Before I begin, I must say that I truly hate sinus infections. I don't get them that often, but when I do, it makes life miserable. I apologize for the less than stellar review that you are about to read, but creativity and inspiration have taken a back seat to medication.
Ladies and gentlemen, the word of the day is sequelitis. If it was listed in Webster's Dictionary, it would be listed as a noun, and it would be defined as the malady suffered by Hollywood films that have multiple installments. The chances that a sequel will be bad are directly related to how many of them there are. There are some franchises that have gone the 3 way(no, not that kind, so get your minds out the gutter) route and have done well, such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars(the ones that didn't suck). Others, such as The Matrix trilogy, didn't fare so well. The latest summer release to have a part 3 is Shrek. 2001's Shrek brought audiences a well received animated film that was full of fairy tale characters, yet had a smart, witty feel to it. The movie had more than it's share of laughs, but it was also a tale of acceptance. Shrek 2 upped the ante even more and wound up becoming the third highest grossing film of all time. The pop culture references in the sequel went over the heads of most children, but were recognized by adults. The scene where "a white bronco is being chased" was my personal favorite. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and that brings us to Dreamworks latest offering, Shrek the Third.
At the outset, life has certainly changed for everybody's favorite green buddy Shrek(Michael Myers) and his wife, Princess Fiona(Cameron Diaz). The royal family loves them, the public has accepted them, and they are currently running things in Far Far Away while King Harold(John Cleese) tries to recover from an illness. When the king finally croaks(pun intended), Shrek begrudgingly finds out that rule of the kingdom will be his, unless he can locate the king's only heir, Artie(Justin Timberlake). Shrek longs for the peaceful days of swamp life, so he sets out with his trusty companions Donkey(Eddie Murphy) and Puss-In-Boots(Antonio Banderas) to locate Artie, who looks less like a future leader and more like a high school loser. Meanwhile, the nefarious yet somewhat effeminate Prince Charming(Rupert Everett) has plans to exact revenge and take rule of the kingdom while Shrek is away and unable to defend. This time, there's a switch and girl power has to help save the day. Sleeping Beauty(Cheri Oteri), Snow White(Amy Poehler), and Cinderella(Amy Sedaris) team up with Fiona and Queen Lillian(Julie Andrews) to try and foil the prince's plans.
Sadly, this movie just simply lacks the wit and punch that the first two films offered. Most of the jokes have a been there, done that type of feel to it, and the script really doesn't offer anything fresh. The back and forth banter between Donkey and Puss doesn't get the same type of response it did in the second film, and a brief personality switch, courtesy of Merlin(Eric Idle) is predictable at best. I will say that Timberlake gives a pretty good performance as Artie, and he shows that he has a future in film just in case that music thing doesn't work out. The films wraps up with a sense of closure, and hopefully, everybody will live happily ever after. This film gets 2 and a half stars from me.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
It's all the rage
Greetings, and welcome back to my weekly film review. So far, this blog has been getting good feedback from people who have read it. I welcome any sort of constructive criticism any of you readers may be willing to give. The better I get, the more you all can enjoy it!
As you all may know, the next few months at the theater could be dubbed the Summer of Sequel. Most of the blockbuster films that will be released are second, third, and in one case, fifth installments of previous films, and this week is no different. 2002 brought moviegoers a chilling, yet refreshing take of the zombie genre with Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. In that film, a group of ill advised animal rights activists accidently release a virus that turns its victims into raging, homicidal maniacs, hence the term "rage virus." In 28 short days, the virus destroys pretty much all of London, and it's up to a group of survivors to stick together and try to make it to the next day. Boyle's film brought us face to face with our humanity, and we really got to see the willpower that one possesses when threatened with certain doom.
28 Weeks Later picks up during the aftermath of the carnage, where we learn that the infected finally died of starvation, and American led NATO forces moved in to start the cleanup and reconstruction. 28 weeks after the virus was first released, a section of London has been deemed safe for residents to return to in order to get on with their lives. Don(Robert Carlyle) is a father who is finally reunited with his children Tammy(Imogen Poots) and Andy(Mackintosh Muggleton). Don tearfully explains to his children that he, their mother Alice(Catherine McCormack), and a group of survivors were attacked by some of the infected, and that she didn't quite make it out. What he doesn't tell them is that he really left her behind during the attack in an attempt to save his own ass. I guess he figured that was much cheaper than a divorce. The kids defy military orders and manage to sneak past quite a few soldiers to take a trip back to their old house. There they discover that Alice is still alive, and soon soldiers show up to rescue the kids and quarantine mommy dearest. Don is thrilled to find out his children are ok, but not so much as it concerns his wife. The kids question him about what really happened, and Don invokes the Bill Clinton defense(it depends on what your definition of "I saw your mother die" really is). The medical staff, let by Scarlet(Rose Byrne) discover that Alice is a carrier of the rage virus, despite the abscence of any symptoms. She pleads with General Stone(Idris Elba;ladies, hands where I can see them at all times) to allow her to live so that she can study her blood to find a possible cure, but Stringer Bell ain't having none of that. A tearful reunion between husband and wife leads to the virus being transmitted, and before you know it, London Bridge is falling down and it can't get up.
