eric brochu › Quick & Dirty: Movie Reviews

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The Lookout (2007) 4/5
2008-02-16 20:50

A brilliant character study, disguised as a gimmicky heist film. The hook is that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's memory-impaired bank janitor becomes entangled in the planning of a bank robbery. But the film is much more interested in seeing this former star athlete, whose mind, body and self-worth have been ripped apart by a car accident, pull himself back together, and realizing that simply living day-to-day is not enough. And captiously that part is fantastic.
http://vancouveratmain.com/hey-does-your-kids-still-want-to-play-soccer-this-year/ 2008-02-16
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All About Eve (1950) 4/5
2008-02-16 20:25

This film came out the same year as Aurogra from mexico Sunset Blvd -- one of my very favourite films -- and deals with similar themes: the dark side of the Hollywood dream. And while both films have stellar writing, this one hasn't aged nearly as well -- in fact, it sometimes seems quaint by comparison. (A Hollywood where middle-aged actresses take all the plum roles from dewy ingenues? Not even in 1950.) But it does have a young, funny, and very lickable Marilyn Monroe in a supporting role. So there's that.
2008-02-16
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Enter the Dragon (1973) 4/5
2008-01-27 23:01

A classic, but that doesn't mean it's great. I mean, Bruce Lee is great, but whenever he's not on the the screen -- or when he's on the screen but not kicking ass -- it's really a bit of a bore. Fortunately, a pretty fair chunk of the movie is, indeed, Bruce Lee kicking ass.
2008-01-27
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Juno (2007) 4/5
2007-12-25 23:34

Solidly in the Wes-Anderson-inspired quirky indie comedy genre, complete with hyper-articulate herione and twee pop soundtrack. I was worried at first that the characters would be compilations of writerly quirk, a la Little Miss Sunshine or the unspeakable Garden State, but after about the first 15 minutes it became clear that Juno is aiming a lot higher, and it mostly succeeds. And when it doesn't, it's because it falls a little too in love with its dialogue and nonconformity, and dear God, there are worse flaws than that.
2007-12-25
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Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) 4/5
2007-11-25 23:43

2007-11-25
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Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 4/5
2007-11-25 23:42

2007-11-25
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The Long Riders (1980) 4/5
2007-09-22 21:11

This Walter Hill-directed retelling of the James-Younger gang is not quite a masterpiece, but it is a really, really enjoyable piece of late-1970s violent naturalism. By 1980 the somewhat naive romaticism of Bonny and Clyde and The Wild Bunch was long gone, but the deconstruction of Unforgiven was still far away. Instead, we get an odd mixture of the lyricism of the 1970s and the precise workmanship,of the 1980s, punctuated by brilliant Walter Hill action scenes.
2007-09-22
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3:10 to Yuma (2007) 4/5
2007-09-21 19:29

I'm not sure why, but I went into this expecting a revisionist art-house Western in the vein of Unforgiven or The Proposition. Instead, it's a genuine old-fashioned Serious Western -- a psychological morality tale about the price of virtue, with a mixture of stark violence and bleak heroism. With excellent performances from Christian Bale in the subtle role, and Russell Crowe in the flashy one.
2007-09-21
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Superbad (2007) 4/5
2007-09-01 17:05

Hilariously raunchy, yet heartfelt film from the Judd Apatow circle, which seems to be in the process of single-handedly rewriting the rules of comedy filmmaking through sheer talent and force of will.
2007-09-01
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DiG! (2004) 4/5
2007-08-30 10:27

A documentary famously made over a seven-year period, starting with The Dandy Warhols and their friends/rivals The Brian Jonestown Massacre as they both seem poised for success. We see the Dandys go from wannabes to genuine rock stars (at least in Europe), while the BJM under the increasingly addicted and self-destructive genius (or is he?) Anton Newcombe go straight from up-and-coming to burnt out without ever passing through success.
2007-08-30
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The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) 4/5
2007-08-17 09:59

A tight, well-made action film that is sure to make tons of money without insulting your intelligence (aside from asking us to accept blank-faced Julia Stiles as a senior CIA operative). Was that really so hard, Hollywood?
2007-08-17
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Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) 4/5
2007-08-12 10:37

