Tuesday, January 01, 2008

More Movie Reviews

Well, after being sick for a week Lisa and I had a chance to watch a few movies! My last posts were so popular I thought I'd pass on my thoughts on four movies.

My stars are based on the entainment value it brought to me. It says nothing about the quality or value of the movie in general. So take them with a grain of salt!

Children of Men - * - I got this movie because I read that Matt Damon and George Clooney thought it was the best movie of the year. Maybe you have to be an actor to appreciate it. It was way too dark for me. It's an end time flick where the human race has been sterilized and one woman becomes pregnant and the goal of the movie is to get her to a safe haven amidst all kinds of anarchy. Too weird for me. Sorry Matt and George!

Premonition - * - A good friend of mine loved this and so I had to get it. I like Sandra Bullock. But I don't like this genre of movie. It's a semi (but not really)horror/semi suspense flick. Bullock gets a premonition of her husband's death and spends the movie trying to prevent it. The movie hops back and forth between before and after the premonition. Lisa enjoyed it. But I'm too linear of a thinker. I don't like bouncing around with time frames and the imminent death kinda creeps me out!

The Good Shepherd - ** - I rented this a second time by mistake. I forgot I had rented it before. I guess that tells you something. I like Matt Damon a lot but he plays a VERY melancholy secret agent. I'm not sure how factual it is but it "documents" the beginning of the CIA. I like historical stuff. It has a lot of suspense. But it's not uplifting by any stretch of the imagination. I'd have given it a third star if it was more action and less melancholy. The entire music track is a piano playing sadly (at least when I noticed it). The movie gives you a realistic view (I assume) of the undercover world of our government - a no win situation where ethics are blurred and people are killed on a regular basis to prevent greater losses. Plus, Damons family life starts off bad and gets progressively worse...totally fractured by the end of the show.

Reign Over Me - *** - This was a pleasant surprise. It is NOT an action flick at all. And don't rent it for pure comedy (Adam Sandler is one of the stars). But if you like great acting and good interplay of characters with the full range of emotion, then you'll like this. Sandler plays a former dentist whose family dies in the 911 Boston flight. He is emotionally devasted and turns into a recluse. Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda star) recognizes him on the street. They attended med school together as roommates. The story is how Cheadle seeks to rescue Sandler from his trauma and restore him to real life. I think it's a great story of love and friendship. It keeps you laughing and crying. But it's pretty serious with a happy ending. Two stars are for entertainment and the third star is for the good moral theme.

There you go! Enjoy the show.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just rented Reign Over Me as one of my New-Years-Eve-Stay-at-Home-Movies, and I,too, was pleasantly surprised, since Adam Sandler is not one of my prefered actors. I appreciated how Don Cheadle's character showed amazing growth and self-awareness as the movie progressed. Through his relationship with the Sandler character, which turned his comfortable & predictable life on it's head, he came to his own senses. Ironic, he seemed the one who had nothing to change, and yet he changed along with his friend. They both discovered how to really live again. They both came from very different places, but ended up more ALIVE than they had been before their "chance" meeting. I recommend it.