Michael's Weblog

Movie Review of "The Sure Thing"

I received “The Sure Thing” as a Christmas present this year. It’s one of my wife’s favorites and thus was on our list. John Cusack (one of my favorite actors), Anthony Edwards (pre-ER) and Daphne Zuniga star as college students. Gib (Cusack) and Lance (Edwards) are high school best friends who end up on opposite ends of the country for college. Lance went to California, Gib ends up in New England. Gib meets up with Alison (Zuniga) at college and instantly falls for her. Yet, they do not want to admit to themselves and certainly not to each other the mutual attraction. They are in many ways opposites meant to attract.

Alison’s boyfriend is at UCLA where Lance has taken up home. When Lance tells Gib that he has a “sure thing” waiting for him in California in the form of a beautiful blond, Gib decides to hitch a ride out to LA for Christmas break. Alison, coincidently, hitches a ride with the same couple. Gary (Tim Robbins) and Mary Ann have to put up with the constant nagging and lack of enthusiasm for showtunes. Most of the movie is the results of Gib and Alison being kicked out of the car. Finally Gib meets his “sure thing” and Alison’s boyfriend realizes Alison doesn’t really love him, just the idea of what he was to her. Alison and Gib end up back in New England in the English Class where they first met. Alison finds out Gib couldn’t go through with the “sure thing” and of course a beautiful friendship begins.

While this movie is not spectacular, it certainly has its moments. The dialogue is well-written and the chemistry between Cusack and Zuniga is excellent. I’m not sure how many college guys would see the ending as a realistic one, but it fits perfectly into the movie’s course.

This is a fun movie. I enjoy it every time I see it. While I’m sure it’s not the intention of the movie’s makers, it is also a good lesson movie. Just because something is possible, doesn’t mean it’s always a good thing to do.

Director – B
Acting – A-
Writing – B+
Cinematography – B

Overall, I give this movie a B+. This is an excellent date movie, rent it if you haven’t seen it.

Movie Review of "Pride and Prejudice"

While I’m sure many people have never read “Pride and Prejudice” and even more than that most do not know the story, I will not spend much time on that in this review. Suffice to say that this movie is based on the classic novel by Jane Austin (one well worth reading if I may say as well). Keira Knightley stars as Elizabeth Bennet, the strong willed and independent daughter of a middle class family. She and her sisters are bent on finding husbands to relieve their parents of the burden of caring for them. The sisters range from the timid and shy to outlandish and wild.

Elizabeth, of course, falls for a man who is not at all what she expects as her type. This movie is an exceptional retelling of a sometimes sad love story. It will be a classic as much as the novel is. Knightley and Mathew MacFadyen (who plays Mr Darcy) give excellent performances in the lead roles. Donald Sutherland, who plays the father Mr Bennet, and Judi Dench, the wealthy Lady Catherine de Bourg, perform to their usual greatness. This movie needs to be on everyone’s top three movies of the year. It is perhaps one of the best adaptations of a classic novel to date.

Director – A-
Acting – A
Writing – A-
Cinematography – B+

Overall, I give this movie an A-, a must see for anyone who likes the classics, and not a bad one for anyone else either.

Movie Review of "King Kong"

When going to see a remake, I am always ready to be disappointed. When going to see an over-hyped movie, I am always ready to be disappointed. So, when I went to see the remake of “King Kong”, I wanted to be thrilled and excited as it really looked good. However, a part of me expected to be very disappointed.

Jack Black plays an eccentric documentary maker, Carl Denham. When Carl realizes he’s about to lose the funding for his new film, he gets ready to leave New York to make it anyway. He finds out, next, that he’s lost his leading lady. Luckily, he finds Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) outside a nude review, where she almost enters for work. He convinces her to come aboard his ship and be his leading lady.

They make their way to a hidden island where they meet up with scary natives, dinosaurs and most importantly “King Kong”. This is one of the best movies of the year. The writing, the cinematography, the computer animation, the direction, the acting; all of these are top notch. Black is excellent as always; Watts is sexy and innocent, playing her role to perfection; Adrien Brody, who plays the brooding writer Jack Driscoll, is tremendous. This movie is one of those rare must sees for everyone.

