The American Movie Review

First of all, this movie is nothing like the theatrical trailer would have you believe. It is a slow character study not an intense action thriller... which would be just fine if I had been in the mood for a gloomy - if-it-had-been-better - depressing study of a dreary life.

When you boil it down it's a love story; though, in this reviewers humble opinion, not a very compelling love story. It's jumbled, hyperbolic in its understatedness, and did I mention slow?

Oh good lord have mercy it is slow - unnecessarily slow. It's like there wasn't enough content so the director thought, "I'll put in a lot of driving sequences to fill it out". Like adding extra words to reach a minimum word count, this movie is full of filler.

It might have been good as a short story - which I'm sure there are many covering the same subject - but as an hour and thirty-five minute movie it just doesn't cut it.

The acting is good, the story is very familiar, and it... is... slow...

I give The American a 2 out of 10 stars. Dull describes my evening with this film.

Aaah Zombies! Movie Review

First get past the horrible title. I know that takes a minute so I'll wait...

I did some reading on this movie and found that the original title was Wasting Away. That's better, not a whole lot but definitely better. I don't know why it was changed. Either way, we're past that now.

This is a low budget film. Unfortunately that is painfully obvious, mostly through the editing. The writing is surprisingly quite good and the acting is better than I imagined it would be. So, you can tell I wasn't expecting much from this film... I was wrong to prematurely judge it.

The idea of the film is that four friends accidentally turn themselves into zombies (contaminated soft serve ice cream and beer) but don't realize they are zombies. In fact, no one who is a zombie realizes that's what they are. They think everyone else has been infected. It's a clever idea that any zombie-phile is sure to appreciate.

To show the different perspectives of the zombies versus the humans the filmmakers use black and white and color. It's a fun idea and it's not badly done. But the movie didn't hold my attention. I tried because I really wanted it to. It really came down to the editing, it's just awful. Every scene goes on too long - every scene. That can make any movie hard to watch no matter how original, how well written, how well acted, how well anything.

Overall I'd recommend this movie only to serious zombie lovers and only then because it is different and clever. Here is my favorite bit of dialogue:

Tim: I don't feel like a zombie.

Nick: Yeah well idiots don't feel stupid but they are.

I'd rate Aaah Zombies! a 5 out of 10. It could have been funnier and is in serious need of a tighter edit but it stands out as an original film in a genre that usually only sees variations.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1

I went to the midnight showing of the first part of the Deathly Hallows last night... it was good. Actually is was close to great.

The dark mood of the last Potter book was very well captured as was the bleakness in the hearts of the characters. The set design, costuming, and slightly off sense of humor was all dead on. My only real issue was I thought some of the traveling scenes - Harry, Ron, and Hermione are searching for Horcruxes - were a bit drawn out. The strife is obvious enough without all the talking about it. But that is a small complaint when you take the movie as a whole.

So basically, the plot is that the Ministry of Magic has been overthrown by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. They are striking fear into the wizard world using many Nazi-like tactics and ideas like the purity of the blood. Before he died Dumbledore gave Harry the task of finding and destroying the remaining Horcruxes in order to defeat Voldemort.

This is a dark movie. There are quite a few deaths of beloved characters and it ends with sadness and the dark lord making much bigger strides than our heroes... just the way I like my continuing stories.

I'd give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows an 8.5 out of 10. I was more impressed than I thought I would be. Very well done, I'm looking forward to Part 2.

Easy Virtue

I just finished watching this film, I'd never heard of it before. I simply chose it off the On Demand list because it was free and Colin Firth was in it (I love me some Firth).

The film is about an ambitious American woman - a race car driver - who marries a young Englishman on a bit of a whim and travels home with him to meet and stay with his family.

This is a period piece (I've got a weakness for them as well) and the English family acts very much with the period. Very stuffy with an overbearing matriarch and a dour, almost absent father.

The family, apart from Dad, does not approve of the new wife who is played rather well by Jessica Biel. She tries her best to fit in with the family and their ways but meets with resistance and reproach with every turn. She finally decides to stop trying to change herself and flaunts her different style of behavior much to family's chagrin.

