2007/2008: The movies I expected to see...

*After a ninth view... Full review coming soon*

Really hard to sit through if you don't think a pothead going mad is funny or mildly interesting. Confusing, nonsense, illogic, lame, idiotic, stupid, hilarious, genius, intense, slow, boring, reiterative... call it whatever you like but you've got to admit: this is the ultimate pothead movie or maybe the "Fear and Loathing..." for the new generation. Anna Faris is funny as hell but the real deal is called John Krasinski in a much funnier role than the one he made in "License to Wed". We can call 2007 his last stupid year before taking charge of next year's "Brief interviews with hideous men" directing and writing. Krasinki's hability to make everyone laugh with the minimum effort (see "Jim's faces" in "The Office" for more info on that) is legendary. He doesn't have to go over the top in a Carrey-ish way but just like the good old Zach Braff (before season 3 of "Scrubs") he just says his lines hitting every single right note all the way to your laughing system. By far one of the most underrated actors nowadays.

Good movie, hilarious but maybe too weird for some people: not for everyone. But perfect for me!

An extraordinary experience, beyond anything you've ever seen on film.

See only "Planet Terror" and you will get an exciting zombie homage to 70's exploitation films with great performances and visually stunning action sequences.

See only "Death Proof" and you'll receive the most brilliant dialogues of the new century.

See them both in the whole Grindhouse experience and they'll get you out of your mind with excitement and hilarity.

A truly entertaining experience.
Awesome.

I waited long enough! And it was worth it!
This movie is an absolutely delicious treat. I hate when people call this "stupid" just because the director is not somebody with "cult status" that, with the same one-liners and action-packed hilarious comic relief, would've had them drooling all over the place.
It's fun, it's wicked, it's raw, it's crazy, it's unrealistic but, over all, it is COOL. The characters are cynic, confident and angry at everyone and everything and you roll with them laughing all the time. Clive Owen is perfect for the role and Paul Giamatti is sinfully badass. As for Monica Belucci... well, let's just say she won't leave your mind for a while.

Best scene? You have plenty to choose from: having sex in the middle of a shootout, eating carrots in the middle of a shootout, or maybe just carrying a baby while shooting some badguys (drinking game alert!! Every single death - a drink!), but the best Mr. Smith gimmick ever is by far creating a gun out of his hand. You gotta see it to believe it!

It was way better than I expected. Of course it's stupid, of course it's a complete mess with some nasty moments but it has a TON worth of laughter and some sweet moments including the best comedic performance ever by Jessica Alba. She has tried to be funny in the past but this is the first time she actually was! Dane Cook starts off pretty damn well and suddenly, right before the final half-hour, his character starts to act crazy: and by crazy I mean "usual Dane Cook"... I love him so much but in movies he must control his gimmicks because this is NOT stand-up comedy! He had so much control of himself for most of the movie but suddenly he lost it! So sad. Anyways, it reminds me of "50 FIRST DATES": disgusting humor, nasty moments, not-so-good actors, GREAT HEART. This is a sweet, cute, nasty comedy that should be seen as a nice moment of laughter. Dane Cook deserves a chance to prove he is more than a funny guy: see "DAN IN REAL LIFE" for more details... fingers crossed, Dane!

Oh yeah, Lonny Ross is a rising freakin talent!! I thought "30 ROCK" was it for this guy but he can actually be funny in more than ONE way! He is not just "Goofy #4", he can play "Goofy #5" and "Goofy #2-B" with no trouble. Really funny dude. Don't give him just the average pothead roles, PLEASE!

The original film means a WHOLE LOT of things to me and it's a really important film in my life (I mean, it's JOHN WATERS for God's sake!!!) so I thought I was gonna hate this... but I ADORED IT! The film respects and pays tribute to Waters' style all over the way (including the juicy cameos) and manages to turn a so-so Broadway musical into a wonderful, funny, cute, fresh and cheery movie that will be impossible to forget. It keeps you dancing and enjoying a GREAT time of your life along the way without leaving out the good quality technically and artisticly.

