Strange things are afoot in DISTRICT 9

From the opening moments of District 9 it seemed that the hype just might be true. The docu-style footage is well crafted and set up the story extremely well. Like the energizer bunny though, it keeps going and going and…. Finally, after what seemed like at least 20 minutes the story takes off in a pretty big way. The configuring of the plot aside, District 9 has a strong and interesting premise that will suck you in.

District 9 is the ghetto the South African government has provided for the aliens of a broken down space ship resting above Johannesburg. D-9 is a horrible place to make your home, even to creatures from another planet. The government has constructed a newer, better (smaller) concentration type camp 200 miles out-side of the city and plan to relocate the 1.8 million aliens to District 10 in an effort to calm the tensions between humans and non-humans. Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is in charge if the relocation process and is assigned to evict the aliens from their current home. Once inside D-9 amongst the life sized lobsters the tensions build between both sides as Wikus laughs as he aborts alien babies and torments the inferior race of aliens. Bad mistake.

Again, it seemed like all the hoopla surrounded this Peter Jackson produced Sci-Fi thriller was deserved. Then it dawned on me…the allegory that this film has been so obviously geared towards loses its direction and becomes what I had hopped it wouldn’t; a straight up action flick. Die Hard meets The Fly. I love me some action, don’t get it twisted, but this was an opportunity to say something about our society as a whole and they set us up for it. Unfortunately they forgot about what was really going on as soon as the shit hit the fan between the humans and the non-human. The story gets weaker and weaker and even manages to deliver some extremely cliché action-movie lines.

In the end, despite it’s meandering plot this is a movie worthy of the big screen. If you are into action flicks and the familiar story lines that they deliver this movie is for you. Don’t anticipate any huge emotional moments or revelations even though at times they try. 

My Vote: Buckle up and settle in for a lot of exploding body parts. Go see it on the big screen.

District 9....The Backstory

District 9 has an interesting story that is worth being explored. Niell Blomkamp, the writer/director of one of this summers most anticipated films is 29 years old. The fact that he has been tinkering with computer generated graphics for 15 years should strike you as surprising. With several commercials and advertisements under his belt, Blomkamp directed Alive in Joburg, a six-minute short film that would later become the feature District 9. 

Based mainly on the ideas and execution of Alive in Joburg, and with a little help and guidance from Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson, Blomkamp found himself at the helm of the motion picture adaptation of the widely popular video game HALO. With months of work already completed and over 200 workers already employed HALO, sputtered, stalled, and went back up on the self over copyright disputes.

With out skipping a beat, Jackson proposed that the budding filmmaker take his short film to the next level. District 9 was born. Blomkamp spent his first 18 years in Johanisberg South Africa and witnessed first hand the effects of Apartheid. It is no secret that District 9 was made as an allegory of sorts and has many paralleling story lines to the sad tales that have come out of South Africa in years past. 

Check out Alive in Joburg below

A Perfect Getaway

You must have seen the trailer for this movie (click the title if you haven't), I think it just runs in 2 minutes increments on every major network. Excessive marketing usually means, as far as I can tell, that the movie aint so great so they need a big opening weekend before the word of mouth gets around that it’s a bomb. Fortunately, in A Perfect Getaway, this isn’t completely true.

The story goes like this: Two newly weds, Steve Zahn (Management, Rescue Dawn) and Milli Jovovich (Resident Evil 1,2,3) are setting off on a camping expo through Hawaii to a secluded beach accessible only by foot or kayak. Coincidentally, two newly weds have just been murdered on the big island and the suspects have not been apprehended. 

Should they push on or go home and avoid the worst honeymoon ever? Well there wouldn’t be much a movie if they went home. 

They meet up with Timothy Olyphant (Hitman, Live Free or Die Hard) a former military special ops agent and Kiele Sanchez (Lost), a southern girl not afraid of....well, anything.  There is also a mysterious 3^rd couple that we need to keep our eye on.

This movie is billed as a thriller and mildly delivers at times. Some people have dared to utter the name Hitchcock in the same breath as director David Twohy (Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick), not necessarily as a compliment, but as a measuring stick. 

That just isn’t fair. 

Hitchcock is the Don of suspense. While this flick will pale in comparison to anything Hitchcock, Steve Zahn turns out a performance that was extremely fun to watch and helps to keep the movie interesting.

The fun thing about thrillers is trying to figure out what is going to happen next, to whom and why. One commercial I saw said something to the effect of “the best thriller in years” and “one of the biggest twist to an ending you will see this year”. Well, neither is true but I was engaged the whole time. You can see “the big twist” coming from pretty far away but I was still interested in how it was going to be delivered. I couple of scenes ran a little long (I hate when directors think the audience is too stupid to pick up on the obvious clues) but in the end this is a very fun and watchable flick.

My Vote: Might not need to see this in the theatre but you won’t be totally disappointed if you do. Don't hesitate to check out anything Hitchcock.

Coming Soon....

Life has been busy but the Funny People review is ready to go and a newly released movie will be reviewed shortly....

The Collector

The Collector, written and directed by Marcus Dunstun is about a handyman, Arkin, on the verge of having the unthinkable happen to his wife and young daughter at the hands of a loan shark. He can solve all of his problems if he steals a presumably expensive and/or rare stone from the house he has been working at. While the family of said house is scheduled to be on vacation he attempts to execute his plan. Unfortunately (for us) “The Collector” beat him to it, only not to steal the stone but to (cue scary music) torture the family. 

I accept this as the premise, therefore;

I will be manipulated!

I will laugh if you want me to laugh!

I will jump out of my seat if you will just let me!

Give me a reason!

I’m begging you Marcus Dunstan!

But no, you give me The Collector. 

