From Dusk Till Dawn

From Dusk Till Dawn  is fine for what it is, a grindhouse movie. I think I'm starting to be over Tarantino's schtick. It reminded me of Feast, only Feast was way better, so I recommend watching that instead.

I thought I had From Dusk Till Dawn on the list of movies I had seen, but I don't. I'm not sure why I hadn't ever watched it. I tend to like Robert Rodriguez's movies, in general.

It's definitely a grindhouse movie. I don't know if that's really my thing these days. It reminded me of Feast.

The Proposition

The Proposition is one of my favorite movies. Nick Cave's soundtrack is bewitching, and the landscapes are beautiful. All of the actors are great, and there’s so much depth to the characters. Everything about it is meticulous and nuanced. I’d dial back how graphic some of the violence is, but other than that, it's brilliant.

This is at least the third time I've seen The Proposition. I saw it when it came out, and it's one of my favorites. Apparently I don't even have a rating for the previous times I've seen it. I absolutely love it, though. It's great right from the beginning, when you've got everybody there -- Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce, and Mikey. And they start right away cutting to the landscapes, and Charlie on his horse. The visuals are so great the entire time -- the scenery, the composition, everything. It makes you feel like you're really there.

Snatch

Guy Ritchie might be my favorite director. I love his style, and it really shines here, more than in any other movie of his that I've seen. Snatch has a ton of good actors, all playing great characters. Each one contributes something, even if they’re only in a few scenes. It's consistently funny throughout, there's always something new and unexpected happening, and the way it all comes together is great.

I'm pretty sure I must have seen Snatch at some point. But I was only 14 when it came out, and I didn't remember it at all. I knew where the diamond ended up because I read a reference to it somewhere, but other than that and the fact that Brad Pitt played a gypsy, I didn't know anything about it.

I like Guy Ritchie's movies a lot, with the exception of Lock, Stock. Maybe I should watch it again. Or maybe not. Snatch seemed a lot like Rocknrolla and Layer Cake (not a Guy Ritchie movie), only a million times better. I don't know what the point of making Rocknrolla even was since he had already done Snatch. Lock, Stock would probably be similar enough that I wouldn't get anything out of it.
 
Snatch had me hooked right from the beginning. I love Jason Statham, although by the time I watched the second movie that I saw him in (The Bank Job, which incidentally, I didn't like him in), I had completely forgotten that he was in Snatch. To be fair, that was eight years later, which is a long time to remember an actor you've never seen in anything else.
 
But his character was great in Snatch. Although I didn't get why he needed to reference "zee Germans" three times. I loved his sidekick, too. I felt like I knew him from somewhere, but I don't think I really did, even though I've seen a few things that he's been in. I also felt like I had just seen the diamond guy and Brick Top as bad guys in similar movies, but apparently I hadn't.

The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects was alright. It was interesting seeing how things played out, and I liked the ending, even if it was a little confusing.

The Usual Suspects came out 20 years ago, but somehow I never saw it. Now it's weird because of Kevin Spacey. It makes you look at things in a different light. His character comes off as pretty weird/creepy, and it turns out that he actually is creepy.

They wore really oversized suits in the 90s. The musical cues were super oldschool and distracting. They really liked doing shots of two characters in profile. Benicio del Toro was practically unrecognizable. I liked Stephen Baldwin's performance, for some reason. I don't think I've ever actually seen him in anything.

In Order of Disappearance

In Order of Disappearance isn't flashy, but it has a certain novelty factor just by virtue of being Norwegian, and it is interesting to watch how everything plays out.

In Order of Disappearance wasn’t supposed to be very good, but I wanted to see it anyway. I watched it on Netflix, and at first the sound didn’t sync up with the video at all, and it was really confusing. But then we figured out that was the dubbed version, and luckily we were able to change it to “Norwegian audio, English subtitles,” which was a lot better.

The Departed

The Departed is a bit dated, but the acting is good, and I guess it’s interesting enough, if you like that kind of thing.

I had always heard that The Departed was good, but I wasn’t interested in it. Now that I finally got around to seeing it, it seems kind of dated, but I guess that’s what happens when you watch something that’s a decade old.

Layer Cake

Layer Cake is your typical crime movie, but there are some interesting shots, characters, and events here and there, so it's worth watching if that's your thing.

Off to a slow start this year with only one movie a month so far. I don't know if I've ever actually known anyone who liked Layer Cake, but it's a name you hear thrown around, so I figured I should see it. I didn't know anything about it, but I do like Daniel Craig. His eyes are crazy blue. I wound up turning the subtitles on about a third of the way through, which I probably should've done to begin with, because it helped a lot.

RocknRolla

RocknRolla is a fun movie. I guess the plot is sort of original, but it mainly gets by on the likeability of the characters.

I guess I can officially say I like Guy Ritchie's stuff. The Man from U.N.C.L.E was great, and I liked Sherlock Holmes and Snatch (although I no longer remember the latter). RocknRolla really pulls you in. It's engaging right from the start, and the characters are all likeable. It's interesting how little Mumbles and One Two want to hurt people, considering their line of work.

