Movies

Movies I want to see and have seen. If a movie is linked, I’ve seen it and the link is to my mini-review.

To Watch:
Adams Apples
2046 – rented but not watched yet.
2LDK – rented but not watched yet.
9 Songs
A Beautiful Mind
Bad Education
Biloxi Blues
Bone Collector
Cache – rented but not watched yet.
Dark Blue World
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Equilibrium (recommended by SteveH)
Evening Star
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Gunner Palace – rented but not watched yet
Heights
Imaginary Heroes
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
In My Country
Intimate Strangers
Kamikaze Girls
King of the Corner
Look at Me
Love, Ludlow
Love Me If You Dare
Memory of a Killer
Mouse Hunt (?)
Nice Guys Sleep Alone
Nobody Knows
No End in Sight
November
Off The Map
Occupation: Dreamland
Old Boy
Paradise Now – rented but not watched yet.
Reconstruction
Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles
Rock School – documentary about guy like School of Rock
Run Fatboy Run
Samaritan Girl
Saraband
Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic – rented but not watched yet
Saving Face – rented but not watched yet
Science of Sleep
Second Draft – about whether the Palistinian kid was actually killed or not — and by whom
Sequins
Shadowlands – Highly recommended by James.
Sueno
The Beautiful Country
The Dreams of Sparrows
The Ground Truth
The Machinist – this one looked good – rented but not watched yet
The Nomi Song
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (recommended by SteveH)
The Tunnel
The War Tapes
The World
Three Extremes
Tristam Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story – rented but not watched yet
Tony Takitani
Turtles Can Fly – rented but not watched yet
Twin Sisters
Under the Tuscan Sun
Walk On Water
We Go Way Back
Where The Truth Lies
White Squall
Why We Fight – rented but not watched yet
Zelary

