| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avatar - PG-13 |
The simplest way to put it: This is what the Star Wars prequels should've been like. Awe-inspiring, fun, exciting, bigger than life. 3D or not, "Avatar" is one of those movies that proves big budget heavily hyped filmmaking events can still deliver every now and then. After more than a decade in silence, James Cameron just came back and owned the sci-fi/fantasy/adventure genre. And the coolest thing is, for all the bells and whistles, he's done it old style. The story in "Avatar" is really nothing we haven't seen before, and I think most people will foresee the plot beats way ahead of time. There's the lost hero and the zen natives who will heal his soul; the idealistic scientist and the greedy corporation butting heads over pretty much everything; the trigger-happy army villain, the nerdy sidekick, the Hispanic firecracker . . . Five minutes after meeting them you know the general arc of their characters. But maybe that works to the movie's advantage -- it feels like watching an old movie you love, and you can just relax and enjoy how beautifully executed it all is. So yeah, it's a great movie. All that being said though, it's not the best movie of the year. Not when 2009 also gave us "Inglorious Basterds", "District 9" and "UP". "Avatar" is perfectly made and it's top-caliber entertainment (and I hope it makes an insane amount of money because it deserves it), but in the end it didn't connect with me the way those other movies did. And I'm not even sure why, although I suspect that familiarity I mentioned above might have something to do with it. A knife that cuts both ways. Then again, I've already talked to a bunch of people who loved it even more than I did. So maybe it's just me. Go watch it! |
December 19, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Everybody's Fine - PG-13 |
Manipulate me, that's all right. I can live with it sometimes, especially during the holiday season, as long as you're doing your best. And this is Robert DeNiro. Another Christmas, another opportunity for movies to try to squeeze as many tears as possible from a particularly vulnerable audience. You've got to have a heart of stone not to feel for poor DeNiro as he travels across the US, trying to connect with his grown children, sensing they all keep lots of stuff from him -- and all this while he's sick and on heavy medication! It's almost shameless, but I happen to like the cast, so I was willing to go along for the ride. Everybody knows I worship DeNiro, and he's got strong support from Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, and Drew Barrymore (playing the sweetest role I've seen her play in a while). So who cares if the plot is a little too transparent in its efforts to get you to call your parents as soon as the movie's over? Ok, so you may care. I got over it, got teary eyed when DeNiro saw his son's painting, sang along the Paul McCartney song during the credits . . . Ok, not that last one. I'm still a grinch. But I enjoyed the movie for what it was. Would I have enjoyed it if the lead hadn't been played by one of my favorite actors? Possibly, but I probably wouldn't have bothered to watch it. So make of that what you will. |
December 15, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Fantastic Mr. Fox - PG |
I'm very tempted to give it five stars simply on the strength of "Petey's Song" alone . . . but no, come on, I'm an adult and it was just a good kids movie. Or is it? The voice performances definitely seem more like they belong in a grown-up comedy (which is part of the appeal of the movie) and there's some, um, graphic scenes with Mr. Fox raiding the farms and killing chickens in one bite . . . No. It's just silly fun. Nothing too remarkable, except for the fact that I didn't get seizures watching this sort of animation for an hour and a half (the trailer had me wondering). And Petey's Song. Petey's Song was awesome. No Pixar though. |
December 15, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Brothers - R |
Amazing performances from three great actors in a movie that doesn't really earn its surprisingly clean-cut ending. Maybe it's just me, but after how bad things get at some point in the story, it feels like everything is resolved much too quickly and even, dare I say it, much too happily. Still, it's well worth watching just to see Tobey Maguire go crazy. He's usually so soft spoken and low key, it's nice to have him screaming and smashing things (and making it work). Natalie Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal are perfect as well, just nowhere near as flashy in their roles. And the little girls playing the daughters are really good -- a false note from them and all the tension building up in many of the scenes would've fallen apart. It's an actors movie, and the cast is more than up to the challenge. It's just all over too fast, wraps up too neatly. And that robs "Brothers" from some of its power. |
December 15, 2009 | N/A | |||
| What Just Happened? - R |
