Owner: Houdini's Magic Movie Ticket URL:http://magicmovieticket.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:26:49 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Movies I like, movies I didn't like, and movies I'd like to see. Site statistics:Click here
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) 2008-02-01 18:03:00 What an awesome film. I love the mystery, the style, and the direction. You never see more than you need to, and the pace moves along nicely. It’s neat to follow the feelings of the earth people, as they realize a visitor has come blazing down at 4,000 miles per hour, and possesses unknown powers and designs on humanity. The “let’s hunt him down” radio talk seems like that’s just what a fraction of reporters thinks. I got the vibe that most people were curious, mystified, and uneasy.I really enjoy this film, and am thrilled that December 12, 2008 will produce the opening of a remake starring Keanu Reeves (as the alien) and Jennifer Connelly! Can’t wait… Read more:Earth
Commando (1985) 2008-01-28 18:26:00 What a cool action movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger does a great job at brining justice to the bad guys. It’s neat when the hero has some kind of advantage, because that makes him or her seem that much more believable in victory, and a hero winning is always a good thing. Arnold’s character is a retired soldier revealed to have been one of the best in the military. So when a bunch of not-so-super soldiers go to work toward fulfilling a plan to get control over Arnold, he just decimates the whole crew.Arnold just wants to live a normal, happy life with his daughter, played by Alyssa Milano. The bad guys kidnap her in the hopes that they can use her, and threaten to kill her, as a way to motivate Arnold to assassinate some guy. I love Arnold’s opening move. The bad guys show up, tak Read more:Commando
The Dark Knight (2008) and Heath Ledger 2008-01-26 16:35:00 I read somewhere that "The Dark Knight
" is Heath
Ledger's final role. He was found dead in his apartment with prescription medication. I think one of the bottles was of sleeping pills.I read that playing the dark and scary version of the Joker gave Ledger nightmares. Someone said of Ledger that he has a knack for portraying dark, edgy characters. Ledger said he needed two Ambien just to get to sleep, and even then only slept for about an hour.I've heard (on "The Simpsons," but it sounds fair) that people are known to sleepwalk and do odd things while on Ambien.My guess is that Ledger simply took too much sleep medication, because he wanted to get to sleep so badly.In the context of his death, "The Dark Knight" will probably seem different than otherwise. Maybe it will even be created/
The China Syndrome (1979) 2008-01-24 19:00:00 I just watched this, and I think it's pretty good. It's definitely got a gripping storyline.Jane Fonda plays an anchorwoman who suffers through the '70's male chauvinism depicted in Will Ferrel's "Anchorman." While she takes her work as a broadcast journalist very seriously, none of her bosses do. She wants to do hard news, but they won't let her. Enter a nuclear controversy story.Michael Douglas is her trusty cameraman. Together they go for a run-of-the-mill story at the local nuclear power plant. They happen to be there when a mistake is made by the head guy there, played by Jack Lemmon. Everybody almost dies, but throughout the film the people answering "was there danger?" play it way, way down, including Lemmon. The error Lemmon experienced opens his eyes to an even bigger prob Read more:China
, Syndrome
The Note (2007) (TV) 2008-01-22 18:59:00 I watched this yesterday, and it's pretty good for a touching made-for-TV movie. A plane crashes, and in the seconds before death, one passenger writes a note to his son or daughter. A writer with an ailing column finds the note, and writes about her quest to track down the intended recipient. The story is about love, death, and forgiveness.One thing I didn't really like was how tacky it seemed for the writer, a woman, to not think twice about using the note and the relatives of the crash victims as tools to resuscitate her column. But the movie never really overtly covered the possibility that what she was doing was wrong. In fact, she at one point asked how a competing journalist, a TV news guy, could be so bold as to shove a microphone in someone's face right after they lost a love
The Terminator 2008-01-15 18:30:00 I love "The Terminator
." Taking it out of context of the series, and focusing on when it was made and its peers of the time, it seems like it's a typical 80's horror movie. Like Jason and Michael Myers, the Terminator doesn't have a soul. "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." So it's cliché, right?Wrong! Time travel, the savior of the world, Christ undertones, this movie has so much more! There's layer after layer, subtleties, mysteries, and everything you could want in an action film. It's no wonder there was a 2nd, a 3rd, a theme park ride, comic books, a TV show, and now a 4th in the works!
