Henry Saw: Milk

Good, Not great.


Every now and then a movie comes out that critics decide they're going to love. Right now Milk has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That means critics have decided to adore Milk. And I can see why. Sean Penn is the critics' darling. He's a good actor, not near as good as his reputation, whose only really great performance came in 1995's Dead Man Walking (well I guess with Milk he now has two but I'll get to that later). The director, Gus Van Sant, is also one of the critics' favorites, despite only having made one great movie (Good Will Hunting). My dad likes Drugstore Cowboy, and he somehow got a good performance out of Matt Dillon in that film, but it's not a "great" movie. To Die For is the best piece of casting ever for Nicole Kidman but its not that great a film. My Private Idaho, Elephant, Last Days...they all bore me. And then there's his Psycho remake...ugh. I mean UGH!

Either way,I went into Milk expecting greatness due to the reviews. What I got was goodness. Penn is indeed brilliant in the film. It's good to see Penn smile (has he done it since Carlito's Way? Well I guess there was I Am Sam but that movie makes me laugh at Sam and weep at Dakota Fanning because I see the future leader of the world) and he's great as the title character. Funny, charming, disarming, inspiring, vulnerable...Penn plays it all. And he deserves the Oscar nomination he will receive in February. Will he win? Maybe. He has Frost/Nixon and Doubt to contend with. But if Penn wins it would not be a travesty. He's great.

But he's the only "great" part of the movie. Otherwise its a pretty standard biopic. The same that Hollywood has been making for 80 years. It's a worthy story, the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in America, and it needed to be told. But this is not a great film.

The film soars when Penn is recreating Milk's speeches to an oppressed homosexual crowd. That's when the film seems like its alive. Ben and I have been having a laugh with with the part of the preview that shows Milk shouting, "I KNOW YOU'RE ANGRY! I'M ANGRY!" but in the context of the film it works. There's no question that Milk's message, via Penn, that "You Gotta Give them hope" resonates. It's a wonderful message and it's delivered wonderfully. The last time he utters it, right at the end of the film, made me water up. Penn delivers the goods. And here's a little something I found... This is Sean Penn giving a speech in favor of Dennis Kucinich



and here is a bit from one of his speeches in Milk:



Only a good actor can be that boring and silly in real life and so strong on film.

The rest of the cast doesn't really shine. Emile Hirsch is strong as a young man that Milk recruits, and James Franco does his best work (other than the pie scene in Spider-Man 3) since the James Dean movie but that's about it. Everyone else is just scenery for Penn to act in front of.

The direction is alright, good use of vintage footage, but not visionary.

The story is told very perfunctorily and by the numbers. That's not so much a complaint as an explanation for my less than raving review. The story, unique and important, is told the same way you've seen a story told before. There's nothing "new" about this film. It is well done but not something different.

It has a great story to tell, and tells it well, but this is not a Best Picture winner. Penn is maybe, MAYBE, a best actor...but we'll see what Frost/Nixon and Doubt have to offer.

See the film on your own time. It's a strong film but not a must-see. See Slumdog Millionaire or Let the Right One In twice before you see Milk. But see Milk eventually.

Best Scene? Milk talking to a big crowd to fight Proposition Six (a law that would have allowed homosexuals to be fired for being gay).

Grade: B

Henry Saw: Let The Right One In

This was probably the coolest movie of the year

Saw this movie Monday night with Sam and Elena and I can't recall seeing such good movies back to back (Having seen Slumdog Millionaire on Sunday night) in my whole life. Slumdog is the better film but I adored Let The Right One In.

Sam recently gave a certain Vampire movie an "A". Admirably, he reviewed the movie on its own terms, and deciding that it entertained exactly who it was suppose to, saw it worthy of such a high grade. Now he told me that were he reviewing it on his terms the movie would be closer to an F-. Well Let The Right One In is also a vampire movie, and in my opinion, it's an A+ on anyone's terms.

Lets let IMDB tell you the set-up: A fragile, anxious boy, 12-year-old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates but never strikes back. The lonely boy's wish for a friend seems to come true when he meets Eli, also 12, who moves in next door to him with her father. A pale, serious young girl, she only comes out at night and doesn't seem affected by the freezing temperatures. Coinciding with Eli's arrival is a series of inexplicable disappearances and murders.

The film, made in Sweden, is easily, EASILY, the best Vampire movie I've ever seen. When I thought about that statement I realized that's not such high praise. Outside of Nosferatu, the vampire movie sub-genre does not have such an impressive resume. Regardless, this is a fantastic little movie. The main two characters, Oskar and Eli, are so charming, and convincing, and captivating that the only complaint I'd make of the movie is that it isn't longer and we don't spend more time with the characters.

Lina Leandersson, who plays Eli, gives the best performance I've seen from a child actor since Ivana Baquero in Pan's Labyrinth. For Leandersson to be so good at playing creepy, playful, upset, and (yes, I know she's only 12) alluring is remarkable.

I cannot praise the movie enough. I know I told you that you had to see Slumdog, and you do, but I actually had more fun at Let The Right One In. It's not quite as great a film but these two movies are the two best of the year.

I'm just depressed I saw this movie and therefore can't see it "for the first time" again. I knew very little about the movie going in (that's why I'm not telling you anything about the real plot of the movie). I'm going to be showing Let the Right One In to everyone I can. It's basically flawless and unlike anything you've seen before. The pacing, which seems slow at first but I think enhances the whole mood of the movie, is the only thing I could see someone objecting to. I would strongly oppose that opinion.

I don't know if this movie is playing near you...but if it is you HAVE to see it. Have to, have to, have to. I find it hard to believe I will like a movie as much as I did this one for the rest of the year and it makes it hard to do things like our Blockbuster awards (which we're working on) because Let The Right One In makes all those movies seem so generic and unnecessary. This is the kind of movie you hope you find and makes you wonder what other movies you're missing because America doesn't value forign films unless they get an absurd amount of pre-release buzz (like Pan's).

See Let The Right One In. I'll stake your hopefully high opinion of my taste that you'll like, if not love, the movie. I'm not going to be posting anything for a little bit, not just cause of the holiday, but I want this at the top of our website so no one misses this.

Grade: A+

Best Scene? When...no...that'd be telling. Just see the damn movie now.

Henry's Top 100: #26 - Black Hawk Down

Ben steps in for this edition of the Top 100...he likes this movie a lot



Most war movies suck.

Not only that, most of the war movies you're supposed to like suck.

Platoon? Sucks.
Full Metal Jacket? Sucks.
Saving Private Ryan? Sucks.
The Deer Hunter? Not really a war movie and it sucks.
Apocalypse Now? Sucks like an industrial vacuum.

Looking at a list of war movies, I guess I should be more clear: Movies about Vietnam-era war and beyond suck, plus most war movies made during that same time frame, the 60's and beyond, are also bad (although there are more exceptions in the latter case).
Enter Black Hawk Down.

