Larry Crowne

2 stars I really liked the first film Tom Hanks directed That Thing You Do. It's fun and energetic and a lot of the time joyful. 16 years later he follows up that film with Larry Crowne, which is sometimes fun and energetic, but sadly lacking as a whole. Joyful is not what I would describe the experience of watching it. Maybe intermittently amusing.

Larry Crowne is a top floor employee at a Target type superstore when he is downsized because of his lack of a college education. He can't move forward into the front office because of that so he can't stay with the company. He also can't pay his mortgage, and the $75 it takes to fill up his SUV is killing him. Despite being advertised as a community college movie, Larry Crowne is a movie about a man in his 50s dealing with losing his job and trying to start again.

Starting again does involve East Valley Community College where Larry takes economics and public speaking classes. He inevitably meets some actual college aged students, and one in particular named Talia (British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw) decides to befriend Larry and help him out. Like Crazy, Stupid, Love this becomes a makeover movie for middle aged men. She and her friends begin to change his clothes, his home, his hair, his eyeglasses, all the while Larry himself is slowly getting his life back together. He starts working as a fry cook at a local diner, he actually learns vital information from his economics class (taught by George Takei of Star Trek), and he casually begins a relationship with his Speech Com teacher (Julia Roberts).

This is all very casual, laid back, and sadly sometimes boring. I like a movie that doesn't go into high crisis mode to keep the plot going, but Larry Crowne didn't have enough charm and humor to keep me going with it. There are some enjoyable characters like Larry's neighbor played by Cedric the Entertainer who scored big in the Lottery, chose not to move, and holds a yard sale in front of his home every day of the week. Hanks himself is likable as always. He's one of those actors who is impossible not to like. But the character is a little too slight, a kind of flashback to the kind of guy he played in his 80s comedies. Julia Roberts unfortunately has nothing to do. She's obviously with a terrible guy (Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad) and it's obvious she needs to get out of that relationship and be with Larry since they are the only two white people in the movie around the same age. And of course they're Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. You don't put those two people in a movie together as a brother and sister.

Other bad things. It looks bad. DP Philippe Rousselot has shot some great looking films (Interview with the Vampire, Constantine) but I find that cinematographers have difficulty when it comes to basic suburban America. They don't seem to know what to do with it. As mentioned, the script is very weak. The speech class he takes should be filled with better characters, and not just bland 20 year-olds who text and dance. Also a subplot involving Talia's boyfriend (Wilmer Valderrama) thinking that Larry is making moves on his girlfriend is so tired. It's not funny, and a "comedic" moment involving Larry and his tighty whiteys falls flat. Surprisingly there is very little chemistry between Hanks and Roberts' characters. I think it's because Roberts is playing such a dull downer. She is the anti-Julia Roberts character. She's moody and dour and no fun. Vivian would hate Mercedes Tainot.

A lot of the movie is no fun, despite the fact that I enjoyed many moments that were. You have to wait for them, and a comedy shouldn't make you wait. I look forward to any movie Tom Hanks is in. He's one of the most intelligent and witty actors out there. He has a great sense of self that we can see on screen. Sorry Tom. This isn't Forrest Gump.



This clip is more entertaining than the movie.

Weekly Recap 10/28/11

Watched this Week
The Good: State of Play (the original BBC series), Beginners, Sherlock Holmes
The Bad: Attack the Block, Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
The Ugly: None
Didn't Get Past 20 Minutes: A Little Help (sorry Pam)
Blu-Rays Bought: The Hurt Locker

Trips to the Theater: None

Actors of the Week: John Simm, Bill Nighy, Ewan McGregor
Director of the Week: David Yates



Trailers/Clips of the Week:
The Lorax!


State of Play. The original BBC Series. 6 episodes. Bill Nighy, John Simm, James McAvoy, Kelly MacDonald, directed by David Yates (the last 4 Harry Potters). Bloody awesome.

The Hurt Locker (Re-post)

Review from 3/8/10.

4 stars I wrote a short review back in the summer when it first came out, but I wanted to write a full one now that it's won the Oscar and you might be wondering what in the world is The Hurt Locker.

The Hurt Locker is about an EOD Team (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) in Iraq. They are a mobile bomb disposal unit in maybe the hairiest place in the world. Someone finds a device, they call it in, these 3 guys go and check it out. In many ways the movie is that simple.

