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My 2005 in Movies, Part 2 of 3
I went through ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
magic_rat's list of films that he's reviewed and noticed that I'd missed a couple off my list, it looks like I'm up to 36 now.
Probably no real spoilers, but I'll put it all behind a cut anyway.
Here we talk about: National Treasure, Batman Begins, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sean of the Dead, Finding Nemo, Princess Bride, Bewitched, Fantastic Four, Continental Divide, Sky High, The Transporter and Transporter 2.
National Treasure Nick Cage does a contemporary Indiana Jones. A decent action/adventure film with some nice stuff in it.
Batman Begins This is definitely one of the best Batman movies that I've seen in ages. I gave up on the previous Batman series that started with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson and never bothered with the one that had Ahnold as Mr. Freeze (I would have been first in line if they'd gone with Patrick Stewart). I liked the first one, I liked elements of the second one, but the third one just left me cold. ANYWAY, I liked Bats Begins. They did a good job with Scarecrow, Alfred was great, and Morgan Freeman?! Just great casting all in all. And IMDB lists a sequel as being in production which will once again feature Christian Bale and Michael Caine with David Goyer returning as writer.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith A straight-up action shoot-em-up flick. Weak plot, lots of guns.
Sean of the Dead (DVD) A British zombie flick. Not bad, lots of humor. I haven't shown it to Russet yet as it has parental death in it and I think a little more time passing before we watch it together would be a good thing.
Finding Nemo (DVD) I missed this theatrically, somewhere down the line Russet acquired a copy. Quite liked it, good animation, but more importantly, very good story. The turtles are pretty cool, dude!
Princess Bride (DVD) Fantastic movie, top of my list for having with when stranded on a desert isle. 'Nuff said.
Bewitched Weak movie. They do an interesting job linking to the original series, but I'm just not much of a fan of Will Ferrell. I get the feeling that he's considered Phil Hartman II or perhaps a lower cost Jim Carrey and I just don't care much for him.
Fantastic Four VERY weak movie. I hope they can get a better script for the sequel which looks like it's slated for 2007. Michael Chiklis did a great job as Ben Grimm. I thought Stan Lee's mandatory cameo was way too obvious, Stan's upcoming film appearances include FF2 along with an Untitled Nick Fury Project, Foreverman, Iron Man, and Spider-Man 3. But to be frankly honest, I think it was a better movie than Electra, which is probably my Stinker of the Year.
Continental Divide (VHS) Bear lent me this tape for Russet and I to watch, he thought it was rather appropriate for our relationship. It stars John Belushi as a Chicago investigative columnist who is bringing down big heat from the political machine. His editor sends him off to the Rockies to get an interview with a naturalist in order to get him out of town for a while. Visually a beautiful movie, Belushi got to do some low-key humor. Pretty good flick, all in all. Huh, just noticed that Spielberg was executive producer.
Sky High A silly live action superhero/coming of age story. Kinda cool seeing Kurt Russell as a superhero. It had a moderately clever script with a very good twist in it, but it was too heavily "Disney" for my taste.
The Transporter (DVD) An excellent action movie with great fight choreography. I'm a big fan of films by Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Professional, Fifth Element, The Messenger), and this one is no exception. I think it's a better movie than its sequel, perhaps because it was fairly original in the action ouvre. Jason Statham did a lot of his own stunts in the film and that's something that I really respect. Russet had never seen this film when we started seeing trailers and posters for the sequel, so I dug out my DVD. She quite liked it.
Transporter 2 (x2) As I've previously ranted, I was disappointed by one thing in this movie. It was acceptable as a sequel to the first Transporter movie, but then in the end Jason Statham's driver character, Frank Martin, kills the co-pilot of a private jet that was taking the main villain, Gianni, back to Columbia or wherever. There was nothing to show that said co-pilot was a bad man or even an employee of Gianni, as far as the movie establishes he was nothing more than a charter jet pilot, and thus a fairly innocent person. It would have taken all of ten seconds to either establish that said co-pilot was a bad man or for Frank to use a non-killing move on him.
magic_rat's list of films that he's reviewed and noticed that I'd missed a couple off my list, it looks like I'm up to 36 now.Probably no real spoilers, but I'll put it all behind a cut anyway.
