Cookies and Milk

Vince Vaughn returns with yet another holiday themed movie this season. And good news - it's better than Fred Claus. As the couple who continually avoid family holiday festivities Brad and Kate (Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon) are forced to visit their families for Christmas when their flight to Fiji is cancelled. As they travel to each house and meet one another's family, they soon realize that maybe they don't know each other as well as they think they do. The film is pretty funny and there are some good laughs, but I think it plays it a little safe. Vaughn and Witherspoon are pretty cute together although I think Witherspoon is underused. And I definitely think they could have done more with the visual gag of their obvious height difference. But overall Four Christmases is a fun time.

This is a great time of the year for movies - mainly because it's when all of the good ones come out. Milk is definitely one of the good ones. Set mostly in San Francisco during the '70's Sean Penn portrays Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office. What I really liked about this film was that it almost felt like a documentary. Director Gus Van Sant intertwined old news footage with his own footage so well that at times you couldn't tell if what you were watching was shot in the '70's or just a few months ago - a feat also acccomplished by the great production design and set decorating. There's no doubt Penn is on his way to his fifth Oscar nomination for this performance. And deservedly so. His portrayal of Milk is incredibly inspirational and uplifting, to say the least. His ideas and speeches were so passionate and exhilirating you wanted to get up out of your seat and march right beside him.

What A Week!

Thursday I was treated to a sneak preview of Baz Luhrmann's new film Australia starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. What we have here ladies and gentlemen is one of the best movies of the year! Australia is everything you think it's going to be - sweeping, romantic, epic. It's a big, glorious picture in the tradition of the Hollywood movies from the '40's and '50's. I experienced two things for the first time during my screening of Australia. First, I've never heard a pack house swoon in unison for the leading man. As soon as you see this film, you'll know the scene to which I'm referring. And second, I've never been to a movie where no one gets up at the end. Usually people are rushing to get out of their seat, but it was dead silent when the film ended. No one moved. Until they all erupted into applause. Kidman was dependably good. The dramatic portions of the film she carried with her normal ease and I especially liked the broad humor she had a go with in the first part of the film. And Hugh Jackman. Wow. This is what a movie star should be. He was beyond terrific in this film. Everyone aboard the Jackman train, take a seat behind me. Too bloody right!

To top off my week, today I saw the new Disney film Bolt. This movie is way super cute! The story was great and new, the characters were incredibly likable and charming, and it was just so much fun to watch. What was great about this film is that it never lagged or slowed down. It had great momentum and it just kept getting better. I think adults and kids will both enjoy this film immensely!

I saw Ghost Town again this weekend too. Even funnier the second time. I really don't understand why this film did so badly at the box office. Such a shame. A great movie that got great reviews and no one went to see it. You should definitely check it out!

Bond. Only Bond.

Hollywood simplified my movie going this weekend, as there is only one big release. And that, of course, is the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Let me start off by saying that my enjoyment of this film may have been damaged by the very high expectations I had. I'm not an avid Bond fan and I've only seen a couple of Bond films, but after the amazing Casino Royale in 2006 I had high hopes for Solace. That's not to say that Solace is not enjoyable. I had a good time watching it and there was some great action sequences - Bourne-like in the realism. And Daniel Craig continued his master of Fleming's iconic character. He's very good here and plays the stoic and suave Bond with ease. You gotta give it up to any man who looks dang good wearing white pants! I think the minor faults for this Bond film lay with the filmmakers. I'm not sure the man best known for directing Finding Neverland and Monster's Ball (both great films), was the best choice to helm this picture. It's understandable he wanted to bring his own style to the picture, but a couple of times it looked like he was more interested in getting a good looking, art housey shot, rather than just progressing the plot or action. And the editors (even Richard Pearson who edited The Bourne Supremacy) seemed to believe that the only way to create excitement was with quick, rampant cuts, which helps, but sometimes we'd like to be able to actually see the action too.

In full disclosure it wasn't only Bond this weekend. I took in another viewing of Rachel Getting Married. Ugh, so good! Hathaway is award worthy, but I really hope the studio publicizes Rosemarie DeWitt's performance also. She was amazing and deserves a nomination too!

