Movie Reviews

A few winters ago, Scott and I were both sick with the flu for almost 10 days. Since we didn’t feel up to doing anything except lay on the couch, we watched a lot of movies. Thankfully, Scott wasn’t quite as sick as me and he was actually able to drag himself to Blockbuster every few days to keep us in entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, he was pretty sick himself. But, if left to my own devices, I would have been stuck with mindless TV or staring at the ceiling. I was one sick girl.

We did watch a lot of movies during those 10 days, so in an effort to just keep them all straight in my own head, once I started feeling a little better I began writing down the highlights. It ended up as a sort of movie review which I thought my friends might enjoy. Perhaps someone can benefit from our many hours of movie viewing. I have considered trying to continue some sort of movie review column in my blog, because even when we are healthy, Scott and I do watch a lot of movies. Let me know if you find these helpful at all, and if you would like for me to continue giving my thoughts on Hollywood's creations for your consideration...

The Amateurs –
This is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a while. With chests full of congestion we had agreed to avoid comedies because it hurt to laugh. Scott came home with this one not really knowing much about it except that a group of guys set out to make an amateur porno movie…how funny could that be? Oh my god. The cast includes some of my favorite actors: Jeff Bridges, Tim Blake Nelson, William Fichtner, Joe Pantoliano (Joey Pants) and Ted Danson (who plays the homosexual friend pretending to be a macho man.) The running narration by Jeff Bridges is funny by itself. Don’t miss a word because it’s all hilarious. This is my favorite Jeff Bridges role since The Dude. From their friends nicknames like "Some Idiot" and Moose, to the 2 inseparable guys named Mo and Ron who they call "MoRon," the running dialog is full of cliché’s and porn terminology that will have you holding your sides laughing.

American Gangster –
I thought this was a really good movie. Denzel Washington was wonderful. He played the tough but smart mob boss very believably. Russell Crow was good too as the gritty determined cop. His Jersey accent kind of came and went, but otherwise I was quite impressed with him. It was one of those movies where you are pulling for both the good guy and the bad guy at the same time because both have good and bad qualities, and the true "bad guy" may not be who you think.

Beowulf-
This movie is visually stunning. The "animation" was original and really gave a quality to the movie it wouldn’t have had if it had just been filmed normally. I love Anthony Hopkins, and he played the crude disgusting king Hrothgar fantastically. Robin Wright Penn was beautiful as always, animated or not, and played the sad, resigned queen very well. Ray Winstone was Beowulf. I can’t say I know him, even though he has apparently been around for quite a while, but hubba hubba…As the young and virile warrior, he looked amazing. And, speaking of looking amazing, Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mother, fully nude and slightly animated was breathtaking. John Malkovich rounds out the all-star cast. If you don’t expect it to follow the exact story line of the classic tale, you won’t be disappointed with this film.

The Darjeeling Limited-
Of all the movies we watched this week, I think this was my favorite. It is very quirky and off the wall, one of those movies you either love or hate. Owen Wilson is fantastic. Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman are both very good too. They play brothers trying to re-connect one year after the death of their father and disappearance of their mother. But there is so much more going on. The dialog between the three is hilarious, and their bumbling attempts to find spirituality in India is so farcical and yet so deep at the same time. They finally meet up with Mom, played by Angelica Huston, who is wonderful as always. This movie is funny, touching and thought provoking…I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fido-
This was probably the biggest surprise of the week for me. Those of you who know me know that I do not do "eat brains" movies. I almost vetoed it when Scott brought it home, but I’m so glad I gave it a chance. If you’ve seen "The Night of the Living Dead" this movie picks up as a sort of sequel to it. People still turn in to zombies when they die, but society has discovered how to control and even domesticate the zombies. The premise is so ridiculous, and what little bit of blood and brain and flesh eating shown is so light and silly, even I wasn’t grossed out. Carrie Ann Moss was a happy surprise, as was Tim Blake Nelson with his zombie "girlfriend." Billy Connolly plays Fido, the zombie with the heart of gold. I highly recommend this one.

The 40 Year Old Virgin-
We missed this one when it came out a while back. I knew it would be cute, but really expected it to be more stupid than funny. I laughed so hard! This is a really good movie. Steve Carell is great. I love Catherine Keener and thought her part was fantastic. The situations that this poor guy’s friends get him into are so funny. But, it is also heart-warming and has a good message. I very much enjoyed it.

Letters From Iwo Jima-
This is the story of the battle of Iwo Jima, but told from the perspective of the Japanese. I’m not a big war movie fan, but this was very well done. It was an interesting feeling finding myself thinking of the Americans as the enemies and pulling for the Japanese hero. I think that was the point of the movie, to show that there are human beings on both sides in war, which is very poignant and appropriate even today. There is a scene where the Japanese soldiers choose to kill themselves instead of retreating, which was hard for me to fathom, and prompted my fevered exclamation of "stupid Japanese!" Overall, I thought this was an excellent movie.

