Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - Movie Review

I've had a few hours to think about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows since seeing it.  While I didn't hate it, I might spoil a few things trying to talking about it, so be warned.  Please also note that my review is coming from the perspective of someone that's never read a Sherlock Holmes book, so I won't be making comparisons there.

In fact, I was one of the people that wasn't really looking forward to seeing the first movie because I've never been into Sherlock Homes.  I ended up thinking it was pretty entertaining though.  Remember how they effectively used slow-motion in the Sherlock Holmes?  It was one of the nice surprises for me and one of the reasons why I ended up liking it.  Well, in Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, it's like anytime they didn't know what to do with the story they said, 'Well, let's throw another slow-motion sequence in here.'

I'd love to tell you what's it about, but it's so convoluted that it's just hard to keep straight.  Basically, in this movie you're introduced to Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris), which from my understanding is Holmes' 'Lex Luthor'.  Moriarty is hatching some kind of plot that Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) team up again to stop.  However, I couldn't really tell you exactly what Moriarty's plan was.  Is he trying to start a war, kill some world leaders, or just make a lot of money?  It's one of my issues with the film and I'll get to that later.

When did Sherlock Holmes become a superhero that can see the (near) future?  Even in the first film, I felt like he was more of an action hero than a pure detective, but at least there was some detective work in that film.  He's even more of an action hero this time around.  I felt like there really weren't any serious attempts at detective work here.  There were parts where it felt like they wrote the script in reverse, so that his deductions were just convenient because they needed a way out of a situation.  I get that Holmes is supposed to be brilliant, but there were times were he was outright psychic.

Many parts of the plot didn't make sense to me at all.  There were times I didn't know what the hell was going on.  Like get this; at one point of the movie, Moriarty blows up a room full of people at some kind of official dinner.  Holmes figures out that one of the people in the room had been shot in the head by a sniper just as the bomb went off and the explosion was used to cover up the guy getting shot.  However, the explosion killed everyone in the room anyway, so why the need for the 'diversion' and why bother with a sniper?  Rooms don't blow up by themselves.  Everyone would still know there was an assassination, only now you've killed more people.  It's like saying I want to steal your car stereo, but to distract everyone from my crime, I'm going to just steal your whole car.  Holmes is able to figure it out though, which only makes sense to me if you accept that Holmes is a crazy person, because this plan is crazy.

It felt like there were too many layers to this.  Plus, it doesn't help that you never really feel all that threatened by Moriarty.  There's large stretches of the movie where you don't see or hear from him at all.  They tell you he's involved, but you don't see it.  You're just going to have to take their word for it.  He's basically 'the phantom menace'.

It really drags in parts.  A Game of Shadows is over two hours long and it didn't need to be.  It actually felt a lot longer and I started to squirm in my seat a little bit.  There were so many parts, even characters, that felt like they could have been removed and it wouldn't have made any difference.  There's a whole sequence of the movie dedicated to Watson's marriage, but it was totally useless to the plot.  Even Watson's wife was totally unnecessary and felt thrown in.  They introduce Mycroft (Stephen Fry), but again, he felt thrown in for comic purposes where they didn't need more of it.  Even Noomi Rapace's character felt unnecessary at time, like they didn't know what to do with her.

It was way too jokey and they tried too hard to be funny.  It had a hard time taking it seriously.  I thought the chemistry between Holmes and Watson from the first film was gone.  There was a girl in front of us that laughed hysterically throughout the movie, and while her laugh was one of the most annoying I've heard, she wasn't laughing that things that were genuinely funny.

I can only blame the writing team of Michele and Kieran Mulroney, who didn't write the first film.  I think this helps explain why a lot of the elements from the first film were missing this time.  I think this also suffered from not having a more experienced writing team.  Maybe they should go back to 'Bad Guy Evil Plan Writing 101.'  Or watch a Die Hard or even an Ocean's movie to see how to use diversions to get to your real goal and maybe write a coherent story.

