* * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Fred's YouTube - Frozen River Movie Review
The Freditor
Hamlet 2: Better than the first
* * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
YouTube - Hamlet 2 Review
The Freditor
* 1/2 (out of 5)
I would add a star if I could have seen what was going on.
A few months ago, I pulled the wires out of the back of my DVD system for a reason I'm not sure I remember. I didn't mark them, thinking I could remember where they went. I didn't. I criss crossed some wires and while I have a picture and good sound, I don't have color. Not a big deal to me, because I grew up watching TV in black and white, but it does take something away from the movie once in a while.
I am too complacent to fix the problem so I just live with it, but it does get confusing sometimes. Last night, I was watching the 6th movie in the Alien saga and the 4th in the Predator story, while reading the early edition of the Sunday paper. I started watching it last week with my wife and fell asleep around a half hour in. So I got the basic idea of the story, but I started it again to refresh myself. A boy and his father are hunting a deer, which means they have to be killed. A man is coming home from prison, which means he must be heroic. And a woman is coming home from Iraq which means she has to gently emasculate her husband. I got it the first time, now on to the Sports section.
But like last week, I said to myself, oh boy, I better fix those wires, the screen is so dark I don't have a freaking clue who's getting killed here. Then I read the Netflix viewer reviews and it turns out my player is fine, that it was actually filmed this way. Who's "bright" idea was that, pun intended. Half of the beginning of the movie takes place in the woods and sewer, but can we pretend there is some light in these places? Expenses were not spared regarding explosions and effects, so I'm guessing that this was an artistic decision. Artistry was lost on the Alien series, 4 movies ago and Predator never aspired to them. Let's get a grip here.
As these movies go, it's not boring. Well, it's not slow. All the killing does get a little boring after a while and the repetitive Terminator 2 "action" music gets very old when it is used throughout the entire movie. Does every scene have to be heightened dramatically. And this film is a little more nasty than usual. I thought it was harsh to have the alien jump out of a little boy's chest, but that was before the aliens embark on a maternity ward. When they were looking through the glass at all the infants I wasn't sure if the alien was excited about all the future implanting prospects or just looking at it like a buffet, but if he had harmed one of those infants I would have hit the Stop button on my DVD remote.
Twentieth Century Fox must use these movies as a testing ground for some of its lesser known TV stars. Steven Pasquale (Rescue Me), Reiko Aylesworth (24), John Ortiz (The Job), Johnny Lewis (The O.C.) all lead the cast. It reminds me of the old studio days in Hollywood where no one leaves the nest. All their acting is fine, but someone needs to write a better script.
The Freditor
* * * * (out of 5)
When I saw the trailer for Hellboy II, I said this looks amazing. The trailer had dozens of creatures like you've never seen before on the big screen. It was like the Tattoinne bar scene in the "first" Star Wars, but it seemed like it would be like that throughout the whole movie. The only problem was, I couldn't remember a thing about the first Hellboy.
So I recently rented it out on NetFlix and was pleasantly surprised. It was a much more entertaining film than I first gave it credit for. The always great Ron Perlman (TV's Beast in Beauty and the Beast) was very funny and had some great wordplay with several actors within. One touch I loved was when the nerdy chief of the U.S. Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) showed his thanks for Hellboy rescuing him. As Hellboy lit his cigar with a lighter, Manning stopped him and lit it for him with a wooden match, explaining, "you always light a cigar with a wooden match, it helps bring out the flavor." Hellboy was shocked by Manning's sudden humanity and by the fact that his cigar did taste better.
Here in Number 2, Hellboy and Manning are back at each others' throats. Hellboy longs to be a hero celebrity in New York and Manning is determined to keep his and the other identities of the BPRD secret so as not to alarm the public. Hellboy is caught on camera in a number of instances and this just boils Manning. But there are bigger fish to fry here. Apparently, an ancient sect of gods made an agreement with humans several millenniums ago to rule the forests while the humans ruled the cities. But the gods are angry and feel that man has reneged on the promise and vow to take it all back. Hellboy and his group are in charge of stopping them.
Having just seen the original, I can truly appreciate this film more. As has happened so many times in comic book film history, the first movie is the warm up and the second movie delves deeper into characters and does a better job of presentation for the audience. Superman II, Spiderman II, Dark Knight and X-Men II have all proven this and Hellboy continues the tradition. The interplay between Hellboy and his wife, Liz Sherman is fun, but more so he and his old buddy the alien/psychic Abe Sapien. An odd couple to be sure, but they both appreciate what the other brings to the table. Abe putting in saucer-sized contact lenses to impress a lady was a nice touch.
The villain Prince Nuada is impressive, played by former English pop star, Luke Goss, but the new boss of BRPD is even more so, Johann Krauss. Krauss is merely a gas who embodies a robot suit, but the powers he has with his gas are something to behold. In the coolest bit of casting, Krauss and his German accent are voiced by Mr. Family Guy himself, Seth MacFarlane (voice of Stewie, Peter and Brian the dog). He's very German in his harsh tone and demanding ways, but his role is just as important as the rest of the team, something Hellboy refuses to see.
Writer/director Guillermo del Toro elevated his game two years ago with his brilliant Pan's Labyrinth. A Spanish war drama/fantasy that introduced us to a world of characters we've never seen before. That inventiveness carried over to this film and it really has energized the franchise. On a smaller scale this is the most visually stunning of all the comic book films. The fights scenes might not be too spectacular, but it's who's doing the fighting that will enthrall you.
The Freditor
* * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
I can't oversell this movie. It had me in stitches right from the opening quote. George W. Bush's infamous: "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." In George W. Bush we find where Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly get their inspiration for retardation.
I cracked up at the quote and a lady next to me said to her kids, "I still don't know why that's funny." What I got from that was that this movie is good enough that people are seeing it a second time.
I'm sure you know the premise. Two guys who are at or near 40 live with their single parents and when the parents decide to marry each other, these "boys" are forced to move in with them. In the same room. And they hate each other, just because they feel they should. But one of the early priceless moments comes at dinner when Ferrell makes fun of Reilly and Reilly says something along the lines of "that's so funny I forgot to laugh", but he butchers the comeback and STILL Ferrell gets so upset that his face breaks down on the verge of tears. There are a few moments in this film where grown men crying is played for Huge laughs.
The man-child is a growing phenomenon in this country and I certainly know enough guys who come close to this category. A therapist in the film likens the ideal of grown men living with their parents and not supporting themselves to an addiction and the parents are enablers. The parents are well intentioned, but are crippling their children by not forcing them to grow up and sprout their own wings. But these are heavier issues than this film cares to deal with. Instead they prefer to watch as two grown men sleep walk like 8 year olds and tear the house to shit when they get in their fights. Tossing the decorated Christmas tree on their parents' bed was one milk snorting surprise.
If the movie is 92 minutes long I'd say there are at least 110 good jokes. When the father is so fed up with the "boys" that he threatens to sell the house, Ferrell asks quietly, "Why? Is it haunted?" Sometimes in films like these the lead actor is so funny and everyone else is just fodder for his humor, but there is plenty of funny to go around here.
Reilly is very much Ferrell's equal. He's a truly great actor, who's been nominated for Oscars and gotten tons of street cred in Hollywood, but people love him most for his dopey role in Ferrell's Talladega Nights. TN is good, but can't hold a candle to Step Brothers. Reilly and Ferrell are now so in synch, it's the comedy equivalent of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin II.
Richard Jenkins (Ben Stiller's disinterested psychiatrist from There's Something About Mary) gets funnier with each movie, this time as Reilly's father, Dr. Robert Doback. When Reilly good naturedly asks if they could double team the new mom, Doback looks like he's going to have a stroke. Adam Scott as Ferrell's super successful brother Derek is like a post-Oprah Tom Cruise, filled with nutty narcissism and needs a punch in the face good looks. At Christmas dinner he brags in front of his kids about blowing a ".079 on the breathalyzer," thus beating the cop at his own game. His wife is played by Kathryn Hahn and her scenes with Reilly are both priceless and borderline disgusting.
But the straight person in the whole stew is the woman playing Ferrell's mother, Oscar-winner, Mary Steenburgen. She played Ferrell's step mother in Elf and does a great job acting as his loving mother here. As she gets older she still radiates charm and beauty and gives the movie a dose of class that it is missing on all other fronts. When she drives him to their new home, he's still in the backseat and talks trash like a kid suffering from Tourettes. Discussing his new step brother, "He better not get in my face cuz I'll drop kick that mother f***er." Several times in the movie you can see Steenburgen wanting to bust out laughing.
Oh, Warning. I saw tons of kids in the theatre, but this movie is rated R for a reason. The language is as raunchy as Goodfellas. But if you want to be a cool parent, your kids will have the best filthy comebacks to throw at their classmates in the schoolyard this Fall.
