The Gnat: Fly on the Wall Reviews

I might have, I don't remember for sure because it is a phrase that I have been using for a while. But I think that I heard it somewhere else and started using it, but there is no way that I could track it back and remember where I heard it at.

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"As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away."
-From Identity

NIce set of movie reviews you got here Gnat.. Keep it up! I really love the movie "Transformers"..

Hot Rod

Andy Samberg's first film was decently entertaining with a lot of good "digital short" like humor from SNL. However, like most SNL actor based movies, the story was a little lacking like in most of the skits.

The biggest problem with this film is that it tried to have a "heart" at some points in time, and those scenes were painful to watch. It really hurt the timing of the film and hurt some of the comedy of the film. However, the comedy did manage to shine through more often then not.

Samberg played his character very well with all of its odd little ticks and quirks. The rest of the characters while interesting weren't great and felt like some of them, at least, had been borrowed from various SNL skits past and present. However, this is a comedy and the supporting characters were able to help support a lot of the laughs and create a few good ones themselves.

Overall this doesn't even rate as a good "popcorn" film (through this in for you Yoda I hadn't made a reference in a little bit), but if you like comedies a lot, it isn't one that you want to pass up as it does have some great comedy moments.

Overall Grade: C
Acting: C+
Story: C+
Audio/Visual: C (I loved the use of eighties hair metal thoughout the film)

I must be getting old...hell, I am getting old!
At any rate, I hated Hot Rod.

Just not funny for me.

Thanks Gnut but i may give this one a miss

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Cashback

This film is a prototypical art house film in that it is character/idea driven as well as has a fair amount of gratuitous nudity in it. And it has another important art house aspect, for the most part it is a depressing film.

What works well in this film is the interplay between the character and the idea in the film. It helps that I am a romantic and how it deals with the depressing aspects of love, but I like the abstract way in which the main character deals with beauty and love. It is really disturbing on most levels, but very fascinating to see into the character.

The one idea that I think this film tries to make, or at least tries to slip in a couple of times whether or not it agrees with it is up for debate, is the idea of beauty being connected to love. I'm not sure if this is a pure connection between beauty and love, or the idea that what is found beautiful is often easier to love, but the amount of talk about beauty does seem to imply that some of the characters fail to see a difference between beauty and love.

This film relies very heavily on voice over, which can become a bit pretentious at times in that the narration, while complimenting the film, is so heavily used. There are some points in time where it is possible to see into the characters mind and come out with the voice over, without it actually being said. However, with all of that said, the voice over does not detract from the film.

Overall this was a film that I enjoyed a lot. Even with it having a happy ending, it was a very well done film about the ideas in the film, not so much about the plot. The plot moved along entertainingly enough that it didn't take away from the ideas as well, so they complimented each other nicely.

Overall Grade: A-
Acting: B
Story: A
Audio/Visual: A

It doesn't surprise me that people don't like this film. Like I said it was pretty hit or miss in it humor, but there were enough parts that I found humorous that I at least somewhat appreciated it. I have a feeling that a 3.5 from me is probably about the same as a 1.5 from most other people. If I get any enjoyment out of a film, I consider it a good thing. And I have a feeling that most of the people on this forum could give it a miss and feel like they haven't missed a thing, and I generally would have given it a miss as well, but Andy Samberg's digital shorts are the only good thing going for SNL right now, so I figured, why not give it a try.

Welcome to the Jungle

I would start out by saying something good about this film. But the only thing that I can potentially come up with is that all of the main characters died since they were awful characters. But that isn't even a good thing since their deaths were pathetic, the closest thing to a good death was when you see one guy get clubbed over the head.

Now for the bad in the film. First off for Yoda I'll point out that it was all shot in shaky cam. trying to become the next Blair Witch type movie, and failing miserably. Even with all of the night scenes they didn't even use the night vision on the camera meaning that you saw basically nothing, and it loses basically anything/everything that could potentially be scary.

Also it was a very poorly scripted "unscripted" film. They tried to make it feel like it was just footage from the camera that was raw and that this actually happened. However, the "natural" dialog sounded like it was a bad MTV scripted reality show. It was extremely painful to watch them attempt to speak.

Now, I reviewed another bad horror film in Black Sheep that was just funnily bad (and I believe intentionally so), this one wasn't that sort of bad. This one was, punch self in face while watching movie bad. It was boring to watch with a first act that lasted three-quarters of the movie, a second act lasting the last quarter and no third act (thankfully).

