Movie Review Blog

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

2008-03-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

No Country for Old Men is an Academy Award-winning 2007 film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem. Faithfully adapted from the well-received Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, No Country for Old Men draws heavily on McCarthy's themes of chance and fate; it tells the story of a drug deal gone wrong and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas.

The film has been highly praised by critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "as good a film as the Coen brothers…have ever made." A Guardian journalist said the film proved "that the Coens' technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based Western classicism reminiscent of Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are matched by few living directors."

Over wide shots of desolate, expansive West Texas country in June 1980, local sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) recalls of the changing times amidst an increase in the region's violent crime. As he concludes his tale, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is arrested by a sheriff's deputy, who has time to describe Chigurh's unique captive bolt pistol to the sheriff over the phone before Chigurh strangles him with his cuffs and escapes.

Meanwhile, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) hunts pronghorn antelope near the Rio Grande when he stumbles upon a collection of corpses and a lone dying man, the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry. In addition to a shipment of heroin, he finds two million dollars in a satchel, which he keeps, leaving the lone survivor to die. Later that night in bed with his wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), Moss's conscience convinces him to return to the site with water for the dying man, in the process setting off a cat-and-mouse game in which the hunter and hunted frequently switch roles, as a gang of Mexicans, Moss, Chigurh, and Bell chase each other and the money across the Texas and Mexico landscapes.

Chigurh, a professional hitman, is hired to retrieve the satchel of money by using a radio receiver which corresponds to a small transponder hidden in the satchel. Chigurh does not hesitate to kill those in his way, including those closely associated with the drug deal, the drivers of cars he steals for transport, and people he encounters by chance. Moss, unaware of the transponder's existence, sends his wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) out of town and moves from motel to motel as he attempts to elude both the Mexicans and Chigurh. In the meantime, Bell avoids the federal authorities’ investigation of the original drug-related massacre and focuses his attention on trying to locate and protect Moss. Chigurh, with his tracking device, inexorably closes in on Moss while acting as an agent of fate and chance to the people he meets along the way.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

2008-01-12T06:58:00.000-08:00

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a Romance Comedy movie about a musician named Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) who just broke up with his girlfriend, a television star named Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Trying to move on and forgetting Sarah, Peter takes an impulsive trip to Oahu. But something that he doesn’t know, Sarah also travels to the same resort as he. And the worst is, Sarah is bringing along her new boyfriend. This movie is from the same director who brought you The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

Halloween

2007-09-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

It's been five years since the last movie in the "Halloween" franchise and with next year being the 30th Anniversary of the original John Carpenter movie, surely it's more than fair game for a remake, right? Fortunately, the normal hate that might normally greet a remake of a classic film might be somewhat alleviated by the fact that it's helmed by a director with a strong vision like Rob Zombie, who combines what worked in John Carpenter's original movie with over a half hour of new story to develop the Michael Myers character even further.

Despite my general dislike of Zombie's previous work, his remake of "Halloween" shows a lot of intelligence and skill in determining what needs to be retained in order to appease the fans but also what was lacking by showing how and why a young boy could turn into a brutal killer. The prequel portion of Zombie's movie sets up Michael's escape and killing spree by showing him as a 10-year-old boy, killing animals and school bullies before the fateful Halloween night that got him locked-up. With more money to work with than his first two movies, Zombie makes a damn good looking movie that's every bit as stylish and creepy as the original with the addition of much more of Zombie's trademark blood and gore.

Those waiting to see the grown-up Michael Myers wearing the mask and cutting a swath through the teens of Haddenfield will have to wait nearly 40 minutes, but there's a lot to enjoy during that time, such as Malcolm McDowell as a suitable and acceptable replacement for Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis. He brings his own thing to the character, particularly in the Smith's Grove scenes where he tries to work with the young mask-loving Michael to find out what makes him tick. Zombie's wife Sheri Moon is so good as Michael's stripper mother that you might wonder whether this is the breakout role that allows her to get roles in other filmmakers' movies. She's clearly the best part of Zombie's normal roster of regulars that he brings to the table, but he also offers welcome additions like Danny Trejo as one of Smith's Grove's kinder guards who looks out for Michael.

