just for fun ( film )
metter' s
girls
may just want to have fun but for the rest of us this concept is just wishful thinking .
“fun size” is rated pg - 13 (parents strongly cautioned) for some humor possibly too ribald for children under 13 but probably fine for the mall on a friday night .
u. k. film. excellent quality. 16: 9 widescreen .
the big teen musical made just for you !
teenagers struggle to win the right to vote in this fun and swinging rock and roll musical .
logan lucky puts a west virginia spin on an ocean’s 11 - style heist. it’s terrific fun .
victoria justice, left, and jane levy in “fun size, ” which is set on halloween .
led by a solid ensemble, ant - man brings a lot of fun into the marvel cinematic universe .
jason bailey is the film editor at flavorwire. he is the author of the ultimate woody allen film companion .
the hitman' s bodyguard has all the makings of a fun summer hit. what makes it so dull ?
this teen dance comedy is a lot of fun, girls will especially like this movie for the romance and parker' s character. i really liked this movie .
note: the following contains spoilers for arrival, a movie many fine people love for some reason .
the overwhelming, self - serious sense that we are watching something very important blissfully doesn' t exist in ant - man. it' s just plain fun: light, breezy, simple and enjoyable .
a typical early 60' s film, ie pre - beatles. story - line immaterial, just a vehicle for numerous pop acts of the day in black and white, shot as cheaply as possible. has some interest for the pop - historian ?
. yet people came out to see it in their thousands and critics raved about a horror film, which just does not happen. the film has a a - rating from audiences on cinemascore, which as some have pointed out is
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
i' ve seen two mass - market movies already this weekend that were more thought - provoking than the' death of film culture' essay i just read .
for one thing, it is all over the place, and not just because of the increasingly convoluted plot - it feels messy because of the inconsistent tone throughout .
[ ants are ] pests, and that' s just a weird place to start for a superhero, especially if he never strays too far from his origins .
it’s in the film of 2010 that the big world - saving stakes come to the forefront. and the film updates that final message, too :
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film quality is excellent. this film is must have if you are a david janssen fan. the beautiful and flirty joyce taylo... read more
and honeycutt underlines just how far digital cinema and visual effects had come under the guiding hand of george lucas .
and dead men tell no tales is probably the closest the series has come since that film to recapturing that aesthetic. (film three, 2007’s at world’s end, was pointlessly lugubrious and self - impressed; 2011’s on stranger tides was a listless bore .) just when things seem like they’re flagging, it will rally for another rambunctious action sequence, and it’s fun to see, say, jack sparrow in a guillotine that almost keeps chopping his head off but never quite does .
the movie will probably be hit or miss for some, but it doesn' t leave you with a bad taste for the genre .
peele said the stepford wives, because of the way it “dealt with social issues in regards to gender”, was an inspiration for get out. “i just thought, that’s proof that you can pull off a movie about race, that’s a thriller and entertaining and fun, ” he said. his debut has managed to do just that, and like the daily show – a satirical news show which became must - watch social commentary – peele has placed real issues in an unlikely context, this time a horror film, and said something painfully true about them. get out will be one of this year’s biggest conversation starters. just don’t expect it to be comfortable .
i discovered that not only is girls just want to have fun a delightful party of a movie, it’s an absolutely bonkers party, like someone dosed the punch with ecstasy and mushrooms. there are events in this movie that make no earthly sense, but it doesn’t matter in the slightest, because it’s just that much fun. i instantly regret not murdering my babysitter and stealing her vhs tape of this film, as my childhood would have been immensely improved by watching it weekly. possibly daily. but now, as a grown - ass man, i can say, my vague and faulty memory didn’t begin to do the movie justice .
here in the uk on friday, may 13, 2005, peter bradshaw writing for the guardian had little good to say about the film, citing the stock and clichéd complaints about the film — too much spectacle, not enough heart .
and just glancing at imdb' s user vs. critic scores, i can see i' m not alone. the film has a 7. 7 / 10 score with users, and just 32 / 100 with critics. on rotten tomatoes, the film gets a 26 %
rotten
from critics, with 83% of viewers liking it. something' s not right about such a discrepancy. something' s rotten, but i' m not sure it' s the film .
