Archive for 'United States' Category
Bangkok Dangerous by The Pang Brothers (2008)
5 February 2010Normally I am not a fan of remakes, and most of the time think they should not be made (like the possible OLD BOY and HARVEY remakes that are in the works), but this one I was actually impressed with. First off it it is the Pang’s themselves who are remaking their own film, now [...]
Encounters at the End of the World by Werner Herzog (2007)
1 February 2010I had heard of Werner before I worked on his Blu-Ray disc of RESCUE DAWN, but did not know too much about the man, but after seeing RESCUE DAWN I was fascinated by this strange and possibly insane documentary and narrative director. This is the story of his journey to Antarctica to see the people [...]
Whatever Works written and directed by Woody Allen (2009)
24 January 2010I would call myself a Woody Allen fan. I love most of the films he made in at least the first half of his career, and I thought Match Point was a return to form, but his films since then have been mostly misses, and this is another one. Of course I am also not [...]
The Brothers Bloom by Rian Johnson (2008)
19 January 2010I was really looking forward to this caper film because of it’s incredible cast, and impressive looking trailer, but after seeing it, can honestly say I was pretty let down by the film. Especially the ending, which I found pretty weak. The lead up seemed decent enough, but the film needed a real kicker of [...]
Che Part 2: Guerilla byu Steven Soderbergh (2008)
5 January 2010The more depressing sequel, again Shot with a red, but with spherical lenses, continues the life of Che Guevera, from where the last film left off, having won the Cuban revolution and going on to his death fighting in Bolivia on October 9th, 1967. This really shows his struggles, and what he wanted to do [...]
Che Part 1: El Argentino by Steven Soderbergh (2008)
30 December 2009I am a huge Benicio del Toro fan, and have been wanting to see this since it came out, but it does not even come out on DVD until next year, but with the new Criterion streaming deal with Netflix I was finally able to watch this first of 2 films in HD and was [...]
Sherlock Holmes by Guy Ritchie (2009)
25 December 2009This Sherlock Holmes reboot was a strange choice for a Christmas Day release, because it is nothing more than a summer blockbuster. A pretty fun one, but not amazing, and certainly not worthy of it’s Oscar release date. Still having Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes as perfect, and Jude Law as Watson is also spectacular, [...]
Avatar written and directed by James Cameron (2009)
20 December 2009I was looking forward to this film for some time, being a fan of Cameron’s films, but have to say was very put off by the trailer, which did not look very good at all, but I still wanted to see it, especially in 3D. We went to see it at the Cineramadome at the [...]
Up in the Air by Jason Reitman (2009)
14 December 2009Easily one of the best films of the year, this one is hard to describe. I guess it is a drama, though it has elements of both comedy and romantic comedy, but it certainly is not either of those. Jason Reitman has really knocked it out of the park here with amazing performances all the [...]
Terminator Salvation by McG (2009)
12 December 2009I have to admit to never liking any McG films, so even with Christian Bale in the lead, I ended up staying away from this in the theaters and watching it on Blu-ray via netflix. And I can honestly say at least I did not see it on DVD, because this is pretty visually impressive. [...]
(500) Days of Summer by Marc Webb (2009)
5 December 2009Of late I have enjoyed the films that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been in, so I was interested in seeing this, but never got around to it until now, and am sorry I waited so long, because this is a great film, really the perfect version of what would be called a romantic comedy, because it [...]
The Twilight Saga: New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz (2009)
24 November 2009Now I am a Twilight Fan, possibly even a Twi-Hard, having read all the books, twice in fact, and having enjoyed the first film, TWILIGHT quite a bit, even owning the Blu-ray, so I was quite excited about seeing New Moon. And solely as a sequel to TWILIGHT I did enjoy this film, because, well, [...]
Where the Wild Things Are by Spike Jones (2009)
17 October 2009As a child I grew up loving the slightly disturbing children’s books of the great Maurice Sendak, my favorite being IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN followed by WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. And I love the insane films of Spike Jones, so I was really excited for this, and even more so after seeing the amazing [...]
9 by Shane Acker (2009)
10 September 2009Produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, this is an expansion of Acker’s oscar nominated short, that is amazing visually with a great cast, but the story is a bit too simple, and short, and the ending kind of falls flat. Still pretty impressive to watch, and I did enjoy it. The worst part was [...]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by David Yates (2009)
18 July 2009After the horrible Order of the Pheonix, I was really not expecting much out of this movie, though seeing Yates excellent British show State of Play did give me some hope, but then the awfulness of getting out of the theater (car fire at Hollywood and Highland, and then traffic from the Hollywood Bowl made [...]
Fanboys by Kyle Newman (2008)
11 July 2009This film had such a long and arduous process coming out, and sounds like it suffered greatly from being picked up by the Weinstein’s (having a new director added, and the main motivating factor cut out, only to eventually be put back in, but with the director only given 36 hours to fix his film) [...]
Star Trek of Gods and Men by Tim Russ (2007)
6 July 2009The most anticipated and biggest Star Trek fan film, filled with a cast of Star Trek luminaries is quite impressive for a fan film, though I still wish they had tried to push it a little bit to make it look a bit better. Sure the sets are amazing and the actors as well, and [...]
Star Trek the Motion Picture by Robert Wise (1979)
26 June 2009Considered one of the worst Star Trek films this film is still gorgeous to watch, especially on this blu-ray release, especially with the original Douglas Trumbull Special Effects. The film is very much a love story to the new Enterprise, but it does suffer from a slow pace, and an enemy that is too inhuman [...]
Moon by Duncan Jones (2009)
15 June 2009I love science fiction, so when I saw this trailer I was immediately interested, it looked like a cross being 2001 and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2 movies I love, so there was no chance I was missing this. And I wanted to see it even more when I learned that Duncan Jones [...]
Up by Peter Docter and Bob Peterson (2009)
3 June 2009Not that I am surprised, but Pixar has done it again. Maybe not their best film, but certainly incredibly enjoyable, and especially that for dog lovers (I think my dad would really like this film [and I already know my mom liked it, because she saw it before me]). My biggest complaint is that after [...]
Star Trek by J. J. Abrams (2009)
23 May 2009Now I have to admit that I came into this film really thinking I would hate it, as I am a huge Star Trek fan, and especially a fan of TOS (the original Series) which I grew up watching, and a reboot just sounded like an absolutely awful idea all the way around. And J. [...]
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock by Leonard Nimoy (1984)
18 May 2009The second in what fans consider the best three films (and really a trilogy) of Star Trek has Nimoy taking the helm, and has Kirk and friends going to see if they can do something about Spock. Again great characters and a great villain (the great Christopher Loyd as Kruge is spectacular, maybe not quite [...]
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan by Nicholas Meyer (1982)
18 May 2009Considered by many, including me to the be the best of the Trek films, this one has the greatest Trek Villain, the return of Ricardo Monalbán as Khan Noonien Singh from the original series. This is also one of the most moving episodes with 2 major deaths. I also greatly enjoy the new uniforms, which [...]
X-Men Origins: Wolverine by Gavin Hood (2009)
2 May 2009I have to admit that I do enjoy Hugh Jackman as Logan, and did enjoy the first two X-Men movies, even if they did not follow the plot of the comics very well, they had the feel of the comics, and it worked (though the third film was so terrible it hurts). And most of [...]
Fast and Furious by Justin Lin (2009)
18 April 2009I have always been a fan of the fast and the furious films, with the first being my favorite, though I have enjoyed the whole series (and i liked how the 3rd was kind of a sequel to Better Luck Tomorrow, Lin’s first film), probably part of having 2 really good friends who are really [...]