The Backlogged Bunch
So I’ve been very lax in my movie reviewing, and I don’t have the time to bore you with all those outdated reviews, but just in case you are interested in what I thought about the last dozen or so movies that I’ve seen I’ve decided to do some quick two-line reviews.
AMERICAN DREAMZ – Funny at times, but beats you over the head a little too much. A little subtlety would have been nice.
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL – Starts off strong and funny, but gets a little too dark and dull towards the end. It was a bit too sudden of a shift to flow with.
BENCHWARMERS – Have you seen the previews? Then you’ve seen just about every good thing about this movie.
FRIENDS WITH MONEY – Good from start to finish with solid acting from all four women. Have I mentioned that I think Catherine Keener is one of the hottest forty year olds in Hollywood?
ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN – Once again Hollywood tries to drag a sub-par sequel out of a good movie. Of course with marketing ties it’s bound to happen again and again until people catch on.
INSIDE MAN – Clive Owen and a clever robbery, always a good combo. Well done in the process too.
LUCKY NUMBER SLEVEN –Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, and Ben Kingsley can’t all be wrong can they? No, they can’t, and this movie was one of the best I’ve seen.
REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN – Real farm life meets hippy culture with a very unique man thrown in the middle. Happy, sad, funny, and entertaining all around.
SLITHER – Bugs, aliens, zombies, and James Gunn are another winning combination in one of the best horror (?) movies in a while. Just be sure that you’re not looking for something serious.
SHE’S THE MAN – Another Shakespearian teen remake, but a respectable one. It’s not quite up to Mean Girls, but it’s no Bring It On either.
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING – Extremely funny satirical comedy that shows us that you don’t need to beat people over the head with a message. Also it’s good to see that Katie Holmes is still allowed to make good movies even though she’s married to Cruise.
V FOR VENDETTA – Actions movies can actually have good stories and acting in them? Who would have thought that was possible!
THE WILD – Wasn’t this movie already poorly done back in 2005? The sad part if that even if it wasn’t a complete rip off of Madagascar it still would be almost unwatchable.
So to summarize the ratings are as follows:
Eh, decent, ugh, yay!, again?, good, fantastic, unique, fun, respectable, funny, clever, oh god!
And for some final words about actors in the various films I’ve just rated. Mandy Moore keeps climbing up my charts, Nick Swardson was great in both Art School and Benchwarmers (although he does lose some points for having a role in writing Benchwarmers), I’ve really grown to like Jennifer Aniston (I’m even willing to over look Friends), Queen Latifa needs to disappear, Clive Owen is one of the best male actors around, Josh Hartnett is too often overlooked as a quality actor, Nathan Fillion needs more roles, I actually enjoy Amanda Bynes’ acting (I can’t believe I just wrote that), JK Simmons is everyone it seems (and he deserves it), Hugo Weaving is still a good actor behind a mask, Eddie Izzard is perhaps one of the funniest Brits ever.