Stuff I've Watched - 2010 Version
Jan. 14th, 2010 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trancer21In 2009, I meant to make more posts of the movie's I'd watched. I still have a GIANT Bollywood review to post. So, for 2010, I've decided to make a running count of the movies I've watched. With the goal of hitting a hundred. Which, for me, probably isn't going to be that hard. Anyway, under the cut are the movies I've watched in 2010 so far.
1. Edges of Darkness (2009) - Not to be confused with the upcoming Mel Gibson movie, either way, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!! Seriously, DO NOT watch this movie!! I usually give a lot of leeway to micro-budget movies because if making movies were easy everybody would do it. Sadly, there are some who are who totally shouldn't. While EoD has a couple unique ideas, a movie with unique/original ideas that's poorly executed is still a poorly executed movie, and all the original ideas can't save you from poor writing, acting, and directing. When I say I've seen movies made by high schoolers that are better? It's not hyperbole!
Set several months after a zombie apocalypse, EoD centers around the inhabitants of an apartment complex, intercutting between three separate stories. The biggest failure of this movie is that these three stories have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER!! Had I known that, I would have stopped watching about halfway through because, at the time, I kept watching with the assumption that a) these stories would come together and b) there'd be a decent pay off. Ha! It failed on both counts. Had the movie presented these stories anthology style, it would have been a bit better.
2. Pontypool (2009) - HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!! Where Edges of Darkness fails, Pontypool succeeds. It uses imagination to overcome its obvious low budget (admittedly, Pontypool's budget was *much* larger than EoD but still less than the daily craft services budget for Avatar). I almost don't want to say too much because part of what makes this movie really work is the 'mystery' of it all.
3. Hatchet (2006) - Second HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!! What do you know? A horror-comedy that's both scary *and* funny! It loses points for the gratuitous boob shots in the first ten minutes but it does center around a couple frat boys in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. A (good) throwback to the slasher flicks of yore. There's lots of gore but the villain is indiscrimate in his killings and they lack the 'mean-spirtedness' in regards to the killing of female characters that's turned me off of so many of today's horror movies.
4. Black Devil Doll (2007) - Second HIGHEST ANTI-RECOMMENDATION!! Jesus Case! This "movie" is only an hour and three minutes long and serious feels like three times as long. And that's not including the TEN MINUTES worth of credits!! *sigh* Admittedly, the producers of this flick intentionally made this to be as 'offensive' as possible. But, what's good as a short or extremely funny when you're sitting on the couch smoking your second bowl, doesn't necessarily translate into an entertaining feature film. Especially when its creators never really thought beyond its 'hey, it's a 70's Black Power extremist in a dummy having sex with/killing porn stars' premise. A premise that quickly loses steam once the killing starts and it all becomes tirelessly and relentlessly repetitive... and, the greatest offense, not funny.
5. Whip It (2009) - I'm not sure why I didn't like this more. I suppose most of it is because I was expecting more of a story about a young woman joining a Roller Derby team and less coming of age dramedy and, imo, a pretty pedestrian one at that. And felt cheated at the lack of depth/screen time the Hurl Girls *weren't* given because of the coming-of-age storyline. It probably doesn't help that I think I'm like the only person on the planet who thinks Ellen Page was woefully miscast as the lead. Like, seriously, in WHAT WORLD would Ellen Page *ever* physically best Juliette Lewis? My disbelief doesn't suspend *that* high!
6. Inglourious Basterds (2009) - Well that was MIND NUMBINGLY BORING!! I don't hate Tarantino. I just long for the days before Power Player Tarantino, back when an Executive Producer could smack him on the back of the head and tell him to stop being so GODDAMNED SELF-INDULGENT! I honestly believe had this been written/directed by some unknown, it wouldn't have received half the good reviews it did. Oh and Tarantino? Please stop trying to make Eli Roth happen.
7. Doghouse (2009) - While, as a horror film, it's certainly more entertaining and put together than either Edges of Darkness of Black Devil Doll, but it's no Pontypool *or* Hatchet. Another zombie film about a bunch of guys, all in the 'doghouse' with their respective significant others, stuck in a small town where all the women have turned into maneating zombies. The two biggest problems - 1) TOO MANY CHARACTERS!! And not enough time spent on characterization, making them basically red shirts waiting in line for their impending death. 2) For a movie about men reclaiming their masculinity in a world of rampant feminism run wild, I felt that the red shirt's deaths didn't really parallel their 'failures' as men. While an above average horror film, which isn't saying much, like Black Devil Doll, it never rises above it's thin premise.
