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SWEENEY TODD (2007)
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"Remember a few years back when you got goosebumps after learning the great Cameron Crowe was creating a character-driven family drama inspired (as usual) by events and people close to him, and filmed near his hometown no less? Remember that? Then you watched Elizabethtown in the theater and said "ummm... I liked it okay". Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd brings far worse feelings. It's not his original material, so I can't blame him -- as usual the direction, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter are awesome. The story just isn't fit for the big screen. I'd enjoy it on stage performed by a college drama department. Or in the pages of a short story. But not as a feature film. Avoid it. " [More]
THE MIST
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"I'm very, very irritated with Frank Darabont right now. The first half of The Mist had so much promise, but the second half turned ridiculous. And I'm not talking ridiculous in the sense of creatures lurking in an ominous mist outside the store where you're trapped -- I'm talking ridiculous in the sense of what normal people might do when faced with real terror. History tells us that mass suicide is not a likely scenario.What *really* turned me off was the phony Bible-thumping character. So much so that once her role escalated, I never recovered. I could not bring myself back to the feeling I had in the first 60 minutes -- extremely nervous due to the claustorphobic nature of the set. She was phony because Darabont didn't bother trying to make this woman 1% believable. Does ANYONE in Hollywood know a born-again Christian? Anyone?! Half of her poppycock dialogue alleged to be biblical prophesy was just wild ad-lib on Darabont's part. Bah!And the &qu ... " [More]
ff2: rise of the made-for-tv co ...
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"Wow, FF2 sucked hard. TNT and Spike have produced better made-for-tv fare. This coming from a comic book geek. When Marvel made a splash a few years back with Spider-Man, I had high hopes for the Fantastic Four franchise. They are, after all, Marvel's "first family". Royalty. And the sci-fi/action combo in the comics mixed with the family drama is superior breeding ground for a blockbuster franchise. Instead, we fanboys were fed giant turds. " [More]
ON DANGEROUS GROUND
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"Be like me and buy every one of the WB Film Noir Box Sets. On Dangerous Ground is the first one I watched out of Vol. 3 and it alone makes the box worth grabbing.Noir staple Robert Ryan plays Robert Ryan (a tough cop who regularly beats up bad guys). "Why do you make me do it? You know you're gonna talk!" The first act takes place in a dark, rainy city. The cinematography sets up the first-person, lonely, hopeless sort of feeling quite well. Then the film completely shifts character -- Ryan is transferred out to the wintry countryside to catch a killer on the loose. Watching Ryan act is always a treat. There are some scenes where he doesn't even speak, but manages to speak volumes through expressions and body language. Don't rent it, buy the set! " [More]
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WO ...
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"Ok, so I'm a sucker for Captain Jack Sparrow. But that's no accident. Gore Verbinski & Co. have tapped into the mass male population that deep down inside loves pirates, sword play, babes with weapons, pirates, twisted humor, anything that smells like Michael Bay, and pirates.I vow to own every DVD ever produced from this series. " [More]
L'AVVENTURA
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"I want to say I love L'avventura... it's unique and considering it arrived in 1960, way ahead of its time in terms of the method of plot delivery. This film basically has a surprise beginning, as opposed to a surprise ending. My beef is that it was a smidge too long (2:20).At the beginning, Anna is the centerpiece. She and some friends are on a remote island when she disappears without a trace. Boyfriend Sandro and pal Claudia pursue the few leads that surface without success. Then at some point (I'm not exactly sure when), they don't really care about finding Anna anymore. And neither does the viewer. It becomes clear that the film's focus is Claudia, not Anna -- and not Claudia's physical adventure tracking Anna, but her emotional adventure with and without Sandro. Sandro is a tool. Claudia should realize it, but doesn't until the end. The disc looks great. It's Criterion, and you know those guys can restore an old film like nobody's ... " [More]
THE TRAIN
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"I love Blockbuster Online. It gives you the ability to dig through the archives of your choice directors and actors for the flicks that aren't on the tips of everyone's tongues. The Train is one such title. I'm a sucker for war movies as it is, particularly WWI or WWII. With The Train you get John Frankenheimer, Burt Lancaster, and Nazis. Go watch it! " [More]
NOSFERATU
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"I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure this is the first full-length silent movie I've seen. LOVED IT. If you're reading this, then you probably already own it or scan Harry Knowles' column at Aint It Cool News to get DVD recommendations. If by chance you haven't seen it, it's a testimony to the high quality that old movies were capable of. (A thousand apologies for ending a sentence with a preposition). " [More]
KLUTE
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"I'm somewhere between "Like" and "Neutral" on Klute. The film looked really good, dialogue was clear, score was good. But it felt choppy to me, as if the director couldn't decide if he wanted a chase-thriller or a dramatic investigation into the psyche of an "upscale" prostitute.What I found most interesting was the character study, not the "is the bad john gonna get her" part. Jane Fonda's opening monologue played on a tape recorder (that's a prehistoric iPod, kiddies... not that kiddies should be reading about Klute...) by Bad John says everything we need to know about her, including why she would open herself up to strange men capable of unspeakable evil: she doesn't believe in evil. Not really. She believes all people are born good and each has their own moral compass: shades of gray, but no black and white. Movie characters like this always interest me because it's such a common point of view in the world, ... " [More]
LUCKY YOU
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"Let me cut to the chase - if you have not seen Lucky You, there is no reason to rush out and pick it up. It's just too long for what it is. Get a cheaper cast and make it a one-hour, one-shot TV movie on ESPN without commercial interruption. I don't care what card sharks tell you -- watching a Texas Hold 'Em game on TV is not thrilling, and the narration to educate us on the rules only muddies things. We're still just watching expressions and cheers to see who won each round.I like Drew Barrymore. But all her romantic characters are virtually interchangeable. " [More]
BECOMING JANE
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"Men - don't let your women bring this home for you to watch.Women - if you love your men, don't bring this home for them to watch. Keep this DVD on the shelves at Blockbuster and reduce the nation's divorce rate.Becoming Jane is painfully slow, not terribly interesting, and sloppily written. Since next to nothing is known about Austen's life, some genius thought that Jane Austen's life must have been a combination of her novels. So we, the movie viewing community get conned into this. I'm not an Austen hater -- Pride and Prejudice is very good (movie and TV mini versions) and I didn't mind Emma either. Here's an example of the sloppy story, which makes you unsure of how to judge the characters: Jane is furious at a boy who leaves her to take care of his family... later he comes back to her, they're both happy, then she leaves him because it's best for her family. Both times we're supposed to side with Jane. Come on. Consistency ... " [More]
THE NARROW MARGIN
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"As is typically the case with his noir reviews, JimBell's take on The Narrow Margin is consistent with mine, but more eloquent. This DVD is part of the excellent Warner Bros. Film Noir box sets (vol 2) that I gush about regularly.This is not throwaway film noir material. In fact, it's one of those decades-old films that will make you say "why can't they make movies like that more often today?" A small but talented cast combined with mounting tension can make any plot enjoyable. Like 2003's Identity, for example. My only complaint is that Detective Brown didn't discover "Mrs. Neal's" body after the mob hood shot her in the back. Man, that would have been killer payoff, especially if right after that Brown chases the hood who jumps off the back of the train to hook up with mob reinforcements. It would take incredible self-control not to shoot the guy in the back, but Brown knew the Highway Patrol was en route. But... not everyone is ... " [More]
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My favorite films (25)
These are the movies I've already seen multiple times, and still love. Honestly, I should list ...