I went to the theater to see a special viewing of Aliens (1986) and ended up seeing The Queen (2006). I blame the internet for lying to me about when Aliens was showing. Ironically I went initially to see a movie that had a queen (albiet a hideous alien one) in it and after a small snafu I ended up at a movie that had a queen in it (debatably the English royal family could be aliens).
The Queen stands as a historical drama in which I can actually vividly remember the public events it is dealing with. I remember when Diana died and the royal family wasn't talking. This film gives us the inside or at least an interpretation of what was going on inside the royal family at the time. It is really well done and has strong performances from many members of the cast.
Helen Mirren of course stands out. She has been nominated for multiple awards and rightly so. I have not seen every movie on the noms but someone would have to be pretty amazing to upstage her. Sometimes I have personal favorites whom I root for despite the fact that I know they aren't the best performance but be wary to all, she was phenomenal and will be hard to beat.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Happily N'Ever After
Fairly tales are apparently so timeless that even Hollywood has gotten sick of them. It has gotten to the point that classic tales like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood are being reimagined. This, in my opinion, has been done successfully in films like Ever After (199x) and Hoodwinked (2006) and done horribly in films like The Brothers Grimm (2005). Happily N'Ever After is definitely in the latter category.
The film starts as the traditional Cinderella Story but we are introduced to a lowly servant, Rick (Freddie Prince, Jr) who is in love with Cinderella (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The wicked stepmother gets her hands on a magic staff and upsets the balance of all the fairy tales, letting the bad guys win. The prince turns out to be a chump and it is Rick with Cinderella's help who saves the day.
This film is not clever. The story drags on too long at the beginning and then hurries to find an ending. If this is the quality of children's movies these days, I am truly sorry for the children. This film completely misuses George Carlin and a star filled voice cast including Sigourney Weaver and Wallace Shawn!! (Okay so he isn't exactly a star). I would suggest renting Hoodwinked or Ever After instead. Or my personal favorite reimagining of a fairy tale, Ella Enchanted.
The film starts as the traditional Cinderella Story but we are introduced to a lowly servant, Rick (Freddie Prince, Jr) who is in love with Cinderella (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The wicked stepmother gets her hands on a magic staff and upsets the balance of all the fairy tales, letting the bad guys win. The prince turns out to be a chump and it is Rick with Cinderella's help who saves the day.
This film is not clever. The story drags on too long at the beginning and then hurries to find an ending. If this is the quality of children's movies these days, I am truly sorry for the children. This film completely misuses George Carlin and a star filled voice cast including Sigourney Weaver and Wallace Shawn!! (Okay so he isn't exactly a star). I would suggest renting Hoodwinked or Ever After instead. Or my personal favorite reimagining of a fairy tale, Ella Enchanted.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Children of Men
This is by far the best movie I have seen all year. Okay so that is a little cheap. I've technically seen only three movies in this year (2007). This one definitely makes my top ten of movies released in 2006. Alfonso Cuaron does an amazing job behind the camera creating a tight well done action thriller. And the main character never picks up a gun once.
The film picks up in the year 2027, 18 years after humans stopped being able to reproduce. The youngest person on the planet has just died and things all over the world have gone to hell pretty much. A fascist government in Britain is doing its best to curb the violence and is going about it in a very typical fear mongering way.
Theo (Clive Owen) is our main character a stolid, perhaps alcoholic man who has essentially given up on humanity. He is enlisted by his ex wife to help get an unexpectedly pregnant girl to something called the Human Project. The film follows his adventures to get the girl to her destination. There is plenty of action and intrigue for the film and it never gets tedious or boring.
There are some excellent performances from quality actors. Michael Caine's performance is of particular skill and craft. Owen is excellent as always as well. This movie has a brutal use of violence but it never seems gratuitous. It always makes sense and never pulled me out of the movie.
It amazes me that in essence this movie has a similar dystopic not so distant future that the movie V for Vendetta (2005) had and yet that movie was horrible and this movie works. The atmosphere of this movie was amazing. Some of the throw away stuff like propaganda messages on the trains or graffiti on walls was so well placed. You believe that this all could actually happen.
The film picks up in the year 2027, 18 years after humans stopped being able to reproduce. The youngest person on the planet has just died and things all over the world have gone to hell pretty much. A fascist government in Britain is doing its best to curb the violence and is going about it in a very typical fear mongering way.
