Just Friends (2005)

Let me start this off by saying I've really liked Ryan Reynolds in the other two movies I've seen him in. (Foolproof and Finder's Fee.) So what happened to him in this movie? I'm not entirely sure.

The movie was a really nice concept, actually. Could have been done really sweetly and made even me think, "Now there's a good movie." However, there were two major flaws: 1) The whole thing was played far too over-the-top, which makes the entire story difficult to swallow in the first place, and 2) The main guy really WASN'T all that likeable. He was rude and manipulative and that doesn't just change in the blink of an eye. I didn't particularly want the girl to end up with him. Whoops.

That being said though, there were a few good moments throughout the film, and it really WAS a nice idea for a chick flick. It just didn't actually work out. 2 stars.

Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989)

What can I say about this movie? Do I rate it low, do I rate it high? (I'll compromise and rate it lowish middle.) It was a truly terrible movie but I laughed so hard while watching it that I actually had fun with it. I might even purchase it. This movie is one of those that is SO bad it's hilarious. The sock puppet piranhas... the people who keep switching sides... the dialogue... oh, goodness, the dialogue. This has been Rinkworks.com's Official Bad Movie for many years, and now I can take pride in the fact that I've seen it and it is every bit as horrible and awesome as they all claimed it was. 2.5 stars.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Just a few weeks after seeing Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting, I finally sat down and watched this. The two of them are simply marvelous together. They made this movie as good as it was. The movie doesn't have much going for it in terms of plot - nothing much really happens, as the characters just run around being chased by the law. But the characters are interesting, primarily made interesting by Newman and Redford themselves. About half an hour into the movie, I wasn't sure I was so thrilled about it, but as I began to just enjoy the conversations and tune out the bits I didn't like, I decided the movie as a whole is well worth watching. Good stuff. 3.5 stars.

Firewall (2006)

I'm not a big fan of the straight action flick, but for some reason this movie intrigued me, so this evening I sat down and watched it. It was one of those movies that's exactly like every other action/thriller (more thriller than action... no real "let's duke it out" scenes until the very end) . . . fairly enjoyable, but absolutely nothing that really caught my attention. (As opposed to, say, Panic Room, another thriller/action that actually *did* interest me all the way through.) This was passable, but I got confused among all the different faces. The fact that one of the guys kept changing accents didn't help at all.

It was also difficult for me to follow who was in on what plans, and what the bad guys were doing for what reason. On the other hand, this did appear to use actual computer technology, as opposed to some other computer movies that clearly don't have a clue how these things work. At the very least, it was showing an actual computer screen - the Windows search, for example, actually looked like a windows search, rather than some impressive made-up window with giant letters saying "CAN I HELP YOU?" on it.

Bottom line: If you're a fan of the genre, you'll probably like it a lot more than I did. If you're not a fan of the genre, you'll probably like it as much as any of the others of its kind. *shrug* 2.5 stars.

The Producers (2005)

I had mixed feelings on this. I absolutely adored the original movie, and I absolutely adore musical theater and movies that have an abundance of musical theater people in them... but somehow this never quite clicked for me. Even musical moments that clearly should have been spine-tingling ("I Wanna Be a Producer," for example) simply weren't. I sat there thinking, "I should be enjoying this a whole lot more than I am." Just another example, I guess, of how something with a lot of energy on stage often loses that energy when it transfers to the screen.

Not to say this is a bad movie, though. I still enjoyed it, although never at any point did I think it was spectacular. There were a few moments that made me giggle, and the cast was all very good. The most surprising to me was Will Ferrell. He's one of those people I keep expecting to be really obnoxious in a movie, and then I watch it and think, "Actually, that was pretty good." The same happened here. This was a great part for him... made me laugh a few times.

And let's not forget to make a brief mention of the performances of Roger Bart, who's one of my Voices, and Gary Beach, who isn't one of my Voices but is still a musical theater person, and Uma Thurman, who isn't a musical theater person but also did a good job in her role. 3.5 stars.

Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

There are no words for this movie. I saw this on a MST episode and kept giggling all the way through, and not because of the comments, either. This movie was truly bad enough on its own. However, it made me laugh so hard that I'm giving it a full one star instead of the half star it would have gotten had it been less entertaining as a bad movie. The scene where Torgo was hitting on the wife while she just stood there looking shocked and screaming her husband's name had me almost in tears, I was laughing so hard. Good stuff, good stuff. Dialogue isn't as beautifully atrocious as Plan 9, though. 1 star.

Before Sunrise (1995)

If there's one thing Richard Linklater can do, it's write dialogue. It was evident in Waking Life and it's evident here. There's not very much plot in Before Sunrise. Basically, two strangers meet on a train and decide to spend the rest of their day/night together. The majority of the movie is spent just listening to their conversations with each other. They're not particularly realistic - these people are witty even when their awkward, and always ready with a profound anecdote that applies to the situation. But even without that realism, the conversations are still FASCINATING. In the first ten minutes, I was hooked, and I stayed interested for the rest of the movie.

I'm never a big fan of the "love me tonight, for tomorrow we part" stories... However, this one redeemed itself in a few ways that I'm not going to mention now because I suppose they might be construed as spoilers. And because it redeemed itself and it stayed so beautifully interesting all the way through, it gets rated quite high. 4.5 stars.