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Ariel Phenomenon (2022)
The archive footage is excellent
I am interested in "UFOs" enough to occasionally engage on the topic on reddit and watch a documentary or youtube video every once in a while.
I have seen snippets of the interviews with the kids before, but the quality here is a step above the rest, and seeing it interspersed with them grown up and still haunted by these memories is very compelling.
It's worth the rental price for that alone.
It's such a weird story and the minor details, like entities moving in slow motion, are just too weird to be made up by elementary school kids and stuck to for 20+ years. Almost everyone says they believe the children. After watching this I'm on board. Whatever they saw does seem like it was real, not "mass hysteria" or something like that.
Alien³ (1992)
In defense of David Fincher
I just watched this again. I've seen Alien and Aliens countless time, but have only seen Alien 3 once and that was pretty much enough for the last 15 years.
This movie is really just a waste of time, because the few good ideas and interesting things that happen are completely overshadowed by the illogical plot, worthless characters and slasher feel (you could replace the alien with any other movie monster, no problem).
I don't think this has anything to do with David Fincher, though.
He did not write the story or the script, and those areas are where the major problems lie.
Think of all the other movies he has directed since then:
Seven, Fight Club, The Game
Those are three of my all-time favorite movies, and the ones I didn't list above, like panic room, are still good movies.
I just can't believe that it was Fincher causing the problems here, but I can believe that he could be easily pushed around by a studio during his directorial debut (maybe even their fall-guy?). Blame the studio for letting this P.O.S. go into production in the first place.
Cloverfield (2008)
Very Exciting!
I recommend seeing this without knowing anything *except* that it is filmed POV Camcorder style like the Blair Witch Project. I sat in the back row and was fine, so you can stop reading now before you ruin it for yourself.
I thought this movie was extremely exciting, well acted, and very scary. Some of the scenes were so cleverly set up that I found myself grinning unintentionally.
I think that there are allusions to 9/11 and that they are absolutely necessary: after all, we have experienced 9/11 and we know exactly what it looks like when there is a disaster. This film captured that feeling. It brought back my own memories of that morning, trying to get out of Washington D.C. under the impression that we were being bombed, panic and false information everywhere. I don't think it was exploitive.
If you liked the escape scene in the most recent War of the Worlds where the aliens attack for the first time, you will love this. It's the intensity of that scene drawn out over an hour and a half.
I think we need more films like this which are willing to take risks.
The Island (2005)
A waste of time
I like Ewan.
I like Scarlett.
I like Sean, Djimon and Buscemi.
But not in this horrible waste of over 2 hours.
That is why it's such a shame that this movie had to be directed by Michael Bay. It's interesting to note all the things that would have been great about this movie if it were directed by just about anyone else.
You can actually feel it when the movie deviates from what I think was probably a very interesting script into BayWorld. In fact, I think you could trim most of the 10-shots-per-second action out of this movie and get it down to a very interesting 1.5 hours.
It did make me think about other science fiction that has done it right. If you haven't seen 12 Monkeys do yourself a favor and rent that instead.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
It takes a while to sink in
When I saw Napoleon Dynamite I think I found it mildly amusing, but kind of long, and not very exciting.
Somehow, later on, parts of it got stuck in my head.
My wife and I found ourselves quoting the movie and cracking ourselves up. Every time I read the words "time machine" in one of these comments it makes me laugh. I find myself sorting everything into two groups: things that suck + don't work, and things that are sweet.
The great thing about this movie is that it spread mostly by word of mouth, and part of it's appeal was being in-the-know.
If you've already heard every line of the movie from your friends, I bet you're going to find it boring. It will be like you went out and bought a pair of parachute pants and expected to be cool: you're just a little too late.
If possible, I suggest you stop reading about the movie before you spoil it for yourself and just go see it.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Now that I think about it...
When I walked out of the theater a few months ago, these were my thoughts:
-Uma was excellent
-The music was excellent
-The cinematography was excellent
-Some of the fight scenes went on a bit too long
-I wish my back yard looked like the setting of the final fight (japanese, snowy)
Suffice it to say, I thought the movie was good, but I was not blown away.
The strange thing is, long after seeing the film, I still remember many parts of it vividly and look back at it fondly. I have even considered going to see it again. After letting it sink in I have realized that I like this movie much more than I initially thought.
Kill Bill vol. 1 is so "out there" that it is impossible to guess what it will be like by reading reviews. It is definitely not what I was expecting, and I think is what initially kept me from liking it as much as I do now that I have had time to reflect on it.
It seems to me that a lot of the negative reviews here are based on a preconceived notion of the movie. If you haven't seen Kill Bil vol. 1 yet, I suggest you throw any preconceived notions you might have out the window.
In particular:
-This is not Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, or Jackie Brown.
-This is not a 70's martial arts film.
-This movie is not going to be entirely realistic
-This movie is not going to be entirely unrealistic
-Whatever you're seeing in your head right now, when you try to imagine what this movie is like, is wrong.
Kill Bill is definitely one of the most unique movies I have seen in quite some time, and a very good one at that. I'm looking forward to the second volume.
-Mike
Red Planet (2000)
Annoying, talkative computers rule the world!
You've most likely read lots of negative reviews by now, and for the most part I agree with them.
I have seen some attempts to put a positive spin on this film by declaring it "accurate science fiction". Could this be an attempt to justify money spent on a spectacularly bad film? I think so.
