Director: David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models)
Stars: Paul Rudd (Romeo + Juliet, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers)
Winona Ryder (Edward Scissorhands, Mr. Deeds)
YesNoSoso: 1
This is the worst of David Wain's three movies. It feels like its stuck inbetween the utter absurdity of Wet Hot and the realistic framing of Role Models. The Ten is really more of a collection of short sketchs loosely connected with a Ten Commandments theme. Some of the "skits" are hilarious and some are just not funny. If you are a State/Stella fan, then you will probably enjoy it, but i'm sure you will agree it could use more of the Michaels (Showalter and Ian Black...)
IMDB
Wikipedia
4/23/09
4/20/09
The Reader (2008)
Director: Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours [didn't really like either one])
Stars: Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Titanic)
Ralph Fiennes (In Bruges, Maid in Manhatten)
YesNoSoso: 1
The Reader was alright. Not that good, not particularly bad and Kate Winslet's performance was particularly underwhelming. When the Oscars were on I was enlightened, by my roommate, to the fact that the Oscars are like the Super Bowl for women. I didn't realize this and was rather disappointed in the viewing preferences of the opposite sex (but not very surprised). That was until the Best Actress category came up and my roommate (a relatively well-informed movie enthusiast) said, "God, I hope Kate Winslet wins." To which I replied "Have you even seen The Reader?" To which she stated she hadn't, causing irreparable and permanent strain on our relationship. Check it out I suppose, but prepared to be disappointed.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Titanic)
Ralph Fiennes (In Bruges, Maid in Manhatten)
YesNoSoso: 1
The Reader was alright. Not that good, not particularly bad and Kate Winslet's performance was particularly underwhelming. When the Oscars were on I was enlightened, by my roommate, to the fact that the Oscars are like the Super Bowl for women. I didn't realize this and was rather disappointed in the viewing preferences of the opposite sex (but not very surprised). That was until the Best Actress category came up and my roommate (a relatively well-informed movie enthusiast) said, "God, I hope Kate Winslet wins." To which I replied "Have you even seen The Reader?" To which she stated she hadn't, causing irreparable and permanent strain on our relationship. Check it out I suppose, but prepared to be disappointed.
IMDB
Wikipedia
4/16/09
Recount (2008)
Director: Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Austin Powers in Goldmember)
Stars: Kevin Spacey (LA Confidential, Pay it Forward)
Laura Dern (Wild at Heart, Jurassic Park III)
YesNoSoso: 1
I almost gave this a YesNoSoso 2. I loved it but I realized that my biased love of well made political themed movies was clouding my judgment. Still it is a very well made movie, that is surprisingly entertaining considering you know the ending and its not pretty. There was a moment were I actually caught myself being hopeful that Gore would win. It also sports an amazing cast including Ed Begley Jr., John Hurt, Denis Leary and the entirley underrated, Tom Wilkinson and Bob Balaban.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Kevin Spacey (LA Confidential, Pay it Forward)
Laura Dern (Wild at Heart, Jurassic Park III)
YesNoSoso: 1
I almost gave this a YesNoSoso 2. I loved it but I realized that my biased love of well made political themed movies was clouding my judgment. Still it is a very well made movie, that is surprisingly entertaining considering you know the ending and its not pretty. There was a moment were I actually caught myself being hopeful that Gore would win. It also sports an amazing cast including Ed Begley Jr., John Hurt, Denis Leary and the entirley underrated, Tom Wilkinson and Bob Balaban.
IMDB
Wikipedia
4/14/09
Akira (1988)
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo (some Japanese anime shit I've never heard of)
Stars: No One (There are multiple different versions with different voices, none of which I've heard of)
YesNoSoso: 0
Akira is the Citizen Kane of Anime in that it fundamentally changed the artform. Before Akira, Japanese animation generally cut costs on the visual effects, animated just the moving mouths and not to the words they were saying (think the cartoon on the TV that Butch falls asleep to in Pulp Fiction). Then Akira came along and painted, for the time, illustrious visuals with complex moving parts. But by today's standards, the animation is crappy and combined with the rough translation, makes for an unenjoyable movie experience. Although reading the wikipedia synopsis of the plot made me want view it a second time (the plot sounds pretty cool), all I had to do was remember how I struggled through it the first time to curb that desire. If you are a movie buff and would like the cross "seeing the movie that made Anime" then see it, if not, don't.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: No One (There are multiple different versions with different voices, none of which I've heard of)
YesNoSoso: 0
Akira is the Citizen Kane of Anime in that it fundamentally changed the artform. Before Akira, Japanese animation generally cut costs on the visual effects, animated just the moving mouths and not to the words they were saying (think the cartoon on the TV that Butch falls asleep to in Pulp Fiction). Then Akira came along and painted, for the time, illustrious visuals with complex moving parts. But by today's standards, the animation is crappy and combined with the rough translation, makes for an unenjoyable movie experience. Although reading the wikipedia synopsis of the plot made me want view it a second time (the plot sounds pretty cool), all I had to do was remember how I struggled through it the first time to curb that desire. If you are a movie buff and would like the cross "seeing the movie that made Anime" then see it, if not, don't.
IMDB
Wikipedia
4/13/09
Let the Right One In (2008)
Director: Tomas Alfredson (Some Swedish shit I've never heard of)
Stars: Kare Hedebrant (Nothing else)
Lina Leandersson (Nothing else)
YesNoSoso: 1
I heard a lot of really good things about this Swedish vampire movie, but mostly it was a disappointment. Perhaps I built it up in my mind too much, but I just thought it didn't bring enough of a new spin to a very well traveled path. Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie, but its more of a tween love story than a vampire movie, and not a very entertaining one at that. Still as far as vampire/monster movies go, its certainly in the upper echelon and worth checking out.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Kare Hedebrant (Nothing else)
Lina Leandersson (Nothing else)
YesNoSoso: 1
I heard a lot of really good things about this Swedish vampire movie, but mostly it was a disappointment. Perhaps I built it up in my mind too much, but I just thought it didn't bring enough of a new spin to a very well traveled path. Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie, but its more of a tween love story than a vampire movie, and not a very entertaining one at that. Still as far as vampire/monster movies go, its certainly in the upper echelon and worth checking out.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Role Models (2008)
Director: David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, "Stella"
Stars: Paul Rudd (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, Clueless)
Seann William Scott (American Pie, American Wedding)
YesNoSoso: 2
Hilarious. A lot more true to reality than Wain's opus, Wet Hot American Summer, but with plenty of tongue-in-cheek references for the enthusiastic. For as many horrible movies as Seann William Scott has done I still like the guy (seriously click on his IMDB link above, its basically a list of what not to watch), and Paul Rudd is infallibly hilarious, definitely one of my favorite actors. McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the Tracey Jordan Jr. (Bobb'e J Thompson) are the perfect complementary ensemble.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Paul Rudd (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, Clueless)
Seann William Scott (American Pie, American Wedding)
YesNoSoso: 2
Hilarious. A lot more true to reality than Wain's opus, Wet Hot American Summer, but with plenty of tongue-in-cheek references for the enthusiastic. For as many horrible movies as Seann William Scott has done I still like the guy (seriously click on his IMDB link above, its basically a list of what not to watch), and Paul Rudd is infallibly hilarious, definitely one of my favorite actors. McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the Tracey Jordan Jr. (Bobb'e J Thompson) are the perfect complementary ensemble.
