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2004 Film List - Page 6

post #151 of 490
5/23/04 at 10:24pm
DreamWorks' Shrek 2


At Bat: Bon Voyage

~Edwin
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post #152 of 490
5/24/04 at 9:46am
Updated with:

#43: The Saddest Music in the World - ½ - Guy Maddin, with memorable dialogue to match his visuals!
#44: Van Helsing - ¾ - Bad enough this is a bad movie. What makes it worse is seeing where Sommers buried a few nifty ideas.
#45: Io Non Ho Paura (I'm Not Scared in the USA) - ¾ - A nifty coming-of-age thriller
#46: Mean Girls - - A smart teen movie that I felt only moderately pervy going to see.
#47: Games People Play: New York - ¼ - Either a wickedly good satire on unscripted television or the next step for the genre.
#48: Shrek 2 - ½ - Just about as funny as the original
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post #153 of 490
5/25/04 at 8:17pm
Last movies seen:
05/16/04: Super-Size Me
05/20/04: *Touching the Void
05/23/04: *Oscar Shorts
05/25/04: Shrek 2
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post #154 of 490
5/26/04 at 12:42am
Added Soul Plane (2 out of 5), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (4 out of 5) and The Day After Tomorrow (3.5 out of 5).
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post #155 of 490
5/26/04 at 1:28am
Twentynine Palms Interesting for its depiction of a disturbed relationship and its views of sex as a violent and ridiculous act, whether performed out of love or hate. But director Bruno Dumont is more successful at portraying relationships than he is at mood setting or staging his violence.

Though they are done in completely opposite styles, I would equate this film with Irreversible. An intriguing portrait of a relationship paired with empty, shock value violent acts. B
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post #156 of 490
5/27/04 at 9:25am
Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s Bon Voyage (France)


At Bat: Super Size Me

~Edwin
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post #157 of 490
5/27/04 at 9:45am
Brook K on Bon Voyage:

Quote:
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.

I guess, I'm with you on this one, Brook. While I didn't have any expectations, I wouldn't classify this as a comedy. Very little of it was funny. Oh well, on to the next one.

~Edwin
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post #158 of 490
5/28/04 at 10:23pm
Robert Luketic's Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! - Good natured, sweet and full of good intentions but invitingly calculated and oftentimes, glib. Young rising stars in admirable roles (especially Topher Grace) while two older and established stars (Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes) in insipid roles create the perfect imbalance.

~Edwin
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post #159 of 490
5/28/04 at 11:55pm
Troy
6.5 of 10
A real letdown since most of that 6.5 is due to the source material. Hard to believe that this direction was from the same guy who did Das Boot, it was sophmoric most of the time. The script bogged down in conveying the same sense of scope of the source and generally felt overtly Hollywoodized, despite, as I say, having a great foundation story to go off of. It was like they had no idea how to tell the story or what the greater themes of the story were. At best the writing just flat-out tells you what it wants to say rather than letting you pull the message from the story on your own.

Some of the acting was good, sometimes even great, but a lot of it was struggling with the script and the direction.

It was cool to see how some of these events might have looked (if any of them really even happened), but this is a film all about 1 battle that has half the power of any single battle in the LOTR films.
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post #160 of 490
5/30/04 at 8:32am
Updated my list with The Day After Tomorrow, a pretty bad disaster film, but good enough in certain areas to make it worth my matinee price. 75% (though I may lower that to 65%).
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post #161 of 490
6/1/04 at 12:32pm
I'm not liking the fact that this thread is constantly getting pushed onto the second page, so I thought I'd help out...

It's that time of the month again, and by that I mean an update to ye olde film list. I added the following:

Coffee and Cigarettes
The Corporation
I'm Not Scared
Mean Girls
Miracle
Saved!
Shrek 2
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
Super Size Me
Torque
Troy
Van Helsing
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman

Out of those, Coffee and Cigarettes was the best of the lot, but that is partially due to me being a Jarmusch fanboy; your mileage may vary. On the other end of the spectrum, Van Helsing may very well be one of the worst films I've ever seen; on top of that, it prompted the first audience member walkout I've seen since Solaris. A truly horrible movie, although Jackman will emerge unharmed--he's got too much talent and charisma not to.
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post #162 of 490
6/1/04 at 1:49pm
Shrek 2
8.5 of 10
Perhaps funnier than the first film, the most impressive aspect is that they were able to create a STORY that would put these characters into similar situations and with similar problems without being redundent. Of course their must always be new characters to the main group for a sequel and this film has the hilarious Puss N' Boots. Another tried and true method is to give more screen time to some of the background characters from the first film, so if you liked Pinocchio or Gingerbread Man get ready to enjoy more of them.

I found the 2nd half funnier than the first half, but the whole film is thick with good references and lots of fun. The improvements with the animation are also noticeable as well.

I'd rate this sequel as a follow up to Shrek as being similar to how and how well Toy Story 2 followed up TS1. (I prefer the TS films)
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post #163 of 490
6/2/04 at 11:22am
Starting Late... (All Scores out of 5)

Quick Key:
- Definite buy of all DVD versions (must see)
- Definite DVD buy (great film)
- Average Movie, will consider a DVD purchase
- Bad Movie
- Abysmal Film. The filmmakers stole those hours of my life.

Pre-May:
--------
The Ladykillers
Kill Bill Vol. 2
The Butterfly Effect
Bad Santa
Hidalgo
Secret Window

May:
----
Paycheck
Torque
Hero (DVD)
Man On Fire
The Day After Tomorrow
Troy
Van-Helsing

June:
-----
Shrek 2
Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban
The Terminal

July:
-----
Spider-Man 2
I, Robot
The Bourne Supremacy
The Manchurian Candidate

August:
-------
Collateral
Hero (Theater)

October:
-------
Saw
The Grudge

November:
-------
After the Sunset
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post #164 of 490
6/2/04 at 11:35am
May saw a return to a more normal viewing amount with 30 plus 3 commentaries.

