MockingMovies

New content coming soon. Feel free to check out past reviews.

2011-09-13T09:34:00.001-04:00

The Ward = Shutter Island - gravitas & atmosphere + hot actress shower scenes?

2011-01-12T07:09:00.002-05:00

The Devil Is In the Details Or Maybe In An Elevator in Philly.

2011-01-04T21:56:00.004-05:00

2010 cannot be described as a good year for M. Night Shyamalan. The negative reaction to "The Last Airbender" was immediate and scathing. It went so far as to become an act of revisionist history with some critics dissecting his entire career and declaring it retroactively over after the phenomenal success of "The Sixth Sense". So, I just had to check out "Devil", released a mere three months after "The Last Airbender", and thanks to some ITunes gift cards from Christmas, I could do so without risking my own money.

"Devil" opens with a suicide and details the story of five people trapped in a high rise elevator in downtown Philadelphia, who experience events that can only be explained by the supernatural. The "devil" aspect comes into play through a guard in the building whose mother puts Brothers Grim to shame. She told him bedtime stories as a child about the devil taking human form to trap, torture and kill those who will eventually end up in his(or her?) domain anyway. It's a bit of a locked room mystery with a police detective working the suicide who tries to decipher what is happening in the elevator via security cameras.

I'll start with my likes which are mostly about mood. The camera work, including opening credits over the upside down city, is excellent with sweeps and mirror perspective shots that keep the viewer constantly askew. The music, also key to the mood, is heavy handed enough to cue an edge or your seat tension throughout. I didn't have any problem with the acting but the characters are all like those found in a hour long Twilight Zone type show. You know, played by vaguely familiar actors and fleshed out just enough to make us pay attention for an hour minus commercials.

My dislikes? The ending does have a few "twists" people expect from Shyamalan's work but they are fairly tepid. The narrator is a mildly annoying piece of work also. His "my mama told me" declarations about the devil are at best awkward exposition and at worst silly. Why insert an otherwise rational character who earnestly expects everyone to shake their heads and say "yep it's the Devil, that's for sure"?

Verdict? The reports of M. Knight Shyamalan's career suicide are premature and he will make more movies to love or hate I'm sure. "Devil" probably would have been viewed as C grade work but a minor hiccup if it had not come out after "The Last Airbender".

Love and Other Disasters

2010-12-25T21:46:00.001-05:00

To call a movie cute often equals a death sentence in that it evokes fluff and a lack of substance. I just watched 'Love and Other Disasters" and cannot escape the dreaded word "cute". Fortunately "clever" also comes into play. This movie which references romantic movies past and present does so in a way that is smart, hip and stylish. Brittany Murphy who left the world stage too early excelled at playing two types of roles - troubled and damaged or wispy and flirty. Here we are treated to the lighter side with intentional nods to Audrey Hepburn. I had not heard of this movie before tonight and thought I would share.

Always Show Up In Time to See the Trailers, It's the polite thing to do..

2010-12-23T08:16:00.000-05:00

Random thoughts on the trailers I saw before "Tron: Legacy".

-"The Eagle" - starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell. Looks ok but only ok. I'm a big fan of Billy who did the "bally" all grown up but can take Channing Tatum or leave him in the acting department. The trailer wasn't interesting enough to keep my over active mind from renaming this movie "When the Blue Man Group Attacks!!"

-"Rio" - I'm really over self-referencing, hip, animated talking animal movies. Jessie Eisenberg seems to be channeling just about every other Jessie Eisenberg character, just animated this time. The 3D trailer was cool though when the Christ the Redeemer statue reached off the screen and practically slapped me in the face.

-"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" - What to say? The first in this franchise was light, fun and even original. The 2cd and the 3rd were loaded down with too many characters, too many special effects and too many plot points. Is this scaled back? toned down? They've obviously jettisoned two important characters to give us more Depp, Depp and Depp but it does not look like a film franchise going back to it's roots.

