Epinions Recent Reviews for updateghost

Tropic Thunder: Tropic Thunder: the year's funniest so far

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:14:40 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Some will scoff, but Tropic Thunder is easily the funniest movie released this summer and the second wide release of this year (distant behind The Dark Knight, however). Its humor is of so many types, its satire functions on so many levels,...

Pineapple Express: Pineapple Express? I've smoked better

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:13:04 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Some people out there will legitimately, intellectually love Pineapple Express. It is not a movie that functions on immediate, gut-busting reactions -- actually, many of the slapstick and gross-outs and cheap and predictable. Instead, some of the...

I saw a better Interview with the Vampire in that one book

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:53:43 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Just by a film's design, you can often discern from era it's from. Whether this is good or bad is up to the viewer. My Fair Lady is charmingly 1964. Death Race 2000 is cheesily 1972. Much to its impair, Neil Jordan's Interview with the...

I can't wait for the Paul W.S. Anderson version of Death Race 2000

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:33:30 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - There's are two types of "so bad it's good" movies. One is those that are conscious of their badness and have something to say through it -- such as Wild Things. It's gleefully terrible but pointed as well. Then there are the others -- those that...

The Dark Knight: He is... The Dark Knight

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:03:08 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is so good that reviewers might not even want to write about it. We'd rather swim in its goodness, reflecting on the consistent intensity, the high-grade performances, the moral complexity, etc., etc. Like...

The in-aptitude of Apt Pupil

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:47:56 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - A word for future storytellers: When both your protagonist and antagonist are unlikeable, your chances of delivering a worthwhile story are close to nil. Apt Pupil, unsurprisingly, is no exception in its eagerness to exploit tragedy for "that's...

Going through divorce? Enjoy Scenes from a Marriage

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:46:05 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - In an age where information is jetting at us from all directions at incomprehensible speeds, it's nice to sit back and absorb the work of a director who actually takes his bloody time. Sometimes he takes too much time, but a slow, pensive drama is...

Joseph Heller's No Laughing Matter shouldn't be a reading matter, either

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:24:36 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Joseph Heller was one of the greatest post-WWII satirists and one of the best American writers, period. His debut, Catch-22, is often considered his "crowning achievement," but God Knows is just as funny and exponentially more moving, being...

Ponytail isn't very Ice Cream Spiritual!

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:04:07 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - At first listen, Ponytail sounds like a competent -- perhaps even normal -- indie-rock band. Their vocalist is unique. Their guitars sound peculiar. Their drummer is lively. Most of their songs are short, except for that one song -- like on most...

Fanny and Alexander, or, Alexander

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:43:11 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Note: This review is for the theatrical version of the film, not the TV version. If you don't count Saraband -- and you shouldn't -- Fanny and Alexander is the last film that we ever saw from Ingmar Bergman, and other than The...

Hancock: Hancock: from literature to entertainment

Tue, 8 Jul 2008 05:35:00 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Hancock's central concept should perk anyone's ears up: a drunken, belligerent superhero? Someone to suffer for the consequences of the destroyed architecture? It's about time that the superhero genre gained some sense. And for the first...

Someone dropped a turd in this Swimming Pool

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 02:21:44 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - If audiences weren't told that Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool was a thriller beforehand, its critical ratings would probably be vastly different from today. The *ominous* pianoed and stringed soundtrack might sound more like quirky drama music...

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, my childhood playmates

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:49:02 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - The sad fact of classics is that very few of them are perfect. "Morning Bell" on Radiohead's Kid A? They coulda done without it. An American in Paris' 20-minute closing sequence? Too long, and not very fun. But the reason that they're all...

Miami University: Miami University 's diversity problem ain't gonna change, baby

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:50:06 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - The average Miami student loves Miami University. Come here, and you'll notice many students adorned in red and white, tossing on red shirts and that spell "MIAMI" in huge white letters -- as well as shoes, socks, turtlenecks, even underwear. It's a...

It just makes me want to yell Fitzcarraldo!!!

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:30:27 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Writing a review about Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo might be comparable to the film's plot: Trying to haul a 300+-ton steamboat up a hill by the Amazon. The film's scope and product is mammoth, but what can one really say about it? Perhaps we...

Away From Her: Keep Away from Her ... or don't ... or do ... I don't know

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:34:20 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - The high praise for Away from Her renders it one of 2007's most inexplicably acclaimed films: Sure, it's good, but is it good enough to earn an 88 on Metacritic.com, becoming the year's 9th highest-rated release? Methinks not. For a first-time...

The Strangers: My parents told me to avoid The Strangers when I was young

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:46:54 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - I sorta like to imagine how a conversation between myself, an "attacker" (more like a meh-er) of The Strangers and a defender would proceed. I imagine it'd go something like this: Tom: When the credits roll, all that we can say is, "So?" Scott...

Teeth: Teeth could be sharper

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:42:50 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - Once upon a time, perhaps around the 2004 election, the abstinence satire had some punch. It mattered. We needed to hear about it because it was so intrinsic to American culture. But in the four years since the election, Christian fundamentalists...

Grizzly Man, outside and in

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:52:16 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - When it comes to making a documentary about an American conservationist's 13-summer stay with grizzly bears in the wild, there is probably no man who could have directed it better that Werner Herzog. His feature films, the most popular being Aguirre:...

Mad Max is mad about itself

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:19:24 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - If you want to see Mel Gibson in a time where he wasn't the man without a face (or a known anti-Semite), pop in Mad Max. He looks so virile and unpocked that you'll probably turn to an older person in the room and say, "Dude, is that Mel Gibson?"...

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams are nightmares for viewers

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:29:29 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - How do you produce a worthwhile vanity project? Transform it into anti-vanity-project. Unfortunately, all sides of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams -- the title, the product description, the actual film -- the word "vanity project" screams its own name...

Citizen Ruth doesn't need a rosebud

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:42:20 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - One of the greatest risks in making satire is the characters: Often, they must be devoid of any likable aspects. Works of satire often face criticisms for not telling the "happy side" of the story, but the happy side is not the focus. Satire is about...

This review is not yet rated

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:28:27 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - We rarely consider it, but behind all of those flashes and buzzes occurring before us on the silver screen, there is a whole world of hell occurring. Most filmmakers will tell you that it is incredibly arduous to fund a film, then to produce it, and...

Grab some fuzzy-wuzzies and watch The Secret Garden

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:19:45 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - In the universe of movies-that-we-all-watched-200
-times-as-kids,
there is a massive debate: Which is superior, The Secret Garden or A Little Princess? Both are adapted from stories written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. India appears. There...

McCandless is often considered a moron for heading Into the Wild with no experience

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 06:40:51 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author updateghost - There has been a romanticization of society defiers in recent years -- individuals who attempts to transcend the system by abandoning everything Jesus-style -- their money, their cars, even their families -- to pursue a living in the wild, in nature, in...