Based on the book of the same name, Black Hawk Down depicts the Battle of Mogadishu; an attempted raid during the U.N. peacekeeping mission to Somalia that turned in to a pitched battle when two Black Hawk helicopters were downed during the course of the mission (hence the name) necessitating an extended military effort to 'leave no man behind'. I overflow with compliments for this movie. More than simply not sucking, it goes on the very short list of my 'perfect' movies: not necessarily my favorites, but the movies where I would not change any major decision made by the film's creative team, from directing and writing down to costuming. Across the board, Black Hawk Down feels like a tight, lean movie.

The cast is a host of 'that guys' and recognizable stars: Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Sam Shepard, Jeremy Piven, Orlando Bloom (rocking an outrageously bad southern accent), William Fichtner, Ewan McGregor...I could go on. The cast is reliably solid throughout with no one awful enough to take you out of it (Bloom comes close), although I will single out Eric Bana and Jason Isaacs as the two positive standout performances. Both have small roles but, in this movie, everyone has a pretty small role; it's just not a performance-driven movie. More than almost any other movie I can think of, this is a triumph of direction. Ridley Scott was hoping to give an encompassing and realistic portrait of the events without excessive jingoism or false cinematic flare. Yes, there's plenty of bullets, courage and explosions but it's war, it kind of goes with the territory. The result of Scott's work is a movie that feels surgical: there's no dissection of whether being in Somalia was a good thing, there's no attempt to expose incompetence on an operational level, there's no even much of an effort to glorify the whole affair. Scott wanted to, from a soldier's perspective, show what happened and give the audience a visceral sense of how it felt. Scott doesn't even make much of an effort to have the movie explore the emotional experience of combat and the end result is that this movie serves as a setpiece demonstration of how modern war is fought. I think this is a positive thing; showing something important without too much attempt to color the audience's judgment on the subject can lead to breathtaking cinema. Black Hawk Down does this beautifully with its single-minded focus on the core question: from a soldier's experience, what happened?

In fact, one of my few desired tweaks of the movie is that it would give me more detail as to the logistical decisions made during the conflict (how were troops dispersed, etc). While this would have fascinated me, it would have distracted from the focus of the movie and turned off many audience members besides. But even with a more muddled picture of the operation, it's the process of modern war that makes this movie truly special. Movies give us a pretty clear sense of how WWII and wars prior to it were fought, but the present day is largely mystifying to us which is a big part of why I submit that Black Hawk Down is so great. Exceptionally well-made, it's a rare war movie about war itself more than 'people involved in war' and, as I've said, has no peer in depicting war during or after Vietnam. On most days Black Hawk Down is my favorite war movie and it's unquestionably one of the very best ever made.


Henry's favorite scene: Eric Bana leads the rescue team

Sam Saw: Twilight

Twilight is the story of blossoming love between Bella Swan, the new girl at a rural high school, and Edward Cullen a handsome yet reserved vampire. For better or worse, on Saturday afternoon, I sat down in an incredibly crowded theater to watch Twilight. Hit the link for my review.



Twilight is on the hardest kind of movies to review: a movie that isn't made for you. That being said, I'm going to do my best to be fair.

The first thing you'll notice when Twilight begins, is that it uses a lot of narration through the voice of the main character Bella. Narration is useful in films when you have a lot of background information to get across in a very short amount of time. Twilight's narration in the opening sequence as well as narration throughout the film don't give us any extra information we don't come across throughout the natural course of the story and furthermore are poorly delivered. It may sound like nitpicking, but I found the narration extremely off putting and distracting. At times it was so bad that everyone in the theater was laughing out loud.

Okay, enough of the bashing. On to the positive. Twilight is essentially a teen romance made for pre-teen girls. The vampire theme is really nothing more of an add on and could really be removed without much of an effect on the overall story. Twilight is a movie about two teens falling in love, yet still trying to resist their carnal urges (in this case the urge to drink blood, but go ahead and replace drink blood with sex for all intensive purposes). The fact that some of the main characters are vampires is icing. Vampires are cool now, so the male lead is a vampire; he could just as well be the popular quarterback.

When you strip away all the garnish, what you have is a surprisingly realistic portrayal of high school love. Awkwardness, uncertainty, jealousy, lust, embarrassment, the one step forward two steps back mentality, all these aspects of first love come across through the actions of Bella and Edward. You really believe that these characters are struggling through falling in love for the first time.

Another aspect of the film I really enjoyed, was it's portrayal of high school. Movies tend to use the same archetype of high school; There are jocks, cheerleaders, the nerds (kids who like theater, the school paper etc) and then the kids who fall somewhere in the middle, and of course they all hate each other. I don't know about you, but I didn't go to that high school, and neither do the kids in Twilight. It was nice to see an different type of high school where the football players can be friends with the editor of the school paper. I'm not saying that the typical movie high school doesn't exist, just that there are other types of schools out there and it's nice to see them in films every once in a while.

The last thing I'd like to talk about was the action. Watch a trailer for Twilight and you might think there's a plethora of good old vamp on vamp fighting. This is a trick. Twilight is trying to to convince the guys to come with their girlfriends. In truth, there is about 3 minutes of fighting. Seriously, they didn't even have enough for a full trailer. Amidst the action in the trailer if you look close, some of the clips are actually from a scene where the characters are playing baseball. But really, none of this matters. Twilight isn't an action film. It's a teen romance, and an emotionally realistic and compelling one. When you look at what this movie is supposed to be and how it turned out, it's hard to say that it's anything but a resounding success.

A

Henry Saw: Slumdog Millionaire

Great film. Hollywood...it's your move.


So this is it. The start of the "Oscar Season" and our first entree here at PITAOE is Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle's new film set in India, and it is very, very good. Excellent in fact.

I will let IMDB summarize the plot as they do a good job:

"The story of Jamal Malik , an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost."

For each answer Jamal gets right, he has a story from his troubled life story that has allowed him to get the answer right. It's a brilliant story device and despite the fact that the movie has very grim moments, the set-up makes the whole thing a total delight.

We follow Jamal, his brother, and Latika through three different stages of their lives and their characters are played by different actors for each age. Perhaps the most "fun" part of the movie comes when the characters are all young children. My Mom described this section as being Dickensian and she is absolutely right. We see the kids struggle with poverty, fall into distressing situations, and wiggle their way out of them.

The sections dealing with their adolescence is very upsetting, but it all serves to set up a very satisfying conclusion...The problem is that I don't wanna say too much about the film as I went in knowing hardly anything and it made the experience much better.

All that you need to know is that, as far as I'm concerned, this is the best movie of the year thus far. I find it impossible to come up with a true complaint about the film. The only thing I could say is that there are moments that are predictable and that the whole thing plays out exactly as one guesses / hopes it will. But you know what? That's not a bad thing. Slumdog Millionaire is a fairy tale on screen. It's uplifting, intelligent, brutal, playful, interesting...it's fantastic.

And Freida Pinto is probably the most beautiful woman to appear in a movie this year.

