As you may recall I blogged about movies I was looking forward to.
Two of those movies (Spider-man 3 and Fantastic Four 2 more on FF2 at a later time) have yet to come out.
I have seen Smokin’ Aces and 300 though.
Smokin’ Aces.
I saw this when it came out, and I’ve been too lazy or too busy (take your pick) to write a review on it. I have seen a re-hashed commercial for the Smokin’ Aces DVD recently where it reads part of a review “Blam! Blam! Expletive! FBI, plot twist, Expletive!Expletive! Blam! Blam! Blam! Expletive! Expletive!” Which pretty much captures the basic premise of the movie. Action, lots of guns and violence. Some of the actors/actresses listed on the cast are almost just cameo appearances. I actually thought Ben Affleck was not too bad in this movie. It was an OK movie, but not great. The way I describe it is “Tarantino light”. Personally I think the movie had too many characters (all of whom were as flat as a pancake) and not enough story. From the trailer, I thought that more would happen, and that there were more locations involved. Since its out on DVD now, rent it for a few hours of mindless violence.
300
The movie is based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Since I enjoyed the graphic novel, which is based in history but not 100% historically accurate, I figured I’d like the movie. 300 focuses on 300 Spartan warriors that defend the pass at Thermopylae against 10,000 invading Persians. The movie was made using a lot of CGI backgrounds and computer enhanced colors/images so that it would look as much like the graphic novel as possible. There are quite a few side by side comparisons on the Internet, and most show that the movie captured the look and feel of the graphic novel. The movie is very much an action oriented macho fest. Candy liked it “because of all the hawt guys!” I liked the movie quite a bit for different reasons. I saw it opening weekend, and was very tempted to go see it more times. In the words of a SNL sketch “It was better than Cats, I’m going to see it again and again.” If it’s still playing near you, go see it! If not, buy the DVD, I know I will! It is that good!
Grindhouse
I went to see Grindhouse on opening day. Grindhouse is more than just two movies back to back. There are also fake trailers included, which are fun and funny. I went into Grindhouse not expecting much. I was rewarded with a very fun time. The two movies “Planet Terror” directed by Robert Rodriguez, and “Death Proof” directed by Quentin Tarantino are very b-movie-esque, very cheesy and very different from one another.
Planet Terror
A movie about zombie-esque cannibals running amuck in Texas. It’s mostly a zombie movie with a couple of twisted love stories and some sibling rivalry to boot. It has the classic Rodriguez over-the-top-way-beyond-believable-but-I-still-like-it-even-though-it’s-totally-impossible thing going. I’m not going to give away anything, but its good messy fun! There are some gross-out scenes. Since Candy and I saw it at the Alamo Drafthouse, we were eating lunch and watching the movie. “Oh that’s gross!” <chomp> <chomp> “That’s disgusting” <chomp><chomp>. It’s a fun movie, just don’t think to hard about it… Oh and IMO Rose McGowen looks hot in Planet Terror.
Death Proof
Tarantino, he loves his dialogue. The only problem is, as I understand it, in “original” Grindhouse cinema they dialogue was crap. There is a lot of dialogue, some of which seems to be pretty pointless. There are also a lot of shots of downtown Austin (Guero’s, Texas Chili Parlor and the beloved Alamo Drafthouse Cinema!) Of course there is some good old fashioned stunt driving that as far as I know used very little to no CGI. Even though I liked seeing stuff from my hometown in the first half of Death Proof, the movie doesn’t really get good until the second half.
I recommend seeing Grindhouse at the theater, but make sure you have 3 hours to spare, it’s a long double feature.
Hot Fuzz
On Sunday, we went and saw Hot Fuzz (thus the headline 
.) Ever since my buddy Beav got me to watch Spaced, I’ve loved damn near everything that has Simon Pegg and is written by Edgar Wright. Hot Fuzz is no exception. The story is that Nick Angel, police office extraordinaire is too good. He is so good that he puts the rest of the force to shame, so he gets reassigned from the London Metro police force to a small village called Sanford. In the beginning Angel is as strict as Judge Dread (although he is not judge, jury and executioner.) He has to re-adjust to the slow life of Sanford, where one of his major duties is rounding up a goose that has escaped. When a rash of accidents happen that don’t look like accidents, he is the best man for the job.
This is one of the best action movies I’ve seen in years. They tell you what is going to happen in the beginning of the movie, just not how or why. There are homage’s to some of the cheesiest cop-buddy movies out there. It’s fun, its funny, and the action is a blast. Even if you haven’t heard of it (or of the other movie these guys did Shaun of the Dead) go out and see it, you will not be disappointed.
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