tlcglitznglam Reviews

Nine (2009)

Quick thoughts

[6/10 · 30 December 2009]

I'm a musical fanatic and I love that movie musicals have resurfaced in the past decade. I struggled with Nine and I have a feeling it's one of those films that will either fade away in my memory completely or I'll find myself continuously thinking back to it when I least expect it and eventually it becomes one of my favorites. It's hard to say which is more likely to happen...

The trouble is that a lot of the best things about the film I think are also some of the worst and vice versa. Visually, there are some stunning shots. The entire film is shot very artistically and it is beautiful to look at. The lighting, colors, camera angles etc. are all well thought out. Unfortunately, this was also a deterrent from the film in some ways... at times it felt as if the film was trying too hard to be artsy and stylish. While beautiful to look at it, it was done up to the extent that it felt a bit contrived. Overall, I think more of a positive than a negative though.

One of my biggest criticisms of the film is that the plot was lacking and the whole film felt somewhat disjointed... it jumped back and forth between dialog and random song/dance spectacles so abruptly that you were never really able to get into a flow with the movie. Yet, I think that in ways this was perhaps a really clever statement, as the lead of the film is a film director who struggles throughout the entire movie with writing a film with a cohesive story... throughout the film we see snippets of his visions, all disjointed without any real connective thread. This is mirrored in the film we view as the audience. Still, I'd rather see a smooth story.

It was enjoyable but felt lacking.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

an acquired taste...

[3/10 · 22 May 2006]

All my life I've heard how funny Monty Python and the Holy Grail was but I had never seen it. Being in college, a group of my friends all wanted to watch it so I decided to join, excited to finally see this movie for which I've heard so much praise. I could see how people find the movie funny but I could not get into it. I kept wanting to leave but was determined to see it through to its end... and actually, I'm glad I did because the ending "credits" where it's several minutes of music playing to a black screen was the only thing that made me laugh from the movie. I respect the movie because it so widely loved so I'm not trying to bash it, yet I definitely think, as with any sort of humor, it is not for everyone. There are countless types of humor: dry, sarcastic, physical, nonsense, political etc. and everyone has their own taste as to which they prefer. With a movie like Monty Python, which has a very certain type of humor attached to it, there are bound to be those who dislike it. I only leave this comment to let those of you who have not yet seen the movie hear a "different" sort of opinion, as nearly all of the comments here highly praise the movie.

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

View on movie largely depends on if you read the book....

[7/10 · 19 May 2006]

If you read the book, you'll likely be disappointed in the movie. Not necessarily think it was awful, just another one of those "the book is TEN TIMES better than the movie" type of deal.

If you didn't read the book you don't deserve to see the movie. Do yourself a favor and read the book. Rent the movie after.

I'm not a huge book person.... at all. And lots of times I actually enjoy the movie more than the book... i'm a bit of a movie fanatic. But this is one case where I can honestly say the book is much better than the movie. While I enjoyed the movie, the two types of media give the story an ENTIRELY different feel. The book is more mystery like and non-stop suspense. The clues unravel piece by piece yet you have no idea what to expect and each page is like a riddle. The movie, on the other hand, may have a mystery/suspense overtone, but it's not as adrenaline based and the information and clues revealed along the way are not as exciting to discover.

Poltergeist III (1988)

No classic but it absolutely terrifies me

[10/10 · 27 July 2005]

I was shocked when I came to this site to see how low the rating is for this movie. I loved horror movies as a kid and still do, but of everything I remember watching when I was younger, Poltergeist III scared me the most. I would go literally weeks before I could look at myself in the mirror again... I'd always have to run by them. I used to watch this movie with my friends and it made them equally afraid of mirrors. I'm not going all out to say that the acting was high quality or that it goes down in my books as a classic horror movie but I think it's highly underrated. It's an incredibly dark, terrifying movie in my opinion. I think it's by far the scariest of the three Poltergeist movies, although the original Poltergeist is my favorite.

