What I’ve Seen On The New Classic Movies List

Posted in the extended entry is Entertainment Weekly’s New Classics List for movies. I’ve bolded all that I’ve seen: (more…)

‘Strange Wilderness’ Reviewed

I didn’t particularly want to see Strange Wilderness, but I have to admit I did go see it this weekend. And, while it had its funny moments it was a bad, pointless movie that gets you from start to finish with dirty jokes in various forms.

The plot was absurd and pointless, and so much of the story seemed gratuitous. Yes, I laughed, but I laughed more at ‘Superbad’ and ‘Knocked Up’ (both of which are significantly better movies) but just because I laughed doesn’t mean it was a good movie.

‘The Bucket List’ Reviewed

Last weekend I saw The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Reviews for the movie haven’t been stellar, but after seeing it, I have to say that it should be on your list of movies of see this year.

The movie’s strength comes not only from the performances of Nicholson and Freeman, but from a script that addresses the issue of terminal illness with appropriate amounts of humor and drama.

‘Cloverfield’ Reviewed

I heard mixed reviews about Cloverfield, including complaints that the handheld camerawork caused nausea, or that it was unconvincing that the character operating the camera would have the presence of mind to keep videotaping throughout the whole saga.

Well, I never got nauseous, and I thought they did a good job explaining the cameraman’s drive to keep videotaping in order “to document” what was happening because “people will want to know.”

Even if you’re not convinced, once look passed the issue of the handheld camera perspective, it’s exciting to watch, and I left the theatre wanting more. You can’t help wanting to know more. The movie is presented as videotape evidence recovered by the Department of Defense from Central Park following an attack on the city by some creature. It starts from the planning of a going away party Rob Hawkins, who is about to leave New York City for a job in Japan. The attack happens during the party and you follow him, his brother and his girlfriend, his best friend and another party attendee throughout the attack.

The virtual realtime experience of the attack is extraordinarily effective, as it was for The Blair Witch Project (which I haven’t seen but I’ve heard enough about). The interesting thing about Cloverfield is that it has been described as Godzilla meets The Blair Witch Project. Probably a very fair description, only, had Cloverfield been done more like a tradition action movie, it may not have done so well… Considering remakes of Godzilla and King Kong didn’t seem to do as well as hoped. They certainly weren’t memorable movies, and I can’t say I had a strong desire to see either of them. Cloverfield’s appeal had a lot to do with the presentation as a continuous story from the point of view of a character’s handheld camera.

All you are given in the movie is the “evidence” of the recovered videotape. So, while I was absolutely satisfied by the movie, I found myself wanting to know more about the aftermath: What was the creature that attacked New York? I’d like to believe that once Cloverfield is released on DVD there will some great bonus features explaining all the things we want to know about “what happened” that we weren’t going to find out in the movie, as it was presented.

Cloverfield is definitely worth seeing.

‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ Reviewed

I originally had no intention of seeing ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks‘ when I first saw a poster advertisement for it in the movie theater. However, I was won over by the previews, and found it to be a movie I had to see, if only to satisfy my curiosity. As a kid, I can remember watching the Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon, and while I can’t say I had high hopes for the movie, I knew it would have a few laughs and be at the least, mildly entertaining. Reintroducing The Chipmunks to the kids of today was probably risky. However, since the Chipmunks were created in 1958, I can imagine that a lot of parents who took their kids to see the movie had seen and heard the Chipmunks in their youth.

I didn’t think the story would be that great, but the movie definitely was good for laughs. Jason Lee, who I would not have expected to pull off the role of Dave Seville, actually played the part quite well — as good, if not better than anyone else could have.

The CGI effects are less convincing, but that’s hardly a reason to dismiss the movie. Alvin, Simon, Theodore are actually appear and move like chipmunks (which was not so in the cartoons)… but that hardly prevents you from feeling sympathy for the chipmunks as they initially try in vain to make Dave see them as a family, or getting a warm fuzzy feeling when a nervous Theodore asks to sleep with Dave because he’s scared after having a nightmare (that scene had me going “Awww…”

All in all, it was a fun movie to watch.