i would be open to a single car chase movie, if it were done well. it would be fun to experience a real - time escape that borrowed from
the panel selects drumlin. mcconaughey’s avatar - of - christianity, full of despondent self - righteousness, tries to convince arroway that, darn it, he just had to vote with his conscience. “i just couldn’t, in good conscience, ” he tells her, “vote for a person who doesn’t believe in god. ”
needless to say, international box office will register in the hundreds of millions. the real question is how much money the entire series, now ready for packaging and repackaging for all sorts of formats and media, will eventually take in. let’s just say a lot. ”
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
i find the best way to spot a mediocre film is to gauge just how much of its running time i spend thinking about what i’m going to order for dinner afterward. so let me tell you about the poutine order i placed after seeing pirates of the caribbean: dead men tell no tales .
the movie starts off as a promising dark comedy, with a scene of mrs k skilfully slapping two young robbers to the ground while she is baking curry buns in her kitchen. she then sits them down to taste the bread as she lectures them on becoming better people, and it is all just marvellous fun .
great film quality and sound. mickey rooney is great in his role and was a good
b
film actor during the 50' s & 60' s... read more
as the 10th anniversary of episode iii approaches, urltoken revisits the film' s first reviews .
use spaces to separate tags. use single quotes (') for phrases .
a great showcase for some of the 60' s acts of the time .
thank you so much for this great blog post. couldn' t agree more
just received this wonderful movie today and i watched it almost immediately. the quality is excellent. i should have... read more
so popular was mark in his film debut that a further film just for you was made. mark is seen with diana dors taking delivery of his first car – an austin healey sprite. this period also encompassed thank your lucky stars and two appearances on itv' s big night out, first with kathy kirby and secondly with kenneth more. mark then had his own six part tv series call in on wynter .
the story of two sibling thieves named pretty eyes and slanty eyes. when the two make the mistake of lightening the wallet of a mob assassin who just got paid for a hit, they find themselves in dire trouble .
but those good things are mostly stranded in a desert of meaningless subplots and b - stories. for whatever reason, the response to the lightning - bolt success of the first pirates movie back in 2003 (a legitimately fun film that felt like nothing else at the time) was to pile on a bunch of characters and a bunch of backstory. and over the three films between that one and this one, those characters and backstory kept piling up — to the point where this film keeps cutting away to geoffrey rush’s captain barbossa (the first film’s villain, the second film’s plot twist, the third film’s unwilling ally, etc. , etc .) seemingly because rush heard a pirates movie was filming, showed up on set, and couldn’t be turned away .
this post proves my theory that trump - bashers tend to be low - iq hotheads. just look at all those exclamation marks after every sentence .
– is remarkable for lots of reasons. this is a first - time film from a respected, but essentially cult comedian, with no real big - name stars and a premise that is
sunshine offers another possibility, tough, bleak, and truly hopeful. maybe the sun won’t shine again for us. but we can make sure it shines for someone else .
the perfect escapism is definitely fine escapism plus you cannot find any cause fun ought not to be when well - made when the rest of the elements discovered have got a definitely priceless individuals practical experience .
review: guardians of the galaxy vol. 2 is marvel’s funniest film, and much braver than the original
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide - release movies, 40 for limited - release movies, 20 for tv shows), including 5 reviews from top critics .
are the standard for women action heroes, anything is better than nothing. but to celebrate
ostensibly based on the hit single by cyndi lauper, girls just want to have fun is actually a spoof of the mtv generation. high school chums janey (sarah jessica parker) and lynne (helen hunt) desperately try to enter a dance contest on a major cable - tv channel. the major obstacle to this goal is janey' s father, stiff - necked colonel glenn (ed lauter). the girls' most hated rival is rich - witch natalie sands (holly gagnier), who buys her way into the dance show. the plot, what there is of it, falls apart long before the final scene, but girls just want to have fun gets by thanks to the winning performances of stars parker and hunt .
suicide squad has pushed its fun, whimsical strengths (like its grungy hot topic aesthetic, guardians of the galaxy vibe, and margot robbie & apos; s harley quinn) from the very start. but this new trailer, and virtually everything about its marketing campaign—plus rumored reshoots to add more
humor ,
which director david ayer claims are actually to beef up the movie & apos; s action —point to just how unusually important this movie has become for its studio .
