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Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2011.7

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<dl dt_class="field"> Talking Funny (2011) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1909348/">8/10</a> A four-person round table about comedy starring Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Louis C.K. Lots of laughs and some interesting points made---though Gervais seemed to be far ahead of the others in pure erudition, trying to delve deeper into the philosophical and perhaps philological implications of humor and what it means to say that something's funny. The others seemed more into gut feeling that something was funny and weren't too interested in dissecting the point further (e.g. when discussing the "joke" about the amateur comedian who came out with a guitar, playing Otis Redding's classic and singing "sitting on a cock 'cause I'm gay"---Gervais argued that, while on the surface it's kind of funny, it succeeds only by appealing to an atavistic anti-gay in all of them, instilled by their upbringing and so, in a sense, is a cheap laugh; the others just insisted that it was funny without seeing the need for further explication). Milk (2008) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1013753/">7/10</a> The biographical film of Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly homosexual elected official in America, who transformed San Fransisco politics and met a gruesome demise in an assassination at the hands of an unstable fellow supervisor. Sean Pean is excellent as Milk and James Franco is very good as his good friend. Half-baked (1998) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120693/">5/10</a> Dave Chappelle is very endearing as a pot-smoking custodian in this film about ... smoking pot. There were some funny moments, but Jim Brewer is a pain in the ass and the only thing keeping it together is Chappelle and his charm. Jon Stewart's cameo is utterly forgettable and mercifully short. Funny People (2009) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201167/">6/10</a> A darker Adam Sandler film about a comedian who followed a very Sandler-like star arc and became very rich and very famous (e.g. George Miller in the film was famous for playing "Merman", which is clearly a cut at "Water Boy"). Sandler is good in a dark role and Seth Rogan is good as his new assistant/potential friend. The plot whipsaws back and forth, appearing a bit out-of-sorts at time, but also perhaps adequately depicting what a life of fame is like. Or maybe that's too deep. Who knows? See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098282/">8/10</a> Gene Wilder as a deaf man and Richard Pryor as a blind man, teaming up to thwart a heist of a precious coin. As with <i>Blazing Saddles</i>, it's refreshing to watch a comedy made for adults, with adult humor, cursing and nudity where appropriate instead of the watered-down pap we're offered in the form of audience-tested PG-13 entertainment today (yeah, Chris Rock, Pryor's rolling over in his f'in grave at your "star turn" in <i>Grown Ups</i>). Pryor and Wilder are absolutely hilarious. Due Date (2010) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1231583/">6/10</a> A buddy movie pairing Zack Galifianakis with Robert Downey Jr. in what kind of felt like a remake of <i>Planes, Trains and Automobiles</i>. As usual with Galifianakis, the expected insanity is a little more "off" than with other similar comedians. Downey Jr. is his usual self, doing a decent job but not amazing. Cargo (2009) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381940/">8/10</a> A Swiss science-fiction film set in the years 2267-2270 about a cargo container ship traversing the vast deep emptiness between our solar system and Proxima Centauri. The interiors and exteriors are equally convincing, with the enormous exteriors portrayed nearly as majestically as Kubrick did in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The plot was also quite in the vein of the golden age of science fiction and the acting was decent. A pleasant surprise. Saw it in the original German. The King's Speech (2010) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1504320/">7/10</a> A tightly-shot and cinematically stunning film about King George VI (played by Colin Firth), who guided England through the second world war, all the time accompanied by his Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush). Helena Bonham Carter rounded the amazing cast of very few major players. Riveting and beautiful and heartwarming without schmaltz. It being almost completely based on a true story was a definite plus. Rien à Déclarer (2010, fr) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1528313/">8/10</a> A wonderfully told story of a town on the French-Belgian border in 1993 when the EU opened all of the borders. The customs officers on both sides---as well as the townspeople---must come to grips with the change. Benoît Poelvoorde as the Francophobe