JULY Larry Crowne (7/1) I haven’t seen a comedy that doesn’t have a high concept in a while. I’m going. Tom Hanks directed his first film That Thing You Do 16 years ago and hopefully this one is just as warm and optimistic. The trailer looks good, even though Julia Roberts seems to be playing the milder version of Bad Teacher. Hanks also wrote the screenplay. When was the last time you met someone named Larry? Transformers: Dark of the Moon (6/29) Despite the good trailer, I’m going to skip this one. It’s going to make tons of money, somehow they got Frances McDormand and Malkovich to be in it, and it’s shot in Chicago, but no. I don’t care if it was shot with the same 3D cameras as Avatar either. No! This is a money bags phenomenon I have never and will never connect with. I equate them to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We all loved the cartoon, we watched those movies as kids, but no one wants to watch them now. I just don’t care about Shia or whatever unrealistically beautiful girlfriend he has. I’ve said it before, these are technically advanced robots who can transform. Why do they always end up punching and wrestling each other? It makes no sense! Horrible Bosses (7/8) No matter how many posters they shove in my face, I do not want to watch this movie.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (7/15) I’m so unbelievably excited about it that I don’t want to talk about it with anyone and have them ruin my perception of it. Don’t talk to me about Harry Potter. However, I have considered that it could maybe be not good. That is always a possibility with any film. But for those of us who have read the books, no matter how good or bad the movies have been, they can’t compare to reading those books. 8 films, 10 years, it’s an amazing achievement. It all ends, and that makes me sad.
Captain America (7/22) Spider-man in WWII. Isn’t that what it is? I don’t think it’s a bad thing, not at all. Biologically altered geek puts on suit and fights. This time it’s Nazis not NYC. I’m really looking forward to Captain America, especially since Chris Evans climbed his way out of the hole of The Fantastic Four and Not Another Teen Movie to become a pretty good actor. I thought he was very good in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine. We’ll see how people reach though to Red Skull. Could be freaking silly. Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci add some reassurance.
Friends with Benefits (7/29) Didn’t this come out in January with Natalie Portman? I wonder if they’ll discover that they should be more than friends in the end? What a surprise that will be!
Cowboys & Aliens (7/29) I don’t know if cowboys and aliens are a good combo. I don’t know if cowboys and anything is a good combo. I enjoy a good Western but this is going to be very hard to pull off even with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. Btw, congratulations Dan on secretly marrying Rachel Weisz which makes you the Brangelina of British cinema. When the trailer came up, I remember my audience being very confused. Then when the title came up, they burst out laughing. Hopefully Favreau has something up his sleeve.
Crazy Stupid Love (7/29) Who thought of putting Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling in the same movie? It’s a good idea. Honestly I didn’t know Gosling had a sense of humor. Or that he’s apparently ripped to shreds. The directors are actually the writers of Bad Santa so it probably won’t be as syrupy as the trailer suggests. They did direct I Love You Phillip Morris though, a movie I did not like. This is the first Steve Carell post-Office movie and I hope it does well. He certainly deserves the success.
Others you should avoid in July: Zookeeper, Smurfs
Arthur 3 stars I’ve never seen the original Arthur. I don’t think many people my age and younger have. Nor have we seen many Dudley Moore films at all. I’m certainly aware of him but 10 with Bo Derek isn't necessarily in the movie canon. So coming into this remake, it’s basically a brand new movie for me and it happens to be a good one.
Arthur (Russell Brand) is the sole heir of a vast billion dollar fortune and his mission in life is to have as much fun as possible. I see movies where people have money and they try to spend it, but none of them beat Arthur. The opening scene involves him renting the Batmobile, dressing up in full rubber costume and tearing down the streets of New York, cops chasing. Later that night, after hearing there is a recession going on, he goes to an ATM machine and cheerfully hands out free money to anyone who may want it.
Things are getting out of hand though, particularly in the drinking department, and his mother gives him an ultimatum. Either he will marry Jennifer Garner’s character Susan Johnson, who is a very successful business woman, and who as his wife will continue the legitimacy and reputation of their company. Or he is cutoff from the money. All of it. He decides to get married but unfortunately or fortunately he meets Naomi, an optimistic semi-hipster who gives tours of Grand Central Station even though she has no license and is not actually employed by anyone to do so. She is played by Greta Gerwig who was the only thing I liked about Greenberg and who belongs in every trailer and every poster of this movie because she is one of the best things about it. She is a strange, strangely wonderful girl who plays very well off Arthur’s more outrageous behavior. There could and should be a whole movie about her character.
Arthur goes through the expected embarrassing situations trying to continue this wedding as he wants to find out a way to be with Naomi, but it works and doesn’t seem the least bit stale because of Russell Brand. One thing you have to like to like this movie is Russell Brand and I really do. His verbal dexterity is off the charts.
“We shouldn't get married... we have nothing in common. You love horses. I don't trust them. Their shoes are permanent. Who makes that kind of a commitment to a shoe?”
