DVD Roundup Birds Edition: Rio and The Big Year

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows that my professional field is in the realm of biology.  I teach various facets of it now, and have studied it for more than a decade.  This is to say that movies that involve aspects of science or environmental nerdiness either make me giddy or piss me off like crazy.  I'm happy to say that both of these movies fall into the former category more than the latter.

Rio is an animated movie that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song (though not for Best Animated Feature).  The voice talent is broad and includes Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Leslie Mann, Jemaine Clemente, Tracy Morgan, Jamie Foxx, Will I Am, and George Lopez.  There are also lots of other lesser parts with very recognizable voices.  So on that score, it's very successful.  The story is also a great environmental message - Blu (Eisenberg) is a blue macaw, a highly endangered tropical bird much sought after for the pet trade.  He is kidnapped as a chick and taken to a pet store in Minnesota where he lives a very happy life as a pet to Linda (Mann).  However, blue macaws are so endangered a scientist has tracked down Blu and would like to borrow him to mate with a female, Jewel (Hathaway).  Linda agrees to go to Rio de Janeiro  with Blu to try to propagate the species. Blu meets Nico (Foxx) and Pedro (Will I Am), local tropical birds in the know.  Eventually they help Blu get back to Linda after he and Jewel are kidnapped and sold to smugglers.  When Blu and Jewel need to get their chains cut after they escape, they meet Rafael (Lopez) a toucan with connections to Luiz (Morgan) a bulldog who can do anything.  Of course, everything works out, and Jewel teaches Blu that it might be better being free than being a pet, and Blu teaches Jewel that it's pretty great being someone's friend.

It's beautifully colored, but not particularly sharp in its animation.  There are also several songs, obviously since one was nominated, but they're few and far between, just augmenting the festive atmosphere of the city of Rio.  Eisenberg is AWESOME as the unsure, contentedly repressed character.  He is really unsure of what the "wild" is all about, and is particularly nervous - especially since he never learned to fly.  Definitely a fun, bright one for kids, and very tolerable for adults.  Nothing like a Pixar film in terms of strong writing, but not bad.  3 of 5 stars/lambs

The Big Year was one of my most anticipated movies of the fall, but it was only in theaters near me for about a week.  The reason for my anticipation is that the movie is about competitive bird-watching.  Now in my field  there are two kinds of people - birders and everyone else.  I am not a birder.  But I found the concept fascinating - A Big Year, according to the movie, is when you try to set the all-time record for number of species of birds seen in a single year.  There is a lot of "on your honor" action in doing this - does it count if you only hear it, but can definitely identify the call, or must you photograph it?  Thankfully, the movie doesn't go too far into that.  Instead, we follow three characters trying for A Big Year - Steve Martin, a wealthy businessman getting ready to retire, Jack Black, a tech support geek looking to prove he can achieve something, and the current record holder Owen Wilson who doesn't want to lose his record.  We get to watch them travel all over the US looking at all the different kinds of birds, and most especially the lengths that birders will go to in order to see a particular bird.

There is definitely a market for this film - probably a deceptively large one (there are a LOT of closet birders out there), but it's also not for everyone.  I found it really funny - it tickled my nerd funny bone often.  However, like the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" that kind of humor isn't for everyone.  Owen Wilson is a really great jackass.  Jack Black makes you really root for him to win, and Steve Martin is super sweet realizing his life is changing before his eyes.  I enjoyed it and actually can't wait for it to be $5 at Walmart someday so I can own it!

Ryan Gosling DVD Roundup: Drive and The Ides of March

It's been a while since I actually got a good chance to watch a few movies on DVD.  So I'm pleased this will be the first of a few DVD Roundups so I can catch up on what I've seen.  If you listen to Reel Insight (and why don't you?) you might have heard me talk about a few of these, hopefully this will add something to it.  2011 was definitely the year of Ryan Gosling.  There were probably other actors who made 3 movies last year, but no one else did this good a job.

The Ides of March, directed by and co-starring George Clooney, follows a young campaign staffer, Stephen (Gosling) on Gov. Mike Morris' (Clooney) campaign.  We see him being wooed by the opposition (Paul Giamatti), but trying to explain to his own boss (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) that he doesn't want to leave.  However, even the whisper of a high level staffer wanting to leave a campaign has political ramifications that come back to bite you in the ass.  There isn't a lot to say about the movie specifically because the concept has been done before - corrupt politicians who can't keep it in their pants actually win races, much to the dismay of their ideologically minded staffers.  However, the style and finesse of this movie make it worth watching - probably several times.  The direction is very Clooney (it's kind of nice to see a style emerge because he's done enough films) with the shadows always mattering to every scene.  The cast can't be surpassed - with all the guys bringing their A-game and being self aware enough to know their position in the film and their physical attributes embody every politician you've ever seen, from staffers up to the governors.  3.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Drive couldn't be more different, and I actually liked it much more than Ides.  Gosling plays The Driver, a getaway driver for hire who works days as a stunt driver for movies.  We never learn anything more about his past, but that doesn't mean we don't learn a lot about him.  He lives next door to Carey Mulligan and her son (whose dad is in prison).  He starts falling for her, but in a strangely unromantic way.  He wants to be with her, help her son, and ultimately help her husband, Standard, when he gets out of prison.  His relationship with her family was one of my favorite things about this movie.  Sadly, Standard still has criminal connections and needs help with a job to pay back some bad people.  The driver agrees to help him, and along with Christina Hendricks, they steal a TON of money.  However, things of course don't go well.  It turns out they stole money from the mob (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman) and they want it back.  The movie has moments of real violence, but the story is focused and the car scenes are pretty awesome.  I enjoyed it a lot 4 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: Larry Crowne and Giveaway

First, the giveaway.  There are still 8 DVDs that I would really like to give away.  A few have been claimed and mailed away.  I'll mail anywhere in the world (in case that was the reason you didn't ask, but whether it works on your DVD player is up to you).  These will be available until next Friday, January 20, then I'm giving them to the library.  Take your pick and leave it in the comments.  