Overall, I would recommend taking ones own eye out with an ice pick before watching this film. The only reason that I sat through the whole film was because I was watching it at a friends place, and I didn't feel like getting up and leaving half way through the film (too tired/lazy).

Overall Grade: F-
Acting: F
Story: F------
Visual/Audio: F--

looks like i will give this a miss also

The Incredibles

I just saw this movie again on TV over Thanksgiving, and as I am currently at work and bored at work, I figured that I might as well toss up a review about it.

Overall, I think that this is one of the best 3D modelled animations that I have seen done. It doesn't have the same level of historical significance as a movie like Toy Story does being the first really solid and entertaining, while being very crisp visually, 3D modelled animations, but I think the story and presentation of it are on a level higher then that of most other films in that style. I am going to specify this style of film as the 3D modelling that is not supposed to look realistic (or at least more so) that has been done in a fair number of films recently with CGI, green screen, etc.

What I think makes this story is the diversity of characters. Characters like Edna 'E' Mode are very unique and funny to watch. But not every character is simply this crazy off the wall character, there is some semblance of reality mixed in with the madness of being in a completely fictional world. There are "real world" issues that the family is dealing with, such as Helen wondering what her husband is up to when he leaves all of the time for "business trips", or Violets troubles at school, even the squabble at the dinner table is realistic to a point between brother and sister. It is a superhero film that isn't purely about the explosions and action (being 3D modelling maybe saves it from being like that) but does have some "heart" to it.

I think if they had done this live action, people would end up being caught up so much more in the action and explosions and the powers that the characters have, that they would fail to realize the good "family" message behind the film (probably still lost most of the time). But the 3D modelling, since you really can have the characters do anything, means that some of the "wow factor" from the action, etc. isn't there as much.

Overall, I think this is one of the best 3D modelling films. I feel like it is made so that it can be entertaining to people of any age where as previous 3D modelled films, like Toy Story, have treated themselves like animation and followed along the idea that animation/cartoons are for kids and therefore they don't have that level at which older people can enjoy them as much as The Incredibles does.

Overall Grade: A-
Acting: N/A
Story: A
Audio/Visuals: A-

The three year old I baby sit loves it so do I Thanks for your review

Pitch Black

Most of the time I wonder why movie companies think making films with Vin Diesel are a good idea, and every now and again there is a decent one with him in it. This would be one of those. But then again this film is really right up my alley in that it has sci-fi elements to it while having a creature horror feature feel to it as well.

What makes Vin Diesel work in this role is that it isn't an extremely demanding role when it comes to emotions and showing them. He does a solid job of playing the hardnosed, emotionless, killer in the film, and pulls it off very well.

The rest of the cast around him does a good job as well. I was impressed with the fact that they didn't have everyone who you would expect survive actually survive. To me having some elements/events that are unpredictable really helps out the story in a film. Even though the ending was predictable on the simpliest level, in that some of the people escape the creatures, it wasn't completely predictable in who survived and how it reached that point.

Another thing that works in this film, or at least that I appreciated I can see people disliking this, is the variety of perspectives that the film is shot from. Such as when it is shot from the view point of Riddick (Vin Diesel's character) or the view point of the creatures. The variety in how they did that made it interesting to watch in that the shots aren't plain and simple point of view shots, but actually to define some of what the character/creature is seeing. That just adds depth to the character, and interest to the creatures.

Overall this isn't some deep and profound sci-fi movie with some amazing idea that it trumpets that has never been done before. There are themes running through the film of caring and compassion, etc., but all of those have been done before. The main thing that this film is, is a solid blending of sci-fi and creature feature, into an entertaining, somewhat suspenseful movie.

Overall Grade: B
Acting: B
Story: B
Audio/Visual: B

Passion of the Christ

This movie I found to be interesting. In some ways it is profound because it doesn't have a warm/nice feel about it like Christians attempt to portray in church, in other ways it really wasn't that great a film.

I don't mind the fact that it was all in subtitles, which I am sure bugged some non-movie people, but it was fitting in that it was a period peice. So I thought that the film had that going for it.

I also thought that the portrayels in the film were solid. Nothing extremely amazing, but not all that terrible. And for a film that, you can't have bad performances, otherwise it completely subverts anything that the film is trying to do.

