bankrupt artist v.3

Hurt Locker (98/47)

xinit — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:37:21 +0000

HURT LOCKER – I found this a bit less impressive than I’d expected, given the Oscars it won. Over-rated, with characters that just don’t mean anything; to each other or the viewer.

Conquest of The Planet of The Apes, Battle for The Planet of The Apes (97/46)

xinit — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:36:22 +0000

CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Caesar, son of the talking apes from the future, finds out about the humans’ slave trade in ape servants, and he’s not having any of it. Caesar apparently convinces these non-talking apes to rebel merely by looking at them, and they rise up and say “NO!” This film is possibly the high point in the series for me.

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES – The apes and the humans live together in harmony, but someone has to go and ruin everything. This film feels seriously phoned in; it feels odd and unnatural as they try to shoe-horn in a story that will make the start of the first film make sense.

Beneath The Planet of The Apes, Escape From The Planet of The Apes (95/45)

xinit — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:35:32 +0000

BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES – Astronaut Brent shows up on this surprisingly Earth-like planet, on a rescue mission to find Taylor. Enter the insane nuclear missile worshiping remnants of the human race, hiding underground, and it’s time to destroy the Earth again. This film feels like a rehash of the first film, as Brent makes the same discoveries as Taylor did before, makes similar choices.

ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES – This one’s more of an origin story where a paradox occurs and the apes from the future become the parents of the entire species of talking apes. 1970s Earth is surprisingly accepting of talking apes, to start with. Ape astronauts arrive, after witnessing Future Earth destroyed in a nuclear blast, and try to alter the course of things… well… things don’t go so well.

Buck (93/44)

xinit — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:34:50 +0000

BUCK – I was reluctant to watch this film; how interesting could a film about a horse trainer be? Well, it turns out it’s pretty good, thanks to a surprisingly charismatic central figure in Buck.

The Last Mountain (92/43)

xinit — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 03:33:54 +0000

THE LAST MOUNTAIN – No real revelations; coal mining is destroying the Appalachians, and the lives of many in the area. Well produced film captures some of the impact on one community.

The Red Chapel, Leprechaun, Welcome to North Korea, Rare Exports, Trainspotting (91/42)

xinit — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:45:17 +0000

THE RED CHAPEL – Interesting bit of sneaky documentary work. They were able to get away with a lot by not speaking English. I felt bad for Jacob, as he was lead into this project under something of a false pretence by the film maker.

LEPRECHAUN – So very bad on so many fronts, but it’s a funny enough film, especially since Jennifer Aniston is the highlight of the film.

WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA – Most of the footage here is from State-guided tours, so there’s nothing very revealing in the video – that’s mostly in the narration.

RARE EXPORTS – This is a fantastic film about the discovery of the real Santa and his elves. Evil, evil, naked elves.

TRAINSPOTTING – A classic film with a phenomenal cast.

The Manhattan Project (86/41)

xinit — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:25:53 +0000

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT – This film features one of the cheeriest “I’m making a bomb!” montages ever produced. This is a whole lot cheesier and much more shallow than I remember.

“We’re kids – what are they going to do – it’s a prank!”

In 1986? Maybe not…

In 2011? Waterboarding.

You’d think that ONE of those books he read on how to build an Atomic Bomb would have talked about radioactivity and its dangers. Maybe they’d have made passing reference to Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. or Louis Slotin on the real Manhattan Project…

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (85/40)

xinit — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:18:45 +0000

GREMLINS 2 – This has not aged any better than the first one. While I do enjoy much of the jokes at the expense of the company and technology, those are little more than window-dressing… there’s so little of plot of character once the empty jokes are stripped away, that it just feels like a wast of time having watched this.

Clear and Present Danger (84/39)

xinit — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:17:39 +0000

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER – I guess I’m just not the target audience for these Jack Ryan films… I just can’t believe Harrison Ford when he gets into the field and the action gets going. Yes, I know he’s been been in tons of action films, but this just feels hollow, lacking in any believable motivation for characters.

Defendor, Contagion (83/38)

xinit — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:16:25 +0000

DEFENDOR – I’m not a big Woody Harrelson fan, but there’s something great about his portrayal of Defendor. It’s described as a dark comedy, but there’s nothing that I’d consider traditionally funny here – this is a tragedy in every sense. This dim man child tries to track down his nemesis, Captain Industry, who stole away his mother decades earlier. Defendor lives in a world all his own, but he does make a difference, despite himself.

CONTAGION – Why was this released in IMAX? It’s not piracy that’s killing the music and film industry, it’s releasing films in 3D or IMAX when they simply don’t need it. I expected two things when this started; I expected this to be a disease that spread insanely fast and far, and I expected the film to end on a down note, but to not tie everything up. The disease itself was quite bad, all things considered. In CSI style, the heroes were able to track the disease progression backwards to its origin with one pig in one kitchen thanks to multi-angle, high definition video that miraculously comes their way. The ending ties things up too nicely, leaving just the hint of the disease returning for a sequel.