Sunday, December 03, 2006
Some quick movie reviews
Haven't seen a whole bunch of movies the last month or so, but I have seen a few. In fact, I managed to watch about 3 over the Thanskgiving break. But I figure before I write about them, I should catch up on ones I saw a while back.
Cars (actually saw it in the theater, one of the very few movies this year) - 8/10. Pauline and I watched it with the kids at the "Rivoli Theater," a local dollar-theater ($2 probably, if you want to get technical) located in an old fashioned theater. You can even order pizza which you can eat during the show; they have tables in the front. Cars was very enjoyable, maybe a little too predictable--about what you'd expect from a Pixar show about race cars. The hot race car gets stranded in a very small town and is sentenced to do community service by the judge after he gets into a crash. Some very big acting names do the voices, including Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shaloub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, and Michael Keaton. There are also a whole lot of interesting cameos.
Whisper of the Heart - 9/10. This animated film was written by Hayao Miyazaki, the same guy who wrote and directed Castle In The Sky, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki's Delivery Service. This one wasn't directed by him, but had the same sweetness that Kiki's Delivery Service did. Tells the story of a romance between two kids, approx. 15 year old. The girl was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life, and the boy was in training to be a violin maker. The basic message of the film was that you should follow your dream. Humorously, a major part of the film was John Denver's song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," to which the main character invented alternate words. This song was in the original Japanese version, too, which is what I found funny for some reason. The show is highly recommended.
Seven Samurai - 5/10. Sadly I can't really recommend this, although I could see how it was a classic in its day. If I understand correctly, it's basically a Japanese version of "The Magnificent Seven", an American Western which I haven't seen, but set in Samurai Japan. It tells the story of a group of seven samurai that were hired by a village to protect it from a much larger group of marauders. The story was good, and there is a lot of suspense as the samurai prepare for the oncoming battle. However, it was in my opinion far too long a movie (208 minutes), some of the makeup jobs were laughable, and I only thought one or two of the actors were good. (I must admit that the film was in Japanese, with English subtitles, so I might not be the best judge of the actors' abilities.) In the end, it just wasn't gripping enough for me to rate highly.
Cars (actually saw it in the theater, one of the very few movies this year) - 8/10. Pauline and I watched it with the kids at the "Rivoli Theater," a local dollar-theater ($2 probably, if you want to get technical) located in an old fashioned theater. You can even order pizza which you can eat during the show; they have tables in the front. Cars was very enjoyable, maybe a little too predictable--about what you'd expect from a Pixar show about race cars. The hot race car gets stranded in a very small town and is sentenced to do community service by the judge after he gets into a crash. Some very big acting names do the voices, including Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shaloub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, and Michael Keaton. There are also a whole lot of interesting cameos.
Whisper of the Heart - 9/10. This animated film was written by Hayao Miyazaki, the same guy who wrote and directed Castle In The Sky, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki's Delivery Service. This one wasn't directed by him, but had the same sweetness that Kiki's Delivery Service did. Tells the story of a romance between two kids, approx. 15 year old. The girl was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life, and the boy was in training to be a violin maker. The basic message of the film was that you should follow your dream. Humorously, a major part of the film was John Denver's song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," to which the main character invented alternate words. This song was in the original Japanese version, too, which is what I found funny for some reason. The show is highly recommended.
Seven Samurai - 5/10. Sadly I can't really recommend this, although I could see how it was a classic in its day. If I understand correctly, it's basically a Japanese version of "The Magnificent Seven", an American Western which I haven't seen, but set in Samurai Japan. It tells the story of a group of seven samurai that were hired by a village to protect it from a much larger group of marauders. The story was good, and there is a lot of suspense as the samurai prepare for the oncoming battle. However, it was in my opinion far too long a movie (208 minutes), some of the makeup jobs were laughable, and I only thought one or two of the actors were good. (I must admit that the film was in Japanese, with English subtitles, so I might not be the best judge of the actors' abilities.) In the end, it just wasn't gripping enough for me to rate highly.
# posted by John Colton @ 7:35 PM 
