Some Movies
The Longest Night in Shanghai (2007) 6/10
Parts of the film feel like a direct ripoff of Lost In Translation, but overall the film is a crowd-pleasing albeit unremarkable tale. Its even moderately interesting at times, but is unevenly executed with some frankly uninspired subplots.
Miss Potter (2007) 6/10
Yet another family friendly but mostly mediocre offering. The plot is boring and predictable. The cast is likable enough, but the film barely passes mediocre. Its a watchable but unremarkable piece of filmmaking.
Next (2007) 5/10
Nicolas Cage is basically slumming until his next paycheck as a character who has possibly the most useless superpower ever. With a lame plot and horrendous scriptwriting, what saves Next from utter cinematic hell is Jessica Biel as eye candy and the fact that it stars 2 Oscar calibre actors in Cage and Julianne Moore. It campy and occasional fun, although it ranks more as silly than actually good.
Vacancy(2007) 5/10
Reasonably interesting premise squandered by shoddy execution and miscast actors. It tries to do a Psycho, but ends up more as an exercise in mediocrity. Neither scary nor thrilling, but more like a low budget Psycho ripoff. To its credit, it refrains from excessive use of gore which a lesser director might be tempted to do (ie, the lazy man’s way of selling a horror/thriller). However, the film is boring and mediocre.
