Doug's Featured Movie Review:
The
Hunger Games – Directed by Gary Ross
I
took my wife to see Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil for
her birthday at the Target Center. It was incredible!
It was both a rock concert with a live band (many of
whom actually used to tour with Jackson before his
death) and a mind-boggling display of dancers and
acrobatics that only Cirque knows how to produce. My
only complaint would be that I paid about a year’s
salary for 5th row seats. You would of
thought a view that close would guarantee the best sight
lines. Au contraire my friends…. in trying to appease
the rest of the audience, they had a main stage up front
and then a ramp that went out into the middle of the
floor with another stage. Through the entire first half
of the show we constantly had to stretch our necks back
and forth to try and see what was happening on both
stages. I felt like I was at a tennis match. It really
sucked…but after the intermission we got permission to
sit in a couple empty chairs in the back row of the main
floor seating. Needless to say, the second half was
more relaxing and enjoyable than the first. The next
day I went to see "The Hunger Games" to see if it
was all it was cracked up to be. I have not seen so
much hype since the first Twilight came out.
Long Story Short:
Based on the
best selling books by Suzanne Collins…the film is set in
the dystopian future of a nation called Panem. The
nation is divided into 12 districts, all surrounding the
“Capitol.” Each year 24 kids between the ages of 12 to
18 are chosen to compete in the “Hunger Games.” A death
match where only one teen will walk out alive. The
reason for the barbaric ritual is the result of an
uprising years earlier. There used to be 13 districts
and they all joined together to try and over throw the
“Capitol”. The rebellion was unsuccessful and the 13th
district was completely destroyed and wiped off the map
as a result. The “Capitol” holds the event each year as
a reminder to the districts of who’s really in
charge!
My Take:
First off, I was amazed at how violent the movie was and
still maintained a PG-13 rating. I don’t know if I am
just getting old or what… but I saw so many moms and
dads with their little 8 and 9 year olds going in to see
this movie. I’m not saying the kids will be traumatized
for life but it just seems a little inappropriate for
such a young audience.
With that said…as a
mature adult (yeah right) …I thought the movie was just
ok. Yes, I know I will probably be publicly flogged
for saying such a terrible thing. I find it hard to
believe that it made over $250 million in only 10
days…the most ever for a nonsequel. I just didn’t think
it was worthy of those kind of numbers. Of course, I
thought the same thing about the Twilight movies.
Obviously, I am not the target demo they are shooting
for and those best selling books certainly help to prime
the pump.
Jennifer Lawrence and
Josh Hutcherson do an admirable job as our two heroes,
Katness Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. However, I don’t
think either convinced me that they truly cared about
each other or that they might have a growing connection
for each other in our next movie adventure. Their
relationship seemed a little shallow even after all they
go through together. Woody Harrelson was great as a
former winner of the games who has now become a bitter
drunk chosen to prepare the kids for battle. Lenny
Kravitz plays Cinna, assigned to making Katniss and
Peeta look good for the viewing public and to gain the
attention of the all-important “sponsors”. It’s not a
huge role but when he is on screen he effortlessly
commands your attention. He is a natural and I wouldn’t
mind seeing him in his own movie vehicles in the future.
The visuals of the movie were pretty good. However for
a movie that’s made a zillion dollars, I would have
thought a little more of a budget would have been
afforded for some bigger Harry Potter type effects and
eye-popping cinematography. A big portion of the movie
is simply filmed in the forest with a single held
camera…. and that gets a little stale after awhile.
The bottom line…I
thought the movie was good…I just didn’t think it lived
up to all the hype. Since I have been told that I am
the only person in the world who has not read all three
books…maybe that has something to do with it. Like I
have always said…it’s just my opinion and I’m stick’ in
to it!!!
Doug's Featured Movie Review:
21 Jump Street – Directed by Phil Lord, Christopher
Miller
It’s
hard to believe how nice it has been outside. Last
week, I got in my first round of golf at Majestic Oaks
in Ham Lake. They opened up nine holes on their
Crossroads course. I have been bragging to everyone
how I scored a 44 . That’s pretty darn good for me.
What I haven’t been telling them is the last two holes
were under construction and shortened by about 400
yards. We’ll keep that our little secret, if you don’t
mind. Nice weather or not…I always make time for the
movies! I was in the mood for a good laugh or two so I
decided to give "21 Jump Street" a chance to put a
smile on my face.
Long Story Short:
As the movie opens we are transported back to a high
school circa 2005. Schmidt (Jonah Hill), a nerdy
senior, is awkwardly stumbling through a conversation
with the good-looking popular girl. He has finally
worked up enough nerve to ask her to prom. The school
jock, Jenko (Channing Tatum) overhears the conversation
and embarrasses him to the point that Schmidt retreats
on his prom notions and goes back to being everyone’s
whipping boy. Flash-forward to present day …we now
find Schmidt and Jenko have become unlikely buds who
help each other get through police academy training.
Upon graduation, the less than dynamic duo is paired
together on park patrol. After totally screwing up
their first big bust, the two are reassigned to 21 Jump
Street.
Enter Captain Dickson
(Ice Cube) their new boss who has them going undercover
at a local high school to try and take down the supplier
of a new synthetic drug before it spreads to other
schools. The two donned their backpacks and head back
to school. What they find is a world that has turned
totally upside down from the way things used to be.
There is now a big role reversal in play…the mindless
jocks are now considered the dweebs and the tech savvy
geeks are now considered to be the in crowd.
This movie is filled
with lots of well-crafted funny lines and visuals. From
the moment we see Tatum and Hill on their first police
assignment as park police riding their little police
bicycles…the laughs just keep on rolling. Even at his
young age, Hill is already a comedy veteran with
brilliant comedic timing. He is also the master of
deadpan humor. I’ve only seen Tatum in more macho roles
so I didn’t know what to expect. However, he had no
problem keeping up with Hill and the two played off of
each other like a modern day Martin and Lewis. (My son
will read that and ask why I am comparing them to those
two explorer guys.) Ice Cube nailed his parody of the
stereotypical no nonsense, hard ass boss we used to
always see on cop TV shows back in the 70’s. Dave
Franco played the yuppie drug pusher at the high school.
I predict this guy is going places and not just because
his brother is James Franco. He is a scene-stealer with
tons of charisma.
For me, if a movie has
one or two great scenes…those moments will often make
the movie worth the price of admission…"21 Jump Street"
has about a hundred. This movie is a great value and
you definitely will get your money’s worth of big laughs
even at today’s crazy ticket prices! Next up, I will
be heading off this afternoon to see if The
Hunger Games is worth all the hype…. more later!
Best Cinematography:
Robert Richardson, "Hugo" Best Art
Direction: Dante Ferretti and Francesca
Lo Schavo, "Hugo" Best Costume
Design: Mark Bridges, "The Artist" Best Makeup:
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland, "The Iron Lady" Best Foreign
Language Film: "A Separation" Best Supporting
Actress: Octavia Spencer, "The Help" Best Editing:
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, "The Girl With the Dragon
Tattoo" Best Sound
Editing: Phillip Stockton and Eugene
Gearty, "Hugo" Best Sound
Mixing: Tom Fleischman and John Midgley,
"Hugo" Best Documentary:
"Undefeated" Best Animated
Feature: "Rango" Best Visual
Effects: "Hugo" Best Supporting
Actor: Christopher Plummer, "Beginners" Best Original
Score: Ludovic Bource, "The Artist" Best Original
Song: Bret McKenzie, "Man or Muppet" Best Adapted
Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon
and Jim Rash, "The Descendants" Best Original
Screenplay: Woody Allen, "Midnight in
Paris" Best Live Action
Short: "The Shore" Best Documentary
Short: "Saving Face" Best Animated
Short: "The Fantastic Flying Books Of
Mr. Morris Lessmore" Best Director:
Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist" Best Actor:
Jean Dujardin, "The Artist" Best Actress:
Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady" Best Picture:
"The Artist"
Doug's Featured Movie Review:
The Descendants directed by Alexander Pain
With
the Oscars just around the corner…I thought I
better go see a few more of the contenders. I’ve
already seen The Help, Hugo, Moneyball, The Tree
of Life, War Horse and now "The Descendants". Out
of that lot, I would give the statue to The Help,
hands down! That movie was amazing. Of course I
have not seen Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close or
The Artist so they might be able to change my
mind. I have heard some really good things about
The Artist and can’t wait to review it. Now it’s
not that the other movies aren’t good but to me
they shouldn’t even be up for the award…well maybe
War Horse. Best Movie of the year should be an
epic that moves you to the point of facebooking
all your friends to say “hurry go see this
movie”. The only one that did that for me was
The
Help. With that said, I had the opportunity to go
see George Clooney the other day in The
Descendants.
Long Story Short:
Matt (George Clooney) by all appearances should be
one happy guy. Beautiful wife and kids,
great job, lots of money and, to top it all off,
he lives in Hawaii. But appearances, as we
all know, are not always what they seem. As
the movie opens, we see his wife water skiing and
enjoying the day. Next thing you know, we
are at a hospital. Turns out his wife is now
in a coma as a result of a terrible boating
accident that same day. Matt starts to see,
what he thought was his perfect world, start to
crumble. He has no parenting skills
whatsoever and is totally out of touch with his
two daughters. 17 year old Alexandra (Shailene
Woodley) and 10 year old Scottie (Amara Miller)
are not about to make his life any easier. They
show him no respect and proceed to make his life
so miserable that he probably wishes he was the
one in the coma. Matt and his relatives are
descendants of a Hawaiian royal bloodline. He is
the executor for the family estate. He oversees
an incredibly valuable and vast piece of land that
they have owned in Hawaii since the 1860’s. Part
of the family wants to sell for millions while the
others just want to keep the land from
developers. More headaches for poor Matt. Can
things get any worse…you betcha… to top it all off
Matt finds out his wife has been cheating on him.
Once again, we find an actor who puts in a great
performance that takes him outside his usual
comfort zone. We are so use to seeing Clooney as
the good looking, always in control, leading man.
This time out he is about ready to have a nervous
break down as he comes full circle in putting his
life back together again. The two girls that
played his daughters were exceptional and a
driving force on why the movie worked so well. I
was a little annoyed, at first, with a surfer dude
type character named Sid (Nick Krause) that was
introduced early on and then hung around for
almost every scene. I thought his character was
going to be a shallow unnecessary distraction for
the film. Turns out I was wrong and the kid grew
on you after awhile. The talented Beau Bridges
stops by for a smaller part as one of the cousins
who wants to get his moneys worth out of the
family estate.
I thought the movie was very good. Is it worthy
of best picture…I don’t think so. Is Clooney’s
performance worthy of an Oscar?…maybe. When I
look at the nominees, he probably has a pretty
good chance. To me it’s a pretty weak field this
year for all the categories. I mean when Johah
Hill is nominated for an Academy award…something
is not right. Now don’t get me wrong, I like
Jonah Hill but I also like Pee Wee Herman. Go
see the movies and you decide for yourself. Fill
out your own Oscar ballot and let me know how you
do. Here is a link to this years nominee’s.
The
Academy Awards
Some
of my fondest childhood memories, of times spent with my
Grandma Solem, would have to include watching Vern
Gagne’s AWA wrestling TV show. She totally bought in to
their shtick and if you even hinted that you thought it
was fake you would never be asked back to her modest
home in northeast Minneapolis. I like, most of you,
could of cared less if it was real or fake…for a kid
back in those days, it was some of the best
entertainment you would find anywhere!
This past weekend my good buddy Scott and I got wind that the Parkway
Theater in south Minneapolis was going to be having a
special screening of "The Wrestler". Many of you probably
associate that movie title with Mickey Rourke and the
huge sleeper hit that came out just a couple years
back. However, there was another movie by the same name
that opened right here in the Twin Cities on February
19, 1974. Those strolling up the red carpet that day
were not your typical Hollywood stars but instead the
most memorable cast of grizzled misfits the Twin Cities
has ever known. The Crusher, Dick the Bruiser, Wahoo
McDaniels, Dusty Rhodes, Marty O’Neil, Nick Bockwinkel,
Wally Karbo, Larry Hennig, Dick Murdoch, Ric Flair and
Superstar Billy Graham were all making their big screen
debut.
As the story goes…Gagne scraped together $450,000 of his own money to put
the movie together. He cast Ed Asner and Elaine Giftos
as the only bona fide Hollywood types to give the movie
a little more credibility. Everyone else, appearing in
the film, came from Gagne’s stable of AWA cronies.
Asner plays Frank Bass, a wrestling promoter who is
trying to put facilitate the super bowl of wrestling.
The idea is to bring together all the champions from the
different associations to square off against each other
to see who will become the one supreme grappler. Gagne,
47 years old at the time, plays Mike Bullard, an
over-the-hill champion of one of the associations (talk
about type casting). Everybody thinks Bullard’s all
washed up but we in the audience know better. The
movies climax is a big match between Bullard and an up
and comer named Lord “Tally Ho” Blears. The movie was
good fun, if for no other reason than to see all those
wild and crazy wrestlers who you grew up with as a kid.
Before
screening the movie, Greg Gagne (Verne’s son) got up on
stage and delighted the packed house with some of the
incredible stories that took place behind the scenes
back in the glory days of AWA wrestling. The highlight
of the night, for most I am sure, is the fact that
Verne Gagne himself, was able to come and enjoy the
event with the rest of us. The crowd lined up and paid
homage to the one time champion of wrestling
entertainment. Now 85 and suffering from dementia, until
Saturday, he had not made a local public appearance in
15 years. At least for this particular Saturday, he
showed no signs of that terrible disease. He seemed,
once again, in his element… adored by the crowd…so
appreciative of all the fun memories he had helped to
provide.
I can’t believe I
didn’t go golfing this week at Majestic with my
friends while I had the chance. The weather on
Tuesday was something like 50 degrees, sunny and no
wind. It doesn’t get much better in my
book…especially considering it’s the middle of
January! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not big on ice
fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, ice skating, or any
other activity that requires standing out in the cold
pretending you are having a good time. Give me the
winter we have been having and I can at least keep
from crying. The only thing that sucks is all the
businesses and people who rely on that white stuff for
their livelihood. That’s the one nice thing about
going to the movies…it doesn’t matter if there’s a
foot of snow or 100-degree temperatures…it’s always
great weather conditions inside the neighborhood
multiplex. (I promise to change up my feeble
transitions next movie review.)
Long Story Short:"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is Columbia Picture’s
first of three films that was put out as an adaptation
of Steig Larsson’s The Millennium Trilogy. This film
is based on the first novel of the trilogy that has
sold over 50 million copies worldwide. The movie is
directed by David Fincher (The Social Club) and stars
Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Craig plays Mikaw
Blomkvist, a once highly respected but disheveled,
alcohol indulging, investigative journalist. He writes
an unflattering piece on billionaire industrialist
Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. As the movie opens, he is found
guilty of libel for the article. Despite the verdict
and the disgrace that comes with it, another titan of
industry and the head of Sweden’s wealthiest family,
Henrik Vanger, hires Blomkvist because of his thorough
investigative skills. He is asked to find out what
happened to Vanger’s niece, who disappeared 40 years
earlier. Vanger promises Blomkvist not only to pay
him a kings ransom if he finds out the truth but will
also give him the evidence he needs to bring down
Wennerstrom. Blomkvist needs a little help for such a
daunting investigation. He ends up working with a
pierced, tattooed, gothic punk rocker named Lisbeth
Salander (Rooney Mara). She also just happens to be
unbelievably brilliant with amazing skills that are
not taught at your local schools .
Let me just say from
the get go…I was totally bowled over by the Rooney
Mara performance. The Lisbeth Salander character is
one of a kind. In the beginning she appears asocial,
demure, fragile and passive to a fault. But it
doesn’t take us long to realize this is one woman you
don’t want to mess with!!! Everyone had warned me
about the brutal rape scene in the movie. I admit it
was disturbing but found the movie was worth the price
of admission for how Salander exacts her revenge on
the assailant. Lisbeth Salander is the glue that
holds this complex, thought provoking story line
together.
I found Daniel Craig’s
performance to be quite refreshing. I am so used to
seeing him, in other movies, where he is allowed to
get by with just his good looks, never a wrinkle
tailored clothing and over the top action skills.
