Films A'Plenty to be Reviewdalized
*Note - Do to me being relatively bored a week or so ago, every review that I have written on this blog can now be viewed on imdb.com.
Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, 1988
6/10, 13th best movie of 1988, 93rd best of the 80's, 613th best overall
This was acctually a pretty decent movie. Apparently back in the 30s there was a huge problem in Austrailia with some bugs that ate sugar cane. They brought in cane toads from Hawiaii to eat them. The cane toads didn't eat those bugs, but they did eat everthing else. And they soon spread over much of eastern Austrailia. Anyway the movie discusses how the movie effects the nation of Australia and the people that inhabit it. It introduces many interesting characters and lets them share their stories of how the cane toads have effected their lives. Now let me be honest with you for a second. If I had sat down and watched a two hour movie about cane toads, I probobly would have gotten very bored, and in turn given this movie a bad review. However, this movie is not 2 hours long, it's acctually only about 45 minutes long. Just enough time to get you interested, keep you interested, and than end. Was I doing back flips in my chair becasue I was having so much fun watching this movie? No, but it was still interesting, informative, and overall, a pretty good movie.
Run Ronnie Run, 2002
6/10, 28th best movie of 2002, 162nd best of the 2000's, 429th all time
Mr. Show with Bob and Dave is one of my favorite shows. Run Ronnie Run was created by the makers of Mr. Show with Bob and Dave and acctually based on one of the first scetches ever seen on that show. However, Run Ronnie Run is not one of my favorite movies of all time. What I saw here was exactlly what I saw when I watched Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy. What works extremely well as a 30 minute scetch comedy show doesn't work nearly as well as a 90 minute film. That's not to say the movie isn't enjoyable. There's some good laughs, and its really a fairly interesting plot. I liked the movie well enough, but overall I was expecting much better.
Hostel, 2006
5/10, 4th best of 2006 (out of 4 total movies) 241st of 2000's, 708th all time
I'm gonna be honest with you, I really don't know why so many people say this movie is so great. Granted, the movie is based on an interesting concept. Some Americans in Europe end up at a place where people pay others to torture and murder people. Fairly clever right? But the movie just isn't that interesting to watch. While I love horror movies, the reason I love watching them is that I can choose witch characters I'm rooting for. Deciding who I would want to live or die. While watching this movie I really never for a moment cared which characters (good and bad) lived or died. The movie did nothing to draw me in. I never felt like I was watching real people, just a very violent occasionally silly movie. Granted if I was 12 or 13 years old I might have enjoyed the movie simply for the fact that thier were boobs in it, but by now those days are behind me. It's not that this movie is bad, its just that I can't see a single thing that makes it stand out from other horror movies. I guess I just don't get what all the fuss was about.
Deep Blue, 2003
5/10, 42nd best of 2003, 224th best of the 2000's, 677th all time
Not to be confused with the ass-awful Deep Blue Sea, about super-intelligent man-eating sharks. Deep Blue is a Discovery Channel Documentary about life in the oceans of the world, narrated by Pierce Brosnen. This movie had some really cool scenes: Polar Bears attacking Baluga Whales, Killer Whales attacking Humpback Whales, Dolphins pushing schooling fish into a feeding ball, etc. I like watching these things, the only problem is I had seen them all before on the discovery channel... for free. The unfortunate problem with this movie is that it had litterely nothing that I hadn't seen at some time on the discover channel, or the national geographic channel, or animal planet, etc. Thus it was very hard to stay interested in it for over two hours. However, if you like this kind of stuff at all, and haven't seen it all already, than I would say its deffinately worth a watch.
The Omega Man, 1971
6/10, 6th Best Movie of 1971, 41st best of the 70s, 574th all time
The Omega Man is LOOSELY based on the novel "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson, one of my favorite books of all time. That "LOOSELY" should be stressed as much as is humanely possible. It is almost completely dissimilar from the book. Normally that would mean a death sentence for my enjoyment of the movie, but this time that's not the case. This movie survives as watchable becasue it goes so far from its source material. If the movie would have chosen to change only 7 or 8 key aspects of the book I likely would have found myself yelling at my television. However, this movie changed enough things that I was able to resign myself to the movie being completely seperate from the book within 18 seconds of the movies beginning. Thus by looking at the movie independently from the book I was able to say that it really wasn't half bad. It was over-the-top and cheesey at times, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It was a fairly cool vision of the apocalypse, and I enjoy watching Chuck Heston playing the ultimate bad-ass scientist. If they would have taken a direct interpretation of the book I might be ranking this movie as a 10/10 or a 1/10, as it is they changed it up, played it wierd, and got a 6. Good enough eh?
