Director: Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener)
Stars: Julianne Moore (The Big Lebowski, Nine Months)
Mark Ruffulo (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 13 Going on 30)
YesNoSoso: 1
I have never wrestled with a YesNoSoso rating more than I did with Blindness. To start with, everybody is well versed in my hard-on for awesome concepts and apocolyptic themes and Blindness has both in spades. In the movie, an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness ravages the world causing a total breakdown in society. Julianne Moore's character is the only person unaffected by the disease and the story follows her and her affected husband, Mark Ruffulo, as they navigate the dangers of a society in collapse. But there were times between the :30 to 1:00 hour mark, where I found the movie to really drag. There were also multiple moments that deeply disturbed me. All in all I'm happy I saw the movie and appreciate the aggressive artistic direction, but wouldn't watch it again.
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7/24/09
7/22/09
Soupcons (The Staircase) (2004)
Director: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Un Coupable Ideal [Murder on a Sunday Morning], other french documentaries)
Stars: Michael Peterson (A real person, its a documentary)
YesNoSoso: 2
I apologize, this is another mini-series, but as with Afro Samurai and Generation Kill, it was so good I couldn't help but spread the word. I rented this after David Cross gave it a ringing endorsement on the Adam Corolla Podcast and I will pretty much do whatever David Cross tells me to. It did not disappoint. This is like the greatest Law and Order episode you've ever seen, except its all real.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Michael Peterson (A real person, its a documentary)
YesNoSoso: 2
I apologize, this is another mini-series, but as with Afro Samurai and Generation Kill, it was so good I couldn't help but spread the word. I rented this after David Cross gave it a ringing endorsement on the Adam Corolla Podcast and I will pretty much do whatever David Cross tells me to. It did not disappoint. This is like the greatest Law and Order episode you've ever seen, except its all real.
IMDB
Wikipedia
7/16/09
The Hangover (2009)
Director: Todd Phillips (Old School, Starsky and Hutch [which wasn't terrible])
Stars: Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers, Failure to Launch)
Ed Helms ("The Office", Meet Dave)
YesNoSoso: 2
Hilarious. I knew it would be when the WORST thing I heard about it from the multitude of people who saw it before me was that it wasn't as good as Old School. Most people absolutely loved it and for good reason. I agree that it wasn't as funny as Old School, but I thought it was a better movie. I felt Old School was a really flimsy plot loosely constructed to put really funny people in really funny situations. I was genuinely curious what was going to happen next in The Hangover, almost as if I was watching a mystery AND it put really funny people in really funny situations. Just an excellent movie all around.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers, Failure to Launch)
Ed Helms ("The Office", Meet Dave)
YesNoSoso: 2
Hilarious. I knew it would be when the WORST thing I heard about it from the multitude of people who saw it before me was that it wasn't as good as Old School. Most people absolutely loved it and for good reason. I agree that it wasn't as funny as Old School, but I thought it was a better movie. I felt Old School was a really flimsy plot loosely constructed to put really funny people in really funny situations. I was genuinely curious what was going to happen next in The Hangover, almost as if I was watching a mystery AND it put really funny people in really funny situations. Just an excellent movie all around.
IMDB
Wikipedia
7/10/09
The Hammer (2007)
Director: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld ("Stella", Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde)
Stars: Adam Corolla ("Crank Yankers", "Drawn Together" [both pretty solid])
Heather Juergensen (Kissing Jessica Stein [never seen it, but hear its a solid rom-com])
YesNoSoso: 2
This was a really pleasant surprise. I Tivo'ed The Hammer because Adam Corolla constantly pimps it on his podcast (which I highly recommend, just go to iTunes/podcasts and search for it, its free). Although being known more for his angry rants, Corolla does a pretty decent job acting and his supporting cast is more than adequate. There are several very funny scenes where the camera was clearly kept running while Corolla went of on an angry tirade and they edited it down to rapid fire jokes. A definite watch.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Adam Corolla ("Crank Yankers", "Drawn Together" [both pretty solid])
Heather Juergensen (Kissing Jessica Stein [never seen it, but hear its a solid rom-com])
YesNoSoso: 2
This was a really pleasant surprise. I Tivo'ed The Hammer because Adam Corolla constantly pimps it on his podcast (which I highly recommend, just go to iTunes/podcasts and search for it, its free). Although being known more for his angry rants, Corolla does a pretty decent job acting and his supporting cast is more than adequate. There are several very funny scenes where the camera was clearly kept running while Corolla went of on an angry tirade and they edited it down to rapid fire jokes. A definite watch.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Generation Kill (2008)
Director: Susanna White/Simon Cellan Jones (Some TV shit I've never heard of)
Stars: Alexander Skarsgard (Zoolander, "True Blood" [I've never seen the show but I've heard good things)
James Ransone ("The Wire", "The Third Watch")
YesNoSoso: 2
I was hesitant to even put this on YesNoSoso, seeing as it was a mini-series on HBO, but it only had seven episodes and was awesome so I thought I'd spread the word. From the same writers as "The Wire", Generation Kill tells the story of the first Recon Marine Battalion in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Like "The Wire" its full of pithy dialogue and vastly complex characters and it does an incredible job of parlaying the frenetic/mind-numbingly-boring duality of war.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Alexander Skarsgard (Zoolander, "True Blood" [I've never seen the show but I've heard good things)
James Ransone ("The Wire", "The Third Watch")
YesNoSoso: 2
I was hesitant to even put this on YesNoSoso, seeing as it was a mini-series on HBO, but it only had seven episodes and was awesome so I thought I'd spread the word. From the same writers as "The Wire", Generation Kill tells the story of the first Recon Marine Battalion in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Like "The Wire" its full of pithy dialogue and vastly complex characters and it does an incredible job of parlaying the frenetic/mind-numbingly-boring duality of war.
