Ann and I saw this film directed by Ben Affleck earlier this week; it’s just been released on DVD. Gone Baby Gone, which has gotten a lot of praise, concerns the disappearance of a child and the complications that result. The first half of the film, with its rising tension and rising stakes, is not only riveting but beautiful to look at: great cinematography, often of the worst parts of Boston. However, the event on which the movie hinges–an exchange gone wrong, with a doll floating in a lake (an image that returns several times)–begins a downward slide for Gone Baby Gone. Into plot holes and unbelievability. Without giving away too much, we never bought why the thug named Cheese would be part of the exchange. We didn’t really buy into the reasons why another character enters a bar dressed in a disguise to fake a robbery. We knew immediately when the police captain appears, played by A Certain Famous Actor, that this wasn’t just a cameo. And we honestly just didn’t care in the end. The book the movie is based on was written by a well-known crime author, Lehane, and we had similar problems with the last movie we saw based on a book by him (Mystic River). Good set-up, only decent ending. I’m beginning to think it’s something about the author and not the filmmakers.

Well, okay, this is a movie review, not a political post about the primaries, but…they are somewhat related. There Will Be Blood is definitely a political movie. It’s capitalist/entrepreneur versus fundamentalist priest in There Will Be Blood, even as the irony is, of course, that the unrelenting selfish evangelical element in both has resulted in the situation we currently have in this country: a culture of superficial greed and selfishness, without empathy for people different from us or respect for the world we live in.

(more…)

I first saw what I thought was Planet of the Apes in 1974 in Singapore–a French dub with some kind of Asian subtitles. It was the strangest experience of my life. And now having seen Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes, I now realize what I saw must have been the third or fourth installment…because I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen these first two before. The first Planet was pretty interesting fare–cheesy in places, but with some nice cinematography and twists to the plot.

(more…)

The trailer above cannot really convey the abomination that is the Alien/Predator rip-off Alien versus…ready for it…Alien vs Hunter. Yes, that’s right: Alien VERSUS Hunter. Starring an aging William Katt, former teen heart-throb. If starring it be, me hearties.

(more…)

On the other hand, this movie with Gary Busey doesn’t look so good……

Okay, so all I really have to say is that this one, which we just saw, is that this beautiful, bittersweet movie had me laughing and bawling like a baby. It’s also as gorgeously shot a film as you’ll see, for all that it’s being touted as indie and in a documentary style. The music is amazing.

Over the holidays, we wound up seeing a ton of films, both on DVD and in theaters. Here’s a quick run-down of all of them, from the best to the worst.

(1) The Lookout (DVD) - A stunning directorial debut by the screenwriter of one of our all-time favorite movies, Out of Sight. A slightly brain damaged ex-highschool hockey star tries to pick up the pieces of his life and gets involved in a bank robbery while trying to figure it out. Beautifully shot, perfectly edited, and with stand-out performances from everyone from Jeff Daniels in a supporting role to Joseph Gordon-Levitt amazing job in the starring role. Packs a real emotional effect by the end, without seeming contrived.

(more…)

We rarely walk out of movies, but half-way through The Darjeeling Limited, we did exactly that. While we’ve enjoyed other movies by the director Wes Anderson–Bottle Rocket and Rushmore in particular–The Darjeeling Limited is bankrupt in terms of character and plot. If nothing happened but the characters were interesting, we would have kept watching. If something had happened even if the characters weren’t interesting, we would have kept watching.

(more…)

We finally got to see Idiocracy, and were pleasantly surprised by the movie. As I’m sure has been noted, this isn’t SF so much as satire of our current times. Although the movie indulges in some of the same stupidity it’s trying to send up, the core of the film is sound. By simply increasing the present day’s stupidity level by a factor of 10, Idiocracy, sometimes painfully, points out not just how retarded we have allowed our consumer society to make us, but also how much we prize that slack-jawed, spittle-producing approach, mostly by downplaying and denigrating intelligence rather than rewarding it.

(more…)

On the airplane back to the United States, Ann and I had the misfortune to see Knocked Up, a worthless piece of crap that I stopped watching about forty-five minutes in, although Ann watched the whole thing and told me I missed nothing. Here’s the movie in a nutshell: stupid slob sleeps with beautiful woman under drunken circumstances that are still not believable, woman gets pregnant, and eventually they learn to live with it, dumb-ass guy’s flaws becoming endearing while he also reforms somewhat (also unbelievably). The humor is flat, the acting broad, and the whole thing is shot like some kind of in-joke. “This here actor is funny, so this here scene should be funny even if it was written by someone who wears half of their brain on the outside due to a bizarre tuna cannery incident.” Enough said.