Retro Week In Cinema: July 11-17, 2013

No matter what The Dude always manages to crack me up!

Finally, I move away from the horror,

The Big Lebowski (1998, Ethan & Joel Coen, United Kingdom/United States Of America) ****

Still funny, still awesome, a great time, I love this more and more every time I see it.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part I (2010, David Yates, United Kingdom/United States Of America) ***1/2

It still suffers from some of the problems David Yates and Steve Kloves developed in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, like bringing in new characters and making them seem important without ever actually introducing them or letting the audience know who they are or why they matter. I know this is done on the premise that people will have read the books, but the movie should be able to stand on its own irregardless of the book, and in this respect it doesn’t. I also wasn’t a fan of how much stuff was skipped over in the beginning, by splitting this into two films they had more than enough time to show the initial battle when trying to whisk Harry away, or the death of Mad Eye, but most of all I did not like how the action scenes were filmed. They were too hard to keep track of and just badly filmed I thought. Still, all that being said I enjoyed being back with these characters and following them on their adventures. I liked how the movie flowed for the most part, and outside of the aforementioned action scenes I thought it looked great. Can’t wait for the next one, and I really liked this one.

Due Date (2010, Todd Phillips, United States Of America) **1/2

This has some funny moments for sure, but it also has far too many, “Well, yeah, that happened” moments. Maybe if the premise were reigned in a bit it could have been better, but I’m not sure, as it is it’s just sort of, meh.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010, Chris Columbus, Canada/United States Of America) **

I like the characters, or at least the idea of the characters, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I mean, a premise this cool with characters like this shouldn’t be this boring for long stretches or entirely forgettable. Plus, you have Kevin McKidd in your film and you only use him for about two minutes, what’s up with that?

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008, Mark Waters, United States Of America) ***

Not super exciting or anything, but I really like the created world. The imagination on display is really cool, and while the movie didn’t fully draw me in it did grab my attention to the point where I was content with what I was seeing and enjoyed watching this with my girlfriend’s four year old daughter.

Wrap-Up:

A couple of pretty great movies surrounded by a lot of meh. Still, there should be no doubt that The Big Lebowski takes home retro movie of the week honors. I’ll be back next week with five more retro capsule reviews!

Cheers,
Bill