Pardon me? Blazing Saddles is a pure genius comedy. An all-time classic.

A few recent viewings:

Madagascar: D
I'm actually a little surprised at how much I disliked this film. Aside from some nice stylized animation and a surprisingly good David Schwimmer as the giraffe, the story is thin (zoo. escape. island. dancing lemurs. steak.), the voice acting is uninspired (Ben Stiller gives one of the dullest performances I've seen in an animated film, and whose idea was it to pick Chris Rock for a VOICE job?), the pop culture references are just tired (Family Guy already covered American Beauty via meat), and the script is just ridiculously unfunny. Dancing lemurs would be funny if they actually did funny stuff. Talking with accents and singing "I like to move it move it" isn't funny. Nor are the penguins, whose 'hilarity' we already saw in the trailers. So, props to Schwimmer and giraffes. Everything else just goes to crap.

In Good Company: B+
Topher Grace is awesome, and Dennis Quaid is pretty good. A bit too sentimental in its final act, though, and it never becomes quite as endearing as it should.

About Schmidt: A-
Fantastic. I thought the film at times too obviously elaborated on Schmidt's inner isolation, but the payoff is huge. The drawing at the end just killed me. On the verge of an A, actually.

Tarnation: B+
The closest thing to pure video art I've seen since Waking Life, and although it becomes somewhat of a vanity project (do his teenage endeavors into gay clubs really matter?), it's pretty great. The scenes tying the mother's shock treatment as a child to her current state are just heartbreaking.

The Aviator: A-
Never reaches the heights of intimacy that it could (I would have liked more Hepburn), but the film is so sprawling and the direction so infectious that it simply becomes huge entertainment.

Traffic - B+/A-
Casablanca - A
About Schmidt - A

Mr. and Mrs. Smith - A+

A great action comedy flick. I loved it. Angelina and Brad did a great job in this movie. This is probably my favorite movie of the year. Thumbs WAY up!!

Evil Dead- B+

I saw this for the first time yesterday night and its a great movie, the first part was kinda boring and slow, but the rest when the zombies or whatever they are attacked, was pretty cool!

D.E.B.S. - D

Bad, stupid, and unfunny. A waste of my time and money. Thumbs down. They let a good idea rot into a crap film.

Notorious - A-

Great chemistry between Grant and Bergman, and consist some classic Hitchcock suspense and film-making.

D.E.B.S. - 8/10 (A-)

WOW! I'm very surprised. I never thought I'd love it this much! It was so damn sweet and romantic! I loved it! I will definitely buy it. Very enjoyable! And you'd never know it cost only 4 Million to make. It looks great for that budget. You'd think it was more like 10 Million.

It's my #2 movie of 2005 so far... Better than any of the Charlie's Angels movies, especially the first, which it's much better than.

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D

Interesting concept, poor realization. The 3-D is actually less of a gimmick then in Rodriguez's other venture into the genre (Spy Kids 3-D). Considering the target age in entertains, though adults will likely find it boring and poorly written. The CGI is also rather atrocious, and the politically correct message is almost nauseating.

Still, good for what little it is worth.

C+

I watched a whole lot of DVDs this last week. Some of them for the second or third time.

Man on Fire: A. Top notch ensemble acting, emotional story about redemption, not your average revenge flick. Haunting music. Smart taut script. One of Denzel's best performances ever. Fanning is exceptional as the child he protects. One of last year's best movies. It improves on a second viewing, try it. First Tony Scott film I've thought was any good in a while.
Collateral - A. Possibly the best movie of last year. Again, like MoF it takes a superficially interesting action premise and adds depth to it. Great acting from all involved, Pinkett is the best I've ever seen her and Foxx is thoroughly convincing in his part. Cruise is Cruise, and we never forget who he is, but he does a better job of actually acting than you might expect. The scenes between Pinkett and Fox at the start is like something from 30-40 years ago in terms of quality.
Cellular: C. Run of the mill thriller, with some logic problems. Laughable in spots but has a few exciting moments.
Hellboy: C-. Laughably silly comic book movie. Just didn't work in so many ways. My favorite moment: when Hellboy saves his friend by hurling an oncoming SUV out of the way, probably killing some mother and her children but hey he saved his friend.
The Village: B-. Good acting, great use of music, some good emotional scenes, but the final act with the revelations and twists just kills it for me and makes it pointless. From now on M Night should only direct other people's scripts or write scripts for other directors.
Dodgeball: B+ Hilarious, Stiller's funniest movie, to me. I waver between B+ And A- on this.
Lemony Snicket: C for movie, B for DVD. The DVD contains some very funny extras, worth a rent.

