April 1st, 2009 – April Fool

Frost/Nixon: I watched this last night. I liked it. Although in some ways, the entire movie turns on whether or not Richard Nixon actually made that phonecall to Frost in his hotel room. If, in fact, he did, then that was a colossal blunder. Like gloating in the 7^th inning when winning 11-0 it does nothing but motivate the other guy (who is already down) to put you away. This is what happened to Frost who was not over-matched but simply did not direct his mind to the no holds barred duel that he was only watching until then. He had to focus on the 10% of the time that Nixon did stuff that he knew was wrong and did them anyway. I was surprised that the Nixon team did not subtract from that last taping episode the 25 minutes that Frost spent asking about burning the tapes.

Nixon was a sharp guy, no doubt, but he was also highly suspicious and had an inferiority complex. Losing his governor’s race earlier in his career scarred him for life. Anyway, I enjoyed this as I had studied Watergate back in University with John Dean (book Blind Ambition) and All the President’s Men. It’s an interesting lesson in mistakes and trying to cover them up. Both the principal actors did a fine job here, and notably the guy who played Nixon (Frank Langella). That was good. I loved the mental games he played with him just before going on air “So…did you fornicate last night?…” LMAO!!

March 30th, 2009

I did manage to watch Rachel Getting Married last night and I enjoyed it. It’s amazing how you get deeper into someone’s life, and how little comments made earlier in the movie (like the first scene) are much more hurtful than you initially thought. This story unravels at a good pace, and you can see the underlying issues come forward. Funny that I didn’t have the sense that you did that this was a wedding that I wouldn’t want to attend. Actually the food and the music seemed marvelous. There was a curious mix of ethnic genres here (Indian, African, blues, island), and there were some cliché areas that could have gone wrong but they (to their credit did not) – like the racial issue. The Father is an interesting figure here, as I also thought was Debra Winger as the Mother and the pivotal scene where daughter goes to confront Mother. Sadly we don’t get much of a resolution on that front, except my take which was that Mom was just looking to put that all behind her and move on. I started not liking the me-only Hathaway character but she became more sympathetic as you explored her a little more. She feels, and feels deeply. Her reaction to those feelings are self-destructive, and it was very emotional for me to think about what she went through in that car. I thought that the rest of the cast played this out well.

March 26th, 2009

I watched Slumdog Millionaire last night and I enjoyed it. There are a lot of depressing images here from the slums in India , and I cannot imagine going there and seeing it first hand. At the same time it opens your eyes as to why you have a money pouch when you travel. It’s a feel-good story with a plot that is interesting But it was good to watch and created some real tension. I was most impressed by the child actors in this film as they are all very good. They made this film what it is. Sure, on some level I wonder how a young girl living in that kind of poverty and situation turns out to look the way that she does (and she is a striking woman). I liked the way that they explained Dev Patel’s knowledge of seemingly independent questions with things that have happened in his life. The relationship with the brother is an interesting one and the redemption that occurs at the end. Was this the BEST movie of the year? I don’t know. But so far it is a pretty good one.

March 23rd, 2009

The Day the Earth Stood Still: I have not seen the original. I liked the premise and the story and it was more engaging than I thought that it would be. Reeves plays a very wooden character well that is not really sure about being human, but this is a typical Reeves performance. This movie also plays on an interesting idea that John Cleese of all people, expands upon very well. Without giving too much away, you have a sense about how any alien being would see the human race if it had to deal with our leaders and our military. Time and time again, in ET, Starman and others you see our true colours only shown by who we are and how we react than by our over-protective government. I liked this movie and was glad that I watched it. I thought that it was touching when the boy took the alien to the meeting place nearby and made a request that only he could make. It’s a nice moment.