I’m a pretty excitable guy. It’s a blessing and a curse alike. My excitable nature allows for me to be taken advantage of and I welcome that. This is part of the reason I love movies and more specifically, scary movies. To me there is nothing better than watching a movie while my whole body tenses up in fear. I have been making a conscience effort, however, to avoid most recent “scary movies” releases.  I use quotations here to emphasize the irony. I am not afraid of being scared I just rarely find my self scared or horrified at a recent motion picture aiming to do just that.

This movie, which I will not name again, has no suspenseful moments, poor direction, and offered nothing in the way of a story or a well played out plot. I am searching for something positive to mention but I have nothing. Sometimes a scary movie will succeed in capturing an audience because it is awesomely bad.

This movie is just bad.

My Vote: Appropriately bad enough for 15-year-old girls slumber party. Are you a 15-year-old girl? Don't bother. Rent the ORIGINAL Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

This Week: Funny People

Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann, and Eric Bana all in a Judd Apatow flick...tell me you're not excited! This is the 3rd movie coming from the Apatow camp and while it stays away from a lot of the juvenile gross out moments you have come to love it will still make you laugh and make you think....look for the review in the next few days and check out the trailer by clicking on the title.

Humpday…It’s beyond gay!

Gay porn doesn’t usually spark my interest (insert joke) but when I saw the trailer for the high concept 2009 Sundance Special Jury Prize winner for Spirit of Independence appropriately titled Humpday I have to admit, I got a little aroused. 

The thing that attracted me to this film initially was the honesty that seemed to be permeating into my bones as I watched the trailer. The same holds true for the actual movie; the first scene pulled me in and the story didn’t let up until the final frame. The premise of the story is a unique approach to the “buddy film”, and it’s no surprise to me that a female, Lynn Shelton (We go way back, 2006) who wrote and directed the movie, conceived it.

Humpday stars Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair, 2006) and Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project, 1999) as two old friends who have lost touch while traveling down two very different paths. Ben (Duplass) is doing the married thing while Andrew (Leonard) is doing the vagabond artist thing. When Andrew stops into Ben’s small Seattle town for the weekend the two both take stock of what’s become of their lives.

During a drunken party with Andrew’s new Bohemian friends the discussion of an upcoming film festival presents itself; of course this isn’t your run-of-the-mill film fest. “Hump-Fest” is an amateur porn contest that anyone is eligible to enter. An innocent conversation turns into a pissing contest of sorts and the two decide to make a gay porn film with two totally straight dudes, themselves, which will become art while it reaches to be “beyond gay”. Brilliant? Maybe, maybe not.

Humpday is free from gimmicks even though the title may suggest otherwise. There is no porn, only minor nudity, and the jokes are much more circumstantial and personal as opposed to the manufactured variety. Shot in 10 days with a crew of only 12 and an almost totally improvised script this is what Independent filmmaking is all about.

My Vote: This is the most interesting 95 minutes I spent at the theatre in a long time.

(500) Days of Summer is almost as good as an actual 500 day summer.

I am going to apologize in advance here. I’ve been having my mind BLOWN by Paul Thomas Anderson for the past week and he is quickly becoming my new favorite director so everything else now seems inferior.

Lets get to it.

(500) Days of Summer is a romantic comedy with a little bit of a twist. Tom, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has been in a slew of small and interesting movies including Brick and Mysterious skin and who will also be in the new G.I. Joe flick coming out August 7^th) is a lover of epic proportion. Growing up listening too closely to British pop rock with inexperienced ears, Tom believes whole-heartedly in true love, fate, and destiny. I feel for Tom. I am Tom. Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel, who I have had a pretty sizable crush on since her performance in 2002’s Elf, is the exact opposite. Here lies the conflict. They meet, she’s wonderful, and he falls hopelessly in love while she remains unwilling to let go of her bitter beliefs about love. I know that girl. This movie had me at hello.

An appropriate tagline sums it up in a few words. This is not a love story. It is a story about love. Unconventional would sum it up in a word. I was tickled by the little vignettes sprinkled throughout this film, especially the nod to Fellini (or was it Bergman?)… either way, spot on. The story unfolds in a non-linear fashion, and to be honest, it felt like a gimmick. I really didn’t feel like it added anything to the plot and was just put to use in order to give the feeling of disorientation, which was unnecessary. Critics will dispute this and I understand why this choice was made, I just feel it would have felt like a fuller, more complete film if it had been told following a linear story line.

While I will applaud the climax of the movie for being unconventional, I really felt like the dénouement was in opposition to what they were trying to accomplish in the first place and therefore took away from the overall experience. The opening 10 minutes and closing 10 minutes of a film are important, not as important as I used to think, but important none-the-less. I suspect, however, that this was something imposed by the studio, at least that will be my excuse to help me sleep tonight.

I will certainly revisit this film on DVD and maybe my sentiments will change but as of right now I feel like the director Marc Webb was on the verge of a brilliant movie that fell a little short. With that being said, falling just a little short of brilliant isn’t too bad a place to be.

My Vote: A touching Rom-Com that breaks the mold. Check it out. 

Kyle Retter - i hate movie reviews

Copy and paste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM to view the trailer.

GOSSIP is iTunes single of the week!

I know it's not movie related but I had to put it out there. My roommate turned me onto the band GOSSIP and they are pretty great. I was searching iTunes today and lo-and-behold their song HEAVY CROSS is the "single of the week"....which means it's FREE Check it out!

P.T.A. Marathon

Look out for my Paul Thomas Anderson marathon reviews. P.T.A. is one of my favorite directors working today. From his debut in 1996 with Hard Eight starring John C. Rielly  he has gone on to make a small but strong catalog of memorable films that include Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002) and his latest achievement There will be blood (2007). If you haven't seen any of these flicks you need to check them out...and I will tell you exactly why in the days to come!

Copy and paste this link ---->   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD7i3hWM6FU

"Looking at all the stars in the sky makes me think of all the hot guys in the world". -Bruno

Bruno has it all…moments of genius along with moments of penis. Yes, I said penis. And if you go see Bruno get ready for some penis. Not to say the entire 82 minutes revolves around penis…. sometimes the penis just revolves. 

