Brief reviews of movies you saw recently

[Losperman]

The Devil's Rejects - 8.5/10

I really liked the way Rob Zombie filmed this. It had an authentic classic feel to it, but with enough modern stuff thrown in to keep it fresh. The soundtrack was awesome, especially the use of "Freebird". Just throwing that song in a movie is all well and good, but to make use of the emotion that it draws to highlight the emotion in a scene? Sweeeet. Some of the acting was a bit stilted, though. Mostly good, but a few lines/accents seemed kind of forced. And I kind of wish some of the "normal" characters were a bit less dramatic (or give us a few more normal people at least). I thought it took away from the main characters by making them look like they were just another group of eccentrics that hardly stand out from the crowd. Overall, I thought it was great, though.

Scary Movie 4 - 6/10

I was a little disappointed by this for some reason. After the second movie in the series sucked pretty horribly, I was happy to find that the third was actually good. Knowing that the same team was coming back for the fourth, I was looking forward to it. Not that it was bad, it was just… predictable. Maybe 3 wasn't as predictable because it had been since the days of Naked Gun, Airplane, etc. that I had seen that sort of comedy. But, while 4 did have its moments, a lot of the time I was just thinking "Well I know what they're gonna say here." The cameos saved them, I think. They were damn hilarious.

[Randy Pearson]

Grindhouse - 8/10
Grindhouse is a very weird film going experience that at first seems like it is palating itself for the idiotic and viewers with no attention span. Tarantino and Rodriguez manage to make a double-bill that does, however, transcends that pre-conception and become a sort of sick, twisted, demented masterpiece. Not without it's flaws, Grindhouse is much less a film and much more a film-going experience, as with Tarantino and Rodriguez's other films. It takes everything that is sinful, taboo, or tasteless and polished that turd until it reveals a pearl (a smelly pearl).

-Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror - 9/10
The first part of the feature is Rodriguez's homage to zombie films that he was apparently thinking of doing ever since The Faculty (1998). This film is gory, over-the-top, and twistedly funny. At no point does it attempt to take itself seriously and instead embraces all of the dagger-studded edges of the good-bad movie formula. The only reason this picture did not get a 10/10 is because of some bad acting. And I don't mean intentional bad acting. I mean bad acting as in the people were actaully tryying to do a good job and then fail miserably.

-Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof - 7/10
Nearly all the momentum and life that Planet Terror and the fake trailers for Machete, Werewolf Women of the SS, Thanksgiving, and Don't! spent building for the first hour and fifteen minutes of the bill is SUCKED COMPLETELY DRY within the first 10 minutes of Tarantino's film. Tarantino, unlike his fellow filmmakers, does not in any significant way attempt to replicate the grindhouse or even exploitation film experience. He is much happier with simple making one of his movies, which wouldn't be such a bad thing had it not been for the fact that the other films were full of all the sex and gore you could ask for, while Tarantino's films rely mostly on talking. Very little actually occurs in the film until the last 15 minutes, which, oddly enough, almost completely justified sitting through an hour and a half of his film. A good film in its own right, but definetly not Tarantino's best (even one of his worst) and simply not something that fit the atmosphere of the rest of the film. And it had some fantastic acting and music, especially from Kurt Russel.

Sorry to ramble.

[Losperman]

The Dirty Dozen - 9/10

Normally I don't like watching older movies because they seem kind of subpar compared to more "modern" movies. If they have something to say, that's fine, but action movies and things like that... what's the point? So when my coworkers here told me I just had to watch this movie (and basically forced to by watching it at work), I wasn't exactly jumping up and down with excitement. But this movie was surpisingly well made for its time, and the few flaws it had are easily forgivable due to when it was made. Great acting (especially by Lee Marvin), a good story (especially the climax), and fairly realistic sets and special effects (for the time). Some of the humor was a little dated, but like I said, it was forgivable. The symbolism was nice, too, even though no one around me believed me about the "last supper" scene. There's 13 of them... they're sitting at a long table facing the same direction with their leader in the center addressing them... a traitor is hinted at... and they're having their last supper before their mission... right. Dumbasses.

[Joey 56465468]

Grindhouse-Go see it in theatres now.

One of the greatest film expereinces you can have.  The previews are hilarious, Planet Terror is over the top gory, and Death Proof takes a much needed spin on the boring horror genre.  I honestly can not imagine seeing this movie without a crowd of people cheering and yelling during the movie.  There are disgusting parts in the movie, but its even better when everyone goes "AUGH!" during that disgusting part.