Director – A
Acting – A
Cinematography – A
Writing – A

Overall, I give this movie a straight A. Go see it.

Movie Review of "Aeon Flux"

Charlize Theron is certainly proving herself as a flexible actress, in more ways than one. She has played the beauty, the beast and now the action hero. “Aeon Flux” reminds me a little of “Logan’s Run”, about which Ross from “Friends” once said was the sexiest movie ever. The story starts with the world down to one city. A virus has killed off most of the population. Those in charge have complete control of the society and rebels are out to remove them from power. However, the control goes further than anyone outside the inner circle suspected.

Aeon (Theron) is an agent for the rebels. She is finally given her dream mission, to kill the leader. During her mission, she begins to realize that there is more to the behind the scenes world than anyone knew and that perhaps the leader is not the evil man that many make him out to be.

This movie is an interesting look at a future possibility and human nature. It never gets as scientific or philosophical as it could, which may be a good thing for most of its target audience. Yet, it could have done a better job without becoming too artsy. Theron looks good as the sexy agent, but her action sequences aren’t as fluid as they should be, almost as if they could only film her for short periods of time. However, the movie as a whole was enjoyable, but certainly nothing special.

Director – B-
Acting – B-
Cinematography – C
Writing – B-

Overall, I give this movie a B-. Not a bad rental

Movie Review of "Godsend"

Some movies try to highlight current political issues with a “what if” attitude. Some take this through a realistic direction and other through a fantastical direction, where it is so far from reality it’s hard to notice the issue being raised. “Godsend” brings the question of human cloning to the forefront. A couple Paul (Greg Kinnear) and Jessie (Rebecca Romijn) Duncan lose their son to a freak car accident. Jessie’s college professor, Richard Wells (Robert De Niro) comes to the rescue at their weakest moment and suggests that he can bring their son back to life, through human cloning.

All seems well as Adam (Cameron Bright) grows up showing much of the same tendencies as he did growing up the first time. This is quite a statement of nature vs nurture, as many of the same exact things happen to him, even though he’s in a completely different locale. The problems begin when he reaches the age when he died in his first incarnation. This is where the fantasy and horror begins too.

I really can’t say too much good about this film. It’s not scary enough to be a horror film, but too unrealistic to be an honest look at this issue. It also takes the ‘nature vs nurture’ too far to the nature end. Adam does and says things exactly as they happened in his first life. This is just stupid to me. No matter how closely his tendencies would be to his original, different situations and locations would affect him at least a little. It wasn’t interesting enough to overcome some of its shortcomings like this.

Director – C-
Acting – C
Cinematography – B
Writing – D+

Overall, I would give this movie a C-. Not really even worth a rental.

Movie Review of "The Ice Harvest"

I hope John Cusack never tires of making movies. The characters he chooses to play are always interesting and real in an odd way. “The Ice Harvest” stars Cusack, Billy Bob Thorton, Connie Nielson, Oliver Platt and Randy Quaid.

Charlie (Cusack) and Vic (Thorton) plan and pull off a heist, stealing over $2 million from their mob boss employer. This all takes place on a night in Kansas where a storm brings snow and ice to the city, effectively shutting off their escape temporarily. Charlie wants Renata (Nielson), local Madam of sorts, to leave with him. She, of course, runs one of the crime boss’s strip clubs.

All Charlie and Vic have to do is act normal for one night. Of course, this becomes a very real problem for Charlie, who doesn’t have a normal life and thus finds it decidedly unsettling to try and be normal. His attempts at such are obviously unnatural for him. People quickly begin to notice that something is up.

This movie has some great scenes, some very witty dialogue and some fun. I enjoyed nearly every minute of it. It’s one of Cusack’s best performances. And Thorton is excellent as his accomplice. Randy Quaid is not in the movie much, but I really enjoyed his character.

Director – B+
Acting – A-
Cinematography – B
Writing – A-

Overall, I would give this movie an A-. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

iPods, Video and quality

It's no surprise to me that Apple's new video service has become fairly popular in its first few months. There are enough people in the world who either 'need' to have the latest gadgets or can actually utilize them for useful purposes. While most people agree with Apple, that the latest revision of the iPod is still first and foremost a music player, many people find video on it acceptable for their needs. In actuality, it looks better than I expected. Yet, Sony's PSP is ten times better at video, larger and slightly better quality image for movies. There are reasons why neither the PSP nor the iPod will be a regular portable movie source for most people.

