Read below for reviews on the following films:
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( 1998 ) A Perfect Murder ****
- (1999) Fight Club *** ½
- (2000) Me Myself & Irene ****
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(2005) Batman Begins *****
- (2005) The Island *****
- (2007) In the Land of Women ****
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(2007) The Nanny Diaries ****
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( 2008 ) The Bucket List *****
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( 2008 ) Forgetting Sarah Marshall *** ½
- ( 2008 ) Hancock **** ½
- ( 2008 ) Mad Money ****
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( 2008 ) The Onion Movie ***
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( 2008 ) Prom Night ****
A Perfect Murder ( 1998 ) ****
Supposedly, A Perfect Murder was supposed to be a remake of Hitchcock’s master film, Dial “M” for Murder. At least this is what I was told. After watching the film, however, I am reluctant to say that I absolutely saw no similarities between the two. Now I am a Hitchcock fan, and I’ve seen Dial “M” for Murder. That film was about a lady who picks up the phone when it rings, and overhears an order to kill someone. They, of course, cannot hear her when she talks. So basically that whole film mostly took place in her bedroom. It was done magnificently. Not a lot of movies can pull off shooting in one room for almost the whole movie. In A Perfect Murder, I wasn’t expecting it to be like the old one, but it turned out that for me at least, I saw no similarities.
The movie is about Michael Douglas’s character, Steven Taylor, who orders a hit on his wife after he found out she was cheating on him with David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen). Steven’s wife, Emily, is played by Gwyneth Paltrow, who I think does an amazing job at the acting. After the whole deal goes wrong however, Steven needs to find alternate ways to kill his wife before he is caught.
Even though I really saw no similarities between the two films, I thought it was actually pretty entertaining. I only had one problem with this movie. Now I don’t believe any of those stereotypes involving blondes, but I’m thinking that the director of the film did at the time. Michael Douglas’s character is so obviously a cold-blooded killer, and even she thinks that at a time, then when he says he didn’t do it, she gives him a hug and says sorry. She doesn’t do this just once in the film, she does it plenty of times to make you literally think, “man, she’s blonde.” Other than that, it wasn’t too bad. I say if you got the time, check this one out. Peace out.
Fight Club (1999) ***
Like several movies that I watch each week, I watched Fight Club
simply because I heard someone mention this movie, and that they enjoyed it. Whenever somebody mentions to me that they enjoy a movie, and I haven’t seen, I feel obligated to watch that film to get back to them telling them what I thought about it. I see several movies each month, so obviously it wasn’t a problem to see this one. Prior to seeing this, I can almost remember when it came out. It’s that old. Yes, it’s almost a decade old, it still has a lasting effect.
The fight club is about Edward Norton’s character, known only as The Narrator, who has insomnia. Because of his sleeping problem Norton goes to several different group meetings such as cancer survivor groups. Now he doesn’t need to visit these groups, but as the time went on, he noticed that when he was in the groups, he could cry, which in turn, let him sleep. This went on for a while until another faker joined all the groups, her name was Marla. Since he couldn’t cry anymore, he couldn’t sleep, so he left the group, and met Tyler, played by Brad Pitt.
Tyler was a trouble maker, and together, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt start a group called “Fight Club.” The find that channeling their anger, and beating each other up helps with sleep. This ‘club’ gets out of control, and soon becomes more of a cult than anything else.
The problem I had with this movie, was that in a lot of ways, it didn’t make any sense to me at all. I didn’t understand why these guys were beating each other up. I didn’t understand why they were having fun fighting either. Fighting isn’t fun, it’s painful! Second of all, I heard about a twist before I saw it. Which was another reason why I saw it. Unlike any other movie in the world with a twist, I saw it coming about 10 minutes into the film.
Overall, this was a so-so movie. I wouldn’t really watch it again. Peace out.
