Two 'Watch It' Reviews

The Town - $9

Ben Affleck is 2 for 2 in my books. Gone Baby Gone was one of my favorite movies in years so I was excited for Affleck's second directoral attempt and he did not disappoint. This is a gripping story set in my favorite modern movie setting, Boston. The whole thing worked for me right down to the love story and especially the tense heist scenes.

I thought Affleck's performance was decent as well though I'm not nearly as big a fan of his acting as I am of his directing. In the end Affleck was outshone by Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner and even Jon Hamm who accomplished the difficult task of not seeming like Don Draper as an FBI agent.

This one is worth seeing for sure, Watch It.


How To Train Your Dragon - $10

This movie was fun from start to finish. I actually watched it again the next day and I don't have kids.

Where many animated movies fail this one succeeds, it is touching, funny and smart and all without being cheesy.

Watch It.

Where the Wild Things Are - $9

Where the Wild Things Are is a book I loved as a kid, it's not a complex book, in fact I believe it's only 10 sentences long, so the movie had to get creative and inventive and in my opinion they pulled it off.

Where the Wild Things Are, the movie, is about a young boy named Max. Max doesn't have a lot of friends and like a typical child he gets a little carried away with his childish wild side from time to time. One night after an arguement with his mom Max runs away and sails to a far away island where he meets a group of strange monsters that make him their king. Max's rule of the island starts out very well but he begins to see the ugly side of the monsters after a long time there and he heads back home to his relieved mom.

The monsters each seemed to represent a different kind of childish behavior and you'd expect that to lead into some overt moral to the story, but it doesn't. Max seems to have learned a bit about himself by the end but not in any kind of neatly wrapped up way. This was a story that was simply about childish behaviour without a lot of judgement attached and to frankly, it was refreshing in that it didn't spoon feed it's audience with an obvious message. This is an understated and rich story that reminded me of being a child the entire time I watched it.

This movie captivated me with the visuals and the dialogue. The pre-monster portion of the story is told well but it's really the time in the land of the wild things that makes this movie great.

I've heard critics saying this is too dark and subtle for kids but I think they underestimate kids. I recommend this one no matter what your age.

$9 and a 'Watch It' for sure.

District 9 - $7

I hesitated at first to review District 9 until I see it again because I was forced to watch it in the 3rd row in one of those theaters where the first 4 rows are below the screen. This made for a hindered experience of the visuals of the movie, but I still liked it.

This movie is unique, not because it's doing anything that's never been done before, but because it's combining things that have never been combined before. This is part drama, part action, part comedy, part mockumentary and it's all wrapped in a metaphor for apartheid. Because of this it would be hard to pull off an effective plot summary for District 9 so I'll give you an ineffective one.

This is a movie set in South Africa where aliens who arrived without warning or purpose are put into an internment camp, called District 9, to be kept away from the general population for more than 2 decades. An attempt to evict and move the aliens to a new camp further away does not go well and District 9 becomes an action movie that needs to be seen rather than explained.

District 9 has a plot that is hard to believe at times but overall it worked for me, and it was certainly never boring. There is sure to be a sequel and I'll be sure to see it.

I give District 9 a value of $7 and put it on my 'Watch It' list. We'll see if that rating changes when I see this again and can view the whole screen without having to move my head side to side.

Funny People - $8

After a long hiatus I've been inspired to write a recommendation for Funny People, the latest Judd Apatow movie. Why this movie; it's simple really, it surprised the heck out of me.

I'm not a big Apatow fan, I laughed in 40 year old virgin and not as much in Knocked Up and I've found every movie he has his hands on to rely almost completely on pretty simple and vulgar humour. I'm also not a huge Seth Rogan fan, he's funny at times but he's been playing the same guy in all these movies and it wasn't amazing the first time.

Funny People was a pleasant surprise because it had all the things I didn't expect it to have, it was smart, mature, interesting and even had well developed characters. There was still a good dose of vulgarity but it was a side show at most and it fit the story more naturally since this is a movie about stand up comedians and lets face it, most of them make a living with vulgarity.

