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The Bike Wants to Go Fast

2 Sep

The end of summer is always a slow time, what with people taking time off to enjoy the last gasp of these warm-weather months before things start up again and get busy.

So what a fun bit of counter-programming the movie Premium Rush is.

This brisk, action-packed story of a New York City bike messenger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) caught in the middle of a suspicious delivery picks up the pace on these lazy days and gives the audience what feels like a quick cinematic shot of Jolt cola.

That is to say, it’s a refreshing but not completely satisfying caffeine boost. Continue reading →

Two Reviews, One Blog Post

30 Aug

At first glance, the two movies Celeste and Jesse Forever and Sleepwalk with Me would seem to have little in common.

The first is a story of best friends who get married, only to realize it was a mistake, and then have a hard time moving on.

The latter is a dramatized monologue about a guy trying to make it as a standup comedian, who can’t seem to do the right thing and dump his girlfriend. Oh yeah, and he sleepwalks too.

So why, then, are these two movies appearing in the same review? Because they both engendered the same response from me — meh — and I didn’t feel like writing two separate reviews.

Ah, the benefits of not being a professional movie critic. Continue reading →

Thanks for Keeping Me Alive

27 Aug

In the late 1960s, a singer-songwriter named Rodgriguez was developing a following in Detroit.

Described as an “inner-city poet” and a “wandering spirit,” and hailed as a peer of Bob Dylan, Rodriguez released his debut album, the critically acclaimed Cold Fact, in 1970. A year later, he released his follow-up, Coming from Reality.

But despite the accolades, very few copies of the two albums were sold, and Rodriguez was soon dropped by the record label.

That’s just one of the confounding things we learn in the excellent new documentary Searching for Sugar Man. Continue reading →

The Odd Movie Review of “Timothy Green”

17 Aug

What’s the point of giving a bad review to The Odd Life of Timothy Green — or of even reviewing it at all?

This is one of those critic-proof, middle-of-the-road movies that arrives in theaters just as quickly and quietly as it will disappear. It has no intention of being a blockbuster (no chance, really), and no great ambitions other than being an audience-pleasing film you can bring your family to.

At that, Timothy Green succeeds. Sort of.

Continue reading →

Let’s Win This Thing for America

10 Aug

Election years are always great times for comedy, so much so that the reality is often funnier than any scripted bits that Hollywood can produce.

But what fun would it be if we left all our political humor to the politicians?

That’s right, none.

So let’s give thanks for the new movie The Campaign, which stars Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as two doofus political candidates battling it out in a small North Carolina town for a Congressional seat.

If that premise doesn’t tell you enough about what kind of movie this is, then know this: The film begins with a quote from one-time Presidential candidate Ross Perot.  Continue reading →

Number 5 Is Still Alive

9 Aug

Hollywood likes to play by its own rules.

For example, if the star and director of a successful franchise chose not to make another film in a series, most of us might call it quits and start at the beginning with a new star, director, and character.

But in Hollywood, the solution to that “problem” is to find another actor and director, and extend the brand anyway, even if it confuses things.

And so we have The Bourne Legacy, with Jeremy Renner taking over for Matt Damon in the lead, and playing not Jason Bourne, but Aaron Cross, another field agent who is determined to take down the people responsible for tweaking his body and mind. Continue reading →

They’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling

8 Aug

This week, my parents celebrated their 40th anniversary.

Theirs is an unusual story (for non-celebrities, anyway), in that they met and were married within the space of just eight months. Today, a relationship like that may have resulted in a marriage that only lasted 72 days. So yeah, 40 years of marriage is an impressive achievement.

If you were to ask my parents, I suspect Ward and June (no, those aren’t their actual names) would tell you they are just as in love today as they were all those years ago.

Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones), the couple at the center of the new film Hope Springs, would probably not say the same thing about their own relationship. Continue reading →

Calvin and the Real Girl

5 Aug

In the new film Ruby Sparks, the main character, Calvin (Paul Dano), does what so many lonely, nerdy writers wish we — I mean they could do: He creates a character who becomes real.

But not just any character … A real, live girlfriend.

A dream girl who is perfect in every way.

That’s the fanciful Stranger than Fiction meets Adaptation meets Bride of Frankenstein meets Annie Hall premise of the latest big-screen creation from Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the directors of Little Miss Sunshine. Continue reading →

You Should Be As Afraid of Him As I Am

29 Jul

The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s thrilling final entry in his Batman trilogy, begins with a breathtakingly impressive and awfully scary sequence.

Shot in IMAX, it involves Bane, the bulked-up villain who wears an intimidating crab-like mask, taking a plane full of men hostage. “Now is not the time for fear,” Bane says as the plane attaches to another, tilts 90 degrees, and he injects one of the passengers with a needle that draws out his blood. “That comes later.”

Coulda fooled me.

The scene, which was previewed before IMAX screenings of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol last December, was shot largely with stunt actors in the air and not with green-screen-assisted computer effects. And yes, with those heavier, bulkier IMAX cameras.

It’s nothing short of amazing.

But that’s to be expected, given the way Nolan has rebooted the Batman story, infused it with such craftsmanship, and made each new film of his trilogy bigger and better than the last.

The Dark Knight Rises, while it may not be a better film than The Dark Knight, is certainly the most ambitious one of the three. And that opening scene sets our expectations pretty high (no pun intended). Continue reading →

Good Luck with the Chicken

17 Jul

Is there a more sympathetic actress working today than Michelle Williams?

No matter what part she’s playing, whether it’s Marilyn Monroe or one half of a couple about to break up, she gives a performance of such subtlety and deep emotion that you can’t help but feel for her.

And it doesn’t hurt that with the exception of her relationship with the late Heath Ledger, her off-screen life has not been the stuff of tabloid fodder. As a result, she’s able to more easily disappear into her roles without us thinking about her wild nights out or other escapades.

This fact serves Williams well in her latest film, Take This Waltz, in which she plays a happily married woman who falls for her neighbor. Continue reading →

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