For those of you who aren’t up to speed on the highbrow/lowbrow humor of Bruno, he is super gay. And if you don’t believe me go look at the official Bruno Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_(character).  Bruno is the fictional character invented by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. The Austrian fashion guru Bruno is on a mission to be famous. He will do anything to make his mark in Hollywood. It’s no surprise that he exposes others who have a similar agenda while reaching for his goal. God help those children.

 I didn’t find this movie as engaging as his previous ‘mockumentary” Borat but it’s definitely something we should all experience. While the flimsy story line causes it to feel more like an MTV sketch comedy show than a movie it shouldn’t matter too much given the material, no one was setting out to make Citizen Kane. 

I was shocked and horrified at almost all the situations that Bruno managed to cook up with some moments that really make you down right uncomfortable. Moments that present Bruno in Boot camp and on daytime television talk shows are funny but you know they are spoofs, put on’s, and the people involved are feeding off each others energy.  It’s the moments when it’s just him and an unsuspecting interviewee that are the best. These people can do or say anything. They can decline to comment or take the high road but never do and that’s when things become interesting. After a long speech from an Alabamian “gay converter” Bruno casually asks, “Are you coming on to me”? I lost it. 

Some will get it and take it for what it is while others will hate it and reject it as lowbrow bathroom humor, but Bruno, for what it’s worth is funny, thought provoking, eye opening, and racy. What more can you ask for?

My Vote: See this with some friends who like to talk about a movie afterwards and aren’t afraid of stationary bikes with dildos fixed to them. : \

Here is a funny link http://www.thebrunomovie.com/bruno-movie/bruno-dictionary-discover-brunoisms/

And be sure to check out The Birdcage (Mike Nichols, 1996) below.

The Birdcage

While thinking about Bruno and the controversy revolving around it I started to think about other mainstream movies that revolve around gay characters. If you haven’t seen The Birdcage you are missing out. The plot revolves around the son of homosexual Dad’s who own a South Beach drag club marrying the daughter of a conservative Republican Senator from Ohio. Let the hilarity begin. This movie has an all-star cast of Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Calista Flockhart and Hank Azaria that comes together to turn in fun and memorable performances and hey, Mike Nichols isn’t too bad behind a camera. Check this flick out!

Bruno...where the bitches at?

Just got back from a midnight showing of Bruno. I have to process...and sleep...but my side and face hurts from laughing...not for the faint at heart by any means at all. Go see it tonight!! More to come!!

I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars... and you. What else you need to know? -Public Enemies

There are some very good things and some not so great things about Public Enemies. Keeping in line with some of the simple thinking that took place in this picture I will assign Public Enemies a letter grade. 

C+. 

I was hoping for more.

Johnny Depp turns in a solid performance as the notorious bank robber John Dillinger. Dillinger is a captivating character and Depp is one of the best actors of our generation. When the camera is on Depp, you're paying attention.  Score one for Public Enemies.

Michael Mann’s (Heat, The insider) direction was solid and his attention to detail was above and beyond the call of duty. Mann was insistent upon shooting in many of the actual locations where the events of Dillingers last few years on earth unfolded covering an array of cities in the mid-west. This act of love gave the movie a sense of authenticity that is essential to any period piece. Score. There where several surprisingly funny moments and Depp delivers some lines that will go down in history along side some of the greatest (“I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse”). Always good.

But as I said, the movie had its weak points too. While Depp gives us a stellar performance and Mann shows his expertise with the camera (some will argue that point but I am a big fan of the handheld camera) I felt like something was really lacking in the story. At 2-1/2 hours I expected this movie to have a little more depth to it. It seemed to drag and I never felt like I cared about anyone. There was no real tension building. Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) the FBI agent hot on Dillingers trail didn’t seem to have enough motivation to catch Dillinger and Dillinger really didn’t seem to care if he got caught. I thought their relationship should have been heightened a little more-that their game of cat and mouse could have been more playful, more meaningful. 

This story started off on the right foot but in the end the shootouts and one-liners aren’t enough to make a completely satisfying picture. In a movie where you know the ending on your way into the theatre you  have to-have to-have-to be invested in the characters and I just never totally got there. 

And the music. Son-of-a, don't get me started on the music. 

My Vote: Catch it on the big screen if you got an afternoon to kill. Rent Bonnie and Clyde, 1967.

Tetro

Francis Ford Coppola is an amazing director. There are few people that can be linked to such magnificent movies as Coppola. The Godfathers, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders, and Dracula are just a few of the popular standout pictures he has under his belt. He holds 15 Academy awards and a countless number of nominations. This guys daughter is a legit director. He produced George Lucas’s first 2 films. Respect. Everyone needs to see at least one of these classic Coppola movies start to finish.

While Tetro may not go down as a “classic” it is an interesting movie worth a view. Tetro is the story of a family torn apart. It stars Vincent Gallo (Singer, painter, writer, director, actor…Buffalo 66 and Brown Bunny) as Tetro and the combination of Gallo and Coppola together was enough to get my butt in a seat. The family saga unfolds as Bennie, Tetro’s younger brother arrives in Buenos Aires while the cruise ship he works on gets repaired. Tetro, not himself because of a broken leg is not happy to see his brother.

Bennie is curious about his family and heartbroken by Tetro not returning from his writing sabbatical as promised. Beenie longs to be just like his older brother and finds an outlet to do so. The plot has a fair share of twist and turns and it’s fairly entertaining.

The film is shot in beautiful black and white mostly set in Buenos Aires and Patagonia. The writing and the performances are very theatrical in a way that makes some of the situations a little more believable than if it would have been executed on a more dramatic and realistic stage. 

My vote: There are moments that drag and the black and white will keep a lot of people away but this is Coppola. Take it for what it is and watch a master filmmaker try some new stuff on ya’ll.

