Martin's Musings

I’m happy to say I liked Walk the Line. I mean, really liked it. Really liked it, as in ran right out to buy the CD At Folsom Prison at the Virgin Megastore when the film was over (and it was on sale — bonus!). But … Continue reading →

Instead of seeing a new movie this weekend (because really, considering I’ve seen 11 movies in the past month, I needed a break), I decided to watch my new DVD of Titanic on Saturday. (And thank you, Rebecca, for sending it to me.) Now, I’m not the world’s biggest Titanic fan, but I did see it twice in the theater back in 1997-98 and had decent memories of its quality. How times change. I’m not sure if it was watching the movie on my 27-inch television or if my taste in movies has changed that drastically, but man was this movie not all that good. (I know. Big shock.) Sure, the effects were (mostly) cool and all, but, um, who was Leonardo DiCaprio kidding when he got all insulted about not being nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor? Talk about an overrated, self-inflated actor. And Kate Winslet was only mildly better. I sat there on my couch trying to figure out why this movie was so popular and for so long. In addition to its big effects, it pandered to the audience, and had lame dialogue and stiff acting — I guess you could say it wasn’t all that different from films like The Day After Tomorrow, except that movie I know I liked. And where was the trailer? Of all the DVD extras to leave off, and there are plenty on the disc, that was one of the most puzzling.

Maybe your heart will go on, but mine remains stone cold — at least as far as this movie is concerned.

[Bonus trivia question: Titanic was the number one movie at the box office for 15 consecutive weeks. What movie dethroned it? Your only hint is that it was released on April 3, 1998.]

Could Chicken Little have been any worse, you may have asked yourself after reading my review last week? Well, check out this story from Sunday’s New York Daily News and make your own decision: Continue reading →

Chicken Little is a cute movie. I don’t necessarily say that as a good thing, but it’s not really a bad thing either. It’s colorful, generally fast-moving, and fun.

Strangely, though, it’s not entirely kid-friendly; many of the jokes went over the heads of the many, many, many kids in the auditorium when I saw it last night. (And don’t get me started about THAT!)

And it’s sort of two movies in one, including a very long, what I can only call homage to Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. So, if forced to give a grade, I’d give Chicken Little a B. It’s not bad, it’s not great. It’s just fine. Continue reading →

God bless Robert Downey, Jr. The guy has such a style about him, and he’s so good in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Without belaboring the point, I’ll just say this is a terrifically funny movie. I just wish I could remember more than a couple lines of dialogue. You see, Downey says all his lines in such a matter-of-fact, rapid-fire style that it’s all good and you’re laughing too hard to remember much of what’s been said. And fuck if I know what the movie’s actually about (the plot lost me about a quarter of the way in), but it’s just so much fun that you don’t care. I suppose the self-referential thing does get a little bit old — Downey’s narrator makes reference to the audiences in Times Square that are prone to talking back to the screen and to the multiple endings of the third Lord of the Rings film, among other topics — but whatever. There’s so much else to laugh at that this is just a minor quibble. In the end, I can’t quite decide what to rate this one, so I’m going to go with a B+/A-.

It takes someone who knows the New York Jewish culture to make a movie like Prime.

Which is to say that it is a really authentic-feeling, -looking and -sounding movie.

It starts with Meryl Streep, whose performance as a New York Jewish therapist is completely dead-on and perfect (surprise, surprise).

And the writing, by director Ben Younger (who also made Boiler Room, that loud and obnoxious stock trading movie a few years back), is filled not just with the expected gefilte fish and Manischewitz jokes, but with things like a Jewish mother putting red wine in the fridge, overly obsessive Jewish mother-isms like not giving your kids Q-Tips for fear of them being unsafe, the Bubbie — and small, subtle details like a mezuzah on the doorframe. Continue reading →

Welcome to the (doesn’t) suck.

Jarhead (in theaters November 4) is one of the best films I’ve seen all year. It starts out with a really tough first five minutes — you try not to cringe when Jake Gyllenhaal’s head is slammed against a blackboard — and then Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” starts playing, and it only gets better from there.

Here’s an easily digestible list of what I liked most about the film: Continue reading →

From its first frame, Shopgirl announces itself as sort of an elegant, high-minded — but pompous — filmed version of one of Steve Martin’s literary works. In fact, it’s one of the oddest films I’ve seen all year, and not the film I expected it to be based on the tv and print ads I’ve seen. Martin himself plays a character who isn’t as compelling as he’s supposed to be, and Jason Schwartzman (so good in Rushmore, but not as good in much else since) brings the film to life — then disappears for most of it. (Huh?) And Claire Danes is so plain looking — and acting — that you can’t quite understand why Martin’s character would find her so appealing. Still, Schwartzman’s performance is fun, and the film does have high aspirations that I’ll assume just went over my head. And Martin, who also wrote the screenplay, has included some pretty great lines of dialogue that come up unexpectedly, such as one that Danes says close to the end of the film that I can’t quote here for fear of ruining it for folks who haven’t seen the film yet. So in summary, I’ll give Shopgirl the benefit of the doubt and rate it a B–.