I’ve seen a lot of the films on this list already, but I’m going to see if I can squeeze them all in this year. There are so many American films that should be on this list rather than some of their choices, but as an arbitrary listing of things to see, there are some [...]
Read more →HURT LOCKER – I found this a bit less impressive than I’d expected, given the Oscars it won. Over-rated, with characters that just don’t mean anything; to each other or the viewer.
Read more →CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Caesar, son of the talking apes from the future, finds out about the humans’ slave trade in ape servants, and he’s not having any of it. Caesar apparently convinces these non-talking apes to rebel merely by looking at them, and they rise up and say “NO!” This [...]
Read more →BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES – Astronaut Brent shows up on this surprisingly Earth-like planet, on a rescue mission to find Taylor. Enter the insane nuclear missile worshiping remnants of the human race, hiding underground, and it’s time to destroy the Earth again. This film feels like a rehash of the first film, as [...]
Read more →BUCK – I was reluctant to watch this film; how interesting could a film about a horse trainer be? Well, it turns out it’s pretty good, thanks to a surprisingly charismatic central figure in Buck.
Read more →THE LAST MOUNTAIN – No real revelations; coal mining is destroying the Appalachians, and the lives of many in the area. Well produced film captures some of the impact on one community.
Read more →THE RED CHAPEL – Interesting bit of sneaky documentary work. They were able to get away with a lot by not speaking English. I felt bad for Jacob, as he was lead into this project under something of a false pretence by the film maker. LEPRECHAUN – So very bad on so many fronts, but [...]
Read more →THE MANHATTAN PROJECT – This film features one of the cheeriest “I’m making a bomb!” montages ever produced. This is a whole lot cheesier and much more shallow than I remember. “We’re kids – what are they going to do – it’s a prank!” In 1986? Maybe not… In 2011? Waterboarding. You’d think that ONE [...]
Read more →GREMLINS 2 – This has not aged any better than the first one. While I do enjoy much of the jokes at the expense of the company and technology, those are little more than window-dressing… there’s so little of plot of character once the empty jokes are stripped away, that it just feels like a [...]
Read more →CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER – I guess I’m just not the target audience for these Jack Ryan films… I just can’t believe Harrison Ford when he gets into the field and the action gets going. Yes, I know he’s been been in tons of action films, but this just feels hollow, lacking in any believable [...]
Read more →DEFENDOR – I’m not a big Woody Harrelson fan, but there’s something great about his portrayal of Defendor. It’s described as a dark comedy, but there’s nothing that I’d consider traditionally funny here – this is a tragedy in every sense. This dim man child tries to track down his nemesis, Captain Industry, who stole [...]
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