Movies I’ve seen:
1408 5/10
16 Blocks 5/10
2 Days In Paris 6/10
300 7/10 (no review)
88 Minutes 3/10
A Good Year 6/10
American Dreamz 8/10
Antartica: An Adventure of a Different Nature 4/10
Apocalypto 6/10
Ask The Dust 5/10
Away We Go 7/10
Babel 6/10
Beautiful Boxer 7/10
Black Snake Moan 5/10
Blades of Glory 7/10
Blood Diamond 8/10
Boomerang (6/10)
Breach (8/10)
Brick 4/10
Bright Future – watched but no review!! ??
Capote 8/10
Cars 7/10
Casino Royale 8/10
Catch and Release 4/10
Children of Men 8/10
Crank 3/10
Daybreakers 5/10
Dear Frankie 8/10
Deepwater 6/10
Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (The Warrior and the Princess) 7/10
District 9 8/10
Disturbia 5/10
Divided We Fall (Musíme si pomáhat) 6/10
Duma 7/10
Eastern Promises 6/10
Enduring Love – watched but no review yet!! ??
Everything Is Illuminated 6/10
Failure To Launch 4/10
Flags of our Fathers 6/10
Fracture 6/10
Ghost Rider 3/10
Gone Baby Gone 9/10
Good Night, and Good Luck 8/10
Half Nelson 7/10
Hancock 6/10
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 4/10
The Heartbreak Kid 6/10
He Was a Quiet Man 6/10
Hot Fuzz 7/10
Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull 8/10
Idiocracy 7/10 (LA Times Review)
Inglorious Basterds 8/10
Inside Man 6/10
Iron Man 7/10
Jarhead 5/10
Jesus Camp 7/10
Jet Li’s Fearless 7/10
Juno 8/10
Kaze no tani no Naushika 7/10 (Nausicaä)
Knocked Up 7/10
Kung Fu Panda 8/10
Lawrence of Arabia 9/10
Legally Blonde 7/10
Letters From Iwo Jima 9/10
Life as a House 7/10 (no review)
Linda, Linda, Linda 7/10
Little Children 6/10 7/10
Little Miss Sunshine 7/10
Monsters vs. Aliens 7/10
Music and Lyrics 5/10
Neko no ongaeshi 6/10 (The Cat Returns)
Lucky Number Slevin 6/10
Maxed Out 8/10
Miami Vice 5/10
Michael Moore Hates America 6/10
Mission Impossible: III 5/10
Mongolian Ping Pong 7/10
Monster House 6/10
Moon Over Parador 5/10
Natural City 5/10
Nirgendwo in Afrika 9/10
Ocean’s 13 5/10 (no review)
Pan’s Labyrinth 8/10
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End 7/10
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest 8/10
Quinceañera 6/10
Ratatouille 7/10 (no review)
Ringers: Lord of the Fans 5/10
Rumor Has It… 4/10
Running Scared 6/10
Secondhand Lions 8/10
Sex and the City 6/10
Shoot ‘Em Up 0/10
Shooter 8/10
Shopgirl 8/10
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 7/10
Smokin’ Aces 4/10 (no review)
Sneakers 5/10
Spanglish 6/10
Star Trek 7/10
Stranger Than Fiction 7/10
Sunshine Cleaning 6/10
Superbad 7/10
Superman Returns 5/10
Surf’s Up 7/10
Sympathy for Mr. Vengance (watched but no review!)
Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby 8/10
Thank You For Smoking 8/10
The Baxter 7/10
The Contract 3/10
The Dark Knight 9/10
The Day the Earth Stood Still 3/10
The Da Vinci Code 7/10
The Departed 8/10
The Devil Wears Prada 8/10
The Door int the Floor 4/10
The Edukators 6/10
The Family Stone 4/10
The Golden Compass 6/10
The Good Shephard 6/10 (no review)
The Great New Wonderful 4/10
The Guardian 5/10
The Hills Have Eyes 1/10
The Holiday 6/10
The Illusionist 7/10
The Kingdom 6/10
The Last King of Scotland 7/10
The Last Kiss 6/10
The Life of David Gale 7/10 (seen but no review yet)
The Man From Earth 7/10
The Number 23 5/10
The Painted Veil 7/10 (no review)
The Perfect Storm 6/10
The Pink Panther 6/10
The Pink Panther (original) 7/10
The Prestige (seen but no review yet)
The Reader 8/10
The Squid and the Whale 6/10
The Ultimate Gift 7/10
The Water Horse 5/10
The World’s Fastest Indian 8/10
Transamerica 7/10
Under the Tuscan Sun 7/10 (no review)
Unstoppable 6/10
Up 9/10
V For Vendetta 7/10
X-Men: The Last Stand 7/10
X-Men Origins: Wolverine 5/10

Movies I’ve seen and notes written before I started the blog:
In Her Shoes – 2006.01.30 – Pretty good. Didn’t get to see the last few minutes since I saw it on the airplane and they shut it off just before landing.

Must Love Dogs – 2006.01.30 – Surprisingly decent. I was skeptical, but trapped on an airplane. It was about the angst of divorcees trying to find love.

Roll Bounce – 2006.01.30 – It was OK. Moderately interesting story but rather formulaic. It takes place in 1978 and is about some african-american kids who lose their roller rink, go to a different one, meet girls and fall in love. Oh and they almost win a roller skating tournament.

Bright Future – 2006.01.15 – w/ Anthony – Fair to poor. Rather strange movie. Anthony & I were convinced that the main character was retarded because he acted so stupid most of the time. Basically an ennui movie about a young Japanese man drifting through life. There were all sorts of characters that drifted in and then drifted out of movie.

Schultze Get The Blues – 2006.01.08 – Good. This was a quiet German movie about, I presume, an East German mine worker who gets “early retirement”. He plays the accordion. One day he hears zydeco music on the radio and is trasformed and goes on an adventure in Texas and Louisiana. Sad ending though. He dies of heart failure while dancing.

Walk on Water – 2006.01.07 – Very good. I liked this movie. Isreali about a Mossad hit man who is tasked to track down a German WWII war criminal and kill him “before God takes him” by befriending the man’s grandchildren. Great soundtrack and I really enjoyed the filmography and it was an interesting transformational movie.

Fun With Dick And Jane – 2006.01.07 – w/ MattM. Decent. It was a fun movie. I did laugh a lot. In the end, it wasn’t much of a movie. Just a nice piece of candy, nothing substantial. Worth seeing for laughs though.

