Change Your Image
IRBon
Reviews
Open Water (2003)
Solid Low Budget Thriller
Low budget thriller about a couple with marital problems on vacation in the tropics who find themselves left behind by their scuba diving tour boat in the middle of the ocean with only their equipment and increasingly aggressive sharks. Though the acting is amateur central, the filmmaker does an excellent job of amping up the tension and suspense throughout the course of their ordeal which starts out as a mundane inconvenience and soon turns life threatening. The best bit takes place during a thunderstorm sometime after midnight where our only glimpse of the couple is the occasional lightning flash and their blood curdling screams.
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Well Made, but lacking in scope
Let me start by saying this was a briskly paced, well acted serious movie which does a superb job in showing the events following Edward Murrow's decision to take on the red scare crusade being led by Senator McCarthy. David Straithairn does a fantastic job in portraying the stoic, courageous, and fiercely independent Edward Murrow.
The problem with the film is it too narrowly focuses on these events. It never makes clear why living in America in this time period was so wrought with fear over communist infiltration and how a man like McCarthy was able to gain such a stranglehold on the American people. As seen here our only understanding of the fear and power his committee hearings held is in the CBS owner growling, "This could be bring down my whole company" and CBS lawyers interviewing Murrow's news team for communist ties.
It is a great failing of this film that it seems so perfectly logical for Murrow to bring McCarthy down. One never appreciates the great amount of courage Murrow had to muster to take McCarthy on and that is truly a shame. A young audience member who watches this film will not come away understanding how out of control the fear of communism had become in this county and the civil liberties that were being violated for hundreds of "alleged" communist sympathizers.
Domino (2005)
The Repetitive Tony Scott
This movie isn't as bad as the critics say, but it's not "Natural Born Killers" either as Roeper stated in his review. There are no underlying political or social comments in this movie. It is at heart a loud dumb action movie, but for a while is entertaining. Don't expect a tight plot as there are huge plot holes and the characters do things that are preposterous and uncalled for given the situations they find themselves in. A good comparison for this film would be "3000 Miles to Graceland" If you thought that movie rocked check this out, otherwise save your 10 bucks.
Spoiler Warning.
If Tony Scott makes one more movie climaxing in a Mexican standoff (True Romance, Enemy of the State) he should have to start paying royalties to Tarantino and have his Directors guild card torn up. I KNOW YOU THINK IT"S A TOTALLY AWESOME RADICAL WAY TO END A FILM TONY, BUT DO SOMETHING MORE ORIGINAL NEXT TIME!
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
A Sci-Fi Adventure With With Sardonic Wit
As someone wholly unfamiliar with the material on which this was based I found the film to be an extremely witty commentary on bureaucracy and the misplaced values of modern society. Drenched in Monty Pythonesque humor this very amusing, colorful and adventurous film deftly maneuvers from the Earth to an assortment of planets and locations. Everyone in the cast gives an inspired performance with Sam Rockwell the clear standout as the President of the Galaxy, sinking his teeth into a very over the top roll with panache.
It's worth noting if you're not a fan of Monty Python or of Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits this is not the film for you. But if you're looking for something unique in this period of poorly written action spectacles this is the film for you. And remember no matter what happens while viewing the film DON'T PANIC!
Saving Silverman (2001)
If you liked "Say it isn't So" you'll love this
R. Lee Ermey gets more laughs as a drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket than the entire cast of this movie can muster here. Its one of those films that was probably hysterically funny for the cast and crew while making it, but doesn't translate into a watchable movie at all. But hey if you ever wanted to know what happened to Neil Diamond heres your chance.