1. Something's Gotta Give - Widescreen

2. Precious - Widescreen

3. America's Sweethearts - Both

4. Center Stage - Special Edition

5. Men in Black II - Widescreen Special Edition

6. X-Men 3: The Last Stand - Widescreen

7.  Far From Heaven - Widescreen

8. Stepmom - Full screen

Second, a review of Larry Crowne, new on DVD not too long ago, but finally came to my house.  Our new recording schedule for RI leaves some time in the schedule that makes getting new movies really nice.  Anyway - Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) is a middle-aged guy who is being let go from his retail position because he can no longer advance in the company because he doesn't have a college degree (he was in the Navy for 20 years).  Now this plot device bothered me for about 10 minutes and then it doesn't matter at all, it's just a reason to make Larry go back to school.  Why would ANY company fire a terrific employee just because their mantra is that everyone can advance, and he actually can't.  He isn't asking to move up, just stay employed.  

But Larry enrolls at a local community college in at least 2 classes, Economics 101 (taught but a really funny George Takai) and Communication 217 - Informal Remarks or something like that, taught by Mrs. Mercedes "Merry" Tainot (Julia Roberts, married to porn-addicted writer Bryan Cranston).  She is really burned out by teaching, particularly 8am classes.  And there's a rule that if a class has fewer than 10 enrolled students, it's not cost effective to continue, which pleases Merry a lot until Larry arrives and makes it 10, which puts a strike against Larry from the first.  

The semester rolls along and Larry has to find ways to cut costs now that he's not working.  His neighbors (Cedric the Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson) run a continuous yard sale and have a scooter he can buy to save on gas.  From this, he's asked to join a "scooter gang", led by Talia and Dell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Wilmer Valderama).  Talia is unsure about school, but likes the look of Larry and wants to help him be cool.  Larry goes through a few transformations and stays friends with the "scooter gang".  Merry sees Larry out with Talia and assumes the worst.  

You can guess how this movie ends.  The trailer does give you some of the funny moments, but in context they're much funnier (when she's riding on the back of his scooter they drive by her husband getting arrested).  Tom Hanks is particularly charming, much in the way he is during The Terminal, but without the accent, just the confusion.  Having just taught at a community college myself, I found a lot to like about this film.  They captured the mix of students really really well - you have older people trying to hang on to their lives or single moms eager to improve their lots under staggering odds.  Then you have the young students who have no idea what they want to do, and they're pretty sure goofing off and being loud is all that will ever be required of them in life.  Overall, it's a very cute movie - though if either Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts actively annoy you, it's not for you.  If not, you'll really enjoy it's charming nature.  4 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Giveaway, just in time for Christmas!

Okay, you've heard me talk about this on the podcast.  I've been attempting to purge my DVD shelf.  And you, my devoted readers are the beneficiaries of this purge.   I know this isn't a ton of movies, but I had to start somewhere, and these 15 were movies I felt I could actually part with.  There are some really great movies on this list so I feel like explaining why I don't want to give them space on my shelf.

1.  I haven't watched them since I bought them.  - Sadly, this is true.  I have seen them all, either in theaters or by rental, but just haven't found the desire in the year or more since I owned them to watch them.

2.  I have seen them enough times that I honestly don't foresee watching them again. -  Because we watch so many movies for Reel Insight (which I still love) there isn't really a lot of time for my lesser chosen movies to make it off the shelf.

3.  I want to buy more movies - so some of them have to go.

So here's how it'll go - leave a comment and either tell me how insane I am for giving up one of these films or stake your claim - first come first served.  Please only kind mocking for the fact that I owned some of these movies in the first place (mean people suck).  And all of these played just fine or they're brand new and never watched so I can't vouch either way for their playing.   I'll send them out after Christmas unless you specifically feel the need to get 'em early.   Willing to send anywhere.

1.  Mallrats - Widescreen Collector's Edition

2. Something's Gotta Give - Widescreen

3. Jurassic Park - Full Screen Collector's Edition

4. Precious - Widescreen

5. America's Sweethearts - Both

6. Center Stage - Special Edition

7. Men in Black II - Widescreen Special Edition

8. Hot Fuzz - Widescreen

9. X-Men 3: The Last Stand - Widescreen

10.  Far From Heaven - Widescreen

11. The Dark Knight - Widescreen 

12. Stepmom - Full screen

13. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - Widescreen

14.  The Philadelphia Story - Full Screen

15.  Milk - Widescreen

DVD Roundup: Barney's Version

There are a lot of movies that have trouble finding an audience because the people who create the trailers decide the movie is about one thing, while it's actually about something else.  Barney's Version had trouble with this, in part because the title doesn't really describe much of what the movie is about and then the trailer made it look like it was about something a little different.  So here's what I think it was about (some spoilers, but mostly it'll make it easier to decide to see it, since you REALLY should):

Paul Giamatti is pretty unlucky in love.  In the 1970s he's living in Rome, being a "patron" of the arts only because he's the only one among his artsy friends who actually has a job.  He's knocked up one of these friends (Rachel Lefevre) and agreed to marry her.  She's a bit of a liar, and the marriage doesn't end well, but it ends relatively quickly.  So Barney heads back to the States.  He's set up with the daughter of a colleague (also Jewish - Minnie Driver) and eventually it makes sense for them to marry, much to the dismay of his working class dad (Dustin Hoffman).  At the wedding reception, Barney meets Miriam (Rosamund Pike) and falls completely in love.   She totally denies him, and goes back to NYC.  Barney stays married until he finds his alcoholic-in-recovery best friend Boogie (Scott Speedman) in bed with his wife.  This finally allows Barney to pursue Miriam.  They eventually marry and have kids and a wonderfully happy life.

This whole bit is told in flashback.  Meanwhile, Barney is talking on and off to an "ex-wife", but we don't know which wife he now refers to as his ex. So we're waiting until flashbacks meet real time.  The other big plot point that is supposed to be the main driver of the film is that Barney was once accused of murder and the cops think he got away with it.  He's telling his own "version" of what happened.