The movie does look nice though and I thought the effects were done well.  The slow-motion sequences are very interesting.  The problem is that there's sooooooo much slow-motion and break down sequences that by the end you've lost interest in seeing them and wished they would just get on with the movie.  The only part I really enjoyed was the very end.

I thought RDJIron Man 2 where he was overdoing all the thing he did right in the first film.  It kind of got annoying.  Jude Law was fine.  I liked Jared Harris as Moriarty, but I like him from Mad Men, so I'm probably being biased.  It's a good cast overall, but many of them are just plain wasted.

I'm bummed because I really do like Guy Ritchie, but this is not his best work.  You'd think he would have recognized that some of elements that worked in the first film were missing here.  It was like he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do with the sequel, so he just tried to amp everything up and make it even more action oriented.

Overall, I didn't think this was a terrible movie, but it's not a good one either.  I know my review may sound like I hated it, but I really didn't.  I just feel a little let down and I was expecting more.  Plus, the pacing is too slow and I found myself losing interest many times.  If you didn't like the first one, then I don't you'll like this one either.  Ultimately, I think this movie suffered from sequelitis.  I really don't think it's worth rushing out and seeing.  If you rented this, I think you'd enjoy it, but paying to see this in the theater might be a bit of a stretch.

I give Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows just two and a half Death Stars.

Speaking of Sherlock Holmes, I strongly recommend checking out the recent BBC series Sherlock.  I thought it was better, modern take on Sherlock Holmes and definitely worth watching.  You should be able to stream if off Netflix.

This week in DVD - December 11th

Music puts me in a good mood, so you have to deal with it.  Here's some acoustic Manic Monday from the Bangles.





I'm sorry, Susanna Hoffs the frakking hotness!  Okay crush off...




The Debt

Original review.

This was a nice little surprise for me in early September.  It's actually one of the best movies I've seen this year and recommend it to anyone that's in the mood for a well-acted, moral thriller.  I'm serious, I really loved this movie!

I give this four Death Stars!  Rent it!


Cowboys & Aliens

Previous Blah!

I was a little disappointed in this.  It kind of broke my heart because I liked everyone in it.  Plus, Jon Favreau was so enthusiastic abvout it at WonderCon, it was hard not to be similarly enthused.  I'm interested to watch the extended version.though.  I want to see if anything was removed that might hvae helped.  As much as Favreau said otherwise, studios can eff' up a movie, so it would surprise me if the extended cut was better.
.
Three Death Stars!  It's still a worth a rental, so do it and enjoy it!


The Hangover: Part II

A less funny clone of the first film.  Here's my review!  It had some laughs, but don't believe the hype.  It's not awful, but just disappointing.  This was one my earliest 'serious' reviews, so please pick it apart if you want.:)

I give it two and a half Death Stars...


Monte Carlo

Ugh, I really didn't like this.  The characters seem to openly dislike each other, but I don't recall any of them saying why.  Nothing is explained and there's no backstory.  Then, they just go off to Paris together on one of the most forced stories I've seen.

They go on a terrible Paris tour and they even call the 'lead girl' out on picking a bad tour, which made me wonder if she'd bother checking any reviews on the interwebs.  Information like that isn't that hard to find these days.

I read somewhere that this was originally intended to be about three teachers on a trip to Paris, but the studio decided to retool this as a movie aimed at teens.  That was clearly a misguided idea and shows you how movie studios don't know f'all about what people want to see these days.  The movie did seem like it was supposed to be something else throughout the flick.

It's ends up being a totally unrealistic wish fulfillment movie for teens.  Unless you're a teenage girl, I'd advise you to skip it.  Even if you have teenage girls, I would advise you to skip it.

This is valued at one and half Death Stars.  Alderaan would be doomed if it was up to this movie!


Snow Flower and The Secret Fan

It's a nice looking movie, but just so uninteresting.  I felt nothing when watching it.  I'd talk about it more, but then I'd have to look stuff up on Wikipedia.  I don't feel like doing homework right now.  Plus, when the movie isn't worth watching, it really seems pointless.

