Hello Everyone,
Went to see The Incredible Hulk today. I did have some expectations; I figure that it would be better than the earlier Hulk film starrring Eric Bana. It was better than the other Hulk film. It was very entertaining; not a great film, but entertaining. The problems that I had win the Eric Bana Hulk was that the writing was terrible (the climax at the end of the film with The Hulk fighting Absorbing Man who his father turned into [it was retarded]), The Hulk was too green, he was able to jump way to far [too a point way beyond realistic] and it was not entertaining enough [not enough explosions and fights etc]. The casting of the original Hulk film was fine. SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW.
Okay, the new Hulk movie. Edward Norton was pretty awesome, Liv Tyler was alright (Jennifer Connelly is a better actress), William Hurt was very good as General Ross and wicked wicked cameo of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark even though it was only for like a minute. I loved the locations they used; mostly because they used a lot of the University of Toronto campus and I went there so I could recognize the buildings etc. Tom Roth was also very good, but he always seems to be good (IE. Reservoir Dogs). The fights, the explosions and the visual effects were all pretty awesome. The writing was good; the development of Tim Roth's character into Abomination was fine (done pretty briskly), the love story between Bruce and Betty Ross (not overdone) and the back story about how he came to be the hulk was cool (over the opening credits), however they could have done it as a quick montage with him telling someone about his problem perhaps someone who was in Rio in the beginning of the film. The back story would have been a little less confusing this way; my wife had trouble understanding it and it was confusing because the back story was different from the original hulk film.
I would have to say that if they made another hulk film with this cast that I would definitely pay to go see it at the theatre. If you love comic books or comic book movies then I highly recommend this film. If you like some comic book films then I would not recommend you go to the theatre but you may want to rent it.
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Fanboy Dave
Friday, June 20, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
It's Happening Right Now
Hello Everyone,
This is my first new movie in theatres entry since I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall a while back. Yesterday, I went to the movie theatre to see M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. I will not say too much because I do not want to give much away, but I will say that there is not really a twist at the end but sort of a turn, but it is predictable because a running theory proves to correct. Of course, I will not tell you what that theory was. SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW, PARTICULARLY IN THE SECOND TO LAST PARAGRAPH.
I was thoroughly disappointed with M. Night Shyamalan's previous film Lady In The Water; so much so that I did not buy the film even when it was in the remainder bin at HMV; I think it was for 10 bucks or under. One of the only good things about that movie was the casting and even then there were limited performances from many of these good actors. Freddy Rodriguez, Jerffrey Right, Bryce Dallas Howard, Noah Gray-Cabey and Paul Giamatti. Paul Giamatti had a bit of character development and background, but if more was done with him it would have been beneficial to the film. Brcye Dallas Howard's character was too limited and too vague in the film.
I also enjoyed the casting of Happening and was really excited when I heard that Mark Wahlberg and John Leguizamo were going to be in it. Unfortunately, Wahlberg's performance was mediocre at best. I think this may be indebted to mediocre dialogue. There was some genuine emotion between husband and wife Eliot and Alma, played by Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel. John Leguizamo pulled off a decent performance although he did not have a lot of actually screen time.
The suicides in the film can be somewhat brutal so if you are sensitive at all with regard to suicides, blood or brutal death scenes, either do not see the film or wait for the DVD and rent it so you can pause or fast forward if you need to.
Do not expect great things from this movie, but if you do see it you will be feeling a little better about M. Night Shyamalan as a filmmaker. I have faith that although his last few efforts (The Village, Lady in the Water and this film) have been weak to crappy to somewhat decent, that the quality of his work will improve, not expecting him to top The 6Th Sense, but at least pull off another film of Signs like quality.
The last thing that I will say about this film is that the turn in the film deals with a current global concern or problem.
If you consider yourself a fan or a big fan of Shyamalan's film then I suggest that you see this film, if you are not a fan then probably you should skip it.
Sincerely,
Fanboy Dave
This is my first new movie in theatres entry since I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall a while back. Yesterday, I went to the movie theatre to see M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. I will not say too much because I do not want to give much away, but I will say that there is not really a twist at the end but sort of a turn, but it is predictable because a running theory proves to correct. Of course, I will not tell you what that theory was. SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW, PARTICULARLY IN THE SECOND TO LAST PARAGRAPH.
I was thoroughly disappointed with M. Night Shyamalan's previous film Lady In The Water; so much so that I did not buy the film even when it was in the remainder bin at HMV; I think it was for 10 bucks or under. One of the only good things about that movie was the casting and even then there were limited performances from many of these good actors. Freddy Rodriguez, Jerffrey Right, Bryce Dallas Howard, Noah Gray-Cabey and Paul Giamatti. Paul Giamatti had a bit of character development and background, but if more was done with him it would have been beneficial to the film. Brcye Dallas Howard's character was too limited and too vague in the film.
