Brief Movie Reviews- 3/30/10

Brief Movie Reviews- 3/30/10

Here are some movies that I’ve seen recently and instead of doing a big movie review of each I decided to write a brief movie review of each and give it a grade.

Precious

- To say that this was a hard movie to sit through would be an understatement. The movie deals with physical and emotional abuse, and incest of the main character. I will guarantee after watching this movie you will feel better about your own life. If you can make it through all the hard scenes though you will be rewarded by a very emotional story with a ray of hope at the end. I really enjoyed this movie although I don’t think I could watch it again. The movie was full of great performances and great scenes that I will not forget any time soon. Precious was nominated for best picture of 2009. Won Oscars for best supporting actress (Mo’Nique), and adapted screenplay.

- Grade: B

A Serious Man

- This Coen brothers movie deals with a Jewish man going through a bit of a mid life crisis. His wife wants a divorce so that she can marry his colleague, his brother is a lonely person who sleeps on his couch and has trouble with the law, his son smokes pot, his daughter steals from him, and he’s not sure if he will get his tenure at the college he teachers for. Through out the movie he is meeting with different Rabbis to try to figure out why this is all happening to him. The answer seems to be there is no answer and you should just do good to others in any and every situation. Though this is accurate to life it doesn’t make for an interesting movie. This movie was nominated for best picture in 2009.

- Grade: D

Coraline

- This is a stop action motion movie that follows a girl named Coraline who finds a portal, in her new house, to an alternative world. In this alternative world everyone seems more interesting, especially her parents, than the people in the real world. She finds herself wanting to spend more time in this new world then in her own. Only this new world soon turns into a nightmare and she must defeat the evil presence there to save everyone she loves. The animation can be quite beautiful and haunting at times but also is very bizarre and creepy. I wasn’t crazy about the story line and it was a bit too bizarre for my taste. It was nominated for best animation movie in 2009.

- Grade: C

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

- Another stop motion animation that stars a fox aptly named Mr. Fox who longs for the good old years when he made a living catching chickens. He’s settled down with a wife and son and itches for more excitement. So he steals some chickens from some farmers and brings their wrath upon him and the animal community he lives in. To redeem himself he has to come up with a plan to save everyone. If you like Wes Anderson movies then I think you will like this one. It has the usual actors and the usual quirky humor of other Wes Anderson movies. I thought it was funny with an interesting story and characters. It was nominated for best animation movie in 2009.

- Grade: B

The Princess and the Frog

- Disney animation goes old school with a 2D musical animation movie in this one. It stars a woman in New Orleans who works hard as a waitress saving up to own her own restaurant. An evil voodoo man turns her into a frog, along with a prince. They meet some funny characters on the way to finding a witch on the bayou to turn them back to human. The two frogs, or I mean characters, of course fall in love and they both learn a valuable lesson in life. It was an ok story with some funny characters but not enough for me to really recommend. Also none of the songs really worked for me like past Disney movies. It was also nominated for best animation movie of 2009.

- Grade: C

The Informant

- This movie is based on a true story of a man who gets involved with the FBI against the company he works for. He wears a wire to meetings and basically spies on his co-workers to bring down the corruption of the company. The movie gets more and more complicated as the FBI and you the viewer start wondering if this guy is trust worthy at all. A somewhat comical performance by Matt Damon in the lead. Matt Damon fills it with the most random narration in a movie that I’ve ever seen. The narration doesn’t really push the plot along but gives you insight on how nerdy and random the main character is. It’s an interesting gimmick at first that gets annoying the farther into the movie you get.

Grade: C

Moive Review- Green Zone

Green Zone

The Green Zone is the third collaboration of actor Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass. The Bourne Supremacy and the Bourne Ultimatum proved to be a winning combination for the two and are two of my favorite movies. If you have seen any advertisement for this movie you will know they are promoting it almost as another Bourne movie. It was a good idea because it got me to go see it, but don’t kid yourself this is nowhere near as good as those movies. I was very disappointed in how unexciting the movie was and the obvious liberal political message.

