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A Losing Battle

6 Dec

I didn’t really think I was going to like Charlie Wilson’s War. After all, I’m sort of over the whole “Tom Hanks Is Holier than Thou” thing, and I can’t get too excited about Julia Roberts anymore either.

Plus, I’m skeptical of a major studio movie that’s billed as Oscar bait based on pedigree alone.

But I’ll admit, Hanks is real good here in the true story of a Texas Congressman with questionable ethics, and he won me over. And generally, I was entertained by the movie, which documents how Charlie Wilson raised money — $1 billion annually — in Congressional funds to support Afghanistan in its war with Russia in the 1980s. (Those are your tax dollars at work, folks!) Continue reading →

Thanks, Jeff

5 Dec

Jeff Wells, one of my favorite film columnists, is in town for a month. I know this because he’s mentioned it on his site in recent weeks, but Tuesday night at the critics screening of Charlie Wilson’s War that I was at, I saw him in person for the first time. It’s funny, because you read a blog like Wells’ — or David Poland’s — and you get an idea of what these guys must be like. And then there he is, and it’s sort of cool — like he’s some minor, D-level celebrity or something. (And yes, I have read the article in Los Angeles magazine that ran last year.) (And no, I didn’t say hello or introduce myself.)

The reason I’m mentioning this is because Wells went on a bit of a rant Wednesday about one of my least favorite movie theaters, the AMC Boston Common. Regular readers of this blog know I had a bad experience there a couple months back when I went to see In the Valley of Elah. And I’ve long thought the presentation quality there is subpar — especially compared to the Fenway 13, which is my favorite area theater, despite its awful parking garage. At the AMC, the sound is never right. It’s either too loud or too soft, and it’s never mixed right; instead of coming out of all the speakers the way surround sound is supposed to work, it seems to all be coming out of the front ones. Basically, it’s like they just don’t care about the movies there. They just want your money, and the ushers can’t be bothered to actually ush, or make sure the films are unspooling properly, or get rid of inconsiderate customers. Which, of course, sucks for those of us who hate that kind of crap and just want to enjoy a movie without being distracted. And don’t even get me started about the frequency that the fire alarm goes off. Blah blah blah …

So anyway, I appreciate Wells writing what he did — that the critics’ screening of Sweeney Todd was ruined due to shoddy presentation — because he does seem to wield some form of influence in the film world, but I think it’s worthless, unfortunately. That theater is a lost cause, and it gets worse every year. When I have a choice, I’m going to keep on going to the Regal Fenway 13, where the sound and the screens are bigger and better. But thanks anyway, Jeff. Nice try.

The Cautionary Whale

3 Dec

If you enjoyed the raunchy unplanned-pregnancy comedy Knocked Up earlier this year but wished it was a little bit sweeter, then Juno is the movie for you.

It’s the very funny story of a sardonic high school girl (Ellen Page) in Minnesota who gets bored, has sex with her awkward best friend (Michael Cera), and then finds herself pregnant. (Oops!)

Not ready to deal with being a mother (and an adult), Juno decides to give the baby to a seemingly perfect couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) she finds in, of all places, the Pennysaver.

Alright, so maybe that summary does a disservice to the movie.

In actuality, Juno is one of those quirky little films that packs in a lot of laughs and a lot of heart, and announces the arrival of an original new voice and a great young actress (it’s sort of like this year’s Little Miss Sunshine). That’s the hype you’ll be hearing from now until the Oscars, but it’s actually true and well-deserved.

The writer is Diablo Cody (a former stripper making her screenwriting debut here), and she has crafted a screenplay that is so packed with laughs and strong characters that it reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite in that every other line is quotable and hysterical.

And Ellen Page (who was in, among other things, the third X-Men movie) plays Juno confidently, but as the character begins to learn more about herself and the people around her, she becomes more and more endearing. I’m sure we all can remember a person from high school who acted like and thought they had everything all figured out, but really was very unsure of him/herself. That’s Juno, and Page captures all of that uncertainty in a star-making performance.

Both women will be Oscar-nominated for sure.