I also enjoyed the casting of Happening and was really excited when I heard that Mark Wahlberg and John Leguizamo were going to be in it. Unfortunately, Wahlberg's performance was mediocre at best. I think this may be indebted to mediocre dialogue. There was some genuine emotion between husband and wife Eliot and Alma, played by Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel. John Leguizamo pulled off a decent performance although he did not have a lot of actually screen time.
The suicides in the film can be somewhat brutal so if you are sensitive at all with regard to suicides, blood or brutal death scenes, either do not see the film or wait for the DVD and rent it so you can pause or fast forward if you need to.
Do not expect great things from this movie, but if you do see it you will be feeling a little better about M. Night Shyamalan as a filmmaker. I have faith that although his last few efforts (The Village, Lady in the Water and this film) have been weak to crappy to somewhat decent, that the quality of his work will improve, not expecting him to top The 6Th Sense, but at least pull off another film of Signs like quality.
The last thing that I will say about this film is that the turn in the film deals with a current global concern or problem.
If you consider yourself a fan or a big fan of Shyamalan's film then I suggest that you see this film, if you are not a fan then probably you should skip it.
Sincerely,
Fanboy Dave
Saturday, June 7, 2008
ROCKY IV and V
Hello everyone,
SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW.
Today I watched the final two Rocky films in the series that I had not seen. Rocky IV I thought was pretty good; you could tell from a Russian being cast as the villain that it was somewhere in the 80s (the detente period; but where the U.S. still liked to paint the Russian as villains). It was sad to see Apollo Creed get killed, but at least he made it 3 movies; Jamie Kennedy did not make it alive into the 3 Scream films, which was a damn shame. The heart that is in all the of the Rocky films was still alive and well in the 4Th installment.
I have notice a funny pattern in the Rocky films. This pattern is that Apollo or Rocky go from thinking of one of their fights as a show and then once they get beat, seeing their next fight as a real brawl and then back to show again. Apollo Creed was all showman in the first Rocky film. In the second film, Apollo considered his fight as a real one, although he did lose the film. Then Rocky in the 3rd film did not take his fight against Mr. T. serious, he lost the fight and then trained like hell and managed to beat him in the next fight. Sadly, in this 4Th installment of the Rocky series, Apollo bit off more than he could chew, in what was supposed to be an exhibition fight and ended up getting killed by a hopped up Ruskie. What bothered me was during the montage of Rocky and Drago training, a syringe was shown during a shot of Drago's training, which seemed to insinuate that he was on steroids (I had also heard this from a friend a few years back) but it was not discussed or addressed in the film at all; unsettling. Oh well, I guess that I can get over; but I am still upset about this, JFK's Assassination, Area 51, Roswell 1947, O.J.'s Acquittal, Robert Blake's Acquittal and a bunch of other shit that I cannot remember right now, but when I do remember you will certainly hear about it.
In summation, Rocky IV was pretty decent, but I personally prefer the first two films. Now, Rocky V did had some good moments, such as in the beginning of the film when Rocky tells Adrian that something is wrong because his hands will not stop shaking. What was lacking in this film was a sanctioned boxing match for Rocky at the end of the film. The street fight with Tommy Gunn at the end of the film, although it was an entertaining fight it was weak (not Blade: Trinity Climatic fight between Drake and Blade weak, but still weak). The riches to rags element of Rocky V with him going broke was an interesting idea, but it was not orchestrated as well as it could have been. I feel that Rocky V was a weak effort and am glad that Stallone eventually added to the Rocky series with 2007's Rocky Balboa, which probably will be the final film, as it was pretty much Rocky's curtain call. I would say that Rocky Balboa was better than at least Rocky IV and V and possibly better than Rocky III, but I cannot say that for sure.
I would now consider myself a fan of the series and although I enjoyed the films to different degrees I did enjoy all of them. My favourites in order from most favourite to least favourite are as follows; Rocky 1,2,6,3,4,5.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading my somewhat tangled thoughts and I hope that you were able to make sense of them. I also hope that there was at least one coherent thought in there.
Sincerely,
Fanboy Dave
SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW.
Today I watched the final two Rocky films in the series that I had not seen. Rocky IV I thought was pretty good; you could tell from a Russian being cast as the villain that it was somewhere in the 80s (the detente period; but where the U.S. still liked to paint the Russian as villains). It was sad to see Apollo Creed get killed, but at least he made it 3 movies; Jamie Kennedy did not make it alive into the 3 Scream films, which was a damn shame. The heart that is in all the of the Rocky films was still alive and well in the 4Th installment.
