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He’s Baaaaaack

2 Apr

If you enjoyed Borat, then by all means watch the trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film, Bruno. Just be careful: This is NSFW.
http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/9995

Same Cast, Shorter Title

1 Apr

There were three movies in the The Fast and the Furious series, but to really amp up the testosterone — not to mention the fast-ness and furiosity — something just had to change.

So, the series got a reboot and now we have Fast & Furious, a car culture film starring the same cast as the first film, but without all those pesky The’s in the title. (The ‘and’ also became an ampersand.)

What’s the new movie about? Well, plot, schmot. There’s drugs, money, revenge, and, um, fast cars. Do you really need to know more? Continue reading →

I Was There for Her

31 Mar

Most people who know me know just how much I love the TV show Friends. I know, I know. Who doesn’t love Friends? So don’t worry, I won’t use this space to try and prove why I’m a bigger fan than you are. I’ll just remind you that the Boston Globe selected me as one of the four biggest fans in Boston during the show’s final season, and featured me four times in the paper that year (including this time and this time).

Why do I bring this up now? It’s to help explain why I went back to Brandeis Monday night to see a movie called Blessed Is the Match. The film is a documentary about Hannah Senesh, a 22-year-old woman who was captured by the Nazis while attempting to rescue Jewish people behind enemy lines in her native country of Hungary. But it’s not the subject that appealed to me, it was the film’s executive producer — Marta Kauffman, one of the three creators of Friends and a Brandeis alumnus (class of 1978). I’m happy to report that the film’s good and all, but to be honest, I was there to get some dirt on the show.

You’ll be relieved to know that when L.A. Times blogger Scott Feinberg finished his Q&A and turned the questioning over to the audience, I didn’t stand right up and blurt out, “So when’s the Friends reunion going to happen?” In fact, because most of the inquiries were serious and had to do with the film itself, I resisted the urge to ask any questions. Instead, I let one of the students in the crowd ask the only Friends-related question, and it was one of the more cliched ones: Is it true that Central Perk was inspired by the on-campus cafe Cholmondeleys? This has been an on-campus legend for years and a staple of admissions tours. Heck, it’s even perpetuated by Wikipedia. Well, Kauffman put the legend to rest once and for all: No, it’s not true. Chum’s was quite different back in her day, and the inspiration for Central Perk actually came from L.A.’s Insomnia Cafe. So there you have it.

But Marta wasn’t going to get out of the room without me speaking with her, so when the program ended, I joined the hordes of students who had brought DVD sets and cameras and I waited my turn. While waiting, I learned that Marta’s all-time favorite line from the show was “It’s a moo point.” Then, as she started to make her way out the door, I finally got my chance to remind Marta that I had interviewed her for the Justice back in the fall of 1994, shortly after Friends debuted (true story). And instead of asking her that cheesy question I was thinking of, I just said to her, simply, “Thanks. Thanks for ‘Pivot!,’ for trapping Chandler in the vestibule with Jill Goodacre, for the episode “The One Where Mr. Heckles Dies,’ and just for creating such a great show that I still love.” She’s obviously heard it many times before, and she was in a rush to get out of there after listening to similar commentary from all the other fans in the crowd. But I said what I wanted to, and I was happy.

So, a pretty cool night for me.

Sweet, Sweet Hanging

23 Mar

In I Love You, Man, Paul Rudd plays Peter, that probably all-too-common guy who is so whipped that all his friends are his girlfriend’s girl friends and he has no guy friends to call his own. So when he proposes and needs to fill out his wedding party, Peter is at a loss. His family tries to set him up on “man dates,” but those all go predictably awry. Then one day, Peter meets Sydney (Jason Segel), and his life becomes more complete. These two hit it off instantly, and proceed to bond over fish tacos and a love for the band Rush.

Led by the thoroughly likable performances of Rudd and Segel — who are joined by a supporting cast that includes Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, Jon Favreau, some of the Best Week Ever players, and the Hulk himself, Lou Ferrigno — I Love You, Man is, to borrow Sydney’s term, delightful. Though heightened for comic effect, Peter’s predicament rings true, and the two guys’ chemistry just feels very real. To put it most simply, I Love You, Man is totally sweet, easy, fun, winning, and it just works. This is a movie that will charm audiences for a long time. I’m giving I Love You, Man a B+.

Who’s Gaming Who?

22 Mar

All is not what it seems in Duplicity, writer/director Tony Gilroy’s followup to the Oscar-nominated Michael Clayton.

Set in the world of corporate espionage, Duplicity follows Ray and Claire (Clive Owen and Julia Roberts), former MI-6 and CIA agents who team up to pull off a scam involving two competing drug companies.