We slowly find out who is dead, whether or not Barney might have done it and what Barney's life eventually became.  It's an interesting mixture of romantic comedy (if somewhat sad, but wonderfully romantic) and murder mystery.  However, the mystery isn't all that interesting and is wrapped up rather ridiculously at the very end.  That could have been left almost out of the story with it being more of a side note rather than the force behind the title of the film.  It kind of felt a little rough around the edges - the feeling that comes to mind is like when you've shuffled cards and can't quite get them back into an organized deck.  All the good cards are there, they're even in the right order, it's just not smooth along the sides.

Paul Giamatti totally deserved his Golden Globe award - he does a great job playing Barney, a moderately successful business person who can't quite make his life work for a while.  But when he finally meets the love of his life, it starts to make sense.  The sweetness and earnest way he shows he's in love with Miriam is heart warming and really believable.  Yes, it's love at first site, but he doesn't ruin the life he's committed to by trying to make it work.  He holds on to his love (sending her flowers every week) but waits for fate to bring them together eventually.  I really really liked this movie.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: The Conspirator and Hereafter

I expected a lot from The Conspirator, mostly based on my love of historical drama, particularly about a topic I know very little.  Then there was the cast - James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Klein, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, and many strong male character actors.  How could it go wrong?  Sadly, it barely reaches the stage of a decent film.  Based on the true story of the first woman executed in the US, it follows the death of President Abraham Lincoln, the search for his killers and their collaborators, and finally their trial and defense before execution.  Most of the story focuses on Mary Surratt (Wright), the mother of one of the conspirators (the only one to be acquitted, ironically) who owned a boarding house and rented rooms to some of the others and had meetings take place at her house.  She is entitled to a defense and McAvoy is asked to defend her.  A returning Civil War hero, he has begun his legal career, and is excited to find his place in the new DC.  He looks through all the evidence (realizing he'll be the most hated man in the world) and decides to take on the case because it's only circumstantial that she knew what might have been going on.  That's pretty much where the interesting parts of the movie ends.  Here are the list of things the movie COULD have addressed, but didn't.

"Why won't Mary throw her son under the bus to save herself for her daughter?"
"Why does McAvoy give a crap about this woman who won't even help in her own defense?"  (His life totally falls apart because of it, but we have no idea why he cares)
"Why does the government bother to hate on this woman when they have the other 6 people involved (including the doctor who set Booth's broken leg) and don't really need her?"
"Why doesn't the term 'witch hunt' come up at all?"
"Why aren't the motives of any of the conspirators discussed?"
"Why isn't Mary's possible motive discussed beyond her being a devout Southerner?"
So basically, the movie does a fairly decent job of putting all the right pieces in one place, but doesn't bother to put the puzzle together.  2 of 5 stars/lambs

Alternatively, you can watch a movie that takes a whole lot of pieces and does a pretty terrific job putting the pieces into a whole that elevates the parts.  Clint Eastwood directs a movie that takes a real life event (the south pacific tsunami from 2004) and brings an ethereal bend to the story.  It follows three different stories that eventually intersect.  First, Matt Damon is a able to communicate with the dead.  But it gives him unwanted insights into people's lives he touches and has stopped doing it as a profession, and is trying to live a life a bit more alone.  Meanwhile, Cecile De France (in her first English film I think) was in the tsunami and was nearly killed and experienced something that can't be discussed in most company about what happens after you die.  And back in London, a pair of twins are trying to navigate raising themselves and avoid being taken from their druggie mother.  They've set up a system that works, but when one of them is killed in a car accident, the life for the other twin changes forever and he tries to figure out how to go on - seeking advice from his dead brother (the one who was always in charge before).

It's a really beautiful movie, from the score to the visuals.  Watching the tsunami come through you can absolutely see why it was a good idea to pull the movie from Japanese markets last year.  It's horrifying beyond words, even through the very small slice we experience through De France's character.  Even the portrayal of the afterlife that appears sometimes doesn't force you into a belief of any kind, but rather watches the beliefs of those on screen play out and change.  It's a hard movie to describe, but I really enjoyed the experience.  It's sad, but heartwarming, tragic and hopeful.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: Another Year and Jane Eyre

I had heard great things about both of these movies, and was really looking forward to seeing Jane Eyre as I've loved the book since I was a child (books on tape got us through many many car rides, but we didn't have too many - "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "Anne of Green Gables", "Little Women" and "Jane Eyre" in rotation).

Another Year is the story of Tom and Gerri (yes, they've heard the joke before) played by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen, an older married couple - he's a geologist and she's a counselor.  The story, written and directed by Mike Leigh (so anything can happen) follows Tom and Gerri through the course of a year and it plays more like four related short stories starting with Spring.  We meet Mary (Leslie Manville - we need more of her!) Gerri's colleague who can't really seem to get her life together.  She's divorced, single, and her current ambition is to buy a car.  She relies on Gerri and Tom to be her social life and conscience.  In the summer we also meet their son, Joe, who doesn't visit or call as a much as they'd like.  Mary always thought she might end up with Joe despite their age differences.  In Fall we meet Joe's new girlfriend and see Mary fall apart a little more.  And in Winter, Tom's sister-in-law dies and we meet his brother Ronnie (David Bradley - Filch from Harry Potter) and nephew Carl who hates his dad.  Ronnie comes to stay with Tom and Gerri for a while and meets Mary and they kind of hit it off in a fairly sad and strange way.

Overall, you keep expecting the movie to make cliched turns and make all the characters turn out great and have happy endings, but that's not Mike Leigh's style.  You do see almost everything through Tom and Gerri's happy, contented eyes, but all the other stories have elements of pathos that are hard to ignore or bend to be a happy ending.  Great movie with a strong concept executed well by terrific actors.  4 of 5 stars/lambs

**Some spoilers if you don't know the story already**
Jane Eyre is Mia Wasikoska's first adult leading role and she takes care of a beloved literary character extremely well.  However, it's sadly the leading men in Jamie Bell and Michael Fassbender that make the movie really memorable.  Jane Eyre is an orphan forced to live with an aunt to hates her.  She's sent to boarding school where the headmaster believes her deceitful and orders the girls not to befriend her.  So after she has a miserable childhood, she's pretty excited to get a good job in a fancy estate as a tutor to a little french girl, the ward of Mr. Rochester (Fassbender).  There are mysteries in the house, but the housekeeper, Judi Dench is able to explain them away.  Over time, even though she is "plain" and poor and Mr. Rochester wealthy and snobbish, they fall in love.  However, on their wedding day a man appears to stop the wedding arguing that Mr. Rochester is already married.  Bastard.  He totally is and has kept his crazy, suicidal wife in the attic (all the mysterious noises) but still wants to marry Jane.

