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It's evidently been a busy month.
Surrogates 2 1/2 stars. Remember that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The 6th Day? It was some medium budget sci-fi action flick about the dangers of cloning. Well Surrogates is a medium budget sci-fi action flick about living your entire life through a full size surrogate puppet that looks like you. It actually looks like what you would look like as a sex doll but I doubt that was intentional. Wait, was it intentional? Everyone in the movie looks so smooth and rubbery it’s hard to take any of them seriously. The story itself is mediocre to bad and although I love Bruce Willis, I loathe no talent director Jonathan Mostow(Terminator 3, U-571). And once again, how many children have been killed in movie history so that the lead character can have some sort of emotional reason to do what he does. 85 minutes easily forgotten.
The Answer Man 3 stars. You've probably never heard of this one, but I really liked this indie starring Jeff Daniels and Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham. Jeff Daniels is Arlen Faber, a recluse who wrote a book called Me and God 20 years ago that has became a huge phenomenon. Think of Chicken Soup for the Soul times 100. I forgive what flaws the movie might have solely because the cast and characters are so good. I genuinely loved spending time with them. Lauren Graham is lovely as Elizabeth the chiropractor, and Olivia Thirlby (Juno’s best friend) is wonderful as her assistant Anne. She has some truly funny/touching moments being flustered and enthusiastic, observing Arlen and Elizabeth’s relationship from the sidelines. She’s a small supporting character but supporting characters can make a movie sometimes. It worked for me. 
Invention of Lying 2 1/2 stars. Doesn’t this sound like a SNL sketch? A world without lying. Funny for maybe a few minutes. I like Ricky Gervais, but he’s an uninspired director and despite themes railing against religion and superficiality, the movie still ends up being another Wisconsin cheese festival of love is all you need at the end. Jennifer Garner is woefully miscast as his love interest and the parade of cameos (PS Hoffman, Edward Norton, Tina Fey) grows tiresome. Rent Ghost Town, a better Ricky Gervais movie. 
Whiteout 1 star. There’s a gratuitous shot early on of Kate Beckinsale in her underwear. She’s in great shape. It’s all downhill after that. I don’t know what to say about some murder mystery in Antarctica and U.S. Marshals and Tom Skeritt who played Viper in Top Gun. I admit I barely watched the thing. Still, a good poster.
Gamer 0 stars. From the directors of Crank and Crank 2 comes this annoying piece of noise. The movie is the cinematic equivalent of someone banging an aluminum bat against a garbage can for 90 minutes. The Rollerball-esque concept is mildly interesting but the way the movie is shot and edited is such an assault you just want to shut it off. Gerard Butler continues his trend of starring in lame movies after 300. Also wasn’t this released last year with a different title? Yes, it was called Death Race and it's just as bad. 
3 1/2 stars. January is usually a dumping ground for studios. The holidays are over and no one is really going to the movies. They release the ones they don't believe in, they don't predict will make money, or that are just plain bad. Some past January highlights have included Elektra and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. I don't know what the heck The Book of Eli is doing being released in January. The movie isn't bad. It is bad ass. 
DVDs Watched this Week: 
Ebert gives The Lovely Bones 1.5
An Education 3 1/2 stars. Carey Mulligan may win the Oscar and it would be pretty great if she did. She isn’t Audrey Hepburn as critics have said(what a ludicrous expectation to be saddled with) but she is luminous and completely lovable. She’s the best part of the movie. She is the movie. I liked An Education but admittedly a lot of it does feel fairly familiar. Not the London 60s setting, but the girl who does not want a conventional life and discovers that through dating a man outside her world. We’ve seen this movie before, but for me, I so identify with that theme (even though I’m clearly not a girl) I enjoy it all the same. Jenny’s discovery of art, film, and Paris is so irrefutably full of joy.
Ponyo 3 stars. Sometimes Miyazaki’s film go over the hairy edge. Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke are a couple of examples. Others are plain sweet like My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service. I think this one straddles the two groups. Ponyo is a sort of fish creature who decides to become a human after meeting Sosuke, a young boy who lives by the sea. It’s a sort of anime play on The Little Mermaid. But her decision wreaks havoc on the ocean and their bond might have terrible consequences. Green initiative aside, Ponyo is a lot of fun with great voice work by Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas. Ponyo and Sosuke have a fun friendship and it was really cool hearing Tina Fey voice Sosuke’s mom. Her character is kind of what Tina Fey would look like if she was Japanese. Minus the glasses of course. 
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men 2 1/2 stars. I love him on The Office, but John Krasinski has been in a lot of bad movies. Leatherheads, License to Wed. This one he directed from a script written by him, based on a novel. It definitely isn't bad but it's not exactly great. There are a lot of hideous men saying a lot of hideous things, but the movie feels more like a filmed play than a movie. The interviews are actually interesting but they are episodic and the interviewer, the lovely Julianne Nicholson, is mostly at a passive distance. I don't think she has more than 10 lines of dialogue in the first 30 minutes. She is lovely though. A young actor can direct a great film (Garden State). But this is more of a good try.