More Back To The Future Theories 2008-01-11 17:45:00 There's a pretty deep post about time travel and "Back To The Future
" on Random Waves of Insight.It talks about how BTTF is like Timecop in that at the end of the movie, the woman is greeted by a man different from the one she used to know. There's also more in there about a scenario in which Doc does die. It's crazy to think about how something that bad could happen, especially given the incredibly upbeat context of the 3 BTTF films. Thankfully, everything evens out in the end... Read more:Theories
The Quiet Earth (1985) 2008-01-09 20:02:00 Filmed in New Zealand, this movie deals with an end of the world scenario. If you read on, you will encounter spoilers.I watched this today. A guy wakes up in New Zealand, and finds out he's the last man on earth. Or is he? He gets lonely, goes crazy for a while, and then starts getting his act together. All of a sudden, a woman shows up. They look for more people. Well, she does, and he pretends to. Meanwhile, he does research. He's a scientist, and he was part of the project that was likely responsible for killing everybody. Everybody except the two of them, anyway. The governments of the world got together to work on a network of some sort that surrounds the earth, and could potentially provide energy to planes through unconventional means. The project went sour and killed e Read more:Earth
, Quiet
The Wraith (1986) 2008-01-07 16:01:00 I really like this film. It's 80's, sci-fi, with cool cars, and an early Charlie Sheen. Awesome!A bunch of teenagers live in a town where the only adults are apparently all police officers. Just a few, but one stands out: Randy Quaid. The major havoc is wrought by Nick Cassavetes and his gang, who are all about cars, racing, and winning through any means necessary.Charlie Sheen shows up as the return of a guy the gang killed. Sheen saves the girl and the town from certain doom, using advanced alien technology. He basically drives a super car against the gang members in races one by one, each time blowing up both cars in the race, and each time reconstructing his own vehicle. It's so wild. I wish there was more detail, more of an explanation, but the mystery just adds so much. My t
Screwed (2000) 2008-01-04 16:34:00 This is a funny film, if you enjoy goofy humor that sometimes goes for a gross factor. Norm is hilarious. He gets mugged by a couple of 10-year-olds. DeVito is great as a disgusting morgue worker. His hands are all covered with blood and human waste, and then he absentmindedly touches his face, smearing the stuff on his chin! That was the sickest part of the movie, but I thought it was funny for how nasty and absurd it was. The rest of the jokes are pretty neat. Chappelle is funny too.I first saw this film before Sarah Silverman got her own show. It's interesting how Chappelle and Silverman both had shows on Comedy Central which involved similar gross out humor. I'd say "Screwed
" has some elements of that, but in a modestly tasteful manner? Maybe... Most of it wasn't gross at al
300 (2006) 2008-03-17 15:30:00 I finally watched "300," and boy was it good. Although, I have to admit there were a couple things I found ...disappointing.First off, waiting so long to watch such a huge movie probably isn't a good idea from an enjoyment perspective. It is economically sound (i.e., why pay to see a film when you can watch it for free on TV a year later), but there was some definite loss of suspense. The film was heavily marketed, and so I was familiar with the catchphrase, "This -- Is -- SPARTA!!" Plus, I'd seen the "South Park" spoof version, and a bunch of fan-made goofball videos online that feature the main character's trademark facial expressions.So when the movie finally got to the "This IS SPARTA!!" moment, I struggled to suppress the memories I had accrued of the moment's outline, in an effor
The Mechanic (1972) 2008-03-24 17:47:00 I watched most of this a while ago. I was looking for a film similar to one of the "Death Wish" series, and since "The Mechanic
" had Charles Bronson in it and a somewhat similar plot, I thought, "Why not?"It was very interesting. Like a door through time. Some of the dialogue was a tad confusing, because we don't use some of those expressions or slang terms anymore. But for the most part it was clear and easy to understand.I thought it was neat how they took their time describing the idea of a paid assassin (or "mechanic"). It was like the issue was so sinister and unheard of that someone not in the know had to persist for weeks just to get an inkling.When the action finally started up, it was pretty neat. I thought the ending was incredible. So all in all, it wasn't quite like a "D
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007) 2008-03-31 23:09:00 This was on last night. I watched most of it. It was wild. I've seen the show before. The info for the program called it "surreal." I guess I've never thought about that aspect of the show. I just took it as natural.That's probably because Aqua TeenHungerForce
isn't the weirdest show that's on during it's normal content block. On Cartoon Network's Adult Swim (at night), there are usually some pretty bizarre things to watch. ATHF is pretty cool compared to some of the sick stuff that's on.What I like about it is it seems to represent success in a weird sort of way. What I mean is, we live in a country where you can build up so much success that you no longer have to play by the rules. Rich people can be eccentric, right? So oddball characters having adventures sometimes reminds Read more:Colon
