I was getting tired of seeing that depressing sleep paralysis post as the current entry, so I’m going to write a few sentences about a few movies I’ve seen recently (meaning 2007). Spoilers in gray.
Zodiac
It was one of those movies where I got the feeling that I didn’t want it to end. And guess what–it didn’t. Man this movie was long. Seriously. Like King Kong long. The thing with these long movies is that you have to prepare yourself mentally to sit in the theater for that long. I’d use a thesaurus to find another word for long but I think I’ve made my point. Oh, but it’s also good. The first half is fantastic. The second half does the job. And they nailed the whole sixties and seventies feeling, as if I know what it’s like. The basement scene was tense. I got chills when old guy says “Oh, I made those posters.” And the stabbing at the park is very disturbing.
TMNT
It’s no Secret of the Ooze. But what is? It’s better than Turtles in Time. But what isn’t? It looks cool and you’ll feel nostalgic a few times. I really hate how they marketed it as the letters “TMNT” rather than writing it all out. Also, it seems like they tried to make it part IV of the series but it just doesn’t work like that. You need grown men in turtle costumes for that. And the Foot are stealthy ninjas in this movie. I didn’t feel like they were a bunch of goons. Splinter sounds Mexican and the Foot leader’s accent bothered me. It felt like 3 to-be-continued episodes of the cartoon. But only OK episodes, nothing classic like the ones with the Rat King. Rent it! But here’s another opinion from the guy I watched it with:
“The best movie ever.” – Ryan Cuajunco, 5th Grader
The Prestige
Confused me. But I watched it on a small TV if that’s any excuse. Actually, no, it’s really just a bit confusing at first. There’s a lot of arguments online about what the ending actually explains, and I don’t really understand why. People want to believe Christopher Nolan okie doked the audience twice over and you have to look deeply to see that the machine didn’t actually clone Wolverine. It’s not that deep. In the special features it pretty much says the machine worked in the movie. At the very end, there’s a lot of built up suspense for the last shot of a dead Wolverine in a water tank. I don’t get it because the surprise was pretty out in the open at that point. The whole twin thing got me good though. Scarlett Johansson plays her role perfectly. Actually, all the actors have it down well. I liked it a lot more than her other movie, the naptime special Lost in translation.
The Illusionist
Has magicians and set in the same time period as The Prestige. Very different movies though. Prestige is a lot better. But you kind of have to watch both just because. I recommend you watch The Illusionist first, because maybe it just seems worse because I watched two magician movies in a week.
Blades of Glory
It’s no Old School or Anchorman. You won’t really be rolling in laughter, but if you think you’ll like it you probably will. I’m giving it brownie points for having Will Arnett. Entertaining. It’s not a bad choice if you have a free night, but don’t cancel plans to see it in theaters.
300
I wasn’t disappointed. Go see it. Girls seem to like it because of the hot men. Guys seem to like it also because of the hot men. No need for a pre-movie Bod commercial this time around. I saw it twice and the second time it was still really good the whole way through. Return of the King was good on its repeated viewings, but man I wanted to jab my eyes out during the Frodo and Samwise scenes. One critic says it’s like the ending of epic war movies over and over again. But he meant it in a bad way. I know right? What a dummy. Here’s how my review link would look if it were on Rotten Tomatoes:
