Friday Night Lights
Before I say anything else about this movie, let me offer one piece of advice: don't sit too close to the screen. I was in the second row, and between the hand-held camera, the frenetic action and cutting, and the frequent close-ups, it made the film difficult to watch. There. Now that that's done, let's talk about the rest of the movie. Friday Night Lights is one of the best sports movies I've seen. In a way, though, it's not even really about the sports. Well, that's a little misleading. It is a football movie, but it's much more about the town of Odessa, Texas and the way in which the town's obsession with high school football affects the people in it than it is about the sport itself. In that way it's a little like Varsity Blues, but where Blues is funny, Lights is gritty. Everything about the movie enhances that effect. The film is grainy, the camera is shaky, and the performances are so natural that you can even forget that you're watching actors. If you're looking for a movie that's uplifting or heartwarming or fun then this one isn't for you. But if you want a serious movie, a great movie, check this one out.
Viewed: 2004-10-15 | Released: 2004-10-05 | Score: A
The Forgotten
This film aims to take you for a ride, and while on a certain level it succeeds, the journey is not as fun and the ending is not as satisfying as other, similar movies. While I disagree with many reviewers who found the film's main idea stupid, it still didn't really grab me. And I left the film feeling a little frustrated that so many of my questions remained unanswered. True, most of my questions were arguably not that important to the main action, but I think most viewers will share my frustration. Another problem I had was that the scenes shot with a hand-held camera gave me a bit of a headache. I'm not a big fan of that particular technique, and unfortunately it seems to be getting more and more widely used. The one particularly good thing about The Forgotten was Linus Roache. His character is listed in the credits as "A Friendly Man," and he managed the perfectly creepy performance.
Viewed: 2004-10-01 | Released: 2004-09-23 | Score: B
Mr. 3000
I love baseball movies. This one may not have been a Bull Durham, but even so I liked it quite a bit. I think that some people might go see it and be disappointed because it's not as funny as the previews make it out to be. Indeed, Bernie Mac is practically subdued compared to some of his other films. But even though he's not as funny as he could be, Mac manages a surprisingly nuanced performance that, by the end, even managed to get me a little choked up. Really, there's more of drama to Mr. 3000 than comedy, but there are enough laughs to keep the general tone light and the rest of the story works pretty well.
Viewed: 2004-10-02 | Released: 2004-09-07 | Score: B
Ladder 49
This movie had a lot of potential. I wanted to see a story about the life of a firefighter, about what his life and relationships are like, what his job entails, how he starts a rookie but grows into a veteran. And I did see that, but it just wasn't very well done. The film touches on all of these things, but it never delves very far below the surface. To make matters worse, the ending made no sense. I can't say much more about it without giving too much away, but I just didn't understand the writer's choice of ending; it didn't match the rest of the movie very well. The acting was hit or miss. Joaquin Phoenix was pretty good and most of the other firefighters were fine. Travolta was good in some parts, unbearably cheesy in others. The only performance that didn't work at all was Jacinda Barrett, who played Joaquin Phoenix's wife. It's not that she was particularly bad; she just didn't bring anything interesting to her character. I did enjoy the film, but I won't be looking for it on DVD.
Viewed: 2004-09-30 | Released: 2004-09-19 | Score: C
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
What this movie is: quite possibly the most amazing display of computer-generated imagery I've ever seen. What this movie is not: a great adventure film. As I'm sure everyone has already heard, the entire movie was shot in front of a blue screen; all of the sets and locations were computer generated. You could tell that this was the case, but it was very well done. Still, the film didn't really grab me. I appreciated the stylistic elements, but I just didn't get caught up in the action. Jude Law was pretty good and Omid Djalili made me chuckle, but Gwyneth Paltrow seemed out of place to me, except for a few moments of repartee with Law here and there. I did enjoy the movie, but it'll never hold the same place in my heart as, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Viewed: 2004-09-24 | Released: 2004-09-13 | Score: C
Wimbledon
It's being marketed as a romantic comedy, but Wimbledon is really more of a romantic sports movie, if there is such a thing. The reason I say that is because, despite the fact that it does have a lot in common with romantic comedies, it is not particularly funny. In fact, for most of the film it's not even trying to be funny. There are some moments of comic relief, but, overall, Wimbledon is more about the love story and the sports story than laughs. The sports story was actually very good. I don't even like tennis and I still found the game scenes tense. The love story was, on the other hand, rather a flop, mostly because Kirsten Dunst isn't much of an actor. Fortunately, Paul Bettany is good enough to carry the film by himself.
