S Movies
Sideways (2004)
Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Hayden Church, and Virginia Madsen, Sideways is about a week of wine drinking and running away from the future that two guys do prior to Church’s wedding. They meet two women, Church looking to get laid, and Giamatti looking to feel alive and make a true connection with anyone.
I really liked this movie. Church is the fun guy who is older, and is having problems with the idea of being tied down, that he has given in to one woman and Giamatti is depressed and mediocre, looking to find anyone to connect with that doesn’t force him out of his comfort zone. There is real dialogue, and the whole movie felt like you were spying in on two guys and their week in California. Funny, and realistic, you really relate to what Paul feels and how he reacts to those around him as the movie unfolds his past experiences.
If you can stand some of the male schvenism and brief sex scenes, I would recommend this movie to those people who like a good story about real people and all of their baggage and imperfections.
Shall We Dance (2004)
I spent a good part of this movie chuckling, it just left a lot of actions and scenes completely unexplained.
Starring Stanley Tucci, Richard Gene, Susan Sarandon, and Jennifer Lopez this movie has two intermingled small ideas that are actually of note. First, Richard Gene starts to take dance lessons and doesn’t tell his wife, because he is ashamed that he wants to be even more happy when he already has so much. Second, that people get married as a witness and promise to one another’s lives, that they will take note and care even about the most mundane of intricacies. From there on out, the intelligence of the movie falls flat.
Real quick, Gene takes up dance lessons, his wife hires inspector to figure out if he’s cheating, he hits on Lopez without success and still comes back to class only to have a steamy dance with her later on, and then he gets mad when the wifey finds out what he’s been doing on Wednesday nights. Everyone loves him for some reason, and we just assume that it’s because he is decent looking, and begs him to come back for one last time, to see Lopez as she goes away to dance in England.
I can objectively watch, and enjoy at times, a good chick flick. This was just a weird movie. Jennifer Lopez was weird, Susan Sarandon was overly mad about something kind of strange without any build-up, and Richard Gene did a couple of those trademark smile-blinks, and show head shakes that repeated every performance he’s made since Pretty Woman.
I would recommend this movie to people who want to see a movie with some good dancing, especially different ballroom dances. Jennifer Lopez looks really good when she dances. But although this movie has more meat than just dancing, it really is quite weird, and doesn’t much qualify as a chick flick. So, watch for dancing and not about much else.
Sahara (2005)
A fun movie. You may be concerned about this being a knock off of other treasure hunting movies, but this is more about the action then it is about the spoils.
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Penelope Cruz, Steve Zahn, and William Macy, this is a story about a couple of ex-navy men who start out looking for an iron clad ship from the Civil War and end up stopping a global threat in Africa. The dictator is generating solar power and buckets of toxic waste that are being piled up and are leaking into the drinking water, and into the Nile. This polluted water is spreading disease, and if it filters to the ocean, it can pollute all of the water in the ocean in a matter of months.
Steve Zahn was really the stand out here for me. Not having been a sidekick in a major action film, he does a nice job of balancing dry, sarcastic quips, with some serious acting and pulls it off fairly well, with the guns, and the machismo and all that. The story itself starts out with a long dialogue that basically is just so perfect and unrealistic, just to give some back story on what is going on. But it picks up soon after with some interesting cinematics with a fight scene, and an unusual string of adventures that see these guys sled down sand dunes in a truck bed, fly a beat up old plane tipped on one set of wheels, and shooting a 150 year old canon ball right through a helicopter.
A fun movie, with not too bad of acting or dialogue, I would recommend this movie to most anyone. Not really graphic, not too much language, the only real downside is if you don’t like the stiffness of Penelope Cruz at times, or can’t really appreciate sarcastic humor. I gave it this rating just because I probably wouldn’t watch this movie a million times.
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
A gave this movie one last chance. But as I feared, it still sucks.
It’s been at least ten years since I have seen the original Star Wars. I have watched “Empire” and “Jedi” many times in that span, but I never did like the first one. Watching it again, I figured out more reasons why.
It is slow. This says it all. The epitome is when the droids are wandering in the desert. Could that be any more stupid and boring?
The dialogue. I had remembered this being better, like Lucas had slipped over the years. But like Chip Cullen says, “Show not tell” and the whole first movie is all about the “tell” and the forced dialogue between the characters, it’s hokey.
It’s dated. I know at the time this was huge, but the stupid aliens, and look of the film, and the lack of action because of the lack of technology really prevents this movie from ever living up the dream idea.
Other things that I noticed specifically where Darth Vader. He is a real tool in this movie. You can hardly believe that Anakin is in there after seeing the first three parts. He talks way too much, and gets pushed around way too much by the average soliders.
