Ridiculous is an overused word these days but my addiction to Harry Potter books and films is bordering on out of control. I have finally read the first five books in the past month, am about 200 pages into the sixth, watched the first four films at home (one at a time as I finished each book), watched the fifth film last night, and am looking forward to seeing the fifth one again on Tuesday at the IMAX. What is my problem? Well, ultimately, this is just a brilliant story. Yes, it's a bit embarassing to go look for books in the library in the children's or teen's sections, but it is just good reading all the way around. And honestly the films have really gotten good. Number three (Azkaban) is still the best but four and five definitely hold up well too. So here's a quick list of what I've seen this summer and what I think (in order of viewing):
Pirates 3 - fun, adventurous, and very difficult to follow. Not really planning on watching it again but enjoyable. Liked Keith Richards appearance.
Spiderman 3 - Kind of a fall from 2 but that's to be expected to some extent. Again, fun, exciting, entertaining, but nothing too memorable. The bad guys just weren't very good.
Ocean's 13 - Very good, felt a little rushed after the first 20 minutes, but very entertaining. I think I'm just happy to get to watch Clooney and Pitt compete to see who's cooler (the answer is Clooney in case anyone is wondering). What is really cool is how well Matt Damon holds his own on the screen and adding Pacino was fun. Enjoyable stuff.
1408 - Very good again. Don't expect too much. It's John Cusack in a room for about an hour with a little set up and a little wind down. But the man pulls it off. Plays with your mind a bit, good jumpy scenes, and intriguing. Good for something different over the summer.
Transformers - I have to admit, I loved this. I'm a Shia Lebouf (sp?) fan anyway, think the guy is going to be a big actor for years to come, but beyond that, this was exactly what I was looking for in a summer blockbuster and did what ole Spidey and Pirates did not, remembered to skip a few convoluted plot points in favor of just sheer entertainment. I'm not usually a fan of loose plots but hey, it's Michael Bay, I'm not expecting Hitchcock here, and the man can deliver action. The robots were awesome and you have to have a little respect for a movie that gets everyone to applaud loudly at the end (which has happened several times according to some friends of mine). Favorite line - when the autobots are arriving and crashing into the ground in their fireballs, a kid runs outside with his video camera and yells, "This is like 15 times better than Armageddon."
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Really good. This director evidently had done nothing more than British sitcoms and commercials but he held his own in the this film. They skipped a lot of stuff but I think they had too. Most of the time the plot moved briskly, funny stuff intertwined with more tragic stuff. The cast in this movie is just really great. I think I could watch Alan Rickman as Snape all the time. No one else could say "Obviously" with such sarcasm, anger, and humor at the same time. Loved the film, can't wait to see it next week.
Looking forward to: The Simpson's in a couple of weeks
That's it for now.
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i think you may have hit the nail on the head as far as transformers goes. i still want to see it again because i feel like i should like it more, but i know what the problem is. i can't stand shia labouef, and if that's the case, there's just nothing to care about. the girl struck me as a poor man's lohan, the only robot you get to see for more than just a short while doesn't talk, so there's a limited amount of attachment you can have to him (even putting my feelings aside about changing him from an awesome car to a stupid car.) it's been a few weeks now since i saw it, but i can't really remember much of the movie that actually had the transformers in it. i guess maybe they tried to insert army-guy-with-kid in there to give you something to care about, but then they never really developed that, so it just made a long movie longer.
which i guess is a long way of saying that i think the movie stands or falls on whether or not you like the even stevens kid.
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