Heartbroken, Jane runs away and is befriended by St John Rivers, the head of the local parish, and his sisters.  She becomes the schoolteacher and finally has a home of her own and is dependent on no one.  Finally, her evil aunt dies and she finds out that she inherits a TON of money.  Of course now Mr. Rivers wants to marry her and take her to India as a missionary.  She says no because she doesn't want to be dependent on anyone (and she still loves Rochester).  Lots of drama and I'll tell you it does end well, but I won't spoil the finale.

I really really liked this version of the movie.  Mia does a great job of being the down and out Jane who expects nothing from life and is suspicious of anything good coming her way.  But she can play the smart and witty character at the same time.  And the chemistry between Mia and Fassbender was terrific - even between Mia and Bell was great (but more platonic).  I really hope we get to see a lot more of all of these actors.  The overall cinematography of the film deserves to be nominated - it evokes the creepiness of the forests and English moors and doesn't make the movie rely on a cliched soundtrack to create the mood of unease.  Combining that with exceptional costumes, which are consistent throughout (if not historically accurate), I'd be surprised if this movie is completely overlooked come awards season.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: Never Let Me Go

Some plane movies are better than others.  If you travel at a hard time of year for movies, chances are you'll be reading your book on the plane instead of checking out The Astronaut Farmer (I got screwed with that one once).  However, I had a terrific plane ride to Hawaii and got to see some terrific movies and here's the first.

Never Let Me Go was a movie I'd heard good and meh things about.  I knew the basic premise - it's a world where they've figured out how to harvest organs and prolong the lives of people, except for the organ donors of course.  We follow 3 kids, Tommy, Kathy, and Ruth.  They all go to a boarding school in England that is particularly strange since they never ever mention their families.  It seems like they've been at the school forever.  The eeriness just continues, but it's hard to pinpoint what's off until a ball goes outside the fence during a game and no one goes after it.  They don't leave the grounds ever.  Kathy has a crush on Tommy (and is the narrator) but when we see them a bit more grown up (now as Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightly and Carey Mulligan) Ruth is now with Tommy and we watch Kathy (Mulligan) pine for him a bit and try to figure out what her life is about.
They have now figured out that they were "grown" to be organ donors for other people and they might get to "donate" (is it a donation if it's something you need yourself?) three or four times and then they'll die.  They're so matter of fact about it all, and they all want to do their "job" the best they can.  Kathy has become a care-giver which puts off her first donation a while and she helps other people through their donations.  One day she runs into Ruth after a donation and they decide to go try and find Tommy and Ruth apologizes for stealing him when they were kids.

I'm not sure I can do this movie justice with just an explanation.  The reason I've been using quotes around so many things because they're so normal in this world that it's just another word, but to see them doing these morally objectionable things and being okay with it was pretty hard to watch.  There's a quote that we used on Reel Insight a little while ago that explains a lot of what still puzzles me about this movie. It's said by the school headmistress about why they had art class: "We didn't have to look into your souls, we had to see if you had souls at all" and describes the crux of the movie.  However, the movie seems to waffle between wanting to be a love story between Tommy and Kathy and whether they'll overcome the obstacles to their relationship (i.e. dying) and being a moral story about using some people to save others.  Sadly, the movie doesn't quite commit to being either, but that doesn't trouble my overall opinion of the film.  There are lots of statements that really make you think about the attitude of the person saying it as well as the moral implications of what they're saying.  Well written, just not committed to fully realizing either story (which is okay, just not my preference). I really want to see it again and just watch how it's made.  The colors are gorgeous and the tone of the film works beautifully, particularly with Mulligan's quiet acting.  4 of 5 stars/lambs

There's always someone: Made in Dagenham

One of the reasons I like watching historical dramas, pretty much of any type, is because there's always someone who did something relatively small that changed the world in a big way.  Sometimes it comes at great personal cost (assassination is the highest price to prove what you're doing probably changed the world) or sometimes it's just to make your own life a little easier, but it changes the lives of others as well.   When those dramas fill a gap in my own knowledge, particular a gap I wasn't aware was there in the first place, I find the need to tell the world about them.

Made in Dagenham was a movie I originally got from Netflix only because I adore Sally B. Hawkins from Happy-Go-Lucky (which is a whole other story, but I highly recommend it, particularly when she learns to tango).  When I saw that it was a little bit like Norma Rae, I knew I had to see it.  And, as is usually the case with well made historical dramas, this one tells a story that brings the main characters to life without making you feel like you're missing many parts of the story because it doesn't feel like real life or characters that are larger than life.

Sally B. Hawkins plays Rita O'Grady, a wife and mother of two in 1968 who also works at the Ford Motor Plant that sews together the seats for the cars.  She's asked to lead the group when they make demands to be reclassified as semi-skilled labor rather than unskilled, and the pay that goes with it which leads to a strike and the demand for equal pay with the men at the same plant.  We see the suffering they have to go through trying to get the rest of the unions to support them and the work stoppage.  Ultimately they meet with the Secretary of State Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson) who speaks the same language as the men - "Go back to work and someday it'll get better".  The best they're able to negotiate to go back to work is 92% of what men make, with the hope that Equal pay becomes law in the future (it did in 1970 in England).  The men at Ford (represented by Richard Schiff) complain the same old whine "the economy will collapse if we pay women the same", but luckily Mrs. Castle stands up for the women both in the press and for the government.

