Reviews

I saw Matchstick Men last night, and oh man, what an experience. There are some movies that are so twisted, brilliant, and emotionally involving that they are best described as experiences, not movies, and, well, Matchstick Men is nothing less.

But maybe it's best that we start from the beginning, when you don't know this yet.

The first thing that struck me about this movie after it started was how interesting it was. Not just the obsessive-compulsive criminal named Roy, played by Nicolas Cage, but other things, too. The interesting cinematography awash in deep blues and yellows that saturate the screen. The interesting score that is meandering, upbeat, almost cartoonish. The interesting editing that is frenetic, preoccupied, almost subliminal. I was very, very interested by all this because I had never seen a movie made quite like this before, especially about someone as unlikely as an obsessive-compulsive criminal. But, as the movie progresses, and Roy finds his long-lost daughter, Angela, under the support of his new psychiatrist, Dr. Klein, I became more and more involved with the movie. I was touched by the growing relationship between the two, and how Roy was gradually, yet dramatically changing. Then the father and daughter begin to pull off cons together, and this is where the movie goes into all-out fun mode. Through much of these scenes, I just could not stop smiling. But then an ambitious, risky con gone horribly wrong plunges Roy and Angela into father-daughter hell, and then I felt very concerned. I was genuinely surprised how much I bonded with these characters and didn't want them to get hurt. But then I saw a happy ending on the horizon, and I sat back and relaxed, thinking I knew exactly how the movie was about to end.

And, well, then came some of the most shocking twists in cinema history.

I kid you not. These are some very heavy twists that I won't dare spoil that unfold 10 to 15 minutes before the end of the movie. Folks, I was so blindsided by the sudden direction the movie took that I spent a great deal of the rest of the movie with my eyes unblinking and my jaw agape. It was like watching a BMW cruising into the sunset suddenly being hit by a big rig. But the best part is, in retrospect, I should have seen it coming. In terms of twist endings, movies like Planet of the Apes, The Sixth Sense, and The Usual Suspects may have met their match. Matchstick Men, that is.

And then comes the controversial "One Year Later" epilogue. Some may disagree, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. It was merely a way of cleaning up after the megaton bomb that just dropped.

I compare this movie to walking through a strange, yet beautiful forest and then suddenly falling off a cliff, onto a barrage of pillows. With the pillows, you walk away a little shocked, but thinking about what a wild ride that was. Without the pillows, you walk away feeling unfairly injured and hurt.

I give this movie a perfect 10/10. If not an Oscar for Nicolas Cage, this movie should at least get an Oscar for Best Screenplay. I was so stunned as to how emotionally affected I was by this movie. This movie without a doubt joins X2, Finding Nemo, and Freaky Friday in my Best of the Year list. Highly recommended!

I just saw Freaky Friday, and while you may now be prepared to gag and skip this review, and the movie as well, you may actually be surprised to learn that is it a very good movie! Critics have been heralding this movie as the biggest surprise of the summer, and the critics are actually right this time.

It's a given that everyone knows the plot of this movie in which an typical stiff-minded mom and a typical troubled teenage girl switch places, and while the plot may seem overdone, even cliched, it is surprisingly, indescribably fresh here. The limitless comedy of Jamie Lee Curtis acting like a teenager and Lindsey Lohan acting like an adult will keep you laughing a good deal of the movie. But there are also many other laughs and sight gags that are startling in their unexpected originality. And rest assured, there is also surprisingly effective drama (followed by more rollicking comedy, of course).

If someone were to ask me to describe what's so good about this movie, I would probably say the acting and the writing. But truthfully, it's just plain indescribable how this movie works as well as it does, and why it has all the qualities it has. It's one of those movies you can't take someone's word for, it's one of the movies you just have to see to believe.

I give it a perfect 10/10. Well recommended!

Wow. Just finished watching this movie, and I mean, wow. Words like original, well-acted, well-written, thrilling, engrossing and hilariously bizarre can't even begin to describe this movie. I had no idea what to expect from this movie, but all I know is by the end I was completely blown away. It's indescribable how huge of a mind trip this movie is. It's one of those movies you simply must see to understand what the hell I'm talking about. Yes, the movie is that good. Yes, the movie is that brilliant.

I can't give this movie anything less than a 10/10. I would say more, but words simply can't do this movie justice. Just see it. You'll know what I'm talking about.

