Movie Reviews - V
V for Vendetta: Much better than I’d anticipated. Just all good stuff from start to finish – I liked the pacing as well. The only thing I didn’t get was what “charisma” the leader had – what a slimy dude. It’d have been more realistic if he looked & acted like a TV preacher.
Vanilla Sky: I think I've decided that Tom Cruise movies are OK if you don't see two of them back-to-back. This was a lot better than I thought it would be - lots of interesting direction & scenes that just leave you confused. What if you were trapped in a dream? What if that dream became a nightmare? Ok, so I've just ruined the whole "surprise ending"... sorry. I had the good fortune of having no idea what the plot was before I saw this. If you just read this, I guess you won't be so lucky. This movie was based on an original Spanish Movie (don't recall the name), I'd like to see the original.
Vanity Fair: Once I figured-out who everybody was... the movie was over.
Vertical Limit: This is how it goes: The characters get themselves in trouble. Then, something happens to make the situation worse, then something else happens to make the situation unbelievably hopeless, then, just when you think it's going to be ok, the outlook gets seriously bleak indeed. Finally, out of nowhere, the whole situation resolves itself in an instant. If this is the new action movie formula, we're all in for a big boring spell at the movies. Bring your umbrella, because it rains pretty hard during this one.
A Very Brady Sequel: Completely warped. Perhaps even better than the first Brady Bunch movie. The casting director should have won some kind of award for these movies. This movie is hilarious for all kinds of reasons... of course, almost all of those reasons require that you have memorized at least a dozen episodes of the original show.
A Very Long Engagement: A beautifully filmed piece of art, but unless you speak French, this was so hard to follow! Also, I felt a bit cheated by the ending. It's a totally over-used cliche. I won't say exactly what happens, because despite that major flaw, it's still very much worth seeing just to "see", in fact it may be worth seeing twice so you can "understand".
A View to a Kill: James Bond saves Silicon Valley from an evil megalomaniac. Damn.
The Virgin Suicides: This movie tries to be really stylish and, um, "bold" or something... it almost succeeds, but only almost. There are a couple brief scenes in the movie, but even those just don't fit. The narrator (who's never really identified), treats the whole story like some kind of Shakespearean tragedy or something. Teenage boys are never so philosophical about beautiful girls living next door, they just want to see them naked. (Also, the movie's sound was really annoying - very quiet dialogue with roaring music).
Volcano: "Let's see... what kind of natural disaster haven't we made a movie about? Hmmm... I got it! volcanoes! Let's have a volcano erupt in... ummm... downtown LA!" And thus, a really dumb movie was born. I think this "conceptual moment" happened at two studios at the same time. Dante's Peak came out around the same time.