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rjslick
Reviews
Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
Get some writers, Blue Sky
I'd give it a 10 for animation
an 8 for characterization
a 9 for voice acting
but about a 3 (as in pages) for story.
There simply is no story. The first one had a fairly minimal "road movie" plot with our three couldn't-be-more-different heroes threatening to split apart at any given time. This one has the impending danger of a flood causing our now-thoroughly-friends guys out on another journey to a "boat." Some of the scenes (musical & dance numbers) are flat out hilarious, but they need to find a way to get us from one to another. Kids won't notice the lack of plot as much as adults of course, but I'd bet they won't be watching this one as much on DVD as they do the 1st. It just doesn't hold the attention as well.
Still, it's a lot more watchable than the Wild, which is our other big budget CGI cartoon of the month.
The Scarecrow (2000)
They don't get much worse than this.
Wretched animation, inane dialog, and songs that would embarrass Tiffany to have sung.
The musical numbers all feel like they were lifted from an SNL skit in the 80's. The animation makes Scooby Doo look like art. The fairy godmother appears as a computer screen, complete with touchpad to make your selection. There are other bad references to 80's & 90's culture throughout, although it's supposedly set in the 1800's. Hawthorne's heirs should sue for defamation.
Just poke yourself in the eye for 90 minutes while listening to a jackhammer; it'll be a more enjoyable experience than this.
Snake Hunt: These Rattles Ain't for Babies (2004)
"Can ya hear 'at?"
I saw this fun little (60 minutes give or take) documentary at South by Southwest 2004 and the audience I was with ate it up. Footage of a rattlesnake roundup and show in Oklahoma is interspersed with interviews of some of the participants as well as an actual Herpetologist who, of course contradicts about half of everything the "snake handlers" say. There's not really a whole lot more to it, but some of the characters presented here are in the "too weird to be made-up vein" that makes these kinds of docs so fun to watch. It's not for the squeamish; I will say that. There are several shots of snake butchering that will make a lot of people turn away. Anyway, it's worth a viewing if you get a chance. Their website says it's available on DVD for $12, but doesn't have an order form, so I'm not sure if that's accurate or not.
Before Sunset (2004)
Did you like the first one?
Because if you didn't, you'll like this one even less. While the dialog is not quite as spontaneous as the original, this is still a VERY worthy successor to a movie nearly all it's fans thought should NEVER have a sequel. The characters aren't quite a genuine as they were in the first film, but that's one of the things that keeps it so real. If these two characters were less cynical and more open like their 1995 counterparts, it just wouldn't be believable.
This isn't a film for the masses. A fiend of mine in her early 30's watched the original on DVD the night before we saw this one at SXSW, and she thought the sequel superior, but after considering them both, said that had she still been in her mid 20's, she probably would have enjoyed the original more. It speaks to a certain age of viewer with a certain level of intelligence and maturity. Most other people just won't get it, and will think it's a waste of time. That's ok though, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
Haute tension (2003)
Color me unimpressed.
This is crap horror with decent gore effects. The plot is lifted straight out of a dozen better US horror films of the 80's. Except, of course, for the "twist" ending, which makes no logical sense what-so-ever if you consider it's implication on the action that took place during the 90 minutes of film before it's revealed.
Man on the Moon (1999)
Maybe, like Courtney Love said as Lynne Margulies, Andy's girlfriend, "There is no REAL (Andy Kaufman)."
I really like Andy Kaufman. I grew up watching him torture the world, and I think more than a little of his brand of humor made its way into psyche and helped me become the person I am today. I saw him on SNL and Fridays (and of course Taxi). I followed the tabloids when he got sick (the web wasn't around yet, so the tabloids were still the least accurate medium of the time) because they were the only ones who seemed to really care. I remember watching a late-night news program one time showing in great detail what the charlatans like the one who treated Andy really did. I followed anything I could on Andy to the point that I even watched wrestling for a while (and believe me, back then, if you didn't live in a trailer park, you didn't admit to watching wrestling.) In high school, his bits were always some of my circles of friends' favorites to recite ad infinitum. But I never felt for a moment that I knew who Andy Kaufman really was, and unfortunately I still don't.
Man on the Moon is a really good movie; there's no denying that. Jim Carrey's performance is dead on. He deserves an Oscar nom here much more so than he did for the overrated Truman Show. But when you put Milos Forman together with writers Alexander & Karaszewski for a film about a comic genius, you expect GREAT. What Man on the Moon does is give almost perfect recreations of Kaufman's most famous bits. What it doesn't do is give any real insight to what made the man this way. If A & K get a writing nom for this one, they should defer it to Andy Kaufman and his longtime writing partner, Bob Zmuda, because those two wrote over half of everything seen in this film. The recreations were fantastic; they couldn't have been better if Kaufman had come back and performed them himself. But when it came time to show what was going on in Andy's head, they were obviously stumped. Maybe the behind the mask stuff didn't test well and was cut out. I don't know. All I know is most episodes of A&E's Biography show more insight in an hour than Man on the Moon did in two. Maybe, like Courtney Love said as Lynne Margulies, Andy's girlfriend, "There is no REAL (Andy Kaufman)."
Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967)
Low Budget Art at it's Best
Filmed for a pittance, Jack Hill gets one of the best performances ever from Lon Chaney, Jr. and creates a cult masterwork. The incredible characters are so real, yet so bizarre, they captivate instantly. The cinematography and set design add to the deranged yet "cozy" atmosphere.
BTW, The DVD is the only home version worth watching, since the VHS versions use horribly scratched prints.