The Freditor
$600 Million. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? That's what Titanic made at the end of 1997 and the first half of 1998 in North American ticket sales. They didn't even make $602 Million, they made $600 Million even, like as if they waited for the 1 Millionth customer at the local grocery and closed the store after he made his purchase. Did the producers pull the movie from theatres after breaking this milestone? I wonder. Director James Cameron is a pretty nutty guy.
While we all know this is a lot of money, to give you an idea of how much it is for a movie, NO OTHER MOVIE HAS EVEN MADE $500 MILLION. The closest was the first Star Wars, which made a combined $461 Million between all its releases over the years. But Star Wars was made for kids and mostly boys. Girls saw it to see what all the fuss was about, adults saw it because they took their kids. Not like now, when many adults are still kids.
But Titanic had a huge potential audience. Women from 8 to 80 wanted to see this movie. Young women and especially teen girls wanted to see it many times. And boyfriends and husbands took their significant others to see what all the fuss was about and to see half a great disaster movie.
In the 10 years since, a challenger comes out of the gate it seems every year, to lay claim to Titanic's throne, only to come up short. The Spidermans and Shreks seem to give it a great ride, but are hurt by all the matinee and children tickets that are sold. When you are looking for the big prize you have to sell Twice as many $5 tickets as you do $10 tickets to come up even. But in this our most interesting hour is there a hero who can come to slay the mighty Titanic beast?
Perhaps, The Dark Knight? It's broken every record it's crossed so far. Biggest Opening Day Ever. Biggest Opening Weekend Ever. Fastest to $200 Million, fastest to $300 Million, now $314 M. It's AVERAGED $31.4 Million a DAY in 10 days. Step Brothers made $30 Million in its Opening Weekend and that's considered a hit.
I read a very interesting statistic. Women made up 49% of the audience for The Dark Knight, it's opening week. And on the same weekend Mamma Mia came out. That's an incredible number for a comic book movie. Comic book movies have very loyal customers, males 7 to 35. If you want women to go you have to have a great love story attached, but The Dark Knight doesn't. At least not with Bruce Wayne. But it does have two matinee idols in Christian Bale and the deceased Heath Ledger. I bet you even in creepy clown makeup, Ledger is pulling in these female fans.
I know Ledger's death has some ghoulish appeal to certain people, but it's his performance that should make you want to see him. Everyone is right. His Joker is the best madman since Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs or at least the bad guy in No Country For Old Men.
But as for the money. Can it keep up this level of dominance? Other than WALL-E, it is the best reviewed movie of the year. It's getting Huge word of mouth. It's getting all sorts of Oscar attention, which is the most amazing thing of all considering it's the 6th Movie in a movie franchise that George Clooney left for dead back in 1997. It made $75 Million in its second weekend. What's coming out to beat those kinds of numbers? The Mummy?
I looked at the movies coming out the rest of the summer and The Dark Knight should end up in the Top 5 every week until the kids go back to school. $286 Million to Tie in 7 Weeks. $287 Million to win. Sure ticket prices are much more than they were in 1998 and thus it would lose on pure ticket sales, but Titanic isn't even close to being the winner on ticket sales.
That prize belongs to one other behemoth. Gone With the Wind.
The Freditor
* * * * (out of 5)
Even great actors have to remake themselves sometimes. Ben Kingsley won an Oscar early on in his movie career as Gandhi and seemed to take on Gandhi's mantle of seriousness as well. But great actors need not always play stern, upright, serious parts. Sometimes the best acting comes from playing a goofball or a carnival barker. When Kingsley was named a knight, there were rumors that he insisted that everyone call him Sir Ben after that. That kind of behavior pushes fans away.
Plus, the kinds of movies that Kingsley was known for started to become rare and his parts started drying up. So he took on a very funny role playing himself on The Sopranos and something must have clicked for him, because he's been in more comedies recently than any other time in his career. After playing a Polish hitman from Buffalo in You Kill Me, he's now playing a pot-smoking, ex-Deadhead Manhattan psychiatrist named Jeff Squires. I'm not sure it was intended, but I found the name Squires funny, since a squire is a knight in training.
Dr. Squires is addicted to pot and feeds his addiction by having free sessions with his teenage dealer Luke Shapiro. For a quarter gram Shapiro gets an hour with the doctor to apparently make up how he's feeling. Through his half-lies the truth does sneak out and Squires gives him some therapy that's half helpful and sometimes contradictory. Shapiro is not really "depressed, you're just sad," as Squires puts it and Luke has a reason to be. His parents are always fighting and acting like teens themselves while his father is doing something that is costing the family fortune and jeopardizing their home.
Since the story is sort of told from Luke's and Dr. Squire's point of view we're never quite sure what this father is up to, but it's not good. So Luke sells pot around Manhattan to "help his family", but really he's stashing the cash. And he is doing well. Using an old Italian ice cart to haul his pot around town, he's a favorite to a lot of depressed yuppies and younger types. As his new friend says, he is either "the most popular of the unpopular kids or the most unpopular of the popular kids." Whatever he is, he's alone and is focused on Squires' stepdaughter, Stephanie.
Stephanie is played by Olivia Thirlby (Juno's best friend Leah) and she's a real find. She's only been acting for two years, her first part was in 2006's United 93. I thought she was so cool as Leah, acting every bit like a fun teenage girl. Here she seduces Luke as much as the audience. Like Luke we never know where we stand with her. Is she a great girl, is she a bitch, is she some combination of the two? Her mother is played by Famke Janssen and she has that same quality, so the parts are written well.
I've never seen Josh Peck (Luke Shapiro) before, but he's quite good. He's apparently a child star having had his own TV show called Drake and Josh. It's a lot to ask a young actor to put a whole movie on his shoulders, but he carries the load and is almost as interesting as Kingsley. Well almost. Kingsley does bong hits in this movie, tags (graffitis) a store window, makes out with a girl old enough to be his granddaughter and speaks in Ebonics. Peck does all this too, but it never draws the laughs that Kingsley does.
For some reason it takes place in the summer of 1994, but for no other apparent reason than to take many jabs at Mayor Guiliani. Hey if Rudy made it harder for drug dealers to do business that's a good thing.
Anyway, after half a summer of watching things get blown up, it's nice to see a movie about friendships that pays attention to the little things.
The Freditor
* * * (out of 5)
Puddy from Seinfeld is fast becoming the Mel Blanc of his time. It's becoming hard to find an animated movie his voice is not in. But unlike Blanc, he never changes his voice. It is always that alpha male, aggressively confident, but less than intelligent voice that made us love him as Puddy and makes kids love him in various animated roles. Here he is again as the commanding chimp in the space program, Titan. He's not the star of the movie, but he certainly thinks he's the star of the NASA chimp squadron.
Space Chimps is a cute story that plays off the first "manned" space flight around the Earth. On January 31, 1961 a chimpanzee named Ham was secured in a Project Mercury capsule and launched into space. He died in Africa in 1983. Now in 2008, Ham III his grandson, plays off his family name to be a "human" cannonball in a sideshow circus. The chimp who still lights the fuse for him is his grandfather's old partner, Houston.
When an unmanned space probe gets caught in a wormhole, there's a possibility that it landed on a planet that might sustain life. NASA wants to send a search party after the probe to see if this is true. If there is another planet in the solar system that is habitable, we might be able to colonize it in the future, or as one NASA engineer thinks, place another NFL franchise. "Just think of the possible T-shirt sales."
For such a dangerous and unknown mission NASA doesn't want to risk human astronauts, so they tap into their reserves. A group of chimpanzees that have been training for some time. The only problem is they feel the monkeys need some kind of star power to gain the press' attention, so they turn to Ham III for assistance.
Ham III (played by SNL's and Hot Rod's Andy Samberg) is a traditional goofball in Looney Tunes fashion. At times he's pretty funny, and sometimes the jokes fall flat, but overall the movie is an enjoyable ride if you don't go in looking for Pixar-type quality. The children in the screening I was at were laughing a lot and seemed to be having fun. But one little non-chimp character might have a future ahead. Kilowatt (Kristen Chenoweth) is one of the cuter animated characters in a while.
It's a shame this movie didn't find its audience. The critics ripped it apart, but I found it just as funny as Kung Fu Panda if not as artistic.
The Freditor
* * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Can Pierce Brosnan sing? Whew, no. But neither can some of the other cast members in this
high energy tribute to the music of ABBA. But that doesn't stop them from throwing themselves wholeheartedly into their performances as a wedding party on a Greek island.
A young American girl is the daughter of a single woman who runs a hotel on a picturesque island in Greece. Twenty-plus years ago, the mother had three affairs in one summer and any of those men could be the father of her girl. Now the girl is getting married and has sent invitations under her mother's name to all three hoping to find her father and the man who can walk her down the aisle. The men are unaware of who really sent them the invite or the reason they are really there. The mother is oblivious to the whole charade and is more worried about her daughter being too young to marry.
Stories used to mean more in musicals and carry more weight (like The Sound of Music), but a frivolous story doesn't matter when the music is this good. ABBA is often called a guilty pleasure, but I think that's unfair. Their songs are joyous and why should something that makes you feel happy and doesn't hurt anyone else also make you feel guilty? I don't own their records and I don't play them in jukeboxes, but I'm happy when someone else does.