Belgian customs officer is absolutely hilarious with his over-the-top, spluttering and inchoate diatribes against the French. Dany Boon is just as funny, but in a subtler way (for the most part). Tree of Life (2011) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/">7/10</a> The first part of this film is like the end of 2001, with a lot of absolutely beautiful photography and short videos. These scenes are accompanied by a voice-over providing some background to the story that will unfold in what can only be called the second act of the film. Brad Pitt is fantastic as a tightly-wound engineer in the 50s, living what he manages---for the most part---to convince himself is a perfect life in 1950s America. His family is dragged on this course as well, though they don't always like it (especially when he gets violent, though only vocally). The story is told non-linearly (although a large chunk in the middle is quite linear) and purports to tell the history of the universe, culminating in the life of a single man who ends up not getting all that he hoped for. Achieves enough of what it set out to do so that this doesn't come across as too pretentious. Pitt is excellent, as is Jessica Chastain as his wife. Sean Penn emanates pathos in a mostly non-speaking role as the grown-up version of Pitt's most unruly son. Worth watching, but you have to be in the right mood. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1318514/">6/10</a> A prequel to the <i>Planet of the Apes</i> ("Rise of" ... get it?) that delivers some recrimination of animal experimentation that's not too preachy. James Franco is good, as is Andy Serkis as the monkey (again, acting in a motion-sensor-covered lycra body-suit). The action scenes are well-done and the film stays interesting and is, for once, not excruciatingly long. Horrible Bosses (2011) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1499658/">8/10</a> A surprisingly funny film about three working schlubs whose lives are made unutterably miserable by their bosses: Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrell. The guys themselves---Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis---are quite funny as well: the cocaine scene is really worth the price of admission. The plot keeps things interesting enough, with good dialogue. The surprising part is that Jennifer Aniston just steals the hell out of the movie as a ridiculous parody of a sexually predatory dentist. God, she's dirty; you just can't believe the things that come out of her mouth, all delivered with a straight face. The Eiger Sanction (1975) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072926/">6/10</a> Clint Eastwood and George Steele in a movie about a retired contract killer/mountain climber turned professor (Eastwood) with a way with the ladies (kind of, see below) who gets blackmailed into performing one last job: on the Eiger, of all places. Some stilted dialogue, but the movie was clearly filmed in Switzerland (even though the NPCs all speak high German). Pretty harshly misogynistic in ways that are considerably less subtle than what you'd see today. Seems a lot like Eastwood's attempt to make an American James Bond movie (and his professor role predates Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones role by several years), right down to highly improbable female roles like the mute Native American mountain climber/fashion model with fake boobs named George. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201607/">7/10</a> A fitting conclusion to the gargantuan series of films, which follow a single story arc (more or less). My first reaction on starting the film was a desire to stop and watch the previous film again, because I couldn't remember what was going on. Unusually, the film didn't provide a recap as so many serial films do. It made you think and pay attention, which was good. Reasonable well-acted---Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort is wonderful: watch his eloquent hands---and the CGI is perfect. Stayed 100% true to the book, as with the other films, including the overwhelmingly sappy epilogue. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367594/">7/10</a> Johnny Depp takes on the immense challenge of living up to the incredibly high standard of disturbingly serene wackiness set by Gene Wilder, who played Wonka in the original movie. Everyone else is pretty much forgettable window-dressing for Depp as Wonka (even an unusually subdued Helena Bonham Carter) and it's an entertaining film, even though the dance numbers get a bit long after the first one or two of them. Another beautifully rendered, colorful, slightly-off world as envisioned by director Tim Burton. The Wrestler (2008, de) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/">9/10</a> What is there to say other than that this is the role that Mickey Rourke was born to play? That Randy "The Ram" is a perfect metaphor for Rourke's relationship with his own career? Perhaps that's reading too much into it, but it felt so right while