Movie Reviews

Secret Window is about a writer who is accused of stealing a story. Johny Depp is the writer. It's pretty good. It is not Science Fiction but it is about the writing life. Johny Depp must be doing good as a writer. At the time of the story he is having trouble writing. It is based on a novella by Stephen King called Secret Window, Secret Garden.

This has been a much maligned category. We need toss in some more movie discussion. Lots of scifi movies to choose from. So how bout starting with Alien?

In my opinion, a classic. A perfect blend of science fiction and horror. If one likes either of those genres, than this movie scores high marks.

It's one of those movies you can still watch today and feel that its technology and setting are not "dated". Okay, not TOO dated. It's not like most old scifi where you take one look and laugh your but off (no good examples coming to mind, Logan's Run maybe, Star Trek?)

Alien also had one of the most original Aliens ever. It's creation has spawned a whole new form of alien race. Sigourney Weaver was also one of the first, if not the first, major female lead in a scifi movie. Before then, most scifi women were flakey maidens-in-distress-syndrome, large breasts, can't think, must be saved. Then Weaver came a long and kicked some Alien but. Talk about a strong, female character. (Can anyone think of a scifi movie before Alien that had a major, strong, female lead). Leah from Star Wars maybe an exception, but Luke and Han still had to save her over and over again.

Alien is a classic in my book.

Okay, this isn't speculative fiction per se (although it borders on fantasy) but I hold this movie up as a terrific example of good characterizations and clever plotting.

The heros are a well-rounded team of hand picked experts. This is just like every other heist film, but still, it's entertaining to watch them work as a team. Their chummy relationship felt a little contrived in places, but I overlooked that. Any story with interesting characters working and complementing each other pulls me in. The minor characters are interesting too.

The plot was the best I have seen in a while. They rip off a ton of gold bars in Italy, using a method I have never seen before. Unfortunately, one of their team betrays them and takes it (you know this already from the previews).

When they find the guy they hatch another clever scheme to get it back, but -- here's the kicker -- it doesn't work (you can feel this one coming since the movie is only half over at this point). So they have to do a quick rethink, and come up with yet another clever scheme. And there is another after that.

For most movies, the plot well runs dry after one twist or two. This one keeps them coming.

The acting was good, but the screenwriter deserves the credit for this movie's success.

Here's another hotly debated one. I've never actually read any of King's books (shame on me :oops: ) my wife love's him to bits though! I saw Dreamcatcher a few months back and thought it was a pretty good film. All the reviews though, said it was awful.

Why are films of King's books (Carrie and The Shining apart) always critically panned? Does anybody else think all of those films (and most of his books have been converted to screen) are bad?

I loved the first one. Jackson did a fantastic job bringing the story to life. The acting was superb -- huge kudos to the casting director. The effects were incredible, but subtle. They didn't get in the way of the characters or story. I got the 4 DVD set, which goes into detail of all the techniques they used to shrink the hobbits. And of course the sets and scenery were breathtaking.

Like with every book adaptation, people always complain about this was missing, or that was wrong, but remember: the book is still there. It's unchanged. If you want the book, read the book. The movie is "inspired by" the book and should be a good story on its own merit.

So I didn't really mind the love story. It didn't make a lot of sense but otherwise, there would have been little for the ladies. And Liv added a lot to the movie. (hubba hubba)

The second movie was also excellent, especially the battle scenes. I thought the bit with Strider getting carried off by a Warg was dumb though. Why waste screen time with this fluff?

Looking forward to #3. I'm concerned, though -- Jackson still has a lot of story to cover. Hopefully he doesn't leave out too much.