Monday, March 30, 2009

Monday's At The Movies

I have been following this meme through Musings of a Bookish Kitty for awhile now and decided its high time I participated. Especially as lately I have been seeing quite a few movies and there are a lot of new ones coming I wish to watch (do not get me started on my excitement for Monsters vs Aliens).

Confessions of a Shopaholic
This is a fun light hearted movie with not one shred of originality. If you love shopping for clothes and shoes you will probably be one step off an orgasm with the plethora of designer wear advertised here.

Its a shame the script was pretty poor and the support cast was not fantastic. Everything was horribly predicable even the jokes. Isla Fisher to give her credit saved this film. She pulled goofy off really well and was believable in the role.

As long as you don’t expect much you should get a few chuckles out of this movie. It is barely recognisable as the book it is based on. Perhaps wait till it is on DVD or go with a big group of girls to get the most out of this film.

Knowing
I am not sure what to make of this movie as the more I think about it the more it annoys me. But while watching it I did like it.

What I didn’t like: Well the ending for starters. It was one of those endings that kept on going and should have been 10 minutes shorter. There was a good ending and if it had stopped there I think that would have been a strong if not powerful ending, but then it just kept going and ruined the moment. The extended bit which I guess is the true ending to me was just a waste of time and could have been easily cut.

My second gripe was the weird religious references. I am not talking about the fact there was religious references, I am talking about the fact that when they happened they really were weird and left you sitting there thinking “what the heck was that?”

Also it was all rather depressing which is off putting to me. I figure if I want to be depressed I can watch the news. I go to the movies for fun and excitement.

What I did like: The graphics were pretty awesome. The cinematographer did a really good job. I have heard this movie was shot in Melbourne and that is evident in some scenes that unfortunately no cinematographer or graphics computer guru can hide (such as the scene when they are sitting in a cafe at the museum). But for the most part they worked well with what they had.

Also the action scenes were really well done and jaw dropping. There were more than a few occasions where I was completely stunned in horror by what I was watching. The scenes aren’t gory but they really freaked me out. But then I am easily freaked so maybe I am not the best judge on this. I do note that I was not the only one who jumped out of her seat in one scene though.

Nicholas Cage was mostly great in this movie and Rose Byrne did a reasonable jobs (she seemed a little on the flat side not as good as she is in Damages).

I suspect my biggest issue about this film is it just falls short of being really good. Something I cant put my finger on holds it back. The story I thought was clever, there were great actors, and a wonderful director. All the makings of what should be a kick ass awesome film. Yet like I mentioned at the start, the more I think about it the less I like the film and I walked out feeling quite depressed about everything really.

This meme is hosted by A Novel Menagerie

3 comments:

  1. I have cross-linked your review by including it in my post. Thanks for participating. I'm subscribing to your blog now and am looking forward to getting to know yoU!

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  2. If you thought the movie Confessions was good you should try the book "Shotgun Shopping". It's all about someone who doesn't like to shop and how they get everything in their life within an incredibly small budget, designer clothes, shoes, a $30,000 baby grand piano for $1300 and much more. Lots of chortling and lessons. Great read and ones you may have thought of along the way but all in one fun book. Amazon has it.

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  3. I am glad you joined in this week, Caspette.

    I do want to see Confessions of a Shopaholic even though I know it hasn't gotten the best reviews. I can't resist even knowing it won't live up the books. I'm a glutton for punishment. :-)

    I haven't made up my mind about whether I want to see Knowing. I'm not much of a Nicholas Cage fan, I admit. The premise of the movie sounds interesting though.

    Great post, Caspette!

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