Michael Clayton-
I’m a big George Clooney fan, and this movie does not disappoint. We did watch this one when I was in the worst moments of my sickness and fever, so parts of it are a little dreamy to me. I will probably give it another watch later on to catch more of the nuances. But, the plot is very good and the acting superb. I thought Clooney’s portrayal of the burnt out "janitor" was excellent. He plays a "fixer" for a large law firm, handling dirty jobs and cleaning up messes for the firm. He gets involved in one of the largest class action suits the firm has handled, and starts to find out things he was never supposed to know…things that could bring the firms client down, as well as endanger his career and his very life. Watching him struggle with doing the right thing, amid a host of other problems in his personal life, was very well done.

Slipstream-
Anthony Hopkins wrote, directed and starred in this film, and I’m such a huge fan of his I was determined to love it. But, this was my least favorite movie of the week. I found it very disjointed and hard to follow. I realize it was supposed to be chaotic, and maybe I just didn’t really get it. Basically, Anthony Hopkins is a screen play writer and the lines between reality and the movie he is writing start to blur. Pretty good premise, and a good supporting cast including Christian Slater, Michael Clarke Duncan and John Turturro, but I just found it too confusing to really be enjoyable.

Summer of ’42-
This is a classic old movie from 1971 that I had never seen. It’s a coming of age story of a 15 year boy. It starts out showing the innocence of 3 young boys spending the summer on Nantucket Island in 1942. Like normal 15 year old boys, they are obsessed with sex, but know basically nothing about it. The more mature of the 3 is also obsessed with a young woman on the island whose husband has just gone off to war. One of the boys steals a book from his parents’ library that has graphic pictures and they try to educate themselves with it. One of the boys is very immature and can’t handle it, but the other 2 set out to use their newly found knowledge. Without spoiling anything, suffice it to say that they both lose their virginity that summer, with very different results. One "gets laid" and one becomes a man. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie.

Death At A Funeral-
I really enjoyed this movie. It is very English and set at a funeral, as the title implies. It centers around a family at the funeral of the family patriarch...innocent enough, but then things start to go wrong. Starting when one of the nieces gives her fiancé what she thinks is a valium from her brothers apartment, only to find out that said brother is a pharmacist in training and making tailored hallucinogenic drugs. The fiancé, Alan Tudyk (known to many of us as Wash from Firefly) thinks he is losing his mind as he begins to seriously trip on the way to the funeral. Then the midget shows up (sorry, I almost didn’t write a review on this movie because I knew I would have to write about the midget…"little person" just doesn’t have the same comedic ring, so I’m going with midget, pc or not)…anyway, then the midget shows up and announces to the sons that he was their fathers gay lover and demands money or he will tell the whole family, and he has pictures to prove it. I was literally laughing out loud as these events, and many others, including the bathroom scene with the old crotchety uncle you just know is going to die on the toilet, unfolded in hilarity. From director Frank Oz, I highly recommend this movie.

No Country For Old Men-This is a Coen Brothers movie, so I’ll just say that, like all of their movies, I need to see it again to truly appreciate it. I don’t know what it is about their movies, but both their comedies and their darker movies need more than one viewing to really "get it." In a nutshell, a hunter stumbles across a drug deal gone very wrong. The drug dealers have all killed each other and he finds $2 million dollars in cash and a truck full of heroin. He takes the money. Through a series of unfortunate events, a hit man looking for the drug money finds out who took it and begins to hunt him down, killing anyone and everyone who gets in his way. Javier Bardem, who plays the hit man, is fantastic. This character is a very bad man, but there is something about him that is hard to fathom. It’s as if he feels no remorse or guilt over what he does, but then you see tears in his eyes and the strangest look of sadness or fear when he thinks he will be forced to kill the sheriff, played by Tommy Lee Jones. I found Bardem’s acting very impressive, not so sure about Tommy Lee Jones. I will stop now and just say that I very much enjoyed this movie, certainly recommend, and will definitely watch again.

Bee Movie-
Very funny! This animated movie has an all-star cast of voices and is just plain funny. The jokes are great. The story is pretty good, and the animation is fine, and it is just funny. Some of the animated movies have been disappointing lately, but this one does not disappoint. The cast includes Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Patrick Warburton, John Goodman, Chris Rock (who plays the mosquito who teaches Barry B. how to hitch rides on the windshields of cars without being killed in the process) and so many more. There is even a Larry King Bee, and Sting playing himself and having to explain to the bees what makes him "sting." This movie is a must see.