Category: Review

Time for the annual (absent for the last 9 years) Oscar predictions. And it isn’t going to be easy. Besides the fact that Oscar’s choices don’t happen to match the movies I’ve seen, it is widely acknowledged that this year will be a tight race. For the record, I still maintain my opinion that art should never be about competition, but I enjoy looking back on the last year of film and thinking about which had an impact. And of course, seeing if I agree with the “Academy” is fun too. Here we go.

Best Picture is a toughy right off the bat. I’ve been meaning to see Little Miss Sunshine but haven’t gotten around to it. The Departed was a good film but I don’t think it was Scorsese’s best and I suspect others know that too. As written here before, The Queen was also a good film, and while Mirren was fantastic, I just don’t see the whole as being Oscar-worthy. Babel is a polarizing film and I don’t think there will be enough voters to side with it. So, I’m going with Letters From Iwo Jima. Most predictions have it running last but I’m sticking with it.

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This new season of “24” continues the mission of previous seasons. It still is the most adrenaline pumping show that there is on TV – I need a sitcom or 2 to calm me down before heading to bed. And the overarching stories, with Jack saving the United States from destruction, continue to entertain while still having elements of realism.

Unfortunately, the stories about political infighting continue too. I was enjoying the policy debate between Karen Hayes and Tom Lennox but the writers ruined that when Lennox forced Hayes to resign. And now there’s yet another plot to unseat the President from office. If the writers think that politics is too boring, then they should minimize the extent of story telling in the political world rather than trying to introduce action into it.

Each season the show gets more graphic, and you might argue more real. But this season now seems to revel in the graphic violence as though it were a reason to watch. You can tell that Fox is excited about the violence because instead of having Kiefer Sutherland say in a flat tone that “viewer discretion is advised”, the Fox announcer says it in his dramatic “dare you to watch” tone. There are a number of problems with this. In our house, the show is now only watched by half as many viewers as the previous seasons. Tracy used to tolerate it but now will actually leave the room when I turn on “24”. I’m sure the same happens in a large number of other households. And even though I continue to watch, I don’t enjoy the show as much due to the increased nastiness. Intellectually, I know that they are fictional characters but the realism is done so well that it’s hard not to feel some of their pain. Finally, and I don’t think I am just being alarmist here, the more graphic the show gets, the more likely copycat crimes will occur. I can imagine the drill scene from last week encouraging some nutjob to try it out on their next victim.

I’ll keep watching. The thrill is still there but the enjoyment has lessened.

Rating: 6 (out of 10)

Sitcoms keep trying to come up with unique premises to capture the attention of jaded viewers. “Knights Of Prosperity” employs this technique by making the show all about robbing Mick Jagger. Their gang of misfits comes up with one clever idea each show that along with some luck manages to get them one small step closer to pulling their modern-day Robin Hood heist. Rockerfeller, the big guy with the deep voice is hilarious – he’s got some of the best lines, some of the best looks, and is put into some of the most absurd situations. The other characters in their crew are either fine (leader Eugene and buddy Squatch) or annoying (cabbie Gary or mensch Louis). And then there is Esperanza who while being fantastic to look at, seems to have some of the least useful lines – perhaps the writers don’t know how to write for a woman? Overall, the show has a great sense of humor but I think the writing should be a little stronger for it to truly prosper.

A highlight of the show, and this is not an insult, is the opening! Paul Shaffer’s outstanding theme song (David Letterman is an exec producer) not only rocks, but also summarizes the show in a very succinct 30 second set of lyrics apparently sung by the actor who portrays Rockerfeller. The video production for the opening is almost as good and while being modern in style, manages to also be 70s-retro. And be sure to stay tuned for the end when the song returns with the Knights parading in t-shirts which in the most recent show, were accompanied by large pink fur top hats (a prop used during the episode).

Rating: 7 (out of 10)

First of all, yes, the movie does explain the misspelling in the title and early on too. After that little mystery was out of the way, I was only able to sit back for only a minute before the seriousness of Chris Gardner’s plight tensed me up. Like a lot of today’s story-telling, the movie gets you feeling like that he must have hit the bottom, only to discover further depths. I don’t know how much of the specifics were what the real Chris Gardner endured but it isn’t too hard to believe that much of it could happen. Of course, the movie ends on a happy note and the titles describe that the real Chris went on to great success. But despite the movie being titled “The Pursuit”, after spending nearly 2 hours with Chris in his personal hell it would have been nice to have shared more than a minute of actual happiness with him. Maybe a montage of Chris’s future success under the credits?

