To obtain a 5-star rating, a movie would have to be created by me, written by me, acted by me, directed by me, produced by me. 8^)
This list is also a reminder to me as I get older what movies I've seen and if they are worth watching again.
Documentaries.
2012. Some great visuals, some decent action. Not much to the story, but really what could there be -- this is an amalgam of all disaster scenarios -- so there can't be much time left for clever plot or twists or social commentary. What can be left is lots of special effects. It appears that the movie industry is out of ideas when it comes to natural disaster stories -- meteor (Armageddon), tornado (Twister), ice age (Day After Tomorrow), water (Waterworld), volcano (Dante's Peak) avalanche (Vertical Limit) -- and had to do one last 'hail mary'. Not bad but not great.
2012 Supernova. This is pretty bad from almost every movie-making perspective. The only positive thing noteworthy is that the main characters appear to be trying very hard; they actually appear to be trying to act well. The problems are many - a tired premise, unnecessary over-reactions to some situations, inappropriate under-reactions to others, poor dialogue, disjointed scenes, unevolved characterization, some poor camera shots (a couple surprisingly good considering the whole), sound-in-space illogic, and a wholly unsurprising finale. So much suspension of disbelief is required (such as the level of security at a critical government agency), the viewer will give up early and take none of this seriously. Perhaps it wasn't meant to be taken seriously. This has to have been cheaply made and looks to be a film school project. At least it is short at 1:13.
21 Jump Street. Pretty good. All over-the-top; generally sophomoric - the target audience would be 16-year-old boys and 45-year-old 'boys'. But it is funny. In the Superbad genre, but Jump Street has much, much more cleverness. A few cameos provide for a few laughs. A good bit of hilarity; worth a watch.
22 Jump Street. Pretty good. All over-the-top. Essentially a continuation of the first one. Some really stupid parts; juvenile. Still worth a watch for some laughs. There is some funny stuff in the end credits.
10,000 BC Impressive visuals. What started as very intriguing quickly became disjointed and even weird. I'm not sure Roland Emmerich knew what genre this was to be. There were subplots or story arcs which at I thought, "oh, it's a historical tale of inner strength", or "oh, it's to be a historical piece", or "oh, that's where he's going - supernatural", or "oh that's where he's going - ancient warrior battles", or "oh, got it, Narnia-type mythology" - only to be repeatedly suprised - that there was no direction. Worth a watch once - there's a bit in it for everyone. It's just not tied together.
Abraham Lincoln Vampire HunterFirst of all, I can't believe they made this movie. Secondly, it's not terrible. An irreverent movie, pretty darn cheesy with purposefully cheesy effects and slow-motion shots. Not to be taken seriously and not a history piece - the sooner you set that all aside, the quicker you can enjoy the cheese.
After Earth. Not bad. Some wonderful visual scenes. While somewhat believable, there are a couple of head-shaking parts which ruin the believability and mentally jar the viewer out of the story. Decent premise, decent story, decent action. A touch slow but this is meant to be a character-development story - way more Narnia, way less Independence Day. I wonder how hard Will Smith had to work to maintain a fake accent, monotonous voice and low-key performance. It is obvious Will Smith wants to set a career in motion for his son, and the kid's performance is frankly just fine - playing whiny, annoying, with something-to-prove, just as would be expected, and I'll bet just as it was scripted and directed. This movie could have been better, and a more solid sequel would be welcome, but still worth a watch. (Coincidentally, M. Night Shyamalan directs, and with practically everything he's directed since Sixth Sense, it's a great attempt but there's something just not quite right.)
A-Team. Quite good. A surprisingly good homage to the original series while still providing a thrill-ride for newcomers. Lots of suspension of disbelief required, but that was surely the intent to mimic or parody the original. The familiar characters were each well-acted, even if the characters themselves are meant to be exaggerated. Again, a surprisingly compelling story which while not particularly suspenseful, keeps the viewer occupied. Lots of great action. Flash-backs and fast-forwards and narration-over-action sequences made the whole of the movie enjoyable. Definitely worth a watch or two.
Alice In Wonderland. Visually intriguing. Cute but not particularly exciting or awe-inspiring adaptation. Has Tim Burton's style all over it. Worth a watch once.
American Pie. Not good. Sophomoric with a few giggles.
Angels And Demons. Excellent cinematography and an alright story don't make up for too many unrealistic scenes. No lack of action but it is somewhat disjointed with unnecessarily graphic violence. It's almost slapstick at how incompetent the good guys are and that detracts from the movie. Tom Hanks is decent.
Arrival. Worth a watch but not overly amazing. Great graphics. Well acted. An interesting if not overly surprising story.
A Beautiful Mind. Pretty good drama with interesting psychological aspects. Well acted.
A Bug's Life. This is an opportunity for Pixar to show off really. Exquisite animation for a film of 1998. It is as if Pixar simply animated someone's lazy outdoor summer afternoon's imaginings. Great for kids, great for adults, the humour is such that both will enjoy and even laugh out loud. Well done.
A Christmas Story. Boring. A relatively humourless story which isn't at all gripping, in an autobiographical style. Unfortunately the only people who might be interested would be the hypothetical participants of the autobiography. Imagine if a stranger was to reminisce to you his or her christmas time at age 9 on the bus, and how much you wouldn't care, and that describes this movie. Acted just fine all around, it is perhaps just a nostalgia piece.
A Perfect Storm. Pretty good. No real surprises here. Just a well acted, high seas drama with weather being the bad guy. Worth a watch once.
A Million Ways To Die In The West Very good. Ecclectic mix of ideas. Seth MacFarlane's style, with an awful lot of his actor friends helping. A very simple story helped along by a great deal of silly side-gags, dark humour. Much irreverence for and satire of social faux-pas of old.
Ace Ventura Pet Detective. Another movie in which Jim Carrey can show off his particular brand of talent. Wacky and over-the-top, it is still very funny. Nothing cinematographically earth-shaking here; just a slapstick comedy routine from Carrey.
Ace Ventura When Nature Calls. Jim Carrey does his best again at what he does best. As with the last one, wacky but you can't help but laugh. This is one you have to watch just to say you watched it then move on. It's a great one to watch with friends at 1 in the morning on the week-end.
Ant-Man. Quite a good movie with some really excellent digital effects, though there are some less than stellar times, such as with a large-size ant later in the movie. Decent script and well acted considering the rather silly concept. Lots of tie-ins to the rest of the Marvel universe, including SHIELD, Avengers, Stark. Worth a watch.
As Good As It Gets. Not particularly good. A somewhat hard to believe story. Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt are both fine actors but there is no chemistry at all here.
Austin Powers 1 International Man of Mystery. Silly indulgence. Not bad spoof.
Austin Powers 2 The Spy Who Shagged Me. Silly indulgence. Not bad spoof.
Austin Powers 3 Goldmember. Silly indulgence. Not bad spoof.
Avatar. Visually remarkable, all of vistas, characters, technology. A somewhat common story set in a different location makes this a somewhat novel premise. Very good film.
Babylon AD. Strange. Seems to have an intriguing story arc which ends abruptly. Sequences leave the viewer wondering what was missed. Nice cinematography and decent characters. Part Transporter, part Matrix. Intriguing premise could have been way better.
Back to the Future. A great movie about a very old premise -- time travel and what would happen. MJFox does a great job as Marty. The supporting cast could have been anyone -- with the possible exception of Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown -- because this is the Marty McFly show. Great quips and memorable lines make this a movie you can watch a number of times. The interactions with his own parents are clever and hilarious. Minimal special effects are required. It's all fluff but just plain funny stuff.
Back to the Future II. An admirable follow-up to the original. More funny "what-if" gags. It's all about MJFox and Christopher Lloyd again and they reprise their respective roles easily. Funny and enjoyable.
Back to the Future III. Another great outing. It's more of the same funny "what-if scenario" gags, so if you like the style of the original, and the second, you'll also enjoy the third. It's still all about MJFox and Christopher Lloyd, and Mary Steenburgen's character could have been played by anyone, though she certainly does a fine job. Funny and enjoyable. They probably could have done a dozen of these movies, but the style would be the same, just with different gags, so they probably called it quits because the whole enterprise just ran out of steam.
Back to the Outback. Great little (short) animated movie for kids. Nothing surprising for any audience, and unforunately nothing overly clever for adults either. Animation and cinematography of the animation is superb, though nothing groundbreaking at this point.
Batman Begins. Excellent movie. Good script, good acting, excellent effects and graphics. Great action. Great introspective for the Bruce Wayne character's motivations. Less comic book feel than the successor movies. A great lead in to the movies already done. Very well done.
Batman. This was a good movie introduction to Batman. Michael Keaton brings a good face and demeanor to Bruce Wayne and Batman. Jack Nicholson was a good choice for the joker such that I can barely look at the guy elsewhere and not think 'Joker'. Kim Basinger is lovely of course. Good cinematography and note this is a Tim Burton directorial outing. It has the comic book feel and we don't even notice how Burton does it. Well done.
Batman Returns. Another great job by Tim Burton as director. Again, he manages the comic book feel as the pages are turned for you. There is no change to the feel and style from the introductory Batman movie but this is fine. There is no need to mess with the style. I continued to enjoy Michael Keaton in this role. Similarly I always enjoy Christopher Walken in practically any role including in this movie. There is nothing surprising here, but it is an enjoyable two-plus hours.
Batman Forever. Joel Schumacher takes over admirably from Tim Burton as director. There is a difference that isn't necessarily bad. The comic book feel is less evident and it is more like a normal big-screen production. I missed Michael Keaton but Val Kilmer certainly did an admirable job. Jim Carrey as the Riddler was a great idea and Carrey can pull off anything zany as he did here. Nicole Kidman is beautiful and I can barely remember anything she said. A lengthy movie, comic fans will enjoy what is pure comic.
Batman And Robin. Again a change of actor for the Batman character concerned me. George Clooney himself seems a little too jovial for Batman, but Clooney does very very well in the role. Remember again that this comic book fare and you'll enjoy this movie. For example, Robin's silly character is played exactly as it should be by Chris O'Donnell. And the same with silly Poison Ivy played by Uma Thurman. Arnold Schwarzennegger brought a powerful performance for yet another silly comic book character. You can tell the Joel Schumacher direction from the Tim Burton; I prefer Burton but this is still another two-plus hours of enjoyable Batman.
Battleship. In the Transformers genre, even with similar score composition, and quite similar to the recent Pacific Rim. This is another great American patriotic exercise. Lots of contrived personal and military drama brought out with excellent special effects. Just cheesy enough that you know this is not to be taken too seriously. Pretty cookie-cutter for the genre but the effects and no lack of excitement give it four stars.
Battle Los Angeles Implausible much of the time, and a purely American patriotic love-in, but action-packed at least. The over-arching lessons are transparent from the start and cliche but this movie is about action and American bravado as the title suggests anyway. No nuance here but worth a watch for the action.
Bean. I suppose either you like or don't like this type of humour. I don't like it and Bean just annoys me. I keep giving Mr. Bean a try every few years and hate the comedy each time. If you like Mr. Bean, this is a somewhat North American-ized version and you will still enjoy this movie despite that. Half a star for the occasions wherein you can't help but laugh, half star for the fact that Mr. Bean is classic and somehow has staying power, half a star for Rowan Atkinson's capability to play one role one way without fail.
Bee Movie. A cute movie yet not up to the calibre of others in this genre. Admirable yet not spectacular visual effects. I think they tried to jam too many 'plot directions' into this and failed at smooth flowing premises and 'character-building' in a number of cases. Thusly it becomes just a kid's movie and fairly boring for the older crowd (i.e. non-kids).
Beetlejuice. Weird.
Beverly Hills Cop. One of the earlier examples of what became a cliche genre in itself. Mismatched cop partners, one of whom is the I-don't-give-a-crap, envelope-pushing one -- and ultimately the funny one. The wise-cracks are pretty funny and there is a supporting cast of relatively well-known actors to assist. This is a movie everyone has to see at least once, though not really a classic so much as a cult-classic.
Bicentennial Man. Interesting with Robin Williams. Worth a watch.
Big. Silly Tom Hanks. Not particularly good.
Big Fat Liar. Good movie for pre-teens or early teens. Not terrible for anyone older than that, but good only once when particularly bored. Paul Giamatti does a silly role well and the two main kid characters do just fine.
Blade Runner. Wonderfully filmed and while time does date it a bit, the story stands up. The cinematography is excellent and the lighting work is excellent, if even distracting sometimes. Stark looking purposefully, it is a touch slow. As good as it is, some of the characters could have been fleshed out more. The story line could use some sequels or prequels. Harrison Ford is excellent though his style and expressions are interchangeable with all his other movies of the same era. One annoyance is that Ford's character isn't particularly good at his job for someone who is supposedly the go-to guy.
Borat. I wonder if anyone finds this stuff funny. This was unbelievably moronic with completely lame attempts at satire. This waste of time signifies the end of good taste -- not for the unfunny idiot antics Sacha Cohen performs, but that someone actually thought this should be a movie. Utter junk. In desperately trying to find a reason to give this more than zero stars, I can only come up with a half star for the premise of this movie.
Bowfinger. Different premise. Pretty goofy.
Bridesmaids. Bridesmaids. I was deceived. I was told don't worry, Bridesmaids isn't a typical girl-movie! Perhaps insomuch as they all get to swear like truckers and be as over-the-top gross as Dumb&Dumber. Other than that, it's kind of a The Hangover for girls, but without much mystery, which unfortunately for me as a male viewer, makes for a long two hours. Now, there were some good chuckles and a few laugh out loud spots. But so had Superbad, which shows if you try at humour hard enough for 2 hours, you eventually get something funny to happen. I'd say, "not to give anything away", but I've already said in the end it is typical girl-movie fare, so yes it has the requisite "awwwww" denouement. Girls be forewarned, this isn't Big Fat Greek Wedding; guys, here's an opportunity to remind your significant other that you've watched a girl-movie with her, and perhaps obtain a couple of ringtones of Kriten Wiig saying the likes of "motherf*****r". The gag reel and the fact Kristen Wiig co-produced and co-wrote this, demonstrate that there was a basic script and after that the general direction was for the ensemble to be guy-style crude and improvise! Nothing wrong with that, and it wasn't a terrible movie, and it was refreshing to see a cast of raw female characters, but I was still deceived - it is a chick-flick. 8^)
Bridget Jones' Diary. Not bad. Just a hint above chick flick with some good humour.
Brave. Pretty good animated effort. Cute story. Some decent humour for all ages.
Broken Arrow. Not bad. Generic terrorist suspense.
Bulletproof Monk. Not particularly good. While an interesting idea, it is so corny the whole way through, it's just not enjoyable. What are meant to be the parts of scenes for comic relief, are so transparent as to be annoying, such as the street kid-cum-saver of the world learning how to 'fly'. Action scenes are relatively good, acting is relatively good, but all together it's just not good. They forced together two very unlikely partners a la Shanghai Knights to see what would happen, and mediocre happened.
Bullitt. This is a classic. There are really two important people attached to this movie and two important segments. First the segments. Really it is the set-up and the chase. Somehow a movie with just two segments is great. A little under two hours, the time dissappears quickly. The car chase part is so great, I'd like to clip it out and loop that sequence on a second monitor as I work. It doesn't compare with movies made in future decades for action but it is just as good. Secondly the people -- memorable only are the Director Peter Yates and the lead Steve McQueen. After the setup and brief character development, Detective Bullitt silently and in a fixated manner does his job. Great movie.
