The Hunger Games (2012) Review

Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Drama


2.5 Cookies

I wish that The Hunger Games was a movie that it could never possibly be. In my dreams, it would be just as dark, gritty, and disturbing as the fantastic, wildly popular book of the same name, but because studio movies are all about making money, that could not happen. The studio knows what it's doing - The Hunger Games raked in $155 million in its opening weekend, which makes it the third most successful opening weekend of all time - but all the money comes at a price. The Hunger Games could have been an absolute classic - instead it's overwhelmingly ordinary.

A word I keep hearing to describe the film, and I would have to agree with the adjective, is "fun." Yes, The Hunger Games is fun but that is exactly the problem. A movie about kids killing kids should not be fun. A movie about kids killing kids should make the audience leave the theater feeling like their hearts have been ripped out. Instead the audience leaves with a smile, probably discussing the  "hotness"  of the stars or how pretty the costumes were. In her novel, Suzanne Collins was able to create a horrible sense of despair and fear and develop a story filled with angst and dread. Director Gary Ross,  on no fault of his own besides the fact that he's a hack, fails to convey any of the tones that made Collins' books so powerful. If the book had an MPAA rating, it would be a hard R, which the movie should have been. Instead, the movie is Disney Channel.

Maybe the most disturbing thing about the violence in the movie, or lack thereof, is that by not showing it, it makes it acceptable. By the end of the movie over 20 kids are killed, but the audience won't even care. To ensure maximum profit, The Hunger Games had to be PG-13, but by softening the violence, the whole message of the story is lost.

Now,  Jennifer Lawrence proves that she is a flat out movie star as Katniss and her performance is the best thing about the movie but that is not enough to overcome the poor performance of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. Unfortunately, Hutcherson is not able to carry the weight of such an important role. Liam Hemsworth has about seven minutes of screen time so his performance can barely be judged. Most of the other support is good, but the roles of many characters are drastically cut from what they were in the book. While the movie stays mostly faithful  the novel, small details and minor characters are forgotten, and those details are precisely what made the book so good.

Also, the overall pacing of the film is very weak, there is no character development, and the editing is terrible. The best editing is editing that you can't even notice, but at some points The Hunger Games has more unnecessary cuts than a fast paced music video. I don't know why it's edited the way it is, but I was distracted by it from very early on.

While the movie is entertaining and some of my negativity comes from the incredible high expectations I had,  I  still can't help but think of all the missed opportunities that Ross had to make this a truly special film. I guess we'll have to wait for the sequel and settle on "just ok" for now. You will be entertained though, so if that's all you're looking for, this is probably a safe bet.

Project X, Friends with Kids, Detachment

Project X - 1.5 cookies


It's exactly what you would expect it to be from the trailer: occasionally hilarious, more often than not really stupid. Shot in the same shaky cam style as The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, or the recent Chronicle, Project X is the first comedy to use the hand held camera technique. I do not like it. I gave it a pass in Chronicle because the story and acting was  good enough that the filming did not detract from the movie, but in X, the shaky camera just gives you a head ache.  Plus, the characters are basically ripped straight from the pages of Superbad, except they're not even half as interesting or funny. It looks like the movie was way more fun to make, than it is to watch. Project X does deliver laughs and lets you imagine what it would be like to have a party as insane as the one in the movie, but it's mostly just repetitive and forgettable.

Friends with Kids - 2 cookies


Writer, director, and star Jennifer Westfeldt (Jon Hamm's girlfriend of 10 years), does a decent job writing, a less decent job directing, and even worse job acting, in her new comedy Friends with Kids. She has zero screen presence and her face barely moves, that it's no wonder her first movie in six years is one that she had to write and direct herself. Her performance oozes of television quality, where she has mainly worked throughout her career, and it's only the very talented supporting cast and a few touching scenes that actually makes Friends with Kids a better than bad movie. Adam Scott gets a shot at his first leading man role after a career of support, and he does a pretty solid job coming off as an arrogant jerk, which is what he was aiming for I think. The supporting roles are played by a bunch of people from Bridesmaids, including Jon Hamm himself, Maya Rudolph, Chris O'dowd, and a vastly underused Kristen Wiig. Also, Megan Fox shows up giving a surprisingly good performance, as well as Edward Burns. The end result of Westfeldt's work is a very good effort, that just misses the strike zone, but it's worth a look when it comes out on DVD.

Detachment - 2.5 cookies


Adrien Brody gives the best performance of the year so far (which isn't really saying much, but it's something) in this very dark indie-drama about America's public school system. There are some gripping scenes and the message of the film is strong and painful to absorb, but unfortunately director Tony Kaye's pretentiousness gets in the way of this movie being great. It has to settle on being almost good.  It is very interesting though, and worth a viewing, as it is in theaters now but also available on Video On Demand.

Wanderlust (2012) Review

Director: David Wain
Writer: David Wain and Ken Marino
Genre: Comedy

2.5 cookies

At a time of the year when good comedies are few and far between, Wanderlust is good enough to warrant a trip to the theater. While it's not as good as David Wain's last film, 2008's Role Models, Wanderlust is still extremely hilarious at times and surprisingly touching as well.

Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston play recently unemployed New Yorkers who end up living on a small hippy commune in Georgia. While at the commune they make new friends, go through relationship troubles, and eventually learn valuable lessons.

