Weekly Recap 5/28/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: The Road, Alice in Wonderland, POTC:The Curse of the Black Pearl, Hamlet BBC, The Girlfriend Experience, Lost Seasons 1-3(amazing on Blu-ray)
The Bad: Magnum Force, South Pacific in Concert, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:The Movie, The Last Shot, Dear John, Robin Hood:Men in Tights, Wonderland, The Five Heartbeats, Fantastic Four, 4:Rise of the Silver Surfer
The Ugly: None

Trips to the Theater: None

Actors of the Week: The remarkable cast of Lost, particularly Michael Emerson(Ben) and Terry O'Quinn(Locke)
Directors of the Week: Jack Bender(director of all the Lost season finales)


TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
Love Ranch


Fantastic Four. Bad movie. Good trailer.

Lost's Tender Moments

Haha. Debbie Gibson. That's a LOL.

Lost: The End

They did it. And I'm spent. I don't know if all of the questions have been answered, and I don't know if I care. Emotionally, I am satisfied. More than satisfied. Showrunners for the last 5 years Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof wrote one hell of a finale. Lost is always to me about the sum of the season. Frustrating as things might be early on, at the end, everything comes together. There's a plan, you just gotta have faith.

Where to begin. Let's start with the flash sideways. I think they have been absolutely brilliant. We know these characters, we love them, but what if. What if the plane landed at LAX? What if Sawyer was a cop? What if Ben was a school teacher? It's a fascinating way for the show to go in its final season and I loved every second of it. What hit me so hard over the 2.5 hours were those awakenings. "I remember". And somehow it means so much to us as viewers because we remember too. We remember those episodes, we remember those moments. And for all of our enjoyment of the what if, we want our characters to have lived those lives on the island, even if they had died. When Juliet shows Sun her baby in the hospital room and she remembered what happened, I admittedly cried. She got it, Jin got it and how great that they did. Something seemed to lift from them and they knew things were okay again. Btw, it was wonderful seeing Juliet, a character I didn't like much at first but grew attached to. It was a moment of, "Of course! She's a fertility doctor."

The episode started in the great way Lost does, in a way that no other TV show does. TV is all talk, talk, talk. Characters spend a lot of time explaining things to one another so that the audience can understand what's going on. Lost knows that images and music can do so much more. That opening montage of the Oceanic plane, the coffin, the characters, it really set the right tone. Then the plot kicked in with Locke's plan to destroy the island and Jack's plan to save it. It makes me all the more impressed with the first episode of the season as the writers had the foresight to show the sunken island at the bottom of the ocean. That image lingered in my mind throughout the entire finale and it showed me once again that those writers do know what they're doing.

Then more awakenings started to happen. First with Jin and Sun and then with Sayid and Shannon(great to see the Carlyle family). I think it takes a lot of the sting away from Sayid's death to see him so happy again. Then Charlie and Claire which "ended" in season 3, but goodness was it emotional. Claire giving birth and Kate helping was one of the more memorable episodes from season 1. And Charlie's death was arguably the most memorable death of the entire series. Seeing their "family" together again was really very nice.

I am always so impressed by the way the show weaves its characters to play particular roles in the plot. Desmond has always been this X factor of being the constant and the fact that he's the one that brings everyone together(including running over Locke with a car) just makes complete sense. And the fact that he has his special abilities makes him of course the perfect person to go down into the heart of the island. Don't forget he's the one that hit the fail safe at end of season 2. Of course things didn't go the way Jack or Locke expected but it went good in that Locke was now vulnerable, blood dripping from his mouth. And when Jack showed up at that cliff in the rain, don't tell me you weren't revved up for the showdown. Their rage as they ran toward each other and our anger when they cut to commercial. Argh! It was a great fight, more because of its dramatic meaning than because of the kicks and punches. It was time for the Man in Black to pay with some pain. Jack gets a knife to his side(a very cool doubting Thomas reference), but when he kicked Locke off the side of the cliff, I grunted loudly with pleasure.

Of course on Lost, one problem gets solved, two more pop up. They gotta fly off the island, someone's got to put their finger back in the dam. I was always a Jack/Kate guy and their goodbye really was special. "Tell me I'm gonna see you again." I think all of America said, "Jack, kiss her." They always had this doomed tragic romance and it was the right way for it to end. They loved each other and that was enough for this world. The conclusion of their relationship was a big question for me going into the finale and it was better than I imagined. Also great was Sawyer and Juliet's reunion as well as Claire deciding to go home.

The meaning of the flash sideways may split Lost fans, but I think it was the right way to go. The show has been so much more than just life in the present and what their lives might be once they get back to the real world. The very nature of the show's storytelling goes back and forth from past to future and somehow it makes sense that the show ends heading toward eternity. Seeing those familiar faces, happy and reunited, it was genuinely moving. 6 years of moving. I may have ideological issues with Lost's interpretation of the afterlife, but who cares.

In the end, it was about Jack. The show started on his eye, it ended on his eye. That image of him laughing as the water rushed back into the heart of the island will be burned in memory. He did it, he found his purpose, and his last walk through the endless green bamboo with that beautiful Michael Giacchino score was cinematic power. The show cut to black, as it always does at the end of every episode, the words "LOST" popped up on screen, and I knew it was over. Over for real and forever.

