November 13th, 2007

So this weekend I had a chance to watch Freedom Writers. I had only intended on starting the movie, but I ended up finishing it. I enjoyed it. It has some clichés like all the movies of this type (Stand and Deliver being better I think) but it had some interesting wrinkles. I found it interesting that all the books are mothballed by the Dept Head and only given out to other ‘better students’. The argument used by the same Dept Head that you can’t teach this way to every group and that the teachers are there to move the students through. The Color Purple comment made by the junior level teacher was just amazing – tell me about the black perspective in this story….huh?! Did you actually say that?! I do find it interesting that they try and reach inner city kids with stories of the holocaust. How about apartheid? How about segregation in the south? They hint on that, but they didn’t fly in members of the Black Panthers or anything like that to speak to them, as opposed to the woman who housed Anne Frank. The Patrick Dempsey character did not come off well, since he couldn’t get away from watching football every time you saw him. His Wife may not have to take on three jobs if he could add more to household income no? Anyway, it was worthwhile watching. I like Hilary Swank, and think that she is very genuine.

I also watched the beginning of A Good Year, since I had previously missed it. Reminded me of Trading Places and the orange futures when he holds on to the price and then dumps it only it buy it back. You’d think the securities commission would look into that further. Upon second watching they do try to make Crowe appear more ‘geeky’ and it really doesn’t work. In many ways that offscreen perception of him hurts him for this. The female lead, though, (Marion Cotillard) still glows in the scenes that she is in and I am going to get that Edith Piaf story.

November 8th, 2007

Watched Little Children with Kate Winslet on the weekend and I enjoyed it. It was an exercise in watching people who are so into themselves that they harm those around them in the most profound ways. The performances were all good, I especially liked seeing Kelly Leack (from Bad News Bears fame) looking awful and creepy as a released sex offender (actor Jackie Earle Haley). The buddy too from Truman Show was here as a disgraced cop and looks terrible and thin. Overall well worth catching and I was thinking that this was up for some nominations. Winslet’s hubby is a piece of work here, and Jennifer Connolly plays the innocent blinded busy housewife well who has her ‘perfect’ son sleeping with her all the time….(gee that certainly resounded with me). Anyway, if you get a chance, check it out.

October 23rd, 2007

Watched A Good Year with Russell Crowe last night and was finishing it from catching the ending a few nights back. Yes, it’s a formula movie and we have seen it many times in movies like Under the Tuscan Sun and Family Man and Baby Boom where the workaholic person who cares only for money, learns to love and appreciate a beautiful place and settle down. Naturally they almost always have a multi-million dollar place given to them for consideration, and in this case it’s an estate with pool, tennis court and vineyard in Provence in France. The scenery is lovely and worthwhile itself (and probably the reason I like the movie so much). The performances are good as I liked the people and wanted the best for them. The female lead is striking (Marion Cotillard) and I hope is in more movies to come. Russell seems to be getting back on screen after a bit of a hiatus, and does a decent job here. This was directed by Ridley Scott, which surprised me as he seems to do more epics, but he has a very impressive body of work (Blade Runner, Alien, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven to name a few)…

Perhaps it all gets explained away in the idea that I am thinking about spending some time in Europe this summer and it would be nice to head to the south of France and enjoy this scenery. I was able to remove the public Russell Crowe badboy here from the character (as he does his best to play Hugh Grant as a cad)….but I also liked her (Marion Cotillard) and I am presently trying to find out where I can see La Vie En Rose which has her playing Edith Piaf. Looks like a good movie that I heard nothing about. It looks like it is out on DVD, but is only playing in Toronto at a small theatre on Queen Street. A long drive for a movie headed to video soon, and likely not a big screen flick anyway.

October 18th, 2007

So last night was watching 1408 with John Cusack. Anna had rented > it, along with Georgia Rule which I will not watch. On to the movie which I have to say was clearly a mind fuck. What was with that really?! If you have not seen it, the basic premise is that a cynical and disillusioned writer of Horror Motels Guidebooks is visiting places with dark pasts and debunking ghost theories. He is then told NOT to visit Room 1408 in a fancy hotel in New York. They refuse to offer him the room. He goes anyway, and ultimately after a memorable encounter with the hotel manager (Samuel L Jackson) decides to stay in that room. The rest is really a series of unrelated and strange happenings for a room that are entirely unexplained. At some point I guess you must just have to go with it, but my practical side always prevented that from happening.

For example, if you have a knife/letter opener why not remove the hinges from the locked door and press the door out? You seem to have access to the hinges. Or perhaps what has Mary McCormack done to herself recently to look so very different from her roles in Private Parts and Deep Impact?

Anyway, ex-wife remarked halfway through that she was bored, even though she fell asleep prior to that. It obviously did not keep her attention. There were a couple of genuinely funny lines, but otherwise I did not like it. I was not scared, and thought there were enough clichés of how to scare people that it didn’t work on me.

September 6th, 2007

So last night I ended up watching Thin. On some level I guess I wanted to see some of the motivation for someone punishing their body like this. There are so many extremes in the US as you have the overweight population that cannot grasp the anorexic folks – and then these people that binge and purge and have a terrible self body image. The troubling one to me in all this was the young 30yo divorced mother with two young kids. She talks a great game but inside there are far deeper issues at play. The one twin, to me, had HUGE twin issues beyond just body image. Her parents split and there is obvious animosity growing there with Mom in Utah. In the end, I did not learn a great deal here, but echoed the twins sentiment that she should just ‘get over it’ and on with her life. Food should NOT be the defining moment in any day, three times a day. It’s fuel to let you do other things. And the little 15yo who just wants to die – well why not just take your own life rather than starving yourself to death – with everyone watching? Can we say Attention Whore?! Not much sympathy from me as you can tell. As a movie, I can’t recommend it.

