Short Movie Reviews

I've been horribly lax at writing reviews lately, but on the other hand, I haven't actually seen too many movies. Nevertheless, I wanted to write up a few short reviews of the mostly mediocre movies I've seen recently.

W
I was initially opposed to hyper-liberal Oliver Stone's movie, which seemed likely to simply bash George W. Bush. Fortunately, the movie was great! It is NOT a true story about the real W, but an absolutely true story of the media/public's perception of W. There is an important difference. That said, the movie was surprisingly even-handed. If you like W, you'll still like him. If you hate W, you'll still hate him.

Quantum of Solace
The new James Bond movie is the first direct sequel to a previous 007 film, in this case Casino Royale. It had excellent and disappointing aspects. I liked the gritty feel, the hot Russian chick, the continued narrative threads from CR, and the frenetic pacing. I hated the Bourne-style editing; it was awesome and effective in Bourne, but like The Matrix's bullet-time, it is horribly overused and of negligible impact. I also didn't like the lack of closure and the fact that this movie came dangerously close to emulating the faults of the previous Bond movies: impossibly grandiose action scenes and awkwardly contrived relationships. A fun movie, but possibly an unfortunate harbinger of future failure if they don't keep faithful to the scale, tone, and grittiness of Casino Royale.

Crossroads
Not the Britney Spears P.O.S. No, the 1986 movie about a 17-year-old blues-guitar-playin' Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid). Ralph wants to break free of his Julliard education in classical guitar and be a real bluesman. So he finds a real bluesman who sold his soul to the devil for some blues skillz, and proceeds to help him out of his late-in-life predicament. This movie was recommended to me for the last 20 minutes, which features the mother of all guitar face-offs. The rest of the movie is ok, but the climax is freaking awesome.

Cliffhanger
My mom describes this as a scary no-brainer. It is an still absurd, unbelievable movie, but also still ridiculously entertaining. I also realized that they simply don't make action movies this simple but fun anymore. For $3 at Best Buy, definitely worthwhile.

The Golden Compass
Another $3 BB bargain. I saw this in the theater and thought it was ok. Watching it a second time I enjoyed it much more. Nicole Kidman is on auto-pilot the whole movie, Daniel Craig is horrifically underutilized, and the main actress is about as unlikeable as possible for a protagnoist in a movie. That said, there is some impressive spectacle and buried beneath the glaring faults is a solid, orignal story.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
This movie has the hot chick from Veronica Mars, which was the only reason I wanted to see it. As a bonus, for a movie marketed as simply another comedy from the Superbad crew, FSM had a surprisingly engaging plot and some actual emotional impact at times. On the negative side, it is plenty dirty, so be warned...

Transporter 3
Jason Statham is one of the only real action stars out there these days: someone who unabashadly makes action movies irregardless of whatever absolutely idiotic central story the underpaid screenwriters and directors have conjured. In the Transporter movies, Statham is a driver who moves stuff for money. The catch: he wears a suit, has a sweet car, and had a set of rules that are meant to make his shady business go smoothly. The fun: he always loses the suit, works the car beyond the limits of reality, and is caught in the whirlwind created by antagonists who exploit his 'rules.' This movie is easily the best of the three Transporter films, a marked improvement over the awful second one. Enjoy if you like car chases, gun fights, hand-to-hand combat, hot women, and stupid-as-f#@& dialog.

The Unit: Season 3
This underappreciated CBS show is fantastic. It's an action-drama about five special forces soldiers and their wives as they save America and their personal lives with equal vigor and through equally treacherous territory. The show is evolving excellently from the first season and despite the shortened season (stupid writer's strike), looks like it has a bright future.

Chuck: Season 1
I watched this whole season with Ken, and we agreed it is awesome. Hot women, computer geeks, the CIA and NSA, and a rogue's gallery of one-dimensional villains. What's not to love?

Anyway, more reviews will follow...maybe a few music reviews. We'll see. Hope everyone is doing well!