Aliens Classic. This is a James Cameron film. R-rated, lean and mean, very funny one liners, great characters, and cutting edge 1986 special effects. Aliens is so incredibly watchable. It’s fun, exciting, and scary. I have to say I prefer this to the original Alien. We get to see colonial marines with pulse rifles and flame throwers go head to head with those pesky acid blood aliens. Sigourney is her best Ripley in this movie - tortured and a leader. Her big showdown with the alien queen is too awesome. “Get away from her you bitch!” Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser and Jeanette Goldstein(Vazquez) are all great in memorable supporting roles. “Game over man! Game over!” I can’t wait for a Blu-Ray remaster but the DVD version ain’t too shabby. No soppy romance, no thick allegory, no blue people. Just a lot of shooting aliens fun.
Adam 1 1/2 stars. Another shy guy/extroverted girl indie romcom. Didn’t Mandy Moore and Billy Crudup do the exact same movie? I like Rose Byrne. I like Hugh Dancy. But seriously, what a snore.
The Hurt Locker 4 stars. Rent it. Now. It might just win the Oscar. The second time around I really noticed how great Jeremy Renner is in the movie. It’s hard to pull a 9mm on a taxi cab wearing a Michelin man bomb disposal suit without seeming silly. He’s never silly in the movie. He’s dead on.
Moon 3 stars. Not the greatest sci-fi flick, but pretty darn good. Sam Rockwell has been alone, for three years, working on the moon for the Sarang Corporation. One day he finds a body outside and brings it into the site. It is of course him. It’s more a compelling sci-fi mystery rather than a deep study of identity, but Sam is pretty heartbreaking in it. Nice voice work by Kevin Spacey as the computer Gerty. Directed by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones. Check out my original review. http://rolandchang.blogspot.com/2009/06/moon.html
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10. Chasing Amy (1997) - People ask me if there is a movie character that I feel is most like me. I think it's Holden McNeil. And because of that I have and will forever forgive Ben Affleck for any of his cinematic sins. The movie is a case where the sum is way greater than its parts. A terrible looking film, a cheese RomCom genre, but there's just so much truth, honesty, and insight about 20 year-old men, their relationships, and their friendships to one another. In a comedy no less. Not to mention it is a joy to listen to all of that fantastic, witty, hilarious dialogue. I still feel as strong about it today as I did when I saw it junior year in high school. 
9. Before Sunrise (1995) - I love Before Sunset, but it wouldn't exist without this one. Jesse and Celine meet on a train going through Vienna and they decide to spend the night walking and talking. It's some of the best cinematic walking and talking ever. More than the deep romance, more than the incredible dialogue, more than Richard Linklater's wonderful direction, more than that scene where they pretend to be on the phone with their friends(one of my favorite scenes in a lifetime of watching movies), above all of those things are those two characters Jesse and Celine. In my mind they are very real and very special people. I would spend time with them anywhere, anytime.
8. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - I remember clearly this one coming out of nowhere. No one knew who Frank Darabont was. No one wanted to see a prison movie. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were both only semi-famous at the time. As pure storytelling goes, it's masterful. A film that's almost impossible to capture in a few sentences. It just has to be experienced from start to finish. One of the best screenplays ever written.
7. Terminator 2 (1991) - James Cameron stunned the movie world when he unleashed T2 in the summer of '91. Sure the liquid metal T-1000 is cool, but my goodness is this the very definition of an awesome movie. Arnold was at the peak of his powers, Linda Hamilton gave birth to the ripped female action woman, and the action itself still sets the standard (my favorite sequence is the helicopter chasing the SWAT van). I dare you to watch it again and not have just the best of times. 
6. Heat (1995) - Michael Mann's cinematic thesis to all he loves best. It's cops and robbers on the richest of epic scales. Everything is so damn fantastic. The meticulous detail of the heists, the grand boldness of that shootout on the streets of downtown LA, and of course the infamous scene at Kate Mantilini where De Niro and Pacino talk over a cup of coffee. It's The Godfather of crime films with a massively gifted supporting cast that includes Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Ashley Judd, and Natalie Portman. Ralph! Sit down! 
5. Clerks (1995) - Kevin Smith gets on this list twice? The day in a life at any job has never been so funny or so memorable or had so much great dialogue. The film looks like crap, but I think that only adds to how special it is. Dante and Randall are the quintessential slacker duo for the 90s - articulate, sardonic, and so gloriously mediocre. And don't forget there's Jay and Silent Bob. It's shocking how much I identify with Dante. Despite his terrible fashion sense.
