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At The Theater #26: Inception

SPOILER WARNING – I’m going to talk about Inception in detail here, including the ending. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you might want to skip this post until you see it.

Inception is a total mind-fuck. I think this was well expressed by the audience at the theater where I saw it. As soon as the credits rolled, there was a loud wail of anguish from people in the crowd. This wasn’t the same wail of anguish you’d hear at a Last Airbender screening; it wasn’t coming from a poor quality standpoint. The camera just stays on that damn spinning top for so long, then it starts wobbling and…black.  Was Leo awake? Was he still dreaming? To quote a teen in the lobby after the movie: “Christopher Nolan must die!” Again, I think this was coming from a different place than when that was said about M. Night Shamalan from teens after seeing a different movie across town.

 Random Thought #1: The snow-scape dream fortress looked a lot like the sniper board in Metal Gear Solid for the PS1. 

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I really liked Inception. It was like a combination of Lost’s sideways reality, The Matrix and The Sixth Sense. For a very exposition-heavy movie, I think Nolan did a good job of interspersing the exposition so that Inception didn’t feel weighed down by it.

I liked the open-ended ending. At first it looked like that top was going to keep spinning forever and he was still dreaming. But then it starts wobbling and I really hoped it would fall down, because I wanted a happy ending for the guy. But it ended before we could get our answer. Does it even matter? Leo walks away from the top before it stops spinning. It’s as if he said, “this is my real world,” reunited with his kids. If you wake up in heaven, do you question it? Leo risks everything to return to his family, and in the end he’s satisfied that he’s reunited with them to the point that he doesn’t even glance back at the top. But we do. Not that we have a choice, the camera is staring right at, spinning and wobbling away.

 Random Thought #2: Joseph Gordon Levitt in this movie has caused me to want to start wearing vests.

I want to see this movie a second time, largely to watch the wake-up scene on the plane again. I don’t remember what the order was of people waking up. Maybe that gives us some clue as to whether or not Leo was actually awake in the end. Was he the last one to wake up? If he wasn’t, I think would lean heavily towards him being still asleep. Everyone else should have made it out of the dream before him, right?
Inception reminded me a lot of The Matrix, to the point that I’m really hoping they don’t mess up any sequels the way that the ball was completely dropped with the two Matrix sequels. Then again, I have faith in Christopher Nolan. The Dark Knight was my favorite movie of 2008, so I know the guy can do sequels well. But really, I can’t even see where you’d go with this movie in a second one. It works so well on its own. We don’t need Inception 2: The Search for Leo.

Tuesday Night Movies is on a road trip! We saw Inception at Reel Pizza in Bar Harbor, Maine. I love this movie theater. This might be my favorite movie theater. It’s this or LA’s Arclight.

What makes Reel Pizza so great? Basically, it’s the concession stand. While other theaters have branched out from popcorn and candy to include nachos and pretzel bites, you can order pizzas at Reel Pizza. The topping list is extensive. Don’t feel like pepperoni tonight? Why not go for mussels, artichoke hearts or goat cheese? Need something to wash it down with? How about a beer? That’s right, beer. And it’s good beer too. They offer Guinness and selections from local breweries, all for cheaper than what a Bud Light would run you in NYC.

The two theaters were designed with the concession stand in mind. Each row of seats has a counter in front of it to put your pizza tray and beer. The first three rows of taken up by couches and easy chairs. These seats are usually the first to go. TV trays are available for viewers lucky enough to snag these seats. When your pizza is ready, a BINGO board on the side wall silently announces your number to let you know that your pizza is waiting for you in the lobby. They even throw an intermission into each movie so that you can grab another beer, or if you’re hungry, another pizza.

 The Reel Pizza bingo board of pizza readiness.

I haven’t been to Bar Harbor without going to Reel Pizza. If you’re there, it’s a must-stop-at destination.

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At The Theater #25: Grease Sing-A-Long

I was really impressed by how the makers of Grease Sing-A-Long handled the sing-a-long parts of the movie. I was expecting plain text and a bouncing ball. Instead the audience is treated to much more. The words are animated all over the screen in interesting fonts and take on a life of their own. They are accompanied by other animations that thematically go with the music, sometimes even silently commenting on the psyches of the characters.

Cha Cha – Either she was left back 30 times or smoking is REALLY bad for you.