Funny People is long, really the first comedy epic I've ever seen, but it doesn't drag at all. It tells a story that needed time to be told.

Seth Rogan is good playing pretty much the guy he always does. Adam Sandler stole the show though. Sandler is hit and miss for me but once again in Funny People he proved he can actually act if given the chance.

It's also worth mentioning that Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill have a surprisingly great chemistry as the roommates of the main character. Also, the biggest surprise of all, Eric Bana is funny. Who knew.

I'm putting Funny People on my 'Watch It' list and giving it a $8 value. I laughed a lot in this movie which is not a normal Apatow reaction for me. I hope we see more of this type of movie making from Apatow in the future.

The Incredible Hulk - $6

I didn't mind Ang Lee's Hulk (2003), it was interesting and worth watching if only for the unique way it was made. For all the comic book movies out there these days, Lee's version was the closest any movie has come to the feel of a comic.

This new incarnation of The Incredible Hulk is a much more typical comic adaptation movie. Lots of action, explosions and CGI. Interestingly neither Hulk movie has made much money at the box office and I have some theories there. Ang Lee's Hulk was too different for your typical comic movie fan and this one, while a continuation of the first, was not really a sequel either so the interest level wasn't there. There was some confusion when it came out as to whether it was another remake of the first one from only a few years earlier or if it was a sequel. It really wasn't either. Rest assured, both Hulk movies are far superior to Spider Man 3.

The Incredible Hulk begins with Bruce Banner living in a very poor area in South America and working at a drink factory. He is of course hiding out from the military that created his alter ego, the Hulk, as he attempts to find a cure. Once day in an innocent factory accident a drop of Banner's blood falls into one of the drinks. Weeks later a man dies from the same kind of radiation poisoning that created the Hulk and the military finally knows where to look for Banner.

The rest of the story revolves around Banner finding Betty Ross, the woman he loved and left behind when he went into hiding. When he finds her she helps him hide and look for answers and a cure to his condition. There is also a member of the special forces team trying to capture the Hulk who voluntarily undergoes procedures to give him similar powers as the Hulk, that being the ability to transform into a monstrous like thing with super strength. His procedure goes wrong of course and he turns in the Abomination. In an ironic twist the very military trying to capture Banner/Hulk have to turn to him in the end to help stop Abomination.

Though it's predictable and somewhat formulaic, I'm recommending The Incredible Hulk. Ed Norton turns out to be a very good Bruce Banner and Liv Tyler is actually pretty convincing as Betty Ross. William Hurt is, as usual, fantastic playing Gen. Thaddeus Ross, the man in charge of the experimental program which made Banner become the Hulk. He also happens to be Betty Ross' Father, insert drama here.

The Incredible Hulk manages to be intriguing and finds a way to further the Hulk story without truly being a sequel to the 2003 movie. The CGI is good, as it always is when more than 100 million dollars is spent, but more importantly there is actually some character development and a bit of a story told here.

I'm putting The Incredible Hulk on my 'Watch It' list and giving it a value of $6.

Twin Peaks - $9

I don't want to say too much about Twin Peaks yet because I'm just finishing season 1 tonight but so far it has been just about the most quirky, creepy, funny and entertaining TV I've ever watched.

Twin Peaks centers around Agent Cooper, who has to be one of the best TV characters of all time. He's an FBI agent visiting the small town of Twin Peaks to investigate a murder. He's weird and eccentric but smart and strong at the same time. Obsessed with good coffee and finding the meaning of his dreams, Cooper would be dismissed as unstable if he weren't right so often. The picture above is from my favorite scene so far, it's a dream Cooper has and it's better seen than described, but essentially the murdered girl and a little person talk to him in voices that sound as if they've been recorded backwards and played back forward.

This is just good television.

The characters in Twin Peaks are all either crazy, mysterious or solid every day people. As weird as the show is it might be a pretty accurate portrayal of a normal town.

I can't wait to finish watching it and I highly recommend you see it if you never have. I give it a value of $9 and it's obviously on the 'Watch It' list.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 - $6

Just a brief review today, August was busy as you can tell from my lack of reviews. To fill the void I'll have a guest reviewer post for you in the next couple of days. Stay tuned for that, the guest reviewer is someone a few of you know.

