The Dilated Pupil's Reviews

I have to admit, I liked American Gangstera lot more than I thought I would. That said, the story was predictable, the lighting was pretty sad and the performances were OK as expected.

At one point Jenna made a comment like, "I left an hour ago and he's still not married." This made me realize that all gangster movies follow the same basic arch or more to the point a sharp point bell-curve and this one is no exception. The "good-times" portion of the movie is always within the first hour; then you see the inevitable rise to the point of a "good-times at the top montage"; then the falling action once someone figures out who's at the top taking all their money. 

It didn't feel boring at the time but looking back it kinda was so I'm giving it a 3 out of 5. I just don't think I should expect more out of these movies. The reason I like the first The Godfatherso much is because they spend 2+ hours in the "good-times" mode and then GFII has another 2+ hours of "good-times at the top montage" or at least 1 hour. By the time you get to the falling action you don't really care too much about the characters.

The book Live and Let Dieis james bond's second adventure in the famous series and as such has some of the major hang-ups of a sequel.  a good portion of the book is used to explain Fleming's thoughts on race in the late 50s.  Bond actually spends quite a bit of time in the book trying to get laid or at least heal enough to where he could get laid which is quite different from the movies where it seems like he can't walk outside without getting jumped. in general the book is fun but nowhere near as cool as the first book, Casino Royaleand always tastes a little bland. (3*s)


The movie Live and Let Die is the first movie made after the Sean Connery era.  it was created in the 70's and stars an all-black villain cast just as the book did but it wasn't explained as well and just looks strange.  I still really like Roger Moore as Bond and feel that he brings a lot more class to the roll. The acting from the supporting cast is generally terrible, not just cheesy but the stunts are fantastic. The DVD contains a behind-the-scenes documentary on the production and shows every "croc-jumping" take which makes this movie worth the rental.

Unlike many other Bond's, this movie attempts (poorly) to follow the book but loses the meaning and edits so badly that all of the original meaning was lost. (2*s)

I'm currently running a fever (grrr-flu season!) and decided to watch a movie. Deceptionis an interesting beast in that it is completely uninteresting. Here was my thought process: average script-check, average actors-check, average director-check, soundtrack straight out of a Bass Master CD-check. OK, let's give it a try.

What a treat, they decided that the soundtrack should be the same sounds played in a loop for 2 hours! Seriously, what's with the bass notes? The whole movie sets up, or at least tries/attempts/throws-something-against-the-wall for a suspenseful ending. Let me sum it up for you as train of thought:
Is the plot building?
I can't tell.
Wait is he working with the cops?
No?!
How the hell?

And instead of a big bang, though you do get a little of that at the end it's more of a "pfft" sound. Mich Mich can make the same sound on demand.

Ultimately you never get to know any of the characters and looking back that may be a good thing as it would just cause hours more of Bass Masters vol. 3. I think we can all agree that was not the finest Bass Master CD.

...seriously!? OK, 1 star.

Anyone that knows me knows I'm not a fan of modern horror. That's why it was a shock to me when I didn't completely hate 30 Days Of Night. I saw it on onDemand and decided to give it a chance the other night. The cast was decent so it gave me some hope and the original comics were suppose to be good.

I liked the setting a lot. A small town in rural (read:very rural) Alaska is attacked by a swarm of Vampires that are apparently resistant to extreme cold. Ben Foster is always very good and he delivers his usual performance through some of the grossest looking teeth ever seen in a movie.

Lighting in a horror movie is very important and I thought they did an OK job but they used some sort of high-contrast super fast film speed and it caused a lot of aliasing which drove me nuts in scenes toward the beginning where there was a lot of light.

In short, kinda fun, short, basic horror fare.

UPDATE!

The more I think about this movie, I realize how annoyed by the ending I am.

There Will Be Bloodis simply amazing. I was surprised to see such humor in this picture but I should have expected it after Anderson's past work suchBoogie Nights. I don't really consider myself a huge Paul Thomas Anderson fan or at least I didn't.

The things that make this movie great are the many basic rules that get broken. To start, there isn't any dialog for the first portion of the movie but it never feels slow and that is thanks in part to an incredible soundtrack. At times the movie feels more like a horror/suspense movie then a traditional drama which was obviously intentional and really well done.

TWBB is a movie about some really focused men that are passionate about their business and very little else. The acting in this movie is just as good if not better than the cinematography. I loved this movie. Go. Watch.