My recommendations:

The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang) (DVD Rent), A

The Return (2004), A-
Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu) (DVD Own), A-
The Lion In Winter (Anthony Harvey) (DVD Rent), A-
Lola (Jacques Demy) (DVD Rent), A-
A Story Of Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu) (DVD Own), A-
The Tin Drum (Volker Schlondorf) (DVD Rent), A-
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post #165 of 490
6/2/04 at 2:11pm
Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me


On Deck: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ...

~Edwin
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post #166 of 490
6/4/04 at 3:07pm
Kim Ki Duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring (Korea)


At Bat: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

~Edwin
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post #167 of 490
6/6/04 at 8:50am
Alfonso Cuaron's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Sadly, a Harry Potter formula has developed.

~Edwin
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post #168 of 490
6/9/04 at 7:48pm
Updated with:

#49: Still, We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie (documentary) - ¾ - Makes following a great team look like no fun whatsoever
#50: 13 Going On 30 - ¾ - Often falls on the wrong side of the line between cute and creepy
#51: Coffee and Cigarettes - ½ - A set of fairly funny vignettes
#52: Ella Enchanted - - No reason not to enjoy this if you liked Shrek
#53: Jeux d'enfants (Love Me If You Dare in the USA) - ¼ - Too cruel for my tastes
#54: Kaena: La Prophétie (Kaena: The Prophecy in the US) (animated) - - Frequently really pretty, but light on the story
#55: Dominator (animated) - - Not even pretty

The latter two at the New England Animation Bash
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post #169 of 490
6/11/04 at 4:35pm
.
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post #170 of 490
6/14/04 at 10:04pm
More updates:

#56: The Day After Tomorrow - ¼ - Emmerich wisely keeps his tongue out of his cheek.
#57: Baadasssss! - ¼ - I'm waiting for Mario Van Peebles's son to play his father in a movie about the making of this movie.
#58: Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Samurai in the USA) - ½ - Swept the Japanese Academy Awards. It's pretty good.
#59: The Chronicles Of Riddick - - Give David Twohy $100M, I expect better than "pretty good"
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post #171 of 490
6/17/04 at 8:16pm
#10: The Day After Tomorrow - *** Stars- While not as good as Independence Day, it's still a entertaining thrill ride. I do wish Sela Ward would have had something else to do. Her and the cancer kid just felt tacked on. It could have been excised with no loss.

#11: Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban - *** 1/2 Stars - The best Harry Potter yet. Finally a movie where I felt the magic of the books on the screen as well.

#12: Chronicles of Riddick - ** 1/2 stars - The "worst" movie of the year so far. I enjoyed some of it, just not enough to recommend going to drop the $$$ to see it in the theater.
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post #172 of 490
6/18/04 at 12:09pm
Quote:
Alfonso Cuaron's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Sadly, a Harry Potter formula has developed.

Or as I see it, thankfully a Harry Potter formula has developed and been improved upon.

I give it a 9 and enjoyed it all around more than the first 2 films, though not by a drastic amount. Cuaron's visual style at first seemed a little out of place for the opening scene, too "real" and it left the film feeling mean almost. That disappears as the fantasy aspects increase, and his visual style starts to give the film a much more earthy feel of nature.

The scope of the school and the grounds around the school increases dramatically from the first two films and this gives the entire situation an improved tone and touch of increased fantasy via a greater connection to reality (fantasy actions occurring in a real space rather than a fantasy world have a greater power of wonder).
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post #173 of 490
6/18/04 at 2:45pm
Updated with the funny Dodgeball (****/*****).
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post #174 of 490
6/20/04 at 4:14pm
Just added: Control Room and Dodgeball
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post #175 of 490
6/20/04 at 4:14pm
Just added: Control Room and Dodgeball
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post #176 of 490
6/21/04 at 12:32pm
Updated with the controversial Fahrenheit 9/11, the Turkish mood piece Distant, the string of non sequiturs that is Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and a slice of old-fashioned romance The Notebook. Added The Leopard to the "seen for the first time" pile.
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post #177 of 490
6/21/04 at 12:32pm
Updated with the controversial Fahrenheit 9/11, the Turkish mood piece Distant, the string of non sequiturs that is Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and a slice of old-fashioned romance The Notebook. Added The Leopard to the "seen for the first time" pile.
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post #178 of 490
6/23/04 at 11:00pm
Soul Plane - For much of its running time this is a fun romp in the raunchy, outrageous stereotypes-played-for-humor mode of Mel Brooks and ZAZ. I don't think I could identify anything outstanding about this movie, but it delivers plenty of laughs and fun set design gags along with the requisite assortment of scantily clad beautiful women. Unfortunately it pulls its punches at the end and goes for schmaltz and feel good cliches. Not entirely unexpected, but would some nudity, or at least thongs been too much to ask? B
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post #179 of 490
6/23/04 at 11:00pm
Soul Plane - For much of its running time this is a fun romp in the raunchy, outrageous stereotypes-played-for-humor mode of Mel Brooks and ZAZ. I don't think I could identify anything outstanding about this movie, but it delivers plenty of laughs and fun set design gags along with the requisite assortment of scantily clad beautiful women. Unfortunately it pulls its punches at the end and goes for schmaltz and feel good cliches. Not entirely unexpected, but would some nudity, or at least thongs been too much to ask? B
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post #180 of 490
6/26/04 at 6:45am
The posting activity in this thread sure has died down from last year's thread without the usual constraints and the race to get the label, "The person with the most number of watched films" that, in my view, plagued last year's thread.

~Edwin
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