This is Danny Boyle's best film. Previous credit's include Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, The Beach, 28 Days Later, and Sunshine. I love Trainspotting and 28 Days Later...this really blows them out of the water. This is a classic. The Wall Street Journal's movie critic Joe Morgenstern wrote "Slumdog Millionaire" is the film world's first globalized masterpiece," and "The scale of "Slumdog Millionaire" is close to cosmic. Jamal's fate transcends the slums; it transcends India. He really is an Oliver Twist for the 21st century, just as his beloved Latika is a multinational mingling of Juliet, Lara and the Vivien Leigh of "Waterloo Bridge."

I thought Morgenstern was being silly when I read his review (before seeing the movie). Now I find it hard to disagree with him. So now the question is can one of the hyped Hollywood movies compare to Slumdog? Can Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Milk, etc. be as good as this film? It's certainly possible. But the bar has been raised high. Look, I know Slumdog won't win best picture. It's just not the winning type. But I can't tell you that at the end of the year that I won't think that Slumdog wasn't the best film of the year.

See Slumdog Millionaire as soon as you can. Forget Twilight, Quantum of Solace, Australia this week, Frost/Nixon next week (which you'll have plenty of time to see)...see Slumdog Millionaire while you can. It's a perfect little film and it will remind you that sometimes going to the movies is about having fun and believing that good exists in this world.

A delight.

Grade: A+

Best Scene? Jamal gets an autograph from his favorite actor.

Seriously, I'm begging you, go see this film.

Henry's Top 100: #27 - Brokeback Mountain

This ain't gonna be easy...


And not because I find it difficult to say that I think a "gay" movie is one of my favorite 27 movies of all time. Actually, I think just talking in terms of quality and not personal entertainment value, its one of the 3 best movies I've ever seen. And really, totally objectively speaking, it's by far the best movie ever made since I became able to evaluate that sort of thing. I just don't have any desire to see it again and again; that's the only reason this isn't much higher on the list.

No what makes this hard is that this is the first movie on the list hat has made me tear up. To put that into perspective: only three movies have ever really made me cry. One is Bambi, which isn't on this list because I just don't watch that movie any more; one is a movie still to come so I can't reveal its title, and the last is Brokeback Mountain. And it involves a scene where a man smells another man's shirt. And all I can say to defend myself is that if you don't well-up at that moment...you don't have the feelings a normal human being should have.

A few random thoughts:

1. This movie was absolutely robbed by Crash when Crash won best picture. It'd be one thing if Crash was not that good (it is total shit for the record...) but it had beat a weak field. But that's not what happened. Crash beat the best movie made (in terms of sheer quality) during the 2000's. Just a total scar, a mark of Cain, on the Academy Awards.

2. Heath Ledger is just silly good in this movie. The way he mutters everything, the shame and desire he shows towards Jack, the love for his family but utter unease. I remember just being astonished by how amazing Heath Ledger was. It's hard to argue with Phillip Seymour Hoffman winning an Oscar (RAIN DANCE!) but Ledger deserved it for his Ennis more than Hoffman did for his Capote.

A devestating, universal movie. You have no reason not to watch this movie. No good reason. I don't care if you are made out of testosterone, bring some tissues along with you.

Best Scene? The tear-jerker..."I swear"...

Ugh, I'm gonna go be sad now...

Henry's Top 100: #28 - Fight Club

So what I've always found funny about Fight Club, and the most common misunderstanding people have who have never seen the film, is that the "fighting" part of this movie is by far the least interesting. I mean, does it somewhat play on the idea that all men of this generation wish we lived in the times of Swords and Sandals? Or the Wild West? That we all wish we were the toughest sonofabitch in the land and the movie shows men who invent a reason to fight, a battle with rules as we always like to picture the ancient days, and yada yada yada? That's one interpretation of it but either way...the "FIGHT" part of FIGHT CLUB is not that interesting. If that was the whole movie, as the trailer that showed before The Phantom Menace made it seem like...it'd be a pretty boring and one-note movie.

What makes Fight Club one of the great movies of the 90's, outside of the flawless direction, script, and lead performances from Norton (the everyman) and Pitt (the man every man wishes they could be), was how well it captured the time in which it was made. With its tongue practically stabbing through its cheek, Fight Club makes fun of self-help groups, catalog ordering, Martha Stewart, self-righteous rebellion against the establishment...every kind of male you meet between the ages of 20-30 gets skewed in Fight Club. I love that.

At the heart of the movie is the relationship between Ed Norton and Helena Bottom Carter (I still can't decide if I think she's attractive or not). Its such a fucked up relationship...yet Fincher wants us to see the genuine love (or is it just great affection) that exists between these two people. There's certainly a need.

I'm kinda rambling...and I think Fight Club is a movie that lends itself to rambling thoughts...but I just want to mention how fantastic the last scene of the movie is. We called it the scene with 2nd best use of music ever (here) but you might find it at number one of a list of our favorite last lines in movie history.

Best Scene? The last scene

Henry's Top 100: #29 - The Empire Strikes Back

The Best Sequel Ever?

No. But a really good one. And a definite improvement on the, admittedly classic, A New Hope.

So what I've always tried to figure out is this...Star Wars: A New Hope was nominated for best picture in 1977. It was put on AFI's list of the top 100 movies ever made...and yet...I've never talked to anyone who hasn't admitted that The Empire Strikes Back is just a superior movie. It's just a fact. Empire is tighter, better written (because it wasn't written by Lucas), better directed (because it wasn't directed by Lucas), has better action...it's just better. So why does the media at large consider A New Hope better? Well the answer is that A New Hope came first. And was more innovative (obviously). So it gets all the acclaim while only "nerds" recognize that Empire is the Mac-Daddy of science fiction films.

See, there is a reason that when Bryan Singer talked about the sequel he was gonna make to Superman Returns (before WB took the franchise away from him) he mentioned Empire. Reviews, when talking about X2, Dark Knight, etc. always invoke Empire. It's not because it "ups" the stakes. Because, actually, the scale of everything is much smaller in Empire. It opens with its biggest set piece - the Hoth ice planet battle. From there on, it's not about whether a planet will be destroyed, or if the rebellion will survive, but what will happen to the characters. There's no Death Star in Empire Strikes Back.

No the reasons every sequel aspires to be Empire are this:

1. It builds on the first movie and trusts its audience. Early in Empire Leia and Han have a big fight. Its the kind of fight that people have when they're in love. Did we see them fall in love? No. But anyone who saw A New Hope knew that was what was coming. Fuck Luke, we everyone knew it was Han and Leia all the way-a (sorry). So the movie trusts us to catch up and recognize what there is between these two because, and it has the privelige as the sequel to the biggest movie of all time (at that time)...it knows you saw the first one. See this idea used in Spider-Man 2, and The Dark Knight

2. It's much, much, much darker. A New Hope is all smiles and circle jerks. The darkest things in the movie are Luke's Aunt and Uncle dies (they were assholes anyway), Leia's home planet explodes (fuck em), and Obi-Wan dies (but he comes back more powerful than you could possibly imagine). Empire...shit gets grim. Lando is a dirty traitor. Han "dies". Luke is Vader's son (spoiler). And in the end...there are no medals...the heroes lose. Flat out lose. Almost unheard of to end a movie. See this idea used in The Matrix Reloaded and arguably The Dark Knight (again).

