http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404311
well, what did you expect. that the kids would scatter and run away? in a movie called "the family?" what is even wrong with you.
still, it is kind of cute to watch robert de niro and michell pfeiffer be badasses. in this imaginary world, we have a mafia family blending into a french village seamlessly...cough, cough...witness protection agents moving the family every time they mess up...cough, cough...and various hijinks like blowing up a grocery store and getting away with it even though you are the only obvious suspect. that is hollywood, or perhaps france. my money is on hollywood, though.
the family gets two witness protection agents providing constant surveillance. in france.
2014-05-14
city by the sea
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269095
city by the sea is about cops and junkies and intra-generation strife. de niro makes it work, kind of. i was unable to connect to any of the other characters.
city by the sea gets two surprise grandchildren.
city by the sea is about cops and junkies and intra-generation strife. de niro makes it work, kind of. i was unable to connect to any of the other characters.
city by the sea gets two surprise grandchildren.
2014-05-09
most wanted
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119709
most wanted is great. no wait, that is the delirium talking. anyway, the best part was where damon wayans was being chased by the nearest 500 random passerby, zombie hoard style. how does he get away? by running across a freeway, where the steady stream of cars helpfully mows down all the pedestrians, who blindly ran out onto the freeway after him, resulting in a 5000 car pileup. does it sound ridiculous? maybe. however, it is completely representative of the rest of the movie.
most wanted gets one improvised plan.
most wanted is great. no wait, that is the delirium talking. anyway, the best part was where damon wayans was being chased by the nearest 500 random passerby, zombie hoard style. how does he get away? by running across a freeway, where the steady stream of cars helpfully mows down all the pedestrians, who blindly ran out onto the freeway after him, resulting in a 5000 car pileup. does it sound ridiculous? maybe. however, it is completely representative of the rest of the movie.
most wanted gets one improvised plan.
2014-05-08
the double
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1646980
the double is pure crap. they showed richard gere to be cassius so early in the movie that it was obvious something else was going to happen. i would greatly have appreciated if they had lead up to the real twist in any way, really, rather than just kind of making it magically appear.
i realize that the idea of a long-awaited revenge is a staple of the film industry, but i am just too tired of the blatant implausibility of such a thing to stop from rolling my eyes when i see it. 25 years? really? how do you make it that long without dying of being an asshole somewhere along the way?
also, i guess this is obvious, but richard gere as an elite agent, let alone an elite double agent, is completely unbelievable. topher grace as the inexperienced agent, on the other hand, was much more believable, but he still somehow manages to be annoying. this is frustrating to me, because i *want* to like topher grace.
the double gets one surprise russian agent.
the double is pure crap. they showed richard gere to be cassius so early in the movie that it was obvious something else was going to happen. i would greatly have appreciated if they had lead up to the real twist in any way, really, rather than just kind of making it magically appear.
i realize that the idea of a long-awaited revenge is a staple of the film industry, but i am just too tired of the blatant implausibility of such a thing to stop from rolling my eyes when i see it. 25 years? really? how do you make it that long without dying of being an asshole somewhere along the way?
also, i guess this is obvious, but richard gere as an elite agent, let alone an elite double agent, is completely unbelievable. topher grace as the inexperienced agent, on the other hand, was much more believable, but he still somehow manages to be annoying. this is frustrating to me, because i *want* to like topher grace.
the double gets one surprise russian agent.
mindhunters
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0297284
mindhunters sacrifices everything--and i mean *everything*--in its attempt to provide you with just one more plot twist. i was quite frankly expecting the bad guy to turn out to be christian slater, somehow miraculously resurrected from having been flash-frozen and shattered into pieces. it was just that kind of movie. the story does not so much develop as bludgeon you into submission.
a good plot twist is a magic trick. misdirection, rather than the simple withholding of information, is key. the sixth sense was a magic trick. the prestige was a magic trick. the usual suspects was great, but not a great *magic trick*, as the key data points that would point to the twist were not available until the big reveal. and then there is mindhunters, which was just a series of plot pointers uttered by whichever of the characters that still happens to be alive.
mindhunters gets one wristwatch set to RIGHT NOW.
mindhunters sacrifices everything--and i mean *everything*--in its attempt to provide you with just one more plot twist. i was quite frankly expecting the bad guy to turn out to be christian slater, somehow miraculously resurrected from having been flash-frozen and shattered into pieces. it was just that kind of movie. the story does not so much develop as bludgeon you into submission.
a good plot twist is a magic trick. misdirection, rather than the simple withholding of information, is key. the sixth sense was a magic trick. the prestige was a magic trick. the usual suspects was great, but not a great *magic trick*, as the key data points that would point to the twist were not available until the big reveal. and then there is mindhunters, which was just a series of plot pointers uttered by whichever of the characters that still happens to be alive.
mindhunters gets one wristwatch set to RIGHT NOW.
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