8. Dead Snow (2009) - I can see why this movie made top 10 horror lists for 2009 because it's good. It's really good. But, I still felt a bit.. empty after it was over. Like, Doghouse, I knew about the same about the characters at the end of the movie as I did at the beginning. I tend to think of it as a winter version of 'The Descent', instead of being trapped underground, the characters are trapped in the mountains. But, unlike The Descent, I actually gave a crap about the characters and felt sympathy for them when they died.
9. Cadillac Records (2008) - A pedestrian bio-pic saved by some amazing musical performances. Sure, I had to *really* suspend my disbelief when it came to Beyonce as Etta James but, I can forgive it, seeing as how having Beyonce's name attached (and Executive Producer credit) was probably the only reason this movie got made. But, seriously, an hour and forty minutes is no where close to long enough towards telling the story of one of the most influential recording studios in modern music history. Any of the four main artists featured - Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Etta James - could have had a 3 hour picture. Crammed into one hour and forty minute movie, there's just not enough time and the characterization comes across as superficial.
But, the music's *really* good.
10. Fanboys (2008) - The Star Wars answer to Trek's 'Free Enterprise' that's, sadly, more miss than hit. When it gets it right, it seriously hits the hammer on the head. But the plot, and heart of the movie, gets lost in a string of seen-it-before fratboy escapades. Some of which are funny but most are not. Especially, the constant digs at Star Trek fans when these nerds have no business whatsoever throwing stones. Also, another sad case in which what was going on behind the scenes was far more entertaining that what made it onto the big screen.
1. Edges of Darkness (2009) - Not to be confused with the upcoming Mel Gibson movie, either way, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!! Seriously, DO NOT watch this movie!! I usually give a lot of leeway to micro-budget movies because if making movies were easy everybody would do it. Sadly, there are some who are who totally shouldn't. While EoD has a couple unique ideas, a movie with unique/original ideas that's poorly executed is still a poorly executed movie, and all the original ideas can't save you from poor writing, acting, and directing. When I say I've seen movies made by high schoolers that are better? It's not hyperbole!
Set several months after a zombie apocalypse, EoD centers around the inhabitants of an apartment complex, intercutting between three separate stories. The biggest failure of this movie is that these three stories have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER!! Had I known that, I would have stopped watching about halfway through because, at the time, I kept watching with the assumption that a) these stories would come together and b) there'd be a decent pay off. Ha! It failed on both counts. Had the movie presented these stories anthology style, it would have been a bit better.
2. Pontypool (2009) - HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!! Where Edges of Darkness fails, Pontypool succeeds. It uses imagination to overcome its obvious low budget (admittedly, Pontypool's budget was *much* larger than EoD but still less than the daily craft services budget for Avatar). I almost don't want to say too much because part of what makes this movie really work is the 'mystery' of it all.
3. Hatchet (2006) - Second HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!! What do you know? A horror-comedy that's both scary *and* funny! It loses points for the gratuitous boob shots in the first ten minutes but it does center around a couple frat boys in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. A (good) throwback to the slasher flicks of yore. There's lots of gore but the villain is indiscrimate in his killings and they lack the 'mean-spirtedness' in regards to the killing of female characters that's turned me off of so many of today's horror movies.
4. Black Devil Doll (2007) - Second HIGHEST ANTI-RECOMMENDATION!! Jesus Case! This "movie" is only an hour and three minutes long and serious feels like three times as long. And that's not including the TEN MINUTES worth of credits!! *sigh* Admittedly, the producers of this flick intentionally made this to be as 'offensive' as possible. But, what's good as a short or extremely funny when you're sitting on the couch smoking your second bowl, doesn't necessarily translate into an entertaining feature film. Especially when its creators never really thought beyond its 'hey, it's a 70's Black Power extremist in a dummy having sex with/killing porn stars' premise. A premise that quickly loses steam once the killing starts and it all becomes tirelessly and relentlessly repetitive... and, the greatest offense, not funny.
5. Whip It (2009) - I'm not sure why I didn't like this more. I suppose most of it is because I was expecting more of a story about a young woman joining a Roller Derby team and less coming of age dramedy and, imo, a pretty pedestrian one at that. And felt cheated at the lack of depth/screen time the Hurl Girls *weren't* given because of the coming-of-age storyline. It probably doesn't help that I think I'm like the only person on the planet who thinks Ellen Page was woefully miscast as the lead. Like, seriously, in WHAT WORLD would Ellen Page *ever* physically best Juliette Lewis? My disbelief doesn't suspend *that* high!
6. Inglourious Basterds (2009) - Well that was MIND NUMBINGLY BORING!! I don't hate Tarantino. I just long for the days before Power Player Tarantino, back when an Executive Producer could smack him on the back of the head and tell him to stop being so GODDAMNED SELF-INDULGENT! I honestly believe had this been written/directed by some unknown, it wouldn't have received half the good reviews it did. Oh and Tarantino? Please stop trying to make Eli Roth happen.
7. Doghouse (2009) - While, as a horror film, it's certainly more entertaining and put together than either Edges of Darkness of Black Devil Doll, but it's no Pontypool *or* Hatchet. Another zombie film about a bunch of guys, all in the 'doghouse' with their respective significant others, stuck in a small town where all the women have turned into maneating zombies. The two biggest problems - 1) TOO MANY CHARACTERS!! And not enough time spent on characterization, making them basically red shirts waiting in line for their impending death. 2) For a movie about men reclaiming their masculinity in a world of rampant feminism run wild, I felt that the red shirt's deaths didn't really parallel their 'failures' as men. While an above average horror film, which isn't saying much, like Black Devil Doll, it never rises above it's thin premise.
8. Dead Snow (2009) - I can see why this movie made top 10 horror lists for 2009 because it's good. It's really good. But, I still felt a bit.. empty after it was over. Like, Doghouse, I knew about the same about the characters at the end of the movie as I did at the beginning. I tend to think of it as a winter version of 'The Descent', instead of being trapped underground, the characters are trapped in the mountains. But, unlike The Descent, I actually gave a crap about the characters and felt sympathy for them when they died.
9. Cadillac Records (2008) - A pedestrian bio-pic saved by some amazing musical performances. Sure, I had to *really* suspend my disbelief when it came to Beyonce as Etta James but, I can forgive it, seeing as how having Beyonce's name attached (and Executive Producer credit) was probably the only reason this movie got made. But, seriously, an hour and forty minutes is no where close to long enough towards telling the story of one of the most influential recording studios in modern music history. Any of the four main artists featured - Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Etta James - could have had a 3 hour picture. Crammed into one hour and forty minute movie, there's just not enough time and the characterization comes across as superficial.
But, the music's *really* good.
10. Fanboys (2008) - The Star Wars answer to Trek's 'Free Enterprise' that's, sadly, more miss than hit. When it gets it right, it seriously hits the hammer on the head. But the plot, and heart of the movie, gets lost in a string of seen-it-before fratboy escapades. Some of which are funny but most are not. Especially, the constant digs at Star Trek fans when these nerds have no business whatsoever throwing stones. Also, another sad case in which what was going on behind the scenes was far more entertaining that what made it onto the big screen.
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no subject
on 2010-01-15 06:14 pm (UTC)As for Juliette Lewis, she is the Original Mini-Badass. No one can best Juliette in a fight. I have been convinced of this since I watched her go totally psychotic in the diner in one of the opening scenes in Natural Born Killers. So yeah, Ellen Page wouldn't have a chance. I'm not surprised to hear that they pushed some coming-of-age story above the roller derby shit. I would blame the studios, but I think Drew herself leans more in that direction anyway. She always aspires to punk and gets mired down in "Heal your spirit and be freeeee" crap, in both her movies and her personal life.
no subject
on 2010-01-15 07:35 pm (UTC)See, I think Inglorious Basterds is a WWII version of Death Proof minus the really awesome car chase scene. Or, I should say, it's like a WWII version of the first half of Death Proof, which made me want to beat my head in with a wooden mallet. I think his favorite work of mine are the two episodes he did for CSI.
I'm not surprised to hear that they pushed some coming-of-age story above the roller derby shit.
Iirc, the movie's based on a book and the whole coming of age thing was part of that. But, like Basterds, I think the trailer for this movie is kinda misleading in that there's *way* less roller derby shenanigans than I thought there'd be.
no subject
on 2010-01-29 09:42 am (UTC)What do people see in Tarantino? I bet if Tarantino actually went and made an hour and a half movie of literally nothing but someone sitting on a coach, scratching himself and reading the newspaper; just to see if people will still praise him, I bet he'll get his results.
At least with his buddy Rodriguez you have something entertaining (even if it's bad), while with Tarantino it's often a movie dragged out 3 times longer than it should be. Oddly enough my favourite film of his is Jackie Brown.