Because of this, I would say that Grease Sing-A-Long is a different movie than Grease, in the same way that the original Star Wars in a different movie than the special edition. Grease Sing-A-Long is very much largely the same as Grease, but different, and unlike Greedo shooting first, the changes only add to the movie.
I was really surprised how empty the theater was for this movie. It was a very limited run in New York and we were at a Friday night show. I expected a sold out crowd, but the theater was maybe half full (I’m an optimist).

The manager at the 3rd Ave AMC is really nice. They ran out of the Grease Sing-A-Long souvenior pins that I had no idea they were giving out on our way into the movie, but promised to find more for us if we stopped by after the movie. Sure enough, they did. It’s little things like this that have me looking forward to being a repeat customer at this theater. I don’t think we would have received this treatment at Court St. I do think part of the reason we got hooked up is because we dressed up in costume.

 You should have seen our Up In The Air costumes.

I was also surprised by how few people dressed up as Grease characters for this. The most common question when you’re wearing tight black jeans, a white tee shirt and a leather jacket in the middle of the summer in a movie theater where Grease Sing-A-Long is playing is “Are you here for Grease?” My most common answer was “No, The Last Airbender. And it rocked.”

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At The Theater #24: Cyrus

The title character in Cyrus is one of the best movie villains I’ve seen in the theater this year. Jonah Hill is the overly coddled son of single-mother Molly (played by Marissa Tomei) is as manipulative as he is jealous. He’s great at pushing all the right buttons to get what he wants. There were times I felt really sorry for John C. Reilly’s character John, Molly’s new boyfriend who Cyrus targets as a threat. This kid is evil. I guess he’s not really a kid. The man-child is evil.

Ladies, this movie is a warning against breast feeding too long.

What Cyrus really does well is highlight the awkwardness that comes at the beginning of a new relationship. Nothing seemed clichéd during John and Molly’s courtship. It felt honest and real, while still being entertaining to watch. Mademoiselle Chambon, are you paying attention?

Catherine Keener plays John’s ex-wife. Since the last thing I saw her in was An American Crime, I felt on edge every time she walked on the screen. I knew it was only a matter of time before John was going to have cigarettes burned out on his arm —SPOILER!!! (KIDDING!)

We saw Cyrus at the movie theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music aka BAM. I’ve seen 4 movies at BAM Rose Cinemas over the years and I think She’s Got to Have It has been playing there every time I go. Does Spike Lee have compromising pictures of BAM’s board of directors?

No matter when you’re reading this, it’s probably playing at BAM.

Just as a FYI about their concession stand, the caramel popcorn is $8. Now that you’re aware, when you order it your eyes won’t widen like mine did or say “I only wanted one,” like I almost did.

This has been a very tough summer movies season. There are so many bad movies clogging the multiplexes. The good thing is that this year a lot of the junk is easy to identify. Skip that stuff and see Cyrus instead. And then leave a comment below.

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At The Theater #23: Mademoiselle Chambon

The star of Mademoiselle Chambon, Vincent Lindon, looks kind of like a French Bruce Springsteen, so it makes sense that the movie plays like a Springsteen song. Working class protagonist? Check. Unhappiness with one’s situation in life? Check. Infidelity? Check. I woudn’t have been surprised if a French cover of The River album played throughout the whole movie.

Le Springsteen

Actually, the more I think about it, the more Vincent Lindon looks like a French version of Jeff from Chuck.

Le Jeff.
French Springsteen’s twin?

If you like grammar-centric humor, the first five minutes of Mademoiselle Chambon will delight you. But if you like incredibly slow movies, the other hour and 36 minutes will be your favorite. Thank God for the subtitles. If it wasn’t for having to read them, I probably would have fallen asleep during the film. There’s a lot of scenes of people doing nothing but staring intently at each other. It’s like they removed the vampires from Twilight and replaced them with middle-aged French people.

We originally wanted to see Dogtooth at Brooklyn Heights Cinemas, but Mademoiselle Chambon replaced it on Friday. When the girl working the box office told me Dogtooth came and went, I said “That’s too bad. I didn’t see it.” Her response was “No one did.” Sorry, Dogtooth.

Brooklyn Heights Cinemas still has great popcorn. Their popcorn might be my favorite out of all the theaters we’ve visited so far this year. Not only is it tasty, but it makes sitting through a slow French movie much more bearable.

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On The Couch #25: Spies Like Us

How have I never seen Spies Like Us? I don’t know. I love comedies. I like John Landis. I like Chevy Chase. I like Dan Akroyd. I was the right age to see this in the movie theater or at home on VHS. It doesn’t make sense.

