Martin's Musings

You know the classic Burt Bacharach song “Alfie?”

Well, after seeing Tree of Life, you may be asking, “What’s it all about, Terrence?”

The film, written and directed by Terrence Malick (Badlands, The Thin Red Line), is a meditation on fathers and sons, the meaning of life, what it means to be a man, and probably a whole lot of other stuff too. (You get that sense from the poster.)

Actually, instead of a movie, it’s more like a two hour and 15 minute tone poem: There’s little dialogue (no kidding, two characters never speak to each other for the entire first hour of the film), lots of atmospheric shots, little to no plot, short monologues (delivered in a whispery voice over as if they’re a prayer to God), and a whole lot of choral and swelling orchestral music on the soundtrack.

Throw in Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and some dinosaurs too (yes, really), and the whole thing feels like an exercise in filmmaker indulgence. (Or hubris, depending on your preference.) Continue reading →

I’ve always been a sucker for nostalgia — looking through old photos, rereading old journals, watching old home videos, remembering “good ole days” gone by.

And it’s this time of year when I get especially nostalgic, what with my birthday just days away, the anniversary of my college graduation just passed, and me taking stock of how my present compares to my past, and if I’m better off now than I was.

So you might say that it was more than appropriate timing for me when I saw Woody Allen’s very enjoyable new film, Midnight in Paris, a modern-day fable that celebrates nostalgia. Continue reading →

In the classic Murray Head song, there’s the lyric “One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.”

That’s the basic plot of The Hangover Part II, in which the Wolfpack, in Thailand for Stu’s (Ed Helms) wedding, wake up in Bangkok and can’t remember anything that happened the night before.

If you’re thinking, “Isn’t that basically the same exact plot as the first Hangover movie? How could that happen again?” then you’re right. But if you like the characters and the movie’s funny, then the plot’s not exactly important.

So let’s move on, then, shall we? Continue reading →

You always hope it’s great when beloved characters return to the big screen after an absence.

Remember how good it felt to see Woody and Buzz again last summer in Toy Story 3?

Well, when Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow — excuse me, Captain Jack Sparrow — reappears on screen at the start of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the first Pirates film in four years, you can’t help but smile.

His creation is so full of whimsy, style, and swagger, and while Depp’s performances in the series have always been fun, the movies themselves have been hit and miss, with none able to recapture the delight of the first, The Curse of the Black Pearl. Continue reading →

It would be tempting to see The Beaver and want to draw parallels between the film’s plot and star Mel Gibson’s last couple years.

After all, the film tells the story of a man who reaches bottom and finds an unusual method of snapping out of it and reconnecting with friends and family. But that would be too easy … and perhaps more importantly, I’ll bet even Mel Gibson, crazy as he is, wouldn’t go so far as to talk through a hand puppet.

Yes, that’s the plot here: Walter, a depressed husband and father (Gibson), finds a beaver hand puppet in a dumpster and adopts it as his sole means of communicating with those around him. (Yes, really.) Continue reading →

It’s the rare film series that makes it to a fifth entry and still manages to entertain.

And who’da thunk it that the Fast and Furious series would be a series that did both?

Fast Five reunites original cast members Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and (the gorgeous) Jordana Brewster, and shifts the action to Rio, where the team schemes to pull off a heist involving the city’s largest crime lord.

New to the series is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, as an FBI agent hot on their trail. (No wonder Walker and Diesel’s characters bring back other former F&F stars, including Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Tyrese Gibson, who both appeared in the second film). Continue reading →

It’s not exactly breaking news that advertising and marketing is everywhere.

Anyone who’s visited Times Square knows this, as do the millions of viewers who watch American Idol every week. (Seriously, who hasn’t cringed multiple times when seeing the judges drink from their Coca-Cola glasses or the finalists perform in another Ford commercial?)

So Morgan Spurlock’s latest film, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold doesn’t exactly shock.

Nor does it present new revelations.

However, it does entertain.

Like his previous film Super-Size Me, Spurlock handles his topic with humor and self-awareness. Continue reading →

From out of the desert, a man with no name arrives in a run-down town in the Old West.

And though that sounds like the plot of a stereotypical western, Rango takes the cliches and tweaks them.

For one thing, this is no ordinary man; in fact, it’s not a man at all. The title character is a chameleon who can’t blend in because he has such a penchant for sticking out.

And his eccentricities lead to him becoming the sheriff of and savior for a town called Dirt, where the residents are down to their last drop of water. Continue reading →

The difference between average movies and very good ones usually comes down to one word: characters.

If the filmmakers can’t make you believe that the people on screen are real, that they have actual emotions and feelings, and if you don’t care what happens to them, then chances are good that they’re overcompensating with high-concept gimmicks, lame jokes, or special effects.

There’s no need for such things in Win Win, a film that’s special because it’s got great characters you can’t help but like and root for. Continue reading →