Weekly Recap 2/26/10

(one of the BAFTA retro Best Picture nominee posters)

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: The Damned United, Catch Me if You Can, United 93, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Taken, Lethal Weapon, Signs Bonus Disc, The Village Bonus Disc, The Cutting Edge
The Bad: Everybody's Fine, The Celluloid Closet, 300, Sinbad:Where U Been
The Ugly: The September Issue, Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Trips to the Theater: Shutter Island

Actors of the Week: Michael Sheen, Leonardo Dicaprio, Bruce Willis
Directors of the Week: Spielberg, Paul Greengrass, Pre-Village Shyamalan

TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
The Damned United

Unbreakable

Shutter Island

2 ½ stars I'm going to write this sentence. I don't want to but I'm going to. Shutter Island, directed by the great Martin Scorsese, is a bad movie. Don't get me wrong. There is a lot of good stuff in it because Scorsese is a master. But altogether, if you asked me what I thought, I would say it is a bad movie.

It is 1954 and Dicaprio and Mark Ruffalo are Federal Marshals who take a trip to Shutter Island, which is apparently where the worst, most violent mental patients in America are kept. Think of Alcatraz for the insane. A patient has disappeared(Emily Mortimer), seemingly vanishing through the walls of the hospital and the Marshals are sent in to investigate.

On a premise basis, not bad. The island and its hostile guards and orderlies is an interesting place to stage this sort of thriller. And there is Ben Kingsley who has probably the best role in the film as the head/king of Shutter Island Dr. Cawley. It's the 50s so modern psychiatric treatment is somewhat in its infancy. Still, his innate creepiness builds on the mystery.

As the trailers have shown, things start to go it a little loopy for Dicaprio. His wife has recently died and he's still grieving. The walls of the hospital start moving in on him and he grows more and more frustrated as his investigation comes up against major uncooperation from the staff and the patients. What is happening is on this island? What's going on in that lighthouse? Who is patient 67?

All good so far. Then the midpoint hit and things took a turn. I started shuffling in my seat and checking the time on my cell phone a lot. I began to suspect the payoff was not going to be satisfying. Scorsese's best films brim with real life. Goodfellas, Raging Bull, The Departed, Taxi Driver. They don't feel like movies. They feel more than that. They feel like what cinema at its best can be. They feel like they are capturing life. The problem with Shutter Island is that it feels completely like a movie from start to finish. From the uncharacteristic badly shot opening on the ferry to the classical music choices which sound too much like Bernard Herrmann to the the whole concept of the movie itself. Do we want Scorsese to direct a horror movie? I don't. Not like this.

It all feels like an exercise in trying to make a scary movie. I thought a lot about Cape Fear and how Scorsese took a familiar revenge/terrorizing the family genre and turned it on its head. Cape Fear is complex and from the gut. This one feels like lets put on a scary movie for everyone. Lets put scars and sores on the actors' faces and lets try to imitate the scene from Silence of Lambs where Jodie Foster goes down a block of cells toward Hannibal Lecter. Instead we'll pump up the disgusting factor and nobody will notice the unoriginality. Even a scene with a hoard of rats comes off like such a gross out put on.

Ugh. It's difficult for me to write like this about a personal hero but I can't deny the film's flaws. Dicaprio is very strong in a good role. He seems to be the most interesting when he's playing angry males as opposed to blonde romantic leads. Michelle Williams seems a bit out of her league in the flashback scenes she is in let alone a Scorsese film. How does Jenn from Dawson's Creek get to work with Ang Lee and now Martin Scorsese? The lighting from Robert Richardson(my favorite) is of course stunning. The main and glaring problem is the script and story whose elements are way too familiar. I mean, this whole horror sub-genre of is this real or isn't it has been done to death. The best examples are David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and of course The Sixth Sense. Scorsese's not playing to his strengths here. He's playing a different sport that I don't really care about. It's all a put on.

I want to write about this next point but it is filled SPOILERS so don't read unless you have seen or plan on not seeing the movie.
The ending is a ginormous letdown and it wreaks of The Sixth Sense. When we find out what "really" happened, I was angry. The logic of The Sixth Sense makes sense. It is satisfying when the rug is pulled out from underneath us. When Bruce Willis discovers blood on the back of his shirt and recalls what actually happened - amazing. It makes total sense on a logical and emotional level. But what happens here is that we're asked to be invested for 100 minutes in a story and then we're told, hey that wasn't the story you were supposed invested in. Oh by the way, here's the truth and the characters you've cared about, they don't matter either. It's a bad magic trick. It's a WTF as opposed to a "oh wow".