Oh here's a weird thing about it...two-thirds of the way through movie, Hugh Jackman shows up out of nowhere as a Aussie lounge singer (who also sings in Mandarin)!  What the hell?  Why is Hugh Jackman in this, you'll say?  When the credits roll, he's like 3/4's of the way down, so it's odd.  He didn't produce it either.  Maybe he owed someone a favor?  It was just very unusual and totally took me out of the movie.  The sad part is that his appearance was the only part of the movie I found watchable.

It's a shitty movie though, and I didn't like it.  This is worth one and a half Death Stars!  I'm giving it one because Hugh Jackman and the other half is because it looked nice.


Mr. Poppers Penguins

This can only be deemed a silly, kids film.  Jim Carrey has really fallen from where he was just a few years ago.

It's a shame to see Agent Coulson in a movie like this.  I found out that if  you speed his voice up a bit, he sounds exactly like Rob Lowe on Parks & Recreation.  That's about the only thing I got out of this.

I say skip it as it's not a good movie, but it's harmless.

I give this one and a half Death Stars!


The Help

I'm going to end on a good note, but a short one!

This is one of the few movies this summer I never got around to seeing.  Its a shame, too, because it's a really good movie. I nearly lost it at the end of it.  I really need to find out which Stormtrooper is sneaking soy protein into my nutritional supplements!  I'm going to choke him out with my mind powers!.

I give this four Death Stars!  Rent it!  I challenge you to tell me it doesn't make you tear up at the end!

The Sitter - Movie Review

Before I get started talking about The Sitter, I wanted to briefly talk about a few trailers I saw before the movie.

I saw a new trailer for American Reunion and it actually looked much funnier than the first trailer I saw, which looked really lame.  The writing and directing team did the last Harold and Kumar movie, which I didn't think was that funny, but the new trailer gave me some hope.

Before the American Reunion trailer, they showed the 21 Jump Street trailer, which I also think looks funny.  I did think it was kind weird for them to show this, as it features the now much thinner Jonah Hill.  It's like they were giving you the before and after look at Jonah Hill, but in reverse.

Anyway, Jonah Hill's weight difference has to make you wonder  how long ago The Sitter was made, because Jonah looks like he did around the time Superbad was made.  Like before he even started losing weight.  In fact, he looks heavier in The Sitter then he did during Moneyball, and Moneyball came out earlier.  I know it sounds like I'm picking on the guy's weight, but my point is that a movie like the The Sitter couldn't have needed that much work in post, so I'm guessing this movie had been shelved for a while.  That's usually a bad sign and done for a good reason: It's a bad movie.

It seems really odd to me this would get released around the holidays, as this isn't a family movie and there's nothing holiday themed about it.  This seems like a much better release for somewhere in that Aug-October time frame.  It probably would have been received a little better.

The opening scene sets the tone for what you're in for, it starts with Jonah Hill's character, Noah, going down on a girl.  He then leaves frustrated because the girl won't reciprocate.  They show him as being a really nice guy, even a bit of a nerd.  But then in the very next scene, you see him being just a lazy-ass around the house and a mooch off his Mom.  Apparently, he was suspended from college, but I recall that they ever said why.  He seemed genuinely interested in what he was studying, so again, it's not clear why he's back home.

This is one of the big problems of The Sitter: it's not consistent at all.  The first few minutes of the movie have Noah going from being a super nice guy that's getting taken advantage of, to a lazy mooch, to a then an irresponsible punk.  Later in the film, he's suddenly ultra-cool in situations where his previous behavior would seem to indicate he wouldn't be able to act that way.  It's like they tried to take all the personality traits from every character he's played in the past and throw them all into one character, but just not done well at all.