watching it. That, and, temporary distractions engendered by Marisa Tomei's nigh-ridiculous level of sexiness in a role an exotic dancer. Wow. But back to Rourke, who---together with director Aranovsky---tells the story of a man trying to escape his life of quiet desperation as if the story had never been told before. His pain is palpable. Riveting. Saw it in German. True Grit (2010) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403865/">9/10</a> A Coen Brothers remake of the John Wayne original, starring Jeff Bridges in the (male) lead role with Matt Damon in a strong supporting role. Hailee Steinfeld stars as a self-possessed young lady on a mission to avenge her father's death. Josh Brolin also shows up in yet another Western as the bad guy. Interestingly, everyone has exquisite grammar and almost everyone has horrific diction---with the notable exception of Ms. Steinfeld. Bridges, on the other hand, is a slurring, dialectically impaired monstrosity that is both a tour-de-force and a veritable nightmare for anyone who doesn't speak English natively. Strong story, excellent pacing and lovely cinematography, as expected. Shooter (2007) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0822854/">8/10</a> Mark Wahlberg stars as retired Marine sniper living way the hell out in the middle of nowhere (Montana?) when he's visited by mysterious government agents who want him to come back and do just one more job. After he shoots something really, really far away to prove the few unbelieving members of the group that he's really awesome at shooting, he's forced to agree to the job. Though this sounds horrible, it's actually quite a good flick, with a relatively engaging plot and Wahlberg doing a good job selling his role. Fun to watch and an altogether more interesting ending than expected. Das Experiment (2002, de) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250258/">8/10</a> If you get into it and allow yourself to be swept away by the evil of the guards, it's a harrowing film. If you read the Stanford Prison Experiment---or saw any of the footage---this will be the case, as you will be in possession of scientific evidence that the human psyche and personality is so malleable as to allow near-complete change due to circumstance alone. The film is about a bunch of guys (students, in the original experiment) who are paid to participate in a two-week experiment in which half play guards and the other half play prisoners in an ersatz prison constructed in the lab's basement. The guys who play guards take to their roles with gusto and take no time at all to start treating the prisoners as if they were hardened criminals; most of the men playing criminals also take to their roles as cowed, meek prisoners quite quickly. The carrot of a payoff at the end of the two weeks is occasionally dangled as a reason for this compliance, but the degree to which they acquiesce is astonishing, as is the speedy descent into brutality on the part of the guards. You'll probably think many times "I would never put up with that; those aren't real guards" (if you're a prisoner) or "I would never participate in that" (if you're a guard), but experimental evidence says otherwise<fn>. Interesting film and well-acted for the most part (Moritz Bleibtreu as #77 was particularly good; you may remember him from <i>Run Lola Run</i>). Gone Baby Gone (2007) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452623/">8/10</a> Casey Affleck stars in this tightly-written film about a young cop's first encounters with what seems to be unavoidable corruption and the tough job that otherwise-good cops have when they realize that what's right is often not the result of their actions. Because they're hamstrung by a legal system that doesn't understand the real world. But cops do. So, sometimes they need to take the law into their own hands and play judge and jury as well (if not executioner). And so on and so forth. It sounds trite but it plays pretty well, with some good tension and conflict. Affleck discovers something that looks like a clear case of corruption, but turns out to be a completely different form of corruption---one that's supported by his own fiancé (girlfriend?), who forces him to choose between her and the moral choice he's leaning toward. Affleck is very good. Bad Santa (2003) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307987/">9/10</a> Billy Bob Thornton goes even lower than Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, as does his bartender girlfriend (played by Lauren Graham, of <i>Gilmore Girls</i> fame, who's actually quite charming in this as opposed to the jibbering, annoying fool she played in the TV series). Some of the dialogue is absolutely unbelievably filthy but it fits just right. Thornton plays an alcoholic safe-cracking Santa who teams up with the vertically-challenged Tony Cox (who's awesome as an elf) to rob stores during the Christmas season. Bernie Mac essentially plays himself as head of security of the latest store on which they set their