The Hurt Locker (2009) Kathryn Bigelow 9/10
50 Dead Men Walking (2009) Kari Skogland 8/10
The Hurt Locker holds up to repeated viewings. When I first saw this in the theatre it was not knowing what would happen next that kept me enthralled. This time around it was the underlying sadness that permeates the entire film. It really is the year's best film with three of the year's best performances by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty.
50 Dead Men Walking proves that Bigelow isn't the only female director who can helm a big action flick as well as any guy. Canadian Skogland takes on both the murderous IRA and the duplicitous British occupation force in 1980s Belfast.
Jim Sturgess gives a strong performance as the Irish Catholic youth who goes undercover as a British agent who infiltrates IRA and Ben Kingsley tones it way down to play his conscience stricken operator. Based on a true story that begins with the hero shot six times at close range in Canada by an IRA gunman 11 years after the events told in the film. He survived to tell the story.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1263669996
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
24 hours, 4 films
Nine
6/10
Not the trainwreck that I was expecting. I had left it on my list for BP and now I think that it will survive through to Oscar morning.
District 9
7.5/10
Put this off for as long as possible. Impressive.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
7.5/10
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
7/10
Nine
6/10
Not the trainwreck that I was expecting. I had left it on my list for BP and now I think that it will survive through to Oscar morning.
District 9
7.5/10
Put this off for as long as possible. Impressive.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
7.5/10
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
7/10
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Big Magilla
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Trucker (2009) James Mottern 7/10
Catching up on first time directors. Michelle Monaghan won the Best Actress award of the San Diego Film Critics but has otherwise been missing in the continuing precursor trend to crown Queen Meryl. It's a good performance in a role not dissimilar to Tilda Swinton's in Julia but without the ferocity.
Jimmy Bennett, the kid who plays Kirk as a boy in Star Trek, gives a good account of himself as her estranged 11 year-old son and Benjamin Bratt has a nice unsentimental bit as the kid's dying father.
You know where it's going the minute the dying ex-husband's current squeeze (Joey Lauren Adams) drops the kid off at her doorstep although Monaghan's job as a long haul trucker gives it a nice twist.
Amreeka (2009, U.S.) Cherian Dabis 7/10
Another first time director - she's done TV and short films before, but this is her first feature.
It's a mild, but poignant study of Arab Christians in America with ingratiating performances by Nisreen Faour and Melkar Muallem as mother and son immigrants. The always impeccable Hiam Abbas is Faour's sister, who is slow to change her ways despite having been in the country for fifteen years. In the film's climactic scene she tastes a hamburger for the first time. It's that kind of movie. Nice, but hardly earth-shattering.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1263438506
Catching up on first time directors. Michelle Monaghan won the Best Actress award of the San Diego Film Critics but has otherwise been missing in the continuing precursor trend to crown Queen Meryl. It's a good performance in a role not dissimilar to Tilda Swinton's in Julia but without the ferocity.
Jimmy Bennett, the kid who plays Kirk as a boy in Star Trek, gives a good account of himself as her estranged 11 year-old son and Benjamin Bratt has a nice unsentimental bit as the kid's dying father.
You know where it's going the minute the dying ex-husband's current squeeze (Joey Lauren Adams) drops the kid off at her doorstep although Monaghan's job as a long haul trucker gives it a nice twist.
Amreeka (2009, U.S.) Cherian Dabis 7/10
Another first time director - she's done TV and short films before, but this is her first feature.
It's a mild, but poignant study of Arab Christians in America with ingratiating performances by Nisreen Faour and Melkar Muallem as mother and son immigrants. The always impeccable Hiam Abbas is Faour's sister, who is slow to change her ways despite having been in the country for fifteen years. In the film's climactic scene she tastes a hamburger for the first time. It's that kind of movie. Nice, but hardly earth-shattering.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1263438506
Coco Before Chanel (Anne Fontaine, 2009) 2/10
Deathly boring story of the great designer's early life. Audrey Tautou is lifeless and looks bored throughout. The brief fashion show sequence at the end, showing off Chanel's signature designs, has spark missing from the whole film. It would be interesting to see a proper big screen film about her life covering the war years and after. Maybe Tautou could attempt it again in a sequel with a stronger director.
Deathly boring story of the great designer's early life. Audrey Tautou is lifeless and looks bored throughout. The brief fashion show sequence at the end, showing off Chanel's signature designs, has spark missing from the whole film. It would be interesting to see a proper big screen film about her life covering the war years and after. Maybe Tautou could attempt it again in a sequel with a stronger director.
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Precious Doll
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Nothing But the Truth (2008) Rod Lurie 6/10
Routine but very watchable 'inspired by real events' drama. Well paced with good performances all round. It's the sort of film Hollywood used to do reasonably well when they were interested in telling stories of some social relevance.
A Perfect Getaway (2009) David Twohy 4/10
Whilst the set up is standard 'psycho killer on the loose' Twohy keeps things moving along nicely within just enough suspense to sustain the nonsense. It also has some sense of humanity that is generally missing from this type of fare.
