Rants about everyday-life, Movie Reviews and Music

Mini-reviews: Jeff Tremaine's Jackass 2, and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Little Miss Sunshine

2006-10-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Nothing groundbreaking, but if you feel in the mood to laugh your butt off, then it's most definitely worth seeing.
4/5

Absolutely beautiful film. A smash at Sundance earlier this year, this film is side-splittingly hilarious and has a heart as well.
5/5

Mini-review: Brian DePalma's The Black Dahlia

2006-09-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

Brian DePalma's long-awaited vanity project, The Black Dahlia has finally came out, And let me say, the critics were wrong. The Black Dahlia is a scary, suspenseful and competent thriller that is worth a watch most definitely.
4.5/5

Mini-review: Allen Coulter's Hollywoodland

2006-09-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

Hollywoodland is an excellent, extremely authentic take on the Hollywood life. It revolves around the unsolved mystery of George Reeves' suicide, and adds a theory that it could've possibly been homicide. Using barely any music, the cinematography is beautiful, and the acting from Brody and Affleck is superb. My favorite film of the year and I highly recommend seeing it.
5/5

Movie Review: Christopher MacQuarrie's The Way of the Gun

2006-09-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

Christopher MacQuarrie was a pretty promising screenwriter when he wrote the script for The Usual Suspects... but threw it all out the window when he wrote the piece of shit known as Batman and Robin, But... He eventually decided to make a comeback with his directorial debut, The Way of the Gun. Although it got a mixed response from critics, It quickly became a cult classic, and deservedly so. The plot is fairly convoluted, but this film sports a great cast and excellent, almost classic-John Woo equivalent shootouts. Ryan Phillipe's voice is a little annoying at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly, Benicio Del Toro is great and James Cann is excellent and extremely menacing as the film's main villian. This is definitely worth a rent, and if you like it, buy it.
4/5

Movie Review: Neil Burger's The Illusionist

2006-09-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

Neil Burger's 2nd film, The Illusionist is quite a suprise. Edward Norton delivers a great performance as Eisenheim the Illusionist, His character manages to be romantic, scary and human at the same time. Jessica Biel is also great in her small screentime, Paul Giamatti does a great job breaking away from his usual humorous fare, but the main highlight is Rufus Sewell as the prince, he's only on-screen for 30% of the film, but his character succeded at scaring the shit out of me, which is truly why he's so great. Dick Pope's cinematography of Prague(it's set in Vienna, but due to finances, was shot in Prague) is absolutely beautiful, especially the opening credits, which pays great homage to some of the classic Charlie Chaplin films in terms of visuals.
The best film currently in theatres(besides Clerks 2 and A Scanner Darkly, both of which are losing theatres unfortunately) and is definitely worth a watch.
4.5/5

Movie Review: David Cronenberg's EXistenZ

2006-09-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

I started getting into David Cronenberg's films when a friend lended me Spider,which I loved, then I saw The Fly on cable, which I loved even more. After that, I saw A History of Violence in theatres, which I also loved. I bought this a few months, forgot that I owned it for a while, then I finally watched it 2 days ago and was absolutely amazed. Although in plot, it's a throwback to The Terminator, as a film, it truly stands on its own. Cronenberg has a great eye and this film proves it, the visual style, the special effects, the make-up, everything, Cronenberg has injected his love of film into everything, and I love him for it. Although different from some of his more graphic fair, such as Videodrome and the zany Naked Lunch, this is easily Cronenberg's most underrated film and is definitely worth a watch.
4.5/5

The Visual Beauty of Blade Runner

2006-09-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

In honor of the remastered DVD release of Ridley Scott's masterpiece, Blade Runner, I have decided to post screenshots of my favorite scenes from the film. Hope ya like them.
Jonathan