Martin's Musings

Not much really needs to be said about Live Free or Die Hard.

It’s the worst of the four Die Hard movies, and actually, it doesn’t really feel like a Die Hard movie at all.

Rather, it’s like there was a buddy action script out there that Bruce Willis was attached to, and they made it into a Die Hard movie. Continue reading →

Like the woman at its center, A Mighty Heart has a real quiet dignity. Which is not to say it’s a quiet movie, but it’s not a big, showy one, and it’s not exactly the kind of movie you enjoy — which makes it perfect counter-programming in a season of blockbusters — but the way it deals with its subject matter with grace and humanity only helps its cause.

Basically, A Mighty Heart tells the story of the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl from the perspective of his wife, Mariane. It’s been filmed with handheld cameras in a documentary, you-are-there fashion, which gives it a real sense of immediacy and realism. There isn’t a score playing underneath the action to tell you how to feel, and there aren’t grand speeches about the horrible people who have done this to Pearl. There’s not even a re-enactment of what happened to Pearl when or while he was kidnapped. There’s just a group of Americans and Pakistanis working together and taking action to save him before it’s too late.

Of course, we all know what happened to Daniel Pearl, which makes the film somewhat frustrating. I would have thought that maybe half or two-thirds of A Mighty Heart would have been spent on the kidnapping and the rest would have been spent on Mariane’s struggle afterward, and how she handled it. Instead, we generally see her sitting around a table, trying to hold herself together and stay positive, trying to save face in what is certainly a devastating situation, gazing at pictures of Pearl that have been sent from the kidnappers as if they were wedding pictures, and basically waiting for her husband to come home. Which, sure, demonstrates her grace under fire. But it doesn’t adequately convey how she dealt with her husband’s brutal death in a heroic and positive way, thus giving relevance to the film’s title, and I wish more time had been spent on that.

That all said, I think A Mighty Heart is certainly worth seeing. As a document of how these people tried to save Pearl, for all their varied reasons, it is very good. And Angelina Jolie definitely gives an effective performance; race issues aside, given Jolie’s very public efforts to better the world, the role of Mariane Pearl seems to fit her like a glove. Thankfully, she doesn’t make the movie about her (ie: Angelina) and lets Mariane’s quiet actions speak for themselves.

Mariane might be pregnant in this movie, but A Mighty Heart is no Knocked Up. If you can deal with that, and you have a tissue handy, then you’ll likely find A Mighty Heart worthwhile. I’m giving it a B+.

It’s the most expensive comedy ever made, but Evan Almighty is certainly not the most hilarious one. Steve Carrell stars as Evan Baxter, last seen as a befuddled news anchor in Buffalo, N.Y. In the time between Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty, Evan’s gone and grown a spine, gotten married, and had two kids. And now he’s won a seat in Congress, so he packs up the family and moves to the D.C. suburbs, where he’s a pawn in a hungry Congressman’s bad-for-the-environment plan and a delinquent dad. Enter God (Morgan Freeman, still the best possible casting for the role), who tells Evan to build an ark because there’s going to be a flood. He even gives him tools and wood, courtesy of 1-800-GO-4-WOOD. Soon, pairs of animals appear and Evan finds shaving is futile. Yadda yadda yadda. Evan is a total high-concept comedy, and appropriately, there are plenty of sight gags about animals helping to build the ark, about Evan’s basic Biblical wardrobe, and generally anything sight-gag-able. And some of it is goofy and silly, in a good way. It’s pretty funny watching the ark sail down the Mall in Washington, D.C., for example. And some of the movie is expectedly cute. But to its credit, there’s not a groan or a cringe to be had. Carrell and the cast try their hardest to wring some kind of quality from the material, and they don’t embarrass themselves. And just in case, there’s also Jonah Hill (from Knocked Up), who provides some laughs, and Wanda Sykes, who is always there with an easy one-liner. But if you want real Noah’s Ark–related humor, you’re better off listening to Bill Cosby’s classic skit. Evan Almighty is no miracle, but it’s hardly the disaster it could have been. It’s going to play really well on cable. So I’m giving Evan Almighty a B–.

Bonjour! There’s an old movie (and TV show) called The Naked City, and the famous line from it is, “There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them.” I suppose you could paraphrase that for the film Paris Je T’aime: There are eight million stories in the City of Lights; these are a dozen and a half of them. That’s basically the gist of the movie. Eighteen directors from around the world each contribute a 5–10-minute short film about love in Paris. Some are about young love, others about older couples, one is about a couple of mimes, another is about vampires, and one is about a woman who learns to love herself. None of them are related, except by theme. And it’s a pretty nice mix of films. I didn’t enjoy them all — the mime one is pretty lame — but I thought a few — including Gus Van Sant’s one about a French guy hitting on an American who doesn’t understand the language, the Coen brothers’ one about Steve Buscemi’s run-in with a couple in the Metro, and Alexander Payne’s one about a Denver woman’s vacation — were real good. Each short film takes place in a different neighborhood, and overall, Paris Je T’aime makes for an attractive promotional film about the city. The movie isn’t mind-blowing or anything, but it’s a pleasant escape. So, if you’re looking for something a little offbeat and different, or if you have no travel plans and just want to get away, Paris Je T’aime is the movie for you. I’m giving it a B+.

If you, like me, thought a movie about singing, dancing penguins was a wacky idea, then you ain’t seen nothing yet. Surf’s Up is a movie about, yes, surfing penguins, and in concept alone it scores big points. I mean, have you seen the trailer? It rocks. So you pretty much know going in that Surf’s Up is not your average animated flick. For one thing, it’s “shot” like a documentary, and features interviews with the cast, grainy “archival” footage, and other hallmarks of the genre. And that all is done so well that you forget there was a team of animators who had to create it all from scratch. And then there are the colors and the surfing “photography,” both of which are really fun and cool and make you want to walk out of the theater, put on a wet suit, hop on a board, and ride a wave. (I’ve done it. It’s cool. Trust me.) So yeah, Surf’s Up is a totally fun movie.

But let’s not kid ourselves, and that is a pun, folks. Surf’s Up is also a very, very kid-friendly movie. The crowd I saw it with was about 50% kids (or at least it felt and sounded that way), and they loved it. They were laughing at the cute baby penguins, and the physical humor, and the silly Chicken Joe character. Which is not a bad thing, of course. It’s just that I wouldn’t say the film was as sophisticated as, say, Ratatouille looks or even Happy Feet was. Sure, the surfing stuff is wicked cool, and the documentary look is really well done, but I wouldn’t put Surf’s Up in any upper pantheon of animated films. And that’s why I’m only giving it a B — a solid B, but a B just the same.