Theo (Clive Owen) is our main character a stolid, perhaps alcoholic man who has essentially given up on humanity. He is enlisted by his ex wife to help get an unexpectedly pregnant girl to something called the Human Project. The film follows his adventures to get the girl to her destination. There is plenty of action and intrigue for the film and it never gets tedious or boring.
There are some excellent performances from quality actors. Michael Caine's performance is of particular skill and craft. Owen is excellent as always as well. This movie has a brutal use of violence but it never seems gratuitous. It always makes sense and never pulled me out of the movie.
It amazes me that in essence this movie has a similar dystopic not so distant future that the movie V for Vendetta (2005) had and yet that movie was horrible and this movie works. The atmosphere of this movie was amazing. Some of the throw away stuff like propaganda messages on the trains or graffiti on walls was so well placed. You believe that this all could actually happen.
Philip J Fry had it right
I have an addiction to Lucy Liu. Much like the lovable dope of the short lived Fox series I think she is really attractive. Seeing a Lucy Liu movie is the closest I can imagine to what an actually drug addiction would be like. You see I have to see Lucy Liu movies, no matter how terrible they appear to be. Earlier last year I was delighted to find out Lucky Number Slevin was actually better than it sounded and appeared from the previews. I've also seen, sadly, both Charlie's Angels movies. And Ms. Liu is also why I recently watched Codename: Cleaner.
Oh dear gods, what a horrible, horrible movie. Cedric the Entertainer is like anti-comedy. The plot is bad. Very bad. Familiar faces are used to the weakest effect. Why oh why does Will Patton get into so many bad movies? I'm trying desperately to cleanse this movie from my memory. But it was still worth it for the Lucy Liu fix.
Oh dear gods, what a horrible, horrible movie. Cedric the Entertainer is like anti-comedy. The plot is bad. Very bad. Familiar faces are used to the weakest effect. Why oh why does Will Patton get into so many bad movies? I'm trying desperately to cleanse this movie from my memory. But it was still worth it for the Lucy Liu fix.
Freedom Writers
Freedom Writers plays like Dangerous Minds 2: Dangerouser. It's your typical Hollywood, inexperienced teacher with a view towards fixing a broken education system film. Everything you expect to see in this film you will see. It doesn't matter if it was based on a true story. Hilary Swank plays the idealist, naive teacher coming into an inner city school with gang problems who inspires her students to believe in themselves.
The film is made well enough, the performances are standard, nothing exciting and it has all the tear inducing moments one would expect for this type of film. I'm not entirely sure what one is supposed to get out of a film like this? Am I supposed to realize how messed up the education system is? Am I supposed to believe that if there were more teachers like Swank's character, that all the education problems would be resolved?
I suspect reforming education can't be simplified that easily. This film doesn't do anything amazing and by turning it into a pop culture event may in fact weaken whatever the real people actually accomplished. A little text blurb at the end even informs the audience that she didn't stay in high school education. A much better film about teaching was Half Nelson. I recommend that instead.
The film is made well enough, the performances are standard, nothing exciting and it has all the tear inducing moments one would expect for this type of film. I'm not entirely sure what one is supposed to get out of a film like this? Am I supposed to realize how messed up the education system is? Am I supposed to believe that if there were more teachers like Swank's character, that all the education problems would be resolved?
I suspect reforming education can't be simplified that easily. This film doesn't do anything amazing and by turning it into a pop culture event may in fact weaken whatever the real people actually accomplished. A little text blurb at the end even informs the audience that she didn't stay in high school education. A much better film about teaching was Half Nelson. I recommend that instead.
Failure and The Goal Renewed
Despite some marthon movie going near the end of the semester which had me seeing several movies, I did not make the 100 movies in the theater that I had hoped for. I saw Apocalypto, long and bloody but the foot chase sequence in the final act was amazingly fun to watch and so I give a favorable opinion of the movie overall. Eragon played and felt like a ripoff of Lord of the Rings, but if you like sword and sorcery flicks this one will work as a fix. Rocky Balboa, I'm pretty sure a new Rocky movie was not necessary but this movie played fine until the end when I got very angry for some reason. Either the second or third best of the Rocky movies. The Good Shepherd, Matt Damon was really good and really reserved. Not a perfect movie but well done in my opinion. So that wrapped up my movie going experience of 2006. I managed 85 different films (saw Superman Returns twice), fifteen shy of the goal. So I just have to aim for it again. Here we go, I've seen three movies so far, 97 to go!!
