Summer 2007

I've been to the movies a lot this summer, and the amount of posting I've done has been pathetic. So I'm going to go through each movie I've seen in the past few months and give you my brief thoughts for each one. Here we go...

Spider-Man 3: Way too much going on in this sequel. Too many villains, not enough action, too much emo. Bryce Dallas Howard was a nice addition to the cast, but only if she replaced Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane would I truly have been happy with this movie. Check out my full review of it here. Sam Raimi is in talks to produce (and possibly direct) the fourth film, whenever that goes into production, but none of the other cast members have signed on yet.

Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End: I hated it. It was insanely long and, aside from some cool special effects that we've already seen in Dead Man's Chest, not worth the pay off. The ending was incredibly unsatisfying, and I shudder to think that they're talking about making spin-offs and even more sequels to this franchise that should have quit while they were ahead after Curse of the Black Pearl (which I loved, by the way).

Knocked Up: Really funny. I got some free tickets to see this one from my hookups with the CW, and I almost wish I would have paid for it to support the guys who made this. Although, with Superbad, The Pineapple Express, Drillbit Taylor, and more heading to theaters soon, Judd Apatow and his "Jew-Tang Clan" (a phrase coined by Seth Rogen - the star of Knocked Up - referring to the group of actors Apatow uses in his films) will be more than compensated for their comedic efforts.

Mr. Brooks: Kevin Costner and William Hurt did a good job with their dark psychological battling, but the thing everyone was talking about was how phenomenal Dane Cook was in his first dramatic role. Honestly, I thought that he could have been interchanged with any one of 40 different male actors his age in Hollywood and the film would have had exactly the same impact. I didn't really think he was that great. The whole concept of this movie is WAY better executed (on every level, from acting to cinematography to story) in the Showtime TV series Dexter. I'd highly recommend it, although it IS about a serial killer, so be warned: language and blood can be found in high quantities.

Ocean's Thirteen: These guys aren't even trying anymore. It's the same cool, breezy, jazz music-filled heist caper as the first two films, but with Pacino as the main bad guy. If you like the other two, you'll like this one. They seem like they have fun making these movies, and I'm a fan of them, so I'm fine with them pumping out one every couple of years as long as they keep bringing on cool "guest stars" like Pacino and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Perhaps Robert DeNiro will make an appearance by the time Ocean's 15 rolls around.

1408: This was one of my favorite movies of the summer. John Cusack was fantastic, the story was good, and it has Samuel L. Jackson in it. What else could you ask for? Oh yeah, and it was intense as hell. I loved it. I haven't gripped my seat like that in the theater in years. Highly recommend it.

Live Free or Die Hard: Awesome stuff. Bruce Willis does it again, and the action was superb. I have to admit, I doubted the idea when I first heard they were going to make a Die Hard sequel this late in the game, but it proved me wrong on every level. I just hope that John Rambo can have the same success when that hits theaters. The director, Len Wiseman, has just been tapped to make a "Gears of War" film based on the XBox video game and also a remake of John Carpenter's Escape From New York, so we'll see if either of those do half as well as LFoDH.

Transformers: Another summer favorite. Extremely hyped, but lived up to it thanks to a good performance from Shia LaBeouf, the action debut of Megan Fox, and some stellar computer graphics. Check out my comparison with Live Free or Die Hard here.

License to Wed: Pretty average romantic comedy. I saw this for the same reason that anyone else saw it: I'm a fan of The Office. This was one of John Krasinski's first movies, so I figured I'd see what he was like in a role that wasn't "Jim." Little did I know, he was practically the same character. And you know what? I wasn't too mad about it. Mandy Moore, Robin Williams, and some cast members from The Office rounded out the rest of the cast for this predictably formulaic film. But Mandy Moore is pretty awesome in my book, so we'll leave it at that.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry: Abysmal. I can't express to you how little I thought of this film. I didn't want to see it in the first place, but I pulled "wingman" duty for a friend, and it was one of the worst mistakes of my life. Did you ever see the Pink Panther remake with Steve Martin? I literally did not crack a smile in that whole movie, and this one was almost as bad. I laughed maybe three times. Pitiful. I don't even want to talk about it any more. I'm getting pissed off just typing about it.

The Simpsons Movie: I've only seen about two or three episodes of The Simpsons in my life, so I wasn't expecting much when I inexplicably saw the midnight showing of this movie in the theater. It surprised me, though - it was pretty funny. Average, but funny. I laughed a lot more than I did in Chuck and Larry, I'll tell you that much. Keep in mind that I wasn't necessarily privy to the inside jokes specifically for those who have watched the show for years, so I didn't really get the full effect. But I thought it did a good job of entertaining me even though I wasn't a die hard fan. (Did you know that show has been around since 1989 and has aired 400 episodes?? Ridiculous.)

Summer's not quite over yet, but it's hard to draw the line where "summer" really ends (back to school, the real end of the season, blah blah blah). So that's all I've got for now. But I plan on seeing all of the movies listed in the "Trailers" section of this page, so hopefully I'll be able to write a little something about each one of them when the time comes. Stay tuned, and I hope you had a great summer. Until next time...

Technical Update

Some of you may have noticed a couple of months ago that I put up a list of "Movies I'm Looking Forward To" along the right side of this site. I've just updated that to a "Trailers" feature. The release dates are still there, but now if you click on each movie it brings you to a video for the trailer for that film. I figure some of you might enjoy this and since it's not too obvious that the change has occured, I thought it warranted a post. I'll keep the "Trailers" section updated as trailers for new movies are released, so keep checking back if you're interested. Until next time...

Gaston

By guest reviewer Shaun Bozeman

Gaston was a gloriously tragic introspective that's examines the ultimate downfall of the most under appreciated villain Disney ever created. -Shaun Bozeman

Many thought Gaston died near the end of Beauty and the Beast, but apparently it wasn't so. Gaston picks up right where the BATB left off. While Belle was rushing to the beasts side, Gaston was fighting for his life in the river he so fortuitously fell into. Gaston's old friend Monsieur D'Arque rushed to his aid and helped him re coop. Although his noticeably intimidating physique was unharmed, Gaston fell into a deep depression because of losing the love of his life to that beast. Months passed and Gaston wasn't even consuming one dozen eggs a day.
This stretch of the movie seems to drag on and on almost like the animators were relishing in Gaston's misery. Finally Monsieur D'Arque was out of milk so the downtrodden Gaston ventured into the town he once ran to fetch some.
A great interior monologue occurred on the walk into town where Gaston was trying to decide if the towns people would love him and welcome him back or hate him and run him out of town, but to him something worse happened. Because he lost so much muscle he no one even noticed him.
The animators captured Gaston's shallow yet painful torment beautifully as he drank too much at the local pub and began singing "Gaston" his own theme song. He was quickly thrown out into a puddle. This puddle scene is comparable to the one in BATB except instead of being embarrassed by a women he was stripped of his manliness.
Refocused by the bar incident, Gaston starts training to become "twice the man he was before". He relocates to the next town over, Leunes, and enters into an arm wrestling competition scheduled in three weeks.
The training sequence is really something to see. Sly Stallone would be proud. This was the single best piece of animation i have ever seen... i dont want to give too much away but Gaston takes down a bear with his bare hands!!!
Naturally Gaston dominates the field and takes the trophy, and people sing his names from the rafters once again! he is loved, he is the alphamale and yet... he doesn't care. All he can think about is Belle.

AT this point in the movie an option appear and you can choose your own ending. there is a happy face, a sad face, and a indifferent face with a cowboy hat... i chose the cowboy hat.

WARNING THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE COWBOY HAT ENDING!!!

Gaston, now voicing by Robert Duval rides up to the beasts estate and demands a duel. The Beast is a pansy and sends the maitre D-turned-candlestick-turned-maitre D in his proxy.
The best shootout since Open Range followes suit. This is where the film earned its PG-13 tag. Gaston dispatches the candlestick but took a glancing shot to the shoulder in the process.
The beast remarked, "looks like he got you in the shootin' shoulder"
Gaston replied, "Actually i'm left handed, i was giving the little guy a chance" (as he switches the gun into his left hand)

The pansy Beast kept sending proxies until there were no more to be sent. Gaston had dispatched the whole crew!!! By this time, Gaston had been shot three to four times and could barely hold his gun level. At this time you finally see the depth of his character and fierce love of Gaston for Belle. Finally the Beast manned up to face him knowing that Gaston could not shoot straight ( he knew this because it took him a full five minutes and 34 shots to dispatch Mrs. Potts.) Gaston would not back down even facing certain death. A certain bravery showed through his cocky nature. Finally they squared off where Gaston dropped his gun and fell to his knees. He mouthed 'I love you' towards Belle before being shot 6 times by The Beast who was a suprisingly excellent gunman.

