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Five movies in two days, quickly as I can before bed.
Clerks
Brilliantly low-budget with some awesome scenes and moments, but I didn't find any of the characters remotely likeable. Every single one of them bothered me. Still, Kevin Smith made fantastic use of his limited budget. It feels as claustrophobic as Dante's life, stuck in a dead-end and incredibly boring job without the willpower to change anything. There were some funny conversations and Randal's a great if incredibly irritating character.
3 out of 5
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
This was funnier than Clerks, with stacks of in-jokes and loads of Smith's old characters coming back together (and Eliza, as well as the most recognisable cast ever assembled for a Kevin Smith movie.) Still...one long gay joke. So not impressive. Whenever they deviated from that it was fun, I liked Mark Hamill as the film-within-a-film bad guy and there were some funny bits. It didn't really gel as a movie, though. It's basically just a vanity project. While I still haven't seen Mallrats or any of Smith's recent output (except for Zach and Miri Make a Porno, which is actually pretty good), I'm forced to assume Dogma was the best thing he ever made. I really want to see it again.
2.5 out of 5
Resident Evil: Afterlife
This movie looks kinda neat and I like seeing girls kick ass, but it really doesn't go anywhere. I haven't seen the first two, only the more recent two. There were some lovely shots that made good use of that hated 3D, particularly when there was a lot of ground in the foreground i.e. across a beach, but seriously, it didn't need that much of the slow-mo-then-normal-speed crap that all action movies have now. The movie was twice as long as it would have been otherwise. There were some bits that were stupidly Matrixy. Also, the heroes are just morons, and there are all these interesting ideas that don't go anywhere (is-he-or-isn't-he a criminal? What's with the memory loss?) Case in point: "It's a trap!" So they...walk right into it. Basically the whole movie just goes nowhere.
By the way, spoilers: disappointingly, Wentworth Miller does not have the escape plans from the prison tattooed onto his body.
Boris Kodjoe of Undercovers is in it and he's pretty.
1.5 out of 5
The Last Supper
The first of my female director double this afternoon. The set-up for The Last Supper is great - left-wing grad students start killing right-wing nutjobs at dinner parties - and there's a lot of really good dark humour in it, as well as some interesting character developments. What let the movie down was a reliance on silly directing tics to make it seem more indie-like - strange sound mixing, "artsy" shots. I also felt like some of the main five characters were much better developed than others. Good to see Cameron Diaz really going at it, though, she makes so much crap. Also, Ron Perlman gets to play the most interesting role and one that's dissimilar to his usual roles - he's their last and most unexpectedly intelligent guest.
ETA: I realised in the middle of the night last night that Ron Perlman might've been representing Satan. Religious metaphors obviously don't jump out at me.
3.5 out of 5
The Notorious Bettie Page
In spite of a sparkling, witty and engaging leading turn from Gretchen Mol as the titular Page, this movie was kind of a confusing mess. It changed from black & white to colour to signify time shifts, but at points it seemed completely arbitrary. It wasn't until about halfway through the movie that I realised I actually had absolutely no idea what was going on in Bettie's life, I just knew about Bettie. It was an interesting take on the porn industry of the period, which was a lot more innocent and was treated as much less so, and on sexuality and sensuality. Mol plays the dichotomies inherent in Page really well, and the supporting cast is good, it's just...confusing.
Surprise!Jonathan Woodward was surprising.
3 out of 5
Green Queen
Clerks
Brilliantly low-budget with some awesome scenes and moments, but I didn't find any of the characters remotely likeable. Every single one of them bothered me. Still, Kevin Smith made fantastic use of his limited budget. It feels as claustrophobic as Dante's life, stuck in a dead-end and incredibly boring job without the willpower to change anything. There were some funny conversations and Randal's a great if incredibly irritating character.