Monday, December 18, 2006
Blood Diamonds
Many people I know hate Leonardo DiCaprio and I for the life of me can't figure out why. He is easily one of the top five actors working in Hollywood today. Every performance he gives is top quality. Blood Diamond is no different. The movie follows Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler in Sierra Leone. In the course of the movie, Danny meets Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Honsou), a local man who is caught up in his country's civil war and horrific conflict diamond trade.
Note to the screenwriter: Try to be a bit more subtle when naming your characters. I mean Solomon? A movie about diamonds and you name one of your characters Solomon? I find that a bit much.
Aside from that, Blood Diamond is a great action filled drama. Sure it has a bit of a preachy side but when you set a film outside the US, it is bound to happen. DiCaprio is what makes this film work. He isn't the most original character to ever grace the screen but he sells his character so well. From the ruthless moments when he is threatening Vandy to the raw emotional moments when he is revealing what happened to his parents, DiCaprio shines on screen.
Is his character arc predictable? Well, yes. Although I couldn't help think how great (and by great I mean extremely depressing but cinematically satisfying) to see a film like this where the bad guys win. But as my uncle pointed out to me once, the bad guys win every day in real life, who wants to go to a fantasy and see them win there too. Well, I kind of do. Just once or twice. But even if arc is predictable, DiCaprio sells it. And that is all that matters. There are those subtle changes throughout the movie when we slowly start to see him be more of a decent human being.
And in the end I'm not even sure how pure his motives would have been if his circumstances were different. I won't reveal what happens exactly but DiCaprio has a look near the end where I actually believed for a second he might actually not do what I expected. But I knew Hollywood wouldn't let that happen. Despite the heavy handed moral of the story, I still enjoyed this film.
Note to the screenwriter: Try to be a bit more subtle when naming your characters. I mean Solomon? A movie about diamonds and you name one of your characters Solomon? I find that a bit much.
Aside from that, Blood Diamond is a great action filled drama. Sure it has a bit of a preachy side but when you set a film outside the US, it is bound to happen. DiCaprio is what makes this film work. He isn't the most original character to ever grace the screen but he sells his character so well. From the ruthless moments when he is threatening Vandy to the raw emotional moments when he is revealing what happened to his parents, DiCaprio shines on screen.
Is his character arc predictable? Well, yes. Although I couldn't help think how great (and by great I mean extremely depressing but cinematically satisfying) to see a film like this where the bad guys win. But as my uncle pointed out to me once, the bad guys win every day in real life, who wants to go to a fantasy and see them win there too. Well, I kind of do. Just once or twice. But even if arc is predictable, DiCaprio sells it. And that is all that matters. There are those subtle changes throughout the movie when we slowly start to see him be more of a decent human being.
And in the end I'm not even sure how pure his motives would have been if his circumstances were different. I won't reveal what happens exactly but DiCaprio has a look near the end where I actually believed for a second he might actually not do what I expected. But I knew Hollywood wouldn't let that happen. Despite the heavy handed moral of the story, I still enjoyed this film.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Delays are inevitable
No one was more disappointed than I when I stopped posting reviews. I apologize for the long delay but things were out of my hands. School just got in the way and school has to come first. I apologize for the shortness and lameness of the reviews as well but I can barely remember some of the films and I can only comment on the remaining impression in my brain. I make no promises for the next month. I might not even reach my goal of 100 films in 2006. Which makes me want to cry. We shall see though.
Bobby
I'm not really sure what the point of Bobby was other than a venue to make people sit through some RFK speeches. The plot follows the lives of way too many people through the course of the day leading up to RFK's assassination by Sirhan Sirhan. There are former employees, current employees, campaign members and even a Czech reporter. It was sickeningly a big poster board for liberal idealism. I get that Bobby Kennedy was considered a great hope. I get that he had a lot of good ideas. I don't need to be beaten over the head with it. But that is all Emilio Estevez seems able to do. This felt like a big Hollywood love letter to RFK. It served no other dramatic purpose.
Tenacious D
I'm not the biggest fan of Jack Black. I tend to find him a bit annoying. Which was why I was more than surprised to find myself laughing in Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. I also hate musicals, which for all intents and purposes this was, but I enjoyed this film. I can't explain why because part of me knows it was really bad. Fun rock and a ridiculous plot somehow worked. Plus Meatloaf makes a humorous cameo.
