movie madness

hey you

yeah you

you in the back row

you self centered, inconsiderate, arrogant selfish pricks

either give me $7.50 or for the love of God, shut the hell up

[update] my roommate says I missed the best half of the movie, thank God there’s a book.

movies by mulligan – Swing Vote

go see it.

this movie has reawakened parts of my brain I thought lost for good.

I’ll likely have several posts and a full review this week, but it’s late so you get the short version for now.

movies by mulligan – The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight

Special Effects – Really good. While some action hero movies go over the top defying the laws of physics; TDK keeps the unbelievable to a minimum. The action doesn’t jump around and the 2 times I was tempted to say “oh, no he didn’t” were borderline. Someone less cynical probably wouldn’t have noticed the G-forces involved.

Bad Guy – Exceptional. Its rare for me to actually jump in my seat. The villan comes across as bold, sinister, cerebral, and spends most of the movie at least one step ahead of the good guys, without splattering body parts and in some cases without even showing injury.

Good Guy – Well done. I think the Batman voice was a little overdone. As I grew up watching Batman and Robin on TV after school, I tend to view Batman as an intellectual hero rather than a physical hero. This movie leans more toward the physical hero style with more overpowering of bad guys than outwitting or outmanuevering. I’ve not followed the Dark Knight comics at all so I really don’t know if this portrayal is true to the comic or not.

Sad we’ll see nothing more from Heath Ledger. His Joker was extremely well done; darker than the Jack Nicholson version.

All in all…. a must see. See this movie on the biggest screen you can find. I’ll buy the DVD but the movie will definitely show better in theater. Its rare to find a movie this well done and even rarer to find one with minimal language and splatter in today’s world of excess shock and gore.

4 paws

movies by mulligan – WALL-E

WALL-E

Animation – really good. WALL-E was awesome. There were lots of little mannerisms and details.

Storyline – didn’t thrill me. love story almost gets lost in the garbage, literally.

It’s worth the price of admission and there were several genuine ‘laugh out loud’ moments that reach out and grab you. But the ‘humanity covered the planet with trash and then left it’ moral message was so pervasive it overshadowed the rest of the movie.

I think kids will like it more than I. The cuteness of the robot and the action will keep them glued to the screen and they will probably not notice the moralistic aspects that turned me off in places.

I don’t think WALL-E needs a big screen. Its good enough for repeated viewing at home so DVDs will be popular.

2 paws

movies by mulligan

Kung Fu Panda

Animation – pretty good. Not ’knock your socks off’ awesome, but definitely a notch or two above ‘good enough’.

Storyline – ok. Standard, bumbling village idiot becomes the village hero plot.

Although the movie is worth the price of admission and I didn’t spend half of it thinking, ‘yawn, get this thing moving’ most of the truly funny stuff was pre-shown in the trailers so not much was a surprise. I did go into it with the misperception KFP was a genuine ‘comedy’ and while somewhat disappointed to learn otherwise, KFP still had the audience laughing and applauding and I left the theater warm and fuzzy.

There are enough scenes of animated stuffed animal craziness to keep some of the younger kiddies occupied but they will need popcorn to fill the handful of gaps where grown-up plot takes over.

Normally during any kind of animated show I spend half the movie trying to identify the various voice talents. Not the case with this one, which for me is awesome, as I got to actually enjoy the movie without my brain getting in the way. I thought the kung fu master as a tortoise was particularly good, and you actually get to see him in action; the Yoda type of action that makes you sit back and think, “SWEEEET!!”. The villain was fuzzy, scary, mean and kicks butt enough to make you root for (and worry about) the hero.

All in all worth seeing again, although I doubt it requires a big screen. KFP will probably do well as a home view DVD down the road.