His comic timing is spot on and thankfully it’s all within character. It’s not like he’s playing the same guy from Sarah Marshall. And it’s refreshing to have someone very verbal who is not Vince Vaughn. He also is instinctively a rather kind person and that comes through. He mostly gives the money away and wants to make people around him happy. And it was Brand’s choice to get Helen Mirren to play his nanny Hobson and it’s a pretty inspired pairing. I’ve never really seen Helen Mirren play a role like this. I don’t know if I’ve seen her in a comedy before. I’ve certainly never seen her put on a Darth Vader mask and say, “Wash your winky”. Her character actually has an important storyline that takes the movie into weightier territory than one might expect later in the film. I liked that. Arthur is superficial and a hedonist but the movie isn’t only that.
Thinking about it now I have even more affection for it. It’s hard to make a good comedy and this is one of them. It has a strong amount of heart and I think a lot of creativity with what could admittedly be a tired premise. Seriously, the movie shows some great ways to spend a lot of money. Who wouldn’t want to drive a DeLorean when you’re going to meet your future father-in-law? Sadly it didn’t do well at the box office but it’s one you should rent.
The Firm 3 ½ starsHaving not watched it in years, I was taken aback by how good the movie actually is. Grisham was huge at the time. Everyone was reading his books, and in particular, The Firm was an enormous success. I remember reading it over a week while I was sick in high school. The movie also made $250 million worldwide which probably somehow negatively affects our perception of its quality, but it’s just not true.
Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is in the top 5 at Harvard Law and is being courted by the most prestigious firms across the country. One thing that dates the film is that a Chicago firm offers him $68,000 which does seem pretty low these days. Bendini, Lambert, and Locke is a small Memphis firm with about 40 lawyers and they give Mitch an offer he can’t refuse. They find out his top offer and then add 20% to it. Added to that a Mercedes, a low interest mortgage and other unusually generous perks. He says yes, he and his wife Abby (a very good Jeanne Tripplehorn) move down South, and things go well for a while. Until they don’t of course. Two lawyers at the firm suddenly die in a scuba diving accident in the Caymans and then a couple of FBI men approach Mitch and let him know that two more had died previously, making it four dead lawyers in less than ten years. Eventually Mitch discovers the truth about the firm and he has to find a way to get out.
As evil movie corporations/companies go, Bendini, Lambert, and Locke is one of the best. It’s lack of outward sinister evil is what makes it so appealing. They do seem like Southern gentlemen, gracious and accommodating. They shower Mitch with compliments and support and at one point out of nowhere they decide to pay off his school loan. How could any of us say no? And they chose Wilford Brimley the Quaker Oats man to be their security chief! He is very good in the movie, particularly in a terribly effective scene where he “debriefs” Mitch on what the FBI may coerce him with. It’s not the FBI he’s talking about. The movie is filled with great supporting characters like him. Gene Hackman is so good as Mitch’s mentor Avery Tolar, Holly Hunter and David Strathairn have nice turns, and even though he’s only in two scenes, Gary Busey is just fantastic as private investigator Eddie Lomax. Also Ed Harris has a small role as Mitch’s FBI contact Wayne Tarrance. Look at what he does with only a few scenes. He creates such real moments, such alive moments with behavior. Great actors really do so much more than the rest. The plot is engaging and complex with the firm embedding themselves into every part of Mitch’s life. There are a lot of strands to Mitch’s plan and I think the payoff (different than the book) is surprising and satisfying.
There are a lot of movies about idealistic young men who get seduced by money and prestige. A lot of mob movies are just about that. Recent movies like Limitless and even the new Wall Street try to cover the same thematic material but I was surprised at how weak they are in comparison to this movie that is close to 20 years old now. Grisham deserves a lot of the credit as he created this world and its characters. As so many thrillers are bad, it makes the good ones all the more special.
Eastern Promises 4 starsI wonder if Cronenberg fans like his last two films. The Fly, Dead Ringers, The Dead Zone, Naked Lunch. These are the ones he’s known for. Then he does two films containing characters entangled in an inner mafia world, both examining the nature of violence, both starring Viggo Mortensen. For me, I actually like these last two more.
Eastern Promises is about the Russia mob in London but it’s a story told from the edges. Nikolai (Viggo) is just a driver. He’s good friends with the boss’s son Kirill (Vincent Cassel in bold performance lacking vanity) and they keep running into a doctor (Naomi Watts) who delivered a baby of a young Russian girl who died during childbirth. The 14 year-old had a diary and it implicates some of the people in the mob and she wants to find out what really happened. These may seem like elements in some plotty crime thriller, but Cronenberg is much more interested in the people. I’m more interested in the people. Viggo gives maybe the performance of his life as this Russian thug from the Urals. He is totally convincing as a born and bred Russian man. The physical transformation is complete with that hair and the tattoos, but so much of it is his general manner. He walks different and stands different and his attitude is so very different. I think it’s one of the best performances of the last decade. The inner look into this small segment of the Russian mob is fascinating. There is an odd scene where a man with an accordion sings a song during an old woman’s birthday party. Normally we’d hear a bit of the song, but Cronenberg wants us to hear a lot of it. As he sings and sings, we feel differently about these people. They are warm and family oriented and a bit sad and tragic.
