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rachelalicehunter
Reviews
Black Swan (2010)
Not Oscar Worthy
Darren Aronofsky is a fantastic story teller to be sure. Black Swan just falls a little short. The schizophrenia it discovers is awesome but brooding. It's too much in your face. Easily figured out.
Natalie Portman is a dancer with a disturbing childhood and an insane mother. It's all about her genesis into madness to play the Black Swan. The director her ballet company knows she's damaged and masterfully uses her fears or so it seems. After you watch it, does he?
Winona Ryder is the "old" dancer the director used up for a performance. Or, did he? Everything Portman's character experiences is from her world. She's fragile with a damaged psyche. Her mother lives vicariously through her daughter's life and is a control freak.
Ballet is no evil as portrayed. It's a character study of one becoming the Black Swan and not knowing the difference or never knowing much of anything in the first place.
Portman is brilliant. Her range of emotions is stunning. Mila Kunis is a dancer the director brought in to challenge Portman's psyche, or did he? Was Portman's mum evil? Is the director one who moves his stars into madness? Lot more to figure out.
My only problem was the ending. No closure. It's dark, which I love. I wanted to see a good Swan to the evil Swan. Such juxtaposition would have given the movie perfection and still would've challenged my psyche.
Portman deserves the Oscar. But, Chris Nolan would've made this film perfect.
Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011)
Investor's Daily is more exciting - Spoilers
Unfortunately, I had to read that novel in high school. Atlas Shrugged was one of the worst fascist, hedonistic tomes of self-destructive hatred of religion embracing materialism theories I've ever read. Personally, religion is the opiate of the masses anyway though the book took it to extremes.
The movie bombed so badly it's hilarious. Whomever wrote this stilted screenplay should glory in his epic disaster. A third grader could write better dialogue. You can't really tell why they spend $20 million making this drivel. I could've written a better script on napkins at Waffle House then shot it in one room and saved everyone $19,950,000.
Anyway, the future is 2016 and trains rule the land. No cool looking airplanes that can fly from Tokyo to New York in 30 minutes but high speed trains. Everyone in America is mediocre individuals sitting in their homes tuned in to Foxnews. Pardon the pun. This movie was made by right-wingers after all.
A woman runs the train company and she is opposed on every front to introduce new steel tracks. Even the janitor opposes her. Not really. But, you get the idea how terrible this is. Society is sterile of everything call ambition. She has it and no one else does. Apparently, this is totally true considering trains are the future. No cool trains like Doc Brown's time machine to be sure. Just high speed trains that run on ozone and on nifty steel tracks the movie never explains.
Willing to bet all the liquor consumed in these boring boardroom discussions was $5 million of their budget. After sitting through the first 10 minutes, I know how the cast feels. Drink up. Okay, basically the movie is lots of news screens reporting on these steel tracks no one seems to explain how they work. If they were mystical in nature built by a lost alien civilization, that would be cool. No, this flick doesn't have any imagination let alone a good one.
The movie is basically lots of boardroom meetings and network news reports of how the government is totally incompetent, society is incompetently boring and one person, and only one person, extolls the virtue of moving all these boring people on a high speed train on nifty steel train tracks while they all get drunk because they are all so damn boring. Then, they take this boring talk to a desert called Wisconsin in a car. No, no, no, not on a train but in a fast, futuristic car so we can be bored some more.
If you were smart and drank a lot of vodka watching this ridiculous trash, you don't care they blast you with the answer coming in Part Two. If they make a part 2, will you be bored to death? Will the train tracks get built? Did they all go to an AA meeting? Drink up, people, you endured 97 minutes of this overtly boring boardroom sheeet of lectures on the evils on everything but capitalism unfettered and in your face to build nifty train tracks so we can get to the 20th century. Instead, watch There Will Be Blood. At least the guy shoots the scam artist preacher and we see some oil wells be built.
I'd give this poor excuse for a film a negative 10 if I could. Be Bored!
Extreme Measures (1996)
Exceptional Medical Drama Like the Movie Coma
Hugh Grant stars a ER doctor that happens upon a patient with complex medical issues (and dies). His tests reveal something quite unusual.
Gene Hackman plays a well-respected medical researcher that has a secret research lab using the homeless to find cures to diseases. Thought provoking to say the least.
