Seen and Not Reviewed - June 27 to 21

Encounters at the End of the World (2 Buckets) - I'm terribly sorry to say that this may be Herzog's worst film to date. The very "casual observer"-like qualities about the movie that others find so fascinating and layered--the movie basically consists of Herzog talking to the eccentric folks who inhabit Antarctica--are what I found plodding and maddening about it. There are a lot of Herzogian qualities about the doc, but none of them culminate into a product of greater substance, at least for my tastes. Instead, Encounters proves itself a rather disposable experience.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2-1/2 Buckets) - Director Alex Gibney, for all his manipulative tactics when he's making politically-themed pictures, is a skilled documentarian. You wouldn't know it by watching Gonzo, though, because the pictures proves that Gibney is obsessed with the titular subject and not much else. Instead of asking tough questions and thereby really delving into Thompson's life and career, Gibney merely glamorizes the man's existence. Never does the audience truly come to understand the sheer misery felt by a person who was clearly aching for much of his life... Instead, it is left only a cheap, surface-value exploration of him to chew on.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2 Buckets) - Yeah, yeah -- Guillermo del Toro has sure fashioned the most technically proficient comic-book adaptation we've seen in a long-time, The Dark Knight notwithstanding that is. This entry in the Hellboy series is consistently stylistically impressive and inventive, even more so than its franchise-predecessor. Nonetheless, I just can't latch onto the three central characters, despite their colorful representations by lead Ron Perlman and supporters Doug Jones and Selma Blair. Without conjuring up a solid sense of interest in the viewer, the movie is pretty much useless, technically proficient or not.

Jouney to the Center of the Earth (2-1/2 Buckets) - The movie itself is about as profound as lead Brendan Frasier's performance. (Translation: as emotionally-inept as one could possibly imagine...) Nonetheless, there's a strangely admirable workmanlike quality about Jouney in that it works to acheive exactly what it sets out to accomplish--a simple narrative that is enjoyable for the kiddies coupled with some stellar 3-D effects--and succeeds in doing so. Nonetheless, there's not really enough here to recommend it to the average adult viewer, especially when one accounts for the horrible eye-strain that 3-D technology (impressive as it is) continues to provoke.

Meet Dave (2 Buckets) - Following the unfairly-demonized Norbit, here's yet another example of an unwarranted attempt to discredit Eddie Murphy's comedic career. Sure, Meet Dave ain't profound, nor is it a very good movie, but it's not at all a painful experience (especially when one considers its short 90-minute running length). In fact, the movie's first act features some rather inspired physical-comedy; Murphy characterizes protagonist-robot Dave in a wonderfully humorous fashion. The movie soon thereafter succumbs to cliches, but these aren't unexpected, nor are they hugely unwelcome. Parents trying to find a way to occupy their kids over summer-vacation--after taking them to see Wall-E, Get Smart, and Kung-Fu Panda, that is --could do a whole lot worse.

Mongol (3 Buckets) - It's surprisingly that such a sweeping tale has its fair share of inept action sequences. Who knew that a movie could be so epic and grandiose and yet come up short in its most epic and grandiose scenes? Nevertheless, Mongol's largely dialogue and landscape-based first two acts are wholly riveting in the way that they depict life in Asia just before the rise of Ghengis Kahn. I was fascinated by these characters and the story they embodied, which, for my money, is worth more in an epic than now-standard well-assembled action.

The Promotion (2 Buckets) - In all honesty, I'm not sure what to make of this one... It's as odd as any corporate-commentary I've ever seen, and certainly the strangest one set in a grocery store. And it doesn't really work, either, with only partially-explored themes and a peculiar use of a conventional narrative structure to advance said themes. Nonetheless, the lead performances by Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly are as good as they could possibly be given the odd nature of the material and the movie provides reason enough to keep an eye on writer/firsttime-director Steve Conrad (who takes a step in the wrong direction here from the masterful Pursuit of Happyness, which he wrote). Perhaps it will prove worth a watch when it hits the DVD market...

The Wackness (3-1/2 Buckets) - This may be the best teen drama/stoner comedy/young-filmmaker breakthrough we've seen in a a long time. Yes, the movie has some yanking pedestrian, film-school-angst type qualities, but the movie's mix of ambitiousness and familiarity is really welcome. Lead Josh Peck proves himself a considerable talent now that he's off of Nickelodeon's air-waves, and Ben Kingsley does some great comedic work as his character's headcase of a psychiatrist. And that Olivia Thirlby is somethin' else, man...