The Fountain
Darren Aronofsky impressed me with Pi. It wasn't a perfect movie but it was an interesting. Then came Requiem for a Dream which left an indelible image of Jennifer Connolly in my head that always floods to the surface when I see her in any film. It was a depressing film but I didn't feel much sympathy for any of the characters. Now comes The Fountain. Usually the second film from an upcoming director is the pretentious, self-indulgent metaphysical movie. How he managed to hold off til his third film I do not know. I can imagine how this film could have been worse but it stretches the capabilities of my mind to do so. I don't even know how the three story lines really connect. I'll give him another chance to impress me before I decide Aronofsky is a pretentious jackass.
That's how Bond should be done
Casino Royale is one of the best Bond films I have ever seen. Daniel Craig plays Bond as a suave but ruthless secret agent. Many a fan might be upset by the disappearance of a beloved icon, but I was refreshed by the change of tone. To me a suave Bond that everyone knows would hardly make a good secret agent now would he? Was I skeptical that Craig could pull it off? Yes. Was I happy they chose Craig instead of Clive Owen? Hell yes. Owen is too good to be bogged down by such a trite roll. Craig showed he had Bond chops in Layer Cake.
There is a nice playfulness with the old Bond in this film. This film does not star either Q or Moneypenny. But early in the film when Eva Green shows up she says "I'm the money" and Bond responds "Every penny". I laughed alot at that line. Was I a bit skeptical that the European casino was offering a game of No Limit Texas Hold'em? Okay, I admit that was the one bit I thought a bit ridiculous. Still the film was paced well, with one notable section near the end. I look forward to future darker Bond films. Especially since spy movies finally have a big baddy again. The 90s were a rough time for Bond, with no more Eastern Bloc, but with the War on Terror, Bond can go back to fighting a phantom enemy. Here is hoping the new Bond is here to stay.
There is a nice playfulness with the old Bond in this film. This film does not star either Q or Moneypenny. But early in the film when Eva Green shows up she says "I'm the money" and Bond responds "Every penny". I laughed alot at that line. Was I a bit skeptical that the European casino was offering a game of No Limit Texas Hold'em? Okay, I admit that was the one bit I thought a bit ridiculous. Still the film was paced well, with one notable section near the end. I look forward to future darker Bond films. Especially since spy movies finally have a big baddy again. The 90s were a rough time for Bond, with no more Eastern Bloc, but with the War on Terror, Bond can go back to fighting a phantom enemy. Here is hoping the new Bond is here to stay.
Fiction
Stranger Than Fiction was a delightful film. The first film in quite some time that starred Will Ferrell where I actually thought he was pretty good. The plot concerns Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) who it turns out is the main character in the latest book by Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson). Crick becomes aware that his story is being narrated and attempts to figure out what is happening to him. In the course of his adventures he will fall in love with a baker who is being audited and seek the aid of a literature expert played by Dustin Hoffman.
Everyone seems like they are having fun in this film. Hoffman seems like he is having the most fun. The way in which his character tackles the whole ridiculous situation was priceless. There is an exchange at one point that ends with Ferrell uttering the line "Yes, I'm very glad to know I'm not a golem." This line alone sealed the movie as being good. All the performances were strong and I was really rooting for Harold by the final act of the film. Which is a good sign. Kay Eiffel's explanation of why she is changing the story from its intended course is poignant and makes perfect sense and I was quite content when I left the theater.
Everyone seems like they are having fun in this film. Hoffman seems like he is having the most fun. The way in which his character tackles the whole ridiculous situation was priceless. There is an exchange at one point that ends with Ferrell uttering the line "Yes, I'm very glad to know I'm not a golem." This line alone sealed the movie as being good. All the performances were strong and I was really rooting for Harold by the final act of the film. Which is a good sign. Kay Eiffel's explanation of why she is changing the story from its intended course is poignant and makes perfect sense and I was quite content when I left the theater.
Borat
The goal of Borat, I assume, was to show people in the US how ridiculous some aspects of its culture truly are. Let all America laugh at the racist southerner and the sexist frat boy. But watching this film I felt like the joke was truly on the US. Because sadly the racist guy and the sexist college student aren't the exception, I think they are the rule. Tie that in with some unfunny stuff involving naked wrestling and you have a movie that the general masses will eat up like candy. But for me this film just wasn't funny. It was more sad than funny.
Saw 3
Yes, I have seen Saw 3. Yes, I have often expressed how horrible the first two films were and how much I hated them while I was viewing them and I hated them more for having to sit through them. They are so ridiculously predictable. People act without the slightest bit of sense. Yet somehow, these films keep making money and so they keep making movies. Yes, I acknowledge that my ticket in some way contributes to this fact, but I'm trying to see a crap load of movies in one year here people. Inevitably I have to see the crappy ones. It isn't possible to see 100 good movies in the theater, not in this state at least.