Underneath the plot, there are many deep undercurrents going on. Kirill may be a homosexual and kills a man because of the accusation, Naomi Watts recently lost her baby in a previous relationship and is desperate to find a home for this baby, a young mentally challenged boy has his throat cut at a soccer match, and there is the issue of sex trafficking which I personally find one of the most repulsive crimes happening in the world today. These aren’t just sensational additions, they seem to stir up a feeling that there are secret, sometimes very dark emotional reasons people choose to be the way they are. And there are sometimes violent consequences to those choices. A lot of focus is put on the choices each character makes, particularly Nikolai who has secrets I won’t reveal.
One thing he does reveal is his complete naked body as Cronenberg stages one of the best hand to hand movie fights of all time with Viggo being attacked in a bath house by two burly men with curved knives. It is a brutal scene that must’ve been brutal to shoot. It's not like he has anywhere to hide padding. And although I find Naomi’s ending a tad bit sentimental, the last shot of Nikolai sitting alone counters that with questions. Questions about violence, about righteousness, about living within insular worlds. You might not be in the mob, but are you part of a group and what will you do for that group. Cronenberg is such an intelligent, deep thinking person and that comes through in his films. I find the intellectual discussion just as interesting as the emotional involvement. It’s a great movie.
Bobby Fischer Against the World 3 starsRecently I’ve started to become more and more fascinated by geniuses. There are people who do things well, and then there is a whole other level where it has nothing to do with the accomplishments that come from hard work or dedication. There are people who have innate gifts that can’t be explained. They just have them. What happens when you’re the best in the world at something? Particularly something that is intellectual. Why does it become sadly tragic? By all accounts Bobby Fischer was the greatest chess player ever. They say he penetrated the secrets of chess deeper than anyone ever had. He was obsessed, he dedicated the entirety of his childhood to chess, forgoing the normal activities any young boy has. I watched TV when I ate, he looked at a chessboard. In 1972 he did play Boris Spassky for the world title and although rife with political meaning, he didn’t seem to care that much about that. He wanted to be the best in the world, but even then he started unraveling. He complained about the sound of the cameras to positioning of the chairs. He stalled, almost didn’t show up, showed up late, only to be tardy for latter games. (btw, when was the last time you used the word tardy). As history notes he did beat Spassky but soon after he gave up chess. In his late 20s he was done, he became a recluse, and when he reappeared in ’94 in Yugoslavia after a young Hungarian girl coaxed him out of exile (leave it to a pretty girl), he became that crazy old man you see occasionally on the street. If it were not for his fame and money, he would be in fact be walking the streets muttering to himself about conspiracies against him. He also alarmingly became an anti-Semite despite the fact that his mother and father were both Jewish. As documentaries go, it’s very compelling material, even more surprising since it’s about chess which one would hardly think of as compelling film material. Searching for Bobby Fischer is a great movie though.
If you are the best at something you must be obsessed with it, and at some point in order to reach the level beyond, you seem to have to break with society. One great analogy they used was the brain as branches of a tree. The more complex your mind gets the more branches there are, with more and more strands reaching out. However there is a saturation point where the branches become too much and start overlapping each other and you can’t find your way out. I think that’s what may have happened to Bobby Fischer. He’ll always be known as the best player ever, but at what cost. Then again, if he were a more rational regular guy, he probably wouldn’t have been the best, and no one would know who he was. Hopefully it’s replaying on HBO now as it is a HBO documentary.
An interesting article about the studios possibly shifting away from so many films that pander to geeks. It's been 10 years of comic book movies. I think it's time for a change.
Watched this Week The Good: The Killer, HP and the Deathly Hallows Pt. I, HP6, Wimbledon, Harry Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Good Will Hunting, White Men Can't Jump The Bad:The Housemaid The Ugly: Sucker Punch Trips to the Theater: The Tree of Life Actors of the Week: Chow Yun Fat, Paul Bettany, Jeon Do-Yeon Directors of the Week:Richard Loncraine, David Yates
Quote I've been saying to myself all week: "You have failed to maintain your weapon, son." -Michael Caine in Harry Brown
Trailers/Clips of the Week: The Muppets. Full trailer. Look at Amy Adams' expressions starting at 1:42.
A Dangerous Method. Despite the conventional trailer, it's Cronenberg directing. His 3rd time with Viggo.
The Lincoln Lawyer 2 ½ stars The first hour ain’t bad. McConaughey is the Lincoln Lawyer, another slick movie defense attorney who is very good at his job. He works for bikers, he works for hookers, he works for Ryan Phillippe who is brat son in a wealthy LA family who has been charged with rape and murder. Of course he takes the case. I don’t watch TV shows about lawyers and I usually dislike courtroom dramas, but the good ones always have one strong element: a very smart lead who has very good dialogue. McConaughey (his third time being a lawyer after A Time to Kill and Amistad) is movie star great as Mick Haller the Lincoln Lawyer. This role seems pretty perfect for him. The supporting cast is also filled with good/great actors like William H. Macy, Marisa Tomei, Michael Pena, and Bryan Cranston. And for the first hour things looked promising. But there is a twist, which I will not reveal, about halfway through the film that takes it in another direction and took me out of it. I think it’s a case of a screenplay that was a fairly standard courtroom film and the screenwriting got too clever and tried to think of something that could be perceived as original. This was based on a novel and maybe it worked better there. In the movie it comes off as desperate and whatever plausible credibility gained in the first hour is lost in the second. Also Ryan Phillippe is miscast as this LA bad boy. He needs to be sleazier and less genuine. It all ends up being disappointing and amateurish. One thing though, are there any lawyers in the world who are not alcoholics? Every time you see one in a movie, they have a drink their hand. Either it’s true or the movies have told them it’s true.
