I’m a believer that the quality and quantity of the trailers shown before a film can adversely or positively affect the moviegoing experience, no matter how good the movie itself is.
So suffice it to say, on Saturday, when I saw the awesome Inception, having the new trailer for The Social Network (i.e., the Facebook movie) playing before the film made the experience even better. Continue reading
We’re not in Kansas anymore, kids.
Again.
Picking up where The Matrix left off, Christopher Nolan’s new film, Inception, presents a reality that’s not quite what it seems.
And then Nolan layers it with twists and turns that only generate more questions and more questions.
The film’s like a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream.
Or is it?
Just how much of the action in Inception is real, and how much is a dream? That all depends on whether you want to swallow the red pill or the blue one. Continue reading
I’ll admit it: I have a weak spot for most animated films. Whether that’s because I’m still a kid at heart, because animated films tend to be better than many live action ones, or some other reason is debatable, but chances are good that if a film is animated, I’ll walk out of the theater raving about it. I won’t be doing that with Despicable Me, however. This one is just not as much fun as its trailers promised it would be, and I’m surprised and disappointed to say I just didn’t enjoy it all that much.
Despicable Me features Steve Carell as the voice of Gru, the world’s second-most-feared super villain. Gru is determined to steal the moon, but first he’s got to beat his brand-new nemesis, Vector (Jason Segel), and he’s got to avoid falling for the three young girls he adopts (for less-than-pure purposes, of course). Yes, that means this one’s a cute heartwarmer. So instead of being wacky and whimsical, and showing these two villains doing battle to one-up each other, we see Gru’s heart melting for the girls. Don’t go to this movie expecting lots of laughs.
If you go to Despicable Me, you can probably also save yourself a few bucks and not see it in 3D. Other than a cool scene on a roller-coaster, there’s not much notable about the effect. In fact, save this one for the DVD, and let the kids enjoy it. Unlike, say, Toy Story 3 there’s not as much to charm adults, and if you’re like me, you’ll be checking your watch a couple times, waiting for it to be over. I’m giving Despicable Me a B–.
Alright, so maybe Norman Bates, who once claimed that “A boy’s best friend is his mother,” is the creepiest on-screen mama’s boy.
But the title character of the film Cyrus runs a close second.
In the film, Cyrus (Jonah Hill) does everything he can to interfere with the budding relationship between his mother, Molly (Marisa Tomei), and John (John C. Reilly), a lonely and depressed guy who thinks he’s finally found the right woman, until he meets her son and sees the creepy, truly dysfunctional relationship they have.
John and Cyrus engage in some serious psychological warfare, some of which is quite funny, and Molly clearly doesn’t see or understand what’s wrong with the relationship.
Reilly and Tomei are both good, and Hill gives a decidedly more low-key performance than I’ve seen him give.
As noted, the film has some good laughs, and it’s generally pretty engaging.
Does it drag a little bit? Yeah.
Is some of the humor a little broad? Yes.
But overall, Cyrus is a decent movie with a memorable line of dialogue that I’ll be quoting — and maybe even wearing— for some time, and I’d say see it.
I’m giving the film a B.
It’s unfortunate but true to say that over the years, Joan Rivers has been reduced to a caricature. Between her “Can we tawk?” catchphrase, her jewelry-hawking on QVC, her plastic surgery, and her award-show red carpet interviews, it’s gotten hard to take Joan seriously anymore.
And yet, at age 75, Joan’s still around.
Not only that, she’s riding another wave of popularity.
What’s her secret to success? Well, as we learn in the new documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, it’s simply hard work. Continue reading
You don’t go see a movie like Grown Ups because you think it’ll be good.
You see it because you like the stars and you hope it’ll be funny.
Thankfully, you get what you pay for.
Adam Sandler and his pals Kevin James, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Chris Rock star as childhood friends who reunite (in “New England”) for the funeral of their beloved basketball coach and decide to stay together with their families over the July 4th holiday at a scenic lake house.
There’s really no more plot than that.
Good times and insults follow, as do other fellow former Saturday Night Live stars like Maya Rudolph, Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, and, in a brief cameo, Norm MacDonald (plus Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, and Sandler movie mainstay Steve Buscemi). Continue reading
Knight and Day is what you might call a “Snuggie movie.”
That is to say, it’s more about the marketing than the actual product.
You’ve got your big, media-friendly stars (Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, reunited for the first time since Vanilla Sky — maybe you’ve seen them on TV or magazine covers lately).
And you’ve got your cutesy title, which doesn’t really have much to do with the movie other than the fact that it’s easier to sell than the original title, which was Wichita.
What more do you need? Continue reading
It’s been 11 years since Woody, Buzz, and the gang were last on the big screen, and in that time, it’s not just Andy (their owner) who has grown up.
The passage of time is what gives Toy Story 3 so much of its emotional heft. No matter how old you are, and whether you see it with or without a child sitting next to you, it’s hard to deny that this third film hits you in all the right places.
It’s surely worth the wait.
And then some. Continue reading
A few times during the film Solitary Man, Ben Kalmen (Michael Douglas) is out of focus.
This filmmaking choice is just a literal representation of the man, who, after hearing that he may have some cardiac issues, decides to make all the wrong choices and has to deal with the consequences.
He has a loving wife and family, and he throws them away to sleep with younger women. He has a successful chain of car dealerships, and he makes some shady business decisions that result in him losing his livelihood.
All this is a gigantic case of denial: Ben can’t face the fact that he’s not the young guy he once was. Continue reading
At the beginning of Get Him to the Greek, Sergio (Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy), an executive at a big-time record label, is yelling at his staff, who are trying to come up with a “game changer” idea that will help the label and maybe even save the entire industry. Aaron (Jonah Hill) has a crazy thought: What if we focused on the music? After all, isn’t that why they all got into the business in the first place?
It seems Aaron’s all-time favorite singer performed at L.A.’s legendary Greek Theatre 10 years earlier. Aaron thinks it would be great if they could get him back on that stage and have him revisit the site of his greatest show.
Of course, the idea is dismissed. When this scene was taking place, I started to smile: Was Get Him to the Greek going to be a great commentary on the state of the music business? Ha. Don’t be so silly. Continue reading
Martin's Musings 