James Berardineilli’s review of Hancock cuts to the case: “Hancock is a hodgepodge of intriguing ideas that, if developed further or presented as more than throw-ins to a confused production, might have made for a unique superhero film… Hancock is sometimes funny, sometimes clever, and occasionally involving, but it’s never brilliant and its edge is compromised by the neutering that accompanies the teen-friendly PG-13 rating.” Will Smith plays a homeless, alcoholic, belligerent super hero who grudgingly hires a PR man to improve his public image. So it’s a comedy, right? Or maybe an action movie? Maybe it’s a modern day Greek tragedy (I’m serious). Hancock had the potential to be a great movie in a class of its own, but it doesn’t know what it wants to be. So it’s a mess. It’s almost worth watching just to think about how good it could have been.
Choke tells the story of a guy, Sam Rockwell, who goes to Sex Addicts Anonymous meetings to hook up with other sex addicts. He also visits his free-spirited but crazy mother, Angelica Huston, in a hospital where she is slowly dying from dementia. The movie starts off as a comedy and gradually eases into a more dramatic (but still entertaining) mode as we learn why this guy became a sex addict. That may not sound like a fun movie, but it made me think about all the crazy stuff people deal with as children who are then expected to grow up and be “normal” functioning adults. You might like this one if you’re a fan of an obscure 1996 movie called Box of Moon Light. Not everyone will go for it, though. It’s not exactly mainstream, which is probably the reason I like it so much. I’m beginning to think if a movie gets anywhere between 50 and 60 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s likely to be something I’ll appreciate. (This has been an extremely informative commentary. I know.)
Burn After Reading is the kind of movie I pick up at the video store when I can’t decide on anything else. It’s full of quirky, crazy characters who are fun to watch, and the last scene is hilarious. So it’s not a complete waste of time. But the story of a CIA agent who loses some classified files — and that’s a condensed version of the absurdly convoluted storyline — is simply a vehicle for a cast of A-list actors to have fun and go nuts. It’s deliberately inconsequential. You’d have to be a fan of the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou to appreciate this one.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is Woody Allen’s most satisfying movie since 2005’s Match Point. It’s an enjoyable and thoroughly entertaining story about two young women (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson) on vacation in Barcelona who become involved with a local painter (Javier Bardem). The painter also has a love-hate relationship with his ex-wife (Penélope Cruz) that creates a dynamic tension within all their relationships. Scarlett Johansson plays a Barbie doll again, which is passable for her role. Rebecca Hall, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem (the psycho killer from No Country For Old Men) give performances that are solid, right on the mark, energized but nuanced in a manner makes their characters seem like real people. Well-acted and well-written, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is neither an outright comedy or drama. Neither is it a masterpiece, but it’s fun.
I tried watching Woody Allen’s Scoop last night but only managed to get through the first 30 minutes. The script has (had) potential: A reporter dies, meets someone in the afterlife who gives him the scoop on a great story, and then he comes back down to earth as a spirit to give the scoop to another reporter. Unfortunately, the other reporter is Scarlett Johansson, who is a painfully non-comedic actor. Woody Allen’s comedic acting isn’t getting much better with age either. I heard recently that he’s decided to only make dramatic films for now on. Good. He should also avoid acting in his movies himself, give up on trying to write dialogue for young characters and stop casting actresses who look like Barbie dolls.
If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen all there is worth seeing in this movie. Any 3 minutes of Flight of the Conchords has 10 times more laughs than Tropic Thunder. Normally I’d stay clear of anything with Ben Stiller’s name on it (he wrote and directed this one), but I heard good things about Robert Downey Jr. playing a black guy that made me think, “Okay, maybe it’s alright.” But it’s not. I admit I laughed out loud maybe 3 times after some of Downey’s lines, but the rest of it was like every other Ben Stiller so-called comedy: a waste of time. Not my kind of comedy.
Death at a Funeral is the funniest movie I’ve seen since Shaun of The Dead. It’s about a funeral that goes horribly wrong, wrong and wrong. Once it gets going, it never lets up. It’s all about letting the actors do their thing — reacting to events and situations that, even if these things happened in real life, you’d have to laugh. By the time I got to the end, I missed half the jokes because I was laughing too hard.
Oct. 21/08 post script: I tried watching it again tonight and couldn’t get into it. It takes about 20 minutes for things to kick into high gear, anyway, but it didn’t work for me even after waiting out the 20 minutes. Still, it’s worth taking a chance on. I laughed my ass off the first time I saw it.
It’s best not to read any reviews or watch any trailers for this movie. They give away too much.
