King Kong - 2006 (3/4 stars)

I really liked this film but am hesitant to watch it again but the first hour was so slow. Adrien Brody kept this movie going once they hit the island and although I liked Jack Black his character still reminded me to much of his comedies and that wasn’t what this movie was about. Still the special effects were great and it was nice to see most of the old scenes done in the new movie. This was especially true with the battling of the dinosaur, even though Peter Jackson had Kong fight numerous ones to make it more action packed.

Another benefit of the special effects was that Kong was able to have more of a personality mostly due to having pronounced facial expressions. This really helped drive the “beauty and the beast” drama home and made me feel for him more.

It has been almost two-years since I have seen this movie and so many scenes have stuck with me which is what makes a movie great. Still, I also remembered being bored off my ass for almost and hour at the start of the movie. Watch it for yourself and decide.

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Rules of Attraction (4/4 stars)

This is a classic tale of college students and how their lives intertwine with one another. James Van Der Beek is great in his role of playing an "Emotional Vampire" or simply put an asshole. He isn't inherently an ass, he just can't seem to figure things out for himself so he gives up and feeds on other's feelings to figure out how he should act. He thinks he has fallen in love, but it is not with the right girl and becomes more of a infatuation.
The other characters: the rich prick, the slut, the openly gay, the closet gay, the drug dealers and the posers all have a great part in showing the college experience. They each have something in common: none of them know what is really going on but they all think they know everything.

Aside from a great plot and good acting, the movie has a very memorable soundtrack. The soundtrack is very important to this film because it ties in so closely with the directing. So closely that when the movie is going back in time the music is playing backwards with it. Roger Avary who hasn't directed much shows his tallents with a very unique style of camera work. He breaks the typical mold and uses odd camera angles, split screens and a host of other interesting but effective techniques to bring the audience closer to the characters.

Simply a great film, and I hope that Roger Avary has more movies to direct soon.

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Swingers is both funny and wise (3.5/4 stars)

Swingers is the great transformation of two friends, Trent who has always been the “Cool” guy and Mike who is the looser. Mike, John Favreau, is feeling desperate and pitiful after breaking up with his girlfriend of six year. Six months has passed and he is still obsessing over her and Trent, Vince Vaughn, is trying to get him to have fun being single by taking him to Vegas and picking up cute “honeys”.

As the movie goes on their transformation becomes apparent: Trent may be cool on the surface but he is really the looser and Mike is the cool one. This transformation or realization is subtle that it is easy to miss if you haven’t been in either of their situations before. Unfortunately, most people have been in Mike’s situation before and it is easy to relate to him even if he is the extreme. I related to his lack of confidence and sense of vulnerability after a break up and having friends try to pick up the pieces and have fun. The aspect of Mike’s friends giving him advice all along while the whole time he just needed to do it for himself so he could be who he really is, is what makes this movie so true to life.

The dialog and chemistry between Mike and Trent is unique and funny. Their friends characters, all of which are aspiring actors as well, keep things interesting. They all believe in friendship but are all so into themselves that their advice is not something they follow themselves. In the end you find out their advice is bad and is why they are really the same as Mike the whole time; they just hide it better. At the end Mike is the one is realizes this is starting to become happy while Trent has realized this the whole time which is why he was always telling Mike “You are so money and you don’t even know it.”


Filmcrave.com is almost ready! Another month or two should do the trick.

Cannibal Holocaust doesn’t make the grade 1.5/4 stars

This is one of the most controversial films to date. It is banned in 31 countries due to the graphic nature or the film and animal cruelty. This is why I felt the need to see it for myself.

Cannibal Holocaust is a politically charged gore fest. It is shocking and disturbing because of the excess of scenes that could have been cut without hurting the plot. Some of these scenes such as the killing and dismantling of a turtle could have been cut or shot with a fake turtle and been just as effective. It is scenes like this, which are designed to shock the audience and make them wonder “Is Director Ruggero Deodato making a movie about himself?” This is the irony of the film. It makes political statements about who are really the savages of today’s world, the primitive people or the modern day man. When in reality the makers of this film turn out to be the savages.

The idea of the movie is probably the best part, the story goes back and forth between the NYU Professor and the film that he found of the four filmmakers who were killed. It is this back and forth that is both interesting and kept me wondering what was next. The movie slowly reached it climax, which in itself wasn’t any more shocking than other parts of the film but wrapped up the film nicely. The soundtrack was terrible and sometimes abrasive with annoying synthesizers.

Don’t watch this film unless you have an open mind and a strong stomach. PETA lovers will probably love the beheading of a monkey though!

Filmcrave.com is coming soon (May 2007)

300 The Movie, 3/4 stars

An action inspired battle movie meets comic book madness. This is what 300 is all about! Bloody battle after bloody battle the special effects and directing are both beautiful and awe inspiring at times. Occasionally the blood spatters and giant foes go over the top but for the most part it is very well done and welcome.

My only real complaints with the movie is that it was a bit predictable, the narrator hurt the momentum and there was no emotions in this film. With this said, the acting was decent and Gerard Butler, King Leonidas, was very commanding and played the role of a fearless king very well. The narration helped explain the background of the film but would come at times where the battles just finished and the tension should be building. The tension probably would have been increased more if the audience was meant to care for any of the characters. Since the characters were mostly emotionless and nameless there was no hoping that they would live or die. The result is that the audience never feels tension and instead is left with just the pure amusement of the battle and the creative directing.

Like I said before, 300 is a mix of a action inspired battle movie with the creativity of a comic book. If you like how that sounds check it out, if not stay away.

More movie reviews at Filmcrave.com coming in Mid 2007.

Fox News does it again

There is always bias in news to what extreme is what bothers me. We all know that Fox is the equivalent of conservative talk radio and CNN is the the liberal version. With that said doesn’t that mean that they at least display the same stories with their own biased twist? Wrong! Fox news today is proudly displaying their distaste for Sarah Silverman and her recent comedy central skit where she has a one night stand with a black god.

The story appeared in my google top 3 news stories by Fox news. After doing a quick search for other news stories I find that after 3 hours only 3 news organizations have picked up the story. This frustrates me not because no one else is picking it up, it frustrating because Fox is clearly trying to make news out of things that are not news. A quick view at their homepage reveals stories like “Gay ‘Orientation’ for freshman angers parents”, “Chicken-eating cow makes farmer famous” and “Man burns genitals in ‘Jackass’ Stunt”. CNN was not the only one to put non-priority on their homepage but had “Granny puts cannabis in eggs, cocoa, soups” and “6th graders caught having sex in shop class”.

The CNN homepage was at least focused enough to only have a couple non-news stories on their homepage, while Fox had many more than what was listed, mostly relating to entertainment such as American Idol.

Fox news looks closer to a personal blog mixed with Reuters “Strange Enough” section than news. I am getting sick of the bias in news, on both sides, but especially sickened by Fox’s disregard of stories and sometimes facts.

High Tension 3 stars for a odd French Horror

This movie was as advertised, full of tense heart pumping thrills. It was utterly aggravating to watch and I wanted to reach out and shake Marie for being so dumb but in the end it pulled together to surprise me. Good suspenseful flick.

More movie reviews at Filmcrave.com coming in Mid 2007.