Werner Herzog doesn't have a sentimental bone in his body and I think he lacks pity, but that's not the same as wanting for compassion, as can be seen in this gentle documentary about Fini Straubinger, a German blind-and-deaf woman who acts as advocate and activist for people like herself. It's a slow-paced film, devoid of uplifting scenes of triumph or drama, but the scenes of Straubinger describing her world and helping others trapped in their isolation are moving and enlightening, even poetic, and pure Herzog.
2007-08-12
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Stander (2003) 4/5
2007-08-02 20:46

It's odd that Stander is so little-known, since it is a damn fine little movie. It's the true(ish) story of Andre Stander (Thomas Jane), an apartheid-era South African Detective Captain who became the country's most infamous bank robber. The movie plays up the hypocrisy of an honest man upholding the law in such a profoundly sick system, until Stander's crimes seem, if not just, than at least no less wrong than continuing as a police officer. Plus, it has a great soundtrack, awesome 1980s South African fashion, and some kick-ass action sequences.
2007-08-02
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Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) 4/5
2007-07-19 19:39

This, the fifth film in the Hammer Frankenstein series is a thoroughly Gothic tale of blackmail, murder, revenge and unauthorized human brain transplants. And then more murder. I find some of the Hammer horror films to be a bit ponderous, but not this one. It rips right along like a mad scientist on fire, with a scenery-devouring Peter Cushing as the Baron Victor Frankenstein, whose insanity is matched only by his insatiable lust -- a lust for experimental brain surgery! Bwahahahaaaaa! Tasty. Very tasty.
2007-07-19
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Rescue Dawn (2006) 4/5
2007-07-15 17:42

This is a brilliant, thoughful Werner Herzog film with an outstanding performance by Christian Bale as the real-life Dieter Dengler, who was the also the subject of Herzog's incredible documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly (on my all-time top 100). So why was it so unsatisfying? When I left the theater, I felt like there was something missing from the film, something I couldn't really explain. Maybe it was the unbroken shot of thousands of aircraft that ends Little Dieter. Or maybe it was that I already know the story, so the events weren't as much of a revelation. I'm going to have to watch it again and see if I have the same reaction.
2007-07-15
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Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) 4/5
2007-07-08 01:30

A four-hour movie about taxes and cricket! And it's freaking awesome! When I retire, I want to go live in a Bollywood movie.
2007-07-08
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Ratatouille (2007) 4/5
2007-07-03 09:46

Another brilliant film from the artistic heavyweight of modern animation, Brad Bird. This doesn't have quite the same kind of complex social commentary Bird's The Incredibles manages to pack in, but the themes -- what is the role of the exceptional person in an egalitarian society? -- are still there, even if Ratatouille doesn't really tackle them head-on. And this is literally the best animation I've ever seen, both technically and artistically. The kitchen, and the food don't look photorealistic: they look better. And the character animation is incredible.
2007-07-03
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Rocky (1976) 4/5
2007-07-01 23:37

Rocky is cheap, messy, sentimental, and manipulative. It is also pretty damn effective and totally winning.
2007-07-01
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Stranger Than Fiction (2006) 4/5
2007-06-15 23:31

I recall seeing trailers for this movie and then... nothing. Until the last few weeks when a couple of different sites I read mentioned it favourably in passing. Very, very rarely -- like, once a decade -- I read a novel in which the characters seem so real that I can completely see them going about their lives and getting into situations the novel doesn't ever get to. This movie is about those characters. (Though the book that the movie is about actually seems kind of lame.)
2007-06-15
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Top Gun (1986) 4/5
2007-06-03 14:01

The best movie ever about Tom Cruise coming to terms with his homosexuality.
2007-06-03
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Zero Effect (1998) 4/5
2007-05-28 10:49

This character study/detective film is so clever and so thoroughly enjoyable, it should really be better known. It has a twisty film noir plot, great location shooting in Portland, Oregon, and Ben Stiller back when he could be funny without making the veins in his forehead pop out from the effort. But the real reason to see it is Bill Pullman as Daryl Zero, kind of a mixture of Sherlock Holmes and Howard Hughes: superemely confident as a detective, but so socially inept that he refuses to ever meet clients and locks himself in his apartment living on diet of tuna, Tab and amphetemines. Pullman gives Zero a social ineptness that starts out hilarious and then slowly adds levels of pain and poignancy as his latest case pulls him further and further out of his safety zone.
2007-05-28
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28 Weeks Later (2007) 4/5
2007-05-21 17:23