It's a really great movie with some 60's music as the soundtrack, and terrific actresses filling out the supporting cast besides Richardson, Rosamund Pike has some terrific scenes as a fellow mother with a son in the same class as Hawkins.  Pike talks about how she used to love to read history because she saw people changing the world, and it motivates Hawkins onto the last step of her fight.   Many people talk about who would play them in the movie of their life - well if I were a British brunette, I would seriously want Sally B. Hawkins to play me.  She speaks with the same tremble in her voice I know I would have trying to argue for what I believe to be a right that I'm being denied, but with a forcefulness that you must take her seriously as a person, and not dwell on the fact that she's a woman.  I highly recommend this movie.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: Top Surfer movies

I was recently on a bunch of planes and got to see some recent movies I missed in theaters.  In addition, one inspired me to think about the best of the other surfer movies out there, and sadly there just aren't enough others, so this is a short list with a recommendation to Hollywood to make more surfing movies.

3.  Surf's Up - A surprisingly good animated movie about penguins who surf, I watched this when it was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2008.  It's told in a documentary style, following a penguin from Antarctica, Cody (Shia LaBoeuf) who wants to make it to the big surfing tournament to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Z who died there.  Complications arise and Cody loses confidence, but finds help from an old surfer - the not-deceased Z (Jeff Bridges as a surfer "Dude").  The documentary keeps interviewing various surfers and getting the different opinions on how the whole competition will happen.  Surprisingly cute and heartfelt, and I'm sure completely forgotten.

2.  Soul Surfer - This was the new one I saw on a plane recently.  It's based on the true story of Hawaiian surfer Bethany Hamilton who has her left arm bitten off by a shark while training for a competition.  She's just on the rise and has a sponsor when tragedy strikes.  The movie of course is about overcoming adversity and finding your way back to what makes you tick, but for airplane entertainment, it made me cry and laugh out loud once.  AnnaSophia Robb plays Bethany (with the real-life Hamilton doing the one-arm surfing stunts) and Helen Hunt and Dennie Quaid play her laid-back surfer parents who argue over what it means to help their daughter recover.  It's definitely off the shelf of "Christian" movies with Carrie Underwood playing Hamilton's spiritual advisor and head of the volunteer group Hamilton follows to Thailand after the tsunami, but they keep the God-talk to a minimum beyond the inspirational.  Plus, watching her figure out how to surf with one-arm will make any couch surfer feel like getting outside.

1. Point Break - Could there really be any other movie at #1?  And if you haven't seen Point Break (cough, Keith!) go out and rent one of the best movies you'll ever watch.  Keanu Reeves is an FBI agent (stop laughing) who has to infiltrate a surfing community (I mean it, stop laughing) to find a group of bank robbers called the Ex-Presidents because they wear masks while robbing banks (okay, that's funny) led by Patrick Swayze (yeah, now you feel bad for laughing, don't you).  Seriously, just check it out.  It's awesome.

DVD Mini Roundup: Gnomeo and Juliet

I honestly had no idea what to expect when watching garden gnomes play out the Shakepearean romantic tragedy Romeo & Juliet.  The voice work was pretty amazing - James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Jason Statham, Michael Caine, Dolly Parton, and the music of Elton John.
But the really charming thing that draws you into the movie and reinvents the familiar story is the fact that they are garden gnomes.  They seem to obey the Toy Story rules where they must act like solid unmoving creatures when people are watching, but in their absence have drag races on lawn mowers and have to obey many laws of lawn ornaments, decay, polishing, chips, and ultimately the possibility of breaking = death.

While inherently a children's story based on the animation and the general tone of the jokes, it's also a movie that adults will enjoy rewatching due to all the double entendres dropped right and left, the semi-dirty talk that goes on under the guise of childish banter.  And there's something for the nerds too with how all the dialogue is an updating of the actual Shakespearean scenes while never feeling forced or particularly contrived.
There were a few times my attention waned, but in general it makes the most of its 84 minute run-time.  If you have kids, I'm sure you'll be watching this sooner than later.  Make them be that kid in 9th grade that says "this is just like Gnomeo & Juliet" when their teacher introduces the original. 4 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: I love you Phillip Morris

I love you Phillip Morris is a movie I had heard so much more about it's lack of a release date than anything about the subject of the film.  And having seen it, I have trouble understanding what the fuss was about.  There are MANY more explicit sex films, and widely accepted movies about gay couples who have sex (to be fair, I can only think of 2 - Brokeback Mountain and The Kids are All Right but ILYPM wasn't breaking new ground on that front).  And, it's not overly flamboyant about being gay.  Like Brokeback and Kids, it's about the love story.  To be fair, these people aren't particularly likeable, gay or not.  But I still have trouble figuring out why anyone cared about making a fuss over its distribution.

Jim Carrey plays Steven Russell, a happy married cop who decides he's not going to pretend any more after he gets into a car accident.  So he heads to Miami, gets a boyfriend and starts living an extravagant life well beyond his means.  Eventually he gets caught for the credit card fraud, etc. and ends up in prison.  There he meets Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) a more soft-spoken younger gay man in jail for some other kind of fraud.  Russell is really manipulative in every aspect of life and that continues in prison - he manages to convince Morris to fall for him, but their love seems genuine.  Russell even gets them sharing a cell for a while.  When he gets out, he pretends to be a lawyer and gets Morris out.  Of course he's back to his manipulative tricks and gets a fake job and steals more money, ending back in prison, and losing Morris.  I won't explain what happens, but there was a huge con that frames the film that I totally didn't see coming, but really bookended the film well.  

Carrey isn't loveable.  He's kind of sleazy, greasy, and not particularly attractive.  Since he never seems like those things on the red-carpet promoting his movies, his acting was something new for him.  He doesn't take advantage of his ability for physical comedy, but keeps it more restrained in an aggressive way.  McGregor is much more flowery and passive than almost any of his roles.  He verges on cliche, but was still nice to watch. A good balance to Carrey's aggression.  The supporting cast is good too - Leslie Mann as his ex-wife is a funny bible beater who supports her criminal husband.  Rodrigo Santoro (the hot guy Laura Linney dates in Love, Actually) is Carrey's first boyfriend Jimmy.  Perfect casting.  While not a particularly controversial film in almost any way, it's a cute movie.  3.5 of 5 stars/lambs.

