Category Archives: Movies

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At The Theater #47: The King’s Speech

The most packed movie of the day was the 3 PM showing of The King’s Speech at Clearview’s Chelsea. This movie was way more packed than any 3 PM weekday screening had any right to be.

Once again, regret immediately hit me as the movie was about to start. Should I have seen I Love You Phillip Morris instead? I didn’t even know what The King’s Speech was about. Two friends recently raved about it on Facebook, but one of them is a huge Colin Firth fan and might have just been happy to see him in a new movie. The other was her boyfriend, who might have been just trying to score points. Plus, isn’t a Colin Firth movie something I should be seeing with my girlfriend? Wasn’t there a thriller out that I’d be better off watching alone?
 
When The King’s Speech started and Colin Firth stammered his way through his speech, I thought “This is going to be a long one. Crap.” But once the film got underway and they showed his first attempt at having his speaking corrected, I realized this movie was going to be great.

If King George doesn’t get his speaking skills corrected, his wife Bellatrix Lestrange will cast crucio on him!

 
Definitely see The King’s Speech. Colin Firth is his usual charming self, but it’s Geoffrey Rush as speech therapist Lionel Logue who steals the show. Every time he called Colin Firth’s King George VI “Bertie,” I was rolling.

You can do it, Bertie!

 
If your girlfriend wants to see a movie together this holiday season, steer her towards The King’s Speech. It’s got Colin Firth, so it should work if she’s anything like most girls I know. The King’s Speech is a charming movie that will have you laughing throughout and make you leave the theater with a smile on your face.

Super Tuesday continues!

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At The Theater #46: Winter’s Bone

Once Inside Job ended, I race-walked up Broadway to catch Winter’s Bone at the Quad Cinema. Winter’s Bone seemed to be playing forever earlier this year at Brooklyn Heights Cinema, but for some reason I never bothered to see it, or even find out what it was about. Seeing it at or near the top of so many year-end best-of lists sparked my interest to see it now.

I barely made it to the Quad on time. Construction and slow moving tourists can really drag down one’s walking speed.

As the theater darkened, I realized my mistake. I was still pissed off from just seeing Inside Job and wasn’t in the right frame of mind for a dark drama. I should have caught a comedy instead. I had a hard time paying attention to the first minute of Winter’s Bone, a montage of images. The ticket’s paid for though. I’m stuck here. Thankfully, my regret quickly passed as the movie got underway.

I can see why Winter’s Bone is at the top of a lot of best of 2010 lists. It’s a great movie, a dark mystery about a 17-year old girl who needs to find her father because he’s due in court and if he no-shows, her family will lose their home that he put up for his bond.

There are no soft characters over the age of seven in Winter’s Bone. Everyone is hard and no one can be trusted. Winter’s Bone makes me want to stay as far away as possible from the rural south. Also, all the characters have names you’d expect to hear in Los Angeles, not the south. Names like Teardrop and Little Arthur.
 

Teardrop: 2010’s Scariest Uncle.

Go see Winter’s Bone. But maybe see it on a different day than Inside Job.

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At The Theater #45: Inside Job

As soon as Shades of Ray ended, I hopped on the subway into Manhattan on a far too crowded for 9:45 AM A train to catch my first movie at the theater for the day, Inside Job at the Angelika Film Center.

I really like seeing movies at the Angelika. I think this has a lot too do with the ground level café area, which is strange because I think that café is overpriced. But it’s a nicer place to wait for friends than most movie theater lobbies. I’m flying solo today, so instead I found it a nice place to walk through on my way to the downstairs theater.

The three person audience for the 10:45 AM screening of Inside Job was a nice cross section of viewers. There was me, a female NYU student and an old man who claimed after to movie to have worked for one of the investment banks featured in Inside Job, “though long before any of this went down” he was quick to point out.

Waiting for Inside Job to start, I popped open Flixster on my iPhone and experienced something that would occur at the start of three of the four movies I saw in the theater today; I would regret seeing this movie instead of another in the same time slot. It happened here when I saw that I Love You, Phillip Morris was playing at 10:35 AM at Clearview’s Chelsea. I’ve wanted to see that for the past few weeks and cursed myself, thinking that a comedy would be a better way to start the day than a sure to be depressing documentary about the 2008 financial crisis.

This regret passed quickly. Inside Job should be on everyone’s must-watch list. It’s bound to frustrate you and infuriate you, but you need to see it. It’s the Food Inc. of the financial industry. Unfortunately for us, unlike Food, Inc., which ended with some hope, Inside Job shows us how the financial industry screwed us and why it’s bound to happen again. It also explains terms you probably heard on the news, but never had explained, like what exactly a credit default swap is.