IMDB
Wikipedia
7/9/09
Straw Dogs (1971)
Director: Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, no other movie I've heard of, much less seen)
Stars: Dustin Hoffman (Marathon Man, Ishtar)
Susan George (literally nothing else I've ever heard of)
YesNoSoso: 1
Pretty awesome story of nerd who gets pushed too far. Dustin Hoffman plays a mathematician looking to escape the war protests of campus-life to get some work done in his new wife's small home town in Great Britain. Tension ensues between the local ruffians, who resent his intellectualism and his wife's flirtations. It may be a little slow in the middle but the asskicking Dustin Hoffman's character delivers in the end is totally worth the wait (not that I have pent up nerd dreams of revenge against bullies or anything). Oh and there's an oft-cited, very famous rape scene.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Dustin Hoffman (Marathon Man, Ishtar)
Susan George (literally nothing else I've ever heard of)
YesNoSoso: 1
Pretty awesome story of nerd who gets pushed too far. Dustin Hoffman plays a mathematician looking to escape the war protests of campus-life to get some work done in his new wife's small home town in Great Britain. Tension ensues between the local ruffians, who resent his intellectualism and his wife's flirtations. It may be a little slow in the middle but the asskicking Dustin Hoffman's character delivers in the end is totally worth the wait (not that I have pent up nerd dreams of revenge against bullies or anything). Oh and there's an oft-cited, very famous rape scene.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Letters from Iwo Jima (2007)
Director: Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Flags of our Fathers)
Stars: Ken Watanabe (Batman Begins, Memoirs of a Geisha)
Some Japanese people you've never heard of
YesNoSoso: 2
The companion piece to Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of our Fathers, was a steaming pile of boring shit so I was less than optimistic about this one. But it was actually quite good. Perhaps it was the mere fact that it offered a stark departure from the classic (and vastly overdone) WWII film in that it was told from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers. Clint provides some very in depth character development (par for the course) all while doing (almost) the entire movie in Japanese with English subtitles. After seeing this and Apocalypto I actually considered that maybe it is easier to develop in-depth characters in a language other than the viewers native tongue. Then I realized that was a stupid theory. I think these movies stand out and seem like they have such amazing characters because they are developed DESPITE being in a foreign language. Like someone who can juggle knives is pretty impressive, but if you can juggle knives while riding a unicycle that's something special. Also there's a Lion.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Ken Watanabe (Batman Begins, Memoirs of a Geisha)
Some Japanese people you've never heard of
YesNoSoso: 2
The companion piece to Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of our Fathers, was a steaming pile of boring shit so I was less than optimistic about this one. But it was actually quite good. Perhaps it was the mere fact that it offered a stark departure from the classic (and vastly overdone) WWII film in that it was told from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers. Clint provides some very in depth character development (par for the course) all while doing (almost) the entire movie in Japanese with English subtitles. After seeing this and Apocalypto I actually considered that maybe it is easier to develop in-depth characters in a language other than the viewers native tongue. Then I realized that was a stupid theory. I think these movies stand out and seem like they have such amazing characters because they are developed DESPITE being in a foreign language. Like someone who can juggle knives is pretty impressive, but if you can juggle knives while riding a unicycle that's something special. Also there's a Lion.
IMDB
Wikipedia
7/8/09
Sunshine (2007)
Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, The Beach [not that bad])
Stars: Cliff Curtis (Three Kings, 10,000 BC)
Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, Red Eye)
YesNoSoso: 2
Bizarre, but awesome. I have to admit, I will have to watch this movie again to fully understand what happened. I think readers of YesNoSoso are well versed in my hard-on for awesome concepts and this movie is no different. In Sunshine a bunch of astronauts are sent to the Sun in the year 2057 to reignite it, kind of like Armageddon. Unlike Armageddon, the ensemble cast they employed to act as the crew can actually...act (my apologies to Steve Buscemi). Also there is a supernatural and spiritual element to the plot that makes an interesting balance to the technical aspect of the science fiction genre.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Cliff Curtis (Three Kings, 10,000 BC)
Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, Red Eye)
YesNoSoso: 2
Bizarre, but awesome. I have to admit, I will have to watch this movie again to fully understand what happened. I think readers of YesNoSoso are well versed in my hard-on for awesome concepts and this movie is no different. In Sunshine a bunch of astronauts are sent to the Sun in the year 2057 to reignite it, kind of like Armageddon. Unlike Armageddon, the ensemble cast they employed to act as the crew can actually...act (my apologies to Steve Buscemi). Also there is a supernatural and spiritual element to the plot that makes an interesting balance to the technical aspect of the science fiction genre.