I'll watch anything with Robert DeNiro in it. He's a great actor and when he's in a good movie, you're guaranteed to remember his performance for a long time. When he's in a bad movie, it hurts to see his talent wasted. And then there's movies like "What just happened?", where you get the feeling that, while they aren't bad, they wouldn't be worth watching if not for DeNiro being in them. Another day, another "behind-the-scenes" story dealing with crazy producers, even crazier movie stars, and the one half-sane man trying to keep it all together. There's really nothing new being offered in "What just happened?", but it does provide a few funny episodes (the best involving the fate of a dog in a new Sean Penn art film) and it at least tries to set itself apart from the pack by taking things slow, letting DeNiro mull over his multiple problems as he drives down the streets of L.A. listening to the soundtrack of his new project. Of course, there's such a thing as "too slow" and I think one of "What just happened?"'s failings is that it never achieves take-off velocity. DeNiro is supposed to be playing a Hollywood producer with way too much on his plate, but the leisurely pace at which the story moves doesn't really sell it. I can see DeNiro trying to be the calm man at the center of a Hollywood storm, but the problem is the storm comes across as sprinkling. Which would be ok if we at least got any sort of insight into show business of moviemaking, but like I said, there's nothing new here. It's a competently made movie starring one of my favorite actors, which is the main reason why I haven't forgotten about it yet. Everybody else does a good job, but in the end they can't seem to convince me that they really have something to say. |
December 3, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Ninja Assassin - R |
I went in with zero expectations and sat through ninety minutes of alternating admiration and contempt for the movie. Not so horribly bad that it deserves a place in my Guilty Pleasure collection, and just impressive enough that I don't regret watching it, that's "Ninja Assassin" in a nutshell. Now, me being far from a martial arts connoisseur and not having seen that many movies in the genre, I guess I can be easily impressed. So the fight scenes just blew me away. I've heard people complain about how fake the blood looks --- I'm sorry, as opposed to how real everything else in the movie is? These ninjas and their escapades are pretty much straight out of a videogame (a good one), so I had absolutely no problem with the constant geysers of bright red blood. And the main character has the kind of awesome weapon that would be impractical in the real world, but in a movie becomes the epitome of coolness. Whenever the action stops, however, that's when "Ninja Assassin" gets in trouble. The flashbacks to our guy training as a kid are not that bad, but the story set in the present is ridiculous. If at least one character in the movie had an ounce of common sense, it'd all be over in five minutes because that person would be able to kill everybody else right away. I can't believe J.M.Straczynski script-doctored this. If this is the best he could do, was the original screenplay so bad it shouldn't have been picked up in the first place, or did JMS phone it in? Still, cool fights. |
December 2, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Redbelt - R |
David Mamet is hit or miss for me. I loved "Wag the dog" (which he wrote) and "State and Main" (which he wrote and directed"), but I didn't care for "The Edge" (A.K.A. Anthony Hopkins Vs The Bear) and I hated "Heist" (A.K.A. Gene Hackman looks old). He writes very distinctive dialogue, which is very effective when the story is good and very tiresome when the story isn't. "Redbelt" has a good story. With the exception of a rather contrived setup at the beginning (and to be fair, it's not so contrived after the movie has revealed some of its secrets), Mamet turns in a rock solid script, full of memorable moments and where, in true Mamet fashion, pretty much every element is connected to everything else and bound to come up again later in the story. It's not your average martial arts movie, even though at first glance that's what I'd imagine people would expect. "Redbelt" is a movie about a martial artist, and there's a slow buildup towards a major competition and a fight, but what it really is about is a good man trying to live by a simple, honorable code. The man is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who seems to be great in every movie I've seen him in (from "Dirty pretty things" to "Melinda and Melinda" and "Serenity"). Here, he seems comfortingly at ease playing a guy who is more concerned with doing the right thing than anything else, much to the exasperation or puzzlement of the people around him. Everybody else in the cast (including Mamet regulars like Ricky Jay, Joe Mantegna and David Paymer, and a surprise supporting turn by Tim Allen -- yes, THAT Tim Allen) is perfect in their roles, but the movie lives and dies by Ejiofor's performance, and he does it justice. It'd be easy to get frustrated with someone so fundamentally "nice", but no, you spend an hour and a half rooting for him, waiting for the wheel to turn, and when it does, you leave the movie satisfied. I haven't forgotten Emily Mortimer. Her character starts off obnoxious (there's that contrived setup) again, yet grows more complex and sympathetic as the story progresses. Her main scene with Ejiofor, the one where she's forced to confront her fears, is one of the high points in the movie. Now I have something other than "Match Point" to remember her by. |