One of the things that bugged me a little is how strongly Roman Catholic (and extremely conservative Roman Catholic) it was. There were definite undertones with how some of the characters were portrayed, and all of the stops that aligned with Roman Catholic tradition. I felt like someone who knows about those, would see it as subverting what the film was trying to do.

But the big thing about this film is how grim and violent the film was. Unlike the normal Christian message which makes sure to talk about the good that came from this and what happens afterwards, Mel Gibson's telling of it focused so much on the violence and suffereing that it really under cut parts of what the actual message of the film should be.

Overall this was a film that was well made, but I think little more then that. It wasn't a profound retelling when you step back and look at it, and the only way it really would effect someone is through the violence and relying on that to play upon most people instincts to want to help/feel pity for someone who is suffering.

Overall Grade: C
Acting: C
Story: C
Audio/Visual: B

thanks

Dracula: Dead and Loving It

This film I felt was disappointing for a Mel Brooks film (whose films I normally enjoy a lot) with how it parodied Dracula (which I enjoyed a lot). There was little that caught my attention all that quickly, and the laughs were too far between so it lost my attention fairly quickly as well.

Normally I enjoy a good parody, but in this case, it seemed to fall flat a lot of the time. The pacing was too slow and even the performance by Brooks in the film wasn't that great. Leslie Nielsen also, while giving a typical performance, wasn't any spectacular in the film.

The story itself was crafted fine in that it kept fairly closely to the actual workings of the story Dracula, but the humor that was attempted to be interjected didn't work. The jokes often fell fairly flat or were too random to be all that entertaining. There definitely were high points where jokes were hit on that were very funny, but for the most part, these jokes really didn't help out the film that much.

Overall this was a disappointing film. It wasn't a terrible parody, but when coming from Mel Brooks I definitely expected something that was funnier and more entertaining. Not one that I would highly recommend, but it does have a few good laughs in it.

Overall Grade: C
Story: C-
Acting: C-
Audio/Visual: C+

Me too, thanks for the review

As a welcome to Becs and because her welcome post reminded me of it, I have a new review to do:

Bend it like Beckham

This really is a guilty pleasure movie for me in that I can't think of anything earth shattering about it or any great performances in it. I just find this movie pretty entertaining more then anything else. Also, having Keira Knightley in a film never really hurts the film in my opinion.

I think the story is a good one for a film. It isn't a great story with a lot of hidden depth, but it definitely is a solid story in the message that it is trying to reach of going for your dreams, especially focused at the female community. But it doesn't just stop there as the main characters father does return to living a life that he wants to live as compared to the one that society and culture had pushed him into.

There are a few goofy parts, like both girls falling for their coach as part of the "conflict", the social conflict would have been enough to make this an entertaining film without having to try and build in some of the romance. It wasn't poorly done, but compared to the main conflict and story in the film, it wasn't a needed side story.

Another thing about this film is that while there were no great acting performances there were also no terrible acting performances. Too often in this type of film there ends up being a character or two that is so extremely odd or so extremely over the top that it kills anything good that the movie might have going for it.

Overall this is a popcorn type of film. Nothing great about it, but a simple story in a simple film that doesn't try and be too much. Definitely a pop corn film in my opinion (or a guilty pleasure film, but all films with Keira Knightley are that for me).

Overall Grade: B
Story: B+
Acting: C+
Audio/Visual: B-

The Hole

This is a very odd film. It is based off of a book by the same name, and I saw/read them in the order of the movie and then the book. And the book is notably better, even though the movie wasn't terrible. The basic premise is there are four people who are trapped in an old bomb shelter for a week or a little bit less and three of them end up dead and it is an attempt by a detective to peice together what actually happened down there because the survivor is in too much shock and horror to actually be much help.

The story works pretty well for the film. In both the film and the book, they really don't try and hide the twist of what is going to happen all that much, but instead it is more about the psycological play between the detective and the survivor. The story is crafted better in the book even though the film doesn't stray too far away from the plot of the book. I think the biggest difference is with the added use of the sense of sight, it becomes easier to pick up the on subleties in the film of what is going to happen and what is going on, as compared to the book.

Also, Thora Birch's portayel of the survivor also lends itself to being able to figure out the twist as the mannerisms and mindset of her character really come across on the screen as something that helps define the end of the film. The other acting in the film is solid. It is a teen film so there aren't any strongly established actors and actresses (at that point in their career) in it, even though Keira Knightley does play one of the four people trapped in the bomb shelter.

