I'm a little surprised no one has said anything about the latest Harry Potter flick... Living up here I won't see it until it hits the video stores, but I thought it would be a hot ticket.
I'm a little surprised no one has said anything about the latest Harry Potter flick... Living up here I won't see it until it hits the video stores, but I thought it would be a hot ticket.
Got you.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The created environment in the film is overly dark and moody, (why is it never sunny at Hogwarts? is it really in England?). A couple of scenes in the movie reassured me of the belief that there is not really a story that has never been told, but hey, it's for the kids. I'm a sucker for good drama and romance so the parts that play out like a teen drama are my favorite (when I was younger I remember wanting to meet a girl like Hermione, I love her character), and make this movie, not unlike the rest of the series, worth watching. There is not a whole lot of action, this movie is just a really good set up for the next one. And we get a rare look at a loosened up Harry Potter having a good time for about 20 minutes which is pretty hilarious.
Pretty good film, but I suppose it would help to read the book first in order to patch up any holes since it's difficult to pack a whole book into 2.5 hours. Lots of adults my age there as well (25 years or so, bookish kids my age did kind of grow up with it after all, being the earliest books were first released in our freshman / junior high years).
edit: Didn't see GGG's write up, but I am not on par with her dislike of teenage angsty stuff. Harry Potter's teen angst is some of the best! it's like fine wine with explosions and magic stuff.
Seven Pounds -- yeah, won't say too much in case you don't know the plot, but yes, but not a huge enthusiastic yes. Thought Will was kind of making the same mistake that Harrison Ford did a few times in the 90s, where a naturally charismatic star glums himself down so much to attempt to appear serious and/or unlikable that there is no point in having that star in the first place. Rosario Dawson though gave a great performance. And while at the time plot point I am not going to mention did not really bother me, I do have to admit it lingered afterward, so more powerful than expected (albeit with some holes).
Agreed. I think they tried to make it too heavy, and it kind of came across as overly self-important, if that makes any sense. I like the concept, but it didn't deliver the way I wanted it to, and like Brick said, the lead character's conflict wasn't quite as compelling as they wanted it to be.I watched this one a couple weeks ago and largely agree, though I think I'm a bit further from the "yes" than you are. Will Smith's acting was fine, but I was bothered by certain aspects of his character enough that I just couldn't connect with him. Rosario Dawson's character (and performance), however, was good enough that I got sucked into the movie -- she was easily as good as I've ever seen her -- but I don't think I was sucked in for the reasons the filmmakers wanted me to be.
Watched The Watchmen this past weekend. It was the Director's Cut and added 20 or more minutes which made it a bit long but I did enjoy it despite the fact I had just hooked up a new Blu-Ray player and didn't get to adjust the settings making a very dark movie too dark in some scenes.
Oh, I forgot to mention another one I watched... Lakeview Terrace. Probably because it was forgetable. I couldn't halp but think the whole time I watched that this was probably written by some white guy that fancied black girls and felt dissed by all the brothers he thought he could bond with over some hip hop cds. It just played like some kind of fantasy where the (jerky) white dude was completely being wronged by all the black males he encountered and didn't share the least bit of blame. I get that racism in any form is totally uncool but this movie twisted a bunch of other side issues into pure fantasy territory, and when it came down to it the "victim" was every bit as guilty, overreactive and scheming as the evil racist black man... who maybe was even a good guy at one point before his own personal tragedy set him on a different course. Skip this one.
I don't know that it was intentionally racist, but if you are going to tackle the issue of reverse-racism, or however you wish to define it, it needs to be done with far more tact than this sloppy mess which I think can send the wrong message to those who are looking to receive it. I share your bewilderment in why Jackson would touch this one, aside from the novelty of the black cop being racist against the white guy, this story has been told a thousand times better in dozens of movies.I don't think it was racist.
Oh, I forgot to mention another one I watched... Lakeview Terrace. Probably because it was forgetable.
Look at what Nicholas Cage has in the works:
He's one of my all-time favorite actors and I think one of the busiest actors in the world today! Of all those above, I can honestly say the only one I really didn't like was Bangkok Dangerous.
Love Dennis LeHane (author) and have read both of the above mentioned books and have seen the movies. I thought the movies were well done.Gone, Baby Gone -- another high quality flick which did a nice job of raising some very interesting/disturbing questions by the end. Ben Affleck may be cheeseball at everything else, but he has always had a great feel for working class Boston and the underlying book was by the author of Mystic River (and has some of the same grimy power). I would put both of these movies in the 7/8 range.
True but Snakes On A Plane and Deep Blue Sea and other silly roles he's taken on didn't really address sensitive issues like this one did.As far as SLJ, he doesn't discriminate when it comes to scripts. I'm pretty sure he wasn't trying to be sarcastic when he accepted Snakes On A Plane.
You ever see Birdy, VF? If so, wonder how you felt about it. I didn't know what to make of it.
True but Snakes On A Plane and Deep Blue Sea and other silly roles he's taken on didn't really address sensitive issues like this one did.
I'm thinking I'll watch Pineapple Express tonight.
Never saw it, as far as I can remember... I'll have to see about renting it.
My friend and his 2 kids came over and we all watched Race to Witch Mountain. Its a good movie for the entire family and very entertaining. I might add that Dwayne Johnson is so good looking.![]()