DJ Zealot's Blogger

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

2008-05-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I watched the last installment (so far) of the Indiana Jones franchise! I have to say, with all the memorable lines by Connery and the quick steps of young Indy and Ford's Indy, "The Last Crusade" is my favorite. Sure, who can forget "Anything Goes" in Chinese from Temple of Doom, or how asps are very dangerous (and Indy should go first) from Raiders. I still love the three trials Indiana must complete at the end of the movie. HAWT. It's fun, playful, full of Nazis to hate, and Christian symbols to make your head explode (or at the very least, decompose really quickly if you don't choose wisely!) "I knew I should have sent it to the Marx Brothers!"

21

2008-04-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

As usual, the images are from Rottentomatoes.com

Well, I'm glad I saw this film for free. 21 the movie was less interesting than its book counterpart, "Bringing Down the House." I guess more stuff happens in the book, and you can watch the movie for a cliff notes version of the book. And why are MIT based movies never filmed at MIT? No one wear a brass rat in the movies, and dangit! We don't run towards the Great Dome to get to class, that courtyard ain't a shortcut to anywhere on campus! :)

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

2008-04-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Wow. Really cute period piece! Love Frances MacDormand's lead character Miss Pettigrew, and of course Amy Adams plays the spoiled slighty dillusional socialite (a period piece Giselle). Lots of fun! and the soundtrack is pretty awesome.

Iron Man

2008-03-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Dun dun dun-dun-dun! Danna danna dan-dan dun-dun-dun!

piggy

2008-03-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

You know what, not that bad but not that good. I'm sure in a few weeks I'll forget I ever saw this movie. McAvoy's blue eyes were far more hypnotising and memorable than this forced fairy tale movie. Some parts were pretty funny, tho I felt they were written and directed while the crew wasn't too tired of the movie. Poor O'Hara.... will she always play a mom of a unique child? :P

Cloverfield

2008-01-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

Cloverfield, Cloverfield, Cloverfield! Haven't seen it.... yet.

Update - I saw it and I puked at 44mins in. Ugh.

Like the city in Alaska...?

2008-01-09T15:16:00.000-08:00

Juno was adorable. (And yes, I know the city in Alaska is spelled differently!) I can see how people thought the characters were a bit forced or the dialog was trying way too hard to be kitchy (see: Jennifer Garner's performance). I thought Ellen Page was adorable and a great actress for this part.

Michael Cera, of course, played the gentle awkward kid who tries hard and is not annoying while he does it! Very real. I'm afraid he's getting typecast, though. That's okay. Hollywood is all about the Beta Male these days. He had some of the best one-liners in the film.

Walk Hard

2007-12-24T18:05:00.000-08:00

Over the top and pretty funny! The songs are catchy and the lyrics are so witty... "Let's... Duet!" John C Reilly is great, and so it Jenna Fischer. Go see!

Shave and a haircut.... Two slits!

2007-12-19T23:24:00.000-08:00

Sweeney Todd

Wow...more gory than I thought it would be, even with the fake looking blood! Go Helena Bonham Carter! She is growing old gracefully and man, her character of the meat pie making Mrs Lovett is just wry, witty, graceful and sinister all rolled into one. And Johnny Depp.... sigh, hard to believe he's also Jack Sparrow, but the characters leaked into each other a little bit more than i would have liked. Lots of interesting romantic ties between characters (like whoa, you're way too young! Oh dear, you're WAY too old!) Fun ride. Gratz to Burton for a non Danny Elfman scored movie!

I! AM! LEGEND!

2007-12-11T21:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, sorry for bringing in that sparta language.... But seriously, what a fantastic performance from Will Smith - he has built his career on doing the comic relief thing, such as ID4, MIB franchise, Bad Boys. Now take those humorous lines when he's talking to a mannequin because he's lonely... it makes for a poignant, strange, voyeuristic experiences ever.

"I Am Legend" was surprisingly good. Tour de force performance from Will Smith! And gosh, that puppy dog is adorable. Can't say I liked the VFX - the bluescreens were poorly integrated, and the vampire thingies are just.... ugh. The transformation of NYC was smooth and wonderful.

Scientifically methodical at the beginning, then a smooth transition to a different type of movie. I liken it to Jurassic Park in pacing and overall feel.

img from RT.

pie.... i like pie!

2007-12-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

I loved the character driven dramedy of "Waitress." The movie touched on a lot of interesting topics like cooking, abusive husbands, affairs with hot doctors, childbirth, and what it means to be an independent woman in the american south. Great acting from Kerri Russell of Felicity fame!

Cinematic Titanic

2007-12-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

img from rottentomatoes. Oh wow. Thanks to the cast of MST3K "Brain of Blood" was made more bearable :) also see wikipedia's entry for Cinematic Titanic!

Golden Compass

2007-12-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

pic from rottentomatoes

I think this bunny cartoon sums up what I feel about it: http://bunny.frozenreality.co.uk/index.php?id=1051

Enchanted enchants!

2007-12-05T10:46:00.000-08:00

Self effacing meta genre hasn't been done better than Enchanted in a long long time. Sure, I was like you, I thought I'd hate it and only like the McDreamy parts. BUT! It's witty, Amy Adams is a doll, and the animated forest creatures gave me constant giggles. Go see it!! (And I have Gisele's creature call song stuck in my head. ARGH)

Modern Classics

2007-11-29T16:32:00.000-08:00

pics from rottentomatoes.