End spoilers

That's what the story is at the end. It's a WTF. It's not a "oh wow". There is one absolutely brilliant Scorsese sequence and that is a flashback to one of Dicaprio's experiences in WWII at a concentration camp. It is one hell of a memorable scene. I wish the whole movie was as good as those few minutes. If not for the exceptional camera work and all of the remarkable visuals, I would say this is one of the worst movies I've seen so far this year. It's one of the worst since it's so mediocre and forgettable and a jerk around from a great artist. It's Beethoven playing his version of Chopsticks. Sorry Marty. I'm going to watch The Sixth Sense again tonight.

Fashion Docs

Unzipped 4 stars. It is the best movie about fashion I have ever seen and I could care less about the fashion world. Isaac Mizrahi might not be the primo designer he once was but he is a wonderful person to spend time with. He's witty, passionate, very articulate and completely lovable. Unzipped follows one year of his life as he designs his '94 collection. It's shot on beautiful black and white and instead of seeing him in the usual fashion situations with photographers and reporters, we see him in his bedroom watching Nanook of the North getting inspired by Eskimo costumes. We see him auditioning models, watching them walk the runway and of course making catty comments after they leave. We see him have very frank and fun conversations with Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell who were supermodels when it really meant something to be a supermodel.

His creative energy and passion is infectious. From sketching, to sewing fabric, to the final show which is a truly exciting event that really does give us a fascinating backstage look at how a fashion show actually works. Even his moments of disappointment and stress are always tempered by his quick wit. And I can't not mention his mother who has to be one of the proudest and supportive mothers in movie history. She gushes over her Isaac and reminisces about how he noticed the daises on her mules when he was only 4 years-old. It's not just about fashion. It's about creativity and discovery and getting a chance to show what you've created to the world. Probably only available on Netflix. Put it in your queue.




The September Issue 1 star. I have never read an issue of Vogue. Mostly because I'm a man. That doesn't mean I wouldn't be interested in a documentary about Vogue or about it's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour who one person describes as the Pope of fashion magazines. I was even thinking this might be a really interesting film. Oh my goodness is it not. Wintour is the right name since Anna Wintour is an absolute ice queen. Cold, completely lacking of humor or charm. I mean, who would ever want to spend time with this woman? And why should I spend 90 minutes watching this woman say yes or no as underlings clamor for her approval? At least Simon Cowell is vocal. This woman is a frowning fragile statue.

There's no real insight into the inner workings of Vogue. There's no real drama to the creation of that September Issue. It's basic fly-on-the-wall HD video filming of a subject matter that some may have interest in but too bad since the film of that subject is so deadly dull.



Valentino: The Last Emperor 1 1/2 stars. If you don't want a documentary made about you, just say no. Don't allow them to make it. Valentino is hostile, uncomfortable, and distant to the whole process of filming of this documentary so what we do get is scenes of some occasional fittings and watching him trying to find a cafe so he can drink coffee with his lover. Who by the way is 10x more interesting than this leather faced fashion designer.

Weekly Recap 2/19/10

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/02/16/cool-stuff-the-lost-art-of-inglourious-basterds/

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: Bronson, Black Dynamite, Good Hair, Charlie Murphy: I Will Not Apologize, 8 1/2, Where the Wild Things Are, Ponyo, Eight Men Out, Fools Rush In, Redbelt, The Green Mile Bonus Disc

The Bad: Coco Before Chanel, Nine

The Ugly: None

Trips to the Theater: None
Actors of the Week: Tom Hardy, Daniel Day-Lewis
Directors of the Week: John Sayles, Nicolas Winding Refn

Trailers/Clips of the Week:

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Full trailer.

February 2010 Reviews 3 (Nine)

Nine 2 1/2 stars. If you weren't aware, Nine is actually based on 8 1/2, directed by Federico Fellini in 1963. It is considered by many many people to be a masterpiece, the best of Italian cinema. I myself have still not embraced Italian cinema. At least not in the way a movie-lover probably should. I'd rather be in a Godard film smoking cigarettes in Paris with Anna Karina than walking down the streets of Rome with Claudia Cardinale. I don't really dig Antonioni either.

