BANGKOK DANGEROUS (*1/2) - Starring Nicolas Cage and Chakrit Yamnarm.
Directed by the Pang Brothers.
This generic fading-hitman movie wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it is in no way, shape or form good. It has flashes of originality, hints of potential, but Nicolas Cage is a glum, burned out assassin who isn't that interesting to follow.
Other countries learning about the US from its movies must think we have as many hitmen as we do accountants. Here, Cage plays Joe, a guy with bad hair who knows he doesn't have too many more kills in him. He goes to Bangkok, where he knows he has four marks. These will be his last four.
While staying in the city, he finds a young man to train in his killer ways, and a deaf girl to fall for.
More often than not, it reminded me of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, and that can't be a good thing, with the poor lighting and the uninspired fight sequences.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
My Top Ten Movies for 2008
I've seen 151 titles now in theaters and on DVD with copyright 2008. I'm sure my top ten will shift around and change over the next few weeks. I still haven't seen Oscar bait movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, The Wrestler, Revolutionary Road, Rachel Getting Married, Gran Torino, etc., but of what I've seen, these were the best.
Honorable Mentions:
Comedy - They didn't make my top ten, but I laughed a lot during FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, GET SMART, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, and TROPIC THUNDER, all for different reasons.
Animation - BOLT & KUNG FU PANDA are tied for me for second best animated movie of the year. If you have kids, rent them both and watch it with them. HORTON HEARS A WHO and THE TALE OF DESPERAUX were also good.
Documentaries - MAN ON WIRE was true to an artist's vision, about a little Frenchman who did something no one had ever done or ever will again. WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? was like The War on Terror for Dummies, entertaining in its own right thanks to Super-Size Me's Morgan Spurlock as our host through the third world.
I also liked Baby Mama, The Band's Visit, Burn After Reading, Encounters at the End of the World, Hancock, Snow Angels, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Transsiberian, Valkyrie, The Visitor, and Wanted.
Eleventh Place: APPALOOSA - This movie would have made my top ten if it weren't for Renee Zellweger. But Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen form the best cowboy partnership since, well, Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner in Open Range, and Harris's direction makes this Western relevant for today's times.
And now...
... My Top Ten Movies for 2008.
10. CHANGELING - Clint Eastwood directed this period piece with the same care he gives everything else, and he's a must-see artist. This true story takes some disturbing turns, starring Angelina Jolie as a woman whose son is kidnapped, and when the police return the wrong boy to her, they have her committed rather than trying to find her real son.
9. THE COUNTERFEITERS - It won Best Foreign Film in 2007, but it didn't actually hit US theaters until 2008. And it's a really good movie. I'm not sure why well-made Holocaust movies never get old. This one explores a little weasel who gets caught by the Germans, but they keep him alive to use his counterfeiting skills to flood the markets of their enemies with fake money, thus to hurt their economies and weaken them in the war. We see every emotion on his sweaty face as he struggles with where his line might be between staying alive and helping an evil regime win the war.
8. IN BRUGES - Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson shine in this buddy crime-comedy as two hitman hiding out in Bruges, mocking tourists and waiting for their fate, and Ralph Fiennes gives a scary-funny performance as their unhappy boss who eventually shows up.
7. MILK - Sean Penn gives what may be his best performance of his already prolific career as the first openly gay man elected to major public office, and the flourishes Gus Van Sant adds may be his most focussed directing job yet.
6. AMERICAN TEEN - I can't think of a better teen movie from the past few years. This documentary follows four teens from different walks of life in the same school, where we see their hopes and dreams and pressures and pitfalls, and I was rooting for each one to just come out of graduation a good person.
5. IRON MAN - He's always been one of the lesser Marvel heroes to me. He's there, sure, but he's behind the likes of Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, Daredevil, and Thor. So nice to see him made relevant and contemporary. Robert Downey Jr. makes a wonderful comeback as ethically-challenged Tony Stark, who has a change of heart (heh) when he gets an eye-witness account of what his weapons have done to the world.
4. BIGGER STRONGER FASTER - The best documentary I saw last year. Chris Bell makes a movie about his own family, as his two brothers are on steroids, and he expands it to what steroids really mean to America. He explores the hypocrisy and grandstanding of different leaders and asks a lot of thought-provoking questions about winning at all costs. On a side note, Chris's older brother Mike died just a few weeks ago, adding some pathos to his sad subplot of a muscle-clad wannabe struggling in obscurity.
3. THE BANK JOB - The most genuinely exciting heist movie in years. Jason Statham leads a gang of regular guys in 1971 to a bank robbery that winds up being more dangerous than they'd anticipated. That it's based on a true story gives it a real kick.
2. WALL-E - A lyrical, contemplative tale about true love amongst artificial intelligence, as well as a satire of our consuming society, this movie scores best by creating a junky little robot with a heart. The subtle physical humor is great, and it's just another example of how story is everything and how Pixar can do no wrong.
1. THE DARK KNIGHT - I saw it in theaters and again on DVD. This movie deserved to come thisclose to beating Titanic for all-time box-office grosser. It took the story of Batman vs. Joker and raised it to the level of crime drama reminiscent of Heat or The Untouchables, and the trajectory of Harvey Dent was darn near Greek tragedy. It had parallels to the war on terror with no easy questions or answers. And while the cast was uniformly good, Heath Ledger stood above them all, in the performance of his career. It's not just sad that we won't see Joker in Batman 3; it's sad that save for his footage in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, we won't see Heath surprise us again in anything else ever.
Honorable Mentions:
Comedy - They didn't make my top ten, but I laughed a lot during FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, GET SMART, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, and TROPIC THUNDER, all for different reasons.
Animation - BOLT & KUNG FU PANDA are tied for me for second best animated movie of the year. If you have kids, rent them both and watch it with them. HORTON HEARS A WHO and THE TALE OF DESPERAUX were also good.
Documentaries - MAN ON WIRE was true to an artist's vision, about a little Frenchman who did something no one had ever done or ever will again. WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? was like The War on Terror for Dummies, entertaining in its own right thanks to Super-Size Me's Morgan Spurlock as our host through the third world.
I also liked Baby Mama, The Band's Visit, Burn After Reading, Encounters at the End of the World, Hancock, Snow Angels, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Transsiberian, Valkyrie, The Visitor, and Wanted.
Eleventh Place: APPALOOSA - This movie would have made my top ten if it weren't for Renee Zellweger. But Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen form the best cowboy partnership since, well, Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner in Open Range, and Harris's direction makes this Western relevant for today's times.
And now...
... My Top Ten Movies for 2008.
10. CHANGELING - Clint Eastwood directed this period piece with the same care he gives everything else, and he's a must-see artist. This true story takes some disturbing turns, starring Angelina Jolie as a woman whose son is kidnapped, and when the police return the wrong boy to her, they have her committed rather than trying to find her real son.
9. THE COUNTERFEITERS - It won Best Foreign Film in 2007, but it didn't actually hit US theaters until 2008. And it's a really good movie. I'm not sure why well-made Holocaust movies never get old. This one explores a little weasel who gets caught by the Germans, but they keep him alive to use his counterfeiting skills to flood the markets of their enemies with fake money, thus to hurt their economies and weaken them in the war. We see every emotion on his sweaty face as he struggles with where his line might be between staying alive and helping an evil regime win the war.
8. IN BRUGES - Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson shine in this buddy crime-comedy as two hitman hiding out in Bruges, mocking tourists and waiting for their fate, and Ralph Fiennes gives a scary-funny performance as their unhappy boss who eventually shows up.
7. MILK - Sean Penn gives what may be his best performance of his already prolific career as the first openly gay man elected to major public office, and the flourishes Gus Van Sant adds may be his most focussed directing job yet.
6. AMERICAN TEEN - I can't think of a better teen movie from the past few years. This documentary follows four teens from different walks of life in the same school, where we see their hopes and dreams and pressures and pitfalls, and I was rooting for each one to just come out of graduation a good person.
5. IRON MAN - He's always been one of the lesser Marvel heroes to me. He's there, sure, but he's behind the likes of Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, Daredevil, and Thor. So nice to see him made relevant and contemporary. Robert Downey Jr. makes a wonderful comeback as ethically-challenged Tony Stark, who has a change of heart (heh) when he gets an eye-witness account of what his weapons have done to the world.
4. BIGGER STRONGER FASTER - The best documentary I saw last year. Chris Bell makes a movie about his own family, as his two brothers are on steroids, and he expands it to what steroids really mean to America. He explores the hypocrisy and grandstanding of different leaders and asks a lot of thought-provoking questions about winning at all costs. On a side note, Chris's older brother Mike died just a few weeks ago, adding some pathos to his sad subplot of a muscle-clad wannabe struggling in obscurity.
