High Crimes, Van Wilder, and Big Trouble. Thoughts?

[JonathanLB]

I saw Big Disappointment on Friday along with High Crimes. Oops I mean Big Trouble, dangit I keep doing that! But honestly I keep doing that by accident, I nearly titled my review "Big Disappointment." Not a bad film, but certainly wasn't a funny one.

I've seen so many movies that were funnier than that, even if they were super disgusting in a few cases, at least they were funny.

Anyway, no use rehashing what I already wrote pretty much, but here are my reviews:

National Lampoon's Van Wilder:
http://www.jlbmovies.com/VanWilder.shtml

High Crimes:
http://www.jlbmovies.com/HighCrimes.shtml

Big Trouble:
http://www.jlbmovies.com/BigTrouble.shtml

So did anyone else see them and what did you think?

I saw Ghost World on Friday too, umm... yet another disappointing independent film. Not a bad one in this case, but it got lucky to earn two stars. Sexy Beast was a good independent film, I gave it three, saw it Thursday I guess.

I should just have a disclaimer: films about ORDINARY people doing ORDINARY things will NOT EVER get good ratings! Thank you for visiting, find a new site if that's the type of movie you like.

As my dad said, "What a waste of time! Nothing happened in that movie at all [Ghost World] and I feel like I was cheated out of my time." It's true, whenever you have a film where nothing of note happens and the characters are not even extraodinary individuals in any way, what do you have? You have nothing. You sure don't have a movie. Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, Ghost World, Amelie, Monster's Ball: ALL GUILTY. That's why independent film cannot compete with Hollywood because at least Hollywood dreams big; the indie's don't even aspire to be anything, so they never are anything. Why were Memento and Sexy Beast examples of good films? Because Memento is about a guy with a very rare syndrome and a very weird, unusual plot about him that was super interesting. Sexy Beast was about a heist of a lot of money and had a lot of really unusual characters and plenty going on for it (yet it only got 3 stars because nothing was that extraodinary). Pretty simple really, but hey at least I'm consistent.

Oh heck why not, hehe.

I wrote an essay for my site on that subject:

Ordinary Cannot Compete:
http://www.jlbmovies.com/EssayExtraordinary.shtml

[Dutchy]

Jonathan, in such movies the actor's emotions tell the story. It seems to me like you are rather impassive for people's emotions. With movies like these you can sympathize with the actors and the lives they portray. Or you can relate their emotions to your own. That's why people like those kinda movies.

Like the Thora Birch character in Ghost World, she was looking for someone to care about her and love her. Now there's a goal for many people to reach and it sure comes with many obstacles to overcome.

Maybe to you making the major leagues in baseball is an extraordinary goal, but for many people finding the oridinary (or what seems ordinary to you, anyway) is a struggle. Life is a struggle.

Actually, life itself is a truly remarkble journey and definitely worth telling.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I thought about seeing High Crimes, I still might, I am curious what the surprise ending is all about, I heard a lot of people were surprised. The rest of this week's movies don't really interest me. What comes out next week? I thought Murder by Numbers with Sandra Bulloch does but I am not sure.

[JMK]

I definetly want to see Van Wilder.

[Marcus Telcontar]

That is one movie I will NOT see. How can some of the stuff that was seen in the previews and read in reviews be funny? More like disgusting.

[JonathanLB]

Van Wilder is definitely worth seeing, you should see it JMK. It's frickin' hilarious.

Yes, Marcus, it is really disgusting in a few scenes. A few scenes are more disgusting than they are funny, but overall the movie is hilarious. I can think of one scene specifically where I almost threw up to be honest, lol, and I have never felt that way in a movie before, not even in Hannibal at the end...

Oh well, that movie rocked.

High Crimes has a very surprising ending. While I didn't think the movie was great, I was very perplexed with one person saying it had a "formulaic" plot. What formula, exactly, would that be? I've seen thousands of movies and I've never seen a movie like that. It doesn't make it totally unique, because of course most aspects of it are quite similar to many other films and the dialogue is often cliched (in parts), but the actual plot of the film, all in all, is not at all formulaic. There is probably no other movie ever made that has the same twist. I am not sure if I exactly liked the twist, but ok, it was interesting at least.

