Back to the Future Part III

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (1990) - May 31, 2010 (Umpteenth Viewing +1)
I don't care what anyone says: awesome.  ****

Back to the Future Part II

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II (1989) - May 30, 2010 (Umpteenth Viewing +1)
Also awesome.  ****

Back to the Future

BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) - May 30, 2010 (Umpteenth Viewing +1)
Awesome. ****

Amarcord

AMARCORD (1973) - May 29, 2010 (Second Viewing)
Hmmm… I guess I just don’t like Fellini very much. Of the handful of his films that I’ve seen up to this point, I don’t think I’ve really liked any of them (I do remember liking Satyricon, but that was a while back, and is far from being one of the man’s most revered films). It comes as a bit of a surprise to me, because Fellini is one of those directors you’re supposed to like pretty much by default, at least as a film geek. And yet I don’t seem to particularly enjoy his movies.  I mentioned in my 8½ post that I remembered liking Amarcord — but I can’t say that I was particularly enthralled this time around. My first viewing was probably around ten years ago, and I’m pretty sure that I liked it. I don’t know why my opinion has seemingly changed; I guess I used to have a higher tolerance for handsomely made, meandering and egregiously slow-paced films.  Like 8½, I was definitely able to appreciate this film on a technical level, but I just didn’t derive all that much enjoyment from it. The movie was essentially a series of vignettes revolving around the inhabitants of a small Italian town; it kind of had a laid-back charm — and Nino Rota’s jaunty, memorable score was a perfect accompaniment to the visuals — but to be perfectly honest, after about fifteen minutes or so, I was sick of it. Almost none of the segments stood out to me as being anything other than a mild diversion. I’m sure they all had some kind of special significance to Fellini (the film is loosely based on his own childhood memories), but to me, watching them wasn’t much more interesting than going through somebody else’s old photo album (albeit an album presented with a fairly high level of visual flair).  **

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME (2010) - May 28, 2010
A decent if kind of mediocre film about a prince who finds himself framed for murder, and in possession of a mystical dagger that can rewind time.  The movie was basically entertaining, and featured some affable lead performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton.  Its main problem (aside from a mild case of overlength) is that Mike Newell's direction just wasn't very good.  It was passable enough most of the time, if nothing special, but Newell absolutely falls on his face when it comes to directing action.  With few exceptions, the action scenes were all poorly staged and sloppily edited, and were not nearly as exciting or fun as they should have been.  It also doesn't help that Newell WAY overuses Zack Snyder-style slow-mo to fast-mo, which gets old quite fast (and I don't even think that a lot of it was planned in advance, as much of the slow-mo looked like it wasn't shot with that in mind).  Also, the special effects were kind of questionable, and a lot of the time it looked like they were on sets.  I don't know.  It wasn't terrible, I guess.  I'm between a two and a two and a half for this one.  Meh, whatever.  The ever-elusive good videogame movie remains just out of reach.  **1/2

MacGruber

MACGRUBER (2010) - May 25, 2010
An entertaining though extremely silly and unabashedly juvenile adaptation of a series of really short SNL sketches.  The film follows MacGruber, a supposedly  super-skilled soldier who is actually wildly incompetent, in his quest to stop his old arch-foe from blowing up Washington.  The film kind of overstayed its welcome a bit, but aside from that it was enjoyable, and pretty funny in parts.  **1/2

Date Night

DATE NIGHT (2010) - May 23, 2010
Kind of silly and not exactly fresh but basically entertaining, this was a fairly mediocre film about the shenanigans that a couple get into over one long night -- elevated by really funny and likable performances from Steve Carrell and Tina Fey.  They both deserve better material than this, but they do their best and have really good chemistry together (hopefully they'll eventually re-team for a better film).  Plus, try as I might, I just can't not like a movie about people getting into wacky misadventures over the course of a few hours.  **1/2

Score: A Hockey Musical

SCORE: A HOCKEY MUSICAL (2010) - May 18, 2010
A dull musical about young hockey player who discovers that he is a prodigy at the game; much singing ensues.  One of the main problems here is that there really isn't a single element that feels fresh -- from the subplot with the friend who wants to be more than a friend, to his whole deal, where he lets the sucess of being a hockey player change who he is, there's really nothing here that I haven't seen a million times before.  Which of course wouldn't have particularly been a problem if it had been excecuted with any kind of panache, but the whole thing just feels dull and tired almost right from the get-go.  The other major problem is with the songs, which seem to only exist to convey exposition, and which are pretty much the opposite of memorable (they're not exactly hummable, that's for sure -- it's been less than a couple of hours since I watched the movie, and I can't remember a single song).  Boo-urns.  *1/2