3. THE BANK JOB - The most genuinely exciting heist movie in years. Jason Statham leads a gang of regular guys in 1971 to a bank robbery that winds up being more dangerous than they'd anticipated. That it's based on a true story gives it a real kick.
2. WALL-E - A lyrical, contemplative tale about true love amongst artificial intelligence, as well as a satire of our consuming society, this movie scores best by creating a junky little robot with a heart. The subtle physical humor is great, and it's just another example of how story is everything and how Pixar can do no wrong.
1. THE DARK KNIGHT - I saw it in theaters and again on DVD. This movie deserved to come thisclose to beating Titanic for all-time box-office grosser. It took the story of Batman vs. Joker and raised it to the level of crime drama reminiscent of Heat or The Untouchables, and the trajectory of Harvey Dent was darn near Greek tragedy. It had parallels to the war on terror with no easy questions or answers. And while the cast was uniformly good, Heath Ledger stood above them all, in the performance of his career. It's not just sad that we won't see Joker in Batman 3; it's sad that save for his footage in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, we won't see Heath surprise us again in anything else ever.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Milk - Movie Review
MILK (***3/4) - Starring Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Alison Pill, Victor Garber and Denis O'Hare.
Directed by Gus Van Sant.
Sean Penn... just when I thought this actor couldn't get any more self-serious, along comes a movie where he completely reinvents himself. It helps that he had a real-life person he could study and mimic but he goes deeper, which is good, because the script leaves him somewhat enigmatic/saintlike, but Penn is able to make Harvey Milk a full-blooded human being.
Gus Van Sant, whose style can be frustrating for me, uses what he's figured out from his last four cinematical experiments to create a skillful, conventional biopic that wisely focusses on just the last few years of Harvey's life. We don't need to see him as a child; we don't need to see him closeted in his twenties. We meet him the night before his 40th birthday, when he hooks up with Scott Smith (James Franco), and the two go west to San Francisco, to live life in the open.
Frustrated with the police brutality he sees, Harvey decides to run for public office. He fails, and fails, and fails again, putting a strain on his relationship with Scott. After a fortuitous redistricting, Harvey's able to win, and he is elected the same time as Dan White (Josh Brolin), a man who ran on ridding the city of "social degenerates" but says he meant druggies, now that he has to work with the openly gay Harvey Milk.
I thought the movie was pretty fair to Dan White. We see his aggravation build as Harvey keeps breaking his promises to him, that suppressed rage pushed further down, ready to explode if Dan gets pushed too far, and Brolin does a really good job here. The real villain of the movie is Anita Bryant, and like Good Night and Good Luck with Joe McCarthy, the movie only uses real footage of her, as she campaigns against these homosexuals who want to destroy America, supporting laws in states that would ban gays from teaching in public schools, and making it legal to fire someone from any job over their sexual orientation.
But the star of the show is Penn, and if he didn't already have an Oscar for Mystic River, he'd be the absolute front-runner for Best Actor here. His mannerisms, his giddyness, his friendliness, all of this is representative of how different it is from the usual Penn. When Harvey's giving political speeches, I thought about the same speeches Penn gave in the All the King's Men remake. Completely different.
It makes me want to see Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler that much more to see what his competition is.
Directed by Gus Van Sant.
Sean Penn... just when I thought this actor couldn't get any more self-serious, along comes a movie where he completely reinvents himself. It helps that he had a real-life person he could study and mimic but he goes deeper, which is good, because the script leaves him somewhat enigmatic/saintlike, but Penn is able to make Harvey Milk a full-blooded human being.
Gus Van Sant, whose style can be frustrating for me, uses what he's figured out from his last four cinematical experiments to create a skillful, conventional biopic that wisely focusses on just the last few years of Harvey's life. We don't need to see him as a child; we don't need to see him closeted in his twenties. We meet him the night before his 40th birthday, when he hooks up with Scott Smith (James Franco), and the two go west to San Francisco, to live life in the open.
Frustrated with the police brutality he sees, Harvey decides to run for public office. He fails, and fails, and fails again, putting a strain on his relationship with Scott. After a fortuitous redistricting, Harvey's able to win, and he is elected the same time as Dan White (Josh Brolin), a man who ran on ridding the city of "social degenerates" but says he meant druggies, now that he has to work with the openly gay Harvey Milk.
I thought the movie was pretty fair to Dan White. We see his aggravation build as Harvey keeps breaking his promises to him, that suppressed rage pushed further down, ready to explode if Dan gets pushed too far, and Brolin does a really good job here. The real villain of the movie is Anita Bryant, and like Good Night and Good Luck with Joe McCarthy, the movie only uses real footage of her, as she campaigns against these homosexuals who want to destroy America, supporting laws in states that would ban gays from teaching in public schools, and making it legal to fire someone from any job over their sexual orientation.
But the star of the show is Penn, and if he didn't already have an Oscar for Mystic River, he'd be the absolute front-runner for Best Actor here. His mannerisms, his giddyness, his friendliness, all of this is representative of how different it is from the usual Penn. When Harvey's giving political speeches, I thought about the same speeches Penn gave in the All the King's Men remake. Completely different.
It makes me want to see Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler that much more to see what his competition is.
An American Carol - DVD Review
AN AMERICAN CAROL (**) - Starring Kevin Farley, Kelsey Grammer, Trace Adkins, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Davi, Geoffrey Arend, Gail O'Grady, Chriss Anglin, Dennis Hopper, James Woods, Jon Voight, David Alan Grier, Kevin Sorbo and Bill O'Reilly.
Directed by David Zucker.
Well, it's interesting to see a wacky comedy from a conservative perspective, but rule number one in comedy is that you have to be funny, and I can't say it earned any more than half-smiles from me.
David Zucker's made some good comedies in the past, and his level of parody is still better than most of the other wannabe-spoofers out there, but yeah, this one misses the mark as it tries to preach in between sight gags.
Kevin Farley, brother of Chris, plays Michael Malone, a documentarian who looks an awful lot like Michael Moore. Malone is the proud maker of films like Die You American Pig and his next movie is going to be about abolishing the 4th of July. Following the old Scrooge format, Malone is visited by three ghosts to show him the errors of his anti-American ways. There's JFK in the Marley role, Gen. Patton in the Christmas Past role, George Washington as Present, and Trace Adkins as Future.
Everyone in the movie seems to hate Michael Malone. There's a bombardment of jokes about his weight, his body odor, his bad breath, and his intelligence, and he's constantly slapped by various people. I can see why Laura Ingraham found it funny, and why Bill O'Reilly shows up as himself (and gets in a slap of his own). Eventually though it just comes off as mean-spirited.
I also tried picturing a liberal comedy with the same story, say, if it was Rush Limbaugh being visited by three ghosts to convince him he was wrong to support the war in Iraq. I can't see that movie being any funnier or less mean-spirited, but I could see Al Franken finding it funny and Keith Olbermann showing up as himself.
Michael Moore's style is ripe for parody (I like the YouTube short of Moore covering the war in Lord of the Rings), and there are occasional good ideas in here mixed with some bad ones. But the bottom line is that it just wasn't that funny.
Directed by David Zucker.
Well, it's interesting to see a wacky comedy from a conservative perspective, but rule number one in comedy is that you have to be funny, and I can't say it earned any more than half-smiles from me.
David Zucker's made some good comedies in the past, and his level of parody is still better than most of the other wannabe-spoofers out there, but yeah, this one misses the mark as it tries to preach in between sight gags.
Kevin Farley, brother of Chris, plays Michael Malone, a documentarian who looks an awful lot like Michael Moore. Malone is the proud maker of films like Die You American Pig and his next movie is going to be about abolishing the 4th of July. Following the old Scrooge format, Malone is visited by three ghosts to show him the errors of his anti-American ways. There's JFK in the Marley role, Gen. Patton in the Christmas Past role, George Washington as Present, and Trace Adkins as Future.
Everyone in the movie seems to hate Michael Malone. There's a bombardment of jokes about his weight, his body odor, his bad breath, and his intelligence, and he's constantly slapped by various people. I can see why Laura Ingraham found it funny, and why Bill O'Reilly shows up as himself (and gets in a slap of his own). Eventually though it just comes off as mean-spirited.
I also tried picturing a liberal comedy with the same story, say, if it was Rush Limbaugh being visited by three ghosts to convince him he was wrong to support the war in Iraq. I can't see that movie being any funnier or less mean-spirited, but I could see Al Franken finding it funny and Keith Olbermann showing up as himself.
Michael Moore's style is ripe for parody (I like the YouTube short of Moore covering the war in Lord of the Rings), and there are occasional good ideas in here mixed with some bad ones. But the bottom line is that it just wasn't that funny.
The Reader - Movie Review
THE READER (***) - Starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Lena Olin and Bruno Ganz.
Directed by Stephen Daldry.
From the writer/director team who brought us The Hours, a movie that taught me that all women are secretly suicidal, bisexual manic-depressives. Now comes a movie that isn't any healthier with its characters, but it is more engrossing than I found that other movie to be.
We first meet Michael in 1995, embodied by Ralph Fiennes. We can tell from the sour, longing look on his face we're about to get a flashback, and so we do. We go back to 1958, when Michael was 15. He has an encounter with 34-year-old Hannah (Kate Winslet), a woman of strange abruptness who helps him clean the puke off his shoes when he gets sick in the rain. He goes back to her apartment to thank her later, one thing leads to another, and Michael loses his virginity.
Their summer romance goes on, with her insisting he read to her before they make love (including lots of gratuitous nudity). And then one day, she's gone.
We see the devastating impact she has on his life when years later, he sees her again, and he learns the truth of who she is.
I kept thinking to myself, "What if this were a story of a 34-year-old man deflowering a 15-year-old girl?" The movie is sympathetic to Hannah, even though she pretty much ruins Michael's chance at a normal life.
That said, there's a full-force campaign to get the multi-nominated Kate Winslet her first Academy Award in Supporting Actress, and I think this is the role that will do the trick. She shows all the torn emotions within Hannah, and there's never a false moment with her. David Kross is really good as young Michael, and Fiennes is his reliable self as the bookended older Michael. I also really liked Bruno Ganz as a college professor. There are things he does when he's just listening to young Michael that I loved, subtle things.
Directed by Stephen Daldry.
From the writer/director team who brought us The Hours, a movie that taught me that all women are secretly suicidal, bisexual manic-depressives. Now comes a movie that isn't any healthier with its characters, but it is more engrossing than I found that other movie to be.
We first meet Michael in 1995, embodied by Ralph Fiennes. We can tell from the sour, longing look on his face we're about to get a flashback, and so we do. We go back to 1958, when Michael was 15. He has an encounter with 34-year-old Hannah (Kate Winslet), a woman of strange abruptness who helps him clean the puke off his shoes when he gets sick in the rain. He goes back to her apartment to thank her later, one thing leads to another, and Michael loses his virginity.
Their summer romance goes on, with her insisting he read to her before they make love (including lots of gratuitous nudity). And then one day, she's gone.
We see the devastating impact she has on his life when years later, he sees her again, and he learns the truth of who she is.
I kept thinking to myself, "What if this were a story of a 34-year-old man deflowering a 15-year-old girl?" The movie is sympathetic to Hannah, even though she pretty much ruins Michael's chance at a normal life.
That said, there's a full-force campaign to get the multi-nominated Kate Winslet her first Academy Award in Supporting Actress, and I think this is the role that will do the trick. She shows all the torn emotions within Hannah, and there's never a false moment with her. David Kross is really good as young Michael, and Fiennes is his reliable self as the bookended older Michael. I also really liked Bruno Ganz as a college professor. There are things he does when he's just listening to young Michael that I loved, subtle things.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Traitor - DVD Review
TRAITOR (**1/2) - Starring Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Said Taghmaoui, Jeff Daniels, Neal McDonough, Alvy Khan and Archie Panjabi.
Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff.
If you missed the first season of Showtime's Sleeper Cell, this is pretty much that show encapsulated into one movie, albeit with some casting upgrades. Don Cheadle is an ex-Special Forces guy named Samir, who is either deep, deep undercover, or now a traitor to the Unites States, and we're halfway through the movie before we find out the truth.
It is nice to see an action-oriented movie that isn't dead-set on lecturing its audience in its complicity in the War on Terror. It does point out how futile it can be when there are over a billion Muslims in the world, and only 20% of them are Arabs. How do you weed out the terrorist needles in such haystacks?
The movie came down to the end for me, and the ending cheats a bit. Cheats quite a bit actually. It felt like something 24 would do if the writers all ran out of ideas at the same at the end of Hour 21. "Oh crap, how were we going to get Jack out of this predicament again?"
Cheadle's his solid, reliable self, and Pearce does nice work as the guy on his trail. For post-9/11 movies I enjoyed it more than Rendition or some of these other lecture movies, but not as much as The Kingdom.
Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff.
If you missed the first season of Showtime's Sleeper Cell, this is pretty much that show encapsulated into one movie, albeit with some casting upgrades. Don Cheadle is an ex-Special Forces guy named Samir, who is either deep, deep undercover, or now a traitor to the Unites States, and we're halfway through the movie before we find out the truth.
It is nice to see an action-oriented movie that isn't dead-set on lecturing its audience in its complicity in the War on Terror. It does point out how futile it can be when there are over a billion Muslims in the world, and only 20% of them are Arabs. How do you weed out the terrorist needles in such haystacks?
The movie came down to the end for me, and the ending cheats a bit. Cheats quite a bit actually. It felt like something 24 would do if the writers all ran out of ideas at the same at the end of Hour 21. "Oh crap, how were we going to get Jack out of this predicament again?"
Cheadle's his solid, reliable self, and Pearce does nice work as the guy on his trail. For post-9/11 movies I enjoyed it more than Rendition or some of these other lecture movies, but not as much as The Kingdom.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Eagle Eye - DVD Review
EAGLE EYE (**) - Starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Ethan Embry and Anthony Mackie.
Directed by D.J. Caruso.
Kalukistan? Really? Did I hear that right? Because at first I thought I heard them call it Palooka-stan, and I knew the filmmakers weren't that cynical. I'm not a big fan on made-up countries in movies, unless it's something like Freedonia with Pres. Groucho Marx. Or Moldavia from Dynasty, but then, Moldavia eventually became a real country.
I am almost over Shia LaBeouf. I've been rooting for him ever since I saw Holes and season 2 of Project Greenlight. The movie he made on that series - The Battle of Shaker Heights - wound up being forgettable tripe, but Shia had professionalism about him, and he seemed like a good kid. His persona, though, hasn't evolved beyond the fast-talking hustler type, where he's pretty much been the same character in the last four or five movies he's done.
So we now come to Eagle Eye, from Disturbia director D. J. Caruso, and it comes off as a Jon Turteltaub remake of The Game, with some Enemy of the State thrown in, containing a third-act revelation that's hard to swallow, even in a movie like this. (Diagram that sentence, Abbott!)
The movie gets its name from a government project that enhances its ability to spy on its citizens. Hence this female voice is able to call Jerry (Shia) no matter where he is, and give him instructions that he must follow right then. She can see through every camera, hear every cell call, access every database, jam any signal...
Jerry must go on the run because he finds himself being framed for terrorism. Meanwhile "she" is putting him through a series of tasks he must complete if he wants to stay alive. Billy Bob Thornton is the determined FBI agent hunting Jerry down, and like Gerard from The Fugitive, he eventually figured maybe Jerry's innocent of what they're pursuing him for.
I don't want to hint at the reveal, as I figured it out well before it happened, much to my chagrin ("they're not really going down this path, are they?..."). It has some good chase scenes, but otherwise, allow me to damn it with faint praise by saying it's better than Jumper.
And I'm hoping Shia chooses something a little more challenging once he's done with Transformers 2.
Directed by D.J. Caruso.
Kalukistan? Really? Did I hear that right? Because at first I thought I heard them call it Palooka-stan, and I knew the filmmakers weren't that cynical. I'm not a big fan on made-up countries in movies, unless it's something like Freedonia with Pres. Groucho Marx. Or Moldavia from Dynasty, but then, Moldavia eventually became a real country.
I am almost over Shia LaBeouf. I've been rooting for him ever since I saw Holes and season 2 of Project Greenlight. The movie he made on that series - The Battle of Shaker Heights - wound up being forgettable tripe, but Shia had professionalism about him, and he seemed like a good kid. His persona, though, hasn't evolved beyond the fast-talking hustler type, where he's pretty much been the same character in the last four or five movies he's done.
So we now come to Eagle Eye, from Disturbia director D. J. Caruso, and it comes off as a Jon Turteltaub remake of The Game, with some Enemy of the State thrown in, containing a third-act revelation that's hard to swallow, even in a movie like this. (Diagram that sentence, Abbott!)
The movie gets its name from a government project that enhances its ability to spy on its citizens. Hence this female voice is able to call Jerry (Shia) no matter where he is, and give him instructions that he must follow right then. She can see through every camera, hear every cell call, access every database, jam any signal...