4. Goodfellas (1990) - What more can be said about Scorsese's masterpiece of the 90s. It's almost as if another gangster movie never needs to be made. Every detail of that life is captured with such authenticity it puts all others to shame. The movie is unequivocally in your face, alive, vibrant. So much so it feels like I need to catch my breath every time I see it. My favorite scene still is the one where they go to Tommy's mother's house in the middle of the night and she cooks them food. "Why don't you get yourself a nice girl?" "I get a nice one almost every night, ma." 
3. Pulp Fiction (1994) - Tarantino poured his pop culture soul into this king of wild rides. It really did change movies as they could suddenly be self-aware, self-referential, and completely f-d up in their structure. There was a time when films were only told chronologically. It's a classic whose quotes are burned into our collective consciousness. Royale with cheese? Royale with cheese. 
2. JFK (1991) - For all that people talk about the conspiracies and controversies, no one really talks about how great the movie parts of this movie actually are. From the unbelievable cast(Gary Oldman and Joe Pesci particularly stand out), to the creation of an entirely new vertical editing style(a mystery has never been so visually alive), to the visceral paranoia and emotional investment writer/director Oliver Stone elicits. I've watched it maybe in the double digits and I still have not grasped all of the layers of information, thematic material, shots, and pure cinema JFK contains. An amazing experience. 
1. Fight Club (1999) - It's my personal watershed film. I went in one person, I came out another. I was 21 when I saw Fight Club and was starting to think about the working world after college. The movie was a gift from God. Never has a film captured better my generation of frustrated and conflicted men. From the armor of a brand name to the life milestone of buying a sofa. Even one from Ikea. It is for me one of the sharpest, wittiest, and visually stunning movies ever. The perfect combination of subject and style. A monumental achievement by David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, and Edward Norton. It's not a movie about fighting. It's about what it is to be a man in the world today.
Paranormal Activity 3 1/2 stars. Believe the hype. Paranormal Activity is f--king scary. I couldn't have been less enthused about watching it. I kind of loathe these kind of handycam movies. They're usually trapped in their gimmick. Boo Cloverfield! The king of this sub-genre is still The Blair Witch Project whose last image would not allow me to fall asleep for two nights after I saw it. I'd say this comes pretty close to that crown. The first 10 minutes were what I expected. The couple (Micah and Katie) joke and talk and eventually we learn that she has been bothered by paranormal activity since she was a young girl (Katie Featherston is pretty perfect being that she seems like a girl anyone would know). But then her boyfriend Micah decides to set up basically a security cam that films them while they sleep. Nights pass, things happen, and those things are freaking frightening.
Good Hair 3 1/2 stars. This is one hysterical documentary. Chris Rock's daughter asked him one day why she didn't have "good hair". This documentary is the answer. Everything you might want to have known about black hair is covered in this doc. From Sodium Hydroxide which relaxes and/or burns your hair to how much weaves cost. Yes, you can get a layaway plan for your weave. Al Sharpton in particular is highly entertaining talking about his first hair straightening experience with James Brown. Ice-T and Nia Long are also wonderfully open and honest.
500 Days of Summer 2 stars. I don't really understand why critics liked this one so much. As RomComs go, it's not very special. Zooey is once again a distant wallflower and Joseph Gordon Levitt's character is supremely annoying in all of his pansiness. Who in the world would want to date this guy? 500 Days of Whining. And lets not forget the constant cliche of the wacky best friends he gets to share his feelings with so the audience can know those feelings. I don't care about how you feel. All you do is act like a 12 year-old girl. Grow up cardigan boy! Instead, check out Gigantic, another and better indie RomCom starring Zooey Deschanel. She better do something different quick or she'll become the Meg Ryan of hipsters. 
Jennifer's Body 2 stars. It's not all that bad, it's just a Frankenstein Monster of so many other horror films. If you've seen an 80s high school horror film, you probably don't need to see this one. Sadly it's not as fun as those either as it apparently wants to be tasteful and restrained. So no nudity or fun violence. Megan Fox is fine, Amanda Seyfried is not a geek, and Adam Brody is a bad rocker that wears eyeliner. The only man who is allowed to wear eyeliner is Captain Jack Sparrow. 
9 3 stars. This is the kind of animation I like. No humans or dogs or thick as molasses sentimentality. A lot of credit goes to the design of those "robots" with their big eyes and zipper stomachs. Great voice work from Elijah Wood and John C. Reilly. However the story is fairly standard. There's the old man naysayer, the monster, the plan. The script doesn't live up to the look and even at 80 minutes it feels a bit long. If you want to see it, see it.
It Might Get Loud 3 stars. Even if you don't like their music, their passion is infectious. The Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White are followed around in this documentary that covers their collective loves of the electric guitar. Some of it is real fascinating stuff. The jam sessions aren't as good as I hoped, but their love of music is a great thing to witness.
Family Guy: Something, Something Dark Side 2 stars. What a disappointment. Blue Harvest was excellent, but here everything feels stale and uninspired. There is one sequence where Yoda trains Luke to the Rocky IV soundtrack but overall its pretty limp. Rent Family Guy: Blue Harvest. Something, Something Bad.