sights. Thornton finds redemption in little Thurman Merman, played pitch-perfect by Brett Kelly. Great soundtrack of classical music (e.g. <i>Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2</i> accompanies the finale). Saw it in German. Hot Fuzz (2007) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425112/">8/10</a> Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (the team from <i>Shaun of the Dead</i>) are back, this time as police officers in a sleepy little town in the English countryside. Pegg plays a straight-shooter from London where Frost is the local schlub. The buddy action movie gets an entertaining tongue-in-cheek treatment with enough entertaining plot twists to keep things interesting. The town turns out not to be so sleepy after all and, as in Shaun of the Dead, there are some oddly compelling if seemingly incongruous action scenes. Saw it in German. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473075/">6/10</a> Jake Gyllenhall, Alfred Molina, Ben Kingsley add some halfway-decent acting to an adventure movie based on a video game. (Richard Coyle---Jeffrey of <i>Couplings</i>---was nearly unrecognizable as Tus, one of Dastan's brothers.) It was decent and reminded me more of the Mummy series than the latest Indiana Jones movies, which is a good thing. Jake Gyllenhall plays a Persian Prince (duh.) caught up in palace intrigue, attacks on peaceful cities looking for nonexistent weapons (ahem.) and naturally a grudging relationship with Gemma Arterton, the only female cast member. She's cute and lithe but treated as eye-candy by the script (as is Gyllenhall, to be fair). Mostly predictable, but relatively well-executed. X-Men: First Class (2011) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270798/">9/10</a> James McAvoy would be the best actor in this movie if Michael Fassbender wasn't also in it. The story is well-written and the more than two hours are up before you know it. The various themes are treated with decent seriousness. It's really hard not to root for Magneto (Fassbender) who just keeps being right about everything (namely that life is shit and the fuckers are out to get you if you're different). Prof. X (McAvoy) wants to give peace a chance and he's taught some harsh lessons, which he naturally refuses to learn in the end. Perhaps he needs to be beaten over the head with human treachery a bit more. Not surprising that he needs a few more goes at it, having grown up in the lap of luxury as he did. The rest of the cast is OK, but pales in contrast to the two leads. The story captures the subtlety of the comic book (which, in turn, captured the subtlety of real life) that things are often not black and white, actions have consequences and people have histories, to which they may be inextricably bound. Thor (2011) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800369/">8/10</a> Whoever cast relative newcomer Chris Hemsworth as Thor did a helluva job. Hemsworth, on the other hand, did a lot of work in a gym or is just naturally insanely mesomorphic. At any rate, it was enough to make Kat Dennings and Natalie Portman slobber throughout the film.<fn> Is it feminism when women are portrayed as being as single-minded as men? Even when at least one of them is ostensibly a doctor of physics? What I know of the mythology was treated quite well and Loki's tale was treated as a subtle mix of good and evil rather than the black/white so often favored by the fast-food US film industry. A cool flick and honestly looking forward to a sequel, perhaps with a bit less of the bra-and-pantie-throwing on the part of Portman (if she's in fact capable of doing anything else these days---her career arc of late says otherwise). Kick-Ass (2010) --- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1250777/">6/10</a> An overly long flick about costumed vigilantes, some with serious, serious hardware and serious, serious skills. The title character is a high-school kid who has a high pain-threshold and a lot of metal in his body due to a traffic accident. It means he can take a serious beating, which is kind of his super power. Nicholas Cage (Big Daddy) and newcomer Chloë Grace Moretz (Hit Girl) are the more skilled, hardware-packing variety who make a serious dent in a crime family. It's a bit off-putting that Hit Girl's only about 11 years old, but her John-Woo-inspired choreography is lovely. The movie was OK, but dragged on and the time between fight scenes was often a wasteland that had me looking at my watch. Plus, there's the unnerving thing of casting an 11-year-old in a star role---which I think is almost always annoying---and the creepy, Manga-ish overtones it implied. </dl> <hr> <ft>Zimbardo does point out that some of the men stuck to their personalities and didn't let themselves be carried away by the game, but most did. The film also has one guard who refuses to stoop to the level of the others.</ft> <ft>And kudos to Ms. Dennings for doing such a great job of distracting us from Ms. Portman. Who would have guessed?</ft>