Goon - DVD Review

Starring Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Allison Pill, Liev Schreiber, Eugene Levy, Kim Coates, Marc-Andre Grondin and Richard Clarkin.

Directed by Michael Dowse.

★★★

The best hard-hitting hockey comedy since Slapshot! And I never saw Slapshot.

Scott plays Paul Glatt, a nice but dim hockey fan who happens to be really good at fighting. He gets himself on a minor-league hockey team thanks to his fighting skills. He's charged with going into games and beating up whoever just gave a cheap shot on the other team.

This movie isn't shy about making guys lose teeth.

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.

Hobbit is #1 again

For the weekend of Dec. 21-23.

1.  The Hobbit - $36.7 million ($149.86) - 2 wks (WB) -56.6%
 . . . 4100 screens / $8952 per screen
2.  Jack Reacher - $15.6 - 1 wk (Par)
 . . . 3352 / $4654
3.  This Is 40 - $12.03 - 1 wk (U)
 . . . 2912 / $4132
4.  Rise of the Guardians - $5.9 ($79.69) - 5 wks (DW) -17.4%
 . . . 3031 / $1947
5.  Lincoln - $5.63 ($116.78) - 7 wks (BV) -19.9%
 . . . 2293 / $2457
6.  The Guilt Trip - $5.39 ($7.42) - 1 wk (Par)
 . . . 2431 / $2217
7.  Monsters Inc 3D - $5.04 ($6.53) - 1 wk (BV)
 . . . 2618 / $1925
8.  Skyfall - $4.7 ($279.97) - 7 wks (Sony) -28.3%
 . . . 2365 / $1987
9.  Life of Pi - $3.8 ($76.16) - 5 wks (Fox) -29.8%
 . . . 1750 / $2171
10. Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2 - $2.6 ($281.61) - 6 wks (Sum) -49.4%
 . . . 2000 / $1300

No special effects or Oscar buzz?  Mm, tough times be ahead for ya.  Jack Reacher is a low opening for a Tom Cruise pic, or maybe it's becoming more the norm, considering Rock of Ages bombed in the summer. (Though, I will insist, that's not his fault.)  This Is 40 is a low opening for a Judd Apatow movie, but Paul Rudd's never proven to be a draw.  Then there's The Guilt Trip, one of those movies that probably would have done better to open in January or September.

Opens Christmas Day
LES MISERABLES with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.
DJANGO UNCHAINED with Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio.
PARENTAL GUIDANCE with Billy Crystal, Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei.

Jack Reacher - Movie Review

Starring Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, Robert Duvall, Werner Herzog, David Oyelowo, Jai Courtney and Michael Raymond-James.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie.

★★★

I have not read the Jack Reacher books, and my understanding is that Tom Cruise is physically nothing like what Lee Child's described.  Going solely off what I saw on the screen, it worked.  It might have worked better with a bigger, more menacing-looking guy, but Cruise has done enough action flicks that I could buy him in the role.

Reacher is an ex-MP, very good at what he does. When a fellow veteran is accusing of snipering five people, he asks for Reacher. They are not friends. Reacher doesn't like the guy, but Reacher has investigative skills that match his combat skills.

I liked that this was a mystery, that there were layers to peel back.

I also see why the premiere was cancelled. The opening scene is a sniper, and one of his victims is a young woman carrying a child. In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, that image takes on a new dimension. Bad timing by the movie, but this is the story they chose to tell.

I've always admired the career path that Cruise has taken, in that he tends to pick his directors carefully, and experienced co-stars. He has a mini-Days of Thunder reunion with Robert Duvall, and you also have Richard Jenkins as a DA and Werner Herzog as the head conspirator.

Now there are other Oscar-bait movies my wife and I would have seen were any of them in a theater near us last night (Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook, etc.), but since they weren't, we went with this escapist fare, and we enjoyed it.

The Deep Blue Sea - DVD Review

Starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale.
Directed by Terence Davies.

★½

Saw this due to Rachel Weisz getting a Golden Globe nomination for it, and she is really good in it.  Otherwise, though, it's a miserable movie that never flows organically.  Most conversations go like this.

"Are you happy?"  Pause.
"No." Pause.  "I'm not."
Pause.
"Anything I can do?" Pause. "For you?"
Pause.
"No." Pause. "There isn't." Pause. "But, thank you."
Pause.
Pained nod and smile.
"You're welcome."

