Reviews by Bobby

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I thoght it looked bad in the trailer Thanks for the review
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NOT ACTUALLY BANNED
The Pursuit of Happyness (Muccino, 2006)


I think the best way to describe "The Pursuit of Happyness" is "Uncomfortably sad"

"The Pursuit of Happyness" is a movie about Chris Gardner (Will Smith) and his son Christopher (Jaden Smith) and their struggle to "Survive" in San Francisco.

Chris is a struggling salesman who's wife (Thandie Newton) becomes frustrated with their way of life. They struggle to pay every bill and they can't afford anything other than the necessities of life and sometimes they can't even afford that. Linda leaves Chris after one too many days of disappointment at Chris' inability to sell his product.

Chris and Christopher are on their own. Chris lucks out and gets an internship at a stock brokerage. He's one of twenty people fighting for a spot at the brokerage and he is constantly the underdog. Whether it be having to be the one to stop his work and get a donut for an executive or walking into work with one shoe and being stared at the entire way into the office area.

With the good (Winning the internship) comes the bad (He gets no pay, which in real life, he did, but in the movie, he didn't)

Chris spends the next six months of his internship living off the earnings of the remaining stock of his product he invested in. He and his son have no stable home. One night they'll be sleeping in a hotel and then the next they'll be sleeping at a homeless shelter and some nights they'll be sleeping in the bathroom of a subway station.

Is Will Smith good in this? He's decent. Not as great as I had heard. But the acting of Will Smith can't save this movie.

You are left sitting in your seat for two hours watching most of the movie squirming from the uncomfortable situations of being constantly railed on from landlords, etc. and begging his buddy for the 14 dollars he has owed him for months just to take the bus back home. I watched most of this movie with my hands over my face and peeking through my fingers out of the uncomfortable situation of watching a man struggle to survive and to keep his son's belly full.

Go into "The Pursuit of Happyness" expecting this: this movie is about Christopher Gardner sleeping on the street and struggling to make up stories to people he comes in contact with about why he's carrying all he owns everywhere around him. It's nothing more.

If you'd like to spend 7.50 to peer into the life of a man who is basically homeless and trying to raise his son, be my guest. I, for one, regret spending the money on it because the movie is nothing more than a classless play on emotions that leaves you turning your head from the screen half the time.

1/10



NOT ACTUALLY BANNED
Dreamgirls (Condon, 2006)


Oh, what could've been.

"Dreamgirls" is Bill Condon's latest creation which follows three black female singers, a songwriter, a manager and their ascent to the top of the pop charts in the late 60s to the mid 70s

Deena Jones (Beyonce Knowles) Effie White (Jennifer Hudson) and Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose) have been singing their whole lives and much of it together. They are three talented singers who all compliment each other very well and perform the songs of Effie's brother C.C. (Keith Robinson) to perfection.

They are always looking for their big break, which comes one night after being seen at a talent competition by Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx) who convinces them to go on tour with James "Thunder" Early (Eddie Murphy) as his backup singers.

Taylor is a car salesman who goes on the road with them and seemingly muscles his way into becoming Early's manager and closely watches after the girls and falls in love with Effie.

After helping to somewhat revive a slowly fading career of Early, the three singers land their own deal to perform shows in Miami. The Dreamettes are born and quickly rise in popularity.

Effie begins to become frustrated with her role in the group and what appears to be her fading spot in Taylor's heart. One night she leaves without any notice and comes back the night of one of their shows only to find that she has been kicked out of the group and replaced by Michelle Morris (Sharon Leal)

The Dreamettes become one of the most popular groups of their time and Effie fades into obscurity. The movie pretty much chronicles the ugly side of the music business. From the side of the Dreamettes and from the side of Effie.

Dreamgirls is a fun movie at times. The music is upbeat and entertaining for the most part, but music alone can't carry a movie. It can carry a "Musical" but not a movie that is supposed to be Oscar worthy.

Dreamgirls lacks heart and depth. It attempts to make up for it at times, but each time reaches to far and comes up empty.

Jennifer Hudson is everything she has been rumored to be...great. She will undoubtedly be nominated for an Oscar and may even win. Eddie Murphy isn't too bad either. Everyone else in the movie is decent at best.

There are some scenes during this movie that you watch and marvel at, but then you quickly come back down to earth when you realize that those moments are few and far between.

5/10



NOT ACTUALLY BANNED
Children of Men (Cuaron, 2007)


It's the year 2027. Human reproduction has come to a halt for the last 18 years and they youngest person on earth, Baby Diego, has just been murdered. But new hope arrives in the form of a young woman named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) and Theo (Clive Owen) a former political activist who's vapid working life has been rejuvenated by the discovery that Kee is pregnant.

This is the premise of Alfonso Cuaron's latest and greatest masterpiece.

Set in a somewhat futuristic and very violent London, we immediately get the feeling that we are viewing a world that is, at it's core, dead. Violence erupts all over the world all day every day and military personnel are constantly walking the streets of London.

