This movie reminded me a lot of "Catch .44" which also co-starred Forest
Whitaker and took place largely at a diner and that I also got through
Amazon to preview. This movie doesn't self-consciously try to ape
Quentin Tarantino like that one, but overall it isn't much better. It's
a muddled robbery/hostage story that on the whole isn't that great.
Like
many of these movies nowadays the timeline is all jumbled up to try to
make it seem more like a puzzle. Basically a guy named Nick gets out of
jail and ends up at this diner owned by the Russian mob on the night
that a crew of Brits led by Michael Chiklis (who incidentally is not
British) rob the place. But things go wrong and soon it turns into a
hostage situation.
The movie left me with several questions.
Such as: the Russian mob is in Hartford? And why is a crew of British
guys hanging around there? If you wanted British robbers why did you
hire Michael Chiklis? Are British actors too busy playing American
superheroes for a project like this? Why is the Russian gangster always
wearing that ascot? Does he have a horrible scar or tattoo under
there? Could they find a worse rapper-actor than Common to play the
negotiator? What was the point of Ray Liotta's "Man in the Suit"
character? What's with Forest Whitaker's left eye? Has he had a stroke
recently?
I could go on, but I think I'll just go watch "The Negotiator" for the thousandth time instead.
That is all.
Showing posts with label 3 stars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3 stars. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, November 28, 2011
Our Idiot Brother
There are nice guys and then there's Ned. Maybe the screenwriters named him Ned because he's like Ned Flanders on "The Simpsons" only without the religion. He's so nice when a cop comes up to his fruit & vegetable stand asking for some pot because he's having a bad day, Ned agrees to give him a bag. He reluctantly takes $20 for it and then finds himself sent up the river on a drug pedaling charge.
Ned (Paul Rudd) gets out 8 months later and is no longer welcome at the farm where he used to work. At first then he stays with his mom. When he feels smothered, he goes to stay with his sister Liz (Emily Mortimer) and her husband (Steve Coogan) and their young son River. Liz and her husband are the type of parents who don't want their kid to eat sugar and make him play some weird musical instrument so he can get into a fancy school. Ned upsets that by teaching River about karate and stuff.
Soon he ends up with his other sister Miranda (Elizabeth Banks)--I have no idea which sister is the oldest or youngest. She works for Vanity Fair and is trying to break a big story about Lady Arabella, who was involved in some scandal. Ned's honesty screws that up too.
He ends up sleeping in a raft at the apartment of his other sister Natalie (Zooey Deschanel). She's supposedly a lesbian, but has been sleeping around with a guy. Ned's honesty ruins things for her too.
It's all a little too obvious that the real "idiots" are the sisters, not Ned. As screwed up as his life is, theirs aren't much better, just they refuse to admit it. You might be able to figure out where everything is going.
But overall this was a fun, lighthearted film. Ned's good-natured blundering is funny and makes him a likable character. He's not exactly in the same mold as Forrest Gump (because he's not that dumb) but he is someone you root for despite the dumb things he does.
This is a good movie for adult couples who want something light and fun. There's really too much sex talk (and an unfortunate shot of Steve Coogan's naughty parts) for this to be a family film.
The extras on the DVD I received are three deleted/extended scenes (one is real short) and an alternate ending. Unlike some movies that claim to have an alternate ending but end up having one or two lines changed, this one really is a largely different ending. I think the original works better, but the alternate ending gives more closure about the characters.
That is all.
(3/4 stars)
Ned (Paul Rudd) gets out 8 months later and is no longer welcome at the farm where he used to work. At first then he stays with his mom. When he feels smothered, he goes to stay with his sister Liz (Emily Mortimer) and her husband (Steve Coogan) and their young son River. Liz and her husband are the type of parents who don't want their kid to eat sugar and make him play some weird musical instrument so he can get into a fancy school. Ned upsets that by teaching River about karate and stuff.
Soon he ends up with his other sister Miranda (Elizabeth Banks)--I have no idea which sister is the oldest or youngest. She works for Vanity Fair and is trying to break a big story about Lady Arabella, who was involved in some scandal. Ned's honesty screws that up too.
He ends up sleeping in a raft at the apartment of his other sister Natalie (Zooey Deschanel). She's supposedly a lesbian, but has been sleeping around with a guy. Ned's honesty ruins things for her too.
It's all a little too obvious that the real "idiots" are the sisters, not Ned. As screwed up as his life is, theirs aren't much better, just they refuse to admit it. You might be able to figure out where everything is going.
But overall this was a fun, lighthearted film. Ned's good-natured blundering is funny and makes him a likable character. He's not exactly in the same mold as Forrest Gump (because he's not that dumb) but he is someone you root for despite the dumb things he does.
This is a good movie for adult couples who want something light and fun. There's really too much sex talk (and an unfortunate shot of Steve Coogan's naughty parts) for this to be a family film.
The extras on the DVD I received are three deleted/extended scenes (one is real short) and an alternate ending. Unlike some movies that claim to have an alternate ending but end up having one or two lines changed, this one really is a largely different ending. I think the original works better, but the alternate ending gives more closure about the characters.
That is all.
(3/4 stars)
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Limitless
I wasn't all that keen on seeing this movie, but one of my Gather "friends" recommended it. Also, it drove me up the wall that Netflix wouldn't have it available for a full month AFTER you could buy the DVD, which is also a full month after Blockbuster and On Demand had it. So once I signed back up with Blockbuster I put that near the top of my queue and here we are.
The basic premise of the movie is: what if you could take a pill that would speed up your IQ past those of history's greatest geniuses? Eddie (Bradley Cooper) faces this conundrum. When the movie begins he's a socially-awkward writer suffering from writer's block, living in a messy apartment, and being dumped by his girlfriend.
(On a side note, only in the movies does a writer get a book contract without having written anything and without being famous. That almost never happens in the real world, especially with fiction. So suspend a little disbelief there.)
Then his ex-wife's brother runs into him on the street and offers him an experimental pill called NZT-48. Eddie decides to take it and instantly his writer's block is gone, he's learning new languages at the drop of a hat, and winning back his girlfriend. There's just a couple of little problems. One is that the pill only lasts 24 hours. After it's gone, he goes to the former brother-in-law's place only to discover that the brother-in-law has been killed by some nasty people looking for the pills.
They don't find the stash but Eddie does, along with some cash. He uses the pills and bills to begin amassing a fortune. First he tries counting cards and doing some day trading. When that's too slow, he seeks out corporate titan Carl Atwood (Robert DeNiro) and goes to work helping to broker a huge merger that will net him $40 million.
But there are still the problems of the pills and the people who want the pills.
Overall I enjoyed the movie. The scenario might be implausible, but it's a fun what-if fantasy. Cooper gives a solid performance as Eddie and is fairly convincing as both mousy pre-NZT Eddie and suave post-NZT Eddie.
It probably could have been 15 minutes shorter. It drags a little in the middle. Some of this drag is from a scenario I find puzzling. Eddie reaches into his stash jar for a pill but seems to be out. So he goes to a meeting with Atwood off the pill, which doesn't go well. But then it turns out he has a stash hidden away somewhere. So why didn't he just go get the stash before the meeting? I mean if he's so smart on the pills how could he be so stupid as to run out before the meeting?
Other than that hiccup it's a perfectly good movie. A solid night's entertainment.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 59-100 (2 stars)
The basic premise of the movie is: what if you could take a pill that would speed up your IQ past those of history's greatest geniuses? Eddie (Bradley Cooper) faces this conundrum. When the movie begins he's a socially-awkward writer suffering from writer's block, living in a messy apartment, and being dumped by his girlfriend.
(On a side note, only in the movies does a writer get a book contract without having written anything and without being famous. That almost never happens in the real world, especially with fiction. So suspend a little disbelief there.)
Then his ex-wife's brother runs into him on the street and offers him an experimental pill called NZT-48. Eddie decides to take it and instantly his writer's block is gone, he's learning new languages at the drop of a hat, and winning back his girlfriend. There's just a couple of little problems. One is that the pill only lasts 24 hours. After it's gone, he goes to the former brother-in-law's place only to discover that the brother-in-law has been killed by some nasty people looking for the pills.
They don't find the stash but Eddie does, along with some cash. He uses the pills and bills to begin amassing a fortune. First he tries counting cards and doing some day trading. When that's too slow, he seeks out corporate titan Carl Atwood (Robert DeNiro) and goes to work helping to broker a huge merger that will net him $40 million.
But there are still the problems of the pills and the people who want the pills.
Overall I enjoyed the movie. The scenario might be implausible, but it's a fun what-if fantasy. Cooper gives a solid performance as Eddie and is fairly convincing as both mousy pre-NZT Eddie and suave post-NZT Eddie.
It probably could have been 15 minutes shorter. It drags a little in the middle. Some of this drag is from a scenario I find puzzling. Eddie reaches into his stash jar for a pill but seems to be out. So he goes to a meeting with Atwood off the pill, which doesn't go well. But then it turns out he has a stash hidden away somewhere. So why didn't he just go get the stash before the meeting? I mean if he's so smart on the pills how could he be so stupid as to run out before the meeting?
Other than that hiccup it's a perfectly good movie. A solid night's entertainment.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 59-100 (2 stars)
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Captain America (2011)
I haven’t gone to see a movie in the theaters since “Iron Man 2” in 2010, because nothing released interested me much. But I’ve always had a soft spot for Captain America, though I’ve never read more than the first couple issues that my grandma gave me in some kind of compilation back in the ‘80s or something. Anyway, this got good buzz from my Facebook “friends” so I thought I’d go see it.
