November 20, 2010

#107: 180° South (8/10)

Like most of the movies on my instant queue, 180° South had been sitting there for quite a while. Somehow I'd heard it was good and added it, then never thought about it again. Somehow when I am cruising for a movie to watch I usually don't stop on a documentary. Little did I know the magnificence I had been missing out on.  For some reason this time stopped on it, and I am very glad I did.  180° South is one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in a long time. I have no clue who shot it, or how the guy convinced them to follow him on this adventure, but they got some great stuff. It was truly a pleasure to watch.  I didn't expect much out of it, and I was extremely impressed. It gets a 8 out of 10.

November 15, 2010

#106: The Box (4/10)

There is a mysterious box on your front door with a button. A man tells you that if you push the button you will receive a million dollars, but somebody you don't know will die. A pretty interesting premise to base a movie on. I thought there was a lot of potential. However, I didn't like the direction it took, and the ending was really disappointing to me.  It is a forgettable movie that fails to capitalize. I give it a 4 out of 10.

The Box is very stylized and at first I wasn't sure I liked it. As it went on I started to really get into it; almost like a "B" movie. It was a nice pace and did a great job at building the mystery and suspense.  Diaz was fine in the lead role for the most part, but at times I found her distracting.  As we neared the climax the pace started to pick up and the movie started to fall apart. I could have loved this movie if it had an awesome ending, but it did not.

November 6, 2010

#105: Catfish (7/10)

This is a film where the less you know about it, the better. Therefore, I don't feel like I should share much about the plot, or even the premise. I will say that it is about a real relationship that starts on facebook, and  goes to a place you might not expect. There is no point in trying to dance around the details while writing something meaningful.  I will say that if you haven't seen it you should shield yourself from finding out much about it, and rent it when it comes out on dvd.  This film was totally not what I expected, but I am glad I got to watch it.  I give it a 7 out of 10.

From here on we will be going into spoilers. The thing that impressed me most about this film is that the entire story turned out to be real. I was skeptical whether any of the setup of the story was real. It seemed like it all might have been put on just to make this movie possible.  The entire thing was raw, and very believable, but I still had my doubts.

November 3, 2010

#104: Get Him To The Greek (6/10)

Any time you start a movie you have expectations for what you are about to get into. Whether you want to or not, you are going to judge the actual film against what you expected.  With Get Him To The Greek I expected a comedy is similar Apatow fashion.  It provided that in some ways, but as the movie progressed it got further and further away from the funny.  It didn't make me laugh nearly as much as I thought it would, but it wasn't all bad. I give it a 6 out of 10.

Your enjoyment of this film will depend on your affinity for Russell Brand.  I quite like him, which made this movie much easier to watch.  I can't imagine anybody making it to the end if you can't stand the guy.  I also like Johah Hill, but I didn't think he was great in this one.  There is also a major role played by DIDDY.  I wasn't sure how well Mr. Combs would pull it off, but I thought he did a great job.  He is a good actor.