December 1, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - R |
Brilliant! Robert Downey Jr. turns on the charm as a fast-talking loser opposite Val Kilmer's not-flamboyant-at-all-but-still-really-funny gay detective. Together, they hit every note on Shane Black's script, which manages to be witty, laugh out loud funny, and a good mystery to boot. It makes me feel guilty that I've owned the dvd for so long and just now got around to watching it. Movies with voiceover narration take the chance of being heavy-handed, more so if the narration is self-aware. Luckily, somehow the voiceover "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" never gets too cute, which is a hell of an achievement considering how many times Downey Jr breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience directly. Maybe it's because we give detective stories a little more leeway when it comes to narration. Maybe it's that charm I mentioned above, on Downey Jr.'s side. You're just glad to have him as a guide, and even gladder that he's funny and doesn't take himself (or the movie) too seriously. Add Michelle Monaghan as the love interest and you have guaranteed sympathy from the average viewer. I really have no complaints. The movie was smart, fast-paced, kept me on my toes, and climaxed in a spectacular shootout (you know, all things considered). I loved every minute of it. |
December 1, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Lakeview Terrace - PG-13 |
The misleading trailer strikes again! I finally sat down to watch this movie expecting a total cheesefest full of Samuel L. Jackson "crazy badass moments". Lo and behold, I actually got a smart slow-building thriller that managed to pull off some sympathetic scenes for Jackson and also didn't shy from showing its heroes' flaws. Now, Jackson's character is a total dick -- no doubt about it. It's just that the preview gives you the idea that this is going to be a non-stop all-out war between a naive yuppie couple and a corrupt cop. "Lakeview Terrace" is certainly about the escalating conflict between neighbors, but more importantly, it's also about three people individually falling apart just as they push each other's buttons. Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington aren't just dealing with an increasingly obnoxious neighbor; they are dealing with what seems to be the first major crisis in their marriage. And Jackson is playing a racist forced to deal with his inner demons, with an interracial relationship right next door slowly bringing out the worst in him. I kept expecting the plot to make me roll my eyes sooner or later. All the elements for a total failure are there. And it never happened. It turned out to be a damn good movie. Bonus coolness: Shepherd Book as a racist father-in-law. |
November 24, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Crow - R |
I wish I hadn't read "The Crow" before watching the movie. That way I wouldn't have spent a good twenty minutes of the movie trying to reconcile Brandon Lee's performance with The Crow I had in my head (mostly the voice -- I imagined supernatural, Lee gave me emo rocker). And the violence wouldn't have felt so watered down (it's a violent movie, but the graphic novel is an absolute bloodbath). This is why I always try to experience the movie first, and all other versions of the story second. Of course, the good news is Lee's performance grew on me, and the fleshed out supporting characters of the cop and the little girl eventually made up for the lack of brutality. It may sound superficial but if I sit down to watch a revenge movie, then the villains better get what's coming to them. After seeing their fates in the original story, it mostly felt like they were getting off easy in this adaptation. But Officer Albrecht has an expanded role in the drama now (and he's played by Ernie Hudson!!!!), and the kinship between the Crow and the little girl is explained much more satisfactorily than in the book. So there's a little more to this Crow than in the graphic novel. And that balances things out. In the end, it's still a revenge story, and a pretty straightforward one at that. Through most of the movie, the Crow simply plows through his enemies, pausing for the occasional flashback and the rare bit of detective work. He never really seems in danger until the very end (which works out fine) and there's hardly any difficulties thrown between him and his goal of killing every member of the gang that murdered him. Don't go in expecting an overly complex story, just enjoy the ride. After a little while, I did. |
November 22, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Punch-Drunk Love - R |