Captain America. Superb visual effects. Decent story despite the requisite sappy patriotic love-in.
Captain America. Excellent visual effects and lots of action. Decent story.
Captain America The Winter Soldier. Superb visual effects again. Decent story, with no shortage of twists. The Captain America character is a little sappy at times and overly indestructible at times, but perhaps that is the nature of the genre.
Cars. Superb animation, just fantastic. Some good humour. Cute gag segment in the final credits reminiscing about previous Pixar movies. Well done.
Cars 2. Superb animation still. Some good humour. A new treatment with openly transparent ties to James Bond. Cute, worth a watch.
Casablanca. A classic pure and simple. A war time story; a love story. None of it sappy. Good dialogue. Believably acted but it should be for it's 1942 year of creation. Everyone needs to see this at least once. Well done.
Casino Royale. This is one of the best movies I've ever seen even with consideration of my excellent familiarity with all the previous Bond films. If I had never seen another Bond, I'd think only Daniel Craig could play this role. From the introductory sequences to all subsequent action scenes, the film only let's up occasionally and momentarily for a breather, while still maintaining the tension at the poker game. Absolutely believeable portrayals by all characters, with kudos especially to Judi Dench and Daniel Craig. An excellent film.
Catch Me If You Can. Very good. Always enjoyable Christopher Walken joins Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks to put an interesting and supposedly reality-based story to film via Steven Spielberg's direction. Tom Hanks does a thoroughly enjoyable performance with the notable exception of his too-obviously faked east coast accent. One thing I noted is that Spielberg manages to tell the story with appropriate drama and character-building without overdoing it to the point of melodrama. Similarly, for a movie of well over two hours, our interest and enjoyment is maintained without any trumped up high speed chases or other such inappropriate poetic license to keep our attention. Well done.
Catwoman. I quite enjoyed Halle Berry's performance here. She did not hold back at any point in playing the role. The cause of her transformation and the cinematography both reminded me of some of the early Batman movies, which is good as it does have the comic book feel. There is something missing here though; as if they had a great three-hour film and were forced to chop all over the place to pare it back and chopped in many of the wrong places. There is fluff that is left in and character development that is left out. Further it would have been nice if they could have found a way to make the Catwoman/detective romance less cliche. In general, a good movie, worth a watch.
Chappie. Very interesting premise with an artifically-intelligent but broken police robot. Gritty and interesting in how much of the movie revolves around the interaction of a criminal enterprise. Same look, feel, cinematography, location as District 9 - and it's from the people involved with the movie District 9.
Charlie's Angels I don't mind saying this was very enjoyable for a number of reasons. If you start out with the understanding that this is not to be taken seriously, it's great. The tiny gag reel in the credits at the end tells the story succinctly. It's made for fun. The girls are just having fun and we get to go along for the journey. In fact, it wouldn't have mattered if the girls called each other Drew, Lucy, Cameron throughout. The 70's version speaker-phone and John Forsythe reprising his voice role is neat in itself. The sound track for this is excellent. Lots of action. It's over-the-top a lot of the time, but so is James Bond and that's meant to be serious. Lots of cool explosions. McG seems to be in love with the slo-mo shots but that's fine. And Crispin Glover is no longer Marty McFly's dad -- the crazy sinister character is over-the-top too -- and it's great. Finally, Bill Murray plays his usual style as Bosley. All fluff; all fun.
Charlie's Angels 2 -- Full Throttle Same style, but much worse a movie than the first. It's too bad the fight action scenes are now way over the top. A little more scaled back would have been nice. Only barely unbelievable in the first, the fights are so unbelievable I found myself imagining where the wires actually would have been and where CGI would have been used. The girls continue to have a lot of obvious fun. That Bernie Mac was chosen as the new Bosley is crazy. In fact, any character who is not part of the main story line is poorly done. Shia LaBeouf? Why? Even John Cleese isn't even given a chance to actually be funny. Good for choreography and some action, this could have been much, much better.
Chocolat. This is a story. Not an earth-shaking story, a neat story, a heart-wrenching story, a hilarious story, an exciting story -- nope, just a story. Lot of well-known actors and actresses just -- act. Amazingly, there is one explosion in this movie for my brief enjoyment. An extra half-star for believable performances, scenery and cinematography. If you're into what is colloquially called a chick-flick, this is another one for you. For me, it was a long two hours.
Christmas Vacation (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation). A silly but highly enjoyable holiday classic really. Some excellent humour scenes. Everyone can empathize with Clark despite the continual just-barely-over-the-top humorous scenarios. It could be said few people could handle this role as well as Chevy Chase. What is particularly impressive is that Clark as played by Chase seems like a real person in an unbelievable world. The supporting characters unfortunately in every case could have been anyone -- nothing against the actors -- just that the movie is about Clark Griswold. I look forward to the holidays just for an excuse to watch this movie again each year.
Citizen Kane. Extremely well-filmed for the era; excellent character study?; well acted. A series of vignettes put together the puzzle pieces to a mystery while providing an interesting character study.
Click. Not bad. Just not overly interesting or funny. A long way to go for a simple moral. Some chuckles.
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. OK. Inventive with some giggles. Not one of the better animated films.
Cloverfield. Thoroughly enjoyable but for one thing -- the ending. It ended too soon and the movie is too short. The director wanted this to be a story about 'boy risks everything for girl after making a big mistake' but leaves it at that to the detriment of the exciting story itself. What a great premise of the hand-held taping and interspersing of existing footage to remind us of the reason the guy was risking everything to save the girl. Excellent effects and filming. I see the writer and director didn't want an Independence Day type conclusion; so be it, but I yearned for a better wrap-up. I sure hope it's leading to a sequel of some sort.
Cocoon. Not overly good with mostly stupid jokes.
Conair. Not bad. At least a somewhat novel story.
Coneheads. Not particularly good. A long version of a skit with some giggles.
Contagion. Star-studded but a bit plodding. Tough to judge because it is well acted, scripted, and believable, but quite slow-feeling despite how quickly they go from contagion to resolution. And much worse, there are a number of key players whose experiences in the movie are barely explored, and in fact, the viewer is left wondering what happened to almost all of the characters who have sub-stories. It is as if they had so many great story arcs they wanted to follow but were told to keep the movie to a short 1:45 limit. Strange to develop each, only to say cut, print, it's over, considering this is obviously not a movie meant to generate Michael Bay-style excitement from the mayhem caused by the outbreak, but to be a multi-faceted character study. Or perhaps it was simply that they had some good ideas for the story arcs, but in my mind, the resolutions to them just aren't that interesting or complex. Meanwhile there are some short segments which could have easily been cut. This is decent, had great promise, but ultimate fades into the end.
Cowboys And Aliens. Somebody owes somebody some copyright money. Or maybe Spielberg and Whedon had an agreement but this is highly reminiscent of Firefly. An interesting premise with aliens causing mayhem in the old American west. While Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig are great, it's hard not to see this as Indiana Jones and James Bond, both with fake accents, partnering to save the day. Good action, good humour, good effects. A decent movie and worth a watch or two.
Creature. A decent, cheesy monster movie from early days of the genre. No earth-shaking morality or ecological tale I just a cheesy monster story. Well filmed, well acted.
Dante's Peak. Decent action movie.
Dare Devil. Not bad. Ben Affleck is pretty good and they do a decent job at developing his character and reason for being. Some excellent visual effects, though the actions of a few characters -- remember they are just human -- is notably over the top in a number of scenes. Satisfactory story though we have to infer a lot of back story from some of the tangent plot arcs from a few short clues. Though at a bit over two hours, perhaps that's all they wanted to make time for. Worth a watch.
Dark Shadows. A decent if somewhat odd movie. Johnny Depp is good. Some humour, a smattering of action. Decent story. But oddly very disjointed - it doesn't flow particularly well. Tim Burton directs.
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. A somewhat forgettable but well filmed movie. Lots of action and very believable special effects.
Days Of Thunder. I have nothing good to say about this movie. Though to begin with, I find watching machines all built the same being driven around a track to see which is first as exciting as watching which blade of green grass gets tallest by the end of the growing season. Boring and pointless. As is this movie.
Deadpool. Surprisingly witty and clever in spots for a violent movie. Interesting genre mash-up. Good cinematography and Ryan Reynolds is hilarious. Worth a watch.
Deadpool 2. Really, the same as the original, though not so novel, with the same style of humour and cinematography, and still worth a watch. Ryan Reynolds delivers lines and inside jokes very well.
Dead Poets Society. A good Robin Williams movie. A little slow.
Deliverance. Amazing scenery and cinematography to accompany a disturbing story. Well acted and filmed.
Demolition Man. A good premise for this movie. Good action.
Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo. This really is garbage. One star total for the great potential of the premise and the occasional good gag. Rob Schneider is just plain annoying.
Despicable Me. A pretty funny, very well animated movie.
Despicable Me 2. Same with the first one - a pretty funny, very well animated movie.
Despicable Me 3. Very well animated movie, worth a watch as a follow on from the others.
Die Another Day. Each Bond opening sequence seems set to outdo the previous; which is good. The entire opening act, up to the very enjoyable Madonna title song, is eyes-glued-open action. As with every Bond ever, there are the outrageous action scenes with unbelieveable feats, but who cares. We all know by now what Bond films are about. Though the surf-skiing escape scene was strangely poorly computer-enhanced for a movie created in 2002. Besides that, the locales are awesome to see with overall good cinematography. John Cleese plays his all-too-brief and necessary role beautifully. Without giving away her purpose, Halle Berry doesn't quite persuade me as to her character's capabilities, but there aren't any real flaws in her performance. Judy Dench is good as usual and Pierce Brosnan is an excellent Bond for the lighter pre-Daniel Craig personality. For those who know what Bond films are supposed to be, this one is excellent.
Dick Tracy. I really enjoyed this film. Warren Beatty is great as Dick Tracy. The villains are great. Madonna is great. The comic book feel is there. The direction and cinematography are all enjoyable to experience. The period vehicles and sets are well done. The 1:45 time goes quickly; too quickly.
District 9. A good change from past alien disaster movies. Gritty and well filmed. Very realistic and impressive integration of effects with a variety of sets. A number of intriguing aspects include the news retrospective, the South African locale slant. Interesting and novel.
Doctor Strange. Certainly incredible visual effects, and occasionally so visually stimulating it is distracting and it appears as though those parts are less movie and more a bunch of computer guys showing what technology can do. Well acted and a decent story to fit the Marvel universe.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Certainly visually spectacular again. As with the first iteration of Doctor Strange, it's less of an interesting dash of spice and more of a bunch of computer folks putting on a clinic. Though even at that, the sequences become just so computerized as to be wholly unrealistic. That is, there is suspension of disbelief, and then there is this - putting a few actors in a video game. There isn't actually much substance to this long movie and it doesn't really matter what the plot is. You're supposed to care about a couple of the people, but there is just so much hectic computer-generated action, that one does not bother, or have time to bother investing in emotion. There are a number of hamfisted times of tying other Marvel universe characters, references, and mythology in, and even those were kind of painfully spliced in. Well acted with the occasional humorous bit, but not oveall a memorable movie.
Dodgeball (A True Underdog Story). Essentially sophomoric crap with a few giggles. Yet another lame movie made of adolescent daydreaming. But for the dodgeball theme, this is completely forgettable. Of note, the list of continuity and other film errors is staggering.
Downsizing. What was an interesting premise and potentially engaging story and characters turned out to be relatively dull, and provided no particular excitement at any stage. The viewer is ready to suspend disbelief at some of the hokier parts in anticipation of some interesting twist or riveting scenario, but none of that ever comes. Worth a watch only when particularly bored.
Dr. Strangelove Or How I How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. One can't help but chuckle when thinking of Peter Sellers in this weird statement of a movie. All satire and commentary in a very strange package.
Dr. T. And The Women. Boring.
Dragonheart. Weird.
Dukes Of Hazzard. Not very good, but that was to be expected. Some very good (and requisite) car chase scenes which the original series would have liked to have done. A very good tie to the original series. A two-hour-killer, but no insightful dialogue or lessons here.
Dumb And Dumber. This movie annoys me because you can't help but laugh at some scenes. But when it comes right down to it, this is really ... dumb. It is absurd situations based on misunderstandings, and bathroom humour. An extra half star for Jim Carrey doing what he does best and an extra half star for the fact that one can't help but laugh at some spots.
Easy A Cute movie. Pretty funny sometimes. One glaring annoyance is that all of the actors are supposed to be 17-year-olds but all appear to be 30-year-olds. Nothing at all remarkable here; just worth a watch to burn off some time sometime.
Edge Of Tomorrow A bit of an overused premise with the time loop premise - but with enough newness with aliens and battle scenarios to keep viewer interest. Thankfully they don't show the actors reliving the exact same parts of the day repeatedly. Well acted; lots of action. Worth a watch.
Elysium. Interesting premise of an elitist society just off-planet. Well acted, particularly by Matt Damon. Good story. Good visuals. Worth a watch.
Ender's Game. Decent military-based sci-fi drama. Interesting premise and well-conceived concept. Relatively well acted for a cast mostly of younger actors, with the exception of Harrison Ford. Decent story right to the end. Excellent visual effects. The scenes seem a little brief despite a regular-length movie; as if they really trimmed heavily to keep the pacing good for the audience. A decent watch.
Enemy At The Gates. Except for very good cinematography, this is just playing on shock value of death in the over-used world war two scenario of which Hollywood can't get enough.
Epic Movie. Very bad. A poor attempt at a spoof movie with rare humour and a decent mini, original rap song.
Erin Brockovich. Not bad. Not overly exciting. Those who need a one-woman-beats-the-big-company pick-me-up will enjoy it after some requisite depression.
ET The Extra-Terrestrial. Pretty good. The movie becomes dated but the message and feeling doesn't. This is where Steven Spielberg succeeds.
Eurotrip. Another teenager movie with the only original part being the international slant. A few chuckles, a few boobies. A script and humour anyone could write with a few drinks in him or her, or if thinking 'what would a teenager find amusing?'. Disjointed and even sappy. A time waster here.
Ex-Machina. Very enjoyable. Weird and in a good way. An up-to-date evaluation on the old movie concept of artificial intelligence. No unnecessary over-the-top action sequences. A subtle and interesting musical score is sometimes too noticeable. A thought piece, rather than just another action movie. Very well done.
Eyes Wide Shut. Weird and unmemorable.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Visually very good. A decent story. Worth a watch.
Face Off. Different premise they just couldn't pull off as it were. Not good.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off. An 80's classic. Good for a watch once in a while. Some funny scenes; some really funny scenes including the valet test drive and Alan Ruck's character's subsequent car misfortune. Even a stone-faced Ben Stein is funny. Really, there's nothing earth-shaking here -- just an I-don't-give-a-crap kid skipping school and getting away with it.
Finding Dory. Good animation and a particularly excellent animated sequence near the end with a slow motion transport truck and water. Underwhelming in general; whereas these movies are often good for adults and kids alike, this one is more for the kids.
Finding Nemo. Cute story. Superb animation. An extra star for the animation.
Fifty First Dates. Nothing earth-shaking here despite the impression the film-makers wanted this to be some kind of off-the-wall boy-meets-girl story. What it actually is is just a little different take on a boy-meets-girl story. Somewhat funny. I enjoyed the location shots as much as the movie itself.
