Movie Review: Sex and the City - Starring Sarah Jessica Parker & Chris Noth
Released: May 30th, 2008
Runtime: 2 hr. 24 min.
Ticket Price: $5.00 Early Matinee
Refreshments: None
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon & Chris Noth
Director: Michael Patrick King
Rating: Worth a Rental
Synopsis: Carrie and the girls all got their happy endings at the end of the series. As the movie opens Samantha is in L.A. living with and managing boy toy Smith Jerrod. Carrie is still with Big. Charlotte and Harry are living blissfully with their adopted daughter. Miranda and Steve are together with their son, but with a lot less bliss. Carrie and Big decide to move in together and then to get married. Miranda gets some devastating news from Steve. Samantha puts on a few pounds denying her wants. Charlotte puts on a few pounds getting what she wants. Couples breakup. Couples get back together. One stays single. But, they all live happily ever after once again.
Review: Went into the Sex and the City movie pretty clean, having never seen a complete episode of the series. Had seen plenty of clips, caught a minute or two here and there while flipping channels, and obviously had seen the ads and trailers for the movie, but have just never got the attraction. So, with that in mind, let’s talk about the movie.
Sex and the City is long and predictable. It has plenty of good lines and funny moments, although a frisky dog is a bit overused. Yet, sitting here about 10 hours after the movie ended, can’t really remember any of them. But, where things really go wrong is with all the drama.
You need conflict to create a compelling story, even in a comedy, but this all just seem so contrived in order to have a reason to extend the Sex and the City franchise. Begin with happy couples. Pull them apart. Put them back together. They live happily ever after. You just knew that everybody was going to end up with a happy ending once again. They couldn’t do anything else, because fans of the show would’ve been pissed. Knowing this just made everything feel so predictable.
What is worse, is that the predictability is so, well…predictable. Too much of what happens is so overtly telegraphed. Foreshadowing is one thing, but you’ve got to be a little clever about it. For example, if you don’t know what the password is as soon as Carrie sits down at the computer or how things are going to end up for Carrie and Big after they argue about the wedding, then you’ve never seen a movie before.
Another problem was the length. At times it really seemed to drag. In a half-hour show, you tend to focus on a main story and a side story and over the course of the season everyone’s story moves ahead. So, with four main characters, they had to come up with something for each to deal with in the movie. That makes it like four super-sized episodes blended together.
Overall, Sex and the City is probably worth a rental, especially if you’re a fan of the HBO TV series and have about two and a half hours to spare.
Have you seen Sex and the City? What did you think about the movie? Let us know in the comments.
Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Starring Harrison Ford & Shia LeBeouf
Released: May 22nd, 2008
Runtime: 2 hr. 4 min.
Ticket Price: $7.50 Matinee
Refreshments: None
Starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent & Shia LaBeouf
Director: Steven Spielberg
Rating: Worth a Matinee
Synopsis: Indiana Jones is racing the Soviets to the lost city of Akakor, deep in the Peruvian forest. They are in pursuit of a mystical crystal skull that legend says will bestow powers on the one who returns it. Others along for the ride include his old flame, a long-time friend and a new sidekick.
Review: For its fourth foray into the franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fun piece of nostalgia. Fans of the series will enjoy the nods to the previous films.
There is a lot to like: great lines, escapes, fights, the score, settings and more. But, even though it lasts just over two hours, the movie just seems to fly right by. Yet, when its over, you don’t feel like you have seen anything substantial.
It has been a while since watching any of the Indiana Jones movies, but when you think of them, the first thing that comes to mind, is not science fiction. Dealing with things in the supernatural genre, yes, but not science fiction. So, where this film takes you just seemed odd. The trip to get there was good old Indiana Jones fun. The payoff is where the main problem lies.
Overall, it’s worth checking out a matinee. It would have garnered a better rating, but the ending just leaves you feeling flat.
What did you think of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Let us know in the comments.
