Movie Review: Atlas Shrugged, Part 1

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1
Starring Taylor Schilling and Grant Bowler
Written by John Aglialoro and Brian Patrick O'Toole
Directed by Paul Johansson

Story: Dagny Taggart tries to save the family business (railroad transportation) after the commies have taken over the US Government.

Review: How you rate this movie is based on your political views rather than actual quality. If your a fan Ayn Rand you'll enjoy it. If not, not so much. The heavy handed political ideals in this movie detract from a neat idea of how the future will look in 5 years. But from what I read about the source material (Ayn Rand's novel) there wasn't much chance of a nonpolitical movie. Too bad. The production quality and the cast are more suitable for a cable miniseries than a theatrical release.

Comparable Movies: Nothing comes to mind, but any movie with a political agenda is a good start.

Rating: ** out of 5

My rating is based on the production quality and the cast of characters. If your familiar with the original novel (I'm not), then you know what to expect.

Yay Capitalism!
CHUD

Movie Review: Your Highness

Your Highness


Starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux
Written by Danny McBride and Ben Best
Directed by David Gordon Green

Story: In a fairytale kingdom, two princes, one a dashing hero, the other a cowardly screwup must quest to win back the oldest brother's bride to be.

Review: I was unsure of what to expect going in, so I was hesitantly hopeful it would be good movie. While it has it's moments Your Highness is pretty bad. My guess is the premise sounded funnier than the results. No character stands out, and it is so crass that it could never be confused with The Princess Bride.

Comparable Movies: Take any stoner comedy and put it in medieval times.

Rating: ** out of 5

Had a few el oh el moments, but not enough to recommend to anybody.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Movie Review: Hanna

Hanna


Starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, and Cate Blanchett
Directed by Joe Wright
Written by Seth Lochhead and David Farr

Story: A man trains his daughter from birth to be an assassin.

Review: Joe Wright's previous films were The Soloist, Atonement, and Pride and Prejudice. Not exactly the pedigree for an action film. Hanna is very stylish, but the action scenes, like many movies today, are reliant on quick cuts and closeups. There are quite a few chase sequences that I was completely lost in. How did she get from there to there? How is he ahead of her now, and not behind her? Watch Die Hard and you know the layout of the entire building, but in Hanna you don't know where anything is. You just sit there and assume the bad guy will catch up and confront her. Another problem I had was how one dimensional Cate Blanchett's character was. Blanchett was great, but with a little more fleshing out of her character it could have been special. The small moments she has are more impressive than the usual summer action movie. Oh, and Eric Bana kicks ass.

Comparable Movies: Pretty easy one. The Professional mixed with some Bourne Identity.

Rating: *** 1/2 out of 5

A superior cast for this type of movie. Action scenes could have been better, but not bad. I guess you take the good (good cast because of an artistic director), with the bad (no experience with big action sequences.)

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Reviews: Insidious, The Conspirator

Insidious
Starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye
Written by Leigh Whannell
Directed by James Wan

Story: A family moves into a new home, and are haunted by ghosts from a realm called The Further.

Review: Insidious is definitely creepy. It leaves you tense waiting for the next ghost around the corner to make its appearance. The director keeps a tight focus on the center, and had me looking in the corners of the frame to try to get a glimpse of what's off camera. The confrontation at the end with the big bad was a letdown, because it was so good building up to that point. I found the lesser ghosts to be much more interesting and creepy. For example, the one that is pacing on the outdoor balcony, and then shifts to pacing in the room sent shivers down my spine. Lastly, the score by Joseph Bishara was great. It gave the movie a unique quality, and was a nice throwback to classic horror movies.

Comparable Movies: Definitely Poltergeist. But I also got a little bit of a Sixth Sense type of vibe from it. There's no gore at all, and most of the scares are from not knowing what's around the next corner or inside the next door.

Rating: *** out of 5

The story was fairly unoriginal and no standout performances keep this from being a great ghost/horror movie. James Wan impressed me more with this than Saw. Hopefully his next is more like this than the latter.

The Conspirator
Starring James McAvoy, Robin Wright Penn, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, Kevin Kline, Alexis Bledel, Danny Huston
Written by James D. Solomon
Directed by Robert Redford

Story: The military trial of Mary Surratt for the conspiracy to assassinate Abe Lincoln.