This time around he looks and dresses like Colombo and
relies on his acting chops to carry the movie, instead
of a bunch of special effects. If you had told me at
the beginning of the movie that there would eventually
be some sort of hook up between these two polar
opposites, Blomkvist and Salander, I would have
thought you were crazy. But when it happens, it works
and works in a big way.
Serial killers,
corruption, incest… it’s a twisted, cerebral,
thriller of a movie…the likes of which I have not
experienced since Polanski’s Chinatown came out in
1973. The movie will have you on the edge of your
seat more than once. If you like movies where you are
not spoon fed and actually have to think for a change,
you’ve hit the jackpot with "The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo"!
Hope
all of you are enjoying the holiday season…despite the
lack of snow. To be completely up front, if we saw a
light dusting on Christmas day that is all I would
need to see for the entire winter. Anyone that says
they enjoy shoveling the driveway or scraping the ice
of the roof is either a liar or should have their head
examined, or both! Give me that nasty looking brown
stuff until spring and I will do no complaining.
I, like most of you,
have been busy attending holiday dinners and other
seasonal celebrations involving lots of food and
merriment. I seriously have put on what feels like
100 lbs. I am what they refer to as calorie
challenged. I blame it on people like my dad…who
makes this cheese ball every year, for the big party
my folks have, and it’s filled with crumpled bleu
cheese, cream cheese and other artery clogging
ingredients…but man is it good!!! I’m thinking that I
will make a promise not to eat so much starting the
first of the new year…I wonder if anyone else has ever
tried doing that???? Oh well…tis the season. It’s
also a great time of year for some really big movies
to hit the big screen! This week’s review is one of
them.
Long story short:
"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" is round two
for Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law reprising their
roles as Sherlock and Watson. The movie opens with
some pretty big explosions that are a prelude to all
the mayhem and insanity that is yet to come. The
villain this time around is the infamous Professor
Moriarity (Jared Harris), a worthy nemesis, to say the
least. This guy is an evil genius who is plotting to
get World War I started early. The war will make him
millions because he has cornered the market on the
weapons both sides will need to purchase to fight
their enemy.
As most of you are
aware, one of my favorite actors is Robert Downey
Jr.…he never fails to deliver. He’s as old as me but
has the body of a 20 year old…and believe me, he needs
to be in shape for all the trouble that is thrown at
him in this movie. He flexes his muscles convincingly
as he escapes multiple beat downs, gunshots, bombs and
other deadly devices. Of course his well knows
abilities to make almost psychic deductions are the
trademark of these movies and always fun to watch.
Jude Law’s role as Watson is much bigger this time
around and gives Downey a run for his money with
regard to who has more screen time. I’ve never been a
big Jude Law guy but he is pretty darn good as
Sherlock’s sidekick. Did I mention one of the major
characters from the last movie makes her entrance in
the opening minutes of this movie and is quickly
killed off…ala Alfred Hitchcock getting rid of Janet
Leigh in the early part of Psycho. It normally just
isn’t done and messes with your head a little when it
does. But it gave the writers the perfect opportunity
to introduce the new femme fatale, a gypsy fortune
teller named Sim, played by Noomi Rapace. I didn’t
think they made real good use of her and did not
really draw the character out as much as I would have
liked. The movies look is also a big winner in my
eyes. It’s the early 1900’s and the feel is dark,
dank and dangerous. Award winning cinematographer,
Philippe Rousselot serves up a dizzying visual
masterpiece as we’re taken on a ride that includes
stunning stops in England, France and Switzerland.
Bottom line…this movie
is fun and who doesn’t like to have fun?…other than
maybe that Scrooge guy. For all those of you who
enjoy my reviews, I hope you have a great holiday
season and a healthy prosperous new year! To the rest
of you all I can say is “Bah, humbug!”
I’m writing this
review on the first Thursday that I won’t be golfing
since spring. For the last 20 years, as soon as the
snow is off the ground and the temp is above 45, I
have golfed almost every Thursday afternoon up at
Bunker. It’s been the same five-some since we
started…Scott, Duke, Craig, John and myself. 50 cents
a hole…one tie all tie. We laugh so hard (usually at
my score)…it is absolutely the highlight of my work
week. However, there is a little snow flying outside
my window today and the high temp is projected to be
just above 30. Begrudgingly, I must put my clubs
away for another season. To try and put a positive
spin on such a downer…at least I will now have more
time to pen these fascinating movie reviews for
you…and as the movie "In Time" points out…extra
time is a very valuable commodity! (Was that a great
segue or what…)
Long story short:
The movie
"In Time" wants us to believe that in the not to
distant future, scientists have been able to change
the entire populations DNA so that everyone stops
aging at 25. Sounds like a stretch…of course what do
I know… I would never have guessed my phone would
become a multimedia center capable of virtually
delivering the world right to the palm of my hand.
Anyway, the only hitch with never aging past 25 is it
creates a bit of a population explosion. To combat
this problem, after you hit 25 you are genetically
engineered to only live one more year unless you can
literally buy more time. So time becomes the currency
of trade instead of cash. It’s how you pay for
everything from your mortgage to your life. Like any
capitalistic society, the rich have thousands of years
in time banked to do whatever they want…while the
little guy like me tries to earn enough minutes just
to live another day.
Justin Timberlake
plays Will Salas. Will comes from the poor part of
town. He stops at the neighborhood bar one night and
befriends a rich guy who ends up giving him all of his
time. It’s enough to last for hundreds of years. The
irony is, Will is then able to transfer time to
whoever he wants. Little does he know that his mother
is down to her last few seconds and before he can
reach her, to make a transfer, her ticker goes to zero
and she dies. To make matters worse, the guy who gave
Will all his time commits suicide. A corrupt police
force called “time keepers” now starts to hunt Will
down to take his time..
Cillian Murphy as
Raymond Leon is perfectly cast as the evil billionaire
banker of time. Amanda Seyfried plays Sylvia Weis who
is equally as good portraying his spoiled daughter.
Will kidnaps Sylvia and uses her as collateral to take
down Raymond and his evil empire. The pair of course
become lovers and the rest of the movie becomes more
or less a mix of Robin Hood meets Bonnie and Clyde.
The problem I had with
this movie…is the whole “time as currency” premise
gets old pretty quick. The actors were fine…it’s just
that the script was a little shallow and didn’t give
them much to sink their chops into. I’ve seen Justin
Timberlake in a few different movies as of late (see
Friends with Benefits review below) and I think this
was his weakest performance to date. If your time is
also a valuable commodity…you might want to wait until
this one comes out on dvd.
I have not had much
time for movies this month. It’s October and that
means time to start shutting down the cabin. My
official end of summer. No more pontoon rides on the
lake, no more golf, no more cook-outs….very
depressing. This year instead of doing everything
over one weekend, I have been spreading the chores out
over a few weekends. I have now finished taking the
dock in, putting the pontoon and jet-ski into storage,
mulching and bagging leaves, blah, blah, blah. Now all
I have left is emptying out the water heater and
blowing out the lines. Is this too much
information? I did take a break from all that fun
last weekend and headed over to Muller Family Theater
in Monticello. That place is great… incredibly
comfortable seats and monster screens. I had heard “Ides
of March” might be a good political thriller…so I
grabbed a bag of popcorn (light on the butter) with a
diet coke and made my way to one of those cushy seats.
Long story short:
“Ides
of March” is an adaptation of Beau Willimons’s
play Farragut North. Ryan Gosling plays Stephen
Myers. Stephen is an up and coming, hot shot, deputy
presidential campaign manager. George Clooney plays
Governor Mike Morris, whom Stephen idolizes and is
trying to help get nominated for the Democratic
ticket. Paul Giamatti is the opposing candidate’s
campaign manager. He meets with Stephen and tries to
hire him away from his current job. Apparently
meeting with the other side is a big NO NO…and when
Stephen’s boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman) gets wind of
the sit down…all hell breaks loose. Just when you
think things couldn’t get any worse for Stephen, he
uncovers another huge secret that threatens to bring
the Governor’s campaign and his political career to an
end.
This movie is jam
packed with star power. Clooney, Gosling, Hoffman,
Giamatti…and lets not forget former academy award
winner and really hot looking babe in “The Wrestler”
….Marisa Tomei. She is great as a ruthless news
reporter who will do anything to get the story. I
should say, however, that I was a bit disappointed
that her character was played with no sex appeal
whatsoever. She wore a pair of unflattering specs and
was dressed in about four layers of
clothing…..damn! I saw Gosling in a movie a few
weeks back called “Drive” and he has a number of other
films coming out over the next year. As far as I am
concerned…keep them coming…he is the man! As Stephen
Meyers in “Ides of March” his character was
slick, confident, a little full of himself and very
cool. He starts out thinking he “knows it all” and by
the end of the movie he, like most of us, realizes
there is a lot more to this crazy world than he could
ever imagine.
While watching the
movie, I couldn’t help but think of another flick that
came out several years back called “Primary Colors”.
The plots are almost exactly the same. “Primary
Colors”starred John Travolta, a mirror image
of the Clooney character in “Ides of March”….both
well spoken, with a seemingly genuine passion for
politics and helping the common man while at the same
time dealing with personal demons that could destroy
them. The other thing, that I found interesting about
“Ides of March”…it was the first movie that I
have ever been too where I started out admiring all of
the characters but by the end of the movie I thought
everyone of them was despicable! Obviously that’s
whatthey
wanted you to feel and it worked perfectly! It’s not
my favorite movie of the year…but I strongly recommend
you see it now or when it comes out on DVD.
Brad
Pitt is one of the few actors who I will go see no
matter what movie he is in… and I am rarely
disappointed. He is one of those guys who could just
stand and read from the phone book and I would listen to
every name, address and phone number until he finished
with Sandy Zywiki. When I saw he was starring in
Moneyball, I left work early and made sure I was in the
front of the line for the first showing. I know I sound
like a teenage girl with a high school crush but who
cares… it’s Brad Pitt for crying out loud!!!
Long
story short:Moneyball is based on the nonfiction bestselling book
that goes by the same name. It takes a look back at
Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), who
was able to put together a winning combination of
players in 2002, despite having the smallest working
budget in the league. How he manages to accomplish this
feat, with so little working capital, is the impetus of
our movie. Up until this point in time, the players on
a team were usually put together based on gut instinct
and intuition. However, we are given to believe that
Billy is the first to implement a “sophisticated
computer-based analysis” to find just the right mix of
low budget, rag tag, underused players that he could
draft and still field a team that was competitive.
Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) is the computer geek and Yale
graduate that Billy relies on to provide him with the
statistical information he needs to find the best
players for the least dollars.
This
movie offers no special effects, no incredible car
chases, not a single bullet fired…but it’s still soooooo
good! The writing and dialogue delivered by the actors
is fun and clever. The pacing of the movie is quick but
not too quick. It never bogs down and holds your
attention effortlessly right up until the credits start
rolling and then some. What’s surprising is Jonah
Hill. Past roles have portrayed him as the over weight,
goofy, smart-ass. This time around he delivers a very
solid performance in a much more understated and
intellectual role. Brad Pitt’s Billy Beane is
brilliant. His character is layered with complexity.
He is a man, who by all appearances, is very charismatic
and sure of himself….driven and passionate. Outside the
clubhouse we see a very different side. He is
surprisingly very lonely while dealing in solitude with
a failed marriage and the thoughts of not being there
for the daughter that means everything to him. Phillip
Seymour Hoffman is another one of my favorite actors.
He has a smaller but still memorable role as Art Howe,
the coach of the Oakland A’s team.
Sports
fan or not…I think you will agree, this movie hits it
out of the park!!!
I
was never a big martial arts fan until my friends Tim
and Sue Howe invited me to go watch their son Nate mix
it up in an actual big fight that was held in St.
Paul. Tim incidentally is the mayor of Coon Rapids…not
that it’s important to my story, but who would ever
imagine that I hob knob with royalty unless I told you.
Back to the fight…that night Nate was the underdog…but
like a strong, patient and methodical snake he
eventually wrapped up, the soon to be former champion, so
tight that all the guy could do was tap out. Right then
and there I gained a real appreciation for the sport and
for what guys like Nate must go through in grueling
hours of training to become champions. I remembered Tim
(did I mention he is the Mayor of Coon Rapids) telling
me that Nate was also a jiu-jitsu instructor at a club
that just happened to be called Warriors Cove. So I
took it as a good sign that the movie, I couldn’t wait
to see, was also called Warrior.
Long story short:Warrior
is directed by Gavin O’Connor. He’s the same guy who
directed "The Miracle". This time around instead of a
Cinderella story on ice, it’s a couple of down and out
modern day gladiators in for the fight of their lives.
Brendon Conlon (Joel Edgerton) is a high school teacher
who had to put out a lot of money to pay off the bills
for his daughter’s expensive heart surgery. As a
result, his home is about to
be foreclosed on and life is really starting to suck.
He happens to be a former MMA fighter. In order to try
and make ends meet, he decides to climb back into the
ring and travel the circuit of skid row MMA fights that
are held at local strip clubs. Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy)
is an Iraq war hero…or is he? He is also an MMA fighter
who, like a young Mike Tyson, completely annihilates his
competition. The brothers have not seen each other
since they were little boys. Their parents got divorced
when they were children. One chose to stay with his
alcoholic and abusive dad while the other chose to
escape with mom. The only thing the two now have in
common is how much they hate their father Paddy (Nick
Nolte).
I don’t want to compare the movie to
"The Fighter"…but it’s hard not too. The story line is
very similar…two brothers going through a strained
relationship…an incredibly dysfunctional family….one
brother upset that a parent showed more attention to his
sibling….a big fight that could change everything…blah,
blah, blah. The only problem is, Warrior comes
up a little short. The characters are not as flushed
out. As a result you don’t care for them as much. I
thought every single actor in "The Fighter" deserved an
academy award…not so much for Warrior. You’ve
heard me say before that most movies are just to darn
long…however…and I can’t believe I’m going to say this…I
actually think Warrior should have been a little
longer just to develop the characters a little more to
make us care. The one exception might be Nick Nolte.
He was brilliant as the recovering alcoholic dad whose
only wish is that his boys might someday forgive him.
Don’t get me wrong…Warrior is
worth the price of admission just for the great fight
scenes…but I’m just a little bummed out because I think
it could have been a classic with just a little
tweaking….but what do I know?!
My daughter,
Katie, just flew in from Alaska where she spent another
summer working for a tourism company. She is spending a
few days with us before she heads back to St. Cloud for
her senior year of college. I told her she could pick
the movie this week. I was in favor of something with a
little more action like “Cowboys and Aliens” or “Rise of
the Planet of the Apes”….but no, she had to choose “The
Help”…and boy was I glad she did. When we first sat
down, my buddy Mike was texting me updates on the Twins
– Yankee game. I was thinking, at least I had that
going for me if I have to sit through some boring yarn
about the Civil Rights movement. It didn’t take to long
before I powered down the cell realizing I was in for
one hell of a movie.
“The Help” comes
to us by way of the hugely popular book by author
Kathryn Stockett. From what I understand Tate Taylor,
who directed the movie, is a friend of Ms. Stockett and
he was able to secure the rights to the movie early on.
“The Help” takes us back to the early 60’s during the
height of the Civil Rights movement. However, the movie
takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, a town that’s, to
put it mildly, a little slow in accepting the fact that
“the help” should be treated like anything other than
slaves. Ron Howard’s daughter Bryce Dallas Howard plays
Hilly Holbrook. She is brilliant at portraying the town
prude and head bigot. To give you an idea of just how
screwed up she is…throughout part of the movie she is
organizing a fund drive for the starving children of
Africa. At the same time she is trying to get a bill
passed that makes it mandatory that no one allows their
maids to use the bathrooms in their homes…they must
install a separate bathroom for “the help” outside the
home. Angela Davis plays Aibeleen, one of the first
maids who is willing to help Skeeter (Emma Stone) write
a secret book chronicling their lives as these glorified
slaves. Octavia Spenser plays Minnie, a former maid to
Hilly, who provides a lot of the limited, but
effectively used, humor in this not so funny time.
Other notable performances are turned in by Cisely
Tyson, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek and Jessica
Chastain.
This movie is a 10
and the best movie I have seen this year. Everything
works…the acting, music, cinematography…it’s perfect.