Thor teaser trailer!!

2010-12-11T14:35:00.000-05:00

I like it! Dark, moody, nods to the classic but updates the look, Natalie Portman (never a bad idea) = success (?). I sure hope so.

I Love You Phillip Morris hits theaters Friday.

2010-11-29T11:38:00.002-05:00

"I Love You Phillip Morris" finally gets it's U.S. release this Friday and I cannot wait for the reaction or to see the movie. It premiered at Sundance in 2009 and had an international release in April 2010. The expected limited U.S. release earlier this year was "delayed indefinitely" with reports being that there were concerns about how to market a film with two big name stars and "graphic sex" of the gay kind (hmm this all seems familiar somehow). You can see this uneasiness yourself by doing a Google search for the trailer. There are several and they seem to each be trying to find the right balance of Jim Carrey's manic style of comedy and the gay storyline. The trailer I am posting is my favorite and try as I might I could not find it anywhere without the French subtitles (??). I am really anticipating how this movie will be received and if it will have a mainstream reaction. I don't expect it to cause the protracted debate that occurred over "Brokeback Mountain" because American audiences seeing gay themed movies in wide release (rather than art house fare) find it more palpable if they can laugh about it. I won't get on my soapbox about that right now; so enjoy the trailer.

Skyline - Pretty People, Pretty Lights, No Substance.

2010-11-17T08:09:00.011-05:00

I've always been an easy fan of movies involving characters going about their normal lives who begin to notice that the extraordinary or possibly the horrific is sneaking in around the edges. This can take the form of natural disasters, biological threats or the quiet ( or not so quiet) arrival of hostile visitors from beyond. The recent release, "Skyline", takes on the alien invasion plot with the opening scene being luminous and ethereal blue lights dropping from the sky onto a sleeping Los Angeles. We flashback to the day before and meet our main characters of Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and Elaine (Scottie Thompson) who are traveling to L.A. to visit an old friend of Jarrod's who has made a successful go at fame and fortune in the movie industry. Very quickly we get the necessary but shallow set up for our characters. Jarrod is a knight in shining armor who helps strangers with their luggage on the airplane and Elaine is appropriately uncomfortable with the L.A. lifestyle they stumble into. Jarrod's friend, Terry (Donald Faison) has become a bit of a sleaze and has a girlfriend (Brittany Daniel) so instantly unlikable that you know attempts to humanize her later will fail. Terry throws a blow out party in his penthouse and we're ready for the invasion scene this hungover group will awake to early the next morning.

I'll render my final judgement early and say that if the goal here was to create a group of vaguely unlikable characters and kill them off over 92 minutes, then they succeeded. There are obvious similarities between "Skyline" and 2008's "Cloverfield". I was a fan of the latter and despite any gimmicks used like the hand held camera work, I related to the characters and cared about them in the way an audience should. That just did not happen during "Skyline". The first obvious issue I had was with the two leads. Jarron and Elaine have very little chemistry as an onscreen couple and the casting choice was odd. The actors have such similar and distinct faces that they look like siblings. It was as if they came from the same very pretty Eastern European, Calvin Klein "esque" family of models.

"Skyline" also lacks creativity and suspense. The aliens must be keeping up with Earth pop culture because they are a mish mash of creatures from "The Matrix", "War of the Worlds" and the recent Terminator movie. Out of the 92 minute run time there were only a couple moments that reached edge of your seat anticipation and those involved the decent special effects and an air battle that conjured a feeling of "hooray for U.S. military might"

"Skyline" should have ended with the forlorn scenes of the world's capitals in ruins and under the same type of attack as L.A. but instead we get an overly long ending that screams "SEQUEL". In fact it is so long it continues in snapshot scenes during the credits. I'll spare you. You can exit the theater as soon as possible because there is nothing left worth seeing.

Always show up in time to see the trailers, it's the polite thing to do..

