Been a while since I logged anything into this thread...
World's Greatest Dad (2009)
This one has been on my Netflix queue for quite some time now. I finally decided to watch it less than a week ago, and it really took me by surprise. This almost felt like a Todd Solondz film; it's very quirky, clever, and has some major dark undertones (if you could even call them
undertones).
It's nice to see Robin Williams in top-form again. This is the most interesting thing he's done in a long while, and brought me back to 2002, where he starred in
Death to Smoochy,
One Hour Photo, and the Al Pacino-thriller,
Insomnia. I love seeing this man in more-sinister, less cookie-cutter roles (2004's
The Final Cut was also pretty neat).
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Here's one that has already aged surprisingly well. Like many others, I was majorly disappointed with this flick when it first released, despite being a self-proclaimed B-horror obsessee. The crappy CGI, frequent cringe-worthy attempts at 'hip' dialogue, and lack of a proper topless shot was just too much for me to
bare at the time (pun definitely intended).
I took a risk and scooped up the DVD at a Salvation Army yesterday, bravely choosing this over the original
Frankenstein, Cronenberg's remake of
The Fly, and even a copy of
Tekken 3... and to be perfectly honest and somewhat controversial, I'm not upset with my decision in the slightest.
Jennifer's Body may not be a great film by any means, but it has a lot more going for it than most would be willing to admit. The dialogue does often try too hard to be clever than realistic, and there are still more than a few lines that made me wince, but I swear, some of things that come out of these characters' mouths had me in tears.
I still feel that the use of more practical effects, as opposed to CGI, would've benefited this film greatly, but it in a few parts it becomes more than reasonable to understand why they were chosen. There's some illusions you just can't pull off in the real world, unless you have insane geniuses like those who worked on Carpenter's
The Thing, or Craven's original
Nightmare on Elm Street.
Also the lack of full-on Megan Fox nudity is still kind of a bust, but it really makes her beauty all the more fascinating by making her a total cock-tease, even to the audience.
I think that if this film had a better director behind the wheels, it really could've been something special. Maybe even screenwriter, Diablo Cody, could've given it a shot. I don't think I'll ever be fond of
Juno, but the fact that I had
so much fun with this almost makes me want to give that a second look as well. I'm actually excited to hear that she's penning the
Evil Dead remake now.
Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance in 3-D (2012)
Last night, after both thoroughly enjoying
Jennifer's Body, my girlfriend and I decided to try and give a trip to the theaters a shot, something we hadn't done in quite some time.
Everything else that was playing looked like total ass, so we decided to give this a chance, despite never seeing the first film or reading a single issue of the source material (which always looked pretty cool to me). We figured, "Nic Cage with a flaming head in 3-D? Yeah, I could see that being worth watching".
Oh, how mistaken we were...
This film was a steaming pile, and even a quick cameo from Anthony Head (Rupert Giles, of Buffy-fame) couldn't even make it worth watching (he was killed off within the first 5 minutes or so... bummer).
After both being pretty disinterested, and ultimately non-impressed by the bland use of 3-D, we left about 40 minutes in (although I swear it felt like only 10... I think my brain went numb from this dribble) after I was unable to get a free refill on our large soda due to all of the concession stands being closed. There was no way we were going to sit through this AND be thirsty.
A real letdown, it was.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
In an attempt to wash the bad taste of Ghost Rider 2 (and all of the super-ass previews shown) out of our minds, we polished off another film off of the Netflix queue. Luckily, we fared much better this time around.
Punch-Drunk Love is the first P.T. Anderson film I've seen, and I must say I was definitely impressed. The camera-work was stellar, lots of great wide shots, interesting framing and cool lighting tricks; Sandler's stepped up his acting to a level I haven't seen from him aside from the amazing,
Funny People; and it featured all sorts of neat, experimental shots like this...
This is a filmmaker who obviously not only has assloads of talent, the ability to get the most out of his actors, and a good taste in cinematographers, but knows how to use them in a way while still making a genuinely engaging and enjoyable film.
I loathe directors who think that just because they can find a pretty way to frame a shot, means that they can drag their film along at a snail's pace for absolutely no reason other than to show off how 'skilled' they are. Jim Jarmusch, I'm looking directly at you and your douchey haircut...
*phew* What a post... I'm winded - now I know how Michi must feel.
I figured you might, guy.