Jerry must go on the run because he finds himself being framed for terrorism. Meanwhile "she" is putting him through a series of tasks he must complete if he wants to stay alive. Billy Bob Thornton is the determined FBI agent hunting Jerry down, and like Gerard from The Fugitive, he eventually figured maybe Jerry's innocent of what they're pursuing him for.
I don't want to hint at the reveal, as I figured it out well before it happened, much to my chagrin ("they're not really going down this path, are they?..."). It has some good chase scenes, but otherwise, allow me to damn it with faint praise by saying it's better than Jumper.
And I'm hoping Shia chooses something a little more challenging once he's done with Transformers 2.
American Teen - DVD Review
AMERICAN TEEN (****) - Directed by Nanette Burstein.
The best teen drama of the decade. Maybe that's because it's a documentary cut together like a John Hughes movie.
Yes, Virginia, high school is still like you remember it. Your social cliques, your awkwardness, your pressures, your joys, your failures, your fleeting friendships and crushes, and your sense of impending doom or release when graduation comes. All there. All here.
It focuses on four seniors at a small Indiana high school. They introduced as cliches, and then we see them fleshed out into real people. There's Hannah, the artsy rebel; there's Jake, the band geek; there's Colin, the basketball star; and there's Megan, the popular mean girl. Fifth kid Mitch (handsome jock) is thrown in there, so there can be five like The Breakfast Club, but it's really about the four.
It's amazing how much frank footage Burstein was able to gleem. These kids don't seem to care they're being filmed, like everyone's life is its own reality show. Particularly Megan, who does some cruel things in this movie that surely inspired some nasty retaliatory posts on her MySpace page.
I was rooting for each kid, especially as you learn more about their personal lives and what may have shaped them this way. I wanted Megan to recognize how hurtful her behavior was. (In a fiction movie, she'd end up with punch poured on her head at prom, and that would be that.) I wanted Colin to get that basketball scholarship. I wanted to Jake to finally figure out how to talk to a girl. I wanted Hannah to find some happiness that wasn't related to today's boyfriend.
Some of it feels staged, but I was moved by the plights of these kids, and as this chapter closed on their lives, I wanted to just know that they're all okay. Call it the beauty of using real people.
The best teen drama of the decade. Maybe that's because it's a documentary cut together like a John Hughes movie.
Yes, Virginia, high school is still like you remember it. Your social cliques, your awkwardness, your pressures, your joys, your failures, your fleeting friendships and crushes, and your sense of impending doom or release when graduation comes. All there. All here.
It focuses on four seniors at a small Indiana high school. They introduced as cliches, and then we see them fleshed out into real people. There's Hannah, the artsy rebel; there's Jake, the band geek; there's Colin, the basketball star; and there's Megan, the popular mean girl. Fifth kid Mitch (handsome jock) is thrown in there, so there can be five like The Breakfast Club, but it's really about the four.
It's amazing how much frank footage Burstein was able to gleem. These kids don't seem to care they're being filmed, like everyone's life is its own reality show. Particularly Megan, who does some cruel things in this movie that surely inspired some nasty retaliatory posts on her MySpace page.
I was rooting for each kid, especially as you learn more about their personal lives and what may have shaped them this way. I wanted Megan to recognize how hurtful her behavior was. (In a fiction movie, she'd end up with punch poured on her head at prom, and that would be that.) I wanted Colin to get that basketball scholarship. I wanted to Jake to finally figure out how to talk to a girl. I wanted Hannah to find some happiness that wasn't related to today's boyfriend.
Some of it feels staged, but I was moved by the plights of these kids, and as this chapter closed on their lives, I wanted to just know that they're all okay. Call it the beauty of using real people.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Valkyrie - Movie Review
VALKYRIE (***) - Starring Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretchmann and Eddie Izzard.
Directed by Bryan Singer.
Maybe when it was conceived, this movie was Oscar-bait material. Its journey has resulted in a straight-forward action-thriller, albeit one with an inevitable unhappy ending. As my wife put it, "it's hard to watch a movie about good people doing the right thing, knowing they're going to fail miserably."
Nevertheless the Nazi is Hollywood's most utilized villain, and by extension, the German. Now we get a movie where the majority of Germans are good guys who just find themselves trapped in a bizarro world where their country is ruled by a madman. Tom Cruise is fine, if a bit out of place, as Col. Stauffenberg, the one-eyed soldier who sees that Hitler must be stopped, and he finds a circle of rebels, generals and such, all played by Brits, who need a decisive man to join their team.
Every man knows he will be killed if they fail, but they fear the consequences if they do nothing. I didn't read in advance, so I didn't know the fate of their families, and every time we see Mrs. Stauffenberg (Black Book's Carice van Houten, underutilized here), I wondered if she and the children would suffer the same fate we know her husband will.
Adding to the pain is to see how well the rest of their plan would have gone, if only Stauffenberg's bomb had actually killed Hitler. I'd love to see the Holodeck simulation on that one.
Directed by Bryan Singer.
Maybe when it was conceived, this movie was Oscar-bait material. Its journey has resulted in a straight-forward action-thriller, albeit one with an inevitable unhappy ending. As my wife put it, "it's hard to watch a movie about good people doing the right thing, knowing they're going to fail miserably."
Nevertheless the Nazi is Hollywood's most utilized villain, and by extension, the German. Now we get a movie where the majority of Germans are good guys who just find themselves trapped in a bizarro world where their country is ruled by a madman. Tom Cruise is fine, if a bit out of place, as Col. Stauffenberg, the one-eyed soldier who sees that Hitler must be stopped, and he finds a circle of rebels, generals and such, all played by Brits, who need a decisive man to join their team.
Every man knows he will be killed if they fail, but they fear the consequences if they do nothing. I didn't read in advance, so I didn't know the fate of their families, and every time we see Mrs. Stauffenberg (Black Book's Carice van Houten, underutilized here), I wondered if she and the children would suffer the same fate we know her husband will.
Adding to the pain is to see how well the rest of their plan would have gone, if only Stauffenberg's bomb had actually killed Hitler. I'd love to see the Holodeck simulation on that one.
The Tale of Desperaux - Movie Review
THE TALE OF DESPERAUX (***) - Starring the voices of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Ciaran Hinds, Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Tracey Ullman, Christopher Lloyd, Frank Langella, Tony Hale, Frances Conroy, Richard Jenkins and Robbie Coltrane.
Directed by Sam Fell & Robert Stevenhagen.
This movie was more thoughtful than I expected, more dramatic, which I appreciated. It would be more at home with Disney's old-school classics than most animated movies of the past ten or twenty years. As such, it was one where my five-year-olds squirmed through most of the movie. But for older kids, it's a rich tale, and the animation alone is quite beautiful, more closely resembling paintings come to life than anything else.
It's based on a book, and it feels like it throughout. After all, what original screenplay would have a side character that swirls to life embodied by the fruits and veggies that happen to be in the room?
It's an ensemble story, taking place in three worlds. There's the Kingdom of Dor, where the humans are. There's Mouseworld, hidden behind the walls and under the floors of Dor, and then there's Ratworld, a dark place in the underground sewers. It starts with Roscuro (Hoffman), a sea-faring rat who loves the smell of the soup coming from Dor. (I know many will compare this to Ratatouille because of that, but really, the book was written years before that great Pixar movie, so, be fair.) After Roscuro's nose gets him into trouble and sets off a chain reaction of tragedy, he finds himself plunged into Ratworld, led by the creepy albino rat Botticelli (Hinds). Dor becomes a gray kingdom, where rats and soup are declared illegal, and the princess (Watson) looks out her window every day, praying for rain to return to her land.
Meanwhile in Mouseworld, Desperaux is born, a tiny mouse with big ears and an unparalleled sense of adventure. Mice are supposed to be full of fear and anxiety; what's wrong with this child?
The movie opens up a tapestry of characters. We see a scullery maid in the corner at the end of the scene, and hey, what do you know, she has a part to play in this story too.
My main issue would be probably be with pacing. Some characters cried out for more development while other scenes lagged and went on too long, but it still takes some unexpected turns, and I appreciate any movie where I don't know what the next scene will hold but I'm looking forward to it.
Directed by Sam Fell & Robert Stevenhagen.
This movie was more thoughtful than I expected, more dramatic, which I appreciated. It would be more at home with Disney's old-school classics than most animated movies of the past ten or twenty years. As such, it was one where my five-year-olds squirmed through most of the movie. But for older kids, it's a rich tale, and the animation alone is quite beautiful, more closely resembling paintings come to life than anything else.
It's based on a book, and it feels like it throughout. After all, what original screenplay would have a side character that swirls to life embodied by the fruits and veggies that happen to be in the room?