Paul 2 starsPretty dull. Thankfully it’s not too broad, not too gross out, but it’s not too much of anything else. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are English buddies who attend the San Diego Comic Con and then plan to drive out to Area 51 in a RV. They take photos and generally goof around when they actually come across and alien named Paul. Paul looks very much like the classic green alien with a large head and thin body and he’s voiced by Seth Rogen. Rogen’s voice is the best part of the movie and Paul the alien feels real. I’m not sure if there was a little man in a suit or if it was mostly CG, but he seems really there in those scenes. Still, it’s not that fun with ultra serious FBI agents (has that choice ever been funny) and Kristen Wiig as a girl who wears glasses with one lens darkened since she is blind in one eye. It’s fairly forgettable. I'm forgetting it already.
Henry's Crime 1 ½ stars Henry’s real crime is that this movie stinks. Keanu Reeves is a toll booth operator who is tricked into giving two friends a ride to a softball game when in reality they use him as a getaway driver for a bank job. The heist goes bad and Henry is arrested and put into prison. When he gets out, he realizes his dream. His dream is to rob the bank he was convicted of robbing. His prison buddy James Caan gets parole and helps out. The bank is actually adjacent to a theater where Vera Farmiga is rehearsing a Chekov play and she’s similar in age to Reeves so of course they… Ugh, this movie is just plain lazy. It’s a first draft. Someone could’ve thought about it more and written something better. Something that was actually funny or fun as caper movies should be. Another crappy independent film.
Kill the Irishman 2 ½ stars Union organizer, criminal, mobster, unkillable. Kill the Irishman really wants to be Goodfellas as title character Irishman Danny Greene took on the Italian mob in Cleveland during the 70s. It has a great cast: Christopher Walken, Vincent D’Onofrio, Val Kilmer, and Ray Stevenson as Danny Greene. The 70s look great and despite a small budget it feels complete with strong production value. The storytelling is awkward though. Time is condensed so much it becomes distracting. Within minutes Danny meets his first wife, a waitress, played by Linda Cardellini, they get married, have kids and he’s busted for bribery and extortion as Union President. This all happens in less than 10 minutes. Or it at least feels that way. Greene has had a lot life (a lot of it eluding car bombs) but the movie tries to get in too much too fast. It is episodic and there doesn’t seem to be a strong emotional throughline to take us through the movie. Ray Stevenson (Rome, The Book of Eli) is a good actor, but he doesn’t have the charisma of a leading man in this one. Danny Greene is exactly what he is on the surface. He isn’t complicated and he doesn’t have demons, which is probably great in life, but not very interesting on screen. Even his escapes from death end up feeling too jokey. For a movie about everyone in Cleveland gunning for one man, there isn’t much tension.
Wimbledon 3 ½ stars A seriously underrated romantic comedy is Wimbledon. The Brits do the rom coms better than us. Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind) plays aging tennis pro Peter Colt at his last tournament at Wimbledon and he meets rising American star Lizzie Bradbury played by Kirsten Dunst. He knows it's his last, he doesn't expect to do well, but the more he gets to know the girl, the more he starts winning. He becomes a minor celebrity at the tournament as he is English and it's rare for a hometown boy to be doing so well.
The great thing about the movie is the complete inside look into Wimbledon. It is still the grandest of the majors and director Richard Loncraine got full access to shoot all over the hallowed grounds. It is rather alarming to see actors playing tennis on Center Court. Bettany is such a winning lead. He gives a Hugh Grant-esque performance of a self-deprecating, modest player who doesn't have to beat his opponents as much as he has to beat his own nerves. His scenes with Dunst are very good, surprising as they're such different actors. She herself is convincing as a serious pro athlete and the issues they have (as couples in rom coms must) are rather adult and mature. Do relationships make you weaker in competition? How much will you sacrifice in order to win? It's not that deep, but at least she doesn't find him talking to an ex or some other stupid misunderstanding that screenwriters find so clever. Working Title produced the film and their track record for intelligence in this unintelligent genre is the best. Four Weddings, Bridget Jones, Notting Hill. They're in a class by themselves.
The movie and the tennis are handsomely shot. There is also a memorable opening title sequence and nice supporting parts for Jon Favreau (very funny as Peter's agent), Sam Neill (from Jurassic Park as Lizzie's dad), and a young James McAvoy as Peter's younger brother. They even got Chris Evert and McEnroe to play themselves as commentators in the film. As sports movies go (a genre I usually dislike) it wins on that level too. I recently came to the realization that I really enjoy watching tennis and considering I can't think of any other tennis movies, it's good that this one is so enjoyable.
