Hopefully by tonight I’ll have at least one new review up. I’m thinking it will be for Crazy, Stupid, Love. If I’m feeling a little more active all you non-existent readers may get another review.
Horrible Bosses – This is what happens when you work for an insane person.
Horrible Bosses is a hilarious, ridiculous and vulgar comedy. The premise is simple. Good friends and average guys Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) have awful bosses.
Our heroes go out for a drink and jokingly hatch a plan to kill their hated bosses. They then go home and try to shake off their hangovers and prepare for another day at the office.
During their day we see their bosses in action. Kevin Spacey is deliciously evil and reminiscent of his role in Swimming With Sharks. Colin Farrell plays the an insane drug addicted boss who is using his company as an ATM and running it into the ground. Jennifer Aniston in a very out of character role plays Dale’s sexy boss who sexually harasses him.
After some bouts of abuse from their collective bosses the guys get together and decide they’re really going to do it. The story is like a snowball hurtling off a mountain of ridiculousness. As the trio try to work out how to kill their bosses they get in one predicament after another. The story is very well executed and the laughs are constant. There are of course the general mishaps, misunderstandings prevalent in a comedy of this sort, but here they are well done and refreshingly new in comparison with other tripe such as The Hangover.
The acting and comedic timing by the three main characters is excellent. Charlie Day’s career as a comedic film actor will definitely grow if he continues to get these types of roles. Jennifer Aniston who I generally do not like in films has amazing comedic timing and is a pleasant surprise. She cut her teeth in the comedy Friends and this shows that she has a lot more laughs to deliver. I enjoyed this movie immensely and will no doubt buy it for my collection.
**** Four Stars
Director – Seth Gordon
X-Men: First Class – A First Class Comic Book Adaptation
X-Men: First Class is a well made somewhat direct prequel to the increasingly lackluster X-Men films. This is the origin story of how Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr respectively became the noble mutant Professor X and the evil mutant Magneto.
The story begins in a Nazi prison camp and shows us how the young Erik Lensherr who can control metal was mentally scarred by the killing of his mother at the hands of a cruel and mysterious man.
During the 1960s we join Erik’s quest to avenge his mother’s death which brings him in contact with Charles Xavier (a telepath) who becomes his close friend. Together with the CIA these two begin to collect a group of specially powered humans (mutants).
The strengths of this film can be attributed to the tight script, wonderful acting, superb special effects and great use of ambient soundtrack.
There is careful attention paid to the scenes and dialogue of the characters. The characters’ motivations are expertly depicted and the lead characters are memorable and important to the film’s conclusion. The agony and anger of Erik Lensherr and his eventual turning to a dark path are well contrasted with the story of Charles Xavier’s posh upbringing and his positive outlook upon humanity.
The two lead actors Michael Fassbender (Erik Lensherr) and James McAvoy (Charles Xavier) are excellent and believable. They bring a sense of life to these comic book character that is very relate-able and a breath of fresh air from the usual silly comic book adaptations. Kevin Bacon plays the villain Sebastian Shaw with a perfected malevolence. The supporting cast is also amazing.
The special effects ranging from super-powers to a massive missile attack are very well executed and lend to the magic of the story. The soundtrack is a minimalist and dark guitar-based affair that lends itself well to the strange and disturbing idea of war between humans and mutants.
Overall this was an excellent film.
4 Stars ****
Director: Matthew Vaughn
127 Hours – Man vs Nature and Himself
Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours is the story of Aron Ralson (James Franco), the hiker/climber, who got his arm caught between a large boulder and the wall of a tight canyon in Utah. I figured that at best this would end up being something in the vein of Cast Away.
Luckily I was very wrong. The script is taut and makes full use of the 94 minute running time. The introduction to Ralston shows a very brash young man. He ignores phone calls from relatives. He even goes out climbing without notifying anyone of his destination. We also see that he’s very vane as he’s constantly taking videos and photographs of himself. When he meets two young ladies out on the hiking trail he shows them a good time, but seems much more concerned with moving on with his solo adventure. He even gives a hesitant response to their invitation to a party.
The introduction sets him up well and shows us that he is an adventurous yet careless person. He makes very little time for anyone else and seems more concerned himself. At one point we even learn that he’s involved in rescuing missing people on trails much like the one on which he’s stuck which shows how careless he truly is to not let anyone know his whereabouts.