i recognize that many will reject plot as irrelevant in a mad max film. “it’s just a fun movie, ” they’ll say, or “mad max, is just a living comic book. ” but giving up the ghost at the outset is inexcusable. movies are art; they must be done well. the best escapism is good escapism and there is no reason why entertainment should not be as well - made as all the other things we need to have a truly valuable human experience. the first two mad max films were both well written and interesting. the third was dumb but campy. there is no reason why this one had to be so bad .
i knew the contents of this film from a vhs tape that i' d owned for many years. i am in my 60s and many of the artistes in the film are of interest to me. the quality of the visual aspect of the film is as good as, i feel, we can expect - 50 years on - and the sound provided by the performers is pretty good, as well. no prospective purchaser should expect a serious storyline !
or a while, it became understandably easy to ridicule hollywood studios for buying up the rights for essentially anything they could find. transformers! a ouija board! angry birds! that bit of chicken you just spat out! the madness was contagious and so was the desire to write thinkpieces about how it was all signaling the official end of originality and quite possibly the apocalypse .
warcraft isn' t a perfect movie, but it' s lots of high - action, epic fantasy fun. maybe critics were expecting another lord of the rings. maybe expectations are at fault. whatever the case, i' d urge you not to simply take the rotten tomatoes score at face value and go see it for yourself .
hank, please abstain from insinuating you are some film savant, you' re a self righteous cynic. with an intelligence quotient most likely just north of a field mouse. as it must be to defend a plot as lack luster and anticlimactic as this. i fail to see your validity in the defense of this film. and it only aggravates me because your ego seems to ooze bull shit. it' s sticky, and it smells .
revenge of the sith is a masterpiece. the final piece of the puzzle lucas first presented me at age 6. 27 years later, the jigsaw is complete and damn if it isn’t just damn near the most tragically cool thing i’ve ever seen put to film. we won’t see another like this. this is it .
on rotten tomatoes, wonder woman has a 93 percent rating as of friday morning — a hugely positive number that easily surpasses batman v superman: dawn of justice ’s 28 percent, suicide squad ’s 25 percent, and man of steel ’s 55 percent. it also ranks just below christopher nolan’s the dark knight, which sits at 94 percent, and beats every film in the entire marvel cinematic universe except for the first iron man movie .
malaysian director ho yuhang (at the end of daybreak, 2009, which also starred wai), probably too used to showing off his artistic sensibilities, tries to elevate his first commercial film here by throwing in awkward mood shots for no reason .
a woman, who takes care of two young siblings, and a criminal start to fall for each - other .
this might be fine if dead men tell no tales were content to simply be a collection of setpieces, each bigger than the last. that describes, say, indiana jones and the temple of doom, and that movie’s action sequences are a whole lot of fun .
what a terrific experience watching this film. i moved to the village in the early 1960s and remember the bleeker and... read more
garbage article. garbage ppl bashing fury road. none of you understand genre filmmaking or film in general or the mad max series. garbage .
neither max, or furiosa would have been able to survive if they had not crossed oaths. the film makes that clear over and over their partnership, and how they save each other. furiosa would not have been able to escape without max. rewatch the film if yiu wish .
i bought this because it came up in conversation recently and i' d seen it in the cinema in 1963. shakespeare it isn' t but a weak storyline to allow a list of singers and groups from the 60s to play in a film. it' s fun, slightly naff and nostalgic. the only issue is that it is in us format and can' t be played through a normal dvd .
it' s not a question of whether the film is good or not, (and most probably it is not) but it' s the sheer pleasure of watching clips of singers that were big when i was a kid. strictly for nostalgic music fans .
wow. you really got all of that from watching her drive a truck for 1. 5 hours of screen time ?
finally, as a side note, this isn' t going to be a great film for a lot of kids, as some of the stuff is really scary and dark. some of the death scenes are really gross, and the orcs can be pretty frightening .
durotan in particular is just a tremendously great character. my only complaint is that we didn' t see more of him. he' s a brave, tragic figure whose arc is really surprising and sad .
if anything, my complaint about all these characters is that we don' t get enough time with any of them, and that the story moves on at such a breakneck pace that we feel a bit robbed. of course, that' s because the film had to cut nearly an hour of material for its theatrical release. i can' t wait for the director' s cut .
