The Out of Towners

This is an interesting comedy about a businessman who travels to New York for a job interview that could really give his career a pick-up. However through a series of events he and his wife are stranded, mugged, bleeding, and temporarily deafened. It's funny.

Peter Pan (Disney)

This was my brother's favorite movie growing up. It's a nice story, and Disney does a good job animating it. This was the day when Disney put heart into their movies and were willing to tell dark stories. From the making of featurette, it seems that the story could have been much darker, if some of the artists would have had their way.

Death Race 2000

This ultra-violent thriller is set in the future (the year 2000) where the public's thirst for violence has become so strong that a presidentially endorsed event is held. Five racers travel across country fighting each other to the death and receiving extra points for each pedestrian they murder. Extra points are given for senior citizens and children. I thinks it's amazing that this movie was ever made. I can't say I'd necessarily recommend it, or watch it again. But it was hilarious.

The Manson Family

I'm trying desperately to thing of a movie I've seen that's worse than this. The other Manson film I watched recently was long and amateur, but at least it kept to it's plan to tell the facts. There was little to no story involved in this movie. It was on par with American Movie's Coven. Netflix's descriptive paragraph ends by stating that 'Underground horror king Jim Van Bebber took 15 years to bring his chilling vision to the screen.' I think he should have given up ten years earlier than he did.

Dahmer

Unlike any other serial killer movie I've seen, I fit the profile of both the killer and victim. Jeffery Dahmer was a quiet unassuming boy. He lived alone (during most of his killings), and for the most part kept to himself. And, opposed to most serial killers, his victims were also young men. Throughout the movie I constantly placed myself in both places. I wonder if this was due to decisions the writers and directors made, or simply my proximity to his demographic. Either way, I think that this movie did a good job of humanizing a person seen in the eyes of the public as a soulless monster.

The concept of sociopath and serial killer have interested me for a long time. These are people who have put aside their inhibitions and the natural mechanisms of guilt. They are often very intelligent and charismatic. Inhibition can often hold people back from doing good as well as bad, but I don't think that anyone who has done away with them completely would or could use their powers for good. I think that deep down in each of us is enough selfish desire that, if unchecked by our guilt and lack of intelligence would reek sin far beyond what we consider to be innocent.

For Your Consideration

I was lucky enough to watch this in a theater full of people who understood jewish culture. I understood about a quarter of the yiddish references (being a quarter jewish myself), but quite often an obscure yiddish word would be thrown out in passing and groups of the audience would erupt into laughter.

The movie was funny, but I don't think it held a candle to Christopher Guests' previous work. There aren't any parts that I can say didn't work. It was all good, but not great. It was a short movie. Just under an hour and a half. It closed every aspect of the story that it opened, but still I left wishing to see at least one more act.

The Grave of the Fireflies

I've always admired the technique of Japanese Anime, but rarely cared much for the stories it's used to tell. This movie tells a marvelously heartbreaking story about two Japanese children who's parents are killed in an American attack during World War II.
It's a very serious story, which separates it from most animation. But I think the fact that it is animated allows the viewer to see the story of these doomed children with a child-like perspective, instead of showing gritty realistic imagery. Very moving.

Helter Skelter

This movie was 3 hours long. Which is about 2 hours longer than it needed to be. I think the writers must have gathered a long list of facts, and refused to edit out anything. I find stories about sociopaths fascinating, but this was one of the worst written screenplays I've ever seen in my life.

Edit: After some research I've learned that Charles Manson was born in my city, and went to high school just a few miles from my current apartment.

A Streetcar Named Desire

It's nice to finally know what the famous 'Stella!' line is all about. This was a powerful story about the dangers of unchecked pride, and of avoidance of reality. I wouldn't say that any of the characters appealed to me. None of them were right. That made it very realistic (and uncharacteristic of it's time). Everyone was to blame, and no one accepted it.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices

I didn't much care for Wal-Mart before, but now I've got a whole slew of reasons to not shop there.

Casino Royale

I'd fallen out of interest with the Bond series several years ago, but this really sparked my interest. The action and the plot were fantastic, and always on the edge (unlike so many other Bond movies) of believability. This showed James as a fallible human who happens to be great at what he does. I like that he didn't need ridiculous gadgets to do dispatch his enemies. He relied most heavily on the Bond-like gadgets that we all carry in our pockets (cell-phones). He, and also one of the villains, used crowd panic to cover his actions. He didn't simply take advantage of women (although he didn't not do it either). And in the third act I honestly believed (as did he) that he had fallen in love, had retired, and the series would come to an end.

From the overall plot down to details in each scene, much attention was paid to everything. This was an example of a big budget used well. This accomplished much of what Batman Begins accomplished. There's a new generation of film-makers in Hollywood now, and I think they're starting to shape things up. Let's finally begon with the 90s.

Cars

I just forgot that I watched this a week and a half ago and never wrote about it. I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I expected the animation to be superb, but I didn't expect the story to be so strong.

Poseidon

I took a deep breath and dove into this movie. I took several more deep breaths in the form of yawns throughout. I knew this movie was failure going into it. In fact that's why I picked it. I wanted to see what this box office fiasco was all about. It was a poorly told story depending on flashy effects and 'that one guy' actors (although a few were notable). I could tell going into a scene who was going to be killed, and I didn't care. There were aspects about the production I did like. I like that they successfully used multiple cameras (up to 7). But that didn't improve the story-telling.

V for Vendetta

The storyline, like most Wachowski brother's films, and most films based on graphic novels, was mediocre. It attempted, but failed to hold a candle to Orwell's 1984. However I'm glad to see storys like this in pop culture. And I'm very surprised that with the 9-11 happenings so recently chafed that a movie like this which glorifies terrorism was successfully produced. I think that all citizens (well-read or not) should be introduced to the idea that governments are dangerous when they try to become god.

From a production stand-point, I think it is excellent. The visual story that was told was quite good. The casting and make up did an excellent job of portraying uglified oppressed british people on tv and in pubs.