Movie Reviews

As you may or may not have noticed, I've been quite a slacker this week in keeping up with my blog. But where I've lacked in blogging I've more than made up for in movie watching. In the past week I've seen six movies. Instead of writing separate reviews for each I'll just get it all over with in one post. Get ready for (mostly) a list of movies not to see...

My movie watching jag started last Sunday with War of the Worlds, probably the most disappointing of all the films. Apart from the hype the entertainment magazines have been doling out on this movie, I had it on pretty good authority from two of my most reliable film obsessed friends that this was a great movie. So I went against my better judgment and Tom Cruise loathing and saw it. That was my first mistake. It was terrible. Awful. It goes without saying that the special effects were incredible, but special effects couldn't save poor writing and poor storytelling. It would have taken so little to tighten the story up a bit, but alas, it was sloppy and lazy. This one gets two and a half out of five stars.

Next up, on Wednesday, An American in Paris. Having had an off-again on-again love affair with Paris for a few years, and knowing that it was one of AFI's top 100 movies, I felt it was my duty to see An American in Paris eventually. I'm happy I did, but I think I clocked it at 14 minutes into the movie that I first wanted to turn it off. And the feeling never really left me until the final credits rolled. But, this film had a strike against it to begin with, in that it's a musical. Not my favorite genre. As one of my friends recently said to me, as soon as they start singing I stop paying attention. I second that. This film gets two and a half stars.

Thursday was the Fantastic Four. By now you might be wondering what the hell I'm doing picking movies that seem destined to fail in my eyes. With this film I can honestly say I had no choice. It was part of a day of teambuilding with work colleagues. The teambuilding involved painting pottery, so I rallied a small resistance group against painting pottery and we ended up seeing a movie (Yes, I am aware of the irony in that it was a teambuilding activity. What can I say, I'm not a team player.). The only movie playing at the time we arrived was Fantastic Four, still, we were happy to be out of painting pottery. The movie was actually better than expected, and dare I say the story was even more cohesive than War of the Worlds. Yes, I am serious. The movie was chock full of ridiculous movie cliches, but it actually started to crack me up (a dalmation in a fire truck, the giant half-rock half-man creature, Thing, stopping in a Big & Tall Men's store for clothes, etc). Pretty cheesy but better than teambuilding whilst painting pottery, this one gets three stars.

Saturday night found a friend and I looking for an interesting movie. Distant looked promising. A Turkish film set in Istanbul chronicling the days of two depressed men. Wow, not what we were expecting at all. This movie was down right numbing. Probably the most striking thing about this film was the lack of dialogue. Minutes would pass with not a word uttered from the screen. It was heavy on sound, but not dialogue. The discomfort of the characters was practically leaping into the living room through the television. We had to laugh when we realized the two men were watching TV in silence, and that the program they were watching on TV also had no dialogue. Ah, kill me now! At the time I really didn't enjoy the film, but I've had some time to reflect and realize that though it was difficult to watch, it made it's point about loneliness, despair and the distance between people in these conditions brilliantly. Three stars for this film, but know what you are in for.

After a movie like Distant you are so shaken and depressed you need a pick-me-up. An injection of life and entertainment. And so we watched The Count of Monte Cristo. I didn't know much about the film, and was thus pleasantly surprised. It's a visually appealing and engaging drama with a well told story (based on the book of the same name by Alexandre Dumas) and good acting. There's also a nice revenge twist. It accomplished what it set out to do: entertain without being mindless and boring, three stars.

To cap off my week of movies, tonight I watched Maria Full of Grace. It's a Colombian film recommended by a Colombian friend, which instantly gave it some well-deserved clout. It's by far the best movie of the week. An excellent story of despair and hope and rising above the constraints of your up-bringing. The film is tense and difficult to watch at times, but is such a well-acted and well-told story. Four stars for this film, and a hearty recommendation that you see it as well.

Although there were some disappoints and many mediocre moments of film-watching this week, I'm happy to say I saw all these movies. Loving movies as much as I do, I appreciate the bad as much as I appreciate the good because I feel like a more informed viewer, and more easily able to spot a really excellent film. And so I cross off #289: watch a mixture of good & bad films, and be able to tell the difference.