Grant's character is ruined after he starts digging into the mystery of this dead patient's maladies, medical mysteries. He just doesn't know what sinister medical research he stumbled upon and who is involved.
Sarah Jessica Parker was okay in the film but Grant made it work. Liz Hurley was actually a Producer of the film. Hackman played his character okay but not excellent as usual.
It is a taught medical thriller than will make you think if medical research like the Nazi's is really going on in real life. The movie was ahead of its time.
Micheal Apted directed it well. Lots of great supporting actors.
AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007)
**Spoilers*** AVP Requiem UNRATED is Excellent! Lots of Action!
***Spoiler Alert*** The theatrical release was horrible since they cut out all the great gore and violence. The Unrated version, about 17 minutes longer, is way, way better. Not in the category of Aliens but far better than Paul W.S. Anderson's horrible AVP. It's not 5 stars but a strong 4 stars. Reiko Aylesworth, the military mommy and Ripley heir-apparent does a pretty good job (not a Sigourney Weaver job but good). Ms. Aylesworth was in 24 (TV Series) and in the excellent Mr. Brooks (Kevin Costner as the serial killer).
Even the title sequence with the Predator ship was cut from the theatrical release. The smaller ship that crashes to earth was docked at the big ship at the end of AVP. But, an alien was on board (Ripley's line in Aliens) in the chest of the Predator from AVP. I guess the Predator "teenagers" were going back to earth or somewhere to prove their worthiness to carry "the mark".
The aliens grew too fast in AVP and the theatrical release of AVP-R but not here. It took some time. The dad and his kid, in the forest, woke up with them bursting out of their chests. Censored because of the kid I guess. And, the hospital was a breeding ground after a new alien mother used the women's unborn to make more aliens. Kinda sick but new.
Kristen Hager (Jesse), the hot blonde, did say something stupid, "The government doesn't lie to people." Everyone looked at her like, "Gee, what a bimbo!" But, she was nice looking (for the guys in her lingerie).
Anyway, after the crash and the "Supreme" Predator, I guess) finds out there's trouble, he heads to Earth to kill the aliens. He has some big fights with the Aliens, unlike in AVP or the theatrical release of AVP-R, and kills a few people in the process. He takes on two Predators at once even...watch the movie for the fun.
The Colorado National Guard is slaughtered in less than 5 minutes by hordes of Aliens. Guess the Colonial Marines (led by Micheal Biehn in Aliens) weren't around yet. But, Reiko Aylesworth had some training I guess since she's takes over, drives the APC, and flies the helicopter. She also whacks a bunch of aliens.
Some errors: Having a Dallas (The name of the Capt. of the ship in Alien) was strange. The Predator's gun that blasts Aliens to pieces was taken but not given to Weyland Industries but a Japanese concern. I doubt the Army would allow a Colonel, or a General, to do that. It does explain Yutani's involvement with Weyland Industries in Aliens. In the end, why isn't Reiko Aylesworth the only one still standing (add her child) like all the other Alien flicks? I personally thought Alien: Resurrection was fun just to see Jean-Pierre Jeunet make it and the great Winona Ryder as the "artificial person" (just for Bishop's feelings--Aliens) replacing Bishop (Lance Henricksen).
Nevertheless, The Predator in this flick would give Gov. Terminator a run for his money rather than the "teenager" Predator he fought. But, why send just one Predator? I guess he was tough enough. The unrated version is excellent to watch just to have fun. I guess there are monsters after all.
Vibes (1988)
Actually, an Excellent Movie!
Not on DVD though. Only VHS. I don't give away the ending, but some of the funny scenes.
Psychics Cyndi Lauper and Jeff Goldblum are hilarious. Peter Falk (Columbo) enlists their aid to find his kid.
Cyndi and Jeff are just hilarious.
In the opening scene, Cyndi points a gun at Peter Falk, after he asks her for psychic advice, and says, "Oh, yeah, you're gonna ask me to do something really weird." I laughed throughout the whole thing. In one scene, I think it was Cyndi who says, "Someone had ... on this table." The laughs kinda come from nowhere.
If you want a kinda strange love story mixed with Jeff's satire and Cyndi's "Girls Wanna Have Fun" energy, you'll love it.
Cyndi's video, "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)," is also hilarious.
-Rach