Michael's Weblog

Movie Review of "Casanova"

Casanova has long been a name associated with seduction and lust. One man pleasing any and every woman that entices him seems like the dream of every teenage boy and many adult men. What happens when lust becomes love? "Casanova" the movie looks at this. Heath Ledger plays Giacomo Casanova, who is wanted by every woman, married or not, for pleasure. He is also wanted by the church for heresy and debauchery.

Sienna Miller plays Francesca Bruni, the smart and beautiful woman who challenges the male dominated world. It takes a woman like this to turn Casanova's head. He could have any woman, but he wants her, not to bed, but to spend eternity with. Of course, he represents all that is wrong with the world, especially man's belittling of women as nothing more than sexual objects.

This is a love story and an action movie. Deception and wild chases through Venice are prevalent. Jeremy Irons plays the high Inquisitor, Bishop Porci, who has finally come to end Casanova's life. Oliver Platt plays Francesca's never-seen fiance. It's a fun movie with it's share of faults, some obvious, some not so much. At times clever and at other times too busy, and not enough real plot.

Director - B
Acting - B+
Writing - B
Cinematography - B

Overall, I give this movie a B. It's a good second level theatre movie.

Movie Review of "Tristan and Isolde"

"Tristan and Isolde" was of interest to me from the very first time I saw its trailers. I have a background in Medieval History and who doesn't enjoy a good love story with war as its backdrop (something for everyone). Parts of this story may have been borrowed by Shakespeare for various of his plays, but its bears little resemblence to "Romeo and Juiliet" as a whole.

Tristan (James Franco) is an English knight before England was united. Isolde (Sophia Myles) is the daughter of the Irish King who rules over the "English" peoples. Thanks to fate they fall in love only to be quickly parted. Fate once again brings them together only to slap them in the face by keeping them near each other, but unable to love each other.

This movie is neither really bad nor very good. It's moderately entertaining. One of its most interesting aspects is the parts that are used in other stories. One of its best parts is the acting by Rufus Sewell (who play Marke), who by far is the best actor in the movie. Personally, I enjoyed it well enough, but wouldn't recommend it to the casual movie-goer. There are a lot of better movies out there.

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

Overall, I give this movie a C+. Rent it if you like Medieval History stuff or you want an action movie and a love story in one.

Movie Review of "Rumor Has It"

Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine and Mark Ruffalo all star in "Rumor Has It". Sarah Huttinger's (Aniston) life is not what she wants, but then again, she doesn't know what she wants. Her boyfriend (Ruffalo) does; he wants marriage. He proposes, she says Yes and instantly regrets it. It isn't that she doesn't like or maybe even love him, but instead, she just doesn't know if marriage to him is right for her.

When Sarah goes back home for her sister's (Mena Suvari) wedding, her life completely unravels. She finds out her family's life is intertwined into the story behind the book/movie "The Graduate". Not only this, but she finds out her dad might not be her dad.

She goes in search of the man who has been a part of her past without her even knowing it. Beau Burroughs (Costner) is the man who not only seduced her mother just before her wedding, but also was seduced by her grandmother (MacLaine). He is now a billionaire businessman who is as unhappy with his life as she is with hers.

This is a romantic comedy with a strange ending. The odd ending perhaps says more about marriage today than anything. Love somehow doesn't really enter into the equation. Given the choice, Sarah makes a decision without much thought. Lust or being comfortable seem to be her only choices. She also convinces her sister that marriage is based on being friends, not necessarily love. It's a weird way to end a romantic movie.

Director - B-
Acting - A-
Writing - B
Cinematography - B

Overall, I give this movie a B, but might see how some might like it better than that. A good date rental.

Movie Review of "Hostel"

In many circles, Quentin Tarantino's name is synonymous with violence. While I think this is greatly exaggerated, the movie "Hostel" will do nothing to reduce that notion. Based on truth or legend, I've heard there are places like this in the world. Two American college kids, Paxton (played by ) and Josh (played by ) are backpacking through Europe with their Icelandic friend Oli (played by ).