Movie Review: Speed Racer - Starring Emile Hirsch, Mathew Fox & Christina Ricci
Released: May 9th, 2008
Runtime: 2 hr. 15 min.
Ticket Price: $5.00 Early Matinee
Refreshments: None
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon & John Goodman
Director: Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski
Rating: Wait for the Rental, if Not Longer
Synopsis: Speed was born to race, as his family has always been in the business of racecars. He has become the hottest thing on four wheels. He gets a big offer from a mega corporation, but turns it down and then finds that powerful people behind the scenes are fixing races to make more money. So, he sets out to win a cross-country race and beat these people at their own game. He ends up in a showdown at the Grand Prix.
Review: Speed Racer is a whirling dervish of colors flashing across the screen. While it can be beautiful to look at, although overwhelmingly so at times, it doesn’t have much else. Yet, there actually is a story underlying the whiz-bang graphics, not much of one, but one nonetheless.
From the little I have seen of the old Speed Racer cartoon
With all the racing scenes, you would think there would be more excitement. But, this turns out not to be the case. The racing in a movie like Days of Thunder
Overall, you should just wait for the rental, if not longer. Well, if new CGI techniques interest you, then it might be worth checking out on the big screen, but otherwise you aren’t missing anything. Speed Racer was quite the let down after Iron Man got the blockbuster season off to a great start last week.
What did you think of Speed Racer? Let us know in the comments.
Movie Review: Iron Man - Starring Robert Downey Jr. & Gwyneth Paltrow
Released: May 2nd, 2008
Runtime: 2 hr. 6 min.
Ticket Price: $5.00 Early Matinee
Refreshments: Red Vines
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard & Gwyneth Paltrow
Director: Jon Favreau
Rating: Worth a Full Price Ticket
Synopsis: A billionaire industrialist, who is a genius inventor and notorious playboy, is captured in Afghanistan after demonstrating his company’s latest weaponry. A fellow captive saves his life. Together, instead of building the weapons their captures want; they set out to build a powered suit of armor to aid their escape. During the escape his, now friend, and fellow captive is killed. He returns home a changed man, who wants to change his ways. He starts working on a new and improved version of the suit, so he can protect people.
Review: Iron Man is one of the best movies in the comic book genre. It ranks up there with Spider-Man and Batman Begins. It gives another great example of what can and should be done when turning comic books into movies. But, it isn’t just that, it is also a really good movie in general.
Iron Man does the main thing that should be accomplished, in the first of a possible comic hero franchise, it tells you the origin story, in detail. No five-minute overviews or voiceovers, etc., so you can get right to the action. You get to see how Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr. (Zodiac, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), becomes Iron Man. This is the reason why I liked Spider-Man
Jon Favreau (Zathura, Elf), he also appears in the film as Stark’s driver Hogan, opens the film with a bang and then flashes back and takes you through the events leading up to his capture. This grabs your attention and then allows you to get to know the Stark character before his capture. You then see his captivity, first suit creation and escape. The escape being the next time there is any action. Yet, you never lose interest. The bulk of the action is in the second half of the film.
Next, you follow his building of the Version 2.0 prototype. This is filled with a lot of slapstick type comedy, as he perfects his suit, things don’t always go well. This section is a whole lot of fun. It provides a great comic interlude between the seriousness of his captivity and his using the suit in battle for the first time. There is actually a lot of comedy throughout the whole film.
As someone that new nothing about the Iron Man comic characters going in, I really enjoyed the movie. Iron Man is worth a full price ticket and makes for a great start to the summer movie season, even if it is still spring. Oh, and don’t be in such a hurry to get out of the theater before the credits finish, as everyone else I saw it with was, if you want to see Samuel L. Jackson (Jumper, Coach Carter) as Nick Fury, the Director of S.H.E.I.L.D., talk to Stark about the “Avenger Initiative.”
What did you think of Iron Man? Let us know in the comments.
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