Still not really sure what the hell happened, but it looked pretty darn good. The ending pretty much reset the entire story of the two movies, which works well enough. The big “battle” of the flying balls through Moscow was pretty kick ass. But I still didn’t fully follow the plot, there was a lot of weird extraneous stuff happening and then I probably missed some dialogue. Not bad but not something I’d want to watch again.
So even though I thought the first one was crap I rented this one. It’s still crap, but it looked even awesome. It would have been worth a matinee to see it on the big screen with a proper sound system. I can’t recall the details of the “plot” but it was fun picking it apart the whole time.
I waited too long to write this, I don’t remember my specific thoughts after reading, but I do know that I loved it. Heinlein has a solid vision of the future, where citizens must earn their right to vote through non-compulsory military service. In history lessons given within the book, we learn that the democracies of the 20th century collapsed because “people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted… and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears.”
This was much more of a political commentary than an action story, though it did have plenty of that. The military of his future is harsh and unforgiving, yet much more free than today. At any time a soldier can quit, he’ll be dishonorably dischared and will never be allowed to enlist again, nor will he ever gain the rights of a citizen. They actually do everything they can to talk Rico and crew out of joining, they only want those who are willing to make it through to the end, though most don’t, but nto for lack of trying.
Aside from the idea of citizenship and a bug war, this is nothing like the movie. The power suits are a huge part of the story yet in the movie they have cheap plastic looking armor. A wasted opportunity, this could be a really excellent film if you stick to the story and themes presented in the novel.
So I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from this. When this was in theaters I quickly became sick of seeing the trailer EVERYWHERE, maybe we just went to a lot of movies that month, but as soon as it started I’d start groaning. Not that it looked terrible, it just looked bleh and forgettable.
Yet I went ahead and rented it because of reviews that promised it was a really good, like a dark comedy version of Taxi Driver. I’d agree with that. The movie is much more focused on Seth Rogen’s character then the trailers would lead you to believe. He has a shit-ton of issues, and you basically get to just watch how he deals with them. It’s nothing groundbreaking but I was glad to see it wasn’t just a silly plot driven comedy with lots of cursing (that would be Paul Blart, but with fart jokes instead of cursing).
Some stuff in this movie really made you suspend disbelief, especially the ending when he shoots the guy and then walks him to the police station. He would almost definitely bleed to death, they would have just called an ambulance. But it made for a good moment with the Ray Liotta character so no biggie. Also, the big fight at the end would have landed him in jail for a long time, but he barely seemed to get even a slap on the wrist. Maybe it’s poor writing, or maybe we’re supposed to not give a shit if it’s believable. Maybe it’s all in his fucked up head (though there’s nothing to suggest that).
This is another one I liked so darned much that I don’t feel the need to write a lot. The best horror comedy I can think of, and one of my favorite movies of the year. Woody Harrelson is great, and I liked how the rules popped up on screen throughout. Oh, and Bill Murray, fucking priceless. Can’t wait for the sequel!
When it was over I didn’t think I liked it because I didn’t really follow it all the way through. But I’m okay with that. I think the sequel will help clear a lot of that up. Everything looked awesome in this, and assuming the writers know what they’re doing and can flesh out the universe a bit more in Daywatch, I think I could look back at this as really great. There’s a lot to be done in this world, and I’m interested in seeing more. The ending was really good too.
As expected, things got even more crazy this season. Not always in a bad way though. “Who Pooped the Bed?” was great, as was the two-parter “Mac and Charlie Die”. A few episodes went a little too far, like “The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition” and “Paddy’s Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia”. Both put the Gang into situations that were just too far removed from reality and that should have had far more serious consequences. Sure it’s a comedy where everything should just be reset at the end (as it was with these episodes), but sometimes it’s just a little difficult to get behind the ridiculous shit they do.
“The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell” was interesting. I wasn’t really into the whole 1776 flashback thing, but the moments at the end when they kill Cricket and Dee flies away on a broom (one of the funniest moments in the series I think) made up for it. “The Nightman Cometh” was also very good, it’s great to see Charlie get really involved in the episode’s plot (he is often kind of a side character doing silly shit rather than a key player), especially his song at the end.
Even with a few weak spots, I still loved this season. They really just need to stay at the bar more, it seems like whenever they leave the bar or aren’t doing something directly related to the bar, the show loses a little steam (with the exception of season 5’s road trip episode, classis). Absolutely worth a purchase on DVD, though I’ll probably wait for a full-series set.
It was actually almost as good as the hype led me to believe. A ghost story is a pretty hard sell on me, but the found footage angle along with demonic possession got me. It had a lot of jump-scare moments, and a few really creepy bits, but I was certainly able to sleep just fine that night, despite what ads say. REC was way worse (meaning better) in this aspect.
My biggest problem is the characters. This takes place over the course of 20+ days. Plus the girl has had an idea of what’s happening since she was a child. It’s not like everything was just thrust onto them over the course of one night, they had plenty of time to at least try to do something about it. I think that’s what makes this less scary. I haven’t had any demons haunting me, and if they do start it seems it will be a slow build, so I will get the hell out of Dodge before anything serious happens.
With say, a zombie attack, you’re in your bunker sharpening your knife, filling up ammo magazines and BOOM a horde of zombies ram into the door craving brains. Or maybe your at summer camp making sweet sex to the other counselors in a tent and SLICE a machete takes your arm off. The unknown is always more scary than the known, and they seemed to know a lot about this demon. It takes its sweet time and doesn’t become really threatening until the last third of the movie (a couple weeks time to the characters).