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as a success, rather than the best worst option, is to set up the next decade for more of the same. this isn’t a mad max movie, it’s a furiosa movie, but until she gets top billing, and until her character gets substance, it’s just an excuse to see explosions and fashion models jumping around in gauze .
the picture quality was far better than i expected. outstanding! this film is a quick snap shot of alan freed and the... read more
writing in the new york times on may 16, a. o. scott wondered if the film would satisfy a list of requirements he had amassed .
but the reason is made abundantly clear by the end: merchandise. the action - packed plot allows for a multitude of toys to grace the screen and one can almost sense a “buy it now” tab appearing at the bottom. its bluntness is just about countered by the script’s smattering of laughs that feel well - tailored to an audience less interested in playing with lego at home. the franchise is showing signs of fatigue but for now, there’s enough here to play with .
o' hehir is one of our finest film writers, but this kind of bell - ringing and doom - saying has been going on for decades (see david denby and david thompson last month in the new republic by and james wolcott last spring in vanity fair). and the idea that a vibrant film culture is dead was all but neutralized by the immediate tizzy the piece prompted on twitter and the blogosphere—which was probably the aim to begin with. if there' s any revelation here, it' s that everyone fell for the taunt one more time .
film - makers have used absurd horror to tackle race before, like in timo vuorensola’s 2012 film iron sky, which placed the action on the dark side of the moon where the nazis had been hiding out, plotting to forcibly make black people white. but in get out, peele brought the action much closer to home. some have dubbed the film an “ african - american nightmare movie ”; it isn’t. this is an american horror story. (it comes after an impressive run of low - budget two - word - title horrors that place the action in middle america, and prod at issues bubbling just beneath the surface: don’t breathe, it follows and you’re next. )
there’s an effervescent tempo to “fun size, ” a gleeful “after hours” for all hallow’s eve, but for tweens and teenagers, and set in cleveland. victoria justice (nickelodeon’s “victorious”) is wren, a high school student intent on new york university, if she can only survive her eccentric mom, joy (a deft chelsea handler), who dates a guy too young for her, and wren’s prankish little brother, albert (jackson nicoll, a devilish pantomime), who hasn’t spoken since dad died. wren hopes to hit a halloween party with her bff, april (a wry and winning jane levy, of “suburgatory”), but mom demands she take albert trick or treating .
but actually, arrival more closely resembles contact, a film about jodie foster wearing headphones and listening to those headphones and then listening really hard to those headphones .
it' s difficult to shake the sense that the film was assembled hurriedly and somewhat haphazardly. which, from all available evidence, is exactly what happened .
the second problem for the film is that it doesn’t follow its own rules. the beauty of science fiction is that you can suspend normalcy. math can go awry, history can be toyed with, physics can be adjusted, and technicians can reverse the polarity of anything. but for science fiction to work, it has to be internally consistent. for the philosophers in the crowd, science fiction moves from a correspondence theory of truth to coherence. science fiction does not have to depict reality; it only has to remain true to its own narrative .
this collection of british documentary material has six episodes; the most effective for me were
ever so contemporary... read more
a well - known gangster is released from prison, and decides look for his daughter with the help of a troubled young woman .
start with the basic poutine — nice, squeaky cheese curds over fries, drizzled in gravy. then, because this is america, douse it in bacon cheeseburger bits. add some nice peppercorn seasoning, to give everything a smoky kick. and, finally, just a dab of chili. hit it with a shot of malt vinegar, and you’re in business. so, you ask, how was it? well, it was excellent. just the thing you want to have waiting for you when you exit a movie that’s, conservatively speaking, longer than the history of the universe .
whether it' s a one - on - one battle between orcs, or a huge battle scene, or a crazy (and really funny) magical fight, just about every action scene in warcraft is really well done. again, some of it feels rushed, but almost every action scene in the film is a wild ride that made me wish world of warcraft had similarly intense combat .
kirk honneycutt, writing on may 6 in the hollywood reporter was effusive in his enjoyment of the film, going so far as to request an immediate repeat viewing .
buzzing comedies such as the spy who dumped me await you in our summer movie guide. check in for all the info you need .
