Plethora Of Mini-Reviews [Updated]

[Mr_Vindictive]

Figured I'd go ahead and post some short reviews of the films I've seen recently:

The Replacement Killers - So, a lot of you know I was on a John Woo kick a few weeks back.  Well, I finally got around to seeing Antoine Fuqua's Replacement Killers which is produced by Woo and highly influenced by Woo's films.  I wasn't very impressed.  The film was fun, and it was great to see Chow-Yun Fat in an American film as a bad ass killer, but it just didn't have the charm of Woo's films.  But it does have Mira Sorvino.....where is she nowadays???? That woman is hot!

8/10

March Of The Penguins - I didn't care for this one as much as I had hoped.  I am a documentary fanatic but this one just didn't work for me as well as I would have liked.  Sure the penguins are cute, and they are quite amazing creatures but the film didn't live up the hype for me.  My 2 year old loved it though.  Great voice over by Morgan Freeman as well.

6/10

The Brothers Grimm - Bah.  This could have been an amazing film if Terry Gilliam would have been able to work his absurd magic on it, but it falls flat.  There are brief glimpses of the Gilliam that I love but most of it is tacky crap.  Heath Ledger puts in a good performance but Damon is terrible.  If only Miramax had let Gilliam do his thing with this one.  Go rent Baron Munchausen instead.

5/10 (only getting a 5 for the brief flashes of genius by Gilliam)

The Skeleton Key - Another PG-13 horror film?  But wait!  Remember the trailers for this one?  "The last 30 minutes of the film is comparable to Rosemary's Baby.  You WILL be terrified!!!!".  What a load of crap that is.  I think that Kate Hudson is one of the most beautiful actresses out there today, but even her good looks couldn't save this film.  The ending was obvious and wasn't scary in the least.  Peter Sarsgaard is in the film, which would normally give it a few more points but his "southern" accent sounds like he's from New York.  Rent this one at your own risk.

3/10

Lord Of War - Andrew Niccol.  This guy has a strange track record when it comes to films he has directed.  First he starts with Gattaca, which I'm probably the biggest fan in the world of.  Fantastic film.  Then the guy goes on to direct S1m0ne?  WTF!?

I really loved his Lord Of War though.  Nicholas Cage plays a ukranian who lives in America and is an international gun runner.  Fantastic film that is sort of in the vein of Goodfellas when it comes to story telling.  I would have never guessed the ending, as I was assuming it would end like all of these types of films do.  I was wrong.  Great film, well worth renting/buying.

9/10

The Aristocrats - Much has been said about this documentary, so I'll not go into full detail.  It's a doc about the dirtiest joke in the world, and has nearly 100 comedians saying / commenting on the joke.  Really funny stuff in here.  The joke is so damn offensive and disgusting that it eventually becomes numbing.  This film is a great effort in the fight for the freedom of speech and is hilarious to boot.  Worth a rent, but not for the easily offended.

9/10

Hellraiser: Hellworld - I gave up on the series after the abortion that was Hellraiser 3.  I love the first two with all of my gore lovin heart but the third killed it for me.  I happened upon this 8th film in the series, and I must say I'm surprised.  Very much surprised.

The story follows a group of teens who play "Hellworld", an online video game based in the Hellraiser universe.  They each solve the puzzle box online, and are invited to a Hellworld party.  Once there, they meet the owner of the house (Lance Henriksen!) and are eventually taken out in gory ways, one by one.  

The film doesn't feel like much of a Hellraiser film, despite the puzzle box appearing throughout, and the Cenobites showing up for the occasional bit of fun.  This one was gory enough to keep me entertained and the story actually had quite a few twists that I didn't see coming.  Much better than most direct to video films out there today.  Certainly worth a look.  I highly enjoyed this one, despite it's massive cheese factor.

9/10

They Came Back (Les Revenants) - I've been wanting to see this one for quite some time now, and just recently found that Wellspring Entertainment had released it on DVD.

The film starts with thousands of people walking out of a cemetary in France.  Each one is in perfect health, and although they are a bit slower than they were in life, they just want to get back to their families and jobs.  The film focuses on the society's reaction to the dead coming back.  Everything is well until someone finds that the returned dead don't sleep, and that they are holding secret meetings in the middle of the night.....