What’s really hard to believe is this is the first movie
Tate Taylor has directed. Although the Oscar’s are a
long ways away…my prediction is this movie and cast will
all be big winners. I don’t often say this but…if you
don’t go see this movie on the big screen you are
missing out on something pretty incredible!!!
Yes, believe it or not, I am going
to review a romantic comedy. I am giving in to the
weekly pressure I receive from all the women (at last
count at least 3) who email me each week and tell me
they want more "chick flick" reviews. Apparently my
appetite for extreme action movies with lots of
special effects is not a big part of their viewing
diet. So here you go...
Long story short..."Friends With
Benefits" was a fast paced and enjoyable little
movie that was well casted with Justin Timberlake and
Mila Kunis in the starring roles. Dylan (Justin
Timberlake) is the art director for a small web based
magazine. Jamie (Mila Kunis) is the corporate
headhunter who lures him to New York to interview for
the same job but with GQ magazine. Before we get to
this point, we have a couple of opening scenes that
let us know that they each have problems staying in a
relationship. Once Dylan gets to New York and lands
the coveted GQ position, he hits it off with Jamie and
they decide to have a strictly "friends with benefits"
relationship. Kind of like on Seinfeld when Jerry and
Elaine tried the same thing...and if you know the
episode I am talking about you know how well that
turned out! Things don’t go much better for Dylan and
Jamie. Everything starts off great...it always
does...sex without commitment...gotta love it...or do
you?
The interaction between our two
leads was a little stiff to start out with...their
banter between each other seemed forced and a little
over acted. By the middle of the movie, though, they
were firing on all cylinders. Woody Harrelson was
great as Dylan’s gay buddy at the office. Jenna Elfman
was equally as good as Dylan’s sister who watches over
their dad who has early signs of Alzheimer’s and likes
to take his pants off wherever he goes. We’ve seen
Justin Timberlake as a supporting role in a number of
movies. He didn’t seem to have much trouble crossing
over to leading man. I am not a huge fan of Mila Kunis,
but I really liked her this time around. There are a
lot of scenes where clothing is optional...so if you
like your movies where one’s birthday suit is the
primary costume...this movie will not disappoint.
"Friends With Benefits" is perfect for date
night...predictable but charming...and oh so warm and
fuzzy. (Please don’t tell any of my macho friends that
I used the words "warm and fuzzy"!)
Everyone knows I am a sucker for big action movies ladened with special effects. So I took a few hours off this week and snuck over to Andover Cinema to take in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. My good friend Allison Horita, one of the funniest and wittiest people I know, was also there with her son Jack. So my wife and I parked in the seats right next to theirs and settled in for the big event...the final Harry Potter movie.
I looked up the numbers and they are staggering. The franchise has put out 8 movies amassing over 7 billion dollars. The latest movie has only been out for a week and is already pushing upwards of 600 million dollars worldwide. Those are crazy numbers!!! J. K. Rowling, the mind that started it all, is the epitome of the rags to riches story. She was once on welfare and now with book, movie, and product rights has become a billionaire in her own right. Gotta love it!!!
Long story short...The final chapter starts out a little slow...but who cares...this is the last one...let’s make it last forever!!! Everyone already knows the main characters, so there isn’t much to add. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all grown up and a lot bigger now...except for Harry who is no taller than he was in the first movie...well maybe a little. Most of this final epic revolves around their hunt for the Horcruxes...objects that if found and destroyed, will leave the evil Lord Voldemort vulnerable. The movie delivers in every way possible...set design, costume, special effects, script, sound.....everything is top notch and no expense was spared. I am sure you could watch this movie a dozen times and would never be able to totally grasp all this cinematic treasure has to offer.
The only thing I might say, is
Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a little darker than the rest of the Potter movies I have viewed. I thought it was great but I am not exactly sure if it is child friendly. A lot of people are killed and mangled in the battle of battles that makes up a big part of the movie...so just be advised. If you do bring the kids...you might want to have your hand ready to blindfold them a time or two. Not to give away too much but....the movie ends flashing forward a number of years later where we find the children of Harry, Ron, and Hermione preparing to step onto the train that will take them to their own first year at Hogwarts. It leaves you thinking that a younger generation will be waiting in the wings in the event J. K. Rowling says "OK" one more time. Lets keep our fingers crossed!
Wow…it’s July already and finally starting to feel like summer! Since my last review, there’s not much to report. A few more days spent at the cabin…a few more rounds of golf. This weekend my wife and her best girl friend are leaving for Alaska to visit my daughter. I’d like to say… “party at my house”…but sadly… my days of wild poker games, endless shots of Jack and waking up on the neighbors lawn with nothing on but a pair of broken sun glasses…have long since come and gone. However, I am looking forward to the huge family reunion this Saturday in Big Lake. Lots of catching up with cousins I haven’t seen for years…burgers and brats… and of course the crowd pleasing polish horseshoe tournament…..ahhh life is good!!!
I remember the first really big special effects movies I ever saw were Matrix in 1999 and Matrix Reloaded in 2003. These movies were truly ground breaking with there use of image-based computer generated backgrounds. To this day, you would be hard pressed to find a more jaw dropping car chase scene than the one in Matrix Reloaded. It has so many incredible special effects…it’s worth the price of renting just for those few minutes of dizzying cinema magic.
Flash forward to today and we find the Transformer sequel
Dark of the Moon directed by Michael Bay. I could pretend that the acting and plot really matters in this movie, but it doesn’t. Not to say there are not some quality people on board. Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro all are back once again and are terrific actors…but who cares! This movie is all about Transformers, Autobots and those fantastic special effects. A big chunk of the movie takes place in Chicago and when the Decepticons (bad robots) are finished, there isn’t too much left standing. From the falling sky scrapers to the constantly evolving monster robots… the visuals are simply mind boggling! I’ve seen a lot of movies since the first Matrix came out and I can honestly say Dark of the Moon has the greatest action special effects you will ever see. If you’re into that kind of stuff…it’s a must see.
John Malkovich, one of my favorite actors, has been added to the cast and provides some additional comic relief. Of course most of you guys will notice that Megan Fox is no longer part of the cast. One of my sources told me, she bit the hand that was feeding her and was replaced. She apparently told reporters that director Michael Bay was a nightmare to work with and next thing you know we are being introduced to new love interest Rosie Huntington–Whiteley. For my two cents worth…purely speaking from an eye candy point of view…give me Megan Fox on the big screen any day!!!
Bottom line…if you like action flicks with amazing special effects and lots of computer wizardry (not sure if that’s a word, but sounds good)…."Transformers: Dark of the Moon" will have your head spinning and your eyes popping!!!
I
know I have been running a little behind on my
reviews as of late…but I don’t think you can blame
me. My good friends, Mike and Patti, invited my
Wife and me to Hilton Head to hang out at their
vacation home to sit by the ocean and golf a few
rounds…it was a tough decision but I decided to
put my reviews on hold??? Then we had our first
Golf Scramble of the year in Redwing…and of course
that’s a high priority. The next thing you know
it was Memorial weekend with the relatives at the
cabin and before I knew it I was about 5 movies
behind. As a matter of fact, I was up at the
cabin last Sunday and I just told myself, all of
your loyal followers (both of them) are probably
in need of a quick movie review fix …so hear you
go Jack and Sharon Jentz.
I
thought the original "Hangover" was really funny.
It was one of those movies where it had so many
hilarious moments and each one was worth the price
of admission. To be honest…I judge a comedy by
how much I laugh. Isn’t that the way it should
be??!!! Unfortunately for the sequel, "The
Hangover Part II", I didn’t laugh as much or as
hard.
Long story
short…This
is the same movie as the first one, except it
takes place in Thailand instead of Vegas and
instead of a tiger there is a little monkey (I
like monkey’s better). Stu (Ed Helm) is getting
married this time around and Phil (Bradley
Cooper), Doug (Justin Bartha) and of course Alan
(Zach Galfianakis) follow him to Bangkok to be
part of the wedding party. A couple nights before
the wedding the guys head down to the beach to
share a six pack and some marshmallows. Next
thing you know Stu, Phil and Alan find themselves
waking up in a sleazy hotel in Thailand, without a
clue as to what happened the night before…sound
familiar?
There are two comedy paths that are used in Hangover
II and both of them lead to a dead end for me.
First off, all of the hilarious moments that were
in the original Hangover are repeated in the
sequel…same joke - different location. To me, if
I’ve heard or seen a bit once…it is never as funny
the second time…unless of course my good friend
Scott McAdam is telling the joke (the guy just
cracks me up). Secondly, the new comedy they
added to the sequel was just to dark for my
taste. For instance, Stu finds out one of the
crazy things he did during his black out was have
sex with a man he thought was a woman. I don’t
care how messed up you are…some things should be
obvious. Stu’s brother in-law to be, also part
of the black out party night, cuts off his finger
on purpose…should have made it an arm…always love
limb loss humor. Also, Allan’s character now
comes across, not as a misguided goof, but as a
demented nut job who seriously should be put away
in an insane asylum so he doesn’t murder anyone.
I
am not saying the movie didn’t make me laugh…it’s
just that parts of it also made me feel
uncomfortable….kind of like when I’m at my yearly
physical and the doctor starts to put on that
plastic glove.
I must admit I have never been a
really big fan of “dinner theatre”. I have tried
several and have always been disappointed in both the
dinner and the theatre. However, when I visited the
Chanhassen Dinner Theatre for the first time this past
weekend, I realized that all those other supposed
“dinner theatres” were just pretenders and that the
Chanhassen is the real deal!
The mega complex opened in 1968
and is the largest professional dinner theatre in the
nation and the largest privately owned restaurant in
Minnesota. I am still trying to figure out what took
me so long to get there. Although built over 40 years
ago, it is still an impressive venue that has tiered
Las Vegas type seating in a theatre that seems to have
nothing but great sight lines.
The recently
improved menu
offered something for every palate. My son and I
played it safe and stuck with the top sirloin and had
no complaints. My wife and daughter chose the Chicken
Chanhassen – a boneless chicken breast stuffed with
Minnesota wild rice dressing, and topped with a
special mushroom supreme sauce…and they are still
talking about how great it was! For dessert I would
strongly recommend the Baileys Irish Cream Cheese
Cake…it is a showstopper all by itself. I could stop
right there and the Chanhassen would get my thumbs up,
but wait there’s more…..
Andrew Lloyd Weber’s
Jesus Christ
Superstar is currently showing on their main stage
(yes this place is so big, they have more than one
theatre). I remember watching the movie back in the
70’s and thought that was great but seeing it live at
the Chanhassen is jaw dropping. Directed locally by
Michael Brindisi, it is a must see! It was one of the
very first rock operas and is set in two acts. The
story centers on the final seven days in the life of
Jesus of Nazareth, his betrayal by Judas, the trial by
Pontius Pilate and of course the ultimate crucifixion.
My
wife (not a professional critic, like myself) always
has American Idol on at our house and she thought the
singing she heard at the Chanhassen was better than
any of this years finalists. I was amazed at the
quality of acting and singing in this local
production. Jesus of Nazareth (Ben Bakken) and Judas
Iscariot (Jared Oxborough) were equally wonderful in
the lead roles. Mary Magdalene (Michelle Carter)
delivers in a big way with her soothing and almost
hypnotic vocal presence. King Herod (Jay Albright)
and his accompanying dancers perform a show stopping
ragtime ditty that was hilarious. I would also be
remiss if I didn’t mention the fantastic orchestra
that played that night…they should put out there own
CD. The only thing I can’t figure out is no one
applauded after any of the songs that were performed.
I wanted to clap but thought maybe there was something
in the printed program that said wait until the show
is over…believe me…there should have been a standing
ovation after every scene.
The
director indicated that he approached this material
with reverence, love and hope and that it was his
desire to share that will all of us. Mr. Brindisi you
succeeded in a very big way!
Although it’s
not a big stretch to imagine that I could be smarter
than I am right now…it would be so cool if I could
take a pill and suddenly be able to out think some of
my clever friends. They would probably appreciate
some witty banter instead of my canned response… “I
know you are but what am I”…. that I give for every
question they ask that requires an intelligent
answer. I would also use bigger words in my movie
reviews, just to impress those readers who always
email me to ask how old I am…thinking that a grade
schooler must be penning this column. When I saw the
movie "Limitless" exploring the possibilities of
a “smart pill”….I turned off my favorite song
“Duelling Banjos” and headed over to Andover
Cinema.
Long story
short…Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a down and out
writer who hasn’t written a single word in over a
year. His girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) is leaving him
because he’s a loser. He can’t even make rent money
for the one bedroom garbage pit he calls home. As
luck would have it, he runs into his ex-brother in law
on the streets. He turns him on to a new synthetic
drug that he says will wake him up and help him see
the light.
Eddie takes
the pill and the next thing you know the guy is like
Einstein, Brad Pitt and Warren Buffet all rolled into
one. The “smart pill” affords him the capability of
using 100% of his mind. Suddenly he is able to write
a best seller in just days and rise to the top of the
financial world in just weeks. (I gotta get me some of
those pills) The only problem is to stay on top, he
needs more of those pills. That’s when things start
heating up. Eddie has absconded with the only bag of
pills known to be in existence…and he’s not the only
one who wants to be smart. Suddenly unsavory
characters start trying to uncover the whereabouts of
Eddie’s stash, and once they do are ready to put a
permanent end to Eddie’s quest to maintain smartness!
To make matters worse, Eddie discovers there’s some
major side effects that come with taking this drug.
Bradley Cooper
is enjoying some notoriety as of late. He’s been
around for awhile but after "Hangover" came out
his stock has gone through the roof! I thought he got
about as much out of this role as he could. Before he
takes the “smart pill” he was totally believable as an
unfocused, under achieving, slacker. After a dose of
the designer pharmaceutical, he was equally
believable as a brilliant intellectual who has bitten
off a little more than he can chew. Robert De Niro
plays Carl Van Loon, a Wall Street mogul who wants to
use Eddie for his own personal gain. De Niro is so
good and his character gives the movie an added layer
of depth. He is one of the few actors who has no
problem making the often uncomfortable transition from
leading man to supporting actor. Instead of fighting
it, he has embraced it.
My wife and I
both enjoyed the movie. However, if the “smart pill”
brings people even half the headaches Eddie had to
deal with…I guess me going through life like Lloyd
Christmas isn’t all that bad.
"The Adjustment
Bureau" was written for the screen and directed by
George Nolfi...he’s the guy that wrote Ocean’s Twelve
and the Bourne Ultimatum...not bad credentials. As far
as I’m concerned there hasn’t been a whole lot to
choose from at the box office lately. So when I saw
Matt Damon was also the star of this thriller, I made
my way over to Andover Cinema and settled in to see if
these guys could deliver the goods.
Long story
short...David Norris (Matt Damon) is an ambitious
politician who has just suffered a crushing election
loss for a U.S. Senate seat. While preparing his
concession speech in the bathroom of the hotel his
campaign is headquartered at.....he bumps into Elise
Sellas (Emily Blunt). She’s a contemporary ballet
dancer who is hiding out in one of the men’s stalls
while trying to evade security guards who are chasing
her for crashing a wedding that is taking place at the
same hotel. You can tell from the get-go that these
two are meant to be soul mates. The only problem is
"The Adjustment Bureau" has other plans for our
leading man. The men of The Adjustment Bureau are a
sort of God squad that are assigned to watch over the
human race to make sure that everyone stays on a
predetermined path with their lives. David
accidentally discovers the Bureau and finds out he was
never suppose to have met Elise and fall in love. He
now must choose between his predetermined path that
would have him become President of the United States
without her or defy the laws of God and risk
everything to be with her.
Despite the lame the movie delivers with all sorts of
"hold your breath" thrills and chills. It’s a roller
coaster ride for sure as David and Elise try to stay
one step ahead of the Adjustment Bureau who are bound
and determined to keep these two from becoming an
item. The premise is a little weak and has plenty of
holes in it...but you just can’t go wrong with Matt
Damon. The guy could read the phone book for two hours
and I wouldn’t move from my seat.
