Over the weekend:

THREESOME - 9/10 (A-)

I hadn't watched it for a couple of years. I bought it and didn't even open it until now. I watched it with a friend. She loved it as well.

HIGH TENSION - 9/10 (A-)

I watched it with the same friend I watched THREESOME with. I was worried she wouldn't like it , but she ended up loving it. Phew!

FREDDY VS. JASON - 7/10 ( B )

I haven't watched it since in theaters but I did buy it shortly after it hit DVD. It's stupid, cheesy fun with bad acting to boot. I was glad it kept the cheese of the other movies in each series, it wouldn't have been the same had it been serious. My friend thought it "alright." She said it was "interesting."



Today:

ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW - 5/10 (C-)

Don't believe the hype. This is easily one of the most overrated films of 2005. It felt so phony, pretentious, and self-indulgent. I cannot believe it had such amazing reviews. I thought it looked surprisingly really good from the trailer but it ended up being a pointless and somewhat dull waste of time. I was really glad it was under an hour and a half long. It tries way too hard to be art and to mean something that it's incredibly obvious and eye-roll inducing. I actually liked Miranda July in the movie, but it's a real turn-off to know she wrote and directed this wannabe film. The thought that people actually embraced this movie makes me feel sick. I personally recommend avoiding it and I hope I can soon forget it even exists.

sharkboy and lavagirl worst moviie ever not worth rating!

KICKING & SCREAMING - 5/10 ( C )

A dull and mostly unfunny movie. No wonder it didn't have good legs at the Box Office. I did find it funny though when he bumped stomachs with the one lesbian and knocked her down and then bumped stomachs with her partner and she knocked him down.

Jesus, so far all of the movies I rented last week have been duds. I have UNLEASHED and UNDEAD left yet and I think those will be good at least.

UNLEASHED - 7/10 (B-)

A good flick, but it did drag at times. It isn't as good as other Luc Besson produced films like HIGH TENSION, THE PROFESSIONAL, and THE TRANSPORTER.

Door in the Floor - B

Elephant - C ( Last 20min or so were kinda intense but the rest of the movie felt empty to me )

Green Street Hooligans - A

What a big surprise this movie was.

George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (B-)
Batman Begins (A)

The single flaw that completely defeats any possible good will one could show towards Doom is not be the paper thin characters, nor the idiotic plotline. Not even the laughable dialgoue causes Doom to be as awful as it is, although none of those three help. No, the ultimate failing with the film is that it's BORING.
When one looks over a movie such as Doom, the biggest mistake they could make would be to compare it to Million Dollar Baby or The Shawshank Redemption. Doom was never meant to win Oscars or be beloved by pretensious critics. However, it fails not only as a film, but even as being fun. Feeling like a watered down creature feature, it takes over an hour to build any momentum, and even when it does start to show some signs of life, it's far too little, too late. The Rock is only a supporting character to the boring Reaper (played with no enthusiasm whatsoever by Karl Urban), and even the famous wrestler seems annoyed to be stuck in this junk. The much hyped "first person shooter" aspect of the film, in which we see from the lead character's point of view as he blasts through various nasties, is by far the most exciting and worthwhile part of the film. It's just a shame that it comes within the last 15 minutes of the movie, and lasts less then half the time of the trailers that precede the film. One last ditch effort to make some excitement via an over-the-top fight that feels largely out of place is also amusing, but are twenty five minutes of entertainment really worth about 75 of boredom, with only sparce creature attacks to keep the audiences awake? When ticket prices are reaching $8 a pop, such mediocrity feels like borderline theft.
Nowadays many criticize big budget movies for feeling like someone else playing a video game on screen. Doom takes it one step further, you'll wish you were watching you were watching someone else play a video game. If ever a film's title was symbolic of it's quality, Doom would take the cake. D

wow, it's Doom that bad, MD? i was planning to see it this weekend.

Cinderella Man - A+

The Corrupter (C+)

I can't believe this is from the same guy who made Confidence. I was really disappointed.

If you want *really* good James Foley (and I'm not talking about Confidence or Fear), check out Glengarry Glen Ross.

Well, I saw The Evil Dead a few days ago. It was really fun, scary, creepy, if a little stupid at times I must say! B/B+

The Power of One-A

Fantastic. Perfect Africa-based thriller/epic. Performances are great all around, even 007 Daniel Craig is perfect as a villian Nazi. Key words: As a villian. I simply cannot see him being a good guy. Anyways, talk about a hidden jem, the movie is absolutley great. I suggest to all.

This morning:

DEAD & BREAKFAST (2005)

This was a real surprise. I didn't expect much from it at all and wasn't even looking forward to watching it, but it ended up being a very fun, very funny, and very bloody horror-comedy. I had a blast watching it! There was even a reference to "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." Ever Carradine (TV's "Commander in Chief" and "Once & Again") rocked in it! The music was really good too.