2010-11-16T16:49:00.000-05:00

Here is a snapshot of the trailers playing today when I saw "Skyline"

-I Am Number Four - Blah. Based on the preview only, I will say it is just another movie about young, attractive people with super-powers of some sort.

-The Green Hornet - I'm biased here because I knew I wanted to see this movie before even the first glimpse. I was so intrigued by the casting of Seth Rogen as a super hero of any type.

-Gulliver's Travels - The jury is out on this one for me. It's such safe territory for Jack Black with a blend of his delivery and physical comedy that we've seen so many times before.

-Sanctum - nothing about this preview says "follow up to the highest grossing movie of all time" for producer James Cameron but he's James Cameron; so I'm sure this will be a blockbuster.

I'll just touch on Meet the Fockers III or whatever it's called but not make you watch the trailer. The first in this franchise was genuinely funny but they should have stopped there. I am predicting the third to be painful in a way that cannot be numbed by any amount of buttery popcorn or sugary drink.

Charlie St. Cloud - How not to make a I see dead people, drama, teen romance, semi-comedy.

2010-11-11T17:00:00.000-05:00

"Charlie St. Cloud" starring Zac Efron is the story of the title character and how he deals with the loss of his younger brother, Sam, (Charlie Tahan) in a car accident made even worse by the fact that Charlie is driving. Seemingly from beyond the grave or only in Charlie's mind, Sam shows up every day for a promised baseball lesson. We flash forward five years and Charlie has given up on college, his love of sailing and become the town recluse all to make his daily appointment with Sam.

From my title of my post you may have picked up on the fact that I think "Charlie St. Cloud" is a awkward mismatch of ideas that don't necessarily fare well in the same movie. Self-editing is a valuable skill that would serve the creative forces behind this movie very well. There are three, possibly four distinct story lines going here including a missed opportunity at a supernatural drama. I don't think any of them succeed because it doesn't appear this movie knows what it wants to be.

As far as acting, Efron has a charming face and disposition that lends well to the humor but not so much the drama. You can practically see him straining in the first part of the movie to keep up with the movie's over the top dramatics. It's further proof to me that Hollywood finds us a bit dense and believes we need a trail of bread crumbs leading to the obvious. In this case the obvious is that the sudden loss of a young family member is tragic.
Of course you cannot have Zac Efron as your lead without some romance. Charlie attracts the interest of Tess (Amanda Crew), a young woman training for a round the globe sailing trip. I hate to be harsh but my biggest criticism is for Amanda Crew. She has a delivery so flat as to suck any spark or chemistry out of the scenes between Charlie and Tess. Since I'm really trashing this movie, I will give some props to Charlie Tahan who plays Sam. He is genuinely funny and at times conveys the sadness embodied by his character.
Have I made this sound so terrible? There is an audience for this movie but I don't think that includes people like me who take a cynical view about the state of creativity in film.

So Hollywood writers are all using the same plot generating software now?

2010-11-09T13:53:00.000-05:00

These three previews were back to back today when I went to see "Due Date" ("No Strings Attached", "Love and Other Drugs", "Just Go With It" respectively). All three are essentially the same story - casual sex is great so I'm not looking for love + uh oh love found me + what hilarious hijinks and teary eyed drama will ensue as I work out this internal conundrum. In fairness to these three, "No Strings Attached" looks the best if only because Natalie Portman has the potential to rise above it all. Usually Jake might win out but I guess I'm shallow because I'm hating his hair in this movie.
Thank the movie gods for the beautifully dreary "Sucker Punch" trailer that followed.

Burlesque - Moulin Rouge or Showgirls?

2010-10-12T08:35:00.000-04:00

Cher looking all of 40 + catty dialogue + Stanley Tucci throwing around his "The Devil Wears Prada" attitude + Cam Gigandet wearing a bowler hat = gay old time at the cinema. Let me be clear, I mean gay as in "I like guys" not in the way of vapid 14 year olds. Not sure if how this will work out but it should be fun.

Let Me In = the real awkward teen falls for vampire story.

