Monday, January 23, 2006
Movies: Seen This Weekend
Before Sunday there had been just one movie that I walked out of the theater on (some Vietnamese movie whose name escapes me) before the end credits began.
On Friday I saw two movies in the theater, “Hoodwinked” and “Last Holiday”. Hoodwinked was ok, but not up to the critical hype I’ve noticed in passing (I didn’t examine the critics reactions, just my impression of their reaction), while Last Holiday seemed better than expected (based on critical reaction). I gave Hoodwinked a rating of 4.15 out of 5 and gave Last Holiday a rating of 4.39 out of 5 stars. I don’t particularly want to write reviews for either of these movies, but I will just note that I’ve seen better animation in 1980/1990s video games than what was used in Hoodwinked (and that Hoodwinked is a CGI cartoon that is something of a take-off of the Little Red Riding Hood story (great, now I can’t recall the title of that story); and that Last Holiday is a movie about a woman that has been waiting for her life to begin until she learns that she has three weeks to live, and decides to live them to the fullest).
On Saturday I saw “Glory Road.” Glory Road is a movie about a little El Paso Texas college winning the NCAA Division I-A basketball championship in something like 1965 (one of my problems with the movie is that the date wasn’t nailed down until the end of the movie). I gave the movie a rating of 4.88 out of 5.0 stars. Very good film (I’ve mentioned elsewhere another problem I had with the film, but I’ll not mention it here); in comparison, I believe I’d give Hoosiers a rating of 4.98 out of 5 stars, but it has been a long while since I saw that film.
So, Sunday. I walked out on the film I started to see on Sunday, after staring at the screen for 1 and a half hours (the film is 135 minutes long). In that 1 hour and 30 minutes I learned what might have taken another film at most 30 minutes (I’m being generous, probably more like 10 to 15 minutes) to convey. People arrive in a new world. Meet some natives. Supplies short, so leader returns to get more supplies, in meantime a detachment is sent up river to see about trade while most remain behind. One of the crew meets up with a native girl and they fall in love. Food scarce. Tempers high. Ok, maybe this might have taken 30 to 45 minutes to convey, but not 1 hour and 30 minutes of watching the two main characters stumble around mooning over their missing love (missing in that they aren’t together every moment). Basically the movie is two characters staring around sadly and twirling. Oh, and in the background two civilizations meet up, conflict ensues. Music and plant life is deeply examined. Right. I’ve never seen a movie by Terrence Malick, and after attempting to watch “The New World”, I’ll never again attempt to see a Malick film. Just for comparison sake, I checked out some critics websites. Rottentomatoes.com believes the film is Rotten (113 reviews counted, 51 believe the film to be rotten). Metacritic gives the film a rating of 70 out of 100 (based on 36 reviews). RottenTomatoes and Metacritic are websites that boil down multiple critics reviews. Roger Ebert, a movie critic I sometimes check, gave the film 4 out of (I believe) 4 stars (don't recall last time Ebert and I agreed on a film).
On Friday I saw two movies in the theater, “Hoodwinked” and “Last Holiday”. Hoodwinked was ok, but not up to the critical hype I’ve noticed in passing (I didn’t examine the critics reactions, just my impression of their reaction), while Last Holiday seemed better than expected (based on critical reaction). I gave Hoodwinked a rating of 4.15 out of 5 and gave Last Holiday a rating of 4.39 out of 5 stars. I don’t particularly want to write reviews for either of these movies, but I will just note that I’ve seen better animation in 1980/1990s video games than what was used in Hoodwinked (and that Hoodwinked is a CGI cartoon that is something of a take-off of the Little Red Riding Hood story (great, now I can’t recall the title of that story); and that Last Holiday is a movie about a woman that has been waiting for her life to begin until she learns that she has three weeks to live, and decides to live them to the fullest).
On Saturday I saw “Glory Road.” Glory Road is a movie about a little El Paso Texas college winning the NCAA Division I-A basketball championship in something like 1965 (one of my problems with the movie is that the date wasn’t nailed down until the end of the movie). I gave the movie a rating of 4.88 out of 5.0 stars. Very good film (I’ve mentioned elsewhere another problem I had with the film, but I’ll not mention it here); in comparison, I believe I’d give Hoosiers a rating of 4.98 out of 5 stars, but it has been a long while since I saw that film.
So, Sunday. I walked out on the film I started to see on Sunday, after staring at the screen for 1 and a half hours (the film is 135 minutes long). In that 1 hour and 30 minutes I learned what might have taken another film at most 30 minutes (I’m being generous, probably more like 10 to 15 minutes) to convey. People arrive in a new world. Meet some natives. Supplies short, so leader returns to get more supplies, in meantime a detachment is sent up river to see about trade while most remain behind. One of the crew meets up with a native girl and they fall in love. Food scarce. Tempers high. Ok, maybe this might have taken 30 to 45 minutes to convey, but not 1 hour and 30 minutes of watching the two main characters stumble around mooning over their missing love (missing in that they aren’t together every moment). Basically the movie is two characters staring around sadly and twirling. Oh, and in the background two civilizations meet up, conflict ensues. Music and plant life is deeply examined. Right. I’ve never seen a movie by Terrence Malick, and after attempting to watch “The New World”, I’ll never again attempt to see a Malick film. Just for comparison sake, I checked out some critics websites. Rottentomatoes.com believes the film is Rotten (113 reviews counted, 51 believe the film to be rotten). Metacritic gives the film a rating of 70 out of 100 (based on 36 reviews). RottenTomatoes and Metacritic are websites that boil down multiple critics reviews. Roger Ebert, a movie critic I sometimes check, gave the film 4 out of (I believe) 4 stars (don't recall last time Ebert and I agreed on a film).