The reason the movie works is the excellent supporting cast featuring a fantastic Justin Theroux, Malin Ackerman, Joe Lo Truglio, and many others. And the fact that Paul Rudd is an absolute comic genius! Jennifer Aniston is pretty awful as an actress, but Rudd completely makes up for it as every line he delivers and facial expression he makes is like a Mike Tyson sucker punch to the funny bone.

One scene where Rudd talks to himself in a mirror is one of the funniest scenes in the last few years and worth the price of admission alone.

It's not the most memorable of the Apatow productions, but it's still a cut above any other comedy in theaters right now.

Oscar Predictions!

Best Picture - The Artist

The Artist has been the front runner for months now and I don't see any reason why that would change.

Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist

Of the 85 films that have won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, 62 of those have also won Best Director. I don't see any reason to go against the odds on this one. Though, if Hazanavicius doesn't win, Martin Scorsese will surely end up with the gold for Hugo.

Best Actor - Jean Dujardin - The Artist

This one is close between Dujardin and George Clooney of The Descendants, but my gut is telling me The Artist is going to rake up the three biggies this year. 

Best Actress - Viola Davis - The Help

Great performances in not so great movies seems to be the theme of the Best Actress category this year. Viola Davis gives a performance of great emotional depths in a movie that doesn't live up to her acting, but is still perfect Oscar bait. I'd be shocked if Davis doesn't win. 

Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer - Beginners

This is the lockiest lock in this years Academy Awards. Plummer will finally win his first Oscar at the age of 82.

Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer - The Help

I personally didn't love this performance, but everyone else seems to. She's almost as much a lock as Plummer is for his award. 

Original Screenplay - Midnight in Paris

Woody should and will finally win his first Oscar since 1987 for writing Hannah and Her Sisters. Does he care? No. Will he be at the show? I wouldn't bet on it. 

Adapted Screenplay - The Descendants

I hate using the term "overrated" to describe films, but that is exactly what The Descendants is. It will win this award though, even though Moneyball should. 

Foreign Language Film - A Separation

Animated Feature - Rango

Animated Short - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Editing - The Artist

Cinematography - The Tree of Life

Art Direction - Hugo

Costume Design - The Artist

Makeup - The Iron Lady

Original Score - The Artist

Original Song - "Man or Muppet" - The Muppets

Visual Effects - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Sound Mixing - Hugo

Sound Editing - Hugo

Documentary Feature - Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Documentary Short - Incident in New Baghdad

Live Action Short - Raju

Chronicle (2012) and This Means War (2012)

Chronicle - 3 cookies
A pretty entertaining entry into the "found footage" genre that is frankly getting a little warn out. Chronicle works because of its truly spectacular special effects, a good story, fine performances from an unknown cast, and a running time, that at 83 minutes, doesn't over stay its welcome.

This Means War - 2 cookies
I thought I was going to absolutely hate this movie, and I didn't, so that's a plus. It's actually a pretty funny  buddy comedy with good leading performances by Tom Hardy and Chris Pine. Reese Witherspoon does the best she can do with her shallow role, but all she really has to do is look hot and stand around. There are a few laugh out loud sequences, including a hilarious paint ball scene. Unfortunately, the director McG (stupid name, stupid director) doesn't seem to know how to make an actual film and the final product feels like a two hour music video with good looking movie stars.

Haywire (2012) Review

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Lem Dobbs
Genre: Action


1.5 Cookies

                     The main problem with Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire is that there isn’t enough of a story to excuse the lack of action. Also, when there isn’t fighting going on, all you want is for the characters to stop talking and start punching. Soderbergh, who has directed such films as Traffic, Ocean’s 11, and Contagion is a really interesting, occasionally brilliant visual director but with Haywire I felt like he was trying way too hard to be cool, and it makes him look like a fool.

            The incoherent and unnecessarily confusing story deals with a very tough female spy or something named Mallory and her quest to get revenge on Ewan McGregor after he double crosses her and tries to have her killed. Gina Carano, who is an actual Mixed Martial Arts fighter, plays Mallory and this makes sense because she’s good at fighting, but not so good at acting. When she’s beating up Channing Tatum or random police officers, it’s fun to watch but when she has to deliver a line of dialogue instead of a kick, it’s cringe worthy. The plot unfolds in a way that you don’t really know what’s going on until the end, and in this case that is not a good thing. Ewan McGregor, who I usually like, was simply annoying in Haywire, along with most of the other cast members like Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas. It’s hard to act well when you don’t have a good script to work with, I guess.

            There was one sequence that did stand out though, and raises the movie from a 1 cookie rating to a 1.5 cookie rating alone. Michael Fassbender, who I think ranks just a notch below Ryan Gosling on the coolest actors list, has an awesome fight scene with Carano that is so good I wish it was in a better movie so I would want to watch it again. Unfortunately, Fassbender only has about 10 minutes of screen time and the other 80 minutes are dull and repetitive and disorderly. If someone makes a cut of Haywire that edits out everything but the fight scenes, it might make a cool 20 minute short, but the version is theaters now is definitely not worth the price of admission, or the time, or the gas money to get to the theater. 

My reaction to the Oscar nominees

Now that the dust has settled from yesterday’s Oscar nominee announcements I think it’s a good time to see just how much the Academy got wrong, and how little they got right.

