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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The director of “In Time,” Andrew Niccol, tends to make movies that focus on technology and how a parallel society uses that technology to build and control the world around them. “In Time” is a movie about a world where time is traded and earned like currency. Genetic engineering has allowed people to live forever by stopping the body from developing past the age of twenty-five, but people are now born with a green, glowing digital clock on their arm that counts down how much money or time they have left. Once they reach age twenty-five they have one year to start earning more time by going to work, stealing, etc. If their clock counts down to zero, they die.
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If you’ve watched enough television late at night, you’ve probably seen any number of different commercials for products that promise instant results with very little effort on the part of the consumer. I know for a fact that I can electrocute my abdominal muscles to perfection, learn to speak another language, and lose fifty pounds in mere days. Why, I could even take a pill that makes my penis bigger. It’s just that easy! That instant gratification and marketing tactic is exactly what “Limitless” reminded me of when I started to watch it. Bradley Cooper plays, Eddie Morra, a struggling writer with a mild case of depression and a severe case of writer’s block. He has a somewhat meaningless life. He watches daytime TV and tries to avoid paying his rent. That is, until an old friend introduces him to a new drug that allows him to utilize more of his brain and almost with the flick of a light switch, Eddie Morra is a genius.
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When I originally heard that “The Thing” was being remade, my first thought was, “Blasphemy!” I later learned that this was not a remake and it was, in fact, a prequel that told the story of the ill-fated Norwegian team from John Carpenter’s classic horror movie. My interest was piqued and I approached the prequel with skepticism and excitement. I loved the idea of seeing one of my favorite horror movies come to life again, but I was still worried if it would do any justice to the iconic 1982 film. After watching “The Thing” (2011), I realized that John Carpenter said everything he needed to say in one movie, and that no one can recreate the magic of “The Thing” like he can.
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For several years now, the worst movie I’ve ever seen was “Manos: The Hands of Fate.” I find it absolutely amazing that just when I think nothing can top that, something else comes along that manages to hit all new abysmal lows. Defying all logic, “Birdemic: Shock and Terror” actually makes “Manos: The Hands of Fate” look like a finely-crafted, and even more surprising, watchable movie. I get a sick pleasure from watching awful movies for a variety of reasons, and “Birdemic” is no exception.
However, for as amusing as Birdemic can be, it is truly a rotten movie.
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