michael's movie reviews
2009
These are the movies I reviewed in 2009.
reviewed 2009.12.22
This is a slick telling of an actual bank robbery that occurred in a certain former Imperial capital in Year of Our Lord 1971. I love saying it that way, makes it seem so long ago. You know, the year T-Rex released Electric Warrior.Anyway, the gang who pull it off were talked into it for the easy money but what they didn't count on was what would happen when they started prizing open strong boxe..
reviewed 2009.11.17
This is a spy flick set in the Middle East...
reviewed 2009.11.04
This is a light-hearted Man In a Hole and Buddy Cop hybrid featuring two stoner anti-heroes who witness a murder and become targets themselves...
reviewed 2009.10.22
This is a super-hero movie with a crime drama skin...
reviewed 2009.10.07
This is an interesting movie about a sour old war veteran and his unlikely interaction with a Vietnamese-American youth in his neighborhood following the kid trying to steal the old man's car...
reviewed 2009.09.09
This might have been called "Everything you Wanted to Know About Washington DC But Were Afraid to Find Out"...
reviewed 2009.08.04
Having recently seen "Children of Men" I was happily surprised to track down another Clive Owen movie at the Tsutaya. It was a .. "gun comedy"? "Bullet-gore festival"? Ah, there's no category for this one. It's a hilariously over-the-top shoot 'em up that starts when a woman in labor walks past a man waiting at a bus stop.It ends with an astronomical body count, the man at the bus stop having ta..
reviewed 2009.07.23
This is a movie about two men in the final year of their life...
reviewed 2009.07.11
I honestly have no idea what all the buzz is about with this thing...
reviewed 2009.06.30
This is an animated telling of the 1500+ year-old-epic by the same name...
reviewed 2009.06.18
This is a good fantasy movie about a star that falls to Earth in the form of a young woman...
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
reviewed 2009.06.03
This is a tough story about two fuck-up brothers who decide to rob their parents' jewelry store...
reviewed 2009.05.10
This year continues its losing streak. This is the third Spider-Man movie directed by Sam Raimi, and I think the toll is becoming a bit much. There were several villains in this story, and the degree to which Peter Parker suffers both normal young-person indignities and from the super-hero stuff is simply too much. No one can keep it together through such a thing.I think they should have kept th..
reviewed 2009.04.25
I ennoyed this miserably violent Western about a group of men who try to bring a notorious robber to justice. Included in this group is a local citizen who helped track the robber. It's somewhat more psychological than movies of this genre go, and what I found interesting was how the relationship between the two leads developed.Aside from that, it's a straight-up formula piece with stage-coaches..
reviewed 2009.03.11
I was very disappointed with this film by Bill Maher. Maher's a funny and intelligent individual and I figured that this would be insightful and entertaining. Instead I found it poorly written and off-putting. While I understand Maher's frustration with organized religion as a source -- or exacerbation -- of many conflicts in the world I didn't care for his methods in this investigation...
reviewed 2009.03.04
Well, 2009 is not off to a strong start, movie-wise...
reviewed 2009.02.25
I couldn't sit through more than 30 minutes of this movie. Nothing about the miserable duo who make up the story's protagonists appealed to me. The whole flick seemed so heavily laced with so very familiar themes (the suburbs represent petty bourgeois snobbery; suburban housewives feel isolated; the man of the house in the 50's felt unappreciated) that I didn't see why I'd stick around...
reviewed 2009.01.12
Awful. The charm of the first two movies in the series is gone, the fun is gone, and the even one of the stars is missing. Avoid this, the way Rachel Weise wisely did. Repeat: this movie is without redeeming features and will only disappoint...
reviewed 2009.01.06
I quite enjoyed this bizarre telling of a Vietnam war movie shoot in south-east Asia that swerves into an unintended collision with reality when the core cast is cut adrift in an area controlled by drug gangs...