It amazes me that in the wake of the two financial crises that bookended the last decade that there isn’t an outcry for stronger financial regulations. But the financial industry has its fingers in so many pies, that better regulation seems unlikely. Inside Job shows not only how powerful the industry’s lobby group is in Washington, but even their hold on business education in America. The same professors who are teaching ideas that fall in line with the way the financial industry thinks are serving on the boards of major corporations. Conflict of interest?

The most egregious part of Inside Job is that no one involved in the economic collapse in 2008 will even admit that mistakes were made by their companies. The fear of lawsuits and any culpability make interviewing these people pointless.

Matt Damon is a great as the narrator. His voice is the only part of Inside Job that won’t piss you off. It’s a nice anchor in the storm.

Inside Job is the scariest movie of 2010. Make sure you see it.

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On The Couch #50: Shades of Ray

Never give up. That’s what I took away from Rudy and what was going through my mind when I decided I needed to do something drastic to catch up if I wanted any hope of hitting 52/52 at the end of 2010. Thus on Tuesday, 12/21/10, Super Tuesday was born, a day where I would watch movie after movie.

To start Super Tuesday, I plopped down on the couch at 8:00 AM and watched Shades of Ray on Netflix Instant Streaming. Shades of Ray was originally recommended to me back in the earliest days of Tuesday Night Movies by my uncle and again by a friend. I said I’d get right on it. Apparently by “right on it” I meant that I would wait until the second to last week of the year to watch it.

I should have watched it sooner. Shades of Ray is a great romantic comedy, possibly the best romantic comedy I’ve seen this year. If you like the TV show Chuck, you’ll probably like Shades of Ray as well. Zachary Levi basically plays a slightly smoother version of Chuck. Ray is Chuck minus the video game geekery and with a slightly darker skin tone. Ray even has a Morgan Grimes-esque sidekick in the form of his roommate and best friend Sal. I guess the casting of Joshua Gomez as Sal would have made things too eerily similar for Chuck fans.

Also like Chuck, Ray has both a blonde and a brunette vying for his affection.

In case this blog has a Secret Santa, I really, really want the pink shirt that both Ray and Sal buy from Lloyd from Entourage.

Brian George is batting 1.000 with me. First in his most famous role, as Babu Bhatt in one of the most memorable Seinfeld episodes ever, then as Raj’s father on my current favorite TV show The Big Bang Theory and now in Shades of Ray. Researching this post, I was surprised to find out he was born in Israel to Jewish parents and immigrated to India as a child. The second thing I was surprised to discover was just how many things he’s been in over the years. He’s the textbook example of a working actor, with 192 screen credits currently on IMDB.

“You’re a very bad man, Jerry Seinfeld! A very, very bad man!”
Classic.

If you’re looking for a funny romantic comedy you haven’t seen yet to watch one night, you’d have a hard time doing better than Shades of Ray. This movie proved to be a great start to Super Tuesday. Time to hit the theaters!

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On The Couch #49: The Iron Giant

Some things I like: comic books, superheroes, robots, cartoons. How have I never seen The Iron Giant? It makes no sense. I loved The Incredibles and knew that Brad Bird also directed The Iron Giant, but I never sought out to it until now.

I was browsing Netflix’s streaming selection, looking for something under two hours to watch when I came across The Iron Giant. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like this movie, so I started it up.

For some reason, I thought The Iron Giant was about 10 years older than its 1999 release date. I though incorrectly that the movie came out in 1990. When I heard Jennifer Anniston’s voice as Hogarth’s mother, I thought “Wow, this is her first big movie, not Leprechaun.” But I was wrong. I’m still trying to figure out why I thought the movie came out much earlier. Maybe it’s because I remember seeing it in one of those bulky, oversized, plastic VHS cases that I associate with the 1990s.

WANT!

I recognized Harry Connick Jr and Jennifer Anniston’s voices quickly, but for the whole movie I couldn’t figure out who played the General. The voice was so familiar, but I couldn’t place it at all. It wasn’t until the credits rolled that I found it was Frasier’s dad, John Mahoney. And Vin Diesel was the voice of The Iron Giant? What the..?!

I could feel the tears welling up twice during The Iron Giant. The first time was when The Iron Giant became afraid of his own destructive capabilities and ran away. The second was when The Iron Giant flew up into the sky to stop the missile.

Wow, that movie was awesome. How has there never been a sequel?

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On The Couch #48: Charlie St. Cloud

SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t seen Charlie St. Cloud yet, and your desire to see it isn’t just based on wanting to ogle Zac Efron, you might want to come back to this post later. If you’ve seen the movie, only want to see it to ogle Zac Efron or have no interest in seeing it, than please come right in!

If your interest in Charlie St. Cloud was based purely on ogling Zac Efron, you should really check out the deleted scenes. The first one answers the question on everyone’s mind during the movie, namely “How has Charlie St. Cloud stayed so buff these last five years?” The scene is nothing but a tank-topped Zac Efron doing pull-ups, bicep calls and jumping rope. I feel like this scene was filmed just for the deleted scenes, to give all the squealing girls who saw Charlie St. Cloud in theaters a reason to buy the DVD.