Of course, there are other folks in this movie, and it’s worth noting that my girl, Jennifer Garner, also acquits herself quite well. She and Bateman (reteaming again after The Kingdom) are at first the perfect adoptive parents — so perfect they’re quite scary — but as with Juno, beneath the surface they are not what they seem.

Michael Cera is more awkward here than he was in Superbad — just check out those shorts — but he, too, is sweet and endearing. And Rainn Wilson (from The Office) makes a brief appearance early on and utters what will likely be the film’s most quoted line, “That’s one doodle that can’t be undid, homeskillet.”

I suppose it’d be wrong to overlook director Jason Reitman’s work here because a good screenplay is only half or a third of what makes a movie great. But Juno‘s screenplay is so good, so quotable, so original, so funny, so winning, so clever, and so dominant here that it’s impossible to really notice anything else. It’s that tandem of great words and a perfectly-cast actress that makes Junoa real must-see.

I’m giving it an A–.

Not a Strong Stinger

1 Dec

Finally got around to seeing Bee Movie today. Not much to say about it, other than that it’s a very cute, very colorful, but otherwise pretty average animated flick. It’s certainly no Pixar film. Still, it tries hard to be likable and the animation is good. I say if you haven’t already, then take the kids. Otherwise, no big deal. I’m giving this one a bee-minus — ahem, a B–.

Swing and a Miss

28 Nov

It’s hard to believe it’s been only one month since the Red Sox won the World Series. In some ways it feels like much longer, and in others it’s like only yesterday. So of course, in an effort to hold on to those good ole days, I made sure to go right out and pick up my copy of the World Series Highlights DVD on Tuesday (on sale for just $11.88 at Newbury Comics), and I watched it soon after I got home.

The film starts out with a great montage of Sox clips, showing the boys having fun — all while the Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” plays, of course. It’s an opening that makes you smile and sets the scene for what should be an equally great film. If only the rest was as good. While the 2004 Highlights DVD was a fantastic recap of the year — from Spring Training on — told entirely from the Sox perspective, this one is exactly as marketed: a recap of the World Series, and it’s told from both sides. It takes just 10 minutes to get through the entire Red Sox season, from Opening Day to the end of the ALCS, and in moving so quickly, there’s very little flavor and very little of what was so memorable about the season. There’s no mention at all of Clay Buchholz or his no-hitter, nothing about Schilling’s one-hitter, no recap of the hype that greeted Dice-K, very little about the back-to-back-to-back-to-back homer game against the Yankees, nothing about the Mother’s Day Miracle, no Ellsbury, no Wakefield … nothing. And then there’s an equally quick summary of the Rockies’ road to the Series. And then we’re at Game One, after only 24 minutes. (In the 2004 film, it took a half hour just to recap the Sox season, with almost nothing on St. Louis.)

Major League Baseball would have you believe that this was a closer series than it was, because it’s presented as such. Never mind that the Sox swept the Rockies and won comfortably in two of the four games. It’s all very businesslike and by-the-book. While there are talking head interviews and soundbites from Pap and Mikey Lowell and Jacoby Ellsbury and Curt Schilling and Theo and others, they’re all pretty staid and without character, simply recapping the games and not sharing much emotion or personality. Sure, this season didn’t have the same drama that 2004 did, but it was definitely more exciting than this. Even Matt Damon, who narrates the film, seems bored by the whole thing. Clearly, MLB Productions, in an effort to make the film appealing to Rockies fans, neutered a lot of the pro-Sox slant and tried to make this as fair a film as possible. Rockies players and personnel are as plentiful as Sox folks. And in making it all so balanced, they’ve produced an ultimately disappointing one-hour-and-10-minute highlights reel that, for a Sox fan, doesn’t really recapture the glory of being World Series Champions. What a bummer.

Perhaps the best parts of the DVD are the extra features, including my favorite one, a recap of the night the Sox won the AL East. You get the last two outs at Fenway courtesy of NESN, then the last out in Baltimore (plus Millar’s strikeout) from the actual broadcast in Baltimore, and a bit of Papelbon et al dancing on the field. I wish there was more of that kind of stuff, the dancing and all, on the actual film. After all, this DVD should be a celebration of and a tribute to the World Series Champs, right? But it’s good to have at least some of the coverage in the bonus section. And I’ll always have my memories of the actual games, and the actual season. Those are things this DVD could never document as well anyway.

