Sundance Review: LOUIS CK: HILARIOUS
If you haven’t heard of world renowned comedian Louis CK then you must have been living under a rock. This guy is the epitome of a stand up comedian. When I heard that he had a film here at Sundance, I honestly thought it was just going to be a documentary with some of his stand up routines thrown in. What we actually get is a full blown comedy show experience.
The first starts off with him arriving at the club, then going directly to the stage to being his onslaught of racy comedy. There isn’t a whole lot for me to talk about for this review, as its straight forward just a full stand up routine. Nothing new, nothing plot wise… just Louis CK delivering some of the best stand up comedy I have heard in years. There were points in the film that we were in tears during the routine.
Louis C.K. delivers some very vulgar, and somewhat offensive material but he tells it all with a smirk/smile that you cant help but laugh at. It offended a few people in our screening who walked out after a couple of racial jokes.
After seeing this comedy concert film I am dying to see Louis C.K. live so he can offend me, and make me cry in person.
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
‘Moneyball’ gets jumpstart
Apparently ‘Moneyball’ isnt dead yet, and this is the best news of the day because this is one project that I think Brad Pitt is absolutely perfect for. Aaron Sorkin has come on board to adapt a new script that will replace that of Steve Zaillian’s earlier draft. We get this from THR:
The writer has been brought on to do a draft of the baseball drama, drawing on Steve Zaillian’s earlier take. The studio wants to move forward quickly with the new iteration, with Sorkin set to turn in his version as soon as next month.
Brad Pitt remains on board to star, but Steven Soderbergh no longer will write or direct and is not involved in the film.
Its tough news to hear that Soderbergh will have nothing to do with it at this point but I think the movie will be a “homerun”(wow, I just went there) and has the potential to be one of the best baseball movies of all time.
I posted this originally on We Are Movie Geeks
Review: ‘The Hangover’
I was pretty excited for this movie when I heard that it was based in Vegas and revolved around a ridiculous night of debauchery for a bachelor party. Not to mention it starred Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms both of whom I have man crushes on really like. ‘The Hangover’ is more than just the funniest movie of the year, it is the funniest movie I have seen in a very long time.
Doug (Justin Bartha) is getting married in 2 days, and his “boys” (Phil and Stu) decide to take him out to Vegas for the craziest bachelor party known to man. Alan (Zach Galifianakis) is his soon to be brother in law and tags along for the event despite some more than questionable antics and warnings from his future in laws.
When they get to Vegas Alan skips out for a little bit to pick up some “party” needs and they all meet up on the roof for Jager shots to start the evening off right. Alan delivers one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard, I even teared up a little bit by the end. They all do the shots and set out for a night of binging, strippers, and whatever else they can get their hands on or into(pun intended).
The next morning they wake up only to find the extravegant penthouse they are staying in is completely trashed, their best friend is missing, they have Mike Tyson’s tiger, and there is a baby in a closet. Having no idea what happened they set out to find Doug and get some answers to their crazy night.
I dont want to spoil anymore of the movie for you so I am going to stop there with the plot outline and now I will just tell you that the only reason not to see this movie is because you hate yourself or you dont like laughing until you pee your pants. Either way we arent your friends because this movie instantly went on all of our best of 2009 lists as it will on yours as well.
I should also point out that this movie is definitely deserving of its ‘R’ rating, and if you are easily offended, dont enjoy male full front nudity, granny blowjobs and other debauchery then this probably isnt your type of movie. Also, if thats the case then you need to lighten up friend! Please don’t take your kids to this movie, unless you let your kids watch unsavory things to corrupt their minds then its definitely OK for them to see this.
Review: ‘Terminator Salvation’
The fourth film in the ‘Terminator’ franchise, it’s savior it is not. Directed by the yet to prove himself McG (Charlie’s Angels 1 & 2) with a budget that would make any relatively green filmmaker swoon at the opportunity, has managed to make a technically high-end piece of action with a particularly low-end story. ‘Terminator Salvation’ makes an effort to bring all the pieces of the time-bending story together and tie up loose ends but fails.
As the title suggests, the character of John Connor (Christian Bale) is seen by most humans as the prophecised “savior” of mankind. Connor, in this chapter, is attempting to locate and rescue his father Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) in order to preserve his own fate and that of human-kind. If his father dies, who is currently a teenager, then the first ‘Terminator’ movie would never happen and John Connor would have never been born.
Sam Worthington (Rogue) plays Marcus Wright, a man about to be executed on Death Row for crimes he fully admits to and demands punishment for. Wright is a man with a conscience about the wrongs he has committed and sees no redemption for himself. As the poisons of lethal injection stream into his body and his life slips away from him, we are thrown into the future year 2018 amidst the chaotic and horrifying aftermath of a human apocalypse brought on by machines.
