2007 Film List (2 Viewers)

[Adam_S]

Shooter - 8 of 10

"Welcome to Tennessee. Patron state of shootin' stuff."

Shooter is an excellent thriller and chase film. Wahlberg is great as the stoic, highly trained ex-US Marine sniper who is set up in an assassination. The film nicely balances character with conspiracy and has a lot of great interactions between Wahlberg and the supporting cast. There's just the right amount of humor and more than a healthy dose of action.

The film's biggest standout is the excellent work by Kate Mara in a role that is just the right size for the film (too much more would be stretching belief) but you still want to see more Mara.

The film doesn't really run into problems until the end of the second act, and then there are a series of endings that are each acceptable on their own, all slightly flawed and none are entirely satisfying.

But overall the film is excellent, satisfying and a whole lot of fun.


Regarding the endings.

BIGTIME SPOILERS!

The first big problem is with the sudden exit of Kate Mara at the end of the second act. We're already surprised that they haven't tracked Wahlberg to Mara, and the fact that he didn't recognize they would and didn't provide for her some sort of shelter/safe house or other protection but instead sent her back to her home just makes absolutely no sense at all. I would have liked a scene explaining that decision, especially because their chemistry is so superb. As it is it just feels like an excuse for her to become bait to be used against wahlberg.

Now the first ending on the mountaintop. Michael Pena is shot in the back, but he drops a half inch steel plate from the _front_ of his torso. hmmm...
Then, the senator simply talks to much, and nothing Walhberg really does makes any sense at all. It'd either be better to have him just give up immediately (confident he can get off, see second ending below) or simply not have the scene occur at all (for all it's snowy splendor as one of the 'coolest' moments of the film).

The second ending, in which Wahlberg proves his innocence to the attorney general and is set free is nice, but again nothing much is accomplished here. This could be improved if we found out that Wahlberg wasn't motivated by patriotism/button pushing earlier (when he explains himself to Mara) but because he recognized he would be set up and that the people setting him up were probably the people who abanoned and betrayed him at the start of the film. This makes Wahlberg's arc a lot more interesting and gives him better motivation than simple altruism. since this second ending seems to imply that Wahlberg recognized the danger of being set up, this would make the film more consistent throughout.

Finally the third ending just rings wrong. The best way to assassinate a politician is with exposure, not a gun. Wahlberg could have still taken out all of the people in the cabin with the handgun and then given the senator the gun and walked out after turning on CNN to reveal to the senator that he's sent tapes/surveillance of the senator to all the major networks and they are currently running it. Wahlberg walks out into the night, the senator shoots himself. Wahlberg actually assassinating the senator while somewhat satisfying also feels very wrong.


Despite all that the film works and is really damned good.

 

[Adam_S]

The Golden Age - 7 of 10

no need to review a movie six months before release because so many things, such as color timing, uprezzing, score (tempscore was bad) and overall tighetening expanding and finalizing the cut will happen between now and then. I expect big time awards buzz for both Clive Owen and the wonderful Abbie Cornish. Naturally Geoffrey Rush and Elizabeth are perfect.

Not yet great, but damned excellent for a first/rough cut.

 

[Adam_S]

Releasing on 3/16/2007 per boxoffice mojo

Dead Silence - 1803
I Think I Love my Wife - 1776
Premonition - 2831
Adam's Apples
Beauty and the Beast: a Latter day Tale
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - 73
Hat Trick - 22
Nomad (The Warrior) - 30
The Wind that Shakes the Barley - 9

In addition there is a sneak preview this weekend:

The Last Mimzy - 877 sneaks on 3/18

and one expansion:

The Namesake - 41

 

[Adam_S]

Atonement - 10 of 10

WOW! Okay, since I'm not reviewing the negatives of an early cut of Golden Age, I equally shouldn't review the positives of an early cut of Atonement. But man what incredible photography sound, score and especially editing. And James McAvoy! Keira Knightly! and especially (especially) Saorise Ronan! Brilliantly directed and incredible screenplay. there are only the tiniest of things that could be fixed and this would be perfect. as it is, I can't believe a cut this early is so fucking good.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'd forgotten to add Wild Hogs...