Weisz plays an unhappy wife who has a torrid affair with a younger man in 1950 London.  But as often happens, the passion in the affair fades.  So we're left most of the movie with three unhappy people.  Longing.  Looking through the window.

I stopped having sympathy for her about halfway through the movie. It was a chore to get to the end.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - DVD Review

Starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller.
Directed by Lynne Ramsay.

★★

This movie had what could have been a fascinating premise, and it is fascinating in spots.  Tilda Swinton is Eva, a mother disturbed by her devil-spawn son Kevin.  It's told mostly in flashbacks, and we can see from a baby on that Kevin (Ezra Miller) is a rotten kid. We know early on Kevin is responsible for a mass killing at his school. I kept wondering if it was supposed to be stylized memory, distorted from the mother's perspective, or if the filmmaker is really saying "Some boys are just eeeevil."

Swinton is mesmerizing in the role, and the movie would be painful without her.  The movie is full of scenes where no one says anything, where the elephant in the room is never addressed.  Kevin is mostly nice around dad Franklin (John C. Reilly) but glares at Eva whenever he gets a chance.  Just does that evil Kubrickian look from under the eyebrows.

I would have liked to see a slight shred of humanity from Kevin, especially in his younger days.  It's too easy to just make him soulless from birth.  Not to mention there's no real resolution.

Lawless - DVD Review

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman and Dane DeHaan.
Directed by John Hillcoat.

★★½

Tom Hardy has star power and he exudes it here.  He's Forrest, one of the three Bondurant brothers, hillbilly moonshiners who refused to pay off the law during Prohibition.  Forrest is the brains of the bunch.  Brawn, too, though older brother Howard (Jason Clarke) is capable of delivering his own psycho butt-whippin'.

But the main protagonist is the sensitive youngest brother (Shia LaBeouf), who wants to be part of the business.  He idolizes gangsters and puts up their newspaper clippings like a 10-year-old girl and her One Direction posters.  Gary Oldman makes an appearance as one such gangster, but his part's so small, it's more of an extended cameo.

The villain here is Guy Pearce as a creepy federal officer from Chicago who wants his piece and who will kill to get it.

There's a stop-and-start lurching to the pace that subtracts from the enjoyment.  I really wanted to love this movie but must admit it was merely okay.

Life of Pi - Movie Review

Starring Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Rafe Spall and Gerard Depardieu.  Directed by Ang Lee.

★★★

One poster advertises it as a new Avatar, which I believe was a quote from Time magazine.  Well, it's visually impressive, but it's also one where I didn't see why it was in 3D.  I wasn't aware of it most of the time.  What we have here is a slightly more satisfying Cast Away.

We get the story of Pi Patel, told in flashback by his older self (Irrfan Khan).  Young Pi's father owns a zoo, but they're running out of money, and he learns he'll be able to make a lot more in Canada.  The family must move.  But as they sail the Pacific, a storm hits and the ship sinks.  Pi manages to get on a lifeboat, and he's accompanied by a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a tiger named Richard Parker.

Most of the movie takes place on the open ocean, with just Pi and (food-chain spoilers) the tiger.  The tiger turns into his Wilson, albeit Wilson wasn't trying to eat Tom Hanks the whole time.

My main issue with the movie is that when adult Pi starts telling his story, he says it will demonstrate proof there is a God.  And when I got to the end, and I thought about it, I still didn't see why that experience strengthened his belief in God.  Maybe the book highlights it better.

Hobbit easily #1

1.  The Hobbit - $84.78 million - 1 wk (WB)
 . . . 4045 screens / $20,958 per screen
2.  Rise of the Guardians - $7.42 ($71.36) - 4 wks (DW) -28.7%
 . . . 3387 / $2191
3.  Lincoln - $7.24 ($107.9) - 6 wks (BV) -18.8%
 . . . 2285 / $3170
4.  Skyfall - $7 ($272.37) - 6 wks (Sony) -35.1%
 . . . 2924 / $2394
5.  Life of Pi - $5.4 ($69.56) - 4 wks (Fox) -35.2%
 . . . 2548 / $2119
6.  Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2 - $5.18 ($276.87) - 5 wks (Sum) -43.5%
 . . . 3042 / $1701
7.  Wreck-It-Ralph - $3.27 ($168.78) - 7 wks (BV) -32.6%
 . . . 2249 / $1455
8.  Playing for Keeps - $3.25 ($10.84) - 2 wks (FD) -43.5%
 . . . 2840 / $1143
9.  Red Dawn - $2.39 ($40.89) - 4 wks (FD) -43.5%
 . . . 2250 / $1064
10. Silver Linings Playbook - $2.08 ($16.95) - 5 wks (Wein) -4%
 . . . 371 / $5617
11. Flight - $1.94 ($89.45) - 7 wks (Par) -38%
 . . . 1823 / $1064