Fried Green Tomatoes. The wonderful Fannie Flagg provides the story for this movie. The movie itself is intriguing as it draws some good sentimentality, some tragedy, some good drama, some good humour, some morality concerns, some perspective on humanity. Even the retrospectives and jumping between present and past is well done. Kathy Bates' character is wonderful and the parking lot scene is particulary funny. Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker are good with only the exception of the fake southern accents. Jessican Tandy is appropriately melodramatic. A good sentimental journey for well over two hours.
G-Force. OK. Great for kids. Amazing animation and merging with film sequences.
Get Smart. Some very funny parts. Very fortunately, they didn't do a slapstick mistake of a movie. Some clever stuff with a number of nods back to the original series. The gorgeous Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell do great. Many other well-known actors join the fun. Some good effects and a remarkably decent story with good pacing for a farcical old television concept turned into a not to be taken seriously movie.
Ghostbusters. An inventive if weird story. An impossible-to-forget theme song. A generally funny movie. Made way too early for major high-tech graphics, but in the case of the marshmallow man, it makes it just that much funnier. The character leads have fun with this and we can too if we remember it's just a silly movie.
Ghostbusters 2. OK.
Ghost Rider. One look at the blu-ray cover and I figured this would be terrible. Very cheesy dialogue but it's a cheesy premise to begin with. Some great, some not-so-great special effects; perhaps they only had a budget for a certain percentage of great effects. There were a couple of scenes wherein one wonders if Nicholas Cage is being humorous or he is actually playing the scene straight and the humour is subtle. Either he's a brilliant actor or a ham. This is one where your jaw is agape at the end and you're not sure what you just watched. It's weird, but somehow not terrible.
Ghost Rider 2 Spirit Of Vengeance. Nicholas Cage is really good at playing a hammy character very well. Again this movie has a lot of weird, but is somehow not terrible. One intriguing thing is the non-standard artsy cinematography in a lot of scenes with black-and-white, cartoonized, stylistically slow-motion action. The story is not in any way exciting, but the special effects are quite good. Worth a watch.
Girl Interrupted. OK.
GI Joe: Rise Of Cobra. Some not-so-great, but mostly stunningly-good special effects. A visual thrill ride. Good direction from Stephen Sommers with some inventive cinematographic moves. Part Transformers, part Bulletproof Monk, part James Bond. We somehow manage to learn the history and motivations of all the players amongst near-constant action sequences. This doesn't pretend to be anything other than a blockbuster action movie and the creators succeed. An extra half star for the visuals.
Gnomeo And Juliet Pretty clever and definitely well animated. Worth a watch.
Good Boy. I suppose this is a cute disney-ish movie, but not for me. Great for kids, but unlike other movies wherein it is made to be enjoyable for adults also, this movie appears not to be. Talking dogs, that's it.
Good Luck Chuck. A sometimes quite funny, but ultimately quite forgettable chick flick. A sophomoric premise does provide for some genuinely funny spots, but the cliche holds when the boy gets girl in the end. Lots of boobies and the beautiful Jessica Alba makes this movie just tolerable enough to watch the whole way through.
Green Lantern. Not bad. Great effects. Some good chuckles. Fairly cheesy in a number of spots. Ryan Reynolds works hard in this and is more believable than Hayden Christenson in Star Wars by way of comparison; in fact all actors put in decent performances. Some scenes reminiscent of Spiderman, Cloverfield, The Mask. Worth a watch. Not bad sound track either.
Gravity. A visually remarkable movie. A fair bit of suspension of disbelief required for the unfathomable luck on the part of certain characters, but well worth a watch.
Groundhog Day. A novel movie. Pretty good.
Guardians Of The Galaxy. No wasted time with anything other than special effects and action. Amazing visuals. Certainly a different take on the roguish character who brings a rag-tag band of misfits together to save the world - or in this case the galaxy. A fair bit of thievery from Star Wars, and some other similarities to perhaps Thor, Green Lantern. The genre is pretty well-worn by now and with the non-human characters, and silly humour, it makes this stand out a bit. Worth a watch.
Guardians Of The Galaxy 2. Amazing visuals. A good follow-on from the first. A lot more character development mixed in with the action. Worth a watch.
Happy Feet. Cute story. A great, varied sound track. Robin Williams is his usual funny self with the voices he can do. Superb animation. An extra star for the animation.
Hancock. A interesting and new take on the superhero. Will Smith manages to be good at every character he plays and in this movie there is no exception. Some funny stuff here. Short, and nowhere near enough time to do character development justice, which is too bad considering the neat premise. Not an awesome movie but worth a watch.
Harry Potter 1 - Sorcerer's Stone. Visually impressive, charming introduction to the J.K.Rowling fantasy world.
Harry Potter 2 - Chamber Of Secrets. A good continuation of the J.K.Rowling fantasy world.
Harry Potter 3 - Goblet Of Fire. The magic of the franchise isn't as exciting as previous installments but still worth a watch.
Harry Potter 4 - Prisoner Of Azkaban. The magic of the franchise isn't as exciting as previous installments but still worth a watch.
Harry Potter 5 - Order of the Phoenix. The magic of the franchise isn't as exciting as previous installments but still worth a watch.
Harry Potter 6 - Half-Blood Prince. Superb graphics. A bit more of a crescendo of anticipation as the series draws closer to a conclusion.
Heart of Stone This spy-action adventure is definitely a rip off of James Bond right down to the stylized opening sequence and theme song styling, though with a female lead to satisfy that contemporary requirement. Mostly action, reminiscent of the Alias tv series, with an incredibly superficial attempt at giving a personality to the lead character - or any character. Visually quite impressive, though some of the actions scenes aren't quite right. A little too obviously green-screened almost as badly as James Bond 1995 Goldeneye. One small unforeseen twist and one very large opaque twist, and a fair amount of required suspension of disbelief, yet still provides for a decent movie, worth a watch.
He's Just Not That Into You. Kind of annoying cliche-enabling movie with pretty much every common hollywood and television relationship stereotype included. Transparent in every situation, with only a couple of giggles.
Hollow Man. This could have been a great movie with a great rehash of an old premise, but that didn't happen and it doesn't work. Some good eerie scenes and some good effects. Ultimately it is not actually suspenseful and is forgettable.
Hollywood Homicide. Harrison Ford needs to stick with Indiana Jones and Han Solo. Just another partner-cop movie. The interplay between the two does provide a few giggles here and there, there are a couple of action sequences, but generally there is no excitement in this movie.
Home Alone. Stupid and annoying. Not even cheesy - just stupid.
Horrible Bosses. A decent watch, but not particularly memorable. Just a different premise for stupid antics for the one-time enjoyment of a teenage audience at the theater.
Hoodwinked. Pretty bland, particularly for adults. No particularly clever humour; in fact not much in the way of humour at all. Some cool effects within the animation though on the whole, nothing earth-shaking. Underwhelming.
Hoodwinked Too. Oddly, there was significantly more clever humour than the first installments - and many chuckle-worthy references to other movies. Lots of cool effects within the animation. Cute. Worth a watch.
Hot Fuzz. An odd Simon Pegg movie, as most of his are. Part Agatha Christie, part Beverly Hills Cop, part Superbad, with a tinge of Shaun of the Dead, but in sum is quickly forgotten.
Hot Shots. If we consider Airplane the pioneer of this era and genre, this is a very good continuation of exactly that type of humour. If you love the sight-gags, one-liners, movie parodies, this will have you roaring. The walleye vision scene is funny. Charlie Sheen somehow imagines to be funny in everything comedic he does, and same here. Overall, quite enjoyable for a number of occasional viewings.
Hotel Transylvania. OK animated movie. Not overly gripping for an adult viewer. Very good animation. An extra half star for the animation.
Hot Shots Part Deux. If you can't get enough of this genre, this is another good one. Charlie Sheen, as usual, manages to be serious-looking and funny at the same time. Another of this style that is quite enjoyable for a number of occasional viewings and you'll always catch a gag you missed the previous time.
How To Train Your Dragon. Quite good humour. Excellent animation. Very good.
How To Train Your Dragon 2. Superb animation. A number of funny moments.
Hulk (2003). This was not good. A great comic book premise was wasted by this movie.
Ice Age. Very short movie. Well animated. Cute with some pretty funny bits.
Ice Age 2. Well animated. Cute with some funny bits. A little lacking in novelty.
Ice Age 3. Remarkable animation. Good doses of humour. Entertaining. Perhaps surpassing the first one in entertainment value.
Identity. At least a novel approach for this movie. Well acted. A good level of suspense. I am unsatisfied with what are revealed to be the big surprises, but again at least it is different.
Identity Thief. Pretty hard to watch. On the slightly darker side of comedy, the writers even try to inject some elements of peril so that the movie isn't totally predictable, but even those parts are plodding. A few chuckles but mostly an annoying wait till the end of the movie. Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy are both good in their roles but both the premise and story are uninteresting and it's tedious to watch.
Igor. Cut animated movie. Worth a watch.
I Am Legend. Nice opening sequence and others later on. Will Smith is great as usual. Great action. Great effects. Nice suspense. What is enjoyable is while this is an old premise -- the doomsday virus -- this story is about character development and not solely a special effects laden play-by-play of societal breakdown. This is a 4.5 star movie if not for the weirdness of the theatrical ending versus the alternate ending - and a bit of combination of both would have made a near-perfect movie. Definitely worth a watch in any event.
I Spy. Not as bad as I thought it would be. Essentially a spoof with remarkably good special effects. Worth a watch for some giggles.
Inception. Very, very good. Well put together. No needless twists or subterfuge; just novel situations, unpredictable action, some suspense. This has a clever premise, is well filmed, and is well acted. Definitely worth a watch or two.
Inside-Out. Cute enough animated show. Excellent graphics as would be expected for the era. Not overly entertaining for adults.
Interstellar. Different. Weird. Not an entirely new idea with the old expert pressed into service to save the world. But certainly some interesting twists, and very good visuals and cinematography. Suspension of disbelief required, and reminiscent of many Star Trek episodes, but once you ignore the many implausibilities and remember it's not a science documentary, it's fun to watch. More of a thinker than Armageddon or any such save-the-world movie, but certainly not such that the audience gets mired in details. A number of big-name actors and well-acted by all. Worth a watch.
Independence Day. I really enjoy this movie and it is one that one can watch occasionally for the entertainment value even knowing the story start-to-finish from previous viewings. If you are American, you have to love this typical American kick-ass mentality. That's what is played up here the whole time. But there is more value in here. Will Smith is fantastic. It's this type of role that he is best within. And Jeff Goldblum, who is destined to play only one kind of character -- but extremely well at that -- is always a welcome addition to any movie. He provides the sober-sounding reality warning. Smith's one man against the alien army is great. I wouldn't at all be surprised to find out they didn't write a single line for him and he just played the role. Some good doses of humour, especially the teenager boy 'the world is ending, let's have sex' part. Well done.
Independence Day Resurgence. Decent. Lots of tie-backs to the original. Some chuckles throughout, particularly from Jeff Goldblum and Brent Spiner. Not to be taken seriously yet all involved act with seriousness. Excellent visual effects, showing what 20 years of digital graphics evolution has allowed. Essentially the same kind of mayhem and chases that have now been done a thousand times in a thousand movies. Nothing wrong with that as you can only do fighter pilot battles so many ways. It finishes well, while still setting up for a third movie.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Raiders of the Lost Ark). Perhaps one of the best movies ever made. A story line that everyone can find intriguing with no lack of action that is believeable for the era that is represented by the film. There simply is no need for a bevy of computer generated special effects and this in part allows the movie to stand the test of time. The Indiana Jones character is exquisitely played by Harrison Ford with supporting roles equally realistically acted. The humour is just perfect -- when Jones asks for "whiskey", that is one of the funniest words ever rasped because of the situation of the scene in Nepal. Great cinematography including the appropriately staged use of light and shadow. Excellent all around. A beautiful movie.
Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom. Another fantastic Spielberg-directed movie. Harrison Ford is great again in this role. The club scene and escape sequence from the club at beginning of the movie is particularly enjoyable, and especially what we see at the airport after he says 'nice try Lao Che' upon closing the door -- funny. As was Indiana's bedtime scene with Willie at Pankot Palace. Some of the later escape sequences nearer the end are a little tedious and over-the-top but this is Indiana Jones -- as with James Bond, that's part of the deal. Forcing a little kid and a prissy lady along for the ride with rough-and-tumble Indiana was funny.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I really never did buy Sean Connery's character as Indiana Jones' dad, no matter how many times I watch this movie, but everything else about the movie works. Another great Spielberg directorial outing; I expect he can direct 'Jones' at this point with his eyes closed as it were. Lots of the requisite action and thrills. John Rhys-Davies has been an enjoyable character in the series. A good (temporary) conclusion to the series.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. This is one where the wait makes one envisage something so perfect it just can never match the expectation. Still a very good epilogue (temporary perhaps) to the series. Harrison Ford picks up right where he left off. That is fantastic. Despite the intervening years, he has the same Jones mannerisms, excitement at new finds, professor speech -- Ford hasn't lost any of it. Nice to see Marion Ravenwood again and she is even more of a fireball than in the first. There are many other requisite tie-backs to the originals, and the movie has the same style and feel. The Jones trip-ups and lucky escapes are the same style; the archaeological finds are elaborate -- all wonderfully familiar. Steven Spielberg's mark is all over the place in the camera angles, reflections, and lighting which is also nice to see continued. Some dialogue is corny; many escape sequences over the top; yet Harrison Ford really appears to show a certain enjoyment through his character even while wrapping this saga up. I'll squeeze in the extra half star for four because of how well this follows on from the originals.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. There is good and bad in this. A fair bit of suspension of disbelief is required for action scenes with Indiana at this point. The action scenes are somewhat reminiscent of the originals - presumably purposefully - but don't have the same lustre. The digital reversion of Indiana to younger years, while quite impressive, is also quite creepy. The obligatory tie-backs to the previous installments, with Marion and Sallah, and while definitely shoehorned in, are still nice to see, and thankfully short. Violence is more in the vein and level of a James Bond movie, and less the younger-friendly of the originals. On this, it seems they are trying to be more Mission Impossible or James Bond than simply another chapter of Indiana Jones. Mads Mikkelsen is a great addition as usual for this actor. The scenes with Archimedes go well beyond the mystical and into downright fantasy, and while visually impressive, it's just out of place and perhaps even unnecessary. If this is indeed the last installment, as it's meant to be, it goes out neither with a bang nor a whimper, but a watchable but unmemorable few hours. Iron Man. This movie really demonstrates how far we've come in special effects and graphics. The effects were quite superb in this and make an ok, if inventive, story really fly. Despite occasional corny dialogue and humour, this is quite a good movie. A fair bit of the visual feel is borrowed from Transformers and Spiderman, even a bit of the humour. Robert Downey Jr. does a surprisingly good job. The lovely Gwyneth Paltrow was good. This is ready for some sequels.
Iron Man 2. The effects were again superb. Quite a few chuckles from Tony Stark though a Robert Downey Jr. who is obviously enjoying the role. The supporting cast of Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johansson were all good. Well filmed. Not quite the same excitement as the first installment but still a very good two-hour comic book movie.
Iron Man 3. Good, but not particularly memorable. Robert Downey Junior is good as is Gwyneth Paltrow. Good effects. The story and premise of the movie are both old however.
Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit. Some of the early movie was used in back-story for the main character, and as such it seems a touch disjointed, and even a touch slow. But overall a decent watch. What was particularly welcome is not enduring overblown chase scenes. Yes they were there, but only one had a particularly annoying (i.e. capability-of-the-human-body) over-the-top climax. Good set-up for more with this character.
