Summer Movie Preview Part 3 July 2011

I can't believe June has already come and gone, and its already time for me to write another monthly preview article.  There are a lot of great movies coming up this month, and July is typically the last big month of summer movies. Here is what to expect in July.

Larry Crowne

Larry Crowne is the small little movie that has been placed on 4th of July weekend for two reasons. The first is the high quality star power of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. The second is purely out of the desire to draw in those theater goers who don't care about Transformers. Weather it is a good movie or not remains to be seen, but I guarantee the audience for this and the audience for Transformers will look completely different.


Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses to me looks like the next big comedy. It has a beyond stellar cast, and looks absolutely like the funniest movie of the summer (sorry Bridesmaids). The basic premise is the same as strangers on a train, with each friend taking a different boss to eliminate. The movie looks flat out hysterical, and between Kevin Spacey doing his thing, Colin Farrell looking down right hysterical, and Jennifer Anniston doing that thing to the banana, I'm sold.

Zoo Keeper

I don't exactly know what to say about this movie.  It has to be funny, because it certainly isn't new. From the trailer it certainly looks like another sub standard Dr. Doolittle clone.  I like Kevin James, he is a very funny physical comedian, but he continuously makes bad choices for films. I hope it is funny, and I hope that it surprises me, but I am not holding my breath.

Winnie The Pooh

It is classic Winnie The Pooh in all his hand drawn glory. This is a new story, with all our favorite characters. Just like Curious George a few years ago, this movie chose to stick to the traditional animation, and I love it. This type of animation has become so scarce that when it does appear, you are instantly nostalgic for bygone eras. I don't think there is there anyone who won't immediately fall in love with this movie by the end of the trailer, watch it and you will see what I mean.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Literally a decade in the making, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the conclusion of the story that has captured everyones attention for the past 10 years. It is hard to believe that it is all coming to an end. I for one never imagined that I would be sitting here 10 years later, eagerly anticipating the final chapter. But I am, and quite honestly the series has only gotten more exciting, more dark, and more amazing with time. If you were 11 when the first movie came out you are now 21, a full grown adult.  There are very few film series that last that long, there are even fewer that define a generation.  Harry Potter is a special collection of films that transcends all media, and has in itself become culture.

Captain America

Call me a pessimist, or a skeptic, but I am not impressed by this movie. To me everything about this movie, from the casting, to the set design, even the costume are all signs that this is not a good movie. Maybe it has a good director? Ooops nope, if the name Joe Johnson doesn't ring a bell maybe this will help. Johnson was the director of such classics as Jumanji, Jurassic Park 3, The Pagemaster, and oh lets not forget The Wolfman (2010). If that isn't screaming at you not to trust this movie, I don't know what else to tell you. I know it is summer and Marvel has yet to let us down, but seriously folks I said it here first, this movie looks like first rate garbage. Be officially warned.


Crazy Stupid Love

This movie looks brilliant.  It looks funny, tragic, and above all things very real. Every once in a while a comedy can move you more than any drama, and Crazy Stupid Love certainly looks to fit that mold. I don't know about you, but this trailer makes the movie look like vintage James L. Brooks.  Movies like As Good as it Gets, Broadcast News, and Terms of Endearment, are all perfect examples of real movies. If Crazy Stupid Love is anywhere near as good as those classics we are in for a treat.

The Smurfs

Sorry but this is beyond terrible, its just depressing. Hey parents this is what you get for taking your kids to Alvin and the Chipmunks, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, Yogi Bear, and all the other horrible bastardized versions of out beloved childhood cartoons. I blame you, it is your fault, now do us all a favor and don't take your kids to see this. Let the industry know that you refuse to allow them to rape your childhood any longer, by not taking your kids to this movie.

Cowboys & Aliens

What can you say about one of the coolest ideas for a movie ever. Cowboys & Aliens is a perfect example of how to take a traditional western and flip it on its ear.  Jon Favreau, has specifically designed the movie to be one part John Ford, and one part Steven Spielberg. It's an interesting combination to say the least, but those are two magnificent directors to model a movie after.  They both have an amazing visual style, and make nothing but beautiful movies.  I am looking forward to this movie, and hope it delivers on all that it promises.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review
I like roller coasters, they are fun, they are exciting, and they thrill me. They also last only 40 to 60 seconds. There is a reason roller coasters are only seconds long. If they lasted longer they would make you sick, they would cease to be fun, and people would not ride them any longer. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is like a 3 hour roller coaster. It just makes you sick.