DVD Roundup: The American and Knight and Day

There's not a lot to say about either of these movies that hasn't already been said.  But I'll try to give you my thoughts on them.  There's a fair amount a release date can tell you about the kind of movie you're going to see - blockbuster fare isn't released in January, and indie dramas aren't release on the Fourth of July.  Obviously there are exceptions to every rule, and quality usually rises above anything that might hold it back.  But it colors how you go into watching a movie if you know it was released June 23rd versus September 1st.

 First, Knight and Day was heralded as an action-adventure comedy and it succeeded on all of those counts.  Tom Cruise, returning to pre-couch-jumping seriousness but with a bit more wry wisdom than Mission: Impossible days, is a government agent protecting a young scientist when his partner, Peter Skarsgaard, goes rogue and tries to steal the kid and his invention.

However, Cruise manages to outsmart him, but is accused of being rogue himself and has to escape to avoid the fury coming down on him.  At the airport, he meets June (Cameron Diaz - much more capable of this kind of role than Katherine Heigl), and tries to subtly convince her not to get on the plane.  She ignores him of course, and then gets on the plane with only assassins - Cruise takes them all out and has to land the plane in a corn field, but he's drawn to Diaz as she is to him and he doesn't want her hurt by the people trying to find him.
That begins their adventure to stay away from each other but satisfy curiosity beyond all imagining - all women secretly wonder if the guy they just fell for is really a super-spy.  They're cute, and funny, and the action goes from nail-biting to unintentionally hilarious.  Overall, it was FAR superior to the similar story Killers that came out last summer with Heigl and Ashton Kutcher - read my thoughts on that piece of garbage here.  Diaz was believable as the side-kick, she holds a gun like a novice, but not like it's about to blow up.  And Cruise wrangled all of his charisma into a finally understated role.  Oh, and Paul Dano is really cute as the nerdy inventor in over his head.  3.5 of 5 stars/lambs

The American, however, was released AFTER the big blockbuster season, and I don't think was ever hyped as a new Bourne.  And luckily, it's not.  Directed by a Anton Corbijn who has mostly done documentaries and photography of bands like U2 and Metallica.  This lends a very photographic nature to the filming, and one I enjoyed very much.  The details of the movie aren't particularly important - Clooney is a super-spy (and we wonder why women secretly suspect that of all guys) who has been found in Sweden.  His boss sends him to hide in Italy and warns him to stop making friends because they seem to keep dying.  We then follow his attempt to maintain a low profile in a small Italian town where he's just known as The American.  He's responsible for a final job crafting a perfect gun for a job, and befriends a mechanic, a priest and a prostitute.  But rather than being the set-up for a joke, we watch him struggle to keep himself to himself, when you can see he mostly struggles for human connection.  I really enjoyed the movie.  My one big gripe is the subtitles on the DVD.  The SONY label on my TV was almost twice as large as the subtitles.  I had to rewind several times to catch it all, and sometimes just ignored whatever I missed.  Still, the precise words of the script don't matter all that much, it's not a brilliant script, but a very well made movie. Oh, and I didn't like the ending, but i won't spoil it.  4 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: Pirate Radio and Get Low

I didn't expect to enjoy Pirate Radio because in general I'm not a great audiophile and 60s British rock, other than Beatles doesn't ring my bell.  However, as I suspected, I'm way overgeneralizing my taste in music, and there was a ton of great music to enjoy in this.  Pirate Radio tells the real story of illegal radio stations that broadcast Rock and Roll in the 1960s by having their "station" on a ship in the North Sea.  Bill Nighy owns the boat, and at the beginning he's bringing a friend's son, Carl (Tom Sturridge) on board to give him a new start.  On board are all the DJs, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost, and a bunch of British comedic actors whose names I didn't know, but were pretty funny.  They eventually bring a famous DJ Rhys Ifans to save them after they lose sponsors.

We see some of the story through Carl's eyes - the drugs, the sex, etc., but it's fairly uneven.  As a second storyline, we meet Kenneth Branagh and Tom Davenport as government ministers tasked with making the Pirate Radio stations illegal.  This takes them more than a year to figure out laws they can pass or rules to set up for a good reason that will stop the radio stations.  They're basically assholes, but it's funny watching them try.  Overall, it's a good movie, if incredibly uneven in its story telling.  But at least there's pretty great music over it all.  3 of 5 stars/lambs

Get Low should have been present in some form on Oscar night - sadly it was only present at the Independent Spirit Awards for First Feature and Supporting Male (Bill Murray).  I loved this movie.  Robert Duvall stars as Felix Bush, a curmudgeon living out in the woods by himself in 1930s Tennessee.  His is notified of the death of a friend, and it seems to spark the desire to find out what the world thinks of him.  It's obvious he's been alone for a long time, enough that legend has built up around him that's as much fiction as fact.  He tries to get the minister (Gerald McRaney) to throw a funeral before he dies so he can find out what people would say, but he won't do it.  However, a young assistant at the local funeral home, Buddy (Lucas Black) overhears this and realizes the business it could bring to the failing funeral home run by Frank Quinn (Bill Murray).  So they offer to set up the "funeral party" for Mr. Bush.  While in town, he runs into an old friend (maybe the only person to have really known him), Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek).

Everything is going smoothly for the party, but Felix wants to get someone who knows everything about him to tell the truth about it.  Whatever is in his past is too hard for him to talk about, and he tries to find an old friend to do it for him.  I won't reveal the secrets that come up, but the movie tells the story really well, not giving too much weight to the secret or the past, but reminding us that we all carry them with us.  I really liked all the acting in this movie - particularly Lucas Black.  I first saw him in Crazy in Alabama with Melanie Griffith.  She's over the top, but he's pretty amazing, and now he's grown up to be a pretty powerful screen presence.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: How to Train Scott Pilgrim?

