Topic: DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009

[DJ Doena]

January, 1st

The Dark Knight

Christian Bale    ...    Bruce Wayne / Batman
Heath Ledger   ...    The Joker
Aaron Eckhart   ...    Harvey Dent / Two-Face
Michael Caine   ...    Alfred Pennyworth
Maggie Gyllenhaal   ...    Rachel Dawes
Gary Oldman   ...    James Gordon
Morgan Freeman   ...    Lucius Fox

Synopsis: Batman, Lt. Gordon and DA Harvey Dent have become a very efficient team and they dealt some major blows to Gotham's underworld. But now Batman gets a new class of enemy: The Joker. The Joker has no plan, he has no goal beside causing havoc and creating chaos. And he's very good at what he does. But can he force Batman to cross the line?

My Opinion: A great continuation to the great first movie. I always liked the first two Batman movies and I never really liked the cheesy third and especially fourth movie. Although I've never read any Batman comic I've always felt that it had to be dark and dirty and sometimes morally grey. Batman is no bright character for me. And although it had many comic elements in it Batman Begins felt very realistic. And The Dark Knight is the perfect sequel. It continues where the first movie left off - and I love the Joker. When he first told the story about how he got the scars I thought they were going to blew it and then was relieved when he then told yet another - totally different - story and thus remained his mysteriousness. But to be perfectly honest, I had expected that the "good people" on the ferry would pull the trigger. And then have themselves blown up. That would be totally in the line of Joker's thinking IMHO. If I were to give stars, what I rarely do, I'd give 9.5 out of 10.

[addicted2dvd]

Thanks Karsten...
Another one I can't wait for my copy to show up.  Even though I enjoyed all the Batman movies... I do agree it is better when they are dark. And Batman Begins is an excellent movie. So I am glad to hear this one is just as dark and a great follow-up.

[DJ Doena]

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Kevin Costner    ...    Robin Hood
Morgan Freeman   ...    Azeem
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio   ...    Marian Dubois
Christian Slater   ...    Will Scarlett
Alan Rickman   ...    Sheriff of Nottingham
Michael Wincott    ...    Guy of Gisborne
Nick Brimble   ...    Little John
Sean Connery   ...    King Richard

Synopsis: When Robin of Locksley returns home from the crusades, he finds his home burned down and his father killed. Behind this are the Guy of Gisborne and his cousin, the Sheriff of Nottingham. They try to forge an alliance of "noblemen" against the absent King Richard "The Lionheart" and to rob him of his throne. They supress the common folk to finance this plot. But Robin stands up to them and he uses Sherwood Forrest as his base of operations.

My Opinion: I've never understood why Kevin Costner was suddenly "out". I like most of his movies and I like this one, too. Alan Rickman plays an excellent opponent with some comical elements. Although the movie is trying to tell the story earnestly they also insterted enough funny elements to make it not too serious. I also really liked the rants of Azeem when he complains about the english's lack of education but that he is considered the "barbarian".
And the appearance of Sean Connery, however short, crowned the movie for me.

[DJ Doena]

January, 2nd

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Johnny Depp    ...    Jack Sparrow
Geoffrey Rush   ...    Barbossa
Orlando Bloom   ...    Will Turner
Keira Knightley   ...    Elizabeth Swann
Jack Davenport   ...    Norrington
Jonathan Pryce   ...    Governor Weatherby Swann

Synopsis: The pirate captain Jack Sparrow is coincidentally nearby when the daughter of Port Royal's governor nearly drowns and he saves her. But that lands himself in a cell. Ho won't stay there long. In the night after the "Black Pearl", a feared pirate ship, comes to Port Royal and kidnaps Miss Swann. Only Jack knows where she's been taken the blacksmith Will Turner teams up with him to rescue her. And now begins a wild chase across the Caribbean.

My Opinion: This was a great movie. Alas, if it has just remained one. Just like with The Matrix nobody can tell me they actually knew they were doing more than one movie and that they had a plan what was going to happen in the sequels. But this is about this movie and this movie was cool. It had all the fun and action a movie needs. It takes the whole pirates genre totally unseriously and makes a great fun out of it. And to be honest: This could only work with the current special effects. Remember how the skeletons walked in Army of Darkness? Back then this movie could have never worked. Nowadays (visual) special effects are mostly used to blow something up or destroy it in another way. But to use them in a totally un-technical movie, in sword-fights - it made the movie whole.

This was once again a very "intelligent" solution of the german title translators. They made it "Curse of the Carribean". And when part two came out they didn't know what to do, so they called it simply "Curse of the Carribean 2".

