Because I waited too long after seeing most of these movies to write a review, I really can't remember many details about them (or I just don't have much to say about them in the first place). Therefore, I'm gonna get them all out of the way all together as... Manic Movie Madness Spectacular Bam Wow!The Title: Daywatch.
The Skinny: Talking about the sequel to Nightwatch (the Russian film, not the Ewan McGregor film). It was quite the mind trip, and I loved what they did with the subtitles. The action was fun and imaginative. But outside that, much like the first, it was confusing and not very memorable.
The Score:
Stop Saying Okay! Okay.
The Title: How To Lose Friends & Alienate People.
The Skinny: My love of Simon Pegg seems to have some limits. He did brilliantly well in this role, but the movie itself just wasn't all that and a bag of chips... or something. It's a movie about a dispisable guy. Well... what do you think reactions are gonna be? I didn't hate it. I just didn't love it.
The Score:
Stop Saying Okay! Okay.
The Title: Funny Games U.S.
The Skinny: I was incredibly torn on this movie. I wanted to like it, but... couldn't. It was just self-indulgant crap. And it has to be one of the most boring thrillers ever. The Strangers was better than this, and I hated that movie, too. Though I did like the random breaking of the fourth wall (oddly, those are the parts most people hate the most).
The Score:
The Zed Word
The Title: In The Mouth Of Madness.
The Skinny: Imagine if Stephen King had the rabid fan base of JK Rowling x2 (he has an enormous fan base, of course, but I wouldn't call them as fanatic as JKR's). And then imagine if John Carpenter made a movie about it and how all of King's books were real. This movie was just plain weird. Not necessarily scary. Just weird.
The Score:
Stop Saying Okay! Okay.
The Title: Death Note & Death Note II: The Last Name.
The Skinny: I put these two together mostly because they're just two parts of the same movie. Based on the incredibly popular and incredibly brilliant Japanese manga and anime, these give us a live action view of the story. An like most adaptations, they don't even come close to living up to the source material. They have their moments, of course, but the source material is just too intricate to fully capture it in a 2.5 hour movie (even split up into two 2.5 hour movies). I am glad that they removed the last part of the story after the 5 year jump or whatever, and just stopped it at the end of the Light vs. L battle of wits. And L was at least done well (he was even played by the same guy who did the voice in the Japanese anime). But the story was too crammed, too much was changed (and not all for the better), and the CGI was God-awful. Hopefully the American remake is better (ha... who am I kidding?).
The Score:
Stop Saying Okay! Okay.
The Title: Sex Drive.
The Skinny: Some really funny parts, particularly with Seth Green, but overall just a convoluted mix of stupid. It tried to do way too much and often didn't make sense. And the director's cut, though funny in idea, is even worse (it throws in randomly naked people just walking about, as well as obvious mixes of alternate takes and bloopers). This was a movie that really could have been whittled down into something a bit more coherant.
The Score:
Stop Saying Okay! Okay.
The Title: Graduation.
The Skinny: This was a great little heist film. I would have liked a little more character development with one or two of the characters, and perhaps a less cheesy ending. But overall, it was a really smart and fun heist movie.
The Score:
I Am McLovin!
The Title: Dancer in the Dark.
The Skinny: Ugh... how did this movie win all those awards again? The opening sequence should have warned me (3 minutes of weird crap). The majority of the first 40 minutes is boring as hell... because that's how long it takes to actually get to the musical aspect of this supposed musical. And when it finally did get to the music, I wanted to claw my eardrums out. The music and the "singing" was just terrible... not that you could understand half of what they were saying. I actually turned the movie off... and I never do that... about halfway through the third musical number (which is a little past the halfway mark of the film). I'll say that I appreciate what the movie was trying to do, and I appreciate the actual lyrics of the songs... but the delivery of everything was just an epic fail. But none of the characters are sympathetic except maybe Peter Stormare. It was just... ugh.
The Score:
She's Gone From Suck to Blow!
The Title: 16 Blocks.
The Skinny: Great thriller... but wtf was Mos Def thinking doing that voice throughout the movie? That was really the only major downfall of the film, I thought. You get used to it after a while, but I can imagine a lot of people would turn off the movie before waiting long enough to actually get used to it. So yeah, if you can get past Mos Def's nasal voice of doom, you'll have yourself a pretty good little thriller.
The Score:
I Am McLovin!