But who can be trusted when there’s so much at stake?

Are Ray and Claire really on the same page or are they looking out for themselves, and will the plan really come together without anyone finding out? Continue reading →

There’s More to This Story

20 Mar

So that explains it. A year ago, I noticed some strange graffiti on a wall near the Star Market in Allston. My post was picked up on Universalhub.com and Boston.com, and all kinds of people came to this site to see what all the fuss was about. Well, 12 months later, I’ve found out in the Improper Bostonian of all places that the supposed film criticism was not that at all, but a reference to a Demetri Martin joke. Well, I guess that explains it. And don’t I feel silly now.

A Bit of a Mess

20 Mar

Sometimes a movie is pleasant and all, but it just feels pointless. So it is with Sunshine Cleaning. The story of Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams), a young woman who starts her own crime-scene cleanup business with the help of her slacker sister, Norah (Emily Blunt), Cleaning was one of the finds at the Sundance Film Festival more than a year ago. The film was produced by the same folks who produced Little Miss Sunshine, and like that film, Cleaning also stars Alan Arkin as a cantankerous old man who has a good relationship with his grandchild. But a similar name and costar are really all these two movies have in common, and that’s probably why it took so long for the film to actually hit theaters. Cleaning has very little of the charm and emotion that Little Miss had, despite having Amy Adams in the lead. There’s a pretty creepy subplot involving Norah and the daughter of a deceased woman, and Rose just, well, I never really felt like I wanted to root for her. The movie’s not a total mess or anything, but it’s definitely not as quirky as it thinks it is. I expect the fate of Sunshine Cleaning will be much like the scenes Rose and Norah clean up, with nary a trace of it left in just a couple hours. I’m giving the movie a C+.

It’s No Joke

8 Mar

If you’re one of those people who think movies provide an escape in tough times, then by all means, stay far away from Watchmen. Based on the popular graphic novel (which Time magazine ranked as one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century), Watchmen tells the unconventional story of a group of superheroes who live in an alternate version of reality: the year is 1985, Richard Nixon is still president (he’s won a fifth term), and superheroes have been banned. No wonder most of them have a pretty bleak outlook on the world. Narrated by the most pessimistic of them all, Rorschach, the story centers on a looming threat of nuclear war with the Russians. What role will (or can) our heroes have in stopping this? And will they find out who is trying to kill them before it’s too late?

Not that there’s anything wrong with conventional superhero movies, but for some reason Hollywood thinks we want to see something on the flipside right now. Here’s the thing, though: even Hancock had some laughs and didn’t take itself soooo seriously. Watchmen is a super-serious affair, with a very downbeat tone, and some heroes who aren’t really fighting for good. I don’t have a problem with unconventional stuff like that, or with the fact that this is based on a comic book. But perhaps there’s a reason I couldn’t really get into the graphic novel when I tried to read it last year, despite repeated attempts. And I think that reason is that the story’s just not terribly engaging or compelling, and the characters are not very likable. For example, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman, respectively) are actually pretty lame.

Which is not to say the movie’s awful. The actors all make valiant attempts to wring some credibility from the material — Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), for all his character’s pessimism, gives the most notable performance (even if his face is obscured by a mask for most of the film). And the dark look notwithstanding, there are some impressive visual elements in the film, including the neat opening credits sequence. (No, I don’t include Dr. Manhattan’s junk in the list of “impressive visual elements.” We see more of his thang than we did of Jason Segel’s in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I mean, really. I know it’s CGI, but can’t the guy at least wear a thong or something? Even the Hulk wears shorts.) Ultimately, I just didn’t find Watchmen to be as fun, cool, or enjoyable as I’d hoped. It’s much ado about nothing, and that’s why I’m only giving it a C.

Squirrel!

6 Mar

Of all the movies coming out this year, few have excited me more than the new Pixar release, Up, because … well, watch the new trailer for yourself (preferably in HD) and you’ll see that it’s one of Pixar’s brightest and most colorful films ever. The balloons alone make this worth the price of admission. Up comes out May 29.

http://l.yimg.com/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop/embedflv/swf/fop.swf

Il Ya Un Problem?

2 Mar

Forget that this video is entirely en Francais. Just watch Emma Thompson cringe and then rush on stage — in the middle of an awards ceremony!! — to try and help the totally clueless and very nervous French actress Julie Ferrier with her dress.

Sean Penn looks amused too, and there’s certainly a nervous, um, tittering coming from the audience.

I don’t have a clue what this woman is talking about (I don’t think she knows either), but this is pretty classic blooper-reel stuff.

I tell you, if the Oscars this year were anything like this, I might have enjoyed them more.

(Thanks to Jeff Wells for, ahem, the tip.) Continue reading →

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