Unlike most people, I don't see many movies during the Summer. I only saw seven movies, and only one of those wasn't a remake or sequel. Of course, I have really high standards, so I enjoyed all of them. Star Wars Episode III: A+: Lucas goes out with a bang The Longest Yard: A: Sandler's best movie since The Waterboy Batman Begins: A: Only bad thing about it was the blatant sequel set up at the end War of the Worlds: A-: They should have killed Dakota Fanning halfway through Fantastic Four: B-: Seeing Jessica Alba in her undies was worth price of admission Wedding Crashers: A: Funniest movie in a while Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: A: Johnny Depp is the best actor working today, IMO Overall, I give the Summer an 'A'. I pretty much stayed away from the movies I knew I wouldn't enjoy, like The Island, Stealth, Bewitched, and The Dukes of Hazzard, though I might catch Dukes of Hazzard on DVD just for Jessica Simpson. The only movie I didn't see that I wanted to was Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I'm going to try to catch March of the Penguins before it gets to DVD. I just hope The Da Vinci code doesn't disappoint next summer. I heard the producers were changing it a lot...
Penguins was good. Crash and Layer Cake were decent. Constant Gardener was average at best. Still gotta see Wedding Crashers...
This was one of the worst summers for movies in recent memory. The few movies that truly stood out in my mind: Badman Begins, Hustle & Flow, and 40 Year Old Virgin. Star Wars, Wedding Crashers, and War of the Worlds were all pretty good. Stealth is the biggest pile of dung i've seen in a LONG time.
Star Wars Episode III: A. Much better than the other prequels, though still hard to follow (feels like a lot was left out) and still didn't like the Anakin-Padme relationship dialogue. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: B. I couldn't get into this as much as some, maybe because we already had the other movie, but it was OK. Bewitched: F. Who came up with this cr@p? Herbie Fully Loaded: A-. You wouldn't think, but it was actually really entertaining and not bad for a kids' movie. Madagascar: A. Cute little cartoon and a pleasant diversion. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: B. Kind of cute. Wish it had gotten more attention. I'm sure I've seen more, but can't think which. (you can tell what movies my friends like to pick, from this list)
Star Wars, Wedding Crashers, War of the Worlds, and Batman were all great. i'm not even sure which i would put above the others. War of the Worlds would easily be my favorite if the ending had been better. i saw stealth only b/c wedding crashers was already full by the time we got our tickets (unless we wanted to sit on the first row in the corner) and we just decided to check it out. it wasn't good but had some nice action. Da Vince Code will be weird seeing b/c it will pretty much be the first movie i've ever seen where i read the book first, unless you count reading The Hobbit in 5th grade as having read LOTR (which i don't). hopefully i won't be one of those "the book was better, they changed this and that, blah blah blah" snobs/complainers and will just enjoy it on its own merit (if it's actually good that is). as jim gaffigan says to those people, "you know what i liked about the movie? no reading."
Not bashing your tastes or anything, but that was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's pretty pathetic when the guy who puts in the best performance is Michael Irvin. And it was sad to see Chris Rock and Sandler half ass their way throughout the whole movie, but maybe that was just the piss-poor excuse of a director's fault? Overall the summer has been pretty crappy. I haven't seen Batman Begins yet, but I'm assuming it's good. Star wars was mediocre. War of the worlds sucked. Land of the dead was mediocre. haven't seen Wedding crashers or 40yo virgin, but I'm assuming they'll be decent. I want to see the Cave, but I don't really have any high expectations for it. That's really all that's worth mentioning as far as summer 2005 imo.
Here's what esteemed movie critic Doug Benson had to say: DARK WATER – Distinguished actress and Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly...in a wet t-shirt! FANTASTIC FOUR – This is a funny coincidence, because my nickname for Jessica Alba has always been The Fantastic Four.* WAR OF THE WORLDS – The moral of this movie is…don’t have kids. Because they will slow your ass down when you are trying to run from an alien invasion. BEWITCHED – The worst Nora Ephron movie ever. Congrats, Nora! BATMAN BEGINS – Bruce Wayne is played by Christian Bale, and Batman is played by Henry Rollins. MR. AND MRS. SMITH – Cover all of your holes Brad and Angelina, because I wanna put stuff in ‘em! LAND OF THE DEAD – John Leguizamo does not die soon enough. THE HONEYMOONERS – John Leguizamo does not die soon enough. HERBIE: FULLY LOADED – Rumor has it Lindsay Lohan’s breasts were digitally reduced because they didn’t test well with parents. I bet they did test well with teenage boys, lesbians and babies. THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS – They should get together with the Ya Ya Sisterhood and then **** off. MADAGASCAR – If I wanted to spend two hours with talking animals, I’d visit my family. THE LONGEST YARD – Are movies getting smaller, or did Courtney Cox-Arquette’s t*** get bigger? STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH - I wasn’t bored for a minute. I was bored for 142 minutes! MONSTER-IN-LAW – Makes me wish I could murder a movie. KINGDOM OF HEAVEN – Hella dull. HOUSE OF WAX – Prey. Slay. Display. Gay. THE INTERPRETER – Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman, together for the first waste of time! UNLEASHED – I’d prefer to see a movie called UNHINGED, about a door that, when taken off of its hinges, goes nuts and kicks the **** out of people. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY – I can’t wait to check it out three months from now on a plane! THE DUKES OF HAZARD – Finally the phrase "Check out Jessica Simpson’s ass!" is not a reference to Nick Lachey. *For her ass, her belly, her boob and her other boob.
