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January 31, 2005
Hide And Seek
Robert De Niro .... David Callaway
Dakota Fanning .... Emily Callaway
Famke Janssen .... Katherine
Elisabeth Shue .... Elizabeth
Amy Irving .... Alison Callaway
Dylan Baker .... Sheriff Hafferty
Melissa Leo .... Laura
Robert John Burke .... Steven
Molly Grant Kallins .... Amy
Here's the premise of the movie:
David's wife dies. He moves Emily and himself to upstate New York to help Emily get over the trauma of the death of her mother. While in this new house, Emily goes into the woods and makes a new friend, Charlie. Scary things happen.
I figured out who Charlie was the minute Elisabeth Shue's character died (and that's not a spoiler because it's in the trailer). I turned to Janice after the death and told her my theory. Sure enough, I was correct.
At first, the movie is kind of entertaining because you're sitting in a dark theatre and the music is going and you're very immersed in what's going on on-screen. But once you get out of the theatre and all the stimuli is gone and you really start to think about the movie, you start to find things that make no sense and the whole thing just falls apart.
However, Dakota Fanning acted the SHIT out of her part. That girl is talented. She's what saves the movie from getting 5 pitchforks.
Don't see this movie in the theatre. Don't rent it either, unless you've got nothing better to do. But don't say I didn't warn you.
Posted by xinh at 02:46 AM
January 29, 2005
Bionicle: Mask of Light and Legends of Metru Nui
Way back in April 2004, I rented and watched Bionicle: Mask of Light. I'm not sure why, probably because I had rented Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and Netflix recommended Bionicle to me.
Anyways, I watched the movie, and while obviously not the target audience for the movie, I still enjoyed it. For a movie based on Lego characters, it was pretty decent, if a bit simplistic. And all the characters looked alike so I had trouble telling them apart.
However, the more fascinating part of the whole movie was the detail of the charactes and their background. It was almost Tolkein-esque in the way that these characters had their own language and alphabet and the religion aspect of it seemed very Polynesian/Indonesian.
Last night, I watched what is essentially the prequel to Mask of Light. In Legends of Metru Nui, the special effects were decent, the story line was still a bit simplistic but more detailed than the first movie, and I was able to tell the difference between the characters this time (even if I couldn't remember their names). Less time was spent on each individual city and its culture (which was a shame) and more time was spent on the story.
Rent the movies together and watch them in reverse order (Legends first, then Mask).
Posted by xinh at 09:17 PM
January 19, 2005
Closer
A film about people who don't know what love is.
It opens with Dan (Jude Law) and Alice (Natalie Portman) walking towards each other on a busy street (soundtrack Damien Rice "The Blower's Daughter") in slow motion. Alice promptly gets run over by a taxi and is taken to the hospital by Dan. Fast-forward and Dan is getting his picture taken for his book by Anna (Julia Roberts) and they kiss, apparently without a second thought about his relationship with Alice. Fast-forward again and Dan is having cyber-sex with Larry (Clive Owen) whilst pretending to be Anna (very funny scene). Larry meets Anna who has no idea what he's talking about but they end up getting married. And then everybody sleeps about and people break up and get back together again and call each other very bad names in the process.
It's hard to believe that it's actually Julia Roberts in this film because nobody talks to her in such a sexual manner. It's against the law.
No, seriously it's an interesting film but don't expect any deep life-changing insights into love because that's not what this is about. Golden Globes thoroughly deserved by Clive Owen and Natalie Portman (who is very cute).
Posted by hurtling17 at 07:59 PM
Spiderman 2
Tobey Maguire .... Spider-Man/Peter Parker
Kirsten Dunst .... Mary Jane Watson
James Franco .... Harry Osborn
Alfred Molina .... Doc Ock/Dr. Otto Octavius
Rosemary Harris .... May Parker
J.K. Simmons .... J. Jonah Jameson
Donna Murphy .... Rosalie Octavius
Daniel Gillies .... John Jameson
Willem Dafoe .... Green Goblin/Norman Osborn
Cliff Robertson .... Ben Parker
Ted Raimi .... Hoffman
I was pretty underwhelmed by this movie.