I’d say it was worth the five bucks I paid to see it in 2D—it didn’t seem like the kind of movie to benefit much from the 3D thing. Like most of the Marvel superhero movies it’s a solid popcorn movie, though not as great as “The Dark Knight” in my mind.
When the movie begins, it’s in present day as a government team is digging around the arctic for a strange downed aircraft. Inside they find a frozen Captain America. Then we flash back to 1942, where a scrawny Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, formerly the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four) is trying to get into the army to serve in the same unit as his dead father. What he lacks in size he makes up for in courage, but he’s rejected for being too small and asthmatic. That doesn’t deter Steve, who applies later at a World’s Fair, foregoing a double date with his friend Bucky Barnes (a kid sidekick in the 40s comics) and two random dames. Steve’s tenacity comes to the attention of Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who is conducting a secret experiment to create a special serum to make “super soldiers.” He’s already used it on Nazi commander Johan Strauss (Hugo Weaving) but has since defected to America.
Steve is given the serum and comes out looking like a bodybuilder. A Nazi agent sets off a bomb and kills Erskine, making it so that Steve will be America’s only super soldier instead of having a whole army of them. He’s presented with two choices: be locked up in a lab for testing or become an army mascot known as “Captain America.” He agrees to the latter, where at least he can be doing something. It turns out that what he does is dress up in a funny costume and make speeches about buying war bonds. He also makes movies and even has a comic book!
Just as Steve is embracing his fame, he goes over to Italy and meets a hostile reception. When he finds out Bucky has been taken captive by the Nazis, Steve goes alone into enemy territory to break him out. There he confronts Strauss, going by the name the Red Skull because his serum turn his skull red, and becomes the real-life Captain America.
From there Steve, Bucky, and a loyal band of multinational/multiethnic troops try to wipe out the Red Skull and his evil HYDRA weapons plants.
I think what would have made this a little better to me was a little more realism. I know it’s a comic book movie, but I found the Nazi ray guns to be a little too far over the line into fantasy. And the whole “jewel of Odin” thing didn’t really add much to the plot. They could have achieved the same results with more conventional weapons, though those might not have looked as cool to the teens in the audience.
Also, as much as I hate this new trend of breaking movies into two parts, a la Harry Potter, I think this would have been better as two parts. One part to focus entirely on the World War II era and then another to bring Captain America into the modern age. That way they could have dealt better with the issues surrounding him going from 1943 to 2011, like his love interest Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) either being dead or really, really old. Because there’s just not going to be enough time in the Avengers movie to give that more than lip service.
No matter what, though, this was a million times better than the 1990 version Syfy aired at the time this movie came out. It’s worth seeing if you’ve liked the other Marvel superhero movies or just want two hours out of the heat.
BTW, stay after the credits for a preview of the Avengers movie coming next year!
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 66/100 (2.5 stars)
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Cedar Rapids
I knew when I heard about this that I would probably like that movie. The reason is that I could best describe it as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" meets "Up in the Air" and I really liked both movies. If you do too then you'll probably also like this.
The plot involves a 40-ish year old insurance agent who's not a virgin named Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) who works for BrownStar Insurance in Brown Valley, Wisconsin. He's worked for BrownStar since he was 17 but is overshadowed by his coworker Roger, who's one the prestigious Two Diamond Award twice.
But then Roger dies in a perverse way and it's up to Tim to go to the insurance industry conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (really Ann Arbor, Michigan, woo hoo!) to win the award for a third time. He leaves his girlfriend, his old teacher (Sigourney Weaver, who at this point I did not want to see having sex) and gets on a plane for the first time. Boarding a plane for the first time is kind of scary and nerve-wracking, especially doing it after 2001 with all the paranoia and extra security. More probably could have been made of this scenario.
Anyway, when Tim lands in Cedar Rapids he runs into a prostitute named Bree outside. He of course doesn't know what she is and gives her a butterscotch. He's meets his first black person ever inside the room. Ronald (Isaiah Whitlock) owns his own insurance company and like Tim is a total dork. Due to overbooking, they have to take on a third roommate, Dean Ziegler (John C Reilly), whom Tim was warned to stay away from by his boss. And we soon see why as Dean is the polar opposite of Tim: boisterous, cussing, and hitting on everything in sight. Later in the fitness center Tim meets the fourth member of their ensemble, Joan (an unrecognizable Anne Heche) who if you've seen "Up in the Air" is basically the Vera Farmiga character.
It doesn't take long for Tim to start being turned to the dark side. It all begins with some cream sherry in the bar. (Cream sherry, the Devil's nectar!) Soon he's doing all sorts of things he never thought he would do. The most serious of which is finding out the truth behind Roger's awards the past two years and about his boss's plans for the company.
I thought a lot of this movie was hilarious, in the same way as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" in that it's fun watching a straight arrow turn to the dark side. Something sadistic in our nature. It's just funny as Tim encounters alcohol, drugs, and sex and tries to reconcile them with his Ned Flanders world view.
What the movie lacks is a good love interest for Tim. We know Sigourney Weaver is too old for him. We know Anne Heche is married. And we know the prostitute is a prostitute. Since those are the only options available, you wind up missing something on the romantic front. They needed some cute assistant at the office or something he had ignored for him to end up with. Maybe it's in the deleted scenes.
Anyway, this is a fun movie and mercifully short and just about 85 minutes. Make sure to watch the first half of the credits for a couple of bonus scenes. If you work in an office and like adult humor then this is a good bet.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 70/100 (3 stars)
The plot involves a 40-ish year old insurance agent who's not a virgin named Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) who works for BrownStar Insurance in Brown Valley, Wisconsin. He's worked for BrownStar since he was 17 but is overshadowed by his coworker Roger, who's one the prestigious Two Diamond Award twice.
But then Roger dies in a perverse way and it's up to Tim to go to the insurance industry conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (really Ann Arbor, Michigan, woo hoo!) to win the award for a third time. He leaves his girlfriend, his old teacher (Sigourney Weaver, who at this point I did not want to see having sex) and gets on a plane for the first time. Boarding a plane for the first time is kind of scary and nerve-wracking, especially doing it after 2001 with all the paranoia and extra security. More probably could have been made of this scenario.
Anyway, when Tim lands in Cedar Rapids he runs into a prostitute named Bree outside. He of course doesn't know what she is and gives her a butterscotch. He's meets his first black person ever inside the room. Ronald (Isaiah Whitlock) owns his own insurance company and like Tim is a total dork. Due to overbooking, they have to take on a third roommate, Dean Ziegler (John C Reilly), whom Tim was warned to stay away from by his boss. And we soon see why as Dean is the polar opposite of Tim: boisterous, cussing, and hitting on everything in sight. Later in the fitness center Tim meets the fourth member of their ensemble, Joan (an unrecognizable Anne Heche) who if you've seen "Up in the Air" is basically the Vera Farmiga character.
It doesn't take long for Tim to start being turned to the dark side. It all begins with some cream sherry in the bar. (Cream sherry, the Devil's nectar!) Soon he's doing all sorts of things he never thought he would do. The most serious of which is finding out the truth behind Roger's awards the past two years and about his boss's plans for the company.
I thought a lot of this movie was hilarious, in the same way as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" in that it's fun watching a straight arrow turn to the dark side. Something sadistic in our nature. It's just funny as Tim encounters alcohol, drugs, and sex and tries to reconcile them with his Ned Flanders world view.
What the movie lacks is a good love interest for Tim. We know Sigourney Weaver is too old for him. We know Anne Heche is married. And we know the prostitute is a prostitute. Since those are the only options available, you wind up missing something on the romantic front. They needed some cute assistant at the office or something he had ignored for him to end up with. Maybe it's in the deleted scenes.
Anyway, this is a fun movie and mercifully short and just about 85 minutes. Make sure to watch the first half of the credits for a couple of bonus scenes. If you work in an office and like adult humor then this is a good bet.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 70/100 (3 stars)
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
True Grit (2010)
I think it was Roger Ebert's review that said what the Coen Brothers did in remaking "True Grit" was make a really good Western. I have to agree with that. The first time after watching this On Demand it surprised me just how straightforward the plot was. No real twists or turns or much out of the ordinary. Just a simple, straight ahead Western. For a Western it might be really, really good but since the closest to a Western I've watched all the way through is "Dances With Wolves" I really wouldn't know.
The straight ahead plot starts first with a murder. 14-year-old Mattie Ross's father is killed by Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) and he promptly skips town to light out for Indian Territory. Mattie refuses to take this lying down, so she hires US Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to follow Chaney. Before they can set out, Mattie is visited by Texas Ranger LaBeouf (Matt Damon), who has also been pursuing Chaney for shooting a Texas senator. He wants to take Chaney back to Texas so he can collect a reward, but Mattie refuses, wanting Chaney to die for killing her father, not for killing a Texas senator.
Without her knowledge though Rooster and LaBeouf set out together and agree to share the reward. Mattie catches up to them, nearly drowning herself and her horse in the process. This leads to a falling-out between Rooster and LaBeouf when Rooster refuses to send his employer home. So Rooster and Mattie go off on their own to search for Chaney.
As you'd expect there are some gun battles and really everything except a tribe of Indians in war paint to attack them. Though it's mostly through dumb luck that they eventually find Chaney for the final showdown. Is that a spoiler? Well, what kind of Western would it be without a final showdown?