3. It has Han Solo in it. Now, there's no question that Harrison Ford was the real star of the first Star Wars after Darth Vader. But Empire Srikes Back is when Han Solo went from a solid movie character to one of the great characters in film history. I could pontificate on and on about Han Solo's awesomeness but let's just leave it at this..."I Know".

Final thoughts: Just a phenomenal movie...flawless. Well except for Mark Hamill's "NO! IT'S NOT POSSIBLE" towards the end of the movie...other than that...this movie is all quality.

Best Scene...."I Know".

Henry's Top 100: #30 - Citizen Kane

Yes, Citizen Kane is not my number one movie of all time...do I need to turn in my movie fan card?

Don't get me wrong...I think this movie is brilliant. And it took me awhile to get there. It used to be one of the movies I would put in when I needed to fall asleep. That trick still works for my dad. But as I got older, and stopped just reading that it is the best movie ever made (like on AFI's Top 100 list) but instead why this movie is so respected...I started to get it.

One way to begin to appreciate the movie is two buy the two-disc special edition (just Ten dollars at stores like Virgin Megastore) and listen to Roger Ebert's commentary. He talks throughout the movie on the different innovations that Wells employed to make a movie the likes of which had never been seen before. It is these 2 hours listening to the best critic in America talk about one of the best American movies ever made, that really tuned me in to what Citizen Kane has to offer.

The best way to enjoy Citizen Kane, in my opinion, is to familiarize yourself with the reasons its so respected...but then forget them; and just try to enjoy the movie for the story it tells. The movie was originally called "The American" and it is a truly American story about how one's man ambition and obsessions leads him to a unfulfilled and lonely life.

One character I've always found compelling in the movie is Joseph Cotten's Jedidiah. He plays Kane's best friend, who watches Kane go from an ambitious and moralistic newspaper man to a self-obsessed megalomaniac. The heartbreak Jedidiah feels at seeing his friend deteriorate, the drinking problem he develops, and the sad life he lives as an old man...he's my favorite character in the movie.

Look, this is considered the best film ever made. You HAVE to see this film. Just like one has to see the Mona Lisa, read The Great Gatsby, and listen to Mozart. It's a must see. But let me tell you about my favorite scene in the film:

Kane has left his wife for an aspiring singer. He builds an opera house for her and insists on her being the star of the production. She's...terrible. So the show ends and Kane is the only person to stand and clap for her. His influence eventually leads to the whole theater giving a half-hearted applause.



So Kane, who runs newspapers across the country, goes into the office to read the review that Jedidiah has written of the Opera. He learns that Jedidiah has passed out drunk while writing and it's not ready to print. Kane reads what his best friend has written about Kane's great love. And it's completely damning; a scathing review. Jedidiah is nothing but honest. Kane sits at Jedidiah's desk and finishes the review. Doesn't change a word or the sentiment. Jedidiah wakes up later and is surprised to hear this. Kane, it seems, still wanted to probe to Jedidiah he had integrity. but how does the scene end? With Jedidiah getting fired.

Just a fantastic sequence.

Best Scene? You just read about it

Blockbusters of 2008 - Award Time

So I still plan on moderating some kind of PITAOE Awards at the end of the year but those will be for things like best picture, best actor, etc. With the release of Quantum of Solace we've gotten the last of the "big" movies. From here on out we're only getting serious little films. So what did Sam, Ben, and I think of 2008 as far as blockbusters go?



So to review the movies of 2008 that fancied themselves blockbusters (at least before they came out) and that at least two of Sam, Ben, and I saw:

Quantum of Solace
Hellboy II
Cloverfield
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Indiana Jones 4
Hancock
Wall*E
Forgetting Sarah Marshal
Wanted
The Incredible Hulk
Speed Racer
The Happening
Tropic Thunder
The Love Guru
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Kung-Fu Panda

And the categories and nominees are:


Worst Movie:
The Love Guru
Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls
The Happening
Speed Racer

Funniest Movie:
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Tropic Thunder
Pineapple Express

Most Unintentionally Funny Moment:
Mark Wahlberg talking to a plastic plant in The Happening
"For Aslan!" - Prince Caspian
Watching Mike Myers piss away his career in The Love Guru

Most Disappointing Movie:
Quantum of Solace
Indiana Jones 4
Pineapple Express
Hancock

Most Surprisingly good:
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Hellboy 2
Cloverfield
Wanted
Kung-Fu Panda

Best adaptation of a comic book - So not the best movie but the best job at capturing the tone and content of the original comic books:
Wanted
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Incredible Hulk
Hellboy 2

Best Action Scene:
Iron Man returns to the Middle East to get some revenge
The opening fight scene against Scarecrow's goons in The Dark Knight
The chase at "Yale" in Indiana Jones 4
Hulk vs. Blonsky round 2 (the one on the college campus).
Wesley fights all the assassins at the end of Wanted.

Best Scene:
Hellboy and Abe singing Barry Manilow - Hellboy 2
Joker's Pencil Trick and then talking to the gangsters - The Dark Knight
Stark and Pepper's dance - Iron Man
Wesley quits his job - Wanted
Tom Cruise Dancing at the end of Tropic Thunder
First 10 minutes of Wall*E
When you first hear the song from the Dracula musical in the bar - Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Best Blockbuster:
The Dark Knight
Wall*E
Iron Man
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Tropic Thunder

Most Anticipated Sequel of a movie from 2008:
Bond 3
Batman 3
Iron Man 2
Hulk 2
Narnia 3

Most Anticipated Movie of 2009:
Wolverine
Transformers 2
Star Trek
Bruno
Angels and Demons
Terminator: Salvation
Pixar's Up
Public Enemies
GI JOE
Harry Potter 6

We'll put together our thoughts and post the winners soon, but what are your picks? Let us know.

Henry's Top 100: #31: Shaun of the Dead

You've got red on you...

So it should be clear how much I adore this movie when you learn that Sam and I originally thought of calling this site "You've Got Red On You" - a throw away gag from Shaun of the Dead.

Shaun of the Dead is a send-up of the zombie movie genre...but that's not why I like it. I kinda hate Zombie movies, so I find no real enjoyment in a loving parody. What's fantastic about Shaun of the Dead is the way the jokes and humor is delivered. There a very matter-of-fact tone to the humor of the movie. Sure, it's silly at heart, but lines are delivered in a very flat, yet hilarious tone.

I also find the relationships of the characters strangely compelling for a comedy. Shaun's love, but ineptitude, for Liz is a strong central theme...and how can you not love Simon Pegg (Shaun) and Nick Frost's relationship?

But this movie is great cause of the whole experience of the movie. As I've said way too many times before...I can't fully describe comedies. Just take my word when I say this is one of the greats of our lifetime. Its small, not that ambitious, and completely ridiculous about Shaun of the Dead, but its a modern classic...but I bet Simon Pegg would make fun of you if you said that to him.