2010-10-07T09:07:00.001-04:00

The month of October offers many pleasures including the beginning of fall weather, my favorite holiday, Halloween, and a selection of new supernatural themed movies. With that in mind I called up a friend and made plans to see "Let Me In". I won't name my friend but he did give me the ok to identify him as tall, foreboding and a sometimes practitioner of the dark arts.

"Let Me In", set in 1983, tells the woeful story of Owen (Kodi Smith-Mcphee) who is not exactly living the dream of adolescence. In addition to being thin, awkward and bullied, his fractured home life is anything but a refuge. Into his life comes new neighbors who will change everything. An older man and young girl move next door to Owen and he can easily eavesdrop on them from his bedroom. Owen soon makes friends with the young girl, Abby (Chloe Moretz) and almost instantly senses a soul mate. At first she is presented as timid, insecure and possibly neglected. The story moves pretty quickly and doesn't really try to hide that Chloe is actually a vampire, older than she appears and as much vicious killer as timid perpetual adolescent.

There, now we've done the set up; so let's dissect this movie. The atmosphere in "Let Me In" is stark and never lets you rest from the sense of foreboding and that is exactly as it should be in this type of movie. I commend the director for keeping the gore and blood at a level that satisfies without turning off the viewer. He replaces some of the visuals for sound. Just know, when Abby feeds her need, you will have no doubt what is happening even though it may be shot in the shadows or off camera.

The acting is good all around but success rests on the four characters who take up a majority of the screen time. I am in awe of Kodi Smith-Mcphee's portrayal of Owen. I instantly connected with the character and Mcphee's ability to play both the hopelessness and rage of a victim. His bullying at school is the most humiliating sort and is lead by a student who I will describe as a sadistic, future closet-case who is pretty scary despite having Justin Bieber hair. Chloe Moretz would really surprise at this point if she failed to deliver an excellent performance. You will, I think, also be blown away by how she conveys tenderness toward Owen at one moment and animalistic need for blood the next. Richard Jenkins, a chameleon like actor who in his career has done the silliest of comedies and the tautest of dramas, plays Abby's shadowy protector who has obviously sacrificed his life to feed her endless appetite and protect her from the consequences. Owen's mother is played by Cara Bouno and don't worry if you don't recognize her. She is excellently shot the entire movie out of focus with a glass of wine in hand or nearby in a way that clearly says the parents are unimportant in this story.

I'll close by saying that "Let Me In" is a dark, delicious Halloween treat that I highly recommend.

Resident Evil lumbers toward a 5th movie like one of it's brain dead zombies

2010-09-15T16:09:00.002-04:00

I am a fan of simple and streamlined story telling; so I enjoyed the first movie in the Resident Evil franchise which came out in 2002. The story was easy to follow and enjoy - killer day at the office when all of the employees of the evil multi-national Umbrella Corporation are killed and turned into zombies by a super virus. Survivors and rescuers must fight their way out. I was totally there. I was not such a fan of the second movie and pretty much ignored the third except for a glimpse here and there on cable.
My desire to check out "Resident Evil: Afterlife" was driven by being a sometimes but enthusiastic Milla Jovovich fan ever since first seeing her in the dazzling, hyper-kinetic, Jean-Paul Gautier drenched movie "The Fifth Element". For her fans I have some good news and bad news. You will see a lot of her in "Resident Evil: Afterlife", including, I counted, 11 clones in the opening scenes, but not much of her acting skill. My first big complaint is that she is nothing more than post-apocalyptic eye candy to fill the space between supposedly impressive 3D effects.
I was hoping this movie would have the prerequisite amount of zombie action sprinkled with dark humor and basically repeat the first movie because repetition is not always a bad thing. Nope. Instead there are 97 minutes of what feels like nothing except set up for a fifth movie. Sure there is a story (loosely) where Alice encounters a group of survivors but some of them are so expendable and cliched they are a waste of time. It all moves too fast and there is never a connection.
I don't know what to say about the 3D, really. There was some stop action moments which if you took the time examine them were visually trippy and interesting but they were overshadowed by the multitude of slow motion fight sequences which were over wrought and boring. So much slow motion in fact that I began to wonder if someone had slipped a valium into my blueberry slushy(?). Not to mention that this over used effect turned the big bad villain into a tired Agent Smith impersonation.
In the end Alice and her cohorts are on a giant ship full of survivors who look like they work for an Apple store in 2020. An army of black clad Umbrella agents are on the way promising an overblown and empty showdown for the next movie. A funny note. Even though I am sure most of the audience, like myself, were heading to the restrooms, we all turned back to the screen like cattle for a super special bonus scene at the end. That's the last slight of the movie because I did not even know who the female villain reveal was until I got home and Googled it. Shame on them. Don't do that people who have to pee.