Jack Reacher. This is really quite good. A very interesting character is slowly developed after the introduction by way of an intriguing, if disconcerting crime. The story line is well developed and interesting. Tom Cruise is really good in this and the script he is given is quite good. Definitely worth a watch.
Jacob The Liar. A story from a novel perspective from the movie industry's heavily-used world war two period. Certainly disturbing drama with an unclear ending which again demonstrates that Hollywood likes to use the era for a story backdrop without actually caring about the meaning or neatness of the movie itself.
Jerry Maguire. OK.
Jumper Not bad. Decent acting. Well filmed. Might play better to a younger audience but still worth a watch.
Jurassic Park. A very good movie based on an intriguing premise and very enjoyable story. Jeff Goldblum is an excellent addition to this movie. The effects are remarkably good for the year this film was made. The fear is believeable from the characters and situations they are forced into. We can in fact imagine how quickly this tour could turn into a nightmare. The 'messing with nature' analogy is good, albeit blatant not subtle.
Jurassic Park - The Lost World. While the novelty of the first Jurassic is gone, this is quite a good follow on. Jeff Goldblum gives his usual solid performance no matter the film topic. Well done for a sequel.
Jurassic Park III. This movie did provide a level of seeming danger that reminds us of the first movie. And while this movie itself is quite good, sadly, the Jurassic series has used itself up. There's nowhere to go from here and that's too bad considering the great premise and exciting genre. In the meantime, enjoy this occasionally thrilling movie.
Jurassic Park IV Jurassic World. Very good for effects and visuals and acting. Relatively, if not completely, predictable, but it's hard to make a novel premise with three predecessor movies. Nice tie-backs to the original movie considering the complete passing of the torch from the previous cast.
Kindergarten Cop. Stupid.
Knight And Day. No sneaky premise here. Tom Cruise gets to keep playing the Mission Impossible-style role which he obviously loves. Decent action, decent effects, decent story. Nothing remarkable but worth a watch.
Knives Out. Lots of star power including a great performance from Daniel Craig, although his fake southern US accent is an annoying distraction. With some humour interjected, the value here isn't from the mystery as much as with the character development, particularly of the Craig's Benoit Blanc character. Worth a watch.
Knives Out (Glass Onion). Daniel Craig again is fun to watch here, while the fake accent remains annoying. With some well-presented story twists, and some not-so-well presented, humorous and otherwise, this outing of the Benoit Blanc character has more visual effects and action. Not great, but worth a watch.
Lady In The Water. A hodge-podge of characters, some interesting, some not -- and none of whom except the main male character are explored -- fulfill a bedtime story. Some good effects and camera work, though certainly nothing ground-breaking; some humour, though nothing brilliant; some minimally frightening scenes, though nothing to rival even Sixth Sense. I kept waiting for the surprise which never came -- not that all movies, or Shamalyan movies, require this. In the end, all it is really is is a bedtime story of minimal substance, and perhaps that's all M. Night Shamalyan wanted in this piece.
LA Story. Almost slapstick. A funny character and a good laugh at all the cliches about Los Angeles.
Lara Croft - Tomb Raider. Good effects, good action. Director Simon West interestingly has this sometimes look like Indiana Jones, sometimes like a comic book, sometimes like The Mummy, and sometimes like the video game it is based upon. Angelina Jolie certainly shows confidence and the American-style kick-ass nature throughout. Almost over-the-top until one remembers -- it's based on a video game. A pretty good introduction of Lara Croft to the movies.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Very weird. Not having read the source book, I wonder how much it is paralleled. Jim Carrey took the darker side from Me, Myself and Irene into his character here. I just couldn't get into this movie and I found myself just waiting for it to get better or be over.
Life Of Pi. Remarkable visuals and highly artistic. Very well dramatized and acted. A lot of effort was put into the direction and visuals. The movie is neatly wrapped up in the end.
Looper. Inventive; a different, more gritty take on time travel. Seemed a little bit too cheesy in spots, particularly Jeff Daniels' character. Almost seemed like we weren't given enough time to sympathize with any of the characters. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was good but despite the character was supposed to be robotic and tired, he was almost too good at portraying that. Decent; worth a watch.
Lord Of The Rings 1 The Fellowship of the Ring. A very good rendition of Tolkien's story. Wonderful effects, direction, cinematography.
Lord Of The Rings 2 The Two Towers. A very good rendition of Tolkien's story. Wonderful effects, direction, cinematography.
Lord Of The Rings 3 The Return of the King . A very good rendition of Tolkien's story. Wonderful effects, direction, cinematography.
Liar Liar. Was this Jim Carrey's attempt at seriousing-up his role choices? A little less wacky, it is still amusing. Though by this stage of his career, I think audiences expected the wacky and actually got somewhat of a story-line attached to this movie! Good for a few laughs, this is one you wouldn't watch but once every few years or so.
Lost In Space. This was well done from a storyline and especially graphics perspective, but the acting performances weren't particularly memorable. All-in-all though, a pretty good resurrection of the classic series.
Madagascar. Very well animated. A little long and not overly engaging for an adult. A couple of quite clever and funny spots, but mostly just another generic animated film.
Man Of The Year. It was believeable, which was good and also scary. Lots of real, contemporary social and cultural references such as Saturday Night Live and Barbara Bush. Some good one-liners of comedy primarily from Robin Williams and a smattering of intrigue to keep us from being bored to tears as the movie is by no means a thrill-ride. The interplay between Robin Williams, Lewis Black and Christopher Walken was very comfortable, which added credibility to the entire movie. The dialogue was such that it seems much less like scripted and more like you are sitting in with the conversations. Nicely filmed, well directed by Barry Levinson. Worth a watch.
M*A*S*H. Very funny based around an unfunny subject. Leads of course to the fantastic 11-year television series.
Major Payne. A spoof which isn't funny. Bad movie.
Man Of Steel. A different take on Superman, with a slightly different, and thankfully fast-paced depiction of his introduction to earth. The back-story and nemesis is set-up such that there can be sequels to this new Superman arc. Great graphics and effects, with the exception of Superman's movements. While not cheesy like movies from decades ago, his movements are too unrealistic and sadly blatantly digital - not fluid - and too much suspension of disbelief is required. Henry Cavill is quite good in the role. Worth a watch.
Marley & Me. A run-of-the-mill run-through-life movie with the addition of a dog for the ultimate chick-flick. Surprisingly not terrible with some good humour and relatively fast-paced thank goodness.
Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World. This is one of the better films made in current era. Well filmed, intriguing story and a good performance by Russel Crowe. A very enjoyable historical piece with exceptional home theater sound.
Meet The Fockers. Not good. Sophomoric right down to the title character's name.
Meet The Robinsons. A touch dull. Great animation. Good kids story.
Memento. A decent film with an inventive plot. Cleverly constructed with the reversal of scenes, and engaging. Well acted.
Men In Black. A simply entertaining film. Will Smith is just perfect for his role. Tommy Lee Jones does well playing the never-smile sidekick. A cliche really, but not with this script. A movie that is good for a lot of laughs. You don't have to pay attention to a complex plot or follow who's who. Just funny.
Men In Black II. Again, a simply entertaining film. I love Will Smith in this role. Tommy Lee Jones as well. I think there might actually have been a plot here, but who cares; this is just for a lot of giggles. This is a short movie and it is apparent there just isn't much more to do with Men In Black. Cool effects and Will Smith are what makes this movie.
Men In Black III. While it doesn't have the novelty and excitement as the first one, even second one, this is still quite good. Will Smith is always a riot in these. It does add value to the franchise with some backstory to the main characters. Josh Brolin is remarkable as a younger Tommy Lee Jones. Part 3 - worth a watch.
Me, Myself and Irene. Weird. I think Jim Carrey and his character switched places. Neither knows what he is. There is some funny stuff in here, but it's too random and an interesting premise gets wasted in this movie.
Minority Report. An enjoyable movie with a novel premise and a decent plot. Another decent Steven Spielberg directorial outing with Tom Cruise as the main character. The plot twists are not particularly surprising and it's not quite a thriller but a good story nonetheless.
Misery. Quite good. An interesting Stephen King story brought well to the big screen with an impressively dark performance by Kathy Bates. Much of what is good about the film comes from Stephen King but there is good acting here. The tension builds quickly and keeps getting ratcheted up.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Decent. Very well filmed. A decent story, though a little disjointed and the father character is practically valueless. A bit of a mix of X-Men and Harry Potter. Some silly dialogue and action with Samuel Jackson's character. Tim Burton's hands are noticeable in parts of this, even to the creepy stop-motion segments. Not spectacular, but worth a watch.
Mission Impossible. The IMF comes to the big screen with newer special effects. Good story, good excitement ... hated the big surprise reveal. Without divulging the ending, anyone who ever watched the original series, or even the short-lived 80's series will have a huge problem with the ending. It just wouldn't happen. A good rag-tag bunch of IMF members. More realistic danger in this than the tv shows. Minus the surprise near the end, a very good initiation of the franchise into the big-screen world.
Mission Impossible II. In the first installment, Tom Cruise didn't seem right to take over IMF, but the role becomes his in this movie. Unfortunately, the movie itself isn't particularly good. I don't like John Woo's style, particularly in this movie, and there doesn't appear to be any real thrill here. It should have been dazzling and spectacular but that only describes the cinematography. An extra half-star here because of the action scenes.
Mission Impossible III. A very enjoyable movie. Thrilling sequences start to finish. A very welcome upswing from the previous film. Excitement just like one would expect from Jason Bourne, and James Bond-genre films. This film might be considered the best of the three MI's to this point. Again, surprisingly, Tom Cruise plays the role very well.
Mission Impossible IV Ghost Protocol. A bit over the top in the way of too many close calls from which the team survives, too many fights where no one gets hurt or even tired, too many falls and crashes from which everybody escapes. Decent story. There are some particularly impressive scenes. Lots of cool gadgets. Not bad, worth a watch.
Mission Impossible V Rogue Nation. A run-of-the mill installment. This certainly has JJ Abrams’ touches all over it. You could be watching an episode of Alias or alternate-universe Star Trek. If one had never seen an episode or movie of Mission Impossible, it wouldn’t matter. There is nothing unique here and it could have been James Bond in lieu of Ethan Hunt here. However, as a generic action movie, which would quickly be forgotten, it is still worth a watch.
Mr And Mrs Smith. Quite good. Well filmed. Enjoyable unconventional story. Because of the novelty of the story, the viewer isn't bored. Lots of action. Good doses of humour. As is too common, a lot of munitions are used with practically no ill effects to the heroes, but if one doesn't take the whole thing too seriously - and every aspect of the film seems nicely irreverent - it's a worthwhile watch.
Murder At 1600. Not bad. Nothing earth-shaking or tricky here. Decent story; decent acting.
Monsters, Inc. Not bad. Cute story.
Monster House. Not bad. Cute story. Very impressive animation.
Monty Python And The Holy Grail. British funny. You like it or you don't.
Monty Python's Meaning Of Life. British funny. You like it or you don't.
Monty Python's Life Of Brian. British funny. You like it or you don't.
My Bloody Valentine. Standard slasher fare with a mining town as the backdrop.
My Super Ex-girlfriend. A different spin on the superhero genre. All fluff and nothing awe-inspiring here. A few good laughs but mostly stupid humour. Well acted for what it is, and despite a silly premise and story. Worth a watch once and that's it.
New Moon. It probably succeeds at fulfilling its goal -- an early-to-mid-teen love story with requisite teenage angst and mental conflict, provided with a slight supernatural twist. But there were no surprises; it was predictable. A Harry Potter / Harlequin hybrid though Harry Potter provides more intrigue. The Edward character is played too stoicly, or perhaps too much make-up makes it appear that way. One can't tell what he's feeling yet we know they mean for us to know and empathize; a little too much zombie and not enough vampire. The special effects here, while certainly decent, aren't spectacular for the era of this production. Watchable but underwhelming.
Night At The Museum. Good for anyone under the age of 12 only. A few giggles with industry-standard, though certainly not bad, visuals. Nothing particularly clever in dialogue or story.
Night At The Museum 2 Battle At The Smithsonian. Significantly more enjoyable than the first. No clever humour or anything, but a decent plot and some very impressive visual effects.
No Time To Die. An great installment of James Bond, with obvious attention to first-person close action filming, fantastic vistas, and the requisite chase scenes in beautiful cars. Scoring music is familiar and well placed. We get to see an old friend, the vodka martini catchphrase, the cheeky humour, and a sentimental denoument. Excellent final Bond performance from the excellent Daniel Craig. top
Oblivion. Not perfect, but really good. Couple of not-so-surprising surprises but decent level of intrigue. Never slow and a couple of thrilling scenes. Visually excellent. Well acted. A few oddly unrealistic things, but otherwise a good, enjoyable story.
Oceans 8. A clean and decent caper film, with a couple of very minor twists. Far from exciting or action-packed, but worth a watch with some popcorn when bored some time.
Oceans 11. Very good acting and the actors through their characters show a wonderful cavalier attitude. Irreverent yet suspenseful. Interesting story and decent action. This is quite enjoyable.
Oceans 12. Not quite as novel, this is still quite enjoyable. Excellent character portrayals and another interesting story.
Oceans 13. Not quite as novel, this is still quite enjoyable. Excellent character portrayals and another interesting story. A good finale to this trio of movies and it would be nice to have gotten yet another.
Open Season. Cute enough. A few chuckles. Very good animation, as one might expect for this era.
Paul Blart Mall Cop. Pretty much like one would expect. A family-friendly tale with sufficient low-brow physical humour. Good to watch once for a few chuckles.
Pacific Rim. An interesting take on a very well-used premise, but the story is forgettable. In fact every single aspect about the story is predictable - not that that is a particular problem - it's just after a few seconds of every scene you know how it's going to play out, as it invariably does, from fisticuffs to deaths to partnerships to inevitable heroes. Despite that, it's still well-acted all around. But this is all about action and special effects, and frankly it's Transformers on steroids - Michael Bay will be sweating thinking about how he can amp up his own style for his next outing. Definitely worth a watch or two as this is visually and aurally spectacular.
Pan's Labyrinth. This is a weird mix of fantasy and historical war reenactment. Well-acted and filmed, but grotesque in visceral violence. Two genres jammed into one and in fact two distinct movies jammed into one. Part Harry Potter, part Saving Private Ryan. Some major plot points are unrealistic, and I don't even mean the fantasy parts of the story. But even the girl's lack of any concern in a scary encounter with an unknown creature, where some of her tinkerbell helpers get shredded, is astoundingly implausible. Even the rationale for the girl's journey isn't sufficiently explained unless Del Toro had a whole large story-line in his head that wasn't shared in this two hours. What an unbelievably odd and unfulfilling movie.
Paul Not your typical alien movie. As you progress through the entire movie, you realize this was a pretty good show. It's a big-picture picture - once you figure out that it is tongue-in-cheek, it's good. Some banal humour, some clever humour, some visual humour. A swearing, pot-smoking cliche-looking alien is ultimately hilarious, particularly partnered with some great one-liners and an Alf-type smart-ass attitude. The premise of the movie is novel and the nods and blatant ties to Star Trek, Alien, Star Wars, Men In Black, and others, through music, visuals, scenarios is funny. The practically-immediate atheist conversion of Kristin Wiig's character, while way over the top, is even quite funny. The English leads aspect, Jeffrey Tambor, and particularly Jason Bateman's character all combine to make a surprisingly good movie.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. OK. Would be a good one for kids as this is not one which works well for both kids and adults. For the younger audience, it has rudimentary moral tales, some decent scenes of action.
