SteveBVa Reviews

The Three Stooges (2012)

Solid, Silly Fun

[8/10 · 14 April 2012]

This movie was a lot of fun. It remains very true to the Stooges form. So, if you are looking for some mindless laughs and a fun evening at the movies, you will enjoy this one from start to finish. Some of the reviewers here seem to have been looking for something more than this film ever promised.

If you are looking for an art house film, or an important and significant film, this one isn't it. If you are looking for a film to be as fresh as the stooges were in their time, this one stays too true to form to fit that bill. Slapstick, not sophistication is the hallmark of this film.

But if you understand the Stooges, and are just looking for some laughs, you can't go wrong here.

J. Edgar (2011)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. But without the Good

[1/10 · 11 November 2011]

"J. Edgar " started out slow and cheesy and got progressively worse. I don't think there was any portion of this movie I could say something good about. The writing was awful, the acting was awful, occasionally rising to OK, and the directing was awful. I can't say that the editing was awful as it appears that they didn't edit it. Incredibly long scenes of nothingness seemed to linger - making the 2 hour plus movie feel more like 5 hours.

The movie didn't shed light on anything new and it didn't tell the story particularly well.

And a word about the make-up. Wow. I have never seen a big budget movie with such horrendous makeup. The makeup was so bad that it was distracting. Literally every scene in which Clyde Tolson appeared as an older man was painful to watch. He appeared to be a badly burned man who may have actually been still melting at the time of filming.

Do yourself a favor and wait until this comes out on Netflix. And then when it comes out on Netflix, do yourself a further favor and even avoid it then.

A Town Called Panic (2009)

Arguably The Worst Movie I Have Seen This Year

[3/10 · 14 February 2010]

The production quality while perhaps artsy to some was tedious throughout this movie, the "plot" was, well, there wasn't a plot to speak of, just a continuous loop of unfunny sight gags and repetitive scenes of destruction. I cannot for the life of me think of a demographic group to which this film appeals, though clearly, I am not in it.

The movie was exhausting to watch...though endure might be a more appropriate word.

Perhaps if I were a Belgian child and lived a very sheltered life in which I was unfamiliar with animation, plots and story lines, I would have felt differently about this film. However, I am not.

Burn After Reading (2008)

An Hour and a Half I Can't Get Back

[2/10 · 13 September 2008]

This movie was just hideous. The screenplay was tedious - and the end could not come soon enough. To top it off, John Malkovich gave what I would have to describe as his worst performance ever. In fairness to him, no one was stellar in this movie. That was as much a by-product of the poor writing/crappy plot, though with this stellar cast, I had higher expectations.

In truth, I just don't think this one was salvageable even if the entire cast were on top of their games.

If I were to be generous, I would say there were 2 or 3 decent laughs in the movie. The trailer was far more enjoyable than the movie.

I went straight home to watch "The Big Lebowski" to try and get this clunker out of my mind.