3 out of 5
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
This was funnier than Clerks, with stacks of in-jokes and loads of Smith's old characters coming back together (and Eliza, as well as the most recognisable cast ever assembled for a Kevin Smith movie.) Still...one long gay joke. So not impressive. Whenever they deviated from that it was fun, I liked Mark Hamill as the film-within-a-film bad guy and there were some funny bits. It didn't really gel as a movie, though. It's basically just a vanity project. While I still haven't seen Mallrats or any of Smith's recent output (except for Zach and Miri Make a Porno, which is actually pretty good), I'm forced to assume Dogma was the best thing he ever made. I really want to see it again.
2.5 out of 5
Resident Evil: Afterlife
This movie looks kinda neat and I like seeing girls kick ass, but it really doesn't go anywhere. I haven't seen the first two, only the more recent two. There were some lovely shots that made good use of that hated 3D, particularly when there was a lot of ground in the foreground i.e. across a beach, but seriously, it didn't need that much of the slow-mo-then-normal-speed crap that all action movies have now. The movie was twice as long as it would have been otherwise. There were some bits that were stupidly Matrixy. Also, the heroes are just morons, and there are all these interesting ideas that don't go anywhere (is-he-or-isn't-he a criminal? What's with the memory loss?) Case in point: "It's a trap!" So they...walk right into it. Basically the whole movie just goes nowhere.
By the way, spoilers: disappointingly, Wentworth Miller does not have the escape plans from the prison tattooed onto his body.
Boris Kodjoe of Undercovers is in it and he's pretty.
1.5 out of 5
The Last Supper
The first of my female director double this afternoon. The set-up for The Last Supper is great - left-wing grad students start killing right-wing nutjobs at dinner parties - and there's a lot of really good dark humour in it, as well as some interesting character developments. What let the movie down was a reliance on silly directing tics to make it seem more indie-like - strange sound mixing, "artsy" shots. I also felt like some of the main five characters were much better developed than others. Good to see Cameron Diaz really going at it, though, she makes so much crap. Also, Ron Perlman gets to play the most interesting role and one that's dissimilar to his usual roles - he's their last and most unexpectedly intelligent guest.
ETA: I realised in the middle of the night last night that Ron Perlman might've been representing Satan. Religious metaphors obviously don't jump out at me.
3.5 out of 5
The Notorious Bettie Page
In spite of a sparkling, witty and engaging leading turn from Gretchen Mol as the titular Page, this movie was kind of a confusing mess. It changed from black & white to colour to signify time shifts, but at points it seemed completely arbitrary. It wasn't until about halfway through the movie that I realised I actually had absolutely no idea what was going on in Bettie's life, I just knew about Bettie. It was an interesting take on the porn industry of the period, which was a lot more innocent and was treated as much less so, and on sexuality and sensuality. Mol plays the dichotomies inherent in Page really well, and the supporting cast is good, it's just...confusing.
Surprise!Jonathan Woodward was surprising.
3 out of 5
Green Queen
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From:
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Mallrats has a few funny moments (mostly Silent Bob-related), but it's not great.
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I don't think I will ever forget the way it felt to watch Dogma for the first time. I grew up in a staunchly atheist household but all my friends were very strong christians and Dogma was like someone walked right up to me in the middle of one of my friend's religious spiels and hugged me :P
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The Last Supper is a movie that fascinated me for such a long time. I was just so horrified and transfixed by it at the same time. The tomatoes really freaked me out.
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What made you watch The Last Supper? It's been years since I saw that (I rented it when it first came out on VHS, it was that long ago!) and I thought I was maybe the only person in the world that had. That was the movie that made me see that Cameron Diaz could play more than the typical pretty girl. (I believe it was made post My Best Friend's Wedding, but pre There's Something About Mary, so she wasn't a huge star yet).
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The Last Supper is one of Tom's favourite movies and he lent me some to watch, including that one and Halloween.
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...that never occured to me. Still, me missing a religious undertone is standard too. I still can't see anything to do with the Bible in Veggie Tales.
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I'd never heard of Veggie Tales til I started dating a Christian. All of their movies (that I've seen/heard of) are based on Bible stories.
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Also, if all you've ever seen or heard is Silly Songs with Larry, you wouldn't know it was religious at all - they are sublimely weird.
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Unless they've recently added pirates to the Bible. In which case it might be more interesting. Like adding zombies to Pride and Prejudice.