Best Scene? Just so happens to be, in Sam's and my opinion, the best use of music in a movie of all time:

Henry's Top 100: #32 - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Sublime. That's the word that comes to mind when I think of this movie. I can't explain it...but that's the word.

An obvious classic; I don't have anything overly substantial to say about it. I remember, for quite awhile, I was pretty sure this was the funniest thing ever made. I've now seen it too many times to feel that way but I still love the movie. Its so absurd, yet so brilliant, which is a great combination. The opening credits alone always make me laugh.

The Black Knight, the Camelot song, the Witch, the French taunter, the peasants who feel insulted by the king...the movie is just a series of skits essentially and it would be a mess if it wasn't all hilarious.

To know it is to love it.

Best Scenes? Can't make me pick between these two:



and

Long Live The Onion

Catchphrase From 'The Love Guru' Overheard
November 13, 2008 | Issue 44•46

ST. CLOUD, MN—A catchphrase from The Love Guru, comedian Mike Myers' latest film, which follows the exploits of a self-help mentor tasked with reuniting a professional hockey player with his wife, was overheard at a local bar, stunned witnesses reported Monday. "I didn't see who was saying it, but I think it was that part from the trailer where Justin Timberlake comes into the scene wearing a Speedo and Mike Myers says, 'It looks like he's smuggling a schnauzer,'" said a visibly distraught Richard Finestra, 28. "Who the hell is going around quoting from that movie? Oh God—and I recognized the line. What does that say about me?" The nation's film experts have urged Americans to remain calm, saying that the statistical likelihood of the movie ever being casually referenced again is roughly 1 in 300,000,000.

From The Onion

Henry's Top 100: #33 - The Incredibles

You can have Toy Story 2 (meh), or Finding Nemo (solid), or Wall*E (really good), but in my opinion this is the best Pixar movie ever made.


This really is one of the best put together films in recent times. The voice acting, animation, throwback score, sharp script...basically every part of this movie is done note-perfect.

How about the scene when Dash realizes he can run on water? Or the fight that Bob and Helen have when she realizes he's been moonlighting as a hero still? Or the perfect ending the film has? What's amazing about The Incredibles is how it knows what tone it wants to have and never strays off that path.

Sentimental attachment to films like Bambi or The Little Mermaid aside, The Incredibles is my favorite animated film of all time. Its flawless, and the only reason its not higher on the list is that the next 32 movies are just slightly better. But we're at a point on the list where every movie is an A+. This is the first of those.

Best Scene? I really do love that laugh Dash gives when he runs on water

Henry Saw: Deception

There's a reason you've never heard of this movie even though it stars Huge Act-Man (Hugh Jackman), Ewan McGregor, and Mrs. Joker (Michelle Williams)...it's super bad.


Not like McLovin's Superbad. Deception is super bad. Plot: McGregor is a guy who does audits for big companies and one night, while working late at a law firm crunching their numbers, Jackman approaches him and the two hit it off. They smoke some weed, become friends, and McGregor is happy because he has no other friends. Eventually they swap phones "by accident" and McGregor answers a call "intended" for Jackman inviting him to come have random sex with a random hot woman. All of a sudden he's getting nightly hookups with random beautiful professional women thanks to some kind of club that Jackman is in. Jackman, who is "in London" and can't get his phone back is happy for McGregor for finally getting some.

McGregor than meets Mrs. Joker and falls in love with her. They meet a few times, then suddenly while they're spending the night together, she disappears. Jackman reappears saying he'll kill Mrs. Joker if McGregor doesn't transfer a ton of money into an account for Jackman. Drama and predictable plot twists follow.

This movie would have been more at home in 1993 and staring Michael Douglas in the Jackman role, John Cusack in McGregor's role, and Jennifer Jason Leigh in the Michelle Williams role. As is, the film feels kinda dated even though it was made in 2008.

Also, I really like the guy, and think he's very talented, but Hugh Jackman does not play smarmy villain very well. He's good in the Prestige but for much of that movie he's the protagonist. In this he's kinda creepy from the get-go but he's not convincing at it. He just seems like too nice a guy.

McGregor plays a nervous American from time to time and he always seems like he's acting when he does it. In both Black Hawk (with that semi-silly accent) and now Deception he's played that kind of role. It's not the best fit for him.

Michelle Williams is given nothing to do. She's suppose to be enchanting but I don't see it. She has a homely beauty - not a New York knock-out look.

The plot is silly, the conclusion is awful and dull. Just a total bust.

Grade? D+

Best Scene: There are some nice boob shots of random pretty women. Crass, but that really is the best thing about this crap-fest.

Sam Saw: Death Race

I'll be brief, because...well...it's Death Race.

I saw this movie for one reason and one reason only....to see cars blowing up other cars. I'll be blunt. The plot...a complete throw away, the acting...terrible, Joan Allen as the villain, horrible. This is a bad movie. But it does one thing well; having fast cars blow other fast cars up. If you go in expecting nothing but gratuitous violence, you might actually enjoy yourself. Death Race isn't a renter, there are too many other good movies out there. But, if a friend wants to watch it and you have nothing better to do, there are worse ways to spend ninety minutes...

As a complete movie: D

As explosion porn: B+

Henry Saw: Quantum of Solace

Hmmmm...


Well first things first: Quantum of Solace is not as good as Casino Royale. The action is not as well done (more on this later), the plot is not nearly as linear, and, perhaps this is QoS' biggest sin: it doesn't feel like a Bond movie. Which is not to say I want all the silly jokes and gadgets; good riddance to that stuff. Casino Royale didn't have any of that but it still felt like a Bond movie. The character was rougher, and more mistake prone, but Craig was still James Bond...in my opinion the best version of the character ever put on film. Quantum of Solace never feels like a Bond movie outside of the theme song (more on this later as well). It feels like Mission Impossible 3 mixed with the Bourne movies.

The biggest problem with the film is the direction. Foster, who made Finding Neverland and Monster's Ball, just can't film action. At all. Now, I hate the action scenes in the second two Bourne movies (both directed by Greengrass). I despise shakey-cam, rapid edits, and super-closeups in my action scenes. Those two Bourne movies are full of them and as a result I don't like them as much as the rest of the world seems to. The action scenes in QoS are even worse. The opening chase is terrible, the foot chase across the roofs of Sienna is kind of embarrassing (you can't make out who is Bond and who is the villain) and really looks bad when compared to the parkour scene in Casino Royale. All of the fight scenes, for the rest of the movie, are muddled and completely unexciting.

Another problem with the film is that the plot is just not that tight. Its not that there are too many strands, I mean I could tell you the plot in two sentences if I had to, but it feels like its going every which way. We think we're getting a straight "Bond out for revenge" movie but the movie doesn't carry that theme throughout the movie. Well maybe we're getting a "Bond vs. an evil S.P.E.C.T.R.E. like organization" but it never becomes that...we don't even learn that much about the group. There are too many snarky points (the CIA gets into bed with the bad guys, Quantum has agents "everywhere" - even M's body guard)...the whole thing feels just jumbled together.

