Saw a bunch of movies lately, but I''l start with the most recent one:
Sucker PunchZack Snyder's movies just work for me. Dawn o/t Dead, 300, Watchmen, he just knows how to make enjoyable movies (okay, let's just forget about that owl movie). Sucker Punch was no different, imo.
In short, it's about a traumatized girl Baby Doll who gets locked up in an insane asylum, which doubles as a brothel. To cope with her newfound sorrows she escapes into a fantasy world, where she meets a man (Scott Glen) who tells her to find 5 objects to help her get out. Helped by 4 other girls in the asylum (Rocket, Sweet Pea, Blondie & Amber) Babydoll has 5 days to find the items before one of the brothel's big shot customers will arrive to deflower her.
The rest is better watched than explained, so check the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dNEI4Kptrc&feature=fvwrelThis movie is getting a lot of flak for being empty, easy, sexist, too reliant on CGI, etc., but that wasn't my experience at all. I found it to be quite original and a lot deeper than I expected after seeing the trailer last year. Syder shows balls making a movie that's indeed shallow and sexist on the surface but is about so much more things casual viewers will probably miss. The irony is right there, in the title.
The movie is not perfect however. The director is way too fond of his slo-mo action shots and relies too much on over-the-top CGI setpieces while the movie would actually better off if toned down a bit. Which isn't really a bad thing, it's just that it feels oldfashioned, almost un-original, for such a cutting edge film. It is a fantasy movie, I admit, but the trick is to make these fantasies look believable and you don't get that by just letting the computer pump out the most awe inspiring vistas you can come up with. You get that by, in this case, a brutal WWI-era trench fight between our girls and German steampunk stormtroopers.
So, not perfect but tons of fun then. Because I wanted to like this movie the few missteps still grate a bit, but besides that it's a solid 3/5, or heck, a 4/5.