The film focuses on Bateman’s character, and he is excellent in the role. He is a very believable, almost bland character,   almost like the ‘everyman’ rather than the central character in a comedy film. At times this is of benefit to the overall believability of the movie, but at others it leaves you wondering what else was possible if Bateman had a little more ability to move away from ‘normal’ behaviour.   With the exception of a couple of silly elements of fate, the character is pretty logical and believable.   A number of Bateman’s best lines weren’t obvious ‘jokes’ in the classic sense, and I think that this confused some of the folks that were in the theater with me who weren’t exactly sure what to laugh it.  In my case, there were definitely a number of times where I felt like I was the only person laughing in a half full theatre.

Central to Joel’s bad decision making is his stoner buddy and bartender, Dean (Ben Affleck).  At first, I found Affleck’s performance to be hilarious and interesting, however there is simply too much of him in the film. The banter between Affleck and Bateman is too predictable, and it seems that their relationship is used to only push the dirtiest and most outlandish discussions in the movie. While he is central to the plot,  there are many scenes were his presence seems forced, and served to slow down the action. I think that his role would have been better left as a small cameo.

Overall, the film had great potential, but I just wish that it would have focused more on the actual day to day interactions of the employees at the extract factory. I felt like the majority of the scenes at the factory were shown in the various trailers, which ruined a number of the jokes for me.  For the plant workers, I found that plant manger Brian (J.K. Simmons) stole the majority of the scenes he was in. I just wish that they showed more of his interaction and management style with the employees because on the surface the character showed all the traits of a classic clueless manager.

The potential for the film was there, but it simply didn’t live up to my expectations.  Don’t get me wrong, there a number of very funny moments, but not to the extent that I have come to expect from Mike Judge.  All the elements of  a cult classic are there, but I don’t think that the average person can relate to the humor on the same level that you can in Office Space which captured the day to day grind of the office peon so amazingly well.  Extract had the possibility of becoming the production line, working class man’s version of  Office Space but Judge clearly decided to go in another direction, and it’s really too bad.

Rating – 3/5

I don’t see myself seeing Halloween II or The Final Destination this week (or ever for that matter!). I am generally not that much into horror/thriller movies because I often have the reaction to laugh at the extremely violent/scary points rather than become completely scared as intended. This films are often thin on interesting plot and heavy on grotesque violence. If they get good reviews, I would consider checking it out on DVD, or On Demand, but that’s about as far as I can go.

With respect to Taking Woodstock, the plot surrounding Woodstock – particularly the story of Elliot Tiber, a young man how helped the Woodstock organizers after the plug was pulled on their event, is on the surface interesting to me.  I think that in light of the recent media attention of Woodstock’s 40th anniversary I have just heard/seen my share about it for the next little while. It’s interesting to hear about how much an iconic and historic event came together, however this is simply a case of too much of a good thing. I don’t think that I’m alone in this respect and I can’t help but think that this movie should have been released ahead of the Woodstock saturation

Looks like I’m going to have to find something else to do with the weekend…

This is especially because the beginning of the film was extremely slow and dialogue intentive. There are a number of scenes that are 10 to 15 minutes in length that are very minimal in action and very heavy on dialogue. I don’t think it was a bad thing – it was perfect at setting the scene for the brutality that would come later. This is especially true for the initial introductions of German SS Colonel, Hans Landa also known as the Jew Hunter (played by Christoph Waltz). The dialogue is so enthralling and the Colonel is so convincing that by the end of Chapter 1 of the film, you are almost cheering for him to successfully locate the Jews that he is hunting.

While the first two thirds of the film is rather slow moving, by the end you have completely forgotten that thought and you realize that while each of the previous 4 chapters were rather lacking in terms of brutal action, it was really a Quentin Tarantino building to a masterful crescendo. The sparse use of blood and brutal action (at least to the point that you would expect from Tarantino) only make it that much more startling when the blood is flowing later in the film. In the end, the movie lives up to the hype of depicting the perfect ‘Jewish revenge’ that could have been.

