MovieMan8877445's Movie Reviews

What? I did.

Bonnie & Clyde is a great movie, there's alot more to it than just the ending, a must for all film buffs and potential filmmakers.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Friday The 13th (Marcus Nispel, 2009)

I want to start off with saying that this is one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had in the movie theater, I think it was just the crowd that was in there with me. I actually tend to like most rated R slasher movies that come out now, and I do think that this was one of the best rated R slasher movies I’ve seen in a while. I really wouldn’t classify this as horror, seeing as it wasn’t really scary one bit, it actually didn’t even make me jump once which I loved because it showed that the whole movie didn’t focus on cheap jump scares. I actually think that they only attempted one jump scare in the whole movie; sadly it didn’t make me jump because I’ve seen the ending of the original. I do want to say that this was one of the goriest movies I’ve seen in a while; I really loved it though because it just made the movie all more fun.

I guess you could say that I was hyping myself up to see this, even though I really only started hyping myself up like on Friday of this weekend. I actually wouldn’t even call it a remake at all, at least of the first which is sadly the only one of the original series that I’ve seen. The only things that were even like the original, was that they incorporated the ending of the original into the opening credits and they put the very ending of the original as the ending of this one. I hear that it was more like the second and third parts of the series though, I wouldn’t know though since I’ve yet to see them. I loved how they broke the movie up into two parts, even though the first part only lasted like 15 minutes. Everyone’s reaction in my theater to the ending of the first part was like the best part of the movie for me. Seeing the Transformers 2 trailer on the big screen was like one of the best things about seeing this though, except I imagine that it’ll be even better seeing it on an IMAX screen before Watchmen.

As far as the acting goes though, I really wouldn’t expect anything great or anything. The best thing about the cast though is Danielle Panabaker, I just find her incredibly hot. I was still a little upset that she was like the only girl out the cast that didn’t go nude, even though she’s easily the hottest out of them. As far as the rest of the cast, it’s basically unknown, yet I seemed to know who most of them are just from seeing other movies. Like Aaron Yoo, who I know best as Ronnie from Disturbia, but I’ve seen him in 21 and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist as well, he somehow makes any role he’s in very funny. There’s also Ben Feldman, who I actually really haven’t seen long in a movie before, I really know him for his short role as Travis in Cloverfield. Jared Padalecki is really the other one that I seemed to know really well out of the cast, who I’ve seen in House of Wax, Cry_Wolf, and Supernatural. You really couldn’t tell if anyone was really acting that great in the movie though, because none of the cast really had enough time to show off their acting skills. One thing I didn’t like about this movie was that every time I started to really love a character, they killed them off; I should’ve guessed that since it’s a slasher movie.

Anyone who’s just looking for a completely fun time at the movies needs to get out and see this now. This is a movie that I think is just meant to be seen with a big crowd, because it just really adds to the experience of the movie. There were also some very cool death scenes in this remake, which I think is really the main thing that it has going for it. My suggestions for going to see this is to just expect a fun movie that’s not really scary, if you expect that then I think you may end up liking it as much as I did.

What Dreams May Come (Vincent Ward, 1998)

Before I started to watch this, I had basically no idea what it was even about or what to even expect. I’ve heard some good things about it, so I at least expected it to be somewhat good; boy was I surprised after watching it tonight though. Visually this movie is almost perfect; I can’t really say that it’s completely perfect because there were some scenes where it looked fake. The main scene I’m thinking of when I mention this is when Chris, Albert, and the tracker are standing at the gates of hell; at first it looked so amazing, but then the longer into the scene it got the more it looked fake. I think it first started to really show in the scene was when it was at close-up of their heads. That’s really the only scene, while they’re in either heaven or hell, which the photography didn’t completely blow me away. The best visual in the movie was when Chris first got to his heaven, where everything was like a painting. I really think that’s the only way to actually describe this movie; it’s not a movie, it’s a painting.

I actually tend to not like love stories that much, so I was pretty surprised at how much I ended up liking this. It was just such a touching story; I also really love when a lot of the movie is told through flashbacks. It really just makes the movie even better when it does that, because it just adds a certain amount of charm to the story. The ending just really seemed to get to me, even if it was a sort of predictable ending, just like how most love story endings would. The whole movie just really messed with my mind; I’m going to have to watch it again to fully understand it. I got lost a few times through the flashbacks, but I still got most of it.

You know, Robin Williams never really seemed to stand out as an actor to me; I mean I’ve always liked him, but I never really thought too much about him. I’ve seen him in so many things though, and he’s been good in all of them, but none of those roles stood out to me. Most actors seem to have that one role that just really makes them stand out; like Samuel L. Jackson has Jules Winnfield or Heath Ledger has The Joker, and I think this role is Robin Williams stand out role, for me at least. Cube Gooding Jr. was also very good in this, maybe not as great as Robin Williams, but the movie focused on Williams and not Gooding Jr. Max Von Sydow was good in this as well; even though I didn’t really know how well he could act until now, because the only other movie I’ve seen him in is Rush Hour 3; which I don’t think really showed his acting skills off to well.

Overall this movie was a visual feast, with a great love story to go along with it. Anyone who hasn’t got the pleasure of seeing this yet should get to it sometime soon; this is just a movie that I think you have to see to understand. This is among the most underrated movies I’ve ever seen though; I like never hear any talk about it or anything, yet it’s just so great. I actually didn’t even know about it until a couple of months ago, but you know what’s funny; ever since I first heard it mentioned I started seeing it at Best Buy all the time. I’m glad that I finally got a chance to see this though; this is just that one movie that I think you have to see at least once.

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That perfectly sums up the style of this movie. Awesome mate .

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The Freedom Roads

Watchmen (Zack Snyder, 2009)

As most of you already know, I’m quite a huge fan of the graphic novel; I’m actually a little sad that the only reason I ever read the graphic novel was because of seeing the teaser before The Dark Knight. Watchmen’s story is the best story I’ve ever read, and I knew that the film wasn’t going to come close, but I was more off than I thought. It seemed like Snyder was trying to pack too much into just a two and a half hour movie. A lot of the scenes seemed really rushed; there were actually only a few scenes that didn’t feel rushed. The beginning fight scene with The Comedian was one of these scenes that weren’t rushed. I wish that they would’ve made that scene longer actually; it was by far my favorite scene of the movie.

Sadly after the beginning scene with the Comedian and after the opening credits, the movie slowly starts going downhill some. The opening credits sequence for this has to be one of the most well done sequences I’ve ever seen; this actually gives the Dawn of the Dead (2004) opening sequence a fun for it’s money on my favorite opening credits sequence. I didn’t really mind the slow motion in it at all; actually, I didn’t really mind the slow motion barely at all throughout the whole movie. Like I was starting to say earlier in the review, many of the scenes were really rushed. I mean some scenes barely even lasted a minute. Like the scene where Rorschach goes to meet with Manhattan and Laurie for example, almost every line from that scene from the graphic novel was taking out and rushed into one little mini-speech from Manhattan. I also hated Rorschach’s back-story; they messed one of the best parts of the graphic novel up so much. I don’t know why they even wanted to put Dr. Malcolm Long in the movie at all, for his whole minutes of screen time he had. I did love the scene with him and Rorschach during the prison riot though; that was probably one of the very few improvements of the graphic novel.

A few others of these improvements would be the beginning fight scene with the Comedian. I just can’t express how much I really love this scene; easily one of the best fight scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. The only bad apart about it was Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s lines at the very end of the fight were way too rushed; besides that, it was near perfect. I loved the style that Watchmen had to it, which is probably the best thing that Snyder has to offer any film. I mean the best apart about most of Snyder’s movies seem to be the style that they all have, except Dawn Of The Dead, but that just has so many other amazing things to it. There were some parts that were unnecessarily gory though; that was a bad move on Snyder’s part though. I hated that the Comedian’s “Justice is coming to all of us” wasn’t included in the movie; it was like the best line from the Comedian, and then they didn’t even include it. Many of the music choices that seemed a little odd to me at first though really worked well in the movie. My Chemical Romance’s version of Desolation Row for example, it fit perfect right after Rorschach’s ending lines to the movie.