You've seen it before but you'll like seeing it again...

Horror flicks, coming of age flicks, and the romantic comedy are my favorite genres in cinema. They are predictable, cheesy, campy, and sometimes really poorly made but when done right they are always fun. 

The Proposal stars Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds as a couple that was never meant to fall in love but do, a very predictable premise indeed. Margaret (Bullock) is an uptight “witch” of a boss at a huge publishing company in New York. Andrew, (Reynolds) her hard working and under appreciated assistant is looking to move up in the publishing world. As luck would have it, Margaret is Canadian with an expired Visa who is going to lose her job and citizenship until she comes up with a proposal, one that forces this "odd couple" into an unusual situation, a fake marriage. To one extent or another this movie has been made before so I wasn’t expecting to be very entertained.

I was surprised, however, to find myself engaged in the movie right off the bat. I have seen more romantic comedies than any other genre and while there was nothing new or original about this one Bullock and Reynolds made a great pair and saved this movie from its lackluster plot. Kudos also goes to Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses), the director, for not shoving the romance down our throats but for letting it develop subtly and more organically than I have seen in the past (singing Rob Bases’ “it takes two” is a well played out scene).

I got some good laughs and walked out of the theatre with a smile on my face. While the final showdown is certainly one of the most over used and unoriginal final scene in movie history I can look past it because of the work that lead up to it. The beautiful Alaskan landscape and Betty Whites’ fun performance help make this movie better than average.

My Vote: A great date movie. Also, check out It happened one night and my review below.

It Happened one night.....a long, long time ago.

It happened one night is a classic American movie. Starring Clark Gable (Gone with the wind) and Claudette Colbert (the actress of 1934) it won five academy awards including best picture and best director (Frank Capra).

Filmed during the height of the Great Depression this movie holds up very well today. It offers us a very captivating look into what life may have been like a half a century ago while showing us where the romantic comedy really started to take shape. 

During such classic scenes as the hitchhiking scene and the donut-dunking scene I can’t help but appreciate the simple situations that make this movie great. Yes, it’s filmed in black and white and its style of humor is very toned down, (hey, it was 1934) it is well worth the watch. This movie paved the way for many of the movies we see today and hopefully you will appreciate a well played out scene a little bit more after watching It happened one night.

Baby Mama Bomba

Baby Mama stars Tina Fay and Amy Poehler both funny gals, so I loaded it up on my Netflix queue cause why not, I can handle a movie all about women. I know I am pretty late on viewing this; the movie was released on DVD last fall but better late than never, right?

Well, in this case, never would have been just fine with me. This flick was pretty horrible. I got a few chuckles from each member of the cast but it really felt like work getting through this hour and half of horror. The laughs were totally random, the plot was overly predictable and I was left trying to figure out where the $30,000,000 budget was spent.

I expected a lot more from Tina Fay, Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear (that’s a long list of very successful actors) but I guess that was just wishful thinking. The two best performances in this movie were Dax Shepard and Romany Malco, which just isn’t right.

My Vote: Don’t watch this movie, even if it is just to support your fellow women.

Strollers have ruined the world in Away We Go.

Away we go stars John Krasinski (The Office) and Maya Rudolph (Saturday night live) as a thirty-something couple that are pregnant (yes, “they” are pregnant) and are searching for a new home. They set off 6 months into her term to visit old friends and family members in Phoenix, Madison, Montreal, and Miami in an effort to find a place that’s right for them and their new baby.

Right off the bat this movie had it’s issues and 15 minutes in I was starting to check out…. not a good way to start things off. The constant guitar and voice of Alexi Murdoch gets painfully annoying. Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road, Jarhead) seems to think you don’t know what this movie is about and he has to tell you through music over and over again. Then there is the dialog (“are we fuck ups”? “We’re fuck up’s!”) being shoved down your throat; the themes and emotion and the importance of this journey they are about to take. I get it. Then we get all of the trailer scenes. Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into?

But just as my thoughts were trailing off a funny thing happened…I laughed. Then, all of the sudden, I laughed again. I become interested in what was going to happen next. The movie started to build some momentum and do away with the sobbing guitar strings. I was kind of hooked (took long enough). Phoenix, Madison, and most of Montreal really have some great moments.

After some soul searching and a couple of necessary (but totally unnecessary) monologues we reached our ending, which like the beginning was a little over the top with emotion and guitars and everyone telling you how to feel. Whenever I see a movie like this I can’t help but wonder what could have been. Mendes put a little too much trust in what was probably an easy and enjoyable screenplay to read when he should have let the camera do a little more work. If you liked Garden State (Zach Braff, 2004…which is a MUCH, MUCH, better movie) you might like Away we go. A somewhat unique “road trip movie”, I think this would be a good warm up for someone who wants to understand the structure of stories in films a little bit better without getting confused or having to think about your feelings.

My Vote: A good DVD for a night on the couch with your steady…yes, I just said steady.

The roof? Very creative.

My roommate always jokes that I hate every movie I see. Maybe he’s right. 

I went to see The Hangover on its opening day at noon. The theatre was half full. It was myself and about 50 young businessmen dressed casual on their extended Friday lunch break. The were excited. You would have thought they were about to go to Vegas. In an odd sort of a way they were.

So I’ve been thinking about that now for a while, how these guys were all amped up like a bunch of college kids getting ready for their first big beer pong tournament. And I have been listening to what people have been saying and reading what I’ve been reading and I can’t figure out if I’m just a cynic, like my roommate says or if this movie was just really mediocre at best.

I feel confident in saying it’s mediocre at best. 

I feel like everyone has gotten caught up in the nostalgia of Vegas through this movie. They see the strip and guys struggling to remember the wild night they just had and they can’t help but remember the trip they had to Vegas and in their minds it was just as crazy as The Hangover, save a tiger or two. This movie shows all its cards in the previews and there isn’t too much for it to stand on past that. After seeing it I want to go to Vegas again, I’m just not going to go drop $20 on the DVD anytime soon.