European cinema digressions aside, Nine is a very Hollywood, very American made musical based on a Broadway musical that was based on 8 1/2. However there are strangely few Italians in it. Daniel Day-Lewis is Irish, Penelope Cruz is Spanish, Marion Cotillard is French, Nicole Kidman is Australian and Fergie is Black Eye Peas. For goodness sake where are the Italian people?

Nine is a gorgeous film to look at. It is maybe to some a 2010 recreation of the 50s in Rome but so what. It is something to behold. Tremendous lighting, wonderful production design and all of those slim black suits and skinny ties. It may not be cool(as it is essentially a copy job), but it's definitely a stylish film and sometimes that's really all you need. That's sometimes all I need. I'd rather see a film too much style than a film with too much message. Daniel Day-Lewis is pretty fantastic, as he always is, as Maestro Guido Contini who cannot come up with an idea for his next film. It is pretty great to see such a serious actor be so good in so many light, comedic scenes. Don't worry there's still plenty of angst and turmoil but who knew Bill the Butcher could be so romantic or charming? Btw, he's shockingly ripped to shreds.

Unfortunately things went south once the first song began. Then the next was bad. Then the one after that. After a while it dawned on me. The music in this musical actually stinks. This is not a good thing when you're watching a musical. It's not so much the melody as it is the lyrics which are painfully literal and shamefully on the nose. "My husband makes movies. To make them he lives a kind of dream. In which his actions aren't always what they seem. He may be on to some unique romantic theme."

They aren't lyrics, they are bad writing sung by mediocre singers. Why have Nicole Kidman in your movie and give her nothing but a cameo? Marion Cotillard has the best role in the film but her musical scenes are dreadful. The only number that is semi-memorable is Fergie's "Be Italian". But honestly when you watch the film you'll wonder what that scene really has to do with anything.

Rob Marshall directed a very good film - Chicago. Then he did a very bad movie - Memoirs of a Geisha. Here he pours his talent into a dead egg of a script that sadly has nothing insightful to say about movie making, artists, or self-indulgent directors. Guido does give a great speech right at the beginning about filmmaking but again, it turns out to have nothing to do with the movie. The Weinstein Company put $80 million into the movie and it was supposed to be an Oscar contender. Many bad reviews and a pitiful $18 million at the box office later it's hardly talked about. It's great to look at. Just cover your ears.

Bronson 3 1/2 stars. The first great movie I've seen this year. Bronson is an amazing slam to the jaw, chronicling Britain's most famous prisoner Michael Peterson who changed his name to Charles Bronson after the 70s movie star. It's a simple movie really. We just follow Bronson as he goes from prison to prison during the course of his lifetime.

But that's not it. It's about the cinematic personification of anarchy. It's about actor Tom Hardy giving a monster scary performance of enormous precision and power and hilarity. It's about him stripping down naked and greasing himself up every time he takes on 7 prison guards. It's about how funny this whole movie is in a very sick, very twisted, very awesome way. It is this decade's A Clockwork Orange and I daresay it might be better. Sorry Stanley. Most importantly, it doesn't explain away anything. Men like this are in this world and there's no rhyme or reason. Bronson is bald headed animal with a handlebar mustache. He kind of looks like Soda Popinski from Mike Tyson's Punchout. Man is he fun.

And who is this director Nicolas Winding Refn? He's got loads of talent.

Coco Before Chanel 2 stars. Regrettably another bland biopic. Audrey Tautou is fantastic as Coco Chanel but I don't really care about her soapy romance with a British man and how she is conflicted about wanting to be an actress and marrying a older man she isn't in love with. For a movie about a fashion mogul there isn't much fashion in it. Toward the end we finally get some glimpses of Chanel at work but they are so brief that it feels like a tease of what a more interesting movie about Chanel might've been. Blah.

Black Dynamite 3 stars. It is the Naked Gun for Blaxploitation movies. Many people probably have never even seen one. They probably have never even seen Shaft. Still, the movie is many times hysterical with one truly great line.

"I should've known you’d be behind this fiendish Dr. Wu.

Your knowledge of scientific biological transmogrifications is only outmatched by your zest for kung fu treachery!”

I don't think David Mamet could've come up with a more brilliant line. The movie is a series of gags and like any kind of spoof movie the plot is completely inconsequential, but it is still a lot of fun. And Michael Jai White (Spawn, The Dark Knight) has the role of a lifetime. He wrote and produced. And apparently those are really his pecs. Black Dynamite!