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Added Reign Over Me, probably the best film so far in a year that is shaping up to be truly stellar.

 

[Adam_S]

Opening March 23rd:

The Hills have Eyes 2 - 2447
The Last Mimzy - 3017
Pride - 1518
Reign Over Me - 1671
Shooter - 2806
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 3110

Air Guitar Nation
Boy Culture - 3
Color me Kubrick - 19
First Snow - 3
Memory
Offside - 5

 

[Craig S]

Ditto on Reign Over Me, which tops my list as the best of the year so far.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Linked my review of Bridge to Terabithia.

 

[Adam_S]

300 - 2 of 10

Oh dear lord this was unbelievably terrible.

I've never had such a strong urge to MST3K a film, ever. In fact I don't really care fore the show and really dislike people who do engage in mst3king a film, but I had to just grit my teeth and endure. It was abominably bad--and I expected I'd probably like the film, boy was I ever wrong.

Absolutely awful, the worst film I saw in either 2005, 2006 or 2007 (so far).

300 is so bad it makes you realize that Troy was an exceptionally well written, conceived and executed film with brilliant acting. :rolleyes

There's not a single positive thing I can think to say about this film, except that the art direction was okay. I didn't like the cinematography, the editing, the style, the execution, acting, or script. The story was decent.

300 does happen to feature the universe's most inept and stupid queen of all time, a ten year old could have figured out what the greasy nonripped politician Spartan was going to do--but apparently spartan women weren't eugenically bred for intelligence or even being able to see more than two seconds into the future. Yeesh.

Not entirely sure why Xerxes' millions gave the Spartans time to sleep and recover. They are such nice enemies to not press the advantage of their overwhelming numbers. And it was so honorable of Leonidas to only throw the spear so that Xerxes bled, rather than actually killing him, what a tard, now Xerxes can just spin it into a new aspect of his godhood, that the spartans thought they could kill him, but all they could do was scratch him.

Also terribly nice of Xerxes to withdrawl for a year so the spartans could assemble and army of 10,000, no sense pressing the advantage after earning a route through the pass.

There's also an ethically disturbing element: replace the word spartan with Aryan and hunchback with jew and you basically have a piece of propaganda that would have made nazi germany proud and eager to pursue it's eugenics program. The movie was ethically disgusting on a Birth of a Nation level.

I've not even gotten to the videogame qualities of the movie. I scoffed before seeing it at the videogame criticism coming from critics, assuming that critics, for the most part have never played a modern game through completion. But they're absolutely right, the aesthetics are modern ps3/360 videogames via the Matrix (the film): slow down for the killing stroke to 160fps and an artful bloodspray, speed up to 14fps in between running to the next enemy, then slow down to 160fps for the next killing stroke, whirl at 120fps to face the enemy coming up behind, jump to 14fps for a half second get the weapon attacking the new enemy and drop back to 160 fps for the killing stroke and artful blood spray. draw this out for at least four more repitions until the shot is over, and repeat this sequence six times per battle sequence (there are about four battle sequences), it's actually worse than playing a videogame, it's like watching someone leveling up. I've done that (watched someone level-up, Secret of Mana) before. It's boring, uninteresting and absolutely no fun whatsoever, which is exactly what I felt like watching 300.

The fact that the enemies come in waves of increasing difficulty exactly like a video game was also somehow annoying. First, fight the infantry, then come the cavalry, then avoid the arrows, then fight the masked warrior 'elite' part of which is your first 'bossfight' against a giant blundering ogre who can have bits stabbed and chopped up but doesn't take any damage, even from six inches of steel being shoved into his eye (and brain) until you defeat him and enter the prerendered video sequence where your character chops off his head in an elegant manner with, yes, another artful blood spray.

Repeat this twice more (I think, maybe three times, I was so bored I lost count).

