Category: Movies

We saw the movie RV last night, starring Robin Williams, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, and Kristin Chenoweth. It was considerably better than we expected, after seeing the previews and reading some newspaper reviews. It had standard camp-humor involving toilets and animals (not at the same time), but it managed to bring Robin Williams’ funny side to the table without going over the top as he has so many times recently. Jeff Daniels saved this movie from being crappy, though, with his nice-as-all-get-out character. Overall, I give it a 144 out of 169.

We saw Thank You For Smoking on Friday.* We enjoyed it immensely.

Originally, we’d seen the previews and thought, “Hey, that looks like a good movie,” but then it came out and didn’t show up in our local theaters. Hmmmm…must not have been that good.

Lo and behold, it’s here this week and it was awesome. I laughed heartily out loud several times during the film. I would see it again.

* Conveniently it was showing at the “good” theater, which means both cheaper, more comfortable and with better parking. But it’s the other theater which gets the blockbuster movies. Go figure.

I find it dissapointing that so many movie reviewers are poo-poohing this movie. I saw it and I liked it!

Of course, given the nature of the previews, you might expect (understandably) that it’s an action film, which it is not. And, you might expect that because of the Wachowski brothers’ involvement that it would be a ground-breaking cinematographic epoch, which it’s not (but neither were Matrices II and III).

But, it is a good tale, with good acting on the part of the main characters. The obvious parallels references to the War on Terror are a bit overblown, and the Nazi-esque symbolism is way over the top, but if you ignore the backdrop and concentrate on V and Evey (Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman), I think you will be satisfied.

Natalie Portman has a cute head, by the way.

The Worst Movie of the Year (that I saw) was The Family Stone, a steaming pile of crap if I’ve ever stepped in one.

If you saw the previews for this movie, I’m willing to bet you assumed it to be a romantic comedy or a family-dynamic comedy or a holiday comedy. Notice the theme in that last sentence, please.

Do not expect to be entertained by laughter if you see this movie. It is not a comedy.

Well (you ask) if it’s not a comedy, what is it?

Drama? No, too stupid.
Tearjerker? No, too funny.
Chick Flick? No, too awful.

They managed to roll into a 100 minute movie almost every comedic, dramatic, or holiday cliche that exists. They put together a film with no theme, no believable plot, and a set of characters that you had no idea what the hell was going on with. It made me angry, it was so bad. I never leave movies halfway through, but if I hadn’t thought my wife would be pissed, I’d have got up and left that one.

BAD movie! No biscuit. See it at your peril.

We saw Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last Saturday. Quick review: Good. Go see it. Excellent scenery and CGI graphics. It didn’t depart very much from the book, which we appreciated (although there were a few supporting characters that were entirely new). Good flick.

However, this post concerns accents and possible subtext.

The actors were all English, or at least did a credible english accent, with one glaring exception. The Wolf who was the Queen of Narnia’s secret police enforcer had an American accent.

Coincidence? Possibly. Subliminal subtext? You make the call!

Another week, another movie. This time it was Aeon Flux, starring Charlize Theron and other people I’ve never heard of.

What to say… If you want to see Charlize Theron strutting around in a tight body suit, two thumbs up. If you want to see nifty neato futuristic stuff, one thumb plus a digit. If you want story and acting, I’d go for about three-quarter thumb. If you are a nit-picker who loves looking for holes in a movie plot, three thumbs up! If you’re a biologist, dont’ go, it will only piss you off.

But, the tight body suit part of it makes up for a lot of discrepancies