Unstoppable - There's a runaway train on the tracks but wait, it get's worse.....

2010-09-14T17:36:00.000-04:00

..the train is carrying explosive chemicals and it's heading straight for another train... but wait, that other train is carrying children... but wait, each of those children is holding a puppy.
Ok the puppy thing isn't true but it does sound like an exciting movie.

A New Addition to the Definitive Travel Porn Movie List

2010-09-07T13:08:00.000-04:00

I'm reposting this because I've recently discovered a new movie to add to my list - "Cairo Time". This recent release stars the fabulous Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig who any real Star Trek fan will recognize as Dr. Bashir from Deep Space Nine. The story simply and elegantly chronicles a week Clarkson's character spends in Cairo awaiting the arrival of her husband. She has sensual but ultimately chaste flirtation with her husband's former colleague played by Siddig. The third character in this story is the beautiful city of Cairo itself and that is what makes it fit nicely into my definition of travel porn. Here is the rest of my original post in case you wonder what in the world I am talking about.

At a certain point in my movie life, due in great part to my partner in crime, I started labeling certain movies as "travel porn". These movies fall into two categories. First is where a person or persons travels somewhere, possibly foreign and completely out of their element. They interact with the people, places, food, architecture and find life transformed. They discover a new life or a new life discovers them if you want to be philosophical about it. Romance or sex can definitely be part of the recipe too. The second is movies that so completely capture ideas (true or not) about a place and time that the viewer may become whimsical and starry eyed about living in those places. Here is a list of our favorites for your consideration:

-"Under the Tuscan Sun" - recently divorced and bitter Diane Lane buys a home in the Tuscan region of Italy. In a testament to the breeziness of this movie, she does a whole 30 seconds of calculations on how much she can afford to pay after renovations (to be done in her words by "the descendants of Roman gods") and living expenses. If the typical American home buyer had this skill, we could have avoided the whole housing crisis probably.

-"A Good Year" - phone throwing manly-man Russell Crowe keeps this from being an all chick-flick list as a nasty, evil, greedy stock broker in London who leaves it all behind for a life of "eating, drinking, sleeping and shagging" in France.

-"The Holiday" - online vacation home swapping service leads to life fulfillment for English Kate Winslet and L.A. girl Cameron Diaz

-"Saving Grace" - small English village populated by quirky characters (as if there are any others in small English villages) helps a widow save her finances and home by growing and selling the best pot in the world. Notable performance by Craig Ferguson pre Late Late Show.

-"Tea with Mussolini" - based on the life of filmmaker Franco Zeffireli this is a coming of age story with fantastic performances by Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Cher. Yes, Cher and I say that with no sarcasm or irony. You'll just have to see it.

-"Ladies in Lavender" - Judi Dench and Maggie Smith again. Snapshot of life in seaside England prior to WWII with two sisters sheltering a young man who washes up on shore after a boating accident. I know this description may sound really boring but it's not.

