2008 Woodie Awards
Best and Worst Summer Movies
A review of the most interesting and most disappointing summer flicks.
Johana Maas
Issue date: 9/8/04 Section: Valley Life
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Napoleon Dynamite
Directed by Jared Hess
Jon Heder, Aaron Ruell, Jon Gries
For a movie made by one of the worst channels on television, MTV, Napoleon Dynamite proved to be one of the most hysterically funny movies of the summer.
The film's basic plot is simple and straight-to-the-point with great one-liners and sight gags.
Napoleon really doesn't have a story to tell in this movie, he just eads his life a day at a time exploring his curiosities. It's like Welcome to the Dollhouse meets Revenge of the Nerds.
Napoleon, who likes to draw fictitious animals such as ligers (a lion / tiger hybrid), lives with his grandmother and his 33-year-old chat-room-junkie brother.
The best performance of the film goes to Tina Majorino, best known for her role in Kevin Costner's Waterworld, whose depiction of the shy Deb is reminiscent of her role in 1994's Corrina Corrina, when she was just 9 years old.
This film will make you laugh loud and hard. It's anything but "a form of stupidity that passes off as humor,"r as Roger Ebert put it. Definitely a must buy for your DVD collection as soon as it hits stores.
Alien vs. Predator
Directed by Paul W. Anderson
Sanaa Lathan, Rauol Boya, Lance Henriksen
'Whoever Wins... We Lose.' Well, Alien VS. Predator has no winner and we still lose.
For a movie that had been in the works for several years to supposedly be one of the best battles between species, it was nothing more than this summer's biggest hoax.
Like any typical "bad guy" battle movie, this one had no winner, it was another of Hollywood's cunning attempts to hype people up for yet another smashing flick, just to waste 87 minutes of the audience's life.
Surprisingly, this movie did not drag on; rather it seemed to be over in 15 minutes. If you were left confused at the end, wondering what you missed, you're not alone. The movie makes no sense.
Though people don't usually go to gore-fest flicks for the plot, this movie couldn't even be saved by the entertainment value of the battle scenes. The trailers depicted elaborately staged and visually interesting fighting sequences that should have left the audience in a state of awe. But, 30 seconds in, the film lost its momentum.
There is so little plot, it would be a shame to reveal the miniscule story line here. This movie - the worst of the summer - did not deserve the hype it received. Even for diehard special-effects fans who loved Matrix Revolution, AvP had nothing to offer.
AvP hould have gone straight to video.
Directed by Jared Hess
Jon Heder, Aaron Ruell, Jon Gries
For a movie made by one of the worst channels on television, MTV, Napoleon Dynamite proved to be one of the most hysterically funny movies of the summer.
The film's basic plot is simple and straight-to-the-point with great one-liners and sight gags.
Napoleon really doesn't have a story to tell in this movie, he just eads his life a day at a time exploring his curiosities. It's like Welcome to the Dollhouse meets Revenge of the Nerds.
Napoleon, who likes to draw fictitious animals such as ligers (a lion / tiger hybrid), lives with his grandmother and his 33-year-old chat-room-junkie brother.
The best performance of the film goes to Tina Majorino, best known for her role in Kevin Costner's Waterworld, whose depiction of the shy Deb is reminiscent of her role in 1994's Corrina Corrina, when she was just 9 years old.
This film will make you laugh loud and hard. It's anything but "a form of stupidity that passes off as humor,"r as Roger Ebert put it. Definitely a must buy for your DVD collection as soon as it hits stores.
Alien vs. Predator
Directed by Paul W. Anderson
Sanaa Lathan, Rauol Boya, Lance Henriksen
'Whoever Wins... We Lose.' Well, Alien VS. Predator has no winner and we still lose.
For a movie that had been in the works for several years to supposedly be one of the best battles between species, it was nothing more than this summer's biggest hoax.
Like any typical "bad guy" battle movie, this one had no winner, it was another of Hollywood's cunning attempts to hype people up for yet another smashing flick, just to waste 87 minutes of the audience's life.
Surprisingly, this movie did not drag on; rather it seemed to be over in 15 minutes. If you were left confused at the end, wondering what you missed, you're not alone. The movie makes no sense.
Though people don't usually go to gore-fest flicks for the plot, this movie couldn't even be saved by the entertainment value of the battle scenes. The trailers depicted elaborately staged and visually interesting fighting sequences that should have left the audience in a state of awe. But, 30 seconds in, the film lost its momentum.
There is so little plot, it would be a shame to reveal the miniscule story line here. This movie - the worst of the summer - did not deserve the hype it received. Even for diehard special-effects fans who loved Matrix Revolution, AvP had nothing to offer.
AvP hould have gone straight to video.