I seem to be in the mood for
sophomoric humor as of late. Perhaps a mid life crisis
in the making. Next thing you know, I will be
scheduling a botox touch up and riding around in a red
corvette with the top down. Of course, if I'm not
mistaken, those things take money....so not to
worry...I will just stick to the occasional movie fix
of fart jokes and mind numbing story lines. Hall
Pass certainly fills that bill!
Long story short.....Rick (Owen
Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are best buds who
have been happily married for years. Like most
men...not myself of course...they find themselves
fantasizing about being with other women and all the
ladies they could have if they weren’t married. Their
wives get wind of their restlessness and decide to
give them a "hall pass"....one week off from their
marriage allowing them to do whatever they want, with
no questions asked. It’s a dream come true, or so they
think. These two guys are so out of touch with the
whole bar and pick up scene they make Steve Erkle look
smooth (not that I ever watched that show).
Like I say, this movie is
perfect if you want to use even less than the 10% of
your brain you actually use on your best day. Owen
Wilson is acceptable playing the faithful husband who
realizes he is a fish out of water and quickly wishes
he was back home with the wife and family. His partner
in crime, Jason Sudeikis (from SNL fame) is a good
ying to Wilson's yang... a little more daring and
ready to put his mouth where it shouldn't be. I like
Christina Applegate as Sudeikis’s wife...I just wish
someone would give her a little meatier role... I
think she would be up for it. Most of us know Jenna
Fischer as the receptionist on "The Office." As
Wilson's wife, she is perfectly adequate for this non
demanding role. The movie delivered exactly what I
expected, a few really good laughs, some partially
clad females and the all important happy ending. Going
to this movie was like my own virtual "hall pass" come
true...while also sparing me the embarrassment of
being turned down by every gal I would have tried
picking up in real life!!!
One of my
favorite action movies of 2010 was Taken
starring Liam Neeson. He played a highly skilled and
dangerous ex-CIA operative trying to rescue his
kidnapped daughter from a group who deal in the slave
trading of young women for sex. The movie was a thrill
a minute roller coaster ride. So I had my expectations
set pretty high for Neeson's next movie Unknown.
Long story
short...this time around in Unknown, Liam
Neeson plays Dr. Martin Harris. He and his wife
(January Jones) head to Berlin for a conference where
he is scheduled to be a guest speaker. When they
arrive, his wife goes to check them into the hotel.
Attending to the luggage, Dr. Harris realizes he left
a bag at the airport. Without telling his wife, he
quickly jumps in a cab and heads off to retrieve his
bag. The cab gets into an accident and he is taken to
the hospital. Upon awakening he remembers he should be
at the conference. He makes a quick exit from the
hospital and upon arriving at the conference is
shocked to discover that his wife doesn’t recognize
him and is even more bewildered to find out that another
man (Aidan Quinn) has assumed his identity.
As one might
expect, Dr. Harris frantically tries to figure out why
his world has been turned upside down. The rest of the
movie is filled with car crashes, hotel bombings,
mysterious assassins and of course one really cute gal
(Diane Kruger) who befriends Dr. Harris. If you
remember it is just a movie...you can get by some of
the plot’s implausibility's. For instance, why can’t
he just call someone back in the states to verify who
he is to the authorities. If you’ve lived 50 years or
better, you would obviously have lots of friends,
family and other business contacts that could come to
your rescue.
Liam Neeson is
just shy of 60 years of age in real life but has no
trouble carrying the movie as the leading man. His
voice alone is one of the most captivating you will
ever hear...it is so smooth and elegant...almost
hypnotic. I have always liked Aidan Quinn, although
his roles now days seem to be little more than cameos.
Diane Kruger (Inglorious Bastards, National Treasure)
has all the right ingredients. She is sexy, smart and
believable. Bottom line...the movie was not as good as
Taken but is certainly worth a viewing,
although waiting until it comes out on Netflix or
Redbox would suffice.
No, I was not
drinking. No, I did not do any drugs or hallucinogens.
Yet, I still liked Adam Sandler's latest movie - Just
Go With It. By admitting this, I will probably be
thrown out of the American Film Critics Association.. As
a matter of fact, I think to get into the Association I
had to originally take an oath saying I would never go
see an Adam Sandler movie during my lifetime. Boy have I
screwed things up! I won’t spend a lot of time on the
review because it is certainly not Oscar worthy...but as
I have always said, not everything has to be award
winning to be enjoyable. I took my wife and she thought
it was hilarious. I looked around the theater and the
audience was laughing through the entire movie. I saw a
note on my niece Kelsey’s Facebook wall and she liked it
also. I saw the weekend box office report and it was
number one making over $30,000,000 dollars. That’s a lot
of people who like Adam Sandler. So I can’t be
completely crazy...can I? I am not trying to pretend
like I have this sophisticated palate that only favors
expensive wines and beluga caviar, but I honestly have
not been a big fan of Adam Sandler movies...especially
the one’s where he talks like a dufus from start to
finish.
This time around
he plays Danny, a plastic surgeon bachelor who wears a
wedding band and gets beautiful women to go to bed with
him by telling them stories about his imaginary wives
and how terrible they treat him. Kind of a weak story
line...maybe I didn’t like this movie after all. He
finally meets Palmer (Sports
Illustrated Swim Suit Model Brooklyn Decker)
who he wants to have an honest relationship with
but she sees his wedding ring and instead of coming
clean he tells her he’s married but getting divorced.
She wants to meet his wife and children and that’s where
Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) enters the picture. She’s
Sandler’s assistant who is a divorced single parent of
two kids. She agrees to allow Sandler to borrow her and
the kids so he doesn’t look like the liar he is. They
all end up taking a trip to Hawaii together and the
laughs just keep on coming.
To be completely
honest, the movie is worth the price of admission for
most guys, including myself, just to see Brooklyn Decker
hanging out.....by the pool. Jennifer Aniston is also
quite engaging when she unwraps her wraps. Perhaps the
biggest surprise was how good the two kids, Bailee
Madison and Griffin Gluck, were that played Aniston’s
children. Nick Swardson plays Sandler’s over the top
cousin Eddie and even he grew on me after a few scenes.
If you are looking for a nice escape, a movie that
doesn’t make you think to hard, some funny moments, a
guilty pleasure...Just Go With It!!!
Although
it’s been out for a while, I thought I’d better review
this movie because of all the Oscar buzz it is
receiving. The movie hasn’t made a lot at the
box office and I think the movie title might have
something to do with the empty seats. It just
sounds so boring... The King’s Speech... it just
doesn’t quite have the panache of say a True Grit
or The Green Hornet. They should have
punched it up a bit...maybe something like... "The
Main Dude Speaks", "The Royal Ramble"
or "Stutter Island"...now those
names would have packed them in!
If you can get past that name and just go buy a
ticket, you will probably enjoy this period piece...I
know I did! The movie opens in 1925 at the
British Empire Exhibition. Prince Albert (Colin
Firth) is attempting to give a major oration to the
public. The only problem is...and it’s a doozy...he’s
a stutterer. Not a really good impediment to
have when you’re supposed to be the voice of the
people. As he begins to speak at this major
event, he not only stutters, but has huge pregnant
pauses in-between every word. Like the filmed
grimaced faces of the crowd in attendance, I, too,
found myself cringing for him and wishing for a quick
end to this humiliating depicted moment in history.
Obviously devastated by this humbling experience, he
and his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham) begin calling
on every supposed "Speech Therapist" they can find.
Back in the day, these guys were mostly a bunch of
charlatans. They knew nothing about how to stop
stuttering and their treatments were unorthodox, to
say the least. These scenes are some of the
funniest in the movie. One "therapist"
prescribes a pack of cigarettes a day to end the
stuttering. Another has him put as many marbles
in his mouth as he can possibly load up and then try
to do tongue twisters. Fortunately, they finally meet
up with Lionel Loge (Geoffrey Rush), an unconventional
speech therapist in his own right but one who actually
knows how to help the Prince. As the movie
unfolds, the two form an unlikely bond that is filled
with heartfelt ups and downs. When the reigning
King dies and his older brother abdicates the throne,
Prince Albert reluctantly becomes King George VI.
(I’m not quite sure why they change their name when
they become King, maybe somebody can email me the
answer.) It’s around this time that Hitler
starts to cause some major problems and it's up to the
new King to make a huge speech to all the citizens of
the country to help unite everyone. Much of the
movie is then centered on the King and Lionel getting
ready for this big speech...thus the boring movie
title "The King’s Speech."
When you think of movies that
center on Kings and their grandiose lifestyles, you
envision great layers of complexity and huge budgets
required to capture that particular period in history.
This movie was made on a shoe string but still does an
incredible job of creating that big feel. It gets away
with the small budget by lightly sprinkling in the big
buck cinematography while concentrating instead on
this unheard of friendship formed between a King and a
commoner. It is funny at times...much of the on
going humor revolves around the King's demands for
Lionel to treat him as royalty and Lionel's total
disregard for his "kiss my ring" ways. It is gut
wrenching at others... as we feel the pain, anxiety,
and anguish the King is dealing with every hour of
every day because of his affliction. I would
never have thought a movie about stuttering could be
so captivating. Colin Firth has been nominated for the
Academy Award for his performance, and rightfully so,
but equally worthy would be Geoffrey Rush. He is
nominated for best supporting actor...but to me it was
a best actor performance for sure. If you can
get past the boring title and just make the effort to
get to the theater, you will be pleasantly pleased
with this wonderfully inspiring little-big movie!
True Grit - Written & Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
Is it just me or
is Jeff Bridges the coolest dude to ever walk the face
of this planet. I remember seeing "The Fabulous Baker
Boys" and thinking how can one guy be that cool. If
you haven’t seen that flick make sure you do...not
only a good movie but Jeff Bridges is so cool. Now
that I have worn out, the already worn out, word
"cool"....let me tell you about his latest movie.
Directed by Joel
and Ethan Cool...I mean Coen... "True Grit" is a
remake of an older John Wayne vehicle by the same
name. I think everyone who, is not still in the womb,
has probably viewed the original that also starred one
of my favorite actors Glen Campbell...(not
really)....although I could listen to "Rhinestone
Cowboy" all day long...(not really). As most of you
regular readers are aware, I will go see anything the
Coen brothers put out and to have Jeff Bridges
starring is icing on the cake. If you have ever been
to a Coen brother movie, you know you should always
expect the unexpected. This dynamic duo does not
normally think the same way most of us do. There are
always incredible plot twists and turns that are the
signatures of these two talented home-grown Minnesota
boys. For "True Grit," however, they pretty much stay
true to the original movie as well as the Charles
Portia novel, with no big surprises or any new plot
twists and turns....which really shocked me.
So for the
handful of you out there who have never seen the
original, let me give you the skinny. Mattie Ross (Hailee
Stienfeld) plays a smart as a whip teenager whose
father is murdered by low life gunman Tom Chaney (Josh
Brolin). She hires Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) a
take no crap, red nose drunk who also just happens to
be a U.S. Marshal, to track down and bring to justice
the evil Tom Chaney. Matt Damon tags along as the
inept Texas Ranger Leboeuf who is chasing after Tom
Chaney for another unrelated murder.
Jeff Bridges, as
we saw in his Oscar winning performance in "Crazy
Heart" as well as his memorable role as "the Dude" in
The Great Labowski (another Coen brother movie) has
turned the art of being a drunk into a full time gig
and nobody does it better. Matt Damon, as the doofus
Texas Ranger, is hilarious and it was such a pleasant
surprise to see he was onboard for this movie...who
doesn’t like Matt Damon?...he’s awesome! Another
pleasant surprise was the performance turned in by
newcomer Hailee Stienfeld. Her portrayal of Mattie, a
straight laced, no nonsense teenager who will not let
anything get in the way of avenging her fathers death
is remarkable. There is a scene in the movie where she
talks a savvy horse trader out of just about
everything he owns that is worth the price of
admission. She definitely holds her own with this
heavy weight cast and I can’t wait to see what she
does next.
If your goal is
to see a wonderfully filmed and acted western, you
can’t go wrong with "True Grit." Like I said from the
beginning, I am a huge Jeff Bridges fan. My only wish
would be that he does not get typecast as a drunk in
all of his "after 55" roles. It would be a shame, for
one of my favorite actors, to become pigeonholed for
roles that always require him to have blurry, blood
shot eyes and a red nose.....but I still think he’s
the coolest!
I hate to talk badly
about any movie. I know all the hard work that goes
into making one. Yes, I too was once in a motion
picture. As a matter of fact my wife and I pulled it
out last night, blew off the dust it had been
collecting and put it into our DVD player. I honestly
did not remember me being so terrible in the movie.
All of my friends who saw it, said I was
great....except for my buddy John Horita, who told me
the movie should have been called Sewer not
Sever....I guess he was the only honest one of the
bunch. Don’t bother looking for the movie on Netflix.
I don’t think it was ever released because there was
some sort of legal dispute over another movie that was
made around the same time and they owned the rights to
the name Sever....probably a good thing for our
viewing public.I do have about five DVD
copies, so if any of you are a masochists and want to
inflict some real pain...just email me for one and I
will send it to you in a plain paper bag....no one has
to know!
Now back to the
Green Hornet. For those of you not familiar with
the Green Hornet, it started out as a comic and
radio series back in the 30's. Some of you may even
recall the tv series that had Bruce Lee as the side
kick, Kato. Long story short....Brit Reid (Seth Rogen)
is a spoiled brat newspaper magnate by day and an ass
kicking vigilante by night. Along with Kato (Jay Chou)
they seek out bad guys in the city and unleash some
high tech whoop ass. The two also battle for the
attention of Cameron Diaz who plays Lenore Case.
From what I’ve
heard through my contacts in the movie industry
(mainly the National Enquirer and People magazine) the
director of this film was Michel Gondry (Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind) but
the guy that was really pushing the buttons and
calling the shots was Seth Rogen. Yes from the humble
beginnings of his first stoner movie Pineapple
Express, Seth Rogen is now a Hollywood big shot.
He was also the writer of this movie and his
fingerprints are obviously all over what we see on the
screen.
In my humble opinion, aside from the cool customized
gun toting car and the slow motion fight scenes, the
movie is just one big mess. The acting sucks and I had
all I could do to keep from getting up and sneaking
into another movie. Seth Rogen was obviously blowing a
little weed when he put this story together. It’s
almost as if they threw out the script and just
improvised every scene. I expected a lot more out of
Rogen. Cameron Diaz looked out of place and puffy. Jay
Chou as Kato was the only character worth watching.
His kung fu fighting scenes and hilarious butchering
of the English language were all that kept me in my
seat. Perhaps the most stupid scene I have ever
viewed... had to be the part where their car gets cut
in half yet they are still able to drive around. Then
to add insults to injury, they are able to drive it
into a public elevator and take it up 40 flights. It
then comes out on the top floor and they continue to
drive it around the hallways shooting at the bad
guys....are you kidding me??!! If you have to see this
stinker wait until it’s on the dollar clearance rack
at Wal-Mart....and even then you’re spending a buck
too much.
Before I get into the review...a
cute story. A few years back I was looking for
something to do for date night and saw the end of an
advertisement on TV for tickets to a performance of
Swan Lake at the State Theater. So I ordered up
a pair and took my wife. We sat down in our
seats near the front row and settled in for a night of
ballet. It was around intermission time...yes we
are a little slow...that my wife looked at me and I
looked at her and we both said almost at the same
time, "did you notice there aren’t any women in this
show?" We looked around at the rest of the
audience and suddenly noticed it was almost entirely
men with other men. Sure enough it was the "all
male" production of Swan Lake, which had totally
escaped me when I purchased the tickets online.
We laughed so hard at my little oversight that I
thought we would get thrown out! Luckily we
didn’t and we stayed for the entire show and it was
great...although needless to say, not quite what we
had expected!
Black Swan was not quite what I
expected either. Darren Aronofsky directed "The
Wrestler" and for a low budget movie I was quite
impressed with his end result. So it didn’t take
much persuading for me to go see his latest feature
film. Natalie Portman plays Nina, a ballerina in
a New York City ballet company. As the movie
begins to unfold we see that she is obviously driven
to be the best darn little ballerina you could ask
for...she practices until her feet bleed and purges on
a regular basis. She lives with her retired
ballerina mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) who is, to
say the least, just a little bit odd...she kind of
reminded me of the mother in the movie "Carrie."