-"Raman Girl" - willowy, wispy Brittany Murphy follows her boyfriend to Tokyo and it turns out he is not so hot on the idea. She sticks around though conquers the language barrier and the heart of a grumpy master Ramen chef. This is the last Murphy movie I saw and although it was typical of her roles, it sure makes me miss what she brought to the screen.

- Ok, I see that the choices are skewing, recent, European and not very daring(vanilla travel porn if you will). These are honorable mentions that may round out the list a bit:

-"Enchanted April"

-"Lost in Translation

-"Nowhere in Africa"

-"Out of Africa"

-"The English Patient" (you don't have to point out post WWII Italy is not exactly a vacation)

-"The Beach"

-"Sweet Home Alabama" ( nobody says it has to be foreign and as the movie points out,"you - should need a passport to travel down here").

-"Eurotrip" - complete mocking parody of every tired European stereotype but it does make me laugh a lot.

"The Darjeeling Limited"

City Island - I have not had this much fun watching people yell at each other since an unfortunate 1989 family Christmas

2010-08-31T13:17:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to let you in on a recent release that rescued my movie watching options this weekend. After a dismal experience with J Lo's "The Back-Up Plan", I saw "City Island" at Red Box and remembered taking note of the trailer. The story here is of the middle class Rizzo family living in the working class neighborhood of City Island in the Bronx. It stars Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies ( oh how I miss ER) along with a wonderfully played side character courtesy of Emily Mortimer. The conflict that drives this small dysfunctional family comedy is that each member of the Rizzos is hiding a secret. The secrets are from the mundane to the silly and not always to the character's credit. The reason this movie works is that even though we may not like everybody, the characters are all endearing even in the midst of their faults; so check out "City Island" if it's not already on your movie radar.

2010-08-24T12:04:00.000-04:00

I've been waiting for "Me and Orson Welles" to have a U.S. DVD release ever since seeing some clips during the 2010 BAFTA(s) and I can say it did not disappoint. The story is that of Richard Samuels (Zac Efron) a bored high schooler who in the course of a week, meets Orson Welles, is cast in the now famous 1937 Broadway production of Julius Caesar and just as quickly fired. It's a fantastic period piece with a backdrop of the sophisticated New York artistic set. Actually maybe that's not completely accurate. The real backdrop may be the over the top ego and personality of Orson Welles(which appears to rival NYC in size). Christian McKay (who has not one credit on IMDB I recognize) is incredible as Welles. The viewer should dislike him but perhaps like the real life person, he is too charming and funny to truly resent. Claire Danes equally impresses at doing well with a role that could be described as a bit flat. She is the older love (and sex) interest who introduces Richard to the unfortunate landscape of adult relationships. I love Claire Danes mostly because I can still hold onto the sixteen year old iconic mopey Angela Chase and still appreciate her as a fully evolved adult actress.

The only stumbling point in this movie may be the "me". Zac Efron is a bit of a mystery to me. If he had given himself completely over the dark side of Disney, I am sure I would see him as "that kid" from "those annoying High-School Musical movies". However I genuinely enjoyed him in "17 Again"; so I had to get over that. Here he does the comedy of someone out of their element well but fails to fully convince when he is called upon to do drama. It's a minor complaint though that doesn't detract from the whole...and who knows maybe I will have to eat those words when I see "Charlie St. Cloud" which is getting some good reviews for Efron.

Life As We Know It

2010-08-19T15:54:00.000-04:00

Doesn't this movie get made every 3 years or so in which an otherwise ok parent ( or parents) leaves their "most precious gift" to the most inappropriate people? I'm not a big Katherine Heigl fan and less a fan of baby poop; so I don't see this movie in my future.

Eat, Pray, Love all you want but a little less whining please..