15 years later after this extended intro, Myers has become a silent, lumbering beast, a true monster portrayed without a hint of irony by Tyler Mane, who effortlessly escapes, killing anyone who gets in his way, and starts to offer the kind of gore that should suitably sate anyone aching for it. Once Michael returns to Haddenfield is also where the movie turns into more of a straight remake, complete with many of the same visuals and beats from the original, overusing Carpenter's themes to the point of being annoying, because it's constantly reminding you how this new version pales in comparison to the original because it samples so liberally. Much of the blame has to be laid on the casting of Scout Taylor-Compton. Rather than living up to the earlier work by slasher flick pioneer Jamie Lee Curtis, she comes across like a bratty screaming bimbo who normally would get offed in this type of movie.

Once the movie becomes about Michael chasing her around the neighborhood, it quickly grows tiresome, but if you think you know where things are going, then you may be overestimating Zombie's desire to make this movie work as a stand-alone. He offers a number of clever and unexpected twists that certainly will wake up anyone who has gotten bored, because it's the first time since Myers' escape where Zombie shakes things up. That said, where he leaves things after pulling the rug out from under the viewer might leave one even more disappointed.

Madagascar Movie Trailer

2007-09-07T02:06:00.001-07:00

Madagascar is funniest movie I've been seen :)

Blade 4

2007-09-04T02:24:00.000-07:00

This is an awesome film, but.. just watch, and you will know..

MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY

2007-08-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

The mostly silent, bumbling idiot Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) leaves dreary London behind for a glamorous vacation on the French Riviera. That's the plan, anyway. When he arrives in Cannes, however, Bean is mistaken as both a kidnapper and a highly regarded movie director and must use his wits to get out of many sticky situations. Which is, for him of course, impossible.

Batman Begins Trailer

2007-08-20T01:14:00.000-07:00

Watch Trailer BATMAN here..

The Kong Of Kong Trailer

2007-08-19T20:29:00.001-07:00

Hary potter and the order of the phoenix

2007-08-19T20:27:00.001-07:00

Watch the trailer here..

Transformers, The Trailer

2007-08-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Watch Transformers trailer here.

Shrek 3 Trailer

2007-08-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

Spiderman 3

2007-07-25T05:29:00.000-07:00

Peter Parker has begun to feel secure in his life and plans to propose to Mary Jane. One night in a park, while Peter and Mary Jane are on a date, a small meteorite crashes nearby, and an alien symbiote oozes out, attaching itself to Peter’s moped. Meanwhile, escaped convict Flint Marko falls into a particle accelerator which transforms him into a shape shifting sand manipulator. Peter’s best friend, Harry Osborn, who seeks vengeance for his father’s death, which he believes Peter caused, attacks him. The battle leaves Harry with short-term amnesia, making him forget his vendetta.

Later, during a festival honoring Spider-Man for saving Gwen Stacy’s life, Marko attempts to rob an armored car, and overpowers Spider-Man. Captain Stacy later informs Peter and Aunt May that Marko is the one who killed Ben Parker, and a vengeful Peter waits for Marko to strike again. The symbiote bonds with his costume while he is asleep; Peter discovers that not only has his costume changed, but his powers have been enhanced as well. The black suit also alters Peter’s personality, making him more violent, exemplified by a near lethal attack on Marko during a battle underground.

Affected by the suit, Peter exposes and humiliates Eddie Brock, Jr., a rival photographer at the Daily Bugle, who sells fake pictures of Spider-Man. The shift in Peter’s personality alienates Mary Jane, whose stage career is floundering, and she finds solace in Harry. Harry then recovers from his amnesia and forces MJ to break up with Peter. After Mary Jane leaves Peter, stating she is in love with another man, Harry meets him at a restaurant and claims to be the other man. Later, Peter finds him at the Osborn mansion. With the help of the black suit, Peter is victorious in a brutal fight, which leaves Harry’s face disfigured.

In an effort to make MJ jealous, Peter brings Gwen to the nightclub where Mary Jane works and gets into a fight. In the scuffle, he accidentally knocks MJ to the floor. Peter realizes the symbiote-suit is changing him for the worse. He runs out of the nightclub and goes to a church bell tower to be rid of it. Initially he is unable to pull the suit off, but the sound waves from the church bells weaken the symbiote, freeing Peter. Eddie Brock is at the same church, praying for Peter’s death, and the symbiote falls from the tower and takes over his body. The newly powered Eddie finds Marko and suggests that they join forces to destroy Spider-Man.

