Movies
This person has not listed any movies yet.
Talk
Avengers movie wish-list
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"I’m in more or less complete agreement with Chris Campbell on his list of Avengers characters that should be included in the team’s big-screen debut in 2011. Being a fan of Hawkeye he obviously would top my list, but I think Black Panther is a definite as well. And I’d replace Moondragon on his list with Tigra just to get a little more WCA representing going on.
Originally posted on:Chris Thilk " [More]
DVD Review – Bee Movie
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"The plot to Bee Movie is pretty simple. Young bee feels dissatisfied by the endless expanse of his life that’s before him as he prepares to enter the workforce, decides to leave the hive, meets a human woman who agrees to help him sue the human race over their stealing of the bee’s honey and eventually realizes there’s a role we all have to play and rejecting that role endangers everyone.
Like I said, simple.
But it’s executed pretty darn well. The computer animation is good. It’s not great but it’s good. The script is good. It’s not great but it’s good. But it’s the performances, particularly that of star Jerry Seinfeld, that really elevate the movie into pretty darn good territory. Even if it never achieves greatness it’s a completely entertaining movie that contains no shortage of laughs.
A lot of the humor comes from the bee-life parallels to the human world. Barry B. Benson, Seinfeld’s character, is constantly being prodded by his parents to find a nice girl, someone “beeish,” ... " [More]
DVD Review – No Country for Old ...
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"It’s a little tough watching a movie like Old Country for Old Men so long after it came out sometimes. The movie just won Best Picture at the Oscars and has been heralded since it was theatrically released as one of the year’s best, featuring a masterful blend of actors, script and direction. So while I was expecting to enjoy No Country quite a bit I wanted to make sure I wasn’t letting all the hype and hyperbole influence my opinion too much.
That being said, the movie has immediately vaulted easily into my Top 25 of all time and, if I sat down and thought about it, might even crack the Top 10. It’s simply wonderful, a true work of art by a collection of artists absolutely firing on all cylinders, with each component placed exactingly and perfectly into a place where it compliments everything else about the work.
Ostensibly a cat-and-mouse tale, it’s really a portrait of people who feel powerless to do anything other than accept their fate, even if common sense says they’re doing ... " [More]
DVD Review – Dan in Real Life
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"I largely like Steve Carell. I find him an affable personality, a truly gifted physical comedian and a genuine talent at showing the pain that hides behind the bravest of facades.
Most all of those talents are on display in Dan in Real Life. Carell plays a widower with three daughters, ranging from 10 to 17 years of age, and a job as a newspaper columnist dispensing parental advice. All four of them embark on an annual trip up to the family home for a week with his parents and siblings. But while there he falls in love with a woman he meets in a bookstore, a woman who turns out to be the new girlfriend of one of his brothers. Comedy and tragedy ensue.
There’s about 60 percent of a good movie within Dan in Real Life. The cast all performs amicably, but there are just too darn many characters to for most of them to come off as more than place-holders. And John Mahoney is criminally under-used as the family patriarch, with Diane Wiesst, who plays the mom/grandma of the bunch, getting ... " [More]
Watched: “Firefly” and Serenity
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"I went on a little bit of a Firefly binge last week, watching the entire “Firefly” series, watching the Serenity feature film and reading the three-part comic series that leads into the latter. As I did I was blown away all over again how this was just a fantastic world Joss Whedon set up and a masterful cast he and the rest of his team managed to assemble. Just good fun.
[Spout x-post]
Originally posted on:Chris Thilk " [More]
DVD Review: The Darjeeling Limited
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"I was really excited to finally be seeing The Darjeeling Limited, the latest movie from director Wes Anderson. I’d loved the marketing campaign for the movie and was really intrigued by The Hotel Chevalier, the short that was released prior to the movie as a free download on iTunes that told a story that leads into the movie in an indirect way.
The movie tells the story of three brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody and Jason Schwartzman who wind up together on a train ride through India, a trip that’s been organized by Wilson’s character after three haven’t spoken for a year following the death of their father. What the motives are it’s not clear (at first) but he wants them to bond by going as a group to all sorts of spiritual places and doing things that would normally fall outside their comfort zone. His goal is revealed and, while it’s not something the other two (or the goal itself) are thrilled about the trip has accomplished its other purpose of bringing the brother ... " [More]
DVD Review: Sex and Breakfast
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"Sex and Breakfast is not an especially easy movie to like since the characters that inhabit it are not particularly likable. They???re alternatively egomaniacal, clueless, deceptive or just kind of pathetic.