I'm sorry to say that I had to follow my own rule. The rule being: If you're not enjoying the movie within the first 30 minutes, you should shut it off or walk out. I actually went to around 40 minutes, but I that's what I did. I walked out.
Director Terrence Malick is Terrence Malick and he will never stop being that. I adored The New World, very much liked The Thin Red Line, but as hard as I tried, I could not engage in The Tree of Life. And I realized one cinematic limitation I definitely have, which is I want to watch movies about people. I've always a hard time with any cinema that is not about people. Also, I'm admittedly not a big fan of nature. Of those first 40 minutes, 30 of them are long, lingering shots of nature. The dessert, the ocean, rock formations. Then space and constellations and celestial phenomena. Some are stunning, and Malick knows how to shoot, but there was no movie to the movie. There are shots that contain Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, but they are inconsequential. He seems much more concerned with how beautiful a waterfall is. It felt like an IMAX documentary you watch at the planetarium and instead of the narration describing the insects of the Congo, we get very, very familiar Malick narration that mostly consists of detached questions in the characters' minds. Where did I come from? Who brought you here? Where are you now? After several similar uses in many of his films, that technique is far from fresh.
Now I'm not saying it's a bad movie, not at all. First, I can't say that because I didn't complete it, and I promise I will on Blu-ray. Then I will write a proper review. I think it's a case of an artist, and Malick is a true artist, doing what he wants to do, and I just didn't respond to his latest piece. I knew there was close to 2 hours left, and I knew I wasn't going to suddenly start enjoying it. Sorry Terry. I will watch your next film with Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams. But I will wait for the Blu-ray.
0 stars You really will be unprepared. What a mess. It's true what they say, only good directors can make the really horrendous movies. Mediocre talent don't have the ambition to create something so terrible. At the worst their movies are boring and forgettable. Sucker Punch takes it to another level.
Baby Doll (Emily Browning from Lemony Snicket) has an abusive stepfather (her mother has recently died) and one day he kills her little sister. She tries to make a run for it but is caught by the police and fearing what she may say, the stepfather sends her to Lennox House for the Mentally Insane. It seems to be an institution solely made up of young 20 year-old girls. The stepfather pays them to give her a lobotomy and at this point things started looking very bad.
First, Baby Doll (they all have stripper names) doesn't say one word for the first 18 minutes of the film. I clocked it. Her first sentence is, "Let go of her pig". This choice makes little sense. What does this add to our investment of the character? There are some effective shots of her reacting to the horrors around her but at 18 minutes in I do not know this girl and I don't not care about her. Then, really from totally out of nowhere, we jump into a fantasy world. Fantasy being that the world is in her mind and the mental institution becomes I guess a burlesque house with all of the patients now private dancers creating their own routines. How empowering to women. Their psychiatrist (Carla Gugino) transforms into a choreographer. The goal is still the same, she wants to escape, and she is told she will need to obtain 5 things before she escapes. A map, fire, a key, a knife, a fifth item that is a secret.
She and some of the girls put their plan into action and go for each of the items. They do this by Baby Doll doing her dance. The person they need to take the item from is so entranced by the dance (though we are never shown one move), that the girls can take what they want. During each dance, we then enter yet another fantasy world, which is the world you've seen the in the trailers and TV spots. This is similar to the device used in Chicago where the musical numbers are really in Renee Zellweger's head. This time instead of singing, we get some of the biggest, boldest, and f--king meaningless action scenes you have ever seen.
Let me try to remember all the details: Gigantic Samurai men, dragons, crystals that can ignite fire, Nazis who have been brought back to life by steam technology, Orcs from LOTR, robots, and small rocket ships in the trenches of World War II. The girls are equipped with large automatic weapons, Baby Doll wields a Samurai sword, and they get a costume change during every mission which mostly involves fishnet stockings, short skirts, and lots and lots of eyeliner. Let me be clear, this is all beyond ridiculous. There is ridiculous, and this movie needs a new word to describe what it is. Nothing makes sense. What are the rules of the world? There apparently are no rules. The girls have superhuman abilities in these sequences. At one point they jump out of a plane like an airmen dropping into France, but they don't need parachutes and just land on the ground in a Matrix pose. Why don't they just fly? Why don't they just do anything? Are these action sequences supposed to reflect what is going on in the club, which is the institution, which is... I'm lost. What time period is it? Why is she fantasizing about things that maybe a 12 year-old boy would fantasize about? This is a junior high kid's wet dream, being thrust into a video game and never dying, but what does this have to do with her? Does she have some history with comic books and Anime? Nothing is explained. We're dropped into long, pointless battles that have no consequence. We are completely not prepared for them, and they are just overwhelmingly irritating. Non-stop action that I desperately wanted to stop. Freaking torturous. This is a perfect example of a movie jam packed with action and special effects, but who the F cares because we have no clue what they have to do with anything! They could be part of any movie, they have no bearing on any story or plot (you know those picky things movies actually need). I usually like Zack Snyder's visual sense, but nothing works here. The entire movie is comprised of trailer money shots and covers of pop songs that do not fit the film. How many shots do we need of swords slicing through robots in ultra slow motion? How many shots do we need of bullets going into bad guys in ultra slow motion? How many?! It's water torture. It's a joke you're being forced to hear over and over and over again.