Jackie Earl Haley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are tied for my favorite performances in the movie, which may be a little biased seeing as Rorschach and the Comedian are my two favorite characters. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was absolutely perfect as the Comedian; not only is he has a striking resemblance to the Comedian, he played the perfect just as I imagined while reading the graphic novel. Jackie Earl Haley perfectly caught Rorschach; he fully engrossed him. He got so emotional there towards the end of the movie (if you’ve read the graphic novel or already seen the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about). They totally messed up Veidt though; I mean he had barely any screen time in the movie at all. Most of his time in the book was while he was at Karnak; sadly though, the entire Karnak scene was only about 10, maybe 15 minutes long, so you barely even saw Matthew Goode in the movie. The scenes you did see him in though were pretty good for the most part; Goode made him see a lot more ignorant though. The only actor I didn’t really like out of the bunch was, surprisingly enough, Billy Curdup. I don’t completely blame Curdup though; I mean Dr. Manhattan is a mega hard character to capture, he still a pretty good job seeing as how hard a character it was. Malin Akerman was alright, but no better than anyone expected. Patrick Wilson was good as well, but he didn’t really seem to stand out to me at all.

Despite me not sounding completely enthusiastic during this review, I still did quite enjoy it. After waiting many months to see it, I guess you could say I was quite underwhelmed. I do feel a little bad about everyone that has had to wait twenty to years to see this though; I just hope they can at least like it more than I did. I know Zack Snyder is a huge fan of the graphic novel and I like his attempt to make it movie, but I can honestly see why it’s called the un-filmable graphic novel now. I’m sure I’ll like the ultimate cut more once it gets released on DVD. I’m sure many more fans will appreciate that version as well. Dawn of the Dead (2004) still remains my favorite Zack Snyder movie, like I’m pretty sure it will. I still want to see it at least one more time before it leaves theaters though, so I can see how well it holds up with re-watches. I don’t think I’ll have truly seen Watchmen until a couple of months down the road though; once the ultimate cut finally gets released for everyone to see.

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Plus, we all know Doc Manhattan could take Superman.

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I used to be addicted to crystal meth, now I'm just addicted to Breaking Bad.

I thought the opening fight was too long.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

I loved Crudup's performance, his voice was completely lifeless as it should be and like Veidt said, with his every facial twitch he's practically sobbing

The Last House On The Left (Dennis Iliadis, 2009)

Now, let me start off by saying that I haven’t seen the original yet, and right now, I’m not too sure that I even want to see the original at all. I’m not saying that I didn’t like this, but some of this was pretty disturbing to watch, and I’ve heard that the original is supposed to be even worse than this. My main problem with this is that the first forty-five minutes of this were just really hard to watch. I feel that I could’ve liked this movie if those forty-five minutes would’ve been turned into fifteen minutes or so. It really could’ve worked in that amount of time too, because some of the most disturbing parts were just dragged on for so long. Luckily once it got towards the end, it seemed to turn into more of a revenge movie, and that’s when it got really great. Honestly, if the most of the movie took place during the revenge part, it could’ve gotten like an extra point towards m rating. The first half just felt so freaking long though; I was quite happy when the first half finally ended.

It was really gory though, but for some reason, I seemed to just love it. Towards the end of the movie, the gorier that it got, it just made me happier. I think that was just because that it turned into a revenge movie by the end. Something that really seemed to stick out to me was the sounds; they just completely made my cringe during some of the scenes. Some of the deaths actually sounded worse than they looked, and if you saw how these deaths looked, you’d know that it’s pretty hard to achieve. I do have to admit that this has some of the coolest death scenes I’ve ever seen; the very last death in the movie is insanely awesome, but I don’t want to say what it is because then it might not be as great if you ever get to see it. They did show most of the deaths in the trailer though, but they’re so much cooler to watch in the actual movie.

The acting for the most part really isn’t that great or anything, but seriously, what did you expect from a movie like this? Tony Goldwyn probably gives the most convincing performance of the movie, but even he’s not really great or anything. I really couldn’t stand Sara Paxton though; I mean she can’t even act, and she’s not even hot, so there was really no point in even casting her in the movie, IMO. They should’ve chose Martha MacIsaac to be Mari instead, who you may know as Becca from Superbad. She can’t really act either, but at least she’s pretty hot. I don’t why people would be going to see this for the acting though.

For the most part, I enjoyed it. I really, really liked the second half, especially the last 5 minutes. The last 5 minutes were the best part of the entire movie for me, and seeing the Drag Me To Hell trailer on the big-screen was another plus about seeing it in theaters. Personally though, if you want to see a horror movie this week sometime on the big-screen; I’d say see the Friday The 13th remake instead, if it’s still paying, because it was just way more fun to watch, IMO. This really tries to be more serious though, so I can see why this really wasn’t as fun to watch. Expect the first half to get pretty disturbing at time though, if you decide to see it that is. This is one that I think you could wait for the DVD for, unless you really want to see it before it leaves theaters.

