u l t r a m o o k i e

I watched three rentals from Netflix recently, just wanted to write about them real quick:

• The Astronaut Farmer: This is a PG-rated feel-good, crowd-pleasing film. It does what it intends.  The film is all about family and following ones dreams (and not listening to naysayers). I thoroughly enjoyed The Astronaut Famer and recommend it to anyone.  Billy Bob Thornton is excellent as Charlie Farmer and the cinematography was fantabulous.
• Hot Fuzz: Ryan will cry “heresy” when I write this (well, he already did on my Facebook wall), but, I really enjoyed Shaun of the Dead more than Hot Fuzz (both came from the same movie making folks). Don’t get me wrong, Hot Fuzz had a slick sense of humor, but I really liked Shaun better. I think the one thing that kind of bugged me was the really (I mean really) slow and long build up to the end action — which in and of itself was kind of a let down for me.  The film clocked in at one minute over two hours.  I think it could have been better at around 90 minutes.
• Disturbia: A recommendation by a coworker that I wanted to see because it is a reimagining of Hitchcock’s Rear Window. The film, for the most part worked.  The last reel is a bit of a strange change in tone for the film.  The first two-thirds of the film is pretty tense and builds up good suspense.  The last third of the film takes a turn for a slasher type film and ruins things.  I also did not like the way things were wrapped up at the end.