Anyway, as you'd expect from the Coen Brothers, this is a well-made film that intersperses violence and humor in about equal doses. The acting is all top-notch, as you'd expect from this all-star roster. What it reminds me of mostly is "Road to Perdition" which combined a violent gangster movie with a coming-of-age story. Only it's here on the trail in Indian territory in the 1880s or so that Mattie comes of age.
My main complaint, as I mentioned in the beginning, is that this is all so simple. Mattie is the spunky girl coming of age. Rooster is the gruff loner with a heart. LaBeouf is the noble Ranger. The only real non-archetype is the outlaw Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) who is the villain and probably evil but not really TOO evil. Maybe it was just me but I couldn't help thinking if they'd cast someone a little younger for LaBeouf they could have had a little romantic thing going on with him and Mattie. It seemed towards the end like it could go that direction, but a guy in his mid-30s and a 14-year-old girl would probably have made people too uncomfortable.
Anyway, since it's finally on DVD (which for some reason took six months when most movies go from theater to DVD nowadays in about half that) it's a good rental. It's not as good as other Coen Brothers movies like "No Country for Old Men" or "Fargo" but it's definitely better than most of the schlock on the New Rental shelves. If you're someone like my dad who grew up with the John Wayne version you might not care for it much. I mean, come on, Jeff Bridges is not The Duke.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 80/100 (3 stars)
PS: In the credits I noticed Buster Coen played "Mr. Damon's Abs Double." What the heck is that? A stunt double for his midsection?
The straight ahead plot starts first with a murder. 14-year-old Mattie Ross's father is killed by Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) and he promptly skips town to light out for Indian Territory. Mattie refuses to take this lying down, so she hires US Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to follow Chaney. Before they can set out, Mattie is visited by Texas Ranger LaBeouf (Matt Damon), who has also been pursuing Chaney for shooting a Texas senator. He wants to take Chaney back to Texas so he can collect a reward, but Mattie refuses, wanting Chaney to die for killing her father, not for killing a Texas senator.
Without her knowledge though Rooster and LaBeouf set out together and agree to share the reward. Mattie catches up to them, nearly drowning herself and her horse in the process. This leads to a falling-out between Rooster and LaBeouf when Rooster refuses to send his employer home. So Rooster and Mattie go off on their own to search for Chaney.
As you'd expect there are some gun battles and really everything except a tribe of Indians in war paint to attack them. Though it's mostly through dumb luck that they eventually find Chaney for the final showdown. Is that a spoiler? Well, what kind of Western would it be without a final showdown?
Anyway, as you'd expect from the Coen Brothers, this is a well-made film that intersperses violence and humor in about equal doses. The acting is all top-notch, as you'd expect from this all-star roster. What it reminds me of mostly is "Road to Perdition" which combined a violent gangster movie with a coming-of-age story. Only it's here on the trail in Indian territory in the 1880s or so that Mattie comes of age.
My main complaint, as I mentioned in the beginning, is that this is all so simple. Mattie is the spunky girl coming of age. Rooster is the gruff loner with a heart. LaBeouf is the noble Ranger. The only real non-archetype is the outlaw Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) who is the villain and probably evil but not really TOO evil. Maybe it was just me but I couldn't help thinking if they'd cast someone a little younger for LaBeouf they could have had a little romantic thing going on with him and Mattie. It seemed towards the end like it could go that direction, but a guy in his mid-30s and a 14-year-old girl would probably have made people too uncomfortable.
Anyway, since it's finally on DVD (which for some reason took six months when most movies go from theater to DVD nowadays in about half that) it's a good rental. It's not as good as other Coen Brothers movies like "No Country for Old Men" or "Fargo" but it's definitely better than most of the schlock on the New Rental shelves. If you're someone like my dad who grew up with the John Wayne version you might not care for it much. I mean, come on, Jeff Bridges is not The Duke.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 80/100 (3 stars)
PS: In the credits I noticed Buster Coen played "Mr. Damon's Abs Double." What the heck is that? A stunt double for his midsection?
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The American (2010)
Movies like "The American" and "Greenberg" exemplify why we still need film critics. In looking at the customer reviews on the Blockbuster website for both films, the majority opinion is that these are slow and boring. To which my rebuttal is, "Yes and they were supposed to be." Slow, that is, not boring. Though to some people anything without an explosion or car chase every two minutes is boring. If these people had done their due diligence by reading a few critical reviews, they would have known that before renting it and complaining.
If you're reading this, then you're taking the first step towards doing that. Good for you! Let me say that "The American" is not a frenetic actionfest like the Bourne movies, though it is similarly part of that subgenre of films about a hired gun getting tired of the business and wanting to quit. (Besides the Bourne movies, I could think of "The Merry Gentleman," "The Matador," "Bangkok Dangerous," and "Grosse Pointe Blank" off the top of my head that also fit into this category.) What you get with "The American" is a slower-paced, more thoughtful variation on this topic.
When the movie begins, Jack (George Clooney) is hanging out in the wilds of Sweden in a cabin with a woman. They go outside one morning to get some fresh air, but then some bad guys try to kill Jack. It's not a spoiler to say that they do not succeed and the woman is killed, for which Jack feels guilty.
His contact Pavel sends him to a small town in Italy, though Jack soon takes off for an even smaller town in Italy. There he pretends to be a photographer and makes friends of a sort with the local priest. He also begins visiting a local prostitute named Clara (Violante Placido, who looks exceptional in the several scenes in which she is topless--so sue me for noticing!).
Eventually he takes a job to design a special sniper rifle for a woman named Matildhe, who appears each time with a different hair color. Meanwhile, problems begin to escalate as the Swedes track Jack down in Italy and he's entangled by his feelings for Clara and dissatisfaction with his life.
There is a low-speed chase and some gun play, but probably not enough for action enthusiasts. Something else that probably throws off the general public is that this isn't the Clooney from "Ocean's Eleven," the suave, debonair criminal. This is more the Clooney from "Solaris," somber and brooding. That is generally the air of the movie overall. This and that Clara is an unabashed prostitute probably don't make it the best "date night" fodder. But it is an interesting look at a man who is grappling with his personal demons and the bad choices he made in life.
My main complaint (other than the subtitles when people speak in Italian are all but impossible to read on a normal 27-inch television screen) is that the movie doesn't say much that's overly new. As I said, there's a whole subgenre dedicated to this kind of character and generally "The American" plays out the same way those do: the assassin is cracking, then there's a last job, a love interest enters the fray, some fights/chases where the assassin tries to escape those who want to make sure his retirement is very short, and then the end. But to it's credit "The American" takes this more seriously and is more plausible than most of those other movies I mentioned.
So now you have a better idea what to expect--and knowing is half the battle.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 61/100 (2.5 stars)
If you're reading this, then you're taking the first step towards doing that. Good for you! Let me say that "The American" is not a frenetic actionfest like the Bourne movies, though it is similarly part of that subgenre of films about a hired gun getting tired of the business and wanting to quit. (Besides the Bourne movies, I could think of "The Merry Gentleman," "The Matador," "Bangkok Dangerous," and "Grosse Pointe Blank" off the top of my head that also fit into this category.) What you get with "The American" is a slower-paced, more thoughtful variation on this topic.
When the movie begins, Jack (George Clooney) is hanging out in the wilds of Sweden in a cabin with a woman. They go outside one morning to get some fresh air, but then some bad guys try to kill Jack. It's not a spoiler to say that they do not succeed and the woman is killed, for which Jack feels guilty.
His contact Pavel sends him to a small town in Italy, though Jack soon takes off for an even smaller town in Italy. There he pretends to be a photographer and makes friends of a sort with the local priest. He also begins visiting a local prostitute named Clara (Violante Placido, who looks exceptional in the several scenes in which she is topless--so sue me for noticing!).
Eventually he takes a job to design a special sniper rifle for a woman named Matildhe, who appears each time with a different hair color. Meanwhile, problems begin to escalate as the Swedes track Jack down in Italy and he's entangled by his feelings for Clara and dissatisfaction with his life.
There is a low-speed chase and some gun play, but probably not enough for action enthusiasts. Something else that probably throws off the general public is that this isn't the Clooney from "Ocean's Eleven," the suave, debonair criminal. This is more the Clooney from "Solaris," somber and brooding. That is generally the air of the movie overall. This and that Clara is an unabashed prostitute probably don't make it the best "date night" fodder. But it is an interesting look at a man who is grappling with his personal demons and the bad choices he made in life.
My main complaint (other than the subtitles when people speak in Italian are all but impossible to read on a normal 27-inch television screen) is that the movie doesn't say much that's overly new. As I said, there's a whole subgenre dedicated to this kind of character and generally "The American" plays out the same way those do: the assassin is cracking, then there's a last job, a love interest enters the fray, some fights/chases where the assassin tries to escape those who want to make sure his retirement is very short, and then the end. But to it's credit "The American" takes this more seriously and is more plausible than most of those other movies I mentioned.
So now you have a better idea what to expect--and knowing is half the battle.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 61/100 (2.5 stars)
Sunday, November 21, 2010
The Kids Are All Right
If a gay rights group were to have a poster family for a same-sex household, this would probably be the one they'd pick. Matriarch Nicki (Annette Bening) and her "wife" Jules (Julianne Moore) are in their 40s and still seemingly in love. They have a pretty and smart 18-year-old daugher Joni (Mia Waskikowska, that girl from the "Alice in Wonderland" movie) who is Ncki's biological daughter and a 15-year-old son Laser who is Jules's biological son. Nicki is the one who's brought home the bacon as a doctor while Jules has raised the kids after dropping out of college, though now Jules is trying to start a landscaping business.