Being Jigsaw must be a tiring experience. No wonder he is dying. So much set up, elaborate bend over backwards set up for so little gain. I suspect even real psychopaths would opt for a far simpler way of killing people. This movie really tried to be deep. Or at least the screenwriter thought he was being deep. Unfortunately, the writer's idea of depth is woefully misplaced. I've seen wading pools with more depth. The saddest thing is that although I hate these "Saw" movies with a passion that I generally reserve for things like Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor, I will undoubtedly go and see any and all sequels that are made and I'll be as bitter then as I am now about it.
Being Jigsaw must be a tiring experience. No wonder he is dying. So much set up, elaborate bend over backwards set up for so little gain. I suspect even real psychopaths would opt for a far simpler way of killing people. This movie really tried to be deep. Or at least the screenwriter thought he was being deep. Unfortunately, the writer's idea of depth is woefully misplaced. I've seen wading pools with more depth. The saddest thing is that although I hate these "Saw" movies with a passion that I generally reserve for things like Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor, I will undoubtedly go and see any and all sequels that are made and I'll be as bitter then as I am now about it.
Man Of The Year
What to say about Robin Williams? What to say about Man of the Year? If Hollywood had never acknowledged either I suspect the world would be a better place. I don't buy for one second of this film, the idea that Robin Williams is a successful "Daily Show"-esque comedian news reporter. Part of the plot revolves around some crazy fouled up voting machine and the whole reason Williams gets elected is because of the error. And no one suspects fraud, even though he had only 10% of the vote going into the election. This movie exists in a fantasy world where apparently the Gore/Bush race never happened. Oh yeah and its horribly not funny. When, o when will Hollywood learn to use Christopher Walken to his full comic potential? He was the only bright spot in this horrible movie.
The Departed
Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest directors in American Cinema. Even when his movies miss their mark, they are still cinematic feats. The Departed is a refreshing film in a rather dismal year at the movies. Sure its a remake, and Hollywood should really get off the remake band wagon, but if every remake were done as well as Scorsese does this one, I might not complain as much.
The story revolves around Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). The former is a police officer placed undercover in a gang run by Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), the latter is a police officer, who secretly works for Costello. What more need you know except that is an intense thriller with twists and turns that kept the entertainment value high for the whole movie.
DiCaprio was excellent as always. There are a lot of people out there who hate him as an actor but I've never seen him give a bad performance. Nicholson is a blast to watch as he plays over the top. I enjoyed everything about this movie and the ending was refreshing. Easily one of the best movies I have seen this year.
The story revolves around Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). The former is a police officer placed undercover in a gang run by Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), the latter is a police officer, who secretly works for Costello. What more need you know except that is an intense thriller with twists and turns that kept the entertainment value high for the whole movie.
DiCaprio was excellent as always. There are a lot of people out there who hate him as an actor but I've never seen him give a bad performance. Nicholson is a blast to watch as he plays over the top. I enjoyed everything about this movie and the ending was refreshing. Easily one of the best movies I have seen this year.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Why, Mr. Statham, why?
Jason Statham has played memorable favorites in Lock Stock and Two Smoking barrels and in Snatch. Which is why it pains me to see him in films like The Transporter (either one) or this film Crank.
Crank follows Chev (Statham) who wakes up having been injected with a poison that will kill him. All he can do is put off death by keeping his adrenaline pumping. A reviewer called it a crude combination of Speed and D.O.A. which would seem to imply that either of those movies was good.
Crank is painstakingly bad. It is so painfully overstylized as they director uses split screen shots, bizarre use of flashback and scene cuts that I was boiling with rage and wanted to shout at the director to just keep the camera still and let the images tell the story but then I realized that there probably wasn't enough good footage to complete an entire film and all this ornament is simply to confuse.
This movie can't even fall onto the time tested defense of at least the action was entertaining. The action was boring. There is no sense of pacing at all. The movie wants to be serious, it isn't. It wants to be funny, it isn't. Whatever the director was attempting, he has failed on every level. He like the director of Pulse should be taken to the woods and put away quietly.
Crank follows Chev (Statham) who wakes up having been injected with a poison that will kill him. All he can do is put off death by keeping his adrenaline pumping. A reviewer called it a crude combination of Speed and D.O.A. which would seem to imply that either of those movies was good.
