Comments on movies this weekend (10/11) anyone?

[JonathanLB]

I'll add to this as I go but as there are so many movies that came out, we may as well have one thread. Let me know if you see anything this weekend and what you thought.

So far, I saw Knockaround Guys, which was better than I thought for sure. Diesel still has not let me down in that I've never rated any one of his films below 3 stars. Knockaround Guys was a solid, entertaining, often intelligent movie that i thought deserved 3 stars. Sure you can say, as USA Today did, that it has been done a million times before. Absolutely true. But I still found it interesting and there were enough plot twists and events I didn't expect to keep it going. I saw a few parts from a mile away, while others I incorrectly predicted, so it wasn't entirely predictable IMO. Plus it was just enjoyable. I guess you could call it "forgettable entertainment," but then again, I have seen like 115 different movies this year, so it's all pretty much not too memorable to me except about 15 of those movies.

I also saw The Transporter, which I had waited a long while to see. Wow, definitely did not disappoint! Ok, it's unrealistic the number of people "the Transporter" kills, granted, but who cares?! This movie was awesome. The car chase at the start is the 2nd best I have ever seen, better than Ronin, but not, of course, as good as the greatest of all time in The French Connection. It was just sweet, though, and the rest of the action was inventive and top notch. It was not hokey either, it was serious action and seriously done, which was a great break from what I'm getting a bit tired of seeing, i.e. a lot of Jackie Chan ripoff action. Everyone has to make their action funny now, which is fine for Jackie Chan, but sometimes I just want to see serious action like Jet Li. Now I realize Chan didn't pioneer the idea of funny action (Buster Keaton should get credit for that, actually, as his early silent films were always about using action and very detailed stunts for comedic value, and they are sweet movies many of them!).

The Transporter, though, is one of the best action movies of the year. It absolutely blows Ecks vs. Sever away and shows what a real action movie should look like. I do have my criticisms, though. Character development could have been a little better, specifically the villain, who audiences never really learn anything about. Now that's not a huge issue because I really don't care that much. He is evil, the hero is badass, that's good enough for this film's purpose. Also, even the hero could have used maybe just a little bit more character development, but they did a pretty job of it. Good enough so that I think The Transporter definitely deserves 3.5 stars.

I have a ticket to see The Ring tomorrow at a sneak preview at 7:30, then I'll see Brown Sugar after that, and before those two I'll see probably The Rules of Attraction.

Sunday I'll finish off the weekend with White Oleandor and Tuck Everlasting.

This is the busiest weekend of the entire year in sheer number of national releases (6), which is higher than the weekend of 2/15, where 5 movies opened nationally.

Neither film I saw was very busy, though. I saw The Transporter late, so that might not say much, but Knockaround Guys will fare poorly this weekend, IMO. It'll make $6-7 million max I'd say. I hope I am wrong, that would be great, but judging by my theater, which has in the past been quite accurate, this movie is not going to do well. Its mediocre reviews won't help, but the critics are not quite right about it. I think it's quite good.

I'm totally stoked too because I got this DVD set I ordered from Amazon like a week ago, and I just can't wait to start it. It is a 5-DVD set of 131 silent era films from 1894 through 1913.

I've seen 5 of them already in my film class, and they were all pretty darn entertaining, and of course, short. But I'm really anxious to see the rest and review them all. It's just great that I can get this entire film history lesson in one convenient boxed set. Damn, if only 1960 to 1980 was that easy to get through! :)

At this point I'd say I'm pretty much an expert on 2000+ films, haha, but at best, I am at the start of "becoming" a real critic. I have such a crapload of movies to see. I have about 5 lists of 100 movies that I need to get through, which is why I hold myself to seeing 10 movies per week now at least, and even then, 3-4 of those are generally new releases so that doesn't help me much.

I'm working on the "AFI 100 years, 100 laughs" list somewhat now. That's going to take a while...

[CMJ]

I saw "Rules of Attraction" about 3 weeks ago at an advanced screening.

[JediBoricua]

So many films, not a single one I want to see...

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I heard Rules of Attraction was like Requiem for a Dream, with less point.

And I'm dying to see Turkish in action in The Transporter. Now, if I could just get my car running...

[ReaperFett]

Least you dont have to wait months unknown :(

[JonathanLB]

Well I loved The Transporter, but my friend Sean thought it had a horrible plot and bad dialogue. His version of bad dialogue is just not understandable whatsoever to me, though. He doesn't like the dialogue in AOTC, which I consider excellent. He doesn't like the dialogue in many movies where I thought it was great.