Two of the better rated movies of the year (98% and 80% Fresh, but 90% and 85% liked them, respectively) I missed in theaters.  I wasn't impressed by either movie trailers and didn't see them, much to my dismay, as they were pretty amazing movies.  How to Train Your Dragon and Scott Pilgrim vs The World were both terrific and I wish I'd seen both in theaters since it was easy to see how they would be enhanced by the theater experience.  Dragon is the story of Hiccup, a young Viking whose island is constantly attacked by dragons, but who hasn't yet found his place in a society which values large, brutish, dragon-killers rather than the puny, inventor Hiccup already is.  During an attack, Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) manages to take down an elusive type of dragon, Night Fury, with one of his inventions.  However, no one believes him, and he goes to find the dragon, befriends him and starts learning more about dragons from "Toothless".  When he's forced into dragon-training (how to kill dragons, not train them) Hiccup excels due to all the lessons he has learned from Toothless.  However, he knows the day is coming when he'll be required to kill dragons - something he's not sure he can do.  I won't spoil the big climax, but as it's an animated movie, know that it mostly ends well.  The other major voices are Gerard Butler as his viking leader father, Craig Ferguson as Hiccup's mentor,  and America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) as the object of Hiccup's affection.  I don't much about vikings, but I didn't think they were Scottish as the accents would suggest.  Either way, the movie is brilliant - its originality is terrific, the voices are funny, and the different types of dragons add both color and humor - they're like a pet combo of horses, dogs, and cats.  Perhaps not terribly rewatchable for adults, but kids will love this movie over and over.  I wouldn't be surprised if this was finally Dreamworks' year for the Oscar with a more original story than Toy Story 3, and some of the best animation they've yet produced.  4 of 5 stars/lambs

Scott Pilgrim vs the World is based on a graphic novel and took a new approach to bringing such things to life - to not attempt to translate the world of the graphic novel into a version of reality, but rather to recreate the tone of the world in all its diversion from real life.  With sound words appearing when people hit each other, with coins appearing when a fight is won, all the other rules of video games apply.  Pilgrim (Michael Cera with his worst haircut yet) is in a band that rocks (they're part of a battle of the bands), and he lives with his gay roommate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin - hysterical!) and is dating a high school student, Knives Chau.  However, he has a dream about and then meets Ramona Flowers.  He falls for her but knows he'll have to defeat her 7 evil exes (not all boyfriends, just exes).  This is only part of where the movie moves into comic book territory - Scott can go into a room and come out having changed his clothes instantly.  The rest of the movie follows the advance of Pilgrim and Flowers romance, interrupted by battles with her exes - some from middle school to the most recent ex.  Great actors play almost all of them (a few I didn't recognize) and the battle scenes are particularly amazing.  At first I questioned how Scott knew how to fight, but once you realize everyone can do that kind of thing (it's just part of the world they're in) it stops being strange and you just accept that anything is possible.  The music is good - though some of the dance numbers felt out of place.  I'm excited to go back and listen to a few podcasts I skipped last summer (Matineecast and Frankly, My Dear specifically) that talked about the movie so I can see how it was received.  Not the greatest acting, but incredibly original in content, story, and particularly effects.  Alison Pill was especially funny as were any conversations between Culkin and Cera ("Don't want you gaying up the place")  Overall 4 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Roundup: Sleepers and That Evening Sun

I went back in my Netflix queue and decided to watch a movie I'd always meant to see and had never gotten around to it.  There's a gap of movies rated R that came out before I was old enough to see them that have mostly slipped by me.  Sleepers was one I got mixed up with Sneakers for a long time and thought I'd already seen it, but now I know I have and that there's a huge difference. 

Sleepers is the story of 4 teenagers from Hell's Kitchen (the west side of Manhattan kind of between Times Square and Lincoln Center) in the 1950s.  They have tough upbringings, abusive/absent parents, lots of Catholic guilt, and actually a good relationship with Father Bobby (Robert DeNiro).  They plan a prank to steal hot dogs, and end up sending the hot dog cart down subway stairs hurting someone.  They're sentenced to a year in a boys juvenile facility, Wilkenson.  The movie is narrated by Jason Patrick, he's one of the boys grown-up, and he tells about the horrors the boys faced at Wilkenson at the hands of Kevin Bacon's guard, Nokes.  They're horribly abused, beaten, and traumatized, but survive. 

Ten years later, two of the boys, now mob hit men (played by Ron Eldard and Billy Crudup) run into an aging Dokes in a bar, and do what they do best - put 5 bullets in him, in front of witnesses.  Patrick is now a newspaper reporter and the last boy, Brad Pitt has grown up to be a district attorney.  They've drifted apart, but Pitt has been planning something like this - he wants to use Eldard and Crudup's trial to expose all the abuse at Wilkenson.  The movie plays out following their trial.  They tap into their roots in Hells Kitchen and the mob boss and his attorneys who are willing to be manipulated to do exactly what Pitt wants to ensure other former guards get called to testify and expose the abuse.  Overall, the acting is pretty terrific by an amazing cast.  The story is difficult to watch at times, and Kevin Bacon is so over the top leering and looking so disgusting, but you hate him as much as the boys do.  Since the story is told through their eyes, there isn't any back story on the other characters, but it makes for great story-telling.  Overall, I'm glad I caught up with this one.  4 of 5 stars/lambs

That Evening Sun is an indie flick starring Hal Holbrook.  From the trailer it seemed to be a movie similar to The Straight Story with Richard Farnsworth about an older man taking back a little control of his life.  That Evening Sun is not as good, either from a cinematic or story perspective.  Holbrook decides he's had enough time in the old-folks home and starts walking back to his farm in Tennessee.  He arrives to find his son has rented the farm to the son of a man he hates.  He fights it for a while, hurling insults at the guy, Choate, to get him to leave.  Since Holbrook is just an old man, Choate (played by "that guy" Ray McKinnon) knows he's harmless and lets him stay in the shed.  Holbrook has designs on getting his home back and attempts to get Choate arrested, which he does when he catches Choate beating his daughter and wife.  The movie overall is uneven and it's hard to really like Holbrook's character.  He has dreams about his deceased wife (played by real-life wife, Dixie Carter, also now deceased) and feels guilt over her death that isn't explained much, but given as the reason he's a mean old coot.  The movie builds to a climax that doesn't deliver and you don't really care about them when it's over.  2.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Reel Insight Episode 12 - Drew Barrymore

Rachel and I had a good time discussing our predictions for the Emmys (wow, were we not good at it!) and then the career of Drew Barrymore.  One thing I'm going to try to add to these posts is a brief description of the "new" movies I watch because of our "star of the week".  I've watched quite a few in the past few months, and usually I'd review them in a DVD Round-Up, but I think they'll make more sense grouped here.  Just short blurbs.  Also, we had a winner in our summer Quotable Quotes game.  Congrats!  And keep playing.