The majority of the reviews of this film discuss how Waltz’s Colonel Landa stole the film. I agree that Waltz’s performance was absolutely masterful, however I was left absolutely fascinated by Brad Pitt’s portrayal of the Basterds leader, Lieutenant Aldo Raine. Raine is almost a modern day outlaw cowboy who is willing to do anything necessary for his cause – killing Nazi’s. Pitt steals every scene with the help of Tarantino’s amazing writing. He has some of the most memorable lines of the film with vulgar, brutal comedy.

I almost wished that Tarantino had focused more readily on this character – I am left wondering so many things about where Raine come from, why he is so angry with the Nazi’s, and what happens to him after the end of the film. This is something that I haven’t heard many others say, Pitt is almost scene as an afterthought by many in comparison to Waltz, or Eli Roth’s performance of ‘The Bear Jew’, however I absolutely mesmerized by his performance.

Overall, it is safe to say that Tarantino has done it again. He was pretty much created his own genre of film and it comes across perfectly. It is absolutely great to see some original thoughts in this world, and I only wish that there was more of it.

The computer generated elements look absolutely beautiful, even in Quicktime. The colors looked amazingly vivid, so it seems that at the very least the movie will be very pretty on the big screen. In particular I found the flying beings that the Aliens were riding, and the lush vegetation to be absolutely striking.

But I found it very jarring as it switches between the computer generated elements and the live action. Cameron has said that the split will be about 60/40, however the trailer does not seem to represent that ratio. In this teaser, I think that it looked like the computer elements were tacked on – it did not seem like they were all of one world. This especially struck me in the scene where the aliens are awaking in some sort of laboratory (just past half way).

I hope that Cameron is able to pull this off, but as of now I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to be buy into the hype. I am interested in seeing a full length, conventional trailer that makes some more of the real plot points evident. Reading summaries of the plot online, it seems on the surface to be an archetypal story.

I realize that the tail is entirely fictional, however I really worried about being able to overcome the backdrop that the story takes place. I am hoping that I can turn off my ‘historical accuracy detector’ throughout the film. I am in love with movies like the Longest Day, which retell what happened without using too many creative liberties with the history.

Tarantino has said that the film is “”spaghetti western but with World War II iconography”, and watching the trailers leaving me wondering how clearly it comes across in the film. Quentin hasn’t let me down yet, however I hope that he is back in his amazing Pulp Fiction form, compared to his most recent effort, Deathproof.

I will post my thoughts after I see it (probably on Sunday) and I’m looking forward to it, good or bad.

Overall, Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp created an incredibly compelling world that left me wanting more. The beginning of the movie starts out in documentary style which sets out the backstory. They outline the story of how the Aliens came to Earth, and the incredible tensions that are ongoing between the Aliens and the local population. While this is a great way at getting all the facts out in a hurry to really give you a sense of the world, it felt somewhat forced to me. I would much rather be shown gradually the ’state of the world’ in a science fiction movie in order to feel like I’m really a part of the ‘future’, rather than having all the backstory over explained at the beginning of the film . After all, I imagine that first contact would be a remarkable news story of which everyone would be extremely well versed in the intricate details. A documentary on the subject wouldn’t necessarily need to rehash everything.

Although the backstory might have suffered, the movie masterfully created compelling aliens that you end up siding with and feeling sorry for. I don’t remember another movie that was effective at creating aliens that were so believable. There ignored all the usual silly alien cliches – there were no odd tentacles, or diamond shaped eyes that we’ve seen so many times before. That being said, the Prawns definitely look like Aliens – but vulnerable, exploited Aliens. This is helped by the creation of the multinational company MNU which is responsible for herding the Aliens into the slums and at the same time attempting to exploit their technology for military game – in the end the ‘Prawns’ ended up feeling more human than the humans.

When I first saw the previews of this film I was concerned that there would be an obvious social commentary forced upon the viewer. While the attempts to drawn comparison between the treatment of the ‘Prawns’ and South Africia’s own apartheid of recent memory are clear – they are not overdone. About 30 mins into the film I had pretty much forgotten that the film was set in South Africica at all.

Overall, I would highly recommend this film as a must-see for any any science fiction movie fan. While the ending is fairly obvious about 1/2 way through the movie, getting there is an exciting journey. The ending sets up a potential sequel, District 10 and I am already looking forward to it!