Moonrise Kingdom

moonrise-kingdomWhat a fun and original movie. A couple young… um, lovers? are bored or frustrated with their lives, and decide to run away together. Along the way, everything falls into place, like if you took a puzzle out of a box, threw it onto a table, and all the pieces just happened to arrange themselves. Sure, that’s a bit absurd, but beautiful all the same. I think Wes Anderson is getting better with age.

Armageddon

This movie really really sucked.  I wish I could find a more colorful adjective, but this movie doesn’t deserve one.  It wasn’t even really a movie either… more like a 2 hour Aerosmith video.  (I think Aerosmith sucks too, so it’s no small wonder that I didn’t like this movie.)  There was not one camera shot in this movie which lasted more than 5 seconds!  Don’t believe me?  Try to find one.  The editor of this movie must have been on crack, cocaine, crystal meth and coffee all at once!  I just about got a headache watching it.  On top of the frenzied editing, the story and the characters were just plain unbelievably dumb.  I don’t know how this movie did better than Deep Impact.  Oh… wait… money, special effects, explosions, big names, hot chicks, hunky guys, stupid one-liner jokes, a zillion-dollar marketing blitz, and a thorough understanding of the stupidity and gullibility of the average American. The science of this movie didn’t come close to passing my “suspension of disbelief” filter either, but I won’t even get into that.

Unbreakable

The slow pace of this movie just about made me scream. Ok, I understand that some movies have an intentionally slow pace for effect, but this movie didn’t need it. For example, there’s a 5 minute scene where Bruce Willis figures out he can lift more weight than he thought. It just didn’t need to be so damn long. I dunno, maybe I’m just an impatient media glutton.

 

The Sixth Sense

A good flick, worth the wait for the “Ooooohhhh, I get it…” moment. But, when you think about it… that’s about all there was. And if you know there’s going to be a surprise plot twist (like I did), you’re likely to spend the whole time guessing what it is, and guess it before it’s revealed… which takes a bit of the steam off the thing.

 

The Fifth Element

Whatever you think about this movie, you’d have to agree (even if you’re a woman) that Mila whatsherface is a babe.  The plot of this movie didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it was fun to watch (and not just cause of Mila). The effects were cool and some of the characters were interesting enough to hold my interest. It was just a bit of eye candy. (PS: I just saw this again… I think I liked it more on a second viewing. There was one odd plot thing though, what are the odds that Mila would fall in BW’s cab, with all the crazy traffic zooming around – he just happens to be the same person the government later hires to help with the same problem? – way too coincidental)