So many things just bored me: the numerous CGI shots of Spiderman flying through the skyscrapers; the on- and off-again nature of his relationship with Mary Jane; the fighting with Harry about Spider-Man; yadda yadda yadda.
The 3 things that saved this movie from getting 4 pitchforks were the score (Danny Elfman rocks), the scene on the train when the riders are commenting on how young Spider-Man is, and Ted Raimi's little comic bits (I LURVE Ted Raimi).
Posted by xinh at 03:53 AM
January 12, 2005
Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter
(Is it ironic that a movie about Jesus gets pitchforks?)
Ok, so, you guys? You know how movie critics are always saying that Plan 9 From Outer Space is, like, the Worst. Movie. Ever. ?
Well, they obviously hadn't see this movie.
Oh.
My.
God.
(no pun intended)
I can't believe that I sat through 1hr30min of this shit. I kept hoping, nay, PRAYING, that it would in some way redeem itself but it never did.
The idea is quirky and I had hoped that this would turn out campy and cheesy.
Not. Even. Close.
Quick synopsis: Apparently, Vampires are running amok around the city (of Toronto, although they never say which city), killing lesbians. The Church decides that it needs to save the women, so they send 2 priests to go get Jesus, who just happens to be at the beach, baptizing people. After hooking up with 2 sidekicks, Jesus proceeds to kick Vampire ass for the Lord.
The whole movie looks like they shot it with a hand held video camera. Most of the shots are shaky and the person working the camera had issues with zooming and focusing.
The sound was like a hand held camera as well. A good portion of the movie is out of synch with the actors' lips.
And don't even get me started on the crappy acting skills. It's like a bad high school play.
Seriously, I was in student films when I was at USC that were 100 times better than this movie.
I'm going to go take an asprin, in the hopes that this blinding pain behind my right eye will go away.
Posted by xinh at 05:05 AM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2005
The Passion Of The Christ
James Caviezel .... Jesus
Maia Morgenstern .... Mary
Hristo Jivkov .... John
Monica Bellucci .... Magdalen
Francesco De Vito .... Peter
Mattia Sbragia .... Caiphas
Luca Lionello .... Judas
Hristo Shopov .... Pontius Pilate
Claudia Gerini .... Claudia Procles
Fabio Sartor .... Abenader
Giacinto Ferro .... Joseph of Arimathea
Olek Mincer .... Nicodemus
Luca De Dominicis .... Herod
Pietro Sarubbi .... Barabbas
Sabrina Impacciatore .... Seraphia
Jarreth J. Merz .... Simon of Cyrene (as Jarreth Merz)
Rosalinda Celentano .... Satan
I was supposed to see this movie when it came out with John and Liz. Instead, we ended up going to see Dawn of the Dead. Then, it came out on DVD and I put it in my Netflix queue. I've had this movie in my possession since December 15. I just now decided to watch it. I really think that should've been a clue to me that I wasn't going to like it.
I had no problems with the language or the sub-titles. In fact, I think it would've taken away from the movie to have the characters speaking English.
Most of the acting was great. I thought Maia Morgenstern did a great job as Mary and James Caviezel was decent as Jesus.
However, the movie as a whole was boring. It was way too long. And some of the torture scenes, while necessary to convey the hell Jesus went through, went on just a little too long.
And my pet peeve was the use of characters without identifying them. I mean, I'm familiar with the story of the death of Jesus, but I don't know all the details so I have no idea who some of the people were and the movie didn't feel the need to tell me who they were. Like, who was the Apostle that was hanging out with Mary and Magdalen during the whole movie? And who was the guy that helped Jesus carry the cross? Would it really have killed Mel Gibson to throw a line or two in to say the characters' names?
Personally, I'm not going to watch this movie again.
feel free to comment
Posted by xinh at 01:25 AM | Comments (0)