If I could describe The Hulk in one word, it would be confused. Everything about this movie is either confused or confusing, and you may get confused as to why the movie is so confused. Now, don't get me wrong, there are many good qualities about this movie. The acting, the action and the visual effects are all excellent. There are ambitions about this movie that are very brave and daring. But they all seem inferior when you look at the movie as a whole, because in that perspective, it just does not all hang together. The movie is confused about what it wants to be, where it wants to go, where it wants to begin, where it wants to end, when it wants to start, and when it wants to stop. It's confused about how fast or slow it should go. It's confused about what to emphasize and what to downplay. And the most annoying confusion is how many comic-bookish transitions and split-screens it should use, because there are waayyy too many. It gets pretty irritating after a while. Even in the most inappropriate scenes for these transitions and split-screens, there they are. And there are many moments when the movie seems to be building to something high, but then wimps out. Almost everything about this movie is indecided and lost, and thus the movie really suffers. There were actions and decisions made about the movie and scenes included that had my mind boggled as to why they happened, or why they were there. Some of the experience of watching this movie was frustrating and trying, rather than thrilling or moving. Sure, some scenes are thrilling and some scenes are moving, but it just doesn't help the fact that the movie is deeply confused. Maybe it's because Ang Lee was confused when he directed this. After all, I'd probably be a little confused if I were an acclaimed director stepping into a comic book flick. All I know is when the DVD comes out, I want to watch this movie with director's commentary on. I have many questions about the movie, but somehow I doubt there are very good answers. And that in a nutshell is my big problem with this movie.

I give this movie a 7/10. I'm torn as to whether this score is too low or too high, but this is the way I think I feel about this movie for now. But what I do know for certain is that it falls way behind comic book movies like X2 and Spider-Man, and this movie, more often than not, is lost and confused. But it's worth seeing once, I guess, if you're curious.

To start this review, let me just say that there is a difference between a feel-good movie and a feel-warm movie. Toy Story 2 was built to be a feel-good movie, and it succeeded in spades. Finding Nemo was built to be a feel-warm movie, and wow, wow, wow, does it ever succeed in spades. If I wasn't so freakishly mature, I would have been sobbing like a baby during this movie, but rest assured I was choked up good. When the movie ended, the audience applauded (including me) and I left the theater with an involuntary dazzling smile on my face and a heart filled up like a water balloon. I'm going to say this right off the bat…this is Pixar's second best movie and so far one of the best movies of the year. It falls short of Toy Story 2 but only by a hair. This is one of the bravest movies Pixar has done. You see, Pixar has mastered the classic CGI comedy-adventure movie with a hint of drama. That's what made the Toy Story flicks and A Bug's Life so good. And Pixar could have easily used this winning formula for Finding Nemo, but it didn't. It instead tried to achieve a classic CGI drama-adventure with a hint of comedy. It was a daring risk that could have failed, but instead it succeeded beyond what I could have ever imagined. It was only touching, never mushy. Even though this is a wild under-sea adventure complete with a fish with bad memory and a surfer-dude turtle, it's a movie many people can relate to. You see, this movie is about Marlin, a fish who loses his son, the only one left from a shark attack that kills the rest of his children and his wife. And Marlin dedicates the rest of his life to raising and protecting his son, whom he names Nemo. But when Nemo is kidnapped by a diver, the only thing that meant anything to Marlin, the only big thing in his life he had left, is gone. Everyone knows what it's like to have something very, very important to them, be it a trinket or a son, and when it gets lost, many people will weep and not do anything. But it's a rare breed of people who try to search for that thing at any cost. And Marlin is part of that breed. He never gives up trying to find his son the entire movie, and that is the most heartwarming aspect of this movie. But that's not the only good thing about this movie. The score, the voicework, the animation, and the comedy also deserve major kudos. And while the movie is a little less satisfying than Toy Story 2 (emphasis on little), this is still Pixar's runner-up best movie and one of the best movies of the year. Highly recommended. Bring yourself, bring the kids, and bring the Kleenex.

I give this movie a perfect, well-deserved 10/10.

