2007 Film List - Page 4

Brook K · 07-20-2007, 10:19 AM

Ghost Rider - Can't say I wasn't warned...Actually this is not awful, just pretty mediocre. It has it's moments here and there, I liked how the Penance Stare was filmed and the baddies were actually credible unlike say, the FF movies. However, putting aside the so-so script, corny dialogue and uninspired direction, the whole project is flawed by Ghosty's look. A too-small flaming head on a broad-shouldered (was this Cage or a stuntman?) person just looks silly. - C

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - I probably agree with many of the points the two Adam's made above, and yet the whole thing worked for me exceedingly well. This was by far my best experience with a Potter film. Despite cutting out loads of material, it get's to the heart of the book and the core of the characters in a way that the other films never quite managed. It also is one of Gary Oldman's finest performances, doing a great deal with his limited screentime. Yes there could have been more of many things (Snape is always criminally underutilized given how Rickman just inhabits the character, Luna, the still-banished Doby, the Longbottoms (I would have cut the Trelawny scenes to see Frank and Alice in the asylum), and the Prefect material would have been a great scene for Ron and given him a little more to do in the movie), but the material we have is emotionally resonant and true to the spirit of Rowling's creations. I feel much better about The Half-Blood Prince and Yates now, then I did going in. - A-

Bridge to Terabithia - Not much to say that hasn't been said about this quality family film that deals with friendship and loss. I like how much it engaged my kids, my daughter read the book the next day at camp, and my son is still asking questions about it three days later. A small criticism is that the final scenes felt rushed and didn't come off nearly as well as the earlier scenes in the film. And not to sound too much like George, but despite my generally positive feelings about it, 4/5's of the film is very good, this doesn't feel like a film I want to revisit. - B+

King: Man Of Peace In A Time Of War (2007, Henry Stephens)
Hour long documentary spends 35 minutes or so on a brief, but not insubstantial, overview of Martin Luther King's life and career, interspersed with "talking head" interviews with various political and entertainment figures (Jesse Jackson, Colin Powell, Laurence Fishburne, Eriq LaSalle, etc). The last portion of the film is an archival interview with King appearing on the Mike Wallace show and discussing his views on Vietnam and other social issues of the time. Compelling material, though I was hoping for a more focused treatment of King's involvement with Vietnam issues. - B

ZacharyTait · 07-20-2007, 11:06 PM

Added the following to my list:

Ocean's 13: 3 1/2 Stars. Breezy adventurous followup to Ocean's 12. I knew what the payoff was, but the journey was so much fun. Bring on, Ocean's 14!

License to Wed: 2 Stars. Mostly unfunny movie that gets saved from movie hell thanks to John Krasinski's performance. He consistently made me laugh, something that Robin Williams didn't do. I found the kid annoying. How can you have a scene set in Jamaica and not show Mandy Moore in a bikini? For Shame!

Seth Paxton · 07-21-2007, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck Mayer

I rarely post in here, but I did recently see Badlands for the first time. It's a year older than me. Almost all of the Malick details are there. Beautiful film. I'm stocking my Netflix with old unseen goodies, and Badlands was top of the list.

Yeah, Malick is amazing. The New World was my favorite 2005 film.

Stocking the Netflix list...ugh, reminds me of why I'm not at HTF as much, stupid S&S challenge. I feel guilty if I don't knock off a S&S flick, but half the time I worry about the film being too arty or draining. Half the time they are very enjoyable, but sometimes not so much.

At times I just say "F it, I'm having fun", but then another disc from the S&S shows up and I feel like I shouldn't watch anything but it so the other 4 just sit there.

Adam - I had a totally different reaction to Potter

Harry Potter and the whatever it is #5
9 of 10
First the bad, too much story for too little film time. This creates a Columbus effect as you can clearly see how huge portions of story have been squeezed in with poor choices like dialog interjections or forced scenes from out of nowhere. That does impact it's flow as a film. Either make 2 films or suck it up and punt some major portions out and let the book fans be damned.

