starwars iii
definately the best out of all the new star wars movies, its a shame the first two were not in the same league as this one.
8/10
ill actually watch this one again unlike the other 2.

Kung Fu Hustle 8.5/10
Kick-ass movie in every way, I'll probably buy the DVD.

daredevil - turned it off about 40 mins in, i couldn't stand it.

You made the 40 minute mark?

The Barbarian Invasions - rather brilliant.

Fat Albert.........bunch of kids here for the night. Great for them a nap for me.

ya, i don't know how. my roommate said it was a fabulous flick so i just knew it was going to get better, stupid me!

Alone in the Dark - 1/10

Wow, this has to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I was SOOOOOO let down by this horrible piece of trash. The acting was just terrible, the action sequences were brutal (with special mention to the one in Slater's house which is one of the worst action scenes in any movie I have ever seen). The only reason I even gave this a 1 instead of a 0 is the good design for the monsters. At any rate, avoid this movie at all costs...

Chungking Express - 7/10

Generally, I like Wong Kar Wai's films. I really liked In the Mood for Love a lot. It's one of the best films I have seen in recent memory. Happy Family was alright as well, but Chungking Express was disorganized. It seemed like an undergraduate research paper written the night before it was due. Two different, mostly unrelated stories. I did like the second story. If it was the whole movie, that would have been fine with me. The worst part of the viewing experience was Tarantino's introduction on the DVD. I like his films, but what an ass!!

War of the Worlds:

-Entertainment value: 9/10

-Storyline, presentation, etc: 7/10


Be sure to see this movie in theaters because it's amazing on the sences visually and even more sonically. It's a typical Spielberg movie in a good way, along the lines with Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan. Give or take a plot line that you're either into or not, I personally was able to enjoy it plentifully as I was able to put my numerous plot questions on the back burner and experience the warfare and emotion to the full extent. :thumbsup:

Just got the home theater back, so it was DVD time:



The Final Cut *** out of ****:

Robin Williams, in a another compelling but understated performance, plays Hakman, a "cutter", a man whose profession is to produce a movie of a person's life, taken from that person's lifetime of memories. Well not memories exactly, which is one of the movie's themes. About one person in 20 is given a Zoe implant, a device that is grafted onto the brain sometime in the womb, and which records all of a persons visual and auditory inputs. When the person dies, a cutter reviews all of the information that has been recored, every second of the person's life, and cuts it into a movie to be shown at a remembrance, and kind of funeral service.

An officer of the corporation who makes the Zoe implants has died, and the family wants Hakman to cut his movie. Hakman is well known as the best in the business, and always manages to produce a film that is satisfactory to the family, which is to say, everyone looks like a saint. Hakman is haunted by memories of a childhood event in which a friend may have been killed due to his negligence, and this drives his desire to symolically right other people's wrongs by cutting the sin from their lives.

Williams is always at his best when he's reined in, and his performance his is once again top notch, reminiscent of Awakenings.

The Jacket ** out of ****

Adrien Brody is an American soldier killed in the first gulf war. Or at least, he should have been, having been shot in the head at close range. He somehow manages to survive, but with retrograde amnesia, which sometime interferes with his ability to make memories. One day in 1992, while walking along the highway, he encounters a drunken woman and her little girl, and gives them some help. He makes the mistake of taking a ride from the wrong driver, and suddenly finds himself on trial for the murder of a policeman and then in an insane asylum.

Kris Kristofferson is the head psychiatrist who pumps him full of drugs, straps him in a full body straight jacket, and puts him in a morgue drawer for hours at a time, for no discernible purpose. Brody finds himself transported into the future, where he encounters a young woman with a troubled past, and tries to help her.

The machinations of what happens and why don't really make much sense, though they're certainly intersting as they're occurring. When it's over, however, I got a distinct sense of, "That's it?" Good performances, but too many holes to be convincing or compelling.

batman begins: top movie.. i want a sequel of the same quality. 90%
i LOVED the scene when the scarecrow is druged and he's seeing EVIL batman.

3 on ESPN. Pretty decent movie for a made for TV one. 7/10

"The Machinist," awsome movie.
4 Stars

Saw "War of the Worlds" last night. Overall I would rate it an 8.5/10. The cinematography was phenomenal. Daktoa Fanning was grating because of her character's screaming. Tom Cruise didn't do too much to add or detract from the film. While it did deviate from the original story written so long ago, the screenwriters didn't try to screw it over. It was interesting to see film about bad aliens from the perspective on one man.

went and watched war of the worlds also... 6/10 for me. just wasnt what i was expecting. they should have redone the ending it just didnt work imho.