Damn, that was a great movie. And this coming from someone who'd hardly qualify as an Adam Sandler fan. I liked him in "50 First Dates" and "The Wedding Singer" . . . and I don't think it's his fault that "Funny People" wasn't good. But all that being said, I don't generally find the Sandler persona as amusing as his true fans seem to do. So this is a movie I would've skipped if it hadn't been directed by P.T. Anderson. Like I said, damn. This is what happens when you take the leash off the usual Adam Sandler character and let him run around in a world made up by the guy that gave us "Boogie Nights", "Magnolia" and "There will be blood". It's an explosive combination. Especially when you throw Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Watson into the mix. The movie starts off slow and quirky and soon enough it's built up to a series of those PTA sequences where everything is frantic and the music is leading the camera and the actors in some sort of storytelling dance. It's freaking amazing to watch Sandler trying to stay sane as the world conspires against him, the poor bastard. About the only thing that doesn't work as well as it should is the final confrontation between Sandler and Hoffman . . . The movie definitely peaks earlier, when Sandler faces off against the guys from the truck. Anything after that sequence is just nowhere near as cool, even though it's still really good. Anyway. Awesome movie. |
November 21, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Men Who Stare at Goats - R |
This looked promising: an all-star cast, an original story, a hilarious trailer . . . And, don't get me wrong, I had a pretty good time. I laughed pretty often and even felt true sympathy for Clooney's "fallen jedi" character halfway through the movie. But somehow, it just didn't blow me away. Somehow I just couldn't connect with our heroes in the end. And if "The Men Who Stare at Goats" wasn't going to change my life, then it definitely needed to be a lot funnier. Not that there isn't a lot to laugh about. Clooney, in particular, is hilarious playing a silly part with dead seriousness. And McGregor's constant freakouts are the perfect complement. But for a movie where a major plot point is the killing of a goat using someone's mind, its plot is surprisingly tame. A relatively straightforward road trip interrupted by quite a few flashbacks where we see The Dude building up his army of Spiritual Soldiers. And that's fine, if the story would build up to an ending where I really got to embrace the characters and their passion . . . but I think, ironically, it's too clownish for that. The climax of the movie is one of its funniest (if not -the- funniest) moments in it, but that causes "Goats" to lose most of its poignancy. You laugh, then there's a brief epilogue, and you find yourself surprised at how easily you can just shrug the whole experience off as the end credits start rolling. So, good movie, just not the great movie I wanted it to be. And as an extra comment, Kevin Spacey at the end of the movie? Great. Kevin Spacey trying to look younger in the flashbacks? Distracting as all hell. |
November 20, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Rendition - R |
And now, for something rather terrifying . . . "Rendition" is the answer to Jack Bauer's pro-torture arguments in "24". Of course, when it comes to fiction, the storytellers will craft a story that supports their stance and paints their opponent's in the worst possible light. Jack never tortures anyone who isn't really hiding something. In "Rendition", Jake Gyllenhaal finds himself witness to the torture of a guy who's actually innocent. So it just boils down to whether you believe torturing innocents is a necessary risk in order to stop the actual bad guys. Discuss. As far as the movie goes, it's pretty much perfect --- other than the Hollywoodism of having Reese Witherspoon and Peter Sarsgaard having been romantically involved in the past --- and it features one of those rare twists that a) The movie doesn't hang its climax on b) You don't anticipate at all. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat, then throws you for a little loop, then wraps everything up nicely and you find yourself cheering for some people. Good stuff. Now, for a real twist: The director, Gavin Hood, is the man responsible for . . . X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Consider my mind blown. |
November 17, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Fourth Kind - PG-13 |
"The Fourth Kind" should be a comedy. It should be a scathing critique of the way Hollywood adapts "true stories". All the elements are already there: there's the archive footage showing the homely non-photogenic real-life psychologist and then, in a parallel screen, her movie counterpart, super-hot actress Milla Jojovich. If your sense of humor runs along the same lines as mine, you'll chuckle. Repeatedly. Then there's Will Patton's intro, a third into the movie . . . He plays the town's Sheriff (or whatever his rank is) and he's dutifully introduced by credits on the screen reading "Will Patton as Sheriff John Smith" (or whatever his name is). Again, I'm assuming the laughter from the audience wasn't intended by the filmmakers. "The Fourth Kind" is a movie that won't stop reminding you it's a movie. It keeps throwing split screens at you, comparing archive footage and movie footage, for no other reason than to convince you this all really happened. Unfortunately, once you figure out it's all made up (yup, look it up if you must) then it's all a waste of time. And it made me wonder how much cooler the movie would've been if they'd focused on telling a better story about alien abductions instead of spending so much time trying to pull the wool over the audience's eyes. It worked for "The Blair Witch Project", but I believe it's time to move on. Then again, what do I know. I think it cracked the top five in box office results. Maybe people still like all this faux-documentary stuff, despite all the complaints. Or maybe the strength of Jojovich, Patton and Elias Koteas' performances carries the movie further than I thought. They certainly deserve better material. And by the way, that kid in the movie could easily be the most annoying brat of 2009. |