No surprise, Will Smith successfully anchors the story. And I stopped expecting him to shoot aliens within the first few minutes. Everything about the film felt real. From the financial frustration to the 80s vintage BART signage and Togo’s cups. Even Will Smith’s own son Jaden, who played his son in the film, actually seemed to be really concerned about why Mommy had left and that Captain America would be left behind.

Rating: 8 (out of 10)

I expected more from this movie. Story-wise, it isn’t bad. Ricky Bobby only knows one thing: how to go fast. When that gets taken away, he’s a mess. But the movie has a bit of a mean edge that I just didn’t find funny. For example, the way the kids talk to their parents and grandparents is supposed to be shockingly funny, and there are a few laughs in there, but the net reaction is still more unsettling than funny.

One of the lines in the preview that got me to watch this DVD is when Ferrell is lying on the ground being attacked by a cougar and says “I can’t control my heartrate, I got a cougar on me!”. That wasn’t in the movie, or in any of the deleted scenes. So, maybe that’s an example of why I don’t think this movie works: there are some scenes that some will find funny, but few scenes that many will find funny. And there are a few inspired scenes like Amy Adams laying it all out, Andy Richter lifestyle scenes, or Michael Clarke Duncan’s reaction to a knife in the leg that save the movie from failure.

Rating: 5 (out of 10)

The story is familiar and fortunately, faithfully adapted. There are only a few times when you remember that the animals are animated due to very realistic animation and fantastic voice acting work. The spider hasn’t been dolled up but probably looks very much like a spider would, if you bothered to get close enough to one that it looked like it’s head was a foot across as it did on the movie screen at the local theater. But you aren’t completely creeped out because of Julia Roberts’s soothing voice work. My favorite work was done by Thomas Haden Church, voice of one of the crows. You can hear the desperation and single-mindedness of the crow confounded by the man in the corn field that doesn’t move. I laughed out loud – hard.

Rating: 7 (out of 10)

Long a fan of Michael Mann and his original TV series, I had to give this movie a shot. I’m glad I did. I don’t know why it didn’t have more success at the box office, although I do have my complaints.

The story is reasonably solid. And while the good guys do have a couple of neat techno gizmos, they end up defeating the bad guys primarily by hard work and smarts. The hostage situation is also grittily realistic – almost too real. Furthermore, I like the fact that the bad guys are pan-national and that Li Gong is upper management in the bad guy biz. Amazing locations for filming, too, including Ciudad del Este in Paraguay.

But the pan-national locales and top-level stakes is one of my complaints. This is, after all, Miami Vice. And yes, I’m sure that lots of the vice crimes in Miami have international origins and connections. But that opening scene in the club seems like a more applicable story for these cops.

And I guess that’s part of my complaint with movie franchises these days. They feel like they need to up the story intensity by having every superhero fight multiple bad guys in one movie or have regional cops taking on international jobs. The story from the first Bad Boys movie with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, for example, would have been a great Miami Vice movie story. Now, if the Miami Vice movie franchise had gone on to make 20 movies and the moviegoer was getting somewhat tired of them cleaning up prostitutes and drugs in Miami, okay, then get a little bigger. But for the first one out of the gate, the story was too much for the title.

Still, the story was good and would have made a good Bond film – better than Casino Royale. Maybe the Broccoli family will wise up and hire Michael Mann to make a Bond film.

The DVD has some good extras on it. The ones about locations was really good. And there was one about how Colin Farrell got duped into believing he was on a real undercover deal.

Rating: 7 (out of 10)

I think it is safe to say that Tracy dragged me to see the new Dreamgirls movie. It turned out to be a really entertaining movie with some great music. Great acting all around. And it was great to see Eddie Murphy not making an ass of himself. (Except for Shrek where even though he played Donkey, he was not an ass!)

Rating: 7 (out of 10)

Without Helen Mirren, The Queen would be an interesting, though slight, account of the royal reaction to Princess Diana’s death.  But she makes the film completely engrossing as you forget that you are watching a film and think that you might actually be watching the Queen, herself.

Rating: 7 (out of 10)