Me, Myself & Irene (2000) ****
Jim Carrey. Not too long ago, he was my hero. I would have watched anything he ever starred in. In most cases, that’s still what I do, but not always. Since he was my hero, he went on to do other movies such as “The Number 23,” while I didn’t think it was too horrible of a movie, I did think it was not the role for Carrey. While I understand that he wants the general public to know that he can do other films than comedy, I think he went the wrong route with this one. Jim, when it comes to comedy, you’re a genius, ditto with drama. When it comes to horrors however, you lack. That’s that, I’m not here to talk about “The Number 23.” This is about “Me, Myself & Irene.”
As far as I know, this isn’t among one of my brother’s favorite Jim Carrey films. When it came out, I can understand that. Jim was known for his other comedic films when this was released, such as “The Cable Guy,” “The Truman Show,” “Liar, Liar,” and who can forget “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective“? Those movies weren’t as vulgar or inappropriate as this film was, it came close with “Cable Guy,” but this went beyond the Jim Carrey line. So once this film came out, I’m sure it really surprised a lot of people, like my brother. I watched this film years after it was released, and after I’ve seen his later films, so my reaction to the movie was, I thought it was funny! It was Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey, and I love that.
The film is about Jim Carrey’s character, Charlie. In the beginning of the film, Charlie’s wife left him with his three sons, and ever since, he kept his emotions bottled inside himself until one day, it all came out. Though it didn’t come out like it normally would, Charlie had multiple personality disorder, and turned into Hank. Hank dealt with all the problems that Charlie couldn’t. That’s when he met Irene, played by Renee Zellweger, and together, they go on a crazy adventure.
I have seen several films about multiple personality disorders, and usually they try to keep it a secret until the end, to add a twist to the film. This film, they made that a joke, and simply showed the audience his transformation to his darker side. In all honesty, I don’t think anyone could have played the part better than Jim Carrey. The role had his name written all over it. In the end, there was even a scene of Jim Carrey beating himself up, much like the scene in his earlier film, “Liar, Liar.”
Every time I watch this, I end up laughing over and over again. If you haven’t seen this, I would suggest that you check this out, pronto. Peace out.
Batman Begins (2005) *****
As the day Dark Knight draws near, I felt it necessary to watch its predecessor, Batman Begins. This movie is a complete retelling of the Batman story. In ways, it is hard to let go of the classic format the previous films had. It had its own way about it, and I enjoyed it, even when others did not. All I can say is with this new format; they knew exactly what they were doing. It was very different than what I was used to, but it gave me a new perspective on Batman, and I am glad it did.
Batman Begins stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. In this particular movie, they went back and forth from reality to flashbacks, sometimes confusing the audience. What I like about this film is that it goes in depth showing the audience Wayne’s transformation to the dark knight. The older movies simply already had Batman in the city, then going back to show the nightmares of his parent’s death. Katie Holmes stars as Bruce Wayne’s ex-girlfriend, and good friend, Rachel Dawes. Several critics don’t like her in this movie, and I really don’t understand why. When watching it this week, I tried to understand why, and just couldn’t she added to the story just like everyone else.
After seeing Iron Man, I now realize that Batman and Iron Man aren’t that different. They are both rich, both have their own company that builds things for the government. If you ask me, Iron Man stole Batman’s idea. This is sad for Marvel.
Anyways, the villain of the first film was Scarecrow. When I first saw this, I thought this was actually really interesting. Having the first in a Batman series have an almost unknown villain as the lead? Now with Dark Knight, they have The Joker, and Two-Face, which are two major villains, so I don’t know how that will work, maybe for the better, maybe for the worse. My vote is for the better.
Chris Nolan has an amazing vision, and in turn, I can’t wait for the second installment. Peace Out.
The Island (2005) *****
I remember seeing this film a couple years ago for the first time. I never wrote a review about it, so since I saw it again this week, I thought I’d give it a try. My first impression of this movie was that I was absolutely blown away by the entire movie. My second impression this week was no different. This is truly a stunning film.
Before he was directing giant transforming robots roam around a city in Transformers, Michael Bay made The Island starring Ewan McGregor as Lincoln Six Echo. He and his best friend, Jordan Two Delta, played by Scarlett Johansson escape from a living facility after they discover that they were really clones, and being used as “harvested being.” Meaning if their ’sponsor’ gets sick, they just need to kill his clone and take whatever they need from the clone to make him better.
