Friday, September 17, 2010

7 Word Weekend Movie Review: The Town, Never Let Me Go and a Shyamalan's not the Devil


New Movie Releases Reviewed in 7 Words Each


Never Let Me Go (limited) - But I kind of really want to...

Alpha and Omega - Pouring this one out for Dennis Hopper.

Devil - The best looking Shyamalan films aren't his.

Easy A - Grade: D (see what I did there?)

Jack Goes Boating (limited) - Is it Oscar season already? Oh, yawn.

The Town - Affleck is always best when he's writing.


Did you like The Island but thought it had too happy of an ending? Then you'll love Never Let Me Go. Assuming that is that they keep the ending from the book. No I haven't read it. I had a long conversation with someone who described it in great detail while I sat there nodding my head and saying, "Really? Wow. You don't say? That sounds fascinating." The book was on TIME's 100 greatest books and I suppose I should have read it. Past a point though, I tend to get bored with dystopian books. The movie looks as bleak as the world it supposedly paints. Maybe if I actually liked Keira Knightley

The other horror shot for the weekend is Devil the new M. Night joint. I like the look of it. It's really only based on a short story Shyamalan wrote so his meddling hands won't interfere with what's a decent idea for a script. The screenplay is written by Brian Nelson who previously handled the adaptation of 30 Days of Night. I won't hold that against him though as the source material wasn't great to begin with. He also wrote Hard Candy which I thought was okay but overrated. 

On the directing side of things you have John Erick Dowdle who directed Quarantine, which was okay but certainly no [Rec]. For what it was I suppose the directing was, at the very least, perfunctory. He also directed The Poughkeepsie Tapes, which was... for lack of a better term, not great. At any rate he should have no problem with a camera pointing down into an elevator. 

Why bring up the less than thrilling credits of the movie makers? Because even with M. Night having crafted a few excellent movies, weighed against his current track record, I still have more hope for a Shyamalan movie that has more of a cursory involvement from him. Scorch. Pow. Actually, if you consider his last batch of movies (with the exception of The Last Airbender) he had some decent ideas. He just didn't execute them well. So maybe this is the best way for him to be involved in movies. Come up with ideas and let someone else handle it.

Course it could suck big time and this would all be a moot point.

For me, the best looking movie out of the bunch this weekend is The Town. I thought the last film Ben Affleck wrote and directed was great. Gone Baby Gone was a great (though very violent) crime thriller. It was dark, gritty and packed a good punch. Affleck's new film looks to be in the same vein. I won't see it in theater, but I think it'll be a must rent when it hits video.

Have a great weekend everyone!

11 comments:

  1. Easy A would be a rental in my book. Although I find whats her name oddly attractive.

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  2. I agree with you on the M. Night and Affleck stuff! I, however, am looking forward to Easy A. I've heard it compared favorably to John Hughes movies, so I'm in.

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  3. I'm tempted to see "Devil" this weekend...but my better judgement will probably stop me once I approach the ticket counter. After "The Happening" I swore I would never watch another M. Night Shymalyan movie again.

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  4. Have you seen [Rec}2? It went off in a whole new direction...

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  5. Town is the one that has me intrigued. Guess I'll check it out!

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  6. Ah shucks, I wanted Easy A to be a good one since it was filmed around here.

    Have you heard of "Catfish"? I want to see it when it arrives to our fair city.

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  7. Catfish souds really good..I hear the ending is great. And REC2 is out already. I LOVED the first one and I don't like scary movies and that one made me pee my pants.

    Okay, Kira Knightly actually lost weight for her role - she weighs less than a ham sammich as it is...I hate me them skeletal actresses I have to tells ya. And as much as I love my dystopia I have fears this will be weary. That is the reason I will NEVER see the Road. That is what I need -two hours of unrelenting SADNESS.

    M Night will forever be off my gripe and bitch list because he made 'Unbreakable' which is genius to me. One of my favorite superhero movies ever.

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  8. Alex, I haven't seen [rec]2 yet. Any good?

    Betty, I completely forgot catfish is out this weekend. I'm very interested in seeing it.

    Kal, I still love sixth sense and signs. Unbreakable, while not my favorite, I thought was enjoyable, if not flawed. After that though... I'm just saying his ideas in someone else's hands isn't such a bad idea.

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  9. I like M. Night's stuff even though a lot of people I know don't.

    The Town has already made my BB queue (se what I did there).

    Always appreciate the reviews.. or non.

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  10. Thanks for the reviews/non-reviews.
    I'm thinking the Town is the one for me out of this group.

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  11. The Town is the one I'm considering. Easy A will definately be a rental

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