Overall this is a pretty average movie. There isn't anything great abot it, there isn't much all that bad about it. It was entertaining, and I liked it more then most people probably would because of the psychological aspect being the dominant aspect. I tend to appreciate jacked up characters, like there are in this film.

Overall Grade: B
Acting: B
Story: B+
Audio/Visuals: B-

The Muppet Christmas Carol

In the spirit (all puns intended) of the season, I figured that I would review this retelling of the classic Dicken's tale A Christmas Carol. This retelling of it is very entertaining and fun to watch, and very well done.

One interesting thing about this adaptation of it, as compared to a lot of pseudo adaptation is that this one is very accurate to the story. Granted in Dicken's verision there weren't puppets and musical numbers, or a puple creature narrating it, but it is more accurate in the actual story, not leaving out commonly left out details (mainly with what the third ghost shows Scrooge).

Another thing that is done extremely well in this is the added dialog and humor thrown in throughout the film. Obviously as it is the muppets it is expected to have some odd humor to it, and they didn't force/add the humor in poorly in the film. It flowed in with the characters and the pacing, not undercutting what goes on the actual story, but accenting it with humor points.

Overall there is little poor about this film. It isn't a high quality film that is has revolutionized the film industry in any way, but it is a very entertaining film and one of the better Christmas films in my opinion. I tend not to like many Christmas films because of how absurdly hokey they end up being.

Overall Grade: B+
Acting: B-
Story: A-
Audio/Visual: B+

A History of Violence

I went into this film expecting it to be a solid film, and while it had its moments, I felt that it was a disappointing film more then not. And I may shock some of you by comparing it to Spiderman 3 further along in my review, but so be it.

What I like about the film is the idea in the film. The idea of creating the new persona and living it out like the previous one didn't even exist and being something and someone completely different. I think the idea is something that is very interesting, albeit not all that well pulled off in this film. There are some scenes, like the first scene with between Viggo Mortensen's character (Tom Stall) and Ed Harris' character (Carl Fogerty) in the diner. I thought that one was very good and telling about the character and interactions between the characters. However, there were equally as many forced scenes that tried to get this idea across and those really dragged down the movie.

One thing that I didn't like about this movie was the plethera of characters and the sub-plots that went along with these characters that really didn't do anything to advance the main plot of the film. There were several scenes with Stall's son in the film that really didn't make any sense or add anything to the film. The whole series of interactions at school were rather pointless. It felt like they were mixing in a little teen drama with the rest of the story, and the combination of genres were at a head in this film. And there were other scenes that really didn't make sense or add anything to the story. The whole cheerleader outfit sex scene seemed like something that was thrown in just in order to have a romance scene at that point. The set up for it and the idea of it though was a separate tangent that could have been better worked out in the film.

And besides being random the scenes that were meant to move the story forward didn't do so for the most part as there were some scenes that progressed but then simply slipped back to where they were before. When Stall's wife visits him at the hospital after his second trip there, she literally is sick at the sight of him and what has been going on because of him. But then in the first scene back from the hospital (or coming back from a police station) she covers for him and seems to have no qualms doing so. These mood swings in the film don't work well in that they don't actually progress the story but instead leave it sitting there stuck in neutral.

Finally for my comparison with Spiderman 3. This film runs into the same problem as Spiderman 3 in that it has to many bad guys that are too seperate from one another. We meet two at the beginning and we assume that they are going to carry some weight throughout the whole film, but the next scene we see them in, they die. Then Fogarty comes along, he has a nice run of about half the film, and then he dies. Then Ricky comes along, and he is there for about a scene, and he dies. Spiderman 3 does this as well, except for the fact that Spiderman 3 at least has one giant battle at the end. In this film the villains are little more then blips on a radar and really don't do much to frighten the viewer as they are there are gone.

One final good thing about the film though is that it doesn't end with a perfect "Hollywood ending", it seems to set itself up for one (which is a little disappointing in my book), but it never actually reaches that point. It definitely is set up for reconciliation, but it is clear that there is going to be a lot of time and struggles to reach a happy ending.

Overall this is a subpar film. It tries to do to much with introducing to many villains and to many sub-plots that neither the villains or the sub-plots are properly filled out. The idea is there, and it is a good one, the execution of it though is very poor.

Overall Grade: C-
Story: D
Acting: C+
Audio/Visual: B-