Despite its Iraq War setting the movie has zero political agenda. It's not about policy or Presidential administrations, absolutely nothing like that. It's not even about heroism or tragedy. I think it's oddly about knowing what you want to do with your life and doing it. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Will James is the new Team Leader of the EOD Unit in Bravo Company and he is played by the fine actor Jeremy Renner. He was the villain in S.W.A.T., and he's had small supporting roles in North Country and The Assassination of Jesse James. James is a wild man. He's an adrenaline junkie who is seriously good at disarming bombs. He apparently has very little fear and that makes him even better at what he does.

The movie is somewhat episodic as there is no real plot. They aren't trying to locate some evil mastermind bomb maker or anything. The movie follows these guys during 39 days in Bravo Company. As for those episodes, most are great, some are amazing. My favorite is still the unbelievable sniper sequence about halfway into the film. The guys run into some British mercenaries (led by Ralph Fiennes in a nice cameo). A sniper nails one of them and hell breaks loose. It is a masterful sequence of agonizing tension and release. The opponents on either side are 500 meters away from each other but my goodness is this sequence scary. It felt like I was holding my breath the whole time.

The other unforgettable scene is with the burning car where James decides to take off his bomb suit since he'd rather die comfortable. What makes these action sequences so good is the direction by Kathryn Bigelow. She deserves that statue. Despite popular consensus, action scenes are not about cool shots. They are about understanding what is going on so that action has impact. Bigelow chooses camera angles and edits them so that we know exactly where everyone is, where the bomb is, where the threat is coming from. We understand clearly what is going on and what bad may happen. And then she leaves us in that situation to squirm as the threat gets worse and worse. She's giving a clinic on suspense. When the windshield wipers suddenly turn on, I jump out of my seat because all the time she's been making me focus on the wires.

Admittedly, the scenes 2/3 of the way in are not as good with James searching after a local boy at night. They do seem like a different movie. But when the whole thing was done, I realized the film was actually not an action movie, but really a character piece. It's an examination of this kind of person. This guy who is so singularly gifted, he knows it, and that's all he wants to do with his life. He'll probably die young and he definitely won't have a positive family life, but his purpose is crystal clear and that is exhilarating to him and to us. That last moment, James walking down the street, alone, in that bomb suit, 365 Days Left in Delta Company, we completely and undeniably understand who he is. Now that's great storytelling.

Don't blink or you'll miss cameos from Guy Pearce, David Morse("you're a wild man"), and Lost's Evangeline Lilly. I wish you could've seen it in the theater. Turn off the lights and pop in the Blu-ray for some mega suspense.

Beginners

3 ½ stars I'm not a dog guy. I'm not a pet guy altogether. My parents' personal dislike of animals bled into me and my sister and neither of us have ever had pets. The one pet I would consider though is the Jack Russell which is by all accounts the smartest breed of dog. He also happens to be a major supporting character in Beginners.

Soon after Oliver's (Ewan McGregor) mother passes away, his father Hal (Christopher Plummer), at the age of 75, comes out of the closet. He's gay, he has been for years, but he loved his wife and decided to stay in the marriage. Now that she is gone, he wants to be openly gay as possible. However, very soon after this, he is diagnosed with cancer. This past storyline is shown in parallel with the present one as several months after his father's death, Oliver is still sad and dazed in his life and thinking about his father. He's taken in Hal's dog Arthur, and at a friend's party, he meets a beautiful actress named Anna (Melanie Laurent from I.Basterds).

What screams out most prominently is the charm of Oliver's story. Sorry, but it is a hipster love story even though Oliver is a little old to be one. It is very endearing. Oliver has conversations with Arthur the dog and we see subtitles of Arthur's side of the conversation. I need to mention how great Arthur's dialogue is. Rarely have subtitles made me laugh so hard. When he does meet Anna, it's actually at a costume party. He has come as Sigmund Freud, she actually has laryngitis at the time, and their meet cute involves her laying down on the couch as they have faux therapy session. I was admittedly envious of the moments director Mike Mills captured, not only in the romance part of the movie but even at Oliver's job. He's a graphic designer and is doing a CD cover for a band called The Sads. And so we see Oliver's stencil representation of the history of sadness starting with Adam and Eve realizing they aren't happy anymore in their relationship. It's very good stuff.

What is a problem though is the meshing of this part of the movie with the serious dealings of Hal and his cancer. I'm sorry again, but as true as it is for many people, as real as it is for Mike Mills (whose real life story is the basis for much of the film), someone dying of cancer in movie is fairly conventional. They're in denial, they're wrapping up their lives, their trying to make the most of the end. It's really been seen a lot before. TV shows, Lifetime movies, they've made something very personal seem very cliche. That doesn't make it bad, but it can't compete with the other parts of the movie. Unfortunately what it does is take us out of the whimsical relationship between Anna and Oliver. Instead of us getting lost in a whimsical movie romance, Hal's dying emphasizes how frivolous and shallow their relationship is. If the movie was all their story, we wouldn't care, we would just enjoy two people falling in love. But we can't enjoy it fully because people are dying of cancer and it's hard to care about an attractive French actress and a handsome artist trying to work their issues out.