A lot of people are saying that Dark of the Moon is the best of the Transformers movies. Of course thats like saying I am the smartest kid on the short bus. I enjoyed the first Transformers, for the most part it was clever, and gave me exactly what I wanted in a Transformers movie, namely giant alien robots blowing stuff up. The second Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen, was a horrific, unfunny, borderline racist piece of trash. But somehow it made money, and earned what many are calling a redemptive sequel. Dark of the Moon is a better sequel than Revenge of the Fallen, but how could it not be?

Transformers: Dark of the Moon wisely eliminates many of the problems that the prior sequel emphasized. However instead of replacing it with clever dialogue, improved characters, or even a coherent story, it crams in more giant alien robots blowing stuff up. For just about the entire movie, I had no understanding of why anyone was doing what they were doing. Not only did the plot make no sense, it took forever to tell us nothing.

One of my favorite comedies is Billy Madison. In it Billy must compete is a Jeopardy like quiz challenge.  After giving a long, unintelligible, somewhat nonsense answer to one of the questions posed to him, the quizmaster says the following:

Mr. Madison, what you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Thats kind of how I felt after this movie. I just felt dumber for having watched it. A dumb movie can be forgiven especially if it has heart, or a soul, but Transformers: Dark of the Moon is simply void of those things. I will concede that there were spectacular action sequences, and many alien robots were destroyed. But for what purpose? Are we better for it?

Now don't get me wrong, if you love giant alien robots blowing stuff up then you will be orgasmically satisfied. There is an eye-bleeding three hours of it. But for me, I needed a bit more. I enjoy action movies, and I enjoy explosions, but there is a point when too much of a good thing is bad. The biggest issues I have with this movie really stem from its length. At nearly three hours long. I could see an hour or more being cut out of this movie, and not only would the movie still work, it would be better, sharper, and more entertaining. Michael Bay is a brilliant director for this type of movie. He is a master of the heroic low angle pan, and he has never been afraid of mass destruction. What he does tend to lack is a sense of realism. I am not saying that we have to follow all the rules of physics in a movie about giant robot aliens, but I do think that the human characters cannot be thrown violently into all manner of solid objects and simply walk away. Give them a bruise, or a limp or something for crying out loud.

Now that I mentioned it lets talk about the humans in the movie. The human characters in the Transformers series are supposed to be the heart, the reason we care. In Dark of the Moon the human characters are for the most part extraneous. I know the inexplicable romance between Megan Foxx and Shia LaBeouf was a weak point in the prior installments, but the romance in this movie is even weaker. I think the only reason Rosie Huntington-Whitely is in the movie is to pout, wear heels and revealing outfits to apocalyptic battles, and be the stereotypical damsel in distress. Frances McDormand is wasted in a boring lifeless role, and John Turturro returns to again compete with Kevin Dunn, and Julie White for the title of "most annoying character." None of this not the actors fault, they all play the parts they are given quite well.  The real blame must be laid at the hands of the writing, but really who cares about dialogue when there is explosions to be had. Essentially all of the human characters in this movie are reduced to nothing more than shouting and running scenery. Why have human characters at all if their only purpose is to be vaporized or stand behind rubble? However there was two stand out actors in the film. John Malkovich, and Ken Jeong, are unforgettable and together provide the best and most clever sources of humor in the movie.

The bottom line is that like the other movies in the series Transformers: Dark of the Moon is just dumb.  It has no brains, it consists of one explosion after another, and with no real purpose even the greatest of action movies become tedious, and in the end the Transformers franchise is just that, an exercise of our ability to endure monotony.

DVD Releases for Tuesday June 28, 2011

This is the part of the blog where I tell you what I am buying for the week on DVD. Most of you who know me also know that I like to collect and watch movies at home. Most weeks I buy 1-4 releases. This week I will be buying:

Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition
Yeah I know this is a double, triple, or for some of you a quadruple dip from Peter Jackson, but if you are a fan of this trilogy you know you will be picking it up on Blu Ray. I hear that the extras are nothing new, nor are they upgraded to HD. Also absent is the presence of any Hobbit material, so you can probably expect another set to coincide with the Hobbit. I am getting this set purely for the Extended Editions in HD, and thats enough for me to be happy.







Sucker Punch
A loud, jarring mess of a movie from Zach Snyder.  I wanted this movie to be more than it is.  I like Snyder's visual style, and I enjoyed those aspects of the movie.  But the movie really could have been more, it could have been cuckoo's nest brought to all its visual life, but you know with hot chicks instead of Chief and Nicholson. Unfortunately we got a steaming turd.








Beastly
Ever wanted to see a live action Beauty & The Beast? Well keep waiting, this movie tries to deliver that story in a fresh and contemporary way, but fails on several levels.  I liked the characters in the movie, and who can argue with the plot, the problem with Beastly is the fact that it fails to develop any of the characters, they are all paper cut outs, no dimensions, or depth of any kind.