IMDB
Wikipedia
4/6/09
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2 (2005)
Director: William Greeves (Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 1, nothing else I've heard of)
Stars: Noone I've ever heard of
YesNoSoso: 0
You can read my review of Symbiopsychotaxiplam: Take 1 and it will be precisely the same for the redux. Apparently this movie is a big deal in the film community for its adventurist concept because it got Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) and Steve Buscemi to executive produce a revisiting of it. Which is just as boring as the original, BUT with a Q & A with some key players! Skip it.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Noone I've ever heard of
YesNoSoso: 0
You can read my review of Symbiopsychotaxiplam: Take 1 and it will be precisely the same for the redux. Apparently this movie is a big deal in the film community for its adventurist concept because it got Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) and Steve Buscemi to executive produce a revisiting of it. Which is just as boring as the original, BUT with a Q & A with some key players! Skip it.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
Director: William Greeves (I haven't heard of anything else he's done)
Stars: No one famous
YesNoSoso: 0
Listen to the idea William Greeves envisioned for this movie: Audition film students to act in a movie, continually acting out the same scene. Then Greeves hired a crew to film a "making-of" and concurrently had a crew filming the crew hired to film the "making-of". Greeves purposedly filmed the "actual" movie terribly in order to incite a rebellion among the crew, a rebellion that actually does occur when the crew changes the ending to the movie (that didn't really exist in the first place). If that didn't make any sense to you, don't worry about it, the movie is extremely boring, unless you enjoy pompus film-school douchebags talking in airs of self-importance.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: No one famous
YesNoSoso: 0
Listen to the idea William Greeves envisioned for this movie: Audition film students to act in a movie, continually acting out the same scene. Then Greeves hired a crew to film a "making-of" and concurrently had a crew filming the crew hired to film the "making-of". Greeves purposedly filmed the "actual" movie terribly in order to incite a rebellion among the crew, a rebellion that actually does occur when the crew changes the ending to the movie (that didn't really exist in the first place). If that didn't make any sense to you, don't worry about it, the movie is extremely boring, unless you enjoy pompus film-school douchebags talking in airs of self-importance.
IMDB
Wikipedia
The Miracle of St Anna (2008)
Director: Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, The Original Kings of Comedy)
Stars: Derek Luke (Spartan, Biker Boyz)
Michael Ealy (Barbershop [I guess...the movie was ok...], 2 Fast 2 Furious)
YesNoSoso: 1
Another movie spent debating the warranted application of a YesNoSoso 0 or 1. This one slightly different then my experience with The Pope of Greenwich Village in that I had read all the terrible reviews, but my affinity for Spike Lee wouldn't allow me to believe the negativity. Alas, it was pretty bad. The movie contained some of Spike Lee's signature sylistic elements, which was cool, but it also contained a good number of ludicrous plot elements. Also the ending sucks.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Derek Luke (Spartan, Biker Boyz)
Michael Ealy (Barbershop [I guess...the movie was ok...], 2 Fast 2 Furious)
YesNoSoso: 1
Another movie spent debating the warranted application of a YesNoSoso 0 or 1. This one slightly different then my experience with The Pope of Greenwich Village in that I had read all the terrible reviews, but my affinity for Spike Lee wouldn't allow me to believe the negativity. Alas, it was pretty bad. The movie contained some of Spike Lee's signature sylistic elements, which was cool, but it also contained a good number of ludicrous plot elements. Also the ending sucks.
IMDB
Wikipedia
The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)
Director: Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror [both pretty good, but I haven't seen or heard of any of his other movies])
Stars: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, Double Team)
Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight, Phat Girlz)
YesNoSoso: 1
I received so many ringing endorsements of this movie I was surprised to be spending a majority of the movie figuring out whether it was YesNoSoso 1 or 0. Perhaps my dislike had to do with this being one of the original modern gangster movies, and since filmmakers have spent the last 25 years building on the genre, it seemed hackneyed. Who knows? But I was bored. Plus it ends rather anti-climatically and unresolved. Geraldine Page's speech to the police investigating her son's murder is one of the few shining lights making this movie barely worth the time to view it.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, Double Team)
Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight, Phat Girlz)
YesNoSoso: 1
I received so many ringing endorsements of this movie I was surprised to be spending a majority of the movie figuring out whether it was YesNoSoso 1 or 0. Perhaps my dislike had to do with this being one of the original modern gangster movies, and since filmmakers have spent the last 25 years building on the genre, it seemed hackneyed. Who knows? But I was bored. Plus it ends rather anti-climatically and unresolved. Geraldine Page's speech to the police investigating her son's murder is one of the few shining lights making this movie barely worth the time to view it.
