C-wod.com

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve long anticipated the next movie from PJ, and have said from the beginning that it would be great. Well, it would seem that most people agree with me.

In case you hadn’t noticed, basically ever critic out there has given this movie glowing reviews. I appreciate these reviews even more than normal reviews mainly because I think reviewers generally put re-makes down, and have a bias against them.

But who cares what they say. You came to c-wod.com to hear what Greg thought of the movie. (humor me)

Overall I thought it was truly amazingly done. In comparison to LotR, which everyone knows is the standard of the perfect movie. (I’m kidding…) I would say it is more entertaining than any single movie, but that the LotRs were better directed. But I also believe they had a greater capacity for directing greatness.

Acting wise I thought it was a little stylized. You know how when you watch old time movies you feel that the actors are acting. Well generally I don’t like being reminded that the actors are acting, but in this it works. I think it goes along with the time period, and the fact that this is a re-make. Naomi Watts was absolutely superb, and although I haven’t seen any other Oscar worthy actresses this year, I would make her the favorite. I’m basing this off the fact that I think this a 100% Oscar caliber performance. Jake Black was a very interesting choice for this movie, but it works. The character is over the top, and not part of reality; as is he. He lives in own world of pure tunnel vision towards his goal. I would say that he has a chance at being nominated for a Supporting Role. Adrian Brody, who I will admit I don’t like because of his off screen personality, I think did a fine job. I don’t think it was anything special, but he in no way takes away from the movie, but I don’t think he’ll be nominated. I also believe that an actor can be limited by his character. (Just so you know.) Andy Serkis, as Kong, did another amazing job. I think he performance in LotR (Gollum) was better, but then again he could talk in that movie. (Definitely should have gotten a nomination for LotR: tTT or RotK) I think he had some absolutely touching scenes with Naomi. I would love to see him nominated for best actor, partly because I really admire what he was able to do with CGI and having a non-speaking part.

As I said I thought the directing of this movie was great. It was a little slow in the second half hour, but I can appreciate the reason for it. I could definitely see PJ being nominated again.

I think I was fairly conservative about making predictions about the Oscars, outside of Naomi. I still want to see Memoirs of a Geisha, Chronicles, Munich, New World and maybe (but probably not) Brokeback Mountain.

I am not usually a sucker for big box office movies, much like Star Wars, Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings. However, this time I gave in and went to see King Kong. For those of you that do not know already, the cast features Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrian Brody, and a very big monkey (not quite as big as my monkey though). Ok, that was uncalled for. Welsh didn’t find it very funny either when I said it during the movie. Anyway, the movie revolves around Carl Denham’s plot to film a new movie on a previously undiscovered island. When they get there they are rudely awakened by the native people, dinosaurs, scorpions, and of course King Kong. Don’t worry, I’m not going to give away any more of the plot. With all that crap aside I am going to have to say that I was not a big fan of this movie. I just did not find it believable in any way. I mean really would anyone ever accept some mammoth sized monkey? The movie was also three hours long. Peter Jackson obviously has an issue with time. He can’t seem to get the job done in less then three hours. I aggravated my back again from sitting in one place for too long. There were just way too many unnecessary fight scenes as well. I did not need all those extra scenes thrown in, lets just stick to the plot please. I also thought that Jack Black was the only good actor in the movie. He clearly did the best job. Brody and Watts were sub par if you ask me. So, I guess I am going to give King Kong one thumb down. Don’t let yourself get hyped up over this one.

Last Saturday night, after my eye turned red, I went to see Walk The Line. The movie is basically a biography of Johnny Cash, for those of you that did not know. The movie starts when Johnny (JR at the time) was just a child. He was very close to his brother Jack; he viewed him as a buffer between his father and him. His father constantly rejected JR and viewed him as a failure because he listened to the radio a lot. It was at 10 years old that he first heard June Carter on the radio. When he finished high school, Johnny joined the air force and married a girl he dated for only a month. It was in the air force that he first started to write songs. After he left the military he attempted to get a record deal singing gospel, but the record producer wanted to hear something new, so his slow as a train/tough as balls/sharp as a razor sound was born. After his big break, he went on tour with acts such as June Carter, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis. It was Elvis that introduced amphetamines to Cash. These drugs, along with alcohol, seemed to consume his life. June and Johnny eventually became very good friends, but June did not approve of the lifestyle he was living. Johnny life’s then takes many turns. To me this was truly a touching story. I don’t why, but I felt like I could relate to everything he was going through. The acting was also excellent. Joaquin Phoenix was excellent and I would not be surprised if he wins an Oscar for his performance. He also sang all the music in the movie by himself. Movie master Shim, said that the movie was very good, but needed better directing because the movie seemed to jump around a bit, I agree. Anyway, please do yourself a favor and go see Walk The Line. I give Walk The Line two thumbs up.

