Narc is the best movie I’ve seen in at least a year. Compelling, gritty, complex, thought provoking…it’s almost perfect. This is not a movie for the faint of heart though, and it’s not a casual experience – you need to pay close attention and you should prepare yourself for violence in its worst forms and an absolutely devestating ending . It’s so damned rare for hollywood to put out a movie like this – it’s a throwback to the 70’s, a movie the challenges you to think about what you’re watching instead of just overwhelming you with visual effects.

The plot follows a detective who has lost his place on the force due to a bust gone bad who is coaxed back into work to help solve a cop killing. Things turn out to be more complex then they seem and clues to the case end up involving his partner on the case, played by Ray Liotta who does an awesome job.

Don’t miss this movie, it’s that good. But don’t watch it with your girlfriend either 😉

Brief and to the point on this one – it pretty much sucked. Check out reviews on the IMDB site, but take it from me, aside from excessive gore (assuming thats even your thing, it’s not mine) and a scantily clad Milla Jovovich, this movie has nothing going for it. The plot follows the adventures of a team of commandos sent in to investigate what went wrong at the top secret research labs of a mega-corporation. Turns out evil brain sucking zombies is what’s gone wrong, along with a possibly evil supercomputer and genetically mutated killer zombie bunnies (I kid you not). Actually now the movie sounds like more fun than it is. I guess it would be ok for a ‘oh look what’s on HBO tonight’ kinda thing, but I wouldn’t waste time renting it.

I watched One Hour Photo this week while exercising. I thought it was an excellent flick though I suspect it won’t be to the tastes of most of the folks reading this weblog. It’s an effectively creepy tale about a photo clerk at a walmart-type superstore who has an unhealthy obsession with the family of one of his regular customers. The movie has excellent cinematography which does a really great job of establishing a tone, and the soundtracks melds well with it too. Robin Williams plays the creepy photo clerk and it’s one of his best roles. The movie also has a slow, deliberate pace which I enjoyed, too often these days movies procede with an mtv-inspired ‘quick, relentless camera cuts’ style that I am increasingly less fond of. This may be the main downside for most of you though as I suspect your reaction to the movie will be ‘it was boring.’

Anyway for what it’s worth I really enjoyed this one.

Yeah, ok. So it’s a cheesy headline, but I couldn’t resist. My dad used to take such pride in wordplay like this, back when he was working on the editorial desk at Newsday.

Anyway…the movie adaptation of Tom Clancy’s ‘The Sum of all Fears’ isn’t a bad movie, it’s not all that good either though. Ben Affleck is no Jack Ryan is the main problem, well that and the plot is very predictable and not particularly engaging. They tried to market this as a sort of action film which it most definitely is not, it’s a spy thriller that’s not very thrilling. Slo-mo shots of Ben Affleck running down a burning street? That’s not action, that’s schmaltzy ‘rub your face in it’ nonsense from the director. We get it, we get it, he’s very heroic and stuff. But can we please have some real action now?

I’m rambling. My point? Don’t bother with this one unless it comes on cable when you’re stuffed in a chair half asleep channel surfing, chances are you’ll nod off while it’s playing anyway.

Saw this last night on HBO. This movie is not worth watching, it’s bad enough to actually be annoying. This despite having two actors I like, James Gandolfini and Robert Redford. Gandolfini in particular is extremely annoying, he affects a very precise staccato diction that will drive you nuts by the time he gets 3-4 words out of his mouth. Meanwhile the story is contrived. It’s going for ‘patriotic men of honor struggling against tyranny’ but ends up with ‘lame prison flick with no sense of character depth.’ I suppose there are a few redeeming traits to the movie – several of the action scenes are well done and the 5.1 surround sound is really well mixed. Not enough movies pay attention to this imho, though of course I’ve invested $$$ in a surround sound system so I’m biased. Anyway the redeeming traits are offset by a 2+ hour running time. I got bored an hour and a half in and washed the dishes while the last 40 minutes played out, that’s how bad the movie is. Stay away, even on tv the movie’s not worth the time.

Planet of the Apes, the recent remake. Ugh. I’m used to Tim Burton movies having incomprehensible plots, but usually you can count on them at least being visually interesting. Not so here. An abomination of a script, unexceptional special effects, a killer ‘what the fuck were they smoking when they thought that up?’ ending, a long running length, and performances from uneven to awful all conspire to make this move a piece of crap. The makeup work for some of the apes is the only redeeming quality this movie has. Stay away, star far, far away. That’s my 2 cents.

I caught The Bourne Identity this weekend with John. It’s a decent movie, nothing spectacular though. The action is well staged throughout, but the charisma between the leads was only so-so and there were a number of awkward moments between them where the director chose to let the camera run and…nothing happened. If it was a Julia Roberts flick she would have laughed and smiled and everyone would have thought it was charming. But it isn’t a Julia Roberts flick, and despite how much I loved Run, Lola, Run I didn’t think all that much of Franka Potente in this movie. There wasn’t much to her part but she didn’t do much with it either.

Matt Damon is credible as the super spy though, and the movie never really drags. In a way it’s a perfect summer movie. Lots of action, a little romance, enough of a plot to keep you interested, and a satisfying ending. I give it 2.5 stars, add half a star if you’re partial to spy thrillers or action movies.

I did have the bad guy pegged 15 minutes into The Gift. Oh well. Skip this movie is my advice. It has a few interesting moments but all in all you can tell where it’s going almost from the very beginning.

…is just ok. The plot takes a few interesting twists and Denzel Washington definitely does a great job, but at its core the movie is typical hollywood dreck elevated above average by decent performances and a slightly above average screenplay. You can check out other folks opinion as well. Overall I would say it’s a worthy rental but I’m glad I didn’t spend $8 to catch it in a theater.

Well,

Sorta. I’m sitting here watching The Gift and I have this horrible feeling 20 minutes into the movie that I know who dunnit. Damnit! Other than that the movie seems decent if not exceptional. More later after it’s done.