| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adoration - R |
I'm not totally sure what the point of all of this was. *minor spoilers below* ----------- The movie is told in this semi-complicated and intentionally obscure way, presumably to keep a level of suspense and maintain interest in who the protagonists father really is. Come to find out at the end, everything is really pretty much normal. The guy everybody says is manipulative and "bad", really is bad, and the rest of the characters are all just as you'd expect an ordinary family to be -- not without faults, but ultimately ordinary. The thing that bugged me most, however, was this unrealistic relationship between the protagonist and his friends online. Kids don't talk like that, nor do these sorts of discussions intrigue high schoolers enough to stay on some video chatroom for days on end arguing the merits of terrorism. The religious undertones, as well, have me confused. There seemed to be a point, here, and I simply don't get it. Anyway, the movie held my interest... but I was left feeling a little unsatisfied. While I would say it was enjoyable overall, I definitely wouldn't recommend this movie. |
October 11, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Informers - R |
Huh? This movie is really bad. There's not much more to say. The character development was nonexistent, the plot was confusing and seemed mashed together, and whatever the message was, it was too abstract or hidden for me. And what's this I hear about vampires in the movie? I checked imdb after watching it just to see if I'd missed anything, and apparently vampires are a big part of the plot. Who knew? Not worth 2 hours. |
October 4, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Race to Witch Mountain - PG | October 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| I Love You, Man - R | Funny enough to recommend... a bit far-fetched and predictable, but entertaining nonetheless. | October 3, 2009 | N/A | |||
| District 9 - R | I wasn't a major fan of some parts (such as the documentary style... which didn't seem to fit well with the plot), but overall this movie was pretty entertaining, and had some original elements. | October 3, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Sunshine Cleaning - R | Pretty good overall -- a few funny moments, a sweet plot. I would recommend this to most people. | October 3, 2009 | N/A | |||
| S. Darko (S Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale) - R |
A disastrous disappointment. Donnie Darko is one of my favorite movies, but unfortunately, S Darko does nothing but regurgitate and bastardize its plot. Here's a hint, if you're going to make a sequel, use DIFFERENT SYMBOLS, and write a new freaking script. The white board, the bunny costume, the clouds, the fire, the suggested pedophilia, the trampoline, the philosophy of time travel, the portals, even the same freaking music is all there. The acting is shoddy, and does little to help an abysmal remake of a great film. I never walk out of a movie... I would have walked out on this, given the chance, but since it went straight to dvd, I only got to shut it off 80% through. Complete waste of time. |
September 3, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Soloist - PG-13 |
I'm unclear on the point, and I don't agree with the message. After watching the movie, I was left with a feeling of... "okay.... and?" ---Spoilers below--- Nathan had serious psychological problems, and was a danger to himself and others. He's seen attacking at least 3 people, in addition to numerous other outbursts and verbal confrontations. At no point during the whole of the second half of the movie was I not on edge thinking: "This is going to end with him killing himself, or someone else". That multiple characters suggested it was not within the protagonist's rights to seek help for Nathan is absurd. His condition could have been dramatically helped (or even cured!) with medication and/or therapy, and if nothing else, seeing a doctor certainly wouldn't have hurt. Had someone died as a result, that would have sucked. Sometimes the right decision is hard, but if Steve was really a 'friend' to Nathaniel, he should have made every effort to ensure he got the help he needed to live a happy (and safe) life. Secondly, while the gesture of helping a stranger is a noble one, it was also silly to imply that Steve had some kind of obligation to be Nathan's 'friend'. He wasn't a 'friend' to every other homeless person he saw outside of the shelter, was he? Of course not. Not one of them. If he did feel some kind of kinship to Nathaniel, that would be another story... but, whether the fault of bad scripting, poor acting, or as an intentional statement, the movie projected a feeling of obligation much more than kinship between the two men. While it ~may~ have been Steve's responsibility to help Nathaniel get help, standing idly by while he lived a destructive, paranoid and dangerous lifestyle was not his duty, nor (perhaps) even a help at all. Thirdly, if you're going to make a movie about a great musician... get an actor who plays a freaking instrument. I'm not a musician, but even in my limited experience I've been around them enough to know what Jamie Foxx was doing was not 'playing'. The pieces performed weren't even that moving, frankly, perhaps to give an air of believability to the script. Whatever the reason, Steve (et al)'s response to Nathaniel's playing was wholly unbelievable given his mediocre performance. Yeah. It was good for a homeless guy... but it wasn't good enough to emotionally move an anonymous journalist in the middle of a freaking highway tunnel, much less bring him to the brink of tears. Lastly, half the relationships in this movie were utterly pointless. Nathaniel's relationship with his mother is only touched upon, while Steve's relationship with his ex-wife is needlessly drawn out even though it has absolutely zero pertinence to the story and goes nowhere. Steve has trouble with raccoons for no discernible reason, except to touch on his lack of relationship with his neighbor. 'God' is brought up countless times throughout the movie, for no clear (or consistent) reason. Seemingly, the only important character is Nathaniel, who only takes up half the movie due to the substantial roles of the unimportant rest of the cast, and even his time on the screen is primarily limited to shoddy cello playing which does little to advance the plot. Ultimately, the story was unconvincing, the plot was either uninteresting, unbelievable, or irrelevant, the message was off-base, and the ending is unfulfilling. For a movie with ANY potential at all, this was an absolute disaster. One of the worst I've seen in a while which wasn't doomed from its onset. Very disappointing. |