Crank is painstakingly bad. It is so painfully overstylized as they director uses split screen shots, bizarre use of flashback and scene cuts that I was boiling with rage and wanted to shout at the director to just keep the camera still and let the images tell the story but then I realized that there probably wasn't enough good footage to complete an entire film and all this ornament is simply to confuse.
This movie can't even fall onto the time tested defense of at least the action was entertaining. The action was boring. There is no sense of pacing at all. The movie wants to be serious, it isn't. It wants to be funny, it isn't. Whatever the director was attempting, he has failed on every level. He like the director of Pulse should be taken to the woods and put away quietly.
In Heaven There Is No Beer
It is hard in good conscience to talk about Beerfest as anything but an intentionally offensive, desperate pandering spectacle but the reality is that despite being dumb, and I mean really dumb, I laughed a whole lot. The film follows two brothers who journey to Germany to place their Grandfather's ashes in the ancestral burial place and stumble upon a secret international beer Olympics.
They suffer humiliation and return to the States to train and return triumphant. They gather together a team together and train and eventually return to Germany. A fairly straightforward underdog story placed into a fairly conventional drinking movie. But there are moments in this film when I was literally in tears. I should probably be ashamed to admit that but if I stop laughing because I need time to breath then I must admit what I have just witnessed is in some way funny.
I've heard reviewers speak unfavorably about this film and suggest going to see funnier films such as Animal House. I assure you I never laughed at anything in Animal House that was as funny as when one of the characters wakes up from a night of drinking. I won't ruin the manner in which he wakes up but it was priceless. Perhaps the appeal to this movie is the exaggeration of events that anyone who has ever done serious drinking recognizes as being plausible.
I won't try to intellectualize why I found it funny more than that. I just did. I have no qualms about saying this was the funniest thing I've watched all year.
They suffer humiliation and return to the States to train and return triumphant. They gather together a team together and train and eventually return to Germany. A fairly straightforward underdog story placed into a fairly conventional drinking movie. But there are moments in this film when I was literally in tears. I should probably be ashamed to admit that but if I stop laughing because I need time to breath then I must admit what I have just witnessed is in some way funny.
I've heard reviewers speak unfavorably about this film and suggest going to see funnier films such as Animal House. I assure you I never laughed at anything in Animal House that was as funny as when one of the characters wakes up from a night of drinking. I won't ruin the manner in which he wakes up but it was priceless. Perhaps the appeal to this movie is the exaggeration of events that anyone who has ever done serious drinking recognizes as being plausible.
I won't try to intellectualize why I found it funny more than that. I just did. I have no qualms about saying this was the funniest thing I've watched all year.
Pulse
Sometimes you go to a movie because you are a fan of one of the actors or actresses who happens to be starring in said movie. I can give you no better reason for why I willingly went to see Pulse. I don't particularly like Horror films or Americanized knockoffs of Japanese originals. But I do like Kristen Bell. So I happily turned my wallet over and shook it until the seven dollars that I needed fell out and marched into the theater.
The problem with liking actors/actresses who aren't making top dollar is that they make movies that earn them a paycheck but aren't skillfully demanding. Pulse feels like a paycheck movie for young Ms. Bell. I hope it was a paycheck movie for everyone involved because if this is a director's artistic achievement said director needs to be taken out into the woods and disposed of in a quiet manner. I haven't even seen the original film and have the sense that it is being done an injustice.
The worst conceit being, what kind of computer illiterate retard clicks on a pop up!! And ultimately that is all the strange ghost virus is. Why can't the people just go in and erase all the harddrives with giant magnets? I'm not going to bother with summarizing the plot of this film, suffice to say I got my Kristen Bell big screen time and I paid for it, monetarily and otherwise.
The problem with liking actors/actresses who aren't making top dollar is that they make movies that earn them a paycheck but aren't skillfully demanding. Pulse feels like a paycheck movie for young Ms. Bell. I hope it was a paycheck movie for everyone involved because if this is a director's artistic achievement said director needs to be taken out into the woods and disposed of in a quiet manner. I haven't even seen the original film and have the sense that it is being done an injustice.
The worst conceit being, what kind of computer illiterate retard clicks on a pop up!! And ultimately that is all the strange ghost virus is. Why can't the people just go in and erase all the harddrives with giant magnets? I'm not going to bother with summarizing the plot of this film, suffice to say I got my Kristen Bell big screen time and I paid for it, monetarily and otherwise.
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