Everything seems fine until Laser rocks the boat by asking Joni to call the sperm bank where their mothers went to get pregnant. They find out that their father is Paul (Mark Ruffalo) who runs an organic farm and small restaurant. The kids covertly meet with Paul and while it's awkward they want to see him again.
Eventually Nicki and Jules find out and they want to meet Paul too. Things get more complicated when Paul hires Jules to landscape his backyard. Maybe you can guess in what way. What happens with that and with Paul spending time with the kids just about destroys this unconventional family.
A couple things I found interesting is that after the kids meet Paul, they seem to get pushed more to the side as the movie focuses more on the Nicki/Jules/Paul triangle. It seemed like some issues with the kids (especially their sexuality issues) sort of got left on the table. Also for a movie about a lesbian couple the only sex depicted was hetero sex. That should make the average moviegoer feel more comfortable. I mean gay kisses are one thing, but gay sex is another, right?
The movie seemed to lag at times, but for the most part I thought it was good. There's just the one plot twist with Jules/Paul, but that's pretty much it. The rest is about as organic as the stuff Paul grows. The movie makes the point that a family with two mothers is still the same as a traditional family in a lot of ways. A point I made a year ago and that "My Two Dads" made back in the '80s.
I don't think this had a long theater run, but you might hear about it more during awards season. I wouldn't be surprised if Annette Bening or Julianne Moore were nominated for Supporting Actress. You know, big names in an issue movie is the kind of stuff Hollywood goes for.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 86/100 (3.5 stars)
Everything seems fine until Laser rocks the boat by asking Joni to call the sperm bank where their mothers went to get pregnant. They find out that their father is Paul (Mark Ruffalo) who runs an organic farm and small restaurant. The kids covertly meet with Paul and while it's awkward they want to see him again.
Eventually Nicki and Jules find out and they want to meet Paul too. Things get more complicated when Paul hires Jules to landscape his backyard. Maybe you can guess in what way. What happens with that and with Paul spending time with the kids just about destroys this unconventional family.
A couple things I found interesting is that after the kids meet Paul, they seem to get pushed more to the side as the movie focuses more on the Nicki/Jules/Paul triangle. It seemed like some issues with the kids (especially their sexuality issues) sort of got left on the table. Also for a movie about a lesbian couple the only sex depicted was hetero sex. That should make the average moviegoer feel more comfortable. I mean gay kisses are one thing, but gay sex is another, right?
The movie seemed to lag at times, but for the most part I thought it was good. There's just the one plot twist with Jules/Paul, but that's pretty much it. The rest is about as organic as the stuff Paul grows. The movie makes the point that a family with two mothers is still the same as a traditional family in a lot of ways. A point I made a year ago and that "My Two Dads" made back in the '80s.
I don't think this had a long theater run, but you might hear about it more during awards season. I wouldn't be surprised if Annette Bening or Julianne Moore were nominated for Supporting Actress. You know, big names in an issue movie is the kind of stuff Hollywood goes for.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 86/100 (3.5 stars)
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The Joneses
The old expression is that you shouldn't try to "Keep up with the Joneses." In the movie "The Joneses," however, a "stealth marketing" firm hopes that you will. In lieu of traditional advertising or even "viral marketing" like using YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter, they go a step farther by planting a group of actors in an affluent neighborhood and setting them up with all sorts of trendy goods to plug.
The "family" is aptly named the Joneses. The movie begins when they arrive in a gated community in their new Audi and wearing fancy new clothes and so forth. Patriarch Steve (David Duchovny) is new to the game. His "wife" Kate (Demi Moore, looking hotter than she ever has before) is the old pro and Steve's boss. Their two teenaged "children" Nick and Jen are also old hands at this. (What I wondered is why they have two teenagers and not younger children. Shouldn't they have like 3-4 kids to hit on every age group? That probably would have been too messy in terms of the story.)
Basically how it works is that for a year the Jones clan pretend to be a family and show off all their high end goods to convince the people around them to buy that stuff. Nick and Jen infiltrate the local high school while Kate targets the hairdressers and Steve hits the links at the country club. By virtue that they all are very attractive and friendly and have really neat stuff, slowly everyone buys what they have and sales for those companies go up. They even have a "grandma" who stops by on occasion to break down numbers with them.
But soon things begin to unravel for the Joneses. Steve has trouble adapting to the concept of being a family while not being a family--he sleeps in a separate bedroom from Kate. She struggles with her feelings for Steve and that he starts to outperform her in the sales department. Nick has issues with a girl named Naomi whom he befriends--and her brother. And Jen has a problem in being attracted to older men, which includes Steve early on. There's also the problem of their neighbors Larry and Summer, who do try to keep up with the Joneses, much to their detriment.
I really liked this movie. It never seemed to drag throughout its 90 minute running time. The idea of rampant consumerism and our need to compete with each other is a good one, especially at this time of year with back to school sales followed by the XMas shopping season, which seems to go on forever anymore. But more than that, there's also a lesson on the meaning of family. While the Jones "family" starts off as a group of actors, by the end they start bonding like a real family.
So overall it's a fun movie and the kind that makes you think a little too. (And did I mention that Demi Moore looks really hot? And her "daughter" ain't hard on the eyes either. Yowza!)
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 55/100 (2 stars)
The "family" is aptly named the Joneses. The movie begins when they arrive in a gated community in their new Audi and wearing fancy new clothes and so forth. Patriarch Steve (David Duchovny) is new to the game. His "wife" Kate (Demi Moore, looking hotter than she ever has before) is the old pro and Steve's boss. Their two teenaged "children" Nick and Jen are also old hands at this. (What I wondered is why they have two teenagers and not younger children. Shouldn't they have like 3-4 kids to hit on every age group? That probably would have been too messy in terms of the story.)
Basically how it works is that for a year the Jones clan pretend to be a family and show off all their high end goods to convince the people around them to buy that stuff. Nick and Jen infiltrate the local high school while Kate targets the hairdressers and Steve hits the links at the country club. By virtue that they all are very attractive and friendly and have really neat stuff, slowly everyone buys what they have and sales for those companies go up. They even have a "grandma" who stops by on occasion to break down numbers with them.
But soon things begin to unravel for the Joneses. Steve has trouble adapting to the concept of being a family while not being a family--he sleeps in a separate bedroom from Kate. She struggles with her feelings for Steve and that he starts to outperform her in the sales department. Nick has issues with a girl named Naomi whom he befriends--and her brother. And Jen has a problem in being attracted to older men, which includes Steve early on. There's also the problem of their neighbors Larry and Summer, who do try to keep up with the Joneses, much to their detriment.
I really liked this movie. It never seemed to drag throughout its 90 minute running time. The idea of rampant consumerism and our need to compete with each other is a good one, especially at this time of year with back to school sales followed by the XMas shopping season, which seems to go on forever anymore. But more than that, there's also a lesson on the meaning of family. While the Jones "family" starts off as a group of actors, by the end they start bonding like a real family.
So overall it's a fun movie and the kind that makes you think a little too. (And did I mention that Demi Moore looks really hot? And her "daughter" ain't hard on the eyes either. Yowza!)
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 55/100 (2 stars)
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Chloe
The basic conceit behind "Chloe" isn't all that original. Catherine (Julianne Moore) thinks that her husband David (Liam Neeson) is cheating on her. She has reason to think this after David blows off a flight from New York back to Toronto for his surprise birthday party and the next morning Catherine sees a message on his phone from an attractive young student signed "XXOO" which of course means hugs and kisses. Instead of just confronting him about the phone message, Catherine decides to set a trap for David and catch him in the act. She meets a prostitute named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) in the bathroom of a hotel and sees her later on the street. Eventually she hires Chloe to seduce David and thus get the goods on him. This concept is so shopworn that it was used last year in the Mike Judge comedy "Extract."
If that's where the movie had stayed it probably would have been pretty dull. Instead, Catherine gets a lot more than she bargained for in Chloe. As Chloe tells her about the various things she's doing with David, Catherine finds herself getting turned on and maybe wanting Chloe to do a few of these things to her as well. And Chloe is more than willing to do this. So the story becomes about this bizarre relationship between Catherine, Chloe, and Chloe's family.
There's of course a surprise twist at the end that changes everything. I won't ruin that. I thought overall this was a very taut thriller and I couldn't exactly see what was coming before it happened, which is always a good thing for a suspense movie. And to put on my sexist male hat for a moment, it has one of the hottest girl-on-girl scenes in a non-porn movie since "Mulholland Drive." (Yeah, really, crucify me for enjoying that.)
Overall, a riveting story with great actors and some steamy love scenes. If you're an adult, what's not to like? (And the band Chloe mentions, Raised by Swans, is good too. I actually bought an album off Amazon and liked it. So there you go.)
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 48/100 (2 stars)
If that's where the movie had stayed it probably would have been pretty dull. Instead, Catherine gets a lot more than she bargained for in Chloe. As Chloe tells her about the various things she's doing with David, Catherine finds herself getting turned on and maybe wanting Chloe to do a few of these things to her as well. And Chloe is more than willing to do this. So the story becomes about this bizarre relationship between Catherine, Chloe, and Chloe's family.
There's of course a surprise twist at the end that changes everything. I won't ruin that. I thought overall this was a very taut thriller and I couldn't exactly see what was coming before it happened, which is always a good thing for a suspense movie. And to put on my sexist male hat for a moment, it has one of the hottest girl-on-girl scenes in a non-porn movie since "Mulholland Drive." (Yeah, really, crucify me for enjoying that.)
