| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3:10 to Yuma - R |
Okay, granted that I saw this at the DRIVE-IN, sitting in my car eating cold cuts and drinking wine with the guy who a week later dumped me after I called him a total pussy for being too "embarrassed" to receive a plant I'd sent to his work...ah but I digress...where were we? Yes, the drive-in was the perfect venue to see this rocking Western. I read a review recently saying it had "all the cliches" of a Western. Uh, isn't that what makes it a goddamned genre film in the first place? Oh, those martial arts movies, with all that fighting, leaping, and...phuckin' martial arts! Anyway, it did deviate a bit by having two (seemingly) opposing protagonists, and you can't find two guys to chomp up these gritty roles like Bale and Crowe, who each seemingly have a thin filament of titanium streaking through their bone marrow. They are loving these roles and it's obvious. Even the aggressively awkward teen in the movie grows on you throughout the movie--often for the very reasons he bugs the shit out of you in the beginning: his voice-cracking defiance, his opposing internal maelstrom of naked admiration and childish contempt. It truly has all the juice of the best of this genre (she carefully avoids saying "best Westerns!"): love, redemption, vengeance, and that ever-popular favorite, Standin' Up n' Bein' a Man When the Time Comes. As always, the chicks are forgettable props, but it's a Western, so ya gotta just get over it already. Introducing Lucy Liu for the desperate "girl power" angle would have made me violent. |
November 2, 2007 | N/A | |||
| Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) - R | There is a melancholy beauty in the face of the Stasi agent as he listens to the soundtrack of a love affair he can only appreciate vicariously...at least until he begins to intervene in its troubled trajectory. It is so restrained, and the dialogue is courageous but not so proclamatory or assured as to feel false. The "bad guys" (in this case, two in particular) are a little too unequivocally, unilaterally bad (meaning they don't show another facet, ever) which detracts a little from the film's overall understanding and acceptance of the non-neat grey areas of the conscience and the superego. It was touching in many ways; it hung out with me for a while after it ended. | October 16, 2007 | N/A | |||
| Knocked Up - R | October 7, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Ratatouille - G |
I am so often shackled to a festering celluloid turd when the time comes to escort my young boys to the movies (and if you've seen "Sharkboy and Lavagirl," you know of what I speak. I want those two hours back!) But Brad Bird rocked The Iron Giant--a beautiful (and beautifully rendered cartoon) and the Incredibles made me laugh more than any misspent 90 minutes watching Ben Stiller twitch and cringe could ever do. And cooking? Well, what's not to like about transcendental food? There are other kids' movies about finding your calling or facing adversity to pursue your passion, but somehow, shit like "Happy Feet" with its painful presumptions (and overuse of Robin Williams, whom my friend Greg Tozian has included at the very top of his "100 Hollywood Actors That Should Die Now" list) don't scratch the surface about the real stirrings of true passion, and the choices passion compels us to make. This movie is ultimately, to me, about being moved by the senses and being transported. For this reason, I loved the critic, the most foreboding character in the film. Beneath his morbid absolutism ("If it's not DELICIOUS, I don't SWALLOW!") is a poignant soul hoping to be stirred into the type of spiritual bliss that only love and great works of art seem capable of provoking. Great script, genuinely funny; some classic conventions that can feel a bit predictable but a real delight for a jaded movie mom. |
October 7, 2007 | N/A | |||
| White Chicks - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| 8 Mile - R | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Pretty Woman - R | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Scary Movie - R | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| The Matrix - R | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Donnie Darko - R | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Braveheart - R | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Kill Bill: Volume 1 - R | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Love Actually - R | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Bruce Almighty - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial - PG | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| The Ring - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| About a Boy - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Save the Last Dance - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| A Cinderella Story - PG | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| School of Rock - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| 50 First Dates - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| Ocean's Eleven - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| 10 Things I Hate About You - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| The Day After Tomorrow - PG-13 | September 17, 2007 | N/A | ||||
| A Walk to Remember - PG | September 17, 2007 | N/A |
4 ratings
3 reviews