The tension is displayed perfectly as the incident first happens and Ralston attempts to pull himself free. He goes through a gamut of emotions while coming up with ways to free himself. He also has a camcorder into which he gives a narration of what happened and what is happening (presuming someone finds the camera).
James Franco does a fantastic job carrying the film and makes the stubborn character of Aron Ralston into a very believable if at times insufferable person. The final gruesome conclusion is hard to watch, realistic and a relief all at once.
**** Four Stars
Director – Danny Boyle
The King’s Speech – Splendid Story of a Stammerer
The King’s Speech tells the story of England’s monarch, George VI (Colin Firth) who overcame his debilitating stammer with the help of an Australian speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush).
George has an horrible stammer and cannot ever seem to deliver a speech although this is all that is required of him as royalty. We are shown that he’s worked with countless doctors to no avail.
George VI’s wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) finds Lionel Logue and suggests he may be their last hope. Lionel is a strange character who insists on addressing George by his nickname “Bertie”. He shows him that he can truly speak without stammering and they begin to work together.
Bertie finds courage through this work. In Logue, Bertie obtains a savior and a true friend. They speak about his childhood and we find out that as a young man Bertie was treated terribly by his family and nanny. It’s only when Logue begins to suggest that Bertie can be great and could be king himself that we see a conflict between the two.
Bertie is second in line to the throne after his brother David (Guy Pearce). David briefly takes the throne until a scandal occurs that gives the monarchy to Bertie. This helps to reconcile Bertie and Logue and leads to Bertie making a speech that inspires the nation in the beginning of WWII.
The film is mostly about the dialogue and interplay of the characters. Colin Firth’s George VI conveys both an enormous sadness and hope. Geoffrey Rush does an excellent job as a caring teacher and friend. The supporting cast is superb, with Helena Bonham Carter as the loving wife and future queen. We even get a few historical nods with Timothy Spall doing a spot on Winston Churchill. The dialogue is witty, clever and at times hilarious.
**** Four Stars
Director – Tom Hooper
Film Review Coming Up
I will be going to see The King’s Speech tonight. I will hopefully add a review tonight or tomorrow in the afternoon. I’ve heard good things about this one and it’s an Oscar nominee. The 95% rating on rottentomatoes.com is also an indicator that will be a good film.
True Grit – A Dirty and Realistic Western
The Coen brothers’ True Grit is their foray into Westerns. It features violence (something they’re great at), a gritty atmosphere and amazing acting. It’s of course based on the novel of the same name by Charles Portis (which I have not read) and was preceded by the 1969 film starring John Wayne.
Fourteen year old Mattie Ross’s (Haillee Steinfeld) father is killed by an outlaw named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). In order to get revenge for her slain father she hires the meanest, toughest marshal in the West, one Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Marshal Cogburn is an old drunken fool, but he’s an amazing shot. He takes the girl on and tries to evade her attempt to come along for the adventure in finding Tom Chaney. Mattie ends up forcing him to take her and proves that she can handle the trip.
There’s also a conflict with a Texas ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) who needs to bring Tom Chaney to justice for the shooting of a senator. LaBoeuf and Cogburn who have differing sensibilities due to their backgrounds as Southern fighting men end up becoming reluctant companions. The quest is a dirty, brutal and realistic adventure in a dirty and brutal land.
The dialogue is antiquated and fits the time period. Mattie’s intelligent banter with a horse trader as she attempts to recover her dead father’s money is perfect. The insults traded by her and LaBoeuf are hilarious and very well written. Cogburn is a rough, nasty old man who speaks with a garbled southwest accent. Jeff Bridges brings the character to life so well that I wouldn’t doubt if he gets an Oscar nomination. Matt Damon plays the peacocking and fancy lawman LaBoeuf with the perfect mix of danger and comedy. Haillee Steinfeld delivers a perfect performance as a young girl that has been forced to grow up beyond her years.
**** Four Stars
Director – Joel and Ethan Coen
The Fighter – Yeah it’s like Rocky, but it’s worth watching
David O. Russell’s The Fighter is very much your standard sports film. It’s based (probably loosely) on the true story of “Irish” Micky Ward and his triumph in boxing. It’s a film about rising up, beating the odds and dealing with a crazy family.
