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Dr. Prunk
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Where the buffalo roam.
Posts: 12,137
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X Men: The Last Stand - **
Ok, but nothing special. But what do you expect when Bryan Singer isn't even the one directing this film and instead they get (gasp) Brett Ratner? Ian McKellen is still awesome as Magneto though.
Finding Neverland - ***1/2
Entertaining, old fashioned movie about JM Barrie's inspiration for Peter Pan, Depp gives one of his best performances yet, and Winslet is equally great.
City of Embers - **
Interesting concept for a kids film, it's a post appocalyptic film about an underground city where the people haven't been to the outside world in hundreds of years, until three kids decide to journey there, some good ideas, I thought it had promise, but it gets too caught up in it's convoluted plot and dosen't even try to entertain. Tim Robbins and Bill Murray are wasted here.
Million Dollar Baby - ***1/2
A formulaic story for sure, but Eastwood manages to keep things fresh and compelling, with a lot of help from excellent performances from Swank and Freeman. A fascinating film even for non boxing fans.
Spiderman 2 - ***1/2
I'd have to say, this is the best comic book movie I've seen after The Dark Knight. A great improvement over the first film, more character development, a more interesting villian, better special effects and a more balanced mix of humor and thrills. Excellent.
Superman Returns - ***
A lot of people hate this movie but I liked it. Spacey is excellent as Lex, Brandon Routh is surprisingly effective as the man of steel and holy f*cking sh*t Kate Bosworth is hot. I wish John Williams did the music, though it does a great job of imitating his original score. Film does kinda plod towards the end, but it's a worthwhile ride me thinks. Bryan Singer does a great job of staying loyal to the previous Superman films while improving on their flaws at the same time, even if it adds a few new ones.
The Godfather - ****
What else is there to say? I got my grandmother to watch it, she never seen it before, I think she liked it.
City of God - ****
Excellent film. Fascinating, brutal, stylish. One of the best films this decade by far. Lil Ze has to be one of the most terrifying characters ever.
12 Angry Men - ****
Essential viewing for any avid supporter of the death penalty, remarkable debut for Lumet, it's amazing the amount of character study that could be done in what was esentially just one long scene. It left it's mark on modern filmmaking rest assured, and it hasn't dated a bit I don't think.
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - ****
Love this film, Nicholson gives what is probably his best performance. Louise Fletcher is great as the cold and heartless Nurse Ratchett. The supporting cast (this one launched the career of many a character actor) is also very good, Scatman Crothers is great in a small role. A great mix of humor and tragedy, sad but not mellodramatic, uplifting but not sentimental. Plays everything right. Awesome movie.
Memoirs of a Geisha - **
What a bummer, if sights and sounds were everything this would be a perfect 10. It looks absolutely beautiful, the setting, the costumes, the cinematography and of course the stunningly beautiful Zhang Ziyi. Gong Li's a hottie too. The music by John Williams is gorgeous, and easly the best thing about the movie. If only everything else was just as good. Ziyi does her best with a poorly underwritten character, and Ken Watanabe is good too. But the rest of the cast consists almost entirely of shallow and loathsome characters and the acting is nothing to write home about, Gong Li's character is just heavy handed and a complete biatch. For such a pretty looking film, it's just so damn bleak and depressing, when you get past all the razzle dazzle this is just a standard soap opera, an incoherent one. I keep waiting for something special to happen but it never comes, no, we get two hours of unpleasantness, cruelity, melodrama and no real character development, with a bullsh*t fairy tale ending thrown in at the last minute. This entire movie was a chore to sit through, the story never sucked me and it seemed like I was waiting for it to end as soon as it began, shame, it looked so damn promising. There just wasn't any emotion, warmth or substance of any kind to warrant such an elaborate production. Makes me wonder how much better this would have been under Spielbergs direction.
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