James Bond Series Post 10: The Spy Who Loved Me

Nobody does it better than Roger Moore (except Sean Connery... and Daniel Craig... and Pierce Brosnan... he's actually one of the worst Bonds, never mind).  A great pre-title and title sequence start this tenth entry in the James Bond series, and this is another winner.  This movie is, in fact very funny.  The villain's main goal is to build a city beneath the sea (I'm cracking up just thinking about it).  One of the coolest gadgets to come out of Q's lab so far is the submarine car (I have to have one).  This also marks the first appearance of the greatest Bond villain of all time, JAWS.  Jaws has teeth made of metal (awesome).  On the whole The Spy Who Loved Me is the best Moore Bond film so far.  Can't wait for the cheesiest Bond film so far in the series, Moonraker.

The Spy Who Loved Me - 4 out of 4

-Zach

Who Wants to Be a Slumdog Millionaire?

Slumdog Millionaire was loved by critics from the day it premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.  The huge amount of buzz started during the Toronto Film Festival where it was also shown.  Now, with four Golden Globe nominations, including best picture Slumdog Millionaire will surly be generating some major Oscar buzz.  Now that I've seen Slumdog Millionaire I can confirm that all the buzz is extremely justified.  Slumdog Millionaire is just short of perfect (perfect=Benjamin Button).  The emotional journey that awaits Jamal on his quest for a good life.  He is faced with trouble every step of his way.  The character arches of every character are fully fleshed out and magnificent.  Danny Boyle (director of Sunshine and 28 Days Later) does a great job directing this movie.  This proves he has tons of range(28 Days Later- Zombie Movie, Sunshine-Science Fiction, Slumdog Millionaire- Romance/Adventure).  Every performance is perfect.  Something to notice is that the movie is not about the game show, the game show is just a device to tell the story of Jamal's life.  Take time to check out this great independent movie instead of horrible blockbusters (The Day the Earth Stood Still), but don't forget to see Benjamin Button first.

Slumdog Millionaire - 4 out of 4 (that's my final answer)

-Zach

The Curious Case of Benjamin Valkyrie (wow what a creative title)

Merry Christmas one and all.  As my Christmas present to you dear readers I have decided to lament the meaning of life and death with Benjamin Button, and to conspire to kill Adolf Hitler with Count Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg (that is his full name).  Let's start with Benjamin Button.  I sat through 2 hours and 48 minutes, or shall I say mesmerised for 2 hours and 48 minutes of beautiful yet epic film making by David Fincher (the director of Fight Club and Seven).  By the time it was over I truly feel I learned something about my own life.  Not many movies released this year moved me in the way Benjamin Button had.  This is defiantly the saddest movie I saw this year.  The decision Benjamin makes toward the end of the movie is one of the hardest decisions I think a person could make.  He had to face the fact that he was going to continue growing younger while the love of his life grew younger.  It is a choice you can see coming from early on in the film, yet still when the time comes for Benjamin to make that decision you realise how terrible his situation is.  All this is told beautifully in the screenplay by Eric Roth (the writer of Forrest Gump, yet this movie is better).  Benjamin Button is one of the best movies I've scene this year.  Valkyrie is a very serious tale about one of 15 plots to kill Hitler.  The cinematography of this movie is phenomenal.  The acting is alright, but the standout performance was by David Bamber who very subtly plays Hitler.  Also, Terence Stamp who was in a million movies this year (Yes Man, Get Smart, and Wanted, I lied he was only in 4 but that still is alot).  I haven't much more to say about this movie except that it was very averagely executed and seemed rather depressing.

Benjamin Button - 4 out of 4

Valkyrie - 3 out of 4

-Zach

Moviequest's New Feature: Readers' Reactions

It is now time for you, the reader, to tell us what you thought about the movies we review.  Here's how.  Notice on the bottom of every post there are a few checkboxes.  See the movie we reviewed and check what you think of it.  It's that simple!  Also, don't forget to check out the Moviequest archives to see our past posts.

-Zach

Did You See Yes Man... Yes, Man

I don't have too much time to talk about Yes Man, but I still want to let all 5 of our readers know I saw it and what I thought about it.  I felt this is one of the few recent Jim Carrey movies that actually made me laugh.  The main reasons for the hilarity are two things, first Jim Carrey's boss named Norm, who is brilliantly played by Rhys Darby.  The second thing is a scene toward the end of the movie when two government agents arrest Carrey's character, the scene plays on the tension the nation is expressing at this time about terrorists.  The agents suspect Carrey's character of being a terrorist and the scene is so absurd yet it is played out brilliantly.  Much better than the scene in Harold and Kumar, which runs on too long.  For those reasons I'm recommending Yes Man.