[DJ Doena]

A History of Violence

Viggo Mortensen    ...    Tom Stall
Maria Bello   ...    Edie Stall
Ed Harris   ...    Carl Fogarty
William Hurt   ...    Richie Cusack
Ashton Holmes   ...    Jack Stall

Synopsis: Tom Stall is a simple man. He lives in a small town and owns a small diner. He has two children and his life is quiet. But that changes one day. One day two armed robbers come into his store. He can't know this but they've left a trail of blood and killed a lot of people. Tom is willing to give them all the money but when one of them attempts to rape a women a switch turns in Tom's head and he attacks and kills the robbers. This makes him famous and suddenly he gets visits from mobsters from the east coast who think he is someone else - or are they correct?

My Opinion: This is a very interesting movie that has no hollywood-like moral agenda. It's brutal, it's explicit and it doesn't want to hide anything. The "good guy" isn't a good guy at all, but if they would have left him alone, he would have never bothered them at all. I thought everyone played their role very well, from Viggo who has at first to pretend he doesn't know anything to Maria and Ashton who have to learn that their husband/father is someone totally different. And of course Ed, but I like Ed in most of his roles. I also liked the semi open end where it isn't clear what is going to happen now.

[DJ Doena]

Cliffhanger

Sylvester Stallone    ...    Gabe Walker
John Lithgow   ...    Eric Qualen
Michael Rooker   ...    Hal Tucker
Janine Turner   ...    Jessie Deighan
Rex Linn   ...    Richard Travers

Synopsis: The international thief Qualen captures a US government plane and tries to steal 100 million dollars in cash. The money is in three trunks but they get lost when the plane crashes in the Rocky Mountains. Fortunately the cases have location beacons but now they need the help of the mountain rescue to find them. Gabe and his former friend Hal are the unlucky ones to meet the gangsters and are forced to help them. But soon Qualen has to realize that it won't be that easy to get the money back because Gabe develops into a real PITA.

My Opinion: This movie hasn't much story and sometimes it doesn't make much sense. But it's a Stallone action movie, if one expects much story on has gone into the wrong movie. it has however great pictures of the Rockys and beautiful panorama shots. It's also interesting to watch them climb these basically vertical walls. To sum it up: It's a no-brainer action movie with a lot of Rocky Mountains imagery.

[DJ Doena]

The Saint

Val Kilmer    ...    Simon Templar
Elisabeth Shue   ...    Dr. Emma Russell
Rade Serbedzija   ...    Ivan Tretiak
Valeri Nikolayev   ...    Ilya Tretiak
Henry Goodman   ...    Dr. Lev Botvin

Synopsis: He is a man who has no name. And if he has then it's one of a catholic saint, like Thomas Moore. But he is a thief and a good one at that. If it can be stolen and someone pays for it, he can steal it. But his life changes drastically when he steals the chemical formula to create cold fusion - a clean and basically unexhaustable power source. Now he's not also on the run from Scotland Yard but also a russian oil magnat who wants to putsch against the russian president and he's fallen in love with the scientist who discovered the formula.

My Opinion: This is also a movie one can't take too seriously. Even the whole cold fusion affair aside it has quite a number of ridiculous moments. For example: He's already at the 20th or so floor when he climbs out of a window, and uses his extendable aluminium ladder to climb vertically upwards - with no hold whatsoever. But since I've never watched the original Simon Templar series I still enjoyed this movie because I knew what to expect.

[DJ Doena]

Four Brothers

Mark Wahlberg   ...    Bobby Mercer
Tyrese Gibson   ...    Angel Mercer
André Benjamin   ...    Jeremiah Mercer
Garrett Hedlund   ...    Jack Mercer
Terrence Howard   ...    Lt. Green
Josh Charles   ...    Detective Fowler
Sofía Vergara   ...    Sofi
Fionnula Flanagan   ...    Evelyn Mercer
Chiwetel Ejiofor   ...    Victor Sweet
Taraji P. Henson   ...    Camille Mercer

Synopsis: The four brothers Bobby, Angel, Jermeiah and Jack return home after their mother had been killed in a store robbery. The four aren't genetically brothers but they've been raised by Evelyn who was a warm soul of the city and who cared for all children. But something doesn't add up. This was no ordinary robbery but an execution. And now the four brothers want to bury Evelyn's killer.

My Opinion: When I first watched this in the theatre I had no real idea what to expect and I thought it to be a very good movie. Mark Wahlberg played a very good Bobby which was the reason for me to watch Shooter, too. I also liked the occasional insertion of Evelyn, as if she was still there - and in the minds of her boys she still is! One could brush this aside as simple action flick, but for me it's a bit more and I have to be in the mood to watch this.