It's an ensemble story, taking place in three worlds. There's the Kingdom of Dor, where the humans are. There's Mouseworld, hidden behind the walls and under the floors of Dor, and then there's Ratworld, a dark place in the underground sewers. It starts with Roscuro (Hoffman), a sea-faring rat who loves the smell of the soup coming from Dor. (I know many will compare this to Ratatouille because of that, but really, the book was written years before that great Pixar movie, so, be fair.) After Roscuro's nose gets him into trouble and sets off a chain reaction of tragedy, he finds himself plunged into Ratworld, led by the creepy albino rat Botticelli (Hinds). Dor becomes a gray kingdom, where rats and soup are declared illegal, and the princess (Watson) looks out her window every day, praying for rain to return to her land.
Meanwhile in Mouseworld, Desperaux is born, a tiny mouse with big ears and an unparalleled sense of adventure. Mice are supposed to be full of fear and anxiety; what's wrong with this child?
The movie opens up a tapestry of characters. We see a scullery maid in the corner at the end of the scene, and hey, what do you know, she has a part to play in this story too.
My main issue would be probably be with pacing. Some characters cried out for more development while other scenes lagged and went on too long, but it still takes some unexpected turns, and I appreciate any movie where I don't know what the next scene will hold but I'm looking forward to it.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! - DVD Review
DR. SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO! (***1/4) - Starring the voices of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Dan Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jaime Pressly, Amy Poehler, Jonah Hill and Charles Osgood.
Directed by Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino.
Finally a big-screen Seuss movie done right. For decades, the half-hour Boris Karloff-narrated TV special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas has been the standard bearer. The live-action version I thought was okay at the time, but it doesn't hold up to repeat viewing. Mike Myers' Cat in the Hat was a monstrosity.
This one feels faithful to a Seussian world and sentiment, and it still allows for the humorous riffings of Carrey & Carell. Carrey's Horton isn't the humbledrum pachyderm from the old TV-animated special. He's hyper, he's over-the-top, he's precisely the animated vehicle to capture Carrey's natural cartoonyness. Carell gets his own clever verbal asides as the eager-to-please Mayor of Whoville.
It also pulls off a feat I feared most: it doesn't feel padded. It flows nicely and naturally in the story, with Charles Osgood's dutiful voice narrating in verse, guiding us through. It's from Blue Sky studio, and I'd take this over either Ice Age movie (excluding Scrat's scenes of course.)
Directed by Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino.
Finally a big-screen Seuss movie done right. For decades, the half-hour Boris Karloff-narrated TV special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas has been the standard bearer. The live-action version I thought was okay at the time, but it doesn't hold up to repeat viewing. Mike Myers' Cat in the Hat was a monstrosity.
This one feels faithful to a Seussian world and sentiment, and it still allows for the humorous riffings of Carrey & Carell. Carrey's Horton isn't the humbledrum pachyderm from the old TV-animated special. He's hyper, he's over-the-top, he's precisely the animated vehicle to capture Carrey's natural cartoonyness. Carell gets his own clever verbal asides as the eager-to-please Mayor of Whoville.
It also pulls off a feat I feared most: it doesn't feel padded. It flows nicely and naturally in the story, with Charles Osgood's dutiful voice narrating in verse, guiding us through. It's from Blue Sky studio, and I'd take this over either Ice Age movie (excluding Scrat's scenes of course.)
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - DVD Review
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR (**) - Starring Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh, John Hannah, Luke Ford, Isabella Leong and Liam Cunningham.
Directed by Rob Cohen.
There are some problems with this movie that should have been ironed out before filming began. I usually like Maria Bello, but giving her dark hair and a British accent just pounded it home that she's not Rachel Weisz. And if in 1999 there was The Mummy, where Rick & Evelyn fell in love, and in 2001 it was ten years later where they had son Alex in tow, I guess it makes sense that in 2008, their son would now be 21. But Brendan Fraser is 39, and Luke Ford is 27. Freddie Boath, who played Alex in The Mummy Returns really was only ten when that movie came out, so he's 17 now. Anyway at this rate, Brendan Fraser's son will be his same age in The Mummy 4. And since this movie made almost $400 million worldwide, don't dismiss Mummy 4 just yet.
Now I know what some are thinking. Why make a third Mummy movie? Was there really that big a clamor for one? I repeat: it made almost $400 million worldwide. Movies are in the business to make money. I find it strange how Brendan Fraser could be in two successful blockbusters, but neither seemed to do a thing for his career. Well, I guess it means he can put off starring in a TV show for a couple more years.
Arnold Vosloo's mummy was laid completely to rest, and The Rock's Scorpion King became a good guy, so it's time for a new one. Alex O'Connell is now his own man, doing archaeological digs in China. He unearths the burial ground for the dragon emperor, played by star-power upgrade Jet Li. He'd been cursed by a witch, but naturally, with a drop of blood from one pure in heart, he can be awakened. Why do witches put little caveats in their spells like this?
Mom and Dad show up in China, and apparently Rick & Alex have father-son issues. "Why can't you let me fight my own mummies?" Weird as it is to see Fraser pretend to be Ford's father, it weirded me out more when I realized Ford looks like a 25-year-old Matt Damon and a 25-year-old Ethan Hawke have been photoshopped into one face. But I digress.
It was the big dumb explosion-fest I expected. Rob Cohen took over directing duties from Stephen Sommers, and he's actually a little worse. Proof of this is the fight scene between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. It's so choppy and slo-mo'd, it could be any two amateurs fighting. What is Cohen trying to cover up? You telling me Li and Yeoh can no longer choreograph five punches in a row without needing a break?
Directed by Rob Cohen.
There are some problems with this movie that should have been ironed out before filming began. I usually like Maria Bello, but giving her dark hair and a British accent just pounded it home that she's not Rachel Weisz. And if in 1999 there was The Mummy, where Rick & Evelyn fell in love, and in 2001 it was ten years later where they had son Alex in tow, I guess it makes sense that in 2008, their son would now be 21. But Brendan Fraser is 39, and Luke Ford is 27. Freddie Boath, who played Alex in The Mummy Returns really was only ten when that movie came out, so he's 17 now. Anyway at this rate, Brendan Fraser's son will be his same age in The Mummy 4. And since this movie made almost $400 million worldwide, don't dismiss Mummy 4 just yet.
Now I know what some are thinking. Why make a third Mummy movie? Was there really that big a clamor for one? I repeat: it made almost $400 million worldwide. Movies are in the business to make money. I find it strange how Brendan Fraser could be in two successful blockbusters, but neither seemed to do a thing for his career. Well, I guess it means he can put off starring in a TV show for a couple more years.
Arnold Vosloo's mummy was laid completely to rest, and The Rock's Scorpion King became a good guy, so it's time for a new one. Alex O'Connell is now his own man, doing archaeological digs in China. He unearths the burial ground for the dragon emperor, played by star-power upgrade Jet Li. He'd been cursed by a witch, but naturally, with a drop of blood from one pure in heart, he can be awakened. Why do witches put little caveats in their spells like this?
Mom and Dad show up in China, and apparently Rick & Alex have father-son issues. "Why can't you let me fight my own mummies?" Weird as it is to see Fraser pretend to be Ford's father, it weirded me out more when I realized Ford looks like a 25-year-old Matt Damon and a 25-year-old Ethan Hawke have been photoshopped into one face. But I digress.
It was the big dumb explosion-fest I expected. Rob Cohen took over directing duties from Stephen Sommers, and he's actually a little worse. Proof of this is the fight scene between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. It's so choppy and slo-mo'd, it could be any two amateurs fighting. What is Cohen trying to cover up? You telling me Li and Yeoh can no longer choreograph five punches in a row without needing a break?
Monday, December 22, 2008
Mamma Mia! - DVD Review
MAMMA MIA! (*1/2) - Starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski.
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
Yikes. I'm glad everyone looks like they're having fun, but wow, what a trainwreck.
Movie musicals need leeway to get everything set up, and then you can swept up in the show. The good ones, like Chicago or Hairspray, can hook its audience right away. This one doesn't benefit from that great opening number. Where it lost me though was its first big number. "Dancing Queen" is when the whole island joins in, and the choreography is terrible. It's embarrassing to watch them do the same moves I've seen in school musicals.
Meryl Streep leads the hands-waving-in-the-air parade to the pier, and then they break into this jazz-hands, hip-shake thing that looks improved on the fly. Its chorus isn't rousing; it's a welcome signal that the end of this number is nigh.
Then there's Pierce Brosnan's... valiant attempt to sing. And Christine Baranski's creepy cougar number.