She is just as obsessed with her daughter’s career as
her daughter is.
To put it in the proverbial
nutshell...nut being the key word here...the artistic
director for the ballet company Thomas Leroy (Vincent
Cassel) decides to replace the prima ballerina Beth
MacIntyre (Winona Ryder) because she’s getting too old
and wants to recast a younger ballerina for the
opening production of their new season of Swan Lake.
Nina is the obvious pick, but Lily (Mila Kunis) is the
new girl in town and she also catches the eye of the
philandering ballet director. Swan Lake requires
the lead ballerina to play both the White Swan with
innocence and beauty as well as the Black Swan that is
sly and cunning. Nina would be perfect as the
White Swan, but Lily is the embodiment of the Black
Swan. Hence the rivalry that is set up between
the two. The ballet director insists that if
Nina is to be the prima ballerina he is looking for,
she must get in touch with her dark side. This
is where the movie starts to get a little crazy.
The director toys with our senses,
as we are often left wondering if what we are seeing
is the real deal, or are we just privy to Nina’s vivid
imagination. Not to give away too much of the
movie, but Nina, we find out, has some real issues.
The kind where she needs to take a few years off and
go see a good shrink. The scenes that followed
were dark, unsettling, bizarre, and made me grimace
nonstop. Much of the film is shot with a single
hand held camera to give you even more of a front row
voyeuristic view of the self mutilation that has
become a big part of Nina’s world.
One last funny note for a not so
funny movie...Natalie Portman said "Everyone was so
worried about who was going to want to see this movie.
How do you get guys to a ballet movie? How do
you get girls to a thriller? And the answer is a
lesbian scene, everyone wants to see that!" Well not
quite everyone. This was a well made movie with
great acting and thrills abound...but I found it hard
to watch...which I am sure was what they were hoping
for...but if I want to see this much bizarre graphic
dysfunction, I will just go to my Netflix account and
pull up the movie "Sybil!"
I’m not going to beat around the
bush with this one...Let me start right off by saying,
it’s my absolute favorite movie of the year! I
went into the movie expecting just a "Rocky" type
remake...and don’t get me wrong, I loved Rocky...but
this movie is much more in so many different ways.
When I heard that Mark Wahlberg was
one of the stars of this picture, I was a little
skeptical. Not that I don’t like Wahlberg, but
his movies are usually hit or miss...and lately I have
seen him in a lot more misfires than straight shots
that hit the target. But let me tell you, he was
great! Wahlberg plays Micky Ward, a real life
boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts who has become little
more than a punching bag for better fighters on their
way up. Now if the movie just focused on
Wahlberg’s character it could have surely become just
another Rocky type movie, but it branches out to
encompass the entire Ward family and their
friends...and that’s what makes this movie a 10.
There’s Micky’s older brother Dicky
Eklund, whose only claim to fame was 14 years earlier,
he fought Sugar Ray Leonard and knocked him down...or
did he just slip? Christian Bale plays Dicky who
has now become a crack addict in the worst possible
way....not that there is a good crack addict, but you
know what I mean. Bale has to win the best actor
Academy Award or I will know once and for all that the
Oscars are fixed and will never watch again. Jaw
Dropping...are the only two words I can use to
describe his performance...actually I guess there are
a few more, like incredible, mesmerizing, touching,
outrageous, beautiful, courageous, thought provoking,
manipulative, dynamic, blah blah blah... HE IS THE
MAN!!!
The last thing I saw actress Amy
Adams in was a Disney flick called "Enchanted" and
those "Night at the Museum" movies where she was "oh
so soft and delicate"...so I didn’t know what to
expect from her in this gritty movie. However,
like everyone else in the film, she delivers her own
knock out performance as a college drop out - turned
bartender who plays Micky’s girlfriend Charlene
Flemming. It is Charlene who finally gets Micky
to open his eyes so he can realize his true potential
and escape the stranglehold his mother and brother
have put on him. She is a street smart gal who takes
crap from no one and can throw a punch almost as good
as Micky himself...as shown in one of the funnier
moments of the movie when she delivers a beat down to
one of Micky’s sisters. Charlene is sexy and
confident yet flawed and fragile. Another jaw dropping
performance, I kid you not!
I would be remiss to not mention,
in a big way, the acting chops of Melissa Leo who
plays Micky’s jerk mother, Alice Ward. You
despise her because all she cares about is her crack
addict son, Dicky, and what he once was, while
refusing to see what he has now become. For some
reason she cannot allow herself to see Micky as the
son with all the real potential and deserving of the
love and affection she never shows him. She has
that hardened look that is only brought on by years
filled with straight shots of Jack and an endless
chain of Marlboro reds. She is a survivor who
will not let anyone get in her way of manipulating her
sons’ lives....that is until she meets Charlene.
I could go on about every little
character actor in the movie and how great they were
but you would probably just get bored and not finish
my review. I would just add that for a movie to
be great, like this one, it has to have more than just
great actors...the other real winners of this movie
would have to be the script by Scott Silver, the
cinematography that so vividly captures the raw and
desolate feel of blue collar Lowell, Massachusetts and
finally the music soundtrack...that if not being sold
as a CD or on ITunes...should be!
"The Fighter" is the story of
life...its highs and lows and everything in
between...told and shown in a way that makes this film
an absolute must see!!!
I remember reading
the first Harry Potter book to my kids when they were in
grade school back in 1997. The book weighed as
much as my son Dougie did back then and I currently use
it as a ladder during the winter when I have to reach
the very top of my roof to remove ice dams.
Fast forward to
2010 and we find it all starting to wrap up with Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. This time
I didn’t read the book because I wanted to squeeze in a
few other activities over the next 2 years....so much
like George Costanza...I just went straight to the
movie. Of course it’s your usual cast of
characters, except now instead of sucking their thumbs
they have all started shaving; either their face or
legs...some both. Yes, the gang has grown up right
before our eyes. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and
Rupert Grint reprise their roles as Harry, Hermoine, and
Ron.
As the movie opens
we are reminded that Hogwarts headmaster Albus
Dumbledore is dead and as a result things are getting a
little out of hand in the world of wizards. The
evil Voldemort has pretty much taken over the Ministry
of Magic and his number one goal is to terminate our
hero. Harry, however, is not about to stand idly
by and along with Ron and Hermoine they set out to
destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes. In case you don’t
speak the Potter lingo...a horcruxe is an object in
which a person has concealed part of their soul. If you
can destroy Voldemort’s horcruxes you can destroy
Voldemort...if you can’t he will remain immortal....and
no one wants that, except maybe Kim Jong iI..
A lot of the movie
takes place in a forest that serves as a safe place for
the trio to chill and reflect on the troubles that lie
ahead. The only problem is those scenes were so
slow and drawn out that all I wanted to do was slip out
for my free refills on pop and popcorn. The
special effects of course are the saving grace and make
it all worthwhile. From what I understand there is
one more blockbuster movie left and that’s the one that
is suppose to be nothing but action packed...rest
assured I will be in the front of that line come opening
day!!! Until then "may the force be with you".........
sorry wrong movie.
My friend, Marge, told me I should
review more feature films that women would be
interested in. Not that I am some sort of macho
man, but I refer to those as "girly" movies.
Just kidding, of course, but I have to admit I do lean
towards reviewing the hard hitting, shoot’em up, blood
and guts, guy-type of movies.
My daughter, Katie, agrees with
Marge and called me up the other day and convinced me
to go with her to see Morning Glory. She
currently attends St. Cloud State University, so she
was good enough to meet me halfway and we ended up at
the beautiful Meuller Cineplex in Monticello.
She sprang for the tickets and I was in charge of
beverages and popcorn...and we were good to go!
Rachel McAdams stars as Becky
Fuller, a workaholic TV producer, who is fired from a
local news station and then gets a new job as producer
for "Daybreak" (a "Good Morning America" type national
news show that is in last place.) She then tries
to breathe new life into the sinking morning show by
bringing on board, legendary TV anchor, Mike Pomeroy
(Harrison Ford). Pomeroy turns out to be the
biggest pain in the rear you could possibly ask for.
He refuses to do anything morning shows are known for:
i.e.celebrity gossip, fashion, cooking etc. He
also clashes with his co-host, Colleen Peck (Diane
Keaton). Throw into the mix a budding romance
Becky is having with fellow producer Adam Bennett
(Patrick Wilson) and you have the makings for a cute
and humorous little movie. The cast also
includes Jeff Goldblum as Becky’s disheveled boss who
gives her six weeks to change things around or the
show will be canceled.
Morning Glory is what I would call
the perfect "date" movie. The cast was
delightful and the movie overall was very charming.
It’s warm and fuzzy and just makes you feel good all
over. No blood and guts...just good clean fun.
Begrudgingly, I must confess, it was a nice change of
pace from my usual fare of bedazzling special effects
and rapid gun fire.
Those of you who are regular
readers of my reviews know that I don’t miss anything
that Robert Downey Jr. is in...so it's not to hard to
figure that I am writing this review on Due Date.
Downey is one of my favorite actors and never fails to
disappoint....until now.
Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.)
is trying to get home from Atlanta to Los Angeles so
he can watch his wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) give
birth to their first child. Enter Ethan Tremblay (Zach
Galifianakis) who proceeds to not only get them thrown
off the plane they are on, but to make matters worse,
they have now also been put on a no-fly list. To add
insult to injury, Peter loses his wallet and has no
choice but to accept a ride with Ethan for the 2,000
mile road trip home.
One of my favorite all time
comedies is Planes, Trains & Automobiles with Steve
Martin and John Candy...and judging from all the
trailers I saw for Due Date...I thought this would
quickly become another classic....not to be! Don’t get
me wrong...this movie has some really funny
moments...it’s just that there is a lot of stuff that
just made me cringe. In particular, a masturbating
scene that is just plain crude, a brutal beating, a
wasted cameo by Jamie Foxx, just to name a few. I know
a lot of people refer to movies like this as dark
comedies. To be honest, I am just not a big fan of
comedies that don’t make me laugh, whether they are
designed that way or not. To repeat, the movie does
deliver some big laughs, it’s just that they are not
sustained and as a result the movie is just too bumpy
of a ride for my taste. And to be fair...I guess I
can’t really blame it all on Downey or Galifianakis...they
gave the best performance they could considering the
script they were given.
My biggest complaint though is why
Zach Galifianakis ever chose that last name.
Galifianakis is so hard to spell and pronounce and it
takes me an hour just to type. It’s like he put a
bunch of letters from the alphabet into a jar and the
first 13 he drew out he would use for his last name.
Good thing the guy is an incredible comedic actor or I
would simply refer to him as "the other guy".
Anything that Clint Eastwood and
Matt Damon are attached to, I am going to be the first
in line when the movie opens. That was exactly
the case for the movie Hereafter. Since I am not
quite at the point where the producers fly me out for
the red carpet openings or Fed-Ex me an advance copy
of their movie to review...believe it or not, I stand
in line just like you common folk. Last Friday I
headed up to the movie theater that just happens to be
a convenient 2 minutes from my office, purchased my
ticket with a box of popcorn (lightly buttered) and a
diet pepsi and was in my seat before the previews even
started. Am I the only one who could watch 2
hours of just previews? Some people complain
there should be no previews. I am all for adding
another 15 minutes worth or maybe having a separate
free theater on the premise that shows nothing but
previews...that would be cool!
The Hereafter opens in a big way
with an incredibly filmed tsunami. Although this
is not a 3-D movie, you will feel like you are right
in the middle of this natural disaster. It is
truly breathtaking. From this point on our story
interweaves the lives of three central characters --
Matt Damon plays George, a psychic who is the real
deal but does not look upon his ability as a gift but
a curse. Cecile de France plays a French
television journalist named Marie who survives the
tsunami after nearly drowning and having a near death
experience. Frankie McLaren play Marcus, a young
English boy whose twin brother is killed in a car
accident.
As you can tell by the name of the
film, the movie is all about the hereafter.
Everybody has varying opinions on this topic...some
believe...some don’t. Clint, as he likes me to
call him, lays it all out in a manner that I don’t
think anyone would have a problem with. (I don’t
care that you’re not suppose to use the word "with" at
the end of a sentence...I love dangling participles!)
I have no problem with the actors in this movie
either...they are all great. The McLaren twins
have very few lines but command your attention
whenever they are on screen. Matt Damon, is like Tom
Hanks, what’s not to like? The guy is incredible
in everything he stars in. I don’t think I have
ever seen Cecile de France in anything else but I hope
I see her in a lot more.
My only problem with Clint, and his
directing of this film, is a lot of directors do not
spend enough time on character development, so you end
up not really caring what happens to them. Clint goes
totally in the other direction and spends way too much
time on character development... and I didn’t think
that was possible! As a result, the movie’s pace
is so slow at times that you almost find yourself
saying "enough already lets move along here"! I
really enjoyed the film but wish about 20 to 30
minutes had been left on the editing floor. If
you're like me, you have ever wondered about the
hereafter, I don’t think you will find a better film
to explore the possibilities. Remember to ask your
boss if you can get out of work early next Tuesday to
go vote and while you're at it you might as well go
see a good movie...you deserve it!
I always like
going to a new movie on the Friday afternoon that it is released. I am usually one of the only ones
in the theater and it feels like I am having a private
screening. Not for RED’s... I got into my seat
just before noon and was surprised to look around and
see the seats were about 3/4's full. It was
obviously a 50+ crowd and I am sure that’s who the
producers were banking would show up. They got it
right and it brought in an impressive $22
million dollars opening weekend!
As I understand it the original
story was a three issue comic book that had a much
darker tone that was void of any humor. For the big
screen adaptation they lightened things up a lot and
brought in an all star cast of "old but still kicking"
actors including Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan
Freeman, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss and Ernest
Borgnine.
RED stands for "Retired and
Extremely Dangerous". The movie centers on a
group of former government assassins who are now the
target of the CIA. A few unsavory politicians
think the retired team knows too much and has put out
their own hit squad to take them out. Little do
they know this over-the-hill gang can still pack a
punch. All of our geriatric stars are up to the
task of keeping us well entertained for a couple of
hours with some great shoot ’em up fight scenes and
some hilarious dead pan humor. If you're looking
for something that has deep meaning and will bring on
a cathartic moment or two you might want to pass on
this one...but if you just want to take a couple hours
off to smile and feel good, this movie delivers in
spades.
If you have not heard of Facebook...you
are either living on another planet or you're my
parents. There are something like a billion
people who use Facebook everyday. They use it to let
you know everything from their marital status to what
time of day they are blowing their nose.
Facebook, the movie, takes us back
to 2003 where a little snot nose Harvard undergrad and
computer programming guru named Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse
Eisenberg) comes up with an idea to rate the girls on
campus if they are "hot" or "not". Within hours,
everyone at the school is online filling out the
tasteless poll and the entire school mainframe is
overloaded and crashes. Gaining a little notoriety on
campus from the episode, a pair of well-to-do twin
brothers (Arnie Hammer and Josh Pence) attending the
school, approach Zuckerberg to develop an online
social network for all Harvard students. Zuckerberg
accepts the offer from the Winklevoss twins, but then
gives them the run around until he has enough time to
launch his own social network that would of course go
on to become known as Facebook.
Much of the movie plays out in a
high priced lawyer's office where Zuckerberg is being
sued by the Winklevoss twins for stealing their idea.
At the same time he is also being sued by Eduardo
Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Saverin is Zuckerberg’s
former college friend who was the first CFO of the
company who put up all the initial backing money to
get the company off the ground only to have Zuckerberg
screw him out of all his promised shares.
Interspersed throughout these proceedings are
flashbacks that show how it all started. This is
where we are also introduced to Napster founder Sean
Parker (Justin Timberlake). Zuckerberg thinks Parker
is an internet God and quickly invites him to be part
of his Facebook empire.
The acting is superb and I mean top
notch! Jesse Eisenberg has come a long way from his
original breakout acting role as the buddy to Woody
Harrelson in Zombieland. If Zuckerberg is even a
fraction of the jerk he is portrayed as by
Eisenberg...this guy deserves to be tarred and
feathered while being viewed online by all Facebook
users. The same holds true for Justin Timberlake...he
was spot on at portraying the Napster founder as a
clever, manipulating playboy with a penchant for
cocaine and underage women. Obviously much of the
credit for the success of this movie is also owed to
director David Fincher (Fight Club) and screenwriter
Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing). Let's hope these two
collaborate again real soon. Get out and see this
movie...it’s a lot of fun and make sure you tell all
your friends...post it on Facebook!
