| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - G |
Highly overrated. I have a lot of difficulty understanding the sentimental attachment many people have to this version. Gene Wilder is great fun, but his Wonka isn't within even a mile of Roald Dahl's creation. Charlie and Grandpa Joe are annoying. |
April 11, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Men in Black - PG-13 | April 11, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| The Mist - R | April 11, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Meet The Browns - PG-13 | April 11, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Shutter - PG-13 | April 11, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| The Ruins - R | April 11, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Prom Night - PG-13 | April 11, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Across the Universe - PG-13 |
Basically, a bunch of music videos strung together with the barest thread of something resembling a plot. Julie Taymor, as always, brings some mind-blowing visuals, but doesn't deliver on the substance. And you never get the sense of silly tongue-in-cheek joy that you do while watching Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge. The musical arrangements are excellent, and any Beatles fan will eat them up; but at the end of the day, it's much more enjoyable just listening to the soundtrack. |
April 11, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Enchanted - PG |
Terrific homage/parody of the animated princess fairy tale, crossed with the Single Parent And Cute Kid In The City Find Unlikely Match romantic comedy (see Sleepless in Seattle, et al). Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz send up the entire Disney song oeuvre, including their own work. A must-watch for any Disney fan--there are nods to all the classics in almost every scene. Amy Adams is SO my girlfriend. |
April 10, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Iron Giant - PG | Woefully underrated. Brad Bird, in his first full-length animated feature, hits this one out of the park. The 1950s era of the Cold War, suburbia, comic books, and Beatnik culture is beautifully realized. It's E.T., except 40 feet tall. | March 28, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Mulan - G |
The most feminist animated Disney movie (really, that's a good thing). When compared to other Disney '90s Renaissance movies, it's not as ambitious in scope, but it gets the job done admirably. Most ironic meta-moment? Harvey Fierstein's macho Yao cross-dresses in order to deceive the Huns. Freud, Lacan, and Mulvey: feast on THAT. |
March 28, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Schindler's List - R |
Spielberg's masterpiece. Even at his most restrained, he still falls to the temptation of a few gimmicks (e.g., red coat girl), but they're all surprisingly functional and ultimately serve the narrative's purpose. Liam Neeson gives a wonderfully controlled performance. His final monologue is a little manipulative--but after holding a straight poker face for nearly three hours, both his character and the audience need that release. |
March 26, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Hurricane - R | Washington gives arguably his best performance of his career in this unfortunately factually-challenged and historically revisionist biopic. | March 16, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Spiderwick Chronicles - PG | March 10, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Never Back Down - PG-13 | March 10, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| The Other Boleyn Girl - PG-13 | March 10, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Vantage Point - PG-13 | March 10, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Masters of the Universe - PG | Just awful. The Dolph Lundgren factor automatically shaves three stars off the rating. Skeletor looks like crap. | February 25, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Ikiru (Doomed) (Living) (To Live) - PG | Full of wonderful moments, from the mothers' montage through the bureaucracy to Watanabe's parting shot from the swing (arguably Kurosawa's most poetic sequence ever). This film is a jewel. | February 25, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Cars - G | Pixar's weakest offering so far, which still isn't too bad. The pacing is uneven, the hero's dull, and too many characters are shoehorned into the mix. However, the Americana automotive alternate universe is very well-realized, right down to the VW Beetle insects. | February 24, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai) - Unrated | Everyone (Magnificent Seven, Three Amigos, Bug's Life, to name a few) keeps stealing this movie's plot for a reason. Mifune and Shimura are awesome, as always. | February 23, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Princess Bride - PG |
"Rob Reiner, please make me a witty, sweet but not overly saccharine, totally quotable fantasy swashbuckling romance cult classic." "As you wish." |
February 20, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Xi yan (The Wedding Banquet) - R | A poignant and often hysterical look at the closet, Chinese culture, and family. One of Ang Lee's best--and honestly, it's better than Brokeback Mountain. | February 20, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Full Monty - R | You start out dreading the moment you'll have to see these unlikely male strippers disrobe, but you'll be cheering them on in the final five minutes. Hilarious and surprisingly sweet. And ironically, it's all about family values in the end. | February 20, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Clerks - R | The only movie I've ever seen where the script shined in spite of the atrocious acting. There's always been a part of me that wonders what a remake of Clerks would look like, cast with A-list actors, shot by a real cinematographer--but then, that'd be missing the point, wouldn't it? Few films capture the spirit of the 90s indie movement more than this one. | February 17, 2008 | N/A |
359 ratings
256 reviews
