Change Your Image
mbaughman-3
Reviews
Watchmen (2009)
I want my money back
Sat through this self-indulgent mess hoping there would be a payoff, but we got something akin to Vendetta where killing thousands of innocents is OK as long as the guy with the suicide bomb/airplane/exploding train/cosmic death ray has a higher purpose in mind. This is really scary: this gets by as enlightened discourse when it is really Nazi-style propaganda aimed at crushing dissent.
Cinematography and special effects were great. Story line was fat and lazy, especially when trying to weave together the simple-minded, misguided, childish political points. Owl guy was unconvincing in and out of suit. Story seemed ambiguous as to whether or not these superheroes really had any special skills or traits, which is very odd considering the genre. Would have been a lot less offensive if this wasn't so long. I guess when you have to put every idle thought that ever entered your mind into the movie, it can drag out a bit.
It seems like there's some job openings if there's an unemployed editor out there.
Soul Men (2008)
Pretty decent comedy
I was not expecting a very good movie, but this turned out to be pretty well done. The plot was an old story, but they did a very good job keeping it fresh and not distractingly predictable. This would have been awful in the hands of anybody other than Bernie Mac and Samuel Jackson. Mac's expressions and his earnestness in selling a gag are irrepressible and Jackson knows when to be a straight man and when to deliver something special. Another re-write and some stronger direction would have made this a classic.
During credits they run extended outtakes and an interview with Mac and it is handled with love and respect and it took the potentially creepy feeling of "their last appearance" away.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
I loved it; I hated it
I know it means I'm an unsophisticated dope, but I think the resolution of this movie makes the case why they don't make movie endings like this. I'm fine with movies that leave things undone and I don't need happy endings. But I'm very annoyed at the way we are brought into caring about Josh Brolin and they knock him off like that. I don't mind that he was killed, I mind that it came off like he walked off the set and they didn't have any ideas about how to kill him so they put a stand-in in the hotel room.
But mostly, I am getting fairly annoyed with Joel and Ethan inserting themselves into every camera shot like a couple of smug UCLA film grad students. You are always aware of them trying to show how much they know about film making. It's just tedious.
Really seems like an overrated film.