Saw 5: Star Wars: still didn't manage to live up to its potential, but it redeemed the prequels to a degree. A- Mr and Mrs Smith: Really fun action, slick + sharp dialouge, and Brad & Jolie were perfect together. Vaughn wasn't astounding, but that's fine, the movie didn't really need him. Seemed like it had 4 or 5 endings. Batman Begins: Katie Holmes was forgettable, but fantastic writing, directing, and acting. Got me excited about the franchise being revived, and I was wary. Bewitched: Wife and I saw this soley to kill some spare time one day and regretted it. Started out well enough, then it seems the interns got to finish up the movie. Wedding Crashers: Wife and I were doubled over for at least half of the movie. So funny, I didn't even care about the obligatory "the guys then learned to mature" plot in the final (unfunny) 40 mins. They got a free pass. Simply the best Vaughn movie since Swingers, and I'll contend that it's his funniest. Evan -edit- I totally forgot that I gut drug into a showing of Hitchhicker's Guide. There's a reason for that. I feel asleep in it. And yes, I did read the book back in the day. Awful.
Wow, those grades are more inflated the undergraduate grades in the Stanford anthropology department, or the Rice Kinesiology department (I can personally vouch for that one). I thought this was one of the worst summer for movies I can remember. Other than Wedding Crashers and Murderball, I can't really say I've gone out of a theatre thinking "I should recommend this movie to other sentient human beings."
I went to the movies 7 times this summer. Kingdom of Heaven - B+ - Beautiful cinematography Revenge of the Sith - 6 times - A+++++ - I wrote a review on the movie in the movie's thread a few months ago, and I can't stress enough my praise for this movie. In my opinion, the best Star Wars film ever. I never got the chance to check out Batman Begins, but I really wanted to. Everything I hear about it is great. The rest of the movies seemed blah from the previews. Fantastic Four, Thing looked like an orange turd. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, looked like a mix between True Lies and War of the Roses Wedding Crashers, Looked like Oldschool, which was great, but like my first viewing of OS, I'll wait for the DVD.
in other news, lost_elephant's virginity emerged from another summer unscathed... (just a joke, dude) (sort of)
Only one movie in the big theatre this summer - Star Wars - and I'd give it a B minus. Most of the points are taken off because you're supposed to care about characters, and Lucas's hack job on the 1st two of this trilogy pretty much ruined any chance of that happening. The dialogue was typically stilted and too much of the film was CGI. I want real sets every once in a awhile. I've rented about 20 movies this summer, so here are some recommended. Martin - George Romero's take on vampires. Very interesting but very disturbing. Strongly NOT recommended for dates, but strongly recommended for fans of horror films. City Lights - Chaplin's first film in the talkie era. Hilarious and heart-breaking. Highly recommended (especially for those of you with wives). The Wild Ones - Great Sam Peckinpah western. Famous for its violence (which seems mild even for TV now) but a good story also. Yojimbo - Every action movie maker should be forced to take a course on Kurosawa's films. This one was the inspiration for "A Fistfull of Dollars" and is great. Highly recommended. Atlantic City - Good character drama about an aging mob flunkie and a waitress.
I saw... Wedding Crashers War of the Worlds March of the Penguins Batman Begins Land of the Dead All good imo, although Land of the Dead's ending was dumb imo.
Nearly to a "T" how I felt with the exception of Batman because I didn't see it. I did see the 40 year old virgin a few nights ago and left the theater disappointed. Before going I had heard from some that it was funnier than the Wedding Crashers but in reality it was a far cry.
What I saw this summer, and what I think of them: Star Wars Episode III: A+ Batman Begins: A War of the Worlds: B- Wedding Crashers: A 40yr Old Virgin: A
Star Wars III sucked. If you're giving it an A+, you're either emotionally attached to the concept from the original series or the first two episodes lowered your standards. I wanted to claw my eyes out while watching that movie. Only one scene in that whole movie was good. Wedding Crashers - hilarious. The Aristocrats - interesting concept... not so funny joke... but cool insight on how comedic minds work. Definitely a worthy DVD rental if you're a fan of stand-up comedy, just to see how the big names respond to the filmmakers. Batman Begins - movie of the year, easily. War of the Worlds - what happens when you take "Signs", and add CGI, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Cruise? Not much. (But it's worth seeing for the buildup, which was good... the rest, no so much.)
My top 5 of the summer: 1. Murderball 2. Grizzly Man 3. Batman Begins 4. March of the Penguins 4. 40 Year Old Virgin Good to Catch Once on DVD 1. Broken Flowers 2. Aristocrats 3. Bad News Bears Painful to Watch 1. War of the Worlds 2. See #1
