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Saturday, March 12, 2011
Ravi benjamin intro
Take Me Home Tonight is the latest 80s throwback film that focuses on a crazy weekend party in a similar vein to Superbad, including everything from drug usage to car crashes. While it’s great at paying homage to that iconic era and generating feelings of nostalgia, it falls short of being a memorable comedy because of its mediocre jokes, predictable ending and overstated themes of adulthood-phobia.
Topher Grace plays Matt Franklin, a 23-year old who still lives at home with his parents and his twin sister Wendy, played by Anna Faris. He is a recent MIT graduate who can’t decide what to do with his life. As a result, he is working as a clerk at a video store in a local mall, selling himself short. His father is understandably furious with him for not getting a real job after spending so much money at MIT and seizes every chance he can to remind him.
Throughout his teen years, Matt harbored a secret crush for a girl named Tori Frederking, played by Teresa Palmer. He never had the courage to act on his crush, but he is given another chance when Tori walks into his video store and back into his life. Not being able to bear the thought of explaining his current profession, Matt pretends to be a customer as well and strikes up a conversation. In hopes of impressing her, he lies and says that he is working as a banker at Goldman Sachs. Tori is impressed and casually mentions a party she is attending later. Matt nonchalantly says he might see her later while mentally vowing to be at that party and finally ask her for her number.
All of a sudden, Matt’s directionless life has meaning again. His best friend Barry, played by Dan Fogler, is happy to hear the news and vows to help him keep up the illusion that Matt is a successful banker. Unfortunately, a few moments later, Barry is unceremoniously fired from his car salesman job. This is devastating to him, and he proceeds to get cripplingly drunk before the party even starts.
Corny and unrealistic, "Battle: Los Angeles" isn't worth a trip to the movies
"Battle: Los Angeles" is not recommended for those with epilepsy. Or anybody else, for that matter.
The story is like that of 100 different action movies: hordes of alien invaders bombard the world's major cities, and some guy with a cleft chin and army fatigues is humanity's last hope.
Where this film falls flat, though, is not the plot. Action movies seem to have the unique ability to copy each other and still put out a product worth watching. "Battle: Los Angeles" even puts a different spin on the hostile alien genre, placing the characters in the middle of an urban war. This setting will be familiar to fans of "Black Hawk Down," only this is in an American city.
The first few minutes seem promising enough – grainy news footage from the front lines feels like video coming out of Libya or Bahrain.
From here on out, though, the execution is embarrassing. Aaron Eckhart, of "Dark Knight" fame, makes a heroic attempt to save some really terrible, corny dialogue. It is hard not to roll one's eyes when he is kneeling down in front of a little kid calling him "my little marine." ravi benjamin
The urban warfare aspect was mishandled completely. Fast cuts and confusing flashes have their place in explosion movies, but the makers of "Battle: Los Angeles" went way overboard. The camera moves so fast during battle sequences that it is impossible for the viewer to understand where the heroes are in relation to the enemy. It is easy to lose track of the number of close-up shots of people screaming something unintelligible.
The alien design is just lazy. They are humanoid and completely featureless, with a smooth face and simple, smooth body. They make the same canned alien clicking noise extra-terrestrials have been making in Hollywood since time immemorial. And, what do you know? There is a secret to killing them.
They are also stupid. One might think, having traveled across galaxies to attack Earth, these things would be at least as smart as humans. But they are often seen just standing out in the middle of the battlefield, seemingly waiting to be pumped full of lead. This is inexcusable, and really hurts the believability of the movie as a whole.
The design of the alien ships is just silly. They don't look anything like an aircraft, but are instead a jumbled mess of pipes and angular shards of metal. Clearly, the emphasis was on looking badass rather than functionality.
"Battle: Los Angeles" feels like a good idea that was made way too fast to pay any attention to detail. What could have been a gritty, almost realistic fight against an otherworldly foe turned into just another thrown-together mess. The producers must have broken the bank on pyrotechnics and hired chimps to write the script. Bananas are cheap, but vision takes time and money.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The Network
The social network looks pretty good...I find it interesting that this is such a controversial movie and is commenting upon the reputation of a future Billionaire in the early prime of his career.....It will be interesting to se how the settlements with the supposed true founders work out....Ravi Benjamin
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Top movies
well... i just recently saw the lord of the Rings triliogy. really great stuff. I was talking to a cinematographer friend of mine who did not like it at all. to much CGI is suppose. I loved the fantasy realm concept. The 3 movies i found covered the whole book series true to the story is a great deal of the way. The best one was the first one i thought. I like that fact that the movies were sombre in thier tone. it adds a seriousness to the movies that i like as a Grown up. That's about it for now Ravi benjamin
Thursday, January 27, 2011
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