September 2, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Reign Over Me - R | It's been a while... but I remember sort of liking this movie. Not sure why anymore... | September 2, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Fighting - PG-13 |
Yeah... this movie makes sense....... right.... BTW, if you're going to make an 'action' movie (more or less) based around fighting, at least get the fighting part right. Whoever taught the actors how to choke was an idiot. In no situation would people be doing that -- either they'd be clueless and just punch away without knowing any grappling, or they'd know how to do it right. Anyway, no surprises, no plot twists, ultimately not very entertaining, and entirely unrealistic from beginning to end. If you want to shut your brain off for a while, AND you aren't looking for anything visually or emotionally appealing, then you could do worse than 'Fighting'... but otherwise, this movie is about as original as its name, and well worth missing. |
September 2, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Big White - R | Pretty good for a comedy. No surprises, but definitely entertaining. | September 2, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Mysterious Skin - NC-17 |
Definitely not a movie I'd recommend to just anyone... and definitely not for kids... Some parts in the middle are hard to get through (just because they seem long and unnecessary), but ultimately they're there for a reason. The end of the movie is astounding. A beautiful, albeit disturbing, scene... This movie is moving on many levels. |
August 24, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Hannibal Rising - R | Poor character development, which far surpasses the plot or acting. This movie defines "bad sequel". | August 23, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Page Turner (La Tourneuse de pages) - Unrated | It was okay.... but the main character didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. This movie paints a portrait of a sadistic girl, who's given little reason to be sadistic. You're left thinking "Why would someone be this way?" | August 23, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Notes on a Scandal - R | This was okay. A bit odd and disturbing... but alright. | August 23, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Young People Fucking (Y.P.F.) - Unrated | Wasn't expecting this to be very good... but it was definitely one of the better comedies I've seen in a long time. Adult in nature (of course), but hilarious. | August 21, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Green Flash (Beach Kings) - PG-13 | ...What one might expect from the description, from start to end. | July 22, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Jesus Camp - PG-13 | Quite good. Compelling work. | July 13, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed - PG | Complete garbage. Legitimately packed full of blatant lies. Check the wikipedia article on this movie. | July 12, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Sunshine - R | The premise is absurd on countless levels, but it was actually an enjoyable, poignant and beautiful movie. Very well done. I'd recommend it. | July 12, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Wanted - R |
You'd have to have absolutely no prior knowledge of physics, whatsoever, to have found this movie entertaining in any respect. I mean... curving bullets... seriously? If you're going to put something as ludicrous as that in a movie, don't even try to explain it. Instead, the movie spent a good 15 minutes trying to make it seem plausible, and (quite obviously) failed horribly. Here's a hint... to curve a bullet by moving your hand quickly, you'd have to be able to move *faster* than the bullet. In other words, you'd have to already be superman... in which case, why are you shooting people anyway? Furthermore, the movie really had no other redeeming qualities, and the ending sucked beyond belief. Waste of time. |
April 14, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Twilight - PG-13 |
Bad. More adult than the average kids movie, though... but again, predictable, unrealistic, and overall unentertaining. On an unrelated note... why can't ANY movie actually portray immortals appropriately. Seriously. Why, in every fantasy/sci-fi/whatever type movie, when there's a vampire, or some immortal being, is he always an idiot? I mean, really. This movie portrays this 100+ year old immortal vampire as equally intelligent to some emotional, self-absorbed 14-year old girl. Pfft. And I'm really expected to believe they fall in absolute love after, what? 2 days of being pissed off at one another? *sigh* |
March 17, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Babylon A.D. - PG-13 |
Special effects were good. Storyline was bad. Overall, this movie was a pretty good action flick, I suppose... which was probably most of the reason why I wasn't too fond of it. Then again, it didn't make very much sense, and the ending kind of sucked... but alas... |
March 17, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Day the Earth Stood Still - PG-13 |
...Should have figured a movie with Keanu Reaves wouldn't be worth my time... The movie keeps building up to something for the first 80%, then all the sudden, for no apparent reason, **POP**, everything is going to be okay. As a writer/director, if you don't have enough time in a 2 hour film to adapt a story, then don't adapt it. Cutting elements out of the plot just to get the basic idea out is absurd. |
March 17, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Balls Out: The Gary Houseman Story - R |
Bathroom jokes, obscenity, and ridiculous juvenile humor.... This movie was quite bad. I think I laughed once, though... and it didn't make me sick to watch it (with, perhaps, a few scenes as the exception), so I dunno if 1/2 a star is appropriate. 1 star seems a bit of a stretch though. One way or another, this was a complete waste of time. Also... WTF is with encouraging pedophilia? Seriously... That's sick. |
March 13, 2009 | N/A |
691 ratings
66 reviews
