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Django Unchained 2012
How many music montages does one movie need? There's a point in this film where there are two in a row. And for a film that's already overlong, that's not a good thing.
Indulgent is the best word to describe this. It's just edited so poorly. A lot needs to be taken out - and could be, with zero impact on the story. And it's not even a good story. The emotional core is there, but apart from that, the…
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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989
I think somewhere between this film and Raiders of the Lost Ark lies a truly perfect adventure film. And I don't mean Temple of Doom (although I do say TOD is a very under-rated movie).
For everything Raiders does right, it gets a few things wrong. The entire third act, for instance, is simply dissatisfying, and cannot live up to the rest of the movie. The Last Crusade remedies this with one of the most creative and exciting climaxes to…
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Star Trek Into Darkness 2013
Such a good movie.
It's hard to pick one part that stands out above the rest. It's just one singular unit of awesome. I thought Cumberbund Bandersnatch was fantastic as the villain, but what impressed me the most was honestly the music. God damn, that music was amazing!
See this movie. It's a big, loud, fun summer blockbuster done right. Except it's still spring.
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Earthquake 1974
What it's lacking in character work and interesting drama, it makes up for with some of the most incredible special effects I've ever seen. Some moments are clearly showing their age, but most blew me away more than CGI ever has.
And the set-design is simply unbelievable.
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Fast And Furious 2009
This is easily one of the worst movies ever made. Everything about it is of the poorest quality imaginable.
Justin Lin's directing and his cinematography choices are crimes worthy of prison time. The film looks awful. It sounds awful, too. The acting is terrible even by Fast & Furious standards. The dialogue is embarrassingly pathetic and makes worthless trash like CSI: Miami look like Billy Wilder's finest hour by comparison. The story is stupid and lazy and not creative or interesting…
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Conan the Destroyer 1984
A fun turn-your-brain-off guilty pleasure. The action is done well, there are some cool set-pieces that beat almost everything you see in movies today (the mirror castle, for example, was fantastic), and the cinematography by the legend Jack Cardiff is nothing short of what you would expect from one of the greatest DPs to ever live.
Otherwise, it sucks.
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Airport 1970
Interesting how disaster films today generally follow this same structure. Over the years, the focus on action has grown and supplanted the character work, which has been practically forgotten about all together (sadly). Otherwise, they're pretty much the same.
Airport security, on the other hand...
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ParaNorman 2012
Killer animations, great laughs, likable characters. The story doesn't try to do anything different or special, so it doesn't quite reach the level of better animated films, but it's still a blast.
