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August Rush (2007)
Pretty Sloppy
August Rush is not a horrible movie, but it is not a very good one either. The script is downright embarrassing at times and the acting leaves something to be desired.
The Good:
-Cinematography is often gorgeous.
-The Father's band sounds like a real Irish/Scottish rock group
-Pretty Good Performance by Robin Williams
The Bad:
-Acting from the three lead roles verges on cringe worthy at points.
-INCREDIBLY UNREALISTIC
-Script with awkward phrases
-Bullying scene at the orphanage is horribly acted and very cliché
-Emotional intensity is drawn away completely by bad acting and lackluster script.
-Too polished for the feel I think it was going for.
The Wackness (2008)
Only 7.1? This is a joke, right?
The Wackness does not have a particularly inventive plot. It does not feature any exciting special effect, but what this movie does have is a whole lot of heart, and two stellar performances to illuminate that.
A lonely dope dealer is not the first person you would expect to sympathize with. Nor is a drug addicted psychologist, completely ignorant to his own advice, but through the portrayals of these characters by a couple of talented actors, and a brilliant script, I found myself feeling deeply for each of these men.
Luke Shapiro was one of the most well crafted characters to grace the screen in ages. He is lonely, and very well meaning but also very rough around the edges. I am a HUGE fan of Josh peck, I thought he played comedy very well in the children's sketch comedy series The Amanda Show. I thought he was very charismatic as the geeky chubby kid in Drake and Josh. Also, his performance as George the bully in the incredible movie Mean Creek is one of my favorites. The way he brings Luke to life is great and shows his acting versatility. I felt with Luke as he had his heart ripped into. I felt his anger as he watched his household falling apart.
Dr. Squires is a bit harder to feel for, as he is ignorant, unfaithful, and immature, but through his deep friendship with Luke, you begin to love him as well.
Now for the big one, the soundtrack. The story could have taken place at any point in time, for it is a fairly basic and universal tale, but he chose the mid eighties, highlighting the uprising of rap and hip hop music through Luke's mixed tapes, perfectly complimenting the setting and situations.
Overall, I think this is a great piece of cinema. While not bringing anything new to the table, so to speak, it is executed with great heart and emotion. I loved The Wackness!
Inception (2010)
A disappointment
Before you read this, don't misunderstand me, Inception was a solid movie. Far above average. The only thing I believe made it a disappointment was the fact that it was a Christopher Nolan film, and definitely NOT his best. It doesn't hold a candle to the intensity, complexity and intelligence of Memento. It didn't achieve the strong style and shocking brilliance of either Batman Begins or The Dark Knight. It didn't establish the sense of wonder that the Prestige left the viewer feeling.
Inception had an incredible concept. One that I believe could have set the base for Christopher Nolan's most impressive film to date, but he took this concept and threw 180 million dollars into special effects rather than a solid story and really Grade A acting. Now DiCaprio's performance in Inception was excellent but most of the accompanying actors were average action flick performances. Which was a disappointment because in Nolan's greater films, he usually puts the acting of the side characters before the lead (Memento: Teddy. TDK: The Joker).
I feel like Chris Nolan got wrapped in by Hollywood and decided to make an action film with a psychological plot, than a psychological thriller with some action sequences. Not his most intelligent, or captivating film to date, but still worth the price of admission.
Avatar (2009)
Superficial and Sorely Unoriginal
Avatar starts as an intriguing story about a crippled man traveling to a foreign planet. This subplot of a man struggling with a disability was the only realistic and intelligent piece of the film. This was the only thing keeping the movie alive in my opinion, and it popped up very infrequently. Now that I've got off my chest, what worked for the film, let me tell you what I thought sucked about Avatar.
A: Boring and predictable storyline. Every character, every plot twist, and every concept was taken from another stupid action flick. Man goes to planet to work for government, man goes undercover in alien civilization, man falls in love with princess, man turns against government, aliens find out man was originally from government, man redeems himself. SO unoriginal, so plain, I almost cried at the lack of imagination in this story.
B: Lack of creative creature design. Though I must admit that the appearance of the plants and trees in Avatar were quite impressive, the creatures of the alien planet were all similar to things we find on Earth. The thing that attacks Jake Sully at the beginning looks like a large black panther. The big blue things look like rhinos. The Naavi look like tall blue people with cat eyes and teeth. The flying pterodactyl things looked like.... pterodactyls.
C: Terrible script. Do I need to explain my reasoning?
D: Average acting. No one performance was really very good. Sam Worthington was traditional action hero man. Sigourney Weaver was the same character she always is. The bad guy was a one dimensional villain. The nerdy guy had no quality other than nerdy. It was just SO cookie cutter action movie.
So folks, thats why I think Avatar is simply one of the most overrated movies of all time.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
Intriguing and Visually Bold
The story of Chuck Barris is one that I knew little about going into this film. I thought that the movie was going to attempt to be an accurate depiction of his life, and then midway through the movie, I realized that this wasn't based on an actual life, but an autobiography by the real Chuck Barris. Now, although that may sound like the same thing, you must realize that when you are writing a book about yourself (Particularly in the state of mind that Barris was in) you tend to stretch the truth. CIA denies, and the movie implies, that the work Barris did with the CIA was purely born out of the mind of a man who was losing his brain. That was what I enjoyed about the movie (among other things). It was open to the viewers interpretation. It was never officially stated that Barris was or was not a gun for hire.