Review: To be honest I had no idea what this movie was about. I didn't know much about the assassination of Lincoln, or the making of this movie. I saw it was playing at my local theater and read a the plot description on Yahoo! It has a great cast (even more than what I listed above,) and Robert Redford is no slouch as a director. However, this movie doesn't live up to it's pedigree. It felt more like a History Channel documentary than an Oscar worthy movie. The performances were solid, the set design and costumes looked good, but I think the story just wasn't intriguing enough to make a movie out of it. I understand it's significance in history, but not everything needs to be made into a movie.

Comparable Movies: Any 17th, 18th, or 19th century trial movie. Amistad comes to mind, as well as the John Adams series on HBO. I'd recommend seeing John Adams before The Conspirator. Paul Giamatti is fantastic as John Adams.

Rating: ** 1/2 out of 5

It's worth seeing, but nothing to get excited over.

May the Force be with you,

CHUD

Review: Source Code

Here we go. I'm going to try and review movies as I see them. I don't think I'll go all that in depth though. But if I recommend a movie at the end of the month it might be out of theaters by the time I post it. Here's the first of many hopefully.

The Source Code
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, and Jeffrey Wright
Directed by Duncan Jones
Written by Ben Ripley

Story: A helicopter pilot (Gyllenhaal) is part of a secret government experiment called The Source Code. It allows a person to relive the past eight minutes of a recently deceased person. Using the Source Code the agency tries to prevent a terrorist attack on Chicago.

Review: I really liked Jones' first movie, Moon, and was really looking forward to this one. It didn't disappoint. Gyllenhaal gives an excellent performance as the helicopter pilot, Colter Stephens, and Farmiga and Wright stand out as the controllers of the Source Code. Monaghan doesn't get a whole lot to work with, but she does an admirable job with a fairly shallow character.

There's not a lot of action. I'd say it's comparable to a sci-fi movie like The Adjustment Bureau, but the explosions and special effects for the train are decent.

Comparable Movies: I'd say it's kind of a mix of small independent sci-fi movie like Primer, and Total Recall.

Rating: **** 1/2 out of 5

The first thing I wanted to do when I got out of the theater is go back and see it again. I can't give a movie a better recommendation than that. So, if you like some hard core science fiction, I'd say see it.

April Preview

Here comes April. Just one more month until the Summer Movie Season begins. LET'S GO!

April 1st
Insidious - The producer of Paranormal Activity and the director of Saw make a Poltergeist-like horror movie. Don't let the PG-13 rating dissuade you, this could be good.

The Source Code - I liked Duncan Jones' first movie, Moon. This looks kinda like a Philip K Dick type of story, but I have my doubts. Hope it turns out good, but not expecting it to.

Super - Rainn Wilson plays a super hero with no super powers. Sounds like I've seen this one before. It is directed by James Gunn, so I'm interested. Check out his PG Porn shorts. http://www.spike.com/shows/james-gunns-pg-porn

Cat Run - Don't know too much about this one, but the trailer looks okay. Seems similar to Lucky Number Slevin.

Trust - I like Clive Owen and Catherine Keener, but this looks like a movie I'll see once and never think about it again. Directed by Friends alum, David Schwimmer.

Rubber - Can't see this in the theater, but thought I'd mention it. Here's the trailer. http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/rubber/


April 8th
Your Highness - I like the cast and director, but this seems like a movie that sounds better being pitched than it what it turns out to be.

Hanna - The movie I've been looking forward to more than any this month. One of my favorite movies of all time is The Professional, and this looks like a sequel to that.

Soul Surfer - The movie I've been looking forward to less than any this month. One of my most hated movies of all time is The Blind Side, and this looks like a sequel to that.

Arthur - I couldn't make it through the original, so I'm not too pumped about seeing the remake.

April 15th
Scream 4 - I like the first one, thought the second was okay, and didn't see the third. I'll try to watch that before going to number four.

Rio - Another 3D animated movie. Yawn.

April 22nd
Water For Elephants - Robert Pattinson is so dreamy. I think I'll catch an early matinee with all the stay at home moms.

April 29th
Fast Five - Like Scream 4 I haven't seen all the movies in this series, so I'll have to play catch up again.

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil - Haven't seen the original.


There's no chance in hell I'm going to see Disney's Prom or Madea's Big Happy Family. I'd rather lose a testicle.

I'm going to try to do something different this month and review each movie shortly after I see it. I figure the movies at the beginning of the month won't be in theaters by the time I do my monthly wrapup. And I know that you all base your movie watching habits by reading this blog.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD