Wanted

I can suspend disbelief as well as the next person. Possibly even better than the average movie-goer. So the fact that a millennium old clan of assassins has been taking its orders from the statistical fluctuations in a loom doesn't really bother me. I was curious about how often the loom produced gibberish with its binary code, and perhaps that I was thinking about this curiosity during the movie says something about the movie. And I was a bit surprised that the loom in the birthplace of the Fraternity didn't start spitting out contradictory kill orders leading to a metaphysical showdown to determine which loom was the true harbinger of fate. But otherwise, the story held together enough for me. The one holdback was the gratuitous slo-mo kill sequence. This movie would have held together just as well, and perhaps would even give a more pleasant overall experience, without seeing grey matter slowy splat the walls. Don't get me wrong. In the right context, there is definitely room in moviedom for slo-mo grey matter splatter (see 300) and in some cases it adds to the overall effect that a director is trying to achieve. For me, in this case, it was just distracting.
3 - stars

So it begins

I know, everyone else already has a movie review blog. I don't care. This is a way for me to keep track of what I have seen and to get ideas from others for things that are actually worth seeing. Of course, I will continue to see things that are not worth seeing as well.

As for my rating scale, I stick with a standard 5 star scale, with a general breakdown of:

5-stars: Loved it, will watch it again, and will probably own it
4-stars: Really liked it
3-stars: Anywhere between OK and Good. These are decent movies worth seeing.
2-stars: Didn't like it - but I did watch the entire thing
1-star: I didn't finish it

Notice that 3-stars is a very broad range of movies.


I won't review them all here, but as a start, here is the list of Summer 08 Movie Fest so far:
Prince Caspian - 2
The Forbidden Kingdom - 3
Reprise - 4
Ironman - 4
Sweet Land - 3
Superbad - 2
Sex and the City - 3
Speed Racer - 4
National Treasure, The book of secrets - 3
Focus - 3
The Fall - 4
The Air I Breathe - 1
Kung Fu Panda - 3
Crank - 2
The Incredible Hulk - 3
American Ganster - 4
Promotion - 5
Hitman - 2
Get Smart - 3
Mongol - 4
Mostly Martha - 5
Elizabeth - 3
The Golden Compass - 3
Exiled - 4

Exiled is a self proclaimed mixture of spaghetti western (think The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and Hong Kong hitmen and it hits that nail on the head. Very clear "western" elements stick out because of the Hong Kong context and made it strangely appealing. I had the same reactions as I did to The Brick because of its mixture of style and context (film noir and high school angst) that don't usually come in the same package.