Yes Man - 3 out of 4

-Zach

James Bond Series Post 9: The Man With The Golden Gun

Wow... The Man With The Golden Gun was actually amazing, or at least great fun.  Any movie that has a car chase resulting in a flip turning the car upside-down and right-side-up again wins my vote.  Also, Christopher Lee, who plays the man with the golden gun is an awesome actor.  The opening song sung by Lulu is totally awesome.  There are so many cool things in this movie, a car that flies, a magical third nipple, a fake magical third nipple worn by Bond to pretend to be someone else, a golden gun made out of household objects such as a pen, a trippie light room with cowboy animatronics, a freakin' laser beam, the list goes on and on.  Also, the man with the golden gun has a cool name, Mr. Scaramanga.

The Man With The Golden Gun - 3.5 out of 4

-Zach

War Movies Series Post 3: Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick is a fantastic filmmaker.  Although I have not seen A Clockwork Orange, I have seen Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Shining, all of which I loved.  I am not, however, a big fan of Full Metal Jacket.  Like From Here to Eternity, I find it vastly overrated. The first half of the movie I do love.  The first half is the fabulous training camp sequence.  It also includes some of the most terrifying, most affective performances of all time: Vincent D'Onofrio as Pvt. Pyle and R. Lee Ermey as Sgt. Hartman.  Pyle is a disturbed man, teased and mocked by all of the other soldiers at the camp.  Hartman is the terrible drill sergeant who takes no prisoners when it comes to verbally abusing his trainees.  I honestly believe that one of them should have been given an Oscar.  Unfortunately, the two both end up dead by the end of the first act.  Then the film goes downhill.  

All characters other than Pyle and Hartman are completely 2 dimensional, and not

 the least bit likable or relatable.  I understand that the characters are supposed to be depicted as heartless killing machines, but I don't even get the least bit of an impression left on me from their characters, and, more importantly, I didn't care.

The battle scenes are not very good.  I mean, the camerawork is okay and you can understand what is going on, but that's about it.  The battle scenes are not groundbreaking like many people say they are, and even if they are, they don't hold up today.

The only scene after the first act that I enjoy is the last scene.  It consists of the "mindless killing machines" walking into the sunset singing the Mickey Mouse club song.

So, that's about it.  I liked about a third of the movie total.

Full Metal Jacket - 2.5 out of 4

-Ben

I Finally Saw Role Models

Yes... I finally saw Role Models.  After all it stars two great comedic actors... Paul Rudd and Seann (yes with two "n"s)William Scott (aka Stiffler).  Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who plays Fogell (aka McLovin) in one of my favorite comedies from 2007, Superbad, is great as Augie.  This movie is very funny don't get me wrong, but I think it is less funny than Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  I still think it is more funny than other comedies that came out this year, such as Step Brothers.  This movie also is very sweet.  I really loved it.

Role Models - 4 out of 4

-Zach

War Movies Series Post 2: From Here To Eternity

From Here to Eternity falls (for me anyway) into the category of "Good, Not Great."  Don't get me wrong, I like this movie a lot, but I think it is pretty overrated.  I don't think it was anywhere near good enough to receive the eight Oscars that it did.  But let's talk about what I do like about the film, shall we?

Let's get this across: Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed both deserved the Academy Awards for their roles, so it was good that they won.  Also, the emotional impact of this film is fantastic.  I won't give anything away, but at one point, a character is thought to be the enemy, when in fact he was just trying to defeat the enemy himself.  That event results in his death.  I think the war scenes of this movie (there are only a few) are pretty good, but not fantastic.  I do, however, believe that this is the best film ever to be made about the attack on Pearl Harbor and should be watched by any war movie fan.

From Here to Eternity - 3 out of 4

-Ben

War Movies Series Post 1: Platoon

Hey, it's Ben.  Guess What!  I'm starting a new review series.  Don't worry, Zach is still going to be doing his James Bond reviews, but I thought I'd start a new series.  I have always been a big war movie buff, so I thought I'd do a series devoted to all war movies.  I'm going to start with...

Platoon (1986)

Out of all the great war films out there, I think that this is my favorite of them all.  I have seen this movie maybe ten times.  Even though that doesn't seem like a lot, I only saw this movie for the first time a few months ago, so that shows even more how much I love this film.   It is directed by Oliver Stone, and I personally believe that this is his best film, just barely ahead of JFK.  The film features some of the best performances I've ever seen, by Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Willem Dafoe.  Tom Berenger as Sgt. Barnes is one of the best screen villains of all time.  One of the reasons that he is so affective is because he is not playing a usual villain.  He isn't playing the leader of the enemies or the man out to sabotage the platoon from the inside.  He is just a sergeant who thinks he is just doing his duty.

However, I believe that the best and most effective performance in the film is by Willem Dafoe as Elias Grodin.  When he is betrayed and left to die towards the middle of the film (I'm not spoiling anything, his death is depicted on the poster for the movie), it is one of the most powerful deaths of all time.

Whenever this movie comes on TV, I always say to myself, "I'm not going to watch this, I've seen it too many times."  But I always end up watching the entire film.

From the opening scene of Chris Taylor (played by Charlie Sheen) getting off the transport in Vietnam to the closing moments, this is, quite simply, the best war movie of all time.