no, the movie belongs to the girls, and not just because the title tells us so. they’re all so exuberant and ready for anything, the screen physically lightens with their presence. even shannon doherty’s pouty self gets some great moments, like when drew accidentally hits on her, then defensively calls her a “punk, ” to which she happily cries, “do you really think i’m punk? ” in contrast, janey is portrayed as a goody two - shoes whose need to dance unearths a rebellious streak. as a result, her outfits run the gamut from the school uniform she wears at the beginning to the aerobicizing leotard / tank top combo she’s got on here. just some casual around - the - house workout gear, for sure .
my final complaint is about the women in the film. there are many who celebrate the film because of the supposedly strong female characters and, in fact, charlize theron is the most compelling member of the cast. this defense is made all the more vehement in response to the manufactured pre - movie outrage depicting the movie as anti - male (my wife wonders whether this was a paid guerrilla advertising campaign orchestrated by the movie’s producers). further, the film, despite its problems, passes the
did it much better, with more depth and more realism. while it may not seem possible, the women in this film are even more cartoonish than the men .
the latest example of this is the warcraft movie, based on the games and characters created by blizzard entertainment. this is a movie widely panned by critics, and laughed at and written off as just another terrible video game movie by many .
don’t get me wrong: i do believe there are times when separating the art from the artist — but acknowledging that the artist has done horrible things — is important. there are an awful lot of people who have done awful, awful things, and sometimes, you just want to enjoy a favorite movie without having to think about that. the line for everybody will be different .
if you are a fan of the 1960s you will love this film. very much of the period. brought back many happy memories. a bit slapstick but i loved it
let’s end with the legendary roger ebert, writing on may 19, who had plenty of positives to highlight from the film, as he always had throughout the two trilogies .
a must for all jeffrey hunter fans. excellent picture quality and sound. susan harrison is sexy and evil. dennis ho... read more
we all like what we like and i begrudge nobody for having a good time. if you enjoyed this film, more power to you. but don’t confuse liking something with it being good. this is not a “masterpiece” as the paid reviewers are claiming, and it won’t be a game changer. it will be forgotten quickly. the movie is stupid. it’s a product of lazy writing and a video game mindset. it’s too violent and shockingly unsophisticated, even for a summer action flick. it’s also kind of offensive, and for the life of me, i can’t figure out why so many people like it .
hard decisions have to be made. the crew turns against itself, kind of, and people turn against themselves, for reasons that are maybe justified. then the movie takes an infamous left turn: an astronaut (played by mark strong looking like a fleshpile from hellraiser) from a previous mission somehow gets onboard, and starts killing people. what had been a capital - m meditation on the cosmos becomes a slasher film. it’s possible that sunshine needed the final act turn to get made — that, unable to find financing for a film about smart people feeling sad on a spaceship, someone had the brilliant idea of wedging in a serial killer .
instantly receive a £10 urltoken gift card if you’re approved for the amazon platinum mastercard with instant spend. representative 21. 9% apr (variable) .
remember – this isn’t a star wars movie to cheer for, to erupt into applause and call cool. if you really love star wars – this one is heart ache. not only is it the end of a nearly 30 year journey for us… it really is the story of how things got so bad, that the good guys had to be a rebellion, where the jedi had to hide and how evil ruled the galaxy. wow, i’ve seen my last new star wars film. ”
it' s not bad, but it' s definitely a movie that has lost its way in the process of business / movie making. you can see what this movie could have been. you' ll still enjoy it, it' s just a shame .
shortly before a general election teenagers are given the vote. incensed by a decision to cut down on television pop music, mark and cherry get up a petition for both parties to sign. this is ignored and so the teenage party is formed. as a climax to their campaign they organise a spectacular pop music programme on television. too late the right and left parties realise what has happened and try unsuccessfully to sabotage the show. the teenage party wins the election with the promise of fun but with dire consequences .
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maybe you think all the end - of - the - world stuff isn’t what arrival is really about; that’s all just background, the macro b - plot to banks’ micro a - plot. someone on twitter told me the aliens are just a metaphor, and the movie is about loneliness. but that argument has no merit, i think, since arrival is in not a movie about a lonely woman achieving connection; it is a movie about a lonely woman achieving connection while she is saving the world. sometimes, the medium is the message .
a version of this article appeared in the print edition of the straits times on september 20, 2017, with the headline' gongfu film strikes out with messy plot'. print edition | subscribe
i have a soft spot for cheesy 80' s comedies, and this is definitely near the top of my list! with awesome music, 80' s - clever dialogue, and the amazing sarah jessica parker, it just can' t be beat. also starring a young and oh - too - cute shannen doherty, this movie is what i watch when i need a quick pick - me - up. it' s fabulous !
however, here & apos; s a funny thing about suicide squad: as of last weekend, we & apos; ve gotten three whole trailers for the movie and none of them have really explicitly said a word about it & apos; s plot. sure, we know the premise behind the titular squad—they & apos; re a black ops squad of dc comics supervillains sent on missions with an extremely low chance of survival—but we really don & apos; t know from the trailers what they & apos; re supposed to doing in this movie. what the trailers have told us instead is what the movie is supposed to do for us. which is, namely, be a fun movie .
in the midst of mrs k' s urgent rescue efforts, for example, she decides to drive her car through the car wash. the scene captures her supposed anxiety through close - ups of her furrowed brows, juxtaposed against shots of the water dripping on to the windshield. it really makes little sense for the story .
a typical 60' s film on pop. corny story line but very enjoyable. the music is excellant and picture quality is excellent. some of my favorite artists on this. basily a film about older people not liking pop music. so ld verse young oe visa versa. well worth having and i am pleased to have got it after all these years so i can watch it when ever
i did predict some of the film' s twists, but i sure as hell didn' t predict all of them, let alone some of the more tragic character deaths. i was actually pretty stunned at how some of the movie' s fights turned out, and left the theater feeling a bit shocked and depressed. director duncan jones didn' t pull any punches with the film' s main characters .
this is the monologue for the latest episode of why? radio. the topic was “can a philosopher govern the united states? the case of f. a ...
surprisingly good for a film about one of the least interesting superheroes .
ant - man
has all the polished special effects, sets and costumes you would expect in the umpteenth superhero blockbuster - - but it' s funnier and has more heart than the typical marvel tent pole. it' s better than many that have come down the studio chute in the last few years .
owen glieberman at entertainment weekly, writing on may 18, notes that with the completion of the — then — final film, the previous two films had succeeded in their mission to set up the grand finale .
more times than i should have in dead men tell no tales — which is to say with just about every new scene — i found myself wondering, “why are these people doing this? ” sometimes, this was because the film’s editing places the effect before the cause: you’ll see a character do something, wonder why they’re doing it, then see the reasoning behind it one shot later. but a lot of the time, it boiled down to something like, “why are these people falling in love? ”
in 2014, christopher nolan delivered interstellar, a film which gilds wormhole physics with daddy - daughter emotionality. it’s a film i gather some people love — currently # 32 on the imdb top 250, whatever that means anymore. and it’s unquestionably a nice film. it declares that the whole fourth dimensional architecture of time and space is made out of love. it sends a man into a wormhole, where the universe sends him back to his daughter. interstellar even has its own variation of heptapods: extra - dimensional beings, evolved from humanity, who exist outside of time, so they can save humanity and provide third - act catharsis .
1968 presented yet another new opportunity in a movie horror flick, the haunted house of horror, something of a cult film today and the recipient of mark' s favourite review -' mark wynter died wonderfully' .
joshua tyler at cinemablend, writing on may 19, 2005, was certainly enamored by the scale and grandeur of the film, highlighting the connections it made to the beloved first trilogy and the importance of george lucas .
israel and gaza are at war; there really is no other word for it. and as the fighting escalates, so does the propaganda. the fact of the ...
if there & apos; s anything that can be said with certainty about batman v superman: dawn of justice (and a lot has been said), it & apos; s this: it & apos; s not very fun. it is ponderous and serious and very, very loud, but it & apos; s not much of a romp. it is, however, patient zero for an entire dc entertainment cinematic universe of films, so its negative critical reception and massive - yet - still - somehow - disappointing box office performance kind of presents a bit of a problem .
and while the caffeinated freneticism of everyone else’s moves are startling enough on their own, sarah jessica parker (or her stunt double, more accurately) has janey dance in a way that is inexplicable. although janey blows everyone away at the audition, but the move that earns her the pass to the finals isn’t inventive. in fact, it’s not even dancing. she wins a dance competition by doing gymnastics, which even in 1985 i’d wager were understood to be two separate things. not in the world of girls just want to have fun, though. here, it’s like janey is the first person to realize backflips could exist outside a gym, and no one else has ever seen a backflip in their entire life .