The End.

Live Free or Transform...Hard

As you may or may not have inferred from the title of this entry, I'll be doing a comparison of the two biggest films for this 4th of July holiday: Live Free or Die Hard and Transformers. I'm basing this idea from another site, but I'm going to add a few of my own categories to the mix and they'll face off to see who the ultimate summer movie is this year. Let's get ready to rumble!

Story:

Die Hard: John McClane returns to action as the country's infrastructure is threatened by a deranged ex-government employee. McClane, not exactly up to date with technology, uses the help of Matt Farrell, a computer hacker kid who is wanted by the government. An algorithm (or something) that Farrell created is being used by the compu-terrorists, and Farrell must use his knowledge to stop them before the entire country is relegated to the technological stone age. McClane must keep him alive and, later, save his daughter, who is taken hostage by the terrorists.

Transformers: Sam Witwicky is thrust into the mix of an interstellar war between the Autobots and the Decepticons in this highly anticipated fanboy film. When the Decepticons realize that Sam's great-great grandfather's glasses are the key to freeing their leader (Megatron) and taking over the universe, they crank it into gear to beat the Autobots to the punch. But Optimus Prime and his band of warriors won't take that sitting down: they must protect Sam long enough for him to grab the Allspark (a life-giving device from their home planet of Cybertron) and keep it out of Megatron's hands for good. All the while, Sam attempts to impress Mikaela Banes, a classmate of his that becomes embroiled in the carnage.

Normally, I would reward originality over a sequel any day of the week. However, in this case, I'm making an exception. Transformers is definitely more fresh, but originality can be called into question because the concept is based off the television show and animated movie in the 80's. LFoDH is by no means more original, itself a sequel to three previous films, but Live Free or Die Hard was a great sequel, and in this summer full of sequels gone bad, I'm going to say that's the most important aspect here.

Winner: Live Free or Die Hard

Actors:

Die Hard: Of course, we've got Bruce "The Grimace" Willis coming back as one of the most "wrong place, wrong time" action heroes ever, John McClane. He's stellar as usual, and this time he seems genuinely surprised at the fact that he can pull off near-physically-impossible feats, wowing at his own actions just as much as the audience does. Justin Long (Dodgeball, those "I'm a Mac" commercials) turns in a good performance as the young computer hacker, being the vessel the audience vicariously lives through to witness the ridiculous antics of McClane. And Timothy Olyphant (horribly miscast in the upcoming Hitman movie) is believably excellent as Thomas Gabriel, the miffed government worker bent on showing the U.S. a thing or two about their perceptions of national security.

Transformers: Don't get me wrong, I love Bruce Willis more than the next man. But there's no way that he and Timothy Olyphant can stand up to the bevy of talent assembled in Transformers. Jon Voight, Bernie Mac, Hugo Weaving, Tyrese Gibson, Shia LaBeouf, John Turturro, and Darius McCrary (Eddie Winslow from Family Matters) stand out as an ensemble cast that puts LFoDH to shame. Even though their performances weren't as iconic as Willis', the sheer numbers of big-name actors here give Transformers the win in this category.

Winner: Transformers

Realism:

Die Hard: I said it as soon as I left the theater - Live Free or Die Hard was more like a Transporter movie than a Die Hard movie, and I absolutely loved it for that. Realism was thrown out the window in favor of a fun summer movie that allowed John McClane to shine as an everyday superhero in a summer of larger-than-life webslingers and pirates. Ramping cars into helicopters, shooting fire extinguishers, rolling out of vehicles at high speeds, dangling in elevators shafts, jumping from exploding planes to concrete slabs, and more - all in a day's work for J-Mac.

Transformers: As ludicrous as McClane's actions may have been, there is no way that I'm going to say that Transformers is more realistic than LFoDH. Not gonna happen. Alien creatures that look like cars? Searching for a map engraved on a kid's great-great grandfather's glasses? And they find the kid through his eBay account? Come on. You expect me to believe that the Autobots have a perfect grasp on the English language because they absorbed it through the internet? Do you know how many typos are out there on the web? And don't even get me started on the scene where the Autobots were fully transformed into GIANT ROBOTS right outside Sam's house, crushing the garden and smashing lawn ornaments, and the parents didn't see or hear them at all. Also, I think the portrayal of the government's reactions to their respective situations was a lot more legit in Die Hard than Transformers, where the U.S. didn't even try to evacuate the city that was being completely destroyed by the Transformers at the end of the flick.