It's a good film, but that battle between the two sides inhibits it from becoming a really great film. Still, there is a lot of wonderful stuff here. It's one of the most beautiful films I've seen this year, with stunning lighting by director of photography Kasper Tuxen. If there is any question about the quality of shooting digital, I think this movie (which was shot on Red One) is one of the answers to that question.

With this and The Ghost Writer, Ewan McGregor is on a roll with good roles. This is one of his best performances. Oliver's a bit detached and in a fog after his father's death, and it's always witty and interesting. I don't think I've seen him do a character like this before. Somehow I did think of Trainspotting, as if Oliver is some alternative version of Renton 15 years later. Also Ewan's American accent finally got better. It doesn't hurt that Melanie Laurent is one of those women who is just blessed and who the camera loves. What is it about European actresses? An American girl would just be ultra extroverted and very obviously/annoyingly goofy. Like Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown. Anna has a few eccentricities, but there's a real person there. She can't be labeled with a "weird", she's too a complex character. It's also one of the more flattering portrayals of an actress in a film. Lastly, there is of course Christopher Plummer. Captain Von Trapp still has the acting chops, even when he's asking his son what house music is and describing it by saying un-ce, un-ce, un-ce.

I think you should see it. Not only for the positive reasons I've mentioned, but you have to see Arthur the dog who is as important a character as any human in the movie. The way the story uses him is impossibly amusing. Mike Mills' previous film was Thumbsucker, an indie I didn't really like. He happens to be married to performance artist Miranda July who is a very good director in her own right (Me You and Everyone We Know). Even if things didn't all come together in the end, the parts were so worth seeing.

Oct 2011 Reviews (Sweeney Todd, Attack the Block)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 4 stars Think about it. A barber who desires revenge meets a meat pie maker, they kill people, bake them into pies, all the while singing. How in the world is it possible that this material works? It is argued that this is Sondheim's best work and it's probably thought that way because of the extreme level of difficulty.

I recently came to the personal realization that instinctively, I do not like musicals. There's that moment, everything's fine and normal, and then someone breaks into a song. For me, that moment usually kills it. The tone of that first transition from a regular movie to a movie musical is where the real creative talent lies. If you can sell that, we'll buy the rest of the movie. Moulin Rouge, Chicago, The Wizard of Oz, and for whatever reason, Sweeney Todd.

Personally, I think the reason is the tone of the film. It's dark and brooding and not the least bit a cheery sing songy musical. Burton got it right. This is certainly the dreariest musical I've ever seen, and I loved that. That tonal choice bleeds into the singing as well. Depp isn't a trained singer, but he's a tremendous actor who is simply acting through singing. He doesn't go into some other worldly heightened performance mode, he seems to be speaking the songs rather than belting them out. I found myself more concerned with what he was communicating through his eyes than what he was doing with his voice. And that's key. I remained emotionally connected to the story. No movie should stop for anything. It shouldn't stop to have an action sequence, a love scene, a song. These set pieces should flow along with the story as naturally as dialogue. I believe if they did hire a trained Broadway singer, I would've liked the movie less. Johnny's not singing to the back of the theater, he's singing for the camera.

One absolutely genius thing Tim Burton did was to take out all the big musical numbers. There are no large groups of dancers. There are no scenes of huge choreography with the townspeople singing about the tale of Sweeney Todd. Most if not all of the songs involve one or two people singing in a room. There's such an intimacy to that choice that my mind didn't break out of the film when they started singing. My favorite numbers are the duet between Depp and Alan Rickman when they sing about "Pretty Women", and the other is the intercutting between Sweeney and Anthony singing about "Johanna". Which is a great example of the black humor of the movie as it is set within a montage of Sweeney cutting the throats of people in his barber chair. Is it wrong that I found it so funny? Another hilarious sequence involves Mrs. Lovett's fantasy of marrying Sweeney Todd by the sea. Johnny's face during those scenes are hysterical.

The thing I noticed most of all this time around watching it in High Def is the beautiful camera and lighting work by cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Crow). During "My Friends" look how perfectly the camera moves to each moment in that song. Burton cuts each beat, each shot, exactly as it should be. It's fluid and gorgeous. I never noticed how many shots each song has, so we're not just staying in a bland wide shot, there are specific angles for specific lyrics. These are choices down to the very last detail. Details that also include some amazing production and costume design. This may be a gloomy film, but it is done with such great style. Even Burton's classic white make-up and dark hollow eyes seem perfectly normal in this world he's created. He's one of those directors where we watch two minutes and know immediately who directed this film.