I thought the first Wall Street was
incredible...it was fast paced, exciting, intelligent,
blah, blah, blah!!! However, the sequel is just
pretty good... and "pretty good" is OK with me.
They can’t all be home runs...just ask the Twins!
This time around Jake Moore (Shia
LaBeouf) plays the Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) wannabe
character and Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is back
as the guy who knows all too much about greed.
As a matter of fact, when we last saw Gordon, he was
heading to prison to do a stretch in the big house for
letting his greed get the best of him. Flash
forward to 2008 and Gekko is out of prison pimping his
new book appropriately titled, "Is Greed Good?"
Jake is involved with Gekko’s daughter Winnie (Carey
Mulligan.) He also just happens to be
proprietary trader for a Lehman Brothers type firm
called Keller Zabel Investments headed by Louis Zabel
(Frank Langella, one of my favorite character actors.)
So knowing all that ahead of time, it just makes good
movie sense that Jake would meet Gekko after he
attends one of his book signings, and despite his
daughters warnings, gets involved with the always
greedy Gekko. Josh Brolin plays the even
greedier (is that a word?) Bretton James, the head of
another powerful investment bank. Brolin’s
character is so despicable (I thought I was overusing
the word greedy) he makes Gekko look like Santa
Claus...not a very nice guy!
What’s fascinating about this movie
is it actually makes clear, in a movie sort of way,
what actually happened when our economy almost
collapsed. It feels like we are voyeurs peeking
in on our government as it tried to make sense of what
was going on and what it felt it had to do to keep
those greedy banks afloat so our country would do the
same. Wall Street 2 is once again fast paced,
exciting, and all those other adjectives that Wall
Street 1 was... it’s just that it comes up just a
little short on developing characters that we really
care about. You also question some of the story
line. For instance, you can’t quite believe that
such a sharp guy like Jake would even fall prey to the
evil Gekko. That said, I would say go see the
movie and don’t be greedy....share your
popcorn!
I have never
been a big Ben Affleck fan... and NO it's not because
I am jealous of what a good looking guy he is... and
NO it's not because he always gets all the good
looking girls... and NO it's not because he has all
that money.... well, maybe it has to do with some of
that... but mainly I have just found him to be a
pretty boring actor to watch on the big screen.
However, I thought Gone Baby Gone, his directorial
debut a couple of years back, was a pretty decent
movie. This time around he's doing double duty serving
as both the star and director of "The Town"...and I’ll
tell you right up front... Affleck is back on my good
side!!!
The Town is a well crafted crime
drama that takes place in Charlestown, Boston. The
movie opens to an aerial view of the blue collar city
and a graphic that dissolves in, letting us know from
the get-go that this town is also "the bank robbery
capital of America." It quickly becomes evident
that a prerequisite for living in Charlestown is you
must know your way around a gun and someone in your
family must be serving time in the big house for a
stick up gone wrong.
I like a movie that grabs you by
the shirt collar right from the very beginning and The
Town does just that by giving us front row seats to a
bank robbery that is just starting to unfold. The
meticulous manner in which this crew carries out the
job lets us in on the fact that these guys know their
stuff. No detail is overlooked and they are simply a
smooth running machine.
Here is the nuts and bolts on this
charismatic crew of crime...Doug MacRay (Affleck) is
the consummate professional; smooth, calm, and the
brains of the outfit. Jimmy (Jeremy Renner) is
the ex-con/trigger man who is ready to blow you away
if you so much as...well come to think of it, you
don’t have to do anything and the guy will erase you
from this world before you have a chance to blink.
Albert (Slaine) is the wheel man and Desmond (Owen
Burke) is the technician who can shut down any alarm
or surveillance system at the drop of a dime.
These guys are good in all the bad ways!
Of course all movies, especially
ones with Ben Affleck, have to have a love interest or
two. Enter Claire (Rebecca Hall), a bank manager who
is taken hostage during the opening bank robbery as
insurance for a safe getaway. Since the crew is
wearing masks, they release Claire after they are out
of harm’s way. But Jimmy, the hot head, finds
out that Claire lives in the neighborhood and thinks
she might cause problems down the road. Doug,
sensing that Jimmy might try turning Claire’s lights
out, says he will keep an eye on her himself. He
follows her to a laundromat and makes her acquaintance
and the two quickly fall in love, complicating matters
even further.
Adding to the crew’s problems is a
relentless FBI agent (Jon Hamm) and Jimmy’s sister,
Krista (Blake Lively). In my opinion Hamm is a
little too over-the-top, but Lively is spectacular as
Doug’s former girlfriend who now lives her life out of
a glass of booze and a bottle of pills. Cameos from
Chris Cooper as Doug’s dad doing life behind bars and
Pete Postlethwaite as the head gangster in town give
the movie even more credibility.
Not to put Ben down, but my
favorite crook in the movie was actually the "hot
head" played by Renner....the guy is the crazy glue
that keeps the movie together and steals every scene
he is in. His honed acting skills are worth the
price of admission all by itself. My favorite
movie of this genre is "Heat" starring Robert DeNiro,
Val Kilmer, and Al Pacino. If you haven’t seen
it, go out and rent it and you will know what I am
talking about. It would be tough to knock that
one off the pedestal, but "The Town" comes in a
distant second, or maybe third....and that’s not all
bad!!!
Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham,
Jet Li, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke.
The last time I saw this much testosterone in a movie
was when.............come to think of it, I have never
seen another movie with this much muscle and swagger!
You all know what a sucker I am for the this genre of
movie...and this one is no exception.
The Expendables is an action packed
thriller that doesn’t give you a chance to breathe
until it’s all over. Sylvester Stallone directs and
stars in this fast paced macho man movie. Barney Ross
(Sylvester Stallone) is the leader of an elite group
of misfit mercenaries who is a no frills kind of guy.
He fears nothing and trusts only his elite team of
combat ready professionals. The team includes Lee
Christmas (Jason Statham), a kick ass-talk later sort
of guy whose weapon of choice is any size knife you
want to put in front of him. Yin Yang (Jet Li)
provides much of the comic relief and of course is a
master at close-quarter combat. Toll Road (Randy
Couture) is a demolitions expert. Gunnar Jensen (Dolph
Lundgren) is a giant of a man and also a bit psychotic
to say the least. His character this time around is
even more ominous (my big word for the week) than his
well portrayed Rocky 4 role as Ivan Drago.
The team's mission...should they
decide to accept it...which they will, or I would not
be writing this review, is to topple a South American
country’s army and its evil regime. You heard it
right...Stallone thinks big...he’s not happy with a
plot that snuffs out just a couple of guys, he wants
us to believe that this handful of mischievous
mercenaries is capable of annihilating an entire
country....and guess what? He made a believer out of
me!!!
Once things get cooking, we realize
it’s a puppet regime that is being run by rogue CIA
operative James Monroe (Eric Roberts) and his trusty
henchman Paine (played by Stone Cold Steve Austin.)
Gotta love that name! Roberts always plays a great
bad guy and delivers as a money grubbing, maniacal,
sleaze who is up to the task of making sure our band
of modern day warriors have their hands full 24/7.
Sandra (Giselle Itie) is Barney’s token love interest
who plays a freedom fighter who he just can’t leave
behind.
It’s a fun movie that brings
together some of our most remembered action movie
stars of the last 20 years. I hope there is a sequel,
but these guys aren’t getting any younger, so they
better do it soon. Mike A. from Champlin sent me an
email and thinks they’re too old already and a good
name for the next movie would be "The Dependsables".
I’m sure Stallone has gotten used to those types of
comments over the years but probably forgets about
them as soon as he deposits those multi-million dollar
paychecks.
I had the opportunity to spend a
few days up at my cabin in Clear Lake last weekend.
Went golfing with my wife, son, and nephew. When
we got done, it was so hot and steamy, we thought the
best way to cool off would be going to the movies. Who
am I to argue with that logic? Love the
movies!!! (Notice how I did not mention my golf
score?) My nephew, Logan Gartin and I voted for
Dinner For Schmucks, and my wife and son wanted to see
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. There movie started a
little earlier than ours so we just cooled off in the
lobby until Schmucks started. Just as the
trailers ended and Schmucks was about to start we saw
my wife and son sneak into our movie...apparently The
Sorcerer’s Apprentice was lacking the movie magic they
had hoped for...good move on their part because this
movie was a laugh fest and just the right stuff to
help me forget about my earlier golf score!!!
I knew we chose the right movie as
soon as I saw Jay Roach was the director...he helmed
the incredibly successful Meet the Fockers and Austin
Powers franchises. The movie is an adaptation of
the foreign film Le Diner de Cons...a little tidbit
for those of you that want to bedazzle your friends
with your incredible knowledge of French cinema.
After seeing Inception a few weeks
ago...it was nice to now see a movie that had a plot
that didn’t make my head feel like it was going to
explode. Paul Rudd is a businessman trying to
get a promotion at a Wall Street type investment firm.
His boss is a shady jerk who has a monthly dinner
event at his home known as the "dinner for idiots."
Rudd and other top guns from the company are invited
to the dinner and whoever brings the biggest idiot of
the night will get the top floor office.
Enter Steve Carell....prior to the
monthly event Rudd runs into Carell, literally, and
from that moment on we know who he will be bringing to
the "idiot" dinner. Carell is perfect as one of
the most insane characters you will ever see in a
movie. The guy does not have a clue and no
matter how hard he tries to do the right thing...it’s
just not going to happen. I don’t know if I was
just woozy from the heat that day, but I can’t
remember laughing so hard in quite some time.
Slapstick and sight gags, if not handled right, can be
a real turn off...not in this movie...almost every
other scene has some sort of prat fall or hilarious
knock down that works every time!
The supporting cast gets a great
big WOW from me! They were sooooo good.
Jemaine Clement plays Keiran, an artist super star so
self absorbed that every one of his famous painting is
of himself. Zach Galifianakis, from The
Hangover, plays an over the top IRS agent who steals
every scene he is in. Lucy Punch plays the
stalking ex-girlfriend of Paul Rudd and puts a funny
spin on a Glen Close/Fatal Attraction type character.
This comedy is not for everyone but
when it was all over my nephew Logan and I were sure
glad we passed on the Sorcerer’s Apprentice!
Although the movie’s been panned by
just about every other critic out there...I have to
disagree...I thought the movie Salt was a great time.
Sure it’s not going to win many academy awards but if
you like your movies fast and furious like I do and
don’t mind seeing the world's most gorgeous woman on
the big screen for a couple of hours...checking out
Salt should be a no brainer!!!
Granted, the script is a little
weak but remember Salt was originally written for Tom
Cruise so they had to unfortunately mess around with
some key plot elements to make it all work for a
female lead. Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a
CIA agent who is accused by a Russian defector of
being a mole for the bad guys. To her dismay,
this allegation is made while she is interrogating the
defector in front of her boss and all her other CIA
cronies. Salt, sensing that her peers believe
that the rat is telling the truth, tries to make a
hasty exit. The building is quickly put into
lock down mode to try and thwart her escape.
Early on we see that Salt is no ordinary CIA pencil
pusher. One opening scene, during the initial
chase by her CIA mates, has her trapped in an office
where she is quickly able to whip up a make shift
rocket launcher with just a couple cleaning products
and a few handy office items. We immediately are
put on notice that this babe is not just eye candy but
a well trained covert operative.
The script adds another interesting
plot twist having us believe that the Russians have
planted sleeper agents that have just been hanging out
for the last 20 years or so waiting to go into action.
Who would ever believe that could happen in real
life....oh yeah it just did, didn’t it...duh!!! I
should mention that Liev Schrieber (Wolverine’s
brother in X Men) is great in this movie too. He
was Salt’s partner and appears to be the only one who
believes Salt is playing for the right team.
I don’t know of any other woman in
Hollywood who could have pulled off this action flick.
Rarely does Angelina Jolie not deliver and Salt is no
exception. Maybe not the best spy movie ever
but.....great fight scenes, car chases, explosions and
more twists and turns than the Wild Thing coaster at
Valley Fair... the movie’s another thrill ride that
doesn’t stop until the lights come up!
I was anticipating a good movie
once I saw who was onboard. The director Christopher
Nolan scored big, in my book, with his other thought
provoking movies including Memento, The Prestige, and
Dark Knight. You can hardly go wrong with Leonardo
DiCaprio and I immediately fell in love (cinematically
speaking) with Ellen Page the first time I saw her in
Juno. So from the very first trailer that came
out...I was psyched to say the least! With my wife
and son spending a week in Alaska visiting my
daughter...I had nothing holding me back opening
weekend that would keep me from reviewing Nolan’s
latest offering -- Inception.
WOW WHAT A MOVIE!!! Yes, right
from the get go I must tell you how impressed I was
with Inception! It’s got everything I like in a
film...great acting, suspense, thrills, chills, and
special effects that will blow your mind. To be
honest, not since The Matrix have I seen a movie
offering such ground breaking movie magic.
Inception centers around a team of
highly trained individuals who literally get into
peoples heads for a living. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio),
known as an "extractor", heads up the team and has
accepted an incredibly complicated mission that has
absolutely no room for error. In the proverbial nut
shell...they use a special intravenous-type machine
that has a line with syringes at the end that injects
into the veins of the teams' arms as well as the
individual whose dreams they are trying to incept.
For this caper, the team is hired to enter their
target's dreams to implant an idea so that the target
will later make a major business decision that will
benefit the guy that hired the team. Believe
me...it's much more complicated than that and so much
more fun to watch it all evolve.
Each member of Cobb’s team is
highly specialized and brings to the table their own
specific set of skills. Ariadne (Ellen Page) shines
as the "architect" in the group and is responsible for
creating the elaborate landscape and scenery that the
target dreams. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (remember him,
the little kid on 3rd Rock from the Sun) I
predict will be a big star some day and plays Arthur,
Cobb’s sidekick. Tom Hardy is a scene stealer and
plays "the forger". His role is to take on other
peoples identities within the dream to gain the
target's trust. The list goes on and on with every
actor turning in great performances.
The only thing that keeps this
movie from scoring a perfect 10 with me...is that is
too long. I think they could have edited, even this
cerebral movie, down by at least a half hour and that
would have worked just fine for me. Even the
incredible special effects start to grow a little old
after you have seen the same thing over and
over...it’s like a magician doing a great trick and
then just keeps repeating the trick. It’s got all the
right ingredients, it's just been cooked a little bit
too long.
I have to admit there are very few
sequels that I have enjoyed more than the original.
Case in point, the mostly ridiculous and embarrassing
sequels for The Sting, Meatballs, Rambo, The
Godfather after 1 and 2, Dumb and Dumber, Blues
Brothers, Caddy Shack, Grease, and the list goes on
and on. Eclipse, however, the third in the series of
these Twilight movies is the best so far. Not that I
have been overly impressed by any of them...at least
each film has been better than the last!
This time around we find a new
breed of blood sucking killer vampires that are
wreaking havoc on the good people of Seattle while
preparing to wage war on Edward, his family, and
Bella. Bella, played by Kristen Stewart, also gets
torn between her love for Edward (Robert Pattinson)
and what appears to be a more than growing fondness
for the always bare-chested Jacob (Taylor Lautner.)
This girl sure knows how to pick ‘em...vampire or
werewolf...she should have stuck with that geeky group
she’s always shown eating lunch with at her high
school.
Owed to the success of the first
two movies, they sunk a few more bucks into the
special effects this time around and that works for
me. Some pretty cool fight scenes, I’m sure, used up
most of that budget. Visually, my only complaint would
be that every time they show Bella and Edward together
it's a close up shot...and I mean close up...we can
literally count the pores on their faces. Some
of those shots are held for what feels like an
eternity...a few more creative angles during those
scenes would have been welcomed. Although I am
sure I am not the target audience for this teen love
story...I liked it for having just enough of "this and
that" to keep even an old dog...or should I say
wolf... like me sticking around until the final
credits started rolling.
If you like
movies that include non stop fart jokes, scantily clad
young women, adults acting like morons and lots of
sophomoric pranks...then don’t stop to have anyone
pull your finger...just get to the theater and see
Grown Ups...because this goof-fest was made for you!!!
Now it’s not that I don’t care for any of the items
listed above...I just think that they should be
sprinkled in...not just dumped on us for 2 hours
straight.
Long story short...and the shorter
the better for this review...a group of kids who were
on a winning basketball team reunite years later when
their team coach dies. They all meet up for his
funeral and along with their dysfunctional families
spend a weekend together on the lake. Think "The
Big Chill" meets "Meatballs"...and you’re almost
there. I like all the comics featured including
Adam Sandler, Kevin James, David Spade, Rob Schneider
and Chris Rock....just not in this film. There’s
not much chemistry to speak of between themselves or
their family members. If I didn’t know
better...and I usually don’t...it’s almost as if these
five guys had a break in their schedules and said "Hey
Adam, get some of your camera crew together and lets
ad lib a movie this weekend....it’ll make millions!"
(and it did, over $40 million opening weekend).
Grown Ups, like its main
characters, is a little sloppy and overweight.
There’s lots of fat that could have been trimmed from
this porker.
Wow what a busy summer so far...just got back from our
annual trip to Birch Lane Resort in Pine River,
Minnesota. Went golfing at Breezy Point and caught
some monster fish on Horseshoe Lake. But, now on to
more important things....
I know that a lot of you have never
been able to get over the infamous Tom Cruise meltdown
on Oprah a few years back or the fact that he dumped
Nicole Kidman for no apparent reason. But I think you
will agree, after watching his latest movie Knight and
Day, the guy still has "the stuff" when it comes to
being a great action movie hero.
The storyline revolves around a
young scientist played by Paul Dano, who develops a
battery that will never wear out. It goes without
saying, this is a game changer that our government
wants to make sure doesn't get into the wrong hands.
Tom Cruise is the covert agent assigned to protecting
the young scientist and his battery from the bad
guys. The roller coaster ride takes off right from
the beginning of the movie as we find Cruise being
chased down by his own agency, who thinks he has gone
rogue and is trying to sell the battery secrets to the
bad guys. Cameron Diaz is the "up for anything" type
of
woman who accidentally gets drawn into all the
intrigue.
The movie delivers exactly what it
has promoted through all of its marketing. It’s fast
paced and has some great action scenes sprinkled with
those incredible special effects we have all come to
expect and take for granted in this type of movie.
Cruise and Diaz work well together and deliver the
cleverly written comedic dialogue flawlessly. For two
actors who have been around for such a long time, they
both have also been keeping themselves in tip top
shape. There is eye candy for the guys and the
girls...Cruise is often filmed showing off his six
pack and Diaz still looks pretty darn good in a
bikini.
Academy award bound...it’s
not...but it doesn’t try to be! It is what it is...a
good summer action/comedy flick that provides us with
good laughs and some well crafted thrills and chills
along the way...and who doesn’t like that once in
awhile?
Lately there just hasn’t been
much out there that’s caught my eye to review. I did
go to one movie and it was so bad I just didn’t want
to write a review on it because I would've had nothing
good to say....and nobody needs that! Also had to
help my daughter move to Alaska...she was lucky enough
to get a job working for a tourism company and will be
there for the whole summer. My son just graduated
from Blaine High School and we just finished up with
the big "Open House" celebration. Blah, blah,
blah...long story short...been neglecting my
professional duties lately!
However, the
other night I saw the movie "High Fidelity" on
TV. Now mind you, I am normally your typical guy who
switches back and forth to a million different
programs and would never dream of keeping the same
channel on for the entire show...especially one I have
already seen before. I remembered the first time I
saw this movie I liked it a lot...and now that I have
seen it a second time...I know it’s worthy of a review
to hopefully get all of you, who have not seen it, up
off your kiesters to go rent it or have your TIVO
record it next time it's on TV.
The movie came
out in March of 2000 and came in a dismal 5th
place while bringing in only $6 million during its
opening weekend. With numbers like that, it didn’t
last too long in the theaters and a lot of you may
have missed it. It’s not a big budget blockbuster
layered with special effects or incredible action
scenes...it’s just a wonderful, fun little movie that
deserves a viewing, maybe even two or three.
As far as I am
concerned, this is as near perfect a dramedy (part
drama/part comedy) as you will ever find. John Cusack
plays Rob, the owner of a shop that’s right out of the
early 70's that sells hard to find record albums
(remember those big round flat black plastic things
that you would put a needle on to hear music?) His
quirky hired help includes Jack Black as Barry, who,
in one of his first roles in a movie, shows us all why
he went on to become known for his irrepressible
comedic energy. His coworker sidekick named Dick,
played by Todd Louiso, is a total opposite and
together they play the perfect ying and yang. A big
part of the fun in the movie comes from the shameless
arrogance these three have as a result of their
undeniable knowledge of all music past and present.
The banter between themselves and their record buying
customers is sharp witted and funny for all the right
reasons.
Fairly early on in the movie we discover that Rob’s
live in girlfriend Laura, played by Iben Hijejle, is
leaving Rob because she just doesn’t think he is
willing to make the sacrifices that it takes for a
long lasting relationship...and she’s right! I should
add that Iben Hijejle is an incredible actress in this
movie...she is charming and sexy, in a Princess Diana
sort of way, and when you hear her sultry voice I
guarantee your pulse rate will go from 0-1000 in just
seconds! After she leaves Rob, a well deserved
portion of the movie is dedicated to Rob’s "Top 5
worst breakups of all time". He tracks down, in
hilarious fashion, his past girlfriends to find out
why they dumped him. Three of his top 5 include
actresses Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, and
Joelle Carter who all turn in great performances. A
pleasant little detour includes a short term romance
Rob has with singer Marie DeSalle (Lisa Bonet) and
another that Laura has with Ian, the upstairs neighbor
(Timothy Robbins). It’s the perfect cast for this
perfect little movie! If you like music, witty
dialogue, fascinating characters, and romance... and a
happy ending to boot....this movie is for
you...guaranteed!!!
Tom's Featured Movie Review: Avatar
- Directed by James
Cameron
Guest Critic: Tom Horita Tom is a resident of
Coon Rapids. He is an avid golfer and enjoys
attending ball games at the new Twins' Target Field.
He and his girlfriend, Laura, also foster dogs who are
in need of a new home. Doug's Note:
Since I am not able to review every movie that comes
out...on occasion I will draw from the many emails I
receive...and will post your comments for the review.
Well, it’s funny, about
a year ago or so, Laura and I were at the movie theater
and saw the trailer for Avatar. I hadn’t heard anything
about it up until then. Laura and I both said, “That’s
gonna be a bomb”. I guess we were a little wrong in that
prediction. Having said that, we watched it on Blu-Ray a
couple days ago and I thought it was awesome! Granted,
the storyline wasn’t the greatest (basically identical
to Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, and probably
dozens of other movies), but for sheer entertainment, I
loved it. Obviously, most of that had to do with the
incredible special effects (by far the best I have ever
seen). I thought it was well casted, particularly the
hard-ass military guy. I am glad they went with no
names for most of the characters. And, I am actually
glad they stayed with a simple, predictable storyline,
because then I could just sit back and enjoy the movie
for what it was and not worry about thinking too much.
Plus, the alien women were HOT!!!
Let
me tell you right from the get go...if you are
expecting the old version of Robin Hood where he robs
from the rich and gives to the poor...don’t hold your
breath. This film, directed by Ridley Scott,
chronicles the folk hero prior to his "merry band of
thieves" days.
We first encounter Robin Hood
(Russell Crowe) as a soldier fighting in the 10 year
crusade of King Richard, The Lionhearted (Danny
Huston). After Richard is killed in the war, Robin
sets off on his own and through a totally unlikely set
of circumstances ends up leading the entire English
army against an invasion by the French....who woulda
thunk? Throw into this epic wannabe, a little
onscreen romance between Robin and Maid Marian (Cate
Blanchett), and I mean little. Apparently trying
to be true to the times, the flirtations are guarded
and the courting seems hardly worth all the work.
The action scenes in the movie are
well done and reminded me of the movie Braveheart, but
they don’t quite make up for all the down time in
between. The acting, the directing, and the
cinematography are all superior, but everything moves
along sooooooooooo slow! Aside from the pace of the
show, I think the only other thing that upsets me was
the bait-and-switch they used to get me into the
seat. Just from the name of the movie itself and the
promo trailers viewed, I thought I was paying for the
old Robin Hood and the escapades that we would be
treated to while he robs from the rich and gives to
the poor. This movie could have been called anything
other than Robin Hood, but they knew that name, all by
itself would put thousands of unsuspecting people like
me right where they wanted them...paying to watch the
movie! Doesn’t seem quite fair....but what does???
I’m not saying the movie was bad...I’m just saying I
thought I was ordering a cheeseburger but they served
me a club sandwich. (Why do I always make my analogies
about food...no wonder I am 20 pounds overweight!)
Iron Man 2 was
as much fun as you could possibly want from an action
packed sequel! So much talent...Robert Downey
Jr. is once again incredible as Tony Stark/Iron Man.
This time around he is enjoying the life of a super
hero who is keeping the world safe, adored by millions
of fans. The only problem is he starts to
believe his own press clippings and becomes his
biggest fan....and we all know that can’t be a good
thing! Stark is called before a Senate hearing
because they think he has too much power and that they
should be the ones running the show. Soon Stark is
having major problems with both the government and of
course his major villain this time around, Ivan Vanko
a.k.a. Whiplash, played wonderfully by Mickey Rourke.
Vanko wreaks terror on Stark and anyone who gets in
his way and if you’ve seen any of the movie trailers
you’ll know why they call him Whiplash! He
carries around a couple of whips that have enough
voltage in them to power the city of Minneapolis.
Gwyneth Paltrow returns as Tony’s assistant Pepper
Potts. She is smart, sexy, and once again, we
can feel the heat between these two every time they
are on the screen together. However, Tony has promoted
her to be his new CEO and the office romance gets even
more complicated. I don’t know why Scarlett
Johansson was thrown into the mix, when you’ve already
got Gwyneth Paltrow, but who’s complaining? Her
character Natalie Rushman, a.k.a. Black Widow, is
hired by Tony as his new assistant after Pepper is
promoted to run the company. She is basically on
the screen serving as eye candy and is certainly up to
the task. She also just happens to be a secret agent
for an international espionage organization. For
this role she is required to wear an incredibly tight
leather outfit and has one big special effects fight
scene that rivals anything you may have seen in the
Matrix.
Sam Rockwell is a scene stealer and is exceptional as
Justin Hammer. Hammer is a seedy arms dealer to
the United States government, trying to come up with
something better than Iron Man has to offer. He
teams up with Whiplash and not since Freddy teamed up
with Michael in the movie Halloween 20....or was that
21.....has there been a more evil duo!
Don Cheadle is Lt. Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes and
plays a top ranking soldier who is buddies with Stark
and tries to help him out with the problems he’s
having with the government. What movie
would be complete unless Samuel L. Jackson was in
it? Yes, the guy has been in every movie ever
made...well almost! Jackson plays Nick Fury, the
leader of a mysterious crime fighting organization who
lends a much needed hand to help out Tony Stark.
And finally hats off to Director Jon Favreau for
knowing how to use a mega budget to make a movie
that’s worth every penny. This blockbuster is
just one more reason why I love going to the movies!!!
My 18 year old son convinced me to
go review Kick Ass directed by Mathew Vaughn. From
the previews I thought I was in for a harmless,
innocent, sophomoric romp...in the same genre of Fast
Times at Ridgemont High or more recently Superbad.
Boy was I wrong! I find out after the fact that the
movie was adapted from Mark Millar’s incredibly
violent comic book by the same name. The movie starts
out sweet enough by following around our lead
character, a somewhat nerdy New York high school kid
named Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who is also a
super hero comic book geek. Dave decides he wants to
be a crime fighter and orders up a super hero costume
(actually a wet suit) off the internet. Without any
special powers, or for that matter any crime fighting
skills whatsoever, Dave dons the suit and starts to
kick ass as best he can. It’s here that our movie
takes an unexpected twist as the fight scenes become
more than just a couple bloody noses and a needed band
aid or two. Without giving away too much of the
movie...just be prepared for slicing and dicing that
will make everyone, but macho guys like me, wince.
A bystander catches Dave on video
during one of his fights and puts it up on Youtube,
making him an instant cult hero. It also attracts
other wannabe superhero types including a
father-daughter wrecking crew called Big Daddy
(Nicolas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz.) Remember
the graphic fight scenes in "Kill Bill"? Now multiply
that times a million for these two. I should note that
Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) steals the show. She is
incredible and worth the price of admission. The only
one I can compare her to is the first time I saw
Natalie Portman in "The Professional"...she was just a
little kid but you knew she would be a movie star
someday!
The plot revolves around the
wannabe superheroes trying to take down a mob family
played by your stereotypical gangsters. The mob
boss’s son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, the nerd
from Superbad) puts on his own pair of tights to
become Red Mist and tricks our hero into thinking he
is another crime fighter just out to help the cause.
Little does Kick Ass know that Red Mist is not on the
right side of the law and is out to stab him in the
back...literally! If you like over the top violence,
mixed in with a lot of slow motion and cool shoot ’em
up effects or if you want to see a big star in the
making (Chloe Moretz) -- go buy a ticket or just walk
in backwards when the earlier showing lets out.
I must admit, although I don’t
watch much 30 Rock or The Office on TV, I am still a
pretty big fan of Tina Fey and Steve Carell. So when
I heard awhile back they were starring in a movie
together, I was on-board to go see it the first chance
I could. I brought my wife because she is a big Tina
Fey fan and was, as far as I know, the very first
person in the world who thought Tina Fey would be the
perfect person to spoof on Sarah Palin. Since it was
date night for us anyway, the movie "Date Night"
seemed like the perfect choice...dah!
The movie is directed by Shawn
Levy...he’s the guy that did those Night at the Museum
movies with Ben Stiller. This story revolves around
Claire (Fey) and Phil (Carell) who are a married
middle class couple living in New York who, like many
of us, have jobs and kids that make their daily
schedules quite hectic. The only time they have for
any sort of social life together is their own date
night once a week that is pretty much relegated to the
same restaurant, with the same waiter playing the same
game of "what do you think the person at the other
table does for a living." Sounds like a winner date
to me, but what do I know? On our last date night I
took my wife to the car show at the convention
center...I had fun! Anyway, Claire and Phil decide to
spice things up a bit and drive to Manhattan to an A
list restaurant they don’t even have reservations
for. Upon arrival they quickly realize they probably
should have made reservations, but even if they had,
they would not have gotten in for over a month. They
go sit in the bar to drink away their sorrows when
they hear a reservation being called out for the Tripplehorns. With no one responding, they decide to
act like they’re the Tripplehorns and take the
reservation. Innocent enough you would think. Before
they even have a chance to finish their meal, a couple
of thugs (Common and Jimmi Simpson) who believe Claire
and Phil are the Tripplehorns, escort them from the
restaurant and into a back alley. This is where the
movie starts to kick in to high gear! The thugs are
bad cops who are trying to get a flash drive back from
the real Tripplehorns who are trying to blackmail a
mob boss played by Ray Liotta.
What ensues is one of the most
hilarious car chases you will ever see and other sight
gags that pretty much deliver what you are looking for
in an action packed comedy. I would definitely go see
Fey and Carell together in any other movies they
decide to combo up in. Being a TV star doesn’t always
guarantee you will make it on the big screen, but
thankfully that doesn’t hold true for these two.
Although the script is a little weak, these two play
off of each other with the same great comedic timing
you saw in other movies with people like Steve Martin
and John Candy (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles) or
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally).
Well, maybe Martin and Candy is pushing it, but the
other two for sure! Overall I give it a thumbs
up...can I do that, or is that copyrighted? If it is,
I would just say go see it and you will be pleasantly
pleased!
My daughter was home from college
for her Easter weekend with the parents, so we decided
to go to a movie together. The pickings were pretty
slim, so we settled on "Clash of the Titans" and
figured the special effects would be enough to roller
coaster us through the 2 hour ride.
