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Internet Movie Database
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05 Jan

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Grade: B-

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice has a great premise – and so much potential.  Unfortunately, the whole movie falls short.  The story is good, and the effects are fun.  But I think part of the problem lies in the casting.  Nicolas Cage is the sorcerer, and he lacks the magic that we expect from someone with such power – he’s droll and tired throughout much of the film.  And his apprentice is appropriately nerdy, but he doesn’t grow or change as he learns from his experiences.  He’s pretty much the same nerdy guy he was when he starts.  Alfred Molina lends much-needed pizazz to the ensemble cast – he’s an over-the-top villain – delighting in his dastardliness!

The silliness gets too silly, so we lose any semblance of a believability factor.  It just all takes to long to resolve.  It could have been so much better!
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05 Jan

The Soloist

Grade: A-

In “The Soloist” Robert Downey Jr. plays Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez.  This is a true story based on columns that Lopez wrote about his experience with a homeless man, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers.  The two meet when Lopez follows beautiful violin music in the streets and finds Ayers playing the instrument with just 2 strings.  He finds out that Ayers attended Juliarrd, and becomes intrigued with how this talented musician ended up living this sad lifestyle.  Despite Ayer’s mental illness, and Lopez’s commitment issues, the two develop an awkward friendship, and grow as a result.  Catherine Keener plays Lopez’s boss and ex-wife.  Well done.
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05 Jan

The Social Network

Grade: A

The Social Network is based on the real story of Facebook.  No matter how much we might know about it, since we all kind of experienced it from the beginning as this is very recent history, this film will open your eyes.  It is compelling from the first scene where we meet Mark Zuckerberg as he’s challenging his girlfriend and she ends up breaking up with him.  In one of the many great lines from the movie, she says “You will always think that girls are not attracted to you because you’re a nerd, but that’s not the case, it’s because you’re an asshole.”

The rest of the movie continues to prove that point.  Zuckerberg is not a likable character, but his portrayer, Jessie Eisenberg, gives him a vulnerability in his near desperation for acceptance. Andrew Garfield, who is super hot right now since it was just announced that he’s the new Spiderman, plays Zuckerberg’s best friend Eduardo.  He’s very good in the part.

Justin Timberlake comes in as Sean Parker, the guy who founded Napster, and he brings the sleaze factor to these Harvard boys as he tries to cut himself in on what he sees as a billion dollar idea.

The whole film is cleverly written and very well executed.  We’ll hear about it alot come awards season.
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05 Jan

The Silver Lining Playbook

Grade: A-

Sometimes simple is best.  The Silver Lining Playbook is a film about people who are real, relatable, flawed, and working really hard to figure it all out.  Bradley Cooper’s Pat is fresh from the mental ward, and resisting medication for his bi-polar disorder.  He’s pining for the wife that left him and has a restraining order against him.  Then he meets Tiffany, a young widow who is desperately wanting someone to not treat her like damaged goods.  They each find something in the other that helps them to heal.  Robert DeNiro is Pat’s dad, who has an odd case of OCD that adds comic relief.  I loved this movie because of its heart.  Life isn’t always easy, or hearts and flowers, but there’s always something there for us to hang onto.  As I always say about The Law of Relationship: We’re here to help each other learn and grow.  This story is a great illustration of that.
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05 Jan

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Grade: B

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is a day-dreamer who works in the photo department at Life Magazine.  He escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. He crushes on his co-worker (Kristen Wiig) but can’t get the courage to do anything about it. When his job along with that of his co-worker are threatened, he takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined. And thus, he discovers his true strength, and his life is forever changed.

Quite fantastical, and a lot of fun. See it on the big screen, if you can, for the amazing scenery!
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05 Jan

The Secret Life of Bees

Grade: A-

I read the book: “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd and I loved it.  I loved the movie just as much.  The story is compelling, the acting is marvelous and the setting is beautiful.  Dakota Fanning stars, alongside Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Sofie Okenedo and Alicia Keys.  It’s about loss, and family, and strength and the sweetness of life.  The story takes place in the south in the 1960’s, so racial tension is a backdrop.  But the main story is Lily’s.  She’s a young girl who runs away with her nanny to search for the truth – and she ends up finding herself.

The Secret Life of Bees on amazon
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05 Jan

The Savages

Grade: B

This is one of those movies that was a little bit difficult for me to watch because it hit so close to home.  I think a lot of us can relate to a drama about caring for a parent whose health is deteriorating.  That’s the story with The Savages.  We first meet Wendy, played by Laura Linney.  Laura Linney is one of the most versatile actresses of our generation, and she has quite a body of work to prove it.  This may be the role that gets her another nomination.  Wendy is kind of a mess, personally and professionally, and when she gets the call that her estranged father needs attention, she doesn’t handle the news well.  She calls her older brother, John, who  we can also see is ill-equipped to handle the situation.  But together, brother and sister do what needs to be done, and they move their father from Arizona to a nursing home in New York.  They have to deal with things that they have never confronted before.  And at the same time they have to deal with the emotions that are brought up by having to see their father again.  Really raw, honest dialogue, some epiphany moments for each character.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays John.  He’s done great work this year, and a lot of it!
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05 Jan

The Sapphires

Grade: A-

The Sapphires is an Australian movie based on the true story set in the late 1960’s.  Four Aboriginal girls aspire to become a popular singing group.  They are “discovered” by a down and out struggling musician when they enter, and lose, a local talent show.  There is much prejudice against aborigines at this time, but the musician gets the girls to change their style to be like The Supremes, and they book a tour to Vietnam.  During their travels, they learn about love and friendship and the brutality of war.

The movie was written by the son of one of the girls.

Terrific music, heart-warming story.  Highly recommended.
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05 Jan

The Rise of the Silver Surfer: The Fantastic 4 #2

Grade: C

I wouldn’t have chosen to go to The Silver Surfer on my own, but I owed Greg one.  Marvel Comics has quite a franchise on its hands with this group.  Kids have got to love The Torch, The Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic and whatever that rock guy’s name is.  The violence is cartoon violence, no blood, no real harm done to people.  Everything is comic book exaggerated – Jessica Alba’s lips for example, and her blonde wig.  I read an interview where she said she didn’t have to work out to get in shape for the movie because her suit was padded to be perfect.  There’s a new villain, the Surfer, who is saved at the end – does anyone really die in comic books?  So there’s likely to be a sequel in which the Surfer is now a good guy.  The whole thing clocks in at around an hour and 20 minutes or so.  Great for kids’ short attention spans.  Or for parents who get bored easily.
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05 Jan

The Reader

Grade: A-

The Reader is one of the films nominated in the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards.  If it weren’t for that nomination, I might not have gone to see it, and that would be too bad.  The Reader is an excellent film.  Kate Winslet is won the Golden Globe and the Screen Actor’s Guild Award for her performance, she is nominated for an Academy Award, and I think she’s going to win.

This is the story of a working class woman who befriends and beds a teenage boy.  He is enamoured with her, until the day she mysteriously disappears.  He ends up finding her again by accident when he is a student in law school.  He learns of her past, as a guard for the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The film is mostly about the relationship between these two people. It is intense, and haunting.  Definitely worth seeing.  Best Director nomination as well.
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