The plot's a flimsy thing about a girl inviting three guys to her wedding, any of whom could be her real dad. It's an excuse to string some ABBA tunes together, which should be doable. The ending's silly, and a bit painful since Brosnan's vocals come into play. It's supposed to be escapist fluff entertainment, but yeesh, would that it had a better director! Too many numbers feel forced, too many cast members feign fun, and too many of the songs fall flat.
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
Yikes. I'm glad everyone looks like they're having fun, but wow, what a trainwreck.
Movie musicals need leeway to get everything set up, and then you can swept up in the show. The good ones, like Chicago or Hairspray, can hook its audience right away. This one doesn't benefit from that great opening number. Where it lost me though was its first big number. "Dancing Queen" is when the whole island joins in, and the choreography is terrible. It's embarrassing to watch them do the same moves I've seen in school musicals.
Meryl Streep leads the hands-waving-in-the-air parade to the pier, and then they break into this jazz-hands, hip-shake thing that looks improved on the fly. Its chorus isn't rousing; it's a welcome signal that the end of this number is nigh.
Then there's Pierce Brosnan's... valiant attempt to sing. And Christine Baranski's creepy cougar number.
The plot's a flimsy thing about a girl inviting three guys to her wedding, any of whom could be her real dad. It's an excuse to string some ABBA tunes together, which should be doable. The ending's silly, and a bit painful since Brosnan's vocals come into play. It's supposed to be escapist fluff entertainment, but yeesh, would that it had a better director! Too many numbers feel forced, too many cast members feign fun, and too many of the songs fall flat.
Critical Consensus on 2008 Movies
MovieCityNews.com compiles the top ten lists of various film critics. With over 50 down, and several more to go, here's where things stand currently:
1. WALL-E - 277.5 points
2. The Dark Knight - 207
3. Milk - 185.5
4. Slumdog Millionaire - 182
5. The Wrestler - 153
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 118
7. Rachel Getting Married - 114.5
8. A Christmas Tale - 112.5
9. Synecdoche NY - 101.5
10. Happy-Go-Lucky - 95.5
11. Wendy & Lucy
12. Let the Right One In
13. The Edge of Heaven
14. Man on Wire
15. Frost/Nixon
16. In Bruges
17. The Visitor
18. Che
19. The Reader
(4 Months, 3 Weeks 7 2 Days is the actual #19, but since it finished #12 in 2007, I took it out).
Now looking back through the years, these charts have been semi-indicators of how Academy voters might swing. * - winner
BEST PICTURE 2007
*1-No Country for Old Men
2-There Will Be Blood
6-Juno
7-Atonement
15-Michael Clayton
BEST PICTURE 2006
2-The Queen
*3-The Departed
4-Letters from Iwo Jima
7-Little Miss Sunshine
8-Babel
(#1 that year was United 93)
BEST PICTURE 2005
1-Brokeback Mountain
3-Capote
4-Good Night and Good Luck
*7-Crash
8-Munich
BEST PICTURE 2004
1-Sideways
*3-Million Dollar Baby
4-The Aviator
13-Finding Neverland
16-Ray
BEST PICTURE 2003
1-Lost in Translation
*2-The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
3-Mystic River
8-Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
19-Seabiscuit
BEST PICTURE 2002
6-The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
7-The Pianist
*8-Chicago
10-Gangs of New York
11-The Hours
(#1 that year was Far From Heaven)
So by this terribly unscientific look at the thing, no film has been nominated for Best Picture finishing outside the Top 19.
And Pixar movies have finished at fifth (Finding Nemo), sixth (The Incredibles), and ninth (Ratatouille) in their respective years, but never #1. So if ever there was a year to nominate a Pixar movie outside of the Best Animated Film category, this is it.
It also raises the question about best picture hopefuls like Doubt, Gran Torino and Revolutionary Road. Unless there's some critical surge, I'd write those three movies off for the big one. There's still a question as to whether or not The Dark Knight will get nominated. Far as I know, no superhero movie has ever been nominated, but it's unlike any superhero movie ever made.
I think the three locks for Best Picture nominations are Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Dark Knight should be a lock, but you never know with this Academy. Frost/Nixon is the likely fifth. It's doing well in limited release, it's from Ron Howard, it leans left politically, but now I wonder if WALL-E could get a groundswell from out of nowhere, or if The Wrestler can get enough buzz about it's not just Mickey Rourke's performance that makes it great. If Harvey Weinstein worked for Pixar, I'd say he'd get the job done. This is the guy who talked the Academy into giving Roberto Benigni a Best Actor trophy.
1. WALL-E - 277.5 points
2. The Dark Knight - 207
3. Milk - 185.5
4. Slumdog Millionaire - 182
5. The Wrestler - 153
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 118
7. Rachel Getting Married - 114.5
8. A Christmas Tale - 112.5
9. Synecdoche NY - 101.5
10. Happy-Go-Lucky - 95.5
11. Wendy & Lucy
12. Let the Right One In
13. The Edge of Heaven
14. Man on Wire
15. Frost/Nixon
16. In Bruges
17. The Visitor
18. Che
19. The Reader
(4 Months, 3 Weeks 7 2 Days is the actual #19, but since it finished #12 in 2007, I took it out).
Now looking back through the years, these charts have been semi-indicators of how Academy voters might swing. * - winner
BEST PICTURE 2007
*1-No Country for Old Men
2-There Will Be Blood
6-Juno
7-Atonement
15-Michael Clayton
BEST PICTURE 2006
2-The Queen
*3-The Departed
4-Letters from Iwo Jima
7-Little Miss Sunshine
8-Babel
(#1 that year was United 93)
BEST PICTURE 2005
1-Brokeback Mountain
3-Capote
4-Good Night and Good Luck
*7-Crash
8-Munich
BEST PICTURE 2004
1-Sideways
*3-Million Dollar Baby
4-The Aviator
13-Finding Neverland
16-Ray
BEST PICTURE 2003
1-Lost in Translation
*2-The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
3-Mystic River
8-Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
19-Seabiscuit
BEST PICTURE 2002
6-The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
7-The Pianist
*8-Chicago
10-Gangs of New York
11-The Hours
(#1 that year was Far From Heaven)
So by this terribly unscientific look at the thing, no film has been nominated for Best Picture finishing outside the Top 19.
And Pixar movies have finished at fifth (Finding Nemo), sixth (The Incredibles), and ninth (Ratatouille) in their respective years, but never #1. So if ever there was a year to nominate a Pixar movie outside of the Best Animated Film category, this is it.
It also raises the question about best picture hopefuls like Doubt, Gran Torino and Revolutionary Road. Unless there's some critical surge, I'd write those three movies off for the big one. There's still a question as to whether or not The Dark Knight will get nominated. Far as I know, no superhero movie has ever been nominated, but it's unlike any superhero movie ever made.
I think the three locks for Best Picture nominations are Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Dark Knight should be a lock, but you never know with this Academy. Frost/Nixon is the likely fifth. It's doing well in limited release, it's from Ron Howard, it leans left politically, but now I wonder if WALL-E could get a groundswell from out of nowhere, or if The Wrestler can get enough buzz about it's not just Mickey Rourke's performance that makes it great. If Harvey Weinstein worked for Pixar, I'd say he'd get the job done. This is the guy who talked the Academy into giving Roberto Benigni a Best Actor trophy.
Friday, December 19, 2008
My Best of TV 2008
1. LOST (ABC) - The flash-forward twist was awesome, revitalizing the show to its best since Season 1. New cast members like Jeff Fahey and Jeremy Davies added interesting constants to the formula, and the show seems more focussed now that they have an endgame. The best acting moment of the year for me was when Sun watched Jin die in the ship's explosion. It's been years since I've hoped a character isn't really dead, but I'm crossing my fingers Jin somehow got off that boat in time. I love a show that makes me care like that.
2. DEXTER (Showtime) - I can't believe Michael C. Hall hasn't won an Award for this yet. Maybe once Boston Legal is finally gone, James Spader will stop blocking Hall from winning for his intriguing anti-hero, the Serial Killer with a Moral Code. Jimmy Smits is sure to get some Emmy love this summer for his district attorney who goes from righteous to scary.
3. THE OFFICE (NBC) - Probably the only show on TV where I'll watch the reruns again.
4. MAD MEN (AMC) - Personally I like the restraint of basic cable that Sopranos vet Matthew Weiner has on him. I think adding nudity and profanity to this would subtract from its power in the moments of quiet devastation. For the rape scene, it's most effective when all we see is the shocked, deadened look on Joanie's face as she just tries to bear what's happening.
