Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
A shattered man who’s lost someone close to him and becomes an avenging angel of death. It’s been done over and over again, but it never seems to get old.
The direction and the acting save this one. There is very little in it that’s original, and much that is not. At times it seems like someone got hold of my list of things I do not want to see in movies ever again, and just ran right through it checking things off. They even managed to hit #25…awkwardly. Although it’s baseball in this one and not soccer.
It has a couple of twists in it that take themselves way too seriously. The first one I didn’t call, although I was mulling it over in my head, because I just didn’t care that much…and the second one anybody with a working brain will see a mile away. It would have been a better movie if those were just left out — although I imagine, then, you’re left without much of a story.
But nobody is buying tickets for that. They’re there to watch Dwayne Johnson become a grief-driven unstoppable murdering machine, and The Rock delivers. Oh yes, that was the best part of the movie.
That aside, Kill Bill was better because a part of it was making fun of itself as it went along. And of other spectacles that had come before, parodying while it simultaneously paid homage. This one is guilty of representing its story as original, when it isn’t. It isn’t a felony in movie-land but it’s certainly a misdemeanor.
Well. At least nobody ducked down behind an open car door to block large-caliber bullets (#32), yelled loudly to make machine guns work better (#41) or opened a medicine cabinet with a mirror on the door (#8). Also, to the best I could see, not a single gun was fired more times than its magazine or cylinder capacity, unless it was reloaded (#31). Credit for that.
Overall, there are quantities of Give-A-Damn in this movie. I was supposed to go out and get a popcorn refill, and I didn’t…why? Because I wanted to see what was happening next. On the strength of that alone, it deserves a thumbs-up. Let’s say three stars out of four. We paid evening ticket prices and I’m not feeling particularly ripped-off about it. Although, if you can set yourself up for a matinee, that would probably be a better match. Still, it’s better than a “wait for video” movie I suppose.
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