Sunday, July 12, 2009

Write-Up: Brüno

I wish I could say that this one was better than Borat. I was a fan of Borat, and was hoping for a good "second Borat". I did get the latter.

On the way out of the theater, the general comments I heard was that it was pretty funny but not quite as funny as Borat, and I'd have to agree. Bruno was pretty identical to Borat in the format of the movie. Although it definitely had parts that were friggin hilarious, it just couldn't match up against Borat. I think they could've added a lot more to the movie to at least have a chance of the likings that Borat had. Unfortunately, this is a movie where you've already seen all of the hilarious parts..... in the previews.

The most astonishing part of the movie was how they managed to get so many stars in the movie for the closing scene into the credits; stars that include Bono, Sting, Snoop Dogg, Elton John, Slash, and Chris Martin from Coldplay.

Pretty much a super homosexual version of Borat.... I mean SUPER homosexual too (a lot of it was still funny but a lot of gay!), you might as well wait for a DVD release to catch this one.


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Write-Up: Public Enemies

A 1930's-based master bank robbery movie with all the tommy-guns you can handle and Johnny Depp as a bad-ass gangster... I'm gonna go against apparently about half of the reviews out there and say that this one was exciting and worth the $8 I paid to see it.

It seems like about half of the reviews say that Depp was not a good fit for the lead role of John Dillinger. I disagree. I will admit it isodd seeing him in an actually normal role with a slight southern accent, as opposed to the eye-liner wearing, fruity roles of his past including Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, and upcoming The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, but I don't see how someone could say that he doesn't match a role of a bad-ass bank robber. He's definitely fit for the part.

The movie is mixed with high crime gangsters, a crime-fighting cop (Christian Bale), and an oddly initialized love story with Dillinger's girlfriend. It's not much of a history lesson except for the fact that there was in fact a man named John Dillinger who robbed banks, got thrown in jail, and always seemed to escape.

If you're into the 1920's, 1930's gangster era (as I am), and the more Thompson submachine guns the better (as I think), then this one is certainly worth experiencing whether in a theater or your living room.

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Write-Up: The Haunting in Connecticut

Considering just how far a movie has to go to produce something that is horrifying yet inventive at the same time, this one was surprisingly good.

The Haunting in Connecticut is a movie that has a flare of an exorcism-based movie with the jumpy and startling scenes of a decent horror film. Horror movies that definitely catch my attention are those with scenes that are just so weird or different than anything else you've seen that they leave you with a squinting face of minor disgust. This movie had several of these moments, especially an odd climactic scene with a child medium in a circular seance experiencing an emission of ectoplasm from his mouth (the DVD cover picture for the film). Things like this, that are mixed with the perfect high-pitched screeching soundtrack, are the creepy scenes that just shock people.

I wouldn't rush out to see it, but it's definitely worth a watching now that it has been released on DVD. Just don't expect a fantastic movie. It has it's parts though.

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Write-Up: The Uninvited and One Missed Call

I decided to combine these two reviews because there honestly isn't too much to say about either of them, which is pretty disappointing.

When I had the chance to watch these movies, I was excited, being the horror movie fanatic that I am. I understand that, as this genre of movie goes, some plots and scare tactics are pretty cliche. It seems that everything that can be innovative in a horror movie has already been done, BUT there are still movies I see and think, "Wow! That's weird." or "Hmmm. I've never really seen that before.". These are the movies that get good reviews in my book.

These two movies were just sub-par at best. I really expected great things from them, and maybe that's where I went wrong. I don't know.

As far as final thoughts are concerned, One Missed Call was a bit better than The Uninvited. By far, the best things about The Uninvited are cast members Emily Browning and
Elizabeth Banks, although Elizabeth Banks' performance is nothing at all like that of Zack and Miri Make a Porno. If any thoughts of seeing these are building up inside your head, I would go ahead and check out One Missed Call, but just don't expect the next horror classic.... or even a 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', new-age horror film.

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