Quick Movie Reviews

The Simpsons--C

It had a few funny moments, but it was like a recent year Simpsons episode that was way too long. I'm not that huge a Simpsons fanatic in the first place, so that plays some role. Many of the jokes were just really lame, it was hanging halfway into the "is clever and appeals to adults" stuff but a lot of it was still shitty slapstick humour without much behind it. Not written well enough to make me enjoy it much.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix--B- for Harry Potter reader, C for non-Harry Potter reader

This is reviewed as someone who reads the books. This cut out a lot of the character of the book it is based on and left some of the wrong parts in. Lots of things were woefully unexplained, I can't even imagine seeing it without reading the book. It is my least favorite book in the first place and on top of that it wasn't a great translation for the screen. Way too much downtime in the middle, I can't tell if it was the book that was poorly paced (this one is) or the movie.

Bourne Ultimatum--A-

I must confess, I think the Bourne series is one of the finest action movie series being produced right now. Why? No bullshit. People who know me know that this is the type of thing that makes me love movies--movies like The Road Warrior, Die Hard, etc, really straight ahead not trying to do too much and keeping you in the action and the characters. No forced sort of directors winking at me moments that take me out of a lot of action movies. It's a spy movie and unlike most big action movies it doesn't try to stray away from what it does right, spy stuff, car chases, some slightly intriguing twists and a relatively interesting main character who isn't completely belabored during the movies. This (final) episode in the Bourne series is way, way better than the second, which was definitely the weakest of the series but probably not as good as the first. Still very entertaining. The first movie had a perfect balance of action and interesting characterizations and dialogue that didn't try to do too much, something that I am beginning to appreciate more and more in movies. The other part about these series that is great is that the romantic bits, when they are there, are subdued just as they should be during these frantic situations. It's never suggested that there's going to be some forever love happening in such a crazy situation. The second one was a bit of a mess. This one leans too heavily on frantic pace and too many fight/car scenes without the characters of the first one but is still very entertaining.