The Headless Woman (2008) Lucrecia Martel 8/10
Without a doubt Lucrecia Martel is the most promising and most original of all the young female directors to emerge during the last decade. The film is a meticulously shot work in which the visuals and incidental dialogue drive the narrative forward. Her characters rarely the centre of attention, hovering around the outskirts of the frame or in the background. Also worth seeking out are Martel's earlier works The Holy Girl & La cienaga.
Routine but very watchable 'inspired by real events' drama. Well paced with good performances all round. It's the sort of film Hollywood used to do reasonably well when they were interested in telling stories of some social relevance.
A Perfect Getaway (2009) David Twohy 4/10
Whilst the set up is standard 'psycho killer on the loose' Twohy keeps things moving along nicely within just enough suspense to sustain the nonsense. It also has some sense of humanity that is generally missing from this type of fare.
The Headless Woman (2008) Lucrecia Martel 8/10
Without a doubt Lucrecia Martel is the most promising and most original of all the young female directors to emerge during the last decade. The film is a meticulously shot work in which the visuals and incidental dialogue drive the narrative forward. Her characters rarely the centre of attention, hovering around the outskirts of the frame or in the background. Also worth seeking out are Martel's earlier works The Holy Girl & La cienaga.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
District 9 - 6/10
The Hurt Locker - 8/10
I liked both more than I expected to. District 9's first half gripped me more than the second, and while Sharlto Copley's performance was fine, his character was so relentlessly stupid that I had trouble rooting for him at times, but I had fun for the most part.
The Hurt Locker took me by surprise, to be honest. The three central performances were excellent (I'd love for Anthony Mackie or Brian Geraghty to show up on nomination morning) and while virtually plotless it looked terrific, the set-pieces were electrifying and Bigelow does a fantastic job. I'd have no problem if she won the Oscar.
Edited By rudeboy on 1263292404
The Hurt Locker - 8/10
I liked both more than I expected to. District 9's first half gripped me more than the second, and while Sharlto Copley's performance was fine, his character was so relentlessly stupid that I had trouble rooting for him at times, but I had fun for the most part.
The Hurt Locker took me by surprise, to be honest. The three central performances were excellent (I'd love for Anthony Mackie or Brian Geraghty to show up on nomination morning) and while virtually plotless it looked terrific, the set-pieces were electrifying and Bigelow does a fantastic job. I'd have no problem if she won the Oscar.
Edited By rudeboy on 1263292404
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anonymous1980
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OscarGuy
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Fair warning to Damien whose favored son appears in Daybreakers.
While the concept was one that could have been executed with some great style and conviction, it is neither. It's laborious and ludicrous. The performances are about what you would expect, but the plot takes so many concepts and tries to make a film with meaning, but ends up mucking it all up with fancy action sequences and copious amounts of gore.
But, this is what happens when you let visual effects artists direct a movie, they don't focus on plot or character, they focus on effect and even with their experience, the effects are pedantic and old hat, stealing often from The Matrix and hoping that another pair of brothers directing a movie about a semi-futuristic world could be a success. Studios need to be smarter, but we all know that isn't going to happen.
Of course, I always seem to start out my new year with the first movie being absolute crap. I kind of expected it going in, but it would have been nice to discover the next Gattaca or Dark City...
While the concept was one that could have been executed with some great style and conviction, it is neither. It's laborious and ludicrous. The performances are about what you would expect, but the plot takes so many concepts and tries to make a film with meaning, but ends up mucking it all up with fancy action sequences and copious amounts of gore.
But, this is what happens when you let visual effects artists direct a movie, they don't focus on plot or character, they focus on effect and even with their experience, the effects are pedantic and old hat, stealing often from The Matrix and hoping that another pair of brothers directing a movie about a semi-futuristic world could be a success. Studios need to be smarter, but we all know that isn't going to happen.
Of course, I always seem to start out my new year with the first movie being absolute crap. I kind of expected it going in, but it would have been nice to discover the next Gattaca or Dark City...
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
Wow, I sure do...this thing is just...weak sauce. However, I feel this shouldn't register as mattering though, kind of like one of those Tyler Perry disasters that inevitably makes more money than is fathomable. Doing this shit on a regular basis is why Chris Rock mocked Jude Law so harshly, much to the chagrin of unfunny Sean Penn.Sabin wrote:Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie) - 7.5/10
Don't understand the backlash against this movie. At. All.
Sherlock Holmes (2009)- Guy Ritchie- I feel about this like Sabin feels about Julie & Julia- who gives a rat's ass
And, thank you so much Reza for coming as close as I've seen to being baffled by Up In The Air's success...I don't know if there is a critic out there I understand nowadays outside of maybe John Waters...is he literally the only one who isn't strictly a whore...or just so happy go lucky that nothing is offensive or underachieving in his/her mind (Ebert)?