Two weeks ago Netflix sent me a nice little e-mail saying they’d finally partnered with Nintendo and created a disc that allows you to stream instantly from your Wii. After I was done doing my own dance of joy I clicked “send me the disc” and have been in love ever since. I now get to stream Netflix titles over my beautiful TV instead of my tiny computer screen!!!
Now that my geek is showing, one of the first movies I streamed was The Ugly Truth. While I don’t think this film is quite to the caliber of When Harry Met Sally, I enjoy it because it took the time to actually develop a plot and characters instead of just running into clichéd romantic comedy scenarios. Don’t get me wrong, you can pretty much predict the ending of the movie from the get go, but what I am saying is that despite this The Ugly Truth is genuinely funny and enjoyable to watch.
The only part of this film that is a somewhat genuine issue for me is the last 10 or so minutes. We’ve already figured out at this point that our lead characters are going to end up together (I don’t consider this a spoiler because come on, did you really think it’d be a romantic comedy without the leads hooking up?) but something about the way it happens seems sudden and tacked on to me. Katherine Heigl & Gerard Butler have enough chemistry and wit that they pull it off, but it still seems rushed. It’s almost as though since the writer knew it was a romantic comedy and they’d end up together in the last scenes he concentrated on making the buildup convincing and well rounded and then petered out in the last twenty pages.
The bottom line is this movie is cute and the actors and director bring wit and chemistry to the screen. That’s all you want in a good romantic comedy, and The Ugly Truth has enough other pluses along with it that you really enjoy being along for the ride.
Abby: I love how you think every man is as perverse as you are.
Mike: Oh, I don't think. I know.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Big Lebowski
The Big Lebowski is exactly what the brothers Coen do best – a quirky film about morons. And what is The Dude if not a loveable moron? Set during the Golf War, The Big Lebowski is started by a tale of mistaken identity, that leads our main character into the role of armature gumshoe when the “big” Lebowski’s wife disappears and all The Dude wants is to get paid and bowl.
Robert Altman may have made movies that were about nothing in the sense that they were a slice of his characters life, but the it’s the Coen’s that have truly mastered the art of making films about nothing and The Big Lebowski is a classic example of this. A great many things occur in The Big Lebowski and yet a traditional, filmic plot never appears; in fact, evey event that should be a ground breaking plot point simply fizzles out and turns out to be less than important to the film as a whole. It’s beautiful, brilliant, hilarious and surprisingly hard to do well.
In a career or brilliant films and characters, Jeff Bridges fits The Dude perfectly. He is a joy to watch and after seeing him at awards shows for Crazy Heart I am pretty sure that one of the reasons The Dude seems so authentic is because Bridges is really that laid back and relaxed.
As amazing as The Dude is, for me Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) stole the show. Walter is The Dude’s best friend and a Vietnam War vet who wants to relate everything back to his time in Nam. He is loud, bostrious, angry and everything that you want a crazy Coen character to be. The only reason Goodman doesn’t steal Bridges’s scenes is because the Coen’s manage to raise the two consistently to the level of the other, playing off each other beautifully to create part of the magic of the world of The Big Lebowski.
Along with Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, The Big Lebowski might hold some of my favorite narration in a film – ever. For no apparent reason the film is narrated by a cowboy patron of the bar at the bowling alley in the film, and he’s a narrator that looses his train of thought and admires The Dude for no other reason than he admires his style. It’s a fantastic way to open and close the film, rivaling the FBI officials in Burn After Reading.
The Big Lebowski is a cult classic for a reason. If like me, you’re a Coen fan that hasn’t seen it I highly recommend changing that. I did.
Directed & Written By: Joel & Ethan Coen
Jeffrey Lebowski/The Dude: Jeff Bridges
Walter Sobchak: John Goodman
Maude Lebowski: Julianne Moore
Donny: Steve Buscemi
Jeffrey Lebowski/The Big LEbowski: David Huddleston
Brandt: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Bunny Lebowski: Tara Reid
The Dude: And, you know, he's got emotional problems, man.
Walter Sobchak: You mean... beyond pacifism?
Robert Altman may have made movies that were about nothing in the sense that they were a slice of his characters life, but the it’s the Coen’s that have truly mastered the art of making films about nothing and The Big Lebowski is a classic example of this. A great many things occur in The Big Lebowski and yet a traditional, filmic plot never appears; in fact, evey event that should be a ground breaking plot point simply fizzles out and turns out to be less than important to the film as a whole. It’s beautiful, brilliant, hilarious and surprisingly hard to do well.