Weekly Recap 2/12/10

(The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and Jeremy Renner)

DVDs Watched this Week:

The Good: Brothers, Fletch, Five Minutes of Heaven, Raging Bull, Friends Season 10, Lost Seasons 1-5
The Bad: By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, Big Fan, The Piano, Dare, Schizopolis
The Ugly: Couples Retreat

Trips to the Theater: Edge of Darkness
Actors of the Week: Terry O'Quinn, Jake Gyllenhaal
Directors of the Week: The directors of Lost

TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:

Toy Story 3

Robin Hood Superbowl Spot

February 2010 Reviews 2 (Edge of Darkness)

Edge of Darkness 2 1/2 stars. No matter how many times I see it, the premise is still promising. The premise is revenge. Revenge is promising. Good recent examples have been Taken, Man on Fire, and even the Kill Bills. Unfortunately, this time it's blah blah blah to the edge of darkness.

Mel Gibson hasn't been on screen in a major way since Signs in 2002. He's always been more of a movie star than an actor. He looks pretty much the same in every movie and he's usually a wise-cracker with some rage. That's not a bad thing. Not at all. That was something I was looking forward to. But something happened since the 90s and he's not Lethal Weapon Martin Riggs anymore. He's a soft dad and despite a story that would seem to allow him to let loose, he sadly doesn't.

The film, despite it's R rating, is very tame. There's the usual scenes of grief over the loss of one's daughter, but then it leads to real convoluted territory of government conspiracies and evil corporations. And Gibson is playing sort of a slow character who is not aggressive enough to be formidable nor smart enough to be interesting. He's kind of in that bland middle where Mark Wahlberg usually plays in. The movie's not satisfying on a plot level and it's not fun on a genre level either. The great British actor Ray Winstone is wasted in what is ultimately a confusing cameo and the ending will probably have you feeling "that's it?".

I miss the young Mel Gibson. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is one of my favorites of his. Maybe he peaked with Ransom as an actor. Maybe he's now a director who occasionally will act. R.I.P. 90s Mel Gibson. You will be buried next to 90s Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, and pre-martial arts Wesley Snipes.


The Box 2 1/2 stars If a movie has you gripped for 95% of it but then doesn’t necessarily wow you at the end, does that make it a bad movie? Richard Kelly made a fantastic film called Donnie Darko back in 2001. Then in 2006 he made one of the worst films I’ve ever been punished with. It was Southland Tales. I don’t think he’s the real deal, and I predict that he won’t ever make a film as good as Darko. He’s just not that good of a writer or a director. His movies look like bad faded photographs.

The Box does have a great idea. A box, a button, you push it, someone you don’t know dies, you get $1 million dollars. It’s a real what would you do kind of movie and it’s based on a short story by sci-fi novelist Richard Matheson. The story is what kept me in it. Not the gaudy 70s upper middle class décor nor the pretentious references to Sartes, nor the inordinate number of annoying teens the movie. One student in particular needs to be bludgeoned to death. However, Cameron Diaz gives a good performance, Frank Langella is pretty creepy and great with his half burned face, and ultimately it does hold interest all the way to the end. Some might argue that it’s just an extended Twilight Zone episode which it kind of is. The ending isn’t as satisfying as you might want it to be, and the movie does have the distinction of containing the most nose bleeds of any movie you’ll ever see. If you want to see it, rent it. If not, don’t bother.


Law Abiding Citizen 1 star. Look closely. Are you looking? Do you see how bad this movie is? You might get distracted by Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler and the slick look of the film but believe me it is bad. Any movie where a woman picks up her cell phone and the cell phone shoots a bullet through her head is bad. Yes, that happens. Jamie Foxx is not in the least credible as a powerful lawyer and Gerard Butler’s American accent is so horrendous it’s hard to take anything he says seriously. The whole movie shouldn’t be taken seriously it’s so silly and stupid. Man, was this bad.

New York, I Love You 2 1/2 stars. Movies made up of short films don’t work. They just don’t. You don’t get invested because each story is going to end in 7 minutes. Who cares. It’s like watching 2 hours worth of music videos. Who wants to do that? Sadly none of the individual movies are all that good or all that romantic. Some interesting things here and there but not much. The worst involves Hayden Christensen and Andy Garcia. I’m sorry but Anakin is a lousy actor with a terrible speaking voice. The movie also looks pretty awful with aggressive golden lighting and tacky color correction. If Brett Ratner is the most famous director of the directors, that’s not a good thing.