Watching Spies Like Us for the first time 25 years after it was made has its downsides. Not all of the jokes age well. Take the Bob Hope cameo. Bob Hope pops in randomly, hits a golf ball, makes a quip and exits just as quickly. John Landis was obviously very excited about this; Bob Hope is the only person in the credits who has an exclamation point after his name. Unfortunately, living in a world where Bob Hope isn’t hitting around golf balls anymore caused this bit to fall flat for me.

I wonder if this how people are going to feel about Neil Patrick Harris’s cameo in Harold and Kumar 25 years from now. This also assumes people are still watching Harold and Kumar 25 years from now.

Two cameos that really excited me were the B.B. King and Michael Apted ones, probably because they’re still alive. I didn’t even catch them the first time around. I saw their names in the credits and immediately hunted down their scene. It was great seeing the director of The Up Series documentaries in an acting role, even if it’s just for one line as a creepy CIA guy.

I love these movies. You might too.

It’s amazing how often Spies Like Us is referenced now, 25 years later. It showed up in an episode of Chuck recently, which reminded me I never saw the movie. And the “Doctor.” “Doctor.” bit was used in in the sideways reality of Lost this season. I’ve always found that bit funny; I’ve even quoted that bit, but had no idea where it came from. I always assumed it was something from Monty Python or M*A*S*H* (another classic I’ve never seen…Hmm, I should get around to queueing that up).

“Doctor.”  “Doctor.”

I don’t want this review to sound like I didn’t like the movie. I did, especially the test scene early on and the appendectomy surgery in the desert. The jokes are very 1985, but what else should I have expected from a cold war spy comedy?

If you haven’t seen Spies Like Us, congratulations! You’re officially the last person now that I’ve seen it.

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On The Couch #24: Blood Diamond

It’s movies like Blood Diamond that remind me how grateful I am that I live in America. My neighborhood isn’t a war zone. There are no armed rebels driving down my street. The closest thing I saw to a conflict this weekend was this note taped to someone’s car as I was walking to brunch:

While Blood Diamond makes me glad to live in America, it really drives home the point that America and other western countries are a major driving force in the bloodshed that stems from the mining and exporting of diamonds with our obsession for big shiny rocks to put on little dainty fingers. The filmmakers never get too heavy handed about it, which I think helps get the message across. Watching the movie, I was too caught up in it as a thriller to feel I was being preached to.

After watching this movies, I’m surprised that there isn’t a backlash against diamonds like there is with fur. No one is dipping women’s hands in red paint and yelling “Diamonds are murder!”

When I told my cousin that The Departed was the movie that made me like Leonardo DiCaprio, he said that Blood Diamond was the movie that did that for him. When I said I never saw Blood Diamond, he insisted that I see it. Since his last pick was the great The Lives of Others, I quickly added Blood Diamond to my queue.

I’m glad I did. It really is a great thriller. The movie is 2 ½ hours long, but it’s a fast 2 ½ hours. And DiCaprio is awesome. I’m really excited for Inception to open up in a couple of weeks.

I wonder how many people after seeing this movie go out of their way to buy a certified diamond. I’d like to think it made that kind of impact on me, but I haven’t purchased any diamond since seeing it, so I make for a lousy case study. I would think Blood Diamond makes an impact on everyone who sees it. But I’m interested in knowing how long that impact lasts. After some time has passed, does the conflict seem much further removed than the immediacy of the dollar sign in front of your face? I’m not judging; I’m just curious. As always, feel free to leave comments below.

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At The Movies #22: Letters to Juliet

Pop quiz, hotshot. You plan to see Get Him to the Greek with your girlfriend and a friend and get to the theater to discover not only is that movie sold out, but every other movie playing near that same time is sold out too, even movies you have no interest in seeing (like say The Karate Kid). So what do you? What do you do?

Shoot the hostage? No!

You head 10 blocks south and watch Letters to Juliet at Quad Cinemas!

I’m still not sure how we arrived at that decision.

Letters to Juliet isn’t that bad. If I caught this randomly on TBS, I’d probably remark to a friend, “Hey you know that movie Letters to Juliet? Yeah, it was on TBS and wasn’t that bad. What? No? I didn’t want to watch it; it was just on. Yes, I could have changed the channel, but what else are you going to watch on a Saturday afternoon? Yes, I could have gone outside; it is a beautiful summer day. You know what, I’m sorry I even brought it up.”

