April, May, & June Prison Pot Purri
2008-06-09
Cypher - Interesting low budget Sci-fi. 8/10
Dorm Daze - Ridiculous college comedy. Raunchy in that 80's sort of way. Actually very interesting in the way it all comes together! 6/10
Dorm Daze 2 - Terrible. Has none of the appeal of the first one. Felt like a bad episode of Breaker High. 3/10
Unearthed (2007): After Dark Film Fest - Alien ripoff. Almost watchable, but not. 5/10
Hard Eight - Great story with great actors. Loved Philip Seymour Hoffman's part. 8/10
Barry Lyndon - Very well done period piece. Unfortunately I found it boring and ultimately meh. 9/10
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Seige Tale - God awful Bollian epic. Slightly better than Bloodrayne 2, but even less watchable. 4/10
The Signal (2008) - Really Good! Great mix of Horror, Sci-Fi, Comedy, and Drama. 8/10
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage - Thrillingly illogical multiple murder mystery; Bad writing that works; Argento's giallo prototype. Amazing score. Great visuals. 8/10
Diary of the Dead - This movie is the definition of mediocre. Message to George A. Romero: STOP MAKING ZOMBIE MOVIES. 5/10
Teeth - I was expecting bad... but this movie is actually really good! The movie will likely appeal to women more than it will to men. But it is cringe inducing horror for everyone. The movie is very funny at parts, but overall it is less of a dark comedy than it is a fantasy horror drama. I'd say that if the premise interests you at all, this movie will hold something for you. There's nothing quite like it. It's an excellent modern fairy tale. Highly recommended. 9/10
Monster Camp - Documentary about larpers. Holy Crap/Nerds!
Surfwise – Documentary about surfing family. Surfs UP/ Nutty Patriarch!
The Fourth Protocol - Cold War Nuclear Spy VS Spy. Entertaining. 6/10
10,000 B.C. - Wow. This was really shitty. 6/10
The Man Who Would Be King - Awesome! Great buddy comedy adventure period peice and a morality tale. Sean Connery & Michael Caine Know when to say when! 8/10
National Treasure: Book of Secrets - It's a strange mix of the ocean's 11 type caper movie and an Indiana Jones type adventure. It doesn't really completely succeed on any of those levels, but manages to keep your attention throughout it's duration. Basically, it's fantastical
Ironman - Amazing Casting makes this movie. Only downsides for me are the lack of plausible character motivation for the villain, and the lack of a memorable musical theme for the hero. Fantastic by all other metrics. 9/10
Harold & Kumar: Escape from
Over Her Dead Body - Lame Comedy Fantasy. Paul Rudd is the everyman.
Inside - French gross out horror. Amazing gore. Soundtrack was kinda annoying. Disturbing and captivating, but lacking in quite a few areas. Can't wait for the
Funny Games
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Soooo funny. Can't recommend it enough. Breakin up is hard to do! This is a romantic comedy I can get behind. 9/10
The Cottage - Very unexpected and unconventional slasher comedy. Better than Hatchet. Goes places you won't expect. 8/10
War Inc. - Similar tone to Southland Tales: Satire that succeeds mostly as a screenwriting train-wreck... but also somewhat manages to develop multiple characters, and in doing so actually entertains. 8/10
Out of the Blue - I can see how this movie must have influenced Harmony Korine's Gummo. Very strong "performances" all around. Realistic dialogue that I suspect arose out of actual drunken ad-libbing. Similiar in this respect to Easy Rider. Unlike Easy Rider though, this movie is also a fantastic drama dealing with very harsh subject matter. 6/10
Flakes - Zooey Deschanel in a quirky romantic comedy. Lame. Skip this movie, but don't skip breakfast. 5/10
Anamorph - Interesting combination of Se7en and Saw, with a hint of Argento cinematography and plot, and the pluses and minuses that come from being derivatives of the previously mentioned elements. Willem Dafoe. 8/10
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - I did not understand the motivations for any of the characters. The action and effects were decent, but overused. The tone of the movie was a hideous mismatch with it's subject matter. A cute mouse that makes lame jokes as it slits throats that don't bleed? Come on. I haven't seen the first one. But on it's own, this movie was a lame Clusterfuck of crap. 6/10
Raiders of the Lost
Indiana Jones & The
Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade - Requires even more suspension of disbelief than the previous entries. The opening sequence is the weakest of the trilogy, but it fills out the history for our hero a lot more. The action sequences weren't as enthralling as the other films, but were sufficient to drive the plot. The way the mystery unravels is perhaps the best out of all the movies. The existence of the 800 year old Knight was a bit of a unneeded stretch, but given the events of the previous movies, and what shortly follows the introduction of that unnecessary character, is not out of line with the audience's level of belief suspension. 8/10
Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Weakest opening scene of all 4 in the series. Weakest supporting characters. Weakest Villains. Weakest unraveling of the mystery. Weakest sense of urgency to the plot. Weakest pacing of supernatural elements. And some very weak action set pieces. And it's requirement for suspension of disbelief is off the charts. All those weaknesses being mentioned, this is a very watchable movie. It feels very much like a star wars prequel. The nuclear test sequence really set the tone for the movie, as it is very clear Indiana Jones is now living in a very different world than when we last saw him. The plot with aliens and Russians flows very nicely from this, unfortunately it the movie is far too poorly written to successfully accomplish what it sets out to. Fan edit: Lose the Rubber Snake & Monkey Buddies. 6/10
The Strangers - The entire movie is a flashback if you consider the opening sequence with the 911 call. The beginning of the story, reminded me of another utterly mediocre movie, Vacancy. Specifically the first bit in the car and leading up to the house, where they're basically silent and you start to learn things about the characters. The next 45 minutes, where the back-story is told through multiple flashbacks, was somewhat original, but at the same time was silly and annoying. The only reason it's not told linearly is because for all that crap to happen before anything remotely suspenseful or scary, half the theatre would have walked out. It spaces it's creepy moments and jump scares pretty well. it's ending sorta reminded me of another mediocre movie, wolf creek (which conversely didn't resort to lame flashback story telling, and as a result suffered in it's first 45 minutes). I also think the opening narration is out of place... like they were trying to go for a Texas Chainsaw Massacre feeling but it was entirely superfluous, and could have been cut out. the only TCM Comparison that is needed is the nihilistic message the movie carries. Who gives a shit if this was incredibly loosely inspired by actual events? 6/10
Speed Racer - Great Kids movie. Awesome characters; heroes and villains and everyone in between. Amazing colors and incredibly spastic seizure inducing special effects. If any movie screamed loudest for a technological improvement in cinematic frame rate, this would be it... The action is far too fast for 24 frames per second. It needs at least double that for it to be smooth and seamless, and non-visually offensive. The swearing in the movie should have been cut. Matthew Fox's voice as Racer X was hysterically raspy and awesome. Recommended! 8/10
My Mom's New Boyfriend - Wow. What the hell did Meg Ryan do to her lips? This is not a good movie. It's a terribly predictable cliche. A cross between Meet the Fockers and... I dunno some shitty caper movie. Forget I even mentioned this movie. 5/10
Rescue Dawn - Fantastic movie about being a disavowed POW. Christian Bale is fantastic. Steve Zahn amazing. Charles Manson, also good. 8/10
What Happens in Vegas - Predictable and formulaic Hollywood garbage. 6/10
Be Kind Rewind - It's a ham fisted attempt at commentary on intellectual property and copyright law, and how it can restrict and crush genuine creativity. But, overall it's a decent heart warming tale with exaggerated villains and heroes existing in a mundane hyper reality. Every character in this movie seems to possess some degree of mental retardation, giving this film a quirky charm. 8/10
Futurama: Beast With a Billion Backs - Excellent comedy. Not as complex a plot as the Bender's Big Score, but far better pacing of jokes and development of the plot. Bender's big score felt like a few episodes strung together, but Beast With a Billion Backs successfully pulls off the "feature length episode" feel perfectly. 10/10
The Other Bolyn Girl - Uncompelling period piece about amoral ambition betrayal and their just deserts, starring A list
Botched - The less I say about this movie the more it will entertain. I hesitate even to mention the genre. Just see it. Know that one element is comedy, another is crime, and there is definitely an element of horror. Just see this movie, and be surprised. Stephen Dorff! Highly recommended. 8/10
posted by pureevilmatt @ 18:46,