It's all very sad. One of my favorite shows of all time coming to an end. It's not as if I wanted more seasons, I think this is the right time, but I'll miss all of these rich characters and that freaky island. Actor Terry O'Quinn who plays Locke said it best when he said that the show might be looked back on as a one-off. There hasn't been a television show like it and I don't think there ever will be. A multi-international cast, a serialized sci-fi show spanning 6 years, a remarkable story from start to finish. I doubt it can be done again. Lost is one of my favorites, but I also think it's one of the best. Goodbye Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Jin, Sun, John Locke, Richard Alpert, Desmond, Penny, Charlie, Claire, Juliet, Michael, Walt, Miles, Libby, Rousseau, Alex, Mr. Eko, Daniel Faraday, Charlotte(who I think is gorgeous), Lapidus, Bernard, Rose, the Man in Black, Jacob, and hands down the greatest TV villain ever Ben Linus. You will all be seriously missed.


My Top 5 Episodes: http://rolandchang.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-my-top-5-favorite-episodes.html

May 2010 Reviews 3 (The Road)

The Road 3 1/2 stars. I love post-apocalyptic movies. Mad Max, Terminator Salvation, I even liked Waterworld. The basic idea of how would you survive is intrinsically fascinating. Without electricity, without the grocery store, without a car, without the infrastructure of civilization. My feeling is what is most essential are a good pair of shoes and a warm coat. We already had The Book of Eli this year(a movie I very much liked) but last year there was The Road. It was talked about for a while(it was shot in '08) but post-production issues and the Weinstein Company apparently not knowing how to release it got it dumped into a few theaters last winter. It's one of those that came and vanished. Never saw a poster hanging anywhere.

It's a real shame because The Road is so far one of the best movies I've seen this year. It's the post-apocalypse without the big action set pieces and without the summer movie flare. It's down to the bare basics of finding food, battling the cold, and trying to avoid anyone. Viggo Mortensen is the father of a young boy who are both heading South toward the ocean where they can hopefully escape the harsh winter. America is gone. There is nothing left. All of the animal life has been wiped out and even the trees are toppling over as they have no nourishment to keep them alive. It's the bleakest of the bleak and the movie does a phenomenal job of creating a desolate world. The land is scary, almost an enemy. There is no real plot in The Road(which may bother some) but more a series of events on their journey. They encounter a house where people are kept in a basement like livestock and they come across a vending machine which has a precious gift of a can of soda. However, despite this, the encounters really do add up emotionally and it's insane how much tension any new character brings. Everyone is a threat. To their lives, to their safety, to their possessions. No one is helping anyone out. It's every man for himself.

The director is the Australian John Hillcoat who directed The Proposition a few years ago. I didn't quite like that movie for all of its grizzly Western sensibilities. Here I think he captures an absolutely mesmerizing tone of sadness, solitude, and danger. I say the movie is sad as a good thing. Not every movie should be happy happy. Do you only listen to pop songs? I hope not. Movies shouldn't play at one note either. I think it really would be this way if the world came to an end. People would be dirty and deadly and paranoid as hell. Of particular note is a tremendous sequence with Robert Duvall as a near blind old man they find along the way. He has a moment about speaking about his lost son that probably only Robert Duvall could ever do. He is one of the greatest actors and will be remembered as such.

Viggo is very good. He's better at being a complex, conflicted man rather than a straight forward hero. He's good at reluctance. From Aragorn to Tom Stall in A History of Violence. Flashbacks show him as a weaker man who wants to keep his family together but has no idea how to do so. The man we see then becomes someone who makes a thief strip down naked and leaves him on the side of the road when he tries to take some of their food. Charlize Theron has a handful of scenes but the movie is about this man and his son which usually doesn't interest me, but something genuinely moving is captured here. The novel was written by Cormac McCarthy(No Country for Old Men) and from what I hear, it is required reading.

As I'm writing this, the movie resonates with me still. Good movies stay with you and your mind doesn't easily let them go. I'm thinking of certain images, certain moments, the beautiful score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. This is not one to rent with a bunch of people. It's a quiet movie that should be savored in private. On DVD and Blu-ray this Tuesday.



Extraordinary Measures 2 stars.I think Harrison Ford has lost his charisma. At least his on screen charisma. There was a time in the 90s where he was unbeatable. The Fugitive, The Jack Ryan movies, Air Force One(even with that ridiculously bad CGI plane crash at the end). Then somewhere around Six Days Seven Nights things started to go south. Hollywood Homicide, K-19:The Widowmaker, and Firewall(good Lord). I think it’s the fact that he refuses to do non-commercial movies. He turned down Michael Douglas’s part in Traffic, he turned down George Clooney’s part in Syriana, he turned down Ray Liotta’s part in Narc. And if you think about it, he has very little range. He’s always a crusty guy with the same haircut. Extraordinary Measures is far from extraordinary. The story itself is in fact inspiring about this father and this medical research scientist who form their own company to save his children from a rare genetic disorder. But the movie is Lifetime Channel stuff with too many scenes where people silently cry and where the bad corporations don’t believe in heroes. Brendan Fraser is alright I guess and Keri Russell is pretty much wasted. Harrison Ford’s character just comes off as a pain in the ass and he really doesn’t sell us on being an intellectual. And the movie is lit like The View, with all of those filters and blown out gold lighting. Boo!


