Buy it!

Would you recommend it? Definitely. In fact, I think most of us in the Western World are so in the dark about water, I think this documentary should be required watching.

Technically any good? While it does come across as very heavy-handed and preachy and doesn’t try too hard to present any opposing view points (though it does try), the facts it presents are undeniable and incredibly disturbing. It’s downright scary how much power big business has over the water in the ground. And just think about how important water is to commerce–as a result, water ends up being the number 3 commodity behind oil and electricity. Yeah. I didn’t know that either. Another fact it presents is that humans account for just 10% of the water use in the world. The rest is split unevenly between agriculture and business–the majority of which goes to business.

How did it leave me feeling? Angry, for two reasons. First, because no one seems to be aware of or have a problem with these giant companies using and controlling so much water. Second because the film pretends that a few isolated victories against these corporations means that we can stop them. Protests have stopped some companies from essentially stealing water, but Coca-Cola, for instance, is a huge company. They didn’t lose that battle in India, they just put their resources someplace else instead of wasting time with a bunch of protesters. So, I could have done without the corny, “speak truth to power” BS and stuck with the fear-mongering since that’s what is needed.

Would you sit through it again? YES! I want to go over the facts presented again and try to pick up on things I missed the first time through. This docu is jammed with interesting stuff and interesting people.

Seriously, watch this movie!!

Buy it!

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Geh… kind of. I guess. But annoying as hell, too.

Technically any good? ARG! NO! It meanders all over the place and is frustrating at every turn. The characters in the movie do everything against logic yet somehow (duh, because the writer wants it) they are able to get away with their rock-stupid choices.

Seriously, at almost every point of this movie, there is a character that is doing something ill-advised, illogical, or downright STUPID and yet, fate (the writer) allows things to generally work out for the characters in the end.

I think the film was trying to be some sort of fable, but ends up being very uneven and contrived.

The acting was perfectly reasonable, but no amount of good acting could undo the rest of the flaws of this film.

How did it leave me feeling? FRUSTRATED. I had to have one of my venting sessions afterwards because it was just a mess. I really like Tom Tykwer as a director–I loved Run Lola Run and enjoyed Winter Sleepers quite a lot. However, The Princess and the Warrior was just annoying as hell to sit through.

Buy it!

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Definitely! It put a human face on these people we know only from the news.

Technically any good? Everything was very solid. The acting was incredible. The script was tight and the story was believable. The only “however” I have here is that the title suggests the movie is actually about the Queen of England. It really isn’t. It’s only about a part of her life. As such, I found it disappointing.

Maybe it was because I was alive and paying attention during the time period the movie takes place and as a result I didn’t need the review of events the film puts its viewers through. That’s not to say it wasn’t a nicely done review, I just wanted to know more about her life. I mean, of all of the incredible things Queen Elizabeth II has lived through, they picked how she dealt with (former) Princess Diana’s death. It was an interesting period, but surely, World War II, or the Falklands, or even the build-up to the Iraq War would have made for better cinema.

How did it leave me feeling? Definitely happy that I saw such wonderful performances from Helen Mirren and Michael Sheen, but ultimately disappointed that we didn’t get more of a history lesson. I won’t even go into how it was definitely a pro-British-Royalty propaganda movie. (Talk about white-entitlement issues! SHEESH!)

Final Rating? NFI – NetFlix It. Worth seeing for the good acting, but ultimately, I don’t think it’s really that worth seeing.

Buy it!

Positive Experience/Entertaining? It was entertaining, but it was pretty damn preachy.

Technically any good? The story holds together and is entertaining (as I mentioned) but ultimately it comes off like a screed against the Republicans. Not that the film’s criticism aren’t fair, it’s just that pounding on Republicans for the entire length of a film does not a good movie make (at least, not usually). The good news is that the plot and acting were interesting enough to keep me paying attention.

The story and script are both as tight as you’d expect from a John Sayles film, and the acting is as solid, too. Most notably for me, Danny Huston who, I believe, is now among my favorite actors thanks to his performance in this movie. I already liked him quite a bit after his turn in The Proposition but seeing him play the flawed-but-trying-to-do-the-right-thing detective in this film allowed me to really see his range. The guy is pretty damn good.

How did it leave me feeling? Satisfied and unsatisfied at the same time. While it was obviously a diatribe against the Bush Administration, I found myself wishing it wasn’t so ham-fisted about it. Not that I feel sympathy for the Republicans, but because I feel like Democrats aren’t entirely innocent, either. In this film the liberals are portrayed as just generally loserish and not corrupt. I wish!

Final Rating? NFI – NetFlix It – That’s what I did. By far one of Sayles’ worst movies (but Sayles is brilliant, so keep that in mind). I have yet to see Sunshine State, but give me something infinitely more subtle like Lonestar or even Passion Fish over this.

Buy it!

Positive Experience/Entertaining? YES. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie for adults that actually respected my intelligence and entertained me in a fun way at the same time.

Technically any good? Based on a play of the same name, this movie is pretty tight script and story-wise. There is almost nothing I would have done differently and there was no point in which I was bored. The movie tells its story, develops its characters and slides you to the edge of your seat with subtle skill. The acting from Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon and Christopher Reeve is is solid and very convincing.