28 Days Later has such a dramatic, powerful opening, that the rest of the movie seemed anticlimactic. This sequel has an opening that's almost as powerful, but doesn't sabotage the rest of the film. Despite a few "what was their plan?" type plot holes and impossibly good-looking zombie holocaust survivors, this is a smart, powerful horror-thriller that follows organically from the first movie and sets up the premise for a third film that I really, really want to see.
2007-05-21
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Seppuku (1962) 4/5
2007-04-25 22:27

AKA Harakiri. This is a little bit like the Unforgiven of samurai flicks (and samurai reality?). It presents the samurai code of bushido as a poisonous hypocrisy that romaticizes stupid, wasteful death in the name of honour. The only people than benefit from the mythology are the cynics. If there's a weak spot, it's the occasional bit of preachiness and sentimentality, but these don't detract at all from the power of the story.
2007-04-25
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Half Nelson (2006) 4/5
2007-04-19 12:11

Ryan Gosling plays a crack-addicted teacher who manages to be sympathetic even while he wallows in his situation. This isn't a movie about redemption, it's about a man with an addiction-sized hole in his being, and it's refreshingly, quietly unsentimental.
2007-04-19
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Black Snake Moan (2006) 4/5
2007-03-22 15:21

On a farm in Tennessee, God-fearing bluesman Sam Jackson chains nympomaniac Christina Ricci to his radiator. But it's for her own good. Really! The whole thing is kind of preposterous, but it sure wasn't boring or predictable.
2007-03-22
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Children of Men (2006) 4/5
2007-01-28 16:05

If ever you wanted an example of how directing can save a mediocre screenplay this is it. The story and dialogue are uneven, but the film is made with so much passion and anger that it imprinted itself firmly onto my imagination.
2007-01-28
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The Fountain (2006) 4/5
2006-12-07 23:42

I'm not quite sure how to rate this, because I found it moving and beautiful and original, but I don't think it's completely successful. It wanted to fill me with awe, but instead, it just made me admire it for even trying. But still, I enjoyed it immensely, and I'll definitely be watching it again on DVD. Maybe then, I'll be able to reconcile my conflicted reactions.
2006-12-07
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The Awful Truth (1937) 4/5
2006-11-09 22:07

You know how some nights, you just want to lie on the sofa with a bag of leftover Halloween candy, a bottle of chilled vodka and an old Cary Grant comedy? This is the old Cary Grant comedy you want to be watching.
2006-11-09
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Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen (2001) (TV) 4/5
2006-10-06 19:31

Pretty amazing doc about child beauty pagents in the deep south. The title is uncannily accurate. What struck me most was that the little girls in the doc aren't being turned into adult women or anyone's idea of femininity -- they're dolls: unblemished, utterly passive porcelain simulacra of children in birthday-cake dresses. That, and the extremely southern, extremely gay coaches. That's gotta be the path of most resistance.
2006-10-06
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The Science of Sleep (2006) 4/5
2006-09-28 14:16

The best movie I've seen since The Descent. But it's not much like The Descent. It's like Gondry's previous film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but even moreso, since it's more persional and more indulgent.
2006-09-28
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Sid and Nancy (1986) 4/5
2006-09-22 23:13

I really can't wrap my head around how Alex Cox can make two great films -- this, and Repo Man -- in the space of two years, and then essentially spend the next twenty years working in semi-obscurity making films in Mexico and TV movies for the BBC.
2006-09-22
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Rosemary's Baby (1968) 4/5
2006-08-12 01:33

You know, as much as I like a lot of Roman Polanski's work, watching several of his films in close proximity makes it hard to ignore the fact that he seems to see women as weak and perhaps a little retarded. While a pretty great film, this is also exhibit A.
2006-08-12
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The Wrestler (2008) 4/5
0000-00-00 00:00

The story is disappointingly unimaginative, but the acting and direction more than compensate. Mickey Rourke is the titular over-the-hill professional wrestler, but within the first two minutes you forget you're watching Rourke -- it's just Randy "The Ram" up there on screen, living the life it must have taken decades to get to. An absolutely incredible performance.
0000-00-00
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Valhalla Rising (2009) 3.5/5
2011-01-02 12:29