After seeing this done on here a few times, I'd thought I'd do a little 'overlooked movies' section in my review thread as well. Every once in a while, I'll do a little quick review of a movie that I really like, that doesn't seem to get a lot of reconition.



Four Brothers (John Singleton, 2005)

This is one of my all-time favorite movie, yet it gets like no reconition at all. I really think Mark Wahlberg is a great actor, despite what most people seem to want to say about him. This, IMO, his is best movie so far; his acting really just seems to shine in certain scenes during this. It's no doubt that I love revenge movies though, so I may be a little biased with this, seeing as it's a revenge movie. This is probably tied with Death Sentence as my favorite revenge movie so far, even though revenge movies are pretty predictable. I see this pretty much classed as crap with most people though, just because what it is about. That upsets me some, because I know some of the people saying that hasn't even seen the movie yet. It's pretty violent though, but I feel that it really needs all that violence to tell the story. Some of the violence was even toned down, from what I heard at least, yet it still ended up being pretty violent. Anyone that hasn't got a chance to check this one out yet really should sometime, I've probably seen it 10+ times and I still love each time I watch it.





Alpha Dog (Nick Cassavetes, 2007)

I see this film get so much hate for like no reason, yeah the movie may not be perfect, but I still find it pretty great. Now, I don't know really anything about the true story that this movie tells about, but the movie really seemed like a documentary sort of. With the constant changes between talking with one of the characters on a camera, and the actual story being told, really made it seem like a documentary. Aside from Justin Timberlake, the acting was surprisingly really good, filled with a mixture of bigger names and smaller names; like Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Emile Hirsch, and Ben Foster. This is really a powerful drama, and the ending just seems to get me each time I watch it. I could see it coming throughout most of the movie, but the way that it actually happened was done well. Johnny Truelove, who's played by Emile Hirsch, really seemed have a weird life though; I kind of feel bad for him. I have to watch it again sometime, because it's been awhile since I've seen it. Still though, I'd recommend it if you haven't had the chance of seeing it yet.

I Love You, Man (John Hamburg, 2009)

I have really wanted to see this, and now I’m quite glad I decided to see it before it left theaters. Even though Judd Apatow had like nothing to do it, it definitely felt like one of his movies. As far as comparing it to other comedies, I think the best thing I could compare it to is the 40-Year-Old Virgin. I say that because, like the 40-Year-Old Virgin, it had a great mix between seriousness and comedy. It wasn’t a full on sex comedy like some of the other recent comedies I’ve seen, but I love comedies that have a good amount of seriousness to them as well as comedy. Another comedy I could compare it to is Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and it even shares the same star of both, Jason Segel.

This is truly a guy’s a movie, though, and I think you may be able to connect with it more and enjoy it more if you’re a guy. This really wasn’t as bad as some of the other recent comedies I’ve seen, namely Zack And Miri Make A Porno. That was like a straight up porn movie, though. Some of the scenes in this really had me wanting to just roll on the laughing, but since I was in a theater and didn’t want to look stupid, I decided not to. I still remained in my seat laughing my butt off, though. Like many of the other Apatow-like comedies, there was a bunch of references to other movies. I find jokes involving other movies just hilarious, but I think that’s because I just love movies so much.

The story is just so predictable, much like you’d expect from a love/friendship story. I still say that you should give it chance, because it’s still a great movie to watch. I swear, though, Paul Rudd just keeps moving up my list of favorite comedians. Between this, Role Models, Anchorman, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and the 40-Year-Old Virgin, all of his roles had just made me laugh so much. One of the great things is that he doesn’t have to be so perverted to be hilarious, unlike Jason Segel. I still find Jason Segel very hilarious, but no matter how big he gets, he will always be Marshall from How I Met Your Mother, to me. Luckily the show hasn’t been canceled, and I still watch it every week. Segel is such an underrated comedian; he’s really showed that he can do great in movies and on TV. There was also a bunch of very hilarious performances from the supporting cast; namely Andy Samberg, Jon Favreau, and Tomas Lennon. Also, Rashida Jones is really, super hot.

