It’s interesting to watch older movies just to see what things used to be like back in the day.  Of course when I say ‘older movie’ I’m talking about 2003.  I recently re-watched Matchstick Men staring Nicolas Cage and directed by Ridley Scott.

I have seen this movie once before, back when it was in theaters, so I knew about the twist that it contains.  (And if you keep reading, you’ll know it too!)

It was much harder to watch knowing that it was all a setup.  Everything was so painfully obvious, but if you weren’t looking for it like poor old Nicolas Cage then you will feel really duped. (Not quite as duped as his character though!)

This really is the roll that he can play well.  A neurotic weirdo with no self esteem and multiple crippling social disorders.

It is a good movie and Cage plays his part soo well!  I’m somewhat shocked that he was looked over completly for any awards for the part.

The movie is great.  It is hard to watch twice.  Unless you are completly devoid of emotions and empathy and really like to watch people get suckered and stomped on.  Then you can laugh at Roy all you want as his heart is torn out in slow motion.

The latest movie ever made was ‘Inglorious Basterds’ staring Brad Pitt, Christopher Waltz, and a whole bunch of other weirdos nobody has ever heard of.  There are two intertwined plot lines at play.  A girl who owns a movie theater, and a team of ruthless bastards on a mission to kill as many Nazis as possible.

This movie is really neat, but it is  a Quintin Tarantino flick, so you know that it is goofy, gorey, and just plain screwed up.  There are some parts of the film that he must have done soley for the purpose of reminding you who directed it.  I can honestly say that I think this is his best movie so far.

Beware the Jew Hunter

This is one of those movies that needs to be seen in the theaters.  There are so many powerful moments that will be lost on your tiny tv or computer screen.

This movie has and endless supply of quotable one liners.  As fun as it is to run around ratteling them off now, I’m sure that it will be very annoying when everybody and their dog starts in.  I suppose though, that’s why he makes his movies, so people can do exactly that!

The movie was very well cast.  Everyone played their parts well, especially Christopher Waltz, “The Jew Hunter.”  His performance was utterly fantastic.  He won some award, “Biggest Baddass at Cannes Film Festival” or something like that.  The award was actually best actor at Cannes.  Hopefully he won’t get skipped over when the Academy Awards nominations get passed around.

Honestly this is a hard movie to tackle here.  Not just because it is a Nazi movie, but it is a Nazi Tarantino film.  That is a seriousy double whammy to end all double whammies.  Just get out there and see this movie.

Ever see a movie so bad that you wish you could travel through time and stop yourself from watching it?  I know I certainly have!  The good news is that the latest movie I watched, “The Time Traveler’s Wife”  wasn’t one of those movies.  Don’t take that as a recommendation though, because it was still an unsatisfying piece of cinema.  The guy gets shot.  That may or may not be a spoiler, I don’t know.  It happens pretty early on.  But he is a time traveler, so it is actually in the future after the movie is open.

I’ve never written a movie about traveling through time to kiss your wife or watch your dead mother sing in her opera performance, but I did watch one last week.  Not all time traveling movies are created equal.  There are so many little details and chronological cares that have to be done just right.

This movie does an okay job at that, there are still some questions, but none are incredibly jarring and offsetting.

Aside from some guy getting sucked through time every time he sneezes, the main character also has to deal with trying to keep his wife happy.

It’s not quite like he can use his traveling powers to great benefit here either.  He can’t choose when to go back in time to get out of arguments, he can’t zip back 15 minutes and put the seat down or run the vacuume.

What he can do however, is go back 30 years to when his wife was just 6 and start hitting on her before she knew what was going on.  That kind of creepyness just weirded me out.  And I know some creepy people.

There were a couple of loose ends in the movie, and the ending was very predictable and anticlimactic.  If you only see one time traveling, paradox creating, love empathy stiring movie this year, see “Star Trek“  If you decide you still have an hour and a half to kill and don’t mind paying $8 to have a weird flavor in your mouth, then see “The Time Traveler’s Wife.”

A smurf movie?  Seriously now?

Apparently so, the director Raja Gosnell has signed on to direct “Smurfs,” a live action/animated movie starring the blue little buggers from Belgian cartoonist Peyo.  Can we let the eighties die already?

Speaking of aging animated characters, Spongebob SquarePants has been around for 10 years now.  I don’t have much to say other than, wow that’s a long time for a cartoon.

I think that after a couple seasons my cartoon will have to end.  I don’t want the quality to go down here and lose my fan base.  It’s not like I’m making Scrubs or the Simpsons or something here.

The other day I watched the new movie ‘UP’ from Disney-Pixar.

I’m not entirely sure what to think about it. Yes, it was a great movie. Yes it causes an emotional response from everyone who watches it and happens to be human. Still, I feel weird about it. It could have been because the kid was an annoying chuckle-head, the bird was an annoying siren, and the dog was an annoying dope.

The main premise of the story was absolutely great.

(And here come the spoilers!  Go watch the movie, then come read the rest.)

Read the rest of this entry »

After hearing about how great the Star Trek movie is from both geeks and ‘normies’ alike, I decided to check it out.

My history with Star Trek is quite limited. I have only seen a couple of episodes and one of the previous bad movies. Honestly there was not much that I found appealing about it. So I wasn’t to worked up to see the show. I was more than pleasantly surprised to by the time the opening credits appeared.

The opening scene was perhaps the best scene I have watched in a movie in a LONG time. It had huge explosions, ruthless attacks, emotionally gripping moments, great effects, and selfless acts of heroism. All of this happened before the opening credits.

Now I am a man. I am I manly man who does manly things like lift heavy rocks and does pushups. Even considering how manly I most certainly am, Star Trek made me want to cry. Just in the opening scene it made me gooshy.

The story was put together quite well. I’m sure that this will bring in a new band of followers. Some of them might actually become full blown Trekkies, complete with the funny starfleet uniforms.

Star Trek looked great, that is for sure. However ILM did the effects. George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic did a bunch of work on it’s longtime rival franchise’s new hit movie. That’s got to make some nerds mad and have Roddenberry rolling in his grave.

I am amused by Star Wars people making a great Star Trek movie. Especially considering the last three Star Wars movies.

No Klingon? How good could this movie actually be?

This is one you should check out. I really liked this movie. Star Trek exceeded my expectations by FAR!

The latest Wolverine movie just came out.  This time they didn’t beat around the bush. After making three movies about him,the finally put his name in the title.

As the name implies, X-Men Origins Wolverine is all about his early days as a lovable young mutant with slight rage issues, wicked chops, and a strange set of values and morals.

XMen Origins: Wolverine SNICK SNICK!

Wolverine IV wasn’t as good as Wolverine I. Which makes it not nearly as good as Wolverine II. I’m not quite sure how it compares to ‘Wolverine III: The Last Stand.’ I suppose it must have been better, considering that my eyes didn’t bleed in this one and aneurysms were kept to a minimum.

Admittedly my knowledge of comic books is quite limited. And if I tell you anything about anything, it’s clearly because I saw it in a movie. I am a total poser in this realm. Although I suppose posers pretend to care. I couldn’t care less about comic books. My knowledge on the subject can be easily surpassed by glancing over a page or two of Wikipedia.

That said, Wolverine is the next James Bond.

People care about the little guy. He doesn’t know who he is and he’s really mad about it. In Wolverine IV, you get to find out all about his past. To bad he won’t remember any of it.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Wolverine as a musical. These guys did a great job with this bit.

Go see the movie. It’s not the greatest Xmen movie, but it’s not a bad one.