Archive for January, 2006 (cont'd)

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2010 (1984)

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006
★★★★★

I do seem to remember a process where you people ask me questions and I give you answers, and then I ask you questions and you give me answers, and that’s the way we find out things. I think I read that in a manual somewhere.

2010 is the sequel to the film that needed no sequel, the cinematic equivalent to painting legs for the Mona Lisa. It seeks to explain things best left to the individual viewer’s imagination. For these reasons, I hate it.

But is it a good movie? Judging by the standards set by 2001: A Space Odyssey, the answer is no. By the standards set by what tends to call itself science fiction these days, it’s ok, but not great.

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Director:  | Released:  | 116 min. | Rated:  | Genres: , 

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L.A. Confidential (1997)

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006
★★★★★

I admire you as a policeman, particularly your adherence to violence as a necessary adjunct to the job.

It’s probably appropriate that the film adaptation of James Ellroy’s novel L.A. Confidential contains a fictional TV series that’s an obvious riff on Dragnet. This film seems like it wants to expose every dirty secret about the LAPD that Jack Webb ever whitewashed.

L.A. Confidential

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Director:  | Released:  | 138 min. | Rated:  | Genres: , 

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Mister Roberts (1955)

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
★★★★★

How did you get in the Navy? How did you get on our side?

Despite having two directors with somewhat clashing styles, being noticeably dated in places and a little too obviously based on a stage play, Mister Roberts still works as a classic comedy and a war movie in which the only violence is committed upon a pair of hapless palm trees.

Mister Roberts

The Tony-winning play by Joshua Logan and Frank L. Nugent had already run for seven years on Broadway when the film was made and Henry Fonda had played the role of Lt. (jg) Doug Roberts 1,300 times before a frame of film had been shot. It’s safe to say that he didn’t need reheasal.

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Director: ,  | Released:  | 123 min. | Rated:  | Genres: , , 

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Air Force One (1997)

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
★★★★★

Your national security advisor has just been executed. He’s a very good negotiator. He bought you another half hour.

Air Force One probably would have seemed like a retread even if it hadn’t followed Executive Decision by a year, but the existence of other film sure doesn’t help.

Air Force One

The plot deals with the hijacking of the eponymous aircraft by a band of Russian “ultra-nationalists” led by Gary Oldman, who want to free their leader, General Radek (Das Boot’s Jürgen Prochnow). The terrorists think that the president (Harrison Ford) has escaped, but he’s really hiding in the bowels of the plane, getting ready to start kicking some Ruskie butt.

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Director:  | Released:  | 124 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

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Contact (1997)

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
★★★★★

So if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space. Right?

Contact is a nobly intentioned but ultimately unsatisfying adaptation of Carl Sagan’s only novel. It details the circumstances surrounding the first clear sign of intelligent life in outer space and their effects on the life of a young and idealistic radio astronomer named Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster).

Contact

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Director:  | Released:  | 150 min. | Rated:  | Genres: , 

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Four Brothers (2005)

Monday, January 2nd, 2006
★★★★★

If you keep knocking on the Devil’s door long enough, somebody’s gonna answer you.

It’s easier to get into the story logic of Four Brothers if you remind yourself that your watching a western transplanted to the urban streets of inner city Detroit, and that the original starred John Wayne. This 2005 John Singleton film is an update of 1965′s The Sons of Katie Elder.

Four Brothers

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Director:  | Released:  | 109 min. | Rated:  | Genres: , 

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Into the Blue (2005)

Sunday, January 1st, 2006
★★★★★

Winners make the rules, losers play by them.

This is easily the best Jessica Alba movie I’ve seen this week. (more…)

Director:  | Released:  | 110 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

Posted by in Movie Reviews | 1 Comment »

The Great Raid (2005)

Sunday, January 1st, 2006
★★★★★

Henry, I’ll be honest with you. This mission appeals more to my heart than to my head.

The January 30, 1945, raid by U.S. Army Rangers on the Japanese POW camp outside the city of Cabanatuan was not a decisive battle for World War II in the Pacific. It didn’t capture any vital territory or even hasten the Japanese surrender by one day. However, by bringing home over 500 Americans imprisoned since the Bataan Death March, it served to right what many still felt was a national disgrace, the abandonment of thousands of American and Filipino soldiers to three years of hellish captivity at Japanese hands. This mission, along with the assault on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc on D-Day, also helped cement the Rangers’ reputation as an elite organization.

The Great Raid

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Director:  | Released:  | 132 min. | Rated:  | Genres: , , , 

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