Category Archives: Reviews

The Last Days of Disco

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The latest of whit stilman’s movies. It’s much the same as his others – Metropolitan & Barcelona. It even ties together with Barcelona… sort of. It’s about a bunch of privileged rich kids who are just out of college. They spend their nights in the disco (during disco’s last days of course), and their days struggling with their lives (jobs, apartments, VD). What makes this movie (and whit’s other movies) so watchable isn’t the plot, it’s the dialogue. I find it hard to believe that anyone really talks like the characters in this movie (even ivy leaguers) unless they’re reading a script. It just feels good to hear all that useless wisdom and chitter-chatter being dispensed so eloquently.

 

Ladies in Lavender

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A couple dysfunctional old women along the English shore have a dose of reality interrupt their fantasy lives. It’s pretty well done, though a few of the characters left me scratching my head. Plus, the violinist guy was a bit annoying… I don’t know… I liked it I guess. I wonder, do I have to like or dislike everything? I mean, can’t we all just “be”?

 

K-Pax

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I’m not going to attempt to guess whether K-Pax was really an alien or not, I’m willing to admit that I just don’t know. Whatever you think, this was an entertaining piece of work. One thing I didn’t get though, did the Jeff Bridges character really need to fly to New Mexico to learn about Prot? He could have just called.

 

Krull

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I just re-watched this in 2012 (of all movies, which this one? I don’t know), and just wanted to update my review. Man was this cheesy. I feel kind of like I got ripped-off in my fantasy childhood movies. I mean, compare this with the Lord of the Rings trilogy… Ha! Perhaps the funniest thing was how the hero was dressed in tights the whole way through. It’s almost like hollywood simply hadn’t figured out how to do fantasy movies back then. The technology wasn’t there, and nerds hadn’t yet inserted themselves into powerful positions in hollywood. Anyway, despite all that, it does have its moments.

A fantasy epic with a somewhat original story. Sure the “theme” has been done many times: villian captures princess, holds land hostage until she marries him. But, the bits and pieces that made up the movie were mostly unique – like how the evil castle changed location every day or so. This movie probably works best with a young audience. That’s when I first saw it, so I only have fond memories.

 

The King of Kong

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Can anyone watch this and not come to the conclusion that this Billy dude is a complete ass? If you earn the respect of your peers, you have a responsibility to be humble… for it is from them that you’re allowed that respect. Put another way, let’s say I was the best person in the world at drawing circles with crayons. Nobody would care. But, if I was worshiped by a group of crayon-circle freaks, I would have some understanding that any praise I enjoyed from them required that I give them respect in return. Anyway, I wish they’d shown more of the actual game – They didn’t even show the pie level! I mean, I know it was a story about the people, but can’t you at least take a few moments to explain the game and show something other than the main level? It’s not that complicated, and would have added to the story.

 

King Kong – 2005

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Sure, it was beautifully filmed and all, but I found it really one-dimensional. A movie that’s 3 hours long should have more than one storyline. Plus, there was almost too much action. I realize the movie was an action/adventure movie at its heart, but it should know when enough is enough. The action sequences just went on and one and on… like the insect thing at the bottom of the canyon. The movie also tried to say a lot of things without dialog. This can be a good thing, and is certainly better than having too much dialog (a problem with many other movies), but I thought the balance was off. There also wasn’t a lot of attention paid to small details in the movie. I can’t really explain it, it’s just a feeling I had. Still, with all those reservations, it was pretty good, and worth seeing just for the eye-candy factor.

 

Kill Bill vol. 1

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I’ve heard a lot of rave reviews about this one. I did enjoy it, but it was lacking in some areas… I couldn’t care less about any of the characters. For all I know, the protaganist (the bride) had it coming, so her “revenge” is hollow. I really wanted to see more history of “why” her wedding party was slaughtered… perhaps that will be in vol 2? The way that Tarantino jumbles timelines, I wouldn’t be surprised. One thing this movie did have going for it was style – it’s just fun to watch as art on screen. As for the violence/body count? Anybody who’s offended by that has totally missed the point. The “violence” is completely cartoon violence – like seeing Wile E Coyote smack into the ground at the base of a cliff. How could you possibly be shocked by that? What’s more, all the people who get killed are characters you just don’t care about, so it has the emotional impact of the “destruction of movie props” as far as I’m concerned. The only violence that made my heart thump a little was seeing the bride get shot point-blank in the head. So quit complaining… If you want to see a horrifyingly violent movie for comparison, see the Pianist.

 

Kids

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It’s the new millennium, do you know where your kids are? Maybe they’re doing drugs, having sex, beating people up, and forming their own “society”. The scary thing is that there are probably kids out there just like those in this movie. The scarier thing is that one day they’ll grow up and have kids of their own. If you were shocked by this movie, then it did its job.