It's one of Tim Burton's best, along with my personal favorites Batman, Ed Wood, and Beetlejuice. It's also one of his most personal. He watched the first London stage production three nights in a row back in the early 80s and twenty years later he got to make the film. You can tell so clearly that this man loved this material and was dying to show it to us. That kind of enthusiasm and passion are hard to resist. So is seeing Helena Bonham, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Johnny Depp all in one film. It's a strange and bloody one for sure, but Sweeney Todd is very special. That final shot, it breaks my heart.

At last, my arm is complete again.





Attack the Block 2 stars Attack the Block truly is the Bizarro version of Super8. Aliens come to earth, but instead of landing in suburban Ohio amongst a group of nice white kids, they land in the South London projects with a bunch of Anglo African street kids. It is genuine South London and I would really like to read this screenplay to see if any of this dialogue is actually written. It is so street it’s sometimes impossible to understand. I’ve been speaking English my entire life, but some of this slang is darned if I know. Also the South London accent must’ve changed since Jason Statham lived there since now it’s taken on a heavy Jamaican feel to it. Protect the block for the fam, man. Cockney? Or Cool Runnings.

Aliens do arrive but the movie is inspired less by E.T. and more by another 80s movie Gremlins. The aliens are nasty, black and furry and have neon glowing teeth. They seem to have no higher intelligence, they only want to run, tackle, and kill. Sadly they aren’t very compelling as movie monsters go. The teeth may have seemed like a good design idea, but it removes the menace from these creatures. The teeth scream out that these things are fake and created in some workshop.

The bigger problem though, and the reason I disliked the film, is the characters. I just didn’t like them. I don’t identify with English street hoods who have very few redeeming qualities. The first time we meet them they’re mugging a young girl. They’re bullies who think they’re tougher than they are. Who wants to spend time with that? I just wanted them to be eaten and die, mostly because I wanted them to stop saying everything as if it was a question. I’m not scared now, am I? This isn’t real, innit? Say a statement! The action is ok, it really wasn’t that funny, and I think those two things are essential to a movie like this being good. Also I was very turned off by the throwback 80s lighting. It’s not at all attractive. No one likes an ugly movie.

Entertainment Weekly predicted it would be the cult hit of the summer but it tanked in the U.S. I don’t think it’s worth seeing, even for campy value. Avoid the Block.




Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest 2 ½ stars The only Tribe Called Quest song I really know is Scenario. The music video played frequently on The Box, this channel that was available in Chicago when I was in high school. That and the Wreckx-N-Effect classic Rump Shaker. I know their reputation though, but this documentary was not intended for someone like me who doesn't know anything about them. The documentary covers the predicted ground. How they got together, how they emerged into stardom, infighting, break up. As for the disbanding of the group, which takes up a good portion of the movie, it really isn't that interesting. Someone felt disrespected, someone doesn't understand why the other feels that way. It's honestly the stupid guy stuff that should've died soon after high school. These "beefs" show the group to be immature and petty. What would solve it would be to simply to sit down and have a serious, possibly emotional conversation. They'd rather just separate.

Still, there is a lot of good material here, particularly from Q-Tip whose passion for music is something to see. There's a fantastic sequence where we see his obsession with collecting vinyl albums. I know that look in his eye while he's sifting through records in a store. I have that look every Saturday at Interact DVD in Pasadena. The way he talks about the music, you know he's one of those people who hears things us normals do not. He's working on another level and is probably the biggest reason their music was so good and loved.

I can't help comparing this to Cameron Crowe's documentary Pearl Jam Twenty which I saw only days earlier. This is more standard fare and I think only hardcore Tribe fans will really enjoy it. The movie needs to show more of their music as it assumes that we already know it. Actor Michael Rapaport directed the documentary and it is certainly not bad, but it probably should've gone to VH1.



Sherlock Holmes 2 ½ stars I like all of these people. Robert Downey, Jude Law, Guy Ritchie. I like a lot of their movies, and I think they are very talented. So why does the combination of these men not make a better movie. It's not terrible or anything. It’s just not as stimulating as I wanted a retelling of Sherlock Holmes to be. The main problem is a tired script which is not smart and a script about Sherlock Holmes needs to be at the very least that. This isn’t a mystery, it’s a Bond film set in the 1800s with Jude Law as the bland stable sidekick and Downey as the rogue hero who is sometimes charming and sometimes less charming than he thinks he is. I had a problem with Downey’s accent in particular. It's is difficult to understand as he underplays every line in a low register. It’s maybe a good decision on paper but we still need to actually comprehend the things he is saying.