Not So Much

I'm going to have to go against the masses on this one and say I wasn't a very big fan of Happy-Go-Lucky. Sally Hawkins plays Poppy Cross, an eternally optimistic 30 year old who's nice to everyone and never has a bad day. Upon having her bicycle stolen, her only reaction is "didn't have a chance to say good bye." That part was actually kind of cute. I'd outline the plot for you, but there really isn't a whole lot going on story wise. We meet Poppy, we meet her friends, we meet the primary school class she teaches, we meet her very angry driving instructor, Poppy gets a boyfriend, we find out the driving instructor had had a crush on Poppy and then the movie ends. There's no real story arc. There's also an odd scene in which Poppy has an unnecessary conversation with a homeless man. My question is why the heck was she in the dodgy bit of town? It just didn't make any sense. I didn't find Poppy's constant happiness annoying. I'm not that cynical. Instead, I found her personality to be annoying. There seems to have been some kind of word quota she had to hit everyday, as she said some kind of flip and quirky remark after every single sentence another character said. Zip it and let someone else talk for 20 seconds. I also found her to be very immature for her age. She acted more like a 20 year old than a woman in her thirties.

After what seems like weeks and weeks I have finally seen Changeling. A happy film this is not, but that's not to say it isn't entertaining. It is. Clocking in at over two hours, I was never bored and I never really felt like the film dragged at all. I think there was a scene or two that could have been cut out, but even those scenes did not slow the film down. Changeling tells the story of Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a young woman in 1920's Los Angeles who witnesses firsthand the corruption of the LAPD after she reports her son missing. This is one of those movies that infuriates you when you watch it. You just want to jump into the screen and knock some sense into these idiots that run the police department and the psychiatric ward. It was unbelievable to see the amount of b.s. these officials fed anyone and everyone. But the infuriating nature of the film does make it that much sweeter when the bad guys get what they deserve, although I think they should have gotten a lot more. Although not as great as Eastwood's Mystic River or Million Dollar Baby, Changeling is still quite good. What's disturbing is that this is based on a true story and injustices like these were not rare. What's even more disturbing is that there is an actual term to describe the process of substituting one child for another. How can this be so common that there is an actual word for this?

Last minute addition to this week's blog. Wednesday I saw Role Models. After Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) get into some harmless trouble with the law, they choose to do 150 hours of community service at Sturdy Wings, a Big Brother like program, rather than spend a month in jail. This is a pretty funny and clever film. I didn't think it was full of belly-laugh level jokes, but it was pretty smart and snappy. I liked all the random innuendo lines and I thought it was really cute how it all came together at the end.

Porn and Criminals

I've decided that Seth Rogen is best with very little or no dialogue at all. I found him to be my main complaint about Zack and Miri Make a Porno. It's not that he's bad, it's just when he falls into his familiar stigma of diarrhea of the mouth and constant f-bombs for no apparent reason, I begin to cringe. He's beginning to fall into that Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn category of "my hyper personality becomes every character I play." His best scenes in Zack and Miri are when he's quiet and sweet. Moving along, when best friends Zack and Miri are deep into debt and in fear of losing their apartment, they decide to make a porno to earn some cash. Naturally. Zack and Miri is funny and clever, but I think for a Kevin Smith movie it lacks some of that signature humor. It's definitely not the laugh riot that was Clerks II. The cast of usual Kevin Smith characters was a bright spot and Elizabeth Banks (Miri), more or less the emotional center and heart of the film, was great. Check out http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/aad0482186/im-fing-seth-rogen-by-elizabeth-banks-from-karen-p for a very funny video by the cast of Zack and Miri.

Well I will say no one does these "types" of movies better than Guy Ritchie. Others who try fall very short. That being said, I don't think Rocknrolla is as good at Ritchie's other two top films - Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Rocknrolla had some pretty fun parts, but not really enough for me to whole heartedly recommend the film. A big downside for me was how unlikable a few of the characters were. The Tom Wilkinson character for sure drove me nuts. On the other side Gerard Butler and Mark Strong (another great performance by Strong, last seen in Body of Lies) were a couple of the more enjoyable characters.