In a career or brilliant films and characters, Jeff Bridges fits The Dude perfectly. He is a joy to watch and after seeing him at awards shows for Crazy Heart I am pretty sure that one of the reasons The Dude seems so authentic is because Bridges is really that laid back and relaxed.
As amazing as The Dude is, for me Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) stole the show. Walter is The Dude’s best friend and a Vietnam War vet who wants to relate everything back to his time in Nam. He is loud, bostrious, angry and everything that you want a crazy Coen character to be. The only reason Goodman doesn’t steal Bridges’s scenes is because the Coen’s manage to raise the two consistently to the level of the other, playing off each other beautifully to create part of the magic of the world of The Big Lebowski.
Along with Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, The Big Lebowski might hold some of my favorite narration in a film – ever. For no apparent reason the film is narrated by a cowboy patron of the bar at the bowling alley in the film, and he’s a narrator that looses his train of thought and admires The Dude for no other reason than he admires his style. It’s a fantastic way to open and close the film, rivaling the FBI officials in Burn After Reading.
The Big Lebowski is a cult classic for a reason. If like me, you’re a Coen fan that hasn’t seen it I highly recommend changing that. I did.
Directed & Written By: Joel & Ethan Coen
Jeffrey Lebowski/The Dude: Jeff Bridges
Walter Sobchak: John Goodman
Maude Lebowski: Julianne Moore
Donny: Steve Buscemi
Jeffrey Lebowski/The Big LEbowski: David Huddleston
Brandt: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Bunny Lebowski: Tara Reid
The Dude: And, you know, he's got emotional problems, man.
Walter Sobchak: You mean... beyond pacifism?
Friday, April 16, 2010
Kick Ass
There are a great many people that are going to find Kick Ass morally reprehensible. I am not one. To the people that do find this film reprehensible I say that you don’t know your comics very well.
Kick Ass may be a film that bases its story in a realistic landscape and has average Joe’s take on the job of super hero to fight the bad guy and gory, realistic mayhem follows this act; however, just as the geeks in the film feel the need to introduce the chicks they like to comic books, I feel the need to point out to these critics of Kick Ass the history of comics as well.
The biggest point I want to make to critics is that the characters in Kick Ass aren’t new. They may be more human than we are used to seeing the leads in a “comic book film”, but they are characters that anyone with a TV, or that goes to the movies has already seen and probably enjoyed in another form and in most cases Kick Ass doesn’t even hide these references from you in the film – in fact what makes this film a piece of pastiche brilliance is that it pushes those references right in front of you – the characters even mention it.
Let’s start with the main character himself – Kick Ass. The real Kick Ass is a high school student, a bit of a dork, who lives in New York and is in love with a girl at school who doesn’t know he exists and eventually decides to fight back against the horrible actions he sees around him. Who does that sound like? Oh yeah, Peter Parker a.k.a. Spiderman. The Spiderman films are some of the highest grossing of all time and I don’t recall anyone ever calling Peter Parker or his actions reprehensible. It must be because there was a radioactive spider involved.
Yet most of the controversy is not over the main character in Kick Ass, it’s all about Hit Girl. Hit Girl is an eleven year old girl who has been trained by her super hero father Big Daddy to follow in his footsteps. Hit Girl kicks more ass than anyone in the film and does it gleefully; she knows her hand guns, knives, smoke bombs, grenades and hand to hand combat. This is a girl the Spartans would have been proud of. Before you ramble on about how terrible it is to see a kid kill bad guys and get beat down I have one name to give you – Robin.
Not only is Hit Girl daughter to Big Daddy, a character everyone in the film compares to Batman, but for many of you that lack the history of Robin let me fill you in. There’s been more than one Robin in the comic books and rarely was he ever as old or manly as Chris O’Donnell. There’s a reason “The Boy Wonder” became Robin’s nickname – he was a child. The first Robin was ten years old, and most Robin’s (there’s been about four) get their butts kicked and two died terrible deaths at the hands of villains. Morally reprehensible much?
I’m not even going to get into who Red Mist’s comic counterpart is at this point because that would be spoilery and the majority of people haven’t seen this film yet. But let’s safely say that I think he exists in the Marvel universe, not the DC. If you don’t know the difference between those two universe’s then you’re probably one of the people that’s going to find this film morally reprehensible.
I hope that Kick Ass helps dispel the myth that comic books and their films are suitable for children. Children everywhere might be familiar with Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man and even a few of the more lesser known comic characters, but if you ever bothered to pick up an issue of one of their books or a trade paperback you’d soon realize that their stories are not made for children. Batman has his back broken by Bane & nearly dies, Iron Man slowly looses himself to alcohol, Spiderman accidently kills Gwen Stacey & yes, Superman dies.
