Movies & TV

anne marie and I just got back from Catwoman, the new Halle Berry movie. There’s two hours I’ll never get back! I went in with very low hopes, and was still disappointed. The story was terrible, it was simply one music montage after another. The dialogue actually made The Chronicles of Riddick look good, if you can believe that. The action sequences use a 3D version of Halle that would have looked good in a movie done entirely in 3D, but mixed with live action they didn’t really work. This movie relies entirely on Halle’s cleavage. Strong thumbs down on this one.

Saturday night ann marie and I saw ‘Nepoleon Dynamite’, at the Embarcadero. I’m not sure if I would give this one a thumbs up, or down. It was a little different than I had expected. From the trailer I thought it was set in the 80’s, but it is actually current day. It takes place in a small, rural town, I forget the state. The 80’s references are because they are poking fun at little farm towns being 20 years behind the rest of the country. It had a few funny moments, but overall I think it was just OK. I did like the ending though. It also had an awesome opening credits sequense. It was quite original I think.

Last night anne marie and I went to see Spiderman 2. We were very disappointed. We simply wanted some mindless entertainment, but it couldn’t even do that. It’s just over two hours, but it felt like four to me. The story is all over the place, to many little sub-stories. There is a nice train sequence about 3/4 of the way through that was entertaining, but you have to sit through a lot of junk first. Spiderman 2 should have been the legnth of an old episode of the cartoon… 30 minutes. Than it would have been perfect. Save you money and see it as a matinee, if at all.

In a recent post about The Stepford Wives, I mentioned this movie, ‘DOGVILLE’, as a much better Nichole Kidman movie to see. It was such a good movie that I though it deserved a posting of it’s own.

anne marie and I saw it a couple of months ago, and it sparked hours of conversation afterwards, at dinner. I would highly recommend this one. Big thumbs up.

[ www.dogvillemovie.com ]

Some friends recently let us borrow the ‘FireFly’ TV series, on DVD. We have only watched four episodes so far, but it is great. I highly recommend it.

… from ‘The Hollywood Reporter.com‘

“The short-lived TV series “Firefly” is moving to the big screen. After taking his “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” feature film and turning it into a successful TV series, Joss Whedon is about to do the reverse with another one of his creations. Whedon has teamed with Universal Pictures to turn “Firefly,” a TV cult favorite, into a feature film.

In addition to having adapted it for the big screen, Whedon will also make his feature directorial debut with the project. Plans are to see “Firefly” go into production in first-quarter 2004.

Universal recently acquired the rights to “Firefly” from 20th Century Fox Television, where Whedon’s Mutant Enemy Inc. production company has a television deal.”

anne marie and I went to see ‘The Stepford Wives’ last night. In a word… Stink-o-rama! It was uninteresting, unfunny, predictable, and not even worth the cost of a rental. It only had two redeeming qualities… It’s relatively short (93min.), and it did have a nice opening-credit sequence (design geek). Strong thumbs down for this one. If you have an urge to see a Nichole Kidman movie, see Dogville, now that was a good movie.

… from iWalt.com

“Fans of Richard Kelly’s great sci-somethingorother film Donnie Darko may be pleased to learn (as I was) that it’s being re-released with more music, extended scenes, and new visual effects.

That’s right, it’s Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut . The trailer is really excellent. Now if I could only find out where it’s playing.

MovieTickets.com seems to think it’s coming out on July 23rd but doesn’t have any theater information yet. Yahoo! Movies has a page for it but it doesn’t come up in their search results.

This interview with the director has the usual lines about why the film is back in theaters.”