Transformers

December 2, 2007

Notes: A classic summer blockbuster, maybe the best one of 2007. It's one of those movies that is most enjoyable at the theater, but too bad I watched it on DVD (on my less-than-state-of-the-art $300 tube). Lots of great effects, memorable one-liners, and action. It was interesting how that kid got knocked around so much by those robots and barely got a scratch. Also amazing how much he ran without losing his breath. Anyways, who cares about reality, it's just a movie, eh? Lots of fun and a good choice to add to your home DVD collection.

IMDB Rating: 7.7/10

Steve's Rating: 9/10

Everything is Illuminated

December 1, 2007

Notes: A comedy attached to some really deep thoughts about memories and anti-Semitism. I still can't get over Elijah Wood not being Frodo, especially in the scene where Lista gives him her sister's ring to carry back with him.

IMDB Rating: 7.7/10

Steve's Rating: 9/10

1408

November 28, 2007

Notes: Not as scary as I thought it would be, but a lot crazier. It's just about as messed up and random as a movie can get.

IMDB Rating: 8.0/10

Steve's Rating: 8/10

Ratatouille

November 27, 2007

Notes: One of the best animated features I've seen. This movie will make you want to cook!

IMDB Rating: 8.4/10

Steve's Rating: 9/10

Beowulf

November 25, 2007

Notes: This movie was done entirely in computer graphics, so the whole thing really reminds me of scenes from the video game Oblivion. The brutal muscle-men versus enemies style of the movie also reminds me a lot of 300. Overall, it's a really cool retelling of the Beowulf saga.

IMDB Rating: 7.0/10

Steve's Rating: 8/10

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

September 20, 2007

Notes: A highly original and unpredictable story about a guy born with the greatest sense of smell ever. The story is told like a dark fairy tale.

IMDB Rating: 7.5/10

Steve's Rating: 8/10

Wild Hogs

September 20, 2007

Notes: A bunch of suburban biker wannabes undergo midlife crisis and decide to take a biker road-trip.

IMDB Rating: 6.1/10

Steve's Rating: 6/10

300

August 19, 2007

Notes: If Victoria’s Secret wanted to create a television advertising campaign for men’s underwear, it would look a lot like 300. The movie is about big insanely ripped men in black leather underwear killing everyone in sight. Great movie.

IMDB Rating: 8.0/10

Steve's Rating: 9/10

Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story

August 19, 2007

Notes: Just as in the Family Guy TV series, the movie is pretty much just a bunch of random acts of funniness. Lots of great one-liners, little or no plot to get in the way.

IMDB Rating: 7.9/10

Steve's Rating: 8/10

Hot Fuzz

August 19, 2007

Notes: Intelligent comedy that’s more like a humorous action movie than a traditional comedy.

IMDB Rating: 8.1/10

Steve's Rating: 9/10

Just Like Heaven

July 30, 2007

Notes:

It’s tough to describe this romantic comedy (aka chick flick) without giving away the plot details. So I shamelessly ripped the basic story from Wikipedia:

“Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon), a young doctor whose work is her whole life, is involved in a car accident. Three months later, David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo), a loner recovering from the death of his wife, moves into her apartment. Elizabeth appears to David at the apartment. Though seemingly a normal person, she has ghostly properties and abilities: she can suddenly appear and disappear, and move through walls. When they meet, they are both surprised, as Elizabeth is not aware yet of her condition. For the most part, David is the only one who can see Elizabeth, leading others to believe that he is hallucinating and talking to himself.”

IMDB Rating: 6.8/10

Steve's Rating: 7/10

Zodiac

July 30, 2007

Notes: Based on the true story of a notorious serial killer known only as “the Zodiac” who murdered several victims in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s. The murders were never solved and the case remains open today.

IMDB Rating: 7.9/10

Steve's Rating: 9/10

Black Snake Moan

July 22, 2007

Notes: There’s this really slutty white girl who really needs some help (She’s got “The Itch”). Then there’s this really cool black man who can really give some help. The white girl gets beat up by some white trash and ends up in the care of the black man. 90 minutes later, I’m thinking this is really a great movie, but what is a “Black Snake Moan”?

IMDB Rating: 7.3/10

Steve's Rating: 8/10

The Pursuit of Happyness

July 22, 2007

Notes: Chris Gardner’s life really sucks. His business failed. His wife left him. His landlord kicked him out. He’s broke as hell. But he’s a smart guy and with a lot of clever thinking, boldness, hard work, and running into moving traffic, he finally makes it (damn, I accidentally spoiled it for everyone… I’ll try not to do that again). After watching this movie, I walked into work the next morning with 158% more confidence and morale. All employers should for their new hires to watch this movie.

IMDB Rating: 7.7/10

Steve's Rating: 9/10

RV

July 22, 2007

Notes: Bob Munro’s life doesn’t quite suck yet, but it’s falling apart. So he has the brilliant idea to pack everyone into an RV and take a big road trip, where everything that sucks gets fixed in humorous ways and they live happily ever after. Family comedy at its best.