2011-01-02
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Martin (1977) 3.5/5
2011-01-02 12:28

2011-01-02
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Incubus (1965) 3.5/5
2011-01-02 12:27

2011-01-02
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The Limey (1999) 3.5/5
2011-01-02 12:26

2011-01-02
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The Prestige (2006) 3.5/5
2011-01-02 12:25

2011-01-02
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Rambo: First Blood (1982) 3.5/5
2010-11-16 20:21

Not nearly as cheesy as the later films in the series, this is actually a pretty solid adventure-drama with some great damp and chilly shots of my beloved Pacific Northwest.
2010-11-16
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Talk to Her (2002) 3.5/5
2010-10-07 08:29

Like most AlmodÃ³var movies, this one took a while to draw me in, but once I was in, I was hooked (I'm a sucker for soap-opera-y plot twists). However, one thing that does not cross cultures well is bullfighting. When a toreador character is trampled in the ring by a wounded and dying bull, my first response is most assuredly not "oh, what a tragedy!"
2010-10-07
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Animal Kingdom (2010) 3.5/5
2010-08-29 10:58

2010-08-29
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(500) Days of Summer (2009) 3.5/5
2010-08-07 23:18

2010-08-07
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The Bourne Supremacy (2004) 3.5/5
2010-02-03 12:39

The weakest of the Bourne trilogy, though I still like it more than the best James Bond movie. For one thing, there's actual suspense -- the conclusion doesn't feel preordained and Matt Damon's grim efficiency reminds us that the stakes are serious, a sharp contrast to Bond's glib sociopathy. It also takes place in something closer to the real world than the Bond films, though it's increasingly hard to buy the consequence-free international carnage being wrought by US interests.
2010-02-03
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Sherlock Holmes (2009) 3.5/5
2009-12-27 21:19

I'll be honest: I was very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes. Sure, the villainous plot was pretty boring and the female characters/beards were written so thin they barely existed, but Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law made an awesome Holmes and Watson, the action scenes rocked (and actually advanced the story!), and the film oozed all kinds of style. Screw fidelity to the source material, this was just the kind of crazy entertaining crime flick I was hoping for from Guy Ritchie.
2009-12-27
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Up in the Air (2009) 3.5/5
2009-12-26 22:03

How good is George Clooney in this movie? Well, he plays an ultra-successful professional hatchet man who's just looking for someone who can look past his extraordinary wealth, status and good looks to accept him for the borderline-sociopathic asshole he is -- and he's still totally sympathetic. Dammit.
2009-12-26
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The Hangover (2009) 3.5/5
2009-12-26 16:52

2009-12-26
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Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) 3.5/5
2009-10-20 20:52

At the height of the cold war, the US builds the ultimate supercomputer and puts it in charge of the nation's nuclear arsenal. What could possibly go wrong? This really isn't a great movie, but it has a lot going for it. It's got great 70s art direction, Edith Head doing the costumes and lots of loving shots of state-of-the art tape drives and orange monochrome terminals. It also has a pretty great way of dealing with the fact that most of the movie involves people interacting with a computer -- the computer action is set in a great ultra-70s-modern control room, which allows for appropriately imposing hardware and room for the human characters to yell and run as necessary. It also has a satirical bite, and a classic downer ending. Unfortunately, it never rises above the typical (lazy) Hollywood anti-science, isn't-logic-heartless sci-fi tropes, always a pet peeve of mine.
2009-10-20
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Crank (2006) 3.5/5
2009-10-20 20:44

Hitman Jason Statham is injected with a deadly poison, and only adrenaline can slow it down. But only enough to buy him the time he needs to get revenge and/or a cure. Not quite the demented masterpiece of its sequel (Crank: High Voltage), but still a loopy and highly entertaining action film.
2009-10-20
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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford... 3.5/5
2009-10-10 21:33

2009-10-10
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Hero (2004) 3.5/5
2009-10-10 21:33

2009-10-10
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Galaxy Quest (1999) 3.5/5
2009-10-10 21:33

2009-10-10
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Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) 3.5/5
2009-10-10 21:30

2009-10-10
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Rachel at the Wedding (2008) 3.5/5
2009-06-13 21:03