Hulk: So in re-making this movie you have a solid cast, with Norton, William Hurt and the underutilized Tim Roth. I do really wish that Tim Roth did more work, since he plays such a good villain. But then you try and make the Hulk the hero and a more tragic hero, without ultimately making it ‘tragic’. I think that the problem is that the viewer has no real feelings or sympathy for the green monster and that makes it fall flat. You also go through the first movie with the beginnings of the Hulk in the opening credits which now you presume that the viewer already gets and accepts. Banner now is being mercilessly tracked down, and he’s trying to prevent himself (or his blood) from being turned into a weapon. And yet in the end he accepts the need for utilizing his alter ego as a weapon. Norton was very involved in this project but I am not sure why. The fight scenes are still like watching King Kong on a computer game. The final clip of this was just pure cheese, and I am presuming that we are talking about the Hulk and Iron Man getting together here (God I hope not). I would like to see Norton stick to meatier material here, and utilize his real acting talents. They are wasted on this material. Liv Tyler, what the heck has happened to you? – or is it just me that thinks her overbite has gone into surreal mode.

Oddly enough I have seen Jennifer Connelly is two recent viewings with Pollack and The Day the Earth Stood Still and she would have been better in reprising the Hulk role than Tyler.

March 17th, 2009

So last night I watched on MPix movies on demand Pollock, which I had been meaning to see for a long time. I was interested in Ed Harris but importantly to see what it had to say about the creative process. Quite frankly I am not a fan of modern art, but I do enjoy the creative process and trying to better understand it. Pollock was a wanna-be great artist in my mind from the US working in the shadows of Picasso. Picasso seemed to be just one step ahead of him, even as they were contemporaries. What I had not remembered until later on in the movie was the performance here of Marcia Gay Harden, who was outstanding. She wins the Oscar as I am now seeing, and deservedly so. There is a scene where Pollock is demanding a child from her, after she had essentially demanded a wedding ring from him and she denies him. She has a great speech where she talks emotionally about the fact that they have little money, but he is a great artist but that he “needs, needs, needs” all the time. And the look on his face shows that he understands that she is correct. It is a powerful scene for a woman who is his greatest supporter, but who is more like his manager than his spouse and lover. He gets into this drip painting essentially and it’s messier and less precise than pointillism (like Georges Seurat and Claude Monet) which I enjoy very much. Anyway, it’s an interesting piece with some good performances. Funny these artist types though that are so self destructive. Here it’s alcoholism.

February 23rd, 2009

This weekend Ex-wife rented Blindness with what looked like a good cast (Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Julianne Moore). In a word it’s HORRIBLE. I am glad to only have caught the last 45 minutes of this, and thinking I utilized the other hour for better pursuits. This story is a mess. It reminds me a bit of Doomsday (a UK version of an outbreak movie with Scotland this time being isolated and rescuers going in to see who if anyone has survived). Neither movie really works that well but Doomsday was better. There is this uncertain virus in a city that makes people blind and so they are put in isolation. In truth I am not sure where Ex-wife finds these movies, but she strikes me in her selections like a kid playing with her parents’ gun. You don’t know what she’s going to pick, but in the end you know someone will get hurt. Usually it’s me having to sit through another painful selection. She usually hates my picks.

February 9th, 2009

So this weekend I managed to get out to see Taken. I will preface this by saying that at Gran Torino, Ex-wife saw the preview of this and thought that she would like to see it. A couple weeks later it is out, and we went to see it. I did not get out to see an Oscar nominated film. I highly doubt that this one will fall into that category at next year’s awards.

This is a fairly simple plot, but a departure for Liam Neeson in becoming more of an action spy hero guy (think Jason Bourne who remembers what he does for a living). Liam was a dedicated government man who let his job rule his life and it cost him his marriage. He has a daughter who he moved closer to in looking to re-build a relationship with her. She is a perky, 17yo just finishing high school who doesn’t lack for anything (Mom re-married well). Anyway, daughter wants to go to Paris with her 19yo friend and ‘stay with adults’ in Paris. Dad is concerned but begrudgingly agrees to let her go. Not minutes upon arriving, daughter ends up in trouble and is kidnapped. I am giving nothing away here that was not already given away in the trailer. The rest of the movie is spent with Dad trying to track down his daughter through the criminal underworld in Paris. The big bad Albanians (An Armenian co-worker would be proud) are a criminal syndicate that have a good stronghold in Paris. Suffice it to say that my difficulty with this movie comes from the level of disbelief required in having Neeson track down the baddies. Quite frankly I can’t see how even having someone’s name and picture alone allows you to find a guy attending a party in a city the size of Paris. Or that have a blurry picture in a reflection in a window allows you to find someone at CDG airport in Paris. That airport is monstrous! Anyway, I can confirm shrugging my shoulders at the end of it and thinking this was mind candy. The director seems to have seen a little too much Jason Bourne films and Neeson does his best to act like a spy. I smiled and laughed at the disdain and disinterest in all the other ‘victims’ in this scheme that Neeson was singularly focused. I cannot recommend seeing it in the theatre.

