Back on the wagon, and a few other movies I watched lately

Ive been gone for a while, long enough that some of the movies have even shifted up and down on IMDB since I posted last. I am watching the list movies again, and like before my free time also includes many movies.

I have not caught all the summer films that I have wanted to, but seeing the new Pirates and The Hangover 2 have been worth their time. I wont get into either too much, but Pirates 4 is about a 7.5 Depp was good but not nearly as funny as he was from the trilogy, and Hangover 2 is the same ride with a new paintjob, so 7.7 sounds about right. We all watched the Austin Powers movies and they were the same thing each time and equally funny each time out, so who cares if the Hangover is the same blueprint as the first one. I know that score is equal to what I rated Tron: Legacy to a while back, but every time I watch that film I like it more and more, it is my geek addiction I guess.

I still want to see Kung Fu Panda 2, and X-Men First Class before the new Transformers comes out later this month, and I should be able to get the next few list movies out of the way by then as well.

One thing that will make watching some of the films more enjoyable and perhaps more like they were intended was my recent purchase of surround sound. Now it was not my dream system, but it sounds very good for what it was worth, and it is by no means a all-in one home theater in a box crap.

The last blip before I get of the interwebz for a bit was a small interesting film that kept showing up on netflix called Pandorum. Now it looked very interesting from the box art, that means something right, and me and my wife thought it was worth the time. From the onset it is very dark, and you really do not know anything more than what the main character(Ben Foster) does about what is going on. His lieutenant played by Dennis Quaid also knows nothing as they both emerge from stasis pods around the same time. For those who have seen Event Horizon there are definitely similarities in the dark stuck in a space ship atmospheres. The discovery that the characters go through is engaging and keeps you wondering what the heck is going on. I personally was slightly disappointed at the ending, not for any particular reason, just thought it could have been done better, but it was an interesting watch, and the more and more I see Foster in films the more I see the range of acting he can achieve. When he first appeared as Archangel in the X3 I would have preferred not seeing him in film again, but that was X3 and not really his own fault. Score 7.0

Lets see if I can get in a list review every Wednesday and Saturday and other movie news when things of interest pop up. Next three movies are all on the older side, but lets give them a chance before I write them off.


I'm just sayin...

Movie 106* Rebecca

It has been a while, and that is all I am going to say about that. I have been putting off this movie for quite some time, mainly because from the surface there did not look to be anything interesting about this movie to me. Beggars cannot be choosers though, so I finally bit the bullet and watched this film.

Growing up in the era of the summer blockbuster, I knew this movie was not going to be paced anywhere near what I am used to with a film. In Hollywood nowadays a movie is long if it goes past an hour and a half. The movies that do go farther than that, usually have at least 3 story lines they are trying to keep you up to speed on at any given time. This movie focuses on one character for the entire two hours of film. There are very few scenes where the new Mrs. De Winter(Joan Fontaine) is not on screen. As expected, the setup for the story takes quite a while to get going.

I tried to stay open minded about the movie, but I never really got drawn in like I felt I should. Even reading other peoples reviews I understand the qualities of the film, but still do not think it is as good as many of the movies I have already watched and am to watch soon. Laurence Olivier's performance was pretty good, but his transitions from good guy to pissed off emotionally closed off man seemed to abrupt and forced to me. I think the best performance came from the main housekeeper Mrs. Danvers(Judith Anderson) who keeps her dark obsessed demeanor going throughout the film. Even Fontaine's performance seemed stale and repeated every time she came under stress.

I do see the sensory and emotional styles of Hitchcock in this film, but this being his first movie made for an American viewing audience, I think it was clearly a sign of better things to come. Again it is really hard for me not to be biased with this film spending much of my summers in theaters watching the next big thing, including Will Smiths 100 million dollar movie run, but I kind of view this movie as one where a lot of people just use the standard of older is better just because. A viewpoint that I do not share.

Overall it is definitely a movie of the time period, and the ending keeps this movie from being a snore fest. The last 45 minutes keep the pace up enough to make it bearable and actually give you some story to really chew on, rather than the few small pieces every 20 minutes given in the first two thirds of the movie.

Score: 7.9 And that is a generous "benefit of the doubt" score.