Get off your lazy ass and see this movie now, it is well worth the $10.

[Slurpee]

-Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof - 7/10
Tarantino, unlike his fellow filmmakers, does not in any significant way attempt to replicate the grindhouse or even exploitation film experience.

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft.
I pfffft at you.

Planet Terror and Death Proof are just opposite sides of the same coin. There's plenty of shlocky exploitation that follows the route Death Proof did, as opposed to Planet Terror. Classics, too. I Spit on Your Grave comes to mind.
I'll be the first to admit Tarantino cheated and made a good movie to cap off what was basically a bombastic and parodical hour and a half, but that doesn't mean he didn't fit the bill.

The thing about exploitation movies is that they're NOT that good. There's moments that make them worth watching, but they're never, in their entirety, nearly as awesome as Planet Terror was.
For the most part, they're riddled with unneccesary, overly long dialogue scenes, because exploitation films didn't have the budget to fill a full motion picture with the good stuff. Tarantino recognized that, and played off of it, making a high quality take on the typical exploitation film's end product. On the flip-side, Rodriguez did things every grind house film-maker probably wanted to do, but could never get the kind of budget to. Planet Terror was completely off the hook. And if you were seriously bothered by the acting, you missed the point. Planet Terror had it's tongue planted firmly in it's cheek from beginning to end. The only thing in Planet Terror I'd label "good" acting, was Bruce Willis' Bin Laden monologue. And it was still so ridiculous I was busting my sides over it. The colored needles, the engagement ring (both of them,) the barbeque: these things were not meant to be real dramatic moments. They're take-offs on the almost ubiquitous pretense of dramatic moments in movies that were part of a genre that had no use for such things.

Grindhouse is a solid 10/10. They nailed it.

[Randy Pearson]

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft.
I pfffft at you.

Planet Terror and Death Proof are just opposite sides of the same coin. There's plenty of shlocky exploitation that follows the route Death Proof did, as opposed to Planet Terror. Classics, too. I Spit on Your Grave comes to mind.
I'll be the first to admit Tarantino cheated and made a good movie to cap off what was basically a bombastic and parodical hour and a half, but that doesn't mean he didn't fit the bill.

The thing about exploitation movies is that they're NOT that good. There's moments that make them worth watching, but they're never, in their entirety, nearly as awesome as Planet Terror was.
For the most part, they're riddled with unneccesary, overly long dialogue scenes, because exploitation films didn't have the budget to fill a full motion picture with the good stuff. Tarantino recognized that, and played off of it, making a high quality take on the typical exploitation film's end product. On the flip-side, Rodriguez did things every grind house film-maker probably wanted to do, but could never get the kind of budget to. Planet Terror was completely off the hook. And if you were seriously bothered by the acting, you missed the point. Planet Terror had it's tongue planted firmly in it's cheek from beginning to end. The only thing in Planet Terror I'd label "good" acting, was Bruce Willis' Bin Laden monologue. And it was still so ridiculous I was busting my sides over it. The colored needles, the engagement ring (both of them,) the barbeque: these things were not meant to be real dramatic moments. They're take-offs on the almost ubiquitous pretense of dramatic moments in movies that were part of a genre that had no use for such things.

Grindhouse is a solid 10/10. They nailed it.

You're entitled to your opinion. And you're right, hundreds of Grindhouse movies contain a substancial ammount of dialogue with the best parts occuring during the third act of the film (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre comes to mind. My beef is not with Tarantino's style of filmmaking. My beef is that after an hour and fifteen minutes of gut-busting laughter and excitement and cheering from the audience, I noticed the entire theatre was reduced to absolute boredom for Quentin's film. A lot of people simple left the theatre, not willing to sit through another half-hour of Tarantino's movie to see what happens in the end. I think Tarantino could have at least given us something to tie us over until the real shit began to fly. The Missing Lap Dance Reel comes to mind (it's not a spoiler since it isn't in the film, there isn't anything to spoil). I felt that Tarantino having a missing reel was totally unnecessary. Rodriguez pulls it off effectively, using it only to propel the story-line along faster. Tarantino, while picking a perfect moment for a missing reel, could have left this scene in, an we would have at least gotten something to look at, even if for just two minutes.