Obi Wan. He is just way too eager to get back into fighting. It just doesn’t seem like the same character. He meets Luke and he’s all “When are ya going to learn the force? Huh? You gonna You gonna?”
If anyone even reads this, I know those people are hating me. The design for this movie is great, but I think people have gotten caught up in the romantic idea of what this movie is more than actually the substance is there. It really can’t touch the newer versions, even in concept. If you haven’t seen this, I don’t think you are even alive, so I don’t need to give a recommendation. But just realize that if Lucas would have had his way, all of the movies would look as digitally amazing as they do today. He even admits the first movies aren’t very good, so maybe people should look at them through his eyes and a little less their own.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
What a movie!
I had been waiting on this with wet dreams since last fall when we saw the first trailers. It does not disappoint.
I liked the first two new Star Wars movies. I like the technology, I like the battles, I like them for everything that Lucas wished he had back in the day, and is making up for now. Incidentally, the opposite is what people love the old movies for, and I believe that I am in the minority in liking the newer ones better.
But the second movie especially, had such forced dialogue, that it would have been better if it was solid action. This movie, that is not the case. The dialogue may not be the best, but it is believable and much less of a nails on a chalkboard effect then the last movie.
But the scenes in this one. The opening battle in space with all of the ships, the battle on the Wookie planet with the trees and the water, and all of the machines and characters, from General Grievous to the ships and Imperial attackers, everything was so amazing. The design, the texture, everything is so rich.
Then, you have this little thing called the story. You have empathetic characters that question what you would do in their situation.
Anakin becomes more powerful as the movie goes along, but he is seduced by the dark side only in hopes of saving Padme. Then we realize Senator Palpatine is Dark Sidious, and all of a sudden all of the Jedi are being killed, betrayed by their troops. The land is falling, and then Anakin is fighting Obi Wan on the lava planet of Mustafar.
It ties to the old movies so well, and you see the pain and suffering of Anakin as he falls and is badly burned, and then the ultimate transformation into Dark Vader. It is all so amazing.
This is the best movie of all six in so many senses. You have to see this. This is the best movie I have seen since Spiderman last summer.
Someone like you (2001)
I know, I know, it’s a chick flick. But I am a real sucker for this movie, and this is like the third time I have seen the movie.
Starring Hugh Jackman, Ashley Judd, Marisa Tomei and Greg Kinnear, this movie is funny, tongue in the cheek, romantic, and sexy. I am amazed by how good looking Jackman is, and Judd is really freaking cute in this movie too.
In the movie, Judd is dating Kinnear, but he breaks her heart. Judd moves in with Jackman strictly as a roommate, because she finds out that he is a little bit of a player. All three of the characters work together at a talk show, so that makes every situation that much more funny.
Judd ends up writing this column on the dating habits of males, which is actually pretty funny. Jackman tries to help her through a tough time, all the while she is distance and cold, evaluating him and using his life as a basis for her column advice. But in the end, it isn’t his nature that she is trying to figure out, but instead she is trying to find a way to hide from her own. She can’t figure out why she keeps finding the wrong guy, and is so scared that it is her, blames it on other men.
She ends up falling for Jackman, and he finds out what she has done. But she apologizes and they get together, blah blah.
Regardless, the underlying emotions I think most people can relate to, who have ever really love and lost and didn’t know why.
See this movie if you like good looking actors and funny love stories. If you are put off by slightly slovenliest men, you may want to pass. But I know you’re not, so see this one. You won’t regret it.
Seabiscuit (2003)
We bought this movie yesterday, and it still holds the magic it first did when we saw it in the theaters. As the filmmakers say on the disc, a Classic American Tale, Seabiscuit is an emotional film that touches the heart of most any red blooded American.
Beautifully shot in such a memorable era, Seabiscuit is a story about a discarded horse that brings together three lives that have been beaten down by the depression, and rises to the penultimate success. For every American whose worth was shattered, this movie is about second chances, hope, and faith that those who believe in those three ideals can rise to the top.
A perfect cast of Jeff Bridges, Toby Maguire, Chris Cooper, Elisabeth Banks and directed by Gary Ross, each character shows the emotion of a troubled spirit in a great way. Jeff Bridges lost his son to the very thing that made him rich, Toby Maguire was given up by his family in hopes of a better life that never was, and Chris Cooper was a nomad that slowly watched his precious untouched country-side dwindle.
This movie makes me cry ever time I see it. The color, the grandeur of the costumes, and that secret wish down within that the underdog will win, this is a movie that blends classic film making with modern technology and resources.
