tedthespankmonkey Reviews

Birds of America (2008)

The Ending Summed it All Up - Spoilers (kind of)

[2/10 · 4 June 2008]

Saw the premiere of Birds of America at Sundance this year. I picked this movie not cause it sounded great (of course, the Sundance blurb writer could make a Hilary Duff movie sound like Pi), but because Matthew Perry, Hilary Swank, Lauren Graham, and Ben Foster starred in this movie (and I got tickets to the premiere figuring that they would come).

So, here's the basics - two ominous signs of doom keyed me off as an alpha and omega.

One - when the Academy Award winning stars (not to mentioned that some of them PRODUCED the movie (Hillary Swank)) don't even show at the premiere - the movie might be a piece of crap.

Second, and keeping in line - when the "climax" involves the main character dropping trow and taking a dump on his neighbor's lawn - you know you're not exactly watching Citizen Kane.

Yeah, no need to say more. Moving on. (Grade: D-)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Comedy with Character

[10/10 · 11 September 2006]

Do you know what I miss most when watching most movies? Character. Do you know what I LOVED most about Little Miss Sunshine? Character. While this movie wasn't as absolutely hilarious as I had heard--it was still amazing. Every actor in this movie was on target. Fantastic performances by Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, and Paul Dano.

Paul Dano was amazing. He carries one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen in a movie. His deadpan, silence throughout the movie causes some of the funniest moments in the movie.

This is a different role for Steve Carell, and yet he is still amazing. He continues to show how great of an actor he truly is.

Everyone else was just as fantastic. I cannot say enough how great this movie was. Best movie of 2006 so far--and I doubt it will be beaten. If you want to "feel" when you watch a movie--go see Little Miss Sunshine.

You'll love it.

Serenity (2005)

The Star Wars of today!

[10/10 · 14 October 2005]

I'm an admitted Joss Whedon fan, though I clearly recognize that not everything he does is great -- he occasionally sucks. I didn't get the chance to see Firefly when it was on Fox, so I went into this movie not knowing anything really about these characters or where they came from.

But that didn't matter once it started. Joss' ability to write fleshed out characters is uncanny. Any character on screen for any amount of time, you know right away who they are. With just a few words, you're able to understand them. I'm not surprised when I see movies very much; once you understand basic structures of scripts and genre conventions, not much catches you off-guard. Serenity caught me off-guard many times. It's full of excitement, adventure, drama, tragedy, action, humor -- anything you could want in a movie is in Serenity. It's a tragedy that it did not do anything at the box office.

I won't ruin the experience for you if you haven't seen it, but the best way to give it a 'blurb' is this: This movie is the Star Wars (the originals, not the prequels) of today. This movie is what everyone wanted the prequels to be! It echoes all the perfect archetypes. It's about a band of rag-tag rebels who become the object of a galactic war and must overcome impossible odds not to triumph and be the heroes, but to do what is right. It's been a long time since I've sat in the theater in pure delight (without having to turn a blind eye to badly done aspects), but delight was what I experienced for the two hours I sat watching Serenity.

If you love Star Wars, if you love Sci-Fi, if you don't love Star Wars, if you don't love Sci-Fi, if you just love great movies, GO SEE SERENITY. I can't say enough about this movie and do it justice. Just go see it and give it a chance. The best movie I have seen this year.