Onto the review at hand here, Kill Bill. It's a cop out to review both Volumes at once as they are different and distinct movies, but that's what I'm doing.

I saw Kill Bill back when it was first released and I really liked it then. I watched it again recently and was entertained enough to remember why I liked it so much the first time.

Kill Bill is a tough movie to define, it has a martial arts feel at times, classic western moments, cheesy action movie moments and lots of comic book type moments. All in all I found that it works as one coherent movie, though I know some people find it choppy and inconsistent. I liked the pacing of Kill Bill and I find the transitions between the dramatically different parts are affective.

Kill Bill is fun and extremely unique. Uma Thurman is great as the main character, The Bride and David Carradine is pitch perfect as Bill.

The writing is so cheesy it usually works but there were definitely times I laughed when I know I wasn't meant to.

Overall Kill Bill is worth checking out if you need some entertainment and you're in the mood for a unique action movie. I put Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 on my 'Watch It' list and give the two part movie a value of $6.

El Orfanato (The Orphanage) - $9

I've said more than once on my site that I'm not a big fan of the horror genre. By that I mean movies like Texas Chainsaw, Saw etc... I do enjoy a good thriller from time to time though and the distinction to me is in what is being done to frighten me. I don't mind being scared of something mysterious or haunting, but I'm not fond of seeing disgusting gore designed to terrify me in a very simplistic way.

The Orphanage is exactly the kind of thriller I like. The story revolves around a woman named Laura who has bought the orphanage she spent her childhood years in prior to being adopted. Her and her husband intend to turn it into a boarding house for mentally challenged children while also living there with their own son, Simón.

In one of the movies' more eerie scenes Laura finds Simón talking to someone in a cave near the beach they frequent. Laura never sees anyone and assumes Simón is talking to an imaginary friend. That day Simón leaves a trail of shells that lead back to the house so that the friend he met in the cave can find it and come over to play. The next day Laura finds the shells in a pile by the front door and from that moment on she begins to hear and see things in the house that prompt her to believe that this imaginary friend of Simón's may not be imagined after all. When Simón goes missing Laura is convinced that the spirits in the house are to blame.

The Orphanage is beautifully shot and is frightening for all the right reasons. There is mystery and story to what is happening in the house and the fear the movie makes it's audience feel is a powerful fear of the unknown. There is a purpose to the horror as well as it adds to the story being told rather than being the only part of the story. The Orphanage even manages to give you an almost touching ending.

The Orphanage has an amazing tone and mood with imagery that makes it far more than just a horror movie. The acting and writing are great though I'm always left wishing I spoke the language of a subtitled movie especially when it impresses me. How much more impressed would I have been if I could understand the dialogue as it was intended?

This is a must see, I'm putting The Orphanage on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $9.

The Dark Knight - $8

I went into The Dark Knight with high expectations and it delivered - for the most part. This is a comic/superhero movie which, unlike the many others in this genre, tries very hard to also be a good movie and a compelling story. Director Christopher Nolan has succeeded in making a very good movie here and in a way he has transcended the genre while perfecting it at the same time.

I won't go into a big plot summary, since you've all already seen it according to box office numbers, but essentially you've got Batman saving people from the Joker and assorted other criminals while wrestling with his purpose and the question of whether he is actually helping Gotham in the long run. I like that Nolan has given the Batman story something more than it's other incarnations by focusing on moral dilemma's and Batman's own lack of innocence.

The Dark Knight works on a lot of levels, the effects are amazing but great effects alone never make a good movie. Dark Knight also gives it's audience fairly good writing which is the last thing I expect in a big budget comic book adaptation.

Everything you've heard about the acting in this movie is true, if a little over hyped. Ledger is incredible as the Joker and Bale turns in another great performance as Batman. For me Aaron Ekhart's performance as Two-Face/Harvey Dent stole the show a bit from the bigger names around him. The supporting cast is good as well and I agree with most that Maggie Gyllenhaal playing Rachel Dawes is an improvement on Katie Holmes. Thankfully though she's not different enough as to distract the audience. Normally using a different actor to play the same character is a huge distraction for me (Fresh Prince of Bel Air anyone?) but it worked here.

