Nuke's Blog
Periodic ramblings by an old geek…

I waited two weeks to post movies, hoping against all hope that I would see one to recommend to others.  Guess the law of averages holds… my previous couple weeks of great movies were complete flukes.

 

American Teen (2008)

Rating:  

Turned out to be a pretty good documentary following several teens around during their final year of high school.  Some scenes feel a bit staged, but overall it was well done, and felt fairly true to life.  If you watch it on DVD, definitely check out some of the extra features.

 

Traitor (2008)

Rating:  

Netflix described this movie as “An intelligent and exciting spy thriller that also examines the beliefs and motivations behind terrorism.”  Well, it seemed fairly intelligent, but it was not ultimately that exciting, and I guess I just can’t completely sympathize with terrorists as the movie somewhat feels like it’s trying to do.  Random thought… anyone else ever think Don Cheadle was on SNL?  I had to check the first time I saw him in a movie… the SNL guy was Tim Meadows.

 

Death Race (2008)

Rating:  

Finally found a Jason Statham movie I didn’t fall in love with.  This certainly has enough explosions to keep you watching, but I like how Ebert put it in his review: “Walking out, I had the impression I had just seen the video game and was still waiting for the movie.”  It just didn’t have enough in it for me to desire ever watching it again.

 

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990)

Rating:  

This film had rave reviews, likely for the imagery and hidden meanings throughout.  However, it just wasn’t that interesting and there are too many better movies if you want breathtaking cinematography.  I’ll have to stick to his samurai films in the future.

 

Babylon A.D. (2008)

Rating:  

Vin Diesel can be fairly fun to watch, but his movies are still second-rate in my book.  Hopefully he’ll end up with a really decent movie one of these days.  This was one of his better ones, with some neat ideas for a post-apocalyptic world, but just wasn’t enough in the story here to excite me.

 

Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Rating:  

Stupid.  Would someone please get Cage a better movie?  Soon?  And I don’t mean another National Treasure movie, even though they are pretty fun.  I mean some totally different, action-packed thriller where he can show off his wittiness.  If it has to be another sequel, then make it The Rock 2… even if that couldn’t possibly work. ;)

 

Appaloosa (2008)

Rating:  

Sorry, Ed, but I just didn’t like this as a Western.  Perhaps there are simply too many great ones to compare it to.  Movies with Ed Harris in them tend to get high ratings from me compared with most actors, so I hope he can get back to decent ones.  I guess maybe he just isn’t as good in the lead role as he is in supporting roles.  Good thing Viggo Mortensen was there, or this might have fared even worse.

 

Chuck: Season 1 (2007)

Rating:  

I had to quit after the first couple DVDs.  This show is way too “cute” for me, a very similar situation to Psych, so if you love that show I think you’ll love this one.  (I believe Jake has already proved that point.)

 

 

30 Rock: Season 2 (2007)

Rating:  

I really enjoyed the first season.  Tina Fey can be so much fun to watch.  However, this season seemed to take all the random craziness to way too high a level.  I’m done following the show now.  This is yet another situation where I wish jumptheshark.com was still in existence to save me before continuing with “bad” seasons.

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