Choke
Directed: Clark Gregg
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly MacDonald, Brian William Henke
Trailer
Synopsis: Based on a Chuck Palahniuk novel, a sex-addict who works at a Colonial theme park fakes choking in restaurants so people can save him.
I love the book. It is twisted and very wrong. It is also shocking the first time you read it. I reread the book just before the movie came out and it wasn’t as shocking, but was still twisted and funny. While the movie seems to follow the book very closely, it doesn’t seem to capture the spirit of it. It is the same feeling I had after watching the first two Harry Potter movies. They stuck to the story very well, but they just weren’t as much fun as the books. Yes, I did just compare this movie to Harry Potter. The Harry Potter movies later on (starting with the third) captured the spirit and were as much fun as reading the books, but they were also worth seeing without having to say the books were better. They were both different experiences of the same story. Here, there isn’t much experience with just the movie. Everything I love about it can be found in the book. I am curious if anyone that hadn’t read the book would find it funnier than I did. I laughed out loud while reading the book, but only chuckled a couple times during the movie. It could have been that I knew what was coming, but I’m not so sure.
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Tags: Anjelica Huston, Brian William Henke, Choke, chuck palahniuk, clark gregg, Kelly MacDonald, Sam Rockwell
Burn After Reading
Directed: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Starring: George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, Tilda Winton
Synopsis: Dumb gym employees find an ex-CIA’s memoirs and try to blackmail him.
I would have not known this was a Coen brother movie, if I didn’t know it going in. They usually have a way with words and weird phrases that I love. They even had weird phrases in No Country For Old Men, but I didn’t find any of it in this movie. It mostly had the same actors from other Coen brother movies and it was on the odd side, but it wasn’t one of their better movies.
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Tags: brad pitt, Burn After Reading, Frances McDormand, george clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Winton
Sex and the City: The Movie
Directed: Michael Patrick King
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Jennifer Hudson
Trailer
Synopsis: Four years after the series ended, the movie picks up four years later with Carrie engaged to Big, Samantha still in love with Smith, Charlotte finally pregnant and Miranda still living in Brooklyn with Steve.
The series had ups and downs, but I did always buy the direction the various characters went in, even if they were stupid mistakes. It fit their characters and usually ended up well, especially by the end of the series. The movie is soley for fans because they would be the only ones that would put up with the one long downer of a middle of the movie. It was pretty much a retread of what had happened in the series many times before. I would still get sad when the girls were sad and happy when they were happy, but I wasn’t thrilled by the contrived plot. The main plot I’m discussing would be Carrie’s storyline. The rest of it actually felt more true to life and closer to what happened in the series.
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Tags: Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Hudson, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker, sex and the city
Death Race
Directed: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane
Trailer
Synopsis: In order to go even more extreme with reality television, there is a racing competition inside a jail with the prisoners.
While the movie was over the top, predictable, and filled with bad acting, it was still a fun time. A lot of what saved the movie was Jason Statham. He can actually act and looks sexy whether he’s dirty or clean or even wearing clothes. I preferred the scenes where he was wearing fewer clothing.
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Dark Knight
Directed: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine
Synopsis: Heath Ledger is super creepy as the Joker and Maggie Gyllenhaal has thankfully taken the role abandoned by Katie Holmes.
Lately, when I have been watching movies, I snooze a bit during some part of it. Usually only for a few seconds, but it still happens every time. Even though this movie was over 2 1/2 hours long, I didn’t doze off once. I was even amazed that I never felt tired the entire movie. I could feel it was a long one, but I didn’t want it to end. I was willing to have the movie go on forever.
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Tags: aaron eckhart, christian bale, christopher nolan, dark knight, heath ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, michael caine
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Directed: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss
Synopsis: There are no Nazis to fight this time, but an ancient Elvin race from the underworld coming up to cause problems for Hellboy and his friends.
I never imagined that Hellboy and Barry Manilow would share scenes together, but they do go together quite nicely. When the scene happens where Barry Manilow’s music makes an appearance, I realized how much fun Guillermo Del Toro must have had writing and making the film. This entire movie seems more fun compared to the first one. I was not a fan of the first one, even though it was made by the same people. I’m not sure where it went wrong, but it seemed like it was trying to hard and just didn’t work. This time around, the monsters are fantastic, the comedy works and everyone seems to be having a ball. That fun time was infectious and just made watching the movie a good time. I was even not annoyed by Selma Blair who always annoyed me. It was that entertaining!
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Tags: Doug Jones, golden army, guillermo del toro, hellboy 2, Luke Goss, ron perlman, Selma Blair
Hancock
Directed: Peter Berg
Starring: Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron, Eddie Marsan
Synopsis: A lone superhero who has a drinking problem and causes more damage when he tries to do good.
Will Smith comes barreling into the movie as drunk superhero Hancock that people seem to think is more of a nuisance than a hero. He causes so much damage to the city when he comes in for a crash landing and ripping up the pavement or impaling a car of bad guys on top of a needle nose building, that everyone has to pay for his recklessness. It is an interesting premise for the superhero genre that hadn’t been explored before, but I felt it was wasted.
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Tags: Charlize Theron, Eddie Marsan, hancock, jason bateman, peter berg, will smith
WALL-E
Directed: Andrew Stanton
Starring: Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, Ben Burtt, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger
Trailer
Synopsis: In the future, humans leave Earth and there is one robot that is left to clean up all the garbage left behind. He develops a personality and becomes lonely.
I love Pixar. I fell out of love with Disney movies a while ago. Even though I love the old school ones, the newer ones have too many sappy songs and the storylines are pretty much the same. Pixar makes heartwarming, cute movies and they just happened to be owned by the Disney company.
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Tags: andrew stanton, Ben Burtt, Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Sigourney Weaver, wall-e
Get Smart
Directed: Peter Segal
Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp
Trailer
Synopsis: Movie adaptation from the old television show where Maxwell Smart becomes a field agent, but is more of a bumbling fool.
I never saw the series, but I felt like I knew enough about it going in that I would not be lost. It was true, I was able to follow along like there was no series before it. There were some little things thrown in there from it that were found in the “museum” of Control memorabilia, like the shoe phone. I liked the shoe phone since it was so ridiculous.
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Tags: alan arkin, Anne Hathaway, dwayne johnson, get smart, peter segal, steve carell, Terence Stamp
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Directed: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ray Winstone, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen
The third sequel in the series almost twenty years after the last one where they smartly have Indiana Jones age about twenty years in the process too.
I was a tad spoiled rewatching the old Indiana Jones movies the weekend before watching this movie, but it reminded me how fun the movies were, even when they were being silly. This movie is beyond silly. I believe it started with the monkeys in the jungle, got a little bit goofier with the huge killer ants, and completely lost it with the alien angle. I think the alien angle would have been fine, if it had been suggested, but not verified. I was very ready for the movie to end when it got to that point.
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Tags: cate blanchett, harrison ford, indiana jones, Karen Allen, kingdom of the crystal skull, ray winstone, Shia LaBeouf, steven spielberg
