Archive for September, 2006

Accepted

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 24, 2006
in Based on urban legend, College, Comedy and High School
. 0 Comments

As soon as I saw the trailer and Lewis Black, I knew I needed to see this movie. After finally seeing it, I can’t necessarily call it a high quality film, but I can say it was very entertaining.

The basic plot is there are a couple guys having problems getting into a college after graduating from high school. So to trick/apease their parents, they create their own school. Soon, things get a little bit out of hand and their little rouse turns into a full blown reality. In the end, they are eventually found out and the movie ends with an Animal House style hearing where their legitimacy as a place of higher learning is decided.

I gave this one a 4 stars out of 5, just because I liked it. If you’re a Lewis Black fan, you’ll want to definitely check this one out as you’re sure to get at least a few laughs.

Johnny Mnemonic

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 21, 2006
in Action, Based on a book, Future, Sci-fi, Thriller and Twist
. 1 Comment

This is one of those movies I’ve always been a tiny bit skeptical to watch because it’s an older Keanu Reeves movie. I’m not saying I hate Reeves. He’s done some decent things. I’ll admit it. I loved Babes in Toyland when it came out and I was five years old. I’m not ashamed of it. I was also a fan of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Point Break and The Devil’s Advocate. I loved Dracula and The Replacements. Thumbsucker and Constantine were good and I still need to see A Scanner Darkly and The Gift. See, Reeves isn’t so bad. Johnny Mnemonic wasn’t too bad either. In fact, I thought it was good.

This one came out in 1995. Remember how everybody thought it was so cool how Tom Cruise used those gloves in Minority Report? Well, it had already been done in this movie. The plots actually interesting too and I think this movie was way better than Tank Girl. There were also a lot of recognizable people like Dina Meyer from Supertroopers, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano from Zatôichi, Dolph Lundgren from Red Scorpion and Rocky IV, Henry Rollins, and Udo Kier from Blade. You recognize some of those people, right?

Anyways, the jist of this story is that people put hard drives in their heads to transfer data. Reeves is one of those people and he gets 320gb of data slammed into his head. The amazing thing is that was a TON of data 11 years ago. If you’re a computer nerd like me, you know what I’m talking about. Back then a 120mb hard drive was a decent amount of space. So Keanu has all this data in his head and it’s too much, so he’s trying to get it out before he dies. There are of course some bad guys involved. Ice-T isn’t a kangaroo in this one, but he is in the “underground” and helps save the day.

I’m sure a lot of people thought this one was stupid, but I liked it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The Illusionist

Published
by
Lij
on September 15, 2006
in Based on a book, Based on a novel, Conspiracy, Drama, England, Independent, Mystery, Romance, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

When we went to see The Illusionist the other night, I couldn’t remember if it was the movie with Christian Bale or the movie with Edward Norton. I didn’t know until a preview for The Prestige came on, and I thought, “Oh, that’s the movie with Christian Bale. I must be seeing the one with Edward Norton.”

The Illusionist is the story of Eisenheim (Ed Norton), who is, obviously, and illusionist. From childhood, he was in love with the beautiful heiress, Sophie (Jessica Beil), who reciprocated his love. They were eventually separated by her family, and Eisenheim left to travel the world and discover the secrets of illusion.

Fifteen years later, he returns to Vienna, where Sophie is engaged to the crown prince. They meet and their love is rediscovered, but this does not sit well with Police Inspector Uhl (the always wonderful Paul Giamatti), who is always trying to figure out how Eisenheim does his illusions.

The love story isn’t entirely convincing, and the plot is a bit obvious, but this is still an entertaining movie. It’s one part magic story, one part murder mystery, and one part love story.

I liked it.

Mayor of the Sunset Strip

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 5, 2006
in Biography, Documentary, Independent and Music
. 1 Comment

I was immediately intrigued when I saw a trailer for this movie. I’ve always been a big fan of ‘rock and roll’ and here’s somebody who’s been dubbed THE MAYOR. Turns out it’s a documentary about a guy by the name of Rodney Bingenheimer. This guy is friends with everybody. He was around when the Beatles, Cher, Bing Crosby and Alice Cooper were making it big. He’s still around now and friends with people like Gwen Stefani and Green Day.

I had never heard of this guy before, but obviously he’s big. This is somebody that just loves the music, but hasn’t really tried to take advantage of it. They showed his home and he by no means lives large. You might think that people have been using him over the years. I’m not really sure about that, but I really felt bad for the guy. He’s a friend to so many, yet, those friends seem to not always come through for him.

He currently has/had (movie came out in 2003) a radio show where his hours were being cut. You would think somebody would snatch him up. I love listening to Alice Cooper Nights and Jonesy’s Jukebox (Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols). These are real rockers telling you stories and giving their opinions on bands that they personally know. It’s not like they’re just fans who consider themselves experts.

If you like documentaries and are a little bit interested in the music scene, I think you’ll probably find this one interesting.

EdTV

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 5, 2006
in Comedy and Remake
. 0 Comments

I remember hearing about this movie a long time ago. In fact, I just checked and it came out in 1999. So in one sense it’s “old”, but not really at all in the grand scheme of things.

This movie comes off a lot like The Truman Show, but it’s not. This is a different movie - I promise. I don’t think this was as good as Truman Show, but it was still entertaining. In this movie we have TV cameras following Ed around, watching everything that happens in his life. However, Ed is aware of this. Obviously some interesting things happen because you don’t expect cameras to follow you “everywhere”. There’s a bit of a love-interest angle with Jenna Elfman that mixes things up a bit and eventually Ed deals with those cameras.

I wouldn’t watch this looking to be wowed. There’s a couple really funny parts that I’m sure you’ll laugh at, and then there are also parts that are just there. I would give this movie a 3 out of 5. Nothing great, but not bad.

Tank Girl

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 5, 2006
in Action, Based on a comic, Comedy, Future, Puppets and Sci-fi
. 0 Comments

Tank Girl is a great B-movie out of 1995 starring Lori Petty (Point Break, Free Willy) and Naomi Watts about some rebels battling the big bad conglomerate government. Kind of the ongoing battle played out in many a movie, but this one involves a girl and her tank. Besides seeming kind of silly and weird, this movie is also heavily based on the comic world, which explains some of the costuming and dialogue. If you’ve seen Ultraviolet, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I do have to admit, from the cover I always thought that “Tank Girl” was played byAlanna Ubach (Waiting…, Beakman’s World and Sister Act). This isn’t something to get all fired up about and invite 20 friends over to watch on the big screen, unless you all like this movie. I’d say it’s definitely worth watching though. Where else are you going to see Ice-T dressed up as a mutant human/kangaroo fighting for justice?