It's been a while, I know. I kind of overwhelmed myself back in April and then just panicked and quit. How lame of me. I've been feeling like I can get back in the groove though, so I'm tentatively restarting this bad boy in the hopes that, with a few tweaks and improvements, I can not puss out again. I plan on seeing Captain America tomorrow and I will use that review to also look back on the other superhero flicks that came out this summer, specifically Thor, X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern.
In the meantime, here on some super-brief thoughts on most of other shit I've watched since I quit back in April:
The Sword of Doom: An 1960's samurai flick, with a beautiful release via Criterion. If you're into existentialism and/or hardass anti-heros, this one is for you. A little slow at first, but the ending is more than worth it. Much darker than Kurosawa's samurai films.
Punisher: War Zone: I watched this for the novelty of Titus Pullo from Rome (Ray Stevenson) and Jimmy McNulty from The Wire (Dominic West) being in it. Holy shit is it bad. Parts of it are bad in a good way, but more than anything, I'd just call it grossly incompetent. Which is a same because Stevenson takes the role very seriously and would have been a great choice for a serious adaptation of the recent Punisher Max books.
Buried: This movie has a pretty interesting gimmick (the film is set entirely within the coffin in which the main character is trapped), and Ryan Reynolds gives the most visceral, emotional performance I've ever seen from him, but the ending is sort of a "Fuck you" to all the viewers tough enough to endure such a narrowly-focused, emotionally draining ride.
Piranha 3D: I was hoping that this would be bad in a good way, but other than a few chuckles, I thought it was a pretty big waste of 80 minutes. That being said, Adam Scott and Christopher Lloyd were awesome for the 10 minutes that they were in it.
Le Doulos: Another gem from Criterion. A moody, tragic French New Wave gangster flick from the early 60's, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo from Breathless as a classic morally questionable protagonist. Great imagery, great atmosphere, great outfits.
Cyrus: This got a limited release last year. It stars John C. Reilly as a depressed dude who falls for Marisa Tomei and has to contend with her emotionally manipulative, socially stunted son played by Jonah Hill. Although the premise makes it sound like a Judd Apatow movie, it's much more of an indie drama with a few good laughs. Jonah Hill shows some interesting range here, playing the title character as a non-homicidal, 21st century Norman Bates.
Machete: Robert Rodriguez's full length adaptation of the trailer he made for the Grindhouse movie he did with Quentin Tarantino. Although its kind of cool to watch a movie starring Danny Trejo, this movie just felt like watching 80 minutes of less interesting connective tissue while waiting for the 5 minutes of cool stuff you already saw in the trailer. In fact, you should probably just watch the trailer.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: I kind of wish that they'd just sucked it up and released a three and a half hour cut of this and the first part. They would play much better as one film. This just feels like a two and a half hour climax with no time for the character beats of part one. Ultimately, displays all the same strengths and weaknesses of the last three films in the series. Great look, great action and a very cool cast, but no space for the world-building and character connections that make the books so great.
Super 8: Probably the most fun I've had in the theaters this year. If you thought it was cheesy, I see where you're coming from, but I loved every second of it. J.J. Abrams totally nailed the early Speilberg vibe he was going for. The movie is very much E.T. meets Jurassic Park. It also features some of the best child actors I've seen in a long time. Special props to Elle Fanning, who knocked my socks off.
Your Highness: If you'd told me before I saw this that a sword and sorcery spoof starring Danny McBride, James Franco and Natalie Portman was going to be one of the worst movies I'd ever seen, I'd've called you crazy. But you would have actually been totally right. I hope they had fun making this, because it was literally painful to watch.
Source Code: This movie definitely seemed to be riding the coattails of Inception (although it was made before Inception came out), and while it definitely had some problems in the third act, it's definitely an interesting and engaging sci-fi movie, which I'm always happy to support. Jake Gyllenhaal makes a pretty game action hero and the premise is a lot of fun. Definitely worth a look on DVD.
Whew. So yeah. It's good to be back. Like I said, Captain America with retroactive Thor, X-Men and Green Lantern reviews forthcoming.
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