Overall, a riveting story with great actors and some steamy love scenes. If you're an adult, what's not to like? (And the band Chloe mentions, Raised by Swans, is good too. I actually bought an album off Amazon and liked it. So there you go.)
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 48/100 (2 stars)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Defendor
You probably haven't heard of this movie. I don't think it had a major theatrical release. I just heard about it as a preview for another movie and decided to put it on my queue to watch. You can get it through Blockbuster or maybe Netflix.
Anyway, in the last decade superhero movies were an in thing and a sub-genre of these is the sort of Don Quixote-type story where an amateur nut decides to go out and try being a superhero. A recent American one in this vein is "Kick-Ass." A slightly older Japanese variation is called "Zebraman." The latter starts off interesting and then gets kind of crazy. The former from the reviews sounds gory and morally questionable.
"Defendor" strikes a balance between these. There's not really any gore and we're not talking about a 12-year-old getting beat up, so that's good. At the same time, the story remains in the ballpark of sanity, which is also a benefit.
As you might have guessed, this is the story of a construction worker named Arthur (Woody Harrellson) who was abandoned as a child and is a little slow. His mom died from using drugs, so he decides to dress up in a helmet, black sweater, and painted-on mask with a duct tape 'D' on his chest as the hero Defendor to find Captain Industry, who he thinks is responsible. For weapons he uses his grandfather's trench club from World War I, marbles, and jars of live wasps.
On his first night he interrupts a dirty undercover cop as he's trying to get a little freebie from a junkie/hooker named Kat (Kat Denning). Kat comes to live with Arthur and gives him information about a Serbian drug dealer that Arthur things is Captain Industry.
Arthur's bumbling attempts to get the goods on the drug dealer lead him to get beat up, shot by a paintball gun, and ultimately arrested. The judge orders him analyzed by a doctor (Sandra Oh) who feels for Arthur. While he's in jail and being analyzed, Arthur also becomes a real hero to the people of the city.
But can a fake hero really take out real criminals? Tune in same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
I thought this was a pretty fun movie. Of course I was predisposed to like this movie since I wrote a story along similar lines a few years ago. Still, Arthur is a sympathetic character and you can't help rooting for him even if he is probably insane. I mean he's sort of like if Forrest Gump decided to put on some tights and fight crime. And as I said, there's not really any gore or graphic violence.
Overall, if you like superhero movies, this isn't a bad one.
(And if you like superhero stories, this isn't bad either.)
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Anyway, in the last decade superhero movies were an in thing and a sub-genre of these is the sort of Don Quixote-type story where an amateur nut decides to go out and try being a superhero. A recent American one in this vein is "Kick-Ass." A slightly older Japanese variation is called "Zebraman." The latter starts off interesting and then gets kind of crazy. The former from the reviews sounds gory and morally questionable.
"Defendor" strikes a balance between these. There's not really any gore and we're not talking about a 12-year-old getting beat up, so that's good. At the same time, the story remains in the ballpark of sanity, which is also a benefit.
As you might have guessed, this is the story of a construction worker named Arthur (Woody Harrellson) who was abandoned as a child and is a little slow. His mom died from using drugs, so he decides to dress up in a helmet, black sweater, and painted-on mask with a duct tape 'D' on his chest as the hero Defendor to find Captain Industry, who he thinks is responsible. For weapons he uses his grandfather's trench club from World War I, marbles, and jars of live wasps.
On his first night he interrupts a dirty undercover cop as he's trying to get a little freebie from a junkie/hooker named Kat (Kat Denning). Kat comes to live with Arthur and gives him information about a Serbian drug dealer that Arthur things is Captain Industry.
Arthur's bumbling attempts to get the goods on the drug dealer lead him to get beat up, shot by a paintball gun, and ultimately arrested. The judge orders him analyzed by a doctor (Sandra Oh) who feels for Arthur. While he's in jail and being analyzed, Arthur also becomes a real hero to the people of the city.
But can a fake hero really take out real criminals? Tune in same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
I thought this was a pretty fun movie. Of course I was predisposed to like this movie since I wrote a story along similar lines a few years ago. Still, Arthur is a sympathetic character and you can't help rooting for him even if he is probably insane. I mean he's sort of like if Forrest Gump decided to put on some tights and fight crime. And as I said, there's not really any gore or graphic violence.
Overall, if you like superhero movies, this isn't a bad one.
(And if you like superhero stories, this isn't bad either.)
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Crazy Heart
Ah, the glorious life of a professional musician. A little over a week ago I was at a show for a folk singer at a cafe, the kind of place so small they had to move tables aside so people could see the stage. There were maybe a dozen people or so, some of whom probably hadn't even shown up for the concert but just wandered in for a drink. I can't imagine the performers got paid much more than gas money for the gig.
"Crazy Heart" is the story of another such performer: Bad Blake, a country & western singer from the Hank Williams school, long before the more commercial, glitzy acts like Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood and so forth. Bad's best days are long behind him. He's 57, broke, an alcoholic with four ex-wives and at least one ex-son.
When we meet Bad he's driving his old Suburban into a bowling alley in Pueblo, New Mexico, where he plays for a dozen or so patrons, mostly older folks. After the set he goes back to the motel wit one of those older folks for a little nightcap.
That pretty much summarizes Bad's life for the last couple of decades. He continues to Santa Fe, where a local reporter named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) wants to interview him. Jean has at least one ex-husband and a young son named Buddy. Though she should no better, she can't resist Bad and soon they're doing more than just interviews.
Bad still has some friends in the music business, especially his protege Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell, because who else would you cast to play a country singer but an Irishman?) who wants Bad to write some songs for him--if Bad can sober up long enough to write anything down.
I spent most of the movie waiting for bad things to happen to Bad. There's a car accident and he loses Jean's son in a mall. Other than that, nothing too bad happens to Bad. The movie makes sobering up and turning your life around seems like you could do it in about a week if you feel like it.
I couldn't help thinking of a line from Bret Easton Ellis' new novel Imperial Bedrooms:
I think in this case that's certainly what I was demanding. Instead, Bad seems almost rewarded for his lifetime of sins. All we needed was for the son to show up and give him a hug in a tearful reunion. (Is it a spoiler if I tell you what doesn't happen?)
Overall the first 90 minutes or so are good. It's the last 20 or so where it falls down in trying to make redemption seem so easy. I think someone once said nothing worth having is ever won cheaply. That should be especially true for your soul.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 83/100 (3.5 stars)
"Crazy Heart" is the story of another such performer: Bad Blake, a country & western singer from the Hank Williams school, long before the more commercial, glitzy acts like Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood and so forth. Bad's best days are long behind him. He's 57, broke, an alcoholic with four ex-wives and at least one ex-son.
When we meet Bad he's driving his old Suburban into a bowling alley in Pueblo, New Mexico, where he plays for a dozen or so patrons, mostly older folks. After the set he goes back to the motel wit one of those older folks for a little nightcap.
That pretty much summarizes Bad's life for the last couple of decades. He continues to Santa Fe, where a local reporter named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) wants to interview him. Jean has at least one ex-husband and a young son named Buddy. Though she should no better, she can't resist Bad and soon they're doing more than just interviews.
Bad still has some friends in the music business, especially his protege Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell, because who else would you cast to play a country singer but an Irishman?) who wants Bad to write some songs for him--if Bad can sober up long enough to write anything down.
I spent most of the movie waiting for bad things to happen to Bad. There's a car accident and he loses Jean's son in a mall. Other than that, nothing too bad happens to Bad. The movie makes sobering up and turning your life around seems like you could do it in about a week if you feel like it.
I couldn't help thinking of a line from Bret Easton Ellis' new novel Imperial Bedrooms:
He had to be punished for all of his sins. That's what the movie demanded. (Later, as a screenwriter, I learned it's what all movies demanded.)
I think in this case that's certainly what I was demanding. Instead, Bad seems almost rewarded for his lifetime of sins. All we needed was for the son to show up and give him a hug in a tearful reunion. (Is it a spoiler if I tell you what doesn't happen?)
Overall the first 90 minutes or so are good. It's the last 20 or so where it falls down in trying to make redemption seem so easy. I think someone once said nothing worth having is ever won cheaply. That should be especially true for your soul.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 83/100 (3.5 stars)
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
An Education
The old expression is that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. This holds especially true in love. When 16-year-old schoolgirl Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is offered a ride home in the rain by the much-older David (Peter Sarsgaard) she is instantly smitten. David has a sports car, he likes music, books, films, art, and all the other things that a wanna-be worldly girl like Jenny wants in a man.
It doesn’t take long for David to not only seduce Jenny but her parents as well. Her father (Alfred Molina) is almost as impressed with David’s knowledge as Jenny. He’s especially impressed that David seems to be rich and connected to famous people like CS Lewis. So with little prompting he allows Jenny to spend weekends with David unchaperoned, including a trip to Paris.
Even after Jenny learns some dark secrets about David, she decides to stay with him because he’s the cure to her life of constant studying Latin and Victorian literature to try and get into Oxford. Her teachers try to dissuade her when she starts getting in too deep, but Jenny shucks this off as jealousy.
This is all a good setup for a mature and thoughtful romance. It’s too bad the final act takes a predictable turn. It would have been nice if the movie had tried to think outside the box a little bit more in resolving the relationship between Jenny and David. Instead it falls back on a cliché like so many movies do.