Every single cast member, from Elijah Kelley (amazing breakthrough) to James Marsden (that can actually sing!), from a nice surprise as Amanda Bynes to an actually REALLY great Zac Efron, everybody does an OUTSTANDING job! But Travolta steals the show ALL THE WAY TO THE AUDIENCE'S HEART! His character is a brand-new woman, far from Divine or Harvey Fierstein. Travolta is worth seeing the movie everyday of the week, twice-a-day!

Alfonso Cuaron has just lost his throne: this is it. Even if Cuaron's movie was such an amazing movie, it was still a poor adaptation that became the best HP movie for its direction and those winks to Cuaron's universe here and there. But if you really focus on the movie, you can still smell Colombus' shit all over the way. The 4th one, well, was such a pity. The movie was just too big for Newell and I really despise when people forget about Cuaron and go straight to "Oh my god, the 4th one is the best ever!" (*read with stupid voice*)

Anyway, what is different in this one? What's all the fuzz about? Finally, someone thought for a second and realize it was time for a change: Colombus is no longer producing the saga (since HP4), the arcaic-honestly-decadent John Williams didn't wrote the score and (finally!) Steve Kloves is no longer adapting the book. That's exactly what makes this amazing: Yates took control of the situation, understood the book to the deepest subject and had it in his hands the whole time. The direction is so strict, so precise, it was actually flawless. The political subplots and characters were just in their right place (including that little, tiny wink to "Citizen Kane") as this is not an Oliver Stone film, even if it's the most political book of all (even over the 6th one), everything was in its right place. Hand-held camera added that raw look to some scenes just in the right moment. The movie felt mature, adult. The lost of innocence was all over Cuaron's film and it went through Newell's "movie" too but Harry is 15 now and he needed a mature director to go with it. Excellent!

But that extraordinary something about the film is by far the adaptation. Michael Goldenberg actually ADAPTED a HP book: everybody thinks "adapting a book" is just taking some major scenes and plots, throwing away "unimportant" subplots and tieing them all together to please the fans. And the fans are always angry because "so many things were cut! Oh my gosh!" (*stupid voice again*), and forget they're watching A MOVIE, not reading a book. The main thing about an ADAPTATION is to let the scence, the spirit, of a book fly through the movie, even if the order is changed, or some characters cut and stuff. Goldenber knows this perfectly as he adapted the arcaic story of "Peter Pan" and turned it into a complete new tale of great value in an absolutely underrated movie back in 2003. This time, he manages to create a solid film with the right amount of JK Rowling plus the political universe of Yates and the maturity of the story. I insist: everything was in its right place to make the movie flow at such a fast pace even if some scenes were slow, precisely because of that, it was an unique rythm that will be tough to repeat in another HP movies as Kloves is coming back for 6th and 7th. Luckily for us, so is Yates. I hope that he will be able, as Cuaron, to overcome a lousy adaptation and make yet another excellent film.

The performances were extraordinary, as usual, and everyone seemed to have found so many things about their characters, that their performances feel new, fresh, better. Evanna Lynch reveals herself as a raw talent, ready to be exposed to the world and polished through the films, as Emma Watson's and Rupert Grint's were. She gives one of the top performances of the film with that Luna rythm that suddenly slows things down to make Harry think a little. The scene with the thestrals and Luna is amazing but her presentation to the world, her first scene, will be hard to forget. Of course, Imelda Staunton shines beautifully and I finally understood her being cast in such a "Judi-Dench-role" instead of... well, Judi Dench. Dench would have given the character that amount of evilness and cruelness that was mandatory but Staunton took control of every scene and every single piece of dialogue with the mastership of a Britain-leading-lady with Theatre background. And she is sweet! We can't (and won't) forget about the ALWAYS extraordinary Bonham Carter and thank God she's british. Rowling seemed to have written the character just for her and it was impossible that any other actress would have given Bellatrix that piece of wickedness and sexy-bitch look but still being (and look) disgusting and evil. Amazing performance that won't be forgotten soon. Gary Oldman gives a little more of range to Sirius this time than back in the 3rd movie and Gambon finally understood his character. Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and the whole cast give the perfect amount of support to the film and finally, thank goodness once again, Radcliffe is showing some FREAKING range!! The boy is terrible, but this time (maybe because of Yates and specially because of Staunton) he manages to grab the character by the balls and pull it off. He still has a lot of path to walk (is he going to manage 6th-book-Harry? I dunno) and I hope he proves me wrong.