As I said, I enjoyed this movie. The hype is overblown for sure, especially when you look at it's IMDB rating, but it's still the best blockbuster to hit theatres in a long time. I still think Batman Begins is the superior of the two but I'm a sucker for origin stories. I'm definitely hoping Nolan doesn't stop with Dark Knight and continues to redeem the Batman franchise from the horrific Warner Bros versions.

The Dark Knight is on my 'Watch It' list and I'm giving it a value of $8.

Four, Five and Six - $9

Four, Five and Six is a short film by Nathan Davies and Jeff Coutts.

The film follows a man through six scenes of life, in the first he learns that his Father has passed away and throughout the rest of the story we see how this passing affects every day moments in his life and the lives of those around him.

Four, Five and Six is a great film and well worth watching. The dialogue is smart and the scenes are well shot and well performed.

For those who live in Edmonton this film is in consideration for the Edmonton International Film Festival so I hope the selection committee has the good sense to show it and that you get the chance to watch it.

For my part I put this one on the 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $9.

Two Quick Reviews

I've been away and will be seeing and reviewing The Dark Knight this week but for now here are a couple lightning quick reviews of two movies I saw last week.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - $9

4 Months is an incredible movie and may be the most emotionally intense film I've seen in years. The story follows a University student who is helping her roommate obtain an abortion in communist Romania during a time that this is illegal.

Regardless of what your opinion is on this divisive issue the images and story in 4 Months succeeds in bringing both sides to light without ever giving an opinion or even directly addressing either side of the issue.

This was a movie experience I will never forget, though I'm not sure I want to duplicate it. I put 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $9.

Lars and the Real Girl - $6

Lars and the Real Girl was a surprisingly touching and funny movie. While it was never incredible it was often good and was well worth watching.

I put Lars on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $6

Charlie Wilson's War - $8

This one will be brief, I'm on holidays.

Charlie Wilson's War was an endearing and fun character movie. This is the true story of US congressman Charlie Wilson in the late 70's and early 80's. Charlie isn't your typical congressman as he drinks a lot, sleeps around and dabbles in drugs. Charlie does however care deeply about what's happening in one part of the world other than the US and that is Afghanistan, where the Soviets at the time had invaded the country and were killing Afghan citizens who were horribly underarmed to fight back.

Charlie convinces the decision makers to spend a lot of money on a covert operation to get weapons to the Afghan fighters willing to fight the communist Soviets without the Soviets being able to blame it on the US.

No matter what your opinion is about the history of Afghanistan this is a fascinating story which is well told by one of my favorite writers, Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin's strength is dialogue and the dialogue is performed to perfection by Tom Hanks (Charlie) and Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays the CIA advisor that helps Charlie make all this happen. The often vulgar and always entertaining dialogue between these two made me laugh out loud more than once.

Charlie Wilson's War is definitely on my 'Watch It' list and I give it a value of $8.

Lions for Lambs - $7

Lions for Lambs has been widely criticized and rarely recommended, frankly I'm not sure why.

This is a three part story and though the three parts don't collide as well as they could, they do relate. There is a Professor trying to convince a student to give a crap about something other than himself by relaying a story about two of his former students who fought in Iraq. The third story brings us a one-on-one interview with a powerful US Senator who is making very high level strategy decisions for the war.

Lions for Lambs is a subtle movie with a less than subtle message, I found it to be fair to the issues as it presented multiple sides of multiple arguments.

I honestly can't understand how anyone who likes great acting could dismiss this movie. Cruise, Streep and Redford are fantastic and some of the best performances come from the lesser known actors involved here like Michael Peña and Derek Luke. Even if you don't enjoy the stories being told here the lengthy and well written dialogues being performed by these actors make this movie well worth watching.

I put Lions for Lambs on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $7. I think I'll have to bring you another edition of "When The Critics Get It Wrong" soon starting with this one.