The Spy Next Door 2 1/2 stars. I genuinely love Jackie Chan. I think he is up there with the greatest movie stars ever. He’s not one of the best actors ever, but he is a big huge movie star. He's very special. A lot of his movies are not good, but he is always the guy the camera loves. It’s not just the fighting and the bad English, it’s some positivity that radiates from him. There’s a reason why he is such an enormous movie star, more than Jet Li and a lot more than Tony Jaa(who has no onscreen presence). Now I’m not saying go rent the Spy Next Door. In fact, I would recommend against it. But I can’t say I didn’t enjoy a lot of it. How embarrassing. I don’t know, just the absurd idea of Jackie Chan dating this blonde mom from the suburbs with three kids while he’s a secret spy is so ludicrous it makes me laugh. I think it’s also the first time Jackie Chan has acted with kids? Even in his Hong Kong movies? Someone needs to double check that one. I will probably watch every movie he makes, and I am admittedly excited about The Karate Kid remake almost solely because he’s in it. This is no Police Story or Drunken Master II, but at 55, Jackie Chan is still the most likable guy in the room.



Dear John 1 1/2 stars. I have never seen The Notebook, and Lord willing, I never will. I know it's very popular but I can't stand gooey, take itself too seriously romance. At least not in movies. Love Story, Message in a Bottle, The Lake House, I can't take it. I kind of forgive TV romance since there's something about the week to week nature of TV that sucks you into two people getting together. Although I think I liked A Walk to Remember with Mandy Moore. Please forgive me. Dear John is a sappy romance about a soldier and a girl who writes to him. That's really all that it is. Channing Tatum was I thought pretty good in G.I. Joe, but here he slips back into Mark Wahlberg 2.0, mumbling and brooding his way through scenes. Amanda Seyfried was warm and winning in Mamma Mia! but the character she plays is too much of a Goldilocks innocent to be interesting. They don't have much chemistry either. Lasse Hallstrom has directed some good films including What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Chocolat, but he's also directed some stinkers like The Shipping News and Casanova. He alone is seemingly trying to keep this sub-genre of oh so genuine love alive but I'm not buying it. Dear John, your movie sucks.



The Karate Kid 80s Classic. It is the 80s classic. It's so of its time. I don't think Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita would ever be cast if they were making the movie today, and they are the best parts of the movie. I don't know if I can objectively review it since I attach it so much with being a kid. As strange as it sounds, it was all cool then. I remember a friend of mine walking around in a headband(which Johnny constantly wears throughout the entire movie). Something about these rich kids from the Valley driving dirt bikes going to serious karate class vs. this Italian stick figure from New Jersey was all so great. Most special of course was Mr. Miyagi who is as beloved a film character as Yoda or Spock. It's hard to think of it now, but he really was an original. Not the karate master stuff, but all of the eccentricities. The fly and the chopsticks, the fact that he owns these old cars, his serene garden, his uniform of a beige jumpsuit, it completely works. Also, despite his reputation, he really only has one showdown in the movie where he takes on the 5 guys dressed as skeletons(an absolute classic scene). Most of it is attitude and how he delivers the dialogue. Pat Morita deserved that Oscar nom. I love The Karate Kid and always will. It's by no means great cinema, but it's a time capsule for me. The tournament montage is awesome, the silly crane kick, the surprisingly good soundtrack, a very young Elizabeth Shue, wax on wax off, and the Kreese the magnificent a-hole Sensei of the Cobra Kai's. He doesn't throw one punch in the movie but he totally sells it. I hate him!

Lastly I wanted to mention one of the Cobra Kai's, Tommy who is the "put 'em in a body bag" guy. His performance is so unintentionally hilarious. He is seriously given the worst lines. "Johnny looks like everybody's doing something new. Take a right, check it out!" "Must be take a worm for a walk week." Even his crazy over the top reaction when he gets eliminated from the tournament makes me cry laughing. I won't mention the actor's name since I think he isn't acting anymore, but he was definitely fully committed at the time. Part II I still like with Sato and the chopping through the ice blocks and the toy drums at the end. Part III is pretty bad, and I've never seen the Hilary Swank one all the way through. Still, this one stands alone. You're the best around!




Breathless(A bout de souffle) Classic. I'm fairly certain you've never heard of it or the French New Wave that happened in the early 60s. There were the traditional Hollywood films(very traditional at the time) and a group of French filmmakers decided to throw tradition out the window. No sets, sometimes no plots, no rules about camera placement or movement, and a lot of beautiful young French actresses smoking. When I first started studying it in film class something really hit home for me. It's a lot to do with the spirit of the Nouvelle Vague, but some of the movies are downright wonderful. I think they are the best films about being young in your 20s. No responsibilities and a lot of freedom.

My favorite is Breathless which was the landmark. It's the Star Wars of the New Wave. The plot involves Jean Paul Belmondo's character Michel who is a very small time crook, trying to elude the police after he kills someone. However the movie has really nothing to do with that and is more about his relationship with an American(Patricia) living in Paris. It's not even really about their relationship, just a lot about them walking around, talking about existentialism, flirting with one another, driving around Paris, and wearing sunglasses. It's a film much more about style that substance but the style is stunning. I truly love this movie for reasons I cannot articulate. I don't quite understand it myself. Jean Seberg plays Patricia and she is the loveliest cinema pixie ever. That short haircut, her obvious bad French, and that extended scene of her looking into the bathroom mirror and then saluting herself at the end. "Dismissed." Her closing moment is one of those movie scenes everyone knows. She never did anything as important as Breathless but she's so dazzling in the movie it doesn't matter. The director Jean Luc Godard was the cinema deity of his time and this was his Catcher in the Rye. The jump cuts, the handheld, the very loose dialogue. It was all so new. Other great New Wave films include Une Femme Est Une Femme(A Woman is a Woman), Jules Et Jim, Vivre sa Vie(My Life to Live) and Masculin Feminin. You're not a movie lover until you've seen at least one of these.

