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pinkrebel
Reviews
American Wedding (2003)
this is really embarrassing..
after viewing and forming extremely socially conscious opinions of the first two american pie movies, i had absolutely REFUSED to have anything to do with the third, and hopefully, final installment. free tickets=my defeat. well, at least i didn't pay for it, thus not CONTRIBUTING to this kind of drivel. so i went to the theatre with my very typical 18 year old white male boyfriend.
the bottom line is, i really don't care about these upper middle class kids and their happy existences. i don't care about their parties and shenanigans, it's banal and WAY overdone in hollywood right now.
but i was expecting a lot worse than what i got. american wedding was kind of touching. i began to empathize with the cast and the culmination of all their adolescent misadventures. solid themes like friendship and family made themselves apparent for possibly the first time in the trite trilogy. i'm a bit disgusted to say it, but i enjoyed american wedding and hated my generation much less after seeing that some things are still a little bit sacred, though not completely exempt from playful defilement.
Respiro (2002)
un respiro profondo d'aria fresca..
If you are religious, if you believe in miracles, if you believe that religion has nothing to do with miracles, if you HATE religion, if you are Catholic, if you are Roman Catholic, if you grew up in such a home, if you despise the hypocrisy of it all, you should see this movie. If you are Italian, if you speak Italian, if you are planning to travel to Italy, if you like Italian food, if you are learning Italian, if you even know anyone who is Italian you need to see this movie. If you've been affected by a psychological disorder, if you have a psychological disorder, if you are a psychologist, if you have a psychologist. If you have a mother. If you've seen Big Top Pee-Wee and thought "Gina" was hot. See Respiro.
I saw this movie in a small theatre and could tell who the aforementioned italomaniacs were in the crowd by the eruptions of laughter that would occur before the (occasionally poorly translated) subtitles appeared. The friend I went to see this with was wont to turn to me at choice moments during the film and inquire as to "WHAT IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" Charming, warm. Absolutely beautiful location. Vibrant characters. Simplistic filming. Multi-faceted story, bringing together a family and a community and managing to tell several stories at once, I can't find anything bad to say about this movie.
Old School (2003)
i'm embarrassed to not have hated it
my boyfriend and his friends made me go see this movie and i was dreading it because i'm kind of a snob that thinks she's way too good for unintelligent slapstick comedy but i actually did like it OK. by the last hour or so i was really ready for it to be over. will farrell's exposure was a bit difficult to watch and at some points it seemed too much like a feature film length "girls gone wild". it definitely had its redeeming qualities.
The Recruit (2003)
it may not be a testament to its worth...
...but i was falling asleep a lot during this movie. it was late, i had gotten up early, and i was drinking a noncaffeinated beverage but The Recruit just didn't do it for me. Al Pacino is always cool, and the idea of a female agent sure was a nice politically correct bone to throw at a cynical feminist film critic such as myself but it really didn't have much substance. or maybe i was just too tired. in any case, i wouldn't recommend it to someone, but i might consider renting it and watch it again when it comes out on video, like if i had a free rental and all the Tarantino films were checked out
The Life of David Gale (2003)
eh.. i could have lived without seeing this movie
this could have been a really good movie if it hadn't been for the lukewarm acting, insufficient plot development, uninteresting scenery and cinematography and half-ass attempts at giving it the "indie film" wash. from the beginning i was upset with it. what college class actually laughs, as a group, at all of their professors lame jokes, and then later attends a party with school staff? for a minute i was thinking that maybe the annoying sitcom-esque crowds and farcical breaks from reality were intentional? it was a fleeting moment as i realized it was just badly directed. however, kate winslet looked beautiful as did laura linney. the story was interesting and the subject matter surprisingly not overplayed.
Darkness Falls (2003)
a barrel of laughs
i don't consider myself easily frightened, but during the first 10 minutes of Darkness Falls i was feeling a wee twinge of excitement. i thought it might be scary. what it was, in actuality, was a sad mix of some awesome special effects and them some really lame ones that seemed to involve a lot of white trashbags, and a whole lot of cheap shot suspense. add in a little kid for the sixth sense effect and it's really just the same worn out "horror" movie. i had a hell of a good time thinking up ridiculous alternate endings and listening to the random obnoxious comments other critics were hollering out during the showing. on a positive note, the intro credit sequence was very nicely done, artistically. all in all the only thing i really got out of it was a free show and a sore throat from doing funny tooth fairy imitations.
Final Destination 2 (2003)
Gore, Semi-Suspense and one pair of Naked Breasts
I have not seen the original "Final Destination", and I don't think I want to. Not that Final Destination 2 was a disappointment, because it was everything I was expecting. An easily digestable, predictable, teeny-bopperish horror movie with lots of gore, special effects and mediocre acting. If you're slightly sick-minded, you'll have tons of laughs. Despite the fact that I knew what was going to happen it was a pretty fun movie, good for a date or any occasion in which you don't feel like devoting full attention to plot twists or witty dialogue.