Across the Universe - I'm a bit of the Beatles fan, so I enjoyed this very much, despite the cliched story, uneven pacing and being overlong by about 20mins. Loved the radical alterations on some songs, especially I Want To Hold Your Hand. A good looking film, both visuals and cast wise. I also think the Let it Be sequence is probably the goosebumps moment of the year.

3.5/4 stars

Predator 2 was pretty rubbish to me while Alien and Aliens are pretty different movies.

Jaws 2 - A guilty pleasure. Not a patch on the original of course, but Schieder is awesome to watch and for my money, Williams outdoes himself with this score. Not quite as action packed as genre sequels go, with the first half mostly a character drama on Brody and the second half a teen slasher flick with a big shark. Still, good dumb fun.

Burga - who thinks the two Jaws end credits are some of Williams' most beautiful music

The Island - Probably the smartest material Bay has ever touched. Of course, he does what is expected of him, choosing to not answer the difficult questions the material poses and turns it into an all out actioner. Also, the setting comes across as pretty THX-1138 like although its accused of lifting heavily from Parts: The Clonus Horror (a movie I have not seen). THat said, the action is good, and it looks good, like all Bay movies do.

**/****

This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: Jan 25 2008, 11:47 AM

On an Edward Zwick roll the past few days.

Glory - An excellent movie examining an aspect of the Civil War not often shown. Great performances from the cast and a brilliant James Horner score tops off this masterpiece. ****/****

Legends of the Fall - A sprawling epic, good doses of well done melodrama, gorgeous cinematography, an all star cast, and one of the best Horner scores ever. Very lush in the old fashioned Hollywood way, and thoroughly enjoyable for it. ****/****

The Last Samurai - Definitely one of Zwick's weaker efforts. Yes, it looks gorgeous like all of his movies, its heavy on the melodrama and its epic. Unfortunately, Cruise (I consider him a pretty decent actor) cannot pull off a period role. There is something too contemporary about his aura. Zimmer's score is a retread of Gladiator with added taiko drums and shakahuchis. All this leads to a leaden feel and a certain lack of freshness. An acceptable watch if you are a fan of historical epics or Zwick, but he has done far better. **/****

Blood Diamond - Its action is great, but its not all the movie has to offer. In between all furious action sequences, this movie has a social and political message. the The acting is excellent, the tone is gritty but sappy melodrama does creep in as the film goes on. The thing is, there aren't many people who can do melodrama as well as Zwick. A fantastic film and a biased ****/****

Burga - who noticed that he has used the words 'melodrama' and 'epic' numerous times in this post.

This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: Feb 25 2008, 01:40 PM

It also preaches untruths.

Its not the theories, its the inaccuracies. The pivotal Magic Bullet scene is false.

The conspiracies behind an event of worldwide impact duh.


Burga - who loves a good conspiracy theory

This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: Feb 26 2008, 11:15 PM

Its a thriller tackling one of the biggest whodunits of all time. Was there a second shooter? Were the CIA involved? How about the Mafia? LBJ? If JFK isnt mysterious, I dont know what is.

This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: Feb 26 2008, 11:25 PM

You are wrong.

Its the larger mystery of governmental secrecy and cover-ups. Does the public really know what is going on? That kind of thing.

Thus the movie further explores the possible alternatives to the official story. That in itself is mysterious.

This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: Feb 26 2008, 11:39 PM

Its being a b**** tonight

Windows Live Messenger

I thought it was a pretty decent action movie. Its a Tony Scott film, so what do you expect?

Only when it works, when it doesnt, its terribly dull.

Shawn of the Dead is great, but Hot Fuzz is a terrible unengaging mess. Likewise, A Hard Day's Night is terrific comedy, but the only thing good about Help! is the production design of the Beatles' apartment.

This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: Mar 30 2008, 03:26 PM

Priest!

This thread needs to be stickied. Anyway.

Saving Private Ryan - Great action sequences, but the movie is slightly ruined by the ending. I think an ambiguous approach would have been far superior. I'd prefer ending it on the shot of Ryan after Miller dies than the sentimental cut back to the present time and forcefeeding the audience that the sacrifice was worth it.

The Prestige - This is my third viewing, and I tried to approach the movie differently and not get irked by the sci-fi twist too much. Alas, it was to no avail. The problem with this movie is that its problems lead into one another. Disregarding my dislike for the sudden sci-fi slant, the fundamental flaw here can be traced back to hopelessly underwritten characters. Now, this isn't really a major problem for half the running time, as what makes the movie compelling is the behind the scenes look at the various tricks they come up with to one-up each other. However, the outlandish twist just kills that interest. This is where the shit hits the ceiling. The movie has no interesting characters to fall back on and thus fails to ride out the twist. It collapses. And on top of that, it continues to bludgeon the audience with one clumsy twist after another from that point onwards ad nauseam in what seems as an attempt to appear smart. Final verdict? Up to the halfway point, its pretty entertaining, but after that its just plain awful without a single redeeming factor. Well, I honestly did try to like it, but in the end it just gives off the same cheap vibe The Usual Suspects does.

The Illusionist - This movie is let down by one element. Edward Norton. In his attempt to come across as enigmatic, he just ends up being boring and bland. As it is, its just a barely passable movie. One wonders how much better it would have been had Norton and Bale swapped places.

This post has been edited by BurgaFlippinMan: Jun 28 2008, 04:09 PM