It also doesn’t help that this period in England’s history is so dull to me. The wool suits, the hats, the horses and carriages, all of these things put me to sleep. These period films feel like museum exhibits and not movies. Director Guy Ritchie tries to add some juice to the proceedings with a very good bare knuckle boxing match a la Snatch, but it just reminds me how much more intricate and complex his own movies are compared to this junior high material.

A genuine bright spot is Rachel McAdams who has a fantastic role and is fantastic as Irene Adler, Holmes’s former love. Irene’s an American, a criminal, and a lot of fun. The movie brightens whenever she shows up. She’s not acting like someone who is intelligent and clever, she is those things, even in a pink dress. And it may be the most beautiful she's been in a movie, particularly in a sequence in her hotel room. I wish the movie was as intelligent, clever, and beautiful as her but it is not. The action is fun, and Holmes's moments of analytical exposition are enjoyable, but I wanted more.

Weekly Recap 10/21/11

Watched this Week
The Good: Pearl Jam Twenty, Crazy Stupid Love, Captain America: The First Avenger (review), more 30 Rock
The Bad: The High Cost of Living
The Ugly: None
Blu-Rays Bought: None

Trips to the Theater: None

Actors of the Week: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Tracy Morgan
Director of the Week: Cameron Crowe



Trailers/Clips of the Week:
Shame. I didn't necessarily love the first Steve McQueen/Fassbender collaboration, Hunger. It was too abstract for my taste. Still, this is a good trailer.


Hugo. Scorsese's latest. Doesn't look too promising, but I have to watch Scorsese in the theater.

Crazy Stupid Love

3 stars I finally like Ryan Gosling in a movie. I mean he's a good actor, but I haven't really embraced him as an actor I like. It's strange since this character from a certain point of view is very unlikable. But matching him with Steve Carell turns out to be some genius casting, and for all the Love in the movie, the Stupid stuff between them is the best part of it.

Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is having dinner with his wife one night when she just blurts out that she wants a divorce and that she has already slept with somebody else. And in the first very good choice of this movie, they don't have an argument. I'm laughing about it right now because it's such a great choice. Cal just shuts down. He completely goes into a dazed zone and simply doesn't want to hear or talk anymore. He's been with his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) since they were 17 and he can't believe what just happened. He starts going to a bar he's too old for and talks to anyone and everyone about how he can't believe what just happened. Gosling's character Jacob Palmer witnesses this and decides to help him out.

This part of the movie is predictable, but it doesn't make it any less enjoyable. We want to see Cal with his khaki corduroys and terrible blazers get a makeover. We want him to clean up and improve himself and these scenes between Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling are very entertaining. Cal isn't a total loser, he's smart and witty, and Jacob isn't a complete a-hole. In his way he's being kind and generous to this guy, really with no personal gain to himself. Gosling is very good in the role, not too sleazy, not too silly. He seems and feels like a real person. Witty, confident, and a good person not a bad one. The subsequent scenes with Cal dating various women in awkward situations admittedly aren't that great. The Crazy part of the title is ok and maybe I didn't enjoy it as much because I don't think Cal was enjoying it. These weren't real women he was picking up, they were shallow emotional issues in short skirts. I feel bad for Marisa Tomei who kind of has a nothing role as a damaged teacher. Again though, this allows for more scenes between Carell and Gosling and that only helps the movie.

Emma Stone's character Hannah is circling a relationship with Jacob, although her part of the storyline is pretty thin if you think about it. And she's saddled with an annoying best girl friend (as these movies apparently require) and we think all along that she is too good for Jacob. What does he really have to offer to her? Their storyline needs more screen time. We need more time to see how he's changing. Emma Stone herself hasn't yet convinced me of all of the buzz. She's intelligent and lovely, but she's also a little too manic with her face. Both her and Kristen Stewart need to go to the Morgan Freeman school of stillness. Another subplot involves Cal's 13 year-old son who is also in love with the family's 17 year-old babysitter, and she's in love someone as well, and believe me, things get complicated.

Strangely enough the script is strong and I don't want to give away any plot machinations as they were genuinely surprising and that doesn't happen to me. A lot of credit goes to screenwriter Dan Fogelman. There might be improvisation within scenes, but the structure of what happens when is the screenwriter's doing. In particular, a birthday party late in the movie is very funny and very well done.