If you’re looking for a great comedy to watch sometime this week, I’d highly recommend going to see this. This is easily the best movie of 2009 so far, but I haven’t seen many movies from 2009 yet, though. I’m really in the mood to watch some more comedies now, so I think I may go do that in a little while. This isn’t technically a theater movie, though, so it’s not one that I’d recommend going to rush out and see, because if you miss it in theaters, then no big deal. I do say that it’s the best thing playing at the theaters right now. Any fan of Apatow’s movies, like myself, need to go see this sometime, because I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

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Quoted from the Movie Tab:

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Gavin Hood, 2009)

I really loved the original X-Men series, yes even the third, but I’ve always like X2 the most. When I first saw the bootleg comic-con trailer for this, I immediately thought that this was going to be another X2. Sadly I turned out being really, really disappointed. When the work-print version leaked about a month ago, some really bad things had started to go around about this. I really tried to ignore all that stuff, because of how much I loved the trailer. I kind of wish that I would’ve watched that version when it leaked, though, because then I wouldn’t of had to waste my money seeing it in theaters. I even tend to like superhero movies too, so I was hoping that would help me enjoy this than most people seemed to be enjoying it. I don’t even know if I could say that it worked well as an action movie, which is actually pretty sad.

One of the main reasons that I even went to go see this was because of its action. Sadly that didn’t even turn out good. I seriously think that whoever worked on the special effect for this movie should be banned from ever doing it again. I don’t think there was a single shot in the movie that didn’t look totally fake. Even Wolverine’s claws didn’t look real, and it was pretty obvious that a lot of the scenes were shot in front of a green screen. Usually, action movies do a good job hiding that, but this one didn’t. Not only that, but they literally screwed every character, except Wolverine and Victor.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was one of the saving points of the movie, for me. I guess I’ve just gotten used to seeing him as Wolverine because of the past X-Men movies. Liev Schreiber did a great job playing the villain, which was pretty much the best thing about the movie. He was so darn convincing as the villain, so they actually made a good choice on that one, surprisingly. I really liked seeing cameos of previous X-Men characters; well actually this would take place before all of the other movies. Cyclops and Toad were my two favorite cameos in the entire cast. I really hated how Deadpool and Gambit seemed to just get pushed out of the whole movie. I actually really like Ryan Reynolds as an actor too, so I feel that if he could’ve gotten some more screen time, it would’ve been a little bit better. The one good action scene that Gambit had was great, though, and it was probably one of my favorite scenes of the movie.

This was a pretty crappy way to start the summer off, especially after having a great movie like Iron Man starting the summer movie season off last year. Hopefully Star Trek will be able to recover for this atrocity they call a movie. It’s been getting some pretty good reviews and it just all around looks better, so I’m sure it will. I’ll probably get around sometime next weekend to seeing it. This was once my most hyped movie for the summer too, but I’m glad that changed. One of the best things about seeing this in theaters, though, was seeing the Transformers 2 trailer on the big screen. Which just happens to be my most hyped movie for the summer right now, and I’m sure that won’t disappoint. Something I have noticed is that every other Marvel movie turns out good; like Spider-Man 3 sucked, then we got a great movie like Iron Man, but then this turned out bad. This means that Iron Man 2 next summer should be great.

Star Trek (J.J. Abrams, 2009)

I guess I should start off by saying that this is the first Star Trek film that I’ve ever seen. That may be because I’ve just really started getting into sci-fi movies rather recently, but I definitely plan on checking the other ones out. I can see that this one was a great start of the series for me, because I really liked it. I think I’m just going to completely forget all about Wolverine and say that the 2009 summer season had a great start with this. I’m actually really glad that I just started getting hyped for it in the past couple of weeks, because it really helped me so I didn’t overhype it for myself. Like I did with another movie in 2009 which I ultimately ended up being disappointed with. I actually had absolutely no interest in seeing right up until about 2 weeks ago, but I really glad I started. If I didn’t, I probably would’ve passed up a great movie.

I’ve liked some of the other stuff that Abrams has done, well actually thinking about it, mainly just Cloverfield. I think this may have even topped that for me, and I really liked Cloverfield. This was something completely different than that, so I guess they really can’t be compared. Something I really liked about it was how you didn’t have to see the other Star Trek films to get what was going on, because by the time I started getting hyped for it, I had almost no time to do so. I know this is supposed to be somewhat of a prequel, except some people have been saying different. Maybe it’s not, though. I will say that this is better than most of the other blockbusters we get, because it actually had a lot more to than just the action. Namely the story, which had me engaged in the movie the entire time. I was actually sort of wishing the movie went on longer, because it felt really short to me.

