New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

2004 Film List - Page 5

post #121 of 490
4/16/04 at 11:03pm
Updated with The Punisher (**/*****) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (*****/*****).
Reply
post #122 of 490
4/17/04 at 7:45pm
Updated my list with Hellboy (***/****)
Reply
post #123 of 490
4/17/04 at 11:16pm
Kill Bill Vol. 2
9 of 10
Review in the official thread. Great film.
Reply
post #124 of 490
4/18/04 at 8:47am
Dawn of the Dead: Much as I want to see KB2 and Dogville, this is down to one late night showing at the local theaters so I had to take my last chance to see big screen zombie action. And unlike the TCM remake, I was not disappointed. From almost the very beginning the filmmakers captured the proper atmosphere and hit all the right notes. The widescreen city shots, as CGI looking as they were, allow us to see the world going to Hell in a way that Romero's budget wouldn't allow. This is the first time the fast-moving zombies really worked for me. We can clearly see that standing and fighting is not an option for humanity and how quickly the zombies could overwhelm us. Even more impressively, the film allows us to experience the human and psychological costs of what is transpiring in ways that the vast majority of modern horror films don't take the time to do.

I only wish it had taken a bit more time with this and allowing for a greater passage of time within the film. It is a bit too rushed. I know many liked the tightness of the remake, but I admire the way Romero allows time for the human drama to take precedence over the more overt horror/action elements. Still, I was very surprised with how good this turned out to be (groovy Tom Savini cameo too!), and will likely be adding it to my collection. I wouldn't mind seeing a Day of the Dead remake by this same group. A-
Reply
post #125 of 490
4/18/04 at 7:26pm
Added Kill Bill Vol. 2.
Great film, need to see it again, need to see both edited together....
Who else would love a whole film about Pai Mei?
/
Reply
post #126 of 490
4/18/04 at 10:39pm
Added The Punisher (which was a highly entertaining action flick) and The Prince and Me (enjoyable, but highly cliched romantic comedy).
Reply
post #127 of 490
4/23/04 at 2:30am
Updated my list with some recent screenings and posted my review of 13 Going on 30
Reply
post #128 of 490
4/23/04 at 6:41am
Siddiq Barmak's Osama (Afghanistan)


~Edwin
Reply
post #129 of 490
4/23/04 at 7:39pm
The Ladykillers
6.5 of 10
Hanks is great and the Coens have written some strong dialog for him, as well as some other very funny interactions, but overall the film is rather unsteady and lacking in real momentum. It felt kinda flat to me, like a more stale version of the Burbs.

Of course it is the Coens and their stuff has a knack of growing on you. And there is enough quotable dialog to help affect that future reconsideration.

"I not quite sure I heard anything at'all."
"He brought his b**ch to the Waffle Hut."
etc
Reply
post #130 of 490
4/26/04 at 10:58am
Uuuuuuuuuupdates:

Kill Bill Volume 2 - - Works very well as a different movie from the first
Good Bye Lenin! - ½ - A sweet, funny German comedy that does a fine job capturing a moment in history from ground-level
Touching The Void - - Solid true-life adventure
The Ladykillers - ¾ - For all this movie's faults, it does let Tom Hanks cut loose
The Whole Ten Yards - ¾ - Not the disaster I feared, but not up to the first (which, come to think of it, was also not the disaster I'd feared)
Man On Fire - ½ - Just goes through the motions whenever Dakota Fanning isn't around
The Girl Next Door - ½ - OK comedy that doesn't know where it stands
Red Trousers: The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen - - A good documentary subject failed by an inexperienced director
Reply
post #131 of 490
4/28/04 at 8:24am
Dogville - I'm still digesting Lars Von Trier's latest work. A masterpiece? I'm not sure yet. On an emotional level I was never as engaged or as moved as in his previous great films: Breaking The Waves and Dancer In The Dark. However, I think that is intended, Grace and the people of Dogville are symbolic, representing human nature rather than individual beings, much like Murnau's Sunrise.