January 14th, 2009

So Saturday night I did get out to see Gran Torino and I enjoyed it a great deal. It was funnier than I had expected, with the racist humour that can be uncomfortable at times. At the same time, you see this as very much in character for this “grumpy old man” who lives in an old neighborhood in Michigan that is no longer “his people”. The theatre on Saturday (Colossus) was packed! Lots of people out to see movies, and I noted at least two more that I need to see (Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire). I caught the last 30 minutes in the Golden Globes and was pleasantly surprised to see Kate Winslet win two awards (Best Actress and Supporting Actress) and from her reaction and ill-preparedness for the latter she was too! I had thought that Kriten Scott Thomas is still the likely winner for the Oscar (or Meryl). It also seems that this Slumdog Millionaire is a movie to go see as well. It is getting quite a buzz. So I’ll need to check it out.

December 29th, 2008

The Bucket List was on Friday night and I watched 90% of it (missing the first 10%). I did not take anything out of it really. Then two nights ago WIT was on with Emma Thompson as a professor who is stricken with ovarian cancer (which took a law school friend of mine a number of years ago). If you want to see a movie about a cancer survivor, with months to live then the more realistic movie is Wit, and you also get more out of it. That was Ebert’s point on the Bucket List. Heck Terms of Endearment deals with it more realistically too, and is a better vehicle for Nicholson. So it is with eager anticipation that I look forward to a night out at the movies. Another movie to add to the list to see will be the new Winslet/DiCaprio film (Revolutionary Road). I did watch Mamma Mia the other night too. It was decent. I had seen the play. Pierce Brosnan should stay away from singing anything ever again. Streep I guess because she is who she is (one of the greatest living actresses) gets this role, but I think that there are better singers available here. The scenery is excellent and is a nice travel brochure for Greece. This movie (and play for that matter) turns on the song “The Winner Takes It All” and Streep handles it effectively. The stage version was even better I felt.

November 4th, 2008

So this week was one of those rare occasions that I actually had a chance to go out and see a REAL movie at a REAL movie theatre. The movie: Changeling. The Theatre: Colossus. It was a fairly busy night on Saturday to see the 7:10 show, yes, although I am an adult I still have a 4 yo who needs to get to his bed after a long day. Ex-wife had really wanted to see this one, and it turns out her sister and her husband saw the same movie at a different theatre on Saturday. I enjoyed this movie and the performances. As an actor I think it would be hard to take on the Jolie role here as you are constantly being asked to get emotional and tear up. It would be a difficult shoot for her. As a storyline, I liked the arc and where it went. I was surprised at a couple of the turns. It is more disturbing to see that this is a true story, and that there was an continues to be tremendous powers in the police force. Unfortunately all of the bad stories seem to come out of the LAPD. But I have little doubt other such stories exist elsewhere at the same time. I had a couple of questions for this film however, like how does a single woman with a child manage to get a mortgage for a house in 1928? I saw no family to speak of to help her out or co-sign for the mortgage. Presumably if your child disappeared, you would have parents and others for support. I further noted the one gaff in the print where it was evident that Angelina’s tattoo (one of many) on her back was clearly visible. I will not go further into this story than to say that I think that Clint Eastwood in his latter years is putting together an impressive body of work. Jolie has a very good performance here and could likely garner some Academy support for it. I would not be disappointed if she did. This story incidentally brings forth a notion that I have always maintained in that there have always been freaks and ‘bad people’ but in older times we were not so aware of them. Yet again, southern California has been home to a number of them. By sheer population increase alone (California has as many people as in all of Canada), we would have more of these freaks, but it is not to say that our children are in any more danger or any safer than before. Missing children and the attitude surrounding them has undergone some change with Amber alerts and the like, but there is still that feeling in police departments I suspect that searching for a young child is not a top priority. As a parent, this is disconcerting.