Here we talk about: National Treasure, Batman Begins, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sean of the Dead, Finding Nemo, Princess Bride, Bewitched, Fantastic Four, Continental Divide, Sky High, The Transporter and Transporter 2.
National Treasure Nick Cage does a contemporary Indiana Jones. A decent action/adventure film with some nice stuff in it.
Batman Begins This is definitely one of the best Batman movies that I've seen in ages. I gave up on the previous Batman series that started with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson and never bothered with the one that had Ahnold as Mr. Freeze (I would have been first in line if they'd gone with Patrick Stewart). I liked the first one, I liked elements of the second one, but the third one just left me cold. ANYWAY, I liked Bats Begins. They did a good job with Scarecrow, Alfred was great, and Morgan Freeman?! Just great casting all in all. And IMDB lists a sequel as being in production which will once again feature Christian Bale and Michael Caine with David Goyer returning as writer.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith A straight-up action shoot-em-up flick. Weak plot, lots of guns.
Sean of the Dead (DVD) A British zombie flick. Not bad, lots of humor. I haven't shown it to Russet yet as it has parental death in it and I think a little more time passing before we watch it together would be a good thing.
Finding Nemo (DVD) I missed this theatrically, somewhere down the line Russet acquired a copy. Quite liked it, good animation, but more importantly, very good story. The turtles are pretty cool, dude!
Princess Bride (DVD) Fantastic movie, top of my list for having with when stranded on a desert isle. 'Nuff said.
Bewitched Weak movie. They do an interesting job linking to the original series, but I'm just not much of a fan of Will Ferrell. I get the feeling that he's considered Phil Hartman II or perhaps a lower cost Jim Carrey and I just don't care much for him.
Fantastic Four VERY weak movie. I hope they can get a better script for the sequel which looks like it's slated for 2007. Michael Chiklis did a great job as Ben Grimm. I thought Stan Lee's mandatory cameo was way too obvious, Stan's upcoming film appearances include FF2 along with an Untitled Nick Fury Project, Foreverman, Iron Man, and Spider-Man 3. But to be frankly honest, I think it was a better movie than Electra, which is probably my Stinker of the Year.
Continental Divide (VHS) Bear lent me this tape for Russet and I to watch, he thought it was rather appropriate for our relationship. It stars John Belushi as a Chicago investigative columnist who is bringing down big heat from the political machine. His editor sends him off to the Rockies to get an interview with a naturalist in order to get him out of town for a while. Visually a beautiful movie, Belushi got to do some low-key humor. Pretty good flick, all in all. Huh, just noticed that Spielberg was executive producer.
Sky High A silly live action superhero/coming of age story. Kinda cool seeing Kurt Russell as a superhero. It had a moderately clever script with a very good twist in it, but it was too heavily "Disney" for my taste.
The Transporter (DVD) An excellent action movie with great fight choreography. I'm a big fan of films by Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Professional, Fifth Element, The Messenger), and this one is no exception. I think it's a better movie than its sequel, perhaps because it was fairly original in the action ouvre. Jason Statham did a lot of his own stunts in the film and that's something that I really respect. Russet had never seen this film when we started seeing trailers and posters for the sequel, so I dug out my DVD. She quite liked it.
Transporter 2 (x2) As I've previously ranted, I was disappointed by one thing in this movie. It was acceptable as a sequel to the first Transporter movie, but then in the end Jason Statham's driver character, Frank Martin, kills the co-pilot of a private jet that was taking the main villain, Gianni, back to Columbia or wherever. There was nothing to show that said co-pilot was a bad man or even an employee of Gianni, as far as the movie establishes he was nothing more than a charter jet pilot, and thus a fairly innocent person. It would have taken all of ten seconds to either establish that said co-pilot was a bad man or for Frank to use a non-killing move on him.