Here is a full list of the nominees: http://oscar.go.com/nominees

Best Picture: 

This year, the Academy decided through a very complicated voting system that feels more like the electoral college than a way to honor films, that there could be anywhere from 5 to 10 nominees. Most Oscar pundits, myself included, thought there would 6 or 7. I was shocked when not 6, 7, or even 8 films were nominated, but 9! I was even more shocked when one of them was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. With a 48 percent rating on the movie review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, Extremely Loud is now one of the worst reviewed movies to ever be nominated for a best picture Oscar. 

A higher percentage of critics gave positive reviews to No Strings Attached, Final Destination 5, and Tower Heist, but now Stephen Daldry's artificial and manipulative post-9/11 weepy can officially put "Academy Award Best Picture nominee" on it's posters. Extremely Loud was essentially shut out of all the pre-Oscar awards but apparently had enough Academy support to land a Best Picture nomination. 

Every year I hype myself up for the Oscars, but every year I'm reminded that this is the same awards show that had Forrest Gump beat Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption in 1994,  had Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan in 1997, didn't nominate The Dark Knight but nominated Benjamin Button in 2008, and just last year had The King's Speech beat The Social Network. 

Extremely Loud felt like it was made purely for the sake of going to the Oscars so maybe I shouldn't be so shocked that the Academy recognized that. Here is proof that the Oscars are meaningless: Jennifer Hudson has more Oscars than Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Brad Pitt, and Leonardo DiCaprio combined (1). 

Anyway, The Artist is deserving of its 10 nominations so I'm happy about that. Hugo scored an astounding 11 nominations and is a good, but not great, movie. I'm happy that Midnight in Paris and Moneyball, two of my favorite films of 2011, are nominated for Best Picture. I haven't seen The Help or War Horse yet, but I will soon. I didn't like The Tree of Life at all but at least the Academy veered a tiny bit from the mainstream in nominating Terrence Malick's two hour and 18 minute modern art experiment. And I still think The Descendants is vastly overrated but there was zero chance that wasn't going to be nominated. 

Three of the movies in my top 10 list made the Academy's top 9.

Best Director: 

There are really no surprises here, except maybe Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life) sneaking in over David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) or Tate Taylor (The Help). The list of best director nominees indicates what movies actually have a chance at winning Best Picture. Whoever wins Best Director usually has his film end up winning best picture as well, but I could see a potential scenario this year where Scorsese wins Best Director for Hugo, but The Artist still wins Best Picture. It's always great when Woody gets nominated for Oscars - even though he doesn't ever show up, no speech by Woody would probably be more entertaining than a speech from any of the other nominated directors. He probably doesn't have a shot at winning Best Director but he does have a great chance to win Best Original Screenplay.

Acting Awards: 

The snubs started to get really surprising, and in the case of Tilda Swinton absolutely disgraceful, in the acting categories. 

Tilda Swinton gave the best performance by a female this year in the harrowing We Need to Talk About Kevin but was completely snubbed by the Academy in got getting nominated for Best Actress. Maybe not enough people saw the movie, maybe the movie was too disturbing, maybe the Academy Awards are stupid (I think it's a combination of the three, the third option being most prevalent), but for whatever reason Swinton will not be at the Oscars this year and that's a damn shame.

Meryl Streep (for the billionth time), Viola Davis, Michelle Williams, and Glen Close were pretty much locks, so Rooney Mara seems to have stolen Swinton's spot. Mara is very deserving as she gave an incredible performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but I was just hoping by some miracle that Mara and Swinton would both get recognized. Out of this group only Viola Davis' performance comes from a Best Picture nominated movie (The Help), while three male Best Actor nominees come from Best Picture nominated movies. It seems as if many of the Academy's favorite female performances this year came in movies they didn't love quite as much. Elizabeth Olsen seemed to have fallen out of the race long ago for her performance in Martha Marcy May Marlene but I think the Academy really overlooked her.

For Best Actor, Clooney, Pitt, and Dujardin were expected and the final two spots were up for grabs. Demian Bichir getting the nomination for the little seen A Better Life is pretty surprising and slightly less surprising is Gary Oldman getting the nomination for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I haven't seen Shame yet, but from what I've heard Michael Fassbender gives a pretty remarkable performance so I was shocked he didn't get a nomination. DiCaprio and Gosling were lagging behind as the Awards season progressed so I'm not surprised Leo was left out, but I was hoping that somehow Gosling would get recognized for either The Ides of March or Drive. No matter who ends up winning the Oscar this year, I still think Ryan Gosling was the biggest winner of 2011.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt never really had a shot but I think he gave the best performance of the year in 50/50.

On the supporting side, I was happy to see that Jonah Hill can now officially call himself an Oscar nominee. I wonder if the 21 Jump Street advertising team will put "starring Oscar nominee Jonah Hill" on their posters. Who would have thought that the same guy who had a penis drawing addiction in Superbad and wanted to buy sparkly boots in The 40 Year Old Virgin, would wind up with the same amount of Oscar nominations as Gary Oldman. The winner of this award will most likely be Christopher Plummer for his role in Beginners, and at 81 years old, it would be his first win. But, Albert Brooks really got screwed over in not getting nominated for his supporting role in Drive - that's just wrong, Academy!

It was nice to see Melissa McCarthy get nominated for her hilarious role in Bridesmaids, though.