Luckily, my version was taped from HBO. So I don't feel too bad about sitting through over an hour of computer voices that never shut up and sound like early macintosh text-to-speech programs. Even after wishing and hoping and praying and crossing my fingers, the computer voices never said "In an effort to save you time, which is the main purpose of computers, please append the phrase 'is malfunctioning' to each of the following: the ship, the artificial gravity, the oxygen system, the blacklight system, oh to hell with it... commencing poorly orchestrated rock music soundtrack sequence."
That's right! The blacklight system! It's a good thing the blacklight system was put on board, otherwise all those flashy neon colors would have never showed up on film properly.
I promise I'll stop nitpicking soon, but let me ask you this:
Let's say you're going to mars... Your main purpose on mars involves the atmosphere. You can only bring one of the following, which do you choose?
A) Some sort of instrument to analyze the atmosphere. B) A crazy robot attack dog. C) The one and only attractive female between here and earth.
I know what you're thinking, bring the attractive female! But alas, they leave her behind, and must have forgotten "A" as well, bringing only the crazy robot attack dog.
I will spare you further details. I suggest that instead of watching this movie you:
1) Wait for Rendezvous With Rama (Morgan Freeman, David Fincher, need I say more?) to come out sometime in the next few years.
2) Keep your science fiction craving mind busy until then by reading "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson, which absolutely blows recent sci-fi movies away.
Hannibal (2001)
90% good movie, 10% what the hell happened?
***Contains Spoilers***
I thought this movie was great until the last 15 minutes of the film. I don't mind gore, and I love movies where the bad guy wins, but it has to be well done and thoughtful.
My main complaint with the film is this:
Most of the time the gore seemed justified in some way, for example, hanging the Italian inspector in the same location that his ancestors were hung was justifiably gory, because Hannibal was doing it for a reason. The other violence in the film seemed to follow the same pattern.
I can't see any reason for Hannibal's character to start cutting people's heads open for no reason. If the purpose was to disgust the audience, they did a good job. This is the only movie I have ever seen that has made me even slightly nauseous. However, where was hannibal's "cleverness?" He seems to have thrown it out entirely, and it was a real letdown.
In fact, I guess the whole brain thing is my only gripe. Besides my other complains, it looked somewhat silly, like a bad horror movie cover.
***End Of Spoilers***
Overall:
A good, intense, creepy film. My girlfriend and I had forgotten to lock the door before we left, it gave me a good excuse to creep through the house with a butcher knife. The first time I've gotten creeped out after a movie in a long time.
The direction was good, in some of the "drugged up" scenes I actually felt drugged.
As far as the creepy-hannibal/gross-out-gore ratio goes, I would have preferred more creepy-hannibal.
Hopkins was excellent, but I knew that before I saw the film. I forgot about Jodie Foster 10 minutes into the film, kudo's to Moore. I also had no idea that was Gary Oldman, but he did a damn good job!
my rating: 7/10
For something truly amazing, see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon instead.
Snatch (2000)
Amazingly Brilliant Camera Work
I'm not sure if this is a **SPOILER** or not, as it deals with camera work and not so much with plot. I saw this movie knowing nothing about it except that it was by "the guy who did Lock, Stock" (which I didn't really like too much). I think that knowing nothing may have made me enjoy it more.
You've been warned. :)
You've all read about the actors, Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro were excellent, as usual, but the thing that blew me away was the camera work and the editing job done on this one.
Every once in a while we see these great little 2-3 second clips that tell a whole story through about 20 different shots thrown at the audience so quickly that you'd miss them if you blinked.
The only one I think I could possibly explain through a text based comment is the great way characters travel overseas:
two men, one in London one in the US are on the phone.
man in the US: "I'll be right there"
-shot of car screeching away
-shot of passport stamp
-shot of US man taking a shot
-shot of plane taking off
-shot of plane landing
-shot of passport stamp
-shot of car screeching away
-show of US man standing in London man's office
all that happens in about 1 second. :) It's great!
Aside from being amazed at the camera work, the story was interesting and original. The characters were funny and well cast, and the dog was fantastic!
All you "it's Lock, Stock part Two!" critics should give this director a break and appreciate this film on it's own.
I rated this an 8.0 on IMDB.
Wo hu cang long (2000)
One of six films that I have rated a perfect 10
It takes a lot for me to rate a movie a perfect 10. Not only does it have to be one of the best movies I have ever seen, the technical aspects of the movie (acting, directing, cinematography, etc.) must be astounding as well.
Crouching Tiger has amazed me every time I've seen it (which as of this writing is 4 times) with it's wonderful story, beautiful cinematography, and amazing acting.
Although I think that Yeoh and Chow are perfectly cast, the real star of this movie is Zhang Ziyi. I have never been so captivated by a character as I am with Ziyi's Jen.
I don't think my writing could do this movie justice, so I'll just say that since I became an avid movie fan about 10 years ago, this is the only movie that has made me laugh, amazed me with it's action sequences, and brought tears to my eyes (that one is particularly difficult to do) all within a two hour period. I still can't stop thinking about it! It's amazing I'm not sick of it by now. :)
To think I had to be practically dragged to the theater to see it the first time makes me feel pretty pathetic. I hope that if there are people like me reading this, who look down upon movies with martial arts in them, that they'll look past their prejudices for this film.
In my opinion, this is one of the best films of the decade, if not one of the best films ever made.
I'll be crossing my fingers for this one to win Best Picture and Best Foreign Picture come Oscar night.
-Mike