Everyone knows this is why you wanted to see Charlie St. Cloud. You might as well admit it.

I was perfectly content for Charlie St. Cloud to just have flipped his lid when his brother died. He plays catch with this dead brother every day and eventually has to choose between his fantasy construct or his new, real, live love.

But wait! Everything you knew was a lie! His imaginary brother and dead military friend? Actual ghosts! His live girlfriend? Also a ghost! Say what? It’s true. I have it on good authority that during the premiere of Charlie St. Cloud, director Burr Steers yelled “M. Night Shyamalan ain’t got shit on me!”

Once you’ve wrapped your head around those twists, another one spins you around. Despite appearing to Charlie as a ghost, his girlfriend Tess isn’t dead! Like Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride, she’s only mostly dead. And if I learned anything from The Princess Bride, being mostly dead means she’s still a little alive. Charlie and company sail out to save her, aided by Charlie’s brother who points out Tess’s location like a signal flare on his way to heaven! Crazy!

I got that same medal on a Carnival cruise. What’s the matter, St. Cloud? Not good enough for the ship on a stick trophy?
Donal Logue plays Tess’s sailing coach. I really liked Donal Logue in Grounded for Life and The Tao of Steve. I can’t believe how much weight he’s lost since the last time I’ve seen him in something. He looks completely different now. Good job, Donal.

Remarkably, I enjoyed Charlie St. Cloud more than this synopsis might lead you to believe. But I did. It’s true. I liked that it wasn’t just a story about crazy Charlie who imagines his dead brother and how Charlie’s mind is saved by Tess’s love. And I’m enjoying it more after the fact, because I really love explaining twist after twist to my friends.

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On The Couch #47: Fred Claus

It was a two-fer of Vince Vaughn movies on Saturday. First I caught early Vince Vaughn in Rudy and then I watched some more recent Vince Vaughn in Fred Claus.

What Fred Claus really wants for Christmas is to look once more like he did in Rudy.

When I was taking screenwriting classes, I had the bright idea that the best movie to write from a purely financial standpoint would be a Christmas movie. If it’s any good, it will have good sales year after year on DVD and be syndicated to kingdom come. Write a hit Christmas movie and then sit back and let the royalty checks pour in every December.

The idea I came up with in class was for a movie about Santa’s brother. The guy would be the opposite of Santa in every way possible and would have the goal of ruining Christmas, like the Grinch, but on a worldwide scale. I never got past a paragraph long story idea for it. The makers of Fred Claus did a much better job with the Santa’s brother concept than my paltry idea could ever hope to achieve. It’s a very cute Christmas movie and I really enjoyed watching it.

I think one of Fred Claus’s strengths is that it made Fred a sympathetic character right from the start. Young Nicholas Claus is very similar to Own Wilson in Little Fockers. He means well and is always doing good deeds, but he doesn’t quite get how his actions, altruistic as they may be, hurt those closest to him. In Little Fockers, it was Owen Wilson unintentionally screwing over Ben Stiller. In Fred Claus, it’s young Santa Claus screwing over his big brother Fred.

I’m amazed Mrs. Claus is cool with Elizabeth Banks’s low-cut uniform.

If you’re looking for a good Christmas comedy that you can watch around the kids, you’d do well with Fred Claus.

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On The Couch #46: Rudy

Rudy was the big one. I’m really glad I finally got around to seeing it. More than any other movie, telling someone I never saw Rudy elicited the “You never saw it?!?” response.

Despite automatically having a rooting interest in Notre Dame football growing up because of my Irish background, the premise of Rudy never really appealed to me. It seemed so schmaltzy. This tiny guy really wants to play for Notre Dame, and as the DVD cover points out before you even watch the movie, he does.

Thanks for the spoiler, DVD cover. Jerk.

After Lord of the Rings, my desire to watch Rudy dipped even further. Why would I want to watch that whiny Samwise Gamgee with his “Mr. Frodo this” and “Mr. Frodo that” try to play football for Notre Dame?

At times my interest in watching Rudy would spike. People would tell me I really need to see it. Or I’d watch a good sports movie and remember that I’d never seen Rudy. It’s been sitting near the top of my Netflix queue for years, often passed over for the latest DVD release.

Watching Rudy, I was amazed how many familiar faces were in it. The youngest and thinnest Vince Vaughn I’ve ever seen plays the Notre Dame quarterback who sparks the drive for the final score that will allow Rudy into to the game. An equally young, but huge Jon Favreau plays Rudy’s best friend at school. It’s amazing how over the years Vince Vaughn has gotten physically bigger and Jon Favreau has gotten smaller. They’ve almost reached the point where they’ll meet in the middle.