The living facility tells the sponsors that the clones have no souls or feelings, which is a complete lie. We later learn that it used to be that way until the organs failed with no real life. When Lincoln and Jordan escape, they try to find their sponsors to warn them what was really happening. Hopefully have their sponsors help them take down the facility before they kill the others.
What I love about this movie is that even though it is a futuristic science-fiction-like film, there is a major believability that the film has. I believe that almost every part of this movie is possible. Cloning has already been proved possible. However the same age is not possible. There is no way to enhance the growing process. The movie also has a good message when it comes to cloning. Cloning is nothing more than playing God, which is something you really don’t want to be messing with.
The acting and shots were just done perfectly, I can contain myself. This is one of the best movies of 2005 by far. Good job, Michael Bay. Keep up the good work. Peace out.
In the Land of Women (2007) ****
I had absolutely no idea that this film existed about 2 days ago. Now I saw it, and I must say, it was actually really good. I always enjoy an occasional story with a messed up family, and a depressed guy. Who doesn’t?
Anyways, this stars Adam Brody as Carter. Carter was just broken up by his long time girlfriend, Sofia, who was a popular actress. Carter didn’t really like living the way he was, so he decided to move back to his home town, with his grandmother, who has also been freaking out that she will be dying soon. Man, that old lady was actually really creepy in this movie.
Then across the street from his grandmother, lives the Hardwicke’s. Meg Ryan stars as Sarah Hardwicke, a mother that’s having a problem with breast cancer, and befriends Carter. Kristen Stewart plays Sarah’s daughter, Lucy. Lucy and Carter also become close friends, which as you could probably imagine, becomes slightly awkward.
Meg Ryan and Adam Brody’s character share a romantic moment, as does he and Kristen. Though when it came to Lucy, he just pushed her away and said he couldn’t. So throughout the movie, Carter is taking care of his grandmother, while trying to help these two women. Some things happen in the movie, where personally I would have liked to see it work the other way, but they still did a pretty decent job with it.
I haven’t seen Meg Ryan in a few years when it comes to movies, so it was good to see her again. She still knows how to bring romance into a movie, which is good. Check this movie out, sometime, peace out.
The Nanny Diaries (2007) ****
I have to be honest with you. There has not been a whole lot of films about nannies. Or at least that I have seen. Of course everyone has heard of Mary Poppins. Even in “The Nanny Diaries,” they have several mentions of the classic Disney film. I could be wrong, but I believe Julie Andrew’s other film, “The Sound of Music,” was a film about nannies as well. Both are classic films, and I can’t think of any other nanny movies. So without further delay, here is my review of “The Nanny Diaries.”
This film stars Scarlett Johansson as Annie Braddock, a recent college graduate. According to her mother, Annie is destined to become a successful CFO agent, but since Annie doesn’t know who she is, she goes on to work as a nanny 24/7. At first the job is not what she had in mind for a career. The parents of the child she is working for are total jerks, and don’t care about their child. It’s a tough job, and she never has any personal time. All this is hard for her to deal with, but there is one thing that she remembers, Grayer, the child she is watching, is an amazing kid who just wants to be loved.
This is a heartwarming tale of a movie, and I enjoyed it. Yes, even though I’m a guy. I laughed plenty of times in the film. The romance between her and Chris Evan’s character “Harvard Hottie” was done pretty well. That’s another thing, the substitute names everyone was given was pretty hysterical.
So overall, great family movie. I’d recommend this movie to families everywhere, or for anyone looking for a good date movie. Peace out.
The Bucket List ( 2008 ) *****
Morgan Freeman, and Jack Nicholson star in this film about two old men venturing out into the world together. This movie surprised me, it really was fantastic.
The movie starts off with, of course, Morgan Freeman doing voiceover work. I don’t mean to hate on Freeman’s voiceovers, but he does them in almost every movie he’s ever been in. Though, I really felt that no one else could do a better job for this movie, than him. If Sean Hayes was the narrator, for example, I would be concerned. Freeman does an excellent job.