I'm sure someone is going to rent this and wonder what the big deal is, but sometimes the things you love really have no reason. It's not about story or plot or even character. It's cinema cool. The characters in the movie love movies, they base their lives on movies and a lot of us do too. You know what, if you do see it, don't tell me about it. It means that much to me. New York Herald Tribune.

Weekly Recap 5/21/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: The Thomas Crown Affair(1999), Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves, The Spy Next Door, The Karate Kid, The Karate Kid Part II, The Fugitive, Alice in Wonderland(1951), Narc, Mamma Mia!, The Dark Knight, The Tuxedo, The Brave One
The Bad: Extraordinary Measures, Jet Lag, The Karate Kid Part III, Johnny Be Good, The Beast, In Dreams
The Ugly: None

Trips to the Theater: None

Actors of the Week: Jackie Chan, Pat Morita
Directors of the Week: John Avildsen, Kevin Reynolds



TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
The Karate Kid. The new remake.

Dear Lost Fans

The End of Lost.

With 3.5 hours of Lost left I wanted to write something about our expectations of the finale. I doubt they could be higher. We want the ending to blow us out of our couches and amaze us for the months to come. First, it’s probably not going to happen. How can it with everyone expecting perfection?

Second, and most of all, I wanted to make the point that no matter what the finale is, even if it’s bad, the show has still been amazing, one of the best ever, and Lost should not be judged just by its last episodes. I mean, you can’t erase the quality of over 100 episodes just because the last couple hours didn’t live up to your unreasonable expectations. The show's been on since 2004. It's the whole thing that matters, not just the end.

Btw, why are you so unforgiving to something that has given you so much?
Why are you so critical of something you say you love?
I feel sorry for whoever’s dating you.

The show’s quality has stayed very high. What if Heroes has a phenomenal series finale? It can’t make up for the lousy last few seasons. For example, I think season 3 of Lost was a bad season. The show was spinning its wheels and we spent way too much time in those animal cages and driving that VW van. That’s an entire season of episodes, but I still love Lost as a whole. Look back on past seasons and see if you could’ve done any better. I still am stunned by how much it sucks me in week after week and when I watch it again on DVD.

So on Monday May 24th, don’t flood Facebook with your whiny, knee-jerk comments about how it wasn’t this, or how it didn’t accomplish that. It has accomplished enough already. It’s the best hour drama on TV right now and I dare anyone to name another network drama that has maintained such high quality over 6 seasons. It certainly has the best acting. And have some courtesy for those of us on the West Coast who don’t want to read your lame posts with too many exclamation points before the episode even airs here.

Lastly for the haters, go watch NCIS or CSI:NY or Two and a Half Men and stop pissing on something I love.

Weekly Recap 5/14/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: Valentine's Day, Iron Man, Casino Royale, Romeo Must Die, Tokyo Story, Floating Weeds, Smokin' Aces, The Soloist, lots of 30 Rock
The Bad: Invictus, Quantum of Solace
The Ugly: Legion

Trips to the Theater: Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man 2

Actors of the Week: Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway, Robert Downey Jr.
Directors of the Week: Tim Burton, Jon Favreau



TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
Inception. Yeesh it looks good.


The Adjustment Bureau. Damon and E.Blunt.

Chewie!

Roger Ebert: Why I Hate 3-D (and You Should Too)

Ebert's intelligent thoughts on 3-D. http://www.newsweek.com/id/237110

Iron Man 2

3 stars. I liked the first Iron Man, but I had a few problems with it. I thought the idea of Iron Man going to the Middle East and fighting terrorists was in bad taste. I mean, I don't want the X-Men going to North Korea. And I thought Jeff Bridges was a limp villain. Does anyone even remember that character's name? It was part one and like any part one you have to set up a lot. And with any part two, now you can have some fun.

I might be in the minority, but I think Iron Man 2 is better than the first. It certainly spent more money. The screen is filled with cash and there's constantly something cool to look at. Iron Man is a lot about hardware and the movie is stacked with toys and gadgets and very large weapons. Those 3D computer displays alone must've cost millions. It is a geek's fantasy toy box. Seriously, buckets of money were spent.

As the story goes, Tony Stark has revealed himself as Iron Man, but the military wants him to hand over the Iron Man suit. As well, Ivan Vanko(Mickey Rourke) is himself a Russian inventor/physicist and holds a personal grudge against Tony that I won't reveal. Comic book movies go like this. The first one is the origin. The superhero discovers his identity. The second is about that identity being tested. Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, and Iron Man 2 is no different. However, I think that's the strength of the movie. Robert Downey Jr.(who is 45 and ridiculously fit) could not be more perfectly cast as Tony Stark, a guy who is so equally charismatic and flawed. He's never not interesting and it's weird how much we like the character and at the same time want him to change. I liked what the script has Tony Stark going through a lot. For a character that seems shallow and an egomaniac, he actually generates a lot of sympathy. We want to stay on his side.

What the first film lacked was a good villain, and I think the sequel has one with Mickey Rourke. The character isn't very complex, but Rourke is such a great heavy that his presence makes up for anything not in the script. The tattoos and the pet cockatoo and the surprisingly good Russian accent, it all works well. The showdown at the Monaco race track is the best action scene in the movie and I don't know how many actors could pull off brandishing electric whips with his shirt off without seeming stupid. The sequence really is amazing with Formula One cars getting cut in half and genuine scary tension as Tony is fighting without his suit for a while. Ever want to see a Bentley sliced up into pieces?