Amelie

AMELIE (2001) - May 16, 2010 (Second Viewing)
This was not a film that I was particularly looking forward to revisiting. Not that I hated it, but it’s just not something that I felt any kind of desire to ever watch again. But hey, it’s been almost ten years, and obviously this movie has its fans (it currently stands at number 44 on the imdb’s top 250). I thought I might be able to appreciate Amelie a bit better this time around. Nope.  Like I said, I don’t hate this movie. I think that probably, as a fifteen or twenty minute short, I’d find it enjoyable enough. It does have its charms, and for a while it’s kind of endearing in an oddball kind of way. But it’s just so consistently, relentlessly hyper-stylized and insufferably quirky — and there’s really not much to it other than its style and its quirk. So if you find yourself ambivalent towards (or downright annoyed by) the film’s in-your-face aesthetic, then you’re really not going to be in for a good time, because the movie revels in its own exaggerated sense of style.  Plus, I just don’t think that Amelie herself is a particularly compelling central character — she is just far too outrageously quirky to ever really relate to on an emotional level. She makes Mr. Bean look like Jimmy Stewart (and at least we’re never supposed to identify with Mr. Bean as anything other than a clown, which isn’t the case with Amelie). She’s surrounded by other characters who are all equally quirky in their own bizarre ways, and certainly, I can see what Jean-Pierre Jeunet was going for here, but it just did not work for me. I found it pretty grating at times.  It occurred to me while I was watching (and not enjoying) this film, that my feelings about it must be how some people feel about The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which is pretty darn quirky in its own way, but which I think is a masterpiece (yeah, that’s right, I said it — I think it’s Anderson’s best film, and easily one of the best films of the aughts). I’m not sure why I’m okay with Anderson’s hyper-stylized universe, but annoyed by Amelie’s. It’s just a matter of taste, I guess.  **

Robin Hood

ROBIN HOOD (2010) - May 15, 2010
Well, that was a bit of a disappointment.  Handsomely made and well acted, the main problem with this film is that it was just kind of dull and lifeless.  Essentially a Robin Hood origin story, the movie feels like setup for a much more interesting film.  I think there's a reason why pretty much every other Robin Hood story skims over (or entirely bypasses) this portion of the man's life.  It's just not all that interesting, or at least not as portrayed in this film.  There's also a lot of stuff with the new King of England and a scheming commander who is working with the French, which just isn't all that interesting.  I couldn't help but compare the film to Gladiator; a comparison in which this film falls quite short.  As much as I like Mark Strong, he doesn't make much of an impact here, and certainly doesn't come close to Joaquin Pheonix's slimy and memorable Commodus.  As for Russell Crowe, he was fine but I never cared about his Robin Hood the way I was really rooting for his Maximus.  I think the movie was just taking itself a bit too seriously.  Meh.  **

Gladiator

GLADIATOR (2000) - May 13, 2010 (Fifth or Sixth viewing)
I remember loving this film, but it's been quite a few years since I've seen it, and I was afraid it wouldn't be as good as I remembered.  Nope: I still love this film.  There are so many things I really like about this movie, from Ridley Scott's stylish direction, to the sweet action and the surfiet of memorable moments (the "my name is Gladiator" scene still ranks as one of the most badass things ever).  Russell Crowe gives what is probably his best performance, and a lot of the reason that the movie works as well as it does is that it really makes you care about him.  There's a lot of stuff with Joaquin Phoenix and his smarmy political maneuverings, and the movie has a pretty epic feel, but it never loses sight of Crowe's journey -- when it comes down to it, this is really just a movie about one man's quest to avenge the death of his family.  It's pretty great.  ****

Universal Soldier

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (1992) - May 9, 2010
An entertaining action film about a soldier who died in Vietnam who is, years later, reanimated as part of the "Universal Soldier" program.  Also frozen is his captain, who went insane and killed him; the two eventually remember their previous identities, and shenanigans ensue.  Though it kind of drags in parts, it was mostly entertaining, and the action is well done.  ***

District 13: Ultimatum

DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM (2009) - May 8, 2010
A disappointing sequel.  This one finds the last film's two protagonists uncovering a government conspiracy (in a storyline that ultimately becomes a really clunky Iraq war critique -- Harriburton?  Really?).  The film is decently made and entertaining enough; the main problem is that it tends to get really bogged down in the government conspiracy shenanigans -- there is an absurd amount of exposition in this film.  Just get to the fights and the parkour alreadly.  The other problem is that the film is surprisingly light on action -- what is there is decent enough (though a bit heavier on the old shaky-cam/quick-cutting than I'd like), and there are actually a couple of pretty exciting sequences.  But there's nothing that can even hold a candle to the exhilerating chase scene that opened the first film (though there is a scene that tries really hard to replicate that), or some of the other action set-peices from the original.  This was a passable action film, but given how awesome the first movie was, it's definitely a disappointment.  **1/2

The Descent: Part 2

THE DESCENT: PART 2 (2009) - May 8, 2010
Well, that was a pleasant surprise.  Though not quite on the same level as the first film, it's actually kind of close.  About the rescue team that goes in to attempt to rescue the missing girls from the first film -- including the sole survivor, who has amnesia and thus has no memory of the horrors that lie within.  The movie is quite well directed by Jon Harris, who does an admirable job of replicating the claustrophobic feel of the original, and who is able to maintain a fairly good level of tension throughout.  This was definitely a lot better than I was expecting.  ***1/2  

Iron Man 2

IRON MAN 2 (2010) - May 7, 2010
Like the first movie, this was a somewhat uneven but still very good comic book movie, this time finding Tony Stark going up against an angry Russian scientist.  The movie definitely drags a bit in parts, but it's well directed by Jon Favreau, who refreshingly avoids the old shakey-cam/quick-cut style -- some of the action scenes are pretty spectacular.  ***

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans

THE BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL - NEW ORLEANS (2009) - May 5, 2010
An enjoyable film about an increasingly drug-addled cop investigating the murder of a family of immigrants.  A fairly routine cop movie, elevated by a pretty great -- and hypnotically bizarre -- performance from Nicolas Cage.  ***