For those of you
who have not seen the original that starred Harry
Hamlin (remember him from L.A. Law?) or for those of
you not familiar with the story line, let me lay it
out for you. It’s man (or should I say almost-man)
against the gods and these gods aren’t necessarily the
nicest guys in town. Our hero is Perseus (Sam
Worthington from Avatar fame,) the son of Zeus, king
of the gods. His mother was not a god and this causes
some of the friction that we see throughout the movie.
For some reason Perseus thinks he should keep his god
powers in check and fight evil with only his mortal
skills...yeah, I know, it doesn’t make much sense to
me either, especially when you have to fight creatures
that are like a billion times bigger than you are.
Hades (Ralph Fiennes) is the evil god of the
underworld who is trying to take over the business
from his brother Zeus...which would also mean the
demise of Perseus and his family. Perseus volunteers
to lead a group of warriors in an effort to defeat
Hades before it’s too late! From this point on comes
the special effects I was waiting for in the first
place.
The movie
doesn’t fail in delivering some real eye popping movie
mayhem that Perseus has to deal with...starting with
Acrisius (Jason Flemyng) a former king who is now a
vengeful beast who wants Zeus out of power in the
worst way. Understandable, because it was his wife
that Zeus impregnated to produce Perseus. Next up,
some really big...for lack of a better
word....lobsters. Yeah, that’s right, they look just
like lobsters except they’re the size of buildings,
but still pretty cool to look at. Medusa, the overly
large head with a snakes body, delivers as the evil
creature that will turn you to stone if your eyes meet
her eyes. The biggest effect is saved for the Kraken,
bigger than the IDS, it’s hard to imagine how Perseus
can stop this big guy!
If you accept the movie for what it is meant to be...a
couple hours of special effect entertainment...you
will probably have a good time. If you're looking for
some incredible acting and some sort of cathartic
moment or two...try another movie. Sam Worthington
looks the part but his acting skills are like watching paint
dry, not much energy brought to the table. I like the
gods...at least their acting capabilities...pretty fun
to watch...but Fiennes and Neeson usually deliver.
Clash of the Titans will keep you in your seats while
you’re there, but as soon as it’s over you will
probably just start thinking about where to go for
dinner.
Capitalizing on the success of last
years raunchy comedy buddy flick "The Hangover," now
comes "Hot Tub Time Machine," directed by Steve Pink.
The buddies this time around include a similar group
of 3 needy middle age guys and one pubescent twenty
something... all experiencing some sort of major life
crisis at the same time. Adam, played by John Cusack,
has just found out his girlfriend left him. Nick,
played by Craig Robinson, has a cheating wife and a
dead end job. Lou, played by Rob Corddry, is a
habitual party animal who is way past his prime, and
Jacob, played by Clark Duke, is the much younger nerdy
computer geek who seems quite content to stay in his
basement playing video games for the rest of his life.
The 3 take a road trip, along with
a reluctant Jacob, as they try to recapture the great
times they had at a ski resort they partied at in the
80's. As the name of the movie implies, upon
arriving at the resort they jump into a hot tub that
transports them back to that storied weekend they had
in the 80's. Here they have the opportunity to
confront the mistakes they made in the past in an
effort to make for a better future. Get ready for just
about every sophomoric prank and bit you could ask
for! Most of them are pretty hilarious, although I
could do without the inevitable puke and poop gags.
Chevy Chase plays a cameo role as the keeper of the
hot tub and Crispin Glover plays a one armed bell boy.
I particularly like Rob Corddry, as he easily provided
the movie with a believable energy that kept the movie
from slowing down and losing the audience. All in all,
I would recommend it if you are looking for few good
belly laughs and a happy ending!
Saturday
nights have for some time now been called "Date Night"
for my wife and me. It's my responsibility to
come up with something fun to do. Last Saturday
we started the night out at a wonderful restaurant
called Stella’s Seafood Café in Minneapolis. I
could write my whole review on how incredible the food
was, especially their Oysters Rockefeller, but instead
I will focus on the play we saw at the Guthrie.
It was called
Brief Encounter written by Noel Coward, adapted
and directed for the stage by Emma Rice, and it was a
real treat! Before the show even opens, a quirky
looking bunch of characters strolls up and down the
aisles dressed in old time railroad garb singing
Coward written songs that put a satisfying smile on
all those seated.
Ah....but this
was just the appetizer! The main course started
off with two of the actors seated in the audience, as
if watching a movie on the stage. They are our
two star-crossed lovers, Laura (Naomi Frederick) and
Alec (Tristan Sturrock.) She gets up to leave
because she is married to another and does not feel
right being at the movie with Alec. She jumps up
on the stage that now has a train pulling up on the
big screen. She walks through the screen as if
getting on the train and suddenly appears in the film
looking out of the train window waving goodbye to
Alec. This mix of film, music, singing, and live
acting on stage was intermixed and balanced perfectly
throughout the evening and made for an incredible
feast for the eyes and ears. Add a sprinkling of
multi-role talented character actors and your play is
almost complete. However, to finish off the
palate, dessert was literally offered by the actors
themselves as they stood outside the theater doors!
They offered us fresh made cookies while playing
Coward songs on a make shift stage in the lobby.
Mmmmm Mmmmm Good!
I could hardly wait to get to the movie theater on Friday.
It had been a long week and I was ready for a good
laugh. Unfortunately I chose the wrong movie and went
to see The Bounty Hunter starring Jennifer Aniston and
Gerard Butler. Dog The Bounty Hunter, on TV, would
have been a better choice and probably more chuckles.
A weak script with some really bad dialogue set this one up for
failure from the get-go. Milo Boyd, played by
Gerard Butler, is a former cop and is now a
down-and-out bounty hunter with a gambling problem.
Nicole, played by Jennifer Aniston, is an
investigative newspaper reporter hot on the trail of a
suicide that she thinks could have been a murder. And,
oh yeah....did I forget to tell you that they used to
be married to each other? Believe it or not, we are
supposed to believe that Milo just happens to get a
job to go after a bail bond jumper who just happens to
be....you guessed it....Nicole! It’s another weak
story line that I won't even bother to go into.
With
absolutely no on-screen chemistry whatsoever, the two
are paired up for most of the movie as they play cat
and mouse, while at the same time trying to solve the
suicide/murder case together. Why is it
everything I see Jennifer Aniston in, aside from
reruns of Friends, is usually just one big mess?
She should fire her agent for even showing her the
script. Director Andy Tennant was at the
steering wheel of this car wreck. The few good
laughs that I was able to pull out of this gobbledy-goop
of a movie came from the supporting actors played by
Christine Baranski and Siobhan Fallon. All and all
the movie had some great talent, but just too little
story…
Green
Zone director Paul Greengrass takes us to the front
lines at the very beginning of the Iraq War,
and the search for the "Weapons of Mass
Destruction". Adapted from Rajiv Chandrasekarant's novel
of the same name, the movie Green Zone, lays out
a very believable scenario that questions whether
certain people working with our government, knew way
before our troops ever landed, that there were no
such weapons. Matt Damon stars as
Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, who has been sent
into Baghdad to find those so-called "Weapons of
Mass Destruction."
The only problem is,
Chief Miller and his team keep coming up empty
handed. Chief Miller knows something doesn't smell
right and tries raising some questions early
on....but he is quickly silenced by his own
superiors.
A slimy government liaison and C.I.A.
agent, played to perfection by Greg Kinnear, is
behind the conspiracy and doesn't make life any
easier for Miller as he tries to figure out just
what the hell is going on. Throw in an
investigating female Wall Street Journal reporter
and another senior C.I.A. agent who really wants to
help Miller get to the truth, and you've got a
fairly decent suspenseful action packed movie!
Don't arrive late or you will find yourself out of
the loop!
Home Page 
I
took my wife to see Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil for
her birthday at the Target Center. It was incredible!
It was both a rock concert with a live band (many of
whom actually used to tour with Jackson before his
death) and a mind-boggling display of dancers and
acrobatics that only Cirque knows how to produce. My
only complaint would be that I paid about a year’s
salary for 5th row seats. You would of
thought a view that close would guarantee the best sight
lines. Au contraire my friends…. in trying to appease
the rest of the audience, they had a main stage up front
and then a ramp that went out into the middle of the
floor with another stage. Through the entire first half
of the show we constantly had to stretch our necks back
and forth to try and see what was happening on both
stages. I felt like I was at a tennis match. It really
sucked…but after the intermission we got permission to
sit in a couple empty chairs in the back row of the main
floor seating. Needless to say, the second half was
more relaxing and enjoyable than the first. The next
day I went to see "The Hunger Games" to see if it
was all it was cracked up to be. I have not seen so
much hype since the first Twilight came out. 
It’s
hard to believe how nice it has been outside. Last
week, I got in my first round of golf at Majestic Oaks
in Ham Lake. They opened up nine holes on their
Crossroads course. I have been bragging to everyone
how I scored a 44 . That’s pretty darn good for me.
What I haven’t been telling them is the last two holes
were under construction and shortened by about 400
yards. We’ll keep that our little secret, if you don’t
mind. Nice weather or not…I always make time for the
movies! I was in the mood for a good laugh or two so I
decided to give "21 Jump Street" a chance to put a
smile on my face. 
With
the Oscars just around the corner…I thought I
better go see a few more of the contenders. I’ve
already seen The Help, Hugo, Moneyball, The Tree
of Life, War Horse and now "The Descendants". Out
of that lot, I would give the statue to The Help,
hands down! That movie was amazing. Of course I
have not seen Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close or
The Artist so they might be able to change my
mind. I have heard some really good things about
The Artist and can’t wait to review it. Now it’s
not that the other movies aren’t good but to me
they shouldn’t even be up for the award…well maybe
War Horse. Best Movie of the year should be an
epic that moves you to the point of facebooking
all your friends to say “hurry go see this
movie”. The only one that did that for me was
The
Help. With that said, I had the opportunity to go
see George Clooney the other day in The
Descendants. 
Some
of my fondest childhood memories, of times spent with my
Grandma Solem, would have to include watching Vern
Gagne’s AWA wrestling TV show. She totally bought in to
their shtick and if you even hinted that you thought it
was fake you would never be asked back to her modest
home in northeast Minneapolis. I like, most of you,
could of cared less if it was real or fake…for a kid
back in those days, it was some of the best
entertainment you would find anywhere! 
Before
screening the movie, Greg Gagne (Verne’s son) got up on
stage and delighted the packed house with some of the
incredible stories that took place behind the scenes
back in the glory days of AWA wrestling. The highlight
of the night, for most I am sure, is the fact that
Verne Gagne himself, was able to come and enjoy the
event with the rest of us. The crowd lined up and paid
homage to the one time champion of wrestling
entertainment. Now 85 and suffering from dementia, until
Saturday, he had not made a local public appearance in
15 years. At least for this particular Saturday, he
showed no signs of that terrible disease. He seemed,
once again, in his element… adored by the crowd…so
appreciative of all the fun memories he had helped to
provide. 
Hope
all of you are enjoying the holiday season…despite the
lack of snow. To be completely up front, if we saw a
light dusting on Christmas day that is all I would
need to see for the entire winter. Anyone that says
they enjoy shoveling the driveway or scraping the ice
of the roof is either a liar or should have their head
examined, or both! Give me that nasty looking brown
stuff until spring and I will do no complaining.
I’m writing this
review on the first Thursday that I won’t be golfing
since spring. For the last 20 years, as soon as the
snow is off the ground and the temp is above 45, I
have golfed almost every Thursday afternoon up at
Bunker. It’s been the same five-some since we
started…Scott, Duke, Craig, John and myself. 50 cents
a hole…one tie all tie. We laugh so hard (usually at
my score)…it is absolutely the highlight of my work
week. However, there is a little snow flying outside
my window today and the high temp is projected to be
just above 30. Begrudgingly, I must put my clubs
away for another season. To try and put a positive
spin on such a downer…at least I will now have more
time to pen these fascinating movie reviews for
you…and as the movie "In Time" points out…extra
time is a very valuable commodity! (Was that a great
segue or what…) 
Brad
Pitt is one of the few actors who I will go see no
matter what movie he is in… and I am rarely
disappointed. He is one of those guys who could just
stand and read from the phone book and I would listen to
every name, address and phone number until he finished
with Sandy Zywiki. When I saw he was starring in
Moneyball, I left work early and made sure I was in the
front of the line for the first showing. I know I sound
like a teenage girl with a high school crush but who
cares… it’s Brad Pitt for crying out loud!!! 
I
was never a big martial arts fan until my friends Tim
and Sue Howe invited me to go watch their son Nate mix
it up in an actual big fight that was held in St.
Paul. Tim incidentally is the mayor of Coon Rapids…not
that it’s important to my story, but who would ever
imagine that I hob knob with royalty unless I told you.
Back to the fight…that night Nate was the underdog…but
like a strong, patient and methodical snake he
eventually wrapped up, the soon to be former champion, so
tight that all the guy could do was tap out. Right then
and there I gained a real appreciation for the sport and
for what guys like Nate must go through in grueling
hours of training to become champions. I remembered Tim
(did I mention he is the Mayor of Coon Rapids) telling
me that Nate was also a jiu-jitsu instructor at a club
that just happened to be called Warriors Cove. So I
took it as a good sign that the movie, I couldn’t wait
to see, was also called Warrior.
My daughter,
Katie, just flew in from Alaska where she spent another
summer working for a tourism company. She is spending a
few days with us before she heads back to St. Cloud for
her senior year of college. I told her she could pick
the movie this week. I was in favor of something with a
little more action like “Cowboys and Aliens” or “Rise of
the Planet of the Apes”….but no, she had to choose “The
Help”…and boy was I glad she did. When we first sat
down, my buddy Mike was texting me updates on the Twins
– Yankee game. I was thinking, at least I had that
going for me if I have to sit through some boring yarn
about the Civil Rights movement. It didn’t take to long
before I powered down the cell realizing I was in for
one hell of a movie.
I
know I have been running a little behind on my
reviews as of late…but I don’t think you can blame
me. My good friends, Mike and Patti, invited my
Wife and me to Hilton Head to hang out at their
vacation home to sit by the ocean and golf a few
rounds…it was a tough decision but I decided to
put my reviews on hold??? Then we had our first
Golf Scramble of the year in Redwing…and of course
that’s a high priority. The next thing you know
it was Memorial weekend with the relatives at the
cabin and before I knew it I was about 5 movies
behind. As a matter of fact, I was up at the
cabin last Sunday and I just told myself, all of
your loyal followers (both of them) are probably
in need of a quick movie review fix …so hear you
go Jack and Sharon Jentz.
I must admit I have never been a
really big fan of “dinner theatre”. I have tried
several and have always been disappointed in both the
dinner and the theatre. However, when I visited the
Although
it’s been out for a while, I thought I’d better review
this movie because of all the Oscar buzz it is
receiving. The movie hasn’t made a lot at the
box office and I think the movie title might have
something to do with the empty seats. It just
sounds so boring... The King’s Speech... it just
doesn’t quite have the panache of say a True Grit
or The Green Hornet. They should have
punched it up a bit...maybe something like... "The
Main Dude Speaks", "The Royal Ramble"
or "Stutter Island"...now those
names would have packed them in! 
Let
me tell you right from the get go...if you are
expecting the old version of Robin Hood where he robs
from the rich and gives to the poor...don’t hold your
breath. This film, directed by Ridley Scott,
chronicles the folk hero prior to his "merry band of
thieves" days. 
Saturday
nights have for some time now been called "Date Night"
for my wife and me. It's my responsibility to
come up with something fun to do. Last Saturday
we started the night out at a wonderful restaurant
called Stella’s Seafood Café in Minneapolis. I
could write my whole review on how incredible the food
was, especially their Oysters Rockefeller, but instead
I will focus on the play we saw at the Guthrie.
Green
Zone director Paul Greengrass takes us to the front
lines at the very beginning of the Iraq War,
and the search for the "Weapons of Mass
Destruction". Adapted from Rajiv Chandrasekarant's novel
of the same name, the movie Green Zone, lays out
a very believable scenario that questions whether
certain people working with our government, knew way
before our troops ever landed, that there were no
such weapons. Matt Damon stars as
Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, who has been sent
into Baghdad to find those so-called "Weapons of
Mass Destruction." 