Alright, it's not my favourite genre -- the earnest-but-voyeuristic indie family melodrama, where everybody is just so troubled and good-looking and bobo as fuck -- but it's well-made (Johnathan Demme!), and my iPhone got me through the most interminable scenes. I'm glad I resisted the urge I had for the first 20 minutes or so to shut it off. (Also, future band name: "Bobo as Fuck".)
2009-06-13
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Star Trek (2009) 3.5/5
2009-05-23 23:35

2009-05-23
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Adventureland (2009) 3.5/5
2009-04-14 21:58

2009-04-14
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The Lives of Others (2007) 3.5/5
2009-04-05 21:50

I recall this film, about a 1980s Stasi agent and the writer he is assigned to surveil, was praised to the heavens when it came out, but I wonder if anybody is still championing it now. The problem I had is that there are some great intellectual ideas here, and a great performance by Ulrich MÃ¼he, but the filmmaking is so heavy-handed and ponderous it feels like the life is being squeezed out of it. Not that it's a bad film overall, and I *do* see why it was so praised, but sometimes I think the Tasteful Depiction of Important Ideas has spelled the death of European cinema.
2009-04-05
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Watchmen (2009) 3.5/5
2009-03-15 22:12

2009-03-15
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The Orphanage (2007) 3.5/5
2009-03-15 21:20

A really elegant and unnerving horror film from Spain. Instead of shocks and gore (which I always find more funny than scary), it tries to scare you by creating characters you care about and putting them into creepier and creepier situations. Not every scene worked for me, but the ones that did were as effective as any I've seen in a horror movie.
2009-03-15
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Coraline (2009) 3.5/5
2009-02-16 13:11

2009-02-16
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Revenge of the Nerds (1984) 3.5/5
2009-01-21 13:36

Okay, it's really not a great film, but it's goofy, entertaining and easy for me to relate to. Plus, it has a kick-ass theme song by The Rubinoos. So go ahead, put us down -- one of these days we'll turn it around.
2009-01-21
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Frost/Nixon (2008) 3.5/5
2009-01-11 04:33

It's not a great piece of filmmaking, but I've been reading a lot about Nixon lately, and I think this movie really nailed his character: he's like an evil Spock.
2009-01-11
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I'm Not There (2007) 3.5/5
2008-12-21 17:23

It's pretty rare for a preposterous high-concept gimmick to pay off, but here it just barely manages to. Six people, including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchette, inhabit various aspects of the Bob Dylan persona. It's pretty audacious, but Bon Dylan has always been such a self-mythologizer that a conventional biopic could never capture all the aspects this one does.
2008-12-21
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Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 3.5/5
2008-12-01 23:40

2008-12-01
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Body of Lies (2008) 3.5/5
2008-10-29 21:12

Terrible title notwithstanding, this is Ridley Scott's best films in years. Set in the middle of the war on terror, I was somewhat afraid it would be didactic, but it's really more of a straight-up political thriller with slight pretensions of contemporary relevance. Which is just how I like my political thrillers, actually. Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe turn in strong performances, but are blown away by Mark Strong as the charismatic and frightening head of Jordanian intelligence. Not a masterpiece, but definitely worth seeing.
2008-10-29
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Burn After Reading (2008) 3.5/5
2008-10-05 11:41

The Coen brothers have such an amazingly strong track record that it's hard not to feel a little disappointed when a new film is less than a masterpiece. Burn After Reading is less than a masterpiece, but it's more than just an average comedy, and totally entertaining.
2008-10-05
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Pickpocket (1959) 3.5/5
2008-08-24 20:14

2008-08-24
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Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) 3.5/5
2008-07-25 09:30

2008-07-25
0.3
Slasher (2004) 3.5/5
2008-07-12 19:53

2008-07-12
0.3
Heima (2007) 3.5/5
2008-04-22 21:57

2008-04-22
0.3
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) 3.5/5
2008-04-22 21:57

2008-04-22
0.3
In Bruges (2008) 3.5/5
2008-03-23 11:17

2008-03-23
0.3
Deliverance (1972) 3.5/5
2008-03-16 11:30

2008-03-16
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Atonement (2007) 3.5/5
2008-03-07 19:44

2008-03-07
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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) 3.5/5
2008-01-27 23:10

