DECEMBER 31, 2008 - 435 TOTAL MOVIES WATCHED IN 366 DAYS:
5 Stars:
Band of Brothers (2001) Based on the bestseller by Stephen Ambrose, this Emmy-nominated miniseries profiles Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. These men parachuted into France on D-Day, fought the Battle of the Bulge, captured Hitler's Eagle's Nest and, amid extraordinary fear and extraordinary bravery, became heroes and legends. The drama, drawn from journals and letters, is punctuated with interviews with veterans.
What a horrific, amazing, moving movie. The interviews with the veterans were equally hard to watch. It made me think about Dad and wonder what he could have experienced. I loved and hated it at the same time and I know I've never cried so much during a movie/series.
A Few Good Men
WALL-E
The Godfather
4.5 Stars:
Awakenings
4 Stars:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.
A synopsis that doesn't really state anything that the title didn't already tell you (and is about
the same length as the title!) I like all the previous Indiana Jones movies so it shouldn't be a surprise that I liked this as well. Many people were thrilled to see a long lost character's return from the fist movie, but I thought it came off as awkward and forced.
October Sky (1999) The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
I enjoyed watching Homer slowly learn how to make a rocket through trail & error and study. You knew I was a nerd, right?
The Fall (2006) In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastical story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
We are shown the amazing tale as it's being told to the little girl and it is a adventurous quest filled with bold colors and colorful characters. Romanian actress Catanca Untaru was 9 years old when played the part of Alexandria and she did a wonderful job. The director deserves kudos for letting her just be a kid at times which added realism to her part. It was a surprise to see a child in a movie who wasn't a "Hollywood PhD Kid."
Get Smart (2008) Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for CONTROL, battles the forces of KAOS with the more-competent Agent 99 at his side.
Hey, it's Get Smart, what do you expect? Silly, fun and entertaining, it hit it's mark. Don Adams' Smart is something that I thought shouldn't be messed with (anybody else sit through Steve Martin butchering Inspector Clouseau?) But, Steve Carell did a great job. It had a good plot, great gadgets and they even had cameos of the cars that appeared in the TV series' opening credits (red Sunbeam Tiger, gold Opel GT & blue Karmann Ghia.) Anne Hathaway was a terrific Agent 99!
The Great Escape
Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Buddy Holly Story
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back Star Wars
VI: Return of the Jedi
Kung Fu Panda
Hancock
The Dark Knight
Guarding Tess
Godzilla
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
The Dish
Shrek
Shrek 2
Chicken Little
Shenandoah
Scrooged
3.5 Stars:
MST3K: Laserblast - Oh...My...God! The Bots become worried when Mike finally snaps and thinks he's Voyager's Captain Janeway. I always loved MST3K, but didn't really get to see many episodes until I got cable TV during season 8 and had access to the Sci-Fi channel. Season 8 began with the "Vince Gill-man" episode and Mike and the Bots coming back from being beings of pure energy. Laserblast was the last episode of the trucated 6-episode season that aired on the Comedy Channel. Nobody knew if the show would be picked up, so I guess that explains the extra weirdness and the crew turning into energy beings. Charlie Bartlett
The Lost Child
The Visitor
The Incredible Hulk
The Reivers
Futurama 3: Bender's Game
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
How to Steal a Million
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
The Arrival
Deep Impact
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Wanted
Mr. Reliable
3 Stars:
Dick (1999) After Betsy (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene (Michelle Williams) inadvertently witness the Watergate burglary, the president hires them as "Official White House Dog Walkers."
Kind of a Gump-ish, revisionist-history romp through the Nixon white house. Performances by the leads, Kirsten Dunst & Michelle Williams, were very funny in their portrayal of teen angst.
Vertigo (1958) A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
I think I just don't like Hitchcock very much. Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo - they're all the same to me. At about the 3/4 mark, the plot twist is revealed. It's not just explained, it's explained in laborious detail. Then they dwell on the twist for the remainder of the movie and suddenly, without warning, the credits are rolling. One second someone is hanging off the nose of Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore like a pink doughy booger, then WHAM, credits.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - I've forgotten Sarah Marshall, too, and I only saw this a few weeks ago. Light on laughs, heavy on unlikable characters and Jason Segel's junk.
MST3K: First Spaceship on Venus - This was a good episode with Joel & the Bots. This is disc 1 of the 20th Anniversary Set and the BEST part of the DVD was part 1 of the history of the show.
Orca: The Killer Whale - Lucky to get 3 stars. The whale roaring in anger was lame and annoying.
Traffic - Lynna & Randy are right... this is MUCH better with the subtitles turned on during the lenghty bouts of Spanish dialog.
The Longest Yard (1974)
Run, Fat Boy, Run - Predictible to the point of seeming like a re-run.
The Simpson's Movie
Bull Durham
American Beauty
Scorpio
Kalifornia
Born in East L.A.
Color of Money
Places in the Heart
Born Free
Walkabout
Mama's Boy
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Airport 1975
Asphalt Jungle
Fantastic Voyage
Sugarland Express
Tropic Thunder
Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
Legally Blonde
Meet Dave
Gabriel
Das Boot
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
On the Beach
Ghost in the Shell
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Wayne's World
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Bobby
A Fistful of Dollars
An Officer and a Gentleman
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
They Call Me Trinity
Goodfellas
The House Bunny
Get Smart: Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control
Ladyhawk
Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society
Shrek 3
Apocolypse Now
The Punisher
Darkman
2.5 Stars:
The Happening (2008) A deadly airborne virus threatens to wipe out the northeastern United States. Fleeing from contaminated cities into the remote countryside, science teacher Elliott Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel), fight to survive and discover the truth: is it terrorism, the accidental release of some toxic military bio weapon, or something even more terrifying?
What Happened? Pretty much nothing. I know Marky Mark can act - I've seen him do it - but in this he seemed like he had just arrived from the stage of a Junior High School play. The Happening reminded me of Hard Rain as in, "What a goofy premise. OK... it's raining... sure, it's a really, really hard rain, but that's the best premise you can come up with?" I had a nagging suspicion throughout the movie that it just needed that one tiny little nudge to move it in some perfect, fascinating direction. I never did figure out what secret ingredient it needed, but M. Night never did, either. This was as exciting as watching paint dry, grass grow or the wind blow.
Fantastic Planet (1973) Animated sci-fi. A band of humans -- known as Oms -- are kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue humanoid giants called Traags. The story centers on an Om named Terr, who escapes his subjugation with a Traag learning device and eventually uses it to educate other Oms and incite them to revolt.
What the...? It's Terry Gilliam's animation meets Heavy Metal's bare breastitude. It was slow enough that I checked my watch several times. A+ for weird, 2.5 stars for me being generous.
Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) When astronomers discover an Earthlike planet on the opposite side of the sun, they send Col. Glenn Ross (Roy Thinnes) to investigate. He finds a world that's a mirror image of Earth: Everything looks the same but is backward.
Had a few surprisingly good special effects, but sometimes they focused on them too much to show "look at what we can do" which quickly gets boring. Filmed in the late 60s, all women wore go-go boots and there were plenty "futuristic" sets, furniture and bright, primary colors. That always cracks me up.
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
Raging Bull
The Arrival 2
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Diner
2 Stars:
Untraceable
The Day the Earth Stopped
They Call Me Bruce?
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - Took me 9 evenings to finish it (one for each word in the title.) I gave it an extra star just for being a great seditive. I still have it on my DVR just in case I need help falling asleep.
Fin
(for now)
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