The Sea Inside: B+
This is heavy, emotional stuff with some great scenes involving the effects of Sampedro's campaign and its influences on those around him, especially the two women. Unfortunately, with so much time spent on such relationships, his campaign becomes generalized, and in juggling the two women's roles, one unfairly gets brushed aside. Bardem is great, though. I'd like to see Before Night Falls.

Sin City

A

Just the fresh thing i was needing, thank you Robert Rodriguez =D> =D>

I agree completely.

Mr And Mrs Smith- A
Evil Dead- B
Superman: The Movie- B+
Exit Wounds- C+

Mr. & Mrs.Smith 10/10
Longest Yard 7/10
Sahara 6/10 I guess did not see much of it

Apocalype Now: Redux - A

finally saw this yesterday, even though I've owned it for years. It was a bit long, but I couldn't see near 50 minutes being cut as it was in the original.

The Aviator - B

Finally saw this, and, I have to say, I was a little disappointed. While the performances are fantastic, and the entire look of the film was extremely well done, the plot was sub-standard. There was not one main plot, no definite story arc, just a lot of anecdotes in Hughes' life that seemed like sub-plots. Therefore, both the beginning and ending seemed abrupt, because there was nothing to compare it to. A good film, but not a great one. Overrated, to be sure.

Hey xiayun, I saw the film very recently as well, and I also gave it an A.

I thought both Bergman and Cary Grant were simply amazing in it.

Definitely. I wish Bergman was in more Hitchcock's movies. She gave great performances in both Notorious and Spellbound.

Fittingly, I just watched Spellbound as well, three days ago.

It's not as good as Notorious, but the performances are once again quite good.


Bergman...is wonderful. The warmth and beauty, the demeanor, the grace, the intelligence, everything!

Catch That Kid- F-

O.M.G, This movie is soooo wrong, this is basically the plot- three 12 year old kids are plotting to rob a totally unrealistic bank and putting there life at risk, the girl uses her sex appeal to make the two boys help her!. there robbing the bank because the girls dad is sick and dont have money for an operation he needs!

of Course the kids get caught by the girls mother, the mom lies to keep them from getting in trouble, they dont get in any sort of punishment, because they were trying to save her daddys life by stealing $125K from a bank.....aaaawwww....

this is a sad rip-off of Spy Kids
Acting was awful, plot is so STUPID and unbelievely wrong, what a waste of money and time, seriously

This is quit possible the WORST movie for kids EVER!.....its setting a horrible message!

Batman Begins

A-

NOLA - 3/10 (D-)
Holy moly, what a terrible movie! I liked how it started but then it just got ... weird. Emmy Rossum was alright, I didn't think she sounded very good at the end of it, she sings much better in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Big thumbs down for this one.

Rewatches
CRUEL INTENTIONS - 9/10 (A)
CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL - 6/10 (B-)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith - B+

A surprisingly good action/comedy. The witty humour was on par with Ocean's Eleven, I thought. Brad Pitt was both quite comical and a believable assassin. Angelina Jolie, while looking good, didn't do a whole lot. The plot was weak, as to be expected, the exposition - despite being intruiging and interesting - lasted forever, and the entire film was overlong. Still, the action scenes were well choreographed, and the chemistry between the two stars was exceptional. All in all, a great summer blockbuster, and an above average film.

The Life Aquatic: **

*SPOILERS AHEAD!!!*









Was good, until they killed off Ned. That just kind of ruined the movie right there.







*SPOILERS DONE!!!!*