Writing:
The first thing that stands out about the screenplay nominations to me is that my favorite movie of the year 50/50 was completely ignored. Realistically, I knew that Will Reiser's marvelous script was the only chance 50/50 had of being included at the Oscars even though it was my favorite movie of the year, had a brilliant lead performance from Gordon-Levitt, and fantastic supporting work from Anna Kendrick, Angelica Huston, and Seth Rogen. I might have even forgiven the Academy for nominating Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, forgetting about Tilda Swinton, and screwing over Albert Brooks, but leaving out 50/50 was the last straw. Oscar, you suck!

I'm happy Bridesmaids is nominated, The Artist and The Separation are deserving, and Midnight in Paris  will probably win, which is fine because Woody is the best, but 50/50 definitely deserved a spot over Margin Call for Best Original Screenplay.

Nothing about the Adapted Screenplay nominations is that surprising except for maybe The Ides of March, which is a movie that I think should have been nominated for Best Picture. This category seems to be all locked up by The Descendants, though I could see a potential scenario where Moneyball finds a way to win.

Other:
I don't understand why there are only two nominations for Best Song as opposed to the usual three. "Man or Muppet" is a great song but "Life's a Happy Song" should have also been nominated from The Muppets.

Now a month of waiting begins before the most anti-climactic event of the year. In the meantime, rent 50/50 if you haven't seen it yet, check out Tilda Swinton's performance in Kevin, and don't go see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Stupid.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)

Director: Stephen Daldry
Writer: Eric Roth
Genre: Drama/specifically designed to make you cry and win Oscars

1.5 Cookies

More like Extremely pretentious and Incredibly wanted to punch that kid in the face. The fact that this film is nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award is an absolute disgrace and in my mind basically nullifies any credibility the Oscars had left. This film, with a title almost as obnoxious as its two plus hours running time, goes wrong in so many ways it’s almost difficult to know where to start.

I think I’ll start with the atrocious acting of the film’s lead actor Thomas Horn. Horn plays Oskar Schell (the main character is named Oskar! And this movie is designed to do nothing but win Oscars! Coincidence?), a nine-year-old boy who’s father died on 9/11. When he discovers a key in his dad’s closet one year after his death, Oskar begins to search all over New York City to find what the key fits. For this film to work on any level, Horn’s acting needed to be masterful but instead the performance is a disaster. In a role that calls for serious emotional gravitas, Horn displays the acting range of a poorly designed CGI character. Everything about him is annoying. From his voice (way too much voiceover narration), his face, even the way he shakes a tambourine to relax himself.

My uncle asked me if I’d rather have lunch with Oskar Schell or Kevin, the deranged murderous psychopath from We Need to Talk about Kevin, and I went with Kevin – because being killed would be better than spending half an hour with such a pretentious, know it all snob, who is just as annoying before his dad dies as he is after. While it isn’t out rightly stated, Oskar more than likely has some form of autism, which contributes, to his social inadequacies, but director Stephen Daldry is so obviously using Oskar’s disorders to cloy audiences into feeling bad for him that it feels strained and manipulative.

Speaking of manipulative, this movie is specifically designed to use the tragedy of 9/11 to provoke a melancholy reaction from audiences that when you do cry – and you will – it’s not because of the movie’s strength, it’s just because of the movie’s topic. Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock do display some acting chops in their supporting roles, and along with Max Von Sydow who plays a not so mysterious stranger who doesn’t speak, manage to provoke some legitimate emotional reactions, but the strength of their performances is nullified by Horn’s performance and the story’s artificiality.

There is probably a good movie that could have been made here but the end result is certainly not it. 

My Top 10 of 2011 and the Golden Cookie Awards

I have seen 50 films that were released in the United States in the year 2011. There are some highly acclaimed movies that might have made the list had I seen them, but of the movies I saw in 2011, the following are my 10 favorites. I stress the word favorite as opposed to best, because I don’t believe anyone can accurately make a list of best films.  All anyone can do is pick his or her favorites.

Overall, I think this was a very weak year in cinema, with the worst movies being especially awful, while some of my favorites wouldn’t have made top 10 lists in stronger years. But without further ado, my favorite movies of 2011 are…

1. 50/50

Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a subtly brilliant performance in the only movie in 2011 that made me cry. It also made me laugh harder than any movie this year except for Bridesmaids. Will Reiser’s script is remarkable, walking the tightrope perfectly between comedy and drama as it deals with the difficult subject of a young man fighting cancer. And Seth Rogen is simply hilarious.

2. Midnight in Paris

It’s the Woodmeister at the top of his game. Rebounding from the lackluster Whatever Works and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Woody Allen has made a magical film in which Owen Wilson gives a pitch perfect performance as a writer who wishes he lived in a different era. Paris has never looked more stunning than through the eyes of Woody. Look for Corey Stoll who steals every scene he’s in as Ernest Hemingway. Plus, it gets better with repeat viewings. 

3. The Artist 

It's a black and white, French, silent film and it's absolutely magnificent. By far the bravest and most original movie of 2011, if The Artist ever feels gimmicky, director Michael Hazanavicius and star Jean Dujardin do a hell of a job disguising it. It's a joyous and uplifting celebration of cinema that may very well take home a boatload of Oscars. 

4. Moneyball


Great script by Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian, great acting by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. It's a baseball movie that goes way beyond the realm of baseball.  Director Bennett Miller does a great job with pacing, as well as mixing tones  and changing rhythms. 

5. Bridesmaids


It's easily the funniest movie of 2011 but the reason it's so great is because, like all great comedies, there are fully developed characters, a great story, and the laughs cut deep. Kristen Wiig gives a superb three dimensional  lead performance and the supporting actors match her in every scene. 

