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On DVD:
Club
Dread (Bill Paxton, Broken Lizard) - Thanks to my husband, I've seen more than my share of similarly stupid flicks.
But you know, this one actually grew on me. The next day I even - of my own accord and alone - watched one of the two
commentaries. Overall, a really stupid slasher comedy, but Bill Paxton as a blatent Jimmy Buffett rip-off named Coconut
Pete was hysterical. According to the commentary, Buffett enjoyed the movie so much he wanted to make an album of Coconut
Pete songs. *That* would be entertaining. The best line in the entire movie was a Paxton ad-lib, after being confused
for Buffett by a naive resort guest who insisted that he sing "Margaritaville" instead of Pete's song "Pina Colada-burg".
As he's storming off screen he's heard muttering "Son of a son of a bitch". I was rolling.
The
Last Samurai (Tom Cruise) - actually quite a bit better than I'd anticipated.
I couldn't fathom any reason for Tom to be a Japanese warrior, but there actually was a pretty good one - and he wasn't
Japanese anyway. Unfortunately, the last 45 minutes or so were terribly predictable,
given the rest of the movie. I mean, it's one thing
to tie up all the loose ends, but the set up and resolution of all the major, minor, and trivial points was a little obvious. I got tired and went to bed early, and I still knew how it all turned out. But, not bad overall.
Miracle (Kurt Russell) - for a long sports movie that everyone already knows the end of,
it was pretty entertaining. If you don't already know, it's about the selection, training, and playing of the 1980 US
Olympic hockey team from the point of view of Kurt as the coach. The real coach died just after principle photography
ended; there's some interesting stuff on the dvd, assuming you give a damn about the hockey team that finally beat the Soviets.
LOL
Paycheck (Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman) - We LOVED this movie. I'm a big fan of puzzle-type
plots, and movies like The Usual Suspects or Primal Fear. This struck me as similar, though some may think
me loony for the comparisons.
The
new Peter Pan, eh, I wasn't impressed. I mean, it was
ok, and Lucius Malfoy as Hook is good, but the color and lighting are
kinda weird. They went rather far out of their way to impress upon the audience
the effect of Peter on Neverland, and in some scenes it was quite distracting. The kids liked it though, and I'm probably just being picky. But
then, things like that rarely even catch my attention, even when they're deliberate and make a point, so the fact that it
bothered me throughout the movie was a bit much.
Lost
in Translation (Bill Murray) we didn't give it much of a chance, I'll admit, but the beginning was pretty slow
and didnt seem to have much of a plot. It got a lot of critical acclaim for Bill
and Sofia Coppola, but we didn't get it, apparently.
Master
and Commander (Russell Crowe) - I had pretty low expectations going in, from reading some online reviews before
we saw it. But you know, it was pretty darned good. I'm not sure that some of those reviewers even saw the same
movie. A lot of people compared it to Pirates of the Caribbean, but I have no idea why, other than the fact that they
both involved 19th century ships. Other than that, totally different in every way. We were fairly impressed with
Master and Commander overall.
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In theaters:
There are going to be far fewer of these, as we don't get out much.
Chris goes to more movies than I do, as he doesn't mind going alone, after the kids are asleep. I tend to only see movies
that one or more of the kids can also see.
Coming soon - review for Spiderman 2
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Alyssa and I went to see this. Given the dark reputation that the third book has, I was pleasantly
surprised to see that the movie, while keeping the proper seriousness surrounding the dementors and Sirius Black as escaped
murderer, moved far too quickly to dwell on darkness. And by quickly, I mean lightning speed. Almost everything
from the book is at least touched on, but some minor, relatively irrelevant details are left out, skipped over, put to the
background, in the interest of time. As it is, the movie is more than 2 1/2 hours, but it didn't feel like it at all.
There were a few things that were flat out wrong, small details that don't marr the overall story, and I can clearly see why
they were added from the point of view of the moviemakers, for the benefit of those who have not read the book (can it be
possible? lol). There are also several of what I call "seasonal scenes" that have no characters, dialogue, or plot in
them whatsoever but serve as transition scenes, generally outdoors. From the very first Harry Potter movie, with the
winter courtyard scene with Hedwig, I've not understood the point of these. But whatever. The outdoor sets are
beautiful, and there are many more of them, naturally. It almost looked to me like an entirely different location than
the earlier films, but I suspect that's mostly due to the overall lack of outdoor scenes in the first two. Places only
talked about before are now integral parts of the story. Overall, the movie was tremendously enjoyable - much more so
than the disappointing (to us) Chamber of Secrets. Alyssa sat still the entire time, which is in itself a miracle, and
loved every minute of it. And now the thought of waiting at least another year before either the 4th movie or the 6th
book is rather depressing.
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