The title "An Education" has a double meaning. First there's the issue of education in Jenny's father's relentless quest to get her into Oxford. What Jenny starts to wonder after spending time with David is what's the point of this education if she's going to end up lonely and bored like her teachers? (This taking place in 1961 there weren't many other opportunities for young women like her.) The title also refers to the education Jenny receives about life from her relationship with David. That is perhaps far more important.
Carey Mulligan does a great job of portraying the vulnerable and naïve young girl who like so many before her thinks she knows far more than she does. Peter Sarsgaard (born in Illinois) does a good job at portraying an older British guy without coming across like a creep.
Overall this was another movie like “500 Days of Summer” also from last year that’s a romantic movie but isn’t your traditional romance. If you want that you could go watch “The Last Song” or some other Nicholas Sparks tripe.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score 85/100 (3.5 stars)
It doesn’t take long for David to not only seduce Jenny but her parents as well. Her father (Alfred Molina) is almost as impressed with David’s knowledge as Jenny. He’s especially impressed that David seems to be rich and connected to famous people like CS Lewis. So with little prompting he allows Jenny to spend weekends with David unchaperoned, including a trip to Paris.
Even after Jenny learns some dark secrets about David, she decides to stay with him because he’s the cure to her life of constant studying Latin and Victorian literature to try and get into Oxford. Her teachers try to dissuade her when she starts getting in too deep, but Jenny shucks this off as jealousy.
This is all a good setup for a mature and thoughtful romance. It’s too bad the final act takes a predictable turn. It would have been nice if the movie had tried to think outside the box a little bit more in resolving the relationship between Jenny and David. Instead it falls back on a cliché like so many movies do.
The title "An Education" has a double meaning. First there's the issue of education in Jenny's father's relentless quest to get her into Oxford. What Jenny starts to wonder after spending time with David is what's the point of this education if she's going to end up lonely and bored like her teachers? (This taking place in 1961 there weren't many other opportunities for young women like her.) The title also refers to the education Jenny receives about life from her relationship with David. That is perhaps far more important.
Carey Mulligan does a great job of portraying the vulnerable and naïve young girl who like so many before her thinks she knows far more than she does. Peter Sarsgaard (born in Illinois) does a good job at portraying an older British guy without coming across like a creep.
Overall this was another movie like “500 Days of Summer” also from last year that’s a romantic movie but isn’t your traditional romance. If you want that you could go watch “The Last Song” or some other Nicholas Sparks tripe.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score 85/100 (3.5 stars)
Friday, March 26, 2010
Fantastic Mr. Fox
It's refreshing to watch a movie intended for kids and adults that doesn't need to rely on a gimmick like 3D. Instead, this is an old school movie that relies on puppets to tell its story, which is loosely based on a story by Roald Dahl, the guy behind "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "James and the Giant Peach," and others.
As you'd guess from the title, the story involves Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) and his wife (voiced by Meryl Streep). After getting stuck in a cage, Mrs. Fox confesses that she's pregnant and makes Mr. Fox promise that if they get out alive that he'll stop stealing chickens and do something respectable.
When they do survive, Mr. Fox goes straight for 2 years (12 fox-years) by becoming a reporter with the local newspaper. He and Mrs. Fox move into a burrow with their son Ash. All seems right with the world.
Except that Mr. Fox has an itch to get back to his old ways. He starts by buying a tree to live in, which gives him a great view of the farms of Mr. Boggis, Mr. Bean, and Mr. Bunce. There's a rhyme about them saying that one is fat one is short and one is lean but they're all equally mean. With the help of Kylie the possum, Mr. Fox steals chickens, geese, and alcoholic cider from the farmers. He hides all of this from his wife so that she thinks he's still on the straight and narrow.
But Mr. Fox's actions have unexpected consequences when it creates total war between the human farmers and the animals living around them. It will take far more than one fox's cunning to save the day.
The movie is about as good as anything Pixar has put out. It's a fun little romp that both kids and adults can enjoy. And as I said at the beginning it doesn't require state-of-the-art computer animation or 3D glasses. Nor does it need the gross-out humor movies like the "Shrek" franchise employ.
The puppetry looks a little odd and it really isn't all that great when lots of motion is needed. Still, as someone who used to enjoy the Muppets it didn't really bother me. And I never knew foxes were so good at digging. I learned something.
Probably when you're thinking of someone to create a movie like this, the creator of "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums," and "The Life Aquatic" isn't going to be your first choice. And yet Wes Anderson manages to pull it off as well as Tim Burton and company did for "Nightmare Before Christmas."
This is a good rental for the whole family.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 83/100 (3.5 stars)
As you'd guess from the title, the story involves Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) and his wife (voiced by Meryl Streep). After getting stuck in a cage, Mrs. Fox confesses that she's pregnant and makes Mr. Fox promise that if they get out alive that he'll stop stealing chickens and do something respectable.
When they do survive, Mr. Fox goes straight for 2 years (12 fox-years) by becoming a reporter with the local newspaper. He and Mrs. Fox move into a burrow with their son Ash. All seems right with the world.
Except that Mr. Fox has an itch to get back to his old ways. He starts by buying a tree to live in, which gives him a great view of the farms of Mr. Boggis, Mr. Bean, and Mr. Bunce. There's a rhyme about them saying that one is fat one is short and one is lean but they're all equally mean. With the help of Kylie the possum, Mr. Fox steals chickens, geese, and alcoholic cider from the farmers. He hides all of this from his wife so that she thinks he's still on the straight and narrow.
But Mr. Fox's actions have unexpected consequences when it creates total war between the human farmers and the animals living around them. It will take far more than one fox's cunning to save the day.
The movie is about as good as anything Pixar has put out. It's a fun little romp that both kids and adults can enjoy. And as I said at the beginning it doesn't require state-of-the-art computer animation or 3D glasses. Nor does it need the gross-out humor movies like the "Shrek" franchise employ.
The puppetry looks a little odd and it really isn't all that great when lots of motion is needed. Still, as someone who used to enjoy the Muppets it didn't really bother me. And I never knew foxes were so good at digging. I learned something.
Probably when you're thinking of someone to create a movie like this, the creator of "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums," and "The Life Aquatic" isn't going to be your first choice. And yet Wes Anderson manages to pull it off as well as Tim Burton and company did for "Nightmare Before Christmas."
This is a good rental for the whole family.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 83/100 (3.5 stars)
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Zombieland
Since the drive-in days of the ‘50s and ‘60s, zombie movies have become a genre unto themselves, launching the careers of filmmakers like George Romero. In the 40-50 years of zombie movies, there have been a variety of takes from the serious like “Night of the Living Dead” or “28 Days Later” to the not so serious like “Shaun of the Dead.” “Zombieland” is definitely in this latter category. You could consider it an Americanized “Shaun” relying more on gags than the dry wit of its British counterpart.
As you’d guess from the title or the previews, the movie is about a world that has been overrun by zombies. How this happened isn’t made entirely clear. There’s vague mentions of something like mad cow disease that turned people into flesh-eating ghouls. Most normal people have been wiped out, but not a young man known only as Columbus (Michael Cera clone Jesse Eisenberg) who lived mainly because he’s a paranoid shut-in. In order survive, Columbus lives by a series of rules that are often repeated throughout the movie. Rule #1 is Cardio as in staying in shape to flee from zombies. There are rules about being careful when using the bathroom (where zombies like to trap their prey) and wearing your seatbelt. Most importantly is not forming attachments to anyone.
This rule is seriously challenged first when Columbus is picked up by Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) a professional zombie killer who is searching for a Twinkie. This search leads them to a supermarket where they meet the con girl sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who are on their way to Pacific Playland outside LA where supposedly there are no zombies and where the girls went before the zombie apocalypse. The girls appropriate Tallahassee’s truck and weapons before the boys catch up to them and they decide to all go together.
The movie is pretty much exactly what you’d expect. There’s a lot of running and killing zombies. Tallahassee doesn’t just shoot them; he uses everything from a banjo to hedge clippers in his quest for Zombie Kill of the Week. Between zombie battles is a lot of fun humor, especially a scene involving Bill Murray. This humor is far more obvious than “Shaun of the Dead,” which makes it much easier for American audiences.
Overall this is a fun, albeit short movie coming in at just about 85 minutes. According to IMDB there’s already a sequel in production that I hope can match the fun of this one.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 73/100 (3 stars)
Monday, February 1, 2010
Moon
A frequent theme of the original "Twilight Zone" series was the danger of isolation. The very first episode deals with an astronaut who returns to a small town only to find everyone is missing. As it turns out the astronaut is still asleep and undergoing a test to see how long it takes someone to crack. The point of the episodes was that the human psyche is fragile and extended periods of loneliness would cause it to break.
This same device is used in "Moon." The story involves a lone man named Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) who is working on Earth's moon, overseeing the mining of a material that is converted into energy to power the Earth. Big combine-like machines called harvesters till the soil while Sam monitors them from his base and occasionally fixes them with the help of the computer system known as Gerty (voice of Kevin Spacey) that also tends to Sam's needs.
Sam's contract calls for him to be there for three years, after which he will return home to his wife Tess and toddler Eve. But with two weeks left to go, Sam starts showing signs of cracking. He has headaches, he sees things that might not be there, and he has trouble focusing. This leads him to crash his rover into one of the harvesters. When he comes to back in the infirmary, Gerty tells him that he'll be OK. But Sam suspects something is up. Is he right? Or has he finally cracked?