After the opening scene, Noah is tasked with babysitting the kids of his mother's friend.  He only agrees to do this, because he needs the money and this is the only way his mother will be able to get out of the house for a date.  Fair enough.  Shortly after he starts babysitting the kids, the girl from the opening scene calls him and basically says, 'I'll have sex with you tonight if you can get over here and bring me some coke.'  This is one of the parts I'm talking about.  How frigging irresponsible are you that while babysitting kids, you think it's a good idea to take them out on a cocaine run so you can get laid later?  It makes me not like the Noah at all.

As you'd guess, things don't go right and then you watch him run around trying find the kids as they escape from his watch, avoid people he's angered throughout the night, get his car back (which of course gets stolen), avoid the drug dealer that's after him, etc.  You've seen this all before.  It's not original at all.

You've got characters conveniently dropping in and out throughout the movie when the script calls for it.  People don't seem to have any issues getting around very quickly in New York at night in The Sitter.  It's the kind of movie that if you like things to make sense, then it will probably bug you.

Another cliche here is that everyone gets to learn a lesson or grow from this experience.  It's frustrating to watch, because it all happens so quickly and it doesn't really seemed earned.  Even though the kids all seemed to be stereotypes, I actually didn't mind them.  They looked a little annoying in the trailer, but they didn't ruin the movie for me.

How in the hell did they get Sam Rockwell to be in this?  He plays the drug dealer in the movie, and he's just about the only thing I liked about it.  He's way too good for this movie.  J.B. Smoove is wasted here as well.  He cracked me up on Curb Your Enthusiasm, but he just doesn't have anything to do here.

I really can't blame any of the actors.  They're only doing what they are asked of.  It's all bad editing, a bad screenplay and bad direction.  It probably doesn't help that the writers, Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, are first-time feature writers.  This story desperately needed some punch-up from an experienced comedy writer.

There are a handful of laughs in this movie, and I can only remember a smattering of laughs from the audience throughout the movie.  One of the few things that did make me laugh was that one of the kids always seemed to be watching a really bad 80's film on TV.  At one point I'm pretty sure he was watching Gymkata, and another time I know he was watching the Dolph Lundgren masterpiece, I Come in Peace.  "And you go in pieces!"  Classic!

Speaking of the 80's, this is another movie that featured a predominately 80's soundtrack.  I'm kind of getting tired of that in movies not set in the 80's.  It's starting to feel hipsterish.  Let me ironically put bad songs from my youth in a movie!  That'll be funny.  Adam Sandler does this a lot, as well.

I'm surprised that this was directed by David Gordon Green, who as the commercials advertise, was the director of Pineapple Express.  Pineapple Express isn't a great movie, but it's much funnier than this and at worse, I'd call it a guilty pleasure.  He's directed some episodes of Eastbound & Down, which is a funny show, but also directed Your Highness.  Now Your Highness is was I'd call a guilty pleasure, as it's not a good movie, but I still thought it was funny.

Make no mistake, The Sitter is a bad movie.  It's unoriginal, edited poorly, plays on bad stereotypes and is cliched as hell.  The characters don't behave with any kind of consistency or logic.  It's not so bad that it's insulting, but it's just not funny or worth recommending.  This is one of those movies where the trailers and the commercials basically showed you everything that was funny, so that should be enough for most of you.  It's maybe worth renting in a few months, but skip it for now.

I give it 2 Death Stars (out of 5).

You like that?  I starting with a Death Star rating system.  I was thinking of using a lightsaber, but then I thought the play on the star rating system with Death Star was funnier.  Let me know which you prefer though.  I'm open to suggestions.  I need to make up some jpegs or animated gifs for the rating system.  If you know anyone that can help me out with that let me know. 

Oh, and I have no plans on seeing New Years Eve either.  Seriously?  It's a retread of Valentines Day and even has the same writer and director.  Valentine's Day was a terrible movie and New Years Eve looks just as bad.  What's the next movie going to be?  St. Patty's Day?  Memorial Day?

