theLogBook.com's Movie Reviews

Batman Begins

Philip R. Frey — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:06:20 +0000

Young billionaire Bruce Wayne, traumatized by the murder of his parents, wanders the world attempting to find some purpose to his life. After being directed to the mountaintop retreat of Ra’s Al Ghul, Wayne seems to find some peace with his past. But Wayne is unable to join Ra’s Al Ghul in his quest to topple civilization and he, instead, tears down Al Ghul’s retreat and returns to his home in Gotham City to become its protector. He takes on the mantle of Batman and aligns himself with Jim Gordon, one of the few uncorrupted officers on the Gotham Police Force. But just as he begins to do some good, Ra’s Al Ghul comes back into his life, questioning whether he has chosen the right side for which to fight…

Review: Batman Begins is a fresh start for the Batman franchise that began with such promise with 1989’s Batman and crashed in flames with 1997’s Batman & Robin. It jettisons the ultimately convoluted continuity of the ‘89-’97 series in favor of telling Batman’s origins from the ground up. It clearly uses the “Batman: Year One” comic series as a template, but finds its own path as far as the details are concerned. (more…)

Apollo 13

Earl Green — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:39:43 +0000

The crew of the third American moon landing mission prepares for their flight early in 1970. At the last minute, command module pilot Ken Mattingly is declared unfit for flight due to possible exposure to the measles, and mission commander Jim Lovell can either make the flight with the backup pilot, Jack Swigert, or risk his entire crew being pushed back to a later flight. Lovell decides to replace Mattingly with Swigert, and even though Swigert has had less training time, he’s determined to make it a good flight. The launch goes off smoothly, and Apollo 13 is en route to the moon. But during a routine procedure, a huge explosion rips through the service module of the isolated spacecraft, draining the vital oxygen needed not only for consumption by the astronauts, but to provide electricity for the attached command module. Lovell, Haise and Swigert evacuate to the relatively tiny lunar module, which is meant to sustain only two men for less than a day - but they now face a journey of several days to return to Earth, during which they will have to shut down both the lunar lander and what’s left of the command module to preserve power. The three astronauts and their hundreds of landlocked flight controllers - including Ken Mattingly, who is most assuredly healthy and puts all of his effort into exploring possible survival solutions for his former crewmates - are focusing their energies on bringing Apollo 13 home. But time, physics, and the odds are all against them.

Review: This is, without a doubt, the best space movie ever made. And it doesn’t hurt that, for the most part, it’s a true story. The performances are all fantastic, and in those cases where the odds get too oppressive in the story, there are unexpected moments of levity which usually take the form of brief television snippets of unintentionally ridiculous reportage (such as Jeff Kluger, co-author of the book that inspired this movie, doing a television science report in which he says if this basketball is Earth, and this baseball the moon, the spacecraft has to travel along a path no thicker than this sheet of paper…), slightly reminiscent of Being There. Tom Hanks, fresh from his blastoff to fame as Forrest Gump, is exceptional as Jim Lovell (who himself appears in an uncredited cameo as the captain of the Navy ship which recovers the Apollo 13 crew after splashdown). And while Lovell’s book describing the events surrounding Apollo 13 paints a picture of his wife Marilyn being a little more calm and steely, Kathleen Quinlan provides an earthbound oasis of raw emotion, as opposed to the ultra-professional calm and occasional humorous quirkiness of the NASA flight controllers in Houston. The sets are nothing less than astonishing in their accuracy. (more…)

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Earl Green — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:28:37 +0000

Time-lagged super-spy Austin Powers is astonished to discover that his beautiful bride is, in fact, one of Dr. Evil’s fem-bots. And that isn’t the only trick up the evil genius’ sleeve - he has constructed a time machine so he can travel back to the late 60s, steal Austin’s mojo, and place an enormous laser on the moon which will put the entire world in his command, under threat of a powerful blast from orbit. (Why he couldn’t simply do this in 1999 is…well…a matter for another movie.) Austin must also return to the 60s, recover his mojo, and stop Dr. Evil and the diabolically diminutive Mini-Me from taking over the world (and if the opportunity presents itself for a quick round of shagging, Austin won’t hesitate to do that either).