6. The Ides of March


George Clooney directs the best ensemble cast of 2011, including himself, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, and Paul Giamatti. This super intense political thriller is razor sharp and pitch black dark; I loved every minute of it. 

7. A Separation


I am thankful that I had the chance to see this gift of a movie from Iran. Easily the best foreign language film of 2011, A Separation is phenomenally acted, perfectly directed, and expertly plotted. This film is definitely one worth seeking out. 

8. Super 8

In a year with so many bad summer blockbusters, I loved this summer monster movie directed by J.J. Abrams because it made me feel like a little kid again. It feels like a Spielberg movie from the 80s.  The last 20 minutes were a huge let down but the  first 90 minutes were super. 

9. The Adjustment Bureau


Released early in the year, this very underrated Matt Damon flick seems to have been largely forgotten, but I really liked this science-fiction romance tale about a love struck politician fighting to maintain his free will when he discovers that his whole life has been planned out. It's thought provoking, entertaining, and the most romantic movie of 2011. 

10. Martha Marcy May Marlene


Elizabeth Olsen gives the breakout performance of the year in this haunting tale about a young woman's experience in a violent cult and what happens after she escapes. First time director Sean Durkin shows a lot of potential and the movie is visually beautiful. I hate this movie's ending; it's a complete cop out, but for the most part, the rest of this movie is so good that it still makes my top 10.



GOLDEN COOKIE AWARDS:


Best Director

Asghar Farhadi - A Separation
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris


Best Screenplay


Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Will Reiser - 50/50
Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian - Moneyball


Best Male Actor


Joseph Gordon-Levitt - 50/50
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Brad Pitt - Moneyball, The Tree of Life
Ryan Gosling - The Ides of March, Drive, Crazy Stupid Love


Best Female Actor


Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk about Kevin
Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn


Most overrated/most pretentious/ most "I don't get why this got good reviews." 


The Tree of Life
Melancholia
My Week with Marilyn
The Descendants


Best crappy horror sequel


Final Destination 5
Paranormal Activity 3
Scream 4


Worst performance in a good movie


Freida Pinto - Rise of the Planet of the Apes


Worst movie I saw


The Hangover 2
Bad Teacher
The Sitter
Just Go With It
Limitless
No Strings Attached/Friends with Benefits
Cowboys and Aliens
Tower Heist


Worst movie I didn't see


New Year's Eve
Jack and Jill
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star

Catching up

Over the past few weeks I've fallen a little behind on my reviews. Here are four movies from 2011 I've seen without writing reviews and the scores I have given them.

A Separation - 3.5 cookies

The Sitter - 1 cookie

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - 2 cookies

Hugo - 3 cookies

We Need to Talk about Kevin - 3 cookies

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Review

Director: David Fincher
Writer: Steven Zaillian
Genre: Thriller


3 Cookies

David Fincher is one of the best directors in the game today, Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig were great in their roles, and overall the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was more polished and cinematic than its Swedish predecessor; but it just simply was not as good.

Let’s say you love a small, hole in the wall pizza joint even though the pizza isn’t that great, the place is a dump, the service sucks, etc. The thing is, this small pizza place has a certain charm because it’s your small pizza place. While it’s not the highest quality of pizza places there’s something about it that makes you keep coming back. What if that pizza place went out of business and was replaced by a fancy pizza chain with better pizza, cleaner facilities, and better service? Sure, it may appear better at first, but the qualities you loved about the old pizza place will be gone and the charm will have disappeared.

It’s the same with Fincher’s American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. While it may look nicer, have better production values, and higher quality acting, the thing that made me love the Swedish version so much was missing.

Surprisingly, Fincher’s version has more graphic violence and sexuality than the Swedish version, but Niels Arden Oplev’s film still feels grittier and realer than the remake.

That’s not to say that the new version isn’t highly entertaining and fascinating in some respects, especially a super trippy opening credits sequence and some great dialogue from Steven Zaillian’s script. If you haven’t seen the Swedish version, you will probably love this movie and if you have seen the Swedish version, you will like this movie.

I just wish that Fincher didn’t waste his talents making a movie that had already been made. 

The Descendants (2011) Review

Director/Writer: Alexander Payne
Genre: Drama/Comedy


2 Cookies

The Descendants should be so much better than it is. The critics gave it nearly flawless reviews, with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone calling it “damn near perfect,” and A.O. Scott of The New York Times raving that “to call The Descendants perfect would be a kind of insult, a betrayal of its commitment to, and celebration of, human imperfection. “ But I walked out feeling vastly underwhelmed. It’s been seven years since writer-director Alexander Payne made the instant classic American comedy Sideways, and for a filmmaker who seems to pride himself on capturing the human experience, he seems to have forgotten how to actually capture “human” moments in The Descendants.

George Clooney plays Matt King, a wealthy but miserable Hawaiian landowner. When his wife goes into a coma after an accident he must become the father to his daughters that he never was. His oldest daughter informs him that his wife was cheating on him before the accident, so Matt and his daughters embark on a journey to find the man who his wife was having an affair with.

The thing that bothered me the most about The Descendants is that all the characters are introduced through their flaws only so they can appear transformed later on, and their flaws never return. Also, there’s a subplot involving Matt’s decision about whether or not to sell a valuable piece of land that has a conclusion more predictable than Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries getting divorced. Plus, a supporting character named Sid, who is friends with Matt’s oldest daughter, is flat out annoying in every scene he’s in.