Kind of an unusual kung fu flick in that the big good vs evil conflict is given a back seat to a fairly earnest (if a bit cartoonish) look at the arduous training and intense commitment of the serious martial arts student. Also, the DVD has a commentary by RZA, which is novel, though I found it was best appreciated in small doses.
2008-01-27
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Murder, My Sweet (1944) 3.5/5
2008-01-13 17:01

Classic Raymond Chandler adaptation, with singer Dick Powell as Marlow. A year later, Humphrey Bogart would play a much slicker Marlow in The Big Sleep, and you'd think this portrayal would suffer by comparison, but Marlow is a complex enough character to support both interpretations. Here, Marlow is dirtier, grubbier and more clearly out of his depth. He's a mercenary who gets by on his good looks, confidence, and dry wit, rather than by being smarter or tougher than anybody else.
2008-01-13
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There Will Be Blood (2007) 3.5/5
2008-01-13 16:41

The first 20 minutes are as good as any ever put to film, and the last 20 are jaw-droppingly bad. In-between, we get the actual movie, a complex character study layered with beautiful cinematography and music. I seem to be in a minority, but I was ultimately a bit disappointed. It's fascinating seeing all the pieces falling into place, but they're all there half-way through, and then all that's left is to watch and wait for the inevitable.
2008-01-13
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) 3.5/5
2007-12-25 23:59

Just when I had given up on Tim Burton ever making another good film after Ed Wood, he has to go and show me up with this one -- beautifully dark, bloody, misanthropic, and, of course, it's a musical. It's not a great movie, mind you -- Burton is still clearly more interested in art direction than characterization -- but I enjoyed it hugely, even if it left me a bit unsatisfied by the end.
2007-12-25
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Manufacturing Dissent (2007) 3.5/5
2007-12-25 23:21

It's no great secret that Michael Moore plays extremely fast and loose with the facts in his "documentaries", but this doc, from filmmakers who are sympathetic to his ends but clearly disgusted by his means pains a pretty damning portrait of both Moore and his followers. The former as a hypocrite who wants nothing more than to feed his ego, and the latter as a group happy to do so in exchange for a pre-digested worldview of heroes and villains.
2007-12-25
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The Mist (2007) 3.5/5
2007-12-07 14:26

2007-12-07
0.3
The Queen (2006) 3.5/5
2007-11-04 22:20

I find the royal family fascinating in the same way I find the Catholic Church fascinating -- I may not believe in or even personally approve of them, but they've been around a whole lot longer than me and I have to give them props. This movie hones in on Elizabeth II with pinpoint accuracy, laying bare her strengths and weaknesses mostly in a single, one week period during and after the death of Princess Diana. And it is a really engaging portrayal. The movie's weakness, though is that the rest of the players (including Princes Philip and Charles, and especially Tony Blair) really only exist as lenses for us to see the Queen through, which makes the word of the film seem a bit less like the one she lives in. And Helen Mirren's portrayal is good enough to make you totally forget Scott Thompson's. While the movie's playing, at least.
2007-11-04
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The Darjeeling Limited (2007) 3.5/5
2007-10-16 10:55

I really wanted to like this movie more, and maybe I will, on second viewing. It's a sad, funny, impeccably-crafted and beautifully shot story of three brothers travelling across India, and certainly very Wes Andersony. But walking out of the theater, I felt vaguely dissatisfied. In each Wes Anderson movie, the characters are richer, colder and less likeable, and here, there just wasn't enough left for me to hold on to. It's really not a bad movie, but it didn't make me walk out with the feeling of gratitude I had when I saw Anderson's previous films.
2007-10-16
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Eastern Promises (2007) 3.5/5
2007-10-07 20:55

Studded with greatness, but ultimately unsatisfying. It feels less like a complete story and more like a showcase for David Cronenberg's clinical direction (I kind of felt the same way about Spider). There are several terrific scenes, but I didn't feel that Cronenberg was really connecting with the material as much as the actors were. And the abrupt ending just emphasized that feeling -- as if to say, "well, I did everything we came here to do, let's go home".
2007-10-07
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The Intruder (1962) 3.5/5
2007-09-23 23:09

