And things just went downhill from there.  True there were moments in the film which were enjoyable, but they were the exceptions not the rule.  I highly recommend staying away from this wretched, steaming pile of poo.

Review: Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Like others in this thread, I didn’t care for the camera shake. It wasn’t bad enough to make me leave the theater but it definitely made me queasy. As for the storyline to the movie.… meh. While most of the characters had a good line or two; I didn’t them. Any of them. In fact, I would go so far as to say my main complaint with the movie is one of them might have survived. I would have preferred a clean sweep of character deaths.

In response to the Cloverfield thread on the Whateveresque forums.

Cloverfield © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

First movie had little to no shaky cam. Second movie had enough to annoy me and trigger my wife’s motion sickness. I guess I’ll be renting the third movie some day when the wife’s not around then. Thanks for the warning Les!

In response to SEB 30 Second Movie Reviews: “The Borne Ultimatum.” by Les.

Borne Ultimatum © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

So I am looking forward to seeing this and hopefully it won’t suck like the trailer.

¹ Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King and Silver on a Tree
² I’d give you a direct link to the trailer, but they built their site entirely in flash so there’s no way for me to do so. Apple now has the trailer for The Dark is Rising on their movie trailers page.
³ The main character of the book.

The Dark Is Rising © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Believe in yourself
Says Ferris: “Not that I condone fascism. Or any ‘isms’. ‘Isms’, in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ‘ism’. He should believe in himself.”

Slow clap for the second most profound line of the movie.

Taken from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the secret to life, found via By The Way….

An article I wish I’d written… © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Errm, no. Sorry, this movie did not rock. There were good bits and bad bits to this movie.

Good

• Used original voice actor for Optimus Prime.
• Special effects

Bad

• Script/story
• Directing

Was it an enjoyable movie? Provided you unplugged your brain and just rode the thrill ride of giant, robot fights, yes it was. However if you let your brain try to follow that rotting corpse of a plot –even for one second– then you’ll be disappointed.

In response to Transformers — it friggin rocks by Omar.

Transformers — it friggin rocks, NOT © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Stranger Than Fiction, directed by: Marc Forster
Mark’s Rating: 5 out of 5

When I originally saw the ads and trailers for this movie, I knew I would want to rent it¹. I figured it would be a couple of hours of silliness and that would be it. I never expected that I’d want to add this movie to my collection; but by the time we finished watching it, both my wife² and I want to own it. Besides having a fair amount of silliness, the movie is also very clever. Visually clever in how the sfx crew generated all the overlay graphics to numerically describe Mr. Crick’s life at the beginning of the film. And cleverly written in well… the whole dang movie. Definitely worth watching!

The Prestige, directed by: Christopher Nolan
Mark’s Rating: 4 out of 5

It’s a shame that The Prestige came out at the same time as The Illusionist. If it had come out months/years prior or even after, the movie might have done so much better. As it is, The Prestige is always going to be known as “The other magician movie. You know, the one that came out when The Illusionist did”. The Prestige was an enjoyable, if rather dark, movie and had its own clever twists. But when compared to The Illusionist, it just falls short.

House of Flying Daggers, directed by: Yimou Zhang
Mark’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Stunningly beautiful as to be expected of Yimou Zhang, but the story just didn’t click with me. There were parts where it almost seemed like it would, but then the scene changed and those bits were crushed underfoot. Then again, I was pretty exhausted when trying to watch this one, so I’ll probably give it another chance at a later time.

¹ Seriously, who needs to go to the theater for a comedy? The only thing I really want to see on the big screen are action flicks.
² My wife’s expectations for the movie were initially much lower than my own.

Recent Movie Rentals © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Mark’s Rating: 1.75 out of 5 stars

Friday, Ariesna and I were originally planning on having guests over. When we found out they were all canceling due to the weather; we hit up the video store and got a couple of movies. When we got home, the first one we watched was The Marine. I’d selected it because I remembered the trailers leading me to believe it would be a fun action flick. However after watching it, I have to declare it to be a steaming flaming pile of poo. From weak fight sequences to bad acting, this movie embodies the worst hackneyed and cliched parts of every C-movie action flick ever to be made. That being said if one watches this movie, thinking of it more like a parody of the genre (e.g. in the vein of Scary Movie) then it can be enjoyable. I spent the vast majority of the film’s 91 minutes laughing as cliche after cliche was perpetrated on the screen. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this film to any one; though it could make the basis of a good drinking game (every one takes a shot for every cliche used in the film). However one would have to be careful with such a game to avoid getting alcohol poisoning!

Review: The Marine © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Mark’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5
Johnny Blaze a motorcycle stunt rider with a carnival sells his soul to Mephistopheles in a bargain to cure his father’s cancer. The next day Blaze Sr. dies in motorcycle accident. Johnny blames Mephistopheles for his father’s death, but is still bound by his contract. Years later, Mephistopheles calls on Johnny Blaze to become the Ghost Rider and prevent Blackheart from stealing the contract of San Venganzas.

Fans of the original 70’s comic book may find themselves enjoying this movie, as will lovers of chessy flicks¹. Which is to say this movie is no great work of cinematography, but it is an enjoyable film. And one I have no hesitation in recommending for anybody to enjoy at a matinee or a cheap seats theater.

¹ E.g. Army of Darkness

Review: Ghost Rider © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Mark’s Rating: 4 out of 5

A dark, brutal and depressing movie that touches the heart. Pan’s Labyrinth was imported form Spanish (original title: El laberinto del fauno) and is a modern fairy tale. Don’t let that fairy tale description fool you, this is no film for young children. The setting is somewhere in the countryside of Spain, 1944. Ofelia is a young child who dreams of fairies as she goes with her pregnant mother to meet her new stepfather. Her stepfather is a ruthless captain in the Spanish army who works to put some a rebellion in the region.

Review: Pan’s Labrynth © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.