That said, this movie is an interesting way to make a musical. Unlike the old days when musical performers were trained to become actors, like Fred Astaire, now the movie musical is such a rare phenomenon that you have to hope that traditional movie stars can also sing and dance. Sometimes it works (Chicago) sometimes it doesn't (Painted Wagon). This movie leans a little bit more toward Painted Wagon. There are several songs where I winced when the lead actor was singing and was looking desperately for the background players (the local Greek workers) to join in as the chorus. The chorus of no-names saved many a song from being butchered. Meryl Streep is a decent singer, but in this movie she sounded like Beverly Sills. When Pierce Brosnan starts singing S.O.S. on his own, I heard some chuckles in the audience but muffled my own, in hopes that this was going somewhere. Streep saves him in the duet.
But this movie is obviously not about musical proficiency but the joy of the music. Which you can see in the exuberant way the cast members belt out their songs and dance gayly. And I mean gayly. When women are dancing in such a flighty way that you say to yourself, "that's even too gay for them," you know you are going to have to pull the shirt out of your pants. Why? Because when things start to become too embarrassing for me my butt scrunches up and sucks the shirt tale right up with everything else. I saw this movie by myself and was able to enjoy it in anonymity, but if I was with a friend there were times when the waves of Douche Chills would have hit me like a tsunami.
But this movie was not made for me, but for young girls and their 50+ year old grandmas who took them. I heard them singing along, so I'm sure they've seen Wednesday matinees of the Broadway musical in the city together.
The Freditor
Here are some of the songs, some of which I never heard of before:
1. Dancing Queen
2. Knowing Me, Knowing You
3. Take A Chance On Me
4. Mamma Mia
5. Lay All Your Love On Me
6. Super Trouper
7. I Have A Dream
8. The Winner Takes It All
9. Money, Money, Money
10. S.O.S.
11. Chiquitita
12. Fernando
13. Voulez Vous
14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
15. Does Your Mother Know
16. One Of Us
17. The Name Of The Game
18. Thank You For The Music
19. Waterloo
* * * (out of 5)
After a great buildup and some layered story telling, done in Rashomon style, the payoff is too quick, a little inconclusive and kind of ordinary. The first time director, Pete Travis, mixes in these really cool visuals like a big terrorist bomb going off and a great car chase that rivals The Bourne movies, but then has a script that seems like a throwaway from "24".
Some of the surprises are dulled by the fact that the bad guys look like bad guys and the good guys seem to be good. There was one big surprise in the second half, but I don't think I bought it. Not since the '70s have I have seen this many good, big name actors in a movie that was beneath them. Dennis Quaid, Forrest Whitaker, Matthew Fox, Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt. This was the 21st Century version of Airport '75. Are all these people that hard up for work?
The Freditor
HEY FRED,
I think it is very very good. You give good background information about your life and share your interests. I GIVE YOU 4 GOLD STARS. I LOVE THAT MONKEY. Looks kind of like the Ralley Monkey the L.A. ANGELS used in the 2002 season.
SEE YAA NICK
1/2 * (out of 5)
The first five to 10 minutes were good, when the suspense was building over a potential serial killer preying on young women near this high school. Once Lindsay Lohan is grabbed and the torture begins the movie starts going downhill at a precipitous speed. The plot made no sense at all, something about Lindsay (playing Aubrey) not being the girl kidnapped but her body double, who the other Lindsay dreams about in her fiction. Believe me, it's not worth your time. I like Lohan, I think she can be a good actress, but she was given nothing to work with here and it's a tribute to her performance ability that she makes at least the first hour watchable. By the second hour I was counting down the minutes.
The Freditor
* * * * * (out of 5)
WALL-E is tied with Iron-Man for Best Movie of the Year, so far
(Equals Toy Story 2 and The Incredibles for Pixar Greatness)
Make sure you get to this movie early so you can see the hysterical opening cartoon--"Presto," about a mean magician and his magic rabbit.
Pixar scares me. The animated division of Walt Disney consistently makes some of the best cartoon movies of all time. It has never had a clunker in its 13 years of moviemaking. Even the films that fall short are still technically excellent. But I was nervous that they had lost a little something after Cars and Ratatouille. Both movies were fine, but left me feeling a little less than full. Like eating Chinese food.
Well, Pixar has come storming back with WALL-E. A beautiful, magical, funny, sweet, imaginative effort by the class of the business. From the man who wrote and directed Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton) comes this little film with Huge ideas. WALL-E is a trash-compacting robot put on Earth for 700 years to clean up the atmosphere-killing mess we left behind. In the film, it is now about 2700 AD and man has left the planet for an unending cruise around the stars. It was supposed to be a 5-year mission for the cleaning robots--"Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth Class"; but it became a project too huge in scope to complete.
The opening sequence is both dark and moving, as the "camera" flies helicopter-style over the ruined cities, with its Venus-like atmosphere and daily dirty sand storms that punish the landscape. I worried a bit that the animation might be too much for children, but once WALL-E shows up the squalor seems less threatening. But even then the humor can be dark. When the camera shows a clear vision of the city you realize that some of the high-rise buildings we've been looking at are just towers of garbage made from the compacted blocks by WALL-E.
It seems that WALL-E is the last of his kind and only has a cockroach to keep him company. That and his huge treasure trove of toys. Whatever bits of garbage WALL-E finds that interest him get packed in his trusty Playmate cooler and come back with him to his storage container hideaway. WALL-E doesn't speak, so the gentle laughs come when he tries to figure out where a spork should go, with his collection of spoons or forks? He's intrigued by a fire extinguisher, but when it knocks him on his back he throws it high on the trash pile.
This sweet creature with the inquisitive mind, loves to watch romantic musicals and keeps a tape of Hello Dolly in his front compartment to play while he does his work. When he gets home he takes his tractor treads off to rest his tired wheels. I'd say the best way to describe him is part ET, part cute puppy and part Charlie Chaplin as the tramp. As with all Pixar efforts there is more Looney Tunes-type humor in this movie than classic Disney fun. But WALL-E's world is forever changed when he meets a modern probe sent down by the Floating Earth's mother ship. The machine's sleek design and the wondrous way it flies through the air during its missions at first scares and intrigues our hero, but when he notices some kindness in its decidedly feminine lazar eyes and her giggle when tickled by his roach, he falls in love. She's obviously way smarter than WALL-E, completing his Rubik's Cube before he has a chance to show her his next toy. And is as intrigued by the singing and dancing humans on the Hello Dolly video as he is. You are drawn in by this mechanical romance and cheer these two would-be lovers on. The movie removes you from your theatre seat and plants you in this less than Brave New World and doesn't let go until the final credits.
As amazing as the opening half hour is on earth, things really take off literally when WALL-E stows away on the probe's transport vessel back to the mother ship far into space. That's when we get to meet human beings circa 2700 and finally hear dialogue. The depiction of the future of the human race is both hysterical and dead-on. How we let the machines take over our lives is less 2001 or Terminator than just real life.
Funnyman Jeff Garlin, Larry David's sidekick from Curb Your Enthusiasm, plays the ship's easy-going captain. His voice is already animated so playing a cartoon character is a natural for him. Cheers' Cliff Claven, John Ratzenberger, is back as a secondary character in a Pixar film. He is the only actor who's appeared in all of them. And in a stroke of genius, Sigourney Weaver voices the ship's computer, turning the tables on her role as Ripley in the original Alien.
When judging a movie you always have to ask yourself, "Is there any way this movie could have been made better?" And the answer here is emphatically, "No!" If only all movie studios were as creative and entertaining as Pixar.
The Freditor
Prediction: Like the original Austin Powers, The Love Guru will find a second life on DVD. People will watch it for a second time (or a first time) and realize what fun it is. I'm already looking forward to the DVD, to see if my perception of the initial half hour changes after experiencing the whole thing. Just the idea of having a knob on a Voiceover Box that turns to Morgan Freeman's voice is genius.
The Freditor
* * * (out of 5)
I won't oversell this movie. It is not for everyone. Half the audience was cracking up and the other half were sitting silent. You have to be a Mike Myers fan and more importantly an Austin Powers fan to appreciate this film and its very silly humor. But my friend Harry and I are were part of the laughing half and we had a great time. We saw the "1 Star" reviews in all three New York tabloids, but except for a few critics, you can't trust reviewers when it comes to comedy. For those with short memories, the NY Daily News gave 2 Stars to Caddyshack, Airplane and The Jerk when they came out. It gave Stripes and Meatballs 1 1/2 Stars. Obviously all five are comedy classics. How's that for getting it wrong almost every time.
The first 15 minutes of The Love Guru are a little rough to get through. It's like watching an experimental comedian and he's just not catching on. Myers makes a joke about putting a penis on a table that thuds so bad, Harry and I looked at each other, like "Oh my god, what are we in for?" But once he meets the coach, played by Mini-Me's Verne Troyer, the jokes starts flying higher and landing much better.