The special effects were so well done in this, except compared to the last blockbuster I saw this year, almost anything would have better special effect than that. Abrams knows what he’s doing with special effects; I still think Cloverfield just had a little better of special effects. One of the main things that really helped show off the effects was all the different places the movie took you. The only part where they’re actually in one location for a long time is in the Enterprise. There was some cool creature designs in this too, namely the one big monster, which was actually sort of ruined because they showed him in the trailer. The main thing I noticed is that Abrams didn’t go like the usual space action movie, and instead went more towards 2001 direction and made space silent. I think that works better because space is actually like that.

Since I haven’t seen the original series, I had no problem with the actors they chose for the roles. I thought Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto did a pretty good job in their roles, and their acting was surprisingly good for a blockbuster. When I think about it actually, I liked most of the characters in the movie, but Kirk was by far my favorite. His bad boy and do whatever he wants attitude was done pretty well. I thought Yelchin’s accent was going to get annoying after awhile, but luckily it didn’t. This is pretty much easily the best movie of 2009 so far for me, even though I’d put Observe And Report pretty close behind it. If you’re trying to find a movie to watch this weekend, I’d highly advise this one, especially over that sad excuse for a movie called Wolverine. If you’re like me, then you won’t end up being disappointed.

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Terminator: Salvation (McG, 2009)

I have been waiting to see this movie for awhile for a couple of months now, and this past week has had me a little weary because I started seeing a bunch of negative reviews for it. Something I’ve learned, though, is to not listen to other people’s negative reviews, because I ended up being happy with this. Yeah, it wasn’t great or anything, but it’s still a good movie nonetheless. It was a big step up from Wolverine and just a little bit of a step down from Star Trek. I’ve never really been a big fan of the Terminator series actually, I really only liked Judgment Day. The first and third were alright, but I never really liked them all that much. I would probably say that this is my second favorite of the series, it’s definitely better than the first and third, but it doesn’t even come close to Judgment Day. This was such a great movie to see in theaters, though, because the action is extremely well done.

That’s actually the best thing about the movie; the action was very well done. Some of the action scenes looked fake due to the CGI, but even though it didn’t look, it still had something to do it that was visually appealing. It sure as hell looked miles better than Wolverine’s crappy effects, which is actually probably the worst use of CGI that I’ve ever seen. The plot wasn’t half bad either; it followed the Terminator series storyline pretty well. I heard a lot of people complaining about the plot, but it flowed just right, if you ask me. There wasn’t a moment where it got slow enough to bore me, but the entire movie didn’t focus just on the action scenes. The scenery is pure art, though, which may be reason why I thought the somewhat fake looking effects looked visually appealing. It’s what I’ve wanted to see in a Terminator movie since I ever saw the first one. I do wish they could’ve followed the original Terminator’s storyline some more, though, like using the dogs to detect the Terminators. Or Kyle Reese getting his barcode on his arm while he’s trapped at Skynet.

I have to agree with what I’ve been hearing about Connor’s character, though. I got really sick of him being so vain throughout the movie; at least he did get a little better towards the end. Whenever he came on screen, it was just me, me, me with him. It got a little annoying after awhile. I don’t know why they went that way his character either, because he wasn’t like that in Judgment Day or Rise Of The Machines. I also couldn’t help but to laugh whenever I heard him scream on screen, most people should probably know why. At least if you’ve heard his freak-out on the set you would. Sam Worthington was surprisingly pretty great in this, if you ask me. For an unknown actor to me, he really surprised me, because he was the best actor in the movie. I wish that Kate could’ve gotten some more screen-time, though, because she was one of the main things about Rise Of The Machines, and she was severely underplayed in this. Anton Yelchin did a pretty great job, though. I’ve always thought that he was a pretty underrated actor.

If you’re putting off watching this because of the negative reviews, I’d say that you should still give it a try. I think fans of the Terminator series will appreciate it. If you do see it, I’d strongly advise seeing it in theaters, because action movies are always meant to be seen in theaters. Something I’ve noticed is that 2009 has been a pretty crappy year for movies, at least compared to 2008. I sure hope that it’ll improve during the second half of the year. That’s usually when we get the better movies of the year, anyway. I’d probably say that this is my second favorite movie of the summer so far, but I hope that’ll change before the summers end.