The positives of the movie are obvious. Daniel Craig continues to be great in the series. He's believable as a tough, charming, and loyal soldier. He's asked to brood too much here; and its not that effective either. When we see Bond just getting himself drunk or unable to sleep...well all that tells us is that he's sad about Vesper still. We never really get any real emotion out of him. This may be a more human Bond but he never seems as real as he did in the torture scene in Casino Royale. He's just a machine in QoS...that's fine...but it seems like the film-makers went too far in trying to establish that this Bond isn't our daddy's Bond. Let's hope Craig is given more range, the very thing he brings to the role, from the next script.


Judi Dench is also still her fantastic self. The new Bond Girl, Olga Kurylenko, is beautiful and actually has a strong character. It's not spoiling much to say that Bond and her don't get together and that was actually one of my favorite parts of the movie. it wouldn't have made sense - so kudos to the screenwriters on that point. Bond does get some action in the movie, from Agent Fields, played by Gemma Arterton, who is stunning but not given a thing to do except pay homage to the third James Bond movie (Goldfinger - you'll know it when you see it). Jeffery Wright returns as Felix Leiter and I was happy whenever he was on screen. I'd watch a whole movie of his character. I hope we get more scenes between he and Daniel Craig in the third movie.

Mathieu Amalric, currently thought of as the best actor in France, plays the villain Dominic Greene. He's fine, I have liked Amalric since his role in Munich, but the villain is just not compelling. Wanting to control the world's water is a timely menace but not an interesting one. Also, not to belabor the point, but the final fight between Greene and Bond is ridiculous and awful.

I also like that this movie is a continuation of Casino Royale. Heck it feels like Casino Royale part two (except for the dip in quality). But having Bond actually develop as a character throughout the series is a luxury the producers and screenwriters have now and they're smart to use it. Craig, playing Bond as an unstoppable machine of revenge (my Uncle Craig would compare him to John Wayne in The Searchers - without the racism of course) is a good way to play the character in one film...it's too bad we didn't get a better movie out of it.

The locales are spectacular, an Opera house in Austria, the deserts of Bolivia, the rooftops of Sienna - but Foster doesn't know how to shoot his scenes so that we see as much of the surroundings as we should. As I said, he is way to fond of closeups.

The song, called Another Way to Die, was written by Jack White and performed by White and Alicia Keys. It's one of the best Bond songs of all time. Top 3. The credit sequence its played over is just "meh" but I really liked the song. Belonged to a completely different movie though. The song has a real energy and drive to it while QoS never really finds its beat.

In the end, that's the most disappointing part of QoS - it's not really any fun. It just doesn't make you leave the theater smiling or pumped up like Casino Royale did. Quantum doesn't offer many moments to smile, and again I don't mean because of a cheesy pun or something, but for anything at all. Two of the main villains die off screen and Bond never once seems to be having a good time with things. Fitting given the character and his situation but not that enjoyable as a member of the audience.

For example: you know how the end of Casino Royale had you smiling and begging for the next one to come out the next day? "Bond. James Bond." I thought it was the best ending to an action movie I had seen in years. This movie ends with Bond dropping a necklace into the snow and then a fade to black. It's dull. And doesn't make you care if you see "James Bond Will Return!" at the end of the credits as they use to do.

Final verdict? As an action movie its a second-rate Bourne, and as a Bond movie it is a third-rate Casino Royale. I like the idea of the movie, Bond on the rampage, but its just not executed that well. This felt a bit too much like it should have been the video game that tied in to a different movie. You know, "Before you see the new Bond movie, buy the game to see how James found the men who killed Vesper and started to learn about the evil organization Quantum!" There just wasn't enough here for a feature film. I wanted to like the movie so much that I'm probably going to give it a better grade than I truly feel it deserves; I hope the second time I see it I enjoy it more for what it is. But I fear that all that will happen will be that I will find I have no desire to ever see it a third time.

If nothing else it seems to end with a promise that the next Bond film will be a little more conventional. Lets hope Foster doesn't get a chance to direct it though.

Grade: B- (but that's being too bit kind...)

Best Scene? The song but if I had to pick a scene from the narrative...Jeffery Wright and Bond meeting at a bar in Bolivia for 30 seconds.

Henry's Top 100: #34 - X2

For about a year this was my favorite super hero movie (before Spider-Man 2 came out). What's amazing about X2 is how while it does focus on Wolverine (played wonderfully by Hugh Jackson, or Huge Act-Man as Ben calls him) it also gives plenty of time to all of the cast. Nightcrawler, played by Alan Cummings, and Magneto, Ian Mckellen, really shine.

This also contains two of the better action scenes I can think of: The opener - Nightcrawler's White House assault, and Wolverine defending the mansion when Stryker's men invade (Ben wrote about that scene here)

I fear Bryan Singer has lost his way a bit, with Superman Returns being awful and the soon to be released Valkyrie having so many issues around it, but if nothing else he did make one of the great superhero films of all time along with one of the great crime movies ever made (we'll get to that one later...)

Best Scene? The Mansion Seige

New Watchmen Trailer

Looks kinda cheesy all of a sudden. I maintain that the comic can't be filmed; scenes sure, but not the whole story. I'll be shocked if the final movie is anything but a mess. If its even watchable I'll give the director Zach Snyder a lot of credit.

Henry Watched Some James Bond Movies

Oh Boy...



Die Another Day -

Pierce Brosnan's last Bond...okay in a very, very silly way. There is nothing of actual quality in Die Another day. NOTHING. Even Brosnan seems completely jaded with the whole thing. But somehow I have fun with this stupid movie. Can barely recommend it...but if it's on Spike someday or something, and you haven't seen it...it's not THAT bad.

Grade: B-


Live and Let Die - Have you actually seen this movie? It's beyond crazy. Like...completely insane. Yes, it's James Bond in a blaxploitation movie set in New Orleans (among other places) but my God; the movie is even more bizarre than the description. Random Cinco de Mayo types appear and just laugh a lot. There's a tarot card reader (Jane Seymour) that is always accurate (really awful bringing in the super-natural into James Bond's world) and there's no real notable conclusion to the whole thing.

Fantastic song (one of the few solo Mccartney's I like) and a great, great opening scene:



but just a really bad movie. Fun, at some times, but not good at all.

Grade? C+

A View to Kill For - Okay, So Roger Moore was about 172 years old in this movie and it's just creepy when he flirts with anything. The action sucks, the plot sucks, the pace sucks, the music sucks, Chris Walken is fun (as always) but this movie is probably when he started going from a good actor to being "just Chris Walken". Just total shit.

Grade D-

License to Kill - I could only watch the first hour of this movie. Watched it with Ben...we laughed our asses off. This 1989 addition to the James Bond series is basically just a relatively high budgeted Miami Vice episode. Just tremendously bad. I'm shocked Bond survived this movie (even if it did 6 years for Goldeneye to come out). Total badness. Ugh. UGH!

F

Thunderball - So let me get this straight...Dr. No is a classic. From Russia with Love is actually a good little movie. And Goldfinger is the idealized Bond movie that all other Bond movies wish to be. What does that make Thunderball? It makes it bad. All due respect to the underwater scenes, which I'm sure were impressive then, now the whole thing looks cheap and dull. Just not a movie worth seeing anymore. Connery's Bond is already losing his charm and the plot holds no great set-pieces or witty dialogue.

