We get so behind on movies that it's actually kind of embarrassing, especially nerd movies. We crossed X-Men: First Class off our MCU list. I was really surprised by how good it was, especially Jennifer Laurence. She was so sensitive and adorable as Raven. Magneto's sympathetic back story was really well done, and I liked the way he contrasted with privileged Professor X. It's rare in movies to show such fond male friendship too. Usually men can't show their affection for each other unless they're hitting each other ;-). It had some corny moments, but I wish we had seen it on the big screen for the sub scenes. And without the budgie soundtrack too.
88 Minutes was watched a while ago. It stars Al Pacino as a college professor and crime profiler who becomes the target of an anonymous stalker. The movie opens up with a gruesome, needlessly detailed murder of a young woman by a serial killer. It grossed us out. We love Al Pacino and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't remember this movie, but, as entertaining as it turned out to be, it's nothing special. It had all the trappings of a great thriller that didn't pay off. It's also painfully dated with a lot of blue tint and flip phones everywhere. There's a lot of time and geography problems with the movie plus a ridiculous amount of coincidences. All this is forgotten by the time the dramatic final scene rolls around. In hindsight, 88 Minutes felt like it had a lot of re-writes or was made for another actor.
I found Wizards on YouTube. I was really in the mood to watch Heavy Metal, but it wasn't on Netflix and wasn't free on YouTube. I realized that aside from The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, I hadn't watched any of Ralph Bakshi's movies. Wizards is...horribly dated...and very handmade...and not very entertaining. It was made on such a limited budget that drawings and narration stand in for a lot of the action. There's too much narration and the story that emerges was too boring. Basically, there are two wizard brothers, one good, one bad. The bad one, Blackwolf, digs up military footage and weapons and becomes Hitler reborn. The good one, Avatar, has to stop him with some help from his friends Weehawk and Elinore. The mix and match style plus the rotoscoped scenes just killed the movie for me because it created too much dissonance.
88 Minutes was watched a while ago. It stars Al Pacino as a college professor and crime profiler who becomes the target of an anonymous stalker. The movie opens up with a gruesome, needlessly detailed murder of a young woman by a serial killer. It grossed us out. We love Al Pacino and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't remember this movie, but, as entertaining as it turned out to be, it's nothing special. It had all the trappings of a great thriller that didn't pay off. It's also painfully dated with a lot of blue tint and flip phones everywhere. There's a lot of time and geography problems with the movie plus a ridiculous amount of coincidences. All this is forgotten by the time the dramatic final scene rolls around. In hindsight, 88 Minutes felt like it had a lot of re-writes or was made for another actor.
I found Wizards on YouTube. I was really in the mood to watch Heavy Metal, but it wasn't on Netflix and wasn't free on YouTube. I realized that aside from The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, I hadn't watched any of Ralph Bakshi's movies. Wizards is...horribly dated...and very handmade...and not very entertaining. It was made on such a limited budget that drawings and narration stand in for a lot of the action. There's too much narration and the story that emerges was too boring. Basically, there are two wizard brothers, one good, one bad. The bad one, Blackwolf, digs up military footage and weapons and becomes Hitler reborn. The good one, Avatar, has to stop him with some help from his friends Weehawk and Elinore. The mix and match style plus the rotoscoped scenes just killed the movie for me because it created too much dissonance.