Review: Last month, I waxed rhapsodic about the uneven Pleasantville, asking myself if it was a brilliant chunk of celluloid or if it was a big mess. No such quandary with Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. This film is a big mess - a very funny mess at times, but still a mess. (more…)

Arlington Road

Earl Green — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:18:25 +0000

Widower Michael Faraday raises his young son and teaches a univeristy class on American militia, separatist and terrorist groups. His fascination with this subject has blossomed into an obsession since bungled orders cost his wife - an FBI agent - her life. Faraday is driving home one day when he spots a young boy with a horribly burned and bleeding hand. He drives the boy to the hospital and discovers that the child’s parents are his neighbors across the street - a family to whom he has never introduced himself. His neighbor, Oliver Lang, is grateful to Faraday, and the two become fast friends (as do their sons). But Faraday, who has become accustomed to subjecting everyone and everything he knows to extreme scrutiny, is a little unsettled by some of Oliver’s off-the-cuff remarks. Faraday begins to suspect that Oliver is not what he seems…and when he finds that “Oliver Lang” is the name of a dead man from his neighbor’s home town, it begins to appear as though his suspicions aren’t as groundless as everyone tells him they are.

Review: This supremely creepy thriller explores the notion that your neighbor could be anyone or anything. Arlington Road swings the pendulum relentlessly from “he’s on to something, they are suspicious” to “naaaahh, he’s paranoid.” The script is masterfully executed, and Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins turn in a couple of excellent performances, though their acting starts to go off the deep end about three quarters of the way through the film (but so does the directing, so I’m not blaming the actors for this one). Bridges and Robbins have done enough good work in the past that I’m sure their instincts would’ve served the movie better than the over-the-top, almost drunkenly-lurching style that takes over not long before the film’s climax. (more…)

The Abyss

Earl Green — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:41:43 +0000

A U.S. Navy nuclear sub, following an unusual sonar echo deep in the Atlantic, suffers an unexplained power loss that leaves it powerless to avoid a collision with the wall of a sub-oceanic trench. The sub plummets into depths it was never meant to descend, takes on water, and the crew is killed. The Navy commandeers a deep-ocean oil exploration rig operated by Benthic Oil, trying to beat a hurricane to the coordinates of the downed sub. Ed “Bud” Brigman, in charge of the Deep Core underwater platform, is less than thrilled when he learns that he and his crew will be taking orders from the Navy for a rescue operation, but he’s even less pleased when his ex-wife Lindsey joins the Navy SEALs who are paying a visit to Deep Core. The cocksure leader of the SEALs, Lt. Coffey, suffers from high-pressure nervousness syndrome as a result of the dive to reach Deep Core, and slowly loses control, growing violent and paranoid. Upon reaching the submarine, Coffey finally reveals that the vessel was carrying hundreds of megatons of nuclear weapons, giving Deep Core’s divers cause for concern - especially when they find that something other than the dead crew inhabits this part of the ocean. Another power loss occurs, and one of Bud’s crew sees something so startling that it renders him comatose. Lindsey also sees something, but she is unable to describe or explain it.

Unknown to Deep Core’s divers, Coffey has been ordered to recover one of the sub’s nuclear warheads, believing that whatever the diving team saw must have been a Soviet submarine. On the surface, international tensions are reaching a boiling point as Soviet and American military forces brave the hurricane to form a line of scrimmage that could explode into World War III. And worse yet, the huge crane which connects Benthic Explorer to Deep Core is torn away from the Explorer and crashes down into the 20,000 foot deep trench, dragging Deep Core right along with it. The platform comes to a shattering stop on a ledge halfway down the trench, out of contact with the surface, short on oxygen and power, and with no hope of rescue. The increasingly delusional Coffey intends to use his salvaged nuclear warhead to attack whatever has been causing the power losses.

When the unknown force proves itself fully capable of boarding Deep Core without harming any of the crew, they begin to wonder which is the greatest threat - an unknown life form buried in the depths of the Atlantic, or the human impulse for violent acts against anything or anyone unfamiliar?