The pair use Mary Jane as bait to force Spider-Man to confront them. Peter approaches Harry for help, but is turned down and leaves. However, Harry learns the truth about his father’s death and arrives in time to rescue Peter, teaming up against Brock and Marko. As the fight progresses, Brock attempts to impale Peter with the glider, but Harry sacrifices himself and is fatally wounded. Peter recalls how the church bell’s toll weakened the symbiote, and frees Eddie from it by clanging several pipes together. Peter throws a pumpkin bomb at the symbiote just as Eddie, who has grown attached to its power, attempts to re-bond with it. Eddie and the symbiote are destroyed in the explosion.

After the battle, Marko tells Peter that he had no intention of killing Ben Parker, and that it was an accident born out of a desperate attempt to save his daughter’s life. Peter forgives Flint, who dissipates and floats away. Peter and Harry forgive each other as Harry dies with Mary Jane and Peter by his side. Afterwards, Peter and Mary Jane begin to mend their relationship.

Harry Potter and the Pre-Release Leaks

2007-07-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

It's a good month to be Harry Potter but not a good time to be one of the many book and movie execs trying to protect the boy wizard from media pirates. Just days before the much-awaited release of the seventh, and final, book in J.K. Rowling's Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will hit bookstore shelves, the tome has apparently been leaked all across the Internet. And for those who doubt the validity of the many websites purporting to reveal who lives and who dies in the Potter universe, there are sites that even offer up pages that, allegedly, were photocopied from actual copies of the book. And Potter book publishers aren't the only ones feeling the sting of illegal copiers. Anne Thompson reports at her Variety blog that illegal copies of the fifth Potter flick, and current box office champ, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, are already available for illegal download online, as are downloads of the remake of the John Waters musical Hairspray, which doesn't even hit theaters until Friday. Both movies have popped up this week at Google Video.

Source:
Harry Potter Watch: It's on Google Video, Along with Hairspray
New Potter Book May Have Made Its Way to Web

CAPTIVITY

2007-07-12T04:23:00.000-07:00

When a serial killer kidnaps and tortures a fashion model and her chauffeur, the two victims develop a romantic relationship inbetween getting beaten and cut up.

info: http://captivitythemovie.com/

LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD

2007-07-12T04:20:00.000-07:00

John McClane (Bruce Willis) and a wisecracking hacker (Justin Long) fight an "Internet terrorist organization" that threatens to bring down the U.S. government, perhaps with some sort of spam or phishing scheme.

info : http://www.livefreeordiehard.com/

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

2007-07-11T02:59:00.001-07:00

It has so much fun and magic, you'd think it could not all be contained in a single movie. On the other hand, it also lasts long enough to be a movie and a half, and you feel every minute.

This remarkably faithful adaptation of the phenomenally popular J.K. Rowling book should please the book's millions of fans. Director Chris Columbus, backed by one of the largest crews ever to work on a motion picture, presents a physical representation of the wondrous world of Harry Potter exactly as one imagines it when reading the book.

It is destined to become a classic.

The secret of the book's appeal, along with its sense of humor, is the way Rowling mixes fact with fancy, giving a matter-of-fact treatment to witches and wizards and magic potions. Broomsticks fly, trolls are mean and ugly, and vicious three-headed dogs are named Fluffy. This film captures this essence of the book, as well as its spirit.

Daniel Radcliffe stars as Harry, a boy mistreated by the simply awful relatives who raise him, and who learns on his 11th birthday that he is the son of two accomplished wizards. He is invited to an elite school of wizardry, where he will learn how to perform all the really neat magic that only wizards can do.

At the school, Hogwarts - Rowling has a way with names - Harry meets most of the rest of the characters in this well-populated tale. His best friends are the smart showoff Hermione Granger (Emma Watson, the best of the film's child stars by far) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint, who is mostly a waste).

Among the notable actors portraying teachers are wonderful Maggie Smith in a witch's hat as a stern but softhearted teacher, an almost unrecognizable Richard Harris as the wise wizard who runs the school, Robbie Coltrane as a Falstaffian school functionary who has trouble keeping secrets and Alan Rickman as the dark and glaring teacher of magic potions. John Hurt also contributes a particularly charming characterization as a magic wand salesman.

Columbus pulls everything together by going back to his roots as Steven Spielberg's protege. Like his mentor, Columbus creates a sense of childlike awe and wonder. He has tapped into a universal yearning to cast off our jaded cynicism and go back to a time when everything seemed sparkling and mysterious, and when anything was possible.