As always with college kids in movies (and perhaps reality too), sex both entices and causes problems. They meet up with a eastern European who tells them of a Hostel where the women are incredibly beautiful and easy. Without a second though, the three of them are on their way to heaven as they see it.

Once arriving, it seems to be as it was described. They instantly hook up with a few easy and beautiful women. When each one begins to disappear under suspicious circumstances, things go quickly bad. What happens from there must be seen, but only by those that can take the gore and violence. To think that this might actually be possible in the real world is disturbing. At once it makes you want to believe it can't be true and makes you wonder how much is true. This is definitely not a movie for kids.

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

Overall, I give this movie a B-. Rent it when you're in the mood for gore and violence done nauseatingly well.

Movie Review of "All the President's Men"

How could a movie fail with Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Jason Robards? Add Alan J Pakula and it's a no miss. Well, that's exactly what "All the President's Men" is. From top to bottom, it's a very well done movie. Redford and Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein, who are the Washington Post reporters that broke the much of the Watergate scandal. Jason Robards plays Ed Bradley, the Editor of the Post.

This movie plays the history very well as it unfolds over time. While there's some truth in the fact that a viewer completely unfamiliar with this event might find it a little confusing, it does a fair job at necessary background. I liked the investigative scenes with the various sources. I didn't like the fact they actually showed Deepthroat's face. I would have liked to not know his face, even though that secret is now out.

It's really impossible to know how true this movie really is, but I've never heard anything to say it wasn't (besides maybe from some people who don't want the truth of their roles to be known). It's also a good adaptation of the book.

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

Overall, I give this movie an A-. A great rental for families who have kids that know nothing about this part of history.

Movie Review of "Remember the Titans"

I just happened to watch "Remember the Titans" the other day. There was nothing on and I started watching it. I had never been interested in it, because I thought it was simply another football movie. However, I really like Denzel Washington (who plays Coach Boone). True story and high school football (as much as I enjoyed playing it) equals boring to me. I quickly found out I was totally wrong about it.

This movie was so much more than football. The era in which this movie takes place was quite turbulent. It was during the first integrations in the high schools of the area. A new coach given the job because he was black, and given no chance to succeed. Yet, thanks to his absolutes as a coach and a human being, he made it work.

This movie was at once uplifting and upsetting. It makes me angry that people could ever be so biased and are way too often still that biased. Yet, at the same time it shows what people can achieve when they step above all the bad that's happening around them. I was incredibly surprised by this movie. What started out as a nothing else is on movie turned into a why haven't I already seen this movie.

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

Overall, I give this movie an A-. If you haven't already seen it, go rent it today.

Movie Review of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"

While there have been a great number of literary classics made into movies, some were incapable of being made until the recent advent of high-tech realistic animation. “The Lord of the Rings” is one example of this. Another is the Narnia Chronicles. I red both of these series as a youth, “The Lord of the Rings” made a bigger impact on me, but I loved the Narnia series very much.

I’ve always felt the Narnia series had much more of a message to it the other books, even outside it’s obvious religious tones. So, when I went to see the first movie, I was expecting to see this message highlighted. I was disappointed. While the message was there, it was not prominent enough to be obvious. However, I was not disappointed with the movie as a whole. The animated characters were excellent. The talking animals were about the best accomplished animation of this sort I’ve ever seen. The four kids did a very good job playing their characters, although William Mosley was the best as Peter, perhaps because of his experience of years.

The story held very closely to the book. Still, I felt like there was something missing. I didn’t feel the attachment to the characters as one should. I wasn’t inspired as the book inspired me. I am not wondering how long I have to wait for the next film to come out. Watching it does not make meant to go and re-read the books. It certainly was an excellent effort to re-create the story in the book, but in the end, the emotion was not there.

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

Overall, I give this movie a B. If you liked the books, see it. If not, see it even more so.