The first film was all about people trying to protect themselves from the infected. In this one, all hell breaks loose and people are trying to protect themselves from the very people assigned to protect them;the military. General Stone declares Code Red, which means shoot first, second, and third, and fuck the questions. Watching innocent people catching bullets along with the infected almost makes you wonder just who the bad guys may be in this situation. One sniper in particular, Doyle(Jeremy Renner) is visibly disturbed by the all out massacre and winds up working to get Scarlet, Andy and Tammy to safety. Parellels between this movie and the current situation in Iraq will be drawn by some viewers. The infected could be substituted for insurgents, and London could stand in for Baghdad. When the city gets firebombed and walls of flame flow through the city, indiscriminately taking out whoever is unlucky enough to be still alive, it makes your wonder if this scenario could actually play out in the real world.
The film is not without its flaws. Zombie attacks are often shot with shaky cameras, and a mass decapitation scene via helicopter worked a bit better in Grindhouse, where such an over the top move seemed right at home. Still, the movie works as a solid follow up to its predecessor. Since Hollywood doesn't know when to leave well enough alone, the film ends with a pack of infected giving chase, a shot of the Eiffel Tower, and the feeling that this saga isn't quite done yet. All in all, I give the film 3 stars.
As you all may know, the next few months at the theater could be dubbed the Summer of Sequel. Most of the blockbuster films that will be released are second, third, and in one case, fifth installments of previous films, and this week is no different. 2002 brought moviegoers a chilling, yet refreshing take of the zombie genre with Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. In that film, a group of ill advised animal rights activists accidently release a virus that turns its victims into raging, homicidal maniacs, hence the term "rage virus." In 28 short days, the virus destroys pretty much all of London, and it's up to a group of survivors to stick together and try to make it to the next day. Boyle's film brought us face to face with our humanity, and we really got to see the willpower that one possesses when threatened with certain doom.
28 Weeks Later picks up during the aftermath of the carnage, where we learn that the infected finally died of starvation, and American led NATO forces moved in to start the cleanup and reconstruction. 28 weeks after the virus was first released, a section of London has been deemed safe for residents to return to in order to get on with their lives. Don(Robert Carlyle) is a father who is finally reunited with his children Tammy(Imogen Poots) and Andy(Mackintosh Muggleton). Don tearfully explains to his children that he, their mother Alice(Catherine McCormack), and a group of survivors were attacked by some of the infected, and that she didn't quite make it out. What he doesn't tell them is that he really left her behind during the attack in an attempt to save his own ass. I guess he figured that was much cheaper than a divorce. The kids defy military orders and manage to sneak past quite a few soldiers to take a trip back to their old house. There they discover that Alice is still alive, and soon soldiers show up to rescue the kids and quarantine mommy dearest. Don is thrilled to find out his children are ok, but not so much as it concerns his wife. The kids question him about what really happened, and Don invokes the Bill Clinton defense(it depends on what your definition of "I saw your mother die" really is). The medical staff, let by Scarlet(Rose Byrne) discover that Alice is a carrier of the rage virus, despite the abscence of any symptoms. She pleads with General Stone(Idris Elba;ladies, hands where I can see them at all times) to allow her to live so that she can study her blood to find a possible cure, but Stringer Bell ain't having none of that. A tearful reunion between husband and wife leads to the virus being transmitted, and before you know it, London Bridge is falling down and it can't get up.
The first film was all about people trying to protect themselves from the infected. In this one, all hell breaks loose and people are trying to protect themselves from the very people assigned to protect them;the military. General Stone declares Code Red, which means shoot first, second, and third, and fuck the questions. Watching innocent people catching bullets along with the infected almost makes you wonder just who the bad guys may be in this situation. One sniper in particular, Doyle(Jeremy Renner) is visibly disturbed by the all out massacre and winds up working to get Scarlet, Andy and Tammy to safety. Parellels between this movie and the current situation in Iraq will be drawn by some viewers. The infected could be substituted for insurgents, and London could stand in for Baghdad. When the city gets firebombed and walls of flame flow through the city, indiscriminately taking out whoever is unlucky enough to be still alive, it makes your wonder if this scenario could actually play out in the real world.
