Martin's Musings

There was a time when movie villains came from Eastern European countries or the Middle East.

While those do still exist, nowadays, a greater number seem to come from Wall Street, and the financial world.

That’s right: If you haven’t noticed (and how could you have missed it?) Hollywood’s favorite punching bag right now is the 1%. Whether the film is Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Dark Knight Rises, or countless other recent examples, we just love watching the affluent among us get what’s coming to them.

So it is in Arbitrage, the latest film to show the downfall of a rich, white guy who took advantage of people on his rise to the top. Continue reading →

The film Robot & Frank never tells you exactly when it’s taking place, but in this near-future time, we’re at least one step closer to The Jetsons than we are now.

That is to say, it’s a time when robots are human substitutes that can cook, clean, and even work in the garden.

Look out, Rosie!

In the film, the titular Frank (Frank Langella) is given a robot companion by his children because Frank is in the early stages of dementia and he needs someone — or rather, something — to look after him.

Frank, a retired jewel thief, is at first resistant to this new caretaker (“That thing is going to murder me in my sleep,” he says). But eventually the two become friends.

Even better, Frank realizes he has a new ally who can’t distinguish between legal and illegal activities. So he plans two final scores — one to win the affections of a librarian (the ubiquitous Susan Sarandon), and the other to get back at the head of the library’s redevelopment effort — and trains the robot to play a role. Continue reading →

Why should guys have all the fun?

After years and years of watching men in movies like The Hangover do gross things and generally behaving badly, women are starting to step up to the plate and say, “Anything you can do, we can do too!” Which is why we now have movies like Bridesmaids at the multiplex, and actresses like Melissa McCarthy taking a dump in a bathroom sink on the big screen.

Good times.

Like with those guy-centric movies, the ones showing women behaving badly have been mixed. Some have definitely been better than others. And I suspect this will continue to be the case for some time.

Which brings us to the two most recent movies where female actresses get to show their less, well, demure side: For a Good Time, Call… and Bachelorette. Let’s look at them both, starting with the not-so-good one.

Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →