Apr 27
This looked like it could be a really bad movie or pretty good. Thankfully, it was a fun and quirky film. This is the anti-hero hero story. What does it take to be a not so super hero? A dorky costume to start. The pent up angst, alienation, and naive world view of youth helps too. Aaron Johnson is our nebbish hero to be. He plays it straight and you might even believe someone would be foolish enough to try to do what he does. The movie plays teenagers more realistically than some recent movies. They are rude, crude and inconsiderate just like the ones you see at the mall on a Friday evening. There are the typical outsider scenes of school and the requisite bullies to set the stage for us. What makes this movie work is Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit Girl and her father (Big Daddy) Played by Nicolas Cage. The juxtaposition of this little girl doing very adult super hero stuff is great. She cusses like a sailor and is cute as a button. Cage is a bit over the top as her revenge and weapon obsessed father, not that there is anything wrong with that. Hoplophiles will love all the hardware displayed. There is plenty of cartoon like violence or rather comic book mayhem as this is taken from a comic series. If you like comic book action and a decent comic book story (a sequel is likely), then Kick Ass is worth seeing.
Apr 20
Tina Fey is cute, funny, and your girlfriend won’t be threatened by her. Steve Carell is cute, funny, and your boyfriend won’t be threatened by him. Let’s poke fun at suburban 30 somethings and the stereotypical relationship stuff. Put them in the big city and let the zaniness begin! Well it could be more zany and funnier, but then you might start offending someone and we need to appeal to as big a market as possible, after all this is the movie business. There is plenty of shtick to make you smile and you may chuckle a few times. No big laughs for me. The surrounding cast of characters are also cute (Mark Wahlberg is way too studly) and the SNL cast is well represented. This is a take no chances, stick to the formula movie and it is a solid middle of the road comedy you will forget about soon after you see it.
Apr 15
A government conspiracy to takeover another country and their oil fields? Sounds familiar. Evil bureaucrats and gullible reporters too? That’s original. And special operators who will kill anyone they are told to. Isn’t that special? So let us set aside the heavy handed political bias and see what’s left. There’s Matt Damon running around in full combat gear and Greg Kinnear being a government tool. They play their parts well. You want Matt to win and Greg to lose and I guess it works out that way. We see poor noble civilians making their own case for regime change. OK, I get it. There is some action and some suspense, but not enough to carry this film. Morons will see this as a historical docudrama I’m afraid. Watch a Frontline episode or any of dozens of documentaries about the Iraq war, or better yet read John Keegan’s book on it. You’ll be better informed. Were there WMD’s? We didn’t find any did we? We can’t seem to find a birth certificate either. Does it mean one doesn’t exist? Maybe that’s the subject of another movie, but I kind of doubt it.
Apr 15
With Tim Burton directing Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Voices of Stephen Frye and Alan Rickman you’d think there’d be a spectacular spectacle of fantastic fantasy and there is, but I was looking for something more. The performances were very good. The set dressing and costuming were visually stunning as you’d expect from Burton. The story was interesting, but not inspiring. Maybe I wanted more logic puzzles and clever turns of phrase from the books. Burton had to do something fresh and adding the Jabberwock sub plot is a good idea. Still, while entertaining I had higher expectations. I saw the film twice, so I paid my dues. I first saw it in the regular 2D, then saw it again in 3D. There was little to recommend the 3D version and it was rather distracting. Later I found out that creating the 3D version was a post production effort and it wasn’t really made with 3D in mind. This was evident to me. Burton used a great deal of live action that could’ve/would’ve been easier to do with CG had it been planned for 3D. Oh, and Avril Lavigne’s theme song for the movie is excellent. The percussive elements are dramatic and very emotive and it is a great pop song. I downloaded it from Amazon’s music store (cheaper than iTunes had it) as soon as I got home from the movie. Alice was good, but I wonder how it could have been better.
Mar 02
George Romero is apparently remaking all his old movies for a new generation. I will take the cynical view that making money is easier than taking a chance on a new movie. I have yet to see the original 1973 version (I just added it to my Netflix cue) and am interested in making a comparison once I do. This a rather standard government lets something bad out and has to clean it up story and the only questions are who survives and how long it takes. This is slasher type stuff and the only thing you wonder about is how gruesome the next guy or gal’s demise will be. There is little suspense and we find out very early what is going on. Most of the movie is just our lead characters dealing with crazy after crazy and having fewer and fewer characters left. Will our hero and heroine survive? Will the crazy menace be contained? Will the government do the right thing? Will I spend money on the next movie with this same premise? I don’t know, maybe.
