Iron Man 9. The first of the "Summer blockbuster season," and possible my favorite movie of the summer. I am so fucking grateful when a comic book movie remains true to its original material and doesn't fall victim to the "I can make it better" syndrome so prevalent in Hollywood (Superman, Hulk, X-Men, etc). While slightly updated for contemporary sensibilities (I believe in the comic, Tony Stark became Iron Man in the jungles of Vietnam, not the deserts of the middle east), the story remains essentially unmolested. And aside from the inexplicable pussifying of Jim Rhodes, the characters are very much their comic counterparts. Visually, the producers hit the mark precisely, and I enjoyed watching every CGI-spewed effect sequence. Probably too late to see it in the theaters, rent Iron Man at the earliest possible moment.  ¶ 5:45 PM 0 comments

  Rental: The Notorious Bettie Page 5. You really have to take off your rose colored, mindless-mainstream-film goggles to enjoy this, and if you're one of the people who can do that, you'll like TNBP. It's very much a story-driven "art film" ... the kind that win film festival awards. The shallow perverts of the world might not appreciate this movie, as it exposes what the legendary sex symbol, Bettie Page, was really like. Not some hot, horny, sex fiend, but a nice, normal, moral girl who simply saw nothing wrong with the photographing of the human body. The film spans her life from a few questionable events of her childhood (which almost seem out of place and obligatory in the film) to her decision to bring her "career" to an end. I feel enriched having seen this.  ¶ 5:35 PM 0 comments

  88 Minutes 3. Al Pachino is wasted in this. Little more has stuck in my memory, which is kind of a bad sign (though not all that unusual, considering my memory). It holds the suspense and mystery throughout, though the pacing, critical in this kind of movie, got weird in places. It also used a storytelling method which I hate in that it spends the entire film making you believe the villain is first one person, then the next, because unfolding the story as it probably should be would make it too easy to figure out the real antagonist. Not bad though for some latenight TV action.  ¶ 5:29 PM 0 comments

  10,000 BC 6. They spoke modern English 12,000 years ago! Who knew?? Seriously though, I know they use this patch with every english speaking movie about a non-english speaking subject, but for some reason it took me a lot longer to wrap my head around this one than usual. Once I did, I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit... probably more than most other people. A nice tale and a quest in a world which has never been seen by its protagonist. Visually stunning... probably a little more visually stunning than ...er.... story-ally stunning. Hey, don't give me that look, you know what I mean.  ¶ 5:21 PM 0 comments

  Vantage Point Summer's almost over and it's time for me to play catch-up. It's not that I haven't been seeing any movies since freaking APRIL, it's that I've been too lazy to write reviews. (After all, no one's reading this, right?) Don't worry, I've kept a list. I'm probably going to buzz through as many of these as I can before the shortness of my attention span rears it's ugly..... Hey, look! A bunny with a pancake on its head! Oh yeah... movie reviews. First up, Vantage Point.

4. I like the concept of Vantage Point.... several people's perspectives of the same event with one person struggling to mesh them all into what actually happened. Vantage Point does a nice job of maintaining tension throughout the film, though I found it ultimately to be a little predictable. I think the mistake made by everyone who makes a movie like this is that the same directorial and cinematographical visions are used throughout the film. Every character's "perspective" looks like each others'. This kind of movie should be made as a group effort, different production teams each creating the experience of one character. That would be interesting to watch.  ¶ 4:50 PM 0 comments