How fucking cool is William Shatner? Even before Star Trek, in his Roger Corman days, he was the coolest kid in school. In this obvious labour of love for Shatner and Corman, the Man plays a charismatic and manipulative, but oddly naive, "social worker" villain, who incites a Southern town against school integration. Not only is this one of the best Corman movies I've seen, it's one of Shatner's best. You can see here how his career would have progressed if it hadn't been for Trek: a comfortable place as a brooding, good-looking character actor, combined with the occasional leading-man role in small-but-respectable fare. Instead, he got cast as Kirk, and his career became something altogether different.
2007-09-23
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Drunken Master (1978) 3.5/5
2007-09-21 19:33

Early, awesome Jackie Chan movie directed by Yuen Woo-Ping. The entire movie is alternating fights and comedy set pieces with barely a moment to break them up. While not nearly as brilliant as Drunken Master II, this is still the rare old-school kung fu flick that really delivers.
2007-09-21
0.3
Battle Royale (2000) 3.5/5
2007-09-02 00:55

Truly the blackest of black comedies. In near-future Japan, the government forces a class of 14-year-olds to fight to the death. The result is a kind of hyper-adolescence where every clique is a gang, every friendship an alliance, and every teenaged crush literally becomes life-and-death. As a boy in WWII, director Kinji Fukasaku survived an artillery attack that killed his classmates, and it's clear he used the movie to work through some issues: the movie is a lot more personal than your typical Japanese exploitation flick, and really is a pretty brilliant (if deeply flawed) piece of work.
2007-09-02
0.3
The Simpsons Movie (2007) 3.5/5
2007-08-19 10:12

I do in all seriousness believe that the first eight or so seasons of The Simpsons comprise not only the greatest accomplishment in the history of television, but may well be the single greatest work of art of the twentieth century. And then it went downhill and I stopped watching. The movie is totally entertaining, but it never reaches the heights of the TV show at its best. I think this is because it can't ever be as fresh: The Simpsons is a satire on everyday life, but after a few hundred episodes, there can't be all that many targets left, and completely stepping away from the series (at least for the first movie) isn't an option. So all that really leaves is to go big, which is less satisfying. But damn if it ain't funny.
2007-08-19
0.3
Sholay (1975) 3.5/5
2007-07-24 11:05

This movie seems to be the Bollywood answer to Sergio Leone -- a "curry" western if you will -- about two denim-clad convicts who are hired to defend a town being terrorized by bandits. Of course, it's still Bollywood, which means our anti-heros have hearts of gold and marriage plans and periodically break into song while perched on the handlebars of their (shared) motorcycle. Which is awesome. If the movie has a flaw, it's that it is utterly predictable, but I think I'm going to go ahead and decalre Bollywood movies exempt from this criticism.
2007-07-24
0.3
Infernal Affairs (2002) 3.5/5
2007-07-05 09:58

This is the Hong Kong crime thriller that The Departed is a remake of. The first time I saw it was in 2004, and I was hopelessly lost in the first fifteen minutes. Seeing The Departed makes this film make more sense, but also kind of diminishes it, since the acting is fairly tame by comparison, and the editing, cinematography and (especially!) the soundtrack are so superior in the Scorcese film. Unfortunately, this makes Infernal Affairs -- which really is an excellent, original film -- seem like a well-executed first-draft effort for the brilliant and more polished The Departed.
2007-07-05
0.3
Tony Takitani (2004) 3.5/5
2007-06-23 00:11

I really shouldn't like this movie. It's an adaptation of a short story that's so literal, most of the text of the story is simply recited by an omniscient narrator. In fact, it's really just a version of the story, illustrated in four dimensions. And yet, it won me over. The story is by Haruki Murakami, probably my favourite writer, and the muted, desaturated look of the film perfectly captures the story's tone of loss and regret.
2007-06-23
0.3
Shallow Grave (1994) 3.5/5
2007-06-10 10:17

A great 90s-style indie thriller, complete with crazy camera angles, plenty of black comedy and the requisite suitcase full of money. Watching this, I can see why Danny Boyle was hailed at the time as the savior of UK indie cinema: every single scene is at least good, and a few are almost great. Unfortunately, they don't always fit very well together. Characters change personalities to suit the plot, and too much happens offscreen. Still, I love these kinds of films, and if it's not quite as great as Blood Simple, Bound or A Simple Plan, it's not for lack of trying.
2007-06-10
0.3
Irma Vep (1996) 3.5/5
2007-05-10 10:14