Viewed: 2004-09-17 | Released: 2004-09-12 | Score: C
Hero
This is probably the most beautiful film I've seen all year, and if you look over my film history for 2004, you'll see that this is no light praise. From a technical standpoint, Hero approaches perfection. Lighting, color, choreography, and camera work were all flawless. What keeps it from being a four-star movie is the writing. The story uses a very unusual structure, almost everything being told in flashback. It didn't quite click for me. And much of the dialogue in the present time portion was very stilted--at least, it came across that way in the subtitles. The overall message of the film, too, was just too bluntly delivered for me, though I hear it was received very well in its native China. Still, some of the performances worked well--I especially liked Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Broken Sword--and the visuals were so breathtaking that I still really enjoyed the movie.
Viewed: 2004-09-10 | Released: 2004-01-13 | Score: B
Vanity Fair
One of the previews for Vanity Fair called it "the most romantic movie of the year." I just can't agree with that. In fact, I found it decidedly unromantic. The acting was all fine--in fact, it was kind of nice to see Rhys Ifans doing something different from his usual stuff--but I just didn't like the story very much. Almost none of the characters are what you would describe as "sympathetic," especially the protagonist, Becky Sharp. The film doesn't seem to make up it's mind on Becky, who is played by Reese Witherspoon. On the one hand, she's charming, vivacious, and witty. On the other hand, she's conniving and selfish and her only goal in life is to climb to a higher social station. To be fair, this ambivalence may not be entirely the film's fault; I understand that Thackeray's novel has much the same problem. Either way, it adds up to a story that I just couldn't get into.
Viewed: 2004-09-04 | Released: 2004-08-31 | Score: C
Without a Paddle
Seth Green has been in some movies that I really liked. This was not one of them. The basic outline of this movie is one that we've seen work time and again, in movies from The Goonies to Stand By Me. So why was it so bad? There were plenty of opportunities for this to be a really funny movie, but the writers never took advantage of them. I'm fine with cheap laughs, but this movie had precious few of even those. To make things worse, they kept beating us over the head with the "message" part of the movie. I didn't come see this movie to learn a life lesson; I came to laugh. And I did laugh, but only a couple of times. Most of the rest of the time I was just kind of bored. The only really good thing about this movie was the soundtrack.
Viewed: 2004-08-21 | Released: 2004-08-19 | Score: D
The Manchurian Candidate
I should preface this review by saying that I have not seen the original Frankenheimer film, so I don't know how well this one measures up. Still, it's pretty easy to see where this one must be different: terrorists and corporations instead of communists, and RF implants in place of simple brainwashing. All in all, this wasn't a bad movie. The film had a pretty clear political bias, but the pacing was good and there was a good feeling of intensity to the movie. Actually, it was kind of surprising to me how well the story could be updated, and I think if it hadn't been a remake it still would have been able to stand on its own. I found it interesting that Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep were two of the main characters, as I don't consider either of them to be great actors. But where Streep always strikes me as very needy and fake on the screen, Washington's passion and energy always seems appropriate for the roles he takes. The real actors of note in this one were Liev Schreiber and Jeffrey Wright. Schreiber is the kind of actor who you've seen plenty of times but can never remember where. He brings a kind of self-effacing dignity to this movie that I liked. Wright is a real chameleon. I've now seen him in three films and he was so different in each one that it took me a while even to recognize him. The sad thing is that he's so good as a character actor that I doubt he'll ever be big. In any case, I did like this movie, but I'll have to see the original before I can really make up my mind about it.
Viewed: 2004-08-19 | Released: 2004-07-21 | Score: B