2010-08-14T12:21:00.000-04:00

It may have been a mistake to write about one of my favorite movie types previously - travel porn - because I think by trying to define it, I may have somehow ruined it. I assumed the story of a woman seeking a new lease on life by spending a year of travel and exploration in Italy, India and Bali would have ample scenery and local color to ignite my natural wonder lust. However the movie conventions I usually adore, were just short of grating in "Eat, Pray, Love". Julia Roberts plays Liz Gilbert, a writer who goes through a vague and hazy sort of mid life crisis, ends her marriage, jumps into another ill advised and doomed relationship and finally sets off on a year long journey to find her zest for life. This beginning set up is a little too long for my tastes and full of modern "Oprah" speak about "lost passion". I did enjoy Liz's best friend played by the very hard working actress Viola Davis. She delivers some great lines like, "Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You need to be committed". I never did completely understand the source or the nature of Liz's problems but soon she is off to three destinations that are defined by the movie's title.

Italy - This is all about eating and probably my favorite part of the movie. Liz moves into an aptly rundown but beautiful apartment and meets and assortment of funny, sweet international friends. The settings and the food are filmed in a way that really captures the romanticism of travel. My only nitpick with this part of the movie is the conceit that Liz and her new Swedish friend are gaining weight because of the sheer amount of drop dead gorgeous carbs they are eating. To pull this off may have taken some Bridget Jones action but instead we are served the silliness of a still sleek Julia Roberts trading in her really skinny jeans for the next size up of really skinny jeans.

India - Liz sets off to India to meditate and pray away her troubles. The first scenes in India are very well done and capture the overwhelming experience it must be for a first time visitor from the west. The rest of her stay in India is bit of bore in my opinion. We are treated again to a litany of Liz's woes but I still did not understand what she wanted. Again a side character at least supplies some interest. Richard Jenkins, who excels in everything from the deepest drama ("The Visitor") to the silliest of comedies ("Step Brothers"), serves as the voice of the viewer (maybe?) and brashly tells Liz to get over it.

Bali - Liz's last destination answers the core question of the movie, will Liz find true love again? Bali is beautiful and nothing negative about the movie can take away from that. Roberts too is beautiful in a dress up Barbie sort of way as she wears lots of local outfits. You can probably guess that Liz does find love in the end after meeting a teary eyed, feminist wet dream sort of guy played by Javier Bardem. I'll give him credit. He plays his part so well that this was the first time in three years that he did not scare the crap out of me due to flashbacks of the casual violence and menace in "No Country for Old Men".

Why so harsh on this movie? I don't know. Maybe it was sitting through the trailer for Katherine Heigl's new romcom train wreck that put me in a foul mood. To be fair, I'll give it another viewing when it's out on DVD.

Sunshine Cleaning - a story of love and human remains

2010-07-20T07:29:00.000-04:00

I'll point out that yes, I realize I am borrowing "love and human remains" from an indie 1993 dark comedy. I'm not going to really review "Sunshine Cleaning." Thanks to Netflix, I was able to watch this movie for the first time on my laptop yesterday and this is just a quick note that it is highly recommended. As two sisters who start a crime scene cleaning service, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt shine. Adams succeeds again at playing not cute and Blunt displays the range that allows this British actress to play the crisp Victoria and then do down and out mid-America.

Chloe, a good movie gone bad....

2010-07-18T11:59:00.002-04:00

"Chloe" was a bit of roller coster ride in that I did not think I was going to like it very much, got interested about 20 minutes in and ultimately was disappointed. The story here is that uptight physician Catherine Stewart ( Julianna Moore) thinks her husband, David ( Liam Neeson) is cheating on her. Instead of confronting him she has the novel idea of hiring the slick high end prostitute Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to approach him to see if he takes the bait. Initially I thought this movie was going to be gratuitously sexual and explicit. The characters tossed around sexual innuendo and language in a way that did not seem realistic. Fortunately this "you heterosexuals just need to get a room" vibe mellowed into something more subdued and sensual ironically when the prostitute came on the scene. An arrogance I often have is about 20 minutes into a movie, I will swear that I know exactly where it is going and how it will end. My thought was that Chloe by spinning a made up tale of an affair with David would remind Catherine of her lust and love for him. I know it seems like odd marriage therapy but you can see it happening as Chloe describes her encounters with David. Catherine certainly needs to get her groove back somehow. She spends the first part of the movie being ignored by her husband and having her son slam doors in her face. David as one of those mature but sexy college professors movie coeds always want to gobble up, is the perfect model of a straying husband too. All of the pieces are in place for the perfect story running through my head.
Alas it was not meant to be. In a sharp turn near the end, Chloe becomes obsessed with Catherine and suddenly they are acting out a lesbian version of "Fatal Attraction". Don't worry, no family pets are harmed although Seyfried does look at Catherine's teen son like a cute bunny she wants to boil. Instead she uses sex as a weapon and seduces him in mommy's bed. It's sad really because "Chloe" is a beautifully shot and acted movie that deserved better and I could have given it to them if Hollywood would just come knocking to pay me the big bucks.