The film is not without its flaws. Zombie attacks are often shot with shaky cameras, and a mass decapitation scene via helicopter worked a bit better in Grindhouse, where such an over the top move seemed right at home. Still, the movie works as a solid follow up to its predecessor. Since Hollywood doesn't know when to leave well enough alone, the film ends with a pack of infected giving chase, a shot of the Eiffel Tower, and the feeling that this saga isn't quite done yet. All in all, I give the film 3 stars.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Intro/Review of Spider Man 3
Greetings everybody, and welcome to my weekly film review! First, let me give a little personal info about me. I'm a 31 year old guy who lives in Lawrenceville, GA, which is right outside of downtown Atlanta. I'm originally from Arkansas(yes there are black people in Arkansas, and no I'm not from Little Rock). This is my first attempt at blogging and I'm not really that much of a great writer, so if my posts don't seem like some great literary work, then too damn bad!!! LOL!! Nah, on the real, I'm sure I'll get better at this thing in due time, so ya'll just bear with me on my journey.
Now, I consider myself a lover of movies, but I may not be classified as a film buff. There are still plenty of movies that I have yet to see(The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential, The Godfather Part 2), so I'm still playing a bit of the catch up game. I just recently saw The Color Purple for the first time(you may revoke my black card now) and just before that, I finally saw the cinematic masterpiece known as The Godfather. Give me time, and I'm sure I'll be able to quote lines from all sorts of movies and hang with the best of the best.
I've taken the time to come up with my own little rating system for the movies that I will be reviewing, and here it is:
4 stars: Jesus, Mary, and JoJo, this movie is off the chain! When does the DVD come out?!?!?
3 stars: The movie could have used some improvements, but I don't feel like I wasted my $9.50
2 stars: I should have waited for the bootleg
1 star: Who greenlighted this shit?????
Now, on to the main event: Back in 2002, director Sam Raimi gave comic book geeks and average moviegoers alike a treat with Spider Man. We all know the story of nerdy high school student Peter Parker who gets bitten by a spider and ends up developing spider like powers of his own. Raimi, a self professed comic book geek himself, really understood the characters and the story of this comic, and he made sure that the audience could identify with Peter's plight as he struggled to balance his regular life with his super hero duties. The first film made all kinds of money at the box office(I'm still waiting on my cut) and set the bar for all future comic book films. Willem Defoe chewed all kinds of scenery as The Green Goblin, and I felt that he was perfect for that role, plastic mask notwithstanding. The subsequent sequel raised that bar even higher with improved CGI, more internal conflict, and a better villian in the form of Doctor Octopus(Alfred Molina). When it came time for part 3, expectations were higher than gas prices in the state of California, and Raimi was supposed to deliver the goods. My response to the film......
Umm......err......meh......
Don't get me wrong;this is far from a bad movie. I didn't want to walk out and demand a refund from the manager, nor did I want to take the crying baby in aisle 5 and throw him/her at the screen halfway through the film. On second thought, I did want to take the crying baby in aisle 5 and throw him her at the screen, but that rant is for another day. The film is good, but when compared to the first two installments, part 3 fails to live up to all the hype, and that's mainly due to all of the stuff that Raimi crammed into it. At the start of this movie, life is finally getting good for Peter Parker(Tobey Maguire). The city of New York absolutely adores him as Spider-Man, and all the adulation goes to his head just a bit. He's finally in a relatonship with the love of his life, Mary Jane Watson(Kirsten "I need some sun" Dunst), but her career is headed down the crapper as she is fired from her Broadway musical, and she's not too happy about Peter's reaction. In addition to his domestic issues, Peter has to deal with a glut of villians. First is The Sandman(a woefully underused Thomas Haden Church) as a petty thief who falls into the middle of a science experiment, bonds with sand, and can do all sorts of tricks. Next is his best friend Harry Osborne(James Franco), who still thinks that Peter killed his father and uses his daddy's Green Goblin stash to create his own version of the Goblin. Oh, did I forget to mention the alien symbiote that come from space, bonds with Peter, and gives him an all black Spidey suit. Peter loves the feeling that the suit gives him, but it also makes him switch to "I don't give a fuck" mode(cue Lil John music). Peter manages to separate himself from the symbiote, which then bonds with disgraced reporter Eddie Brock(a surprisingly good Topher Grace) and turns him into the creature known as Venom.
This film would have been much better served had it focused on just one bad guy. Raimi was not a fan of Venom, but that's who the fans wanted to see, and he should have gotten way more screen time. The Sandman had some nice CGI work, but he really didn't serve much of a purpose. His character could have been developed much further, and some creative liberty was taken by having him involved with the murder of Peter's Uncle Ben. There was also the addition of another one of Peter's love interests from the comics: Gwen Stacy(Bryce Dallas Howard). She's a pretty major character, but the film doesn't do much with her either. The scenes where Peter is under the influence of the symbiote are a riot, especially when he's walking down the street, giving the ladies the eye, but a jazz club setting could have been left out. There's also a scene involving Harry's butler and some information that he should have given Harry way back in the first movie, but for whatever reason, he chooses now to tell him.