Pirates Of The Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl. An interesting mythology is created here. What at first appears to be a historical high seas movie, quickly includes a quirky supernatural main story. Lots of well-known, likeable actors here. Great period sets, great cinematography. Johnny Depp plays well the 'lovable scoundrel'. The movie gets it right with knowing it is silly yet being serious at the same time, thanks to direction from Gore Verbinski.
Pirates Of The Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest. An interesting continuation of 'Pirates'. Johnny Depp is the Indiana Jones of the high seas, and islands, again. Great sets and water action. At the very least, we don't get bored despite the movie's length. Some good chuckles in here and half of them come from Jack Sparrow's facial expressions. The style is the same as in the first movie and is welcome in this continuation of the mythological and action parts of the story, thanks to direction from Gore Verbinski. Of note, the sound effects and sound track are particularly good in this outing.
Pirates Of The Caribbean - At Worlds End. There is nothing new introduced in this chapter by way of characters, mythology, or pretty much anything really. The same excellent high-seas scenery and cinematography as previous installments. Kiery Knighley's Elizabeth character gets much more to do in this one. Some witty interludes, mostly from Johnny Depp's very enjoyable Jack Sparrow character. It is really just a requisite wrap-up story with the equally requisite lovey-dovey and overly-lucky, impossible escape stuff. There is lots of visual enjoyment and the ship-to-ship battles are excellent.
Pirates Of The Caribbean - On Stranger Tides. Johnny Depp plays the lead with ease. Story not particularly engaging. Movie not particularly exciting. Still worth a watch.
Planet 51. Excellent animation, but disappointingly less than stellar story for either kids or adults. A few giggles but not nearly as clever as one might expect from this genre where the animated movie is skillfully crafted for both kids and adults.
Police Academy (all of them). An original of the stupid humour genre. Pretty stupid with a few good gags. This goes for all of them except they pretty much get worse.
Porky's. One of the originators of a stupid teenage humour genre. Crass and boring with some chuckles.
Pretty Woman. OK.
Prince Of Persia. OK. Good effects and camera work. Decent but unremarkable acting. Odd story with a supernatural twist to a very 'Disney' premise, yet the action certainly isn't very 'Disney'. Under the microscope, the movie steals from Crouching Tiger, Lord Of The Rings, The Mummy, Bulletproof Monk, Indiana Jones, and at various points, every John Woo movie. A decent sub-two-hour time burner.
Prometheus. Visually excellent. Well-acted considering the genre. While there is actually very little to the story, it is told in a way that isn't slow and we don't get bored. The story does stand on its own while the connection to Alien is made.
Psycho. A Hitchcock classic. Well done.
Puss In Boots. Simply remarkable animation. They had a lot of fun with visual effects normally used in standard movies with motion split screens and part screen fades - clever use of, and enjoyable cinematography for an animated film. Good humour with some particularly clever lines. Interestingly, a well-developed story line for an animated movie. Cute allusions to the fairy tale characters a la Shrek. Worth a watch.
Quantum Of Solace. A tad less enjoyable than Casino Royale, it's precursor, but very good nonetheless. It seemed a bit disjointed and actually seemed too short, making one wonder if they cut too much film to get the final product. Those are the only not-so-good's. The good is great acting from Daniel Craig and great chase sequences using practically every known mode of transportation including planes, motorcycles, boats, on foot, and the requisite fine cars. They've done some decent character building of this Bond without annoying or boring the audience to tears. Similarly Judy Dench, it is enjoyable to see more of M as they delve into her persona as work invariably invades her off hours showing this is her life. Slick graphics on the technology at MI6. The usual brief interspersal of "Bond humour". Well done.
Quick Sand. Good suspense as a regular guy sinks into an ever-worsening situation. Decent script and story. Well acted.
Rango. Superb animation. Some particularly impressive animation includes a character’s distorted figure passing through the amber colour of cactus juice in a shot glass with a slow camera pan. Decent story; decent script. Some good humour.
Runaway Bride. Not particularly good.
RED. Pretty good. Bruce Willis is a great choice for the main character. Great supporting cast. Some good action sequences and cool camera shots. A decent enough story - not a lot of brainpower required, but a couple of twists to keep the viewer from getting too comfortable. A fair bit of zany comedy and comic relief, and a noteworthy and noticeably jovial audio track accompanies much of the movie. For comparison, kind of A-Team meets James Bond, maybe a bit of Tropic Thunder. Worth a watch.
RED2 As good as the first one. Lots of action. Bruce Willis is enjoyable.
Resident Evil. Surprisingly not bad for being based on a video game. No lack of action. Decent story line to set up the rationale for a continuing movie franchise. Notably there is an attempt to tell a story rather than just have zombies amble around. But there is still the requisite cheesy zombie action.
Resident Evil Apocalypse. Surprisingly not bad. Action to rival Tomb Raider and Mission Impossible and enjoyably good effects. Decent follow-on to the first movie. Again a story arc with some intrigue rather than simple zombie fare, but there is still the cheesy zombie stuff for some giggles.
Resident Evil Extinction. Not a bad follow on. Just enough cheesy to go with the continuing story. Nothing amazing here but not bad either. Milla Jovovich certainly does the role well.
Resident Evil Afterlife. The franchise is losing steam. This continuation has even less of the excitement and drive found in the previous episodes. It is more of just a chapter than a saga in itself. Some of this story's action annoyingly requires suspension of disbelief well beyond what of course would be expected from a zombie movie. Reminiscent of the 80's A-Team, wherein thousands of rounds are fired but the 'good guy' doesn't get a scratch. The main Umbrella Corporation bad guy is barely in the movie and aside from two cool action sequences, is practically irrelevant.
Resident Evil Retribution. A bit of a reinvigoration to the franchise. Some really great cinematic shots. Quick-paced and no nonsense. Simple plot and dialogue, to the credit of the production, and lots of action. Visually impressive and true to its origins - action movie with a video game feel.
Robin Hood Men In Tights. Not particularly good.
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. I was interested to see how they were going to anthropomorphize apes in well under two hours. It is a pretty quick change! After all, the director felt a need to have a big battle sequence while at the credits they simply show in a map graphic how the disease which wipes out mankind is spread - this a lead-in to the 2001 version, not the original 1968 classic. While a decent movie, with very good effects, it is a bit underwhelming and not as ominous as I'd have liked to have seen. James Franco does a very good job.
Robocop. A good action movie.
RV. A fair bit of a clone of Clark Grisold's 'Vacation' and 'Christmas Vacation', but with Robin Williams. In fact if they had swapped out the Griswold characters throughout, no viewer would have noticed. Some funny bits, and worth a watch, but nothing spectacular, and certainly not memorable.
Salt. Pretty good action movie. Implausible for most of it but lots of action. A twist that everyone can see a mile away. But lots of action. Angelina Jolie leads most of the movie and as with all her other action movies, is very good.
San Andreas. Corny but still a good watch for the visuals, which includes the daughter spending a lot of time bending over and in wet clothes. I'll give all the actors, actresses credit for keeping straight faces for the predicable, cheesy dialogue and situations. But the acting was indeed good.
Saratoga. Cute, old-fashioned, with a couple of chuckles. Well acted. Charming scoundrel versus tame elitist for the dame - not particularly timeless.
School Of Rock. Interesting premise. A few laughs.
Serenity. Same great cast of characters as the series, with the same great humour interspersed with dark drama and violence. A surprise plot development for those who have watched the series; supposedly Joss Whedon loves to surprise. The cinematography is daring and fantastic as it was in the series, with the likes of purposeful lens flares, shots with intense backlighting, long-duration 360-camera spins. A decent wrap-up to the series, but it feels as though we got to the solution without enough back-story - which of course is the case - it is so unfortunate that Whedon's universe collapsed because of a short-sighted studio decision. This idea and great ensemble cast needs sequels or prequels.
Shallow Hal. Terrible. Classless.
Sherlock Holmes. Very well filmed with some particularly enjoyable cinenatographic sequences in action scenes. Robert Downey Jr. is quite good and his character is a joy to watch at all times; we wonder what he is going to say and do next. There is really nice interplay between Watson and Holmes, and there is a very welcome change from the bumbling Watson character of all previous incarnations, and Jude Law is also well cast. The humour is quite enjoyable and doesn't quite break the boundary of corny. The story isn't quite as intriguing as the characters but we are well set up for follow up adventures. An enjoyable watch; definitely worth a few viewings.
Sherlock Holmes - Game Of Shadows. Another excellent outing for both Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Style is exactly the same as the first one and that is good. Same style of humour - just below corny. Good story. Some excellent cinematographic effects in the action sequences. Another enjoyable film experience; definitely worth a few viewings.
Shrek 1. This is what animated movies should be -- funny for kids; funny for adults.
Shrek 2. Still hilarious in spots.
Shrek 3 The Third. The franchise might be showing its age. Still quite funny.
Shrek The Halls. A funny holiday special. Worth a watch every holidays.
Shrek 4 The Final Chapter. Excellent animation. Relatively short movie. Still quite funny.
Shutter Island. Good acting. Good story. Good intrigue. Good movie.
Silly Movie 2. Even drunk, this movie wouldn't be funny. I wonder if this was done on some high school kid's personal computer as a class project. They tried to be funny in the vein of Airplane, or any other real spoof movie -- and utterly failed. Not even clever; just awful. This barely deserves the half star.
Sister Act. Novel story, some laughs. OK.
Sister Act 2. Not as good as the first. OK
Six Days Seven Nights. Novel story, decent acting. OK.
Skyfall. A fresher cinematic experience for the James Bond franchise. Cinematography is great. A lot of subtle nods to the franchise's more well-known characteristics - including people, vehicles, the drink, and even the MI6 chief's office door. This nostalgia combined with the requisite adventure and action reinvigorates the franchise with the still-remarkable acting of Daniel Craig. He is supported by a great cast. Noteworthy are multiple camera angles of upcoming stages of action, very wide angles of expansive vistas, and lots and lots of close-ups of the key players. More intense scenes are frenetic because cameras are zoomed in particularly close; the audience feels part of the action rather than a spectator of it. One minor complaint is some of the action is just over-the-top, as with all previous installments - some explosions just a little 'too big' kind of thing - I got briefly worried it would become a Transformers movie. Interspersed nicely were more serene scenes for character reflection. Even the opening theme was cleverly segued from the exciting opening sequence. A smattering of the old cheesy humour, and some thankfully subtle sex - not because it is bad, but because more would have been cheesy - it was just enough to portray the character. The movie gives a lot to digest for those who know the franchise, and it is all well done.
Sleepy Hollow. Decent, worth a watch.
Solo A Star Wars Story. A good back-story to the Han Solo character with styling and visuals that nicely tie back to the look of the original trilogy. Good acting. A good addition to the series.
Spaceballs. Hard to judge; a Star Wars parody could have been fantastic. But here the bevy of well-known actors perform parodies and gags in a hit-and-miss fashion. One wonders what Mel Brooks and gang were on.
Species. Good, mainly cheesy, fast-paced sci-fi type drama. A number of big name actors managing to remain straight-faced. Decent action, decent story. Really quite cheesy, but OK to watch.
Specter. Typically well done for this era of Daniel Craig as James Bond. Notably enjoyable musical score throughout. A couple of over-the-top parts of action sequences, but they may have been purposefully done that way as nods to some of the earlier James Bond movies. In fact, there is a good deal of explanation for how this story fits into the big picture of not only the plot arc with Daniel Craig as James bond, but is a nod to the very early Bonds. Worth a watch on its own or as an enjoyable installment as part of the ongoing franchise.
Spider-man. A good introduction to Spider-man and how he gained his capabilities. A good depiction of his inability to deal with feelings toward Mary-Jane Watson. Thrilling web slinging scenes and villain-fighting scenes. Appropriately funny as Peter learns to use his new capabilities. Tobey Maguire is very good in this role. I love how well the J. Jonah Jamieson character was portrayed -- right out of the comic book pages. The musical score is approriate. All told, very well done.
Spider-man 2. Well done. Superb graphics.
Spider-man 3. Tobey Maguire turned out to be a very good Peter Parker. Very good web-slinging sequences as we expect both from the Spider-man franchise and any movie of this era. All computer-graphics-assisted scenes are fantastic. For some reason I just don't buy Topher Grace as dangerous in any way, yet I think he is meant to be a serious villain. Perhaps it seems like he always has a smile on his face and I can't get That 70's Show out of my mind. A decent third installment.
Stakeout. Sufficient humour, suspense and action to make for a pretty decent movie for its era..
Star Trek I - The Motion Picture Nice to see the series brought back to the big screen but the result was underwhelming.
Star Trek II - The Wrath Of Khan. This is more like it. One of two memorable original series movie follow-ups (the other being IV). A good one for Trek fans. Others won't care because of the lack of special effects (because of the year the film was made) and no knowledge of the history of the Trek mythology. Despite the fact the movie aspect of the franchise was still finding its feet, this movie is well done.
Star Trek III - The Search For Spock Some good scenes. Not bad movie.
Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home. The second of two memorable original series movie follow-ups. A good one for Trek fans as well as those who want the self-caused environmental issues of our planet thrust in their faces. The movie is made to make a blantant statement about contemporary times, but that was one major facet of the original series so this should be no surprise. There are few special effects, as people now expect because of the year the film was made, but this film is all about the message anyway. This movie could have just as easily been a "Dr. Who" movie. Some good humour including the memorable scene on the bus wherein Spock abates the issue of a punk with a boombox -- an 80's phenomenon, cliche, and annoyance. A little cheesy, but generally an enjoyable movie.
Star Trek V - The Final Frontier Not particularly memorable.
Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country Not bad.
Star Trek VII - Generations A good concept with decent graphics. Not bad.
Star Trek VIII - First Contact A good concept with decent graphics and some enjoyable action. Not bad.
Star Trek IX - Insurrection A good concept with decent graphics and some enjoyable action. Not bad.
Star Trek X - Nemesis. Pared down, this could have been a Next Gen episode. I'm glad they didn't pare it down, and frankly I think they could have made two movies out of the Shinzon story line leading to it's necessary conclusion. Or a plot arc during the series itself. Even knowing there wasn't the time, I kept thinking throughout 'they could have done a bit more with that character / plot angle'. An intriguing story with lots of action. The low-tech land-rover chase scene, while enjoyable, brings back the feel a few centuries and reminds us that these people (in our hypothetical future) get the same thrills as we do now -- simple raw man-using-powerful-machine control and high-speed thrill rides. The graphics are marvellous as is the sound (as always setting aside the no-sound-in-space problem). A good conclusion. Very well done.
Star Trek (2009).
Well done JJ Abrams et al. A nice introduction to the characters many of us already knew. Some characterization is better than others but the main characters are well cast. Visually very impressive. A couple of (fortunately rare) silly parts. Some enjoyably funny parts. Lots of action. This is a good kick-start to the tired, albeit notably still enjoyable, old franchise. There are a number of good tie-backs to the original series, and the Star Trek mythology. Some are subtle, some are blatant. Fortunately, none has you rolling your eyes. There are also some definite deviations from TOS and follow on series' and movies. Updated cinematographic techniques also add to the enjoyment of watching this movie; it is exciting. Definitely worth a watch.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Another job well done by JJ Abrams and the cast from the 2009 outing. A bit annoying with the tie-backs to the original series - or STII-TWOK. A fair bit of unbelievability. Visually spectacular though.
Star Trek Beyond (2016).
