Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny

TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY (2006) - Mar. 31, 2007
A silly but enjoyable film about Tenacious D -- Jack black and Kyle Gass -- and their quest to get a magical guitar pick. The film is rarely laugh-out-loud funny (though it does have its moments), but it's entertaining throughout. There are a lot of songs, but they're all actually pretty good. ***

Hard Candy

HARD CANDY (2005) - Mar. 30, 2007
A really tense psychological thriller about a teenager who meets an older guy (a pedophile) on the internet and proceeds to mess with him in increasingly sinister ways. David Slade's direction and the cinematography sometimes verge on being over-stylized (lots of stark colours and close-ups), but never do. In fact the film is really well directed; the tension starts to build pretty much right from the start, and stays consistent all throughout. I liked the use of sound -- there was almost no score, just a sort of low ambient sort of humming (I have no idea how to describe it) which really helped sustain the level of tension. It also helped that both Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page were really good, as much of the reason the film works as well as it does is their performances. I've heard this being compared to Audition, and I think that's apt, but I liked this even better, because it takes the best part of that film and pretty much makes a whole movie out of it. ***1/2

Cheap, Fast and Out of Control

CHEAP, FAST AND OUT OF CONTROL (1997) - Mar. 29, 2007
I should probably watch this again, as for whatever reason I just wasn't in the mood to watch a film and I was barely paying attention. I was sort of watching it but not watching, so I don't think it would be fair to give it a rating or say if it was good or bad. It seemed pretty good though, so maybe I'll watch it again at some point. NO RATING

Blades of Glory

BLADES OF GLORY (2007) - Mar. 28, 2007
An insipid comedy starring the once-hilarious, now-terrible Will Ferrell. Sporadically entertaining but mostly boring, and containing a few chuckles but nothing more, this was a sub-par comedy and yet another bad movie in a year that's already had so many. About a couple of figure-skaters who circumvent their ban from skating by teaming up, the film had a surprising amount of capable performers (Will Arnett, William Fichtner, and Craig T. Nelson, among others) and yet still pretty much sucked. The problem here (or at least one of them) is that aside from a few reasonably funny moments, the film just aims so low. And I don't know, maybe it succeeds in what it's going for -- I'm sure there are a lot of people who will love it, but I think I'm too old for this movie by at least a decade. *1/2

Pitch

PITCH (1997) - Mar. 28, 2007
A sort of mediocre documentary about a couple of guys who attempt to sell their script, first pitching it to anyone they can at the Toronto Film Festival, then heading down to Hollywood to attempt to sell it there. The film starts off okay enough, but it quickly becomes apparent that there's not really enough here for a feature-length film. It's repetitive, and by the end I was really sick of seeing Kenny and Spenny pitch their stupid script (it just seemed to be the same thing over and over -- they pitch, they bicker amongst themselves, they pitch, they bicker, they pitch, they bicker, and on and on until the end credits finally roll). It might have made an enjoyable 15 minute short, but at 81 minutes it was just too much. **

The Great McGinty

THE GREAT MCGINTY (1940) - Mar. 24, 2007
An enjoyable comedy about a crooked politician's rise to power. Preston Sturges' first film as a writer and director, this wasn't quite the classic some of his later films are, but it was still quite good. The dialogue was expectedly enjoyable, and the film was entertaining throughout (plus the film never wears out its welcome at a brief 82 minutes). ***

Shooter

SHOOTER (2007) - Mar. 21, 2007
A silly, overlong but essentially entertaining film, featuring Mark Wahlberg as a sniper who is framed for an assassination, who then slowly gets his revenge. The film absolutely wallows in hackneyed cliches; I don't think there's a single element here film that felt fresh, from the shadowy government cabal orchestrating the conspiracy to Wahlberg himself. The dialogue also tends to veer into hokey territory more often than not. But there were some good sequences, some nice throwbacks to action films of the '80s, and the film was reasonably enjoyable throughout. **1/2

Tarnation

TARNATION (2003) - Mar. 21, 2007
Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful. This thing starts off badly and just gets worse and worse; it's a baffling, aggravating endurance test which is so aggressively and annoyingly boring, I was seriously considering walking out, which I never do. It's a pretentious mess. It's annoying because there's probably a passable film in here somewhere, but it is completely and utterly obscured by Jonathan Caouette's wildly overactive editing style -- he probably throws in every editing gimmick iMovie is capable of, from multiple split screens to numerous crazy visual filters. Caouette is not a director, and he's not a filmmaker. To call him that would be an insult to filmmakers worldwide; he's just a guy with a cheap camcorder, a computer and an overblown sense of "style." He's a guy who thinks he is making Art (and failing miserably) with no regard for entertainment value or even whether or not his images meld coherently in any way. He is a charlatan and a poseur, and if there's any justice in the world he will never be allowed near a camera again. ZERO STARS

You Shoot, I Shoot

YOU SHOOT, I SHOOT (2001) - Mar. 21, 2007
This film has taken what seems like a relatively foolproof premise (a hitman recruits a director when he is hired to kill someone and film the murder) and squandered it. The main problem here is how ridiculously broad everything is; subtle is not a word in this film's vocabulary. Everything, from the dialogue to the characters to the performances -- even the direction itself -- is way over-the-top. The film just tries way too hard to be funny, with every action being "comically" overblown, and every actor mugging furiously for the camera. The film is short, at least, and it's never completely boring, but it was just far too silly. **