It is an odd romantic comedy. It's not about two people, it's about six. It's not about people meeting each other for the first time, it's about people wanting to stay in lasting relationships. It's smarter than most, less funny than I expected, but it has a lot more heart than I would've predicted. It'll probably be a solid rental. Entertaining, likable actors, and a very good title. I'd like to mention that the co-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa were mostly known as screenwriters whose credits include Cats & Dogs and the Billy Bob Thornton cult classic Bad Santa. There is no indication of any of their previous work in this movie.

Reservoir Dogs Trailer

The trailer may be 20 years old (although remastered in HD), but it's still great.
It really captures the spirit of the film.



Link to the Opening Titles

Pearl Jam Twenty

4 stars I wish Pearl Jam was my favorite band. Oh I like them a lot, but imagine if my favorite band got a documentary like this. This is a Pearl Jam lovers absolute dream of a movie. Cameron Crowe has directed (and this documentary is so directed) an unbelievable film.

As expected, the movie chronicles the history of the band. And I thought it about for a while, even during, why is this so much more effective than your usual VH1 Behind the Music? What's different about this movie? I think the chief reason is that it is being made by someone who loves Pearl Jam and who wants other people to know about his love. I completely understand that enthusiasm of wanting to share something your passionate about. I mean if I see a movie I love, I tell friends to go out and see it immediately. I write a review and post it immediately. After 20 years of following this band, Cameron Crowe pours his deluge of love into this film. It also doesn't hurt that he's an excellent director in his own right. Pearl Jam Twenty doesn't want to be gossipy or sensational. It doesn't want to be a gooey sentimental look back. It wants to show why this band is the great band that it is.

What is shocking is the amount of rare footage Cameron Crowe has found. He gets old video cams, personal private moments, even deleted footage of them filming the Jeremy music video. I'm not an expert, and I don't know how well known any of this material is, but as its shown in the film, you feel how special these moments are. Like when they did their first acoustic show in Europe or when during a recent performance of Betterman, the audience sang the first verse by themselves while Eddie Vedder just watched them, playing his guitar. I personally get bored with a lot of rock documentaries because how many different ways are there to shoot someone playing the guitar. But this feels so personal. There's a point of view to what we're seeing. These aren't whatever moments, each performance is emotionally connected to where we are in the story of the band. Also Crowe uses this tremendous technique of intercutting old footage and new footage while a song is being played. So when Pearl Jam plays Alive at a recent concert, we see that show cut between moments from old shows 20 years ago, or the video, or rehearsal. And those moments match the place in the song exactly. I don't think I'm describing it well enough, but it is very impressive filmmaking.

As for the band members themselves, they seem to be intelligent guys who didn't implode, didn't go through terrible drama, but they reflect rather seriously on why they've stayed together so long and how that was possible. Vedder as always is magnetic as this quiet guy in person but that beast of a voice during performances. I also really liked that there aren't interviews outside the members of the band. There are no interviews with rock critics or agents or other grunge musicians. It's Pearl Jam telling their stories. One person not in the band but connected to them is Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave) who comes off as such a great and smart guy. He has a speech about guitar solos and Mike McReady that any writer would be envious of. For all of the kind of craziness on stage, these guys are self-aware, reflective, even humble.

I realized over the course of the movie that I'm not half the Pearl Jam fan that other people are. My band from that era is still The Smashing Pumpkins, but they never took on Ticket Master or had 9 people die at one of their concerts. And they don't have a great director like Cameron Crowe making a film about them. if you possibly need further proof of his love, check out his second film Singles where Vedder and Jeff Ament have small roles. He knew before we did how great they would be. Pearl Jam Twenty is airing on PBS this Friday 10/21. It will be released on DVD Tues 10/25. I hope you see it.

Banners 2011 Part 3

(Click on the images for the larger versions)

Midnight in Paris








HP and the Half-Blood Prince








HP and the Deathly Hallows Part 2








Hard Candy








13 Assassins








Scoop








Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl








Miller's Crossing








King Arthur








Jane Eyre








Everything Must Go








Super








Bridesmaids








Mad Men








The Empire Strikes Back








Snatch.








Pulp Fiction








Once








X-Men: First Class








30 Rock







Banners 2010 Part 1
Banners 2010 Part 2
Banners 2011 Part 1
Banners 2011 Part 2

Weekly Recap 10/14/11

Watched this Week
The Good: Midnight in Paris (review), Sweeney Todd, State of Play (review), Inglourious Basterds, Mimic (just Guillermo Del Toro's audio commentary), His Way (doc on producer Jerry Weintraub), lots of 30 Rock
The Bad: None
The Ugly: Green Lantern
Didn't Get Past 20 Minutes: Red State
Blu-Rays Bought: 127 Hours, Catfish, State of Play

Trips to the Theater: None

Actors of the Week: Owen Wilson, Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams
Director of the Week: Tim Burton

Trailers/Clips of the Week:
The Avengers

Besides, I've been through...

