Amph Film Releases & Trends of a Decade Retrospective: The Nineties A-Z- The Year 1991 in Review

I've missed commenting on the whole year, but here's my list.

Worth Keeping: (aka: get the DVD!)
-Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
-Ratatouille
-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
-The Simpsons Movie
-Stardust


Worth Seeing a Few Times: (aka: maybe get the DVD)
-Music and Lyrics
-Elizabeth: The Golden Age
-Enchanted
-The Golden Compass
-American Gangster

Worth Seeing Once: (aka: rent it or get it in the $5 bin at Best Buy or Walmart)
-The Astronaut Farmer
-Ocean's Thirteen
-Surf's Up
-The Bourne Ultimatum
-Shoot 'Em Up
-National Treasure: Book of Secrets


If It's on Cable: (aka: not completely awful, but no need to intentionally seek it out)
-Shrek the Third
-Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
-Beowulf


List of Films I Still (Probably) Want To See:

-Wild Hogs
-Hot Fuzz
-Knocked Up
-3:10 to Yuma
-Into the Wild
-No Country For Old Men
-Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
-There Will Be Blood

8 down, 2 to go...

January & February 2008

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

January:
-One Missed Call
-First Sunday
-In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
-The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie
-27 Dresses
-Cloverfield
-Mad Money
-How She Move
-Meet the Spartans
-Rambo
-Untraceable

February:
-Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
-Over Her Dead Body
-Strange Wilderness
-The Eye
-Fool's Gold
-Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
-Definitely, Maybe
-Jumper
-Step Up 2 The Streets
-The Spiderwick Chronicles
-Be Kind Rewind
-Charlie Bartlett
-U2 3D
-Vantage Point
-Witless Protection
-Penelope
-Semi-Pro
-The Other Boleyn Girl


T2Q Comments:

-In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale: I didn't see this, because I knew better. It's Uwe Boll- do you need to know anything else?

-Cloverfield: A generally effective POV twist on the giant monster movie that, at it's best, makes you feel like you're in the middle of a good ride at Universal Studios or something. "Hud" also brings some good humor to things.

-Rambo: Worthy sequel to the series and, likely, a great ending. The last battle is just crazy.

-Untraceable: Ok cyber-thriller.

-Jumper: Had so much potential but just never really achieves the weight it wanted. Enough there that a sequel could redeem it, but such a film is unlikely to be made.

-Vantage Point: I forget if I saw this one.


Movies I (probably) Want See
-Be Kind Rewind
-Meet the Spartans
-Semi-Pro
-Vantage Point

Overall Trends:

Will Ferell's comedies based on previous formulas are starting to wane a bit in success. Meet the Startans starts to wane on the spoofs. Cloverfield is a surprise smash that redefined what could be accomplished with a January release date. Japanese horror remakes are starting to fail pretty consistently now. Rambo sort of follows Rocky Balboa as Stallone's comeback continues.

That's sometimes an interesting effect, of how we initially react to the film and how we eventually regard it with the passage of time (even without repeat viewings).

Which makes reccomending a movie to someone else odd at times- they might have a similar, more heightened response initially watching it, even if I don't consider it that good now.

And, also, given the selection of titles there, I'm not surprised you haven't seen many of those- that seems like a pretty bad selection what with Veggietales, Uwe Boll, bad churned-out spoofs and concert films.

Then again, I suppose a few of those would qualify for passing "in the mood for a bad movie" interest.

-Jumper

It had potential. There were a lot of interesting things going on, unfortunately the main plot wasn't done good enough. I agree on that some sequels could redeem it.

-The Other Boleyn Girl

A nice costume drama, if you like these kinds of historical dramas it's well worth seeing.

I still want to see Rambo.

I don't think Hayden was the primary fault of Jumper. It's the story that failed that film's premise. Without good word of mouth or reviews, though, Hayden (even paired with SLJ) isn't enough to pull in audiences despite all that, I'll grant.

(compared with, say, Hancock, where Will Smith's draw managed to make a film that was only slightly better than Jumper a big hit)




March & April 2008

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

March:
-10,000 BC
-College Road Trip
-The Bank Job
-Horton Hears a Who!
-Doomsday
-Never Back Down
-Drillbit Taylor
-Meet the Browns
-Shutter
-21
-Run Fatboy Run
-Stop-Loss
-Superhero Movie

April:
-Leatherheads
-Nim's Island
-The Ruins
-Never Forever
-Prom Night
-Smart People
-Street Kings
-The Visitor
-88 Minutes
-Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
-The Forbidden Kingdom
-Forgetting Sarah Marshall
-Baby Mama
-Deception
-Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
-Son of Rambow


T2Q Comments:

-The Forbidden Kingdom: Jet Lit and Jackie Chan. It may not be a classic- but it's enough.

-Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Solid Atapow-related comedy, though more of a chick flick than I had initially anticipated.

-Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay: Not the instant cult classic that the original was, and though it loses something towards the end, the increased presence of NPH compensates thoroughly (him being forced to let his drug-induced vision of himself leave him behind to avoid a cop check point slays me).


Movies I (probably) Want See
-21
-10,000 BC
-Baby Mama
-The Bank Job
-Doomsday
-Horton Hears a Who!
-Leatherheads
-Nim's Island
-The Ruins
-Run Fatboy Run
-Shutter
-Son of Rambow
-Stop-Loss
-Street Kings
-Superhero Movie

Overall Trends:

They packed a lot of spoofs into a small window this year. We're also seeing the Iraq War films surge start to peter out. Drillbit Taylor is the last movie John Hughes wrote before his death. Sarah Marshall kinda kicks off a trend of increased amounts of wang in R rated comedies and would also lead to a pseudo spinoff via Russell Brand's character down the road.

I haven't seen any of those films, and the only one I'm interested in is "Horton hears a who".

And I actually think that Jumper was better than Hancock, and it definitely had more potential for sequels and spinoffs.

According to it's wiki listing, it was released in the US in 2008, but debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007.

May & June 2008

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

May:
-Iron Man
-Made of Honor
-Redbelt
-Speed Racer
-What Happens in Vegas
-The Fall
-The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
-Sex and the City
-The Strangers

June:
-Kung Fu Panda
-You Don't Mess with the Zohan
-The Happening
-The Incredible Hulk
-Get Smart
-The Love Guru
-Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
-WALL*E
-Wanted

T2Q Comments:

-Iron Man: An almost perfect superhero origin film. RDJ owns the role, taking a B-list Marvel character and achieved the rare superhero that, unlike Batman or Superman, is someone more entertaining/interesting for the audience outside of the costume- a feat even more impressive given how damn cool that costume is and how unlikeable Tony Stark was in the comics (RDJ's performance in this movie even retroactively improved the perception and characterization of Stark in the comics past present and future).

And so many of the small details were just done so right (or were reinterpreted in new ways that, while different, were completely consistent with the core of the concept)- even down the very specific choice of words SLJ uses at the end that were obviously finely carved for maximum fan impact.

It's also supported by one of my favorite scores of recent years (the Mark I hammer/anvil vibe, Driving With the Top Down and the music played during Tony's rescue and return are my favorites, but the middle east flavor added to those themes later on are also neat).

It's only real flaw is the last act with the Iron Monger, which doesn't quite live up to the rest of the film and kinda throws away a very good villain, reducing him to bad one liners. But the greatness of the preceding material (and the epilogue scenes) more than makes up for it (especially the Mark III's debut debut defense against the Ten Rings terrorists).

-Speed Racer: Car-fu! A zany retro-anime brought to life in a way that is both hilariously quirky (I can't decide if the "Was that a ninja?" "More like a non-ja. Terrible what passes for a ninja these days..." exchange is the funniest bit or the sugar-induced frenzy that has the kid plowing down engineers on a segway ) ) and visually stunning (even if, at times, overwhelming). It was a film that, after seeing it, I instantly knew that, once I got an HDTV down the road, it would be the first movie I'd have to get on blu-ray to watch on it.

Not for everyone, as it's definitely aimed/skewed towards a younger audience as far as plot and tone goes, but far above the quality of most kids films and certainly one can enjoy if you let go for a bit and enjoy the fun.

-The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: A darker toned film that generally improves upon it's predecessor in almost every way. Most notably the supporting characters are fleshed out much better (so that we actually feel something for them as opposed to the blank slates we were supposed to care about in Wardrobe) and the FX are consistent (comared to Wardrobes insistent flip flopping in quality).

Though, much like the Father Christmas scene in Wardrobe, the Neptune/God scene is quite random (and setup even less than Father Christmas) and Aslan's role feels tacked-on and kinda renders him in a poor light, character-wise.

-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The first hour or so of this film is just as good as the classic Indy films, and even the jungle chase and ant swarms are really good, exciting, sequences (Shia LeTarzan not withstanding ). The cast is likewise quite fun and the returning members fall back into their roles well.

But once Marian drives the truck off the cliff into the river, two things happen: 1) The film throws in some very cartoony elements (the tree branch is not as bad but the triple waterfalls get tedious and are even more over-the-top than the raft parachute from TOD) and 2) The film goes into autopilot with Indy not having any real effect on the climax. These kinda overlap once you g

I would say X-Men (or, to a lesser extent, Blade- though that could be considered transitory in nature) would be the start of the 1st resurgence, which I would consider to be the genre breaking free of the campier nature of the 80's/90's superhero movies like Superman, Batman, Spawn, etc. But Spider-Man 1 was certainly when it exploded.