There are some beautiful shots of Hawaii and the acting is mostly very good, especially from Shailene Woodley, who plays Matt’s oldest daughter, but I just kept waiting for a moment that would explain what all the hype was about, and it never came. There are some good scenes but Alex Payne is unable to put together a convincing story that truly shows the human emotions he is trying to convey. 

Cookie Clip of the Week: LOTR: Return of the King (2003)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, was released exactly eight years ago today. I feel like it was just yesterday.

The Muppets (2011) Review

Director: James Bobin
Writers: Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller
Genre: Comedy/Musical


3 Cookies

Jason Segel is funny. Muppets are funny too. So, when Segel writes and stars in the first theatrically released “Muppet” movie since 1999, the result is a funny movie. At its best moments The Muppets is comedic genius and at its worst points you’ll shrug your shoulders and wait for the next joke – for the most part, the James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords, Da Ali G Show) directed film settles into a smooth, pleasant rhythm of clever jokes, funny songs, and a ton of Muppet antics.

            The premise is simple enough. Gary (Segel), his girlfriend Mary (a wonderful Amy Adams), and his brother Walter travel to Los Angeles for a vacation where they discover that the Muppet Studios have become decrepit and run down. While visiting the old Muppet Studios, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, overhears the plan of an evil businessman, Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), to destroy the Muppet Theater and drill for oil. “Maniacal laugh! Maniacal laugh! Maniacal laugh!” The only way the theater can be saved, is if $10 million dollars are raised. So Walter, Gary, and Mary go about the business of getting the gang of Muppets back together, starting with Kermit, to hold a huge Muppet show to raise the money.

            It’s almost impossible to not succumb, at least a little, to the charm of the Muppets. I’m sure there are naysayers out there who claim the Muppets are dumb and overly silly, but the haters simply don’t have a heart. C’mon! It’s the freaking Muppets! How can you not have a good time? Obviously this isn’t a groundbreaking and important masterpiece of cinema, but it’s a damn fun 98 minutes at the movies and a pretty great way to spend your $12 bucks. In fact, getting to see the Academy Award winning actor Chris Cooper perform a rap song is worth the price of admission alone.

            Jason Segel, who is slowly but surely becoming one of America’s funniest and most reliable actors (How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You Man), clearly has a major obsession with Muppets. I mean, it certainly wasn’t a coincidence that his Sarah Marshall character put on a Dracula rock opera with puppets. It’s always fun to watch a movie made by people who so obviously love what they are doing. Segel, who co-wrote the script with Nicholas Stoller, is always a riot when he’s onscreen but knows exactly the right points to pull back and let the Muppets handle the action. And the songs are almost all successful, especially the joyous “Life’s a Happy Song,” and my personal favorite, “Man or Muppet.”

            There are a ton of cameos in this film – everyone from Alan Arkin to Dave Grohl to Selena Gomez shows up, including Jack Black who actually has a pretty significant part. At times, I felt like there was cameo overload to the point where it was annoying, but by the end I didn’t mind it as much. I think the movie acknowledges it’s a movie a few too many times, like when a character turns to the camera and speaks directly to the audience or when someone says an important plot point and then explains that it was an important plot point. And the movie does get a little tedious at times, but always gets back on track quickly.

            It’s not perfect, but for a Muppet movie it’s pretty darn solid. “It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights. It’s time to meet the Muppets, on the Muppet show tonight!”

The Artist (2011) Review

Director/Writer: Michael Hazanavicus
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Silent


4 cookies
Glass of milk - Michael Hazanavicus
Glass of milk - Jean Dujardin
Glass of milk - Berenice Bejo
Glass of milk - James Cromwell

Thank the movie Gods for The Artist! Or more specifically, thank writer/director Michel Hazanavicus (which is just as hard to say as it is to spell). Just when I thought there were no more original ideas left in the movie world, The Artist comes along and has completely restored my faith in cinema and reminded me why I love movies so much in the first place. It’s one of my favorite movies of the year so far, had me smiling from ear to ear (except when I was crying) for its entire 100 minute duration, and it is all black and white and silent.

What?!?! Did you just say it’s a black and white, silent film?

Why, yes I did. Somehow, in this crazy modern movie world of 3-D and motion capture technology and Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 making $139.5 million on opening weekend, Hazanavicus has crafted a silent, black and white film made to look like it’s from the late 1920s. Please! Please! Please! Do not let the fact that this movie is silent and in black and white deter you from going. The Artist is absolutely brilliant and entertaining as hell.

The story opens in 1927 at the opening night of a big silent film production  starring George Valentine (Jean Dujardin), one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Immediately we are transported to a different time, a different world, as we watch an audience watch a silent film and completely love it. On the red carpet, after the premiere, Valentine is posing for pictures when a beautiful, young woman accidentally falls into his arms. The paparazzi go crazy and the next morning every newspaper has a picture of Valentine and the young women holding each other on the front page. The woman’s name is Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) and she uses her newly gained fame to get a small part in Valentine’s next movie. Her roles get bigger and bigger and eventually she becomes a major movie star herself as silent films are replaced by “talkies.” Meanwhile, Valentine fades into oblivion as silent films become irrelevant and Valentine completely loses his luster as a movie star.