June 26th, 2007

I rented The Last King of Scotland this weekend and The Good German. Ex-wife wanted to see German. I have not seen it yet as I watched Last King instead. I enjoyed the movie. It had some fun moments, but was also a scary look inside an oppressive regime. You wonder when the people of Africa are even going to get the kind of leadership that they really need, rather than maniacs who take power by force, steal from the people and then get overthrown. It’s a vicious cycle. I had not realized that Amin was British trained and supported. Much like Hussein was trained and backed by the US. It must be hard however dealing with someone so powerful and yet so volatile. You are constantly walking on eggshells wondering when he would blow up – or just decide to put a bullet in your head. The good doctor was lured in by the power (and the car) and overlooked some of the scarier aspects of the personality. I thought that Whitakker did a great job. It was good to see Gillian Anderson in movie again, that didn’t revolve around aliens. She was good too. And the young doctor should probably try to not let his little head make decisions that he cannot back up. What a foolish thing to do with one of Amin’s wives, even if she is out of favour. I did enjoy the bedroom scene with the gas and releasing of gas. Unlike some commentary I did not feel sympathetic to Amin. I guess he was always surrounded by sharks, but that’s the life that you choose when you take over power by force. A thumb’s up for me. I was impressed by the performance and feel it was justified for the Oscar. He’s a better actor than what he did on ER to be sure.

I had noted Anderson’s name in the credits and wondered when I would see her. It didn’t take long as she was right at the beginning when he arrives (that would be after he bangs the girl from the bus of course). Anyway, I had hoped that she would have a larger part, but she did not. She had done a few things outside X-files, notably the period piece House of Mirth which was pretty dark itself. Anyway I enjoyed the film.

June 5th, 2007

Finally, I am not sure whether I told you that I saw Invincible or not. It was okay. More down-in-the-dumps guys getting a chance to live their life in pro sports (like the Rookie, or Rocky or other stories like this). It’s filled with clichés and standard storylines with nothing really to add to it. The female lead is the ‘dirty girl’ from 40 YO Virgin who worked at the bookstore and had fun in the bathtub. Not much else to say about it. I have re-visited DaVinci Code again this month and I like it more upon viewing it a second time. Yes, Tom Hanks is not right for the role, and I would have liked a prettier Sofie, but I do like the scenes of Paris, and the shots in the Louvre as well as Westminster Abbey. As I was there a year ago, it brought back fond memories. I do like the story, and wonder about all this making Jesus a God stuff, rather than just a man with great ideas. There’s no denying the oppression of women and the desire of the church to maintain full control. But does Sofie have to be the last in the line? I don’t know. I did watch Cars again, and do not like Owen Wilson at all. I had only hoped that they would put an elongated crooked nose on the car to make it more lifelike. And I did catch the early part of Something About Mary the other night and laughed my ass off again. I love that movie. The scene at Mary’s house with the baseball and the zipper is priceless. Matt Dillon is great too….

May 28th, 2007

Friday I took the kids to see Shrek 3. I had considered Pirates Of The Caribbean 3, but with a 2:45 running time I didn’t want them home at midnight. Shrek was okay, but nothing to write home about or rush to go see. Like most trilogies it loses its steam for creative new ideas. Instead of fresh and interesting, you have familiar and rehashing. The Pinocchio bit which has been a commercial was very good. Where was the Fairy Godmother?! In many ways I see the actors milking it and not putting in their best effort. It’s a story that is looking for a direction, and a tone. In what could have been a more touching moment of loss, instead there are jokes (or apparent jokes) made that had my audience laughing when they could have been sad. Too bad really. I am also not a Justin Timberlake fan, and see no reason to have him as a potential ruler of the kingdom. I kept looking for the tie in with the story of Arthur (as I know it) and it was not a good tie in. Is there Excalibur there? I dunno.

“You should start a blog”….

Update January 30th, 2019:

I have added a Search Window on the Sidebar (=========> ) to allow for previous Reviews to be found. It took a while to figure out how to add this feature which to me is necessary for anyone looking to see what any thoughts have been for something that they wish to watch. You will note that there are multiple entries for many movies.

I hope this makes the reviews more accessible and available for those visiting. Happy movie watching!

Original Posting:

Thanks for joining me! For many years I have been sharing movie reviews with my good friend Alison. What started out as Monday water cooler discussions on what films we saw (we seemed to see movies often) then turned into emails. She moved from her job. I moved from mine, but we still kept in contact.

The reviews have been been shared with others over time, but the beginnings remain the same. When I review, the email was addressed to Alison, and then others were added.

So here I am. After much thought, the idea of sharing the movie reviews over time has finally taken shape.

I must early on make a shout out to the late, great, Pulitzer prize winning reviewer Roger Ebert, from the Chicago Sun Times. I depended on Roger and his reviews, and his TV show At The Movies with Gene Siskel. Now I didn’t always agree with Roger and his reviews, but I would read and enjoy how he viewed these films. It is not unusual for me to refer to him, or wonder what he would think about a particular film.

I am adding present reviews as some historical reviews as I find them. You will also see some more lengthy discussions about films as well (like discussions about Alien Covenant or Star Wars The Last Jedi).

These of course are all one man’s opinion. Nothing more, and nothing less. If it can save you from spending $13.99 on the latest film in the theatre, by avoiding a bad film (in my opinion) then great! If it opens up a level of discourse on a film and a debate – I have always enjoyed debating films (and other things).

Maggie Gyllenhaal at TIFF premiere of The Kindergarten Teacher