Platoon - 4 out of 4

-Ben

Stand Still and Read This Post

I just got back from seeing the Day the Earth Stood Still.  PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW IN MY FOOTSTEPS.

I love the 1951 version of the Day the Earth Stood Still.  Love it.  That's why I was so disappointed in this film.  You're probably thinking, "Why did Ben even have high expectations for this movie?  All remakes suck."  Well everybody, I didn't really have such high expectations, considering the recent lackluster science fiction remakes of The War of the Worlds and Planet of the Apes.  I just expected it to be okay.  But it didn't even meet those expectations.  There are countless flaws in this movie.  So many that I need to bullet them.

• This is a terrible remake.  However, I didn't mind that it was nothing like the original.  What bothered me was that it didn't even have to be the Day the Earth stood still.  It could have been any movie.
• The characters that are actually in this that were in the original do not cross over well.  The character of GORT was given muscles so that he would look modern, but it really just made me roll my eyes.
• There are far to many environmentalist undertones in this film.  I'm all for stopping global warming, but this is overkill.  There are more environmentalist undertones in this movie than in Happy Feet, the Mist, and Wall-E combined.
• There is a lot, a lot, A LOT of product placement, including one scene in which two otherworldly beings have a meeting in a McDonald's.  I think Microsft, LG, and McDonald's covered the entire budget on this movie.
• Jaden Smith(Will Smith's son)'s character is extremely annoying.
• 2 great actors are put to waste in this film (Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly)
• The ending is not good.  It's just another hollywood ending that makes you, once again, roll your eyes.
• Last but not least, IT'S TERRIBLY WRITTEN.  This is some of the worst dialogue I've heard.

The only thing I liked about this movie at all was the fun appearances by a bunch of great actors, including John Cleese, Kathy Bates, and, my personal favorite, James Hong.  Who is that you ask?  Well, among other things, the Chinese Restaurant manager in the classic Seinfeld episode in which he yells one of my favorite Seinfeld lines: "CARTWRIGHT!"

Even James Hong doesn't save this picture.  It's a fun time if you like to make sarcastic remarks at the screen, but that's about it.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - 1.5 out of 4

-Ben

James Bond Series Post 8: Live and Let DIE

Roger Moore... James Bond?   I couldn't think of a more different approach to the character.  Live and Let Dies is Moores's first time as bond and he's still getting used to it... it shows.  To tell you the truth I felt this movie was just creepy.  A bunch of mourning people are walking down the street.  A man walks up to an agent.  "Who died?" asked the agent.  The man kills him as the people with the coffin walk by.  They bend down so the coffin goes on top of him and it engulfs him so his body is in the coffin (don't ask me).  Then all the mourning people start dancing... that's just the opening scene.  Then comes the incredibly creepy scene when you realize everyone in the ghetto is working to bring Bond down and they all have walkie-talkies to tell the head villain where Bond is (Did I mention this movie is racist?).  Then there is the man who can't die... this guy is so creepy.  Another creepy part is when all these voodoo idols are watching Bond through the forest.  Then there is Rosie... the worst performance in any Bond film so far.  Did I mention she is the first African-American Bond girl, and she is a spy.  Finally an African-American, that is positively looked upon, with a good job.  Oh wait she is not a very skillful spy, and later you find out she is not a spy at all she works for the villain.  So much for a positively looked upon African American with a good job.  That is how racist this movie is.  The only African-American that is not a villain in this movie is a blue-collar worker.  In all this is a very creepy racist Bond movie.

Live and Let Die - 2 out of 4

-Zach

James Bond Series Post 7: Diamonds are Forever

Once a diamond always a diamond, FOREVER! Yes, it is true Diamonds are Forever. The theme to Diamonds are Forever is very promising. Unfortunately the promise is unfulfilled. This movie is too over the top. It needs to hold its horses and wait for Moore to step in. If there was a moon-buggy chase in Moonraker I might have not had a problem with it. This film takes itself seriously, meanwhile it has a moon-buggy chase, the villain dresses up as a woman, and a car gets through a tight alley-way by driving on two wheels. Some of the action scenes work well but others are like the moon-buggy chase. On the whole this movie seemed very strange and Connery seemed tired of playing Bond.

Diamonds are Forever - 2.5 out of 4

-Zach

James Bond Series Post 6: On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Lazenby, George Lazenby is the new Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service a rather decent title in the series. The best line of the film happens in the pre-title sequence. After Bond escapes from a ridiculous situation he says, "This never happened to the other fellow!" I totally cracked up at that part. There is a ski chase scene in the middle of the movie that is very fantastic. The guy who plays Blofeld is okay but not as good as the guy in You Only Live Twice. I don't have too much time to write any more, mainly because it is a Tuesday night and also because I'm trying to watch A View To A Kill (Yes I am that far ahead of my blog posts). On the whole this movie is better than Thunderball but not as good as You Only Live Twice.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service - 3 out of 4

-Zach