This also happened to have a lot of recognizable faces for being a small horror-comedy. Other than Ever Carradine (David Carradine's niece), there was Gina Philips ("Jeepers Creepers"), Bianca Lawson ("Save The Last Dance," "Bones," "Breakin' All The Rules"), David Carradine ("Kung Fu," "Kill Bill"), Erik Palladino (TV's "ER" and "Over There," "Latter Days," "U-571"), Oz Perkins ("Legally Blonde," "Secretary"), Jeremy Sisto (Showtime's "Six Feet Under," "Wrong Turn," "May," "Thirteen," "Clueless," "Hideaway"), and Portia de Rossi (TV's "Arrested Development", "Cursed").

I definitely recommend it! It's an underrated gem and a nice treat for Halloween.

Grade: 8/10 (B+)

Latest:

Two for the Money
Rated R, 123 minutes



What can I say about Two for the Money?

Well, to simply put it, it was *that* close to being one of the best films of the year. If not the best. If done properly, I seriously think it could've had potential to be a Best Picture frontrunner. Key words: If done properly. If one thing is constant throughout the film, its that they simply couldn't get their stuff together. They had a massive pile of potential on their hands, and they ended up with a massive pile of wasted potential. The plot and characters were there. They just completley couldn't pull it off, and it stands in a couple of most distunguishable ways:

1. Matthew McCaugheney wasn't the right man to take the lead role of Brandon. Not even close. The character they built up, with the John Anthony status, it could've been one of the highlights of the year. But when he gets up there and becomes John, where he's supposed to be selling his betting skills, he just doesn't convince us. We're supposed to want to call in, but we are turned off. I can't help feel that if they got someone with actual energy and charisma for the role, to work with Al Pacino, it would've helped.

2. Al Pacino. Don't get me wrong, he did a great job, but they simply didn't give him anything to work with. I mean, throughout the movie his character was set-up to be a mad-ass hard hitting businessman, and we expect him to full-out turn into this about halfway through it, right? He never does. Hes the friendly guy throughout the entire picture. He is always right on Brandon's side, going with him and defending him for whatever he does. He wasn't mean, at all. This was supposed to be one of the highlights of the film, and it was 100% absent. He didn't yell, he didn't get aggravated, there was nothing menacing in him whatsoever. When Brandon starts losing, hes there the entire time telling him that'll he'll come back and do better and to stop feeling so bad for himself. In fact, it boils down to the fact that in his last scene of the movie, he ends it as a grown man crying on the floor. Blah...

3. This was the biggest problem of all, in my mind: The entire movie was slow-paced, and dragged on too long. There were way too many unneeded scenes, and each one was spread to the maximum. What they ended up with, was that because every scene was dragged on and paced down to fit the 123 minutes running time, there was no real excitement. You couldn't get excited about what was happening in the story, because all your anticipation is waned down over the lengthy scenes as much as could be. The movie should've been about 85 minutes. There was not as much detail in this as in most movies, yet its 123 minutes long. There was so much useless blabber and wasted time. It just made the movie seem uninspired, and slightly ugly. If they included all the events needed, all the important stuff, 85 minutes still would've seemed too long.

So in closing, the movie should've easily been one of the best of year. I just feel that they were so uninspired with what they had to work with, they couldn't realize it. They grabbed a weak lead in Matthew McCaugheny, made Al Pacino's character a softie baby, and made the movie dragged out in every scene to fit 123 minutes, to the point of eliminating excitement. Nice going Hollywood.

Final Grade: C

...

Tis' my second review ever, so be patient with me.

Kolya: A/A-

Walk on Water: A+/A

Crash (2005) - A-

Very powerful film. I certainly see where the complaint of pretentiousness comes from, but it worked well for me. There are some interesting dialogs, but it's not the movie's strong point. Some are rather forced and trying to be clever, be Tarantino-like, but didn't use in the proper environment or have the same feel.

Rebel Without a Cause

B+

The Untouchables - One of my favorite films featuring a stunning portrayal of Al Capone by Robert De Niro, and the role that won my favorite actor, Sean Connery, his best supporting actor Oscar. Costner and Garcia are good, too. The score is one of the best ever.

A+

Doom B-

For about three minutes (the infected family/execution argument), it's a legitimately good movie. The rest of the time it's harmless fluff. Karl Urban took some getting used to, but by the end I was behind him all the way. That final fist fight kicked all kinds of ass.

In short, it's the movie Alien Vs. Predator wishes it was.

P.S. Why isn't The Rock a major action star yet? The guy's charismatic as all hell and just plain fun to watch on screen.

Yeah, I think The Rock is wayyyy underrated.

Although I think he should be banned from saying the F-word. He tries too hard.

Fever Pitch (B-)

It's good because of Fallon.

Spiderman 2

Not as great as the first one, but still very fun to watch especially the train scene!

B+

Gladiator [A]

Its about the 959th ive seen this movie. And about the 5th in the past year. Media class keeps making us analyse it and I go in with dread but always come out amazed and what ive saw. Time and time again. Great film, and a modern day classic.