MichaelLuton has written 23 reviews.
The story idea looks great on paper. A super-hero who has trouble keeping a boyfriend because she's emotionally wacko. It seems like there's so much you can do with that idea. However, the potential was never realized. The funniest gag was where...
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The story idea looks great on paper. A super-hero who has trouble keeping a boyfriend because she's emotionally wacko. It seems like there's so much you can do with that idea. However, the potential was never realized. The funniest gag was where she throws a shark through a window at a guy. But we already saw that in the trailer. Every other super-powered fit of rage was rather mundane in comparison. She punches car windows, throws stuff really hard, and other normal everyday stuff. Just with super-strength which results in slightly more destruction but not enough to really be funny. The underlying relationship story was rather thin so the movie really needed great gags to carry it. Unfortunately, they just weren't there.
Posted aug 14, 2007 8:54 am pt
The basic premise has been done before. A futuristic totalitarian government rules its people with iron fist in the name of security and continued prosperity. Then along comes a rebel who manages to rally the people to his cause and give the evil...
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The basic premise has been done before. A futuristic totalitarian government rules its people with iron fist in the name of security and continued prosperity. Then along comes a rebel who manages to rally the people to his cause and give the evil ruler s plenty of problems.
That premise can easily make for a cheesy movie -- thinking Aeon Flux -- but in this case it was really well done. The performance of the guy in the mask, named V, is what really made this movie. Here is a character who expresses absolutely zero emotion with his face (because it's a mask) yet by the end the story you feel for him and his sadness at what had become of the world. Of course we get a lot of that through the performance of Natalie Portman also who acts as sort of a pupil to V.
It's not so much of an action movie as it is a suspenseful drama. Through the investigation of the chief inspector we slowly learn about V's past and how the current government came to be. There's a certain amount of political commentary along the way which isn't at all out of place. One of the reasons why this genre exists is to make observations of our current political conditions by envisioning a worst-case outcome at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Being produced by the Wachowski brothers we get a few pretty cool -- and sometimes slow motion -- fight scenes. The last of which includes some pretty cool knife effects. The running time is just over 2 hours which is just about the right amount of time for V for Vendetta to tell its story.
Posted jul 29, 2007 1:32 pm pt
I really enjoyed this one. I've always been somewhat a fan of Albert Brook's particular brand of humor and this movie didn't disappoint. It kept me interested the whole way through. It didn't try to get preachy or have any kind of meaningful...
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I really enjoyed this one. I've always been somewhat a fan of Albert Brook's particular brand of humor and this movie didn't disappoint. It kept me interested the whole way through. It didn't try to get preachy or have any kind of meaningful message which in this case I consider a good thing. The horrible stand-up routine was hilarous in that "it's funny because it's so unfunny" way. I highly recommend this one.
Posted jul 23, 2007 2:33 pm pt
The only reason this movie even gets a full star is for Jack Black's improvised singing scene. Other than that there was nothing funny or entertaining about this movie.
Posted jul 23, 2007 1:08 am pt
So, there's a bunch of losers addicted to some futuristic drug. Keaneu Reeves has to go undercover because... well infiltrating some small-time druggies doesn't seem like that big of a deal but the real agenda is revealed at the end. Aside from...
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So, there's a bunch of losers addicted to some futuristic drug. Keaneu Reeves has to go undercover because... well infiltrating some small-time druggies doesn't seem like that big of a deal but the real agenda is revealed at the end. Aside from the ending though the movie just wasn't that enjoyable to watch.
Posted jul 20, 2007 4:51 am pt
I loved this one. Very funny the whole way through. The flood sequence at the end was pretty cool also. There's nothing like watching a giant ark smash through suburban houses.
Posted jul 14, 2007 12:51 am pt
Riiight. I guess this was trying to be like The Great Outdoors or any of the National Lampoon Vacation movies but it just wasn't very good. The laughs were few and far in between.
Posted jul 14, 2007 12:46 am pt
Coming from Spike Lee you know this isn't going to be your typical bank heist movie. I really enjoyed this one and the ending did indeed catch me by surprise.
Posted jul 14, 2007 12:40 am pt
The Good: Giant robots fighting each other. The Bad: Anything *not* involving giant robots fighting each other.
Posted jul 7, 2007 8:19 am pt
I didn't get it. I thought this would be a good independent film but it was just weird and confusing. I'm sure there was some twist at the end but I still can't figure out what it was.
Posted jun 30, 2007 2:57 pm pt
Why did this movie have to be two and a half hours long? I honestly think this would have been a more enjoyable movie had it been somewhere around 1:45 instead of 2:34! For an action movie -- this was supposed to be an action movie, right? -- the...
