"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Starting a day off with my favorite team losing horribly (Notre Dame lost today, 47-21 to Michigan ) I figured that seeing a movie would make any day better. So now that I've seen The Guardian I figure it's a good idea to let everyone know what I thought of it. Plus, I needed to add Hollywoodland, The Covenant, The Last Kiss, and an older movie Pirates of Silicon Valley and also Flyboys.

Enjoy!

Don't miss the surprise at the bottom!

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"I'm going to break all those records"

The sneak preview for The Guardian wasn't completely full, nor was the audience a frequent movie going audience. Before the trailers started, AMC shows a pre-movie collection of shorts and usually the crowd is quiet throughout these, but no, not this time. Still talking about the Rangers sucking again this year, what's new? So, I was pretty sure it would be an.... interesting... 2 hour film. Anyway, from the trailer you know that Kevin Costner is an older Coast Guard swimmer, Ben Randall, and after an accident kills his crew, he is forced to go to A school to teach the next group of swimmers which included Ashton Kutcher's character, Jake Fischer. The film follows Ben and Jake's development through their training.

The soundtrack was nice, the acting was good; only one scene made me disappointed in Ashton Kutcher, but Kevin Costner held a great character throughout the film. The directing was great, almost as good as the Fugitive, both being by Andrew Davis. The action scenes were awesome and the graphics were as good if not better than The Perfect Storm. One of the coolest parts of the movie shows the "recruits" (?) doing personal training with the instructors yelling at them in a documentary camera view, even seeing the camera man in the corner. I'm not sure if that's a section of the film that will make it to the original cut, but I thought it made it look more realistic, but some may not like it. Oh well.

Overall, enjoyed the movie, found it a big long but there's a lot of story that needed to be told so I can understand why it may seem like it was dragging a bit.



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"I'm in the picture Business!"

Although I'm too young to remember waiting all week for the new episodes of Superman, I remember watching a few on Nick at Nite, or was it TVland--don't remember; so it was a surprise to me that he shot himself. Not the best thing to tell a 8 year old. Anyway, Hollywoodland is about the murder or suicide --whichever you believe-- of Superman: George Reeves (Ben Affleck). Louis Simo (Adrian Brody) is a PI who is hired by George's mother to find out what really happend and the aftermath of his snooping. Diane Lane is George's "love" and the VP of MGM's wife, Toni Mannix. Her husband, Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins), is who supposably had George put in as Superman.

It's a little bit long, 2 hours without trailers, and with it being a drama not an action flick, it'll seem a bit longer, but definately worth watching. I was absolutly impressed with the cast. Not being a big fan of Ben Affleck I was amazed at his calm demenor and uncharacteristic "Ben Affleck." If he is to win any awards throughout his career it'll be for his role in this movie. The entire cast was amazing and the script was easy to follow. The film leaves you wanting to know the truth, or at least discuss it with someone else. The soundtrack was great and so was the directing, clean crisp directing throughout the film. Couldn't find any parts which I would have redone or changed in anyway.

I don't think it'll win best picture, but I think it's definately worth seeing in the theater.



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"Harry Potter can kiss my ass!"

There are a few movies that I really enjoyed but didn't seem to do very well in the eyes of the general public, Driven being one of them. Unfortunately for Renny Harlin, he seems to direct movies which affect only a small group of people with his latest installment to the "only 1/20th of the world will enjoy this film" is the Covenant. The story revolves around 5 families which somehow become the holder of this incredible "Power" that is only apparent in the men of the families. Being a sorcery and craft fan, I was hoping that this film would be exciting, and don't get me wrong it started out very promising. The premise not only includes witchcraft but a very strict set of rules which they must follow: only males get the power; get some power at 13 but "ascend" at 18, which gives full power; and the most important of them all, the more the power is used, the weaker they become-- essentially the power is thier life blood, the more the use, the more they die.

Not a bad start, but after the first 1/4 of the film it started to slow down a bit as more story had to be added and explained. But, the special effects kept the movie interesting as well as the added twist of the story. The ending was a little abrupt... well, very abrupt; an awesome fight scene, but very short with an opening for a sequel.

