rubywoo

Member since 6/14/2007, last signed in awhile ago.

"wild hearts, blue jeans and white tee-shirts"

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Personal statement:

I live for pop culture.
Being a film nerd is somewhat of a profession to me.
I make friends based almost entirely on frame of reference.
Horror, 90s indie and mumblecore are closest to my heart.
We've all been to film school here, right?

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Interested in:Avant-garde / Experimental, Culture & Society, Drama, Film, TV & Radio, Horror, Music, Visual Arts

rubywoo's movie tags

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complete ambiguity
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. [What do you think?]
"Oliver Stones W is a weird kettle of fish, it took me a few days after seeing it to get my head together about how I felt about it. My gut reaction was somewhat ambiguous and whenever I thought I had settled on an opinion it was countered by something else in the way the film played out. Stone is getting complex. First and foremost the cast do an incredible job. Josh Brolin is fan-freakin’-tastic as Dubya himself - mannerisms and motivation are superb. Richard Dreyfuss is perfectly underhand and sinister as Cheney, Condoleezza Rice is played to a T by an almost unrecognizable Thandie Newton, I could go on and on, the casting features no obvious weak link. I think what it was that confused my morals was the humanization of Bush, yes he is made out to be a giant buffoon, but also just as a man who has no real idea the impact of the fuck ups he’s making - his entire motivation being gaining approval from his mean ol’ Dad. The early part of the film delves (pretty dee ... " [More]

Max Payne

almost unwatchable
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
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"I went to a screening of max payne a couple of weeks ago, and I found it to be almost unwatchable. There is nothing interesting about this movie, the acting is mediocre, the script is non existant, the characters are in no way engaging. The visuals are pretty good, but it is almost exactly like sitting behind your friend while they're playing the game, although when you're watching your friend play you're at least routing for the *hero*. Mark Wahlberg makes sure you're not bothered whether he lives or dies. The highlight of the movie is Chris O'Donnell, not that he's any good, but it's at least a little interesting to see what he looks like these days. This movie makes my top 25 worst movies I've had to sit through, that makes it WORSE than Vampire In Brooklyn. Uh hu. Don't go and see this movie, even if it is part of your job. " [More]

Baby Mama

I wanted to like this movie mor ...
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
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"I remember reading ana article on Jezebel when this first came out, about the complete lack of female buddy movies, and when trying to write a list of them for work, realised that jezebel were completely right. I really wanted to like this movie, and to be able to argue that there were mulitple levels it could be understood on, and hidden complexities and that all in all it was a pretty important event. Unfortunately, the movie was almost entirely, meh, predictable, not particularly well written, and the same type of bullshit we've all seen tramped out a million times before. I like Tina and Amy and think they're both very funny ladies, but this appealing to the lowest common denominator movie is uninspiring. " [More]

The Night of the White Pants

hmmm.... 'sokay
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
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"This movie had a pretty strong cast, but came off overall as just *okay* the script wasn't amazing, and seemed to be happy just to move the narrative along, which isn't really enough in talkey family pieces. Mostly I watched this 'cos I think Nick Stahl is ace, and he was but this role didn't really give him anything to do. Not the type of film you have to put a lot of effort into watching, and not something I'd watch again. " [More]

Remember the Daze

infinitely watchable
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. [What do you think?]
"It may just be that I'm feeling incredibly sentimental this saturday night, but this film left me longing to have my whole life ahead of me like nothing has since dazed and confused. Most of the teen movie stereotypes have been done away with here, and you're left with a pretty accurate portrayal of end of school antics, no-one tried to john hughes it up too much. It probably wouldn't stand up to repeat viewing, the way dazed did, but I think that's mostly because of the timeframe, it's easier to believe a time you didn't live through. That being said, I haven't seen anything that has encapsulated being young and wasted , yet still sort of green and innocent the way this movie did, in quite a while. Particularly the waking up montage, I think we've all woken up as teenagers in fields at one time or another.This was pretty much, exactly how it felt. The ensemble cast was strong and no one came out on top as the protagonist, it definitely had a 90s indie feel to it, and I'm a sucker ... " [More]

