New Beginnings

Last week...

It'd been too long since I'd been to the theatre, so I had to see the stage production of Beauty and the Beast for the third time. They've changed the show a little bit since the last time I saw it, but it's still magnifique!





Clint Eastwood movies are like their own genre. There's so often just this peace to his pictures and a warmth to his characters. While I'll concede that Hereafter does not match his previous films like The Bridges of Madison County and Million Dollar Baby, it is a very good picture. Built around the unifying theme of death, Hereafter is a multi-storyline plot that all comes together at the end. It's not exciting and it's not flashy, but the story is solid and the performances are so good that you can't help but enjoy the movie.

Black and Blue and Red All Over

After a long week, there's nothing you want more than to watch a movie that requires you to think so little that your mind actually goes in reverse. Jackass 3D is one such movie. I can't review this like a normal film. No plot. No performances. No screenplay. Jackass is a movie that makes you laugh, cringe, and grimace. Why it works is because it does those things so well in a very entertaining fashion.

Red was terribly fun! I really liked this movie. Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren star as ex-CIA agents trying to survive a hit. How does that not sound brilliant? Red is very funny (thanks in large part to a great performance by Mary-Louise Parker), full of action and is just unique and fun.

Life's Kind of Funny

A great, smaller picture I caught this weekend was It's Kind of a Funny Story. It's about Craig, a 16 year old kid who checks himself into a psyche ward to deal with his depression. It's not the most upbeat plot synopsis, but along the way Craig helps other patients, falls in love and even comes to terms with the issues in his own life. It's Kind of a Funny Story is a very entertaining and sweet picture.

Holly (Heigl) and Messer (Duhamel) become unexpected parents when their best friends die in a car crash, leaving them custody of their one year old daughter in Life as We Know It. There wasn't a person in the theater who didn't know how this movie was going to go. That's okay if the journey there is entertaining. And for the most part, it was. Heigl and Duhamel are a nice onscreen couple and the movie had a surprisingly high number of laughs. My only question is when did Josh Lucas become second fiddle to Josh Duhamel? Actually, I take that back...my second question is, where the hell has Josh Lucas been? Welcome back!

Welcome October

Well, September's over, so that means the good movies can come out and play.

Buried was not an easy film to sit through. Ryan Reynolds portrays Paul, an American truck driver working in Iraq who is taken hostage, placed in a coffin and buried alive. The entire picture takes place within the coffin. The effects this strategy has on the audience is obvious. And it works. Buried is a "gimmick" movie, but it's a very good, unique and well acted movie too.

Speaking of good movies, I have to say that The Social Network is one of the best movies of the year. Little can go wrong when you have David Fincher (amazing!) helming a movie with a script penned by Aaron Sorkin (genius!). What's great about this movie is that it's non-stop. It dives right in from the second it starts and doesn't stop moving until the end credits roll. There's never a dull moment and it's entertaining the entire time. I can't praise Fincher and Sorkin enough.

Very September

And we're back to tradition. That didn't last long. Last weekend proved the point that September is home to some of the poorer film releases of the year.

Judging by the trailer, You Again looked like a potentially promising romantic comedy. It turned out to just be a marginally enjoyable trailer. The film itself had nothing going for it. It just wasn't funny. I really liked the idea of it and in better hands I think it could have actually been a good movie.


Not terrible, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps wasn't terrific either. At times I really liked it - all the slick business moves and dialogue were fun; and I thought LeBeouf was great in what felt like his first truly grown up role. Mulligan was great also, but that goes without saying. What I didn't like were the out of place transitions, too many montages and the unnecessary length of the picture. Had it been shorter and tighter, I think it would have been better.