Another Renny Harlin film, but worth noting that he's getting more and more funding the more films he does, so in about 20 years he'll do an epic that'll and be among the likes of The Ten Commandments.



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"What you feel only matters to you, it's what you do to the people you say you love that counts."

After seeing Garden State in 2004, I anticipated the next Zach Braff film, and The Last Kiss is Zack Braff's second plunge into mainstream movies. In it, he's a 29 year old who's found the love of his life with everything he can want, but he feels as though he's in a rut. Nothing is spontaneous nor exciting to him anymore, although his pregnant wife, Jenna (Jacinda Barrett), seems to think things are amazing and wonderful. While at a friends wedding, Michael (Braff) seems Kim (Rachel Bilson) from across the yard and Kim "conveniently" gets something to drink the same time that Michael does. So they meet and she begins an attempt at an romantic relationship while talking in a tree house. She gives him her number and he realizes that he's an idiot. So, after a few weeks, he "runs into" her while she's at a restaurant. They decide to go to a party the following night and while he's there, Izzy's (Michael Weston)-one of Michael's best friends- father dies. So while Michael is supposed to be with Chris, Jenna runs into Chris while at Izzy's house.

The whole movie revolves around doing what is necessary to get the ones you love. Of course we all make mistakes and he shows what he's willing to do for the person he loves.

The directing was good, the music was awesome and Tim Wilkinson (Jenna's father-Stephen), a psychiatrist who is left by his wife, Blythe Danner (Anna), and Kim Bilson were all very wonderful in this film.

I was a little disappointed by the underuse of some of Michaels friends, who could've been exploited to make a much more comedic climax.

Definately a chick flick, but very entertaining as a comedy, which it is first and foremost.



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Bill gates stole everything!

A film that Andy had given to me after our conversation of Microsoft Windows and Vista shows how Microsoft began the way it did, picking up the mouse and GUI from Xerox. Anyway, Pirates of Silicon Valley stars Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates, in what has become one of the most profitable industries ever. Granted I was tired, surfing the internet trying to find out information about Propaganda Films, and trying to watch the movie at the same time, but it was informative with an odd twist. The film kept jumping back and forth from Gates and Jobs respective roles in the creation of the PC. If not watching closely the movie will seem confusing but overall is enjoyable to watch and informative on how things came to pass.

If I remember correctly it was made for TNT, and being a TV movie, it's not as crisp as high budget film'll be, but the point gets across. Other than the jumping back and forth, I was quite impressed with the film in general, but not one I'd run out and buy. Definately worth the rent though.



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A cowboy, a black man and The Professional

All of these make up the new WW1 flying movie, Flyboys. James Franco is Blaine Rawlings, a cowboy from Aberdeen, Texas who after his ranch is foreclosed on, punches the banker and leaves town to fly for the French before America joined the War. Enroute, he meets fellow Americans: William Jensen (Phillip Winchester) from Lincoln, Nebraska a third generation soldier trying to prove his part of the family-"To be just like you and Grandpa!"; Eugene Skinner (Abdul Salis) as a black boxer who's giving up his #4 position in the championship to join the war; Briggs Lowry (Tyler Labine) a wealthy son of a man who wants him to make something of himself after Briggs drops out of college. As they arrive in France, no one speaks French but Skinner. Joining the group, Jean Reno is the Captain Thenault who is their instructor. They meet Cassidy (Martin Henderson) the flying ace of the squadron with 20 kills and the new recruits leader on any mission.

The movie only has one drawback that I had seen and that was the visual effects were a little... well, computer generated. It was easy to notice when a blue screen was used, and I found it hard to distinguish who was in what plane, so they had close ups almost immediately after showing a plane making the movie a little more annoying than it should've been.

Otherwise, I was impressed by the scripting and the lack of attention to details; most notably, the Americans weren't better than the Germans. The entire war the Germans had air superiority over the Allies. I think the kill ratio was 1 German for every 15-20 Allies.

