Oh Dangle...

Reno 911!: Miami[Unrated](dir. Ben Garant)
I'm not a huge fan of the show. There are some bits that are funny, but the whole mockumentary angle has been overused and not that funny or original anymore. The one thing that the TV series has an edge on this movie is that there are few moments of politically incorrect humor dealing with race, religion, or whatever. This film was amusing. It's hard to defend it because a lot of the jokes fall flat, but the ending put a smile on my face. That's probably because Terry is the funniest part of the show and seeing Paul Reubens as his dad was extremely amusing. The masturbation scene is ridiculous to the max and the star cameos were quite amusing like seeing The Rock blow himself up with his own nade and Paul Rudd doing a horrible Tony Montana impression. The first 60 minutes or so would have made a sub-par episode, but the last 20 minutes or so would have made an amazing episode.
**1/2 out of ****
25th Hour(dir. Spike Lee)
Before the club, the movie was really good. After, it turned into this pity party. I understand that the character's reactions to Monty's situation is supposed to be fueled by 9/11, but it felt alittle over dramatic. Sure, the guy is going away for 7 years, but there's something puzzling about a father willing to drive his son out west and never see him again in order for him to be free for those 7 years. It is almost touching because of the sacrifice and love the father displays, but it would make more sense if the son had a much longer sentence. When the film takes place in the club, it starts to drag and decline in quality. There is something that goes missing from the film. Probably the sense of doom and gloom that is found in the pessimistic conversation between Frank and Jake in Frank's apartment. The film seems to place a lot of focus on who ratted out Monty. It almost tries to play it off as the thing that propelled the story, but it doesn't get a lot of focus until the person is pointed out. I could probably stomach the over dramatic quality the film has if it was shot in a similar way to Do the Right Thing with overly bright colors. I understand the film is shot in a grim way because it is supposed to be a reaction to 9/11, but I can't help that the film's presentation is trying to make the film seem more low-key than it really is.
*** out of ****

Oh Edie...

Trust(dir. Hal Hartley)
Edie Falco was looking good in this. The version I saw had 8 minutes missing according to IMDb, but I don't think those 8 minutes would strongly change my opinion of this movie. It's a film wrapped in artificiality with moments of "truth." These moments are much more effective because of this. The plot is melodramatic and seems almost too crazy, but the core romance is, well, romantic and quite beautiful. It's a film that doesn't depend on stereotypical ideals of romantic love unlike chick flicks to create a feeling of romance and it feels more honest and fresh because of it. It's easy to see how some people might be turned off by this film because the delivery of the lines is unusual and the conversations sound more like interrogations than conversations. The story is melodramatic, but the film's look and performances openly admit the artificiality of it unlike some other movies with melodramatic plots (Babel? Crash?). If you are able to accept these stylistic traits, you'll be easily rewarded. I loved it.
**** out of ****

Oh Richard Dreyfuss...

Jaws(dir. Steven Spielberg)
This movie was amazingly bland. The characters were bland. The cinematography was fairly bland. Even the shark attacks were bland except for Quinn's. The acting was laughable at some points. The most amusing part was the guy in the boat saying, "Hey fellas" and then quickly getting eaten. I know this film is historically significant in terms of cinematic history, but does that automatically make it a great movie or even a good one? I don't think so and most point out that it created this whole blockbuster mentality that still plagues cinema to this day. Is that a good thing? It is unfair to blaim Jaws or even Star Wars for that, I would probably say blame the directors that became so full of theirselves and decided to make these huge budget movies that nobody wanted to see and nobody really enjoyed. I don't know. I guess I should see Popeye and Heaven's Gate before blaming them entirely.
** out of ****

Oh Su...

