Che: Part Two – The Guerrilla
To be completely honest, it was difficult for me to want to drive 40 minutes to a theater showing the second part of Steven Soderbergh’s massive biopic on Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. The first film was well done, the realism was at times frightening, but often, it felt like I had just watched two hours of Benicio Del Toro walking through the jungle. I attribute a large portion of this feeling due to the fact I was aware of the result of Che’s guerrilla efforts... Read More
Post-Oscar Come Down
There are six or seven large theaters within a 20 miles radius of me. More than 100 screens within a 25 minute drive. But click on the picture to the left to see what I’d find if I were to go to any of these theaters. Crap. It’s all crap. Sure, there are few theaters still playing Slumdog Millionaire, but I saw that in November, then again in January. There’s Gran Torino, but that movie was vastly overrated, not worth a second viewing. It was just a few... Read More
Oscar Predictions
I don’t pretend to understand the Academy, or to be able to predict their decisions. But like all the other bloggers out there, I feel compelled to force you to read my own Oscar predictions. I mostly just let my emotions get involved when I jump behind a flick for the Oscars, and my emotions blind me. At last year’s Oscar party, I was beat by Cindy who had seen maybe two of the nominated films (and one of the two was Transformers…). But, for what it’s... Read More
LAMB Devours the Oscars – Best Picture
Editor’s note: Welcome to the twenty-fourth and final of a 24-part series dissecting the 81st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy! Click here to visit the LAMB and... Read More
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Yes. My head is hung in shame. I saw Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. But in my defense, there were several factors that not only suggested I see it, but pretty much forced me too. The least of these include headlining actors Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy (and more timidly I’ll admit that I’ve had this weird crush on Rhona Mitra since she played part of that creepy brother/sister serial killer team in Nip/Tuck). Sheen blew me away with his portrayal of David... Read More
Taken
After seeing the trailer forTaken months ago, I was pretty sure I knew exactly how the plot would go down. I decided to skip it. But then I found out it was rated PG-13, and then I remembered how much I liked Liam Neeson, so I finally saw it when my only other options were a movie about a girl who shops to much, and a movie about girls getting dumped (I don’t like February). While the trailer made this seem like your average torture-porn movie, the PG-13 rating might... Read More
The International
Imagine a bank, a big bank, that has too much power, and can’t be trusted with peoples’ money. No, I’m not talking about Citibank or Washington Mutual. I’m talking about The International, Tom Tykwer’s new and boring thriller about corrupt international banking. Don’t let the word thriller fool you though, this movie was about as exciting as listening to CNN suck up to Obama 24/7. Clive Owen plays Louis Salinger, an ex-Scotland Yard agent... Read More
God Bless Tarantino
I want to rub this trailer all over me. I realize that I’m a day late on this one (don’t get me wrong, I watched it yesterday), but I still think there’s an inappropriate number of people who haven’t seen this trailer who should. Now, there’s been lots of talk about the poor performance of Mr. Jolie in this trailer, but I beg all to withhold reservation until they actually see the movie. When has Tarantino let us down before? The only confusion... Read More
Push
Push is the very definition of derivative filmmaking. But I just don’t care. It was entertaining. I would even consider this an improvement on director Paul McGuigan’s previous projects Wicker Park and Lucky Number Slevin. The frenetic, almost Tony Scott-like camera work, and befuddling script work against it, but this is still a quality, mindless movie. As with lots of movies, all the troubles start with the Nazis during World War II. The discovery of citizens... Read More
Che: Part One – The Argentine
My God, to think how Che Guevara must be turning in his shallow grave, knowing the hipster-icon status he’s achieved with the tragically hip ‘emo’ crowd. At least Steven Soderbergh pays him proper tribute in his latest, and massive docudrama Che. Che ‘is so enormous, it’s broken up into two movies, both running just over two hours long. The first is Che: Part One – The Argentine. This first part follows Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara... Read More