I have notice a funny pattern in the Rocky films. This pattern is that Apollo or Rocky go from thinking of one of their fights as a show and then once they get beat, seeing their next fight as a real brawl and then back to show again. Apollo Creed was all showman in the first Rocky film. In the second film, Apollo considered his fight as a real one, although he did lose the film. Then Rocky in the 3rd film did not take his fight against Mr. T. serious, he lost the fight and then trained like hell and managed to beat him in the next fight. Sadly, in this 4Th installment of the Rocky series, Apollo bit off more than he could chew, in what was supposed to be an exhibition fight and ended up getting killed by a hopped up Ruskie. What bothered me was during the montage of Rocky and Drago training, a syringe was shown during a shot of Drago's training, which seemed to insinuate that he was on steroids (I had also heard this from a friend a few years back) but it was not discussed or addressed in the film at all; unsettling. Oh well, I guess that I can get over; but I am still upset about this, JFK's Assassination, Area 51, Roswell 1947, O.J.'s Acquittal, Robert Blake's Acquittal and a bunch of other shit that I cannot remember right now, but when I do remember you will certainly hear about it.
In summation, Rocky IV was pretty decent, but I personally prefer the first two films. Now, Rocky V did had some good moments, such as in the beginning of the film when Rocky tells Adrian that something is wrong because his hands will not stop shaking. What was lacking in this film was a sanctioned boxing match for Rocky at the end of the film. The street fight with Tommy Gunn at the end of the film, although it was an entertaining fight it was weak (not Blade: Trinity Climatic fight between Drake and Blade weak, but still weak). The riches to rags element of Rocky V with him going broke was an interesting idea, but it was not orchestrated as well as it could have been. I feel that Rocky V was a weak effort and am glad that Stallone eventually added to the Rocky series with 2007's Rocky Balboa, which probably will be the final film, as it was pretty much Rocky's curtain call. I would say that Rocky Balboa was better than at least Rocky IV and V and possibly better than Rocky III, but I cannot say that for sure.
I would now consider myself a fan of the series and although I enjoyed the films to different degrees I did enjoy all of them. My favourites in order from most favourite to least favourite are as follows; Rocky 1,2,6,3,4,5.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading my somewhat tangled thoughts and I hope that you were able to make sense of them. I also hope that there was at least one coherent thought in there.
Sincerely,
Fanboy Dave
WATER
Hello Again,
Last night I watched the Canadian directed film Water (dir. Deepa Mehta). I had not seen this film in my Canadian Cinema class at the University of Toronto, unfortunately. SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
I was expecting this film to be more sombre than it was; that is not to suggest that it was not sad. One of the two may characters does not make it to the end of the film alive. At about an hour and half through the film, the story got to a happy place. I thought to myself, if it ended here that would be the happiest possible ending that there could be for these characters. It however did not end at this point in the story, but went on for approximately another half hour.
I thought the film was a really interesting rumination of people of a country caught between old traditions and the new modern ideas that were coming out of the west and influencing the world over. Some characters welcomed the changes in tradition while others seemed to think that there was nothing wrong with the way they lived even though they were being subjugated and forced to either live as widows in a sort of convent/nunnery or marry the brother of there dead husband. I think that in the end the message of the film was that some of the country's ideas/tradition were backward and outdated, but that there was nothing wrong with many of the cultural traditions; the ones that did not infringe on the individual freedoms of women. Maybe I am off on this. I do not know. If you have insight into this culture or this film that I may lack , please leave comments for me and we can begin a dialogue. In the future, I welcome the idea of seeing Fire and Earth; the earlier films of Mehta's Elements trilogy; I know there are four elements, so do not bother pointing that out, please; ha-ha. I am funny. I do not care what you say, besides my wife says that I am funny and I have to believe what she says.
I hope that if you do not have an interest in seeing this film that you attempt to watch a film every now and again that you take a gamble on; whether it is a foreign film, independent or possibly direct to video (please exercise extreme caution when picking a film from this category; I mean it). I would love to hear your thoughts on some films that you may have seen recently, so please feel free to leave comments on my blog.
Thank you sincerely for reading.
Fanboy Dave
Last night I watched the Canadian directed film Water (dir. Deepa Mehta). I had not seen this film in my Canadian Cinema class at the University of Toronto, unfortunately. SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
I was expecting this film to be more sombre than it was; that is not to suggest that it was not sad. One of the two may characters does not make it to the end of the film alive. At about an hour and half through the film, the story got to a happy place. I thought to myself, if it ended here that would be the happiest possible ending that there could be for these characters. It however did not end at this point in the story, but went on for approximately another half hour.
