Nine

No.

I'm not even really sure what Nine is about. I saw it and almost fell asleep... nine times...

The musical numbers seemed pointless. I didn't like a single one of the songs nor did I care about them because they were all about Daniel Day Lewis's character, whom I didn't care about. Clearly, all of the women either had been in a relationship with the director or wanted to be in one whether it be casual or meaningful, but I didn't care and neither the acting nor directing helped to get me involved at all.

I'm not familiar with the source material, but I'm pretty sure that even having seen 8 1/2 wouldn't have helped. I couldn't possibly recommend that you see Nine.

Michael Jackson's This Is It

No.

My problem with This Is It, is that there is no climax. Throughout the film, the editor's continuously introduce layer after layer of the final product, as if there was going to be a final product... there is none.

They start by showing the dancer auditions, then interspersed throughout footage of the rehearsals, they add information about the band, then the production of the video footage for the backdrop of the stage, then the costuming and the pyrotechnics. It all very slowly builds up to what I was hoping would be footage of a near final dress rehearsal with full lighting, make-up and costumes. I recognize the fact that the man died suddenly and that if there was no footage to show, there was no way to create it. I think there were some better choices that could have been made by the director to create a stronger third act to the film.

Performance-wise, I'd have to say I'm slightly disappointed. I know he was just rehearsing and wasn't expecting this footage to be released, but if this was the best footage they had, then they really probably shouldn't have released it.

Sanity-wise, I'd have to say that Michael Jackson had lost a significant portion of his mind prior to the beginning of rehearsals. There were times that he was upset about something and he didn't even know what his problem was. The crew would try to guess what he was trying to say until finally MJ would just repeat the same thing over and over again until the crew would just agree with whatever unintelligible string of words was coming out of his mouth.

Overall, I'd have to say that This Is It is a poorly produced mish-mosh of underperformed classic songs and crazy that goes on for way too long and culminates into absolutely nothing.

Mamma Mia!

Review coming soon (unless I decide to watch The Dark Knight again instead).

UPDATE (7/30/08) I didn't see The Dark Knight again instead of Mamma Mia, but I still just couldn't bring myself to see Mamma Mia either. Maybe I'll go tonight.

UPDATE (11/13/08) I watched 17 minutes and 35 seconds of Mamma Mia and absolutely had to stop. It's hammy and terrible.

Soul Men

No.

This could have been fun. I enjoyed whenever Bernie and Sam were on stage performing. When they weren't on stage performing, they were being truly offensive.

It was all boners and old people sex. Stupid humor. If there were teenagers doing the things that these two do in this movie it might have been acceptable. Unfortunately these men are too old for their behavior to be acceptable by anyone's standards. It's not funny... it's sad.

There won't be any posthumous awards for Mac or Issac Hayes. The best part of Soul Men, however, is the tribute to the late actor/comedian and musician at the end of the movie.