+

Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi, 2009)

I’m sorry to start off sounding somewhat cheesy for the first line in my review, but I agree with the TV spots for this that ‘Sam Raimi is back with a vengeance’. I totally agree with that line, especially because I didn’t like the Spider-Man trilogy at all. I’d probably class them as the most overrated series ever, except the third, because it already was pretty bad received. I absolutely love the Evil Dead series, though, namely Evil Dead II. This movie reminded me so much of Evil Dead II too. The first trailer for this had me somewhat interested in it, but I probably could’ve just waited for the DVD then. It really wasn’t until these past couple of weeks that I really started getting excited for it, and I’ve started to notice that it happens with a lot of movies too. You can tell that Raimi had a considerably bigger budget to work with for this, but he still used his old techniques from the Evil Dead series.

Speaking of the Evil Dead series, I noticed some of the stuff that Raimi put in to this from the Evil Dead series too. Namely the eye ball scene, which any Evil Dead fan should know. Another kind of shout-out was the 1973 Oldsmobile thrown into the movie, but I wish that Raimi could’ve used some more references to the Evil Dead series. Another reference I noticed was that Destry Rides Again was playing on the TV at the pawn shop. What’s really surprising to me, though, is how well the movie worked seeing as most of the scares were jump scares. Usually this ends up hurting a movie, but the haunting score, overall creepy atmosphere to the movie, and comedic moments really helped the jump scares work. There were parts during the movie that I really couldn’t stop laughing, and neither could most of the people in the theater I was in. Most the second half of the movie really relies on the comedic moments, so I guess the second half just really depends on your tastes.

Alison Lohman was absolutely perfect as the leading lady in this. I don’t even think I can express that enough. On another note, she’s incredibly hot. I wouldn’t mind seeing some more movies with her in it. She’s the female Bruce Campbell you could say. I’m still pretty upset that Campbell didn’t even get a cameo appearance in this; I mean he even got a cameo appearance in the Spider-Man movies, and Raimi couldn’t have given him on this. During the entire first half of the movie Lohman’s character, Christine Brown, reminded me so much of Ash in the first Evil Dead. In the sense that the character is sort of a normal person thrown into an abnormal situation. Then in the second half she really seems to become the total badass like Campbell in Evil Dead II and Army Of Darkness. I heard a lot of complaints about Justin Long’s performance in this before watching, mainly hearing how he just didn’t fit with the rest of the movie. I thought he fit in just fine, at least during the comedic parts. It’s good to see him slowly moving out of comedies, though.

Overall, I’d say that any fan of the Evil Dead series would love this. It reminded me so much of Evil Dead II, even if Evil Dead II is still a much better movie. Something else I forgot to point out was the rather abrupt ending. You could see the ‘twist’ ending coming for a good 10-15 minutes before it actually happened, but the way it played out still ended up being pretty shocking. What really helped it was the way the title appeared on the screen right after it was over, because it was done in such a haunting way. Ultimately I went into the theater very excited to see it after waiting awhile to see it, and I left rather pleased if I say so myself. Raimi fans would love this, so I’d suggest checking it out if you’re a fan, and I really just say that because I know a lot of Raimi fans were saying the trailer wasn’t that interesting. Don’t let the PG-13 rating put off either, because this is in another league entirely of other PG-13 horror movies. I think this Is probably tied with Star Trek as my favorite of 2009 so far.

+

Up (Pete Doctor and Bob Peterson, 2009)

After loving Wall-E so much, I knew I would have to see this one eventually. I’ve actually never missed seeing a Pixar movie in theaters, even though I did take me a little bit longer to finally get around to seeing this one. I didn’t think I would like this one as much, though, because the trailer didn’t have me all that interested. Don’t get me wrong, it looked interesting, but too childish for me. As it turns out, it ended up being one of Pixar’s deepest movies so far. I’ve noticed that recently with Pixar anyways, as they’ve been getting more-and-more serious with each new movie from them. I sort of hope that doesn’t happen with Toy Story 3 next year, though, because the Toy Story movies were never really meant to be all that serious. Up explores with a lot of deeper and more mature themes than you would usually expect from a Pixar film, with death being the main one.