The movie is a colossal failure. Incoherent and gratuitous and monumentally stupid. The only things good about it are its title, one shot of a blown out light bulb, and one nice slow motion shot of the girls walking into enemy territory. It also is misogynistic and irresponsible. Why must Snyder put a rape scene in his last two films? Why do these actresses allow him to grease them up in glycerin, dress them in trashy hooker outfits and high heels while they shoot hundreds of soldiers with big guns? Why does no one making this movie have a shred of decency and taste? I'm floored by the achievement. If you tried to make a movie this bad, you could not possibly succeed. It's an absolute embarrassment for Zack Snyder, a talented director who decided to punish us by vomiting his horny adolescent desires onto film. I guess he felt he had to show the world what he masturbated to when he was 14. This was his own story, he's credited as one of the screenwriters.
Gigli, The Postman, Spider-man 3. All better than this movie. Showgirls, better than this movie. If I think of more negative adverbs and adjectives I will add them to this review later. I can't believe it. It is one of the worst I have seen in a lifetime of watching movies. I was the one sucker punched. In the friggin' groin.
Watched this Week The Good: The Adjustment Bureau, Face/Off, M:I 2, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Unstoppable, E.T. The Bad:The Lincoln Lawyer, Paul, Windtalkers The Ugly: None Trips to the Theater: Super8 Actors of the Week: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Nick Cage Directors of the Week:JJ Abrams, John Woo
Thinking about Damon's not so great romantic performance in The Adjustment Bureau (Review), I thought we should go back and highlight his other on screen romances and see if we can't find a pattern. A few spoilers ahead if you haven't seen these movies.
Good Will Hunting. Lies to Minnie Driver's character for the majority of the movie about a family that doesn't exist. At some point he says her to her face, "I don't love you". At the end he may be off to go see about a girl, but we feel more for his relationship with Affleck's character Chuckie.
Rounders. Is living with Gretchen Mol's character, he slowly pulls away and chooses loyalty to his friend Worm. There's even a scene where Famke Janssen basically offers to sleep with him but he goes off to find Worm. In the end he decides to leave for Vegas because he loves poker more than either of these women.
The Talented Mr. Ripley. In order to avoid getting caught in a lie, he suffocates his would be gay lover under a pillow.
The Bourne Identity/Supermacy. Franka Potente's character, after a few months of living together in India, is shot in the head by an assassin and he watches her die underwater. Ocean's Eleven/Twelve/Thirteen. No indication of any romantic needs. Attempts to seduce an older woman as part of the con, but requires a powerful aphrodisiac to do so.
All the Pretty Horses. Does anyone remember anything that happened in this movie with Penelope Cruz? I don't think it ended well.
The Good Shepherd. Is trapped in a loveless, painfully secretive marriage for a few decades with Angelina Jolie's character out of obligation to their child. He is unfaithful to her several times with a previous girlfriend.
The Departed. Lives a complete lie in his relationship with Vera Farmiga's character. He is annoying not charming on his dates with her, he becomes impotent, and he loses her affection to Dicaprio's character Billy Costigan. Their relationship ends when she walks away from him at a funeral, pregnant with possibly his child.
One I'll give you is The Rainmaker as his relationship with Claire Danes's character is comparatively sweet. They end up together after he kills her abusive husband with an aluminum baseball bat. This has got to be one of the worst movie dating track records around. He's still a fantastic actor, but you should never date any of his characters. Even LaBoeuf.
4 stars JJ Abrams did it again. He is becoming a director to take serious note of. Super 8 is being sold as a film about mysterious occurrences in a small town that may or may not have to do with aliens. But as I left the theater, that's not at all what I was thinking about.
Joe Lamb is 13 years-old and his mother has just died from an accident at a local factory. He's left with his dad (Friday Night Light's Kyle Chandler) who is a deputy policeman. Four months later it's the summer of 1980 and Joe and his four friends are making a Super 8 zombie movie that isn't half bad. If you don't know, Super 8 refers to the type of film they're using. Digital camera, Super 8 camera. Joe's friend Charles is directing the movie and he believes there will be more story if they add a girl to the movie. He recruits Alice (Elle Fanning) to play the wife of the detective who is investigating these zombies. They go out late one night near a train station to film a scene when the mother of all of movie train wrecks happens. It makes the one in The Fugitive look like a love tap. It is an enormous wreck, but surprisingly within that, they discover their science teacher in the wreckage. He's in a car, he's badly injured, and the only thing he says to them is do not talk about this with anyone. They will suffer, their parents will suffer, and he scares them enough that they believe him. However, despite their silence, strange things start happening in the town that cannot be explained. The military men cleaning up the wreckage won't say anything and Joe and his friends start to find out why.
