Every movie I have seen in the past couple of weeks and a couple of sentences about them. Part 3

...and even more...

Death Sentence (2007, James Wan) - **1/2

There comes a point while watching Death Sentence that you just become frustrated with it. This isn't because the plot is confusing or because the film just throws you off, it's because there are such outstanding moments scattered through out the film that you just wish that everything surrounding these moments were as good. Sadly, they are not. As bad the dioulouge, music, and sometimes the acting may be, it still doesnt take away from these small bursts of greatness. I belong to the small little group that believes that James Wan has a lot of potential to become a good director and there are enough moments during Death Sentence which confirm this. Still, though, this goes into the pile of movies that could have been so much more.


The Fearless Freaks (2005, Bardley Beesley) - ***1/2

Despite me ranking Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots as one of the greatest albums that I have yet to hear, I am a little bit ashamed that I don't own every Flaming Lips album and that I dont follow the band at all. So, while watching this 2 hour in depth rockumentary about the band from their days of playing football in their backyard, to their early sucess, to their drug problems, and even to the sci fi film that they are in the process of making in their backyard, when the film finished I felt like I really understoof what they are all about and why they are in fact so good,unique, and interesting in the first place. While looking for a picture of the poster I found a perfect sentence which sums up why the documentary is great "...it is a nice example of what a rock documentary can be when it treats the people like people and not icons."

Wayne Coyne's hair - ****


Two-Lane Blacktop (1971, Monte Hellman) - ***

I don't know what exactly I was anticipating from this "road film" but it definitely was not this. I was excepting something...less..I don't know...different. By this I mean that Two-Lane Blacktop on the surface may look like it's going to be road or even a chase film from the 70's but it doesnt take too long before you realize that you jsut stepped into a film that is at the same in the genre yet completely out of it. While talking about this film with a friend I described it as "it's like a chase film by Jarmusch" and my statement still stands. Everything is stipped to it's most minimal core. There are long streatches of silence, the "chase" plot plays second fiddle to minimal character interactions, which all play together to the over all minimal story. The characters dont even have names. Yeah, it's that minimal. I'm sure there might be some thematic elements that I may have missed and I'm more than sure that there are a lot of people who would laugh at me thinking that there isnt much there but I just cant see the big picture. I feel out of the loop with this film. Still, I have to admit that I was constantly engaged with the film and I still think about it. It's a challenging film and it definitely left an impact on me. I just wish it could have been a nicer impact than the cold one that I received.