I didn’t hate The Hangover; hate is such a harsh word. I thought The Hangover had its moments (have you ever seen a baby masturbate…pretty funny). Suffice it to say; in the end I was not too impressed. There was a real lack of creativity in the picture and although I got my laughs in I think there are too many well-made comedies to consider The Hangover one of the best.

My Vote: Don’t believe the hype. I’m sure the right crowd could make this movie a lot better than it is. Please, I beg you, please don’t go around quoting this movie cause it just didn’t earn it

UP

The better a movie is the harder I find it to write about with out gushing and sounding like I’m trying to sell something. I have no problem doing that here. Go see this movie. Do anything you can to see it on the big screen and then reserve a copy at Wal-Mart before it’s released. This is by far Pixars biggest accomplishment to date, putting together a masterful work of art on so many levels. I laughed, I almost cried, and I forgot about everything in life beside what was going on in the theatre. That’s what great movies do to you.

The scenario could not have been more perfect. A few seats next to me I had a 5 or 6 year old girl accompanied by her father while in front of me I had an elderly couple holding hands. The little girl didn’t stop asking her father questions, adorable questions, which I could hardly ignore. The elderly couple in front of me must have exchanged a hundred or more loving glances at each other. It really set the mood.

Up is about Carl, an elderly man who sets out on an amazing journing he’s been waiting his whole life to take. After his wife Ellie passes away and on the verge of being condemned to an old folks home he anchors thousands of helium filled balloons to his house and takes flight. 

Carl really loved Ellie, the kind of love that can’t be described with words. Fortunately Pixar didn’t try to describe their love with words but with a montage sequence that knocked my socks off. It was as loving and heartfelt as any live action montage I have ever seen. When the little girl next to me turned to her father and whispered “Daddy, what happened” as Carl stood alone in a funeral home I had a hard time keeping it together. 

Up, well, it was almost….real. I usually have a hard time suspending my disbelief for a cartoon but this wasn’t just any old cartoon. Up will stand the test of time and become a classic, I'm sure of it. A great story, wonderful animation, and talking dogs...how could you go wrong?

My Vote: Go see it now, but not in 3-D.

A different experience than you may be used to. The Girlfriend Experience.

 I won’t make you wait till the end to figure me out here. I really enjoyed this movie. While there is always a concern when seeing a movie featuring non-actors it fell by the wayside quickly here. Sasha Grey, who happens to be a very young and active adult film star, is phenomenal. I am sure that if I saw her in any other film errr, mainstream theatrical movie I would have a much different opinion but she nailed this role, no pun intended. I have never seen any of her other “movies” but I have to think that her experiences in the adult film industry was the perfect precursor to playing the role of Chelsea. Her live in boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos) a personal trainer in the film and in real life is another non-actor. He is good looking, but the kind of good looking that is kind of hard to look at, his face seems to be carved from a piece of misshaped geological artifact. He is just as believable as Grey in his role.

Soderbergh uses a non-linear storyline to explore the life of a call girl and the relationships that make up her life. This area has been treaded on before, many times, most notably to me in one of my favorite movies of all time “Leaving Las Vegas”.

There is a lot of talking in this movie as in any movie about feelings and relationships. The plot revolves around Chelsea being interviewed by a journalist who wants the inside scoop on what its like to be a high priced call girl in New York who is also in a monogamous relationship.

Chelsea is a high priced hooker but that seems to be a front for the 21-year-old girl who essentially turns into a therapist for middle-aged men. She is professional, but not cold, she has sweetness about her with the men that make them comfortable and let them believe, if only for the night, that she is there for them. There is nothing amazingly clever about this film, surprisingly if only for the mere fact that it deals with a dirty business that often involves low-life scum bag type characters, drugs, police, and so on and so forth. For those who are curious, there are no drugs only drinks. No sex, only nudity. In the end, there are real emotions from real people in real relationships, no matter how out of the ordinary they may seem.

My Vote:  This film is in limited release so you may have to rent it, but its well worth the wait.

Who's in on it? Who really cares?

I was excited to see The Brothers Bloom. Rian Johnson directed this picture and also directed 2005’s Brick, a film noir set in a present day high school. His understanding of the genre shined and he really pulled off a believable flick in Brick. His much anticipated follow up fits neatly into an identifiable genre so the outlook was promising and with a budget 40 times greater than that of Brick it seemed as if everything was going his way.

The Brothers Bloom is a Con-comedy staring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz. I am not a big fan of Brody but I didn’t mind him here. I thought Ruffalo and Weisz were extremely enjoyable throughout the film. Visually Rian Johnson can be compared to Wes Anderson. His establishing shots are panoramic and colorful and he uses a lot of visual gags that will keep the artsy side of you engaged. He really employs the term Mise en scene in this film and asks you to try and think about it too.

However, while Brick took and old genre and applied it to modern times there wasn’t any fancy twist to this one. We are all aware that in a con movie nothing is as it seems. We know that we will think we have it figured it out at least three or four times and then BLAM! We get the big twist we didn’t see coming and we walk out of the movie theatre with a big smile. So knowing that we are really hanging on these relationships. Brothers and friends and women and enemies and money, its all very romantic but in the end it doesn’t deliver. The movie is enjoyable at times but the payoff isn’t there. I laughed and pondered life and what I would do in thier shoes but I also had the same reaction to Die Hard.

My Vote: If you’ve seen one Con-movie you’ve seen them all. Rent Brick

Mein Kempf

About half way through this movie I laughed out loud. For those of you who are unaware of the seriousness of the plot, please understand nothing was intended to be funny. Lets get the good stuff errr, good thing out of the way. My roommate pointed out to me that the Nazi’s have sick fits. I mean, those uni’s are pretty sharp. Its funny to me that the most hated group of people in the history of wars, the world, the universe are the Nazi’s but they somehow manage to look the best…hmmmm, isn’t that something to philosophize about.

