I caught this movie on Monday night. I had heard from friends that it wasn’t that great, so I went in with low expectations.

Was it a great movie? No. But it was entertaining. Kind of a cross between all the Denzel Washington cop movies with a little bit of a time travel twist thrown in. They didn’t play up the whole “deja vu” aspect of the movie much, but did do a decent job with the time travel bit. Denzel is Denzel and he does a good job playing a cop. He’s done it a lot and the role works for him. I won’t go into too many details for fear of giving away the ending. It was nice to see the Iceman (aka Val Kilmer) in a movie again.

Overall, it was an alright movie. I’ll probably end up watching it again when makes it way on to TV and I run into it channel surfing some day.

BTW, they did leave the door open for a sequel… Deja Vu II.

I caught this movie as well. It’s much better than Babel (see my recent rant). I think this movie will be able to resurrect the Bond franchise. The last few movies have kinda been average at best. Too much flash and not enough substance. Big stars, big stories, but nothing behind the glare. It had gone the way of the Batman franchise. But then the Batman franchise was re-invented with Batman Begins. And Casino Royale is the reinvention of Bond.

This one starts out at the beginning. Bond becoming Bond. He’s still coming to grips with being a double-oh. Daniel Craig pulls off a good bond. I was worried when I first saw him cast as Bond. But I’m exited to see next movie.

Overall, the move was very entertaining. Lots of action, good story. My lone complaint was the movie seemed a bit long. It kept ending… and then keep going again.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=9078135433851233052&hl=en
Trailer

Unfortunately, I did go see this movie. I had seen the trailer, heard the buzz, and fell for it hook line and sinker. Trailer looked sweet… lots of action, exotic locations, big stars, topical story. Great voice over about the meaning of “babel“. Well, this movie fell short on just about all of those lofty goals. It did have big stars and exotic locations, but that is about it.

Don’t want to know any spoilers, stop reading now… You’ve been warned and probably realize by now that I didn’t like the movie.

Here’s the trailer that sucked me in…
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8100943220822131074&hl=en
Babel Trailer

Now on to the meat of the review. The trailer made the movie look interesting. Terrorist attach on some tourists, face paced editing, multiple stories all converging. But in truth, the pacing was slow, it had multiple stories, but for all the interest they generated, the could have just focused on the one main story. The others didn’t really add anything to it.

The stories in tiny little nutshell…
Tourist shot and it’s possible a terrorist attack.
Dysfunctional girl in Japan wants to “grow up”. Dads too busy to notice.
Housekeeper/nanny’s son is getting married in Mexico.

In the end, all the stories are tied to together, but in truth, they didn’t really add up to much. I was sorely disappointed.

Another week, another new movie. Yes, I managed to catch Stranger than Fiction on Friday. Previews looked good going in. I kinda figured it wasn’t go to be a comedy, like Will Ferrell’s work so far, but I thought it looked promising.

I was right. The movie is a drama, but with lots of laughs. Will’s characters lives a monotonous life until one day he starts hearing a voice in his head. It’s female with an accent, and as he puts it, uses a better vocabulary. Things then get interesting. He goes to meet a literature expert, played by Dustin Hoffman who starts off trying to diagnose Will’s character as having the same thing as Rain Man (can’t think of the right term, so I won’t use any). He eventually comes around to the idea that yes, this guy does have someone narrating his life and tries to help him.

I’ll stop right there and leave it up to you to go see the rest of the story. I thought the movie was great and will probably be in some discussions for some acting awards for Ferrell. He pulls off his character that well.

Go check it out.

How to start this review of Saw III… I guess my first comment will be is that I found parts of this movie to be difficult to watch. What I mean by that is in a way that parts of the Passion of the Christ were difficult to watch, so were parts of this movie. (This is the only way these two movies are similar.) For some, the scenes may not bother them, but they did bother me. But then, I have a difficult time watching ER on occasion. With that said, I had a feeling there could be parts like that, they weren’t unexpected.

Now on to the meet of the story. And yes, this movie, unlike the typical horror movie, has a plot, or connecting story. The way it started, I was worried. It seemed to be going down the path that I though Saw II followed… which was creative ways to get people to kill or maim themselves. But then the story started coming together, much like the original Saw, and in the end, I can honestly say I enjoyed the story. And I do mean story.

For those of you that are fans of the first Saw, of which I am, you should definitely enjoy this movie. And those of you that just want a good horror movie, you’re in luck to. It isn’t going to stand up to the likes of The Prestige or The Departed (two very good and recent movies) but, nonetheless, a good horror movie.

No, I’m not talking about the Pearl Jam song, but the IMAX movie BUGS in 3D. I caught this one tonight, knowing full well that it would be like watching a Discovery Channel show on the GIANT screen. And that it was. Seeing great big bugs, like the one pictured, tower over you on the 4 story tall screen is quiet impressive. I do mean tower.

The movie opens with a stunning 3D view of a rain forest and then seemingly out of nowhere, I giant spider descends into your field of vision right in front of your eyes. The spider looks to be the size of your fist and at arms reach, so it is right in front of your face, literally. Definitely not something for someone who doesn’t like spiders.

The cinematography was simply amazing. From the spider I already mentioned, to seeing one bug eat another from a perspective much closer than you’d could even try to watch someone eat to the must disgusting scene of the movie where preying mantises seem to fall off (or out of, I wasn’t sure) a giant (relatively speaking) ball of goo as a baby mantis, and then another, and then another, and…

Overall, it was a good nature movie, and like I said, similar to what you could see on TV, except for the giant screen and amazing 3D effects.

Caught this movie on Friday. I remember hearing mixed reviews of it from when it came out originally. I would tend to agree.

The storytelling is a little disjointed, jumping from flashbacks to now, never really knowing who the first person perspective is that we are hearing the story from. Needless to say, it was a little confusing. Not that I want to piss of Clint Eastwood, but after watching Million Dollar Baby, I expect more.

Watching to learn a little about history, I found it very interesting. To see how our Nation rallied around a photo and the stress and strain it put on those individuals who were in it put the photo (and the memorial it inspired) into a whole new perspective. The portions showing the beach landing were also very interesting. Much like the opening of Saving Private Ryan, I thought they were very well done, probably just a notch below the level of intensity in the opening of Ryan. They make you realize just how horrible war is.

To summarize this already brief review, I found the historical portions of the movie interesting but the story telling a little hard to follow. Worth watching a some point, you’ll learn something new, but no need to run to the theatre.

Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima as shown in Flags Of Our Fathers

Are you watching closely?

That is one of the opening lines of The Prestige, if not the opening line of the movie. It would be if you did, because if you don’t watch closely, you’ll be left behind wondering what just happened.

I managed to catch this movie a while back. It was a movie I was anxiously waiting for because it was directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins). I wasn’t disappointed. It was a little strange to see a movie starring Bruce Wayne and Wolverine and have them not be super-heroes, but this shows that they do know how to act.

The movie’s premise is the competition between two magicians and their desire to one up the other. Nolan has proven himself to me to be a very crafty story teller. He has resurrected the Batman series and told one phenomenal story in Memento. Much like those movies, he weaves a very interesting story. It took me a while to really understanding how he was telling the story, but about half way through I knew what he was doing and am happy to say I figured out the end before hand, if only by a little bit. Although I did get the feeling that the people behind me were still confused once the credits came up.

I won’t go into many of the details of the story, other than to say I thoroughly enjoyed it and how it wove itself into some of the real history of the world. Much like the magic tricks in the movie, this movie has three parts and the third part is worth the wait.

If you like Memento, go see this movie. If you like a movie that keeps you thinking, also go see this movie.