There is traffic jam of too many characters though. Don Cheadle is one of my favorites and he's good as the new Rhodey, but he's given so little screen time to really do anything. Scarlett Johannson has one strong fight sequence but I don't think I could pass a test on what the character is actually supposed to be about. The one that stands out the most is Gwyneth Paltrow as the loyal Pepper Potts(love that name). She's the only really normal person in this craziness and her normalcy helps ground everything in reality. I mean, if robotic drones are firing missiles into the sky, wouldn't that freak you out? Gwyneth is a sweetheart as a redhead.

I have to mention the Iron Man suit. It is absolutely the best thing the series has. It is a feat of design. That thing is beautiful. Credit Stan Winston's company who also created the Terminator. Nearly anything Tony Stark does in it seems very, very cool. When he flies, when he fights, when he fires his pulse weapon from his hand, oh man is it awesome. CGI is firing on all cylinders these days. And I'm still impressed by the basic idea of this genius engineer/inventor being a superhero with seemingly unlimited resources. I mean, Robert Downey Jr. is sometimes scary hyper intelligent. Bruce Wayne may have just as much money but he isn't having half as much fun. Jon Favreau is getting better as a director and I shudder to think of how difficult mounting this gigantic ordeal must've been. There's so much going on all of the time. You will get your money's worth. Overall, the pace is good, the sense of fun and excitement doesn't let up and there is a nice growing sense of this whole interconnected comic book movie world being created from Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury to the first inklings of the upcoming Avengers movie.

Lastly, I wanted to note something I thought of during the screening. I know the corporations who run movies and TV want to reach out more to the middle of the country. To the Red states. Is Iron Man doing that intentionally? The soundtrack is filled with AC/DC, a whole scene is set against a car race, Bill O'Reilly makes an appearance, and there is a long scene where Sam Rockwell's character shows us nothing but guns and describes them in thorough detail. I don't know what all of this means, but it seems a bit wrong. Haha. Go see Iron Man 2. The summer has begun.

May 2010 Reviews 2 (Alice in Wonderland)

Alice in Wonderland 3 stars. I was not excited about seeing Alice in Wonderland. The trailers were underwhelming and the 3D was a turnoff. For some reason, nearly three months after its release, I decided I wanted to see it and found a theater in Covina that was playing it. Thankfully it was in 2D. I came out thinking, never underestimate Tim Burton.

I think we think of Tim Burton as some weirdo guy that just wants to put strange things on screen. To a certain extent that is true, but what I forget is how good of a storyteller he is. Right from the start, I felt like I was in good hands, with Burton subtly setting up Alice’s little girl life and then quickly moving onto her oppressive teen years as she finds herself receiving an unwanted proposal of marriage. Things start off simply and we’re eased into the movie. This incarnation, if you don’t know, occurs years after Alice’s first trip down the rabbit hole. The big head Red Queen has taken over and Wonderland is in decline. Mia Wasikowska is pretty wonderful as Alice. She’s actually Australian, she was unforgettable on HBO’s first season of In Treatment, and she is a great heroine here. Intelligent and thoughtful and thankfully non-annoying. She’s a great person to take us into Wonderland. Once we get there, I can’t say I was necessarily blown away, but I was definitely entertained. Entertained by little cockney mice who use needles as swords, entertained by the great cast of British actors voicing dogs and horses and evaporating cats, and entertained by just how not like the real world Wonderland is. The fantasy nature of the thing allows pretty much anything to happen including of course liquids that make you smaller but also including the Red Queen playing polo with a porcupine as the ball. And yet it does have reasonable logic despite the craziness. Also, the movie is really funny. The script has a lot of wit and Burton doesn’t get enough credit for making movies that always have a wry sense of humor.

There are some flaws of course. Not all of the CGI looks all that great, although I would take Wonderland over Pandora any day. Take that James Cameron! Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter isn’t very distinct, Anne Hathaway is somewhat forgettable as the White Queen, but most of all the movie seems to be missing about 20 minutes. It’s rare to say a movie’s too short, but the story could use a bit more time establishing Alice’s feelings about Wonderland especially in the beginning. Before we know it, there’s the Red Queen and the Jabberwocky has to be killed by the Vorpal Sword and the plot’s off to the races. Still, there’s so much charm to the film, those flaws seem to slip away. Again, thankfully the version of the movie I saw was not in 3D. Who needs it. I’ll probably write a full post on my feelings about 3D, but the movie is great to look at just as it is. Wonderland in moody decline is sometimes breathtaking and I don’t need the plants in front of my face to prove that. I think this actually comes out on DVD fairly soon but I’m glad I saw it on the big screen. It’s not up there with Batman or Sweeney Todd, but I think it’s better than Charlie and Chocolate Factory and a lot better than Mars Attacks. Never underestimate Tim Burton.


Invictus 2 stars. Let's do a hypothetical. Say there's a film about Martin Luther King. But the film isn't about his life it's instead about him trying to encourage a local basketball team to win the state championship to unite the state of Alabama. I think that's of some mild interest, but what about the life? Nelson Mandela is a great figure of the last 50 years so why does his biopic need a co-star? I'm sorry to say this, but Morgan Freeman is not very good as Mandela. He's a great actor, but he's one of those actors who can't really do accents like George Clooney or Samuel L. Jackson. I had a hard time getting past his forced African accent and somehow even his bearing seems off. What's strange is that Matt Damon with a prosthetic nose and a thick Afrikaans accent is completely believable as Francois Pienaar, the Captain of the South Africa national rugby team. How does a guy from Boston who looks so normal transform himself so easily? What also hurts the movie is that I grew up in America and have absolutely no freaking clue about rugby. Is the team losing? Did they just score a point? Who knows! It's all supposed to be inspirational but it isn't. It just feels like your average sports for the family movie.

I put this one in the category of the lesser Clint Eastwood films like Flags of Our Fathers but not in the category of dreadful Clint Eastwood films like Absolute Power or Blood Work. I personally think he's overrated as a director and not in the same league as Scorsese despite them going head to head at a lot of Oscar ceremonies. Mystic River and Gran Torino are good movies, but they ain't no Taxi Driver. Skip Invictus, although for some reason I can't stop saying the title over and over again. It leaves trippingly off the tongue. Invictus, Invictus, Invictus.


Valentine's Day 3 stars. I'm sorry people, I liked it. So embarrassing. Let's try to figure this out. One, it's directed by Garry Marshall who directed Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries movies. He's a 76 year old guy from Brooklyn with a fantastic sense of humor. Listen to his commentary on Pretty Woman. He is a hilarious guy. The movie is what it is, and it's just good at being that. It wants to be glossy and romantic and be stacked with beautiful people and on those levels the movie delivers. Two, there are so many characters and so many storylines that we don't have to spend too much time with any one of them. The problem with a lot of rom coms is that they can't sustain story interest, even for ninety minutes. They run out of steam and 2/3 of the way in the couple is going to break up for x reason and then the guy chases the girl through the airport to make his big speech. With this, that structure is thrown out and what a relief.

My favorite storyline is the Anne Hathaway/Topher Grace one where she's a part time phone sex worker and he's a simple guy from Indiana. I think in total time they're on for maybe 25 minutes and that's about all that story needs. Anything longer and we would start to get irritated. Anne Hathway btw could not be more sweet than she is in this movie, although her best performance still is in Brokeback Mountain. The most ludicrous storyline is Jessica Biel's, who is fine in the movie, but the idea of her playing a girl who can't find a date is preposterous. That's freaking science fiction. The movie altogether is warm and endearing and most of all it is not stupid. There are no big awkward embarrassing scenes and everything that happens could happen in the real world. Even the Taylors'(Swift and Lautner) segment is okay. I think it might be the first time I can think of where the actress acting in the scene is also the one singing the song playing over that scene. I'm not 100% on that bit of trivia, but I can't think of another example. I wouldn't say run to rent this, but if you want to see it, see it.


Legion 1 star. What a POS. I should've listened to myself and not rented this. Look at the poster. It seems like a poster you would see in a movie that is trying to spoof movies. Why in the world does an angel need a knife and a machine gun? It makes no sense! The small town "colorful" characters are all dull and/or annoying. Much like Cloverfield, I actually wanted all of the good guys to die. I like Paul Bettany but this is silly and beneath him. And I kind of have this theory that Dennis Quaid is the top b-list older actor in Hollywood. He's the guy you get if you can't get Bruce Willis or Ed Harris. He's never bad, but he's never all that memorable. Please, please don't bother with this one.








Superman Returns 3 1/2 stars. Me and Quentin Tarantino. We're apparently the only two people who really liked Superman Returns. It's sad the movie was poorly received and underperformed financially and that Bryan Singer won't get to make another one. There's something so wholesome about the movie and I really liked that. Superman shouldn't be dark and brooding. There should be a kind of aw shucks quality to the thing. I really liked the connection the movie had to the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies. That theme song is one of the best and Marlon Brando's voice-over is surprisingly poignant. There are problems of course. Kate Bosworth is woefully miscast as Lois Lane. She doesn't seem smart or savvy enough to be a star report. Btw, where has she been lately? I think her last movie was 21 two years ago. Perhaps her career is toast. I also could've done without the over-cute kid with the bowl haircut(a staple of movies), Kevin Spacey seems uninspired as Lex Luthor, and there just isn't enough action. Superman spends a lot of time lifting heavy things but he doesn't throw one single punch in 2 and half hours. However, there's a lot of good stuff. Brandon Routh was a great choice for Superman and my goodness is the movie gorgeous. It's one of the best movies shot on HD I've ever seen. It's not as good as the first time I saw it back in the summer of '06 but I think it's pretty good all the same. After the painfully mediocre Valkyrie, let's see if Bryan Singer can get back on track.




Pumping Iron 3 1/2 stars. In all honesty, I don't think Arnold has ever been more entertaining than he is in Pumping Iron. It's the 1975 Arnold Schwarzenegger - huge, ripped to shreds, psyching out all of his competition, smoking some victory weed at the end. He's an absolute winner through and through and how could anyone beat him. The documentary itself is very good, capturing the life of these bodybuilders before there were any health clubs or before anyone even lifted weights. They were real wonders/freaks at the time and Arnold was the king among them. Lou Ferrigno is shockingly young and nerdy as the chief competition and it's nice to see that he's still alive and in very good shape(see his cameo in I Love You Man). But the charismatic movie star is Arnold, explaining his training regime and his tactics during a competition and showing that sometimes the most confident and arrogant guys really are the most successful. They go onto marry a Kennedy and become the Governor of California.




Casino Royale 3 stars. I still have a lot of problems with Casino Royale, most blatant of which is the 40 minute dead zone of poker in the middle of the film. It's a deep valley of boredom. The only good poker on film is in Rounders. Everything else is so bloody tedious. I can't even watch 5 minutes of poker on ESPN. I'd rather watch Women's Curling. That being said, a lot of the choices for the new Bond were pretty great, including Daniel Craig who is maybe the toughest of the Bonds. Despite his light blue Speedos. The opening black and white fight in the bathroom is tremendous but the parkour chase through a construction site that occurs early on is pretty awesome. Man, they spent a lot of money on the movie. I also am in love with Eva Green who is Vesper Lynd, the love of Bond's life. Unfortunately the role is underwritten and its a case of an actor bringing more than the script has for her. Judi Dench is a staple of the series and a great boss that in a way allows Bond to be his ill behaved self as a woman gives him hell for it.

