Green Lantern

Green Lantern
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: Martin Campbell (IMDB)

I was told last night that I give too many 5 star ratings. I'm too easy. I'm a slut. Sorry to anyone I've offended by giving 5 stars to a movie you hated. I just feel like if you really enjoy a movie, it makes you extremely happy, and it serves it's genre to the best of it's ability... you hook it up with the 5 stars. Sure, I may not consider something like Back to the Future and Wild Strawberries to be on the same level, but I love them both and they're both 5 stars to me. Obviously one is much more serious, deep, meaningful, and heartfelt... and the other is Wild Strawberries. Why, you ask, are you talking about all this shit in your Green Lantern Review... because it's a five star movie.... I'm kidding, it's a piece of shit.

Ryan Reynolds is selected to join a corps of intergalactic peace keepers when he's bestowed a mysterious green ring. That's good enough.

Man... I hated this film. Ryan Reynolds is about the only good thing in it, and even his performance isn't all that amazing. The rest is crap. Almost everything is CG, and it gets old real quick. There's a scene where Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are talking on a balcony and it seriously reminded me of THIS. The story is weak, and the film out stays it's welcome. God awful.

Inferno

Inferno
(1980) [Trailer]
Director: Dario Argento (IMDB)

My buddy Justin is in town and last night we were trying to figure out something to watch. We decided to go ahead and throw on a Dario Argento film, because that's the kinda mood Justin was in. I'd never seen this movie and Justin telling me that "I don't really recommend this, but I kind of wanna watch it" doesn't really help get me very pumped up on it. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Fuck... trying to explain what this movie is about is hard. There's a book and a building.... yeah.... There's a lot of people who die, and I don't really know anything about them. They're some witches or something.

This movie is awesome in a lot of ways and not so awesome in a lot of other ways. The story is completely lame, and really slow. The acting isn't all that impressive, and the character building is almost nonexistent. I do love the direction however. The lighting and colors in this stand out in a good way, it reminds me of Mario Bava's Black Sabbath (the movie not the band.) The set pieces are really fantastic and there's ton of rad imagery scattered throughout. The practical effects are really cool too, especially the knife through the throat and the floating corpse. I don't know, I'm mixed on this, you can check it out on Netflix instant HERE.

Frozen

Frozen
(2010) [Trailer]
Director: Adam Green (IMDB)

I was never a big fan of snowboarding/skiing; in fact, I've only done it once before and my body hated me for it the next day. After that, I decided no more extreme winter sports for me. Having watched Frozen, I can firmly stand behind that decision.

Frozen is about 3 skiers who get trapped on a snow lift after the sky resort closes for the week. They're stuck and have to figure a way to save themselves but they're not alone... that's right... wolves are in them there woods and they're hungry for human flesh.

I thought this movie was pretty entertaining. Nothing earth shattering, but fun for a genre flick. There's a few parts that are pretty nasty, mainly the broken leg scene and hand stuck to the rail, both are pretty cringe worthy. The film is all shot practically and uses no CG, which is rad. I did feel like some of the acting isn't all that amazing, and there's some believability issues with the story. It's available now on Netflix Instant and if you have that, you can watch it right HERE!

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation
(2003) [Trailer]
Director: Sofia Coppola (IMDB)

This movie has all the right ingredients for a perfect movie. You have Sophia Coppola at the helm, you have Bill Murray and Scarjo as the leads and Japan as the back drop. So with all those spices up in the mix why is this movie such shit.... just joking... it rules.

Bill Murray is an aging actor who's traveled to Tokyo for the week to earn a quick million hocking Santory Whiskey. Scarlett Johansson is with her photographer husband who is there to shoot a band. Scarlett and Bill form an unlikely bond as they do their best to deal with the foreign surroundings that have made then feel alienated.

This was my favorite film of 2003 and it still holds up nicely, especially on blu-ray. Coppola really does a fantastic job with this and both the cinematography and soundtrack are prefect. Bill Murray is also spot on, and his part couldn't have been cast better. My co-worker, who lived in Japan says this movie is offensive. I guess I don't see it? Maybe I haven't been to Japan before, but nothing in this seemed mean spirited or racist. Just more of a fish out of water story, and I think it could have been just as effective in Mumbai or Beijing. I'm open for debate on that. If you've seen it, see it again. If you haven't, my advice would be that you do.

Das Experiment

Das Experiment
(2001) [Trailer]

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel (IMDB)

Ryan Gosling is so HOTTT right now. What does that have to do with Das Experiment? Absolutely nothing but an intro is an intro (and Gosling is hot right now). Anyway, hello East Village Film Society readers (if you exist), my name is Sam. I am currently one of the editors of the East Village Film Society Blog and have decided to do an (Das) experiment with the idea of writing as well. My style is going to be a little different than the master critic Tallzy but I think with a little time (ok a lot) you will hopefully find my reviews to be up to the standard set prior to my arrival. So without further ado…..

Das Experiment is a truly interesting and intense film. It is a psychological German film about the effect of power and control. The premise revolves around (you guessed it) an experiment in which a group of 20 men are split into 2 groups, prison guards and prisoners, and are placed in a fake prison. Both groups are told in order to get paid, you must complete two weeks in these conditions. The guards are then told specifically, if the prisoners don’t follow their rules they will not get paid. As you can imagine (or else this movie wouldn't be very interesting) things don’t go as planned for the guards.

Overall, I thought this was a fantastic film. A lot of horrible things happen (again they are in prison), yet it still seemed very believable to me. The acting is fantastic and there are many times where I caught myself thinking, wow, what would I do in that situation? This to me is the essence of a good film, one which you can lose yourself in. This film challenges you to think (I know a novel idea, film that has more depth than do vampires and werewolves get along), is violence ever the answer? Don’t answer until you watch.

Tower Heist

Tower Heist
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: Brett Ratner (IMDB)

Man... remember when Eddie Murphy used to be funny? Watching Delirious as a kid (even though I wasn't allowed too), I thought it was the best thing ever. Or Coming to America, or Trading Places, shit.... now we get Norbit and Shrek. So I was kinda excited to see him starring in Tower Heist as a criminal and overall bad ass, let's see if that excitement was valid.

Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, and this girl all work in a super fancy building in Manhattan. The owner, who they all trusted, is really a douche and he basically screwed their retirement away. With the help of Eddie and Ferris Bueller, they plan a heist to rob the building and get their money back.

I was really hoping this movie would deliver a lot more in the way of comedy. It wasn't funny at all. I think I chuckled once or twice, mainly at Michael Pena. Eddie is completely stale, and basically only in the last act of the film. It did hold my attention, so it's got that going for it. With the people involved this should have been a lot better, I am gonna say go ahead and pass on it.