Winner: Live Free or Die Hard

Mentor Computer Geeks:

Die Hard: Kevin Smith plays the Warlock, a thirty-something-year-old man who lives in his mother's basement and is the mentor to Justin Long's Matt Farrell. Personally, I'm not a fan of these type of characters - the whole "middle-aged guy living in his mom's basement" thing wore out a long time ago. It's not really that funny anymore (Although Will Ferrell's character in Wedding Crashers did give it a glimmer of humor for a short while). Anyway, Kevin Smith is pretty much a nerd in real life, so this was some great casting and it was cool to see him and Bruce Willis act opposite each other on screen. Another key point is that Warlock actually DID SOMETHING to help our hero and his young compatriot at the end of the movie...he used the CB radio to contact Bowman to call the cavalry in to the warehouse.

Transformers: Anthony Anderson? Are you serious? What a joke. That man is the physical manifestation of the word "stereotype." He's been in some of the worst movies of the past fifteen years: Big Momma's House, See Spot Run, Kangaroo Jack, Exit Wounds AND Cradle 2 the Grave, Scary Movies 3 and 4, Agent Cody Banks 2, and King's Ransom just to name a few. Dis-mal. He plays Glenn, a hacker who lives with his grandmother (sigh) and plays Dance Dance Revolution. Correct me if I'm wrong, but have you ever seen a black guy play DDR? I haven't. He utters the stereotypical token black phrases, and got a big laugh from the 7-15 age group in my theater during the scene where he "comically" eats donuts and gets interrogated. He also was barely capable of wiring the computer to produce Morse Code at the end, which wasn't really even that important anyway. All that did was send an air strike to the robot battle in the city, and those robots would have taken each other out anyway. Thousands of innocent people had already died, so it didn't really make that much of a difference. Actually the only thing that did was get the pilots of those planes killed by Megatron, so he was indirectly responsible for killing those soldiers instead of helping them. The only thing that makes me even consider giving this category to Transformers is the presence of Maggie Madsen, played by the Australian Rachael Taylor. Good looking and incredibly talented in the ways of hacking, she outwits the best of the best in the government and discovers the secret behind the attack in Quatar...it's not the Russians or the Chinese, but aliens. However, the complete lack of realism behind these events actually taking place coupled with the facts that Anthony Anderson is horrendous and Kevin Smith looks like he belongs in a basement gives the win to LFoDH.

Winner: Live Free or Die Hard

Hero:

Die Hard: Is this even an option? John McClane versus a robot that I have no history with? I grew up with John McClane - I know many of you watched the Transformers show (and animated movie) when you were growing up, but I wasn't one of those kids. Granted, I had some of the toys (Megatron was supposed to be a tank!), but I never religiously watched the show. The Die Hards, on the other hand, have been a staple of my movie-watching career ever since my parents deemed me old enough to feast my eyes on Nakatomi Plaza. This category (like most of them, I guess) is personal, and I'm going with what I know.

Transformers: Optimus Prime is cool and everything, but he's not capable of the ridiculous one-liners ("I was out of bullets." "Yeah, I saw it - I did it!") that McClane fires off. And I think we all know that one-liners are absolutely imperative when it comes to who we look up to as heroes.

Winner: Live Free or Die Hard

Protagonist:

Die Hard: From what I've seen, Justin Long is a pretty cool cat. His character was pretty insecure though, tiptoeing through the movie not quite sure of how to help and what to do next. He's good when he's got a computer in front of him, but aside from that he's honestly pretty useless as a protagonist. You rooted for him a little bit, because in a sense it was like rooting for yourself, watching McClane move from location to location killing terrorists, dropping one-liners, and being a badass. We needed Matt Farrell to survive in order to follow McClane, but he wasn't the most important character in the movie.

Transformers: Shia LaBeouf is great. He's my favorite young actor right now, and I'm sure he won't disappoint in the upcoming Indiana Jones movie where he plays Indy's son. In Transformers, Sam is without a doubt the main character. He is a young kid who is just trying to get a car to impress a girl. Who can't relate to that? When he's caught up in this insane plot involving aliens, he doesn't freak out too much...he just rolls with it. As opposed to the audience's need for Matt Farrell merely to survive in LFoDH, the audience needs for Sam to succeed in Transformers. There's a big difference, and the audience is emotionally invested in Sam's every move. No matter how critical you are of this movie, you've gotta admit: you'll root for Sam by the end of the movie. This is due in part to the writers drafting a great screenplay, but is mostly accomplished by LaBeouf's natural charm.