Iron Man - $8

Despite predictions to the contrary from one of my favorite readers, I did enjoy Iron Man immensely and I line up with the many critics who are praising this entertaining movie. I can't wait for the sequel.

Iron Man is based on the Marvel comic by the same name and is the story of Tony Stark, the head of a US weapons company who is taken captive in a war zone and forced to make weapons for terrorists. Rather than making them a weapon, he makes himself a nearly indestructible weaponized metal suit and escapes. This experience changes the arrogant and greedy Stark and inspires him to focus on improving the suit rather than on weapon sales.

Stark's right hand man at Stark Industries, Obadiah Stane, turns out to have been selling their weapons to the enemy for years and a stand off between the two becomes the climax of the movie.

There were a few things I didn't like much about Iron Man. The initial scenes, where Stark is first making the suit and his captors think he's making a missile for them, are hard to believe at best. There are cameras on him at all times in his cell and yet they can't tell he's making a suit of armour? He's trying stuff on at one point, who tries on a missile? There is also some very cheesy humour in Iron Man that would have missed the mark completely if not for the delivery of Robert Downey Jr.

With that let me transition into what I liked about Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic as Tony Stark. He made the transition from jerk to hero believable and he brought a lot of charm to a movie that could have been merely a special effects showcase if not for his performance. The cast is rounded out well with Jeff Bridges (Stane), Terrence Howard and my favorite - Gwyneth Paltrow.

The special effects in Iron Man are spectacular but they aren't in isolation, there is some surprisingly good directing here from Jon Favreau.

Big budget action movies are pretty hit or miss with me, especially in the comic book adaptation genre, but Iron Man hit the mark. It was entertaining and it's weaknesses were overcome by good casting.

I'm putting Iron Man on the 'Watch It' list and giving it a rating of $8. You may ask; why not a higher rating considering the praise I've lavished here? It's simple, this is still a comic book movie and the best of those can never be the greatest of movies.

Dan in Real Life - $7

Dan in Real Life is a pretty good character movie. Dan's struggle to be a good single dad to his three daughters is somewhat touching and believable. Dan also struggles to find romance and move on years after the passing of his wife.

The story revolves around a family holiday with uncles and aunts and cousins filling the old family home. Dan falls in love with his brother's girlfriend and off goes the movie.

Steve Carell is quite good as Dan and the supporting cast are good as well. Nothing really stood out to make this movie unique or really incredible but it was good and well worth watching.

I put Dan in Real Life on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $7.

Two Quick Reviews

I've been a bit quieter than usual here lately. It's not for lack of movie watching but more for lack of time. I've got an Iron Man review coming but for now here are two brief reviews of other movies I've seen in the last month.

Juno - $8

Juno was fun to watch, creatively written and well acted. The dialogue is quick and funny and the characters were developed well. Juno managed to be cute as well as touching while not being cheesy, a challenging line to walk.

Ellen Page was good but not brilliant. I need to see more range from her before I jump on the bandwagon. She was perfect for this movie though. Jason Bateman is subtle but great and Michael Cera steals the show in my opinion.

Juno is a good movie, nothing groundbreaking here though so I'm giving Juno a value of $8 and definitely putting it on my 'Watch It' list.

Cloverfield - $9

I loved Cloverfield. This was a very well executed movie in a genre that is hard to define. The opening 15 minutes dragged a bit but were necessary for making me care about the characters later on in the story.

When Cloverfield first ended I was disappointed that they didn't take the story further but after thinking about it I was happy the movie makers decided to leave it the way it was.

Cloverfield is creepy, thrilling and even a bit moving. I believed in the plausibility of the actions of the characters, this is an important point because often movies like this make their characters do things a person would never do just to advance the story or create a tense moment.

I am tempted to give Cloverfield a $10 rating but the beginning could have been better and it was too short. This is on the 'Watch It' list and I give it a value of $9.

Amazing Grace - $6

Amazing Grace is not an amazing movie, it is however a pretty good one.

Amazing Grace is the story of William Wilberforce, the late 18th and early 19th Century British parliamentarian who is credited with ending the British slave trade. He is an heroic figure of history and his story is well worth telling.

