Watchmen, 2009, dir. Zack Snyder

(Author’s note: This is actually a much, much older review that I somehow missed in adding reviews from my older blogs to Something Useful. I am not this much of a slacker.) What a mess. What a glorious, flawed, and strangely watchable mess. Snyder’s Watchmen is a tangled and twisted juggernaut of failed storytelling and … Continue reading →

Technology: 3D Dreams

3D at first slowly, and now much more rapidly, has become the new “it” gimmick in modern filmmaking. 2009 alone has given us numerous films in 3D presentations (Coraline, Up, My Bloody Valentine, The Final Destination*, among others), with more on the way before the year is out and even more still in the years … Continue reading →

Something Useful: My Fall Preview

Summer has come and gone, and with it a plethora of truly excellent movies (as well as some truly awful ones). I missed the cut-off point at which composing a list of my favorite movies of the summer season would still be acceptable, and am now in the dreaded “so late that it’s painful” territory. … Continue reading →

The Hurt Locker, 2009, dir. Katherine Bigelow

2009’s sucker-punching Iraq war military drama, The Hurt Locker, is a tense and episodic film, and perhaps one of the most individual war movies ever made. In any examination of war, politics almost inevitably find a way to trickle down into the story’s bloodstream and flood it with its ideological leanings and proclivities. What makes … Continue reading →

9, 2009, dir. Shane Acker

9‘s release marks the second film in 2009 to be released with Tim Burton‘s name on it. More accurately it’s the second film released in 2009 directed by God knows who because the sight of “Burton” leads easily fooled people into crediting it as his film. February’s Coraline (my review) experienced similar problems, though that … Continue reading →

Sukiyaki Western Django, 2007, dir. Takashi Miike

Japan’s most recognizable modern symbol of cinematic controversy, Takashi Miike, is a hard man to nail down. Since 1991, he has directed a staggering number of films (totaling in the 70’s at this point), and while there are common threads between most of his movies*, one would be hard-pressed to successfully argue that he sticks … Continue reading →

Timecrimes, 2008, dir. Nacho Vigalondo

The average Joe, it seems, doesn’t understand the subtleties of time travel. They have no concept of the potential paradoxes that can arise from reckless behavior and brash actions; they are deluded enough to think that they can best causality. The hero of Timecrimes, Hector, is such a man; apparently, he has never watched Lost … Continue reading →

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2009, dir. David Yates

If you didn’t know that you were watching the latest installment in the Harry Potter series, if you hadn’t bought the ticket yourself and sat through the opening credits, then the odds are good that you wouldn’t know what, exactly, you were watching in the film’s first scene, in which swirling black apparitions wreak havoc … Continue reading →