bullseye.
    • Jon Favreau as Foggy Nelson.
    • A lot of nods/tributes to the original comic, and Marvel comics in general, like: the sports center sign featuring the boxing match of Jack Murdock vs. John Romita; cops named Miller, Mack and Bendis; Kevin Smith playing a bit part as a crime lab worker named Kirby.

    What I didn’t like:

    • A few of the action/acrobat sequences had an unnatural Matrix-quality to them. I really don’t think people can jump that far, or that high…
    • Where was Stick? Or any martial arts instructor? It’s kind of hard to buy that a young Matt Murdock could have taught himself how to fight and do acrobatics so quickly…
    • Hm…. I guess there wasn’t much I didn’t like.

    Go see the movie. It’s worth it.

    And for any comic geeks reading, Frank Miller is the definitive Daredevil writer. For artists, I’m partial to David Mazzucchelli and John Romita, Jr. Following that, it pretty much goes without saying that I think the two definitive runs on Daredevil are Born Again and The Man Without Fear.

  • Orthanc and Barad-dur

    I went and saw The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers today.

    Oh. My. God.

    There were some deviations from the book— more so than in The Fellowship of the Ring— in order to fit the movie format, but it all worked extremely well. I couldn’t have asked for a better movie. Among other things, the Ents are simply astounding.

    Now, of course, I expect The Return of the King to even surpass The Two Towers. I’m counting the days.

  • Boba Maul?

    I finally saw Attack of the Clones last Friday (the 5th), and it was pretty good. Better than The Phantom Menace, at any rate. And I’ve been thinking of the odd, cult-like popularity that has arisen out of two Star Wars characters, Boba Fett and Darth Maul.

    Yep, utterly geeky.

    My best theory as to their popularity is that they are visually interesting, bad-ass characters who were not overused. (Although, with Jango Fett in AOTC, they may be trodding down the overused path with clan Fett.) You know, less is more.

    So, I decided to merge the two characters into one, ultra-cool, ultra-bad-ass creation:

    Darth Fett.

    Here’s the image I whipped up to illustrate.

    Nuff said.

  • Warning:

    Do NOT watch “Bandits.”