Enough about voiceover work. The movie is all about these two men who discover they are dying, and only have a year, at best, to live. So the two decide to embark on a adventure. Carter (Freeman) and Edward (Nicholson) write down a list of things they wish to do before they “kick the bucket,” and put it into action.
It really is a fantastic film, full of laughter, and even some tear-jerking moments for the ladies, and the occasional male. This movie left me satisfied in the end, and I will definitely buy it when it comes out.
I only have one problem with this. Old people in love are just so weird. Morgan Freeman plays an 81 year-old man, and there’s suppose to be this romantic scene with his wife, but really, who wants to see that?
I gave this 5 stars, it was brilliant. Go see it! Peace out!
Forgetting Sarah Marshall ( 2008 ) *** ½
Ever since this film first came to theaters, I’ve wanted to see it. Unfortunately, however, I haven’t been able to till this week. Its trailer looked interesting enough, so I thought the movie would be just as good. Well there were some obvious things in the movie that were uninteresting to me, and I won’t go too much into that, because this review is rated “E” for everyone.
This film is more about Jason Segel’s character, Peter Bretter, who was just dumped by his five-year girlfriend, Sarah Marshall. Sarah is a hit actress in a popular TV series, so Peter has no choice but to see her face everywhere he goes. Now I’ve never been dumped by a famous person, but I can imagine what it would be like, and they portrayed it pretty well in this movie. Even though it was done in a comedic fashion, it still made sense.
When Peter goes on vacation to help him forget about Sarah, who shows up at his vacation? Sarah Marshall, who is with popular singer Aldous Snow. He was the reason she dumped him, which makes Peter feel even worse, because he has to stay a week at the same hotel with her and her new boyfriend. Well things get a little better when he begins to date the hotel receptionist, Rachel Janson, played by Mila Kunis.
The movie was alright, nothing I haven’t really seen before. Somewhere around 20 minutes left in the movie, something remarkable happened. I figured everything out, and the rest of the movie played out as if I personally wrote it. How’s that for predictable? Anyways, all in all, the movie was alright. Nothing special, peace out.
Hancock ( 2008 ) **** ½
I have been waiting several weeks, even months to see this movie. Its unique way of advertising a superhero intrigued me. Who would think of a superhero that is a drunk, depressed, and has a dark mysterious past? If you ask me, that alone almost sounds like a super-villain. Well Hancock is neither a super-villain, nor your classic superhero. He simply has his own classification.
I vaguely recall when this film was entitled, “Tonight, He Comes,” on IMDb.com, and the plot of course said something about a superhero. I thought to myself, Will Smith in a superhero movie? How will that work? Needless to say I was very excited to see how it all went down. After the days passed, and more and more hype built up, I was ready to see it. Did it meet my expectations? You can say that.
Hancock stars Will Smith as ‘John’ Hancock. About 80 years ago, Hancock woke up in a hospital with no memory of what happened to him before that day. Living with amnesia, Hancock learned that he had supernatural powers, and could not age. One would think, with great power, comes great responsibility, but Hancock never got that memo. In present day, he isn’t thought of as much of a heroic figure. He does what he wants, because there is no one that can stop him. He stops criminals and saves lives, but at what cost? He ends up damaging property and running the risk of harming others along the way.
His life however may not be all that bad, because Jason Bateman’s character, Ray, comes by to help him out. He suggests to Hancock that he should go to prison, because then when the city needs him the most, he can be there for them. Which he does go, and after a little time in the slammer, he begins to reflect on his life.
Will Smith is one of my all time favorite actors. He knows where it is at, and knows how to make a good movie. Much like Shia Labeouf, or Tom Cruise in his earlier days, (before he joined a cult.) Will Smith is a very talented actor, and I try not to miss a chance to see him in theaters. Hancock is yet again, another great film of his. It has something that is unlike any other superhero film out there, originality. Hancock is his own character. While technically, there is no main villain in the film, there is the Man Vs. Self conflict. The darkness that he deals with every day regarding his past is his villain and weakness.
