7.24.2008

2008 Summer Movie Extravaganza Part III

Part III of the Extravaganza continues. Read up on Part I and II to catch up, slowpoke.

WALL-E


The Good: The tale of a lonely robot's galaxy-wide quest for his true love (and incidentally, humanity's lone chance at survival) upholds Pixar's well-deserved reputation for jaw-dropping visuals and touching revelations.

The Bad:
Youngsters won't notice the irony of a Disney film's anti-consumerism message, but it may irk adults... until they find out that WALL-E has been in development since Pixar was independent.

The Delicious:
How WALL-E's cockroach companion never lets a pounding keep him down.

Wanted

The Good:
James McAvoy makes a convincing yuppie-turned-assassin and mows down enemies while looking almost as good as Angelina Jolie.

The Bad: All the kids who'll now think their panic attacks means they can jump fifty yards across rooftops.

The Delicious:
When McAvoy reaps bloody vengeance on a building filled with master assassins.

Hancock

The Good:
Hancock's decision to hire a PR guy to change his image as a drunken, belligerent superhero is the kind of intelligent almost-breaking-the-fourth-wall-but-not-quite plot device that make film and comic geeks smile.

The Bad:
Charlize Theron's entire story arc belonged in a different, more serious movie.

The Delicious:
After Hancock stops a speeding train from killing a bystander, the surrounding mob criticizes his technique.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

The Good:
Wisecracks. Check. Creepy villains. Check. Visuals straight out of a Guillermo Del Toro's movie. Check.

The Bad:
I love Selma Blair, but she was wrong for Liz Sherman in the first Hellboy film and nothing's changed for the second.

The Delicious:
That Prince Nuada sure knows how to fight.

The Dark Knight

The Good:
Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker has the fascinating, disturbing quality of picking a hideous scab -- you can't look away.


The Bad:
Some of the schemes are needlessly complicated. You'll ask yourself afterwards, "why didn't they just __?

The Delicious:
The Joker's "experiments" are common comic book fodder, but for once they look and feel realistic and tense as hell.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

The Good:
The concept of traveling deep inside the Earth is as cool now as it was back in 1959 when the original film came out.

The Bad:
Besides a floating rock sequence there aren't too many genuinely exciting moments.

The Delicious:
It takes balls to disregard physics and the laws of nature so completely.

You want to know who else has balls? The other Large Association of Movie Blogs members. They've got the balls to stuff your face with huge, ripe movie nuggets.

12 comments:

Sarah said...

I loved Wall-E, made me laugh and cry.
The Dark Knight....for lack of a better phrase - it kicked a$$!!!

Adam Frazier said...

Totally madeover my blog, you should stop by! Tons of new reviews!

Reel Whore said...

Another great recap. I'm glad I didn't go see Journey - sounds like I didn't miss anything.

Matt said...

sarah - Totally. Both of those films have been the high points of my summer cinema going.

the fraze - I checked it out. Very spiffy graphics you've got over there. The reviews aren't bad either.

waywardjam - Thanks. Journey is the movie you watch when you've seen everything else. Unless you're under ten, then it's exciting as hell.

Reel Whore said...

I'm not sure about being 10. A friend took his nephews to see Journey and they were both bored by it.

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Nice review. I really enjoyed all the movies but The Dark Night is the one that I would love to watch again.