An enjoyable continuation of the pseudo-original Star Trek universe. Certainly visually wonderful and lots of action. Good acting. Worth a watch.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The effects are of course spectacular. Battle scenes, light-scabre battles are all fantastic. Visually, this is a fantastic film. Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson are both very sturdy -- and believeable, as are the locations the characters encounter. The story keeps moving along nicely. All-in-all George Lucas retroactively sets up a very good introduction to the Star Wars franchise.
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Unfortunately I have to suggest that the Padme-Anakin relationship is just plain flat. And a little strange. It's unfortunate in that it appears sometimes as they are reading scripts about how to feel about each other; that they hadn't quite gotten past dress rehearsal. And some of the dialogue is kind of gag-inducing. The plot and script and events all work; they're just not quite right with these actors somehow. All-in-all, this is still a very good movie. One must simply pretend the characters actually love each other and have a reason to.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Visually dazzling. A simply beautiful film. If you muted the audio, it would still be worth the time to watch. But Anakin turns to Darth too quickly. It just seems as if he's reading the script for us and comes to a point where he just becomes evil. The plot and script and events all work; there's just something not right about Hayden Christensen's and Natalie Portman's portrayals. While again, a very good movie, at the end of it, I get the desire to watch episode 4 right away to put things right with the Star Wars universe again.
Star Wars: Episode IV - (the original). One has to rate this extremely well, not so much for the content, but for how and when it was done, and the mythology behind it. The movie itself is a little corny at times, but the story works, the action is good. Lots of wonderful action. The whole feel to George Lucas' "galaxy far, far away" is neat and he sure gets the 'good versus evil' philosophy across in a novel way. John Williams' sound track is excellent. Time has in fact aged this movie's look, but that can't be helped, and it matters less because time hasn't aged the feel. A classic pure and simple.
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. Again lots of great action. George Lucas' imagination of strange places gets nicely put to film in this. An excellent installment of a classic series.
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi. More character development here but some good action sequences too. An expected conclusion but great nonetheless. There is a certain sadness that this is the last installment of a classic series. Kudos to George Lucas.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. Lots of tie-backs to the original trilogy. Lots of good visuals and what is noteworthy is the effects and scenes don't seem overwhelmingly digital. Certainly more character-based and it's obvious this is a staging for many more films. Well-acted. Well done.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. A good continuation and well filmed and acted.
Starsky And Hutch. Not bad movie adaptation of the tv series. Tongue-in-cheek comedy with some good chuckles.
Super8. This is quite decent. Something significantly better than Cloverfield and ET, two comparator movies, and rivalling Jurassic Park. The perspective of the kids is a fresh take and the film they are making is a fun story arc. Watch into the credits of this movie to see the results. An impressive collaboration for JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg. The purple-blue lens effects have Spielberg written all over it, but it's a bit of an annoying distraction at times. Significant suspension of disbelief required, but still quite enjoyable. The young actors do a very good job. Some cute humour, lots of mayhem and explosions, some drama, albeit a tad sappy. This is definitely worth a watch.
Superbad. This movie was made for, and probably by, people under 20 years old. It is less like typical loser wannabe high school graduates and more like what loser wannabe high school graduates would like to have said and done in high school. Some genuinely hilarious spots, but they are all too few. Someone dreamed this one up at a bar one evening. Watch 'The Girl Next Door' for a slightly better version of what this movie wants to be.
Superman. It is somewhat unfortunate this was made in 1978 because while a good effort, the movie looks old (well after 1978 that is). The story works as a good big-screen introduction to Superman.
Superman II. A rather unimpressive outing. Less of a comic book on the big screen as just a movie from the early 80's and it shows.
Superman Returns. A visual marvel for sure; very impressive. While cheesy at times - so were the originals - and there is insufficient character development, such as with his 'mother', this film compares very well to other superhero movies of this era. Worth a watch.
Swordfish. Some impressive yet not overly drawn out action sequences and notably good camera work and direction. A bit convoluted in the story line or perhaps more that they didn't quite fill it out as much as could have been. A cast full of well-known actors but each doesn't quite seem comfortable with his or her respective characters, with the exception of John Travolta, and some occasional bad dialogue. Yet all in all worth a watch.
Tangled. Very well animated. Decent kids story. A few clever humorous bits.
Team America World Police. Good for a laugh or two, with marionette-style animated characters. Crude humour as would be expected from the creators/writers/directors.
Terminator (The). Solid action from Arnold Schwarzenegger. No lack of action. Linda Hamilton is enjoyable to watch. Based on a good premise. It is unfortunate it wasn't made in an era when effects couldn't have been more realistic.
Terminator 2 Judgment Day. Even better than the first. A bit of a classic thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance.
Terminator 3 Rise Of The Machines. Very good continual action the whole way through. Arnold Schwarzenegger still does a great T-101. A good continuation.
Terminator 4 Salvation. An action extravaganza. Some quite impressive cinematography. Not a lot of story really; well acted considering. It's mostly told through action sequences, and the movie's short at 1:45. The effects make this movie.
Thelma And Louise. An interesting story of friendship with a progressively more complex human interest situation. Well acted. Definitely worth a watch.
The 39 Steps. Well acted, and enjoyable if quick denouement. Quite long and wandering in plot, but these older films were all about character development and story anyway.
The Amazing Spiderman. Very impressive visual effects, and stylistically quite remarkable in some of the later web-slinging sequences right to the last frames of the movie in increasingly slow motion. If it weren't for the fact that it is a remake of an equally enjoyable Spiderman which was just remade a number of years before, it could be considered a great effort on its own. Annoying that Hollywood is so lazy that they have to reboot the same stories. Decent script and well acted. Worth a watch.
The Amazing Spiderman 2. Well acted, but not as intriguing as the first - of this reboot.
The Avengers. Excellent movie of the genre. Visually spectacular. Pretty good story for comic book material; saving the world in the most outlandish ways. Good performances by all. Robert Downey Jr. is an excellent character and almost steals this. An extra half star for amazing graphics.
The Avengers Age Of Ultron. Certainly visually spectacular. In fact, there is so much action that the few slow moments of dialogue and quasi-drama are kind of annoying. And again good performances by all. So much over-the-top and melodramatic, it's very good for what it is - a superhero movie.
The Accidental Spy. The same style and incohesive story as every other Jackie Chan movie, though he is starting to age. Some James Bond rip-off's most notably the vastly lesser quality opening sequence and the introductory song which is so close it evokes the James Bond theme everyone knows. Normally Chan's action sequences are pretty awesome, and while there is still some action left in Jackie Chan, the magic is gone and the good parts are few and far between in this particular movie. This one is forgettable even though the final scene sets it up for a sequel.
The Blair Witch Project. Different. Certainly an intriguing premise. The documentary style was neat. Good thrills at points. Without giving away anything, what happens with each of these filmmakers and thus the legend itself is kind of weird. All-in-all pretty well done, worth a watch or two.
The Bourne Identity. Very good action movie with Matt Damon playing the role particularly well. The international locales makes it that much more intriguing and the action is top-notch. Some of his escape luck is reminiscent of James Bond but not totally unbelievable. Good acting and the settings bring this good story to life.
The Bourne Supremacy. A very good action film. Matt Damon continues his stone-faced, driven performance. As with the first, the international scenes make the action and chases that much more exciting because it's not the standard North American chase scene we've all seen a thousand times.
The Bourne Ultimatum. An excellent, fast-paced action film. Matt Damon is at his best here. As with the previous installments, the international aspects add a great deal. Fight and chase scenes are beautifully done. The truth he seeks turns out to be rather unsurprising, but that presumably comes from the book and doesn't mean anything in discussing the movie. The end leaves us to hope that we can see more of Bourne as in James Bond or Mission Impossible.
The Bourne Legacy. Another very good action film in the series. Jeremy Renner in the lead is very good. No boredom in this movie and the plot makes you pay attention.
The Cable Guy. Interesting. I was certainly surprised to get an overall serious movie from Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. This is still some humour in here but much more of dark psychology. Yet again as with Me, Myself and Irene, I get the sense that Carrey himself, not his character, is trying to choose what to be. This one is different and a should-see, but in the end, I didn't get much out of it.
The Count Of Monte Cristo Quaint, old-fashioned, touch cheesy. Napoleonic-era story of retribution holds the attention though with some interesting drama.
The Chronicles of Narnia 1 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Interesting story from the world created by CS Lewis. Some great effects, though interestingly some not so great.
The Chronicles of Narnia 2 Prince Caspian. A pretty good continuation of the Narnia world, with a definite nod to Lord Of The Rings-style action.
The Curse Of King Tut's Tomb. Wow. A relatively good idea poorly scripted. Some respected actors such as Jonathan Hyde and Malcolm McDowell lend their names to the cast. Perhaps the movie looked good in script form. The only other positive here is the sound track which is not too bad and does fit the theme. Much of the movie is stolen from other "Mummy" movies and Indiana Jones -- blatantly. Decent, but not top-notch special effects. The editing leads me to believe it was made for television. This is head-shaking bad sometimes with the occasional, and I mean rare, funny line. Too bad; the actors all try hard and the premise is not bad -- just very poorly pulled together.
The Day After Tomorrow. An always timely premise of natural calamity unforeseen by witless humanity except for the intelligent, but family-negligent scientist to whom no one of importance listens until it's too late. The DVD cover says same director as Independence Day and that is quite obvious with the family stuff and rampant American patriotism. A bit lame and cheesy on the 'guy must redeem himself to his family at all costs' bit, and how he does it, or rather that he does it, is absolutely ridiculous. To the actors' credit, the acting is serious, while unfortunately the script could use more substance. A visual effects extravaganza for sure; very impressive. A little brief on the early scenes and it seems they tried to jam all ideas and scenes to fit into two hours and almost did it. There are only two things of particular value here -- the special effects and the real-world message. Worth a watch.
The Day Of The Triffids. Not the best. Actually well-acted, just seems low budget. Decent cinematography, decent visuals. A little slow and seems tedious in places yet unfulfilled character development for many others. Some hard to believe scenarios and that doesn't in any include anything to do with the triffids. Not abysmal but could have been done way better.
The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) Not a particularly good adaptation. Keanu Reeves does well enough playing a robotic extraterrestrial because frankly that's the style he plays in every movie. The whole thing doesn't gel enough though, such that we're not really drawn to care about anyone or how it plays out, even though the premise is nothing less than the end of humanity - it still just plays as a series of somewhat disjointed events lacking any armageddon concern. Some good visuals. Nothing memorable here unfortunately.
The Da Vinci Code. Pretty good. Interesting premise (coming from the book's author) and good intrigue. Good cinematography. A tad bit underwhelming in the end but not terrible. Worth a watch. Tom Hanks is pretty good.
The Dark Knight. Great acting all around. Lots of sub-plots in a continuation of the introduction of Batman's character. Two and a half hours worth, and that makes the feel of a series of episodes rather than a movie but that's not of great importance. Great graphics and action sequences. More of a James Bond and Mission Impossible feel than comic book feel though. Overall a good movie.
The Dark Knight Rises This was frustratingly disapppointing. They so obviously tried to ramp up the action to make it the ultimate time-critical doomsday scenario. This left no nuance and unfortunately little time to explore the ressurection of the Batman. It was more War Of The Worlds and Independence Day and so much less dramatic and personal Batman. The pinnacle of the overindulgence was when Batman was flying around in pretty much a spacecraft with multiple heat-seeking missiles in chase - that isn't Batman - that's Independence Day! Please Christopher Nolan: don't become Michael Bay! Too much of the time, the main villain was almost incomprehensible behind the strange mask. And even the Jack Nicholson and Jim Carrey villains of previous installments were more realistic. Many scenarios had great promise but ultimately were too unbelievable such as the police lure, or even appeared to be choreographed dance numbers rather than fight sequences - particularly the one at City Hall. It wasn't all bad including the saga regarding the return of the Dark Knight, and the presence of Michael Caine as Alfred, and the mystique around Selena (Anne Hathaway). Joseph Gordon-Levitt was also very good but until the end, it was almost as if he was in a different movie, or acting apart from the rest. Worth a watch, but Batman Begins was much superior to this movie.
The Devil Wears Prada. A pretty boring, mild comedy wherein you pretty much don't care about any of the characters.
The Expendables A non-stop action movie such that the few spots where there isn't action seems forced and out of place. The talking between the main characters seems almost uncomfortable especially from Sylvester Stallone, but thankfully the corny dialogue doesn't last long before another action-packed segment. There is some humour sprinkled in and the viewer is reminded this is not to be taken too seriously. High marks for the thrilling aural assault on a good sound system at least. The A-Team on steroids is what this is.
The Expendables 2 Part action movie with lots of spoofing. Lots of suspension of disbelief required. Mostly an excuse for violent action to sustain or make fun of the flagging careers of a bunch of former action stars.
The Fast And The Furious Definitely for the teenage male audience, quite contrived. Generic action for the sake of action based around the car racing and car parts subculture, though not overly remarkable action at that. A couple of the street race scenes are rivalled by the short clip of Marty McFly racing when he gets called 'chicken' in Back To The Future. No issues with the acting, but this movie is not worth a watch more than once.
The Fifth Element. Weird. A good showcase of Milla Jovovich. The visuals are more more exciting than anything else.
The Full Monty. From a North American perspective this was a refreshing change to the Hollywood fare. We could envision all the actors actually being that regular guy type person. Or at least they easily fool North American viewers into feeling this. 'Regular people' can empathize with these people. No special effects, no car chases -- just as if biographers followed these non-upper-crust plain folk around and captured every gritty word and emotion. But we're not bored; it's a good story with just the right amount of humour and a laugh-out-loud, smile-on-your face ending.
The Girl Next Door (2004). This is a tough one. I don't know what this movie was trying to be. It is well filmed and the quasi-slo-mo shots are timely funny additions where they're placed. Ultimately this is a light-hearted coming-of-age story with a twist. The three main guys are good geeks and Elisha Cuthbert is just plain lovely to look at. But there's nothing memorable here; it's an hour and 49 minute time killer for some Friday night.
The Golden Compass. A recognizable yet unique world is set up - with sets well-tailored for such a parallel world - in a "Middle Earth" and "Narnia" fashion. Impressive effects and auditory experience. Well acted with many well known actors supporting a great young lead actress. An intriguing story which is left insisting on a requisite sequel, or really, final act. But alas no sequel was made. The movie ends abruptly - akin to ending the Harry Potter movies at Deathly Hollows part 1. The story arc is frustratingly incomplete with The Golden Compass and one must read the books to learn the fate of the heroes. This very much detracts from what otherwise is an enyoyable fantasy story.
The Goonies. A silly 'kids get wrapped up in mystery and danger beyond their years' saga. A heavy mix of Indiana Jones (and you can sure see the Steven Spielberg influence) and Home Alone. Mostly slapstick and pre-teen humour.
The Grapes Of Wrath. Good period piece.
The Green Hornet. Considering the era from which this was based, Seth Rogan's version is an interesting mix of slapstick, 60's corny superhero, and current era action. Some decent humour, some cool camera work. Worth a watch but won't be particularly memorable.
The Hangover Must be an adaptation directly from the minds of 18-year-olds. Boring premise and mindless dialogue. Memento, a decent movie, is infinitely more interesting; Week-end At Bernies is infinitely more interesting. Nothing remotely clever in this movie. This is just a moronic adaptation of Superbad with an older cast. I kept hoping for some amazing reveal at the end and was sadly disappointed. The only remotely funny part was the pictures run during the closing credits.