In the opening scenes of the movie Tom Crusie (TC) sits at a table writing in German. His voice speaks over the action in perfect German while the English subtitles scroll on the bottom of the scene. Then the sub titles stop. Tom starts speaking in his very deliberate voice and that was that. All the Nazi’s speak English, some even with a British accent. Really? Okay, I can deal with this, sort of, I mean I could get past it if there was nothing else horribly wrong with this movie, but it really is the least of its problems.

We already know what the out come of this movie will be. I know nothing about this story but anyone who stayed in school past the third grade knows that Hitler killed himself, so knowing that TC intends to kill Hitler is a bit of a mcguffin, right? So with that out there it becomes a suspenseful story of risks and consequences and we should be so infatuated with these people lives we are glued to the edge of our seats. We have to care about TC or the movie will fall flat very quickly.

Tom Cruise carries out the actions of his character as if he were William Wallace but there is never a moment where I cared about what was at stake or did I ever believe or understand why TC was such a noble German. He has lost a hand, two figures and an eye. He seems to have enough children to field a baseball team and a relief pitcher on the way. He has given his body to Hitler and if he fails this mission his family will be hunted down and executed.
I couldn’t have cared less.

At one point in time I wanted to be JUST LIKE TOM CRUISE. Now that he thinks he can pull of an Oscar performance in every scene I feel bad for the guy and that poor girl he married I used to love on Dawson’s Creek. He was excellent in so many movies, all of which were filmed more than 10 years ago.

The pacing of this movie was the worst. Synger did a good job of telling us some things with action and voice over but all the “emotional” exposition was delivered by a group of respected actors who must have thought they could carry this movie. It takes them 10 minutes to explain something that could have taken a more thoughtful creative director 30 seconds of action to create. TC needed his face time. It’s a shame. This movie has suspense built right into it. Synger has made some amazing movies, but I say, after very careful consideration, skip this piece of shit and thank me for sitting through it for you. 

The Future Sucks.

In the summer of 1991 movies changed. James Cameron brought us a new kind of action movie, one that everyone could watch. It had jaw-dropping special effects, our Governor had hit his peak, young girls adored John Conner and women had a strong (albeit crazy) female lead.

            In the summer of 2009 movies seem to have taken a step back. McG (really, this guy got fucking credit under the name “McG”??!!) brought us the same old same old. While I thought the overall tone successfully gave a very dystopian feel to the film it was unfortunately the only positive. Christian Bale’s now famous rant was much more entertaining than his performance here, in fact, he was more than forgettable. The supporting characters and their very brief story lines served very little purpose other than filling space and the regurgitated quotes from T2 only helped to remind me that I was just watching a less exciting knockoff.

            The Hamburgler, or whatever this “Smash Mouth” director wants to be called stole most of his shots and a few of the scenarios from the earlier pictures. What really blows my mind is how the Terminator seems to not have improved; he doesn’t look like he has advanced 18 years from the technology Cameron was working with.

            Terminator Salvation could have taken a few chances, remained  PG-13, and been a decent action movie. Instead we get a lot of uninteresting action and a whole lot of boring exposition we could have figured out on our own. Grimace blew this one for anyone who watched T2, or Robocop or Bladerunner or The Matrix or Fahrenheit 451 or…

My Vote: If you really must see it don’t wait until DVD, there is still something to be said for going to see a movie at the theatre.

To Come...

DVD picks- The House Bunny-The Wrestler-Sex Drive

Zac to the 80's..?

We all do things sometimes that are a little embarrassing. Walking out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to our heel. Telling a friend you let a smelly one go just as everyone in the room stops talking. Sometimes you’re just “that guy”… the guy walking into the theatre to see 17 AGAIN…alone…while every 12-year-old girl in Los Angeles County seems to be staring at you. My parents would always say that the world didn’t revolve around me. They were right, thankfully. In actuality I think that the world must revolve around Zac Efron - that is as soon as he starts nailing 3-pointers with his shirt off and I quickly realized no 12-year-old girl in her right mind really cared about the creepy guy sitting in the back of the theatre.

            17 AGAIN stars Zac Efron (High School Musical 1,2,3) as Mathew Perry (Friends) as Mike O’Donnell, the star basketball player at Hayden High, who is probably the most likable guy you could ever want to meet. That is, of course, before he gets his girlfriend pregnant, quits the basketball team in the opening seconds of the big game, thus forfeiting the big scholarship he was destined to get. This series of events causes him to spend the next 20 years of his life complaining about “what could have been”. While most of us, especially those who were lucky enough to be as cool as Mike O’Donnell was at 17, all have moments when we wonder about “what could have been”, Mike O’Donnell the adult actually gets the chance to see. With a little help from the most likely of places, the janitor (Brain Doyle-Murray…ass-sphincter says what?), Mike takes on the form of his 17 year old body in the present day and the movie starts to take shape.

            I remember watching movies like this when I was younger. The stylized high school experience, the big parties, the big games, the girls who acted like women. I remember watching all these movies and thinking about how fresh and up to date they were. As I watched this movie I tried to identify how many movies 17 AGAIN ripped off, or at least where they got their ideas. I lost count.

            Part Teen Wolf, part Big, part Back to the Future, part The Breakfast Club, part It’s a Wonderful Life, part…. okay, you get the point. While 17 AGAIN reminded me of a lot of movies that I had seen, they are all movies I like. A wise person once said, “amateurs imitate art, professionals steal it”. There sure was a lot of stealing going on here and that’s fine with me, cause it worked. While I don’t want to make this movie out to be better than it was, it wasn’t bad either. In fact, I laughed a lot and I even had a moment that caused me to reflect on my own life and the descions I have made (Zacs’ baby blues will do that to you).