Myers might be the most adventurous of all the great Saturday Night Live alumni. He makes his characters charming and silly at the same time. His new role as Guru Pitka is a funnier Deepak Chopra. People, many of them rich and successful, come to this guru with their problems and issues and listen to his words of wisdom to try and make sense of their lives. When a Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player loses his wife, he also starts to lose his way on the rink and the team's owner, played by a stunning Jessica Alba turns to Guru Pitka to try and get the player's mind back in the game and his wife back in his life. 40 Year Old Virgin's Romany Malco is pretty good as the wounded player, but his nemesis, the goalie Jacques "Le Coq" Grande is played for big laughs by Justin Timberlake. His dancing alone is hysterical, especially the "Water Sprinkler."
Myers throws out about 100 double entendres and some miss and others hit big. The gross out humor is extra gross. But some of the best moments come in the broadcast booth of Hockey Night in Canada with Stephen Colbert as a recovering drug addict and of course, Myers' brilliant songs on the sitar. His version of "9 to 5" was an unexpected treat, especially with the Bollywood-style dancing maids. In fact, all the Bollywood scenes are winners. The success of Mike Myers is that you don't often get his comedy the first time, that's why repeat viewings help him gain success and increase his box office receipts. This character and movie might become another Austin Powers for him, or it could be another "So I Married an Axe Murderer", a funny movie that only his true fans appreciate. Be at Peace, Mariska Hargitay!
The Freditor
Apparently there is some confusion about how to comment on the various "No More Stinky Monkeys" Blogs. At the bottom of every story, there is a line that reads something like:
"Posted by The Freditor at 6:15PM 0 Comments" (and then a Letter symbol)
If you would like to send me a comment, you click on the Letter symbol and a page will come up.
Next to Friend's email address, put your email address and then in the comments field write whatever you want. If you WANT me to Post it into my Blog, just mention that at the top. Otherwise it will be just for my eyes. Thanks for reading my stuff and your continued support.
My birthday is one month from today, I've had 1300 hits so far, I'd love to get to 2,000 by my Bday.
The Freditor
* * * (out of 5)
I saw the first "Chronicles--The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" on video and remember enjoying it, but did not remember too much about it. So I had to catch up quick when I saw Prince Caspian, because the makers of this film assumed that people would remember what happened in the last one. I watch fantasy movies, but they've never been my favorite, even when I as a child, because I hate when a character relies on magic to get out of a sticky situation. For me the Star Wars series started going downhill when the Force became strong in Luke Skywalker. If a character can rely on something other than his brawn and his wits, my mind starts to check out. That goes for religious stories as well. Jesus magically increases the amount of fish, bread and wine at a wedding, ehh okay. But Jesus stops a band of idiots from stoning Mary Magdalene by talking them out of it, that's much cooler.
So a little girl with a bottle of little drops of bring-back-to-life juice doesn't grab me as much as Prince Caspian literally taking out the ground from beneath his foes. When the four Pevensie siblings from the first movie are brought back to Narnia in this movie, they are a year older in London time, but Narnia is 1,300 years older. All the good they accomplished in the first movie is for naught as the evil General Miraz has effectively killed off most of the woodland creatures we came to love. Now he is after the head of Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne. With him dead, Miraz can become king.
Now the kids must reclaim their positions in this world and their armor and prepare to fight the human Telmarines, lead by Miraz. It won't be easy since they are far outnumbered. They could use a wizard like Gandalf to help with matters, but the great lion Aslan appears to be dead. So it is mostly left up to the growing egotist and oldest brother King Peter and the older and more charismatic Prince Caspian to hatch a plan. The humans are much less interesting in these films than the creatures. Well almost all the humans. Trumpkin the dwarf (Peter Dinklage) has a world-weary way about him that counters the high-spirited kids. But there is a great skunk, squirrel, bear and especially mouse who are both brave and funny and add tons of fun to some otherwise gloomy scenarios.
With Lord of the Rings, its most obvious comparison, there was a single storyline that carried you through all three movies. That ring had to reach Mordor or the world would be ruled by evil. You could say it was stretched out unnecessarily, but at least you knew that would be the finale. But with Narnia, there is no reason I see to make another movie. What more can be achieved? I understand I haven't read the books, but I didn't need to read any Star Wars books to know that the Evil Empire had to be destroyed. Darth Vader still lived after Star Wars and Han Solo had to be rescued after Empire. Narnia doesn't have an end game that is clear to the casual viewer. And after its meager box office returns it might not have a chance. Disney shot itself in the foot when it turned down the opportunity to make the Lord of the Rings trilogy and now it's making a series of films that few people seem to care about.
The Freditor
* * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Unlike Pixar, Dreamworks Animation has been pretty hit and miss with its output. For every Shrek, there's a Shark Tale that makes you look at your watch. Kung Fu Panda works so well because its star, Jack Black, is a human cartoon. Sometimes that works great in his live action movies, but sometimes it gets in the way. When it seems you are working too hard for a laugh, you become Robin Williams and that's no longer a good thing.
But in animation, you can never overact. Ask Bugs Bunny, ask Daffy Duck. Black's character, the noodle-making Panda named Po is an underachieving, overweight bear who dreams of seeing others become the Dragon Warrior. When he is named the Dragon Warrior by a wise old turtle, everyone is as shocked as Po. Including his new master, the Yoda-like, Shifu (Dustin Hoffman).
What's funny about the story is that while all the kung fu masters make fun of him and his skills, he's the biggest guy in the room. If he ever lost his soft panda ways and took his training seriously, he'd be a scary bear to fight. But even scarier is Shifu's adopted snow leopard and now arch enemy, Tai Lung (Ian McShane from Deadwood). When word comes that Tai Lung might escape prison, everyone is scared including the kung fu masters. And they should be. There is nothing funny or cute about Tai Lung. There is one scene of him going crazy that made me think this movie shouldn't be viewed by anyone under 8.
Except for Hoffman's droll Shifu, the comedy almost strictly belongs to Po. The rest of the cast is a good one though. The five kung fu masters are Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, David Cross and Superbad's Seth Rogen. Let me take that back. Rogen's preying Mantis is pretty funny in his own right.
The animators obviously have a great love for martial arts movies, because the fight scenes are well choreographed and the training sessions conjure up images of great saturday afternoon Channel 5 Drive-In Movies like Master Killer. Definitely an animated film that any adult should be happy to see without kids.
The Freditor
* * * * (out of 5)
Drove over to Astoria, to the Kaufman Regal Cinemas because it has free parking on the roof. As I drove up for the 10AM show, the free parking-metered spots were all open so I parked across the street at 9:58. Something happened then that doesn't happen too often anymore. A great song, in fact my favorite song from this artist, was playing on the radio and I had to decide--should I turn the engine off and go inside, or wait to hear the end and miss some trailers? I turned it off, but it stung like removing a Band-Aid.
As it happens that singer is the surprise guest star of this latest Adam Sandler movie. Sandler always gets huge stars for his films, but this person was a shocker. And funny, too. There is a second great musician in the movie as well, who is even funnier, but not as big a star.
Adam Sandler's movies never catch me in the previews or commercials. I go strictly on reputation. He has never produced a commercial bomb and I have never been disappointed by any of his performances. In Zohan, he may have taken a bigger leap than ever. Finding the comedy in the Israeli/Palestinian troubles is a hard job, but to make it a live-action cartoon takes major balls. By comparison, I can't imagine a comedy about the IRA.
But Sandler has the clout and he has the right guys to help him take on the job. His co-writers: the new king of comedies Judd Apatow and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's voice, Robert Smigel. His director is one of the most unsung and yet most successful directors in Hollywood, Dennis Dugan. And once again his cast makes another great lineup.
Sandler plays Zohan, a member of the elite Israeli agency, the Mossad, and a terrorist-killing machine. Capable of incredible feats, like swimming like a dolphin, or jumping from roof to street like an acrobat on steroids. His hackey-sack skills are no less impressive. (Watch for the catty-sack game he plays with a fellow Israeli.) But what he likes best is Disco-dancing. Disco is apparently huge in Israel and he does it any chance he gets. His allure turns on the sexy ladies on the Israeli beaches. But his fun is cut short when he must go back to fighting his arch nemesis, The Phantom, played with hysterical zeal by Sandler regular, John Turturro. He plays the phantom like a Palestinian Hugh Hefner, who also happens to be a killing machine.
Zohan wants to quit the Mossad business and become a hairdresser for his hero Paul Mitchell. So he stows away in the animal compartment on a flight to New York and makes friends fast. How? Well, Zohan has a huge package which is prominent in all the pants he wears and no woman can apparently be too old or too fat to turn him on. His attempts at sex with a really old Mrs. Garrett (from Facts of Life) are very funny.