The Nice Guys

I probably would have enjoyed The Nice Guys more if I had understood what they were going for when I watched it. It was consistently funny, but some of the characters were annoying, a lot of the scenes didn't work, and the ending was strangely unsatisfying.

The trailer for The Nice Guys looked funny, and Roeper liked it, so I guess I had unreasonably high expectations. It was kind of disappointing. Russel Crowe's character was cool I guess, but March kind of got on my nerves. Ryan Gosling did look good at least.

The World of Kanako

The World of Kanako is basically about drugs, rape, violence, mental illness...all kinds of gritty stuff. But the cinematography and soundtrack are beautiful, and I was captivated watching it play out.

The World of Kanako is a pretty crazy movie, but I'm generally into that kind of thing. I love how it hits you right out of the gate with violence; it's all stylized, and really well done. The movie as a whole looks great.

The music stood out, too, especially the parts when it was punctuating something happening on screen, like when it stopped in the middle of the scene with Matsunaga. The animated scene was great, especially the way it ended with the doorbell ringing. I liked the blood-splattered cuts anytime someone attacked Akikazu. Speaking of which, that guy was a superhero - he could really take a beating.

A Walk Among the Tombstones

A Walk Among the Tombstones is interesting for the atmosphere. Liam Neeson gives a great performance, most of the side characters are done well, and the setting ties everything together nicely.

I wasn't that into A Walk Among the Tombstones from the trailer, but Roeper kind of got me interested in it. The title's a little clunky, and I'm still not really sure how it relates to the movie. The movie itself is pretty straightforward, but it's interesting. Liam Neeson gives a solid performance.

Rob the Mob

Rob the Mob has a lot of things going for it: great dialogue, charismatic actors, interesting characters, and an engaging plot. Unfortunately, it's all nearly negated by some fairly confusing scenes, pacing issues, and the incredibly short-sighted decisions of the main characters.

Rob the Mob is one of the few movies I've looked into that actually got favorable reviews. That doesn't seem to happen often. It started off pretty interesting. The dialogue was well-written, and all the characters were interesting. I liked all the different people at the collection agency. The boss was a little hard to get a handle on, though.

The Art of the Steal

The Art of the Steal has quite a few funny moments, but it comes off as staged and gimmicky, and I felt more cheated by the ending than impressed. 

Online reviews were mixed for The Art of the Steal, but I like Jay Baruchel, I don't mind Kurt Russell, and it looked like it might be funny. The style was too "gimmicky." I didn't like all the "x-ray" shots of things inside of things, or all the times the names of people's roles popped up.  It felt really light. It didn't go in-depth into anything. It was like an unsatisfying episode of White Collar.

The Counselor

The Counselor looks good and the soundtrack is cool, but that's not enough of a reason to watch it. The plot is laid out poorly, and the dialogue is pretentious and out of place. Whatever they were going for didn't work. 

It's been two months since I've seen a movie. So much for my "one movie a week" plan. The Counselor was a really disappointing return to movies. I didn't get a clear idea from the trailer what the movie was even about, but it looked slick. Roeper really steered me wrong on it - I can't believe he gave it an A+! I should've checked it out on IMDb; they're closer to the mark with a rating of 5.5. The actual movie was a lot like the trailer. I had no idea what was going on a lot of the time, and some things still weren't clear by the end.

In Time

In Time's concept and world are cool, but they're wasted on a lackluster plot and Justin Timberlake's bad acting.

I was interested in this movie when it came out, and I remembered it had gotten semi-favorable buzz. I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to see this weekend. I think it would've been a better movie without Justin Timberlake. I looked over Ebert's review after I watched it, and he thought Justin was great, but I'm not with him on that. His acting was terrible; it pulled me out of the movie practically every time he said something.

It's totally engaging just because of the concept, but plot is a letdown. They could've done a lot more with it. It was cool seeing people like Pete from Mad Men, Cillian Murphy, and Matt Bomer. They all really helped carry the movie. There shouldn't have been so many "time" puns. It got ridiculous.

The Place Beyond the Pines

I didn't understand the characters' motivations for a lot of The Place Beyond the Pines, but the cinematography was nice, the music worked, and I really liked the triptych format and being able to find out what happened sort of "after" the movie.

I liked the way this movie looked. It was kind of old-school/gritty, but it was really well-shot. The music was interesting, and I liked the format of the movie, how it started out with Luke's story, and then the "passing of the baton," as the director put it, changing to Avery's story, and then AJ/Jason's. I liked that we got to see what happened with their kids, kind of what happens "after" the movie. That's one of the main reasons I was interested in seeing it.

The Guard

Not everything they do in The Guard works, but it's still a funny movie, and Gleeson and Cheadle are fun to watch.

The first thing I noticed about The Guard was that I couldn't understand what they were saying, so I had to turn on the subtitles. They were definitely the worst subtitles I've ever seen. Super obtrusive, covered stuff up, and didn't even get all the dialogue. The movie was pretty funny, but a lot of things were kind of a swing and a miss for me.

The Dark Knight Rises

Perfectly average movie. Bale and Hardy were good, and the story was interesting, but nothing really blew me away. At least I can say I saw Batman on opening day without getting shot.

Drive

I didn't think I would like this as much as I did, but there were a few surprises.

Armored