I had a lot of fun with this movie. I was very glad I finally saw it. The twist at the end had me completely surprised. I thought it was really done pretty well. My one flaw that I have with this movie was its excessive language. It’s not a huge problem, but I think in the long run, it subtracted from my viewing experience. Peace out!
Mad Money ( 2008 ) ****
Many of you that read my reviews are well aware that in most cases where most critics give a movie bad reviews, I usually interfere, and say that I enjoy them. Again, this is the case with Mad Money. Given the fact that no, this isn’t the perfect movie. It won’t win any awards, but critics need to get their heads out of their butt, and realize what movies are mad for in the first place. They are mad for entertainment. Not to blow you away every single week a movie is released. Of course I love a good movie that can seriously blow me away, but I don’t always need to see a movie like that. I am perfectly happy with what Mad Money did.
Mad Money tells the story of three women, Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes, who get together one evening and plan the perfect bank robbery. Keaton’s character, Bridget Cardigan is the main culprit who puts together the whole plan. The way she sees it, is that it’s not really considered robbing a bank, if all they are really doing is stealing the money that is scheduled to be destroyed anyways. They call it recycling.
The plan was simple enough. While Bridget was doing her job (janitor) she would switch out the lock on the money batch with a lock she personally bought from a department store, so the others could have access to the batch as well, and steal the money. Pretty simple, and for I believe three years, they were never caught. Then of course, a man comes by from the IRS questioning things.
I thought this movie was actually really entertaining. I was skeptical about it before seeing it, I admit. But I really did end up enjoying it. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. All I am looking for in a movie right now is to have a fun time watching it, and I did. No, it’s not really believable, but honestly, who cares? So if anyone is out there looking for a fun night watching a movie, check out Mad Money. Peace out!
The Onion Movie ( 2008 ) ***
Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten familiar with “The Onion” and its news stories. The stories are all fictional, but are done as if they exist. Mainly, it’s a spoof on broadcast news. The popularity of the hit web series caused them to take it to the next level, by making a movie. In my opinion, they should have just stuck with the online stories.
The Onion Movie stars Len Cariou as lead anchor Norm Archer. If one could describe a plot, it would be Norms rising ambition to quit his job after so many advertisements are placed within the broadcast. This isn’t as much of a story-line, but without it, the movie would have suffered tremendously. Other than that, there are several skits in the movie showing what is happening in the world outside the news station, and at the end, all the skits come together.
Really though, I couldn’t have cared less about all the skits, and would have liked to see more stories. That’s what won me over when I started the movie. The rest of the movie was just not needed, and overall I was disappointed. I would say if you are a fan of the web series, you should probably check this out. Otherwise I wouldn’t waste my time. Peace out.
Prom Night ( 2008 ) ****
A lot of critics don’t like Prom Night. Mostly because the movie took all the horror stereotypes it possibly could, and put them all in this one movie. I can see where they are coming from, I noticed them too, but I still enjoyed the movie. The stereotypes reminded me of what horror movies used to be like. How they used to run back in the day. It’s done differently nowadays, but it was good to see some of the older “stereotypes” back in play.
This film stars Brittany Snow as Donna. Over the past few years, Donna has been getting over some very bad memories of an obsessed teacher who killed her whole family to get to her. Since then, she went to live with her aunt and uncle, and have been living peacefully. Until, coincidentally, the day of her prom. Somehow, the guy escaped from jail, and found where they were having their prom, so he set out to get her back.
There were parts of the movie that I liked and there were also parts I didn’t like. One of my main problems with this movie is, once again, they depicted her as a dumb blonde. Now, I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but she did some really stupid things in this. For instance, when there is an alarm blaring in the hotel telling you to get out, and police are escorting everyone out the building, don’t say, “Oh, I forgot my purse upstairs, let me go get it.” Think about it, stupid. You’ve been having nightmares about the guy killing your family, and you even saw him briefly before prom. Anyways, that set me back a little.
No, this isn’t really a horror. It’s a thriller, which is one of my favorite types of genres out there. Well, even though some of the movie didn’t make any sense at all, like how the killer seemed to teleport, I still had a lot of fun with it. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s a fun movie to watch. Peace out.
