After the Wedding (2006) - Nominated for Best Foreign Language film a few months ago, this Denmark drama stars Mads Mikkelsen as a Dane working in an orphanage in India. He is summoned back to Denmark by the orphanage's sponsor. The film takes unexpected twists when he gets there and nothing is as it seems. The film continues to surprise right up until the last scene. Mikkelsen played the cartoonish poker-playing bad guy in Casino Royale last year and displays great depth and humanity here. One minute he's (literally) busting James Bond's balls, the next he's teaching orphans. Crazy world. A little long and the songs suck, but there are great moments of raw emotion here. B
Night at the Museum (2006) - 250 million bucks in North American money can't be wrong, 
can it? Of course it can. Ben Stiller is a divorced loser trying to prove worth to his son. He won't be able to see his son regularly unless he's employed. He takes a job as the night watchman at the Museum of Natural History. Everything comes alive after hours and Stiller must follow certain rules to survive. The special effects have been done to death and Stiller's mugging grew tiresome 4 movies ago. Worst of all, Ricky Gervais is wasted and Carla Gugino keeps her top on. C (for Crap)
Bridge to Terabithia (2007) - Two uncool 
rural pre-teens create a magical world in the woods behind their homes. Bullies at school get their comeuppance, parents realize they've been too harsh, and rays of sunlight are stolen from church and used to kill really horrible "special" effects. If you didn't like Chronicles of Narnia, you'll really hate this. C-
Spoiler alert - The lead female pre-teen falls to her death shortly after saying she didn't think non-believers will go to hell if they are good. Hmm. Have fun with Hitler and Stalin, sweetie.
Old Joy - (2006) - Every year a really terrible movie ends up on dozens of critics' top ten lists. 
Old Joy is about two old friends who get together for a camping trip. One is a hippie environmentalist wacko with a creepy gay stalker streak. The other has sold out to the man by getting married and working at a regular job. What a bastard. The "film" was apparently shot on a VCR camera made in 1984. I'd give it an F, but it only wasted 76 minutes of my life. And the dog was pretty cool. D
Venus - (2006) - Peter O'Toole plays the dirtiest old man i
n film history. He meets a teenager and uses his status as a legendary actor to remain close to her. I'm sure that was quite a stretch. O'Toole is very funny here and it's sometimes startling how profane he gets with his friends. The movie is watchable enough but not spectacular. Director Roger Michell showed some flair with Changing Lanes (2002), but goes through the motions here. B-
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Snap Judgments - a quick review of 5 movies
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8 comments:
ben stiller owes owen wilson huge for injecting the only bits of watchable celluloid (or, more likely, megabytes) into Night. it wasn't bad enough that they stole the visuals from the much less successful (if somewhat better) jumanji, but they picked up robin williams to boot. i'd give it a D+.
thanks for the review on venus. i figure i still owe o'toole something for lawrence of arabia, so i keep toying with renting it. actually, with a B, i still am.
After the Wedding looks good; Night at the Museum looked like a cousin to Jumanji; Old Joy actually looked good; and Venus looks like the worst movie EVER. O'Toole looks like the straw man.
nice format, btw
Venus raises the issue of man's obsession with sex and the female form and then doesn't take it anywhere. It doesn't try to explain or prevent the exploitation of young girls, but more or less accepts it. The dialogue is consistently good but the movie became predictable in the second half.
Old Joy has to be autobiographical in some way since the "artist" is portrayed as fulfilling his dream and the married working guy is portrayed as wasting his life. Then the artist takes his old friend into the deeps woods for a hot bath and a massage. Fade out. Fade in. Did they do it? With the Brokeback Mountain twangy guitar in the background, all signs point to Who Gives a Crap.
I think the question we're all asking ourselves is...why is the Doctor seeing Bridge to Terabithia in the theater?
It's already released on DVD. Kevin Smith recommended it when he substituted on Ebert/Roeper. Just another reason why he is not to be trusted, respected, or admired. Total douche-bag.
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