5. HBO MOVIES - History comes to life in fine form in John Adams, with Paul Giamatti breathing life into our second president, the most underrated one we've had until author David McCullough gave him his due. Bonus points for Tom Wilkinson's wily Ben Franklin, but there was also Wilkinson as James Baker in Recount. Baker may have been cast as the villain, but his scene where he reveals why he became a Republican makes it all okay. It made history suspenseful, which is hard to do. And House of Saddam was really good, too. So yeah, hard to choose just one.
6. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (Sci-Fi) - All good things must come to an end too soon. I can't wait to see what the crew does now that they've found Earth, and found her to be a barren, radioactive planet. And then in a handful of episodes, it'll be gone.
7. SUMMER HEIGHTS HIGH (HBO) - Wisely, HBO didn't remake this show; they're airing it as it originally was in Australia, and I can't imagine anyone trying to do what Chris Lilley does so well in embodying three awful people (a self-absorbed drama teacher, a mean girl, and a Polynesian bully) week after week and making the next episode funnier than the previous. Sadly this was its only season.
8. LIFE ON MARS (ABC) - Jason O'Mara's a break-out star who holds his own with Harvey Kietel each week. I just hope this show is able to find an audience and stick around.
9. SURVIVOR (CBS) - Two good seasons in a row. The spring Fans vs. Favorites had some great twists and staggeringly stupid moves, each dumber than the week before. It was only marred by having a harpy like Parvati win it all, but that's what happens when idiots like Eric and Jason are all that stand in their way. The fall season had Marcus's Foursome look like an immovable force, but the underdogs overthrew it, and Sugar single-handedly made sure it was mixed up each week, to her own peril, but to the credit that a nice guy like Bob could win it all.
10. THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (Bunch o' networks) - Endless entertainment. The drama of Obama overthrowing the Clinton machine. John McCain emerging from the ashes. Sunday-news round-tables becoming must-see spin rooms. Romney vs. Huckabee. John Edwards revealed to be a total scumbag. Fox News vs. MSNBC and the winner is CNN's Campbell Brown. Saturday Night Live becoming significant again. Daily Show & Colbert Report with mounds of material. And so on.
Honorable Mentions:
PRISON BREAK (FOX) - Season 4 is the best since the first. The action's always amped, and the twists and turns don't feel desperate or made up on the fly anymore.
BREAKING BAD (AMC) - Bryan Cranston's wrenching protrayal of a dying man going to the dark side to financially secure his family has had its darkly funny moments, but it makes Weeds look silly by comparison.
DAN on BIG BROTHER 10 (CBS) - Sometimes when you watch a weekly-elimination reality show, it is so dang entertaining to watch a nice-guy underdog brilliantly outplay his housemates and come out on top.
2. DEXTER (Showtime) - I can't believe Michael C. Hall hasn't won an Award for this yet. Maybe once Boston Legal is finally gone, James Spader will stop blocking Hall from winning for his intriguing anti-hero, the Serial Killer with a Moral Code. Jimmy Smits is sure to get some Emmy love this summer for his district attorney who goes from righteous to scary.
3. THE OFFICE (NBC) - Probably the only show on TV where I'll watch the reruns again.
4. MAD MEN (AMC) - Personally I like the restraint of basic cable that Sopranos vet Matthew Weiner has on him. I think adding nudity and profanity to this would subtract from its power in the moments of quiet devastation. For the rape scene, it's most effective when all we see is the shocked, deadened look on Joanie's face as she just tries to bear what's happening.
5. HBO MOVIES - History comes to life in fine form in John Adams, with Paul Giamatti breathing life into our second president, the most underrated one we've had until author David McCullough gave him his due. Bonus points for Tom Wilkinson's wily Ben Franklin, but there was also Wilkinson as James Baker in Recount. Baker may have been cast as the villain, but his scene where he reveals why he became a Republican makes it all okay. It made history suspenseful, which is hard to do. And House of Saddam was really good, too. So yeah, hard to choose just one.
6. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (Sci-Fi) - All good things must come to an end too soon. I can't wait to see what the crew does now that they've found Earth, and found her to be a barren, radioactive planet. And then in a handful of episodes, it'll be gone.
7. SUMMER HEIGHTS HIGH (HBO) - Wisely, HBO didn't remake this show; they're airing it as it originally was in Australia, and I can't imagine anyone trying to do what Chris Lilley does so well in embodying three awful people (a self-absorbed drama teacher, a mean girl, and a Polynesian bully) week after week and making the next episode funnier than the previous. Sadly this was its only season.
8. LIFE ON MARS (ABC) - Jason O'Mara's a break-out star who holds his own with Harvey Kietel each week. I just hope this show is able to find an audience and stick around.
9. SURVIVOR (CBS) - Two good seasons in a row. The spring Fans vs. Favorites had some great twists and staggeringly stupid moves, each dumber than the week before. It was only marred by having a harpy like Parvati win it all, but that's what happens when idiots like Eric and Jason are all that stand in their way. The fall season had Marcus's Foursome look like an immovable force, but the underdogs overthrew it, and Sugar single-handedly made sure it was mixed up each week, to her own peril, but to the credit that a nice guy like Bob could win it all.
10. THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (Bunch o' networks) - Endless entertainment. The drama of Obama overthrowing the Clinton machine. John McCain emerging from the ashes. Sunday-news round-tables becoming must-see spin rooms. Romney vs. Huckabee. John Edwards revealed to be a total scumbag. Fox News vs. MSNBC and the winner is CNN's Campbell Brown. Saturday Night Live becoming significant again. Daily Show & Colbert Report with mounds of material. And so on.
Honorable Mentions:
PRISON BREAK (FOX) - Season 4 is the best since the first. The action's always amped, and the twists and turns don't feel desperate or made up on the fly anymore.
BREAKING BAD (AMC) - Bryan Cranston's wrenching protrayal of a dying man going to the dark side to financially secure his family has had its darkly funny moments, but it makes Weeds look silly by comparison.
DAN on BIG BROTHER 10 (CBS) - Sometimes when you watch a weekly-elimination reality show, it is so dang entertaining to watch a nice-guy underdog brilliantly outplay his housemates and come out on top.
My Worst of TV 2008
1. MOMMA'S BOYS (NBC) - I'm not sure who deserves more blame on a show like this. The producer? The casting director? The first six minutes - six minutes! - was a preview of what we'll be seeing this season, and it featured a ton of bad behavior. This is the Bachelor, Meet My Folks, and Rock of Love rolled into one. It had the usual catfighty stuff the first night, where one mean girl made another girl cry. What killed it for me was when it revealed the Michigan mom is a total racist. ("No blacks, no Asians, and no Jewish girls!") The fountain of ugliness gushed out, and what reason would I have to tune in for Episode 2 that didn't involve a degree of morbidity?
2. KATH & KIM (NBC) - Selma Blair, staring blankly at someone is not funny. Molly Shannon, this is not an SNL sketch; it's a character we're supposed to want to see week after week. Supposedly there was this funny Australian show on which this was based but it got lost in translation.
3. HOLE IN THE WALL (FOX) - Picture taking one game from the array of MXC, and focussing an entire show around just that, week after week. What next, a show solely dedicated to the Pyramid challange from American Gladiators?
4. DO NOT DISTURB (FOX) - Jerry O'Connell, show-killer. I can't say it's all his fault. The writing was bad enough, the cast of Cheers couldn't have saved it.
5. LIVING LOHAN (E!) - So that's why Lindsay's so screwed up. Actually the majority of the episode I saw seemed to focus on how much grief Dina Lohan's kids get for being Lindsay's siblings. These kids need some privacy, not a reality show.
6. THE MOMENT OF TRUTH (FOX) - I watched three or four episodes. One problem with this show is that the polygraph is wrong sometimes. Clearly most of the time it said someone had lied on their test, the contestant had told the truth. The main problem is that the questions are so probing and personal that it destroys lives. Literally. One couple got divorced after the episode aired where she admitted she'd had an affair.
7. REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER (HBO) - I watched him on and off for years, but he's become meaner and angrier to the point there's no point seeing what he thinks of this weeks' issues. He loves strip clubs and pot; he hates religion and Sarah Palin. Got it.
8. TRUE BLOOD (HBO) - I'm sorry, but if most of an episode revolves around a guy with an erection that makes his unit swell up like "an eggplant", I'm done with you. Cool opening-credits sequence though.
9. FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA (NBC) - I never would have guessed a football show anchored by Bob Costas would be the lamest one on TV, but his supporting cast doesn't offer much help. CBS, FOX, ESPN, and the NFL Network all do it better.
