Grade: C+
| Total Recall is a Total Remake of the classic sci-fi film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. This time around it’s Colin Farrell in the lead role. It’s really a whole new story, updated with lots of new technology and new special effects. We’re kept guessing, which is a good thing. Two very strong female roles, played by Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel. Love it when the girls get the better of the guys – smart, sexy, and savvy! |
Grade: C
| Judd Apatow’s new film “This is 40” picks up with the characters of married couple Pete and Debbie from one of his previous films, “Knocked Up.” Leslie Mann (Apatow’s real life wife) and Paul Rudd reprise their roles. It’s Debbie’s 40th birthday, which causes her to assess her life and make new goals for herself and her family. Mann and Apatow’s real life kids play Paul and Debbie’s daughters Sadie and Charlotte.
This is 40 is rated R – and it’s really an R – there is lots of language and some sex and juvenile jokes about sex. There are parts of the movie that are really charming and warm – definitely relatable for the over-35 crowd. But there are also parts that are just plain mean, and not funny at all. I don’t like the way the various characters speak to one another – and I hope people don’t get the impression that this is the way it is in households across America, because that’s just SO not the case! As a relationship expert, I’d say this movie is an example of all the things NOT to do in a relationship. A mixed bag. Paul Rudd is the best part of the movie – and the kids – they’re really cute! |
Grade: B
| Daniel Day Lewis earned an Oscar nomination for his leading role in “There Will Be Blood,” a movie that was nominated for Best Film. Certainly, the production value is stellar, and the acting is amazing. This is definitely a movie lover’s movie.
It was about ten minutes in before there was any dialogue. We meet Daniel Day Lewis’ character as a young man just getting started in the oil business. He works hard, and suffers, obviously putting everything he has into making himself and his company a success. And it finally pays off, big time. When one of his workers, a single father, dies in his well, he takes the boy as his own. As the business grows, the man becomes more greedy, and more desperate, and more corrupt. He buys land in California, and drills like crazy. He makes promises he can’t keep, and gets a whole town to buy into his vision. Meanwhile a bad accident leaves his son deaf, and a long-lost half brother comes back into his life. If there’s one thorn in his side, it’s the local evangelist. A real battle between the two, and in the end, no one wins. This is a dark movie – a real character study. Interesting, but not for everyone. |
Grade: C
| Darren Aronofsky famous for directing The Fountain and Pi directs The Wrestler. The direction is interesting. Good shots, good acting, nice pace. Mickey Rourke stars as “The Ram” – a wrestler who had his glory days in the 1980’s. Now he’s old, and broke, and trying to keep up in the wrestling world where he’s pretty much a has-been. Marisa Tomei plays his love interest, a single mother making ends meet as an exotic dancer. Evan Rachel Wood plays The Ram’s estranged daughter.
The movie is well done, but the story is hard to watch. It’s one of those situations where you can’t really like the main character. He makes bad decisions. He got himself into this mess, and as much as you’d like to see him turn it around, you know he won’t because that’s how he is. It’s painful. So although the elements are there – and real film buffs will appreciate the artistry of the movie – to me it’s just not entertainment. It’s one of those “feel bad” movies where you leave a little depressed. |
Grade: C
| The Women is a re-make of the 1939 movie, and it’s updated by Diane English. Meg Ryan plays Mary, a working mom who discovers that her husband is having an affair with the perfume counter girl at Sax Fifth Avenue. Eva Mendes is the perfume girl. Annette Bening is Mary’s best friend, an aging magazine editor who sees her vision of an innovative women’s magazine slipping away into tabloid territory. Debra Messing is the other friend, a kind of earth mother who keeps having kids. And Jada Pinkett Smith is their author friend, who happens to be gay. Candice Bergen is Mary’s advice-giving mother. The cast is stellar, and they obviously have a great time together.