IMDB
Wikipedia
4/1/09
Watchmen (2009)
Director: Zack Snyder (300, Micheal Jordan's: Playground)
Stars: Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Mission: Impossible III)
Patrick Wilson (Running with Scissors, Lakeview Terrace)
YesNoSoso: 2
Yes, I actually saw a movie in a theater, but I wanted to see it in IMAX, which was impossible since Watchmen got bumped in favor of Monsters vs Aliens and Under the Sea 3D (fuck you Dreamworks...and I suppose whoever made Under the Sea 3D). So I watched on the regular 30 foot movie screen like a commoner, and it was still quite awesome. The main complaints I've been hearing from people and the blogosphere (LOVE that word) are that its too long and the ending sucks (also that there is too much blue penis). I can definitely identify with both of these complaints (the blue penis was barely present and was certainly not "in your face", you really had to go out of your way to look at it. If your into that sort of thing). I was riveted to the screen for the first 2 hours of the movie but started wishing it would just end for the last half an hour. But still I don't know what should've been cut, this may be a case where I need to get my ADHD in check and just suck it up. I had no qualms with the ending, I just don't see any real reason they couldn't have just filmed the graphic novel's ending. Maybe a giant tentacle guy would've been too hard to believe or something. Pussies. All in all I am extremely happy with Snyder's Watchmen. To say I was upset when I found out a Watchmen movie was being made would be an understatement. I've always viewed Watchmen as the quintesessntial product of its medium and I was having a hard time believing a director (while resisting producers) would be able to accuratley portray its themes. Much like I don't think Citizen Kane would make a good book, I didn't think a Watchmen movie would work either. While the movie is nowhere near as complete as the book, Snyder did as good of a job as could be expected and has created a rather amazing peice of cinema.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Mission: Impossible III)
Patrick Wilson (Running with Scissors, Lakeview Terrace)
YesNoSoso: 2
Yes, I actually saw a movie in a theater, but I wanted to see it in IMAX, which was impossible since Watchmen got bumped in favor of Monsters vs Aliens and Under the Sea 3D (fuck you Dreamworks...and I suppose whoever made Under the Sea 3D). So I watched on the regular 30 foot movie screen like a commoner, and it was still quite awesome. The main complaints I've been hearing from people and the blogosphere (LOVE that word) are that its too long and the ending sucks (also that there is too much blue penis). I can definitely identify with both of these complaints (the blue penis was barely present and was certainly not "in your face", you really had to go out of your way to look at it. If your into that sort of thing). I was riveted to the screen for the first 2 hours of the movie but started wishing it would just end for the last half an hour. But still I don't know what should've been cut, this may be a case where I need to get my ADHD in check and just suck it up. I had no qualms with the ending, I just don't see any real reason they couldn't have just filmed the graphic novel's ending. Maybe a giant tentacle guy would've been too hard to believe or something. Pussies. All in all I am extremely happy with Snyder's Watchmen. To say I was upset when I found out a Watchmen movie was being made would be an understatement. I've always viewed Watchmen as the quintesessntial product of its medium and I was having a hard time believing a director (while resisting producers) would be able to accuratley portray its themes. Much like I don't think Citizen Kane would make a good book, I didn't think a Watchmen movie would work either. While the movie is nowhere near as complete as the book, Snyder did as good of a job as could be expected and has created a rather amazing peice of cinema.
IMDB
Wikipedia
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