10. THE WRITERS' STRIKE - It hurt the industry, killed viewership, eroded support of enough shows that they got cancelled, and when the dust settled it was clear that the concessions the WGA was not worth the money lost to their guild members, let alone the entire television industry. Besides, Saturday Night Live was dark during the GOP primary race. I hear Bill Hader has a dead-on Mitt Romney we'll likely never see.
Dishonorable Mentions:
DEAL OR NO DEAL (NBC) - I'm not bitter that I stood in line for seven hours for a 10-second audition, where I went first in my group then saw how the other nine in my group used their 10 seconds and wished like mad I had gone last instead of first so I could have done it better. Not at all. I mention this show because the episode where someone finally won the $1 million, they promo'd it with every commerical break that it was going to happen. That's like Survivor saying at every commercial break: "And tune in to watch Randy get voted out." Not to mention the winner was from Utah and so likely among the 10,000 that were there that day. I think she was the one dressed up like a fairy.
HEROES (NBC) - I loved Volume 1. I was iffy on Volume 2. Volume 3 committed some egregious sins continuity-wise, but I'll be back for Volume 4 to see if they learned their lessons. But the quality drop from Volume 1 to Volume 3 is glaring.
JOSHUA on BIG BROTHER 9 (CBS) - Somehow he beat out Mike Boogie and Evel Dick for being the biggest jerk ever on that show. How? By making fun of a houseguest's father's suicide.
2. KATH & KIM (NBC) - Selma Blair, staring blankly at someone is not funny. Molly Shannon, this is not an SNL sketch; it's a character we're supposed to want to see week after week. Supposedly there was this funny Australian show on which this was based but it got lost in translation.
3. HOLE IN THE WALL (FOX) - Picture taking one game from the array of MXC, and focussing an entire show around just that, week after week. What next, a show solely dedicated to the Pyramid challange from American Gladiators?
4. DO NOT DISTURB (FOX) - Jerry O'Connell, show-killer. I can't say it's all his fault. The writing was bad enough, the cast of Cheers couldn't have saved it.
5. LIVING LOHAN (E!) - So that's why Lindsay's so screwed up. Actually the majority of the episode I saw seemed to focus on how much grief Dina Lohan's kids get for being Lindsay's siblings. These kids need some privacy, not a reality show.
6. THE MOMENT OF TRUTH (FOX) - I watched three or four episodes. One problem with this show is that the polygraph is wrong sometimes. Clearly most of the time it said someone had lied on their test, the contestant had told the truth. The main problem is that the questions are so probing and personal that it destroys lives. Literally. One couple got divorced after the episode aired where she admitted she'd had an affair.
7. REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER (HBO) - I watched him on and off for years, but he's become meaner and angrier to the point there's no point seeing what he thinks of this weeks' issues. He loves strip clubs and pot; he hates religion and Sarah Palin. Got it.
8. TRUE BLOOD (HBO) - I'm sorry, but if most of an episode revolves around a guy with an erection that makes his unit swell up like "an eggplant", I'm done with you. Cool opening-credits sequence though.
9. FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA (NBC) - I never would have guessed a football show anchored by Bob Costas would be the lamest one on TV, but his supporting cast doesn't offer much help. CBS, FOX, ESPN, and the NFL Network all do it better.
10. THE WRITERS' STRIKE - It hurt the industry, killed viewership, eroded support of enough shows that they got cancelled, and when the dust settled it was clear that the concessions the WGA was not worth the money lost to their guild members, let alone the entire television industry. Besides, Saturday Night Live was dark during the GOP primary race. I hear Bill Hader has a dead-on Mitt Romney we'll likely never see.
Dishonorable Mentions:
DEAL OR NO DEAL (NBC) - I'm not bitter that I stood in line for seven hours for a 10-second audition, where I went first in my group then saw how the other nine in my group used their 10 seconds and wished like mad I had gone last instead of first so I could have done it better. Not at all. I mention this show because the episode where someone finally won the $1 million, they promo'd it with every commerical break that it was going to happen. That's like Survivor saying at every commercial break: "And tune in to watch Randy get voted out." Not to mention the winner was from Utah and so likely among the 10,000 that were there that day. I think she was the one dressed up like a fairy.
HEROES (NBC) - I loved Volume 1. I was iffy on Volume 2. Volume 3 committed some egregious sins continuity-wise, but I'll be back for Volume 4 to see if they learned their lessons. But the quality drop from Volume 1 to Volume 3 is glaring.
JOSHUA on BIG BROTHER 9 (CBS) - Somehow he beat out Mike Boogie and Evel Dick for being the biggest jerk ever on that show. How? By making fun of a houseguest's father's suicide.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
SAG Award Nominations
Movies
BEST CAST
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langhella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Kate Winslet, The Reader
Television
BEST CAST DRAMA
Boston Legal
Dexter
House
Mad Men
The Closer
BEST CAST COMEDY
30 Rock
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
The Office
Weeds
BEST ACTOR DRAMA
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
William Shatner, Boston Legal
James Spader, Boston Legal
BEST ACTRESS DRAMA
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
BEST ACTOR COMEDY
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
David Duchovny, Californication
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
BEST ACTRESS COMEDY
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Tracey Ullman, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union
BEST ACTOR TV-MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Ralph Fiennes, Bernard & Doris
Paul Giamatti, John Adams
Kevin Spacey, Recount
Kiefer Sutherland, 24: Redemption
Tom Wilkinson, John Adams
BEST ACTRESS TV-MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Laura Dern, Recount
Laura Linney, John Adams
Shirley MacLaine, Coco Chanel
Phylicia Rashad, A Raisin in the Sun
Susan Sarandon, Bernard & Doris
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: James Earl Jones
BEST CAST
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langhella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Kate Winslet, The Reader
Television
BEST CAST DRAMA
Boston Legal
Dexter
House
Mad Men
The Closer
BEST CAST COMEDY
30 Rock
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
The Office
Weeds
BEST ACTOR DRAMA
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
William Shatner, Boston Legal
James Spader, Boston Legal
BEST ACTRESS DRAMA
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
BEST ACTOR COMEDY
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
David Duchovny, Californication
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
BEST ACTRESS COMEDY
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Tracey Ullman, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union
BEST ACTOR TV-MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Ralph Fiennes, Bernard & Doris
Paul Giamatti, John Adams
Kevin Spacey, Recount
Kiefer Sutherland, 24: Redemption
Tom Wilkinson, John Adams
BEST ACTRESS TV-MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Laura Dern, Recount
Laura Linney, John Adams
Shirley MacLaine, Coco Chanel
Phylicia Rashad, A Raisin in the Sun
Susan Sarandon, Bernard & Doris
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: James Earl Jones
Fly Me to the Moon - DVD Review
FLY ME TO THE MOON (*1/2) - Starring the voices of Christopher Lloyd, Kelly Ripa, Tim Curry, Nicolette Sheridan, Robert Patrick and Ed Begley Jr.
Directed by Ben Stassen.
I guess the best thing I can say about is the animation is better than a quickie like Happily N'Ever After, but it apes the look of A Bug's Life too closely. Take the ants from a Bug's Life, make them shorter and fatter, add little antennae and wings, and now you have the flies. Flies are the sort of creatures I don't want to see made cute for kids. Baby flies are maggots, and the sight of maggots that are supposed to be cute just seems wrong.
It also features a Grandpa Fly who's at least forty years old. Um, excuse me?
It takes place in the 1960's, where three kid flies dream of going to the moon. They find a way to stow away on Apollo 11. Meanwhile there's a silly subplot of Russian flies trying to do the same thing. The movie was filmed to be in 3D, and there were several parts where I could almost hear the filmmaker whisper "Look what I can do in threeee-Deeeee!"
It's strictly for little kids, a place-holder to keep the munchkins quiet for an hour and a half, and there are plenty of better titles out there that can do that.
Directed by Ben Stassen.
I guess the best thing I can say about is the animation is better than a quickie like Happily N'Ever After, but it apes the look of A Bug's Life too closely. Take the ants from a Bug's Life, make them shorter and fatter, add little antennae and wings, and now you have the flies. Flies are the sort of creatures I don't want to see made cute for kids. Baby flies are maggots, and the sight of maggots that are supposed to be cute just seems wrong.
It also features a Grandpa Fly who's at least forty years old. Um, excuse me?
It takes place in the 1960's, where three kid flies dream of going to the moon. They find a way to stow away on Apollo 11. Meanwhile there's a silly subplot of Russian flies trying to do the same thing. The movie was filmed to be in 3D, and there were several parts where I could almost hear the filmmaker whisper "Look what I can do in threeee-Deeeee!"
It's strictly for little kids, a place-holder to keep the munchkins quiet for an hour and a half, and there are plenty of better titles out there that can do that.
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