IMDB
Wikipedia
The Constant Gardner (2005)
Director: Fernando Meirelles (City of God, Blindness [which I didn't see but looked good])
Stars: Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List, Maid in Manhattan)
Rachel Weisz (The Fountain, The Mummy)
YesNoSoso: 1
I expect more from the guy who directed City of God. Its not that it was bad, I actually (as the YesNoSoso 1 implies) enjoyed my 2 hours. I suppose my expectations were too high on account of City of God being so out-of-this-world incredible. A good, albeit predictable, plot with obviously great performances make this film about drug companies in Africa a definite watch, just don't expect to be blown away.
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Wikipedia
Stars: Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List, Maid in Manhattan)
Rachel Weisz (The Fountain, The Mummy)
YesNoSoso: 1
I expect more from the guy who directed City of God. Its not that it was bad, I actually (as the YesNoSoso 1 implies) enjoyed my 2 hours. I suppose my expectations were too high on account of City of God being so out-of-this-world incredible. A good, albeit predictable, plot with obviously great performances make this film about drug companies in Africa a definite watch, just don't expect to be blown away.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Lars and the Real Girl (2006)
Director: Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock, "United States of Tara" [I haven't seen either and haven't really heard anything about either)
Stars: Ryan Gosling (Murder by Numbers [which was alright], The Notebook)
Paul Schneider (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Live Free or Die)
YesNoSoso: 2
This was a pleasant surprise. I put Lars and the Real Girl on my Blockbuster queue because I was intrigued by the concept, but expected the movie to be light on substance. It was actually an extremely warm and well executed film. Nothing special, but solid performances all around and a genuinely good feel. I had no idea Ryan Gosling could actually act.
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Wikipedia
Stars: Ryan Gosling (Murder by Numbers [which was alright], The Notebook)
Paul Schneider (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Live Free or Die)
YesNoSoso: 2
This was a pleasant surprise. I put Lars and the Real Girl on my Blockbuster queue because I was intrigued by the concept, but expected the movie to be light on substance. It was actually an extremely warm and well executed film. Nothing special, but solid performances all around and a genuinely good feel. I had no idea Ryan Gosling could actually act.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Terminator: Salvation (2009)
Director: McG (Charlie's Angels, We are Marshall [both sucked unbelievable balls])
Stars: Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, Reign of Fire)
Sam Worthington (Hart's War [This is the only movie of his I've even heard of, never seen it though)
YesNoSoso: 0
What a steaming pile of dog poo. This movie has absolutely nothing to offer except action (which is that good) and a hot chick (awesomely named Moon Bloodgood). Christian Bale completely phones it in and there is zero plot and absolutely awful dialogue. There were multiple occasions when the audience started laughing at very serious but poorly delivered and placed lines. Never see this movie. Your welcome.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, Reign of Fire)
Sam Worthington (Hart's War [This is the only movie of his I've even heard of, never seen it though)
YesNoSoso: 0
What a steaming pile of dog poo. This movie has absolutely nothing to offer except action (which is that good) and a hot chick (awesomely named Moon Bloodgood). Christian Bale completely phones it in and there is zero plot and absolutely awful dialogue. There were multiple occasions when the audience started laughing at very serious but poorly delivered and placed lines. Never see this movie. Your welcome.
IMDB
Wikipedia
JCVD (2008)
Director: Mabrouk El Mechri (some French crap you've never heard of)
Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport, Double Team)
A bunch of French people you've never heard of
YesNoSoso: 0
The concept of this movie is one of the most original and incredible I've heard in a long time. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Jean-Claude Van Damme, aging and struggling to find work. Fighting to gain custody of his child, JCVD suddenly finds himself in the middle of a bank robbery. I know, it sounds awesome, its just not. The movie has some cool, JCVD-type action (a lot of badguys staying still while JCVD does some ridiculous moves) but it really drags. The knowledge of its existence provides more cinematic satisfaction than actually watching.
IMDB
Wikipedia
Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport, Double Team)
A bunch of French people you've never heard of
YesNoSoso: 0
The concept of this movie is one of the most original and incredible I've heard in a long time. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Jean-Claude Van Damme, aging and struggling to find work. Fighting to gain custody of his child, JCVD suddenly finds himself in the middle of a bank robbery. I know, it sounds awesome, its just not. The movie has some cool, JCVD-type action (a lot of badguys staying still while JCVD does some ridiculous moves) but it really drags. The knowledge of its existence provides more cinematic satisfaction than actually watching.
IMDB
Wikipedia
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