And it’s all done completely visually. When dialogue is necessary, a title card flashes on screen with words and Hazanavicus does break the “no sound rule” on two occasions (very cleverly), but other than that, the story unfolds in the characters eyes and actions. This is an unabashed love letter to the magic of movies and it is clearly made by people who love cinema more than anything else in the world. This is a must see film for anyone who claims to be a movie fan.

The casting in The Artist is perfect and the acting is even better. Dujardin is remarkable, conveying such a wide array of emotions without saying a single word; he won Best Actor at Cannes and is a lock for an Oscar nomination. Bejo, who is married to Hazanavicus, could not have been better as Peppy Miller and John Goodman and James Cromwell also give incredible performances as a studio executive and Valentine’s loyal butler, Clifton, respectively. Hell, even Valentine’s lovable dog deserves a standing ovation as it/he gives the best animal performance of the year and turns out to be a major hero of the movie.

The gimmick of shooting a silent film in black and white never feels gimmicky and Hazanavicus pulls off the antiquated style with ease, even shooting the film in the boxy aspect ratio from before wide-screen. It’ll be a hard sell, and the fact that this movie even got made is almost a miracle in itself, but I’d be hard pressed to find anyone who walks out of this movie without a huge smile on his/her face recommending it to friends. We needed this movie – not only to remind us of cinema’s glorious past, but to give us hope for the future as well. 

My Week with Marilyn (2011) Review

Director: Simon Curtis
Writer: Adrian Hodges
Genre: Drama


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Glass of milk - Michelle Williams

            My Week With Marilyn is a period piece, set in England, with an Oscar nominated actor playing a famous historical figure. No, it’s not “The King’s Speech part 2,” but it’s pretty obvious that producer Harvey Weinstein is retracting old formulas, and hoping for similar results. Well, Michelle Williams gives a fantastic performance as Marilyn Monroe, just as Colin Firth gave a brilliant performance as King George VI, but as a whole My Week With Marilyn doesn’t even come close to The King’s Speech. In fact, My Week with Marilyn isn’t very good at all; dare I say it’s actually pretty bad.

            The main character of this film is actually not Marilyn, but Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), the son of a wealthy art historian who wants to go into the film industry. Colin lands a job as third assistant director on Laurence Oliver’s (Kenneth Branagh) new film The Prince and the Showgirl starring Marilyn Monroe. Soon, Colin gets to know Marilyn quite well, who has recently married Arthur Miller, and develops feelings for her. Marilyn, who is described as “the finest piece of ass on the planet,” by a reporter played by Toby Jones flirts with Colin and they end up skinny-dipping together in a lake, where they kiss.

            The movie is based on the memoirs of Colin Clark, who claims to have gotten to know the real woman behind the “character” of Marilyn Monroe. The amount of truth in Clark’s memoirs, and in the movie is questionable, but the main problem in the film is that while it strives to go deep into the mind of the real Marilyn Monroe, it stays disappointingly shallow. Williams does her best at making Marilyn feel real, but Adrian Hodges’ flimsy screenplay and Simon Curtis’ cursory direction leave the audience with no insight into who Marilyn really was other than that she was hot, a tease, selfish, and depressed.

            Eddie Redmayne gives a lackluster performance as Colin Clark and I was annoyed basically every time he was on screen. Kenneth Branagh, in a performance generating a considerable amount of Oscar buzz, is trying really hard to impersonate Laurence Oliver but in the end falls short. Judi Dench does what she can with a small, basically throwaway role as an actor in The Prince and the Showgirl. And Emma Watson is absolutely awful as a costume girl who Colin goes on a date with in a very poorly contrived and weakly executed subplot.

            While this may have been the most exciting week of Colin Clark’s life, it was really an inconsequential week for Marilyn Monroe and it’s disappointing that the acting of Michelle Williams is wasted in what I wish was a much larger and insightful story about who Marilyn really was. There are a few chuckles along the way and it breezes by easily enough at a mostly painless 99 minutes, but My Week With Marilyn misses the mark big time. Williams will almost certainly score an Oscar nomination for Best Female Actor, but she is really the only legitimate reason to spend your money on this film. 

Cookie Clip of the Week: Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Tower Heist (2011) Review

Director: Brett Ratner
Writers: Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson
Genre: Comedy/Action


1.5 Cookies

Eddy Murphy is back to his funny old ways in Brett Ratner’s latest hack-job Tower Heist, problem is he barely shows up for the first 30 minutes, and when he does, he isn’t given enough to do. The marketing for Tower Heist centered on the idea that Ben Stiller and Eddy Murphy are the two stars, but really Tea Leoni has just as much, if not more screen time than Murphy. I felt a little jipped, but maybe that’s how you’re supposed to feel at a Brett Ratner movie.

The plot involves Josh Kovacs (a less than stellar, Stiller), the building manager for an upscale New York City apartment complex called the “Tower.” When Josh and his staff at the Tower fall victim to a Ponzi scheme put on by one of the buildings richest residents, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), Josh puts together a team to rob what he thinks is a safe in Shaw’s apartment and get even.

It’s a simple enough zeitgeist premise, with an above average cast, (Stiller, Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alda, Broderick, Leoni, Gabourey Sidibe, Michael Pena) that this should have, and could have been a very good comedy-caper flick. Unfortunately, Brett Ratner is, to put it bluntly, an awful director, and Tower Heist fizzles from the start. It’s so formulaic that it makes you cringe, and the jokes are far too few, and hit-and-miss, that there is not enough laughter to ignore the movie’s lack of a brain.