I thought the movie would be more psychological like "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "Solaris." It's a little more straight-ahead than those and certainly not nearly as dense as 2001. Instead of a psychological thriller it's more of a mystery as Sam tries to figure out what's going on with the base and the company. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will tell you that Gerty is sort of a red herring.
If you're more into the thrill-ride type of sci-fi movies like "Star Trek" or "Avatar" then this probably is too slow for you. If you're a fan of the old "Twilight Zone" or "Solaris" or "2001" then this is more up your alley. I thoroughly enjoyed it. On a side note, Sam Rockwell seems like one of the most underrated actors around. There's nothing I've seen him in that I haven't enjoyed. Maybe now that he's co-starring in "Iron Man 2" he'll get his due.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 67/100 (2.5 stars)
This same device is used in "Moon." The story involves a lone man named Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) who is working on Earth's moon, overseeing the mining of a material that is converted into energy to power the Earth. Big combine-like machines called harvesters till the soil while Sam monitors them from his base and occasionally fixes them with the help of the computer system known as Gerty (voice of Kevin Spacey) that also tends to Sam's needs.
Sam's contract calls for him to be there for three years, after which he will return home to his wife Tess and toddler Eve. But with two weeks left to go, Sam starts showing signs of cracking. He has headaches, he sees things that might not be there, and he has trouble focusing. This leads him to crash his rover into one of the harvesters. When he comes to back in the infirmary, Gerty tells him that he'll be OK. But Sam suspects something is up. Is he right? Or has he finally cracked?
I thought the movie would be more psychological like "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "Solaris." It's a little more straight-ahead than those and certainly not nearly as dense as 2001. Instead of a psychological thriller it's more of a mystery as Sam tries to figure out what's going on with the base and the company. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will tell you that Gerty is sort of a red herring.
If you're more into the thrill-ride type of sci-fi movies like "Star Trek" or "Avatar" then this probably is too slow for you. If you're a fan of the old "Twilight Zone" or "Solaris" or "2001" then this is more up your alley. I thoroughly enjoyed it. On a side note, Sam Rockwell seems like one of the most underrated actors around. There's nothing I've seen him in that I haven't enjoyed. Maybe now that he's co-starring in "Iron Man 2" he'll get his due.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 67/100 (2.5 stars)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Hangover
I haven't been a fan of the so-called "frat pack" movies like "Old School," "Anchorman," and "Wedding Crashers." I just didn't really find Will Farrell and Vince Vaughn very funny. So I didn't have much hope for a movie directed by the guy who did "Old School" and the lame "School for Scoundrels." So I was pretty surprised that I enjoyed the movie.
As implied by the title, "The Hangover" is about four friends who go to Las Vegas on the eve of a wedding. Doug is the groom-to-be who's being given one final taste of single life. The problem is after a night of partying, Doug has vanished. Adding to the problem is that his groomsmen: sauve already-married Phil (Bradley Cooper); whipped soon-to-be-engaged dentist Stu (Ed Helms); and chubby, hairy future brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis) don't have any memory of what happened after a toast on the roof of Caesar's.
Most of the movie then is devoted to Doug's friends trying to figure out important questions like: whose baby is in the closet, how did Stu lose a tooth, and how did a tiger get in the bathroom? And in figuring this out they hope to figure out what happened to their friend so they can get him to the wedding on time without getting caught.
I think what made this movie for me is that it's set up like a mystery. If it had been straight-ahead one thing after another it might have still had funny moments but it would have been more generic. Instead, it becomes fun to try and outguess the guys as they piece together the clues. Sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong but the guessing keeps you involved with the story.
Of course as you'd expect there's some crudity involved. There's plenty of bad language, though most of the sexual situations are saved until the end. So obviously if you're not into lower-brow humor this won't be your cup of tea. Still, I thought it was a lot better than the movies I listed at the beginning.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 73/100 (3 stars)
As implied by the title, "The Hangover" is about four friends who go to Las Vegas on the eve of a wedding. Doug is the groom-to-be who's being given one final taste of single life. The problem is after a night of partying, Doug has vanished. Adding to the problem is that his groomsmen: sauve already-married Phil (Bradley Cooper); whipped soon-to-be-engaged dentist Stu (Ed Helms); and chubby, hairy future brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis) don't have any memory of what happened after a toast on the roof of Caesar's.
Most of the movie then is devoted to Doug's friends trying to figure out important questions like: whose baby is in the closet, how did Stu lose a tooth, and how did a tiger get in the bathroom? And in figuring this out they hope to figure out what happened to their friend so they can get him to the wedding on time without getting caught.
I think what made this movie for me is that it's set up like a mystery. If it had been straight-ahead one thing after another it might have still had funny moments but it would have been more generic. Instead, it becomes fun to try and outguess the guys as they piece together the clues. Sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong but the guessing keeps you involved with the story.
Of course as you'd expect there's some crudity involved. There's plenty of bad language, though most of the sexual situations are saved until the end. So obviously if you're not into lower-brow humor this won't be your cup of tea. Still, I thought it was a lot better than the movies I listed at the beginning.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 73/100 (3 stars)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Sherlock Holmes
I've never read any Sherlock Holmes books or watched any previous movies, so the most I had ever really encountered the detective was on Star Trek: The Next Generation when the android Data played Holmes on the holodeck. So I really have no idea how faithful this latest version is to the books or previous movies, though I suspect not very.
This version of "Sherlock Holmes" starts off in Victorian London with Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) using some fisticuffs and kung fu to stop a Satanic ritual involving the sacrifice of a young woman. The man making the sacrifice is Lord Blackwood, which creates quite the scandal. Before Blackwood is hanged, he summons Holmes to his cell to claim that he'll return from the grave to not only murder again but to change the world.
After Blackwood is hanged, Holmes is at a loose end. Making things worse is that his loyal sidekick Dr. Watson (Jude Law) is getting married. But he finally gets some action when an old flame Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) asks him to find a missing person. That missing person turns out to be in Lord Blackwood's coffin. From there more people are killed, there are double-crosses, chases, and a climactic battle on London Bridge.
Really they could have called this CSI: Victorian London because it's about the same thing. Or "Monk," "Psych," "The Mentalist," "Murder She Wrote" or just about any other mystery series on television only with better actors and special effects. That's not really a dig, just a fact. The movie certainly doesn't try to reinvent the genre, but it does try to have as much fun with it as possible. This Sherlock Holmes is always cracking wise, even in a crisis. The more serious Watson and devious Irene Adler make for good foils for comic bantering. This makes the movie fun to watch from start to finish. Sure some of the plot twists were obvious and the situations not very realistic, but it's an exciting ride. And you have to admire whoever came up with all that stuff about Satanic rituals and what kind of residue certain chemicals make on a rat's tail and so forth. How do you find out that kind of stuff?
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 57/100 (2 stars)
This version of "Sherlock Holmes" starts off in Victorian London with Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) using some fisticuffs and kung fu to stop a Satanic ritual involving the sacrifice of a young woman. The man making the sacrifice is Lord Blackwood, which creates quite the scandal. Before Blackwood is hanged, he summons Holmes to his cell to claim that he'll return from the grave to not only murder again but to change the world.
After Blackwood is hanged, Holmes is at a loose end. Making things worse is that his loyal sidekick Dr. Watson (Jude Law) is getting married. But he finally gets some action when an old flame Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) asks him to find a missing person. That missing person turns out to be in Lord Blackwood's coffin. From there more people are killed, there are double-crosses, chases, and a climactic battle on London Bridge.
Really they could have called this CSI: Victorian London because it's about the same thing. Or "Monk," "Psych," "The Mentalist," "Murder She Wrote" or just about any other mystery series on television only with better actors and special effects. That's not really a dig, just a fact. The movie certainly doesn't try to reinvent the genre, but it does try to have as much fun with it as possible. This Sherlock Holmes is always cracking wise, even in a crisis. The more serious Watson and devious Irene Adler make for good foils for comic bantering. This makes the movie fun to watch from start to finish. Sure some of the plot twists were obvious and the situations not very realistic, but it's an exciting ride. And you have to admire whoever came up with all that stuff about Satanic rituals and what kind of residue certain chemicals make on a rat's tail and so forth. How do you find out that kind of stuff?
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 57/100 (2 stars)
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Doubt/Michael Clayton/Gran Torino/Up
"Doubt"
As a former Lutheran, I've never been a big fan of the Catholic church and "Doubt" certainly wasn't going to improve my opinion. It's 1964 in New York and Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has recently come to the parish. His new school beliefs about embracing the parishioners leads him to come into conflict with the old school nun Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep). Caught in the middle is young Sister James (Amy Adams) who thinks Father Flynn is having an inappropriate relationship with the school's first black student. Did he or didn't he? That's the question but "Doubt" certainly leaves a lot of doubt about this.
I'm not one to usually comment on technical things like direction but some of the strange camera angles reminded me of the old "Batman" TV show, which is never a good thing and it really seemed to serve no purpose. As well, the surprise confession at the end seemed kind of forced to me.
My score: 50/100 (2 stars)
Metacritic Score: 68/100 (2.5 stars)
#
"Michael Clayton"
Someone has to do the dirty work, even in corporate law. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a big law firm's "fixer" or the guy who comes to your home after you've hit someone with your car or killed a hooker or something like that to spearhead damage control. Meanwhile, Michael is facing financial problems after his junkie brother botches a bar Michael invested in. Then things take a turn for the worse when a friend and fellow attorney Arthur (Tom Wilkinson) goes off his meds and freaks out in a meeting with clients in a case concerning an agrochemical conglomerate. As Michael involves himself in this situation, he finds that something stinks--and it's not the cow manure down on the farm.
