Lennon's reviews!

McAdams was the best thing about this movie. Plus Lacey Chabert is hot.

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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

Yes, I agree, although I did like McAdams' performance, deffinat highlight of the movie, but what about Tina Fey's writing? I loved it

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

Cloverfield

Only two words can describe this movie: HOLY and CRAP,



A small group of friends are attacked by a monster (Caplan, Lucas, Vogel, and a hardly seen Miller) while attending a party for a friend going away to Japan (Stahl-David.)

Post-Mean Girls Lizzy Caplan plays Marlena Diamond, and boy does she look hot! I mean she looked ok as Janis Ian, but nothing you would go gaga for but in this jeez, I can see why Hud likes her.
Anyway, Caplan plays awesome, although I couldn’t stop thinking of Janis and was waiting for her to go all gothic and stuff.

Mike Vogel, an actor I admire since the indie Grind, plays Jason Hawkins, Rob’s little brother, I didn’t like the way he looked, I mean in the party his hair is YUCK, but his acting ability is awesome.

Jessica Lucas plays Lily Ford, Jason’s girlfriend and implied fiancée, her role is memorable, and I actually felt for her, the true highlight of the movie, besides the monster.

A hardly seen T.J. Miller is Hud, our loveable and sarcastic cameraman. Easily the most loveable of the bunch, again I promise you will feel for him by the end.

Micheal Stahl-David is probably my second favorite character, Rob Hawkins; he is going to Japan the next day and has the party. Again, a memorable character you will remember for a long time.

Odette Yustman makes two brief appearances as Beth, Rob’s true love, and the reason why we’re running towards the monster, not away. Some of the things her character does are pretty unbelievable, my least favorite character.


I loved this movie, the special effects were awesome, J.J. Abrams did a GREAT job on covering up what this movie really was, I would go see it 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 more times. The "Blair Witch" style was really effective in getting me in, although you will feel sick for the first 5 minutes, but you get over it. I only had one problem, some of the characters were killed off so quickly, there was no character development, and I didn’t feel for them.

One Hour Photo

If this movie doesn’t make you stop using your camera, your pulse has stopped.

Former music-video director Mark Romanek gives us a true masterpiece.

Sy Parrish (Williams) a photo-developer becomes obsessed with the family who he develops photos for the Yorkin family (Nielsen, Vartan, and Smith.)

Normal funnyman Robin Williams gives a truly hair-raising performance, as Sy Parrish, the man who develops photos for the Yorkin family, sounds safe enough, right? Yeah, well that’s the same thing a guy told me about cleaning his gun with the safety off. "Sy the photo guy" as he is known by the Yorkin family, soon becomes obsessed with them becomes with some twisted logic he thinks his life is part of their family. It is sad no one can take Robin Williams seriously, as this movie’s box office reflects.

Connie Nielsen plays Nina Yorkin, the mother and wife of the family. She masterfully plays the role of the pretty girl whom the guy has fallen in love with but she acts nice to him but really thinks he is creepy.

Michael Vartan plays Will Yorkin, the father and husband. He really does play a bad guy, and pretends to like Sy but bad talks him behind his back, he’s like a grown up Regina George.

Dylan Smith plays Jake Yorkin, the son of the family. One of the best child star’s performances I have seen in the past 5 years. He is the only one who truly does like Sy, and often feels sorry for him and his lonely existence in this world.

This film is driven and relies heavily on Robin Williams’ serious
performance, which makes it all-the-more great, the music flows very well and the performance by Gary Cole as Sy’s boss, reminds me as his role in Office Space, except ten times more serious. Also the ending makes you think, which I liked. Mark Romanek is a true new master of the game.

Nice review of One Hour Photo Lennon. I loved this movie! One of Williams' best performances ever. I like him, but he did far better in this role than I thought he would.

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"I know, honey. Look at the map. We go your way, that's about four inches. We go my way, it's an inch and a half. You wanna pay for the extra gas?"

I know, I can't belive he wasn't nominated for ANYTHING

I know! It was clearly one of his finest performances ever.

The Golden Compass

No amount of special effects can save this ‘Golden’ disappointment.

Chris Weitz couldn’t turn a great book into a steaming pile of crap, could he?