At first they hear things, or something falls off the table or a light is swinging, all totally explainable by a settling house, wind, forgetting where you left your keys, etc. Even the door opening and closing is plausible. But then they see video evidence that cannot be explained rationally (the Ouija board moving and then spontaneously combusting, for example), and then there are footprints on the floor and a broken photo frame. At this point the characters really should have left. I don’t care if the psychic says it won’t help, staying in the house, alone, is probably the dumbest thing they could do. At least at a hotel they’d be near others if they needed help. Instead they just get freaked out for a little while, and go about their lives. SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG MORONS, you have video and physical evidence of an intruder at the very least, do something about it!
Also, the boyfriend is a dick, Katie was obviously very scared about this thing that has been haunting her since childhood, and then even after promising not to get a Ouija board he does it anyway, and generally takes the whole thing pretty lightly until the physical evidence starts showing up. What a douche.
The picture in the attic was one of the most creepy moments. The girl’s performance was very good, the way she reacts to that and all the other demony things felt very real. The last scene was intense, I was kind of hoping the demon would be revealed but her possession makes a lot more sense. I’ve read about an alternate ending where you hear her fight/kill Micah off-screen, then she walks upstairs, stands in the bedroom, and just slits her throat. Not quite the jump-scare we got in the theatrical ending, but I think it’d be more effective and scary. There was also another one where she kills Micah then goes upstairs and just stands in the bedroom for days (according to the video timecode). Her friend eventually comes over to see if anything is wrong, and she’s killed. Then the cops show up and end up shooting Katie. The cop part would have seemed out of place, but otherwise this one sounds pretty cool. The parts where she just stood over the bed and the video time sped up to show she was doing it for hours at a time were freaky and very cool.
Not to say the “real” ending was bad, the slightly morphed face knocking over the camera was a great last shot, and then the title card that says her whereabouts are unknown ended it perfectly.
I definitely enjoyed this, especially with a midnight audience. Everyone was into it and very freaked out. The girl next to Crystal actually grabbed her arm a few times. I was almost paying more attention to the audience than the movie. But in the end it’s a ghost/demon story, and I doubt they will ever really scare me because I know it’s absolutely not real. Jason could very well be a crazy killer in the woods, and zombies aren’t completely supernatural (see 28 Days Later), so they tend to get me, but not this one.
That said, I recognize that this ultra-low-budget film managed to pull off what so many Hollywood films cannot: genuine scares, a good, focused story, and that “gotta tell my friends to see this” feeling when it’s over.
“I think this movie was made just so they could make a good trailer.”
— Crystal
A perfect one-line review for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Worse than Spider-man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand, or Daredevil this was, and those are fightin’ words. Though it did manage to have lots of cool moments, hence the trailer comment. It had far more moments featuring horrible dialogue, shitty CG (his claws looked AWFUL), and embarrassingly cheesy moments (we are treated to at least two shots of Logan looking up at the camera/sky and yelling, and there were a number of times where he or Victor had a close-up growly face that got some LOLs).
Also, were they even trying to make this fit in with the continuity the other three movie have set up? It looks like maybe they were but there was so much more they could have done, and tons that they shouldn’t have.
I know it’s a comic book movie but the X-Men film-world has been established as based in a sort of reality where as long as you accept mutants and the occasional more-than-natural thing like adamantium, everything else is normal. Not so anymore. Imagine if you will a large, solid door. Wolverine takes his three claws and cuts through diagonally in a straight line. He then does the same in a perpendicular line (forming an X). That’s fine and all, except that there is a grid of metal squares in the middle of this that should fall, because, you know, gravity. Instead, the shot lingers for a moment where nothing happens, and then he busts through. This is the only example that comes to mind, but things like this happened throughout.
There’s also the horrible inconsistency of his powers, but even the first three were bad about this. If the moment calls for him to be injured for a minute then he will be, if his entire body is literally being ripped apart but we need a dramatic moment, he will insta-heal.
All of that said, I went into this knowing it would suck so I wasn’t upset. It managed to be even worse than I was expecting though. I hear a sequel is in the works. His origins story was fully told in this one, the state he’s left in at the end of this movie is exactly as we find him in X-Men, just a different location. The sequel could only exist to have him on some pointless action adventure, with some other mutants thrown in a wasted for comic effect.
D+ (for some cool action scenes and Ryan Reynolds’ bit before they criminally neutered him)
This was pretty cute, with plenty of chuckles. It’s got the structure of a romcom, with some Vince Vaughn/Jon Favreau-ian shenanigans thrown in to keep things moving. Jon was probably the best part, while Kristin Davis was easily the most annoying.
I think it has as many boring/bad moments as it did funny ones. A lot of the scenes were based around a one, sometimes funny sometimes not, joke, and always went on too long. Vince’s one liners can only do so much for a boring scene.
Also it was embarrassing to watch Jean Reno in this, he is so much better. And I don’t know how to look at Kristin Bell and believe she’s a day over 16, so when she talks about sex and whatnot with Jason Bateman it’s a little odd. At least on Veronica Mars she was doing it with other teens.
In the end everyone learns a lesson about love and relationships and kisses and they have the happy ending. Duh. Glad I saw it for free, it’s not worth a movie ticket. A rental, or at least a Sunday afternoon on TBS.
