Michael Mitchell-Halter
Reviews on the best-selling feature length motion picture DVDs
www.amazon.com/gp/bestsel...707-0045509
Juno: 3.5/10
I know I am going to get lambasted for this one. I did not find the movie funny, and I found the ethos of the whole movie so lacking, and so farfetched from reality it made it impossible for me to have any real enjoyment from watching this movie.
Overlooking the various other things that annoyed me to no end, such as the one-liner factory known as Juno, as if that is supposed to be clever dialogue, the whole movie lacked any real significant conflict until it reaches the ¾ point. I was actually starting to enjoy the movie when it looked there would be, finally, a scrap of conflict for the main character when the adoptive father of Juno’s unborn baby starts to consider leaving his wife and falls in love with Juno. Before that, the greatest amount of conflict in Juno’s life is ‘hmm… to abort or not to abort.’ Her parents don’t even seem to care about the fact that she’s pregnant, at most they seem to say ‘just don’t do it again.’, but it allows for Ellen Paige to shoot off all of the one-liners she wants without the audience being concerned about the fact that she’s pregnant and no one is trying to prevent her from ruining her life.
After that gets sorted out, ok great, the baby’s born, Ellen Paige’s character falls in love with Michael Cera’s character, kumbya, cue mediocre acoustic guitar playing. This movie was such an unrealistic portrayal of teen pregnancy, and pandered so much to the pretentious bullshit you see in mainstream culture that I couldn’t help but be extremely disappointed by this flick.
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: 9.5/10
To be fair, I may be biased since I rate this flick as the best one I have ever seen, but the directing of Tim Burton, the originality of the original theater piece, and the cast, especially the work of Johnny Deep make this a memorable work. Aside from the fact that there haven’t been many musicals released to theaters in recent years, which may have added to its charm, the directing styles of Tim Burton serve the film superbly to show the dark story of Sweeny Todd (Formerly known as Benjamin Barker in the movie) and his bloody quest for revenge.
I am Legend: 6.5/10
The idea of a disease being unleashed upon mankind turning them into zombies, or some other horrible bloodthirsty creatures in the mishaps of trying to cure a horrible disease, or for the sake of creating the perfect bio-weapon is nothing new and has been used in countless movies, and other media pre-dating I am Legend (see: Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, or Resident Evil).
Despite the lack of originality the film definitely had great moments that made me on edge, and even gave me a rush of intensity. There are some great emotional connectors with Will Smith’s character and how horrible circumstances lead him on his quest to try and save the world from this disease. The movie completely looses me on its rush for closure, and need to try and include some sort of a plot device for fate intertwined with hope that I just couldn’t take the flick seriously any longer.
As soon as Will Smith’s character meets up with an El Salvadorian woman and her son, and she reveals, get this, that not only does she know about a refugee camp in Vermont, but that God himself gave her the exact location. I don’t care if you believe in God or not, that has to be one of, if not, the sloppiest ways to get closure for a movie I have ever seen. No real use of metaphor, just flat up God told me so, and of course you have to have the cliché jaded Atheist diatribe about how there is no God for letting all of these terrible things happen. This flick had potential, the action scenes, and the amount of depth given to Will Smith’s character is really well done, but I have trouble forgiving the writer for such a half-assed ending.
Reviews on the best-selling feature length motion picture DVDs
www.amazon.com/gp/bestsel...707-0045509
Juno: 3.5/10
I know I am going to get lambasted for this one. I did not find the movie funny, and I found the ethos of the whole movie so lacking, and so farfetched from reality it made it impossible for me to have any real enjoyment from watching this movie.
Overlooking the various other things that annoyed me to no end, such as the one-liner factory known as Juno, as if that is supposed to be clever dialogue, the whole movie lacked any real significant conflict until it reaches the ¾ point. I was actually starting to enjoy the movie when it looked there would be, finally, a scrap of conflict for the main character when the adoptive father of Juno’s unborn baby starts to consider leaving his wife and falls in love with Juno. Before that, the greatest amount of conflict in Juno’s life is ‘hmm… to abort or not to abort.’ Her parents don’t even seem to care about the fact that she’s pregnant, at most they seem to say ‘just don’t do it again.’, but it allows for Ellen Paige to shoot off all of the one-liners she wants without the audience being concerned about the fact that she’s pregnant and no one is trying to prevent her from ruining her life.
After that gets sorted out, ok great, the baby’s born, Ellen Paige’s character falls in love with Michael Cera’s character, kumbya, cue mediocre acoustic guitar playing. This movie was such an unrealistic portrayal of teen pregnancy, and pandered so much to the pretentious bullshit you see in mainstream culture that I couldn’t help but be extremely disappointed by this flick.
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: 9.5/10
To be fair, I may be biased since I rate this flick as the best one I have ever seen, but the directing of Tim Burton, the originality of the original theater piece, and the cast, especially the work of Johnny Deep make this a memorable work. Aside from the fact that there haven’t been many musicals released to theaters in recent years, which may have added to its charm, the directing styles of Tim Burton serve the film superbly to show the dark story of Sweeny Todd (Formerly known as Benjamin Barker in the movie) and his bloody quest for revenge.
I am Legend: 6.5/10
The idea of a disease being unleashed upon mankind turning them into zombies, or some other horrible bloodthirsty creatures in the mishaps of trying to cure a horrible disease, or for the sake of creating the perfect bio-weapon is nothing new and has been used in countless movies, and other media pre-dating I am Legend (see: Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, or Resident Evil).
Despite the lack of originality the film definitely had great moments that made me on edge, and even gave me a rush of intensity. There are some great emotional connectors with Will Smith’s character and how horrible circumstances lead him on his quest to try and save the world from this disease. The movie completely looses me on its rush for closure, and need to try and include some sort of a plot device for fate intertwined with hope that I just couldn’t take the flick seriously any longer.
As soon as Will Smith’s character meets up with an El Salvadorian woman and her son, and she reveals, get this, that not only does she know about a refugee camp in Vermont, but that God himself gave her the exact location. I don’t care if you believe in God or not, that has to be one of, if not, the sloppiest ways to get closure for a movie I have ever seen. No real use of metaphor, just flat up God told me so, and of course you have to have the cliché jaded Atheist diatribe about how there is no God for letting all of these terrible things happen. This flick had potential, the action scenes, and the amount of depth given to Will Smith’s character is really well done, but I have trouble forgiving the writer for such a half-assed ending.
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Arizona
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