The movie is immensely silly from the beginning, but didn't really grab me until Zohan reaches America. Once he starts cutting hair, the movie gets into gear and the laughing tears started running down my face. It doesn't happen often, but there were times when I was coughing and gagging from laughter. The scene with Sandler regular Henry Winkler drew applause. The cast is top notch--Lainie Kazan, Ido Mosseri, Rob Schneider, Michael Buffer (yes, the Rumble Guy in a Donald Trump type role), Ernie from My Three Sons, and Shelly Berman (the crazy judge from Boston Legal). I'm leaving out some other names, because they make a nice surprise.
Movies about the Middle East have been box office poison since 9/11, but like his movie about gay people last year, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), Sandler has a way of introducing tough topics to a huge audience and making their vegetables taste like dessert. Sometimes laughter is the best way to learn.
The Freditor
Danny McBride
* * * (out of 5)
The book should have been titled, "Men Like Three Stooges, Women Can't Stand Them."
I told my friend Big Tom at work that if he wants to watch a really funny, but stupid movie he should get Hot Rod. Based on my recommendation he asked to borrow my copy before I sent it back to Netflix. What I failed to tell him was not to watch it with his wife. Not because of any porno, it's fine for any boy 8 and older to watch, it's just that it is filled with tons of funny, but stupid slapstick that women just don't generally care for.
Now maybe there are women who love Three Stooges out there, but I just haven't met one. I don't even love the Three Stooges. I like them, especially Curly and Larry Fine, but I couldn't watch them for more than an hour. Remember when they used to have marathons of them on Channel 11. That was too much for me. But for people like my wife, who has a great sense of humor, even 1 minute is too long.
That's how Hot Rod is. And the next day, Big Tom told me his wife said that I can keep my movies. Talk about being tarred with a wrong brush. I'm not the great defender of movies like Hot Rod, but when friends I trust tell me to check it out, I will. My boy Harry had me on the phone 20 minutes while I was in a Staples giving me highlights from this movie. He also has a great sense of humor, but he described it perfectly. Like a really dumb Will Ferrell movie. I'm sold.
Apparently it was written for Ferrell, but he turned it down and it went to the next generation of Saturday Night Live star, Andy Samburg. Samburg has been making some great SNL videos the last couple of years, like the rap video for the Chronic of Narnia Hulu - SNL Digital Short: Lazy Sunday: Saturday Night Live , Dick in a Box (with Justin Timberlake) Hulu - Dick in a Box (Uncensored): Saturday Night Live and this year's hysterical Andy's Dad Hulu - Digital Short: Andy's Dad: Saturday Night Live.
Samburg plays a wannabe stuntman, Rod Kimble, who looks to challenge the memory of the great Evel Knievel with his broken down moped. He attempts to jump an old mail truck before the credits roll and the hilarity takes off from there.
Based on commercials I didn't think Samburg was ready to jump to the big leagues. But I'm sort of wrong. He co-wrote this movie and it has some funny moments with him, but the best stuff is definitely when he's doing a stunt or getting into some physical altercation. Unfortunately, when he goes for more verbal funniness it can have the cringing effect of Chevy Chase. On the other hand, there are some unsung treasures here. His SNL co-star, Bill Hader, is emerging big time as a great sidekick. He was very funny as the nerdier cop in last year's Superbad and here he plays a white trash redneck with pizzazz. Deadwood's Swearingen, Ian McShane, plays Rod's stepfather, a miserable tyrant who deserves a good beating, but only after he gets his heart transplant. And finally, the newest face on the block. A true star about to burst on the scene, Danny McBride.
McBride plays Rico the ramp builder. He's one of Rod's "crew" and is all times funny. He has a pent-up good ol' boy anger in him that makes you laugh for little reason. At one point, while Rod is "training" he rolls down the hill on one of those street luge boards and crashes with deadly power into the side of a house trailer parked in a driveway. When the owner comes out to complain, Rico starts beating the man in a heartbeat, first with his feet and hands and then with a pole and then a trash bin all the while screaming things like, "unlucky for you, I went to church this Sunday so I've got the demons coming out of me!" You want Rico on your side. Can't wait to see him in a Triple Play this summer of Pineapple Express (2008); The Foot Fist Way (2006); and finally, Tropic Thunder (2008). He's supposed to be great in all of them.
Oh, and make sure you watch the entire fight scene at the end of this movie, it might be the funniest of its type I've ever seen. Like a John Wayne barroom brawl on crack.
The Freditor
I've seen a few films directed by Sydney Pollack and enjoyed most of them (not The Firm). I particularly love Tootsie, The Electric Horseman and Absence of Malice and one of the things I love about them, is that I never once think, who directed this? Unlike other directors, Pollack had a great ability of staying out of the way. Let the story and the actors boost it along. No clever camera tricks, no long pauses so we can meditate on the meaning of life. Just story, action, move on.
Which made him being a key character actor in one of the most annoying "look-at-me" directorial efforts of all time, Eyes Wide Shut, such an ironic note. I could never imagine Pollack making a total bullshit movie like Eyes and yet here he was playing a lawyer to lead actor Tom Cruise. What's even funnier is that Pollack is the one good thing about that film, he's the one human being I recognized, the rest were talking mannequins.
But Pollack played another lawyer last year and was so great, because for once he played a total scumbag and that was as George Clooney's boss in Michael Clayton. He must have stolen his character from the Donald Rumsfeld gift shop, because he doesn't just ooze corporate/capitalist arrogance, he delights in his maliciousness. All of that is amazing, because Pollack just strikes you as a real mensch. So much humanity in his films, so much real life humor. There is hardly one false note in Tootsie. When I saw Electric Horseman, I must have been about 13 and never gave horses a thought before that, but that movie and Robert Redford's performance made me fall in love with the animal for the rest of my life. And realize that they should be free to run this land.
Sydney Pollack will be missed.
The Freditor
* * * 1/2 (out of 5)
With the price of everything going up these days, I've been more willing to wait for videos on several new movies that I would have seen in the theatre just last year. I could have waited for Son of Rambow, but really wanted to give it my money and help support this kind of film so more would be made like it.
A British entry from the people who brought you "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Rambow is the story of Will Proudfoot, a young (undisclosed religious person but seems to be Mormon) growing up in England in the late 1980s. He goes to a Christian school that is not part of his faith and has to sit in the hallway while the rest of his class watches educational TV.
Played by a younger Freddie Highmore lookalike named Bill Milner, young Will is cut off from the world and the enjoyment of life, and falls under the spell of the school bully, Lee Carter. When they both get in trouble for a fight Carter causes, Carter works his conman charms on the gullible Will and a bond forms if not exactly a friendship. Carter (played with great tough charisma by Will Poulter) films and duplicates cinema films on VHS tapes and gives them to his obnoxious, older brother to sell. His most recent "acquisition" is the original First Blood. When Will overhears and eventually watches the ultra-violent classic he is immediately swept away. His repressed little soul soars as he imagines himself as a young Rambow (he doesn't know how to spell the real name) out to save the world.
With Carter's videocamera and considerable skills at moviemaking and Will's strong imagination they decide to film their own sequel to Rambow. The no-budget, guerilla filmmaking these two auteurs pull off would make any independent director proud. In one scene, Will, as Son of Rambow, jumps off a swinging rope into a lake for the camera, only to start flopping around and really scream that he can't swim. Lee, as both director and Colonel Trautman, has to jump in a save him. It makes for great footage even though it wasn't planned. Having done something like this myself in high school, it is amazing how much fun it is for you and your friends to create a movie. No matter how cool young men seem to be, they become playful children if the camera is on them. The land of make believe is a powerful place.
But beyond the movie within a movie, the relationship that forms between Will and Lee is very rough, very real and at times both very funny and very touching. At one point Lee is sitting on the school hallway floor bouncing a ball off the other wall like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, meanwhile Will is hiding behind a desk hoping Lee won't bother him. When he finally peaks out the ball is coming straight for his head and bangs right off the noggin. It had to hurt but was still funny as hell.
What isn't funny is the portrayal of the strict religious sect that Will belongs to. Religion can be filmed in a wondrous way if it's about pomp and ceremony and finding your spiritual self. But when it's about repression and forcing people to turn away from their real selves, it paints a dark and ugly picture. In this kind of environment you root for Will to fight back and even lie about his whereabouts to his mother, because it is the only way he can live his life.
The introduction of French exchange student, Didier Revol, and his posse is a little Hollywoodish, but the idea of a kid with this kind of charisma taking over a school is based in reality. I loved the reaction to him by his fellow French classmates.
Bill Milner has a future based on his performance in this movie.
The Freditor
Saw the trailer last weekend and it is exciting, funny and cute and is the only trailer in recenbt months that had people buzzing in the audience. Looks great. Hope the movie is just as good if not better.
IMDb Video: Beverly Hills Chihuahua: Theatrical Trailer
The Freditor
* * * * * (out of 5)
Saw the first trailer for Iron Man back in January when I went to see Cloverfield and I said to my friend Bob, "that looks great." He said, "Yeah, but Robert Downey Jr.?" I shared his concerns. I know they keep hiring wimpy actors to play these superheroes, but Downey especially would fit in more as Felix Unger than someone named Iron Man. But I have to admit he pulls it off, BIG TIME.