However, I definitely agree that SM3 really marks the end of that 1st resurgence.

I was (one of the few) in a theater watching Speed Racer

-Iron Man
I knew nothing of the comic character, and in fact I saw the film just because me and a friend needed something loud in order not to fall asleep. It turned out to be one of my favourite superhero films. I love RDJ in it, but I agree on that the final showdown with the Iron Monger isn't as interesting as the rest of the film.

-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I was really afraid when I went in to see this film. I had avoided all spoilers for it, but I couldn't help to think that it would be a big letdown. In the end I watched it twice on the big screen. Indy and Marion well makes up for the Mutt parts. In fact the one thing I found most annoying with the film was Cate Blanchett.

-WALL*E
Saw it way later on DVD. It is one of the cutest animated films ever made.

I still want to see
Don't mess with Zohan
Kung Fu Panda

July & August 2008

Notable releases: (listed in release order)

July:
-Hancock
-Hellboy II: The Golden Army
-Journey to the Center of the Earth
-Meet Dave
-The Stone Angel
-The Dark Knight
-Mamma Mia!
-Space Chimps
-Boy A
-Brideshead Revisited
-Step Brothers
-The X-Files: I Want to Believe

August:
-The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
-Swing Vote
-Pineapple Express
-The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
-Beer For My Horses
-What We Do Is Secret
-Tropic Thunder
-Fly Me to the Moon
-Mirrors
-Star Wars: The Clone Wars
-Vicky Cristina Barcelona
-The Rocker
-Death Race
-The House Bunny
-The Longshots
-Hamlet 2
-Traitor
-Babylon A.D.
-College
-Disaster Movie
-Goal! 2: Living the Dream

T2Q Comments:
-Hancock: The first half of this movie and the second half are practically two entirely different movies in terms of tone. The first half is the drunk superhero comedy that earns his respect back. The second is a more girtty survival thing and the two just don't gel well or have much of any transition.

-The Dark Knight: Amazing film. Ledger's performance was a real surprise. People raved about him before it ever came out, but I don't believe they were truthfully excited about it because you just couldn't be so based on just the moments from the trailers, as what makes the performance so strong is the overall work stretched across multiple scenes showing various facets of the character- and that's just not something you could get from the trailers.

Outside of the "ok, that's NOT good" cops, the rest of the cast continues to be excellent, from Freeman to Bale (though his Batman voice doesn't really work for long speeches) to Gyllenhaal (who looks close enough to Holmes to make the character while being a better actress).

Still wish there could have been more for this series as far as theme music goes, but the one march-like theme it does have at least feels like it's building up to Batman music enough to kinda work.

-The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Awful. After it seemed like they learned their lessons from the first film and produced the superior second movie, this just generally falls flat on most accounts.

-Pineapple Express: Very funny mix of genres.

-Tropic Thunder: Hilarious- and it's not just RDJ's well known blackface character or Tom Cruise's infamous role.

-Star Wars: The Clone Wars: 3-4 episodes of the show are merged together into a movie about as best as could be expected, but it has a very stop-start nature that makes it feel like it has an ongoing storyline (with the Dooku/Jabba stuff more of a running C-plot until the end). There was also way too much Battledroid humor.

To it's credit, though, it did feel like a story set in the SW universe (even the small touches like the references to the B'Omarr monks, etc) which is more than can be said about large stretches of the prequels. It also looks absolutely gorgeous on the big screen (moreso the material down the road that has had limited big screen presentations at conventions or charity events like that Savage Opress Trilogy last year).

The series itself improved greatly as it went along (though it's had a bad habit of taking other movies/stories and just doing a SW version instead of more original material), despite some irresponsible continuity issues that are best left discussed in LACWAC or Literature.

Still, the movie isn't that bad if you try to view it as 4 separate episodes and just imagine the end credits popping in after each obvious episode end point.


Movies I (probably) Want See
-Babylon A.D.
-College
-Death Race
-Disaster Movie
-Hamlet 2
-Hellboy II: The Golden Army
-The House Bunny
-Mirrors
-The Rocker
-Step Brothers
-Swing Vote
-Traitor
-Vicky Cristina Barcelona
-The X-Files: I Want to Believe


Overall Trends:
Cripes, how many spoofs did they release this year?

-Hancock
I agree on that the first part was OK, the second one not so much.

-Mamma Mia!
Wonderful film, I think in the end I saw it three times, eventhough two of the times were the karaoke version. Very few films make me as happy as this one.

-Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Ok, but I still can't stand Ahsoka. I actually thought the battle droids were among the best part of this film.

I still want to see:
-Tropic Thunder