Grade...heck, I dunno: C? Let's go with C.

Still gonna try to watch "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" tonight. Not hopeful despite the fact I've heard decent things about it.

Pretty ugly night of Bond movies...let's hope Quantum of Solace can at least beat this sad bunch.

Henry's Top 100: #35 - M

The coolest movie you've never seen

Unless you're Ben, my dad, or my uncle Craig, I'm going to assume you've never seen M. Made in 1931 by German legend Fritz Lang, it is one of the first serial killer movies (Hitchcock's silent film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog - A Jack the Ripper-esque tale - was made in 1927) and certainly one of the finest.

The movie is about a child murderer (Peter Lorre who you might know from Casablanca or Arsenic and Old Lace) and how he disrupts life in the city of Berlin. From the panic it causes normal citizens of the city, to the desperate police trying to catch him, to the criminals who want to find him and kill him because its hard to commit crimes when the police are all on alert.

The crosscutting between these three fractions, along with the neurotic Lorre, is masterfully done. I don't want to reveal anymore about the movie but it is a brilliant, brilliant film. It's a very serious film but it is a must see.

Best Scene? The "Trial" at the end.

Henry rewatched: Casino Royale

So in anticipation and preparation for Quantum of Solace, which I am seeing on Saturday, I decided to rewatch 2006's Casino Royale.

This really was a great movie

Click the link for more

So I'd already written about Casino Royale in my Top 100 (it was number 70) but all I wrote then was what a good action movie it is. And that is still true. The chase scene at the beginning, the fight on the stairs against the African terrorist, all great.

But when watching it this time around I realized I didn't write enough about how charming and quasi-smart the movie is. Eva Green and Daniel Craig's first scene together on the train is very well written with the two trading keen observations of one another (though the Omega watch thing is painful).

Le Chiffre is a strong villain, I like that he's just an underling, and the torture sequence is probably the best scene in the movie after the famous parkour chase. And Jeffery Wright is just always good, and I hope we see more of his Felix Leiter in Quantum.

Casino Royale is by far my favorite Bond movie, and along with Spider-Man 2, The Bourne movies, Iron Man, Dark Knight, and other outstanding pieces of intelligent pop-entertainment I wonder if without really realizing it, we're in the midst of a bit of an enlightenment for the action / adventure movie genre. Sure, it's different than the T2 or Die Hard model, but that's a pretty impressive list of movies.

Either way, despite the mixed early reviews, I can't wait for Quantum of Solace. Here's hoping it caps what was, as far as blockbusters go, a damn strong year.

Scene of the Day: What's This? from The Nightmare Before Christmas

Enjoy

Henry Saw: Blindness

Should have been called Badness. Cool movie poster though...



Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles, who made two great films before this (City of God and the underrated The Constant Gardner) is a total failure.

The plot, to cut to the short of it, is a "What If" where every citizen in a city loses their sight save for one doctor's wife (Julianne Moore). In order to quarantine what might be a horrible disease, the government puts all the afflicted into a hospital, and then just sort of forgets about them. Moore, despite retaining her vision, pretends to be blind so that she can go into the quarantine with her husband and help the afflicted.

What follows is a "deep" exploration of the human psyche as we see how society breaks down following this traumatic event. Men become impotent or rapists, women become mother figures or willing victims. Adding to the feeling that the film is desperate to have great meaning is that no character has a name. People are "the doctor" or "the woman in dark glasses". Its a sad attempt to make the story universal.

Julianne Moore, as the only woman who can see, is very frustrating. Though the proverb goes "In the land of the blind the man with one eye is king", Moore's character, who has two eyes, doesn't really step up. Sure she helps people find food and get to the bathroom, but once women start being raped and horrible things start happening, she never uses her vision to help prevent any of it. Just silly.

Maybe the book has more to offer, but having just the movie to go on, I can just say that the whole thing is pretty mediocre. Blindness will just get you mad; and not in a provocative way...just in a "why did I watch this piece of crap?" way.

Gade: D+

Best Scene? The first time the doctor, Mark Ruffalo, realizes he's blind and is mad that he exposed his wife to a possible disease.

Henry's Top 100 #36 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

I'm pretty sure this movie taught me how to be a good guy. Not that I'm George Bailey or anything. But Temple of Doom was the earliest example I can remember of knowing what Good was and what bad was. BAD was having children employed as slaves. GOOD was having Indiana Jones beating up the villains.

I still can't romanticize Indiana Jones like I could have before...that fourth one...but Temple of Doom is a very important movie in my life. Growing up, I use to "play" temple of doom with my sister and my cousin. This was the first Spielberg movie I ever saw, as well as the first Lucas film I ever saw (and remember, this was the 80's...that still meant something).

And it contains what might be my favorite Indiana Jones' movie moment to this day. Short Round beating up on the creepy Indian kid while Indy beats the shit out of the giant Indian dude.

Best Scene? See above

Henry's Top 100: #37 - Blade

Blade was the first good comic book movie.

I'll defend that statement against anyone who wants to throw Superman: The Movie or Batman out at me. Blade changed everything.

Blade is just an action movie. It really is nothing more. But it is one of the great, and I mean...Mt. Rushmore great...action movies.

Ben partially described why Blade is such a triumph better than I could:

That scene, along with an amazing finish, make Blade one of my top 40 films of all time

Best Scene? The aforementioned opening...

Henry's Top 100: #38 - Star Wars: A New Hope

I mean you knew this had to be on the list...I'm a male born before Hobbits, Pirates, and Spider-Men took over. The first Star Wars was gonna be on the list.

In the end, this movie is all about Harrison Ford as Han Solo. Everything else that was cool or charming about the movie has been ruined by Special Editions or the Prequels...but Han Solo is still the man.

I'm not gonna say much about Episode 4. It's simply a must see and a staple of any boy's childhood. A true classic.

Best Scene? Han shooting Greedo first...that's right Lucas...

Henry's Top 100: #39 - Tommy Boy

I won't apologize for this pick. It's funny. Really, really funny. Farley is funny, Spade is funny, and the old woman talking who says "That's when the whores come in" is one of the funniest people who ever lived.

I will let the movie speak for itself -

I believe this is Ben's favorite scene:

And for me? This is the Best Scene (that I can find on youtube...the "that's when the whores come in" lady is the best scene):

Henry (and Elena) Saw: Changeling

"GIVE ME BACK MY SON!" No...that's Ransom..."You get the money when I get my family!"...no...that's Firewall..."I WANT MY SON BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" THAT'S IT!


I don't usually like to open reviews like this but the fact that this only has a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is kind of ridiculous. This isn't the best movie of the year, or some timeless masterpiece, but it is a very well done film.

IMDB, tell us what the plot is: Inspired by actual events that occurred in 1920s-era Los Angeles, Clint Eastwood's The Changeling tells the story of a woman (Angelina Jolie) driven to confront a corrupted LAPD after her abducted son is retrieved but she knows that the boy returned to her is not the same boy she gave birth to.

