Movies of '08

Such a fun fun fun movie. I love how comic flicks are getting so realistic as they move away from being kiddie movies to truly enjoyable cinematic experiences. Robert Downey Jr. rocked this part. The acting was very excellent across the board as well. The special effects were amazing. The ending of this movie made it all the more enjoyable for me, as it certainly took the road less traveled in a comic movie. I will eagerly await the next installment.

Here's a few reasons why you might not like this movie:

-You get motion-sickness
-You need a soundtrack
-You need to know all the answers
Here are the reasons I Loved this movie:

-It was unconventional
-I still have questions left unanswered for me to ponder
-I didn't have to deal with the constant audio fluctuations typical in a suspense/horror flick

It bugged me that the general audience response when the credits started rolling was, "Ahh, what the? That's IT?" (minus the one clapping guy in the front who apparently agreed with me) This movie had a nice balance of action, suspense, and comic relief (Hud was hilarious). The way the movie ended was what I expected, and the way the entire movie played out was fantastic for the 1st-person-documentary-style they chose to go with.

A great movie, just don't watch it expecting it to be something it is not...it's a giant monster movie seen through the camcorder of some young adults.

I saw this much sooner than I expected to thanks to my lady-love, but much to my enjoyment. If you like romantic comedies that follow the general equation for a romantic comedy, this one won't disappoint. James Marsden was good, and you feel bad quite often for Katherine Heigl, but it all pans out well in the end for her (as the general equation for a romantic comedy would have it).

I rounded up for this one (I'd give it a 2.75 star rating if possible). It wasn't poor enough to be a 2.5, but I don't know if it really deserves a 3.

Indy, oh Indy. Why did this escapade have to be so ridiculous? Don't get me wrong, the acting was very good, and I certainly had a lot of fun in some of the scenes. But when I weighed the fun against the dumb, the dumb almost prevails.

For a large portion of this film, I felt like it was one step away from being a children's movie distributed by Nickelodeon. The animals, in my opinion, were not only completely unnecessary, but profoundly stupid looking (the monkey scene was the worst).

The waterfalls...all three of them...seriously?

Not only surviving a nuclear explosion, but being catapulted inside of a refrigerator and bounced along the ground for hundreds of feet...only to stumble out.

After those downers, the alien thing wasn't even that strange. However, I would like to quote a friend's observation on this: "Why are super-advanced extraterrestrials always naked?"

I did enjoy the closing idea, that the greatest treasure is knowledge...good word...just not enough to make this a good movie all-in-all.

Sooooo, I was disappointed. I was definitely hoping for something more out of this movie, which I didn't get. In the end, I could see what Shyamalan was trying to do, but I felt like it was too underdeveloped. I think the actors/actresses did fine for what was demanded of their roles, which proved to be very little.

The suicidal results of "the happening" were fitting in a film aimed at the negative nature of human individualism. I mean, it was pretty clever on Shyamalan's part to consider the such a poetic consequence of mass individualism...mass suicide. Also intriguing was the final element of starting fresh and anew (getting pregnant) following the death and destruction.

Clearly deeper than those who would say it was simply a tree hugger's revenge, but still too underdeveloped for my taste.

The first half of the movie was pretty weak (2 stars), but the second half was a lot more fun (3 stars). I kind of feel like this was a dumber version of Sahara (which I loved), with McConaughey searching for the treasure that nobody can find. Very light character development, and I felt like the subplot with Sutherland's daughter was almost unnecessary. Overall, it was pretty fun. A good movie for a social gathering...you know, where people are only half-way paying attention.

In super-power/superhero movies, I need to enjoy the mythology of a character before I can get into his story. I listened to the director's direction on how he wanted to film it (like this was the second movie, and the jumpers had already been acquainted with jumping for some time now), and I think he succeeded...I just didn't like it. I wish he had spent more time delving into the history of jumpers and what it was that made them able to jump and so on and so forth. As it stood, I just felt I was watching a cool special effects movie with a glazed over plot and pretty poor acting.

That said, the special effects were incredible, and some of the fight scenes were great to watch. Doug Liman said he wanted to make the jumps appear "natural" and I think he did a pretty superb job (if people could actually teleport).

Wow, after seeing two consecutive Happy Madison films (this and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry), I believe I've ruled out anything they make in the future.

This movie had less entertaining substance than a drunken frat-party. In fact, it reminded me of when I was camping in Yosemite once when I was younger and two drunk dudes were trying to feed beer to a raccoon. Random? My point exactly.

Here, let me spoil it for you so you won't want to watch it, and believe me, I'm doing you a favor. A drunken/stoned group of nobodies wander into the wilderness looking for bigfoot, they find him, and shoot him.

Zahn is a talented comic, but he sure picked a piece of trash to work in this time.