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was more than expected to open huge, and it did.  All other movies will be fighting to stay in theaters since seven movies are scheduled to open wide by Christmas (Jack Reacher, This is 40, Les Miserables, Django Unchained, The Guilt Trip, Parental Guidance, Monster Inc. 3D).

The Expendables 2 - DVD Review

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews, Liam Hemsworth, Randy Couture, Nan Yu and Chuck Norris.
Directed by Simon West.

★½

I don't remember much about the "plot" of the first one, but the second one has less of it.  Stallone and company are hired mercenaries who go in to fortified headquarters in whatever country, shoot down a hundred henchmen, blow stuff up, then leave.

Then they get a job that is supposed to be easy, but "one of their own" is killed, which makes it personal.

It's inspired that they bring in Jean-Claude Van Damme to play the main villain.  Most of the rest of it is tired rehash.  They fire a lot of guns, they exchange one-liners, they fire more guns, they make in-jokes (Arnold and Bruce say each other's catchphrases at one point), and nothing else about it justifies its existence.  Chuck Norris shows up? Huh. Does he do anything cool?  Not really.

So maybe when they make Expendables 3, they'll get Carl Weathers, Gerard Butler and Dwayne Johnson, and they'll invade North Korea and overthrow Kim Jong-Un.  Might as well.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - DVD Review

Starring Nicolas Cage, Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba, Violante Placido, Johnny Whitworth, Fergus Riordan and Christopher Lambert.
Directed by Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor.

★½

Silliness is the name of the game here.  Nicolas Cage returns as Johnny Blaze, the motorcycle daredevil who occasionally turns into the Ghost Rider.  He learns of a way to finally free himself from the Rider from a silver-eyed monk (Idris Elba), but first he must stop the Devil from taking over a boy's body.

First time around, the Devil was played by Peter Fonda.  Now he's Ciaran Hinds, a step up in my book.  Its actors like Hinds and Elba that made me think this sequel might be an upgrade, but it's more like an opportunity for those two to ham it up and get paid good money to do it.

Cage gets wild and crazy with the role, and he kills a lot of generic Euro-trash henchmen on the way up to his showdown with the Devil.  It has CG-splashiness, and it's the most unnecessary sequel of the year.  I never had any sense from anyone in the movie they were doing this for anything more than cash. It's not like they actually believed in this project, nor care if it was any good.

2012 Golden Globe Nominations

Best Motion Picture — Drama

Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Richard Gere, Arbitrage
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Best Motion Picture — Comedy Or Musical
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Miserables
Moonrise Kingdom
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Comedy Or Musical
Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Judi Dench, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Maggie Smith, Quartet
Meryl Streep, Hope Springs

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy Or Musical
Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson
Ewan McGregor, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Alan Arkin, Argo
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Director — Motion Picture
Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture
Argo, Chris Terrio
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Original Score — Motion Picture
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Cloud Atlas, Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimet & Reinhold Heil
Life of Pi, Michael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams

Best Animated Film
Brave
Frankenweenie
Hotel Transylvania
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour
The Intouchables
Kon-Tiki
A Royal Affair
Rust & Bone

Best Television Series — Comedy Or Musical
The Big Bang Theory
Episodes
Girls
Modern Family
Smash

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Damian Lewis, Homeland

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama
Connie Britton, Nashville
Glenn Close, Damages
Claire Danes, Homeland
Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Kevin Costner, Hatfields and McCoys
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
Woody Harrelson, Game Change
Toby Jones, The Girl
Clive Owen, Hemingway and Gellhorn

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Nicole Kidman, Hemingway and Gellhorn
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Asylum
Sienna Miller, The Girl
Julianne Moore, Game Change
Sigourney Weaver, Political Animals