He has that look on his face because Coach just showed him what he’ll look like in 2010

Now that I’ve seen Rudy, I found myself twice shocked this weekend when friends told me they never saw Rudy. I couldn’t help it. I’m on the side of the converted now. Rudy really is a great movie. It lives up to all the hype and I’m looking forward to watching it again.

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At The Theater #44: Fair Game

Out of the two main characters in Fair Game, I found Naomi Watts’s character Valerie Plame to be the more compelling. There is something insanely interesting about what happens inside the mind of a CIA agent whose cover in blown in such a way that Valerie Plame’s was. It’s one thing if her cover was blown on one mission. But what happened to Valerie Plame was exponentially worse. Her cover was blown on every mission and every party of her life simultaneously. Not only that, her closest friends had no idea she worked for the CIA until they read about in the newspaper. Imagine having to explain a secret as big as that to your friends.

While watching Fair Game, I kept thinking Plame was played by Claire Danes. I can’t believe Naomi Watts is over 10 years older than Danes. She looks so young.

I found it very fascinating to see how she dealt with the aftereffects of her identity being leaked to the press. She operated most of her adult live in secrecy. Her life was compartmentalized where some people thought this about her and some people thought that. To have to juggle all those balls simultaneously just to have them all fall to the ground not due to any fault of her own, but because of political revenge is enough to drive someone mad.

But that’s not what she did. She tried her best to deal with things quietly. This is the part I found most amazing. I feel like if something like that were to happen to me, I would have the same reaction as her husband Joe Wilson and scream it to everyone who would listen.

Is it because I found Joe Wilson’s reaction more relatable that I found him less compelling? I’m not sure. It might be that Joe Wilson is kind of portrayed like an asshole in this movie. He’s either being quietly contemplative or snidely yelling at someone he disagrees with. There’s no middle setting. Repeatedly throughout Fair Game, someone disagrees with Joe Wilson. His reaction is to sit there silently. They’ll say some more things Joe disagrees with. He continues to sit there silently. They throw more on top of the pile. Joe Wilson goes bat-shit crazy and becomes the guy that everyone in the restaurant is staring at because he’s browbeating his friends.

Don’t get me wrong. If I was wronged the way Valerie Plame was by Scooter Libby and company, I’d want Joe Wilson in my corner. The guy was relentless at seeking justice for his wife.

Another reason to reget seeing Cindy Crawford’s Fair Game: If I hadn’t see it already as a teenager, I could have had an At The Theater & On The Couch crossover.

Playing the real life Valerie Plame’s testimony before Congress was a nice touch during the closing credits. I’m glad they added that.

If you find the CIA at all fascinating, you should go out and see Fair Game. It’s an incredibly interesting movie.

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At The Theater #43: Unstoppable

Whoever designed the teaser poster for Unstoppable deserves to be fired. Look at it. When I first saw it, all I thought was “Well, that’s going to suck.” The poster screams “GENERIC MOVIE RIGHT HERE!” Because of that, Unstoppable wasn’t even on my list of movies to see as I finish out the year.

But then people started telling me that Unstoppable was really good. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 88, which is pretty damn good. Now that I’ve seen Unstoppable, I agree, it is pretty damn good.

Unstoppable is structured fantastically. This movie should be required viewing in thriller writing classes. The threat of the runaway train continues to escalate throughout Unstoppable, while the chances of stopping the train become progressively worse and the consequences of failure become direr.

Denzel Washington is definitely one of the coolest guys on the planet. It doesn’t seem to matter if he’s playing a corrupt cop, a non-corrupt cop or a motorman; he brings a certain level of coolness to every role he plays. I can’t think of a Denzel Washington movie in recent memory that disappointed me. Inside Man is one of my favorite movies of the past few years. Denzel doesn’t disappoint in Unstoppable.

I’m glad they didn’t go for the romance angle between Rosario Dawson and Denzel Washington’s characters Unstoppable. During the movie, it kind of felt like it was a destination (railroad pun!) they were headed to, which felt a little weird. Rosario Dawson is closer in age to Washington’s character’s daughters than to Washington himself. When his character Frank Grimes started talking about forced early retirement, the possible romance angle seemed even more farfetched.

Alternate endinig to Unstoppable.

This is my second movie this week with Kevin Corrigan in it. No complaints there. But he doesn’t play his usual lowlife in Unstoppable. Instead he plays the Jeff Goldblum of the movie, meaning he’s the science guy who comes through with the plan “that’s just crazy enough to might work” to save the day. Seriously, doesn’t Jeff Goldblum have right of first refusal on any role like this?

Has the casting director never seen Jurassic Park? Independence Day?

Unstoppable is definitely a movie to go out and see right now. To use a tired cliché: it’s Jaws on railroad tracks.