Where this movie misses is in the big moments, it seemed to me that several opportunities for powerful scenes became fairly mundane scenes passing facts along about this incredible person's life. Wilberforce is played only adequately by Ioan Gruffudd who is overshadowed by the performances of cast mates like Albert Finney, Rufus Sewell and Romola Garai.

Amazing Grace is worth watching if you like true stories told well through film. It will not blow you away but the life and accomplishments of Wilberforce should.

I'm putting Amazing Grace on my 'Watch It' list as I do like a good true story and I'm a sucker for political heroism. The modest rating of $6 reflects my feeling that this could have been better, but it wasn't bad.

There Will Be Blood - $7

I've gone back and forth on what I thought of There Will Be Blood over and over again since seeing it. Quite honestly I was bored at times but at other times I felt I was watching an epic masterpiece. The passage of time and another viewing may increase or decrease my rating, I haven't decided yet.

There Will Be Blood is a story about Daniel Plainview, an entrepreneur in the early 20th century who attains great wealth drilling for oil. There is much more to this story but it's better viewed than summarized.

My initial reaction after watching TWBB was that I didn't quite get all the hype, as I've mentioned, it bored me at times and that's a sign that I'm not fully engaged with a movie. This was due to some slow pacing and some wildly out of place music in the soundtrack. In reflection I acknowledge this movie was very good, I'm not sure if it was great though.

The visuals in TWBB are breathtaking. I loved the subtle and minimalist settings which were frequently shown in long, pulled back shots. This only added to the ability of the movie to showcase it's great performances. In a recent online discussion I was involved in this person summed up the setting well, "Plainview is such an enormous character that I think he needed an equally large canvas to play on, or else he would have burst the seams of the film."

Daniel Day Lewis was brilliant in this movie as Daniel Plainview. He made me love and hate his character at different times in the story, sometimes even at the same time. Paul Dano is also incredible as the local church leader, who Plainview seems to loathe from the beginning.

This is a good movie, there are those who feel it is great and maybe I will want to increase this rating some day. I still can't get past the fact that I wasn't drawn in for the entire 3 hours. Maybe that's my weakness.

I put There Will Be Blood on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $7

Rendition - $8

Rendition is a well executed movie with a political statement to make. For me it was very effective.

Rendition is the story of an Egyptian man who has lived in the US for 20 years and has a family there. As part of a terrorist investigation this man is taken while on a business trip and handed over to American officials who utilize a process called Rendition to send him to a country where they can have him tortured. There is also a connected story which follows the life of the torturer and his struggles to save his relationship with his daughter who has run away to avoid an arranged marriage.

This is well made movie, the settings are convincing and the story is intense and captivating. There are several effective twists and turns and a great ending. There's really nothing brilliant here but it's very good.

As I've said before on this site I'm really into performances and while the acting is good in Rendition, nobody amazed me.

All in all this one of the better options on an otherwise underwhelming rental shelf these days. I put Rendition on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $8.

Occupato - $7

Occupato was well worth watching. This is an entertaining short film by Shea Sizemore and the rest of the aspiring movie makers at (un)Heralded films.

When I started reviewing movies as a hobby at this site one of the first people I stumbled across in the movie-review-blog world was Shea Sizemore, pictured above. Shea has become one of the more regular visitors to my humble site and I've always appreciated the comments he makes. Shea's film company (un)Heralded has a few projects under their belt and you can order a collection of these films here.

I ordered this collection and have enjoyed everything I've watched. The headline movie of the collection is a comedy/horror called Occupato. Occupato revolves around a portable toilet that pulls it's victims in with long toilet paper arms. Sounds goofy and while it is humorous and entertaining, Occupato manages to make the viewer fear the portable toilet, at least a little bit. (picture below not actual toilet in Occupato)

Visually this is actually a very impressive movie, I really like some of the shots and there is a lot of potential shown here. I'm really looking forward to future film projects from the (un)Heralded filmmakers.

All in all I put Occupato on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $7. Check out the (un)Heralded collection and again you can order it here.