Memento (2000)

brilliant fun!!! 4.5 out of 5

[10/10 · 7 April 2005]

Memento is the type of movie you will watch once and immediately want to watch again. It is brilliant. I myself have watched it three times in the past two days: the first time, then I checked the official webpage (don't visit until after viewing) and comments here then watched it again, and then I watched it a third time, but this time backwards from scene to scene. It is suspenseful, funny, artistic,and keeps you guessing until the very end. Your ideas about the movie,the plot, and the characters will change many times while watching the film and the ending is nothing you expect. Even after it's over you still need to piece the movie together in your own mind to make some sense of it.

Basically, it's about a man Lenny who has a memory disorder where he has no short term memory. His goal throughout the movie is to find and kill the man who raped and murdered his wife. He helps himself "remember" things by taking pictures of important people and places he encounters while searching for his wife's murderer. The movie is shown through two intertwined "stories". One is shot in black and white and is mostly of Lenny talking with someone on the telephone. The other is in color and these scenes are shown to us backwards... that is, starting with what happened most recently in the story line and ending with what happened and the "beginning" of the storyline. The purpose of this is to take us into the mind of Lenny, who can't remember more than small chunks of what he's been doing before he forgets again.

While it sounds confusing, it's not one of those movies that you sit through the whole time getting frustrated and thinking I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON. It's more like you keep asking questions and picking up clues as the movie progresses, keeping your interest so that you can't wait until your next question is answered... like a fun mystery. I found myself smiling and laughing each time the scenes jumped to another place in time because it's all crafted so cleverly and seamlessly. If you watch the movie, which I highly recommend that you do, it will be clearer to you. It's definitely a fun movie that's also very stylistic and intelligent. There are so many layers to Memento, that you can watch it multiple times and have a different opinion each time you watch it.... about characters, the plot, motives, and what the director and writer are trying to say about memory, truth, psychology, ethics, love and revenge.

Garden State (2004)

Different from what expected

[1/10 · 26 March 2005]

I was really looking forward to seeing this film. I had heard great things about it and noticed its good rating of 8/10 here on IMDb. I'm not an avid movie watcher but I enjoy a good film and watching new movies. To be honest I could not get into this film. Maybe I didn't give it a fair shot... I stopped watching after 45 minutes. The opening airplane scene drew me in but after that it just went downhill for me. Like I said, I never finished the movie, so don't take my comment as a guideline that tells you Garden State is awful. All I can say for sure is that it has a slow beginning. I'm normally good with finishing movies I start but sometimes I can just tell that a movie is not my style within the first few minutes. I had that feeling about this film about 5 minutes in, but I wanted to see if it got better, especially after all the praise its received. After half the movie was over though and I still wasn't drawn in, I had to turn it off. I guess I'll never understand why this movie is so generally loved.

Simply Irresistible (1999)

one of those guilty pleasures...

[10/10 · 3 March 2005]

Honestly, I think this is an awful movie... but I can't help but love it! It has a cheesy plot, unrealistic characters, a bit of magic that adds to the unbelievability and about everything else that a bad movie has. And yet, this is one of my favorite movies to watch when I'm in the mood to watch something light and fun. I'm almost embarrassed to say I love it! I don't know what it is about this movie that makes it so enjoyable to me. The basic plot... Sarah Michelle Gellar is a rather unsuccessful chef who wants to become better and save her family's restaurant. After buying a crab at a local market her luck begins to change. Suddenly she is able to cook amazing food that is sort of hypnotic and magical. She's offered a job as head chef at a posh new restaurant by a gorgeous guy who (wouldn't you know it) she ends up falling in love with. Give it a try. Maybe you'll love it too. I think it's the whole food idea that gets me....

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

you will either think it's genius or the worst movie ever made...

[1/10 · 13 February 2005]

This movie has become idolized on my college campus, and basically every other one across the country. You simply do not understand half the jokes people say unless you see the movie. I was shocked to find that the first time I watched it I already knew most of the lines just from hearing them being recited by my friends. So, I watched the movie expecting to be entertained. No. I've heard that if you're under 30 you will love this movie. Well, I'm 18 and hated it. I know that it's not a movie driven on plot or any sort of character depth, and that it's supposed to just be about humor. But ND wasn't in ANY WAY funny. The only point of my watching it is to now understand posters around campus and things people say. Other than that, it was a waste of time. Seriously... it's just awful. If you don't like stupid humor then ND is not for you. It goes beyond stupid humor even.... it's just stupid.