Brief reviews of movies you saw recently

[Joey 56465468]

Derailed 8/10
Great move.  They do a great job of making you guess whats going on, and still intrigue you.  The acting was great, Clive Owens did the same kind of roll he did in Sin City (all ways a    for me there) but the only 2 bad actors are the 2 dumbass rappers who are only in this movie as a gimmick.  They also questioned the polices intelligence a bit too much for my liking, but hey, still an awesome movie.

[ChocolateCoffin]

Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children - 8.9/10

A good nostalgic movie for me, animation and graphics were top notch, cream of the crop. The story was alright as far as it went but it wasn't anything that interesting. Some kind of avalanche terrorism action would have been cool. I think I'm gonna go play the game again...

[LeekClock]

Groundhog day 4.5/5
 
<3 Ramis

[Randy Pearson]

Hellraiser: Deader
SPOILERS
A maverick, slightly corrupt cop solves the lament configuration. He finds the hooker he slept with murdered and tries to get to the bottom of the grisly murders that seem to be affecting all the people he gets close too. In the end it turns out he's in hell.

Storyline: A pretty good story, not that bad at all. It was actually quite original as far as sequels go. The problem was that we don't get to see Pinhead until the very end and there is virtually no gore as opposed to the other films which sort of kills the point of any fan seeing it. 3/5

Acting: Not at all bad, infact, quite good, especially the star of the film. 4/5

Effects: Great. Very dreamlike and disorientating at times. 5/5

Direction: Very well done. We are given a provokative and often isturbing film, even with the lack of gore or Pinhead. As i said with the effects, the director is able to pull off a very interesting visual look and feel. 4/5

4/5

[Losperman]

The Ringer - 8/10

Pretty funny all the way through with a good amount of pretty hilarious parts. Johnny Knoxville played his part decently, but could have done better. Everyone else did fairly well, especially Steve's uncle. My only gripe is the ending. It really seems like they took the easy way out, especially after all of the developing they did. A better ending would have given it a 9 or more in my book.

[StrangeClock]

Tank Girl
Surprisingly good. It suffers from some 80s movies elements like a weak plot (though as I understand it, Tank Girl comics were so chaotic it was hard to refine much of a plot from it) and it's kind of hard to justify that the Rippers are such extremely feared killing machines when you see they're just a handful of Teenage Mutant Ninja Kangaroos. And Malcolm McDowell, God love the man and wish he'd get more (and better) parts, has a really godawful big boss part. Finally, it's definitely overly long.
Set against that, Tank Girl and Jet Girl are awesome characters, Lori Petty is incredible, and the costume/set design (apart from the Rippers, but I guess that's to blame on outdated make-up and special effects) is spectacular. Plus despite the cheesy plot the movie is surprisingly bold with regards to language and action. I think if I'd seen in 10 years ago it might've become one of my favorite movies. For that matter, it's too bad they didn't wait a few more years and catch the wave of comic book movies so they'd have had a bigger budget, better technology and probably a tighter plot.

[Jimmy McNulty]

Paradise Now
9/10

It's a movie about two palestinian guys who get chosen to carry out a suicide bombing. It provides a very nice look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's definatly worth watching.

[Losperman]

The Da Vinci Code - 8/10

I haven't read the book, so I can't offer any comparisons, but it was a good movie. Acting and all that was good. My only problem was the pacing. It's kind of backward. It starts out pretty fast paced, rushing to fill in backstories that are probably gone into pretty deeply in the novel. But then the last twenty minutes just kind of drag on, slogging between plot points. Still, a pretty good flick.

[LeekClock]

Broadcast News - 4/5
 
Clever comedy-drama, well written/acted/directed.

[DigitalLemonClock]

9.5/10 - Rushmore
If you've seen any other Wes Anderson films you'll know what to expect, excellent nonetheless.
9/10 - La Cité des enfants perdus
Bizarre and awesome
7.5/10 - Rio Bravo
John Wayne  
9/10 - Magnolia
Really great actors
6/10 - Night at the Golden Eagle
Not a bad film, but the dialogue and characters weren't great, and the grittyness was distracting at times.

[LeekClock]

the king
 
4/5
 
A well told story. Predictable, but told in such a way as to make you think about the issues and themes at hand. I enjoyed it because it allowed my mind to wander.