The Happening. It's really unfortunate; this was a good idea from M. Night, but not well turned into a film. Good actors are under-utilized, and strangely there are a couple of scenes where they practically say nothing and just look at each other. No there doesn't need to be constant dialogue, but it repeatedly seems, particularly in the old lady's house, as if actors just forgot their lines and they kept shooting anyway and figured it looked wistful. And Mark Wahlberg, a good actor, appears to have just memorized the lines in some scenes. This film might have been M's attempt at taking the good parts of Lady In The Water and Sixth Sense, but we just end up getting beat over the head again unsubtly at the end with the moral which we gleaned within the first 15 minutes of the story. It's really unfortunate; not terrible, but not terribly good.
The Haunting. This could have been great. A nice little scary movie with not too many effects; just enough. A bit weak on the story behind this movie and a bit weak on the ending. A decent watch.
The Heartbreak Kid. A somewhat amusing film. Good for some chuckles. Generic Ben Stiller fare with a few gags. Jerry Stiller provides a few more. Rob Corddry's appearance signifies the target audience of the film -- the Jon Stewart late-night crowd. An extra half-star for the lovely Michelle Monaghan. But there is no substance here; just a time killer.
The Hunger Games. Novel story in the vein of perhaps The Most Dangerous Game and Lord Of The Flies, even 1984, with a young-love story in addition. Decent acting. Bit of a comic book feel. There is an opportunity to open up more interesting stories about the intriguing world to which we're introduced in this saga. Seeds of rebellion, a villainous leader. Not having read the book or books, I look forward to another chapter.
The Hunger Games 2 Catching Fire. While not having quite the novel excitement of the first, still a good show. Less action and more drama is ok with the action being not overkill and not much time wasted on melodrama either. Just enough for us to think yes we get it with the interpersonal relationships. Worth the watch as follow up to the first movie.
The Hunger Games 3 Mockingjay (parts 1, 2). Not overly exciting or memorable. A fair bit cheesy. Well acted though. Great production value and sets and filming. Worth the watch to conclude the series.
The Illusionist. Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti are very enjoyable in this. Good set design and a very enjoyable story. Not a high-intensity thrill-ride and thank goodness. A methodical, character-based, novel story; no unnecessary awkwardness here. This is a joy in times when every picture is designed as an action extravaganza whether or not the story is entitled. Again, Norton is very good here. This is definitely worth a watch or two.
The Imitation Game. Excellent. A wonderful dramatic depiction of a major historical technological period. You wonder why this movie wasn't made earlier until you hear that the major studios passed on the project and it had to be done independently. Particularly well acted by Benedict Cumberbatch. The set pieces were nicely done and added drama to something which might not otherwise be dramatic - the working of a machine. Also urgency was well done within a time scale that was in reality nearly a decade. Well framed with post-war life events, was interspersed the story of Alan Turning during the war, as both parts of the story proceeded; it was done well. This is a very good movie.
The Internship. Pretty funny. A good bit cheesy. Certainly a novel premise with two clueless characters getting an internship at Google. Worth a watch, once.
The Island. An interesting story. Decent action. Good actors. Worth a watch.
The Incredible Hulk (2008). Pretty good movie. Great visual effects as one would expect for the year of production. Definitely no shortage of action. Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt all good.
The Incredibles. One would expect better wit for an animated movie. Cartoon action. An excuse for a computer graphics demonstration.
The Incredibles 2. Better than the first installment. Enjoyable, relatively fast-moving story. Excellent animation. Lots of humour. Entertaining for all ages.
The Librarian 1 Quest For The Spear. Good for a watch to introduce the future movies and television series. Quite cheesy in dialogue and plot. Highly implausible in almost every action. Obviously-stolen ideas from Indiana Jones. Decent performances by all and a decent story.
The Librarian 2 Return to King Solomon's Mines. A similar feel to the original. Just as cheesy. A tame rendition of Indiana Jones. Still high implausible throughout. Worth a watch for an easy couple of hours.
The Librarian 3 The Curse Of The Judas Chalice. Another in the same feel of the previous installments. Cheesy, but worth a watch.
The Lego Movie. Very impressive animation. Cute story and nicely done in tying the animated aspect to filmed sequences with actors.
The Lone Ranger (2013). Unfortunately not as good as hoped. Well filmed, decent story, decent acting. But. Much of the action sequences were ridiculously over the top - such that you can envision the green screen and wires and hear the director saying "ok pretend like there's something dangerous coming in two seconds then back to looking like it's a walk in the part". So this isn't fine art, and it's not a period piece. It's more of a wild west Pirates Of The Caribbean. Another major annoyance - while funny in movies like "Year One" - are anachronistic idioms such as "you know what". It could have only been worse if they peppered a few "wait, what" and "what the f***" lines in. Very little suspense or intrigue or novelty and more of a violent comedy with ridiculously impossible stunts. Every Indian arrow in a sea of them hits the bad guys and misses the good guys. I suppose if you removed all references to the "Lone Ranger" including the cliche lines and requisite anthem they finally rolled out in the end, it's not too bad a movie. If you call it a generic Johnny Depp comedy, it's decent.
The Man From UNCLE. Quite enjoyable. Good cinematography - with Guy Ritchie's touch too, with hommages back to the original series Man From UNCLE. Good performances all around. Worth a watch.
The Martian. Quite enjoyable. Really great visuals. Good performances by most but particularly by Matt Damon.
The Mask. This movie is not meant to be taken seriously which is good, because it isn't serious at all. Jim Carrey is perfect in this role; a slapstick show by Carrey enhanced by presumably purposefully unsophisticated but hilarious special effects. The scenes where Carrey dons the mask are outrageously funny and the story of the movie seems practically irrelevant. In fact I found myself wishing the regular scenes would go away and we could see more of The Mask! This movie begs for a properly done sequel or two -- too bad that didn't happen.
The Mask of Zorro. Pretty well done movie. Good acting.
The Matrix. This was really very very good for a number of reasons. The story is a cliche really -- a classic rag-tag band of underdogs fighting the evil system -- but here with a very major twist. A clever concept with very good special effects. Leather-attired Carrie-Anne moss, lots of weapons fire, lots of "Crouching Tiger-style" combat. I thought Keanu Reeves an odd choice for the lead but even with a prejudiced eye, there are no flaws to the performance. I loved Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith and the driven pursuit look in his eyes. What made this movie particularly enjoyable was its newness -- each scene was something never-before-seen to the audience. Well done.
The Matrix Reloaded. Keanu Reeves I found to be an odd choice for the lead, but now in the second movie this is no longer to be considered. He is Neo. Unfortunately, the movie itself doesn't match the excitement of the first. Sometimes it feels like 'more of the same' -- like they used the same computer generated combat routines with different backgrounds and perhaps a few new moves as provided by more time given to the CGI artists since the first movie. The newness is gone, though there is still some intrigue here and the cool story continues.
The Matrix Revolutions. For some reason, what should have been the final masterpiece component of the trilogy was a bit of a let-down. Keanu continues his stone-faced efforts. There is lots of action here but strangely, what should be a building tension kind of ends up being a 'hurry up and get on with it' kind of feeling. Still a good movie and a good conclusion, but perhaps a movie where the expectations are greater than the product itself because of how wonderful the predecessors were.
The Mothman Prophecies. Interesting mythology. Good scary. Not predictable. Not bad.
The Mummy. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and it's one that you can watch yearly or so without being annoyed that you know it already. Of course a re-imagining of a very old classic. But the re-imagining adds value. Brendan Fraser would seem like a strange choice for the hero, but frankly he pulls it off in a most excellent way. The humour aspect he provides is perfect. The effects are quite impressive. This movie was created at the beginning of the era wherein the effects are almost as impressive as the imagination behind them and look believable on screen. Rachel Weisz is lovely to watch. Lots of action reminiscent of Indiana Jones. Well done.
The Mummy 2017. Not overly memorable. Good action sequences and great cinematography, but not an overly engaging story or even empathy for the characters. Even the attempts at humour interspersed are kind of underwhelming. Worth a watch once for the action, which consists mostly of Tom Cruise running around in his own style, but not much of value beyond that.
The Mummy Returns. I was so glad this sequel worked. I begin to wonder if it's Brendan Fraser that makes these work so well. He reminds us that the whole thing is just barely over-the-top through his acting. A good mythology, his humour interspersed throughout, good graphics make this all-over-the-place-story work. Evie's brother is annoying, but I'm sure that is purposeful and perhaps an attempt to take some of the comic effect load off Fraser. Nothing exciting to Dwayne Johnson's performance, but suprisingly it isn't bad. Rachel Weisz is still lovely! Well done again.
The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Aside from the awesome special effects, this is inferior to the previous two Brendan Fraser Mummy movies. It appears as the effects scenes were nicely planned with no idea what to do in between. And in fact it appears as though the writers and director just gave up as it's a short movie too. Rachel Weisz isn't here as Evie, and their now-grown boy managed to unlearn his English accent. There was charm in the silliness of some of the dialogue and scenarios in the first two movies and that is gone; it's now just corny. A couple of giggles and great effects make this watchable.
The Mummy (2017). The Notebook. A decent if transparent and predictable piece of sentimentality. Nostalgia with the requisite lethargic, scenic cinematography to go with it. A decent story which all along you knew had to be, with an ending you knew had to happen as it did. No excitement and no explosions - beyond a couple of somewhat unnecessary-to-the-story fragments of backstory during the war. However, good performances and a decent script make it worth a watch (when your wife makes you).
The Number 23. Kind of weird. At least Jim Carrey, who presumably is trying at all costs to do only slapstick or crazy characters, is surprisingly good in the lead role. The plot is novel and somwhat intriguing. Joel Schumacher's fingerprints are on this film, and watching the opening credits is one of the more interesting parts of the movie.
The Other Boleyn Girl. Pretty good historical piece (making no comment on any known historical accuracy). Good though not earth-shaking cinematography. It is apparent that they are getting as quickly as possible through an awful lot of source material to jam it into under two hours. It iincludes an annoying 'whatever happened to...' subtext at the end to really demonstrate the extreme desire to keep this movie short for some reason. Many scene transitions are nice with blurred fades across the set edges. Things are kept moving through an otherwise not overly exciting story.
The Pink Panther. Good for what it is -- a complete rip-off and sell-out of the Peter Sellers version. Steve Martin is good at the slapstick; he's good at the fake, bad accent. But there's no point to this movie other than to update the graphics and slapstick by 33 years. This is a one-star movie but for the surprisingly good job of Steve Martin earning an extra half star.
The Prestige. A very interesting movie, definitely character-based. The visuals aren't as spectacular as the story-telling, which fortunately is the focus, presumably owing to the book upon which it is based. Some minor suspension of disbelief and some lovely twists and neat reveals right up to the end. Star-studded, there are no poor performances here. The aspects of humanity dealt with are obvious but it is an interesting journey and that is the point of the film. Worth a watch.
The Rock. Not bad but neither Sean Connery nor Nick Cage are particularly enjoyable in this.
The Scorpion King. Not bad, but I was expecting better. The mythology is part of the The Mummy and the graphics are quite good here. Dwayne Johnson certainly performs his role believably and while there is nothing particulary intriguing about the storyline, perhaps that is the intent -- a graphics and action extravaganza.
The Secret Life Of Pets. Not bad but nothing surprising in either the story or the animation.
The Silence Of The Lambs. Made for psychological, emotional shock value. OK.
The Simpsons Movie. This must have been an economic exercise -- a way to quickly rake in lots of money. It provides nothing more than a longer episode, and I don't have any interest in those either. No thinly-veiled social commentary or any other purpose here. A few laughs. Yawn.
The Sixth Sense. Very clever. Excellent premise and story. Bruce Willis did a very good job here. The kid Cole could have been played by anyone, but Haley Joel Osment did not have any flaws in his performance. What is particularly impressive is that we don't notice any camera tricks, odd cinematography, or the musical score -- the story is sufficient in itself. We don't lose attention from the story as we are subtly drawn along. What would have otherwise been a run-of-the-mill 'scary movie', becomes excellent by virtue of the premise.
The Theory Of Everything. Well-acted, interesting depiction of the middle years of Stephen Hawking. The nuances of facial expressions by the lead actors is particularly noteworthy. Interesting character studies for people forced to live in a very non-standard situation. Worth a watch.
The Transporter. Lots of action. An interesting premise. Some wholly unbelievable fight scenes in that it is reminiscent of Jackie Chan's martial arts that is choreography for choreography's sake. It was nicely done but some scenes require too much suspension of disbelief, and made the whole of the movie more unrealistic than it could have been. Part Jason Bourne, part Jackie Chan. Good direction and acting from the main characters. Worth a watch.
The Transporter 2. Lots of great action. I love the transporter premise and this character in particular. But again, some of the stunts and fight scenes are over the top and it ruins the movie. It isn't necessary to go over the top. Good direction and cinematography and acting from the main characters. Worth a watch despite the annoyance of the excessive need for suspending one's disbelief.
The Transporter 3. Lots of action, particularly car chases. It's nice that they continue to have both Frank and Tarconi in the third installment. Jason Stratham is very good in this transporter character. Some realistic character development occurs in this one. Again with some over-the-top action, but it is less blatant and often than in the previous movies. It must be director Olivier Megaton's style for this series. Similarly with the music selections and some non-standard camera work with quick cuts to white and normal-then-slow motion. Not bad and worth a watch.
The Truman Show. Wow, we can see Jim Carrey is slowly but surely getting out of the slapstick. An interesting premise for a full-length movie, that of secretly being the subject of a public documentary, while well-acted all around, I found the movie a bit tiresome and his requisite realization and escape somewhat underwhelming. If nothing else though, it showed Carrey can be more than slapstick.
The Wizard Of Oz. Somehow, this is the near-definitive 'classic' movie. An unsurprising fantasy which fits the bill for simplicity and still a story you don't want to miss a minute of. No shyness from the actors in any case; their hearts were in it completely. Bright visually and catchy, if not unforgettable, music. Visuals and effects that are truly superb for the era. And astounding effects for the era. Even a transformation from sepia to colour and other cinematographic effects are wonderful. Perhaps filmed at the best time - perhaps even the golden age - and certainly before the dehumanizing electronically generated movie era. A simple and silly, yet amazingly enticing story. A must-watch.
The Wolf Of Wall Street. An amusing movie depicting a debaucherous lifestyle and the accompanying follies. Very well acted by Leo Dicaprio with the exception of the fake New York accent. Some scenes are reminiscent of Superbad, and not just because Jonah Hill is a key actor in both. And it may even be a rip-off and update of Citizen Kane. Worth a watch.
The Wolverine Quite enjoyable. Some intrigue, fair amount of decent action. Some cool graphics. Some nice set pieces and cinematography. Worth a watch.
The Woman in Black. Decent scary-type movie, though relatively bland - there is more excitement and thrill in the Doctor Who tv series episode "Blink" or almost any episode of Supernatural. Decent cinematography, but again, nothing extravagant. Daniel Radcliffe is quite good, but I would simply call this "Harry Potter and the Woman In Black". The last two minutes or so wrap-up ending even could have been so much better. Worth a watch, but not the hype.
There's Something About Mary. Random sequences of minimal humour within a movie whose premise is completely common -- geek boy tries to beat the smarter guys to the beautiful girl. Lots of misunderstandings, but less funny than a Three's Company episode. A few giggles but mostly head-shakingly bad. Sophomoric penis and masturbation humour and a fake dog; it just doesn't ever get clever. It's long and annoying waiting for the end of this movie.