The first half of the movie, focused on Jolie's character Christine and her insistence that the child given to her by the police is not her son, is interesting but somewhat perfunctory. Jolie is solid, but a little...too fine (if that makes any sense during this section). She lacks authenticity. The script forces her to repeat lines ("He's not my son") to herself and act jittery at all times.. Is it fitting for the character and situation? Yes... but it's not overly compelling on the screen.

Where the acting and the movie really picks up is when we encounter the Northcott farm and the horrifying things that happened there (which are closely related to Christine's son...). This is when the film really finds its pace, the script finds its core, and the actors are given more room to move. I found the second half of the film, even though it drifted into the dreadful "over two hours" mark, to be a great piece of film-making.

Now it's time for a break down:

Pros:

Angelina Jolie is very, very good. One way I measure her performances is I keep track of how many times I notice that "It's ANGELINA JOLIE ON SCREEN". I mean we're talking about the most famous actress alive. And to her credit...I barely registered that it was her during this movie. She is completely believable as a 1920's mother. She's fantastic in the movie, and I completely expect her to receive an Oscar nomination. She's great.

John Malkovich is good, anyone could have played the role, but he's good. You buy him as an earnest minster fighting for justice. In fact, the whole cast is very strong. The only problem I had with the whole cast was that Jason Butler Harner, cast as the child murderer Gordon Northcott, looks too much like Peter Lorre (who played the child murderer in M, the first great serial killer film) and that distracted me the whole time.

The story itself is very compelling. The fact that this tale is true is just incredible given how disturbing and horrifying the police's actions are in the film. One has to give the screenwriter JMS credit for digging this story up and making a screenplay out of it. This is a fantastic story.

Cons (Elena):

As many reviewers noted the characters are defined in absolutes. They are absolutely good. They are absolutely bad. Or, they absolute psychos. The characters who suffer from this ailment the most, are Gordon Northcott and Captain J.J. Jones. Northcott. Northcott in paticular, is utterly insane. He doesn't display any of that Hanibal Lector like range; one moment, perfectly sane and composed, only to become a pants-shittingly scary psycho the next. Northcott is merely a raving loony. At first, it works, but, by his seccond or third extended scene, it becomes annoying.

Captain Jones has the same problem. His character is Satan. It would have been an amazing character arch if he had gone from truly believing he had found the right boy, to being pushed to the edge when he realized he found the wrong boy, to finally convincing himself he was the savior cop being torn down by a crazy woman who can't recognize her own son. Unfortunately that doesn't happen.

On a side note, the actor playing Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) looks eerily like Guy Pierce which is a bad casting move on Eastwood's part. The movie automatically brings up memories of L.A. Confidential, and then to cast a major character which looks almost, at least at first, indistinguishable from of the main characters in L.A. Confidential was silly and frankly hurts its case of being considered an original and untold story of police corruption in LA during the 1920s.

So, final verdict? Its well worth a viewing. It's the first serious movie of this Oscar Season, and is much better than you've heard. Check it out - there's too much talent here to avoid it.

Grade? B+

Best Scene: Northcott's nephew describes what he was forced to do

Henry's Top 100: Nostalgia Edition (#'s 41 and 40)

#41 - Army of Darkness

#40 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles








Two childhood favorites.

Army of Darkness is a silly joy. Its a ridiculous movie. It doesn't even try to make sense. But it is a movie I just love. Bruce Campbell is a riot, the tone is incredibly loose and wacky, and it knows exactly what it wants to be.

Army of Darkness is about a man (Bruce Campbell) named Ash who is dropped through a portal and lands in the medieval ages. In order to get home he must get a magical book and along the way fights witches, an evil version of himself, and ultimately must lead a castle's defense against the army of the undead. The movie is a little bit all over the place but it never takes itself seriously (like...at all) and is full of quotable lines. If you are in the right mood, it is impossible not to enjoy this movie.


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) is one of the first movies I truly loved. TMNT and Bambi were my first cinematic loves. In my bedroom at home, I have a framed original poster of the One-Sheet for the movie (the same picture as above) that Ben gave me for my 21st birthday. I still watch the movie, still love the movie. "I Love Being a Turtle" is one of the staples of my childhood. Still a kick-ass movie for little boys and nothing in its genre (kiddie action movies) has ever really topped it.

Best Scenes?

Army of Darkness - "Yo, she-bitch! Let's go!"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - "Ah, a fellow 'chucker eh?"

Henry Saw: Quarantine

Harmless...but for a horror film that's not such a great thing...


Quarantine is about a reporter and her cameraman who get locked inside an appartment building that has been quarantined by the CDC because of a virus which turns humans into zombie-like killers.

It is a remake of a Spanish film called [rec] a film I have never seen but the American version is perfectly fine. It stars Jennifer Carpenter (the sister from Dexter) and a bunch of "that-guys" like that white dude from Ally Mcbeal and that Russian guy from Snatch and that Latin-American dude from Hostel...you get my point.

The whole movie is done, like Cloverfield, from the point of view of the camera leading to the inevitable complaint too much shaking of the camera. But, unlike Blair Witch or something, its not an unforgivable amount.

The movie is tight, with little fluff (maybe a little in the beginning) but in the end just isn't that scary. Like...at all. The whole idea of a virus making people become mindless killers...well its been done. A lot. The 28 Days Laters and Dawn of the Deads of the world are zombie movies while Quarantine claims to be a disease movie but its really all the same. And so the concept of the film, being locked inside a building with these killers by the government, needs to be able to carry the film and the horror. But it can't quite do it.

So what is the final word on this small little flick? Don't bother seeking it out. It really serves no point as its not that scary but its also not poorly done or offensive in any way. So kudos to the filmmakers and cast. You made a perfectly good movie. It just wasn't a horror film and therefore fails fundamentally.

Grade? C+

Best Scene? When someone is forced to hurt a little kid

Henry Saw: Pride and Glory

Ugh


So me and Sam saw this movie Pride and Glory last Sunday, but it was so...uninspiring that neither of us have gotten around to a review until now.

This is a movie that just didn't need to be made. It covers no new ground, offers no surprises, and just plods along to its silly, predictable conclusion. Ed Norton and Colin Ferrel, the movie's lone stars outside of Jon Voight (who really needs to be Old Yeller'd at this point), are both perfectly good in the film. But their characters are pretty stereotypical (Norton is the good cop disturbed by all the corruption around him and Ferrel is the corrupt cop who loves his family) and it ends up feeling like we've seen this movie 100 times before.

According to IMDB, the studio sat on this movie for a year before releasing it - presumably they knew they had a turd and figured they would release it at a dead time to try to make some money out of it...but even that hasn't really worked.

Just a worthless movie. Overly long, too much hand held camera work, no wit or ingenuity, just a steaming pile of horse manure. Awful.

Please avoid.

Grade? D

Best Scene? Hm...uh...do I have to? It really was supremely bad. Let's go with when Colin Ferrel threatens an infant with a hot iron. Why not?