[AdrenalineClock]

Castle in the Sky - 8/10
Porco Rosso - 9/10

These are the first two Miyazaki films I have seen, and I definitely want to check out more.  Castle was a whimsical, fun fantasy movie with some decent action scenes, especially the ones featuring the robots, and Porco was a great movie in general with an awesome main character.  The pig thing didn't seem out of place at all, and the scene where he tells the story about the war was amazing.  I preferred Porco Rosso, but they were both great examples of how anime can be so much more than badly animated schlock with a real artist at the helm.

[Losperman]

BloodRayne - 3/10

I began watching this movie with an open mind. That mind has now been soiled with filth. Horrid acting, even from some good actors. Throughout the movie I had to keep asking myself "Did these actors know what they were doing? " In many cases it seems like they only did one take and moved on. The movie had potential, but it was all wasted away with shitty dialogue and made-for-TV sets and special effects. The gore was awesome. Not in the "wow that looks realistic" way, but more in the "holy shit that's over the top and cheesy" kind of way. Other than that and a few decent scenes, this movie was terrible.

[Hate Clock]

BloodRayne - 3/10

I began watching this movie with an open mind. That mind has now been soiled with filth. Horrid acting, even from some good actors. Throughout the movie I had to keep asking myself "Did these actors know what they were doing? " In many cases it seems like they only did one take and moved on. The movie had potential, but it was all wasted away with shitty dialogue and made-for-TV sets and special effects. The gore was awesome. Not in the "wow that looks realistic" way, but more in the "holy shit that's over the top and cheesy" kind of way. Other than that and a few decent scenes, this movie was terrible.

Uwe Boll has never made a good movie.

[Losperman]

Uwe Boll has never made a good movie.

So it seems. The fact that BloodRayne is his best movie is really, really sad.

[StrangeClock]

Along Came Polly
I wouldn't call it terrible. But it's just really, really boring and not ever really funny. Producing it was a waste of money, watching it was a waste of time.

Corpse Bride
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful, in a way I don't think CGI can capture. Afterwards I kept thinking how much I'd like to see a Grim Fandango movie done in this way (though, at the same time I feel Grim Fandango was so right in its genre, remaking it as a movie would probably only detract from it), or Curse of Monkey Island. Music and songs didn't feel as memorable as Nightmare Before Christmas, and the story seemed a bit straightforward (no great twists or surprises), but a joy to watch.

[AvocadoClock]

Castle in the Sky - 8/10
Porco Rosso - 9/10

These are the first two Miyazaki films I have seen, and I definitely want to check out more.  Castle was a whimsical, fun fantasy movie with some decent action scenes, especially the ones featuring the robots, and Porco was a great movie in general with an awesome main character.  The pig thing didn't seem out of place at all, and the scene where he tells the story about the war was amazing.  I preferred Porco Rosso, but they were both great examples of how anime can be so much more than badly animated schlock with a real artist at the helm.

Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are golden and definitely worth it. Mononoke is an actionish movie with a nature theme and morals to it, and Spirited Away is like Alice in Wonderland. Atleast an 8+/10 on each.

I had a friend watch Princess Mononoke who didn't even like anime, and he enjoyed it.

[Losperman]

X-Men: The Last Stand - 7.5/10

True, it's not as good as the first two, but I wouldn't say it's bad. My only real gripes are that it was too short, and the generic mutants hogged the space that some of the cooler mutants should have had. Angel, Juggernaut and Colossus were not used to their full potential at all. I mean where was the Juggernaut vs Colossus fight? Oh well. Besides those shortfalls, I guess it ended the trilogy well. I'm sure we'll see another movie, but it won't be an actual "X-Men" movie. Wolverine? Gambit? I dunno, but I'm hoping they keep the quality at least as high as this movie...

[Joey 56465468]

X-Men: The Last Stand - 7.5/10

True, it's not as good as the first two, but I wouldn't say it's bad. My only real gripes are that it was too short, and the generic mutants hogged the space that some of the cooler mutants should have had. Angel, Juggernaut and Colossus were not used to their full potential at all. I mean where was the Juggernaut vs Colossus fight? Oh well. Besides those shortfalls, I guess it ended the trilogy well. I'm sure we'll see another movie, but it won't be an actual "X-Men" movie. Wolverine? Gambit? I dunno, but I'm hoping they keep the quality at least as high as this movie...

Yeah the no Gambit thing was a big let-down.
But is it truly the end I mean the movie kind of ended at a cliff hanger, especially if you wait until after the credits.

[Kombucha]

Corpse Bride was really good.

Agreed.