Summer Movie Review Thread

[Ephraim]

I have been waiting months to create this thread. Over the summer, I have seen a lot of movies, and I’m going to post reviews of them all right here, right now. Please understand: there might be some spoilers and I am not going to block out the whole thread, so only read about movies you’ve already seen or don’t mind having spoiled. Be sure to post your own reviews!

 

Iron Man: Wow. Robert Downey Jr. is a mighty fine actor. This was an entertaining, well-written superhero movie. I’m not sure which was more impressive: the special effects or the dialogue. I only have a few gripes. The sex scene seemed pointless, there wasn’t quite enough of Iron Man doing his Iron Man thing, and some of the political messages got annoying (although a few good points were raised). Still, this is just nitpicking, and the film deserves all the praise it has gotten. Oh, and if you didn’t stick around after the credits, you have to see the movie again. It’s pretty important.

 

Speed Racer: I love this movie. I seem to be pretty much alone in this opinion. The film got almost exclusively bad reviews, and everyone I talk to about the film didn’t seem to like it. Screw them; it was great (see signature for more details).

Going in, I was a tad skeptical, because of the folks behind the film. I thought of the Wachowski Bros. as bad directors who happened to make a good film a few years back. They proved me wrong. The entire audience consisted of me and this other guy in the back. I’m not sure what he thought of the movie, but I loved every second of it. The races were exciting, the characters were likeable, most of the scenes were creatively shot, and the dialogue was suitably campy. True the little kid and the monkey stole too many scenes, and I almost had a seizure during the final race, but it was still one of the best films I’ve seen all summer. Oh, and Trixie was cute. Love that hair. As soon as the movie ended, I went directly to Wal-Mart to by some DVDs of the old show. In short: despite the presence of Susan Sarandon, it was an excellent film.

Here is a second opinion.

 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Confession time. I’ve never seen any of the first three Indy movies. Shocking, I know. That didn’t stop me from enjoying the new one. Some people are kinda upset about how much CGI was used, but the only place I think it was abused was at the very end, where the alien was shown in all its glory. I would rather the alien was kept shadowy and mysterious. There are plenty of humorous moments. Some worked; some didn’t. The scene where the team kept falling off waterfalls was fun, but the bit with the snake rope was just dumb. Also, I liked the main villain. Her frosty personality was well played, and there’s something about seeing a small lady with shoulder length hair, wearing military garb and sword fighting on top of two jeeps that I find entertaining. Money well spent. This film was so good that I mostly forgot about the two teenagers, sucking each others’ faces off, several seats to my right.

Here is a second opinion.

 

Kung Fu Panda: The special effects were cool; the dialogue was funny; the story was genuinely interesting. My only complaint: Angelina Jolie was a weird casting choice. Once you appear nude on film a certain number of times and talk about being involved with drugs and S&M to the press, you should probably just forget about the kid films.

 

Wall-E: I was curious as to how this movie was going to turn out, because I had heard it was practically a silent film. However, like all Pixar films, it didn’t disapoint. Despite the fact that the two main characters collectively have under 200 words of dialouge and minimal facial expressions, I still got a really good feel for their personalities. The first twenty minutes of the movie may be the most emotionally moving and enjoyable part of any movie I’ve seen all year. There has been a tiny bit of controversy over critics seeing political messages in the story. While I get where they’re coming from, I think they’re looking a little too deep. None of the messages came off as preachy to me.

The special effects were gorgeous (natch). I think I’ll pick this one up on Blu-Ray and put my PS3 to good use. All the robots had appealing and appropriate designs. Personally, I think EVE was the most interesting. I like her smooth, egg-like design. She was aestetically pleasing and cute as a button! (totally not crepy)

Wall-E was among my favorite movies of the summer. It was funny, thoughtful, beautiful, and left me feeling good. Incidently, my aunt Marilyn didn’t get it.

Here is a second opinion.

 

Han*edited*: A totally different type of superhero movie. The main villain was the hero’s own reckless behavior. Was it just me, or did the people he save seem like ungrateful jerks? Equal parts funny and exciting, the folks who put this film together really knew what they were doing. I still hear people reciting lines of dialouge in my dorm’s lobby (“Your head is going up his *edited*…”). There needs to be a sequel. Aunt Marilyn didn’t get it.

 

Get Smart: I remembered enjoying the original series as a kid, so I wondered how the film turned out. There were some funny bits, but I couldn’t get over how badly they screwed up 99. The original 99 was nice; the new one is just annoyingly sarcastic. Still, there was a fun cameo by the voice of Brock Samson at the end and the man-on-man kiss was… unexpected. All in all: meh. Aunt Marilyn liked it.

 

The Dark Knight: We’ve all seen the thread. It was good.

Her’s a second opinion.

 

Tropic Thunder: Sooooo many memorable quotes. This film dosen’t take itself the least bit seriously, and it works perfectly. A bunch of really talented actors were assembled to make the funniest movie possible. I’m so glad I saw it. The fake trailers were a really creative way of introducing the characters. There were two parents with a kid a couple of row in front of me. When the ad for Booty Sweat started, they seemed surprized. There have been some protests because of the jokes about retarded people. Perhapse it is insensitive, but I think these were some of the funniest parts of the whole thing. I keep doing impersonations of the offending character to nobody in particular. “You m-m-m-make me haaappy!” These writers should be rich and famous. Just see it.

To summerize: “I’m just a little boy, playing with his *edited* out of nervousness.”

[lockEm]

I wish I went to see more movies. I really wanted to see Han*edited*, the new Indy movie, and Iron Man

[Author]

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