Bottle Rocket(dir. Wes Anderson)[rewatch]
*** out of ****
Bottle Rocket(dir. Wes Anderson)[2nd rewatch]
*** out of ****
Bottle Rocket(dir. Wes Anderson)[3rd rewatch]
I feel the portion at the hotel and the romance between Inez and Anthony is the best part of the movie, but when you come to accept Dignan as he is, the 2nd half doesn't feel as disappointing. The 2nd half never felt horrible by any means, but you start to miss the whimsical nature of the portion set at the hotel. Much like Taxi Driver, this film relies on your acceptance of the character for ultimate enjoyment. Maybe Rushmore is the same and maybe I should rewatch that film again down the line.
***1/2 out of ****
Munich(dir. Steven Spielberg)
Spielberg's most mature "mature" film? Probably. It doesn't try to entertain or offer a fairly sentimental view on a historical event, which makes it one of his best works. The running time seems quite excessive especially during the middle portion of it and it seems to hammer the message that killing doesn't solve anything. Holds up suprisingly well as a rewatch.
*** out of ****
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow(dev. Konami)
The film is addictive at first but quickly becomes tiresome. The whole soul collection aspect of the game seems like it would be addicting and a lot of fun, but you'll quickly realize that most of the souls are useless and you should stick to a handful of souls. The level design is surprisingly bland for a Castlevania game. Playing Julius mode quickly reminded me of how much better the pre-SOTN Castlevania games were mainly due to the relatively the fast-paced nature and focus on action. Now the series's focus is on collection of items and exploring. The boss fights are the best part of this game mainly due to the old-school nature of the battles, which force you to remember patterns and exploit weaknesses.
*** out of ****
Elite Beat Agents(dev. Inis?)
I haven't completed the game so my opinion might change, but right now, this game is charming and hilarious. The cut-scenes are ridiculous and the premise is genius and alittle insane. The humor might wear off on me and the game might not seem as enticing as it did, but this game is easily one of the best rhythm-based games I've played due to it's challenging and brief nature of it's songs. The one thing that struck me as particularly frustrating with a game like Guitar Hero is that you could easily mess up halfway through a relatively long song. This game never becomes frustrating because the songs last for only a couple of minutes and the cut-scenes add an incentive to keep going and complete the songs. Best DS game I've played so far.
**** out of ****
There Will Be Blood Teaser Trailer
Don't usually review trailers, but this one is easily one of the best I've seen just because it offers a sense of possibility that most trailers and teaser trailers wish they were able to offer. You get a real sense that this film could do anything and could possibly be the greatest film on the face of the planet. It's unusual nature with it's soundtrack and Daniel Day Lewis's(sic?) menacing voice over adds a sense of dread and evil to the picture. The images shown are both beautiful and haunting. Some have said the film gives off a Terrence Malick vibe, which is easy to see due to the voice over narration and beautiful cinematography, but Malick never provides the sense of horror and ugliness that this trailer provides. I can't wait to see this.
**** out of ****
Damned if You Don't(dir. Su Friedrich)
Excruciating and compelling? This type of personal film-making could easily not resonate with some people. It almost plays like a diary entry. Maybe not as much as the next film being reviewed, but yeah. The deconstruction of Black Narcissus in the beginning seemed relatively pretentious until the ending occurs. The ending redeems all the boredom and ennui that this viewer felt during the experience. The film deals with the sexual longing that a Catholic upbringing can create. Most Catholic teachings tell you that sex is bad unless married. This film offers the argument that sex should be viewed as ultimately spiritual thing. There is a sense of release you feel at the end mainly due to the repressive nature the film has before it. You also feel that the nun character feels spiritual enlightenment due to giving into her temptations. It's hard not to be hot and bothered by the ending being a heterosexual male, but it is ultimately cathartic and outstanding on more than a sexual level.
**** out of ****
Rules of the Road(dir. Su Friedrich)
A sense of longing is felt in this picture as well, but more of a romantic kind than a strictly sexual kind. Plays like a love letter for cars and a therapy session for the filmmaker. The ending much like the film above is cathartic and offers a sense of release. It might not be as artistically successful as the film above, but it makes up with it's amusing combination of love songs and images of station wagons in various scenes.
**** out of ****
First Comes Love(dir. Su Friedrich)
Then comes marriage? The film is quite ambigious at first and plays like a mixture of Frederick Wiseman and Kenneth Anger(think Matrimony Rising) with it's stark documentary footage and use of a pop soundtrack. The film has a fairly romantic view of marriage which makes perfect sense given the film's message. The filmmaker calls for a legalization of homosexual marriage and thankfully, the filmmaker doesn't decide to offer this message in an allegorical fashion. It is upfront and literally written out for the audience. The list of countries that do not provide legal homosexual marriage is amazingly drawn out and provides a valid argument for the film's cause. The only footage is of weddings and with the use of love songs, becomes something beautiful and sacred that it almost changes my opinion on marriage and weddings. If a film forces me to question my beliefs, it obviously is a great one.
**** out of ****

Oh George...

Ocean's Eleven(dir. Steven Soderbergh)
One word: FUN. Some of the attempts at humor fall flat, but it is still a highly enjoyable film.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh William...