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Max Greenfield, New Girl
Ed Harris, Game Change
Danny Huston, Magic City
Mandy Patinkin, Homeland
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Hayden Panettiere, Nashville
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Sarah Paulson, Game Change
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series — Comedy Or Musical
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Lena Dunham, Girls
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Amy Poehler, Parks And Recreation

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series — Comedy Or Musical
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Don Cheadle, House of Lies
Louis C.K., Louis
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Best Television Series — Drama
Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Downton Abbey
Homeland
The Newsroom

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television
Game Change
The Girl
Hatfield & McCoys
The Hour
Political Animals

Cecil B. DeMille Award
Jodie Foster

2012 Screen Actors Guild Nominations

Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture
"Argo"
"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
"Les Misérables"
"Lincoln"
"Silver Linings Playbook"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"
John Hawkes, "The Sessions"
Denzel Washington, "Flight"
Hugh Jackman, "Les Miserables"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Helen Mirren, "Hitchcock"
Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"
Marion Cotillard, "Rust and Bone"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin, "Argo"
Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"
Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"
Javier Bardem, "Skyfall"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Sally Field, "Lincoln"
Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"
Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"
Nicole Kidman, "The Paperboy"
Maggie Smith, "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
"The Dark Knight Rises"
"Skyfall"
"The Bourne Legacy"
"The Amazing Spider-Man"
"Les Miserables"

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
"Boardwalk Empire"
"Homeland"
"Mad Men"
"Breaking Bad"
"Downton Abbey"

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
"30 Rock"
"The Big Bang Theory"
"Glee"
"Modern Family"
"Nurse Jackie"
"The Office"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire"
Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad"
Jeff Daniels, "The Newsroom"
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"
Damian Lewis, "Homeland"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Michelle Dockery, "Downton Abbey"
Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey"
Jessica Lange, "American Horror Story: Asylum"
Julianna Marguiles, "The Good Wife"
Claire Danes, "Homeland"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"
Ty Burrell, "Modern Family"
Louis C.K., "Louis"
Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory"
Eric Stonestreet, "Modern Family"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie"
Tina Fey, "30 Rock"
Amy Poelher, "Parks and Recreation"
Sofia Vergara, "Modern Family"
Betty White, "Hot in Cleveland"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Kevin Costner, "Hatfield and McCoys"
Woody Harrelson, "Game Change"
Ed Harris, "Game Change"
Clive Owen, "Hemingway and Gellner"
Bill Paxton, "Hatfields and McCoys"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Nicole Kidman, "Hemingway and Gellner"
Julianne Moore, "Game Change"
Charlotte Rampling, "Restless"
Sigourney Weaver, "Political Animals"
Alfre Woodard, "Steel Magnolias"
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series
"Game of Thrones"
"Homeland"
"Breaking Bad"
"Sons of Anarchy"
"Walking Dead"
"Boardwalk Empire"

Biggest surprise snubs?  Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams for The Master, Zero Dark Thirty for Ensemble.

Weekly TV Ratings

For the week of Nov. 26- Dec. 2.  Ratings are from the 18-49 demo.

1.  Sunday Night Football (NBC) - 7.4
2.  The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 5.5
3.  Modern Family (ABC) - 4.7
4.  The Voice Mon.(NBC) - 4.2
5.  2 Broke Girls (CBS) - 4.1
6.  Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 4.0
7.  The Voice Tue. (NBC) - 3.8
8.  Football Night in America (NBC) - 3.8
9.  Mike & Molly (CBS) - 3.6
10. NCIS (CBS) - 3.6

Skyfall is #1 in 5th week

1.  Skyfall - $11 million ($261.62) - 5 wks (Sony) -33.6%
 . . . 3401 screens / $3234 per screen
2.  Rise of the Guardians - $10.54 ($61.91) - 3 wks (DW) -21.3%
 . . . 3639 / $2896
3.  Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $9.2 ($268.74) - 4 wks (Sum) -47.2%
 . . . 3646 / $2523
4.  Lincoln - $9.12 ($97.34) - 5 wks (BV) -31.9%
 . . . 2014 / $4526
5.  Life of Pi - $8.3 ($60.92) - 3 wks (Fox) -31.7%
 . . . 2946 / $2817
6.  Playing for Keeps - $6 - 1 wk (FD)
 . . . 2837 / $2115
7.  Wreck-It-Ralph - $4.9 ($164.45) - 6 wks (BV) -29.4%
 . . . 2746 / $1786
8.  Red Dawn - $4.26 ($37.27) - 3 wks (FD) -34.4%
 . . . 2754 / $1547
9.  Flight - $3.13 ($86.2) - 6 wks (Par) -30.1%
 . . . 2431 / $1288
10. Killing Them Softly - $2.75 ($11.77) - 2 wks (Wein) -59.7%
 . . . 2424 / $1134

Playing for Keeps, the one new wide release, flopped.