In one of the more bizarre and unnecessary scenes in The Matrix Reloaded, a woman is served to French cake and wine that is so good she has an orgasm and runs off. (Seriously. Yep, I've probably raised the box office a few million dollars just by saying that...) Now it's important to understand that The Matrix Reloaded is not an orgasmically good movie. It is not as good as X2 and falls a little behind the first Matrix. This movie has its share of problems, but rest assured, this is still one helluva mind-bending action sci-fi movie. The movie starts slow and doesn't really pick up speed until Neo goes to see The Oracle, and then the movie runs on full tilt with the awesomely cool Agent Smith fight sequence (or should I say Agent Smiths...). But then the movie slows down again with the wholly unnecessary French guy and keymaker sequences (starring the wholly unnecessary French guy and keymaker). But then the unbelievably awesome freeway chase scene begins and the movie runs on full tilt again, and it doesn't slow down until the cliff-hanger ending that guarantees you will be in line to see The Matrix Revolutions in November. Overall, The Matrix Reloaded turns out to be a damn good show that I would well recommend seeing. If it weren't for a slow beginning and a completley annoying and unnecessary couple of scenes (and characters), this movie would get a perfect 10. But instead I give this movie an 8 out 10, but a well-earned 8 out of 10. I would see it again just for the Agent Smiths fight sequence and the freeway chase sequence, two friggin' awesome instant classic action sequences. This movie is definetley worth seeing at least once, and maybe even worth buying on DVD (but make sure you've bought the first Matrix first).

This movie is a bit of a gamble for Adam Sandler. This movie really is unlike anything he's done before, because the film doesn't rest entirely on his shoulders. This film rests on the shoulders of Jack Nicholson, how well Sandler and Nicholson play off each other, the script, the impressive array of cameos (including Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham, and a surprise appearance by a New York legend), and how well the movie is made overall. Sandler doesn't have too much responsibility here, because the essential goal of his performance is to NOT play the goofy main role he's played so many times before, like in Billy Madison, but to play a weak victim of society, like in Punch Drunk Love. The fact that Sandler has a reduced role is the aspect of the movie may turn some people off, but from my point of view, everything about the movie worked perfectly. This is a twisted, rollicking rollercoaster ride of a black comedy with plenty of laughs along the way. Jack Nicholson gives a brilliant comedic performance of restrained insanity as Dave Buznik's anger management therapist, who is wrongly assigned to crack down on Dave's nonexistent anger problem, and Adam Sandler enjoys his view from the highest point of his career that he hit with Punch Drunk Love, a truly brilliant character drama by Paul Thomas Anderson (although he did slide a bit with the awful Eight Crazy Nights, but it pleased me that even he didn't approve of some of the humor). Again, Sandler has to play the same character he did in Punch Drunk Love, a wimp who is loathed by society and who becomes braver and braver throughout the film as he fights against it, but he has to make his performance funny. I don't know how he does it, but he gives off just as effective a performance he gave in Punch Drunk Love but adds subtle humor to it that pays off and really helps carry the film. There are plenty of near-classic hilarious scenes in the movie that I don't want to spoil. And, again, the supporting cast in this movie is superb, and they all make the movie even funnier. I will close this review with a bold statement: If you ever liked any Adam Sandler movie in any way to any degree, SEE THIS MOVIE NOW, and I guarantee you will laugh. Hell, even if you hate Adam Sandler or you've never seen any of his movies, see this movie anyway! Sandler is on a roll, and this movie proves it!

I give this movie 9/10. Excellent comedy! I could see it twice!

Saw this movie when I bought a bootleg videotape of it a while back, and let me just say this. The quality of the video was almost as poor as the movie itself. Black Knight is TERRIBLE. First of all, the acting is non-existent. Martin Lawrence, you can do better! This is probably the first movie I've seen where an actor gets paid to act like himself. The director, Gil Junger, must of thought the movie would do the acting for him. Sorry, Gil. Second of all, there's no plot whatsoever. An amusement park worker accidently gets transported to the year 1328. That's about it! At least "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court" was actually entertaining. And probably the greatest offense of all is that Black Knight is NOT FUNNY! The funniest scene in the movie is probably when Martin Lawrence brushes his teeth in the beginning. Oh sure, Martin TRIES to be funny, but all he accomplishes is making an ass out of himself. Poor Martin. I stopped the tape halfway through and put it on my shelf for use as a dust collector. OK, so I don't TOTALLY regret buying the video...

If you want a good Martin Lawrence movie, try Blue Streak. Just stay away from this load of garbage.

0/10