The only flaw, I felt, was the music–while there was nothing wrong with it, in theory, I felt it was jarring in a movie that simply didn’t need any music. The performances and the editing are enough to pull you along and keep you enveloped. The perfectly reasonable, but fairly period, music knocked me clean out of the film.

How did it leave me feeling? Definitely entertained and definitely satisfied. It made me want to read the play and maybe even want to be in it. :)

Final Rating? SIYL – See If You Like intense but not terrifying moments. There are some definitely adult themes here, but for intelligent adults looking for a fun movie that won’t make you feel like you’re being spoken down to, this is a perfect pick.

If you haven’t seen this movie, don’t talk about the plot with anyone. Conversations about this film with even those who haven’t seen it are tantamount to spoiler mine fields that are very likely to destroy your first experience watching this film.

Documentary Thursday brings you my Pocket Review of Maxed Out a documentary/opiniomentary about the credit crisis that contributed to the economic crisis we’re experiencing in America right now. Like In Debt We Trust, this movie came out in 2006 and points out many of the problems that functioned as serious indicators of the rough road we’re currently traveling on. It’s a shame more people don’t watch documentaries! Ah well. On with the review:

Buy it! Watch it now! Buy the book!

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Definitely. This documentary was more in-depth regarding the nuts-and-bolts of the credit industry than any docu I’ve seen to date.

Technically any good? This movie is definitely slanted against the credit industry, though based on the facts it presents, I wonder how you could make a pro-credit industry docu without lying your ass off. Regardless, this film talks to both the prey and the predators involved in the credit industry and shows you how both sides function. Most disturbing is seeing how much money the predators can make and how they rationalize taking horrible advantage of people’s trust–or complete lack of intelligence–the film introduces us to one mentally handicapped man who was given a loan. Yep, there are people so corrupt that they will give a man almost incapable of signing his own name.

Needless to say, this film makes a powerful case for a serious reformation of the credit industry.

Final Rating? GSN – Go See Now – this film is something every American should watch. We are being preyed upon by this industry and it’s wrong.

Full disclosure time: I was illegally sued for back debt I didn’t owe and lost the case. The law is useless if you have a judge who won’t see that it is enforced and if you can’t afford a lawyer, that doesn’t help either.

So, I might be a little biased in my review of this film. Then again, I think it’s justified.

Buy it! Watch it now! Watch it free at Archive.org

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Well, as a fan of cheesy movies, it was juuust barely a positive experience. Entertaining might be overstating it, however. More, amusing (at times).

Technically any good? Well, it was directed by Roger Corman, so that’s debatable. However, the movie did hint at the comic talents we’d see on display in Little Shop of Horrors, which was nice. The script is campy and silly and there’s not much else to say about the movie. The acting is hit and miss, though it doesn’t matter since this is one of Corman’s more campy creations.

How did it leave me feeling? I guess it left me feeling satisfied that I’d accidentally stumbled across a Corman film I’d never seen or heard anything about. It was pretty crappy over all and would only recommend it to Corman Completists and since I’m not one, myself, I can’t really recommend it–even to the MST fans in the audience.

Final Rating? DNS – Do Not See. This film will never (rightfully) see the moniker of “classic” Corman. It’s mildly amusing and that’s about it. I’d love to see it remade though–the premise of a guy getting rich off of a monster hoax that turns out to not be a hoax during the Cuban revolution is actually kind of interesting to me.

Buy it!

Positive Experience/Entertaining? I would say YES. However, it’s a very jarring, sometimes depressing film, so don’t expect it to be a “feel good” kind of movie.

Technically any good? While the CG animation was kind of weak, everything else about the documentary was awesome. The voice acting was solid (the late :( Roy Scheider puts in an impressive performance as the judge). Over all the film does a wonderful job of mixing historical footage, audio, animation (CG, traditional and Flash) to make a compelling documentary about a short, but important time period in American history. Some of the facts they present in this movie really made me mad.

How did it leave me feeling? Mad.

:)

It left me wondering why 20 century American history was entirely ignored in my history class. It seems like there’s a whole lot to learn from just the trial these people in Chicago went through.

Final Rating? GSN – GO SEE NOW – Netflix it, rent it, find it, watch it. This is HISTORY and it’s particularly topical these days.

Buy it! Watch it now on Amazon! DL for free at A

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Not really–I suppose it was fine for a background movie, but the story was so cliche, even for its time.

Technically any good? It was reasonably acted, but this movie treads upon well traveled ground. Some of the makeup FX are good, but generally, this is just your standard “Jekyl and Hyde” story mixed in with a love triangle between a mad(ish) scientist, his dedicated (if amoral) assistant and a hot blonde. Some of the set pieces were nice. Sadly, even for a bad B-movie, the script was almost completely forgettable.

How did it leave me feeling? Meh. Like I said, this is just like a half-dozen other “J&H” stories that have been “borrowed” for scripts of other bad movies. I think MST3K did three or four of them (at least) with almost the exact same plot structure (LEACH WOMAN comes to mind the quickest).

Final Rating? DNS – Do Not See – unless you happen to be jonesing for a bad b-movie to quip to, MST3K-style, this movie isn’t worth bothering with.