Snap Judgments - a Quick Review of 5 Movies

JCVD

Much better than you'd ever expect. I'll second everything that Priest said here. Jean Claude Van Damme can act and his 5-6 minute monologue looking directly at the camera is the best moment of his entire career. All the movie references (Hard Target, Windtalkers, etc.) are spot-on. The directing draws attention to itself and is occasionally self-referential, but nonetheless exciting and thoughtful. B+

The Ugly Truth
There are moments of greatness when Gerard Butler gives the impossibly radiant Katherine Heigl the "ugly truth" and lays out exactly (and I mean exactly) how men think. The dialogue is refreshingly honest (i.e. R-rated) and Butler is very charismatic, delivering each line perfectly. But this being a modern romantic comedy, the plot becomes overly familiar and the ridiculous coincidences add up. Almost a B, but the rancid CGI during the hot air balloon finale drags it down. B-

The Proposal

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds shine as a bitchy boss and her longtime assistant who fake an engagement when she is threatened with deportation to Canada. The film paints itself into a corner when the only tension in the second half is if she will tell his family the truth. The majority of the film takes place in Alaska, but the CGI is so bad that you can tell it was shot in a studio. But the dialogue is playful enough for Bullock and Reynolds pull off some surprisingly good chemistry. B-

Passengers

You can't combine 2 of the best films of the 90s (Fearless and The Sixth Sense), fail to add interesting ideas, characters, or dialogue, and expect everything to come up aces. Anne Hathaway (who I'll apparently watch in anything) stars as an airline crash expert who sets up group therapy with a few surviving passengers. There are a few good jolts, but messing with audience just for the sake of it is hardly an excuse for a movie. C

Sin Nombre

It's getting a lot of year-end recognition as one of the best foreign language films of the year, but this 50-50 combo rip-off of City of God and El Norte is unpleasant, sadistic, misogynistic, depressing, and worst of all - boring. Everything it tries to do has been done infinitely better in those aforementioned films. Just watch City of God again. There's nothing to see here. Move along. Move along. C