danz radikle reviewz

Kung Fu Panda (2008) - Noodle Folk - liked it

dan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:38:00 +0000

Saw this on Imax, which was pretty awesome. The visuals were great and actually fit the story and weren’t just technical masturbation. The action scenes were mostly pretty interesting and inspired. Overall I was impressed and pleased. The one time Po gets hit in the nuts while training was very unnecessary and reminded me of a lot of the reasons I disliked Shrek. I guess they pretty much had to have the ‘Everyone Kung Fu Fighting’ song in there, and it was pretty grating.

Some Like It Hot (1959) - Jello on springs - liked it

dan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:37:10 +0000

I kind of half watched this while I was doing something else, but it was still funny enough for me to notice. I was mostly surprised at Tony Curtis’ voices. I thought his woman was more convincing the Hoffman’s in Tootsie and his millionaire was really funny. Lemmon’s was really annoying, especially during the party on the train when he’s whispering the whole time.

Sheitan (2006) - barbarian bastards - liked it

dan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:36:55 +0000

Definitely fun, especially Cassel. I thought they needed to tread the line a little more of him being more of just a rural bumpkin and not so outright fucked up. I think it also would have helped if that red-haired girl had been around more, as an enticement for the white kid to ignore Cassel’s creepiness. The business about Bart’s name and going back and forth on it was pretty funny.

That said I’m pretty tired of the whole theme of the horror of rural folks. The hot spring scene was pretty predictable and not as fun as some of the other stuff. It all strikes me as red state/blue state snobbery.

All the Real Girls (2003) - and pecan logs - liked it

dan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:46:39 +0000

I had very fond memories of my first viewing of this way back when it came out, then my niece recently had Elf on auto-repeat so it reminded me of it. And now I see why I don’t rewatch movies much. All the impact from the first time was kind of deadened and I spent so much time anticipating what was happening I couldn’t appreciate it all as I went. The one moment that struck me more this time than the first time was her secret: “Hellohellohellohello”

Auf der anderen Seite (2007) - Edge of Heaven - Holy heingey hot Turkish lesbian revolutionaries! - liked it

dan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:32:40 +0000

Holy heingey hot Turkish lesbian revolutionaries!

The time shifting and interweaving and coincidences are usually pretty annoying storytelling tricks to me, but by the end it felt like these tricks served more to reinforce the importance of the basic 1 on 1 relationships of the characters. And this ultimately was about giving of yourself for these relationships, so I found that very beautiful. Gul, for example, starts off as such an annoying blowhard but believably softens by the end.

I really liked the opening scene and its replay. There was not a whole lot to be gained by replaying it in its entirety but the simplicity of it was very soothing.

Mister Lonely (2006) - time to be a new person - liked it

dan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:18:24 +0000

A lot of this felt forced and was also a bit of a chore. I liked the setup a lot - Luna was great and I appreciated the earnestness of the voiceover and themes. When we got to the commune it felt like they turned their backs on those themes and just tried to kill some time. The Buckwheat stuff, especially, and Charlie’s dickishness just felt very scripted. Then the emotional impact of the sheep was minimized by this distance. There just needed to be a little more worked out on their commonality and the pain that’s referred to so much at the end. It mostly felt like Korine tried to take some steps towards honesty but failed in large chunks.

Like everyone else I jizzed myself at the beauty of the bmx scene.

On Golden Pond (1981) - golden - liked it

dan — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:28:53 +0000

Definitely appreciated the dialogue and performances, but too much prettiness intruded I thought. Like the opening montage and the excessive ‘ahh’ shots. And the music, too, especially after Norman gets scared in the forest and finally tells Ethel about it. It’s a really powerful moment but the music is just too nice and takes all the fear Norman has out. Winning the kid over so quickly and the daughter reconciliation probably would have annoyed me but I was really tired and just wanted conclusion I think.

I really identified with Norman and how he had no use for people who didn’t get his jokes and also didn’t know when to quit.

Little Big Man (1970) - human beings - liked it

dan — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:08:51 +0000

Well this was certainly a mess, with noble savages and whitey still the best and especially the moronic polygamy scene. It was somewhat fun when he was bouncing around in different careers but they didn’t really have much purpose in doing so - all the effort and heart seemed to be in the scenes when he was with the Cheyenne. His stints as gunfighter and drunk, especially, seemed like they just wanted them to be over as quick as possible.

Tootsie (1982) - toots - liked it

dan — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:58:59 +0000

There were a couple actual laugh moments. The birthday party was fun. The kiss avoidance really made me laugh. I liked the indictment of Michael and how he treated Teri Garr, but he seemed really annoying overall so I wasn’t too into rooting for him. His annoyingness was also part of the whole tone of the movie where they tried to do a few throwaway and real quick lines and sardonicism in a frenetic pace that seemed calculated to be a ’smart’ comedy.

Also the score was a massive hurdle. I wonder how corny it sounded back then, cause today it’s just awful.

Three Days of the Condor (1975) - Today it’s oil - liked it

dan — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:47:00 +0000

This was ok. The biggest problem seemed to be that the coolest parts of the story just aren’t cinematic at all. Discovering some plot from a foreign language novel is really cool but only explaining it in outline wasn’t. Also the kidnapping was completely forced and unnecessary. It seemed like they just wanted to up the stakes but it was very off-putting for me.

There’s something about the beginning with the bouncy protagonist happier than everyone and tweaking everyone’s noses - a cliche, for one, but also just annoying if you’d ever encountered a person like this in real life.