Mar 02
Kevin Smith fans might think it a bit timid and some folks will think it too raunchy. Either perspective is probably right. I would have liked some edgier material and thought some of the potty humor a bit boorish. Nevertheless, I thought Cop Out was an OK buddy film with some funny bits and some not so funny bits. Bruce Willis can do comedy and Tracey Morgan is very good and really carries this film. His skills are lost on the small screen. His facial expressions are some of the best parts of the movie. The chemistry is pretty good and both play off each other well. Willis is the straight-man or Abbott to Morgan’s Costello. Seann Thomas Scott adds a third dimension and his scenes are probably the best in the movie. For Smith this is an attempt at a real mainstream type comedy and he largely succeeds. It is entertaining mostly and there is some over the top raunch that you would expect, but overall it is rather tame and you wish Smith would let it all out with Willis and Morgan. It would be risky, but could have been brilliant. We’ll never know. Maybe there are some cut scenes that will show up in an unrated version down the road. Hopefully this will get Tracey Morgan exposed as a real screen talent and we’ll see him more on the big screen.
Mar 02
Martin Scorsese knows how to make a movie. He has a huge respect for the work and it appears, the audience. Actors want to work with him and he gets consistently great performances from them. Shutter Island is a classic psychological thriller. It is not a horror flick. It draws the viewer in and keeps you guessing throughout the movie. You think you have it figured out and it changes. The performances are brilliant. Kingsley as the head psychiatrist and Max Von Sydow as another doctor are wonderful. Dicaprio is very good, he continues to suffer from boyish good looks, which makes it hard to accept him in mature roles. The setting of a 1950’s asylum is beautifully rendered and the costumes are delightful. The music is great, as in all Scorsese films, and is skillfully used to add tension much more subtly than modern horror movies. There are images that may be disturbing to some folks, especially the back story scenes of Dicaprio liberating a concentration camp in WWII. Nothing to me was gratuitous and was meaningful in establishing context and history of the character. You can’t say very much about the movie without spoiling things for those who’ve yet to see it. See it you should. Scorsese has another hit in a genre you don’t associate with him. A fine film that is engaging and entertaining and makes you think in very Kafkaesque ways.
Feb 24
While not quite as good as either, this movie is solid action fun. The plot has has enough twist to keep it interesting and Travolta is very good as the manic ‘operator’ who specializes in wet work. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is the wannabe agent who gets more than he bargained for when assigned to help Travolta on a mission. The Paris background is not bad to look at and there is enough action, gun play, and violence to keep most males entertained throughout the movie. I would wish the gun handling was more realistic, but this is an over the top caricature of cloak and dagger work and realism doesn’t sell tickets. There is the obligatory car chases and explosions of course, drug cartels and bad guys of every ethnicity. You’ve seen it before and you’ll probably see it again. If it’s done well with some witty dialog and memorable characters, then I’ll spend the money and enjoy the ride.
Feb 22
Part costume drama and part horror flick, this movie is entertaining and pays homage to those great horror films of the 1930’s and 40’s. The first shot we see of Benicio del Toro resembles Lon Chaney Jr. to a remarkable degree. The story is vaguely similar to the 1941 original in that there is a gypsy camp (but no Bela Lugosi or Maria Ouspenskaya) and Larry (or Lawrence) Talbot gets bitten by a werewolf. The real homage is to the makeup. The original Wolfman is so distinct to those of us who were terrified by it as kids in late night reruns that anything too different would spoil it for us. Benicio’s wolfman is updated, but in the vein of the original. The transformation scenes parallel the classic, and add some new technology to make it somewhat more realistic. Why Sir Anthony Hopkins is in this I can’t explain. As the father, he takes the plot wildly out to left field and it fails for me in that sense. If you have no knowledge of the original, then this may make no difference to you. The gore and violence of modern movies do not make them scarier. What they did 70 years ago with lighting, sound, and camera angles created more tension than we see today. I liked this Wolfman, but there really is only one and that will always be Lon Chaney Jr.
Feb 22
This is a very good movie. It was even better and more original when it was Tender Mercies (1983) and Robert Duvall gave an Oscar winning performance. Jeff Bridges does a great job and is worth a nomination to be sure. These small character studies are not big money makers. Duval was also listed as a producer and had a cameo to add some more star power to the mix. The big surprise was Colin Farrel as a country music star. A small role and he seemed a bit out of place. Still that shows that this is an acting movie and actors like good roles and working with good actors. We see these riches to rags to riches stories and we like seeing people redeemed and getting their act together and this is a worthy production. The music and soundtrack are wonderful. Homage is paid to legends of country music and the educated will hear a snippet of the great Townes Van Zandt which is more than fitting as his tale didn’t have such a positive ending. Does the Dude deserve an Oscar? Maybe, maybe not, but we can appreciate these performances and this fine film.
