Mini Movie Reviews
Been catching up on my movies in the past week. Here's a quick recap of what I saw...
Blood Diamond - A story about the diamond industry and how it leads to war and genocide in Africa. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a diamond seller who finds out that an African man (Djimon Honsou) has found a very valuable pink diamond and he is willing to do anything to get it from him. Jennifer Connelly stars as a reporter doing a story on the "blood diamonds".
I found this movie to be pretty good. There were lots of gory scenes of torture and killing of African village people which were a bit difficult to watch, but the acting all around was very solid and the story and directing very well done. I had never really been a Leo fan but after The Departed and now Blood Diamond, I am convinced. The brotha can act.
8/10.
Smokin' Aces - This was just a really fun flick with a pretty good cast. A Vegas magician has gotten himself in too deep with the mob and has turned government informant in return for his freedom. Of course, the mob will have none of this and announces a $1 million bounty to kill the magician. This leads to a whole slew of hitmen to pounce on the opportunity and they all arrive in Lake Tahoe to try to off the magic man.
The cast is pretty strong (Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys, Jeremy Piven, etc.) and the directing is also done very well. I loved director Joe Carnahan's first flick Narc and thought this one, while different, was done just as well. It kind of has a True Romance feel to it with its over the top violence and smart ass dialogue and since True Romance is my favorite movie of all time, that's probably why I was really feeling this movie.
8/10.
300 - A pretty fun flick. From what I understand, it's adapted from a Frank Miller comic book and it really looks like a comic translated to the big screen, much like Sin City, another Miller comic turned movie.
300 is about a group of 300 Spartan soliders who choose to stand up to the Moors in a fight to preserve their city. Gerard Butler stars as the Spartan king and is pretty good in the role, despite some pretty ridiculous dialogue. But I guess that's to be expected from a comic book story. But the real draw of this movie are the action scenes. There are tons of them and they're technically excellent. Lots of proficient choreography and gore to spare. There are even some weird fantasy type creatures thrown in for good measure.
Don't go into 300 expecting anything groundbreaking (except maybe for the cinematography) but you'll have a fun time if gory battle scenes are your thing. Or if you like tons of half naked guys cuz there's a lot of that too. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
7/10.
The Devil Wears Prada - First of all, never read the book. But my sis told me it was a fun movie so I checked it out. Not bad! Of course, I watched it at 1 in the morning and had to rewind several times after I realized I fell asleep and missed like 2 scenes. But overall, not too bad, for a chick flick! =)
I think Meryl Streep is great and she's again awesome as the editor-in-chief of a leading fashion magazine. I'm also a fan of Stanley Tucci's and he was good as well. The star Anne Hathaway was okay too, but it's really Streep's show (heh heh, kind of sounds like "strip show"...okay, sorry). Anyways, it's the story of a young girl not interested in fashion who finds herself working as an assistant to the leading fashion icon in NYC. Of course, she slowly turns into one of the fashion hungry girls as well.
6/10.
Shooter - I'm lovin' Mark Whalberg right now. I didn't realize it, but I think I have man love for him. What else can explain the fact that I've seen like his last 5 movies? The Departed, Invincible, The Italian Job, Four Brothers. Saw them all, and liked them all. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
This time around, Wahlberg plays a retired ex-sniper living in the mountains, Commando style. But when his government calls upon him to help thwart a Presidential assasination attempt, he feels obligated to assist. But then he becomes framed for a murder he didn't commit and goes on the run Rambo style to find who framed him and to get revenge.
A very simple plot but an enjoyable movie. Good action scenes by solid director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day and The Replacement Killers) carry the movie and the plot while predicatable, is enough to satisfy. Funny thing though....when did Danny Glover get a lisp? Or was it part of his character? Not sure.
7/10.
Blood Diamond - A story about the diamond industry and how it leads to war and genocide in Africa. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a diamond seller who finds out that an African man (Djimon Honsou) has found a very valuable pink diamond and he is willing to do anything to get it from him. Jennifer Connelly stars as a reporter doing a story on the "blood diamonds".
I found this movie to be pretty good. There were lots of gory scenes of torture and killing of African village people which were a bit difficult to watch, but the acting all around was very solid and the story and directing very well done. I had never really been a Leo fan but after The Departed and now Blood Diamond, I am convinced. The brotha can act.
8/10.