Do I think Death Proof was a bad film? No.
Is it one of Tarantino's best? Absolutely not.
Does it have fantastic dialogue and a twist ending that salvaged almost all the minutes the audience has been completely uninvolved in? Pretty much, yeah.
Is it so dramatically different from things we see previously that it kills the atmosphere and drags the rest of the movie down with it? It did for me.

You also seem to not have understood my review of Planet Terror. I absolutely loved Planet Terror. You said I didn't get the point of the movie. I got the point. I am fully aware that it wasn't supposed to be taken seriously and had bad-acting on purpous. But there were a few times in this film that I found myself watching an actor and sayying "God, he's trying so hard to act bad, he really is sucking out loud, in the really bad kind of way." If I hadn't gotten the point of the movie, wouldn't I have rated down all of the acting in the film, therefore giving it a much lower score?

I think you're entitled to every opinion you have, but, for me, Death Proof was just too much of a let-down until the very end.

[Slurpee]

That's fine.

[CrustClock]

[imdb]The Aristocrats[/imdb]

I thought that this would be an interesting documentary about the history and origins of the joke, but in actuality it's just 90 minutes of talking heads repeating the same joke again and again before laughing hysterically. Although some of the contributers were quite high-profile, the majority of them left me completely blank (although this is probably just because i'm not American).

I'd have thought it pretty hard to string out an entire feature length film about one crude, esoteric joke, and judging by the structureless, meandering nature of the film, it seems like it is. The film runs out of steam in the first 20 minutes, and then the rest of the movie is just a lot of grasping at straws - at one point the comedians even start discussing the motives of such a family and how "men can say ruder things than what ladies canLOL", "once i siad 'aristocATS!!' haha".

Don't dedicate an entire documentary to one joke, especially one that isn't very funny. Overly long, zero insight, 90 minutes of self-indulgent waffle.

1/5

[AdrenalineClock]

Does it have fantastic dialogue and a twist ending that salvaged almost all the minutes the audience has been completely uninvolved in? Pretty much, yeah.

What twist?

Also, if you think saying the lapdance reel was missing isn't a spoiler you're an idiot, you ruined a joke for me.

[Fub]

[imdb]The Aristocrats[/imdb]

I thought that this would be an interesting documentary about the history and origins of the joke, but in actuality it's just 90 minutes of talking heads repeating the same joke again and again before laughing hysterically. Although some of the contributers were quite high-profile, the majority of them left me completely blank (although this is probably just because i'm not American).

I'd have thought it pretty hard to string out an entire feature length film about one crude, esoteric joke, and judging by the structureless, meandering nature of the film, it seems like it is. The film runs out of steam in the first 20 minutes, and then the rest of the movie is just a lot of grasping at straws - at one point the comedians even start discussing the motives of such a family and how "men can say ruder things than what ladies canLOL", "once i siad 'aristocATS!!' haha".

Don't dedicate an entire documentary to one joke, especially one that isn't very funny. Overly long, zero insight, 90 minutes of self-indulgent waffle.

1/5

Are you serious? I thought the Aristocrats was fucking hilarious. Best documentary I've ever seen, because most documentaries suck ass.

[joliet_jane]

Grindhouse Grade A
Yes, it's been said already, but I like it too.  I expected it to be good.

Also I loved all the extra stuff, like the broken film and old movie theater transitions.  The ad for the restaurant was great, because I actually do remember seeing ads for consessions food at the drive-in that looked just like it, all bleached out and ugly but enough to make you hungry.

[ChocolateCoffin]

Lost highway

An enjoyable 2 hours. It was nicely shot and the soundtrack was superb (the main reason I wanted to see this was because of the superb soundtrack).

[Randy Pearson]

What twist?

I don't want to spoil it for anyone else. So I'll just P.M. you assuming you've seen it.

[AdrenalineClock]

Would I complain about you spoiling something and then ask for another if I hadn't seen it?

[Losperman]

Stranger Than Fiction - 9.5/10

I thought this was an excellent movie. I was worried that they'd over-do the voice in Will's head too much, but they didn't. I thought they balanced the comedy and drama pretty perfectly, and the writing/dialogue supported that wonderfully, and the acting was great throughout. I also liked the little things, like the Beatles references. I'm sure I missed stuff as well, which makes me want to see it again. The only real reason I took .5 off is because I can't decide if the ending was great or not. Well it was good, but could it have gone differently? Hmmm...