Take Shelter - Movie Review

Here's another movie I've really been looking forward to for a while.
The trailers for Take Shelter looked creepy and it features two of my favorite actors, Michael Shannon (who's going to be ZOD!) and Jessica Chastain.  I actually didn't think I was even going to get a chance to see it in the theater, but once again The Vine to the rescue!

This review might be a little spoilery for a movie that I like, but it's another one that's hard to talk about without discussing the plot.  However, this really isn't a plot based movie.  Once again it's more of a character driven story.

So what's Take Shelter about? You have Michael Shannon as Curtis,  who's basically a blue-collar guy.  He's a nice guy, works hard and is just trying to take care of his family.  He's married to Samantha (Jessica Chastain), and together they have a deaf daughter that's about to have some surgery, so they are struggling with keeping all their bills in check.

Curtis starts having very vivid nightmares that start to carry over into his daily life.  He's even having hallucinations.  The nightmares are very well done in that you don't know they are happening until it's too late.  It's very jarring, but it helps you identify with what he's going through.  You then find out that his mother was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic when he was 10-years-old.  This is mentioned in the trailer, but even if you haven't seen it, telling you really doesn't spoil anything.

His nightmares have him convinced that something really bad is about to happen, so he begins to buff up their existing tornado shelter to weather the upcoming storm, so to speak.  Obviously, this is where 'Take Shelter' comes from.  The building of this shelter causes concern amongst his family and friends.  It even concerns Curtis as he's trying to figure out if he's crazy or not.  As you watch the movie, you're wondering that, too.  Is he crazy?  Is he right that something's coming?  Both?

From that point it's more about watching Curtis struggle with everything.  It's another psychological character piece, where you're just along for the ride.  Take Shelter really felt like a thriller, almost a horror, with the tone and some of the things that happen.  It's also made a little more eerie due to the soundtrack.  You get a sense of dread throughout the movie.

It's nice to see the level of commitment to the characters the actors have here.   There are a lot of nice touches, like Chastain's character knowing sign language, but Shannon's knowing only just enough to communicate with his daughter on a basic level.

While it's a slowly paced movie, I was never bored.  You're just so into what's going on and seeing what happens next.  You have to primarily credit this to Michael Shannon's performance.  He says so much with just a look.  I felt so sympathetic to his character.  When I see his role here, it makes me all the more excited to see how he's going to play Zod in the upcoming Superman movie.  Not that anyone could ever outdo Terrence Stamp's Zod, but still.

Jessica Chastain as Samantha is great as she always is.  Despite that the movie is more about Curtis, you always have the feeling the Samantha is really the boss.

Take Shelter was written and directed by Jeff Nichols, who, like many other directors I've seen this year, doesn't have a lot of movies to his credit.  He did write and direct something else called Shotgun Stories, which also stars Michael Shannon, so it looks like I'm going to have to check it out now.

Overall, I really liked Take Shelter, but I was into the movie from the beginning.  My anticipation for the movie probably affected how much I liked this.  It is a smart film, but not for everyone.  I don't mean that like it sounds though.  It's just that Take Shelter is a movie you will likely have to process and think about after.  The slow pacing of the film may put off some viewers, but I was able to just kind of zone in on the performances.  It's worth watching just for that alone.  I also enjoyed the tone of the film and feeling I got from it.

Take Shelter is out of most theaters at this point, outside of The Vine, so it's a good rental unless you live in the Livermore area and can head over to The Vine.  I do recommend checking it out though.

This week in DVD - December 4th

I'm still fighting off whatever bug or sinus infection that's been lingering, hence the delay in my posting, but the good news is that it means more time for watching movies!



Friends with Benefits

Here's my original review.  Blah!

I still maintain this was the best romantic comedy of the summer.  I think it's a great movie to rent if you want something fun, but not too raunchy.  I'm on the fence about buying this one, but I'll probably wait until it gets in that $9 range.


30 Minutes or Less

Blah, blah, blah...