Letters to Juliet suffers from two problems. First, if you’ve seen the preview, you’ve seen the movie. How much input does a filmmaker have in what goes into the trailer for a Hollywood picture? Does the blame fall on director Gary Winick or a random guy in marketing? If it’s a random guy in marketing, it must be frustrating as a director to see the studio release a trailer that walks the audience through every beat of your movie.

The second problem is that there is no chemistry between the protagonist Sophie and her rival-turned-love-interest Charlie. I think they did such a good job at making Charlie smug and arrogant to establish him as an obstacle in Sophie’s path that when it came time for them to fall in love it just fell flat. They basically fall in love over the course of an extended montage scene. At the start of the montage, Sophie and Charlie can barely stand each other and by the end of it, they’re stealing glances at each other in the rearview mirror of Charlie’s car as he drives Sophie and his grandmother around Italy.

Charlie’s grandmother is a piece of work. She tries hard to make Sophie and Charlie get into each other, but still Grandma that’s no reason to watch from your bedroom window when your grandson finally hooks up with the girl.

“Don’t mind me. Grandma likes to watch.”

In order to make Charlie seem like somewhat of a catch, Letters to Juliet starts out with Sophie engaged to the second coming of Balki Bartokomous from Perfect Strangers. I kept expecting him to namedrop Cousin Larry in a sentence or show up with a goat under his arm. Guys, if your girlfriend has seen this movie, you can never use the term “win-win” again. Balki uses it every time he makes a jerk move in the movie. You don’t want to associate with that.

During the whole every guy in Italy tells Vanessa Redgrave that he’s Lorenzo Bartolini bit, I was really hoping for an Italian plumber to pop up and say…

“It’sa me! Lorenzo Bartolini!”

I should apologize to the other patrons of the Quad Cinema on W. 13 St. because Julie, Bryan and I may have been a little rude with our MST3K imitation while watching this movie. Actually, maybe Bryan and I should apologize to Julie as she had to sit between us as we were both lobbing jokes about the movie.

“I’m sorry.”

The popcorn at Quad tasted stale and overly salted. It didn’t have that crunch that fresh popcorn has and there were way too many popcorn bits in my bag for this to be fresh stuff. The staff was friendly though, and even hooked us up with a free refill on a soda, which they don’t normally do.

I thought the Quad only showed indie films or small studio releases likely to win a lot of awards. Maybe Letters to Juliet fooled them because it takes place mostly in Italy?

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At The Theater #21: Toy Story 3

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are my favorite Pixar movies, so it shouldn’t be hard to believe that Toy Story 3 was the movie I was looking forward to the most this summer. With that anticipation comes a bit a fear. Is this the one where they jump the shark? A lot of franchises’ third movies have been lackluster. I’m looking at you Godfather 3, Superman III and Batman Forever.

I shouldn’t have worried though, Toy Story 3 is great. Pixar really can do no wrong.

What other studio has their kind of track record? My least favorite Pixar movie, Cars, is still a good movie. Cars just doesn’t hold up to the incredibly high bar set by every other Pixar release. But Toy Story 3 definitely does.

This is my favorite of the Toy Story 3 character posters. He’s got a 3 for a nose!

Toy Story 3 packs more guilt than a Jewish mother (I can make that joke because I started the hora at an Episcopalian wedding this past weekend). The movie really hammers home how lonely your toys get when you grow too old to play with them. They ride this point for the whole movie. It’s enough to make me want to drive straight to my parents’ house, run up to the attic, rip open the Hefty bag full of He-Man figures and reenact the battle for Eternia.

Toy Story 3 is very funny. If you enjoyed the first two, you’ll love this one. And if you didn’t enjoy the first two, try to get that stone in your chest replaced with a heart.

This poster looks like Woody farted and everyone behind him is shocked by it. Maybe they’re trying to figure out the least awkward way to tell him he accidentally pooped himself.

Like every other Pixar release, there is a short before the main feature. This time it’s Day and Night, which has to be the coolest blending of CGI and traditional cell shaded animation ever. It also looks much better than Tom Cruise’s upcoming Knight and Day.