This Is The End. Total garbage in the vein of Superbad. A few hearty chuckles, but other than that it's perhaps best as something to have on in the background when you're washing your windows. Half a star for the list of Hollywood actors who took part in this and half a star for the visuals near the end. Other than that, it's one where I said "isn't this damn movie over yet" a number of times.
Thor. Visually very impressive. Pretty good acting. Worth a watch.
Titanic. Very good graphics for the year this was made. Good drama. The love story was a little annoying but that the tack James Cameron took on this story otherwise known to everyone.
Total Recall. Pretty bad.
Toy Story I. Ground-breaking animation for the time. Cute story. Enjoyable for adults and particularly for kids.
Toy Story II. Another great demonstration of current-era advanced animation. Cute story. Enjoyable for adults and particularly for kids.
Toy Story III. Remarkable animation. Cute story. Enjoyable for adults and particularly for kids.
Transformers. A special effects extravaganza. Having seen nothing of the toys and television cartoon from which this comes, this is an interesting if weird mythology, yet a novel premise nonetheless, and the uninformed are quickly filled in via narration. Not a tonne of substance to the film, but that's actually ok as this is purely an action film and to add meat would extend the already well over two and a quarter hours. Less is good here, and more meat can be saved for a follow on movie. Shia LaBeouf is fine as is Megan Fox. Strangely, Jon Voight switches from good to appearing to read from the script to good again. The viewer won't be bored; they pack a lot in here, and the visual effects are really quite remarkable.
Transformers 2 Revenge Of The Fallen. Another special effects extravaganza. Decent story. Nothing earth-shaking in the dialogue but decent script. Definitely worth a watch for the effects and no lack of action.
Transformers 3 Dark Of The Moon. If you can once again disregard that these are talking vehicles; if you can grin at the cheesy Star Trek references - and there are many - some subtle, some not; and if you don't need any time-consuming meaningful dialogue, this is the movie for you. This ups the special effects ante in the series yet again and is a solid win. Shia L. is overly-dramatic - but again, this is a movie with talking cars! His female counterpart, whatever her name is, with her annoyingly bovine toxin over-saturated lips, is just along for the ride. Sad to say, they could have even used more character development in an already long movie. Worth a watch or two for the effects alone - with one particularly remarkable car chase scene - but a decent movie in general.
Transformers 4 Age Of Extinction. Some of the special effects seem too familiar, though still impressive. At least it has a different type of story, though the relationships seem contrived. Mark Wahlberg was good but almost seems out of place in this movie. The franchise has definitely lost its lustre with this one.
Tron. Visually interesting and somewhat novel premise - perhaps one of the first or the first to try to show a digital virtual world. Not much beyond that. Not timeless - something which is good for it's time. Good performances from actors who must have had no idea what the final product would look like. Worth a watch primarily as back-story to the 2010 successor.
Tron Legacy. Visually and aurally superior to its predecessor, but with the benefit of lots of time and therefore vastly superior computer graphics and discrete channel digital sound. Lots going on all the time so the movie plays quickly. Relatively good story to progress the original movie. Enjoyable performances from all actors. Worth a watch or two.
Tropic Thunder. Ben Stiller shows that he not only acts in bad movies, but directs and produces them too. Save a couple of very brief, very funny moments, this inventive premise doesn't deliver much value. This movie demonstrates that even given a novel premise and lots of well-known actors, a film can still be stupid.
Twilight. The chemistry between the main characters seems a little rushed, and in fact the whole movie seems rushed -- despite a run time of a little under two hours -- presumably due to massive editing of the book on which it is based. Some dialogue sounds as if it was learned a few minutes before delivery. Special effects are less than stellar sometimes, though there is some quite nice cinematography. Most assuredly geared for a younger female audience, and suspension of disbelief is required at many times. While not a terrible movie, I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised after having watched it, but unfortunately I wasn't.
Twins. Pretty dumb.
Twelve Angry Men. Good acting in what is an otherwise simple social and psychological commentary about simple characters, each of whom is one-dimensional in a different way. Possibly somewhat novel at the time of its filming, the contents are basically the equivalent of a Perry Mason episode of the same era, and the premise has certainly been repeated many, many times since. Still worth a watch.
Twister. An interesting story put together well with graphics that are quite remarkably done for the year this film was created. Visually, this is well done. Some unrealistic scenarios can be easily forgiven because of the pure excitement of the scenes in which they are part. Some of the lesser characters are all but invisible but that doesn't matter as they aren't essential to the dialogue. Yet Philip Seymour Hoffman is fun to watch. Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt are believeable in their respective roles. Jami Gertz' character doesn't seem as real, or perhaps some of her dialogue is a little over-the-top, but all-in-all, good performances come from all characters. The sound track to this film is very enjoyable; it is one where you do notice the music, but it is good and does fit what we see on screen.
Up. Some clever humour though not riddled with it and lots of general silliness. Superb animation as is expected from Pixar. Cute. Worth a watch or two.
Van Helsing. OK. Decent graphics. So-so story.
V
Vanilla Sky. Weird, weird, weird. A hodge-podge of flash-backs that never quite have us understanding any of the characters. I waited for some kind of epiphany moment at or near the end -- something to tie up the pieces -- which just never materialized. Or perhaps the psychological commentary just isn't that earth-shaking. Not the viewer being taken on a journey as much as a wild amusement park ride while on drugs.
Vertical Limit. OK. Worth a watch once.
V For Vendetta. Very good. A particularly-well-dramatized cautionary tale with hommage to 1984 and The Matrix - the latter being reasonable considering it is the Warchowski Brothers' screenplay. The oppression and tyranny premise is certainly not novel, but there is more than enough unique story to make this interesting. Without giving anything away, the denouement uses extreme poetic license in place of proper physics, but is tolerable for effect. Not overly bogged down in giving the necessary backstory as we go along. Excellent performances from the leads. Worth a watch.
Wall-E. Quite impressive animation. Cute story with some very clever humour.
War Of The Worlds. The story is a classic. True enough to H.G. Wells and thankfully they didn't have Cruise save the world Hollywood-style. Let Will Smith do that. The digital graphics were of course excellent. I did not particularly enjoy watching Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier leading his annoyingly disfunctional family and it gets downright sappy at times. Dakota Fanning does quite well with a lot of dialogue and expression; impressive. Up-close interaction with the creatures reminds us of Alien and Jurassic Park. A nice bit of excitement. Some of the camera moves were very well done; kudos to Steven Spielberg. Most of the stars however go to the original story and fantastic digital effects.
Warm Bodies. Nice new twist in the zombie genre. Some cute humour. Just the right amount of silliness. Refreshingly well done.
Watchment. This is a very weird movie. The three-hour director's cut throws in everything *and* the kitchen sink: superhero, slasher, science fiction, alternate reality, martial arts, soft-core porn. It ends up being a disjointed mess, albeit a well-filmed mess, as cinematography is excellent. The female lead's dialogue is sometimes corny and forced. Almost all to do with Dr Manhattan was ridiculously over-the-top. The Rorshach character is the only particularly intriguing one and well acted. They tried to jam too many arcs into the story and the movie as a whole is a mess because of it.
We Bought A Zoo Very good at what it is meant to be - a plodding and predictable family-friendly story with lots of animals.
Wedding Crashers. An interesting premise for a movie at least. Some stupid humour but some good stuff here too. Mostly fluff unfortunately, so it's just another watch-and-forget movie.
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. This is very well acted and very well filmed. Based on a good story, but which doesn't really withstand the test of time. It's a long way to go for a very small pay-off with a not-altogether-surprising reveal. And in societal generations subsequent to that of the movie's events, even the rationale for the finale of the movie isn't overly easy to empathize with. Not that we don't understand the emotions of the characters, but that the entire premise isn't as feasible. Having said that, again, for the era, and with the actors' portrayals of complex characters, this is very well done.
Wild Wild West. A weird but somehow intriguing movie. Will Smith is hilarious; Kevin Kline is a funny enough sidekick. Will plays his most usual character style. Kick ass, don't give a crap, girl-winning hero. Thankfully he is very good at it. The story is almost good. Primarily this movie is good to watch just because of Will Smith's wise-cracks, especially back and forth with Kenneth Branaugh's character, and because of Will's excellent theme song for the movie. Admirable effects.
What Women Want. The lovely Helen Hunt is really the only redeeming part of this silly movie. The premise is every guy's dream of course, wherein the guy can know what the girl is thinking. A chick-flick as it were and Mel Gibson is just plain annoying.
Why Him. In the vein of Superbad and Wolf Of Wall Street to a certain extent, this is good at times and annoying at times. Worth a watch, but not overly memorable.
Wonder Woman. Decent story, with some obvious feminine empowerment moralizing. Thankfully not too over the top. Not overly enthralling movie. Beside the fun slow-motion parts, unfortunately the biggest action sequences were too much like video game sequences. Just too unrealistic; too unbelievable for something that already requires suspension of disbelief. Worth a watch once for entertainment, this movie, as with most of this genre anymore, is forgettable.
World War Z. An entertaining zombie apocalypse movie. Moves quickly and methodically through two hours, without wasting any time on a "here's how it got started" arc. Great cinematography and some of the remote views of the angry zombie masses are quite spectacular. Lots of mayhem and urgent escape sequences. Believable depictions of what societal break-down might look like as the Gerry character gets drawn into his essential role. Well acted by all those involved but this is primarily Brad Pitt meeting a bunch of different people throughout his desperate journey, and I find that even his wife and family only really serve to quietly look dour and unhappy in the scenes in which they're involved. Impressive close-ups and entertaining aggressive frantic action. Definitely worth a watch.
X-Files I Want To Believe A tad cheesy in the Mulder-Scully interplay, and not in the good way of the original series. A decent movie though. It would have actually made a decent episode if Chris Carter had left out the relationship issues. But the relationship was part of the movie, and we have learned quite a bit more about the characters. But to what end? Will there be more X-Files movies? Well acted, as was the original series.
X-MenVery enjoyable with good effects.
X-Men 2
X-Men Days Of Future PastDecent story and decent action movie with decent acting. A couple of stand-out scenes of great visuals include the spatial portal jumping and the kitchen scene in the pentagon. A little underwhelming or cliche on the backstory of Charles and Eric, but not terrible. A good saga in the X-men series and worth a watch.
X-Men The Last Stand
X-Men Origins WolverineNot bad but not as enjoyable as previous installments of the X-Men franchise.
X-Men First ClassQuite a good introduction to the characters. A very different feel to the movie than all the previous installments of the franchise - more James Bond and less comic book. Of course more character development is required to understand the rationale behind the characters and that is what the viewer is given, even while there is lots of action. Some very impressive visual effects.
XXX. This is definitely a James Bond knock-off for the new generation. A little hokey at times but not bad. A fair bit of action with lots of nice explosions, unbelievable escapes, a beautiful girl love interest who at first appears uninterested, and a James Bond type conclusion. In fact, there is nothing new here except the background of the main character X, and even that background is a bit cheesy. Even the plot twists, if we can call them that, are predictable. A couple of times, you'll say to yourself, "ooooh, that's a shocker -- not". Vin Diesel is remarkably 'not bad' though considering the script he's given isn't much to work with.
XXX State Of The Union. As with the first installment, hokey a lot of the time, but not terrible. Decent action with lots of explosions. Not outstanding visuals. Ice Cube looks comfortable in the role. Worth a watch.
Year One. Good for some easy laughs and Jack Black is certainly an appropriate choice for lead with Mike Cera also a good choice for the tag-along. Humour is simple quick-draw one-liners and sophomoric visuals. A lot of misses and some very good hits; some you can't help but laugh. That the main characters use contemporary language, mannerisms, colloquial expressions and references, etc. is actually quite hilarious. A historical period piece this isn't and a fair bit of fun is made at the expense of religion. Equally, fine art this isn't, but worth a watch once in a while.
You Can't Cheat An Honest Man. Not particularly good unless one is a WC Fields connoisseur.
Zack And Miri Make A Porno. Elizabeth Banks is beautiful and there is a movie in here somewhere. Teenager-focussed crap mostly, with some particularly sophomoric, classless poop humour, and almost incessant swearing. If you're looking for intelligent comedy, or intelligent anything, it's not here. There were some occasional laughs throughout a plot which is transparent beginning to end. Interesting premise at least.
Zombieland. Tolerable take on the old zombie premise. Some chuckles throughout. The creators, through narration by the main character, draw attention to a list of rules for survival in zombieland, which are for added effect digitally superimposed and animated as the story progresses. Only a few are described and shown. Perhaps so the audience doesn't get annoyed by the distraction and perhaps in case there is a sequel. All leads play their characters well but this is a one-time time-waster only; there is nothing noteworthy here.
Capitalism A Love Story. Truly sadly, this is not Michael Moore's best effort even while this is an excellent choice of topic. He fails to deliver a truly compelling or in any way overwhelming argument despite so much available material. Many times an objective viewer could say that some selections of examples are poor and even inappropriate to his argument. He didn't make this mistake in "Sicko". However he does succeed in appropriately making a laughingstock those who throw about the word socialist without any understanding of the meaning of the word. Equally, he does provide ample warning about unadulterated greed and how that affects the masses. Moore does well with some sardonic humour and the point he is making is certainly clear, if biased, with some well-filmed bits. Moore provides an ongoing reminder of the gap between rich and poor - something clearly evident - yet about which the ignorant masses still remain ignorant, or perhaps ambivolent. But again some examples, such as dead peasant insurance, fail miserably to demonstrate unethical or amoral behaviour of corporations. Michael Moore lives in the wrong society. He rails against that which he holds to be most valuable - unbridled freedom. With capitalism - his topic here - unbridled freedom allows unbridled greed. His best point is a simple one - with some exceptions he put on camera, American citizens elect the very people who screw them over by hiring their Wall Street cronies and the lot of them become richer and richer - 5% have 95% of the wealth.
Religulous. Bill Maher uses knowledge plus intelligence plus clever wit to make a very important point. The truly intelligent will enjoy and appreciate this movie, despite not having to be swayed by it. I have to steal someone else's good idea, expand upon it and suggest this should be shown in every single school in anything resembling civilized society yearly from age 12 onward until graduation from high school or an equivalent. The movie could be disturbing to anyone younger, but even Bill Maher might agree that fact makes his point that much more clear. Interestingly Bill has practically limitless logical, scientific, rational source material and needs to use very little of it to make his point, which he does primarily by asking questions and letting the viewer simply listen to the answers given -- and not given. He intersperses some film clips and superimpositions and subtitles for comic effect and blatant satire -- and quite well. His point is so easily demonstrated and proven that he doesn't need to drill into the audience which side he's on. Mainly only in the last five minutes or so Bill makes dire statements which are all valid and scary, and is by far the most poignant part of the film. This is a movie that needs repeated sequels.
Sicko. MM is a liberal in a conservative society. Is he a smart guy? Yes. Is he biased? Yes. Is he right? Yes. This movie is very good because it utterly succeeds at its purpose. He easily makes his point without having to say it. He is sarcastic and satirical. He is funny. The best information comes from a former British politician who succinctly explains the issue right down to the basics of class structure. MM gets side-tracked on politics, but this is fair, because politics (the Cuba example being a great one) is a major part of the issue. It doesn't matter if the socialized systems he exemplified are perfect or not; it doesn't even matter that we can assume he hand-picked his interviewees, because his fundamental message is sound -- this is about basic good, humanity, civility. No one can argue where he found it and where he didn't. A very good documentary.