But the music was good, the directing was good, and I was suprised at James Franco's ability to sound Texan, very nice indeed. Does have a romatic portion, which is amusing to an extent, but still helps the audience realize the difficulties of the time period.



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I think at the end of every post, from now on at least, I'm going to rate -- just with stars, no description -- a few films I've caught on TV.

Cellular


Memron


Memphis Belle


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Catch ya on the flip side!
~Steve

"Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full"

I know it's been quite awhile since my last update, but I've been too tired to get around to it since the last post. And, because of my procrastination I have quite a few films to cover this time, as I had a very film filled Labor Day Weekend. I must appologize in advance that I'm not going to be getting to Hollywoodland today, but I going to update it again soon; I'm just too tired after writing all these.

Below you'll find that I enjoy Crank, visited an Idiotocracy, drank at a Beerfest, visited Little Miss Sunshine, said hello to Serenity, drove down Glory Road, all of this leading up to a performance by an Illusionist.

Go ahead, read 'em all, not like you have anything better to do.

Sit back, grab a drink, and start reading, may take ya awhile.

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"I'm Chev Chelios and today I'm going to die."

There are very few films that I'm willing to sit down in after it has already started. Granted, I doubt I missed too much as I pretty much knew the plot of the film from Crank's trailer. But, Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) is a hit man who, after screwing up, is drugged with the "Beijing Cocktail"-- a synthetic drug used to put horses down which there is no anitdote...of course. After Chev understands that he can't stop his adrenaline flowing or he dies, he begins to hunt and kill all of his "killer's" thugs.

Dwight Yoakam plays a fun loving, caring, doctor who helps out Chelios the best he can. Amy Smart is Eve, Chev's girlfriend, who is loving and tries her best to help him survive.

The directing kept me on the edge of my seat, as any adrenaline necessary film would. This movie is not for the weak stomach or the epileptic. The scenes are very quick and full of gore. In some cases I can understand the gore, but it was occasionaly too much. But being a light hearted movie throughout, I can see how over doing the gore added to humor in some cases.

Although the film was none stop and enjoyable, I'm not sure it's for everyone. I wouldn't be expecting this film to win any awards, but I know it'll probably do well when released on DVD.



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"You're the smartest person in the world!" "Huh?"

Being a big fan of Office Space, I was hoping that Mike Judge's Idiotocracy would be as intelligent as Office Space was, oh so many years ago. It wasn't intelligent, but yet it was idiotocratic. Set in 2005, Army Private Luke Wilson's character is told that he has no choice but to participate in a cryogenic experiment along with a prostitute. A few months afterwards the scientist in charge is arrested for drug use and thrown in jail. That being so, the pair are left in their cryogenic containers for 1000 years and they awake to being the smartest person on the planet.

There are movies that appear on USA Network early in the morning and they aren't usually too good, well never are good. I can see Idiotocracy being on USA Network in a few months.

The directing wasn't bad, nor was the acting, but the screenwriting is... well a B-movie, subpar by any means. The plot of the movie isn't actuallyt hat bad, low IQ people having a lot of kids and the high IQ people having fewer or no kids would, unchecked, eventually lead to a world in which the smartest person has an IQ of 50. But fortunately enough, this will not occur since the
smart people will keep the dumb man down and out of any power.

But it did have funny momments. They weren't few and far between, like Talladega Nights, but they were taken to too far of an extent in some cases.

I'd watch it if I was at a party, late in the party.



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"I once saw him fart a plum... I was plum surprised."

I heard that a friend was in town, and called 'em up. Sure enough. Well, we had both heard that about this drinkingfest in Germany called Beerfest so, we decided to go take a look at it...Yeah, right. We both knew what we were in for. The Broken Lizard comedy troupe, the same people who created Super Troopers, brought us another gut wrenching comedy in which two brothers attempt at returning their fathers ashes to Germany result in them stumbling into a century old drinking tradition called Beerfest. After the Germans call the Americans stupid the brothers decided to get a drinking team together so that they may get revenge against the Germans.