I love plot twists, but I'm thinking perhaps lately there are more plot twists than ever before, because I really don't remember this trend being around before. It seems that every movie now MUST have a major plot twist near the end or audiences are not satisfied. I was a bit disappointed that Panic Room didn't actually, but that's only because Fincher is known for his plot twists way back from Alien 3 even.

I would recommend High Crimes, but with the caution that it is not a great movie, just solid entertainment for the running time (two hours). A few scenes are truly painful, i.e. the opening 5 minutes of the movie or 10 minutes (perhaps it just seemed 10 minutes long).

Dutchy, most people's lives really are not that interesting, which is why movies are not made about everyone. So far on this forum, I wouldn't say there is anyone whose life deserves a movie. Not mine. Not yours, not anyone else. It doesn't mean we lead boring lives, it just means there are so many great stories to tell in movies and only about 150 major releases that open per year (perhaps 275 overall films), so there are simply better stories out there.

And, no, I do not care whatsoever about the emotions of any character who is entangled in a story that is unworthy of being a film. There is no reason to make a movie about ordinary people doing ordinary things, which means that anything done commonly = ordinary. A story simply dealing with divorce or with "love" or some other such stupid subject in and of itself is lousy, but if it is part of a larger story it could be meaningful. If you take the Star Wars movies for instance, you have just enough romance to keep things interesting, but it's not about that either. Movies can have elements of everything, but shouldn't focus simply on the ordinary.

It can be useful to show that extraordinary characters like Superman are still interested in the same things normal humans are because it shows his humanity and allows audiences to identify with him, but if it were just about him and Miss Lane, that would be fukkin boring! Instead, they make that part of the story and it fits very well and is appropriate.

Only very very poor filmmakers make movies about ordinary people in ordinary situations. Great filmmakers never do that. You'd never see Spielberg, Lucas, Fincher, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Ron Howard, or anyone else who has any talent doing that.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Figured I update the box office with this thread,
Panic Room remained #1 with 18.5 million
High Crimes came in second with 15
Ice Age is still doing well in third with 14.3
The Rookie is in fourth place with 11.7
and Van Wilder is in fifth with 7.5, also Blade 2 continues to drop making 7.2, it still has a chance at 100 million but it looks less likely now, I am guessing it makes 90-95 million which is still more than what the first one made.

[JonathanLB]

Did The Rookie hold well? I was really hoping that movie would hold up because it's my third favorite of the year so far...

[sirdizzy]

i love reading dave barry's articles but man the movie was kind of lame


i enjoyed high crimes nice twist at the end

[Jedi Master Carr]

The Rookie and Ice Age had the lowest drops in the top 10 (LOTR had droped the same % points as The Rookie but its only playing on 997 theaters now) Right now I think Ice Age has a shot at 200 and The Rookie has a shot at the 100 million mark.

[JonathanLB]

"i love reading dave barry's articles but man the movie was kind of lame"

Dave Barry is awesome, but the movie was pretty lame. It was a big disappointment I thought. Not very funny whatsoever. I chuckled a few times, but no real laughs.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I really like Tim Allen and I hate it the way his last two movies have turned out, luckily he is doing a Santa Clause 2 coming out in November and that should be a hit, at least I hope it is.

[JonathanLB]

I know a lot of people who are anti-Tim Allen, but I love Home Improvement. I used to catch every episode, at least until the boys were all super old and whatnot. HI is so classic, though, that's a great show.

I don't think Tim Allen has done anything much worth seeing in the movie business though...

It is not at all his fault on Big Trouble. If anything it is the unfunny screenplay and lackluster directing by an otherwise very good director who is capable of turning out four star films with ease.

Get Shorty is absolutely one of my favorite movies, I am sure if I took the time it would make my top 50 list, and Men In Black is actually one of the better summer blockbusters of the last decade I think. It's just a really fun movie and I like Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith a lot. Plus that DVD is just killer (the two-disc set). It still is one of the best DVDs ever made, even though it's not the newest. I love how much they included on it.