Movie Spotlight
Featured Reviews
Recent Articles
Where do we… begin?
Following up on
Batman Begins was by no means an easy task.
Begins took the fledgling series and gave it a complete makeover. The creepy gothic tones of Burton’s movies and the campy fetish nature of Schumacher’s movies no longer mattered.
Begins brought the series back to reality. A greater focus was put on the character of Bruce Wayne and less on the suit itself. The result: one of the best superhero movies and a superior crime thriller.
With
The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan and his team have outdone themselves.
Knight follows Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) as he tries to bring down the remnants of the mafia from the last movie. He receives plenty of help from Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), his unofficial liaison of sorts. They receive additional aid from the new D.A., Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), a straight-arrow type who is in a relationship...
After James Bond went into outer space, the filmmakers decided to reverse course and bring Bond back to his roots. New director John Glen and co-writer Michael G. Wilson joined the hierarchy and helped shape the 12th film,
For Your Eyes Only, into an entertaining action-adventure film that stayed closer to Ian Fleming’s roots than had been seen in some time.
The story, which involves Bond investigating the disappearance of a missile control system called the ATAC, draws its inspiration. The title story and another short story called
Risico are fused together. Bond follows the trail from Spain to Cortina to Greece. He encounters the beautiful Melina (Carole Bouquet), who is out for revenge against the people who ordered her parents’ death because they were too close to finding the ATAC. Bond also meets Kristatos (Julian Glover) a supposed British contact who is in fact working for the Russians and has set up Bond to kill his rival Colombo (Topol), a fact Bond does not realize until it is almost too late.
Swing Vote
plays as a fantasy we’ve all wondered about. No presidential election has ever come down to one vote (the closest we ever got was 2000), but what would happen if it did?
Swing Vote attempts to answer that question while also bringing up some messages about the importance of family and the value of voting and civic duty and all the issues we were raised with in school.
The premise involves Bud (Kevin Costner), a man who lives a dismal life in New Mexico working at an egg planting plant by day and getting drunk by night. His daughter, Molly (Madeleine Carroll) is the one bright spot in his life and she seems to act more like an adult than he does. He is a man who does not see the point in voting and it is thrust upon him by his daughter to do it. Through a series of exceptionally contrived circumstances, his vote is the deciding factor for the five electoral votes of New Mexico and, oddly enough, the presidency. Because his vote wasn’t officially counted...
People who thought a fourth
Indy movie was unnecessary might want to take a look and see
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor because it personifies unnecessary. The series has always played as a limp second-rate offering compared to the
Indy series, both in style and execution. Brendan Fraser isn’t anywhere near Harrison Ford and the imagination present in the
Mummy series isn’t anywhere near the same league. The first movie did have a charming quality to it and it was kind of fun, but the sequel and the spin-off,
The Scorpion King, were painful to sit through. This latest offering continues the downhill slide.
The story, primarily set in 1947 (except for the prologue) involves Alex O’ Connell (Luke Ford) helping resurrect the long-lost dragon army, which was, at one time, the most powerful empire in the ancient world. Little does young Alex realize that he is being used to resurrect Emperor Han (Jet Li). Emperor Han hopes to achieve immortality, something the witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) knows about. Of course, things start...
Moonraker
, the fourth Roger Moore entry, goes about as far beyond the Ian Fleming source material as any Bond film to date. I mean, he winds up in outer space during the course of the film. The filmmakers wanted to make a spectacular motion picture and on some level, they certainly succeeded. The enormous success of
The Spy Who Loved Me, another spectacular spectacle, encouraged them to take it one step further.
Moonraker shows some promise in the early stages of the film before it starts shooting itself in the foot.
The story involves Bond investigating the hijacking of a Moonraker space shuttle in mid-air. He soon learns that the creator of the Moonraker, Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) is responsible for the theft, but Bond cannot figure out why. He travels from California to Venice to Rio before eventually ending up in outer space. Along the way he encounters CIA agent Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) and his old nemesis Jaws (Richard Kiel). Almost nothing from the third 007 novel survives the translation. Aside from the villain and the involvement...