Network(dir. Sidney Lumet)
First hour was grand. Second hour not so much. Mostly due to the fact that the satire becomes just as extreme as Howard's banter on his show. It's got the passion of a fire and brimstone preacher, but it also got the mind of a schizophrenic screaming it's head off about how the apocalypse is coming. While I'm not a huge fan of television, I can't help, but feel that this film's hatred toward that medium and how it even can be deadly is preposterous. This is almost the equivalent of Jack Thompson's crusade against violent videogames that he claims to be conditioning and training children to become killers. This is clearly a creation of a group of men that don't understand the medium of television so they decide to create this fiery sermon about the evils of it. They do hit some points of criticism that stick like Faye Dunaway's character's affair with William Holden's Max. Easily, the most effective part of the film simply because it's so tragic and serene, but this turns into a crazed rant about television much like the rest of the film. William Holden's performance, however, lends a sense of gravity to this story to keep it from spiraling out of control. He loves her, but she doesn't love him because she was raised on television and he was raised on life. There's a depressing quality to Max telling her, "I want you to love me." A cry from the writer that is out of touch with a society that is in love with television. This should have been the focus point of the film not Howard or even the network. This is supposedly Paul Thomas Anderson's favorite movie. In the making of documentary about Magnolia, he even shows it to the cast and crew. It is easy to see why since Magnolia has a similar "message", but concerning the movies. His film is far more subtle and you care for pretty much all the characters(except for maybe Stanley since I felt he was contrived). While Howard, you can't really care for him. You admire him for his passion, but you can't help to think that he is too extreme much like this film. The end was probably aiming to be tragic, but it registers with a thud. Howard is so out of a touch that he almost seems to be living on a totally different plane of existence so what happens to him isn't as tragic as it could have been. A flawed, but still good film.
*** out of ****

Oh Marisa...

In the Bedroom(dir. Todd Field)
The first hour and 20 minutes are practically perfect. After that, not so much. It still remains good, but I can't help shake the notion that it took a dive in quality, which is disappointing. When it becomes a thriller near the end, the shift feels iffy. I guess you can say it has some of the same problems as Dancer in the Dark in that the material is good at first and gradually gets worse, but unlike that film, you never feel the actions on screen are implausible. It it is still kind of unsatisfying. Good movie.
*** out of ****

Oh Faires?...

Pan's Labyrinth(dir. Guillermo Del Toro)
Don't believe the hype? You better believe it. It's not a bad movie by any means, but the amount of praise it received is puzzling. The film is fairly shallow and superficial. I think of it as a cross pollination between Dancer in the Dark and Star Wars. The morality is as shallow as you can possibly get with Vidal being evil and sadistic and the rebels being the guys the audience is supposed to be rooting for. The scenes in the fantasy world and real world don't connect very well. The film almost feels like two seperate movies instead of an organic whole. The fantasy world also doesn't feel like an escape for the little girl due to it's sense of danger and horror. Why escape a real world that is brutal and cruel to a world of your imagination almost as brutal and cruel? The use of a historical backdrop is frustrating because it makes no commentary on these historical events other than a stereotypical "fascism is bad." The ending was moving because it hinted at a spirituality that was lacking from the film that it would have greatly benefited from. I feel like I would have been less harsh towards this film if it wasn't for the amount of praise it has received. It annoys me that this film is the #1 rated film on Metacritic with Killer of Sheep, which is probably the most beautiful and poetic film I have ever seen in my entire life, taking the #2 spot. Overrated, but still decent.
**1/2 out of ****

Oh Seth...

Knocked Up(dir. Judd Apatow)
Heartwarming and raunchy.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh Bogie Again...

The Barefoot Contessa(dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
The best aspect of this film is that it takes it's material seriously even though it should be taking it not so seriously. The worst aspect of this film is that it thinks it is a representation of life, when it clearly is not. The story is as artificial as you can get. A woman becomes a movie star then the expensive plaything of a South American millionaire then the Cinderella to an Italian count. The count's confession to his new bride is amusing just because of the dialogue and the straight-faced delivery of it. The ending is about as trashy as you can get. Another film called Duel in the Sun also had trashy material, but unlike the material in this film, was amusing by itself and didn't have to depend on a straight-faced delivery. The more I think about that particular film, the more I think it's a masterpiece mainly due to the fact it had moments of true beauty and it was wildly excessive in terms of acting and cinematography to match the overblown and trashy nature of it's script. This film, however, is just an amazingly amusing directing miscalculation.
*** out of ****

Oh Yellow!...

Gunstar Super Heroes(dev. Treasure)
This was a fun game. The story was unnecessary and the bosses were ripped straight out of the original Gunstar Heroes. I enjoyed this quite a bit.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh Bjork...

Dancer in the Dark(dir. Lars von Trier)
The directing for this movie is good, but the material sucks. The whole central event that sets everything in motion seems something out of a bad TV movie. Her stubborness to not reveal Bill's secret is frustrating and makes absolutely no sense? Why would you keep your promise to someone if they betray you? Especially in the situation she's in? Bjork's performance would have been heart-wrenching in a better film. Peter Stormare's performance is probably the one that got me the most because the love he displays to Selma. That part of the plot is quite effective and quite depressing. Her relationship with the prison guard was quite touching as well. The musical parts seemed to go on alittle too long, but that's how I feel about a lot of the musicals I've seen. They are a breath of fresh air from the bleak reality of the film. I was really loving this movie when she broke out in the song when the train rides by. I wished it retained that level of brilliance. Too bad. It's still decent mainly due to the performances and von Trier's directing.
**1/2 out of ****

Oh Kate...

