Shinyidol » Movies

Trailer for The Hobbit.

Collin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:09:20 +0000

The Hobbit is just a year away. Start counting down.

Back from Super 8

Collin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:51:43 +0000

I work up this morning to an email saying I could go see Super 8; the new movie from JJ Abrams creator of LOST, Alias, and director of the recent Star Trek reboot, in ~~IMAX~~ Fake IMAX a day before it comes out. It appears that they are doing a heavy Twitter and Facebook campaign due to fears that people don’t know enough about the movie, partly due to the cryptic trailers that show very little about the film. Well seeing a movie early is always fun in my book, so they sold me and I was quite happy with the movie. WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!!

JJ Abrams homage to Steven Spielberg is a quality movie that harkens back to some of those great kids movies of the 1980′s (Flight of the Navigator, Explorers, The Goonies) with more explosions. The characters and the pacing are right on par with your kids involved in extraordinary circumstances and triumph in the end. It was nice to see real kids play the roles in a movie not scared of being more mature for kids, which is where memories of E.T., The Goonies, and other kid movies of the 80′s really hit home. This isn’t a kids movie like iCarly or Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. It is dark. The kids swear. People die. Nothing graphic, though it does have tense moments due to your typical Hollywood magic (movie gets quiet and there is a monster and loud sound!). The first hour or so of the movie is strong and feels much like JAWS. Abrams paces the film well not letting you see the monster, but the last 30 minutes fall flat. In the confrontation between the lead character and the monster (this kid is stronger then everyone thinks) he just yells at the monster and they have a heartfelt chat telepathically that the monster should just go home, not kill him and his friends, and should just go home. Which is what happens.

Overall Super 8 is offspring of someone who watched E.T. and JAWS too many times. While the ending leaves a little to be desired, the overall film is worth seeing.

The Brothers Bloom at IFFBoston

Collin — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:15:34 +0000

My pal Joe asked if I wanted to check out The Brothers Bloom at the Independent Film Festival here in Boston a couple weeks ago. Me being a movie nut and a fan of the movie Brick, of course I said yes. We made the drive up to the Somerville Theatre, found some parking, got our tickets, grabbed a beer (beer at a movie, awesome), and found some seats. It wasn’t until we sat down that we found out it was opening night and The Brothers Bloom was the headlining movie. What luck!
If you haven’t heard The Brothers Bloom stars Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as con artist brothers who scheme a plan to con recluse hobby collector Rachel Weisz out of millions. The twist is that Mark Ruffalo character writes these cons to the level of plays that Adrien plays a part, and typically becomes emotionally involved. After years of coning people Adrien’s character doesn’t want to do it anymore, but his brother crafts one last con and humor ensues. The overall theme is a fairly light hearted comedy wrapped with Rian Johnson’s very sharp writing. Acting is top notice, and some of the characters are easy to like, including Bang Bang, a tiny Japanese girl with an unhealthy fascination with explosives, who hardly speaks through the entire movie. The movie got a little slow at the end, but overall I enjoyed it a great deal. I love crime movies, and the addition of the humor makes this a very enjoyable film. Check it out when it comes out in May.

Back to the Future Marathon

Collin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:02:15 +0000

With all the snow the local Blockbust had almost everything rented, so I fired up Comcast OnDemand and combed around to see the entire Back to the Future Trilogy in HD. I have seen these movies countless times over the years, but not all three in a single night. They are fairly silly, but I have to give the writers credit for paying attention to detail. Christopher Lloyd is insane in this role, and I really can’t imagine Marty being Eric Stoltz at all.

Max Payneful

Collin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:59:07 +0000

So I got the chance to watch Max Payne recently and I couldn’t even finish it.Â The movie was just painful to watch.Â As a fan of the games, I was surprised how poor the transition to film was.Â The story went no place for me, I finally turned it off.Â Also Mila Kunis was just painful in this role.Â I’d avoid this movie.