I thought the film was a really interesting rumination of people of a country caught between old traditions and the new modern ideas that were coming out of the west and influencing the world over. Some characters welcomed the changes in tradition while others seemed to think that there was nothing wrong with the way they lived even though they were being subjugated and forced to either live as widows in a sort of convent/nunnery or marry the brother of there dead husband. I think that in the end the message of the film was that some of the country's ideas/tradition were backward and outdated, but that there was nothing wrong with many of the cultural traditions; the ones that did not infringe on the individual freedoms of women. Maybe I am off on this. I do not know. If you have insight into this culture or this film that I may lack , please leave comments for me and we can begin a dialogue. In the future, I welcome the idea of seeing Fire and Earth; the earlier films of Mehta's Elements trilogy; I know there are four elements, so do not bother pointing that out, please; ha-ha. I am funny. I do not care what you say, besides my wife says that I am funny and I have to believe what she says.
I hope that if you do not have an interest in seeing this film that you attempt to watch a film every now and again that you take a gamble on; whether it is a foreign film, independent or possibly direct to video (please exercise extreme caution when picking a film from this category; I mean it). I would love to hear your thoughts on some films that you may have seen recently, so please feel free to leave comments on my blog.
Thank you sincerely for reading.
Fanboy Dave
ROCKY III
Hello Everyone,
You may have notice that I have not had a new post in a while. There are a few reasons for this; my wife and I bought a wii and it is insanely fun and addictive, we prepared for and took a trip to Vegas and I have not been watching that many new films and am also trying to enjoy the nice and hot weather that we have been getting. As always MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
At some point in mid May, my beautiful wife Veronica bought the Rocky boxed set. After we saw Iron Man at the movie theatre, my wife said that she wanted to rent Rocky Balboa and I said okay but that we should probably rent the original Rocky as well because neither of us had seen the film. We watched both films; out of order mind you. We watched Rocky Balboa and then Rocky. The new film really had an interesting dialect with the new film; references, parallel montages etc.
Last night, my wife and I watched Rocky 3 and it was somewhat surprised that both Rocky 2 and Rocky 3 were both reasonably good efforts for sequels. Many people rave about how good the original Rocky film is and say that the sequels are not as good, but I think that they honour the original film pretty well. The character development of the Rocky character is very interesting to see and he struggles to keep going and defeat opponents while running the risk of losing everything that he has fought hard to get in the first place.
I was having a discussion with a fellow movie lover, a friend of mine named John (I know it is a common name, but I have a lot more friends named Mike and my name is David, but I do have friends with more original names; Sharda, Sumit, Heather-Anne, Denise [not too common] and others). Where was I...John said that although he did enjoy Rocky Balboa, he thought it was really glossy like an HBO type film or a hyped up ESPN/Pay Per View boxing event. I agreed with him on his point because the original films, specifically the first film have a more home video like contrast to them, partially because of the dated nature of the film stock that was then transfer to DVD and also because of the type of camera, film stock, and lighting techniques that were being used around the time of the first film. I am a big fan of Digital Video and older films that have that more realistic contrasty look to them (i.e. Mean Streets). Having said that I feel that aside from better technology and a likely bigger budget for Rocky Balboa, the reason why they may have made the film so glossy and pay per view event, because of the strength and popularity of the Rocky franchise that Stallone felt that the character really deserved the 'star treatment' for his final epic fight; I agree with this...I did say it and it is my theory so I kind of have to agree with it..I guess; ha ha.
I was surprise to see Hulk Hogan in Rocky 3, because I had never seen it and although I had not seen it, I was unaware that he was in the film. I figure that Mick was going to die because I was able to see the clues telling me (the viewer) that this was going to happen. Mr. T. I thought was a great opponent for Rocky because he was so tough and fast, of course Apollo Creed is likely his most known, respected and popular opponent. Paulie was really starting to piss me off at the beginning of the film, but of course that was the filmmaker's intention. He is one of those characters that you rhetorically ask, What the hell is his problem? Paulie's problem, as far as I can tell is that he is part of something big, but he does not have any of the money or glamour associated with Rocky's fame because he has always been somewhat of a problem for Rocky, so Rocky keeps him at a distance from the business of what he does because although Paulie does have big ideas, he does not have the common sense to appropriately put those ideas into motion without pissing off Rocky. I have notice a somewhat diminished role of Adrienne in Rocky 3 or less screen time anyway. I think that although she may not have a lot of lines, her character does have a strong impact on Rocky; quality of her screen time over quantity in minutes of screen time or number of lines. I am glad that they are continuing to feature Apollo Creed in the Rocky films because he is of course a very important part of the man that Rocky is becoming in his life. I would have to say that I believe Rocky 3 is as good as the 2ND film and that I am somewhat anxious to see if the movie lover maxim will prove to be true with Rocky 4. The maxim that I am referring to is the one that says often but not always, a movie franchise starts to head south in the 3rd film or that they 3rd film is usually a weak one, even if the franchise picks up after that film or after the next one (i.e. The Batman Franchise).
