Epinions Recent Reviews for jeffdaddy

Anatomy of a Noir

Sat, 1 Jun 2002 11:31:21 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Friggin’ Rififi, man. If I was directing films for a living (like I wish I was), Rififi would serve as one of my greatest influences. Spielberg says he watches The Searchers before directing every film. Rififi would probably...

The Soldier's Story

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 15:09:00 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Just before the big battle at the center of this story goes down, one soldier says to another “When the first bullet flies by, politics and all that other sh** is thrown right out the window.” Basically that’s what Black Hawk Down is about, and...

O Family Tree, O Family Tree

Sat, 5 Jan 2002 17:38:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - It’s for more than just structural creativity that The Royal Tenenbaums is in the construct of a book. Each segment of the film begins with an extreme close-up of the top of a page in the (fictional) biography “The Royal Tenenbaums”, those pages...

Be IMAX's Guest

Tue, 1 Jan 2002 11:57:32 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Beauty and the Beast is generally declared the greatest animated film ever made. The Little Mermaid was the groundbreaker, but Beauty instantly became the standard. Heck, it’s the only animated film to ever be nominated for a Best...

Capra Corn

Thu, 20 Dec 2001 18:58:34 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - There’s a moment nearly halfway through The Majestic where Jim Carrey’s Lucas walks into the empty rundown theater his father owns. Running up there on the big screen, there in the quiet save for the sound of the rolling projector, is a silent...

Hobbit Forming

Thu, 20 Dec 2001 15:47:00 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Few films receive as much advance hype as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, plus this had the unfortunate—dare I say geeky—additional baggage of “And this’ll show them Harry Potter people how to make a real fantasy movie!”...

Looney Tune

Wed, 19 Dec 2001 14:58:19 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - A Beautiful Mind is a terrible thing to waste…your money and time on. Because it’s a piece of crap. What? How can that be? This is getting Oscar buzz! It’s released in late December! It has Russell Crowe! It’s being cited in critics’ awards...

Mostly Cloudy

Sat, 15 Dec 2001 14:58:01 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Eyes Wide Shut not only destroyed Tom Cruise’s marriage but it also gave him a creepy mask fetish (maybe the two weren’t mutually exclusive). While the marriage is now history, the mask fetish remains alive and well in Vanilla Sky, a more...

Royal Flush

Sat, 8 Dec 2001 14:22:32 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Remember when you were a kid how you’d go to a movie—Star Wars, Raiders, Goonies, whatever—that was so cool you’d want to start playing it with your friends? Right away? Swinging imaginary lightsabers, cracking imaginary bullwhips, etc., doing...

War Games

Fri, 30 Nov 2001 13:53:42 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - After Hollywood’s initial deluge of postponing war-themed movies in the wake of September 11, one had to wonder how soon it would take for an about-face to occur. One had to wonder when Hollywood’s true nature would show—exploit rather than tread...

International Without The Intrigue

Wed, 21 Nov 2001 18:04:47 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Spy Game is about as run-of-the-mill as they come. Lord knows it’s quintessential studio product. Just throw some money at a by-the-numbers espionage rehash screenplay, hire a couple of big time headliners, then get a technically slick director...

Who's That Girl?

Wed, 21 Nov 2001 12:17:32 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Practical curmudgeons would argue that there’s no such thing as love at first sight. Well poo on them. It may have taken more than a moment, but not much more; after a minute or two at best, I wanted to marry Amelie.

How could any...

Black and White's Grays

Sat, 17 Nov 2001 23:17:30 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - I love Coen Brothers films for a lot of reasons, and they’re all present (ironically) in The Man Who Wasn’t There. The title—while befitting the movie—is antithetical to its filmmakers. These guys are definitely all there. Their films, even in...

The Adaptation That Lived

Sat, 17 Nov 2001 13:55:44 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Director Chris Columbus tells the story of “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling crying and hugging him in gratitude after her first screening of his film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. At first blush that sounds a bit like...

What Dreams May Come

Fri, 16 Nov 2001 12:29:50 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Waking Life isn’t a motion picture—it’s a motion painting. Sure, animated films are hardly new, but really, there’s nothing comparable to this in, well, the history of cinema. It’s an entirely mesmerizing experience on its visual merits alone. The...

American Rip-off

Wed, 14 Nov 2001 17:28:46 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - I’m getting sick of these movies that preach to us out here in the heartland about how dysfunctional we all are and what we need to do to change and become enlightened. I’m not arguing that some of us suburbanites don’t need to, but for Hollywood of all...

Breaking The Bank

Mon, 12 Nov 2001 12:50:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - After the blandly disappointing (and generally over-praised by critics) all-star outing The Score this past summer, it sure is a treat to see someone do this caper thing right. But then with David Mamet at the writing/directing helm—his House...

Heavy Doody

Sat, 10 Nov 2001 13:10:32 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - The prospect of The Farrelly Brothers—the kings of bad taste—making a movie about an obese woman had obvious risks. They’ve never met a line they wouldn’t cross so would they go overboard in their most PC-sensitive venture yet? The good news is no. In...

Creature Comfort

Fri, 2 Nov 2001 14:37:37 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - It’s darn near (if not completely) impossible to equal—let alone surpass—the brilliance of Toy Storyes 1 and 2. A Bug’s Life came that close and now Monsters, Inc. comes up shorter—but it sure ain’t for lack of trying. Simply put,...

Spaced Out

Sat, 27 Oct 2001 15:01:53 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Kevin Spacey is quickly forming a rather unfortunate tradition. Every October, it seems, it’s his goal to release a cheeseball Oscar hopeful that will ultimately be laughed-out of The Oscar Buzz Room. Last year is was the schmaltz-fest Pay It...

Wild at Heart

Fri, 19 Oct 2001 12:31:08 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Do you have one of those friends who can’t stop asking questions the moment a movie starts? You know, as if you possess some magical power of knowing everything from the first fade up. "Who’s that? Where is she? What is she doing? Where are they going?...

Army of Dumb

Fri, 19 Oct 2001 12:23:47 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Paul Newman and Robert Redford are best friends. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that Newman has been lording something over poor Bob for nearly forty years now. Something The Natural has never been able to live down. It’s called Cool Hand...

Being Robbed

Sat, 13 Oct 2001 00:02:27 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - You wanna know the going rate for mediocrity nowadays? I can’t give you a dollar figure myself, but whatever the budget for Bandits was—that’s it. This is not a film created out of inspiration, desire, or even uniqueness. This is cookie-cutter...

Director's Uncut

Fri, 12 Oct 2001 17:06:10 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - Kids, a tip: if you ever make something hailed as a masterpiece—don’t mess with it! This is the hard and obvious lessoned learned with Apocalypse Now Redux, the unedited version of the 1979 classic, one that many consider to be the...

L.A. Confidential

Sat, 6 Oct 2001 20:59:07 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jeffdaddy - For getting as gritty and violent as it does, Training Day is far too clean cut to be the powder keg drama it clearly aspires to be. Narratively and thematically, this morality tale’s ideas are too obvious and drama too plotted. The weight of...