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Why did this movie have to be two and a half hours long? I honestly think this would have been a more enjoyable movie had it been somewhere around 1:45 instead of 2:34! For an action movie -- this was supposed to be an action movie, right? -- the pace needs to be fast. I had the feeling we were watching more of a love story than an action movie. Not that I have anything against a relationship sub-plot. I think itâs essential. But it shouldnât be the main focus of the story. Superman doing all kinds of cool stuff and saving the world should have been the main focus.
Where were the big battles? Superman and Lex Luther didnât occupy the same screen space for more than a couple of minutes. The best action scene ârescuing the falling airplane â happened near the start of the movie. Supermanâs mom appears in a couple of scenes but doesnât seem to serve any real purpose.
Disappointing. This could have been so much better.
Posted may 14, 2007 5:05 am pt
I donât really understand why it was called âLady in the Waterâ when we only saw her in the water for less than a second. For the rest of the movie she was very much out of the water. Itâs not like she was trying to...
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I donât really understand why it was called âLady in the Waterâ when we only saw her in the water for less than a second. For the rest of the movie she was very much out of the water. Itâs not like she was trying to get back in the water either. Instead she was waiting for some eagle to take her somewhere else. Her homeworld we presume.
All in all I thought it was an entertaining story. M. Night Shyamalan gave himself a little more that just a cameo role in this one. Heâs not a bad actor actually. I wouldnât mind seeing more of him in his own or other peopleâs movies. Paul Giamatti was, of course, amazing but this wasnât the movie to really showcase his strengths as an actor. That particular movie was Sideways. Still, I would have rather seen Paul Giamatti in this lead role than anyone else.
The one odd thing about Lady in the Water is that none of the characters really ever questioned the fantastic events taking place in the middle of their little apartment complex. They readily believe everything with no discernable skepticism at all. I know this is supposed to be a bedtime story but it would have nice to see a bit of resistance from the other characters.
Also, if this is the kind of bedtime story M. Night Shyamalan tells his kids Iâm sure glad he was never my dad.
Posted may 13, 2007 9:58 am pt
As an adult watching his movie I thought it was okay. Not great and not bad either. I saw the old-fasioned 2D version. Can you tell this movie was really made for the Disney 3D experience.
My main problem is that the story had too...
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As an adult watching his movie I thought it was okay. Not great and not bad either. I saw the old-fasioned 2D version. Can you tell this movie was really made for the Disney 3D experience.
My main problem is that the story had too many or too long slow parts. The pacing seemed a little off. Oh, and the dinosaur in all the commercials is only in the movie for once scene. My son loved the singing frogs though. Easily the best part of the movie for him. But like the dinosaur they didn't get that much screen time.
Posted apr 20, 2007 8:48 am pt
Just an average crime drama. You would think the presence of Harrison Ford would add something special but it doesn't. Much of the plot is fairly predictable. Seeing Cloe from 24 was kind of interesting but she plays a very similar character. Just...
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Just an average crime drama. You would think the presence of Harrison Ford would add something special but it doesn't. Much of the plot is fairly predictable. Seeing Cloe from 24 was kind of interesting but she plays a very similar character. Just not a computer wiz. Speaking of computers this movie makes heavy use of "Movie OS". I especially like that feature where the numbers are counted down in real time on the screen as they take money out of someone's bank account. Oh, and WiFe is available everywhere. Even miles away from Seattle out in the middle of nowhere Wifi is readidly avaiable.
Posted feb 25, 2007 12:58 am pt
I'd really like to go back and see this one again because I wasn't able to completely follow along with everything the first time through. There's several intertwining stories and you're never quite sure who's working for who.
The...
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I'd really like to go back and see this one again because I wasn't able to completely follow along with everything the first time through. There's several intertwining stories and you're never quite sure who's working for who.
The story starts off with the fact that big oil is corrupt and is generally no good for for the people middle-east who actually own the land. Some people try to overcome the established way of doing things to improve life for the middle-eastern people but in the end the good old boys in Texax end up winning anyway. That much you can understand even if you don't completely follow the plot.
But it was good enough to make me want to go back and watch again to pick up on all the details I missed out on the first time.
Posted feb 19, 2007 8:21 am pt
We took our 3 year-old and 21 month-old to see Charlotte's Web. Both kids really liked the movie. We were especially impressed by our youngest one's ability to pay attention through the entire thing. I last heard this story when I was in one of...
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We took our 3 year-old and 21 month-old to see Charlotte's Web. Both kids really liked the movie. We were especially impressed by our youngest one's ability to pay attention through the entire thing. I last heard this story when I was in one of the early grades of elementary school so the story was fresh for me. It shouldn't be a spoiler to anyone reading this that the spider dies at the end. That's the one thing I do remember from hearing the story all those years ago. Personally, I can't stand stories or movies about loveable animals where they die in the end. I wasn't looking forward to end of this one. Fortunately, they didn't make it overly sappy. In Spielberg's hands that scene may have gone differently but I really like they way they handeled it here. It may be worth noting that our 3 year-old son got scared by the scenes where the crows go dive-bombing. I can't explain it. Maybe it was the large screen and loud sounds. There's nothing inherently scary about those scenes at all but we had to take him out of the theather both times.
