Ruby Sparks - DVD Review

Starring Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Chris Messina, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Elliott Gould, Aasif Mandvi, Steve Coogan and Alia Shawkat.
Directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris.

★★½

Zoe Kazan wrote the screenplay and stars as Ruby Sparks, a figment of her author's imagination.  Kazan did great on both counts, in performing the difficult role, and in writing the movie that takes some unexpected turns.

She co-stars with her real-life boyfriend Paul Dano (Cowboys & Aliens), who is my main problem with this movie. Dano's theaterical acting style is way too mannered and indulgent for my taste. I wanted him to stop "acting" and just be the character. Be more natural in this low-budget setting.

So, recast the leading man, and this would have been a great little movie.

The Skin I Live In - DVD Review

Starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet and Roberto Alamo.  Directed by Pedro Almodovar.

★½

Well, that certainly was one of the most demented films I've ever seen.

Antonio Banderas, who always comes across as a better actor when speaking in his native tongue, plays Robert Ledgard, a plastic surgeon who's working on improving human skin. He has a prisoner at his house on whom he conducts his experiments, a woman who spends her time doing yoga and seems to be okay with her confinement.

The movie then jumps back in time to give the backstory for these people and show what's led them to this state, and it's one of the most ridiculous, twisted stories of the year. It's melodramatic horror or dark comedy or both at the same time. Dr. Ledgard is something of a Dr. Frankenstein.

The movie has plenty of squirm-inducing scenes and felt exploitative. There may be brave souls out there willing to put themselves through this "for art's sake," but I regret having ever seen it.

Haywire - DVD Review

Starring Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum, Bill Paxton, Antonio Banderas, Matthieu Kassovitz and Michael Angarano.  Directed by Steven Soderbergh.

★★½

The boast of this fairly standard thriller is that the fights scenes are more realistic. Gina Carano is an MMA fighter, and therefore her fights are a little more belieavable than those from DOA: Dead or Alive. Even then, though, there were a couple times where the sped-up editing felt like there'd been some CGI tweeks to what I was watching.

But they are good fights. They're fast, they're brutal, they have a more realistic choreography to them than what we're accustomed to from Hollywood.

Now I need to back up. The plot bears more than a passing resemblence to the Bourne series, though it is a little murky, in that Carano's an agent who's very good at her job, so why her government chose her to be the fall guy for an assignment gone wrong doesn't make sense. But hey, at least she gets to go on the run and beat up guys like Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum.

The movie has its slow spots, and it's clear that some of the big name stars (Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas) only had a day or two of filming for their scenes.

Is Carano the next female action star? Meh. She needs to work on her on-screen charisma, but I'm willing to follow her, see if she improves from here.

Puss in Boots - Movie Review

lll

Starring the voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zack Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris.  Directed by Chris Miller.

Shrek is nowhere in sight, and the movie is better off for it. I don't know if it's a sequel or a prequel, but it's nice to see Puss, the best thing about the Shrek sequels, get his own movie.

Antonio Banderas owns the movie as this feline Zorro. He's always staying one step ahead of the law, but he's reunited with his former friend Humpty Dumpty (Zack Galifianakis). Theres was a bitter falling-out, but with the aid of gato burglar Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), they aim for the big score: the magic beans that will grow the beanstalk to the Giant's castle in the sky.

The movie plays with pop culture and fairy-tale expectations as them Shrek movies do, but it's not near as intrusive about it. The soundtrack features stirring southern guitar strings, rather than radio's biggest hits from five years ago. I would take Puss 2 over Shrek 5 any day.