Short Movie Roundup

I don't know if I've been subscribed to Netflix for too long and have finally run out of good movies that I haven't seen or if I've just lacked good judgement in my recent rental activity, but I have seen some really bad movies lately.

I rented The Warriors and Dreamgirls because they are in HD and I've been hoping to utilize my HD DVD player a little more. Both were huge mistakes. The Warriors was one of the stupidest, worst acted movies I've ever seen. A 1979 movie about gangs in New York, I really don't have the words to describe how ridiculous it was other than to say that there was a gang of mimes, a gang of guys in baseball uniforms, need I say more?

Dreamgirls I expected to be similar to Ray or any of the other music related movies that have come out in recent years. Even though it's not my kind of music, I thought I could sit through the music for the story, after all it got good reviews. What I wasn't expecting was a full blown musical with very little story. I can usually sit through almost any bad movie, but only made it a little more than halfway through Dreamgirls before giving up. It really was like fingernails on a chalk board. Maybe worse.

The Forbidden Kingdom I actually enjoyed. It had it's goofy parts, but I expected that from a Kung Fu film. How can you go wrong with Jackie Chan and Jet Li teaming up? Throw in some great scenery, a couple of hot women, and some supernatural forces to explain the flying around and you really can't go wrong. There was plenty of room for improvement but it was still pretty good.

I followed that up with Monster Squad. Perhaps feeling a bit nostalgic for the 80's, this seemed a little like a low budget Goonies knock off. I really can't recommend this to anyone. When kids are saying, "the creature stole my twinkie" and "I kicked the wolfman in the nards," you know you're in for some bad times.

I'm currently well into Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and so far I'm less than impressed. The story is a bit on the melodramatic side, and the editing is pretty annoying. I don't remember putting this one in my queue and don't remember why I would have rented it, but it does have Marisa Tomei in it looking better than I remembered. I don't know where she's been all these years but she needs to get more work. Other than that this movie doesn't have much going for it.