ana's Talk

9

This movie freaked me out because I'm a very paranoid person who thinks technology will literally take over us one day. Though most plot elements from 9 have appeared in countless other movies, it manages to be refreshing thanks to its avan-garde animation (the serpent-like thing scared the shit out of me!), characters you want to root for and action scenes that really get you worked up.

Goodbye Solo

I knew next to nothing about this movie before watching it and was completely surprised at how much it moved me. Both main characters are loneliness personified and it's very touching and intriguing to see how their paths cross. It has a very genuine humanity to it.

Sleuth

Bloodrayne

So far, the most competent work from Uwe Boll I've seen. It's not as funny as House of the Dead, but it does offer enough badness, cheesiness and ridiculous amounts of blood to keep me sort of entertained. It was better than Rise of the Lycans.

Night of the Creeps

I love it when a film can combine horror, gore, comedy and camp values successfully, such as Dead Alive, for example. This film, however, despite the very entertaining performance of Steve Marshall, doesn't seem to get the mix right and is just monumentally boring. It took me three attempts to finish it because I would find it hard to pay attention when everything was putting me to sleep. I know it's highly regarded by nostalgics and has a strong following, but I cannot see any reason why.

Mary and Max

Simply delightful. The craftsmanship is spectacular and the story, despite its bleak and depressing characters, is handled greatly with fantastic humor and emotional resonance.

A Perfect Getaway

So, the first hour only offers beautiful scenery and the always enjoyable presence of Milla Jovovich, then there's a stupid twist they take too long explaining and then there's some cool-ish action with more beautiful scenerey (the director obviously got massive hard-ons when he learned he could do camera tricks in this scenes). All in all, a pretty boring, dull movie with no thrills and forgettable characters. But very beautiful landscapes.

Whatever Works

The joined forces of Woody Allen and Larry David first seemed like a match made in heaven, but this feels more like lost in limbo. David has a few moments where he shines and Patricia Clarkson gives a hilarious performance, but nothing in the filme ever comes off as either genuine or natural; it speaks of relationships without having anything to say.

Trick 'r Treat

I love how the movie looks and sounds, everything is clear and sharp. Pretty. As for the stories themselves, well, they're hardly considered scary, but they do provide great visuals and a lot of fun; everything is keeping more in the spooky, entertaining aspect and tone of Halloween and it makes for a great time.

Moon

First off: Sam Rockwell, wow. I liked and respected him as an actor before, but this performance totally made me loose my shit over him; he's exceptionally magnificent in his dual role. Also, the story moves amazingly presenting a "twist" to further develop a plot rather than as a cheap way of ending it. Constantly full of subtle surprises, Moon is an excellent entry in the science-fiction genre, and one that shows that with a solid performance and good storytelling you don't need huge bucks to make a good movie.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

The film starts with what I thought would be a great premise... but it turns out the movie wasn't about that at all. Though first somewhat intriguing, it quickly starts becoming more and more boring until it gets way too stupid and then it's over.

Where the Wild Things Are

Anyone who ever spoke to me knew this was one of my most anticipated movies for 2009 and I would watch the beautiful trailer over and over while I cried. It finally arrived and it didn't disappoint at all. Spike Jonze has transformed Maurice Sendak's story into a full-blown experience; a family movie that doesn't condescend to kids and isn't afraid to tackle heavy-handed themes such as loneliness and what makes or breaks a family. Kudos to Max Records, a kid with wonderful talent who engages you and makes you want to follow him in this adventure and also to the excellent voice work of a talented cast who soothe and scare you with equal intensity; you can feel every hair and every hug.

Bad Lieutenant

I really liked this movie and I thought Harvey Keitel did an amazing job letting us know who this character was and it was a very interesting and satisfying exploration about redemption; my only complaint is that I found his crying border on funny.

Hype!

Its fantastic how the grunge scene started out in a almost musically lost city, Seattle, at least for the music enthusiasts, and ended becoming one of the most influential music scenes in the world, in the 90's, gathering comparisons to the London scene in the 60's, or the New York scene in the 70's. As for me, being a really big fan of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, I really had the need to watch this documentary, since it brings an in-depth view on grunge origins and background, aswell as the consequences of its separation from the underground scene.

Mirageman

This is a Chilean superheroe movie starring the guy who stunt-doubled The Rock in The Rundown. Now, having just read, you would expect this to be a camp-gasm, right? Well, you'd only be half right. Though constructed with campy elements that show from time to time, this is a very earnest film that only wants to entertain by mixing martial arts with humor pretty successfully. Marko Zaror looks more cute than menacing as the titular hero, Mirageman; he's like a puppy who wants to kick ass, but everything is so fun, humorous and satisfying that you're happy to go along for the ride.
I just got it! Now I know what this movie remembers me of: It's like a Brock Landers film, but without the porn.

Chuck & Buck

For a very gloom subject, the movie knows how to be funny when it needs to. Mike White's performance really makes this a stand-out as he expertly portrays his unsettling man-child character and really makes us wonder about how we sometimes cling too much to our past and how past actions can affect or disturb us, yet it also has a touch of hope and it ends up being a rather positive movie about growing up and changing. I was really only bothered by how it seemed there was no end in sight at first, but I was glad how they finished the story.

Postal

Oh, I knew kharma would get Dave Foley back for breaking up Kids in the Hall by having him star in an Uwe Boll movie where he takes a shit naked and then tries to steal dick-shaped dolls. This is another Boll video-game adaptation except that now instead of being a horror movie, it's the lamest attempt at political satire this side of American Dreamz. Crude, crass and tasteless don't make for a funny movie when the people making don't have a sense of humor. I did laugh once very hard with one line (What is the difference between a duck?).

Surrogates

It's really not that bad. Maybe I had way too low expectations because I did not want to see it, but I kinda liked it. Kinda. The story does try to say something and you can see it trying as hard as it can to have a little more depth than most and the action comes second to this; actually, there are only about two short action scenes that mostly feel out of place. The actors all look really creepy when playing surrogates and, out of all the cliches in the world, my most hated is the one about the gloom hero suffering through the death of a child and/or wife. If they had taken that out and explored the themes and commentaries a bit more, it's be a great movie.

Very Bad Things

Not so much very bad things as very bad people. I mean, this was a hard movie to tell because you're basically telling your audience to root for horrible characters, but it doesn't mean it's impossible; at oine point, a character asks Christian Slater's character Boyd "Have you donde this before?" and the answer is, well, yes, he did it before as the almost identical character J.D. from the darkly satirical and hilarious Heathers. See the problem here is that while they labeled it a "dark comedy", it is mostly dark because the characters take themselves too seriously to be funny or interesting. Also, Jeremy Piven proves that not only he can be the most annoying person in the world, but he makes sure his characters are always equally as annoying. In order for this movie to work, they would have needed to either take out some attempts at humor or make the characters just so extremely ignorant, despicable and worthless that you would believe the entire situation (the latter works for the crew at Always Sunny in Philadelphia and that's the funniest show on television right now).

Año Uña (The Year of the Nail)

The second the narration starts, you just completely forget you are watching still photographs for 70+ minutes. The story is so extremely simple, but executed with such lovely, funny, sweet and touching characters that you can't help but fall in love; it was a will-they-or-won't-they anxiety I was very happy to be going through. I can't describe the movie anything better than pure enjoyment all the way through.