Punch-Drunk Love

PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002) - Mar. 17, 2007 (Eighth Viewing)
Sweet Jesus. I had almost forgotten what a mind-blowingly, stunningly, earth-shatteringly awesome movie this is, having not seen it since its theatrical release. Wow. I can't even put into words how great this film is. First and foremost, there is Paul Thomas Anderson's direction, which, really, is perfect. Even with only four films under his belt, Anderson has proved to be one of the best directors out there (if not the best), and he's in peak form here (not that he ever isn't). Anderson's use of the widescreen frame is stunning, and the film really does look phenomenal. The cinematography, everything... Every frame looks good, really good. Then there's the music and the sound design, which is also quite perfect. The performances -- Adam Sandler will almost certainly never again give a performance this good, and Emily Watson is equally excellent. What else can I say about this movie? It truly is a masterpiece, and a strong contender for my favourite film of all time. ****

Dead Silence

DEAD SILENCE (2007) - Mar. 16, 2007 (S)
A reasonably well made but essentially mediocre horror film about a sinister ghost ventriloquist and her sinister dummies. A big problem here is that it's hard to be too scared of a ventriloquist's dummy, so some of the scenes that are supposed to be scary come off more silly than anything else. I liked the intro and the conclusion (though it got a bit over-the-top towards the end), but the whole mid-section was a bit iffy. It was basically just the main character wandering around a small town trying to solve the mystery behind the dolls, which wasn't all that interesting. Every now and then Donnie Wahlberg popped up and livened things up considerably -- he stole every scene he was in as a somewhat eccentric detective who always seems to be shaving. The film was clearly directed by James Wan -- stylistically speaking it looked a lot like Saw, plus he pretty blatantly stole from himself, as the film's conclusion is really similar to the one from Saw. **

Premonition

PREMONITION (2007) - Mar. 14, 2007
A cheesy film about a woman who inexplicably bounces back and forth in time, jumping around in the days surrounding her husband's death. This was a movie that didn't seem to know what it wanted to be: at times it was a cheesy thriller, and at times a cheesy drama. It was mostly a drama, and the parts where it would suddenly become a thriller were incongruous and jarring (not to mention silly and over-the-top). The film was competently made and featured some good performances, but it wasn't good. It was bad, in fact. **

Dirty Pretty Things

DIRTY PRETTY THINGS (2002) - Mar. 12, 2007
A well made film about an illegal immigrant in London, working two jobs, who finds himself drawn into the organ black market. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou were both quite good in the main roles. I have nothing else to say about this film. So... yeah. ***

Zodiac

ZODIAC (2007) - Mar. 10, 2007
An interesting but very very long movie about the Zodiac killer, and the long investigation that followed. The film was almost always interesting on a visual level; Fincher is obviously a really good director, plus the film was shot digitally and actually looked good. The film really goes into detail with the whole investigation, which does do a good job conveying the hopelessness of the whole thing, but there's just so much. It almost feels like there's enough here for two films. It was good though, and it seems like it might be the type that improves on repeat viewings. ***

Bones of the Forest

BONES OF THE FOREST (1995) - Mar. 8, 2007
A really pretentious documentary about the natives in Canada, and forests, and... I don't know. It was just so pretentious, it almost seemed like some kind of parody (the director's name is Velcrow Ripper -- I think that says it all). I was asleep for at least half of it, so I can't really say much more. NO RATING

Fuck

FUCK (2005) - Mar. 7, 2007
A really one-note but essentially entertaining documentary about the word "fuck". Consisting mostly of talking heads, it sort of reminded me of the Aristocrats (though far less objectionable). It was okay -- I don't really know if the topic warranted the length, but it was never outright boring. **1/2

Remember the Night

REMEMBER THE NIGHT (1940) - Mar. 4, 2007
An enjoyable romantic comedy starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck (in their first of four pairings). About a DA who who decides to take the woman he's prosecuting home for Christmas after he realizes that she's got nowhere to go. Stanwyck and MacMurray were both quite good, and the film was well directed and well written (not too surprising considering it was written by Preston Sturges). ***

Kontroll

KONTROLL (2003) - Mar. 3, 2007
About the strange things that happen to a ticket-checker in the Budapest subway over the course of a couple of days (getting progressively stranger as the film goes along), this film sort of reminded me of stuff like Go and After Hours (particularly the latter). It was sort of strange going into this without having any idea of what it was about; I sort of figured it was going to be a thriller or a horror movie, which it definitely was not. I quite enjoyed it, though. It was a good looking film -- dark, but not unpleasantly so. It featured enjoyably quirky characters, and was entertaining throughout. ***1/2

The Number 23

THE NUMBER 23 (2007) - Mar. 2, 2007
A cheesy film about a man who reads a book about a guy obsessed with the number 23, and slowly finds himself becoming obsessed as well. It's a silly premise for a movie, and it just gets sillier as it goes along. The performances were all good, and the film was competently made, but after a while I had lost interest. *1/2