Shaolin Soccer – 2006.01.03 – w/ SteveH – Good. Taking martial arts and computer graphics to the next level. The precursor to Kung Fu Hustle.

King Kong – 2006.01.02 – w/ MattM – Good. Too long though. There’s a lot of combat w/ nasty creatures that was just unnecessary. Naomi Watts is pretty damn cute. The facial work on King Kong was very good. You could see some emotion in the face.

Restoration Comedy – 2005.12.29 – written by Amy Freed – w/ Mom. This was a play. Good. It’s based on 2 different plays. Somewhat of a modern reinterpretation of 1700-era plays about infidelity. Rogue marries then leaves wife. Comes back to London when he hears she’s dead. She’s not. She pretends to be a prostitute to win him back. She does. Pt. II is his struggles with fidelity a few years hence and her realization is that she’s been faithful for no good reason.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events – 2005.12.25 – w/ Erik – Good. Some pretty humorous scenes. Nicely written. I really enjoyed Jim Carrey’s herptologist (snake guy) character. I found that just hilarious.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe – 2005.12.24 – w/ MattM – Good. I didn’t think it was as good as the Lord of the Rings movies, but it was from a more youth-oriented book. Good acting. Awesome special effects in general. Only real complaint was the falling object physics. That is hard and you can sense it when things don’t jump/fall naturally.

Syriana – 2005.12.22 w/ MattM – Good. Very complicated plot. There are about 4 interleaved plots that don’t all directly relate to each other. I liked that. Even some loose ends that don’t really get resolved. That’s cool too. About the machinations in the oil world to keep America in oil. Not much action. Mostly talk and politcal maneuvering.

Layer Cake – 2005.12.17 – w/ Anthony. Good. A rather complicated drug/crime movie involving a successful drug dealer/mfg. who gets caught up in a complicated plot involving stolen drugs. There were all sorts of twists and turns. It was at times very difficult to understand what was going on due to the heavy brit accents of some of the actors.

Intacto – 2005.12.08 – w/ Gretchen. Good. About luck and stealing luck. Sole airplane crash survivor gets invovled in strange underworld where people gamble with their luck.

Shower – 2005.12.07 – w/ Gretchen. Good. Chinese lang. Son comes home to visit father who owns a bathhouse and retarded brother. Lots of quirky characters.

Just Friends – 2005.12.04 – Good. w/ MattM. Better than expected. Sort of your standard romantic comedy in the end but many funny scenes throughout.

Downfall – 2005.12.02 – Very good. Seemed extremely realistic. Just well-done. You realize how crazy Hitler really was. Based on observations of Traudl Junge who was one of Hitler’s personal secretaries during WWII.

Me and You and Everyone We Know – 2005.12.01 – Very good. Reminded me of an R-rated Napoleon Dynamite in a way.

Beach Red – 2005.11.20 – Terrible. WWII movie where everybody had ’60s haircuts – especially the women. Based off of a novel, but a horrible adaptation. Now I see why that a movie from a book usually does’t work w/o a lot of re-writing. There is so much wrong with this movie.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – 2005.11.26 – w/ MattM. Good. A bit slow in places, but you practically don’t need to read the book now. Special effects are getting to be seamless. You almost can’t tell any more.

Cronicas – 2005.11.20 – w/ Anthony. Totally twisted. I liked it. Reporter gets a child rapist/killer free.

Kontrol – 2005.11.13 – Liked. Hungarian. Very strange but cool. Great soundtrack.

Zathura – 2005.11.12 – w/ MattM – Kid’s movie. Good special effects. Liked.

3 Iron – 2005.11.06 – Liked. In the end, I wondered whether the guy was still alive or not. I think so.

Saints and Soldiers – 2005.11.05 – Good movie. This movie was filmed for under $1M! Won a bunch of awards.

Constantine – 2005.10.29 – w/ Anthony. OK. Not great but at least watchable.

Milwaukee Minnesota – 2005.10.26 – Very good. Quiet movie. Good soundtrack.