Follow-up to my post the other day about avoiding local cinema theatres.:)
The two of us rarely go to the theatres very much anymore aside from the occasional movie that absolutely has to be watched on a large screen. It’s not only because of the possible incessant yakking from cinema-goers. There’s a good chance too that Ling feels nausea watching a movie in a dark, enclosed environment. E.g. we bought tickets for Tropic Thunder several weeks ago, but Ling had to leave the theatre just 10 minutes into the show as she felt sick.
In any case, home viewing’s just as good. Here’s the list of recent movie flicks we watched in the last 3 months on rental DVD or I bought on blu-ray, each with a ballpark rating over five stars.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Darker, broodier, and slightly less wooden acting from the four Pevensie children. Trumpkin (the dwarf), and Reepicheep (the talking mouse) were scene stealers.
Then She Found Me. A drama starring Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Milder and Matthew Broderick, and about a late 30s school teacher (Hunt) going through a midlife crisis, and finding her mother (Milder) who gave her up for adoption as a young child. I enjoy watching Helen Hunt, but she really looks old in this movie. Sleepy movie.
Hancock. The comedic superhero film starring the always fun to watch Will Smith. The movie review sites gave this film a somewhat thumbs-down, but the both of us enjoyed the show, even if the plot had massive oversights.
Journey to the Center of the Earth. Produced by and also starring Brandon Fraser, and based on Jules Verne’s famous novel. Started off Ok, but rapidly goes downhill. Hokey CG too including a copycat scene from The Temple of Doom. No good.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I caught the two movies on the big screen years ago, but recently picked up the blu-ray editions. Ling enjoyed the shows. This third show wasn’t nearly as good though. Not enough Jet Li, and we both preferred Rachel Weisz who starred as Evy in the first two movies. And we cringed whenever Russell Wong spoke his lines in Mandarin.
Death Race. Mindless flick but it starred former Olympic swimmer turned action martial arts actor, Jason Statham. Our small group friend Ann caught bits of it at our place, and she remarked at Statham’s amazing 8 pecs even LOL. Enjoyable at a very visual level.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Another superhero film with Ron Perlman in the title role. Well-received and liked by reviewers, but I thought it was just average.
The X-Files: I want to Believe. Ling isn’t a follower, but I was a big fan both of the series and Gillian Anderson. I mean, which techno-geek in the 90s wasn’t LOL? But this movie looked tired with a tired story and a tired looking cast. Duchovny had little of the dry wit and humor from the series. At least Anderson is still good to watch.
Get Smart. Steve Carell must had been channeling the late Don Adams in this film adaption of the classic TV series. Anne Hathaway stars opposite him, and the two have some fun and cute lines together, if during the oh-so-sweet moments between the two your hair stands a little because Carell is 46 and Hathaway is, well, 26. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson twitches his eye-brow and gets the best scenes in the movie, including a stapler scene in which I laughed so hard the orange juice I was drinking came back out through my nose! Very enjoyable.
Mr. Brooks. You don’t see Kevin Costner in a lot of movies anymore, the leading but now aging man he is. Murder-thriller and Costner playing a pseudo-baddie role. Quite different from the usual roles he’s cast in.
Wanted. Angelina Jolie as the hot chick with guns – check. James Mcavoy as the new recruit – check. Morgan Freeman as the Head of Assassins – check. Bullets that curve around corners through mind control – all there. Angelina Jolie looks scrawny though.
Deception. Film starring Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor in a thriller about murder, extortion, sex, and double-crossing. Convoluted mess.
There was a bunch of others, including two Stargate TV-series films, Futurama, Grey’s Anatomy Season 4, The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 1. I’ll see about blogging about the latter two at least sometime.:)
LOL chris also had the hots for gillian anderson. in fact, many of my male friends did and watched x files faithfully hahaha
The series was the rage during my University days.:) The series had its highs and lows though… the first five seasons were pretty good; and tapered than spiraled into an unwatchable mess in season 8 LOL.