Recent theatrical viewings

[Jim H]

The Town - Pretty good heist film.  Entertaining, well-written.  The romance and a lot of the resolution seemed very conventional and kind of...  Meh to me.  Still, an 8/10.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - Fairly entertaining, but quite flawed.  The villain is never really SEEN doing anything bad, and thus it's hard to really hate him much.  Apparently audience anger at Wall Street alone is supposed to make him hiss-able, but I didn't really get that.  The ending also is a little far fetched.  Still, well-made...  It's a 7/10, but barely

Resident Evil: Afterlife.  Terrible writing, large plot holes, pointless characters...  Yeah.  Not so good.  I saw it in 3D, which did absolutely nothing for me.  At least I got in for free because of a free pass.  OK action scenes, and a couple satisfying moments.  A 4/10.

[Rev. Powell]

NEVER LET ME GO:  Kathy, Tommy and Ruth grow up at the pleasant but isolated Hallisham Academy in a fictional Britain that never was; they fall in and out of love with each other and grow up to discover that the purpose of their lives has already been set for them by the government. Emotionally affecting allegory of mortality that relies on a dreadful ironic inevitability instead of suspense and surprises to keep you watching; the major drawback is that it suffers from a lack of political and social details about its Brave New World.  From an acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.  The plot is supposed to be kept secret, though any B-movie fan or smart, observant person could figure it out from the trailer.   SPOILER IN GREEN: It's PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR done in the style of Merchant-Ivory. 

[Rev. Powell]

EASY A: Enjoying the sudden attention, a nondescript high school girl refuses to quash false rumors about her promiscuity, until things get complicated.  Moderately successful attempt to update a John Hughes-style 80s teen comedy for the 21st century, playing off Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER.  Annoyingly, the good and noble characters all speak like arch sitcom characters coached by professional comedy writers, while retarded Pentacostal preachers write the lines for the villains.  3/5.

[HappyGilmore]

Jackass 3D- Well, great movie if you're not expecting much in the way of plot, acting or whatnot.  Great if you like stupid stunts, pranks, and the like, but in 3D!.  4 Star Flick for what it is. 

Saw 3D- Really shouldn't have been in 3D.  Works best in 2D cause there's not many scenes where things "Pop" at you.  Overall, I hope it IS the end as they promise.  There's a considerable LESS amount of Tobin Bell as John Kramer in this, which takes away.  Although, I did like the nice throwback/surprise they had in store for fans of the first flick.  Rounded out the end nicely.  Overall, if you're a fan of the Saw series, it's worth seeing as it's the supposed final one.  The way it ended, I don't see them making a sequel unless they offered a LOT of money to who would be the next Jigsaw.

[Trekkie313]

Jackass 3D

[ulthar]

MEGAMIND 3D

Saw this one yesterday, and while I went into it with somewhat low expectations - since the original SHREK, I've been mostly underwhelmed by the Dreamworks offerings - I left pleasantly surprised.

It was slow to start and I was pretty bored during at least the first act, but got interested and more into the jokes later in the movie.  It was entertaining enough, and might just be my favorite Dreamworks movie outside the SHREK series.  This is just a personal thing, but I found Megamind's mispronunciations very endearing - the first time for "Metro City" amusing, but by the end, really funny to me.  That quirk just summed up the character beautifully in a very subtle way.

Without being familiar with the cast list before the movie, I watched the whole thing thinking Patton Oswalt was the voice of Minion (David Cross does Minion's voice, to his credit).

The big twist with Mega Man did not have a big payoff, but that's okay...it still set up a major plot point, so the writers did not force the issue(s) TOO much.

One big improvement to me is that they (Dreamworks) dropped the constant Pop Culture references and catch phrases (SHARK TALE was just agonizing in this respect)...the Megamind Universe stands on its own, which makes for much tighter story telling.

The 3D was okay, without being annoyingly overdone; Ebert recommends seeing it in 2D, and I don't disagree.  The 3D does not add anything that will be missed.

Finally, the soundtrack is a lot of fun, too.

I have to give this one a solid 3.5+ out of 5...it's not earth shattering cinema, but it's a fun flick with good characterization (for the main character, anyway).  The story JUST stays off the "completely predictable" line - again, enough to keep one engaged.  I could see giving it a rewatch (on DVD, not at theater) at some point, which is more than I can say for most of the recent Dreamworks efforts.

ON EDIT:

Boy, I completely forgot that HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON was a Dreamworks production.  So...above 'anti-Dreamworks' comments don't apply to that one. 

[Rev. Powell]

INSIDE JOB: Documentary arguing that deregulation of the financial service industry led to worldwide recession starting in 2008; it's ultimate conclusion is "Wall Street owns the White House."  It' basically a less radical, less entertaining Michael Moore-style rabble rouser.  Though Craig Ferguson's views on the financial crisis are fairly mainstream, it's difficult for the layperson to separate hard fact from polemic, and some of the techniques he uses for hostile interviews (which are obviously heavily edited, sometimes cutting just before the interviewee can answer a leading question ) are troubling. 3/5.   

[Rev. Powell]

UNSTOPPABLE: A rookie railroader (Chris Pine) teams up with a vet (Denzel Washington) to stop a runaway train.  Good action/suspense movie, not a lot of surprises but the stars were heroic and likable, and it seems like there hasn't been a good crowd-pleasing disaster movie in forever.  You could go as high as 4/5 for this one. 