Ong Bak 2 1 1/2 stars. The prequel. I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR ORIGIN. The fighting is not half as good as the original nor are the stunts. There is so much over editing and playing with shutter speeds that none of the fighting can really be appreciated. And I’ve said it before, but Tony Jaa is a great athlete but he has zero screen charisma. There’s a reason why Jackie Chan is a movie star. Don’t watch it. Please.

Couples Retreat 1 star. The Break-Up, Fred Claus, Four Christmases. That's three very bad Vince Vaughn comedies in a row. Now comes #4. Do you want to spend 100 minutes with 4 bickering couples? No one is the least bit likable, and nothing is the least bit realistic. The movie could've been called lets sit around and listen to Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau improvise dialgoue. They think they're funnier than they really are in this one. It's sad since I love Swingers so much. Vaughn in particular goes on and on and on with nonsensical, nonfunny references to things that eat time. What a terrible movie.







Prom Night in Mississippi 3 stars. I will probably never go to Mississippi in my life. It might be 2010 but I’m sure they don’t like us Orientals down there. A high school in Mississippi had a tradition of separate proms. One for the white kids. One for the black kids. Morgan Freeman heard about it, thought it was very stupid(it is), and he offered to pay for the prom if they integrated it. That story is fairly interesting, but the real great stuff is getting a glimpse of Mississippi and its inhabitants. The students, their parents, their thick as molasses Southern accents. I wonder if they watch Lost down South. It’s a good documentary, just not a great one.

The Informant! 3 1/2 stars. Love that exclamation point. Soderbergh’s strange ride is a still a great and funny one the second time around, with Matt Damon giving his most ridiculous and hilarious performance as corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre. The twists and turns of the story and of him could only happen in a true story. If they made it up, you wouldn’t believe it. Un-believ-able! Love that voice-over narration.

Weekly Recap 2/5/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: The Box, Prom Night in Mississippi, Michael Clayton, The Pallbearer, My Reputation, The Kid, Raging Bull Bonus Disc, Friends Seasons 6-8
The Bad: (Lots of bad ones this week. 8!) A Serious Man, Amelia, Zombieland, Law Abiding Citizen, Adam Resurrected, New York I Love YouThe Ugly: The Time Traveler's Wife, Ong Bak 2


Trips to the Theater: None


Actors of the Week: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Cameron Diaz, Emily Mortimer
Directors of the Week: Scorsese




TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
Brooklyn's Finest

LOST: My Top 5 Episodes

Even now, I don't think we fully appreciate how great Lost is. There is truly no other show like it before or since. Big budget sci-fi on an island, so many great and diverse characters(an Iraqi and a Korean couple on the same show!), so many unforgettable moments, so many mysteries, all so good. It is a monumental achievement, the best kind of serialized drama Television can offer. Not to mention how great the thing looks. The design, the special effects, the editing, the music. It is a movie every week. What other show ever had a freighter? And it has the best TV villain ever. Even better than Harriet the nosey neighbor from Small Wonder.

These are my favorite episodes. There are many SPOILERS so if you haven't watched, don't read. On a side note, I'm so happy Lost has moved to Tuesdays. Most of my late nights at work are on Wednesdays. God blesses.


1. Through the Looking Glass (Season 3, Finale). This was the season finale game changer that took the show in a totally new and wonderful direction. Season 3 is the weakest season and the one I don't own in my collection. It's too long, it's redundant, and we spend way too much time with the Kate and Sawyer locked in those animal cages. And don't forget Nikki and Paulo. Oh how glad we all were when you both died. Hooray!

However, the finale shook everyone back into loving Lost again. Charlie's fate at the underwater Dharma station(still one of the most heartbreaking deaths ever on the show), Jack beating the living hell out of Ben(finally), the amazing rescue of Sayid, Jin, and Bernard when Hurley nails an Other with that Volkswagen, and of course the final scene when Kate steps out of that car to meet a burnt out heavy bearded Jack. "We have to go back, Kate. We have to go back!" Still gives me chills.


2. The Shape of Things to Come (Season 4, Episode 9). Halfway into season 4, Ben, Locke, Sawyer, Claire and a few others are held up inside Ben's home in Dharmaville. The mercenaries from the freighter have them trapped. They also have Ben's daughter Alex. They put gun to her head and they tell Ben to get his ass outside now. He refuses. "She's not my daughter. I stole from an insane woman. She's just a pawn, nothing more. She means nothing to me." Then a gunshot.

I don't know if my jaw necessarily drops that often when I'm watching something, but right then it hit the floor. I don't know any other show that would literally execute such a loved character. What balls. This is also the episode where Ben is action man in the desert(yes that's cold air he exhales), where he unleashes the smoke monster on those men from the freighter, and where he confronts Charles Widmore in the middle of the night. A stunning 40 minutes. Benjamin Linus is the greatest villain on TV ever.


3. Lockdown (Season 2, Episode 17). John Locke is locked down inside the hatch as blast doors come down and seal him in. Henry Gale is in the brig but Locke needs his help. This was the first glimpse of the map of the island, black-lit, teased, and taken away from us just as quickly. But of course the big moment involves Sayid(maybe my favorite character) Ana Lucia, and Charlie coming back from the jungle with Henry Gale's driver's license. Oh dis, Henry Gale is a black man!


4. Two for the Road (Season 2, Episode 20). After disappearing into the jungle to find Walt, Michael is found and brought back to camp. He tells a story of the primitive Others and has a list of people he needs to bring back. He also has his secret mission to help Ben escape. Sadly Ana Lucia and Libby were there at the wrong place at the wrong time and... you know the rest. Another huge OMG moment and Michael was never the same again.

5. Walkabout (Season 1, Episode 3). John Locke's first flashback episode is something to see. His life at his office playing Risk during his lunch break. His sad relationship with a chat hotline girl. That scene in Australia when he's told he can't go on the Walkabout. The reveal of him in the wheelchair was a shocker but the scene afterward where they cut to his first moment standing up after the crash is unbelievable. No dialogue, just music and phenomenal acting. Love or hate the character, you gotta respect actor Terry O'Quinn.


My favorite relationship story is Desmond and Penny's. My least favorite character is Claire. My favorite overall season is still the first. Remember when all they were worried about was finding water, hunting boar, and building that raft? Remember when Boone was in the plane trying to radio for help? Remember when Jack and Charlie got trapped in a cave? Remember Sawyer getting tortured by Sayid? Remember Ethan kidnapping Claire and going mano a mano with Jack in the rain? It all seems like a long time ago.

February 2010 Reviews 1 (A Serious Man)

A Serious Man 2 1/2 stars. I've never really thought of the book of Job as particularly funny. There's not a lot of laughs in Job. It's pretty tragic and all around a sort of downer. In case you didn't know, A Serious Man is very loosely based on that book. I love the Coen Brothers but I don't always love their comedies. Maybe I only I like it when they do movies with violence like Fargo or No Country for Old Men. The Big Lebowski is fantastic but Burn After Reading was not. In fact it was pretty bad.

A Serious Man is the most Jewish film you ever might see. I can't recall a film where Hebrew School and rabbis played such significant roles in the story. It's definitely not boring and the recreation of the time period is amazing. Kudos to one of my favorite DPs Roger Deakins. It looks like the Wonder Years with much more money. However, I'm getting tired of the pushover man who everyone craps on. That's a huge well for comedy right now and it's not for me. I'm too busy feeling bad for the guy to laugh at anything. Michael Sthulbarg is very good though as the lead but everyone around him(particularly is shrill wife) is so grating and annoying it's hard to actually enjoy anything. And unlike the book of Job, there isn't catharsis at the end. God doesn't show up and I was left hanging when the credits role. Some great Coen Brothers visuals but not much laughter.

This is It 2 1/2 stars. I was a bit underwhelmed. It basically is just behind the scenes rehearsal footage of Jacko's tour. It felt like a bonus feature on a DVD. There isn't any real insight into who he is or who the people around him are. The movie really could've benefited from more interview footage of those creating the show as opposed to showing so much fly on the wall video of dancers practicing. One thing about Michael though is that this is a great way to remember him. He's alive, energetic, and not at all sickly or the least bit tired. He's gracious to everyone and one would have no inkling that there were any sort of health problems. Fast forward through the boring parts.

Amelia 2 stars. Tarantino said something about biopics that they're just showcases for actors and not really complete movies. I think I'm starting to believe that. We may follow the events in a person's life but sometimes it does feel like a history lesson rather than a movie. Amelia is a handsome looking film directed by the very talented Indian director Mira Nair, but for all the flying records and history, it never feels exciting. Hilary Swank is perfectly fine in the role but Amelia herself isn't very interesting as a person. No demons, no real struggles. She wants to fly and break records and she does. Even her infamous vanishing is shown in a fairly bland manner. The movie is kind of a kid sister to The Aviator, which is a better biopic about flying. The Aviator had Howard Hughes and Katherine Hepburn. This one doesn't has much at all.

The Time Traveler's Wife 1 1/2 stars. A balloon deflates, all the air goes out, and it becomes limp. That's what watching this movie felt like. Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana have donut hole zero chemistry in this sappy as freak apparently romantic movie about a guy who disappears all the time and a girl who has to suffer through his absence. It has no insight about relationships, it is not even satisfying on a basic fantasy romance level. I mean, who would want to be in this relationship? The guy for inexplicable reasons disappears and travels through time. No real rhyme or reason. I'm sure women would be lining up for him. As for the time traveling aspect, it is dull as dish water. It is simply a device to separate them. I don't know about this beloved book, but the movie stinks. One thing I kept thinking about throughout the whole movie about Eric Bana was why don't you take a moment and f---king shave. Even at your wedding you still have this dirty man 5 o'clock shadow. Travel back in time and buy a razor.


Zombieland 2 1/2 stars. The only good zombie movies I've seen are Dawn of the Dead(the remake) and 28 Days Later. I hate zombies. They're stupid, annoying, and redundant. It's basically a human actor playing a rabid dog. I had high hopes for Zombieland only to be let down by a screenplay that thinks it's much more clever than it is and actors who think they are much more cute than they are. The two female characters in particular are very irritating in all of their failed attempts to appear tough. Sorry, but I don't believe a 12 year-old girl can be hardcore at anything. It's all silly and who cares. Jokes about zombies, jokes about Twinkies, and Jesse Eisenberg(Adventureland) really needs to stop stuttering. Topher Grace, Michael Cera, Jesse Eisenberg. Every movie, every character, a pansy who stutters. Of course your character's a virgin.

Bright Star 2 stars. I instinctively don't like corset movies but they can be good. The Age of Innocence, Sense and Sensibility, The Wings of the Dove. It's a time period I have no interest in. There's nothing very special here. Abbie Cornish is rather forgettable and director Jane Campion is overrated in my opinion. Bright is not the word.

Michael Clayton 3 1/2 stars. I didn't like it when I saw it a couple of years ago. Watching it again, I have completely turned around. There are still many flaws. Subplots about Michael's son and his alcoholic brother are wastes of story time. Who wants to spend time with them when there's all this corporate intrigue that is far more interesting. Clooney's scenes with Tom Wilkinson are sensational. This may be George's best most complete performance. He's once again wearing a suit and a tie(something he always seems to do in movies) but his role as this law firm's bagman is just perfect for him. A cutthroat, intelligent, and satisfying thriller. Also of note is Tilda Swinton who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Michael Clayton. Her last scene is a doozy. Tony Gilroy is a better writer(The Bourne Supremacy, State of Play) than he is a director(Duplicity). "Do I look like I'm negotiating." What a great poster.

Gangs of New York 3 1/2 stars. Another one I've turned around on. Disappointed when I saw it in the theater but it gets better everytime I watch it. Daniel Day-Lewis gives my favorite performance of his as the inimitable, magnificent, hilarious, and brutal Bill the Butcher. The performance is so good it almost blows everyone out of every scene. You have to see the movie again just to see him. The opening battle is much better than I thought it was and I even have come to like the electric guitar riff that I winced at when I first heard it.

Cameron Diaz is still woefully miscast but she does what she can. Dicaprio wasn't quite a man yet (he became one in The Departed) and it's a shame that his mano a mano with Bill is shortchanged. There is a sort of parallel to The Departed as both are about a young gang member, the boss as mentor, then they become adversaries. I'd say the first half is brilliant, but the second half gets a bit crowded with too many storylines and plot points to pay off. Still, that world of the Five Points in New York is truly a special place. Scorsese directs the hell out of it. If only the script were as good as him. Still one of the best taglines ever. America was born in the streets.