U-W Movies
Walking Tall (2004)
Starring The Rock, Johnny Knocksville, and Neal McDonough this is a remake of an older movie. The idea is that The Rock was in the armed service for eight years, and when he comes back, he finds his home town overrun with gambling, drugs, and prostitution. The law is in on it, so he decides to take the law into his own hands and set things right.
I like The Rock. He isn’t a bad actor. He’s better than Vin Diesel that is for sure. I don’t like that this is another movie where he just doesn’t use guns for some divine reason. But, he does use a huge piece of cedar to beat the crap out of everyone, so I liked that. McDonough is great, haunting eyes and the perfect corrupt business man.
There are a good many parts that will make you go, “Yeah Right” but I knew that coming in and I don’t care. It is a good popcorn movie with good action and a fallible hero with some good humor with both The Rock and Knocksville. I recommend this to most people, most of my friends, but I know that my any of my parents would not like it, and most people I know over 35.
Vanity Fair (2004)
Who’s in it
Reese Witherspoon, Gabriel Byrne
What was good
Reese Witherspoon was beautiful as usual, but didn’t do much on the acting front.
What sucked
The previews made this movie seem like it was about Reese Witherspoon seducing men until she got to the top. From what I remember she was actually more ordinary and didn’t rise all that much on the social ladder.
Who should go see this
I don’t think I would recommend this to anyone. It is cool to see most attractive women in this older dress with the bustier but that wasn’t enough to warrant anyone to see this. I would say pass to anyone who would ask.
Wimbledon (2004)
It’s a girlie movie, but it had Kirsten Dunst, who can be aggressive than giglish and it also had some of the filmography effects that are used in the popular CSI shows which made the fact that it was about tennis a little more interesting.
Paul Bettany is the male lead, star from Russell Crowe movies “Beautiful Mind” and “Master and Commander”, and is funny as much as the next English guy who uses all of their unusual slang, like “Bugga” or “Wanka”. He does a nice job in the lead role though and carries this movie enough. He really does show what the reaction is from the media to go from being unknown to being the underdog that does all the way to the top. He also does a really nice job of giving you a view into a competitors mind and all of the things they do to keep themselves in a game. All of the self massaging and self doubts that swirl around in an athlete’s head.
Paul falls in love with Kirsten, and in the beginning she is hot stuff and he is not quite. By the end, the tables have turned, and that makes loving each other complicated. But they work it out and have babies. Yeah tennis.
If you like the slow more shots, and the intertwining of objects in the scene shots that are similar to CSI then check this movie out. If you like British comedy like Monty Python, well this isn’t the same but is entertaining for British demeanor and language, then this might be worthwhile. But if you think that no amount of dramatization could make tennis interesting, then you might pass because especially near the end, there are some longer scenes of tennis that you really have to like the sport a little to care. Which I happen to like the sport quite a bit, so that wasn’t a quandary for me eh?
Welcome to Mooseport (2004)
The previews for this movie weren’t flattering, but it ended up being different then I expected. I thought it was going to be some bad acting by Ray Romano, some believable transition to the big screen but something that didn’t do him justice, and I figured it was going to be based around how podunk and silly this little town was that he lived in.
In the end, it was amusing. Romano ends up running against the former president of the United States all to win a girl’s heart that he was too dense to propose to for over six years. “Everybody Still Loves Raymond” and Romano is consistently winning in the polls, but in the end, he doesn’t win. But the moral of the story is he is honest, awww.
For those of you who love “Raymond” because of it’s crazy situations, dysfunctional family matters, and relatable situations, this doesn’t’ have any of that. It does have Romano’s trademark “wandering speak” type of humor. Instead of “Ray’s” hornball husband personality, in this movie, he is honest and fair and never has done anything wrong or told a lie. Kind of unbelievable. But it is funny to see Romano get hit with a golf ball, so at least rent it for that.
The Village (2004)
With a totally unexpected ending and an interesting premise, this movie had me guessing at every turn. The cynics of this film seem to be down on Night Shlamayan’s perspectives on societal commentary and his pacing, where I embrace his memorable storytelling and the fact that even though it may not be the best movie ever made, you know the four movies he has made because they stand out in a body of work.
Unforgiven (1992)
A Client Eastwood movie from 92 which had critical acclaim, I thought I had seen it once before, but I think I would have remembered this un-climactic, less than empathetic movie that was entirely too long and was only improved by a scene of violence to a righteous, Queen praising brit.
Van Helsing (2004)
Fun without the painful Brendan Fraiser, Steven Sommers directs a fun summer movie with a cool way to tie classic monsters together in one story and retells their origins in refreshing, unforced ways.