Micky (Mark Wahlberg) is an average boxer who is constantly losing. His career is managed by his controlling mother (an excellent Melissa Leo) and his brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) who himself was a boxing legend in their small Boston neighborhood.
This film is equally about Dicky as it is about Micky. Dicky is a former boxing legend (his claim to fame is knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard) who has turned to crack. He is always hopeful that his brother will earn the respect he craved and never fully achieved and he acts as his coach and mentor. At the same time we see that Dicky is totally addicted to drugs and is being enabled by his mother who insists that Micky should work with his brother even though he is chronically late for training and is often found in a lethargic state in a crack-house.
It is only when Micky meets plucky bartender Charlene (Amy Adams) that he gets the courage to challenge his mother and seven colorful and extremely Bostonite sisters and go his own way and earn a title. In a way this brings about a change in Dicky which I’ll not spoil.
Mark Wahlberg as Micky is passable because the characters and actors surrounding him are much more interesting and captivating. Christian Bale is a powerhouse as Dicky Eklund. His appearance, delivery and movements produce a wonderful, complicated, flawed yet sympathetic character. Amy Adams is great as the no nonsense Charlene. Melissa Leo is very believable as the rough, tough matriarch of the clan.
***1/2 Three and half stars
Director – David O. Russell
Splice – I know it looks like Species, but it’s not really the same.
I first thought “Great, this is the same idea as Species“. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be different.
Unfortunately I was let down when the movie turned out to be mediocre and didn’t realize its full potential. The premise is that two scientists, Clive and Elsa,(a somewhat dysfunctional married couple played by Sarah Polley and Adrian Brody) break some rules and create a chimera made up of various animals and human DNA. They have to raise this thing in secret while dealing with the research that is required of them by their bosses and the people funding their project.
This is all great fodder for a really interesting science fiction film. Many questions are raised such as:
Should we create such a creature? How much humanity does a strange cross breed like that truly have, even if it behaves in a human fashion? Can this slightly dysfunctional couple learn to be parents to this odd creature?
Some of these questions are answered and the way they are handled brings about some creepy and unexpected scenes. The unfortunate part is that the film dwells on the unnecessary, such as bombarding us with scientific jargon in the beginning only to give us very little information on what went into the creature’s DNA. We get some information about Elsa’s troubled past, but it’s only there to explain her behavior in one odd scene. We also get a lot of odd creature transformations that take this from science fiction and into fantasy land.
This film can’t seem to decide if it wants to give us a philosophical look at scientists playing God and the humanity of their resulting scientific work, whether a dysfunctional couple can learn to parent something that is not entirely human or whether it’s an action horror movie.
Two and half stars **1/2 – Mostly for having an interesting concept that was not executed very well.
Director – Vincenzo Natali
Get Him to the Greek – A gross out rockin comedy with heart.
This Nicholas Stoller directed film is about the character of rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) who was first introduced in 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall also directed by Stoller.
Snow is a lascivious and promiscuous rock star that has just fallen off the wagon. Aaron Green (Johan Hill) is a nerdy fan of Snow who works for a crazy record executive (Sean P. Diddy Combs himself). Aaron has been given 72 hours to go to London and pick up Snow and get him to L.A.’s Greek theater for a comeback concert.
Aaron has to survive the rocker’s drug and booze infested world as he tries to get him from Europe to an interview with the today show and eventually across the U.S.A. to the Greek theater in L.A. He has to try to deal with Aldous’s addictions and crazy drug dealers. He attempts to get through to Aldous’s human emotions and ends up on a nearly disastrous side trip that provides great laughs in the form Snow’s father (Colm Meany) and an intense record executive gone wild. On top of all this he has to work through his relationship with this hard-working girlfriend Daphne (Elizabeth Moss).
This film is in the vein of the other Judd Apatow produced films. There’s a good mix of raunchy humor, real human emotion and issues. My small complaint is that sometimes the film goes over the top to get a laugh. The character of Jackie Q (Rose Byrne), Snow’s girlfriend is a pop star with ridiculous videos that are just there for raunchy humor. There is also a slight obsession with vomiting in this film. Otherwise the mix of humor and drama works really well. A lot of credit also goes to Hill and Brand for being great actors and making the characters extremely likable.
Three and a half stars ***1/2
Director – Nicholas Stoller
Filmic Brevity 