Overall, it was an excellent movie I would recommend that parents take their kids to. However, it's not like a "G" rated Pixar movie where you adults going to it by themselves. Charlotte's Web is pretty much a kids movie and a good one at that.
Posted jan 22, 2007 3:27 am pt
I was expected this to be horrible so I was pleasently surprised when it wasn't all that bad. There were enough interesting plot twists along the way to keep it interesting. The action seemed a little boring to me considering the crazy stuff that...
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I was expected this to be horrible so I was pleasently surprised when it wasn't all that bad. There were enough interesting plot twists along the way to keep it interesting. The action seemed a little boring to me considering the crazy stuff that went on in the animated shorts. I'm glad it was 90 minutes and not two hours though. I enjoyed the movie but was ready for it to be over at the 90 minute mark.
Posted jan 19, 2007 3:06 am pt
I don't understand why this movie was called "Freedomland" when they only spend about 10 minutes there. The story itself was fairly predicatable. The racial tensions which was the real centerpiece of the movie -- not the alleged...
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I don't understand why this movie was called "Freedomland" when they only spend about 10 minutes there. The story itself was fairly predicatable. The racial tensions which was the real centerpiece of the movie -- not the alleged kidnapping -- felt very forced and cartoonish. Samuel Jackson has got to start choosing better roles.
Posted jan 12, 2007 6:13 am pt
My son really wanted to get this movie because we have stickers of the characters but we don't know their names. So we got the movie just so we can the character's names. It was a really enjoyable movie though. It's less than 90 minutes which is...
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My son really wanted to get this movie because we have stickers of the characters but we don't know their names. So we got the movie just so we can the character's names. It was a really enjoyable movie though. It's less than 90 minutes which is perfect for a kids movie. Plus, I'm a big fan of short movies myself. My only complaint is that I just can't separate Marty the Zebra from Chris Rock in my mind. His voice is so distinctive it's difficult to think of anything but Chris Rock when you hear it. But other than that one complain there's a lot to like about Madagascar. If you have kids, it's definitely worth a purchase.
Posted dec 15, 2006 12:03 am pt
This is a good movie which really gets inside the head of a couple of suicide bombers. Often we ask ourselves, "What could possibly compel someone to blow themselves up in order to take out a mere bus-full of people they don't like?"...
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This is a good movie which really gets inside the head of a couple of suicide bombers. Often we ask ourselves, "What could possibly compel someone to blow themselves up in order to take out a mere bus-full of people they don't like?" Paradise Now answers that question without condoning or condemning the reason why.
Posted dec 12, 2006 12:46 am pt
The only reason this movie even gets half a star is because of the two music-video set pieces with music written by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. The rest of the movie isn't worth anyone's time. While I understand the effect Gus Van Sant was...
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The only reason this movie even gets half a star is because of the two music-video set pieces with music written by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. The rest of the movie isn't worth anyone's time. While I understand the effect Gus Van Sant was going for I don't think he came close to achieving it. It's so far beyond boring and pointless I can't find the words to describe it. It's just one excruciatingly long scene after another where nothing ever happens and nobody ever talks. No real narrative of any kind is ever established. It just watching a few drugged-out guys putzing around a country house for a few days until one kills himself. That's it. No lesson to be had. To commentary to be made. Nothing.
Posted dec 8, 2006 2:49 am pt
After watching movies and television enough you forget just how undramatic real life is. I loved how Soderbergh used all non-actors who were able to capture the "blah" of normal everyday life so much better than any trained actor ever...
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After watching movies and television enough you forget just how undramatic real life is. I loved how Soderbergh used all non-actors who were able to capture the "blah" of normal everyday life so much better than any trained actor ever could have done. The amazing thing is that this movie is actually entertaining.
Posted dec 8, 2006 2:39 am pt
The trailer made this movie look so good and then the movie itself turned out to be so... uh, average. Then again the source material wasn't that great either. Once you take out all of the religious conspiracy theory material the core...
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The trailer made this movie look so good and then the movie itself turned out to be so... uh, average. Then again the source material wasn't that great either. Once you take out all of the religious conspiracy theory material the core action/adventure story just wasn't that well written. The book can cover that up to a certain degree with all the talk of symbology, sacred femenine, and church history stuff. However, by necessity a lot of that has to be left out of the film which inadvertanly reveals the weakness of the underlying story.
Posted dec 7, 2006 1:40 am pt