The PSP requires the user to buy movies in a different format (UMD disc) than one normally has for home viewing and it's necessary to carry discs for every movie you might want to watch on the road. So, double the cost on your favorite movies or decide to be able to watch them in only one way (on the PSP or Television). In addition, if you're on the road for a significant time period, it's a real headache to carry around all the UMD discs you might want to watch.

The iPod gives the user the ability to carry multiple shows with the device (and perhaps one day, multiple movies), no extra baggage needed. In addition, one can use the iPod for both portable use and at home viewing (with an extra cable). Sounds like the perfect device. Yet, it's not. While the quality of the video is great on the iPod and perhaps acceptable on a monitor or even a television screen, for me, the monitor and television viewing sucks. The standard image is so small that increasing that size up to a 50" widescreen television makes it unwatchable.

So, when anyone comes out a with a portable player that matches the iPod/iTunes Movie Store ease of use with the quality of HD images I get when I watch my satellite or cable broadcasts on any platform (TV/portable viewer/Monitor), I will be the first in line to buy one.

Now, that being said, it would not surprise me if this is exactly what Apple has in store for us. With H.264 encoding, scalability becomes a lot easier. Produce once at high resolution and you get video that looks as good on a iPod as it does on a 102" projection screen. As we all know from past experience, Apple does a good job of producing items that look and feel good, but aren't quite up to the level they will be. The iPod wasn't the must have item that it now is until iTunes. The iPod Video when it actually comes out (not the iPod with video) will be as well.

Movie Review of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

While Hollywood has never had any problems remaking movies, good or bad, it seems difficult to see why someone might want to remake a classic. When I heard “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was being made, my first thought was to how they would redo Willy Wonka, and the great job Gene Wilder did at playing that role. My second was how they might do the Oompa Loompas.

Johnny Depp is one of my favorite actors and I definitely saw that as a plus. The Oompa Loompas, I didn’t know. After watching the movie, I think they scored big with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. Umpa Loompas were another matter. I really didn’t like the fact they were all a clone of each other.

As a whole, I thought the movie was well done. There were many familiar scenes, and some new ones. The scene with the squirrels was wonderfully bizarre. Equally wonderful and bizarre was Depp. The scene where Wonka comes out to an introduction by animated puppets gone bad was great. This movie had a totally different presence than the first. I wouldn’t say better or worse, but definitely different. It was enjoyable and fun, but at the same time odd and weird.

Director – B
Acting – B+
Cinematography – A-
Writing – B+

Overall, I would rate this movie a B+, but be prepared for something different than the original.

Movie Review of "Dogville"

As anyone who reads my reviews knows, Nicole Kidman is my favorite actress, I see everything she makes. However, it has taken me quite some time to see “Dogville”. After seeing, I know why. I can’t say this was a horrible film. It was quite interesting and the set design was somewhat bizarre (in a good way). The whole film takes place in a mountain town called Dogville. Grace (Kidman) shows up in the town a fugitive, from what, she doesn’t offer and no one really asks. The town reluctantly takes her in, mostly due to the preaching of Tom Edison (Paul Bettany). The towns people move from reluctance to dependence to downright abuse.

“Dogville” is certainly an interesting look at human nature. Even Tom, the philosopher, gets caught up in his own arrogance. Arrogance is an important topic in “Dogville”. As interesting as the story is, I could never really get into the movie. The acting is superb. The direction is very good. Yet, as the movie wore on (its almost 3 hours long), I was simply waiting for the end. The end, while not necessarily worth the wait, was intriguing. It showed once and for all what the three hours was leading to. I don’t know whether to recommend this movie or not. Simply said if you don’t like artistic pieces, don’t see it. If you do, watch it, but be ready for the slow speed and the simple discovery of what people are, not what they want to be.

Director – B+
Acting – A
Writing – B-
Cinematography – B

Overall, I give this movie a B. A rental if you like movies which are more than they first seem. If you’re willing to take the time to watch it, really watch it.