I just saw Dark Water....I'm not much into horror flicks, but there was nothing else worth seeing (pathetic!!), and since it got decent reviews, we went. As far as horror flicks go, it was pretty good. Jennifer Connelly did a good job, and John C. Reilly was a great putz. No cliche bad guys jumping out at you, or stupid girl in danger who keeps on going to her death....etc. But, since it really wasn't my kind of flick, I'm giving it 2.5/5.

I just watched Hildago.

Yeah, it's a little campy and certainly predictable, but you just can't help rooting for Viggo and that horse of his.

Good stuff. Certainly better than 85% of the other movies to rent out there right now.

I'll give a 3.5/5

Batman Begins -- hella good.........4.890989897657786/5

War of the World 8.5/10

Not a big movie watcher but the ads for this one had me pacing like a crack addict to see it. The movie was good itself, the effects were awesome, but the constant screaming of the little girl and the effing repeat repeat repeated attempts of the boy to join the cause was a bit much. I would have left him long ago for putting them at risk so often. The ending sucked as noted before.

fantastic four 8.7/10
high tension 7
rebound 8
(we were bored! :) )

living in dvd/video land...

hotel rwanda: i don't know...i glad teh film was made and the narrative was interesting--but the movie music they used everywhere because they wanted to make it a "mass market" film was intrusive and horrific. the dvd as a whole is interesting--the documentaries featuring the actual paul are good, and the footage of his visit to a memorial to victims of the genocide really pretty horrifying.

east side story: a compilation of east german/soviet musical comedy films. how could you not want to watch this?
i when you do, i suspect that you will also want to find every last one of the east german films--they are too cool.

realm of the unreal: henry darger is fascinating. even this kind of crappy documentary with unnecessary animation of darger's stuff does not wreck anything about how cool his work is. fortunately there is alot of it in the film...though it kinda sucks to notice that his landlady now owns the rights to his lifetime of work. an argument for some kind of public trust, she is. o yeah--watch it a second time with the sound off. much better with substitute sound.

War of the Worlds - I had a few problems with it. The ending was just silly I thought, but I was kept on the edge of my seat through most of it and the relationship between Tom Cruise and his kids kept me interested. 4/5

Cinderella Man - I thought this movie was almost perfect. My only problem was how they portrade the man Russell Crowe fights at the end of the movie. I hate when sports films give the other team or other opponent an asshole personality. It's so cliche. 5/5

Mr. and Mrs. Smith - A surprisingly good movie. It was very funny and I had a very good time watching it. It was one of the best comedies I've seen in a long while. 4.5/5

Batman Begins - OMG! A Batman movie that's actually good! Zoinks! 4/5

I just got back from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was..well...sweet. (ya, ya, I know that's a bad pun) I'd read that Johnny Depp's mannerisms in the movie were a little over the top, but I thought it was funny. The only detraction was the Oompa Loompa's songs...they were just too cheesy for me. I'd say 4/5

War of the Worlds was good until the end, even though the end was just as the book was. 6/10
The Jacket was excellent (on DVD). It's a psychological/science fiction thriller. I really liked it. 7/10

Charlie and the chocolate factory- Awsome
Luther the Geek- Troma horror movie about a killer who likes to bite the head of chickens and dink their blood.(I know)

Lord of The Rings - ROTK Extended WOW 9.9/10

the extra scences really helped the storyline and filled in some blanks. great movie.

High Fidelity - An interesting film starring John Cusack, Jack Black, and a couple other inconsequencials, including Catherine Jones, better known as Catherine Zeta-Jones, in what might have been an upstart role, but I don't know. The best part of this film is the brilliant script which was well acted by Cusack, but might well have been acted as well by a lesser actor, Stephen Baldwin perhaps or maybe that other guy from 'Threesome'. Not to take anything away from Cusack; clearly the man is adept at his craft. What I'm merely saying is that I believe this script is so well written that it can more than compensate for someone whos acting chops may not be Brando-esque. My favourable criticism of this movie is due in part to the movie being about music, something I'm rather passionate about. It is also about heartbreak, and 'not getting the girl', which I can also relate to. All in all I thought this movie was 'good' but not 'great'. The script was really good, but the rest of the movie didn't pull me in the same way. I give it a 6.8/10

XXX - state of the union

just got thru watching it and all i can say is ... wtf where they thinking? the first one was tolerable so i thought the 2nd would be better... negative. 4 of 10 for me mainly because of the terrible acting.