These are not stories intended for a young child to read just as the R rating in Kick Ass tells you that this is not a movie you should send your six year old to. As with anything in the media the filmmakers and artists expect you to be responsible – be the guardian of your mind and the mind of your child. You have a sixteen year old that you think can handle the film, great – go with them. You have a ten year old that wants to see the cool girl with the purple hair – use your judgment and parent.
I saw Terminator 2 in the theatre and I read the entire Death of Superman as a child but you know why I don’t think I can be shot in the chest and survive? Because my parents walked through fiction with me and explained what fiction meant.
I need to say that I loved Kick Ass. I think it’s a brilliant film, a good character study and one heck of an entertaining movie to watch. I found these characters fascinating and I would love to see if there ends up being a follow up because Dave Lizewski is right – with all those comics and stories out there you’d think someone would have tried to be a super hero by now. With Kick Ass we get to see what that might be like through a safe, fictional pastiche, knowing that in the end no humans, or little girls were harmed in the making of this film.
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Kick Ass/Dave Lizewski: Aaron Johnson
Marty: Clark Duke
Todd: Evan Peters
Katie: Lyndsy Fonseca
Red Mist/Chris C’Amico: Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Frank D’Amico: Mark Strong
Hit Girl/Mindy Macready: Chloe Moretz
Big Daddy/Damon Macready: Nicholas Cage
Dave Lizewski: With no power comes no responsibility.
Kick Ass may be a film that bases its story in a realistic landscape and has average Joe’s take on the job of super hero to fight the bad guy and gory, realistic mayhem follows this act; however, just as the geeks in the film feel the need to introduce the chicks they like to comic books, I feel the need to point out to these critics of Kick Ass the history of comics as well.
The biggest point I want to make to critics is that the characters in Kick Ass aren’t new. They may be more human than we are used to seeing the leads in a “comic book film”, but they are characters that anyone with a TV, or that goes to the movies has already seen and probably enjoyed in another form and in most cases Kick Ass doesn’t even hide these references from you in the film – in fact what makes this film a piece of pastiche brilliance is that it pushes those references right in front of you – the characters even mention it.
Let’s start with the main character himself – Kick Ass. The real Kick Ass is a high school student, a bit of a dork, who lives in New York and is in love with a girl at school who doesn’t know he exists and eventually decides to fight back against the horrible actions he sees around him. Who does that sound like? Oh yeah, Peter Parker a.k.a. Spiderman. The Spiderman films are some of the highest grossing of all time and I don’t recall anyone ever calling Peter Parker or his actions reprehensible. It must be because there was a radioactive spider involved.
Yet most of the controversy is not over the main character in Kick Ass, it’s all about Hit Girl. Hit Girl is an eleven year old girl who has been trained by her super hero father Big Daddy to follow in his footsteps. Hit Girl kicks more ass than anyone in the film and does it gleefully; she knows her hand guns, knives, smoke bombs, grenades and hand to hand combat. This is a girl the Spartans would have been proud of. Before you ramble on about how terrible it is to see a kid kill bad guys and get beat down I have one name to give you – Robin.
Not only is Hit Girl daughter to Big Daddy, a character everyone in the film compares to Batman, but for many of you that lack the history of Robin let me fill you in. There’s been more than one Robin in the comic books and rarely was he ever as old or manly as Chris O’Donnell. There’s a reason “The Boy Wonder” became Robin’s nickname – he was a child. The first Robin was ten years old, and most Robin’s (there’s been about four) get their butts kicked and two died terrible deaths at the hands of villains. Morally reprehensible much?
I’m not even going to get into who Red Mist’s comic counterpart is at this point because that would be spoilery and the majority of people haven’t seen this film yet. But let’s safely say that I think he exists in the Marvel universe, not the DC. If you don’t know the difference between those two universe’s then you’re probably one of the people that’s going to find this film morally reprehensible.
I hope that Kick Ass helps dispel the myth that comic books and their films are suitable for children. Children everywhere might be familiar with Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man and even a few of the more lesser known comic characters, but if you ever bothered to pick up an issue of one of their books or a trade paperback you’d soon realize that their stories are not made for children. Batman has his back broken by Bane & nearly dies, Iron Man slowly looses himself to alcohol, Spiderman accidently kills Gwen Stacey & yes, Superman dies.
These are not stories intended for a young child to read just as the R rating in Kick Ass tells you that this is not a movie you should send your six year old to. As with anything in the media the filmmakers and artists expect you to be responsible – be the guardian of your mind and the mind of your child. You have a sixteen year old that you think can handle the film, great – go with them. You have a ten year old that wants to see the cool girl with the purple hair – use your judgment and parent.
