I had no expectations about this film at all. The previews I saw held no information about the movie except that it was “the greatest film of the year.” So I was pleasantly surprised to see a cast that I really liked. George Clooney plays the namesake of the film, Michael Clayton. Backing him up are Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens, the head attorney defending a chemical company, and Tilda Swinton as Karen Chowder, the head litigator of the chemical company, called uNorth.When Arthur goes off his meds Michael Clayton is called in to “fix” the situation. Arthur has decided to side with the plaintiffs and sabotage the case. Karen Chowder is under the gun to save the situation and calls in some “fixers” of her own. Neither party involved is the good guy, so no good comes of it. Michael Clayton knows, and agrees with Arthur, that their hands are dirty. Fair warning that there is not a lot of action, mostly just dialogue (though you do get an explosion). George Clooney gives an absolutely amazing performance. I’m not used to seeing him play this type of character, damaged and unsure and barely holding it together, and he conveys all of this on his face. A barely perceptible lift of his eyebrow tells the viewer that he knows he is being lied to. The film is quiet and not at all flashy, but it is smart and very satisfying. If your taste in movies runs to car chases or hand to hand combat, then this isn’t for you. However, the verbal sparring is engaging and I found the film to move along quickly. It is a solid two hours, but so much information was going back and forth that I never noticed. This is definitely worth the time to go out and see, but would be just as good on DVD.

Submit this

Hide Sites

The Brave One stars Jodie Foster as Erica Bain, a radio show host who tells stories about New York City. She reads these essays on air set to ambient noise that she has recorded by dangling a microphone and wandering around the city. She is also madly in love with David (Naveen Andrews).

One night while walking their dog in a park at night they wander into a tunnel and are brutally beaten by a group of men. David is killed and Erica is left for dead. But she doesn’t die. She heals, physically, and buys a gun so that she can feel safe leaving her house. Where before she knew no danger, it now seems to follow her wherever she goes. She happens to be in a store during a robbery/murder, happens to be in a nearly empty subway car for another robbery, etc.

It doesn’t feel genuine. The movie plays like there are several jumbo puzzle pieces that someone tried to force together. The friendship between Erica and Detective Mercer (Terrence Howard) feels false and unlikely. I don’t really understand the point. And her final revenge, which you would think would be central to the story, seems like an afterthought to her. “Oh yeah, now I need to go find those guys from the park.” You can almost see it cross her face.

I had higher hopes, but it is more fun to watch the preview. At least then you only get one of the clunky lines, “I want my dog back.” If you actually sit through the film you are rewarded with a genuine, “Who’s the bitch now?” Woohoo.

Submit this

Hide Sites

Let’s all give Mr. Rob Zombie a round of applause. His re-imagined remake turned out much better than that other high-profile, wild-haired, classic-tinkering director’s attempt (come on, one ape age to another? boo). Halloween is not a remake really. Only about half the movie coincides with the original. The first half is new.

We begin the movie with Michael Myers at age 10, and his issues come to light immediately. The dude kills his rat. Ok, moving on. He is highly attached to this clown mask, which he wears everywhere (but it is Halloween, after all). Age 10 Michael Myers has a very bad day and decides to take it out on his family. Enter the famous mask.

This is how we segue into old Halloween territory. Michael is sent to an institution where he grows up making mask after mask after mask that he hangs on his walls. When he is given the opportunity to escape, well, he takes it.

This movie isn’t really scary, but if you’re familiar at all with Rob Zombie, it is very gory. It’s more about the different ways a person can be savagely mutilated and murdered than about fear. Personally, this isn’t a direction I think horror movies should go in (such as Saw, Hostel, etc), as I would much rather be scared than grossed out. It wasn’t bad- the first half was very interesting, but the second half faltered.

Submit this

Hide Sites

So, when you think of Stephen King movies, which ones come to mind? Shawshank Redemption and Misery or Maximum Overdrive and Thinner? Some are great, some are atrocious. This one was just fantastic. John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer that tours haunted locations and gives the people what they want.

After a few years, Mike is cynical. Very, very cynical. And room 1408 just wants to prove him wrong. Let me just say, this movie is creepy. I jumped several times. Let me also say, this movie is hilarious. I know, it doesn’t seem like the two could coexist, but they do. Mike has no respect for those that read what he writes. And he continues to try and joke his way out of a bad situation.