Unfortunately, he creates this sense of childlike awe and wonder in exactly the same way Spielberg does, and with the same frequency (too often). Again and again and again he has his characters stare wide-eyed and open-mouthed until you wish they would just close their mouths already. Childlike awe and wonder are one thing, but after awhile they just start to look stupid. Plus, you begin to worry that something might fly in there.

The Spielbergian effect is emphasized by the pounding, unending music by Spielberg's favorite composer, John Williams. It is often played louder here than the dialogue. And like Spielberg, Columbus puts his trust entirely in the special effects that are almost as constant and unavoidable as the music. For the most part, the computer-generated effects are amazing but they remain resolutely two- dimensional.

Columbus wrote the child action-adventure movie "The Goonies," which has unaccountably been granted cult status by an entire generation. The tone of "Harry Potter" is much like what that film wanted to be, with mystery and surprise around every corner and the characters saying "whoa!" and "wow!" at every possible opportunity.

The difference is that "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" works from a solid story. Steve Kloves' intelligent script concisely distills Rowling's wickedly clever book, which has thrilled millions of readers, young and old.

Fans of the book will not be disappointed. And those who have not read it will be utterly enchanted

Transformers

2007-07-03T01:17:00.001-07:00

We knew it would be dumb. But we had no idea it would be so much dumb fun.

Transformers is so jokey that it's practically a goof on the crummy TV cartoon it is based on.

Blowing through the entire Dreamworks-Paramount explosives budget for the year and joked up and acted (by Shia LaBeouf as if he's auditioning for the Royal Shakespeare Company), it's downright giddy for the first hour or so.

Then the stupid robots start talking and the whole enterprise crumples like a Cobalt in a compactor.

In the best Independence Day tradition, we're introduced to the characters -- soldiers, computer geeks -- and the peril facing the planet. There's a sandy assault on a U.S. base in the Middle East in which a helicopter transforms into a monster that plows through tanks, planes and Army Rangers like a bush hog in deep grass.

Pentagon security networks are compromised. And everything from police cars to CD player boom boxes morph into something menacing.

"This is as bad as it's ever goin' to get," drawls the Secretary of Defense (Jon Voight).

Which puts a serious crimp in the hopes of Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf), who only wants to buy his first car and get the attention of his school's Jennifer Connelly look-alike (Megan Fox).

But that magic first automobile is an aged Camaro that Sam doesn't choose. It chooses him. The rusted yellow muscle car has a need to protect Sam and help its fellow General Motors products find something called The Cube, which contains the One Spark (probably an AC Delco product).

All of this is zipped through in a giggling hour-plus of rapid-fire LaBeouf banter, sight gags (the alien cop car has "To Punish and Enslave" painted in place of "To Protect and Serve") and chihuahua-in-a-cast jokes. The Camaro's AM radio helps Sam to court the lovely Mikaela with tunes ranging from "Drive" (by The Cars) to "Sexual Healing," "I Feel Good" and "Baby Come Back."

Cameos by Bernie Mac (as a car salesman) and Anthony Anderson score. A comically threatening government agent (John Turturro) shows up. Assorted teen computer whizzes are introduced and all but forgotten.

And then the showdown begins.

Transformers hails from the Fecal Age of TV cartoons -- dim-witted 80s junk solely aimed at selling the toys that were "the stars." Appropriately, the movie is basically a two-hour-and-twenty-minute ad for GM -- Chevys, Pontiacs, Caddy Escalades.

Director Michael Bay, returning to his pre-The Island form of entertaining junk food movies, keeps things loose and fast for much of the film -- so fast that the robot-on-robot fights are metallic blurs. He does a fair job of hiding the most sophomoric stuff (robots copping "street" attitudes, imitating Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, and adapting hip-hop speak). Fans who grew up with the TV show will recognize some of the voices of the gear-grinders -- Optimus Prime, the Autobots (good robots) leader is voiced by the TV Optimus.

Robots will throw-down. Robots will die. Then Optimus goes all metal-messianic on us, marveling at the human race's bravery, and a lot of that fun is undone.

Thank Hasbro for Shia LaBeouf. He hurls himself into this as if his very career depended on it. His glib interplay with his dad (Kevin Dunn), off-hand putdowns and reactions to the lunacy going on around him are out there and on the money. Best of all, when he's running for his life, he's running for his life.

It's a summer popcorn movie, so you take the good with the ready-for-recall. It doesn't have Die Hard's body-count, Spider-Man's gravitas or Pirates' obscene length.

But if you grew up with the toon, it'll be a fun ride down memory lane -- in a Chevrolet.