Season of the Witch
Poor Nicholas Cage, that guy needs to fire his agent. He also needs to stop making movies just for the paycheck, or we may ask for his Oscar back.











Barney's Version
Dustin Hoffman and Paul Giamatti sharing the screen has got me interested.  Barney's version was a hit at awards season, so I am excited to see just why everyone was raving about it.

Cars 2 Review

Cars 2 Review

Pixar is known for its great animation, its clever and inventive stories, and its creative characters. They have defined their brand with quality. Each and every movie they have made has been top quality, and Cars 2 is no exception.

The first Cars was my least favorite Pixar movie.  I wasn't a huge fan of the idea of personifying cars, and lets be honest the story was a blatant rip off of the Michael J. Fox classic Doc Hollywood. I thought it was good, even the worst Pixar film is better than most other movies, but in my opinion Cars was not really their best work.

Pixar has stated that unless there is a good reason, a creative reason, there will not be sequels to their films.  This philosophy has served them well. Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 are great movies first, and sequels second. Cars 2 continues this trend.  The creators purposely avoided the pitfalls of making a traditional sequel and instead push the story in a wonderful new direction.

The direction they decided was brilliant. At its core Cars 2 is a spy thriller, with more in common with James Bond than with Nascar. They don't ditch the racing, but rather than focus on the racing which would have been admittedly repetitive, Cars 2 gears itself towards action and adventure.  Cars 2 is a much more exciting film than the first one. Just like a Bond movie, Cars 2 is full of car chases, tire to tire combat, and some very exciting action sequences.  The creators took this world they created in the last movie and purposely chose do something different with it.  There are several blatant, and brilliant nods to James Bond, Austin Powers, and many other classic spy films.

The plot is driven this time not by Lightning McQueen, but by Mater, the innocent, childlike redneck tow truck. Mater has unwittingly become the spy who knew too little. Aided by two British Intelligence agents, an Austin Martin named Fin McMissile (voiced by Michael Caine) and a Jaguar XJR-15 named Holly Shiftwell (voiced by Emily Mortimer), Mater must help save the world from a diabolical syndicate called LEMON. LEMON is of course comprised of famous clunkers, like Gremlins, Pintos, and other commonly known jalopies. Of course all of the makes and models of the cars fit perfectly with their stereotype characters.

One of the more interesting plot points was the concept of Big Oil using alternative fuels as a catalyst for controlled change.  If oil companies control alternative fuels then we remain at their mercy. Should these oil companies decide that alternative fuels aren't profitable, then we likely won't see change anytime soon. But maybe I am reading too much into the political subplot, maybe the creators just like in the Bond films made a villain interested in world domination, which in the world of Cars, would of course be control of petroleum products.

Overall Cars 2 was a fun and exciting movie.  It expanded the world of Cars, and allows for any number of stories to take place, and also allows the creators an opportunity to play with genre in a whole new way. Maybe we will get a Cars version of a comic book movie, or a science fiction thriller. The possibilities are now endless.

Bad Teacher Review

Bad Teacher Review

Bad Teacher wants to be the dirty comedy of the summer, and it tries hard to be that.  The problem is that you can see that it is trying.  A great puppet once said "Try not, do or do not, there is not try."  Yes it was Yoda, but the point is just as valid, a comedy, especially one that wants to be dirty, can't try, it must do. I am not saying that the movie isn't funny, in fact quite the opposite, the movie is quite funny in parts, but the problem is so much of the movie feels forced and not organic. The movie isn't a failure, but it isn't a home run either.

Cameron Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey, a shallow and materialistic gold digger who is only teaching until the right sugar daddy comes along. She is crass and rude, and spends most of her teaching time hung over and or passed out while the students watch classic films about classic teachers.  The plot, if you want to call the moments in between curse words, vulgarity, and crude gestures, revolves around Elizabeth's desire to get breast implants so that the new substitute teacher, played by Justin Timberlake, will notice her.

Of course in order for her to succeed she must overcome two things.  The first is of course the extremely high price of breast augmentation surgery.  The second is Amy Squirrel, the optimistic and dedicated teacher, who is Elizabeth's polar opposite. Of course the two compete over the Justin Timberlake character, which lead to mildly amusing exchanges, which were done much better in Rushmore nearly 15 years ago.  Amy Squirrel is played by Lucy Punch, a brilliant english comedienne who you will recognize from Dinner For Schmucks. As good as she is, she is unfortunately under utilized.