I've been saying that last line all week. Now you can hear it too.

The Impenetrable Opening to Dune

As bad as the opening narration of Green Lantern is, Dune (1984) is still the king of confusing movie introductions. Yes, that's a very young Virginia Madsen trying explain all about the Spice. I will give you $5 if you can make any sense of what she's talking about.

Green Lantern

½ star About 15 minutes in, alone in my apartment, I just burst out and said, "This is terrible!" Green Lantern is terrible. It will be studied by future generations of what not to do with a comic book movie.

This is the opening narration:
Billions of years ago, a race of immortals harnessed the most powerful force in existence: the emerald energy of willpower. These immortals, the Guardians of the Universe, built a world from where they could watch over all of existence: the planet Oa. They divided the universe into three thousand six hundred sectors, a ring powered by the energy of will was sent to every sector of the universe to select a recruit. In order to be chosen by the ring, it is said that one must be without fear. Together these three thousand six hundred recruits formed the intergalactic peacekeepers known as the Green Lantern Corps. Of all the threats the Corps ever faced gravest was an entity of fear known as Parallax. Only the legendary Green Lantern Abin Sur was capable of capturing and imprisoning this beast, which he did on the lost planet of Ryut.

Imagine you've just settled in your seat, the Warner Bros. logo goes by, and now you have to sit through 5 minutes of this. Even reading it, it's ridiculously confusing. Planet OA? 3600 sectors? Abin Sur? What the hell is this movie about! Give me something I can relate to! After this, we go to 3 aliens who crash land on that planet of Ryut, and their souls I think get sucked out of them by a monster with a large head. Who are these guys? Who knows. We then finally go to Earth, Ryan Reynolds plays out a flight sequence directly ripped out of Top Gun, and later he's chosen to be a Green Lantern when a green ball of smoke takes him hundreds of miles away from his home so a guy with a purple head can pass on the ring of blah, blah, blah.

Maybe this is exactly how it is in the comic books. If so, they should not have made this movie. Everything is so freaking silly, starting with Reynolds who I'm sorry, cannot in all his effort act a genuine moment. Everything he does seems like a half joke or like he's half serious. He is a Canadian comedian who got his break doing a sitcom called Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza place and a frat movie called Van Wilder. He should've stayed in that territory. I don't care how much he worked out, he is not a hero. He is not an action guy. He is not someone to lead this kind of movie. There are at least 20 other actors his age who would've done a more convincing job. In the end, Ryan Reynolds is just the real life version of Zack Morris. Also, I like Blake Lively, and she blew me away with her performance in The Town, but she is way too young to be in her role. Which happens to be the only female role in the entire movie. I don't think any other women speak in the movie.

What about this race of aliens. They are a bunch goofy looking things in green outfits. Purple faces, some creatures who can talk, and no reason why Hal gets a masquerade mask when it really doesn't disguise anything. The mythology is not interesting, it's just more confusing. Hal has a flashback sequence about his dead father that belongs in the movie Hot Shots with Charlie Sheen. Why is Peter Sarsgaard and Tim Robbins in this movie? Why did they spend $300 million on this POS! None of the action is good, and there's too much CGI. At times it feels like Space Jam. It's an animated movie with occasional humans.

Martin Campbell directed Casino Royale with Daniel Craig, but why did they choose him for this? He is the wrong guy to be directing this movie. Why is the lighting so cheap and ugly? Why is there no real villain in the movie? Why does this writing this review just bring up angry questions! It doesn't beat Sucker Punch, but this will most likely be the #2 worst of 2011. Either in brightest day, or in blackest night, it is still an awful movie. F you, Hal.

Pulp Fiction

4 stars I can't tell you how much fun I had watching Pulp Fiction again for the first time in a couple of years. Finally released on Blu-ray last week and I watched it four times.

Pulp Fiction is the epitome of a wild ride. For all of my familiarity with it, I tried to look at the story anew. The movie begins with a married English couple talking about how they no longer want to rob liquor stores. They decide they want to rob restaurants. They stand up, pull their guns, and the wife screams something that ends with, "...and I'll execute every motherf--king last one of you." That song Misirlou blasts us into the opening credits and really, what the hell just happened? From the credits we do a hard cut to Sam Jackson and John Travolta riding in a crappy car. They talk about Amsterdam and how a quarter pounder is called a Royale with Cheese in France. Later they have the foot massage conversation, and finally they reach a room where we assume they will kill someone (they are hitmen of course).