The visual effects were just about right. Realistic and not overwhelming, they felt (for the first time) as if magic was surrounding us and it was a common-day-thing instead of something unusual. The battle at the Ministry and the DA lessons were unforgettable and well produced, created and directed.

Finally, I have something to say: whoever says this is a bad movie, fan or not, complains about the adaptation or something else is not "expressing his opinion": it's proving he doesn't know the first thing about cinema. This is a GREAT movie, not a "great HP movie" but a GREAT movie on its own. David Yates needs to get away quickly from TV and prove everyone the wonderful filmmaker he is, even if this movie will prove it as soon as people realizes is not just an "effin-children's-book" but a fantasy masterpiece that will go beyond our time. Kudos to Rowling for making THIS movie happen just as the third one... kudos...

not THAT awful... for the first time in his entire career, Kevin Costner is showing some FUCKING range! and William Hurt steals the movie scene after scene. Dane Cook is kind of awful but I still love him and Demi Moore is not as bas as she always is... Nice thriller, exciting and funny at times. I liked it!

People were surprised, in the wrong way, when they realized how the new Wong Kar-Wai experience wasn't "as good" as they expected and they blamed it on the language. What they didn't realize was that the new language and the new actors gave WKW a whole new spectrum of abilities and things to talk about in a whole different context, without losing his usual gimmicks that we all love to death. WKW has always been simple, subtle and poetic, creating his poetry and his urban tales of loneliness and dispare in the most unlikely, yet familiar, of places and plots.

I think a definitely helpful new element that came with the language were the actors. I've never seen in my entire life such a hypnotizing cast that, from the mesmerizing and gorgeous Norah Jones to the heartbreaking David Strathairn and including the beautiful and over-the-top (yet, wonderful) Rachel Weisz and the sexy Natalie Portman. Jude Law is great as an insecure, compelling lead but he isn't as memorable as the rest of the cast.

The soundtrack, the cinematography (by somebody else instead of Christopher Doyle, for a change) and the art direction help the movie but the beauty of WKW's lost souls and delicious road trip are more than enough to create a stunning, depressing, intense view on human pain.

Gorgeous!

I hoped this would honor the original play in a proper way because the play is a masterpiece! Well... it did! The performances carry the entire film just as it would've happened on stage instead of filling an adaptation with visual effects and "creepy" music they focused on the paranoia and claustrophobia of the characters: simply extraordinary acting lessons with some gory moments and bits of insanity that will keep you wondering "What the hell is this and why did I play it on my DVD?"... simply outstanding piece of filmmaking. Kudos to Judd for picking better films than before, ever since "De-Lovely" she knows what the hell she is doing, Harry Connick Jr. is marvelous but the REAL FUCKIN DEAL is Michael Shannon reprising his on-stage role and carrying the entire film on his shoulders.
4 stars for acting + 1 star for being just great over-all = 5 stars for being a masterpiece of paranoid horror!

I'm dying to see what Adam Goldberg is capable of doing with a lead!!

looks like the fuckin cutest movie EVER!!

Looks like a breath-taking all-about-performances show.

I can't wait... I just can't wait...

"Dummy" redux? I don't care, it looks out-of-this-effin-world!!

Along with "Across the universe", it's one of the few movies I anticipate with THIS GREAT amount of desire (in the past: GARDEN STATE and DUCK SEASON)... I mean: Colin Farrell + Ewan McGregor + Michelle Williams `+ Woody Allen??? This smells to MASTERPIECE for me!!!!!!!! I just CAN'T wait...

Looks twisted, sick, exciting, sexy maybe? I don't know but it looks RAW and totally WORTH WATCHING... the thing is... I HONEST TO GOD don't think it will make it to Mexico. I really think nobody will accept it on cinemas here... sad but true

Oh God... please! I need to see this!!!!!!!