News breaks that "Baby Diego" the youngest human on earth, was murdered after he refused to give an autograph.

While everyone else around him mourns, Theo seems to be unshaken by the news. He's accepted mankind's fate and looks at this as another domino being pushed over.

Theo is kidnapped by his former love interest Julian (Julianne Moore) in an attempt to lure him back to the activist life. We get the sense that she has something very important, but does not reveal to him what it is.

Through a series of unfortunate events, Theo meets Kee, discovers that she is pregnant and is now roped into trying to get her to a sanctuary at sea where she can give birth and scientists can examine Kee and her child and try and figure out a solution to the reproduction problem.

Cuaron is a master storyteller. The filming is some of the greatest I have ever seen and it's a shame that this movie has gotten zero Oscar buzz.

Clive Owen is his normal brilliant self and everyone else around him is good. Not great, but they do their work and they do it effectively.

Children of Men is simply one of the best films I have ever seen. I feel like the ending was a bit abrupt, but it's not an ending that would ruin what I would say is one of the best films of the 21st Century.

9/10



NOT ACTUALLY BANNED
Zodiac (2007, Fincher)


David Fincher is a directing God. Se7en, Fight Club, The Game and Panic Room are all really good movies.

His directorial return to the big screen for the first time in 5 years had me more than a little excited as he decided to take on the Zodiac killings from San Francisco in the late 60s to early 70s.

Zodiac chronicles the story of an seemingly random killer who terrorized the city of San Francisco for years. After committing his second murder in 8 months, the Zodiac killer contacts three newspapers in the area and orders them to print a cipher on the front page of the newspaper or he will continue to terrorize the area.

Columnist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) and cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) both immediately become engrossed in the case. For Avery, it's his job. For Graysmith, it becomes a passion.

Inspectors David Toschi and William Armstrong are two who follow the case very closely and go through several interviews to try and pin the Zodiac killer.

Over the next 2h40m we see the grisly murders of The Zodiac and the investigators failed attempts to track him down. It gets to the point where he is toying with columnists, investigators and the general public.

For the first half of the movie, we are fully in the grasp of David Fincher. He keeps you fully engaged in the movie. The second half begins to drag as the story begins to focus on Graysmith's attempt to bring down The Zodiac. Graysmith goes through the files and contacts three different people involved with the case on a regular basis to try and crack the case.

The main problem with Zodiac is that the second half of the movie seems to do nothing except review all the info you got in the first half, only it does it all in a very slow fashion and with a lot less of that Fincher flair.

The one thing that is consistently good about Zodiac, is Robert Downey Jr.. Downey is great in the movie from beginning to end.

Overall, I'd say it's a good movie, but the second half could have been more interesting than Fincher made it.

7/10



NOT ACTUALLY BANNED
Perfect Stranger (Foley, 2007)


Is it Friday night? Are you sitting at home with nothing to do? Well, I got something for you to do.

Perfect Stranger stars Halle Berry as a journalist named Rowena who goes undercover to bust the man she suspects killed her former friend Grace (Nicki Aycox)

After becoming frustrated with her employer, Rowena quits her job at a newspaper and decides to pursue stories on her own without the shackles of censorship.

After she discovers that Grace has been murdered, Rowena and her close friend from the paper, Miles (Giovanni Ribisi) decide to go on an investigative mission inside the business run by the man she believes killed her friend, Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis)

Over the next 1h49m, we watch as Rowena is hired as a temp at Hill's offices, and as she looks for evidence to prove that Hill killed Grace after she threatened to reveal their affair to his wife. She talks to the office gossip, Gina (Clea Lewis) and chats with Hill over the internet under an alias in order to get to know him better so she can get close and get the info she needs.

Rowena gathers the proof along with the friend she so unappreciatively neglects, Miles, as she inches closer to seducing Hill into the trap she's about to spring.

Halle Berry is really awful in this movie. Really awful. Willis is ok, but the movie is clearly stolen by two actors. The first is the very surprising Clea Lewis. She is by far the most likable character and she plays it well. The second is the VERY undervalued Giovanni Ribisi who doesn't get the respect he deserves as a very talented actor. I have always loved Ribisi. Ribisi and Lewis have a certain charisma to them that sets their performances so far apart from everyone else's.

Is the movie a great movie in the typical sense? No. Not really. Is the ending contrived? Very much so. But the fact is that this movie is not trying to be something it's not. It's not trying to be a great thriller like Se7en or Silence of the Lambs, instead it's simply trying to be a Friday night popcorn flick with a bit of an edge, and in that context, it succeeds to an extent.

Overall this movie is decent for what it's trying to be and probably doesn't deserve the horrid reviews it's been getting so far. People need to take it for what it's worth and if you do that, you may find yourself somewhat entertained.