, and while i can’t argue that this film won’t make lots of money, i can explore its lack of quality. ultimately then, what i offer here is a meditation on what makes a defensible movie plot. i’m going to focus on four criteria: the plot must serve its purpose in the genre, be consistent in the world in sets up, be well - crafted, and respect its characters. these are not the only requirements for a good movie, of course—acting and cinematography are tremendously important, too—but plot is complicated enough of a subject for one blog post .
“ revenge of the sith has some almost decent things. yoda is good value as ever, though his character is never allowed to breathe in the airless galaxy lucas creates, and there is a good sequence at the end showing the “birth” of darth vader while princess amidala is delivered of her twins. it has what the rest of the film so conspicuously lacks: a spark of real dramatic life. but it comes far too late and it is over immediately. how depressing to compare any of this with the fun and gusto of harrison ford, carrie fisher and mark hamill in the first movie. as for the elephantine trilogy as a whole, it was all too clearly a product of george lucas’s overweening production giant industrial light and magic. no magic, little light, but an awful lot of heavy industry. ”
like o' hehir, i' ve come to this conclusion after two weeks of preparation for the 50th new york film festival—a time in which i' ve seen a great many films, from antonio mendez esparza' s quietly powerful here and there to cristian mungiu' s riveting yet low - key beyond the hills to christian petzold' s modest character drama barbara. but i have to confess that i' ve seen nothing at the nyff that resonated as deeply or engaged me as thoroughly as looper —yes, a bruce willis action movie, but one with an ingeniously worked - out plot, surprisingly deep emotions, and a thing or two to say about the uncertainty of inevitability. moreover, it' s a lot of fun, which is a quality that doesn' t have to exist separately from cinematic brilliance. it would be easy to presume otherwise; too many film writers turn up a collective nose at films aimed at reaching and cheering a mass audience, as though truly great cinema must be met (at least) halfway .
the film was directed by neill blomkamp, who has since admitted that the story wasn’t quite all there. blomkamp had a reputation as a sci - fi thinker after district 9, but he’s never been as pretentious as his partisans. he likes action scenes, and he likes space guns. elysium is, in that sense, a fairly standard contemporary blockbuster action film. it suffers from our modern story gravity: the world is at stake .
some films in this genre get around the “budget” thing with a lo - fi aesthetic. the brilliant time travel potboiler primer was shot for lunch money in houses and public spaces. the clever ex machina won an oscar for its digital effects, but it’s cheaper to build a robot woman when she spends the movie talking in one room. but spaceships are a problem you can’t fake with clever lighting. arrival cost a reported $ 47 million and seems to have 17 production companies, and the film still has to deal with people saying things like “the aliens don’t look all that convincing. ”
the
birth of the beatles
( us version) movie is especially good image quality, i would rate it (9. 5) for image qualit... read more
and that’s all in the first 10 minutes of the movie. we’re just getting warmed up—much like the dancers in this film, i would say, but these people don’t need to warm up so much as make sure they’re not going into debt on what is undoubtedly a massive budget for cocaine. “dance like no one’s watching” takes on new meaning in this movie, which features people dancing not only as though no one was watching, but also as if they’ve never seen dancing in their lives, and were instructed to make it up from scratch. and make it up they do, from the initial audition scene starring a cast of hundreds and an outdoor stage perfect for doing every type of dance imaginable, especially once the competition begins. (apparently dance tv needs ballet, in the eyes of some .) it’s difficult to say how this tryout was organized, but it’s executed with the smooth precision of a mass lemming suicide .