, Theaters
Death Wish II (1982) 2008-04-07 23:06:00 I had watched all 5 a couple of months ago, but last night I saw the end of the first one and all of the second. I noticed a few things...I think in the first one, after his wife and daughter were messed with, Paul Kersey just went around killing every thug he saw. He'd lure them out and exterminate them.But in the second one, he was highly focused on killing only the guys who did him wrong (by killing his housekeeper and daughter).Now that I think about it, it's almost like Death Wish II was an alternate version of the first. "What would it have been like had he just gone after the main bad guys...?"I don't remember if he got the exact ones who wronged his family in the first film. If he didn't, it makes sense to have a sequel in which he's all about direct revenge.Laurence Fishburne
Challenges Of DVR: Too Little Space 2008-04-21 18:17:00 In the future, the hard drives for Digital Video Recorders will hopefully be so huge that there are no problems with space.But right now, one somewhat odd problem is that sometimes not enough TV is being watched. When you've got Ultimate Power in the DVR box, you say, "That movie looks good. That show looks good. I'll record them digitally, and watch them later."Eventually you fill the tiny box with various programs, some HD and some not, and then realize that you're so close to 100% capacity that if you don't plunk yourself down for a 4 hour Boob Tube Marathon, you might miss out on some of the films and shows you took the time to save! They'd be deleted automatically to make room for new recordings and automatic series recordings.So the new rule become, "You must watch at least 1 hou Read more:Space
Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981) 2008-04-28 13:32:00 I watched all 3 Omen films recently on AMC, and I was somewhat disappointed by the third one. It could have been so much cooler, but it seemed kind of lame.In the 2nd one, the Antichrist is a teen in military school just finding out that he's the son of the Devil. There's an awe and mystery about his powers, abilities, and the effect he'll have on mankind. He causes local havoc.In "FinalConflict
," the Antichrist is all grown up, and no longer allows the audience to be mystified by what he's all about. He comes right out and says that his only weakness is a set of daggers.[Spoiler Alert]In the 1st film, it was explained that the Antichrist must be killed by an entire set of daggers. Yet at the end of "Final Conflict," a single wound from a single dagger kills him. I don't buy that.I
Indiana Jones 4: Judgment Day 2008-05-19 17:49:00 I saw an "extended" preview on Fox last night. Just a regular trailer, but with all the secrecy of the film, and the quick, short trailers I was used to, this longer one was great.Especially since we've got DVR. I slowed it down and noticed a few things.I knew Karen Allen was in it, but I didn't know how much. I saw her in a car/boat that went off a cliff, and then maybe in the same vehicle goi Read more:Indiana
, Indiana Jones
, Judgment
Why T3's John Connor Is Wrong 2008-06-02 13:33:00 In the first Terminator, John Connor
is described as being a hero who brought mankind back from the brink of annihilation.In Terminator 2, a young John Connor shows that even in his youth, he's still got the mindset of humankind's savior. The "Never Say Die" attitude. The will to win.In Terminator 3, John Connor was significantly weaker than we'd all come to expect. I don't know if it was the a Read more:Wrong
Paycheck (2003) 2008-06-14 15:31:00 I first thought this movie wasn't that great, but I watched it again today and got a lot of enjoyment out of it.One thing I didn't really like was some apparent hypocrisy.The whole film is about how Ben Affleck, the hero, had used a machine to see into his future and change it for the better.The majority of the movie is spent watching him alter his destiny time and again.Then, halfway through, he Read more:Paycheck
Premonition (2007) 2008-06-30 12:38:00 I hate it.What a lame film.Why is it lame? Two reasons: 1) Organization. 2) Its apparent message.SPOILER ALERT. Read on only if you're fine with learning major details about the film and how it ends.Organization: In the beginning, Sandra Bullock's husband dies, and she consoles her two daughters, both of which are in perfect health.Then time travel ensues, and she ends up changing things. She n Read more:Premonition
Rush Hour 3 (2007) 2008-07-14 17:24:00 What a thrill! I hadn't really been planning on or even looking forward to seeing this, but I just watched it, and it was a lot of fun! There was action, suspense, romance, and comedy. A total entertainment package!Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker make a great team. They're hilarious together. And I can't believe Jackie Chan is 54! It's amazing.There were a couple of women who had supporting rol Read more:Rush Hour
James Bond In The Sixties 2008-08-11 13:03:00 Lately the Spike channel has been playing James
Bond films weekday mornings, so I've been watching a few. It's interesting to compare the culture of our hero from back then with that of today.In a couple of films (at least) Sean Connery seemed to behave toward women as objects that he could use to aid him in his mission or relax with. Of course this seems pretty standard for any Bond, but I thin Read more:James Bond
, Sixties
Recommend Site To A Friend
