Ponderings Of Guy

One of those very rare examples of a horror film remake that's better than the original. To be fair, the low budget original 1973 film isn't exactly the greatest horror film ever made. This remake is a very slick production, with a great cast and an effective enough genre script. With well paced editing, it really moves along nicely, too. Olyphant & Mitchel are two of my favorite actors, and they do a great job with this film. Overall, certainly one of the best horror films in recent years.

A disappointing Kevin Smith directed movie. I get the idea of doing a throw-back buddy cop film, and like certain elements that they did pull off. But for each joke or scene that does work, there is at least one that is awkward at best. Add to the fact that Tracy Morgan is an actor that only works in small doses (and quickly grows tiresome on screen in a full feature length film), and you've got a comedy with problems. Even the great Adam Brody can't save things. At least Harold Faltermeyer's perfectly retro buddy-cop score hits the mark very well.

Beautifully shot, wonderfully edited and brilliantly performed. I've never hid the fact that I'm not much of a Scorsese fan, but this is a great thriller. It's certainly my favorite Scorsese film to date (The Aviator's the only previous film of his I particularly liked). DiCaprio, clearly a favorite actor of Scorsese with this being their fourth consecutive project together, comes through with a spot-on performance. And the script comes through in interesting ways. Overall, fantastic flick.

The cast certainly elevates this beyond the obvious movie-of-the-week that it likely would have been (heck, the movie is produced by CBS Films). While it has some of the flaws you would expect from the genre (including a way-too-saccharine finale and a couldn't-be-more-generic-if-it-tried score from Andrea Guerra), it turned out to be better than I was expecting. This ain't no fantastic film or the like, but it's certainly engaging and entertaining enough to work.

A great cast and highly experienced crew bring a decent script to life. It's actually kinda hard to believe this movie finally got released, as trailers for it have been playing for a LONG time. I may not always love Hopkins as an actor, but when he's playing older, wealthy characters, he's always great, as he is here. Del Toro and Blunt may not have perfect chemistry, but they do a good job. Weaving is his usually dry self, and it works very well. The visual effects aren't perfect, but they are certainly good enough. Overall, it was very enjoyable, and better than I was expecting (given the studio's constant delays).

Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Uma Thurman, etc, etc, etc. How in the world do you get such a cool roster of co-stars and drop the ball so completely? This movie was such a generic bore that I was very happy once it finally came to an end. Were I to have had somewhere I needed to get to, I probably would have walked out near the end.

An utterly ridiculous action movie, but it's darn fun. With two lead cast members who have no interest in reality, but rather try and have as much fun as possible chewing up the scenery and dialog, I couldn't help but have a great time watching the destruction and mayhem. Director Pierre Morel did a surprisingly great job with Taken, which helped make up for District B-13. This might not be quite as great as Taken, but it's still a fun action flick.

A highly effective "what if" thriller. From the beautiful cinematography to the surprisingly realistic production, this is one of those modest budget films that in no way feels low budget. With nearly the full film centered around just three characters, it's a good thing they got a great, and relatively unknown, cast. I was familiar with Shawn Ashmore (Veronica Mars, The Ruins, The X-Men films, etc), but not the other two main cast members. They all did a nice job. This is definitely a highly recommend little undiscovered gem of a film

A somewhat silly apocalyptic thriller that works somewhat thanks largely to a great cast and a pretty good production. When you put Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid into the mix, it's hard to completely fail. Those two will lend gravitas to pretty much anything. Heck, Quaid even managed to make Jaws 3D entertaining (well, sort of). Not a great end-of-the-world movie, but far from the worst.

As a major fan of Kristen Bell, I naturally had to see this one no matter what. Frankly, it's the cast that makes this cast movie work at all. The script is every kind of silly and predictable. The direction is pedestrian at best. The production at least pulled off some nice Guggenheim Museum footage (then again, The International did it to a much more impressive degree). But it's the cast who rose to the challenge to try and make it work. Bell & Duhamel do a nice job with the lead roles, and the supporting cast really hams it up and makes their roles fun. Hardly a great romantic comedy, but it works well enough to be adequately entertaining.

You know, I could watch Mel Gibson and Ray Winstone in their respective characters for an entire film. The two of them are fantastic individually, but absolute magic together. The low keyed menace and respect between the two is spot-on perfect. Solid production lends a lot to the film, such as Martin Campbell's steady direction and Stuart Baird's experienced editing. Not an absolutely perfect script, but a very good genre story. And for the record, I've not seen the series this is based on, so I've got no basis of comparison. One thing is for sure, it's great to have the return of Mel Gibson. Hurray!

A thoroughly predictable and genre generic film, but somehow still entertaining enough to be enjoyable. Most of that is surely thanks to the great Jackie Chan. Yeah, his stunts are a bit watered down (as is typical for American productions that he's in), but it's still great when you give him a ladder or refrigerator to play with. Bonus points for using footage from his earlier films as a character background opening title sequence. Sure, the plot and production is rather silly and juvenile, but what would you expect from a film that's essentially a Jackie Chan version of The Pacifier...

After a long feature directorial break since their fantastic 2001 film From Hell, the Hughes Brothers return with this gorgeously directed post-apocalyptic tale. The script may be slightly simplistic (though it does achieve some nice unexpected twists) and perhaps overshoots a bit on some lofty ideals, but the imperfections are more than easily overlooked for all that is done right. The direction is rock solid. The cinematography is breathtaking and the sound design is spectacular. The brilliant cast certainly doesn't hurt, either. Mila Kunis & Denzel Washington play off each other remarkably well.