Movie Reviews and More

Time to catch up on the movie reviews I've neglected so far. But first, a little addendum to last week's article, and in fact this week's Gambit.

You see, in addition to Wade's funnies and other things, one of the things we did do was watch some Olympic action. And it took me a while to convince even the boys that they should be paying attention to the girls I was paying attention to. So as further evidence of my sanity, I offer you more of Natalie Coughlin:

And just for good measure, Stacy Dragila:

Yeow, mamacita! Then again, my two best relationships involved a cross country runner and a javelin thrower, so maybe perhaps I'm a little bit biased. More on that soon...

Let's get to the reviews.

The Italian Job

Donald Sutherland. Marky Mark. Ed Norton. Jason Statham. Charlize Theron. Seth Green.

I could watch a movie with the six of them sitting around reading a phone book and be entertained. Assuming, of course, that there was a kickin' soundtrack. And Charlize was topless.

Then again, what does it say about the movie that I started writing the review before I finished watching it? (And then didn't finish the review for a month?)

It's worth noting that Chelle backed me up on the hotness of Charlize Theron, saying something along the lines of "Hell, I'd f**k Charlize Theron.", after which both wadE and Wade said they needed a moment alone. Come to think of it, Ms. Theron may be the only woman that the three of us at this site agree on in terms of looks. Interesting...

Regardless, this is decent little caper flick, but overall it seems a little more interested in style over substance. There's nothing in the plot to surprise you, and while the acting is pretty decent, it's not captivating either. It's way better than say XXX, but it fails to make you care about the characters in much the same way. There's a great car chase scene with some Cooper Minis... and really that's about it. But I was entertained anyway. Let's throw two Trents at it (although I think that may be generous).

The Bourne Supremacy

wadE and I went to see this flick a couple weeks ago, and it was... ehh, alright. I may have biased myself between seeing The Bourne Identity and this movie by reading the series of books on which these were based. The books are probably triple the entertainment value of the movies, and in general I don't have a problem with that. It's not like any of the Grisham or Clancy movies are any worse for not quite pulling weight with their book counterparts, not really. But still, compared to the books, these movies seem more like cheap spy movie knockoffs.

And on top of that, I'm still bitter over how little Franka Potente was in the movie.

I'm not quite sure a review is even necessary, so we'll go ultra-nutshell on this one. Basically, Damon and Potente's characters were living on the run, but thought they were basically free... until one day they're attacked, and then Damon's Jason Bourne goes into attack/revenge mode on what is essentially the same cast of character types from the first movie. If you liked the first movie (which I did), you'll probably like this one... but it's nothing really new and exciting. I'm also gonna give this two Trents.

I, Robot

I'm still not sure what I think about this movie overall. I like a movie that's got a certain stylish look... The Usual Suspects (and The X-Men, and anything Singer's done, really)... Fight Club... 28 Days Later... even Batman (The first Keaton one)... and after a little digging I found out that this movie was directed by the same dude who did Dark City, which I found fairly cool. So that's a plus.

And Bridget Moynahan was really cute.

The pace and action of the movie was also pretty decent, and for the most part believable.

However, three things bug me. First of all, it takes FAR too long for the movie to introduce just exactly why Will Smith's character hates the robots so much. Even when it's finally introduced, the reason seems a little thin. I guess I can let that slide, but...

I'm not sure I can give a free pass to the ending. I don't want to give it away, but it just seemed a little bit extreme. I'm not saying it couldn't possibly be an outcome based on what seemed to be the moral of the story, but at the same time... well, I can't even draw a parallel without giving it away. Suffice it to say that it's either just a weird ending, or a very poor way to set up a sequel. Heh.

The third thing? Why did they have to make it so ridiculously obvious which robots were which? The "bad" robots glowed red. The "good" robot (there was really only one) glowed blue. I think that the movie could've used a bit more suspense, and not quite knowing which robots were which would've definitely helped that. Of course, not too many movies give an audience any credit anymore.

I guess I'm in a Two Trent mood tonight. It might have been generous, but all these movies were really about the same.

Alright kids, until next time...

--08/26/2004