Overall, the action and CGI work balance out the shoddy script and the seemingly phoned in performances by some of the actors. I give this film 3 stars.
Now, I consider myself a lover of movies, but I may not be classified as a film buff. There are still plenty of movies that I have yet to see(The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential, The Godfather Part 2), so I'm still playing a bit of the catch up game. I just recently saw The Color Purple for the first time(you may revoke my black card now) and just before that, I finally saw the cinematic masterpiece known as The Godfather. Give me time, and I'm sure I'll be able to quote lines from all sorts of movies and hang with the best of the best.
I've taken the time to come up with my own little rating system for the movies that I will be reviewing, and here it is:
4 stars: Jesus, Mary, and JoJo, this movie is off the chain! When does the DVD come out?!?!?
3 stars: The movie could have used some improvements, but I don't feel like I wasted my $9.50
2 stars: I should have waited for the bootleg
1 star: Who greenlighted this shit?????
Now, on to the main event: Back in 2002, director Sam Raimi gave comic book geeks and average moviegoers alike a treat with Spider Man. We all know the story of nerdy high school student Peter Parker who gets bitten by a spider and ends up developing spider like powers of his own. Raimi, a self professed comic book geek himself, really understood the characters and the story of this comic, and he made sure that the audience could identify with Peter's plight as he struggled to balance his regular life with his super hero duties. The first film made all kinds of money at the box office(I'm still waiting on my cut) and set the bar for all future comic book films. Willem Defoe chewed all kinds of scenery as The Green Goblin, and I felt that he was perfect for that role, plastic mask notwithstanding. The subsequent sequel raised that bar even higher with improved CGI, more internal conflict, and a better villian in the form of Doctor Octopus(Alfred Molina). When it came time for part 3, expectations were higher than gas prices in the state of California, and Raimi was supposed to deliver the goods. My response to the film......
Umm......err......meh......
Don't get me wrong;this is far from a bad movie. I didn't want to walk out and demand a refund from the manager, nor did I want to take the crying baby in aisle 5 and throw him/her at the screen halfway through the film. On second thought, I did want to take the crying baby in aisle 5 and throw him her at the screen, but that rant is for another day. The film is good, but when compared to the first two installments, part 3 fails to live up to all the hype, and that's mainly due to all of the stuff that Raimi crammed into it. At the start of this movie, life is finally getting good for Peter Parker(Tobey Maguire). The city of New York absolutely adores him as Spider-Man, and all the adulation goes to his head just a bit. He's finally in a relatonship with the love of his life, Mary Jane Watson(Kirsten "I need some sun" Dunst), but her career is headed down the crapper as she is fired from her Broadway musical, and she's not too happy about Peter's reaction. In addition to his domestic issues, Peter has to deal with a glut of villians. First is The Sandman(a woefully underused Thomas Haden Church) as a petty thief who falls into the middle of a science experiment, bonds with sand, and can do all sorts of tricks. Next is his best friend Harry Osborne(James Franco), who still thinks that Peter killed his father and uses his daddy's Green Goblin stash to create his own version of the Goblin. Oh, did I forget to mention the alien symbiote that come from space, bonds with Peter, and gives him an all black Spidey suit. Peter loves the feeling that the suit gives him, but it also makes him switch to "I don't give a fuck" mode(cue Lil John music). Peter manages to separate himself from the symbiote, which then bonds with disgraced reporter Eddie Brock(a surprisingly good Topher Grace) and turns him into the creature known as Venom.
This film would have been much better served had it focused on just one bad guy. Raimi was not a fan of Venom, but that's who the fans wanted to see, and he should have gotten way more screen time. The Sandman had some nice CGI work, but he really didn't serve much of a purpose. His character could have been developed much further, and some creative liberty was taken by having him involved with the murder of Peter's Uncle Ben. There was also the addition of another one of Peter's love interests from the comics: Gwen Stacy(Bryce Dallas Howard). She's a pretty major character, but the film doesn't do much with her either. The scenes where Peter is under the influence of the symbiote are a riot, especially when he's walking down the street, giving the ladies the eye, but a jazz club setting could have been left out. There's also a scene involving Harry's butler and some information that he should have given Harry way back in the first movie, but for whatever reason, he chooses now to tell him.
Overall, the action and CGI work balance out the shoddy script and the seemingly phoned in performances by some of the actors. I give this film 3 stars.
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