            Mathew Perry was pretty inconsequential in this flick. I found myself wondering who made the decision that Zac Efron grows up to be Mathew Perry…poor kid. Leslie Mann (Knocked Up) who plays the wife/mother is always fun to watch and has great timing, not to mention great chemistry with a younger man. Thomas Lennon (LT. Dangle, Reno 911!) is Mike’s best friend (which is only believable in the world of movies) plays a Lord of the Rings loving nerd turned millionaire computer software developer. Posing as Mike's father he falls in love with the schools hard-boiled principal Jane Masterson (Melora Hardin, The Office). They had some funny scenes together that helped break the story up but ultimately their characters felt a little too contrived and fell flat.

            Not having seen any of the High School Musical series I didn’t know what to expect from Efron, but I was actually pretty impressed. Good looking, charming, and a pretty smart actor, I just hope that this kid can move out of the high school genre and grow up a little…or at least get a little dirtier…dare I say a Risky Business remake?

            This is your typical “spirit-body transformation”/high school coming-of-age/love story. Its got some good laughs and it moves along at nice pace. PG-13 has to be a tough rating to go for while trying to be funny, heartfelt and actually appropriate for 13 year olds and adults alike but overall it did its job.

My Vote: Take a chance with it, you might be surprised.

Booty, booty, booty, booty rockin everywhere....

A few years ago I stopped going to the movies. Netflix was the best thing since sliced bread and I had a lot of catching up to do. I literally watched 5 movies a week for an entire semester. I slowed down my viewing cause my brain was beginning to turn to mush and I was running out of good movies to catch up on. In the past 18 months I have ventured back to the movie theatres and realized what a joy going to the movies was. 

In the past I have been rather picky about the movies that I chose to see in the theatre, who can blame me at $12 a ticket and $13.50 for a medium popcorn and soft-drink combo. However, this weekend I threw caution to the wind and decided to see the forth installment of The Fast and Furious series cleverly titled....wait for it....wait for it.....Fast and Furious.

            Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are reunited after two films apart and are both after the notorious heroin smuggler, Braga. Brian (Walker) as an FBI agent is after his big bust and Dom (Diesel) is out to avenge his girlfriends’ death. The movie opens with a 20-minute action sequence that trumps any opening scene in the series and I was thoroughly excited for what was to come. 

The major reason I try to avoid movies like Fast and Furious, although I have somehow managed to see everyone, is that the combination of bad acting, poor dialogue, and unrealistic situations gets under my skin. I find myself getting annoyed for spending the money and time to see such a juvenile movie. However, the fourth installment didn’t get under my skin and in fact, I found myself  having a really good time. The scantily clad females scattered throughout the movie didn't hurt the experience either.

      The joy in seeing a movie like this is all about the experience. The booming soundtrack, the larger than life explosions, and some crowd participation is sometimes all you need to look past all the little things that can make a PG-13 action flick less than memorable. A lot of critics have hammered this movie saying it was nothing more than a re-make of 2001 The Fast and Furious also starring Walker and Diesel. Lets get one thing straight; if  Fast and Furious is a remake of anything, it’s a remake of the 1991 classic (yeah, I said classic) Point Break starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Now, with that out of the way, I will make another comparison. This movie gave me the same tickle as Back to the Future II. 

Let me explain. 

Back to the Future II is a much more exciting experience if you have seen the original because it cleverly manages to combine the best of the first film with it's new story-line. Fast and Furious accomplishes the same feat. While someone who is unfamiliar with the series would be able to watch Fast and Furious without a hitch, knowing the history between Brian and Dom makes you feel like they are characters that you have been friends with for years. The Fast and Furious 2 tried to re-create this situation between Paul Walker and Tyrese but failed miserably. The 5^th installment in the series is on its way, to no ones surprise, given the huge success at the box office. This 4^th installment, I think, will prove to be the favorite among the fans though.

My Vote; A fun action movie for anyone….see it in the theatre rather than waiting for the DVD, no matter how big your flat screen is.

Next Week

Fast and Furious

            &

Sunshine Cleaning

Don't Observe

Observe and Report stars Seth Rogen as Ronnie Barnhardt, a bi-polar mall-cop whose mall is being corrupted by a heavyset flasher and a thief. His mother is a drunk so it’s no surprise he is in love with a drunk, Brandi, played by Anna Ferris. There was a lot of buzz around this movie and Seth Rogen has been quoted as saying he can’t believe they let him make it. Well Seth, neither can I.

            I am not easily offended by language, drug use, nudity, etc. I love dark comedies and more specifically movies that break the Hollywood mold. Todd Solondz’s 1998 movie Happiness was a dark comedy, and damn good. Observe and Report tries to be dark, funny, confusing and it tries to break the mold. It accomplishes all of these things, but not as one coherent piece of work but as a bunch of muddled scenes strewn together that vaguely resemble what modern moviegoers will call a movie. There is a beginning, middle and an end but I can’t say that any of it really mattered.

            In the upcoming days I am sure there will be a lot of buzz around this movie for a lot of different reason. The first thing that has been getting attention is the “date rape” scene. This was actually a bright spot in the movie and I wish there were more moments like this throughout. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support date rape, but it fit, it was funny, and in the end Anna Ferris delivers a memorable line that makes everything okay.

            In the end this just isn’t a good movie. I was bored in the first 10 minutes, 45 minutes in I was considering walking out and about an 1 hour 20 minutes in I was just mad. The director Jody Hill, who also directed the Foot fist way, likes movies that “break the mold” and includes Pulp Fiction as a favorite. While Pulp Fiction included many of the same elements as Observe and Report, it had purpose and it said something. Observe and Report doesn’t accomplish either of those things. I take that back, it does demonstrate how if you say a word enough (fuck) it starts to loose its power. Gratuitous violence, illicit drug use, and full frontal (not to mention fat and saggy) male nudity strung together in a weak plot do not make for a good film. I could name 10 movies where those elements are part of a greater purpose and serve the film (well maybe not the saggy full frontal).