Here’s the set-up to Small Time Crooks: Some small time crooks devise a plan to open a bakery next door to a bank and tunnel underground into the bank’s vault. But the bakery does such good business that they make more money from the bakery then they would have from robbing the bank. That’s the first 30 minutes of the movie and it’s funny as hell. These guys are completely incompetent criminals. The scene where they first try to dig the tunnel with a jack hammer in the basement of the bakery had me howling. After that the story drags and becomes too serious. Individual scenes work on their own, and Tracy Ullman gives an excellent performance as the baker (and Woody Allen’s wife), but the comedy loses its momentum long before the final credits.
I’ll probably watch Michel Gondry’s next movie without reading any reviews first, because even when he’s made a ho-hum movie like Be Kind Rewind, it’s still more interesting than 90% of the movies that play at my local multiplex throughout the year. That said, I’m disappointed to say I wasn’t too engaged by this one. Jack Black’s magnetized brain erases all the tapes in a video store. He and his buddy set out to re-shoot all the movies onto the original VHS tapes, which are then rented out to customers. The tapes are a big hit and business starts to boom. It’s good-natured wackiness — and I love the idea of it — but it’s more suited for a short film, not a feature. (The Be Kind Rewind website looks like fun.)
Waitress is a feel-good “dramedy” about a waitress with a talent for making pies who gets pregnant and falls for someone who isn’t her husband. It has a cute quirky quality that seems popular with shows like Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me, if you like that kind of thing. It’s sweet and harmless, something my mother-in-law would probably enjoy.
Judged as a comical zombie movie, Shaun of the Dead succeeds completely. I laughed all the way through it. The zombies are funny, not scary or gross, and the main characters are hilarious. It’s a clever, smartly-written comedy in a style similar to The Office (the UK original). It’s one of the funniest movies I’ve seen for a long time.
The plot to An American Werewolf in London is simple: a guy gets bit by a werewolf and becomes a werewolf and kills people. The 1980s special effects, although dated in places, hold up well. One of the first movies I saw on VHS, this comedy-horror movie has its scary moments, but mostly it’s just fun. Not a bad B-movie.
Juno is a a cute, quirky, clever and heart-warming film about a teenager who gets pregnant and decides to give the baby up for adoption. This year’s Little Miss Sunshine, though not nearly as sweet (which is a good thing). I didn’t love it, but I liked it.
Woody Allen cannot write for younger characters. His words sound wrong coming out of this guy’s mouth. I had to give up on Anything Else after the first 30 minutes.
The Hidden Fortress is a light-hearted adventure comedy about two losers trying to take the money and run, more or less. Add to it a warrior and a princess, some exciting chase scenes and a couple of fights — under the direction Akira Kurosawa, just about every frame of it is a work of art.
The Science of Sleep is the most fun I’ve had watching a movie is 2007. Written and directed by Michel Gondry, it’s a trip to just sit back and watch the stuff that pours out of this guy’s head. The same goes for the main character of the movie. At least half the movie consists of his dream life where everything is created from clay, yarn, cardboard, cellophane, dried macaroni — the kind of things kids create in art class, but fully animated and interactive. The movie shares much the same look and feel of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which Gondry co-wrote and directed), but leans more towards the comedic side due in large part to the extremely likeable, childish performance by Gael Garica Bernal. Some might think of it as a love story, but it’s more about the exploration of the inner world of a guy who has a lot of growing up to do. Sort of. (The DVD commentary is strange and funny, too.)
Nothing is a comedic science-fantasy story of two losers who, after having the worst day of their lives, manage to make the whole world disappear except for the house they’re living in. And that’s only the first 15 minutes. You have to be a little warped to appreciate this one. I watch it every couple years. It’s a hoot.
I’ve watched maybe two episodes of The Simpsons in the past 3 years, and I don’t think I laughed once. I laughed out loud all throughout The Simpsons Movie though. The secondary characters don’t have much to do, but it’s fun. If you like the TV show, you’ll like the movie.
Everyone Says I Love You is a musical by Woody Allen, and ya know, it ain’t that bad. People breaking out into song usually doesn’t work for me, but the acting is good, the story is entertaining and the songs are fun. It’s well done. I enjoyed it.
James Berardineilli’s review of Hancock cuts to the case: “Hancock is a hodgepodge of intriguing ideas that, if developed further or presented as more than throw-ins to a confused production, might have made for a unique superhero film… Hancock is sometimes funny, sometimes clever, and occasionally involving, but it’s never brilliant and its edge is compromised by the neutering that accompanies the teen-friendly PG-13 rating.” Will Smith plays a homeless, alcoholic, belligerent super hero who grudgingly hires a PR man to improve his public image. So it’s a comedy, right? Or maybe an action movie? Maybe it’s a modern day Greek tragedy (I’m serious). Hancock had the potential to be a great movie in a class of its own, but it doesn’t know what it wants to be. So it’s a mess. It’s almost worth watching just to think about how good it could have been.
I tried watching Woody Allen’s 