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produced on an estimated budget of $ 113 million, the film arrived on may 19, 2005 with an opening day haul of $ 50, 013, 859 from an estimated 9, 400 screens at 3, 661 locations, for what was then the biggest single days take in movie history. a colossal north american first weekend gross of $ 108, 435, 841 on 3, 663 screens followed, with a final domestic tally of $ 380, 270, 577 and a mammoth $ 848, 754, 768 worldwide. wowing fans of the saga, it brought the prequel trilogy home in bombastic fashion, showing the tragic events which led to the creation of darth vader, the fall of the jedi, and the formation of the galactic empire. the circle was now complete, but how did the film fare when it came to the critical opinions of the wider film press ?
as soon as her daughter gets kidnapped, however, the film loses that sense of playfulness and goes into serious action - thriller mode, which would have been fine if it did not also keep trying to be more than that .
but separating the art from the artist is a lot easier when the artist in question seems to be pushing themselves and trying new things. whatever you think of casey affleck’s oscar win for manchester by the sea, he gave a stunning performance in that film. by contrast, even depp seems bored by jack sparrow in this movie (except, amusingly, when he shares the screen with paul mccartney for a couple of minutes), which only led me to wonder why his career seems to have surged in the wake of heard’s accusations. (this movie was already in production at the time heard made her accusations. )
in a lot of ways, this rushed first entry felt like a really great setup for a better, more in - depth movie to follow. i hope they make a sequel or two .
revenge of the sith isn’t just a great star wars movie, it’s a flat out great film. yes it’s technically proficient and yes it’s visually beautiful. those things are a given. what hasn’t been is how solidly the film is constructed. revenge of the sith is a powerful, big budget experience. yet it is the way that it fits so wonderfully into the existing star wars mythos that best sells it, the way it nestles so nicely into 1977’s episode iv: a new hope that makes it special. the real beauty is that you could easily toss out the previous two awkward attempts, watch only this in sequence with the original films, and come out completely satisfied. attack of the clones and the phantom menace are best forgotten. lucas’s real miscalculation was in not making this movie right from the start. he tried to stretch the story when all we needed was vader’s rise in its purest form. star wars fans have finally been rewarded for their patience. george has made another masterpiece. ”
if that sounds like fun: congratulations, you’re the moviegoer hollywood can’t afford to believe in. making science fiction without rayguns generally demands a big budget and generally promises no easy thrills. people barely want to see science fiction movies as it is. fantasy has always been more popular at the box office — especially depending on which bucket you toss star wars into. (it has spaceships, but also swordfights; it has rayguns, but also wizards. )
thank you for my copy of
let no man write my epitaph .
it' s my 2nd all - time favorite movie and i couldn' t find it on... read more
? is it the only moment of comedy relief in the entire film? no one knows, but what it does do is take the viewer outside the action at every sighting. it is impossible to remain enthralled when this idiocy is on screen. as my very non - violent wife remarked after the film, “every time i saw that stupid fucking guitar guy on screen i wanted to punch the director in the head. ” and she has a ph. d. in english .
when albert gets lost, wren, abetted by the nerdy roosevelt (thomas mann) and peng (osric chau), ventures deep into the night to find him, and wren and albert’s peregrinations take them to a chicken takeout, a nightclub, the party, a cemetery and the home of a bilious metalhead (johnny knoxville). character accessories include firecrackers, toilet paper and for wren’s “wizard of oz” costume, glittering ruby - red converse high - tops. movie merits include a good cast, a tidy script and jokes just provocative enough .
“i still remember the first time i really became aware of george lucas. we swarmed to anything that had his name on it, ate up every ewok adventure or star wars christmas special because we knew george lucas had created it. we didn’t just love star wars, we loved the mythos of george lucas, a man who somehow seemed magical .
the smartest thing i’ve ever heard about the series was from a friend, who was trying to defend dead man’s chest, the very first sequel from 2006, after i found it not just disappointing but actively irritating. that film was, he said, a series of looney tunes shorts about the character jack sparrow, as though he were bugs bunny transplanted into our reality, made to look like johnny depp, but subjected to the same old slapstick shit. the movie didn’t have a plot because it didn’t need one — it was an excuse to see depp run around and do goofy things.
just for fun is a 1963 british black and white musical film directed by gordon flemyng . it was written by amicus co-founder milton sobotsky . 
just for fun is a 1963 british black and white musical film directed by gordon flemyng. it was written by amicus co-founder milton sobotsky.
just for fun is a 1963 british black and white musical film directed by gordon flemyng. it was written by amicus co-founder milton sobotsky.