It is movies like this one that make up for flicks like Thinner. King has great material and in the right hands the movies are great too. The screenwriters did an impressive job turning a short story into such a solid movie. It’s definitely worth seeing. Go right now.

Submit this

Hide Sites

Sicko is the latest film from Michael Moore, he of Fahrenheit 9/11 fame. Yes, he hates Bush. And that will make the decision for a lot of people on whether or not they ever sit down to watch this movie. But I have to say, if you let that one thing about him sway you, you have made a grave error in judgement.

Sicko is different from Moore’s previous films. For one thing, he is in it very little. The majority of the film concentrates on those people telling their stories, and they are horrible, heartbreaking stories. I was not able to make it through the movie without crying. And I cried more than once. It isn’t really an attack on anyone in particular. The film just asks the question, why, if we proclaim that we are the greatest nation in the world, are we the only western nation without universal healthcare? Why are we working on a profit based system and ignoring those who really need medical aid? According to the film, 18,000 people will die each year because they won’t go to the doctor for care. They don’t have insurance or the money to pay for a visit. This doesn’t even include the number of people with insurance who are routinely denied the care they need. Each of the medical horror stories that are presented will break your heart. And Moore does his job well.

Aside from a few wrong notes in the film, such as Moore playing the fool in France and England (“You mean she doesn’t have to PAY?”) and a random trip to visit Cuban firemen, I thought this was an excellent way to spend two hours. Leaving the theater I was trying to figure out how I could move to England. I have insurance and that once made me feel secure. As someone who at a young age was very sick, I took comfort in that. This film took away any security I had. And it should. We have a broken system and we need to start fixing it. Please see this movie. Make your own decisions, do your own research after, but allow yourself to see his side of the argument.

Submit this

Hide Sites

So, the back story: Hairspray was originally released in 1988, written and directed by John Waters (who brought us Crybaby!) and starring Ricki Lake. It was then adapted into a Broadway musical. And now, 20 years later, the musical has been adapted back into a movie. Here’s the story: In early 60s Baltimore, a young girl named Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) is ultra obsessed with the Corny Collins Show that comes on each day after school. She rushes home to click on the tv and dance her heart out with Corny and his little group of dancers (especially Link). She’s a big girl with a lot of moves and she just can’t hold them in; her big dream is to become part of the show, and she gets a chance when there is an open audition.

There is a huge star cast and everyone is cast just perfectly. We have John Travolta as Edna Turnblad, Michelle Pfeiffer as Velma Von Tussle, Queen Latifah as Motormouth Maybelle and Zac Efron as Link. Also in the film are Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, Allison Janney and Elijah Kelly. The music is ultra catchy and makes you want to move around in your seat. It’s no wonder that Tracy spends three quarters of the movie dancing in some way, even if its in place while she’s having a conversation. She decides to take on the skinny people and segregation, and gets her friends involved too. Just being on the show isn’t enough. She wants it to be integrated too.

I spent 75% of this movie with a huge grin on my face. There are lewd little jokes that you won’t catch if you’re not paying attention; the same goes for cameos (look for John Waters as a flasher on the street and Ricki Lake as a talent agent). I wanted to watch it again as soon as it ended. And, silly me, I left the theater and went straight to a store to buy the soundtrack. A little update for everyone: I liked it more the second time.

Submit this

Hide Sites

I had some pretty high expectations going into this movie. My people tease me because I make a point to see certain movies based on who made them. Zodiac, directed by David Fincher, fell into this category. I loved Seven and Fight Club and Panic Room, so I was pretty geared up for this one. Until I saw the running time. 2hours and 40minutes folks. With commercials and previews this movie topped out at a little over 3 hours.

Anyway, I was not disappointed. Zodiac grabs you from the beginning and keeps you moving at a steady pace. I’m not going to say I didn’t check my watch once just to see where we were, but the urge was not repetitive. I was not counting the minutes so it would end. The three main men in this movie were great. Robert Downey Jr pulled on personal experience and played a boozy, drugged out reporter covering the murders and killer correspondence with ease. Jake Gyllenhaal was perfectly meek and mild as a political cartoonist who becomes obsessed with the case and eventually puts the police back on track (yay Jake!). And then there is Mark Ruffalo, one of my diamonds in the rough, playing the lead detective (along with Goose from Top Gun), who impressed me just by keeping himself so soft spoken for 3 hours.