Most everyone from my generation is a Downey fan. He was one of the most spirited actors of the mid-'80s, a big presence in lesser roles. As the purple-haired freak in Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School", he was way more memorable as the best friend than Rodney's nerdy son. He's often called the best actor of his generation, but he can fight that out with Val Kilmer and Edward Norton. However, he is definitely the most exciting.
He brings so much energy to the screen and now that's even without the help of drugs. Clean and sober for reportedly 5 years now, his manic drive pulsates in a movie that already has a ton of horsepower. Right out of the gate as billionaire weapons maker, Tony Stark, he gets to drive in a Humvee around the Afghan desert with some soldiers and throws off several great one liners before the credits even roll. My favorite: Talking to one soldier, "You know, a minute ago I couldn't tell if you were a guy or a girl, but now that I know you're a girl I can't help but be turned on by your amazing bone structure. Is that weird?"
Not knowing the comic book, I didn't realize that Stark's character is a world-famous, drunken playboy, which fits Downey to a tee, who only gets a heart and strength through his superhero suit. Without the suit he's a little guy with a big mouth, but with the suit he's 600 pounds of streamlined strategic defense. Stark's film bodyguard and director Jon Favreau (Swingers, Made, Elf, Zathuria) adds layers of humanity and feisty fun to the proceedings. The private jet scene is a brilliant, funny moment that many guys could only dream about. Little touches have Forest Hills' Favreau all over them, like when Downey's partner brings pizza back to Malibu from New York as a sign of bad news. Nothing softens the taste of bad news like New York pizza.
The script might be the best part of the movie. It draws you in and never lets you leave. A rarity for any movie these days, but particularly a comic book film. It was originally written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, but given a script polish by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, the brilliant writers behind "Children of Men." I say let them polish EVERY script. When Stark tries out his flying suit for the first time, he's learning how to maneuver it and has flaming exhaust feet to deal with. Since he's in his fancy garage he starts to drift over his Lamborghinis and such and gets very nervous, "No, No, nononono, Not the cars, not the cars!!!"
Stark's partner in weapons making is Obadiah Stane, played by a fantastic Jeff Bridges. Bridges' molasses voice makes every character, good or bad, seem so inviting that he can't possibly mean you any harm. The beard and shaved head give him a look of old world capitalism. The big stogie makes him look like a railroad baron. In one scene, he leans on a small scientist for answers and the scientist is noticeably scared. Who is the scientist? Little Peter Billingsley from A Christmas Story--all growsed up.
Gwyneth Paltrow, who can look bad or great, depending on lighting, makeup and other factors (like Jerry's girlfriend on Seinfeld), looks beautiful here as Stark's Gal Friday, Pepper Potts. A radiant, strawberry blonde, Pepper is always three steps ahead of her boss on all matters, except his new alter ego. Her scene with him and his heart is squishy but great. The cast's entire starting four have had Oscar acknowledgment in the past, but all needed a major hit to revive their careers.
That includes the most charismatic pimp himself, Hustle and Flow's Terrence Howard as Stark's best friend and military advisor, Jim Rhodes. He brings so many good points to his part, but my favorite is when he becomes a whiny drunk. "I'm the best and nobody knows it." I know that guy.
Favreau has been a favorite since I saw the first movie he wrote, Swingers. I don't buy many movies anymore, but I will be adding Iron Man to my Favreau collection of Swingers, Made and Elf.
Iron Man is the best comic book movie ever made. (Sorry Superman II).
The Freditor
* * * (out of 5)
I don't know if she's underrated, but for me Wanda Sykes is one of the funniest women out there. Unlike many comics she is equally adept at working clean or dirty and being just as funny. In Evan Almighty, a family comedy, Sykes steals the show as Congressman Evan Baxter's Washington aide. Baxter is again played by Steve Carrell, the gibberish-speaking anchorman from Jim Carrey's Bruce Almighty. Now elected to the federal government, he barely settles into his new job when God (Morgan Freeman) comes back to offer him a side job. Build an ark for a second flood. To help him, God gives Evan a Ark Building for Dummies book. Sometimes the jokes are that obvious.
Howvere, the movie is filled with some clever sight gags and wordplay, but has to fill out its 90 minute running time with 3 music montages. As for Sykes, when Evan inexplicably grows a beard that he can't shave and hair that he can't cut, Sykes is beside herself. When she finally gets him to almost admit why he needs the beard, he says, "I'm building something." Sykes answers, "Well, I hope it's a barbershop."
The building of the ark is very cool, and the special effects are really good, especially for a comedy. You can see where the $180 million was spent. The animal stunts alone must have taken a lot of time and effort. But the environmental message isn't going to convince anyone who doesn't care about the earth. One nice touch was what ARK can stand for "Acts of Random Kindness." Maybe they made this slogan up, maybe they didn't, it still works well.
As for Steve Carrell, he is one of those moderately funny people who works best bouncing off other funnier people. He gets credit for the success of 40 Year Old Virgin, but that was really an ensemble effort that made that movie so great. Asking Carrell to be the lone funny man will not work and I'm afraid this summer's Get Smart will reveal that in spades. He's not Eddie Murphy or Bill Murray, he's more Gene Wilder.
The Freditor
* * * 1/2 (out of 5)
(From the makers of Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone)
The old Universal horror films, like Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolfman were all 90 minutes each. They set up the story, introduce the creature, have him cause mayhem and have a resolution. Tidy. I'm not crazy about these movies, but I love their brevity. More movies should strive to come in around 90 minutes. Comedies and horror films especially because it is hard to sustain laughter and suspense much longer than that. Comedies start to drag and scary movies lose people's interest.
The Orphanage suffers from this. Coming in at almost 2 hours, it has too much filler to distract you before it gets to the good stuff. A girl of about 10 is adopted from an orphanage leaving all her little friends behind. 25 years later she and her husband buy the old building to make a home for sick kids. Her own son is not aware that he is adopted and sick, and starts to form some good relationships with imaginary friends, or are they? A mysterious old lady shows up to become a nanny, but offends the woman when she reveals information about her son that hardly anyone knows.
This Spanish-language film works on your nerves from about the third minute in. This is the kind of movie that makes you edgy even when you are watching something totally normal, like kids playing red light, green light 1-2-3. A few scenes made me jump out of my chair, but then there are some listless passages which almost put me to sleep. In fact, a key scene got past my sleepy eyes and is useful toward figuring out the ending.
I would have made more use of Charlie Chaplin's daughter, Geraldine, as a medium much like the Zelda Rubinstein character in Poltergeist, only without the humor. Geraldine speaks perfect Spanish as she is hypnotized and returns to the building's past.
I hope that some American filmmaker remakes this in English, since more people should experience it. A couple of critics had a problem with the ending, but I didn't. In fact I'm not sure what their problem was. At least there was some resolution which so many films lack nowadays.
The Freditor
I made such a big deal about Charlton Heston walking with Martin Luther King during King's March on Washington and then sitting on the dais for the I Have a Dream speech. What I failed to note was that while America celebrated and mourned Dr. King on Friday, April 4 this year, the 40th Anniversary of King's death, Charlton Heston died the very next day, April 5.
The Freditor
Charlton Heston stands with Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte after March on Washington. 
* * * * (out of 5)
Judd Apatow gets mucho credit with me in all endeavors. If he writes it, directs it or produces it I will always see them and reserve judgment until later. Oddly, the commercials for his movies always give me the impression that the film will be lame. The problem always is, the best parts can never be shown on television. His R-Rated comedies are made realistically for adults and thus earn their R ratings. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is no exception. Sometimes hApatow knocks it out of the park, ala 40 Year Old Virgin and the TV show Freaks and Geeks. Sometimes it lacks a little something like Knocked Up and Walk Hard.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is better than Knocked, but not as good as 40 Year. Still it's a fun night for any couple. Despite being told from the guy's point of view, this is definitely not a guy movie. All the characters are well drawn and everyone has their moment to shine. Written and starring Freaks veteran and Apatow protege Jason Segel, this is the story of a nice guy musician who's happily in love with his TV star girlfriend until she unsuspectingly breaks up with him at the beginning of the movie. As he just comes out of the shower, the moment happens while he's naked. It is supposed to be a funny metaphor for how he feels, but after the initial shock and giggles the scene is less funny than uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, embarrassing moments are an Apatow hallmark, but I find them less enjoyable than straight on comedy.
The movie and laughs pick up big time when Segel's character Peter takes a much needed vacation to Hawaii, only to find that he's staying in the same hotel as his ex-girlfriend. Anyone who's been to Hawaii knows what a tonic the place and people can be for whatever ails you and among the tonics that Peter finds is the girl from the concierge desk, Rachel Jansen, played by That '70s Shows beauty Mila Kunis. There is a wounded charm in her eyes and voice that makes her instantly appealing to Peter and to the movie as a whole. I haven't seen That '70s Show in years, but I remember not liking her character, but for the last 8 years she has been the voice of Family Guy's daughter Meg, who is always put down for her looks and personality. Perhaps that voiceover work helped make her a more sympathetic performer. Whatever it works.
