Repo Men
Grade: D (Skip it)
Review: A futuristic dystopia where health-care is really out of control. An organ transplantation is reduced to a high interest equity loan; if you don't pay than organ is repossessed and patient dies. Even if we let Goldman manage health-care it is unlikely it would degenerate to this unrealistic scenario. Movie has some gory scenes that serve no purpose. The ending twist is interesting but unfortunately doesn't make up for the unrealistic boring story and poor acting.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Brooklyn's Finest (2010)
Brooklyn's Finest
Grade: C- (Rent it)
Review: An interesting cop story with huge potential. It follows independently the life of three NYPD cops; a street cop few days before retirement (Richard Gere), an undercover cop deeply infiltrated into a drug gang (Don Cheadle), and a narcotics officer (Ethan Hawke). Each characters is struggling with their demons and dealing with their specific family challenges of a cop life. The movie builds up these stories (similar to Crash) but unfortunately after all the build up it delivers a conclusion that seemed rushed and unsatisfactory.
You would expect something better from Antoine Fuqua the director of the Training Day. I sincerely hope he doesn't start delivering bomb after bomb like M. Night Shyamalan.
Grade: C- (Rent it)
Review: An interesting cop story with huge potential. It follows independently the life of three NYPD cops; a street cop few days before retirement (Richard Gere), an undercover cop deeply infiltrated into a drug gang (Don Cheadle), and a narcotics officer (Ethan Hawke). Each characters is struggling with their demons and dealing with their specific family challenges of a cop life. The movie builds up these stories (similar to Crash) but unfortunately after all the build up it delivers a conclusion that seemed rushed and unsatisfactory.
You would expect something better from Antoine Fuqua the director of the Training Day. I sincerely hope he doesn't start delivering bomb after bomb like M. Night Shyamalan.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
She's Out of My League (2010)
She's Out of My League
Grade: C (Rent it)
Review: Nothing memorable but it had some funny moments. It is worth renting.
Grade: C (Rent it)
Review: Nothing memorable but it had some funny moments. It is worth renting.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Shutter Island (2010)
Shutter Island
Grade: B- (Watch it)
Review: Flawed but worthy. It was fun and suspenseful to follow the characters. Scorsese directed this well; however the book adaptation doesn't seem right and sometimes was very hard to follow all the side characters. After first part of the movie it became predictable. Overall an interesting movie.
Grade: B- (Watch it)
Review: Flawed but worthy. It was fun and suspenseful to follow the characters. Scorsese directed this well; however the book adaptation doesn't seem right and sometimes was very hard to follow all the side characters. After first part of the movie it became predictable. Overall an interesting movie.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Grade: C- (Rent it)
Review: Very few funny moments. Incredible waste of A class cast. I guess it mocks and increase awareness about black physiological operations and torture in military.
Grade: C- (Rent it)
Review: Very few funny moments. Incredible waste of A class cast. I guess it mocks and increase awareness about black physiological operations and torture in military.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Up in the Air (2009)
Up in the Air
Grade: A- (Watch it)
Review: An outstanding achievement; excellent story, script, acting, and directing. The whole cast did a superb job. George Clooney is a natural playing a corporate downsizing professional, Vera Farmiga is excellent in her role (BTW: She is incredibly sexy), and Anna Kendrick is really convincing as an inexperienced, overachieving and idealistic annoying young worker. Simple, yet very powerful life drama. Although it probably lacks memorable dialogs, with no second wasted on nonsensical fillers, and every scene being very natural (probably too real for some) you cannot help it but feel that the result was very elegant.
This is by far the best 2009 movie - I feel bad that I didn't watch it earlier. It just shows how bad marketing and unattractive title work.
Grade: A- (Watch it)
Review: An outstanding achievement; excellent story, script, acting, and directing. The whole cast did a superb job. George Clooney is a natural playing a corporate downsizing professional, Vera Farmiga is excellent in her role (BTW: She is incredibly sexy), and Anna Kendrick is really convincing as an inexperienced, overachieving and idealistic annoying young worker. Simple, yet very powerful life drama. Although it probably lacks memorable dialogs, with no second wasted on nonsensical fillers, and every scene being very natural (probably too real for some) you cannot help it but feel that the result was very elegant.
This is by far the best 2009 movie - I feel bad that I didn't watch it earlier. It just shows how bad marketing and unattractive title work.
Friday, March 12, 2010
The Young Victoria (2009)
The Young Victoria
Grade: B- (Watch it)
Review: A biopic with flaws but worth watching. Queen Victoria ruled for more than 63 years; longer than any other British monarch before or since, and her reign is the longest of any female monarch in history of the world. I wish the movie focused more on Victoria's actions and influence. Even the interesting relationship between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert which was a big political power trip manufactured by King Leopold I of Belgium - unfortunately got trivialized to few points and few ballroom dances.
Grade: B- (Watch it)
Review: A biopic with flaws but worth watching. Queen Victoria ruled for more than 63 years; longer than any other British monarch before or since, and her reign is the longest of any female monarch in history of the world. I wish the movie focused more on Victoria's actions and influence. Even the interesting relationship between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert which was a big political power trip manufactured by King Leopold I of Belgium - unfortunately got trivialized to few points and few ballroom dances.
The Stepfather (2009)
The Stepfather
Grade: D+ (Skip it)
Review: The movie is not that bad as much as unoriginal and predictable. It just seems a bleak imitation of classic thriller masters. Boring.
Grade: D+ (Skip it)
Review: The movie is not that bad as much as unoriginal and predictable. It just seems a bleak imitation of classic thriller masters. Boring.
Good Hair (2009)
Good Hair
Grade: C+ (Rent it)
Review: I started watching this movie thinking that I'll stop after 5 minutes in. To my surprise the movie ended up being entertaining, but most of all it was educational. I was surprised by the "black hair" industry treatments and the high expense (north of $1000) a black woman incurs on trips to the hair salon. The most shocking thing was that each hair treatment means getting exposed to toxic materials that very frequently result in scalp and skin burns. The other interesting fact was that importing human hair from India is a big business. Definitely better than you'd expect.
Grade: C+ (Rent it)
Review: I started watching this movie thinking that I'll stop after 5 minutes in. To my surprise the movie ended up being entertaining, but most of all it was educational. I was surprised by the "black hair" industry treatments and the high expense (north of $1000) a black woman incurs on trips to the hair salon. The most shocking thing was that each hair treatment means getting exposed to toxic materials that very frequently result in scalp and skin burns. The other interesting fact was that importing human hair from India is a big business. Definitely better than you'd expect.
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