Marcus Wright ends up being the focal point of this story. After a mission led by Connor goes terribly bad, leaving only Connor alive, Wright emerges from the smoldering wreckage unharmed and completely confused about where he is and what has happened. I’ll refrain from directly giving away any spoilers, but to be honest… even if you haven’t already figured out the truth about Marcus Wright going into the movie you’ll have it 95% figured out within the first quarter of the film. McG’s attempt to maintain the mystery of Wright’s existence and importance to the story is ruined early on and the remaining 5% is highly predictable.
‘Terminator Salvation’ gets itself a bit confused as Wright could easily be mistaken for the “savior” figure in this story over John Connor, if not for the already establishedback-story from the trilogy. Much of the plot elements in this movie are sort of casually borrowed from previous films and the final battle scene feels similar in some ways to that of ‘Terminator 2′. If not for the action in this movie, I fear I may have found myself bored due to a relative lack of originality.
With the failures aside, the one thing that ‘Terminator Salvation’ does have going for it are the special effects. Marcus Wright… (fine, technically this is a mini-spoiler) …is handled with a certain minimally intrusive but highly effective approach that works well. We get to see a handful of different terminator models pop up throughout the movie, but the best parts are the extensive Hunter/Killer Terminator scenes and the Terminator-Motorcycles, which are featured in one heck of an awesome chase scene. Personally, I found the Hydrobots to be part cheesy and part Matrix-esque, but I suppose they do fit the bill as used in the story.
As for the acting, everyone did a decent job, but no one really stood out, including Christian Bale. I can’t help but wonder how the actor/director relationship between Bale and McG went… we know how the actor/DP (director of photography) relationship went, don’t we? Helena Bonham Carter’s rather short role in the movie felt somewhat out of place simply by the fact that Carter stood out as an actress from the rest of the cast. The Tim Burton regular seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. Yelchin was surprisingly convincing as the young Kyle Reese and Sam Worthington performed on a level equal to Bale’s.
In the end, the story isn’t over. What? I’m not giving anything away! As much as this franchise jumps around in time and changes itself up with each movie, who the Hell knows where the story is supposed to actually end? Did you really think they would apply an ending making it impossible to continue the franchise? Not only is this another way in which the film fails to tie up loose ends, but it ventures to give birth to the question of when is enough… enough? Ultimately, what I took away was that the franchise is dead and needs to end and ‘Terminator Salvation’ was questionably even necessary. In my mind, the franchise is as stands…
#1 ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’
#2 ‘The Terminator’
#3 ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’
and, bringing up the rear… #4 ‘Terminator Salvation’
[Overall: 3 stars out of 5]
‘Watchmen’ is only 2 weeks away..
Running a movie website I get a lot of advanced screenings. I saw ‘The Dark Knight’ a week before it came out, on the IMAX. All of the big superhero movies I got to see at least 1-2 days before the general public. Next week I will be seeing ‘Watchmen’ on March 3rd and let me tell you that I am so incredibly stoked to see this movie I can barely contain myself.
The swag is billowing over in my apartment, the books are being delivered for me to give away but I really just want to see the damn movie more than anything. My LA guy Nick has already seen the movie, but he wasnt absolutely blown away by it and that makes me a little scared, but never fear because I am absolutely certain this movie will blow my mind.
Make sure that you have all purchased your IMAX tickets because seeing this movie on any other screen wont be the same(Ok, it probably will be but seeing it on the IMAX is revolutionary).
I havent updated..in forever.
Sorry to all my faithful readers(4 people), that I havent updated this blog in quite sometime. Life has gotten the best of me lately, and I havent had time to update WeAreMovieGeeks.com and this site so this one fell off the face of the planet.
Here are some changes since I last updated.
I went and conquered Sundance Film Festival:
I bought a Macbook(and Stickered it):
I am hitting SXSW with Jeremy in March:
I’m going, going back, back to..wait.
I am heading to Sundance Film Festival 2009 in Park City Utah, effectivly popping my Sundance cherry. I will be mobile blogging/photo blogging Sundance this year, so stay tuned starting January 14th!
Attn Fox: Dont Mess with the ‘Watchmen’
The above photo says it all. I posted the following on WAMG:
If you guys are just itching to enrage every movie geek on the Internet in the world then do us all a favor and quit trying to push the release date for ‘Watchmen’. We understand that you guys feel slighted, but you are in the business of making movie goers happy, and who has more influence than movie bloggers on what will happen with a movie?
This movie is already topping everyone’s most anticipated movies of 2009 list, and for you guys to interject yourselves into it at this point would be very poor decsion. ‘Watchmen’ will be a very profitable movie, and that is one department you guys could use some help in right now. The movie geek consensus is that we are all fine with your distributing the movie, but are very fearful for what you might do with the release date.
Please take notice, we are all “Watching” you and how you handle this situation. The backlash would be epic, and you guys would definitely not come out on top. You have officially been warned.
Do your part as an internet geek and repost this..
Just got 2 ‘Watchmen’ fullsize posters
Yes! Working in the movie industry has its benefits, and getting free full size posters is only the beginning of those benefits!
