John’s Movie Musings

Name one thing actors fear the most.  OK, that list is probably enormous, but I was thinking of typecasting.  It seems to be a consistent vein running through Hollywood.  Remember Doogie Howser?  His career was destroyed after years of blogging on a blue screen, only to be saved by Dr. Horrible.  Ironically, who also wore a lab coat.

DeNiro and Pacino are fantastic actors.  But after all these years, they’ve typecast themselves as DeNiro and Pacino.  And people seem to crave more of this.  I find that odd.  Shatner is a walking caricature but he never pulls in the kind of money the other two do.  That said, I now want to see a DeNiro, Pacino, Shatner movie.  Make it happen people.

Righteous Kill is the third movie DeNiro and Pacino have teamed up on.  The Godfather, Part II and Heat came before and are far, far superior.  If you haven’t seen them, then by all means, don’t waste your time on this drivel.  As a bonus, you can come back after Heat and be a Jim Gaffigan punchline.

So yeah, Righteous Kill ain’t the best movie on the planet.  When it was in theaters, the only thing I heard was how horrible it was.  Going in with that expectation, I guess things could only go up.  The plot is kind of interesting as it progresses.  One suggestion, though – when the movie ends, don’t go back and think about the plot.  You’ll only cause pain and confusion.

If there was one thing that would have made this movie better, DeNiro should have done his best Pacino and vice versa.  But without that, Righteous Kill isn’t the complete waste of time everyone says it is.  There are just lots of better movies out there.

Grade: C-

Think back to 1999.  Everyone was freaking out over two things:  Y2K and another Star Wars movie was about to open.  As it turned out, both of those were enormous wastes of time, but back then that’s all anyone cared about.

Fanboys transports you back to that age of innocence – that time when the Special Editions were the low point of the Star Wars saga.  Much like Homer’s Odyssey, we journey with a troupe of geeks from Ohio to Skywalker Ranch.  Why?  To steal a rough cut of The Phantom Menace.  Yeah, yeah – I’ll never use Homer and Fanboys in the same sentence again.

OK, so now we come to the big question.  Who in their right mind would watch this? Especially since some of you probably made up your mind after looking at the poster.

Let me help with a quiz…

• Do you insert Star Wars quotes into everyday conversation?
• Do you know what the Kessel Run is?
• Have you ever dressed up as a Star Wars character for Halloween?
• How about any time other than Halloween?

If you answered yes to more than one of those, you will love this movie because you are a fanboy.  For those of you not in that category but enjoy hanging out with a bunch of dudes in black t-shirts, you will probably hate the movie but enjoy the experience.

As for me, it was far, far better than I was expecting.  It’s got lots of laughs and I enjoyed the look back when Star Wars was cool.

Grade: B

Welcome to the new site!  Nothing is too different yet, but as time goes by, I’ll be able to add some new features.  First up, the Review Index is working.  You can get to it from the link at the top, or over there on the right.  –>

Also, I think my Weekly Box Office widget actually sorts correctly now.  That alone will make this all worth it.

If you’ve got any suggestions or features you wanna see, let me know in the comments.

Enjoy!

Oh, and there’s a new Twitter feature at the end of each post.  Any other sites I should add?