Epinions Recent Reviews for mfunk75

Softly Softly Catchee Munty Flumple: Ricky Gervais Goes Hunting For Flanimals

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 14:20:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Ricky Gervais (Homo Hyenicus) "This beardy member of the middle-managerling family is best known for its refined sense of humour, and even more repulsive habit of laughing at its own jokes. Overexposure to fame may cause extinction...

A Chance To Lead An Exceptional Life: Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

Mon, 27 Dec 2004 15:43:45 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Here's an exercise for you: describe a colour to a person who has been blind since birth. Or explain the joy of music to someone who has always been deaf. Or try and relate the pleasure of a fine-tasting meal to someone without a tongue. It's hard,...

Yule Heat Up Your Holidays With The Happy Holiday Hearth

Thu, 23 Dec 2004 14:42:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Some will tell you that it was the first release of "The Matrix". Others will point to the five-disc "Godfather Collection". Still others will back the Special Edition of "Ernest Has a Colonoscopy". But, for me, the first disc to truly justify the...

The Bittersweet Science: Eastwood Goes Twelve Rounds With His Million Dollar Baby

Sat, 18 Dec 2004 18:45:24 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - There's a moment, near the beginning of "Million Dollar Baby", that lets you know, if you hadn't figured it out already, that this isn't your run-of-the-mill boxing movie. Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank), the waitress-cum-boxer who practically begs...

The Wracked Pack: Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve

Sat, 11 Dec 2004 13:11:09 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Three years after robbing the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, and, more importantly, getting away with it, Danny Ocean and his crew are living high on the hog, enjoying the fruits of their labours. Though not completely. In the back of their collective...

The Oak Vs. The Hulk... Vs. The Truth: Pumping Iron

Fri, 3 Dec 2004 10:35:23 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Each year, thousands of people travel to Florence to view Michelangelo's statue of David. Said to be one of the grandest examples of the divine nature in the human form, David is depicted with a slingshot over one shoulder and a determined look in his...

Everybody's Working For The Weekend... And A Strong Ending: The Office Special DVD

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:11:53 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - MY REVIEW ON THE SPECIALS PROPER I could never figure out why people go to horror movies. I spend a good deal of my life avoiding fear, so it never made much sense why people would actively seek it out, and then pay $10 for the...

A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be: Bird's The Incredibles

Sat, 6 Nov 2004 10:54:39 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - If you're going to make a movie called, say, "The Fair-to-Middlings", it should probably be of a fair to middling quality. If you're gong to make a movie called "The That'll Do Nicelys", it should probably do nicely itself. And if you're going to make...

The Grapes of Wretchedness: Payne's Sideways

Thu, 4 Nov 2004 10:41:36 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Alexander Payne has a knack for dissecting those very specific times that are common to everybody's lives. In "Election" he gives us a gaggle of teenagers battling through adolescence, while the newly-minted adults around them battle with the fact that...

Sound And Fury, Signifying... Something?: De Palma's Blow Out

Fri, 29 Oct 2004 09:43:59 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed "The Conversation", a moody thriller about a world-renowned surveillance expert, who, through piecing together his accumulated evidence, suspects the couple he has been spying on are about to be murdered...

Mfunk75 (The Reviewer) Goes Historical With America (The Book)

Thu, 14 Oct 2004 09:50:49 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - If you're like me, you're: -male -29-years old -Canadian -an active reviewer of movies, and other pop-cultural ephemera, on Epinions.com -carved out of granite …and, most relevant to this particular review… -a rabid fan of television's "The...

I ♥ I ♥ Huckabees

Sat, 9 Oct 2004 17:51:34 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Huckabees bills itself as "The Everything Store". You can buy everything from tops to mops there, and feel good about your buying experience. Need a riding mower? Come to Huckabees! Need some flatware? Huckabees is your place! Need to fill the...

My Ten Point Plan For Turning Love Actually Into A Plausible And Watchable Movie

Mon, 4 Oct 2004 21:09:23 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Being a fan of Richard Curtis' screenplays ("Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Notting Hill", the criminally-underseen "The Tall Guy"), you'd think I'd have raced to the theatre to catch his directorial debut, "Love Actually". But there was something...

