Bloggers were given the opportunity to see previews of the soon-to-be-released movie Serenity. Unfortunately, all the screenings are full already, so I wasn’t able to try and get tickets.

It will be interesting to see how much buzz the movie generates in the blogoshpere this week.

Arclight Cinemas is the best movie theatre I have ever been to. Their tag line is “Where Movie Lovers Belong” and it’s true. I love it because:

• They have reserved seating. You can buy you ticket online ahead of time or at the theatre and they will have a seat number on it. No more going to a show early to make sure you can get a good seat together.
• No commercials. I already paid to see the movie, and they don’t sell my soul to advertisers to make a few extra bucks. They don’t even have the silly THX and Dolby ads.
• Stadium seating. This is a must for Michele, she’s only 5′ 1″. There is also lots of legroom, and padded, retractable arm rests. Unfortunately seating in “The Dome” is not really stadium seating, so we avoid it.
• Black-box theatres. The only lights on during the show are the exit lights. The quality of the picture are sound are always great.
• Ushers in the theatre. They announce every show and hang around to make sure the movie starts properly. I’ve been in other theatres where the movie doesn’t start, or there is something wrong with the projector, and you have to go out to the hall to try and find an employee who cares enough to do something about it.
• The audience is there to see movies. No one answers cell phones and starts talking, no one has conversions during the movie.

As a bonus the theatre is within walking distance of our place. The only time we go anywhere else these days is if a movie we want to see is not playing at Arclight.

Stars: Jason Statham
Director: Louis Leterrier

Tranporter 2 was an adequate action flick, much like the first one. Much of the action was over-the-top and a little corny. Some of the stunts were laughably unrealistic. On the bright side there were a lot of interesting fight scenes with Jason Statham doing a lot of prop based fighting. It occasionally reminded me of Jackie Chan, but of course, not as awe inspiring.

Rating: 3/5

Seen at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Sept 4, 2005

Starring: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd
Director: Judd Apatow

40 Year Old Virgin had some very funny scenes in it. The chest waxing scene alone was worth the price of admission. Steve Carell is a very funny man and this movie does a good job showing off his talents. Catherine Keener and Paul Rudd do a good job as well.

I didnt find all the jokes in the movie terribly funny, so I did find that there were some slow spots.

Seen at Arclight Cinemas, Aug 26, 2005

Rating: 4/5

Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin
Director: John Singleton

Four Brothers is a terrible movie. Four brothers seek revenge on their mothers killers by resorting to violence. The story is very linear and had nothing interesting to it. I didn’t care about the characters so I didn’t really care if the brothers or the people they were after were going to get killed. There was really nothing interesting about this movie at all.

Rating: 2/5

Seen at Graumans Chinese Theatre, Aug 20th, 2005

Stars: Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes and Danny Glover
Director: James Wan

I was very interested in seeing Saw because it seemed like a little bit of a different horror movie than the usual slasher flick. It turned out to be a little different, but not as much as I thought.

After seeing the first few minutes I thought I was going to be treated to a good tight, psychological horror, something along the lines of Cube. As the movie went on it turned out to be a little more of a standard serial-killer thriller. It did, however, still have some interesting aspects to it.

I didn’t like Cary Elwes acting in this movie. He seemed to be trying to hard. Relative newcomer Leigh Whannell did a good job though.

Rating: 4/5

Stars: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy
Directed By: Wes Craven

Red Eye is the latest film by Wes Craven, who’s usual movies, such as A Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream are from the horror genre. I was interested to see if he could deliver the thrills with action instead of horror. Overall I think he did a good job, although I think the end of the movie resorted back to some horror-type thrills, which seemed a little out of place. The suspense level was kept fairly high throughout the movie.

Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams gave solid performances.

Rating: 3.5/5

Fantastic Bore! This was one movie I did not enjoy at all. I didn’t find the story interesting at all. My mind kept wandering and I found myself thinking about other things. This rarely happens to me during movies.

I really don’t have much more to say about it, the plot, characters, action and effects all left me unimpressed.

If you have a choice I’d see The Island instead as a good summer action flick.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Stars: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi
Directed By: Michael Bay

I found this movie very entertaining. It won’t win any Oscars, but it was a good summer action flick. The story moved along well and the action sequences were fun too, although some of them were a little over the top. Some of the stunts didn’t seem to be in the realm of even action movie possibilities.

I think my favorite scene in the movie was when Lincoln Six-Echo (McGregor) saw a motorcycle speed by and says “I don’t know what that was, but I want one”. McGregor is a big fan of motorcycling so this was a funny kinda-inside joke.

The performances were good enough for an action movie, and as usual Steve Buscemi was brilliant and funny.

Grab some popcorn and have some fun.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I saw ‘Requiem for a Dream’ the other night and really liked it. It was better than Darren Aronofsky’s earlier movie ‘Pi’.

The acting in it was great: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly all did very well. And surprisingly to me, Marlon Wayans managed to hang in there with them too.

I guess not too many movies about addiction are very fun, and this one was no exception. The story was a real downer, but not many of the movies I like are very uplifting.

Two thumbs up.