I have come to the realization that I sometimes get more excited to see one scene in a movie than the movie as a whole. For example, I could not wait to for the moment in Air Force One, when Harrison Ford gruffly commands, “Get off my plane!” I’ve seen the movie a bunch of times, but I usually endure it once more so I can savor that perfect moment of pure testosterone bliss as Harrison Ford Breaks Gary Oldman’s neck and throws him off the plane. I think I did it again with “The Grey.” I really like Liam Neeson, and the trailers for the movie seemed promising. However, it only took a brief shot at the end of the trailer of Liam Neeson breaking bottles and taping them to his hands that made me realize my life would never be complete unless I watched him punch a wolf in the face.
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David Fincher‘s film adaptation of Stieg Larsson‘s first entry in the Millennium series, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” is now my third roll in the hay with the same story. I read the book, I watched the excellent 2009 Swedish adaptation of the book, and I gave it another go with David Fincher’s take on it. Despite knowing exactly what was going to happen (two times anyway), this engrossing story and these memorable characters managed to come off as exhilarating, and fresh once more. That is exactly why I find it unfortunate that this movie was so criminally underwatched this past holiday season from what I’ve read, but don’t let the box office grosses fool you. This is one of the best movies of 2011, hands down. If this is your first introduction to the main character, Lisbeth Salander, you won’t be disappointed with David Fincher’s vision. (more…)
“Mission: Impossible” is a movie franchise that I really hoped would never have another entry again. Though I love Brian DePalma’s “Mission: Impossible,” John Woo followed up with his terrible sequel in 2000 and J.J. Abrams managed to lower the bar even more in 2006 with an even worse sequel. Basically, the franchise had left a bad taste in my mouth and I was not eager to watch another entry in a series that was only getting worse as it went. Matters were not helped when I started seeing the extremely generic trailers for “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” However, enough people managed to see through a terrible marketing campaign to brave this entry, and I decided to watch this movie on positive word-of-mouth. Not only was I pleasantly surprised to see a good movie, it was one of the best action movies I’ve seen in a while!
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It’s a comforting feeling when a movie delivers exactly what you would expect from it. The world just seems to make more sense when the villain gets what he deserves, the guy gets the girl, and the killer comes back for one last scare. However, there is something to be said about breaking away from what is expected and venturing into the unexpected. “Rubber” is a movie about a sentient car tire that discovers it has the telekinetic ability to blow up peoples’ heads. Cool, right? However, rather than being mindless B-movie schlock, “Rubber” is actually a commentary on B-movies in general and the audiences that watch them. As interesting as that might have been, I wish “Rubber” had been more about exploding heads and been less of a David Lynch mindfuck.
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Let’s be honest. Over the past twenty years, the Muppets have faded from the imaginations of children and the public at large for the most part. They no longer command the spotlight like they once did and most people probably are ok with that, myself included. At least, that is what I thought until I saw “The Muppets.” Not only is this one of the best movies of the year, not only does it bring the spotlight onto the Muppets once more, it showed me why the Muppets were and still are very relevant. “The Muppets” didn’t take Manhattan this time around. They have taken my heart.
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