            I was pretty hard on Paul Blart. I will watch that movie 10 times before I watch Observe and Report again.

 

My Vote; Do I really have to say it. 

Games-Games-Games

            Adventureland is Greg Mottola’s  follow up to Superbad from a few summers ago. While Superbad at its core was a cute buddy film the opening discussion of what porn site to subscribe to when Seth and Even turned the all-important 18 set the tone for the film. While their relationship was sweet the raunchy humor stole the show. Adventureland is a much more personal coming of age story than Superbad. It’s about a group of friends most of which are in college or just graduated college spending their summer working Games or Rides at a Pittsburgh amusement park.

            James (Jesse Eisenberg, The squid and the whale) a recent college graduate just found out his graduation present, a European summer vacation, is no longer in the cards and his plans for grad school at Columbia could also be in jeopardy. With nowhere else to turn he gets a job working carnival games at the local amusement park Adventureland, with his ball-checking old best friend Frigo (Matt Bush…the Cingular rollover minutes kid).

            When Em (Kristen Stewert, Twillight) saves James from getting shanked by a cheating park goer a relationship begins to blossom. Em is the cute girl with secrets. Her mom has passed, her father is never home and she spends her time off trying to fill the voids they left behind, to which of course the sweet and innocent Renaissance Studies buff, James, is completely oblivious to.

            Joel (Martin Starr), a pipe smoking Russian Literature major shows James the ins and outs of the day-to-day park rigmarole and they become pals. The older and much cooler Connell (Ryan Reynolds) takes a liking to James and the summer seems to be going as good as it could, all things considered.

            The twists and turns of Adventureland are about as predictable as an old wooden rollercoaster but ultimately they are just as enjoyable. I was still a small child in 1987, the year the movie is set, but Mottola did a good job bringing me back. There were no unnecessary or blatant references to the 80’s, as so many movies like to do. A great soundtrack helps to bring you back to a time without cell phone and the Internet, a time when it was okay to hang out after work and talk, or cruise around in your car till the sun came up.

            The marketing campaign for Adventureland really focuses on the comedy aspects of this movie but if you are expecting a bellyache from laughing so hard after this flick you’ll be disappointed. I could have done without Bill Hader, which I find myself saying a lot these days. Kristen Wiig is always good for a few laughs. No one, not even Ryan Reynolds can steal the spotlight from Jesse Eisenberg on this one, however. Cute, funny and heartfelt, this movie was a pleasant surprise.

My vote; See this movie…and then go buy the DVD.

I Love you too, man!

I think romantic comedies are my favorite genre. They are easy to follow, easy to relate to and for the most part, you always know what to expect. It’s no surprise that the bromantic comedy I love you, Man, is an enjoyable film to watch.

            Paul Rudd plays a Real Estate agent looking for his first big sell. In the opening scene of the movie he gets engaged to the beautiful Rashida Jones. They both quickly realize that Peter (Rudd) has no friends…. at all. While he is active (fencing?) and works in a business that relies heavily on networking he lacks interpersonal skills that will gain him buddies i. e. he’s not an asshole. Peter gets along better with women because, well, he can be himself and make root beer floats with chocolate straws from Pepperidge Farms for them. In desperate need for a best man at his wedding, he sets out to find some new guy friends.

            With the help of his gay brother (Andy Sanborn) his mother and an Internet friend-finding site, he goes on a series of disasteris “man-dates”. That is until Sydney (Jason Segal) walks in to his life. Sydney lives alone in Venice beach. He has a “man cave” equipped with multiple TV’s, beer, bongs, and enough musical equipment to choke KISS. Just like all other romantic comedies these opposites attract, interfere with each others lifestyles and relationships and they both end up wondering what they saw in each other in the first place.

            It’s a formulaic plot and you can see the ending coming a mile away, but it works.  Everything down to the typical “falling in love” montage seems believable. You like Sydney and you like Peter and damn it, you'll want to see them make it work! The tertiary characters in this movie are somewhat fun and include Jamie Pressley, Jan Favrou, Jane Cutin and J.K. Simmions. They are a little underdeveloped but who really cares, the movie isn’t about them.

            I haven’t laughed out loud this much at a movie since last years Forgetting Sarah Marshal, which also included Segal and Rudd. I love you, Man toned down the gross out humor of last year (sorry everyone, Jason keeps it in his pants this time) and replaced it with some heartfelt awkwardness. Neither inventive nor groundbreaking…just a damn good flick.

My vote; what have you been doing? Go see this movie…and bring a friend.

Paul Blart rhymes with….

   To go as far to say I wish I forgot the movie itself would be a bit much. I knew headed into this movie what to expect, or at least I thought I did. Kevin James, who is actually quite funny as a lovable everyman on the TV show “King of Queen’s” stars as Paul Blart, an over zealous security “guard” at a New Jersey mall before the busiest day of the year, black Friday. I put the word “guard” in quotations because…well, if you haven’t heard about the debate, you will.

            The plot is a classic, and by classic I mean predictable and boring but I wasn’t expecting to be fooled. There was very little this movie did that was crafty or original, again, no surprise. At 87 minutes I would put it at about 27 minutes to long, unless of course you wanted to develop Paul Blart as say, a sketch on “MAD TV” (does that show even exist anymore?) and then you might be able to chop him up into thirteen 5 minutes skits.

            This movie cleaned up at the box office, probably due to really clever marketing. I was expecting a few more laughs out of it but was sadly disappointed.  I’m not sure whom this movie is really good for. I would think a 12 year old might be a little too old for it, or at the very least think they are too old for it. Any child younger than 12 may not get some of the humor involved.

My vote; skip it.