Movies

NOT ALL THERE:

How CGI leaves movies feeling flat

By: Lee Rice

New advances in technology have always made tasks easier for people. However, the major problem with those same advances is that they have the potential to make people lazy. CGI, the new and much loved tool of the Great Hollywood Movie Machine, is no different.

TWILIGHT 

By: Lee Rice

Although it is thoroughly engaging and entertaining throughout, "Twilight" suffers from both the weight of its source material, and a few laughable moments of unintentional hilarity sprinkled throughout.

Quantum of Solace

By: Lee Rice

“Quantum of Solace,” the newest entry in the James Bond franchise, proves that lightning really can strike twice.

The direct sequel to “Casino Royale,” which attempted to re-invent Bond as a more believable character grounded in reality, “Quantum” manages to take all the best qualities of “Royal” while fixing what little was wrong with it. 

ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO

Lee Rice

            Over the years, I’ve learned not to trust the MPAA.

            There have been children’s films with decidedly adult content, and it seems that some films are rated far more harshly than they deserve.

            “Zack and Miri” is the final nail in the coffin, and for the life of me, I can’t see how this movie didn’t receive at least an NC-17.

SAW V

By: Lee Rice

When the original ‘Saw’ premiered, nobody could have predicted that the moderately priced psychological thriller/horror movie would change the way people look at horror movies. ‘Saw’ used traps that played off the viewer’s worst fears of dismemberment and death, creating a frightening atmosphere that spawned a generation of imitators, not to mention an ongoing parade of sequels.

The latest in this series, ‘Saw V’ picks up almost exactly where the last one left off, with detective Hoffman, the newest of Jigsaw’s apprentices, trying to conceal his identity by eliminating those that suspect him. Simultaneously, he puts into effect his latest trap.

The ‘Saw’ franchise is suffering from serious series fatigue. The law of diminishing returns states that each successive entry in a series will be less effective than the one preceding it, and it seems that pretty much all of the steam is gone here.

Been there, Saw’d that.

The traps don’t seem to have the same attention to detail as in previous entries, and the only really disturbing ones occur at the very end of the movie.  Another place where this entry disappoints is in the realm of character development.

In the first movie, the story was basically about two men in a room. There was plenty of time for us to get involved in their lives, and we even got to see what was happening to the doctor’s family on the outside. By the end of the movie, we cared about the characters, and that made the finish all the more shocking.

‘Saw V’ doesn’t inspire that sort of camaraderie, and hosts a nostly annoying cast of belligerent characters that the audience can’t really care about. It’s as if we’re expected to care more about what’s happening to the characters than the characters themselves, and things just don’t work that way. On top of that, all these people die because they didn’t bother to think things out first, making them not only unlikable, but stupid as well.

Unsurprisingly, there is a now standard "twist ending." The problem is (as with the work of M. Night Shyamalan), people have come to expect twist endings from the series, and they need to be completely unguessable in order to make them worth the buildup. The film made a pretty big claim by using the tagline “You Won’t Believe How It Ends,” but it really fails to deliver.

"W"

By: Lee Rice

            During his presidency, George W. Bush has had an absolute roller coaster ride of an approval rating. Following 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, the American people held him in high regard, believing that he had taken down the terrorist organization that had attacked us along with the government that sponsored them.

            Then came Iraq.

QUARANTINE

By: Lee Rice

            Horrifying. Frightening. Bone chilling. All these phrases describe my feelings about ‘Quarantine.’  I was horrified at the prospect that this script made it through Hollywood, frightened at the prospect of more sub-par chillers to come, and it chilled me to the bone to think that self respecting horror fans would be forced to shell out seven dollars to see this unspeakable junk.

EAGLE EYE

Lee Rice

As its name might imply, ‘Eagle Eye’ is a visual feast that’s high on special effects, but sadly low on brains.

MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL

By: Lee Rice

After the release of ‘There’s Something About Mary,’ pretty much every major studio jumped on the romantic comedy bandwagon for a solid slate of releases along the same lines. It also cemented Ben Stiller’s career as one of the reigning kings of romance, leading to the recent ‘Heartbreak Kid,’ one of the most idiotic romance movies of all time.

Well move over, ‘Heartbreak,’ because there’s a new kid in town.