The movie takes place in the early aftermath of the Iraq invasion. Matt Damon stars as officer Miller whose job is to lead a team of soldiers into targeted buildings that is believed to have WMD’s. He is disappointed time and time again that they can’t find any and is starting to question the Intel that is given to them. Greg Kinnear plays Clark Poundstone, who works for the Pentagon and seems to be in charge of operations in Iraq. Brendan Gleeson plays CIA agent Martin Brown who is the expert on Iraq relations. Mr. Poundstone and agent Brown butt heads over and over in the movie on choosing the leader of the new regime in Iraq. Poundstone believes in putting their own choice in as President to act as a puppet of the United States. Brown believes that the people should vote in their own president. This decision can have drastic effects on the future of Iraq and our relations with that country.

Miller soon is on the hunt of a major former General of Sadam Hussein. He believes by catching this General he can find out the truth about whether or not there really is WMD’s in Iraq. With the help of agent Brown and a reporter played by Amy Ryan he uncovers where to find the General. To catch the General he will have to disobey orders from Poundstone and go rogue. So he is on a race to find the General before Poundstone does or he will never find the out the truth.

Like I said before this movie was nowhere near as thrilling as watching Damon and Greengrass’s other films. The first half isn’t too bad as we are being introduced to all the characters and are setting up the premise. I found the second half to be very boring as it’s mostly spent on Miller running around all over Baghdad talking to different characters. Most of the action is at the beginning and ending of the movie but none of it was that exciting to watch. Mostly due to the jerky camera work, quick editing, and dark cinematography that makes it hard for the viewer to understand what’s going on. Whatever worked in the Bourne movies did not work here. The movie has a great cast but it seems like they are all phoning it in and don’t have a lot to work with. It’s just the same performances that we have seen in other movies, especially for Damon, which just came out blah on the screen.

Lastly I have to mention the blatant liberal politics on the movie. It’s obvious that the writer of the movie didn’t believe that there were any WMD’s in Iraq and that the Pentagon/U.S/Bush lied about it in order to invade. This is a fictional movie that seeks to give an explanation on the writer’s bias belief on the war in Iraq. When finding a solution most people seek to find evidence first to prove their point. This movie instead decides on what the solution is and makes up evidence to prove what they want to be true. Skip this movie and rent the Bourne Trilogy or any season of 24.

Grade: D

Rated R: Some uses of strong language like the F-word, and non-graphic violence.

Podcast Episode 11- Green Zone

In this episode I review the movie Green Zone and list my top 10 Best Picture winners of the 2000's.

http://oscargeekmoviecast.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-03-15T19_35_33-07_00

Podcast Episode 10 continued

Continuing from episode 10 I talk about some TV shows like American Idol, The Office, Lost, Undercover Boss, and Amazing Race. I reveal 4 more movies on my top 25 movies of the last decade.

http://oscargeekmoviecast.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-03-15T17_35_12-07_00

Podcast Episode 10

In this episode I discuss what I thought about this years Oscars.

http://oscargeekmoviecast.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-03-09T15_03_46-08_00

Podcast Episode 9 continued

In this episode my friend Jon Zuercher and I continue talking about Inglorious Basterds. We then discuss the movies Up and Up in the Air to round out the 10 nominated films. We especially do an indept review of the movie Up in the Air because we both saw that movie. We then discuss the movies Alice in Wonderland, Zombieland, The Hangover, and Julie and Julia before we say goodbye. Subscribe to my podcast at itunes at oscargeekmoviecast.

http://oscargeekmoviecast.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-03-06T23_26_21-08_00

Podcast Episode 9

In this episode I am joined by a good friend Jon Zuercher. We discuss 6 of the 10 Oscar nominees for best picture which include Avatar, Hurt Locker, The Blindside, District 9, An Education, and Inglorious Basterds. We especially do a real indept review of the movie Inglorious Basterds since both of us have seen that movie. I couldn't get everything into this podcast that I wanted so I had to make another episode which is titled episode 9 continued. Subscribe to my podcast on itunes at oscargeekmoviecast.

http://oscargeekmoviecast.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-03-06T23_10_04-08_00

Podcast Episode 8

In this episode I review the movie Whip It!, talk about some of my favorite TV shows, and continue on my list of best movies of the last decade. Subscribe to my podcast on itunes at oscargeekmoviecast. Be sure to rate it and write a review.

http://oscargeekmoviecast.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-03-06T22_51_05-08_00

DVD Review- Zombieland

DVD Review- Zombieland

Zombieland is a fun, stupid movie with loads of blood and loads of laughs. I rented Zombieland recently and watched it twice. I watched it once with no audio commentary and once with audio commentary. In the commentary and other special features on the DVD you find out that the movie was originally meant to be a TV show. In the second time viewing the movie I could see why. There really is no point to the movie. The movie results as a bunch of random scenes thrown together that probably could have passed for several TV episodes. Is the movie fun enough to overlook the many flaws? I will say yes, yes it is.

The movie stars Jessie Eisenberg as Columbus (everyone is named after the city they are from) trying to make his way to Columbus, Ohio to find his family. He narrates the movie trying to let us in on what the world is like now when it’s run by flesh eating zombies. He explains what little back-story there is. Along the way he runs into Tallahassee played by Woody Harrelson. Most of the laughs and great moments of the movie involve these two characters. The two actors have great chemistry together and are great at riffing funny lines off each other. Eisenberg is great as a nerdy college kid that is scared at everything and has basically survived the zombie outbreak using his smarts. Harrelson is the opposite playing a tough guy who kills zombies for sport. Harrelson has never been funnier than in this role. They are the stereotypical odd couple and it works very well.

They then run into the other two main characters of the movie, a couple of sisters played by the beautifully funny Emma Stone (Wichita), and the Oscar nominated Abigail Breslin (Little Rock). We learn that these two have survived using there ability to con other people. Wichita and Little Rock hitch a ride to California where they hear that there is an amusement park where there are no zombies. Most of the movie is watching them traveling to different places and getting into funny situations. Yes I know it’s a zombie movie and all I’ve been talking about is how funny it is. It’s more like a comedy that just happens to have cannibalistic zombies running around. At times I even forget that there are zombies at all.

Zombies appear out of nowhere throughout the movie and are usually easily disposed of. They look very gross and always have black gunk coming out of their mouths. People do get eaten but most of that is during the first 15 minutes of the movie. When people do get attacked it is quite disgusting and bloody, very bloody. I’m talking the kind of bloody scenes where blood is splattered everywhere. I should also point out that there are a lot of people on zombie violence as well. Tallahassee likes to bash a lot of zombie’s brains in with a bat or banjo in which like before a lot of blood is splattered.

Overall I enjoyed this movie a lot. I would recommend it to anyone that can stomach the gory violence. The movie had great comedic performances by the four leading actors, and one special cameo. The DVD has some good special features including a making of Zombieland, scene design, make up, and an audio commentary featuring stars of the movie Eisenberg, Harrelson and the director, and writer of the movie. I wish it had a stronger plot driving the characters, and had more back-story, but it doesn’t detour from the fun you will probably have watching this.

Grade: B

Rated R: Extreme bloody violence through out including people getting eaten by zombies, zombies getting shot several times, and getting there heads crushed in. Make up of zombies is very grotesque and can be scary to younger viewers. Lots of use of several strong cuss words.

Episode 6- Classic Movie Reviews and TV Talk

The sixth episode of my podcast is now available. In this episode I review some classic movies like Mildred Pierce, Darling, True Lies, and Signs. I then talk about some of my favorite TV shows of the last week like American Idol, Amazing Race, Lost, Undercover Boss, and Dr. Drew Celebrity Rehab. Remember to check my podcast out on itunes.

http://oscargeekmoviecast.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-02-28T19_03_49-08_00