Unbreakable

M Night Shyamalan is truly a fantastic director and it showed in this movie. He does a great job of threading out a story and his pacing is well done. Unfortunately the story for this movie was a lot weaker then 6th Sense although Shyamalan does a great job of keeping the viewer interested. I heard a lot about this movie but was disappointed, I actually think Lady in the Water is a better flick, but keep in mind I really liked the feel of wonder he managed to evoke in his modern fairy tale. Unbreakable was not a bad film by any measure, I just had really high hopes.

I'd say it's a B-

The Malazan Book of the Fallen

Steven Erikson's fantasy epic The Malazan Book of the Fallen takes the form of 10 (8 finished as of Sept 2008) hefty tombs and covers a convergence of powers from across his extremely detailed history. You can tell this guy has spent a ton of time imagining all the places, peoples, gods and other in his world. This is fantasy on a truely epic scale. Pretty much the first 5 or so books are just a description of who the players are and in book 6 things start to happen. I am re-reading the first 7 books in anticipation of #8 which comes out in the next few weeks in the UK.

If you liked Tolkien Morecock, Cook and Brust you'll likely love these books. At time the writing can be a bit dense (not dumb, just really thick) but there is more to the series then you may notice at first. These are as good as any fantasy I've read and that's a lot.

Crank

So this is a man fantasy. Like "if you had 24 hours to live and where somehow forced to do so as a psychopath, what would you do?" fantasy. Even so it's fun and I like Jason Statham. Not only is he a RL bad ass but his mix of thug and lost little boy work well in this movie. Just don't expect deep themes or multiple layers. It's not really misogynistic but it certainly objectifies women (the longest scene with a woman in it is the hero bending her over a mailbox in front of a crowd of applauding tourists. Really).

But if you are not easily disguested by a film that's like Grand Theft Auto brought to life (a fact played up by the film) this is a lot of fun and probably even worth watching more then once.

A suprising B+

Lethal Weapon

So this is an older movie that I've seen a few times before. It's also in some respects the epitome of the action movie. Super buff guy gets a reason to do all the things that would get a normal person incarcerated. In fact if cops did what they show in this movie they'd be out of a job and in a jail, but that does not ruin the fun of the movie. With less funny and more emo then it's sequal this is still a very solid movie. In fact I'd say it's better then LWII although #2 is more "fun".

The dynamics between old and tired and new and trying to prove themself, dealing with grief and how things change with perspective are all dealt with pretty well in Lethal Weapon. Occasionally Mel Gibson's mugging gets tiresome enough to pull you out of your suspention of disbelife, but over all it's a enjoyable movie...and much deeper then most action flicks.

Solid B

Pan's Labyrinth

This is the first movie by Guillermo del Toro movie I've see and it was fantastic. I honestly didn't expect to like it going into the film (it was free on Netflix) but I'd say it's my favorite or 2nd favorite film (Along with American Beauty). The film is beautiful, thought provoking and has a story that's not what you've seen 10,000,000 times already. Although like most great movies it's open to interpretation I'd say this is a film about dealing with perseverance and how sometimes you have to sacrifice to do the right thing. This was probably the most powerful movie I've ever seen. I choke up a lot but I cried like a baby at the end. Hopefully you will to.


Highly recommended. A solid A!

Oh Brother Where Art Thou

I love Coen brother movies. Both Fargo and Hudsucker Proxy are to films that I consider some of my favorite comedies. I look forward to their movies because ususally it's not the same story you've heard before (with the possible exception of No Country for Old Men, which was good but disapointing) and Oh Brother does not disapoint.

Loosely based on Homer's Oddesy it follows a group of 3 misfit convicts as they follow Clooney's character on a quest. The story blends the plausable and outright unlikely with a Deep South that may never have actually existed, but still has some of the right flavor. The film is also chock-full of nods to previous movies, possibly most notably Cool Hand Luke and the Wizard of Oz.

I'd rate this film a solid B+

School Daze

This is the first Spike Lee film I've watched in years and years and I can see why he's known for being controversial. He does not shy from racial themes and in fact most of the tension in this film comes from them. I spent most of my formative years in a lily white part of West Virginia, but this film gave me a bit more insight to what it must be like growing up as a thinking black person. Not only do you have to deal with racist whites who judge you by the color of your skin but other folks with mixed heritage may buy in to that BS as well.

The depiction of life at a black college seemed quite accurate. I went to a big state school with a reasonably mixed student body, but most of the folks in my Marine Corps Reserve unit went to one of two black colleges and the stories they told match with what this movie depicts. The ending was very abrupt and unorthodox but was also fitting. The title does not refer to a Cheech and Chong like daze but the willful blindness that many folks have towards the problems with racial inequality in the US today.

This was actually a very entertaining movie AND I feel like I learned at least a little bit. The only major drawback I see is that at one point the protagonist (who was cool as hell through out the rest of the flick, to an almost superhuman level) was deriding his enemies as being "gay". I guess Spike Lee wants us all to be equal, except for the homos.

I give it a B+ and that surprises me.

No County for Old Men

Finally saw this last night. The Coen brothers don't fail to deliver in their disturbing manner, but it's not as good a movie as I had hoped. Tommy Lee Jones's performance was usually good but there where a few scenes where you could see "I should get an Oscar" as the look on his face. Not so in character. Josh Brolin was much stronger in his role in my opinion.

It was solid but for those looking for a Fargo or even Raising Arizona you're likely to be disapointed. It was a good flick but sometimes it seemed a bit contrivied (not just TLJ's performance). I do prefer my movies to have happy endings. The final lines from TLJ drive home the point that things do not always turn out the way we want and reality can be cold and stark...but reality can also be noble and good and if I'm going to spend my lesiure time in another person's reality then I'd prefer it to riff on the best in mankind, not the worst. My other gripe with this movie is that the story is far more conventional then I've come to expect from the Coen brothers. Once again it's a good solid movie, but not a great one.

I'd give it a B+

Cashback

On the surface this is a movie about how it feels to break up. The protagonist is a good guy, he breaks up with his girlfriend because he does not think he can make her happy, and the way it's portrayed it seems like he thinks that honestly and is not just trying to play the field. Reasonably piquant and spot on when it comes to how it feels to break up a long term relationship it then veers into the bizzare when lack of sleep causes the protagonist to develop an odd perspective on life.

I think this movie makes the point that we don't really see the things we look at. Too much of the world is taken for granted and beauty is all around us. That being said I like naked ladies, but a few less would probably have improved the movie, and the fact that all the women where hot detracted from it more then added.

I'd say it's a solid B

First post!

I watch a ton of movies, so I figured I'd start spewing my thoughts out to the Internet incase anyone with similar tastes is interested. So here it goes.