While I fault the movie for trying so hard, I will give it credit for being unapologetic in regards to its main character. Most of the time movies try to make us like the hero, by making them change for the better. Not in this movie.  Elizabeth starts the movie as a horrible person, and she finishes the movie as a horrible person. She succeeds against her nemesis, not by becoming a better person, or a better teacher, but by out foxing the goody two shoes.  Elizabeth never misses an opportunity to be opportunistic.

Bad Teacher is sadly just another forgettable summer comedy, full of a couple of good moments, but not many great ones, which is the biggest disappointment.

DVD Releases for Tuesday June 21, 2011

This is the part of the blog where I tell you what I am buying for the week on DVD. Most of you who know me also know that I like to collect and watch movies at home. Most weeks I buy 1-4 releases. This week I will be buying:

The Adjustment Bureau
Quite possibly my favorite movie of the year so far. I know that parts of it fall apart upon scrutiny but how often do we get a quality blend of philosophy, science fiction, humor, and romance.  Not only did it successfully blend all of those elements together, but it did so while also making us think and I dare anyone to watch this movie and not enjoy it.






Unknown
Unknown wasn't a great movie, but it was very entertaining.  I knew the twist in this movie about half way through, but I still wanted to know how they were going to pull it together.  A pretty straight forward action film, that tries to be more intelligent than it is.  Essentially the movie begins as a tight well paced action thriller in the mold of The Marathon Man, but eventually it decays into just another loud action movie.





The Eagle
I have to admit I am completely skeptical of this movie. It looks like a Gladiator clone, and yet everyone I know who has seen the movie thought it was great, and it received both high praise and blistering criticism from the professional reviews I read. I will just have to find out for myself.






Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules
The first Diary of a Wimpy Kid was an amusing yet deeply flawed movie.  I don't expect much from it's sequel but if you are a fan of the books, then I am sure you will be rushing out to see this.  As I am not a fan of the books, and the first one left me apathetic, I don't have much in the way of a desire to see it.






Cedar Rapids
Similar to Bridesmaids, Cedar Rapids sports an interesting mix of comedy role players. Cedar Rapids has been listed as one of the funniest movies of the year. And has an impressive "85% Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes. I hope that the movie delivers and is as funny as the trailer was.

The Tree of Life Review

The Tree Of Life Review

A four year old boy sits on a park bench, next to an elderly man.  The elderly man is a well respected and brilliant physicist. The boy is just a boy. The physicist, seeing he has an audience, begins to explain all the secrets of life, the universe, and everything to the four year old boy. The four year old boy sits mesmerized by the old man's tale, listening carefully, focused on every detail. When the elderly man finishes, he looks down at the four year old boy, and says "Do you understand?" To which the four year old boy says, "No sir, but can I hear it again?"

After sitting through the Tree of Life, I believe that within it must be all the secrets of life, the universe, and everything. Terence Malick has laid out his philosophy on the meaning of life quite beautifully. But I also, like the four year old boy, I cannot process it. I guess am not as smart, or wise, or as experienced as I thought.  Perhaps there is an obvious meaning to the movie that I couldn't see it. Maybe I couldn't see the forrest for the trees. I don't know, but what I do know is that I couldn't see any real narrative structure to the movie.  It's timeline is incomprehensible, and when it does begin to form some linear structure, about one third into the movie, it becomes just a series of disjointed events, like memories that you can't quite place in time.

It is in this section of the movie that the story of a boy and his loss of innocence is told.  Raised by a nurturing mother, and a strict father, the boy undergoes a transformation. He lets go of his youth, filled with grace instilled in him by his mother, and embraces a jaded hard edge, drilled into him by his father.  Brad Pitt plays the father quite well.  He is a man who once had a grace of his own, a great musician, who was beaten down by the world and who doesn't want his son to repeat his mistakes.  He is loving, but hard, and moments of tenderness are almost immediately followed by moments of intense severity.

The movie consists very little of plot, or story. It exists more like an impressionist painting set to music and poetry, than a film.  There is an elegance to the movie that is both delightful, and frustrating.  Throughout the movie I was constantly reminded of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The Tree of Life, just like a Space Odyssey, sometimes lets go of its story in favor of beautiful artistic visuals that bring added depth and emotion to the film. Unlike 2001, The Tree of Life tends to lose focus on the story, and get lost in it's art. I appreciate art, I think many films can be artistic, but I also think that movies are stories, and without focus a movie can become messy and chaotic.  The Tree of Life is just that, blissful chaos.

There is no real easy way to explain what The Tree of Life is about. It defies definition, and it is as beautiful as it is unexplainable. I still can't wrap my head around what this movie was about. The best way, the only way to know what this movie is about is to experience it for yourself. Maybe if I see it again I will understand.