I still find it strange that they picked Martin Campbell to direct the film given that he directed Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan's first time around, back in 1995. One thing I wish the Broccoli family(who have produced all of the Bond films) would do is let an American direct a James Bond movie. Seriously, 22 Bond movies, not one American director. They're mostly Brits, with the exception of Marc Forster from Switzerland and Lee Tamahori from New Zealand. I heard Spielberg wanted to direct one in the 80s but they turned him down. I think it's time to end that tradition. Although Sam Mendes(American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) is an inspired choice for the next one, if it ever starts production. I hate, hate, hated Quantum of Solace, but Casino Royale is pretty good. I would never get a sports car, but if I had to choose one, it would be an Aston Martin. Then I'd have to buy a Walter PPK and fight bad guys in a tuxedo. Yes!




Man on Fire 4 stars. Tony Scott's best film. The most visually stunning, the best edited, the best script, the best performances, the best everything. Man on Fire is a monster of a good film. Denzel Washington's Creasy is ex-military, hired to be the bodyguard of Dakota Fanning's character Pita in Mexico City. Mexico City is a huge hotbed of kidnapping and some say averages about 4 kidnappings a day. The first half is getting to know Creasy. His coldness, his inability to relate with people. As he spends more and more time with Pita, he starts to break and they build a strong friendship. Then she's snatch away and the second half is watching Creasy let loose in Mexico City. "Creasy's art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece."

This is my favorite Denzel Washington performance. He's utterly convincing in the role, hard and driven, even when he has full scenes where he's just speaking Spanish. I think 30% of his dialogue is in Spanish. The interrogation in the car with the knife and the cigarette lighter with Hey Mickey You're So Fine playing is a doozy. Dakota Fanning is a prodigy and thankfully she has aged into an attractive young girl and not strange. Sorry Haley Joel Osment. You couldn't build a cuter blonde child. Haha. If she isn't in the movie, the movie doesn't work. Also great work from Christopher Walken and Marc Anthony of all people. The script from Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, The Bourne Supremacy) is chocked full of great lines and great storytelling, but most of all this movie is about Tony Scott. He spent 20 years trying to get it made one way or another and he pulled out all of the stops. The hand cranked cameras, the reversal stock, the creativity with subtitles, the hard R, it's all there. Mexico City looks absolutely amazing and I can't believe how much visual information is packed into 2.5 hours. The subject matter is fascinating, the characters are rich, the story is constantly compelling, and the ending is an emotional and a powerful one. Seriously, what more could you ask from a movie?

Weekly Recap 5/7/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: Tombstone, The Great Mouse Detective, Matinee, The Edge, Public Enemies, G.I. Joe:The Rise of Cobra, Sweeney Todd, Superman Returns, The Hunt for Red October, Vengeance
The Bad: Tetro, Peacock, Running with Arnold
The Ugly: Baby Mama, The Jackal

Trips to the Theater: None

Actors of the Week: Tina Fey, Val Kilmer
Directors of the Week: The directors of 30 Rock


TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
Machete. They just f--ked with the wrong Mexican!

May 2010 Reviews (It's Complicated)

It's Complicated 3 stars. I had no intention of liking this. I enjoyed Nancy Meyer's movie Something's Gotta Give, but that's the only one. Didn't like What Women Want or The Holiday, which commits an almost unforgivable crime of putting Kate Winslet in a bad movie. However, Alec Baldwin saves the day. I don't know what it is about fatter Alec Baldwin but he's so much more lovable. He spent the 90s in dramatic roles(many times being very good) but somehow this switch to comedies in middle-age is like some sort of rebirth. He put on 40 pounds and everyone loves him. The opposite seems to be happening to Val Kilmer.

He is the best part of It's Complicated with his impeccable comic timing and charm. Meryl Streep is good as always but the role most of the time has her being anxious or rejecting Alec's advances. The story of course is that the two of them were married for a long time, divorced 10 years ago, and at their son's college graduation they start to reconnect. At the same time, Meryl meets Steve Martin who is an architect helping her design some additions to her home. I wouldn't say it's laugh out loud funny or anything, but it's surprisingly endearing. I cared about Meryl and Alec's relationship and was genuinely curious to see where things went. Thankfully the slapstick comedy is kept to a minimum although a scene where middle-aged people are high on weed falls seriously flat. A good rental. Better than most romantic comedies. Maybe you have to have one of the best actresses in the world and Alec Baldwin in the hairy nude to make a good one.


The Messenger 3 stars. This one got some notice for Woody Harrelson's strong performance but I doubt you've heard of it. The Messenger is about army officers who inform the next of kin about soldiers killed in combat. If it sounds brutal, it is. It is a sub-genre of the military and the movie handles it with a lot of honesty and grace. Things are more on the dramatic side but maybe that's just how it goes. People yell and spit and hit. Ben Foster(Alpha Dog, 3:10 to Yuma) is the lead and he's very good as a recently injured soldier suddenly put on this assignment. Woody Harrelson is having a hell of a good year with this and Zombieland and puts in some great work as the veteran who has done this hundreds of times. The movie does lose its way in the third act with a drunken trip to a wedding and the movie doesn't really know what to do with Foster's relationship with a new widow but there's still a lot of good dramatic stuff here. I still think Brothers is the better movie, but this one's worth checking out.




