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from laughing so much. First: ta-dah! What amazes me is that they found a guy with a falsetto that could handle that song. Second, there’s this gem, whose vocals are competent though not nearly as good as the first one, but which made me nearly lose control of my bladder. HA.
was unimpressive at best. The script was terrible, and they went nowhere with clearly the most interesting character in the movie—hint: it wasn’t John Connor. I was expecting more. I’ll give it a low 3 stars.
Both the major film festivals in San Francisco this year were disappointing; SFIAAFF was too small, and SFIFF had a high percentage of bad movies. Plus, and I still don’t know why, SFIFF is still using those #)*(@&! pencil-in ballots (though I made it a point to tell everyone who offered me a ballot that I wouldn’t take one until they had tear ballots). My reviews for the festival follow:
Just got back from watching the new Star Trek movie, and it rocked. 5 stars, baby: beautifully imagined, gorgeously made, and, oh yeah, just plain fun. The best Star Trek ever. Yes, even better than The Wrath of Khan—the rest of the summer blockbusters have some big shoes to fill.
here’s the final set of reviews for SFIAAFF 2009:
This movie was the clear standout of the festival. It was an intense, understated drama with a terrific cast and a smart script. Though it became a bit tedious near the end, the movie on the whole was excellent. Highly recommended.
One of the other lessons we’ve learned through bitter experience is this: never watch a triptych. Anything with three stories sucks. This wasn’t nearly as bad as Love for Share or 3 Needles, nor yet as mediocre as Three Times, though one of the three films featured in this particular triptych, the one in the middle, was flat out terrible. I mean really awful. The first movie, directed by Michel Gondry, was charming and entertaining, and the third, directed by Joon-ho Bong (of The Host fame) was simply the most gorgeously filmed movie at the festival, and the best-filmed movie I had seen in quite some time.
Film festival season has rolled around again, and I’m in the midst of SFIAAFF 2009. Before I dive into the movie reviews, let me share a bit of the wisdom (?) I’ve gleaned over my past 8 years (Really. At least one a year since 2001.) as a film festival attendee.
High 3. Pure entertainment that gave me exactly what I wanted: immersive special effects and Brendan Fraser telling dumb jokes. The effects and backdrops were spectacular, and I was on the edge of my seat pretty much the whole time. Solid, no frills entertainment with no pretensions at much more. Good stuff.
My sister hit the nail on the head: this movie was an excellent execution of a supremely implausible premise, right up until the last 3 minutes and a Disney-fied ending. Believable characters (big fan of the Shia LaBeouf) and non-stop action (lots of stuff blew up!), all ruined by the last few minutes. Sigh. It still gets a 3 for keeping me with it all the way.
Somebody should have told me I was supposed to drop acid before watching this movie. Though the movie was well-executed and they made good use of the rotoscoping (sadly not the case with a lot of filmmakers who use the technology), it was hard to get engaged. Worth watching, but nothing to write home about.
Understated but beautifully executed docudrama about the emergence of California vineyards and wineries onto the global scene in the mid-70s. Great actors, good script, beautiful scenery. What more can you ask for? Well, if we want to be nit-picky, a few less helicopter flyovers of wine country. Highly recommended.
This movie was what I expected: good, solid entertainment with lots of special effects. Fun, but lacking the charm of the first movie, this latest edition in the series had one big drawback. As much as I like Maria Bello, she really was miscast here; she had no chemistry with Brendan Fraser at all, and wasn’t believable in the role. Also, bummer that we don’t get to see His Hotness Russell Wong in non-undead form for longer. :*(
I can’t say I was surprised that this was a bad movie, because I wasn’t expecting much in the first place. That said, I was hoping it’d be a bit more entertaining, at least. In a phrase, I’d describe this movie as almost, but not quite. The story was interesting, but poor direction and an inferior screenplay really dragged down a movie with potential. Bumped to 2 stars for the good job on the lighting, though all of the really cool looking-scenes were reminiscent of better-executed ones from other movies. Like I said: almost, but not quite.
So I got an Apple TV for Christmas, and I just watched my very first rented HD movie on it: V for Vendetta (4 stars).
I have no idea whether the movie was especially faithful to the graphic novel on which it was based, but I found it, if not precisely thought-provoking—if you think about it, considering its timing, in terms of a political statement, it’s a bit clumsy and heavy-handed—intelligent and well-made.
It was not as visually stunning as we’ve come to expect from modern comic book adaptations, but it was made with aggressive competence, and Natalie Portman’s understated but really rather powerful performance carried the film, along with the relentless and interesting story. I am glad I was watching it with remote in hand, because you really couldn’t look away for a second.
The important thing here is that it worked, leaving everything else aside, as a good piece of entertainment. Recommended.
About the Apple TV renting experience—I’m going to cancel my Netflix account pretty soon, since even though ATV doesn’t have the same selection, I have wasted so much money in the last 6 months alone on the same two movies (which I still haven’t watched!) that I could have rented 20 full HD movies from the iTMS—browsing is a bit stilted if you want to go through the entire library and don’t really know what you’re looking for, but renting and watching is supremely simple. iTMS is steadily improving its selection, so it won’t be long before it rivals Netflix, provided you would be able to rent TV shows like you can with the DVD service.
The quality of the HD film was great, and only rarely was I distracted by visible compression artifacts in the image—my TV has one of the best black levels available in modern plasma panels, but scenes where, for example, you see white smoke on a black background showed some artifacting. Overall, I am very pleased with my first Apple TV renting experience.
According to the horse, HBO has given the production order to film a pilot for George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones (the first book in probably my favorite fantasy series ever). I am. Freaking. Out.