While watching Toy Story 3, I couldn’t help but think about Cars and why it doesn’t work as well as Pixar’s other movies. I think I figured it out. It’s because there are no people in it. The other Pixar movies that involve anthropomorphizing the world around us show what’s going on in the lives of toys, fish and bugs when people aren’t paying attention to them. But in Cars, there are no people. The cars in Cars are entirely self-sufficient and self-motivated. There’s no interaction between the cars and people, which is the dynamic that anchors Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo to the real world. Without this anchor, Cars seems a bit faker than the others. That being said, I’d still take Cars over most CGI animated movies produced by other studios.

Pixar is still batting 1.000. Go see Toy Story 3 and see it in 3D. It’s definitely worth it, and it’s a safe bet it will be better than Jonah Hex (also opening this weekend).
SPOILER: One of the characters in this poster isn’t in Toy Story 3.
Woe for Stinky Pete the Prospector
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On The Couch #23: Brothers

WARNING: This post not only spoils plot points in Brothers, it also exposes both your eyes to a little explicit language and your ears to a little explicit language combined with some very off-key singing.

I recently got into Joss Whedon’s short-lived but excellent TV show Firefly. I know, I’m late to the party on this one. My favorite part of the show has to be the theme song. Anytime I watch an episode, I end up with the theme song stuck in my head for days.

It was stuck in my head while watching Brothers and I found myself singing about the movie to the tune of the Firefly theme. I realized the best way to express my thoughts on Brothers here on the blog would be through song and got to work on some more Brothers by way of Firefly song parody lyrics.

Please enjoy.

“I know you fucked her” is my new favorite line to whisper to people.
For those of you who don’t want to keep exposing your ears to my at home karaoke, or really want to sing along with me, here are the song lyrics:
“Brothers by way of Firefly”

Words by Tuesday Night Movies
Music by Joss Whedon

Take my fam, take my life
My brother Tom fucked my wife
That’s what Bella told me
Gyllenhall is too sexy

Take my love, Take my fam
I’m stuck in Afghanistan
It’s okay, thought I was dead
So you fucked her in my bed

Trashed the kitchen ‘n TV
Better call the cops on me
‘Cause Tobey’s gone a bit crazy

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At The Movies #20 Exit Through The Gift Shop

After weeks of Brooklyn Heights Cinema having movies that I either saw already or weren’t that interested in seeing, it has filled its two theaters with two movies I have been looking forward to catching, Exit Through the Gift Shop and Holy Rollers. The movie poster above and the title of this post may have given away which I went to see first.

For those who don’t know, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary about Thierry, a novice filmmaker, and his immersion into the world of street art.

Or is it? There seems to be some debate whether this is a documentary or a mockumentary in the vein of This is Spinal Tap. The director of Exit Through the Gift Shop is not Thierry, but is the mysterious street artist Banksy, one of the subjects of the movie, who is from the onset the most enigmatic. He is cloaked in shadow and his voice is digitized, which immediately makes him seem like he’s the only one who knows what’s really going on.

No one knows Banky’s true identity.
I suspect he’s Chancellor Palpatine.

Another reason why this all might be fake: Thierry’s facial hair makes him kind of look like Harry Shearer in This is Spinal Tap.

Zey call me zee French Derek Smalls.

If it is fake, that makes the art show for Mr. Brain Wash towards the end of the movie all the more awesome, since it was covered by LA Weekly, attended by big stars and fetched high prices for a potentially non-existent artist.

Or was it?

Whether it’s a real documentary or not, I enjoyed Exit Through the Gift Shop tremendously. It’s highly educational for anyone with even a passing interest in graffiti, or the Obama campaign for that matter. Shepard Fairey is one of the artists featured in the film. From watching his segments, I’m surprised that the vandalism squad of the police force doesn’t have every Kinko’s on lock down.

This might be my inner geek talking, but this is my favorite kind of graffiti.

You should go see Exit Through the Gift Shop, and when you do, catch it at Brooklyn Heights Cinemas. It’s a great place to see a movie.

If we had seen it a day earlier, we might have run into Michael Showalter, according to Twitter. He only tweeted that he saw the movie and liked it; he didn’t indicate where he saw it. But he lives in Brooklyn Heights, so there’s a decent chance he saw it at Brooklyn Heights Cinemas. Hmmm, maybe I’ll carry around my State DVD boxed set and a sharpie with me next time I head there for a movie.

What do you mean stalker-like tendencies? 

I liked Exit Through the Gift Shop so much that I plan on Netflixing the DVD as soon as it’s released, to see the movie again and to check out the bonus features to get insight into the film. Finally! A movie where I’m actually excited for the bonus features section of the DVD. When was the last time you said that?