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Ark18
Reviews
Grindhouse (2007)
Two for the Price of One
What an incredible rush of a movie. I played this at 2am and while I was only one of 2 people in the theater, we were still both on the edge of our seats or reacting to the film in one way or another.
Rodriguez's Death Proof is a very fast paced movie and a clear homage to any Romero zombie flick out there. The pacing of the film is excellent and his casting is dead on. Freddy Rodriguz and Rose Mcgowen make the perfect pair and are both unlikely action stars. Expect a TON of zombie gore as well. I'm happy to say he embraced the camp feel of the movie w/ the print looking perfectly aged including missing reels and film burns. I've read a few times that his falls on its face compared to Tarantino's however I felt his fast paced editing and constant action or gore kept me going throughout the film.
Tarantino's Death Proof was pretty well done, although at times I felt like I was watching the female version of Reservoir Dogs, and we all know his weak spot is writing female dialogue. Kurt Russel is under used however he steals every moment he's on screen. The star of the film has to be Sydney Tamiia Poitier as Jungle Julia, who delivers Tarantino's lines without flinching. While as everyone else says the film drags in the middle the two ending car chases are some of the best ever filmed and deliver the most intense moments of the movie.
In addition, the fake trailers are the perfect touch, but what really stands out is Eli Roth's 'Thanksgiving' trailer. He perfectly captures old 80's slasher flicks with gore that made me cringe at times.
Ultimately if you know what to expect / are a far of Tarantino's or Rodriguez's you'll place this high on your list but Joe Shmo might have trouble knowing just what to make of the film.
(also as working in a theater I can't wait for complaints about the 'poor' look of the film)
Tiny Magic (2003)
Better the Second Time Around
I had first seen this film here in Buffalo at a local short film festival, and I just saw it again tonight at another short film festival where a short I did was screened. I really despised this film (becasue of its content mostly) the first time around. But now that I saw it again it actually is a pretty cool short.
About a guy who uses his magic abilities at an open mic sort of thing, and wows everyone. We then follow him through meeting a girl and so forth...
The films content is soso. The effects are well done however in the wand levitating and what have you. The acting was good for first time actors, but what I really appreciated this time around was the cinematography.
The film is shot beautifully, plain and simple. Chris Santucci did an excellent job with the look of the club, and the guys apt. Each shot has the mystical whimish feel the film was going for, and helped to play up the content. As a whole, it almost had this very, soft feeling too it, due to the tones and lighting.
Again I better appreciated this film after seeing it again, and even if you hate the content still you have to give credit to Santucci for his beautiful framing and shooting...
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
stupidly brilliant...
I first saw the reel of clips released back in 03, and after watching about 10 times over i finally stopped laughing. I knew this movie was going to be funny, but damn did it exceed my expectations. *And yes, I'm one for stupid humor* This wasn't witty humor, and wasn't typical stupid humor even, but rather just so completely random that you just had to laugh. The audience was laughing so hard at times in fact everyone missed a lot of the jokes....but i digress.
The "plot" of this film, was a new co-anchor woman comes into the news room of the hit San Diego news team in the 70's and shows woman can report too damnitt. Appelgate was convincing, and actually got me to laugh a few times as well.
Ferrel was of course perfect, and you could tell the majority of the film was from Mckay just letting the cameras roll, (I heard the entire film ran almost 4 hrs uncut, for the special DVD..but who knows)
The movie however was simply stolen by Steve Carrel, who I never found this funny. He plays a man who self confesses within the first 5 min of the film, "I'm basically mentally retarded." Every one of his lines was just so random and ridiculous that you were forced to laugh, plain and simple. His dead pan delivery just shows if he's given a role, he'll play it to the fullest.
The only down beat (still funny however) was the cameo induced fight sequence, reminiscent of West Side Story. It was the typicals... CAMEO SPOILER...
Luke Wilson, Stiller, Vaughn...but then a few others i didn't expect ie. Danny Trejo and Tim freakin Robbins...amazing.
So if you even remotely like any of the actors above its worth the ridiculous 8 bucks...just make sure you can appreciate humor SO damn far from the norm its just simply random.
Mean Girls (2004)
Random One-Liners
I went into this movie I went into this movie not expecting much, but a lot of my friends said I'd appreciate the random humor. This is exactly what Mean Girls was, random one-liners. But boy were there sure a lot of them. I have to say I don't think I've ever laughed my ass off this much in a chick-flicky sort of film. Lindsey Lohan played her role well, but I think it was the SNL supporting cast that caught my attention. Fey, Meddows, Poehler, and even Gesteyr (I know I misspelled that) were great, not having seen a few of those actors in anything lately. Again, I'm one for random humor as are my friends, and this movie took that to a new level. There was a plot in there somewhere, but I think (for me at least) it was overshadowed by the off beat jokes (ie. "Do you want to cheer up? Let's all goto Taco Bell!") So all in all as an older male who usually hates this "type" of film, I have to say Mean Girls met my expectations and then some. Worth the money.