Beginning Christmas Day and following up on New Years Day, I was able to catch up on some movies just entering theaters and figured I would finally post some brief reviews.
National Treasure 2 - I absolutely loved the first one as you really don't get to see too many movies talking about the young, but very rich history of the United States and the original offered that up in spades. To me, I liked NT better than The Da Vinci Code and both had very similar story structures. Guy looking for "treasure" and uses his ability to uncover clues to reach the endgame. NT2 has a very similar structure, but has less clues and thus, less history. They were much more focused on the action/danger element this time around, which actually detracted from what could've been a fantastic movie. I cannot speak for its rewatch value of NT2, but I have seen NT at least a dozen times. 4.5/6 beers.
Charlie Wilson's War - Great story with fantastic acting (especially from Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, not so much from Julia Roberts). I had never heard of this story, so I don't know exactly how accurate it is, but I definitely had a great time watching it. It was very talky, but had enough comedic elements that it wasn't too drawn out. I felt there was some great character development and a sharp script. Definitely one of the better movies of the year.
No Country for Old Men - I still cannot figure out if I liked this movie. I really enjoyed it for the first 3/4, but the last 1/4 of the movie just threw me. I am trying to figure out if I just didn't understand what was happening or if the ending just plain sucked. Either way, it detracted from what could've been a dynamite film. I am a Coen Brothers fan, but I just walked out of the theater shaking my head about what could have been. Part of me wants to read the novel now to see if I really missed something and just how much license the Coen Bros. took, but may not have the time (plus, don't want to be further disappointed if that was the ending the author really wrote).
Eastern Promises (on DVD) - If you read the first incarnation of this blog (search the archives if you must), you will know that I absolutely hated A History of Violence, the previous film by David Cronenberg back in 2005 and even labelled it the worst film of the year. I just watched and waited for something to happen and it just never did. Cronenberg has made some decent films in the past (see Scanners and Videodrome), but between Violence and now Eastern Promises, I will not waste any more time or money on anything done by him. This movie was just awful and I really cannot find where all of the praise is coming from. Viggo Mortensen was good enough, as was Naomi Watts, but the story had absolutely nothing redeemable about it.
The Annual Judz Top 10 Movie List is forthcoming this week.
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