Even though I love Diane English, I think the weak spot in the movie is the writing. It is so cliche. When Jada comes in to Mary’s party, it’s obvious she’s gay, and yet another character has to address her as “my gay friend.” We get it already! Mary confronts the other woman when they’re both decked out in lingerie, and the other woman is literally up on a pedestal. When Mary decides to get her life together, she straightens her hair, and that does it, she’s a new woman! I wanted to love this movie, but it was just okay. It is predictible, and sometimes silly. The women play catty and and each character fits into her mold, which is obvious and stereo-typed. But the actresses are fun, and the clothes are beautiful. Definitely a chick flick. Not a man in one frame of the movie until the very end! |
Grade: C-
| You’d think from the title that The Wolf of Wall Street would be about Wall Street – but the world of finance is just a backdrop. The focus of the movie is the real-life story of how Jordan Belfort schemed and lied his way up the ranks of stockbrokers to become a drug-addicted, sexoholic. Leonardo DiCaprio, who has become somewhat used to playing crazy rich men, has the lead role, and he is thoroughly convincing. Jonah Hill is the side-kick who idolizes him. Martin Scorsese directs. Well made movie – but it should have been rated NC-17. Way too many scenes of sex and drug use. Degrading to women. |
Grade: D+
| I thought this looked like a cute romantic comedy. I was disappointed. Debra Messing is darling – she’s pretty much doing a character similar to Grace from Will and Grace, but with straight hair – she looks great! And Dermot Mulroney is a looker, that’s for sure. But the premise� didn’t buy it. Not for one minute. He’s a hooker, she hires him to take her to her sister’s wedding in England because her ex-fiance is the best man and she wants everyone to think everything in her life is hunky-dorey. Somewhere along the way – and this must have wound up on the cutting room floor, because I didn’t see it! – the two fall in love. Hmmmm� the whole thing is just so questionable. I mean, he’s a hooker for crying out loud, and she falls into bed with him while she’s drunk, with no thought to “protection?” This is not an intelligent working woman. The movie is just 1 hour and 15 minutes long. I don’t feel like I got my money’s worth. Just plain dumb. |
Grade: B+
| Set in Loch Ness, Scotland, this is the story of the Loch Ness Monster, or one man’s interpretation of the events that happened around the time of the famous photo of it. It’s the story of a boy and his pet, really. A love story, one of loyalty and friendship. The boy finds an egg, discovers the creature inside, and they bond. Set amidst war, this relationship is complicated by the various people who impose themselves into the boy’s home. The sad mother, with her husband lost in battle, doesn’t know how to comfort the boy. The Waterhorse, as he is identified by the groundskeeper, brings the boy out of his own shell, and allows him to conquer his fears. In the process, the family grows together once again. A beautiful movie for the whole family. Some scenes may be scary for younger viewers – when the waterhorse is in danger and gets angry. |
Grade: C-
| The Warrior’s Way stars Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush and Don-gun Jang. Set in the wild west, I’m not sure how to classify this movie. It’s a western, but it’s also got a bunch of ninjas, and it’s kind of like a video game come to life in a lot of ways. A warrior/assassin hides out in a small circus-type town after he refuses an assignment. He takes with him a little baby that he rescued. The baby is totally adorable! The warrior teaches Kate how to fight, so that she can get revenge on the bad guy who killed her parents.
The movie is all over the place – from one big fight scene to the next. Lots of violence, blood, swordplay. I think teen boys might get into it, but that’s a pretty narrow audience. |
Grade: B
| Richard Jenkins stars as a lonely and bored college professor named Walter. Since his wife passed away a few years ago, Walter hasn’t had much going on in his life. He moves through almost on auto-pilot, somehow knowing that there must be some music playing for him somewhere. When he is sent to New York to present a paper at a conference, he finds a young immigrant couple living in his apartment. Rather than kicking them out, he offers to let them stay, and develops a friendship with them. Tarek, the young man from Syria, helps Walter to get his groove back when he teaches him to play the drum. But then, Tarek is arrested, and as an illegal alien, he faces deportment. Tarek’s mother arrives on Walter’s doorstep wanting to know what happened to her son, and Walter opens his heart to this woman’s plight.
I loved so much about this movie. It’s a sweet story, a wonderful glimpse at an aspect of life we are rarely privy to. But it’s also sad. It’s sad that our system is so ineffective, and that it is so difficult for good people to catch a break. |
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