Smokin' Aces - This was just a really fun flick with a pretty good cast. A Vegas magician has gotten himself in too deep with the mob and has turned government informant in return for his freedom. Of course, the mob will have none of this and announces a $1 million bounty to kill the magician. This leads to a whole slew of hitmen to pounce on the opportunity and they all arrive in Lake Tahoe to try to off the magic man.
The cast is pretty strong (Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys, Jeremy Piven, etc.) and the directing is also done very well. I loved director Joe Carnahan's first flick Narc and thought this one, while different, was done just as well. It kind of has a True Romance feel to it with its over the top violence and smart ass dialogue and since True Romance is my favorite movie of all time, that's probably why I was really feeling this movie.
8/10.
300 - A pretty fun flick. From what I understand, it's adapted from a Frank Miller comic book and it really looks like a comic translated to the big screen, much like Sin City, another Miller comic turned movie.
300 is about a group of 300 Spartan soliders who choose to stand up to the Moors in a fight to preserve their city. Gerard Butler stars as the Spartan king and is pretty good in the role, despite some pretty ridiculous dialogue. But I guess that's to be expected from a comic book story. But the real draw of this movie are the action scenes. There are tons of them and they're technically excellent. Lots of proficient choreography and gore to spare. There are even some weird fantasy type creatures thrown in for good measure.
Don't go into 300 expecting anything groundbreaking (except maybe for the cinematography) but you'll have a fun time if gory battle scenes are your thing. Or if you like tons of half naked guys cuz there's a lot of that too. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
7/10.
The Devil Wears Prada - First of all, never read the book. But my sis told me it was a fun movie so I checked it out. Not bad! Of course, I watched it at 1 in the morning and had to rewind several times after I realized I fell asleep and missed like 2 scenes. But overall, not too bad, for a chick flick! =)
I think Meryl Streep is great and she's again awesome as the editor-in-chief of a leading fashion magazine. I'm also a fan of Stanley Tucci's and he was good as well. The star Anne Hathaway was okay too, but it's really Streep's show (heh heh, kind of sounds like "strip show"...okay, sorry). Anyways, it's the story of a young girl not interested in fashion who finds herself working as an assistant to the leading fashion icon in NYC. Of course, she slowly turns into one of the fashion hungry girls as well.
6/10.
Shooter - I'm lovin' Mark Whalberg right now. I didn't realize it, but I think I have man love for him. What else can explain the fact that I've seen like his last 5 movies? The Departed, Invincible, The Italian Job, Four Brothers. Saw them all, and liked them all. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
This time around, Wahlberg plays a retired ex-sniper living in the mountains, Commando style. But when his government calls upon him to help thwart a Presidential assasination attempt, he feels obligated to assist. But then he becomes framed for a murder he didn't commit and goes on the run Rambo style to find who framed him and to get revenge.
A very simple plot but an enjoyable movie. Good action scenes by solid director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day and The Replacement Killers) carry the movie and the plot while predicatable, is enough to satisfy. Funny thing though....when did Danny Glover get a lisp? Or was it part of his character? Not sure.
7/10.
posted by Myong Choi at 1:29 PM
3 Comments:
I have Blood Diamond in my queue on Netflix but after reading your review I know I'm not going to enjoy it.
Devil Wears Prada on the other hand was the best. Enough for me to buy it.
I finally got around to buying The Host for $45. Was that too high?
300's terrific. Great film, great historical-based tale and an even better metaphorical-based tale about why Western civilization's ways, means, and results are worth defending and are best for the world (i.e., look at all our great inventions? Where done? In the Western world). Why, because Western ways involve everyboty's input.
What 300 substantively has to offer goes beyond what the characters were wearing, methinks (and, uh, this film shows nothing new about how Spartans and other Greeks presented themselves; there are tons of books worldwide that most probably refer to that; Miller's actual graphic novel, even, shows some of these guys just wearing: 1) cape; 2) helmet; 3) shield; 4) sword and spear . . . and that's about it). Yeah, the last bastion of democracy at that time in the world had their own paganisms and perversions in their own right, but, what Greece offered was good for all and was right that their efforts against the Persian Empire meant the beginning of the end of the latter. Amen.
I give 300 a 300 out of 10.
Unnie -- yeah, that was pretty high, I mean, even if the thing had another "making of" disc.
So apparently The Devil Wears Prada wasn't as good as everyone has said, huh? :)
Nice blog.
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