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Reviews
Serenity (2005)
Watchable, but not Great
I have a feeling that how much people like this movies depends on how much they like Firefly. Never having seen the series, I can only say this is a mediocre, but fairly entertaining film. It may even be a great extended episode--I can't say one way or another--but as a movie it's so-so.
What really grated on me, though, was the assassin and the entire ending. The assassin was trying to come off as some kind of evangelical vigilante, but he was neither over the top enough to be an outright villain, nor was he fleshed out enough to be more than a stock character. More obnoxiously, which leads me to the ending, his character has his windpipe crushed, yet still orders his men to stand down, and completely changes his ideology in a matter of moments. I simply can't buy that a character so obviously one-dimensional would suddenly switch his allegiances so rapidly. Furthermore, it really aggravated me that essentially every character was mortally wounded, yet still lived. Either don't stab them through the guts, or kill them off. It's a cheap device to have it both ways.
I suppose that I was ultimately disappointed that the novel idea of a space Western ended with such a formulaic, all loose ends tied up ending. With a better script, this could have been much more than a follow up for Firefly fanboys/girls.
Zerkalo (1975)
For Repeat Viewing, But A Real Masterpiece
The only reason I'm putting an 8 instead of a 9 or 10 is that this is a film that requires concerted effort to appreciate, if not a second viewing to better contextualize all that is being conveyed. It's much like hearing a symphony for the first time--the first exposure cannot rate much more than a 5 or 6 unless one has an idea of what themes to follow. And perhaps the analogy to music is an apt way to describe Tarkovsky's technique, especially given his use of Bach to bookend the film, because of the ephemeral nature of the motifs explored in the film. If you've studied up ahead of time or are just that clever, then give this movie a 10 right from the start.
Beyond that, there's not much else for me to say. I could say that The Mirror is a reminiscence of childhood in wartime Soviet Russia, but really that's reducing it too much. Nor can words cannot approximate the imagery of the film, either. It's simply something to be savored several times, if not more.
Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (2005)
A few laugh out loud moments, but so-so
Whether one likes this movie largely depends on which camp one falls into--the "I get she's sending up all the stereotypes by using them" camp or the "she's just another stereotype comic" camp. Rest assured, she is indeed engaging in satire, but at the same time one can't help but feel that this nonetheless reinforces stereotypes as much as it deconstructs them.
More to the point, she's only sporadically funny. When she hits on something, it's great, but otherwise it's a lot of her poking fun at the naive pretty girl image while innocently unleashing something wickedly taboo. It's a clever act, but it's also blatantly obvious and wears thin after not too long.
Jesus is Magic is a decent film and to a large extent what one gets out of it depends on how one appraises the originality and impact of her style. Once one gets past the controversy, though, Sarah Silverman is largely hit or miss.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Solid, but not quite in Anchorman territory
I had high expectations for Talladega nights, most of which were met. But part of me thinks there is a more tightly woven, funnier movie that could have come out of the premise.
Without a doubt, there are plenty of hilarious scenes, great one-liners, and clever details that'll make repeat viewing entirely worthwhile. Ricky Bobbly's son Texas Ranger's line "I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey" hasn't stopped amusing me, nor has his dad's line "Shut up you little pot licker, or I'll stick you in a microwave!" NASCAR is ripe for parody, and there's plenty of it to keep things rolling.
The major faults lie in setting up the conflicts in the movie and its PG-13 rating. The first third of the movie is the weakest part because it's essentially an exposition to introduce a deadbeat dad, turn Ricky Bobby from a member of the pit crew into a dominant driver, fashion a rival from an effete Frenchman, and create a conflict with a team owner bent on replacing him. That's a lot to throw on the plate from the start, and it shows. Furthermore, presumably for marketing reasons, the movie was edited to get a PG-13 rating. I can only imagine how much comedic gold is waiting for the DVD version because it would have brought about an R rating. This probably has a lot to do with the early stagnation, as well.
