Thursday, August 04, 2011

Assorted Movies

Quick comments on a handful of movies:


LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD – Somebody came up with the odd idea of turning a fairy tale into a cross between a horror movie and Black Forest 90210. But I thought it was pretty entertaining, although I don't much like Amanda Seyfried. There's an actual mystery in the plot, with clues and everything.


SEASON OF THE WITCH – Critically reviled fantasy adventure with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman as former crusaders taking a witch across France while the plague is raging. Most of the reviews seem to be talking about a different movie than the one I saw, which I thought was pretty good.


THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU – Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in a thriller based on a Phillip K. Dick short story about a shadowy group determining the fate of mankind. I liked it, too.


SOURCE CODE – Jake Gyllenhaal (sp?) in a thriller about a guy involved in a mysterious government operation trying to locate a dirty bomb planted by a terrorist before it can destroy Chicago. In order to do this he relives the same eight minutes on a commuter train over and over. A pretty goofy premise, but entertaining, and I liked the ending.


GULLIVER'S TRAVELS – What can I say? I like Jack Black.


HALL PASS – Crude Owen Wilson comedy written and directed by the Farrelly Brothers. Pretty far-fetched, but I laughed quite a bit. And Christina Applegate is still yowza.


DESPICABLE ME – Goofy but good-hearted animated comedy about supervillains. I liked this one a lot, too.


There might be something in here some of you would enjoy.

6 comments:

mybillcrider said...

I liked SEASON OF THE WITCH, too, but I'm a sucker for a bad Nic Cage movie. I liked DESPICABLE ME a lot, and we have THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU here to watch Real Soon Now.

Charles Gramlich said...

The only one of these I've seen so far is Despicable Me and it was pretty cute, I thought.I want to see some of the others too, particularly the Adjustment Bureau.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Liked SOURCE CODE and ADJUSTMENT BUREAU quite a bit. Didn't see the others.
Is there a good Nicholas Cage movie? Well, yes. I liked Leaving Las Vegas, Raising Arizona, Birdy and Matchstick Men but on the whole...

James Reasoner said...

LEAVING LAS VEGAS is a movie I've never seen, but I want to. Will get around to it eventually.

By the way, Patti, a friend of mine just asked me if I knew anything about Megan's books. I bent his ear for a while with high praise (figuratively speaking, since it was via email).

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

I have seen most of Nicolas Cage movies including the ones Ms Pattinase mentions, except for Birdy. Haven't seen that one yet. Cage is a fine actor though I had mixed feelings about Martin Scorsese's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD. Maybe it's just the film I didn't like.

William said...

Rented the DVD for THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU this week and thought it was pretty enjoyable, too. Just before watching it, I found PKD's short story, “The Adjustment Team," online and read it. It's interesting how they took a rather humorous, simple story and used it to germinate a much more dramatic film. (And, boy, I think if it involved Emily Blunt, I'd change "the plan," too.)