What I Watched Last Week

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Last year there was a plethora of great animated films. In my opinion Fantastic Mr. Fox tops all of them. Everything about this movie is perfect. The voice acting, animation, story and directing are top notch. I have watched it twice since I bought it on Tuesday.

The Ex

This film is a major miss. It is not funny at all, and it wastes many talented actors. Zach Braff and Jason Bateman are both awesome, but are terrible here.

Cool Runnings

A Jamaican bobsled heads to the 1988 winter Olympics, and hilarious hijinks ensue. This movie has a high nostalgia factor for me, and I consider a solid live action Disney movie. One observation I have is that inspirational sports movies, especially ones aimed at children, never have a shortage of evil antagonists. In Cool Runnings, the inexplicably evil antagonists are the Swiss (or Swede I can’t remember and Google is not help) bobsled team. They have an immediate intense amount of hate for the Jamaicans that is hilarious.

Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show

Vaughn helms a 30 day tour of the United States with a bunch of up and coming stand-up comedians. What follows is a very boring documentary. I assume that the original concept for this documentary would be that I would be a little interesting, but it isn’t. All the comedians seem to have been selected because they have a similar comedy style to Vince Vaughn. Unfortunately that doesn’t create much variety and the humour falls flat.

Prince of Darkness

This John Carpenter movie is very good. It takes place almost entirely in an old church where a group of scientist have to fight against ultimate evil to protect humanity. Carpenter doesn’t pull his punches here, and I found the movie genuinely creepy. JC is a master of atmosphere and it shows here.

Knocked Up

I have watched this enough that I’ve grown to like it. The first time I saw it, it did nothing for me. Now I consider it Judd Apatow’s second best film. All Apatow’s regulars are great in this, and have now gone on to bigger things.

The Cell

Director Tarsem Singh is one of the greatest visual directors right now. The Cell is his first feature film, and he does lots of interesting stuff with it. The basis of this story shares a lot with Fincher’s Seven, and the rest shares nothing with no film. This isn’t the master piece that The Fall is, but that movie took twenty years to come about.

Kicking and Screaming

This movie makes Cool Running look like Chariots of Fire. I though this flick was okay the first time a saw it, but I declare temporary insanity. This movie is garbage and shouldn’t be forced upon anyone.

Dancing Outlaw

Jesco White considers himself the world’s best tap dancer after his deceased father. He also considers himself the reincarnation of Elvis. In reality he is an Appalachian hick who sniffs Gasoline (Airplane Glue, Lighter Fluid) with delusions of grandeur.