Skyfall is now Sony Pictures' biggest worldwide grosser of all time.

Expect everyone to get crushed by The Hobbit next week.

Lincoln - Movie Review

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Hal Holbrook, Gloria Reuben, Bruce McGill, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael Stuhlbarg, Walton Goggins and Lee Pace.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.

★★★★

Daniel Day-Lewis may be the best actor on the planet.

So, what else to say?  This movie captures nicely the galaxy of the man, the saint, the politician, the president.

This all takes place in the last four months of his life, when they're trying to get the 13th Amendment passed, banning slavery.  It's a behind-the-scenes look at the handshaking, promise-making, and compromising that go into getting anything done in DC.

Sally Field's really good as Mary Todd Lincoln, the grieving mother who does more harm than good in her role as First Lady; Tommy Lee Jones is great as Thaddeus Stevens, the Radical Republican who doesn't think the 13th Amendment goes far enough; and I also liked the three-man persuasion crew of James Spader, John Hawkes and Tim Blake Nelson, charged with finding some Democrats to help support the Amendment.

I appreciated the humanization of Lincoln here.  We see him mourn with his wife, dote upon his youngest son, glare at subordinates, spin homespun yarns as a passive-aggressive way of making his Cabinet listen to him.  I loved when Secretary of War Stanton interrupted him. "No! NO! You're about to tell a story!"

There's more I would have liked to have seen (Frederick Douglass, Stephen Douglas, Andrew Johnson, and Jefferson Davis are some of the players we never see) but this is the window that Spielberg wanted to focus on, and it's rich, rewarding, and never dull.  This could have felt like one of those period Oscar-bait "homework" movies, but I'd like to see it again down the road.

And I can't say enough about Daniel Day-Lewis. There's nothing he can't do.

American Reunion - DVD Review

Starring Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Seann William Scott, Chris Klein, Eugene Levy, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Mena Suvari, Tara Reid, Jennifer Coolidge, John Cho, Natasha Lyonne, Dania Ramirez, Katrina Bowden and Jay Harrington.
Directed by Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg.

★★

On one hand, there's something nice about seeing the gang back together.  On the other hand, I'm watching these guys all complain about getting old at age 31.  Maybe I should just rewatch the first one instead?

There is something to be said about seeing Jim, Michelle, Stifler, Finch, Oz, Vickie, etc. back together.  In some ways, it's comfort food with favorite characters. In other ways, it's a reminder that most of these actors didn't have their careers take off the way they imagined.

The Class of 1999 is getting together for their 13-year high school reunion.  Apparently the 10-year didn't happen.  It's an excuse for everyone to come back to their hometown and hang out and get stuck in some awkward situations while juvenile potty humor abounds.  Coming off the best, I suppose, is Stifler (Seann William Scott), who puts the id in idiot.  He still wants to play pranks, get drunk, pick on dweebs, and sleep with teenage girls, keep his high-school glory days alive.

There's a reason the Porky's gang never went to their high-school reunion.

Savages - DVD Review

Starring Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Benecio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir.
Directed by Oliver Stone.


★★


Stone, finally, has gone back to make a movie absent of political polemics.  He's just here to make some pulp fiction, a flashy, violent tale about a pair of small-time, successful marijuana dealers who find themselves at war with the Mexican cartel when they refuse to join them.

Even though the title makes me think of Pocahontas, it's fitting for this story, as this cartel is brutal in their punishments and scorched-Earth in their approach.  In a twist, the big mob boss is played by Salma Hayek, and she is where she is due to her willingness to kill people quicker than Scarface.

Kitsch (Battleship) and Johnson (Kick-Ass) are okay as the two "heroes." When their mutual girlfriend is kidnapped, they must hatch a plot to get her back, and it involves a shady federal agent (Travolta) who allows the drug war to flourish as long as he gets paid.

It's the kind of movie where there's little redeeming social value, and everyone deserves to die, but it loses the courage of its convictions in the last few minutes and offers a cop-out instead.