Granted, there are a few clever scenes, such as a scene where each member of the amateur team of thieves assembled by Stiller steals an item from different stores in a mall. Being a Ratner movie, of course one of the characters steals a bra and panties from a Victoria’s Secret. Michael Pena has a great time playing one of the dumber members of Stiller’s team of thieves and Gabourey Sidibe steals every scene she’s in as a Jamaican maid who can’t find a guy “that can handle her.”

Tower Heist always seems to be building to something big but it never fully delivers. Ratner, who was just fired as producer of the Academy Awards for using an anti-gay slur at a press conference, continues to make unintelligent films with big production designs that are not nearly as much fun as they should be. I’ve been debating over who I hate more, Brett Ratner or Michael Bay, and I think it may just be a tie.

The ending of Tower Heist feels rushed and unsatisfying which pretty much sums up the whole movie. It doesn’t make you want to rip your eyes out, and there have been worse movies made this year, but it’s forgettable fluff that should have at least been forgettable fun fluff.

Melancholia (2011) Review

Director: Lars Von Trier
Writer: Lars Von Trier
Genre: Drama/Science Fiction/Idiocy

1 Cookie

When Melancholia debuted at Cannes in May, the film made a big explosion, not only for what it is, but because its director Lars Von Trier said in a press conference that he is a Nazi and he understands Hitler. I think it’s important to separate the person from the artist, but in the case of Melancholia the artist is almost as horrendous as the person. The Cannes Film Festival kicked Von Trier out, the first time in history someone was expelled from Cannes, but his film became a tremendous success. I have never seen any of Von Trier’s previous work so I judged Melancholia strictly on its own merit, and frankly, I was not impressed.

            The film opens with a prologue of apocalyptic images, imaginatively shot   and foreshadowing the inevitable fate that will befall earth at the end of the movie. A giant planet called Melancholia is hurdling towards earth and if it hits, all life on earth will end. Von Trier chooses to show us earth’s destruction in the first 15 minutes, which takes away the suspense factor of wondering if Melancholia will actually hit earth, but clearly Von Trier isn’t concerned with suspense because he is telling a story about two sisters and how they deal with earth’s impending doom. I liked the prologue – the next two hours, not so much.

            The movie is told in two parts, each named after one of the two sisters, played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg (who don’t look anything like sisters). Dunst won the Best Actress award at Cannes but I think her performance is decent at best, with a lot of overacting and comatose staring. Gainsbourg out acts Dunst but is never really given a chance to shine because of Von Trier’s sloppy direction.

            Part one centers around Justine’s (Dunst) wedding party, put on by Claire (Gainsbourg) and her rich husband John (Kiefer Sutherland). The groom is Michael (Alexander Skarsgard), and Michael and Justine trounce into the party two hours late after being stuck in a limo. Claire is angry with Justine for being late to her own party, but once she arrives the bizarreness begins. It turns out that while Claire is the sane, levelheaded sister, Justine suffers from severe depression and is basically a nut job. In the span of the wedding party, Michael declares her love for Justine, Justine gets a job promotion, Justine leaves the party to pee on a golf course, Justine quits her job, has sex with another man, takes a bath, and finally Michael packs his bag and ends the marriage after one night. “What did you expect?” is all Justine can say. Almost nothing about the wedding scene makes any sense. Characters are not developed and the incredibly strange family dynamic is never really understood.

            After the torturous wedding party, comes part two, which involves Claire, her husband, her son, and Justine hanging out in a big house, acting depressed and waiting to see if the world will end or not. The audience is forced to wait with them, and the wait is long, tedious, and boring. Claire is scared about Melancholia, John tries to convince her the planet won’t hit earth, but Justine claims that “she knows things” and that “there is only life on earth, and not for long.” Eventually John kills himself when he realizes earth is doomed. Justine says mean things to her sister and Claire is sad. Claire’s son never seems to care that his dad is dead and that he is about to die as well. Finally, after what seems like an eternity of long, hand held shaky shots of the sisters looking depressed, and Kirsten Dunst lying naked in the woods for no apparent reason, Melancholia hits earth, there is an explosion, and the movie ends. Thank god.

            Like Terrence Malick’s film released earlier this year The Tree of Life, Von Trier’s Melancholia is an overlong, pretentious snooze fest that thinks it’s much more important and meaningful than it actually is. Malick and Von Trier are both directors with strong visions and audacious aspirations, but they both seem to have forgotten that form does not make a successful movie when there is no substance.

            I think hand held cameras can work marvelously – they don’t in Melancholia. Instead of giving the movie a real life feel, it simply makes the audience nauseous. Many critics have praised the films “beauty,” but all I saw was ugliness and some HD shots of a big lawn and horses. Richard Wagner’s operatic score repeats and repeats to the point where I almost wanted to cut my ears off upon hearing the same melodramatic tune being played over and over again. Maybe Von Trier realized the audience wouldn’t know what to feel unless he added an overdone, obnoxious musical score to accompany the overdone, obnoxious images onscreen.

            Melancholia is disjointed, incoherent, and unintentionally laughable. Von Trier may have an artistic vision, but he is certainly not a good storyteller, at least with this film. Some people will love it, some people will hate it, there will be many who don’t really know what to think. Hopefully the Academy will see Melancholia for the arrogant piece of trash that it is, and we won’t have to worry about anyone involved with it taking home golden statues. 

Just a little Woody