On paper, it must have seemed like an easy idea to bring the players from
X-Files for one more reunion. Director and creator Chris Carter must have been encouraged by the success of the
Sex and the City movie as his movie neared its release date. What a shame it is, then, that
X-Files: I Want to Believe isn’t worth the celluloid it is printed on.
I will confess up front that I never watched the TV show, nor did I watch the 1998 theatrical release. I know the basic characters and their general positions on whether or not there is life out there beyond our own planet. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is the believer; Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is the skeptic. Little has changed, I guess, from the TV series.
That’s another problem. If you want to make a theatrical release based on a TV show, that’s fine, but you’d better make it a good story.
X-Files falls well short of the mark. There’s nothing all...
I’ll give
Step Brothers this much credit. It knows how low and how crass it really is. There is little to no taste to be found in this movie, and the filmmakers take pride in this. I’d take pride in it too if I had a reason to give a damn what happens during the course of this movie. There are moments when it almost seems like there might be a heart beating, and then it does a complete one-eighty and does something incomprehensible and counter-productive to the progress of the story. There is an eventual reality check for this movie, but it comes too little far too late.
Part of the problem with
Step Brothers lies in the two main characters, Dale (John C. Reilly) and Brennan (Will Ferrell). The script, written by the two stars (Reilly with a story credit) and the director, Adam McKay, goes out of its way to make these characters as unlikable as possible. Both of them are total narcissists with no concept of reality. They live vicariously through their parents (Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins) and...
Box Office
Newest Trailers
Recent Topics
-
Movies I never got
Posted by: pPROM on Sun, 06 Jul 2008
Yesterday I saw Sean Penn's "Into The Wild"... and i didn't get it. What I mean is... everyone I know recommended it with vigour... phrases like " It'll change you life". "it opened my mind", " it sets your priorities in order" were actually uttered. well, NO.. it didn't open my mind.. , I still have the same priorities ( sleep, food, s*x, work, leisure) and in the only way it changed my life is that it made me sit in front of a screen for ...
-
Best Scenes of All Time
Posted by: There Is No Spoon on Wed, 18 Apr 2007
Well we have Characters, why not scenes...What scenes from what movies impacted you the best. What sent chills down your spine, What made you jump to your feet and go "YEAH!!!!!", what made you scream and cower, what warmed your heart, and what scenes just stuck to your soul and have never left.
-
Mamma Mia!
Posted by: Jim Colyer on Sat, 19 Jul 2008
Just returned from seeing Mamma Mia! I laughed and cried for nearly 2 hours. The audience responded well to the high-energy ABBA songs. As I exited the theater, some girls were in a circle singing Dancing Queen. I may go to a karaoke bar tonight and sing it myself. Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan were great. I understand now why Streep is called a great actress. She has told Benny and Bjorn that she wants a part in Kristina if and when it becomes a movie.
-
What I'm Watching
Posted by: Daytrip on Wed, 06 Jul 2005
I searched for the old "What i'm watching" thread and couldn't find it so i'll start anotherTraffic - I hadn't watched this in a long time., I had loaned the DVD out and never got it back. I noticed that my roomate had it(hmmm supicious?) so i figured i'd pop it in. I forgot how much i liked this movie. It's a little pretentious with it's approach on the whole drug wars thing but there are a lot of good messages in there. and Visually it's wonderful. Who ...
-
The Dark Knight
Posted by: makeitstop on Sat, 19 Jul 2008
The Dark Knight is the only movie I have really been looking forward to all year. Not surprising really, considering it is one of the most hyped movies in history. It seems like people are expecting a combination orgasm and religious experience. With that in mind, I made sure to lower my expectations and told myself "it can't be THAT great" before entering the theater. In retrospect, that was a good move.A lot has changed in Gotham since Batman Begins. Batman has become the symbol ...
-
Indianna Jones and the crystal skull thingy
Posted by: makeitstop on Thu, 05 Jun 2008
So I saw this on opening day, and I haven't had a chance to review it until now. Unfortunately I lack the motivation to write a full review, so I'll just make it brief:This movie was crap. It wasn't absolutely terrible, just really mediocre. It's proof once again that George Lucas is incapable of making good movies these days.Really, I don't see how this even got made. Their is no way anyone could have heard the basic premise (let alone read the godawful script) and thought t ...
