Kimputer's Weblog

Ouch. Who to blame ? First of all, the story can be basically told in mere 5 lines. Not only that, I could predict everything happening. The simplistic storytelling is kind of inexcusable for this 6th installment, where there’s no evolving whatsoever for the better. In the world of spells, everything should be possible, including the cliches. Except, in this case, those even don’t hold ground, as the relationships are there just to be there, and have no basis at all. Same goes for character interaction, and story line, totally uninteresting for a pre-finale chapter. And it bugs the hell out of me. Everything feels so fake, even the loss of a major character makes me feel indifferent and only strengthens my aversion.
With 2.5 hours of mostly nothing but the most obvious happening, I really wonder if I’m able to sit through the last book, which will be split in two (released in 2010 and 2011)! As a franchise, it gets the dollars in the massive enchanted chest, but I still wonder why, as nothing spectacular can be said about most of these chapters.5-.

A small-ish comedy featuring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn. These types usually seems very grounded, but this one differs in abnormal human behaviour. Hence it takes a high level of suspension of disbelief, plus another huge leap of faith (considering the deepening dialogue about the characters, but nothing is shown on-screen to relate to it, which has an averse effect), all of which I’m not willing to take.
In essence, the whole movie you’re wondering who does what for whatever strange reason, and it just doesn’t feel right. Coupled with some predictable melo drama, and few real laughs, it’s actually a bit boring.5½.

Obviously, this movie rides on Borat’s coat tail (surprise sleeper hit in 2006), as it follows a similar pattern that actor/writer Sacha Baren Cohen sets out again. A warning though, f you’ve loved Borat, you may feel a bit disappointed with Brüno.
Reasons are clear, as this time, it doesn’t follow a too intricate story. Also, the mix of staged/scripted and interactions with real people seems unbalanced, while also not soliciting enough surprise responses from unknowing participants.
Yes, there are still outrageous scenes. And yes, he still knows how to show people’s ridiculous nature in his funny interview technique. And yes, he puts himself in real grave danger a few times. And yes, you will smile a few times. But no, it’s not as good as Borat.7+.

Sam Raimi returns to his horror roots (at least as a director, he continued producing) after a few Spidey flicks, and he still has it in him. This movie combines low budget scare tactics (most of it works) with dark twisted humor, in a slightly different dosage as what you’ve loved it on the Evil Dead series.
If you don’t go nitpicking about specifics, this is a scary ride from beginning till end. Definitely good for a few dozen tight grabs of the arm from the girl sitting next to you.7½.