The Love Dragon

I watched this film the other day not knowing what to expect, only knowing that it was the "lost View Askew film", so I was pretty excited.

The film was, very indie, a lot of poor sound and at times boring and at times decent cinematography. And the Jake character and actor made me laugh/wince.

However, some very decent dialogue, an interesting storyline and an amazing performance by Jason Lee elevated this film.

I am a huge huge huge Jason Lee fan......I kinda wish I was him, and i have always thought he needs to get some deeper peformacnes. I love...LOVE his hilarious trademark characters in the Kevin Smith films, and a few others, but I think he needs some serious dramatic roles....this film provides him with some depth, some drama, and some chances for his hilarious self. Whenever he wasn't on screen i kinda spaced out and got bored. I know it's weird to say he's amazing in a pretty thin film like this, but he really was. I hope to see him get more starring and dramatic roles in the future.

I'm not sure of this film. I saw it in the theatre on it's opening day and though enjoyed the film's technical aspects acting and such, i was enraged at how unfaithul it was to the book. whenever they felt it would be too long or boring to include a certain part they'd just kill someone.

However, I saw it again reluctanty (girlfriends...ugh), and actually enjoyed this.

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favourite novels ever, and the film butchered it....however, the second time, I already knew this and instead just watched the film...on it's own it is actually a really great film. I almost hate to admit it. The worst part was the rushed ending, even wihtout the novel, they should have continued it longer, most movies are like 3 hours these days anyways, so who cares about time, they could have made a lot better wiht an extra half hour.

Ah well, i don't know what to say, if you haven't read the book, see this film and enjoy, if so, then try watching it twice and pretend it has nothing to do wiht the book.

Also, the final fight between Pearce and Caviezel (Mondego and Dantes) is shot better than any ohter scene this year so far, really cool.

The spy genre seems top be a little out of steam these days. The only good spy film I've seen in a long time was Spy Game, saved by the two leads, the terrific technical aspects, and the human side it brought to the story. It's like watching the same movie over and over again, commmon endings, bad performances, predictable twists. I have no idea why people liken The Bourne Identity to these garbage films. Okay, so it was a disappointmetn to the book, but what movie isn't? The performances in this movie are very good, save Potente's accent changing, especially in the smaller parts like Chris Cooper's and Clive Owen's, who had little material to work with. First, I thought when the showed the Wombosi tape and the meeting, that this movie would take the common path and focus too much on other issues besides the main plot (Matt Damon). But that quickly changed, and I was presented wiht a very well shot, slightly cliched, but excellent spy thriller. The fight scenes were awesome, the car chase almost as good as Ronin's...but Ronin sucked besides that so who cares.....and my favourite scene of the movie, and tied for favourite of the year so far (with the final duel in Monte Cristo) is when Damon and Owen are in the woods having their spy showdown....I've always wanted to make a movie just so I could have a scene shot like that...but Liman got to it first. Oh yeah, Doug Liman....Swinger's was awesome too, nice switch. See it! This is top grade action thriller, a wonderful spy movie, and just a plain awesome movie....I don't know what anyone's problem wiht it is.