The story of a boy who lost his farther on 9/11. But that isn’t tragic enough. The boy has to be autistic. His grandfather has to be a victim of post traumatic stress himself. And the images we see lead us to believe that the boy’s father was one of the jumpers-someone who chose to fall to their death rather than burn alive. 9/11 is the foundation of the story, but the real tale is how our young hero deals with the tragedy. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is a fragmented film with lots of flashbacks to both the good old…
Category: movie review
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
After watching Room 237 I felt I needed to watch The Shining again, since it’s been a while. My first impression was that it really, really looks like a movie made in the 1970s-and not in a good way. While I liked Jack Nicholson and Scatman Crothers, I have never understood the popularity of Shelley Duvall. And that kid who played Danny, well, the fact that he only has one other acting credit says all that needs to be said about his skills. Of course, the real star of The Shining was it’s Director, Stanley Kubrick. Long shots and panning…
Room 237
What is Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining really about? The Holocaust? Injustice to Native Americans? The faking of the Moon Landing? Countless hidden sexual jokes? Room 237 is a film where a number of people with way too much time on their hands spend endless hours watching and re-watching The Shining looking for clues as to it’s real meaning. When I grew up I pretty much liked all movies. An Abbott & Costello feature was right up there with Gone With The Wind as far as I was concerned. At some point I read a book called The Key by James…
The Colony
In the not too distance future-2045-the world has become a giant snowball thanks to mankind’s nasty global warming habits and his attempts to put an end to global warming. We find our heroes in Colony 7, where once four hundred people lived, but now a good deal less are muddling through. Filmed in an old NORAD base, the sets looked pretty good and while the CGI was not great for the exterior shots, it wasn’t all that bad either. The acting was good, for the most part. I like seeing Bill Paxton and Lawrence Fishburne in movies and as for…
How To Make Money Selling Drugs
Yet another film about the failure of the US Drug War and how it has promoted the sell and use of drugs while increasing the corruption of law enforcement. A win-win, eh? How to Make Money Selling Drugs is formatted like an infomercial, or one of those get rich blogging products that tells you all you need to do is get a list and sell to it. There are several levels of success in the drug world, from the lowly corner dealer making a measly few hundred dollars a day to the pan global drug cartel making millions a day.…
Safety Not Guaranteed
The story of a lowly intern working at a newspaper who gets the chance to follow up on a quirky human interest story. In article-writing-speak: Safety Not Guaranteed buries the lead, and buries it pretty damned good. 99 and 44/100th percent of the story is the fairly mundane business of tracking down leads, wasting time that should be spent tracking down leads, and wasting a bit more time getting wasted. Just as Moby Dick only shows up on the next to last page of Moby Dick, so too does Time Travel play a backseat role to the lives of the…
World War Z
Brad Pitt is retired and living the good life of a stay at home Dad when something goes terribly wrong. Zombies appear out of nowhere and a single bite turns a normal human into a zombie in ten seconds-much like the single drop of blood from those pesky infected in 28 Days Later. World War Z is a damned good movie-who doesn’t like the idea of all those annoying people who aren’t you turning into a monster you can shot over and over again? Our hero Brad is part of a handful of people who manage to keep just out…
The Angel’s Share
The story of a group of reprobates and their kind-hearted probation officer who happens to have a soft spot for whiskey-high quality Scotch Whiskey. Our hero is a young thug who nearly beat a man to death for no good reason, has gotten his girlfriend pregnant, and has a surprisingly good nose for single malts. The Probation Officer takes this young fellow under his wing and teaches him to appreciate fine whiskey. They go to tastings and take a tour of a distillery. The rest of the community service crew comes along for the ride, though they clearly lack the…
Now You See Me
An all star cast weaves together a magical mystery tour. We start off watching four struggling magicians as they are chosen by an unknown benefactor to become the greatest magic act of all time. The story is fun to watch and it might have been a great movie if they had played it straight. The Prestige is an example of playing it straight, even though it had a decidedly crooked McGuffin. Now You See Me wants to debunk magic, but then insists on using CGI to perform many of the Four Horseman’s ‘illusions.’ You can’t explain the mechanics of a…
Star Trek Into Darkness
Spoilers Within Star Trek Into Darkness was Ok. The 3D was good in spots, the special effects were a bit over the top, and the acting was as wooden and silted as the last movie. If you liked J.J.Abrams Star Trek, you’ll like his Into Darkness. If you happen to be Trekkie, well, this is in no way a Star Trek movie. These kids are not Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. That ship is not The Enterprise. At best, this is an alternate timeline episode, but it’s so far from the Star Trek universe it’s more like Fan Fiction-something you might…