minorchord Reviews (2)

Click (2006)

Amazing movie, top to bottom...

[9/10 · 23 June 2006]

What a pleasant surprise "Click" turned out to be! Based on the trailer, one can assume that Adam Sandler, playing Michael Newman in his latest movie, has made a movie that is just like Adam Sandler's last movie... and Adam Sandler's movie before that... and the one before that... i.e., the comedy at which you groan, shake your head, say "what the...", and yet can't help from laughing out loud. That's what you get in the first hour of this film. That hour is also as much as the trailer shows, and for good reason.

Director Frank Coraci, who also worked with Adam Sandler in directing The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer, makes excellent use of a technique that should be taken advantage of more often by more directors. He sets us up in the aforementioned first hour of the movie for laughs, and manages to do this quite a few times, and not just with the moments seen in the trailer like other comedies. And, based on one's presupposed knowledge of the typical Adam Sandler movie, one expects there to be a spiral out of control for Michael, a realization of the "right thing to do" and everything to end happily with a monologue and one final punchline, all while remaining light-hearted and humorous. However, having this expectation makes the power and the drama of the movie's second hour so much more heartfelt and emotional. This drama never comes off as forced or unnecessary, because the pacing of the transition between the two utterly different tempos is perfect. Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe, the co-writers of this movie, used a similar technique in "Bruce Almighty", and it worked very effectively there, as well.

There's not much to be said about the ending without the possibility of spoiling it for someone, but suffice to say it accomplishes what it needs to accomplish without making you feel like you've just been cheated.

Far and away the best movie I've seen all year; likely one of the best I have or will seen for many, many years. There's so much more to see in this movie than what the trailer offers. See it... you won't regret it.

Saw II (2005)

Very solid effort

[8/10 · 29 October 2005]

While there are so many terrible horror movies that are spewed out that follow ridiculous formulas and have no relevance to society, this one makes a decent effort to say something meaningful and be original in the process. Granted, it is still an effort at entertainment as much, and probably more so, as it is social commentary; also, it doesn't always come out perfectly (including some unintentionally humorous moments and some small things that didn't quite add right), and it's easy to argue that many of the conceptual traits can be found in other, more respected movies (i.e. Se7en). Overall, though, it came off considerably better than the first one. It almost seems that this movie was the "final draft" of sorts, with the first being the rough draft.

If you enjoyed the original Saw and can handle more gore than the first, this is worth seeing, if for nothing else than a great improvement in virtually all regards.