Kassim The Dream

3/29/2009

Kassim The Dream is a very entertaining documentary about the amazing story of a little Ugandan boy that was kidnapped by the local military and forced to kill. A terrible and frightning life that was pushed out of fear, Kassim joined the military boxing team and used it as a means to escape the army when they participated in the United States. The documentary tells the story of how a small boy forced to deal with awful situations could end up being so charasmatic and loving and eventually a world champion professional boxer. His story is intriguing and broaches several very disturbing subject matters that are still happening in other countries even today. The film was very professionally done and tells a fantastic story that will keep your attention throughout. This film will be in limited release probably around June 2009.

Knowing

3/16/09

If you are looking for a great Spring blockbuster film to get your movie watching season off to a great start, do NOT go see Knowing. Luckily, I was able to see a sneak showing of this movie, which costs me nothing except my habitual bag of popcorn. I'm one of the few that actually enjoys a lot of Nicholas Cage movies, but this movie just doesn't know what it's doing. Is it Sci-Fi, action, horror, what? It all begins when John Koestler's (Cage) son brings home a time capsule that was buried fifty years ago at his school. In this envelope is a bunch of numbers that indicate past tragedies and predicts future catastrophies. Why it ties in to Cage's family and their particular location are never explained. In fact, a lot is left unexplained which is just as well, or the movie would have lasted longer. Did I mention their are aliens in this movie as well? As the film was letting out you could really feel the confusion and dissapointment throughout the audience. No recommend.

Familiar Stangers

3/12/2009

Saw a sneak of this indepdendent film dealing with some very realistic family situations including; bad communication, pets, and divorce . It all starts when the oldest son, Brian (Shawn Hatosy) returns back to his hometown to visit his family for Thanksgiving. A slow moving film made in the mold of Juno/Little Miss Sunshine, Familiar Strangers is fairly fresh and has plenty of original and humorus scenes such as a traditionally played donkeyball game. (You'll have to see the movie to understand). Not a rush out to see film, but I would put it in the category of an average "date flick."

Watchmen

3/6/09

Went to see Watchmen on opening night, not really knowing anything about the history of the Watchmen and never having read the graphic novel. I will admit that I panicked when I saw that the movie was over two and a half hours long, but I marched forward. Several pluses for Watchmen include not taking too long to get a good knowledge of the background of the story, and didn't take too long to get a pretty good grip of what was going on. Basically you have group of superheroes living amongst regular humans that are having to come back together to solve a murder mystery when one of their own is pushed out a window to his death. I did enjoy the movie very much during the scenes of interaction on earth between the superheroes and humans, however, there were multiple scenes that featured (superhero) Dr. Manhattan discussing various things in a very philisophical manner on futuristic outer planets. These scenes to me were trying a bit to hard to mean something, and while they may have worked for the hardcore Watchmen fans, I really got pretty bored of them after a while. I guess in sum, I should say this: For a film that I probably enjoyed only "so-so," it didn't seem like a film that lasted almost three hours long. Maybe I enjoyed it more than I thought...

Taken

2/14/2009

I watched Taken on a Saturday afternoon, after I had heard good things about a movie I otherwise probably would have skipped, at least at the theater. I liked the edge that this film possesses, along with Liam Neeson's character, a retired government worker. I guess the lack of language kept this movie at a PG-13 rating, because the very straight forward violence and adult thematics, in my opinion, made up for a rather clean script. Using his skills as a former government "Preventor," Neeson sets out to kill the man responsible for kidnapping his daughter, who was on a trip to Paris with her best friend. Once overseas, the movie turns from a drama about a man trying to rekindle a lost relationship with his daughter into an full-blown action film. The flow of the action scenes were catchy and thankfully, I never had the feeling that I was watching a movie that I had seen before. Unfortunately, for all of the reasons that I enjoyed the edgy "do exactly as I say" action, I thought the ending turned back into a little bit of Hollywood and was a little disappointing. All in all, a good flick that was worth the matinee price.

Gran Torino

1/27/09

I thoroughly enjoyed Gran Torino. Clint Eastwood gives a classic performance as an over-the-top disgruntled veteran who is content on not trying to get along with anyone, from family members to his next door neighbors. The silver years of his life change after an incident where his prized possession, a black Gran Torino, was attempted to be stolen. I found myself entertained with the majority of this movie, and caught myself laughing and chuckling at what I would consider a very racist laden slurring movie. I believe I was not laughing alone and I just kept saying to myself, "I can't believe I'm laughing at this, but I am." I realize this movie was probably made too late in the career of Eastwood to be considered a classic now, but when we look back at this film years from now, it will probably be ranked up there with a lot of his other gems. I would put this movie in the category of "Not to rush out and see it, but definitely be sure and give it a view."

Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The

1/1/2009

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a fairly decent movie. It doesn't offer much in plot substance or suspense, but it more or less tells a story with a few good proverbs to remember. The cinematography is superb and the reverse aging Brad Pitt looked very realistic throughout the movie. I would describe the movie as very Forest Gumpish, so if you liked following Forest Gump around then you will enjoy following Benjamin Button's story. The movie is just shy of three (3) hours and fortunately is broken up by a few lighting strike scenes that I seemed to get a real kick out of. If you have an afternoon or early evening with some time to kill, I would suggest the viewing of the film. If anything else, it certainly is not in any way a typical Hollywood cookie cutter film.