However the story itself was the most impressive yet in my mind. The tension and conflict has improved during the series. So that countered the choppiness of the script fairly well for me.

Then you have the standard top-notch effects and some really choice acting from people like Fiennes and Oldman and I think you have a pretty great ride. I really enjoy the performances of all the kids, though obviously Hermione and Ron have their roles diminished for this film which is a drawback.

It helped that the film pushed aside it's choppy approach at the end and instead spent a long period of time with the final showdown battle. That left me with a good feeling about the film as I headed home which always helps.

Knocked Up
9.5 of 10
Brilliant romantic comedy, great drama and meaty character issues that remain constant throughout the film yet don't intrude on the wall to wall comedic efforts. Rudd and Rogen riff off each other like Vaughn and Favreau in Swingers; nearly all my favorite scenes featured the two of them together.

For me it was a notch above 40 Year Old Virgin, it just had more consistantly high level comedy. Both are heavily dependent on pop culture references and perhaps that's where 40 YOV beats it out because it does a better job of creating it's own comedic references, mostly thanks to Carrell. But otherwise Knocked Up is dialed in the entire time.

The mushrooms bit...brilliant.

Adam_S · 07-21-2007, 09:39 PM

I rewatched the ending of Order of the Phoenix the other day and it is very well done, and I like it more. the earlier parts of the movie do have that Columbus effect, which I attribute more to the novice screenwriter than the novice HP director--the same mistakes were made by Kloves on the first movie as well. What was great about Goblet of Fire is that they did punt great sections of the book and the fans be damned, and I wish they had done that more with Order of the phoenix, or at least given the scenes some time to breathe earlier in the film, but everything from the detention/torture up until the ministry felt rather perfunctory, and only then did the film really slow down and allow us a chance to see and hear and care with the characters and get involved.

Jose Martinez · 07-23-2007, 02:59 AM

From what I've seen so far at a movie theater:

01. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly ***** / *****
02. Once ***** / *****
03. No Country for Old Men ***** / *****
04. There Will Be Blood ***** / *****
05. The Great Debaters ***** / *****
06. Eastern Promises ***** / *****
07. Juno ***** / *****
08. Beowulf ***** / *****
09. Bridge to Terabithia ****1/2 / *****
10. American Gangster **** / *****
11. The Brave One **** / *****
12. Away From Her **** / *****
13. Charlie Wilson's War **** / *****
14. Atonement **** / *****
15. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford **** / *****
16. Michael Clayton **** / *****
17. In The Valley of Elah **** / *****
18. 300 **** / *****
19. Transformers **** / *****
20. The Mist **** / *****
21. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street **** / *****
22. Grindhouse **** / *****
23. The Simpsons **** / *****
24. The Bourne Ultimatum **** / *****
25. Stardust **** / *****
26. I Am Legend ***1/2 / *****
27. Across The Universe ***1/2 / *****
28. Into The Wild ***1/2 / *****
29. The Kingdom ***1/2 / *****
30. The Lookout ***1/2 / *****
31. The Hoax ***1/2 / *****
32. Zodiac ***1/2 / *****
33. Live Free or Die Hard ***1/2 / *****
34. Ratatouille ***1/2 / *****
35. Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix ***1/2 / *****
36. I'm Not There ***1/2 / *****
37. Elizabeth The Golden Age *** / *****
38.Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End *** / *****
39. Knocked Up *** / *****
40. Sunshine *** / *****
41. 3:10 to Yuma *** / *****
42. Spider-Man 3 *** / *****
43. National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets *** / *****
44. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead *** / *****
45. The Golden Compass *** / *****
46. 1408 *** / *****
47. Resident Evil: Extinction *** / *****
48. The Last Legion *** / *****
49. Shooter *** / *****
50. Superbad *** / *****
51. Rush Hour 3 *** / *****
52. Arctic Tale *** / *****
53. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer **1/2 / *****
54. Blades of Glory **1/2 / *****
55. The Darjeeling Limited **1/2 / *****
56. Rescue Dawn **1/2 / *****
57. Shrek the Third ** / *****

Excellent ****1/2 to *****
Very Good ****
Above Average ***1/2
Entertaining ***
Disappointing **1/2
Poor **
Bomb *

Adam_S · 07-28-2007, 06:56 PM

Hairspray - 9 of 10

Joyous wonderful movie with mostly great songs and absolutely terrific performances all around. Absolutely marvelous, one I'd buy on DVD.