November 17, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Wolf - R |
For those of you who wondered what it'd be like if Jack Nicholson played Wolverine . . . :-) Really cool movie, very old school in its approach to the werewolf story -- not too flashy, it's more interested in its characters. And those characters are played superbly by Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer (I'd almost forgotten how great she is -- she hasn't been around that much lately, has she?) and that magnificent bastard, James Spader. Spader steals every scene he's in, oozing with sleaziness. I'd watch an entire other movie about him as a werewolf. Mike Nichols turns in another interesting movie (the guy just won't settle in a genre) and gets extra credit for having Richard Jenkins as the detective investigating the murders in the story. Very worth watching. |
November 16, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Låt den Rätte Komma In (Let the Right One in) - R |
And so it came to pass, that in the middle of the vampire renaissance (or whatever we're supposed to call the Twilight/True Blood/FangsFangsFangs phenomenon) a little Swedish gem about a teenage vampire and the boy that befriends her made its way to the US. Well, damn. It's a great movie. It's creepy and it's oddly endearing, and it's got some freaking memorable moments, including the coolest spontaneous combustion I've seen in a long time. I'm far from a vampire expert, but this may be the best vampire movie I've seen. It's certainly one of the best movies I've seen this year. Spread the word! |
November 16, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Michael Jackson's This Is It - PG |
Well, that would've been a hell of a show. If you like Michael Jackson's music and dancing, you're bound to have a blast. If, on top of that, you're interested in behind the scenes stuff, even better because there's lots of that. As impressive as the choreography in the movie is, the best moments are the ones where we get to see MJ at work as the show's ultimate orchestrator. He was a perfectionist and truly in love with performing, and it's really cool to see how devoted to him and inspired by him his crew was. My pet peeve? No moonwalking. I understand they had a limited number of cameras and footage, but it boggles the mind to think of a Michael Jackson documentary that wouldn't feature him moonwalking. And he didn't do that thing where he throws the hat either . . . But it still rocked. |
November 12, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Reign of Fire - PG-13 |
Great first half, generic almost boring second half. We are introduced to an interesting cast of characters and an intriguing future world, we are shown how dragons are taken down . . . then the second half of the movie makes everything else pretty much irrelevant and becomes a typical action flick focusing in three characters. I liked it better as an ensemble. Great CGI --- the dragons look awesome. And the unlikely pairing of Christian Bale with Matthew McConaughey works better than you'd expect. The plot walks the thin line between absolutely preposterous and just-good-enough-to-make-it-through-ninety-minutes-as-long-as-it's-fun. So, of course, as soon as the movie starts failing, you start seeing plotholes and errors everywhere. Such a shame. By the way, I can only imagine how many Europeans threw a fit that the movie has the Americans showing up to "save the day". I can see people walking out of the movie shortly after McConaughey and his commandos are introduced. Pity, because if they'd stayed a while longer they would've seen them mess things up magnificently. |
October 22, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Living in Oblivion - R |
This is the kind of movie that usually pisses me off -- making a movie about filmmakers and filmmaking is sort of like taking the easy way out, and most of the time they're nowhere near as clever as they think they are. Or maybe that's just if you happen to be a filmmaker. Luckily, "Living in Oblivion" is actually clever enough that even when it goes for the obvious jokes, it doesn't get on your nerves. And it can be pretty damn funny. The whole cast is great, but Peter Dinklage is the one that steals the movie as a dwarf who isn't entirely comfortable with his role in the project. His speech towards the end is the highest point of the story. Good stuff. I'll check out Tom DiCillo's other movies. |
October 22, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Where the Wild Things Are - PG |