The next enjoyable thing about the movie was Sam Rockwell's outstanding performance. Now, my opinion may be bias, as Sam Rockwell is my favorite actor, but I still imagine that most people would find his performance at least good. His ability to capture the spirit of the former game show host so accurately was almost haunting, and the scenes where he was going insane were beautifully acted. George Clooney's camera work was also fairly impressive, and the scene in the bar was very funny, due in large part to Clooney's directing.
Overall, the film was greatly dark, with small doses of humor and romance. It contained mostly top quality acting and good directing from George Clooney (another one of my favorite actors).
Magnolia (1999)
Gorgeous
Magnolia is a work of shear beauty. With a knockout cast, a compelling, heartbreaking plot, and enough creative touches to keep it from being mundane. Each story reflects a younger person, affected by the choices of their parents. Whether it's the boy genius hurt by the way his father, and other adults treat him, as a toy, not a person. The sleazy motivational speaker who was forced to take care of his mother and himself, after his dad left with no notice. The junkie who believes she was molested as a child. The misguided former child star, who shows the effects of the treatment of adults, as a boy genius. But maybe even more compelling are the stories of the adults who effected the lives of these younger people. The game show host, suffering from cancer and the disaffection of his daughter. The mentally unstable woman who married an older man for money, but fell in love with him on his deathbed. The man in the bed who is overwhelmed by the guilt of his past and the self loathing for leaving his wife and son. And there are characters who only enter the stories of other people, without a real background story of their own. The socially awkward cop, who finds it difficult to make the decision of whether someone should be forgiven or not. The male nurse, who wants to try and help make the dying man's life better before he dies, by trying to contact the estranged son. The mysterious little ghetto boy, who claims to know the answer to an unsolved murder at the start of the film. All of these stories are beautifully woven together in a quilt of loss, love, darkness, hate, and remembrance. Magnolia will blow you away, and leave you thinking, hours after the DVD stops spinning.
Up in the Air (2009)
More Than Expected
Up in the Air is a romantic comedy at the core, and I'm the first guy to pass off a movie just because of this fact, but there is much more to this beautiful film. There are subtle comedic elements and in my opinion, very strong dramatic moments. All of the roles in this movie were very well played, including, if not especially, the characters who received one or two minutes of screen time. The plot is somewhat predictable but the dialog and story make up for this slight flaw. Romance between Ryan and Alex is complex, depressing, and at times quite beautiful. George Clooney makes Ryan Bingham radiate with loneliness and his performance hit me right in the gut, as though I was staring at the dark side of my reflection. Though Up in the Air may seem like Hollywood crap, due to the overproduced looking cinematography and the romantic comedy feel, it is anything but. Please, go rent this movie, you'll be doing yourself a HUGE favor.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Beautifully Done...
To call Fantastic Mr.Fox a children's movie is a disservice to the film. This is just as adult as most of Wes Anderson's R rated features, in the sense of the maturity of the plot and character development. The only thing missing from the movie is profanity, which isn't even really that extreme in any of his movies anyway.
Mr.Anderson seems to have an obsession with amateur criminals, and this is also prevalent in Fantastic Mr.Fox. Bottle Rocket was the defining movie for a group of idiots trying to be criminals, but even in The Life Aquatic you see the clumsy theft of the sea lab and the ridiculous rescue attempt. In Fantastic Mr.Fox, most of the crimes go fairly well until the consequences are made evident. Ash's attempt to free Kristofferson was an incredibly memorable scene in this movie because of the unprofessionalism that it presented.
What was great in this movie was that the characters were so real that you almost forgot they were animals. My only complaint about the film is that a lot of kids will see it and feel confused and possibly not entertained due to the dry humor that it uses. This was a major bonus for me, as I am a huge fan of dry humor, but children may not understand and a lot of adults don't find it funny.
Mean Creek (2004)
Amazing....
Mean Creek is something I can't do justice with words. It was heart wrenching. It was nearly perfect. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. People say to congratulate the young actors for their beautiful work in this film, and they're right, but who really needs the spotlight in this film is the writer/director. While Josh Peck does an amazing job at acting both the awful and kind sides of George, it was up to the writer and director to show both sides of the character. Also, this director (forgot his name), has created a beautiful portrayal of teen behavior, and of bullies. His script makes you feel sympathy for the bully, and it explains that he's not a one dimensional douchebag. The cinematography was another thing to note, as the shots of the river were jaw dropping and gorgeous, and then after the accident, everything looks dreary, and the river isn't quite as pretty. This reminded me of the book, The Red Kayak, because of when the main character of that book is looking out on the river at the beginning he explains how sparkling and clear it is and how it seems one with the world, but after the accident he looks at it as a killer. I will end up writing a novel if I keep on going with this review, so I'll just end by saying, watch this movie. If you have friends that like to joke when you're watching movies, don't invite them, they WILL ruin this film for you, as almost happened to me.