| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spider-Man - PG-13 |
A near-perfect adaptation of the comic book. Maguire captures every nuance of Peter Parker's humor, guilt, and wonder. The upside-down kiss in the rain is one of the great visuals from comic book history (thank you, Todd McFarlane); it translates beautifully to the screen and becomes one of the great moments in cinematic history. The only flaw, if any, is Dafoe's hammy and over-the-top Green Goblin, hiding behind the goofy mask. Still, it's a forgivable nitpick in an otherwise excellent movie. |
May 12, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie - PG | Until Rodriguez's/Miller's Sin City and Raimi's Spider-Man, for years this was the most loyal movie adaptation of a comic. | May 12, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End - PG-13 |
Rests on its predecessors' laurels. There are some inspired moments -- Jack's schizo episode in Davy Jones's Locker and the final exhilarating battle in the maelstrom -- but there's too much treading water between them. Barbosa loses his edge as a good guy. And the whole conceit of establishing some kind of "Pirate Mythos" in the PotC universe drains all the joy and fun that the original had in spades. |
May 12, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Juno - PG-13 |
Beautifully shot, brilliantly written, exquisitely acted by a pitch-perfect cast. Great friggin' soundtrack, too. |
May 11, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Bourne Ultimatum - PG-13 |
Bourne = stud. Bond = pansy. All the Bourne movies are notable for reinventing the car chase; strangely enough, this one has the weakest of the three--which is still pretty awesome. |
May 4, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Bourne Supremacy - PG-13 |
No, I really mean it--James Bond is a pansy. Caveat: cheap death in the first 15 minutes that makes you feel robbed in the first movie. Otherwise, it's still pretty freaking sweet. |
May 4, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Bourne Identity - PG-13 |
Welcome to the definitive post-Cold War spy thriller. James Bond is a pansy. |
May 4, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Field of Dreams - PG |
I don't get this movie, and I have a lot of trouble understanding the attachment to it. Normal, rational people who usually have good taste in movies seem to throw all their aesthetics out the window for this one because it's baseball and Americana and a J.D. Salinger type. It drips with hollow sentimentality, tries to play the surreal card without being surreal enough, and it's got Kevin Costner in the lead, which automatically lowers the rating by a star. ("Want to play a catch?" Oh, just shut up, Kevin.) At least the performances are decent. Too bad they don't make any sense. |
April 30, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Punch-Drunk Love - R |
Adam Sandler plays "the Adam Sandler character", but in a disturbingly un-comedic context. It's a weird way to send yourself up, but it works, mostly. Perhaps because it's an Adam Sandler character in a hyper-realistic movie, the story constantly feels like it has nowhere to go. |
April 30, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Willow - PG |
When it's done well, culling from various myths and stories throughout the ages is called "homage"; when it's done poorly, as it is here, it's called "stealing". There's not a single original idea in the film. It's a sloppy patchwork of a fantasy movie. |
April 25, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Return to Oz - PG | Oz meets Labyrinth. It injects a lot of dark elements common to the fantasy genre in the 80s (see The Dark Crystal, Legend, and of course Labyrinth) with mixed results. The puppetry by the Jim Henson Workshop is superb as usual. | April 23, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Wizard of Oz - G | A classic. As an adaptation of Baum's original, it takes a lot of liberties -- but frankly, the film is superior as a work of art and pop culture phenomenon. | April 23, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Sixth Sense - PG-13 | Yeah, yeah, yeah, the twisty ending put Shyamalan on the map. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up to multiple viewings. The "gotcha" moments don't make much sense in context. Even so, Osment shows depth and talent beyond his years. | April 23, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Golden Compass - PG-13 | April 23, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Baby Mama - PG-13 | April 23, 2008 | N/A | ||||
| Being John Malkovich - R | Joyfully surreal. | April 23, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Memento - R |
Dizzying and disorienting, but masterfully executed. The twist ending (beginning?) is beautifully cynical. Caveat: it will make your brain hurt. |
April 23, 2008 | N/A | |||
| 8 Mile - R |
Surprisingly good. Almost makes you forget that Eminem's a homophobic misogynist misanthrope. Almost. We never really get to see the twisted depth of Eminem's Browning-esque work. Still, it's hard not to be impressed by his improvisational skills here. |
April 22, 2008 | N/A | |||
| High School Musical - Unrated | Horrid. Stupid. Vapid. | April 22, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Grease - PG | The music is great. Everything else sucks. | April 22, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Evita - PG | Antonio Banderas (yay) and Madonna (ugh) basically cancel each other out in this beautifully shot adaptation of the Lloyd Webber/Rice musical. | April 22, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Pearl Harbor - PG-13 |
Simply awful. The movie's about two hours too long, and the titular bombing doesn't even occur until the second hour (do the math). The Affleck-Hartnett-Beckinsale love triangle is pointless and nauseating. There are at least a hundred better WWII movies. Watch one of those instead. |
April 12, 2008 | N/A | |||
| Armageddon - PG-13 | Every sci-fi movie requires some suspension of disbelief. But Armageddon is so disconnected from anything resembling reality--from the characters to the "science"--that it becomes a game of seeing if the next scene will be more ridiculously improbable than the last. (And with this movie, it usually is.) | April 11, 2008 | N/A | |||
| How the Grinch Stole Christmas - PG | Jim Carrey actually makes a decent Grinch. The problem lies with the contrived childhood flashbacks and backstory; c'mon, this is the Grinch, not Citizen Kane. Wedge in an obligatory Top 40 hit, and your Hollywood Bastardization By Template is complete. | April 11, 2008 | N/A | |||
| The Fast and the Furious - PG-13 | Like Point Break, only with Vin Diesel instead of Patrick Swayze, and cars instead of surfboards. Otherwise, it's just as stupid. | April 11, 2008 | N/A |
359 ratings
256 reviews