Tetro 2 1/2 stars. With this and Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola really is doing whatever he wants. He's doing it independently, and these two last films may indeed be his most beautiful. They are stunning things to look at, both shot in HD. However, I find them lacking in dramatic story interest. Tetro is about two brothers, one who lives in Argentina, far away from his family, and a younger brother who comes to visit him. The older brother has changed his name to Tetro and wants nothing more to do with his arrogant famous composer of a father nor of anything he was before. The younger brother wants to know why. The movie is said to be Coppola's most autobiographical with the father possibly representing his own father(who was a conductor). Some say Tetro himself represents Nicolas Cage which everyone has seemed to forgot is Coppola's nephew and whose real name is in fact Nicolas Coppola. It's a family of artists over there and apparently a family of deep conflict. Unfortunately I feel like my description of the movie is more interesting than actually sitting through it. Notorious, narcissistic loud mouth Vincent Gallo is actually very effective in the role as the brooding Tetro and the black and white photography is amazing. But there's nothing to really hold onto. There's nothing really driving the narrative anywhere. It's as if all of the drama happened before the movie started and now we're dealing with the aftermath. I think Coppola has one more great movie in him, but Tetro is not it. Watch the gorgeous trailer and that should be enough.




Leap Year 1 1/2 stars. I'm done. I swear, if it is a romantic comedy with a type-A girl and the guy's a slob, I will not see it. I don't want them to end up together. This little mini genre within the romcom genre makes me sick. It's something I believe Reese Witherspoon created with Sweet Home Alabama and Just Like Heaven. One of the worst movies of last year was the same thing, The Ugly Truth. Amy Adams is nothing but likable, but this is just garbage. If this situation were to ever occur in real life where a woman is dating a man for four years, he doesn't propose, but there's this legend that a woman can propose to a man in Ireland during a leap year.... you know what, I can't finish that stupid sentence. And they made a 2 hour movie about that sentence. Don't see it. There are other things to rent. She's in better movies like Sunshine Cleaning, Catch Me if You Can, and Charlie Wilson's War. I think Amy Adams is a sweetheart but I'm so mad at this movie it makes me want to vomit.




You Don't Know Jack 3 stars. Al Pacino has been in the rough lately. 88 Minutes, Righteous Kill, it's been a bad run. Now on HBO he finds a great role in Jack Kevorkian, the doctor who created an assisted suicide machine and helped end the lives of about 130 people. As someone who is personally against assisted suicide, the movie does do a great job of making its point. It isn't a simple for or against issue. These people are genuinely suffering and the real videotape footage from Kevorkian's own archives is heartbreaking and powerful. The money, the pain, the pain to the family, it's all very sympathetic. I wonder if I would just want out. Unfortunately, the second half of the movie becomes about Kevorkian's court battle when he is charged with murder. He is quite the egomaniac and decides to be his own lawyer and I lost interest. It was in fact what happened in real life, but it's so much less compelling than the scenes dealing with the patients. Kevorkian himself is very surprising in that he's incredibly intelligent, sharp and witty, as well as a sort of surrealistic artist. His paintings are bad Salvador Dali. Pacino disappears into the old man and is very good in the role I just wish the second half of the movie was as good as him. Director Barry Levinson hasn't made a good movie since Wag the Dog in 1997. Since then it's been Sphere, Envy, and What Just Happened. It's been a long time since Rain Man and The Natural.


Tombstone 3 1/2 stars. Have you seen Tombstone? You really should. If anything you should see it for Val Kilmer's phenomenal performance as Doc Holliday. He's a Southern aristocrat, poker player, quick draw gunslinger who has TB. And he's pretty funny. "Maybe poker's just not your game Ike. I know, let's have a spelling contest." The screenplay is chocked full of great lines and manly performances. Kurt Russell is also very strong as Wyatt Earp. The romance subplot is a snore, but there's enough tough guy six shooter, double barreled shotgun action to please anyone. The gunfight at the OK Corral does not disappoint and is still as exciting as ever. A great supporting cast includes Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Bill Paxton, and of all people, Jason Priestley.




Say Anything... 3 1/2 stars. Some argue that Say Anything is the best high school romance movie ever. They might be right. This was Cameron Crowe's(Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) first movie and it is the last of the John Hughes-esque high school romances. As if you don't know, John Cusack is of course Lloyd Dobler, a not sure what he wants to do with life kickboxer who decides to ask out his class valedictorian Diane Court(Ione Skye). It's a opposites relationship but it's not played for silly laughs or misunderstandings. The movie's straightforward and honest about what it would be like for these two people to get to know each other and start a relationship. It's all very well done. That being said, I forgot how funny the movie was with a fantastic supporting cast that includes Joan Cusack, Lily Taylor (Joe lies!) and Jeremy Piven screaming hilarious things loudly. The subplot about Diane's father I could live without but the heart of the movie is still so strong. Everyone remembers Lloyd holding up that boom box playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes", but I always remember their conversation in the dojo. "One question. Do you need someone or do you need me? (pause) Forget it, I don't really care." Lloyd Dobler is the guy I want to see. He's a complete character. He's a real guy. Too bad Ione Skye didn't really do much after this(she was briefly in Zodiac and Fever Pitch) but sometimes your first role is the best. It has a great screenplay, it's a great early 90s time capsule movie, and it's a movie you should rent again.