-
DVD releases for 07-29-08
Posted by: Antonio Montana on Sat, 26 Jul 2008
Lost Boys: The TribeIn the shady surf city of Luna Bay, vampire surfers quickly dispatch anyone who crosses their path. Into this dark world arrive Chris Emerson and his sister, Nicole. Having lost their parents in a car accident, the siblings move in with their eccentric aunt and become new prey for the local surfers. When Nicole unwittingly drinks the blood of a vampire, Chris must locate and destroy the head vampire before his sister's transformation is complete. Details: Color Centennial ...
-
The Last Horror Movie
Posted by: Hot Springs Turtle on Sat, 03 Sep 2005
We rented this tonight - it's called "The Last Horror Movie".It starts out as a teen-slasher - really clichéd, predictable, etc. But then, the screen changes to a home-movie made by a man called Max, who has taped over this movie with something far more interesting.What follows is an incredibly realistic mockumentary-cum-snuff movie that really makes you ask yourself some questions.It's kind of hard to review - you have to see it for yourself. A fantastic movie, genuinely tense ...
-
The Bank Job
Posted by: thunderkick on Thu, 07 Feb 2008
there's a new heist film coming up, one that might be really nice too. Here's the story:In 1971 there was a bank robbery in London. The robbers stole lots of cash and some pics that put high positioned people in a bad situation. What happened was government put a D Notice on the case, and no one was ever arrested.the story behind the film is true, i think it's pretty badass. I really like the 70s feeling they managed to pull, it's noticeable in clips from the film. Jason Statham ...
-
SUMMER SCARS
Posted by: Nymus on Sat, 26 Jul 2008
Here's my review of SUMMER SCARS which I saw at Santa Cruz Film Fest and which TLA are releasing on DVD next month. Not what I expected from the director of LAST HORROR MOVIE but a dark and unsettling tale nonetheless. After a hit and run incident involving a stolen moped a gang of 14 year old tearaways hide in the woods where they are befriended by their victim, a drifter named Peter out looking for his lost dog (it took me several minutes to realise that the actor playing Peter is in fact ...
-
Mean Creek [SPOILERS!]
Posted by: Hot Springs Turtle on Sat, 12 Nov 2005
*starts settling into the new forum* Nice. Now for my first review as moderator of this part of Cinephiliacs. I'm loving it. As always, there are SPOILERS!!!! in this review, so if you'd rather not know what happens, then stop reading."Mean Creek". Another Saturday-night rental. My mother chose this because apparantly it was similar to "Deliverance". I said "next time, I'll choose the movie."This is going to be a very short review because ...
-
Hellboy 2
Posted by: makeitstop on Wed, 23 Jul 2008
Hellboy 2 is suffering from unfortunate timing. It could have been the greatest movie ever made and it would still be overshadowed by The Dark Knight. I went to see it tonight, and I saw it a completely empty theater, while Dark Knight was close to selling out. The first Hellboy wasn't really worth watching, and deserved this kind of treatment, but the sequel is actually a decent flick. This time around, the story is far more interesting, the characters are more appealing, the villains aren& ...
-
Diary Of The Dead
Posted by: ohdarklord on Mon, 15 Jan 2007
George A Romero is making a new zombie filmIts set on the same night as night of the living dead and its about a group of people that are making a movie in the woods when all the zombies come to life and start attacking them. The good thing is its being funded privetly so theres no bigmovie company thats going to complane that there isnt enough explotions.Im defently going to go see this at the cinima.
-
Foreign Cinema
Posted by: scrag on Thu, 22 Mar 2007
I thought a series of insights into foreign cinema was in order. What you like about it and what you dislike. I thought we could discuss the films of a particular country for a week or so and then move onto a different nations movies.First up Japan & Korea (because I think it's pretty pointless to separate the two, though if you want to point out how different they are that's cool).Why start with Japan & Korea? I think because they've undergone quite a revolution in the last ...
-
What’s your favorite sequel?
Posted by: Raysylvania on Sun, 26 Sep 2004
Mine would be Terminator 2, Empire Strikes Back And X-men2 just to name a few.