IMDB Rating: 5.5/10

Steve's Rating: 6/10

Curse of the Golden Flower

June 30, 2007

Notes:

Three interesting observations about the movie:

1. It seems that everyone in the Forbidden City knew all the secrets, but were just pretending not to know all along… except of course for the Crown Prince. He was the only one in the city who was completely clueless.
2. The final battle of the movie showed half the population of China die. I think the director was trying to show that the Chinese army back then would have been able to beat Sauron’s army had they attacked Beijing instead of Gondor.
3. The women of the Imperial court appear to be ranked by how big their boobs are. The empress of court had the biggest display, followed by Chan, then all the other women of the court. The physician’s wife showed no cleavage at all, probably because she was merely a prison escapee.

By the way, I kinda redid the movie poster image to more accurately reflect the movie ;)

IMDB Rating: 7.0/10

Steve's Rating: 8/10

Children of Men

June 30, 2007

Notes: Another apocalypse movie depicting the grim future of the human race. In 2008, everyone in the world mysteriously becomes infertile. Sounds so ridiculously implausible, but yet just plausible enough to make us stop and think. This movie coupled with V for Vendetta are enough to make me think twice about moving to England.

IMDB Rating: 8.2/10

Steve's Rating: 9/10

Pan’s Labyrinth

June 30, 2007

Notes: The real world sucks so bad that a little girl has no choice but to take refuge in hidden, creepy fantasy world. This is a fairy tale for adults because it will scare your children and turn them into deeply disturbed individuals later in life.

IMDB Rating: 8.5/10

Steve's Rating: 10/10

Evan Almighty

June 24, 2007

Notes: Ever wanted to see a congressman go completely wacko? Check reality at the door for this one. This movie’s crazy and weird, but I really enjoyed it. Lots of nice special effects and scenery. Best of all, it’s set in Northern Virginia!

IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

Steve's Rating: 8/10

Ghost Rider

June 24, 2007

Notes: I thought this was one of the better comic book movies. I was expecting it to be as bad as Daredevil, but was pleasantly surprised. There were a thousand ways they could have really messed this movie up and made it really cheesy, but they managed to pull it all together into a decent movie. Very cool.

IMDB Rating: 5.4/10

Steve's Rating: 6/10

Torremolinos 73

June 24, 2007

Notes: A conservative husband and wife get tricked into the porn industry. Lots of breasts and butts, but the movie had a clever plot and was one of the more memorable and unique movies I’d seen recently (not just because of the breasts and butts). By the way, it’s a foreign film, so it’s all in Spanish and Swedish.

IMDB Rating: 6.8/10

Steve's Rating: 8/10

Must-see movies of the new millenium

Now that I have a Blockbuster Online account, it's time to choose movies to watch. I've decided to use the IMDB top 250 movies of all time to help me choose which movies I should watch. I'd already watched most of these movies, but there are a few that escaped me. Here's the list of the top 50 or so movies of the millenium that I compiled from IMDB user ratings:

2007

1. Grindhouse
2. Hot Fuzz
3. Zodiac

2006

1. The Departed
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. The Lives of Others
4. The Prestige
5. Children of Men
6. Letters from Iwo Jima
7. Little Miss Sunshine
8. Casino Royale
9. 300

2005

1. Sin City
2. Batman Begins
3. V for Vendetta
4. Cinderella Man
5. Walk the Line

2004

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich
3. Hotel Rwanda
4. Million Dollar Baby
5. The Incredibles
6. Crash
7. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
8. Finding Neverland
9. Before Sunset
10. Shaun of the Dead

2003

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
3. Oldboy
4. Finding Nemo
5. Big Fish
6. Mystic River
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

2002

1. City of God
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3. The Pianist
4. Hero
5. Infernal Affairs
6. Talk to Her

2001

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Amelie
3. Spirited Away
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. Donnie Darko
6. Shrek

2000

1. Memento
2. Requiem for a Dream
3. Gladiator
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
5. Amores Perros
6. Snatch

One Night with the King

Notes: The movies I've been watching lately have been real disappointments. I really wanted to watch One Night with the King because I read some great reviews and it looked like it had some great cinematography. What I got was a poorly directed, poorly acted, confusing movie. It was just like one of those made-for-tv movies. I watched most of it, but couldn't stomach it to the end, so about three quarters of the way through I cut it off so I could watch Lost. Avoid this.

IMDB Rating: 5.9/10

Steve's Rating: 5/10

Running with Scissors

Notes: I read the book, which was light-hearted and crazy with no real point to it all. The movie tries to "correct" that deficiency by making it all serious and trying to add a point to the story. It failed. The first half of the movie portrayed a bunch of random scenes from the book fairly faithfully. The second half of the movie however, completely departs from the book. Everyone starts crying and acting serious and the movie ceases to be light-hearted and ridiculous like it was meant to be. If you want a serious drama, just go see a movie that's supposed to be a serious drama. I was expecting to see a string of ridiculous situations and scenes on video, and was dissappointed.

IMDB Rating: 5.8/10

Steve's Rating: 5/10

Charlotte's Web

Notes: Some stories were never meant to be portrayed as a movie. The movie is okay, but it loses a lot in the translation from the book. The book is a fable that I enjoyed reading as a kid. The movie kind of reduces the story to a bunch of cute talking animals running around a barnyard (not that there's anything wrong with that...). I say just read the book and let your imagination go free. The story would be much more enjoyable that way.

IMDB Rating: 6.7/10

Steve's Rating: 6/10