Everybody's Fine - The vehicle for Robert DeNiro follows the recent widower as he tries to reconnect with his kids, Kate Beckinsale, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, and another adult child, David, we never meet.  DeNiro has some health problems and since the death of his wife, the communicator in the family, he has felt disconnected from his kids.  He embarks on a trip (train, plane, bus, etc.) to visit them all.  He goes to David's in NYC and he's not home, then to Beckinsale's in Chicago where he finds her husband not at home, and a grandson nothing like he'd been told (poor grades, etc.).  He brushes off these inconsistencies and doesn't challenge her about lying to him.  His visit to Rockwell sees him as a  symphony percussionist rather than the conductor his dad thinks he has been.  Again, no challenge to the lies.  Drew Barrymore's character was the most confusing.  A friend asks her to baby-sit, and later we find out the baby is Drew's and the friend is her girlfriend.  I didn't see that until it was explained at the end of the movie.  DeNiro is terrific, finally calling out his kids and trying to put everything on the table.  The others have weak roles and none rise above (though Rockwell is good). 

Donnie Darko - I can see why this is a cult classic.  It's crazy.  Reminded me of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, with it's time shifting, and mystery voices, etc. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a high school kid who is crazy, hears voices, and knows the end is coming.  However, he's also surrounded by lots of strangeness so it's hard to tell the difference.  Drew plays his English teacher, trying to teach them to think and experience the world creatively.  It's a good role for her.  The movie is weird, but I'd watch it again.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind -  This movie also starred George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and next week's Reel Insight star of the week, Sam Rockwell.  It's a fictionalize account of Chuck Barris' (Rockwell) memoirs where he hints that in addition to being a TV producer, he was an assassin for the CIA.  Drew plays Penny, Barris' girlfriend and wife.  She starts out as a crazy wild child, but she puts up with his crazy too.  However, then she grows up, and he doesn't.  She's actually a great character, though the movie is kind of odd too.  Roberts is a fellow assassin, and Clooney plays the guy who recruits him to the CIA (and directed the flick).  Excellent directing, particularly given that it's his first time out. 

Another DVD Roundup

This is only half a DVD roundup.  The other half is a movie I saw on TV.  The first was a DVD I saw advertised on another DVD.  It was released in the UK in 2007, and did some of the festival rounds in the US, and finally had a limited US release last October.  St. Trinian's has an eclectic cast, including Rupert Everett (as both a father and his sister), Colin Firth, Russell Brand, Toby Jones, Gemma Arterton, and Stephen Fry.  It centers around a disreputable girl's high school in England, and seem to take place in about 4 different acts. Rupert Everett's daughter (and niece), Annabelle, is being enrolled at the school her aunt runs.  St. Trinian's is a school for girls who would never fit in at another school.  Gemma Arterton is head girl, and runs the school.  There are all kinds of cliques, but strangely they all get along just fine.  There are the geeks, emos (formerly goths), "barbies", glam, and first years.  They all seem to play sports together just fine.  Also on the side, they all have "businesses", including selling designer tampons, 100 proof vodka, and other fun businesses.  Their fence is Russell Brand (who has a crush on Arterton).  End act 1, getting to know the school.  Next, the girls have to defeat a snooty girl's school at field hockey.  They spend some time practicing and it turns out the new recruit Annabelle is really good.  They play against Colin Firth's daughter's team.  Firth plays the Minister of Education who is determined to shut down under-performing schools like St. Trinian's.  End Act 2.  Next they find out about bills St. Trinian's owes and they devise a plan to steal some art work to fence and pay off the bills.  The planning evolves around Russell Brand being able to pretend to be a German art dealer and of course he's insane.  The planning involved tunneling under the National Gallery, as well as qualifying for the "School Challenge" quiz show finals (which are conveniently held at an art gallery).  They cheat their way through the prelims, and then finally they get to the final and stage their heist.  Begin Act 4, the heist.  It's ridiculous and of course it works.  The cheating is stopped by Firth, but one of the other teachers convinces the "barbies" that they're smart enough without cheating (she doesn't know about the heist) and of course it all ends happily.  It's an insane movie that's fairly dark, and according to IMDB will have a sequel shortly.  It's fairly unique but does come together as a hodge podge of other movies.  It's about a 2.5 of 5 lambs/stars

The second movie I caught on TV, it was released in 1999.  It's called Happy, Texas, starring Steve Zahn and Jeremy Northam as escaped convicts that stumble into pretending their a gay couple who are experts in staging little girl beauty pageants.  They arrive in Happy, Texas and agree to fulfill their contract with the town to train their girls for the regional beauty pageant in order to avoid getting captured again.  The town sheriff is played by William H. Macy and Ron Pearlman is the marshal hunting for them.  It's basically a comedy of errors.  Steve Zahn plays Wayne Wayne Wayne, Jr. and has the full fu-man-chu mustache and is in charge of teaching the girls to dance.  He's basically clueless (like his character from Out of Sight) and brings most of the funny to the movie.  Northam makes friends with the bank owner while he's casing the place, but of course falls for her.  However, Macy, seeing that Zahn and Northam are no longer a couple, comes out of the closet and asks Northam out on a date.  They go dancing and everything.  The whole thing seems like it'll go fine until the third prison escapee M.C. Gainey arrives planning to rob the bank.  Northam has to stop him, and calls in the marshal and Macy stumbles upon it too, getting shot.  The whole thing ends fine, similar to Little Miss Sunshine with the little girls performing the routine the Zahn taught them.  It's also a mish-mash of other movies, but since this came out before Sunshine and within a year of Out of Sight, it doesn't seem like it's a copy, just going along the same lines.  Much funnier than I expected, and I actually went back and re-watched Zahn learning to teach the kids to dance by watching old pageants and then practicing by himself.  3.5 of 5 lambs/stars.