Two things that bugged me is first the movie starts with a scene that in the film's chronology takes place near the end. Of course there's no way I as the viewer could realize this until later, which is really confusing and disconcerting. Also, the end depends upon one of the oldest cliches in film, the old villain confessing into a recording device. Otherwise it's a passable thriller, but not all that thrilling.
My score: 50/100 (2 stars)
Metacritic score: 82/100 (3 stars)
#
"Gran Torino"
When I saw the previews for this, the premise seemed ludicrous to me. An octogenarian Dirty Harry battling an Asian gang a quarter his age? Why don't they just steal his walker and push him down?
Of course it's not really Dirty Harry. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a former Ford assembly line worker in a Detroit-area neighborhood that has gone to seed, like much of the city itself. Walt is recently widowed and has no one except his ingrate family who are basically waiting for him to die so they can sell off the house and take possession of the rest of his stuff like his cherry 1972 Gran Torino. But someone else tries to take it first--a young Hmong kid named Thao. A veteran of Korea, Walt doesn't like Asians much--or anyone really--but when a local gang picks on Thao and his family, Walt intervenes to help them.
This was a nice story of a jaded old coot bonding with a needy young man. How this comes about manages to seem believable. Even Walt confronting the much younger Asian and black kids in the neighborhood didn't seem as absurd as I'd feared when I first saw the previews. And the end really comes as a surprise, especially for those who remember Eastwood from the Dirty Harry pictures, though I'm not sure his plan would really work in real life.
BTW, an interesting fact is Eastwood was one of the first to take advantage of new tax credits to film in the actual Detroit area instead of trying to have Toronto or Vancouver sub as the Motor City.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 72/100 (3 stars)
#
"Up"
I keep waiting for the Pixar movie that's finally going to let me down. But they do it yet again with "Up." A sweet movie that still manages to tackle some grown up issues. The movie itself is completely implausible, but only an idiot expects what is ostensibly a kid's movie to be plausible.
In really the most touching part of the movie, it begins with a montage about how young Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner) comes to meet Ellie. They both worship adventurer Charles Muntz (voice of Christopher Plummer) who goes to South America in search of a rare bird back in the '30s. Carl and Ellie go from best friends to husband and wife and dream of someday joining Muntz in Paradise Falls. But someday never comes for Ellie. So on the verge of being thrown in a retirement home, Carl ties a bunch of balloons to his house and floats away. He has a stowaway in Wilderness Explorer Russell, who has no choice but to accompany Carl to Paradise Falls. When Carl finally gets to Paradise Falls and meets his idol, he discovers his hero has feet of clay.
As I said, this is a really sweet movie that is enjoyable for the kids without all the gross out fart gags prevalent in "Shrek" and other computer animated kids movies. At the same time it also deals with loss, love, and loneliness in a way that kids and adults can understand. Basically if you liked "Wall-E" then you'll like this too.
My score: 100/100 (4 stars)
Metacritic score: 88/100 (3.5 stars)
That is all.
As a former Lutheran, I've never been a big fan of the Catholic church and "Doubt" certainly wasn't going to improve my opinion. It's 1964 in New York and Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has recently come to the parish. His new school beliefs about embracing the parishioners leads him to come into conflict with the old school nun Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep). Caught in the middle is young Sister James (Amy Adams) who thinks Father Flynn is having an inappropriate relationship with the school's first black student. Did he or didn't he? That's the question but "Doubt" certainly leaves a lot of doubt about this.
I'm not one to usually comment on technical things like direction but some of the strange camera angles reminded me of the old "Batman" TV show, which is never a good thing and it really seemed to serve no purpose. As well, the surprise confession at the end seemed kind of forced to me.
My score: 50/100 (2 stars)
Metacritic Score: 68/100 (2.5 stars)
#
"Michael Clayton"
Someone has to do the dirty work, even in corporate law. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a big law firm's "fixer" or the guy who comes to your home after you've hit someone with your car or killed a hooker or something like that to spearhead damage control. Meanwhile, Michael is facing financial problems after his junkie brother botches a bar Michael invested in. Then things take a turn for the worse when a friend and fellow attorney Arthur (Tom Wilkinson) goes off his meds and freaks out in a meeting with clients in a case concerning an agrochemical conglomerate. As Michael involves himself in this situation, he finds that something stinks--and it's not the cow manure down on the farm.
Two things that bugged me is first the movie starts with a scene that in the film's chronology takes place near the end. Of course there's no way I as the viewer could realize this until later, which is really confusing and disconcerting. Also, the end depends upon one of the oldest cliches in film, the old villain confessing into a recording device. Otherwise it's a passable thriller, but not all that thrilling.
My score: 50/100 (2 stars)
Metacritic score: 82/100 (3 stars)
#
"Gran Torino"
When I saw the previews for this, the premise seemed ludicrous to me. An octogenarian Dirty Harry battling an Asian gang a quarter his age? Why don't they just steal his walker and push him down?
Of course it's not really Dirty Harry. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a former Ford assembly line worker in a Detroit-area neighborhood that has gone to seed, like much of the city itself. Walt is recently widowed and has no one except his ingrate family who are basically waiting for him to die so they can sell off the house and take possession of the rest of his stuff like his cherry 1972 Gran Torino. But someone else tries to take it first--a young Hmong kid named Thao. A veteran of Korea, Walt doesn't like Asians much--or anyone really--but when a local gang picks on Thao and his family, Walt intervenes to help them.
This was a nice story of a jaded old coot bonding with a needy young man. How this comes about manages to seem believable. Even Walt confronting the much younger Asian and black kids in the neighborhood didn't seem as absurd as I'd feared when I first saw the previews. And the end really comes as a surprise, especially for those who remember Eastwood from the Dirty Harry pictures, though I'm not sure his plan would really work in real life.
BTW, an interesting fact is Eastwood was one of the first to take advantage of new tax credits to film in the actual Detroit area instead of trying to have Toronto or Vancouver sub as the Motor City.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 72/100 (3 stars)
#
"Up"
I keep waiting for the Pixar movie that's finally going to let me down. But they do it yet again with "Up." A sweet movie that still manages to tackle some grown up issues. The movie itself is completely implausible, but only an idiot expects what is ostensibly a kid's movie to be plausible.
In really the most touching part of the movie, it begins with a montage about how young Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner) comes to meet Ellie. They both worship adventurer Charles Muntz (voice of Christopher Plummer) who goes to South America in search of a rare bird back in the '30s. Carl and Ellie go from best friends to husband and wife and dream of someday joining Muntz in Paradise Falls. But someday never comes for Ellie. So on the verge of being thrown in a retirement home, Carl ties a bunch of balloons to his house and floats away. He has a stowaway in Wilderness Explorer Russell, who has no choice but to accompany Carl to Paradise Falls. When Carl finally gets to Paradise Falls and meets his idol, he discovers his hero has feet of clay.
As I said, this is a really sweet movie that is enjoyable for the kids without all the gross out fart gags prevalent in "Shrek" and other computer animated kids movies. At the same time it also deals with loss, love, and loneliness in a way that kids and adults can understand. Basically if you liked "Wall-E" then you'll like this too.
My score: 100/100 (4 stars)
Metacritic score: 88/100 (3.5 stars)
That is all.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
State of Play
You know a thriller is a good thriller when you feel you should watch it twice to make sense of it all. Such was the case for me with "State of Play." The first time I watched it I wasn't sure I really understood what happened, so I watched it again to make sure. With an action movie that would be considered a weakness, but thrillers like this are supposed to have the kinds of twists and turns that leave you second-guessing yourself.
The story begins with a young assistant to Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) dying on a subway platform in DC. It's soon uncovered that Collins and the girl were having an intimate relationship.
At first the media describes it as a suicide but Collins goes to his old college roommate Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), an old-school investigative journalist for the Washington Globe--a thinly-veiled Washington Post--to say he thinks the girl was murdered. McAffrey is already investigating the murders of a purse-snatcher and a pizza delivery guy in an alley. On the surface these seem completely unrelated, but of course they aren't.
Cal gets some help in his investigation from Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) a blogger for the paper's online side. So as a subplot we have the changing world of journalism from print to pixels, not to mention from ethics to profit. Della delves into the girl's sordid personal life while Cal digs into PointCorp, a Blackwater-type private security outfit Collins has been holding hearings on.
Before long Cal and Della are getting in over their heads and unsure of who, if anyone to trust. And that's really all I'll say so as not to spoil too many of the twists and turns.
Overall this was to me a well put together movie and with Crowe, Affleck, and supporting players like Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jeff Daniels, and Jason Bateman there's plenty of talent, none of which really disappointed me. Like any good thriller, there were times when I thought for sure I had it all figured out only to realize (like the reporters in the movie) that I didn't. That's part of the reason I wanted to go back and see it again to see what I might have missed.
On a side note, the congressman's aide could almost be considered the film's MacGuffin. That's a plot element that sets things into motion but in a broader sense doesn't really matter. Basically all the girl does is walk from her apartment to the train platform; her only lines come in the form of voice mail. So it's kind of funny that she causes everything to happen and yet has almost no screen time whatsoever.
Anyway, as far as political thrillers go, I liked this and would recommend watching it--twice.
That is all.
My score: 75/100 (3 stars)
Metacritic score: 64/100 (2.5 stars)
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