[Najemikon]

I've never understood why Kevin Costner was suddenly "out". I like most of his movies and I like this one, too.

Well said. I don't understand where his reputation comes from either. He's made a handful of very entertaining movies and some excellent ones as well (as you know Dances With Wolves is my absolute favourite), so he'll always get my vote. Have you seen Mr Brooks yet?

Remember how the skeletons walked in Army of Darkness? Back then this movie could have never worked.

Ahh, but the stop-motion clack-clack skeletons of Jason and the Argonauts beats them both! Ray Harryhausen could have helped make a brilliant version back then. But I know what you mean...


I liked History of Violence too. It was a very clever adaptation of a graphic novel written by John Wagner, known better for creating Judge Dredd. Unfortunately, he had nothing to do with the source material for Cronenberg/Mortensen's next film called Eastern Promises and it was quite weak and ultimately pointless. I reviewed here and if you haven't seen it, I'd suggest only doing so if it's cheap or on TV.

[DJ Doena]

Have you seen Mr Brooks yet?

Not yet, but it's on my "blind buy" list.

[DJ Doena]

January, 3rd

Blast from the Past

Brendan Fraser    ...    Adam
Alicia Silverstone   ...    Eve
Christopher Walken   ...    Calvin
Sissy Spacek   ...    Helen
Dave Foley   ...    Troy
Nathan Fillion    ...    Cliff

Synopsis: During the cuba crisis Calvin Webber a rich but eccentric (doesn't this always come in the same package?) inventor locks himself and his pregnant wife in a fallout shelter because he thinks a nuclear war has broken out. They live there for 35 years with their son Adam until one day the locks unseal themselves.  Now Adam goes out to buy supplies in huge numbers and he's looking for a wife - no mutant and from Pasadena, if possible. But then he meets Eve.

My Opinion: I love this movie. It's so great to see Adam and his seemingly outdated manners to win Eve's heart (and the heart of nearly any woman in that movie for that matter). I have to admit I love romantic movies, the number of such movies in my collection is nearly twice as big as my science fiction movies. I can watch them until I'm totally overdosed.
Too bad that Alicia Silverstone isn't seen more often on screen. I can't describe it but she has something about her that I totally like.

[Tom]

My Opinion: I love this movie. It's so great to see Adam and his seemingly outdated manners to win Eve's heart (and the heart of nearly any woman in that movie for that matter). I have to admit I love romantic movies, the number of such movies in my collection is nearly twice as big as my science fiction movies. I can watch them until I'm totally overdosed.
Too bad that Alicia Silverstone isn't seen more often on screen. I can't describe it but she has something about her that I totally like.

I also love this movie. I am like you. I also have a big romantic comedies collection.
And I always found Alicia Silverstone especially lovely in this movie. I think it is her eyes. I liked how she looked when she finally realizes that Adam is in fact telling the truth.
It's also her look in the scene at the end on the stairs in the movie "Clueless" which totally makes that movie for me.
Too bad that we did not see her more often in a romantic comedy. Sadly Batman and Robin killed her career.

[DJ Doena]

Music & Lyrics

Hugh Grant   ...    Alex Fletcher
Drew Barrymore    ...    Sophie Fisher
Haley Bennett   ...    Cora Corman
Brad Garrett    ...    Chris Riley
Campbell Scott    ...    Sloan Cates

Synopsis: Alex Fletcher is an 80s-Has-Been of the pop band "PoP" who sings now in theme parks and class reunions. But then two things happen at the same time. The star Cora wants him to write a new song for her about a broken heart. And Sophie comes to his appartment to water his plants. And incidentally she can actually write lyrics! They team up together to deliver the new hit song for Cora and fall in love on the way.

My Opinion: Romance movie stories are often rather simple and predictable with the usual break-up shortly before the happy end. So is the story of this movie. But as I said I don't care. It's not really what is told, but how it is told. And Hugh Grant doesn't need to play much, he is actually the forty-something-doesn't-want-to-grow-up-kinda-guy. But how he performed the typical 80s pop band member on stage was hilarious. It was so funny. And Drew as this shy yet totally sweet character is great.

[DJ Doena]

I also love this movie.

I even made me a DVD copy to get rid of the forced german subtitles which are always on when the english audio is selected. I hate these. 

And I recognized Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Buffy, Dr. Horrible) for the first time as Eve's former boyfriend (legs, butt & hair), because I didn't know the actor when I watched it the last time.

[Tom]

Drew Barrymore. Another actress where I love to watch her romantic comedies. "Wedding Singer", "50 First Dates", "Music & Lyrics", "Home Fries", "Never Been Kissed", "Fever Pitch", "Ever After" (although not a comedy) are all movies I like.