Intellectually, I found the film devastating. A blood brother to Godard's Week-End it is an audacious strike at the boundaries of cinema and a virulent assault on the hypocracies at our heart, but leavened throughout by an often laugh-out-loud sense of black humor. It challenges, it provokes, it asks a lot of the viewer, and delivers even more. A

Next Up: If I don't see Kill Bill freakin' soon I'm going to explode! Anyone want to babysit?
Reply
post #132 of 490
5/3/04 at 12:15pm
Updated my list with a preview of Country In My Skull ( ) and eight movies seen at the second Independant Film Festival of Boston:

Azumi - ¼ - Pretty darn cool manga adaptation from the director of Versus and Godzilla: Final Wars

Nightingale in a Music Box - ¾ - An overly clinical brainwashing "thriller"

Double Dare - - Documentary about stuntwomen, featuring the doubles for Wonder Woman and Xena

Blind Horizon - ¼ - Direct-to-video type of amnesia movie with Val Kilmer and Neve Campbell

Word Wars - ¼ - Hilarious documentary on competitive Scrabble players

Moonlight - ½ - Thoroughly unpleasant "kids in trouble" movie from Europe

Luck - ¾ - Pleasant Canadian caper that, I imagine, plays at least a quarter-star better north of the border

Reviews are in the blog
Reply
post #133 of 490
5/3/04 at 2:20pm
Kill Bill Vol. 2 A slightly disappointing conclusion to Tarantino's impressive return to filmmaking. I missed the narrative tightness, stylization, animation, sound design and musical choices of volume 1. There are some highly entertaining scenes, but it made for a less than satisfying whole. Perhaps when it is all edited together I'll feel differently. Guess I prefer blaxploitation and Yakuza to Spaghetti Western. B+

The Return: A Russian enigma tells the story of 2 teenage boys and the father they've never known who mysteriously appears at their home to take them on a camping trip. The older brother is desperate for affection and eager to please, the younger brother is suspicious and just as desperate not to be hurt. The father we are unsure of. His motives are never clear and he comes from The Great Santini school of parenting. We follow the characters for a week and what we learn lingers in the mind long afterwards. One of the must see films of the year. A-

Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself: Lone Sherfig's follow up to Italian For Beginners, is a warmly emotional film about two brothers. One who would like to end his life, the other is looking for a way to start his. They both find solace in a lonely woman and her daughter. While the movie begins overly affected and off-puttingly odd, as it slowly reveals the layers of story and character, the film grows into a satisfying and melancholy experience. B
Reply
post #134 of 490
5/3/04 at 8:56pm
April continues the downward trend in my year's movie-watching with only 24 viewed + 1 commentary.

I saw one "A" film - Dogville, which only continues to grow in stature in my mind. I don't think I'll see a better film the rest of the year.

I rated 4 films "A-"

3 Women - Robert Altman (Could be upgraded to "A". Instantly became my favorite Altman film)
The Big Heat - Fritz Lang
Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Martha - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Reply
post #135 of 490
5/10/04 at 8:37pm
Updated my list with Van Helsing (***/****)
Reply
post #136 of 490
5/12/04 at 6:08am
Updated my list with Kill Bill Vol. 2 (****/****)
Reply
post #137 of 490
5/13/04 at 1:59am
Added Man On Fire: A better than expected revenge flick with a solid performance by Denzel. His heart-tugging relationship with Dakota Fanning and able support from Christopher Walken elevate an average-at-best script that Tony Scott doesn't quite manage to undermine with his showy, distracting editing and spoiler inducing casting choices. B
Reply
post #138 of 490
5/13/04 at 4:32am
Added: Troy, a disappointing film despite the presence of some fine actors. None of them shine because of the script which is uninspiring and contains a lot of stilted dialogue. The biggest downfall is that Horner has delivered one of the most uninvolving and instrusive scores in years, it is so over the top in places I quietly chuckled to myself. As a positive it did have some great production values and Bana manages to make something of a somewhat underdeveloped role. **/****
Reply
post #139 of 490
5/15/04 at 4:12pm
Updated with some rather good:

Shrek 2 -
Napoleon Dynamite -
Troy -
Intermission -

And the worst thing I've seen in quite some time, and I'm not exaggerating:

New York Minute -

...plus I gotta go add The Triplets of Belleville to the '03 list. I thought it was quite excellent!
Reply
post #140 of 490
5/15/04 at 6:18pm
The Saddest Music In The World - Often very funny with some wonderfully imaginative moments, but like I find the other Guy Maddin features I've seen - wildly uneven. He has great ideas, I love his editing and montage, he's very good technically at layering sound, using music etc... but it's like he doesn't quite know how to fully flesh out a
story leading to a number of "check your watch moments" or scenes that carry on past where they should just so an actor can do a bit of odd business, make a weird face, etc.

