fhatch2-1 Reviews

Directions (2006 Video)

An Amazing, Visual Sensory Overload

[10/10 · 27 January 2007]

Death Cab for Cutie's album 'Plans' opened up to some negative press. Not due to the content, no...but because Death Cab had signed onto Atlantic records, and they had 'sold-out'. Well, let me be the first to tell you this is not a 'sell-out' work. It is a low budget, fascinating collection of thirteen short films. It is one of the best music interpretations I have ever come by. All of the videos do not stick so close to the song that it is cheesy, but none of them are so abstract and odd that you have to scratch your head, and think: "What the hell were they thinking?"

An A+ effort. RECOMMENDED VIDEOS: Marching Bands of Manhattan, Summer Skin, Different Names for the Same Thing, Jealousy Rides With Me, Talking Like Turnstiles

War of the Worlds (2005)

Incredible.

[10/10 · 22 July 2005]

Wow. That's all that I can say right now. Wow. This is one great sci-fi movie.

Going into the theater I was scared half to death of this movie, ready to sprint out of the theater, but man was I wrong about this. This movie is by far the best movie ever. Ever.

It starts out focused on Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) who is a New York dock worker, and a divorced dad. His ex (Miranda Otto) needs him to take care of their kids for the weekend so she can spend time with her fiancée. Ray and his two kids Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) don't know each other very well, and Robbie steals Ray's car.

Soon, however intense lightning strikes twenty six times outside of Ray's house, and Ray runs out to a square near his house where many have gathered, and then the tri-pod appears, zapping everyone in sight.

Ray and his kids flee, and try to get on a ferry, which another tri-pod attacks, killing many more people. Robbie supposedly dies in an explosion, and Ray and Rachel take shelter in a basement. They are soon captured by a tri-pod, but Ray pants live grenades inside it, and they are freed. By now, many tri-pods have broken down due to viruses and bacteria. Ray and Rachel get to his ex's house, and, as it turns out, Robbie is alive. The movie ends on a bittersweet note of survival and loss. This is definitely Spielberg's best.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Way Better Than Expected

[8/10 · 22 July 2005]

Wow. This movie's not that bad, and its not a stupid kids movie, if even the darkest PG-rated movie I've ever seen. Tim Burton was pretty much born to direct this, and all of the kids were perfectly cast, from the violent video game addict Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry) to the gentle, good natured Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore).

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) yet. I thought his character was the worst, and possibly the strangest. No, no, let me revise that. He was the strangest character, by far, from licking the guts of a giant flying bee, to giggling happily after plastic puppets meet a fiery doom, in which they all melt. Strange, indeed.

But I did indeed enjoy his back story. Tim Burton has given him a strange childhood as the son of a dentist, who treats candy like poison. The young Willy Wonka is hilarious, and his face is covered by an astonishing mess of braces, headgear, and strange mouth contraptions. After a sad scene where the elder Wonka burns all of Willy's Halloween Candy, Willy becomes a rebel and a candy mogul.

This movie is a good, lighthearted movie that actually doesn't make you fall asleep... Not bad... Not bad...