I Would Review This 4 U: Purple Rain (LSYRT2 W/O)

Sun, 26 Sep 2004 08:41:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - [I po
pped
my write-off cherry with Lynus's original "Let's See U Review This" W/O. Looking 2 cash in on the boffo box office of the first installment, our host brought back the original...

Love And Death In Montreal: Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions (XO W/O)

Mon, 13 Sep 2004 09:41:25 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - [If the following is to make any sense, you should probably read my Ten Obstructions "write-off" announcement before continuing. Unless you are of sound mind and stout heart, what follows will come across as more...

"Life Is Brief" b/w "You Can Fight City Hall": Kurosawa's Ikiru

Fri, 20 Aug 2004 08:52:20 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - In "Th
e
Royal Tenenbaums", Gene Hackman's title character is given (or says he's been given) six months to live. He takes this tragedy and turns it into an opportunity to get to know his kids again, and renew...

Godard, Far From The Machine: Bande À Part

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 10:52:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Lately I've been reading Peter Biskind's "Easy
Riders, Raging Bulls" (quick mini-review: "It's fascinating, though too long and...

Zach Braff's Garden State Is Full Of Earthly Delights

Mon, 9 Aug 2004 14:40:48 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - When reading reviews of "Garden State", the two words you'll encounter most are "The" and "Graduate". So, in an attempt to get the obligatory reference to "The Graduate" out of the way early, here is a 2-for-1 plot summary: A young Jewish man,...

I Spy, With My Little Eye, A Movie That Couldn't Find Reality With A Map

Sun, 1 Aug 2004 09:07:07 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - I spy, with my little eye, something that is brown. I spy, with my little eye, something that smells fecal. I spy, with my little eye, something that is rotten, stinkin', abhorrent, retarded, and ridiculous. I spy "My Little Eye", and boy do I think...

Brilliant Execution: Errol Morris' Mr. Death: The Rise And Fall Of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.

Fri, 30 Jul 2004 20:43:16 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Fred Leuchter is a fascinating man, for several reasons. Firstly, he's a Holocaust denier, and it takes a special kind of twit to make that particular leap in (il)logic. Secondly, he's an engineer by trade, and, after having lived with engineering...

Why 2K?: Roy Andersson's Sånger Från Andra Våningen

Mon, 26 Jul 2004 08:43:53 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Stefan, a young taxi driver, accompanies his father Kalle to the mental hospital. They have come to call on a second brother, Tomas, a man content to sit and say nothing all day long. "Poetry made him nuts!" claims Kalle, hysterically. Stefan, with a...

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004): Crash Course In Brain Surgery: Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster

Wed, 21 Jul 2004 09:16:19 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Near the end of "Some Kind of Monster", Metallica prepares to hit the stage again, after nearly 3 years away from touring. Before the concert begins, a version of Ennio Morricone's 'Ecstasy of Gold' plays over the PA system. The song, which once scored...

Understanding The Real World Via "The Real World": Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs

Fri, 16 Jul 2004 09:57:00 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Chuck Klosterman is the reigning MVP of SPIN Magazine. Which, if you ask some people, as akin to being MVP of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. But I happen to like SPIN, and mean it as a compliment. Whenever I open the magazine up to its contents page, and...

"Love Came Just In Time": Linklater's Before Sunset

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 09:19:42 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - I spent a weekend with "Before Sunrise", once. It might have been the summer of '96. I was 21, or so, and still living at home. I got myself a copy of the video, retreated to the safe confines of my parents' bedroom, and played it over and over and...

Our Guileless Carl: A.C. Newman's The Slow Wonder

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 12:35:49 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author mfunk75 - Whenever I hear the drum intro to the Beastie Boys' 'Rhymin' and Stealin'', I don't wonder if it's all about mutiny on the bounty, or if Adrock is gonna board my ship and turn it on out. I wonder if it keeps on raining, will the levee break? Whenever...