[Silverlady]

UNSTOPPABLE: A rookie railroader (Chris Pine) teams up with a vet (Denzel Washington) to stop a runaway train.  Good action/suspense movie, not a lot of surprises but the stars were heroic and likable, and it seems like there hasn't been a good crowd-pleasing disaster movie in forever.  You could go as high as 4/5 for this one. 

I saw this one too and really liked it as well. Being I'm from PA, and a lot of the filming was done in PA, that was an added bonus for me.  Additionally, the movie was based loosely on true events which really took place in Ohio, not PA.

[Rev. Powell]

127 HOURS: The true story of Aron Ralston, who was trapped in a ravine at the bottom of a Utah canyon for (you guessed it) 127 hours when a boulder pinned his arm against the rock wall.  Director Danny Boyle shows almost as much ingenuity in telling this daunting one-man, one canyon story as Ralston did in staying alive.  Gruesome, yet inspiring.  4/5.

[InformationGeek]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: Great film and a good adaption of 3/5ths of the book.  Can't wait to see Part 2 coming next year.

[Rev. Powell]

VISION: FROM THE LIFE OF HILDEGAARD VON BINGEN (2009): Biopic on the life of the fascinating 11th century Bendectine nun who saw visions of God and was also a composer, philosopher, polymath, and a strong-willed woman who often butted heads with the Church's male hierarchy.  Amazing in it's ability to draw you into its now alien world and get you involved with clerical politics and the slow, quiet rhythms of cloistered life.  4.5/5.   

[BoyScoutKevin]

I just got back from watching "Chronicles of Narnia: the Voyage of the Dawn Treader," which I quite enjoyed. Not as much as the first two in the series, but I did enjoy it.

There was some good action sequences in it. There again not as good as the first two, but good nevertheless. Better than most of the action sequences I've seen in films this year.

Seeing the weapons they supposedly used did remind me they may look easy to wield, but actually their use requires more training than many of today's modern weapons.

If Edmund was my favorite character from the first film, then Eustace was my favorite character from this one. But the carving knife (I wonder if that in-joke was deliberate or accidental) he wielded was a clumsy weapon. Too heavy for one thing. He'd have been better off with a light sword and dagger. Lead with the sword and stab with the dagger. And aim for the eyes.

Forget the song that played over the end credits. My favorite piece of music in the film was Glenn Miller's "In the Mood," which was used at a garden party in the film. Though, the best rendition I've ever heard of the song was by the Henhouse 5 + 2.

I was going to ask whether there was going to be another film in the series, and I answered my own question. There's suppose to be a release of "The Silver Chair" sometime next year.

Anymore after that? Who knows? But there are three more books in the series. I know when the BBC did a TV production of the series between 1988 and 1990. They stopped with "The Silver Chair." So I hope there are films made of the last three books in the series.

Is he dead or not? At the end of the credits, there was one last credit: "In memoriam Michael Apted (1941-2010.)" That is normally done only when someone involved with the film has died, but I can't find anything else that says he has died. But if he has, this would be his last film he directed, which might be another reason to see it.

[Rev. Powell]

ENTER THE VOID (2009): A small-time expat drug dealer in Tokyo is whacked, and spends the rest of the movie as a hallucinating ghost.  This is an exploitation  film masquerading as an art film; it's two hours of nonstop sex and drugs, and thirty minutes of hippie spirituality from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Great eye candy (from both the drugs and the sex, and often from the combination---dig those glowing genitals!) make it worth a watch.  Add one star to the rating for each tab of acid you drop before screening it.  3/5.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I'd rather put this here, because (IMHO) this is where it belongs and not "Bad Movies."

"Tron Legacy" w/ Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner.

Which gave me cold chills and tingling sensations, and I can't remember the last time that happened, while watching a film.

Nice
Jeff Bridges IS Flynn. And I can't say that about many actors or many roles. And watching him here, gave me a better feeling about the upcoming "True Grit."

Nicer
Always watch for the in-jokes. There were in-jokes for the original "Tron" and "The Black Hole" early in the film. And was that an Apple, inc. in-joke later on.

Nicest
The soundtrack by Daft Punk. It is one of the best and one of the most appropriate I've heard in sometime. It'd be nice if the Academy gave them at least an Oscar nomination for their work in the film.

Nicer than nice
Q: "What do I need to do?"--A: "Survive." You heard it hear first. That one word is going to become a classic answer for alot of future questions.

The only not nice thing
Is not seeing David Warner, who was so good in the original, in the sequel.

Thus, as "Tron" was a film ahead of its time. Its sequel is also a film ahead of its time.

Trailers
I saw alot of new trailers, I hadn't seen previously. "Cowboys and Aliens," "The Green Hornet, "The Green Lantern," "POTC: on Stranger Tides," and "Thor"

The only one I plan on seeing is "On Stranger Tides." Maybe because I saw the first three, and this one looks more like a re-boot to the series, than a sequel. And it has mermaids (think bare boobies) and zombies in it. And how can I pass up a film with mermaids and zombies in it?

As for the rest. "Meh!" Excluding the fact that many of 'em could use a stronger storyline, probably the greatest error occurs in "The Green Lantern," when the hero is given a white guy for a sidekick. Thus negating one of the greatest and most original sidekicks in entertainment history the Inuit Pieface.

Next film in the theaters: probably "Season of the Witch" w/ Nic Cage, Ron Perlman, and Chris Lee, and is scheduled for a January 7, 2011 release in the area in which I live.