It's mostly a comedy with loads of wonderful dry English wit. I enjoyed it. I dare say much of my enjoyment came from the fact that Firth had a great character to play and performed a sexy dance near the end of the film. I would have liked it had he not been it in but certainly not as much.

I would rate Easy Virtue a 6 out of 10. For those who like period English comedies I would totally recommend it. For those who don't, I would stay away, you'll find it boring.

The Brothers Bloom

With a film like The Brothers Bloom the term quirky gets thrown around a lot. I don't think it was quirky, it was highly-stylized with an eccentric sense of humor. I'm also going to resist the comparisons to Wes Anderson. It's not like one of his movies at all - seems like anything oddball gets a Wes Anderson reference in the review these days and that's total BS. The Brothers stands on its own as a film that doesn't need to be compared to be talked about.

It focuses on two brothers who were moved from foster home to foster home as youngsters and developed into con artists along the way. The premise centers around the last con the younger of the two brothers (Bloom) is willing to participate in. As it's a con artist movie I'm not going to go into the story details. What I will say is it's a lot of fun and Rachel Weisz is fantastic - the highlight of the film.

It's definitely not a movie everyone is going to like - it's very character driven. The story may be predictable in some ways but the story isn't all important in this film. The interaction and arcs of the characters are both the center-point and most affecting part of this film. It's a bit sad and a bit sweet with a lot of goofiness in between.

Overall I enjoyed this movie. I wouldn't rush to watch it again (it drags a bit here and there) but it made for a fun afternoon's entertainment and, I'll mention it again, Rachel Weisz was absolutely great.

I'd rate The Brothers Bloom a 7 out of 10. Good, silly fun with great characters.

Zombie Strippers

Yes, I watched it... and I mostly enjoyed it. I didn't expect anything at all from this movie, I was simply looking for some kind of zombie entertainment and this is all I could find on demand that I hadn't already seen (I'm a huge zombie-phile).

I'm not going to say it's a smart movie, but it has a cool, offbeat sense of humor that I wasn't expecting. Robert Englund was entertaining as was much of the dialogue. Again, not smart, but entertaining.

In truth, I didn't sit and "watch" this movie. I had it on while I was working on my laptop. It wasn't enough to capture my entire attention, unless you absolutely love tits (even dead, decaying ones) I can't imagine it's enough to completely hold anyone's attention. But it was fun to listen to and glance at when I heard the telltale sounds of killing and flesh munching.

One of my favorite lines (yes there are a few that made me giggle) was, "Zombies? Shit!". Gotta love that. When the zombie virus lands in an exclusive strip club and one of the dancers is bitten, she loves it so much (and so do the patrons) that the other dancers struggle to keep up with her amazing skills and have to decide whether or not to join the dead and be as popular as Jenna Jameson.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, I think zombie fans (and boobie fans) will get a kick out of this movie too. I'd rate Zombie Strippers a 6 out of 10.

Robin Hood (2010)

In my opinion Russell Crowe is a fantastic actor. I will watch any movie he is in, unfortunately there a quite a few that I haven't enjoyed. Robin Hood is one of them.

The last 30 minutes of the movie are pretty good, but the nearly 2 hours leading up to them drag in an almost painful way. This is a prequel to the typical Robin Hood story we are all familiar with. The beginning of the legend type of deal. I thought that was a cool idea and I still do, but the story in my mind is a lot more interesting that this movie turned out to be.

The acting is good, the costuming is impressive, the combat is realistic. Overall I think the movie could have been about an hour shorter and it would have been a much tighter, exciting experience. I'm a fan of the writer (Brian Helgeland) but the dialogue feels meandering for the most part and the story just isn't that interesting. I would have preferred to see the legend of the man with some kind of substance - it feels empty and not compelling in any way.

I was excited about this movie. It has all the elements that get me going - medieval era, the rise of a legend, kingdoms at war - and somehow it managed to bore me. I have to rate Robin Hood a 5 out of 10. It's gorgeous to watch but there is nothing to sink your teeth into.