I don't want to give anything else away. That's part of the fun of it. JJ Abrams has written an exciting narrative that kept me in it the whole time, but what he really does immensely well, and what I really took way from the film, were these kids. They aren't annoying teenage boys who are trying to talk like adults. They are absolutely authentic. The way they talk to each other, the way they fight and argue, the way the behave, it's so genuinely real. It's the kind of thing you don't think about how good it is. This isn't just about letting five kids run around in front of a camera, this is very well written dialogue. These guys are funny and fun and I felt transported back to the 80s when I myself was a kid. Choosing the early 80s turns out to be a masterful choice. Somehow my mind accepted these fantastical things better since the movie takes place 30 years ago. And it's not just the music and the haircuts and the funny clothes, there's a real spirit Abrams captures here that is so enjoyable to live in. I loved this town and all of these characters and even if the movie had nothing to do with extra terrestrials and government cover-ups, I would've loved watching these five friends ride bikes through town and finish their zombie movie just as much.
Everyone will be talking about Elle Fanning after this movie. She is Dakota's younger sister and she was briefly in Benjamin Button as the young Cate Blanchett, and she is completely lovely and luminous in this movie. Every 13 year-old boy in the world will want to date Alice Dainard. Her father (a very good Ron Eldard) is actually an alcoholic, and her mother walked out on them, but she finds a real connection with Joe and their relationship could not be sweeter. It's another reason it's great to set the movie in 1980. He doesn't want to sleep with her, he wants to stay up all night talking with her and maybe hold her hand. His dad doesn't like that he's spending time with her and his response is, "She's nice to me." I thought about that for a while. That's exactly what he wants, someone to be nice to him. Don't we all want that?
Try as I might, I don't think critical analysis can convey what the movie truly is. It's very human, very emotional, and you just gotta go see it. And you gotta go hear it. Composer Michael Giacchino (Lost, Star Trek) cranks out yet another fantastic score. What does this guy know that other don't? Those first few lines of music began the movie and I was already emotionally affected. And I think that's what the movie does. It isn't perfect, it's maybe not even all that original, but it is emotional. After spending so much time with these characters I did well up at the end and felt a kind of goodness that I haven't felt after a movie in a while. It was great to feel that way again.
3 stars What a terrible title. Casablanca, An Affair to Remember, When Harry Met Sally. The Adjustment Bureau, that's fricking romantic.
I'm a little torn on this movie and it's a case where my movie knowledge isn't helping me. The movie is about an Adjustment Bureau who are angels in three piece suits and fedoras who adjust world to according to a big man's plans. The members of this team aren't aware of the grander plan, but they are given assignments, specific people they need to alter and adjust so that their lives go according to that plan.
David Norris (Matt Damon) is a rising political star in New York and by chance he meets a beautiful dancer Elise (Emily Blunt). It's safe to say it's love at first sight. But the Bureau doesn't want them to be together and so they are taken apart. Norris is determined though, so much so that the Bureau has no choice but to reveal themselves to him so he will stop his pursuit. And into this comes some strong thematic material. Free will vs. Fate, Love vs. Life Dreams, it's interesting stuff.
What is immediately apparent to me is that this is a great script. This is a script any budding screenwriter wants to write. The structure, the plot points, the timing of information, everything works so well. This is an incredibly well constructed story that I did get so invested in because of its construction. You create this shadow world of everyone telling David Norris not to do one thing, and of course he's going to do it. And of course we want him to do it. When was the last movie you went to where you wanted the authorities to win. We want to see love and free will triumph and writer/director George Nolfi creates a labyrinth of obstacles in the way of this relationship which then makes us even more invested in David and Elise being together. It is fantastic screenwriting.
However, how about that relationship. I like Damon, I love Blunt, and they are both smart actors, but sadly this just isn't a great screen romance. There's something to be said about Jack and Rose, Rick and Ilsa, Jesse and Celine. There are those great screen relationships that are pretty magical. The sum usually becomes greater than its parts but here it feels like there's less than the movie would want us to feel. They seem to get along and they laugh at each others jokes, but I didn't sense much of a special connection. I didn't have that feeling that you're supposed to have when movie couples are together. I don't know what it exactly is, but for a romantic movie, the romance is the weakest part. Maybe Matt Damon just isn't a romantic lead kind of guy. One thing Affleck has over Damon is that he is good at it (Chasing Amy, even The Town). And so the machinations of the plot made me care about David and Elise being together, but the guy who vicariously enjoys idealistic movie love was disappointed.
It's definitely worth seeing though. The film is handsomely put together and in particular, the scenes where Emily Blunt is dancing are very good. Those brief moments are much more engaging to me than all of the ice queen dancing in Black Swan. And as I said, the thematic material is very strong. Would you give up your dreams for love? I think as I get older, I have a harder time answering that question. Dreams and your life's work are pretty important and special things. And as a Christian, I have chosen to give up my free will in a lot of ways. It's not always fun, but what's faith then. See, no bad movie causes you to think this much afterwards. One movie this reminded me of was Dark City, a more sci-fi noir look at men in hats adjusting people's lives. Writer/director George Nolfi previously wrote Ocean's Twelve and the last Bourne movie and I look forward to what he will do next. I was not adjusted as much as they wanted me to be.
