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This is a pretty straightforward dirty cop movie. I think everyone gives a pretty basic performance, but given by a slew of good actors, so it was better than average. It was really like 2 movies I guess. The bad cops movie (with the obligatory redemptive cop) combined with a family cop drama (with the obligatory almost slapstick brother fight) why not try here. The women of the movie are pretty stereotypically completely shallow and pushed to the side in this movie. It’s alright. I don’t think I’d watch it ever again though.

Oh my big note, damn that guy who was Jim Carrey’s friend in “The Truman Show” is skinny now.

[Blu-ray | DVD]

This movie was absolutely terrible. Some okay fight scenes, NO great driving scenes. The acting was almost as bad as Gran Torino.

[DVD]

So this movie came out pre-Obama, but they are using iMacs for the receptionists. This movie predicted the future!

Okay, so this is a pretty typical all-sides-are-good-but-all-sides-are-bad kind of movie dealing with terrorism. As per the norm, I think it paints the terrorist side a little worse than the other side, but I thought Rendition did an okay enough job of explaining why the character might be a terrorist.

I wasn’t so impressed with any of the performances, though there were a ton of great actors in this movie. It wasn’t great, but I wouldn’t say it was terrible. Though if I had to pick between “great” and “terrible,” I’d say terrible.

Oh another thing that stood out to me was how oppressive the score was. Very heavy handed.

This documentary on Pixar is pretty straight forward. There isn’t anything really surprising about the Pixar story, there aren’t any real twist or turns, no real revelations. What makes this movie worthwhile is the same as Man on Wire or other documentaries on people doing a job they love, the sense of passion and mission. It’s always kind of inspiring to see that kind of passion and dedication. Honestly it makes me jealous that I’ve not found something to pursue that I’m all that passionate about. It’s fairly entertaining.

[DVD]

Okay, I watched this movie via Netflix Watch Instantly, which means I didn’t give it the full attention it deserved. Even though I’ve never seen most of the movies in my Watch Instantly queue, I can never seem to give them full attention. So Man on Wire was mixed with catching up on my feeds and then prepping dinner. Take that for what it’s worth in reading this review.

This movie was pretty excellent. It’s a documentary, but more like movie than many documentaries. It’s basically the talking heads telling the story with a few reenacted scenes to help the visual coupled with real pictures and video from the event. Oh yeah, so it’s the story of a man who tightrope walked between the Twin Towers in 1974.

Because of the interviews of the principals involved you really get the sense of excitement, need, wonder, and whimsy they had when planning and executing their plan. The archive video footage showed these people, especially the protagonist, were the same guys then as they were now. And they were really understood they were part of something special.

The movie plays with caper movie tropes. It is suspenseful and gripping, even though you know how it’s going to play out. Very impressive. A good watch.

[DVD]

This movie was kind of what I expected it to be. It was sort of the typical aftermath of group sex/open relationship kind of indie movie, if there is such a kind of movie. I actually enjoyed it though. I thought there were actually a few real beats in the two relationships that were the focus of the movie. Not wholly believable, but enough real bits that I didn’t dismiss it out of hand.

In a lot of ways, this movie reminded me of Closer [DVD]. But for younger people. This movie had a typically emo/indie soundtrack, which I’m always a sucker for (especially given my recent desire to have sound cues for a lot of things, I can appreciate how difficult it is to find appropriate music). I don’t know if I’d recommend people watch this movie. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it. I enjoyed Closer. I guess I enjoyed this movie. It didn’t break the suspension of disbelief. I guess my earlier statement stands as well as anything else I could say “Not wholly believable, but enough real bits…”

The performances by the four leads (headlined by Macauley Culkin and Eliza Dushku) I didn’t think were dreadful, like the movie as a whole, it was all passable.

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Not good. It’s not a strong statement about a movie where the biggest thing that stuck out in my mind was “no way Forrest Whitaker keeps up in a footrace with a policeman and a Secret Service officer.”

The single time frame repeated from multiple viewpoints could’ve been cool. Not really original, but then again what is in life. Dennis Quaid was like Bourne, Bauer, Liam Neeson in Taken. One man kind of sucky wrecking crew. It was a short movie. It was passable I suppose. Not a complete waste of time.

[I don’t think my reviews are really all that helpful, insightful, or informative, but I’m going to keep on writing them, just to keep up with something. I think/hope they get better with time, maybe I really do need to nail down a format.]

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Okay, so I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of stoner comedies as a genre. I mean they are all funny enough to a degree. I’ve never thought one was a good movie throughout. These things hold true for Pineapple Express as well.

The movie is fairly predictable. Not really that revolutionary, except in as much as it’s billed as the first stoner action movie. In fact that was the single best thing about the movie. I think they really made efforts to slickly play on action movie standards in the context of the stoner movie. These standard action moves were well executed and fun to watch. It wasn’t really making fun of the action movies, but almost celebrating them.

I don’t have much else to say about this movie. Some people will love it. I can’t seem anyone just hating this movie. Compared to the other tentpole movie of the summer, Tropic Thunder [Blu-ray | DVD], I don’t think it’s on the same level.