The movie tells the story of two dating couples who at the outset are complete strangers. Both couples, though, end up at the same seminar by a woman who offers advice for finding a more satisfying sex life through, for lack of a better word, swinging. The therapist believes that by sleeping with more people a person can become more free to ask the partner they???re actually with to give them what that want in bed.
One couple is coming to seek her help because the woman in the relationship feels their sex life has become boring. One couple is coming because she???s not having orgasms any longer despite the fact that she loves her boyfriend.
The movie follows these people as they face down the decision they???ve made to seek this sort of help but also then the after-effects of h ... " [More]
DVD Review: King of California
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"What an absolutely great movie.
King of California stars Michael Douglas as a man with some problems. So many, in fact that he???s spent the last couple years in a mental institution. When he???s released he rejoins his daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood, and tries to once again make himself a part of her life.
But the way he chooses to do that is by enlisting her help (which she gives grudgingly) finding a Spanish treasure he???s convinced is buried somewhere in the area. That somewhere winds up being directly where there now stands a CostCo, something that doesn???t slow him down a bit.
The movie is really about family and loving people for who they are and not who you might wish they were. Time and again Wood???s character finds herself unable, for whatever reason, to control the actions of her father. Sometimes that???s because he???s already done whatever it is he was going to do and sometimes it???s because she can???t bear to see him disappointed and defeated. So she goes ... " [More]
Watched: The Ten
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, The Ten is nonetheless entertaining in its best moments and valiant in its efforts to be entertaining in its worst moments.
The movie is ostensibly overseen by one man, played by Paul Rudd, who presents 10 cautionary tales each based on a different commandment. One has a man who falls from the sky but survives eventually hailed as a god only to have his life and insta-celebrity fall apart around him. Another has a pair of neighbors trying to one-up each other in how many CAT scan machines they can own. You get the idea.
In between the vignettes Rudd’s character tries to navigate his own life as he cheats on his wife, played by Famke Janssen, with a young woman played by Jessica Alba.
All the stories are intertwined, at least marginally, with characters appearing over and over again even if that specific segment isn’t about them.
It’s a decent movie, and I get what the filmmakers were going for. There are some genuinely funny mome ... " [More]
The Power of Time
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"SpoutBlog ?? The Great Huey Lewis Debate
Karina goes on a riff about the two Huey Lewis & the News songs in Back to the Future, a riff prompted by something I Twittered while rocking out to my iTunes HL&N playlist. Like Karina I once owned the movie’s soundtrack on cassette but I, being a fan, think the songs hold up far better than she obviously does.
Note: I’ve never made any claim to musical - or any other, for that matter - hipness. The most recent albums I’ve bought are from people who started making records 25+ years ago and the last time I found a new band that I liked I think that band was Toad the Wet Sprocket. So keep that in mind.
Originally posted on:Chris Thilk " [More]
Breach (2007)
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"Breach is a pretty good example of how to do an understated, non-explosion driven espionage movie. While I would say it spends way too much time on the (tad ridiculous) self-impossed moral delimas faced by Ryan Phillipe's character it is an interesting procedural film. Chris Cooper looks throughout the film like a dog that is just mad at it the world. Caroline Dhavernas has a more or less thankless role as Phillipe's wife, to whom he JUST. CAN'T tell the truth of his assignment. Laura Linney, usually a shining star in any movie she's in, looks like she's just trying to rush through her scenes so she can get back to her trailer. The movie works more often than not, though and is worth a rental. " [More]
7/31/07: The Good German
By
ChrisThilk
in
ChrisThilk Blog
Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"Despite some obvious short-comings, I really enjoyed The Good German on a couple different levels. First off, it's always fun for me to watch filmmakers just doing something because they thought it would be fun, and this seems to be the main reason Soderbergh made the movie, and specifically made it in black-and-white. He seemed to be consiously trying to make a Casablanca-esque intrigue movie, something that's only reinforced by the obvious nods in the marketing campaign. Overall it was a good flick, though, as I said, there are some obvious problems. " [More]