Anywho, this is not a waste of your time, but if you’re looking for something with lots of explosions and gore, you might want to check that out and get this one on video. You get a very disturbing murder scene in which a man and woman are stabbed to death, but that is about it for the hide-behind-your-hands factor. It’s quiet and full of dialogue and even knowing that the identity of the Zodiac killer was never conclusively proven it is a little unsatisfactory when the movie ends and that identity is not truly revealed.

But if you want to check out a few handsome men in bitchin’ 70’s tight plaid pants you should get in your car right now. There’s no time to lose….

Submit this

Hide Sites

I could hardly wait to get in the theater to see Superbad. Another offering from the Judd Apatow camp? I was totally there. Sure, it is all about high school boys trying to do what high school boys do. But they try to do it with such sincerity. Once again, the characters are raunchy, but they are oh so sweet.

Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) are best friends facing their last week of high school and their departure to seperate colleges. Everyone keeps asking if they are going to ok seperating. They deflect the question. So sets up the ride, a frenzy of fake IDs, beer acquisition and conversations about the inevitability of drunk girl sex. It’s a one day journey that takes them exactly where they need to go: a confrontation about their seperation and a declaration of love.

I really enjoyed this movie. Written by an Apatow regular, Seth Rogan (Knocked Up) and his best friend Evan Goldberg (note the character names are first names of the writers), it was fun and kept me laughing. Of course, prepare yourself for the disgusting, because that is always funny, isn’t it? We are not spared, believe me. And I knew I would love the movie right from the beginning, when during a conversation about porn preference, Evan apologizes to Seth for not being able to get the Coen brothers to direct his porn for him. They are indeed very busy men.

Submit this

Hide Sites

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I try to avoid action and war movies. The Bourne series is different for me. For some reason, I really like them. It might be Matt Damon. Really, I think they are just interesting. So I was excited to see the third installment.

I read a little about this movie and discovered that they didn’t even have a script when they started shooting. Whole sequences were filmed and then discarded because they ended up not being in the storyline. In the film’s defense, I couldn’t tell that there wasn’t a plan. Jason Bourne is on a mission to discover where he came from, who he really is and what made him become a lethal assassin. And you actually get most of it.

This movie is almost all action, with very little dialogue, percentage-wise. Matt Damon simply glowers and karate chops someone. Joan Allen makes another appearance and she is excellent, but her hair makes her head look huge. And David Strathairn shows up as a vicious CIA agent, Noah Vosen, who has his sights set on Jason Bourne. Vosen makes you think that when Bourne is caught and killed he will have Bourne’s head mounted on the wall of his office. Julia Stiles is completely useless and I don’t like what they are doing with her. I might change my mind if they do another one, but for this movie, I would have edited her out.

I have objections, of course. It is extremely action oriented, and the camera goes all jiggly and jerky during the fight scenes. It is just hard for me to follow what is happening. I literally can’t tell what he is using as a weapon (in one case, a towel, that took a minute to figure out) or who is braining whom with a candlestick. And for someone who usually tunes out of fight or battle scenes until the dialogue starts back up again, at least make it easy for me to follow the fight. Otherwise, what’s the point? I think the guys would agree with me.

Submit this

Hide Sites

Ok, so to start off, Judi Dench is one crazy, bad ass beyotch in this movie. She plays an older history teacher named Barbara and Sheba is the new art teacher played by Cate Blanchett. It starts off sweet and innocent, with Barbara helping Sheba settle a fight in the novice teacher’s classroom. From there it just snowballs. Barbara has found her new “companion” and proceeds to insert herself into Sheba’s life and family. Sheba takes up with one of her 15 yr old students (the reason is never really explained) and Barbara uses this information to keep her in check. All is lost when Sheba chooses an important family event over Barbara’s distress and sadness.

Judi Dench is fantastic in this movie. She pulls off everything she is supposed to, making you sympathize with her in her loneliness, and creeping you the hell out when she shows Sheba how the girls stroked each others arms in grade school. Cate Blanchett pulls of the whole naive, flighty thing, but she’s a little hard to sympathize with (with the whole child abuse thing happening). My favorite person in this movie was Bill Nighy, who played Sheba’s older husband Richard. His character was so earnest and lost when he discovers his wife’s crimes.

So, watch your friends. And if they ask you to be with them when a cherished pet dies, take my advice and just go.

Submit this

Hide Sites