Very slow, beautiful storytelling with amazing acting here.  I was engrossed the entire runtime, even during it's murky ending.  No gore in this zombie film but it does have an excellent feeling of doom/sadness throughout.  Fantastic sound design with this one as well.  I highly recommend this film.

10/10




I knew I had forgotten some films that I had seen.  Here they are:



WalMart: The High Cost Of Low Price - I really liked Robert Greenwald's earlier documentary "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdohc's War On Journalism" so I assumed I'd love his latest film which sets WalMart in his sights.

Unfortuantly, the film wasn't as good as I had hoped.  It states the obvious about WalMart.  It talks about how WalMart denies it's employees overtime, how the CEOs don't donate to charity, and about how WalMart has anti-union strike forces to keep unions away from employees.  All of this is information that we've found out in the last few years about WalMart, and doesn't really need to be retold.

Now, I'm not a fan of huge businesses.  It's painful to watch small family owned businesses go under due to the juggernaut that is WalMart, but that is the way it goes.  Sure, I'd love to see the money that towns give WalMart to setup shop in their area go towards things like schools....but it's not going to happen and I realize that.  And, yes I do shop at WalMart.  

Overall the documentary was underwhelming and not as entertaining as Greenwald's other works.  A dissappointment in my opinion.

5/10



Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room - I love documentaries, and this film is a great example why.  Alex Gibney took the book of the same name and made an amazing and fascinating documentary about the downfall and corruption of Enron.

The story isn't just figures and money.  It's more of a human story, about the various players involved in the scandel.  It follows Ken Lay, and Jeff Skilling as they go from being the heads of the seventh largest company in the world to being accused of "cooking the books" and screwing over their share holders.

The film is quite engrossing, and is thorough in it's investigation into the wrong doings at Enron.  Quite fitting that the dvd has come out now when the Enron trial has just started.  I highly recommend this one as a rental.

9/10

[Ash]

Lord of War was awesome!
I'm planning to buy it sometime soon.

It kind of reminded me of Blow starring Johnny Depp but with guns instead of drugs.

I loved the opening credit scenes that follow a single bullet (in first person cam) from it's creation, through the assembly lines, through inspection, being boxed up in a crate, that crate being spilled onto the ground, a rebel in some African country picking it up and loading it into his AK-47 magazine and ultimately shooting someone through the head.
All in first person perspective.

Lord of War is simply brilliant!

[Amanda]

I have Lord of War at home to watch...haven't done it yet.  I watched The Aristocrats and LOVED it.  You're right, it does get "numbing" after awhile, but the part that floored me?  Bob freakin' Saget.  His was the worst of all of them.  I just couldn't fully wrap my head around that.  *LOL*  

I liked They Came Back.  I was a little, hmmm, let down in the ending?  I'm not even sure that's the correct term I'm looking for, but I expected something more from it.  Exactly what, I don't know, but just something.  

I actually liked Skeleton Key.  Didn't LOVE it, but thought that it could have been worse (Venom - *shudders*)  

I liked March of the Penguins too....a lot, actually.  

I've watched every single Hellraiser thing out there, and I hated 3, but actually quite liked 4.  HATED everything else up until Hellworld.  I think I liked it just because Lance Henriksen was in it.  Whichever the last one was with Ashley Lawrence in it was so so bad.....ugh.  

Mira Sorvino is currently working on her 2nd baby in two years.  *L*  She married a guy who's 21 and looks a little too much like Bam Margera for my tastes.  

And lastly, Brothers  Grimm.  I cannot tell you how much I was looking forward to this movie.  I was disappointed, but not completely.  I found it to be a little long, but good.  Not great, not Gilliam-strength, but good.  I enjoyed it.  Except for Matt Damon.  He needs to just stick with Action.  

[Scott]

Been thinking about renting LORD OF WAR, but never heard of THEY CAME BACK. I'll put them both on my list.

[odinn7]

What? A zombie movie with no gore? What is this world coming to?

[LH-C]

I watched 'Thumbsucker' lastnight. I came to it with no expectations whatsoever (although I think a lot of the actors have been great in the past), and came away really liking it.