REVIEW: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story [2007]

“The wrong kid died” That quote above could not have been more correct, however, not in the way Pa Cox intended. I was thinking more along the lines of wishing young Dewey had cut me in half, because had I been unable to watch the rest of the hour and a half to come, it would have been a much better experience. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is easily the worst movie I have seen all year long. There have been some bad films, but this was the first…

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Top 10 Albums of 2007

(short and sweet and to the point) 10.) Feist: The Reminder 9.) Bloc Party: A Weekend in the City 8.) Porcupine Tree: Fear of a Blank Planet 7.) The Receiving End of Sirens: The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi 6.) Interpol: Our Love to Admire 5.) Athlete: Beyond the Neighborhood 4.) Kent: Tillbaka till samtiden 3.) Band of Horses: Cease to Begin 2.) Editors: An End Has a Start 1.) The Shins: Wincing the Night Away Honorable Mention: Explosions in the Sky: All of a Sudden I Miss EveryoneStars: In…

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REVIEW: Atonement [2007]

“No rhymes and no embellishments” Ladies and gentlemen, a hand for director Joe Wright; he has crafted a masterpiece. With resemblances to films like Cold Mountain and A Very Long Engagement, Atonement is just so much more. Visually stunning, intellectually stimulating, and forever heartbreaking, Wright has made a movie like no other this year. Sure I have seen “perfect” films this year, for lack of a better word, but even Gone Baby Gone winds up far down the list when compared to all 10/10 films I’ve seen and given that…

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REVIEW: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [2007]

“May I have your attention, puh-lease!” Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is not your run-of-the-mill Broadway spectacle. This thing is dark, gory, and bleak to the end with little in the way of joy and hope seeping through. I had seen the staged production featuring George Hearn and Angela Lansbury a couple years back, so I was familiar with the story before sitting down to experience Tim Burton’s vision. I guess by knowing Sondheim’s other musical Into the Woods, he is accustomed to darker,…

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REVIEW: The Kite Runner [2007]

“There is a way to be good again” Director Marc Forster once again shows that he will not be pigeonholed into a genre. After doing family, drama, comedy, and thriller, he has decided to do foreign-language with his adaptation of The Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini’s acclaimed novel has been on my list to read, collecting dust on my bookshelf, but I never really knew what it was about. Sure you see in the trailer that two former childhood friends part ways and the one in America must go back to…

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REVIEW: National Treasure: Book of Secrets [2007]

“Oh look, a little golden man” National Treasure: Book of Secrets will always be known as the film that prevented Helen Mirren from meeting Queen Elizabeth after the success of The Queen. I mean really, I would have made the same choice, because this film is truly high art. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the first installment for its poor-man’s Indiana Jones feel mixed with glossy effects and convoluted plot lines (Bruckheimerisms as I like to call them) and for the most part had fun with this one. Well…

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REVIEW: Control [2007]

“Love will tear us apart, again” Anton Corbijn has finally joined the ranks of his contemporaries Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and Mark Romanek in directing his first full-length feature. No one could have been a better choice than this still photographer and music video director of cutting edge bands like Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen, and, of course, Joy Division themselves with the video for “Atmosphere” (albeit eight years after the death of frontman Ian Curtis). Corbijn has the sensibilities to craft a gorgeous study of a man on…

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REVIEW: I Am Legend [2007]

“Daddy look, a butterfly” Here we are, the middle of December, with Oscar-bait films being released left and right. Has my trifecta of must-sees, There Will Be Blood, The Kite Runner, and Atonement, showed face here in the sleepy town of Buffalo? No, of course not, they are too afraid to leave their big cities for the threat of blizzard conditions. What is there to do then? Oh, yeah, go see I Am Legend at the local multiplex. At first glance, I thought it was kind of weird to be…

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REVIEW: The Golden Compass [2007]

“Just a small little cut” I have thought that Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy would make some very interesting films ever since I read them almost a decade ago. The fantasy and utter intrigue that they instilled in me never left my consciousness. When I heard that American Pie director Chris Weitz would be helming it, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’ve seen many movies in my time to know that past work means often little when it comes to future endeavors, but I admit to enjoying…

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REVIEW: Sigur Rós – Heima [2007]

“Joining the soul of Icelandic society” Simply breathtaking. For a band as atmospheric and deep as Sigur Rós, one could not think of any natural visions worthy to accompany the music. It ends up, though, that you don’t have to look too far after all. Just take some time to see the beauty and infinite space right in their own home of Iceland. This documentary, Heima, shows the world one of the last untouched visages in existence. The island country is exotic and devoid of pollution of nature and man.…

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REVIEW: Bloodsport [1988]

“Dux is my man” I am, of course, a cinema purist. I can’t stand watching films on TV if they are going to be interrupted by commercials or edited in anyway. I won’t even start watching something I have not seen unless I started at the very beginning and went to the end. However, with a couple friends over and a little “Mystery Science Theater 3000” atmosphere, I threw all those rules out the window and experienced the last hour or so of the cult classic Bloodsport. Did I watch…

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