This is a movie that didn't get reviewed particularly well, but I came away liking it.  Sure, the story is kind of shitty, but I liked it for the chemistry of the characters and the humor.  Plus, it's barely 90 minutes long, so you won't feel like you're watching it forever.  I may have also been a bit swayed Ruben Fleischer's direction.  I'm a huge fan of Zombieland, which he also directed, so I'm sure my love of that might had me going in more optimistic.

I think it's a good rental, but don't expect a smart comedy.  It was just silly fun for me.


Tucker & Dale vs Evil

I don't think I mentioned this in my original review, but this is seriously one of my favorite films of the year.  It might even end up in my top ten.  T&D vs E is simply a fun parody and different take on the whole slasher in the woods flick.  I highly recommend watching it with friends.  I'm buying this as soon as I see it on sale.


The Future

Bay Area native Mirandy July wrote, directed and stars in this indie drama about a couple in their mid-30's that seem to just be kind of going through the motions.  They intend on adopting a cat, but even this freaks them out when they are told that cat may live long enough to push into their 40's.  Originally, they were told the cat only had a few months to live, but upon hearing it might hang on for a few years, they worry that it's too much of a commitment.

It's a little hipster and mumblecore-ish, but not terribly so.  I thought it was okay and had it's moments.  However, there are a few parts that didn't sit well with me and it got weird at times.  It felt kind of experimental at times, so it may work for some people more than others.  Again, I didn't hate it, but didn't love it either.

It's worth a rental if you like indie films, but again it might be a little too much for the casual film watcher.  Actually, Miranda July's first film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, I would actually recommend instead of you haven't seen it yet.  I thought it was a better movie and might give a more of an idea of what you might be in for with The Future.


Our Idiot Brother

I actually really liked this.  This was in and out of the theater and I think it was due to it being marketed as a Judd Apatow-ish comedy, when it really has more of a indie comedy feel to it.  It just happens to star Paul Rudd and several other popular actors (Elizabeth Banks, Rashida Jones, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer), which kind of dictated it being marketed as a mainstream film.

Anyway, Paul Rudd basically plays a sweet, hippie-type.  While the movie's title implies he's an idiot, it's not so much that he's stupid as much as he's just naive and brutally honest.  He trusts people and wears his heart on his sleeve.  It may be a little unrealistic, but I thought it was a cute enough movie.  I laughed a few times and enjoyed watching it.

I think it's a good rental.


One Day

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess star in a romantic drama.  I didn't like this.  It's predictable, but I don't really hold that against the movie.  What movie isn't a little bit predictable?  It just didn't work for me.  There was something about the characters that didn't sit right with me.  Maybe it was a lack of chemistry between the leads.  I can't quite put my finger on it.  Plus, the soundtrack really annoyed me.  It was like they kept using the same violin sample over and over.  Towards the end it started to get really grating.

I'm going to say pass.


The Smurfs


Ugh...kids will probably kid a kick out of it, but even as someone that watched the cartoons as kid, there's not a lot to like here or recommend.  It's just silly.  Neil Patrick Harris deserves better than this.  So does Sofia Vergara.  It's an all-star cast of voices for all the Smurfs, but half the time, you don't even recognize the voice.  The only thing I liked about it was that Jonathan Winters voiced Papa Smurf, but this mainly because I thought he had passed away.  Turns out he hasn't.

Anyway, this is a pass.  At best, rent it for the kids and then leave the room.


Seven Days in Utopia

Here's another movie that didn't do much for me.  A golfer gets in a car wreck in a small town, Utopia.  He recently had a very public meltdown on TV and lost his game.  He's then tutored by Robert Duvall to get his game back.  It's golf, painting, fishing and religion.  None of it is very interesting, and it's all very predictable.    It's a 98 minute movie that has many, many scenes that were a complete waste of time.  Like a scene where guys laugh and throw washers into a metal hole in the ground.  Fascinating!