He was bothered by ... nevermind, duh, I can't spoil the plot. Point is, there are a few specific examples that to him were laughable lines because they were bad, and to me they were funny lines that were absolutely intended to be funny and worked great in The Transporter! So I don't know about him sometimes...

I mean, how can you love The One (he did) and not like The Transporter? I love The One, LOL, I just hope that nobody reads that review of mine first. I gave that movie four stars, which is rather incredible because movies like that usually don't deserve four stars, but... what can I say, it was especially awesome to me. Every once in a while, I have my weaknesses for a certain type of film, hehe.

Ok so onto the other movies this weekend, all of which I saw.

Brief commentary only:

The Rules of Attraction is the worst movie I have seen all year, and keep in mind I have seen EVERY MOVIE released this year to major theaters, except Juwanna Mann and Powerpuff Girls. So that means this was the worst of about 120 movies or so, maybe 130. I hated it. NO STARS.

The Ring was good! I was pleasantly surprised and it was quite scary. Not perfect, by any means, but I found it well made and pretty eerie. I gave it 3 stars, review will hopefully be up soon (it is done, so is every review of any movie I have seen lately).

Brown Sugar: Wow! Good chick flick, if that is basically what it is. It's a romantic comedy, so it classifies, but it is an enjoyable, at times absolutely hilarious movie that has a message, or at least one I felt was meaningful (the importance of artistry triumphing over commercialism). 3 stars.

Tuck Everlasting: good movie, overdramatic at times, story could have been better developed because the villain seemed to lack any punch and didn't make a good protagonist (conflict was dealt with too easily and this doesn't work well in movies). Overall, somehow, I still felt it was an enjoyable experience and I give the film a B-, or 3 stars.

White Oleandor: better than I thought, but not quite a meaningful movie to me. I give it 2.5 stars because I think it is well made and I think it conveys just what the filmmakers wanted, but it is not my style. It's not what I consider a good movie because it didn't really entertain me. Nonetheless, that young actress is quite talented. There is no way I'd have been able to sit through that without getting bored except for her compelling performance, which made me care about her character. Ultimately, the film didn't exactly amount to much for me, but I can see some people saying, "Wow that was a great movie." I would have no arguments for them and I wouldn't challenge their opinion whatsoever, except to explain my rating by, "It's just not my style." I reserve the right to rate any film any way I choose, and that means sometimes movies that are well made are not going to get good ratings if I feel their subject matter wasn't compelling enough, and that is entirely my opinion. So... difficult film to review, ultimately ended up being above average.

That's what I have to say about this weekend, in which I saw 7 theatrical releases and 2 DVDs. 9 movies in one weekend marks a new record for me.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I am going to see The Transporter tonight (Lord willing, if my car is put back together.) Didn't someone say it was better than Ecks Vs. Sever? Anyway, that last fight between Ray Park and Lucy Liu was so excellent... I was telling a girl at work about it, and I could feel myself getting all excited again.

I worry about myself sometimes. :mischief I think she thinks I'm insane now.

[JonathanLB]

It's much better than Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. I gave that film 2.5 stars, so many people would say I was way too nice to that movie, but I felt the action was excellent and the plot pretty much sucked hard, and a lot of the lines were awful too. The Transporter, I think, had a good script and a fine plot. The action was too good to deny. For me, that movie really worked well.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Yep, it was you. :) We agree on Ecks Vs. Sever, it was good for an action flick, but not outstanding, because the plot weaknesses were ...weak. LOVED the action though.

[Sejah Haversh]

Yes, The Transporter is excellent. The sheer gymnasticity of some of the fights alone os worth the movie proce, and the car scene is just awesome.

True, the plot was a little weak, but, it was much better done than a lot of other action movies lately. It's one I'll buy, that's for sure!

[JonathanLB]

Well I would never call the plot weak, I'd just say that it worked for the action, that's all. It wasn't remarkable. It wasn't a "good" plot particularly, but it was good enough to move the action, which was good enough for me. Maybe other people wanted more, but I don't see why, it is just an action film, and a very stylish, well done one at that.

I will be buying it.

Ballistic, though, was a disappointing film. The plot truly was attrocious and weak, but the action was so good, which is disappointing. I mean, I wouldn't want to buy it on DVD because $20 for a movie that's just not that good is wasteful, but the few really awesome action sequences are, well, really awesome.