Absolutely awful movie in every way imaginable.

Oh and to become king of Sparta all you have to do is kill a wolf. Someone should have told nonripped greasy politician Spartan (the badSpartan) that all he needed to do was wander a few miles from the city in the winter and kill a wolf with a spear and the people would depose Leonidas and make him king, it would have saved him a lot of trouble, at least the bad guy wasn't using steroids, I'm amazed the Spartans can breed at all considering they're all juiced out of their brains. It also helps if the wolf has glowy orange yellow oooh scary eyes and looks like it stepped out of a bad computer game.

I've never realized before just how talanted Stallone and Schwarzenegger were as actors, they actually had range, it's fantastic. Spartans don't have range, just vocal cords that only work on two levels, talky level (for communicating with women) and ROARING LEVEL for everything else.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Really? I wouldn't have expected that.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

There's two reasons I really connected with this film:

1. I went through a serious bout of depression. My entire freshman year of college was a vortex of hopelessness, anxiety and despair. Many will think this film was too long, but not me. It perfectly captures what it feels like to live with depression, having to conduct your mundane affairs when you have no drive to do anything and no reason to keep going. Even when you're laughing, you're not happy.
2. Mike Binder's style really works for me. It can be more than a little forced at times, but I love the way he weaves between humor and drama. The one informs the other in a way that rings very true to me.

 

[Adam_S]

Reign Over Me - 8 of 10

This is indeed an excellent movie. Sandler is superb, as is Cheadle and Jada Pinkett Smith (and Jennifer Connelly). The whole movie was outstanding, script production values etc.

Adam Sandler plays Charlie Fineman, a former dentist, whose wife and daughter were on one of the planes that hit the world trade center in 2001. His life fell apart and he sort of fell off the radar of life. His college roomate, Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) runs into Charlie who doesn't recognize him. Johnson feels like he's missing out on the fun things in life he wants to do and so he happens to draw Charlie out of his shell and strike up a friendship with him. Reign Over me is a profound movie about friendship (as well as grief and depression) and it is a superb and powerful piece of honest and emotional filmmaking.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Added The Last Mimzy; So-so performances for so-so characters that survives on sheer weirdness.

 

[Adam_S]

Good Luck Chuck - 6 of 10

The first act is still in rough shape but Dane Cook is pretty damn funny and this is a classic eighties comedy in the sense that there is a LOT of T&A.

This will probably get better and better as they polish it up with screenings and tighten down the lulls and balance the romance, sex comedy, physical comedy and grossout comedy to a more even keel. I would expect the final product to be more highly rated.

 

[Joe Kamsan]

Sunshine - B+

Just go see it, but I don't think this will get a wide release in the States for a while. I'm a fiend for sci-fi, though some of the science in this film appears very shaky. The third act threatens to derail the entire film...and the effectiveness of the 'pay-off' in the climax largely depends on how much the viewer has invested in the story and the characters. A flawed gem, with some incredible moments. I think it's Danny Boyle's second best film.

 

[Adam_S]

Hot Fuzz - 8 of 10

Hilarious send up of the cop movie genre that is a terrific example of said genre in and of itself. Brilliant comedy.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Shit, I've really dropped the ball already. I've got to dig out my ticket stubs and piece it back together.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Okay, I'm sure I missed a couple, but I added the wonderful In the Land of Women, the often hilarious but unevenly paced Hot Fuzz, and Spider-Man 3 — all general admissions screenings.

I'm living in Albany for the summer (where I'm not on "the List", if there even is one for such a small market) so my theater going might drop off without the freebie press screenings. On the other hand, my summer job and cheaper living expenses allow for greater disposable income and more time to socialize. It's a monster of a season, so I'll probably get roped in every weekend starting with "Pirates"

EDIT: And the less-than-good Blades of Glory

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Added 28 Weeks Later and Pirates 3, including links to my reviews. Pirates 3 rose to greater heights but ultimately lost me. 28 Weeks Later was flawed in many ways, but was an entertaining ride for what it was.