Post by Jon Lord on Jan 28, 2005 19:27:39 GMT -8
Hey, been meaning to post at the new board for awhile and figured I might as well start with a few short reviews of some movies I've seen recently. Also, here I'm going by my actual name (for those who don't know, this is Poets from the Scoreboard).
Blade: Trinity - Pretty bad. At times wince-inducing script and several non-sensical elements (who would listen to an iPod in the heat of battle? Wouldn't you want all your senses as sharp as possible?). However, I must admit I found Ryan Reynolds friggin' hilarious, if nothing else proving he'd make a great "Deadpool" if they every make a film about that character as rumored. Of course, it won't really matter if the script is as bad as this one was.
As for the music... expected mix of rap and techno (including this idiotic "let the base line getcha" one I first heard in the "Stuntman" PS2 game years ago) combined with pretty much expected-sounding synth stuff by Ramin Djawadi, including a brooding MV march at the film's finale. Kinda whatever. (C-)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - I really liked this film. The friend I saw it with said I'd like it less if I'd seen "The Royal Tenenbaums" before, of which he said "The Life Aquatic" was just a less successful version of, as far as thematic content goes. But, I've not seen "The Royal Tenenbaums," so whatever. Besides, I've got to give props to a film that is as constantly different and unique as The Life Aquatic is from 90% of other Hollywood sludge. I really liked the script and I always love Bill Murray.
Meanwhile, I appreciate Wes Anderson going crazy with whatever music he felt like and everything, but aside from the hilarious keyboard doodling and the island seige cue, I didn't particularly enjoy hearing much of it. Kudos for inventiveness and all, but I didn't really didn't like a lot of the music used, personally. Nonetheless, I really liked the movie. (B+)
Elektra - Now that I've had time to digest it awhile... this is still one of the worst budget studio movies I've every seen. Not that any one element was horrendous. It's just that NOTHING was good. I can't think of one redeeming factor. Badly shot fight scenes, lifeless script, why-should-I-give-a-crap-about-any-of-this plot, "let's just get through this" acting, and everything's green on Christmas Day. Totally wasting comic characters with rich story potential, like Typhoid Mary, changed from a twisted schizophrenic psychotic from the comics to a random henchman with disease powers in the film. Apparently recently now that the film has already come and gone and bombed, Jennifer Garner herself admits the movie was awful.
As for Christophe Beck's score, it really added nothing to the film, and the time might have passed a least a little easily if there had been a score of note to listen to... maybe the reason he decided to have fun "experimenting with recorded layers" or whatever is he saw this was stinkburger anyway and no one would care. It did sound like at one point he used a synth horn substitute straight out of an 80's Mark Knopfler score though... hrm. (F)
House of Flying Daggers - that one of Elektra's action set pieces was so obviously trying to capture the spirit of the martial arts of films like this and "Hero" with the flowing cloth and sheets and all make it all the more pathetic in its failure. As for House of Flying Daggers itself, well, it was good, no doubt, with some breathtaking cinematography and flawless execution (save for one pretty bad matte painting). But I hate it when stories that have a perfectly fine ending in sight diverge at the last minute for "worst case scenario"-ville for some last minute tacked-on-feeling oh-the-humanity grief-stricken drama. Now, I'm all for tragic death and depressing turns of events in stories and I hate "happy Hollywood endings" as much as the next me, but sometimes a story just feels like it should freakin' end at a certain point and everything would be cool. With HoFD, it just feels like they got to a certain point and said, "well, someone's gotta die, right?" But that's just my personal nitpick, it's still worth watching for the visuals alone.
The music was just as I expected. Nice, not bad, but nothing I'm going to run out and get. (B)
Meanwhile, I watched Dark City on DVD twice in the past two weeks. Because I love it.
Blade: Trinity - Pretty bad. At times wince-inducing script and several non-sensical elements (who would listen to an iPod in the heat of battle? Wouldn't you want all your senses as sharp as possible?). However, I must admit I found Ryan Reynolds friggin' hilarious, if nothing else proving he'd make a great "Deadpool" if they every make a film about that character as rumored. Of course, it won't really matter if the script is as bad as this one was.
As for the music... expected mix of rap and techno (including this idiotic "let the base line getcha" one I first heard in the "Stuntman" PS2 game years ago) combined with pretty much expected-sounding synth stuff by Ramin Djawadi, including a brooding MV march at the film's finale. Kinda whatever. (C-)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - I really liked this film. The friend I saw it with said I'd like it less if I'd seen "The Royal Tenenbaums" before, of which he said "The Life Aquatic" was just a less successful version of, as far as thematic content goes. But, I've not seen "The Royal Tenenbaums," so whatever. Besides, I've got to give props to a film that is as constantly different and unique as The Life Aquatic is from 90% of other Hollywood sludge. I really liked the script and I always love Bill Murray.
Meanwhile, I appreciate Wes Anderson going crazy with whatever music he felt like and everything, but aside from the hilarious keyboard doodling and the island seige cue, I didn't particularly enjoy hearing much of it. Kudos for inventiveness and all, but I didn't really didn't like a lot of the music used, personally. Nonetheless, I really liked the movie. (B+)
Elektra - Now that I've had time to digest it awhile... this is still one of the worst budget studio movies I've every seen. Not that any one element was horrendous. It's just that NOTHING was good. I can't think of one redeeming factor. Badly shot fight scenes, lifeless script, why-should-I-give-a-crap-about-any-of-this plot, "let's just get through this" acting, and everything's green on Christmas Day. Totally wasting comic characters with rich story potential, like Typhoid Mary, changed from a twisted schizophrenic psychotic from the comics to a random henchman with disease powers in the film. Apparently recently now that the film has already come and gone and bombed, Jennifer Garner herself admits the movie was awful.
As for Christophe Beck's score, it really added nothing to the film, and the time might have passed a least a little easily if there had been a score of note to listen to... maybe the reason he decided to have fun "experimenting with recorded layers" or whatever is he saw this was stinkburger anyway and no one would care. It did sound like at one point he used a synth horn substitute straight out of an 80's Mark Knopfler score though... hrm. (F)
House of Flying Daggers - that one of Elektra's action set pieces was so obviously trying to capture the spirit of the martial arts of films like this and "Hero" with the flowing cloth and sheets and all make it all the more pathetic in its failure. As for House of Flying Daggers itself, well, it was good, no doubt, with some breathtaking cinematography and flawless execution (save for one pretty bad matte painting). But I hate it when stories that have a perfectly fine ending in sight diverge at the last minute for "worst case scenario"-ville for some last minute tacked-on-feeling oh-the-humanity grief-stricken drama. Now, I'm all for tragic death and depressing turns of events in stories and I hate "happy Hollywood endings" as much as the next me, but sometimes a story just feels like it should freakin' end at a certain point and everything would be cool. With HoFD, it just feels like they got to a certain point and said, "well, someone's gotta die, right?" But that's just my personal nitpick, it's still worth watching for the visuals alone.
The music was just as I expected. Nice, not bad, but nothing I'm going to run out and get. (B)
Meanwhile, I watched Dark City on DVD twice in the past two weeks. Because I love it.