Like a Complete Unknown

26 Nov

“I’m just a songwriter,” one of the six — count ’em, six — Bob Dylan stand-ins says during I’m Not There. Well, forgive me for calling this character a liar, but as the film makes clear, Bob Dylan isn’t just anything. Todd Haynes’ portrait of the man born Robert Zimmerman paints him as a poet, an actor, a troubador, a misunderstood genius, an ahead-of-his-time songwriter, a lost man, etc.

Bob Dylan is many things to many people, and to say that I’m Not There doesn’t give a definitive answer about the man isn’t to say it misses the boat. Rather, in celebrating many aspects of Dylan, it reaches near-great status. Continue reading →

A Swell Evening

22 Nov

Longtime readers of this blog know how much I loved the movie Once when I saw it this past summer.

So when my friend Nina tipped me off that the film’s stars, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, were coming to Boston to do a concert to promote their album, The Swell Season, I didn’t hesitate to get tickets.

And I’m happy to report that while the concert on Wednesday night didn’t recreate the same sense of euphoria that the movie did, it was still a damn good night of music that only makes me love the movie more. Continue reading →

Flame On!

21 Nov

One thing people may not realize is that I know, at least generally, who is reading my blog. So to the two 14-year-old girls in Shrewsbury, PA, who this morning read through my movie reviews and felt the need to, ahem, “burn me bad” by posting anonymous comments after five of the reviews, I say right back at you: Oh, you think you’re so tough, do you? Next time you want to start a flame war with me, try to do it without such bad grammar and so many spelling mistakes. Yeah, that’s right. I’m busting your chops now. (And yes, it’s all in good fun, if I really need to say that.) But if you girls want to comment on anything you read here — and I do encourage you to comment — try being man (or woman) enough to sign your actual name next time instead of doing it anonymously. Then I’ll be impressed.

For everyone else, want to see their comments? They’re hysterical. Here are links to the reviews:
Across the Universe

Because I Said So

Snakes on a Plane

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Brokeback Mountain (my second review)

Candy Corn

19 Nov

You’ve been warned: Disney’s new movie Enchanted is just about the sugariest, sweetest movie I’ve ever seen. It’s strictly for those with a high tolerance for corn. The film begins in the most cliched Disney animated film ever, where Giselle (Amy Adams), friend to nearly every animal in the forest, is waiting for her true love’s kiss. Along rides Prince Edward (James Marsden), whose stepmother is the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), and the two instantly fall in love. Narissa hates Giselle, of course, and before Giselle and Edward can be married, Narissa throws Giselle down a well, where she lands in … Times Square, in non-animated reality. There she meets Rob (Patrick Dempsey), a divorce lawyer, and wouldn’t you know it, Giselle melts his cold, cynical heart. It’s all just so romantic and bright and cheery and colorful and happy. And New York (especially Central Park) has never looked better.

Not that this is actually a great movie (I figured now was a good time to say that). Dempsey gives a rather wooden performance, and even though this is a fairy tale, the story is a little too contrived and the scene at the King and Queen Ball (yes, really) is a little too hokey. But it’s just damned near impossible not to smile whenever Adams is on the screen. She and Marsden both give such enthusiastic performances that you can’t help but have fun watching the film. Also cool is seeing Idina Menzel in something other than Rent or Wicked (even though hers is a pretty thankless role). But yeah, don’t go see this movie unless you’re a sucker for Disney — or you’re a seven-year-old girl with a princess fetish. I’m giving Enchanted a B–.

Take the Money and Run

17 Nov

In the Coen brothers’ new film, No Country for Old Men, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes across a drug deal gone bad and takes a bag with $2 million from the scene.

Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), one of the baddest bad guys I’ve ever seen, is hired by some businessmen to track down the money.

And no matter where Moss goes, Chigurh finds him. That bad guy, he’s good.

And so is the film itself.

Also featuring a top-notch performance by Tommy Lee Jones — as Ed Tom Bell, the sheriff on Chigurh’s trail — No Country is one of the best movies of the year. Continue reading →

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