[Blu-ray | DVD]

I’ve only seen the Ang Lee Hulk [Blu-ray | DVD] in bits and pieces as it aired on television, so I can’t really compare this to that. I thought this movie was okay. I didn’t quite understand the second plot point of General Ross pursuing Banner to get his Hulk-ness or whatever, since he clearly had some sort of magic juice to make soldiers all kinds of hyped.

If I were Ed Norton, I wouldn’t have been fighting so much to have my name on the script. I didn’t quite buy his post-Hulk Banner. I thought William Hurt as General Ross was better than Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. Though I thought maybe the role needed more of a moral quandary for him picking between his weapon and his daughter. Liv Tyler was serviceable. I recently watched her in The Strangers and she sure can scream, but I don’t know if anyone does a plaintive whisper better than her. Tim Blake Nelson played his usual kind of offbeat guy. Wasn’t sure about Tim Roth as the British special forces guy. I mean he had the attitude down, but dunno. And if he was such a long-standing special forces guy, I suppose I could make the argument that he is used to acting independently, etc., but I’d also think that he’d have a real respect for, if not a whole chain of command, the very top ring of said chain.

The movie was okay. The visuals were alright. I can’t say that I thought the CGI was integrated seamlessly, but it looked alright.

[DVD]

Just don’t bother. I’m a Statham fanboy, but this is probably worse than The Transporter 2 [Blu-ray | DVD], Transporter 3, and War [Blu-ray | DVD] combined.

[Blu-ray | DVD]

So I watched Cloverfield way back when, but wanted to see it on blu-ray so hit up the Netflix to watch it again in HD. I wasn’t particularly fond of this movie the first time I saw it. I mean to say, I didn’t particularly care about this movie the first time I saw it. I can’t say a second viewing, HD or not, has changed my mind on it.

I think Cloverfield is commendable in the same way M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs [Blu-ray | DVD] was commendable. But it also suffers the same major problem. Both of the movies were so scary dealing with the unknown. Signs was particularly effective with it. Cloverfield did as much as it could with the concept given that it was a godzilla flick. But the point is, and this has been much covered before me, the less I actually saw of the monsters in the respective movies, the scarier they were. I was unbelievably disappointed when I saw the alien in Signs. And I certainly was disappointed when I saw the full monster in Cloverfield, as well as the little bugs.

I know there is no way to go without showing either. If they hadn’t been shown there would’ve been huge outcry. “The largest macguffin ever!” “What kind of monster movies doesn’t show the monster?!” But I really feel seeing both really took away from the suspense and fear the movies built up. J.J. Abrams produced Cloverfield. And I really wish he had pushed Matt Reeves, the director, to take a pseudo-Mission: Impossible III [Blu-ray | DVD] tactic. In that movie, J.J. Abrams had Ethan Hunt chase down “The Rabbit’s Foot.” In the movie, it’s is the macguffin. But it is never explained. What it is, what it does, why we should be worried it’s in terrorists’ hands. Nothing. But who cares. That it is there is the reason for worry. Do we really need to know all the minute details?

I think this would’ve worked great in Signs or Cloverfield. We know NYC is being ravaged by some huge monster (by the way, I really disliked the seeming from nowhere insect monsters, there had to be a better way to introduce other scary things than that idea). Do we really want to see it? Do we really NEED to see it?

[DVD]

This movie might’ve been good. I have no idea. I had it on the full running time, but it didn’t interest me enough to watch carefully. I suppose that’s an indication of what I thought of the movie as well.

[Blu-ray | DVD]

Okay, so I wrote tangentially about this movie way back when in the context of race. So here’s my review after actually having finally seen the movie. It’s classic Rocky. It’s not a bad movie. Buy only in as much as it apes EVERY SINGLE good boxing movie ever made. That’s all there is to it. From Raging Bull [Blu-ray | DVD] to Ali [DVD] to all of the previous Rockys [DVD], it’s all in there. So it’s good because it takes all the best parts, but bad because it’s just derivative? It definitely made me nostalgic for my youth and watching the Rocky series. I can also say, after 6 movies, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, does a better training montage piece than the Rocky series.

[Blu-ray | DVD]

I can’t say I was a fan. This movie was certainly a visual spectacle. And that covers a WHOLE lot of ground for me. I can deal with a lot of bad just to watch a movie that looks good (see e.g. Michael Bay movies). But that said, I can’t say that this movie really accomplished that for me. I mean it is a visual movie. And colorful. And all of that. And most definitely had some amazing vistas and locations. But it was kind of mostly about costume and color. And I don’t think that those two things were used as artistically as they were in “Hero”.

I guess I was just bored by the dynamic of the two central characters. Even at the end, when it took a slightly more melodramatic turn, I just couldn’t buy into it. It’s not a terrible movie and it’s contains some beautiful imagery (looked amazing on blu-ray), just not something I’d really watch again.

[Blu-ray | DVD]

Wow, what a thrill ride. This is a horror movie of the top order. It just throws you into a night of terror. A random night of terror by basically never known assailants. I recently watched The Descent and it suffered from the same kinds of problems that Signs by Shamalan [Blu-ray | DVD]. It ruined the suspense with crazy bad monsters/aliens. The Strangers showed the crazy killers in masks. And unmasked them. But never really showed them. And “You were home” just added to the total random nature of the terror. It was basically all “unexpected” scares, but not bad. There were only EIGHT characters in the whole movie. That’s how focused the movie was on the scary alone. If you like scary movies, this one ain’t bad at all.

[Blu-ray | DVD]

This was about as typical thriller/conman movie as you could get. The basic plot points/twists were all there. Nerdy guy looking to live life. Suave con man. Hooker with the heart of gold. Turn the tables. Happy ending. BORING.

[DVD]

I love Charlotte Gainsbourg, and not even she could hold my attention in this movie. Maybe I’m just not the target audience.