I watched Man on Fire again, after a year or 2. It remains one of my favourite films. Still tear up at the end, not many films do that! Top critic reviewers gave this a 3.7/10. Once again showing that 9 out of 10 times, the reviewers don't know dick about anything.
Right there with you on this one. One of my favorite movies.. and Denzel is one of my favorite actors. The end gets to me every time along with the music.
I loved it! However I feel this movie needed to be in 2 parts, like the last two Harry Potter werre. Too much to tell in a short amount of time.
Loved Batman and loved Bane more than Joker. You always had the feeling Batman would overcome the Joker. With Bane it felt like Batmand could never beat Bane. He was smart and physically stronger....and pure evil.
Batman last night, I liked it, def worth watching. Also American Reunion, much funnier than I would have expected. If you like the "American Pie" movies, you'll like this one.
Finally saw The Dark Knight Rises. I very much liked how they worked all three movies together, I intentionally didn't read any spoilers or plot synopsis other than the trailers and I think I enjoyed it more because of it. The only thing I didn't like were Bane's lines. He reminded me of Darth Vader, his voice sounded like he was talking into a coffee can. There is one scene where he gives a longish speech outside a prison and it simply doesn't work very well. Tom Hardy did his best though. Other than that, it was excellent. I really liked Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, I liked the direction they went with her. She did action scenes much better than I anticipated and was much more seductive and sexier than I have ever seen her in a role. Other characters introducd were very good as well, but to give anything else away will deprive someone of experiencing it for the first time. Probably the best movie I have seen since Inglorious Basterds.
The Dark Knight Rises. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10. The Bruce Wayne story was fine. How the film addressed the fallout from the second film and eventually wrapped up his plot line was done very well. The movie feels as if it's retreading familiar territory from the first film with respect to the whole start-at-the-bottom and rebuild Batman concept, but it's done convincingly with several new elements such as Wayne's health and Dawes' prior demise. Without providing any spoilers, the payoffs throughout the film and at the tail end are nice. I cared more about the Bruce Wayne character in this film than in the other two. ***SPOILERS***SPOILERS*** The main problems with the film are twofold. First, when Bane takes over Gotham City and threatens the citizenry with his nuclear weapon, they sit there in silence like stunned cattle. That's fine; under the circumstances, some shock is expected. However, as the months progress, the audience never sees the Gotham citizens react to their newfound "freedom," to the revalation regarding Harvey Dent (beyond Robin whining to Commissioner Gordon), and how the citizens even function. An initial shock is expected, but the citizens are largely absent from the remainder of the film. There was an opportunity here to tell the story of how the citizens banded together to bring law and order back to their city to shine a light and bring a message of hope that the city was worth saving or that every citizen has a duty to his fellow man. There was an opportunity to tell a story of how the city degenerated rapidly and how the citizens turned on one another, showing that the city still needed its heroes or how class warfare is ultimately not a good thing. The film does neither of those things. The citizens just sit around and make no effort to either thwart Bane or capitulate to his whims. The central struggle in the film is between Bane's ragtag army of thugs and the cops stuck underground. The citizens play no part in Gotham's fate. This makes the citizenry apathetic and absent for much of the film. Six million absentee Gotham citizens who don't care about their predicament is just a statistic. If the film won't show us how the citizens are coping or reacting to this new regime, highlight the ramifications for the average citizen, provide some sort of moral message, or even do anything with this random collection of organic matter, then why should we care whether the bomb goes off or not? The film attempts to address this by throwing some children on a school bus into the mix, but resorting to that when one had the potential to discuss the underpinnings of society and deconstruct a variety of social issues was the wrong thing to do. The second problem is the twist ending that comes out of nowhere and introduces a villain that we didn't get to know or care about throughout the film. It also reveals that Bane's schtick about freedom and commentary on class warfare was nothing more than babble, which makes him less interesting as well. It undercuts everything else in the film and reduces it to a standard blow-up-the-city plot. To make matters worse, the generic plot is even less original because it's the same basic goal as the villain in the first film. It also thoroughly slams the door on any kind of underlying theme in the film, which is what made the last film so great. Other flaws are less significant. The film spends far too much time in the prison showing Bruce's eventual climb to freedom. It's symbolic, of course, but it takes too long and drags the film down. Remember that Bruce Wayne is only one man; six million other lives are at stake. This focus on Batman is one of the main reasons why I cared about the main character, but not six million faceless people. At the film's climax, where a hoarde of police officers approach the mass of heavily armed thugs (with Wayne Enterprises' tanks, no less!), the cops charge at the mob and the mob begins firing. In real life, our fair friends in law enforcement would have been cut to shreds. In the film, the bullets magically disappear. One or two cops fall, sure...but the rest simply charge on in for a melee battle. The entire scene was stupid and unrealistic. ***END SPOILERS***END SPOILERS*** The bottom line is that they played it too safe in an attempt to simply wrap up Bruce Wayne's plot. They had the potential to do much more with the film, but everything feels as though it exists to get Bruce Wayne to where he winds up. It may be intentional, but when you find yourself not caring whether or not the main threat is carried out, it's not a good thing. Just my $0.02.
Enemy at the Gates. It loses 3 points instantly by using the most english accents possible, for both the Russians and Germans. Defiance, they did it perfect IMO. Not sure what to make of it really. 4.5/10.
The Rum Diary. Disappointed (and I'm a Hunter fan). I got more enjoyment out of the documentary on the extras disc.
Saw that in theater and I agree. The wife and I walked out looking at each other saying What the hell was point of making that movie. I rented Red State the other night. It was more entertaining but the story went all over and it was hard to figure out moral of the story.
Hush - the British one. Good, if you like thorrorillers. White Lightnin' - Well done on a $2 million budget.
i'm not really big on going to the movies, especially in 3D. i hate how much going to the movies has become. however, i saw Hugo with my family back at christmas and it was simply amazing. a beautiful story told by a master craftsman. it really was worth the price of admission to see it on the big screen and in 3D no less. i almost feel like watching it on my (relatively large) tv at home won't do it justice...
I rewatched "The Hurt Locker" lastnight, very good movie imo. I was expecting "The Kingdom" yet that was my error but it is a very good movie aswell imo.
Lords of Dogtown. Too slow for my tastes. Also, not a fan of movies that attempt to recreate the past, but use today's dialog and behavior. Did they use writers who were alive at the time?
