I was watching Monster House and the DVD had the trailer for Open Season. I ripped it with HandBrake and chopped it down to Elliot (Ashton Kutcher) announcing his arrival. Here it is in case you want to give me a custom ringtone in MP3 and WAV… not that I really call anybody. Here is the source video clip for your amusement.

I broke a long streak of not seeing movies in the theater when I went to Zodiac at 12:00AM Friday. Earlier in the day I had seen a billboard promoting South Point showing premiers at midnight on Thursdays. I thought “hey, new movies, very few people, right up the street, and I can go when I get off work”. It would have worked out well, except I forgot I’d be forced to watch trailers which no one can seem to assemble without exposing all of the first 2/3rds of a movie. I’ve been avoiding trailers recently for that reason and haven’t been reading plots that often.

Such was the case with Zodiac. From the title I assumed it was about the Zodiac killer. I knew the director was David Fincher and that it was rating quite well on Rotten Tomatoes. Fincher has been criticized in the past for an excessive use of CG. The only obvious use in this film is the construction of the Transamerica Pyramid to mark the passage of time which works really well. Although advertised with Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal, they’re just a small part of incredible cast. Everyone does a great job; I particularly liked Mark Ruffalo (funny because his character sounds like a young Columbo) and his partner Anthony Edwards (Revenge of the Nerds). It was an enjoyable movie, not mindblowing, but definitely interesting if you can tolerate the 160 minute length.

Here are all the other movies I saw last month: Continue reading →

Latest movies with comment after the break. I’ve added a Netflix movies at home widget to the sidebar. Continue reading →

I’ve listed everything that I watched in the last six weeks after the jump. The only movie that really stood out was Dirty Pretty Things. My attempts to avoid watching trailers and reading plots has led to a few pleasant surprises. Continue reading →

Drop me an email if you want to be my friend on Netflix (or read this post and decide it’s a really bad idea.) Continue reading →

These are just a few I’ve gotten from Netflix recently:

• Thank You For Smoking I really enjoyed this. Good satire. Nothing too heavy.
• Entre las piernas I was surprised by this. It’s got some decent drama and suspense. It may annoy you if you don’t like every character being significant and running into each other (i.e. Crash). I’ll let you discover the English title on your own.
• The secret of NIMH I remember seeing this videodisc quite a few times as a child. I just wanted to see it again to help my memory.
• Rabbit-Proof Fence Amazing true story.
• Mimic I had seen 5 of the last 6 Guillermo del Toro movies. This was the one that was missing. I wasn’t missing much.
• Chopper An okay biopic about Aussie criminal Brandon “Chopper” Read. I had seen several hilarious skits about him and wondered what the character was based on.
• Hellraiser Clive Barker’s directorial debut. I haven’t seen a lot of old horror movies and I wanted to see this unedited. Good stuff.
• Pulse Standard Japanese horror: slow, ominous, incomprehensible, and for some reason it was remade in English. The creepiest part was the main character wearing a shirt from Gilley’s… the bar up the street with the bikini bull riding. This shirt was for the one in Texas though (everything in Vegas is based on something) since their shirts were sold by Lucky at some point.

I downloaded Equilibrium in preparation for Ultraviolet; both movies are written and directed by Kurt Wimmer. There was one word I thought during the opening, “dumb”. This movie is visually gross as well: obvious computer generated outdoor sets and futuristic cars that are just Cadillac Sevilles that have had flat white house paint applied to them inside and out. This future society has decide to suppress war by medicating the populous therefore limiting emotions. People like Christian Bale are responsible for book-burning patrols. Everything is going fine till Bale misses one of his doses and becomes enlightened. The film gets a little better once they start using interior sets and get to action. There is a constant nagging wonder as to why this society, aiming at peace, maintains such a large number shock-troops. Also, Taye Diggs‘s character is a little too emotional for someone waiting to expose his partner for being emotional. I guess no one plays “calm and collected” nearly as well as Christian Bale. This film gets a solid “Meh”.

Frosty had bought some DVDs recently so last night I watched Murderball. It was on TV anyway and I decided I wanted to see it again. After it was over I still had some work to do, so I put in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It was a fun action movie. The set up for their *wink* real lives *wink* got kind of annoying since you already know the punch line if you saw a single bit of advertising for the film. I did enjoy the movie, but still found myself gritting my teeth at how attractive these people are.

Ralph Fiennes is a British diplomat to Kenya in The Constant Gardener. His “bleeding heart” wife is killed under suspicious circumstances. He begins investigating the pharmaceutical company she was looking into and finds himself in danger. At the beginning of the film, I was disappointed to find Fiennes playing yet another quiet, submissive character… with an annoying wife. He develops well through the film though (and you’ll grow to love her after she’s dead). The film looks great and is directed by Fernando Meirelles, the man responsible for the amazing City of God. It might have been a little long, but it is a good story. I definitely recommend this film.

Lady Vengeance is the final installment in Chan-wook Park‘s “Revenge Trilogy”. It hasn’t been released in the US yet, but my rental service already has it on DVD with English subtitles. The film opens with Geum-ja being released from prison. She’s been there for 13 years after abducting and killing a young boy when she was 19 years old. Through several almost surreal flashbacks you learn that Geum-ja has been making friends in prison and plotting revenge on the person who framed her. In the third act the plot comes to an almost full stop and takes a new direction. It isn’t entirely unexpected coming from Park. I kept waiting for the sad ending, but it never arrived (which is almost a relief). I enjoyed this film and the rest of the trilogy. Even though they shared some themes, each one followed a different path and pacing. I’d have to say my favorite of the three was Oldboy.