Movies – Page 25 – Cinesnark

127 Hours

I had to steel myself for this one. Not that I thought it would be depressing—I remember the story of Aron Ralston and his incredible survival against literally every odd ever known to man (if you didn’t ever see the news in 2003, Ralston became trapped while canyoneering in Utah and had to amputate his own arm below the elbow in order to free himself then walk to safety). It’s an amazing story of survival and pure animal will to live. No, I had to steel myself for this one because of all those stories about people passing out during That Scene. You know the one. The one with the arm.Continue reading “127 Hours”

Unstoppable: How to make a bad movie watchable

Let’s be very clear. Unstoppable was not good. It was loud, headache-inducing, teeth-rattling driving action with little plot and no character development. The acting was limited to roguish smiles and worried glances. The score was annoying and cluttered up an already cluttered soundscape and the cinematography was the caliber of World’s Wildest Car Chases. All around, Unstoppable was a pretty terrible movie.

Yet it’s imminently watchable.Continue reading “Unstoppable: How to make a bad movie watchable”

Morning Glory was very pretty

It really was remarkably well lit and framed. Even with an obvious effort to “dress down” Rachael McAdams’ character, Becky, in plain suits (note to wardrobe departments—if you’re creating a real working girl look, flawless tailoring is an afterthought) and with bangs worthy of an irascible news anchor’s derision, the lighting and framing is so lovely that McAdams always looks kind of like Cinderella pre-fairy godmother. The final scene is post-fairy godmother Cinderella as Becky wears a terribly cute dress and cardigan with bright pink pumps (and her bangs are fixed!), and it doesn’t matter if she’s inside or outside, the lighting is perfect.Continue reading “Morning Glory was very pretty”

Hereafter’s boring afterlife

One of my central problems with Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter is its incredibly listless vision of the afterlife. There’s a lot of standing around in a shadowy realm, feeling weightless, and having expanded consciousness. Not much else is going on. Expanded consciousness would be pretty cool, I guess, but if that’s all there is to eternity, then it’s going to feel like, well, an eternity.Continue reading “Hereafter’s boring afterlife”

Big Red comes up short

The first I heard of a Secretariat movie was several years ago and the conversation went something like this:

Friend: Disney wants to do a movie about Secretariat.

Me: Really? That would be cool. It could be The Black Stallion for a new generation.

Friend: Yeah, but they can’t find a colt to portray Secretariat.

Me: Of course they can’t. Big red colts aren’t born every day.Continue reading “Big Red comes up short”

Wall Street 2: A tale of three movies

This review is a day late courtesy a bad batch of dim sum which did its best to kill me from the inside.

Let me start my review of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps by saying I’m not much of an Oliver Stone fan. There’s not any one thing I dislike about Stone, more it’s the sum total of the Oliver Stone Film Experience–filmmaking too clever for its own good–that bugs me. Stone is a good filmmaker who too often gets tripped up on his own Ideas and it annoys me when no one stops him from finalizing his messes. Wall Street 2 is a perfect example of this. It’s a perfectly fine movie that could have been above-average good but was wrecked by too much story clutter and messy editing.Continue reading “Wall Street 2: A tale of three movies”