Nuke's Blog
Periodic ramblings by an old geek…

Burn After Reading (2008)

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If you like dark comedies, this movie is for you.  I couldn’t stop laughing during the final scene of the movie, and on through another minute of credits.  What a payoff.  If you have a hard time making it through the movie, I challenge you to hold out to the end.  Random thought… why do I seem to love all movies with John Malkovich in them?  Because he is so good at expressing his rage at others?  He can certainly give Samuel Jackson and Joe Pesci a run for their money in the ability to maximize use of a certain word in a single sentence.

 

Intolerance (1916)

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I haven’t watched many “old” movies over the life of my blog, but I love watching pre-50s films.  I had a coworker years ago who swore there haven’t been any good movies since the 50s, and there are times I agree.  If you watch quite a few movies, you really should try to get into the silent movies of the 10s-20s (especially Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd), early talkies of the 20s-30s, and my favorite… film noir from the 40s.  Anyway, this is another extremely well-done epic film from D.W. Griffith.  Think the idea of four intertwined stories in a single movie is a recent concept?  Well, here it was in 1916.  I will say this, though… if you only watch one of his films, check out Birth of a Nation instead.

 

Mythbusters: Mega Movie Myths (2003)

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The Mythbusters guys are back for more, with a set of experiments taking on some well-known movie myths… even attempting to car jump like the good ole Dukes of Hazzard boys.  This was just as fun (and eventually boring) as a normal episode.  There are three other collections of Mythbusters stuff available through Netflix, but I think I’ve finally had my fill.

 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

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We finally finished reading the 3rd Harry Potter book to the kids this week, so their treat was to watch the movie.  This will be their last one for quite a while, since the rest of them are rated PG-13.  It’s probably a good thing, because Lafe is starting to get scared watching them now.  He spent half of this one hidden on the floor, peeking out around the footstool. ;)  This movie was more enjoyable than the first two, even though you notice the story start to drift from the book more than the others.  This continues to happen with future movies as the books continue to get longer and longer.  For us big fans, I think it’s a relief to see that book seven is going to result in two movies.

 

Frequency (2000)

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Pretty strange premise: dad and son work to solve/prevent murders while separated by 30 years, yet communicating over a Ham radio.  It shouldn’t work.  It should be too stupid to care for any characters.  However, they simply put the right amount of intensity and emotion into the story, and I enjoyed it enough to get past the silliness of the premise.

 

The Contract (2006)

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There were so many things messed up in this movie, I almost gave it a single star.  While many movies require you to work on your “suspension of disbelief,” this one took it too far.  The only thing that kept it from the bottom was the sheer presence of Freeman and Cusack.

 

88 Minutes (2008)

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Similar situation to the previous movie.  Al Pacino’s presence on film is enough to at least gain 2 stars.  The acting from the rest of the characters is simply horrible.  I get the feeling they tried to send you thinking about so many possible characters being the “bad guy” that they sucked all emotion out of everyone.  Where real people would have reacted by completely freaking out in instances where they were innocent, they seemed to have a wall in front of them blocking out all emotional response (just to keep you thinking).  It was so tiring trying to do the guesswork that I finally didn’t care at all who it was at the end (even though my initial guess was correct).

 

Sicko (2007)

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I’m going to catch some flack for rating a Michael Moore movie this high, but well… it’s just plain well-done propaganda like his other “documentaries.”  I actually came close to 4 stars, but there were some flaws I just couldn’t let go.  Here’s the way I described the movie to a good friend: “Extremely good job pulling on emotions… it’s hard to watch w/o a tear in your eye. I think the Cuba part at the end was weak, and he was spending too much time on socialism in general… there was far more material he could have used to further bolster his argument and should have stuck to healthcare. I totally agree that our system is screwed up, but going to a full government-funded system isn’t the right move. Don’t you find it a bit funny how the first part of the movie is all about how government officials are corrupt (i.e., bought by the medical establishment, etc.), but then the conclusion is we need government to totally take over the system?”  Final thought: fact-check ALL “documentaries” you watch.  The internet is here for a reason.  Many of the “facts” in the movie were spot on.  Some were complete propaganda.  If a movie like this attacks your personal beliefs, there’s probably some truth in there and you should try to find it… but you shouldn’t allow it to completely change your mind (because it might not be completely on the money).  Ok, I’m really blabbing now… I should have made this a post to itself, lol.

 

Ok, wait… I’m not done.  I want to quote from a review of the movie on Netflix: “Everyone, liberals and conservatives, should see this movie. Facts are facts and we should all be aware of how this country stacks up against other countries in the health care field.”  Come on… are you serious?  I agree with the last sentence, but in relation to this movie?  You can never watch one of these and stop your research there.

 

The Big One (1998)

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After watching Sicko, I decided to make it a Michael Moore weekend (good to get through it all at once, like taking your “favorite” childhood medicine… or ripping off a bandaid).  This one, while it had some decent stuff in there bashing the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries, felt much more like a promotional film for Moore himself.  Again, if he could just focus his entire films on their topic, he has plenty of good, factual material to draw from.  Maybe they wouldn’t sell, though… 

 

Bowling for Columbine (2002)

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Honestly, I got confused on his argument somewhere in the middle of the movie.  The majority of his films work very well for those who already completely agree with his views, so they mostly turn into dark comedies.  For those who are more on the fence, he does not stick to his issues well enough to do much convincing.  There are a couple very interesting parts in this movie… the sequence where he interviews Marilyn Manson as a completely stable person to be believed, and a cartoon on the brief history of the United States demonstrating how the NRA exists to keep certain races in check.  I’m still not sure what to say about that one.  You’ll have to see it for yourself.

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