Upcoming Reviews:
Hurcules in New York, 1970
The Benchwarmers, 2006
United 93', 2006
The New World, 2005
Casanova, 2005
Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, 1988
6/10, 13th best movie of 1988, 93rd best of the 80's, 613th best overall
This was acctually a pretty decent movie. Apparently back in the 30s there was a huge problem in Austrailia with some bugs that ate sugar cane. They brought in cane toads from Hawiaii to eat them. The cane toads didn't eat those bugs, but they did eat everthing else. And they soon spread over much of eastern Austrailia. Anyway the movie discusses how the movie effects the nation of Australia and the people that inhabit it. It introduces many interesting characters and lets them share their stories of how the cane toads have effected their lives. Now let me be honest with you for a second. If I had sat down and watched a two hour movie about cane toads, I probobly would have gotten very bored, and in turn given this movie a bad review. However, this movie is not 2 hours long, it's acctually only about 45 minutes long. Just enough time to get you interested, keep you interested, and than end. Was I doing back flips in my chair becasue I was having so much fun watching this movie? No, but it was still interesting, informative, and overall, a pretty good movie.
Run Ronnie Run, 2002
6/10, 28th best movie of 2002, 162nd best of the 2000's, 429th all time
Mr. Show with Bob and Dave is one of my favorite shows. Run Ronnie Run was created by the makers of Mr. Show with Bob and Dave and acctually based on one of the first scetches ever seen on that show. However, Run Ronnie Run is not one of my favorite movies of all time. What I saw here was exactlly what I saw when I watched Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy. What works extremely well as a 30 minute scetch comedy show doesn't work nearly as well as a 90 minute film. That's not to say the movie isn't enjoyable. There's some good laughs, and its really a fairly interesting plot. I liked the movie well enough, but overall I was expecting much better.
Hostel, 2006
5/10, 4th best of 2006 (out of 4 total movies) 241st of 2000's, 708th all time
I'm gonna be honest with you, I really don't know why so many people say this movie is so great. Granted, the movie is based on an interesting concept. Some Americans in Europe end up at a place where people pay others to torture and murder people. Fairly clever right? But the movie just isn't that interesting to watch. While I love horror movies, the reason I love watching them is that I can choose witch characters I'm rooting for. Deciding who I would want to live or die. While watching this movie I really never for a moment cared which characters (good and bad) lived or died. The movie did nothing to draw me in. I never felt like I was watching real people, just a very violent occasionally silly movie. Granted if I was 12 or 13 years old I might have enjoyed the movie simply for the fact that thier were boobs in it, but by now those days are behind me. It's not that this movie is bad, its just that I can't see a single thing that makes it stand out from other horror movies. I guess I just don't get what all the fuss was about.
Deep Blue, 2003
5/10, 42nd best of 2003, 224th best of the 2000's, 677th all time
Not to be confused with the ass-awful Deep Blue Sea, about super-intelligent man-eating sharks. Deep Blue is a Discovery Channel Documentary about life in the oceans of the world, narrated by Pierce Brosnen. This movie had some really cool scenes: Polar Bears attacking Baluga Whales, Killer Whales attacking Humpback Whales, Dolphins pushing schooling fish into a feeding ball, etc. I like watching these things, the only problem is I had seen them all before on the discovery channel... for free. The unfortunate problem with this movie is that it had litterely nothing that I hadn't seen at some time on the discover channel, or the national geographic channel, or animal planet, etc. Thus it was very hard to stay interested in it for over two hours. However, if you like this kind of stuff at all, and haven't seen it all already, than I would say its deffinately worth a watch.
The Omega Man, 1971
6/10, 6th Best Movie of 1971, 41st best of the 70s, 574th all time
The Omega Man is LOOSELY based on the novel "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson, one of my favorite books of all time. That "LOOSELY" should be stressed as much as is humanely possible. It is almost completely dissimilar from the book. Normally that would mean a death sentence for my enjoyment of the movie, but this time that's not the case. This movie survives as watchable becasue it goes so far from its source material. If the movie would have chosen to change only 7 or 8 key aspects of the book I likely would have found myself yelling at my television. However, this movie changed enough things that I was able to resign myself to the movie being completely seperate from the book within 18 seconds of the movies beginning. Thus by looking at the movie independently from the book I was able to say that it really wasn't half bad. It was over-the-top and cheesey at times, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It was a fairly cool vision of the apocalypse, and I enjoy watching Chuck Heston playing the ultimate bad-ass scientist. If they would have taken a direct interpretation of the book I might be ranking this movie as a 10/10 or a 1/10, as it is they changed it up, played it wierd, and got a 6. Good enough eh?
Upcoming Reviews:
Hurcules in New York, 1970
The Benchwarmers, 2006
United 93', 2006
The New World, 2005
Casanova, 2005
posted by Blake Stockdale at 2:51 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home