No Country for Old Men	Wow. Amazing. Tension, suspense, gore, amazing acting, dialog, creepiness, casting.... It didn't ever feel boring, I never looked at my watch, never did I look away from the screen. I was completely tense and nervous for the entire time. /shiver/
Blade Runner : The Final Cut	Saw it this past Monday. Amazing, amazing! Rutger Hauer is scary and both him and Harrison are quite fit :) ha! "You have such wonderful..... toys." "Were there.... men? Were they... Police... Men?" "That's the spirit!!" We managed to get one of 20 prints, and it was digital! Woohoo!

weekend laziness

2007-11-19T14:12:00.000-08:00

Serendipity

Aw..... I don't know what else to say, except that if ten years had passed between their first meeting and the second act, they age perfectly. :P

ILM movies on RIGHT NOW!

2007-11-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

Forrest Gump (on A&E)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (on AMCP?!)
Sharkboy and Lavagirl (Disney)

reminder ... of vfx frontrunners

2007-11-17T16:01:00.000-08:00

Sunshine

Whoops, I think i forgot to mention this movie. I saw it at Pixar a few months ago. The effects-on-a-budget done by MPC were pretty amazing - shoestring budget not a shoestring vision. Miniatures, effects, and very awesome tension in the story. The ending was a bit of a letdown, but it was refreshing to see a dystopian vision of where humanity is going in a sci-fi setting.

awwwww!!!

2007-11-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

Pixar Story Documentary

Oh, how satisfying it is to see the little guy win and win big. Seeing this movie was a gentle reminder of humble beginnings mixed with sweat, smarts and all-nighters can get millions to want to cross oceans, drive for miles, confront the scary, and overcome physically bigger enemies. Thank you, Pixar, for reminding us that stories are important. Detailed and sensitive animation conveys. And we all can't wait for Wall-E!

The "oh shit" factor

2007-11-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Definitely one of those movies where the circle of expectation for the story was completed and the map for it was laid out well in advance. In the first few character interactions, you can feel the tangled web of relationships, money, corruption and debt. Well acted, well paced - interesting cut methods.

2007-10-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

japanese internment camps and baseball

American Pastime

This indie movie has amazing production value! The actors were good, costumes were great, and so was the set design. It was quite professionally done, and what a great vehicle for the message, please do no not forget pieces of america's history. Grace Cathedral, please continue your film series!

2007-10-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

sexy espionage, a queen, a band, a floating head, a hit 'n' run (images from rt)

Reservation Road	Well, I sincerely thought this was going to be a really powerful, melodramatic tear-jerker, but I was in no such luck! Jennifer Connelly delivers a powerful performance. Something is wrong with Joaquin's shoulder and my friend and I couldn't figure out what (was it dislocated? Tumor? Goiter?) An empty movie.
Zardoz	Perfect choice for Flecks. And for the record, penises aren't bad! Geebers. :)
Control	Wow. Amazing. Anton Corbijn's black and white biopic of the band Joy Division is extremely compelling, twisted, wonderfully casted, and totally brings back a lot of memories of listening to music from the band originally called warsaw. Ian Curtis is portrayed as a precocious (sorry, I hate that word but he really was bigger than his years) artist with epilepsy. Smoking, drinking, cheating, always writing, and giving his all for his art. Amazing. Amazing, amazing. Please go see this, and Anton, make more films!
Elizabeth: The Golden Age	Not bad. Not great. Cate Blanchett was beautiful and wonderful - everything else from Walter Raleigh (was he really that important, or did someone want to just cast him because he is a great actor?) and the choppy pacing didn't do anything for the continuity of emotion for this film. Pretty forgettable. :(
Lust, Caution	Wow. My first NC-17 movie. I have to say I thought the appearance of balls would be in order, but I think it was the first violent sex scene that prevents me from really recommending this movie. The pacing was great, acting was wonderful; the story was intriguing but MAN does Ang Lee push my buttons in a strange way. I felt exhausted after watching "Lust, Caution." There is murder, there is death, there is rape, there is a power struggle, there is cheating, there is despair. Owie. It was a great foreign film but it really could have done without the NC-17 bits. Seriously.

Seth McFarlane

2007-09-26T17:10:00.001-07:00

Seth McFarlane
Originally uploaded by djzealot

Seth McFarlane came to ILM to show us the Family guy season premiere, which was Star Wars based. It was pretty funny, and he took some time out to hang out afterwards, and hear me say in my best fanboy voice, "I love the ipecac scene!"

If there was more time, I probably would have started a dialog like:
"Everything's better with Cool H-Whip"

2007-09-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

movie time - so wrong and so right

3:10 to Yuma

WOW. What a fun movie - never boring, always a little bit bigger than life and unbelievable, against great odds, anti-buddy movie. Bale is hot as usual. Crowe steps up his acting game nicely. Foley was awesome (especially the two-tined fork scene!) This remake has inspired me to see the original, and I'm not even that big a fan of Westerns. This is a great modern Western, enthralling, well paced, cowboys, indians, trains, robberies, shootouts, dustbowls, girls, whiskey.... yee-haw! The only thing I might change is get that Wilson kid out of there - his cameo and his nose is distracting :P

pinkie gummy bear

2007-09-05T22:17:00.001-07:00

pinkie gummy bear
Originally uploaded by djzealot

http://youtube.com/watch?v=T9oaxgNfmFo

I'm so happy cuz I'm a gummy bear, gummy bear!