That said, things pick up once the onus of trying to create a real plot has been lifted. I laughed consistently from the middle of the movie right down the outtakes. Some movies lose momentum as they go on; Talladega Nights only gains momentum like a stock car coming out of turn number three as it roars to its conclusion. Molly Shannon and Sascha Baron Cohen put in great supporting work (that sadly seemed a bit underutilized), while newcomer (to me at least) Amy Adams has a great scene with Ferrell in a bar.
It's worth the price of admission, that's for sure.
The Aristocrats (2005)
Not Worth the Effort
What do you get when you make a docu-comedy about a topic that's not deep enough to sustain a documentary and not funny enough to sustain a stand-up compilation, then throw in terrible editing? The Aristocrats! Ten years ago a movie like this would have been pretty interesting if well executed, but the shock value and irony of the joke doesn't resonate now that such outrageous gags are so common. The shock value just becomes gross-out humor, and thus the irony is totally undermined.
Granted there are a few clever and downright funny versions of the joke--Goldberg, Rudner, Gottfried, South Park, etc. However, much of the movie was painfully unamusing since it amounted to a compilation of the dirtiest versions of the joke comedians could muster. It's a misjudgment on the filmmakers' part equivalent to attempting to bludgeon the audience with a razor blade.
On top of that, there are sporadic attempts to put the joke into some kind of cultural, historical and psychological context, most of which fall flat. Bad editing is partly to blame here, while a few overly smug comedians on screen add to the ineptitude.
It's a very shallow documentary and the comedic payoffs are so rare that's it's barely watchable. I was sober when watching it, though, so being under the influence probably effectively doubles the rating for a viewer.
Futuresport (1998)
If you were in the future, what would you call your sport?
Pop quiz: if you had invented a groundbreaking new sport in your present, what would you call it?
Futuresport provides that answer with, of course, the game of futuresport. Futuresport, the game of our future in case you still didn't figure that part out from the title, is a mixture of handball and rollerblading which started on the streets and now, in 2025, has been co-opted by corporate America. While there are still street futuresporters, the pros are clean cut, effeminate, money grabbing glory seekers (and who better to play that role than prettyboy Dean Cain).
As it turns out, Hawaii is trying to secede from the union and the only way to prevent this without the use of military force is a winner take all game of futuresport between the clean shaven pros and the down and dirty Hawaiian liberation street ballers. The finale is a climactic battle royale between the pros and the ex-cons with a surprising role reversal by the founder of Futuresport, played by Wesley Snipes. From that point you can guess who wins.
While this sounds like a premise with immense negative potential for bad filmmaking, in the end Futuresport is simply mediocre, not mindnumbingly awful. There is decent production quality, the acting is passable, and the storyline predictable, but logical. Other than the title and premise, a bad, but not especially memorable film is the result.
28 Days Later... (2002)
Genuinely frightening
Even if you're a cynical movie watcher, I challenge you to watch this movie in a dark room, suspend your disbelief, and not be frightened. I won't claim this is a perfect film. In fact, it seems as if either the creative forces behind the movie lost their edge at times or some Hollywood producers got their hands on it at some point. As a whole, however, 28 Days Later delivers the goods.
Once you can accept a disease consisting of pure rage is infecting humanity turning everyone into zombies, you're good to go. The most compelling part about the film is its characters. They are actually more than pieces of meat waiting for the next act of utter stupidity to lead them to slaughter. Their humanity in the face of oblivion is absolutely believable. This is not to say that they don't do things that put them in danger of getting shredded by zombies. But, more often than not, zombie encounters are an organic part of the plot, not contrivances to eliminate a character who has hit his or her expiration date.
Once the few central survivors have bonded over narrow escapes and nights spent huddled in fear, the movie switches gears and leads them to an encampment of soldiers with the weaponry and defenses necessary to fend off the zombies. At this point the film takes a totally different, but fascinating take on human nature as it pertains to impending zombie takeover. Of course, it wouldn't be any fun if the zombies didn't breach the sanctity of the makeshift army base. The film unfortunately ends in a way you'll have to see to disbelieve, though the DVD has deleted endings that you can easily replace the real one with in your mind.
[end spoilers]
The important part here is that you'll be scared. I've had nightmares about this movie, so be forewarned if you're impressionable. I'm not normally entertained by horror movies. This is not your run of the mill zombie flic, though.