Well the team is assembled and the drinking begins. The comedy is everlasting and ever so constant. The movie is amusing and I laughed throughout the entire film. I laughed so much my mouth hurt when the movie was over.

Other than the soundtrack being closely similar Eurotrip, and some of the accents so thick they almost sound like Russians, it was a very enjoyable film.

Summary: Funny, but must be a drinker, otherwise it wouldn't be quite as funny.



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"I'm glad you started talking again, you're not as dumb as you look"

Steve Carrell attmpts suicide!? Yeah, that's what I thought at the beginning of Little Miss Sunshine, but he did. His character is the foremost Proust author in America and his boyfriend broke up with him, leading him to suicide. Thus begins one of the funniest movies I've seen in years... well, since Clerks 2 at least.

So we meet the family in the scene around the dinning room table; the same scene that's in the trailer. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is a heroin addict who speaks his mind; Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a motivational speaker who uses his "9 steps to become a winner" in everyday speak and attempts to impose it upon everyone else; Sheryl (Toni Collette) is the mother of the family who's career I can't remember ( ) but is very loving to her children Dwayne and Olive; Dwayne (Paul Dano) is a angst filled philosophical 15 year old who has stopped speaking due to Friedrich Nietzsche's teaching so that he may get into the Air Force Academy; Olive (Abigail Breslin) is a 7 year old who --although not very attractive, a little overweight-- only goal so early in life is to win a beauty pagent which her grandfather choreographs. At dinner the family finds out that Olive has advanced to the Regional Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Pagent as 1st place was taking diet pills. Sheryl and Richard both decide that the only way to get Olive to the pagent is load everyone up in the VW van and go from New Mexico to Redondo Beach California.

Going into the movie I had heard nothing but good things from critics and even better reviews from my parents. So, needless to say I had very high hopes for this film, and I'm very proud to say that it dashed my hopes like a Ferrari passing my Lancer. Beerfest has nothing on this movie. Considering that it was billed as a family movie almost all the humor is for the 13 and up, granted there are some very vulger lines, but memorable enough that they won't inflict too much damage onto the growing mind.

If Clerks 2 doesn't win for best Comedy at MTV's movie awards I hope that this movie does. It was absolutly hilarious from start to finish. Every character was acted perfectly with no lapse in character throughout the entire film. The casting was amazing! I can see no other actors in their positions. The directing was awesome as I didn't see any scenes that could've been much better, as I seem to do in other films. The music was great too, but not overbearing which seems to be the sense of things lately as most movies rely on the music to set the mood.



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"She understands, but she doesn't comprehend."

In attempt to keep up with my track record I'm going to use the best line from the movie as the beginning title. Well unfortunately there are too many lines from a cancelled series which then became a movie to choose from. But, the best line comes from the 10th episode of Firefly, which was later turned into the movie Serenity (named after the ship).

Well, there a few series that evolve into a feature film and this is the best of the few. Firefly is a completely underrated series, and I think I can say that after viewing the entire season in 3 days and having seen Serenity first I had an idea of what Firefly was going to be about, but didn't know the debth of information about the Firefly Universe I had missed.

So, before I continue to critique Serenity I must say that in order to understand a large portion of the film, you must watch Firefly, in it's entirity.

Unfortunately there are quite a few characters which, I'm not going to go to indepth about. (For a very indepth understanding of the film, visit Wikipedia's Firefly page) Essentially the vessell is captained by Malcom Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a rebel who fought the universal government but now is a smuggler; First Mate is Zoe Washburn (Gina Torres) who served under Mal, and very loyal to him, in the Battle of Serenity in the Unification War leading to the name of the vessel; Zoe is married to the ships pilot Hoban Washburn (Alan Tudyk) , nicknamed "Wash", who is a very good pilot and didn't chose sides in the war; Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin) is the resident mercenary/hired gun who is selfish but looks out for the others when in battle; Kaylee Frye (Jewl Staite) is the ships engineer who keeps the "heap" in the sky by jerry rigging everything to get it to work, very loving, sincere, and kind to everyone; Simon Tam (Sean Maher) is the resident Doctor who keeps looking out for his sister, River (Summer Glau) , who had been psychologically altered by the Alliance; Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin) is a compainion (prostitute) who has hired the Serenity's shuttle for her work and is important in both the series and less seen but more important in the movie; Derrial Book (Ron Glass) is a shepard (preacher) who has a much smaller role in the film compared to his intergal part of the series; and the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who is searching for River Tam in order to bring her back to the Alliance for more testing. Hence the necessity of viewing the series first.