Our plot follows Lyra Belacqua (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards) on a trip with Mrs. Coulter (played by Nicole Kidman, the true highlight of the movie,) and her daemon, Pantalaimon (played with some very weird voice acting by Freddie Highmore) to the North. She is going there to save her friends who have been kidnapped by Gobblers. She also has the Alethiometer, which tells all to those who can read it.

Ok, where did this film go wrong? Well, first Daniel Craig, one of the main reasons I went, barely has any screen-time. The screen-time he did have, I feel wasn’t good enough to even have his name on the poster. He should have more star power to get better roles then this.

Another thing gotten wrong was the fact that the scenes felt rushed, little to none character development, or their motives, I had to explain to someone why Lyra went on a big trip with Mrs. Coulter two minutes after meeting her.

The final thing that I was disappointed in was the fact that even though I know that the book ends like the way the film does, I was hoping that they would change that up a bit. Nope, the last twenty minutes is them explaining the huge battle they are going to, then
they go in a balloon and it is over.

There was one thing that I did like about this movie was the special effects, the daemons looked fantastic, as do the ice bears.
All-in-all by the end I felt like Chris Weitz had mugged me, he had forced me to the ground, took out my wallet, and stole my $10 dollars.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Can ‘Yuma’ bring the western back?

Our story follows the down on his luck rancher, Dan Evans (Bale), who is in dire need of money, after someone burns his barn down, agrees to help take the dreaded Ben Wade (Crowe) to make the 3:10 to Yuma Prison, for $200.

James Mangold, the Oscar-gypt’d director of Walk the Line and Girl, Interrupted, gives us a superb modern western.

I must call this film superb, because that is the only word to describe Christian Bale and Russell Crowe’s acting. Their chemistry is electrifying. The only time you will ever not notice them is when Ben Foster is in the scene; his performance in this can’t even be described by words.

The original music conducted by Emmy award nominated conductor Marco Beltrami, who has done such great scores I, Robot, and Hellboy, has no exception here. Great Oscar nomination for the music. I personally think it should win.

Oh, and the special effects, I could have sworn that you could see actual bullets going through the skin! Truly great job by the team in that department.


One thing I must complain about is that once or twice it threw the laws of science out the window, such as in the beginning, a guy shoots a spot on the horse and it blows up. What the heck? I mean, what did he shoot?

Besides that one incident, which the acting makes up for more than that, this film is an absolutely great western.

Meh every film is a here

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Umm no, there are a bunch of 4's and 3-3.5 also there are some 2's and two 1's

Jerome Bixby's the Man from Earth

Can Jerome Bixby have a good movie from beyond the grave?

David Lee Smith truly does deliver an Oscar-worthy performance, it is a shame no one is looking at direct to DVD films for Oscars, or many other awards for that matter.

Our story follows History professor John Oldman (Smith) who is leaving for an unknown reason. At his impromptu going away party, where he reveals to his friends Harry, Edith, Sandy, Dr. Will Gruber, Linda Murphy, Dan (in order Billingsley, Crawford, Peterson, Riehle, Thorpe, Todd,) that he is a 14.000 year old immortal. Naturally, thinking Oldman is a but crazy, the party turns to an interrogation, with an intelligent conversation.

This film goes right on many levels, for one thing it reveals to us that a sci-fi movie can be intelligent and not blind us with special effects, flashy stars, or millions of dollars.

Another thing they get right is David Lee Smith’s performance, he takes the art of persuasion and performs it the best I have seen in years. I can not rave enough about him. He is the only person I have seen to take such an unbelievable story and put all of his friends in semi-belief.

This movie does go wrong in one place though; it really lost me at the climax. It was just unbelievable, as was part of the ending; the rest of the movie had me going.

All in all, this was a great ensemble cast and a story that will keep
you going for the most part.It is worth the $1 at your local Redbox., or a spot on your Netflix.

Thanks John

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

Let the flaming and -rep Begin


Hot Fuzz


Is the ‘Fuzz’ really that ‘Hot’?

"Shaun of the Dead" team Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and director Edgar Wright, re-team for their new comedy "Hot Fuzz."