Watched this Week The Good: X-Men, X2, Children of Men, The Girl in the Cafe, ESPN 30 for 30: The Fab Five, Robot Chicken Star Wars III, Paycheck, The Illusionist The Bad:X3, Henry's Crime, Hunger The Ugly:None Didn't get passed 20 minutes: The Lucky Ones Trips to the Theater: X-Men: First Class Actors of the Week: Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Kevin Bacon Director of the Week: Matthew Vaughn
3 ½ stars X-Men: First Class is possibly the best prequel I have seen. A dramatically satisfying comic book movie that is much more interested in its characters than just a bunch of CG action. If anything, I think comic book fans will be happy that so much of the movie is in fact so much about the characters, who they are, and where they came from.
It felt like the X-Men franchise slowly died after X2. X-Men 3 is barely memorable save for the first major appearance of Ellen Page in a movie, and Wolverine is just unwatchable. What a horrible movie that was. Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) was announced as the director of this prequel and that was a great start. What he put together was a stellar cast, very different from the original. Instead of supermodel Rebecca Romijn, Vaughn got recent Oscar nominee Jennifer Ellison (Winter's Bone) to play Mystique. Kevin Bacon is an inspired choice and surprisingly strong as the villain Sebastian Shaw, Rose Byrne is beautiful and talented in a fairly straight forward role as a CIA Agent, and Nicholas Hoult was the young boy in About a Boy and is Beast. However the best and by far the most compelling are James McAvoy (Wanted) as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto. To me the movie really is about these two men. Yes the Russians are sending nukes to Cuba, yes many mutants are discovered for the first time, but it all comes down these two men and where they will take this new species.
What you want out of a prequel is the history. The previous movies hinted at a long friendship and a united past and now we get to see it. McAvoy is charming and effectively intelligent as the man who brings the first knowledge of genetic mutation to the world. Professor X isn't the most interesting guy in the other movies, but seeing him as a young man, hitting on women and building his ideology, McAvoy really makes it work. There's a strength and integrity to his performance that gives the character a lot more bite than I imagined. The real standout though is Fassbender who everyone should start to get to know after this movie. Tall and handsome, he's a leading man through and through, and he makes Erik Lehnsherr a genuinely complex and complicated man. Such character work shouldn't belong in a movie with blue people and girls with insect wings, but he is absolutely magnetic in every scene. In every shot, I felt my focus going toward him.
The 60s look amazing, with gorgeous production design, costume design, and lighting work that doesn't make the movie feel dated in the least. It feels alive and vibrant which period films are notoriously bad at. Particularly well done is a sequence where Charles and Erik do go recruit Angel the girl with the fly wings in a red leather room. The time period allows the movie to be a bit more sensual and exotic and less concerned with trying to be too of the moment cool. I still cringe when Wolverine drives a Mazda and NSYNC comes on the radio in the second movie. Honestly it's cool seeing a comic book movie not set today.
There are problems of course. None of the younger mutants are all that interesting. They actually are weak and friggin' boring. Their powers aren't great, they themselves aren't, and a get to know you hangout sequence seems forced and staged poorly. Frankly the first class is the weakest part of the movie. Some go bad, some don't, it was handled better before. January Jones is pretty attractive, mostly running around in her underwear but Emma Frost doesn't have that much to do other than turn into the human equivalent of a disco ball. And the bad guy's goons are mostly irritating when they fight and not fun.
Still, I found the movie very satisfying. It is a great prequel that does its job of dramatically showing us significant events that connect with the movies we have already seen. I really want to see another movie with this Professor X and this Magneto. They are much more engaging to me than a hairy guy with big claws. It also doesn't help that his own prequel movie was dull as dishwater. X2 is the best action one (a very good one at that) but this one is just as good in a more serious, dare I say contemplative way. And an incredibly significant moment toward the end is the most emotional moment of all five movies. Don't be hesitant. Go see it. This isn't a continuation, this is something new.
Watched this Week: The Good: Cedar Rapids, Sex Lies and Videotape, The Insider, True Grit, Howards End, The Karate Kid (2010), Secretariat, The King's Speech, Inglourious Basterds (review) The Bad:Dead or Alive The Ugly:None Didn't get passed 20 minutes: Barney's Version Blu-rays Bought: Midnight Cowboy Trips to the Theater: None Actors of the Week: John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Laura San Giacomo Director of the Week: Steven Soderbergh
Trailers/Clips of the Week: The Descendants. From Alexander Payne, writer/director of About Schmidt and Sideways.
Larry Crowne (7/1) I haven’t seen a comedy that doesn’t have a high concept in a while. I’m going. Tom Hanks directed his first film That Thing You Do 16 years ago and hopefully this one is just as warm and optimistic. The trailer looks good, even though Julia Roberts seems to be playing the milder version of Bad Teacher. Hanks also wrote the screenplay. When was the last time you met someone named Larry?
Captain America (7/22) Spider-man in WWII. Isn’t that what it is? I don’t think it’s a bad thing, not at all. Biologically altered geek puts on suit and fights. This time it’s Nazis not NYC. I’m really looking forward to Captain America, especially since Chris Evans climbed his way out of the hole of The Fantastic Four and Not Another Teen Movie to become a pretty good actor. I thought he was very good in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine. We’ll see how people reach though to Red Skull. Could be freaking silly. Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci add some reassurance. 
