Happy Thanksgiving

I hope today is a good one for everyone.

Last 2 DVD rentals...

X2

I liked the first one, not a lot, but I thought it was a good comic book movie. One of the things I liked about it is that is was only about 90 minutes. I didn't take a long time with the origin of every character. It just jumped right in. In X2 they still spend time with origins, but running time is now about 2 hours and 10 minutes. For this movie the running time was excessive. There were so many story lines going on, it almost seems like there could have been two movies. Maybe they could have just focused on a couple things and saved some of the less crucial story lines for later. It seems fairly likely we will see an X3. I guess nothing is for sure on that though.


I'm not saying this was bad, but one thing I did have trouble with was getting really drawn into. With no main focus, the movie just jumped from character to character. There were some good scenes, but overall it could have been tightened up more.


The Shape of Things

The Shape of Things is a Neil LaBute (Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty) that quickly came and went from the theaters. It stars Rachel Weisz and Paul Rudd as a new couple working on their relationship. I don't want to say too much more because the movie took a couple of unexpected turns that I didn't really see coming. It's too bad this movie didn't get much notice because it really is pretty good. Watching the relationships on screen I was reminded of some people I knew. I think everyone knows at least one couple like that, or has possibly been through a similar situation themselves (similar up until the "twist" that is). I don't want to make a big deal about the "twist", I'm not talking about The Sixth Sense here, I'm just saying the movie takes some interesting turns.

Last Two DVD Rentals...

28 Days Later

28 Days Later at first reminded me of The Omega Man. For those who don't know The Omega Man star Charleton Heston as the lone survivor of a massive plague. So 28 Days Later reminded me of that for about the first third of the movie or so. Then it turned into Dawn of the Dead. Okay it wasn't exactly Dawn of the Dead, but you can't tell that grocery store scene wasn't a direct homage. It was like Dawn of the Dead until about the half way point, then it didn't really remind of anything in particular. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that I thought the twist at the end was clever and I didn't see it coming. As for the movie overall, I thought it was okay, but I didn't love it. The alternate ending is a waste, I can't believe it was re-released to theaters for it. The DVD also has a second alternate ending that goes with the theatrical althernate ending, and it has a drastically different alternate ending. This one is not really an alternate ending, because it actually starts about half way through the movie, about where it stopped being like Dawn of the Dead, and it was never actually shot. Storyboards are shown and dialogue is read over those. It's interesting to see how different the movie would have been.

Wrong Turn

Wrong Turn received terrible reviews and totally bombed at the box office. I'm not sure why this was the case. I'm not saying that because I thought it was really good, just that I didn't think it was that bad. It kept me entertained and there were a couple of parts where I jumped. Wrong Turn is not any worse than other movies of its type, so I'm not sure why it was so reviled.

This Weekend's (estimated) Box Office

1. Elf - 27.2 Million
2. Master & Commander - 25.7 Million
3. The Matrix Revolutions - 16.3 Million
4. Brother Bear - 12 Million
5. Looney Tunes: Back in Action - 9.5 Million
6. Love Actually - 8.9 Million
7. Scary Movie 3 - 6.1 Million
8. Radio - 5 Million
9. Tupac: Resurrection - 4.6 Million
10. Mystic River - 3.3 Million

Elf climbs to #1 this weekend dropping only 12.5% while The Matrix drops 66% and comes in at #3. I didn't see the second one so I won't be seeing this one until I maybe rent them both on DVD. I have heard the second one really has no ending, but I guess not everyone cared to find out what happens.

Elf

When I first heard about this movie, I thought it sounded really stupid. However, being a fan of Will Ferrell's I decided to go see it this past weekend. To my surprise it was actually pretty funny. Though it is aimed at a younger audience, I didn't find it overly childless or impossible to enjoy as an adult. I deffinitely recommend this one to families, Ferrell fans or anyone who wants to see a fun holiday movie.

Scary Movie 3


This movie was a huge disappointment. I really liked the first one, but hated the second. For some reason I thought this one was going to good, but I was wrong. I was kind of skepitcal when I saw it was rated PG-13, but since it had been getting fairly good reviews I thought it might be ok. Maybe it would have been better if they had gone for the R rating because I kept feeling like there might have been a lot cut out.


I didn't really laugh once, and only chuckled a couple of times at some parts that were so stupid they were funny. I guess I also had high hopes because David Zucker was directing and Pat Proft co-wrote. I am a big fan of their ealier stuff, but there really hasn't been a good spoof comedy in years (Scary Movie 1 aside, even that is not as good as early ZAZ). This also had Charlie Sheen who was good in Hot Shots and of course Leslie Nielsen. Leslie Nielsen hasn't really done anything good in a long time either, but I was still hopefull. I guess everyone forgot what made movies like Airplane and Naked Gun funny in the first place.