Winner: Transformers

Special Effects:

Die Hard: The special effects in LFoDH were pretty awesome, especially with explosions coming as often as they did and there being as many gun shoot-outs as there were. But there's no comparison when it comes to overall special effects between these two movies.

Transformers: Michael Bay said Transformers had some of the most difficult renders in ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) history, and he didn't let me down. I've never seen so much debris in a movie in my life. There was so much destruction in this film. That city was completely ravaged by the end of the battle between Megatron and Optimus Prime, with buildings being completely torn apart and shattered glass everywhere. It didn't really have the "huge summer movie explosions" that we've come to expect from films like Independence Day (which, let's face it, sets the bar for every 4th of July release), but the explosions were more concentrated and spread out through the course of the movie. They didn't wait for just a couple of scenes to use up all their explosions; instead the filmmakers kept the action at a high rate and good pace without sacrificing graphics along the way, which is commendable. Aside from all this, the Autobots and Decepticons looked absolutely amazing...there were always moving parts on them and they were incredibly detailed. Plus, there were some cool car chases (a Michael Bay staple), so I was happy.

Winner: Transformers

The Girl:

Die Hard: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is definitely quality. She's got that girl-next-door hotness that makes her seem almost attainable to non-actors, like she'd be cool to hang out with. That vibe is rare these days in young actresses. She played McClane's daughter Lucy, which is kind of like a movie version of Brooke Hogan - you don't want to mess with her dad. Actually, Lucy could hold her own pretty well, punching one of Thomas Gabriel's lackeys in the face with a swift right hook. She did a good job portraying the not-so-helpless damsel in distress.

Transformers: Everyone is going to be talking about Megan Fox after they see this movie. She is the definition of hot. Mark my words, fanboys everywhere will have posters of her adorning their walls, right next to their pictures of Cobra Commander and Darth Vader. So what if she's not a great actress? ("Why don't you try sacrificing something in your perfect little life?") She's got plenty of time to learn...and as long as she keeps learning on the big screen, guys everywhere will be happy. Nobody said that the three Jessicas (Alba, Biel, Simpson) were good actresses, either - and they get work all the time. Megan Fox is here to stay.

Winner: Transformers

Patriotism:

Die Hard: I think this is the most patriotic film of the franchise, and definitely the one with the most political commentary. While the entire movie was basically a swipe at the U.S. Government's ineptitude under President Bush (the Hurricane Katrina references, all the government computer agencies being completely incompetent), it still had a strong patriotic message throughout the whole movie. There were American flags everywhere, and the entire country was being attacked, as opposed to Transformers where it seemed just a small squadron of soldiers and one city were destroyed. The whole "I'm not a hero" speech from McClane was awesome, and really reminds us of the true heroes in this country who help us out on a daily basis. I almost wanted to join the police force right after I left the theater.

Transformers: This, too, was a very patriotic movie. Oh sure, there were some shots at President Bush in this one, too ("I need a ding dong."), but it still had the overall air of patriotism. It wasn't quite as overtly patriotic as LFoDH was, because there weren't an overabundance of American flags hanging in every third scene, but it was still patriotic. Muscle cars, eBay, robots - the whole thing screamed capitalism and Americana at its finest. The everyman and his girl banded together to do what's right and were willing to sacrifice their lives if necessary for the common good. That's what America is all about. Even the cinematography (which was very similar to LFoDH, but more stylized) and the color palette chosen for the movie gave off a patriotic vibe. Nicely done, filmmakers. Greg said that he wanted to join the military right after he saw this, but I didn't have that same reaction. Unlike LFoDH, in which a police officer saves the day, a kid and his giant robots saved the day in Transformers while the government failed to get organized and do anything about it.

Winner: Live Free or Die Hard

Final Score: Live Free or Die Hard = 5, Transformers = 4

Wow, that was a LOT closer than I thought it would be. I had no idea what the final score would be when I started this. Cool. Anyway, I really, really enjoyed both of these movies to the utmost degree. I absolutely loved Live Free or Die Hard, and Transformers was everything it was hyped up to be. Hopefully I didn't ruin anything for you - after all, they're just summer movies: you don't have to think too hard to enjoy them. Go see both of these movies in the theater...it's totally worth the price of admission. Summer entertainment at its finest. This was fun. Until next time...