Our not-so action packed story follows Sgt. Nicholas Angel (Pegg) who is so good he is actually transferred to the village of Sandford, with a low murder rate and a high accident rate. There he meets follow "Policeman officer" Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) and the two at first aren’t that close but end up becoming best friends. Meanwhile, three accidents occur that look suspiciously like murders!

One part of this movie that I liked was the directing, I thought it was very slick and cool, I did have a likeness to one particular shot, same technique as in Shaun of the Dead. But here, I thought it was overused a tad bit (see next post).

Another part I liked was the performance, particularly from Mr. Underrated 007 Timothy Dalton and Nick Frost, there were more laughs by Nick more than any other character. As for Timothy Dalton, he really did play a cool villain, arguably the best of his career.

One thing I didn’t like about this movie was a lot of un-funny jokes, at least to me; I didn’t laugh at a lot of them. I must admit that some of the deaths in this movie were funny (particularly at the fair.)

Another thing I didn’t like about ‘Hot Fuzz’ was the fact that I was expecting a lot of more action, I know that does sound stupid, but I mean look at the trailer, I wasn’t expecting a "Shoot ‘Em Up" but there was only one scene of high action, and I felt that was dragged on too long.


One more thing I am going to point out is in one scene in particular is the lighting, I could barely see their faces, all I could see was the outline of their faces in red. I know this won Meat’s big "Best visuals" award, but I did feel like this scene must be pointed out.

The final thing I didn’t like was the reasons why the murderer(s) murdered the people, I didn’t like their reasons, they weren’t even really that funny and the way Nicholas Angel thought the reasons why they were killed would have been better.

So, the comedy team behind "Shaun of the Dead", can’t match that hilarity.

Directing method at 2:51-3:00

For Your Consideration

Does 'For Your Consideration' deserve yours?

Christopher Guest gives us a delightful little satire about how crazy Hollywood gets when the word "Oscar" is heard.

This satire follows veteran actress Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) and veteran actor Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer) who have had a long run in Hollywood but no awards. Their new movie "Home for Purim", just may change that, after a blogger says that she is award-worthy, she goes nuts! Pretty soon, one-by-one someone says they all are award-worthy.

I loved this film for many reasons, the first reason is its actors/actresses performance, especially from Catherine O'Hara and a bit but memorable role of Corey Taft by John Michael Higgins, they are genuinely awards-worthy.

Another reason of why loved this film was the writing, star Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest wrote great jokes. They aren't jokes that will have you laughing so hard, you need a paper bag and call the E.R.. But they will have you smiling and just put a sound out of your mouth that goes a bit like "hm".

The final reason I loved this film was the directing, Christopher Guest really hit the nail on the head here. It also helps I love his other films too.

If you are looking for a great satire about Hollywood during Oscar season, see 'For Your Consideration'

3 and a half - meh

huh? what is meh?

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker


I know, reviewing a kiddie movie is like watching a porno, horrible acting, a bad story, except with kiddie movies you don't have any fun. This my friends is no kiddie movie.

If you have followed the 2 seasoned show, much as I have, you will know that in the future there is Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle reprising his role from the series) has taken the identity as Batman, in a new suit, with the help of Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy, who was also in Batman:The Animated Series, and Batman Beyond,) to avenge his father's murder, and fight new villains.



Now that you're pretty much caught up with the series. Fifty years from the future in Gotham, a gang of teens are stealing some pretty high-tech technology, Terry and Bruce wonders, as I am sure you are, what these teens are doing with this high-tech stuff. unbeknown to there knowledge, a supposedly dead Joker is running the show.



I liked this movie, a whole lot actually, I thought it was worth it just to hear Mark Hamill's voice acting as the Joker, who knew this guy could do so well!



This movie was beautifully animated, the best WB has put out in a while, they kept true to the look and feel of the Joker.



I do have a few complaints for this movie though, but before I say it I must make a disclaimer that it may have just been my copy, it is a bit old, although the animation is beautiful, I felt the timing director Vincent Bassols did a very poor job.



Also, I do have a problem with how this was marketed, it was marketed pretty much as a kids cartoon, this is very dark. Alot of people die and get hurt, but I don't mind, I just wouldn't show it to my 5 year old cousin.



Rating:

It is a great addition to Batman

Why do I never get feedback on my reviews?



looks like I have to review something that is :shivers: mainstream.