6/10



Thanks for all the great reviews Bobby.... I've been trying to play catch up on all the reviews when I have a few minutes....
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AiSv Nv wa do hi ya do...
(Walk in Peace)




28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
I think you totally missed the mark on Happyness.
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Suspect's Reviews



NOT ACTUALLY BANNED
Spider-Man 3 (Raimi, 2007)


Ok, well, let me start by saying that I enjoy the Spider-Man series. I thought 1 was good and 2 was excellent. Yes, a lot of the dialogue is cheesy, but it's a comicbook series. It's based on action and stories.

Now that we got this out of the way, let me say that if this wasn't a part of the Spider-Man series then this would be on every critics bottom 10 list for the year.

I was so excited to see it, but they really took the cheesy dialogue, really lame scenes and horrible attempts to elicit emotional responses to an all time high.

By now, we all know the story. Peter Parker is a photographer with an alter-ego...he is Spider-Man. He's in love with the emotionally hard to figure out Mary Jane Watson.

Very early in the movie we get one of the 'anticipated' matchups when Harry and Peter fight. Not Spider-Man, but Peter. Harry is all done out in his father's goblin suit.

Of course this first battle ends out in a victory for Spidey. Harry takes a huge hit to the head on a bar and is knocked out and is dying. Peter gets him to a hospital where the doctors are able to save him, but he now has what could be permanent short-term memory loss. He can't remember his anger for Peter, he can't remember if he has a girlfriend or not...he pretty much only remembers up until high school.

The other 'Bad guys' are played by Thomas Haden Church, who is a character called "The Sandman" who can do amazing things after being involved in a freak accident while on the run from the police after breaking out of prison, and the other is Topher Grace who plays Venom. We'll get to him later.

Peter finds out that his grandfather's murderer was not found originally and that the convict escaped from prison is the one who did it.

With his anger growing, a black, sticky, ooze creeps on to Peter and takes over. He is now Venom. He has nothing but anger and revenge in his heart.

After a series of unfortunate events, he feels the need to get rid of the suit. He fights himself to get it off and finally does so only to have the black ooze transfer on to Peter's arch enemy from The Bugle, Edward Brock.

I can't say much more without giving away the plot, but good gosh this was bad. There are many scenes that make you cringe because of how bad the dialogue is and there are plenty of scenes that tested my gag reflex (Harry and MJ doing the twist, Peter walking down the street with a new attitude and pointing and winking at girls as he goes along, Peter doing pelvic thrusts in a men's store, Peter dancing and playing piano in a jazz bar, etc.)

Peter's Venom side is actually quite intriguing though. When he is Peter, he has an attitude. He will willingly fight people on the street without his suit. Not bad guys, he'll fight people who just plain tick him off. His edge is nice, but not really usefull except for in a couple of scenes.

The fighting scenes are good. It's your typical great action scenes for the most part. There are a couple of times where the scenes seem like something out of Spy Kids, but that's only once or twice.

Overall, this is probably the worst comic book movie ever. Not kidding.

I'd avoid at all cost, but knowing that it's Spider-Man, I know most can't resist. They're curious and they have to know.

Well, don't say I didn't warn you...

1/10



Yeah, I'm pretty shocked, myself. Bobby: could the low rating have something to do with the enormous expectations that the film must have come with?



NOT ACTUALLY BANNED
Yeah, I'm pretty shocked, myself. Bobby: could the low rating have something to do with the enormous expectations that the film must have come with?
Well, I was excited to see it, but my expectations were lowered when I saw early reviews, so I didn't have too high of expectations.

When you see it, I think you'll see what I'm talking about with some of the painfully bad scenes.



Well, I was excited to see it, but my expectations were lowered when I saw early reviews, so I didn't have too high of expectations.

When you see it, I think you'll see what I'm talking about with some of the painfully bad scenes.
Ah, okay. Thanks for elaborating.

Anyway, I'm pretty bummed by this, if only because I really loved the first two (I think both are among the five best superhero films ever made).



A system of cells interlinked
And now Zeiken clocks in with a 2/10.... Not looking good, folks...
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28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Seeing how I had the same gripes, but gave the film an 8, I feel like I have to defend it.

Both 1 and 2 are way too low. The technical aspects of the film alone warrant it higher then those ratings. The biggest problem with the film, you did not state. So I won't really go there.

Yes there are dance sequences, the main one being the Parker/Travolta scene, but it played out nice. Parker, a loser is trying to be cool and a bad ass, it doesn't work, this shows. If you remember in the second film they had somewhat of a similar scene with the song "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" in the background.

Harry and MJ doing the twist, lasts all but 3 seconds.Their friends, their cooking and the song is playing in the background. If it went on any longer I could see problems, but not something that is about 3 seconds long.

I did have a problem with the Jazz dancing scene though, it was out of place. One too many at that point.

Yes, again the film is full of cheese, but it's based on a comic book. It's suppose to be. The only parts that this effects would be the emotional parts, like you said. But for everything else it adds to the comic book feel. Which is nice because they stray from the comics so much.

With those 'painfully' bad scenes, they hide in the shadows of what's good about it, and thus warranting it a higher rating.

I totally disagree with your ratings, but agree with some of your gripes.