Seth Paxton · 07-28-2007, 11:55 PM

I'm excited to see Hairspray, the reviews really surprised me. Rescue Dawn and Sunshine are the other 2 besides Simpsons that are on the radar right now for me. Waiting on the wife to get some free time.

Transformers
5.5 of 10
Really it is a better film than Ghost Rider I think. GR is just a character I like a lot more and was excited to see done up pretty well (CGI). But the CGI here is really strong too and the choreography of the character movements was one of my favorite aspects of the film...thus the GR comparison.

The acting is also like GR, in that it's all over the place. Some efforts were really strong, Voigt and Torturro especially but also LaBeouf. They often overcome what could easily be groan enducing lines and give bang-up performances.

But that script. It's very, very weak. They've got this great premise (again, like GR) and the basic story has tons of potential, and then it's mostly written out as a series of cobbled together cliched summer gags and action. Honestly at times I really loved some of those cliches, I could get into the ride. But then Bay would rear his ugly head, reach for an even sillier gag, cornier line or needless slow motion moment and spoil the whole thing. The film was running around a 7 for me through the first half, but by the end it's just more Armageddon.

It doesn't help that he's cribbed scenes from T2 (I mean all that was missing was a box of roses), ID4, and even Die Hard 4 (well, DH didn't invent the corny super-hacker lives with grandma gag, but they did beat him to the theater with it this time, and with a funnier casting choice to boot).

A for character art direction and design, A for basic premise, D for the rest of the production. Once again a great film is ruined by giving it to a poor talent. Save the Bay defense, don't even try to tell me that a guy like James Cameron couldn't have made this a 9-10 caliber POPCORN flick, bypassing slo-mos and rag tag team cliches along the way.

ps - I hated that the Transformers themselves were written like group of oddball teens that save the day ala Goonies. Didn't exactly match the elite warriors image.

Holadem · 07-30-2007, 08:27 AM

Sicko

As funny as it is depressing. I doubt this will affect policy, but it has brought back some of my life priorities into sharp focus. Let's just say that unless thing change, I know where I will not be living my golden years

Rescue Dawn

A bleak dreary lifeless affair that was a chore so sit thru. I nearly walked out several times. Good performances, but a lead to which I cannot relate pretty much kills the movie for me. Just an unpleasant film.

--
H

Seth Paxton · 07-31-2007, 01:47 PM

Man, the reviews have me stoked to see Rescue Dawn. Hate to see such a negative response from you.

Adam_S · 08-04-2007, 04:31 PM

Bourne Ultimatum - 9 of 10

The best action film of the year and improves on both of the previous Bournes. Stunning chases, fantastic fight scenes and an incredibly cogent story (compared to the convoluted first film or the more hyper second) I was on the edge of my seat biting my nails the entire time. There are a lot of spectacular set pieces in the film and overall it's tremendously compelling, I'd like to see it again.

3:10 to Yuma - 6.5 of 10
saw this months ago don' think I posted a review. This is not an iconic, Ford, Hawks or Eastwood style western. It's a more straight up classic representation of the western, more in the vein of Boetticher than anyone else. And it's not a postmodern yeehaw-reinvention like Tombstone or a deconstruction like Unforgiven.
The performances are good but the photography, with Papamichael at the helm completely lets down the movie. Mangold's uninspired direction doesn't help either. The Screenplay and the performances are the biggest strength, but overall just entertaining, but not great.