Segel was one of six favorites for me from Freaks and Geeks and although I don't watch it, is supposed to be good on How I Met Your Mother. Here he plays a very recognizable ordinary guy, who can morph into a pathetic loser if he is allowed. Fortunately, those around him don't let that happen. One great scene is so telling. A big teddy bear of a Hawaiian named Kemo asks him to help prepare the pig for the luau, but Peter doesn't know that includes killing the pig. He's forced to stab the pig all the while screaming, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." When he cries for like the 10th time in the movie, this time for the pig you can't help but crack up laughing.
His ex-girlfriend is played by Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell. Another show I've never watched, but that I hear good things about. As Sarah, we could be forced to hate her and see her as a lying, backstabbing bitch, but there are way more layers to her and you can see why Peter was so gaga over her and then so heartbroken.
This all sounds so serious, where are the laughs Fred? They're everywhere. The movie is filled with them and always within the context of the story which is my favorite way. In some ways Segel is the least funny person in the movie, he is upstaged constantly by Kunu the surfing teacher, Kemo the buffet server, Dwayne the bartender and Matthew the waiter. But the best is the supposed villain of the movie, Aldous Snow, the lead singer of British rock band, Infant Sorrow, and Sarah's new boyfriend. At first he seems clueless, but then you realize he's way more aware than he lets on. It's like Peter lost his girlfriend to a young Mick Jagger.
The clips of Sarah's CSI type show are very funny, but not as good as the clip that shows after the credits start to roll. And don't miss the final song, a classic inside joke that only I laughed at. Prince and Sinead O'Connor's touching breakup song Nothing Compares To You, sung in Hawaiian, by Daniel Ho, no relation to Don Ho.
The Freditor
I'd read about them, but hadn't seen any yet. The R-Rated trailer or as the industry calls them "red band trailers" don't cut anything out for a general audience. In the past, you'd wait to see some horrific horror film with blood, guts and decapitated heads, but the trailers that they'd play before the movies would have menacing shadows during the killings and never any blood.
By the same token you'd never see nudity or hear curse words in a trailer because it might offend the audience that is there to see an R-Rated movie--How Stupid.
But in order to increase the hype and excitement for an upcoming release, the movie studios have taken off the gloves and decided to release red band trailers to give the audience a real idea of what the movie is about. To see one for the first time is exciting. Kind of like the first time you saw an uncut R-rated movie on cable TV. In the back of your mind you're saying, "Wow, I can't believe they are doing that on TV." Well that was my same reaction yesterday when I heard a character say the F-word in a trailer for the upcoming comedy, "Pineapple Express." "Wow, I can't believe they are using a word like that in a trailer." Then they show a man's brains gets blasted and a stoner putting his thumb through his fly to simulate a penis.
A couple more of these and I will not notice it anymore.
The Freditor
For the first time since the 2004 Awards Season, I am able to hand in my Top 10 List the week the Oscars come out. When I was in school I was notoriously late with my term papers, because while I love to write, HAVING to write can be a chore. But this year's crop of movies is the best in quite a while and writing about them was a pleasure. While there were no classics, picking a Top 10 List was pretty easy.
I saw 95 movies that were released in 2007 including most that could conceivably be on anyone's Top 10 List, minus the Iranian/French cartoon Persepolis. I saw Atonement Saturday and while I understand why it's been nominated (English manner movies will always get nominations no matter how uninteresting they are--see Howard's End), I do not agree with the hoopla surrounding it. Other big names like Once and There Will Be Blood did not make my list and the reasons for those omissions will be in their own reviews, which will be appearing shortly.
But when all is said and done, my list features only films that I personally loved and some that would never show up on any other year-end list. So hopefully, if you haven't seen some of these gems, you'll be inspired to rent them out.
Here goes:
First of all, the Actor of the Year has to be Josh Brolin, who is in FOUR of my favorite movies. In American Gangster he's a dirty cop, in In the Valley of Elah he's a jaded chief of police, in Grindhouse he's a doctor who becomes a zombie and in the best role of his life, in No Country For Old Men, he's a handyman who steals money from drug runners and then has to run himself. I think his scene with the pitbull in the Rio Grande alone is worth the price of admission.
1. Sicko (Special Edition) ---In 2004, I believe I named Fahrenheit 911 the Best Movie of that year and Michael Moore again wins the prize. I saw it on my birthday and while you wouldn't think a documentary on health insurance would be a fitting way to spend the anniversary of my birth, I came out of that theatre with a new consciousness. What the movie talks about is not the 50 Million Americans who don't have health care coverage, but the 250 Million who do and get screwed by those health insurance companies. Does Moore play fast and loose with the facts sometimes, maybe. But there's no denying that we are a sick country and we're only getting sicker and until Barack Obama, few politicians were bringing this up as a national crisis. I have health care coverage and always have, but it wouldn't take much for me or my wife to lose it. And we both know that what coverage we have is not as good as it was 10 years ago. Michael Moore is definitely the Upton Sinclair of our generation and for those who don't know, Sinclair is the old writer who made sure you don't eat blended rats in your hot dogs.
2. No Country for Old Men ---No Country would have been Number One, but the Coen Brothers screwed up the ending. The first 1:30 is so good that I could barely breathe while watching it. Then the last 20 minutes don't just fall apart, but are so bad and aimless you almost think the Coens messed it up on purpose. Why is it so hard for modern day directors to finish a movie? To give an ending, some closure. Writers and directors 10 times more talented than they have prided themselves on great endings, but so many times now the endings are either weak or non-existent. A favorite among directors nowadays is to have the actor look into the camera, the screen turns black and the credits roll and you get a large groan from the audience. I have a friend who dismissed my review of this movie when it came out, without seeing it first, and said, "Oh you just want a happy ending." That's not true, some of my all-time favorite movies had a very sad ending, but they ENDED. When he finally saw it, he didn't like the ending either, but he didn't like the whole movie, so it was impossible to gauge his reaction. But I've read it in other places. People hate the ending to this movie. The Sopranos Finale's ending might be 21st Century cool, but people hated it then and many still hate it now. For other directors to copy it will not curry those people's favor.
3. Across the Universe (Two-Disc Special Edition) ---At times corny, but overall a beautiful movie. The most magical of the year. Director Julie Taymor took a premise that Robert Stigwood destroyed 30 years ago with the Sgt. Pepper movie (starring the Bee Gees) and made it into a treasure. Actors portray a story that is pieced together out of the lyrics of Beatles songs and sing the songs in radically new ways, all against a background that explodes with color and psychedelia and makes the movie and the viewer come alive. The ending gave me goosebumps and that rarely happened this year. Probably the most amazing thing about the film was how it took Beatles songs that I normally don't like and rearranged them in ways that made me love them. Dear Prudence is one example. I realized for the first time that like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen maybe the Beatles were the kind of songwriters who should have let other, better singers do their songs.
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [Theatrical Release]----A young woman in 1980s Communist Romania goes through the most stressful day trying to have an abortion. Terminating a pregnancy was illegal there back then and getting caught would mean prison for both her and the doctor. But her day isn't half as bad as it is for her best friend, who is the way more responsible one forced to run around their horrible town making sure it all happens without any glitches. Last half is filmed like a suspense thriller, with a jumpy handheld camera and your heart will be pounding.
5. Michael Clayton (Widescreen Edition) ---Speaking of pounding hearts, this movie contains two scenes that not only made me jump out of my skin and seat, but made the old woman next to me yelp. A lawyer who is entrusted to fight a major lawsuit for a weed killer company has a breakdown, but mostly a huge attack of conscience and has to be wrangled in by the firm's "janitor," Michael Clayton. George Clooney does such an incredible job playing Clayton, because it fits his screen persona to a tee. That super cool Danny Ocean way he has of making everyone around him feel like things are going to be alright. The fact that in order to make these things go alright, you have to commit some white collar crimes is something that eats at "Mickey's" conscience. This movie had a good ending, although I'm not sure I completely bought it, but at least they tried. Veteran director Sydney Pollack plays the chief of Clayton's firm and with that supple voice of his, turns his usual winning manner into a microcosm of corporate evil. Tilda Swinton as the weed company's "hitman" is so overcome with nerves she literally has to smell her own fear.
6. Reign Over Me (Widescreen Edition) ---Most moving film of the year. First fictional movie that dealt with a family member of one of those lost on 9/11. Adam Sandler does incredible work as the shattered widower who was once a top NYC dentist, but is now just a crazy rich hobo. Don Cheadle plays his old roommate from college that has made it his life's work to bring this man back among the living. First half has so many great laugh lines that when the tone changes in the second half it seems abrupt, but very appropriate. I won't lie, I cried for like the last 40 minutes of this movie.