The rest of the movie plays out this way. With the disjointed time structure, who knows what's going to happen next. It's one of the great pleasures of the movie. I was surprised how invested I got this time around. I really understood how bad it would be if Mia died of an overdose and how desperate Vincent is to revive her. And that scene when he sees his drug dealer isn't filler, it's there so we know who Lance is when Vincent tears across his lawn later that night. He also tells Vincent that he's out of balloons and only has baggies so when Mia sees the plastic bag, she assumes it's cocaine and not Choco heroine from the Hartz Mountains of Germany. All the pieces fit. It's a masterpiece of a screenplay.

It's hard to watch the movie without remembering all of the iconic images and moments. Vincent and Mia doing the twist and later the Batman dance at Jack Rabbit Slims, Vincent later plunging that huge needle of adrenaline into her chest, Chris Walken's amazing 3 page speech about the gold watch, Bruce Willis's gf Fabienne talking about wanting a pot belly, even Tarantino's own line reading of: "When you guys came pulling in here, did you see a sign in front of my house that said 'Dead N----er Storage?'" When you think of the best movies, you think about their moments. Pulp is packed with moments.

For me, I always think of the dialogue. It's so monumentally good. The rhythm, the beats. I miss written dialogue in this recent sea of movie improv. The characters don't speak at hyper speed or appear the least bit unnatural. It's such laid back, casual dialogue about body piercing and Mia's TV pilot and pigs being filthy animals. When I prepare actors for a film, I'm going to have them watch this one. Look how at ease Travolta is during the entire movie. He's smoking, he's eating, he's reading that book on the toilet. I really noticed how great his acting is. The character is so very unlike him. Another standout this time was Ving Rhames who with a couple of short scenes brings an incredible gravitas to Marsellus. His first is just played on the back of his head, but that speech about pride is so powerful. Also Harvey Keitel is very, very good in an odd role. His scene talking about linens and oak in his bedroom still makes me laugh. Uma, Eric Stoltz, Amanda Plummer, Rosanna Arquette, Bruce Willis. It's a great cast.

The standout though and the reason he continues to be one of my favorite actors is Samuel L. Jackson as Jules. He is absolutely electric in this movie. The last 30-40 minutes is my favorite section with Jules witnessing a miracle, Marvin being shot in the face, Mr. Wolf cleaning things up, and it all ending in that marvelous speech about the weak and the shepherd. He is mushroom cloud laying strong in the movie, and I laugh every single time I hear him say, "Can I have some of your tasty beverage to WASH this down." For all of the craziness of the plot, his character's journey is meaningful and moving. Watching it again, I realized that Jules was not there to help Vincent find and kill Butch because he had quit. His faith saved him in the end. Not to mention his hilarious delivery of his line to Tim Roth: "Besides, I've been through too much s--t over this case this morning to just hand it over to your dumb ass."

It is one of the best of all time. My #2 of the 90s behind Fight Club. Remember, it's basically a crime movie. Bad guys, gangsters, drug dealers. That's the genre it's in, but it completely went passed those expectations and limitations and created it's own little genre. If you get it, you get it. If you don't, you probably never will. There is a difference between people who love movies and people who love watching movies. Most people are in the 2nd category. They like going to the theater, watching DVDs, but they just like how movies make them feel good. They have no concern about seeing something different. They rather just eat at their usual restaurants. Those of us who are passionate about the art form appreciate and find joy when something is special and different. That's what Pulp Fiction is, special and different. There is no other like it.

Weekly Recap 10/7/11

Watched this Week
The Good: Reservoir Dogs, 13 Assassins, Tron: Legacy, X-Men: First Class, ESPN 30 for 30: Catching Hell, 30 Rock Season 5
The Bad: None
The Ugly: None
Didn't Get Past 20 Minutes: None
Blu-Rays Bought: None
Trips to the Theater: None

Actors of the Week: Tim Roth, Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin


Trailers/Clips of the Week:
Being Elmo

Netflix's 10 Most Rented Movies of All Time

Really? The Blind Side is the number one Netflix rental of all time? Goodness. The Bucket List as well, WTF. Oddly most of these films came out between 2006-2007 and most of them were nominated for Best Picture.

1. The Blind Side
2. Crash
3. The Bucket List
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. The Hurt Locker
6. The Departed
7. Sherlock Holmes
8. Inception
9. Iron Man
10. No Country for Old Men

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