Review: I still think that James Cameron has yet to top The Abyss. I mean, sure, the guy did Titanic, Aliens, and both Terminator movies, but this is the Cameron film I have always enjoyed the most. One must admit, the mere fact that The Abyss was made at all, with at least two thirds of the movie shot underwater, is an incredible technical feat - much more impressive, in my book, than reconstructing an ocean liner with CGI. I can’t even begin to imagine how dangerous it was to shoot in such an environment, even if it was nothing more than a large water tank. But this movie isn’t all about special effects and underwater photography. The script is very well written, and even the studio-bound scenes are tense and well-shot. And for what it’s worth, the effects are indeed awesome, including some of the earliest good CGI work of a translucent water-based extension of the undersea creatures. (more…)

A Bug’s Life

Shane Vaughn — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:32:10 +0000

Review: Well, A Bug’s Life is now available for general consumption. But why am I writing a review of a cartoon? There are a couple of reasons. After watching the movie I made a quick comment about it to our humble (and lovable) web host. He wrote back and asked me to flesh it out to a more accepted review length. I must admit I’ve always felt that anyone dumb enough to ask for my opinion deserved to get it. However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought this is the perfect opportunity to vent my spleen about something that has bothered me for years. (more…)

Transformers (2007)

Joel Calhoun — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:32:26 +0000

At a U.S. military desert base in Qatar, a helicopter reported shot down in Afghanistan mysteriously appears. Ordered to land, the chopper suddenly morphs into a gigantic robot and proceeds to hack into the military network, which is quickly cut off by the soldiers. Enraged, the ‘bot destroys the rest of the base and deploys a giant robotic scorpion to kill a small group of surviving solders, led by Capt. Lennox.

In Southern California, teen Sam Witwicky has scraped together enough money (as well get his GPA high enough) to buy his first car. To his dismay, his dad, Ron, takes him to a used car lot where one can count the number of cars still running on the fingers on one hand. His disappointment is soon quelled, however, when his eyes light upon what appears to be an early 1970s Camaro, despite the fact that the dealer, Bobby Bolivia, has never seen the car before in his life. But there is more to this particular Camaro than meets the eye: not only does it demolish all the other cars on the lot to get bought by Sam, it even helps him woo beauty Mikaela Banes, whom he’s known since grade school. That evening, however, the car suddenly takes off, and Sam pursues it to an abandoned lot, where it turns into a giant robot and beams a signal into space…

In Washington D.C., Defense Secretary John Keller announces the base attack to a group of signal analysts, with their only clue: a sound made as the military network was being hacked. One of the analysts, Maggie Madsen, begins to suspect that the signal does not originate from any government or person on Earth even as another attempt on the network is made…this time from Air Force One. Again the connection is severed, but this time a clue is discovered: a pair of glasses being auctioned off on eBay that belonged to Capt. Archibald Witwicky, whose journey to the Arctic Circle was cut short by a mysterious discovery that left him blind and insane for the rest of his life…and which Sam had set up in part to earn some quick cash.

Unable to convince Keller of her findings, Maggie takes a copy of the signal to Glen, an old hacker acquaintance of hers to help her decipher the signal, but it only brings more questions than answers, to say nothing of bringing the FBI down on their heads.

All of this activity and much more is brought to the attention of a secretive branch of the U.S. Government known as Sector Seven which has not only recovered what Archibald “discovered”, but has hidden it in Hoover Dam (the actual reason the dam was constructed) and used it to reverse engineer all the technological progress since the late 1940s. But even Sector Seven (including Agents Simmons and Banacheck) have no idea of what is really happening - that Earth has become the battleground between two different groups of sentient robots, the noble Autobots and the warlike Decepticons. For centuries their war has raged, completely devastating their home world of Cybertron, and now it threatens all of Earth, with humanity caught in the crossfire…

Review: I’m sure I speak for a lot of people when I say I was a bit skeptical when this little film was announced, especially when I heard that Bay (who has often been called one of the most hated men in film today) was tapped to direct it. I won’t go into detail about it here, only that Bay is better known for choreographing mayhem than he is at developing believable characters. (more…)

The King Of Kong

Rob O'Hara — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:05:59 +0000

The King Of Kong is a serious documentary about two men’s battle for, and the ensuing controversy surrounding, the world’s highest Donkey Kong score.

(Okay, you two in the back, stop snickering.)

Review: For what sounds like to some a trivial, boring, or extremely nerdy premise for a documentary, King Of Kong is surprisingly entertaining and interesting, even for spouses and friends who wouldn’t know Mario from Luigi. (That’s a video game joke.) (more…)