I just watched The Wedding Crashers. It was actually pretty damn funny, although it got a little drawn out at the end. 7/10

Last Days was interesting. Put into perspective, Sant does a great job of showing the pathetic last days of someone physically/psychologically numb from years of drug abuse. Nothing glamorous about it, just the lonely existence in exile followed by the sudden yet inevitable death.

Of course, i didn't know any of this going in, so I kind of just sat there waiting for something to happen. And nothing did. No dramatic climax, no fantastic hallucination inspired breakdown, just the gradual degradation of Blake's character. It makes sense now, but it was really annoying upon first viewing. My biggest complaint is that too much time was wasted on the supporting cast, who really don't add anything to the film. It's not romantic, not dramatic, not a tear-jerker by any means.

So rather than making some extravagant Rock-u-mentary, Sant puts out an honest depiction of death. A man's pathetic last days, trying to keep himself occupied before he gets snuffed out. I just wished there was some tension to keep me interested. 7/10

The Island: won't go into details just this:

Great movie, special effects were somewhat generic, the actor who played Flox in Enterprise was hilarious as the comic relief.

Overall a great movie...... think of it as Logan's Run meets the Matrix meets Soyent Green

charlie and the Chocolate factory.. was a whimsical joyride. Johnny depp once again playing a role so vastly different from any other in his past. charlie was well cast, and Mike TeeVee reminded greatly of a 12 year old Barry Pepper.. which was weird.

7 oot of 10.. maybe even an 8

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory....

I read the book not so long ago. I loved the first movie as a kid; but after reading the book I was shocked how much the book blew the old movie away. So, when I found out about this new movie and it was going to follow the book more closely, I was very happy.

Tim Burton lived up to the task and much more. The casting was great, the acting was great, and the musical parts that are in the film.... two big thumbs up. Deep Roy was great as all of the Umpa Loompa's.

Danny Elfman has done it again with another wonderful score. His music only added to the film.

The only thing I was weary about, was the subplot of Wonka's father; but in the end it really added to the movie. The movie seemed shorter than it was; but I take that as a sign of a good movie.

I was so entertained; that time flew by. That hasn't happened since the last good movie that I got to see called Batman: Begins.

My rating: Five Everlasting Gobstoppers ( out of five )

I just saw Ray for the first time; it was awesome. I now know why Jamie Foxx won the Oscar; he WAS Ray Charles in the film. I don't know how true to life it was, but it had me in tears a couple of times, which actually doesn't happen too much with me. Loved, loved, loved it. 10/10

The Island: 6.5/10

Of how much I hate Scarlet Johanssen and of how many Matrix-y stories have been made, I thought the trailers looked well directed and I always love an Ewan McGregor flick. All in all I was entertained. It had a few ups and downs, but if you see it, keep in mind that it's rather legnthy. There were a few times that I started scrutinizing it because I thought it was going to end early but it successfully got out all it seemingly had to say. The plot was decent, the acting and script was both good and hideous at times, the action scenes were awesome, and the direction and cinematography were pretty nice. Remove the unnecessary humor and use a few less cheesy lines and it could have been a really well rounded movie, whether it's an original idea or not.



Mild/hot spoiler warning:

The only thing that bugged the F out of me was all the obvious but supposed-to-be-subliminal anti-stem cell idealism.

mission impossible 1, ill give it an 8 good action , some parts confusing. over all good movie and soon to see MI2

Pretty old, but i just watched Alive for the first time. You know the canibal rugby team who's plane crashed in the Andes. Anyway, i read the book a while ago and it was a 9/10. The movie was good, but a let down from the book. I would definitely reccommend it though. 7/10 for the movie. Hard to rate a movie after reading the book first, except for maybe lord of the rings which is 10's all around.

8/10 <it was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I enjoyed rather a lot - along with all the other children in the theater>

La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher)

A French film from 2001. It's about an exceptional musician/instructor who does not know how to love. She has dedicated her life to her music, and now begins to feel the emptiness caused by what she's missed. She makes some VERY strange choices. It has some cringe-worthy "Irreversible"-type moments in it, but it will certainly stimulate discussion afterward.

The star of the movie has a short interview in the special features. Her description of her role makes it almost seem like she's talking about the wrong movie.

7/10

Another French film, 'La Haine' (hatred).
A portrayal of the tension between those living in the Parisian suburbs and the police.
It's a shocker. Full of insight, objective - somehow it stops just short of taking sides. Superbly acted, hard-hitting; real, real, real.
Highly recommended.