The movie is definately the ending to the series, much better than the last episode of the series. The directing was good, the music was good, and the acting was just as good as in the series. Same characters, same writer/director, and same music (it seems to me at least) which leads me to understand that Serenity is the final part of the Firefly Universe, for now at least. Without divulging any more information, I'd like to say it's defintely worth the 3 year wait, although I never saw the series on tv, I know that fans waited way too long after the last episode left them hanging.

Summary: Watch the series first and you'll enjoy the film; if not, you may be a little lost. Very enjoyable if you like the series, Sci-fi may be too much for some, so it all depends on taste.

Movie:
Series:

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The wild wild west Texas, basketball and racism

It seems as though there have been some movies that have taken the truth and leaned on it a bit in order to make it more dramtic, this is one of those movies. Glory Road is definately a emotional film about a high school girls coach moving to west Texas to coach Divison 1 basketball at Texas Western (UTEP now). Coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) moves his family to West Texas in order to coach and is hoping to win the national championship with an all black starting line up in the 1966 season leading to controversy and a good story. Not entirely truth, but closer than most "based on a true story" movies.

Granted I enjoy uplifting movies like these, they make me feel all warm 'n fuzzy inside. Well, not fuzzy, just warm. Anyway, I enjoyed it. It's entertaining with the 60's music and the directing in the games is intense. As it is no longer in the theatre I'd have to say it's definately worth renting sometime you're looking for an uplifting movie. But don't research previously; that I always seem to do wrong, I should stop that. No overacting, no true underacting; no characters I wish were left out of the script just so the actor wouldn't've been there, which is always a good thing.

Summary: Enjoyed the film, but don't take the truth to the bank.



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"Perhaps there is truth in this illusion."

As often as Edward Norton is in a film I'm usually seeing them, and Paul Giamatti films are a must see as well, but the two together just forces me to see it (as if I wouldn't anyway). Walking in, I was hoping the Illusionist would a great movie with two great actors leading the film. Also in it were Jessica Biel and Rufus Sewell.

As suggested by the title there is an illusionist, Eisenheim (Edward Norton), who appears in Vienna and performs his show which causes the Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) to arrest him, cutting a performance short. Uhl, visits the Crown Prince (Rufus Sewell) who asks to know the past of this "legendary" illusionist, which begins our story. As a young carpenters boy, Eisenheim meets a magician who gives him a gift before the old man and the tree he was leaning on disappears. Years later the young Eisenheim meets the young Sophie while he is balancing an egg on a stick (weird kids). They fall in love, but their love cannot last as his parents are poor and her parents are rich and noble. So, he disappears for 15 years to return with amazing illusions which everyone enjoys including the aged Sophie (Jessica Biel), who doesn't recognize him immediately. Thus begins the supsensful, astonighingly intricate, story of love, tyrannical power, and nostalgic want.

The film is several hours long and it doesn't feel like it is. There is not one uneccesary scene in the entire movie. There were only two problems I have with the film: 1) the extrodinarily long opening credits; 2) some of the characters lose the Prussian accent in some scenes, most notably Rufus Sewell becomes British in a few lines, Ms. Biel becomes American in a few, but Ed and Paul leave nothing to doubt that they are Prussian. The soundtrack is awesome driving the films pulse from the beginning to the end.

The directing made me question how films like these are so underrated. The angles, the darkness that exists throughout the entire movie it seems, and the mysteriousness all help create a film that is supsensful, mysterious, and thought provoking from beginning to end.


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I'm a little tired now, so I'm gonna hit the hay and try to add a few tomorrow.
Feel free to comment, thanks.
~Steve