The Pursuit of Happyness - 6/10

Maybe I wasn't looking deep enough, but this movie seemed really one-sided to me. At one point I was kind of glad to see that they weren't dragging the race issue into it… and then after awhile I was thought that maybe it needed it. Even if not as a main plot point, at least as a slight layer. It was just one depressing situation after another. And the ending was disappointing after all of that drawn out depression. Sure, it was happy, but it was like "Ok, all better." And that was it. Acting, writing (beside being one sided) were good, and it did have its moments. Just not enough.

A Scanner Darkly - 7/10

Up until they showed the scramble suit I was wondering if the rotoscoping would be put to good use, but they were pretty damn cool. Most of the artwork was great, and I did like seeing a "different" perspective for once. Acting, for the most part, was good. The story dragged a bit, but it picked up around the halfway point and the ending was good. Hank's identity was no surprise. And I hated Freck's character. I thought the actor was terrible first off, but even the character himself was totally misused. What point did he serve? He was friends with the core group of characters, but not really, he might be in the plot one minute, then not the next, his death has very little impact on anything… yeah, they should have either left him out or brought him closer to the core group. But overall, it was a pretty good movie.

[PirateClock]

Shooter  8/10
Pretty awesome, reminded me of the Bourne Identity. only with more headshots.

Buzz Fuzz   9/10
One of the best comedy's made, I think it's even better then Shaun of the Dead.

Wild Hogs  6/10
mehh kinda shity.

[MasterClock]

Shaolin Soccer: 7/10
Really boring at parts, but had some funny moments.  The person who subtitled it didn't know Engrish very well.

Undercover Brother: 9.5/10
Gotta love racism.

[Jimmy McNulty]

The Illusionist: 8.5/10

A very original and enjoyable movie. Paul Giamatti's performance is superb. The first ten minutes are a little weak, but once it get's going it's a great film. The ending was hard to follow and didn't quite add up, but all in all a great film.

[Losperman]

Beerfest - 7/10

Better than I expected, actually. There were still some parts that just didn't click, but I think this might be Broken Lizard's best (although I haven't seen the others in awhile). I liked the characters a lot, and the story, however far fetched, was pretty well put-together and paced nicely.

[SnakeClock]

Network - 9/10

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad; it's a depression. Everybody's out at work worried about losing their jobs, a dollar buys a nickel's worth...

So begins Howard Beale's rise and descent as the Mad Prophet of television. In the background of his inspired rage, the UBS network seeks ways to exploit him and give him as much of an audience as they can. Diana Christensen, new president of the Entertainment division, thinks she can save the network by giving a show to left-wing communist terrorists and a stock-market soothsayer. She's a television personality: she begins and ends there, so her life and personality is one of fantastic, garish entertainment unfettered by any actual depth. Even while having sex, she can't shut up about how great UBS is doing.

That's one thing that's interesting about the movie; it's able to parallel powerful emotion with TV's trademark hollowness, which makes for an interesting atmosphere. Howard Beale is a tortured figure, fired after losing his wife and children because of sliding ratings, and cynically decides to do an on-air suicide on his last broadcast to "earn a fifty share, easy." His personal life is never touched on and he doesn't get the medical attention he so obviously needs (as his friend Max Schumacher thinks), he's instead paraded about for ratings. At the end of his opening monologues on the Howard Beale Show, he faints dead away, and everyone applauds.

The character of Max Schumacher is one of the most essential glues keeping Network gripped to reality. Without him, all the characters are "humanoids"; statistics of the Nielsen Ratings. Diana is one as I mentioned earlier, her colleague Frank Hackett is one, and Howard Beale becomes one when the president of CCA tells him about the "primal forces of nature". Max, who still has a soul (or at least pays attention to it), is an essential piece, keeping Network from being a vast wasteland like its subject matter, and therefore being able to satirize it.

Watching UBS's news department change from a guy behind a desk to a big, looming set with an announcer and "feature segments", I was reminded of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show; about how we take entertainment more seriously than information now. More people get their news from Stewart, Colbert and O'Reilly than Couric, Williams and Gibson; this show with a studio audience and a cued opening chant eclipsed proper news on UBS. Television is not an information broadcast.

This all ties in with what I loved about the movie. It was very well-written, which is something I always love to see in my films (Charlie Kauffman always gets me excited), and the acting was all-around rousing and powerful, from Beale's and Arthur Jensen's booming, theatrical spiels to Max's quiet tearing apart of Diane, and I thought it had a lot of good symbolism about the state of television, which remains relevant today.