Even though this one is pretty serious and does focus on more mature themes, of course it wouldn’t a Pixar film without some great laughs thrown in there as well. The dog Dug and the bird Kevin being the main things from the movie that delivered most of the laughs, at least to me. The laughs never really get to the point of being too childish, either, because I’m not a child and I laughed quite a bit throughout the movie. I don’t laugh at a lot of the kiddy potty humor jokes, either. Of course the main thing that shines for this is its amazing visuals of course. Pixar’s animation just keeps improving with each new film they push out. I think the animation in this one just barely passes that of Wall-E’s. Like any of Pixar’s other films, though, the main thing that helps drive their films is the story behind the movie. The wonderful imagination from the writers at Pixar is really what makes their films special.

I loved how they added Carl’s back-story into the first 10 or 15 minutes of the movie, because it really helps you love and feel sad for his character. During his back-story is when the death theme gets kicked into, too. This is probably Pixar’s most adventurous film yet, though. As soon as Carl’s house sets out with Russell the adventure doesn’t stop at all, until the credits hit. The entire movie leads up to an incredibly pleasing climax that I was hoping to for the entire movie. I already knew who the villain was going to be from the first 5 minutes of the movie, though. I thought it was pretty obvious, even though you didn’t actually find out who it was until right before the climax. I love how the real meaning of the movie kicks in at the end of the movie: that Carl’s adventure had already happened, it wasn’t his trip in Paradise Falls, but instead the live he lived. His entire live he got to spend with Ellie was his true adventure.

I ended up walking out of the theater very pleased that I got a chance to see this before it left theaters, because had I missed it, I would’ve been very disappointed. As far as ranking it against other of Pixar’s films, I’d put it right behind The Incredible and tied for second with Wall-E. I also heard that the short movie before Up, Partly Cloudy, wasn’t as great as some of the short movies before Pixar’s previous films, but I enjoyed it. I laughed through it the entire 5 minutes, and it got pretty sad at times during it, too. I’d recommend trying to catch this one before it leaves theaters, because I’m sure that you won’t be disappointed. I think Pixar always seems to create a movie that I feel almost anyone can enjoy.

+

The Hangover (Todd Philips, 2009)

After waiting quite awhile to actually see this, earlier today I finally got to do so. I must say that all the positive feedback that this has been getting is well deserved, because it’s probably the funniest movie of this year. That isn’t really too hard, though, because except for Observe and Report and I Love You, Man, this is the only good comedy that has came out this year. I will admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Old School, because other than a few funny parts, I didn’t laugh at much of the movie. I did really like Starsky and Hutch, though, but I didn’t know he did that one before watching this. The School for Scoundrels remake wasn’t all that great either, even though it was mildly entertaining. This is by the best movie from Todd Philips that I’ve seen so far, but I guess I should be praising the writers and not the director. Except looking at their past films, none of them has been particularly good.

This is the only movie in a long time that literally had me laughing throughout the entire movie. I don’t think there was one scene where I had actually stopped laughing, except for when I got distracted because my sister kept texting me for some reason. This is one of the few comedies that stayed consistently funny throughout, even after the rather traditional ending. Hell, even after the credits started rolling, you’re still laughing. Of course this wouldn’t be the kind of comedy that all would love, but I think that as long as you don’t get upset with obscene movies, then you’ll love this. The really felt like a Judd Apatow movie in a sense, except to be honest, this was probably funnier than any of the movies of his I’ve seen, and I’ve seen most of them.

Of course the main thing that helps this movie flow through is the acting from all the comedians. Zach Galifianakis seemed to be the favorite for most people that got around to seeing this, and I agree that he was hilarious. I preferred Bradley Cooper more as a character, though. I just think that his character was more likable. Ed Helms shouldn’t be left out either, who was like his two other cast members, which was hilarious. He was probably my least favorite out of the main trio of the movie. Ken Jeong had me laughing more than any of them, though. Jeong seems to be part of Apatow’s crew now, too, and it’s good to see him moving his way to other comedies than just Apatow’s. Everyone in the cast was pretty hilarious, though, but the four I mentioned were the only ones that I felt was worth mentioning.

Overall, this is by far my favorite comedy from this year, and actually my favorite comedy from the decade, probably. As far as ranking this against the other movies I’ve seen this year, I would put it right behind Up as my second favorite of the year. Anyone that’s even mildly interested in seeing it needs to get to seeing it before it leaves theaters. It’s not a movie that’s absolutely necessary to see in theaters, but the sooner the better for this one. It’s absolutely hilarious.

+

You have it scored as in the review, but rated in the table of contents.