7. Bridge to Terabithia (Widescreen Edition) --Speaking of crying at movies. Holy Crap did this movie take me by surprise. Billed as some kind of Narnia-type film, it's anything but. An 11 year old boy and the same age girl who lives next door become best friends and through their imaginations build a wonderful kingdom in the woods near their house. But then something horrible happens in real life and the movie switches gears rapidly. From that point onward my friend Paul and I started tearing up and I believe many of the fathers in the theatre did as well. It wasn't for the sad thing that happened so much, as for the crazy way the other characters handled it. My wife on the other hand who sat between us was not moved. She laughed at Paul and me, but as I look at it from a distance I believe it might be a boy thing. Like how grown men weep over the final scene of Field of Dreams. It wouldn't even occur to a woman.
8. In the Valley of Elah --Tommy Lee Jones plays two great roles this year, both in Texas. In No Country, he's the sheriff out looking for the bad guy and the good guy with the money, but that's chicken feed compared to his role here as a former MP, out looking for his missing son home from Iraq. While Susan Sarandon has the relatively easy part playing the outwardly worried mother, it's Jones who does the hard work of playing both a strong military man and a father who has tremendous love for his boy. When a soldier arrives at his door with news, Tommy interrupts the soldier to apply a small piece of toilet paper to his shaving cut. It's a minor detail, but informs the character in two ways. One that he's a retired but strict military man who will not let another soldier see him be unkempt and two that it gives him a chance to gain his composure before he hears the news he expects. The final scene of this movie is right on target and the film is a great comeback for Paul Haggis, the man who made the much inferior Crash.
9. Superbad (Unrated Widescreen Edition)---The funniest comedy of the year made by the comedy factory that is Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up). This film was written by two guys while they were still in high school. Their idea? To make a movie that kids their age would want to see and 15 years later they did it. While it takes place in modern day high school it has an ageless quality that makes it familiar for anyone who's been a teenager in the last 30 years. One thing that is a bit different is the filthy way the young characters speak. I mean I knew guys who spoke like that then, but in this movie all the boys speak like that. What language? Where's the soap? LOL. There are so many great scenes and funny lines, but my favorite might be by the drunk redheaded girl at the party, "McLovin is going to take me to Hawaii." I won't explain it, you'll just have to see it.
10. Juno ---I saw the coming attractions and said to myself, "Okay cutish independent comedy with sitcommy characters." Then it started getting all this attention from critics around the country and I thought maybe the trailer wasn't accurate. Don't forget last year Little Miss Sunshine got a similar amount of attention. Slapping an independent tag on a comedy gives it a hands-off coda it might not necessarily deserve. So I saw Juno and really enjoyed it. It's very funny at times and very moving at other times and has a certain level of realism that holds the whole thing together. But.... But I'm sorry, it's a cutish independent comedy with sitcommy characters. Diablo Cody, which is such a stupid stage name, wrote this movie in a manner befitting a 1940s screwball comedy. Star Ellen Page could easily be replaced by Rosalind Russell as the quick-talking sharpie who has Cary Grant wrapped around her fingers. She has so many cool, look-at-how-clever-I-am lines that I don't buy it. Do you remember being 16? You are unmolded clay. You may be intelligent, but you are not yet quick-witted. In high school there were the smart girls who were shy and quiet and the not so smart girls who had a lot to say but little of it worth listening to. No one, NO ONE, I mean No One spoke like Juno does in this movie. And the idea that a teenage girl experiencing something as stressful as an unwanted pregnancy would be this glib about it is Nonsense. I realize it's a comedy, but it's supposed to be a comedy based on truth and if you can't believe the truth, it makes the comedy less effective.
Honorable Mention:
Grindhouse Presents, Planet Terror - Extended and Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition)--If Quentin Tarantino had kept up his end of the bargain, this movie would have made my Top 10. The most fun idea of the year. Make a double feature that resembles the crappy cinema of the '70s. Robert Rodriguez got it perfect with missing reels, a scratched print and cheesy effects, but Quentin made a modern-looking film with nothing cheesy about it. In fact, Quentin's Death Proof is way overwritten with too many asides to things only he cares about. But what saves this whole project are the incredibly funny and disgusting sneak previews in the center of the double feature. My favorite--Thanksgiving. One word--SICK!!
Waitress (Widescreen Edition) ---Three comedies in one year about unplanned pregnancies. (I found Knocked Up pretty funny at times, but totally unbelievable and really a smack against women, which surprised me considering its creator is Judd Apatow.) Of the three this has the most likeable characters, but call me old-fashioned, I just wish the main character played by Keri Russell didn't have an affair with her married doctor. If they were both miserable in their marriages I wouldn't give it a second thought, but coming on to a happily married man cheapened the film for me a little. Andy Griffith though is fantastic as the town's grouchy old rich man.
Sunshine ---We just don't get many good science fiction movies anymore, in fact we don't get many at all. But this mix of Alien and 2001 was a great surprise this summer. An international crew is sent on a possible suicide mission to save the Earth by reigniting the dying sun. Made by the people who brought you Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, they put the same kind of edge into this tale and draw another great performance out of Cillian Murphy. The final confrontation is filled with muddled camerawork, but I'll excuse it for its perfect ending.
Nanking ---Devastating documentary about one of the most covered-up episodes in World War II history. The Rape of Nanking, as its book is appropriately called, was a period of time when a debased Japanese Army conquered the shipping town of Nanking, China and all the peasants who were too poor to escape. While the men were tortured and killed, the women and girls suffered repeated attacks from their savage captors. Many of the victims are still alive to tell their tales and do in this film, but what really disgusted me were the interviews with the 80-year old Japanese soldiers who recall their atrocities with laughter and smiles. This movie would have been in my Top 10 except for the unnecessary use of American actors to portray the roles of the Westerners, who stayed behind to protect these Chinese people from the Japanese. If they had just used their voices while showing archival footage it would have been fine, but mixing in their real faces in actorly guises alongside the real heartbreaking faces of the victims seemed like bad taste.
28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition) ---If there was no 28 Days Later this movie would be one for the record books. But while it lacks the original's new twist on an old genre, it makes up for it with its own amount of shocks and pulsating scares. About 6 months after the original, the refugees who left London are brought back to live among the ruins of their rage-ravaged city. Watching out for them is the American Army. When things go bad the Army turns bad. The carnage is heavy and crazy, but nothing matches the jaw-dropping scene from the beginning of the movie. It is such a colossal nightmare, I was sure it could only be a dream sequence, because no one would truly act that way. It wasn't and it sets the stage for what kind of movie you are about to witness.
American Gangster 2-Disc Unrated Extended Edition---Denzel Washington can walk through a role and still come up smelling like roses. He can play Frank Lucas in his sleep and at times almost does, but he rouses himself up for some wicked scenes. Russell Crowe does his best Popeye Doyle in the part of Richie Roberts. A cop who is dead honest on the job, but cheats on his wife incessantly. He is the much more interesting character here and his desire to bring down Frank Lucas doesn't jibe with how he treats him once he catches him. That's the filmmakers' fault. You can't portray Frank Lucas as a demon to his own people and then treat him like a misunderstood black executive.
The Bourne Ultimatum (Widescreen Edition) ---Jason Bourne does not make a bad movie. This is definitely the most exciting of the three with the stylized action from the first mixed with the documentary style of the second for an eye-popping, heart-stopping thrill ride. Unlike the first two though there are some bullshit moments that defy the law of physics, but overall a great time. Unlike the first two the background story is less compelling and seems more of the same from number 2, but you do get three Oscar-caliber actors to play CIA bad guys here--David Strathairn, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn.
Eastern Promises (Widescreen Edition) --Viggo Mortensen puts on a great performance as a Russian gangster working in London, who wrestles with his conscience when a mysterious baby connects the gang with a strong-willed woman on the outside. Everybody is great here, from Naomi Watts to Vincent Cassel to Armin Mueller-Stahl, and writer director David Cronenberg stages one of the most hard-to-watch fight scenes with the naked knife fight in the sauna. But then ends the movie with a Sopranos-black screen, which I'll say again is a cop out.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly---Usually not my type of movie, but the story of the editor of the French magazine, Elle, overcome with a paralyzing stroke, is told with such great humanity and an unexpected sense of humor that this film is definitely a winner in my book.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ---Albert Finney is great as the father of two loser sons, played by Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hawke is his usual slimy self as the weaker, sniveling brother who robs his parents' jewelry store. Hoffman is miscast as the tougher brother who has to use the jewelry heist money to pay off some big white collar crimes. Hoffman can play sniveling with the best of them, but when he plays "tough" you can see the man behind the curtain. Final scene was way overdramatic for a movie that tries to keep it real.
300 (Two-Disc Special Edition) ---Is it a great movie? No. But it has to be acknowledged for being one of the most creative achievements in 2007. Tells the story of the Spartan War in graphic novel style, with live actors mixing it up with an entire CGI background. Visually mesmerizing and outrageously violent. Fun while it lasts.
The Freditor