I hope that if you have not seen any films from the Rocky franchise that you go out an rent the first one and give it a try.
Sincerely,
F@nBoy D&vE
You may have notice that I have not had a new post in a while. There are a few reasons for this; my wife and I bought a wii and it is insanely fun and addictive, we prepared for and took a trip to Vegas and I have not been watching that many new films and am also trying to enjoy the nice and hot weather that we have been getting. As always MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
At some point in mid May, my beautiful wife Veronica bought the Rocky boxed set. After we saw Iron Man at the movie theatre, my wife said that she wanted to rent Rocky Balboa and I said okay but that we should probably rent the original Rocky as well because neither of us had seen the film. We watched both films; out of order mind you. We watched Rocky Balboa and then Rocky. The new film really had an interesting dialect with the new film; references, parallel montages etc.
Last night, my wife and I watched Rocky 3 and it was somewhat surprised that both Rocky 2 and Rocky 3 were both reasonably good efforts for sequels. Many people rave about how good the original Rocky film is and say that the sequels are not as good, but I think that they honour the original film pretty well. The character development of the Rocky character is very interesting to see and he struggles to keep going and defeat opponents while running the risk of losing everything that he has fought hard to get in the first place.
I was having a discussion with a fellow movie lover, a friend of mine named John (I know it is a common name, but I have a lot more friends named Mike and my name is David, but I do have friends with more original names; Sharda, Sumit, Heather-Anne, Denise [not too common] and others). Where was I...John said that although he did enjoy Rocky Balboa, he thought it was really glossy like an HBO type film or a hyped up ESPN/Pay Per View boxing event. I agreed with him on his point because the original films, specifically the first film have a more home video like contrast to them, partially because of the dated nature of the film stock that was then transfer to DVD and also because of the type of camera, film stock, and lighting techniques that were being used around the time of the first film. I am a big fan of Digital Video and older films that have that more realistic contrasty look to them (i.e. Mean Streets). Having said that I feel that aside from better technology and a likely bigger budget for Rocky Balboa, the reason why they may have made the film so glossy and pay per view event, because of the strength and popularity of the Rocky franchise that Stallone felt that the character really deserved the 'star treatment' for his final epic fight; I agree with this...I did say it and it is my theory so I kind of have to agree with it..I guess; ha ha.
I was surprise to see Hulk Hogan in Rocky 3, because I had never seen it and although I had not seen it, I was unaware that he was in the film. I figure that Mick was going to die because I was able to see the clues telling me (the viewer) that this was going to happen. Mr. T. I thought was a great opponent for Rocky because he was so tough and fast, of course Apollo Creed is likely his most known, respected and popular opponent. Paulie was really starting to piss me off at the beginning of the film, but of course that was the filmmaker's intention. He is one of those characters that you rhetorically ask, What the hell is his problem? Paulie's problem, as far as I can tell is that he is part of something big, but he does not have any of the money or glamour associated with Rocky's fame because he has always been somewhat of a problem for Rocky, so Rocky keeps him at a distance from the business of what he does because although Paulie does have big ideas, he does not have the common sense to appropriately put those ideas into motion without pissing off Rocky. I have notice a somewhat diminished role of Adrienne in Rocky 3 or less screen time anyway. I think that although she may not have a lot of lines, her character does have a strong impact on Rocky; quality of her screen time over quantity in minutes of screen time or number of lines. I am glad that they are continuing to feature Apollo Creed in the Rocky films because he is of course a very important part of the man that Rocky is becoming in his life. I would have to say that I believe Rocky 3 is as good as the 2ND film and that I am somewhat anxious to see if the movie lover maxim will prove to be true with Rocky 4. The maxim that I am referring to is the one that says often but not always, a movie franchise starts to head south in the 3rd film or that they 3rd film is usually a weak one, even if the franchise picks up after that film or after the next one (i.e. The Batman Franchise).
I hope that if you have not seen any films from the Rocky franchise that you go out an rent the first one and give it a try.
Sincerely,
F@nBoy D&vE
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