It has Melissa Leo and Robert Duvall

The most insulting thing is the very end of the movie cuts away and tells you to go to a website to find out how it ended?  What?  Go to a website to find out how a MOVIE ended?  Just out of curiosity, I went to the website, were you at treated to an eight minute video where the writer reads you a passage from the sequel?!  I couldn't watch the whole video.

Some people may like the religious aspects of this, but I felt like the movie was trying to sell me something.  This may put off a lot of viewers.

Pass

Outrage - Movie Review

Here's a time where I was looking forward to a movie for all the right reasons.  It's about the Yakuza!  Sweet!  I love gangster or crime movies.  It's also getting great reviews on rottentomatoes.com.  Okay, good sign!

However, after watching Outrage, I kind of feel a little outraged towards some of the reviewers on rottentomatoes.com.  I'm calling bullshit on them.  I found Outrage to be wildly disappointing.  I almost have to wonder if they watched a different movie than I did.

A warning up front that this is a foreign, subtitled film, which may put many of you off right from the beginning.  I know lots of people that don't like subtitles.  Even I have a hard time with them if I'm not in the mood.

Spoilers ahead...

It basically starts out with a misunderstanding between Yakuza clans.  The 'misunderstanding' may have actually been a setup to push a confrontation, but I'm not sure.  The 'Chairman', basically the Yakuza's big boss, tells the clans to work it out, but at the same time he pushes particular people do take actions on others.  Kill this guy, rough this other guy up, take over their turf, etc.  This leads to a string of Yakuza killings, where each killing demands a retaliation.  Eventually, nobody is left.  Seriously, everyone dies in this movie.

I'd talk more about the story, but I felt that's pretty much all there was to it.  It's a bunch of homicidal maniacs killing one another over insults or turf.  Maybe it's because Outrage is subtitled, but I spent half the movie trying to figure out who everyone was and keeping it all straight.  I still didn't do a very good job of it.  There are so many characters and clans that it's hard to keep it all worked out.  Plus, it doesn't help that they are all pretty much wearing the same black suit and looked similar.  Maybe if I had some familiarity with the actors prior to seeing the movie, I might have had an easier time knowing who was who.

There are a lot of things I just thought were silly about this movie:

• There are many times where people don't notice guys standing directly next to them with guns.  At one point a guy is getting out of a car, and another car pulls up immediately beside him.  He doesn't even give a glance to the car that's less than three feet away from him.  Anyway, the guy pulls out a gun and shoots the dude.  No peripheral vision at all.
• It also irritated me that none of the clan members were smart enough to see that they were all being manipulated by The Chairman.  It was so obvious that they were.  It was clear that nearly everyone in the movie had ulterior motives and couldn't be trusted.
• Oh, and here was my favorite scene:  A guy walks into a room with a machine gun.  The four guys already in the room all stand up upon seeing this.  Rather than duck behind the cover they were sitting on, or pulling our their own guns, they just stood up like they wanted to get shot.  Then, they all start doing what I like to call the 'I'm getting shot in a hail of bullets' dance.  You've seen it before: the person  usually has his arms at a 45-90 degree angle and then starts to alternately straighten them, while swinging their torso from right to left, while also simultaneously shrugging his shoulders.  It's always amazing to me how many bullets a man can take doing this dance before going down.  Here's the kicker, one of the guys in the this scene starts doing his dance before any bullets hit him.  In fact, he's standing behind another guy, who has barely yet stood up to receive his bullets and react to them.  The squibs weren't even going off yet to show they had been hit.  It was hilarious.  I probably watched that scene like give times.

Outrage felt very cheap and low budget.  There were many scenes that ended with fade-outs that looked like the kind of effect done with a camcorder.  Other times the camera cuts away or only gives you an obscured view of the violence, where I think a little more brutality would have worked here.  It's all about people killing one another, why sugarcoat it or be tame?  It is plenty violent, and there were a few creative killings, but something about it all seemed very fake to me.   There a kill towards the end that I thought was particularly cool, but even then, the scene was cut up funny and I had to watch the scene a few times to figure out exactly how it happened.  Outrage did have a little style about it though, I'll give it that.