I saw Terminator 2 in the theatre and I read the entire Death of Superman as a child but you know why I don’t think I can be shot in the chest and survive? Because my parents walked through fiction with me and explained what fiction meant.
I need to say that I loved Kick Ass. I think it’s a brilliant film, a good character study and one heck of an entertaining movie to watch. I found these characters fascinating and I would love to see if there ends up being a follow up because Dave Lizewski is right – with all those comics and stories out there you’d think someone would have tried to be a super hero by now. With Kick Ass we get to see what that might be like through a safe, fictional pastiche, knowing that in the end no humans, or little girls were harmed in the making of this film.
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Kick Ass/Dave Lizewski: Aaron Johnson
Marty: Clark Duke
Todd: Evan Peters
Katie: Lyndsy Fonseca
Red Mist/Chris C’Amico: Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Frank D’Amico: Mark Strong
Hit Girl/Mindy Macready: Chloe Moretz
Big Daddy/Damon Macready: Nicholas Cage
Dave Lizewski: With no power comes no responsibility.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Surprise
For once I am not behind in my reviewing! I am behind in my watching. As hard as it is to believe I haven't watched much lately which I attribute to the fact that I am training for a half-marathon.
However, I am seeing Kick Ass tonight and that should start a trend again.
However, I am seeing Kick Ass tonight and that should start a trend again.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
One of the best things about my love affair with the movies is that I can see a movie more than once and get something different out of it every time. The movie can take on a new meaning, inspire me, force me out of a funk or just relax me for the night. I watched A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints this week and this time this film has inspired me in a way that makes me want to start making another film.
I can’t quite put my finger on why I love this film so much, or why I find it uplifting instead of saddening, but I do. When I watch A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints I know this summer in Dito’s life was traumatic and horrible, but watching the film you know that it was actually transforming, it was something that made him who he is today and he can’t escape that which is why the last line of narration in the film is so damn important – “In the end – just like I said – I left everything, and everyone. But no one, no one has ever left me.”
For me, everything I love about this film actually goes back to the style inherent in the film. It’s incredibly unique and that’s why I find it so inspiring. From the music choices, editing style, actors chosen, time line and narration of the film every element in this film works together perfectly to give you a snapshot of a summer and a man, and the style gives it a clear insight into what he must really be like and who he’s become.
The fascinating thing about A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, at least for a film intellectual like me, is the perspective of the film. Dito Montiel is played as an adult by Robert Downy Jr, and as a teen by Shia LeBouf; it’s about the summer that changed his life and that he ends up writing a book about as an adult and comes back to visit his neighborhood. However, Dito Montiel is also a real person, not just any person but the man who wrote and directed the film and actually wrote a book about these events in his life called A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. This might be one of the most autobiographical films I’ve seen in a long time and I can only imagine how unique an experience it had to have been for Montiel to put it on screen himself.
Right now A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is making me wonder if there is anything in my life, stylized or not, that would be just as entertaining to watch and as healing to put from page to screen. I don’t know the answer to that, but you can bet I will be thinking about that. I can’t imagine what that would be like as an artist to have something I can put out there that’s so literally personal, and how freeing it might be.
I can’t quite put my finger on why I love this film so much, or why I find it uplifting instead of saddening, but I do. When I watch A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints I know this summer in Dito’s life was traumatic and horrible, but watching the film you know that it was actually transforming, it was something that made him who he is today and he can’t escape that which is why the last line of narration in the film is so damn important – “In the end – just like I said – I left everything, and everyone. But no one, no one has ever left me.”
For me, everything I love about this film actually goes back to the style inherent in the film. It’s incredibly unique and that’s why I find it so inspiring. From the music choices, editing style, actors chosen, time line and narration of the film every element in this film works together perfectly to give you a snapshot of a summer and a man, and the style gives it a clear insight into what he must really be like and who he’s become.
The fascinating thing about A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, at least for a film intellectual like me, is the perspective of the film. Dito Montiel is played as an adult by Robert Downy Jr, and as a teen by Shia LeBouf; it’s about the summer that changed his life and that he ends up writing a book about as an adult and comes back to visit his neighborhood. However, Dito Montiel is also a real person, not just any person but the man who wrote and directed the film and actually wrote a book about these events in his life called A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. This might be one of the most autobiographical films I’ve seen in a long time and I can only imagine how unique an experience it had to have been for Montiel to put it on screen himself.
Right now A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is making me wonder if there is anything in my life, stylized or not, that would be just as entertaining to watch and as healing to put from page to screen. I don’t know the answer to that, but you can bet I will be thinking about that. I can’t imagine what that would be like as an artist to have something I can put out there that’s so literally personal, and how freeing it might be.
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