Weirdsville

allan moyle has it no longer..
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
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"Treading somewhat more familiar territory, Allan Moyle is back, after the debacle that was Xchange (why would a science fiction movie with Stephen Baldwin in seem like a good idea?) dealing with bookish fuck-up antiheroes.It wasn't as bad as many, many other movies I've seen, I want to make that clear, but that thing that Allan Moyle used to be able to do so well, the thing where you empathised with the characters to the extent you wished you lived in the movie. (Lets face it, he was the John Hughes of the 90s) The script is pretty well written, but has one too many twists in the overly quirky tale, it's worth noting also that the film just looks incredibly 90s. From grungey editing techiniques, to the actual subject matter. Junkies? Who makes films about junkies anymore?I'm being hard on this movie, and I probably shouldn't be. It's just once upon a while he could do no wrong in my eyes. I guess even teen movie directors have to grow up sometime though. " [More]

Glory Daze

remember back when..
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
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"..it was the 90s, and people had just discovered *realistic* young adult comedy/dramas ? this is one of those. besides the obvious fun of the punk rock shirts/posters/product placements (when else are you gonna get to hear mtx on a soundtrack?) there ws little to keep me entertained.it was another one of those movies whose narrative moves along at a steady pace, and then 2 thirds of the films action has to take place (due to over-spending I would hazard a guess) in the last third. this movies heart is in the right place, and it was the 90s, the decade where even the most succinct of us with something to say ended up a little muddled (SFW being a prime example) so I'll cut it some slack.It's worth it for the all star cast. and the only time you'll ever see french stewart play alongside the likes of matt damon. " [More]

Juno

I'm in love with the way you feel
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
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"So, Juno.It is as good as you hope it’s going to be. And even though it’s UBER indie (in more of a SXSW way than a Sundance way) it doesn’t get in the way of the movie. Hell, it’s the reason you love it more. Which is quite some feat. Considering how fashionable it is to love to hate that kind of a movie right now.Ellen Page is super-fantastic as Juno, it would have been incredibly easy for the characters eccentricities and speech pattern to become all kinds of irritating, She plays it well though and suddenly quirky doesn’t seem so annoying at all. It actually seems kind of cool.That was one of the things that really resonated with me here. So many hooks for me to reach out and connect with. From the Tara McPherson artwork in Juno’s room, through the pop culture infused dialogue, to the bit where Jason Bateman’s character shows Juno the Carpenters tribute record as he gushes about the Sonic Youth cover, which caused me to turn (somewhat ex ... " [More]

30 Days of Night

Actually good vampire affair
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
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"The movie was awesome.Cinema audiences should be given lessons in how to behave during a screening.For those of you who didn’t read the comics ( and if that includes you, then you should - NOW) The basic premise is, in the northern-most town in the US, (Barrow, Alaska) there is no daylight for 30 days. Obviously this is somewhat of a vampiric dream, what with all of that food and non of the pesky undead-threatening daylight, so they move in to slaughter the towns remaining residents. Head vampire gets wind of this, and becomes annoyed - turns out the way vampires have managed to stay around all this time, is convincing us that they don’t exist - it is therefore imperative that no-one survive to tell the tale of what really happened.It’s incredibly simple as a story, and one that’s so obvious when you hear it, you wonder why no-one had used it before. (There was a giant debate about this on AV club, apparently there may have been a similar idea in a Twilight ... " [More]

stranger than fiction
By rubywoo in rubywoo Blog
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"I only got around to watching this yesterday. It was okay, it was that weird mix where you're not sure whether you're supposed to read it like a studio piece, you know? It reminded me a lot of Family Man in that respect. Will Ferrell is stomachable in this (see Jim Carrey in The Truman Show) as usual Maggie Gylenhall shines, and she's super-hot with tattoos too. Dustin Hoffman plays the guy that Dustin Hoffman always plays, and Emma is good but annoying.The story itself flirts with *quirky* a little too much, but is all in all, a watchable study in sentimentality. I enjoyed it, but I think mostly cos I'm all in love and I watched it with him. " [More]