Kids are simply complex creatures. Or complex simple creatures. Either way, at some point they need to grow up, and some of them need dysfunctional monsters to help them in their journey. Will this go over the heads of most of the kids watching the movie? Very likely -- but that doesn't mean they won't have a blast: there's a lot of jumping around and role playing and all that other silly kid stuff. Granted, you know your kid better than anyone else, but it seems to me that parents afraid that the movie might be too dark or too boring for their eight year old might be underestimating children these days. Yeah, leave the toddlers at home, but the older ones will probably get a kick out of Spike Jonze's latest creation. |
October 20, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Whip It - PG-13 |
What's not to like about hot girls roller skating into each other for ninety minutes? Ok, so it really isn't much more than just a typical sports movie, as far as the plot goes --- but since the sport in question is one that doesn't get spotlighted often, and the cast is extremely charismatic, I had a great time. Fine, I did get bored during the mushy romantic scenes. But hey, look, the best friend is Maeby from Arrested Development! Doesn't that make up for all the chick-flickish stuff? Survey says yes. |
October 20, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Pandorum - R |
Best sci-fi movie I've seen since "Sunshine" (so if you didn't like "Sunshine", best to stay away from this one) -- and that means it's pretty awesome. You have to pay attention and keep up with it as the plot grows more complex and the horror of the situation the characters find themselves in gets more twisted. Some badass action sequences too. There's no point in elaborating, just go and watch it. And you know what, this movie actually sold me on Ben Foster as Captain America. He's a boy scout and a leader in this movie. I could see him as Cap. |
October 9, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Informant! - R |
Great performances in the type of movie I tend to HATE -- the one where you spend two hours waiting for the other shoe to drop. It doesn't take long for the average viewer to figure out something's not quite right with Matt Damon's character. We don't really know all of it until the end, which means we never quite know what's going on and we are as lost as the FBI and the lawyers working with Damon. To be fair, this is easily one of the best movies I've seen lately with this kind of setup -- Damon's performance is amazingly subtle, and Scott Bakula and Joel McHale are rock solid as the agents trying to keep Damon under control. But in the end, it's still one of those stories I can't fully enjoy because all the second guessing wears me out. I always think it'd be immensely more interesting if the viewer was in on what's going on, while the cast isn't. But that's me. Somewhere out there, there's the argument that the way the story is told would represent Damon's character's mental process and THAT is what makes the movie interesting. Perhaps. I can't find it in me to watch the movie again to see if that holds water. (guilty pleasure: I'd re-watch the scenes with Tony Hale -- Buster from Arrested Development -- playing a lawyer, only because, well, it's Buster playing a lawyer) |
October 9, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Surrogates - PG-13 |
Whoever made the trailer for this movie deserves to be fired. Avoid the trailer if you haven't seen it yet. That being said, "Surrogates" was a pretty good sci-fi movie, which unfortunately suffers from inevitable comparisons to much better sci-fi movies --- Personally, I kept thinking of "Minority Report" during the first half of the movie or so and I've seen other people mentioning "I, Robot". You know, the idea of a future technology changing our way of life only to be proven imperfect. The cast is solid, but only Bruce Willis gets a chance to shine -- and that's by making the most out of the time he has with his character. There's so much time spent setting up the movie and the plot that there's not much left to get us to care about the people in the movie. Nor is there much time left for badass action sequences, which I was really hoping for. Yes, I'm actually asking for more action sequences in a movie. It had to happen someday. Still, there's some really cool moments spread throughout, and the story holds up till the end. Like I said above, the trailer pretty much ruins one of the big surprises at the end, but I guess it won't matter upon second viewing. |
September 29, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Jennifer's Body - R |
Well, I'm glad to see "Juno" wasn't a fluke and Diablo Cody can definitely write. Even if things kind of get slightly ludicrous during the third act (and the epilogue is completely unnecessary), this was a fun ride, certainly more fun than your average horror movie. Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried do great as the leads, but Adam Brody is the one that steals the movie as the leader of an indie band from hell. And J.K. Simmons is golden in his small part as one of the teachers. Like I said, the third act seems to be a bit too contrived (I may be wrong, but I got that "studio notes / writing committee" feeling) and it takes away from what starts off as a four-star horror flick. But it's still very much worth watching. Can't wait to see what Diablo Cody does next. |
September 29, 2009 | N/A |
143 ratings
91 reviews