What the world needs now is.. more Fockers?

2010-07-17T12:58:00.001-04:00

Just because you can do something does not mean you should......

Twilight: Eclipse - three down and only one more to go ( thank you!!)

2010-07-14T19:30:00.001-04:00

After seeing "Twilight: Eclipse" I had to watch a whole block of "Tru Blood" episodes just to remind myself that vampires are sexy, dark and bloody. I am going to leave you with just a couple of thoughts about why I am saddened by the decision to see this one in the theater, a mistake I assure I will not make for the fourth. Robert Pattinson would rightly be said to carry the burden of male vampire sex appeal in this series. With that in mind, perhaps someone should have pointed out that a scrunched up "I small something nasty" face is not sexy especially for two hours. I recently saw him in "Remember Me" which exceeded expectations and I must say he played the dark, brooding but always earnest bad boy very well. While were on this subject we might as well go ahead and say that Taylor Lautner's shirtless, "well defined" (bad pun, sorry) acting style in "Eclipse" tipped over into cheesiness of the worst sort. In a moment of self referencing humor, Edward even quips, "Does he own a shirt?".
"Eclipse" does offer up more action but undercuts itself with some not so special effects not to mention the fact that Twilight vampires when killed look like nothing more than empty mannequins. Maybe this is in line with the books, I don't know, but it was bloodless (even for PG13) and cold. The villain we have been waiting on in the form of Victoria once again has scant screen time and (spoiler!!) dies one of the cold, bloodless deaths. Can someone also explain Bryce Dallas Howard's bad choice of wigs?

I did say just a couple of thoughts so I will leave you with my last complaint. Bella's fragile nature is played up to the point of absurdity. She really needs to be made into a vampire before she dies in some horrible toe stubbing accident.

Don't hate this movie because it's beautiful....

2010-07-13T10:40:00.000-04:00

In our current time of folksy and populist sentiment, I read some early comments on just the trailer for "A Single Man" that labeled it pretentious or worse the "e" word (elitist). Well just forget all of that if you have not seen it. This atmospheric movie about grief directed by Tom Ford and starring Colin Firth, Julianna Moore among others is a beautifully made movie. The 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood is a first person story with a lot of inner monologue and tells the story of a middle aged college professor who is mourning the loss of his male lover in a era where sexual orientation was only whispered about in most situations. How to portray the inner life of a character has challenged many a movie maker but Tom Ford takes all of the elements that could have failed and succeeds for the most part. Don't go away from this though expecting a "downer" because there is genuine humor here. Colin Firth plays excellently droll opposite Julianna Moore and Nicholas Hoult ( a flirtatious student who you will recognize from BBC's runaway hit "Skins" and earlier "About A Boy"). I especially love Moore and Firth together. They act out a genuinely sad but funny scenario minus the silly baggage gay story-lines are often saddled with. Think Will & Grace if Will had not been essentially neutered and Grace drank too much. One last thought... the above trailer, I think, tries to misdirect from the gay subject matter but the movie never does.
Now I am off to flex my "mocking" muscles and make notes for my review of "Twilight: Eclipse"