eric brochu

Sort list by: title | rating | view date ↓

• October, 2006

• Man of the Century (1999) 3.5/5

  2006-10-02 23:31

  

  A reporter straight out of a 1930s screwball comedy lives life inexplicably and blissfully unaware that it's almost the 21st century. A really charming little film that deserves to be better known. So go rent it.

  2006-10-02
  0.3

• September, 2006

• 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
  0.3

• 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
  0.3

• The Descent (2005) 4.5/5

  2006-09-20 11:04

  

  Fantastic. Rave blog post coming soonish.

  2006-09-20
  0.3

• Ruang talok 69 (1999) 3.5/5

  2006-09-13 21:23

  

  A cute Thai crime thriller/dark comedy in the Tarantino mold. A bit derivative sometimes, but with lots of original and unexpected touches. The director went on to make Last Life in the Universe, which I really loved.

  2006-09-13
  0.3

• His Girl Friday (1940) 3.5/5

  2006-09-09 11:41

  

  Howard Hawks, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell are all great, but this film still has that kind of untra-stagey kind of feel Hollywood movies had in the 1930s -- lots of tripod-mounted two-shots and jarring edits, and very sharp dialogue recited very fast, very loud and very flat.

  2006-09-09
  0.3

• Little Miss Sunshine (2006) 3.5/5

  2006-09-08 10:09

  

  This kind of "indie lite" comedy, where everybody is charmingly quirky, can easily become groan-inducingly precious (*cough cough* Garden State). But this movie mostly manages to deftly step up to the cliche cliff and then zip off in another direction. Plus, this demonstrates my thesis that no movie with an unexpected musical number has ever been bad. Except some musicals.

  2006-09-08
  0.3

• "Spaced" (1999) 5/5

  2006-09-03 21:34

  

  Completely brilliant Channel 4 series from the creative team that went on to make Shaun of the Dead. Hilarious characters, non-stop movie and comics references, and a sountrack featuring everything from Boards of Canada to Fantastic Plastic Machine -- I'm amazed I managed to go so long without seeing it.

  2006-09-03
  0.3

• August, 2006

• Snakes on a Plane (2006) 2/5

  2006-08-30 10:13

  

  Manufactured Hollywood camp that somehow manages to make me question Sam Jackson's coolness. Still, it's a lot more entertaining than Superman Returns.

  2006-08-30
  0.3

• "The Office" (2001) 5/5

  2006-08-26 22:32

  

  Literally the funniest thing I've ever seen.

  2006-08-26
  0.3

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 5/5

  2006-08-20 01:34

  

  As close to perfection as this kind of movie will ever get.

  2006-08-20
  0.3

• Land of the Dead (2005) 3/5

  2006-08-18 22:33

  

  Disappointing at times, but I do love zombie movies, and this one has Dennis Hopper as a venal fat cat, Canada as a zombie-free paradise and a director who pretty openly has more sympathy for the dead than the living, all of which score points with me.

  2006-08-18
  0.3

• Mean Creek (2004) 3.5/5

  2006-08-17 00:03

  

  A modest little film about a group of kids who take a bully on a boat trip to teach him a lesson. Great performances from all the child actors, but the story seems to kind of lose its momentum as it goes on. Still, I liked it quite a bit.

  2006-08-17
  0.3

• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) 1.5/5

  2006-08-14 09:05

  

  What the hell was the line of reasoning that lead me to believe this movie wouldn't suck ass?

  2006-08-14
  0.3

• 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
  0.3

• The Pianist (2002) 3.5/5

  2006-08-07 23:40

  

  Yes, I'm rating this moving testament to survivors of the holocaust the same as Miami Vice and lower than the zombie rom-com and than the movie with the donkey sex. And still I contend it is perfectly reasonable to rank all movies along a single line that goes from Manos: The Hands of Fate to Seven Samurai.

  2006-08-07
  0.3

• Shaun of the Dead (2004) 5/5

  2006-08-07 00:19

  

  If I had stayed in film school and become a filmmaker and been much more talented, a Canadian version of this movie would be the greatest thing I could ever hope to accomplish. However, do not buy the DVD, unless the idea of sitting through seven-and-a-half minutes of unskippable ads and anti-piracy threats every time you pop it in appeals to you.

  2006-08-07
  0.3

• Miami Vice (2006) 3.5/5

  2006-08-01 23:26

  

  “Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them” -- Pauline Kael

  2006-08-01
  0.3

• July, 2006

• C.H.U.D. (1984) 3/5

  2006-07-31 23:52

  

  The eponymous Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers are feasting on the good people of Reagan-era NYC! Not remotely what you would call a "good" movie, the darn thing just tries so hard it ends up being a lot more entertaining than it should be.

  2006-07-31
  0.3

• Repulsion (1965) 3/5

  2006-07-31 01:37

  

  I know it's a classic, and it has some great scenes, but the New Wave-inspired "la femme brushes her teeth and then the phone rings" scenes have aged about as well as the dime-store psychoanalysis. Catherine Deneuve is incredibly hot, but she's such a vague cipher that I never really cared what happened to her. Polanski did another psychological horror movie, The Tenant, which is less famous, but which I liked much, much better.

  2006-07-31
  0.3

• Clerks II (2006) 4.5/5

  2006-07-30 23:56

  

  I loved this movie! It's funny and nasty and smart and heartfelt and possibly Kevin Smith's best film yet. I hope we'll be revisting Dante and Randal again in another ten years.

  2006-07-30
  0.3

• Superman Returns (2006) 2/5

  2006-07-29 09:53

  

  Superman is not a terribly interesting superhero, but did the whole movie really have to be so bland? A monosyllabic Superman rescues a complete non-entity Lois Lane and her mouth-breathing kid. Even Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor is dishwater-dull.

  2006-07-29
  0.3

• Willard (2003) 3/5

  2006-07-28 01:56

  

  Crispin Glover plays a weirdo. Surprise! Though as always, he does it really, really well. This time, he befriends, controls and is betrayed by an army of intelligent, cat-eating rats. There's a tacked-on human love interest, but the real relationship is Glover and his rats.

  2006-07-28
  0.3

• December, 1999

• 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
  0.3

List generated by WP Movie Ratings.