I’ve watched a lot of movies waiting for the Fall TV season to come and most of what I’ve seen can be put into quick hits.
Shame- Michael Fastbender as a sex addict equals Fastbender in a shockingly boring movie. This movie was all hyped up because of it’s subject matter and nudity. I found his character to be so incredibly pathetic and weird that seeing the credits roll was the best part of the movie.
Hesher- Joseph Gordon Levitt is Hesher, a guy who just doesn’t give a fuck. Who is he, where is from, where does he go? No one knows. He befriends a kid, TJ who recently lost his mother and generally hates life. Hesher, through a weird series of events helps the kid through the most difficult part of his life. Liked this one a lot and it took me by surprise. It was on odd but unique and touching story. You’re never really sure where it’s going but in the end the story is a good one. Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson and JGL are all awesome and Devin Brochu as TJ was really impressive.
Project X- A High School party movie using the found footage directing technique. It’s cast well, the situations get bigger and crazier…even though it doesn’t really do anything terribly new, I thought it was a fun movie.
The Grey- It’s Liam Neeson giving Les Stroud a run for his money! Can this guy do no wrong or what? This time he’s caught in the woods trying to survive. Aside from some awkward looking wolf puppet attacks, it looked awesome and was a fun ride. Really liked the ending.
The Thing- The new one. I’m kinda torn about this one. Carpenter’s the thing is pretty much a masterpiece so it’s really hard for anything to walk anywhere near this universe. I think it did a lot of things right, it looked like it took place in the same time and place, it fits into the beginning of Carpenter’s movie well. The paranoia was played up well and they wisely avoided directly ripping the big moments off from Carpenter. That said. they didn’t really have a huge moment to hang their hat on. They show a lot of the monster frequently and it reminded me a lot of the stuff you see in anime (especially Gluttony from Full Metal Alchemist). I really want to see a making of to see how and why they choose to do things, what’s cg and what isn’t. It looks like they did as much as they could practically, added CG to enhance and full CG where they had to. I’m wondering if just being able to say that they did it with cg makes it less intense. Just knowing it’s digital makes it easier to brush aside [there is some wild shit they did with the attacks]. I got confused a lot because all the guys have beards so they all look alike. When the eating starts it was difficult to remember who was left alive. I’m totally on the fence about this flick. It wasn’t bad, it respected Carpenters movie but there’s just something that wasn’t right. I guess i’m just thinking it shouldn’t have been made which sounds really harsh. That makes it sound like the Psycho remake.