June 25, 2006

  • movies I've seen recently...

    An Inconvenient Truth  (2006)  A-

    You know how people say that the scariest films are the ones that make you think it could happen in real life? "An Inconvenient Truth" is a scary film that does happen in real life! Barring the political debate about the film's validity, the movie itself does a great job of being as informative, educational, and at the same time entertaining as can possibly be. There are even some very very sad moments depicted in the film about what IS going on in the world today that can't be denied. I know one scene about Polar Bears nearly brought me to tears, and I'm not kidding. Al Gore himself does a really good job with his presentation about global warming, and even has some really great humor to lighten things up. There were some scenes about his own real life experiences that may have slowed the movie down a bit, but for the most part they are there to show us Al Gore's motivations. I'm not one who normally say that a movie is "important to watch," but this film; directed by Davis Guggenheim, IS an important movie to watch. If you've never believed in the existence of global warming, watch this movie and see if you still feel the same way.
    http://www.climatecrisis.org

    New Nightmare  (1994)  B

    After killing off Freddy Krueger in "A Nightmare on Elm Street 6," Wes Craven comes up with a great idea to bring him back one more time in "New Nightmare." The idea that Freddy exists in "our" real world is a wonderful concept. Not only that, but the cast plays their real selves from being the cast of the Nightmare films. Heather Langenkamp does a great job playing herself, who is trying to get past her life as one of the most popular actresses in the Freddy films. Her problem is that she is haunted by Krueger and starts wondering if he really is a real entity. "New Nightmare" is mostly about the suspense of what might happen as opposed to just showing gory scene after gory scene, which works a lot better for this movie. When Freddy comes out in full force though, it becomes just like another Nightmare on Elm Street movie, which kinda weakens the whole film a bit (not to mention the annoying kid). A surprisingly fun last time with Freddy Krueger here... well until he does more of the spin offs.

    Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang  (2005)  B+

    Shane Black who is mostly known for creating the Lethal Weapon films, comes back with what might possibly be one of the best films he's ever done with "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang." You've got comedy, mystery, hot women, and action all in one package. The movie revolves around a petty thief played by Robert Downey Jr who accidentally gets picked in an audition for a movie, gets sent to Hollywood where he comes across seemingly random situations involving a homosexual detective (played by Val Kilmer), a child hood friend (excellently wonderfully beautifully played by Michelle Monaghan), some dead bodies, and people out to kill him. What Shane Black does with this film is make it aware at some of the absurdity going on, as well as how it is also a nod to action mystery films that's come before this. This movie is definitely great fun, with some very memorable scenes. A lesser director would have made a mess of things, but thank goodness that isn't the case here.
    * this movie was added to my top 20 favorite films of 2005 *