The move is basically just a bunch of Yakuza guys killing each other.  You don't care about any of the characters, because you don't now anything about any of them.  None of them have personalities and can easily be swapped out for one another.  They were a bunch of cardboard cut-outs, who's only purpose in the film was to take a bullet.  I think this is part of why I had a hard time keeping track of who anyone was.  There was nothing distinctive about how any of them behaved.  Think about gangsters in Tarantino or Scorsese movies; even though they are bad people or doing bad things, you are interested in them or even care about them, because you at least have a sense of who they are and they've shown you some kind of personality.

Outrage was written, directed and stars Takeshi Kitano, who has done many other movies that have been received well.  I have to wonder if this is an example of a reviewer'sOutrage and it turns out that I've seen a few Takeshi films before.

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I didn't get Outrage.  I just can't find anything to really recommend about it to others.  I was initially enthusiastic about a Yakuza movie, but came away from it not caring about the movie at all.  I advise you to skip it.

Last week in DVD - November 27th

Okay, short DVD post because I'm lagging.


Conan

Here was my original review.

It's still a remake/reboot of something nobody was asking for, and then they didn't do anything to make it better.  You're still better off watching the original Conan with Arnold, and again, if you really want a good laugh, watch it with Arnold's commentary track.

Super 8

Original review here.  I kind of got a weird laugh out of reading my review again.  It's just interesting to see how much more blah I wright in my reviews now than even just a few months ago.  Plus, I also try not to write them after a heavy amount of drinking (although it still happens).

The Devil's Double

Okay, this one was interesting movie.  It's based on true events and I'm sure some of what's in the movie was done for dramatic purposes, but DAMN!  You know how they alwasy used to say that Saddam Hussein had a double?  Well, so did his son, Uday Hussein.  The movie follows the story of Uday picking an old school friend, Latif Yahia, to be his double.  Dominic Cooper plays both roles, and he does a fantastic job.  He really is able to keep the personalitiy of both roles very distinct.  At times I had to remind myself that both roles were played by the same person.  It's not like how Armie Hammer played both Winklevoss twins in The Social Network.  It's way more involved than that.  Plus, you also get to see what a raving lunatic Uday Hussein was.

I highly recommend renting this one.

The Family Tree

I didn't like this, despite having a lot of people I liked in it.  It's one of those messed up family comedy/dramas, but just isn't that good.  Hope Davis plays a woman who's cheating on her husband, suffers a head injury during one of her cheating sex sessions and then loses her memory to just after she got married.  You know, back when she was still happy in her relationship.  It's kind an interesting concept actually, but just not done very well.  Then, the movie devolved into lame slapstick at the end.  I really had to work to get through it.

Pass

Bellflower

Indie movie written, directed and staring Evan Glodell.  It's basically about a bunch of weird hipsters with an apocalypse and Mad Max fetish.  They build flamethrowers and other weapons in the hope for a future like what you see in Mad Max.  Then, one of the guys starts dating a girl and gets all weird on her.  However, she sleeps around with a dude that rolls in the same circle as them, so then they deal with that.  None of these people appeared to have jobs and no real problem screwing friends over.  So you know, real likeable people.


Then, the end goes 'experimental' and gives you two different scenarios on how the story plays out.  There are some ridiculous things that happen during this part of the movie that I just couldn't buy into.  Other movies have handled the two alternate outcomes thing much better.

I'm hearing a big deal about how Evan Glodell, is the new Tarantino and I just don't see it.  Tarantino characters have better dialog and are more interesting, even when you know they are bad people.  This is just a bunch of whiny hipsters that you end up not really liking.  The dialog is knowhere near the Tarantino level either.  Maybe he'd do better with a story he didn't write himself and didn't put himself in the movie.

I say pass.