Little Children(dir. Todd Field)
It was a very visceral experience and I'm still trying to come up with an intrepretation that makes sense of it all. The film's greatest point is that it points out the phoniness not in just some of the character's actions on screen, but also the phoniness that is inherent of cinema. This is most obvious in a couple of scenes especially the whole ending segment and the narrator. The narrator delivers his lines in such a tongue in cheek way and most of his lines are pretty much bold faced lies. He describes Kate Winslet's character as "boyish" in a dry objective tone. Many critics have criticized this point because they most likely find Winslet attractive. I would definately not call her "boyish", but I would also not call her a "knockout." The narrator also describes a football game in the usual dry and objective tone that makes the whole scene seem like a satire of all those movies about football that try to inspire its audience with stories of perserverance(sic?) and hardship. It is easy to poke fun at this scene cuz these men are grown men living in suburbia playing football and taking it alittle too seriously. The narrator's false lines comes heavily in play at the end. You could pretty much say the film explodes in a similar way as a film like Magnolia explodes. The melodrama and emotion is set extremely high. The stories are "resolved." I say "resolved" mainly because you realize that nothing is truly "resolved" especially for Ronnie. How do we know everything is "resolved?" The narrator tells us. The characters' conflicts could not be resolved in such a short amount of time and could possibly never be resolved. The scenes that show the characters acting on their desires are probably the most disturbing in the bunch, but in a sense, liberating except Ronnie's concluding his date by masturbating. You could say the scene is exploitative, but it is easy to see why Field kept it in the film. If that scene was not in the film, his character would seem harmless and misunderstood. The scene where Ronnie goes to the pool for a swim is also a scene pointing out cinema's phoniness. Slant Magazine compares the scene to Jaws, which makes perfect sense. The tension is high during this scene, but why? It is broad daylight and parents are all around the pool. Could Ronnie possibly abduct a child or do something possibly worse? The only scene that rings false and not false in the way that these other scenes do is Kate Winslet's character showing up at Brad's game to root for him and the make-out sesh afterwards. The whole scene seems to undermine Winslet's character's intelligence and just seems absurd. Other than that, this movie is great.
**** out of ****

Oh Denzel?...

Deja Vu(dir. Tony Scott)
Preposterous and cheesy. Got kind of exciting near the end and ended perdictably. Denzel's wierd facial expressions were gold. It was OK.
** out of ****

Oh Bogie...

In a Lonely Place(dir. Nicholas Ray)
I feel this is Bogart's best performance. He seems better suited to a weathered cynical bastard then an "attractive" cynical bastard. One of the problems with The Big Sleep and one of the most interesting parts about it is how pretty much all the women in the film threw themselves at Bogart, who is definately not the most attractive guy around. Went on for too long. It's a masterpiece.
**** out of ****

Oh Jingfan Hu...

Springtime in a Small Town(dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang)
A lovely movie. The two actresses easily steal the show. The scene where Liyan dresses his wife's hand wound is unbelievably beautiful. It is a tad too long and some scenes drag, but it is amazing nonetheless.
**** out of ****

Oh Barbara...

Wanda(dir. Barbara Loden)
Brilliant.
**** out of ****

Oh Maborosi...

Maborosi(dir. Hirokazu Koreeda)
I really enjoy non-narrative films like these. I absolutely adored All About Lily Chou-Chou until the last half hour or so of the film. This film has a very mysterious quality to it that makes it particularly intriguing, but when it loses its mysteriousness in some scenes, it becomes a little too obvious. The scenes are when her friend that takes care of the kids and cleans her house asks why did her husband kill himself and her in the end asking why did he kill himself. I don't know. Her at the end kind of demystified the experience because you go through the whole film without really knowing how she feels about her husband's death, which allows you to create your intrepretation of what she is thinking and feeling. Still a really good movie.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh Quentin...

Reservoir Dogs(dir. Quentin Tarantino)
What impressed me in Jr. High, now looks immature and dated. His dialogue sounds like something a teenager would write to impress his friends. It could be that this film isn't in a hyper sylized world like his other films that could be the problem, but still all the violence just comes off as disgusting and unentertaining. The scene with Mr. Pink running away from the job was actually exciting, but the scenes in the warehouse, which is the majority of the movie, are dull and uninteresting.
** out of ****

Oh James...

Spider-man 3(dir. Sam Raimi)
It was a mess and it's attempts at camp just come off as silly and unentertaining. There were moments like Harry and MJ cooking an omelette that made me crack a smile, but the rest of it was surpisingly boring. James Franco was the best part. It was dumb.
** out of ****