But there's a lot to enjoy here too. Isabella
Rosselini gives a strong performance as does the main actor whose name escapes me. There's a well executed musical sequence in the middle of the film that was probably my favorite moment. Plus just the idea of a big crowd
of beer swilling Canadians cheering on the performers of sad music never stops being funny. --- Recommended B+

The Ladykillers - While this had its uneven moments too, it was a successful comedy for me because it made me laugh; a lot. very fun to see Hanks work with this kind of material and just be funny again. Marlon Wayans was notable as well. It may be continuing a disappointing downward trend it Coen quality, but like Intolerable Cruelty, still a cut above the pack. B+
Reply
post #141 of 490
5/16/04 at 9:09pm
Finally got around to updating my list ... I've been EXTREMELY focused on other things and haven't had time for films in the past couple months (as can be seen in my pathetically small list of 7 thus far this year). Hopefully that'll change soon -- it'll probably pick up after I switch to another job (I'm the latest victim in the consulting industry's offshoring bid wars), sometime in June. I've also been throwing all my spare time into finishing a fantasy novel I started almost 20 years ago (back in high school ... wow, has it been that long? Seems like just yesterday!) -- my "muse" decided to kick into overdrive these past few weeks so I gave it full reign.

Thanks for not deleting my list, Jason!
Reply
post #142 of 490
5/16/04 at 9:31pm
Gee, it has been a while since you updated your list, Dana. Jason hasn't been a mod for months.
Reply
post #143 of 490
5/20/04 at 11:08am
Shrek 2 - C+, review in Shrek 2 thread
Reply
post #144 of 490
5/20/04 at 2:49pm
Updated my list with Troy (***/****).

It's fun to watch, but it's no Gladiator.

I watched the Lord of the Rings films the other night and the difference between those three films and Troy is miles apart in terms of staging and executing the giant battle sequences.
Reply
post #145 of 490
5/21/04 at 10:50am
Bon Voyage: A film of romance and intrigue during the fall of France. It provides enjoyable characters and a social critique that tells us the upper crust weren't going to let a little thing like the Nazi invasion keep them from playing "The Rules of the Game". An entertaining film, but I must say that my expectations were skewed by all the reviews that this is a comedy and a wonderful farce, etc. I think I laughed 4-5 times total. B

Spring Summer Fall Winter and....Spring Current world cinema darling Kim Ki-Duk's latest about a boy and his Buddhist teacher who live on a floating platform on a lake situated in a beautiful Korean valley. Told in 5 parts, we see the men age and the seasons change within the valley. Their idyllic life is disrupted when they begin to care for a sick girl who the young man falls for almost immediately.

Combining beautiful scenery with Buddhist morality lessons, the film offers moments of contemplation and relection, but as I often find with "chapter" films, some chapters are more interesting than others, leaving the film feeling uneven. B
Reply
post #146 of 490
5/21/04 at 10:51pm
.
Reply
post #147 of 490
5/22/04 at 2:17pm
Don't feel bad Brook, my 2004 list is still pretty thin, just like 2003 was at this time last year. Considering that I skipped filling it up on stuff like House of the Dead, I don't consider it a character flaw.

Plus the whole S&S thing, film class viewings (3-4 per week), 2003 rentals, and DVD purchases, I'm still going at a clip of about 300 viewings a year at least. They just aren't 2004 films for the most part.


We did get out to see:
Mean Girls
7.5 of 10
A very charming comedy with a nice touch of bite to it, in the vein of Heathers though not as artistic as that film, instead directed in a more straight-forward comedic way. But the great performance from Lohan establishes that she is the real deal as a star, at least for comedies (and I've yet to see Freaky Friday but I hear great things).

The writing is pretty enjoyable and the style of comedy is Fey and SNL news all the way. I especially enjoyed Tim Meadows understated style, which is his strongest area. Toward the end it gets a bit more clunky, but for the most part its just a notch below Heathers or Clueless.
Reply
post #148 of 490
5/22/04 at 10:37pm
.
Reply
post #149 of 490
5/22/04 at 11:31pm
Wolfgang Petersen's Troy


On Deck: Bon Voyage

~Edwin
Reply
post #150 of 490
5/22/04 at 11:57pm
Well, I'm ahead of you 14-8 Seth. I've had a big month, I hadn't seen much before May, but thanks to my business trip and the wife and kids going out of town for a few days, I've had chances to go to the theater and have seen 9 this month. I'm planning on going Sunday night too, and I have Miracle near the top of my Netflix queue but it's out of stock.

But after I go see Twentynine Palms tonight I'll be basically caught up. I don't really care about Troy, though I'll probably end up renting it and Supersize Me doesn't seem too appealing either so I'll wait on it too.

Rather irritating right now that two of our "art" theaters are showing nothing but mainstream movies. One is showing Troy and Shrek 2, another 8 screen theater is showing only Hollywood stuff, and the 4 screener where I saw Bon Voyage and Spring, Summer is showing Troy on one of its screens.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Movies (Theatrical)