Well it’s that time of year again: finals, shopping, getting sick, and making plans with friends. But more importantly this is the time of year when all of the actually well made movies come out. Or as I like to call them, films. To the casual movie goer the holiday season harvest of movies can be wasted. Too often people go see the cheap joke and flashy visual effects movies, but that’s why I’m here. I’m going to give a quick run down of the extra-virgin movies that you should spend your valuable time seeing.

Note: I have not actually seen any of these movies yet. This is simply a list of movies in which I see the most potential. (OH YEAH! didn’t end the sentence with a preposition)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
What a surprise, the LotR geek is telling people to see another movie with orcs in it. But I would recommend this movie regardless of the era of ‘rings’ that we just left. These books are saturated with rich characters, symbolism and adventure. The movie really should have enough dimensions to it that everyone leaves the theatre fully satisfied, from the intellectually impaired to the movie snobs of the world.

King Kong
Yeah, let’s just get all the typical Greg movies out of the way now. PJ (Peter Jackson for those of you not in the know.) decided to remake this movie because it was the movie that made him fall in love with cinema. Now I know that most people are going to think that this is just some action movie with a big gorilla fighting a t-rex, and some of you are okay with that, while the others think it’s too unrealistic and cheesy (sheppard…). But I truly think that PJ is going to bring more to the screen than just the action. I’ve never seen the original so I don’t quite know what themes are going to fuel the movie, but I have faith that it’s going to make you think more than you thought you would. But if thinking isn’t your cup of tea when it comes to movies then don’t worry, I’m sure there is going to be plenty of action to appease all the sheppard’s out there. I also think we’re going to see some great acting. Even from Jack Black! Hopefully there will be no roller skates or bubbles though…

I’ve decided to continue this list at a later time. It was good to get the two biggest movies out of the way in the same post. Coming up next time: Pokeahotass, assassins, cowboys and Japanese woman (with no Rivers).

My first movie review of c-wod.com

Every tuesday, my fellow film majors and I eat lunch together. Throughout the course of this meal we make fun of people like you, the kind of people that only watch Hollywood films. If you thought Fight Club was good, if you liked Forrest Gump or even if you think that Robert DeNiro is a good actor, we make fun of you. It is hilarious. It was during one of these meals where I was told to go watch Oldboy. [This story was entirely made up, we don’t eat lunch together, I was told about Oldboy by one of my film teachers. Fight Club still sucks, Robert DeNiro still sucks, and Forrest Gump was OK]

Oldboy is a Korean export, which came out in 2003. The premise of the movie is a man named Oh Dae – Su is imprisoned for 15 years, and then mysteriously let out. He then has to figure out why he was imprisoned over the course of 5 days. The film is brilliantly woven to show Oh Dae-Su balancing, love, revenge, wrath, and knowledge. Chan-wook Park presents this film and a very flashy, and flamboyant manner. While artists like Darren Aronofsky can not balance showmanship and narration, Park achieves this feat throughout the film. The impressive camera work only adds to the progression of the story. While I am not normally a fan of fight sequences, Park films them in a manner that keeps them interesting. For instance a corridor fight between Oh Dae-Su and thugs, which is drawn out over the course of only one shot. The ending of this film will leave you quite disturbed as well. Oldboy gets a 9 out of 10. [Please note that in order to receive a 10, a film has to be as good as Magnolia. Receiving a 10 is nearly impossible]

So yes I went and saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night at midnight and I come back to say good things.

First let me say that this is probably my favorite book of all of them. Now I knew that this was going to be the most difficult to make because the book is much longer than those of the other HP movies. Mainly the movie was just the major scenes in the book, which also happened to be almost all action scenes. This made the movie different because it was much quicker moving, but this also gave it a rather rushed feeling. You don’t come out of the theatre with the same sense of a feeling like you were part of that world. But then again movies normally don’t accomplish that the way the imagination does anyway.

I still think this was the better movie because of the plot. I’m not going to say that I liked this director the best but the story was definitely much more captivating. Because the story was the most exciting is the sole reason why I think the movie is the best.

A few more complaints:
I think they did a rather poor job of depicting Mad-Eye Moody. His eye was supposed to be magical, not make mechanical turning noises. He was too tall and too antsy. (Yeah, I said antsy) I always thought oh Mad-Eye as a much more stone cold character. And I also thought that he was too tall; he should have been more dwarf-like.
Also I still hate this Dumbledore. He also tries to give his character much more animation than the way the character really is. Dumbledore is supposed to give of an aura of warmth and enthusiasm, but also one of power and authority. And the actor who plays him(who I am too lazy to IMDB) just makes him too emotional. Ian McKellen should play him. He needs to be more Gandalf-esque.

Other things:
The girls all harassed Ron about his looks.
I think Maggie Smith is still the best actor/actress in the movie.
I didn’t really imagine Voldermolt to look like that, nor did I really expect him to act like that, but it wasn’t bad nor disappointing.
I hated the camera tint. It made everything look very foggy and swampy.
Really was just not a fan of really many of the director’s image interpretation.

I don’t want all of this complaining make it seem like I didn’t like the movie.
The movie was still first rate and the best yet.
I just didn’t really care for the director’s style.