"I thought you hated French movies," my roommate said when he saw me watching this. That's not really fair. I only hate the boring, pretentious, "highbrow" fare that is 93% of what makes its way here (and yes, that number's correct -- I did the math). This movie seems to hate it too, but, ironically, can't seem to resist getting bogged down in "intellectual" commentary toward the end, as if it suddenly wanted to prove it was a Serious French Art Film. However, the gorgeous Maggie Cheung (playing herself) spends most of the movie padding around in a latex catsuit being lusted after by her cute lesbian costume designer. This alone makes it the best French film of the past decade. Maybe ever.
2007-05-10
0.3
Everything's Gone Green (2006) 3.5/5
2007-05-08 11:51

This Douglas Coupland-scripted film couldn't possibly have been written by anyone else -- at times, it feels like outtakes from JPod. It's not terribly ambitious, but it's charming. More that anything else, though, it's a love letter to Vancouver, and her rain and mountains and yuppie bike fanatics and baby boomer grow-ops and, above all, her rows and rows of towering glass condos.
2007-05-08
0.3
Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill (1999) (V) 3.5/5
2007-05-01 11:16

To quote my brother Ty's opinion of British comedy: "You know what's really, really, really funny? A man dressed as a woman." I'm more of a David Cross man myself, but Eddie Izzard really is pretty funny.
2007-05-01
0.3
Forgotten Silver (1995) (TV) 3.5/5
2007-04-09 13:31

What a strange item. Peter Jackson made this fake documentary about a fictional filmmaker for New Zealand public television. Most of the stuff I've seen calls it a mockumentary, but aside from a few little jokes, it's not really meant to be funny. It really more of a kind-hearted wish-fulfillment hoax that could only have come from someone with a genuine and immense love of cinema -- the history of cinema as Peter Jackson wishes it was.
2007-04-09
0.3
The Host (2006) 3.5/5
2007-04-02 12:44

A fun take on the monster movie, complete with incompetent authorities, heroic children, and a beastie that just won't stay dead. But done up Korean-style. Yummy.
2007-04-02
0.3
300 (2006) 3.5/5
2007-03-16 11:00

Entertainingly stupid action movie, in which slave-owning Spartans fight for liberty and freedom against a ninja-powered Persian army. The movie has a pretty obvious message about saving Western Civilization from the Persian hordes, but really, it's much too stupid to take seriously. I mean, think about it: if you're taking issue with the movie's politics, you're really complaining about Frank Miller's worldview. Frank Miller. It's like arguing about foreign policy with a particularly bloodthirsty twelve-year-old.
2007-03-16
0.3
Jesus Camp (2006) 3.5/5
2007-02-26 13:04

A documentary looking at a camp for the children of evangelical Christian parents. (Notice I didn't say "evangelical children" -- as Richard Dawkins points out in The God Delusion, none of these kids chose or understand the dogma.) The purpose of the camp is, quite openly, to brainwash these kids into being obedient servants of far-right evangelical Republican interests, and it's never creepier than when the true-believer director is railing against Muslims and bringing out a cardboard cut-out of George Bush for the children to "thank". And for now, none of them knowing any better, they take to it. I would love to see a follow-up documentary in ten years -- the missing piece of the doc is what happens to these kids and their unquestioning obedience when they become adolescents and young adults.
2007-02-26
0.3
Modern Romance (1981) 3.5/5
2006-12-07 23:45

Here's another movie that doesn't quite succeed as a movie, but is more interesting than a dozen slick and flawless Hollywood films. It's really a series of set pieces demonstrating the many faces of Albert Brooks' neuroses, but damn if it isn't spectacularly funny right up until the last scene, which chokes to death on its own pathos.
2006-12-07
0.3
Re-Animator (1985) 3.5/5
2006-11-25 16:43

A messy, gory, tasteless piece of 80s camp horror that is as much fun to watch as it must have been to make.
2006-11-25
0.3
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006) 3.5/5
2006-10-28 11:50

Simulataneously looks much more expensive than the TV series, and still very, very cheap (which is a good thing). I wish they'd done more than just made an episode of the series with a few awkwardly-inserted T
2006-10-28
0.3

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List generated by WP Movie Ratings.