Feb 11
Do we ever get tired of big evil companies and government conspiracies? I don’t know, but Edge of Darkness is mostly a retread of any number of political thrillers like The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, Enemy of the State, and a host of others. In this one Mel Gibson dons a wicked Baaastin accent and does his best to unravel the mystery of his daughters death. You’ve seen it all before. The car chases, the killing of everyone connected, corrupt politicians, shadowy government entities etc, etc, etc. So, does this measure up to say Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate? No, but it’s not so bad either. Gibson does OK as the grieving and gritty detective. The weaselly villain is easy to despise and the action scenes are well done. The story is rather James Bondish and makes suspending disbelief that more difficult. Mediocrity may rule these days, so Edge of Darkness fits right in.
Jan 30
Another end of the world flick. This time angels come to finish us off and there might be a story in there somewhere, but this movie misses on almost every level. I was tricked by the trailer, which is better than the whole movie. Whoever edited the trailer, should have done the whole movie. The collection of stereotyped characters was embarrassing. A black hoodlum, a white yuppie family, an old man who lost his faith?? Come on, show us some respect. And the setting for this morality play is a little diner in the desert called Paradise Falls. Not too subtle folks. Lots of guns, but no training for the actors, just never ending magazines as they shoot from the hip and hit what they want. The acting was OK. Kudos to Dennis Quaid and Charles Dutton for being able to do a take without laughing at themselves. It must have been difficult. Thankfully all the sinners are redeemed, usually by a gruesome death, and the film ends with a climactic angel vs. angel fight that they put a lot of effort in and apparently thought the audience would take seriously. I couldn’t. At least the human race was saved by the birth of a baby sometime around Christmas. I wonder if that is supposed to mean something? This may be a top contender for Rotten Tomatoes best of the worst.
Jan 17
It seems film makers are obsessed with the end of the world these days. Maybe with the stagnant economy folks like to see an even bleaker future than their own. If The Road was dark and colorless, then The Book of Eli is just black, and that’s not referring to Denzel Washington’s skin color. If Viggo had run into Denzel on the road, then maybe The Road would have been more entertaining. In this film Denzel is the drifter on a quest. He carries a book and his mission is to deliver it to some unknown enclave of humanity to the west. He is one badass road warrior and demonstrates it throughout the movie. He’s Rambo, Jason Bourne and Shaft all wrapped up in one. Gary Oldman is the villain and you can hardly find one better. His trademark psychotic laugh tells the story. He knows the power of the book. With the right words, he can takeover what little pockets of society remain. One man is ruthless, one might be called righteous and together that makes for conflict which advances the story along. The visuals are stark, nothing you haven’t seen before, color is deliberately muted or filtered. There may be a twist you didn’t expect or maybe you saw it early on. Denzel makes the movie because you believe his character even in an unbelievable time and place. The parables poor forth and you can pick them out yourself. Without Denzel’s performance, this would be just another end of civilization story like the the half dozen others this past year, but he and Gary Oldman carry it a cut above the standard fare and I thought it a rather enjoyable film and story.
Jan 12
I had low expectations about this film and was very pleasantly surprised by the wit and humor. The offbeat characters and basically cameo performances by the likes of Jean Smart, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, Justin Long (I’m a Mac), etc. play off our sad hero Michael Cera wonderfully. It’s almost like a very disturbed Alice in Wonderland with all the bizarre characters. Cera plays dual roles as the dweeb and his alter ego Francois, the bad boy he thinks he wants to be. Portia Doubleday is his love interest and is adorable in a teenage psychotic way. What lengths he goes to to win her heart is the basis of the movie and it is sweet and funny and cynical and schizoid like most of us will admit our teen years were.I thought the film was well made and innovative in the use of animation at interesting points. The soundtrack is excellent and you may or may know the songs, but you think you do. This isn’t a Porky’s at all. It’s a smart inventive comedy that I enjoyed more than I thought I would.
Jan 10
What happens when vampires takeover? Well, just like humans they poorly manage resources and have trouble feeding themselves. Ethan Hawke is a reluctant vampire and is trying to find a substitute for blood. Willem Dafoe is a former vampire who found a way to reverse the vampirism in a most improbable way. Humans are in short supply and that sets the stage for all kinds of wacky vampire drama. Lots of time is spent on showing how vampires cope during the day and how society devolves when starvation threatens. Wooden stakes still work somehow when they pierce the unbeating heart and of course prolonged exposure to sunlight is a killer. Leaving behind the folklore problems, the story has some sense and the acting is good. Sam Neil is the head corporate vampire and capitalist villain. There is plenty of gore and action and some stupid attempts to startle you with bats aflying. Vampires smoke a lot too, I guess it can’t hurt them and what else are you going to do for an eternity? I get the point: dead white men are the real vampires and a socialist utopia would mean plenty of blood for everyone. Give me my stakes, garlic and holy water, I’m agoing hunting.
